There is a little world within every one of us - it is called the human heart. Strange things happen there every day. There is a very remarkable process going on there which men do not understand. Men do not know what God is doing in their hearts, but He is working all the time in some way or fashion on your heart. It is the Holy Spirit's first work in our hearts to convince us of sin and guilt by using His divine Law.
* Life without the Law - Men are naturally trying to make it from this life over into Eternity on the 'rickety bridge' of their self-goodness. But this weak bridge will hold not up the sin-laden soul of man, and he will surely fall into the lake of fire. Many people have heard and read the Law and the Ten Commandments. Some have discussions and disputes with one another about the minute particulars of the Law. But the Law has never been brought home 'spiritually' by the Holy Spirit to the heart and conscience of most men. There are living in a state of false security. They 'think' they are keeping the Law. They do not dread dying, or standing before the Judgment Bar of God. They feel themselves perfectly ready to meet God - the Judge of all the earth. They hope their good will outweigh their bad somehow. Self-righteous sinners are comfortably resting in their own law-keeping, and feel themselves perfectly secure. They are perfectly at ease and have a false peace. Nothing disturbs them. He doesn't have sleepless nights thinking of his past iniquities. He thinks he is doing all he ought to do, leaving nothing undone that he ought to have done. He is alive without the law.
This false security brings men into a proud state, and he will look down upon others. They expect to be saved or help save themselves by their own doings. He has not yet understood about Jesus, the Son of God, who died for his sins, and who has risen from the dead to Freely Give them pardon - He has never trusted in the works of Christ, he clings to his own. The tree of good works that the self-righteous sinner finds shelter must be chopped down by the Law of God. He thinks he is good as he ought to be, and he is better than others, and sets out to try and make other people better. The Law of God, the axe of God, cuts at the root of self-righteousness. The "I" must be cut down and killed and left dead on the spot. Their notion is that the 7th commandment, "thou shalt not commit adultery" only meant an outward act of uncleanness. They feel perfectly innocent, because they had never committed adultery by a physical act. But what they don’t know is -- that the Law condemns the sinner if there has been even an unclean thought or filthy imagination, and that uncleanness of heart and 'thought life' is as obnoxious to the holiness of God as the actual physical act of adultery. God can see your thought life at all times. Have your thoughts ever gone after evil? Have your imaginations ever delighted in sin? Have you ever had corrupt desires or selfish ambitions? Have you come up to the standard of God's Perfection?
Once they discover this, their life of pride and self-security comes to an end. If you have hated someone in the heart, and were angry and wished him harm or spoken bitter words concerning him, you have killed him in your heart. You have already committed murder in the sight of God in your thoughts. Even anger is murder in the sight of God. The 10th commandment, "thou shalt not covet" condemns every sinner that has even the slightest "unlawful covetous desire". Sinners are not as secure as they think they are. They cannot afford to be proud and judge others. Most people live in a proud, haughty way, because they do not understand the Law.
Good self-righeous people have wrapped themselves up in the cloak of their own goodness, because they have really been very 'careless' about what the Law of God really means. They have not sincerely looked into it. It has not been thoroughly considered by them. They think the commandments are only a matter of religious teaching, but nothing more. Your conscience convicts you of committing sins against God. Some say "how does God know, and is there knowledge with the Most High? What if we do break His law - does God really care about it?God is very merciful. He won't be severe with us poor sinners. And if we have offended God, we will whisper a prayer or two on our death bed, and all will be blotted out." They think that God is such an one as themselves. They think they can mess around with sin, and so they think God will trifle with sin. The Divine Law is inflexible, it is holy.
