The Battle For The 10 Commandments

Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D.
Sermon Delivered 8/24/03

I called a Pastor friend in Alabama this past week and his wife answered the phone. I asked if I could talk to him and she said, "he is not here. He is in Montgomery standing with Judge Roy Moore for the 10 Commandments." I hope there is no one listening to this message that wonders what the BIG DEAL is about taking the 10 Commandments out of the Court House Rotunda in Alabama and many other places around our nation. But just in case there is, I have titled my message The Battle for The 10 Commandments. Let me begin by sharing a poem with you, that may help you better understand the issues.

"One nation under God was their cry [the founders of this nation] and declaration, Upon the law of Nature's God they built a mighty Nation. For unlike mankind before them who had walked this earthen sod, These men would never question the Sovereignty of God.

That all men were "created" was a truth "self-evident," To secure the rights God gave us was the role of government. And if any form of government became destructive of this end, It was their right, their duty, a new one to begin.

So with a firm reliance on Divine Providence for protection, They pledged their sacred honor and sought His wise direction. They lifted an appeal to God for all the world to see, And declared their independence forever to be free.

I'm glad they're not here with us to see the mess we're in, How we've given up our righteousness for a life of indulgent sin. For when abortion isn't murder and sodomy is deemed a right, Then evil is now called good and darkness is now called light. [Isaiah 5:20]

While truth and law were founded on the God of all Creation, Man now, through law, denies the truth and calls it "separation." No longer does man see a need for God when he's in full control, For the only truth self-evident is in the latest poll."

But with man as his own master we fail to count the cost, Our precious freedoms vanish and our liberty is lost. Children are told they can't pray and they teach them evolution, When will they learn the fear of God is the only true solution.

Our schools have become the battleground while all across the land, Christians shrug their shoulders afraid to take a stand. And from the grave their voices cry the victory has been won. Just glorify the Father as did His only Son.

When your work on earth is done, and you've traveled where we've trod, You'll leave the land we left to you, ONE NATION UNDER GOD!"

Alabama Supreme Court Chef Justice Roy Moore, is the author of this poignant poem and he does a good job of characterizing the Cultural war that is raging between Christian Values and Secular Relativism. The secularist crowd demands that our culture renounce the principles that define right and wrong (i.e. The 10 Commandments). They are in the process of stripping our nation naked of any reference to the Bible and the God who gave us that Bible. It is alarming to me to see how few people consider this an axiomatic issue. Why don’t they see what is going on? Because Americans, for the most part, and many Americans who profess to be Christians (?) have already been transformed into hedonistic groupies who regularly feast at the pagan pig troths of sensuality and pleasure and are drunk on the wine of a relativistic lifestyle where right and wrong is illusive.

Make no mistake about it, the secularist’s goal is not only to demolish Christian values, but also to exalt their perversions and demand that society not call their perverse behavior sin. And what of those who will not capitulate? They will be guilty of committing a crime, a hate crime. But there is more. They will demand and in fact are already demanding that their perversion be accepted as normal and natural.

Let’s take a look at the 10 Commandments that the secularists hate. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 20:3-17

A Look At The 10 Commandments

• Commandment #1 - Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
• Commandment #2 - Exodus 20:4-6 - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
• Commandment #3 - Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
• Commandment #4 - Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
• Commandment #5 - Exodus 20:12 - Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
• Commandment #6 - Exodus 20:13 - Thou shalt not kill.
• Commandment #7 - Exodus 20:14 - Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Commandment #8 - Exodus 20:15 - Thou shalt not steal.
• Commandment #9 - Exodus 20:16 - Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
• Commandment # 10 - Exodus 20:17 - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

These commandments were first written by the finger of God (Exodus 31:18). They are not suggestions, they are commandments!

Why Do Secularists Hate The 10 Commandments?

• The 10 Commandments Define and Expose Sin

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

• Breaking Any of The 10 Commandments Makes You Guilty Before God

James 2:10-11 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

• Sinners Love To Sin & Hate Anything or Anyone That Rebukes Their Sin

John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

• The 10 Commandments Are The Minister of Death For Those Who Break Them

2 Corinthians 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Romans 7:12-13 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

The secular crowd is raging and rebelling against God (Psalm 2)! They want to be their own god and they want to continue to sin. They hate the 10 Commandments because those Commandments rub their noses in their sin and SHOUTS, YOU ARE A SINNER! The 10 Commandments of God confront them with the judgment that they will face, which is death of the body and the second death, which is torment in Lake of Fire for all of eternity.

So why make such a big deal about removing the 10 Commandments from public places? After all, the Law cannot justify a lost sinner (Galatians 2:16); it cannot give a sinner righteousness (Galatians 2:21); it cannot give or change life (Galatians 3:21) and it cannot give freedom (Galatians 4:8-10).

The reasons to keep the 10 Commandments before men is…

1. The Law produces condemnation, and is a mirror showing how dirty (sinful) men really are.
2. Lost sinners must be slain by the Law and left helplessly condemned before he can be saved by God’s grace.
3. The Law points people to their need of Christ. Galatians 3:24-26 says, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

America does not need anymore hedonistic groupies feasting at the pagan pig troths of sensuality and pleasure and are drunk on the wine of a relativistic lifestyle where right and wrong is illusive. What our country needs is dedicated, separated, soul-winning Christians who live righteousness before the unsaved world and who will share the Gospel of Christ with the lost.