Every kingdom, every society,
no matter how barbaric that society may be, has a code of conduct
by which its citizens are required to live. They're required to
live by this code of conduct, and if they violate that code
of conduct, they're held responsible. The church of God is a kingdom. the kingdom of God. The Church
of God is a city, a society of believing men and women, chosen
of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, born again by God
the Holy Spirit, called to life and faith in Christ Jesus. And
we have a code of conduct by which we do and must live before
God. We have a law. It is the law
of Christ's kingdom, and that's my subject tonight. The law of
Christ's kingdom. First John chapter 3 verse 23. First John chapter 3 and verse
23. Here is the law of Christ's kingdom. This is his commandment. that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
love, even love one another as he gave his commandment. Now, I'm addressing this subject
with concern for you, for I have great fear knowing man's natural
love of legality. man's natural love of himself,
man's natural high opinion of himself. I'm addressing this
subject, the law of Christ's kingdom, with great concern for
you, lest at any time you be carried away with the yoke of
bondage back to Mount Sinai and back under the law. I address
it with concern for you because I know that every man and woman
in this building who believes the Son of God yet is ever inclined
to revert to law. That's just our nature. That's
just our nature. I know preachers. I listen and
I know what goes on with preachers in the gospel of God's grace,
the kingdom of God. Preachers who believe the gospel
as fully as your pastor, and preach the gospel as faithfully
as I do, but there's ever a tendency to revert to law. I can't tell
you how many times I've heard fellows who, they'd stand up
and just defend the believer's freedom from the law, and then
folks don't start, they start not coming to church like they
should, and they start not giving like they should, and they start
behaving ways they ought not and the preacher will go back
and beat them to death with the law and beat them to death with
the law and beat them to death with the law and they start behaving
better. But our object is not just to get you to behave better,
to please me or to please yourself. Our object is that you know God
and walk with God. And I'm not going to revert to
the law in this place, in this church, in this congregation,
so long as I have any voice in this congregation. We will never
adopt any creed, any confession, any covenant written by men,
and put ourselves under any form of any yoke of bondage. Not the
law given by Moses, nor any law invented by men. It is not going
to happen. It is not going to happen. The
law of the gospel is faith in Jesus Christ. It is that law
that comes to us by the grace of God. And I don't care how
you try. I don't care how you try to mix
it. Grace and law won't work. Grace and faith or grace and
works won't mix. They're like oil and water. You
just cannot shake them up enough to get them to fit together and
come together. There is the law. We read it
in Exodus 20. In all its terrible, furious
glory, the Ten Commandments fall from Mount Sinai like a crushing
millstone. And the people of Israel quaked
in fear. Even those Israelites, when the
law was given, were terrified by the law. They said, Moses,
you go speak to God and you come tell us what God said. Don't
let God speak to us lest we die. We must have someone to represent
us to God. That was the reason God gave
the law was to make us know we must have a mediator. We must
have a substitute. We must have one to represent
us to God and represent God to us. And that one Moses typified
is Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator, the only mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Our petition ought
ever to be, Lord, be merciful to us. Lord, deal with us in
Christ. Lord, give us grace to believe
your son. The law will never give us life. The law will never make us holy.
The law will never sanctify. The law cannot inspire people
to serve God. All the law does is kill. All the law does is kill. It is the dead killing letter
of the law. It is intended by God to kill,
to slay all hope before God in yourself. Paul said in Romans
chapter 7, I was alive without the law once. Now this is a man
who lived by law. He was a legalist. I mean, he
was the legalist of legalists. This man was a Pharisee. A Pharisee
of Pharisees. He lived by the Ten Commandments
every day. He would get up and recite the
Ten Commandments. He walked by the Ten Commandments.
He had the commandments sewn in his garments. This man lived
by law. He said, I was alive without
the law once. All the while he was pretending
to keep the law. Then the commandment came What's
he talking about? The commandment came by god to
his heart and he said I understood what the law requires I understood
what the law requires when god said don't steal. He didn't just
mean don't cheat on your taxes He didn't just mean don't don't
pick up candy out of store walk out with it He didn't mean don't
don't go over to neighbors and steal his his his calf He meant
that and more he said, uh Don't covet. I saw the spiritual nature of
the law. And when the commandment came, I died. And when he died,
he began to live. You will never live believing
Christ until the law slays you. until all hope before God is
put to death by the law, so that you understand you can't do what
God requires. You cannot fulfill the law. You
cannot obey the law. You cannot satisfy the law, neither
its demands for righteousness, nor its demands for satisfaction.
How foolish they are who live under the law. what cruel deceivers
they are who try to bring God's children back under the law.
They want us to wear a yoke of bondage which neither they nor
their fathers have ever worn. I read in your hearing tonight
the 20th chapter of Exodus. I'll get letters from this. Folks
are going to hear it. I'm going to get letters, and I'll smile
and ignore the letters. But I'm going to get letters,
folks, where you're telling folks the law is meaningless, the law
is useless, you're against the law, you're promoting licentiousness.
No, I've read the 20th chapter of Exodus in your hearing. Which
of you ever kept anything written in that chapter? Which of you has never had an
idol you held before God. Which of you does not take God's
name in vain? Which of you, from the back pew
to the pulpit, which of us does not covet and envy and deal vilely
with God and with man? We have broken every commandment
from our youth up, and we break every commandment all the time,
every day, and there's no excuse. There's no excuse. But the fact
is, you can't keep the law. You can't keep the law. Now,
I do not suggest, and I want to say this as emphatically as
I possibly can, that we in any way, in any way, say to folks,
it's all right to violate the law. It is not. It is not. God, I call you to witness. If I could, I would keep every
commandment perfectly in every detail of my life. If I could. That I desire. That I desire. And when I violate
God's law, whether with my mind or with my mouth or with my hand,
I'm utterly without excuse. There's no excuse for it. And
no excuse. And so vile this man is, and
so vile are the men and women to whom I'm preaching, that if
God allows you to wantonly violate his law, you will do it and justify
yourself in doing it. You'll find a way to make excuse
for it, but I'm telling you, there is none. God the Holy Spirit,
however, teaches us throughout his word, not just in the gospel,
not just in the New Testament, throughout his word. God, the
Holy Spirit, constantly tells us to look away from ourselves,
yonder to Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, sitting
on his throne, who is our only acceptance with God. He constantly
tells us to look away from ourselves. When you start to have struggles
with assurance and the Lord willing, I'm going to deal with this again
Tuesday night, but you start to have struggles with it. And
we do, we do. I know where the problem is.
I know where the problem is. Every time with me and with you,
we start to look at ourselves. We start to look at ourselves.
The first thing comes to your mind when you think, well, how
can I know that I'm safe? You go back to yesterday or to
10 years ago or to 20 years ago, and you start to think, well,
I, I remember when the Lord saved me and this is what I experienced.
That's kind of like proving that you're living by, Bobby said,
Bobby comes up and says, Brother Don, how do you know you're alive?
I said, what a minute. I've got a birth certificate here. I just
looked at it the other day. It says I was born June 10th, 1950
in Bladen County, North Carolina. That's proof I'm alive. That's
nonsense. That's nonsense. What is it that
is our assurance of life before God? Nothing yesterday, nothing
this morning, nothing done, nothing felt, nothing experienced. Don't
look back yonder. Don't look back yonder. Don't
look in here. Look yonder. I believe the son
of God. I trust Jesus Christ. Well, what about yesterday? I'm
not even concerned about that. It's gone. It's gone. I trust
the Son of God. That's all. That's all. My soul
no more attempt to draw life and comfort from the law. The
law brings death, only death, nothing else. But in Christ,
we are free from the law. Now, let me be crystal clear
in telling you what I'm referring to when I speak of the law. In
this book, Sometimes the word law, referring to the law of
God, refers to the whole revelation of God in Holy Scripture. The
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. It refers to the whole
book of God. Sometimes the word law refers
to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, the
books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. I'm sorry, Genesis
through Deuteronomy. Sometimes the law refers to the
ceremonial institutions of the law. But as I use the term tonight,
and as it is commonly used in our thinking, as well as in the
scripture, the word law refers to the Ten Commandments, refers
to those commandments given by God at Mount Sinai that we just
read. Now tonight, I want to show you
three things as simply, as clearly, as forcibly as I possibly can.
Number one, every person outside Christ is under the law. I mean
by that under the curse and condemnation of the law. Number two, every
believer is entirely, if you're taking notes, please write that
down and underscore that word entirely three or four times,
entirely free from the law. I mean by that there is no sense
whatsoever in which believers have any obligation to God's
holy law. Number three, the children of
God are not lawless. God's children are not lawless. All right, let's look at these
one at a time. I begin with this, every person outside Christ,
you who are without faith in Christ, you who do not believe
on the son of God, the youngest to the oldest are under the law. I mean by that you are justly
under the sentence of the divine curse, under the condemnation
of God's law, deserving eternal damnation. I just wrote an article
and sent it out yesterday, no, I'll send it out tonight, about
David's son Absalom. He cried, oh, Absalom, my son,
my son, Absalom, my son, would God I had died for thee. David
lived to see his rebel son Absalom and his rebel son Amnon perish
under the wrath of God as adults. I shudder at the thought. I shudder
at the thought. David understood his boys were
in hell. He understood his boys were in
hell. He bowed to God. He worshiped
God, but he understood his boys were in hell. I can well imagine
David thinking to himself, oh Absalom, my son, my son, would
God you had perished from the womb. He had another boy who
did that. And there was no mourning, no
lamentation, no sorrow. For David understood that that
son dying in his infancy was one of God's elect, chosen, redeemed,
saved by God's grace. But absolutely, that son dying
under the wrath of God, perished under the wrath of God. And you
who are without Christ are justly under the sentence of God's holy
law. Every man is obliged to keep
the law. We're obliged to keep the law. Perfectly. Perfectly. That's the problem.
That's the problem. People talk about keeping the
Sabbath day, and when they do, I smile at them. I say, you don't
keep the Sabbath day. That's just not so. That's just,
you don't do it. You don't do it. Nobody does.
In fact, nobody ever has except the Redeemer. Nobody. Nobody. It's not something that lies
within the realm of possibility to you, even physically, to keep
the Sabbath day. You do not do it. You don't do
it. But folks say, well, I do the
best I can. That takes the law of God and
brings it down here to your level. That's not keeping the law. That's
violating the law. That's accommodating the law
to your weakness. God requires that you walk before
me and be perfect. God requires that you walk before
me, he says, and be holy. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Be ye perfect, for I the Lord
your God am perfect. And God says in his law, it must
be perfect to be accepted. God requires perfect obedience,
but you have no ability to yield obedience to God. How can these
polluted hands do anything that's not polluted? I have this electronic
iPad here and you're one of the aggravating things about it.
I've got to keep washing it all the time. I'm going to wash it
all the time. I wash it two or three times
a day because every time I touch it, I leave dirt on it. Every
time I touch it, I smudge it. Every time, no matter where I
touch it, no matter how lightly I smudge the thing and it leaves
the soil of my hand on it. The soil of your hand. is on
everything you do. The soil of sin is on everything
you do. You can't put your hand to it
without polluting it. It's impossible for a mortal
man, a sinful fallen man, to keep God's law. Instead, we break
it in every point. And being guilty of sin, every
man, every woman is under the curse of God's law outside God's
Son. We broke the law in the fall
of our father, Adam. We break it by our own transgressions
every day. And since all are guilty, all
are condemned. Every man condemned. And he knows it. Mark read in
our reading back in the office a little bit ago, Jeremiah chapter
17 about Israel's transgressions. And the first thing he read,
the first thing he read struck me. God said to them, Your transgressions
are inscribed upon the table of your heart. I'm not telling
you something you don't know. You who are without Christ, I'm
not telling you something you don't know. You're condemned. You're damned. You're under the
wrath of God. If you go to hell, you get what
you deserve. You have fully earned God's wrath.
It's inscribed on your heart. Now you can deny it all you want
to, you can suppress it all you want to. The fact is you cannot
escape that condemnation. It's yours. Every person under
the bondage of the law is utterly unable to extricate himself from
that bondage, utterly unable to extricate himself from that
condemnation. That's the first thing. Everyone
outside Christ is under the curse of God's law. Number two. Every
believer, every sinner in the world, every believer, you, oh God help
you now, trust his son. Trust his son. If right now you
believe on the son of God, If for the first time in all your
life you find in your heart faith in Christ, God in heaven opened
up heaven, dropped his mercy in your soul and created that
faith. And you are entirely, completely,
absolutely forever free from the law in every sense of the
word. Turn to Romans chapter 6. Now,
don't take my word for it. Look, it's a very, very familiar
scripture. just here in the book of Romans. I'm told by the scholars, I guess
they're scholars, that Romans is the masterpiece of Paul's
writing. Paul writes the book of Romans
like a well-trained lawyer. He writes the book of Romans
in very legal terms. He writes the book of Romans
in such a way as to present the believer's free justification
in Christ by the grace of God without the works of the law.
And he tells us repeatedly that we are free from the law. Romans
chapter six, verses or chapters three, four and five, Paul had
been dealing with the believer's free justification. And then
it comes to chapter six and he starts to deal with baptism.
The believer confessing Christ in baptism and our life of faith
in Jesus Christ. Now, folks tell me all the time,
we know we're not saved by the law. We're not justified by the
law. But we still have an obligation to the law. And we still must
have the law as a rule of life so that we're motivated and guided
and disciplined and measure assurance and measure sanctification and
measure holiness by our obedience to the law. If you do, you've
got a measuring stick you can't measure up to. But when Paul
comes to address this matter of life in Christ, He comes to
address this matter of living for God. That's what Romans 6
is all about. Is that what the Bible is? It's
all about living for God. The whole chapter is about living
for God. Oh, now, if there's any place on this earth to say
you've got to keep the law if you would live for God and behold
it, Romans 6 is the place. Let's see what it says. Verse
14. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. That's a good place to start. And here's the reason. For ye
are not under the law, but under grace. Is that good? Sin shall not have
dominion over you. And here's the reason. You're
not under the law, but under grace. As long as you're under
the law, Alan, sin has dominion over you. The sin shall not have
dominion over you who believe you're not under the law, but
under grace. Look at verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we
are not under the law but under grace? That's the immediate response
I get from folks. Well, brother Don, if you preach
that, folks are going to say, well, let me go sin all I want to.
I sin a heapsight more than I want to, don't you? He says, shall we sin because
we're not under the law but under grace? Then you get to chapter
seven. Look in chapter seven. No, you're not brethren, for
I speak to them that know the law. How that the law hath dominion
over man as long as he liveth. If you live in the United States
and you're citizens of this country, or if you just live in this country,
as long as you live here, the law has dominion over you. Once
you're dead, there ain't much law can do. Read on, verse two.
For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband
so long as he liveth. Mrs. Fortner is bound to me by
law. She's bound to me. She's bound
to love me and not another. She's bound to be my wife and
not another's as long as I'm alive. But when I quit breathing,
it's all right for her to get married again tomorrow if she
wants to. That'd be all right. That'd be all right. Read on.
But if the husband be dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband.
Well, Brother Don wanted things done this way. It don't matter.
He's dead. Well, when you were married to Don, he liked to have
grits in the morning for breakfast. It don't matter, he's dead. When
you're married to Don, he liked to have mashed potatoes with
gravy and lots of butter and cream. It don't matter, he's
dead. He's dead. Nothing I knew about that, he's
dead. You understand that? How plain can it be? Look at
verse three. So then, if while her husband liveth she be married
to another, another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
If she's married to another man while he's living, she's an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she's free from that law, so that she's
not an adulteress, though she'd be married to another man. Paul,
what are you getting to? Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become D-E-A-D, dead to the law by the sacrifice of Christ,
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. In other
words, the only way you can bring forth fruit to God is to be dead
to the law. The only way you can do it, as
long as you seek to live by the law, you can't bring forth fruit
to God. But when you're dead to the law
and married to Christ, then you do. Romans chapter 10, Romans
chapter 10. Brethren, my desire in prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved For I bear them
record that they having a zeal of God But not according to knowledge
there is religious as all get out There is religious as all
get out. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge They're as ignorant as they are zealous
verse 3 for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. I not
ignorant of the fact that God is righteous. Everybody knows
that they're ignorant of God's righteousness, which is Christ
the Lord. He is the righteousness of God. They're ignorant of that.
And so they go about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. How
is it that Christ is the righteousness of God? For Christ is the end. the finishing, the termination,
the conclusion, the object, the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. You mean, Brother Dodd, when
you come to Christ, you've come to the end of the law? Let's
see. I think that's what it said.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The believer
is free from the law. You will search the New Testament
in vain. You will search the New Testament
in vain to find any word of admonition, of instruction, of inspiration
given to any believer based upon law. I dare you, find it for
me. Find it for me. It's not there.
It's not there. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law. This blessed liberty, wherewith
Christ has made us free, means that there is no sense in which
believers are obligated to the law. Those who try to force God's
people to subject themselves to the law run contrary to the
gospel and everything written in the New Testament. Why was
the law given? What was its purpose? Wherefore
then serveth the law? That's the question Paul raises
in Galatians chapter three. There are some things plainly
set forth in the scriptures that the law cannot do. The law cannot
justify a sinner. Peter was abraded by Paul in
Galatians chapter two. He said, we know that by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. The law cannot
sanctify the believer. Paul moves from justification
to sanctification in chapter three of Galatians. And he says,
tell me you that desire to be under the law, having begun in
the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? And that's
where everybody goes awry these days. They think that though
we're not justified by the law, somehow we do make ourselves
more holy and more righteous and more accepted with God. We
give ourselves reason for assurance by our growing in conformity
to the law. Now we grow in sanctification
until we get gooder and gooder and gooder until at last we're
good enough to meet God. Having begun in the spirit, are
you made perfect by the flesh? Paul said, who cast a spell on
you? What witch have you been visiting
who looked at you cross-eyed and cast a spell on you so that
you'd believe such nonsense? Oh no, our acceptance with God
is in His Son. The law cannot make the believer
more acceptable to God in any measure. We have perfect acceptance
in Christ. We're told in Ephesians 1, that
according to God's purpose of grace in eternal election in
Christ Jesus we are accepted in the beloved from eternity. How accepted is that, James?
Accepted! highly favored, highly honored,
well-pleasing to God. You can't add to that. You can't
improve that. You can't make that better. Our
acceptance is an everlasting, immutable acceptance in Christ
the Lord. Not by something we do. The law
can't give you assurance. People are told to look to their
obedience to the law, and by these things you can have peace
with God and have real assurance. Not if you're honest. Not if
you're honest. Oh, no. Not if you're honest. Which of you loves God sufficiently
to give you peace? Which of you loves your neighbor
sufficiently to give you peace? Which of you loves your wife
or husband sufficiently to give you peace? You got that newborn
grandbaby. You don't love that grandbaby
sufficiently to give you peace? No, no. Oh, no. Not if you're
honest. Obedience to the law can't give
you any assurance. Obedience to the law can't comfort. Obedience
to the law can't provide the believer with any motive or any
incentive to serve God. Obedience to the law just beats
you down. It just beats you down, keeps
you always in a morbid sense of misery and discontent and
dissatisfaction. Righteousness and holiness cannot
come by the law. Paul put it this way, Galatians
2.21. If righteousness come by the law, then verily Christ is
dead in vain. Christ died for nothing. If you
can make yourself righteous, there was no reason for him to
die. That's what Paul said by divine inspiration. And yet the
law was given for a definite purpose. We read it this morning,
but I want you to look at it again. Galatians chapter three,
Galatians chapter three, the law was given to identify sin
and convince us of sin. The law was given to show us
the perfect character of God, His holy character. And the law
was given to condemn us for our sin, for our sinful nature, for
our iniquity, not coming up to the standard of the law, and
for our transgression, breaking the breaches of the law, casting
the law down so we can have our way. The law was given so that
we would be condemned for sin, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. The law was given
to drive us into the Savior's arms. The law was given to bring
us to Christ. Galatians 3 24. Wherefore, the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. that we might
be justified by faith, that we might be justified without works,
without doing on our part, verse 25. But after that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. We're no longer under the discipline,
the rule, the motivation, the constraint of the law in any
way. The law then is that by which
we are driven to the Savior. But the word of God tells us
plainly that Christ has freed us from the law. Look at chapter
three of Galatians again, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. that the blessing
of Abraham, that is the blessing of God's covenant salvation,
the Spirit of God might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, the
blessed seal of the Spirit by faith. So the law being fulfilled
by Christ is that which declares us free. We are free by the very
declaration of God's law. The law cries as loudly as the
mercy of God, that sinner must go free for whom Christ died.
How free are we? Now be careful, Brother Don,
don't mistake things. We have no curse from the law.
There's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
We have no covenant with the law. We have no condemnation
from the law. We have no constraint by the
law. We're not motivated or governed
in any way by the law. But don't you think we ought
to make the law at least a rule by which we try to live in this
world? No. No. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
No. Our law is faith in Jesus Christ. Why must we refuse to
be entangled with the yoke of the law? Look at Galatians chapter
5. Galatians chapter 5. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. Be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage Behold I Paul saying to you that if
you'd be circumcised Now Paul is not just saying if you have
a doctor's appointment to go next week and and be circumcised
Then Christ your prophet you nothing that is not what he's
saying. That's not what he's saying Circumcision was in the
Old Testament an outward seal by which men and women were identified
as Abraham's covenant children and the covenant children of
God. That circumcision in the flesh made with hands. It represented
something else. It represented the new birth.
That circumcision made in the heart without hands by the spirit
of God. That new birth making us new
creatures in Christ Jesus. Well, what's Paul saying then?
If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If
you who profess faith in Christ, you who claim to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, if you claim that you're saved by God's grace,
attempt to do something. Bill Raleigh, if you get to feeling
real bad about how cold hearted and sinful and corrupt and unbelieving
and unfaithful you are and how little you love the Lord, how
little you love your people, you start to do something. You start to read your Bible
every day. You start to go to church three times a week. You
start to give more money and you start to be a zealous witness
and you quit eating pork or you decide to eat fish or the stuff
people do. Or you decide, well, I'll quit
smoking or I'll wear ashes on my forehead or the stuff people
do. If you decide to do something
by which you say now, oh now. Boy, I hadn't measured up yet,
but I sure feel better about myself now. Oh now, I feel so
close to God. I've been reading my Bible. I
feel so close to God. I've been going to church like
I ought to. I quit cussing my wife. Oh, I feel so close to
God now. then Christ is nothing to you. Christ is nothing to you. It's all fake. You're a charlatan. Your religion's fake. Read on. For I testify again to every
man that circumcised, he's a debtor to the whole law. You try to
be accepted of God on the basis of what you do, you got to do
it all perfectly. Verse four. Christ is become
of no effect unto you. He is of no benefit to your soul. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you've fallen from grace. That doesn't mean you
were saved, but now you lost it. That means you never knew
the grace of God. You've missed the gospel altogether.
You haven't come within a thousand miles of the gospel. Verse five,
for we through the spirit do wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Does that mean that God's people
are without the law, are without law? Oh, no, no, no. Believers
are not lawless. Believers are not lawless. The
law of Christ's kingdom is faith in Christ. Read Jeremiah 31. Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. And
this is God's promise in the new covenant to his people. He
said, I will write my law upon their hearts. I will write my law upon their
hearts. Well, God has written the 10
commandments on my heart. Now I serve God because the law
is written on my heart. That's not what it says. The
law was written on your heart from birth, according to Romans
1 and 2. written on your heart to condemn
you, make you guilty, give you that screaming, annoying, terrified,
guilty conscience that makes it impossible for you to have
peace with God without faith in His Son. Well, what's he talking
about then? I'll write my law on their hearts,
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm going to write it on their
hearts so that it's as natural for that heaven-born soul to
trust Christ as it is for a living man to take a breath. He can't help it. He can't help
it. Did you ever try not to breathe?
Did you ever try not to breathe? I used to do it for a little
while. When I say a little while, I mean a little while. A little
while. Not very long. Soon you just
feel like you're going to bust because you've got to take in
the air. And the believer, the heaven-born
soul, finds himself believing God without an effort. Without an effort. When you can't
believe, you keep trying and you just can't believe. Can't
believe. And God works faith in you and
you find yourself believing God. You just can't help it. I have
no hope before God but his son. And that faith by which we believe
and are made to have peace with God comes out in something else. Love for God's people. Faith
that works by love. The faith, the gift of faith
gives us nature of a new family and the love of Christ constrains
us. Believers are motivated in all
that they do by the love of Christ. I make you this promise as your
pastor, as a preacher. I will never try to get you to
do something because you're afraid God's going to whip you, or you're
afraid God's going to take some rewards away from you, or because
you want to get something from God. If you want that, go down
the road to the Judaizer. Go down the road to the legalist.
It ain't going to happen here. I'll tell you what I will do.
I'll present to you with every fiber of my being, with every
fiber of my mind, with every fiber of my heart, Jesus Christ
crucified, the revelation of God's love in him, and I'll say
now, live by that. Live by that. Measure your life
by that. Let that be your inspiration.
Let that be your motive. Let that be your guide in all
things. Faith toward God and love for
his people in his son. This is the law of Christ's kingdom. We have no other. We will accept
no other. We will bow to no other. Amen.