The Purpose of the Sabbath
The Fourth Commandment: The Purpose of the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) The first four commandments reflect our instruction to love God. Commandments five through ten reflect our instruction to love our neighbor. There is only One true God and He is worthy to be worshiped in the way that He has revealed. We are to honor Him in thought, word, and deed. This final commandment in the first section that deals with our love for God meets the greatest amount of…
Remember the Sabbath
The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) There are plenty of ceremonial laws that were not inherently right or wrong in and of themselves. They were temporary laws meant for a specific people in a specific time and place. An example would be how certain food was forbidden under the Mosaic dietary laws, but are now permitted (1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Tim. 4:3-5). Ceremonial laws have been fulfilled, moral laws are permanently binding on all people. A summary of…
The Third Commandment: Don’t Dishonor God’s Name!
You might think a reflection upon God’s name is irrelevant to the current state of our nation. We are living in strange times. Fears of the coronavirus are still among us, but they have been largely displaced by the riots in response to the murder of George Floyd. In fact, more than a thousand medical professionals, infectious disease specialists, and community stakeholders wrote an open letter that got a lot of press. Essentially, they argued that the systemic threat of…
The Third Commandment: Honor God’s Name!
I was soundly converted in Jr. High. I went to Hume Lake Christian Camp and distinctly remember recognizing the heinousness of my sin against God. I had heard the gospel several times, but something clicked on that occasion and I knew that I needed to repent and confess my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior. One of the first obvious changes that occurred in my life was a strong desire to clean up my language and that of those…
The Second Commandment: False Worship Forbidden
If God has prescribed the correct way to worship Him, then we cannot simply ignore that command. That is emphasized in Hebrews 10:25 where saints are commanded not to neglect to gather together. Barna did a survey to see how the church in America has responded to the recent lockdowns. They learned that 40% of Christians watched the service of their home church in the previous four weeks. 23% watched the services of other churches (instead of or in addition…
The Second Commandment: Pure Worship Required
At the end of 2011, my wife and I went to church planting assessment. Then, for the next two years, I attended several cohort meetings and training where I learned the model that other churches successfully followed. Some of the information was truly invaluable, but some of it was disconcerting. Certain topics provided direction, while others were misleading. Unfortunately, many church planting strategies are market-driven techniques that any business might follow. They are oftentimes not adequately grounded in Scripture. Church…
The First Commandment: God Above All
The first commandment is about true worship. Most people think of worship as something we do in various parts of the day. We think of participating in corporate, family, or private worship. When we aren’t engaged in one of those activities, then we are not involved in worship. But that is not true. Your circumstances may change daily or hourly, but the object of your worship must remain the same! Worship is not optional, it’s instinctive. We were made for…
The Grace of the Ten Commandments
One of the most important lessons we learn in life is the difference between personal beings and impersonal objects. All too often, we get into trouble when we think of other people as objects to be used much like we use our other possessions. There are some things that we value more than others. But people must always be given a higher priority than our stuff. We heard this debate carry out recently, during the early days of this coronavirus…