Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

People in our society today believe that no one can really know the truth.

One parable that illustrates this is the Parable of the Blind Men.

Parable of the Blind Men

It is the story of a King who tells a group of blind men who have never seen or experienced an Elephant in India.

There is a group of blindfolded men and each person is to touch a different part of the elephant.

One person touches the tusk “spear”, the other touches a nose “snake”, the other touches a tail “rope”, another the ear “fan”.

And when asked, “what did you experience?”

They all have different versions of the elephant.

So, the point of the parable is to show that no one can really have the whole truth.

In the same way, no one can know whether or not there is One true God.

Many people have different ideas of god, therefore we can’t really say that one religion has the whole truth.

This parable is used as a thought experiment to often illustrate that no one has the whole truth.

Because all the men are blindfolded, each person has some parts of the truth, but not the whole truth.

In the same way, all religions have some parts of the truth, but no one can really no what the elephant is truly like.

The reason why we have so many religions in the world today is because we can’t really know if there is one God, or multiple gods, or millions of God.

But whether you believe in one God, multiple gods, or no gods, everyone has their own version of the elephant and the truth.

Religious Pluralism is the idea that there are many religions in the world today, so therefore we can’t have one religion or one truth because everyone has different experiences because they come from different cultures and different religious backgrounds.

There are many paths to salvation, because there are many different worldviews and religions.

But there are problems with this parable if you think more deeply about it.

One person sees that there is a whole elephant, the King.

There is one person who is not blindfolded.

He claims to have the comprehensive vision of the elephant.

So the parable shoots itself in the foot because He is the one who sees the blind men and the elephant.

The second problem with this parable is that it assumes that the blind men are content with partial truth, rather than the whole truth.

And third, the blind men could know the truth if someone discloses the truth to them.

The King can say its an elephant.

Or what if the Elephant were to speak!

One Christian apologist explains it this way:

“Even though the men are blind, the elephant isn’t necessarily mute.

This is a factor the illustration doesn’t allow for: What if the elephant speaks?

“The claim of Christianity is that man doesn’t learn about God by groping.

Instead, discovery is through God’s own self-disclosure.

He is not passive and silent, leaving us to guess about His nature.

God tells us what He is like and what He wants.

God is the One who has comprehensive knowledge of reality because He made it all.

“If God speaks, this changes everything.

All contrary opinions are silenced, all conjectures are put to rest.

God has made Himself known, giving us a standard by which to measure all other religious claims.

The parable of the blind men does not take this possibility into account.

Yet three of the world’s great religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—make this claim.”

The Bible tells there is One God, because this One God has spoken to us in His Word.

And that is why we are studying the First Commandment this morning which I believe is the most important commandment.

God has spoken and He has shown us what He is like.

Background:

Last week, we saw that the Ten Commandments reveal God’s Holy character, it shows us man’s sinfulness and inability to keep His Holy commands, and our need of a Savior to bear the curse because we failed to keep the commands, but God has forgiven our sin in Christ and has now written the law of God on our hearts by His Spirit.

So, today, we will see how the First Commandment applies to us today as Christians.

The Ten Commandments were written in Two Tablets.

The first four deal with God, while the last six deal with others.

Some say honor your parents is actually in the first tablet, but we will deal with that later when we study the fifth commandment.

Today, we will see that the First Commandment requires

I.

I. Exclusive Worship

II.

Supreme Devotion

II.

Rejection of Idols

III.

Love of Christ

III.

God forbids idolatry

Let’s read our Scripture this morning.

IV.

God is worshipped through Jesus

Background:

Today, we take a look at the First Commandment.

I would say that this is the most important commandment, because you will break this commandment first when you break the others.

Scripture:

What is the first commandment and how do we obey it?

I.

The First Commandment requires Exclusive Worship.

You Shall Have No Other gods....

You is singular by the way.

Remember as we studied last week, that the Law was given after God delivered His people from slavery.

We can say the gospel precedes the commandments.

They were delivered from Pharaoh, from oppression, from the house of slavery.

And this God was the self-existent, self-sufficient, all-powerful, all-knowing, gracious and merciful God who disclosed Himself to Israel.

And now God covenants with Israel and gives them 10 words or these Ten Commandments to show how his people are to live as free people to show forth that this is a special and chosen and holy nation, a kingdom of priests to God ().

Because of pluralistic society we live in, people will say that it is arrogant to claim that you know the only way.

I remember in college taking a religious studies course, and my professor said that I don’t want anyone saying that there is only one truth.

How can you say that when not everyone believes the same thing you believe.

But this is a misunderstanding of the nature of truth.

By definition, truth excludes other claims.

In math, when you say 2+2=4, you wouldn’t call a student arrogant for getting the right answer.

If you told your teacher, “That is so arrogant, my view of 2+2=10.

You wouldn’t say to your teacher, there are many answers to the problem.

You teacher would give you a “F” for your answer.

And this view doesn’t even live up to its up claims.

At a stop light, when you see red, you can’t just say there are many different interpretations of red.

For me, red means go, then you will find yourself in a car accident.

The Bible makes an absolute truth claim.

It is either true or false.

And the Bible claims monotheism, or the belief in One true God.

And this God enters into a covenant relationship with his people.

And as mentioned, God entered into a covenant with his people.

A covenant is a promise of commitment and blessing that accompanies this relationship when both parties keep their word.

In this case, a superior takes on subjects and promises to protect if they also keep their end of the bargain.

A covenant is similar to what goes on in a marriage.

When a person gets married, the traditional vows are stated as followed:

Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?