Please read Hebrews 10:1-21
In the Ten
Commandments, God outlines a basis for morality that has lasted over 3,000
years. It has been embraced by 2/3
of the world’s population. The most common form of these commandments is given
in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5:4
You shall have no other gods before Me
You shall not make unto you any graven
image
You shall not take the Name of the Lord
your God in vain
Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it
holy
Honor your father and your mother
You shall not kill
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall nor bear false witness
against your neighbor
You shall
not covet any thing that is your neighbor’s.
These are
not suggestions. These are not to
be taken lightly. These are, in fact, the building block of a society. And any society or people in the
society that takes these commands lightly WILL FALL.
There are only two that are set
in the positive (#4 and #5). #1-3
and 6-10 are YOU SHALL NOT. It seems to be the point that we are not to do a
great deal more than we are to do. Doing wrong is not just bad form; it is
against the plan of God for His creation.
For those who drive a car, ride a
bike or even walk, there are road signs placed at different places along your
route. Some of them remind us
where to drive, how fast you can go, where you can park or for us to stop. Are
they suggestions? If you disregard
the postings, what will happen to you or others?
These
ten commands or saying concern deep matters of fundamental importance. The largest is our obligation to
worship and show respect to God. The greatest injury to a person-murder. The
greatest injury to family bonds-adultery. The greatest injury to commerce and
law-to bear false witness. The
biggest intergenerational obligation-honor to parents. The biggest obligation
to the community-truthfulness. The greatest injury to property-theft.
In the Old
Testament, there are, as well as these ten, over 603 commandments but these are
called the Great Ten. As in later Jewish traditions pointed out, they tried to
keep these ten in the back seat, as it were, so that the people could also need
to follow their own rules for holidays and the like. Still later, the
Protestant Church pointed to two purposes for following them. 1) To personalize the Believer’s life to
each person and 2) to help them realize, that through their failure to live
that kind of life, they lack the ability to do this on their own. It served the Church as a reminder that
we are in need of God’s Grace.
Some facts
to consider. The Law DEMANDS
nothing short of perfection. See Ps
19:7-11. Only one MAN since it was
given has been able to live life that way: perfectly. Christ not only keep the Law perfectly, He became dirty from
our not being able to keep the law.
He became dirt for us! He kept the Law AND He paid the complete penalty
for the broken law. He took our place! He suffered on
the Cross so that we might be spared.
You need to look at Hebrews 9:13-15; Hebrews 10:1-22; 1 Peter 1:18-20.
The
question is asked then, why was the law given if man could not keep it? It was
to show us our exceeding sinfulness and need for a Savior. The LAW shows all of
us that we are indeed sinners in need of saving. Many do not agree with that
assessment but it is true nonetheless. When you take a child to see a doctor at
the clinic and he/she shows signs and symptoms revealing that the child has
measles, we accept the doctor’s opinion and take the necessary steps to bring
comfort to the child. The child gets some medicine that makes him break out.
The medical person did not MAKE the child have measles, but he proved that
measles was there.
(Galatians 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.;Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.;Romans 3: 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin..)
The Law is
God’s mirror that shows us our condition-that we are indeed exceedingly sinful. (Romans 7:12 So then, the law is holy,
and the commandment is holy, righteous and good..)
As we look
at Biblical history, two mountains tops stand out. Mount Sinai, where the 10 commandments were brought down (Exodus
19). The other is found a number of miles north, in Jerusalem on the mount
called Calvary. On one, there was the horror of thundering and lighting while
at Calvary, the Lord Jesus took away all the fire and thunder of God’s wrath
and made it possible for a meeting place to be formed between God, the Holy One
and Man, the sinner.
As we had referred
to before, these commands are divided into two parts. The Laws that concerned with Man’s attitude toward God and
Laws that were concerned with Man’s attitude toward his fellow human. Problems come in when Man takes these
laws lightly or dismiss their importance.
That points to our self-centeredness. God gave these commands to us and we are then to assume the
whole responsibility of keeping them. Exodus 19:8 The people all responded
together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their
answer back to the LORD.
A
question had been asked: “Why did Israel accept the Law rather than cry for
mercy?” The cry of the human heart has always been that we can do it
ourselves. That we can please God
by our own actions. Pride at the
center will not allow us to accept His Grace. Look at how the Hebrews responded
even before they got the Law: they were dancing around a golden calf and
worshiping a god they made (Exodus 32:1-10, 18).
THE Main
point is found in our passage we read at the beginning; Heb 10:10 And by that
will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
No matter of how many laws (or how few
laws) we have broken (or kept), it all boils down to this. Jesus came to die for sinners and we
are the ones He came to die for.
We can be made holy. Us, in our sinful natures, can be made HOLY! How
can that happen? Through God’s
Grace alone. Not by works-or good
actions--because we would boast.
But by the Blood, the eternal Blood of the Lord Jesus. On that evening He was arrested and
brought into a mocked trial, He was on the last leg of a long trip to set us
free. Made dirty, as we said
before, for us BECAUSE of the plan of salvation the Father had put into motion
way back in Genesis One. Adam and Eve, our parents, made a choice to sin
against God and a willfully disobedience and took the forbidden fruit and died
spiritually. From that point on, Man needed a Savior and the only one that could
fit the bill was God’s Only Son, Jesus, the Righteous!
The Lord Jesus’ action during His
time on earth in Human form while still being totally God--the GodMan, was one
of complete obedience to His Father’s will. “Not My will be done but Yours!” In Phil 2:8 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
AND ALL OF
THIS IS understood in light of Him becoming Incarnated, that He should suffer
and die, as in the apostle’s words, “taste death for every man, that all should
believe on Him and be saved from their sins”: for this is the Will of God--that
none should perish and that we would become sanctified--that is, set apart for
His Glory. That means we would become partakers of the Spirit of Christ. 2
Peter 1:4 Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises,
so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the
corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
And that is
why He came. That is why we are
looking at this this morning. We need to re-look at the Good News from time to
time...to get back to the basics. Keeping the Main Thing of the Gospel the Main
Thing.
And in
keeping our eyes set on the basics of the historical teaching, the Ten
Commandments, we can’t help rethink how these ten statements affect our every
day life. In all areas, He is the
Lord God and He has given us these words to lead us to know Him better. Romans
15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so
that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
