Here's my question for you this morning. We're gonna cover commands five through 10, but here's the question. Is it possible to obey commands six through 10 and not love your neighbor? Is it possible to obey commands six through 10 and not obey your neighbor? Here's command six, right? Don't kill, don't commit adultery, Right, don't lie, don't bear false witness, don't steal, don't covet. Can I keep those, can I keep each one of those and not love my neighbor and I fulfilled the law? You're saying no, but, okay, some are saying no and others are like, I think so, I don't know. The majority of the commands are stated in the negative, right? Don't do this, don't do that. And so we think that as long as we avoid those behaviors, we're good, right? Like we got this thing. But Jesus is gonna argue that the 10 commandments aren't just about preventing bad behavior, but that they're actually about loving your neighbor. So for instance, they say this to Jesus, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? And Jesus responds by saying, well, The greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. We would call that commands one through four, right? No other gods, no idols, don't take God's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day? The first table of the law, that's our relationship to God. But then Jesus says, there's a second commandment that's just as great, and it is this. love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the prophets hang on that commandment. And so the second table of the law commands 5 through 10 are horizontal, so commands one through four, vertical, commands five through 10, horizontal. But Jesus sums up and says, hey, it's not just the absence of these things, it is the positive of loving your neighbors, that is what fulfills the commands. And so, I have a very creative title for my sermon this morning, The 10 Commandments, Part Two, all right? You can thank me later. Commandment number five, the fifth commandment, is just simply this. Honor your father and your mother. The principle is that just as God orders your lives, just as God orders our life, honor the God who gave you the parents that you have. God continues this command. This is one of the few, I think there's this one and one other one, that has a promise connected to it. This one says, if you honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. To honor simply means this, to treat one's parents publicly and privately with due respect. To treat one's parents publicly and privately with due respect. Unless you think that this command to live a long time in the land is just for Old Testament saints, it's not. It's for New Testament saints as well. Because Paul says in Ephesians chapter six, children. Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with the promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. God's promise is this, is that if you want a long life, to honor the parents that God has given to you. God's promise of long life is to those who esteem their parents. Not treating them like an inconvenience or perhaps in a scoffing way like, I can't believe it, they're so old they don't understand things. Not in a scoffing way. And do you understand that Paul writes in Romans chapter one, one of the ways that you will tell that people have rejected God, he says this, that those who reject God are described as disobedient to parents. That is part of their lack of honoring is a disobedience to their parents. So dishonoring one's parents is a weighty thing. It's part of the mindset of someone who rejects God. Now, I want to acknowledge about commandment five and commandment seven, those two commandments as I talk through them may be difficult for our church family. Because as I speak about what it means to honor your parents, Some of you grew up in great homes with great family environments. Others of you have experienced a childhood where a parent, it's not that they just haven't lived according to the Bible, but that they've actually violated the trust that God has given to them. And so when you hear me say honor your parents, that's really hard for you. A, I want to acknowledge that. B, I also want to say that what it looks like for one family or one person to honor their parents, it may look like something different in your context. Some of you are not anywhere physically present or around your family, and that actually is intentional or on purpose because of the hurt that you've experienced. So when I'm saying honor your parents, I think it's also fair to say that the honoring is gonna look different from family context to family context, given what some have experienced. To parents, with young kids. How many of you in here have kids under the age of, I don't know, let's say under the age of, let's, under the age of five, right? Under the age of five. Yeah, keep your hands up. If you have under the age of 10, keep, raise them. Yeah, so we're getting more and more, and certainly those of, under the age of 16, right? Good, good. Here's the point. Some of you are like, babe, how old is he? I don't know. Hey, parents, it's essential for those of us who have kids, or maybe you have grandkids, and maybe you watch your grandkids, or your niece, or your nephew during the week. To parents, though, with young kids, it is essential that you actually teach them these commands. That obedience, we always said it this way to our kids, that obedience is something that's done sweetly, immediately, and completely. Sweetly, immediately, and completely. Obedience primarily is an external act, but honoring is not an external act. Honoring is an intent and desire of the heart. And so what you're trying to do as you parent your children is not just get outward conformity, but actually to train their heart to have a sense of, I want to honor my parents. Why? Because God says to. And so if you're a student in here, if you're a young adult in here, quite frankly, if you're a middle-aged adult like myself, this is an important principle because God said, of all the commands that I could have given, I'm going to state that the fifth commandment is this, honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you. that is to shepherd a child's heart toward the 10 commandments. If you do that, mom and dad, you're actually being a faithful disciple maker of that child or that grandchild or that niece or nephew that God has entrusted you with. I have a plea to our teenagers and to our young adults in this room, and perhaps others need to hear this plea as well. Your parents, you're sitting in here right now, your parents, your Christian parents are far from perfect, but they do fear God. In fact, one of the reasons why you are in this room right now, teenager or young adult, is because you grew up, perhaps, in a home that valued the house of God, the people of God, and the word of God. One of the greatest burdens of your parent's heart, your dad and your mom didn't ask me to say this to you. One of the greatest burdens of their heart is to have a meaningful relationship with you. So could I offer to you three ways that you could honor your parents and therefore honor your God? There's three ways, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged adults, of how you could honor your parents. The greatest way that you could honor them, if you have Christian parents specifically, the greatest way that you could honor them is to honor their God and make their God your God. You wanna honor your mom? You wanna honor your dad? Make their God your God. You wanna honor grandma, granny, whatever you call her, nana? Make her God your God. Here's a second way that you could honor them. It's just really practical. Have you ever asked your parents, your mom, maybe you live with your dad, have you ever asked your dad questions Here's what I mean. How did you choose that occupation? Have you just been curious about their life? How did you choose that occupation? Why that business and not this business? And just let them talk. and be curious about how God led or directed them where they are, or questions like these. So teenager, young adult, you're trying to figure out how do I honor, how do I obey this command? Here's another question you could ask. What's the most difficult thing you've ever experienced in your life? And then just sit and listen. And then here's the follow-up question to that. How did you make it through that? Those are, what that is doing is that's not just getting information, that's opening your heart to listen to their heart. A third suggestion of how you could honor your mom, your dad, is to let them know the desires, the dreams, the ambitions that you have. Rather than telling it to a boyfriend or girlfriend first, rather than telling it to a small circle of friends on a text thread. Before you tell anyone else, tell them. Honor them in that way. Don't allow it to come secondhand or thirdhand, but honor them and open up your heart and say, this is my dream. For us parents, right, then the responsibility we have is as they talk is not to say, oh, that's ridiculous. Right? But it's to honor them, too, as they speak what's in their heart. This is part of what a Christian church is doing. It's intended to bring the hearts of children to the hearts of parents and the hearts of parents to the hearts of their children. Let them know. Here's the sixth commandment. So the fifth commandment is to honor the God-given parents that God has given to you. Here's commandment number six. It's, you shall not kill. It's really simple, right? And here's the principle, that as God is the giver of life, honor all of God's image bearers. that since God is the giver of life, honor all of his image bearers. The word here, murder, is the word resa. It's used 47 times in the Old Testament. And in every instance except for one, it's used of a person killing another person. The word is never used for killing an animal. It's never used in the context of self-defense or even going to war. It's the idea of, one of two ideas, either planned, premeditated taking of a life, or taking of a life in a fit of rage. And so this is the command, I don't want you, no murder, why? Because God is the giver of life, he's made people in his image, and so we're to honor that. And this command has far-reaching implications, right? Jesus said it this, Jesus said, you have heard it said, you shall not murder. And everyone's going, yep. And whoever murders will be liable for the judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." Whoa! Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, 1 John 3.15. You know, if we had prisons or courtrooms that used the criteria of Jesus in Matthew chapter five, you'd have an empty pulpit, we'd have an empty auditorium here this morning, right? Because every one of us has broken this command at one point in time in our life. The seeds of murder are hate. Murder begins in the heart. This is why, folks, this is why guarding our heart and our minds is imperative. This is why bitterness robs many a Christian of the promised life that God gives. Bitterness, here's what bitterness is. Bitterness is the state of having been wronged. And who among us here has not been wronged by somebody in our lives? Who's not been wronged by a parent? Who has not been wronged by a coworker or a boss or a neighbor or someone else that we know near and dear to us? Bitterness is the state of having been wronged and then meditating on that wrong so that you come to despise an individual. Is there an individual that you despise? Then I would say to you, you we have broken the intent of this command. It's why the Bible says, husbands, love your wife and be not bitter against her. It's why Paul writes in Ephesians 6, children, obey your parents, honor them, and be not, right, bitter. Christian, can I encourage you this way? the bitter experiences of your life, perhaps an ex-spouse. Christian, mourn what could have been, but guard your heart from bitterness that would lead to hatred. Do you follow? Mourn your, guard your heart Mourn what could have been, but guard your heart from bitterness that leads to hatred. Why? So that you don't break this command of God's to not murder. Command number seven is one of those painful commands. In any Christian church because of life experiences, The command is, you shall not commit adultery. That is, here's the principle, that as God is faithful to his own, you be faithful to God's design for sex. That is, be faithful to God's design for sex. The purpose of this command is to promote the purity of heart. Why? Because Jesus says this, you have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you, everyone who looks on a woman with lust in his heart, with lust has already committed adultery in his heart. What? I thought this was just simply saying, hey, don't sleep around, don't sleep with someone outside of my covenantal marriage vows. Jesus says, wait a second, no, no, no, it's much broader than that. The implications for this command are many. Let me just give you a few. First of all, that God's design for sex is within covenant marriage, that regardless of the songs you hear, That sex is reserved for those who stand at the altar or in front of the judge and say, I do. And when you say, I do, God says, you may. That's the implication here, right? That God's design for sex is within the covenant of marriage. Here's another implication, that God's design for sex, according to this, is heterosexual because of how God defines marriage. God's design for sex is not for entertainment. It's not even to express your love to somebody you're dating. That that is reserved for the individual to whom you make your covenant vows before God. Perhaps, growing up, you had a front row seat to a really bad marriage, which is the case of so many people. So you've decided to push off marriage and just choose to live together first, just to make sure, because you, man, you were in the home and you heard the echoes of the arguing and you're like, I don't wanna repeat that, so we're gonna live together first. God, I need to say this to you, that God intends sex to be, is designed within the covenant boundary of marriage itself. That is, faithfulness to your spouse is intended to reflect God's faithfulness to his own people. That regard, and I wanna say this, for those of you, even as I'm speaking, you're like, please get done with the seventh command because it's so painful. Because you haven't been faithful to your spouse and you've tried to move beyond it as best you can as a couple. Can I pastor you for a moment? Regardless of your past. I encourage you to resolve by God's grace to honor your God with your body and in your marriage. Adultery is not an unforgivable sin. It's not. And there have been many marriages and many families that have experienced that type of betrayal. and yet they've been able to grow and go on beyond that. It is a painful part of their story, but there are plenty of marriages and plenty of families, Christian families, who have been able to survive that and still honor and love each other and raise children to honor and love each other. Adultery is not an unforgivable sin, saints, and I want you to hear the gracious words of your Savior. What did our Lord say to the woman who was caught in adultery? His final five words to her were what? Go and sin no more. Can you allow the Holy Spirit to echo those words in your mind and your heart right now. Go and sin no more. Command number eight, the eighth commandment is what? Verse 15, you shall not steal. That is, don't take what doesn't belong to you. As God is the giver of all things, don't take what's not yours. I read an article this past week, a hotel had just opened up. These are crazy statistics to me. They said they were shocked that after that first year of business, the hotel reported 38,000 spoons missing. What do you do with that many spoons, right? 355 coffee pots, and this is the humdinger of them all, 100 Bibles stolen. I just want to tell you, if you need a Bible, don't steal one from the hotel. If there's one in front of you, take it home with you. It's our gift to you. You'll be good, alright? That is, as God is the giver of all things, don't take what's not yours. Citizens steal from the government by underpaying taxes or making false claims. Government steals from the citizens by overspending, right? There's theft at work at all cases, right? There's falsifying time cards. There's calling in sick when we're actually healthy. There's failing to put in a full day's work. Employers steal from employees. It's not just employees stealing from employers. Employers steal from employees by giving longer hours than what the contract states. There's insurance fraud, right, by those who are claiming something. And there's fraud from the insurance company by not covering what they said they would cover. There's credit card companies that steal by exorbitant interest rates. There's identity theft. We could go on and on how theft takes place in our culture. But let me explain this. Why is stealing, we're talking about that these are laws primarily having to do horizontally, but let me explain why stealing is actually a sin against God. Stealing is against God because every theft is a failure to trust in God's provision. Right, so you know, so you kind of, you add a little bit more to the time card, but you're failing to trust that God's going to provide for you. That's one way. The second way is that every theft assaults God's providential care provision for others. So when we took that additional money from the business by falsifying a time card, God intended that money to be used to sustain that business. And you're robbing somebody else of God's providential care for them. And so it's a sin against God. Keeping the eighth commandment is actually a practical exercise of our faith in God's providence, God's care, God's provision for us. By saying do not steal, here's what you can be assured of. By saying do not steal, God, it is legitimate to own property. You can own property to the glory of God, otherwise the concept of stealing would fail to make sense, right? And then the ownership is designed not for our purposes, right? But rather to receive. So ownership is not about possessing things to use for our own purposes, but rather receiving things from God to use for his own glory. We call that stewardship or we're a manager. That's the essence of what it means. So by stealing from others, we're preventing them to manage what God has given to them, and we're not trusting God that He actually is going to provide for our needs. You shall not steal. Commandment number nine. It reads this way, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. We say no lying. That is, the principle is as God speaks truth, as the God who is truth, that we are to reflect his truthfulness in our speech. This sin is a sin of the tongue. It's a sin of speech. Paul actually warns the Christian church about this in numerous places throughout the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 12, he warns the Corinthians about slander and gossip. Don't bear false witness against your neighbor. He tells the Galatians that discord is an act of sinful nature, being divisive. Then in Ephesians, he warns against slander within the Ephesian church. And the reason why he warns them in all three cases is because it's a violation of this command right here, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Now in a culture, in a judicial, in a culture where if you give a testimony against somebody and it's not a truthful statement, that person could end up in prison, right? And so it's an essential in a culture that people tell the truth, otherwise people end up paying for what they didn't do. But that, again, like any of the commands that God gives to us, the implications and the applications are wide and varied. So Paul extends it to the Christian church to say things like, hey, don't gossip, don't be a slanderer. That is, be careful with speech that is used to tear down rather than build up. Gossip is not simply a casual conversation about somebody else. That's not what gossip is. Gossip is talks about others in a way that is intended to damage them, to undermine them. Gossip talks about in that way thus when James so when Jesus's half-brother Pastor James the pastor at the church at Jerusalem when he's writing his letter. He says this the tongue is a fire The tongue is set among our members staining the whole body Setting on fire the entire course of life and Setting set on fire by hell Pastor James says that when we break this command, our tongue has the stench of hell on it. Christian, in a social media world, be careful of what you share and repost, lest you break this command. Oftentimes we, have you ever talked, have you ever used this phrase, Well, we've got the family reunion next week and lots of family drama. Oftentimes family drama is short because we've broken the ninth commandment. That we've said things in such a way as to undermine the character of other people within our family. Because of self-righteousness, many a Christian has determined, independently determined that they are in the right to ignore and to break the ninth commandment because of their self-described righteousness and their ability then to denounce others. Grace life, church families. Church families are often pulled apart, one family after another family, one individual after another individual, because people fail to heed this command. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. According to, there's an old rabbinic saying, It says this, slander kills three people, the one who speaks it, the one who listens to it, and the one about whom it is spoken. In Grace Life, we embrace and embody lies about our own heart and our own lives when we clothe ourselves in self-righteousness. When people confess sin in your life group, whether you do it externally or internally, is there kind of like, I can't believe they just confessed that. As if you don't have and I don't have the seeds of murder in our heart? As if we don't have the seeds of unfaithfulness and adultery in our own hearts? Saints, we bear false witness against ourselves, about ourselves to other people when we live with self-righteousness as if somehow we're okay. I can't believe they had to confess that. Wow, glad I'm not them. Saints, these things ought not to be amongst us. When we refuse to affirm what the Bible teaches about our own hearts and our own temptations that we experience, when we refuse to recognize that, we ourselves are lying about our own hearts, giving off the air of self-righteousness, when our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. And saints, what is confession of sin? But it is an honest inventory of our own heart and a truth telling to our God. So let us not bear false witness against our neighbor, but let us not bear false witness about who we really are either. And that every one of us stands in need of grace. Finally, the last command is called to say, it is stated as no coveting. It's probably the one word that we needed to find, the most helpful, we needed to find. It's simply, the big idea is this, is that as God is the giver of all things, be content in your heart. Look at verse 17. He says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. To covet means to crave, to yearn for, to desire something that belongs to someone else. This command forbids the desire for someone else's property. Someone else's possessions. Someone else's spouse. You know, we wouldn't have these marriage problems if I was married to someone like him or someone like her. You've broken a command given to you by your God. And why does it seem like they always get the promotions? I never do. Saints don't covet. Paul writes it this way in Romans chapter 7. Here's the value of the Ten Commandments to you and to me. He says, what shall we say then? That the law is sin? Like, the law, the law is sin. Paul says, no, by no means. If it had not been for the law, I would not have even known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. I wouldn't have even known that that was a big deal, except for the law revealed it to me. The law is our schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. Pastor James, again, in his letter from the Church of Jerusalem, he says, you know, whoever keeps the whole law, like, you think you're doing great? Good, you can keep the whole law, but if you fail in one point, you're guilty of all of it. And how does, how do the people of God respond to this? Look at Exodus 20 verse 18. Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off. And they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. I'm going to read. I'm turning to Hebrews chapter 12. We've looked at this passage one other time. I'm going to turn there. Hebrews 12, verses 18 through 24. You can turn there if you like or you can follow along. But we're at, in Exodus 20, we're at Mount Zion. I'm sorry, forgive me. We're at Mount Sinai. We're at Mount Sinai. There's thunder, there's lightning, the earth is tremoring, the people are trembling because God has spoken and they say to Moses, no more, you speak to us Moses, we can't hear anymore of this because it is too great for us. And in Hebrews chapter 12, the author in the beginning of verse 18 says this. He says, you've not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. The sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. It's almost like the author is saying this, here is Mount Sinai and the holiness of God in full display. You aren't allowed, you've got to back away because if you come any closer, you will be struck dead by the holiness of God. But then look at what verse 22 says. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have been backing away from the holiness of God. But as you backed away and you turned, you saw Mount Zion. And this mountain is not one that will keep you from, this is not a mountain that will keep you away. This is a mountain that invites you in. It draws you in. It says, you are mine. You are my child. You say, pastor, how do you know that? Because look at how it continues. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24. Right? You've also come not only to Mount Zion, verse 24, you've come to who? Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So I'm saying to you this, that those who have dishonored their parents, you've seen the holiness of God. Those who have lied or you have stolen, and you're backing away from the holiness of God. You've broken your covenantal vows, whether physically or in your mind. You're backing away from the holiness of God, but what you're intended to do is to come to Mount Zion. and to be received by the One who at all times was honoring of His Father. That is, He obeyed this law completely on behalf of those who would dishonor their parents. This one who is there at Mount Zion, who is known as the King of Righteousness, the King of Truth, always speaking truthfulness, the one who is faithful to his church, that even though the church is unfaithful to him, he will be forever faithful to them. And when you're seeing this, it's not just like, oh, you've messed up, but it's, you messed up, but there is the King of Righteousness, and he is yours. This isn't just about how to love your neighbor, but it is that there is someone who has completely obeyed every part of the law that you and I could not complete, complete, complete. Let me give you, maybe this illustration is kind of a way of being done. As I said, it's about, the last half of the 10 commandments is about loving your neighbor. That's what Jesus says, right? But it's not just about the absence of bad stuff, but about the presence of loving your neighbor. It's 1852. The year is 1852, it's a moonless night in the American South. The air is thick with the hum of cicadas and the weight of fear. Her name is Harriet Tubman. She's barely five foot tall. She's ironically called the Moses for her people. She's leading a group of escaped slaves, men, women, a baby cradled silent in its mother's arms. She's taking them through the swamps toward freedom. She's broken every law of the land. Write to the plantation owners, Tubman is a thief, a liar, and a menace. But to God, she is a living sermon of the second table of the law. Think about it. The fifth command, honor your father and mother. Harriet is leading whole families to a place where parents can raise their children. The sixth command, do not murder. She's guarding every heartbeat in that line, whispering encouragement to keep them moving. The seventh command, don't commit adultery. She's fighting for marriages that have been torn apart by the auction block. The eighth command, don't steal. She's taking back lives stolen by chains, giving them to God who owns us all. The ninth command, don't bear a false witness. She's living the truth of human worth when the world was shouting lies. The 10th commandment, right? Do not covet. She's not grasping for power or wealth, just freedom for her neighbors. And one night, As they're in their journey from the south to the north, a man in the group stumbles, ready to turn back because he's terrified of the dogs barking in the distance. She's known as Moses with a gun. She pulls her pistol, not to threaten but to protect, and she looks at him and says, you'll be free or die. Is that harsh? Maybe. But it's love with teeth. It's love toward neighbor that won't let him fall back into death. She leads them across the Ohio River by dawn. They collapse on free soil. They're sobbing, they're singing, and all of a sudden you see it. The second table of the law is not just, it's not just rules to dodge sin. It's actually a map to love your neighbor so fiercely you risk everything to get them home. And so as you walk out of here, Grace Life, the command is not just simply stop that, knock it off there, slap your hands here. That's not the spirit. the Ten Commandments. The Spirit is how can you love your neighbor with these commands in a way that honors your God. And so we give ourselves to that this week.