Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, February 25, 2018 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister MESSAGE 5 in The Greatest Chapters of The Bible Sermon Series The Ten Commandments Exodus 20 Tonight as we continue with our series of messages on The Greatest Chapters of The Bible we are going to be studying a chapter of the Bible that you and I probably first heard about in a Sunday School class when we were young children. I am talking about the 20 th Chapter of Exodus where GOD gave Moses The Ten Commandments. For our text this evening, let's read the first seventeen verses of Exodus 20. EXODUS 20:1-17 (NKJV) 1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder. 14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor s house; you shall not covet your neighbor s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor s. ********************************************************************************************* Introduction If you will remember in our message last Lord's Day evening from Exodus 12, it was the night before the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt. It was the night that the plague of death fell across every household in Egypt except for the homes of the Israelites. Their homes were protected by the blood of the lamb. And you remember it was on that night before the exodus that the Israelites observed their very first Passover meal as a memorial to God's saving grace that spared them from death. As we come to Exodus 20 it has now been three months since the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt. They are now in the rugged, desolate Sinai desert. Off in the distance is a tall, ominous mountain called Sinai or Mount Sinai. It is here, on Mount Sinai, that Moses will receive the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were not the entire Law that God gave to the Israelites. They had 613 commandments or laws all together. The Ten Commandments form the framework or the foundation for all of the other commandments. Remember in Matthew 22 when the Pharisee asked Jesus, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, with all soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40 NKJV)
Now what does that have to do with The Ten Commandments? Well, the first four commandments are about Loving the LORD your GOD and the last six commandments are about Loving your neighbor as yourself. Another way to look at it is that the first four commandments deal with man's DUTIES towards God; and the last six commandments deal with man's DUTIES towards his fellow man. Now I could preach an entire sermon on each one of the Ten Commandments. In fact, back in the mid-1990's I did just that. I preached a ten week series on the Ten Commandments. Time doesn't permit us to go into a great deal of depth on each of the commandments, so what I would like to do is to capture the basic essence of what each of the commands is about and make some application as to how the command relates to us today. ******************************************************************************* The First Commandment Is About Giving GOD His RIGHTFUL PLACE (vs. 2,3) 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. Illustration: Guys, if your wife told you, You shall have no other wives before me you would know exactly what she meant wouldn't you? You would know she means, You shall have no other woman in addition to me...instead of me...in competition with me...or in place of me. 1. When God says, You shall have no other gods before Me He means exactly what He says. He doesn't want us to have any other gods in addition to Him, instead of Him, in competition with Him, or in place of Him. 2. This first commandment is all about giving God our undivided LOVE and LOYALTY. It is about giving God His rightful place of priority and preeminence in our lives.
The late G. Campbell Morgan said, The first requirement of this Divine law is that man must sweep out anything and everything from the place where GOD alone should be. There is not to be any interference between GOD and the human soul. It is a stern command, but beneficently so; for it is only in such a direct relationship than man can ever find the fullness of life. (Greatest Chapters of The Bible by G. Campbell Morgan p. 43, Fleming H. Revell Co. Tappan, New Jersey Copyright 1935 ) 3. On a practical level You shall have no other gods before Me means we cannot allow anyone or anything to have a greater place of predominance or influence over our lives than God; not our love for our family, our love for nature, our love for sports, our love for our recreational hobbies...nothing NOTHING! GOD DEMANDS FIRST PLACE IN OUR LIVES! The Second Commandment Is About WORSHIPPING GOD In The RIGHT WAY (vs. 4-6) 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 1. Some people have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the first and second commandment. Let me see if I can clarify it for us. The first commandment forbids the worship of false gods; while the second commandment forbids the worship of the One True God in a false way. The first commandment deals with who we worship while the second commandment deals with how we worship.
2. You remember while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments the children of Israel were at the base of the mountain crying out for a tangible, visible image they could worship. So Aaron took their jewelry and melted it down and made the golden calf. As the people began to bow down to that image of the golden calf they began to see it as God. In Exodus 32:4 (NKJV) we read: Then they said (Israelites) ( This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt! How blasphemous and irreverent for the Israelites to reduce GOD to an inanimate four-legged golden calf! 3. Let me illustrate this commandment in a way we can understand. Let's say your mate has a little carved statue of you. And instead of talking to you they talk to the statue. Instead of showing love and affection to you, they show love and affection to the little statue. Instead of spending time with you, they spend time with the statue. Instead of giving praise and compliments to you,they give praise and compliments to the statue of you. How would that make you feel? No doubt it would hurt you deeply, wouldn't it? And it would incite your jealousy. 4. GOD says that is exactly how He feels when man reduces Him to a hand-carved image. GOD says, For I the LORD your GOD, am a jealous God. 5. How irreverent and unholy it is for man to think he can possibly create an image that could even come close to representing the glory and majesty of GOD! This commandment is all about worshiping GOD as HE IS, not as we imagine Him to be or as we want Him to be.
The Third Commandment Is About SPEAKING About GOD With RESPECT (v.7) 7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 1. With a name like BRAZIEL, I have heard my name mispronounced in about every way imaginable. I've had people call me Bray-Zeel...Braz-zee-EL...and Brassiere. For years the Tri-County telephone book had us listed as Reggie and Linda Brazzielle. I have learned to just have a sense of humor about it when people mispronounce my name. 2. GOD wants us to treat Him with the utmost REVERENCE and RESPECT and that begins by revering and respecting His Holy Name. 3. When we think of people breaking this third commandment the first thing that comes to mind is using God's name in profanity or cussing. How often is God's precious name or the precious name of Jesus Christ taken in vain in the locker room...or in the factory...or out on the golf course...or...in rush-hour traffic... or in the movies and TV shows we watch? I don't know about you, but any time I hear God's name taken in vain it just goes through me like a knife. I pray that none of us will ever grow so calloused toward hearing God's name taken in vain that it no longer bothers us. 4. But swearing is not the only way to take God's name in vain. We must also refrain from using God's name as a slang word. Over the years I have noticed more and more professing Christians using God's name as a slang word in their every day conversations as though His name has no special meaning or significance. I hear people say, Well I don't mean anything by it. That is exactly why they shouldn't do it. To use God's Holy and precious Name as a meaningless slang word is to take His name in vain.
5. When we swear an oath in a court of law to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth SO HELP US GOD, and then perjure ourselves on the witness stand by making statements that are not true, we are taking God's name in vain. 6. Hypocrisy is another form of taking God's name in vain. When we praise God and profess God with our lips, but live a life that contradicts what we profess, we are taking God's name in vain. 6. The whole point of this third commandment is to SPEAK ABOUT GOD WITH THE HIGHEST RESPECT AND REVERENCE...and to exercise extreme caution whenever we speak the name of God. The Fourth Commandment Is About REST and Spiritual REFRESHMENT (vs. 8-11) 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 1. This commandment is actually a double commandment. GOD set the Sabbath day apart as being uniquely different from the other six days of the week in two ways: One, it was to be a day of REST. Notice the emphasis this commandment places upon work prior to the rest. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. This is the part of this commandment that is often over-looked. The LORD expects us to be actively involved in productive labor. It is God's will that we work and be fruitful and productive with our lives. GOD HIMSELF modeled this example for us in the creation by working six days and then resting upon the seventh day.
WORK six days...rest one. WORK six days...rest one. That is God's will...that is God's pattern. In fact, the Hebrew word sabbath or sabbat means rest. But not only was the Sabbath to be set aside as a day of rest, it was also to be set aside as a day of spiritual REFRESHMENT, or a day of WORSHIP. Verse 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it HOLY. Verse 11b Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and HALLOWED it. (hallowed = holy) 2. Some believe that because we are not under the Old Covenant, this commandment does not apply to those of us who are Christians. But it does! GOD'S WILL does not change. If it was God's will that the children of Israel work six days and set aside one day each week for rest and worship, GOD'S WILL remains the same for us. The only difference is which day of the week we set aside. For the Jewish people the Sabbath was Saturday or technically from sundown on Friday night through sundown on Saturday night. For those of us who are Christians, Sunday or the first day of the week is to be our day of rest and worship. Christ arose on the first day of the week. The early New Testament Christians met together for worship on the first day of the week. For the world, Sunday is no different than any other day of the week. But for those of us who are Christians, Sunday should not be viewed as our day off to do whatever we want, it should be revered as The Lord's Day...it should be a day of rest and spiritual refreshment. So these first four commandments deal with our duties towards GOD. Now the last six commandments deal with our duties towards man.
The Fifth Commandment Is About RESPECT For Parental AUTHORITY (v.12) 12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 1. This commandment is critically important because it forms the very FOUNDATION of society. FAMILIES are the building blocks of societies, and when families are broken and fractured, the society itself will become broken and fractured. Societies rise or fall on obedience to this command. 2. In His divine wisdom, GOD knew that civil obedience begins in the home. When children learn to honor their parents, and are taught to respect and obey the AUTHORITY of their parents in the home, that respect for authority will carry over into society. Those children will show respect for their teachers and coaches in school. Later they will show respect for the authority of their bosses and supervisors at work; and they will show respect for the authority of police officers and other officers of the law in our society. 3. But when this commandment is broken it has disastrous consequences upon our society. Children who dishonor their parents...children who are not taught to respect and obey the authority of their parents in the home typically carry that disrespect for authority with them every where they go. They often become trouble-makers in school; and later they become disciplinary problems at their place of employment; and quite often they become criminals and lawbreakers who then become a financial burden upon the tax payers. 4. The bottom line is this: In order to have a strong foundation for a society, you need a strong foundation in the home. And that strong foundation in the home is dependent upon children honoring their father and mother by respecting and obeying their authority in the home.
The Sixth Commandment Is About VALUING Human LIFE (v.13) 13 You shall not murder. 1. By issuing this sixth commandment GOD is teaching us to value human life as He values human life. GOD is the GIVER of life. He is the One who created life. Apart from GOD life is not even possible. The scriptures teach us that it is GOD'S WILL that each and every human being have the opportunity for ETERNAL LIFE for God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all men should come to repentance. The scriptures also teach us in JOB 14:5 that the number of days and months that each of us lives is determined by GOD and GOD alone. Therefore, this sixth commandment forbids anyone from willfully, deliberately, and maliciously taking the life of another human being by an act of murder. This would include the taking the life of an innocent, unborn child through abortion. 2. As you know, the original King James Version translates this verse: Thou shalt not kill which has caused much debate and confusion; because Thou shalt not kill is much broader in scope than You shall not murder. The Hebrew word for kill is harag which is a broad-sweeping term that can refer to the taking of the life of an animal or the taking of the life of a human being by accident or by a willful act. The Hebrew word for murder is ratsach which is much narrower in meaning. It refers specifically to the willful, deliberate, premeditated act of taking the life of another human being. It is the word ratsach that is used here in Exodus 20:13. So the correct translation of this command is You shall not murder.
3. There are at least three exceptions where the scriptures do NOT classify the taking of another human life as an act of murder. (A) First, The killing of an enemy combatant in WARFARE. (Gen. 10:5; 11:9; Deut. 2:33-34; 20:1) (B) (C) Secondly, The killing of an intruder as an act of SELF-DEFENSE to protect one's own life or the life of one's family. (Exodus 22:2) This would also include a police officer taking the life of someone who makes an attempt on his/her life or poses a mortal threat to innocent citizens. And thirdly, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT as a legal, justified means to protect society from someone who has been convicted of murdering one or more innocent people. These three exceptions: warfare...self-defense...and capital punishment are not prohibited by this sixth commandment. 4. Before we move on to the next commandment, let me remind you of what Jesus said about this issue of murder in His Sermon on The Mount. Matthew 5:21,22a (NKJV) You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Here Jesus is warning us about holding unresolved anger and hatred in our heart towards anyone. To hate another human being so much that you wish they were dead or wish harm would come upon them is to have the same intent as one who actually commits the act of murder. 5. When Nickolas Cruz walked into Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day and murdered seventeen innocent people, those murders actually took place before he ever fired the first shot or set foot on that campus. The murders took place the moment his heart became filled with uncontrolled anger and hatred towards those innocent human beings.
6. Murder is not a GUN issue, murder is a HEART issue. This is why gun control will never work as a deterrent. All the gun regulations in the world will still not regulate the heart of those who desire to commit murder. Well we must hurry along... The Seventh Commandment Is About PURITY In The Marriage RELATIONSHIP (v. 14) 14 You shall not commit adultery. 1. Marriage is an institution of GOD, not an invention of man. In the very first book of the Bible we find God's blueprint for marriage and that is that one man and one woman be joined together as husband and wife for their lifetime here on earth. 2. In the bounds of that holy and sacred union between a husband and wife, the sexual relationship is a beautiful thing ordained by God for mutual pleasure, and oneness, and for the propagation of human life. In his book, MONEY, SEX, AND POWER, Richard Foster writes: Sex is like a great river that is rich and deep and good as long as it stays within its proper channel. The moment a river overflows its banks, it becomes destructive, and the moment sex overflows its Godgiven banks, it too becomes destructive. (page 109) 3. Countless marriages have ended because this commandment has been violated. Sexual purity in the marriage relationship has been replaced with casual recreational sex. Marital commitment for a lifetime has been replaced with throw-away-relationships. Families have been broken, the lives of children have been shattered because one or both parents in the home violated this seventh commandment.
4. In His Sermon on The Mount Jesus took this seventh commandment to a whole different level. In Matthew 5:27,28 Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Jesus is warning us to guard our eyes, our minds, and our hearts from anything that would in any way, shape, or form threaten the purity of our marriage relationship. This means steer clear of any flirtatious interaction with someone of the opposite sex. Steer clear of pornography. Steer clear long, lustful glances at members of the opposite sex. Satan has placed sexually stimulating landmines everywhere, and we must constantly be on guard. The Eighth Commandment Is About Keeping Your HANDS To YOURSELF (v.15) 15 You shall not steal. 1. This commandment is very clear and doesn't need a whole lot of explanation. In essence this commandment is teaching us to respect the personal property of others. Don't take what doesn't belong to you. Keep your hands to yourself. 2. This applies to everything from borrowing something from a neighbor or friend and never giving it back...to shoplifting in a store...to stealing someone's identity...to robbing a bank and everything in between. The Ninth Commandment Is About PROTECTING the GOOD NAME of Others (v.16) v.16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 1. Each year we hear about hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland and countless numbers of homes being destroyed by wildfires out in the western part of our country. Almost every time, those devastating wild fires were causes by a single spark, or a single cigarette butt, or a singe lightning strike, or an untended campfire.
2. James 3 compares the tongue to a wildfire. How many lives have been hurt or destroyed by someone's loose, untamed tongue? 3. This ninth commandment not only forbids us from giving false testimony against our neighbor, it also means DO NOT GOSSIP... DO NOT SPREAD RUMORS...DO NOT BE A TALEBEARER... don't be party to any conversation that may cause harm or destruction to someone's good name. The Tenth Commandment Is About Being CONTENTED With What God Has BLESSED You With (v.17) v. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor s house; you shall not covet your neighbor s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor s. 1. Coveting means to have a strong desire to possess what belongs to another person. It means to burn with desire for someone else's material possessions. 2. Just in case you are tempted to think this issue of coveting is no big deal just remember David coveted Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah and Uriah wound up dead. Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard, and Naboth wound up dead. 3. God forbids coveting because coveting leads to dissatisfaction with what GOD has blessed us with. Coveting also leads us to depend on things for our happiness rather than upon GOD. *********************************************************************************
C O N C L U S I O N As we close I want to leave you with this thought about this GREAT CHAPTER OF THE BIBLE. Some people argue that The Ten Commandments doesn't apply to today's Christian. I beg to differ. Do you think it is now OK to have other gods before the One True God? Or that its OK to worship hand- made images? Or that its OK to take God's name in vain; or to neglect the Lord's Day? Just because we do not live under the Old Covenant, does that make it OK to dishonor and disrespect our parents? Or is now OK to commit murder? Or commit adultery? Or to steal what doesn't belong to us? The answer is obvious isn't it? You see, the very spirit of the Ten Commandments is still just as binding upon our lives today as it was the day the Lord gave these laws to Moses on Mount Sinai. Remember, the very essence of the Ten Commandments can be summarized in those two laws that Jesus said are the greatest and that is that WE LOVE THE LORD OUR GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART, WITH ALL OUR SOUL, AND ALL OUR MIND...and that WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELF. Those two laws must govern our lives until our earthly journey has ended!