P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

THE BARELY BROKEN GOBLET

It was a heavy-duty jury sitting on the case, and I don't know if you or I — either one — would want to be the defendant. Because there on the front row of these 12 citizens, a jury of peers, was sitting the Rev. Billy Graham. And next to him Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. And in the third seat, Pope John Paul II. In fact, the other nine chairs were filled with other equally big names in the world of religion, men and women who were spiritual giants, leaders of huge, global flocks, either in congregations or with major media ministries.

Well, that's the scenario that was recently concocted in the imagination of my friend Dr. Dwight Nelson, pastor at Pioneer Memorial Church at Andrews University in Michigan, and the host for a huge worldwide satellite preaching event that went five weeks: The NeXt Millennium Seminar, going out live to six continents, more than a hundred countries, and being simultaneously translated into something like 40 languages.
But on the fourth Friday night of the series, Pastor Nelson assembled for us this wonderful jury of great religious leaders: Graham, Dobson, and all the rest. Using some inventive PowerPoint computer graphics, we were able to imagine these people sitting in to consider a vital question.

And then Dwight took us back to an ancient confrontation between Moses and the Pharaoh of Egypt. A lot of people are suddenly much more aware of this story, thanks to a new animated cartoon playing around the world, The Prince of Egypt. But as all the plagues are falling on the land — the frogs, the lice, the hailstones, the locusts — this pharaoh of Egypt begs Moses with this desperate line: "Remove this deadly thing from me."

And you know, friend, that's the moral cry here in 2001. Religious leaders look around and they see crime and corruption. They see abortions for convenience. They see pornography on the Internet. They see divorces piled on divorces. They see increased political clout by lobbyists seeking to legitimize homosexual behavior. They see Jack Kevorkian killing a man right on 60 Minutes, with millions watching. And these spiritual leaders are pleading with a world fascinated by sin: "Remove this deadly thing from us." What can we do, they wonder, to return America and the other nations of planet earth to moral sanity? That's the question for this jury to ponder.

Well, all this week we've been talking about a very important topic: one of God's Ten Commandments. And Dwight Nelson, in this brilliant lecture flashing around the world over those satellite birds, joined in with Dr. Dobson's anguish about how the family is being destroyed as people flout the sixth commandment and the seventh commandment. The nine plain words, "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not commit adultery," are just plain going down the drain despite the stalwart efforts of Focus on the Family. Abortion continues to be a convenient way of life around the globe despite the encyclicals of the pope. TV networks continue to make jokes about premarital sex and multiple affairs; they keep taping gay-themed sitcoms despite the stadium rallies of Billy Graham. It seems that no matter how eloquent our preachers are in talking about the sixth commandment and the seventh commandment, nobody wants to listen. For some reason, these moral calls to repentance are falling on deaf ears.

There was a risky little article in the November 2, 1998 issue of Newsweek, where religion writer Kenneth Woodward wrote about how Southern Baptist President Bill Clinton found ways to maneuver through the "(quote) rules" of his faith, have extramarital affairs, and still be safe. The church, Woodward wrote, "emphasizes the right and ability of each believer to interpret the Bible correctly for themselves." In not so many words, then, that seventh commandment was a very negotiable thing. You could keep it for real, or you could kind of ignore it, or you could use the famous Clinton word games, the parsing, the slicing of meanings, until "adultery" doesn't mean "adultery," "sleeping with" doesn't mean anything unless you're fast asleep, and even the word "is" is up for grabs. And friend, you should have read the Letters to the Editor from Southern Baptists two weeks later. Ken Woodward still hasn't come out of hiding.

Here's the plainly stated point. Leaders everywhere are calling people back to this ancient pillar of truth known as the Ten Commandments. We want them posted in our schools again. Radio preachers especially want the sixth one and the seventh one put up on billboards. "No more killing." "No more adultery." Because ignoring these God-given laws is just plain killing us. It's sapping the nation and the world morally.
But now back to Pastor Nelson's sermon, which so many of us watched, mesmerized. Because then a New Testament verse went up on the screen. James 2:10. Here it is:

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

Whoever "offends" at one point, says the King James, is guilty of breaking the entire Law, the whole Ten Commandments. Here's the Message paraphrase New Testament:

"You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others."

The Clear Word:
"Whoever keeps all the law except for one part is guilty of breaking the whole law, not just a part of it."

And I'll never forget the visual imagery, then, where my friend Dwight Nelson took a beautiful crystal goblet. And then picked up a hammer. We all sucked in our breath. True, he only hit that perfect, expensive goblet at one point. But you know, it shattered into a thousand pieces right there on global television. It broke "at all points," believe me.

Well, friend, I'd like to say something to that imaginary jury just as graciously and as winsomely as Dwight Nelson did. Because Billy Graham is a great champion for the Lord; he's my brother in the Body of Christ. Pope John Paul II has been rightly hailed as one of the visionary spiritual giants of this century. James Dobson has accomplished huge things in preserving the family, of uplifting Christian truths. But when we as Christians suggest that society needs the sixth commandment and that the seventh commandment ought to be followed . . . but that the fourth commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day," is no longer necessary, then James 2:10 comes to our minds. In other words, if we jettison one commandment, we've taken them all down. If one of the ten ended at the cross, then they all did. If we can "parse" our way out of obeying just #4, then we can find loopholes for One through Three and Five through Ten also. And our moral authority as we preach is virtually destroyed.

Now friend, please understand me. My friends of other faiths point out, and rightly so, that the Bible tells us we're not under law, but under grace. And that's the absolute truth. That's the greatest truth in God's Word. Believe me, Romans 6:14 is underlined in my Bible too. Salvation has NEVER been by obedience to the law, but by accepting Jesus' gift for me on Calvary.

But does that then mean that the sixth commandment isn't one I should obey? Or the seventh commandment? When Jesus says to me, "Lonnie, if you love Me, keep My commandments" — after all, I DO think John 14:15 is for me too, not just Peter, James, and John — do I respond? Or is it legalism if I try to honor my Savior, to respond positively to Calvary, by obeying the sixth commandment? Is it legalism if I'm faithful to my marriage vows? And if it's not legalism for those two, which are being bravely trumpeted by religious leaders today, then why is it then legalism if I ask God to empower me to obey all ten? Why would it be legalism to follow Jesus all the way, to fellowship with Him on the very day He blessed and made holy, if that's one of the Ten Commandments this world so desperately needs?

I've been mentioning all week this well-researched book, From Sabbath to Lord's Day, compiled by excellent religious scholars. Some of it is hard going, to be sure. And these men, whom I respect, do not in the end embrace the concept of worshiping and celebrating here in 2001 on the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. But right toward the close, they make a confession that I would submit to that august jury assembled by my friend Dr. Dwight Nelson.

If you DO believe that the Ten Commandments of God are needed today, if you see the devastation all around us and decide that this world needs the sixth commandment and the seventh one — if those statements from God are still valid for today, not as a means of salvation, but as a result of it — what should you do? Here's their frank admission, word for word:

"To become a seventh-day Sabbatarian," they write, "is the ONLY consistent course of action for any one who holds that the whole Decalogue, [the Ten Commandments], is binding as moral law."

You know, I want to end on a note of kindness, as Dwight did. Because he loves these great leaders; he really does. He writes to them; he prays for them. And at the end of this global sermon, The Truth of the Broken Goblet, he looked into the camera both to affirm and to challenge the James Dobsons of this generation. "Go for it," he encouraged them. "Call people to repentance and to obedience. There IS a moral war raging. We DO need to have this ‘deadly thing' called sin removed." And then he invited them to invite THEIR vast congregations, their international pulpits, to be faithful in following Jesus in full and COMPLETE obedience. An obedience born of love, and only made possible by the miracle of Calvary.