Okay, time with me in your Bibles. I just want to spend some time in a sense answering the accusation that's from the false teachers in Jude. And that accusation we've looked at before and it's that without man-made bounds the children of God will depart and descend into all sorts of wickedness and licentiousness and filthiness.

I just want to begin by reading a few verses out of 2 Peter. In chapter 1 of 2 Peter, Peter says, Simon Peter, a servant, and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Listen to this, this is the verse I wanted to spend some time looking at. According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life, and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Can God do it? Can God do what he's promised to do? Because that's the accusation in Jude, and it's the accusation that's been labelled against anyone, including the Lord Jesus Christ, who has preached the gospel. And the same gospel has been preached from the day of Abel. Abraham had the gospel preached to him. The people in the Old Testament had the gospel preached to them. And that's the accusation, that's the challenge isn't it? Can God do as he has promised? Is God powerful enough and faithful enough to do as he has promised?

Turn with me back to Romans chapter 4. I want to spend some time looking at the seven laws of God that he writes on the hearts of his people. But I want us to see in Romans 4 how the father of the faithful lived in this world. And anyone who studied anything in the history of Abraham would be rejoicing in the power of the grace of God who called him out of idolatry in Iraq and sustained him in all of his weakness.

But listen to what he says. In verse 18, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Can he do it? Can he do it? That is the question, that's the accusation that is labelled against all who preach the gospel. That unless we bind people, unless we constrain people, then all that will happen is that wickedness will break out. And so we have to have something plus. the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to look to somewhere else other than the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. Abraham is such a glorious example. He's the father of the faithful. And so all of his faithful children have the faith of Abraham. Abraham's faith was based on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Abraham knew what it was to put his hand to the work of God to try and get the promises of God fulfilled. You've heard of Ishmael, haven't you? Ishmael, wasn't it? That was Abraham. Abraham and Sarah trying to have the promises of God fulfilled by the work of their flesh. And if you go to the Middle East today, we're still dealing with the product of that. But there's a gospel picture in it, isn't it? The gospel, this book is divided. And it's always a challenge between works and grace. And the challenge ultimately is, has God really said, Nothing changes from Genesis chapter 3. Has God really said? Did he really promise? Will he really do what he has promised in the hearts of his people, in the lives of his people?

So we read in 1 Peter chapter 2 about being partakers of the divine nature. In Hebrews chapter 8, if you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8. And I encourage you to go back and read all of this glorious chapter. It is just a wonderful chapter. And you need to go to Jeremiah 31 and other places to understand or get the full depth of it all. But he says in verse 10, just for brevity, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. Listen to this. I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts. I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."

There is a divine nature in There is a divine purpose in all of the activities of the children of God. There is grace before we are aware of grace. That's what Jude says, isn't it? We're preserved, we're kept in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were put in the Lord Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world. We were kept in the Lord Jesus Christ when we fell in our father Adam. We were kept in the Lord Jesus Christ when we came out of our mother's womb and speaking lies. We were kept in the Lord Jesus Christ all the way through all of our life, and we're still kept in the Lord Jesus Christ right now. We need to be kept. I need to be kept.

And then when the Gospel comes, it's a revelation in the hearts of people of what God has done for them in the Lord Jesus Christ in all of those situations and circumstances. And we never tire of proclaiming the Gospel and we never tire of rejoicing in the Gospel. But in conversion there is and implanting. You are partakers, Peter says, of the divine nature. There is an implanting into a child of Adam, something which was not there before. The old nature of Adam remains. Any of you who are honest about yourself would know that there is Christ in you, the hope of glory, but the Christ in you who is the hope of glory is the one that sees that you are, as Romans says, seven says nothing but sin. But the new nature, the new nature, the power of God in the new nature is stronger than the other, isn't it? It's his divine power. We just read about it in 2 Peter 1. Divine power. Divine power which calls us. Divine power which reveals. The divine power which illuminates the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Peter says it's the hidden man of the heart. So often it's hidden from us, and it's certainly hidden from the world. The world doesn't know us. The world doesn't know us as we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's hidden from the view of all. And this hidden man of the heart is seen in what it laments, so often more than what it ever can claim for itself.

I'll put my law, we just read it in Hebrews 8, I'll put my law in their minds and I'll write them on their hearts. The laws that he's talking about are the laws in the New Testament, the laws of Christ.

Every child of Adam has the laws, the Ten Commandments written in their hearts. They know. You read Romans 2. We don't have time to turn there, but you know. People know. They don't need to be told that lying is wrong. They don't need to be told that murder is wrong. They don't need to be told that adultery is wrong. Those things are written on the hearts of God's people in creation.

But there are these glorious laws. You see, in the preaching of the Gospel, we are appointing people and telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion wants to tell people how to live in this world. How to live better, how to straighten yourself up, how to get better, how to stop doing bad things and start doing good things. God's servants are saying to people, I want you to know how to die. And if you know how to die, you'll know how to live.

You'll know how to die. If on your pillow as you die, you are rejoicing in the glory of God and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have been doing so for a long time. This life is a vapor. And you go out on a cold morning and breathe out, that's what our life is. It goes faster than a weaver's shuttle. In India, the weavers used to do their weaving on the sides of the road in little sort of covered in shed things. And the weaver's shuttle, you couldn't see the weaver's shuttle. They would press this bar down and this little thing, wooden thing, would fly across with the thread attached to it. You couldn't see it, just backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards.

We have an eternal life ahead of us, brothers and sisters. But also we have a great and glorious God who has given his people in their hearts this new nature. And God's children, it's called law in the New Testament. There are seven of them that I want to speak about, and obviously very briefly this morning.

There is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. There is the Law of Righteousness. There is the Law of Sin. There's the Law of Faith. There's the Law of Love. There's the Law of Liberty. And it's the Law of Christ. There are seven of them.

We have a dog at home. I don't ever have to worry about my dog eating grass or salads. If there's ever a meal laid out anywhere and Millie has access to it. Why? Because it's her nature to eat meat. And the cows across the fence have a nature, and that nature desires to eat grass and not meat. And so it is with the nature of God in the hearts of his people. It's Christ in you.

So I just want to look briefly at these and we only have a short amount of time. But I want us to look briefly at these, and I pray the Lord would be our teacher, and I pray that you would go away and look more closely at them all. But the first one I want to look at is in Romans chapter 8.

If you turn with me in your Bibles to these, because the best description of them, the best declaration of what they are, is in the very text of Scripture itself. And so I just want to read some verses around each of these declarations. But in Romans 8 verse 2, Paul says, And we don't have any doubt about what the law of sin and death is. That's the law that was given at Mount Sinai, all of it. Not just what was at Mount Sinai, but all of what followed in Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The law is a package. We don't have the right to say to God, this is law and this is not law. When God says it, that's the end of the matter. God has spoken.

Listen to why this is called the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. In Romans 7.24, Paul says, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So obviously the word law doesn't always mean the Mosaic law. However it wants to be interpreted.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Why? Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is the law of life, isn't it? This is a law. that brings spiritual life into the hearts of God's people, and that life is Christ. Christ is our life before God. Has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Listen to what he goes on to say. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. When the law meets the flesh of man, all it does is say sinful, sinful, sinful, guilty, guilty, guilty. That's all it ever says. Because you haven't kept it. You haven't ever kept one. You haven't even kept one in thought. Even the very best intentions you've ever had are not keeping it, ever. Because it's you doing it.

It may be for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Thank God that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. All of the sin of all of God's people was judged in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For they which are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Those that are looking at fleshly activities. Flesh gives birth to flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Spirit gives birth to spirit. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Those that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit. And what does the spirit do? Romans at John 16, he says, he takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and he reveals them to us. What a glorious Holy Spirit. And he knows the Holy Spirit is glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not looking to anything else. I'm not looking to anything in us. And we're just looking at him and saying, isn't he amazing? Isn't he glorious? Isn't he so wonderful? He's our wonderful God and savior.

But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness has not attained to the Law of Righteousness. All those who are partakers of the divine nature can only and ever be satisfied with the very righteousness of God. God will not accept anything which is not perfect righteousness. Our consciences can't be at rest with anything other than the perfect righteousness of God. It's the righteousness which God looks on and He says, I'm satisfied. It's the righteousness of His Son is the law of righteousness. And this is the great declaration of justification. Justification is much more than God covering sins. Justification is declaring a sin that's covered can be uncovered again in the future. Justification is declaring that the sins have been taken off me and they've been put on the Lord Jesus Christ and they are gone forever in holiness and righteousness and justice. One of the great, great glorious phrases that the Lord uses regarding the sins of all of his elect is in Psalm 40 verse 12 where he says, innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities. You ponder that. There's no doubt in Hebrews 8 and 10 that this is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking.

He says, Let me read it to you. 2 Corinthians 5.21. It's just so glorious. I pray that we hardly ever have a service where we don't declare this and preach. For he, God the Father, has made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's just so glorious. I just rejoice in that. My sin was declared to be his because of the union with him, and his righteousness is declared to be mine. That's the law of righteousness. It's the law of righteousness.

Turn with me back to Romans 7. We're in Romans a lot. There's a bit of turning, I'm sorry. But turn with me back to Romans chapter 7. He speaks in verse 23 and verse 25 of the law of sin. He says in verse 23, For 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. I thank God, verse 25, 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.

We want to know what the law of sin is. It's the fact that God's children, because of the divine nature that they are participants of, because of the work of God in their hearts, they have seen themselves as Romans 7 sinners. So let's go back in Romans 7 and we'll see what the law of sin is. As God describes it, in the heart of one who is a pattern. Verse 14 of Romans 4, Romans 7. For we know that the law is spiritual. The law is more than just a set of rules, isn't it? It's a spiritual law. It needs and demands to be obeyed perfectly spiritually. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed the law of God from his heart, in his spirit, with his will, with love. Let's go on.

But I am carnal, I'm sold unto sin. For that which I do, I allow not. He doesn't approve of the fact that he has sin in his life. For what I would do, that I do not, I would love. Dan, wouldn't you just love to live in perfect faithfulness, in perfect obedience, in perfect love to God, in perfect love to your neighbour? Wouldn't you like to live in this world as the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what he puts in the hearts of his people. I don't allow for that. I don't do it. I don't do it. I can't brag about it. That's what the law of the city is. I can't brag about anything I've ever done or can do.

But what I hate that I do. Is this a description of you? Because this is a description of a sinner according to God. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continual. That's what God saw in Genesis 6.5 when he looks down from heaven to look at the children of men. If then I do that which I would not, if I do what I don't want to do, who wants to sin? I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. That's the law of sin. This is the nature of every participant of the divine nature. This is what naturally comes from the nature that God imparts into his people. This is the law of sin. And if you want to know what it's like, read Matthew 25 when God comes in all of his glory and he's gathered all of humanity. There is a time coming when all of humanity will all stand at that great day. And the Lord Jesus Christ will divide them to the sheep from the goats. You read it in Matthew 25.

And the Lord declares that the sheep have done good things. And the sheep immediately say, on that day, at that moment, I've never done it. When have I ever done it? I have no recollection of ever doing it. Because the law of sin is in their nature. They know that they are sinners. They're not looking to themselves, they're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the law of sin. That's why he calls it a body of death.

Like Paul, all who are participants in this divine nature, they feel sinful all the time. Sin is what I do, John 1.8. If we say we have no sin, then sin there is a noun. It's a description of what we are. The sin that comes out is because of the sin that is there. That's what Paul is saying in Romans 7, what God is saying in Romans 7. 1 John 1 verse 10 says if we say we have not sinned, their sin is a verb, it's a doing word. So sin is both what we are and sin is what we do. We say we haven't sinned, we make him a liar. We're the liars and his word is not in us.

It's the new man that confesses the sins of the old man. It's the new man in you. It's Christ in you that sees. You see, only when Christ is revealed in you do you actually see what you really are. Until that moment, you think that you're actually righteous. You think you have righteousness. Look at Saul on the road to Damascus. He thought he was righteous. He obeyed the law perfectly from his heart. He thought, all of a sudden, he meets the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the first time in his life, he sees himself a sinner, and he never got over it. He never got over it. He didn't climb some ladder of holiness. At the end of his life, he can say, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the chief of sinners.

See, it's the law of sin which causes us to rejoice in the law of righteousness. And that causes us, the law of sin causes us to rejoice in the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And they see that the Lord Jesus Christ is all of their righteousness, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

We'll go on quickly. I've only got three to go, but I'm sorry we have to hurry so much. Romans 3.27 says, where is boasting then? Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? The law of works. Nay, by the law of faith. So this law is an operating principle in the hearts of God's people that God puts there and God enacts in their lives. So it's the nature of a believer to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The new nature believes. God's children cannot not believe God. You just try. God's children cannot not believe God. It's their nature. We believe like Abraham. We believe that God is able. God is able to do all that he has promised.

Do we make the law void? If you go on in Romans 3.31, do we make the law void through faith? God forbid. We love the law of God. We rejoice in the law of God because all who have the spirit of life, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, all who have the law of righteousness, all who have the law of sin in their members, all who have the law of faith, They love to see the law of God in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every, every picture of the law is a picture that's been fulfilled and is only ever seen clearly in the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified and his work in the hearts of his people. It's the only place it's seen. Let's go on quickly.

In James chapter 2, twice he speaks of the law of love. It's the royal law according to James. If you fulfill James chapter 2 verse 8 towards the end of your New Testament, before the books of Peter, it's called the royal law. And it's the law of love. James 2 verse 8. See it's written on the hearts of God's people. It is implanted in the nature of God's people. It is the divine nature that we're participants in, is that we love the Lord Jesus Christ and we love his people. We love them. We don't, in our hearts, feel hatred toward other people. I pray that we don't. I pray that I don't. I don't want to hate other people.

My enemies are used by God to point me to the Lord Jesus Christ. My enemies have said things about me which I am caused to rejoice in. As someone said to us years and years and years ago at the beginning, he said, all you people do is talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that lovely? I could put that on my tombstone. You guys make too much of the grace of God. You make too much of the eternal covenant of God. You make too much of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of his people. Isn't that wonderful? They've been my enemies, they think. But they, according to God, they just oppose themselves. But they have, by their opposition, driven us into the arms of our saviour and driven us into the arms of each other. I love his people. I love his people. If you're loved by him and you love him, then I'm your fan. I've got your back.

Okay, we've got two to go and I'm over time, I'm so sorry. But let's turn, while we're in James, let's turn back a page. And I will endeavor to be as brief as I can. But there is what's called the perfect law of liberty in verse 25. But whosoever, 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.

There is a law, an operating principle in the hearts of God's people, put there by God, that says, Freedom! Freedom! He's come to set the captives free! What is freedom? Just two brief things about freedom. Freedom means that I owe nothing. All of you have been in debt probably, unless you've escaped in remarkable ways. But you know what it's like when you have a bill and you've paid it? That's freedom. That's exactly what the word is that's used for what the Lord said on the Cross of Calvary. It is finished. Paid in full. I owe nothing. The perfect law of liberty. And the perfect law of liberty is also a liberty to do as I want. You just imagine someone in prison. They can't get out until the debt's paid. And when the doors are open and the judge says, you're free to go. Fines have been paid, you've paid your debt, you are free to go. God's children owe nothing. We are completely debt-free and we do what we want to do. We have a glorious liberty.

Paul in Galatians says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Our liberty is a liberty not in myself. I'd love the freedom to live without sin forevermore. I'd love the freedom to love without it being tainted by my flesh. I'd love the freedom to preach the gospel without me being involved in it. I'd love the freedom to pray. We love all those things and in the Lord Jesus Christ we're made volunteers in the day of his power. He works in the hearts of his people. You stand fast in the liberty where Christ has made us be free and don't get entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

If someone tells me that I owe something personally to satisfy the debt I have before God or before men, and in the heart of God's people is a law of liberty. Turn with me quickly to the end of Galatians chapter six, and I just want to finish because this is the one law of the New Testament of the laws of Christ where he actually affixes his name. It's called the law of Christ. And I love how it begins in Galatians 6.1.

Brethren, if any man, if a man be overtaken in a fault, Who hasn't been overtaken in a fault? Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. you fulfil the law of Christ. Those which are spiritual, those which are partakers of the divine nature, you restore such a one, you mend, you mend what they are. And you do it in a spirit of meekness because you know exactly what it's like for it to fall in exactly the same way.

If you're looking at a brother that's fallen, you know that you've done exactly the same and you've done it, if you haven't done it physically, you've done it in your heart. And God's children cover not one another's sins. Like Noah's two sons did. Bear one another's burden. What's the burden? What's the burden of all the children of God? Their sin. That's their burden, isn't it? That's the burden that I have.

And I love what he goes on to say. Listen to what he says. For if a man, verse three of Galatians, if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. That's one of the most lovely verses in the scriptures, isn't it? If only people had that law, that word written on their heart. This is the covenant that I will make with them. I'll write these laws on their hearts, the laws of the new nature, the law of spirit and life. the law of righteousness, the law of sin, the law of faith, I must believe, the law of love, I must love God and all of his people, and he does this in the hearts of his people, the law of liberty and the law of Christ.

Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you are able to do all that you have promised. for your people, to your people, in your people. And we praise you, Heavenly Father, for the glory of your word, which is settled forever in the heavens, a pure word, purified seven times. Oh, our Father, we thank you and praise you that this word shines such a wonderful, wonderful light upon your dear and precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, May we be found in Christ, and may we believe by faith that Christ is in us who believe. Heavenly Father, may we go from here, all your children, partakers of the divine nature, and may we long for others to come with us and to gaze, as we do, upon your dear and precious Son in his righteousness and join with the choirs of heaven singing glory to the Lamb who was slain. He's worthy, he's worthy. I'll make us worthy in him and him alone our Father for we pray in Christ's name and his glory.