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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

The Ten Commandments

Why would anyone ridicule the 10 Commandments?

Who would dare do away with the oldest and most perfect law ever written?

I'll return in a moment with the amazing facts.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz from the amazing facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Today we're going to examine the foundation of this lawless age and its permissive psychology.

The frightening statistics of our moral degeneracy are ever before us, of course.

We can't deny them or ignore them either, much as we'd like to do it.

We've already discovered the responsibility of parents and this cascade of juvenile violence.

It's also been seen that Hollywood and TV fairs simply feed the flames of crime and perverted sex and delinquency.

But today we're going to dig deeper around the foundation of our weakness and reveal a startling basic cause for our trouble.

Now you may disagree with me, but God says the Church is responsible.

He says in Ezekiel 22, 26, Her priests have violated my law and have profaned mine holy things.

They have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Now, friends, do you realize that since 1900 the churches in America have had a concerted program of undermining and doing away with God's Holy 10 Commandment law?

I'm not talking about all churches, of course, but I'm talking about great organized religious systems and a lot of theology.

Many churches have taught that the 10 Commandments have been done away with and that God no longer requires us to be obedient to that law.

Do you know back around 1900 there was hardly a church that didn't have the 10 Commandments hanging right up in front of the church.

Every child in Sunday school was taught the 10 Commandments by heart.

And your parents taught you to obey God and honor your parents and respect life and property of other people.

A few years ago, most every Christian could repeat God's law from memory.

In fact, today we find many young people who haven't even heard of the 10 Commandments, don't even know anything at all about God's law, and the churches are to blame because they've literally thrown the 10 Commandments out of the Church.

Oh, I know that in the official teachings of every Church you'll find the sanction and acceptance of God's Law, but I'm talking about the practical aspects of it now.

Whenever anybody starts to emphasize the importance of obedience to those commandments, he's told that we don't come under the law anymore, that we're not expected to keep it because it's been done away with.

And thus we find the response to all authority just boils down to this.

If God's law has been done away with and isn't binding on us anymore.

If you can get away with it and go ahead and do it, it's all right.

That's the modern psychology which has been born out of this attitude of a lot of the churches.

Sometimes we're told that the law was against us, therefore it had to be taken out of the way.

And when I look at that wonderful moral code, friends, I'm led to wonder just which 1 of those 10 Commandments is against us.

I'm of the opinion that if the whole world were to be obedient to all of the will of God and all of those commandments, this would be a better place in which to live.

But let's take a closer look at God's law.

The first commandment says that we are to have no other God before our Creator.

We aren't to allow anything to come between us and our direct worship of God.

Now certainly this rule is not in opposition to the desires of anybody who truly loves God with all his heart.

The second commandment forbids the worship of images or the making or serving of those images.

Now this is certainly prevalent in the world today, but surely nobody who's a true Christian would desire to worship any other god than the true God.

The third commandment forbids the taking of God's name in vain.

In other words, God is displeased by all the swearing and cursing which has become so much a part of our present-day conversation.

But would any of us who love God supremely desire this commandment to be taken away, making it all right for men to take God's name in vain?

The fourth commandment tells us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and this reminds us of something that God made for those who love Him.

He promises a divine rest if we'll remember His day and keep it holy.

Surely this is for our best good, it's not against us in the least.

Now these first 4 commandments deal with our relationship to God, and nobody could possibly improve on them.

The last 6 commandments deal with our relationship with our fellow men, and if they were taught more fully, friends, what a tremendous change would come into this world of ours.

The fifth commandment deals with our parents and commands us to honor and obey them.

This is certainly not against any of us who are Christians.

The seventh forbids immorality of every description.

Jesus said, The pure in heart shall see God, and surely this commandment is for our best good.

The ninth forbids the telling of lies, and the tenth requires us to be content with what we have and not covet the things of others.

Now really, friends, I fail to find anything at all in God's Holy Commandments that's against us.

In fact, I believe they evaluate for us the kind of life God wants each 1 of us to live.

The Bible tells us it's a mirror which reflects our characters in comparison with the perfect character of Christ.

I read in James 1, 22-25, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Now, God says His perfect law of liberty is like a mirror that shows how our life compares with that of Jesus.

God's law will point out sin in our lives.

It will show us wherein we fall short of being what God wants us to be.

Just as a mirror is very useful to point out dirt on the face and to show us our need of washing our face, just so God's law is very necessary to point out sin in our lives and to show us our need of making a change so that we'll be like Jesus.

Truly, we might say that the 10 Commandments give us a picture of what God is like and what He wants us to become.

As we read the Word of God, we find that every attribute and characteristic which a Bible uses to tell us about God is used also in describing His holy law.

Now let's take a look and see if this isn't true, friends.

God is described as being love, truth, righteousness, perfection, holiness, and of course He's eternal.

Did you know that the Bible also said those very same things about God's law?

First of all, look at 1 John 4, verse 8, "...he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." When Jesus was asked concerning his Father's law, he said that the very basis of the 10 Commandments is found in love.

You'll find that in Matthew 22, 37, and 38.

So God is love, and those 10 Commandments also are love.

In John 14, 6, Jesus describes Himself as being the truth.

I am the way, the truth, and the life, He said.

Then in Psalm 119, verse 142, God says, Thy law is truth.

First Corinthians 1.30 records that God is righteous, and we're told in Psalm 119, verse 172, that all God's commandments are righteous also.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us that his Father in heaven is perfect and we're told in Psalms 19, 7 that the law of the Lord is also perfect, converting the soul.

Isaiah 6, 3 calls attention to the fact that God is holy, while Paul tells us in Romans 7, 12 that God's law also is holy.

Well we could just go right on down the list, friends, and show you the comparison between God's character, the way the Bible describes Him, and the way the Bible also describes those Holy 10 Commandments.

Now, where does the Bible tell us that the Law of God is to be found?

You'll find that it's written in the heart of Jesus.

Notice what David said in prophesying about Jesus in Psalm 48, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.

Thus Jesus could say at the end of his life on earth, I have kept my father's commandments, I have done his will.

You see, friends, he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

So we find God's law in Jesus' heart, And to throw out God's law is simpler than to throw out Jesus, for Jesus and His law are inseparably bound together.

The 10 Commandments contain the very principles of what Jesus is and what He wants us to be in our own lives.

We read in Hebrews 8, 10, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

Yes, Jesus wants to write His law in our hearts also.

And do you know that when Jesus lives out His life in ours, it will be the same life of perfect obedience to His Father's commandments that He lived while He was here in the flesh on this earth.

If we truly love Jesus, we'll show that love by doing His will and refraining from breaking His commandments.

Now let's ask this question, what is sin?

In 1 John 3, 4 we're told that sin is a transgression of the law.

Now that word transgression simply means breaking or disobeying.

What will be the result of obeying God's law?

First of all, we read in Psalms 119, 165, Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

Yes, God says that peace of mind will result from obedience.

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The Ten Commandments

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