Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, John Malkiewycz.
And so this morning, we are living in a world where society is crumbling all around us. You know, we're living in a society where humanism. You know what humanism is? That's the wisdom of humans.
It is excluding God from the equation of everything. We've arrived at a new level where we know everything is right, everything is right, what the moral values are. Everything, excluding God.
But I want to tell you, the same God that made us in the beginning is still in control at the end. And he is doing the same. He has a plan for you and me, a plan for you individually here today, the first time you may have been.
God's got a plan for you. He wants to save you. He wants to give you eternal life.
Not just the life you live on this planet, but a life beyond. A life that you cannot even imagine what it'll be like. A place where there is absolute peace, harmony and joy.
I think everyone wants peace, harmony and joy. Would that be right? I do. I don't want to be involved in a world where one minute you don't know if someone's going to break into your house and rob your things or someone will come to your door with a gun and shoot you.
That's happening. That's the world in which we live. We're going to look at Revelations, the Bible's answer for society's crumbling values.
Years ago, a home was a place of refuge and security. Down through the centuries, that has become a haven of stability. It has been a haven of stability.
The home was a place people could flee from the trials, the troubles and the difficulties of life. Enter the doors of your home and you feel secure. Warm, loving embraces and hugs produce a sense of well being.
Home has been traditionally the place of family togetherness. The home has changed in the last 20 years. And I was thinking about that because that's when we got involved with three.
Amen. In the last 20 years, the home has changed. 21st century homes are often a battlefield.
Words like abuse, conflict, anger and hostility, these are commonplace when they're describing the homes of today. Am I wrong? Look at the news. It abounds with all this stuff.
That's what makes news, by the way, on our media today, we read about families who spend very Little time at home, no family meal times, no time to spend together. At best they rush home for a meal before they leave out the door again. The home has become simply a place of eat and sleep.
The number of single parents is growing in our society. The structure of the home is different today. I think many of you could relate to that.
Many parents are seriously concerned about what is going on in their home via the Internet. The home used to be a safe sanctuary, but today that has all changed. Through television and the Internet.
Excessive violence and sex. A total lack of decency and morals have invaded our homes. A distortion of values is occurring right in the home.
Things are changing dramatically. High tech media savvy society. Look at that boy.
This is what you see in some homes. Sad. High tech media savvy society which offers sex, violence, greed as its prime time viewing is in serious trouble.
Hollywood images penetrate the home. The message communicated produces tragic behaviours in our young people. Especially our children are exposed to various versions of right and wrong.
There are competing values for the minds of our children. The average 18 year old. Is anyone 18 here? No, you're all older than 18.
Okay. The average 18 year old in our society today in the western society has witnessed over 200,000 violent acts on television and movies, including 40,000 murders. Now I say that's conservative because the amount of time young people are spending on these devices, I think that's underrated.
You might be wondering, does this form of entertainment we watch make any difference in our thinking processes? Does it really produce some of the violent behaviours we have witnessed in recent years? Without a moral compass? You know what a compass does when you hold it up? As long as you're not around buildings, it'll always point you north. Always. It doesn't vary.
Year, month to month, day to day, it doesn't vary. It keeps you on the right track. Without that compass, I want to tell you, it brings moral confusion.
I remember when I was in cadets or we used to go out and use a compass to direct and guide us. You didn't follow that compassion. You didn't reach your destination.
It was as simple as that. This society, the one that we live in, says your own mind is the standard. Have you heard that? I've heard that.
This society says nobody can tell you what to do if it feels good. What? Do it right. If it brings you pleasure, do it.
Why is it that we have such high rates of crime? Why is violence so commonplace? The Bible provides some of the concrete. Well, it does provide some of the concrete answers, but I Want you to take note of something because we all have Bibles and this is our standard. If it's in the Bible, what does it say? What does it say? Okay.
If it disagrees with the Bible, it's not for me. You want to keep that in mind when you think about the word of God. Because if you want to know the truth and to be set free, go to the Bible.
The Bible has the answer. The wise man Solomon makes it plain in these words in Proverbs 28, 26. The text will be up there.
But if you want to go to your Bible, it says, he who trusts in his own heart is what? Trusts in his what? Put it personally. If I trust in my own heart to know the truth, I'm a fool. I have to go outside.
Because your heart is deceitful. The mind can deceive you. You can justify almost anything if you're depending on your own thought process.
In fact, in Hosea 8, 7, he puts it this way. They sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind. If you sow a bad character, you will reap a very bad life.
Did you hear what I said? If you sow a bad character, you will reap a very bad life. We've been sowing the wind of violence in the media and we are reaping a whirlwind of crime. We've been sowing the wind of immorality and we've been reaping the whirlwind of divorce, rape and child abuse.
This is the cause and effect relationship. How do you protect moral values in an immoral world? Good question. How do you protect moral values in an immoral world? When you start speaking of things of God, what is the world saying? You just need a crutch.
This is what you hang on to. Get real. But it's not the case.
We have sown the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind. How can you protect your mind? How can you protect the minds of your children and your grandchildren? How can you be moral in an immoral world? Well, the book of Revelation provides some clear cut answers. It is the book, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
What did I say? It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a message for the last generation living on earth. The book of Revelation has a message for you and for me.
It calls us to morality, back to the standards of God. This message is an urgent. Is as urgent as for us to understand.
As in the days of Noah as it was in the days of Noah. It's so urgent to understand this. It calls us to morality, back to the standards of God.
It is the last and final message for all humanity. If you're here today, I believe you are the last generation. I believe we're living in a time where we need to stand for what God has given us.
The knowledge. And I say the knowledge because we have the word of God. We are people of the book.
We know the end of the book. We know what's going to happen. Most people out there don't.
They don't understand why this is all happening and why it's allowed to happen. Revelation 14:6 is a very important message. The Bible says, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth.
To every nation, tribe, tongue and people fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgement has come. Fear God does not mean to be afraid of God. It means reverence, respect and obey God.
Three things. Reverence, respect and obey God. Give glory to him is a call to give glory to God in your lifestyle.
That's why Seventh Day Adventists are a lifestyle people. We eat what God calls us. He says is best for us.
He made us. He knows how many have got a diesel car. Got a diesel vehicle.
There's a few hands up there. What happens when you put petrol in it? Not good. It splatters and then it stops and your engine's done so.
That's the same with God giving us the diet that we have. Eat it and you'll enjoy life more fully, be able to function better, your mind will be clearer, all those sorts of things. Give glory to him is a call to give God the glory in your lifestyle.
Why it goes on to say and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. This angel is flying in the midst of heaven with a message for the world. Do you notice the urgency in that Bible passage? Just let's look at it again.
It says, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgement has come. This passage in Revelation answers the question of moral responsibility. Why is there so much crime and violence in society? Why so much immorality? Why so much lawlessness? It revolves around the issue of moral responsibility.
The judgement calls us to accountability for our actions. Judgement implies responsibility, moral choices. If I'm not responsible for what I do, how can God's judgement hold me accountable for those actions? It's not possible.
People reason I'm an alcoholic because my father and my grandfather were alcoholics. So I'm not responsible. Many excuse themselves with, if I'm a drug addict, it's because I was abused as a child, then I'm not responsible.
Or I'm a criminal because my genetics made me that way. I'm not responsible. The society we live in is a society that largely says, you are not responsible for your actions.
Think about that for a moment. What does that open up? What does that entail? It also declares right and wrong is something every person determines in their own mind. The idea I'm responsible only to myself, how many have heard that? Well, that's how you think, but that's not how I think.
I'm only responsible to myself. I'm not responsible to a higher power. God.
When you take the position that you are not responsible to any higher power and that there is no judgement, then you have no certain moral standards to guide your life. Think about that. If you are not responsible to a higher power or a higher ruling, then what is there? It's open.
Slater. Judgement implies responsibility and moral choices. In the last days of Earth's history, God is calling men and women to judgement.
God does have a standard of morality and a basis for his final judgement. He does. God's law is the basis of morality and the standard of judgement.
The book of Revelation speaks to society that says, my mind is my highest standard. There is no judgement. They say, I'll make all my own moral decisions.
I will make and take and follow my own choices. Revelation says, you are responsible for your actions. Every one of us sitting here has given the power of choice, but with it comes the responsibility that you have to give an account for your choices.
And it's something we need to think about a little bit more. Especially in this time of Earth's history, you're going to be faced with a lot of choices and you'll be put under a lot of pressure. But you have to understand that God's law is the one that you have to uphold in your life.
Revelation says you are responsible for your actions. For the hour of the judgement has come. Revelation calls us back to the law of God, which is God's moral standard.
I want to thank you. I thank God that we have a moral standard. And we're going to find out a little bit more.
In James 2:12, the apostle James says, so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. Now that's an interesting thing, a law of liberty. People see the law as what? Yeah, it holds you down, but this is a law of liberty.
It gives you freedom. We're going to look at that. So speak.
And so do those who are judged by the law of liberty. The entire law of God is a law of liberty. Here are a few examples.
The sixth commandment. Oh, by the way, the first four. The sixth commandment in Exodus 20:13 says, the first four are to God.
The last six are to our relationship with mankind. Thou shalt not kill. Now, do you see that as a law of restricting or see it as a law of liberty that liberates you from those who would want to kill you? Thou shall not kill.
It's a liberation. You can go out into your community and feel safe if everybody is keeping the law. Thou shall not kill.
You've got nothing to worry about someone killing you. It preserves the sanctity of life against murder, including the murder of innocent unborn babies. The seventh commandment is in Exodus 20:14.
Thou shall not commit adultery. This preserves the sanctity of the family. It protects the institution of the family.
By the way, there are two institutions that the devil is working on overtime, full on. And that is the Sabbath and the family and marriage. Two institutions.
If he can break them down, we're done. If we succumb to that teaching that marriage is now. Well, as partners, you can do whatever.
You can live with whatever. You can commit adultery. No, that hasn't changed.
But here we have the family, and those things affect the family. It protects children against the effects of a broken home and poverty caused by preserves the sanctity of the family. It protects the institution of the family.
It protects children against the effects of a broken home and poverty caused by it. There are so many children mixed up in the world, so many breaks my heart. When you've lived through something you can speak about breaks Your heart.
The eighth commandment in Exodus 20:15, it says, Thou shalt not steal. It is a law of liberty from theft. It protects possessions and your property.
How many of you went away from your home or your car and didn't lock it? Nobody. Oh, you. Some didn't lock it.
Oh, okay. So what I'm saying is we do it because we're concerned someone might steal our car or someone may come into our home and take our possessions. Is that right? That's why we do it.
So think of the chaos in society if the principles of God's law were openly disregarded. If one of you down here felt, well, there's nothing stopping me from going, taking what doesn't belong to me, I'm sure that I hope not in the church, not someone down here. You wouldn't do that because you keep the law of God.
But many people would just go and do it because they could do it. Anyone tried driving on the freeway on the wrong side of the road? Chaos, Absolute chaos. Don't do it.
In Revelation 11:19, he says, Then the temple of God was open in heaven and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. What's the Ark of the Covenant? Inside the sanctuary which God instructed Moses to build on earth. The Ark of the covenant contained the law of God.
God's law was placed in the sanctuary as the basis of all morality. It's the basis of all morality. The ark of God's covenant contains his law.
God's law is the foundation of his throne. Echoing from the Book of Revelation is God's call To what? To keep his law. It echoes through the whole Bible.
You know where it started, Right back in the Garden of Eden. What did God call Adam and Eve to do? Don't take of the fruit of the tree of life and death. Oh, sorry.
Evil and death. Yeah, Good and evil. Oh, I'm glad I've got rosemary down here.
God's law is the foundation of his throne. Echoing from the Book of Revelation is God's call to keep his law. And you know what? It hasn't changed.
Here we are in 2025. 2025. 6,000 years on, has it been changed? Has it changed? Not even in a jot or a tittle.
It still remains the same. You know why it remains the same? How was it written? Finger of God on stone. And so it's really signifying, it's permanent.
It doesn't change. Men might change it. Yeah, men do try and change it.
There's no question about it. Judgement and law are part of the gospel. But someone says, I thought we were saved by grace.
Has anyone thought that? I thought we were saved by grace. It's okay. And we didn't need to keep God's law.
Oh, now is that right? When Christ was crucified on the cross, he was judged as a sinner dying to pardon our sins. Judgement is part of the gospel. If God could have changed his law, Jesus would not have had to die.
But the Bible says the wages of sin is what? Death. That's right. If God's law was changed, why would Jesus have to die if we broke God's law? Good question.
1 John 3, 4 says, Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. I may not think the sin to steal something.
I may not think It a sin to steal something. But sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness means defiance of the law, anarchy and chaos.
Sin is more than I thought what I think in my mind. It's more than what I think in my mind. Here is the Bible's definition of sin.
1 John 3, 4 tells us sin is breaking God's law. A man says, look, I'm not satisfied in my marriage, so if I go out for a weekend with my secretary, that's okay because we are two consenting adults. The Bible says, thou shalt not commit adultery.
God's law is his eternal moral standard which defines sin and establishes our accountability to God. His law defines what morality is, even if our minds don't agree with him. The Bible said sin is breaking God's law.
The Book of Revelation says the hour of God's judgement is come. The Book of Revelation says you are responsible for your own choices and actions. Two things.
You are responsible for your own choices and actions. Everybody sitting here and and including me is responsible for their own choices and actions. The Book of Revelation says the foundation of God's throne is God's law.
That's the foundation. That's the foundation this earth has been established on. That's the foundation that you choose to live your life every day, should choose to live your life on every day because it brings you freedom and liberty and peace and joy and happiness while you sojourn here on this earth.
What our children need today is not a diet of murder, violence, immorality on television. Our children need to be taught the moral principles. God has given them, given us.
The moral law of God protects us. God's law is not some arbitrary regulation to restrict our happiness. No, it's the total opposite.
It's to give us joy and peace. God's law is the pathway to freedom and genuine happiness. There's a lot of happiness out there.
Don't get me wrong. People have a lot of happiness out there, but we're talking about genuine happiness. God's law protects us from a lifestyle which will destroy us.
Put petrol in a diesel engine and you will destroy it. Some Christians often said, even said, we don't need to preach on the law. In our church, we preach about love.
And they are as if they are two different things. Law and love are synonymous. They go together.
Love always leads to obedience. If you've got children in your family, there's only one parent here with two children. But if you got children in your family, if your children love you, what's the outward expression of that love to you when you ask them to do something, they do it joyfully.
They will even come and ask, how can I help you? Now, there's husbands and wives here. How does the husband or the wife express their love to one another? If you're not married, take note. Come on, you married people, you can say something.
How does a husband express his love to his wife and a wife to a husband? By being obedient. Obedient because you love the other. Now, if you want to have an argument in your family, I think we can all speak about that.
You've just got to disagree with your wife or the husband. Yes, it does. Respect is an expression of love.
That's right. Very true. We don't preach on the law in our church.
We preach about love. This is what's said in other churches, as if they're two different things. Love always leads to obedience.
Love doesn't lead you to disobedience. The husband loves his wife. He will do it.
He doesn't do it to be disobedient because it's crazy. You just don't do that. It leads you to keep God's commandments.
That's what it does. In John 14:15 it says, oh, very, very pointed, very short, if you love me. What? Who said that? Jesus said it.
What did Jesus come to reveal on this earth? The will of his Father, did he not? What was the will of his Father for Jesus? That's right. He did the will of his Father. No different for us.
If Adam, if Eve had did the will of God, she wouldn't have taken from the tree of Good and Evil. So we can see that there's something in God's Word that we need to follow. Does Jesus say, if you love me, you don't have to keep my commandments? No, love's response is to keep God's commandments.
The reason we obey is not because we are trying to earn God's favour. It's a response of our love for him. I do not obey God to earn my salvation.
Did you hear me? I do not obey God to earn my salvation. Think about that. Okay? I obey God not in order to be saved, but because I am saved.
Did you hear that? I obey God not in order to be saved, but because I am saved. None of my obedience earns my salvation. Christ wrought that on the cross.
But when I come to the cross, my obedience is evidence that I've being that I am saved. 1 John 2, 3 and 4 says, now by this we know that we know him. If we what, keep his commandments You've got to keep in mind it's not like the laws of the land that are commandments.
You break them, you're going to pay the penalty. Yes, you do that in the word of God. But you have a loving God and because you love him, you want to just do it.
You want to do it because you love Him. John says, here is the evidence that we know God. Here is the evidence that we are born again believers.
Here is the evidence that we are truly Christ's. 1 John 2, 3, 4. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.
When we are committed to Christ, when we generally know him, when our hearts are surrendered to him, the natural response is to obey Him. Anyone who says to you God's law is done away with, forget about these commandments is only teaching you half the gospel. They're not teaching you about the true Christ who said that we will obey his commandments if we love Him.
Him. I guess that's a question you have to ask yourself. Do you love Him? Grace and law are not contradictory terms.
When you are saved by grace, you are not saved to disobey, to commit lawlessness, you are saved to obey. What is the role of God's law? Good question. First, all salvation is by grace.
All Old Testament believers looked forward to Christ who would come. In the New Testament we look to Christ who has come. They were saved by grace to come.
We are saved by grace that has come. But if it's all by grace, what's the role of God's law? Then in Romans 3:20 it says, by the law is the knowledge of sin. Do you realise that if you do away with the law, there is no sin? If you do away with the law, there's no sin.
If there's no law, no one can do anything wrong. If no one can do anything wrong, there is no need of a Saviour. That means nothing can be called evil or wrong.
Who is to judge what is wrong if there is no law by which to judge people's deeds? But we have just read in the Bible that by the law is the knowledge of sin. God reveals sin through his law. Paul says in Romans 7:7, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet.
Is that right? If you break God's law, it is sin. So the role of the law is to define sin. The law defines the moral standards of God's Judgement and the foundation of all society.
The law says, this is right and this is wrong. The judgement in Revelation calls men and women everywhere back to law keeping. It calls Christians that are saved by grace to live obedient, righteous, holy lives.
What is the role of grace? What's the role of grace then? Ephesians 2:8:9 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any one should boast. Grace is God's mercy, God's pardon, God's forgiveness, God's power, God's love reaching out to sinners.
God's love reaching out to every one of you sitting here today. God. Grace.
Does grace do away with God's law? Does it? If I'm saved by grace, does that lead me to break God's laws? If I'm certain, no. That's right. Romans 3:30.
Do we then make void the law of God void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. Paul says, do not think to do away with the law by faith through grace.
Don't think of that. We establish it, we keep it. People who are saved by grace are obedient to God's law.
Jesus in Matthew 5:17 says, do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Jesus didn't come to do away with the law.
He was the living law. And Jesus himself obeyed the law. He fulfilled it in his life.
In Romans 6:14 it says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. When does sin have dominion over you? Tell me. When you follow your own way rather than God's way.
When you flippantly go out and break God's law, then sin change you. Because the Bible said sin is a transgression of the law. Paul says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.
What does it mean to be under the law? These are important questions that we need to look at. What the Bible says it means to be under the law as a method of salvation. As a method of salvation, it means to be under the condemnation of the law.
Because I broke means I trust the law to save me and I don't keep it. I'm condemned. What is sin? The breaking of God's law.
I'm condemned by the law I broke, so I'm under condemnation as a law breaker. Does that make sense? What does it mean to be under Grace. To be under grace, we come to the cross.
We kneel at the foot of the cross. To be under grace means that I accept Christ's pardon, receive Christ's forgiveness, and am filled with his power. Christ writes his law in my heart and in my mind.
Now I desire to obey Him. The Bible is very clear on this subject. When we come to Jesus Christ and throw ourselves at his feet, he says, my child, no matter what you've done in the past, no matter what you've done in the past, no matter how sinful your life has been in the past, my child, I will forgive you.
You can begin again. The law reveals our need. When I look at God's law, I see who am I, who I am.
I don't measure up to the law. I really don't see all the dirt. Good picture.
When I look in the mirror, I'm needing cleaning. Believe you me. When I come to Jesus Christ, when I look at his law, I see times when I've been impatient.
You've been impatient? Be honest. I have. I see times when I haven't been kind as I should be.
It's true. Isn't that right, Rosemary? When I come to Jesus, I fall at his feet. This is what David means in Psalms 19:7.
The law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The perfect law drives me to Jesus.
And I say, oh, Jesus, my heart is broken. My heart is crushed because of my sin and guilt. Jesus, forgive me.
Pardon me. Lead me, dear Jesus, to keep your law. Lead me, Jesus, to be obedient.
Someone. Somebody came to Jesus once and tried to trick him. A lawyer came and asked.
Matthew 22:36 to 40, Father, sorry, teacher. Which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. What was Jesus doing here? He was summarising the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments.
Because Jesus said, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The entire law can be summarised in one word. Anyone want to guess what it is? Love.
Love. Love is just a four letter word, but it entails so much in God's plan of salvation in saving you and all mankind. It is only because of the love of God that you have an opportunity to, by knowing His Word, to have that love eternally.
Have you thought about that? Just not here on this earth, while you live. But it's forever. That's amazing.
Love God and your fellow man. Jesus summarised the first four commandments with love to God and the last six commandments with love to our fellow man. Jesus was saying, if you love fully, if you love fully, you will love God.
If you love fully, you will love your fellow man. Love always leads to obedience. God's ten Commandment law was written with God's finger on tables of stone.
Keeping God's law doesn't put you in bondage. Did you hear that? It does not put you in bondage. It takes you out of bondage.
The ten Commandments were not given to restrict our freedom. They were given so we could be truly free. They were given by God himself.
Listen to how they are introduced in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 2. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. It is the Lord God, the Lord of heaven and earth, who wrote these commandments with his own finger on the tables of stone as moral principles for all time.
Let's just read it. Thou shall have no other gods before me. God is saying, I, I am to be supreme in your life, the only one you worship.
No other gods. Not your house, not your lands, not your riches, not power, not tobacco, not alcohol, not materialism, nothing else. Worship God supremely.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not bow down yourself to them. In other words, worship them nor serve them.
In other words, obey them. God says, don't come to me through images, come to me directly. Any man made image of wood, stone, metal, shell or any other substance is an idol.
When man fashioned something created by God into an image of something else, it is a man made God. It's true he made it. He took from what God has and made something out of it.
But it has no life or power. Any power manifested through it is evil angels trying to deceive you. You know why I know that? How did Satan deceive Eve? He came in the form of a serpent.
He came into the serpent. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. When a woman gets married, she takes her husband name.
How does she then behave? How does she behave when she's married to takes the husband's name? Does she take other men in her arms? No. Does she act as though she is not married while bearing her husband's name? No. What about the husband? Does he treat it lightly that he has a wife who is called by his name and takes other Women? No, not at all in any of those cases.
The next one. 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.
The Sabbath, or the seventh day, is the day of worship, to worship the creator of heaven and earth. They were telling you a story. Today, worship him on his holy seventh day as the one who made you.
God tells us to keep it holy. It's not a day for work or buying or selling, is it? No, A day to worship. God is a church family.
That's what we're here. We're a church family to do good to others as Jesus did. The fourth commandment speaks to this generation.
Honour thy father and thy mother. Whoa. In an age when children no longer obey their parents, the fifth commandment speaks when a child says to his parents, you can't tell me what to do.
The fifth commandment speaks. It speaks with relevance to all children of all ages. It's relevant.
Thou shalt not kill. At a time when nuclear weapons are being built to kill people, when unborn babes who are not wanted are killed before they can be born, when people kill innocent, when parents and children, when tribes war against and kill each other, there is still a commandment that says, and it's sacred, that life is sacred. Thou shall not kill.
Life is sacred. No one has the right to remove or to take someone's life. Thou shall not commit adultery.
At a time of great immorality, a time when there is a lack of moral purity. God's law speaks to this generation. When society turns its back on God's law, when it's openly immoral, that society is on its way to disaster.
This is a call for us all and the world to come back to God's law. Thou shalt not steal. It's still wrong to steal.
It's still wrong to shoplift. It's still wrong to take something that belongs to somebody else as though it belonged to you. Because that's how we justify it.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Lying is still wrong. Gossip is still wrong.
Dragging someone's good name through the dust is still wrong. Thou shalt not covet. To covet means to want, desire deeply something that someone else has.
Whatever you covet becomes your idol in place of God. The other commandments are actions. Coveting is inside your heart and in your mind and can lead you to murder.
It can lead you to commit adultery, to steal, to lie about someone else. If you covet something it means that thing is your God. Did you hear me? It's true.
God is not first. If God is not first in your life, the thing you're coveting will be. That's how it is.
That's humanism, human thought. The Ten Commandments Law speaks to this generation. God's commandments speak to you and to me.
They speak with relevance to our lives, our society. Today the psalmist reveals that God's commandments are forever. The works of his hand are verity and justice.
All his precepts are sure. They stand fast. For how long? Forever and ever.
He has commanded his covenant forever. Satan lost heaven because of what disobedience he chose to go against God and be lost. Adam and Eve lost Eden because of disobedience.
God is calling his people back to His 10 commandment law. Hebrews 8:10 says, for this is the covenant that I will make with you the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws where in their mind and write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Take note. If God's law is in our minds, that means we know it.
You get that? It's in our minds. We know it. If God's law is in our hearts, we love it.
Two things. We know it and we love it. Because in our hearts is where we love.
God will have a last people, a last day. People will have his law written in their hearts and minds. Remember that they love him enough to obey Him.
Let's read a description of this last day. People in Revelation 14:12 says, Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Here are the ones who are faithful, those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The last chapter of Revelation describes the redeemed this way. Revelation 22:14 says, Blessed are those who what do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Jesus Christ pardons us. He says, come to me, my child. And he gives us mercy.
Christ looks into our eyes. He looks straight into your eyes. If your eyes are shut at this moment, open them.
Because Christ is looking into your eyes. And he does all the time, whether you've got them shut or open. I want to change your life.
I have something special I want to do for you. I would like to make you a new man or a new woman. Would you like to say, Jesus, come into my life, Jesus, do For me, what is impossible for me to do for myself.
Jesus is holding his hand out to you now. Right now. He's holding out your hands.
Is there any sin or something that is stopping you from taking his hand? His grace will pardon your past. His grace will transform your life. His grace will make you a new man or a new woman.
I would invite you take his hand right now. You know, a sermon would not be complete without each of you taking part. And because we said at the beginning, every one of you has a choice, a moral responsibility to want to have God write the Ten Commandments on your hearts.
And I believe that the part you can play is making a decision. I just want to go back. There's Jesus.
He's sitting in front of you. He's got his hand out and he's inviting you to take his hand and allow him into your heart. If there's someone here that has felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that you want to give your hand to Jesus right now, I'm going to ask you to kneel and I want to pray for you.
And you're quite welcome to stand if you don't want to kneel. But if there's someone here that wants to give their hand to Jesus right now, I would like to pray for you. So I'm going to kneel.
If there's someone here that does, I invite you to kneel. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the Book of Revelation, revealing Jesus Christ and what he does for us. As we kneel before you now and you know the hearts of everybody here, we want to have your love within us and we want to take your hand, Jesus, and be your people, those that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.
Two things essential to eternal life, to know God and to believe in Jesus Christ, whom he sent. I pray, Father, each one here will make a decision to be liberated, to live with peace and joy while they live on this earth and have the opportunity, by accepting your love and being obedient to you, to live throughout eternity. Empower us to be obedient, Father.
Forgive us for our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and fill our hearts and minds with you and your word. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Foreign this message was made available by the Dora Creek Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit doracreek.church. This this programme has been brought to you by 3 ABN Australia radio.
