A

NEW LOOK
AT
GOD'S LAW

How the
TEN COMMANDMENTS
Become GOOD NEWS

Robert J. Wieland

GLAD TIDINGS PUBLISHERS

8784 Valley View Drive
Berrien Springs, MI 49103 U.S.A.
 Contents
A New Look at God’s Law: Introduction.....................................................................5
How the Ten Commandments Become Good News The Powerful Good News of the New Covenant
Robert J. Wieland
Copyright © 2000 by The 1st Commandment....................................................15
Glad Tidings Publishers God’s Ten Commandments Become Good News

The 2nd Commandment...................................................25

Learning to Know Who God Is:
Worth More than Any Earthly Wealth!
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New King
James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. The 3rd Commandment...................................................33
Learning to be Genuine Through-and-Through
Bible texts credited to GNB are from the Good News Bible, the
Bible in Today’s English Version. The 4th Commandment...................................................41
God’s Sabbath Commandment:
Bible texts credited to KJV are from the King James Version. Rest for Your World-weary Soul

Bible texts credited to NEB are from the New English Bible. The 5th Commandment...................................................51
The Commandment Some Think They Can’t Obey
Bible texts credited to NIV are from the New International Version.
The 6th Commandment...................................................59
All emphasis and words in brackets within quotations were added The Commandment People Break Without Knowing It
by the author.
The 7th Commandment...................................................67
The Commandment People are Ashamed to Break ... But Do

The 8th Commandment...................................................75

Book and cover design by Nova Artworks How People Steal and Don’t Know They’re Doing It

PRINTED IN U.S.A. The 9th Commandment...................................................83

Salvation from the Sin that Everybody has Committed
ISBN 0-9635077-7-X
The 10th Commandment.................................................93
5M [00151] The Commandment that Wakes Everybody Up
 INTRODUCTION

The Powerful Good News

of the New Covenant

N ot one human soul will enter the pearly gates into the New
Jerusalem except as a child of Abraham!
That doesn’t mean literal Jews only, but when God promised
fantastic blessings to Abraham He made it plain that “in Isaac your
seed shall be called” (Genesis 21:12). That is, his “seed” will not be
literal descendants through Ishmael, the old-covenant son of Abraham’s
second wife, but all who have his new covenant faith. Ishmael came
“according to the flesh,” but “the seed” will come through Isaac, the
one who was “the child of promise,” “born according to the Spirit”
(Galatians 4:28, 29).
This means that all of God’s promises to His people come through
the righteousness by faith that Abraham experienced (seven times in
Romans 4 he is identified as our father).

WHAT IS THE NEW COVENANT?

God’s promises to Abraham (and therefore to us as well) are “the
new covenant.” The first step in understanding the new covenant
is to see that when God makes a covenant, it is always a promise on
His part. Paul tells us that God’s “covenant” with Abraham was His
“promise” to him (Galatians 3:17, 18).
Abraham the unbeliever became “the father of us all” when he
chose to believe those promises of God. “It is of faith that it might

5
6 ~ Introduction A New Look at God’s Law ~ 7

be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the good,” “I’m not cut out to go to heaven,” etc. Note how Paul speaks
seed [that is, all of us], not only to those who are of the law [natural of God’s “covenant” and “promise” as being identical: “The law ...
descendants, literal Jews], but also to those who are of the faith of cannot annul the covenant... that it should make the promise of no
Abraham, who is the father of us all, ... ‘the father of many nations’” effect” (Galatians 3:17).
(Romans 4:16-18). The old covenant “gives birth to bondage,” says Paul (Galatians
4: 24). Some people in church even give up in despair, and many
WE READ THOSE PROMISES IN GENESIS 12. go through their so-called “Christian experience” under a constant
“‘[1] I will make you a great nation; [2] I will bless you [3] and cloud of discouragement.
make your name great; [4] and you shall be a blessing. [5] I will bless But the confusion about the two covenants can be resolved very
those who bless you, [6] and I will curse him who curses you; and [7] simply. The problem concerns “the law” that was given at Mount Sinai;
in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (verses 2, 3). The does that law alter the “new covenant” that was the straightforward
promises were renewed again in chapter 15 when God called him promise of God to Abraham and thus to us? Paul was probably the
out of his tent one night and asked him to count the stars: “‘So shall first Israelite who clearly understood the function of the law and of
your descendants be’” (verse 5). the two covenants in the light of Israel’s up and down, discouraging
As one reads the entire story through chapters 12-19, the Old Testament history.
surprising fact emerges that God never asked Abraham to make
any promise in return! God’s “new covenant” was totally one-sided. PAUL CLARIFIES THE CONFUSION IN SEVERAL
Abraham did the only right thing he could do when he responded SIMPLE STEPS IN GALATIANS.
with faith: “He believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him 1. “The blessing of Abraham” is to come on everyone, “that we
for righteousness” (verse 6). That is all that God has asked us to do: might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians
believe His promise to us. “God so loved the world that He gave His 3:14). Not one human soul is left out.
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, 2. A “will” or covenant that anyone makes (even God’s!) cannot
but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Those who worry that salva- be annulled or added to once the testator dies (verse 15). In God’s
tion by grace through faith alone won’t produce enough works need “will” or “covenant” He promised (and then swore to it with a
to remember that true faith always “works through love” (Ephesians solemn oath) to give Abraham the whole earth “as an everlasting
2: 8, 9; Galatians 5:6). possession” (Genesis 17:8). This had to mean after the resurrection, for
he could never inherit it that way unless he also was given everlasting
THE UNIQUE NATURE OF GOD'S COVENANT. life. But since only “righteousness” can “dwell” in the “new earth”
God’s covenant is always a one-sided promise on His part (2 Peter 3:13), the promise had to include making righteous those
because He knows that our nature is so weak and sinful that we cannot who believe God’s promise. Therefore the new covenant has to be the
keep our promises to Him. When we make promises to Him and essence of righteousness by faith.
then inevitably break them later, we feel down on ourselves, “I’m no
8 ~ Introduction A New Look at God’s Law ~ 9

3. When we make a covenant, it is always a contract. You do Abraham). But what were the “transgressions” that made this new
so-and-so, and then I will do so-and-so. But God never makes such “emphasizing” or “underlining” necessary?
bargains with us. His new covenant is always an out-and-out promise
on His part. THE FORMING OF THE OLD COVENANT
4. God explicitly said that His promise was made to Abraham’s IS THE ANSWER.
descendant (singular, “Seed”) “who is Christ.” We are not left out, Before we get to the fire and earthquake of Mount Sinai and the
but we come into the picture only as being “in Christ” by adoption writing of the law on stone in Exodus 20, we find that Israel had
through faith (verse 16). already made the mistake in chapter 19 of forming an “old covenant.”
5. Since God made His solemn promise to Abraham (which He They wanted to substitute it for God’s new or everlasting covenant.
sealed with an oath), nothing under heaven could change an iota, so The story is fascinating, for we can see ourselves in it.
that the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai 430 years When the people gathered at Mount Sinai, God told Moses to
after Abraham’s time could not be an extra feature put into the “new renew to them the same “new covenant’’ promises He had made to
covenant.” It could not invalidate in the least God’s one-sided sworn their father Abraham: “ ‘Tell the children of Israel: “You have seen
promise to him (verse 17). what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and
6. “If the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My
God gave it to Abraham by promise” (verse 18). The new covenant voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to
doesn’t specialize in telling us what to do, but it tells us what to believe. Me above all people” ’ ” (Exodus 19:3-5).
7. Then Paul asks the logical question everybody asks: why then When He said “My covenant” He was referring to the same
did God speak the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai? It was a covenant He had made with Abraham—His one-sided promise.
terror-inducing demonstration with lightning, an earthquake, fire, “Keep My covenant,” He said; that is, cherish it. The Hebrew verb
and a death boundary (Exodus 19). God didn’t need to frighten shamar is the same word used in Genesis 2:15 where we read that
Abraham out of his wits like that! All He had to do for Abraham was God put Adam in the Garden of Eden “to tend and keep it.” It wouldn’t
to write the Ten Commandments upon his heart as being so much make sense to say that Adam was to “obey” the Garden! There’s a
Good News; then Abraham found his greatest joy in obedience. Why play on words in what God said to Israel: If you will “treasure” My
not do the same for Israel when they were gathered at Mount Sinai promise to Abraham, I will “treasure [you] above all peoples.” For us
on their way to the Promised Land? That would have solved all the to believe as did Abraham makes God very happy!
problems that Israel had to meet ever afterwards. The Hebrew verb shamea translated as “obey My voice” is
8. Paul explains the reason why the law had to be written in rendered in the Old Testament as “hear” 760 times, as “hearken” 196
stone: “the law ... was added because of transgressions, till the Seed times, but as “obey” only 81 times. The root meaning of “obey” in
[Christ] should come to whom the promise was made” (verse 19; the either Hebrew or Greek is to listen attentively (in Greek it is to bend
word “added” in the original has the meaning of emphasized, the ear down low so you catch every syllable). Any parent knows that
underlined, but not the idea of changing God’s “will” made out to if you can get your child to listen to you, you’ve probably gone a long
10 ~ Introduction A New Look at God’s Law ~ 11

way toward obedience. keeping the people of Israel under custody until such time as they
Thus the Lord said to Israel, “If you will listen to My voice and could find their freedom again in the kind of justification by faith
cherish or treasure the promise I made to your father Abraham, you which their father Abraham enjoyed.
will be ‘a special treasure to Me above all people.’” You will be the Since they brought the old covenant upon themselves, God must
head and not the tail; there will be no need for great world empires let them learn through their own history how vain were their promises
such as Assyria, Babylon, Grecia, Persia, or Rome, to tread down to keep His law. The law written in tables of stone imposed upon
the earth and oppress you. You will be above all nations. Israel will them a burden of “ought,” a never-ending obligation they could not
embody the truths of righteousness by faith. “You shall be to Me a fulfill, never giving liberty, but always threatening punishment if not
kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Israel’s temple kept perfectly. It must serve in this long national detour now as a
would outdo and outlast Greece’s Parthenon! kind of jailer, driving them “under the law” until at last they come
But Israel did not understand. They did not have the faith of to the experience of their father Abraham to be justified by faith and
Abraham. Mired in legalistic thinking, they made a vain promise, not by their “works of law.”
something that God never asked Abraham to do. “All that the Lord
has spoken we will do” (verse 8). Thus they formed the old covenant. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE NEW
COVENANT AND THE OLD COVENANT IS
WHAT COULD GOD DO? SIMPLY "WHO MAKES THE PROMISE."
If they will not keep step with Him, He must humble Himself to In the new covenant, it’s God; in the old covenant, it’s the
keep step with them. A long detour now becomes inevitable. people. And the keeping of the promise depends entirely on who makes
It was Paul finally who saw the deep significance of this old it. In the new covenant, the foundation is solid Rock; in the old, it’s sand.
covenant promise of the people: “Is the law then against the promises Our salvation (and Israel’s) does not depend on our making promises
of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could to God (or keeping them) but on our believing His promises to us.
have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But Believing God’s new covenant promise delivers us from the “yoke
the Scripture has confined all under sin [as in a prison of our own of bondage” Paul speaks of. No longer do we serve Him through fear
choosing], that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to of punishment, or even from hoping for some great reward. The new
those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard covenant delivers from the constant sense of futility, that nagging sense of
by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. “ought,” “I must be more faithful, I must do better, I must be more unselfish,
Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be I must read my Bible more, I must witness more, I must give more, etc.,
justified by faith” (Galatians 3:21-24). etc.,” all without end. All this sense of compulsion is summed up in Paul’s
The word “tutor” is pedagogue in the Greek, from paideuo expressionofbeing“undertheelementsoftheworld,”thehealth-destroying
which means to exercise stern, harsh discipline. Paul saw the old angst or anxiety that all humans know by nature (Galatians 4:3).
covenant that the people voluntarily put themselves under as The “tutor” or “jailer” of the old covenant drove Israel through the
functioning like a stern disciplinarian, a policeman if you please, centuries on a relentless history of ups and downs from Sinai all the
12 ~ Introduction A New Look at God’s Law ~ 13

way to their crucifixion of their Messiah. Prophets, judges, and some Testament times who lived under the new covenant (Abraham, for
kings tried earnestly but in vain to bring in permanent reformation example); and we today can be living under the old covenant if we
and revival. Samuel’s blessed ministry ended in the people’s clamor don’t clearly understand and believe the freedom-giving gospel.
for a king like the nations around them; Saul nearly ruined the nation; A gourmet chef can prepare a delicious seven-course dinner with
David may have believed the new covenant; kings such as Jehoshaphat, good wholesome food, but if he puts in even a tiny amount of arsenic,
Hezekiah, and finally Josiah tried their utmost to set the people on it is spoiled. Even if it doesn’t kill us, it will cause paralysis. A tiny
the right course. But their revivals always were frustrated by the old amount of old covenant ideas mixed in with gospel concepts can
covenant mentality that produced backsliding and apostasy. paralyze a healthy spiritual experience and produce the lukewarmness
Finally Josiah, the last good king of Judah, determined to do that so characterizes the church in these last days. Lukewarmness in
everything exactly right as “the spirit of prophecy” of his day (the His people is a mixture of hot and cold that produces the nausea that
writings of Moses) enjoined. He would save the nation from Jesus says makes Him so sick at His stomach that He feels like throwing
ultimate ruin. But the youthful king in his 30s failed. His revival and up (Revelation 3:15, 16). The healing can come only through a full
reformation came to nought, for he rejected the living demonstration recovery of the new covenant “truth of the gospel.”
of God's “spirit of prophecy” in the message that came to him through It’s astonishing how old covenant ideas can penetrate into our
the most unlikely source he could think of—the mouth of the pagan thinking. Even our hymns are sometimes examples, like the beautiful
Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. (A warning to us how easily we can reject one, “0 Jesus, I Have Promised To Serve Thee To the End.” But we can
divine truth! See 2 Chronicles 35:20-25.) turn it into a new covenant hymn by simply changing one word so it
From Josiah, old covenant history went downhill all the way for reads, “0 Jesus, I Have Chosen ... ’’ Well-meaning teachers can fasten
God’s people until, under King Zedekiah, Jerusalem and their beautiful innocent children into old covenant spiritual bondage by inducing
temple had to be destroyed and the people taken captive to Babylon. them to make promises to God, which He has never asked them
What a vivid demonstration of how the old covenant “gives birth to do. They promise; and then later perhaps in forgetfulness they
to bondage”! They never truly recovered the new covenant until break their promise, and then the syndrome of “bondage” develops
they finally lost their nationhood through the crucifixion of their into spiritual discouragement. Parents sometimes weep their eyes
Messiah and the rejection of His apostles. In Galatians and Romans out wondering why we lose so many youth who get discouraged
Paul correctly delineates their history, “written for our admonition, spiritually and leave our churches. All kinds of tragedies can develop in
upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). an atmosphere permeated with old covenant “Christian experience.”

WHAT DO THE TWO COVENANTS BUT REPENTANCE IS POSSIBLE.

MEAN TO US TODAY? Both Abraham and Sarah waded through the discouragement
The two covenants are not hemmed in by matters of time, as of old covenant thinking. His marriage to Hagar was one such tragic
though people living anciently were automatically under the old and step. Sarah cherished bitterness against God in her heart because she
we today are automatically under the new. There were people in Old could not get pregnant. “The Lord has restrained me from bearing
14 ~ Introduction

children,” she complained (Genesis 16:2). Her solution: the old

covenant idea of adopting Ishmael as her son to help God fulfill
The 1st Commandment
His promise. r
Finally, we read in Hebrews 11:11 that Sarah had an experience God’s Ten Commandments
of new covenant repentance. Her heart was melted somehow, by the
grace of God. “By faith Sarah ... received strength to conceive ...” And Become Good News!
finally, Abraham’s faith triumphed when he offered up Isaac as an
object lesson, sensing a little of what it cost the heavenly Father to “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
offer up His only Son (Genesis 22). —Exodus 20:3

C
Correctly understood, the message of the new covenant is part
of the light which is yet to “lighten the earth with glory” (KJV) in the
closing hours of this world’s history (Revelation 18:1-4). The mes- areful scholars who have studied the Bible with a depth of
sage will be centered in a true understanding of righteousness by faith insight have made a fantastic discovery.
which alone can prepare God’s people for the final time of trouble The famous Ten Commandments (“Don’t do this!” or “Don’t do
(see 19:1-14). Many, when they hear its Good News will awaken as that!”), which people have long thought spoil our fun, turn out to be ten
from a dream. All of God’s biddings will become enablings, and the Ten categories of Good News if we understand why God gave them. This
Commandments will become to them ten precious statements of Good discovery is lifting heavy burdens from tired hearts all over the world.
News. Nothing will be able to stop them from responding to God’s For example, when the commandment reads, “You shall not
gracious last call, “Come out of her [Babylon], My people” (18:4). steal!” what it actually says is that God will save you from ever stealing
May this refreshing “new” perspective on the Ten even a shoelace! You’ll never have a problem, even if you’re alone in
Commandments bring great joy to your heart as you prepare to meet the treasurer’s office with a million dollars on the desk. God will save
your Savior at His soon return. you from stealing.
And when it reads, “You shall not commit adultery!” what it
actually says is that God will save you from ever falling into that deceptive
pit, no matter how alluring a sexual temptation might be. “The
mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; he who is abhorred by the
Lord will fall there” (Proverbs 22:14). The misery you will escape is
enormous! The Ten Commandments become what most people have
never dreamed of: ten messages of joyous Good News. (We will study
them in depth, one by one).

15
16 ~ God’s Ten Commandments Become Good News! A New Look at God’s Law ~ 17

This discovery of unexpected Good News else!” rules we have thought them to be: our job is to believe the
is quite recent. Good News that God has embedded in them. Then faith will work to
It is the talked-about topic in some of the highest placed circles of produce a loving obedience.
Bible scholars. As the Internet is a discovery that has revolutionized First comes an astounding disclosure: probably we have been
modern communications, so this discovery of Bible truth misquoting the Ten Commandments without realizing what we’ve
revolutionizes the preaching of the gospel worldwide. People are done. Whoever taught them to us since we were kids usually left
waking up as from a dream; the Ten Commandments have become out one verse that God put in at the very beginning, before any of
Good News! the prohibitions. Leave it out and the ten indeed become Bad News,
Now at last we can experience the freedom that the Bible has a “yoke of bondage.” Many, even preachers and teachers, have not
been telling us but which seemed so difficult to understand: “Oh, seen the importance of that Preamble verse. Even some who claim to
how I love Your law [not many of us have ever felt that way]! It is my specialize in preaching “the commandments of God and the faith of
meditation all the day [boring, we have thought!]. You, through Your Jesus” have not seen it.
commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; ... I have more Here it is—the missing verse that belongs at the beginning of any
understanding than all my teachers, ... I understand more than the true version of the Ten Commandments. “And God spoke all these
ancients,... How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey words, saying:
to my mouth [this will be a miracle!]. Through Your precepts I get ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of
understanding; therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:97-104). the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’”
Most people have never begun to discover this joy. (Exodus 20:1, 2).
Even churchgoers have usually had a love/hate relationship with
There are some dynamite-like truths implicit here that can shake
the Ten Commandments. The law has seemed like a heavy burden,
the earth.
ten precepts carved in cold stone, heavy prohibitions that crush out
all the joy of life. Everything that was fun doing seemed to be, “You
First, God tells us what His true name is: “The Lord.”
shall not!” The Ten Commandments seemed like roadblocks in the
In Hebrew that is Jehovah, or Yahweh, a name that has
highway of happiness.
something very special built in to it. It denotes God in His unique
Yet deep in our human hearts we have realized that it’s wrong
relation to fallen mankind. The name of Jesus in Hebrew means,
to break them; suffering must be the result either in this life or in
“Jehovah saves” Thus God is telling us who He is—“the Savior of the
the next. Yet we just couldn’t know how to keep them, let alone love
world” (John 4:42). In other words, before we even hear the Law itself,
them. They seemed too hard.
He impresses us with gospel Good News. He is not saying, “I am your Judge;
your severe taskmaster, your Lawgiver who will punish you for any infraction
Now comes this fantastic revelation.
you commit!” A thousand times, No! He tells us, “I am your Savior. I am
The Ten Commandments are actually ten assurances of
your Friend. I am on your side. Here is something good for you!”
victory. And what we have to do is different than the “Do this or
18 ~ God’s Ten Commandments Become Good News! A New Look at God’s Law ~ 19

Second, this neglected verse tells us that He is Fourth, God has already delivered you “out of
everybody’s God, “I am the Lord your God.” the house of bondage.”
The “you” is you, right where you are. You may say, “Sorry, I have Just as He chose Israel to be His “child,” so in Christ He has
never worshipped Him. I am a pagan, or an atheist, or a bad sinner. already chosen you. (Israel never truly were “slaves” in Egypt. The
I don’t deserve Him to be the Lord my God, or to have Him tell me Egyptians made them think they were slaves, and they believed it,
any Good News, any more than if He told me I have a million dollars and thus they served mistakenly as slaves, but all the while they were
in the bank.” Well, He says to you, “I am ... your God. I belong to a free people waiting for Moses to tell them the truth, “Leave! Get
you, even though you have never known Me, and even though you out—to freedom in your own land”).
have acted as My enemy. I am ‘the God of all flesh,’ and when people What the world is waiting to hear is the full truth of God’s past
crucified Me, I prayed, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know message of freedom. The Father sent His Son with an express mission:
what they do.’” That prayer included you. He forgave you before you save the world! Just before He was crucified, He prayed to His Father,
even asked Him. “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John
Before God even spoke the first commandment of His law, He 17:4). How could He say that if He had failed to save the world?
preached the gospel in those Preamble words, “I brought you out of The Samaritans were the first to believe the truth, for they
the house of bondage.” When Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father confessed that He is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). John said
which art in heaven,” He meant for all of us, no matter how bad, to that His sacrifice is a propitiation for the sins of “the whole world”
think of His Father as our Father. Here is special Good News: Pray (1 John 2:2). Paul said He is already “the Savior of all men” (1 Timothy
that prayer from your heart, and your life will be changed. 4:10), and that He has already brought salvation “to all men”
(Titus 2:11). He died the final death, “the second death,” “for everyone”
Third, in His Preamble God tells us (Revelation 2:11; Hebrews 2:9). All of that includes you!
that we don’t belong in spiritual Egypt.
That’s true even though we were all “born” there. The land of Fifth, such Good News is true because the
darkness is not our real home. He speaks in the past tense: “I brought Son of God became incarnate.
you out of the land of Egypt. I have already delivered you; you are It’s very simple. Just as our first parent, Adam, the head of the
like a prisoner huddled in your jail cell not knowing the doors have human race, brought “condemnation” upon “all men,” so now our
been opened.” The message says, “0 Lord, truly I am Your servant; I second Adam, Christ, has brought a “judicial... verdict of acquittal”
am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my upon all men (Romans 5:15-18, NEB; all responsible translations say
bonds” (Psalm 116:16). Know this, and believe it, before you start virtually the same). That doesn’t mean that “all men” will automatically
worrying about do’s and don’ts. go to heaven; it means simply that when Christ died on His cross,
He died for “all men,” and unless they disbelieve and throw away the
salvation God has already given them “in Christ,” they will be saved
20 ~ God’s Ten Commandments Become Good News! A New Look at God’s Law ~ 21

eternally. The life we already enjoy is a gift from Him, and He has they were: “The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads
always intended that it should be the beginning also of eternal life. it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains.’’ “He burns half of
When God named Adam, He gave the same name to the entire it in the fire; … he even warms himself, ... and the rest of it he makes
human race. Not one soul on earth was born on the planet Mars. into a god, ... He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and
We are all by nature “in Adam.” But the Father sent His Son into the says, ‘Deliver me!”’ (Isaiah 40:19; 44:16, 17). How silly!
world to become our new Adam, to fire the first Adam and take his But we imagine that our modern “gods” can substitute for God.
place. God cannot disown His own Son! Therefore it follows that He They will make us happy: a new Rolls Royce; a new dress; a new
has adopted the entire human race “in Christ.” house; a million (better now a billion) dollars in the bank; some
It’s like Jesus brings us home with Him to dinner, and the Father woman or some man whom the Lord has not given us (“can’t live
says, “Fine, bring them all in; I adopt them all.” We see this from the without him/ her!”); major sports; a selfish career. There’s no end to
story of Jesus’ baptism. When He was baptized in the River Jordan, a our “gods.” Everybody has his/her particular temptation of “other
voice was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well gods before Me.”
pleased” (Matthew 3:17). That same Voice embraced you at the same But all idolatry leaves us feeling bitter and cheated, because like
time! All this is included in God’s Preamble to the Ten Commandments. ancient Israel’s handmade idols, each “god” turns to ashes in our hands.
It’s past tense! I brought you out of the house of bondage. Perhaps
you have been in “Egypt” all your life and didn’t know your true “But the allurement is so intense! How can I
freedom in Christ! overcome my infatuation?”
Here’s the Good News: when we understand and believe the
The first commandment seems to many inspired Preamble o the Ten Commandments, when we appreciate
to be the hardest to obey! what the Son of God has done for us, all this modern idolatry loses
It says: its charm. It’s not the gold or silver or wooden crosses in churches
“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). that captivate our souls; it’s the understanding of the love of Christ
that is revealed at His cross. In the light of that cross of Christ, our
But now let’s see how it becomes Good News:
beloved “idol” turns into “ashes” even before we worship it! All
“Other gods before” the Lord can be anything (or anybody!) that
the glitter that once attracted us has lost its sheen and we actually
captures our heart’s devotion in place of devotion to Him. We may
begin to “boast [“glory,” KJV] in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
smile at the ancient Israelites’ constant temptation to worship those
by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I unto the world”
silly, grotesque “idols” of wood or stone, or even of gold or silver.
(Galatians 6:14).
How could they be so dumb?
You may just now be wrestling with some almost overmastering
The problem was that they imagined that those useless things
temptation to put some thing you don’t really need, or some person
could substitute for God and bring them happiness, so in their minds
outside your marriage, as an idol, the object of your heart’s devotion
the idols assumed an aura of “sacredness.” Isaiah describes how foolish
22 ~ God’s Ten Commandments Become Good News! A New Look at God’s Law ~ 23

in place of your true Savior. said “Goodbye!” to.

• Before you are tempted to sacrifice your soul, God shows you God never asks us to give up something unless first of all He
a glimpse of how wonderful Heaven is. shows us how precious is the Gift He has already given us! Maybe we
• Before you snatch at some earthly riches, He reveals to you can say it this way: He never asks us to give up a silly stuffed doll until
the true wealth of His salvation “in Christ.” He shows us a precious live baby in our arms. He never asks us to
• Before you worship some earthly “idol,” He shows you how give up a plastic toy car until first He shows us He has already given
precious is His eternal friendship. us a genuine new “Lexus.”
• Before you seek fulfillment in some forbidden infatuation, He never asks you to turn your back on Satan’s clever counterfeits
He shows you the eternal preciousness of true love. until first of all He shows you how precious Christ is as your Savior.
• Before you are dazzled by the “glory” of Times Square lights, He Inheriting the wealth of the universe “in Christ” for all
shows you a glimpse of the eternal glory of the cross of Jesus! eternity—this is why you cannot place any other “gods” before the
All this is in that blessed Preamble: “I am the Lord your God, who Lord when you believe the truth of the gospel. It’s not a works trip. It’s
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” a faith trip. Faith is like dynamite; it’s powerful, it “works.” It saves
How can we be so stupid as to let anything in spiritual “Egypt” you before you sin! It saves you from sin!
confuse and bewilder us?
One great little nugget of truth
Moses was a man in Egypt and also is in Galatians 5:16, 17.
a tempted of man Egypt. If you let the Holy Spirit hold you by the hand as you choose to
But he overcame the allurement! Hebrews 11:24-26 tells how walk with Him, you “do not [you cannot] do the [evil] things” that
the Good News in that precious preamble saved him from getting otherwise your sinful nature would want you to do!
enmeshed in the temptations of a slave-pit idolatry: “By faith Moses,
when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter [he turned away from a selfish career], choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”
The Bible tells us that Moses was given a special resurrection,
and is now in heaven (Jude 9). Think where he would be today if
he had not taken up the cross of Jesus and “looked to the reward”!
You and I would pay a few coins to see his moldering mummy in
some Cairo museum along with the “great” Pharaohs he so wisely
 The 2nd Commandment
r
Learning to Know Who God Is:
Worth More than Any Earthly Wealth!
"You shall not make for yourself a
carved image ..."
—Exodus 20:4-6

E ven priests and pastors often leave out a vital part of the
Ten Commandment law—that Preamble that gives us Good News
before we even hear the first commandment: “I am the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage.” That word “Lord” is part of the name of Jesus, which
means “The Lord saves.”

God wants us to hear the Good News gospel before

we even begin to hear about the Law!
He tells you He is your God, your Savior, even before you knew
about Him, even while you were living in darkness, alienated
from Him. Jesus’ very name proclaims, I AM already your Savior!
I have already brought you out of the bondage of “Egypt,” which
is guilt, fear, and worry about the future, yes, the prison-house of
sin. What we all have needed is the knowledge of that Good News.
Without it, we cannot keep God’s holy law, but with that knowledge,
we can.
Once we have seen and believed the truth of what the Son of
God accomplished by His sacrifice on the cross, we cannot worship

25
26 ~ Learning to Know Who God Is A New Look at God’s Law ~ 27

any other “god” instead of our one true Creator-and-Redeemer God breaks its neck and falls, that same infinite Father in heaven looks
of the Holy Bible. Since He reversed the “condemnation” that came down and notices what happened and He is sorry.
on the human race through Adam, now He treats us as though we After telling us about this, Jesus said: “The very hairs of your
had never sinned. He brought us out of “Egypt,” out of the “house of head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value
bondage.” It’s time to tell Him Thank You! than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30, 31). Why, there’s not an
What we have always thought is the “second commandment” astronomer on earth who can tell you how many suns and stars are in
turns out to be the second statement of Good News. Here it is: the Milky Way! Nor can any mother on earth count how many hairs
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image— are in her child’s head. But although “the Lord your God” knows all
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, your secrets and even shameful thoughts, He still loves you!
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water 3. Since God is Spirit, it's impossible that any idol or statue could
under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor represent Him. He wants us to learn to worship Him, not some
serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous useless idol. When Mom and Dad kiss Baby goodnight, often he
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the wants a teddy bear in bed with him, a kind of surrogate “Mom or
children to the third and fourth generations of those Dad.” But our loving heavenly Father is too wise to let us ever have
who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to a surrogate of Himself. No Beanie Baby “god” for anyone who has
those who love Me and keep My commandments” learned Lesson Number One about the love of God!
(Exodus 20:4-6). 4. The baby's teddy bear or Beanie Baby is clutched in bed because
Mom or Dad can't stay in the bedroom all night. But “the Lord our
Let’s look at the Good News that is in God” is always with us, not down the hall somewhere: “He Himself
this second commandment. has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).
1. Our God and Savior is too great and wonderful for any idol on One of the names of Jesus is “’Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God
earth to represent Him in any way. He is the Creator of heaven and with us’” (Matthew 1:23) David asks, “Where can I go from Your
earth! The Maker of the Milky Way! The ocean is but a teacup in His Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? ... If I say, ‘Surely
hand! And He knows every one of us, all of our secrets, better than a the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me;
mother can know her children. How could we drag Him down to the indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as
level of any “thing” that humans could devise? the day” (Psalm 139:7, 11, 12).
2. He is not only "great" in the sense of vastness, bigness, and power. 5. But His nearness is even greater than David saw it to be! The
He is "great" in the sense that His love for each of us is personal and New Testament reveals Jesus as One who came so close to us that He
never ending. Not only did He fling into endless space the numberless became one of us (that’s what “Immanuel, ... God with us” means).
suns and worlds of the Milky Way, He also designed and made the As our Creator and Redeemer, He was utterly without sin, but
tiny humming bird with its delicate wings. And Jesus told us that He took upon His sinless nature our sinful nature, that He might
when one of them flies against my window in summertime and know what it is to be tempted in all points like as we are, yet always
28 ~ Learning to Know Who God Is A New Look at God’s Law ~ 29

without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He experienced all of our temptations And there on His cross, the devil throws his worst temptations
and our feelings. at Jesus, trying to get Him to sin in one tiny, almost insignificant way
He even tasted that bitter cup of feeling forsaken. He cried out so that Jesus might fail of His mission “to save His people from their
on His cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” sins.” But Jesus conquered every subtle temptation!
(Matthew 27:46). He felt that way and conquered it, so that we might No, no idol or image can ever represent that glorious achievement!
never have to feel forsaken by God. No angel in heaven would ever think of bowing down to an image of
any kind. He couldn’t do it! And neither can you or I if we have an
Why did Jesus, the Son of God, come down to this earth? adequate understanding of the righteousness of Christ our Savior.
Not simply so He might take us to heaven when we die. He has
another blessed purpose. The angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary Once we know this Good News, we want to sing the
before He was born, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save “Hallelujah Chorus” forever!
His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This is how the Apostle The second commandment is not a stern warning of doom if
Paul described it: we bow to an idol, it is Good News that we simply could never get
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free involved in any idol worship or even idol “veneration” if we remember
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that what a wonderful God and Savior we already have.
it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in “I am ... a jealous God,” He says. Why? Because He loves us! A
the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in husband who truly loves his wife is “jealous” if she strays from him to
the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled give her attentions to some other man. Our Lord and Savior (whose
in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the name is “the Lamb”) has come so close to us that He is eagerly awaiting
Spirit” (Romans 8:2-4). the glorious day when it can be said, “Let us be glad and rejoice ... for
That was a greater achievement even than making the Milky the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife [His church] has
Way! It’s “easy” for the Creator to make a world or a sun; He simply made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). Such “jealousy” is holy.
speaks the word—and it’s done. But conquering sin in fallen, sinful That day will come once His church chooses to believe how
human flesh? “Condemning” it there? Delivering us who have fallen, good this Good News is, and permits Him to “cleanse us from all
sinful flesh from the dominion that sin has over us? That’s something unrighteousness,” for the “fine linen” in which the “wife” is dressed
God could not do by simply saying an empty word, “I conquer sin!” at the wedding feast is “the righteous acts of the saints” (see 1 John
No, that would never do. 1:9; Revelation 19:8).
He cannot tell a lie, or claim to have accomplished something
that’s not real. So, He does it! He becomes a real Baby in Bethlehem’s But here the Good News gets even better.
manger, a true human being, grows up as a child and a youth, meeting Look at the promise of His forgiveness in the second
all our temptations to sin, and saying “No!” to every one of them, commandment. Although He has to “visit” the iniquity of evil fathers
even until He was hanged on a cross. upon the children if they choose to continue to hate righteousness,
30 ~ Learning to Know Who God Is A New Look at God’s Law ~ 31

refusing to learn any of the lessons of grace their fathers could have built-in special meaning, ‘I will save you from your sins’ And those
known, still the Lord shows “mercy to thousands [of generations], to sins that have brought you so much heartache and guilt, I have cast
those who love Me and keep My commandments.” behind My back, far deeper in the ocean than the wreck of the Titanic;
One day is a 365th fraction of a year. In Isaiah 61:2 the Lord says no one will ever be able to find them again.”
that His “vengeance” is as one day," but His grace is 365 times as When Peter was sinking in the waves, he cried out to Jesus, “Lord,
great—it's a whole "year" long. save me!” And Jesus heard that prayer immediately, caught him by
the hand, and lifted him up. He will never refuse anyone: “All that the
He loves to forgive! Father gives to Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I
He delights in mercy! The Bible says that He has “fun” being will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).
kind to sinners, redeeming them, saving them from ruin, treating You may ask, “But how can I be sure that ‘the Father’ has
them generously. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, predestined me to be saved?” The truth is that the Father has given
nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are you to Jesus! He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the
high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He has already paid the
Him” (Psalm 103:10, 11). Note: it does not say that His mercy is penalty of your sins, died the second death that your sins would have to
“great” toward people who do everything just right. No, His mercy “pay” for. And even though “the wages of sin is death, ... the gift of God
is great towards sinners who “fear Him,” who call upon Him. Joel is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord,” your Lord (Romans 6:23).
says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel
2:32). Luke says that Jesus’ enemies criticized Him for He “receives Every word that God says is important.
sinners” (Luke 15:2). But that’s why Jesus is so wonderful! He has no fine print like lawyers who can wriggle out of a
When they said that about Him, He responded by telling the sto- contract. He has given the gift to you, not merely “offered” it
ry of the one sheep that was lost, and how the Good Shepherd left provided you first do everything right to deserve it. You don't
the 99 that were “safe” and went in search of the one that was lost deserve it, I don’t either, for Adam gave us “condemnation,” but Christ
(see Luke 15:4-7). That’s Jesus, looking for you, unworthy or sinful is the One who has already given us “grace.” “To each one of us grace
as you may be. was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:7).
In fact, while we have “fun” going to Disneyland or playing golf Grace brings with it a special “gift”—“justification” of life (Romans
or fishing or playing games, Jesus has “fun” seeking out discouraged, 5:15-18). The Father treats the world of sinners as though they have
broken-hearted people who have messed up their lives, wandered not sinned, “not imputing their trespasses to them” (2 Corinthians
far away, lost their marriages or homes perhaps, alcoholics, or drug 5:19). You have wondered why He doesn’t strike some wicked
addicts or criminals who have lost hope, and by the Holy Spirit He criminals with lightning; it’s His grace, purchased for the human
whispers words of encouragement to them. Micah 7:19 says He race by Christ’s sacrifice.
“will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” It’s as if He says, But when you realize the truth about that amazing grace, you
“I am ‘the Lord your God,’ your Savior. My very name ‘Jesus’ has a simply cannot go on living a life of sin. It’s not fear that motivates you;
32 ~ Learning to Know Who God Is

it’s grace. “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all
men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions,
The 3rd Commandment
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present r
age” (Titus 2:11, 12, NIV). You keep the Second Commandment. Learning To Be Genuine
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image . . ." It’s a guarantee!
Through-and-Through
So, again the Ten Commandments
become Good News. "You shall not take the name of the Lord
God is tired of writing them in stone. That’s fruitless work! Now your God in vain ..."
He wants to write them in human hearts, so our greatest joy is to live —Exodus 20:7

W
in harmony with Him and in harmony with the great universe where
His love prevails for all eternity. He will write His commandments
in our hearts, if only we will make a choice to let Him do so. e are exploring a significant discovery about the gospel:
Now we have come to that era of human history which the the idea that God’s famous “Ten Commandments” are in
Bible describes as “the time of the end” when God’s blessed work in reality ten assurances of salvation! Learning how to be genuine
human hearts will be finished. “Those who are wise shall shine through and through is great Good News.
like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to For hundreds of years people have thought of the Ten
righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:4, 3). This is Commandments as ten prohibitions, stern warnings not to do what we
the time that Jesus describes in these solemn words: “But take heed naturally feel like doing, ten “don’ts” set in hard, menacing stone. As
to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with ... cares of this most people usually read them or hear them preached, they come across
life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a as discouraging. But now with this discovery that there are assurances
snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch of salvation 5 them, people worldwide are waking up to realize that
therefore, and pray always ...” (Luke 21:34-36). God has some great Good News for us in the Ten Commandments.
We found that the first one that says “You shall have no other
gods before Me” is an assurance of deliverance from the painful
imprisonment of self-seeking. The worship of self is a false god that
hides from our view the true One. The endless round of futility that
comes with that illusion is ended! Welcome to the glorious new life
that is free from worry about whether you are measuring up or not!
The first commandment is an assurance of deliverance from
painful self-centeredness, a guarantee that the Lord will reveal

33
34 ~ Learning to Be Genuine Through-and-Through A New Look at God’s Law ~ 35

Himself to us so clearly that our hearts cannot become infatuated The third commandment is an assurance of happiness
with any other counterfeit. deep within our hearts, so deep that nothing can
fool us into thinking it is more valuable to us.
The world is filled with enticements that It reads:
promise us happiness. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God
But they leave us empty and forlorn. Some of them are: money, cars, in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who
houses, sports, illicit sex, what we call “fun.” But anything man-made takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
can never satisfy the deep longings of the human heart. Finding that
Christ is what your heart has always been yearning for and that He gives Not only does it speak of saying a wrong word with our lips, but
Himself to you—this is the new assurance that the first commandment it goes down deeper within. It says: don’t pretend to be a follower of
gives us. In its light, nothing false will ever deceive us again. God when in your soul you know you aren’t. Don’t make or even let
We found that the second commandment, “You shall not people think of you as a great person when you know it’s a lie. God
make for yourself a carved image— ... you shall not bow down to has put into this commandment an assurance that He will give you
them nor serve them,” is an assurance of deliverance from another authenticity of character. No deceptive veneer on the outside with
prison-house—the prison of wearing ourselves out trying to satisfy cheapness underneath; no paint covering up flaws within.
our endless craving to have more things to impress other people. East African furniture may be simple in design, but it is solid through
Nothing that human beings or factories can “make” is worth our and through. No veneer to fool you when you look at it in the showroom.
heart-devotion. When we understand the true spiritual riches that Many new cars have burled walnut or rosewood trim inside that is mere
are in the gospel, these “things” that money can buy seem like plastic plastic painted over to look like expensive wood; it makes you think you’re
toys in comparison. riding in a luxury car, but costs the factory only a few pennies.
The world is constantly irritating us with inducements to buy But cars aren’t the important thing. We're talking about the kind
this or that “thing,” telling us that we can't be happy without it. Often of character God wants to see in us. If you become a billionaire, but in
this incessant pressure is so serious that it breaks down our health. the end realize that your character is only a plastic imitation, you can’t
Idol-worship is lethal. Ask Bill Gates if his billions really make be happy. So, in order to save us from that embarrassment now and
him happy. If he’s honest, he’ll tell you, like Solomon of old, “All is in the end, the dear Lord has given us this third commandment—an
vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). assurance that if we will believe His Good News gospel, He will
Did you ever stand on a sidewalk and look up at the street light? guarantee to make us into a wonderful character of truth, uprightness,
And then look beyond into the brilliant clarity of a star’s light? The and purity. We will become a beacon of light in a dark world, a
“things of earth grow strangely dim” when once we have seen the refuge where people will come for rescue out of the storm. Nothing
face of Jesus; and in these chapters we are looking at His face in the can bring you such happiness as to know that both God and man
Ten Commandments. honor you for being genuine through-and-through.
The world has been through the “Stone Age” and the “Bronze
Age,” but now we are in the “Plastic Age.” Stone and bronze can
36 ~ Learning to Be Genuine Through-and-Through A New Look at God’s Law ~ 37

endure the test of fire, but plastic cannot. The Apostle Paul speaks of the Let’s permit Paul to tell us what he means:
final test of character all of us must meet. He likens character-building Each one must be careful how he builds.... Some will use gold or
to building a house. There is a “foundation” already built the Good silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will
News about Jesus reveals Him to be that foundation: “God has already use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person’s work will
placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation” (1 Corinthians be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will
3:11, GNB). He has already built a “foundation” for eternal life for reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality.
every human being, demonstrated that He has fought our battle, If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will
conquered, “condemned sin” in our sinful flesh. He has already done the receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burnt up, then he will lose
hard work by laying the “foundation” for a gorgeous palace-character it” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15, GNB).
for each one of us. It’s a beautiful illustration of Good News:
• Everybody has to have a “house” to live in. We come into the Now we begin to see what kind of Good News
world without one, just like we come into the world naked. the third commandment brings us.
• We don’t know how to “build” the character/house we need. It’s an assurance that if we believe God’s gospel, He will see to it
• Jesus came to teach us the art of building a character/house. that we build a house that will endure the fire!
Yes, He came to save us and He has saved us; we are “alive.” Suppose you are homeless. Someone has built a foundation of
But in the Judgment Day we will be terribly embarrassed if we a house for you, ready-made. So for the sake of illustration, let’s
have done nothing with the salvation He has already given us. assume you are lazy, and you gather some twigs and build yourself a
• Therefore Jesus came to live among us, to take our flesh upon grass hut on that beautiful, strong stone foundation. Then one day a
Himself, to live life as we must live it, to demonstrate before us forest fire sweeps through and your “house” goes up in smoke.
a perfect character. We could never be happy in heaven unless But your neighbor built with stone, and when it’s all over he still has his
we develop the self-denying character like His that says more house. Wouldn’t you be embarrassed? Especially if you had been showing
than professing to be His followers. The close test of the final your friends through your “nice house,” proud of your architectural
judgment must demonstrate that we are such in truth. This is skill? The grass was cheaper and easier to find than stone! You had only
what Paul means by “building a house.” what appeared to be a fine house, nicely thatched with mere grass.
• So great is the love of Jesus for us each one individually and
personally that Paul says He has already built the “foundation” Even pastors, priests, and preachers need to
of such a “house” for us. Now, day by day, we are “building” hear this message.
on it. The very fact that we are alive shows something is “Fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its
happening. Architects will tell you that a sizable part of real quality” (verse 13). But people’s opinions about us are not what
the expense of building any good house is the cost of the matters in that Judgment Day. Have we professed the name of Christ in vain?
foundation. The question now is, What kind of a “house” are The Good News in the third commandment tells us that He
we building on it day by day? will save us from making that false profession: “You shall not take
38 ~ Learning to Be Genuine Through-and-Through A New Look at God’s Law ~ 39

the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Believe “the truth of the garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation
gospel,” and you will find that “the gospel of Christ... is the power 16:15). The third commandment becomes an assurance: God will
of God to salvation” (Galatians 2:5; Romans 1:16). Day by day the give you clothes to wear! It’s through believing the Good News of the
Holy Spirit will motivate you to lay stone on stone. You may not great Preamble to the Ten Commandments that we put the clothes
be conscious of any progress, but the most delicious joy will be to on: “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).
discover at last that the “house” the Lord has enabled you to “build” Putting on the free wardrobe is our job; building the house on the
is a magnificent palace that “fire” cannot destroy. ready-made free foundation is our job. But even the faith through
Paul describes that although all of us are by nature “strangers and which we build “is the gift of God.”
foreigners,” now we are “built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom God’s great third commandment contains a
the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in warning that we dare not disregard.
the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling “The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in
place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). vain.” His name is holy, no matter how many times in ignorance your
lips have taken it in vain. When you “see” what happened on the
This takes us a step further. cross, how the Son of God took your place, died your second death,
Not only are we building a character/house; what we are building endured the hiding of His Father’s face—then something begins to
in the end will turn out to be a temple for the Lord to dwell in! For happen in your hard heart. It is melted; tears come into your eyes.
eternity! The assurance in the third commandment is therefore of a Never again will you want to take that holy name upon your lips in
deliverance from fear—fear of that final Judgment Day of fire. anger or in jest! Now you have begun to get acquainted with the One
In everyone’s heart, that fear lies just below the surface. It can whose “name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
poison all the springs of joy. There’s “a certain fearful looking for of Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
judgment and fiery indignation” that no one can evade; it’s there, Now your lips, your speech, are different. Like the disciples
even sometimes when we wake up at 3 in the morning. Now the who had spent time with Jesus, the crowd understood they were
third commandment delivers from that fear. It means: You will not “different.” The people said, “The way you speak gives you away!”
be ashamed in the Judgment Day! (Matthew 26:73, GNB). The proud person becomes humble, the
Precious Good News! profligate becomes pure, the filthy language becomes clean. This is
Jesus saving us from sin, now!
Here’s another illustration God uses to
help us understand: getting some One day soon the process of “building”
clothes to cover our nakedness. will come to an end.
Almost everybody has dreamed of being in a crowd of people A decree will go forth from Heaven concerning every
without proper clothing. “Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his human being on earth. “Stop right now! This is it! What you have built,
40 ~ Learning to Be Genuine Through-and-Through

that’s it for eternity!” On the very last page of the Bible we read about
that day:
The 4th Commandment
“He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him r
be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who God's Sabbath Commandment:
is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly, and
My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” Rest for Your World-weary Soul
(Revelation 22:11, 12).
But the same Good News that permeates the Ten Commandments "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
comes through again on that last page of the Bible. God has only —Exodus 20:8
happiness prepared for you:
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may
have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into
the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral
T here is not a negative in that law of Ten Commandments,
although it may appear thus to one who hasn’t learned “the truth
and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a of the gospel” (Galatians 2:5). We have seen how the first three
lie. 'I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the commandments are open gates to happiness, not vice versa. So is
churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and the fourth.
Morning Star.’ And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him
who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever
How can the fourth commandment become an
assurance of rest for our souls?
desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:14-22).
It is a commandment that almost the entire world disregards.
Why? Is it difficult to obey? No; God makes it possible for everyone
Those blessed words are not from this poor author!
Those words of welcome are God’s words to you personally. Make to receive the Sabbath blessing that is wrapped within it. It’s a part of
your choice just now, and say, “I come!” God has promised in the the riches of God’s grace He gives to anyone who is willing to receive.
third commandment that He will hold you “guiltless” forever. “Happy Let’s see what it says:
are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. ... “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six
whom the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong” (Psalm 32:1, 2, days you shall labor and do all your work, but the
GNB). That happiness is especially precious in these last days as seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
we prepare for the return of Jesus as He has promised (John 14:1-3). In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor
your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your fe-
male servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made

41
42 ~ Rest for Your World-weary Soul A New Look at God’s Law ~ 43

the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is The Sabbath is the glue that holds all the days of the week together.
in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the It gives the reason for the week. No human being invented the week;
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” it is what God gave the world in the beginning when He created the
(Exodus 20:8-11). heavens and the earth in six literal days, as Genesis 1 tells us. The
There is no end of blessings wrapped up in this commandment! Sabbath is the memorial of His work of creation; evolution could
Here are only a few: never have come into the world to deceive so many people if the
world had “remember [ed] the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Keeping
1. The blessing of Sabbath rest is for the whole world. the Sabbath is therefore the “sign” or “mark” of God’s true people, for
No one is left out. God is speaking to you and to me, not just to He says, “I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between them and
the Jews. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them”
for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27; “woman” also was “made for man,” but (Ezekiel 20:12). His “sign” is like His signature; it’s like He says, “I
marriage is not only for the Jews!). “Man” means everyone. have been looking for them, and here they are—My true people;
The “rest” that is in Sabbath-keeping is what our human hearts they keep My holy Sabbath. That marks them as especially Mine!”
have always yearned for. It is far more than merely taking a nap to
achieve physical rest from labor. It is peace of heart. Billionaires 3. Jesus Himself especially enjoys having fellowship
would give everything for genuine Sabbath rest! with His people every Sabbath day.
We seldom think of the joy that our Sabbath-keeping brings to
2. God rested on the Sabbath day to bless it Him! Isaiah says that “He shall see of the labor of His soul, and be
and hallow it for us. satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). The Sabbath day is like a grand party of cel-
Because He has given the Sabbath as a gift to the world, it’s for us ebration; He invites us every week for this special time to meet with
to enjoy. You never keep the Sabbath alone; you have fellowship with Him and with His people, and if you are not there, He is sad because
Him. “I am with you,” He says (Isaiah 41:10), and Jesus promised, “I He misses you.
will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.... If anyone loves Me, There are no distractions on this “celebration” day. “In it you
he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come shall do no work,” He promises us. Ezekiel describes the other days
to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:18, 23). Jesus and the of the week as “the six working days” (Ezekiel 46:1). There are all
Father will move in with you! (And that means joy!) kinds of intrusions on those worldly days—heavy burdens, business,
Jesus promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the making a living, buying and selling, TV and radio, cares and labor
age” (Matthew 28:20), but the Sabbath day brings us into a specially that weigh us down, news of disasters and crime. There is no “peace”
intimate closeness with Him. It’s like He makes an appointment in the world.
with us for a date; and if He is the object of our loving worship, then But on the Sabbath day all those distractions are laid aside; it’s
we will keep the date with Him. And it’s not once in a great while; the like we spend the day with Jesus in His house, as it were as guests; a
Sabbath is the special seventh day of every week. day of peace of heart, freedom from worry, a harbor of refuge from
44 ~ Rest for Your World-weary Soul A New Look at God’s Law ~ 45

the angry ocean storms, “a garden intersected with streams from And again we can pinpoint the true Sabbath day by reading
Paradise, a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand.” the next verses in Luke: “The women who had come with Him ...
observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned
4. We are delivered even from our bills that come due. and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the
We lay them aside on the Sabbath day; we don’t let them Sabbath according to the commandment” (verses 55, 56). The next
intrude on our peace with God because we trust that He will take verses tell of His resurrection on Sunday: “Now on the first day of the
care of us, He will bless the labors of our “six working days” so that week, very early in the morning, they... came to the tomb ... But they
we shall have enough to pay our bills without worrying. The Bible found the stone rolled away” (Luke 24:1, 2). Christ had risen!
tells us to leave our financial planning and accounts until after the It is so clear a little child sees it immediately: “the Sabbath according
Sabbath, and do all that work “on the first day of the week” (see 1 to the commandment: comes between Friday and Sunday. (“the Lord’s
Corinthians 16:2). So this beautiful fourth commandment shows Day” of Revelation 1:10 is the Sabbath, for God calls the Sabbath
us how to enjoy the Sabbath with God, free from those tiresome, “My holy day’’ Isaiah 58:13).
worldly intrusions. That’s the reason why the seventh-day Sabbath is the happiest
The Sabbath becomes like a day of heaven on earth. Children day of the week: it’s the day the Lord calls “My holy day.” His
especially love the Sabbath in a home where it is reverenced; they presence is in the Sabbath. To the extent that we love Him, we also
can’t wait until “next Sabbath comes.” When Jesus said, “Let the little love His holy day.
children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the
kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14), He meant: let them come on There are many sincere people who do
the Sabbath day. But if we don’t keep the Sabbath holy, they can’t. not see this truth.
Has God changed His holy Sabbath day? We must pause to
5. The true seventh-day Sabbath becomes examine some of the reasons why they are perplexed.
the happiest day of the week. No, God says, He has not changed His law regarding the
On most calendars that are used worldwide, the seventh day is Sabbath. “I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). There is
called Saturday. To make it doubly sure, we can check by reading nothing in the Bible to suggest that He made any change in His holy
Luke 23:54, which tells of the crucifixion of Jesus: “That day was the law. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm
Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.” Millions observe Good 19:7). Why should He change anything that is “perfect”? He loves us
Friday in honor of the death of Jesus; that pinpoints the true Sabbath, too much to change such a blessed gift!
for the next day of the week is the regular weekly seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus regularly kept the seventh-day Sabbath, for we read in
(Incidentally, God has never asked us in the Bible to observe Good Luke 4:16 that “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought
Friday in honor of Christ’s crucifixion—the Lord’s Supper is the up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the
memorial Christ appointed.) Sabbath day.” Yes, when He said to the Jews, “I have kept My Father’s
commandments,” He told the truth (John 15:10).
46 ~ Rest for Your World-weary Soul A New Look at God’s Law ~ 47

All of the apostles followed His example in keeping the Sabbath another great power, the “little one [horn] ... speaking pompous
on the seventh day. For example, the Book of Acts tells of 84 Sabbaths words” (verse 8) that would combine church and state and would
that the Apostle Paul kept, but not one Sunday! “intend to change times and law” (verse 25). Both Daniel and
“But,” someone may ask, “doesn’t it tell of one first day of the Revelation state that he would exercise his great power for 1260 years.
week that Paul kept?” No, Acts 20:7, 8 tells of one Saturday night Paul described the same power in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 as one
farewell meeting that Paul held with the Christians in Troas, because “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that
he was planning to walk 16 miles next day (Sunday) to Miletus, and is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing
they would never see him again. (No apostle would have walked 16 himself that he is God.”
miles on the holy Sabbath day.) John’s book of Revelation describes the same power: “And he
Luke describes that night meeting as being on “the first day of the was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.... And
week” because the Bible says the Sabbath begins at sundown Friday authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All
evening and ends at sundown on Saturday evening (Leviticus 23:32). who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not
Any night meeting on “the first day of the week” would therefore been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb” (13:5-8).
have to be on Saturday night. And Mark 1:32 tells how on one Saturday We have to decide then which “power” we will follow—the
“at evening, when the sun had set,” the Sabbath being over, the people holy One who created the earth in six days and sanctified His holy
brought many sick people to Jesus to be healed. Sabbath for us to keep, or the one who has dared to change God’s law
That is a delightful way to keep the Sabbath, “from evening to and direct people to observe Sunday instead.
evening,” sunset to sunset. If you try to keep it from midnight to
midnight, you’re asleep and you can’t consciously welcome God’s Let us not be afraid to be different
holy day! How could you welcome some special visitor who came at than the majority.
midnight while you were asleep? On Friday evening at sundown the Jesus said: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I
family gathers to sing, read a Bible story, and in prayer to welcome say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24). All
another precious Sabbath day. through the history of the world that principle has been true; Jesus
is real, He’s alive and watching, and He always identifies with those
Why do many observe Sunday, and few who follow Him.
not the holy Sabbath day that The Good News is that He loves us far more than we think! He
the Lord “blessed and hallowed”? paid a supreme price to redeem us; He can never forget us. He still
We must examine the reason. It is simple: someone without loves us so much that He wants us to spend eternity with Him. He is
the authority of God changed it. He instructed His holy prophet lonesome without His people! We live in the last days. Now, as our
Daniel to predict that this would happen. In chapter 7 the prophet great High Priest in God’s sanctuary in heaven, He is working night
described the rise of four world empires in history (Babylon, and day, worldwide, to prepare a people to be ready to meet Him
Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome), after which there would arise when He returns.
48 ~ Rest for Your World-weary Soul A New Look at God’s Law ~ 49

But they need a special preparation, like Revelation calls “Babylon” will be able to hear the “voice” from heaven
children going to school. that says, “Come out of her, My people.”
He will be our Teacher, and we can be in His “class.” Therefore, Just now the Holy Spirit is calling people worldwide to keep
Sabbath after Sabbath around the world, He meets with His people holy His Sabbath day; for that’s the special day when He meets with
who follow Him as the Lamb of God, and by His Holy Spirit He them to teach them. And His great fourth commandment assures
teaches and prepares them to be ready in that great day when He will all who will believe, they will know the joy of Sabbath-keeping rest
soon appear. Nothing that is happening on earth is as important as “in Christ.”
that special work now going on!
When Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), He was
inviting the world to enjoy His Sabbath rest. After creating the world
and us in six days, He rested on that first seventh-day in Eden. But
“we” were created on the sixth day of that first week, so for “us” the
Sabbath was a celebration of all the work that God had done and had
“finished.” “We” had done nothing!
The Sabbath is still a “sign” of our resting “in Christ” and thanking
Him for what He has done, not glorying in anything we have done
in saving ourselves. It follows that true Sabbath-keeping is possible
only when we understand and appreciate what it cost the Son of God
to save us by His great sacrifice. Only when we permit that agape to
“constrain” us can our Sabbath-keeping be devoid of the polluting
love of self in some way.
To appreciate “the width and length and depth and height” of
that love (agape) of Christ (Ephesians 3:18) will make keeping the
Sabbath day holy the greatest joy of your life. And children will learn
to love the Sabbath also. If Christ’s “yoke” is thus set before them
as “easy” and His burden as “light” (Matthew 11:30), they will get
so they can’t wait for another Sabbath day to come. They will enjoy
being “guests” in the “house of the Lord.”
As the most precious gift of repentance is received by His
people, they will be endowed with the ability to proclaim the
Sabbath more fully, so that many dear ones now scattered in what
 The 5th Commandment
r
The Commandment Some Think
They Can't Obey
"Honor your father and your mother ..."
—Exodus 20:12

M any think that it’s difficult to obey the fifth of God’s

wonderful Ten Commandments. To them it seems as impossible as
if God asked them to jump over the moon. It says:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long
upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).
Does it sound easy? It doesn’t to these people.
If your Mom and Dad are kind, faithful, loving parents, you may
find it easy to “honor” them. In that case, just be very thankful!
But for others, this commandment is a stone wall. Mom was
mean, an alcoholic perhaps, a drug addict, someone lazy, selfish,
uncaring, or cruel, just the kind of person it seems impossible to
“honor.” Or, it could be Dad is the problem: he was an alcoholic,
harsh, cruel, selfish, absorbed in his own pleasure, he showed you no
love, and he may have even abandoned you to take off with another
woman. How can you “honor” or respect him? When it comes to
praying the Lord’s Prayer, you find it hard to say, “Our Father which
art in heaven ...” (Matthew 9:9, KJV).

51
52 ~ The Commandment Some Think They Can’t Obey A New Look at God’s Law ~ 53

This problem is important. that person would choose to be if circumstances had permitted.
If you believe that God is telling you to do something you can’t Many a person who is irritable, unpleasant, or cantankerous has a
do, that upsets your whole attitude toward Him. You can’t help it; hidden problem that makes him/her that way.
it’s not your fault if your parents deprived you of the atmosphere of For example, out in Uganda there was an irritable elephant that
loving nurture that every child born into this world deserves. What got onto the main road and harassed motorists. Finally, the Game
happens for multitudes is a sour alienation from God Himself. Why Warden had to shoot the beast. Then they found the problem: it had
serve Him if He demands what you can’t do? a painfully abscessed tooth. Yet the elephant was probably normally
But at the same time, your heart of hearts deep inside longs for docile.
peace with God and healing of soul. You can’t expel your parents
from your mind, even if they are thousands of miles away. As long as 2. You learn from the Bible to think of your parents
you live, there they are casting a shadow over your inmost emotional as they would have been were it not for the
being. You are never truly free; you have a ball and chain around troublesome pain that distressed them.
your ankles. If some miracle enabled you to keep that troublesome Yes, this requires faith on your part, but you learn that faith from
fifth commandment, you would see hope that you could keep all of Jesus for He has faith in you. As Jesus forgives us when we are unlovable,
the ten and be happy. so you learn to forgive your parents.
God has assured you in the fifth commandment that He will It’s very true that you don’t have the resources within yourself to
enable you to “honor your father and your mother, that your days do this. No psychology textbook can give you that ability. But this is
may be long” and happy. Therefore this commandment contains the precisely what the grace of Christ does for us. It’s God’s assurance in
secret of joyous living. the fifth commandment. He says, You will learn to honor your father
But how can He accomplish this miracle? and your mother, and then you will be happy for now and forever.
The love of parents for their children can be reversed; even if
1. God sees people differently than we do, and He a child is bad, the parent still loves him. Now by the grace of the
enables us to see them as He sees them. Savior, it is possible also for a child (perhaps grown by now!) to love
In other words, when God sees someone who is mean, selfish, the parent in spite of his/her badness.
irritable, unloving—just “bad,” He sees that person as he/she could
become, or would have become, by His grace. This is how God looks 3. What is back of this miracle is the realization
at the sinful human race, “not imputing their trespasses to them” (2 that all of us are like that irritable elephant.
Corinthians 5:19). Something gives us pain and irritates us, but we learn from the
Yes, God loves people, but He does not love their badness. So, Bible that Jesus had things that gave Him pain also. He was “despised
because Christ gave Himself for everyone’s salvation, He sees in and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3), abused, insulted, yes, crucified. He
every person what that person will become when God’s grace has had enemies and tormentors, but He prayed for those who crucified
time to work on his/her heart. He sees the potential; He sees what Him, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”
54 ~ The Commandment Some Think They Can’t Obey A New Look at God’s Law ~ 55

(Luke 23:34). As we want God to be generous with us, to overlook the horns of African wild buffalo, “Save me ... from the horns of the
our faults and to love us in spite of them, so now we are given love wild oxen!” (vs. 21). I cannot see your loving face, Jesus says; but I
and grace toward other people who wrong us. This is the miracle of believe You are there, and even though it seems you don’t love Me, I
the assurance in the fifth commandment. believe in the darkness You do love Me!
It’s like a child who cannot see the loving face of his parent in the
4. That assurance embedded therein rests on the dark, but trusts that his/her love is real. On His cross Jesus cries out
firm foundation of a truth more solid than the for us all to hear, “He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction
everlasting hills: the love of God for His lost world. of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that cried to Him, He heard” (verse 24).
whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting Jesus built a bridge over a vast chasm of darkness and sin (our
life” (John 3:16). Can you imagine a more wonderful “Father” to have sin, our guilt), and made a way for us to believe in Him when
than God Himself, the Father to Jesus? But wait, here’s a problem: things are dark for us. We call that bridge “the atonement,” or “the
there was a time when the Father was so distant from Jesus, so reconciliation.” Now, can you build a bridge of reconciliation
unresponsive to His pleas for help, that it seemed to Jesus that He did between you and your parents, even when it seems they don’t care?
not love Him. When Jesus was on His cross, the Father seemed so far Even if they are long gone to their rest, you can re-create the matter
away (maybe your father or mother has seemed far away emotionally and receive the “reconciliation” Christ gives.
from you!) that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You Yes, by the grace of Christ your Savior! Your faith based on
forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). Him and His faith is powerful. It also builds something out of what
Then, according to the record in Psalm 22:1 and following, appears to be nothing. Love that is more than our normal human
Jesus kept on praying to Him, but the Father did not answer: “You do love takes over (it is called agape in the New Testament), and it
not hear” (verse 2). During those awful hours, Jesus had no visible begins to work miracles. Such love, which has its origin in Christ,
evidence that His Father cared anything for Him! Don’t discount works miracles here on earth. Many are the alienated families who
the reality of the temptation Jesus felt. If He had opened His heart are healed by this grace of Christ!
to welcome the temptations of Satan, Jesus could have become
resentful and bitter. But He resisted that temptation, and chose 5. But suppose your parents resist and reject this
instead to create something out of nothing, to believe that His Father grace of Christ manifested in you.
loved Him and heard Him even though there was not a shred of visible In some cases, that may happen, and we need to be prepared,
evidence to support His faith. Here He was despised and rejected for God cannot force people to respond properly. But be very slow
of men, forsaken by His own disciples, the heavens black above His about blaming others; if it is indeed their fault, then God’s back-up
soul, and yet He chose to trust in His Father. plan kicks in.
So we read that before He died on the cross, Jesus gained the Jesus explains that if we love people in a “household” and the
victory. It seemed He was in the last throes of agony, being tossed on “household ... is not worthy, let your peace return to you” (Matthew
56 ~ The Commandment Some Think They Can’t Obey A New Look at God’s Law ~ 57

10:13). The meaning is that even if your efforts at reconciliation and “[She] has done what she could” (Mark 14:8). Your grandparents
“honor” meet with apparent failure, the Holy Spirit will give you “did what they could,” and you will honor them for their love and
peace within your own heart. You have chosen to “honor your father faithfulness.
and your mother,” to “honor” the institution of parenthood and the
establishment of families, to “honor” the wise and loving parent he/ 8. In the same way, your heart wants to honor others
she could have been by the grace of Christ—the original plan of God who have been used by God to be a blessing to you.
for the human race. Now “your days” will be “long” and happy, just It’s the same principle at work in the fifth commandment. Your
as the assurance in the fifth commandment says! teachers, your pastors, even your government leaders who have
worked for you, are deserving of respect and honor. “You shall rise
6. There is a precious lesson we learn in our before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and
relation to our parents. fear your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32). Again, that’s an
“We have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them assurance of what the Lord will enable you to do if you believe He has
respect No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; brought you “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness “The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way
to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12: 9-11). We learn of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31). “The glory of young men is their
to thank God for His “chastening” us! “‘For whom the Lord loves He strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head” (20:29).
chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure The “young men” will someday be “old men,” and if they have shown
chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there respect and “honor” to their elders, they will reap the same blessing
whom a father does not chasten?” (verses 6, 7). Great Good News! when they become old!
All that you thought was “against you” turns out to be “for you,” a You are going to go to heaven. By obedience to the principle
million times over! The painful “chastening” turns out to be proof embedded in the fifth commandment, you will create a little heaven
that you are treated as a child of God! all around you while you are on the way!
God has warned us that in the last days many will lack the faith
7. Will we learn to honor grandparents also? that, if they had it, would enable them to obey the fifth commandment:
God could have chosen to multiply people on earth through “Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men
some other way than through families, like putting coins in will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
machines. But no, He chose to bring every child into the world blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
through the loving warmth of a family. When we begin to unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of
understand His plan of salvation, we “honor” His wisdom. In this good” (2 Timothy 3: 1-3). This sad condition is the direct result
way, we are given the gift of a respect for all our forebears. They may of a failure on the part of many pastors to proclaim the pure, true
have been far less educated than we are, but they did the best with gospel of Jesus Christ. The second angel of Revelation 14 warns us,
what they had. God says of them as Jesus said of Mary Magdalene, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” (verse 8). Transgression of the first four
58 ~ The Commandment Some Think They Can’t Obey

of God’s holy commandments has resulted in a widespread trans-

gression of the last six!
The 6th Commandment
In fact, God has written His Ten Commandments in a divinely r
arranged order. James says that if we break one, we break them all The Commandment People Break
(2:10), but it is also true that breaking one leads directly to breaking
the next one. Without Knowing It
9. In fact, it is impossible to break the fifth "You shall not murder."
commandment unless first of all there has been —Exodus 20:13

C
transgression of the fourth commandment.
God has placed His commandments in a meaningful order. If we
would keep holy the Lord's Sabbath day, “the seventh day” which He ould people break a commandment of God without realizing
has sanctified for us, He would be able to seal us with the Holy Spirit what they are doing? The sixth one says,
so that broken families would be healed as they gather to worship the “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
Lord together Sabbath after Sabbath.
How could anyone break that commandment and not realize
There is Good News in the fact that all around the world there
what he is doing?
are many dear people who are coming out of “Babylon,” taking their
God has displayed the answer for all the world to see: it’s the
place among God’s “saints” who “keep the commandments of God
crucifixion of Christ.
and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
Those who did it broke the sixth commandment! Here were Jews
and Gentiles together, murdering the Son of God, and He prayed
You want to be among them!
for them, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”
Jesus invites you. He is gathering a host of people who come
(Luke 23:34).
from all kinds of sad, unhappy places; now they are coming into the
When Jesus prayed that Friday morning for those who were
bright sunshine of His love. They rejoice in the fellowship of others
killing Him, His prayer embraced all the world, for the solemn truth is
who share this “faith of Jesus.” Your place is there, waiting for you.
that by nature we today are no better than those people were then. We
are fortunate that we weren’t there that day to take part in the deed, but
in principle we were there, like the old Negro Spiritual that asks, “Were
you there when they crucified my Lord?” The answer is, Yes.

59
60 ~ The Commandment People Break Without Knowing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 61

Why do they do it? We are by nature no better than poor Peter!

Because “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7), The people who were close to the crucifixion of Christ realized
and we all by nature are born with a carnal mind. “Whoever hates the enormity of that deed when the finally converted Peter told
his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). That’s the “mind” we have them, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
by nature until, by the grace of God, we learn the gospel and are Christ.” Trembling, they cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we
converted. It is then that Jesus’ prayer for us is answered, and we do?” They realized that they had participated in the greatest sin of all
experience or receive His forgiveness. He forgave us at the cross itself; the ages, and yet had not known it! The apostles said, “Repent, and
but only when we believe it do we know peace. let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
There was a thoughtful man (Horatius Bonar) who wondered remission of sins” (Acts 2:36-38).
how it could be possible that he would join in crucifying Christ if he Just as an oak tree is in the acorn, so murder lies buried in the
had been there that day. “My whole soul would revolt against taking thought or impulse of hatred. God can see the towering, massive
part in such a deed!” he said to himself. Then one night he had a oak tree when the little acorn in the ground sprouts. So John says,
dream in which he witnessed the rude, cruel soldiers driving spikes “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer!” Jesus says, “You have
through Jesus’ wrist bones and ankle bones and stringing Him up on heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and
the cross. In his agony (the dream was so realistic) Bonar grabbed whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment’” (Matthew 5:21,
hold of one of the soldiers, shook him by the neck and yelled at him, 22). Too bad the people who heard Him say that didn’t take it to heart
“Don’t do this awful deed!” Then the soldier turned around to look before they acted out their anger in the murder of the Son of God!
at him, and to his horror he saw himself as in a mirror. The violent anger that permeates our movies and TV programs
Paul understood the truth that “all the world [is] guilty before is the spirit of Satan actually taking possession of human hearts.
God,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who Hatred blazes in people’s eyes, and too much of it explodes within
understands” (Romans 3:19, 10, 11). We are born self-centered with the family. Two spirits are locked in a death struggle—the spirit of
this raw impulse to claw our way to the top, even if we have to climb Satan and the Spirit of Christ. Human hearts are the arena for the
over everybody else to get there. Look at the wars that have plagued conflict. Anger can be the blazing, violent kind or it can be the silent,
this planet! Soldiers who never wanted to kill anybody go wild with cold dislike or contempt that inwardly wishes its enemy could be
rage in the heat of battle and shoot in all directions. Many a person destroyed. Both are the cold, wicked sin of murder, because they are
who has lost his/her temper has been saved from the physical act of “acorns” waiting only for time to develop into the “oak trees.”
murder only because there was no loaded gun at hand to use. We
only kid ourselves when we say, “I could never do that!” Remember Parents, watch out for those little acorns in the
Peter? He protested loudly that he could never deny his Lord, but he hearts of your children.
did it three times before the rooster crowed that next morning. Their childish anger may appear ever so innocent, even fun to
watch, but beware: too many fathers and mothers years later have
had to sit in courtrooms and watch their sons or daughters arraigned.
62 ~ The Commandment People Break Without Knowing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 63

A man and his wife stopped going to church because the pastor Thus Christ was tempted as we are tempted to be angry; yet He
preached a sermon in which he spoke of “corporate guilt,” that is, said “No!” to the temptation and always kept His human anger un-
that the sin of someone else would be our sin but for the grace of der total control of His love. No one has ever suffered greater provo-
Christ. He was making the point that everybody needs the Savior, cation to anger than Jesus suffered; the needling, the constant unrea-
and we do not know or realize the depth of sin that is lurking be- sonable opposition, the hatred of the leaders of His people, all this
neath the surface of our own hearts. We think were okay, not know- subjected Him to enormous personal pressure to be impatient, to let
ing what we are capable of doing. “This offends us,” the couple said; His temper fly.
“we’re not that bad.” His disciples cracked under only a tiny amount of the same
Some time later, Hubby was out in the front yard working on the pressure that He endured. Once they were sent to a Samaritan village
lawn when the neighbor stopped by. The conversation turned sour to find a hotel where Jesus could spend the night while He was
and bitter, and he got hot under the collar. Grabbing his shovel, he on His journey to Jerusalem. The Samaritans there were eaten up
was on the point of lunging at his neighbor, when suddenly his face with narrow-minded prejudice and refused to “receive Him.” “And
grew white, he trembled, he dropped the shovel, and fled into the when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You
house. “Mama, I almost did it! I never dreamed I could get so angry!” want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume
“Do you suppose that’s what the pastor meant when he told us of them, just as Elijah did?’” Throughout the ages, how many professed
the buried evil that is in our human hearts?” she asked. Christians, even church leaders, have had the same short fuse when
Then they started coming to church again. they meet people who do not agree with their view of things! They
may not have had power to bring down fire on them from heaven,
Rightly understood, that sixth commandment is the but they have had the power to put innocent, persecuted people in
Good News of salvation already accomplished for us. prison and even to take their lives. Millions have been martyred.
When it says “You shall not murder” it becomes an assurance that But Jesus would not sanction any such outburst of anger from
God will save you from ever incurring that guilt if you will believe the His followers, whether the anger was righteous or otherwise.
Preamble to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2). “The house of He turned and rebuked the impatient disciples and said, ‘“You
bondage” is this evil of selfishness into which we have been born as do not know what manner of spirit you are of.’” There’s that same
natural descendants of Adam. That love of self has a vise-like grip on “you do not know.” The sixth commandment is the one that many
us which nothing except the salvation of God can break loose. professed Christians during the Dark Ages have broken and didn’t
But Christ has broken that grip. The Father “sent” Him “in the know what they were doing! Instead of being angry at this village
likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin,” so that “He condemned that would not “receive” Him, Jesus quietly, calmly withdrew. “‘For
sin in the flesh [our flesh], that the righteous requirement of the the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save
law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh them.’ And they went to another village” (Luke 9:51-56). There was a
but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3, 4). There is the blessed better solution to the problem than getting angry; “another village”
assurance in the sixth commandment! welcomed Him.
64 ~ The Commandment People Break Without Knowing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 65

His same character of calmness under provocation is what He Jesus was sent from Heaven with the specific assignment to “save
gladly gives to anyone who will believe the Preamble to the Ten the world,” and He has done it! He broke the devil’s neck and has
Commandments. What a blessing! You become a prince or princess paralyzed him. Satan can no longer force you to do his bidding; he
among your fellow men. You are greater than the sports stars, more is a paraplegic. Christ has set your will free; you are no longer in the
powerful than army generals. “He who is slow to anger is better than “Egypt” of slavery to sin. “Learn from Me,” He says, “for I am gentle
the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew
(Proverbs 16:32). 11:29, 30).

“But my problem is that I don’t know how There are sincere, good people who know
to control my anger!” they are chained in a prison.
“When I become angry, my eyes get red, I start to shake all over, They don’t want to be slaves to their lust, their passion, or their
my temper goes wild, and I can’t control myself!” You are the one satanic evil tempers. To their neighbors or to co-workers at the of-
who needs the Good News in this sixth commandment! fice they appear on the outside to be “saints.” But when they are at
It’s not some little trick of magic that Jesus has promised you; it’s home, or in some place where they think they are on top, then the
deliverance that He has already given you from this terrible sin. “I pressure builds and they explode. Some spend thousands of dollars
have brought you out of this ‘house of bondage,”’ He says. The chains on psychiatrists, hoping to find deliverance. To all comes the Good
are broken already; you can say, “I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your News: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts
precepts” (Psalm 119:45). In other words, you will walk in freedom 16:31). That is, believe and appreciate what He has already endured
because you “seek,” that is, you love, these ten grand assurances of in your behalf. Then you can’t break that sixth commandment:
righteousness by faith in Christ. • Appreciate what He accomplished by His sacrifice in
Gethsemane and on His cross.
Not everybody understands • Let your selfish heart become entwined with His heart;
how good the Good News is! identify with Him.
How many once-happy marriages are ruined by one or both • Kneel down beside Him as He prays in the Garden of
spouses blowing his/her top in an angry exchange of bitter words. Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Then, once spoken, the angry exchange smolders like fire and the • Watch Him as He accepts the suffering and death of the cross,
formerly tender relationship is killed or at least wounded. Children the eternal separation from His Father, all for your sake. The
and parents are forever alienated by such bitter outpourings of anger. death He died was not what we call “sleep,” but the real thing.
Friends are separated. Wars, massacres, and ethnic cleansings come • Thus He died your second death, endured the curse of God,
from such bitterness. “Where do wars and fights come from among that you might go free.
you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in • Sin has already been forever vanquished!
your members?” (James 4:1). • Get on your knees, and thank Him.
66 ~ The Commandment People Break Without Knowing It

The Sacramento [California] Bee recently published an article that

said, “The exercise that you need is to get down on your knees and pray.”
The 7th Commandment
Yes, not to convince God or beg Him to bless you (He is more r
willing to give a blessing than you are to receive it!), but your prayer is The Commandment People Are
to thank Him for already delivering you from “the house of bondage.”
Your prayer of thanksgiving will be the beginning of your realized Ashamed to Break ... But Do
deliverance! This joy of deliverance from sin is a foretaste of the
joy the world will know when sin is vanquished throughout God’s You shall not commit adultery."
universe: “The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for —Exodus 20:14
the revealing of the sons of God … The creation itself also will be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty
of the children of God,... eagerly waiting for the adoption, the
redemption of our body” (Romans 8:19-23).
T here are two ways of looking at the Ten Commandments:
You can read them with the dark glasses of the old covenant,
complete with the fire, thunder, lightning, and earthquakes of Mount
Sinai. Or you can read them in the sunshine of the new covenant
Good News.
Ancient Israel read them with the old covenant in mind; and look
at their history. It was up and down (mostly down!) ever since they
were at Mount Sinai. All through their history it was like a dark stormy
day with only an occasional bit of gospel sunshine peeking through
a rift in the clouds. Finally Israel and Judah were taken captive, their
temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, and they crucified their
Lord and Savior—all the outworking of the old covenant.
Now let’s look with “new covenant” eyes at the famous seventh
commandment that has worried so many people. It becomes an
assurance: you will never fall into that trap, you will never be ashamed
or defeated. It says,
“You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14).
The old covenant glasses make it look like a kill-joy prohibition
that multitudes think is impossible to obey. They ask, “Doesn’t God
want us to have any fun? Doesn’t He understand what our nature is
67
68 ~ The Commandment People Are Ashamed To Break...But Do A New Look at God’s Law ~ 69

like? Didn’t He make us like we are, male and female? Why does He respect or understand womanhood; and if we are women, we have
condemn us when we do what we feel like doing naturally?” always been afraid of men—yearning for them but repulsed at the
same time.
First of all, He does not condemn us. Only “in Christ” are we truly at ease with the opposite sex. The
When Jesus met the woman who was caught “in the act” of liberating agent is the love (agape) of Christ. He goes deep into our
adultery, He said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” psyche to heal wounds that may possibly lie too deep for us even to
(see John 8:11). God can forgive that sin; but the problem is that be aware of. Jesus is the Great Physician; He loves to heal old wounds.
adultery wounds us and destroys our happiness.
You can survive if you have an arm or a leg amputated, but the “But my problem,” someone says, “is that
wound will always be there. God pities and still loves the one who I am in love with so-and-so.”
has fallen, but it’s for our own happiness that He gave us that seventh What you think is love outside of marriage is fool’s gold
commandment to save us from ever having the wound. compared to the real thing; sex only appears real. Scratch it and you
Giving in to the clamors of our sinful nature brings only a find out it’s worthless. That’s why such love (infatuation) doesn’t last.
momentary thrill that afterwards poisons the memory. Not only is the True “love (agape) never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). It’s a love that
actual deed a transgression of God’s “law of liberty” (James 2:10-12), nobody is ever born with, it never comes to us through DNA; it’s a
Jesus also said that even watching pornography is the essence of the love we have to import from the outside, we have to “learn” it. And
sin: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not the source of learning: Christ Himself.
commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman If you love someone with agape, you cannot harm that person
to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” sexually; you cannot rob him/her of his/her God-given self-worth or
(Matthew 5:27, 28). self-dignity. There is no selfishness in agape. Young women, if some
The Preamble to the Ten Commandments assures us that our man tells you, “I love you, give me your body!” he’s fooling you. He
Savior will cleanse the very fountain of our being—the heart. may be fooling himself, too! (You must respect your own God-given
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8), self-dignity.) If he truly loves you, he will not try to use your body
and the Good News is that we won’t have to wait until we are 100 until God has made the two of you one in holy marriage. And then
years old or until we get to heaven for that to be fulfilled. Many a man the true love will never die, and it will always supersede mere sex.
or woman burdened with the captivity to lustful thought yearns to be It’s impossible to commit adultery or fornication (pre-marital sex) if
free. Believe the gospel and you will be free, says the Preamble! (But of agape is in the heart!
course that means you must understand the gospel! Keep reading!) And young men, run like a scared rabbit from the woman who
The seventh commandment understood as the seventh assurance wants to entangle you in a web of sensuality. Rightly understood, the
means a thorough renewal, a rebuilding of the soul from the ground seventh commandment is all about true love, for it keeps “you from
up. Many who are caught in the adultery trap are inheriting a warped the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress. Do not
or distorted childhood. If we are men, we have never learned to lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her
70 ~ The Commandment People Are Ashamed To Break...But Do A New Look at God’s Law ~ 71

eyelids. For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; It is true that Jesus was totally sinless, His character was holy, He
and an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. was righteous; but the flesh which He took upon Himself was “the
“Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? likeness of [our] sinful flesh,” and in that same fallen sinful flesh “He
Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? So is he who condemned sin” (Romans 8:3, 4). He felt the allurement of all our
goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her shall not be temptations but He said “No!” to each one, and conquered sin in our
innocent” (Proverbs 6:24-29). Remember: anyone whom God has fallen, sinful flesh. Glorious emancipation!
not made to be your wife in holy marriage is in fact your “neighbor’s This means that the angel told the truth before the birth of Jesus
wife” because she is not yours. when he said to Joseph, “He will save His people from their sins,” not
The Preamble to the Ten Commandments tells us that God in their sins (Matthew 1:21). We have a Savior who “is able to save to
has already saved us from the pain and humiliation that illicit sex the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always
involves. Christ has taken Adam’s place as the new Head of the lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
human race; He took upon Himself our fallen, sinful flesh and You have heard the story of the village at the bottom of a cliff
nature. Tempted in all points like as we are, He lives in us a pure and where people would fall over and be wounded. So the town fathers
holy life—which is happiness unalloyed. And all that He achieved in bought an ambulance, but what they should have done was to put a
His person He has given freely to us. fence up at the top. Jesus is more than a mere ambulance! But many
people haven’t realized that He is the fence up at the top of the cliff.
There is a worldwide teaching that denies He is our only Savior, and He is a complete Savior from sin, not in it.
this biblical truth. He doesn’t need anyone to help Him. There is no co-savior.
It says that Jesus was “exempt” from inheriting the same flesh
or the same nature as we all have. It teaches a strange idea that is If a person is converted, that does not mean
not taught anywhere in God’s holy word—that when the Virgin that he/she is no longer tempted.
Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, a miracle took Our fallen, sinful flesh or nature will not be eradicated until Jesus
place that “exempted” her from inheriting the same DNA or genes returns and glorifies His waiting saints. Only then will our sinful flesh
and chromosomes that every other son or daughter of Adam has become sinless flesh. Then “we shall all be changed—in a moment, in
inherited naturally. the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
This teaching is known as “The Immaculate Conception,” which In the meantime, we all still have a fallen, sinful flesh to deal
means that the Virgin Mary had different flesh, a different human with. “As [Jesus] is, so are we in this world” (l John 4:17). He says to
nature, than what we have. She escaped inheriting our DNA. And us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you,” but at the same time
of course, she gave that same supposedly sinless or holy flesh to her He assured the disciples that the same Holy Spirit who stayed with
Son, Jesus. So this teaching ends up telling us that Jesus could not Him and saved Him from yielding to temptation will stay with us:
possibly have been tempted “in all points as we are,” as the Bible says “When He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them,
in Hebrews 4:15. ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21, 22).
72 ~ The Commandment People Are Ashamed To Break...But Do A New Look at God’s Law ~ 73

This is the precious gift that He has promised to every one who with the happiness of our homes. He invented marriage! Its breakup
believes on Him. “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another embarrasses Him. It’s Satan who tells everyone that marriage is
Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth,... the hopeless, that it’s impossible for two people to be true to each other,
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He that God’s invention of marriage is a mistake, that He is defeated.
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things Every time a home breaks up, there is another vote in Satan’s favor!
that I said to you” (John 14:16, 17, 26). The Holy Spirit is therefore
the true Vicar of Christ; the Father has sent Him as Christ’s personal “I want to be happy and I want our home to
Representative. If Jesus were here in person, you and I could not have remain unbroken; but my spouse is the one
a chance to see Him, for there would be so many people thronging who is breaking up our happiness!”
His office. But through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself has come to A profound treasure of wisdom is found in Paul’s counsel: “The
each of us who will welcome Him. He has promised to be the Helper unbelieving husband is sanctified by the [believing] wife, and the
[Comforter, KJV], which means, He sits down beside us and never unbelieving wife is sanctified by the [believing] husband; ... For how
leaves us. God has promised to hold us by the hand, to steady us do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how
when we are about to stumble and fall (see Isaiah 41:10, 13). do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? (1 Cor-
inthians 7: 14, 16). A miracle? Yes, of course; but miracles of grace
Yearnings for human love are unrealized are exactly what God delights to do in these last days when so many
yearnings for Christ. homes are poisoned by infidelity.
When you think you have found happiness by looking in someone According to this text, if the one believing spouse can let the Holy
else’s face, what your heart is really yearning for is to see the face Spirit fill his or her heart with understanding and humility and faith,
of Jesus smiling at you. Let us not be confused and be misled by a the unbelieving spouse can often be led to repentance and conversion.
counterfeit love. Accept that seventh commandment as an assurance: believe that
What our hearts most yearn for is “peace with God.” Let us see the Lord has led you “out of the house of bondage,” He has freed you
His smiling face, and then heaven begins right here on earth. The from the slavery of sin in “Egypt,” believe that He shed His precious
Holy Spirit will teach us, as if we were students in school, to be happy blood to save you, and “you shall not commit adultery.” Nor will you
in holy marriage. We often must ask each other to forgive us, and we encourage your spouse (or anyone else) to do so! The love of Christ
forgive the other, even as we appreciate that Jesus has forgiven us. is stronger than all the wickedness the devil can try to send into our
Happiness begins when husband and wife can hold hands and kneel homes; He so changes you and melts your heart from within that
together and ask God in prayer to bless their marriage. He wants to, such a great change will take place in you that your spouse will fall
and He will; the prayers He most delights to answer are those when in love with you!
husband and wife agree in what they ask for! Praise God for that blessing!
A broken home not only brings sadness and pain to the hearts of
husband and wife; it wounds the Savior afresh. His honor is bound up
 The 8th Commandment
How People Steal and Don't Know
They're Doing It
"You shall not steal."
—Exodus 20:15

I f you have never stolen anything, you probably were born

on Mars, because on earth “there is none righteous, no, not one”
(Romans 3:10), and all the sons and daughters of Adam here have
“become guilty before God” (verse 19). We all need a Savior!
The eighth of God’s Ten Commandments says,
“You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15)
Many people break that commandment without knowing it.
They think it’s impossible to obey it fully. But, rightly understood,
it’s an assurance of salvation from stealing, not a stern prohibition.
If we remember the Preamble to the Ten Commandments, and
include it with the “Ten,” God says to us, “Now you will never steal.
There will never be such a stain upon your record. You will hold your
head high everywhere, and always! I will save you from that sin.”

Great Good News!

Stealing is sin; but the angel who spoke to Joseph just before Jesus
was born promised, “He will save His people from [not in] their sins”
(Matthew 1:21). As we think about this commandment, “You shall not
steal,” we could spend time reviewing all the ways we can break the
commandment, how easily we can bring upon ourselves this guilt of

75
76 ~ How People Steal and Dont Know They’re Doing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 77

stealing without realizing what we are doing. There are a thousand The inspired Apostle Paul explains why: “Let every soul be sub-
ways! Instead, let’s review how great is Christ’s salvation to us. ject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from
God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore
1. The root of stealing is the desire to have whoever resists the authority [failure to pay honest taxes is “resisting”]
something that God has not given us. resists the ordinance of God.” And Paul goes on to say that the one who
This is the root that the gospel of Christ takes out of the heart. is dishonest with the government will bring “judgment” upon himself.
The Holy Spirit reminds us immediately that when He was with us “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to
on earth, Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do
Although He was a master builder (He was a carpenter) He owned evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s
no house, no real estate; He had no bank account. When He was minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
crucified, all His wealth was the clothes He had on. Because He knew This is why Paul says that those who follow Jesus truly will be
true inner peace, He could say truthfully, “Take heed and beware of honest with the government “not only because of wrath, but also
covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they
things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render
Paul knew the same inner peace when he said that “I also count [that’s the word Jesus used] therefore to all their due: taxes to whom
all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor
my Lord, ... and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” to whom honor. Owe no one anything except to love one another, for
(Philippians 3:8). According to that, our endless love affair with he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:1-8).
materialism is shameful; it is diving into the dumpster. What joy
there is in freedom from constantly hankering for luxuries! So we are 3. “But,” some say, “the government is corrupt;
encouraged to read this Good News: “Godliness with contentment is politicians steal from the treasury;
great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain police accept bribes.”
we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these All of this may be true, but God’s word is still true above it all.
we shall be content" (1 Timothy 6:6-8). If there were no government, the nation would be in total anarchy,
nobody’s life or property would be safe. God can grant His blessings
2. Failure to pay our honest taxes to the government to a government, or He can withhold His blessings; to a great extent
is a form of stealing that Christ saves us from. this depends on the basic honesty of the people themselves.
Jesus taught how to pay taxes honestly when He said, “Render Every nation desperately needs within its borders the presence
therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21). He of a pure church that “keeps the commandments of God and the
was speaking of the pagan Roman government of His day! The reason is faith of Jesus.” The entire population benefits from the presence of
that God has ordained the establishment of proper human government. servants of God, even if their number is small proportionately. Do
78 ~ How People Steal and Dont Know They’re Doing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 79

you remember how God said He would spare Sodom if ten righteous grain that the field produces year by year” (14:22). “All the tithe of
people could be found therein? Let us not forget that politicians, the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is
police, government servants—all come from the common people the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30).
themselves. This precious Good News of the pure gospel always
uplifts the people. No matter where you live in whatever nation, 6. But what does the Lord do with this tithe, since He
thank God for the measure of peace and security you now enjoy! already owns everything?
And when you pay your taxes, offer a prayer for your government The answer is: He gives it to His servants who spend their full
and its servants. Then you will receive a blessing! time proclaiming His gospel. He says, “I have given the children
of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the
4. The one who appreciates salvation in Christ also gladly work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting”
returns his tithe, or tenth of all his “increase” to God. (Numbers 18:21). And this blessed plan for the support of the sacred
When Jesus said, “Render ... to Caesar the things which are Cae- ministry is carried over into the New Testament church: “Even so the
sar’s,” He also said, “[Render] to God the things that are God’s” (Mat- Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live
thew 22:21). The question immediately arises, Why should we have from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14).
to give anything to God? The answer is, In paying tithe we do not This is so serious that when we fail to return this sacred tenth to
give God anything; we simply return to Him a tenth of what He has Him, He considers that we have robbed Him: “Will a man rob God?
given us, and this is as a confession that all we have comes from Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, in what way have we robbed
Him, the “possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19). He says, You? In tithes and offerings” (Malachi 3:8).
“All the earth is Mine” (Exodus 19:5) and He claims, “Every beast of We could read the entire passage to see how the Lord promises
the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). temporal prosperity if we “bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be food in My house” (verse 10). And the Lord does bless!
5. If God gives you a gift, isn’t it a sin not to recognize it? “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who
David prays, “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous
them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire soul will be made rich” (Proverbs 11:24, 25). But the reason why
of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15, 16). This evokes the picture of God we pay tithe and give offerings is not because we hope for a special
kneeling down and opening His hand for us all to eat out of it, like birds economic reward—that would be merely “pious selfishness.” The real
or squirrels eat out of your hand. Shouldn’t we say “Thank You”? reason is gratitude to Him who has brought us out of the “bondage”
Paying tithe to Him is simply our saying, “Thank You, Lord! I of spiritual Egypt, and has actually saved us for time and for eternity.
choose to ‘remember the Lord [my] God; for it is He who gives [me] The Good News is that the Holy Spirit will motivate us to be
power to get wealth’” (Deuteronomy 8:18). When we forget, we bring faithful in paying tithe and giving offerings so that we will enjoy
all kinds of trouble upon ourselves. So it is in kindness and mercy to being generous! Learning to enjoy unselfish giving is a miracle for all
us that the Lord says, “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your of us mortals who are selfish by nature!
80 ~ How People Steal and Dont Know They’re Doing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 81

7. The eighth commandment is an eternal defense 9. Why are we so often anxious to get things
against the false doctrine that is sometimes for less than they are worth?
passed off as “Communism.” Or equally anxious to sell things for more than they are worth?
Many honest, sincere people have assumed that Communism is Why do we boast when we buy something for less than it’s worth?
the best plan for achieving equality among all people. But as we study ‘“It is good for nothing,’ cries the buyer; but when he has gone his
the Bible, we find that God recognizes the right of private property. way, then he boasts” (Proverbs 20:14). The reason? It is basically
The so-called “communism” in the early church when the apostles our deep unbelief—doubt that the Lord will care for us by giving us
“had all things in common” and no one said “that any of the things all we need. No millionaire would haggle over the price of a bunch
he possessed was his own,” was a totally voluntary sharing in a time of of carrots because he knows he can afford them at any price. We
emergency. It was motivated by brotherly love (Acts 4:32-34). It wasn’t need to remember that since we are God’s children, we are therefore
government taking by force from one individual to give to another. “millionaires.” “All things are yours: whether... the world or life or...
Peter told Ananias and Sapphira that God recognized that their things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s,
property was their own (Acts 5:4) because He has given man dominion and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
over the earth. God has given man a right to the lawful fruits of his
labor. “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread” (Proverbs 10. Gambling, whether legalized or not, is a
28:19). God does not force him to give it to those who do not “till” violation of the eighth commandment.
their land, but He does ask us to be generous to help others who are If a million people pay a dollar each into a lottery and then a
in need. The love of Christ would put an end to poverty all over the “lucky” person wins that jackpot, it is not his money—in the sight
world! It would heal the abuses of both Capitalism and Communism. of God. It is money that actually belongs to others and they should
not have been enticed to part with it. Gambling is not “sport,” it is
8. In all our business dealings, God teaches His selfishness gone wild. A mere handful of people win the jackpots
people to be strictly honest, as well as generous. while multitudes often lose either their life savings or their income
“Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running which their families need for food and shelter.
over” is God’s way of doing business (see Luke 6:38). Norman Rockwell There is a fatal lure in gambling that tells the victim of this
painted a famous picture of a merchant weighing the lady customer’s obsession, “Just throw in a few more dollars and maybe you’ll win.”
selection of meat on a scale. While the merchant is looking up at So on and on the poor victim of this deception pays out until he gets
the scale he is cleverly tipping the scale downward with his finger to desperate. Gambling tragedies are terrible.
make her purchase weigh more. At the same time the customer is It may be said that if these victims don’t use common sense, it’s
pushing it upward from underneath to make it lighter than it really their fault; they should know better. But the problem is that gambling
was, so she could pay less than it was worth. But God says, “If you becomes an addiction of the same basic quality as alcoholism,
sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, heroin, or crack. The gambling addict gets to the point where he can’t
you shall not oppress one another” (Leviticus 25:14). control himself. Such is the craving for something that is not ours.
82 ~ How People Steal and Dont Know They’re Doing It A New Look at God’s Law ~ 83

There is glorious deliverance in the eighth commandment which

is an assurance from the sin of breaking it. The Holy Spirit puts into
The 9th Commandment
the believing heart a hatred for taking anything that is not ours. This
again is a miracle of grace! Love will motivate us to help the alcoholic Salvation from the Sin that
not to take a drink, for he is an addict; it will also motivate us to help
any addict who has lost his God-given power of self-control.
Everybody Has Committed

11. Perhaps the most famous thief of all history was "You shall not bear false witness against
one of Jesus’ Twelve disciples—Judas Iscariot. your neighbor."
John tells us that Judas was the treasurer for the little group of —Exodus 20:16
Christ’s disciples and that he secretly embezzled funds for his own
use. His heart always wanted what was somebody else’s; and this is
what finally drove him to betray the Son of God (see John 12:6).
The Holy Spirit has left his story on record for us to learn a Good
T wo of the Ten Commandments speak of how we use the
tongue: the third says that if we believe the Good News of Jesus Christ
News lesson. After he was paid the “thirty pieces of silver” (the price we will never be guilty of taking the Lord’s name in vain; and the
of a slave!), he was so conscience-stricken for what he had done that ninth becomes a wonderful assurance to the one who understands
he rushed to the Sanhedrin Council and threw the money down on and believes how good the Good News is:
the floor and went out and hanged himself. Now he hated the filthy “You shall not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16).
money that never was rightfully his! The entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is Good News,
Our dear Lord is so merciful to us: His Holy Spirit will teach us not Bad News. God is not a stern Lawgiver dishing out a series of
now, before it’s too late, to learn to hate anything that is not ours by impossible-to-obey rules with the penalty of death hanging over our
right. This is how He will give us the blessed assurance that is in the heads; He is a Savior from breaking those commandments.
eighth commandment: “You shall not steal.” He saves us from the sin He wants to deliver us from death; He has purposed that every
that ruined Judas Iscariot. That’s something to be happy about for all human being shall enjoy eternal life, for “this is good and acceptable
eternity! Thank God for such a Savior! in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and
to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3, 4). Christ
is already “the Savior of all men,” according to 1 Timothy 4:10,
“especially of those who believe.”
When God the Father sent Jesus Christ to this earth, He gave
Him a special job description—go down to that lost world and save
it. Says Jesus: “[I came] to save the world” (John 12:47). He is not
84 ~ Salvation from the Sin that Everybody Has Committed A New Look at God’s Law ~ 85

trying to find a way to shut us out of heaven; rather, He is trying to Breaking the ninth commandment is a sin for
prepare us to enter in. God “chose us in Him before the foundation which many people will lose their souls; but there
of the world, ... having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus is salvation from that sin.
Christ to Himself ” (Ephesians 1:4, 5). When God says, “You shall not bear false witness,” He means
that we are never to tell even a little white lie, never to give a false
“But isn’t there a terrible judgment coming when we impression even by a nod of our heads. It forbids all gossip, including
shall all come under the stern scrutiny of God’s law?” damaging the reputation of another person by keeping still when he
Yes, but “if any one sins, we have an Advocate [defense lawyer!] or she is being accused—if we know something good to say. We can
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the “bear false witness” simply by keeping still when it’s possible for us
propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1, 2). And if anyone reading is to speak up to save somebody’s reputation.
afraid that this great “Defense Lawyer” won't take his case, John This commandment becomes an assurance that we have a Savior
adds, “and not for ours [our sins] only but also for [the sins of] the who will save us from breaking it.
whole world.” He is already your Defense Lawyer if you don’t push We are to “speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give
Him away. Some criminals on trial fire their lawyers and then lose judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace” (Zechariah
their cases. Don’t fire Jesus! Let Him hold on to your case. 8:16). All bearing of false witness comes from its true origin—
Jesus has become the new Head of humanity. He fired Adam, our Satan. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand
first head who led us into sin, and has taken his place. in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a
Thus you and I have a birthright given to us in Him, just like lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father
Isaac’s son Esau had the birthright already given to him. Nobody of it” (John 8:44). “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but
in heaven or earth could have deprived Esau of that birthright those who deal truthfully are His delight” (Proverbs 12:22). “A false
except his own act of discarding it. When he sold it for a mere witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies will not
dinner entree, we read, “Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis escape” (19:5). We read that God actually hates “a lying tongue,...
25:34). Paul warns us, don’t give in to the subtle temptation to be a a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to
“fornicator or profane person, like Esau, who for one morsel of food evil, a false witness who speaks lies” (6:17-19). But remember, even
sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:16). Wouldn’t it be heartrending in though God hates lying, the Bible assures us that He loves the liar,
the final judgment as we stand before the Great White Throne of and seeks to save him from the lying.
God, to realize that He actually gave us the gift of eternal life like He
gave the birthright to Esau, but we sold it for some of this world’s There are sincere people who bear false witness and
tinsel treasures! To save us from that ultimate agony, He is today have no idea what they are doing.
sending us the message of the pure gospel as very Good News. They are among those for whom Jesus prayed when He was
crucified, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”
(Luke 23:34). Sometimes parents teach little children to tell lies, but
86 ~ Salvation from the Sin that Everybody Has Committed A New Look at God’s Law ~ 87

still God loves them and seeks to enlighten them. Some people are me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and
“color-blind,” that is, they can’t tell the difference between a red light see if there is any wicked way in me” (139:23, 24). We don’t want what
and a green light and thus have accidents. God is merciful to such Psalm 140:3 says is deep inside everybody by nature: “the poison
people, but better still He has promised to give the Holy Spirit to of asps... under the lips!” Oh, do we ever need a Savior! And thank
those who don’t know the difference between right and wrong. He God again, we have One!
wants to be their Teacher. Let them listen to Him! In the Judgment
Day, ignorance of the truth will be no excuse. Thank God, right now Can we bear false witness by saying nice things
we have another opportunity to learn, to “go to school” with Jesus to somebody?
as our Teacher. Yes, if we speak flattery. Saying something nice to someone’s face
In the last two chapters of the Bible we have three warnings that and then snickering behind his back is bearing false witness. “A man
tell us that “whoever loves and practices a lie” will not be able to who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet” (Proverbs 29:5).
enter the eternal kingdom (Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15). Books and David tells of the pain he suffered, “The words of his mouth were
movies that tell a lie are “loved” by one whose heart is not reconciled smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer
to God. Thus we see that not only is it serious to “practice a lie,” but than oil, yet they were drawn swords” (Psalm 55:21). We do not
it is equally serious to “love a lie.” Long before the lips may utter a realize how deep this problem is rooted within us. It’s so easy to say
falsehood, if the heart is dishonest, we have already sinned. “Lord, “Good morning!” to someone when in our heart we wish he could
... who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who... speaks the truth in get what he deserves! The ninth commandment calls for complete
his heart” (Psalm 15:1, 2). “Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, and honesty in our dealings with one another.
whoever spreads slander is a fool” (Proverbs 10:18). In other words, “But suppose you know someone is doing wrong; how can you
we can smile at someone, slap him on the back, shake his hand, be honest and pleasant at the same time?” You can pray for him as
and yet “hide” our hatred of him deep within our heart; all this is Jesus prayed for the bad people who crucified Him: “Father, forgive
breaking the ninth commandment. them, for they do not know what they do.” It does not help to rebuke
someone unless the love of Christ is in your heart; but if that love is
What this boils down to: it is impossible for any there, the Holy Spirit will teach you exactly what to do that is both
of us to obey the ninth commandment loving and honest. You might be able to help that person, but if not,
unless we are truly converted deep within. you can be happy, for your own conscience will be clear.
Jealousy of someone else who seems better than we are, even a
desire to see that person fall—all this happens long before a word is The tongue is the instrument that is often the
spoken! And we all know how that problem is deep within our own agent in breaking the ninth commandment.
hearts. It’s so true as Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, Says Proverbs 10:19, “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
no, not one.” Surely we need to pray, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my but he who restrains his lips is wise.” “Do not be rash with your mouth,
mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3). “Search and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. ... Let your
88 ~ Salvation from the Sin that Everybody Has Committed A New Look at God’s Law ~ 89

words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). If we sense how easily we are tempted In simple terms, this means the same as
to be deceptive, we can remember the common sense Good News of the Preamble to the Ten Commandments:
the apostle James that will save us from messing up our lives: He has delivered us “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
“If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able bondage”! You and I don’t have to go on being deceptive in any way; He
also to bridle the whole body.... Ships: although they are so large and has promised to make us honest from the depths of our hearts, inside out.
are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder But some one says, “It’s so difficult to be honest! We live in a world
wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member.... filled with deception, and you have to be ‘worldly’ or you can't get
How great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a ahead! How can I be so different?” The answer is—Jesus Himself. He
world of iniquity.... And it is set on fire by hell.” (James 3:2-6). A lived in our same “worldly” world, in a culture filled with deception.
match can do both good and evil, depending on the will and the He could have saved His life at the end if He had been willing to just
heart of the one who uses it! keep silent when the High Priest demanded an answer from Him by
There is indeed Good News for all of us. The ninth oath: “Tell us, are You the Son of God?” Jesus had to give a truthful
commandment becomes an assurance to the one who believes the answer, and it cost Him His life by crucifixion. But in so doing He
Preamble to the Ten Commandments, that “the Lord your God” has earned the right to be our Savior!
already delivered you out of this “house of bondage,” which includes To the one who values truly important things, being honest
our deeply learned habitual breaking of the ninth commandment! through-and-through is a most precious blessing. None of us has
He saves the tongue because He first saves the heart! received such a character naturally through our genes or DNA;
Christ came down to this world and took upon His sinless we have to “learn” it from Jesus. Such a character is a gift of His
nature our sinful nature, living as we must live in an evil and corrupt grace, imported from heaven. “The remnant of Israel shall do no
society, yet always saying “No!” to the temptation to tell lies or even unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be
to give anyone a false impression. He met the dragon of sin in its own found in their mouth” (Zephaniah 3:13). This marvelous achievement
lair (our fallen human flesh or nature) and conquered it. will make Satan very angry, for he believes it is impossible for any
“What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,” human being to become truly honest. Don’t believe what he tells you!
He did; He took our own nature with all of its weaknesses, and tri- The Book of Revelation describes a people who in the last days
umphed over sin in that same nature. “By sending His own Son in have permitted the Holy Spirit to mold them, to teach them, to train
the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in them, to be like Christ in character:
the flesh” (Romans 8:3). And why did He do this wonderful thing? “I looked,” says John, “and, behold, a Lamb standing on Mount
Verse 4 tells us: “That the righteous requirement of the law might be Zion [a symbol of the church], and with Him one hundred and
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according forty-four thousand….These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever
to the Spirit.” He goes….In their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without
fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14:1-5). We can’t wash any
portion of God’s word down the drain. It’s written here for us to believe.
90 ~ Salvation from the Sin that Everybody Has Committed A New Look at God’s Law ~ 91

These people, as a group, are different from any others in all Today there are those three angels going everywhere in the world,
world history, for “they sing as it were a new song before the throne.” proclaiming this most precious message. Soon a fourth angel will
A "new song" means a new experience; and a new experience means join them, and a Voice will sound from heaven in some way to every
they have heard and received a new message, a fresh proclamation person in the world, “Come out of [Babylon], My people, lest you
of “the everlasting gospel” which has accomplished this wonderful share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).
achievement. Yes, “the gospel of Christ ... is the power of God to
salvation” (Romans 1:16). That Voice is speaking to you!
But this is a clearer proclamation of the gospel! Luther, Calvin, It is telling you the Good News that Christ has saved you from
and the 16th century Reformers saw much light and were a blessing breaking that ninth commandment! You can be a new person; you
to the world. But in these last days we live in the time of the great don’t have to stay in old, dark spiritual “Egypt” for He has set you
three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 and of that message of the free! The prison doors are open; walk out into the sunshine.
fourth angel in chapter 18—“the everlasting gospel” is now more fully
being revealed. Its purpose is not merely to prepare a people to die,
but to prepare the corporate body of God’s people for translation
without seeing death. Granted, some will refuse this last days’ ministry
of Christ as our great High Priest; but there will be many who will
honor Him by permitting the Holy Spirit to work upon their hearts.

“But these people are sinners by nature,

just like you and me.”
Yes indeed, but they have permitted Jesus to save them from
continued sinning. They have no advantage, no more education or
“perks” than anybody else; they have simply seen and comprehended
something that others in past ages could not see. Paul prayed for us
when he said: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ,... that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love [agape], may be
able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length
and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”
(Ephesians 3:14-19). That means, to be ready for the glorious second
coming of Jesus!
 A New Look at God’s Law ~ 93

The 10th Commandment

r
The Commandment that Wakes
Everybody Up
"You shall not covet...
anything that is your neighbor's."
—Exodus 20:17

T
Savior does.
he Ten Commandments are the Good News about what the

God said, “I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself ”
(Exodus 19:4). Think of the baby eagle trying to learn to fly; imagine you are
one. You flap your wings wildly in terror as you see ground zero coming up;
then comes mother with her great outstretched wings. She flies under you
and carries you home to safety. This is what the Savior does for every human
being who will let Him do so!
It’s the meaning of the word “succor” in Hebrews 2:18 in the King James
Version: “In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to
succor them that are tempted.” Yes, sin has ruined you; you are going
down; but here I am, I have already paid the price to redeem you. Believe
Me, and I assure you that you will never do the evil things that these Ten
Commandments warn you against.

People need to know this!

Millions are caught like flies in the spider’s web of despair, thinking that
it’s impossible to overcome temptations to sin. They need to know the truth
about this Savior who has already brought us out of bondage!
94 ~ The Commandment that Wakes Everybody Up A New Look at God’s Law ~ 95

The tenth commandment is the strongest of all the ten, the one Saul of Tarsus was one such person before
that zeroes in on the most sensitive level of our consciousness. It says, he became Paul the apostle.
“You shall not covet ...” anything or anybody that He tells us that “as touching the law, ... touching the righteous-
belongs to someone else (Exodus 20:17). ness which is in the law, [he was] blameless” (Philippians 3: 5, 6, KJV).
He was not only okay, but proud of it. But one day he discovered this
To make the point clear, God specifies some things that we must
tenth commandment. It had been there all along, he just had not seen
not “covet.” (The word “covet” means to desire, to want to have, to
it. It wasn’t an ax chopping down a tree or a few limbs off of it; it was
want to enjoy what is not and cannot be ours.) The idea sums up
digging up the very root itself of that secret longing, that lust.
all of the other nine commandments, but gets down to the root
He tells us of his discovery: “I was alive once [contented with
problem—the desire which burns deep inside the heart long before
myself] without the law, but when the commandment came, sin
anything is said or done to express it. Covetousness is “action in
revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life,
the egg.” The covetous person is a thief in the shell; the thief is the
I found to bring death” (Romans 7:9, 10). Suddenly I found myself
covetous person out of the shell.
condemned, he says. All my self-illusionment was gone; I was a sinner!
For example, the tenth commandment says, “You shall not
At last I saw myself standing naked before the judgment bar of God.
covet... your neighbor’s wife.” (It could just as well say, “your neighbor’s
“I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said,
husband.”) It’s talking about lust buried deep in the heart where no
‘You shall not covet [that tenth commandment!]’” (verse 7). At last
one else can see or guess that it’s there.
Saul of Tarsus was awake and was converted.
Jesus understood this tenth commandment when He defined
The result was that he knelt down and confessed himself a
what real adultery or fornication is: “You have heard that it was said
sinner in need of the grace of God. He re-read the penitential psalms
to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that
of David, of his adultery with Bathsheba, and of his murder of her
whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed
husband, Uriah the Hittite. “Oh God, I thought I was okay while
adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27, 28). That’s the essence
my heart was hard and proud because my outward acts seemed
of pornography. That’s coveting!
‘righteous.’ Now I see that David’s sin is my sin; I am no better than
Ouch! No word has been spoken, no act has been done; everything’s
he. Forgive me, and cleanse my heart!”
totally secret; the particular “woman” (or man) doesn’t even know what’s
in your heart; yet, according to Jesus, the sin has been done! Paul’s discovery is that of “every man” and woman, too.
Many “goody-goody” people imagine that they are upright We go through life content with ourselves, feeling spiritually that
nontransgressors of God’s law because their acts (they think) are okay. we are “rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” all
They boast of their “righteousness.” But this tenth commandment the while unconscious that in the sight of Heaven we are “wretched,
is the one that wakes them up to the truth about themselves. They miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). That tenth
never saw it before, but there’s a cancer in their hearts, deep down. commandment has awakened us also.
96 ~ The Commandment that Wakes Everybody Up A New Look at God’s Law ~ 97

“Sin ... dwells in me.... (In my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to A young man writes us a letter.
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I do He is disturbed, worried. “It’s my problem night and day, thinking
not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will about women. I see them all the time in my mind’s eye. I can’t look
not to do, that I practice I see another law in my members, warring the other way when I see one. The problem goes down deep inside
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law me, down to my toes. What can 1 do? I realize that Jesus says that it’s
of sin which is in my members. 0 wretched man that I am! Who will in the heart; and that’s where I know it is! Help me!”
deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:17-24). Many are slaves to pornography who hate it. It’s like the custom
Here is Paul praying with heart-felt tears, “Purge me with hyssop, in the old Roman Empire—a murderer chained to the corpse of his
and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me murder victim. Paul cries out, “Who will deliver me from this body
hear joy and gladness, ... hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all of death? ... With the flesh [I serve] the law of sin” (Romans 7:24, 25).
my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast But there is solid Good News. Paul admits that just quoting
spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not the law to him doesn’t help. “The commandment, which was to
take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the
(Psalm 51:7-12). A prayer like that never goes unanswered! commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” (verses 10, 11).
This discovery of truth is nothing to be avoided, but to be wel- You can preach hell-fire and brimstone and terrify people, but that
comed. Eternal life begins when we see and confess the truth. Even doesn’t change the heart. Fear is not the motivation that works.
pastors, priests, and bishops—all are in the same condition. We all But Paul describes something that does work: “The law of
need the One who “will save His people from their sins, ... Immanu- the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of
el, which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:21, 23). sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak
The tenth commandment preaches the gospel to us—when it is through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of
understood as an assurance under the new covenant. It does no good sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the
for us to promise to keep God’s commandments. Our promises to righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not
God are like ropes of sand. But what is important is believing God’s walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (8:2-4).
promises to us: “You shall not covet.” In other words, the Savior says:
• I will take away the selfish lust that is in your heart. Let’s analyze what he says, because there is
• I will cleanse your mind. “most precious” truth here:
• I will set you free from the slavery to adulterous or any kind 1. The tenth commandment can’t save anyone (none of them can save).
of sinful covetous desiring. 2. But God sent His Son to solve the problem of deep-inside-of-us,
• I cannot make it impossible for you to be tempted, but I can give down-to-our-toes sin. He accomplished this wonderful achievement
you grace that will “teach [you] to say to ‘No’ to ungodliness by taking upon Himself our same fallen, sinful flesh that we have.
and worldly passions, and to live [a] self-controlled, upright Thus He met and endured all the temptations that we have, including
and godly [life] in this present age” (Titus 2:11, 12, NIV). those of the young man who wrote us that letter.
98 ~ The Commandment that Wakes Everybody Up A New Look at God’s Law ~ 99

3. Jesus conquered and defeated sin in our fallen, sinful flesh. take from us the freedom to choose. But when Christ gave Himself
It is not true that the Virgin Mary gave Him flesh that was any for us on His cross, He purchased something precious for every one
different than the flesh which we all have. His name is “God with us,” of us: He gave us the power of choice. Yes, we choose heaven or hell.
not God- afar-off-from-us. It wouldn’t be fair for Jesus to deceive us, So we tell the young man who wrote the letter: don’t pray that
to pretend to be “in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” God will turn you into a stone or a tree so you can’t be tempted; He
(Hebrews 4:15) if He “fudged” and managed to get an “exemption” doesn’t want statues in His kingdom. He wants living people there!
from the DNA heredity that all of us have. If Jesus were to do that, God’s solution is not to zap you sexually so you can never be tempt-
Satan would shout to high heaven that Jesus disqualified Himself ed; His solution is to give you grace to control whatever allures you.
from becoming our Savior from sin! He would claim he had invented Tension in the strings is what makes the music. His grace will “teach”
something that defeats God’s government, and that would mean that you, just like a schoolteacher taught you how to write your ABC’s;
Satan would become the ruler of the universe (some people think he He will teach you to say “No!” to every such temptation.
is, but they are wrong). Don’t get the cart before the horse: even before you begin to pray,
4. All this mighty achievement which Christ won in our "flesh" was the Holy Spirit is already “teaching” you to say “No!” You don’t need
with the purpose that "the righteous requirement of the law might be to waste your breath praying for Him to do that. Now make your
fulfilled in us." Sin has been conquered forever; that nasty root of choice to listen to Him, to say “No!” to Satan. Then, the next step
selfish covetousness deep in the heart has been pulled up. All those comes up: thank God for the victory He has promised to give you
tearful prayers for “a clean heart” are already answered. “in Christ” (and has given you!). Let agape be “poured out in your
5. What kind of a new life do we live now? We “do not walk ac- heart,” and you will keep on saying “No!” to the temptation.
cording to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” It’s very simple:
• You go for a walk with the Holy Spirit leading. Satan is a conquered foe; he cannot force
• You let the Holy Spirit hold you by the hand. you to transgress.
• Step by step, moment by moment, grace teaches you to say The meaning of the word “covet” is to desire inordinately anything
“No” to every temptation. You can look the other way. that God has not seen fit to give to you now, and which may not be
• Something else: you can pray for the person who tempts you, good for you to have. You may think your secret coveting is impossible
and then the love of Christ (agape) takes over. to overcome. Satan may wrestle with you to discourage you. But
• You listen to the Holy Spirit. remember the battle that Jesus fought with him; remember His cross
• And you say “No!” to the temptation. where He chose to die rather than to give in to Satan. We’re talking
• Now you say, “Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.” here about the “nitty-gritty,” the bottom line of salvation, the difference
But right here we must remember that temptation is not sin; the between heaven and hell, between eternal life and eternal death.
sin comes only in our saying “Yes!” to it. A thousand temptations do There are a thousand things for us to be tempted to “covet”—
not equal one sin. We must not expect God to do what He has said whatever is our neighbor’s that we don’t have: houses, cars, clothes,
He will never do: He will not make up our mind for us, He will not jobs, positions—yes, the newspapers, magazines, TV are all full of
100 ~ The Commandment that Wakes Everybody Up More From the Author of
A New Look at God’s Law
the alluring advertisements intended to create covetous lust of some kind
in our hearts. We are enticed into a never-ending slavery, making us always In Search of the Cross: Learning to Glory In It
unhappy, always wanting something else, always seeking it, never satisfied. A joyous journey of discovery!
“Send us gold, for we Spaniards have a disease that can only be cured by There must be a reason why the
gold,” is the reported message of Cortez to Montezuma, ruler of Mexico. proclamation of the cross draws “all
True happiness lies in “godliness with contentment [which] is great gain. men” to Jesus, and forever captures all
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry noth- honest hearts. Travel with the author
ing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” as he explores the journey of those who
(1 Timothy 6:6-8). have taken the road to the cross: Jesus,
Mary Magdalene, and Paul, and as he takes
Blessed contentment! Jesus Christ saves us “lest [our] hearts be weighed
his own journey, which he discovers to be a
down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [the
joyous one.
end] come upon [us] unexpectedly” (Luke 21:34).
Published over and over, and in
several languages, In Search of the Cross
The true Good News. has stirred the pulse of readers on al-
The tenth commandment tells you that indeed you have sinned; that most all continents. This is a touching and
indeed, you have a sinful nature. But it also gives you the Good News that compelling book.
you have a Savior who “save[s] to the uttermost [completely] those who Paperback, 139 pp. [00149]
come to God through Him” (Hebrews 7:25). Whoever you are, wherever
you are, sing your song of praise to the Lamb of God. Say “Thank You,” even
if you think you are saying it in advance. The truth is, you are not thanking The Good News Is Better Than You Think
Him in advance, you are thanking Him for shedding His precious blood for Through the centuries, accretions
you at His cross, long ago! It’s taken you a long time to understand it and of bad news have attached themselves to
appreciate it, but thank God, you are on the way. the gospel like barnacles on a ship.
Eternal life has begun for you. Here is a book that courageously
cuts out the bad news that
theologians have added to the gospel, and
restores the pure New Testament idea of
Good News that once “turned the world
upside down.”
Excellent for sharing the gospel.
Paperback, 95 pp. [00114]
Taking the Deadlock Out of Wedlock The Gospel in Revelation:
Or, How to Live with an Ornery Spouse Unlocking the Last Book of the Bible
Sometimes there are irritations A book whose time has come!
in marriage that the oil of humor Most books about Revelation make
or the grace of understanding seem it hard to understand, as though
unable to help. Then the marriage God is trying to hide something
goes sour. from us. In this easy-to-understand
God has some healing “good book, the author has used the
news” that in many cases (if not tried and proven key to unlock
most) will bring the freedom to be Revelation’s mysteries—letting the
happy in a marriage which at times Bible explain itself.
has taken the form of emotional op- In this chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-
pression. verse study, you will fall in love with the
If your marriage is not all that it Good News in John’s Apocalypse.
should be, this book is for you. Paperback, 198 pp. [00115]
Paperback, 48 pp. [00135]

Galatians for Today’s Youth

Powerful Good News Paul’s Letter to the Galatians
Describes how a paralyzing has built-in explosive power that for
counterfeit has been injected like a centuries has sparked revivals and
drug into our modern concepts of reformations. This free paraphrase
the simple message that should still helps render Paul’s message to modern
be “the power of God to salvation.” readers as vividly as when it gripped his
Spiritual frustration, depression, readers in Galatia.
backsliding—all are seen as a failure Paperback, 20 pp. [10114]
to perceive how good the Good
News is. The Bible-based concepts v
set forth here will stir the reader like Glad Tidings Publishers
a breath of fresh air.
Paperback, 143 pp. [00125]
8784 Valley View Drive
Berrien Springs, MI 49103 U.S.A.
[Shipping and handling charges will be added to all orders]