God’s List Of Do’s And Don’ts 3 Of 3

I would like to mention again, God gave us these ten commandments for many reasons, but the primary reason, is that God wants us to know what HE LIKES, and what HE DISLIKES.

We are told that we have over twenty-two thousands laws on the books today. These laws continue to grow in number, because we have politicians who do not have a thing to do, it seems, except sit around making more laws. Every time something comes up as a problem, it seems the solution is to make another law.

For example, during the summer of 1999, we had several shootings in this country that made national news.

• One was a school shooting in Colorado

• Several other public shootings occurred.

What was the solution that our politicians gave? We need more gun control laws.

Why is it, that every time we have a shooting where innocent people are killed, the liberal politicians go before the television camera and say, WE NEED MORE LAWS ON GUN CONTROL?

When will this crowd come to understand, that these people who go out here and kill people with guns, are not law abiding citizens? It does not matter how many laws they put on the books, the criminals do not intend to obey any of them.

If you ask these politicians why they are continuing to make new laws daily, they will tell you the purpose of all these laws are to protect us. Well the thought occurs to any thinking person, if we have twenty-two thousand laws on the books now, and it is not safe to walk down the street, how many more thousands will they have to put on the books, before it is safe to walk down the street.

Did you know that they could take all the laws that are on the books today, and eliminate every one of them, and follow God’s ten commandments, and we would be better off. In the first place, we would not need all these lawyers, who are always arguing on television among themselves about what these laws mean.

The ten commandments are written so sensibly, that any intelligent person can understand them. God gave us these ten commandments, because they tell us what GOD LIKES, and what HE DISLIKES. For those of us who want to please Him, this is important.

These ten commandments are a summary of everything in this Bible that PLEASES or DISPLEASES GOD!

We looked at:

I. HIS PRIORITY LIST.

II. HIS PUNISHMENT LIST.

III. HIS POLITENESS LIST.

IV. HIS PLACE LIST.

V. HIS PARENTS LIST.

VI. HIS PROTECTION LIST.

Let us continue to look at this list and we will see-

VII. HIS PARTNERSHIP LIST.

Look at verse 14, we read, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” This commandment ranks among the highest when it comes to being violated. People violate this commandment in three ways every day. Some do it through-

(A) MENTAL ADULTERY.

Preacher, how can a person commit adultery mentally? The Lord Jesus explains how in Matthew 5:28. We read, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Illus: There is a story of two Buddhist monks walking in a drenching thunderstorm. They came to a stream, and it was swollen out of its banks. A beautiful young Japanese woman in a kimono, stood there wanting to get to the other side, but was afraid of the currents.

In characteristic Buddhist compassion, one of the monks said, "Can I help you?" The woman said, "I need to cross this stream."

The monk picked her up, put her on his shoulder, carried her through the water, and put her down on the other side. He and his companion went on to the monastery.

That night his companion said to him, "I have a bone to pick with you. As Buddhist monks, we have taken vows not to look on a woman, much less touch her body. Back there by the river you did both."

The first monk said, "My brother, I put that woman down on the other side of the river. You're still carrying her in your mind." (John Claypool, "The Future and Forgetting," Preaching Today, Tape No. 109.)

This is why it is wrong for men and women to look at pornography, because there is no way a man or a woman can look at impure pictures of the opposite sex, and not have sexual lust. When a person lusts for the opposite sex, it can be as addictive as taking illegal drugs. It is surprising how many men and women are addicted to pornography. Like all addictions, the thing they crave does not satisfy.

Illus: Craig Brian Larson, stated, “As a kid, I saw a movie in which some shipwrecked men are left drifting aimlessly on the ocean in a lifeboat. As the days pass, under the scorching sun, their rations of food and fresh water gave out. The men grow deliriously thirsty. One night, while the others were asleep, one man ignores all previous warnings and gulps down some salt water. He quickly died.