Well, my text this morning is
in Romans chapter seven that we read earlier, and just for
the sake of picking out one verse, verse four. 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. And I've
entitled this message, Widowed but Happily Remarried. Widowed
but Happily Remarried. To hear and to grasp and to believe
the gospel is the most blessed state to be in, in this life.
It really is. Nothing, nothing can compare
to it. You can have riches and I'm not saying that any of these
things in and of themselves are bad. They're not. You can have
riches. Abraham had riches. You can have
riches. You can have thrilling experiences
of life. You can travel a lot, you can
see things, you can do things, you can have experiences. You
can be blessed with health and physical well-being. And all
of these things in and of themselves are good, but, but, but, they're
all eternally worthless by comparison to gospel blessings. When you
compare them to the blessings of the gospel, they're actually
eternally worthless. Why? Why? Well, when you know
something of God, of who God is, when you know something of
God as creator, oh, you say, ah, but science has proven that
there is no need for a creator, we don't need that. Of course
it hasn't. That's just a lie of the devil. Of course it hasn't.
Absolutely not in the slightest. Of course, everything around
shouts that God has made it. I, said the psalmist, am fearfully
and wonderfully made. When you know something of God,
who is the creator and the sustainer of life, the only one who in
himself has life, the giver of life, we all have life because
there is a God and no other reason. Everything that has life has
life because of God. And then we read in his word
that he is holy and just And not only is he holy and just,
but he is a judge. He judges. He judges against
that standard of holiness and justice. And he demands perfection. In the very nature of the being
of God, the scriptures tell us he demands perfection. And he
exacts a penalty for anything that falls short of perfection. And when I look and I see my
true state in the flesh, what I am by nature, how that I am
mortal, that I have an appointment with death, and then comes the
judgment, it's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment,
and when I realize the inevitability of hell, that so many don't like
to talk about these days but the scripture talks about it.
It is said and I guess probably true that our Lord Jesus Christ
in his earthly ministry had more to say about hell than he did
about heaven. What is hell? Eternal separation from anything
good in which we bear the timeless eternal penalty for my sinful
rebellion against the nature and character of God. If that
comes into our heart If that knowledge comes into our heart,
there's one response that it produces. It's the response of
the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16. What must I do to
be saved? Is the cry of the soul that realizes
something of what God is in His holiness and what I am in my
sinfulness. What must I do? And as the gospel
is preached, as the gospel is declared, This is what we seek
to do, we declare it. We declare it. We're not offering
anything, we declare it. As the gospel is declared, we
see by faith Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. my faithful
substitute, the one who is God become man, the God man, the
one who was in the beginning with God and was God, the one
who was the word which became flesh and dwelt among us, and
says the apostle, we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When we see
him as my faithful substitute, When I know what I ought to be
before the law and justice of God, and I know of a certainty
that I am not, and I see my substitute, my surety, standing there in
my place, for me, in the reckoning of God, me in him, me in him,
in union with him, as we've sung in some of these hymns. When
I see that, that he stands there as my sin-bearer, For God made
him who knew no sin to be sin. He made him sin. What sin did
he make him? The sin of his people, of his
elect people. He made him sin that he might
bear it. Why? That we, his people, might
be made the righteousness of God in him. What righteousness
does God require of each one of us? Your best efforts? No,
nowhere near good enough. He requires the righteousness
of God. Yet in Christ, his people are made the righteousness of
God in him. He is, as Jeremiah says, his
name is, he shall be called, this one who came, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God who became man shall be called
the Lord my righteousness that's his name the Lord my righteousness
and then ten chapters further on talking of the church this
is the name by which she shall be called the Lord our righteousness
and all of this is apprehended by faith alone why does some
know it and others don't it's by faith by faith and that not
of yourself says Paul It is the gift of God. By that gracious
gift of the Holy Spirit coming and quickening and giving faith,
we see these things. We apprehend it by faith alone,
that all of these things are accomplished. That when that
appointment with judgment comes, we know that we're in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we can say, it is well with
my soul. My soul rejoices. My soul rejoices. Has your soul rejoiced in the
glorious liberty of the sons of God? Has your soul, as it
were, skipped in delight at the knowledge? It is well with my
soul. It is. It is. I'm free from all that
sin did to me in the reckoning of God. I'm free from it in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall deliver me? asks Paul
at the end of chapter seven of Romans. Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? Because that's what it is, because
of sin. And the very next verse, verse one of chapter eight, there
is therefore, oh well, I thank God through Jesus Christ. And
because of that, because of what Christ has done, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. What a glorious
position to be in. What a blessed position to be
in. To be hiding in that great rock
of ages. For Christ, the scripture tells
us, is that rock. Pictured when Moses struck the
rock as they came out of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai,
that water came out of it to give water to drink to the people.
He struck the rock and the rock was cleft, it was broken. we
hide in the rock. Moses said to God in Exodus 33,
Show me your glory. And he said, You cannot see my
face, for no man shall see me and live. But here is a place
beside me in the cleft of the rock. You shall hide there. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. No man. No man. That's what it
says. Exodus 30. No man can see me
and live. But how do we see God? Because
we read again and again in the scriptures of mortal beings seeing
God. How? How? No man has seen God
at any time, says John. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He has made
Him manifest. He has made Him known. Philip,
I know I tell you this so often, you should know it well and truly
off by heart, but Philip said to Jesus on the night before
he was crucified, show us the Father and that will be enough
for us, that will suffice. And Jesus said to Philip, Philip,
have I been so long with you, you have not seen me? He who
has seen me has seen the Father. No, we hide in Him. And we know,
we know, as a result of being in Him and of there being no
condemnation, we know what it says. Paul says in chapter 8
verse 31, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us? think of that day and that appointment
with judgment, if God be for us who can be against us? He
that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all,
meaning all of his church, all of his people, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? And the charge sheet
gets read out at the judgment seat of Christ who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? God's justified his elect. How has he justified them? By
his Son coming and paying the penalty, satisfying the law's
demands in their place. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God has justified them. Who is
going to condemn? Oh, Satan, the accuser of the
brethren, longs to be there to condemn. Christ has died. Yea, rather, he's risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, so therefore there is
no charge that can be made to stick in the court of divine
justice. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or all these other things? No, we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, the language overflows, doesn't it? Nothing
can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Martin Luther saw it. He saw
it. He rejoiced. You read his writings,
and here's the Catholic monk who's become tired of the bondage
and the the slavery of that system which he was in and he saw the
liberation of gospel justification and he rejoiced His heart skipped
with joy. John Bunyan's pilgrim saw it,
and obviously John Bunyan who wrote it, he saw it as well. And some of us here have seen
it and live in the good of it. We know, as I've said, it is
well with my soul. First century believers, to whom
the Apostle Paul and the other apostles wrote, these letters
were written to first century believers, they rejoiced in it
too. Paul says to so many, when I
hear of your faith and the way that you're living in response
to the gospel, how he rejoices in them and how he prays for
them, they rejoiced in it too. But, as I said last time, as
time went on, as Paul had moved on from where he had preached
and founded churches, planted churches, there came in false
teachers. They came in, Jesus warned about
it in his ministry, false teachers will come. Some will come claiming
to be Christ who are not, don't believe them. They're all motivated
by Satan and they're all seeking to return like the ones that
went up to Antioch from Jerusalem. They said, yes, yes, this gospel
is a great thing, but you all need to be circumcised. You men,
you need to be circumcised to be properly saved. Seeking to
return them to bondage How were they seeking to return them to
bondage? By teaching that the liberty
in Christ is limited to the believer's eternal state. But while here
and now in this life, Believers remain under the yoke of law
to define and prescribe our relationship with God. That's what they said.
They had the council of Jerusalem to debate it and discuss it and
we have the clear outcome of that in the scriptures in Acts
chapter 15. They wanted to return believers who had been liberated
by the Gospel of Christ to the yoke of bondage of the law, in
prescribing our relationship with God. How must we respond
to that? We ask the question, what saith
the Scripture? What does the Bible teach? Not
the writings of man. No, no, don't go, I mean there's
some very good writings of man but don't go quoting the writings
of man at me however highly esteemed we want to know what does the
scripture say to the law and the testimony says Isaiah 8 verse
20 to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to
this word there is no light no truth in them. No. What does
it say? What does the scripture say?
Look back in chapter 6 at verse 14 In chapter 6 of Romans, and
verse 14, sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? For you
are not under the law, but under grace. Oh, say these teachers
of law, you are under the law. The law is the believer's rule
of life. This is what should motivate and guide and direct
you. The scripture says, you are not under the law, but under
grace. Could words be clearer? It's
absolutely clear. Who is not under the law? Who
is not under the law? The ones to whom he's writing.
Believers in Christ, his church, his elect people, his eternal
bride. Be in no doubt, unbelievers,
those who are not believers in Christ, those who have not trusted
the gospel of his grace, unbelievers, without doubt, remain under the
yoke of the law of God. That's what we're like in our
natural position in the flesh as we are born as creatures of
flesh in that situation our relationship with God is defined entirely
by the law and I mean by that the moral law of God they say
to these legalists always talking only about the ceremonial law
of God you know the ceremonial law was the law of temple worship
and of the sacrifices and of the priesthood and of all of
those things that were to do with the worship of God. They
say, oh it's that that we're not under anymore. We're liberated
but we're still under the moral law of God. No, absolutely not.
It means the whole law of God, the moral law, the law of right
and wrong. And in a legal marriage relationship,
with God's law, that is how we are by nature. It's as if we
are married to that law, whether we realise it or not. As unbelievers,
if we're unbelievers, whether we realize it or not, we're in
a legal marriage relationship with God's law. And so are we
all, in our fleshly nature. So I want to ask, what is that
marriage like? What releases us from it? And
what replaces it for the one who is in Christ? So what is
that marriage like to the law, which we're all in by nature
in our flesh, in our natural state? Everybody by nature in
the flesh in our natural fleshly condition We're subject to the
law of God. It's how Adam was created When
he was without sin before the fall in the Garden of Eden He
was subjected to the law of God God said to him do this and live
Do this and live in the Garden of Eden God is perfectly holy
and demands perfect holiness from his sentient creatures. This is why he says of all the
creation that he made, man is unique. You know you'll hear
again and again the idea that we're just more highly evolved
animals. Not in the slightest. God made
man in his own image. In his image he created them.
Male and female created he them. Sentient creatures Creatures
that think about things, we're the only creatures that think
about the way things are. None others do, because we're
made in the image of God. And God says to his sentient
creatures, ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Why? Why should we be holy? Because
God who made us, and God who sets the rules for everything
in this universe, in this creation, is a holy being. and therefore
he says be ye holy for I am holy and in this marriage relationship
to this law as we are by nature in the flesh it's as if we're
married to a harsh husband fair husband a strict husband but
an unsympathetic and harsh husband in Hosea chapter thirteen you
don't need to turn to it, I'll turn to it for you, in Hosea
chapter thirteen and verses seven and eight, God says to his people,
speaking of what it's like in this relationship, in this law
relationship, God says, I will be unto them, his people, as
a lion. You know, lions are not cuddly
things, are they? If you went out into the savannas
of Africa, where the lions roam, you'd be very foolish if you
went up to a lion to try and cuddle it. You'd rapidly get
eaten. God says, I will be unto them
as a lion. As a leopard, by the way, will
I observe them? You know, leopards climb up in
trees and they hide themselves and they observe their prey and
then they pounce with fatal consequences. God says that's what I will be
like. This is the relationship under the law. Keep it perfectly,
keep it perfectly or you shall die. I will meet them as a bear
that is bereaved of her whelps. You know, Peter and Joan and
the boys have just been to Canada, and there's a possibility of
seeing some bears out there in Canada. And generally speaking,
the advice is, you'll be all right, they'll turn away from
you. But if you come across a mother bear that's got cubs nearby,
you better watch out. You better be careful, because
they're very, very careful about protecting their young. And God
says, I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps, and will
rend the call of their heart And there will I devour them
like a lion. The wild beasts shall tear them.
Do you see that? This is the natural relationship
that we're all in with God by nature in the flesh. And the
way that the unbelieving world around us, that's the relationship
that they're in with this God whose existence they deny. Job says this, Job 34 in verses
21 and 22. God's eyes are upon the ways of man. He sees all
his goings. Oh, I can do this in secret.
No, you can't. God sees all his goings. There is no darkness. You know,
the workers of iniquity like darkness because it tends to
hide from view what they're doing. But he says there is no darkness
with him where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
Jeremiah 23 verses 23 and 24. Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill
heaven and earth, saith the Lord? He's strictly fair and just,
but in this relationship, the relationship of law is unsympathetic,
is unyielding, is unmerciful, is inflexible. God's law is as
a lordly, imperious husband. It is, as Paul writes to the
Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 7, the ministration
of death written and engraven in stones. It is a covenant relationship,
it is a relationship between creatures and their God which
says this, this is Paul writing in Galatians 3 verse 10 and quoting
Deuteronomy, cursed cursed. Under the curse of God is everyone
that does not continue in all things that are written in the
book of the law to do them. well I'll have a good try, no
continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
them all of the time without ever failing without ever a slip
up James reinforces this James 2 verse 10 whosoever shall keep
the whole law oh you've had a good try and yet offend in one point
as if anybody could keep the whole law And offend in one point,
he is guilty of all. You know, there are those that
say, oh, we keep the law as Christians. I remember a pastor of a church
many years ago saying to me, oh, but we keep the law, don't
we? And you know, you think often,
After an event you think, I wish I'd said that to him at the time.
What I should have quoted to him was what Peter said to the
council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. Peter said they were
discussing whether the new Gentile converts should be made subject
to the law of Moses. And Peter says there, he says,
come on, let's be honest. All of us apostles, he said,
none of us could keep the law, none of us have kept the law.
Our fathers couldn't keep it, neither could we. Let's not be
hypocrites in placing a burden on these gentile believers as
if they could keep it too. No, not at all. We don't keep
it. We can't keep it. And because
we don't keep it all, perfectly all of the time, we're guilty
of all of it, all of the time. And this is the reality of your
relationship with God, the God who is your creator. and your
sustainer, and your life giver, and your judge, in your natural
state in the flesh, this is what he says to you. To everyone who
will hear this, he says, do this perfectly and live. Fail in any
respect whatsoever and die. Spiritual death, eternal spiritual
death. And this law, this law of God,
which is clear in the scriptures from cover to cover, this law
of God, which states what God is like by nature, it's a good
teacher. It's a schoolmaster. It is. It
teaches us. It's a true teacher of our true
natural condition. As Galatians 3.24 says, it's
our schoolmaster, and I know the words are in there, to bring
us to Christ, but they're not actually in the original. It's
our schoolmaster unto Christ. It's our schoolmaster that points
us to Christ. Because when this law has taught
you, how hopeless is your condition? You see, what do the modern legalists
do? They take the law and they bend
it. They take the law of the Sabbath day, which they now call
Sunday. and they bend it and twist it
and they make rules of their own making and they say ah well
yes of course we have to practically live in this world today and
we do this that and the other and we come up with our own version
of what it was to keep a Sabbath day and therefore we feel that
we've kept the law of God no you haven't no you haven't the
seventh day is the Sabbath day in the old covenant the seventh
day and you better not so much as pick up sticks to light a
fire to cook something because God will strike you dead. That's
the relationship truly under the law. Has that law taught
your soul what it is to be on your own answerable to God? That ceremonial law even, not
just the moral law, the ceremonial law that they say it was. Do
you know the ceremonial law, that was the gospel in types
and pictures and patterns. It's not that that we're free
from, it's the whole of it, the whole of the moral law of God
written in the heart and in the conscience and engraven on stones. just as Moses brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt and gave them the law from God God spoke
to Moses, Moses spoke to the people and gave them the law
and he led them and he led them towards Canaan to the promised
land to the liberty the freedom that was there but he could only
lead them to the borders is it not interesting that before they
went into the land Moses was to go up and look over the land
but he couldn't go in he had to die because that's symbolical
of how the law relationship with God can never bring you into
the blessedness of the promised land, of the blessedness of acceptance
with God. It can take you to the borders
but it can never take you in. The one who must take you in
is Joshua. Joshua is the Hebrew word for
Jesus. In your King James Version you
will read one or two places in the New Testament about if Jesus
could have done it, he's meaning Joshua, look in the margin, means
Joshua in the Old Testament. No, Moses could only bring to
the borders of freedom but he couldn't take them into that
freedom, Joshua had to do that. All it can do, this law, is impress
on you your need for liberation. But you know, so many just don't
hear it, do they? As Paul says in Galatians 4,
24, I think it is, you who desire to be under the law, do you not
hear the law? Have you not read it and heard
it for what it really says? You know, you who think you keep
it, you who think if you do this, that, and the other, you've made
a good show of it, No, you haven't come close. Do you not hear how
harsh and how severe and how strict are its demands? Now you
see, there is a better husband than the law. There is a better
husband. In Hosea chapter 2 and verse
16, we read there, It shall be at that day, saith the Lord,
that thou shalt call me Ishi. and shall call me no more Bali. Ishi is the name of a loving,
tender husband. In that day you shall call me
a loving, tender husband. And in that day you shall call
me no more Bali, who is a lordly, imperious, harsh, strict, unmerciful
husband. By nature, we're married to Bali. We're in that marriage relationship
with the law. How lawfully can we be married
to Ishi, because surely that's better than being married to
Bali? Surely it's better to be married
to Ishi, to be married to the one who is gracious and compassionate
and tender and merciful, rather than to Bali, who is harsh and
stern and strict. The answer is, I must die to
Bali. and barley must die to me. You
know in the marriage ceremony you make your vows in the marriage
ceremony and it's until death us do part. The thing that breaks
the marriage bond is death of one or other of the parties.
Till death us do part. You can think of examples of
it. I mean I hope Donny Bell won't mind me mentioning him
as the example the illustration here but Donny for years was
married to Mary and they were utterly devoted to each other
and Mary became ill and cut a long story short the Lord took her
and in her death that marriage relationship between Donny and
Mary was broken Donny is now remarried to Shirley and they
are just as married as he ever was to Mary, but that relationship
is broken. You see, I must die to Bali and
be married to Ishi. That's what must happen. So how
can my natural marriage to the law be broken? By death alone. Whose death? Whose death? Christ's
for and on behalf of his people is that not what it said in our
text in Romans chapter 7 and verse 4 ye are become dead to
the law by the body of Christ That's how you die to the law. That's how you die to barley,
that harsh husband, by the body of Christ. Why? That you can
then be freed from that marriage relationship. You're widowed
from that relationship. Oh, but you can be happily remarried
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead. That's
how, by death alone, by Christ's death, for and on behalf of his
people. Looking back at one chapter in
chapter six of Romans and verse six, Knowing this, believers,
knowing this, that our old man, our fleshly corrupt nature, is
crucified with him, with Christ, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, and henceforth we should not serve sin, for he
that is dead is freed from sin. You see, you can have a man who
is accused of a heinous murder and he's taken into custody and
he's put before the justices and the law is read out in the
court of law and he's charged with this heinous murder and
the penalties that go with it and then all of a sudden for
some reason this man, the accused, dies What's the law got to say
to him then? The trial is over. There is no
point continuing the trial. The man is dead. The law has
nothing to say to him now because he's dead. He that is dead is
freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ
we believe that we shall also live with him. In Galatians chapter
2 we read about this again in verse 16. Knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of
Jesus Christ. It's what Christ did, the faithful
acts of Jesus Christ. It's not our believing that justifies
us, it's what Jesus did that we believe in that justifies
us. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by, what is it that justifies
us? Our faith? No, the faith of Christ. What
he did is what justifies his people and not by the works of
the law. The works of the law shall no
flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin, God forbid. Although in the flesh
we're still sinners, that doesn't make Christ the minister of sin.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor. If I go back to those things
of the law, that relationship of the law, then that's the basis
on which I'm judged under that law. For I, through the law,
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. How is it that
I'm dead? Verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. When he was crucified, I was
crucified with him. In the justice and the reckoning
of God, I am crucified with Christ. He's my eternal husband. As the
people of God, as the church of God, we were betrothed to
Christ before the beginning of time. The scriptures are clear
on that. He came, whatever he did, his people did in him. For he, as the husband of his
bride, was held legally, absolutely responsible for everything. He
says, nevertheless I live. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives 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. So I'm widowed. from Bali, the law, that I might
be, as Romans 7 verse 4 says, married to another. I'll be quick,
I'm running out of time but I'll be quick. The remarriage Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 11, 2, I have espoused you to one husband
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Two shall become
one flesh. His people are united to Christ. Christ and his church, his elect
people, espoused in sovereign grace before the beginning of
time. And in that new relationship, all things are passed away. All
things have become new. There's our friends Kristin and
Rob Keller in Princeton, in New Jersey, who just got married
a couple of weeks ago. For them, all things are now
new. They're in a completely new relationship.
They're married now. God says to his people this,
in Isaiah 54, just after that glorious chapter of redemption,
chapter 53, he says in verses four and five, thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth and shall not remember the reproach of
thy widowhood anymore. Why? For thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.
Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall he be called. By divine gifts of repentance
and faith, because that's what they are, the eternal truth is
apprehended by the sinner who is awakened to hear the gospel
of grace, to hear of this eternal espousal. of the substitutionary
atonement accomplished by Christ, of his redemption through his
precious blood in which his lifeblood was poured out to make satisfaction
to the law of God, to the nature of God. And our union with him,
the union of his people with Christ, means that we're justified
in him. So that what Paul says to the
Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1.30, Christ is made unto us
wisdom from God. and righteousness. You need wisdom
before God, you need righteousness, you need sanctification, you
need redemption before him. And Christ has made all those
things to his people. Our marriage in the flesh to
Bali was strictly fair but harsh. What is marriage to Ishi like? In Hebrews we read about it.
It's quoting from Jeremiah and in Hebrews 8 and verse 7 it talks
about that first covenant. If that first covenant had been
faultless then should no place have been sought for the second.
But finding fault with them under that covenant, that old, that
first covenant, that marriage to Bali, he says, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
That was the covenant of works. Do this and live. Because they
continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their minds. I will write them on their hearts.
and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people
and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man
his brother saying know the Lord you ought to know the Lord no
for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest you
know that believer they shall all know me for I will be merciful
ah this is ishi This is Ishi, not Bali. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousnesses and their sins and their iniquities
I will remember no more. In that he said, a new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. And it did. In A.D. 70, temple
worship was finished forever in Jerusalem. in marriage union
with Christ, we're under grace, not law. How do we know that? We read it before in Romans.
You're not under law, but you're under grace. We're new creatures,
not just rational creatures responsible. We're new creatures in Christ.
We're not slaves to law under bondage, but sons in the relationship
of sons to a loving father. And so we cry, Abba, Father,
we're the seed of the free woman, not the seed of the bond woman.
We're a, as Peter says, and we haven't got time to turn to it,
we're a holy priesthood, a holy nation. And all of those things
that God says about this intimate, loving relationship with his
people, we are made in the gospel of his grace. We are heirs of
God, says Paul, joint heirs with Christ. You see, the remarriage
after the widowhood of death to the law is based on love.
Love. What is it that constrains the
behavior of a believer? The love of Christ constrains
us. The love of Christ motivates and directs us. Not the fear
and threat or promises of the law. No. What about all the epistle
exhortations? They're based on new covenant
principles. So, in Philippians, when Paul
is going to exhort to a kind of behavior that depicts the
gospel, what's his reason? The law tells you to do this?
Not at all. He says this, if there be any consolation in Christ,
if there be any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit,
any bowels and mercies, any joy, love, meekness, esteeming others
better. These are the motivating principles.
What a happy marriage by comparison to that of bondage to the law.
And so, Paul tells us, Galatians 5.1, stand fast in its liberty.
Don't be moved. Stand fast in it. Let no man
judge you, he says in Colossians 2.16, in legal matters, in do's
and don'ts and Sabbath days and touch not, handle not, etc. and
be sure that you cannot mix them to any degree. I've put a couple
of articles in the bulletin along these lines. Law and grace, you
cannot mix them in any way whatsoever. Marriage to Ishi will not tolerate
any hint of return to Bali. Paul says this in Galatians 5
too, he says, you who say you believe If you're circumcised,
or if you go on to live under the bondage of law in any way
whatsoever, he says, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Read that article by
John Chapman. Read it. Because all my standing
with God is now entirely based on Christ and his finished work
of redemption. What's the believer's rule of
life? Is it the law, as so many would seek to tell us? No. It's
Christ. married to Ishi, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.