Most of the Ten Commandments are concerned with actions – the things people should and should not do or say. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus extended the scope of holiness to include what people think as well. But that principle was already there in the Tenth Commandment. Sinful actions and sinful words arise from sinful thoughts. The eighth commandment says, “Do not steal.” But the act of stealing comes from the longing for what is stolen. So the Tenth Commandment is there: “Do not covet.” Coveting, craving, hankering after, longing for, simply means an illegitimate desire for something which belongs to somebody else. Coveting other people’s stuff.
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The Message: “No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Sinful actions and sinful words spring from sinful thoughts. We see this right from the very beginning when sin entered the world when the devil tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
Eve took something she was not allowed to have. The disobedient action began with the sinful thought. In the Book of Joshua chapter 7, Achan committed the sin of stealing some of the plunder from the cities the Israelites were capturing. Achan confessed his sin to Joshua like this.
Joshua 7 20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
He saw the stuff. He coveted the stuff. And so he stole the stuff. The sinful action began with the sinful thought. And covetous thoughts can lead people to break other commandments as well. Coveting another man’s wife can lead to adultery – it did for King David with Bathsheba. And coveting can even lead to murder.
James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.
Not just stealing, but quarreling and fighting and even killing. All arising from sinful desires. Starting from coveting other people’s stuff. Sinful actions and sinful words come from evil desires. The apostle Peter gives a similar warning.
1 Peter 1 13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
The battle to live a holy life begins with holy thoughts.
1 Peter 2 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Abstain from sinful desires. This tells us that evil desires are something we can choose to abstain from, just as some people choose to abstain from alcohol, or indeed others might need to abstain from chocolate cake. The problem is that abstaining from coveting other people’s stuff is much, much, much harder than abstaining from chocolate cake.
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The challenge we all face is that we live in a society which is driven by materialism and consumerism. The world around us tells us we are “born to shop.” As somebody has put it, “Tesco, ergo sum.” “I shop, therefore I am.” From the moment we are born we are told that we don’t only need money and possessions to survive, but we also need lots of money and lots of possessions to have any possibility of being happy. Success is measured by how much stuff a person has. And popularity rests on having lots and lots and lots of stuff.
This materialism is driven by the false god of Consumerism with its twin mantras of freedom of choice and satisfaction guaranteed. And once again the media has its part to play. Films and television fill our heads with images of wealth and prosperity which are out of the reach of most ordinary people. The plots of so many stories are built around people stealing things and too often the heroes we are meant to admire are the ones who get away with their crimes. At the same time the lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous keep people worshipping the false gods of Celebrity. Above all we are surrounded everywhere on screens and billboards and shop windows with the hidden persuaders of the advertising industry. With the possible exception of charity appeals and public information clips, every single advertisement is an encouragement to break the Tenth Commandment. The whole purpose of advertising is to lead us to covet other people’s stuff, specifically the stuff the advert is trying to sell to us. Countless images and slogans and soundbites and jingles every day persuading us to want all kinds of things we don’t need: to covet other people’s stuff.
This was all summed up very nicely in a promotional slogan the Freeport Shopping Centre in Braintree used a few years ago.
“Ours is a shallow meaningless consumer society where we are defined by our possessions. Enjoy!”
That is so profound and revealing I am going to read it again.
“Ours is a shallow meaningless consumer society where we are defined by our possessions. Enjoy!”
That is the world we live in. A world which teaches us and indoctrinates us to covet other people’s stuff. A world which teaches us that greed is not a sin. On the contrary, the world tells us, greed is good. Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street put it like this.
“Greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms – greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind.
30 years on from that film, the Western world has fallen for its gigantic lie that Greed is Good. The truth is entirely the opposite. As we recognised when we thought about the First and Second Commandments, Greed is not good. Greed is idol worship. Money, like Celebrity, is one of the false gods of this generation. And Greed is just another word for coveting other people’s stuff. Longing after things and possessions distracts people from longing after God. Jesus warned about the dangers of greed.
Luke 12 15 Then (Jesus) said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
The Message: “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”
‘Beware! Don’t be greedy for what you don’t have. Real life is not measured by how much we own. A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.’
Jesus went on to tell this parable: 16 …”The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
Greed is not good! Coveting other people’s stuff leads to all kinds of problems. The Bible does not say, “Money is the root of all evil.” But it does say this.
1 Timothy 6 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
It is the love of money which causes the problems. Coveting other people’s stuff. As Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
Do not covet. The Tenth Commandment is concerned with wealth and possessions. The sinful action starts with the sinful thoughts. And of course this is true of all kinds of other sins as well. In our sermons on murder and adultery I deliberately did not move to what Jesus taught because it is important that we understand what the Old Testament teaches in its own terms and don’t jump immediately to the New Testament. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that evil thoughts are as sinful as evil words and actions.
The Sixth Commandment says, do not murder. But we can break that in our hearts with attitudes of anger.
Matthew 5 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
Sinful thoughts are as serious as sinful actions. The Seventh Commandment says do not commit adultery, but we can break that commandment in our heart by dwelling on lustful thoughts.
Matthew 5 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Sin is that serious. And sinful thoughts are as serious as sinful actions. The sixth Commandment – murder. The seventh Commandment – adultery. And the eighth Commandment, “you shall not steal”, which prompts the Tenth, “Do not Covet”.
The Letter of James explains how temptation works like this.
James 1 13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
So temptation begins with evil desires and sinful thoughts. If we want to live holy lives, the challenge is not to give in to those evil desires or sinful thoughts. The first impulse is not necessarily a sin. But dwelling on a sinful thought so that it becomes a sinful desire is asking for trouble. Martin Luther once said, “You can’t stop a bird from landing on your head, but you can stop him from building a nest in your hair.”
The old saying is true. “Sow a thought, you reap an action. Sow an action, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap a destiny.”

If we are serious about living holy lives and resisting temptation we need to unlearn everything the world has taught us. We need to get rid of any ideas that greed is good or that we need more and more stuff in order to be happy. We need to stop coveting other people’s stuff. We need a complete change of mind. Somebody wrote this.
“The mind is a garden that could be cultivated to produce the harvest that we desire.
The mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made.
The mind is an armoury where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction.
The mind is a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are won or lost.”
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Your mind matters! Our minds need to be renewed.
“Don’t let the world around squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:2 in J.B.Phillips)
There’s an old saying full of wisdom. “You aren’t what you think you are, but what you think – you are!” Our minds need to be renewed.
Last week I introduced you to a term from the world of computing. WYSIWYG. What you see is what you get. God wants us to be WYSIWYG Christians, transparently honest. Let me bring you another word from that world which I used time and time again when students brought me the computer programs they had written. GIGO. GIGO stands for Garbage In – Garbage Out. If you put nonsense into a computer, you get nonsense out. And the same is true of our minds. Garbage In – Garbage Out. If we are serious about resisting temptations and sinful desires we need to be very vigilant about what we allow into our minds. There are two sides to this.
KEEP THE RUBBISH OUT
We need to “unlearn” so many of the things society has taught us from a very young age.
Ephesians 4 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
If we want to avoid falling into sin we need to get rid of the deceitful desires of our old self: desires fed by the pressures of television and advertising and celebrity culture. Our Christian standards can so easily be eroded by rubbish we read and watch and listen to. In particular, most people treat their televisions a bit like some people treat a pet cat – you pay it attention when you want to and ignore it for the rest of the time. Except a television costs more than a pet cat of course. Perhaps we should treat our television more like a pet poisonous snake, or a pet crocodile! Handle carefully, keep at arm’s length and always stay vigilant in case it strikes out and delivers a fatal bite. Garbage In – Garbage Out. Keep the rubbish out. And,
THINK ON GOOD THINGS
Philippians 4 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
We need to fill our minds with God’s truth instead of the lies of the media. Sinful actions begin with sinful desires. Keep the rubbish out. Think on good things. We need to take the Tenth Commandment seriously. Don’t covet other people’s stuff!

We come this morning to the Eighth and Ninth of the ten commandments: Exodus 20:15-16 “You shall not steal.” “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.”
These two belong together under the one heading of honesty – no lying, no stealing.
Stealing is dishonesty in our dealings with property. Lying is dishonesty in our use of words. God expects Christians to be scrupulously honest both in the things that we do and in the things that we say. It’s all about integrity. No stealing. No lying.

One day in London a vicar noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing, boys?” He asked.
“Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets to keep the dog.”
The vicar was shocked. “Why, when I was your age,” he said, “I never ever thought of telling a lie.”
The boys looked at one another, and their faces fell. Finally one of them shrugged and said,
“I guess he wins the dog.”

There was a time when vicars and ministers were known for their honesty and integrity. Indeed there have been periods in history when Christians, more than any other groups of people, have enjoyed a reputation for honesty, for always telling the truth and never lying or stealing. And so it should be. Because our God cares about honesty and dishonesty and truth and falsehood and God does not like lying or stealing. No lying. No stealing. The words TRUTH and TRUE appear more than 500 times in the Bible!!! And the Bible speaks more than 150 time about honesty & dishonesty and being honest.

There is a relatively new word which I can remember from when it entered our language in 1982 back when I was teaching people about computers. The word is WYSIWYG and it stands for “what you see is what you get.” In computing it means that what you see on your computer screen is exactly what will appear on your printer. But you can apply that word to people as well. WYSIWYG people are those rare individuals who are exactly what they appear to be, no more and no less. They are completely open and honest without a trace of deception. What you see is what you get. GOD wants us to be WYSIWYG Christians.

Or, to use a different word, God calls us to be TRANSPARENT CHRISTIANS, transparent people, transparently honest, with nothing hidden, nothing concealed, no trace of deceit or dishonesty. No stealing. No lying. Transparent Christians.

We start by reminding ourselves that Our lives are TRANSPARENT TO GOD

God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel from among the sons of Jesse. Samuel thought he knew how to recognise God’s chosen one, but God had other ideas.
1 Samuel 16:6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, `Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

God knows us inside out. God looks into our innermost thoughts. God looks at the heart!
Psalm 139:1 ¶ Lord, you have examined me and you know me. 2 You know everything I do; from far away you understand all my thoughts. 3 You see me, whether I am working or resting; you know all my actions. 4 Even before I speak, you already know what I will say. GNB

So there is no point in deceit – we can’t deceive God. You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool God any of the time, not ever. What a man is on his knees before God is exactly what he is – no more, no less.

Ps 51:6 Sincerity and truth are what you require; fill my mind with your wisdom. (GNB)

God demands truth and sincerity. The word sincere comes from two Latin words – sine and cera, meaning “without wax.” Years ago, a potter would often put his stamp on a pot or vase with the words sine cera. This meant that to his knowledge there was no flaw in that work. If a potter had cracked the vessel, he would carefully patch the flawed vase or bowl or statuette by filling in the crack with wax. Then he would glaze it over and sell it at a much lower price. But only flawless pieces of pottery would be given the stamp, sine cera, “without wax,” and they would be worth much more because of that.

God is transforming Christians to be sincere, without hidden flaws, no imperfections, no pretending to be what we are not, no putting on a show. We can’t hide anything from God! And God demands that we present the same face to the whole world that we present to Him. God wants us to be, in front of our friends and family, God wants us to be in front of our neighbours and work colleagues, the same people that we are on our knees before Him. WYSIWYG people. Transparent people.

JESUS TAKE ME AS I AM, I can come no other way.
Take me deeper into You, Make my flesh life melt away.
Make me like a precious stone, Crystal clear and finely honed,
Life of Jesus shining through, Giving glory back to You.

The life of Jesus can only shine through us when we are entirely honest and open and sincere. If there is any pretence, any concealment, above all any dishonesty, then the people around us won’t be able to see Jesus in his glory – only us and all our imperfections.

So our lives must be TRANSPARENT TO THE WORLD

Back in May in our evening services we had a series of discussions on everyday Christian living and the first of those was entitled “Integrity: white lies and speed limits.” We thought about whether it is every acceptable for Christians to tell a lie. Ephesians 4:15 commands us to speak the truth in love. There may be occasions when it may seem that love constrains us to tell a “white lie”, to bend the truth, or conceal the truth, because speaking the truth might lead to great harm. The classic question in the Second World War, from the book The Hiding Place where a Nazi soldier asked Corrie Ten Boom, went something like this. “Do you have a secret room where you are hiding the Jews we want to arrest?” We considered that in such extreme circumstances it could be justified to tell a lie in order to save an innocent person’s life. But in our lives, that would be a very rare exception. If a Christian ever finds himself or herself speaking words which are not true, we will always do so with deep regret, recognising that the lesser evil of a lie to prevent a greater evil or hurt is nevertheless a lie! In every normal situation, Christians will always want to tell the truth. No lying.

In everyday life there are many embarrassing questions. The child who asks, “do you like this picture I have drawn?” or the wife who wants to know, “do you like my new dress / new hairdo?” Or what about the classic Christmas question – “how did you like the present I gave you?” “Oh yes, that orange tie with pink spots, most … tasteful”. In such situations it is so tempting to and so easy to give a little white lie. But there is a slippery slope there. We should remember that VERY few occasions are really a matter of life and death. In every normal situation Christians will want to tell the truth. No lying.

I came across a revealing phrase. “A certain politician didn’t lie, he just stretched the truth until the elastic snapped!” We should remember that every time we bend the truth or are economical with the truth, even if we are doing so out of love or with the best of motives, we are going against the letter and the spirit of Scripture. Do not bear false witness. No lying!

Matthew 5:33 “You have also heard that people were told in the past, `Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do.’ 34 But now I tell you: do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by earth, for it is the resting place for his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 Simply let your `Yes’ be `Yes’, and your `No’, `No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Jesus challenges us to be known as people who can be trusted in everything we say, and equally in everything we do. To be known and to stand out in society as “truth-tellers.” Too often people will tell lies to get out of trouble, or to impress other people, without giving their lies a second thought. And Christians can so easily and so often fall into this trap as well. But we should NOT slip into telling lies (not even little ones, not even so-called little white lies) just to get ourselves of difficult situations.

“What harm will just one little white lie do?” we think to ourselves. Somebody once asked the great ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle what could a man gain by telling a lie? Aristotle replied, “Never to be trusted when he speaks the truth.”

If people can’t trust what we say is true in day-to-day life, why should they trust us when we claim to know the truth which can sets them free? Why should they believe the gospel we proclaim if they can’t believe other things we tell them because they know we have lied to them? Christians really need to be known as trustworthy and honest people.

We live in a world which considers honesty and integrity less important than popularity and success. Truth has become a very elastic thing. There is a famous quote ascribed both to Groucho Marx and to Sam Goldwyn, although in the interests of accuracy I have to reveal that nobody actually knows who it was who first said it. The quote goes,
“The most important thing is honesty. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” That is the way the world thinks, certainly salesmen and politicians. But God thinks differently. The eighth and ninth commandments are very clear. No stealing No lying. Sadly, very many people only care about the unwritten 11th commandment, “Thou shalt not get caught!”
For Christians, our honesty should be transparent in our everyday lives. This should show in our attitudes to work and our attitudes to money. No stealing. Our honesty will be evident when we don’t use the office phone for personal calls if there isn’t a procedure for paying for personal calls, even if everybody else is doing that! Our honesty will show itself in our Tax returns. I heard about a letter one man sent to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

“Dear Inland Revenue
Enclosed you will find a check for £150. I cheated on my income tax return last year. But now I have become a Christian I have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping I will send you the rest.
Sincerely, A Tax Payer”

No stealing. No lying. As Christians, our lives should be shining examples of honesty and integrity and trustworthiness. Transparent Christians. WYSIWYG Christians.

Chuck Swindoll wrote, “Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games, and verbal superficiality. As honesty and real integrity characterize our lives, there will be no need to manipulate others.”

Part of this integrity is doing what you said you would do. It means keeping your promises. It means faithfulness to marriage promises. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. The seventh commandment is just the application of the eighth and ninth commandments to marriage. In the same way, integrity means keeping the promises we make to children and friends and church.

And another important part of being honest and trustworthy is keeping confidences. When somebody tells us some piece of information, then unless they specifically tell us we can pass it on to others we have a solemn obligation to keep that piece of information to ourselves. The safe thing to do is to assume that everything anybody tells us is shared in confidence, unless they give us permission to tell others. Christians are not always as good as we should be at keeping confidences. Some people use a deceptive phrase like, “I’m just sharing this for prayer.” That is just an excuse for gossip. That should not happen. WYSIWYG Christians and Transparent Christians are people who can always be trusted not to gossip to others what we have been told in confidence.

Of course there is nothing surprising in what I am saying. We all agree that integrity is important, that keeping promises and keeping confidences and sincerity and honesty are all important. In our everyday lives, we need to remember that God doesn’t care so much about what we SAY is right or wrong in theory. What God cares about is what we actually DO in practice. So how can we grow in honesty and develop our integrity?

We need to become TRANSPARENT TO OTHER CHRISTIANS
– transparently honest, nothing hidden, no deceit, nothing concealed, no trace of deceit and dishonesty.

Mark Twain once said that the church is a place where a nice respectable person stands in front of other nice, respectable people and urges them to be nicer and more respectable. If that is all church is for us, we are completely missing the point.

Church should be the place, or rather, the people who are the church should be the family where we learn to be completely honest with each other. Where we learn to open our lives and be vulnerable with each other. Where we learn to trust each other. God has given us each other so that we can practice being sincere and honest with each other –so we can learn integrity, openness, honesty, and vulnerability. Church is the community where we learn to be WYSIWYG Christians by watching WYSIWYG Christians. We become transparent Christians ourselves by sharing our lives with other transparent Christians. Like so many things – honesty and integrity are “better caught than taught”

We need to learn how to be genuine with each other. To learn how to be honest about our weaknesses and our failings with each other. We need to come to the point where we can be completely open without being scared that other Christians will kick us when we are down, and without being scared that other Christians will exploit our weaknesses and judge us or reject us. And in all of this, confidentiality is key. We need to be able to trust that the things we say will not be blabbed to other people we would never tell.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

In some other churches the priest has the role of defining for the people what is right or wrong, and how serious a sin is, by the ritual of receiving Confession. We Baptists don’t necessarily have a forum for discussing everyday ethical and moral issues. Perhaps there would be a valuable place in our church life for Confession and Absolution and for services of Reconciliation.

Eph 4:25 No more lying, then! Everyone must tell the truth to his fellow-believer, because we are all members together in the body of Christ. GNB

No lying. No stealing. Our lives are transparent before God. We need lives which are transparent to the world. And we must begin by letting our lives become transparent to other Christians. WYSIWYG Christians!

But are any of us brave enough to do it??????

JESUS TAKE ME AS I AM, I can come no other way.
Take me deeper into You, Make my flesh life melt away.
Make me like a precious stone, Crystal clear and finely honed,
Life of Jesus shining through, Giving glory back to You.

Last Sunday saw the second televised debate between the two candidates to become the next President of the United States, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The debate, or as the BBC described it “mud-wrestling”, focussed on two issues: unsavoury remarks Donald Trump had made which treated women as sexual objects, and some alleged and some admitted acts of marital unfaithfulness by former President Bill Clinton. There was very little discussion of significant issues like foreign policy on Russia and Syria or plans for Healthcare within the country, either in the debate itself or in commentaries afterwards. The battle for the position of the most important political leader in the free world was fought by personal attacks around questions of sexual morality. Proof, if proof be needed, of the importance of the topic of this morning’s sermon on the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.”
In this same week a public letter was sent to the College of Bishops of the church of England urging them not to depart from the historical teaching of the church with regard to same sex marriage. Signed by almost a hundred clergy and theologians, including the Vicars of some of the largest evangelical Anglican churches, the letter warns the Bishops that a decision to allow churches to marry couples of the same sex would not only undermine the inherited teaching of the church, but by doing so inevitably lead to a split within the Anglican Communion. It is less than 50 years since homosexual activity between adult males in private ceased to be a criminal offence in England. Now there are many factions in the churches teaching that there is nothing wrong with homosexual practices and there never has been.
In our lifetimes we have all seen the world around us, and even corners of the church, changing beyond recognition in regard to sexual ethics. It is helpful to track the reasons for this, starting with the changes to society which the growth of anonymous cities and the disruption which two world wars brought to the whole world. Then the 1960s brought two things – the contraceptive pill and abortion on demand – which together removed possibly the greatest disincentive to immorality which was unwanted babies. Film and television and the liberal attitudes of the Hollywood media must also take a share of the blame. There is a slippery slope when something unusual which is designed to shock us is portrayed in a film or television drama or soap opera. That shocking thing rapidly becomes regarded as acceptable and then as normal. So then the writers move on to portray even more shocking events. Somebody has counted such things and come up with an estimate that when sex is portrayed or referred to on television, 90% of the time the couple are not married. Not just in programmes “after the 9 pm watershed” but in the programmes our children grow up watching. The lyrics of much of the popular music which many young people listen and dance to are sexually explicit. The internet not only spreads pornography but facilitates infidelity. One notorious dating website uses the slogan, “Life is short. Have an affair.”
An article in the Daily Mail on Tuesday (12/10/2016) suggested that if the country had taken in a tenth of what campaigner Mary Whitehouse and the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association warned us all about back in the 1980s the world might be a better place. Sarah Vine wrote, “Perhaps if we had listened a little more and sniggered a little less, we might have understood that the boundaries she fought so hard to protect were not repressive — they were precious.” “Today, when we look around and see a society so free of restraint that it barely merits to be called civil, it sometimes seems as though we are living in a post-moral age. An age from which there is, depressingly, no turning back.”
When we were talking about modern-day idols we thought about “the cult of celebrity”. And this is another major factor which shapes attitudes to sexual morality today. People have been shocked recently that one of the most well-known film-star celebrity couples are splitting up. Angelina Jolie is divorcing Brad Pitt after two years of marriage and 11 years and six children together. People forget that Pitt originally abandoned his Hollywood wife of 5 years Jennifer Aniston to be with Jolie who he said he “fell in love with” while they were starring in a film together. These are the role models our young people are growing up with. With all these hidden persuaders leading people astray it is no surprise that so many people feel that the church is out of touch when it comes to sexual ethics. Many people think that the Seventh Commandment is completely irrelevant to today’s world. “You shall not commit adultery.” But why not? Everybody else does!
Just to be clear, what does the Bible mean by adultery? What is forbidden by the Seventh Commandment? We need to begin by thinking about marriage. Marriage was instituted by God for the good of men and women and the whole of society.
Genesis 2 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
We haven’t time today to spell out the Biblical truth that marriage is between one man and one woman. It has been understood that way since the beginning of history and the fact that the British Government has chosen to illegitimately extend the word marriage to same-sex couples as well does not change God’s definition of marriage. Marriage is between one man and one woman. The Church of England marriage service introduces marriage like this.
“Marriage is a gift of God in creation through which husband and wife may know the grace of God. It is given that as man and woman grow together in love and trust,
they shall be united with one another in heart, body and mind, as Christ is united with his bride, the Church.”
“The gift of marriage brings husband and wife together in the delight and tenderness of sexual union and joyful commitment to the end of their lives. It is given as the foundation of family life in which children are born and nurtured and in which each member of the family, in good times and in bad, may find strength, companionship and comfort, and grow to maturity in love. … Marriage is a sign of unity and loyalty which all should uphold and honour. It enriches society and strengthens community.”
An integral part of marriage is sex. Somebody has described sex as God’s wedding present. Sex is the ultimate way in which man and wife can express their love for one another. In that act they are united physically and spiritually and they become “one flesh.” That is God’s purpose for sex. Any sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage is included in what the Bible describes as adultery. Sex with somebody who is not your spouse. Sex before marriage. Homosexual practices. All these are included in the word “adultery” and are forbidden by the Seventh Commandment. Sex is wonderful and sex is precious. Richard Foster puts it this way. “Sex is like a great river that is rich and deep and good as long as it stays within its proper channel. The moment a river overflows its banks, it becomes destructive, and the moment sex overflows its God-given banks, it too becomes destructive”
But people might ask us, “Why is adultery wrong? As long as nobody hurts anybody, surely anything people do with their own bodies is OK, isn’t it?” So people say. So what is wrong with adultery?
For Christians, the obvious and sufficient answer is that God has forbidden adultery. Marriage is God’s visual aid for the love God has for each of us and of Christ’s love for the Church. Marriage embodies permanence, faithfulness and exclusivity. Adultery is a rejection and a denial of permanence. It is a rejection and a denial of faithfulness. It is a rejection and a denial of exclusivity. GOD knows what is good or bad for us and ignoring what our Creator tells us is immensely foolish. Committing adultery is disobeying God. And we should not disobey God. Case closed.
But our friends who are not Christians might look for a different kind of answer. So we might say some of the following things. The lie the world tells is that sex is only a physical act. The truth is that sex is also a mental and emotional and spiritual experience which creates the closest possible bond between two people, a spiritual union of the two becoming “one flesh.” As a result, any act of sex outside marriage is inevitably damaging, mentally and emotionally and physically and spiritually. More than that, marriage is all about giving, but adultery is all about taking. Adultery involves breaking other commandments too. Adultery is stealing and lying and coveting. Adultery is the supreme example of selfishness. Adultery breaks the promises which are at the heart of marriage. Adultery damages families. In particular, adultery which leads to divorce damages children. And anything which weakens family life damages society.
CS Lewis wrote this. “The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism. The male and female were to be combined together in pairs not simply on a sexual basis, but totally combined. The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it and try to isolate one kind of union (sexual) from all the other kings of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself any more than you ought to try to get the pleasure of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out.” So wrote CS Lewis.
“You shall not commit adultery.” The Bible tells us that adultery is wrong. But very many people outside the church regard that view as outdated, puritanical and judgmental. Christians who apply the Seventh Commandment to same-sex marriage are accused of being homophobic. In the face of such widespread and powerful opposition, some churches and some Christians think the best way forward is simply to forget the commandments altogether. Some go as far as to say that acts which Christians and Jews have recognised for thousands of years as sinful are not wrong after all. I believe those ideas are incorrect. I don’t believe anybody has the right to say that God was mistaken about His ideas of right and wrong which He revealed particularly in the Ten Commandments. It is the duty of the church to be faithful to the Bible. We dare not compromise on God’s standards. Adultery is still wrong. I was going to use that phrase as the title for this sermon. But then I realised that there are other important things we also need to say about how Christians should respond to the spread of sexual immorality in today’s world.
Adultery in all its forms is still wrong. Sex before marriage. Having an affair. Homosexual practice. All these are still sins. But they are not the only sins. Nor are sexual sins the most serious sins. Christians have often missed that point. We have failed to read the Bible properly. For example, Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
The problem is that too often Christians have kept the spotlight on sexual sins like immorality and impurity and lust and evil desires, yet we ignore other sins like greed. The likelihood is that actually more Christians give into sins of materialism and greed than fall into sexual sins. There are so many other temptations we can give in to, but Christians have historically obsessed over sexual sins. Churches might ask people questions and even judge them on the basis of their living and sleeping arrangements. But we turn a blind eye when people cheat on their income tax, or have problems with substance abuse or with gambling, or with jealousy, or with gossiping or with unresolved anger. And when Christians consider the sins of other people we have a way of conveniently forgetting the words of Jesus when He warns us in the Sermon on the Mount that lustful thoughts are just as sinful as physical acts of adultery. (Matthew 5:27-28)
The regrettable fact is that the church has a very bad reputation for the way it deals with sexual sin and in particular how it treats same sex couples. We need to learn not to be judgmental or prejudiced. We need to work out how we can welcome every kind of person in the way that Jesus welcomed every people. Jesus “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)
Sexual sins are not the only sins nor are they the most serious or destructive sins. And like every other sin, they can be forgiven. Murder is wrong, but as we saw last week, in the Bible God forgave murderers such as Moses, David and Paul. And God also forgave people who committed adultery, like King David again and Solomon and Samson, like the woman at the well in John 4 and the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8 and even the prostitute Mary Magdalene, who was the first disciple to meet the Risen Jesus Christ.
Christians have a responsibility to guard the gospel. We must not compromise on the truth. Adultery is still wrong. Time and again the Bible commands us that in our own lives we must strive for purity and flee from sexual immorality. But we also have the greater responsibility to demonstrate God’s love in our words and in our actions and to proclaim the Good News that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. However far people fall short of God’s perfection, God can forgive them. Jesus has paid the penalty. Whatever kind of sins we have committed, God is the Loving Father watching and waiting for His prodigal sons and daughters to return. Adultery is no more serious than other sins. God can and will forgive those who have committed adultery and they can receive that forgiveness by acknowledging their sins and sincerely repenting of them. And if we have confessed our sins, whatever kinds of sins they are, we can be assured that God is faithful and just and he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) And we too can hear the voice of Jesus in his words to the sinful woman in John 8 saying to us, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

Is it actually possible to live a holy life in a holy world and never do anything which is morally wrong? Remember that there are “sins of omission” as well as “sins of commission”. As well as “the evil we have done” there can be “the good we have left undone.”
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (James 4:17)
God calls us to love our neighbours. There can be time when loving our neighbour demands action and failing to act would be the wrong thing to do.

Many ethical theories and some Christian philosophers argue that there are situations when inaction is not an acceptable option and we need to choose between “the lesser of two evils.” This principle is used to justify actions which are in themselves wrong but are the preferred “lesser evil” in the circumstances. They also talk of some actions as a “necessary evil” which are acceptable because they lead to a greater good. So some will say “the end justifies the means. This is applied to various situations including:
1. Divorce, which although undesirable is preferable to continued intolerable suffering
2. Telling a lie in order to save a life (are there any Jews hiding in your attic?)
3. Abortion to save the mother’s life
4. Euthanasia to end intolerable suffering of an incurable condition
5. Stem Cell research – experimentation with embryo tissue to create cures
6. Medical experimentation on animals
7. God’s command to wipe out the evil tribes in Canaan to prevent future harm to Israel
8. Going to war and even murder in war, defending those who cannot defend themselves
9. Taking up arms against an unjust state (anti-Apartheid in South Africa)

But is this “lesser of two evils” approach acceptable to Christians? As an example let us consider the principles of pacifism as they relate to 7, 8 and 9 above. During the Reformation our Anabaptist forebears emphasised non-violence and peace-making, insisting that violence is never justified. Consequently Christians must never become soldiers or go to war. They based this understanding on Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-48.
“But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.” (v 39)
“If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (v 39)
“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (v 44)
In 3rd Century, Tertullian wrote, “In disarming Peter, Jesus disarmed every soldier.” He was referring to Matthew 26 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
Paul also wrote in Romans 12 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. 19 Do not take revenge.
Against the non-violent understanding, Reformer John Calvin countered: Christians are allowed to use force “out of love for thy neighbour.” Roman Catholics argued that within the limits of Just War theory, violence in war can be a necessary evil. The State is allowed and obliged to use violence to defend its people.
For (the one in authority) is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:4)

So can a lesser evil argument ever justify violence? Even murder? Causing suffering ? How about lying? See also my sermon on obeying the State in Romans 13 http://pbthomas.com/blog/?p=184

Which is the most important of the Ten Commandments? Christians and Jews would usually say the first, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But people who are not religious would usually point to the sixth commandment. “You shall not murder.”
I want us to look at that commandment today to answer an important question. “Is it ever acceptable to deliberately cause a human life to end?”
“You shall not murder.” The old King James Version translated this verse, “Thou shalt not kill.” In fact, murder is a more accurate translation of the original word. What the sixth commandment forbids is the act of one human being from deliberately ending the life of another human being. The word cannot be applied more widely, for example to suggest that the commandment applies to killing animals for food. Nor is it relevant to fox-hunting or culling of badgers. The commandment is talking about one person deliberately killing another person.
I put in the word “deliberately” because other parts of the Bible make it clear that murder always involves an intention to end the other person’s life.
Exodus 21 12 “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. 13 However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. 14 But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.
The Bible does recognise that accidents can happen and sometimes tragically people can even be killed in an accident. But that is not what the sixth commandment is talking about. Without an element of intention, that is not murder. This is an important point and I want to spell it out. Over the last 20 years or so we have seen the growth of a “culture of blame.” “Have you had an accident at work?” “Did you trip over a hole in the pavement?” “Were you injured in a car accident which wasn’t your fault?” “Contact ‘Injury Lawyers for You’. We will get you the compensation you are entitled to. Minus our own cut of course!”
This “blame culture” is leading people to think that if something bad happens, if somebody is suffering, the right thing to do is to find somebody you can blame and then sue them for every penny you can get. One advert for “injury lawyers for you” was explicit – if you are suffering then the definition of a lawyer is a person who finds out who was to blame and gets you compensation. Many people are choosing to forget a very important fact of life. Accidents do happen. Sometimes people drown at sea. Sometimes cars crash. Sometimes in hospital people die, even despite the best efforts of surgeons and doctors and nurses. And most often, in circumstances like these, nobody is to blame and nothing could have been done to prevent that death. Sometimes accidents can even be caused by the actions of a person, or equally through the lack of action of a person. That is a tragedy but that is not murder.
The Bible recognises that accidents can happen. Deuteronomy 19 introduces the idea special places called cities of refuge, which innocent people can escape to if they have accidentally killed somebody.
Deuteronomy 19:4 This is the rule concerning the man who kills another and flees there to save his life — one who kills his neighbour unintentionally, without malice aforethought. 5 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbour to cut wood, and as he swings his axe to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbour and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life. 6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in a rage, overtake him if the distance is too great, and kill him even though he is not deserving of death, since he did it to his neighbour without malice aforethought.
The whole chapter of Numbers 35 spells out what does and does not count as murder. It talks about all kinds of weapons a man might use to kill another man deliberately, but then it talks about the possibility of accidental death.
Numbers 35:22 “ ‘But if without hostility someone suddenly pushes another or throws something at him unintentionally 23 or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him, 24 the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations.
In the Bible the act of murder by definition includes an element of intention. To murder is to end another person’s life deliberately. Not accidentally, not by carelessness, but by intention.
Why is murder such a big deal? The Bible gives us at least four reasons why murder is wrong. In many places it teaches us about what we call the “sanctity of human life”.
Murder did not begin to be wrong when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Murder was always wrong from the very beginning of Creation. And that is because human beings are created in the image of God. Humans stand above the whole of Creation because they are capable of a relationship with their Creator. As such every human life is enormously valuable. Human life is sacred.
God spelled this out to Noah after the flood as a command for all human beings.
Genesis 9 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
The second reason why murder is forbidden is obvious in the light of the cross of Christ. God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not die but have eternal life. This tells us just how incredibly precious every human life is to Almighty God. Jesus laid down his life so that we might receive God’s free gift of eternal life. Every person matters that much to God. Taking that life away from somebody is wrong.
The third reason why murder is wrong is because it is Almighty God who is the creator and the giver of life. Power over life and death belongs to God alone. It is Jesus who holds the keys of death and Hades. Murder attempts to usurp God’s authority and claim that the murderer knows better than God and has the right to decide when another person’s life should end.
The fourth reason why murder is so serious will seem a little strange to us. But God reveals that when human blood is shed, in some strange spiritual way we cannot see or understand, that blood pollutes the land it falls upon. Genesis 4 tells us of the very first act of murder when Cain killed his brother Abel. God confronted Cain with these words.
Genesis 4 10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
This is a deep truth which is lost in this materialistic generation. The sin of murder pollutes the land. Numbers 35 explains it. 33 “ ‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.’ ”
So murder and bloodshed pollutes and defiles the land.
All human life is sacred. Human beings are created in the image of God. Christ has died so that we can be saved. Only God has power of life and death. And on top of all that, the shedding of innocent blood actually pollutes the earth. Murder really is a big deal! But then, I think we probably all believed that anyway. In fact, in all places across all cultures the sixth commandment is the most common shared value. “You should not commit murder” is pretty much top of everybody’s “Top Ten List” of things people shouldn’t do.
But then, people like to find wiggle-room. People look for exceptions to the rule. So I return to my original question. “Is it ever acceptable to deliberately cause a human life to end?”
There are two obvious situations which people like to point to and claim that they are exceptions to the sixth commandment. Two situations where God actually commanded the Israelites to kill people, in Exodus and in many other places in the Old Testament. In executing criminals and in fighting an enemy in war. There were a number of crimes which carried the death penalty for the Israelites and top of the list was murder.
We already read in Exodus 21: 12 “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. 14 … if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.
Execution of criminals, in particular murderers. And fighting an enemy in war. Many times God commands his people to fight and kill their enemies, especially as they were told to bring God’s judgment on other tribes while they were taking possession of the Promised Land.
Some commentators note that the actual word for “murder” we find in the sixth commandment is never used to refer to executing criminals or to fighting battles. So they suggest that the death penalty or killing an enemy in war is not actually murder at all. I disagree with that. I believe that is the kind of mistake we call an argument from silence. I believe those two situations are still murder. They still involve ending the life of another human being deliberately. And all but one of the reasons we thought about why murder is wrong still apply to the person who is killed. They were still made in the image of God. God still loves them. And the land is still polluted by their shed blood. The only difference is that God who holds the power of life and death in his greater wisdom has commanded that some should be executed or defeated in battle. But the death of a criminal or an enemy is no less tragic. Taking the life of another human being is still a very bad thing to do.
So why would God command his people to execute criminals or to fight wars? In those two cases we can find adequate reasons why it might be acceptable to break the sixth commandment. In Britain today we sentence murderers to life imprisonment, not to death. But in the world of the Old Testament, punishment by imprisonment was not an option. There were no prisons. Especially for the next 40 years as the Israelites were wandering from place to place it was not possible to imprison a murderer. But alongside some other crimes, killing a human being still demanded justice, and preventing the murderer from killing somebody else was an important consideration. So God authorised the death penalty for murder to emphasise what a serious crime that was.
When it comes to killing in war, different considerations come into play based around the important idea of the right to defend yourself. A soldier is never justified in murdering an innocent civilian. But in war combatants are killing enemy combatants who are trying to kill them, and more importantly, trying to kill the innocent civilians the soldiers are fighting to protect. In a situation of self-defence, kill-or-be-killed, God has authorised the killing of an enemy, but only as a last resort and with regret.
What I am saying is that deliberately ending the life of another human being is always murder. It is always forbidden by the sixth commandment. We could debate the rare and extreme situations like the death penalty or soldiers in war where murder could be considered to be necessary or acceptable. But that is still murder. And the executioner or the soldier should do their work with regret, not gladness. They are still killing people, and killing people is wrong.
Let me explain why this distinction matters. Very many people today have lost the sense that killing people is always a bad thing. You may have been in a cinema at the point in the film where the big villain is dispatched by the hero in some particularly gory way. And the whole audience cheers because the baddie is getting his just desserts. The film-maker has just led the audience to applaud and rejoice in murder. And that is a bad thing. Films which glorify violence or war and teach us to delight in murder distort our minds and damage our hearts. This is not healthy.
Perhaps the most popular of computer and console games are what are called “first-person shooter” games such as Doom, Half Life, and Halo. In these the player competes in combat with computer generated characters or sometimes with other human players online in real time. With modern 3D graphics and Virtual Reality these games are incredibly realistic. The whole aim is to kill the opposition as brutally as possible. Millions of people, many of them teenagers, are being entertained not just by watching murder happen but worse than that by pretending to murder other people. The more effective they are at murdering others the more successful they are in winning the game. This is not healthy! It is not surprising that some people grow up forgetting that killing other people is wrong.
Away from fiction and into real life, how do you feel about the fact that Adolf Hitler took his own life? How did you react when you heard that Saddam Hussain or Osama Bin Laden had been killed? There is something deeply unhealthy if we derive satisfaction or even delight from hearing that a notorious criminal has been executed or a dictator has been assassinated. However much we might feel that the person deserved to die, we should not derive pleasure or satisfaction from an act of murder. To do so is a bad thing.
In rare and extreme circumstances, murder may be necessary. But ending the life of another person should always be a cause of great sadness and regret. And I say that as I finish by mentioning two other situations which many people see as exceptions to the sixth commandment: abortion and euthanasia. I recognise that there are extreme situations where abortion is judged to be necessary – for example removing a non-viable foetus from the mother because otherwise both mother and baby will die. Doctors who perform that procedure will make that decision with regret and sadness. But sadly this is not a rare or extreme occurrence. Statistics report that in Europe one third of pregnancies end in termination. One third of all foetuses are aborted. One third. The argument goes that the mother’s right to choose is more important than the rights of the unborn child to be born. I don’t believe that argument is valid. I believe the sixth commandment still applies. Killing people is wrong.
And I believe the same when it comes to euthanasia, so called “mercy-killing” or “doctor-assisted suicide.” With the ever-increasing welfare and medical costs of an aging population this will be a big issue in the years ahead. The sixth commandment will still apply. Killing people will still be wrong!
You shall not murder. Murder is a serious sin. It may not be the worst sin but it is certainly up in the top ten. Nor is murder an unforgivable sin. Moses the Lawgiver was a murderer. So was King David. So was the apostle Paul. People can murder other people and still be forgiven. But God deliver us from thinking that murder is ever acceptable. Murder is served up as entertainment in cinemas and on our television screens. Many people play at murdering people in video games and all of this is deeply unhealthy. All this desensitises people to the evil inherent in murdering other people. The Sixth Commandment always applies. “You shall not murder.” Murder is killing people – and killing people is wrong!

We are looking at the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses written on two tablets of stone on the top of Mount Sinai. And today we come to the Fourth Commandment.
Exodus 20 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
The Fourth Commandment is all about the Sabbath day. The root of the word Sabbath means to cease or desist, and therefore to rest. The Bible speaks of rest or resting 370 times and nearly fifty of those occasions are talking about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is about making one day different by ceasing from the work of the other six days.
“On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.”
There are at least three purposes for this day of ceasing from work.
First purpose – a day of rest and refreshment – spelled out later on in Exodus 23
Exodus 23 12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.
The Sabbath is set apart to be a day for physical and mental and spiritual refreshment. A day not spent in the usual activities of the week. Not doing a job to earn money. Not doing housework or chores. It is unusual to find that kind of different day even among Christians today. But a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, most churchgoers would not have done their daily work on Sunday. Many wouldn’t have played games, some wouldn’t have even cooked their meal on a Sunday. They wouldn’t have travelled by car or bus except to go to church. In England so much of our pattern of life changed when Sunday trading laws were relaxed in the 1980s. So much of what Sunday as a day of rest used to be like has been lost, for everybody. We have been on holidays in parts of Europe where it is still the case that none of the shops open on Sundays. And that in itself is very refreshing!
Second purpose of the Sabbath – a day for family and community
So many people are too busy for family and neighbours and community today. God’s plan is for us to have one day a week when we give priority to relationships – to people. God within Himself is community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And human beings created in God’s image are designed to be in community. We are designed to be in relationships with each other as well as with God. To Jews even today the Sabbath is very much a time to be together in family. As Christians we also need to demonstrate the importance of family and friendships and community to a world which is becoming ever more isolated, individualistic, impersonal and self-centred.
Rest and recreation: recharging our batteries. Family and community: reinforcing our relationships. These first two purposes of the Sabbath are not just for Christians. They are for the whole of humanity. This is made very clear in the reason which God gives for the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20. The Sabbath is a way of celebrating Creation. In a world which is trying so hard to forget God, God gave one day in seven as a Sabbath as a way for all human beings to remember that God is our Creator.
Exodus 20 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
So one day in seven is set apart for rest. That pattern did not begin with the Ten Commandments. Earlier than that, Exodus 16 tells us that God sent manna from heaven to feed the Israelites miraculously in the wilderness.
22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ”
24 So they saved it until morning, …. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
So the pattern of a Sabbath day one day in seven came before the Fourth Commandment was given. In fact, it was there from God’s very act of Creation. Exodus 20:11 repeats Genesis 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
The command to keep the seventh day special is rooted in Creation. So it applies to all peoples in every place and in every age. Sabbath is a pattern built into creation. Some people describe that as “a creation ordinance.” All human beings are created in the image of God. God worked for six days and rested on the seventh and so human beings are designed to do the same. Not just believers, but all human beings. We are called to a pattern of work and then rest because we were made by the God who works and then rests. By resting for one day in seven we follow the example of our Creator. Genesis 2 tells us that God blessed the Sabbath day. So people who ignore the principle of a Sabbath Day are rejecting God’s blessing. And at the same time, God set apart the Sabbath Day and made it holy. People who ignore the Sabbath are trampling on what God has declared to be holy. The point is that setting apart the seventh day is not just for believers. Setting apart one day in seven is God’s pattern for health and well-being for all human beings, because that is the way we are all made. In passing, this gives us good reason for believing that all of the Ten Commandments are for all human beings everywhere. But specifically with regard to the Sabbath. Rest and recreation: recharging our batteries. Family and community: reinforcing our relationships.
That is God’s pattern for all people everywhere – whether they choose to worship God or not. And it really works. When I was a student, and when I was working as a school teacher, and then when I went to Bible College, I made it a point of principle never to do any work on Sundays. That often meant rearranging work and missing out on fun things I would have liked to do on Friday evenings and Saturdays to fit everything in. When I was teaching it meant I had to give up playing sport on Saturdays because I had too much school work to catch up with. But I never, ever, worked on Sundays – and that pattern was a real blessing to me!
I said there are three purposes for the Sabbath – and here is the third. The Fourth Commandment has a special significance for believers. Initially it was for the Jews, now it applies to Christians as God’s redeemed people. In the Book of Deuteronomy the Ten Commandments are listed a second time. They are all exactly the same, except for the Fourth Commandment, where the reason given for keeping the Sabbath Day special is different.
Deuteronomy 5 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
What is commanded is the same – but the reason given is different. This time the Commandment is not in order to remember God the Creator, but in order to remember God the Saviour. For believers the Sabbath is also given to celebrate the Exodus and all God’s blessings of Salvation. For the Jews that mean giving priority to Temple or synagogue, to worship and prayers and teaching. So they had their laws restricting the kinds of work you were allowed to do on the Sabbath. “Works of necessity” and “works of mercy” – but nothing else. By making space for God in their busy lives, by what they did and what they would not do, God’s chosen people would honour God and recognise His importance.
Exodus 31 12 Then the LORD said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
14 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. …. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever.
So celebrating the Sabbath is a sign for God’s chosen people, a way to remind each other, and at the same time to show to the world, that they belong to God. As Christians we are not bound by the dos and don’ts of the Jewish Law. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. But the principle remains. We can show that God is the most important part of our lives by making Him our number one priority. And if God isn’t the most important part of our Sunday for even one day a week, we can’t pretend that He is Lord of the rest of our lives.
Many things changed when Christ died and rose again from the dead, and those included the significance of the one day in seven. The one day in seven which had been set apart to celebrate Creation and to celebrate the Exodus became the one day in seven when Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.
Very early on in the Early Church and certainly well before the end of the first century Christians had stopped celebrating the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week and had begun celebrating the Lord’s Day on the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead.
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people
1 Corinthians 16 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
Not the seventh day but the first day. And don’t forget that until the fourth century the first day of the week was the first working day. So Christians would meet for worship early in the morning or late in the evening of a working day and still do a full day’s work. Church was a priority for those early Christians even when they had their jobs to go to. They made time for worship and prayer and teaching. Between keeping the Lord’s day as a day of rest and keeping it as a day for drawing close to God, the first Christians’ priority was spending time with God and with each other. So the Sabbath Day became the Lord’s Day setting apart the first day of the week to celebrate Creation and to celebrate Salvation and especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
So what can we do to “Keep Sunday Special” in practice?
Try to make one day a week special: no work earning money, no housework, no homework;
Keep one day for relaxation: time to unwind, to enjoy hobbies;
Keep one day for the family: hospitality, visiting relatives;
Above all, make worship and fellowship a priority. Some Christians think coming to church on a Sunday doesn’t matter any more. I think that view is mistaken.
Hebrews 10 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
During the rest of Sunday, make some time for prayer and reading the Bible. Read a Christian Book. If you don’t come to our evening services you can always catch up on evening sermons online on the blog. Some Christians don’t have a choice about going to work on Sunday, but some have more choice than they think! And for Christians who do have to do their jobs on Sundays, remember those early Christians who gathered for worship and fellowship before or after their full day’s work because they wanted to celebrate “the Lord’s Day”. Like them, we celebrate the Lord’s Day to show God how much we love Him.
Ezekiel 20 10 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11 I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. 12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy. … 20 Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.”
God invites His children to make one day in seven special as a sign between Him and us. By keeping The Lord’s Day we celebrate creation and we celebrate salvation. We set apart one day for God, for worship and learning and fellowship and family and recreation. Recharging our batteries. Reinforcing our relationships. And above all honouring God and keeping our lives centred on Him, as a sign of our love and commitment to Him. And when we do that, the blessings that follow are enormous! Listen to God’s wonderful promise in Isaiah 58.
Isaiah 58 13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

What is God’s name? Is it Jehovah? Is it Yahweh? We don’t actually know. Because ever since God revealed that name to Moses, more than 3000 years ago, the Israelites were scared to speak that name or write it down. In places they wrote down just the consonants, JHWH or YHWH. But they never dared write down the vowels so Jehovah or Yahweh are just guesses. And the reason that to this day a devout Jew will not speak aloud or even write down the name of God is that they are afraid of breaking the Third of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
We all know the old King James version translation. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
The Jews avoided using the name of God completely in case they inadvertently broke the Third Commandment by committing the sin of misusing it.
But what does it actually mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? Most people misunderstand this phrase. It is not really about bad language or swearing. It is not really to do with joking about God, laughing at God, mocking God, trivializing God. It is not even about using the names of God or of Jesus in profane or blasphemous ways.
Some people think taking God’s name in vain is about treating the name of God as empty or meaningless. But that is the opposite of the case. A person who misuses the name of God fully recognises the great power which there is in the Name of God or the Name of Jesus. Their sin is to try to use that power for their own ends, for their own purposes and for their own glory instead of for God’s purposes and for God’s glory. People do this in at least three ways.

1 USING the name of God or of Jesus to convince other people to believe us
In the Old Testament Israelites were permitted to take oaths using God’s name.
Deuteronomy 6:13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

So an Israelite could guarantee that what they were saying was the truth by invoking God’s name. Even in modern English, some people might say, “As God is my witness.” Consequently, one example of misusing God’s name would be to call on the name of God to support a lie. Jews have always believed that it is an offence against the Third Commandment to lie when under oath. It would equally be a sin to use God’s name to make a vow or a promise which we have no intention of keeping.
Leviticus 19:11-12 ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another. 12 “ ‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
The idea that God’s name guarantees the truth of what a person says has led to the tradition in English courts of law to swear an oath on the Bible. “I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus changed all that. Matthew 5 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: … 37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
The letter of James says the same. Janes 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.
Because of these verses, Nonconformist Christians have always refused to swear an oath on the Bible so instead they are allowed to confirm their testimony by a statement of Affirmation. “I do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Since we declare and affirm rather than swearing oaths in God’s name, it is not likely that believing Christians would break the Third Commandment by swearing falsely or by lying under oath. But sadly some Christians do misuse God’s Name and the name of Jesus in other ways.

2 USING the name of God or of Jesus to make other people do what we want them to do
People can take the name of God in vain when they misrepresent God, or use God as a pretext for some earthly ends, or when they claim to speak on God’s behalf when in truth they do not. In the days of Jeremiah, God was very angry with false prophets.
Jeremiah 6 13 “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.
Jeremiah 14 14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine.
These false prophets were claiming to speak on behalf of God with God’s authority, when in fact they were lying. They were saying God had said something which He had not said. Some professing Christians do this. Have you ever heard somebody say, “God wanted me to do this.” Or, “God didn’t want me to do that.” “God didn’t want me to come to work today.” Even, “God wants me to tell you this.” Using God as an excuse for our own actions. If they are not sharing a genuine revelation from God, such people are taking the Name of the Lord in vain. I am reminded of the story of the Curate who was sneaking out of a retreat when he bumped into the Bishop. “The Spirit is leading me to go into the village and do some shopping,” the Curate explained. The Bishop replied, “I trust that the Spirit and yourself are aware that today is early closing day.” Claiming to represent God or to be speaking on behalf of God when we know we are not is misusing the name of the Lord.

I have heard far too many preachers misuse the name of God. It is a favourite trick of the false-prophets of the Health Wealth and Prosperity heresy. Like the televangelists who basically tell people, “God wants you to give me your money.” Don’t be fooled by the very persuasive pseudo-spiritual language they use. Anybody claiming to speak for God when they do not is breaking the Third Commandment.
It is equally wrong when people misappropriate the name of God or the name of Jesus to support a particular cause, however worthy that cause may appear. In his excellent book The Screwtape Letters C.S.Lewis explains this sin very well. People can easily be tempted to treat God as a means to some earthly end or another, instead of respecting God for who He is. C.S.Lewis gives this example. Whether the man decides to be pro-war or anti-war, the trick is to make a man so passionate on one side that he begins to use his religion as nothing more than an argument to justify his opinion. He will begin to form arguments that God would be for the war or against the war. The man will to twist the living God into what he wants God to be. The man’s earthly passion co-opts God. He never really worships God, but turns God into an idol, which the man uses for his own purposes.
From the devil’s point of view, “Whichever (cause) he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “cause”, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce” in favour of the cause. … “Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours.”
This is using God and the Christian faith as a means to an end. But God, C.S.Lewis says, “will not be used as a convenience.” Misappropriating God’s Name to justify or to promote a particular cause breaks the Third Commandment. In any dispute, when any nation or group of people claim that God is uncritically on their side then they are in danger of misusing God’s name. In wars, every side claims that God is with them and at the same time pacifists declare that all war is wrong. They can’t all be correct! At one time, God was said to be in favour of slavery, at the same time as His name was invoked to justify violence opposing slavery. The name of God was used to justify apartheid, and at the same time to justify terrorism in opposition to apartheid. Different writers claimed that God was on the side of Remain, while others declared God was on the side of Brexit. Some in each camp definitely took God’s name in vain. In these days the name of God is invoked in support of the wishy-washy false god of “inclusivity”, as people make vague appeals to God’s love while rejecting things God has clearly revealed in the Bible.
I saw an example only yesterday in an advert from a respectable Christian charity. It said, “Jesus would not close his eyes to refugees.” At one level, that is true. But what the advert was actually saying was, if you don’t send us your money you are closing your eyes to refugees and God wouldn’t do that. Never mind if you are supporting refugees in other ways. Never mind if you are giving sacrificially to other equally deserving causes. “Jesus wouldn’t close his eyes to refugees.” The Third Commandment is broken whenever the name of God is hijacked to support some particular cause and the cause itself becomes more important than God Himself. Do not misuse the Name of God or Jesus. God “will not be used as a convenience!” however worthy the cause. It is a sin to use God as a means to an end – instead of letting God use us for His ends. God is never a means to any end. God is the most glorious and supreme end in Himself. God “will not be used as a convenience.”

3 USING the name of God or of Jesus to try to force God to do what we want Him to
The name of God is the most powerful name. Jesus Christ is Lord! The name of Jesus is indeed higher and greater than any other name in heaven and earth. The Name of Jesus can bring healing and deliverance and new birth and all the blessings of salvation! Jesus promised His disciples. John 14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Yet Christians can break the Third Commandment if they ever treat the name of God or of Jesus as some kind of magic word which can manipulate God into doing what we want. In the days of Moses, a person’s name was believed to be intimately connected to their being and their essence. Giving somebody your name was an act of favour and trust and vulnerability. The Third Commandment forbade the Israelites from attempting to use God’s name in magical ways to manipulate him. It is a misuse of God’s name to invoke that name for selfish or evil purposes or to use His name in magical spells or curses.
Most religions in the ancient world used magic or curses to command a deity to do the human’s bidding. They did this by calling on the name of the deity. The Third Commandment prohibited the Israelites from dragging the name of the Lord down to the level of the names of all those false gods by using His name in magic or curses. This Commandment tells us that we can never manipulate Almighty God by invoking his name – or indeed by any other means. The Lord of Heaven and Earth is never obliged to do our bidding. If Christians believe that God will do whatever we want him to just because we use the name of God of Jesus in our prayers, then we are breaking the Third commandment.
Magic is not a part of everyday life for most people in Britain today, although it still is for many people in Africa, India and South America. But we know what people mean by “magic words”. Stage magicians will often use a “magic word” to make things happen. They might say “Abracadabra”, which actually means in Hebrew “it came to pass as it was spoken”. Ali Baba used “open sesame.” When Sooty waved his magic wand Harry Corbett would say “Izzy, Wizzy, Let’s Get Busy”. Harry Potter has introduced a whole collection of invented Latin-sounding magical words. The idea is that using the right magic word will make things happen.
When children ask for something, parents will sometimes say to them, “What’s the magic word?” We are trying to teach our children to be polite and to say “Please” when they want something. In reality there is a danger that what we are teaching them is that they have a right to receive anything they ask for, as long as they use the magic word “please” when they ask for it.
Sadly, in their ways of praying, some Christians misuse the name of Jesus as if it is some kind of magic word which guarantees that what we want will actually happen. Knowing and using God’s name does not give Christians power over God. Even to think that it does is taking the Name of the Lord in vain. The Lord is sovereign and we cannot manipulate him. Our prayers must always be, “Our Father which art in heaven… Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Not our will but God’s will! Sometimes Christians string together a shopping list of things they want God to do for them, and think that just by tagging on the words “in the name of Jesus” or “for Jesus’s sake” that means that God is somehow obliged to do whatever they have asked for.
THE SIN OF MISUSING THE NAME OF GOD is people USING the name of God or Jesus as if it had some magical power of its own, or as if God is obliged to do something just because they have used the name of Jesus. One obvious example of that sin is found in Ephesus in Acts 19.
Acts 19 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
The name of Jesus is not a magic word. The name of Jesus is far more important and powerful than that. So – no lying under oath. No claiming to speak for God when we don’t. No attempting to use the names of God or Jesus as a means to an end. No treating those names as if they are magic words to get us what we want. This is what it means to take God’s name in vain. God is saying, “Don’t patronize me. Don’t try to use me. Don’t caricature me. Don’t try to manipulate me. Don’t treat me casually. Take me seriously!” Do not misuse the Name of the LORD your God!

It was the most important event in the whole of the Old Testament since the creation of Adam and Eve. More important than Noah and the Ark. More important than the call of the great Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. More important even than the events of the Exodus, the ten plagues on Egypt and even the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land. It was the day that God made His covenant with His chosen people, the nation of Israel. It was the day Almighty God gave His Holy Law to His servant Moses. And the heart of the Law is summed up in ten commands written by God on two tablets of stone: theTen Commandments.
Exodus 20 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The Ten Commandments begin with the most important of all.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
In other words, love God more than anything else or anybody else. Put God first in your life. Make God more important than anything else. Have no other gods apart from the one true God. “You shall have no other gods before me.”
In Mark 12:28 one of the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Putting God first. Loving God with every element and every aspect of our being. Loving God with our hearts. Loving God with our souls. Loving God with our minds. Loving God with our bodies. Loving God more than anything or anyone else.
Then the Second Commandment explains and expands on the first. No idols.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
This was the heart of the faith of the Israelites. There is only one God. This was what set Israel apart from all the other nations who each had a multitude of gods. This was what was unique about the Jews in the face of the pantheons of Greek and Roman gods and all the strange Eastern and Mystery religions of those centuries. The Israelites were monotheists. They held to their belief that there is only one God. Each day they began their prayers with these words from Deuteronomy 6.
‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. No idols.
Putting God first. God the most important thing in life. No false gods – no idols. But is that really the way it is? Somebody has said a very wise thing.
“People today worship their work, work at their play and play at their worship”
Is God really more important than anything else in our lives? Do we actually worship God alone? What other false gods do people worship? We can easily answer that vital question by thinking about other questions. What is the object of our affections? What do we devote the most of our attention to? What do we give most of our effort to? What do we spend most of our resources on? What do we spend most of our time on? We say that God should be the most important thing in our lives. But consider that question from the other way round. Whatever it is which is the most important thing in our lives can become a false god which we can waste our lives serving and chasing after. Or look at it this way – what are we putting our trust in? What are we depending on for our safety and security? Are we relying on God? You shall have no other gods before me. What false gods do people serve or put their trust in?
The false gods of other religions
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
There is one obvious application of the first and second commandments which I am not going to say much about. But in this multicultural world of political correctness it needs saying. There is only one god. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the one and only true God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only true God. The God of Moses and of Israel and of the Ten Commandments is the one and only true God. All other so-called gods are false gods. They are idols.
The Bible views false gods in two ways. Sometimes it describes them as empty creations of human beings. False gods which humans have invented instead of worshipping the one true God.
ROMANS 1 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ….
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. …. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
So some false gods are merely objects created by human beings. But the Bible also describes false gods in another way.
Deuteronomy 32 16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
So the Bible says that not all idols are inventions of human beings. There are demons hiding behind false gods, at least in some cases. Evil spirits, supernatural beings which are entirely real and completely evil, masquerade as false gods to deceive people away from the true God.
Psalm 96:4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
There is only one true God. All others are empty and worthless. That is how the Bible regards all the other world religions. Some of those religions actually do have physical idols – objects which represent their gods. Other religions do not. But all are mistaken. They may have millions of followers. Their followers may be sincere, but the Bible tells us they are all sincerely wrong. They are worshipping false gods. That is how the Bible views all the other world religions. And that is how the Bible views the many cults and Christian Deviations, from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Mormons. That is how the Bible views occult practices such as spiritualism. There is only one true God – every other object of worship and all the other so-called gods are only worthless idols.
Then there is another very common false god – another thing people put their trust in and pursue and in some cases we could even say worship.
The false god of Money
The Bible makes clear that money, wealth and possessions can become false gods to us. Jesus talked about the false god Mammon and said we have to choose between serving God and serving Mammon. The apostle Paul warns Timothy that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Paul says in Colossians 3:5 that greed is idolatry or idol worship. Hebrews 13:5 urges Christians to “keep your lives free from the love of money.” Money, wealth and possessions, can so easily become false gods to people, especially in our Western materialistic society. People can spend their lives chasing after money instead of seeking after God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught this.
Matthew 6 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
For some people, money and possessions are all about status – the more they have the more important they feel. It’s about keeping up with the Jones’s. For others money is all about the enjoyment and satisfaction they get from spending it. If a person is relying on money to give them significance or satisfaction instead of relying on God then money is their false god – their idol.
For some people money gives them a sense of control over their lives and a feeling of independence. For others what matters is the feeling of security they get from believing they have enough money to cope with whatever life might bring their way, although of course money is not the answer to every problem. Money brings problems of its own. But if anybody is putting their trust in money to give them control or security, instead of in God, then money is their false god – their idol. And where your treasure is, your heart will be also.
Augustine said that idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped. For thousands of years, and more today than ever before, so many people are worshipping the false gods of money and wealth and possessions. But then over the last century other false gods have risen up which for some people even compete with Money.
The false gods of Entertainment and Celebrity
A dictionary tells us that an idol is an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed. But an idol can also refer to any person or thing regarded with admiration, adoration, or devotion. In today’s world the word idol is most often associated with the entertainment industry, with pop music, film and television. Almost every country in the world has its own version of the television talent show “Pop Idol”. So many people today are worshipping the fame and success of a particular kind of person. They are worshipping the false god of celebrity.
Our lifetimes have seen the rise of the cult of celebrity: the tendency of people to care too much about the lives of famous people. A century ago this began with people who had actually achieved something remarkable and worthwhile in their lives, great sportspeople and outstanding musicians or film stars. These so-called great people had their ardent followers and admirers – their fans. As you know the word “fan” comes from the word fanatic, and fanatic came from Latin and means “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion”. The word “fan” was first used in America late in the 19th century to refer to baseball supporters.
It was in the middle of the Twentieth Century that popular acclaim and the media began to lift pop stars and film stars to celebrity status, and began to give some of them delusions of deity. I an interview in the London Evening Standard in March 1966 John Lennon said this about the Beatles. “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now.” That idea that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus” was controversial at the time. But so many celebrities since have come to act as though they were much more important and significant than actually they are.
There is a nice young man from Canada with the name of Justin Bieber, who appeared at the V Festival in Hylands Park this year and I am led to understand is some kind of singer. At the age of 22 he has already been listed four times in the Forbes List of the ten most powerful celebrities in the world. Fans of Justin Bieber call themselves “beliebers”, an obvious play on the word “believer.” I guarantee that by just mentioning this fact, when I post this sermon on the internet it will generate more reads and more complaints than all of my other sermons put together! That is the influence of celebrity and the power of the internet today
The advent of television with hundreds of channels and the growth of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, have fuelled the rise of this celebrity culture. Reality television shows like “Celebrity Big Brother”, “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”, and to the eternal shame of Brentwood, “The Only Way Is Essex”, have even created a new brand of celebrities who have never made any worthwhile contribution to society and with absolutely no claim to fame except that they are famous. Across the world perhaps the most well-known of these would be a lady called Kim Kardashian and her family. I learned a new word last week which is the technical name given to such people. They are called “Nonebrities” – people who are only famous for being famous – the prophets of the false gods of Entertainment and Celebrity.
There are many people who look for comfort or peace or meaning in their lives from being associated with a celebrity, by belonging to their fan club or collecting memorabilia or especially by meeting their idol. Some people even allow their favourite celebrity to shape their lives and their thinking as they try to look like their idol or sound like them or imitate their behaviour. Some people allow their idol to tell them what to think. And some celebrities believe that their fame and popularity gives them the right to tell their fans what to think and what to do and what to believe.
I was deeply troubled earlier this year during the whole debate about Britain leaving the European Union. For not the first time, the media were reporting the opinions of celebrities encouraging readers and viewers to vote the same way as the celebrity. It is ridiculous to think that a pop star or a film star or a television actor or a sports person, or even worse one of the “nonebritites” would have any better idea than any ordinary person about the rights and wrongs of Brexit. But papers and TV channels make their money from selling the opinions of these celebrities. Throughout human history, people have looked to their gods to tell them what to think and what to believe and how to behave. In today’s world, many people choose to listen to and be guided by celebrities. Many people adore and follow and some people even worship mere human beings for no other reason than that they are famous and popular. The false gods of Entertainment and Celebrity.
If we are trusting in possessions, or in people, or in anything else to do for us what only God can do for us, then we are worshipping a false god.
Here is the First Commandment
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Put God first – before everything else. Nothing must be more important to us than God Himself. And here is the Second of the Ten Commandments.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
God first – and no idols. Worship God alone because He is the one and only true God! And we must not ignore the fact that this Second Commandment came with a solemn and indeed a terrifying warning!
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
God first. No idols. The Israelites took the Ten Commandments seriously. And so should we!