Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.36 – September 2002

 

How We Must See the Ten Commandments

 

Sermon by Rev MP Geluk

on Lord’s Day 34a (Q&A 92-93 Heid Cat)

Scripture Readings: Psalm 119:1-20; Romans 13:8-14

Suggested Hymns: BoW 92; 207; 119a; 454:4, 8

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ve come to that part in the Heidelberg Catechism where we look at each of the Ten Commandments.  But before we do that, let us see how we must look at the Ten Commandments as a whole.

1.  With Joy and Thankfulness

 A few moments ago we read from Psalm 119.  Did you notice how the psalmist loves God’s law and has delight in obeying the commandments?  Let me quote from the Psalm: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (vs 11); “I rejoice in following your statutes (commands) as one rejoices in great riches” (vs 14); “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (vs 18); “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times” (vs 20).  The whole Psalm is like that.  It sees God’s law with joy and thankfulness.  The psalmist loves God’s commandments and he would not want to be without them.

The Christian who has come to love God because of what God and His Word has come to mean for him realises that the commandments are really a wonderful thing.  The Christian now knows what God wants from His people.  He knows that obedience to God’s law honours God.  He knows that such obedience is good for believers.  Not only does obedience keep the Christian away from sin and trouble but it also brings peace and well-being.  The commandments are to the Christian like a map is to the traveller.  They give direction, they show the way.  For all these reasons the Christian can look at the Ten Commandments with joy and thankfulness.

But not everyone has this attitude towards God’s commandments.  Many people seem to think that the commandments say nothing more than ‘don’t do this’ and ‘don’t do that’.  God tells people not to worship false gods, not to misuse His Name or His day, not to steal, murder, commit adultery, and they resent this because these are the things they want to do.

Yet people know that obedience to these rules is better for the whole of society than to disobey them.  But they complain and grumble when they’re told that this is the way they must live.  We know, of course, why the commandments are not popular with some.  From childhood on, human nature finds it hard to stop doing something when it wants to do it, even if when the person knows the action will hurt or harm them and others.  You tell someone not to touch the paint because it’s wet, and the next thing they do is touch it.  Parents tell their children not to touch the stove because it’s hot.  But inevitably one of the children will get their fingers burnt because they just have to touch it.

It’s our sinfulness that makes us want to go against God’s commandments.  We heard all about that when we went through the first section of the Catechism.  But when God has come to live inside you, when you have been converted, when the nature of Christ seeks to take control of you, then you find yourself appreciating God’s commandments instead of resenting them.  You don’t mind hearing them explained to you because it helps you to resist sin and honour God.

2.  What the Introduction to the Ten Commandments Tells us

We find the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, but immediately before that we have this: “And God spoke all these words.”  The Ten Commandments are from God.  He spoke them to Moses and they were engraved on two stone tablets that were later put into the ark of God.  And for all the years that Israel had the ark, the Ten Commandments were there as evidence that they were from God.  And because they are words from God, they are true, for God is truth, and they have God’s authority stamped all over them.

This is very important, because if the Ten Commandments were just some rules from Moses, then you can argue that they are old fashioned and no longer relevant to our time.  But the Ten Commandments are not from some famous person of the past, nor from some ancient culture, they are words that God spoke and they are true for all time.

After “And God spoke all these words” and before the actual commandments there are also these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”  Here God is not talking about you but about His people Israel, whom He delivered from Egypt, where they were slaves for over four hundred years.  When God gave them the Ten Commandments, they had just become a free people, free to obey God.

We cannot say that the contents of the Ten Commandments were entirely new to Israel when they received them.  Israel already knew a few things about God’s will.  When Moses killed the Egyptian some time before the Exodus took place, then he knew, and his fellow Israelites knew, that he had committed murder, which was a terrible sin punishable by death.  And immediately after Israel had escaped from Egypt and were living in the desert, manna fell from the sky each morning, except on the Sabbath day.  They already knew of a day of rest before the Ten Commandments were given to them.

How did they know these things?  Well, the first chapters in Genesis show that God’s law was put into the mind and conscience of people.  Cain knew he was guilty of murder when he killed his brother Abel.  Noah preached to the people of his day about their sins and they knew right from wrong.  So there was knowledge of God’s will since the very beginning of history.  But it was only after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt that God expressed His will in the Ten Commandments.  Israel was now a free nation with God as their King and He gave them His written rules to live by.

Even freedom cannot survive without rules.  Where there are no rules, then chaos is the result because everyone will do as they please.  To stop sinful people from doing as they please God has given His laws to hold people in check and bring about well-being.  The Ten Commandments showed Israel how God wanted them to live in order for them to honour Him and go through life in peace and safety, and not have the power of sin bring them destruction and death.

The words, “…brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” do not apply to us unless we are of Jewish stock.  But we can still read those words when we put a New Testament interpretation on them.  Egypt and the land of slavery can become figurative terms for us, describing us when we were slaves to sin.  It then becomes: “I am the Lord your God who set you free from the bondage to sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus, my Son.”  And now in this new freedom, God gives us His laws to live by, as He wants us to walk by His Spirit.

Let’s make that further clear by thinking of a drunkard, or a drug addict, or a heavy smoker, or an adulterer.  What is common to all four is their addiction.  It has them in its power.  Addiction is their master and it’s a cruel one.  Their addiction can make them financially poor, thus tempting them to steal.  Their addiction brings different kinds of diseases and thus ruins their health.  It also causes loss of self-control, and arguments and fights are not uncommon.  And worst of all, addiction to sin makes you aware that you are wrong before God and it fills you with guilt and remorse whenever you give in to the sin.

But sin appeals.  When you’re addicted to drugs, alcohol, smoking, or sexual lust, then you want to do these things again because it satisfies your craving.  It relaxes you, makes you feel less inhibited, brings exhilaration and excitement, relief and satisfaction.  You know the damage your addiction will cause you, but when the craving for the sin comes back again, it becomes stronger than the fear of the consequences.  Addiction to sin is indeed a cruel master, for while it gives you short-term pleasure, it also causes long-term consequences that separate you from God and brings pain to your soul.

But when the Saviour delivers you from your ‘Egypt’, from your ‘land of slavery’, then you are freed from that cruel master.  The addiction is broken.  The Lord says: here is my Spirit, I am now living in you and with my commandments I’ll show you how you can walk in my ways and experience joy and well-being.

3.  Law Keeping is Covenant Keeping

The Lord actually makes a covenant with us.  He gives us a wonderful promise by saying that He will be our God and we shall be His people.  I have redeemed you, He says, you are mine.  My commandments will show you the way.  I will bring you to the Promised Land, to the new heaven and earth.  God even fulfilled the condition for belonging to Him.  We are to be holy and blameless.  That’s the condition.  But God met that condition Himself because we couldn’t.  He gave His Son and through His death and resurrection your sin is taken away when you repent and believe.  Holiness and purity is given you through Christ.  What remains is your obligation to obey God’s commandments.  We are to believe in Him and trust Him that His relationship with us is a real thing.  That faith in God is to show itself in a walking with God.  We try every day again to keep His commandments.

4.  The New Testament Version of Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments as you find them in Exodus 20 and again in Deuteronomy 5 are found throughout the Old Testament and also in the New Testament.  God gave Israel many more laws than just the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Commandments are basic to all His other laws.  The Ten Commandments were first given to Israel at the time of their exodus out of Egypt and fitted their situation exactly.

Many years later when Israel was about to settle in the promised land, some minor changes were made.  The application in some of the Ten Commandments was updated in order to suit Israel’s new situation.  In the wilderness they wandered from place to place.  In Canaan they became a settled people.  But the changes do not affect in the slightest the main intent of each commandment.

Now we who are of the New Testament, who are after Christ, must look at the Ten Commandments in the light of the New Testament.  It is still perfectly alright for us to read the Ten Commandments either from Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5.  There they are listed one after another and all in one neat unit.  Yet, we must, nevertheless, understand the Ten Commandments in the light of Jesus’ teaching as found in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5-7, or its equivalent in Luke’s gospel, or in the way Jesus’ apostles used them in their New Testament letters.

That does not mean that Jesus and His apostles changed the meaning of Ten Commandments.  The Lord gave an interpretation to them that brought out their deepest meaning.  As you know, most of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament are given in a negative form – “you shall not”.  However, in forbidding various things, God very much wants His people to do the positive thing.  Not to murder also means to respect your neighbour’s life.  Not to steal means that you ought to respect your neighbour’s possessions.  This positive aspect was already brought out in many places in the Old Testament but it is the Lord Jesus who shows in a wonderful and simple way how to understand the heart of each commandment and bring out it fullest meaning.  He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Mat.5:17).

We, therefore, should not only read the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 but also from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and from other New Testament passages where the Ten Commandments are beautifully opened up and applied to various situations.

The Heidelberg Catechism has done a very good job in this.  In the light of all of Scripture, it explains what each of the Ten Commandments means for all of life.  It applies the Ten Commandments not only to the individual but also to the church, to society and to the nation as a whole.  Not only to the believing Christian but also to the unbelieving judge and businessman.

5.  God’s Law is Foundational for All People

What this means is that God wants the Ten Commandments obeyed by all people and not just Christians.  His law is the proper foundation for anyone on which to build their personal life.  And the Ten Commandments should have a prominent spot in the constitution of every nation.

The reason why they don’t is because many people don’t believe the Ten Commandments are all that relevant.  Their argument goes something like this: you might believe in God and the Bible but others don’t and they are as much Australian as you are.  And among those who do believe in God, there are many who see God differently as the Bible does and their understanding of God according to their sacred books may be just as true as the Bible is.

I am sure that you have all heard this kind of argument.  There’s a book with the title, “The Choices We Make”, and in it are descriptions of experiences and feelings of various people with regard to abortion.  For example, the film star Anne Archer says, “I feel very strongly about a woman’s right to control her own body.” In other words, she is not prepared to recognise that God has any rights over her life.  With that kind of thinking, Anne Archer goes on to say, “I believe that …  sex before marriage was absolutely right, that it was a natural human experience.”  When she became pregnant, Anne Archer then said, “There was no way I would have had that baby, I had to get an abortion.”

(As quoted from a sermon, ‘No Other Choice’,
by Rev David Feddes, in The Radio Pulpit)

Anne Archer is saying what so many people are saying.  If you believe something is wrong then you shouldn’t be doing it.  But if others believe that the same thing is not wrong for them, then it is right for them to do it, provided they don’t break the nation’s laws.  With this way of arguing people feel they are justified in believing that the Ten Commandments are not for everyone.  How often don’t we hear that each has a right to their own opinion?  But it is not true.  We do not have a right to our own opinion because we are creatures of God and we have to give up on our opinions when they are in conflict with God’s will for our lives.  And God is not someone who means different things to different people.  How can there be differences in God when these differences contradict each other?  God is truth and He cannot contradict Himself.  And because He has revealed Himself in His Word, the Bible, it must be true and whenever other so-called sacred books say different things about God, then they are false.

A number of God’s laws have also become the civil laws of some nations, like the USA and Australia.  Sadly these nations are now less Christian than they used to be.  But Christians are thankful that stealing, child abuse, murder and many other sinful activities are still seen by many nations as being wrong.  But many more things of God’s law were once upheld by nations in their civil laws: abortion, sodomy, blasphemy, work on Sundays.  These also were once judged to wrong.  But many nations keep on changing their laws according to what most people think is right and wrong.

This way of thinking is called relativism.  It says that one’s view of how we should live may vary, depending on the individual and on time and circumstance.  With that way of thinking some of the Ten Commandments are judged to be old fashioned.  But God says that the Ten Commandments are valid for all of life all the time, no matter who the individual might be, or whatever the times and circumstances.

When Jesus our Lord was before Pontius Pilate, the Roman judge, then He said that the reason He was born and had come into the world was to testify to the truth.  And He added, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (Jn.18:37).  Pilate responded to this by asking, “What is truth?”  Pilate is a good example of someone who doesn’t know what truth is anymore because he refuses to reckon with God.  When you stop God from ruling your life and throw away the Ten Commandments, then you just don’t know it any more.

The world today has become a global village where economics has become the determining factor in the search for quality of life.  In other words, quality of life these days has very little to do with morality.  It’s much more about material things.  Business and company goals are all about making money and very few shed any tears about the loss of values.  Anything goes in entertainment as long as it makes money.  If there are people out there in society that don’t mind a bit of violence, coarse language and explicit sex, then the entertainment industry will dish it up in all kinds of ways because there is a market for it.  And modern global networking and communications can send the stuff to any country that wants to cash in on it.

But many people are disturbed by all this decadence eating away at their cultures.  They see their youth, who are most gullible to outside influences, no longer interested in the traditional way of life.  This triggers a resurgence of nationalism and religion.  Thus we see peoples and their religion wanting independence and with this there is often an upsurge in fundamentalism in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions.  These become protest movements and with it comes ethnic cleansing as they try to impose their set of values and ideals on mixed communities.  But many of these reactionary movements are fanatical and there is hate and killing.  And thus the attempt at one big economy and a huge entertainment industry in the global village has caused numerous upheavals and quite a few wars in different places.

But the basic cause of much of this conflict and misery is a disregard for the Ten Commandments.  People have let go of the one true God and His laws, and instead have been pushing forward the gods of materialism, nationalism and false religions.  People have, of course, been doing this all through history.  It’s the legacy of the fall into sin.

It is all so sad because the true God of heaven and earth is wanting all men to repent of sin and be saved through His Son Jesus, whom He, in wonderful love, offered up as a sacrifice for sinners, so that they could live.  Yes, it is sad that the Ten Commandments are so widely rejected because in obeying them people can experience well-being and peace.  The church of Jesus Christ, therefore, must continue with its mission to the world and keep on saying to people everywhere that in coming to Christ and following the Ten Commandments there will be blessing and peace.  When anyone loves God and his neighbour, then the law of God is fulfilled.  And God has said, “Love does no harm to its neighbour” (Rom 13:10).

Amen.