The Voice in the Wilderness has developed twelve major lessons centered around, “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,”- Exodus chapter twenty and the teaching of Christ in Matthew 22:36-40. With Exodus 20 and “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS” plus the sum of all given by Christ as the two commandments upon which “hang all the law and the prophets,” we have written the “Twenty Twelve Ways” series corresponding with the year 2012. I pray this study will be a great blessing.
At the conclusion of this lesson, there is a twelve-point outline for the entire series. Since The Voice in the Wilderness printed edition is only mailed quarterly, we are making the lessons available online. You may visit www.thevoiceinthewilderness.org and view the twelve-lesson series each month throughout the year beginning in January 2012. The quarterly editions will also include the lessons.
Psalm 1 gives the eternal contrast and difference between the godly life and the ungodly. Every child of God should look carefully to Psalm 1. Here is the godly, holy life. Spiritual success, a fruitful walk, living that prospers, the truly blessed child of God is seen. The formula- heaven’s instruction, will take you from blessed to blessed, delight to delight, fruit to fruit, life to life, and prosperity to prosperity.
Contrary to the opinion of many, the law is not in contradiction to grace. The Lord’s law is demonstration of His Holiness. God has written His moral code and reveals sin defined to His people.
God is not “one god” among many other gods. Here is the emphatic declaration of the one true and living God. God will not, can not, and we must not give worship to any other or any thing. It is clear from this first commandment there is none beside Him, none like unto Him and none above Him. The heart of law is in the very Person and being of God. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Here is recorded the pure, irrefutable truth of God and God’s existence. The Book of beginnings, without arguments or options clearly states God is eternal-before and above all others.
God, in His holiness, wisdom and love has revealed Himself to all who will embrace Truth. Just simply look around. Abundant, irrefutable evidence declares there must be, there certainly is, the Supreme Creator/Designer. The Eternal One, existing before the universe, recorded the Book of “beginnings” Genesis, that mortal man can read the Truth. Whether looking into a microscope or peering through a telescope the marvels, mysteries and magnificence of His Majesty is so clearly seen. The mind that doubts must determine to doubt. The evidence must be denied, truth perverted and the conscience seared with a lie. For there issues from the very essence, in the mouth and in the heart of man (Romans 10:8) proof of the One, True, and Living God. Only by deliberate suppression and rejection of this profuse and pronounced truth can there result a person or people void of this knowledge. However, the fatal leap into the dark and the ultimate death crash into the abyss need not be. The barricade and warning signs are posted by The Law all along life’s journey.
Here is the Consideration: All God says should be readily accepted. How much more then is man accountable for His recorded words: “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.” (Exodus 31:1) Thus, we have written in stone by the finger of God recorded and preserved to this very generation and day “The Ten Commandments.” (Deuteronomy 10:4) God stresses the importance of these stone-inscribed words no less than seven times in Exodus 31:18; 32:15; 34:1; 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 9:10 and 10:4. With His own finger, God has not only inscribed in stone but also emphasized by His personal touch the unique place of “The Ten Commandments” in the affairs of man. Dare any diminish this importance or relevance today? Absolutely foundational to any legal system, moral compass or code of conduct are God’s own handwritten “Tables of Testimony.” But you object to that statement. Not everyone is a Jew or Christian. So for the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhists or how about the atheists—The Ten Commandments are irrelevant. Oh, you think so do you? Watch this carefully. The following applies to any, all, and no religion! Typically, we say the first four commandments deal with man’s relationship to God and the final six commandments speak of man’s relationship to man. Religion or not if one is honest, at least with ones self, all of us have an ultimate authority. Some one or something holds the final say. That may be a god, evolution, science even our own way of thinking. Call it what you will. Bottom line is you will live and you will die by that belief, or choice. Also there is the horizontal relationship. Even if you live in the Yukon or a desert wilderness totally secluded from all other “human beings” your existence started in a relationship. Your language and thought processes were affected by that initial relationship. Thus in life, there is a final authority and a relationship in this earthly existence. Quite frankly, an entire study would concentrate here, but that’s not the point. The point is God has written with His own finger Laws that all men everywhere regardless of their beliefs are accountable for ultimately. In this life, conduct has consequences and rewards. Honesty, lying, hard work, rest, covetousness, and murder irrespective of religion or no, yield results. One may believe in a god or deny God exists, but death will still come. The Ten Commandments set forth these relationships.
Ever consider why The Ten Commandments are so maligned, misinterpreted and misunderstood? This is where the proverbial “rubber meets the road.” Think about it. There is one considering abortion, another pursing a sinful occupation and still another contemplating divorce and remarriage. Over and over again it has been said, “I must live, I must make a living, I desire to be happy.” No, No, No, a thousand times No! There is a need to do right before God, but no right to live or make a living at the expense of doing right. The Ten Commandments are not the ten suggestions. The reward is in doing right and regardless of ones belief; the law of sowing and reaping applies. May I say if you sow a Godless life you will reap a Godless eternity (after life). All too often that is the problem. Individuals living in contradiction to set laws have no peace and may have begun to reap the consequences. Their conscience condemns them, yet they want validation in law breaking. Some choose to deny, disbelieve, or destroy the standard that condemns their behavior. One can refuse the doctor’s diagnoses or prescription for cure, but the malady remains. Cut your nose off to spite your face just is not sound thinking. Yet this sinful, perverse, crooked generation pursues more of the same. While God has written in stone, if you will, His teaching and requirements, sinful man fashions his idols, builds his own religion and even denies God exists in order to accelerate man’s own lawless demise.
Take a few moments to read Exodus 20:1-20 and Matthew 22:34-40. If you are teaching a class, have all the students read out loud in unison the above Scriptures. Listed in these verses, you will find Bible memorization to be done for this course of study. I recommend writing the Ten Commandments and Matthew 22:36-40 on index cards (See printed commandments elsewhere in this publication). Carry the cards with you at all times. When you have occasion during the day while eating, standing in line or waiting for an appointment review and meditate on these verses. Very soon you will have these key scriptures memorized.
Along with this study, “The Law of the Lord—The Lord of the Law” is a dedicated selection of Bible memory cards chosen out of the Hall of Faith Collection entitled, The Twenty Twelve Ways Series. Primarily, the Hall of Faith Collection is a biographical and historical collection highlighting God’s call in the lives of His faithful people. Bible memorization is an integral part of this card collection. We have taken this Bible memory element and listed The Ten Commandments along with the teaching of Christ recorded in Matthew 22:36-40 to produce 12 Bible Memory Cards as an accompaniment to this study. The title “Twenty Twelve” is taken from this Twelve Lesson Series as well as the year 2012.
Again, may God use this study to give us all the delight in the law of the Lord that in turn causes us to meditate day and night in HIS WORD and to do His will.
Access one new lesson each month in 2012.
King David wrote: "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." (Ps. 19:7) "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day" (Ps. 119:97). "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps. 119:18).
J. Edgar Hoover said: "What we need today is an inculcation of the immortal lessons of the ten commands and the Sermon on the Mount....This is the surest antidote to stern the rising tide of lawlessness."
The proceeds for the film "The Ten Commandments" were dedicated to philanthropy. Cecil B. DeMille said he was convinced that the Ten Commandments were God's answer to juvenile delinquency.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote concerning God's law: "There is not a commandment too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity."
Moses declared, "The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always that He might preserve us alive..." (Deut. 6:24).