1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 After having finished a Sunday morning service, 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,000 a gentleman came up to me and he said, 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000 do you want to know Miss Kuhlman, 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:19,000 I have heard you preach literally hundreds and hundreds of sermons, 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:26,000 and yet I have never known you to bring a series of messages on the Ten Commandments. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:36,000 And I would just enjoy hearing you preach on the Ten Commandments. 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000 I said, why of course, my goodness, the life, 8 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000 there's so much to preach about from God's precious word, 9 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,000 come to think about it, 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:52,000 I do not believe that I have ever brought a series of messages on the Ten Commandments, 11 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 I'll do it. 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:08,000 And so, this is my first in a series of heart-to-heart talks on the Ten Commandments, 13 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000 and I promise you that as you follow me in these heart-to-heart talks, 14 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,000 that you'll find a depth of meaning, 15 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,000 you'll find treasures, 16 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:30,000 you'll find a depth of truth in these Ten Commandments that you never dreamed was there. 17 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,000 Oh sure, we think of the Ten Commandments, 18 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:41,000 the Ten Rules for Living as a portion of the Old Testament, 19 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000 every child who goes to Sunday school knows that God gave them to Moses, 20 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000 and then when you want to show off the intelligence of your youngster, 21 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,000 perhaps five years of age, four and a half, 22 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,000 you'll trot her into the living room before your guests and say, 23 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:09,000 now honey, recite to Auntie Mame the Ten Commandments, 24 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,000 and then your very intelligent youngster, 25 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 your little boy with his high IQ, 26 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:25,000 will rattle off the Ten Commandments just as he learned them in the church in the Sunday school, 27 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 and then it just ends there. 28 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:38,000 I'll promise you, if you'll stay with me in these heart-to-heart talks, 29 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,000 you're going to learn a truth, 30 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:49,000 you're going to see how really valuable to every man, to every woman, 31 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:55,000 whether they are a Christian or not, 32 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:04,000 how valuable these Ten Rules for Living really are. 33 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,000 I probably will seldom refer to them as the Ten Commandments. 34 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:16,000 I would rather think of them in the light of the Ten Rules for Living, 35 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 and that's exactly what they are. 36 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:30,000 First of all, let me read the first 17 verses of the 20th chapter of Exodus, 37 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,000 and God speaks all these words, saying, 38 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:45,000 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out to the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 39 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 40 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 41 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:01,000 or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, 42 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,000 or that is in the water under the earth. 43 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. 44 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 For I am the Lord thy God. 45 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,000 I am a jealous God, 46 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:32,000 visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 47 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:41,000 and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. 48 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:50,000 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold them guiltless that take his name in vain. 49 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,000 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 50 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:02,000 Six days shalt thou labor and do thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. 51 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:07,000 In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, 52 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:15,000 thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy capitol, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. 53 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:24,000 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. 54 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:31,000 Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 55 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:41,000 Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may belong upon the land of which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 56 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, 57 00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:07,000 thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, 58 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:26,000 thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. 59 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:40,000 Thus reads a portion of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and the one who spoke was the mighty God of the universe. 60 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:52,000 And before he gave those ten rules for living, he made his own acclamation. 61 00:06:52,000 --> 00:07:02,000 I am the Lord thy God, I am God, I am God Almighty. 62 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:13,000 The one who is speaking, the one who is giving these ten rules for living, is the one who has all power in heaven and earth. 63 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:23,000 The power to give life, the power to take life, the power to bless, the power to withhold the blessing. 64 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:29,000 I am the Lord thy God. 65 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:36,000 And then he continues to speak. 66 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:45,000 We dare not take even this portion of the word of God out of its continuity, out of its setting. 67 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Therefore, let us go back and see just exactly what was happening prior to the giving of these ten rules for living. 68 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:05,000 Shortly after Moses had led the children of Israel away from the bondage of Egypt on their journey to the promised land, 69 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:11,000 God called Moses up on Mount Sinai. 70 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:18,000 And he must have said something like this to him. Oh, I have visualized it a thousand times. 71 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:31,000 This must have been in essence what God said to Moses in his heart-to-heart talk with him. 72 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:38,000 Now, Moses, your people are headed toward prosperity. 73 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:48,000 The land that I have promised to them is rich and productive and will supply not only their needs, but much more. 74 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:55,000 Oh, Moses, even you do not understand the prosperity that is just ahead. 75 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Not even you understand the blessing with which I am going to bless you and your people is far beyond your comprehension. 76 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:13,000 That's the reason, Moses, I'm bringing you up here and you and I are having this heart-to-heart talk together. 77 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:21,000 This is why I'm going to have to give you these rules for living. 78 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:29,000 The land that I have promised will supply more than your needs, much, much more. 79 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:35,000 In fact, the land flows with milk and honey. 80 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,000 Oh, wasn't that a description? 81 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:48,000 When God says that a thing flows with milk and honey. 82 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,000 That's something. 83 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:55,000 But God continued this conversation with Moses. 84 00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:05,000 He said, but look here, Moses, you've got to go down there and tell your people that they cannot, 85 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:18,000 it's absolutely impossible for them to be happy and successful merely by the possession of things. 86 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,000 Oh, to me, that's wonderful. 87 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,000 Remember, human nature hasn't changed one iota. 88 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:34,000 Those people back there in Moses' day were just as human as the people in our generation. 89 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:42,000 Just as human as you are, human nature has always been the same. 90 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:52,000 And the first thing that God had to make Moses understand and tell Moses to make his people understand 91 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:59,000 was the thing that is important to you and to me today. 92 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:10,000 The fact that things, material things, things of this earth, the things we accumulate, 93 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:17,000 material things will not make a man happy. 94 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:21,000 If only I could get women to see that. 95 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:27,000 If only I could get men to see it. 96 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:31,000 I have watched human beings a number of years. 97 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:40,000 I have watched them climb from one rung of the ladder to the one just above 98 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:45,000 until they have reached the last rung on the ladder. 99 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,000 They have received fame. They have received wealth. 100 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,000 They received everything that money could buy. 101 00:11:53,000 --> 00:12:01,000 And yet inside of them, they were the most unhappy human beings walking the streets of any city. 102 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:12,000 Why? Because just things, material things, cannot bring happiness. 103 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,000 God knew it. 104 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:26,000 Therefore, just prior to his great blessing and following their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, 105 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:31,000 God had to do something because he knew that he was dealing with human beings. 106 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,000 He was about to bless human beings. 107 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:37,000 And he knew the weakness of human beings. 108 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:41,000 He knew their frailties, their shortcomings. 109 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,000 He knew the smallness of their minds, their thinking. 110 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 He knew how the human mind worked. 111 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:57,000 He knew the shallowness of mankind. 112 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:04,000 Therefore, before he led them into the land that did flow with milk and honey, 113 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,000 he said, Moses, we've got to do something. 114 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:23,000 We've got to show your people that things, material things, will never make them happy. 115 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:30,000 The possession of things will never bring real happiness. 116 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:36,000 The way they live is more important than what they have. 117 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,000 And it's true today. 118 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:49,000 The way we live, the way you live in your home, your attitude toward your wife, 119 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:56,000 your attitude toward your husband, your attitude in the home, your attitude toward the children, 120 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:03,000 the children's attitude and respect for you, you will not be blessed with material things. 121 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:10,000 And yet, even though you have to make every penny count, 122 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:16,000 even though the furnishings of the home may be very mediocre, 123 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:20,000 it's the spirit of the home. 124 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,000 It's not just a house. 125 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:29,000 As you enter into your home, there's a warmth. 126 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:37,000 You feel the happiness because, you see, it's individuals that make a house a home. 127 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,000 It's the spirit. 128 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:47,000 No, no, beloved, it's the way you live that's more important than what you have materially. 129 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:53,000 And that's one of the very first things that God told Moses to make his people see 130 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,000 before he began to bless them. 131 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:00,000 So he said, Moses, I'm going to give you ten rules for living. 132 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,000 I want you to teach the people these rules. 133 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:11,000 If they live by them, I promise they will be blessed. 134 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:22,000 But I warn you, if they break these rules, there will be punishment. 135 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,000 And it's true today. 136 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:33,000 You cannot break any one of God's rules for living without suffering the consequences. 137 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,000 You can't do it. 138 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:43,000 I don't care whether it's his laws regarding the physical body. 139 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:48,000 You don't have to even be able to read the Bible. 140 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,000 I don't care whether you're a Christian or an atheist. 141 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:57,000 I don't care what your mental attitude about God is. 142 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:03,000 One thing I can tell you, if you break one of God's rules for the physical, 143 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,000 you're going to suffer for it. 144 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:14,000 You cannot do anything as small as overloading your stomach without suffering for it. 145 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:18,000 You don't have to have the Bible. You don't have to know the Bible. 146 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:25,000 Without knowing the fact that if you break rules for the physical body, 147 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,000 you will pay the price. 148 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:36,000 Many a person today is blaming God, blaming everybody that they can think of 149 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:41,000 for the condition that their body is in, for their sickness, for their poor health. 150 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:47,000 And yet, the blame lies with the individual, the owner of that body. 151 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:56,000 They are in that condition physically because they have broken God's laws for the body. 152 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,000 The body needs just so much rest. 153 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:08,000 The body must have just the right kind of intake of vitamins. 154 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:14,000 You break any one of those laws, your body suffers. 155 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:18,000 And so it is with every part of man's life. 156 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:27,000 God has certain laws. As truly as two and two make four, God has laws. 157 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:33,000 You break them, you automatically suffer. 158 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,000 God has nothing to do with it whatsoever. 159 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,000 You are the one to blame. 160 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,000 Oh, I'm telling you something. When we get deep into these ten rules for living, 161 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:51,000 you're going to find it's one of the greatest portions of God's precious Word. 162 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,000 Yes, ma'am. And Moses, listen. 163 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:02,000 These are to be the rules of living people of all generations, 164 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,000 all peoples of all times. 165 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:11,000 Moses, these rules will never go out of date. 166 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:18,000 They'll never be repealed. They'll never be changed. 167 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:27,000 And so we have those rules that are known as the Ten Commandments recorded in the 20th chapter of Exodus. 168 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:34,000 Now remember something. They are not only the basis of conduct, both moral and spiritual, 169 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:46,000 but also the basis of peace and prosperity for the individual and for the world. 170 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,000 We forget, you know, that the world is made up of individuals. 171 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:56,000 We forget that a nation is made up of individuals. 172 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,000 That's the reason you have heard me say over and over again 173 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:12,000 that our own nation, the United States of America, is no stronger than her spiritual forces. 174 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,000 It's like that. 175 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:26,000 When we go abroad, we hear America spoken of as a whole. 176 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:37,000 America, the land of plenty. Oh, America, the utopia of the world. 177 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:47,000 And yet you think of the thousands and thousands and billions of people that make up America. 178 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:51,000 It is thought of as a whole, a unit. 179 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,000 And yet our nation is made up of individuals. 180 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:02,000 And we are, as a nation, what the people make it. 181 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,000 But you make it, what I make it. 182 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:10,000 Therefore, this promise, these ten rules for living, 183 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:20,000 are not only the basis of conduct for moral and spiritual living, 184 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:30,000 but they're also the basis for peace and for prosperity for our nation and for the world. 185 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:36,000 And the thing that's wrong with our nation today and the thing that is wrong with the world today 186 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:44,000 is merely the fact that we are going contrary to God's rules for living. 187 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,000 Absolutely. 188 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:50,000 We spend billions of dollars trying to analyze the whole thing. 189 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:59,000 We have our keenest minds trying to bring a solution to the whole thing. 190 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,000 We have tried everything under God's heaven. 191 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:13,000 All on earth that mankind has to do is to come back again and follow God's ten rules for living. 192 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:21,000 We've gotten so far away from them that the whole world has gotten itself in a mess. 193 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,000 That's it. 194 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,000 God holds the answer. 195 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:31,000 He said, I'll never change those rules, never. 196 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,000 They'll never go out of date. 197 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:38,000 They'll never be repealed. 198 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:55,000 Those same ten rules that God gave Moses are just as sure today as they were then. 199 00:21:55,000 --> 00:22:04,000 And as surely as an individual breaks these rules, he will be punished. 200 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:14,000 As surely as a family in their living break the rules, there's a penalty. 201 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:24,000 As surely as a nation breaks these rules and lives contrary to these rules, 202 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,000 the mighty God of the universe is there. 203 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:34,000 He smiles and said, you brought it all on yourself. 204 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:41,000 You are living contrary to my rules for living. 205 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,000 I shall continue this series of messages. 206 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:54,000 God bless you.