Tag Archives: Ten Commandments

The Tenth Commandment: You Shall Not Covet

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not COVET thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

When God gave the Tenth Commandment, He was very specific. The believer is not to “covet” (Hebrew ḥāmaḏ, pronounced khaw-mad’) that which God has given to another. God said:

“You shall not DESIRE your neighbor’s WIFE (or husband)”
This leads to adultery.
“You shall not DESIRE your neighbor’s employees”
This harms another’s business.
“You shall not DESIRE your neighbors vehicles”
Appreciate the tractor or car God has given you.
“You shall not DESIRE anything of your neighbors”
This leads to theft…. Continue reading

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Exodus 20:15: Thou Shalt Not Steal

Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

Just four words in the English, but only two words in the Hebrew, the EIGHTH Commandment says:

lō’ gānaḇ (pronounced gaw-nab’)

The words mean “you shall not carry away or steal”. The earliest use of this word is found in the story of Jacob and his father in law Laban. Laban was aging, and wanted Jacob to stay with him and tend to his herds of goats and flocks of sheep. Jacob agreed to do so, but only if Laban gave him all the speckled or spotted goats and black sheep. Laban quickly agreed to this, as the animals that were spotted or the black sheep were considered inferior quality (Genesis 30:32-36). The majority of Laban’s flock was pure white, and the goats were pure white or black. So it seemed as if Jacob was making a lopsided deal. But Jacob was in communion with God, and the Lord told Jacob how to breed the animals so as to birth speckled animals (Genesis 31:10-12). Laban was trying to STEAL from Jacob, and God wasn’t going to have it. In the end, Jacob ended up with a greater herd of speckled and spotted animals…. Continue reading

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The Sixth Commandment: Life Is Sacred

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is in an uproar again. The state of Alabama executed convicted murderer Kenneth Smith using Nitrogen Gas, in a procedure called nitrogen hypoxia. Smith was a part of a crew hired to murder Elizabeth Sennett. He and John Forrest Parker stabbed her to death in her home, on instructions from her husband. Convicted of murder, Smith sat on death row over 20 years. He was executed almost 36 years after he brutally assisted in murdering this woman. Alabama had tried to execute him by lethal injection (the procedure used to kill Parker) but failed because they were unable to find a suitable vein. Executed by nitrogen hypoxia, the ACLU said “Mr. Smith shook, convulsed, writhed, and gasped for minutes until he was pronounced dead at least 22 minutes after the execution began, though just how long it took is unknown since Alabama closed the execution curtain before the official time of death”.

I wonder how long Elizabeth Sennett “shook, convulsed, writhed, and gasped” as Smith and Parker drove knives into her body? Did those men deserve to die because they callously took her life? Does the state have the right to execute murders? The answer to both questions is an emphatic YES!

Tonight we’re going to look at The Sixth Commandment, and what this commandment entails. The world’s oldest profession is farming, as Adam was placed in the “Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). … Continue reading

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The Fifth Commandment To Honor Your Parents

The last few weeks we have looked at the Ten Commandments of God. To review, the First Commandment is that “You will have no other gods before Yahweh”. Our God is #1! The Second Commandment is that “You will not create any idol of any type to worship or bow down to”. For this one we show the picture of the bowing number 2. The Third Commandment is that we will not “Take the Name of Yahweh in vain – to dishonor God with your lips”. The number 3 looks like a set of lips. The Fourth Commandment is to “Remember the Sabbath”, or to take one day in seven and dedicate it to the Lord. As Christians we do this on Sunday. The number 4 looks like a book end for a Bible. Now we come to the Fifth Commandment:

Exodus 20:12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

A Lawyer asked Jesus one day, “What is the “Great Commandment” in the Law?” (Matthew 22:35-40). His intent was to “tempt”or test Jesus, so as to show Him to be a fraud. Our Lord didn’t hesitate. He said:

Matthew 22:37-40 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40 On these two… Continue reading

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The Fourth Commandment To Rest

Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God…… Continue reading

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The Third Commandment

The Name of God defines Who God is. God is “I Am”. He is Eternal, without beginning or end. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). God has no starting place. He was never created, but has always been the Creator. God knows all things. “His understanding is beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5). Dr. Adrian Rogers wrote:

“The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible. It is the personal covenant name of Israel’s God. In the King James Version of the Bible, it’s translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God’s strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. The root of this name means “self-existing,” one who never came into being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, “Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?” God said, “I AM THAT I AM.””

God is eternal and UNCHANGING. He is I AM. “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Our God DEPENDS ON NO ONE. His Name is I AM. “The Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:26). Our God is the pattern of all life. God’s Name is not “YOU ARE” but “I AM”. “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6). There is nothing that God cannot do except evil. Pastor John MacArthur writes: Continue reading

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The Second Commandment

One of my heroes of the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a pastor in Nazi Germany. Rather than “Go along to get along” he actively taught against and stood up to the Nazi atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Bonhoeffer could have taken the easy way out and run away when the Nazis began executing and burning Jews and other prisoners of war. He was martyred for standing up to evil, strangled and hung up naked in the very concentration camps he fought against. Bonhoeffer wrote:

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”

Many people today are on the “wrong train”. Many are on a “long, black train” like Josh Turner sings about.

There’s a long black train comin’ down the line
Feedin’ off the souls that are lost and cryin’
Rails of sin, only evil remains
Watch out, brother, for that long black train

You get on a “Long, Black Train” when you get away from God’s Ten Commandments. … Continue reading

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Introduction To The Ten Commandments And The First Commandment of God

The Ten Commandments are the basis of a good and godly government. They were not only given to Israel at the base of Sinai, but to any nation that wanted the blessings of God. Continue reading

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Hear, O America

I am not the same person I was when I was born. I am not the same person I was when I was a child. I am not the same person I was when I was in the military. I am not the same person I was when I first came to this beloved Church over six years ago. I change. You change. But God is unchanging. Our God is the One Who gives good and perfect gifts, Continue reading

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