Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Re-thinking the Rules (Part 1) We can expect the unbelieving world to
misunderstand the Ten Commandments but sadly, much of the Christian community does not
quite know what to do with these key Scriptures either. Before we look at the individual
commandments, we need to be clear on what they mean with regard to the following: 1. God The entire enterprise, to me, is a
challenge to think differently as a result of what I am seeing in the Word of God. The Ten Commandments are found both in
Exodus 20, given the first time, and in Deuteronomy 5, given the second time. 1Then God spoke all these words, saying, When I was a kid it was not unusual at
Christmas to receive board games. I used to get these games and I would get out all the
pieces and lay them all out on table or floor and at a glance pretty much figure out what
had to happen in order to make the game go. I put the pieces together and I commenced to
play and perhaps invite someone to join me. All was fine until I met someone who had
played before. They might say something like, “That’s not how you play this
game.” “What do you mean?” “Well, read the directions!” It happened more than once that I
would read the directions and say to myself, “Well, no wonder I’ve been winning.”
I would have to -- here’s our word -- I would have to “re-think” how the
game was supposed to be played. I think it is time we re-think the
truth in God’s Word, particularly truth centered in those Ten Commandments. It was
not too long ago that the Ten Commandments were in the headlines in our land. I think it
is interesting that despite the fact that they are straight-forward and clear and easy to
understand, the Ten Commandments are usually misunderstood. In Alabama, Judge Moore was told he
could not have them in his courtroom, and out they went. And out he went. One of our chief
justices decided that, in one particular state, it was OK to place the Ten Commandments.
In another state, it was not. Temporarily, at least, it was the law of the land. Think of
that -- the Ten Commandments of the Bible etched in stone, displayed in a public building,
and all kinds of uproar over it in the press. Think of the different perspectives on those
Ten Commandments. If someone was coming at the issue
from, say, the ACLU’s point of view, than we are dealing with imposed religion. We
can’t have that. After all, the Constitution clearly says “separation of church
and state.” Right? Wrong! We cannot have imposed religion. Outside the ACLU, in any sort of what
would be called a liberal lobby, what would a post modernist in our contemporary society
think of the Ten Commandments? I suggest that the Ten Commandments would be viewed as
archaic, religious rules, Judeo-Christian relic. Quaint, perhaps at best, but irrelevant.
After all, right and wrong, who knows? Who cares? The Ten Commandments are merely a museum
piece to some. Moving further to the right in
thought, what about the religious or perhaps patriotic conservative? Mention of the Ten
Commandments would surely conjure up sentiments sort of like Mom, apple pie, and the Ten
Commandments. A good, healthy tradition that reflects absolute truth and we need absolute
truth. That’s a good thing. These different perspectives,
different points of view, come to bear, depending on where people are coming from. How
about the evangelical believer? I suggest that by and large the evangelical believer
basically likes the idea and embraces the idea and thinks it is a good thing to have the
Ten Commandments in a courtroom or wherever. I suspect that evangelical believers, when it
comes right down to what those Commandments mean and how relevant they are to you and to
me today, most are probably not quite sure. I would imagine that, claiming to be
Christians, some would say, “Ten Commandments -- you have to have them. Matter of
fact, you have to keep them.” Some would say, “You don’t have to keep them
any more because we are under grace. They had to keep them in the Old Testament but we don’t
have to keep them now.” I’m scratching my head. There are evangelicals, perhaps
many, who would say, “Ten Commandments? Not necessary. We’re under grace, don’t
you know.” We need to rethink the Ten
Commandments. The Ten Commandments are also known as the Decalogue (ten words). As a
matter of fact, a full treatment and in my view, a balanced treatment of all Scripture
tells me that all people need to understand those Ten Commandments. They are key to life
as the Bible presents them. As I mull this over, I am convinced
that these “ten words” from God are arguably the single most significant,
foundational course of study anywhere for anyone. So that’s where we are going. We
are heading into “re-think” mode. You just don’t jump in with “I Am
the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land Egypt. You shall have no other gods
before me.” I cannot start there. I have to start before there. I have to lay, for
myself and hopefully for us here, a foundation so that we have a place from which to step.
The foundation will be laid today and a week from today, if the Lord does not return in
between times. Foundationally -- what facts do we
need to have and understand accurately before we explore each of those ten. 1. God The truth we need to explore is truth
that concerns God Himself. What does the Bible say about God Himself? Obviously we cannot
exhaust this topic, but I believe we can hit some pillars we need to understand in order
to get to the Ten Commandments. First - God is holy. If we know
nothing else about the God of heaven as He is presented in the Bible, it is that He is
holy. The Bible, a couple times, gives us a glimpse into heaven, once in Isaiah 6 and
again in Revelation 4. The passages are parallel. Isaiah the prophet is given entrance to
heaven and a vision in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 In Oriental culture, the height of
royalty is indicated by the length of the robe. The longer the robe the more significant
the royalty. This says that the train of His robe fills the temple, making this Lord
supreme. There are angels standing above Him.
There are two of them, called Seraphim. These two have six wings. Six-winged angels --
picture that in your mind’s eye. There they are hovering, two are covering the face
of the angel, two are covering the feet, and two are flapping. 3And one called out to another and said, In Hebrew conversation, when it was
time to make a point, to emphasize a truth, the rules of their language dictate that they
repeat themselves. Which is why Jesus, in teaching, would teach His disciples and begin
with the words “truly, truly” or “verily, verily.” When repeated twice
it means to listen. “What I am about to say is very important.” A three-fold
repetition indicates the height of importance. It can be no more important. Theologians, picking up on what they
discovered in Isaiah 6, three holies, in Revelation 4, three holies even made a
theological term for it -- the Trishagion. All theologians everywhere know what that
means. It means three holies. It means if you reduce the character of God down to His
core, this is where we land. Of all the other attributes of God, each one is defined by
His holiness. This is who God is. We need to understand something about
the holiness of God. Consider this; it is a term that absolutely saturates the Old
Testament. The Old Testament is 77 percent of the Book. Over 600 times, holiness is
referred to in some form in the Old Testament. It is who God is. God is holy, which
basically means, God is separate, distinct, unique, in a class by Himself, above and
exalted over any creature. He is in a world of His own. God is holy. So whatever we do
with the Ten Commandments, we have to be true to this notion of the God who gave them. Secondly, God does not change. Does He
change His methods? Certainly, but His character is unchangeable. The Bible says that in
several places. Malachi 3:6: “I am the Lord. I do not change.” He declares it of
Himself. In Numbers 23:19: "God
is not a man, that He should lie, God says what He means and means what
He says and does not change. Even in the New Testament the half brother of Jesus, in the
book of James, talks about every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the
Father of lights with whom there is no variation, no shifting shadow. God never changes.
The Bible bears that out Scripturally, but also from a theological standpoint, it is
perfectly sensible. To be God, He must be perfect. To be God, He must be all knowing. He
must be all powerful. He must be everywhere present. He has no need to change. To change
would imply lack of knowledge. To change would imply imperfection. To change would
indicate there is a need in Him that needs to be met. If any of those are true, we no
longer are dealing with a God of the Bible. He does not change. He will never change. Think of it this way. God is holy and
God does not change. That is such good news. If He is holy, that means He demands
reverence and that means He is not like me. I don’t want a God like me. I know me too
well. He is God apart. He is holy. He is deserving and demanding of our reverence and He
is not like we are. He is unchanging. That means He is
absolutely stable and utterly reliable and always truthful. He is not like we are either.
We should welcome the worship of a God like that. He gives us confidence. He is someone
who is not like we are. That’s good news, to have a God like that. God is holy. God
does not change. Third, God communicates. This always
makes me stop and remind myself of what, to many perhaps, is obvious. God could be holy
and utterly in His own worldly existence wherever, being God perfectly and eternally. He
can be that way. He can be unchanging and all that and I would never know nor benefit if
He did not communicate that to me. He would be perfectly fine doing that, lacking nothing.
I am not necessary to His program. I am not necessary to God’s self esteem. If He did
not communicate, we would be a hurting unit. He did not have to, but He did. He has a plan. It does include us, but
does not affect His essential nature. God communicates. Hebrews 1:1-2, talks about God,
coming from a New Testament perspective. God in many times and in many ways, over the
years and in the past, communicated lots through the prophets and by the fathers. That is
what He did. In these last days, the Bible says, He communicated in His Son but
previously, He had lots of different methods. We need to be glad that He did. He communicated in the Garden of Eden.
He told Adam what to do, what not to do. He gave Adam responsibility. He went searching
for His creation in the cool of the day. There was communication. There was communion. God
initiated that. All through the Scripture, He speaks. The Ten Commandments are only one
example, a powerful example, a key example, but only one example. God spoke all the time. God speaks in languages people can
understand. I am glad of that too. The apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of I
Corinthians talks about baby talk. When we are a child, we speak like a child and so forth
and we just could be making noise. I notice the Pernsteiner twins kind of have their own
vocabulary. Unfortunately for their parents, the parents don’t understand but the two
boys know what they are talking about. The boys understand the parents too. God speaks in
terms people understand. What is so tough about understanding the Ten Commandments? Pretty
clear language to you and to me. God’s communication indicates He is graciously
inclined. That is good. He communicates because He has a
message from a benevolent heart, a heart of compassion and patience, a heart for us. He
tells us who He is and what He is like and what He wants and how to get it done. He
provides us with the manual and for that I am also grateful. Fourth, God is holy, God does not
change, God communicates, and God judges. God is judge. We cannot change that. I would
hope that the idea of a judgment day would make us all squirm a bit. It is final. It is
conclusive. It is perfect and it is certain to come. It is a point of no return. It is the
end of the line. It is serious. It is deathly serious, and it is coming. The Bible says
all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He is judge. We read the end of the
Book and we read about judgment. Eternity is a long time. Hell is real hot. I am not sure
how I would have designed it, but I don’t know that I could go there, as a person,
naturally. I think -- what is God up to? I am not sure except that He is perfect and He is
holy and His eternal presence will not sanction the presence of sin. That I understand.
But I also understand this -- when it comes to judgment it is certain and it will always
be right and true. God will always do the right thing at judgment, no matter what. If you show up at the day of judgment
and say, “Well God, I think I am good enough to get to heaven because I was a pretty
good person,” He is going to say, “Wrong, you’re gone!” No! The Bible
to so clear from front to back that nobody is good enough to get themselves into heaven. I
really hope that anyone who ever comes to this church understands that is true. We try to
emphasize that fact. The only One good enough to go to heaven is Jesus and He is perfectly
willing to loan His righteousness to any who will come and say, “I have none of my
own.” It is all about Him. God knows that. Will not the judge of all the earth do
right?” Job said, “Indeed He shall.” God is judge. 2. People We are going to stop with God there,
filing that away in the library of our minds. We began with God, now let’s talk about
people. People -- like the ones sitting around you and in your chair. What about them?
Because the Ten Commandments begin with God and are given to folks like you and me. Let’s understand a couple
Biblical facts about people. Very, very clearly in the first couple chapters of Genesis
and elsewhere, the Bible says people are made in the image of God. That is a big deal.
That is a much bigger deal than we probably appreciate sitting here. Being made in the
image of God means if we follow the creation account of Genesis 1 and on into Genesis 2,
we realize that God created everything before He created people. He was creating a place
for His special creation -- that is, His people. People are the pinnacle of the created
work of God. People and only people are created in God’s image. That means a lot of things. That means
as the pinnacle of the creative work of God as people created in His image, we are
eternal, like God. That means we have a “forever” waiting. That also means that
our actions and our inactions are eternal in their repercussions. When we stand before
Jesus in judgment our eternal well being, the Bible indicates, will have to do with our
behavior as believers. If you are an unbeliever, please know
that your eternal destiny has everything to do with choices made here. Choose to trust
your own merit to go to heaven and that’s a poor
choice. We have choices. We are eternal
beings. We are self aware. We may say personhood is defined as will, intellect, and
emotions. “My dog has those.” Perhaps
dogs and other lesser created beings may know things, but they don’t know they know
things. They do not have self awareness. Only people do. We not only know, but we know
that we know. And you know that I know that you know that I know that you know. We have
self awareness. We are able to think that way. We are able to be creative. A number
of you are fantastic artists and musicians. You are able, as a reflection of the image of
God, to be creative, to appreciate beauty and aesthetics. It all has to do with being in
the image of God. It all comes down to this: as people, as persons, we have a capacity for
holiness to be like God. We have that capacity. That is where I am sure all four-footed
beasts and other created things have to get off the bus. So do dogs go to heaven? Of
course not. We are created in the image of God and
because of that we are responsible for our attitudes and our actions. Reading through even
what many Christians consider to be the obsolete Old Testament law -- read it, read it
carefully, make note of all references to the heart and to the mind and to the will and to
the desire and to the inner accord. It is there all through it. Jesus even straightened
out a few Pharisees when He said, “You have heard it was said you should not commit
murder. But I am telling you that if you hate someone in your heart you are as guilty as
if you had.” Attitudes and actions both register as something we are responsible for
before God. He explains, He equips, and He expects
of us just like Dad: “It is time to clean the garage.” Mom: “It is time to clean your room. I expect
it to be done and here are the tools you need for the job.” As creatures in God’s
image we are responsible for our attitudes and for our actions. It is like that in the
family. It is like that in employment. It is like that in any legal contract. That is how
they can be binding upon us because we are responsible and further, we are accountable. We are accountable to God for either judgment or
for reward. I love those verses from Micah’s prophecy, chapter 6, verse 8, “He
has shown thee, O Man.” He has made it clear. He has communicated. “What is good
and what does the Lord require.” Isn’t that a good verse? Break down the
Christian life into one verse -- that would be a great one. We are “To do justly, to
love mercy, to walk humbly with your God.” God requires. We are accountable. Man
is the image of God. Man is responsible for attitudes and actions. And fourth, we are
fallen. All of the above remain true, but the fact of the matter is we are fallen.
Theologians of yesteryear coined an expression to describe the fallenness of the human
race. They use the term “total depravity.” Total depravity as an expression of
theology has taken some hits, as though “totally depraved” means “You are
as bad as you can be. We are all Hitlers and Himmlers.” It does not mean that. It is
not the intent of the expression “totally depraved.” It does not mean you are as
bad as you can be. It does not mean you are incapable ever of doing a good or benevolent
or selfless act. Total depravity means we are not
inclined nor are we able to behave god-ward, naturally. We are not naturally inclined nor
are we naturally able to move god-ward. Quite otherwise, we are naturally self-ward
people, not God-ward people. So people say, “Oh, I love God.” OK, but if you are
not born again of the Spirit of God, then any notion you might have toward God breaks
down. It is for you, isn’t it? It’s for you, for me. It’s my God, my
spirituality, my pilgrimage is what matters. The Bible says no, God-ward,
seeking God for His sake. The apostle Paul summarizes a major
section in the book of Romans, that section having to do with the real state of the human
soul. It is not a pretty picture if you read Romans chapters 1, 2 and the first part of
chapter 3. Paul says this: Romans 3 How many is that? It is so clear. 11THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, I’m not saying there is none who
seeks religion, or there is none who seeks spirituality, there is none who seeks a church,
there is none who seeks things like that. Compared to God, for who He is in His holiness,
His righteousness -- no. Nobody naturally gets up in the morning and says, “I just
want to honor the God of heaven today.” No, when we get up in the morning we say,
“How can I have a good day for me today.” That is natural; the other is not. 12ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; Then it goes on to talk about body
parts -- throats and tongues and lips and mouths and feet and eyes and how our body parts
are really instruments of self-centeredness, not God-centeredness. We are fallen. What
this tells me is people desperately need God’s grace to intervene. 3. Plan Third, I’m going to suggest a
plan, I call it a broad-brush plan. In other words, what is God doing? What is His big
intent here? Why didn’t He stand off in wherever He wanted to be in the heavenly
realm and be holy and be perfectly self-sufficient and sustained in and of Himself. Why
did He mess with us? Why did He create? What is our place? What is His point with regard
to us and what do the commandments have to do with it? That is what we will try to do with
this third and final point of the morning. I am going to suggest the Bible’s
broad-brush plan is God’s desire or God’s will in the big picture is that His
character be displayed in His people to His praise and glory. God is determined that He
will look good through the people He created in His own image. We will look like Him. That
is what He is after. “My people will look like Me.” That’s pretty simple,
correct? I think the concept is simple. He created people in His own image,
people who are responsible, people who are accountable so that in and through people He
will be seen and He will be seen attractively as He should. So He makes people in His image. Also,
He reveals His will and His character in the Ten Commandments. Please note a couple
things. First of all, God’s holiness cannot be separated from His Law, His Ten
Commandments. He continually and repeatedly in the giving of the Law said “I am the
Lord your God. Be holy as I am holy” and continues with His injunctions and His
commandments. The rabbis have counted in the Old
Testament 613 laws. The Ten cover them all. In other words, all the 613 are an elaboration
of the Ten. The Ten is the core. The Ten is a concise expression both of the will and of
the character of God. It is not only what God wants. It is what God wants because of who
God is and what He is like. That is absolutely critical to understand. This is not
legislature, trying to figure out for people how fast they should drive. What should the
penalty be for this or that or the other. No, this is God saying “This is what I am
like. These people are created in My image; therefore, this is how they live if they are
going to look like Me.” It is distilled to the Ten. His
holiness is related to His Law. Here is a point of what under certain circumstances might
be considered Bible trivia, but I think it tells us a lot about God. The Ten Commandments
are all stated or implied in the Book of Genesis. They are there. We do not understand how
it was that God communicated. The Bible talks about the nature of God being imprinted on
the hearts of people. His presence is accessible in nature and in the conscience and so
forth. It has to have something to do with that as well as His word to Abraham, Noah and
the greats up to Moses. But somehow word got out. All Ten are in Genesis and all Ten are
in the New Testament as well. It is hard to get away from them. This tells me something
about God’s Law. He has not changed or gone away. Neither has His Law. His Law will
never change or go away because God will never change or go away. Law is more than an expression of what
God wants. It is a reflection of who God is. The people failed to keep the Law.
They failed immediately. They failed consistently. They failed historically. They failed
physically. Every way they could fail, they failed. Does that mean God lowers the bar? We
would think perhaps we would do that. Maybe we would in a moment of benevolent
inclination. God does not lower the bar, nor does He change His standards because God does
not change. The standards will not change. The Law
will not change because God will not change because God cannot change because God is God!
So what does God do? “I will not change My Law because there is nothing wrong with
it. I will change you.” In Jeremiah 31 that is exactly what the new covenant that was
fleshed out in New Testament is all about. God, through the prophet Jeremiah, talks about
a new covenant not like the old one which they broke, “though I was a Father to them,”
God says. There is nothing wrong with the covenant. Everything is wrong with the people. So God says “I will not change my standard but I will change anyone who comes to Me and admits bankruptcy to Me. There is more to be said on that next week. God will not change the Law but He will change people and then God’s desire, God’s character, God’s will remain to be displayed in God’s people by God’s Spirit. It is a wonderful, wonderful proposition, which we will explore again in a week. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |