The Ten Commandments

             “I am the Lord your God...."  Ex 20:2-17

DID YOU KNOW?

As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view - it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?

As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW?

As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?

There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.

DID YOU KNOW?

James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

DID YOU KNOW?

Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

DID YOU KNOW?

Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

DID YOU KNOW?

Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

DID YOU KNOW?

Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law....an oligarchy....the rule of few over many.

DID YOU KNOW?

The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said, "Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy....

“Honor your father and your mother...

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet... anything that is your neighbor’s.”

See America's Spiritual Slide

Paradigm Shift: Total transformation

"...the high priest asked them, saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine...."

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said:

“We ought to obey God rather than men."

 

Comment by Laura Nichols (Arkansas), homeschooling mom:

The Ten Commandments were not only for Israel. Although attempting to obey the Ten Commandments will not bring salvation, the New Testament shows the ongoing significance of God's moral law.

Though we are no longer UNDER the law, the law  SHOWS US OUR SIN. The blessed Holy Spirit brings conviction, but the law exposes our need for the cross.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, "Thou shalt not covet." Romans 7:7

"But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupisence. For without the law sin was dead." Romans 7:8

"For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Romans 7:9

In presenting the gospel, the Ten Commandments are used as a "schoolmaster" to get a person to see that they have broken the law. Go up to a person and ask, "Have you ever told a lie?" They will, almost always, admit it. "Oh, yeah! Everyone has," they usually say.

      Then you ask them... "What does that make you?"  Sometimes they shrug. Sometimes they will answer... a liar.  When they then see that they have broken the law of God -- and you tell them that without faith in the blood covering of Jesus Christ they are facing the judgment and wrath of a Holy God --  this can, with the Holy Spirit's drawing, bring them to Christ.

     This is why Satan hates the Ten Commandments. They must come down off the walls because they reveal our sin to us (those who still have consciences) and just as Judge Moore has stated, God's authority, the authority of the one who spoke those Commandments into being, is under attack.

"And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Romans 7:10

In other words, when we realize that we have broken the law, we realize that we are DEAD in our sins. Sin has deceived (or blinded) us.

"For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." Romans 7:11

"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12

"Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Romans 7:13

This is a key verse in understanding the Ten Commandments. When the goodness of the Ten Commandments shines through our darkness by the power of the Holy Spirit, it reveals our sinfulness. Sin works death in us.

       In other words, when we realize that we have sin in our lives and this is shown to us through the lens of the Ten Commandments, we become accountable to that standard.  Now, unintentional sin becomes intentional rebellion against His law. 

       Without being "born again" with the infilling of the presence of God, we cannot overcome sin. The law can't free us from our sinful nature, but by showing us that we are exceedingly sinful, it brings us to Jesus Christ who can set us free.

       Jesus said, " I come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." Jesus Christ - His perfect and righteous sacrifice -- fulfils all the requirements of the law. When we choose to believe in Him, identify with His death and resurrection (Galatians 2:20) and are filled with His Spirit, we share in His fulfillment of the law.  Even though we were all lawbreakers, wretched sinners, lost and on the way to hell, we now  share His victory over sin.

       I praise Jehovah God for his unmerited favor and mercy and I love the law of God.

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." George Washington