El Monte Vietnamese SDA Church

"What is Truth?" Lesson 03 - The Law of God is Truth

Psalms 119:142 – “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.”

The Bible tells us that Jesus is truth, the Bible itself is truth, and the law of God truth. Yet, not many people see the Ten Commandments as truth. There are many people (even in Christian circles) who feel the Ten Commandments are simply a series of restrictions (“thou shalt not’s").  There are even quite a few Christians who believe that the Ten Commandments were done away with at the cross.

However, are these views really supported by the Bible?  The Ten Commandments are a reflection of God’s loving character.  If you can see the Ten Commandments restated in terms of positive values and promises, you may see that there are more to the Ten Commandments than you might have previously thought…
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Exodus 20:1 - And God spoke all these words, saying:

The Ten Commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

The Bible repeatedly calls God’s Law (the Ten Commandments) a delight:

• Psalms 1:1-2 –“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
• Psalms 40:8 –“ I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
• Psalms 119:77 – “Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight.”
• Psalms 119:92 –“ Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”
• Psalms 1992:174 – “I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.”
• Romans 7:22 – “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.”

The Bible even calls God’s Law the law of liberty:

James 1:25 – “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

How can the Ten Commandments, which seem to restrictive and condemning, be a delight?

• The Ten Commandments actually contain ten values and promises in addition to their function in pointing out sin in your life.

Ten Values

1. God values loyalty
2. God values authenticity
3. God values character
4. God values our relationship with Him
5. God values family
6. God values life
7. God values our relationship with others
8. God values ownership
9. God values the truth
10.  God values contentment

Ten Promises

1. God is your everything – He will fulfill your needs
2. God will reveal what He is like to you (through the Scriptures)
   • 2 Corinthians 3:18 – by beholding God we are changed into His image
3. God will reveal His name to you
   • Exodus chapters 33-34 – the name of God is connected with His glory
4. God will come to you
   • In many religions, an object or place is sanctified (made holy)
   • However, with the Sabbath, God will come to you no matter where you are
5. The Christian experience starts at home
6. God will change how you interact in society – no more anger
7. God will change how you interact in society – no more lusting
8. God will change how you interact in society – no more stealing
   • Commandments 6-8 – God will change your heart
   • Sin starts in your mind
   • These commandments deal with more than the outer actions
9. God will change your heart so that you can give voice to a true witness
   • Luke 6:43
10. You will not want anything else but God

Satan broke the Ten Commandments

• (10) Coveted God’s position
• (9) Spread lies about God’s character
• (8) Sought to steal God’s throne
• (7) Broke relationship with God – a spiritual divorce
• (6) Sought to murder Michael
• (5) After he was cast out of heaven, he attacked the family of God
• (4) Attacks the holy time of God
• (3) Attacks the character of God by misrepresentation of His name
• (2) Created a new image of God
• (1) Makes himself God

A point of contrast

• Note that in the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites started out as slaves (Exodus 20:2), but became free
• Conversely, as Satan broke God’s commandments, he ended up being enslaved (John 8:34)

Which way are you going in life?

• Romans 6:16 –  “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
• Jeremiah 2:13 – “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

The Bible tells us that truth ultimately sets us free. Friend, can you see that the Ten Commandments are so much more than a rigid set of rules and restrictions? Jesus tells us plainly in John 14:15 – “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The Ten Commandments are a reflection of God’s loving character and we follow the Ten Commandments out of love and obedience to Jesus Christ. Can you see that turning away from the Ten Commandments only leads to bondage and slavery in sin?

Friend, will you accept the Ten Commandments as truth? Do you want freedom with Jesus, or slavery with Satan?