Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 186 from your hardback hymnal, number
186. The church is one foundation. Let's all stand together. 186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord,
one faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one
holy food ? And to one hope she presses ? With every grace endued
Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, she waits
the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious her
longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? With God the three in one ? And mystic sweet communion ? With
those whose rest is one ? O happy ones and holy ? Lord give us
grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly on high may dwell
with thee. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Galatians,
I'm sorry, chapter 4, Galatians chapter 4. The end of chapter four, and
then we'll read into chapter five. The Lord tells us that where
his spirit is, there's liberty. And in another place, he tells
us that if Christ makes you free, you're free indeed. I hope the
spirit of God will bless his word to our hearts and enable
us to be free. and have liberty in Christ. Galatians chapter 4 at verse
29. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, What sayeth the
scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her
son. For the son of the bond woman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. We know the
Lord's talking about Hagar and Ishmael and Abraham's thinking
that he needed to help God out and brought in this child of
the flesh and the The promised child would be born miraculously,
and the promise would come through him. So then, brethren, we are
not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, Don't go back
to Egypt. Don't go back to the law. Don't
go back to Sinai. Look to Christ. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now we know that circumcision
is any work performed by man to earn favor with God. For I testify again, to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. If you think that your recommendation to God is gonna be through law
keeping, you gotta keep it all, every bit of it. Not just in
outward actions, but inwardly in the heart. And if we have some thought of
recommending ourselves to God by our law-keeping, then Christ
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are, justified
by the law, for you've fallen from grace. For we, through the
Spirit, wait. We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Romans chapter 10, Christ, Himself
is the end of the law for righteousness. We're waiting for that righteousness. For we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith, which worketh by love. Let's pray. Our gracious, glorious Heavenly
Father, how thankful we are that the
hope of our salvation is not in anything that we do. Lord,
what fear what bondage there would be, what liberty we have
in knowing that Christ Jesus, the Lord, thy dear son, the hope
of our salvation, finished all that you required. Lord, we pray
that your Holy Spirit would give liberty. We pray that you would
cause your word to be alive and effectual quick and powerful. Lord, that our hearts be drawn
in love this hour, finding our hope and our rest in Christ Jesus. What's in his name we pray, amen. number 44 in the Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book, number 44. Let's all stand together. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious
treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Thank you, Tom. That was very
appropriate hymn. Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 2. John chapter 2. We started last
Wednesday night, as the Lord enables, looking at the miracles
recorded in the Gospels that our Lord performed. And We see
in this miracle at the end in verse 11, this beginning of miracles
did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory
and his disciples believed on him. John concludes his gospel by
saying many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples.
that are not written in this book. But these are written that
you might believe. And in believing, you might have
life through his name. So, the Lord not performing these
miracles in order to try to persuade someone to believe on him. He
manifests his glory through these miracles to his disciples. I don't remember reading this
text last Wednesday night, so let's read it together. I could
not move on to the second miracle. I thought when we started that
I would just bring one message from each miracle, but it may
not happen that way. There's so much in this miracle. This miracle is so glorious,
and it's so simple, and it's so comprehensive. A proper understanding
of this miracle gives us an understanding of everything. Let's read it together. John
chapter 2 verse 1, and the third day there was a marriage in Cana
of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus
was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they
wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no
wine. And Jesus saith unto her, woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His
mother saith unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. And there were there six water
pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews,
containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them,
fill the water pots with water, and they filled them up to the
brim. And he saith unto them, draw out now, and bear to the
governor of the feast, and they bear it. And when the ruler of
the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew
not whence it come, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called
the bridegroom, and saith unto him, every man at the beginning
doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then
that which is worse, but thou has kept the good wine until
now. At this beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and
his disciples believed on him. Everything in God's purpose The
existence of us and all of creation for that
matter is about a marriage. The father chose for his son
a bride in the covenant of grace before time ever began. The Lord
Jesus entered into that covenant as the bridegroom and promised
to do what was necessary to redeem that bride to himself. The Holy
Spirit entered into that covenant and promised to take the message
of the gospel and apply it effectually to the hearts of those whom the
Father chose and those whom Christ redeemed and bring them to faith
into a loving union with their husband. When the last of God's
elect for whom Christ died is called by God's grace, then the
end will come. There'll be no need for this
world or for anything else. It's all about a marriage from
beginning to end. We see in Revelation chapter
19 that when the consummation of time takes place, the bride
is brought together to the bridegroom and there's a great wedding.
There's a great marriage feast of the bride. the bridegroom,
the bride has made herself ready and she comes and sits at the
table with her husband. This miracle speaks of that. This is the beginning of miracles,
this overarching miracle, this miracle that our Lord performed
purposefully at the beginning of his ministry to declare That
glorious truth, it happened at a wedding. The other thing we see in this
miracle is that the Lord is not on our time. Mary knew who the
Lord Jesus was and she thought perhaps she could nudge him into
his public ministry. And of course she would have
thought what the other disciples thought that the Lord was going
to reestablish the kingdom of David on earth and that he was
going to take his rightful place and the Romans were going to
be overthrown and Israel was going to become once again the
greatest nation of the world. That's what she would have thought. And our Lord made it clear to
her that he was on his own time schedule. And how often we need
to be reminded of that. We see things from a temporal
perspective and we sometimes think that it ought to be this
way or it ought to be that way. And the Lord would say very lovingly
and very gently to us My kingdom's not of this world. What have
I to do with thee? My hour's not yet come. When
it's time for me to perform what I have purposed for you, I'll
do it and I'll do it perfectly. What an encouragement that the
Lord would speak to his mother this way and have The same affection for not just
his mother, but for his brothers and his sisters. When, who is
my mother? Who is my brother? All that they
believe upon me, that's my, that's my family. How many times we're reading
God's word and it came to pass and it came to pass. What came
to pass? The purpose of God came to pass. The Lord had already
ordained it, and only in his time does it come to pass. And so it is in your life and
in my life. When our Lord said to those disciples,
it's not for you to know the time of the season. You go back
in Jerusalem, you wait for the Holy Ghost to come upon you,
and he'll give you power, and you'll be my witnesses. in God's time, God's time. Proverbs it says, the man deviseth
his ways, but God orders the steps. You know, we make our
plans and James tells us that when we make our plans, we should
always remember if it be the Lord's will, we'll do this and
we'll do that. We'll go to this city and we'll
buy and we'll go to that city and we'll sell. but always, always
waiting on the Lord to perfect His ordained purpose. And we
know, we know this, we know that He works all things together
for good, for them that love Him and those that are called
according to His purpose. So we see some of that in this
miracle, don't we? This miracle understood summarizes
the entire Bible. The whole purpose and work of
God is seen in what our Lord performs here in this beginning
of miracles. There are six water pots. These are not base type water
pots. They're more like large sinks
or almost like bathtubs, 25 gallons maybe or so in each one. And they would have been lined
up in an area and they were for ceremonial washing. And they
were stone. Well, we know what the number
six is a number for, man was created on the sixth day. And
when the Lord speaks of man, he refers to us as six, six,
six. Oh, doesn't that summarize so
much of our nature? Outside of grace and outside
of the work of God and I mean it's all about us, isn't it? 666. Man, man, man. There's six water pots and they're
stone, they're rigid, they're inflexible. They're unmovable. They represent not just man,
but his obligation to the law. What are these people doing?
They're trying to fulfill the law. They're ceremonially washing
their hands in an attempt to satisfy the demands of the law.
And what'd the Lord Jesus say? He said, fill them to the brim.
Fill them up. I didn't come to destroy the
law, I came to fulfill the law. I came to satisfy all the demands
of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I'm going to
silence the condemnation of the law. I'm gonna satisfy everything
that God requires in the law. Adam and I were talking about
this last Wednesday night. Notice in, in verse eight, and
he said unto them, draw out now. I think it's significant that
in John chapter four, when the Lord said to the woman at the
well, if you knew who it was that saith unto thee, give me
to drink, you would ask of him and he would give you He would
give you living water. And the woman at the well said,
this well is deep and you've got nothing to draw with. Now
that's the only other place in the New Testament where this
word draw is used. To take water from a vessel is
to baptizo, it's to dip water out. The water here, the scripture
here, the Lord tells the servants, now go draw out. Now we can't
be dogmatic about it because the Lord has left it somewhat
veiled, but I sure like to think of these servants, not drawing
that water out of those six stone water pots that have been filled
to the brim, but going back to the well, to that inexhaustible
source of living water Not this dirty water where your hands
have been washed, but rather the water that's coming from
the aquifer, the living water. And they take that to the master
of the wedding. And they knew, the servants knew
where the water came from. And that's the important part.
We know where the wine came from, I'm sorry. I've titled this message,
The Lord Christ is the new wine. He is this wine. And this water
changing to wine is the simplicity, the simple message of the Lord
Jesus Christ coming to fulfill the law so that we are no longer
under the law. The master of the ceremony said,
he went to the bridegroom, he said, I don't understand. Men
always put out the good wine first and then after men have
drunk, then they bring out the wine that's not so good. But
you've saved the best for last. I was thinking about in the book
of Hebrews how the word better is a word that's used over and over
and over again in the book of Hebrews and it is the theme of
the book of Hebrews and if there's any book that ties all of scripture
together it would be the book of Hebrews and how oftentimes we read the
word better in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter one, verse
four, the Lord speaking of himself
says that he's better than the angels. For which of the angels
has God said, thou art my son, I have begotten thee. So the
Lord Jesus is referred to as the one who's better than those
other angels. Hebrews chapter seven,
when the Jews would have fought Abraham, you can't get any better
than that. But the Lord reminds them about
the encounter that Abraham had with Melchizedek. Melchizedek,
who was a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was without mother and without father, without descent, he was
the king of Salem. and the Prince of Peace and Melchizedek,
Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek and Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And in Hebrews chapter seven,
the Lord tells us the lesser is always blessed by the greater. Pointing out that it's not Abraham
that's to be exalted here. It's our Melchizedek, it's the
Lord Jesus that we look to for all the blessings of grace. In
Hebrews chapter seven, verse 18, the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of better hope did, by which we draw nigh
to God. The law never made anything perfect.
We have a better hope than the law. These Jews at this wedding
were thinking that somehow we're gonna satisfy the demands of
the law if we just wash our hands enough times. And the Lord's saying to them, oh
no. No, the best has been saved for
last. Hebrews chapter seven, verse
22. The Lord tells us that Jesus was made a surety. A surety is one who fulfills
everything required. He was made a surety of a better
covenant, a better Testament. So this miracle of changing water
into wine, our Lord is glorifying himself as the one
who came to satisfy all the demands of God's law so that we don't
have to live in bondage under the fear of the law. There is
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The demands
of the law have been met. They've been satisfied. We've
been set free. Stand fast in the liberty. We
read that in Galatians chapter five. Stand fast in the liberty
where the Christ has made you free. Be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. In Hebrews chapter nine, verse
23, the Lord tells us that the pattern of the things in heaven
were purified by the blood of animals. Speaking of that old
covenant, the pattern, the temple, The sacrificial system, everything
was a pattern given to Moses from the substance, which was
in heaven. And so the pattern was purified
by the blood of animals. And then the scripture goes on
to say, but the heavenly things themselves, the substance of
those patterns, the mercy seat that's in heaven, the requirements
that God has by a better sacrifice, a better sacrifice. The Lord
Jesus came, laid down his life. No more need for the shedding
of animal blood. All the requirements of that
eternal covenant were met through his blood. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34, The Lord's saying to his church,
you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods when you were mistreated
because of your belief in Christ. And when they took away your
job and they took away your possessions, you did that joyfully. Why? Why? Because you knew that you had
in heaven a better and more enduring substance. a better substance,
an enduring substance, a substance that no man can take from you.
What is that substance? Well, it's Christ. He's our life. In Hebrews 11, verse 16, the
Old Testament saints are called strangers and pilgrims, and they
wandered about in this world, but they were desiring a better
country, a country that is heavenly. They sought a city whose builder
and maker was God, a city which have foundations. Christ is the
foundation of that heavenly city. So our Lord is saying in this
first miracle, here's who I am and here's what I came to do.
I came to fulfill all the types and pictures God who at sundry
times and in divers manners had revealed himself to our fathers
and spoken to our fathers, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his son. God has been manifested in the
flesh and he's come in order to fulfill all those legal requirements
In Hebrews 11, verse 35, the Old Testament saints were tortured
and they endured that torture because they had the hope of
obtaining a better resurrection. They were looking for that heavenly
city. God provided. better things for
us. Hebrews 11 verse 40. And Hebrews
chapter 12 verse 24, the blood of Christ speaks better things
than the blood of Abel. So here's what our Lord's doing. He's glorifying himself by satisfying
the demands of the law. The scripture said that he would
make the law honorable, and that's exactly what he did. David speaking prophetically
in Psalm 119 said, I shall keep the law continually. David never
kept God's law any more than you did or I did, I have. He's
speaking of Christ, the son of David would keep the law of God
continually. The threats of the law have been
silenced. We no longer have to live in the bondage of fear.
Calvary has quenched the fire of Sinai. Why do we need to hear this?
Because there's something in us that would gravitate back
to the law if the Lord doesn't remind us time and time again
to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made you
free. The best examples I know of that
in the scriptures, number one would be Elijah. Elijah on Mount
Carmel had experienced a glorious manifestation of God's power
when the fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and
the sacrifice quenched the fire and the prophets of Baal were
put to death And then Jezebel threatens Elijah. And what's
Elijah do? He runs back to Mount Horeb. From Carmel to Horeb, that's
a long way. Now Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai.
It's the same mountain. And when Elijah's on Mount Horeb,
the Lord does speak to him. And the first thing the Lord
says to Elijah, Elijah, what are you doing here? What are
you doing? Why'd you come back? You came
back to the law, to the mountain of the law in order to try to
escape the fear of this woman. Do we not do the same thing?
Don't think I'll step up my activity. I'll do better. Rather than looking
in faith to Christ, we believe the accusations of the accuser
of the brethren and we're so easily taken back to the law.
A better example of that, and we've looked at this recently,
is Acts chapter 21. And Acts chapter 21 happened after the
Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans, and after the Apostle
Paul wrote the book of Galatians, and after the Apostle Paul had
to confront Peter in Antioch, because you remember Peter Got
up from the table of the Gentiles and went over and sat in the
table of the Jews and Paul saw it happen and Paul realized that
that one simple act did what? It mixed law and grace. And if
it be of works, Romans chapter 11, verse six, it can no longer
be of grace. Otherwise grace is not grace.
You can't mix law and grace. It's one way or the other. What'd Paul do in Acts chapter
21? He comes back from his missionary
journey and he reports to James and the other apostles that are
there in Jerusalem of the wonderful things that the Lord had done
in these Gentile cities and how many Gentiles have been converted.
And James says, well, look at all the thousands. You know,
most of these churches, church at Galatia, the church at Ephesus
Church, these would have been small gatherings, much like the
churches are today. They weren't large churches. The Church of Jerusalem would
have been a large church, and James was somewhat proud of it.
He said, look at the thousands of Jews that have believed, and
they are zealous for the law. And the report is, Paul, that
you are out there telling the Gentiles that they don't have
to keep the law. And so in order to quiet the accusations that
are being made against you, we've got some brothers here that are
preparing to do a Nazarite vow. Now that was an Old Testament
picture of what would be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. This
was years after Paul wrote Romans. This was years after he wrote
Galatians. This was after he confronted Peter. Was there anybody
on the face of the earth that understood the fulfillment of
the Nazarite vow any more than the Apostle Paul? And yet, he said, alright, I'll
do it. I don't want to be accused of
being an antinomian. I don't want to be accused of
being lawless. I don't want to be accused of being, you know, advocating
sinful behavior. So whatever we have to do, you
know, I guess maybe he's thinking I'll be all things, all men that
I might win some. And he agrees to take this vow,
which would have ended in a blood sacrifice. That was part of the
Nazarite vow. The apostle Paul was prepared
to make a blood sacrifice. The Lord stopped him, didn't
he? A riot broke out. What is my point? We get accused of being lawless. Worst thing we can do is go back
to the law to defend ourselves. Say, well, you know what? Worst thing. Stand fast in the liberty where
the Christ has made you free. We don't have to justify. We talk about grace, pure grace,
and I've heard preachers say, well, this is no license for
sin, and I've intimated that. Of course it's not, but what
are we doing when we talk like that? We're robbing grace of
its glory and of its simplicity and of its freedom and of its
liberty when we start conditioning grace by saying, well, you know,
it doesn't mean that you can do this or it doesn't mean, of
course it doesn't. But why do we have to do that? Let's just, let's just make grace free. It is free. It is free. The Lord Jesus himself is this
new wine and he, he is the power of God that will work in us and
that will cause us to will and to do after his good pleasure. It is the love of Christ that
constraineth us. It is the law of the spirit.
It's the law of grace. that constrains us and that motivates
us. We don't need the heavy hand
of the law in order to, you don't have to put a loving husband
under the law to get him to come home to his wife at night. Love
is the fulfillment of the law. That's what the scripture says. We don't have to condition grace
and love with the law. Men that do that are mixing law
and grace and these things cannot be mixed. It's like oil and water,
you know. And all the activity of legalistic
religion is for the sake of, you know, like when you take
oil and water and you shake it up and then all of a sudden it
becomes one substance and you think, well there, it's, you
know, you can't tell the difference. You just set that thing down
for a few minutes, see what happens. The water is going to come right
to the surface. I mean, the oil is going to come right to the
surface, isn't it? You try taking a drink out of that glass, you're
not gonna have your thirds quenched, you're gonna get a mouthful of
oil. You can shake it up all you want, but you can't mix.
You can't mix works with grace. It's either all of grace or it's
all of works. And better men than you and me
have been tempted This miracle explains the whole
Bible. It explains the whole work of
God from the very beginning all the way through to the end. Christ
Jesus came to fill up those water pots and to draw out the new
wine, the new wine. And the Lord Jesus himself said,
you don't take new wine. You know, we think of wine as
the aged wine, the older wine would be the better wine. But
in the Bible, when the scripture speaks of new wine, it's talking
about Christ. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 65, Isaiah 65. Look with me at verse eight.
Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster
and one saith, destroy it not for a blessing is in it. So will I do for my servant's
sake that I may not destroy them all. It's a cluster of grapes
and there's a new wine in one of those grapes. Let's don't
destroy the whole cluster. because we'll destroy the new
wine. In Proverbs chapter three, verse 10, speaking of the believer's
life of faith and trusting God, and then the Lord says, so shall
your barns be filled with plenty and your presses will burst with
new wine. The Lord Jesus Christ went to
the wine press and he pressed out that wine. This is the new
wine. You've saved the best for last. We don't understand. No, you
won't understand. And the Lord Jesus said you don't
take new wine and put it in an old wineskin. Now wineskins would
have been made from the from the stomachs of sheep or from
some sort of leather. And when you put new wine into
a wineskin, it ferments in the skin and it expands the skin. And then that skin would dry
out eventually in its expanded state. And at that point, if
you put new wine into an old wineskin, it's just gonna, when
it ferments, it's gonna burst. What is the Lord saying? I'm
the new wine. And I didn't come to put myself
in the law or to mix my grace with works. And I didn't come
in order to, we read from what Abraham thought in Galatians
chapter four, Abraham thought, I'll try to help God out. I'll
put my hand to it. I'll see if I can, you know,
make this, God does his part, I'll do my part. That's what
the Lord's saying about the new wine. You don't put new wine
in an old wineskin. We're the old wineskin. The Lord
has to make a, he has to make a new heart. He didn't come in
order to improve the old. You don't put a new patch on
a, on an old piece of garment, because when that new patch shrinks,
it's gonna make the hole that you used to stitch that old garment
up, it's gonna make it bigger. The Lord Jesus did not come to
help us to keep the law. He did not come in order to help
us to improve our lives. He did not come to fix our problem.
He came to change everything. And that's why I think this wine
came out of the well. He said, go draw, go draw water
and take it to the master. A new wine has been found in the
cluster. Destroy it not, there's a blessing
in it. There's a blessing in it. You
see grace, grace has to be completely new It has to be completely separate. It can't have anything to do
with our works. The Lord didn't come in order
for us to help him out so we could be better people. He came
to give us life. He came to raise us from the
dead. He came to give us liberty and freedom and love and grace
and hope. and salvation, and it all is
new. If any man be found in Christ,
he is a new creature. All things are passed away, and
all things have become new. All things have become new. We've
been set free from the law. We're not under the law. The
law's been full. It's been satisfied. We're under
grace. Oh, how much better is grace?
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. I've heard reformed Calvinist, very well
educated and very popular reformed Calvinist say that they didn't
understand the book of Hebrews. To me, it's the clearest, simplest
book in the Bible. It ties it all together. Why
would a Reformed Calvinist not understand the book of Hebrews?
Because it's still under the law. And the whole message of
the book of Hebrews is that Christ came to fulfill the law. And
we have a better covenant now. but they're holding on to some
covenant theology and some covenant doctrine and trying to carry
these Old Testament laws over to the new and they mix the two
and they destroy the gospel. And they make sanctification
progressive and they make the law, they bring in the law through
the back door, you know, well, yeah, we're free in Christ, but,
and then they monitor and motivate and measure your progress as
a Christian by putting you under the law. No wonder they don't understand
Hebrews. Look at Hebrews 9. We'll begin reading at verse
9. I'm sorry. Hebrews 9. which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience." The conscience is the heart. See, men think,
well, the law's like a policeman. Seth, I mean, I'm sure you've
had this experience. You pull out in your squad car
and everybody slows down. You guys cause accidents. To
me, it causes more danger on the highway. A cop pulls out,
and everybody starts slowing down, and everybody back. You
know, just let them go. It's safer, I think. But what
happens? Everybody takes their foot off
the gas. There's a police officer in my rearview mirror. And as
soon as he pulls off and goes somewhere, everybody's back to
their lawless ways. Back to their lawless ways. And
that's all the law does. You put a man under the law,
it may restrain his outward behavior for a little while, but it doesn't
speak to the conscience. Because that guy's heart that's
watching you in his rear view mirror, he's ready for you to
get off the road so he can get back. His heart's not changed. His behavior may be changed a
little bit. We need a new heart. And that only happens by grace.
It doesn't happen by the law. Now, I'm not saying we don't
need police officer, we don't need the law. Why? Because we're
a bunch of lawless people and we gotta have a law. But men
that are under grace don't need the law. They don't need law. They've had their hearts changed.
It speaks to the conscience. You see, the writer of Hebrews
referring back to the previous chapters about all these Old
Testament types. And he's saying, now look at,
Look at verse 10, which stood only in meats and drinks and
divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of reformation. And that word is not referring
to what happened 500 years ago over there in Europe. That was
not a reformation. The old to reform, the Catholic
church hasn't ever been reformed. And the people who call themselves
reform now have got so much baggage from Roman Catholicism and legalism
in their churches that there's nothing reformed about them. To reform something means that
you take one thing and change it into something else. The Lord
Jesus took water and changed it into wine. He was saying to
us that all these types in the Old Testament, the ceremonial
law, the moral law, the civil law, the dietary law, all these
laws, He came to fulfill them. And there's the reformation from
outward ordinances to an inward work of grace. Verse 11, but Christ, being come
a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, neither by the blood of bulls, goats and
calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Or if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of heifers sprinkling the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot, not to you and me, he offered himself to God. And God saw the
travail of his soul and God said, I'm satisfied. And that's what purges our conscience
of dead works. That's what gives us liberty. Sanctifying to the purifying, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? We have the Spirit of God, we've
got Christ. We've got something so much better
than the law. So much better. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament that by the means of death, for
the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
They which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."
Eternal inheritance. That's how we receive the promise,
by grace. If my inheritance has anything
to do with anything I do, I've got no hope, I've got no comfort,
I've got no grace. It's all on what he did. The moral law. First four laws having to do
with our relationship with God. Oh, we have Christ. What is our obligation to God? It's to worship Him. It's to
worship Him. Do you have to have a law? Do
you have to have a commandment from God in order to cause you
to gather together to worship him or to pray or to seek his
face? If you have the spirit of God,
you don't. And the rest of the law, love is the fulfillment
of the law. Love will do no injury to your
neighbor. The heavy hand of the law only
increases rebellion. The best example of that is those
taskmasters in Egypt. That's the Old Testament picture
of the law, isn't it? The children of Israel under
the law, God's gonna set them free. And the scripture says that when
they, came close to meeting their quota of making bricks, the taskmasters
increased their quota and took away the straw. You can never
satisfy the demands of the law. So if you're put under a law
that you can't ever satisfy, all you're gonna do is resent
that law. That's all you're gonna do. That's why the Bible says,
the strength of sin is the law. because the law only increases
our rebellion. It increases our resentment. This beginning of miracles tells the whole story. Tells
the whole story. about who God is, who we are,
what God's done to save sinners. And it tells a story that only
the servants who knew where that water came from and only the
disciples who saw the glory of Christ in this miracle could
enter into. No one else knew what was happening. Men who have but one nature, That's all they know is the law. By God's grace, pray the Lord
will set us free and give us liberty. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Blessed to the hearts of your people, we ask
in Christ's name, amen. Tom. 27 in the Sproul hymn, the
number 27. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. ? The rituals of the law ? And
all the law's commands ? Have been fulfilled in Christ the
Lord ? Established by his hands ? No covenant with the law ?
Can now with us exist ? Complete in Christ we stand by grace ?
Both free and ever blessed ? No more the dread of wrath ? No
more constrained by fear ? We worship and we serve our God
? With gratitude and cheer