The Ten Commandments - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, May 22nd. The law of God is much more than a collection of archaic rules. They are key for the proper functioning of any society. Today's podcast helps us understand more about the Ten Commandments. Let's look at these Ten Commandments in the light of what God has given us. And so I want you to turn to this 20th chapter of Exodus. And let's look at it from the perspective of what do they really say? Not what would we like for them to say, but what do they say?

And so let's begin of course with number one. He says, you shall have no other gods before me. Here's what that means. No God. Not one. Not any. Somebody says, well, thank God.

That's the one I don't have to worry about. Hold it. Hold it. What does it mean to have no other gods before me? Do you know what becomes a god in your life?

Listen carefully. Jehovah Yahweh. The ultimate and final authority. He says he's established his throne in the heavens. His sovereignty rules over all.

Listen carefully. Anything, anybody, whatever you place in your life and you, you don't have to physically bow before it, but emotionally, mentally, whatever. Anything, any person you place in your life in the position of being above God in your life, you say, well, how would I do that? That is you would obey them rather than God.

You would follow after them rather than God. You just worship their talents and skills and abilities other than God. People worship money. They worship people.

They worship prestige and prominence and power and all kinds of things. And so he said, you shall have no other gods before me. If money consumes your life more important than God, if some relationship consumes your life more than God, you are guilty of idolatry. And he says you shall have no, no other gods before you. Idolatry is a horrible sin in the eyes of God because what it does, it dethrones God in the life of that person.

It dethrones God in the life of that nation. He says you should have no other gods before me. Secondly, what did he say in these commandments?

He said not only that, but he said, you shall not in any way make any kind of idol of any kind of likeness, no matter what, nor shall you worship them. Well, let's think about that for a moment. You say, well, I don't have any idols in my house. Do you have any heart? You can have them in your house or in your heart. You can drive your idol. You can make love to your idol.

You can save up your idol. He said you shall have no other gods before you and shall make no idols. Here's what Jesus said. Thou shall worship the Lord thy God and Him only in spirit and in truth by faith, not by looking at something. If you have to look at something to remind you of God, there's something missing in your life. God doesn't want us bowing down to anything, making any kind of idol in our life. If Jesus Christ is in your life, Christ in you is sufficient adequate.

You have him in your life. And it's very important to God that you don't make any idols. Nor do you recognize any idols.

To recognize an idol is to say, I know God's up there, but here's something that the next thing you know, people are worshiping the very thing they say, well, I don't know, represents it. Then notice this commandment. Here's what he says. He says, for example, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. You say, well, now, what does that mean?

I'll tell you what it means. I'm talking about and he's talking about exactly what many of you who are Christians do, as well as you who've never trusted Christ as your savior. You've heard people say they get frustrated about something with Jesus Christ. I'm here to tell you that is a violation of the Ten Commandments. It is a violation of the law of God. And God says you will not go unpunished. That's the law of God.

Remember this. The Bible says that the name of God is awesome. The name of God is absolutely awesome. Here's the holy, sinless son of God who sits upon the throne of the living God by his side, ruling and reigning over this world. And you ought to profane his name by using it casually in a way that is not serious and does not recognize.

Listen, instead of saying Jesus Christ, you ought to be on your knees before the living God, thanking him and praising him and giving glory to him for the fact that he died on the cross and saved you from your wickedness and your sinfulness by which you would never be able to be redeemed without him. It's a violation of the law of God. Now, why is it such a sin? Here's the reason.

Listen to this. For example, and I would use somebody else, and God knows I don't want to use myself, but I don't want to call somebody else's name. I can see a bunch of folks trying to use names I could call. But for example, if somebody says Charles Stanley and you think about me, what does that name represent? It represents who I am. And when they call your name, it represents who you are. When you call the name of God, you're calling the name that represents who he is. Listen, to defame his name, to profane his name is to profane the living God. And you cannot profane his name or the name of God without suffering the consequences. And just because many people do it does not make it right. Nor does it eliminate what he just said in this passage and that he says it will not go unpunished. Then, for example, here's the one on the Sabbath. Look at this. He says, for example, in this fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Somebody says, well, I've been wondering about that.

Well, first of all, let me say this. The Sabbath was a day of rest. And God, listen, God gave that commandment because he knew how he constituted your body, mind, soul, spirit and emotions just like mine. And that is, he did not intend for us to work seven days a week, week after week after week after week, seven days a week. He intended for us to have a day of rest. That day is to be spent in rest of some fashion. I don't tell anybody else that arrested and some fashion to spend time with him and to worship him. For example, if that law was still in effect, now watch this carefully, as far as it being the seventh day being Saturday for everybody.

And that is the day of rest being Saturday for everybody. Now, what are you going to say to the apostle Paul and all the disciples of the New Testament church? Then they've all violated that law and established something different because they recognize that. And Paul makes this very, very clear.

And somebody will give you a hard time saying, well, now, wait a minute now. You know, I've got some folks who belong to this particular denomination and here's what they say. I want you to turn to a couple of passages. Turn, if you will, to Colossians chapter two for a moment. And Paul had to deal with this in the New Testament church because there are many things that the New Testament Christians had to deal with that were left over from the mosaic law, those regulations and so forth. And in the second chapter, for example, second chapter of Colossians, for example, the Book of Galatians deals with the whole issue, what was going on in the church. They wanted the Sadducees, the Pharisees and so forth. And then many Christians coming along following them. And so somebody began to teach them that in order to really be saved, you have to not only trust Jesus as your savior, but got to keep all these laws.

Listen to what Paul makes it so very clear. Colossians two, verse 16. Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. Nobody has the right to tell you what day you set aside as a day of rest and service and the way you want to worship God. The New Testament church chose to recognize the first day of the week.

Why? In recognition of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they had believed that that was a part of the moral law of God that said you have to meet on the seventh day. And if you study that carefully, that's not all in there. The seventh day is always on Saturday. You'll find that that's not true. Secondly, if they had believed that, they would never have said, let's take Sunday.

Let's take the first day of the week in celebration of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection. That would mean that all of them are wrong. And we've all been wrong for two thousand years because it doesn't mean that. But this is binding. Every single believer has the responsibility of resting this body and taking time to worship the Lord God and resting in the process.

Your body is not constituted to be working. Here's what this passage says. And you see, a lot of people don't look at this passage and say, well, you know, yeah, I believe that.

I don't. Listen to what he says. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do your work. What about that part? What about that part? Six days you should work and do your labor.

We want to work four and play for three. He says six days shall I live. You know why? God knew people get in trouble and they have too much free time. Amen. That's right. That's what happens. You have to decide about your Sabbath.

You have to decide. Are you really and truly giving God any time? Are you resting this body in a way that's pleasing and honorable to God? And so that law still stands.

You have to decide how you're going to interpret that for yourself as far as your body is concerned. Then, for example, he says to concerning our parents in this fifth commandment. Listen to what he says. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Now, honor your father and your mother.

Listen to what he doesn't say. He doesn't say honor your father and mother as long as they're honorable. He didn't say that. He said, I'm to honor my father and my mother, period. And this is the first commandment of the promise that your days may be long upon the earth. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean you're going to live longer?

Not necessarily. But you will live in such a way that your life will be what? More productive and more fruitful when you are willing to live your life in relationship to your parents according to. Listen, the moral law of God that you honor them. If you will not honor your parents whom you can see, why does anybody think you're going to honor your God whom you cannot see?

Listen, these aren't just suggestions. These are the irrevocable, unchangeable, eternal commands of the living God who is the absolute sovereign of this universe. Well, now we've come through these first four and now into this fifth one, which is sort of a bridge from our relationship to God, not our relationship to each other. And so let's look at this next commandment.

Here's what he says. And these are all imagine how much God can say in one of the two words, you shall not murder. It means that we are not to take someone else's life.

Now, watch this carefully. Not to commit murder. Well, what about going to war? Isn't it people out there killing people? That is not murder.

They are under the authority of their government. God sent the nation of Israel to war. He knew people are going to be killed. He's talking about vengeance. He's talking about anger and animosity and all the rest. Thou shalt not kill. It means exactly what it says.

You should not respond to another person, but take it at your vengeance, your anger, your hostility and deliberately take somebody else's life. Now we come to this whole issue of the seventh one. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Now, how important was that in the day of our Lord? Because, you see, today we've redefined adultery. We call it having an affair. Oh, I know God said it, but, you know, we're having an affair. We've accepted it as a lifestyle in America. And what the reason God gave us that is to protect the family and to protect relationships and not have relationships destroyed. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Well, then Jesus came along and He enlarged on that. He said, it's not just so much the act, the sexual act. It's the thought.

But it isn't just the thought. It is when a person lusts after another person. When they do so, He says they are guilty of adultery.

Now, listen carefully. When you begin to desire something and in your mind you start taking steps to do something about it, that is guilty of adultery. And today we totally ignore it. And how many times people commit the act of adultery and it never even crosses their mind, they are deliberately and willfully violating a law of God. Listen, not a law that's been massaged, but the unchangeable law of God. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Then, of course, He says, and these are very evident, He says you should not steal.

It's a protective law. Now, listen to the way some people think. Some people think this way. If you have more than I have, you have plenty, and I don't have any, then I should have the right to take some of what you have.

You still got plenty left over. You don't think people think that? That's exactly the way they think. To take something that belongs to someone else is a violation of the Ten Commandments, the unchangeable, listen, the unchangeable law of the living God. I'll tell you something else. You go to work, you're paid for eight hours. You walk out after seven, you just stole one hour of labor. You stole, let's say you made twenty dollars an hour, you just stole twenty bucks. It's stealing.

Listen, we've massaged it and camouflaged it and reasoned it out so we can do all kind of things. Listen, if you are lazy on your job, you don't do your best. And you just hem-haw around and do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. At least you can get by with that's not what you were paid for. What you're doing, you are taking the time and the effort and the energy God gave you. You pledge to someone else and you're keeping up here. You're stealing.

A student looks over on the desk of another student and takes an answer for a test. You just stole something that didn't belong. If you didn't know it and you took it from somebody else, you said they don't mind, that has nothing to do with it. You took something that did not belong to you because you didn't study. You just messed around and now you have to pay the consequence so you can steal from somebody else. There are all kind of ways of stealing. That one is very evident.

We don't need a whole lot of explanation. And then, of course, bearing false witness. Listen, Christians as well as the unbelieving world, what does it mean to bear a false witness?

Here's an example. It not only means to stand in court and under oath make a statement that is false. But it also means that if I or you gossip about someone else, leaving innuendos that are not true.

Well, this is what I heard. And, you know, after all, it's probably true. You know what that is? That is a violation of the Ten Commandments. You are abusing someone else's character. You are abusing someone else's life. You are violating the Ten Commandments, the laws of God. Whether it's a statement, innuendos, implications, just pure gossip. And if you said to somebody, I'm getting ready to violate the Ninth Commandment and tell you something. Then you know what? You probably wouldn't listen.

Now, let's come to the tenth one. Listen to this. The Tenth Commandment, thou shalt not covet. And I want you to watch all the things that God included in this. Listen to this. And there's a reason.

And there's a reason He made this last. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, neighbor's wife, male servant, female servant, ox, donkey, anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does it mean to covet? Here's what it means. I want what you have.

I want that. Strong, insatiable desire. Now, why is this at the end? Because this is an attitude. Stealing is an act. Adultery is an act.

In other words, all of these things are, lying is an act. When it comes to coveting, it's an attitude in your heart. You have that.

I want that. This is where breaking yourself over all the others begins. With an attitude, a desire, a longing, a yearning, a lusting after.

What I want you to see is this. The Living Word of God. This book is the most precious thing that exists on the face of this earth.

Because it is the mind of God. Given in such a fashion and so translated that we can know His mind and live by it. These Ten Commandments are God's unchanging, moral standard for all mankind, for you and for me. Amen? And Father, that's my prayer, the prayer of all of us, that we would once again acknowledge and recognize your law as the law for our protection, our good, and your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.