1/19/05 & 1/23/05 - “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD?” Part 4
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today we will continue with the subject, “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD” part 4. But first let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we open your word today, we need wisdom, knowledge and especially understanding so, that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, bless us accordingly in Jesus Name, Amen.”

I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.
In a few short weeks I am going to reveal the sin that is the very one that Satan has most of God’s people committing unaware. It is the sin that Jesus refers to in Matthew 7:21-23 where He says, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” The iniquity is the transgressing God’s law that I am speaking about. It’s what most of the Christian world is doing and because of it, it puts most Christians on the broad road that leads to destruction that Jesus mentions in verse 13. I’m going to help you get on the narrow way Jesus said in verse 14 that will get you safely to heaven. But you have to keep listening, or your going to miss it. And isn’t your eternal life important enough to keep listening.
The time I’m spending now in this series on THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD is laying the foundation. You have to understand that Satan hates God and especially the Ten Commandments. That’s why He has pastors saying that old law was nailed to the cross. It was never God’s moral Ten Commandment law for that is a transcript of God’s character and Jesus said it will stand until heaven and earth pass. Mat. 5:18. 
What law was nailed to the cross? Moses law that dealt with sacrifices of animals and religious ceremony. And we will make this crystal clear in weeks ahead. 
Now the Ten Commandment Law reveals our sin and where does it point? It points to Jesus.
	Didn’t Jesus teach us that all we need is love?
	In Matthew 22:36 Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment in the law.
	Verse 37 Jesus replied that we were to love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.
	Verse 38 He called this the first and great commandment, and He was actually quoting the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:5
	Verse 39 Then He gave the second one, that we should love our neighbor as ourself. Again He was quoting the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:18.
	Verse 40 He then stated the Ten Commandments hang on these two. In fact we find the first four commandments cover our love to God, while the last six, cover our love to mankind.
	Love is God’s law and God’s law is Love.
	Paul stated it clearly in Romans 13:10 “…therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”
 	Most people who condemn the Ten Commandments have never even read them. Have you ever discovered that people are down on what they're not up on?  	Let's go read the Ten Commandments, shall we?  You can read all of them in Exodus chapter 20.  Let's go through them all quickly, and I want to ask you if there's anything wrong with the law of God.
  	Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt have no other God's before me."  That's the first commandment, and it's given for our own joy and happiness, because God is first, all of the other blessings of life come in its path.  All right.  Anything wrong with that one?  Not at all.  
	Let's go to the second commandment in verse 4.  "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: 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;  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love  me, and keep my commandments."
 	And I want to pause right there to say, That's what this whole message is all about. Loving Jesus and keeping His commandments. Thank God we don't have to bow down to worthless images of wood and stone and plaster of paris and plastic.  
Let's go now to the third commandment.  Verse 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." 
  	In an age when the beautiful name of Jesus is dragged in the dust and used in vile epithets, with all cursing and swearing, we need a whole lot more of that commandment.  When angels veil their faces at the mention of His name and bow at his feet in adoration, how carelessly His holy name is used. 
Then we go on to the fourth commandment. 
	Verses 8-11, "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  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: 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."
 	One of the reasons that our society is breaking up and homes are breaking apart, and husbands and wives are yelling at each other, and people are getting heart attacks and ulcers, is because the devil has this society under the gun seven days a week, and God says, "I've given you a whole day to rest, recoup and regroup and to have an appointment to worship God."  That's a beautiful thing.  What Christian doesn't want special time with God?
 	We need a whole lot more of that commandment!  Then we go to the fifth one in verse 12, "Honour thy father and thy mother:  that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 	With children disobeying and disrespecting authority today, and children running the home and not being taught these principles of allegiance to mom and dad, we need a whole lot more of that commandment today.  
	Then we go to the sixth commandment, verse 13, "Thou shalt not kill." 
That's so simple.  Think what a world it would be if everybody kept that commandment.  Two or three murders a day average in the District of Columbia.  With all the hatred in the world, we need a whole lot more of that commandment.
	Then He says in verse 14, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."  And again, with fifty percent of marriages ending up on the rocks, most of them for this reason, along with all the resulting disease, sickness and heartache in this world, we need a whole lot more of this commandment.  We're spending billions of dollars on research for AIDS. I recognize that many a person afflicted with this disease is innocent.  But I also recognize that God has given us moral standards that would protect from these diseases in our society if we would follow them, and God stands before the world today saying, "I have a five word cure for AIDS—Thou shalt not commit adultery."  That's simple.  We need a whole lot more of that one.  
	Then we come to the eighth commandment in verse 15, "Thou shalt not steal."  I wish people kept that one.  I get tired of having to lock everything in sight all the time.  In an age of shoplifting, in an age of cheating, in an age of bribery, the Ten Commandments speak.     
	Now the ninth commandment, verse 16, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." 
 In other words, don't lie, just be honest.  In an age of gossip and slander we need a whole lot more of that commandment.  
	Then number ten in verse 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." 
 In other words, be content with what God has given you.  Oh, how we need more of that commandment.  Let me ask you, after reading all those Ten Commandments, do you find anything wrong with the law of God?  Yes or No?  No!  As we look around this country we desperately need more of this law!  
 	The ten-commandment law reveals God's code of ethics.
But someone says, "Aren't those commandments negative?"  
	They're not negative at all.  Look at how positive they are.
 1. We'll make God number 1 in our lives.  He is first.
 2. Our worship is reserved for God alone.  We worship Him exclusively. 
 3. Respect and reverence for His holy name.
 4. We're anxious to have an appointment with God each week, that we want to come and fellowship with Him.
 5. Honor our parents and authority.
 6. Life is valuable.  It is a gift from God. 
 7. Preserve morality.
 8. Respect the property of others.
 9. Be honest in your relationships.
 10. If you covet what belongs to another it leads you to selfishness, and greed, and bitterness, and resentment and who needs that?   
 	The commandments are not negative, the commandments are positive statements of how God desires us to live.  All the "Thou shalt nots" change from commandments for the unconverted, to promises for the converted person.  God is a God of freedom. 2 Cor. 3: 17 says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
	Exodus 20: 1,2, paraphrased God is saying, "My children, I freed you from your bondage.  And having demonstrated that that your freedom is My main concern, let Me tell you how to stay free."  The Ten Commandments are where God describes the threats to human freedom, by listing ten commands, each of which prohibits a certain dangerous action or attitude, designed precisely to free us from the devil's slavery. 
	Trusting God and obeying Him is unquestionably the only way to ultimately be free. Have you considered what a world we would have if everyone followed the Ten Commandments?  
What a utopia we would have?  If we all kept the law, we wouldn't have to worry about locking our doors.  No need for keys. If we were in harmony with the Ten Commandments think of the morality we would have. Quite a different world for sure.  
 It would be a law of liberty for the whole land wouldn't it?  That's what God wants.  That's what heaven's going to be like.  The people that are breaking the law are the ones truly in bondage to sin.   The people that are keeping it, by God's sustaining power, because they love Jesus, they're the ones that are set free!    
	Next week THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD part 5.
God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come lord Jesus.