Sermon Tone Analysis

In our Responsive Reading, we have already heard the Ten Commandments as found in the book of Exodus in their entirety, consequently I am only going to read from the opening verses of the Deuteronomy version for our Scripture lesson.

May God bless this, the reading of His holy and infallible rule.

One of the aspects of the Ten Commandments that is often overlooked is that they come to us as Household Rules.

This is seen in who is the primary object of these commandments.

In other words, who is the “you”, in the Ten Commandments.

The answer is found in four verses.

Let me highlight them for you:

In vs. 3, God made a covenant with fathers.

In vs. 9, it is the sin of the father, not the mother, that is visited upon the children.

In vs. 14, the “you” is a person who owes livestock and servants.

In the context of the ancient Near East, this would only be an adult male.

In vs. 21, the “you” is not to covet their neighbor’s wife.

Again this is clearly an adult male.

Clearly, the “you” is the head of the household.

What this means is that the Ten Commandments are Household Rules that are to govern covenant households.

This does not mean that the Ten Commandments are not for every believer, but they are especially...

A Rule for the Head of the House

The husband is ordained by God as the head of the household.

This is clearly seen in Ephesians 5:22-24:

What does it mean for a husband to be the head of the home?

Many fear this idea, imagining the husband acting like a tyrannical ruler.

Lord Acton is famous for saying, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

As we look over human history, we see so much abuse of power by those in authority, but have you ever thought of the fact that all the abuse we see is only the tip of the iceberg.

Most abuses of power take place behind closed doors.

This is true of government, this is true of business, and this is true of the home.

God knows this is a problem better than we do.

This is way He has placed within the Ten Commandments safeguards against abuse.

Together, these safeguards are summed up by one word—love.

The Ten Commandments are…

A Rule of Love

When asked which of the Ten Commandments was the most important, Jesus answered:

What is the number one fear that people have in affirming male leadership?

Is it not the abuse of power?

Lord Acton is famous for saying, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

God knows this is a problem better than we do.

The abuse of power we see is only the tip of the iceberg.

How often have we said after learning a man or women has abused their power, “I would have never guessed they were like that?” God sees it all.

The first safeguard God places within the Ten Commandments is found in Deuteronomy 5:6:

What does God remind the men of Israel of?

He reminds them that they were once the victims of tyranny and God in His grace and love rescued them from tyranny.

The same is true for New Covenant believers as well.

We were under the thumb of the worst of tyrants—the Devil!

God is reminding men that in their households they are not to act like “mini Pharaohs”; quite the opposite, they are to act like “mini Christs”!

This brings us to the second safeguard God places within the Ten Commandments—we are to look after the interests of others before we look after our own interests.

Notice that each commandment begins by saying, “you shall” rather than “they shall”!

The Ten Commandments are like a mirror, not a pair of binoculars.

We are not to use them to look at other people to see where they are not meeting their obligation to us, but rather we are to use them to see how we are not meeting our obligations to others.

This truth is captured beautifully in Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

Before I move on, I want to give you first a warning and then an encouragement in regards to the Ten Commandments.

The warning is this: This rule of love is impossible to fulfill unless we have been born again.

The natural person cannot fulfill the demands of the Law, because our sinful nature will incite us to do just the opposite.

Paul speaks of this in Romans 7:

Here is the encouragement: Once we have been born again, the Ten Commandments are not difficult to understand.

In fact, a child can understand and obey them.

This brings us to the next point: The Ten Commandments are...

A Rule of Instruction

After giving the men of Israel the Ten Commandments, God said to them through Moses:

Just because the Ten Commandments was directed primarily at men, does not mean it is not for women and children.

The father as the spiritual head of the home is to teach his children to love and obey God just as he loves and obeys God.

This is a big task, but God has given man a “helper”—women!

Last week I spoke of the Creation Mandate we find in Genesis 1:28.

From the rest of Scripture, it becomes clear that this mandate is not just to have lots of physical offspring, but lots of spiritual offspring!

For example, in Malachi, we read these words:

Why does God hate divorce?

God hates divorce because it hampers the producing of godly offspring.

No child comes out of divorce unscathed, and one of the more ugly scares is that it hardened their hearts against God.

This being said let us return to the topic of instruction.

How is a father, with the help of his wife to instruct their whole household in the Ten Commandments?

For the answer, let us look again at Deut 6:4-9:

I am not going into this passage in depth today, we will do that at a latter time, but briefly, the Ten Commandments should be:

In Your Heart

On Your Lips

In Your Life

On Your House

In short, the truths taught in the Ten Commandments saturate your household.

It becomes the air which you and your family breaths.

I hope and pray this gets you excited as we begin next Sunday to look at each of the Ten Commandments individually.