A recent cover story in Time Magazine was entitled “The God Gene.” It was an expose on research that is being done in over a dozen universities in the United States. Different researchers in different universities from California to New York are all looking into the same question: Does our DNA compel us to seek a higher power? The remarkable part of this study is that the researchers say yes.
Does that surprise you? To be honest I was a bit surprised by, not so much by what the researchers found, but that they agreed that to some point we are all looking for a higher power, someone else to be in control. We have a deep longing for there to be someone, something to guide our paths and to give us hope. And that longing doesn’t just reside in the world but we struggle with it in the church as well.
Blasé Pascal, a French philosopher, is known for his work in math, and chemistry. At age 12, he had discovered the principals geometry and at 16 wrote "The Geometry of Conics,". He also invented the calculating machine and the theory of probability.
In his mid-thirties, Pascal became interested in religion. And he penned the theory that these scientists are trying to prove today. He wrote:: "Within each one of us there is a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill." If that is true then everyone of us was made to seek out God.
Growing up in the church I was taught indirectly what it meant to seek out God. I watched Elders, Deacons, Bible School teachers profess with their lives that if you want to fill the God Shaped vacuum in your life then what you need to do is find God’s will for your life and follow it perfectly. These people who shaped my life taught me that I needed to lean on the perfect way that I kept God’s Law. I needed to boast in the fact that I had not murdered anyone, or committed adultery, and that I got Baptism right and the proper order of worship, 2 songs prayer, one song Communion, etc..
The problem I ran into like a brick wall is that I couldn’t keep the law perfectly. Then I struggled even more when I read verses like James 2:8-11:
If you really fulfill 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 but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
You see I spent my life searching for God through trying to keep the rules and I never formed a relationship. I believe that God uses the rules to bring us closer to Him and only your personal relationship will fill the God shaped vacuum in your life. To prove this I want to look at the most famous set of laws The 10 commandments and see the grace of God in every command.
We live in an age that is jaded. And though we live in a civilization that still does not condone murder or theft, we are debating whether it’s okay to lie and commit adultery.
In the introduction to her book, The Ten Commandments, Dr. Laura Schlessinger writes; "Each day we make many, seemingly minute decisions about things that don’t really seem earth shattering. So what if we broke a promise? So what if we find passion in another bed while we or they are still married? So what if we are too focused on work, TV, or clubs to spend time with our family? So what if religion is not a big deal in our lives? When one adds up all the so-what’s," one ends up with a life without direction, meaning, purpose, value, integrity, or long-range joy."
I doubt that you can find another passage in the Bible that so concisely, clearly and compassionately outlines the grace of God and the response to that grace human beings are called to make than the Ten Commandments.
Each week I want for you to hear all of them. So when we get together we will hear the whole law and then look into the relationship the comes from that law.
So lets turn to Exodus 20 and read verses 1-17.
Tonight I want to start by talking about the power of the Ten Commandments. Any document that has lasted as long and has exerted as much influence on humanity as this one must have something going for it.
1. They are rooted in a relationship.
Look at Exodus 19:4 - 6. (Read).
These are not arbitrary laws that require blind obedience to an invisible authoritarian. Vs.5 says, "If you keep my covenant." A covenant is a sacred promise between two parties. You can have a contract without having a relationship. But you can’t have a covenant without one. The Ten Commandments are like a wedding vow in many ways.
God pledges his power and love and promises and presence to Israel. In turn, God expects Israel’s loyalty to himself and compassion toward others. God didn’t jot down the Ten Commandments then answer Israel’s question, "Why should we do this?" by saying, "Because I told you so." Often, God does tell his people to obey because, "I am the Lord." But even then his commands are predicated on this relationship. The Ten Commandments are built on responsibility. God is as bound by them as we are.
That’s why, in part, the Ten Commandments don’t work with people who don’t have a relationship with God. Why should a person avoid stealing if he or she doesn’t acknowledge the God who said, "Thou shalt not steal.”? Why should a person honor their marriage commitments if they haven’t already made a commitment to the God who said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery.”?
The power of the Ten Commandments lies not in the fact that they are laws, but in that they are descriptions of how people live in relationship with God. It is true that these law. But more than that, they are words that describe a relationship.
2. The Ten Commandments outline human response to the grace of God.
Exodus 19:1- 2 uses the word " After" twice. After what? V s. 4 answers that question. " After I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself."
Look at 20:2. "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
Before God ever commands them to do anything or to refrain from doing anything, he saves them. Moses did not show up in Egypt with two stone tablets and say, "If you guys will agree to obey all these commands, God will deliver you from Egyptian slavery." He showed up and said, "God has heard your cry and has sent me to deliver you." Then, and only then, did God outline the response Israel was to make.
19:4- 5 outline this order perfectly. Vs. 4 says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself."
Vs. 5 says, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." Deliverance first. Commandment second.
And you remember what happened just 40 days after they first received the commands? They decided to violate at least the first two of them by building the golden calf and having a pagan party. And what did God do? He forgave them and reissued the commands. That’s grace.
One objection we sometimes make about studying the Ten Commandments is that the law was nailed to the cross. We are saved by grace, not law, so why are we spending all this time talking about the ultimate example of law?
But even Paul in Romans, said that the law is good. The law doesn’t save us, but it does describe how saved people respond to the grace that saved them.
3. The Ten Commandments move faith from the abstract to the actual by specifying behavior.
If you were to do a nationwide survey and ask people, "Do you believe in God?" I’ll bet the numbers would surprise you. A huge percentage would say, "Yes, absolutely, I believe in God." But then if you examined their lives you’d find that what they profess to believe and how they live show very little correspondence. I can say to Trista, "I love you." But if I never act out that love in specific, concrete behavior, my words are empty.
Faith, like love, is too easily kept in the realm of theory. The Ten Commands don’t allow us to claim belief in God without demonstrating that belief in concrete actions and behaviors. They require us to affirm our faith in the daily grind of living.
So instead of, "Do you believe in God?" the Ten Commandments ask us ten questions,
"Do you honor anything or anyone above the one true God?
Has God been replaced by something physical or material in your life?
Have you dishonored God’s name by using it in a frivolous manner?
Is your work more important than your relationship with God?
Do you honor your father and mother?
Do you value human life?
Have you kept your marriage vows?
Do you respect other’s rights of ownership?
Do you tell the truth?
Are you content with what you have or do you covet the possessions, relationships and successes of others?"
To God, our answers to those specific questions about behavior and morality demonstrate our belief.
4. They require personal responsibility for the well being of the community.
The "you, " in all these commands is singular. One of the reasons, maybe one of the top three reasons, our country is in such a moral mess right now, can be summed up in these words; "It’s not my problem." Really, it doesn’t make a big impact on my life if someone in Nashville covets his neighbor’s way of life. If someone in Spokane lies about a real estate investment, big deal. If there is a murder in Michigan, that’s too bad. What’s the weather going to do tomorrow? Those sins don’t affect me; it’s not my problem. The problem is, though, that most everybody feels that way. And sooner or later you are going to be lied to, or robbed, or see your marriage go up in smoke.
When God came down to the mountain, hundreds of thousands of people were gathered around its base. He did not address the crowd, though. He addressed each and every individual. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. You, standing there by that rock, and you over by that cedar tree, and you too, the one in the red turban who is thinking in his heart how glad he is all these other people are hearing all these commands. I’m talking to you!" There is a connection between personal responsibility and the well fare of the community. The Ten Commandments shout at the top of God’s voice, "It is your problem!"
Every lie you tell or tolerate, every covetous thought you allow to live longer than a flash, every secret lust, every act of dishonesty, all of them matter. And the only way you are going see your community healed is if you take personal responsibility to make it a holier, healthier community by beginning with yourself.
5. They illustrate the connection between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other.
The first four commands describe our relationship with God. The last 6 or 7 describe our relationships with each other.
In Mark 12 Jesus answered a question about which was the greatest command. He said, " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this; Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." What Jesus did was summarize the Ten Commandments. Love God. Love your neighbor.
These days in our culture we’ve edited Jesus’ summation of the Ten Commandments from two down to one. As long as people love each other we’re happy. You can keep God, thanks. All you need is love. The problem is we can’t get everyone to love each other. You see God is love. You get rid of God, you loose love.
What sounds like a thoroughly New Testament teaching had its origin in the Ten Commandments You can’t have a healthy, holy relationship with humans without having a healthy, holy relationship with God.
Need for an Introduction
Now that offers a good transition to the first commandment because that’s how the whole list begins; who is God? Why should I obey him? What does He want from me?
We start with the absolute truth "I am the Lord your God."
Why did Israel need such an obvious and elementary introduction? It’s like a football coach saying to his players, "Men, this is a football." We’ve got to remember that Israel had been in Egyptian captivity for 400 years. For 400 years Israel had been subjected to Egyptian culture, religion, economy and oppression. And the most important thing to remember is that Israel had no religion to sustain its identity. They came to Egypt a handful of people running from a famine. All the ritual, all the stories that we know of Israel didn’t exist until after their enslavement. They had been completely indoctrinated into Egyptian culture. The only thing they knew about God was his name.
No stories. No songs. No scriptures. Nothing to shape and mold their faith. So God began with the basics. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. I am your savior. Your deliverer.
Then God issued the first command. You shall have no other gods before me. I believe that the idea of having only one God was a completely new thought to those people. The Egyptians served many God’s and each plague of Egypt was a direct assault to one of those gods. The Nile was worshipped as a god, so Jehovah turned it to blood. The sun was worshipped, so God darkened it. The first born was worshipped. So God killed it.
The Israelites had been completely surrounded by a polytheistic culture for as long as any of them could remember. So when God demanded exclusive loyalty, it was a revolutionary idea. Why did God want complete allegiance?
It’s just like one of the problems that divorced parents encounter, sooner or later, is that the children will try to play one parent against the other. If mom won’t let me have what I want, then maybe dad will. And because the parents feel guilty about the breakup of their home they are vulnerable. If one says no she’s the bad guy.
The kids love you for what you give them, not for who you are. God wanted to head that kind of dysfunction off at the pass. God was saying, "This is going to be a one parent family. I’m your father and mother. If you need anything you come to me. If you want to know how to live, you come to me. I am all you need to make it."
This first command is so foundational to the rest. God could have begun simply by saying, "Take a day off. Be nice to your parents. Don’t kill each other. Etc. Etc. Etc. " But then the obvious question would be, "Why?" Why should we do certain things and avoid others? If there was no ultimate standard of authority outside our own feelings there would be no reason to recognize the laws as anything but an arbitrary list that could be dismissed any time we feel like it.
Today there are those who want to keep the Ten Commandments out of courtrooms and other government funded facilities. It may surprise you, but I understand why they oppose the posting of the Ten Commandments. Maybe they understand something about the Commandments we don’t. They don’t mind the parts about stealing and killing and lying. Everybody pretty much agrees with those. They don’t really mind the part about being kind to your parents. Most everybody finds those comfortable. The part the opponents of the Ten Commandments can’t live with is the first command; you shall have no other gods before me.
They understand how powerful that command is. They understand that if you recognize the sovereign, exclusive authority of God then you can’t merely dismiss a commandment just because you don’t feel like obeying it. If there really is only one God, if he really is the only savior of the oppressed and enslaved, then he must be obeyed.
So what does that say about us if we casually tell a lie or tolerate one? If we loosely hold our marriage vows? Or if we indulge thoughts of covetousness? Does it not say that we need to go back to the first commandment and ask ourselves, "Have I allowed another god to take the throne? Is self ruling where God should be? Success? Pride? Sex? Work?
If we will honor God as the only God in our lives, it won’t matter whether the Ten Commandments are posted in courtrooms and school hallways or not. They will be posted everywhere a Christian goes. And the testimony of our lives will be impossible to silence.
Today we need to ask ourselves who is our God? And I believe that if we are honest with ourselves not all of us will be able to say Jehovah. There are many of us in the Lords family who want to keep God happy so we do the bear minimum, but also struggle to keep the God of self happy. And the struggle between the two keeps no one happy.
Today, God still says Have no other God’s before me. What god’s do you need to lay at the feet of Jehovah today. Can we help you start life anew today? If so please come while together we stand and sing.
