How to Interpret the Ten Commandments #2

Our Lord Jesus Christ. He kept the Ten Commandments without a single transgression. He didn't sin against it once. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law in satisfying all of the punishment that the law of God requires for its transgressions. When an airplane pilot or the captain of a ship sets their coordinates, there's no room for even the slightest inaccuracy.

If the settings are off, even by a single click, it could mean missing the destination by thousands of miles. And in much the same way, misinterpreting scripture, even a single word, can cause all kinds of problems. Hello and welcome once again to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and today as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word, we'll see just how important it is to know what God's Word says and what it does not say.

Right now, let's join Don for part two of his message called How to Interpret the Ten Commandments, right here on the Truth Pulpit. Turn to Matthew 5 here. Matthew 5, 21. You have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.

And when we think about murder, we're thinking about the slaying and taking of a human life, physically taking someone's life away from them without legal justification. But Jesus says, but I say to you, meaning there's something more that you need to consider here about the nature of that commandment. So he says in verse 22, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Knock me over with a feather.

How great is the significance of that? Jesus just said in interpreting and applying the Ten Commandments to us, says that if you angrily denounce someone as a fool, you're guilty enough to go to hell. He said, but I never killed anyone.

That misses the point entirely. That kind of anger, that kind of slander is the murder of the soul. It's the soul committing murder, even if the hands do not take the physical life.

You see, the law is spiritual and the command against murder can commit you and prohibit you from having even that thought in your heart. Now, which one of us can say I'm innocent of that? Which one of us has never in anger denounced someone or harbored resentful angry feelings about life or circumstances, has ever spoken in a harsh way to another man? Which one of us is innocent of that? Which one of us has never even done that in our hearts?

I won't ask for hands because there shouldn't be any hands going up. But he goes further, Jesus does. He goes on to explain, and he's illustrating things here.

This isn't exhaustive. He's simply illustrating the way that the Ten Commandments apply to the heart of man. So that he goes on in verse 27, and he explains that the law that forbids adultery also forbids lust in the heart. Verse 27, 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 lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And ladies, he's not simply talking to men here, is he? It's not that it only applies to half of humanity, what he's saying here. The fantasies and romance novels that take you into a realm of these iniquitous relationships and the mental realm of that, it's all sinful. It's all a violation of the command, you shall not commit adultery.

What we're seeing, but men having said that, which one of us, which one of us has been innocent from birth until now of never having cast a wayward look into places where it should not have gone, which one of us is innocent of that? Well, you see and understand that the law is not only commanding what you do with your body, but what you do with your heart. And if you have done these things with your heart, you are guilty before God in the same way that a physical adulterer is guilty himself. And part of the significance of it, part of what we will understand in weeks to come is that the commandments are kind of a capstone of the outcome of things that are going on in your heart.

So that a man who commits murder and in all of the awful family violence that we see dominating us and acts that are done on the street and so forth, those things start in the heart with a disposition of hatred toward the one that is ultimately struck with the weapon. The act of physical adultery is the culmination of things that began in the heart, so that the law is commanding not only the finality of the sin and the physical expression of the sin, the law is forbidding the initial motions, the initial desires that ultimately lead to it. And we start to understand that the law is spiritual, and somewhere in our minds there should be developing this thought, friends, we're in a lot of trouble here.

This is not good. If the law means that, and I'm like this, then there's a problem here that causes me to wake up and take things seriously. Turn to Matthew chapter 15, and we see that God's law operates in the realm of the heart. It's the heart, the heart, the heart. It's like the word of God comes and it shouts, it's the heart! And then there is a resounding echo to drive it deeper into our being.

It's the heart, the heart, the heart, the heart. Matthew 15, verse 18, Jesus said, the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man. And you see Jesus giving these summary statements just in a single word referring to different aspects of the Ten Commandments, and he says why there are murders and adulteries and thefts and slanders is coming out of the heart. And so the law judges and condemns the heart of men, judges and condemns every one of us at the level of the heart at the very core of who you are. That's the problem. Let's think about this theologically for just a moment, and we'll realize that it could be no other way.

This is absolutely unavoidable. God is a spirit, John 4.24, and as an invisible spirit, he knows the invisible thoughts and intentions of the heart. The God who created you, my friend, the God who made you in the body is the same God who established the inner man as a component of humanity.

And he who regulates and knows the body also knows the inner man, and we are laid bare before him with what we do with our hands, what we say with our lips, and what we think with our minds, and what we desire in our hearts. And it's all to be holy without blame, and none of us meet that standard. You see, because God is a spirit and he knows the thoughts and intentions of our heart, it is fitting and it is obvious that therefore his law, the Ten Commandments, cover the realm of his entire knowledge.

The fact that you hide it from men does not vindicate you before God. That only adds to, the hypocrisy of that only adds to and multiplies our guilt. So the law speaks to the heart.

That is the realm in which the law applies. The Puritan Thomas Watson said this, he says, the law of God forbids not only the act of sin, but the desire and inclination. Just as a brief side light that needs to be said in our modern culture and to many within the church, the approach that tries to compromise with the prevalent sin and acceptance of the sin of homosexuality in our society that says as long as you don't commit the physical act or you don't actually fall into lust, the orientation itself is not sinful. Beloved, do not embrace that.

Don't go there. That is wrong. Because if the act is wrong and the lust is wrong, the orientation that produces it is wrong before God also. It's all condemned. Those of us that are not inclined in that way, the orientation to be a lustful person is not vindicated by the fact that you don't act upon it. Scripture deals at the fundamental level of the heart. And to try to excuse in the name of an orientation because it's consistent with the spirit of our age, to try to do that is to eviscerate, is to cut out the very point that the law is making and what Jesus expresses in multiple places in the New Testament.

We can't go there. The law forbids not only the act of sin but the desire and inclination itself. So we come to our fourth point. We've seen that the Bible is the context of the Ten Commandments. The goal of the law is love. The realm of the law is the heart.

And kind of following on the third point comes our fourth point. The law intends more than is expressly spoken. Point number four, the law intends more than is expressly spoken. We've already seen this in what Jesus said. You know, you've heard that you should not murder. Well, let me talk to you about hate. You've heard the law speak about adultery.

Let me speak to you about lust. The law covers more than just what the bare words in an individual verse express. And keeping consistent with our principles of interpretation, Scripture interprets the more for us. Scripture helps us understand where else the law goes. In Exodus 20, verse 12, we read the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. Well, Jesus applies that command in Matthew 15 to tell his hearers that that commandment means that you are to provide for your parents in their old age and that that is included within the realm of that commandment.

In dealing with the principles of fathers and mothers, Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5 to honor the older church members and to interact with them as fathers, the older women as mothers, so that Scripture tells us and helps us to see that this principle of honoring our parents is actually a principle about honoring authority in a way that applies beyond the immediate blood relationship with the people who gave physical life to you. Fifthly, the law has negative and positive implications. The law has negative and positive implications.

This is amazing, and it could be no other way. And this opens up a realm of understanding that is remarkable. When God's moral law forbids an evil, it requires also a corresponding good. And if it requires a good, it forbids the corresponding evil, so that if it says honor your father and mother, that means that there are positive duties associated with that. And in a negative way, it also restrains you from cursing your parents or being disobedient to them as a young child.

You get the idea. Positive statement in the law, but a corresponding evil also forbidden. And in the same way, the logic of this is clear, but it takes maybe a few moments to get your mind around it. In the same way, and I'm going to illustrate this for you, if the law forbids you from doing something, it's also requiring you to do a positive good so that—here's an illustration taken straight from Scripture—so that Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, first table of the law says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Don't use the name of God in a careless manner. Don't swear falsely. Be aware that the name of God requires reverence, and don't use it in a flippant, superficial way.

Okay, that's clear enough. But do you realize that that also means that there is a positive correspondence to that in the way that you do use it? Don't use it in vain means that you use it in a God-honoring way, so that as Jesus opens his teaching on prayer in Matthew chapter 6, the first thing that he instructs us to do in prayer is this, Father, hallowed be your name.

So it's not just that I refrain from using his name in a flippant way. I understand that the name of God is that by which I address him, and I seek the glory of his name in prayer and with the totality of my life. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do all to the glory of his name. You sanctify his name with positive conduct, positive inclinations of your heart, positive words, not simply refraining from saying nothing.

Let's think about it this way. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You say, well, okay, then I'm not going to say anything.

What is that? I won't use his name at all. Well, isn't it obvious? It is to me. Isn't it obvious that that would be a violation of the command? Think about it this way. Those of you that are married or want to be married, can you imagine having a spouse and you say, I'm never going to say a bad word to my spouse? Okay, that's fine. But at the same time, I'm not going to say anything good either.

Would you think that that was a loving, healthy relationship, that you simply refrain from speaking things that were destructive while saying nothing that was good and loving and encouraging and affirming? The negative and the positive go together. It's two sides of one coin. Same thing with the law of God.

So we understand this negative and positive implication. There's another aspect of it that Scripture also teaches us. In Exodus chapter 20 verse 15, it says, you shall not steal. Just think, okay, well, I'll just refrain from taking something that doesn't belong to me and I'm good, right? Uh-uh.

Doesn't work that way. Turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

And if you can hang in with me here, we're almost done. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 28, keeping in mind the commandment, you shall not steal. Look at what the inspired writer, the Apostle Paul, says about the significance of that commandment as he applies it to the church. He says in verse 28, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather, positive implication, he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who has need. The law against theft means that a person doesn't live off the generosity of others when he's an able-bodied person.

An able-bodied person has a positive duty on himself to support himself, to work for his living, to secure a living not only for himself, but that he might have an overflow that he's able to share with others. All of that being held in seed form in the original commandment. By commanding us not to steal, it is instructing us to provide for ourselves so that we aren't taking from others when we have the ability to do so in our own being. Positive implication written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about a negative prohibition.

Do you see it? I'm just giving you illustrations. This is woven throughout each one of the ten. And so, we step back, we're getting introduced.

This is just an introduction today. We're just getting introduced to the fact that the, what the psalmist said in Psalm 119. Your law, your commandment, oh God, it must be exceedingly broad. These things can't be avoided. These things from Scripture can't be denied.

They're right there on the surface. Your law is exceedingly broad. Finally, point number six. The law is an integrated whole. The law is an integrated whole. The spirit of the commandments is woven together like a seamless garment.

You can't tear one out without breaking anything. Look at James, the book of James after the book of Hebrews. In James chapter two, beginning in verse eight, it says, if, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. And so it doesn't do to take a superficial view of select commandments and say, I haven't committed adultery and I haven't murdered anybody.

Therefore, I fulfilled what God requires. Without understanding that, what Scripture says is this, every sin is a violation of the authority of God. Every sin is an assault and a rebellion against His holiness, regardless of which one you actually break. And so what Scripture teaches us is that we must view the law as a unity. And just like a big window in a department store, if you throw one rock through the pane of glass, you've shattered the whole thing.

The whole thing is broken and can't be put back together again. Just one rock breaking the whole pane, just one sin breaking the entirety of the law of God. Even these six principles are a lot to take in, aren't they?

Aren't you glad I went with six and not ten? Let's think through the implications of what this means for us and what this means about the Lord Jesus Christ as we close. Philip Reichen, in his book titled Written in Stone, said this, he said, the Ten Commandments are much more impossible to obey than most people have ever imagined. I would put it this way, a superficial view of the law undeniably, inevitably, directly leads to a superficial view of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you think the law is not that big of a deal, it's not going to be that big of a deal that Christ died to forgive you of your transgressions of the law.

Let's look at it from another perspective. How can you measure the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ? What is another perspective that grants us an elevated esteem of who he is?

It's this. He never once sinned against a law as exceedingly broad as that. So he kept it perfectly in positive righteousness and then, not having committed any sin of his own that required penalty on behalf of his people, he paid the price, the penalty of what the law requires when he shed his blood on the cross.

Astonishing. My friends, Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. I ask you whether you freely acknowledge in your heart before God and before men that you are a transgressor of this law of God. Do you confess that? Is that central to your self-identification? Do you recognize that Christ alone is the one who meets what this law requires?

And have you come to Christ in humble faith in order to receive his righteousness as a gift to satisfy what God requires from you? The law instructs us in all these things. May God help us to understand it as we proceed in the weeks to come. That's Don Green bringing our lesson called How to Interpret the Ten Commandments to a close. Next time, Don will continue on in this series called God's Forgotten Law with a look at morals and obedience here on The Truth Pulpit. Do join us then. If you'd like a copy of today's lesson or you'd like to share it with a friend, you'll find all of Don's teachings available without interruption at thetruthpulpit.com. Once again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. Well, we're out of time for today. I'm Bill Wright, hoping you can join us next time as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word here on The Truth Pulpit.