The Ten Commandments

The Law, the Gospel, and the Purpose of the Ten Commandments

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 5, verses 17 through 48. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen by any means will disappear from the law, until everything is accomplished.

Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Racha, is answerable to the Sanhedrin, but anyone who says, you fool, will be in the danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave the gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother.

Then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you're still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.

It's better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. It has been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you, anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not break your oath, but keep the oaths that you have made to the Lord. But I tell you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.

Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one. You have heard that it was said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor, hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even the pagans do that?

Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In the name of Jesus, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Alright?

Let's try this for about 10 seconds. Tell me if any of you pull it off. Nope, I already fell short. Okay. Yeah, this law thing is a big deal. And when we as Lutherans, as Christians, look at what Scripture says, and properly distinguish between the law and the gospel, we have to understand its uses.

There's functions that it serves. And it's also important for us to understand that nowhere in Scripture is one of the functions of God's law to save you. Now, if you want to be saved by God's law and be in a good person, well, I wish you the best of luck.

The reason I say that is because unlike some college courses, God does not grade on the curve when it comes to being saved by keeping the law. You must keep it perfectly from the moment you are conceived until the moment you draw your last breath.

Perfectly. Anyone here planning on being graded in that way? Listen, if I'm going to be graded in that way, I don't have a chance. But what do we do with the law as Christians? How do we live as Christians?

What do we do with God's law? Because it's always accusing us. It's always saying to you, you've fallen short, you haven't done this, you're not doing that. I mean, I'm sure as we were singing this wonderful Lutheran hymn, you're all sitting there going, Great lyrics.

Those are the Ten Commandments. Well, I'm not exactly keeping it, right? Every single one of us, as we were singing those lyrics, as I was reading the text, you're all sitting there going, Okay, I'm not pulling this off.

What do you do with the law then? Well, some people come up with this fascinating solution. Their fascinating solution is this. Oh, we don't need the law. The law is bad. Bad law. No, the law is not bad.

The law is holy, pure, right. It comes from the mind of God. Remember what I read in the Epistle text. The purpose of the law is to show us our sin. That's its primary function. But it also serves another function.

The Law Given After Deliverance from Egypt

And funny enough, that other function is seen, if you pay real close attention, it's seen in the book of Exodus, in chapter 20. Let me read to you a little bit from here. Exodus, chapter 20, verse 1. God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

There's the opening. Now, how much law-keeping did the children of Israel need to do prior to their being set free from slavery to Pharaoh and being brought to Mount Sinai?

None. None.

Did God save them out of slavery by their works? Nope, he didn't. He saved them purely by grace, his love and his mercy. And when you read the stories of the children of Israel in the wilderness and all of their grumblings, you find that he saved a whole bunch of people who really, for whatever reason, really preferred slavery.

They were grumblers. They didn't really believe God. And so here's the idea. This first verse in Exodus kind of sets it up. And what I mean is that the law here is revealed after God's mighty act of deliverance.

And he delivered them not because of their law-keeping. He delivered them because of his own word, because of his own promise. He had promised in the book of Genesis to Israel himself as well as to Israel's son, Joseph, that they would go and they would be in Egypt for 400 years but God would remember them and deliver them out.

And you know what he did? He kept his promise. God always keeps his word. And so he did this for his own glory, for his own word's sake, because he had promised to do so long before any of these people were born.

And so God did what he promised to do. He delivered them out of the hand of slavery in Egypt and then he brings them to Mount Sinai. And this is important. Why is it important? Because their being set free from slavery to sin or slavery to Pharaoh wasn't because of their good works.

So it wasn't like God was going to throw them back into Egypt if they didn't keep these. Instead, we've got to keep the tone in mind. So the idea is as you read the Ten Commandments, this is what it looks like for people who have been set free by God to live.

This is what it looks like. And three of the commandments have to do with our relationship with God. Seven of them with each other. So you talk about the two tables of the law. Table 1 is the table with our relationship with God.

Table 2, all horizontal with each other. And so when God reveals the law, which Paul tells us in the book of Galatians, that was never designed to be the thing that saves us.

No.

It was designed, well, in some senses, really in a way, to be over us as an overseer until the promised seed would come. But it was never designed to save us. And so it reveals what it looks like to live as redeemed and set free people.

That's that third use of the law. So the first use that we focus on as Christians is called the second use of the law. It shows us our sin. It shows us that we fall short. And so we can say that God's law is always accusing us.

But because we are in Christ, because we have been set free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, the law cannot ultimately accuse us. It could say that you're falling short, but it can't say go to hell.

And the reason why is because Christ has suffered for all of your transgressions, and you are in Him. So now the law has been silenced, and we as Christians can look at this and say, this is what it looks like to be free.

This is what it looks like to live a life of freedom. This is why James, in his epistle, describes the law as the law of perfect freedom. And so let me read from Luther's small catechism, and we'll take a look at what Luther did with these commands.

It's rather fascinating, as redeemed people. So the first commandment, you shall have no other gods. And then Luther asks us that German question. Am I allowed to do German in a Norwegian church? He says, was ist das, right?

And he says that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. That's freedom. That's not slavery. That's freedom. To truly fear, love, and trust in God above all things. And you ask, well, what?

What is a god, then? Well, see, back in the day, people who were idolaters, they were hardy people. They were very creative people. They were hardworking people. They would go and they'd cut down a tree, and then they'd carve it into an idol, right?

Or they'd take a big stone and they'd chisel it, and they'd turn it into some kind of an image that they would bow down to. It took a lot of work to be an idolater back in the day. But nowadays people are, well, they're not nearly as creative, and they're not nearly as skilled as the idolaters of years past.

So idolaters today, well, what they generally do is they invent their own gods, but they're too lazy to go and make an idol. So what they do is they just kind of imagine what their god would be like. Have you ever heard somebody say, the god I believe in would never do this, that, or the other thing?

Have you ever said anything like that? Think about that sentence. The god I believe in would not do this or wouldn't do that, or the god I believe in would bless same-sex marriage. You know, things like this.

Well, here's the problem.

The god you are saying you believe in is not the god who is. That's a god of your own making. And unfortunately what people do nowadays is they are so lazy. Do they not only not make a stone image or a wooden image or anything like that, they invent these mental deities, these false gods, if you would, and they always name their god Jesus.

It's the weirdest thing. So we have all these false gods running around all with the name Jesus. But how do you know the difference between the true Jesus and these false Jesuses? Well, it's real simple.

It's all in the details. What does your Jesus do for you? What do you believe he's good for? Well, my Jesus is there to help make me healthy and wealthy and wise. Okay, that doesn't quite sound like the real Jesus to me.

My Jesus is going to make me a god when I die someday. I'm going to have a planet and all these wives. Well, that's not the real Jesus either. So you pay attention to the Jesus. And if you're going, well, how do I know who the real Jesus is?

You read your Bible. You pay attention to the details. Because the real Jesus is God the Son, second person of the Trinity, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified for your sins, died and was buried and raised again on the third day.

That's the real Jesus. So you have to be careful regarding those idols. So how do we fulfill this fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Because if you think about it, even though we have the right Jesus and we believe in the true Jesus, unfortunately so many times in our lives we don't always obey Him and our disobedience shows that we don't love Him with our whole heart.

Right?

Well, here's the good news. I'll put it in at this point. Christ has loved God perfectly for you.

He has.

And He's bled and died for your sins. And so the way we fulfill this commandment here and now is by believing in the gospel, by believing that He has died for us. That is the fulfilling of all of the law, is by grace through faith.

So every time you hear these commandments and you go, ooh, Pastor Roseborough, I've fallen short. I mean, you're in good company, me too, like every day. I couldn't even make it seven seconds when I was trying to be perfect for ten, right?

So the good news is that Christ has died for all of your transgressions. And so by trusting in His promise of grace and mercy, this is truly the fulfilling of the law because Christ has fulfilled it for you.

The First Three Commandments: True Worship and the Sabbath

Second commandment. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

Ah, so when you turn on the television and you're flipping channels and you come across that Christian network, and there's the guy with the fancy suit and the Rolex watch saying, send in your seed offering and make it big.

Send in a thousand dollar seed offering because God's going to multiply it a hundredfold. Oh, sign me up. I want a hundredfold. So you start counting the money in your head. What's a hundredfold with a thousand bucks?

Yeah, I'm going to be rich. You know what that man's doing? He's breaking this commandment. He's deceiving by using the name of God. That's how you break this commandment. But we should fear and love God so we don't deceive, we don't tell lies and fables in His name, or teach for shameful gain things that we ought not to teach, or worse, send your money into those who are.

Third commandment, remember the Sabbath day, keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching in His word. I'm glad to see you here tonight. You're not despising preaching in His word because you're here to hear it, to learn it, to hold it sacred, right?

Hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it. And since Christ has fulfilled the law, the Sabbath day can be any day. Day of rest can be any day of the week. Take some rest, too. But it doesn't have to be on Saturday.

Keep that in mind. The idea is God has given us a day when we can take a day off, kick up our heels a little bit, rest. Come and rest here at church. Come and rest in the good news that Christ has died for you.

There's no work to be done here. It's all to be received. Fourth commandment. This is one my children did not like. Honor your father and your mother. Now, there's a lot going on in this one. What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so we do not despise or anger our parents. Listen to this. And other authorities. And here's the basis of it. Think of it this way. Is that in our society, the nuclear family, father, mother, children.

That's the basis of society. That's the brick, if you would. And when you have a community, you have a community of families. And God has placed fathers as the head of each of those families. And so when the fathers come together in their community to take care of the needs of their families together, by working together, we need to educate our kids.

We need a police officer. We need a post office, right? You think of it this way. All of these things arise out of the needs that come up through these families. So when you go and you work in your community, you're helping the community of families.

And so as a result of it, honor your father and mother still applies, even when it's your boss. Because he, your boss, is working to serve the families in his community. Does that make sense? So as a result of that, honoring your father and mother also means not despising or angering your boss.

You're thinking, but my boss is a jerk.

I know. I know.

Love and serve him anyway. There's no caveat here that says, unless your boss is a jerk.

Right?

So honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. This is what it looks like to walk in freedom as those who've been set free from bondage to sin, death, and the devil. You shall not murder. And you're thinking, any murderers in the room here?

No?

Good.

This is good. Well, wait a second. Have any of you ever been angry, so angry at your brother or sister that you called them a fool or anything like that? Oh, we're all murderers.

Yeah.

So what does it mean to not murder? We should fear and love God so we do not hurt or harm our neighbor. That's a good thing. But, now this is that. So you don't want to hurt or harm your neighbor, but it's more than that.

Listen to this. But you help him. Help your neighbor and support him in every physical need. So if hard times come to your neighbor and your neighbor doesn't have the ability to put food on the table and clothes on his children, you know what you do?

Because it says, do not murder. Oh, you take them in. You clothe them. You feed them. And you take care of your brother who's in need. Not murdering is not just not killing their body. Instead, protecting and loving your neighbor and making sure that they are fine.

That's what it means to not murder. And that's all freedom. You shall not commit adultery. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life. And what we say and do, husband and wife, love and honor each other.

Do I need to go into detail here? There are so many different ways in which people go wrong on this. The internet has provided all kinds of alternative ways in which we could commit adultery. And this happens in the heart.

It happens with deeds. It happens in all kinds of things. But that's slavery. Freedom, true freedom, is loving and honoring your spouse and being faithful. Seventh commandment, you shall not steal. Similar to the one about not murdering.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so we do not take our neighbor's money or his possessions. Yeah, that's good. I don't think any of you are in the habit of taking people's stuff, right?

You've got the five-finger discount going on when you go and visit your neighbors, right? I hope not. If you do, we need to talk. So rather than doing that, rather than taking our neighbor's stuff, we are instead, let's see, we should fear and love God so we do not take our neighbor's money, possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help your neighbor to improve himself and protect his possessions and income.

In other words, that question that God asked of Cain after he killed Abel, you know, where's your brother? And Cain said, am I my brother's keeper? Right, that's what Cain said. The answer to that question is yes, you are.

So when you find your neighbor in need, you help him. And even if he's doing well, you make sure to protect, you've got your neighbor's back. That's what it means to not steal, so that nobody else is taking advantage of him.

You stand up for your neighbor. You stand up for those who may be taken advantage of. Eighth commandment, you should not give false testimony against your neighbor. This is a big one. What does it mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor. Now, I'm going to be blunt, and I hope you will not hate me for it. I've noticed out here in rural Minnesota that there is a habit among people out here to talk poorly of their neighbors.

And when there's a juicy piece of gossip, boy, the phone is ringing. That's slavery. And that is not helping your neighbor. That's working against your neighbor. Your neighbor's name and character is important for you to protect.

And so when your phone rings, and there's that juicy piece of gossip, and you can hear it sizzling as soon as you pick up the phone.

Right?

Tell the person, no. Defend your neighbor. Don't listen to the gossip. Don't spread the gossip. Tell the person telling you the gossip to knock it off, and they're sinning. So you don't give false testimony against your neighbor.

You don't slander him or hurt his reputation. Instead, defend your neighbor. Speak well of him. Explain everything in the kindest way. This is what God wants us to do. And since we've been set free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, this is what freedom is.

This is true freedom. Ninth Commandment. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. Coveting is a bad thing. We should fear and love God so we do not scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance, or house, or farm, or tractor, or anything like that.

Right?

Or get it in a way which only appears right. Oh, that's the fun thing.

Yeah.

Those people who are really clever in the corporate world, they are capable of writing an ambiguously worded contract. And all you gotta do is sign on the dotted line, and zingy! They've got ya! And you say, but that's not what you said.

Oh, but that's what you signed!

Right?

That is a way of coveting somebody else's stuff. And then trying to steal it under a pretense of legality. So we should fear and love God so we do not scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance, or house, or get it in a way which only appears right.

But instead, help and be of service to your neighbor in helping him keep his things. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so we do not entice or force away our neighbor's wife, or his employees, or his animals, or turn them against him. But urge them all to stay, and to do their duty.

This is freedom.

This is what we have been set free to do. And you all know this is true. Because when you don't do these things, and you act contrary to it, your conscience just kills ya. You sit there and you go, I know I should have done something and I didn't.

Or worse, you say, I knew I shouldn't have done that and I did. Right? We all know this. And not only that, we all know that these things are so wrong that when we practice them and harbor them in our hearts, we do it behind closed doors or with the lights off.

Or with whispered hushes.

Because we all know these things are wrong.

We know it.

But those of us, all of us who have been set free in Christ, we've been to the font. Christ has washed away our sins. We've been buried with Christ and raised with Christ. We feast on His body and blood.

We are absolved of our sins and hear that we have been forgiven. Each and every one of our shortcomings and our trespasses has been laid on Christ. And we are clothed in His righteousness. And so, you'll see the Christian life, then, is this.

Daily.

Daily living in our baptism. Daily repenting of our sins. Daily putting off the old man and putting on the new, created in Christ to do good works. And daily, at the end of the day, praying once again, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed holy is your name.

Your kingdom come. And when you say that, you're praying for His kingdom to come even to you. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And you say, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses.

See, your heavenly Father knew that you would need to confess your sins daily. Knowing that, you wouldn't measure up. He measured up for you in Christ. God becomes man. And He takes all of your sin upon Himself.

So, the Christian life is one of daily repentance. Daily receiving the forgiveness of sins. Daily struggling with our sinful flesh. And then, knowing that we have a right standing with God. Going and loving and serving our neighbor.

And when you do that, I guarantee you, you know what I'm talking about. When you do that, those are the days you feel your best. There is no condemnation. There is no law against doing these good works.

And you say to yourself, why am I not doing this every day?

Right?

I can't exactly answer that question for each and every one of us. But I do know we all have a sinful nature. Continue to live in repentance. Continue to focus on the fact that you are baptized, forgiven.

And now walk in freedom. Because Christ has given you these great things to do to serve your neighbor. And all you've got to do is open up your eyes. And when you see your neighbor in need, just go help.

That's freedom.

That's what it looks like to live as redeemed, forgiven.

Children of God.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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