Are The Ten Commandments Binding Today
Are The Ten Commandments Binding Today
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INTRODUCTION:
A. The 10 Commandments are found in Exodus 20:2-17
1. The Ten Commandments are perhaps the best-known law in all the world.
2. The Ten Commandments may be the least understood law in the world.
B. Few people understand . . . . . .
1. Few people understand that the 10 Commandments were for the Jews
only.
a. When Moses gave the Ten Commandments to the people the second
time, he emphasized that those laws were not made with their fathers, or
with “. . . anyone else, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.”
(Deuteronomy 5:3)
b. A covenant is an agreement between parties and affects no others.
c. The Ten Commandments constituted a covenant between God and the
Jews and affect no other.
2. Few understand that the Ten Commandments were only a temporary law,
which was to be done away.
a. While the Ten Commandments law was in affect, Jeremiah prophesied
that God would make a new and different covenant in the future.
“’Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, "when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant
which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the
LORD.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel
after those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will put My law within them
and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people.
They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his
brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will
forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” (Jeremiah
31:31-34)
b. That “new Covenant” would be the gospel available to all people.
1. Hebrews 9:15 – “For this reason He is the mediator of a new
covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption
TEN COMMANDMENTS – “Are the Ten Commandments Binding Today?” 2
of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant,
those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal
inheritance”
2. Hebrews 12:24 – “And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant . . .”
3. The Hebrews writer references the Jeremiah 31 prophecy in
Hebrews 8:7-13 –
“A New Covenant For if that first covenant had been faultless,
there would have been no occasion sought for a second.
8 For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming,
says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah;
9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them,
says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and
everyone his brother, saying, “’know the Lord,’ for all will know me,
from the least to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their
sins no more.
13 When He said, " A new covenant," He has made the first
obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is
ready to disappear.”
4. The new covenant would involve a new name.
a. Isaiah 62:2 – “The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all
kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the
mouth of the Lord will name.”
b. That new name was given in Acts 11:26 – “. . . and the disciples
were first called Christians in Antioch.”
c. Revelation 21:5 – “. . . Behold, I make all things new.”
3. Few understand that the Ten Commandments have been invalidated and
no longer apply to us as a law.
b. 2 Corinthians 3:7, 8, 11 – “But if the ministry of death, in letters
engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not
look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading
as it was . . . . . . .
8 How will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
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11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which
remains is in glory.”
c. Paul says that which was written on stone—The Ten Commandments—
has been done away with, while the ministration of the Spirit” or the New
Testament, remains.
d. Colossians 2:14 – “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements
that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of
the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
d. The cross of Christ marks the end of the Ten Commandments as a law
and the beginning of the new dispensation.
4. Few people understand that today we must keep certain commands, NOT
because they are in the Ten Commandments, but because they are in the
New Testament.
a. Nine of the Original Ten Commandments have been “brought over” into
the New Testament.
b. Those that have been repeated in the New Testament are not listed
together as they were in the Old Testament and are simply a small part
of the over-all commands of Christ.
c. Each of the nine “brought over” has been expanded to include a great
deal more than they did in the Old Testament.
e. A shocking truth to many: “Today one could keep the Old Ten
Commandments perfectly and still be lost.”
C. Commandment #3 – “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God
in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in
vain.” Exodus 20:7
1. Matthew 6:9 – “. . . Hallowed (Holy) be Your name.”
2. Ephesians 4:29 – “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth,
but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the
moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”
3. Matthew 5:34 – “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for
it is the throne of God.”
4. 2 Timothy 2:19 – “. . . Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to
abstain from wickedness.”
5. Philippians 2:9-11 – “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee bow, of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father”
CONCLUSION:
A. Matthew 17:5 – “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
1. Moses represented the Law – “Don’t hear him.”
2. Elijah represented the Prophets – “Don’t hear him.”
3. Christ represented the new covenant – “Hear Him!”
B. Matthew 28:18 - "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
“ALL” means none left for any other.”
C. “Are the Ten Commandments Binding Today?” No
D. Let us then remember:
1. The Ten Commandments have been taken out of the way and nailed it to
the cross.
2. We are no longer bound by the Ten Commandments that appear in Exodus
20:2-17.
3. Nine of those commandments have been repeated in the New
Commandments but because they are found in the Testament of Christ.
4. Furthermore, those nine commandments that had been repeated in the
New Testament actually constitute a very small part of the all-over
teachings of Christ.
E. God’s Plan for Man’s Salvation
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