The Ten Commandments: Ten Words The World Needs To Hear Series

Intro: A gray haired lady, long a member of her community and Church, shook hands with the minister after the service one morning. “That was a wonderful sermon, she told him, just wonderful. Everything you said applied to someone I know.”

What is often missed is that God’s word applies to each of us. If you hear something in the sermon and think it applies to so and so as your mental finger is pointing at them you have three more pointing back at you.

Some have said the Ten Commandments don’t apply to anyone much less someone they know. People think that the Ten Commandments are outmoded, outdated, and just out of style. A wise pastor by the name of Jerry vines said, “We are not past the Ten Commandments we haven’t caught up to them yet.”

So this morning we are going to begin taking a look at the Ten Commandments. Ten Words the world needs to hear. Exodus 20.1 “Then God spoke all these words.”

What happened in the preceding 19 chapters that God was moved to speak all these words?

In the previous 19 chapters we see God interacting with and intervening for Israel. Israel was trapped in slavery in Egypt. They had no possible way of escape and nowhere to go if they did. Under the oppressive hand of Pharaoh the people of Israel cried out to God and he answered their prayers. God sent them a mediator a go between, Moses. He not only heard their prayers he answered them by redeeming them or setting them free from the slavery of Egypt. He set them on a journey through life with Him. It is in this context that God speaks these simple yet profound words.

In ten simple statements God gives His chosen people the guide to live life whole.

Eccl 12.13 In the King James says “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

In King James translations many if not all will have duty in italics. This is done because the translators added the word to give a clearer understanding to the translation.

Read it without the word in italics, “Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole of man.”

God’s guidelines are the key to living a whole life. God is giving clear guidelines for those that are His people. He is giving a blueprint a recipe for healthy, holy, happy lives. It is not saying you live this way to get to God. He is saying you will live this way if you are whole. If you have been made whole by the precious blood of Jesus Christ here is the pattern that you life will take.

What is the basis of our wholeness? Who God is and what he has done

I. The Basis of the Law

Exodus 1.2 “I am the Lord your God”

A) Who God is

In this I am statement we see that the law is based on God’s character, who He is. He is the creator of the nation of Israel down to the least individual. Before God gives them the righteous regulations for living He tells them who He is. This is the basis of all theology. There is one almighty sovereign God. He is personal, I am the Lord your God. You don’t see in the Old Testament an uninterested, impersonal God. He is the God who draws near.

The God of the Old Testament is the God of the new. First he tells us who He is as the basis of the Law, and then What He has done.

B) What God has done

Exodus 1.2 “Who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of slavery.”

He is a God of action. The great I Am heard the cries of Israel while they were under the captivity and bondage of Israel and acted on their behalf. He sent Moses to carry His message of redemption. “Let my people go.” Jesus still cries out to sin and Satan “let my people God.” He pounded Egypt with plagues. He pummeled the armies of Pharaoh with the waters of the Red Sea. God was saying trust in what I can do and have done. Trust in the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of you sins.

This is the great difference between Christianity and the other religions of the world. All other religions get to their God by what they can do. We get to our God by what He has done.

Before God gave the rule to live by He set the Israelites free from slavery. It is by what God has done His grace that allows you to keep His law. It is what Jesus did His redemptive work on the cross that allows us to live according to God’s righteous regulations.