Participants: Stephen Bauer
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000380
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00:30 Welcome to the Faith Chapel ministry of 3ABN.
00:33 I'm Pastor Stephen Bauer from Southern Adventist University 00:37 in Collegedale TN. 00:39 Welcome to our program and thank you for sharing part of your day 00:43 with us here at 3ABN. 00:45 In today's program I'm going to be exploring the moral nature 00:50 of the Ten Commandments especially focusing on the first 00:53 three of them but before we begin our program today I'd like 00:57 to pause for a word of prayer. 00:59 Lord Jesus I want to thank you that you love us enough to 01:03 provide moral instruction so that we know how to live our 01:06 to your glory. Thank you for giving us Ten Commandments that 01:12 simplify what we ought to do and make it easy to understand. 01:17 Bless the viewers and listeners of this program and bless me as 01:21 I speak I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. 01:29 Recently in the United States news media there was a story 01:31 about a judge who is suing a dry cleaner for $54,000,000. 01:37 The dry cleaner apparently did not deliver the suit on time 01:41 and when they did the pants were missing. 01:44 They offered to buy a replacement suit of similar 01:47 value but the judge refused and sued them for $54,000,000 01:53 in an attempt to show the American people how to stand up 01:58 For their personal rights. 02:00 He's choosing $54,000,000 impart for the emotional damages 02:05 of not getting his suit on time and the loss of his pants. 02:10 In a follow up story he admits that he doesn't expect to get 02:15 anywhere near $54,000,000 but he plans to use whatever he wins 02:19 to promote the idea that people should fight for their rights 02:24 even in court if necessary. 02:27 Another recent news story a few months earlier had a girl suing 02:30 her school over the dress code because it infringed with her 02:34 free right of speech and expression. 02:38 Our TVs today bulge with ads for personal injury lawyers 02:43 telling us how their going to fight for our rights. 02:46 It seems that here in America especially we have developed a 02:50 culture that focuses on 'me' and 'my rights' and defending my 02:55 rights and don't you dare infringe upon them or be 02:59 offended by my exercise of them. 03:02 Unfortunately many Christians have adopted this attitude in 03:08 their own life and they would like to use the Ten Commandments 03:11 as a means of protecting their own rights and they want to use 03:16 them as a sledge hammer to get other people to honor their 03:21 rights but I would propose to you that such an attitude is 03:25 out of harmony with the moral nature and character of 03:30 the ten commandments. 03:32 When we look at the ten commandments we find an 03:35 interesting little phenomena that is rarely thought about. 03:39 I invite you to open your bible and turn with me to Exodus 20. 03:43 The 20th chapter of Exodus and we want to look at the opening 03:48 lines of several of the Ten Commandments that start, in the 03:53 King James with thou or in my version here with the pronoun 03:56 You. Exodus 20:1. 04:35 We come down to verse seven and the third commandment. 04:47 Moving down to verses 13, 14, and 15. 04:58 The question is who is this 'you' that is being addressed 05:04 in these commandments? 05:05 Who is this 'you' who is not to have other gods? 05:10 Who is this 'you' who is not to have graven images? 05:13 Who is this 'you' who is not to steal or commit adultery? 05:18 Who is this 'you'? 05:20 Well we could answer it's the ancient Israelites. 05:24 Look at the text, it says I am the Lord your God who delivered 05:28 you out of the land of Egypt. 05:29 Obviously this was written to the ancient Israelites. 05:34 But the problem with that then is that this is only for ancient 05:39 Israel and it's not for us today. 05:41 We really wouldn't need to pay attention to the ten 05:44 commandments that way would we? 05:48 But we read in the New Testament that Jesus applies the ten 05:53 commandments in His sermon on the mount to Christian life. 05:55 Paul, in Romans, applies it to how we find Christ and know 06:00 what sin is and James tells us that we're going to be judged 06:04 by the Ten Commandments therefore we see that the early 06:08 Christian apostles and Christ saw those commandments as 06:12 applicable to Christians and not just to ancient Israelites. 06:16 But that still leaves us with a problem because we can say 06:20 Christians need to keep the ten commandments but we can never 06:26 maybe bring it quite home to us. 06:28 Its easy to say they need to keep the Ten Commandments. 06:34 But its harder to say I need to keep the Ten Commandments. 06:41 So who is this 'you' who is supposed to keep 06:46 the Ten Commandments? 06:48 Especially if we look at it not so much from a theological 06:52 perspective but rather from a moral and ethical perspective. 06:58 Who is this 'you'? 07:02 I would propose that this 'you' is a free moral agent who has 07:08 capacity and power to violate someone else's rights with his 07:15 or her choices. 07:17 The Ten Commandments are thus written to me to protect other 07:25 people from my choices. 07:27 Notice there is nothing in those Ten Commandments that says 07:31 here's how you, Steve Bauer, how I, Steve Bauer, am to assure 07:38 that I get my rights, rather I am told, Steve Bauer, here's 07:44 what you need to do to protect other people's rights. 07:48 The Ten Commandments call Steve Bauer to restrain himself and 07:53 think of other people's right before his own. 07:57 The first three commandments protect God's rights. 08:02 The fourth commandment is a transition commandment designed 08:05 to protect both God's rights, other people's rights and even 08:09 some rights of animals. 08:11 and the last six commandment number 5-10 are designed to 08:16 protect the rights of the other people around me. 08:19 So again, the Ten Commandments are written to you and to me as 08:24 free moral agent and it is designed to get us to restrain 08:30 ourselves to protect other peoples rights ahead of our own 08:34 desires and our own interest. 08:38 Lets look now at these commandments individually. 08:41 Starting with the first commandment, again Exodus 20:1-3 09:11 God has a right of first priority in our lives. 09:17 He has a right of exclusive claim on us as God and as our 09:23 maker God has the right to say I have certain expectations 09:29 of you, I want you to do certain things, I want you to live 09:33 this certain way. 09:38 And those claims of God take priority over anything else 09:44 in our life. 09:46 God has a right of supreme priority in my life. 09:51 Now there's an interesting tie, in my opinion, to the seventh 09:54 commandment here which says thou shall not commit adultery 09:58 because the commandment on adultery deals with the 10:01 exclusive claims between a man and a woman in affection and 10:06 commitment and marriage is a model of God's relationship to 10:10 His covenant people and so just as 10:13 the seventh commandment deals with 10:16 exclusive claims between two people the first commandment 10:20 deals with exclusive claims between God and me and it is 10:26 calls me to restrain my desire to do whatever I please and to 10:33 honor God's right of priority in my life and submit to His will. 10:38 Now these are some pretty strong claims, for example, the claims 10:44 of God supersede even the claims of family if these two come into 10:49 some kind of tension or contradiction. 10:52 The Bible says in Matt. 10 11:29 This is a very strong claim. 11:32 Its telling me that if there's a contradiction between say what 11:35 my wife wants me to do and what God wants me to do that God's 11:40 claims take precedents over my wife even if it makes 11:43 her unhappy. 11:45 As a child, especially when I'm still under the authority of my 11:49 parents, if there is a contradiction between God's will 11:53 and what my parents want me to do, God's claims are to take 11:58 priority over my parents claims, so as I say this is a very very 12:04 strong claim to the point that it could risk causing division 12:08 in a family. 12:10 Like wise this claim has been championed by missionaries 12:14 when they leave friends and family to go in obedience to 12:18 Christ's command to go ye therefore and teach the nations 12:21 and you think back a hundred years ago we didn't have 12:24 internet and telephone, high speed communications. 12:28 A lot of these people left their families knowing they would 12:34 probably never see them again because the claims of Christ 12:38 were that high. 12:40 God has a right of first priority in my affections and in 12:46 my commitments and in my life. 12:49 Not only that, God's claims take claim over the civil authorities 12:55 in my life as well and religious authorities in my life as well. 12:59 When the apostles were arrested there in the book of Acts and 13:03 they were called on trial for preaching in obedience to 13:06 Christ's command when the authorities said don't preach 13:10 their reply was we have to obey God rather than man. 13:16 These claims are so high that they take precedents even over 13:23 our very life. 13:26 I look at Mark 8:34-35 13:56 This is another very strong claim. 13:58 That God's rights supersede even my right to my own life. 14:03 You see, in the Bible God's glory is even more important 14:08 than my own life. 14:10 and I need to restrain my desires and my will in order to 14:15 glorify God even if it cost me my life that's why we sometimes 14:19 have martyrs who die for their faith because they would rather 14:23 die than violate God's glory and His rights. 14:27 God also has a right to be first in authority in my life. 14:34 Not just first in priority but first in authority. 14:39 I was visiting a friend in China last summer and he made a very 14:43 insightful comment to me. 14:45 He said Western Christianity speaks much of commitment 14:49 but little of surrender. 14:52 Authority deals with the surrender side of God's rights. 14:56 Not only is He to be first in my commitments but I am called to 15:01 make a surrender to Him and obey what He tells me to do. 15:07 In Luke 6:46 Jesus said 15:18 Why would we call Jesus Lord without surrendering to Him? 15:23 This means God has a right to prescribe even little things in 15:28 my life, God has a right to prescribe things about my speech 15:33 such as the third commandment. He has a right to prescribe 15:37 about diet, He has a right to prescribe about dress, about 15:42 worship, about finance, about business transactions, about 15:46 the little things in my life and to honor this right God 15:53 calls me to surrender myself and seek His revealed will in 16:00 the scriptures but I think there's more to this commandment 16:03 then just seeking God's will. If God is to be first in 16:08 priority and authority I need to make time for Him in my day. 16:14 In America we live such busy lives that its hard to make God 16:18 first in our living. I know I run from morning until dusk 16:23 and my schedule is so hectic with responsibilities and I'm 16:26 sure yours is too, that we can get up and hit the ground 16:29 running and forget all about prayer and quite time with God. 16:33 But God calls us to make Him first in the appointment book 16:39 and that can be challenging when we have a very full 16:43 schedule with so much on our plate and yet we can make time 16:48 for entertainment. 16:49 I know I've thought a lot about, in my own life a number of years 16:53 ago particularly, I never had time to pray it seemed or time 16:56 to read the bible but I could cut out three hours on Sunday 16:59 afternoon to watch football and I wonder what's wrong with my 17:04 priorities, I can make time for football but I have a hard time 17:07 finding time to pray. 17:09 Why is that? Its difficult because we get so consumed 17:14 in what we do but God calls us to make him first and its a 17:21 battle in this modern age but I challenge you its worth making 17:26 that battle and cutting something out to have that time 17:29 to really have God be first in your life to here His voice. 17:32 I also think that means he needs to be first in our 17:36 entertainment choices not only how much time we spend watching 17:41 TV and reading books and that kind of a thing but what we 17:45 watch and what we read needs to recognize the sovereignty in 17:51 values of Christ in our life. 17:55 Well now its time to turn our attention to the moral nature of 17:59 the second commandment and I invite you to turn in your Bible 18:02 Exodus 20:4 18:36 God has a right to mystery and awesomeness. 18:42 You see man has always had a tendency to take God and box 18:47 Him in to our own mental constructs and one of the ways 18:53 we do it, used to do it especially, was to make idols. 18:57 And we take our god and reduce him or her, depending on the 19:01 culture, down to a little idol sometimes a vest pocket addition 19:05 just a little thing this tall that you could pull out of your 19:09 pocket and set on the shelf or the table and bow down and 19:13 worship your god but God is bigger than something that can 19:17 be put into our mind and He has a right for us to honor His 19:24 mystery and recognize that not everything about God can be 19:28 figured out by a mere human mind. 19:32 Not only does God have a right not to be reduced to a physical 19:36 image but He also has a right not to be reduced to a mental 19:42 image and a mental construct and that's where I think we suffer 19:47 great challenges in our society today. 19:51 I encounter regularly people who generate mental images of 19:56 God that have little to do with scripture. 19:59 Two examples can suffice. 20:02 One is that we have the God I call the God of Sigmund Freud. 20:07 That is, we take a little bit of the Bible and we take a bunch 20:11 of modern psychology and we weld the two together and we create a 20:15 God that is somewhat scriptural but not fully scriptural. 20:19 God is love but we then take a psychological definition of love 20:25 instead of a biblical definition of love. 20:28 And we create a God in that image and the modern definition 20:33 of love tends toward absolute tolerance and nonjudgementalness 20:38 to the point that God cannot conduct a judgment, God cannot 20:43 hold people accountable and He loses His sovereignty and as 20:47 C.S. Lewis put it, becomes little more than a senile 20:50 grandfather in the sky who wishes we all have a good time. 20:55 On the other hand, in recent scholarly work I've done I 21:01 discovered scholars who are trying to weld God to Darwin's 21:04 theory of evolution and so they take a little of scripture and 21:09 they weld concepts of evolution to it until they come up with a 21:13 God that has nothing to do with the Bible a God who in fact 21:17 evolves with us. 21:21 God calls us in this commandment to honor His right to mystery 21:27 and not to reduce Him to some over simplified construct that 21:33 we can contain in our feeble little mind that way. 21:40 I would suggest than that this commandment is like the trinity 21:44 in function and it reminds us that God is to big and to 21:49 complicated for me to control and manipulate and put into my 21:55 feeble little mind, God has a right to remain mysterious 22:01 and awesome in my mind. 22:04 Now we turn to the third and final commandment of today's 22:08 lecture Exodus 20:7 22:28 God has a right for us not to misuse His name in a way that 22:32 brings dishonor to him. We traditionally apply this 22:38 commandment to things like cursing and swearing and this 22:42 is certainly true. 22:44 Those who follow Christ ought not to be cursing and swearing 22:48 and using that kind of coarse language when we get upset and 22:53 frustrated and other things like that, we need to be more refined 22:59 and pure like Jesus but there's more to this commandment than 23:03 just prohibiting foul language and of course I'm reminded of 23:07 Peter who when he denied Christ and wanted to prove that he 23:11 didn't belong to Christ, he did it by using that foul sailor's 23:16 language from the boats. 23:18 This commandment certainly includes that but I think it 23:22 includes quite a bit more. 23:25 What does it mean to take the name of God? 23:30 I suggest that this comes from the metaphor of marriage and 23:35 and in the Bible God's people like unto the bride and 23:39 traditionally the bride takes the name of her husband. 23:44 my wife was Leslie Eagles before we got married but when we got 23:48 married she took my name and now goes by Leslie Bauer. 23:53 But what does it then mean for a wife to take her husband's name? 23:58 It means that she's recognizing that he has exclusive claims on 24:05 her and she on him. 24:08 What would it mean if my wife and I went on our honeymoon 24:12 and she went out and started going on dates with other men 24:16 or even sleeping with other men? 24:19 Would that not mean that she took my name in vain because 24:22 she no longer is recognizing the excusive claims that we just 24:27 committed ourselves to? 24:28 In like manner, when we take the name of God and become His child 24:34 and we take the name of Jesus we are taking exclusive claims 24:41 upon ourselves and we need to honor those claims in a 24:46 special way. 24:48 You see, when we take Christ's name and then act in ways that 24:56 dishonor His name not only by cursing and swearing but by 25:02 abusive treatment of other people and cheating in business 25:06 and lying and these kinds of things that bring offence to 25:10 other people when they know we claim to be Christ's. 25:14 This takes His name in vain because it means that He's not 25:20 having any great affect in our life, there's no transformation. 25:24 So this commandment, similar to the first commandment is calling 25:28 us to honor the exclusive claims of God in our lives. 25:34 Not just in deed and commitment but in ethical treatment of our 25:39 fellow men so that people cannot take offence of the name of 25:44 Christ by how we behave. 25:47 Now a lot of people today seem to think that there is great 25:52 tension between the law and the gospel but I would suggest that 25:58 the two are based on the same moral fiber because just as the 26:04 first three commandments call me Steve Bauer, and you the viewer 26:09 to restrain ourselves, for me to restrain myself in my tastes 26:16 and desires and wants so that God's claims and God's honor 26:21 take precedents over my own rights and privileges 26:25 so Christ modeled that for us and this is the nature of the 26:32 Ten Commandments just as it is the character of Christ. 26:35 I'd like you to turn to Philippians 2 because we see 26:41 this most clearly reflected in Paul's description in the 26:45 famous kenosis as its called the Kenotic Passage of Philippians 26:50 Starting, I believe, in verse 5. 26:53 Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus 26:59 who though He was in the form of God did not account equality 27:05 with God, a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, the Greek 27:09 word there is Kenao thus the term Kenosis, but emptied 27:13 himself taking the form of a servant being born in the 27:18 likeness of men and being found in human form He humbled 27:22 himself and became obedient unto death even death on a cross. 27:28 Jesus Christ the king of the universe laid aside His 27:32 privileges and His rights in order to put our need in sin 27:38 ahead of himself, He emptied Himself of His glory, He emptied 27:43 himself of His privilege, He emptied Himself of everything 27:47 and took the form of a servant so the Ten Commandments call 27:52 you and me to empty self and live for others. |
Revised 2014-12-17