Sermon Tone Analysis

Lawbreakers & The Law

/Text: Exodus 20:1-17/

 

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (07~/01~/01)

 

 

Introduction:   

 

We are going to be talking about the basics of the Bible.

Often when people pick up the Bible and try to read it, they can't understand it.

People who do not know Christ as their Savior will not be able to understand the Bible.

*1 Corinthians 2:14*  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

In order for us to understand the Bible, we have to start off with the basic concepts of the Bible.

ILLUS: Explain a computer to some citizens of a remote and yet uncivilized region of the world.

Imagine trying to describe something to someone who doesn't understand what you are talking about to begin with.

How are you going to start?

There are two approaches you can make.

One would be what we might term a chronological approach.

The same is true with the Bible.

If you sit down with some one and try to explain the Bible chronologically from Genesis to Revelation, you can eventually get the job done, but it is going to take a very long time.

The second way you could explain the computer would be to organize your thoughts according to content, giving an overall view.

That is what we are going to do in this Bible study.

We are going to be looking at some basic truths that will give us an overview of the Bible.

! I. LOOKING AT THINGS GOD'S WAY

In this study we are going to look at things the way God looks at them.

*1 Samuel 16:7*  But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

God rejected Eliab because He could see his heart.

God knew he would not make a good king for Israel.

God doesn't look on the outward appearance.

He looks on the heart.

He knows what a person is truly like.

When you and I look at people, we make judgment calls.

We make decisions about those people, based on the way they look, the way they dress, outward things we are able to observe about them or the things we hear them say.

But we don't really know what goes on inside of another person's heart.

We will be looking at things from God's point of view.

How does God see things?

How does that affect our lives as people?

!

II.

FACING GOD

 

Eventually every one of us is going to have to face God.

We will stand before God and will answer to Him.

One day you are going to die.

*Romans 14:12*  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

 

*Hebrews 9:27*  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

 

ILLUS: I don't know about you, but when I was in school, I didn't like tests.

I always dreaded examination time.

It definitely was not my favorite day.

But I knew the day was coming, and that fact caused me to listen for one purpose.

I didn't want my grades to look too bad when I took my report card home.

Most people I know aren't too interested in taking that final test when their life ends.

*Romans 2:2*  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

God will not judge us according to the outward appearance or the way things look.

He won't judge us by popular public opinion.

He won’t take a vote on the matter, and there won’t be a jury to make the decision.

We will be judged according to truth.

Now that is scary, because truth is so exacting, so straight, and so narrow.

John 17:17 tells us where truth is found.

*John 17:17 * Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

If you are wrong, what will you do then?

You see, your not believing it won't change the fact.

You can say, "I don"t believe that you have a shirt and tie on" but that doesn't change the fact that I do have a shirt and tie on.

You could say I am bald, if you wish, but I really am not.

I do have a few hairs left up on top.

You can believe whatever you want to believe and I can believe whatever I want to believe.

But ultimately it is not what you believe or what I believe that matters.

! III.

TRUTH = BIBLE

 

In *Second Timothy 3:16-17* the Bible says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

He tells us that the Bible is nothing less than Him speaking to us.

We better pay attention.

In *Second Peter 1:21* the Bible says, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost"

 

A bunch of fellows didn't one day sit down and decide to invent a new book and start a religion.

The Bible wasn't created in the mind of some prophets who wanted to have a book named after them.

The Bible says these men didn't do this by their own will.

Some people might say,  "Anyone could write a book and say it is God's Word.

Anyone could write a book and say it is true.

How do we know it is true?"  Let's look at some things that prove it is true.

There were forty different men who lived over a period of time of about sixteen hundred years who wrote down what God told them to write.

Most of these men never even met each other.

Yet when you put all sixty-six books together they perfectly agree with one another.

There is not one contradiction from Genesis to Revelation.

I dare you to pick up any two books written about science and see if they agree.

Get two history books and see if two history books agree.

We could also look at the honesty of the writers.

You know, if I was writing a book and it was going to be a holy book with my name attached to it, I would not write about all my problems.

I wouldn't tell you about my sins.

Next, let's consider the prophecies of the Scripture.

It might be a prophecy about the name of a king four hundred years from now who is going to be born, and the country over which he is going to reign when he grows up.

Or it could be a prophecy about a city being destroyed, how it would be destroyed and then how it would be rebuilt.

Yet there are literally hundreds of prophecies like that in the Bible and they were all fulfilled literally, just as they were prophesied.

In Second Peter 1:19 the Bible says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy."

He realized that the written Word of God is more powerful, more sure, more steadfast than seeing a vision or seeing a miracle.

This truth, the Bible, is what will judge you and judge me one day.

! IV.

TEN LAWS -- EXODUS 20

How does God judge us?

What are the things that God is concerned about?

We are going to see God's law.

The Bible teaches that God is holy.

Because of His holiness, God has given us in the Old Testament what is called His law.

There are 613 laws in all.

The Old Testament law is divided into three kinds.

There is the civil law that deals with the nation of Israel and how the nation of Israel was to operate.