Ten Words To Live By Series

Ten Words to Live By (Overview)

Exodus 20

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

07-06-2025

Top Ten Lists

Our culture loves lists, especially top ten lists. David Letterman had a top ten list every show. My friend Becky gave me a Bathroom Reader that is nothing but top ten lists. Rolling Stone magazine does a top ten every year and even a top ten of all time. The number one song of all time? Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

God has a top ten list as well. We know them as the “The Ten Commandments” although that name is never used in the Bible.

In Hebrew, this top ten list is known as the “Ten Words,” or Decalogue, and we find them in Exodus 20.

Last week, we witnessed the Israelites arriving at the foot of Mt. Sinai and God coming down to speak to Moses. There was lightning and thunder and the mountain shook violently just like Moses’s knees.

Remember, for over 400 years they had been slaves in a country that had thousands of gods. Now, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they will learn experientially that Yahweh is the only true God and that being in His presence creates terror, dread, and awe.

Moses was about to be given the Law of God, the blueprint for a new nation. Before the commandments there needs to be consecration. Before obedience there needs to be a sense of God’s ownership.

Today we embark on a study of these ten commandments. Let me ask a question to begin - do you know them?

A talk show host was interviewing a politician that was sponsoring a bill to place the ten commandments in the Senate chambers. When the hosts asked if he could name the commandments in order, he sputtered and named a couple and then sheepishly admitted that he really didn’t know all of them.

Before we make fun of him, what percentage of Americans can name all ten in order?

Even though 80% of Americans say they believe the ten commandments, only 14% can name them. But 25% of Americans can name all six Brady children!

By the way, in the 1690s during the Salem Witch Trials, one of the ones they “knew” someone was a witch was the fact they couldn’t recite the Ten Commandments.

So, obviously, there is a general ignorance of the Ten Commandments.

That is new in our culture. 50 years ago, most churches discipled their children and new Christians using the Ten Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, and The Lord’s Prayer.

But in this culture, we don’t like being told what to do and how to do it.

C.S Lewis wrote:

“The atheist can’t find God for the same reason the thief can’t find a police man.”

Many people see God as a killjoy who wants to keep them from having fun and enjoying their lives.

Atheist Richard Dawkins wrote:

“Do you advocate the Ten Commandments as a guide to the good life? Then I can only presume that you don't know the Ten Commandments.”

If you think that way, then you don’t really know or understand the Ten Commandments. My prayer is that over the summer, as we study each one, that the Holy Spirit would help you see that these rules are given for our protection, freedom, and joy.

The fourth President James Madison wrote,  “We stake the future of this country on our ability to govern ourselves under the principles of the Ten Commandments.”

Turn with me to Exodus 20.

Prayer.

The Law

In Exodus 20, God began to lay out the Law for His people. These are the rules for living as a distinct nation.

One of the questions I get sometimes is, “Are we still under the Law? Are the Ten Commandments still relevant for Christians?”

To answer that, we need to understand that there were three parts of the Law - the civil, the ceremonial, and the moral.

Civil Laws - the laws of government for Israel. waging war, land use, regulations for debt, etc. Israel was to be a theocracy, with God as its judge. We can tell a civil law by the punishment demanded and everyone was aware of what would happen if they broke one of these laws.

When Rome destroyed the city of Jerusalem in AD 70, the civil laws came to an end.

Ceremonial Laws - these dealt with the various offerings and feasts of the Jewish religious system - clean and unclean foods, instructions for ritual purity, guidelines for priests, and a lot of instructions about how to offer sacrifices. The “offerings” of bulls and goats provided temporary atonement but could not wipe the sin away permanently.

Hebrews tells us that the sacrifices were word pictures of Jesus, who the writer of Hebrews writes paid the price for our sin “once and for all.” (Hebrews 10:14). Jesus was the final sacrificial lamb that took the sins away of the world (John 1:29)