The Ten Commandments
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
As introductory to this study we wish to answer some statements relative to the Christian and the Law.
1. Saints are not under the Law for salvation. We say with unequivocable terms, salvation by the Law is utterly impossible.
"Do and live" may have been and still may be true so far as physical life, and physical health, are concerned; but not so far as eternal life is concerned.
The Commandments were never given as a method of obtaining life, but they came that sin might abound, and that sin might be declared exceeding sinful. By the Law is the knowledge of sin, not redemption from sin. Sinners are now, and always have been, shut up to the Cross of Christ for redemption and salvation.
2. Saints are under Law as a standard of living. Saints, under grace, may not live as they list; they cannot find, in grace, any license for greed or for licentiousness.
Love is the fulfilling of the Law. Here is what happens when salvation and regeneration come into the soul: "What the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," did.
The Law could not save the sinner for the simple reason that the sinner could not keep the Law, He may boast his righteousness, and claim that he does fulfill the Law, but all such boasting is vain. "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." Sin is the transgression of the Law, and all are transgressors.
Jesus Christ, the righteous One, and the holy One, therefore, became sin for us and suffered, the Just for the unjust. In His death He sustained the sanctity of the Law, fulfilled its every requirement, suffered for us its penalty, and made it possible for the one who believes to be saved.
Now that the believer, is saved, and now that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within him, the believer has found that he is panoplied of God to meet and fulfill the Law's demands.
3. Saints, then, are not UNDER the Law, but are above it. They are not slaves driven to despair by its requirements, but they are victors, through the Spirit, living above and beyond all it demands. They do not keep the Law as a slave bending under the whip of his master; they are freemen living beyond its reach; in a high and holier realm of perfect obedience.
What then? "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid." To sinners God writes, "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not": to saints God writes: "Little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not."
Saints do not need to sin: sin shall not have dominion over them, for they are not under the Law, but under grace.
Thus, nevermore let us speak of grace as an excuse for discarding the righteous requirements of the Law, but let us use our new position as the basis for recognizing that we are dead to the Law, in the Body of Christ; and that, being also risen with Him, sin shall not reign in our mortal body.
I. THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS THAT PREVAILED AT THE GIVING OF THE LAW (Exodus 19:18-19)
1. The physical condition displayed. "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount." That is the word of Exodus 19:16
"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." That is the statement in Exodus 19:18
It was amid such surroundings as these that the Law came, and that God spake to His people.
Think of it if so much as a beast touched that mount he was immediately slain; and no mortal man could touch it and live.
2. The consummate folly of basking under the Law. How strange it is that sinful man forever boasts his own goodness, and even dares to seek approach to God on the basis of his good deeds!
The ungodly seek to bask under the Law as a place of safety and security from the wrath to come.
Can a sinner rest under the words, "The wages of sin is death," or "The soul that sinneth, it shall die"?
The Law worketh wrath, not peace; it is a message of condemnation, not of conciliation; it is the specter of death, not the giver of life.
The Law cannot save, but it drives us to the Saviour; the Law cannot justify us, but it casts us prostrate at the feet of the Lord Jesus, as we cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
The Law is at the same time holy, and righteous, and good; while it is the forerunner of judgment, and of death, and hell.
II. THE FIRST AND THE SECOND COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:3-6)
1. The supremacy of God. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." The Bible opens with the words, "In the beginning God." He was before all things and shall be after all things. In all things He is preeminent. "All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vainty."
What then? He only is God. Hear God Himself speaking: "I am the First, and I am the Last; and beside Me there is no God."
Again the Lord says, "Is there a God beside Me? yea, there is no God." Again, "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me."
Again we read, "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it * *: I am the Lord; and there is none else."
Once more we read, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved * *: for I am God, and there is none else."
2. The folly of images. When men, without excuse, refused to know God and glorified Him not as God, their foolish hearts were darkened, and they made unto themselves images like to corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things; wherefore God gave them up. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, wherefore God gave them up to reprobate minds.
God is a jealous God, and He will, as suggested above in quotations from the first chapter of Romans, visit the iniquity of parents upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.
God, however, does show mercy unto thousands of them who love Him, and keep His Commandments.
III. THE THIRD AND FOURTH COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:7-11)
1. Taking the Name of the Lord in vain. Thus it is written, "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."
We think at once of blasphemy and of cursing and swearing. All that is a clear breaking of the Third Commandment. Such language shows that many individuals have no fear of God in their eyes, and no sense of love and appreciation of His glory and power.
There is, however, another and deeper way in which men break this Commandment. Here is an example taken from Malachi: * * O priests, that despise My Name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised Thy Name? * * In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible." These priests were not blaspheming with their lips, but with their acts. They were offering the blind, the lame, and the sick for sacrifice. Was this not evil? The blood of the sacrificial lamb had no depth of meaning to them. They even "snuffed" at His table, and said, "What a weariness it is."
Believers take His Name in vain when they belittle His glory and His praise by their evil ways.
2. Remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. This day was given to Israel in memory of their rest from the tyranny of the Egyptians. Yet they refused to keep that day as a day of rest, and they were cursed with a curse.
The seventh day was given to Israel, thus, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates."
IV. THE FIFTH AND SIXTH COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:12-13)
1. The Fifth Commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
There is a verse which reads, "A son honoureth his father." Then God says, "If then I be a Father, where is Mine honour?"
The word "honor" carries a depth of meaning. The New Testament reads: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord * *: which is the first Commandment with promise." Thus "honor" means to obey. He honors his father who reveres him, seeks to please him in all things, and bears his father's name without shaming it by his evil deeds. To such a one God does give promise: "That thy days may be long."
2. The Sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill." It was of this Commandment which Christ said, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment." Then Christ stopped to give a deeper insight to the old Commandment by saying, "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."
Oftentimes there is murder in the heart, when the actual deed is not enacted for fear of the judgment.
Christians are told to love their brothers. "By this shall all men know that we are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." Not to hate, therefore, is not enough we must love.
V. THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:14-15)
1. The Seventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Impurity is one of the curses of the age in which we live. Morals are at a low ebb. The movies with their display of the sensual cannot be too deeply condemned; the novel with its poison of false loves, plays also a large part in the downgrade of morals: also other evils.
The best we can do for the young people is to remind them of the words of King Lemuel: "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her." "Her children arise up, and call her blessed."
We may also remind the young people that "he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption."
2. The Eighth Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal." We should think of more than the common thief who robs another of his gold. A man may rob his God also. Have you not read, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me * * in tithes and offerings."
There is another method of stealing. Shakespeare wrote something like this: "Who steals my purse, steals trash; but he who filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and leaves me poor indeed." Yes, we may steal by our tongues as well as by our hands.
Let us determine that we will go beyond the letter of Law, and into the deeper meanings thereof. Neither by tricks of trade, or by any legal but unrighteous act, may we ever seek to enrich ourselves by impoverishing our fellow man. Let us deal honestly with all men.
VI. THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:16-17)
1. The Ninth Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Here is a Commandment that is frequently broken. Insinuations hurtful to the honor and the character of others are given; words of uncertain yet of hurtful effect are stated. Others are discounted, and sometimes even maligned upon some mere breeze of guilt, where there is no proof of sin.
It is easy to tear down another's honor; it is not so easy to reconstruct it.
If we will practice the teaching of our Lord we will not be found bearing false witness. He said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."
"Don't look for the faults, as you go through life,
And even if you find them,
It is better by far, to look at a star,
Than the spots in the sun abiding."
2. The Tenth Commandment: "Thou shalt not covet." We are not to covet our neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is our neighbor's.
How about coveting his power, and his influence, and his fame, and his fine auto, etc.? Instead of coveting the things which belong to our neighbor, we should seek in every way to help and increase his rightful possessions. We should pray for him that he prosper, and be in health even as his soul prospereth. We should share his burdens, and help him to carry his cares. We should never, for one instance, seek to build ourselves up on his downfall, or to enrich ourselves at the expense of making him poor.
Our attitude toward our neighbor should be at all times the abetting of everything that concerns his welfare. We should love him as we love ourselves.
VII. THE PURPORT OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Exodus 20:18-20)
1. The people were filled with fear. When the people saw the lightnings, and the noise, of the trumpets, and the mountain on smoke, they removed and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die."
What else can God's Law do to us than to fill us with dread and fear? If the Law worketh wrath, where can we find peace? If the Law is a word of condemnation because of our own sins, where can we find peace and rest and quiet to our sin-conscious spirits?
There is but one answer the Law is a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. Under the thunderings of the Law we hear judgment and death and hell, for there is not a just man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
To Christ, then, let us go.
"Beneath the Cross cf Jesus,
I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty Rock,
Within a weary land."
2. The purport of the Ten Commandments. When the people were afraid, Moses said, "Fear not: for God is come to prove you." These words give the real purport of the Ten Commandments. Moses did not say, "God is come to save you." Certainly not. The Commandments cannot save. They could not be a giver of life, if man could from babyhood to death keep them in all their wonderful fullness.
The Commandments, however, were weak through the flesh, because the flesh is filled with sin and no flesh is holy in His sight.
The Commandment could and did prove the people. They are like the plumb line that is dropped down, not to straighten the wall, but to show whether it is straight.
"By the Law is the knowledge of sin." Paul went so far as to say, "I had not known sin but by the Law." Then he added, "That sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful." When the Law entered he died, that is, he saw himself dead in sin.
The Law entered that sin might abound. Let us from henceforth seek salvation through faith in the Blood of Christ.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Keeping God's every command and doing His perfect will, should be our chief quest.
What abuse there is in our religion. One thinks it consists only in a multiplication of prayers, another in a great number of outward works done for the glory of God and help of our fellow men. Some place it in their continual desire for perfection, again others in great austerities. All these things are good and to a certain extent are necessary, but he is deceived who places them as the essential and foundation of true piety. The piety that sanctifies us and devotes us entirely to God, consists to do His will, and accomplishing it precisely at the time, and in the place, and in the circumstances, where He places us: this is His desire for us. Have all the activity you desire, do all such brilliant works as you are pleased to do; you will receive no reward but for having done the will of the sovereign Master. Your servant might work wonderfully well in your house; but if he did not follow out your wishes, his work would be as nothing to you, and you would have the right to complain that he served you badly, Fenelon.