What
does the Bible say about....
The
Ten Commandaments
This teaching
will be in a series with a study on each of the Ten Commandments.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
God's Commandments
Equal His Words to Us
Proverbs 4
1 Hear, ye
children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
2 For I give
you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
10 Hear, O
my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
11 I have taught
thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
20 My son,
attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them
not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they
are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep thy
heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
In Proverbs
4:20-23 the Lord instructs us to "attend" or to "pay attention" to His
words. The commandments of God are His Words to us. They are life to us.
They produce blessing. The Bible says if we put God's words of life into
our hearts it will produce blessings of health and long life. In computer
language we understand the expression, GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).
If we put garbage or the things of evil in our spirits, that is what will
come out; especially when we are under pressure. What is in our hearts
(our spirits) will surface and come out of our mouths.
In Matthew
12:34-37, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, "O generation of vipers,
how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the
heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that
men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.
For by their words they shall be justified and by their words they shall
be condemned."
God is saying
to us that by the words that we speak and the words that we obey, these
are the words that we are going to be justified by or condemned by. Therefore,
it's important what comes out of our mouths. God wants His words and His
commandments to come out of our spirit. For this to happen we must read,
study and receive the Word of God in our hearts. We must rebuke those things
that the devil has inspired. In our generation many people do not even
know what the 10 Commandments are. Since these are so important for a society
to maintain order, we want to do a thorough study of them so we can walk
in God's light. Psalm 119:104-105 says, "Through thy precepts I get understanding:
therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and
a light unto my path."
If we want
holy guidance we must study the word of God and find out what God has to
say about our problems so that we can be guided by His Word. My opinion
nor anyone else's opinions are sufficient to solve the problems of today.
The answers can only be found in what God's Word says about the matter.
He has all the answers. He is the Judge and final authority on every subject.
Since He said keeping His Word and His commandments brings life let us
first begin with the Ten Commandments. If you took a test and were ask
to write down the 10 Commandments, how many could you list? If you don't
know them, you are among a big company. Recent statistics state that the
average Christian scored very low. They do not know the 10 Commandments
nor could they even name three of them. That's a sad commentary for the
body of Christ. What are the 10 Commandments?
The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:1-17
(NIV)
1 And God spoke
all these words:
2 "I am the
LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
3 "You shall
have no other gods before me."
4 "You shall
not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or
on the earth beneath or
in the waters
below."
5 "You shall
not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous
God,
punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation
of those who hate me,
6 but showing
love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments."
7 "You shall
not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone
guiltless who
misuses his
name."
8 "Remember
the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."
9 "Six days
you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the
seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any
work, neither you, nor
your son or
daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the
alien within your
gates."
11 "For in
six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, but he rested on
the seventh
day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
12 "Honor your
father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD
your God is giving
you."
13 "You shall
not murder."
14 "You shall
not commit adultery."
15 "You shall
not steal."
16 "You shall
not give false testimony against your neighbor."
17 "You shall
not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs
to your neighbor."
The 10 Commandments
are the 10 basic laws God commanded Israel to obey in the Old Testament
of the Bible. Since today we are spiritual Israel they are still valid
for us to live by. Some people think that these do not apply to us today
as they are the Old Testament law. I have heard people make this statement,
"Well that's the old law, we don't have to keep the old law." The Bible
teaches that the Old Testament law is the foundation for the New Testament
commandments.
Matthew 5:17-19:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not
come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the
kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
We actually
are called to keep a higher law under the new covenant. In the Old Testament
they were judged on their deeds and their actions. The New Testament we
are judged by what goes on in our hearts. The Bible deals all the way through
the New Testament about what goes on in the heart of man. Jesus dealt with
the heart attitudes of men.He always put His finger right on the motives
of men. In the Old Testament men were commanded not to commit murder. In
the New Testament the Bible tells us if we have hatred in our hearts for
a brother we are guilty of murder even if we do not commit the actual deed.
1 John 3:15
says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."
Exodus 1:1-2
says, "And God spoke all these words: "I am the LORD your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
In these verses
it says that God brought His people out of the land of Egypt and out of
the house of slavery or bondage. Here Egypt is a type of world and the
devil. God has brought every one of us as Christians out of the bondage
of the devil and out of his slavery into God's freedom. Some of us have
lived in bondage so long that we have a hard time adjusting to our new
freedom. We are used to being in a cage, in a prison. Even after God brings
us out it takes a while for us to operate in the freedom of Christ and
learn the new laws of God and His ways. It is because we've been in a cage
and prison for so long.
The Story of
the Caged Chickens
I told this
story several years about some chickens that we bought from a poultry farm.
They were chickens who had lived their entire lives in a cage. We took
them out to the ranch and turned them loose to freely run in the chicken
yard and go in and out of the chicken house at will. As we placed them
on the chicken house floor they didn't move. The poor little things had
lived in cages all their life so they just stayed right in the chicken
house. They didn't even know how to roost. They didn't even get up on the
roost at night.They stayed huddled together on the floor. They were used
to sleeping under a light because the poultry farmer kept a light lamp
on them to make them lay more eggs. Men have devised ways to get the most
out of everything, no matter if it's good for the animal or not. Because
they were used to the light, they would sleep outside huddled under the
moon on the ground.
They didn't
even know how to drink water the regular way because they had drunk water
out of a little bottle with a little red tip on it. They had always gone
over and pushed that little tip and gotten their water out. Here they had
fresh running water yet they didn't even know how to drink. One of them
almost drowned trying to learn how to drink. These chickens didn't know
what freedom was. I don't know if they would have ever enjoyed their freedom
without someone to teach them what to do. But we had some older chickens
that were already there and after the new ones watched them for awhile
they discovered a new way of living. Living with the older chickens for
a time and learning from them they got liberated, Hallelujah! They found
out that they could go anyplace in the barnyard. But it took them a while.
Humans are
the same way. We are creatures of habit. We don't realize it, but we do
things out of habit. Sometimes God is wanting to break old habits and old
things in our life. Many Christians bring them over into the Christian
walk. God begins to show us a better way as our old habits are not fitting
for God's kingdom or His house. He has brought us out of the devil's house
and put us in His house. Now if somebody comes and visits your house and
they have bad habits you'll tolerate them on short term bases. If they
just come for a day and during their visit they're not very neat and they
do some things that you don't like you will usually tolerate it. Most of
the time out of the graciousness of your heart you won't say anything,
you just put up with it and when they leave you clean up behind them.You
will tolerate the messes they make on short term basis. However, if somebody
comes to live with you, the rules are different. You may say, "Wait a minute.
We have rules in this house. Here is how we live here. We do not do these
things in this house."
It's the same
way with our Heavenly Father. When we come to God's house with some bad,
filthy, nasty habits, He begins to show us the way out of bondage. He brings
us into a new kingdom and now that we are living in His house His rules
are different. God gives us commandments and some rules so that we know
what is acceptable in His house. In our house, if someone came to live
with us, there would be certain rules they would be asked to follow. It
would not be acceptable to throw the towels down on the bathroom floor.
There would be certain things that we would expect of them. We would expect
them to make up their beds when they got up in the morning. They would
help with cleaning up the dishes. We would not leave dirty dishes in the
sink because this is a rule in our house. We like our house neat and clean.
And God likes
His house neat and clean too. So He says those filthy things that you used
to do are not acceptable in His house. That is the reason He gives us some
rules. The laws and commandments of God are given so that we might live
a blessed life in this earth. However, it is important to rememeber that
keeping the laws do not get us to heaven. Only faith in Jesus does that.
Keeping God's commandments is the evidence that we are Christ's children
as we desire to obey Him. Many of God's people when they first come into
the kingdom don't know how to respond to this new freedom. We have walked
the old way for so long. We have bad habits. We are used to the old ways.
God is saying to us in His Word that He now wants to show us a new way.
That way is by faith, walking in the Spirit and trusting God to break the
old habits. He give us His Commandments so we might be blessed and live
in harmony with one another in this earth.
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