3/12/06 - “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD?” Part 3 - 11L-FM
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today we will continue with the subject, “THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD” part 3. But first let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we open your word today, bless us we pray with wisdom, knowledge and especially understanding so, that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, in Jesus Name, Amen.”

I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.
I hope you have been listening friends, as we will pick up where we left off last week. You may want to write down the scripture references and study them later. 
Last week we concluded with the fact that the commandments of God are the foundation of God's government. They were meant to hold society together and are the foundation for all moral behavior.  
If you cast off the commandments of God, you have no moral absolute; you have no definition of what's right and what's wrong.  This is the problem today! 
How many of you would agree with me that in our world today, we have sin?  I can’t see your hands but I am sure everybody agrees, and you're absolutely right.  We have sin everywhere around us in our world.  
Here's the next question.  What is sin? Let's get the Bible answer to that very question in 1 John 3:4    
Here is the clearest, most precise definition for sin in the entire Bible. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."  
The word transgression is a big word.  What does it mean?  The Dictionary defines transgression as:  "The breaking or violation of any law." 
Sin is law breaking.  More specifically, God's law, the Ten Commanments.  

Based on that verse, it's impossible, Biblically, that God's law can be done away with, and not be binding today.  Because, if you did away with the law, you would also do away with sin, because sin is breaking the law.  And if you have no law, you have no transgression, or sin. 
And in order for you to sin, there has to be a law that you have broken; more specifically, one of heaven's laws. The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law.  The fact that the world is so full of sin proves to us that certain ministers cannot be telling us the truth when they say that the law of God is done away with or abolished.
Look what Paul says in 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.”   
  	Let's get another text on this.  Romans  4:15.  Paul says the exact same thing. "Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression."   
No law, no transgression.  Jesus would never have had to come down to earth and die if the law could be done away with. The very fact that we have sin, tells us beyond any question, there has to be God's law in full force and effect, because sin is the transgression of the law.  
 	You see, when Adam first sinned, God was basically left with three choices.  
 	1. He could have killed Adam instantly because the "wages (or penalty) of sin is death." Romans 6:23. But God said, "No, I love Adam too much. I don't want to kill him.  
 	2.  He could of done away with His law.  But this wasn't really a choice at all because the law is a transcript of the very character of God.  It's the very nature of God expressed into words and so God couldn't do away with the moral law without going against His own principles and character.  
 	3. This left God with only one option.  He said, "I can't do away with the law.  And I won't kill Adam.  Instead, I will come and pay the price for sin. The very One who wrote the law on tables of stone. The very One who created mankind which rebelled, God Himself would humble Himself and come to this sin-cursed planet and die for the sins of the world.  Adam's sin, Eve's sin, your sin and mine.  Can't you love a God like that?  That's why it's amazing grace. (Rom.3:25,26)
This leads us to our next question.  "What is the purpose of the law?" 
Romans 3:20 "Therefore by the deeds of the law (that means doing the law), there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." 
 Two important points are brought out here.  No-one is justified by keeping the law. If we could be justified by the keeping the law, we wouldn't need Jesus.  But we have been studying in these broadcasts, that we are justified by grace through faith, we are clothed by Christ's righteousness as a free gift, we are cleansed by His blood freely. Salvation through Jesus is a gift from God! 
   	The law cannot save us.  That's not what it is designed to do.  It says here "The law gives the knowledge of sin."  That's the purpose of the law.   It tells us what we should and shouldn't do.  
**It's just like a red light on the road.  I could speed up to that traffic light, going 80 miles an hour and when it turns red it's telling me I ought to stop.  But will that red light literally and actually stop my car and save me from having an accident?  No!  The purpose of it is to give me knowledge of what I ought to do.  I ought to stop!  The same thing with God's law. It cannot save us. That's not its purpose. The law gives us a knowledge of what sin is.  
 	To further illustrate this we’ll look at James 1:22-25  
  	Here this is made so practical.  "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."  And that's good counsel for this day and age, and it's the same counsel we read in Romans.  There are a lot of people claiming to serve God but they're not doing the will of the Father.   Verse 23, "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  (That means a mirror), "For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."  
 So God says, "My law is like a mirror.  It gives the knowledge of sin." Friends, you have to really understand this because a misunderstanding will keep you breaking God’s law and cause you to be lost. Don’t miss a single program because within the next few weeks, I am going to show you why you are going to be lost, and how you can make the correction that will put you back in the center of God’s will. The whole issue that divides the world is over God’s law.
Now I want you to picture something if you will. If I stood before you with a large black smudge of charcoal on my face, I couldn't see it, but you could. In order for me to know that my face is dirty what do I need?  A mirror!  So I take the mirror and look into it and ... I've got a problem.  My face is dirty.  Now I can do one of two things.  I can say "You old lousy mirror.  I hate you."  And I could cry, "I’m going to do away with this old mirror!" And I could throw it away. Does that really help my problem?  Do you abolish dirt by destroying a mirror? Not at all.  When I look into that mirror, it has done me a favor. But can this mirror clean my face?  No.  What's the purpose of the mirror then? To show me I have a problem. It tells me I am dirty and I've got to get clean. The mirror has done its job.  Now I need something else. I need a fountain of cleansing. And I've got to go to where I can get cleansed. 
 	So I wash my face. In order for me to see that my face is clean, what do I need? A mirror? Has the mirror changed? Not at all. It's the same mirror.  And I can look into that mirror and I can say "By God's grace, I'm clean!"  The same mirror that showed me I was dirty, now tells me that the problem has been corrected. The mirror was still necessary!
  	That's how the law of God works.  Just like the mirror. Let's say I'm a thief.  I've been stealing all my life.  I come to that great standard, called the Ten Commandments, and it tells me "Thou shalt not steal." It tells me I've got dirt in my life, isn't that right?  But if I'm going to get clean, that mirror or law can't save me.  It's not supposed to.  
	It's designed to give me a knowledge of sin,  (Rom.3:20)  to bring conviction of sin that we shall be driven to Christ, who can free us from our sins.
I have to go to the fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, where sinners plunged beneath that blood, loose all their guilty stains.  
I must go to Jesus to cleanse the soul from sin?  Nothing but the righteousness of Jesus!   And when I come to Him just as I am, a wretched sinner, our loving Savior forgives me, He cleanses me, He washes my sin all away, and He clothes me with His righteousness, and fills me with His Spirit which gives me the power to overcome that sin with a born-again mind.  And I come right back to that ten-commandment law.  And the law says, "Thou shalt not steal."  And I can say, "Because of Jesus, my righteousness, I AM CLEAN!" I'm free!!  I stand uncondemned! Do you see?
 	That's why Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 
 	The Ten Commandments become part of the Christian's life, not to earn salvation, but because he's felt the converting power of God at work in his or her life.  It is really Christ keeping the commandments in us.  He is the perfect one.  He is able to live out His life within us.  
Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Galatians 2:20  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:”  Liveth in who?  Me! 
John 15:10  " . . . I have kept my Father's commandments . . . "
	John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”
Now if Christ was a total commandment keeper and Jesus now abides in our minds through His agent the Holy Spirit, He then lives in us and we too then become commandment keepers.  Because when we are converted, it is not I that lives, but Christ that liveth in me! We have become partakers of the Divine nature. Do you see it friends!! 
	The Law reveals our sin and where does it point? To Jesus.
	God’s Ten Commandment law has never been done away with, Jesus says they stand till the heavens pass away. We will continue this study, but for now time is up for this week, so keep listening each week to awesome truth that will wake up those who really want to go to heaven when Jesus comes. Next week THE ISSUE THAT DIVIDES THE WORLD part 4.

God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,

Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.