Subject: Commandments - Introduction #1 Title: Ten Rules That Will Not Get You To Heaven Text: Romans 3:19,20,28,31 Romans 3:19 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. 20 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. Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Introduction I am going to ask you a valid theological quesiton, and I want you to think about your answer, carefully. Are you saved? The question may seem offensive to some, but it is a question that everyone must ask himself at one time or another. I have asked many individuals that very question and obtained a variety of answers. One of the most common answers is, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. Now that answer is getting old because many of our young people have no idea what the Ten Commandments are! That answer, I try to keep..., also tells me that the individual is not saved because I know they are living under a false presumption, i.e., that one can keep all 10 Commandments, and that one can be good enough to be saved, or become a Christian, or be completely made righteous in God s eyes through human effort. This series of messages is entiled, Ten Rules That Will Not Get You To Heaven. My purpose is to present the place and significance of the law, more specifically, the Ten Commandments, and speak to what we can learn about God, ourselves, and God s purpose and brilliance in the giving of the Ten Commandments. However, these are Ten Rules that will NOT get you to Heaven, or merit you eternal life. By the way, most people could not name the Tend Commandments, or tell me where they are found in Scriptures, much less keep them! The Ten Commandments are God s top 10 rules for living. They were given originally not as a reprimand, but in order to reveal the qualities of His character to a people who didn t have a clue what He was like. It is also imperative to know that in breaking one of the Ten Commandments, we are in conflict with God, ourselves, and others. We never sin in a vacuum.
The Meaning of the Word Law in the Bible The word law occurs about 200 times in the Bible. It refers to a rule that regulates human conduct. The word is used at least six ways: 1. Natural, inherent, intrinsic law which God requires because of His character, i.e., Be ye holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16). 2. Law prescribed by man - human government. 3. The Law of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy) - the rule divinely given through Moses to govern Israel in the land of promise. It defined the manner of their daily life. It was a covenant of works: Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. There were three parts to the Law: * Commandments - moral * Judgments - social * Ordinances - worship 4. Law = The revealed will of God in any form. 5. Messianic rule in the Millennial Kingdom. 6. The Law of Christ - that which governs the Christian. I would like to focus on the Law of Moses with the Ten Commandments in mind. The following statements with reference to the Law are broader in scope than the Ten, but necessarily include them. You will see that Christians do not live under the Law of Moses, but under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). The Old Testament Law was not given to save, but to regulate human behavior, teach us what sin is, what God is like, and accentuate the value and importance of the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Ministry of the Law - What it is, What it does, and What it cannot do. * Twelve percent of all the references to the Law appear in Romans Chapter 7.
I. In Christ, Christians Are Dead to the Law but Alive to God (Born Again) (7:1-6) II. The Law Cannot Deliver Man from Sin (7:7-13) III. The Law Cannot Change You, Enable You to Do Good, and It Cannot Set You Free - Only Jesus Christ Can Accomplish This (7:14-25) Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. I. In Christ, Christians Are Dead to the Law but Alive to God (Born Again) (7:1-6). Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. A. The Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives (1). B. You are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ (2-5). C. We are delivered from the Law that we should serve in newness of Spirit (6). II. The Law Cannot Deliver Man from Sin (7:7-13) Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. A. The Law makes us aware of sin (7-8). B. The Strength of sin is in the Law (9) C. The Law kills (10-12). D. The Law shows us the wickedness of sin (13). III. The Law Cannot Change You, Enable You to Do Good, and It Cannot Set You Free - Only Jesus Christ Can Accomplish This (7:14-25) Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. A. The Law cannot change you (14). B. The Law cannot enable you to do good (15-21). C. The Law cannot set you free (22-25). 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. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 4
* Christ can change you. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. * Christ can enable you to do good. Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. * Christ can set you free. John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Ten Rules that will NOT get you to Heaven. 5
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