EXODUS 20:3-17- Thou shalt not have other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any brazen image, or any likeness of any thing 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 they 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 thy 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 thy daughter, thy 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 bless the Sabbath day, and hallow it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness, against they neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is they neighbour's.
 
 
 

We all know what the Ten Commandments are. We should read them through often to refresh our knowledge and understanding of them. Notice that these commandments are for people of all ages from the very young to the very old. Even children are specifically mentioned - where? - that they should be obedient to their parents. This is well pleasing to God and carries with it a special promise that if a child is good and obedient to their parents God will bless them with long life. This promise is repeated and confirmed in:
 

Ephesians 6:1-3- Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
 

It is not only children that should honour their parents. Even grown children of parents should honour and respect them throughout their life. This does not mean to be obedient like a child towards them once they have move out on their own. Just show honour and respect. But children are to be obedient to their parents as long as they are under the roof and care of their parents. God has a special blessing to those who do.
 

Most of mankind who know anything about the Jewish religion or Christianity at least has some knowledge of the ten commandments. The trouble is their idea of how one gets to heaven is through doing one's best in keeping the law. If one can only live a good enough life that one's good works outweighs his sins - or bad works - then one has a good chance of getting to heaven. That is the generally held belief on how one gets to heaven.
 

But is that what the Bible teaches? No it is not!!
 

Yes - there is a purpose for the law - but it was never meant to save - that was never its purpose.
 

Then what purpose was the law given?
 

That is the purpose of this sermon today to look into why God gave us a law if its purpose was not to save..
 

Let's read these follow scriptures to get an idea of what the law was not meant to do and was meant to do.
 

Galatians 3:21 & 24-26 -- Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. ---- Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

The law was meant to be our schoolmaster - Or teacher. So what does our teacher (the law) teach us?
 

The law, of course was -

A. designed to teach us God's standard of conduct. If we did not know God's standard of conduct we could not know how to live in the first place -- and

B. we certainly could not know of our failure to live up to God's standard - nor -

C. could we be held responsible when we failed to live up to those standards laid down by the law.

So the law IS important.
 

The second thing the law was designed to do was to give us something to compare our capabilities of living up to these standards with. If we are honest with ourselves we soon see that there is no way we can live up to those standards as laid down by the law to perfection as God demands. Even if we could after being saved - what about the years before we were saved when we knew nothing of God's law? Do they count?
 

Yes they sure do. And that is exactly what God wants us to learn from the law. Our hopeless, helpless situation in this matter of keeping the law to God's satisfaction. WE JUST CAN NOT DO IT!!
 

What again is God's standard?
 

Absolute perfection - never failing once in our life time to keep every jot and title of the law - right from our birth till our death - Not one single mistake!!
 

James 2:10 - For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
 

Can any of us live up to that standard?
 

NO - Of course not. And that is what the law is designed to do when we compare our capabilities with God's demands. Show us that we can't meet those standards on our own. Now Let's see why?

Romans 3:9-20 - What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 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. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
 

1 Corinthians 2:14- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
 

1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
 

Galatians 5:19-21 - Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
 

The point I want to stress very strongly is that mankind just cannot live a life free of sin - which he would have to do to satisfy God's demand. We have a nature that just loves the things we have just read about above - and we will live that kind of life style rather than the kind God demands of us - to a large extent even after we are saved.
 

Do you understand why it takes only one sin to prevent us from ever entering heaven?

To human nature this seems mighty picky - but think on this.
 

Understand this first that God Can not look upon sin. He will not let something sinful enter into heaven. If He were to let a sinner into heaven He would soon have sin in heaven! Therefore if you have committed one sin that one sin makes you guilty of sin - a sinner. You are no longer innocent of sin are you? Your whole status changes from being innocent to being guilty of sin - a sinner - and

God cannot let a sinner into heaven.
 

It is the same in our civil law. If we live a life without stealing anything then we are innocent aren't we? But what happens if in late life we make a mistake and we steal something? Then regardless of our years and years of past innocence we now become a thief - right? We can no long say we are innocent because we stole something. It does not make any difference the value of what we stole whether one dollar, ten dollars, 100 dollars or a million dollars. We are still a thief because we stole something. The value may mean something when it comes to punishment for that crime - but that is something different all together. Just a simple little theft changes our status from innocent to guilty. And we can never change that - never. Nor does it matter how many times in the future we steal something - we are already a thief, we do not become any more of a thief. Again it might mean something when it comes to punishment - but not to our status as a thief.
 

The same principal applies in God's law. You see once you have committed just one sin your are no longer innocent are you? Your are now a guilty sinner - and as already noted God will not let a guilty sinner into heaven.
 

It does not matter how serious your sin was - or how many times you commit sins in the future - you are still a lost sinner on the way to hell after one sin.
 

Do you now see your hopeless situation? God DEMANDS sinless perfection - but no one can say they are that sinless - perfect.
 

So - is there no hope in getting to heaven?
 

Yes - only one. That is by putting your own efforts aside - stop trying to do it yourself - and turning to the works of Jesus Christ that He did for you as your only hope.
 

Why Him? What is so special about Him?
 

Because God and Jesus knew that you or I can not meet the sinless perfection that God demands - So Jesus agreed to do all that is required of God FOR us. He Kept the law to perfection - then His second job was to suffer the penalty God has for those who do refuse Jesus as the person to meet God's demands for them. Let's read:
 

Romans 4:5-8 - But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
 

Ephesians 2:8-10-- For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
 

(Repeat of)

Romans 3:20 & 28 - Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. - 28 - Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith (in what Jesus had done for us) without the deeds of the law.
 

And to this we must conclude ourselves. We get to heaven by putting our trust - which is the same as putting our faith - in the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross leaving any kind of our own works out of it altogether.
 

Yes - Works is fine - we should live as good a life as close to the law as we are capable of - but do not confuse it with having anything to do with our salvation and getting to heaven.

Thank you for your attention and may God bless you real good.