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God’s
Constitution for Living
Grace
Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam
Chess
(Framing
the Constitution:)
CLICK HERE
Let me move you back 3500 years. It’s morning.. The
sun has just risen….people are beginning to stir around…lots of people.
Imagine yourself bedded down on the hard ground with the entire
population of Southeast Florida camped around you as far as eye can
see…. Tired, dirty, stinky, sometimes offensive people.
Three months before they had been living in slavery.
For 400 years they had cried, pled,
begged God to deliver them from slavery to the
Egyptians and for 400 years nothing changed……………..Then all of a sudden
God sent Moses as their deliverer, they watched fascinated as God sent
plagues, secured Pharoah’s permission to leave, split the Red Sea in
front of them, delivered them from the most powerful army in the world,
and left them free people…free at last, free at last.
In a span of time since your last haircut they went
from hopelessness to freedom. Then they hiked for two months out into
the wilderness to Mt. Sinai to meet……God!
These people had never come face to face ( or ear to
voice) with God before. God had only spoken to a few select people.
Adam, Eve, Job Abram, Jacob, and now Moses. Moses had been the one who
would hear what God had to say then go tell the people.
Let me show you:
Exodus 19:3 Then Moses went up to God, and the
LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you
are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the
people of Israel: 4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt,
and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all
nations you will be my treasured possession……
This time is going to be different. God is going to,
for the very first time speak in the hearing of all three million
Hebrews. Obviously, whatever God is going to say on this, his first
public appearance, from God’s perspective, is going to be critical.
V:10 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the
people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their
clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the
LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
So, the third day arrives, all of the Hebrews
spit-shined, consecrated, ready to hear their God speak for the first
time. God wants to make sure they understand just how significant this
event is going to be.
I, Framing the Constitution:
V:16 On the morning of the third day, there was
a powerful thunder and lightning storm, and a dense cloud came down
upon the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram's horn,
and all the people trembled. 17 Moses led them out from the camp to
meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All
Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had descended
on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like
smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook with a violent
earthquake. 19 As the horn blast grew louder and louder, Moses
spoke, and God thundered his reply for all to hear. (NLT)
How many times in Scripture does God, Himself, speak
to large groups of people? If you believe in God, at all, and you
accept this account as factual history, you have to believe that on
this very unusual occasion God is going to bare his heart…..whatever we
hear…it is going to be very significant! So what was God’s message?
Exodus 20: 1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery. (condensed)>>>
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your
God
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony.
17 "You shall not covet
The listeners are overwhelmed. Perhaps the content
overwhelmed them….certainly being in the presence of God was more than
they could take. When you are sinful people and your Creator is giving
you a detailed list of how he expects you not to be sinful, it can be
very uncomfortable.
V:18 When the people saw the thunder and
lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they
trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses,
"Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak
to us or we will die."
II. Playing by the Rules
This list has become known as the Ten Commandments.
God went on to flesh these out with scores of other commandments which
he gave directly to Moses who brought them back to the Hebrews.
The mere mention of the word commandment causes many
in America to bristle…at least on the inside. We are a country that has
fought for freedom…freedom to follow the direction of our hearts.
-We fought to free ourselves from the control of any
other Sovereign county
- We fought to stamp out oppression by evil
dictators for other countries
- We fought World Wars to keep totalitarian regimes
from taking over the world
- We learned to fight anyway who stood against the
right to equality for all.
-We fought for the right of woman to have equal
status with men
-We now fight for a woman right to control her
own body and the right of all Americans to choose their own sexual
preference
Some of what we have fought for is very good…and
some not.
But in our fighting we have all…to one degree or
another gained a mindset that says: “nobody has the right to tell me
what to do”!
I, and I alone, am the master of my fate! I will
decide what I will do! Things that, even a few years ago were
considered the privileges of living in a free country, are now
considered to be rights. I am entitled to have complete freedom in
every area of my life and that includes the freedom not to have
anyone else control my thinking in any way.
I am certainly not going to allow anybody….and
I’m not going to allow a God to set for me what I must think and
how I must act.
My only moral responsibility is to be true to
myself.
For me immorality, is: not being true to what’s
in my heart. For me, living a “dead-on” life…means living in
complete harmony with my inner values.
Since “truth” to me is simply being true to what
is inside me, the same is true for every other person in the world.
One of the most “immoral” things I could ever do would be to take
my code of values and try to attach them to somebody else’s life.
Their truth is their truth, and no ones else’s
thoughts should matter.
What I just described is the core value of many of
those you saw on the introduction video…and it is the core value of
many people that live and work around you every day.
Let me just talk logic here for a little bit. Our
“enlightened” society has decided that this is a good long term
solution to establish the value system for a country. This country was
clearly founded on the absolute truths found in God’s Word. Our laws,
our moral code all reflects the beginning point that there is an
unshakable foundation on which everything else rests.
Now we are setting that aside, in favor of each
person, determining for themselves what their “truth” foundation is. In
a few generations our nation will be a product of new laws and moral
codes that reflect not one foundation, but millions of different
“truth” foundations.
Imagine setting down to watch the Super Bowl. At a
given time, most of the players jog out onto the field… a few are still
tied up in the locker room. It’s hard to tell who is on each team
because they all have on different Jerseys. One guy has on a dress
because, to not allow that would stifle his rights. Some of the players
run along high fiving the crowd, a few stop to order beers from the
vendors. Some set up lawn chairs in the end zone and start to strum
guitars. A couple players brought different kinds of balls because they
felt like it was prejudiced to focus on just one kind. Then a rule-less
game begins without order or direction because each person has
determined the outcome in such a way as to be “true to themselves.”
I’m suggesting to you that that crazy game reflects
our society and there are many around us that would suggest that this
is an intellectually advanced way of carrying on life. Those in the
past who based their lives on a single set of absolutes were the
world’s stupidest people. Many are sure if they can just wrestle
society away from the “moral absolutists” the world will become a
better and better place.
Think with me, is it ever true in any other area
of your life…that if you remove all boundaries life gets easier,
more free.
Let’s just say, for the hour after service
today, we suspend all rules relating to driving for the next hour.
For one hour you can get into your car and do anything you want.
Imagine the freedom of not having to be tied to those restricting
rules.
You could go any direction any speed. Think how
it would speed up the trip to not ever have to stop and wait on
anyone else. Of course what is freedom for you, must be freedom for
everyone. Nobody has to follow any rules…everyone is now free.
It sounds insane….(to most of you)…. Yet that is the
exact logic being applied the moral foundation of our society! There is
no such thing as absolute truth so there is no such thing as absolute
morality.
If you believe that you are forced to follow it
through to it’s conclusion.
If, in fact, killing infidels is the firm belief
of Al Qaeda Muslims… just following their religious beliefs….. who
are you and I to put our moral values onto them. If they really
believe…in their heart… that killing me is the right thing to do…if
they are being “true to themselves”….. what would be immoral would
be for me to try to convince them that they are wrong! I can’t
force my belief that killing me is immoral…. onto them!
III. The Rule Maker
God was not…and is not…concerned with political
correctness!
He delivers the Hebrews to the foot of Mt. Sinai,
gets their attention with the fire and earthquakes, and horrendously
load noises. When God was done making noise, I guarantee…none of them
were. Then God’s voice is heard out-loud, in their language, for the
first time: He introduces himself.
I AM YAHWEH your God!
I brought you out of Egypt
I brought you out of slavery
You shall have no other god’s before me! (NIV)
Do not worship any other gods besides me. (NLT)
You will conquer people who serve idols…destroy the
idols.
You will develop friendship with others who tell you
it’s small minded to worship one God. Ignore them!
You will fall in love with and want to marry idol
worshippers….Don’t do it!
These other god’s will cry out to your senses, your
human desires… Be deaf to them!
I am your God, no one must be put in my place.
There are no options…it is not up for discussion. This is not
multiple choice.
Then He goes on in their hearing to give them 9
more command which will be the foundation stones of all the other
commands they will eventually receive.
Expectations of a holy people to their
Holy God
Moral Requirements of mankind toward other
Human Beings
This is important: These are the exact same
groupings that Jesus would later use in the New Testament:
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied, " `You must love
the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your
mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second
is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the
other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on
these two commandments."
I will explain to you how the Ten Commandment make
their way through the New Testament and into your life today.
When God thundered out these ten rules for moral
living he intended for His voice to reverberate right into this
morning. God would go on to give a lot more rules and we now divide
those into three categories.
Civil Commands (applied to the Israelites in
particular)
Ceremonial Commands (fulfilled by the birth,
live, death, resurrection of Christ)
Moral Commands ( principles derived from them
are just as binding today as they were 3500 years ago.)
Didn’t Jesus coming wipe out the need for Old
Testament commands?
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (NKJV)
Let me show you one more passage:
Matthew 5:18 I assure you, until heaven and earth
disappear, even the smallest detail of God's law will remain until its
purpose is achieved.
Back one verse:
Matthew 5:17 "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I
did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the
prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.
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