\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Exodus 20:1-18<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. Thousands of years ago, God gave Israel a law that has impacted the laws of mankind\never since.\n A. John Adams wrote, “As much as I love, esteem, and admire the Greeks, I believe\nthe Hebrews have done more to enlighten and civilize the world. Moses did more\nthan all of their legislators and philosophers.”\n
B. The core of God’s law is found in Exodus 20-23<\/p>\n
C. The prelude to this law is called the Ten Commandments – Deuteronomy 4:10-13<\/p>\n 1. Harvard Law School Professor, Alan M. Dershowitz, said, “The Ten\nCommandments are clearly a precursor to all Western Law, including\nAmerican Law.”\n D. The Ten Commandments are more than a set of laws. They serve as an\nintroduction to God and what He wants from His people.\n
1. They serve as the basis for the remainder of the Old Law<\/p>\n
2. They are the framework from which the New Law was built<\/p>\n
II. The Nature of the Ten Commandments<\/p>\n
A. In modern law, we tend to have laws that are exhaustive in nature<\/p>\n
1. Every action that needs to be dealt with is specified in separate laws<\/p>\n 2. Our federal and state laws exist on thousands of pages that take large\nlibrary rooms to hold\n B. Ancient law systems took a different approach. The laws were a model, not\nexhaustive.\n
1. The law gave guiding principles instead of detailed descriptions<\/p>\n 2. The citizens were then expected to extrapolate from these principles how\nto apply the law to a particular situation\n
3. There weren’t loopholes or technicalities, only reasoning and application<\/p>\n
4. Attempts to narrowly define a law is a violation of the purpose of the law<\/p>\n
5. These laws didn’t try to list every possible sin or crime.<\/p>\n 6. Even in the New Law, we find lists of sins but are reminded that the list is\nnot exhaustive. “And things like these” – Galatians 5:21\n
C. This model approach is how the Ten Commandments were written. <\/p>\n
1. Adultery becomes the category for sexual sins<\/p>\n a. It wasn’t seen as only forbidding sex with someone who is married\nto another person.\n b. Sex with someone who is engaged to be married is treated the same\nas if they were already married – Deuteronomy 22:22-24\n c. By extension sex with someone not married is a violation against\nthat person’s future spouse, so it too is forbidden even if they have\nnot yet met their future spouse – Deuteronomy 22:13-14, 20-21\n
d. You can see it in the New Law – Matthew 5:28<\/p>\n (1) The prohibition against looking at women with lust in your\nheart is directly talking about men thinking about\ncommitting adultery with a married woman, but this is done\nto serve as an illustration of a series of sins that fall into the\nsame class. \n (2) It would be just as wrong for women to lust after a married\nman. \n (3) It would be just as wrong for a man to lust after a single\nwoman. \n (4) It would be just as wrong for a man to lust after another\nman or for a woman to lust after another woman.\n
2. Stealing becomes the category for all kinds of theft<\/p>\n
3. Perjury becomes the category for all types of lying<\/p>\n D. This model approach to laws needs to be kept in mind as we look at God’s\nteachings for how to live our lives\n 1. Some will claim that the Scriptures only gave laws regarding men, so they\ndon’t apply to women. That isn’t how ancient laws worked\n
III. The Giving of the Law<\/p>\n
A. Exodus opens with the Israelites in slavery to the Egyptians<\/p>\n B. Through mighty miracles, God delivers His people from slavery, destroys a\nmighty army, and provides for His people in the wilderness.\n
C. They come to Mount Sinai and Moses goes up to talk with God – Exodus 19:3-6<\/p>\n
D. Moses is sent to prepare the people to meet their God – Exodus 19:11-14<\/p>\n E. God arrives, heralded by thunder, lightning, and a loud trumpet call – Exodus\n19:16-17\n
F. The tension builds – Exodus 19:18-19<\/p>\n
G. Then God comes down – Exodus 19:20<\/p>\n H. How does God introduce Himself? The first words the people hear are the Ten\nCommandments.\n 1. These commands are not just a list of instructions about what they must or\nmust not do.\n
2. God is telling His people what they need to know about Him<\/p>\n
3. In these rules, God reveals His character and nature.<\/p>\n
IV. “I am the Lord your God”<\/p>\n A. God begins by reminding Israel of His grace. It is He who liberated them from\nbondage.\n
B. He stated that He came to save – Exodus 3:7-8<\/p>\n
C. The people could testify that He did as He said – Exodus 19:4<\/p>\n
D. Upon this foundation: “I saved you,” God gives His requirements of the people.<\/p>\n
E. Paul uses the same point – Galatians 5:13-14<\/p>\n
V. In other words, God’s grace leads to God’s law. <\/p>\n A. This is not payback or something owed. It is an expression of how those saved\nshow their appreciation.\n
B. God deserves our obedience because He saved us from sin<\/p>\n
C. After spending most of the book of Romans showing that<\/p>\n
1. We are all sinners, worthy of death<\/p>\n
2. That God, in His mercy, decided to save us despite ourselves<\/p>\n
3. That God did so without violating justice<\/p>\n D. Paul starts the practical application of this realization to state that we should give\nourselves as living sacrifices to God – Romans 12:1\n E. And that we change so as to prove that God’s will for us is good, acceptable, and\nperfect – Romans 12:2\n
F. There is time to change now. Don’t let the opportunity pass<\/p>\n
\n
Based on a lesson written by Brent Kercheville<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Download Audio by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Exodus 20:1-18 I. Thousands of years ago, God gave Israel a law that has impacted the laws of mankind ever since. A. John Adams wrote, “As much as I love, esteem, and admire the Greeks, I believe the Hebrews have done more to enlighten and civilize the world. Moses…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[177,176],"class_list":["post-86359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-law","tag-ten-commandments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-commandments-are-there-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":0},"title":"How many commandments are there now?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How many commandments are there 10 or 9 or 11? Could you please confirm, one way or the other, that in the New Testament there are only nine commandments mentioned as commandments? Is that missing commandment is the fourth original commandment \"Keep Holy the Sabbath Day\"? So does this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-law-and-the-commandments\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":1},"title":"The Law and the Commandments","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Deuteronomy 30:6-16 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seventh-Day Adventists insist that the only acceptable day of worship is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath day. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To get to that belief, they insist that the Ten Commandments are separate from the rest of the Law of Moses. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68221,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/law-of-god-and-law-of-moses-are-they-the-same\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":2},"title":"Law of God and Law of Moses: Are They the Same?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Seventh-Day Adventists have long made the claim that the \"law of God\" is the moral and permanently binding \"Ten Commandments\" that were kept inside the ark of the covenant while claiming that the \"law of Moses\" was different. They claim it was \"ceremonial\" law and placed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-christians-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":3},"title":"The Christian\u2019s Sabbath","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton based on an ad by Floyd Chappelear Some people teach that the Ten Commandments are a set of permanent laws established by God at the creation of the world. They believe that Christians are still supposed to be in obedience to these laws, including the law\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/11\/resting-300x130.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1945,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-ten-commandments-apply-to-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":4},"title":"Do the Ten Commandments apply to Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If we, as Christians, no longer follow the laws of the Old Testament, does that also apply to the Ten Commandments? Answer: People today tend to look at the Ten Commandments as an entity separate from the Mosaical Law. Yet, these ten commandments were the prelude to the body\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35503,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-john-1415-mean-we-are-under-the-ten-commandments\/","url_meta":{"origin":86359,"position":5},"title":"Does John 14:15 mean we are under the Ten Commandments?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I love your website! It has been very helpful to me in my studies. \u00a0I have been studying with a friend of mine who still believes that we are under the ten commandments. \u00a0He wants to use the verse John 14:15 \"If you love me keep my commandments\" as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}