Sermon Tone Analysis

A few years ago, comedian and television host, Stephen Colbert, interviewed a congressman about various issues.

This particular congressman had co-sponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

He also sponsored a bill to place the Ten Commandments in courthouses around the country.

Colbert, in his usual wit, and armed with Biblical knowledge (himself, a very devout Catholic), asked the congressman: “What are the commandments?”

The congressman said, “What are all of them?

You want me to name them all?”

“Sure,” said Colbert.

The congressman said, “Don’t murder.

Don’t lie.

Don’t steal...”

[Colbert counts with his fingers]

Congressman: “I can’t name them all.”

Colbert ended the exchange with some humorous facial expressions and a parting shot about keeping the sabbath day holy.

>It’s interesting, isn’t it?

This congressman sponsoring a bill to have the Ten Commandments displayed in public and judicial buildings because he felt so strongly about their importance, couldn’t name the Ten Commandments.

He actually named the 6th, 9th, and 8th commandments, before admitting he couldn’t name all of them.

I’d be surprised to meet anyone who could rattle them off, all ten of them, and then in order.

Can you name the Ten Commandments?

Before the last month or so, and without study, I might have been able to come up with all 10 of them, but certainly not in order.

The congressman is not alone.

Several reports have shown that most Americans do not know the Ten Commandments.

Many Christians cannot name them either.

The Ten Commandments are important to know.

It might be good to have them committed to memory, if for nothing else than you might be put on the spot and asked to rattle them off sometime.

I’ve been well-served by some drawings Kathleen Clymer gave to me; they’ve really helped me in memorizing the order of the Ten Words, so I share them with you here; maybe they’ll be of help to you.

Picture Slideshow (one at a time).

It’s important to know what the Ten Commandments are, but far more important to know them, to understand why they are given, the gospel pattern in them, the arrangement of them, and the attributes of God displayed in each.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Exodus 20.

If you are willing and able, would you stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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Before we jump into the Ten Commandments, we have to give careful attention to verses 1 and 2. These verses are not there merely to introduce the Ten Commandments, but have deep significant meaning themselves.

We spent a good amount of time last week considering this great truth: God speaks.

God spoke these words in the hearing of His people.

That’s why these are sometimes called “the Ten Words”—they are words from God to the people directly.

God speaks to His people, letting them know how it is they are to follow Him, obey Him, glorify Him.

Remember: this is God speaking.

Any time you read this book, God speaks.

Many people leap right over verse 2 when reading the Ten Words, and they miss the important ordering here.

Before the Ten Commandments, a statement about God’s salvation is made: “I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

“Yeah, yeah…we know.

Come on!

How many times have we heard this?

How many times do we have to hear you say that?”

This is the gospel.

This is the good news of their deliverance, their salvation from the hand of their enemy; this is rescue from slavery and certain death.

This is a reminder of God’s grace to them.

In essence, God is saying, “Remember, before I give you any instructions, before I put any tasks on your to-do list, remember that I freed you by my grace, all on my own.

Remember, you did absolutely nothing to earn this.

Remember, I gave you new life.

Remember that you are mine because I chose you, not because you were deserving.

Remember all that before you hear me call you to obedience.”

We need to rest in verse 2 for a bit.

We are performance-based people living in a performance-driven society.

Get good grades, get a scholarship.

Achieve measurable work goals, get a raise.

Practice hard, get better.

We are almost hardwired to think: “I have to do in order to get.”

And we let this spill-over into our thinking about God.

“If God is going to love me, I’ve got to do a bunch of good stuff.”

“If God is going to save me, I have to clean myself up and make myself presentable to Him.”

“If I’m going to be a Christian, I have to do this and this and this and this.”

Before the Israelites do anything religious, before they obey the Lord, before they have done anything to earn anything, the Lord God brings them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

That’s salvation—full and free.

That’s salvation—entirely of the Lord.

That’s salvation—by grace alone.

Verse 2 is crucial to our understanding of the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments.

God’s people desire to do God’s will because they have been saved already, not to earn salvation.

Verse 2 grounds us and gives us an important foundation as we begin to look at the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Words are spoken to the people by the God who saved them.

God wants His people to live and behave in a certain way—a peculiar way—so that all the world would know they belong to Him; so that all the world would know they are His treasured possession, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6; 1 Peter 2:9-10).

God wants His people to live and behave in a certain way, and so He gives them their marching orders.

I think it’s helpful to think of the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments in two categories.

Love God.

Love people.

The first four commandments hang on the command to love God, since they describe ways to show covenant loyalty directly to Him.

The last six commands hang on the command to love neighbor as self.

In this way, the Ten Words express how we fulfill the greatest commands.

Do you remember when Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment in the Law?

An expert in the law (that is, an expert in the OT law, a student of the Ten Words) asked Jesus this, testing Jesus with this question:

There was no way Jesus could answer this that wouldn’t land Him in hot water, so thought the expert in the law.

Either Jesus is going to leave something out or he’s going to pit one command against another.

The expert in the law thought for sure he had asked Jesus an impossible question.

This was a good test; a well-thought-out trap.

There was only one problem with this law expert’s question: he was asking Jesus, the Son of God, the One who spoke the very Law he’s asking about.

Jesus took the commandments—the Ten Words, and the other 603 commands in the OT—and distilled them down into these two categories.

Love God.

Love people.

God tells us how to love Him appropriately.

If all we were told was “Love God”, and weren’t given any direction, we’d likely fail to love Him properly.

I just read a survey of adults in the United States.

80% believe in God, but only 56 percent of those believe in God as described in the Bible.

Without the Bible to instruct us, even our view of God is improper.

If all we were told as “Love God”, we’d likely fail to love Him properly.

Knowing us, we’d love Him a little and give a good portion of our love to other gods, to created things—breaking the first and second commandments.

Knowing us, we’d speak without thought and spend our time however we’d like, breaking the third and fourth commandments.

Instead, God gives us the first four commandments so that we will love Him properly, expressing our love for Him in singular devotion, in worship of Him alone, in praise of His name, honoring Him with our time.

Our love for God is reflected by our obedience to His words.

Love God.

Love people.

The first four commandments focus on how we love God.