Man, Deuteronomy chapter number five,
we're getting into the famous listing
of the 10 commandments here.
Of course, it's also found in Exodus chapter number 20,
but Deuteronomy is going through things again.
It's a second giving of the law.
And so this is Moses speaking to the children of Israel
if you recall, right before they enter the Promised Land.
So this is after the wandering in the wilderness.
He's giving it to them again.
And he says in verse number one,
Moses called all Israel and said to them,
Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments
which I speak in your ears this day,
that you may learn them and keep and do them.
The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
Now Horeb is another word for Mount Sinai,
so he's hearkening back to that.
And then it says the Lord made not this covenant
with our fathers, but with us,
even us who are all of us here alive this day.
And what he's saying is that a lot of them
have not survived, right?
Because all of those men of war from 20 years old
and upward have died in the wilderness.
So he's saying, those of us that are left here,
God actually made that covenant with us that day,
not with our fathers,
meaning that we don't have to rely on the word
of some previous generation.
He's saying, a lot of you guys were there.
I was there, a lot of you were there,
those of us that have survived up to this point.
And it says, the Lord talked with you face to face
in the mount, out of the midst of the fire.
I stood between the Lord and you at that time
to show you the word of the Lord,
for you were afraid by reason of the fire
and went not up into the mount, saying.
So of course the saying is going back to verse four,
right, the Lord talked with you face to face
in the mount, out of the midst of the fire,
saying, verse six, I am the Lord thy God,
which brought thee out of the land of Egypt
from the house of bondage,
thou shalt have no other gods before me.
So again, just to remind you of the scene,
the children of Israel are at Mount Sinai
approximately 40 years earlier,
and God gave the 10 commandments audibly,
verbally to the entire congregation, not just to Moses,
because Moses goes up into the mount
and receives lots and lots of other commandments from God,
all of that material that's found in Exodus chapters 21,
22, 23, 24, that section right there.
Moses gets that up in the mount from God
and the children of Israel get that second hand.
But when it comes to the 10 commandments themselves,
actually the whole nation of Israel audibly heard
God give the 10 commandments from the mountain.
And this is what got them so terrified
that they ended up begging Moses to ask God
not to speak to them again.
They said, we don't want to hear the voice of God again.
We believe you, we've heard it once,
you go talk to God and you come back
and tell us what he said.
But it was such a terrifying experience
to hear God's voice out of the mount.
They didn't want to hear it directly anymore.
They wanted to go through Moses.
And so he's reminding them of that.
And what God said were these 10 commandments.
The term 10 commandments is not something
that has been made up by theologians or scholars,
but rather the Bible calls this the 10 commandments.
There are 10 of them.
If you can count, the Roman Catholic Church cannot count.
And they've got a big problem
because God said there's 10 of them
and they don't like one of these commandments.
And so they want to do away with one of these commandments.
So they skip one of these commandments,
but they still need to somehow come up with 10
because it's called the 10 commandments.
Here's what they do in order to fix that problem.
What they do is they split the 10th commandment into two.
Now you can only do this in Deuteronomy.
It doesn't work or is it you can only do it in Exodus.
Let's find out.
Jump down if you would to verse number 21.
And it says in verse number 21, this is the 10th commandment.
Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife.
Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field,
or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass,
or anything that is thy neighbor's.
Now, of course, that's one commandment.
It's called thou shalt not covet.
Keep your finger there and go to Exodus chapter 20
and I'll prove it to you.
Exodus chapter 20.
I'm going to prove to you that the Roman Catholics
are pulling a fast one here
because when you're in the New Testament
and the Bible makes reference to these commandments,
for example, in Romans 13, it says for this,
thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet.
That's the list.
It just shortens it to just thou shalt not covet.
When it's giving those last five commandments,
that's the way it does it, just thou shalt not covet.
Look at it in Exodus chapter 20
and see how the Roman Catholic interpretation would not work.
Look at verse 17 of chapter 20.
It says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
Notice that in this one,
instead of bringing up the wife first,
it brings up the house first.
So it says thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant.
Now, anyone can see clearly here
that in Exodus 20, it says don't covet the house,
don't covet the wife, don't covet anything else.
You go to Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 21.
Don't covet the wife, don't covet the house,
don't covet anything else.
The word desire and covet are used interchangeably.
Jesus and the Apostle Paul,
when they refer back to this,
they just simply quote it as thou shalt not covet.
But yet the Roman Catholic Church
in their list of 10 commandments
says that commandment nine is
don't covet your neighbor's wife,
and that commandment 10 is
don't covet your neighbor's other stuff.
That's baloney.
Now, this is so suspect because they claim like,
we're not making any graven images over here,
we're not doing idolatry over here.
Well, here's the question then.
If the Roman Catholics were not practicing idolatry,
if they're not creating graven images or molten images,
then why would they want to hide that second commandment,
thou shalt not make any graven image?
I mean, if they're not doing it,
then it should be fine to just leave the list alone, right?
To just say, hey, commandment number one,
thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Commandment number two,
thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Commandment number three,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
and then they wouldn't have any issue.
Like they wouldn't have this numbering issue
where they have to cut the 10 commandment in half.
The reason that they have to cut up that last commandment
is because they're trying to hide the second commandment.
And if they're not violating the second commandment,
then why are they trying to hide it?
Why would they not just have a normal list of 10 commandments
like everybody else?
Every other Christian denomination just can see this.
It's obvious that that's what it is,
but they have to hide it.
And it doesn't even work in Exodus
because then you'd have commandment nine would be,
don't covet his house.
And then commandment 10 would be,
don't covet his other stuff.
So literally, if you look at a Roman Catholic breakdown
of Exodus 20, it's like you got commandment one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
and then you've got like 10A and then you got nine
and then you got 10B and it makes no sense.
Because it's garbage, because it's false,
because the Roman Catholic Church is a fraud.
And so, I just wanna make you aware
of their fake 10 commandments.
Now, another thing I wanna talk about
with regard to the 10 commandments in general
is that a lot of people have put too much emphasis
on the 10 commandments.
And especially here's the big colossal mistake they make
that is easily debunked is that they teach
that the 10 commandments are somehow distinct
from the Old Testament or the Old Covenant.
They're like, well, obviously we're not under the law.
Obviously we're not under the Mosaic law,
but I mean, the 10 commandments are still a thing, right?
And they try to make the 10 commandments separate
from the Old Covenant or from the law of Moses.
And they basically want to say
that the 10 commandments transcend Covenant or Testament,
that they're not part of the Old Testament.
Not only are they part of the Old Testament,
they are the Old Testament.
They literally are the Old Covenant.
And let me prove that to you.
Look what the Bible says right here in verse two,
right in front of you there in chapter five.
It says, the Lord our God made a covenant with us
in Horeb.
The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,
but with us, even us who are all of us here alive this day,
the Lord talk with you face to face.
So that's not maybe enough evidence to convince you,
but file that away for a second,
that he literally says like,
hey, God made a covenant with you, said it once,
said it again.
God made a covenant you that day.
He talked to you.
He gave you these 10 commandments.
Now go to 2 Corinthians chapter number three
in the New Testament.
Keep your finger there in Deuteronomy five,
go to 2 Corinthians three in the New Testament.
Because remember, the New Testament says,
we're not under the law, but we're under grace.
The New Testament says that the law had a shadow
of good things to come,
but not the very image of the things
that there are certain things in the law
that have been changed
because the priesthood being changed,
there's made of necessity a change also of the law.
So the New Testament says there's a difference
between old and new covenant
because we're not under the law anymore.
Now we're under grace.
But what a lot of people will say is,
well, but the 10 commandments don't count.
They're not under that old covenant.
They're not part of that.
Well, let's see what the Bible says.
Let's see if that's accurate.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number three
and the Bible reads in verse number six,
this is 2 Corinthians three six,
who also had made us able ministers
of the New Testament.
And Testament is synonymous with the word covenant,
who also has made us ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the spirit
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Now, what are we talking about here?
Let's keep moving verse seven.
But if the ministration of death
written and engraven in stones was glorious
so that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses
for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away,
how should not the ministration of the spirit
be rather glorious?
Now I know this is a little bit tough language here,
not because it's the King James,
but just because it's an epistle of Paul
in any language, it's a little tough
the way he words this.
But let me just break this down to you.
He's saying, look, you've got the letter
and you got the spirit.
The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.
And the letter is represented in the old covenant,
which is known as the ministration of death.
Why?
Because the old covenant can't save you.
The law can't save you.
The law can only condemn you
and show you your need for a savior.
It's a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
Christ can save.
The old covenant can just show us
that death that we all deserve.
And so it's the ministration of death.
But the Bible specifically says that that old covenant,
that ministration of death was engraven in stones.
Now here, and it specifically talks about,
you know, the children of Israel
not being able to behold the face of Moses and so forth.
Well, let me ask you this.
What was engraven in stones?
Was it the entire Old Testament?
Was it the entire law of Moses
that was engraven in stone?
Or what did God actually engrave with his own finger
at Mount Sinai when he made a covenant with them?
It was the 10 commandments.
So Moses came down from the mount
with those two tablets of stone
and those two tablets of stone contained the 10 commandments.
And the Bible is saying in 2 Corinthians 3,
that engraven in stone message,
that was the ministration of death.
So to try to say
that that's somehow not part of the old covenant
or that it transcends the old covenant is wrong.
Deuteronomy 5 said at the beginning,
God made a covenant with you and Mount Sinai.
Here's what he said.
It's the 10 commandments.
Then we go to 2 Corinthians 3.
He says the ministration of death
was written in engraven in stones.
And then he said, you know,
we're ministers of the New Testament.
We're of the spirit, not of the letter.
The letter killeth the spirit of life.
Okay, let's move on.
Verse nine,
for if the ministration of condemnation be glory,
much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory.
So notice the old covenant is not administration
of righteousness because here's the thing.
Nobody can be saved by the righteousness of the law
because we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
And so it's Christ's righteousness
in the New Testament that saves us.
And the old covenant is just a ministry of condemnation.
Do you see that at the beginning of verse nine?
The ministry of the ministration of condemnation,
because the old Testament's purpose
is to show us our need of a savior
by condemning us and showing us our sins.
And it's the ministration of death.
Whereas the New Testament is the ministration of life.
Verse 10, for even that which was made glorious
had no glory in this respect
by reason of the glory that excels.
For if that which is done away was glorious,
much more that which remaineth is glorious.
So the old covenant is done away.
The old covenant is no longer a thing.
The new covenant is replacing the old covenant.
That's why the Bible says,
in that he saith the new covenant,
he had made the first old.
Now that which decayeth and waxeth old
is ready to vanish away.
Oh, but that's not the 10 commandments though.
I mean, 10 commandments are, you know,
I mean, 10 commandments are the 10 commandments.
Well, you know, again,
people are overemphasizing the 10 commandments
because the word 10 commandments
is only found in the old Testament.
It's not in the,
it's not like the new Testament's telling you like,
hey man, we got to still do the 10 commandments
in the new Testament.
The Bible doesn't say that.
The Bible specifically puts the 10 commandments
and look, you'll see where I'm going with this.
Why this important?
But before we see where I'm going with this,
why don't we just look at what's right in front of us?
The text here, the Bible is saying
that the old covenant that's done away
was engraven in stone.
What was engraven in stone?
The 10 commandments.
Okay, so let's just realize that.
You say, what are you saying?
I'm not saying anything.
I'm showing you what the Bible says.
Okay, this is what the Bible teaches.
Seeing then that we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech.
Verse 13, and not as Moses,
which put a veil over his face
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look
to the end of that which is abolished.
Everybody see that?
But their minds were blinded
for until this day remain at the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ.
So what reading are we talking about?
We're talking about reading the Old Testament,
Old Covenant, administration of death.
It's the covenant from Mount Sinai.
It was engraven in stone.
It's the 10 commandments.
And that's why in Deuteronomy five,
he says, God made a covenant with us
and then proceeds to give the 10 commandments.
Now, what are the implications of this?
Why is it so important that we understand
that the 10 commandments aren't this separate entity
floating outside of the law,
rather they are the law, they are the covenant.
In fact, one way to look at it
is that the 10 commandments are like a Cliffs Notes version
of God's covenant with Israel.
Because you've got the whole law
that has hundreds and hundreds of commandments,
but then you've got this sort of just abbreviated version
that just hits you with the basics of the law, right?
No other gods before me, no graven image.
You know, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain, right?
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy,
honor thy father and mother,
and then the five that we mentioned earlier.
These are the basics,
but then the rest of the commandments go into more detail.
But not only that, you can abbreviate it even further
than the Cliffs Notes version.
You can write it on the back of a postage stamp
as thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and mind and soul,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
because the Bible says on these two commandments,
hang all the law and the prophets.
And if you think about the 10 commandments,
they're given on two tablets of stone.
And if you think about it,
they split into two groups of commandments,
because in the New Testament,
God mentions the last five alone.
He says, for this, thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet, five commandments.
He says these commandments,
and if there be any other commandment,
are briefly comprehended in this saying,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
So these five commandments about not killing,
not stealing, not committing adultery, not coveting,
are briefly comprehended just by saying,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
meaning that if you love your neighbor,
you're not gonna kill your neighbor,
you're not gonna steal from your neighbor,
you're not gonna covet his stuff,
you're not gonna covet his wife,
you're not going to harm him in these various ways.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor,
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
And so the last five commandments
have to do with our relationship with our neighbor, okay?
The first five have to do with our relationship with God, okay?
Because the first one is,
thou shalt have no other gods before me.
That doesn't really have anything to do with our neighbor, right?
That's between us and God.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Again, that's us and God.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, us and God.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, right?
That was part of their covenant with God,
Israel's covenant with God.
And then the fifth commandment,
you know, may seem a little out of place
because it's honor thy father and mother,
that it may be well with thee
and thou mayest live long on the earth and so forth.
But if you think about it though, God is our father.
And so honor your father and your mother,
yeah, that literally has to do with our relationship
with our father and mother.
But it doesn't really have anything to do
with our relationship with our neighbor.
Because if you think about it, stealing, killing,
committing adultery, bearing false witness and coveting
would all affect like anyone in the population, right?
We could kill anybody, we could steal from anybody,
commit adultery with anybody, right?
That could happen with anybody.
Whereas the fifth commandment is different than that
because it's really only directed at two people,
our father and mother.
That's the only people.
So it's not really like under love your neighbor
because my dad is not my neighbor.
My mom is not my neighbor.
They're more than that, they're my mom and dad.
I only have one mom and one dad, okay?
So here's the thing about that.
My relationship with my dad mirrors or symbolizes
my relationship with my father, which is in heaven.
And so if I dishonor my father upon this earth,
there's a pretty good chance that I also am dishonoring
of the Lord.
Because here's the thing, my parents are my supreme authority
when I'm growing up in their house as a kid, right?
I'm a baby, I'm a toddler, I'm in elementary school,
junior high, high school.
My parents have a godlike role in my life
in the sense that they are the boss, you know,
they make the rules, especially, obviously, my dad
is representative of the Lord, obviously,
just because he's the head of the household in general.
But when he's not around, mom's in charge,
and so she's that supreme authority
and they make the rules.
And here's the thing, the Bible says
that if you discipline your children,
if you physically discipline your children,
the Bible says, withhold not correction from the child
for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod
and shall deliver his soul from hell.
Why would physical discipline deliver my child's soul
from hell?
Because of the fact that if I actually physically
discipline my kids, they're probably gonna grow up
thinking, you know what, I can't just do whatever I want
and have no consequences.
Just as my father is chasing me, the father in heaven,
he's gonna punish as well.
And the kind of kid who never gets disciplined
by his parents is probably the kind of kid
who's gonna grow up and think that hell
doesn't even exist.
And he just thinks that he just goes through life
doing whatever, and that there's just never
a consequence, there's just never a real punishment.
Or maybe it's just something really minor,
like, hey, you don't get dessert tonight,
or you lose your PlayStation for one hour or something.
I don't know what kind of punishments
people come up with, but they're not as visceral
as the punishment that God prescribed.
And so that's gonna give people
a different view of God.
Now, obviously, no one's parents are perfect.
And so no one is gonna get a perfect view
of who God is from looking at their parents.
They get a perfect view of who God is
from looking at the Bible, from looking
at the Word of God.
Our parents provide an imperfect view of who God is.
Now, if we have good, godly Christian parents,
then we're gonna get a decent picture
of what God's like, because hopefully our parents
are righteous, somewhat, at least, right?
And then that gives us a picture
of God's righteousness and so forth.
Now, if you have really rotten parents,
then they're not gonna really do much
to help you understand who God is, unfortunately.
And that's why children with good Christian parents
are much more likely to get saved
than children who grow up in a heathen home, unfortunately.
Now, everybody has an opportunity to get saved,
and everybody can make that personal decision.
But obviously, those of us that were born
and raised in a Christian home were privileged.
I mean, we're blessed.
And I'm thankful to God that I wasn't raised
in a heathen home, because who knows
what I would have grown up thinking about God,
or who knows what kind of warped ideas
I could have been given if I didn't have godly parents.
And so I'm thankful that my parents did spank me
with the rod and deliver my soul from hell
and teach me the gospel and also model for me
the Father in heaven so that I can understand
the Father in heaven, because I've got
a Father on this earth.
Is he perfect?
No, but he did a good job of showing me,
okay, this is in general what God is like.
And so our relationship with our parents,
obviously has a connection to our relationship with God.
And by the way, if you're disobedient to your parents,
don't tell me that you're right with God,
because you're not.
Because your parents have been deputized by God
as your authority.
And so if you're not obeying God's deputy,
then you're not obeying God.
The Bible commands you, children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor your father and mother.
And so you can see how the commandments
do break down nicely, because the latter five
are the only ones that have to do with your neighbor.
The first five don't apply to your neighbor.
They're pretty much just between you and God spiritually.
And so that's the difference.
So the first five are summed up in
love the Lord your God.
The latter five are summed up in
love your neighbor as yourself.
And so the law of Moses has hundreds of commandments,
but the 10 commandments is kind of the short version,
the quick version.
This is the basic covenant for those
who aren't going to read the whole thing.
And then even shorter than that,
Christ sums it up in just two statements.
Now, why is this important?
Well, there are two reasons why this is so important.
Number one is that there are some people
who will try to bring the 10 commandments into salvation
by saying, well, yeah, there's the old covenant,
Old Testament.
That law of Moses has done away in Christ.
But in the New Testament, yeah, of course,
you have to believe on Christ,
but you also got to keep the 10 commandments.
Not saying you're under the law,
not saying you got to keep the law.
I'm just saying you got to do the 10 commandments.
Now, how many of you have ever been out soul winning
and knocked on somebody's door
and had them say to go to heaven,
you got to keep the 10 commandments?
I mean, virtually everyone.
This is a major error and a fallacy that's out there.
You know, maybe if people would study
2 Corinthians chapter three,
maybe if pastors would preach 2 Corinthians chapter three
and show people, hey, the 10 commandments,
it is the law of Moses.
It is the ministration of death.
It can only condemn you.
It can only show you your errors.
And it's done away in Christ.
Now, what does that mean that it's done away in Christ?
Is that saying that we no longer need to refrain
from stealing or killing or committing adultery?
Well, obviously not.
Because here's the thing about the law of Moses.
The law of Moses shows us our sins, right?
It's our schoolmaster to point us to Christ.
It shows us the errors of our ways.
It shows that there's none righteous, no, not one.
Well, in order for it to show us
that there's none righteous, no, not one,
well, then that must mean that it's unrighteous
not to do the morality that is taught in the law.
Okay.
The morality that is taught in the law
is an eternal morality, right?
Killing is always wrong, murder, stealing, adultery.
It's not like, well, you know, in the Old Testament
it was wrong to murder, but now killing is allowed.
That'd be stupid, right?
Because first of all, these things are reiterated
in the New Testament.
But even if they weren't reiterated,
they're part of what we would call the moral law.
They have to do with morality.
And by the way, according to the New Testament,
you can't really love your neighbor
without doing these things anyway.
You know, if you loved your neighbor as yourself,
you'd automatically follow the commandments of the law.
If you love God, you'd automatically follow
those commandments of the law.
So one of the reasons why this is important
is to understand that the 10 commandments
are not part of salvation.
If the 10 commandments are part of salvation,
then the whole law is part of salvation.
Then salvation's by the works of the law
and that is false.
Okay.
Cannot be saved by keeping God's commandments,
including the 10 commandments.
10 commandments are not some special separate thing.
They are the heart and soul of the Old Covenant.
The second reason why this is important
is because one of the 10 commandments
has specifically been done away with
in the New Testament, which is the Sabbath day.
You know, one of the 10 commandments is,
remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
Well, that is something that is specifically
not a thing in the New Testament.
Because in the New Testament, the Bible flat out tells us
that there are certain things that are part
of the Old Covenant that are the ordinances,
not the moral law, not the criminal law or anything,
but the ordinances of meats and drinks
and carnal ordinances and, you know,
those fleshly things that were done away in Christ.
The Bible says, you know, the meats, drinks, divers,
washings, and carnal ordinances,
which things were imposed on them
until the time of reformation.
But Christ being come, they're not, okay?
Also, so that's from Hebrews chapter nine,
it talks about the meats, drinks, divers,
washings, carnal ordinances, priesthood being changed,
there's made of necessity, it changed also the law.
But then also in Colossians chapter two,
and if you would turn to Colossians chapter two
in the New Testament,
the Bible specifically brings up the fact
that these things are no longer binding
in the New Testament.
While you're turning to Colossians two,
let me remind you that in Romans chapter 14,
it says that in the New Testament,
one man esteemeth one day above another,
another esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
So the Bible is saying in Romans 14,
if you want to set aside a special day for the Lord,
you can, and if you want to treat every day alike,
you can do that too.
So some people will treat Sunday as a special day
and say Sunday is the Lord's day,
it's the first day of the week.
So I'm not going to do any work on Sunday.
Some people are against playing sports on Sunday.
Some people are against doing anything
that's not spiritual related on Sunday.
And I totally disagree with that.
In my personal life, I would work on Sunday.
I would play sports on Sunday.
I would treat all days alike.
Now I'm not going to miss church to work on Sunday
because I'm going to be in church
because I don't want to forsake the assembly.
And church is my number one priority.
So I build my whole week around that.
I'm going to be in church Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night.
But I used to back when I worked a secular job,
work between the services all the time.
I would go to church on Sunday morning.
I'd go do a few service calls
and then come back to church on Sunday night.
And I did not for one second feel that that was wrong
because of the fact that the Bible clearly says
that if I want to esteem every day alike,
that's my prerogative in the New Testament
because the Sabbath is not a thing anymore
in the New Testament as far as being a day of the week.
First of all, the Sabbath day is the seventh day.
We consider Sunday to be the first day of the week.
Okay, we meet on the first day of the week.
So the Bible says in Colossians chapter number two,
it says in verse 14,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us,
which was contrary to us and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross.
Colossians 2 15 and having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink
or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon
or of the Sabbath days,
which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is of Christ.
And so we see here that the Sabbath days
are put in the same category with the drinks,
the meats, the holy days, the new moons,
all of those things that are done away in Christ.
They're just a shadow of things to come,
the bodies of Christ.
Don't let anyone judge you and tell you,
hey, you're not keeping the Sabbath.
You're not right with God.
No, you need to get on the New Testament program.
But here's what they say.
Well, I mean, yeah, obviously we don't do everything
from the Old Testament,
but I mean the Ten Commandments though.
Again, the Ten Commandments are not special.
Ten Commandments are an abbreviated version
of the covenant that God made with Moses.
It's the part that he gave them audibly
so that they could all hear it.
And then he gave the details to Moses separately.
But the main heart and soul is the Ten Commandments.
And so I believe that God purposely put something
in the Ten Commandments that we don't observe
in the New Testament just to make this point
that the Ten Commandments aren't special
and they don't transcend Testament.
They are the Old Covenant
and they are not part of the New Covenant.
They're not part of salvation, okay?
You don't have to do the commandments to be saved,
even the Ten Commandments, okay?
Now, here's the thing about this, okay?
The law for us as New Testament believers
still has a purpose.
We do not make void the law by faith.
Christ did not come to do away with the law.
He came to fulfill the law.
So if the law is not done away,
we're not under the law, we're under grace.
If the Old Covenant is done away,
then the question is what role does the law play
in the New Covenant, right?
What role do the Ten Commandments play
in the New Covenant?
Well, there are basically three roles
that the law plays for us as New Testament believers.
Role number one, we already talked a lot about it.
It's our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
It points us to Christ.
The laws and ordinances, the meats, the drinks,
the divers' washings, the animal sacrifices,
they all point to Jesus.
So they point us to Christ
both by showing us our sinful condition,
but they also point us to Christ
by showing us a bunch of animals getting butchered
and the blood being shed on the altar
because that points us to the sacrifice of Christ,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.
So one purpose of the law is to be our schoolmaster
to point us to Christ, right?
It's to show us that we're sinners,
but then also secondly, it's to illuminate the gospel
to us because we can see Christ in every animal sacrifice
and we can see him on every page of those stories.
So it's there to teach us in that way,
but then there's another purpose of the law as well,
which is that it basically provides a guideline for morality.
It teaches us about morality.
Now, some people reject this use of the law.
Some Christians out there would say
that what I just said is not legitimate.
They would say, and I'm gonna prove why it is legitimate,
they would say, yeah, the law is there
to point us to Christ.
Yeah, it teaches us about Jesus.
It shows us we're a sinner.
It's symbolic.
It's figurative.
We can learn from it, but here's what they would say.
They would say we only should follow morality
that's taught in the New Testament.
And so if something's not repeated in the New Testament,
we don't do it.
That's what they would say.
They would say, well, we don't steal
because the New Testament says not to steal.
It repeats that.
We don't kill because the New Testament says not to kill,
so we're not gonna kill.
But if the New Testament doesn't repeat something,
we don't need to worry about it in the New Testament.
So here's the question for you tonight.
What do we follow in the New Testament?
Do we only go by morality that's repeated
in the New Testament?
Or how about another way of looking at it?
If nothing's been changed from the Old Testament,
we should assume God still feels about something
in the New Testament the way he felt about it back then.
So I don't know how well I'm explaining this right now,
but here's basically how it would work.
Okay?
Do we say if God said something in the Old Testament,
let's assume it's still there unless it is specifically
changed in the New Testament?
If it hasn't specifically been changed,
let's assume he still feels the same way
about it in the Old Testament.
Or do we say, well, the Old Testament's totally done away,
so unless it's specifically repeated, we ignore it.
Now let me give you some reasons why it's the former.
It is the fact that unless it's specifically changed,
we follow the morality of the Old Testament,
unless it's specifically changed.
Here are some reasons why.
Number one is that, yes, those five commandments
on the second tablet are restated in the New Testament,
but they're restated referring back to the same tablet.
It's not like he's saying, hey, guys, don't steal.
The God told you not to steal back here in Exodus 20
and Deuteronomy 5.
So if that wasn't still a thing,
why is he referring back to it and saying,
hey, this is a moral guideline for you.
If you're loving your neighbor, you'll know
because you're not stealing, you're not killing,
you're not committing adultery,
you're fulfilling these things.
Okay.
But here's the big reason is that there are lots of things
that the Old Testament commands us not to do
that anyone with common sense would still believe
are binding.
For example, we could bring up examples like,
don't look on your auntie's nakedness, Leviticus 18.
Is there anyone here who thinks that
because that's not specifically brought up
in the New Testament, that's no longer a thing.
And that basically nudity among family members is now fine.
That'd be absurd.
If God said don't look on grandpa's nakedness,
don't look on auntie's nakedness,
don't look on your sister's nakedness.
If he said it back then, doesn't it stand to reason
since that was never repealed in the New Testament
that we would just assume that that's still bad.
Oh, you're trying to bring me under the law.
You're bringing me into bondage.
Folks, we're not legalistically or slavishly
or arbitrarily following the Old Testament commandments
just because they're Old Testament commandments.
It's just that the Old Testament commandments
kind of show us what right morality is.
So when God just vaguely says something
in the New Testament like inordinate affection
or concupiscence, well, that's where the third use
of the law comes in because we go back to the law
and kind of figure out what does God consider
inordinate affection?
What does God consider concupiscence?
Well, being with your sister or your auntie,
yeah, that falls under that.
How do you know?
Well, I mean, God explained it back there.
He doesn't have to explain it again.
Otherwise the New Testament would be really long
if he had to restate everything that still stands
because most of what the Old Testament teaches
in those 39 books, the vast majority of it still
should govern our lives today.
Which parts have been changed?
The parts that the New Testament specifically changes,
the priesthood, the meats, the drinks,
the carnal ordinances, new moons, Sabbath days,
animal sacrifices.
We don't do the temple.
We don't do the tabernacle.
We don't do the Ark of the Covenant.
That's all specifically repealed in the New Testament.
He says no more Levitical priesthood,
no more animal sacrifices, no more meats, drinks,
divers washings, holidays, Sabbath days.
It's all done away in Christ.
That stuff specifically changed.
If it hasn't specifically been changed,
it should still abide.
Now, here's where the sticking point is.
You know, it comes up a lot with verses
like Deuteronomy 22 five.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man.
Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment
for all that do so are abomination to the Lord, thank God.
Now, when you show that to Christians,
sometimes they'll literally say,
well, that's Old Testament.
That's done away in Christ.
I mean, look, when Jesus Christ died on the cross,
what did he bring an end to?
The ceremonial law, the rituals,
the ritual washing and purifying and the meats
and the drinks and all of that process
that they would go to of killing animals
and burning incense and all of those ceremonial things.
But it didn't change the morality of the universe.
The basic morality of the universe is still the same.
And here's the thing.
You know that basic morality of the universe?
Even people who've never been exposed to the Bible
have it written in their hearts.
So they kind of just know
that there's something wrong with murdering
and stealing, committing adultery.
And they just kind of know in their heart
that men and women are different
and that they're not supposed to be
doing this gender bending stuff.
Now, a lot of people choose to do those wicked things
and a lot of people are given over to a reprobate mind
to do those things that are not convenient.
But still, societies throughout the world
that aren't even Christian frown upon these things.
They think it's weird.
They don't like it.
All kinds of cultures all over the world,
even the most primitive cultures will have like,
this is what women wear, this is what men wear.
Right?
I mean, even if they're wearing something stupid or weird,
they at least have something where
they're wearing something different.
Because it's so obvious
that there's a difference between men and women.
Okay?
That's not the Old Testament talking.
So that's the kind of example.
Or like, for example, Leviticus 19 says,
thou shall not print any marks upon my body.
And what do they say?
Oh, that's the old covenant.
You're trying to bring me under the law.
You're a legalist.
No, no, no.
It's just that it's immoral to desecrate your body,
to mutilate your body, to vandalize your body.
And when you tattoo your body,
you're vandalizing your body, which belongs to Christ.
And we're supposed to glorify God in our body
and in our spirit, which are God's.
Okay?
I'm not going to borrow someone else's car
and then just paint some racing stripe on the side.
I'm not going to borrow someone else's car
and just start installing permanent decals
and bumper stickers and just changing things.
And, you know, that's not my car.
Well, you know what?
I'm not my own.
I'm bought with a price.
And so I'm not going to sit here
and vandalize what God has given me.
And put tattoos on myself.
Now, look, this offends people
because more people are getting tattoos today
than ever in the history of the United States of America.
I mean, it seems like everybody's got a tattoo.
And I know that literally probably more than half of the adults
in this building right now have a tattoo right now.
I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands,
but I guarantee you probably half of the adults
in this building have a tattoo.
So I guess I'm just not supposed to preach about it
because I don't want to offend you.
No, because if that offends you, nuts to you.
Because you know what?
You, if you have a tattoo,
you shouldn't want other people to go get a tattoo.
I'm not mad at you for having a tattoo.
There's this thing about tattoos.
They're permanent.
Why would I be mad at you about some tattoo
that you got years ago or weeks ago or whatever
before you knew better?
There's nothing you can do.
You can't get in your time machine
and get rid of that tattoo.
And tattoo removal is a scam.
It's a hoax.
We've had so many people from our church
over the years and people that I've known
have tried those tattoo removal.
Man, they make it look so good on the advertisement.
It's just all disappearing.
I don't know.
Unless they made a scientific advance this week.
Tattoo removal is not a thing, my friend.
They melt your flesh.
Hey, I've seen our church members come
and show me their melted flesh
and it looked bad.
It looked worse than any burn
I've ever received in my life.
I've been burned.
I worked in a restaurant.
I've burned myself.
I've never seen burns like these burns
and people show me their melted flesh
from trying to get a tattoo removed
and they go back for 10 treatments,
15 treatments, and it doesn't work.
Why am I saying this to you?
I'm telling you this, number one,
if you have tattoos, do yourself a favor
and don't try to get them removed
because they're permanent
and you're just gonna hurt yourself
and waste a bunch of money.
But the main reason I'm telling you
is I don't want you young people thinking,
oh, well, I can always get this removed later.
No, it's permanent.
If you get that tattoo,
if you get that tattoo,
you're gonna have that tattoo
for the rest of your life.
Now, look, if I had a magical bumper sticker
and I knew, man, if I put this bumper sticker
on my car, it will never go away
and every time I buy a new car,
it will just magically appear there.
I wouldn't want that bumper sticker.
I don't care what it says
because that's just,
I just don't want that kind of commitment.
And you know what I've noticed
is that a lot of the tattoos that people get,
they don't end up feeling the same way later
that they felt when they got that tattoo
because that tattoo can often be somebody's name
that they're no longer into.
Okay, it can be something idolatrous or evil
and then they get saved.
I mean, people get a tattoo of the Grim Reaper
and Satan and the Virgin Mary and all that
and then they become a born-again Christian
and it's like, whoa, what?
You know, I got this devil tattoo over here.
Or they got some Bible verse in a wrong version
and they learn about the King James.
I mean, they get a dirty Trinity symbol
and then they realize, hey,
that's actually on a Led Zeppelin album cover
is where that symbol came from.
It's in two places, the new King James version
and Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin did it first, so go figure
because it's a pagan symbol.
It's a satanic symbol.
I've seen Christians get that Led Zeppelin symbol
on their arm.
Okay, look, here's the thing about 18-year-olds.
Their brain's not fully developed.
Now, that's not an insult
because everybody who's 15, 16, 17, 18
is in the same boat.
We were all there.
When I was 18, my brain wasn't fully developed either.
That's not an insult.
Let me ask you this.
If you're insulted by that, you 18-year-olds out there,
was your brain fully developed when you were five?
Was it fully developed when you were nine years old?
No.
Well, guess what?
At some point, and every kid thinks it's like,
well, it's the point I'm at right now.
You know, they're like, I'm 11.
I've arrived.
Ten-year-olds and nine-year-olds
have a lot to learn.
Let me tell you something.
When you're 18, your brain's not fully developed.
It's science.
There's science out there somewhere to back this up.
I'm telling you.
I'm not even kidding.
It's real.
Science is settled, folks.
Trust the scientists.
But I'm saying, your brain's not fully developed,
and you're going to go out and put some permanent mark
on your body.
It's stupid.
By the way, you put that mark on your body when you're 18,
it's not going to look the same when you're 50,
because your skin's going to get...
You live in Arizona.
This is not the best place to keep your skin nice.
We live in Arizona.
That skin's going to bake.
It's going to get brown and leathery.
And that tattoo is going to fade.
Everything fades here.
Have you noticed how if you leave stuff in the backyard
here, it literally just disintegrates?
Like, you leave a bike out there long enough,
there's just nothing left.
The bike isn't even there.
It just turns to dust and blows away.
But seriously, tires, things like rubber, plastic,
I mean, they literally disappear here.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Like, things don't last outside here.
Like, the sun is just a destroyer.
It destroys.
It just dismantles everything at the atomic level.
It's just going after every one of those molecular bonds,
and it's just ripping them apart one by one.
And, you know, you get a tattoo,
it's not going to look cool.
You know, nobody wants to be a grandma
that's colored in tattoos.
And look, don't get mad at me if you have tattoos.
I'm not talking to you.
Plug your ears.
I'm talking to kids.
You know who I want to listen to me right now?
People who don't have a tattoo.
That's who I'm talking to.
If you have a tattoo, just ignore everything I'm saying.
I'm not even talking to you.
OK?
Was I talking to you?
No.
So just shut up and let me talk to the young people.
Look, the young people need to hear this message
because they need to know, don't go out and get a tattoo.
Now, I'm sorry that you already got a tattoo.
It's like if I preach against divorce or something,
then divorced people get mad.
I'm not talking to you.
I'm talking to people that are still married.
OK?
I'm talking about being a virgin.
I'm talking to people that are virgins.
OK?
I'm not trying to beat you up about some mistake
that you made in the past.
Now, if you're still getting tattoos,
I'm talking to you, buddy.
Because hopefully you should have
learned your lesson by now.
God said don't print any marks on your body.
I saw there was this group on Facebook.
It was the Southern Baptist group on Facebook.
And they asked this question amongst the Southern Baptists.
Are tattoos sinful?
And it was like 25% said yes, they're sinful.
So do you see what I'm saying?
Like even amongst Baptists, Baptists
are now condoning of tattoos.
It used to be tattoos were something
that were worn by cannibals.
Right?
People who eat other humans, they would get tattoos.
Right?
If you ever read the book Moby Dick,
the main character Ishmael has to spend the night
and share a room and share a bed with a literal cannibal
and the guy's covered in tattoos.
OK?
That back then, that's who had tattoos.
You think Christian people throughout the 19th
and 20th century had tattoos?
You think in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s,
Baptists were out getting tattoos?
So isn't it amazing how all of these things,
they're supposedly like New Testament?
Like, hey, it's the New Testament.
So now, you know, sodomy should be legal
because it's the New Testament.
So the New Testament started in 2003?
Hey, it's the New Testament.
So now Christians get tattoos.
So when did that start?
The 1990s?
Isn't it funny?
I guess the New Testament was kind of a late bloomer.
The church was late to adopt the New Testament morality
because we just figured it out in the last 20, 30 years.
Apparently, all our parents and grandparents were all wrong
when they were prohibiting tattoos and prohibiting drunkenness
and they're prohibiting cross-dressing and all these things
because, man, we're free in Christ now.
Folks, that is a misunderstanding
of our relationship with the law in the New Testament.
In the New Testament, we're not under the law.
The law is not going to save us.
The law is not part of the New Covenant
that makes us God's people under the New Covenant
through the blood of Christ.
But it does point us to Christ
and it is profitable for doctrine
and it does teach us the basic morality
of how we should live.
How should we live our lives?
What should we do, right?
And things like don't print marks on your body, okay?
Don't make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead.
Don't round the corners of your head
and mar the corners of your beard.
What's he saying?
Don't have some weird hairdo.
Don't make yourself look like a cannibal,
is basically, it's all comprehended in this one saying,
namely this, look like a Christian, not a cannibal, okay?
And so don't get a tattoo and say,
well, that's the Old Testament, that's null and void.
Did Christ really die on the cross to say,
hey, everybody, let's head to the tattoo parlor now?
And I've said before, when Christ died on the cross,
the veil in the temple was rented twain.
He didn't rent the veil between the men's department
and the women's department down at the department store.
You know, they went to the fitting room at Coles
and the veil was rented twain.
And now there's an earthquake
and the men's department and the women's department
like fell together and God was showing us
that there's no longer a distinction of gender.
That's a stupid way to read the Bible.
If the law were really that done away,
where don't print marks on your body means nothing
and don't put on a woman's garment means nothing,
then why would God tell us that all scripture
is profitable for doctrine
when we can't even learn its morality, right?
So we wanna make sure that we have that third,
with the so-called third use of the law,
that it does teach us about morality.
And when we read the commandments found in Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
some of them are gonna be obsolete
because they have to do with the priesthood
or sacrifices or temple or tabernacle,
but they're all able to teach us morality though.
And so we would apply them to today.
We would find an analog of today, okay?
So for example, he says, you know,
hey, if you come across a nest
and a bird is sitting on her eggs,
don't kill the bird and take the eggs.
You take just the eggs and you leave the bird alive,
that it may be well with thee.
Now you could say, well, I don't have to do that
because you know, I'm free in Christ,
so I'm gonna take the bird and the eggs.
But you know, here's the thing,
the principle there though is saying,
don't hunt animals to extinction.
Because why?
Why?
Because God's just so worried about the animals,
know that it may be well with you.
Because if we hunt animals to extinction,
we're shooting ourselves in the foot.
Because those animals are supposed to be a blessing
to us and our children.
So conservation in that sense is biblical, okay?
But we don't want to get this attitude that just says,
well, I don't have to do that.
I don't, you know, I can print, I can get tattoos,
I can put on a dress, I can look at my auntie naked.
You know, that's just stupid.
But nobody brings up that last one
because they're being a hypocrite.
They only want to do the stuff that the world promotes.
And the world glorifies getting a tattoo.
The world glorifies gender-bending clothing.
The world glorifies going out and getting drunk
and doing these things.
And so that's why all of a sudden,
those are the things that Christians are changing on.
And we ought to be holding the line,
unlike the majority of Southern Baptists,
we're independent Baptists.
The Southern Baptist Church is down the street.
If you want the church that's going to tell you
that you can drink beer and get tattoos
and cross-dress or whatever they tell you,
you know, I'm not saying that they promote cross-dressing,
although I'm sure that they do.
Because now that I think about it,
I'm sure that all of their wives are wearing pants.
I can pretty much guarantee that.
But here's the thing, you know,
we as Christians need to still have a relationship
with the law, but we need to realize
the law is not salvation.
And some things have specifically been changed
in the New Testament and the Sabbath
is one of those things.
So I hope that that helps you put
the 10 Commandments in context.
I didn't go through and teach each of the 10 Commandments,
but I've done many other sermons
where I've taught that.
You're probably already familiar with the 10 Commandments.
So I was trying to give you tonight
more of a big picture,
what the 10 Commandments mean to us.
God still wants us to put him first
and have no other gods before him.
God still doesn't want us to make any graven images, right?
God still doesn't want us taking his name in vain.
The Sabbath day has been done away in Christ.
Christ is our rest, Christ is our Sabbath,
but we're still supposed to honor our father and mother
and do all those things with respect to our neighbor.
Let's pray in our word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
I pray that all of us would live a life
that honors and glorifies you, Lord,
not to earn our way to heaven, Lord,
because thankfully we're already going to heaven
through the blood of Christ,
but Lord help us to try to live that godly life
just so that we can have a right relationship with you
and the right relationship with the people around us.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.