Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. With Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Only three months had passed since the Jewish people were taken out of the land of Egypt. And now are in the land of the deserts and in the wilderness. Only three months having passed, God having shown them his mighty hand. As they had crossed the Red Sea. God, who now has brought them to Mount Sinai, and with only three months of freedom, he calls them to that great mountain. And amidst the thundering, amidst the lightning and the smoke, God calls Moses, who had led the people out of captivity. And he calls him to the top of a mountain. And on the top of Mount Sinai. God, the creator of the universe, descended on that mountain. And there he spoke with Moses. And he gave to Moses, while he stood on holy ground, two tablets. Those tablets would be known by the ten Laws.

The ten words, the ten Commandments. And was probably the greatest event to occur in mankind to that date. As God spoke to Moses, he said, I am the Lord thy God, which has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have any gods before me. Now, you would think that the people, knowing that God was speaking. Would be intrigued to know exactly what God’s instruction would be. Wouldn’t you think there would be a drawing closer? Let’s make sure that we hear. But what happens when the commandments are being given. And God speaks with Moses? We read the people said to Moses, speak with us, and we will hear you. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And in the presenting of those ten laws, those ten commandments, mankind was unalterably changed.

Because God had introduced into his creation his moral law. And never again would mankind be free to say, I don’t know what you expect. Never again would mankind have the freedom to say, I wander through life with no direction, with no understanding of that which is right and that which is wrong. As a matter of fact, God goes on to say that he takes those commandments. And he has placed them not only on the tablets which Moses brought down from the mountain, but that he has placed them on the hearts of all of his creatures. That you and I know deep inside those things that are right, those things that are wrong. And they all go back to that common source of these Ten Commandments. Ten words. Ten laws of God.

Yet we seem to live in a generation where seldom is any mention made of these commandments. I remember not that long ago in public school, seeing posted on the school wall, the Ten Commandments. And as I would go from class to class in public school without ever any commentary, there would before my eye a reminder of that moral law of God. Today, of course, that does not exist in our schools. And where the law of God has been removed, there fills in that void anarchy and confusion about that which is right and wrong. But we might think that we live in a day that is devoid of teaching on the Ten Commandments. But this has been true of other generations.

I was surprised as I looked through the 2500 sermons that were preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was one of the greatest preachers of the 19th century. As he would speak, some 10,000 people would come to hear him teach from God’s word. And in the index of those 2500 sermons, there was not one text taken from Exodus, chapter 20 of the Ten Commandments. We live in a day that many people refer to as the last days. There are many in the christian church who believe that we are right at the edge of the end of mankind. And in the scripture that is referred to by a Greek word, Ana momea, which means lawlessness. What will be one of the great marks of the last days? The scriptures say lawlessness. There will be an ignorance of God’s commands.

There will be a rebellion against the things that God teaches. And in these next moments, as we think about the place of the Ten Commandments in our lives today, it might be for you a litmus test. Are you interested at all in the law of God? Are you intrigued at all by the place of the Ten Commandments in your life? If you say why that has absolutely no interest to me, then I would encourage you to look very closely at your life spiritually, that you would look more closely at the claims of Jesus Christ. Because until Christ comes into a life and begins to breathe upon it, his forgiveness and changes a heart and a mind, the law of God will be of little interest to you.

And it becomes for you an indicator that if things do not change as you would someday stand before this living God, who would declare to you that his truth is ever with him, that it is eternal, and it will be by that standard that he will measure us. It’s tragic, too, that within the church there seems to be so little said about the ten Commandments. I believe that it is important for christians in these last days, these days that seem to be marked by lawlessness, that we would understand the law of God and its place in our lives. Years after the ten Commandments were written, Buddha wrote his own ten commandments, ten laws, and at first, they sound strikingly similar. The laws of Buddha. Number one, not to kill. Number two, not to steal. Number three, not to commit adultery.

Number four, not to lie. Number five, not to get drunk. Number six, to abstain from unseasonable meals. Number seven, to abstain from public spectacles. Number eight, to abstain from expensive dresses. Number nine, not to have a large bed. Number ten, not to receive silver or gold. Isn’t it interesting, as the centuries roll along, how man would seek to dilute that which was given by God to Moses when he would say, thou shalt not have any gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the sabbath to keep it holy. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet.

As we read the scripture, it is important for us to understand two great principles. One is the truth of the gospel that God has freely given to anyone who would receive the gift of free life through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of their sins. He is not willing that any should perish. And so any who would confess with their mouth that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, any who would believe in their heart that he was raised again from the dead, then to you, the promise has been given that eternal life is yours. And that is the great principle of the Gospel of Christ. But there is also the great truth of the law of God. And it’s upon that often the church has a great lack of understanding, because the word law is found in the Old Testament.

It’s recorded some 221 times. Under the Jewish word Torah, the word simply means the right way. And so God has given us his ten commands that they might be to us the right way, that we would walk the path of our lives. And so psalm one, verse one, tells us that blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. When was the last time that you meditated on the commandments of God day and night? Well, David did. I think part of the difficulty for Christians to understand the place of the ten commandments is because as we read in the Old Testament, there were three different uses of the law. There were three different types of Torah. The first was civil law.

These were the laws that were given by God for the instruction of the people of Israel. They lived in what was called a theocracy they did not live in a democracy where people voted. Rather, it was God, Theo, who declared to them how they would function, and he had laws by which he would function and guide them. And so in the Old Testament, we find a number of verses that talk about that type of law. But secondly, in the Old Testament we find another instruction about law, and that is ceremonial law. That was the responsibility of the Levites, is they would lead the people in worship. And so we find in books of the Old Testament specific instruction as to how they were to worship laws about the Passover, the day of atonement, sacrifices, tithes and offerings.

But someone asked the question, well, are we supposed today continue to follow those ceremonial laws? Well, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament is written to explain to us that the ceremonial law has been done away with because our high priest, Jesus Christ, has completed all of the requirements of the ceremonial law. And that is why in the christian church, we do not have certain instructions on how to sacrifice oxen in our worship service. It is because we believe that Jesus Christ has come and been that sacrifice and completed in total all of the ceremonial law. But there is a third area of law that is important, and I think specifically to christians today, and that is the moral law that was given by God to Moses in the form of the Ten Commandments.

God gave his unchanging law for how man is to live in this world. And he is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so the moral law still is part of the requirement of those who would live in this world. Now, the moral law has three purposes. The first is a civil function for a nation. If they are writing up a Constitution, if they are trying to decide upon the law of the land, if they would take the ten Commandments and begin to see those as the principles of God for right conduct, they would find that they would create wonderful laws that would be in harmony with God. Billy Graham has said, almost every law today in America is based in some way on the Ten Commandments. Now, it’s important to see that religious beliefs have shaped our law.

And if you don’t believe that, James Kennedy, pastor from Florida, says, then I would simply suggest to you to go to India and shoot a cow. Because India, the taking of a Brahma cow is not only a civil offense, but it is primarily a religious offense. And so the laws of any nation are based upon the religious beliefs of that nation as they are breathed in to the civil law. But secondly, the Ten Commandments today have a purpose of condemning sin. Martin Luther said, the ten Commandments are a whip that stings our backs and drives us to the cross for redemption. The Book of Galatians, chapter three, verse 23. Before your faith came, were held prisoners by the law. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. Why did God give those ten commandments?

It was so that you and I might know what God expects of us, that we might understand when we have stepped off the path and we have displeased God. In ancient Rome, there was a person who was called an usher. An usher had the responsibility of escorting a child to school. He was a slave. Now, as he watched that child, he had no authority to control the child. He had no authority to punish the child or even to instruct the child. The usher had only one responsibility, and that was to go back to the parents to tell every time that the child disobeyed the parent’s instruction. Now, the Ten Commandments act in a similar way for us today. They are like a whip that when we hear them, we are shocked and we know that we have broken the commandments.

The Lord Jesus said, we have all broken the commandments, every one of us. Now, the third use of the Ten Commandments is specifically for Christians, those people who have already come to a place where they have known that they have broken the law of God. And when they heard the commandments of God, they shuddered in fear. They came to a place where they asked forgiveness because they had broken the commandments of the Lord. But now they are of the household of faith. They are Christians. They trust in Jesus Christ. Of what place are the Ten Commandments in their life? Well, they become, for Christians, a guide for good living. They help us to know those areas where we need to ask forgiveness. They instruct us in the way that is right and pleasing to God.

Some people say, but we are living in the age of grace. We have been freed from the law. The law has no place in the part of a Christian. Well, what did Jesus say about that? He said, think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall pass away from the law till all be fulfilled. You see, we have two principles of God, his law, which he expects mankind to follow. But at the same time, no one is able to follow those commandments. And so God sent his son, Jesus Christ, the only one who ever completely followed in thought. And indeed, the Ten Commandments.

And when Christ died on the cross, for the first time in history, a person who was also the son of God died without ever once breaking a commandment. And when he was suspended on the cross and he says, forgive them, they know not what they do. In that death, he offers to anyone who would receive by faith, the forgiveness of their sins, a new life, and that through Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. I was a pilot in the air force, and I remember there were always two principles that were at work. When the plane was on the ground. There was the law of gravitation. And as you sat, gravity held you to the ground. There was nothing you could do to suspend yourself from that law except establish a greater law, and that is the law of aerodynamics.

And so, as the throttle was given full power, the plane began to move down that Runway, slowly and then ever faster, until a moment occurred where the wheel no longer touched the ground. At that very moment, the law of gravity, which still existed, was overcome by a greater law, the law of aerodynamics, as that plane would begin to fly. Now, could the plane forget the law of gravity? No. You constantly were aware, as you would approach what was referred to as a stall speed, where you no longer were maintaining those aerodynamic principles that would keep you in the air. And then the law of gravity would take over and pull you to the ground. Well, as Christians, there are two laws that are at work in each of us.

There is the principle of the law, the Ten Commandments, that until we’re a Christian, they drive us to see that we have not met the measure of what God expects for us. And so many people today try to suppress those commandments as though God never spoke on Mount Sinai. And yet, I am intrigued when you ask people, how do you think you will get to heaven? Over and over, the answer is, by the keeping of the commandments. Well, if God, right now, from his throne in heaven, were to lower into this auditorium a great scale, and one side of the scale, in great weight, were the Ten Commandments, and then you were asked to stand on the other side of the scale, that your life might balance those Ten Commandments, and here you stand. Would the scale tip at all?

Would there be the slightest reality that your life has completely met the moral requirements that God said in the ten commandments? If you say no, then there is one, Jesus Christ, who, when the weight of the law was presented on the world, Christ stood in the scale and he led a perfect life, and his life balanced perfectly the keeping of those commandments. And that today, anyone who would come to God and ask forgiveness of sins is asking for the forgiveness of the breaking of the moral law of God and that they are no longer trusting in that law, but they are now trusting in the law of grace. They are trusting that Jesus Christ died in their place and that Christ alone will balance the scale. There are some people who say today, love God and then do as you please.

But Jesus Christ said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Let us pray. Our God and our father we come knowing that we have routinely broken your commandments in action and in thought. We thank you for Jesus Christ who perfectly fulfilled your law. We thank you for Jesus and that by faith we can be made new. We can be seen as righteous and good because of him. We pray that you would help each of us to continue to see that Christ Jesus has given that remedy to the law which so weighs us down, and that Christ Jesus gives us freedom. We thank you in his name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonm