Biblical Ethics - Ten Commandments - [Exodus 20:1-17]

Biblical Ethics as a Seminary Course and the Challenge of Teaching Ethics

Today's Sunday School is going to be something that I did in India. In fact, I'll just give them as you guys are settling in. I was in India for four weeks and teaching in a seminary for about 10 days.

And two of the courses I taught there were Biblical Ethics and Philosophy of Religion. So the Sunday School I'm going to do this morning is from Biblical Ethics. But before we get into the subject itself, I want to thank those of you who prayed for me.

It was a really joyful time. There was a lot of students very eager to learn. The seminary was thankful for our ministry. I made it clear, you know, no man just gets up, learns, and teaches. You know, we are part of the church.

It's from the church we learn. And from Pastor Mike and my fellowship with you that I have grown in the Lord and I was able to minister to them. They were very thankful for expository preaching, for looking at how ethics is drawn from the scripture.

What are the principles and how do we read the scriptures and learn from them? And so I'm still grading papers and I'll probably be teaching some courses from here. And Lord willing, go back again to teach another course next year.

But yeah, I want to thank you for your prayers. It was blessed of the Lord. Now, with regards to the Sunday School itself, ethics is one of the subjects I did not want to teach. I tried to wiggle out of it as much as I could.

But that was the only course they really, really needed a teacher for. And I just, they said, you know, please. And they just came out in so many different ways it was embarrassing to say no. So I said, OK.

And can some of you think why that might be the case? Why is ethics possibly a difficult subject for us as Christians? What could be some of the potential challenges with the topic of ethics? Very good.

So different cultures have different ways of approaching things. And sometimes what is the norm, especially as we've grown up, may be difficult to convince others that it is the truth. Very good. Actually, maybe just using these two, I want to hear a couple more answers.

But I'll just introduce the topic before we look at specifically what I want to look at, which is going to be, well, let me hold off on what it is. But that is part of the challenge. We live in a relativistic culture where there is really no standard for what is right and wrong.

And we also see various systems that the world has come up with. There is, just to throw out some too big names so you remember something out of Sunday school. One is deontological ethics. And the other one is teleological ethics.

Deontology is duty. You know, it's what is commanded, what is right. And based on this command, we are to live. So Christian ethics is typically deontological. Not merely deontological, but primarily deontological.

There is a duty that is placed upon the believer because of the norm that comes from God himself. God commands some things, and it is good for us to do it. So it's called sometimes the divine command theory.

That's one of the views under deontology. The other view, which is more common in the world, is the teleological system. Does anybody know what the word teleos or teleology means? It's a teleological argument.

There is an argument for the proof, well, arguments for God. But teleology is actually a goal or the end. Sometimes if the end is good, then do it. Then that must be a good ethics. It doesn't matter if I do something wrong in the process.

As long as I accomplish a good at the end, that's great. And one of the systems under that is utilitarianism, which is it's all utility. And the good itself is normally defined as pleasure. If I get the most pleasure at the end, that's a good ethic.

I can get it however I want. That's normally how the world thinks. And sadly, that can creep within the church too. So I can define what I ought to do on the basis of how much pleasure or happiness that I can get out of it.

So if there is a choice before me and I can see that this choice would give me more pleasure, but maybe following God's commands might actually cause me more pain, then I might end up starting to think like an unbeliever and looking for those choices that my flesh wants.

And that's one of the things that the world can bring in. So that's one of the dangers when you're trying to teach ethics. The world system is so pervasive that we may actually be unconsciously imbibing it and we need to rethink in the light of scripture.

All right, any other thoughts on ethics? Why it might be difficult to study or to teach ethics? I'll tell you my biggest fear. There are some things in the Bible that you can have strong personal convictions on, right?

I'm sure each of you have those convictions. And then when you're teaching to someone else, you need to be very careful that you're not just teaching them your convictions, how good it is for you to be, you know, let's say, take, for example, Sundays, right?

There was a time when I would fast on Sundays, just read the Bible on Sundays, not go and do anything else on Sundays. Oh, that was just so spiritually rewarding. But if I were to go around and say, you ought to be fasting on Sundays, you ought to be doing nothing else on Sundays, no whatever else on Sundays.

And then, you know, I had to be very careful because the Bible doesn't necessarily say that. So we're actually today's text, we're going to look at what the Bible says about some principles regarding that.

But sometimes we need to be very clear. What does the Bible say is mandated, you know, the deontology, the duty, the command upon all believers. And that's what is the basis of our of our ethics, what we ought to do.

And and it's it's easy, especially coming from different cultures, to think that something that I've been doing, which has been good and seems biblical, is actually a mandate for others. In fact, that was one of the big challenges in class was, you know, culturally, they come from a lot of there were a lot of practices which were practiced.

And so my my goal was to get into the scriptures and I'll give you this and then we'll get into the text. The Bible has principles in the scriptures that are timeless. And then you have laws and commands that come out of those principles that may be applicable for a certain people at a certain time that are drawn from those principles.

So even if those laws don't apply to you, you would be able to look down under those laws of those principles, which might still apply to you under those laws and some laws would be directly applicable to us.

And then you have cases or examples of how those laws worked out in the Bible. You would see different cases that in the scriptures, you look at them and say, all right, what law does that case come out of?

Especially if you look at many of the laws for the cases of the Israelites, what they were supposed to do, or even for the New Testament church. And then you go down and then look at the principle that God, the timeless principles that God had given.

So let me give you a quick definition and then we'll get into my my material ethics. One of the definitions is what is the accepted or the accustomed or the appropriate? And then one of the ethics books by John Frame, he asked, this is the Greek Aristotelian definition.

And he said, appropriate, but appropriate to whom? You know, if you think of the world, the world has its own way of saying this is appropriate for us. We are happy with this, but it ought to be appropriate according to God's standard and acceptable to whom?

You know, to me or to the world or my family, it ought to be acceptable to God. That's basically what we are looking for. God's standard. I'll just give you a couple more definitions and then we'll move on.

Frame defines it this way. Ethics is theology viewed as a means of determining which human persons, acts and attitudes receive God's blessing and which do not. In case, let me just read that before I read, I'll just give you a way to look at that.

Because ethics, you know, the danger with ethics is you can raise a bunch of moral people. You know, here's what God expects. Here's what you do. And then, you know, you are somehow good in God's sight.

And this definition pushes that away. It looks at it from the perspective of God's grace. How does God bless his people? And then what are some of the ways in which he approves of the actions and the attitudes?

Let me read that again. Ethics is theology viewed as a means of determining which persons, acts and attitudes receive God's blessing and which do not. And ultimately, it's all about God saving us unconditionally upon his finished work.

And we submitting to the work of God already in a right relationship with him. And therefore, our life now demonstrates with the power of God, the kind of things that pleases God, because God blesses those actions.

So let me stop there. Any questions on this before I move to my material? The material I'm going to pick is actually a little, hopefully a little controversial. So we'll have a little good discussion, I hope.

And actually, I'm going to say one thing up front. I'm not going to address the main issue primarily, but the topic is this. The topic is biblical ethics. There's many places in the scripture where you have a concentration of those principles and commands.

If you went into the New Testament, what would be some places where you can find a concentration of God's precepts and maybe laws that are given to us for ethical standards? Excellent. That would be probably the peak, the mount where Jesus himself is sitting down and talking about his kingdom principles.

Maybe one day we will do that some other time. And let's now go to the Old Testament. Excellent. Once again, Ten Commandments is like the peak where Moses in the mountain receives what God himself writes down for Moses.

Now, those would be two mountain peaks, if you will, in the Old and the New. Now, I have to admit it, as a Christian, I've been a little nervous when I read the Old Testament. I hope some of you are, too, because you can very easily become a Sabbatarian or someone else by just reading the Old Testament and saying, you know, God commanded this and then I needed to do this.

And then like Pastor Steve, those of you who came for the first service, you heard in this morning's sermon, you know, just completely miss out the principle that was there in that. And what is applicable for us as believers today?

So what I'm going to do here is just talk a little bit about Old Testament ethics and then use the Ten Commandments. We'll just go quickly through them. But there are some very key principles that are embedded in the Old Testament that are valid for us today.

And there are some very important laws that are not applicable for us today. And I think it's good for us to understand both how to draw upon the principles from the Old Testament, as well as what know what was applicable only for Israel and not for the New Testament church.

Let me just make a couple of comments. I'm not going to spend time on this. But if you have questions, we will. Old Testament ethics, it is based on the revelation of God. I mean, this is scripture. So we need to be very clear.

This is God's revelation to us that tells us about his will, what God's will is for us. And it gives us his word. It is the word of God. And this is very different than the cultural ethics of the Babylonians and everyone else, which was manmade in order to develop a system that would guard their society from from from what they perceived as evil.

The Old Testament ethics has a religious basis as opposed to the philosophical basis, which those period people in that period had. And even today, people just have their reason, develop their ethics for them.

More, more, more accurately, their fallen reason, a reason that is looking for to enhance their sinful pleasures. The Old Testament ethics was sufficient for Israel, but it was incomplete in the sense.

Now, with the New Testament, you have the broader revelation of God that fills out what God had begun to reveal to the Old Testament. And with that, let's now get into the Ten Commandments. I'm just going to throw out a few questions.

If there is interest, maybe after we are done with the Ten Commandments, we'll pick this up. Questions like these. Why did God permit divorce and polygamy in the Old Testament ethics? Right. Think along those lines.

Why did God allow killing and war in the Old Testament? Why does it indicate that Rahab, the harlot, was blessed by God when her profession is dubious, sinful, and when she lied to the official who came to her house looking for the spies and things like that?

Interesting questions. Teaching at BBC, I know you guys already know the answer. You're like, yeah, that's boring. I don't need to discuss that. But if you do, we will discuss this after this subject.

The Ten Commandments as the Peak of Biblical Ethics

So let's begin with the Ten Commandments. And to begin there, let me ask you, please turn to Exodus 20. And as you are there, what is the most important verse on this passage? When you're reading the Ten Commandments, I asked this in the class, which of these is the most important?

I got a lot of answers. But some of you who have been here for the evening services will know the answer because Pastor Mike has said that. But you are part of the game because you came here. It doesn't exclude you.

What is the most important aspect of the Ten Commandments that you see in Exodus 20? God. Very good. That's part of the answer. God is very key in this. Yes, Jonathan. Okay. This is a revelation from God.

So you recognize all of these commandments come from God, and therefore it's important. Good. Again, getting closer. Yes, Brad. Okay. So the first four commandments all deal with our relationship with God.

How is our ethics defined by our right attitude or actions toward God? And the other six talk about the human love God and love your neighbor. Very good. That's still not yet where I'm going. Does anyone else?

Yes, Vincent. Excellent. Were you there on the evening service? You don't know? Isn't that wonderful? You've just been so filled with the scriptures, you don't know where you got it from. You've just been getting it all the time.

That's how it should be for us as believers. But that's exactly right. Even when I defined ethics, I talked about those who are the people who are blessed by God. God, before he tells them, this is what is expected from them.

This is what is good and right. He reminds them of something very central. What is it? The first one, I am the Lord, your God, L .O .R .D., capital covenant keeping God. He is the Yahweh who has placed his affection upon these people.

He has worked the act of redemption upon them. It's not for any random reason that he is giving them the Ten Commandments. He has placed his affection upon them. He has redeemed them from Egypt and bringing them to the promised land.

He says, I have delivered you from slavery. This is who I am, and it's on the basis of who I am and my covenant relationship with you that you can follow me using these Ten Commandments as precepts that God reveals to us.

I think we need to be very, very careful. When we think of ethics, for it not to just slide down into mere morality, it always has to be it's all about God and what he has first done for us, and everything else we do is a response of love toward the God who has redeemed us.

All right, with that, let's go to the First Commandments. Can someone read for me actually from verses 1 to 3, the First Commandment, please? Thank you. There are two things that come out from this commandment, and I think the first and obvious one should be monotheism.

There is one God. There is no gods other than the one true God. For us, it would be God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit as the Trinity. There is one God that we worship. And the second aspect of that is the absolute loyalty that we owe to the one God.

There is only everything that we have we owe to him. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall worship me and me alone. That's the principles that come out of this. Now, in the New Testament, can you think of some other commands that would reinforce what you hear here as the First Commandment?

What would be some other text that comes to mind when you think of this? You shall have no other gods before me. Yes, Kevin. Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Excellent. What else? End of 1 John, flee from idols.

These gods don't need to be the gods of Babylon. It could be the manufactured gods of our hearts as idols. Very good. How about on the worship side? What would you think of when we think of the New Testament?

Right. In fact, in the Second Commandment, I'm going to bring that up, but that's a great one. You must worship him in spirit and in truth. I think one of the texts that I had here was from Matthew 22, 36 -39, which is the greatest commandment in the law.

As Jesus asked, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I think that just talks again about the absolute loyalty, the full devotion that is expected of us toward our God and to nothing else.

Worshiping the True God in Spirit and Truth

Then there's a few more verses, but for the sake of time, we'll move on. Again, if you have questions, please stop because we will take time for that. Second Commandment, if someone can read verses 4 -6.

Yes, please. Once again, God has revealed who he is in the scriptures, and for us to pervert that or change that into something else, whether it is visibly in terms of idols or images that bring down the glory of God into anything else in creation or in the images of our mind, in taking what God has revealed about himself in the scriptures and then shaping it into the fashions of the kind of God that we want, diminishing God's glory, both of those would be very sinful.

I think 1 John 5, the end that we just heard about idols, that talks about that as well. But I think one of the scriptures that talks about this in the New Testament would be God is spirit. We need to worship him in spirit and in truth and not just get caught up on all these visible representations that people make up and then make idols of the true God who is spirit.

Now, there's a few other things I have here, but this can be a controversial subject. It was in India. So questions or thoughts, either from the New Testament applications of this or just personally in terms of how people may violate this law.

Do you have any questions? I'm not throwing them because otherwise I'll be sitting here and not moving on. Yes, Larry. Actually, they have, you know, I don't have that notes with me. Yes. Right, right.

There is the order in which the 10 are done are different between the Reformed and the Catholics, and I think even the Jewish have it a little different. It's not that they deleted, but it's combined and therefore maybe diminished in its importance.

But you brought Catholics. Any…. Yes, and I think both the Roman Catholic Church, especially the Eastern Orthodox Church, has these icons which become very significant. And I think, you know, when you talk about the distinction between, you know, using images to explain something, maybe to illiterate people, to the point where it becomes the object of your veneration, devotion, and affection, and then representation of something that maybe ought not to be done.

So those are dangerous paths to move down to, and then especially with the tradition of the Church, it then becomes a very dangerous idol in the life of the Church. So that's one very important area. Anything else?

Yes, Pastor Steve. And that would be a very explicit violation of this law, because there you have a theologically deliberate attempt to take what would be the elements and then say, you know, there is some deity in some way, shape, or form that is present here, and that's how I'm bowing.

And again, you know, that's intentional as opposed to maybe even some misguided, and that would be a very big danger. Excellent point. Right, right. And I think, you know, you need to be very careful in terms of, you know, what, and we're going to be looking especially at motives as we get further down.

In fact, in one of the systems, we didn't talk about it earlier, is it just your actions, or really what the motives of your heart, or where it comes from? And we will see that both of them are important, but we need to start with what your motive is as you begin.

Yeah. Right, right. And it can be very easily, and one of the questions I had was that symbol there, you know, are we worshipping the cross in a Protestant church? And I was like, oh yeah, in our church it's the other direction.

But the thing is, you know, that very easily can become an object of worship, even in art, like, you know, think about it, right? At this point in time, all of you are here because you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, you've been born again, you have a passion for the Lord, three generations down, you know, but for the grace of God, if our children are just following the forms of what we did, and then, you know, you hear the cross all the time, it can be very easily like the Catholic Church, you know, looking to the symbols of what we see.

I mean, that's a great, great testimony to the finished work of Christ, but that can soon become a superstitious object of false worship. Excellent. And I think, you know, this is one of the things I taught in class.

Maybe I'll just take a little step back so you can think through this in the subject. So in the Bible, you have certain things that are explicitly commanded as wrong. In fact, this is one of those commands, you know, don't make these express images.

And there are certain things that we must do. You know, not doing it would be sin. So there are black and whites. If you transgress on this side and did something God said not to do, you'd sin. If you transgress on this side and didn't do what God told you to do, you'd be sinning.

But within this, you would have matters of conscience, you know, where you need to be careful to examine what is the principle that is bounding these laws. And we want to be fervent to say not just how close I can get to the line, you know, to actually sin, but rather how may I guard my heart and mind so that I exercise personal discretion in terms of following the principles of God and then turning around in terms of what I command that I don't make sure I make my own personal convictions a command for others.

It's not a direct response to you, but I think this is a good context to keep in mind because where I was teaching, the students had a lot of ideas about what would be constituted as sinful. And those were all very good principles to use because I think I would do the same things, but if I were to go and teach them as, you know, you ought to do this.

For example, alcohol. You need to be very careful. You know, it's good not to drink alcohol if you are tempted or if you're going to have another weaker brother stumble, but I need to be very careful not to make sure that drinking any alcohol is sin when the Bible doesn't say that.

So I think, you know, those would be some of the things in terms of how you interpret ethics, what God commands, what God gives us as precepts, and how we apply it. Detour. Back to the third commandment.

Can someone read for me verse 7? Thank you. So a couple of things here. One is irreverent use of God's name. You know, just profaning, swearing. People, most people who do that don't really understand it.

Here you're talking about especially the people of Israel who had a conscious knowledge of it and in deliberate violation of it, and there was a penalty for this as well. But today you can see that, where people just do not know even what they're doing.

They just don't care because they do not understand the name they utter. And the other side is false swearing or perjury, you know, where you actually say something in the name of God but actually mean something else.

And obviously, let me ask you something on this. In the New Testament, what does the Bible say about this in the second aspect? That's right, because we are a people who've been redeemed by God. Just as Israel was to be a light among the nations, everything we say ought to be truthful and honest.

I don't need to, you know, say it on the name of God and then show that I was true or not. So that would be one. I saw another hand. All right, maybe it was the same thing. But the other side is a hypocritical lifestyle, and this is, again, an application of this command where you can claim to be a Christian and then you may live in a way that is profaning God's name.

I mean, you can just think of examples of this all over. I mean, even maybe personally for yourself, where I was actually talking to one of you this morning. It was not a spiritual context, but it was a context where this brother was in the community, and everything I read about this brother was just very edifying.

It wasn't talking about how great a Christian brother he was, but everything he did was just done well and excellent, and I'm like, you know, that just lifts up the name of God, even though I don't know if he got to share the gospel with anyone, but whoever read it would say, oh, you know, that's a decent guy.

That's the kind of guy that I would trust whose yes is yes or does the things the right way. And on the other hand, I think doing things that profane God's name because of the way we live would be in violation of the principle that is here in the third commandment.

Let me go to the fourth because this, I think, will take some time to talk about. Can someone read verses 8 to 11, and this is the last of the four commands relating to God? Yes. Thank you. So we actually heard the fourth to the tenth commandments.

We'll take a few minutes to talk about the fourth, and then maybe we'll take a few minutes to talk about the rest. So the Sabbath, as you know, was the seventh day of the week, which is, you know, sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, and the Sabbath was not just the weekly Sabbath.

They had Sabbath of years in terms of resting for the field. They had the jubilee, which was seven times seven, the year when everything went back. The Sabbath was very integral in the part of the Israelite community, and as we, again, these two services are throwing me off.

I don't want to give up too much of what you're going to hear. For those of you here for the second service, you're going to hear about it, about how the Pharisees basically took that and then became legalists, forgetting the principle that was underneath this Sabbath.

What did Jesus do on the Sabbath that was not a violation of the law but was a violation of these man-made principles that were built around the law? So with that, let's now come back here again. Now, the big question, and if you have a question, please do engage with this.

Does this law, the Fourth Commandment, apply to New Testament Christians? Why or why not? Bruce? Okay. Very good. And actually, you have to be very accurate in terms of looking where the commandment starts, and I think the principle does go back all the way to Genesis 1, where it talks about God resting on the seventh day, and that is a principle that is there pretty much throughout.

Now, the question I have is... Let me actually even step back one more step. So we have groups of Christians who do believe that the Sabbath is applicable for us today, which is Friday evening to Saturday evening, full rest, meaning you don't...

For example, I think the restrictions on the Sabbath, I think, like if you look in Acts 1 -12, the distance was the Sabbath's day journey, which is about 3 ,000 feet, which is as far as you could actually travel.

You wouldn't... You would cook the previous day. There's a lot of work that would be limited from doing because you followed the principles the same way. Now, if I take it one more step further, there were some penalties for those who broke the Sabbath laws.

I think some of you would know... Let me see if I have the text here. There's a man who was gathering wood on the Sabbath, and when... In fact, Exodus 35, 2 -3 talks about not gathering fire, not kindling fire on the Sabbath, and then Numbers 15, 32 -36 talks about that man being put to death because there was this very serious violation of the Sabbath command that was given to Israel.

So it was not a trifling law that was given. It was a very serious law for Israel. And today we have, obviously, Seventh-day Adventists who make that a very central part of their command. And again, the principle goes back to this, that it is a creation precept that got codified in the Mosaic law and then now should apply to us today.

But again, the challenge with trying to apply that today would be this. We cannot just pick some things and say, you know, we will do it in these ways. When you take all the Sabbatarian principles and then try to work them here, you're going to run into challenges.

But there is another reason why I think, you know, the Sabbath is not... I mean, I'll say it. I don't believe that the Sabbath, the way that the Fourth Commandment is given is applicable for Christians today for many reasons.

One of them is, if you look at the Ten Commandments, every single one of them is repeated in the New Testament, except for this one. This one is not. And let me finish, and then I'll come back to you.

Now, we have... You know, if I meet someone who's a Sabbatarian, I try to, you know, talk about the theological principles that we draw from it. Now, if you move one more step back, you know, we have other people that we disagree with.

In fact, one of the things that was in the back of my mind when I was studying this was, we in this church, you know, we have the covenant and dispensational camps, if you will, right? So our church, if you would, is not hyper-dispensational.

It is probably, you know, somewhere in the mid-range with dispensationalism. We have others who are hyper-covenant, and then I go actually preach in some churches which are Reformed but Baptistic, you know, which are somewhere in this range.

And we have good Christians who disagree on a whole number of areas. But here, we strongly believe that the literal interpretation of the Scriptures will keep you on this side of the line, not on this side of the line, which doesn't mean, like, you know, if some of you are covenant theologians, you're not excluded from our fellowship, meaning, you know, you're welcome to worship here.

You are welcome to engage with conversations on this because I think, you know, it's good to discuss. But at the same time, we want you to know that here in our church, we are not covenant. You know, we are dispensational when it comes to the general sense of the term, although we are not on that extreme.

And so, I don't know why I went off on this thing because this is what started my subject. You know, I was like, Ten Commandments, should I teach it or not? I was like, you know what, that's okay, let's teach it.

But I may not be able to engage with all of its ramifications out here. So, let me ask one more thing, and then maybe we'll take a question, and then we'll move on. So, from the New Testament side, can you think of some Scripture that talks about a few things?

First, why we don't worship on Saturdays, and second, why we don't observe the Sabbath in the same way that the Jewish people did. Can anyone think of some Scripture? That's right. So, in Acts 20, verse 7, it talks about, wait, wait, I am mixing up my verses here.

Does anyone know what the Scripture is? I have it here, but I can't find it. No, it's in the book of Acts. Oh, no, it is Acts 27. On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread, and Paul preached to them.

And actually, there's another reference to it, but I don't have that here with me. So, where it talks about how the Lord's Day turned out to be the Resurrection Day. So, what used to be the Sabbath, which was the Jewish time of worship.

Now, the principles, let me maybe go down there first. The principles with the Sabbath, one was, it was to be a day of rest. You know, work on six days, and the seventh day is to be a day of rest, because the Lord rested, you also ought to rest.

And when we think about that, there is a principle, the way God made us, we ought not to be working seven days a week, because God designed, made us, he designed us in such a way that we need that day of rest as our bodies get refreshed and rejuvenated, so we can go back to the next week.

So, that rest principle is very strong there. We also have the worship principle, where the day is set apart for corporate worship. And in the Jewish, for the Israelites, that was something that was an inviolate command.

They had to do this. And then, when you see in the New Testament, you see the Lord's Day replacing the function of the Sabbath. Now, it happened in a number of different historical contexts, too. In addition to what we see here, this is the Lord's Resurrection, was to be honored, and therefore, it became the primary day that was practiced.

And ever since, that has been the day when we worship. We always practice worship on Sundays. And we also want to be careful, even though I said earlier, you know, there is no command against doing, picking sticks on this Lord's Day.