The Ten Commandments have been provided to us by God through Moses, each of them perfect and holy.  Our human nature has an impossible time measuring up and we need a real relationship with Jesus Christ.

Let’s first restate these commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) to get them into the forefront of our minds:

1 And God spoke all these words:

 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.

 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

 12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

 13 "You shall not murder.

 14 "You shall not commit adultery.

 15 "You shall not steal.

 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

As we’ve discussed in previous weeks of this study, we understand what God’s standard of sexual purity requires.  Now, let’s summarize the number of commandments that are typically broken when we deviate from God’s plan with regard to our sexual impurity.

In some respects, we have created god’s out of the figures in our minds and the pleasure associated to our indulgent behavior.  We can define god’s as any other person, object, activity, or thought that we worship.  We often worship material things; our house, car, jewelry, and other possessions in our attempt to keep up with the Jones’.  Here, I would challenge you to understand that, through your lustful behavior, you may be worshiping another object other than the one and only true God; thereby breaking His first commandment.

The second commandment, to not have idols, is clearly what is happening when we take in the sights of pornography, nude dancing, or even a prolonged stare at a woman walking by.  This is clearly over the lines of God’s ideal for our behavior and our purity.  In fact, this is a commandment with a noted generational impact and affecting those that we love for years to come.

The seventh commandment of adultery, as stated by Christ, is broken even with lustful thoughts.  In our lust for human flesh, we have sinned against God and against our wives.  In addition, in our lust we’ve taken something from our brethren.

This gets us to the eighth and tenth commandments.  In our sin, through our coveting, we have taken purity away from those over which we’ve fantasized.  In our impure thoughts we have taken the innocence from women we don’t even know.  In addition, by taking this innocence, we have robbed our brothers from what is rightly theirs; the purity of their future wives.  Often this is manifest by our own sexual acts outside wedlock, but with Jesus raising the bar, we’ve committed these sins with our thoughts alone.

The last commandment that we’ll examine, bearing false witness, or lying, often accompanies the transgressions we men perpetrate through our search for self satisfaction.  Our lives become a series of lies to avoid embarrassment, penalty of getting caught, or our imploring of our wives to join in this dysfunction because it makes us feel better to be broken with company.

As we see in Hosea 8:5-6, God hate this behavior and we must stop right now.  As Paul states in the book of Romans (6:1-2)

 1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 

It is our duty to run from this behavior and please God through a changed heart.  Grace is provided so that we can once again be a part of God’s kingdom, but only through our faith in His Son and our recognition of being broken.