Rev. David Holwick Mothers' Day
First Baptist Church Communion
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 14, 1995
Exodus 19:3-8
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
I. Mom, the Lawgiver.
A. Mom, the Lawgiver.
1) Dad usually not around. Twice gone for a year.
2) Fighting on floor of car, Mom enforced Law by reaching back
with long fingernails.
B. We don't like laws.
1) Isuzu (?) commercial, "Stay between the lines."
a) We want to zoom off where we want.
2) What we resent are discipline and commandments, especially
prohibitions.
a) Out of Ten Commandments, 8 are negative. Maybe 9!
1> Summarized as "Thou shalt not!"
b) We don't like the word "no."
3) The Ten Commandments present us with uncompromising demands.
a) We prefer quibbling over gray areas.
b) We may not accept 10 Comm., but we must confront them.
C. We need laws.
1) Humans require boundaries.
2) Lack of boundaries doesn't lead to freedom, but license.
II. Why study the Ten Commandments?
A. Some think they can be improved on.
A few years back Ted Turner, the outspoken chairman of
Turner Broadcasting System and creator of CNN, declared
the Ten Commandments to be outmoded.
He said they weren't relevant to current global problems
such as overpopulation and the arms race.
He told the audience, "I bet nobody here even pays much
attention to 'em, because they are too old."
"Commandments are out."
To replace them, Turner offered his own "Ten Voluntary
Initiatives."
They included: to help the downtrodden, to love and respect
planet Earth, and to limit families to two children.
He concluded by calling Christianity a religion for losers.
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B. The Ten Commandments have permanency.
1) Other systems have come and gone, but these remain.
a) Not earliest law code, but best known.
b) Almost all societies hold to most of these principles.
c) Even Russia has returned to them.
In 1990 the Soviet Union was coming apart at the
seams.
That year alone, crime rose 38%.
The communist ideology that once provided a guide
for living was now being openly rejected.
A Christian scholar who traveled there said, "By their
own admission, they have lost their moral roots,
they have lost the glue in their society.
Even atheists in the government and education began
looking at spiritual ideas to provide stability
in society.
The Academy of Science of the USSR actually invited
some born-again Christian scholars to Russia to
study the Ten Commandments with them.
They wanted to see if there was a connection between
understanding of biblical values and a sense of
fulfillment and purpose in individual lives.
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C. This generation needs them more than ever.
James Patterson and Peter Kim did some interesting research and
published the results in 1991 in a book called, "The Day
America Told the Truth."
Their conclusion was that moral erosion continues In America.
They report that 74 percent of Americans will steal from those
who won't miss it, and 64 percent will lie for convenience as
long as no one is hurt.
Most Americans (93 percent) say they alone decide moral issues,
basing their decisions on their own experience or whims.
Eighty-four percent say they would break the rules of their own
religion.
And 81 percent have violated a law they felt to be inappropriate.
Only 30 percent say they would be willing to die for their
religious beliefs or for God.
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1) The crisis of our society is not religious, but ethical.
a) Religion is no longer attacked because few pay much
attention to it.
b) Ethics is the new battleground.
2) In the past, everyone agreed on moral foundation. Not now.
III. The foundation of the Christian ethic.
A. Two sections, two directions.
1) Duty to God.
a) God is supreme.
b) He is to be revered.
c) Our true value lies in the fact that we are God's
creation.
d) Without God, society looks at people as things and not
persons.
2) Duty to man.
a) People are to be respected.
b) Without a human emphasis, religion becomes remote.
B. Principles, not regulations.
1) The Ten Commandments don't attempt to give a series of
rules for every situation.
2) Circumstances and applications may change, but the basic
principle of reverence and respect remains.
IV. Ten Commandments and Christians.
A. We cannot obey our way into heaven.
1) We are saved by God's grace.
2) The New Testament often contrasts Law with Grace.
a) Law points out our sin, results in death.
b) Grace points our God's love, leads to salvation.
B. God's laws lay out the boundaries.
1) Jesus came to fulfill the law, not destroy it.
2) We are free, but not free to sin.
3) Ten Commandments let us know what God considers acceptable.
C. To obey is better than sacrifice.
1) Whose rules will we obey? God's, or ours?
==================== extra notes [mostly Barclay] ====================
I. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not destroy it.
A. A big part of our heritage is the Ten Commandments.
B. Not just our heritage, but world's.
C. They contain the basic laws of human conduct in society.
II. A negative cast.
A. Eight (nine?) out of ten are in negative.
B. Most common criticism is they are ten "Thou shalt not's".
C. They had to be negative to mold the Jewish people into a
nation.
1) They are a beginning.
2) The community had to start off with self-limitations.
III. Number: 1703 Hard copy:
SOURCE: Christianity Today
TITLE: The Good War
AUTHOR: Peter Kreeft
PAGE: 20 DATE: 12/17/90 Typist: ENTERED: 12
DATE_USED:
ILLUSTRATION_________________________________________________________
: "Spiritual warfare" is an important Biblical teaching but a neglect
It has three aspects:
1. The reality of spiritual warfare.
2. The reality of our spiritual enemies beyond "flesh and blood."
3. The reality of spiritual evil, or sin.
The power of "positive thinking" should not blind us to the power of negative
thinking. There is a need for negative thinking if there are real enemies.
More important, there is a need for negative acting, not "going with the
flow." There is a place for hate in the Christian life. If we become
incapable of hate, we become also incapable of love.
Christians have three enemies:
1. The world.
2. The flesh.
3. The Devil.
Malcolm Muggeridge says that sin is the only Christian dogma that can be
proved just by reading the daily newspapers. Why does the modern mind
misunderstand sin? Because sin is a word that presupposes two things the
modern world disbelieves in: a divine will giving moral laws, and a human
soul receiving them.
Evil is a broader term than sin. Misunderstandings about evil:
1. The Dracula misunderstanding - evil is a great myth, a fascinating
fiction.
2. The Hitler misunderstanding - the only evil is cruelty. "This notion is
so pervasive that many readers think there aren't ten commandments, but
only one. If they haven't killed anybody lately, they think they're
saints."
3. The Jungian (and Hindu and Buddhist) misunderstanding - evil is only "the
dark side" of good, that good and evil are not really, ultimately
distinct but one.
4. The Platonic and liberal misunderstanding - man is by nature good and
wise, and evil is only ignorance and therefore can be cured by
education.
5. The Zoroastrian misunderstanding - that evil is a "thing," even an
absolute, a second God. (Zoroaster was the sixth-century Persian
prophet who taught this ultimate dualism.)
Spiritual warfare needs ethics. The ancients feared evil too much (witch
hunts) while moderns fear it too little.
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