The Ten Commandments Part 1
Scriptures: Exodus 20:3; Phil. 4:13; 1Cor. 10:13; Eph. 4:27
This morning I am starting the series on the Ten Commandments, with a focus being on l the nine that were carried over into the New Covenant. When God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, He spoke Ten Commandments audibly pertaining to how they were to live before Him. Now before I go any further and to address what some of you are probably thinking, I want to clarify the purpose of this sermon series. The Ten Commandments were part of the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses did not apply to non-Jews (Gentiles) so therefore the Ten Commandments did not apply to the Gentiles. So if the Law of Moses did not apply to Gentiles and the penalty of not keeping the Law was fulfilled through Christ death, why are we even talking about anything pertaining to the Law? Well, while the Ten Commandments, as originally given to the Children of Israel, were not kept by the early Christians, nine of the ten became a part of the New Covenant teachings/program. The fourth commandment pertaining to keeping the Sabbath was omitted from the New Covenant entirely.
If you recall, Jesus taught that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath when He was accused of breaking the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Early Christians did not keep it and did not teach others to do so (Romans 14:5-6; Galatians 4:9-10). They observed the first day of the week for worship after Christ resurrection and they did this, not as a matter of commandment or obligation, but for other reasons including the fact Christ rose on the first day of the week. Christians are not obligated to keep any particular Sabbath so this one commandment will not be covered in this series as it does not apply to how we walk before God. Also, something to consider, the Sabbath was a day of rest as it pertains to the things of the Law. And, as we studied in the second chapter of Romans during Bible study, since Christ fulfilled the Law, we now live in the Sabbath – our new born-again nature does not need to fulfill the requirements of the Law. Why? Because we are now a law unto ourselves! (Romans 2:13-15) Now, as it pertains to the other nine commandments, I want you to understand why you should understand them and why they are an important part of how we should live. Unlike life in the Old Testament, the difference for us that we should keep in mind is that all of the penalties pertaining to the Law do not apply because Jesus wiped them out. And it is because Jesus wiped them out that we have grace and forgiveness. Having said that you may still be wondering why since we have never been under the Law but always under grace, why am I even bothering to talk about these commandments and sin in general. Well I will tell you why but before I do I want to level set you on the idea of being an overcomer of sin, not within our own power, but through the price that Jesus paid on the cross for us and through the power that is available to us now through the Holy Spirit of God living within us. Write these Scriptures down and memorize them in this order and I promise you it will make a difference in your life.
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” All things mean just that, ALL THINGS – overcoming sin included.
1Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Sin is a temptation. God is faithful and His word says that He will always provide a way to escape sin so that we can endure the temptation without giving in to it. When we accept the fact that sin is a choice and we can make a different one, we will tap into that power to make that different choice.
Ephesians 4:27: “And do not give the devil an opportunity.” The King James version says do not give the devil a place. Paul said this as he was addressing our being angry and not sinning. But it also applies to all of our “temptations.” We have to stop giving the devil an opportunity or a place in our lives. Let me tell you what that looks like. When we give place to the devil, it’s like dedicating a room in our house for him to live in. We are allowing him to live with us. We feed him. We clothe him. He takes a bath when he’s dirty - and he’s always dirty! We need to close the doors we have open for him and don’t answer the door the next time he comes knocking.
Jesus quoted Isaiah when He said, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9) Jesus was pointing out the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees in their worship of God. Does this not exist in our lives today? I point these verses out so that we can recognize that we can do “all things” through Christ who strengthens us. And because we can do all things through Christ, there is no temptation to sin that we can ever face that God has not already provided a way for us to avoid it – if we want to avoid it. It has to be something we want to do. So how badly do we want deliverance from the temptations we face? God has already provided a way for us to endure temptations because through Christ we can do all things. Finally, we are not to give the devil an opportunity or a place in our lives. An opportunity to do what? An opportunity to do anything within our life. We have been given what we need to overcome sin, but we need to have the reason to try. It’s not that we do not have the power; in most cases we do not have the will. What I hope to accomplish with this series is giving you a reason to change some behaviors, not because we are afraid of the lake of fire which is real, but because of the love we are “supposed” to have for God.
Yes, the reason I am talking about the Ten Commandments and sin in general is because of LOVE. How we live for God is directly linked to our love for Him. When you read the Ten Commandment, in each there is an element of love. I was meditating on a way to explain why we need to understand sin as it relates to our relationship with Christ because there are people who believe sinning is no big deal because of grace and the fact that everyone sins. During Bible study on Thursday evening we were discussing Romans chapter six where Paul makes it clear that we should not be sinning, especially since we are under grace. During the discussion we talked about true repentance versus asking forgiveness to cover us in the meantime all the while knowing we are going do the same sin again. The discussion we had was around intentions. There is a difference between sinning when your intentions are not to do it and you are actively taking steps to correct your behavior. In these situations grace will cover us because there are times when we fall down, but we get up. Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter seven. But for those who believe that everyone sins so it’s okay because God has already forgiven us, there is no need to try and do better. When you study the Bible, this is not taught as there is a penalty for sin. So as I struggled to find a way to reveal to you the power that we have over sin when we choose to use it, God gave me the illustration.
I want to give you two illustrations that will allow you to understand why we must choose to do better. First, I want you to think of your immediate response when you are driving down the road and you see a policeman on the side or one in your rearview mirror. What do you do? You would immediately look down at your speedometer to ensure that you were not speeding – even though you knew you were not you’d look anyway. Why? Because we have been trained to know this formula: “Speeding + policeman = ticket.” We know if we get caught speeding we could get a ticket. This thinking does not enter our minds when it comes to sin. We do not recognize the penalty of a Christian sinning so we default to grace and that through it nothing will happen. In my second illustration, I want you to think about a marriage. If you read Ephesians 5:22-33 you will find that Paul talks about the relationship between a husband and wife. He describes the marriage relationship as symbolic of Christ’s relationship to the Church. If we begin thinking of our relationship with Christ as a marriage then the sins that we do we are doing them against our spouse (Christ). As you think about that, think about these words that are often said as part of the wedding vows: “I take thee to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith (or) pledge myself to you.” These vows are normally said in some fashion in a typical marriage. What I want you to see is that when a couple gets marriage, they enter the marriage with the intent to be faithful and true, to love their spouse as no one else. Because of this vow, they do their best to honor and stay true to every aspect of their vows. If we approach our relationship with Christ as one that we have made a vow of love and trust to, then our thinking of sin will change because we begin to see that every sins hurts Him.
As I said earlier, I will not be discussing the fourth commandment because it was not contained in any form in the New Covenant. When you cross reference the other nine commandments with the teachings of Christ and the apostles, you will find elements of these laws within the New Testament teaching. One additional point, in the New Testament when it references “commandments” it is not necessarily talking about the Ten Commandments in most cases, but those commandments that were given in the New Testament. There were approx. 930 New Testament commandments and each of those can be traced back to the nine original Ten Commandments that I will cover. So instead of taking you through the 930 New Testament commandments (which often overlap), I will be able to sum them all up very nicely with the original nine remaining commandments which will hopefully allow you to retain them easier. Let’s begin with the first Commandment.
“You Shall Have No Other God Before ME”
God begins His conversation with them by reminding the Children of Israel that He was their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt and out of bondage. After reminding them of that, He gives them the first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before ME.” (Exodus 20:3) This commandment says it all. God told the Children of Israel that they were not to have any other gods before Him – PERIOD! Now you would think that they would have come to that decision on their own after God miraculously delivered them from Egypt, but they did not. As a matter of fact if you read Exodus chapter thirty-two you find that when Moses was too long up in the mountain communing with God they did exactly what God had told them not to do. They rose up and made Aaron, the priest and Moses brother, make for them a god to worship in the form of a calf of gold. When the calf was made they began to worship the calf of gold and proclaim that it was the god that brought them out of the land of Egypt. Can you see this in your mind? God had spoken directly to the people and gave them the Ten Commandments audibly where they could all hear it at once and the people were so scared that the voice of God could kill them, they asked Moses to have God speak to him only and then he could relay the message. Now when Moses fulfills their request by going up the mountain to hear the words of God, the people rebelled. They made an image of a calf and proclaimed that this was their God. This was done shortly after God told them that they were not to have any other Gods before Him. God had also told them in the second commandment, that we will discuss later in the series that they were not to make any images in the likeness of anything in heaven or on the earth. They managed to break His Commandments within days of receiving them. God desires our undivided love, attention and dedication. He will not be shared or be second to anything or anyone. He will not get in the backseat of the vehicle while we ride around with our true love in the front seat. This is the message that God was delivering to the Children of Israel. Now let’s examine how this commandment was incorporated into the New Covenant. Turn to Matthew chapter twenty-two.
Matthew 22:35-40 records a conversation that Jesus had with a Pharisee who was a lawyer. The lawyer asked Jesus “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answered with the following: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matt. 22:37-40) Jesus told the man that the greatest law was to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. Then He added that the second greatest law was to love our neighbor as ourselves. On these two laws hang everything else. Do you realize that if we love God with all our hearts, soul and mind that there won’t be a chance that we could ever have another “god” before Him? If we truly love Him with this amount of intensity it is not possible to love something or someone else more than Him. Now in case you are wondering, here is Jesus’ definition of loving God: “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.” (John 14:21, 23-24) There is a relationship between our loving God and being obedient.
God told the Children of Israel that they were not to have any other gods before Him. Jesus says that we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. If you consider the implications of these two statements as it relates to a marriage, then the one we are married to will come before anyone else. They get our attention when no one else can. They are the one who holds our hearts. We defer to them above all others. They come first. This is the relationship that God wanted to have with the Children of Israel and the one He desires to have with us through His Son Jesus Christ. If we give Him our all, we are focused on what pleases Him. Even though we have to live in this world and please those around us, our hearts are still aligned to God and we do to others what He would require of us. That was the second greatest commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves. The only way that we can come close to accomplishing this is for us to have this type of relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He empowers us to move beyond ourselves. There have been many marriages that have failed because one or both parties could not move beyond themselves and their needs to meet the needs of their spouse. Being in a marriage can be difficult and it’s no different than being in a relationship with Christ because our flesh does not want to comply with our spirit. Our flesh wants to satisfy itself, not the God we serve. Our flesh is selfish and the only way we can move beyond our own limitations is to allow God’s love to envelope us fully. As I close, I want to share a few Scriptures with you just to give you something to consider as you think about God’s place in your life.
Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Matthew 6:33: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 10:37-39: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
In the first Commandment God said the Children of Israel were not to have any other gods before Him. In other words, He was to be the First and Only God they served! For us, Jesus taught that we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. In other words, He comes first, above everyone and everything else. We do not place God first in our life because He commands it, we do it by choice because we love Him. He has given us a free gift of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. He has delivered us from the power of sin and death that came with Adam’s disobedience. He has given us everything we need to be able to spend eternity with Him. Because of what He has given us, we should love Him. We should love Him as no other. And our love for Him will be evident in how we interact with one another. Do you love God to the extent that you do not want to do anything that would hurt Him?
Next week in recognition of Mother’s Day, I will be focusing on the fifth Commandment.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
