Deuteronomy 33. Let's begin again in verse 1.
Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 1. And this is the blessing wherewith
Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before
his death. And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, rose up from
Seir unto them. He shined forth from Mount Paran,
and came with ten thousands of his saints, his holy ones. From
his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people,
all his saints are in thy hand. They sat down at thy feet, every
one shall receive of thy words." And here is the verse we will
look at this afternoon. Moses commanded us a law, even
the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. Moses commanded us
a law, even the inheritance or the possession of the congregation
of Jacob, or Israel. And this law, we know that this
law was given by Moses. That is, it came through Moses.
He said here, Moses gave us the law, but this law was from God. The law came by Moses, or through
Moses, but it came from God. We are told in our text that
verse 2, that it came from the right hand. There came a fiery
law from the right hand of God. Moses just delivered it, but
it came from God. He even wrote it down with his
finger. And he calls it there a fiery
law because it came on that fiery Mount Sinai. We remember that. And I want us to read some verses
concerning that, the giving of this law again, because we can
learn something from it. I want you to turn to a couple
of places. with me in Deuteronomy chapter four and in Deuteronomy
chapter five. This fiery law that God gave
to the children of Israel there upon Mount Sinai. The mountain
was altogether on ablaze. This sort of lengthy reading
but I want you to look here at this law and see what law this
was because there were different laws. God gave them a ceremonial
law You remember that, that included the priesthood, the sacrifices,
the feast days. He gave them the civil law, how
they were to regulate their life and their daily business and
that. And then he gave them the Ten Commandments. And that's
what we call the moral law, and that's what he's talking about
here in our text. Verse 4, this fiery law that
came from the right hand of God. But I want us to read about it
again in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and look in verse 5. Let's go to verse 7. Let's jump
down to verse 7. Chapter 4 and verse 7. What nation
is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord
our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? For what
nation is there so great, that hath statues and judgments so
righteous as in all this law which I set before you this day. Only take heed to yourself, and
keep thy soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your
eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the
days of your life. But teach them thy sons and your
daughters, your sons and your sons' sons, especially the day
that you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb," that's Mount
Sinai, the same mountain range, "...when the Lord said unto me,
Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my
words, that they may learn to fear me all the days, that they
shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
And ye came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain
burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds,
and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out
of the mist of the fire. And you heard the voice of words,
but you saw no similitude, no likeness, only you heard a voice. And He declared unto you His
covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments,
and He wrote them upon two tables of stone. So this is the law
that he was talking about he gave to the children of Israel
for an inheritance. He gave the Ten Commandments
or the moral law to them. And look on, this is a little
lengthy reading too, but look in chapter 5. This tells some
more about this in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and look in verse 2.
And the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb, in Sinai. The
Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, He didn't make it
with Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, but with us, even us who are
all of us here alive this day. And the Lord talked with you
face to face in the mount out of the mist of the fire. Now you wonder why it scared
them to death? God spake. They heard His voice. It said
here the Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out
of the mist of the fire. I stood between the Lord and
you at that time to show you the word of the Lord, for ye
were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the
mount, saying, I am the Lord," here is what God said, I am the
Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from
the house of bondage. Now here are the commandments.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make
thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is
in the heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself unto them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, and to the third and fourth generation of them
that hate me. and show mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Keep the Sabbath
day to sanctify it, as the Lord your God hath commanded you.
Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work. But the Sabbath
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not
do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
nor thy maidservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, or thy
ass, or thy cattle, or thy stranger that is within thy gates, that
thy maidservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And
remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that
the Lord thy God brought thee thence through a mighty land,
and by a stretched out arm. Therefore the Lord your God commandeth
thee to keep the Sabbath day. Here's the next commandment.
Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded
thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with
thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt
not kill, neither shalt thou commit adultery, neither shalt
thou steal, neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy
neighbor. neither shall thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither
shall thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, his manservant,
or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is
your neighbor's. These words the Lord spake unto
all your assembly in the mount out of the mist of the fire,
of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice,
and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables
of stone, and delivered them unto me. And it came to pass,
when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for
the mountain did burn with fire, that ye came near to me, even
all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And ye said,
Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness,
and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. We
have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and that he liveth. Now, therefore, why should we
die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice
of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. For who is
there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living
God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have heard
and lived? Go thou near and hear all that
the Lord our God saith, and speak thou unto us all that the Lord
Our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it.
And the Lord spake the voice of your words, and when you speak
unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of
the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee. They
have well said all that they have spoken. And then verse 29,
All that there were in them, that there was such a heart in
them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments
always, that it may be well with them and with their children
for ever." Now, what he implies here in verse 29, and he hints
at that even though they said whatsoever He says unto us, we'll
do it, he lets Moses know that he knows them better than they
know themselves. And he says, Oh, there was a
heart in them. They would not keep this Word
and could not keep the Word. And what was their whole problem?
The heart. That was the problem in it. It's
the heart of a man. Our text says in Deuteronomy
33, verse 4, that Moses commanded us a law for an inheritance. And that word means for a possession.
The Lord gave it to us for a possession, the congregation of Jacob. They
inherited the law. Now, you may say with me, and
I've thought this before as I read this, man, who would want to
inherit this law? Who would want to inherit this
fiery law? What an awful inheritance. That's
the way we think sometimes, isn't it? And we think that way because
sometimes we have a wrong view of the law. Sometimes we look
at the law one-sided. We get this certain opinion of
the law and we can't think any further. Let me give you some
examples. Sometimes when we think of the law, we think like this.
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. We quote that
all the time, don't we? When we think of the law, what
do we think of? Oh, that shows me my sin. And
he said in Romans 4.15, the law worketh wrath. It reveals the
wrath of God, doesn't it? It works wrath. Galatians 4,
17, I think it is, he said, The law gendereth bondage. It begets bondage. It begets
the spirit of bondage. And so we look at only this aspect
of the law and we say, Boy, it's awful. Who would want to inherit
such a law as this? But all this is said of the Law
because of man's sin. It's man's sin. The Law searches
out sin. It exposes sin. It judges sin
and condemns sin and threatens sin. But the Law has no wrath
where there's no sin. It will not beget fear and bondage
in the conscience except for sin. So the law is not bad, is
it? What's bad? Sin. That's our problem,
isn't it? I want you to turn over to another
place in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Wayne is going
to be coming here pretty soon. I can't say very much about this
anyway, but we're looking at the law. And Paul is going to
tell us here about the very nature of the law. Look in chapter 7
of Romans and look in verse 7. Chapter 7 and verse 7. What shall
we say then? Is the law sin? He just got through
saying we were dead to the law, we'd become dead to the law that
we might be married to Christ. Then he said, what shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. That's one of those,
God forbid, Wayne's been dealing with. God forbid. No, I had not
known sin but by the law. For I had not known lust except
the law had said thou shalt not covet. For sin, taken opportunity
or occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust,
evil desires, concupiscence. For without the law, without
a knowledge of the law, sin was dead. It was there, but it was
dead. I had no knowledge of it, Paul
said. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, at least for those who kept it, I found it
to be unto death. For sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and it is just and good. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." So
it's not the law that's bad. It's not the law that's harmful.
The law just reveals. It exposes that which is bad,
that which is harmful. So when we say the children of
Israel inherited this law, this is a wonderful law. It's a good
law. We just don't like it to expose
our sins, do we? Another way that we must look
at this law like this when we think of it, and we'll see the
goodness behind it, it reveals the glory of God, the greatness
of God, the sovereignty of God. I just read it to you. Let me
quote it to you again in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 24. Here's what
he said. And you said, Behold, the Lord
our God hath showed us His glory and His greatness. How did they
see the glory of God and His greatness? We heard His voice
out of the mist of the fire, and we have seen this day that
God doth talk with man, and He liveth. God's greatness was seen
by them. Not just the mountain burning,
but it's what they heard. what they heard showed to them
how great God was, how sovereign He was. There was a man who came
to the Lord Jesus one time and he asked Him, he said, Lord,
which is the great commandment in the law? Remember that? Which
is the greatest of all the Ten Commandments? And the Lord quoted
Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4 and 5. He prefaced the law
just like Moses did. And here is what He prefaced
the first and great commandment with. He said, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord thy God is one Lord. He is one eternal God, a triune
God, an eternal Spirit who is holy, who is pure without any
darkness. He is this one glorious, holy
God. And then He has the law. because
of who God is. God is this one glorious God. Therefore, thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul,
and all your strength. That's the first and great commandment. And we have the first commandment
I've written to you is this, Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Why? Why does God not allow? us to have any other God before
us because He is the only God there is. And when we put one
God before Him, it is just idolatry. They are not really gods. They
are gods made up in our imagination. The law binds humanity to love
God and obey Him and enjoy Him above all and apart from all. teaches catechism. Have you ever
read that? The first one he writes is this,
Who is the first and best of beings? And he says, God is the
first and best of beings. And then he says in the light
of that, What is the chief end of man? And he says the chief
end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To glorify
Him and enjoy Him above all. And nothing is to take His place.
On what ground? Because He's the Lord our God
and He's one Lord. He's one Lord. If there was more
gods than Him, if He had any rivals, He couldn't give that
commandment, could He? But it shows that He is sovereign,
that He is one, that He is independent because He can give that commandment.
The law is a killing letter. The Bible says it is. But what
does it kill? What does the law kill? It kills
this low opinion of God, doesn't it? It is a denial those who deny
His sovereign right as the only true and living God. That's the
notion that it kills. I think that I don't have to
be in subjection to God. I don't think He's quite that
high to demand of me everything I am and all that I have. Yes,
He does. Yes, He does. And that's what
this law teaches us, isn't it? God showed us His glory and His
greatness We've seen Him. And this is what that is prefaced
with. He's one. And besides Him, there's no other.
And He pronounces condemnation and death upon the love and the
worship and service of all other gods. Now that sounds to me like
that law is good. It doesn't. To teach us that,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, then that's good. and to teach
us that God is sovereign, that He's great, and He's the only
God, that's good, isn't it? When I first looked at this,
I'll loan my stupidity and ignorance that I said, Man, I don't know
if that's anything to brag about or not, inheriting this law.
But it is. It's good. The law is good. And something else it does, not
only reveals the greatness of God, It reveals the holy nature
of God. Be ye holy. Why? Because I'm
holy. I'm holy. And you're mine. So
be holy. Can God demand anything less
than that? He can't even be God, can He?
He cannot. The Law is spiritual in its nature. And it reaches the very thoughts
of the heart, the motives of the heart, and intents of the
heart. Would you have ever dreamed that
covetousness was idolatry? The first great commandment is
not to commit idolatry. Don't worship other gods. And
the last commandment is thou shalt not covet. And covetousness
is idolatry because it's setting something up above God. desiring
something above Him. Would you have ever thought that
lust is adultery? I've not committed physical adultery.
Never done it in my life. I've been married to that woman
for a lot of years. I've never known another woman.
But who can say that he hasn't thought in his heart? Who can
say that? Oh, that there was such a heart
in them. That's nothing we brag about.
That's something we're ashamed of. But it shows how far reaching
this law is in its nature. It's a spiritual law. And it
reaches to the very intents of the heart, the thoughts of the
heart. What a man thinks! Who would have ever thought that
hate was murder? See how spiritual that law is?
It's holy. And why is it so spiritual and
holy in its nature? Because the One who gave it is
holy. It reveals Him and His holy nature. Anything that's contrary to the
nature of God is sin. Let me say that again. Anything
that is contrary to the nature of God is sin. It doesn't have to be something
a man does. It's what he is or what he thinks
or the motives. If it's not pure, if it's not
holy, it's contrary to God and it's sin. And this law exposes
it as sin. And the reason we can't comprehend
that it's sin, we don't know the full nature of this law.
That's our problem, isn't it? That was Paul's problem when
he was lost. God is of two pure eyes to behold any iniquity. And this law reveals that holy
nature in that it forbids anything contrary to it. This law forbids
any thought or any action or any motive that's contrary to
its holy nature. And it demands that everything
should be done and must be done that it requires. This is why we see these threatenings
even in the New Testament. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Why? How could He curse? How could He make such demands
upon society? Because He's holy. He's the only
God. We're His creatures. And though
we're fallen and have lost the heart to do it, He has not relinquished
His right to humanity and His demands upon it. He still demands
it and requires it. James said, Whosoever shall keep
the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty. Sin
against the law of God is not an offense, not an affront to
God. One sin against the law is not
an offense and he is guilty of the whole law, James said. You
ever wonder how much sin was in Adam's first sin? This is
what the law does. It comes to us in its spiritual
nature, in its holy nature. And buddy, it will search out
sin. And the little sin that we thought was there, I mean,
it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I wonder how much sin
was in the first sin Adam committed. Just the one sin of disobeying
God when he took of that fruit. Idolatry was there. We know that. He left the true worship and
obedience of God. Covetousness was there. Stealing
was there. What other sin did he commit? What other commandment did he
break? I tell you, I have had this and you probably had too.
I have had sin sometime laid upon my conscience, guilt, And
I began to see that in such a light against God that it was enough
to crush me down to hell if He hadn't have delivered me from
it. And that's what the law shows us. In its nature, it's holy. Paul said it like this, sin taken
opportunity by the commandment. wrought in me all manner of evil,
all manner of concupiscence, all manner of lust. It got in
his heart and began to stir it up. And Paul said, I've never
in my lifetime seen like the serpents, the sin, the lust that
was in my heart. And he said, I died. I died. I died to any hope of ever saving
myself. I died to any hope of ever having
an opportunity, ever being able to produce a righteousness that
God would accept. Why? Because the law is holy
and I can't meet its demands. We can't complain about punishment
for our sins, can we? Because the law is holy. It's holy. We see little bits
and pieces of this law before God gave it to Israel on Mount
Sinai. I love to look beginning there
with Cain and work your way through Genesis sometimes up to the exodus
where he gave this law. And then you realize the law
has always been here. Even before God gave it on Mount
Sinai, it was here. Remember Cain? What commandment
did he break? Why was he even condemned? He
murdered his brother. And that's the commandment that
God faced him with. You killed your brother. And
there must have been a law against murder because he cursed Cain
because of it, didn't he? Thou shalt not kill. And Cain
was guilty of it. Remember Abimelech? Abraham went
down to his house and said, Sarah is my sister. And he sent and
took Sarah and was going to have her for his wife. And the Lord
appeared to him one night and said, You're a dead man. Why
are you going to kill me? You've got another man's wife.
What's wrong with that? That's adultery. And you're going
to die. But the law hadn't been given
yet upon stones, but it was in the conscience, was it? A little
piece here, a little piece there. Remember when the Lord said there
in Exodus 12, I'm going to pass through Egypt about midnight
and all the firstborns are going to die? And this is what He said
about Pharaoh in Egypt. He said against all the gods
of the Egyptians, Well, I execute judgment. I am the Lord. In other words, because I am
the Lord and I alone aren't worthy to be worshipped apart from and
above all other people, other things. And he said, they've
been worshipping gods and I'm going to execute judgment upon
them. And that's what he did because
of idolatry. Because of idolatry. But on Mount
Sinai, God gave this law to Israel fully and plainly and under the
most convincing circumstances. Boy, this fire, these angels,
this trumpet exceeding loud and the mountain quaking. And God
gave it to them for an inheritance and it was a good inheritance,
a good inheritance. Anything that reveals the sovereignty
of God The holy nature of God and the sinful nature of sin
is good, isn't it? It's good. I wonder why they're
trying to destroy it today. You ever think about that? Maybe
it's because of these things that it reveals. It's disturbing
people's conscience. But didn't this shut up the Jews
in despair without any hope? Didn't this law shut them up
without any hope of salvation? No. didn't cause Moses to despair,
did it? He lived by faith in the Son
of God. They had their forefathers like
Abraham who believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Moses looked through these blood sacrifices and saw the coming
of Christ and believed in Him. Seeing the true nature of God
and the true nature of sin should only turn our eyes to Jesus Christ
as our Savior who fulfilled the law's demands and bore its penalty
in His own body upon the truth. The Jews preserved this law as
their inheritance and then what did they do? Well, they gave
it to the Gentiles then. They gave it to the Gentile world.
Where did we get the law from? God has never come down on Mount
Summit, and we've seen Mount Summit altogether on a smoke
speaking to us. Where did we get the law? I've
got it in my house. I used to have a little plaque,
the Ten Commandments. Got it in our Bibles. You go just about
every place in the civilized world now, in the Gentile world,
they've got the commandments of God. They have this moral
law. Where did they get it? From the Jews. He gave it to
them, they preserved it, and finally they gave it to us. And now we have it. And it's still good. And it serves
a good purpose, doesn't it? We know that the law is good,
Paul says, if a man use it lawfully, if we use it to show us the glory
of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin and our need of a Savior. It's still good. When the law brings our sin to
mind, what do we do? Don't despise the knowledge of
sin. If the law discovers sin in your
heart, what do you do? Do you promise to do better?
Do you promise to reform yourself? Don't do that. Look to Jesus. Look to Him immediately. The
very instant the law shows you your guilt, Don't deny it. Own it. And say, if anything,
it's worse than I can even realize. And then immediately look to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then immediately you're delivered
from the fear and the condemnation of that law. Why? Because Jesus Christ honored
that law with His perfect obedience, heart obedience, even unto death. And he suffered the consequences
of sin in his own body. And now, and now, there is complete
deliverance from this law. And you don't have to be afraid
of it. In Jesus Christ, all believers are delivered from the curse
of the law. And they're delivered from it
in a just and God-honoring way because Christ has redeemed us
from the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. And
Romans chapter 8 verse 1 said, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. But what's the
secret of it? In Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Outside of Christ
Jesus, we face a law, brothers and sisters, that's just as terrible,
that's just as demanding. that's just as threatening and
just as cursing as the one that was given there on Mount Sinai.
It hasn't been taken away. It's still in full force just
as it's always been. God gave it to them. They preserved
it and gave it to us, the Gentile world, and still in effect today. And only in Christ Jesus are
we delivered from the curse of this law. You and I don't have
to live and lay under the guilt of sin and despair. Believe in
Christ who perfectly obeyed this law in your stead and suffered
in your stead. It's penalty. And this same Christ
who satisfied God and who satisfied the law will satisfy our guilty
conscience. Now you'll do it. That's the
gospel, isn't it? See, the Law brings us to Christ and the Law
keeps us looking to Christ because of what it demands of us. But
what it demands of us, Christ has already supplied. Now, that's
good news for me. That's good news for me. And
I don't go back to Mount Sinai to live. I go to Calvary. That's where we live, at Calvary.
And it's only until And as we see ourselves in Christ that
we know, we know that we're free from the condemning nature of
the law. We can only delight in this law
and live unto God as we see ourselves, this is so important, as we see
ourselves free from the law. Now let me repeat that. It's
only until and as we see ourselves in Christ accepted and we know that we're free from
the condemning nature of the law. We can only delight in this
law and live unto God as we see ourselves free from its curse. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. and don't be entangled again
with a yoke of bondage. Wayne was teaching Sunday on
Romans 6.14. That's one of the most amazing
and mysterious verses I think that I ever read in my life.
It says, sin shall not have dominion over you. And here's what's so
mysterious. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Sin will not rule over you. It
will not have authority over you. Why? because you're not
under the law. Now that's amazing. If I'd have
wrote that, I'd have said it like this. You're under the law,
bud. You better pray for grace to
keep it. I'd have said something like that. But what would I have
done when I realized my inability? When the Lord says, okay, bud,
let's see. Let's see how you can do it. Let's see if you have
the wisdom. Let's see if you have the ability. And then I'd
see how short I'd come. What would I have done then?
But here's the mystery behind this. He says you're not under
the law, but under grace. And when we realize that, that
we're not under the law, then we delight in the law. I can't
understand that. I can't understand that. If you
think you're bound by the law, you're miserable. Because you
can't keep it. You pray for grace. Oh God, give
me grace to do better. Give me grace to do better. Give
me grace to do better. But you never feel like you're
doing any better. Until you find out in Christ I'm not under the
law, but under grace. Then immediately that does something
for you. It turns your whole attitude,
makes a whole different attitude towards the law. Then what happens? I love thy law. Oh, I delight
in thy law. It's so good. It's so just. It's so spiritual. But until
you see yourself free from it, you cannot delight in it. Bound
yourself with it and you'll be under its bondage. Free yourself
in Jesus Christ. It's in His hands. He's fulfilled
it. You're free from the law. You'll
love it. you'll delight. Bind yourself with it and you
come under bondage. We're like that Jewish slave
that was in debt until it come the year of release, remember
that? Come the year of release. And his master come up and said,
today's the day you go free. You go free today. So you're
free to go. You ain't my slave anymore. And he says, wait a minute, I
love you. I want you to be my master. I
don't want another master. And they put his ear to the post
and bore a hole through his ear. And he becomes the master's forever.
But he serves him because he loves him. He delights in the
master. If it doesn't, if it doesn't,
being in Christ, saved by His grace, if it doesn't make a man
delight in the law of God, then brothers and sisters, it's not
true grace. He doesn't save us by His law. The law cannot save
us. It's impossible. But to live
contrary to the moral law is utterly impossible, is it not?
How could a man say that Christ has saved him, he loves the Lord
Jesus Christ, and not delight to love God? Or live a covetous
lie, or steal him, or burn false witness? It's impossible, isn't
it? Christ has no antinomians in
His kingdom. He has no lawless subjects in
His kingdom. His children are ruled by the
law of His house. I don't care how powerful a king
is, if he has a kingdom that has no laws, it's anarchy and
it will not stand. And Christ has laws. He has rules,
doesn't he? To rule his kingdom by. Bear
you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. He says this, If a man love me,
he will keep my word. and he that loveth me not keepeth
not my sins." You know what I think, and I don't want to get off on
politics, but this really ain't politics. It's something over
and above politics. You know what I think this administration,
our president and this administration, you know what I think they're
doing? I don't know the motives behind it. I don't know what
their end is to it, but I really believe that they're trying to
create anarchy. in our society. You look at the
decisions that's being made from the top all the way down in his
administration against the police. Did you see, I just saw the other
night where this one teenager, this high school girl was on
her cell phone in the class. Why they'd have that, allow cell
phones in the class, I don't know anyway. But the teacher
said, get off your cell phone. I can't teach. She wouldn't get
off her cell phone. They called the principal in
and he asked her to get off. They called the police in and
he asked her to get off. He said, I'm going to remove
you and he tucked her and drug her out of the chair. You know
what? Now they're ready to charge the police officer. That's where
we're at in our society. I just saw last night on the
news too that this one boy that thinks he's a girl, And he's
dressing like a girl and they had to provide him a separate
restroom. That's not enough. He wants to
use the girl's restroom and dressing room. He has the anatomy of a
man. The girl said, we're uncomfortable
with this. Our president's justice department sued the school corporation
and now that boy is going inside the girl's restroom and changing
clothes. Anarchy. Anarchy. Christ's Kingdom is not that
way. He gives heart. He gives a new heart. He gives
a new spirit. He gives us His Holy Spirit.
He puts His laws within our heart. He gives us His graces in our
heart. And we say, Lord, bore my ear. I'm Yours. I love You. I love Your house.
I love the laws of Your house. And He's got no antinomians in
His Kingdom, brothers and sisters. And when they begin to lead in
that direction, He chastens them sore. Our forefathers, most of
them unsaved, but they understood that any kingdom, any nation
was based upon laws. And if you lost your laws, you
lost your liberty. That old song that we sometimes
sang in the school settings, America, America, God mend thy
every flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty
in law. There is no liberty apart from
the law, is there? It is lawlessness. And where
there is lawlessness, there is danger. There is chaos. We go back through history, and
we've got our forefathers. Bless their hearts. I love all
of them. I love J.C. Philpott, and he helped that
the moral law of God had nothing to do with the Christian. Then
you go on the other side, Horatius Bonar. Man, he bound you to the
point that he made you legalistic and self-righteous. So we had
them both sides. It went both ways. And I think
it's simply like this. When the Lord regenerates a man,
when He gives him life eternal, He gives him a new heart, a new
life, and says to him, You're free! You're free! You're free
to love Me, and you're free to serve Me. And then we look at
that moral law, and we look at it in a different light. We say,
I delight in that. I delight in that. I'm free from
it. Yes! Glory to God! Free from
the law! Oh, happy condition! I delight
in it! I delight in it! So I guess both
of those dear men were right. Mr. Bonar, who said you can't
live contrary to the law, and Mr. Philpott said the law has
nothing to do with the believer. You can't bind him, but you can't
set him free when he loves to serve. I guess we look at the law in
a little bit of a different light, don't we? It is good. It's in that inheritance. It
was in that inheritance. And thank God He gave it to them.
And now we have it. And you and I, you and I learn
more about it, don't we? How it relates to God and how
it relates to us. Oh, my soul.