Exodus 20:18-21 "The Need for a Mediator"

                Well, we’ve reached the end of our series on the Ten Commandments.  The people of Israel are at Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.  God has given the Ten Commandments to Moses and Moses has relayed them to the people of Israel.  Since escaping Egypt, the Israelites have seen seas part, manna fall from the sky, and water spring from a rock.  God has proven, as if He needed to, to all of Israel just how great and awesome He is.  What we finally see from Israel here is their complete recognition of God’s authority and their need for a covenant mediator, someone to stand between the people of Israel and God Almighty.  We have it unfolded for us in 4 stages:  the reaction of Israel, their request of Moses, the reassurance given by Moses to Israel, and finally Moses’ reproach.

In our modern society, we are too familiar and even dismissive of the concept of authority.  Even the greatest of human authority figures in our own time don’t quite get shown the respect that they once did.  Take for example, a meeting between the first family and the Queen of England that happened several years back.  Imagine the complete shock that the Queen must have felt when the first lady gave her a nice pat on the back to go along with that iPod.  Even someone as unfamiliar with foreign customs as myself knows that you just don’t touch the Queen of England without her permission.  Or if you will, during a trip to Washington D.C., Shaquille O’Neal decided that he was going to just stop by the White House for a quick visit with the president.  He had no appointment and had no idea that no matter who you are, you cannot meet with the president without an appointment.  Authority is not seen in the same light today as it has been in the past.  And that makes it difficult for us to appreciate the reverence and awe with which we ought to approach the living God. 

As we turn to our text to see the response of Israel following the Ten Commandments, the first thing that we notice is the Reaction to God shown by Israel.  “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off.”  So the people of Israel were afraid.  The presence of the Lord was upon them and they were afraid.  Not just afraid, they were scared to death.  There was complete and total terror amongst this group of people.  This fear displayed by Israel is true of us today.  God’s nearness can be a terrifying thing for sinners.  If we were to look back at 19:16, we would see almost the exact same thing that we have here in 20:18.  We find that after the thunder, the lightning, the trumpet sounds, and the smoking mountain that the people feared, trembled, and stood far off in the distance.

                I know we began this series several months ago, but do you remember when this story at Mount Sinai started how the people of Israel were crowding in around it so closely?  They wanted to look and try and catch a glimpse of God.  Exodus 19:12 speaks of when the Lord instructs Moses to tell the people of Israel to “Take care not to go up the mountain or touch the edge of it.  Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.”  Now we have gone from God having the people kept off of the mountain only by the threat of death to having them willingly move far away from the mountain out of fear.  What happened during this timeframe?  The Ten Commandments.   God came and met with Israel and they ran away.

                As I mentioned a second ago, the reaction of the people of Israel tells us one thing, God’s nearness can be terrifying for sinners.  The people of Israel realized their guilt and unholiness before the awesome God, and they knew they were deserving of his condemnation.  Just like the Israelites, we too long for closeness and intimacy with God.  The problem is that we do not give the respect, awe, and admiration that are due to God in such intimacy.  If you are like me you have prayed many times for God to “show you” what He would have you do.  And if you are anything like me when that answer has come to you and you didn’t like it, then you have tried to ignore God’s will.  Notice that the important word there is tried.

As we continue in this text, we see the Request made by Israel of Moses.  Verse 19 says, “[Israel] said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”  Now we may quickly want to look down upon Israel for wanting to place someone between themselves and God.  But think about how brilliant this request is on behalf of the Israelites.  They could not bear God speaking directly to them.  They knew that they were in need of a covenant mediator, someone who would stand between God and the people.  In this particular case, they wanted Moses to be the one who stood between them and God.  They wanted Moses to speak God’s word to them instead of hearing it directly from God himself. 

                Think with me for a just a moment on how gracious this was of God as well.  What had the people of Israel been doing time and time again in Moses’ tenure as their leader?  They had been questioning his roll and complaining every chance they got.  Now, with God having spoken to them directly, the people can't wait to hear Moses.  Think of someone in your life who has always stood there and said about a boss or a superior, “I know I could do a better job than he does” or “Why should I have to listen to him anyway?”  Well, many times when people making those statements are promoted or given more responsibility, how quickly do they eat those words?  Here, the people of Israel are going from questioning Moses to saying, “Um, Moses, yeah we are afraid of hearing directly from God anymore so if we could just hear everything from you from now on that would be great.”  God stopped all qualms about Moses’ position as a leader and covenant mediator.  The people of Israel realized now more than any other time up to that point that they were in need of such a mediator.

                I want you to look at what the people of Israel say to Moses in their request.  They don’t just ask him to stand in as a mediator between them and God.  They assure him that they will listen.  Back in 19:8 the elders of the people of Israel had already said to Moses, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”  They had already committed to follow everything that God chooses to tell them.  In asking Moses to speak to them, the people of Israel were not trying to get out of the deal they had previously made.  They were simply realizing their need for a mediator and were asking for it to be Moses.  The Israelites were still going to keep their commitment to God for obedience.

                Notice the Israelites reaction to what would happen if Moses didn’t accept this request, “do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”  The entire purpose of the exodus from Egypt was so that Israel would be saved to worship God.  Continuously God saved His people so that they might worship Him.  Now that they were at the foot of God’s mountain and He had come to meet them, what did they have to say?  “Um, Moses, sorry to ask this of you, but is there any way that you could ask him to never speak to us again.”  They didn’t want to hear the voice of God speaking directly to them anymore.  They wanted Moses to be the one to speak on God’s behalf to them.  The Israelites recognized their need for a mediator.  They were completely aware of the fact that they could not endure the unmediated presence of the one true God.  To fill this role of mediator, who better to ask than Moses, the one whom God had already appointed to fill it?

                Often I hear people who either do not regularly attend church or are only physically present while their mind drifts off to a more “entertaining” place have the wrong idea about God.  They think that God’s “job” is to forgive their sins and to grant their wishes.  They think that they can just walk right into the presence of God and ask for anything they want.  I can tell you for sure that the Israelites that were present on that day at Sinai did not share the attitudes of the uninformed Christian.  They saw the holiness and glory of God.  They also saw their sin.  They saw it in all of its ugly and dirty shame.  They knew that they were in need of a mediator.  We would do well to keep in mind that we too, are in constant need of a mediator.  Our mediator is one far greater than any other could ever hope to be, even greater than Moses.  Our one true mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Next I want us to look at the Reassurance given to the people of Israel by Moses in verse 20, “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”  The people of Israel seemed to have misunderstood God’s intentions at Sinai.  They were afraid that God was going to crush and destroy them.  But Moses, as covenant mediator, stepped in and reassured the people that that was not God’s desire.  Moses was informing the people of Israel that God’s reasons for coming to them were not bad, but were indeed something that was good.  God had not come to scare them or discourage them and beat them down; he had come to encourage them.  In fact, the first words out of Moses’ mouth are, “Do not fear.”  He was telling the people of Israel that they should not be afraid of this coming of God.

Moses goes on to explain why Israel is not to fear this visitation, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you.”  I want to clarify something here that might seem a bit confusing.  The first words say that Israel should not fear, but later on Moses says that the reasoning for the visitation was so that the fear of God may be before Israel.  Is this a contradiction of Scripture?  Of God?  Of Moses?  Of course not!  In saying do not fear, he came that you would fear Him, God, through Moses, was telling the people of Israel of the vast difference that exists between being frightened by God and appropriately fearing God.  Moses wanted the Israelites to fear God and not just be afraid of the pyrotechnics that had just occurred before their very eyes.  How many times are we guilty of simply being frightened by God instead of fearing him as we should?  I can remember when I was a teenager, I went to go see a play called Heavens Gates and Hell’s Flames.  It was at a local Baptist church in Meridian.  The play was a series of scene at the gates of heaven, and the characters were told that they either got in or got out.  It wasn’t the most theologically sound play, but there were people walking down front and committing their lives to Christ like you would believe.  However, they weren’t doing it out of a reverence for God, but because the scenes from the play scared the mess out of them.

Moses goes on to explain here that Israel should not fear because God has drawn near to them.  He had given them the Ten Commandments and drawn near to them so that they would always fear Him.  But the fear that He’s speaking of here at the end of verse 20 is not the fear of terror or dread; but reverence that leads to obedience and awe of the gracious and sovereign God.  Moses was explaining that the reasoning for God’s actions was not only to instill fear in Israel, but also to test them.  His test was not a test of obedience though, but more along the lines of showing the need for a mediator.  After all, there wasn’t hardly any time between the giving of the Ten Commandments and Moses’ speaking again to the Israelites.  Read the last part of verse 20, “That you may not sin.”  You see, the people of God in the presence of God were to experience two things at the same time.  On the one hand, they were to realize that God was an awesome God, and they ought to be judged.  And at the same time, that God was a good and a merciful God, and He had provided for them a mediator, and He had redeemed them out of Egypt, and He was for them.

The last thing that I want to briefly look at in this passage is the Reproach made by Moses to God.  Now obviously I cannot stand here and tell you that Moses reprimanded God.  All we are given in the text is, “The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.”  Notice the reversal of polarity between the people of Israel and Moses.  The people stood afar while Moses drew nearer to God.  Like the Israelites, we, as sinners, are not capable of drawing ourselves nearer to God.  For that task, we must rely upon a mediator.  We are fortunate enough to have received an understanding of the one true mediator that even Moses was unaware of.  Moses was a sinner just like us; he too was in need of a mediator.  His mediator, just like ours, is the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So as we look back on this passage and all the rest of our series on the Ten Commandments, we see that like the Israelites, and even Moses, are in need of a covenant mediator.  We have seen the need played out for us.  Was there any doubt about the need for a mediator then?  Is there any doubt about the need for a mediator today?  Only God can make it safe to come near to God.  Your own righteousness cannot make God safe, only the righteousness of Christ can do so.  We’ve seen how miserably short we fall of the standard that God has set for us.  God is the only one with the power to make Himself safe.  And that is exactly what He did in His Son Jesus Christ.  Thank God for the gift of His Son Jesus Christ.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Exodus 20:17 "When Wanting Goes Bad"

                Well we’ve finally made our way to the 10^th and final commandment.  We’ve spent every Sunday this year looking at the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel there at Mount Sinai.  After next Sunday, we will have spent a total of 12 weeks looking at God’s Law and the condition of Israel both before and after receiving it.  We’ve talked about commandments that deal specifically with God and some that deal more with our earthly relationships.  We’ve seen commandments that are pretty straight forward and some that are more confusing.  However, there has typically been within each of the previous nine commandments an external action that is commanded of us.  There has been some type of outward behavior that should come about as a result of our keeping of the Law.  Well, in that regard, the final commandment is a little bit different than the previous nine.  The tenth commandment is almost entirely an inward commandment.  We could say that it is a commandment of the heart.  The tenth commandment says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”   This is the commandment against coveting.  You see, coveting is not an external action.  We’ve never witnessed someone covet something.  Sure we’ve heard sayings like “he’s green with envy” or “you can see the jealously in her eyes”, but these are just phrases.  None of us have actually seen coveting and jealously like we can observe theft or murder.  So, if somehow we were to get this far in our look at the commandments without thinking that God is concerned just as much with our emotions and our inward keeping of the Law (which I hope isn’t the case), then we’ve finally come to a place where that truth is inescapable.  God’s commanding us to not covet isn’t a command that has to do with our outward actions, but with our thoughts and our hearts as well.

                I want to take just a moment before dealing with the application of this commandment and point out some observations from the wording of this commandment that might help us to better hone in on the scope of this commandment.  First, notice the repetition of the directive “You shall not covet.”  It’s there twice.  None of the other commandments have this specific repeating of the directive within them.  This is unique to only the tenth commandment.  Remember, when something is repeated in Scripture, it means that we are to listen very closely and that what is being said is of the utmost importance.  So, obviously it’s very important that we understand that we are not to covet according to God’s Law.  Also, if we add up the things that are mentioned specifically here for us not to covet (house, wife, male and female servants, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to our neighbor), we would find seven things.  Well, seven is the number of completion in the Hebrew culture.  In essence, this list says to us that not just these things mentioned are we not to covet, but we are not to covet anything else that is our neighbors.  You see, we are to refrain from coveting entirely.  There is not one thing that it is acceptable to covet.  Why?  Well, much like a few weeks ago in our look at stealing, coveting shows a denial of God’s providence.  Following that line of thought, a denial of God’s providence is a denial of God’s fulfilling every promise that He makes in His Word.  So it’s no wonder why God takes the issue of coveting so seriously.

                Now I feel like I have to say something before I go any further into what is referred to here by the word covet.  As all of you know, I have kids in my house.  Amy and I want nothing more than to raise them up to be good, Christian adults.  We want them to make good choices; not to please us, but because it is the right thing to do.  We want others to know that we have taught them to be polite and respectful, not so that they praise our parenting, but so that they know that our children were raised properly.  We want our future son and daughters in law to be thankful for the job that we did raising them.  As such, we are constantly teaching them right from wrong, how to be polite, and how they are to act properly (a challenge that sometimes seems like Amy and I are fighting a losing battle).  One of the never-ending struggles on this front is fighting the two dreaded words “I want.”  Whether it’s the walk through Target where Ashby proceeds to tell us that she wants every toy we pass, or when  Thomas lets us know he’s thirsty simply by telling us “I want some juice”, we fight the “I want”.  Well, this “I want” isn’t coveting.  Coveting is not simply wanting something.  There’s nothing wrong with having wants and desires in this world.  Our wanting for things can be a good thing and a driving force in our lives.  I want to see God’s kingdom grown.  I want to see every church, every Bible study, and every mission organization full and bursting at the seams.  I want the best for my family and friends.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting things.

                Where “I want” turns into coveting is when it becomes a matter of consummation; it becomes idolatry.  Paul, in Colossians 3:5, says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:  sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  There it is, covetousness is equal to idolatry.  You see, when we want something, we work hard in order to achieve it, that’s the American dream.  As a matter of fact, Cadillac has just release a new ad campaign built upon that very premise.  If you haven’t seen it, I’ll give you the premise as concise as I can.  It basically states that as Americans, we work harder than most other countries (or at least work more hours) in order to afford the finer things in life, like a new Cadillac.  Work ethic questions aside, their ad is based upon the fact that in order for us to get the things we want, we have to work for them.  Wanting these things and working for them is not covetous by nature.  However, it’s when our wanting of these things becomes what is most important to us that we slip into the realm of covetousness and idolatry.  When we neglect our families because we’re putting in more time at the office to get stuff (which many times we tell ourselves that we’re neglecting them for their benefit), when we shun our friends because they aren’t of a status that will elevate us to where we really want to be in the social pecking order, when we neglect our faith because that’s time that could be spent chasing the almighty dollar, that’s when the coveting starts to come in.  That’s when “I want” turns into coveting and idolatry.

                Have you ever found yourself looking at someone else’s life and thinking, “Man, if I could just have that then I would be set.  They sure are lucky.”  Well, they might be lucky, but there’s a pretty good chance that you’re lucky too.  There’s a good chance that you’re blessed so far beyond what you see.  I know that I’ve made statements like that in my life before when seeing the success and condition of someone else’s life, and I’m willing to bet that you have too.  I also know that I have been told by dear friends just how lucky I am when it comes to the ways in which God has blessed me.  The sad fact is that so often it takes someone pointing out my luck and my blessings before I even realize just how numerous they are.  I thank God for friends, family, and colleagues in ministry who constantly remind me that my outlook ought to be one of thanks for what I have than jealously over the things that I want and don’t have.

                You see, this sin (perhaps more than any of the other commandments) isn’t a matter of “if” you violate the commandment, but “when, how often, and in what ways” we violate it.  The questions then become, what can we do about it and what ought we do about it?  Well, the answers, much like every other week (and I hope that by now you’re getting the point if you haven’t already) is to thank God.  We need to thank Him that despite our falling so miserably short of the standard that He has set for us, that the blood of Christ fills that gap.  The blood of the slain Lamb fills the vast canyon that exists between where we are and where we ought to be.  Our salvation isn’t based on our keeping of the Law, but on the One who has fulfilled it on our behalf.  Secondly, we must pray that the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts and help us to overcome the feelings of covetousness and jealously that so commonly plague us.  It’s only when we have the power of God working through us that we can ever hope to have a chance to overcome the effects of sin and the havoc that it wreaks on our souls.  Pray for a sense of contentment.  Pray for an appreciation of the blessings that you have already been given.  Pray for and strive to keep God as your number one priority.  Keep God as the center of your life that all things revolve around.  For as long as God is kept at the center of who we are, then our wanting of all lesser things will never become what drives us.  Let us be driven by our love for God and our desire to see His kingdom spread and His gospel proclaimed across this earth.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Exodus 20:16 "No False Witness"

                Last Sunday, we looked at the eighth commandment, the one against stealing, and we said that ultimately it is a commandment that requires our respecting of our neighbor’s person and property.  We said that it was rooted in the principle of the providence of God.  If we really believe that God is who He says He is, then the desire to steal should never even be considered.  In this regard, the eighth commandment directly correlates to the first (the one forbidding other gods) which primarily is an establishment of God’s authority.  Well, our commandment for today, the commandment against false witness against our neighbor shows a similar correlation to the third commandment (the one against taking the Lord’s name in vain), which we said was ultimately against lessening the name of God.  You see, we said during our look at the third commandment, that when we call ourselves Christians and don’t live as such, then we are taking God’s name in vain.  We said that the directive within this commandment goes much deeper than simply forbidding our using God’s name in the midst of profanity or profane statements.  Well, for us to give false witness and testimony against our neighbor is to conduct ourselves in a manner that is unbecoming of a Christian.  Not to mention the way in which it seeks in no way the good of our neighbor, a principle in which we have said over and over again throughout the past few weeks ought to be at the top of our priorities and a principle in which the final six commandments is really built around. 

                Before we deal with the application of this commandment, I want to first build a little better understanding of this commandment than may exist amongst us right now.  I don’t know if you’re like me, but you like to boil things down to as simple of an idea or statement as you can.  For me, it helps me remember things much better when I don’t have all the minutia of details floating around in my mind.  However, this does cause problems at times, such as in case like the one before us.  You see, there’s a good chance that many of us here today have remembered this commandment simply as a command against lying.  When your mama or daddy or Sunday school teacher caught you in a lie, they reminded you that one of the Ten Commandments is that you shouldn’t lie.  Well, that’s true, but it’s not the full scope of this commandment.   As we dive further into this commandment, we will see that this commandment has to do with much more than simply not lying, but it has to do with speaking in a manner that is positive and uplifting as well.

As we’ve said, all of the commandments dealing with our horizontal relationships (how we relate to and deal with those around us) are about loving our neighbor and a building up of our community.  Well, it’s impossible for a community to be strengthened and built up if there is rampant dishonesty.  Dishonesty leads to a lack of trust, and ultimately to a mindset that seeks preservation of self above everything else.  So it’s not just enough for us to seek only personal integrity, but a community that is built on such integrity.  Integrity comes primarily from being truthful and completely owning the words that we say in our speaking.  We have to be concerned with speech as a whole.  We have to conduct ourselves in a manner that is devoid of gossip and slander.  Our speech is a measure of our loyalty to God.  And the way we love our neighbors in speech is a more accurate gauge to our real piety and love of God than any claim that we can make.

I want to take a moment and do just as we’ve done throughout this look at the Ten Commandments; let’s look at what Christ said as he expounded upon this commandment and gave the fuller meaning.  Matthew 5:33-37 says, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’  But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.  Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”  Now, I want to take some time and expound upon Jesus’ expounding of this commandment.  You see, Jesus was criticizing the Pharisees with his words here.  He was doing so because of two things that the Pharisees were prone to do in their interpreting and applying of God’s Law.  The first problem was that they Pharisees took for themselves, as well as making others take, multiple oaths.  There would be an oath for this and an oath for that until everything in someone’s life was part of some legally binding contract.  However, the Pharisees were also very prone to create loopholes in every single one of these oaths.  They would swear on different things (body parts, possessions, family members, etc.) depending on the perceived importance of the agreement.  The lesser the vow, the lower the object in which they swore upon.  Well, what good is an oath if there’s a loophole?  In my life, I have taken vows of both ordination and marriage.  There aren’t any loopholes in either of these vows.  There are no clauses in either vows where I have the right to excuse myself of all of my responsibilities and all the duties and obligations I swore to carry out.  I have a friend of mine who after getting married asked the preacher why his wife’s vows seemed a lot less strict than his.  He said that he felt like he had to swear to a lot more than his new bride during their wedding ceremony.  Well, they were actually the same exact vows; his just seemed stricter to him because he was the one who had to live in accordance with his.  It’s a very different feeling when we’re the ones promising before God that we will live a certain way as opposed to watching someone else take such vows.

So what’s the point of Jesus’ words here as he’s expounding upon the ninth commandment.  Well, he’s saying that our words mean something.  He’s saying that it shouldn’t take an oath for us to do something, but that if we say we are going to do it then we are to do it.  Notice that in his words that we read just a moment ago that Jesus places a high emphasis on yes meaning yes and no meaning no.  There are no loopholes in yes and no.  You see, that’s the main point of Jesus’ words here.  It isn’t that Jesus is against oaths, which is usually what gets taken away from this passage.  After all, Paul made oaths, and I don’t think there is anyone who would say that Paul didn’t understand the Law.

As we begin to wrap this entire thing up, I want to simply ask a series of questions.  I want you to think about your speech.  I want you to think about how you speak with and about your neighbor.  When you speak, do you have in mind that you stand as a witness to the work of God in your life?  Do you speak in a manner that shows submission to His Lordship?  Or do you speak more as a witness to Satan?  Is your speech filled with insults, gossip, and demeaning comments.  Does your speech help or hurt the community in which you live.  Remember, there is no such thing as having no impact.  All of our actions, including of speech, no matter how seemingly insignificant, has some impact on the community in which they live.  Not only does your speech have an impact on the emotions and feelings of those around you, but it affects the level and type of witness you have for God’s kingdom.  Jesus makes it clear that all of our speech is said in the sight of God, and therefore all of speech – especially speech about our neighbor – must be truthful and designed to build up our neighbor.

We’ve all had those people in our lives who are either constantly talking negatively about other people or who are always in a foul mood.  We don’t want to surround ourselves with those types of people.  We want to surround ourselves with people who encourage us and uplift us.  However, we ought to not only want to be around those people, but we ought to strive to be those people.  Words are a powerful thing.  They are perhaps our most dangerous weapons.  We can destroy or we can build with our words.  The question become which one we will do.  Will you build up God kingdom by encouraging those around you, being faithful witnesses, and speaking only in truth?  Or will you destroy His kingdom with your words?  Will your talk be only of hatred, gossip, slander, dishonesty, and seek only to promote yourself? 

No matter which speech you choose (and believe me there are moments when your speech will destroy rather than build); remember that this table before us atones for both.  It atones for the inadequacy of our positive speech just as much as it atones for the negative filth that so often comes out of our mouths.  And that my friends, is the truth that ought to fill our speech this day and every other day.  That is the only truth that is really worthy of our dominating our speech with one another.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Exodus 20:15 "Is It Even Stealing?"

                Before we get into what this commandment that says “You shall not steal” really means, I want to caution you against something.  I want to caution you against hearing these words and thinking that since you have never committed the crimes of theft or robbery that you have nothing to worry about here.  You see, we, both Christians and most anyone else, are very prone to think that this commandment, which literally says “no taking anything by stealth” refers only to the taking of someone else’s property illegally.  Well, much as we have seen with all of the other commandments thus far, especially those dealing with how we relate to one another, there is something much greater that is actually commanded of us here.  Now, I want to preface all that I’m going to say here by stating that I have been blessed throughout my life.  I have never wanted for anything that I absolutely had to have.  I have never wanted for food to the point where I had to eat or I would die and I had no means of obtaining food.  I have never wanted for money to the point where I had no means by which to secure the basic necessities of life.  I have never had the mindset of the person who steals just to provide for themselves or their family.  I acknowledge those things.  I acknowledge that I have never been in that type of situation.  However, even though I do have the deepest sympathy for those situations, I do not condone them.  You see, if we are going to live according to God’s word, then we must take His word at what it says.  Notice that this commandment just says no stealing (or no taking anything by stealth).  It doesn’t give a from whom, when, or what you may not steal.  It doesn’t provide loopholes for things that are permissible to steal.  It doesn’t state any circumstance where it is alright to take something from someone else.  It states, very matter-of-factly, that stealing is wrong; stealing is a sin. 

                We may want to ask ourselves why stealing is such a big deal.  After all, especially during Jesus’ time, with all of the corrupt civil authorities and the exorbitant taxes, the only way some folks could survive was stealing.  Well, I would like to point out a few things to show the severity of stealing.  One, from an Old Testament perspective, stealing wasn’t just a crime between one individual and another, but a crime against a whole community.  If one person to stole something, it hurt the entire community.  It’s basic economics, providers of goods and services have to recoup their losses from stolen items, so they pass the burden on to the person who acquires goods honestly.  The second, and more important reason why stealing is so severe is that it shows a distrust in God, specifically in His providence.  It shows that the person who steals does not trust that God will provide for their every need.  Thus, they are saying that God does not fulfill the promise that He has made to care for our every need.

                Now, there are many specific examples of stealing that are listed throughout the rest of the Pentateuch.  Unfortunately, we don’t have time to look at each of them fully this morning.  So, I’ll just briefly say that kidnapping, stealing of animals, failure to return borrowed items, extortion, paying for goods later than agreed upon, unfairly withholding payments, and even overly taxing someone are all considered to be violations of this commandment according to Scripture.  So, it’s not just burglary, but it’s a whole host of other things, including not dealing honestly and in a timely manner with someone when it comes to a financial transaction.  We are to respect our neighbor’s life, liberty, and property, because they are, like us, made in the image of God.  Do you see how many of these earthly relationships that we’ve talked about before (honoring parents, no murder, and no adultery) are all connected to one another?  We’re called to have such a high standard of caring for, respecting, and loving one another, because we are image bearers of God Himself.

                Now it’s not as if the Old Testament, specifically the first five books of it, is the only place where we find anything that condemns stealing.  As I said earlier, the issue of stealing was very much a reality during the time of Jesus as well.  There are some folks out there who when thinking of Jesus, all they think of is his giving to the needy and his compassion.  Now, I certainly think of giving and compassion when I think of Jesus, but when those two things are so overly magnified and then taken into consideration along with what some perceive (wrongly I might add) as Jesus’ distain for civil authorities, they end up with a theology or a worldview that somehow works out to see that taking something required to survive from someone who has more than enough is alright.  There are people out there who view theft in order to provide for family and children as acceptable; God-fearing, Bible-believing people who say that situational stealing is okay.  However, I want us to hear what Jesus has to say about it in Matthew 19.  This is after he is asked by the rich young ruler what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus says, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 19:18-19 ESV).  That doesn’t sound to me like Jesus has a lax view of stealing.  That sounds like Jesus has a very high view of the Law, which he does.  The words of Jesus here sound to me like there are no exceptions to violating any commandments, which there aren’t.  For an even more definitive proof of this view of the Law, and specifically this eighth commandment, we could look at Paul’s words in Romans 13 or John the Baptist’s words in Luke 3.  Both of these statements are made with the mindset that if someone says they are converted and have repented, yet continue to steal, then it is questionable whether they are truly converted.  You see, when we become Christians, then the focus should be aimed less at us, and more at fulfilling the Great Commandment and loving our neighbors as ourselves.  If our hearts are truly changed, then the result should be that we long for a keeping of God’s Law instead of looking for every loophole we can find for violating it.

                Now, all of this biblical evidence against stealing is well and good, but you may still be sitting there asking yourself how this applies to you.  You haven’t kidnapped anyone.  You haven’t extorted anyone.  You’ve been on time with all your payments your entire life.  You’ve never even charged someone more for something than you should have.  Maybe you’re even one of those people that if you’re undercharged for something then you alert someone so that you can rectify the mistake.  Well, how does this commandment apply to you?  Let me first offer up some simple examples of modern-day or contemporary stealing.  You see, stealing today can range anywhere from cheating in school to the robbery that we first think of when we hear the word steal.  So, let’s work our way through some of these examples shall we.  Cheating in school is stealing the labor of someone else or another student.  This could come in the form of copying or plagiarizing (taking credit for something that you didn’t do).  I know this is a simple one, but don’t get comfortable yet, you’re about to feel a little less at ease the further we get.  After all, cheating (taking credit for the work of others) probably happens just as much in the business world as it does in the education system.

Defrauding others in business is a very common example of stealing.  This can take the form of not paying bills on time that we’ve talked about already, but it is much more than that.  Did you know that the IRS estimates that 17% of federal taxes went unpaid due to either not filing or underreporting?  That comes out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion per year; a cost that is then passed along to those who actually do pay their taxes.  It’s also estimated that some $40 billion is stolen from employers every year, and not by outside persons, but by employees.  This comes from when you add up company equipment, utilities, time, and personnel used for personal tasks.  Also, it’s estimated that some $350 billion is lost per year due to sick days taken dishonestly.  Now, you may want to know what this has to do with stealing.  Well, according to these numbers, American businesses are forced to charge somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% more for goods and services because of this stealing done by employees.  Like I said, stealing is a crime against the whole community.

Now, there are several more areas or examples of stealing depending how strictly you interpret this commandment, some of which are quite controversial, that I could get into as to modern examples of stealing, but I want to talk about the most chilling of them all:  Christian giving.  By this, I mean man robbing God (or attempting to at least).  We’ve looked at Malachi 3 before, and we’ve seen that when a man withholds his full tithe from God that he is seen as having robbed God.  We’re supposed to give to God out of our firstfruits and our best or else we are stealing from Him.  Not only are we guilty of violating this commandment, but the offended party is God, the very one who wrote this commandment.

Have you ever dealt unfairly with someone either in business, finances, or in any type of transaction?  Have you ever sold a house or a car and made sure to do something to hide that imperfection in the wall or the dashboard?  Now, I know that these are the seemingly negligible examples of violating this commandment.  We would never in a million years put covering up a leaky pipe on the same level as kidnapping.  We would never consider embezzlement the same as covering up a hole in the carpet with a couch.  However, we have to remember that when it comes to God, sin is sin.  There is no such thing as degrees or levels of sin.  God doesn’t look at one sin and compare its severity to another.  In the eyes of the Lord all violations of His Law, no matter how minute and seemingly minuscule, are sin in His eyes.

When we really get down to it, what this commandment ultimately is is a command that requires our respecting of our neighbor’s person and property.  It is a commandment, a directive from God as to how we are to act, which is rooted in the principle of the providence of God.  If we really believe that God is who He says He is, then the desire to steal should never even be considered.  We should trust that the Lord is going to provide for us, even in those moments where we don’t see any way out of it.  We all have those stories about how we were down and feeling like we were soon to be out, when God provided.  If our conviction and our belief in God’s Word is such that we fully believe in the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, then the desire to deal unjustly with others ought to make us sick even thinking about it. 

I want to close by reading to you what I think is a brilliant way to sum up this commandment.  It comes from Dr. Ligon Duncan and it says:  “The problem of stealing, the problem of a violation of the eighth commandment, is a matter of the heart and so the solution is found in the heart with Jesus Christ.  If you, in thinking through some of the applications of this sin today, realize that you are a thief, that there is a pattern of stealing in your life, it may be respectable stealing, it may be secret stealing, it may never have been uncovered by anybody else, but there's a pattern in your life, then there's only one solution.  That solution is the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  You know, it's interesting, isn't it, that there were two thieves once, one on each side of the savior, and one of them, one of them saw his sin and when he saw his sin, he ran to the Savior and he said to Him, ‘Don't forget me when You come into Your kingdom’ and to that changed thief Jesus said, ‘Today you will be with Me in paradise’.”  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Exodus 20:14 "What is Adultery?"

                Before we really begin looking at this commandment today, I want to remind you of something that I said a few weeks ago about the structure of the Ten Commandments.  I said that the whole thing consists of what is known as the two tables.  There is a division of the commandments so-to-speak, with the first four commandments pertaining to our responsibilities to God (our vertical responsibilities) and the final six pertaining to how we relate to one another (our horizontal responsibilities).    However, if you’ve noticed thus far, all of the commandments, regardless of which table they fall on; carry within them a certain level of responsibility or commitment to God.  Obviously, when it comes to those first four dealing with worshiping Him alone, having no other gods, keeping His name holy, and remembering His day, it’s easy to see the commitment to God within them; it’s easy to see how God is honored through their keeping.  Now the fifth commandment, the one about honoring our parents, carries with it a sense of how we can’t honor and revere God if we don’t first learn to honor and revere our parents, and ultimately love all of our neighbors.  The sixth commandment, the one against murder, is a command for the preservation of creatures created by God in the image of God.  It is a command for the preservation of God’s children who bear His image.  In essence, the past few weeks we have looked at what we might could called “gateway” commandments.  By this, I mean commandments that help us to develop the principles of worship that we are to have for God by fostering them within our horizontal lives and relationships first.  Well, the seventh commandment is no different.  Also, much like the commandment last Sunday against murder, this commandment consists of only two Hebrew words, which literally translate to “no adultering.”   You see, for far too long, this commandment has been seen simply as forbidding married persons from having intimate physical relationships outside the covenant bond of marriage.  Well, this commandment does indeed forbid such behaviors, but it does so much more, and that’s what we’re going to look at today.  We’re going to look at what all this commandment actually forbids, we’re going to look at why it’s so, and we’re going to see how God is honored through our keeping of this commandment.

Out of our closest friends, Amy and I were the first to get married.  We were the first to have a child, the first to have multiple kids, and in some cases, had number three on the way as some friends were just starting to want kids themselves.  This being the case, we never understood the mentality that so many take which says “well, they’re around our age and they’re doing ____, so I guess I need to do _____.”  No, we’ve always just kind of done what we wanted to and prayed that if we were making the wrong decision that God would intervene and stop us before we got too far.  However, I have a good friend whose wife doesn’t share our outlook on things.  Several years back, she wanted kids, largely because others were having kids.  Her husband knew that she was not ready for them, but that she was letting the situations and actions of others affect her judgment.  His solution:  get her a puppy.  She would see how much time a puppy took and realize that she was in no way ready for the commitment of time that is raising children.  Also, this would cause her to begin the process of fostering the habits and mindset needed for caring for something.  Now, I could go on and tell you how many dogs they ended up getting before having kids (2, nearly 3), but I think you get the idea. 

Why do I tell you this story?  Well, much like my friend was hoping for his wife to develop an understanding of the time required to raise something, care for it, and nurture it, we learn to honor God through our earthly relationships.  Obviously this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, but I think you get the picture.  When we grow in our understanding of how we are to treat those around us according to what God has commanded, then we develop the skills (all-be-it at an infantile level) that are necessary for worship of God.  Well, marriage is a covenant; it is a covenantal relationship between a man and a women.  Even if they have not met yet, each of them have a responsibility to not defile or deprave that covenant with someone (or something) else.  It is an earthly relationship that has to do with fidelity and commitment to one person.  This being the case, I have often heard the excuse that if someone isn’t married, then they can’t commit adultery.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  It might be true from a worldly perspective, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.  Remember, we’re dealing with the Law as it was given to us by God.  God’s Law isn’t always exactly reflected in the law of this world.  Much like last Sunday, we need to look to Jesus’ own clarification of this commandment in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28 ESV).  In other words, much like with murder, just because there is no outward act doesn’t mean that this commandment hasn’t been violated.  When one person looks upon another person lustfully, then they have committed adultery.  There doesn’t have to be anything physical for the covenant bond of marriage to be broken and the vows shattered.

I have a dear friend right now who after many years of marriage found himself burned out.  He was burned out on his career, his marriage, and really everything else around him.  He brushed it off for so long as the usual pattern of life, until one day things began to change. He and a female co-worker of his began to emotionally and conversationally invest heavily in one another.  At first, it was a little odd, but nothing that we would consider adulterous.  However, over time, it transformed into something much more serious.  These two individuals started investing a majority of their time and energy and efforts into one another and not into their marriages.  Eventually, the marriages decayed, and all that was left was hurt and sadness, hatred and anger, emptiness and loss.  There was never anything physical that happened between these two people, both of whom I call friends and both of whom are very Godly people.  However, the title that is given to what took place between them is an affair, its adultery.  Anything that has the potential to lead to the breaking or tearing down of the covenant of marriage is a violation of this commandment.  Hence why I said that adultery can take place even before someone comes to know the person with whom God has given them to enter into this covenant with.  If you don’t think I’m right about this then answer me this one question, “What if you found out that a person that you were in a relationship with of any kind (dating, business, friendship) had some deep dark past that you knew nothing about and upon finding out about it your opinion of them immediately changed?  It would cause you to think differently about that person and that relationship wouldn’t it?”  Unfortunately, I’ve seen this happen more times when it comes to marriage than with any other relationship.

So, ultimately, we have to answer the question as to how God is honored through the fidelity of an individual and the keeping of this commandment.  Well, I think the answer is twofold.  First, marriage is something that is very unique.  By unique, I’m referring to the fact that we know that it is something that is completely good and true.  How do we know this?  We know this because the first marriage existed before the fall.  That’s right, Adam and Eve were husband and wife before the fall ever happened.  There are very few things that we have a record of as they existed prior to the fall, but marriage is one of them.  Therefore, we know that it is something instituted and honored by God, and not just some man-made social construct that has the magical power to grant tax benefits.  The second, and probably less obvious, way in which God is honored through our keeping of this commandment is that it is an exercise of covenant loyalty.  When we are faithful in a marriage, then the covenant that each party has sworn to is never violated and never broken.  By showing covenant loyalty to our spouse, we are developing and building the habit of showing covenant loyalty to our God.  Think about it, when God speaks of Israel in terms of their violation of the covenant between themselves and God, He refers to them as an “adulterous nation.”  He doesn’t mean that they have had a physical relationship with another nation.  No, God, when using the term adulterous, is referring to Israel’s violation of a covenantal relationship that they have with another; in this particular case:  God. 

There is perhaps not one of these commandments that are more frequently violated than that of this commandment.  Don’t get me wrong, each and every one of them are violated by all people (even Christians) on a fairly regular basis.  However, this one, it takes the cake.  Remember back when I read the words of Jesus a moment ago when he said that to even look lustfully upon another is adultery.  Every person in her knows what I mean when I say that and every person in here ought to be scared to death at that fact.  So, how is it that we’re not all completely scared?  Well, I’ll tell you why; Jesus.  Once again (and I know that I have said it every week but it’s true every week), the blood of Jesus covers all of our sins.  It covers dishonor, it covers murder, and it covers adultery.  It covers the violation of the covenant that exists between God and His people.  As we’ve said, we are still to strive to keep the Ten Commandments, but we must also remember that we will fall short of them.  However, instead of looking at them as a set of unattainable goals, we are to see them as a mirror for how far we continuously fall short of the standard that God has set for us.  Remember this, we are to live lives that honor the covenant that we have (or will make) to our spouses, and we are to honor the covenant that we have with God as part of His chosen people.  However, never forget, that even in those moments where we slip up, we fall short, or we find ourselves violating either covenant, there is forgiveness and atonement to be found in the blood of Jesus Christ.  We all need to continue to thank God that despite our numerous failures in our earthly and heavenly relationships, that our salvation is not based upon how well we have kept these commandments, but on how fully Christ has already fulfilled them on our behalf.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Exodus 20:13 "No Immoral Killing"

                “You shall not murder.”  Only four words in English and just two words in the original Hebrew.  That’s it; pretty straight forward right?  When we look for clarity on something, we look for as concise a definition as possible.  Well, it doesn’t get any clearer than “You shall not murder.”  Or does it?  You see, if we were to rewrite or to write out this commandment in terms of its actual application in the world, it would read one of two ways primarily.  The first would be something to the effect of you shall not murder, unless it’s for war, because of illness, as a mercy killing, for the greater good, and on and on and on…until pretty much it has diluted this commandment to nothing aside from things like gang violence, random killings, and serial killers.  Now, there are some of these things that are allowable according to Scripture, which we will get to in just a moment.  The other application of these words is that nothing should be killed.  This is the type of interpretation that breeds groups like Westboro Baptist Church (the group that cheers as slain soldiers are buried because they say that war is a sin against God).  This is the interpretation that leads many to view things like capital punishment as sinful.  It causes some people to consider the eating of meat, the wearing of furs, hunting, fishing, or any other act that ends in the killing of anything; person, plant, or animal, as a sin.  Well, it is my opinion, and more importantly a more accurate biblical interpretation, that both of these interpretations are wrong, at least in their entirety.  So, what is the right view of this commandment?  Well, it is my hope that by looking at this text today a little more closely, and in conjunction some other verses of Scripture that provide some clarity, that we will see just what it is that we are called to do and not to do by this commandment.  It is my hope that we will see that the answer to how we are to live in light of this commandment falls somewhere in between these two extremes that we’ve just mentioned.

                As we study this commandment today, we have to first understand what is actually meant by the Hebrew text, by the two Hebrew words that make up this commandment.  Yes, “You shall not murder” is a correct translation, but a more accurate translation would be to say that “You shall not do any immoral killing.  You shall not unlawfully murder.”  That is the sentiment held within the Hebrew text for this verse, and we use accounts like, God’s words to Noah in Genesis 9 and even God’s own clarification of this law as it is found in Exodus 21 to arrive at this conclusion.  So, knowing that the original language carries with it such sentiment, it means that there must be such things as moral killings and lawful murders. You see, this command of “no murdering” or “no killing” is not simply a generic term for any kind of killing, it is a specific term for the violent killing of a personal enemy.  This term, found here in the sixth commandment, is never used for acts of war in the Bible.  It is never used for capital punishment in Scripture.  It’s never used for lethal self-defense.  It is never used on any occasion when God or angels are the subject or doers of this verb.  Instead, it always has to do with the forbidding of planned or premeditated murder, assassination, or various kinds of manslaughter.  So this commandment in no way forbids things like the death penalty (which God actually commanded Moses to institute), going to war, or lethal self-defense.  Now, we could sit here all day and debate whether any of these are or have been used or applied justly both today and throughout history, but this isn’t a courtroom.  I realize that wars have been started needlessly throughout history.  I know that sometimes self-defense could have been milder.  I’m not debating those things, because that’s not our goal today.  Our goal today is to determine what God’s law says about murder, and what that should look like in our lives.

                So, since we’ve looked at what this commandment doesn’t forbid and doesn’t mean, let’s focus in a little more on what it actually does mean.  See, this command is the “forbidding of any act of violence against an individual out of hatred or anger or malice or deceit or for personal gain in whatever circumstances and by whatever method that might result in death even if the person is not attempting to kill.” (Ligon Duncan).    In other words, we are to do nothing that even runs the risk of taking a human life if it is not sanctioned by God.  Abortion is not sanctioned by God, even for the purposes of stem cell research.  Now, the question invariably gets asked “What if the health of the mother is at stake?”  Well, very quickly I would like to say that this is a judgment call.  By this I mean, that either option, saving the child or saving the mother, find themselves preserving life.  There is not one life that is worth more than the other, and this is simply a decision that the parents must make together.  In addition to abortion, we are not to practice euthanasia, or mercy killings as they’re more commonly known.  Believe me, I know what it’s like to long for death to come to someone you love.  I shared with you last Sunday about my grandmother and her battle with Alzheimer’s.  There is nothing in this world that I want more than for her earthly suffering to stop, but it’s not my place to make that decision.  I have made the in-home visits that a pastor makes to check on people.  I’ve had to sit there and upon asking someone what they want or if there is anything that I can do, I’ve listened as they’ve said, “I just want to die.”  Talk about a helpless feeling; to know that that is the only way that suffering can end and being powerless to do anything about it.  It’s hard to imagine that two little words could seem so unclear, but that’s the world that we find ourselves in today.  You see, this commandment has its roots in the preservation of life.  It’s not about just not taking a life, but doing what we must to preserve it.        

I want to take just a moment and pause on our trying to interpret this commandment and look to the greatest preacher and teacher that the world has ever known.  I want to look to Jesus himself as he expounds upon this commandment in his Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus says, “You have heard that is was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt. 5:21-22 ESV).  Wow!  You know, we might have felt really good about ourselves if the command was just against senseless killings.  We might have felt really good about ourselves if it was just a command against murder, abortion, or even just against physical violence, but this, this takes things to a whole new level.  Whoever is angry with his brother, insults his brother, or calls his brother a fool is liable.  Wow!  Remember, this isn’t Jesus adding to the Law, this is him giving the fuller understanding of it.  I read these words from Matthew 5 and all I can think is that I’ve probably already gotten angry several times today.  Yes, murder is a sin, but Jesus is telling us here that anger is too, that is at least anger that is unjust.  By unjust anger, I am talking about the trivial things that we all get angry over; the anger that is directed at people and events, and not at sin.  Anger is the feeling and emotion that leads us to murder.  When we say that we sin in thought, word, and deed; well anger is the though, insults are the words, and murder is the deed.  Seeing these words of Jesus makes us even more thankful than we already were (if that’s possible) that there is no sin that is not covered by Christ’s blood.  That regardless of the regularity with which we violate this commandment, Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to atone for our sins.  It’s not about our keeping the Law, but about Christ’s fulfilling it and the Holy Spirit applying that to our hearts.  That doesn’t mean that the Law is useless, but it becomes a mirror for us to see just how broken and shameful we are as compared to where we are supposed to be.

                So, how are we to live in light of the words, “You shall not murder.”  Well, let me try and recap or sum up all that we’ve said in a few concise statements.  Scripture commands that we defend ourselves as a means of preserving what God has created.  If that preservation requires the taking of another’s life, then so be it.  However, we must not just take a life (or even allow a life to be taken) and claim that it was simply for the greater good.  There are times when our emotions will cause us to see this commandment not as clearly as we do right now.  When it’s a choice between mother or child, things don’t seem as clear.  When it’s the choice between keeping someone connected to machines or allowing “nature to run its course” then “no” doesn’t seem so definitive.  But understand this one thing from these words, we are created in the image of God.  As such, we are precious things and we are to seek the preservation of all of our fellow created things.  However, this doesn’t begin with outward actions.  This begins with inner feelings and emotions.  This begins when love and compassion are replaced by unjust anger and malice and hatred.  This commandment is a directive from God, for all of us to erase such hatred, to erase such anger, and to look and point only to the love and refuge that can be found in God alone.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Exodus 20:12 "Honoring Honorably"

                Today we begin what is commonly known as the second table of the Ten Commandments.  Notice that I said second table, and not second tablet; there’s a difference.  As I briefly mentioned back a few weeks ago (and as many of you probably already knew) the two tablets of the Ten Commandments were actually copies of one list.  Each of the two tablets contained the Ten Commandments in their entirety.  There was a copy for God and a copy for Israel, each of the two parties in the agreement.   That’s not what I’m talking about here when I refer to the second table.  You see, the first four commandments are known as the first table.  These can be described as man’s responsibilities to God or God’s requirements of man.  The second table, consisting of the fifth through tenth commandments, contains the commandments pertaining to how man is to deal and interact with his fellow man.  It is how we are to relate to one another.  So to recap, the first four are how we relate to God and the final six are how we relate to one another.  It’s really quite astounding to think that the basis or summation of how we are to relate to one another in a Christian community can be found and summed up in such a short text (verses 12-17).  However, God is the author of all things and who better to be able to so precisely state how we are to interact with one another than the One who created all of us, the One who created all that is in this world.  And before we get into this commandment, I was to point out one thing about this second table that comes to us today.  The second half of verse 12, “that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” doesn’t just apply to our text for today.  No, it applies to all of the commandments included in the second table.  It applies to the fifth through tenth commandment.  It is the reward or the promise that we receive for our keeping of these commandments.  It is the reward, promise, and blessing that Christ achieved for all of us through his atoning sacrifice. Hear that again, even though we continuously fail to live up to our part of the agreement, we still have all the blessings because of the sacrificing death of Christ.

                Now, this commandment, just like all the other commandments, has been a little misused or misunderstood historically, at least in my opinion.  Unfortunately, I have seen and heard many folks use this commandment as an excuse for improper behavior or as an attempt to get what they want.  I seen this commandment typically thought of as a directive used by parents to give order to their children.  This commandment reads, “Honor your father and your mother.”  I’ll be the first one to tell you, that of all the commandments that deal with our earthly relationships, this one is probably the one that I violated the most in my youth.  That’s not to say that I didn’t or don’t love my parents, but there was a time when my honor for them was pretty non-existent.  I’ll speak more on this in a moment, but I want to first point out why I think that this is so commonplace in our world today.  You see, we live in a world that rejects authority.  I don’t care who you are, there’s a good chance that one of your favorite phrases is “No one is going to tell me what to do.”  This (we’ll call it) authority defiance has spread over time to the realm of the family.  We live in a world where children ask regularly of their parents things like “what business is it of yours?”  As my father used to tell me, “As long as the bill still comes to my house, it’s my business” ; a statement that I used to brush off; that is, until my 5 year old, upon being asked what she was doing, told me that it was none of my business a few weeks ago.  I quickly responded by telling her that she has no business that isn’t ultimately mine.

                Now I don’t want to make too much of this because ultimately these are things that children do.  Children are still growing in their knowledge and understanding of all things, especially their Christian faiths and how they are to conduct themselves as Christians.  You see, I think that this commandment, while pertaining to children as well, is aimed equally, if not more so, at adult children.  You see, we have twisted this commandment in our world to instead of saying that we should honor our parents, it basically says, “Obey your father and your mother no matter what they tell you.”  However, that is not what God is telling Israel to do, at least not entirely.  Using the help of Jesus (Matt. 15) and Paul (Eph. 6) we could say that this commandment is actually a command to respect, revere, obey, and when necessary care for our parents.  So yes, obeying is part of it, but there is so much more to it than a simple blind obedience.

                As I mentioned just a moment ago, I have personally violated this commandment repeatedly in my lifetime.  You see, I was blessed as a child.  I wanted for nothing.  My parents both worked very hard for the well-being of our family and made sure that even when they were exhausted, there was still time for me.  As I got a little older, I didn’t want their time.  I didn’t want them as part of my daily life, so I became angry about it.  I would say things to my parents, especially my mother, which showed them, no respect, no honor, and no dignity.  I would say things that make me wonder how I even survived one of them not killing me to be quite honest with you.  We brush it off and call it teenage angst, but somehow I think this was something much more.  The way in which I dishonored my parents in my youth makes me evermore thankful for the grace and mercy of Christ that covers our sins.  It makes me evermore thankful for the sacrifice that we remember today with the elements on the table before us.  The blood of Christ has to power to was away all our sins no matter the severity of them.

                So, we’ve seen that this commandment is much more than a simple obedience to what your mother and father tell you, but it is showing them honor and reverence in the way that we talk to/about them, treat them, and care for them.  However, there is another side to this commandment that so often gets overlooked.  You see, the burden of this commandment is not always with that of the younger generation.  No, there is a responsibility on behalf of the parents, the elders, to teach their children how they are to go about honoring them.  Think about it for a second and it just makes sense.  The way in which we learned our manners was by being taught by someone.  I can promise you that little boys do not innately answer their mamas with “Yes ma’am” and “no ma’am.”  No, it is something that had to be taught to them.  Well, the same is true of authority.  The world we live in today is one where parents want to be friends first and parents second, and don’t think this is a new problem.  I have many friends today who will openly tell you that this was the case with their parents as well.  So you see, if authority and submission to authority is never learned by the younger generation, then we can’t just decide that one day we are going to start blaming our children for not knowing something that we were supposed to teach them and didn’t.  I know I wouldn’t want to be held responsible for not learning something that my superior was supposed to teach me and didn’t, and neither would you.  So it’s not just about children honoring their parents, but parents honoring their children and teaching them how they are to live in light of the saving grace that they are made heir of through Jesus Christ.

                Now, before we leave this text today, I need to point out one more thing and answer a question that no doubt at least some of you are asking right now.  What if your mother and/or father ask you to do something immoral?  What if your mother or father is abusive, neglectful, or some other type of irresponsible parent?  Well, that doesn’t free you from this commandment.  As I said earlier, this commandment isn’t a call to simple of obedience of authority.  This is a commandment to show Christ through our relationship with our parents, with our elders.  Defying God’s will is not going to show God’s grace.  And just because your parents may not have been the best parents doesn’t mean that you are not to honor them.  Like myself, there’s probably a good chance that none of us were the ideal child as well.  This commandment is primarily about the building and strengthening of the family.  The relationship between a person and their parents is one that can have life-shaping effects.  As we’ve talked about in our women’s Bible study on Wednesday mornings, it is possible for a bad relationship with our earthly father to cause us issues when it comes to our relationship with our heavenly Father.

Friends, this commandment is God telling us that it isn’t all about us.  Remember, we said that this was the first of the six commandments dealing with how we are to interact with others in this world.  Don’t think for a second that it is a coincidence that the commandment that deals with family and caring for our parents is the first one.  As I mentioned just a moment ago, a right understanding of parental authority reverence, and honor will allow us to have a right view of God’s authority, reverence, and honor.  I know that for some, maintaining a quality relationship with your parents (or even your children) can seem like such a laborious task, but it’s worth it.  We are commanded by God to build this family bond, and we must do all that we can to fulfill this commandment just as we would any other.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Exodus 20:8-11 "Keeping the Sabbath Holy"

                Our text for today, the fourth commandment, is perhaps the most debated and discussed commandment in all of Christendom.  The other nine commandments, while there is some discussion about each of them, are fairly universally understood as to what is required by them.  In other words, the basic requirements of the other nine commandments are agreed upon, but not the fourth commandment.  Part of the reason for this is because of the world that we live in today.  The former pastor of FPC Jackson, MS and current RTS Chancellor Ligon Duncan says that the fourth commandment is the commandment that “we love to hate.  Really, it’s the blessing we love to hate.”  Now I’m not going to try to convince anyone to view the Sabbath in any particular way, but I want all of us to see a few things as a result of our time together this morning.  I want us to first understand what this commandment originally looked like in its application within Israel.  Also, I want us to see how we view this commandment in light of Christ’s atoning work, and what it ought to look like for us today.

                However, before we can understand what is required in this commandment we have to understand what a Sabbath actually is; we have to understand what this word Sabbath even means.  Verse 8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  When we see the word “remember” I want all of us to think about a New Testament usage of the word.  When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are told that we take the elements in remembrance of Christ.  Now we all know that when it comes to the Lord’s Supper, that the remembrance is much more than a simple mental acknowledgement that we are indeed taking part in this sacrament.  We are called to remember the sacrifice that was made, the price that was paid, and the life giving atonement that was accomplished there upon the cross.  There is a spiritual presence of Christ that accompanies our receiving each of the elements during communion.  So, when we are called to remember the Sabbath, we are called to much more than a simple acknowledgement that it is the Lord’s Day.  We are called to remember the Sabbath, and not just any Sabbath, but the first Sabbath, the original Sabbath.  You see, all the way back in the beginning of Genesis, at the time of creation, after God had created all that is in this world, He rested.  God rested; he took that Sabbath, because, as Jesus says in Mark 2, we needed it, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  You see, the Sabbath was created and instituted to give us rest.  God, even at the time of creation, before the fall ever happened, knew that man was in need of rest, he was in need of a time of rest from his earthly labors, and so God provided for that need.  That’s what is referenced when we think of what the Sabbath is.  That’s what we are called to specifically remember each and every Lord’s Day.

Now before we really get into the other parts of this commandment, what is actually physically required of us, I have a confession that I need to make to all of you.  You see, when I was in seminary, one of our requirements for graduation was to memorize the WSC answers word-for-word.  The reason for this is that these answers so beautifully and precisely sum up what it is that we believe.  It was a way of helping us to more accurately shape our view of Reformed theology.  Well, within WSC there are questions about each of the Ten Commandments.  And for each commandment, there is a question that directly quotes Scripture word-for-word.  Now, as you can tell from our text this morning, this is a rather long commandment.  It’s much more than a one sentence commandment.  So, I, as a future pastor, made the theologically astute and responsible decision that this passage was just far too long and I wasn’t going to memorize it; not that it isn’t important, but it’s only one question and the chances of men getting it entirely right weren’t that great.

                I tell you this story in jest because it’s what comes to mind every time I read this commandment.  It’s what comes to me every time I begin to deal with verses 9-11 of this text.   You see, these three verses are the “how to” of verse 8.  These verses are steps for how we are to go about fulfilling our obligation of keeping the Sabbath holy.  They are what keeping the Sabbath holy looks like in our lives.  Unfortunately, our view of this commandment often does not include these later three verses.  “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work.”  Notice the work to rest ratio there; six days of work to one day of rest.  Make no mistake; our God is a God of action.  We’re not only called to this day of rest, but we’re very specifically called to labor and work in service of God’s kingdom for the other six days of the week.  And notice also that it’s not just you that God wants to rest.  There are a whole host of others called to rest as well:  male, female, family, stranger, servant, and livestock.  There is no one who is outside of this rest commanded by God.

                Now, I want all of us to take just a second and remember who it is that this commandment was originally given to.  Remember, Israel was the original audience here; the same Israel that had spent nearly 400 years as slaves in Egypt.  God gave this commandment requiring rest to be taken to a generation of slaves.  People who had very likely never known what it was like to rest were now being told that they should do so in order that they remember and keep holy the day in which God rested from his labor of creating the earth and all that is in it.  You know, it’s funny how things have changed since that time.  The nation of Israel welcomed this rest.  It was seen as nothing but a blessing to them.  It was something so precious that they were left in amazement that God would provide such rest for them.  Fast forward to today and think about how we view the Sabbath and the rest that we’re commandment to take on it.  We view this commandment as more of a curse than a blessing.  We view it as a curse and a burden that we’re told that there is a day in which we can’t work.  Many of you here today are of a different generation than I am.  Many of you remember what it was like when blue laws were really enforced. Of course they still exist today, but primarily in the form of alcohol sales being prohibited on Sundays.  You remember what it was like to have to do all of your grocery shopping on Saturday because every store and marketplace was shut down on Sundays.  You remember what it was like for Sunday to be a different type of day.  Unfortunately, Sunday is probably best known today nationally by many as the day that you can’t buy a chicken sandwich.  No doubt it has been an effective tool used by the enemy in blending the Lord’s Day into our calendar so that it seemingly has no special meaning.  The word “holy” means to be set apart or different.  So when we are told to keep the Sabbath holy, then we are told to hold is as special, set apart, and different; an area where I feel like we are not doing as we ought to.

                I think that we can all agree that the Sabbath, Lord’s Day, or whatever else we call it does have special meaning.  There is something different about this day that doesn’t exist with other days.  The biggest issue, however, comes in the application of this in today’s world.  You see, the discussion begins here with what exactly this commandment forbids.  Well, we know that we are forbidden from work on the Sabbath.  However, Jesus worked on the Sabbath.  He allowed his disciples to provide food for themselves on the Sabbath, and we know that Jesus never violated or broke any one of these commandments.  No, there is nothing against doing what is necessary and merciful on the Sabbath.  (Hey, technically I’m working on the Sabbath.)  There is nothing against work that must be done on the Sabbath.  There is nothing against acts of mercy and worship on the Sabbath.  This is one point that as we looked at John’s gospel last year, the Pharisees never seemed to quite grasp.

                The (for lack of a better word) issue that arises from this commandment for many of us today comes in the question of recreation on the Sabbath.  It’s fitting that this text should come before us on a day like today.  I, like many of you, am going to be glued to a television tonight for some 5+ hours (minus the halftime show).  Well, the guys playing in the Super Bowl, officiating the game, announcing the game, filming the game, etc. are all doing some combination of work/play on the Sabbath that I don’t believe any of us would call absolutely necessary.  Sure they are providing for their families, but it’s not like that couldn’t be done either a day earlier or a day later.  We could also look at this and talk about ourselves and our children.  Whether it be youth sports or that round of golf that starts after lunch on Sunday, how does it fit in to our understanding of the Sabbath?  How can we possibly remember the Sabbath and keep it holy while watching children run around a soccer field or while we cut grass or whatever else it is that we typically do on Sundays after church?  Well, this has been the dividing issue for many Christians when it comes to how we are to conduct ourselves on the Sabbath. 

When it comes to observing the Sabbath, there are primarily only two views:  the Sabbatarian view (no action at all on Sundays) and the non-Sabbatarian view (allowing for some recreation/work on Sundays).  In other words, those who are very literal and strict with their interpretation of this fourth commandment, and those who aren’t.  Now I want to say that there is nothing work with either interpretation in my opinion.  I tend to interpret this commandment more loosely than other, but greatly respect and to a certain extent admire those who refrain from all activities other than worship on the Sabbath.  However, if I might offer up this explanation as to my view of the Sabbath.  You see, the primary purpose of the Sabbath, as we stated earlier, is to give us rest.  Well, for me, an entire day of laying and resting will have the exact opposite effect.  I’m the type of person who is re-energized by doing something.  My wife is so gracious in this aspect.  When I’m stressed out or feeling overwhelmed, that’s usually when projects start around my house.  After seeing me do this countless times, she doesn’t even ask me why I’m beginning a new project anymore.  All she does is just look at me and say, “Stressed out aren’t you?” and then goes back to whatever she is doing.  You see, I don’t think that kicking the soccer ball in the backyard with our future Olympian is something that is to be refrained from on the Sabbath.  My rest from my labors comes in the form many times of playing with my children.  It’s not as if I am constantly working, never taking any type of break.  No, I am refreshing myself from my labors by doing something that reinvigorates me.

Now the other side of this coin, the trap that many fall into (and do indeed violate the Sabbath) is when Sunday is another work day.  Yes, we go to church and we go to lunch with our families and maybe even take a little Sunday afternoon nap.  Then, somewhere in the mid-afternoon, the work week begins.  We decide that it’s time to crank up the occupational to-do list again so that we can get a head start on the week to come.  When this happens, the Sabbath has lost its rest, it has lost its being holy, it has lost its being set apart from all other days.  The fourth commandment is reduced from “remember[ing] the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” to “thou shalt go to church on Sunday.”  Friends, the Sabbath is a great blessing, not a bothersome curse.  We should never act as if God’s commanding us to rest from our labors is a burden.  He calls us to this rest not to inconvenience us, but to provide for our need.  When we neglect the Sabbath, when we neglect resting in the Lord, then we sit in danger of falling away from Him.  When we don’t take the time to remember God and his care and providence, then we risk becoming immune to it.  Don’t allow the Sabbath to be just another day.  Don’t allow the world around you to dictate how God’s day of rest is spent for you.  Enjoy it.  Be renewed by it.  However, do not take this day for granted, because it is required by God, and need by us all.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.