The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20, 32, 34
CHCC: February 3, 2013
For the last few weeks we’ve been in a series from the book of Exodus. Today we’ve reached the part where God gives the 10 commandments to His new nation of Israel.
About 20 years ago a Gallup Poll was taken that indicated less than half of the adult population in the United States knew more than five out of the Ten Commandments.
In fact, more people claimed to LIVE by the Ten Commandments than those who actually knew what they were.
Before we talk ABOUT the 10 commandments … it’s a good idea to be sure we all know what they are.
Let’s read together… (Exodus 20:1-17)
"Then God spoke all these words, saying I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors.
1. The Law of God
God gave these 10 commandments three different times. This first time, God actually SPOKE these words to the whole nation of Israel. They heard his voice as well as the sound of a trumpet … and thunder and lightning and smoke coming from the mountain.
They were terrified. They begged Moses, YOU go and talk to God. Because if that happens again, we’ll all die!
The second time, God WROTE the 10 commandments. Moses went up the mountain alone and met with God.
Then, many days later, Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. Exodus 32:15-16
While Moses was on the mountain, the people of Israel had decided he was gone too long. Even though they had heard the voice of God and seen His power, they still turned away from God.
When Moses came down the mountain, he saw that the people breaking the first 2 commandments. They were dancing and partying around an idol. He threw the tablets down in anger … and they shattered.
So Moses went up the mountain again. This THIRD time God dictated the 10 commandments and Moses chiseled them on stone tablets. These tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant and remained there for hundreds of years.
The stone tablets have disappeared, but the 10 Commandments live on … and they form the basis for codes of law all over the world.
According to the Atlanta Journal "The Ten Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains 266 words. A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words."
Compare that to 1,147,271 words published so far in Obamacare regulation documents.
Makes you wonder what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.
These 10 laws are short and simple enough for anyone, but just in case, here are the 10 Commandments for Texans:
(1) Just one God
(2) Put nothin’ before God
(3) Watch yer mouth
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meetin’
(5) Honor yer Ma & Pa
(6) No killin’
(7) No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal
(8) Don’t take what ain’t yers
(9) No tellin’ tales or gossipin’
(10) Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff
How can laws that sound so simple have so much influence on the world?
Listen to what our second president, John Adams, said about the 10 commandments: “These laws, most of which have been enacted by every Nation which ever professed any code of laws, are essential to the existence of men in society. Vain indeed would be the search among the writings of secular history to find so broad, so complete and so solid a basis of morality as the Ten Commandments lay down.”
2. The Law of Love
God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses as a foundation of law for the nation of Israel. When Jesus began his ministry in Israel over a thousand years later, one of the legal experts asked him, “Which is the greatest of the commandments.?”
Jesus didn’t hesitate. He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Then Jesus added, And the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31
Jesus took the 10 Commandments and condensed them down to two even simpler rules. Love God and love others.
This makes sense if you think about how a child comes to understand rules. A child starts out hearing a bunch of “no-no’s”
He hears: “Don’t touch the stove, don’t touch the iron, don’t touch the heater, don’t touch the candle …, don’t light the match.” don’t climb in the fireplace, don’t grab the tail-pipe of the car.
Eventually the kid catches on to the great overarching principle: Oh, I get it: Don’t touch hot stuff! Once he gets the main idea, he doesn’t need the long list of “no no’s”
The first 4 commandments are contained in the principle: Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The last 6 commandments are contained in the command to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Have you ever wondered why the 10 commandments have been banned from some Courthouses and other Public Places? It’s not the last 6 Commandments that offend people. It’s the first 4 commandments.
The problem is, the first commandments tell us to respect God above all … and some folks don’t like that idea at all.
But the truth is that respect for God is a necessary foundation for any code of law. If there is no God, then what is the basis of morality? Who defines what is right and what is wrong?
When laws are based on whoever happens to be in power at any given time, then morality gets twisted. We end up with absurd, contradictory laws ….like we have in our country … where turtle eggs and bird eggs and fish eggs are protected by law, but an unborn baby is left completely defenseless.
The first 4 commandments are essential to living a moral life. They show us how to live out the greatest commandment: Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The Bible compares our relationship to God to the love relationship of marriage. Look at how these first 4 commandments correspond to the way we demonstrate love in a marriage:
I show love for my wife …
1-by being a faithful husband, (I don’t put any other women before her) (like the first commandment)
2-I don’t let images of other women … or any other material thing … come between me and my relationship with her (like the second commandment)
3-I don’t talk to or about her with disrespect (like the third commandment)
4-I regularly set aside time so I can spend it with her (like the 4th commandment)
That’s what it takes to show love to your husband or wife ---
And that what it takes to show our love for God.
3. The Law of the Spirit
The teachings of Jesus never contradicted the 10 commandments. He reinforced them.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:16-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Jesus fulfilled the law by setting us free from condemnation under the law.
Romans 8:2 says, The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
It’s called the law of sin and death because all the old Law can do is condemn us. The Law condemns us because … except for Jesus … no one has ever successfully lived by the 10 commandments.
As yourself these 10 Questions:
Do you ever put anything … or anyone … above the one true God?
Have you ever put an ambition or a material possession above God?
Have you ever used God’s name as a joke or a curse?
Do you ever put your job ahead of time with God?
Do you always honor your father and mother?
Do you value every human life?
Have you kept your marriage vows?
Have you ever taken anything that wasn’t yours?
Do you tell the absolute truth?
Are you always content with what you have or do you covet the possessions, relationships, and successes of others?
Because of Jesus, we don’t have to answer those 10 questions when we face our Maker.
CONCLUSION:
There’s a method of evangelism that I have used where you start by asking this question: If you were to stand before God and He asked you, “Why should I let you into my Heaven?” --- what would your answer be?
The most common answer I get is something like, “Well, I try to live a good life.” Or “I try to keep the 10 commandments.”
For some reason it’s hard for us to really understand that keeping God’s Commandments is not … never has been, and never will be … a way to earn our way into God’s good graces. For one thing, we can’t do it. And for another thing, God knows we can’t do it. That’s why Jesus came and gave his life as a sacrifice to cover our sins. This was God’s plan all along.
God gave the 10 commandments to show us that we need His Grace and Mercy. And God gave us all the grace and mercy we need through Jesus Christ.
