Some people don’t like the Ten Commandments because they just seem like a bunch of DONT’S. Don’t do this and don’t do that!
Also, some people in churches say that God’s Ten Commandments have been done away with, and we don’t have to keep them anymore. We don’t have to obey them anymore.
Now that’s interesting, because, of the 31,102 verses in Scripture that make up the Holy Bible, only 15 verses were written directly by God. All the rest of the Bible was written by men under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.
That’s what it says in
“No prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
I believe that God had a very special reason for not giving the writing of these 15 verses to humans. I believe that this tiny portion of the Bible is so important, that God Himself came down to this earth, spoke these words to Moses, and then God with His own finger wrote them on tablets of stone. These 15 verses are the Ten Commandments.
Of all the Holy Scriptures, God’s Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, as it is often called, (deca meaning ten), is the only portion of the Bible that God personally wrote word for word Himself.
Let’s read about it for ourselves. We’re turning in the Bible to right near the beginning, the Book of ----
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and be there: and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them.’”
Now come over about 10 more pages to...
“And when He (God) had made an end of speaking with him (Moses) on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Let’s go to these Ten Commandments and read them for ourselves. We’re going to --- The Ten Commandments (in) Exodus 20:3-17 just 15 verses in all.
Exodus 20:3 is the first commandment. If you have a Bible of your own you might choose to put a number 1 beside it to represent the first commandment.
We’re going to notice in all ten of these commandments that it’s actually a law of love. It’s not a law of ‘you shall not do this, you shall not do that, you shall not ---- No, no, no. It’s ---- The Law of Love.
You may not have thought of it that way. Many people don’t, but it’s a law of love. So let’s go through these commandments and see for ourselves. ----
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
That commandment means “You shall have no other gods in front of Me.” God is saying that He wants us to love Him more than any other things.
He wants us to love Him more than the gods of sport, the gods of sex, the gods of whatever our hobbies might be, the gods of TV, the gods of money, the gods of facebook or whatever. He wants us to put Him first.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
He wants us to put Him in first place in our lives and all the other things in second place.
And friends, when we do that, life will work out a huge lot better for us. Now, ...
v4
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image - any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;"
God says He doesn’t want us to make any images, any statues or anything like that.
He then says in verses 5 and 6;
So God is saying here, “I don’t want you to make images, I don’t want you to make statues. I don’t want you to bow down to these things. He said, “I want to be the One you bow down to. I want you to love Me most.” And as a result of loving Him most, we will love other people as well.
You know friends, I certainly don’t understand God’s Ten Commandments fully. I certainly don’t understand the depth of His commandments. I certainly don’t fully understand the balance between God’s love and mercy and justice in these Ten Commandments. --- But what I do understand is this.
Every time the rulers of a country base their national laws solidly on God’s Ten Commandments, it is a peaceful and safe country to live in. And every time a country ignores God’s Ten Commandments as the strong base for its national laws, that country goes downhill and it is not a safe and happy place to live in. That has been a fact, since the world began.
“You shall 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.”
What’s an example of taking the Lord’s name in vain? ---- using the name Jesus Christ in our normal language, whether we’re swearing or we bash our finger or something and we say that.
Or we can use God’s name in vain another way. ---- We can call ourselves Christians, but not act like Christ. That is taking God’s name in vain. We are insulting Him by calling ourselves by the name Christian, or followers of God, trying to say to people we are Christian, but our life is not lining up with the statement we are making.
So that’s the third commandment and it’s all about loving God enough to not take His name in vain, and also loving Him enough to really follow Him so that we’re a good example for Him when we’re in the community talking to other folk.
Now comes the Fourth Commandment and this is a fairly long one. It says here in...
God is saying, we’ve got seven days in the week. He gives us six days to do all the stuff that we want to do. But He’s saying, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
He wants us to keep one day, just one, for Himself. He gives us six and He says, please just keep one day for Me. He also says He wants us to keep His day holy.
Then it goes on to say in ---
Then it goes on to say ….
"In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter,
nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle,
nor your stranger who is within your gates.”
So God says He doesn’t want us to work on His special holy day. This is the one day out of the seven we’re to keep for God Himself and to remember Him and to rest on that day.
I think there’s a basic rule there that I like to put into my life, and that is,
Don’t do on God’s holy day, the things we can do on the other six working days of the week. Now if it’s a genuine emergency or something, yes that may be OK.
But seriously try not to do on God’s holy day, any of the things you can do on the other six working days of the week.
We’re not going to clean and polish our car on the Sabbath day. We’re not going to clean the toilet and do the oven and all of these catch up things. No, do them on the six working days and keep God’s special day for Him.
Now here is the reason why God wants us to keep His special day holy.
God says, “I want you to keep My day as a holy special day as a reminder that I am the Creator. I created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. I am the Creator.”
And you know what friends, if we choose to keep seven days all the same and not keep that special day carefully, especially for God, then what’s going to happen is that we are going to forget - that He is the Creator!
If we start forgetting that God is the Creator, guess what happens? We start to believe in evolution – that stuff just happened, instead of God being the Creator and creating it and putting it all in place. And He teaches us that if we follow what He says, then we won’t be starting to fall into the trap of evolution, or even what is called theistic evolution.
And then, what does it say about God in the rest of verse 11? --- and (He) rested the seventh day. ---- That’s something God did on that very special day that He did not do on any other day of the week. --- He rested.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day (He put a blessing into this day that He put into no other day of the week) and (He) hallowed it.”
That means He set it apart for a holy use. God did not set apart any other day for a holy use. (OK, so) The first four commandments are about loving God. (And coming up now we’ve got) The last six commandments are about loving our fellow man.
So the Fifth Commandment is in...
"Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
We need to honour our father and mother. Sure we don’t always have a good father and mother. Sometimes they’ve done wrong things to us and have hurt us in different ways, but we should honour and obey our father and our mother to the best of our ability. Love them for what they are, even if we don’t always love some of the things that they may have done, and give them honour. You know, they say that blood is thicker than water. Yes, we need to try if possible to be close to our mothers and fathers and our family, because it’s really important.
Otherwise we go through life not being fulfilled, we feel there’s something missing in our life because we haven’t got a good relationship with our parents.
Sometimes we are the ones who continue to make that relationship not good by not going to our parents and apologising for some things that have kept us apart for years. Or not telling them that we forgive them for some things that have kept us apart for years.
So it’s saying here, “Honour your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you.”
If we get a good relationship going to the best of our ability with our parents, then it’s interesting that we will actually live longer, we will live healthier, and we will live happier, because you and I know that we want to have good relationships with those who are close to us. So with God’s help, love our parents to the best of our ability.
And here comes the Sixth Commandment in...
“Thou shall not murder.”
Don’t kill anybody. Don’t even think about it. If there’s someone who’s not very friendly towards us, if they’re our enemy you might say, the Bible says, “Love your enemy.” If we’re going to think about killing them or wishing they were dead or something like that, it’s not going to be good for ourselves.
If we’re bearing grudges, that will shorten our lives too. The Bible says, ‘Love your enemies.’ And so we need to learn to love just like God loves us.
Now the Seventh Commandment...
“You shall not commit adultery"
If I love my neighbour and I love his wife, I am not going to jump into bed with his wife, because I love that man, and I don’t want to hurt him in any way. And I don’t want to hurt her in any way by screwing up her relationship with her husband.
So not committing adultery is part of God’s law of love. If we love people, we won’t do these things.
Now the Eighth Commandment...
“You shall not steal.”
I shouldn’t be stealing anything from you – money, goods, your good name by slandering you or anything like that. I should not even think about it. If I love you, I won’t steal from you.
And then the Ninth Commandment is in...
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”
If I love my neighbour, I won’t bear false witness against him. I won’t pass on false rumours about him. I won’t even talk negative things about my neighbour. I want to show that I love my neighbour, even though he may not be the perfect neighbour. I’ve got to treat him with love, and I will not bear false witness against my neighbour.
Finally, here comes the Tenth Commandment, the last commandment.
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, (covet means to want something that is not ours.) You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”
So I have to be satisfied with what I’ve got. I need to be content with what I have. I can’t be always wanting to grab and desire something that you’ve got that I haven’t got. (So friends,) These are the Ten Commandments.
The 15 verses written by God Himself. The only 15 verses written by Him, carved by His finger onto tablets of stone, two tablets - the first tablet about loving God and the second tablet about loving our fellow man. And so that’s it.
From God’s Ten Commandments that we have just read in the Bible, you probably have some good questions. I think that most of your questions will be answered as we go on.
The Ten Commandments form God’s Constitution. They are a perfect law – very short, very clear, and very comprehensive. Of all the codes and laws that have ever existed, no document ever written has so influenced society as have the Ten Commandments.
This law has outlived the centuries. Empires have come and gone but this Law still endures. It has withstood more attacks than any other piece of literature ever written. Its most severe critics have failed to discover one flaw in it, and it still speaks with the same authority as when first given to man 3,500 years ago.
People sometimes say – even some church pastors say, “You can’t obey the Ten Commandments.” So I say, “OK, which one aren’t you obeying?”
(Q) Do you steal?
(A) No!
Then you’re obeying that one!
(Q) Do you commit adultery?
(A) No! Then you’re obeying that one! And so on.
So they can be obeyed! But maybe they’re not obeying them all. They know, and God knows, if there are some they’re not obeying.
This law is all inclusive. It embodies three great principles or attributes of God ---
In no other law can all three of these great principles be found. The apostle Paul speaks of the Ten Commandments in these words in
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
Paul found in the Ten Commandments the holiness, justice and goodness of God. Now there’s an old saying that is very true --- “We become like that upon which we dwell.”
So it pays to think about good things if we want a great life. It pays to think about these 10 Commandments. Another Bible writer speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says in...
“The law of the Lord is perfect.”
The law of God is not only perfect, it is timeless. It never goes out of date. It applies to all humans in all places at all times. It speaks with the same authority today as when given on Mt. Sinai. As long as time will last, the Ten Commandments will continue to speak to the hearts of people.
God’s moral code, God’s law, will always be the standard of conduct among people, and it is the law by which all people will be judged in the end. It is a perfect law because it came from a perfect God, and if with God’s help we practice its instructions, it will develop perfection in our lives.
We have laws in Australia. Sometimes we change them to improve them. But when the law of God – the Ten Commandments - was given, God made no provision for changes or the making of amendments. The reason is obvious: It is a perfect law. To change a thing that is perfect would make it imperfect. Perfection cannot be improved upon.
There are two parts to the law of God. The first four commandments deal with our love and duty to God; the last six refer to our love and duty to our fellow men and women. A lawyer in Christ’s day summed up these two great principles in the following words in Luke 10:27
“So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.’”
There is a false idea getting around amongst some Christians that the Ten Commandments are not binding on people after Jesus died on the cross. They have been taught to believe that the Ten Commandments have been either changed or abolished (got rid of). Nothing could be further from the truth. Those 15 verses of scripture are just as binding today as when spoken by God on the mountain.
Listen to what Kathryn Booth said in a book she wrote on Christianity. She was the wife of General William Booth, the leader of the Salvation Army. Kathryn Booth, (said in her book) ‘Aggressive Christianity’
“There has come to be a spirit of anti-nomianism (anti Ten Commandments) in the land .... God helping me I shall never cease to lift up my voice against it. I frequently find a total misunderstanding ... and a total confounding of the moral and ceremonial laws. Now always mind when you read anything about the law, to examine and find out which law is meant, whether it is the great Moral Law (Ten Commandments) which never has been and never can be abolished, or the Ceremonial Law which through Christ’s death was done away with.” ----
Then she goes on ------
“Mind, for your salvation may depend upon that point. If you make a mistake here, you may be lost through it. Therefore be very careful. Now I say that people confound these two laws and consequently there is a perfect hotchpotch of theology in this day which I defy anyone to understand.”
Friends, Jesus knew that some church people would attempt to claim that He had changed or abolished the Ten Commandments while He lived on earth. That is why He told them in...
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
"No better authority can be found than Christ Himself for stating the binding claims of the Law. He said “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.”
Not for one minute are we to think that the great law of God, His Ten Commandments has been abolished or changed.
This law will outlive the earth: “till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law....” I’ll explain soon just how small a jot and a tittle are in the old Hebrew language.
Over and over Jesus spoke of the binding claims of the law. In the Sermon on the Mount, where He set forth the principles of His church on earth, He warned, in...
“You shall not kill .... You shall not commit adultery.”
Where did these two commands come from? From the Law of God. They form part of God’s Constitution, the Ten Commandments, which He wrote with His own finger. When Jesus was here on earth He taught people to keep His law.
Instead of doing away with the law, Christ said, “I am not come to destroy it, but to fulfill it.” The word ‘fulfill’ means ‘to bring to pass’ or ‘to carry out’ or ‘to manifest completely’. Instead of doing away with the law as some have thought, Jesus kept it and taught others to do likewise. He showed by His own life how this law should be kept.
The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 42:2, writing several hundred years before Jesus came to this earth, said that when He did come, He would
“… magnify the law and make it honourable.” Isaiah 42:21
There is a great deal of difference between magnifying a thing and getting rid of it. When a thing is magnified it is not abolished, or changed in any way. When a magnifying glass is placed over an object, it simply reveals some of the hidden things that the natural eye cannot see. It makes the object stand out more clearly. When Jesus walked among men He magnified the law by living out its principles in His daily life. He made the law honourable by honouring it in His daily life day by day. ----
Jesus uses the strongest language that could be found to emphasize the unchanging character of God’s law. We read it before in Matthew 5:18
“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Matthew 5:18
A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. A tittle is a bit like a full stop. Jesus said that not so much as a tiny thing is ever to be changed in the law of God. By this we can see just how particular God is about those 15 verses of scripture that He wrote with His own finger. This law is not to be tampered with by human beings, but it is to be left in its original state as God gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Listen to this very strong statement by Jesus in...
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice (– what’s the word?) law-less-ness!’”
It seems that Jesus was saying to these people who called themselves Christians but were not doing God’s will, they were not obeying all of God’s Commandments, He was saying, “I knew about you, but I never knew you personally as a true follower. You were deliberately not practising My Father’s law properly.”
Obeying God is the only way we show our heavenly Father and Jesus how much we love them. Obedience to God’s law is evidence of our love and loyalty to Him and our fellow man.
Jesus, who is our example and authority in all things spiritual, not only obeyed the law Himself, but taught that everyone else should obey it too. Listen to this story about the man who came to Jesus in ...
Friends, the test of love is obedience. Jesus said in...
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Does this mean that the commandments of Jesus and the commandments of God are different? Not at all! The reference note for that verse 15 in the Bible takes us to ----
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
Same commandments! Ten of them! The first four about loving God and the last six about loving the people in our community. The Law of Love – God’s wonderful Ten Commandments.
Obedience to God’s law is the evidence of our love and loyalty to Him and to our fellow man. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”
The disciple John denounces those who claim to know God but disregard His law. He says in...
“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says ‘I know Him’, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Strong words!
Friends, there is real joy and delight in obedience to God’s law of love. It brings us into harmony with God and our loved ones and our neighbours.
“Blessed is the man (or woman) who delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
If we desire to obey God’s ten commandments, Jesus will help us to do it. And it will give us wonderful peace.
Paul in the Bible also loved God’s law. He said in...
“I delight in the law of God.”
In Psalm 119:97, King David expressed his love for God’s law in these words:
The spiritual giants of the Bible all loved and obeyed God’s law. It was the voice of God to them. It was their joy and delight to obey God’s ten commandments. Also, the ten commandments will be the standard by which all people will be judged in the end.
“If you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’, you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it."
For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery’, said also, ‘do not kill’. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.”
These texts reveal three truths;
So here it is again...
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
If we love Jesus and the Father, we can prove it by keeping the commandments.
A drunk would come home each night and abuse his wife and when he was sober would say “I love you” – three little words. One night his wife couldn’t handle it any longer and he came home drunk and he tried the doors – they were all locked. He called out at the top of his voice “Honey, I love you!” - three little words. “I love you”. From inside the house came the words – two little words – “Prove it!” “Prove it!” And Jesus says to us friends, ...
If you love Me – prove it!
Friends, as we genuinely continue on our Christian journey, we will begin to love Jesus and our heavenly Father more and more, and it will be easier to keep the commandments. It’s easier to do things for someone we love.
Let’s come to our last verse. The verse we’re going to turn to is a verse that would do us good to read every morning when we get out of bed. It’s in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
We want God to be with us. And we want His wonderful peace to be with us. If we continue to ask for God’s help to keep His law of love, then He’ll help us to do it. Please stand while we pray.
Lord, we have read your Word today. And we have seen so clearly that Your Ten Commandments have never been done away with but are still valid for us today. And Lord, we have also seen that Your Ten Commandments are not just a bunch of ‘don’ts’ – don’t do this and don't do that.
The first four are about loving You God, and the last six are about loving our fellow man. It is the Law of Love, as we have clearly seen from Your Word today.
Please give us the love, and the desire, and the strength, to obey all ten of your wonderful commandments, Your Law of Love. Thank You Father, in the precious name of Jesus.
Amen.
Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends.
To God be the Glory!
Thank You,
Ray Archer
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