God’s Top Ten
Exodus 20:1-20
Since 1997, an anti-lawsuit group from Michigan has held “The Wacky Warning Label Contest” every year. They do it to highlight the absurd effects of lawsuits on warning labels. Last year (2007), Kevin Soave of Farmington Hills, Michigan, submitted the winning label. It was a warning sticker he found on a small tractor, which read, “Danger: Avoid Death.”
Carrianne, Jacob, and Robby Turin of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, won the $250 second place prize for a label they found on an iron-on T-shirt transfer. It warned: “Do not iron while wearing shirt.”
The $100 third-place prize went to Richard Goodnow of Lancaster, Massachusetts, for a label he found on a baby stroller that featured a small storage pouch. It advised: “Do not put child in bag.” (Ron Vample, “Avoid Death’ is wacky warning winner,” USA Today, 12-13-07)
How ridiculous can it get? Some rules are just plain silly, but God has given us a set of rules that are actually very helpful. We know them as the l0 commandments, and they serve some very useful purposes.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 20, Exodus 20, where we have God’s top 10 rules for success. Exodus 20, starting at vs.1 (read to vs.20)
God shows up in fire and smoke, because He wants His people to understand His holy nature. He’s not some “Old Man” in the sky. He’s the Almighty God, who deserves our utmost respect. And that’s what the 10 commandments are all about.
They help us to KNOW GOD HIMSELF. THEY HELP US TO UNDERSTAND HIS HOLY NATURE. THEY HELP US TO SEE WHO GOD REALLY IS.
You see, the 10 commandments are not the whims of a capricious God, who made them up just to make us miserable. No. They reflect the unchanging character of a holy God. God told us to honor our earthly parents, because He as our heavenly Father is worthy of all honor. God told us not to murder, because He is the author of life. God told us not to commit adultery, because He is always faithful. God told us not to steal, because He is generous and gives. God told us not to lie, because he is the truth. & God told us not to covet, because He is self-sufficient. He wants for nothing; and when we have Him, We want for nothing else as well. The 10 commandments reveal the character and nature of a holy God.
Shortly after [St. Augustine had finished writing a thick theological tome on the Trinity], he was walking along the Mediterranean shore on the coast of North Africa. There, he came upon a boy who kept filling a bucket with seawater and pouring it into a large hole in the sand.
“Why are you doing that?” Augustine asked the boy.
The boy replied in all seriousness, “I’m pouring the Mediterranean Sea into the hole.”
“My dear boy,” Augustine chided, “what an impossible thing to try to do! The sea is far too vast, and your hole is far too small.”
Then, as Augustine continued his walk, it dawned on him that his efforts to write on the nature of God were much like that boy: the subject was far too vast, and his mind was far too small! (Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, IVP, 2005, p. 101)
Our minds are too small to comprehend the nature of God. He is far beyond our understanding. God Himself says in His Word, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). And yet, the 10 commandments give us a glimpse into God’s character and nature, even when we cannot understand Him.
Missionary Gracia Burnham was held captive by terrorists in the Philippines for more than a year, and her husband was killed during the rescue. She writes:
“Sometimes I wonder, Why did Martin die when everyone was praying he wouldn’t? Why does Scripture lead you to believe that if you pray a certain way, you’ll get what you pray for? People all over the world were praying that we’d both get out alive, but we didn’t.”
Her questions made her realize it isn’t always easy to comprehend God’s nature. She continues, “I used to have this concept of what God is like, and how life’s supposed to be because of that. But in the jungle, I learned I don’t know as much about God as I thought I did. I don’t have him in a theological box anymore. What I do know is that God is God—and I’m not. The world’s in a mess because of sin, not God. Some awful things may happen to me, but God does what is right. And he makes good out of bad situations. (Corrie Cutrer, "Soul Survivor," Today’s Christian Woman, July/Aug 2003, p. 50)
We may not always understand what God is up to. But we do KNOW that He is good. We do KNOW that He always does what’s right, because we see His goodness and His righteousness reflected in His law.
The 10 commandments help us to know God Himself. More than that, they help us to KNOW OURSELVES.
THEY HELP US TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE. They help us to see that we are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. You see, after we catch a glimpse of God, we know that we fall far short.
Romans 7 says, “I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet’” (Romans 7:7). The law is like a light, which reveals the dirt.
On a warm, summer night, Pastor William Wimmer and his wife were traveling in their car with Micah, their 3-year-old son, who sat in the back seat. After many miles of driving in the darkness, they came to a stop under a traffic light in a remote area. Now, the brightness of that light revealed all of the dirt, dead bugs, and insects that had been smashed on their windshield, and Micah said, “Look, how dirty!”
A moment later, they drove on – away from the light and back into the darkness. There, they could no longer see the mess on their windshield, and Micah quickly piped up and said, “Now the glass is clean!” (William Wimmer, pastor of Grace Chapel Church of God, Benton, Arkansas)
Well, you know what happened. The dirt didn’t go away; the light did. &
Little Micah couldn’t see the dirt anymore.
Without the 10 commandments, we live in blissful ignorance of the dirt in our lives. But when we shine the light of God’s law on our lives, we realize how dirty we really are.
Thomas Carlyle once wrote, “The deadliest sin is the consciousness of no sin.” Well, the 10 commandments give us a consciousness of sin, so we can do something about it before it destroys us; i.e., so we can go to the Savior for help.
How about you? Are you tired of the mess in your life? Then turn to Jesus. Call upon Him, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again.
The Bible says, “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from ALL sin” (1 John 1:7). No matter how dirty we are, Jesus can make us clean. Just trust Him with your life. By faith, put your life in His hands and let Him start that cleansing process today.
Then the 10 commandments will no longer be a cause for guilt. Then they can become a cause for rejoicing. Because the 10 commandments not only reveal the problem. They become a promise for those who depend on Christ. They become a promise of what we may become. You see, the 10 commandments not only help us understand what we are today – sinners in need of a Savior.
THEY HELP US UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BECOMING OMORROW.
They help us see the work that Christ is accomplishing in each of us who trust Him.
Do we struggle with the love of money? Jesus is working in us to create a single devotion to God alone. Are our lives unbalanced with too much activity and things to do? Jesus is working in us to give us regular times of rest. Are our marriages suffering? Jesus is working in us to make us faithful mates. Do we wrestle with murderous thoughts? Jesus is working in us to give us hearts of forgiveness and love. Do we have trouble keeping our word? Jesus is working in us to make us men and women of integrity.
The 10 commandments are promises of what we may become in Christ.
Mark Galli, in his book Jesus mean and Wild, said, “The difference between Jesus’ holiness ethic and that of the Pharisees is this: the Pharisees refuse to touch any unclean thing. Jesus aims to make the unclean holy. (Mark Galli, Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God, Baker, 2006, p. 44)
The Pharisees were judgmental andcondemned sinners. They stayed far away from people they deemed unclean. Jesus, on the other hand, got close to sinners. He touched a leper and made him clean. He touched a thieving tax-collector and made him generous. He touched an adulterous woman and made her pure.
Please, let Jesus touch you today and make you whole. Then the 10 commandments will become promises for you, rather than burdens of guilt.
The 10 commandments are wonderful! 1st, They help us know God. 2nd, They help us know ourselves – what we are and what we can become. And 3rd, the 10 commandments help us KNOW LOVE. THEY HELP US TO SEE WHAT LOVE IS ALL ABOUT. & THEY HELP US TO PUT OUR LOVE INTO ACTION.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will…” What? “OBEY what I command” (John 14:15). When we obey Christ’s commands, we demonstrate true love. Anything else is just fluff. Our songs, our supplications, our sacrifices mean nothing if we don’t also submit to Him.
When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”(Matthew 22),
Jesus said you can hang the whole Law on two commands: Love God; & Love your neighbor. Do you want to know how to love God and love people? Then let the 10 commandments guide you. The first 4 commandments show us how to love God. & The last 6 commandments show us how to love people.
In 1988, in a small, struggling church in Argentina, gospel singer Damaris Carbaugh saw something she wanted. She had joined Jim Cymbala, the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, at a pastor’s conference in this South American country. And as she stood with the believers in worship and prayer, she was struck by the contrast to the condition of her own heart.
Everyone was wearing coats because it was cold in the church; the cement floor was hard. Although these people were extremely poor in material things, she could see that they were rich in Christ – far richer than she. It made her cry.
“I don’t know if it was leaving New York and being in a place so remote that my eyes and heart were able to focus,” Damaris recalls, “or if it was just the devotion these people had that was so incredible.” Even so, 20 years later, she remembers it as if it were yesterday. “All I know is that it hit me like a ton of bricks,” she said. “I wanted what they had.” (Bonne Steffen, “Damaris’s New Reason to Sing,” Christian Reader, 7-8-01)
Do you want to love the Lord with all your heart? Then let the 10 commandments show you how. Put God first in your life. & Don’t worship anything but Him. Don’t misuse His name. & Set aside a whole day every week just for the Lord.
Do you want to love people? Then the 10 commandments can help you there, as well. For if you truly want to love people, then don’t kill them. Don’t steal from them. Don’t lie about them. & Don’t covet their stuff.
The 10 commandments provide very practical help in ALL our relationships. Do you want to love your parents? Then honor them. Do you want to love your wife? Then be faithful to her.
The 10 commandments show us how to truly love God and others.
Until a few years ago, there were no laws about child safety seats and restraint systems in automobiles. As a result, many young children died tragically in car accidents, because they were not safely belted in their seats. Today, laws prohibit children from riding in a car without a child seat facing the right direction and properly installed. Even new mothers are required to have the seat installed before talking a child home from the hospital.
Now, there is no greater love than that of a mother for her child. And yet, when a child’s safety is at stake, that mother’s feelings are not enough. The law of child safety restraints in the car ensures that children are truly loved and therefore kept safe. (Troy Dean, Fullerton, California)
So it is with God’s law. Our feelings are not enough. Rather, we need God’s law to show us how to love. & We need God’s law to help us truly love Him and other people.
The 10 commandments are wonderful! They help us know God. They help us know ourselves. & They help us know love.
Kevin Miller, Christian author and conference speaker, talks about the time he was a student at Wheaton College 700 miles away from his home. His roommate was a loner, and it snowed 90 inches that first winter there. Kevin felt like he was living in the Arctic, so lonely and literally, out in the cold.
Then a senior named Mike Yearley invited Kevin to his apartment for dinner and a Bible study. When Kevin got there, the first thing he noticed was that Mike’s apartment had real walls made out of dry wall, not cinder blocks painted over too many times.
Mike’s wife, Lin, was cooking a home-cooked meal, and it tasted way better than anything from the college cafeteria. There were other people there, too—a guy named Dave, and another named Dan, who were upperclassmen and popular. They all talked and laughed and played games and listened to music and drank coffee and hung out till super late. And as Kevin walked home with Dan, he thought: Wow. No one’s got a huge, bloated ego. They just care about each other.
That apartment became Kevin’s home and his sanity. Whenever he had a question or problem about dating, he would head to Mike’s apartment. Whenever he had a question or problem about his spiritual life, he would head to Mike’s apartment.
“At the time,” Kevin says, “I was trying to live my Christian life in a legalistic way, in my own power, which is a really stinky way to do it. But I didn’t know any other way.” So Mike and Dan began teaching him how to live by the power of the Holy Spirit within, and what Kevin found in Mike’s apartment was a community of love.
That, he says, is what it means to be a Christian. “To be a Christian,” he says, “is to get an invitation to Mile’s apartment. To be a Christian is to be invited into the Community of Love we call the Trinity. In the Trinity, you never find one Person who’s grumpy. Never find a Person who is taking love but not giving it out. No one’s critical or cynical or jaded.
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in an absolute unity of love. The Father glorifies the Son. The Son gives glory to the Father. The Spirit knows the thoughts of God and prays to God for our sake. In the Trinity, there’s no jealousy, no politics, no power plays?”
Kevin Miller says, “The reason we can’t find many good analogies for the Trinity is that we constantly live in such broken relationships that it’s hard for us to imagine a Community in which there’s constant joy and creativity and each Person pouring himself out for the others. It sounds crazy,” he says, “but I think it would be theologically accurate to say: ‘God is a party, and you’re invited.’” (Kevin Miller, Getting to Know Your God, available on PreachingToday.com)
That’s really what the 10 commandments show us about God, ourselves, and love. They show us that God is a party and we’re all invited.
Please, Don’t stay out in the cold any longer. Come to the party and never be lonely again. Come to the Lord and experience a Community of Love.
Note: I want to give credit where credit is due. Most of the illustrations for this sermon come from www.PreachingToday.com, a very useful resource for pastors, right along with www.sermoncentral.com.
