Moses On The Mountain With The Lord - Part 11 Series

Moses on the Mountain with the Lord - Part 11

(The Ten Commandments - Part 1)

Exodus 20:1-6 & 31:18

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - September 1, 2010

BACKGROUND & INTRODUCTION:

*As we start tonight, Moses has had an amazing, unique experience. Moses has had his fifth meeting with the Lord on Mount Sinai. In fact, Moses has been with the Lord God Himself for 40 days! (1)

*So tonight we will start by reading Exodus 31:18: “And when He (i.e. the Lord) had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

*Now let me ask you to turn back to Exodus 20 where we will see the 10 Commandments spelled out. Remember that it was here in Exodus 20 that God began speaking from the top of Mount Sinai so that everyone in the camp could audibly his words. Here God recited all of the Ten Commandments to give sure testimony to all the Israelites that the commands being given were indeed from the Lord, and not something that Moses thought up by himself.

*The people were so terrified by the Lord’s voice that they begged Moses to be the go-between, and he was. So the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on stone.

*But whatever happened to the Ten Commandments? -- Exodus 32 tells us that the first set was thrown down and broken by Moses when he discovered the great sin the people had fallen into while he was on the mountain with the Lord. Thankfully, the Lord would write a second copy when Moses went back up the mountain in Exodus 34.

*But whatever happened to the Ten Commandments in 21st Century USA?

-It is ironic that there are many representations of the Ten Commandments in our Supreme Court Building, because our Supreme Court has done everything possible to remove them from the public square.

*The Court that has shown repeated hostility to Ten Commandments displays in other courtrooms and public buildings. In Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court held that Kentucky schools could not display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls because “if the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” which, the Court said, is “not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.” (2)

*What a foolish decision! Guiding your life by the virtues of the Ten Commandments is one of the wisest decisions anyone could ever make.

-God gives us His rules not to hurt us but to help us!

*Steve Brown once explained it something like this:

-“Contrary to popular opinion, sin is not what you want to do but can’t; it is what you should not do because it will hurt you, -- and hurt you bad. God is not a selfish dictator. He is a Father concerned about His children.

*When a child picks up a snake and the father says, ‘Put that down right this minute!’ the child thinks he’s losing a toy. But he is not losing a toy; he is losing a deadly danger.” (3)

*So, God wants to keep us out of trouble. And the Ten Commandments help us see how. But before we start looking at each of the ten, let me ask you: Which is the greatest commandment in the law? -- Many of you already know.

*This is the question a lawyer had on his mind, when he quizzed Jesus one day.

-And in Matthew 22:37-40:

37. Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38. This is the first and great commandment.

39. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

*Every single commandment of God hangs on love, God’s kind of agape love.

-The love God wants to grow in us is like a giant beam that holds up all of the law. Matthew Henry said that if you take away love, then “all the law falls to the ground and comes to nothing.” (4)

*We also see the significance of this love in Romans 13:8-10, where Paul wrote:

8. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

9. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery,’’ "You shall not murder,’’ "You shall not steal,’’ "You shall not bear false witness,’’ "You shall not covet,’’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’’