Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Family Classics Series 2006
God’s Top Ten: Strengthening the Foundation
Exodus 20:1-17
It happens unexpectedly. The process actually takes place slowly over weeks, and months, even years. On the surface, everything looks normal. However, underneath, it’s another story. Water begins to wash away the sub-soil. Once the erosion reaches a critical point, it happens. A sinkhole suddenly appears taking everything on the surface with it—roads, cars, houses, everything!
The 200-foot wide, 35-foot deep sinkhole in the picture happened in Bowling Green, KY a few years back. A much smaller one occurred in the pavement near the Columbia Mall last year. They happen in Florida all the time. Last week an entire lake suddenly drained when a large sinkhole developed beneath the lakebed.
Hold that picture in your mind. That same thing is happening in our society and families. We suffer from what some have called the Sinkhole Syndrome. Slowly but surely the foundations have eroded away. Collapse can’t be far behind.
The evidence surrounds us. According to the Gallup polling organization, eighty percent of Americans claim to believe in the Ten Commandments, but over half can’t name five of them. Not long ago Jay Leno asked his audience to name one of the Ten Commandments. No one responded until one member of the studio audience finally raised his hand and said, "God helps those who help themselves?" Worse yet, Gallup says he can find very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and non-church goers. He insists that according to his research the levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably similar in both groups.
Today as we close this year’s edition of our Season of the Family, I want to call each of you to commit yourself to helping strengthen the foundations that make our families strong and secure. I know of no better way to do this than to return to the very beginning. Let’s review the Ten Commandments. I know I am preaching to the choir on this. Most of you know the Ten Commandments well. But I am also convinced we all need to hear them over and over. Our young, especially, need to hear and know them—some for the very first time.
I want to make ten quick observations on the Ten Commandments. Each explains a part of why they are so important to our families and society.
This is my first observation. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of our free society. Despite recent attempts to have displays of the Commandments banned from the public square, the evidence of the impact of the commandments on our history is everywhere. The Supreme Court building itself illustrates this. Above the entrance, a stone relief pictures the great lawgivers of history. All are turned toward one central figure that alone faces forward—Moses, holding the Ten Commandments. Inside the building, above the bench where the justices deliver their rulings stands another replica of the Commandments.
Our founding fathers understood the truth. James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" said, "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." President John Adams stated, “The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal code as well as a moral and religious code. These laws are essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every Nation which ever professed any code of laws.”
The danger of moral decay provides every bit as a great a threat to freedom in our land as does the threat of military attack from the outside. Probably greater! We are prepared to defend ourselves from outside attack, but are dangerously indifferent to decay from within.
Why are these Laws so fundamental to man’s laws? Observation number two: Because the Ten Commandments are God’s Laws. Everyone who knows the Bible story knows their story. God called Moses to lead the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Weeks into the trek, he orders them to wait at base of Mt. Sinai. Moses disappears into the clouds at the top. When he comes down, he holds the two tables bearing ten words from God.
These are not the results of the latest opinion poll. They are neither personal opinion nor public opinion. Congress didn’t write them. Congress can’t erase them. Courts can forbid their display, but no court will ever limit their demands. They are the enduring standard of the Creator.
The prevailing drift of our times is deeper and deeper into moral relativism. This is the notion that there are no standards of right and wrong, only differences of taste or opinion. No civilized society or free land has ever long survived such thinking. When a belief in absolute truth leaves through the back door, tyranny enters through the front door. Power and threat remain the only way to preserve a people from a total social meltdown.
This brings me to my third observation. I need to clear up one bit of confusion. Around here, we talk a good bit about being a New Testament church. We believe that the New Testament scriptures are the rule of faith and practice for followers of Jesus. The Old Testament must be understood in that light. When it comes to the Ten Commandments, Christians believe in the Ten Commandments not just because Moses brought them down from Mt. Sinai. We teach them because Jesus did. The New Testament affirms the commandments. Every one of them is found in the teachings of Jesus and his disciples. The only possible exception is the fourth command regarding the Sabbath. Jesus challenged the narrow legalistic approach to the Sabbath. The apostles made the first day (Resurrection Day) rather than the seventh day the holy for Christians. The commands are in the New Testament.
Number four: we don’t understand the commandments until we see that as a law that liberates. They don’t restrict as much as they free. Think of a kite. At first, it might look like the string restricts the kite. It keeps it from soaring high and free. But that same string holds it secure. Without that line, the kite flies out of control and crashes. Someone has wisely said that we can no more break them than we can break the law of gravity. When we try, we only break ourselves in the attempt.
Picture it another way. Does a fence around a playground next to a busy street encourage or discourage children to enjoy the play. The fence doesn’t restrict. It protects and frees. That’s exactly what God’s laws do. Life without them would be a dangerous place.
The God of the commands is on our side. His commandments are for our good always (Dt 10:35). "I know the plans I have for you,” Jeremiah 29:11 says, “ plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Number Five: the Ten Commandments are not complicated. The Ten divide into two parts. The order is important. The first four must come first. They outline are relationship to God. God rightfully demands first place. He allows no false idols, no disregard for his name or his day. Until God has the proper place in our lives, we will never have the proper relationship with the people of our lives. The last six describe how we should treat people. The sanctity of family, of life, of marriage, of personal property, of verbal honesty, and the desires of the heart are the foundation of the good life.
Number Six: the Commands can be summarized in a single word—Love. Jesus taught us that if we love God as he deserves and those around us as we would want to be loved ourselves, we need never worry about breaking the commands. But real love is action, not just good intentions or empty words. Real love requires more than just going through the motions. It flows from inside.
That brings us to Number Seven: As simple and straightforward as the Ten Commands are, they are far from easy to obey. A businessman well known for his ruthlessness once announced to Mark Twain, “Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 Commandments aloud at the top.” “I have a better idea,” replied Twain. “You could stay in Boston and keep them.” (Moody Bible Institute’s Today in the Word, September, 1991, p. 32.)
The only one for whom the Commandments appear easy is the person who doesn’t understand them. Jesus taught that the point of the Ten Commandments is not just the letter of the law, but also the inclination of the heart. We can keep the rules, but at the same time miss the point of the rule-giver.
One “Frank & Ernest” cartoon shows Moses bringing the 10 Commandments to the people, and one of them says, “Could you make copies? We’d like to begin a loophole search.” That was the problem of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They were zealous for keeping the law, but more zealous for finding loopholes that allowed them to appear to observe the commands without real obedience.
Number Eight: We are all Commandment breakers. I challenge you to inventory your life according to the Commandments. You can’t pick and choose. Redefining them to fit your lifestyle is not allowed. They are what they are. Even if we have never bowed to a physical idol, few of us have always given him the allegiance he deserves. And then there’s the second tablet. Even if most of us have never broken six, seven, and eight, the last two are problem enough. Anyone who has passed on a dirty little tidbit of gossip because it’s too good to keep to ourselves has mastered the art of the false witness. Jealousy, greed, and the failure to be content with who we are and what we have is the very definition of coveting. James 2:10 reminds us, “Anyone who breaks the Law in one point is a law breaker.”
Next, this leads us to a very common misunderstanding. The commandments are not and never have been the key to heaven. They are not a way of salvation. No indeed, the Laws of God, whether written on the stone tablets of Moses or on the heart of the human conscious are designed to lead us to Christ. They show us we need a savior. They are not the map to the treasure. The commands are clues that lead to the map that takes us to the treasure.
Listen to Galatians 3:23-25. “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
Romans 10:1-4 makes it clear that Jesus and his sacrifice is the only way to heaven. “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
Number ten and the last comment on the Ten Commands. The Ten Commandments are intensely personal. The “you” in the commandments is not plural, but singular. Each individual is called to come before the holy God, to submit to his judgment, and acknowledge his/her need of his grace. That was true when the Lord spoke his law from the mountaintop. It is true today.
Conclusion: Church, parents, citizens of a free society—I urge you to take these commands seriously. Believe them, teach them to your young, and make them the pattern of your life. They and the grace of God to which they will point you when you endeavor to follow them provide the only foundation for life and eternity.
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
