Did you know the Bible contains love songs?
Hard for some to imagine, but it's true.
Now some of our more biblically savvy viewers
might think of the Song of Solomon, which is, indeed,
a beautiful part of the Bible.
But that's not what I'm thinking of.
Rather, I'm thinking of Psalm 119, which
the songwriter, King David, filled with
passion, praise, and heartfelt devotion.
What was the object of such emotion?
Believe it or not, the Ten Commandments.
Does this surprise you?
It shouldn't.
Because they paint a beautiful picture of the mind of God
and play a key role in the transformation of the whole
world that Jesus Christ will return and establish.
Join us for this episode of Tomorrow's World, where
we'll uncover The Beauty of the Ten Commandments.
♪
Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow's World, where we help
you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.
Today we're going to spend time talking about one
of God's greatest gifts to mankind--the Ten Commandments.
We're also going to give you the opportunity to
request our extensive resource on putting the
commandments into action in your life, our free
booklet titled, simply, The Ten Commandments.
Be sure to watch for the information you need to
get your own free copy.
When you look closely enough, the core doctrines
of common and mainstream Christianity seem to tell
you these divine commands from God are done away with--
as if God makes no binding obligation on us any longer,
and we've been freed from the need to obey--
freed from the Ten Commandments.
But when you come to understand the commandments and what they
represent, you see that you might as well speak of being
"freed" from food and water, or freed from air and light.
Or, for that matter, freed from understanding, freed from
righteousness, and freed from freedom and liberty, itself.
In fact, in his inspired letter, James, the brother
of Jesus Christ, twice refers to the Commandments
as "the law of liberty"--even "the perfect law of liberty."
Now, some preachers might dither and say that they
would never preach against the Ten Commandments.
Yet most who would say that are preaching in a
pulpit on Sunday after having gone to the mall or
the lake or the ball game on Saturday, in violation
of the Fourth Commandment.
And in March of 2021, Christianity Today exposed
modern Christianity's opinion on the Seventh Commandment to
keep sexual relations within the confines of marriage
by reporting that,
"Evangelicals, especially those under 40, increasingly
see cohabitation as morally acceptable.
Most young evangelicals have engaged in it or expect to."
And how many cathedrals are filled with statues
and images that people bow before, pray before,
or even weep before, filled with religious devotion--
when the Second Commandment forbids such objects of worship?
Yes, a lot of lip service is paid to the Ten Commandments,
but few people really take them as seriously as
God the Father and Jesus Christ do.
And what a shame that is.
Because when they're embraced and taken seriously as merciful
instructions handed down by a merciful and loving God,
the Ten Commandments are a source of beauty in life that
is unmatched by any competing laws or philosophies of men.
At the beginning of the program, I mentioned King
David's "love song" to the Ten Commandments.
Let's read just a few of the words of praise and
fondness penned by the Warrior Poet of Israel
for these beautiful laws of God.
We'll find them in Psalm 119.
For instance, verse 35:
"Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
for I delight in it."
And verse 47:
"And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
which I love."
Verse 73:
"Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments."
Verse 127:
"Therefore I love Your commandments more than
gold, yes, than fine gold!"
Verse 131:
"I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed
for Your commandments."
Verse 143:
"Trouble and anguish have overtaken me,
yet Your commandments are my delights."
Believe me, there were more, but those should
help paint the picture.
The Bible says that King David was a man after
God's own heart, and in his trials,
he found comfort in the Commandments.
In his distress, he found wisdom in them.
He found them more beautiful and precious
than gold and silver, and he says he longed to
understand them and live them, like the thirsty
deer longs for water.
No one writes such songs of heartfelt devotion and
passion about speed limits or legal regulations
pouring out of Congress.
The Ten Commandments are different--they provide
guidance, aid, and understanding.
They represent the core of the way of life of the very Creator
of mankind, who has shared them with us in His mercy.
And as we get to know them and understand them--
not just in our minds, but with the sort of
understanding that only comes from acting and
doing--then we begin to better understand the
character and mind of God, Himself.
Actually, with the help of God, it is more than that:
Keeping the Ten Commandments changes us, and helps us not
only to understand the mind of God but even to begin to
share the mind of God and to think like Him, ourselves.
As David writes in Psalm 19 and verse 7,
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul...."
It is no wonder that Jesus Christ told a young man
quizzing Him about salvation,
"[I]f you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Clearly the Ten Commandments mattered to Jesus Christ.
In fact, they matter so much so that the Apostle John wrote
in his first letter, in 1 John 2:4, speaking of Christ,
"He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
Anyone preaching that you do not need to keep the
commandments to know Jesus Christ is a liar and a false
preacher, whether he knows it or not, and should be avoided.
In our next segment, we'll take a closer look at the
commandments, themselves, but first, let me give you
a brief opportunity to request our free booklet,
The Ten Commandments.
This resource is one of the largest in our library--
written by the late evangelist Roderick C. Meredith,
longtime fellow presenter here on Tomorrow's World.
Reflecting the wisdom of his lifetime in the ministry,
this book, The Ten Commandments, takes you slowly and thoroughly
through each of the Ten Commandments, helping you
to understand the depths of these ancient but
remarkably relevant rules for life and living.
You need to bring the beauty of the Ten Commandments
into your life.
Take this opportunity to request your own copy of
The Ten Commandments, and I'll be right back to
begin taking a closer look at these remarkable laws.
♪
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time, you will also
receive a free annual subscription to Tomorrow's
World magazine.
Six inspiring issues discussing news, science,
and modern culture will help you make sense of
your world from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world
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Or go to...
♪
Welcome back.
You know, if we're going to spend all this time
talking about the Ten Commandments, maybe
I should take the time to read them.
You'll find them listed in Exodus chapter 20, where we
find the heart of God's law is listed in only 16 verses:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
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 upon 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.
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.
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.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be
long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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."
Yes, the whole of the Ten Commandments fits
in these 16 verses.
But the art of living by them, and the depth of
truly understanding them, only really comes through
practice, the light of Jesus' teachings, and the
help of God's Holy Spirit.
Let's take some time to appreciate their structure
and organization.
In Matthew 22, we read an account of a young lawyer
who asked Jesus an important question.
We begin in verse 36:
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your
God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind.'
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: 'You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.'
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Notice, Jesus said that the entirety of the law and the
prophets hang on these two great commandments:
To love your God and to love your neighbor.
Now look again at the Ten Commandments to see
how they're structured.
The first four of the Ten Commandments teach us how
to fulfill the First Great Commandment to love God.
And the six Commandments that follow teach us how
to fulfill the Second Great Commandment to love others.
The Ten Commandments aren't just some
legalistic list of dos and don'ts.
When you understand what Jesus is saying, you
see them as essential instructions in love.
In fact, let me ask you:
What is more beautiful than the love of God?
Not just receiving it, but growing in it ourselves,
in compassion and outflowing concern?
Well, if we seek to know the beauty of God's love in our
lives, then we will want to keep the Ten Commandments.
Don't take my word for it-- take the Apostle John's.
Often called the Apostle of Love because love was such a
consistent focus of his writings in Scripture, he teaches us
a very important truth of God in his first letter--
in 1 John 5:3...
"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not burdensome."
When you understand this connection between how
the Ten Commandments are central to teaching us how
to love God and to love each other and the fact
that, as 1 John 4:8 tells us, "God is love," then
you begin to see how the Ten Commandments represent
God's own mind and character in print.
And how learning to practice them and to make them a
part of your life is a vital part of the beautiful
transformation God seeks to achieve in all of us.
Before we look in detail at some of these beautiful
commandments, let me pause very briefly to give you
another opportunity to request today's free offer,
The Ten Commandments.
Some memorize them as children and others
have them hanging on a plaque in their home.
But nothing compares to the joy of deeply
understanding the Ten Commandments, one by one,
as guides to a life of fulfillment and as
keys to understanding the mind of God.
As Roderick Meredith explains in this free resource,
the Ten Commandments are central to understanding God's
will for your life and for the fulfillment of His profound
and eternal purpose for your glorification in eternity.
The Ten Commandments takes you slowly and thoroughly through
each of the commandments, helping you to understand
the depths of these ancient but remarkably relevant rules
for life and living.
Take just a few moments to request your own copy now of
this life-changing resource, and I'll be right back to
reveal the depth and insight to be found in
some of these individual wonders of God's word.
Don't go away.
♪
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
Call now!
Or go to...
♪
Let's dive into some of the individual
commandments, themselves.
Just as the beauty of a gemstone is shaped by how
its individual facets reveal its brilliance,
each of the commandments contributes to the
overall beauty of these laws of God.
In fact, consider the first one, given in Exodus 20:2-3...
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before Me."
Now, compare this to, say, the beginning of the
U.S. Declaration of Independence, which lays
a foundation based on the idea that all men are
created equal--or the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, which states in its first article that
all human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights.
In today's free resource, The Ten Commandments,
Roderick Meredith explains the stark difference
between works like these and the Commandments:
In our day of human reason, agnosticism, and creeping
materialism, it is important to notice that the Almighty
spoke first not about the "brotherhood of man," but
about obedience and worship to God, the Creator and Ruler
of heaven and earth--and the personal God of those
who serve and obey Him!
What a difference.
Unlike human philosophers or politicians who ground
our obligations to each other in moral theories
or passing ethical fashions, God grounds our obligations
on His own eternal and unchanging status as the
Creator of all things, who does not change.
Consequently, the Ten Commandments have a
beautiful and immovable foundation that grounds
them in the firmest foundation possible.
For instance...
The Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy is
about the day He, Himself, sanctified at Creation.
The Sixth Commandment against murder, we're
told in Genesis 9:6, is grounded in the fact
that man is made in God's image.
The Ninth Commandment against bearing false witness runs
afoul of the fact that God is a "God of truth" and
that His word is truth.
This grounding in the nature and character of the
Eternal God who created all life--indeed, the
God who created all of reality--gives these
inspired commandments a richness and depth
that few ever take the time to truly explore.
Consider the Third Commandment against
using God's name in vain.
How often is this commandment trampled
in this world--often by the very ones who claim to be
living a godly life.
Yet, not using God's name in vain is so much more than
simply not using His name in curse words or swearing.
For instance, everyone who claims to be a Christian is,
in a very real way, taking on the name of Jesus Christ--
yet, if we behave in an un-Christian manner and set
a bad example, we've taken on that name in vain.
Keeping the Third Commandment means taking our lives
seriously enough to bring honor to the name we bear.
And in that way, the commandment becomes far
more than a guide concerning statements we make with
our mouths, but a motivation to consider the statements
we make with our lives.
Even the commandments that might seem obvious--such as
the Sixth Commandment, "You shall not murder"-- have so much
more to say than those four words might seem to reveal.
Jesus Christ, Himself, makes this plain,
explaining in Matthew 5:21 and 22 that hating your
brother in your heart is the spirit of murder, and
that hating others violates the Sixth Commandment.
When you look at the world today and see how
anger-filled it is, and then when you recognize it
as the spirit of murder that you're seeing in the faces
of rage that fill our streets and news feeds,
suddenly you realize just how far we've fallen from what
God seeks to make of us.
And further still, the command against murder is
rooted in the fact that every single human being
is created in God's image.
In contrast to the culture of death we see around us--
in which abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide are
considered moral progress instead of the signs of
moral degradation they truly represent--a devotion to
living the values of the Sixth Commandment is a devotion
to respecting the beautiful image of God inherent
in every human life.
Not just the life of the healthy and strong,
but the life of the infirm and the weak.
As God told Moses in Exodus 4 and verse 11,
"Who has made man's mouth?
Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I, the LORD?"
The Sixth Commandment declares that no life is
without value and meaning in the eyes of God.
And even a supposedly simple and obvious command like
"You shall not murder"
has beautiful depths that are worth exploring.
In a moment, I want to help us step back and
take in the larger picture by imagining the world
that Jesus Christ will establish at His return.
When we do, we'll find the Ten Commandments are the key
to seeing that picture.
Before that, though, I want to take one final
break to give you time to request today's free offer,
The Ten Commandments.
You will find nowhere else on earth a guide like this
to take you through the Ten Commandments,
one after the other, explaining how each one
provides a key to making your life everything
God would have it to be.
You need the blessings that come from making God's laws
your own in the most personal and profound of ways.
This free booklet, The Ten Commandments, was designed
to help you do just that.
Order your copy right now, and I'll be right back to
paint a picture of the commandment-keeping world
Jesus Christ longs to establish here on earth.
Don't go away.
♪
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time, you will also
receive a free annual subscription to Tomorrow's
World magazine.
Six inspiring issues discussing news, science,
and modern culture will help you make sense of
your world from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
Call now!
Or go to...
♪
Welcome back.
Before we leave each other today, I'd like to take a
moment and ask you to imagine a world seemingly out of reach,
but one which will soon become reality with the return of
Jesus Christ--a world in which everyone is keeping all ten
of the Ten Commandments.
Imagine a world in which every human being in every country
on earth has no other God than the God of the Bible.
Every living, breathing soul understands that nothing in
their devotions should come before God the Father and
Jesus Christ, and everyone worships Them alone.
That worship is free of any and all trappings of paganism.
There are no statues or images of so-called saints
or other distractions.
Every soul on earth uses God's name with a sense
of respect for everything that it represents,
because they know that the words they utter matter.
Consequently, no one uses foul language any longer.
No one anywhere on the planet utters God's name
in a curse, and it would not even cross someone's
mind to swear or speak in a filthy manner.
Imagine a world in which everyone keeps
the seventh-day Sabbath.
Gone forever are the days when someone worked seven
days a week, replaced by a joyful, worldwide observance
of God's ordained rest from labor--a time for families to
reaffirm their affections for each other and to seek the
face of their God together.
Every week, everyone on earth gathers together
as God commands, in holy convocation, to sing
praises to their Creator and their Savior, and
to learn together from the pages of Scripture.
Imagine, too, that, in that world, families have been
restored as the fundamental building blocks of civilization.
Parents are honored and loved, in accordance with the fifth
commandment, and grandparents and great-grandparents are held
in high esteem, as children are taught to respect those who've
gone before them.
Those same children play safely in the streets as families
spend time together in the neighborhood, because violence
and hatred are no longer a part of anyone's experience.
Families remain intact for life and marriages remain strong,
as men and women learn the joy and peace that comes from
reserving physical intimacy for the God-ordained place
for which it was designed: their marriages.
There are no locks on doors, and children leave
their bicycles on the front lawns, since no one would
ever think to take something that is not theirs.
And relationships in the community and between people
and their leaders are built on a foundation of mutual
trust and respect, in which everyone speaks truthfully
with each other.
Then imagine that, over all of this lies an air of
contentment and gratitude-- because the idea that
happiness is dependent on the number of things
you can buy or collect to keep up with the neighbors
has long since passed from the world.
Instead, everyone finds their deepest satisfaction
in the profitable work of their hands, the joy they
feel from the love of friends and family, and
the knowledge that the God they worship is One who
knows them, and loves them, and is personally
working in this world, and in their lives, to bring
His purpose for their lives to fruition--
when they will join His own Family and step
into eternity with Him, forever.
That beautiful world--which Jesus Christ will establish
at His return--is one in which everyone keeps
the Ten Commandments.
Of course, you and I don't have to wait for His return
to begin manifesting that world around us.
We can begin by turning to Him and living the beautiful
richness of His commandments in our lives right now--today.
Our free booklet, The Ten Commandments, would be a
great place to start.
I do hope you'll get your copy.
And I hope you'll come back next week, where
Gerald Weston, Richard Ames, Rod McNair, and I will be
right here waiting--working to help you understand the
Gospel of God's Kingdom, the end-time prophecies of your
Bible, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and to help you pierce
the fog of today's world to see the hope-filled world of
tomorrow that Christ is bringing with Him.
Until next time, take care.
♪
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
The preceding program is produced by the
Living Church of God.
♪
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