What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean? When 00:00:01.96\00:00:07.74 will the anti-Christ appear and make his final move? How can I 00:00:07.77\00:00:12.84 be ready for the final events of earth's history? You'll be 00:00:12.87\00:00:17.01 amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. Join us as 00:00:17.05\00:00:21.08 Pastor Brian McMahon leads out in Prophecy Unsealed. 00:00:21.12\00:00:29.32 Good evening everyone and welcome again to another segment 00:00:29.36\00:00:32.59 in our Prophecy Unsealed Seminar series. Each evening we're 00:00:32.63\00:00:37.00 building another piece of the wonderful puzzle that the Bible 00:00:37.03\00:00:40.24 gives us of end time events and the beautiful ministry of Jesus 00:00:40.27\00:00:43.20 on our behalf. And our subject tonight is entitled The Issue 00:00:43.24\00:00:47.08 That Divides the World. In the heart of every human being no 00:00:47.11\00:00:52.95 matter who you are, no matter what you are there are certain 00:00:52.98\00:00:57.35 questions that we get confronted with about human experience. 00:00:57.39\00:01:00.29 Questions such as this: The question of origin; Where do I 00:01:00.32\00:01:04.49 come from? That's a very basic one isn't it? The question of 00:01:04.53\00:01:07.36 meaning; what is the purpose of my life? Then there's the 00:01:07.40\00:01:10.33 question of morality; how do I live my life now that I'm here? 00:01:10.37\00:01:14.14 What is right and what is wrong? And then there's the question of 00:01:14.17\00:01:17.57 Destiny; where am I going and where is my life leading me? 00:01:17.61\00:01:22.28 Over the course of our life we're going to have to answer 00:01:22.31\00:01:25.45 all of these questions at some point and as Bible students we 00:01:25.48\00:01:28.22 desire answers to these questions. But God is interested 00:01:28.25\00:01:32.95 in these questions because of course God has our highest 00:01:32.99\00:01:36.73 happiness in mind doesn't he? Who else do you think might just 00:01:36.76\00:01:39.89 be interested in how we relate to these questions? The devil is 00:01:39.93\00:01:43.47 also interested because the devil is not primarily 00:01:43.50\00:01:48.17 interested in our house or in our car or in our bank account. 00:01:48.20\00:01:52.67 But primarily the devil is interested in what? Our minds, 00:01:52.71\00:01:56.88 right? Because if the devil can get access to our minds what 00:01:56.91\00:02:01.48 else can he get access to? He can get access to everything. 00:02:01.52\00:02:03.85 And so it's very important that we're not confused on these 00:02:03.89\00:02:07.59 great questions of life. The devil will use delusions or 00:02:07.62\00:02:11.86 falsehoods in order to mislead the mind. Now according to 00:02:11.89\00:02:15.53 Daniel chapter 7, and we're not going to take a long time on 00:02:15.56\00:02:17.63 Daniel 7 tonight, but we will on a future night, on the night we 00:02:17.67\00:02:22.40 talk about the anti-Christ power that will be very prominent in 00:02:22.44\00:02:25.27 end time events. But one particular verse I want to bring 00:02:25.31\00:02:27.94 to your attention tonight. It's verse 25 of Daniel 7 and it says 00:02:27.98\00:02:32.48 here: And he shall speak great words against the most high, 00:02:32.51\00:02:35.58 speaking of God, and shall wear out, or persecute, the saints of 00:02:35.62\00:02:38.55 the most high, speaking of God's people, and think, or intend, to 00:02:38.59\00:02:42.32 change times and what else now? And laws. Now tonight we're not 00:02:42.36\00:02:47.36 going to deal with the question of origin or the question of 00:02:47.40\00:02:49.90 meaning or the question of destiny, but we're going to deal 00:02:49.93\00:02:52.50 with the question of morality. And God's law has to do with 00:02:52.53\00:02:56.60 what? It has to do with morality So one of the main plans on the 00:02:56.64\00:03:02.21 anti-Christ agenda is to interfere with the law of God. 00:03:02.24\00:03:06.58 You see when we study the Bible both the Old Testament and the 00:03:06.61\00:03:10.85 New Testament the devil is very much against God's law. But also 00:03:10.89\00:03:17.03 the anti-Christ is attacking God's law. Now the anti-Christ 00:03:17.06\00:03:20.33 is the conduit or the agent that the devil uses in order to draw 00:03:20.36\00:03:26.53 worship for himself. The devil is not going to walk around this 00:03:26.57\00:03:29.17 city or any other city as himself and say I am Satan. Come 00:03:29.20\00:03:32.54 follow me. I mean he's not going to get anyone here to follow him 00:03:32.57\00:03:35.04 and he's probably not going to get a lot of people when you 00:03:35.08\00:03:39.28 take all the world into perspective to follow him but 00:03:39.31\00:03:40.65 he's much more clever than that. He will uses a certain conduit 00:03:40.68\00:03:45.02 or agent to work through and that is primarily in the end 00:03:45.05\00:03:50.03 time the anti-Christ power that Revelation speaks about. He is 00:03:50.06\00:03:53.46 no fool in this regard. The devil folks has very bad history 00:03:53.50\00:03:56.30 when it comes to God's law. And we're going to see that before 00:03:56.33\00:04:00.27 we're through. And why does he attack God's law? Because the 00:04:00.30\00:04:04.21 law is the foundation of God's government and Satan wants to 00:04:04.24\00:04:07.94 overthrow the government of God. So to do that he has to 00:04:07.98\00:04:11.11 overthrow the law of God. And has he been successful in doing 00:04:11.15\00:04:14.62 that? Let's look at a few statistics here as we begin 00:04:14.65\00:04:17.59 tonight. The FBI crime statistics for 2016, the last 00:04:17.62\00:04:22.06 year that I was able to get statistics for, they said: In 00:04:22.09\00:04:26.13 the United States on average there were reported over 95,000 00:04:26.16\00:04:30.23 plus rapes. Those are just the reported ones. And there were 00:04:30.27\00:04:33.74 332 plus thousand robberies, 803 plus thousand aggravated 00:04:33.77\00:04:39.07 assaults, over 17,000 murders, over 1.5 million burglaries, 00:04:39.11\00:04:44.55 7.9 million property crimes and over 1.2 million violent crimes 00:04:44.58\00:04:50.29 just in this country. You know they say a man's home used to be 00:04:50.32\00:04:54.59 his castle. Well now it's become like a fortress. I mean people 00:04:54.62\00:04:57.03 in these cities they've got guard dogs, they've got burglar 00:04:57.06\00:04:59.79 alarm systems, they've got iron bars on their doors and on their 00:04:59.83\00:05:02.33 windows and many other types of protection. It's become very 00:05:02.36\00:05:07.27 obvious that the law of God has been neglected in this country. 00:05:07.30\00:05:11.27 Look at the magazines that we have today. I mean they reflect 00:05:11.31\00:05:14.84 the society don't they? Infidelity. We've got of course 00:05:14.88\00:05:18.48 drugs running rampant and multi billion dollar illegal drug 00:05:18.51\00:05:22.82 trade. Violence of all difference kinds. Of course you 00:05:22.85\00:05:25.02 know what's coming on in that regard. We've got of course 00:05:25.05\00:05:28.42 school shootings going absolutely crazy today. 00:05:28.46\00:05:30.66 Things we didn't used to deal within this country. Of course 00:05:30.69\00:05:34.76 we've got other kinds of immorality going on too don't we 00:05:34.80\00:05:36.46 Here's one from the USA Today newspaper. It says, City 00:05:36.50\00:05:40.47 Dwellers fight fear of violence. And in the highlighted region it 00:05:40.50\00:05:44.07 says: Some New Yorkers enduring endless reports of 00:05:44.11\00:05:47.64 unprovoked attacks are sending their kids to school in bullet 00:05:47.68\00:05:51.51 proof vests. All right. Now can you imagine we've reached the 00:05:51.55\00:05:53.85 point in this country where you have to send your child off to 00:05:53.88\00:05:56.92 school in a bullet proof vest to make sure they come home at 00:05:56.95\00:05:59.62 night. I mean that's a sad, sad time isn't it? TIME Magazine 00:05:59.65\00:06:03.83 again, full-page article, front cover it says The Generation 00:06:03.86\00:06:07.50 that Forgot God. Wow. It didn't used to be that way in this 00:06:07.53\00:06:11.40 country did it? Here's one from Newsweek Magazine: Shame. It 00:06:11.43\00:06:15.97 says: How do we bring back a sense of right and wrong. It 00:06:16.00\00:06:19.61 seems clear in this country and in other places in the world, 00:06:19.64\00:06:22.68 we've lost the moral compass that we once had. America which 00:06:22.71\00:06:26.21 was once touted as the greatest Christian nation has now become 00:06:26.25\00:06:29.68 a very wicked nation and why would that be? Take a look at 00:06:29.72\00:06:35.36 the difference between what it used to be and some you might 00:06:35.39\00:06:37.49 just remember back in those days The school problems of 1940 what 00:06:37.53\00:06:40.46 were they. Well Talking out of turn. Chewing Gum. Making noise. 00:06:40.50\00:06:43.83 Running in the hall. Cutting line. Dress code infractions and 00:06:43.87\00:06:46.57 littering. Some very serious stuff, right? What are they 00:06:46.60\00:06:50.04 fighting in schools today? Drug use, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, 00:06:50.07\00:06:54.14 suicide, rape, robbery, assault, and school shootings. Have times 00:06:54.18\00:06:56.75 changed friends? Wow! Have they ever changed. The Advocate 00:06:56.78\00:07:01.32 Newspaper it says, there's an article there you can see it 00:07:01.35\00:07:04.29 on the left hand side. It says They give Gallup Poll, it says: 00:07:04.32\00:07:07.66 More Americans profess belief in God: A new Gallup Poll has found 00:07:07.69\00:07:12.16 that 89 percent of Americans say that they believe in God, and 00:07:12.19\00:07:16.16 this is after the belief in God having declined over the last 00:07:16.20\00:07:19.00 few decades. When Gallup asks, Do you believe in God 89 percent 00:07:19.03\00:07:23.81 of U.S. adults said yes and 10 percent said no. One percent 00:07:23.84\00:07:28.58 said they had no opinion. Gallup said: The United States is 00:07:28.61\00:07:32.28 facing a moral and ethical crisis of the first dimension 00:07:32.31\00:07:35.28 and needs spiritual answers to deal with the situation. He said 00:07:35.32\00:07:39.39 it was shocking to discover that people's attendance, he means 00:07:39.42\00:07:42.02 church attendance, makes little difference in people's ethical 00:07:42.06\00:07:45.03 views and behavior. Now you would think that if they're 00:07:45.06\00:07:47.56 attending church that they'd at least have a difference in their 00:07:47.60\00:07:50.47 views and behavior. You think they would act differently 00:07:50.50\00:07:52.13 wouldn't you. He says no He says they're going to church but it's 00:07:52.17\00:07:55.24 really not affecting their life any different than many other 00:07:55.27\00:07:57.57 people. Why would that be? Well maybe an answer could be found 00:07:57.61\00:08:02.51 in this text right here. It says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and in 00:08:02.54\00:08:08.22 verse 2: Preach the, what does it say? Word, right. It goes on: 00:08:08.25\00:08:13.22 be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort 00:08:13.25\00:08:15.99 with all longsuffering and doctrine. God says that's what a 00:08:16.02\00:08:19.73 faithful minister is supposed to do. But we live in a very 00:08:19.76\00:08:22.26 compromised type of age don't we. Where it seems that the word 00:08:22.30\00:08:25.37 is not getting preached. People tell stories and they might give 00:08:25.40\00:08:28.24 one text and go off into some kind of long, long sermon but it 00:08:28.27\00:08:32.84 doesn't really reflect much. The standard of God has fallen today 00:08:32.87\00:08:37.21 to such a degree that it's shameful. And people are taking 00:08:37.25\00:08:39.88 the way they want to live into church rather than letting the 00:08:39.91\00:08:43.18 Bible determine how we should live right? They're 00:08:43.22\00:08:45.39 predetermining how they want to live and carrying it on into and 00:08:45.42\00:08:48.42 folks listen. The Bible is holy Amen? And we can't draw it down 00:08:48.46\00:08:55.16 to fit our life, the life that we want. We have to leave it 00:08:55.20\00:08:57.77 where it is. And so again rather than change the Bible to fit our 00:08:57.80\00:09:00.67 life, we need to change our life to fit the Bible. Not everyone 00:09:00.70\00:09:03.87 that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 00:09:03.91\00:09:05.94 of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is 00:09:05.97\00:09:09.94 in heaven. Then he says, Many will say to me in that day, and 00:09:09.98\00:09:12.81 that's speaking of the majority, Lord Lord have we not prophesied 00:09:12.85\00:09:15.68 in thy name? and in thy name have case out devils? and in thy 00:09:15.72\00:09:19.25 name done many wonderful works? Then I will profess unto them I 00:09:19.29\00:09:21.96 never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity. We look 00:09:21.99\00:09:26.49 at these people. We wouldn't think of them as bad people. We 00:09:26.53\00:09:28.63 would think of them as religious people. I mean they're 00:09:28.66\00:09:34.64 prophesying in Jesus name right? They're casting out devils in 00:09:34.67\00:09:36.14 Jesus' name. They're doing wonderful works in Jesus' name. 00:09:36.17\00:09:38.61 We would think of them as probably good people and yet it 00:09:38.64\00:09:41.84 says they will not be saved. Why were they not saved. Well Jesus 00:09:41.88\00:09:45.68 said I never knew you. That means they would not be saved 00:09:45.71\00:09:48.58 because eternal life is to know Jesus, John 17:3. We need to ask 00:09:48.62\00:09:52.75 yourself the question, what is the will of the Father in heaven 00:09:52.79\00:09:54.82 because Jesus said that is absolutely key. Well let's let 00:09:54.86\00:09:58.19 the Bible give us an answer here We're going to go to Psalm 40 00:09:58.23\00:10:01.96 and verse 8: I delight to do thy will O my God: yea, thy what? 00:10:02.00\00:10:08.70 law is within my heart. David knew having God's law in his 00:10:08.74\00:10:13.21 heart was doing God's will. So this is what God is looking 00:10:13.24\00:10:17.35 for friends, having the 10 commandment law enshrined in our 00:10:17.38\00:10:21.08 hearts. Now that was an Old Testament text. Beautiful as it 00:10:21.12\00:10:24.05 is we learned opening night that we can have perfect freedom to 00:10:24.09\00:10:26.89 go Old Testament, New Testament. It doesn't matter. They both 00:10:26.92\00:10:29.12 agree, they complement each other. So let's go into the New 00:10:29.16\00:10:31.89 Testament now to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 2 and 00:10:31.93\00:10:36.03 we'll take a look here at verse For not the hearers of the 00:10:36.06\00:10:39.43 law are just before God, but the what friends? Doers of the law 00:10:39.47\00:10:43.97 shall be justified. Now let me ask you a question. Is there a 00:10:44.01\00:10:46.98 difference then between a hearer and a doer? Absolutely. He says 00:10:47.01\00:10:51.85 one will be saved and one will not be saved. So when you talk 00:10:51.88\00:10:55.68 about the gospel one of the key passages that people will quote 00:10:55.72\00:10:59.32 today is Ephesians chapter 2 and starting here in verse 8. And it 00:10:59.35\00:11:03.83 says: For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of 00:11:03.86\00:11:06.39 yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man 00:11:06.43\00:11:10.13 should boast. Now of course salvation is by grace alone 00:11:10.17\00:11:13.30 there is no question about it there is no dispute about it. 00:11:13.34\00:11:17.54 Paul is very clear about that. But people read verse 8 and they 00:11:17.57\00:11:21.08 quote verse 9 but they almost never quote verse 10. And if 00:11:21.11\00:11:25.45 they would read and quote verse 10 it helps give us a balance to 00:11:25.48\00:11:28.55 verses 8 and 9. Verse 10 says: For we are his workmanship, 00:11:28.58\00:11:32.19 created in Christ Jesus unto what friends? Good works, which 00:11:32.22\00:11:38.29 God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So the 00:11:38.33\00:11:40.60 Bible says we're saved by grace God's free marvelous grace but 00:11:40.63\00:11:46.03 we are ordained by that grace unto good works. Well what are 00:11:46.07\00:11:50.47 some of these good works that we are ordained to? We read in 00:11:50.51\00:11:53.81 there in Ephesians 2...Let's just go a little bit ahead to 00:11:53.84\00:11:56.95 Ephesians chapter 4. And here the same author says let him 00:11:56.98\00:12:02.28 that stole steal no more, that's verse 28. Now is there a 00:12:02.32\00:12:06.52 commandment that says thou shalt not steal? Absolutely. Did Paul 00:12:06.55\00:12:10.03 the apostle believe in that one? He sure did. So okay that's from 00:12:10.06\00:12:14.96 chapter 4. Let's go to chapter 6 for a moment here. Ephesians 6 00:12:15.00\00:12:18.70 it says in verse 1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, 00:12:18.73\00:12:23.34 for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is 00:12:23.37\00:12:26.14 first commandment with promise. Now I'm glad that Paul said it 00:12:26.17\00:12:29.24 is the first commandment with promise. He doesn't say it used 00:12:29.28\00:12:32.25 to be the first commandment with promise, right? Is there a 00:12:32.28\00:12:37.32 commandment that says honor thy father and thy mother? 00:12:37.35\00:12:38.69 Absolutely. Did Paul the apostle believe in that one? He sure did 00:12:38.72\00:12:41.66 He's quoting from the law of God Absolutely friends. Why is law 00:12:41.69\00:12:47.60 so important? Because without law you have anarchy. You have 00:12:47.63\00:12:51.53 chaos. Every single city has to have laws in order to operate. 00:12:51.57\00:12:55.54 When we leave here at night we go to our respective homes and 00:12:55.57\00:12:59.44 wherever we are we go to those homes and we are driving in a 00:12:59.47\00:13:02.48 car or whatever vehicle and if there's a traffic light and it 00:13:02.51\00:13:05.41 turns red that means it's the law in that city that we do what 00:13:05.45\00:13:09.78 That we stop. Sure. All government has to have 00:13:09.82\00:13:15.16 law in order to properly function. And of course God's 00:13:15.19\00:13:18.96 government has laws as well. Did you know that God's law is so 00:13:18.99\00:13:24.80 important that it's the only part of the Bible that God did 00:13:24.83\00:13:28.54 not entrust man to write down on his own. God had to give it 00:13:28.57\00:13:32.81 to us himself. Let us see that. Let me show you that going back 00:13:32.84\00:13:37.71 to Exodus 31 and in verse 18, Exodus 31 verse 18. Here's what 00:13:37.75\00:13:43.32 the Bible says, friends. And he gave, he meaning God here, unto 00:13:43.35\00:13:47.49 Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount 00:13:47.52\00:13:50.63 Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with 00:13:50.66\00:13:55.83 the finger of what now? God. How incredibly important that God 00:13:55.86\00:14:01.17 wrote it down with his own finger and he wrote it on stone. 00:14:01.20\00:14:04.47 He didn't write it on the sand of the desert did he? It might 00:14:04.51\00:14:06.98 wash away with the rain. He didn't write it down on 00:14:07.01\00:14:09.94 parchment paper. No, because it could fade down through time. 00:14:09.98\00:14:12.51 It could burn up perhaps. He wrote it on stone. It's an 00:14:12.55\00:14:16.32 undeniable code of conduct that it was to last for eternity. 00:14:16.35\00:14:19.59 And of course, that's where we get our expression today when we 00:14:19.62\00:14:21.86 say something's not meant to last we say well it's not 00:14:21.89\00:14:24.59 written in what? Stone. Where do we get that expression. We 00:14:24.63\00:14:27.13 got from the Bible of course. Now, on the other hand, the 00:14:27.16\00:14:32.40 devil hates God's law and since he first broke it it has been 00:14:32.43\00:14:35.24 the devil's studied intent to get other people to follow him 00:14:35.27\00:14:39.94 in his rebellion. He gets people to neglect it or reject it or 00:14:39.97\00:14:42.54 somehow argue it away and he has been very, very successful in 00:14:42.58\00:14:47.55 friends. If you go back about four decades or so God's law 00:14:47.58\00:14:52.09 had a very high position in schools, in government, in 00:14:52.12\00:14:57.13 churches, in people's homes. They respected it. They knew 00:14:57.16\00:14:59.53 it and most often they even memorized it. But today it's not 00:14:59.56\00:15:03.26 that way is it. Ah why is that? Those great principles of 00:15:03.30\00:15:08.60 morality that we used to have were taught from parent to child 00:15:08.64\00:15:11.87 from teacher to student and all of a sudden it's missing. Well 00:15:11.91\00:15:15.58 what else has changed in that time? Churches who used to teach 00:15:15.61\00:15:19.65 it and preach it with authority now all of a sudden they're 00:15:19.68\00:15:23.55 saying well God's law it's no longer valid, or they're saying 00:15:23.59\00:15:28.02 it was nailed to the cross when Jesus died. Well we've got grace 00:15:28.06\00:15:31.09 today so we don't need that obedience. Or they're saying 00:15:31.13\00:15:34.03 well that's burdensome or that's bondage. You don't want to go 00:15:34.06\00:15:37.07 back into that do you? And folks our society has changed 00:15:37.10\00:15:41.54 when the preaching changed. And where people used to obey 00:15:41.57\00:15:46.14 authority both in the home and out of the home where they you 00:15:46.17\00:15:48.51 know vulgar language was a whole lot less. Adultery was a whole 00:15:48.54\00:15:52.35 lot less. We could go on to many other areas. Now of course 00:15:52.38\00:15:55.25 society has changed and there's only hardly any respect for any 00:15:55.28\00:15:58.09 kind of authority. So Christian churches have fallen into a trap 00:15:58.12\00:16:05.26 and that trap is to listen to popular speakers in popular 00:16:05.29\00:16:10.50 churches preaching popular things and they've started to 00:16:10.53\00:16:16.04 believe those things rather than check it from the Bible. And 00:16:16.07\00:16:18.81 folks when you become a Christian, you don't become a 00:16:18.84\00:16:20.94 Christian to win a popularity contest. Isn't that right? I 00:16:20.98\00:16:24.55 didn't become a Christian to win a popularity contest. I know 00:16:24.58\00:16:26.92 that you didn't either. I would rather preach the truth for one 00:16:26.95\00:16:31.39 person than to compromise in any way to get a crowd of 10,000 00:16:31.42\00:16:34.89 folks. I won't do it. There was a book written in the 1990s 00:16:34.92\00:16:38.83 called The Day America Told the Truth and these two authors they 00:16:38.86\00:16:43.43 went across the United States and they asked the American 00:16:43.47\00:16:45.20 public about many different kinds of things and they tried 00:16:45.23\00:16:47.90 to get them to open up and really bare their soul as to 00:16:47.94\00:16:51.77 their true thinking and one of the things they asked them about 00:16:51.81\00:16:54.04 was the 10 commandments and when they asked them about the 10 00:16:54.08\00:16:56.98 commandments here is what they found. They said: Americans are 00:16:57.01\00:17:00.38 making up their own rules, their own laws. In effect we're making 00:17:00.42\00:17:04.59 up our own moral codes. Only 13 percent of us believe in all of 00:17:04.62\00:17:08.29 the 10 Commandments. Forty percent of us believe in five of 00:17:08.32\00:17:10.93 the 10 Commandments. We choose which laws of God we believe in. 00:17:10.96\00:17:15.26 Wow, that's sad, isn't it? There is absolutely no moral consensus 00:17:15.30\00:17:18.83 in this country as there was in the 1950s, when all our 00:17:18.87\00:17:22.27 institutions commanded more respect. Today there is very 00:17:22.30\00:17:26.24 little respect for the law, for any kind of law. Isn't that true 00:17:26.27\00:17:31.38 Wow. There is absolutely no moral consensus at all in the 00:17:31.41\00:17:36.02 1990s, which was when this book came out, it's even less now. 00:17:36.05\00:17:39.15 Everyone is making up their own personal moral codes, their own 00:17:39.19\00:17:43.22 Ten Commandments. I mean people are choosing the commandments 00:17:43.26\00:17:48.00 they want to believe in or the portions of them they want to 00:17:48.03\00:17:51.33 believe in like they would choose food on a smorgasbord 00:17:51.37\00:17:54.27 line. In other words, they look at the 10 commandments. They say 00:17:54.30\00:17:55.67 okay I'll take that one but not this. Okay I'll have a little 00:17:56.40\00:17:59.07 bit of that, not too much, right Not so much to make me 00:17:59.11\00:18:02.34 uncomfortable. Okay I'll have that one but only for a little 00:18:02.38\00:18:05.31 while. See in other words they're making up their 00:18:05.35\00:18:08.18 basically their own religion, a religion of their own devising. 00:18:08.22\00:18:10.35 Now there are those that will ask this. They'll say but hang 00:18:10.39\00:18:13.82 on now. Weren't the 10 commandments only for Israel. 00:18:13.86\00:18:17.29 Were they only for the Jews. Well long before there was a 00:18:17.33\00:18:20.50 Jewish nation, long before the law was revealed to the Jews on 00:18:20.53\00:18:25.13 Mt. Sinai. It has existed from the foundation of the world. 00:18:25.17\00:18:28.57 Here we find Abraham. Abraham lived hundreds of years before 00:18:28.60\00:18:33.41 the time of Mt. Sinai and it says here in Genesis 26 verse 5: 00:18:33.44\00:18:38.81 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my 00:18:38.85\00:18:43.95 commandments, my statutes, and my what? Laws, sure. Abraham 00:18:43.99\00:18:49.19 knew about the 10 commandments. He kept God's law and before 00:18:49.22\00:18:52.96 Abraham, there was of course the devil himself up in heaven. We 00:18:52.99\00:18:55.53 know the devil broke God's law there because it says he coveted 00:18:55.56\00:18:59.50 the throne of God, he broke the 10th commandment. He wanted to 00:18:59.53\00:19:02.34 be like God so he broke the first commandment. God said Thou 00:19:02.37\00:19:04.94 shalt have no other God's before me. He deceived a third of the 00:19:04.97\00:19:07.34 angels so he broke the one about deception, right? Thou shalt not 00:19:07.38\00:19:11.51 bear any false witness, so he broke that one. I'm sure he 00:19:11.55\00:19:14.78 broke them all. But the fact of the matter is this friends. 00:19:14.82\00:19:19.35 Satan lost heaven because of his rebellion and disobedience. 00:19:19.39\00:19:23.06 He spread that down to this world and he caused not only a 00:19:23.09\00:19:28.03 third of the angels to rebel with him but he caused Adam and 00:19:28.06\00:19:30.47 Eve to rebel with him. Those angels that were cast out they 00:19:30.50\00:19:34.04 spread that rebellion right down here. And Adam and Eve because 00:19:34.07\00:19:38.24 they joined with that and they disobeyed God they lost their 00:19:38.27\00:19:42.58 beautiful Eden home. Now I want you to think about something 00:19:42.61\00:19:46.28 with me. If the highest-ranking angel was cast out of heaven and 00:19:46.31\00:19:50.75 lost his home because of disobedience, if Adam and Eve 00:19:50.79\00:19:54.16 had to leave their garden home because of disobedience what 00:19:54.19\00:19:57.89 makes human beings think that we're going to go marching on 00:19:57.93\00:19:59.89 back into paradise if we continue in that disobedience? 00:19:59.93\00:20:02.93 Right? And that'd make no sense whatsoever. Let's go to Psalm 00:20:02.96\00:20:07.97 119 together here. I want to ask you a real sincere question. Do 00:20:08.00\00:20:11.34 you love the truth tonight? Give me an Amen if you love the truth 00:20:11.37\00:20:13.48 I love to hear audiences that say that. Well let's go see what 00:20:13.51\00:20:17.11 the Bible says about truth. Psalm 119 verse 142 says: Thy 00:20:17.15\00:20:20.98 righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is the 00:20:21.02\00:20:26.15 what friends? The truth. So if you love the truth then you got 00:20:26.19\00:20:30.66 to love God's law because the Bible equates them. Now we're 00:20:30.69\00:20:34.23 right next to another one here, Psalm 119 verse 151 and it says: 00:20:34.26\00:20:37.97 Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth. 00:20:38.00\00:20:43.37 So again the commandments are truth, the law is truth. We'll 00:20:43.41\00:20:47.64 go to Romans 7. We're going to get lots of verses tonight as we 00:20:47.68\00:20:50.05 always want to do. It says in Romans 7 verse 12: Wherefore the 00:20:50.08\00:20:54.68 law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Now 00:20:54.72\00:20:59.05 there are not that many things that the Bible calls holy. God 00:20:59.09\00:21:02.69 is holy, his word is holy, but here it says the law is holy. 00:21:02.72\00:21:05.86 And should we be very careful with holy things? Ah we sure 00:21:05.89\00:21:09.73 should. Now above this let's quote Jesus tonight because 00:21:09.76\00:21:12.47 again on our subject of the second coming, on our subject of 00:21:12.50\00:21:16.50 death, on our subject of the millennium, every time we can we 00:21:16.54\00:21:19.94 want...the one on hellfire. Any time we can we want to quote 00:21:19.97\00:21:24.25 Jesus. We know he's the way, the truth and the light. So let's do 00:21:24.28\00:21:27.75 that. We'll go to Matthew chapter 5. When Jesus brought 00:21:27.78\00:21:33.22 his marvelous grace to the attention of humankind did 00:21:33.25\00:21:36.12 that somehow do away with following the 10 commandments? 00:21:36.16\00:21:38.83 Well let's go take a look here in Matthew 5 verse 17. Jesus is 00:21:38.86\00:21:43.06 speaking and he says: Think not...let's pause right there. 00:21:43.10\00:21:46.37 Think what? Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the 00:21:46.40\00:21:51.17 prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. We'll 00:21:51.21\00:21:55.08 look more about what the word fulfill means tomorrow night. 00:21:55.11\00:21:57.41 And it says: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth 00:21:57.45\00:22:00.82 pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the 00:22:00.85\00:22:04.65 law, till all be fulfilled. Next verse: Whosoever therefore shall 00:22:04.69\00:22:10.43 break one of these least commandments, and shall teach 00:22:10.46\00:22:11.79 men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: 00:22:11.83\00:22:14.90 but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called 00:22:14.93\00:22:18.43 great in the kingdom of heaven. 00:22:18.47\00:22:20.14 Now when it says that that person will be called least in 00:22:20.17\00:22:22.20 the kingdom of heaven that doesn't mean they're going to be 00:22:22.24\00:22:24.01 in heaven except they'll have a low position. It means those 00:22:24.04\00:22:27.84 that are in heaven will look back and they'll call that 00:22:27.88\00:22:30.58 person the least of all. Those people who break it they won't 00:22:30.61\00:22:34.02 be there. Now this is clearly talking about the 10 00:22:34.05\00:22:37.02 commandments because that's verse 19 and verse 21 it talks 00:22:37.05\00:22:40.32 about thou shall not kill and verse 27 talks about thou shall 00:22:40.36\00:22:42.66 not commit adultery so it's clearly talking about the 10 00:22:42.69\00:22:46.09 commandments. In the New Testament Jesus upheld the 00:22:46.13\00:22:49.36 claims of the law of God. When someone tries to tell you friend 00:22:49.40\00:22:53.23 that the Law of God is done away with that it's no longer 00:22:53.27\00:22:56.67 binding. But you just remember that passage right there. I 00:22:56.71\00:22:59.71 don't care if it's a minister or anybody else. If they try to 00:22:59.74\00:23:03.01 tell you that the 10 commandment aren't binding then just say 00:23:03.04\00:23:05.95 this to them. Say: would you talk your foot and stomp it on 00:23:05.98\00:23:08.65 the ground? Now they might ask you why? You say would you just 00:23:08.68\00:23:10.35 stomp it on the ground? And they say okay. Now go over to the 00:23:10.39\00:23:15.99 window over there and look out and has the sun still come up? 00:23:16.02\00:23:17.76 Yes. At night do the moon and the stars still come out? Yes. 00:23:17.79\00:23:21.06 Then go back and read Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus said: Till 00:23:21.10\00:23:26.43 heaven and earth pass away not the smallest part of the law 00:23:26.47\00:23:31.07 will pass away and you just demonstrated and 00:23:31.11\00:23:33.07 you just declared 00:23:33.11\00:23:34.44 that heaven and earth are is still here. Amen. All 00:23:34.48\00:23:37.45 right. They might not 00:23:37.48\00:23:38.81 like it but that's the truth friends. Absolutely that's the 00:23:38.85\00:23:40.85 truth. Now to be bluntly honest I wouldn't have 00:23:40.88\00:23:45.75 confidence in a person that tried to tell me that the 10 00:23:45.79\00:23:47.12 commandments are done away with. Because in reality, they're 00:23:47.16\00:23:49.46 saying it's okay to kill, it's okay to commit adultery, it's 00:23:49.49\00:23:52.09 okay to steal. We could go all through them. The Bible clearly 00:23:52.13\00:23:55.53 records that God has an absolute standard, something that is 00:23:55.56\00:24:00.07 secure. Something that you could put your feet on and it's not 00:24:00.10\00:24:02.37 going to move. No man has the authority to tamper with what 00:24:02.40\00:24:06.34 God has written with his finger in stone. Would you agree? 00:24:06.37\00:24:10.38 Absolutely. Let's go to Psalm 111. Let's just settle it. Verse 00:24:10.41\00:24:12.68 7, Psalm 111 verse 7: The works of his hands are verity and 00:24:12.71\00:24:18.22 judgment; some of his commandments are sure. Is that 00:24:18.25\00:24:22.06 what it says. All right. Let's take a look at it again. The 00:24:22.09\00:24:24.89 works of his hands are variety and judgment: Most of his 00:24:24.93\00:24:28.66 commandments are sure. Did we now get it right? Nope. Well 00:24:28.70\00:24:32.53 maybe the speaker needs to clean his glasses. I don't know. All 00:24:32.57\00:24:35.77 right, let's try it one more time. Let's follow it here. The 00:24:35.80\00:24:37.61 works of his hands are a variety and judgment...All together: 00:24:37.64\00:24:40.84 ALL his commandments are sure. It goes on. They stand for how 00:24:40.88\00:24:45.81 long? Forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. 00:24:45.85\00:24:48.42 Now people will say to me. They'll says well pastor I 00:24:48.45\00:24:52.09 thought the 10 commandments was just given to the Jews. Right? 00:24:52.12\00:24:55.36 Because you know God gave it to them on Mt. Sinai. Well let me 00:24:55.39\00:24:58.66 ask you the question. Who else was God going to give it to at 00:24:58.69\00:25:00.03 the time. Was God going to give the 10 commandments to the 00:25:00.06\00:25:03.00 Amalekites. Was he going to give it to the Hittites. Was God 00:25:03.03\00:25:06.30 going to give it to the Philistines or some other pagan 00:25:06.33\00:25:08.14 worshipping group of people. God was only going to give a 00:25:08.17\00:25:12.64 revelation of himself which is what the 10 commandments are, 00:25:12.67\00:25:14.88 we'll say more about that. But God was only going to give that 00:25:14.91\00:25:17.55 revelation of himself to a people that were of a heart and 00:25:17.58\00:25:20.82 mind to appreciate it. This is why God raised up that group of 00:25:20.85\00:25:24.65 people starting with Abraham. So yes. It says they stand fast 00:25:24.69\00:25:29.72 forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. So the 00:25:29.76\00:25:33.43 Jews are there but think about it. Jesus spoke most of what he 00:25:33.46\00:25:37.13 said when he was on earth to the Jews. The Bible said the new 00:25:37.17\00:25:40.74 covenant was made with the house of Israel. Right? Jesus said to 00:25:40.77\00:25:43.37 the woman at the well salvation is of the Jews and James says in 00:25:43.41\00:25:48.18 his book that was written to the 12 tribes that were scattered 00:25:48.21\00:25:50.05 abroad. We could go on and on. The point is that any Christian 00:25:50.08\00:25:52.91 think that they're outside of the plan of salvation because 00:25:52.95\00:25:55.78 Jesus said salvation is of the Jews. Well no of course not. But 00:25:55.82\00:26:00.02 we're not going to understand this more fully till another 00:26:00.06\00:26:01.99 night, but I will say this. To those who are Bible students 00:26:02.02\00:26:05.16 of the New Testament it is absolutely clear that the 00:26:05.19\00:26:09.36 Christian is what we call the spiritual Jew or the spiritual 00:26:09.40\00:26:13.03 Israelite. Israel takes on a symbolic term in the New 00:26:13.07\00:26:16.54 Testament. Now we haven't gone through that yet so I 00:26:16.57\00:26:19.54 haven't given you all those verses but we will on a night 00:26:19.57\00:26:22.11 shortly. So the Christian receives the responsibility and 00:26:22.14\00:26:27.12 the privileges that were once given to the nation of Israel. 00:26:27.15\00:26:29.52 The 10 commandment law folks was not something that was just 00:26:29.55\00:26:34.99 given to a nomadic tribe in the Old Testament, someone that was 00:26:35.02\00:26:38.09 wandering around there and that was the only people that had to 00:26:38.13\00:26:41.50 obey it. The 10 commandments are the cohesive glue that binds 00:26:41.53\00:26:47.30 society together. Ah it's the foundation of all moral behavior 00:26:47.34\00:26:50.44 There has to be some definition of right and wrong. 00:26:50.47\00:26:54.61 You've heard of Focus on the Family? It's founder Dr. James 00:26:54.64\00:26:58.41 Dobson. He said this: Without a moral consensus people become 00:26:58.45\00:27:03.95 ungovernable. There are certain principles that have existed 00:27:03.99\00:27:06.62 from antiquity that were accepted in the culture until 00:27:06.65\00:27:09.26 the last 20 or 30 years. Now he said this in 1999 so today it'd 00:27:09.29\00:27:13.76 be about the last 50 years. We've moved away from those 00:27:13.80\00:27:16.06 moral principles, he said. There has to be a common understanding 00:27:16.10\00:27:20.20 of right and wrong... Okay I'm going to ask you a question. I 00:27:20.24\00:27:25.37 know it's a simple one but I'm going to ask it to you anyway 00:27:25.41\00:27:27.71 as our audience. Do we have sin in our world tonight? If so 00:27:27.74\00:27:32.75 raise your hand and say yes there is sin in our world 00:27:32.78\00:27:34.62 tonight. Okay, that's everybody. Now we all acknowledge it but 00:27:34.65\00:27:39.79 then if I ask how do you define that? We know there is sin but 00:27:39.82\00:27:43.39 what is sin? You know that the Bible actually gives a very 00:27:43.43\00:27:46.63 clear and precise definition of what sin is? Let's go take a 00:27:46.66\00:27:51.17 look at it. It's found in 1 John 3 and in verse 4. 1 John 3:4. 00:27:51.20\00:27:56.00 I love how the Bible unlocks itself, it defines itself. Here 00:27:56.04\00:28:00.61 in 1 John 3:4, it says: Whosoever commits sin 00:28:00.64\00:28:04.78 transgresses also the law: for sin is, here's our definition friends: sin is the 00:28:04.81\00:28:10.12 transgression of the what? Law. So transgression is kind of a 00:28:10.15\00:28:15.32 big word so Webster's dictionary breaks it down for us. It says 00:28:15.36\00:28:18.06 transgression is the breaking or violation of any law, civil 00:28:18.09\00:28:20.60 or moral... Now here we are talking about God's law so sin 00:28:20.63\00:28:24.83 is the breaking of God's law. So based on that verse it's 00:28:24.87\00:28:29.84 impossible biblically speaking that God's law could be done 00:28:29.87\00:28:33.27 away with. Why is that? Because sin the breaking of the law. 00:28:33.31\00:28:36.14 If you had no law they'd have no sin. The fact that we have sin 00:28:36.18\00:28:41.02 in our world proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that we have 00:28:41.05\00:28:44.32 to have God's law in full force and effect. And that's only 00:28:44.35\00:28:47.79 sensible. If there were no speed limits, could you get a ticket 00:28:47.82\00:28:52.36 for speeding? No right? The only way you can get a ticket for 00:28:52.39\00:28:56.46 speeding or a speeding ticket is you've broken some kind of law. 00:28:56.50\00:28:58.10 In the same way if a person sins there has to be a law that has 00:28:58.13\00:29:03.74 been broken. In this case, one of God's laws. And so God's law 00:29:03.77\00:29:07.68 could not be done away with. Now if someone wants to say well how 00:29:07.71\00:29:09.78 do we know that 1 John 3:4 is referring to the 10 commandments 00:29:09.81\00:29:12.61 The Bible helps us out there too Let's go to Romans 7:7. Paul 00:29:12.65\00:29:17.52 says here: I had not known sin but by the law: for I had not 00:29:17.55\00:29:22.16 known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not what? Covet 00:29:22.19\00:29:27.80 So the law that says thou shalt not covet is the law that points 00:29:27.83\00:29:31.83 out sin to the apostle Paul. Of course, that's the 10 00:29:31.87\00:29:35.14 commandments. Now let's go to Romans chapter 4 verse 15. We're 00:29:35.17\00:29:37.44 getting lots of texts here tonight aren't we? Romans 00:29:37.47\00:29:39.74 chapter 4 and verse 15 says: Because the law works wrath: for 00:29:39.77\00:29:45.35 where no law is, there is no transgression. Now think very 00:29:45.38\00:29:50.02 carefully. Jesus would not have had to come down and die if the 00:29:50.05\00:29:54.09 law had been done away with because if the law could be done 00:29:54.12\00:29:56.86 away with he could have just have done away with when Adam 00:29:56.89\00:29:58.99 sinned. Because when Adam sinned friend God was basically left 00:29:59.03\00:30:02.53 with three choices. Choice number 1: He could have killed 00:30:02.56\00:30:05.83 Adam immediately because the Bible says the wages of sin is 00:30:05.87\00:30:08.67 death. He could have said Adam you sinned so you have to die 00:30:08.70\00:30:12.41 right now. But God said no, I love Adam too much. Choice 00:30:12.44\00:30:17.18 number 2: Well you could do away with the law that Adam broke and 00:30:17.21\00:30:20.02 therefore he didn't do anything wrong, right? But he couldn't do 00:30:20.05\00:30:23.05 away with the law because those that understand it and we will 00:30:23.08\00:30:25.05 get to that point in our study, the law is an expression of the 00:30:25.09\00:30:28.42 character of God. So God couldn't do away with the law 00:30:28.46\00:30:30.69 any more than he could do away with his own nature. So God says 00:30:30.73\00:30:34.10 I can't do away with the law and I don't want to kill Adam at 00:30:34.13\00:30:38.50 least not eternally so choice number 3: God says I the one who 00:30:38.53\00:30:46.57 wrote the law, the one who made Adam and Eve; he said I will 00:30:46.61\00:30:52.05 come down to this world. I will condescend to take man's form 00:30:52.08\00:30:57.05 I will live a perfect life that I now can give to those who have 00:30:57.09\00:31:01.92 fallen and he said I will die for Adam's sin and for Eve's sin 00:31:01.96\00:31:07.50 and for your sin and for my sin and can't you love a God like 00:31:07.53\00:31:12.37 that? That's why they call it amazing grace because God chose 00:31:12.40\00:31:16.10 that third option. What an amazing, amazing God we serve. 00:31:16.14\00:31:19.87 So okay so what is the role of the 10 commandments? We know 00:31:19.91\00:31:25.48 we are not saved by the law so what role does it have? Romans 00:31:25.51\00:31:29.18 chapter 3, verse 20, it says: Therefore by the deeds of the 00:31:29.22\00:31:32.89 law, which means the doing of the law, there shall no flesh be 00:31:32.92\00:31:36.09 justified in his sight: for by the law is the what now? 00:31:36.12\00:31:40.53 Knowledge of sin. So two important points are brought out 00:31:40.56\00:31:43.47 here for us friend. Number 1: It says no one is justified by the 00:31:43.50\00:31:46.43 keeping of the law because if we could be justified by keeping 00:31:46.47\00:31:48.60 the law we wouldn't need a Savior and we know of course 00:31:48.64\00:31:50.71 that is not true. And then secondly we realize that the law 00:31:50.74\00:31:57.21 cannot save us. It's not supposed to save us. That's not 00:31:57.25\00:32:01.38 its purpose. It says the law gives us a knowledge of sin. It 00:32:01.42\00:32:05.49 gives us a knowledge of what we should and should not do. Again, 00:32:05.52\00:32:08.32 it's like the traffic light out there that I talked about. I 00:32:08.36\00:32:11.69 could to driving up to that traffic light at 50, 60 miles an 00:32:11.73\00:32:14.86 hour and it turns red. It's giving me a knowledge, right, of 00:32:14.90\00:32:17.93 what I ought to do. I ought to stop. But can the traffic light 00:32:17.97\00:32:21.84 actually physically stop the vehicle? No it wasn't designed 00:32:21.87\00:32:25.57 for that. It was designed to give me a knowledge. It's a 00:32:25.61\00:32:28.01 knowledge that could save my life, right? If I would heed it. 00:32:28.04\00:32:32.48 But nevertheless the law of God works in a similar way. It gives 00:32:32.51\00:32:37.29 us a knowledge of what we should and we should not do. And so I 00:32:37.32\00:32:42.32 love the Bible in many ways and for many reasons but it's very 00:32:42.36\00:32:47.16 practical. In James chapter 1 and verse 22 tells us this, 00:32:47.20\00:32:52.77 James says: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, 00:32:52.80\00:32:54.54 deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, 00:32:54.57\00:32:58.37 and not a doer...that's very similar to what we just read in 00:32:58.41\00:33:01.58 Romans 2 and verse 13 isn't it? If any be a hearer and not a 00:33:01.61\00:33:04.48 doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in 00:33:04.51\00:33:07.55 excuse me, let me say that again For if any be a hearer of law 00:33:07.58\00:33:11.42 and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face 00:33:11.45\00:33:14.92 in a glass:...Now the word glass there in the King James it means 00:33:14.96\00:33:18.89 mirror right? He's looking into a mirror and he's beholding his 00:33:18.93\00:33:22.20 face. It says for he beholds himself and goes his way and 00:33:22.23\00:33:26.40 straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But 00:33:26.43\00:33:28.87 whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty which means 00:33:28.90\00:33:32.04 freedom, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, 00:33:32.07\00:33:35.64 but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. So 00:33:35.68\00:33:39.81 it says that God's law is like a mirror, right? It's like a 00:33:39.85\00:33:45.59 mirror. Now when you think about it if I came here tonight like 00:33:45.62\00:33:51.33 this and I would stand up here speaking to you all and you know 00:33:51.36\00:33:55.93 we're just having a wonderful study together and you say 00:33:55.96\00:33:59.67 Pastor, you don't look quite the same tonight, right? And I go 00:33:59.70\00:34:03.17 what do you mean? Everything's fine right? I've got my glasses 00:34:03.20\00:34:07.21 here and my headphone. Everything's fine, right? 00:34:07.24\00:34:08.58 Is everything okay? No. What's the problem? What's the problem? 00:34:08.61\00:34:14.78 I would say well you're all good people and I'm sure you tell the 00:34:14.82\00:34:18.05 truth but you know there's something that I know will tell 00:34:18.09\00:34:21.36 me the truth and that something is a mirror, isn't that right? 00:34:21.39\00:34:23.73 Well it just so happens that tonight I brought one and I can 00:34:23.76\00:34:30.13 take this device that we call a mirror and I can look at that 00:34:30.17\00:34:32.37 and ooo-ee you're right. It doesn't look so good. Now what 00:34:32.40\00:34:36.50 if I reacted this way? What if I said you rotten dirty mirror 00:34:36.54\00:34:41.54 and put the blame on the mirror right? How dare you show me that 00:34:41.58\00:34:47.35 my tie is crooked? And if I took the mirror and I just zinged it 00:34:47.38\00:34:50.42 it against the wall and smashed it, does it solve the problem? 00:34:50.45\00:34:54.32 No. I mean you get rid of all the dirt by abolishing mirrors. 00:34:54.36\00:34:57.43 No. No of course not. The mirror has done me a favor right? The 00:34:57.46\00:35:00.50 mirror is diagnostic. It tells me that I have a problem. Now 00:35:00.53\00:35:03.87 if I want to correct the problem can the mirror correct the 00:35:03.90\00:35:06.80 problem? No, it can't do that unfortunately so I'm going to 00:35:06.84\00:35:10.44 have to probably take another method here. Okay now, feels 00:35:10.47\00:35:21.78 right. Did I get it right? Now you're honest people I know but 00:35:21.82\00:35:24.99 in order to make sure I still need what? I still need the 00:35:25.02\00:35:28.59 mirror. It's a good thing I didn't do away with it right? 00:35:28.62\00:35:31.49 So I take that mirror and look at it. Chuckles. Got a 00:35:31.53\00:35:37.77 perfectionist out there. That's okay, I am too. Wait a second. 00:35:37.80\00:35:45.34 The same mirror that showed me I have a problem, now that 00:35:45.37\00:35:52.28 mirror can tell me the problem has been corrected Amen. The 00:35:52.31\00:35:57.05 mirror is still necessary. It's a good thing we didn't do away 00:35:57.09\00:35:59.32 with it. Friends in the same way that the mirror is diagnostic 00:35:59.35\00:36:03.83 so is God's law just like that. We know that the law gives us a 00:36:03.86\00:36:08.50 knowledge of sin and it points of course, it reveals us our 00:36:08.53\00:36:12.17 need And the mirror can't take care of that need; it's not 00:36:12.20\00:36:15.20 designed for that. So what does it do: It points us to the fact 00:36:15.24\00:36:18.94 that we need a Savior. And our only hope is in Jesus isn't it? 00:36:18.97\00:36:23.38 So we turn to Jesus and we see him there dying for us on 00:36:23.41\00:36:26.11 Calvary's cross lifted up for the salvation of the world. And 00:36:26.15\00:36:30.12 we come to him and he freely forgives us. We realize he is 00:36:30.15\00:36:35.92 there as the Savior of the entire world for every man, 00:36:35.96\00:36:38.69 every woman, every young person and we confess our sins to him. 00:36:38.73\00:36:42.70 1 John 1 verse 9: It says: If we confess our sins he is faithful 00:36:42.73\00:36:45.67 and just to forgive us of our sins, and cleanse of how much 00:36:45.70\00:36:48.77 unrighteousness friend? All unrighteousness. Oh yes. And not 00:36:48.80\00:36:52.57 only does he forgive us but he clothes us with his 00:36:52.61\00:36:57.38 righteousness, his perfection, what we don't have and never 00:36:57.41\00:37:00.82 could have he gives it to us as a free gift and more than that 00:37:00.85\00:37:05.12 friends. After he does that we're told in John 1:12: But as 00:37:05.15\00:37:08.82 many as received him, to them gave He power...which is the 00:37:08.86\00:37:12.19 Holy Spirit's power...to become the sons of God, even to them 00:37:12.23\00:37:15.80 that believe on his name. And because we have become God's 00:37:15.83\00:37:19.07 children adopted into his family because now we have his nature 00:37:19.10\00:37:22.90 now we have a spiritual mind that loves spiritual things. 00:37:22.94\00:37:27.68 Romans 8 verse 1 says: There is therefore now how much 00:37:27.71\00:37:30.65 condemnation? No condemnation to them which are in Christ 00:37:30.68\00:37:33.68 Jesus. Why no condemnation? It goes on who walk not after the 00:37:33.72\00:37:37.22 flesh, but after the Spirit. Notice friends the law hasn't 00:37:37.25\00:37:41.96 changed. It's still there as ever before. It's doing the work 00:37:41.99\00:37:44.73 it was supposed to do. It's convicting us of sin. It points 00:37:44.76\00:37:48.00 us to a Savior. The law is still there. It hasn't changed. But 00:37:48.03\00:37:53.00 who's changed. We've changed. Right. We have allowed the 00:37:53.03\00:37:57.74 Spirit of heaven into our heart. Now people will say this friends 00:37:57.77\00:38:03.24 They will say but wait a minute now. Didn't Jesus say that all 00:38:03.28\00:38:08.32 we need is to have love? And if we have love that we don't need 00:38:08.35\00:38:12.65 those 10 commandments. Okay. Let's go see what Jesus' words 00:38:12.69\00:38:16.12 really said. Matthew chapter 22 and in verse 36. It says: Master 00:38:16.16\00:38:21.26 which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, 00:38:21.30\00:38:25.70 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy 00:38:25.73\00:38:28.70 soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great 00:38:28.74\00:38:31.27 commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love 00:38:31.31\00:38:34.44 thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all 00:38:34.48\00:38:39.08 the law and the prophets. You know what people do with this 00:38:39.11\00:38:42.08 passage folks. They say these two commandments do away with 00:38:42.12\00:38:46.92 the law and the prophets. Is that what it says. Of course not 00:38:46.96\00:38:49.62 They're reading into it. They're assuming upon it what it doesn't 00:38:49.66\00:38:52.36 say. I mean the plain words of Jesus are so clear here. It says 00:38:52.39\00:38:57.47 that on these two principles loving the Lord God with all 00:38:57.50\00:39:01.17 your heart, soul, and mind, loving our neighbor as ourself 00:39:01.20\00:39:04.24 on these two great principles hang all the law. It means it is 00:39:04.27\00:39:11.38 all encompassed in those two great commandments. It doesn't 00:39:11.41\00:39:15.18 mean it's done away. It means it's simply summarized in there 00:39:15.22\00:39:17.82 so the entire law is summarized in one word, love. Loving God, 00:39:17.85\00:39:21.86 loving your fellow man and that's why Romans 13 and verse 00:39:21.89\00:39:24.73 10 says therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. When you 00:39:24.76\00:39:29.00 love God and love our fellowman as he asks us to you're going to 00:39:29.03\00:39:32.27 naturally, carry out the principles of the 10 00:39:32.30\00:39:34.37 commandments. What do you say folks. Amen? In other words, 00:39:34.40\00:39:37.84 another way of saying this would be Love always leads to 00:39:37.87\00:39:41.44 obedience. You know that a lot of people condemn the 10 00:39:41.48\00:39:44.55 commandments that really, I don't know if they've even read 00:39:44.58\00:39:46.82 them. I don't even know if they even know where they are in the 00:39:46.85\00:39:49.22 Bible. They put down what they don't understand. I like to say 00:39:49.25\00:39:55.19 they're down on what they're not up on, right? So that was that 00:39:55.22\00:40:00.73 way for me when it came to eating. I was brought up a 00:40:00.76\00:40:03.26 certain way. I just hated certain vegetables. I thought 00:40:03.30\00:40:05.73 they were unfit for food. And I went that way for quite a few 00:40:05.77\00:40:09.70 years and then I married my wife. She happened to be a 00:40:09.74\00:40:11.17 tremendous cook and when she got cooking you know she would often 00:40:11.21\00:40:14.41 serve me things and I'd say wow that's great you know what is 00:40:14.44\00:40:17.28 this? She'd say you used to hate that. But she had such a way of 00:40:17.31\00:40:20.45 preparing it that I used to love it. I was down on what I was not 00:40:20.48\00:40:23.22 up on, right? Let's go through the 10 commandments here and 00:40:23.25\00:40:27.22 let's ask ourself a question. Is there anything wrong with the 10 00:40:27.26\00:40:30.73 commandments? Right? Exodus chapter 20. The first one says 00:40:30.76\00:40:33.29 this: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Is there 00:40:33.33\00:40:36.36 anything wrong with that? Haven't you learned that when 00:40:36.40\00:40:38.17 you put God first in your life everything else finds the proper 00:40:38.20\00:40:41.70 place. Okay. Then God will sort everything out when you put him 00:40:41.74\00:40:44.27 absolutely first. Number 2 says this: Thou shalt not make unto 00:40:44.31\00:40:47.44 thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in 00:40:47.48\00:40:50.21 heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the 00:40:50.25\00:40:52.61 water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to 00:40:52.65\00:40:54.95 them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, 00:40:54.98\00:40:59.95 visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children unto 00:40:59.99\00:41:02.12 unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 00:41:02.16\00:41:04.73 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep 00:41:04.76\00:41:08.30 my commandments. Now friends this is the first of many times 00:41:08.33\00:41:13.54 the Bible speaks about these two things together. Love and 00:41:13.57\00:41:17.54 obedience. I've heard it said that you could summarize the 00:41:17.57\00:41:20.51 entire Bible in those two phrases. Love and Obedience. 00:41:20.54\00:41:23.75 In fact, did you know that obedience is the highest form 00:41:23.78\00:41:26.82 of worship. You can say all kinds of things. I worship this 00:41:26.85\00:41:29.92 and I love God and I'll...But folks God is looking for plain 00:41:29.95\00:41:33.66 simple obedience to his word, Amen? So nothing wrong with this 00:41:33.69\00:41:38.46 here. Aren't you thankful friend that we can go straight to God 00:41:38.49\00:41:42.80 with our prayer. Aren't you thankful that we don't have to 00:41:42.83\00:41:45.40 pray to the things that are made of wood and metal and plaster of 00:41:45.43\00:41:50.01 Paris you can buy through the mail and those kinds of things. 00:41:50.04\00:41:53.07 Aren't you thankful that our prayers reach right to the 00:41:53.11\00:41:55.88 throne of God when we pray by faith. Absolutely. The world 00:41:55.91\00:42:00.02 needs that faith. I've been to an island in this world over 00:42:00.05\00:42:03.95 there in Indonesia where it was just filled with idols. 00:42:03.99\00:42:08.72 Absolutely filled. I mean you cannot believe the thousands 00:42:08.76\00:42:11.39 upon thousands of idols there. I mean it is sad. It made you want 00:42:11.43\00:42:15.33 to weep. If they only understood this commandment. Number 3: 00:42:15.36\00:42:18.53 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the 00:42:18.57\00:42:21.50 Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 00:42:21.54\00:42:24.97 Now there is so much involved in this commandment here that you 00:42:25.01\00:42:27.71 could really pick a whole night and just preach on one 00:42:27.74\00:42:30.75 commandment. But just to summarize a little bit or to 00:42:30.78\00:42:34.52 make it short: Isn't it such a tragedy that in today's culture 00:42:34.55\00:42:38.05 it has become popular and acceptable to take God's name in 00:42:38.09\00:42:41.92 vain. People do it so often they almost don't even think about it 00:42:41.96\00:42:44.76 You know they use God and Jesus and these kind of names and they 00:42:44.79\00:42:48.70 just say it so flippantly. This might be a surprise to you. 00:42:48.73\00:42:53.20 But Christians often come very close to this to when they use 00:42:53.23\00:42:57.34 euphemisms. Euphemisms are substitute words. When we say 00:42:57.37\00:43:02.94 Gosh and golly and geez and G- whiz. Those are euphemisms for 00:43:02.98\00:43:08.38 the name of God and Jesus. We should be careful what comes out 00:43:08.42\00:43:09.88 of our mouth, amen? Right, right You know Jesus said let your yes 00:43:09.92\00:43:12.02 be yes and your no be no because anything more than that can come 00:43:12.05\00:43:14.56 from sin. So let's be careful how we use the name of God and 00:43:14.59\00:43:18.53 the name of Jesus. Nothing wrong with that. Now number 4: 00:43:18.56\00:43:21.73 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt 00:43:21.76\00:43:25.23 thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the 00:43:25.27\00:43:27.27 Sabbath of the Lord they God: in it, thou shalt not do any work 00:43:27.30\00:43:30.31 thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor 00:43:30.34\00:43:32.61 thy maidservant, nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within 00:43:32.64\00:43:35.28 thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the 00:43:35.31\00:43:37.91 sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day: 00:43:37.95\00:43:40.75 wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. 00:43:40.78\00:43:44.05 We live in a society folks where the devil has this society under 00:43:44.09\00:43:49.92 the hammer seven days a week, right? The popular phrase is 00:43:49.96\00:43:55.23 24/7 right? Everything's running 24/7. I'm working 24/7, that 00:43:55.26\00:43:58.17 kind of thing. Folks God is giving us a time of rest and 00:43:58.20\00:44:04.54 because people have neglected it they're getting heart attacks 00:44:04.57\00:44:05.91 and strokes and road rage and they're getting upset and ulcers 00:44:05.94\00:44:09.08 And any time you happen to accidentally step on their toes 00:44:09.11\00:44:13.18 they're getting angry and it's amazing. God is saying I'm 00:44:13.21\00:44:16.18 giving you a day every week to come aside and rest and recoup 00:44:16.22\00:44:21.09 and regroup and get spiritually charged. God wants us to have 00:44:21.12\00:44:25.79 that time with him, amen? Don't we need time with God. Isn't 00:44:25.83\00:44:28.70 that why we're looking forward to heaven, right? This isn't 00:44:28.73\00:44:32.13 about the golden streets up there, it's about being with God 00:44:32.17\00:44:33.77 And he's saying I can have that time with you every week if we 00:44:33.80\00:44:37.17 would only do it. Nothing wrong with that. We need more time 00:44:37.21\00:44:39.97 with God. Number 5: Honor thy father and thy mother that thy 00:44:40.01\00:44:44.41 days may be long upon the land which the Lord they God giveth 00:44:44.45\00:44:47.28 thee. Now again with children disobeying in the home and 00:44:47.32\00:44:52.82 therefore that disobeying authority goes out into the 00:44:52.85\00:44:54.59 street and into society and into government and all of these 00:44:54.62\00:44:59.33 kinds of things. My oh my what a different world we would have 00:44:59.36\00:45:02.03 if everyone simply obeyed that commandment right there. Honor 00:45:02.06\00:45:06.90 our father and mother. Honor authority that is over us. 00:45:06.94\00:45:09.64 Number 6: Thou shalt not kill. There were 17,000 murders in 00:45:09.67\00:45:15.28 this country alone each and every year. What a difference 00:45:15.31\00:45:18.61 in society, there would be if everyone kept that. There would 00:45:18.65\00:45:21.25 have a whole lot more of that Commandment don't we friends? 00:45:21.28\00:45:22.62 Absolutely. 00:45:22.65\00:45:23.99 Number 7: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Again a lot of disease 00:45:24.02\00:45:26.49 is spread because of this. A lot of homes are broken up because 00:45:26.52\00:45:29.29 of this. A lot of divorces happen because of this. Nothing 00:45:29.32\00:45:32.79 wrong with that commandment at all. Number 8: Thou shalt not 00:45:32.83\00:45:35.53 steal. Boy I wish people you know kept that one. You know you 00:45:35.56\00:45:39.80 walk around with a pocket full of keys, guys right? It weighs 00:45:39.83\00:45:42.24 you pocket down. 00:45:42.27\00:45:43.61 Uhh, who needs that? You know I came to my seminar one 00:45:43.64\00:45:46.68 night and my wife Heidi, she plays the piano, she plays the 00:45:46.71\00:45:50.35 keyboard. We had a keyboard up here on the platform. And I said 00:45:50.38\00:45:53.35 to her, I said Honey, I said where's our keyboard? She says 00:45:53.38\00:45:55.58 the keyboard's not there? I said no. Not there. Someone stole the 00:45:55.62\00:45:58.59 keyboard right off the church platform. One of the things 00:45:58.62\00:46:02.09 that I'm 00:46:02.12\00:46:03.46 looking forward to having in heaven is that there are no 00:46:03.49\00:46:05.76 locks and no keys. Because everybody's honest, right? What 00:46:05.79\00:46:10.47 a difference in society if we all kept that one. Number 9: 00:46:10.50\00:46:12.33 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You know, be honest. 00:46:12.37\00:46:14.24 Don't bear false witness against thy neighbor means don't slander 00:46:14.27\00:46:19.34 don't gossip, be honest you know be a person of integrity. Right? 00:46:19.37\00:46:25.55 You need a lot more of that. Number 10: Thou shalt not covet 00:46:25.58\00:46:27.52 thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, 00:46:27.55\00:46:29.92 nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his 00:46:29.95\00:46:33.05 ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. In other words, be 00:46:33.09\00:46:36.49 content with what God has given us. We're working, working, 00:46:36.52\00:46:39.49 working trying to see who can die the richest fool in the 00:46:39.53\00:46:42.46 graveyard, right? You know it just seems like it's like that 00:46:42.50\00:46:45.53 and God is saying if you covet what belongs to someone else 00:46:45.57\00:46:48.24 you will get bitter, right? You'll get resentful and you'll 00:46:48.27\00:46:52.34 probably be in that graveyard earlier because of it. We don't 00:46:52.37\00:46:56.54 need that. The 10 commandments reveal the God's code of ethics 00:46:56.58\00:47:00.92 for this world. And people will say well aren't those 00:47:00.95\00:47:05.85 Commandments negative? Folks they're not negative. They are 00:47:05.89\00:47:10.19 positive statements of how God desires us to live and how we 00:47:10.23\00:47:13.86 can live if we allow God to live them through us. You see friends 00:47:13.90\00:47:19.37 the 10 commandments if everyone kept them what a utopia our 00:47:19.40\00:47:27.44 society would be. If everyone kept the 10 commandments would 00:47:27.48\00:47:30.01 you have to worry about taking self-defense classes? If 00:47:30.05\00:47:33.48 everyone kept the 10 commandments would you have to 00:47:33.52\00:47:36.12 worry about walking down the darkest street in this city late 00:47:36.15\00:47:38.75 at night? No. If everyone kept the 10 commandments it would be 00:47:38.79\00:47:41.92 a paradise here. And that's what heaven is going to be like. And 00:47:41.96\00:47:47.06 God knows that and what he's saying is I'm getting you ready 00:47:47.10\00:47:48.90 for heaven because in heaven these are the principles that we 00:47:48.93\00:47:51.73 adhere to and he wants us to be law-abiding citizens of the 00:47:51.77\00:47:55.70 kingdom, right? So he's saying do you want to be in the 00:47:55.74\00:47:57.84 kingdom? Yes. Well here is how the kingdom operates. Let me 00:47:57.87\00:48:03.01 change your heart now so when you get there you're not going 00:48:03.04\00:48:05.45 to be another rebellion like Lucifer was. Right? Another 00:48:05.48\00:48:09.78 rebel. No. Okay. Now someone will say this. And you hear 00:48:09.82\00:48:15.02 this, it's amazing what people will say. I don't know how they 00:48:15.06\00:48:19.29 get this other than they get it from the mouth of the devil 00:48:19.33\00:48:23.20 himself. But they will take what God says is beautiful and they 00:48:23.23\00:48:26.70 will give it a meaning 180 degrees opposite. They'll say oh 00:48:26.74\00:48:30.24 but the 10 commandments are burdensome. That's bondage. You 00:48:30.27\00:48:34.64 don't want to go back into that do you? Right? Look how God 00:48:34.68\00:48:38.55 opens up the 10 commandments to us here in Exodus chapter 20 he 00:48:38.58\00:48:41.48 says I am the Lord thy God that have brought thee out of the 00:48:41.52\00:48:45.05 land of Egypt out of the house of what? Bondage. So God is 00:48:45.09\00:48:50.19 essentially saying to us have I not shown you that your freedom 00:48:50.23\00:48:56.00 is my highest priority? And he's saying Now that I have shown you 00:48:56.03\00:48:59.47 that, I have demonstrated that to you, let me show you 10 ways 00:48:59.50\00:49:02.30 to stay free. And he gives them the 10 commandments. Is God 00:49:02.34\00:49:05.94 going to bring them out of bondage only to put them back 00:49:05.97\00:49:09.24 into bondage? Of course not. He's not going to deliver them 00:49:09.28\00:49:11.41 out of the slavery of Egypt only to give them a law that's going 00:49:11.45\00:49:13.75 to put them back into slavery. The 10 commandments which start 00:49:13.78\00:49:19.55 with those thou shalt nots become assurances and promises 00:49:19.59\00:49:23.32 to the converted person. To the person who is unconverted, right 00:49:23.36\00:49:26.26 to the person that has a carnal mind yeah they might seem 00:49:26.29\00:49:29.46 burdensome to them because they don't want them. But to the 00:49:29.50\00:49:32.83 person that's been converted and now you love the things or God 00:49:32.87\00:49:36.00 and you love the things of heaven, now those 10 00:49:36.04\00:49:38.47 commandments are precious promises of what God can fulfill 00:49:38.51\00:49:41.04 in our lives. Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18 says: He that 00:49:41.08\00:49:46.51 keepeth the law miserable is he. Is that what it says. No. Happy 00:49:46.55\00:49:51.09 is he. Happy is he. There's another one here. Psalm 119 00:49:51.12\00:49:58.49 verse 165: Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing 00:49:58.53\00:50:03.03 shall offend them. The law of the Lord is what friends? 00:50:03.06\00:50:06.90 Perfect. Do you have to change something that God says is perfect. We need to 00:50:06.94\00:50:09.47 alter, modify anything that God says is perfect. Absolutely not. 00:50:09.50\00:50:14.11 It is perfect. It says converting the soul: The 00:50:14.14\00:50:17.35 testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The law 00:50:17.38\00:50:21.18 of God enlightens the mind of man. Right? And the study of the 00:50:21.22\00:50:26.19 Holy Scriptures will make a man or a woman wiser than anything 00:50:26.22\00:50:29.82 else ever could. Anything else. The 10 commandments are the 00:50:29.86\00:50:34.70 epitome of the perfection of God and because it's the epitome of 00:50:34.73\00:50:38.97 the perfection of God finite man has no right to tamper with it. 00:50:39.00\00:50:42.80 Because if we were to try to abolish even one of God's 00:50:42.84\00:50:47.04 principles we have done the exact same thing that Lucifer 00:50:47.08\00:50:49.81 did in rebellion up in heaven. Let's go back to Psalm 19 and 00:50:49.84\00:50:53.45 finish it off here in verse 10. It says of the law: More to be 00:50:53.48\00:50:56.12 desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter 00:50:56.15\00:50:59.92 also than honey and the honeycomb. And it goes on and 00:50:59.95\00:51:03.09 says: Moreover by them is they servant warned: and in keeping 00:51:03.12\00:51:05.66 of them there is great reward. You know the great Dwight L. 00:51:05.69\00:51:11.33 Moody the evangelist of the 19th century, famous preacher, the 00:51:11.37\00:51:17.14 one who the Moody Bible Institute is based on, he said I 00:51:17.17\00:51:20.54 have never met an honest man that had any problem with the 00:51:20.58\00:51:24.88 10 commandments. Because Moody knew and we know that if a 00:51:24.91\00:51:29.08 person has a problem with the 10 commandments you can know one 00:51:29.12\00:51:32.75 thing for sure, It's convicting them of sin. They're breaking it 00:51:32.79\00:51:35.82 somewhere and because they're breaking it somewhere they've 00:51:35.86\00:51:37.63 rather condemn the law than refine their own life and we 00:51:37.66\00:51:41.50 don't want that. We want to do it for a purpose and for the 00:51:41.53\00:51:45.20 right motive. What motivates us to obey God's law? Let me ask 00:51:45.23\00:51:49.37 another very serious question here tonight. Do you love Jesus 00:51:49.40\00:51:52.41 Tonight? Amen. I do too. And I'm so glad you do too. Jesus spoke 00:51:52.44\00:51:56.98 about love for him very, very plainly in this next text found 00:51:57.01\00:52:02.68 in the book of John in chapter 14 and verse 15. Here it is, he 00:52:02.72\00:52:07.19 says: If you love me, keep my what? Commandments. Now notice 00:52:07.22\00:52:12.56 Jesus did not just say keep my commandments. No, he could have 00:52:12.59\00:52:16.46 said that but he didn't. He said if you love me, keep my 00:52:16.50\00:52:19.63 commandments. He put obedience in context of a relationship 00:52:19.67\00:52:24.61 with him. So the 10 commandments are 10 ways that we can show our 00:52:24.64\00:52:28.94 love for Jesus. He didn't say get up and shout. He didn't say 00:52:28.98\00:52:32.95 put a bumper sticker on your car right? You know Jesus didn't say 00:52:32.98\00:52:37.19 any of those things. He says if you love me keep my commandments 00:52:37.22\00:52:40.32 1 John 5 and verse 3 says it again: For this is the love of 00:52:40.36\00:52:44.49 God, that we keep his commandments: and his 00:52:44.53\00:52:47.26 Commandments are not grievous. So again God's put obedience in 00:52:47.30\00:52:51.33 the context of a love relationship with God. 00:52:51.37\00:52:54.20 It always leads to obedience. Now there are those that will 00:52:54.24\00:52:57.74 tell you that Oh but we have the Holy Spirit and we don't need 00:52:57.77\00:53:02.41 that law anymore because we've got the Holy Spirit. Now folks 00:53:02.44\00:53:06.35 once again don't get caught up in those kind of things. When 00:53:06.38\00:53:09.42 the devil doesn't have scripture he uses argument, carefully 00:53:09.45\00:53:15.12 crafted arguments that lead people to disobey because 00:53:15.16\00:53:17.39 they're listening to the word of man rather than the words of God 00:53:17.43\00:53:22.36 So let's go to Acts chapter 5 and verse 32. And it says: And 00:53:22.40\00:53:26.33 we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy 00:53:26.37\00:53:29.30 Ghost, whom God hath given to them that do what folks? Obey 00:53:29.34\00:53:32.87 him. I want the comfort of the Holy Spirit don't you. I want 00:53:32.91\00:53:38.08 all of the Holy Spirit that God can give me. I want the Holy 00:53:38.11\00:53:40.58 Spirit in my heart and you can see how this subject revolves 00:53:40.62\00:53:44.79 around love to God over and over and over again. Can we really be 00:53:44.82\00:53:50.46 true, sincere worshipers and not be obedient? Now let's go find 00:53:50.49\00:53:57.43 an answer to that. Let's go to 1 John 2 and verse 3. 1 John 2:3 00:53:57.47\00:54:04.74 And here the Bible says and hereby we do know that we know 00:54:04.77\00:54:06.21 him...speaking of Jesus...if we keep his commandments. He that 00:54:06.24\00:54:11.48 sayeth I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, 00:54:11.51\00:54:15.28 and the truth is not in him. Notice friends it doesn't just 00:54:15.32\00:54:19.79 say they're lying. He says they are liars. He goes right to the 00:54:19.82\00:54:23.63 character of the individual here You know have you ever heard 00:54:23.66\00:54:27.20 that term politically correct? Or politically incorrect, right? 00:54:27.23\00:54:31.20 Big term for the current society Well it's becoming very 00:54:31.23\00:54:35.27 religiously incorrect to talk about obedience as a Christian. 00:54:35.30\00:54:38.97 The minute you say obedience immediately Satan has trained 00:54:39.01\00:54:43.41 his agents to say oh that's legalism. Now let me tell you 00:54:43.45\00:54:47.28 friends what legalism is. Legalism is when a person tries 00:54:47.32\00:54:52.75 to work their way to heaven through obedience. In other 00:54:52.79\00:54:56.39 words, when they think that through lawkeeping or through 00:54:56.42\00:54:59.73 the deeds of the flesh, they can earn a place in heaven, that's 00:54:59.76\00:55:02.23 a legalistic mindset. Now we want as Christians to be legal 00:55:02.26\00:55:06.17 which means we live within the confines of the law but we don't 00:55:06.20\00:55:10.37 wish to be legalistic which means to use the law as our 00:55:10.41\00:55:13.17 means of salvation because we've already covered that Jesus is 00:55:13.21\00:55:15.98 the way, the truth, and the light to salvation, right? So 00:55:16.01\00:55:21.18 legalism has very little to do with what you do and almost 00:55:21.22\00:55:25.99 everything to do with why you do it. If you wish to be faithful 00:55:26.02\00:55:30.99 to God because of love in your heart that's not legalism 00:55:31.03\00:55:35.06 friends. It's another word that starts with L and that's 00:55:35.10\00:55:39.20 loyalty. You missed a great chance to say Amen there. What 00:55:39.23\00:55:43.61 did I say? When you have love in your heart and you obey because 00:55:43.64\00:55:47.71 of the love in your heart, it's another word that starts with L 00:55:47.74\00:55:50.45 and that is what again? Loyalty. Absolutely. We called this 00:55:50.48\00:55:55.05 subject tonight The Issue That Divides the World Why do we call 00:55:55.08\00:55:59.62 it that folks? Because when we come down to God's Last Day book 00:55:59.65\00:56:03.16 Revelation chapter 14, we see the law of God really comes into 00:56:03.19\00:56:09.26 focus. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that 00:56:09.30\00:56:12.53 keep the commandments of God and the faith of what? Jesus. Those 00:56:12.57\00:56:18.41 who are on God's side at the end of time opposing the power 00:56:18.44\00:56:23.24 that's called the beast and opposing that which is called 00:56:23.28\00:56:26.08 the mark of the beast says they are keeping the commandments of 00:56:26.11\00:56:28.45 God. That would get my attention right there, right? Now if that 00:56:28.48\00:56:32.62 wasn't enough, take a look at this verse, last book of the 00:56:32.65\00:56:35.69 Bible, last chapter of the Bible almost the last verse of the 00:56:35.72\00:56:39.66 Bible. It's as if God had to tell us one more time in order 00:56:39.69\00:56:43.77 to get it into our minds before he closed the canon of scripture 00:56:43.80\00:56:46.47 It says here in Revelation 22 verse Blessed are they that do 00:56:46.50\00:56:50.87 his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, 00:56:50.91\00:56:54.34 and may enter in through the gates into the city. Again folks 00:56:54.38\00:56:58.25 only those who are obedient to God due to love in their hearts 00:56:58.28\00:57:03.79 are going to walk through those beautiful pearly gates one day 00:57:03.82\00:57:05.55 and oh folks that's a privilege for all of us right there to do 00:57:05.59\00:57:10.29 so. As we close this first night of four nights that we're going 00:57:10.33\00:57:15.36 go through a series of subjects that pertain to the law of God 00:57:15.40\00:57:19.33 we see two sides forming very clearly. We see a side in 00:57:19.37\00:57:24.67 Revelation represented by what is called the beast power that 00:57:24.71\00:57:28.14 we haven't gotten to yet in the seminar when we describe what 00:57:28.18\00:57:30.75 this power's talking about here in Revelation chapter 13. But it 00:57:30.78\00:57:34.05 says in the end time that all the world will wander after this 00:57:34.08\00:57:37.89 power. All the world will worship this power. All the 00:57:37.92\00:57:41.79 world will give obedience to this power and in both the Old 00:57:41.82\00:57:44.09 and the New Testament says that power is the lawless one. 00:57:44.13\00:57:48.96 And there only are two sides folks. It says those on Jesus' 00:57:49.00\00:57:53.47 side it says, If you love me, will do what? Keep his 00:57:53.50\00:57:57.21 commandments. Friends I want to be on Jesus' side, don't you? 00:57:57.24\00:58:01.91 I want to be one of those by God's grace that go walking into 00:58:01.94\00:58:06.25 that city one day. I want to be one of those people that love 00:58:06.28\00:58:09.25 God enough that his will is in my heart like David said and 00:58:09.28\00:58:12.59 because of that, we want to be obedient to all that God asks 00:58:12.62\00:58:17.69 because we love him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our 00:58:17.73\00:58:21.56 mind, Amen. 00:58:21.60\00:58:26.17