Lets read Exodus 20:3-17 -Thou shalt have no other gods before me.. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything 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 showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 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. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they 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 they daughter, the 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. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou salt not kill. Thou salt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou salt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 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.

This scripture we just read is known by most of us as the Ten Commandments - or also referred to as the moral law.

There is other laws, rules and regulations throughout this book - The Bible, God's word of instructions to us.

These laws, rules and regulations and any other kind of instruction is NOT designed to give us the ability to perform our own acts of righteousness by keeping those laws as we sill see in a few moments.

Rather what is contained in this Bible is designed to show three things.

Number One - It teaches us God's standard of conduct - what He requires of us in order for us to achieve righteousness by our own efforts at attempting to keep all those laws, rules and regulations in order to get to heaven by these effort of our own.

Number Two - based on what we learn of God's standards and comparing it with our ability (or inability really) to keep them all we must conclude that there is no hope for us ever getting into heaven by our own keeping of the law, etc. This is know as the depravity of man.

Then Number Three - Once we see in our own mind just how hopeless our situation is because we realize that there is just no way we could ever live up to those standards God requires, God makes Himself known.

We learn that even if we could reach those standards from the day we were saved forward until the day of our death - what about those years of sin before we came to this understanding - Oh yes, they will still be held against us. Our righteous life must be from birth till death if we are to achieve salvation through our own life of righteousness.

It is at this point God the Holy Spirit will make Himself known - that there is hope, but only outside of oneself - in the person of - His son Jesus Christ.

God will reveal to you that Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself - keep the law to absolute perfection - which God requires. And secondly He died for the punishment you should bear for the sins you committed. He then imputes HIS OWN righteousness to you and takes over the responsibility for your unrighteous life.

God wants you to understand your hopeless (depraved) status so you will start looking for one outside yourself to do what is required to appease Him.

He wants you to "BELIEVE IN" Jesus Christ. That is, put your absolute trust in what Jesus did for you and no trust at all in your own puny efforts of right living (righteousness) according to the law.

Now, lets slow down here and go back over what I have said up to this point.

We have already read the 10 commandments and that is as far as we will go, there is far too many other do's and don'ts to look over in the time we have today. So we will restrict ourselves to the 10 commandments.

Lets have a look at the standard required of us by God if we were to get to heaven by our own righteousness, or right living by keeping His laws. How many of these laws can we break and still be safe and go to heaven? Good question isn't it?

Man has this silly notion that laws are made to be broken - but God does not think that way.

The answer to my question - How many laws can one break and God still let you into heaven is - NONE. We already went over why that is - because one sin makes us a sinner and sinners do not go to heaven - period. Lets look up this scripture to confirm that - James 2:10 - For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

You see from this that God has ZERO tolerance for sin - those who break God's laws. If you break one point of any of God's law, you are a sinner bound for hell.

Do you understand now why once you have committed one sit it is too late to change it? Once a sinner always a sinner no matter what you do or say. Even after Jesus pays the penalty for your sin your are still a sinner - but a forgiven sinner.

Think about it - it is simple to understand. It is not the number of sins or the seriousness of your sin that counts and held against you.

It is simply the fact you have sinned and by sinning you make yourself a sinner - a sinner that God cannot allow into heaven.

UNLESS - Unless God steps in and changes things. You must realize now that you are a sinner bound for hell if you trust in your own efforts to get to heaven. You see now that you must look to another source outside yourself.

You can never change that status of being a sinner - either you bear your own sin punishment or someone else does it for you. That punishment is eternity in hell.

Lets read what God in His word says about our status before Him - first lets look up - Psalm 53:2-3 - God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Everyone of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Then this is repeated almost word for word in Psalm 14:1-3 - The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

And these two scriptures are repeated by Paul in Romans 3:10-12 - As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

This is according to God's standard, not ours. You should read the next verse or two of Romans here to see how man looks before God.

This is the whole purpose of the law - what it does is act as a schoolmaster that instructs one in what God requires so we can compare it with what we can do in ourselves. Lets see that in - Galatians 3:24 - Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

See also 1 John 1:8-10 - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So we better be careful of what we say about God - calling Him a liar directly or indirectly would not be a good way of getting in His good graces.

The way it works is this. When you compare your incapability in keeping the law to perfection you will say within yourself - "I can not do that, I can not keep God's laws to his satisfaction, I am in a hopeless situation." Then you will start looking for another to do the work for you - either that, or you will just give up, live out your life anyway you please and hang the consequences. And that is what most people do.

This is what God wants you to see - your hopelessness.

Once you see the hopeless situation you are in God reveals the truth of such scriptures as - "I am the way the Truth and the life, no man cometh to the father but by me." John 14:6

or - "come unto me you that are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest". Matthew 11:28.

And many more that I have not time to mention any more than a couple such as

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

So yes, there is a purpose for the law - it acts as a schoolmaster. A schoolmaster teaches us something does he not, so the law was our schoolmaster designed to teach us that we are hopeless sinners that will turn us to God's provided means of salvation and turn away from our own.

I will just mention a couple other incidents without looking them up to save time. Remember the jailor in Acts 16:31 who asks Paul what he must do to be saved. What was the answer - "Believe in Jesus Christ." Nothing about "accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour here. One more - remember the eunuch at the well in the desert asks Philip what he must do to be saved. (Acts 8:37). The answer again was "BELIEVE". Put you trust in Jesus and his works for you. Of course there are many other examples I could use but these will have to do.

This is important to note.

Many people tell a prospective Christian to - "accept the Lord Jesus as Lord and Saviour."

I personally do not like that phrase because in the first place it is not scriptural. That is an Armenian phrase that implies you must make the first move - to let Go do something before He can or will do anything. That phrase is as we have seen is never used in scripture.

Notice that the phrase only says I will let God be the boss of my life - nothing about trusting in what Jesus did for us.

As can be seen I thing the proper, scriptural phrase to use is to encourage people to "Believe in Jesus Christ with all one's heart and soul and mind." And that takes in all that Jesus did for us, kept the law and applied HIS righteousness to us and died the penalty we should have died for the sins we committed.

If you put have put your trust (believe in) Jesus Christ then you must be on the path to heaven and I encourage you to let the pastor know so he can arrange for the next step - baptism.

I pray that if there is any one here that has not believed in the past will have their mind changed by the work of the Holy spirit in them and will now believe in Jesus Christ.