Friend, did you know that there is a commandment in the Ten Commandments that God wants us never to forget? Do you know what commandment this is? Have you forgotten it yourself? If you have, you are not alone. There are millions of sincere Christians who have also forgotten it or simply ignore it.
As you begin this study understand that the only way to worship God and truly keep ALL of His commandments is to open your heart to Him and allow His Spirit to dwell within you. Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” - Revelation 3:20. God does not force us to worship Him. It is an invitation. He invites us to come to Him and learn who He is and what He has done for us. We respond by inviting Him to come and dwell within us. When He dwells within us, we delight to do His will, and His law will be in our hearts according to Psalm 40:8. Philippians 2:13 explains this process, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
So before you study, PRAY and INVITE the Spirit of God to dwell within you so that you may love God and His law and see the wonderful things in His Law. Psalms 119:18 says, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Ask God to give you clear understanding of His Word.
Are we to keep ALL of God’s commandments?
John 14:15 (Jesus says) - “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13 - “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
1 – Define and reveal sin clearly
1 John 3:4 - “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Romans 3:20 - “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 7:7 - “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
A mirror is used to examine yourself, whether you have food or dirt on your face. It cannot clean your face, it only reveals the dirt. You need a wash cloth to clean your face. The Ten Commandments reveal your condition, whether you have the dirt of sin in your life, but it cannot clean it.
Psalm 119:172 - “My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.”
13 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
11 “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”
Bible Definition: Righteous (Hebrew) = just, lawful
A speed limit sign reveals the law in order to keep you safe, but the sign cannot make you obey the law. The sign only displays the law. Without the sign you would be unaware of the law or that you have broken the law. Similarly, the Ten Commandments cannot make you righteous or lawful. The commandments are only the standard of righteousness that reveal the law.
Psalms 19:7 - “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”
Galatians 3:24 - “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
Bible Definition: Convert = Turn to, to return, to turn back
Even though God’s law cannot cleanse you from sin, it points you to Jesus Christ who can clean you and save you from sin. When Christ dwells within you He will work in you to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) and cover you with His righteousness (Philippians 3:9).
John 14:21 - “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
Obedience to the truth motivated by God’s love is NEVER legalism. Would it make sense to mock God’s obedient children by calling them “legalists”? Of course not. Are you a child of God?
James 1:23-25
23 “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Exodus 31:18 - “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Deuteronomy 4:13 - “And he declared unto you HIS COVENANT, which he commanded you to perform, even TEN COMMANDMENTS; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.”
God makes it clear that our part of the covenant or contract with Him is to obey His Ten Commandments. This is a sacred contract between God and His people written in stone by His own finger.
1 “And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
TEN COMMANDMENTS
All of the Ten Commandments are equally important, still valid, and remain unchanged. According to Exodus 31:18, the Ten Commandments were written on stone by the finger of God which represents the permanence and eternal origin of God’s Commandments. They have always existed, even before man sinned. Psalm 111:7, 8 says, “...all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” God still wants to write His commandments on the hearts and minds of all people. Hebrews 10:16 says, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.”
1 John 4:8 - “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
Romans 13:10 - “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour