Julius: The first reading, which will be the basis for our messages this morning, Exodus chapter twenty, the Ten Commandments. Then God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt where you were slaves. You shall have no other gods beside me. You shall not make any carved image for yourself, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or on earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them. Or be subservient to them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren, if they also hate me, but I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not permit anyone who misuses his name to escape unpunished. Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work. But the seventh day shall be a Sabbath rest to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother. So that you may spend many days on the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So we're doing something a little different today. I'm preaching on the Ten Commandments, and that's a lot of commandments to preach on. I thought maybe that would be a lot to go straight through. So we're basically gonna split it up one through three, four through six, seven through ten into three little sermonettes. So I'll start by talking about the first ones, and then we'll sing hymn verses in between to keep us alive. So, commandments one through three. You've probably heard the song, What the World Needs Now is love, sweet love. And maybe that's true. Why do people sing that song? Well, they're probably looking around the world and they see all of this hostility, people getting mad at each other, and they think, Man, can't we just get along? And so people look around and think, we just need to love each other. And they kind of have it right. So a one word summary of the Ten Commandments would be love. Love. If you split it into two groups, two groups, like you have it on the bulletin cover, you'll see there's one, two, three on one side, and then seven on the other, we would say the first three commandments are love God, and the rest of the commandments are love your neighbor. And so if people would just love God and love their neighbor, then the world should be a better place. But I think when people sing songs like that, they usually are only thinking of commandments four through ten. The love your neighbor stuff. I think the world would be just a better place if everybody was nicer to each other, if families were okay, if husbands and wives love each other, if people didn't steal things like that. And that's good, but it's forgetting the most important commandments. What the world needs first of all is commandments one through three. Have no other gods, don't misuse the name of the Lord your God, and remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. In other words, look to God alone for your help. Worship God alone and pray to Him and listen to God alone. His message is the one that gives you rest and salvation. That's really what would change the world. And maybe you could forgive people out there for not remembering that, but this is something that Christians forget too. Saw this last week, a giant survey of seven big cities in America, including Omaha. And they were surveying just all the citizens and seeing how many identified as Christian, first of all, and then how many lived as Christians in a more commandment one through three sense. In other words, how many of them went to church every week, read their Bibles every day, prayed to God all the time. Omaha. Just down the road had the highest percentage of people who said we're Christian. 71%. 71%. Awesome. And of all the cities surveyed, they had the lowest percentage of people who acted like Christians in the commandment one through three sense. 16%. 16% went to church regularly, read their Bibles regularly, and prayed regularly. Whoa. What the world needs now, what Christians need now, maybe, is to remember commandments one through three are what make you a Christian. Most of all, and commandments four through ten, they flow from that. First of all, love God above all. Pray continually, listen to his word. Of course, there's not just a discrepancy in Omaha, there's always a discrepancy in our hearts too. We c we say we're Christian because we believe in Jesus as our Savior. That's what makes you a Christian. And of course, then you strive to act like a Christian, but none of us can say. That I'm a Christian, that I behave like a Christian 100% of the time perfectly. Even if I do go to church every single week, which I have to do as a pastor, I can't claim that I worship perfectly, that I pay attention perfectly, listen to God's word perfectly, apply it in my life perfectly. And so none of us are able to do that. So if we wanted to fix the world by our love, even by Christian love, it just wouldn't work unless. We do what Jesus said in the first line of the gospel reading. He said, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. In other words, unless you're absolutely perfect, which none of us can be. So we have to change it around a little bit and say, what the world needs now is love. But the only way that's going to happen, the only way the world is going to get enough love is if it comes from the true source of perfect love, and that's God. What the world needs now is God's love. God who loves perfectly. And that's why the Ten Commandments don't actually start with a command. They start with the Lord talking about his love. If you notice that, we said, Here's the Ten Commandments, and then it said, Then the Lord said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves. The Lord's love. You know, the Israelites, when they were trapped in Egypt, couldn't even keep the first three commandments if they wanted to, have no other gods. They were surrounded by Egyptian gods. Pray and call on God. They asked Pharaoh for permission to go do that, and Pharaoh said no. Remember the Sabbath day? Take a day off once a week to be around God's word? They weren't allowed to have a day off. They were slaves. They couldn't keep those commandments, even if they wanted. And so the Lord came and he gave them his love. Through ten strong plagues, he forced Pharaoh's hand. He brought his people out. He brought them through the waters of the Red Sea so that they could come into freedom and so that they could serve him. That's the loving God. And that's the loving God we have. No, because of our sinful nature, we're never able to serve God perfectly. And yet, God saves us from that. He saves us from that. He forgives us of that, and he frees us so that we can strive to serve and bring his love into the world. Not through the waters of the Red Sea, but through the waters of baptism. He brought us through those waters. He killed sin with Jesus on the cross, and he freed us to live a new life. Say, I love the Lord my God because He's the one who loves me. I call on the Lord my God because He's the only true God who can answer and save me. I listen to the Lord my God because His words give me rest. That's the love we need, the world's need, the world needs, and that's the love we invite people to hear. So when we were just we parents of one small babe, we read a little book of how to raise toddlers and teach them boundaries and things like that. And the book said, only raise your voice when there's something involving danger. To protect your child, something like that. Well, in our house we had a fireplace. And so we thought, okay, let's only raise our voice when the baby starts crawling towards the fireplace. Then we'll pick up the baby and say, no. No, and put the baby over there. And that way the baby will learn this boundary and learn that when we say no, we're protecting you from danger. You better stop and turn around. And you know what? The baby didn't like that. The baby thought, You are the least loving parents ever. How dare you not let me touch the warm pretty thing? It was loving, wasn't it? Sometimes it is loving to say no. It doesn't sound loving. You think of the Lord, you shall not, you shall not, you shall not. You think, man, God is so mean and angry. No, the Lord is loving, and he does that by setting boundaries and defining what love is. In other words, you can't just say love is love. Because that's not helpful. Love is love. It's kind of like somebody asking, What is a pew? What is a pew? And I say, Well, a pew is a pew. Pew pew pew. Yeah. No, that doesn't help. You can't say a pew is a pew, that's not helpful. I might say a pew is a long bench for sitting on in church. now that defines it. And the same thing is true for love. What is love? Not love is love, but love is actually what God says it is. Love is doing what God says is loving. And that's very important because we can change our mind all the time. And the world can change its mind all the time. And think, this is loving and this is loving, and tomorrow we'll think something else. And that's not a reliable standard. There's another survey out in Newsweek recently about what Americans think is morally acceptable. And so there were percentages in there. And so forty-nine percent of Americans think that abortion is morally acceptable. And 49% think that doctor-assisted suicide is acceptable. I think no surprise that those kind of go together. In the sixth commandment area, 65% of Americans think sex outside of marriage is okay. 70% of Americans think divorce is morally acceptable. Alright, so those are big percentages. What do you think? Should we go with the majority? Should we go with the minority? 17% of Americans think polygamy is good. Should we go with that one? No, what if what if sixty percent of Americans thought that was good? No, you think, that's wrong. Well why? Why do you know certain things are right and certain things and wrong are wrong? You can't base it on yourself because you might think something different ten years from now. You probably thought something different ten years ago, and people in different cultures throughout time keep changing their mind. So what is the standard of what's morally acceptable? Or as we put it today, what is the standard of what is loving? Well it's what God says. And commandments four, five, and six are ones that really grade against our culture, and they always have. They did back in Moses' day, they did in Jesus' day, they did in our day. But the fourth commandment is loving. Kids, do you want to show love for God? Then love your parents. Love your parents. Honor your parents and serve them unless they tell you to do something that goes against God's word. And that's true for grown-ups too. The fourth commandment also means to love those in authority. Honor those in authority. Obey those in authority if they don't tell you to do something against God's word. Yes, even someone you don't like, even someone you didn't vote for. And why? Because God loves stable homes where the gospel can flourish. And God loves stable societies where there isn't anarchy so that the gospel can be shared in peace and quiet, like we're able to do in our country today. Fifth commandment: you shall not murder. And murder is a good word for that, not necessarily just kill. The Lord does give the government the ability to wage just wars. Soldiers can kill in a just battle. The death penalty, if people give that power to their government in a democracy, if people vote for that or against that, that's okay. But if the government happens to have the power of the death penalty, that's not breaking the fifth commandment. But the fifth commandment is you shall not murder. You shall not murder, which is the unjust taking of human life. And so, yes, the Lord says abortion is wrong. That's the taking of a life at conception. And yes, the Lord says doctor-assisted suicide is wrong, because only the Lord decides when to end a life and take someone to himself. And why? Why is this loving? Well, because God loves life. No matter how small, no matter how frail, it's a miracle, it's a gift from God. And the Lord gives us life to have a time of grace. This time in which we get to hear the gospel. Hear about God and be a witness to the good news about Jesus. And so we love life. And the sixth commandment. The sixth commandment, according to God, marriage is: yes, one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment until death do us part. That's God's good, loving plan. And if you're not able to be in a relationship like that, if God says you get to be single the rest of your life, that's a good plan too. God says, great, you have less. Divided loyalties, you can focus on loving God and loving the people around you more in a way that married people can't. So there it is. That's God's plan. And so, yes, the Lord says sex outside of that environment is not loving. It's not what he wants. We always say sex is like fire. It's not good outside the fireplace. It's very good inside the fireplace. Same with sex, it's dangerous outside of marriage. It's a blessing within marriage, that's God's design. And yes, the Lord says that having a relationship in that way with the same gender, then, is not his plan. And so the Lord says these things, and they go against the culture, but the Lord knows what is loving. And the Lord knows that if we go against this plan, it is going to drive faith from our heart and push God away and have eternal consequences. So the Lord is loving. Let's love. So what the Lord tells us to do is love, and then he gives us this direction. This is how I want you to love. Well, how can we do that? Especially when it's difficult, especially when it goes against the culture, especially when it involves a lot of sacrifice for people who say, Wow, I can't live the way that I'm really inclined to do. Well, we remember we love not because it's easy, we love, not because it makes sense. We love because he first loved us. Christ's love compels us. Because we believe that Jesus set aside everything, set aside every desire, and died for us, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves what I want, what I think is right, but for him, but for the one who died for us and rose again. So, first John 5 23, do you want to show your love for God? It says, love for God is shown in this, keep his commands. It's been said that if you keep the first commandment, you can keep all of them. But I think you can also go to the other end of the commandments that if you could keep commandments nine and ten, you could keep the rest. And in fact, the Apostle Paul hones in on nine and ten when he says, This is the one that really shows me how sinful I am. That's the primary use of the Ten Commandments, they show us our sin. And show us how much we need a savior and help us appreciate the forgiveness that we have. And nine and ten are do not covet. Do not covet. Now, coveting is having an unhealthy desire for something that God doesn't want you to have. An unhealthy desire for something that God doesn't want you to have. And you can see how this could have been, or you could categorize the first sin as this one. When Adam and Eve reached out and took that fruit, sure they were breaking the first commandment. They wanted to be like God instead of worship the only true God. But it also is breaking the ninth and tenth, which is don't covet the forbidden fruit. The Lord says, this isn't good for you, don't grab it. Trust him. But instead they said, Huh, I want the thing that I can't have. I have everything else, but the only thing I want is the thing I can't have. And they reach out and take the forbidden fruit. And the Apostle Paul says, This is the one that really gets me. And you could tell. this is the one that shows up first, I think. When you're a little kid, you think, do really do little children really have original sin? Are we all born with that evil inclination? Well, just put a kid next to another kid and give one kid a toy. What's gonna happen? that's the toy I want. Only that one. Give a kid a hundred toys and take one of those toys and give it to another kid, and which toy do they want? The one they don't have. And this is the inclination in all of us. We're always wanting what we don't have. And this connects pretty well to the seventh and eighth commandments as well. The seventh commandment you shall not steal, and the eighth commandment, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. So the seventh commandment, you shall not steal. Well, coveting could certainly lead to stealing. You think, I want that thing so bad that I can't have, and so I'm gonna take it. I deserve it. And this is even true when we're stealing by not working as hard as we should. We think, well, I deserve that paycheck. I should have that paycheck, even if I'm not working as hard as I'm supposed to. The eighth commandment can come from coveting too. Eighth commandment, don't give false testimony, involves not lying. It involves gossiping, tearing people down, tarnishing their good name. Well, when do you want to do that? Well, it's when someone else has something or has accomplished something that you want. And so you feel bad. You see someone running really fast and you're running slow and you go, well, they probably don't have a life. They pr all they do is work out. At least I have more balance in my life. Okay, I had to tear them down to feel better about myself because I coveted their ability. And then coveting itself in the ninth and tenth says, Don't covet your neighbor's house. for me, this is the neighbor's grass. So much nicer than ours. Don't cover your neighbor's house or wife, workers, animals, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. A lot of marriages broken up by this. I should have that spouse, not my spouse. And you shouldn't be with your husband anymore. He's the worst. You should leave him. coveting causes all sorts of problems. But the main thing, as I said, is that it shows us our sinfulness and our need for a savior. And Jesus really, in a an amazing way, fulfilled these commandments nine and ten in a way we never could, because Jesus really did have everything. Philippians 2 talks about him in the glories of heaven, perfectly content, and he left it all. He left it all to come down to earth to take the nature of a servant, to lose his status, to lose his riches, to have nothing but the ability to give and give and give away in love until he had nothing left, not even his life. He gave that away for us. That's the opposite of coveting. It's having such a full Generous, content heart that you want other people to have more. You want them to have more than you, to give and give and give, no matter how much less you have. That's what Jesus did for us. And that's what God gives us. That's exactly what we need. You notice, you'll notice as you pray, the Lord does not give you everything you want. He won't do it. Why? Because it's not good for you. And it's not gonna make you happy. The late great Chuck Norris, who still probably defeated death somehow because he's that good, he once said, The most miserable people I know are my rich friends. The most miserable people I know are my rich friends. Why? They have so much. They can buy whatever they need. Because that's never gonna be enough. If it's stuff, if it's money, if it's what you want, you'll always want more. But the Lord doesn't give us just what we want, He gives us what we Need. He gives us salvation. He gives us grace. He gives us forgiveness. And by the way, that heaven that Jesus gave up for a little while, that's yours too. Everything you could ever want and ever need forever. It's yours, it will be yours in heaven, and it's yours by faith right now. You have everything, and from that heart, then you have contentment. Which is the opposite of coveting. First Timothy six says, Godliness with contentment. Is great gain. In other words, if the Lord wants to give you more than you've ever had before, He won't give you more stuff. He won't give you more money. He won't give you more experiences. He'll give you godliness with contentment. and now you're the richest person on earth. When the Lord tells you, keep your life free from the love of money, he does it with a promise. He says in Hebrews 13 5, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for I have said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. You don't need that stuff. You don't need to love that stuff because you have Jesus and his love. So what does the world need? It needs that kind of love. That kind of love from the Father that really fills you up and leaves you wanting no more. Which means that that song is actually wrong. Do you know how that continues? What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. Now that's not true. There's not too little of it. Because we have plenty from our God who is love. God so loved the world, enough love for the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God has poured his love into your hearts. It's overflowing. What the world has now is love. God's love. Overflowing love to you. And love then that you have enough of to share with the people around you. Amen.