2026.03.22 The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Notes
Transcript
1 Then God gave the people all these instructions:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.
6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
7 “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.
11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You must not murder.
14 “You must not commit adultery.
15 “You must not steal.
16 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
►►►SLIDE [title]
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Last week I said there were a three commandments that were only two words in the Hebrew, and one of them was “No murder”. This week, we see the other two:
Lo Tinaf (tin ‘af) & Lo Tignov (tig ‘nōv)
Literally: No Adultering and No Stealing
I told you there are 613 commands in the Old Testament. Depending on who’s defining the parameters, over 40 of those commands deal with marriage, family, and sexual relations.
So, how does this simple “No adultery” encapsulate all of those?
Open your Bibles to Malachi 2. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. And I think we’ll see the category this command is really identifying.
►►►SLIDE [Malachi 2:10-16]
10 Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled Yahweh’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.
12 May Yahweh cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to Yahweh of Heaven’s Armies.
13 Here is another thing you do. You cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure.
14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t Yahweh accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because Yahweh witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.
15 Didn’t Yahweh make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce!” says Yahweh , the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says Yahweh of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
Do you see the parallel God is drawing here? All throughout Scripture, the relationship between Yahweh and his people is compared to a marriage. The church is outright called the Bride of Christ in Revelation.
Adultery is a violation of fidelity. It’s an act of unfaithfulness, and God despises unfaithfulness of all types. All of the commands about marriage, family life, and sexual relations are about being faithful to your mate and your family.
In my premarital sessions, I always ask, “What could happen that would end this marriage?” You probably know what the most common answer is: “If he cheated.” “If she cheated.”
This violation is so incredibly personal, the wound is deep and leaves a horrendous scar. Many of us in this room have suffered or inflicted adultery on someone.
I have not. I have always prided myself on never having cheated on a girlfriend or my wife. I’ve been a hair-breath away from infidelity, but I haven’t commited adultery.
Before I break my arm patting myself on the back, turn to Matthew 5.
►►►SLIDE [Matthew 5:27-28]
Just like last week with murder … Jesus taught about this commandment in the Sermon on the Mount.
27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’
28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Okay. I doubt there is a soul on the planet who can say they haven’t violate the spirit of this commandment, given Jesus’ standard.
Before we move away from this passage, back up just a bit: Look at verse 20
20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
The Pharisees and teachers of the law were great at following every last sweep of the letter of the law.
►►►SLIDE [Heart Posture]
But they lacked the Heart Posture. Their motivation is to be seen as holy, not to actually BE holy! In order to BE holy … Jesus says we have to purify our motives, our “heart posture”, and any violation of fidelity, even mental is a violation none-the-less!
God said he hated when Israel was unfaithful to him … and then he says he hates it when his people are unfaithful to each other.
So that was an easy enough one, right?
►►►SLIDE [secondary title]
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Moving to the sixth commandment - HEY WE’RE MORE THAN HALF WAY NOW!!!
Lo Tignov (tig ‘nōv) - no stealing
[not on screen]
15 “You must not steal.
Paul lists several categories of people who will not inherit the Kingdom of God in 1 Corinthians 6 … adulterers are on the list — so are thieves.
The Scriptures are filled with variations on this idea of taking what doesn’t belong to you. From the overt taking items from another person, to the categorical like Malachi saying that withholding our tithe is robbing God; Jesus saying, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” indicating tax cheating is stealing. Bribery is a form of stealing; rigging weights.
I’ll confess that I have outright stolen things in my younger years, and I would suggest that all of us likely have taken a piece of gum out of mom’s purse without permission or some other minor version of this violation.
In today’s world, we all get emails from a Nigerian prince who supposedly has money for us … we’ve learned that they want to steal our money.
I recently watched a YouTube series about ways grocery stores and restaurants steal from us. One of these groceries has already paid a multi-million dollar fine for falsifying weights on their meats. In the video, the person went to the store and grabbed several packages of meat and weighed them in the Produce Department and found several that weren’t even close to the weight listed on the packaging.
At restaurants, they showed several receipts that listed suggested tips at the bottom. They had 15%, 20%, and 25%, but the amounts associated with the percentages were in some cases DOUBLE what the percentage would calculate out to. That’s stealing!
So … check the weight on your meat and do your own math on your tips.
It’s easy to get outraged at people stealing, but I want to turn it around a minute.
Several years ago, I had an old truck that had a cassette tape player instead of a CD player. So I bought a thing that would insert into the tape deck and it had a cable to connect to a portable CD player. Sitting in the parking lot of our home church … someone broke into my truck and stole that CD player and a bunch of CDs. They were all Christian CDs so I hope they got saved out of it! :)
Seriously … I felt really violated. I’ve never had a house broken into, but if you’ve ever talked to someone who has … it’s a really personal violation. They feel unsafe in their own house. They feel paranoid about what’s gonna happen next.
When we steal from someone, we are visiting that type of violation on them. “Oh, it’s just a pen. What’s the big deal?” I don’t know anything about the other person … so how can I know what is and what isn’t a big deal to them?
Instead of excusing what we’d call a slight infraction ...
►►►SLIDE [Heart Posture]
let’s check our motives.
We want justice when we’re the victim, even if the infraction is slight. Today, let’s seek justice when we’re the perpetrator … even if the infraction is slight.
►►►SLIDE [title]
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
The Big 10 - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
No unfaithfulness. No stealing.
Keep your hands to yourself.
Let’s pray.
