Ten Commandments

Scripture Texts: Passage:  Exodus 20:1-21

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 43

Brothers and sisters, this evening we come to the end of our sermon series on the Ten Commandments.  Now what?  What difference do these ancient laws make?  What should our response be?  What did the children of God do with them when they heard them for the first time?

Scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  We see both in our text.

Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:16; Colossians 3:9-10; Ephesians 4:15-16

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 43

The Third Commandment, “you shall not take the name of the Lord in vain,” protects God’s name.  God desires to have a good name among His creatures and to protect His name from dishonor.

The Ninth Commandment protects our neighbor’s good name.  What God wants for Himself, He also wants for us.  God desires every person to have a good name and to be held in honor.

And the truth be told, what He wants for us we also want.  We want the truth.  We want it in our presidents, in our politicians, in our judges, in our businessmen, in our mechanic, in our newspapers, in our neighbors and in our pastor.

I have heard people who have had their home broken into and robbed describe it as a feeling of being violated.  It’s a serious infringement on our rights and our security.

We feel the same way with someone steals our honor or our reputation or our good name.  We are afraid of the same thing happening through identity theft.  We want to know the truth and be told the truth and have the truth told about us.

So that is what we want to focus on this evening, what you and I can do to uphold and further the truth in our little corner of the world.

Let me circle back to something I said at the end of my last sermon about gender pronouns and what a conversation could look like with such a person.

“I care about you as a person made in the image of God and I truly want to respect you, but I also need to honor my God. I believe God created people as either male or female, and that gender-specificity is part of the His good, created order. I will be as respectful of you as I can and am glad to call you by any name you want, but I’m asking you to also respect my religious beliefs and freedoms. I don’t believe I can refer to you with gender-neutral pronouns and be faithful to God. I would love to get to know you better and hear your story and share with you mine.”

Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:16; 23:1-3

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 43

Whatever Became of Truth

I am sure you have noticed how truth is vanishing all around us, from textbooks, from courtrooms, legislative chambers, from the media and social media.  It’s even disappearing from the places where you would still expect to find it, like the pulpits in churches all across America.

Truth is in short supply.  Our culture is all about image, hype, feelings, experience.  Everyone is bowing to the gods of political correctness, tolerance, relativism and opinion.

Today there are no ultimate realities, no absolutes.  What is real today is what I create or what I say it is.  What is true is true for me.  And how dare you suggest I am wrong.  What makes you think you are so right?  We dismiss whatever we don’t like with “well that’s you interpretation.”

Toxic social media.

This is moral relativism and it fills our schools, universities, public squares, businesses, and social media.  Our culture is agnostic when it comes to ultimate truth.  It might be willing to say there is such a thing but as soon as you start to try to define it, they push back.

Christianity stands in contradiction to the world and our current culture.  God is the God of truth, and He has broken into our world and revealed Himself to us.  He has declared the truth, written down the truth, sent His Son to preach and proclaim and live the truth in the flesh and He has sent His Spirit of Truth to lead and guide us all into the truth.

The ninth commandment collides head-on with our culture.  It’s a commandment about truth.  About telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.  All the time, everywhere, in every situation, about everyone.

The last commandment showed us God’s high regard and respect for our neighbor’s personal, private property.  This commandment places shows us God’s high regard for the truth and our neighbors honor and reputation.  We must protect both our neighbor’s property and his name.

God loves the truth.  He can only speak the truth.  God is a truth-telling, promise-keeping, covenant-making God.  His word is good.  God is a god of fairness, honesty, and integrity.

God delights to see His own character and nature reflected in the character and action of His people.  As His children we must love and highly regard the truth as He does.

As the HC says, the ninth commandment is not just for the court room.  I hope my sermon title doesn’t imply that.  Truth touches every aspect of our lives and our world.  Without truth there is no trust and without that it’s impossible to be in relationship with others.  Only by preserving truth can we preserve relationships.

In this mornings sermon on Romans 3:1-8 Paul cast a wide net calling all men liars.  The HC casts a wide net as well.  Almost every phrase catches us in its net.  Every phrase reminds me that I am a man of unclean lips, and we are all a people of unclean lips.  We are guilty as charged.

Why does bearing false witness make God’s top ten list?  Because He hates it.

Passage: Exodus 20:15; Ephesians 4:28; I Peter 1:3-5Romans 2:17-29

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 42

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 40

Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:13; Galatians 6:9-10; I Thessalonians 5:14-15

As we have mentioned before the reason we are doing two sermons on each commandment is because each commandment is stated in Scripture as half a commandment.  In each of the Ten Commandments there is commission and omission, action and restraint.

If a virtue is being upheld, then it follows the opposite vices would be excluded.

If a vice is being prohibited, then it follows the opposite virtue would be exalted.

Two weeks ago we considered you shall not murder and mentioned over a dozen ways in which we murder each other.  I titled the sermon “You Shall Do No Harm.”  This week we want to look at the other side of the coin under the title, “You Shall Do Good.”

It is not enough just to do no harm, we must also do good.  The opposite of everything forbidden is also positively commanded.

This commandment proclaims the preciousness of life, the supreme value of life.  It affirms and protects the imago Dei, the image of God in all human beings, we are all endowed by God with an eternal soul.  We must hold each other as sacred.

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Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 40

Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21-22

The 20^th century turned out to be a very deadly century.  More people were killed in the 20^th century than in all previous centuries combined.  The 20^th century also turned out to be the deadliest century for Christians.  More Christians were martyred in the 20^th century than in all previous centuries combined.

The future of murder is looking very good as well.  The 21^st century is off and running at a rapid rate.  All the leading indicators are up.  Suicide, abortion, euthanasia, terrorism, war, racial cleansing, civil war, serial killers, school violence, violence on TV and in movies.

No previous generation has seen so much killing or done so much killing.  We live in a world that is awash in blood and violence.  And there is a reason.  We live in a world that has rejected God, which is to reject life, so having embraced death, we are in a death spiral with a death wish.

But there is hope and it’s found in the grace of God in His commandments.  What this century needs more than any other is two commandments, love God and love your neighbor.  The Sixth Commandment shows us love for God by loving our neighbor and loving his God-given life.

What possession do we have that is more precious or valuable to us than our life?  It is grace that God should speak to us about that precious gift.  It’s the goodness of God that He should seek to guard our lives and urge us to do the same.

You shall not murder.

Four simple little words in English, just two words in Hebrew, “No Murder.”  What commandment could possibly be easier to understand.  What more needs to be said?  Don’t murder.

What about that don’t you understand?  God says, don’t murder people.  Pretty much covers it don’t you think?  We think that’s all there is too it.

Well OK maybe we need a little more explanation.  There are two things we need to know about this word murder.

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Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 39

Scripture Texts: Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1-4

Some of you may have been enjoying the college basketball March Madness as they whittled 64 teams down to two.  Tomorrow night University of Connecticut and San Diego State University will play for the national championship.

One of the things that make these kinds of competitions enjoyable and fun to watch is something that is almost unseen, but assumed and foundational to all sport.  Rules and referees.  The athletes can go after it as hard and strong and fast as they can, but they have to do what they do within all kinds of limits and boundaries.  There are rules about when you start, what you can and can’t do, and what happens if you break a rule, step out of bounds, foul someone, take too many steps, etc.

If you are going to have any kind of order and structure and stability in human society you have to have rules and laws.  And to have rules and laws you have to have those who have authority to carry out and enforce and keep those laws.  Without rules and rulers you have anarchy, lawlessness, disorder and chaos.  “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Along with the Ten Commandments God gave an entire system of laws to Israel so that Israel could be a viable nation and a stable community able to live peaceable and orderly lives in the Promised Land.

The Fifth Commandment is the law about those who have authority to enforce those laws.  The seriousness of this commandment for the people of Israel is seen in the very next chapter of Exodus.