Deuteronomy, a couple of places,
Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 13, then Deuteronomy chapter
5. I'm still looking at the Ten
Commandments. We've looked at that the last
couple of weeks, but I want to dwell here again this afternoon
because I think I said it last week. This is so important. We've
been studying about when they were given, what they're all
about. And they're important because we go in living rooms
today and people have them on their living room wall. We read
about them in our Bibles. People print tracts on the Ten
Commandments. So I don't think we can study
on these too much and learn more about them and what they are.
And here in chapter 4 and verse 13, I'm sorry, chapter 5. Well, I will find it in a minute.
It is chapter 4 and verse 13. Chapter 4 and verse 13 and then
chapter 5. And He declared unto you, Moses
speaking to Israel, He declared unto you His covenant. What is
the Ten Commandments? It's a covenant, isn't it? It's
a covenant. He declared unto you His covenant.
which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments, and he
wrote them upon two tables of stone. And he says here in chapter
5, in verse 2, the Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Now that's the same place as
Mount Sinai. The Lord made not this covenant
with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here
alive this day. And then if you want to read
chapter 5, you go on, and he lists the Ten Commandments there,
beginning in verse 6. I am the Lord thy God that brought
thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make any graven
image, the likeness of anything that is in heaven, or in the
earth, or waters under the earth. Verse 9, don't bow down to anything. In other words, worship God alone. Let nothing come between you
and Him. No image, no idol, no person. He is God. He is God. And then
he goes to verse 12. He speaks of the Sabbath. And
then he goes in verse 16, to honor your father and your mother.
Verse 17, you shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor. You shall not desire thy neighbor's
wife or anything that your neighbor has. So he says here that in
verse 13 that it was a covenant, a covenant. Now I want us to
see some things, just somewhat random, but let's see some things.
First of all, we see here some things concerning the Ten Commandments
that it's a covenant of works. It's not only a covenant, but
it's a covenant of works. Did you notice that in verse
13? This covenant which God commanded you to perform, He gave it to
them to keep it, to be diligent in keeping these ten commandments. Now, we looked at this last week,
but I want to show you in chapter 6 what keeping this commandment
is about. It has to do with our righteousness. It has to do with earning a righteousness
before God. That is why we call it a covenant
of works. Look in chapter 6 again in verse 25. Here is what Moses
said about it. Chapter 6 and verse 25 of Deuteronomy. And it shall be our righteousness,
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God, as he hath commanded us. perform these commandments
because this is a covenant of works. And as you observe these
commandments and perform these commandments, you will establish
your righteousness before God. Now that's what the covenant
of works is about, working out righteousness that you can stand
before God in. In Romans chapter 10, don't turn
there. I read this to you last week,
but I want to remind you of this. Moses described the righteousness
of the law. And here's what he says about
it. The righteousness of the law speaketh on this wise, the
man that doeth these things shall live by them. That's the righteousness
of the law. If you do these things, you'll
have a righteousness before God and you'll live. by doing these
things. Paul talked about another righteousness,
didn't he? He talked about this righteousness,
and he called it his own righteousness. He said that I may be found in
Christ, not having my own righteousness which is of the law. So there
is another righteousness apart from the righteousness of the
Ten Commandments. And that's the righteousness which is by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham believed in the Lord
and he counted it to him for righteousness. That's the righteousness
Paul had for his own. The righteousness which is by
faith in Jesus Christ. But he had this righteousness
at one time, didn't he? He counted it rags, filthy rags,
but he had it at one time. And then the Lord beat him out
of it. And he fled to Christ to lay hold upon that righteousness.
Paul not only talked about another righteousness, not one that you
earn, not one that you establish by the Ten Commandments law,
but one you have by faith. And he talked about another life.
He talked about living another life. Here Moses said in Leviticus,
he said, He that doeth these things shall live by them. Now, Paul talked about living
another way. He said, the life that I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith, didn't he? And this is Old Testament and
New Testament teaching as well. Habakkuk said, the soul that's
lifted up is not upright in it, but the just shall live by faith. But this law is not of faith.
The man that doeth these things shall live in them. So, what
am I saying? This is a covenant of works.
It's a covenant of works. The Ten Commandments is a covenant
of works. That's the first thing we want
to see. Here, the second thing I want to see is found here in
chapter 5 in verse 3. This is very interesting. You're
on the chapter 5 in verse 3. The Lord made not this covenant
with our fathers, but with us who are alive here this day. He made not this covenant. We
sometimes call this covenant the moral law, the Ten Commandments,
the moral law. But you know, technically that's
not right, because there is one of these commandments that's
not moral, and that's the Sabbath. The Sabbath's not moral, is it?
We never found out any place between Genesis, where God rested,
and the giving of the law of the Sabbath that anybody ever
kept the Sabbath. And after Christ rose from the
dead, they never kept the Sabbath anymore. The Sabbath day Sabbath
went by the wayside. If it had been a moral law, there's
no way that they could have ceased to have kept it. What does the
Sabbath teach us? Rest. Hebrews chapter 4, God
rested the Sabbath day from His labor. And the Apostle went ahead
to preach there that when you and I cease from our own labor
to save ourselves, and we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
enter unto rest. That's what the Sabbath is all
about. So if we say the Ten Commandment law is moral, Well, nine of those
are moral, aren't they? Nine of them are moral. But one
of them has to do mainly with ceremonial. Shadows and types
and figures. But he says here that he made
not this law with our fathers. How do we explain this? If he made not the law with our
fathers, he made it not with Abraham, He made it not with
Isaac, and he made it not with Adam. He made it with them. But wasn't the law of works always
in the world? Was there ever a time when the
covenant of works did not exist? I don't think there is. I think
there's always been a covenant of works. Let me look at it this
way. Let me look at it this way. I've
lost my notes. I have no idea where I'm at on
my notes. I've lost them. They went by the wayside and
ready to water them up and throw them away. I had something on
my mind and I got so sidetracked thinking about that that I've
lost them away. Before the law was given, let's look at it this
way. Before the law was ever given,
it was a sin to have any other god before you. That law has always been, there's
always been a law that said, thou shalt have no other gods
before me. It just wasn't written. It wasn't written. When Pharaoh
said, who is the Lord that I should obey? Well, I'll tell you who
He is. He's your Lord. He's your God. You're not to worship anybody
but Him. You are not to have any other
gods before Him or any statues or idols. You remember in Exodus
chapter 12 when the Lord was ready to send the flag upon the
firstborn and He said, At midnight this night I am going to pass
through the land of Egypt and upon all the gods of Egypt will
I execute judgment. Remember that? Why would God
execute judgment upon their false gods If there wasn't a law that
said, Thou shalt worship the Lord your God and Him only. Thou
shalt make no other images. That was a long time before the
law was ever given, wasn't it? So there is a law that says,
You shall have no other gods before me. It was around before
this covenant was ever given upon Mount Sinai. I imagine if
we started at Genesis chapter 2 when the Lord created man and
go all the way to Exodus chapter 20 where the law was given, we'll
probably find all nine of those moral commandments was active
in the lives of those people. So they existed. What I'm saying,
though He made this covenant with the children of Israel,
these laws existed long before that. You remember Abimelech
when Abraham went down to Gerah? And he told Abimelech, Sarah
is my sister. And remember Abimelech took Sarah
into his house to be his wife? But before he had an opportunity
to lay with her and commit adultery, the Lord came to him in a dream
and said, Abimelech, you're a dead man. You've got another man's
wife. Why would he be a dead man for
that? Adultery was a sin long before it was ever written upon
tables of stone. You remember when Noah got out
of the ark and the Lord gave him some commandments concerning
how things would change, the fear of them would be upon the
animals and so on. And he said this, he said this,
he changed things concerning murder. He said if anybody slays
another man, then their blood is to be slain. Their blood is
to be spilled. That's the first time we read
of capital punishment. If you cold-bloodedly, first-degree
murdered anybody, then you were to be killed. Before the law
ever said in writing, Thou shalt not kill, it was in the conscience
of man, you see. And when Cain slew Abel, his
brother, remember what the Lord said to him? Where's your brother
Abel? Am I my brother's keeper? The
Lord said, What have you done? Your brother's blood cries unto
me from the ground. Now art thou cursed. And he said, My punishment is
greater than I can bear. What punishment? The punishment
of murder, wasn't it? Thou shalt not kill. So, if we had time, I bet we
could begin to read in Genesis chapter 2, And we could find
all nine of these moral commandments were active and they were broken
before they were ever written upon tablets of stones. Deuteronomy
chapter 5 in verse 3, these commandments were around before. They were
around before. They've always been a covenant
of works, hasn't it? We read here in our text in chapter
chapter 4 and verse 13, that this is a covenant of works.
But let's remember, this is not the first place the covenant
of works was enacted. Adam was under a covenant of
works. That's so plainly to see. Of
all the trees you can eat, but don't eat of this one fruit.
In the day that you eat of it, you shall die. Now what is that?
That's a covenant of works, ain't it? If he lived or he died, depended
upon himself. If I abstain from eating this
tree, I live. If I eat of this fruit, I die. And his whole life and his happiness
depended upon what he did. And when he sinned, when he disobeyed,
what happened? He died, didn't he? He died.
That is the covenant of works. Every son of fallen Adam is born,
he lives and he dies under that broken covenant except those
who have been given grace to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see from the time of Adam
when he had Seth, his son Seth, you see a lineage there of the
Lord's people. They begin to call on the Lord
And they were saved from this covenant of works. It went right
on through until the day of Noah. Then it went to Shem and then
it went to Abraham. And Isaac and Jacob and those
twelve tribes, those were the people that looked to God by
faith and were saved from this covenant of works. But this covenant
of works was in the conscience long before it was on stones. The knowledge of it was scattered.
It was scattered. Sin afflicted the conscience
about murder. We saw that. Sin sometimes afflicted
the conscience about adultery. We saw that. No doubt sin afflicted
Pharaoh when the Lord brought judgment upon him because of
his idolatry. was in effect because the covenant
of grace, the covenant of works was in effect, and it was broken.
And therefore, this verse 3 here that I read to you, He made not
this covenant with our fathers, then how can you say that they
were under a covenant of works if God didn't make this covenant
with our fathers? Well, what happened? The reason
He said that He made not this covenant with our fathers, they
were under this covenant of works. But here he brings it all together. Before there was a piece here
and a piece there. Now he brings all of this moral
law together and he writes it all down upon these tables of
stones. There's the difference. There's
the difference. And he also adds to it the Sabbath
day to keep it holy. So this wasn't really a new covenant. It was somewhat different than
the covenant of work. This covenant here, John Bunyan
said, it was clearer to reveal sin than the covenant of works
was before. If there was any doubt what the
sin was before, there is no doubt now, is there? Boy, read it right
here written in stone. Written in stone. Thou shalt
and thou shalt not. The second thing here about the
Ten Commandments is this. It was given twice. I thought
this was interesting. I studied this. In chapter 20
we looked at that. Remember last week we looked
at that, the fire, the mountain trembling, God speaking, and
these words, and Moses going up to the mountain, and God writing
that commandment down and giving it to Moses. And he comes back
down from the mountain and he sees them mixed up in this idolatry. They made this cage. And Moses
takes those commandments and he breaks them. Remember that?
He throws them down and they shatter. Peace over here and
peace over there and peace over here. That was the first giving. The second giving, when the Lord
called him back up to Mount Sinai in chapter 34 of Exodus, is an
altogether different giving of the law. You remember this. This
is most amazing. Remember the Lord told Moses,
I'm going to show you my glory. Moses said, let me see your glory.
And the Lord said, I'll put you in the cliff of this rock. And
when I pass by you, I'll show you my glory. And the Lord passed
by and said, the Lord God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
abundance in goodness and truth. And Moses bowed his head and
worshipped. That's the occasion of the giving
of the second law. Completely different. There was
no fire, there was no thunder, there was no smoke. It was completely
different than the first giving. Now what's the significance of
this? What's the significance of the
giving of this covenant of works two different times? The first
one was broken and the second one they had it whole. I was
reading John Bunyan on this and he got this and I thought this
was very interesting. And he says it like this. Before the
law was given, I'll just explain this to you, it was seen in pieces. There was a commandment over
here, thou shalt not steal. There's a commandment over here,
thou shalt not kill. Another commandment, thou shalt
not commit adultery. And he said when Moses broke
those pieces, he said that's what you saw, those pieces. And
he said that was to teach us that these commandments were
indeed given. And when Moses broke those, he
looked over there, and there was one piece of the stone over
there, and it had written on it, Thou shalt not cut it. Over
here he had another written on it, Thou shalt not steal. And
out here was another, and he picked up and looked at it, Thou
shalt not bear false witness. Bunyan said that was to teach
us that this law had before been given in all these different
parts, but that's all they had in parts. When he got it the
second time and gave it to the people, it was whole. You could
read it all, whole. What you shall do and what you
shall not do. And the occasion, what took place
there in the second giving of this law is to teach us something.
I believe this is to teach us this. What happened, these two
givings of the law, I think it teaches us something about what
we feel in our own conscience when the law first comes to us. Have you ever saw your sin and
your conscience screamed at you? I mean, you just felt the very
anger of God against your sin. You felt the wrath of God was
against your sin. It was almost like standing before
this mount. Have you ever had that experience?
I've had that. I've had that. So bad you couldn't
even sleep in the night. But that was the first giving
of the law. What about the second giving of the law? When grace
is proclaimed. It's different then, isn't it?
When we find ourselves in the cleft of that rock. When we find
ourselves in Christ. When grace has come and saved
us. When mercy has been revealed
to us. The goodness of God has taken our sins away. Then we
look at the law. And it's completely different,
isn't it? When we're in Christ, the law curses us no more. We
don't see this thought. We don't have this dread. In
Jesus Christ, there's no condemnation, and we can stand before the law
without fear and without dread of it. And I think that's one
of the things the two givings of this law teaches us. The first
time, it's dreadful. It's fire. It causes trembling.
But the second time, mercy is proclaimed, and grace is proclaimed,
and Christ is proclaimed. And then, and only then, can
we face the law and its demands. Thirdly, consider something else
about this law, the Ten Commandments law. I'll say again, I wanted
to dwell on this because we see it. We see the commandments everywhere,
don't we? We hear people talk about the
Ten Commandments. And I want to know more about them, and
I trust you do too. It's a covenant of works. And though it was given
on Mount Sinai, it was already broken by Adam in the Garden
of Eden. That's so important to let this
sink in. This was a covenant of works
that the children of Israel were put under. But all of humanity
was already under the covenant of works from Adam on. They were already under the covenant
of works. Most of humanity in the day that
we live is under a covenant of works. They're under a broken covenant.
A covenant that's already been violated. A covenant that has
already cursed our first parents. And it curses everybody today
that is under it. And you know most of the people
we know, most of our family, is under a covenant of works.
And the Bible says cursed is every man that continues not
in everything that's written in the book of the law to do
them. And many people will never read
the Ten Commandments. They'll never open up the Bible
and read them. You know probably you'll go to
countries They can't even tell you one commandment. And there's
countries, no doubt, in some jungle somewhere, they've never
heard of the Ten Commandments. They've never seen them in the
Bible. They've never seen them on a plaque. But you know something? They're under the covenant of
works. You say, Bruce, even though they
haven't read them? Even though they can't enumerate them? Yes,
they are. Could Cain point anywhere and
say, there it is. Thou shalt not kill. Could Abimelech
point anywhere and say, There it is! Thou shalt not commit
adultery. No, they couldn't, could they? But you know where
that commandment was? Right here. Right there. It's in a man's conscience, isn't
it? And ever since Adam and Eve broke the covenant, it's in our
conscience. And it condemns us For what we
do good, do evil, it commends us for what we do right. But
it's in the conscience. And it's a covenant of works.
And men don't have to read it in the Bible to be condemned.
It's in their conscience. It's in their conscience. Many people live and they die
under that covenant of works. There's two covenants. Just two
covenants. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians
4.24, these are the two covenants. And you know there's
just two. There's just two. If you read some of the commentaries,
the modern commentaries, they'll go into this thing about there's
seven or eight different covenants. Well, however they divide that,
I want you to know there's just two covenants that you and I
are concerned with. Grace and the law. The covenant
of works and the covenant of grace. And we must be careful
to distinguish between these two covenants. And here's why
we have to be so careful. Because the law is so broad. The covenant of works is so broad.
It broadens out to include everything we do, apart from faith in Jesus
Christ, as to be accepted before God. It's not just the Ten Commandments
that's included in this covenant of works. It's whatever we do
apart from faith in Jesus Christ to be justified before God. Now, I want you to turn your
Bibles. You can let go of the Old Testament. Turn your Bibles
with me for a few minutes to Galatians. Look in Galatians
chapter 2. Look in verse 16. If there's a covenant of works,
and there is, there has been from the very beginning, it was
made clear when the Lord gave it to the Jews on Sinai, and
it's still in effect today. I want to know how to be delivered
from it, don't you? If there's a covenant of works
that's already been broken, and we're condemned and judged guilty
already, I want to be delivered from that covenant. I not only
want to be delivered from a covenant of works, I don't want to ever
get back into it again. I don't want to ever go back
into that covenant again. Well, here Paul tells us how we're
delivered from this covenant of works. Look in Galatians chapter
2 and verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, not by the covenant of works. For
by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight." Now, how are we justified? By faith in Christ. We have a righteousness given
to us by believing in Jesus Christ for it, and not working to get
it. But you know something, it's
so easy, even after we believed in Jesus Christ to be justified,
to be made righteous, to be saved, you know it's so easy to slip
back under this covenant. It is so easy to leave Christ,
so easy to leave the Gospel, and bring ourselves right back
under this covenant of works. Let me show you how easy it is.
Look in chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5, and look in verse
1. Look at this. Paul wrote to them
and said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that
called you unto the grace of Christ. Look here what he says
in verse 1, chapter 5 of Galatians. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. free from the law, O happy
condition, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I pause saying to you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace." But here's a mystery. Where do we read in
the Ten Commandments that we have to be circumcised to be
justified? We don't do it. Well, why does
Paul say, if you be circumcised? Circumcision wasn't in the covenant
of works. Did you know that? It wasn't.
You remember when the first man was circumcised? Remember who
he was? Who was he, Larry? Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith. And
circumcision was given as a seal of the faith which he had. It
had nothing to do with the works of the law. But the Jews, these
legalistic Jews, came here and said, if you're going to be saved,
if you're going to be justified, here's something you have to
do. You have to be circumcised. That brought them back under
the works of the law. That's a scary thing, isn't it?
And we could say it like this today. if a man says, I have
to be baptized in water to be justified before God. I tell
you, you better be careful, hadn't you? That's something we do. Paul said we seek to be justified
by faith in Christ alone. And when we bring even gospel
ordinances, when we bring circumcision that had nothing to do with the
law, and we put it in Christ's place, We put it in the place
of faith. We bring ourselves right under
the law and obligate ourselves to keep the whole law. That's
how easy it is to go back under the law. We must be careful. We must be careful when we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ not to let anything come into our
conscience but Christ and His grace. Not this legal covenant
of works. And I tell you, this is an amazing
thing. One of the most amazing things that I've ever seen happen
was a man, a preacher one time, he turned the doctrines of grace
into something legalistic. I don't know how to even say
this. I don't know how to explain this. But he got up to preach
the doctrines of grace, and he made something legal out of it.
This is something you've got to believe, and if you don't
believe these doctrines, you can't be saved. And I'm telling
you as I sat there and I thought, I never dreamed that a man could
do this. To bring a system of theology
and put it between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. A system of
truth that you and I love. I can't even explain how that
man did that. But other people noticed it too. And these did
it with circumcision. Many do it with water baptism.
Some do it with church membership. They do it with all kinds of
things. But it's so easy to be done, to leave Christ and go
back to this legalistic system, the covenant of works. Look in
Romans chapter 6 and verse 14 right quick, and I'll hurry and
I'll close because we'll probably go back to this again. This is
so important. It's so important. Romans chapter
6 and verse 14. I'm careful. I have to be more
careful. I've learned I've had to be more careful because most
of our forefathers, John Gill, Horatius Bonar, Charles Spurgeon,
most of our dear forefathers believed that we were delivered
from the covenant of works, from the Ten Commandments, as a covenant
of works to be saved by. But most of our dear forefathers
believed that it's a rule of life for us to live by. And when I try to say anything
about this, I know I leave all kinds of questions. But you know,
those dear brethren have questions. They leave some questions, too.
They leave some questions, too. And here is what I want to say
tonight. Here's what I want to say tonight. I don't want to even influence
you, especially to force you to believe everything that I
believe concerning the law of God. I want you to believe that
you must believe that you're saved from this covenant of words.
You must believe that. Now, if you, like so many of
Reformed Baptists and others, believe the law is the rule of
life, that's fine. That's fine. I'm not going to
force you. But let me say this. Let me say this. Be careful.
Be very, very careful. It's so easy to come back under
this legal system and fill your mind full of guilt, full of condemnation
and discourage you and make you legalistic in your spirit. See yourself complete in Jesus
Christ. Accepted in Him. And then, if you stay right there,
you won't have much trouble. If you say the law is my rule
of life, if you'll stay with Christ, you still ain't going
to have much trouble. But if you take your eye from Christ
and you start looking to that legalistic system, I'm telling
you what, it's going to get you down. Here's why I say that. Look in chapter 6 and verse 14
of Romans. And the reason I like this is
because he's speaking here how we're to live. We're not to give
our members over to instruments of unrighteousness to serve sin.
And here right in the midst of this, look what he says. Verse
14, Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
the law, but under grace. He's saying if you're under the
law in any sense, then sin has dominion over you. Now that's
what happens to me when I look to the law as a rule of life.
It has dominion over me. What does that mean for sin to
have the dominion over you? Well, Paul tells us the law is
the strength of sin. That's what makes sin so powerful,
isn't it? The law comes. I'll tell you
what you can do. I'll tell you what you can do. You can take one sin. It may be just a little sin.
Let's say that about it. It's just a little sin. Boy,
when the law comes and magnifies it, it will become exceedingly
sinful. It will be like a terrible monster
that comes in upon you, stronger than you are. It will overwhelm
you and it will keep you. It will drive you to despair.
If you are under the law, sin will have dominion over you. You cannot overcome it because
the law comes and it is the strength of sin. And man, it's bad. It's bad. It's the strength of
the guilt of sin. I remember when I was a young
man, probably about Remy's age, I used to have a store there.
Some folks I know. But I'd come by. I got in the habit. Now,
this is shameful. Tell on yourself. But I'm ashamed
of this as I can be. But I'm going to tell it anyway.
I went back to the man and even apologized to him. But I'd go
by the store. I'd open me a pop and get me
a cake. And I'd drink it and eat it. And I'd go on. I'd go
on. No, I didn't pay for it. I went
home. Boy, when I got up, sometime during the time the Lord saved
me, man, I'm telling you what, the law got a hold of that. Thou
shalt not steal. And you thought I'd committed
murder. I couldn't sleep. The weight of that sin had absolutely
overwhelmed me. The law is the strength of the
guilt of sin. How many people have killed themselves?
You know why Judas killed himself? He felt this condemnation, didn't
he? I betrayed innocent blood, and
that guilt weighed his soul down. It's the strength of sin. I'm telling you this, you won't
get the victory over the least of sins if you're under the law. You let grace come in, you let
Christ come into the conscience, then you can lay aside any sin.
You can overcome the greatest of sins. Because you're not under
the law, but under grace. Under grace. This is the victory
that overcomes sin, and the world, and the flesh, even our faith
in Jesus Christ. The law makes the smallest sins
appear like monsters. But grace, grace overcomes. Grace overcomes. You are not
under the law. Ain't that wonderful? I love
that. You are not under the law. Well, let me ask this question
and answer it and then we'll quit. If the believer is not
under the law, he must not be under it as a covenant of works.
If he is, he's condemned. Any man that's under that as
a covenant of works, he's condemned. He's cursed. He's cursed now
already and he'll be cursed on the day of judgment. And I think probably if we're
not careful as a rule of life, we'll live in condemnation. But,
if we're delivered from this moral law, how do we feel then
about the law? How do you feel about the law?
How do I feel about the law? If it's a covenant of works that
curses me, and it's so strict that I can't keep it, How do
I feel about it? I'll tell you what determines
how you feel about it tonight. Are you in Christ? Have you seen the law fulfilled
by Jesus Christ? Have you seen all its demands
satisfied? Have you seen its penalty met
in Jesus Christ? Then I'll tell you this. If you're
truly in Christ, I'll tell you this. You have nothing but reverence
to this law. You have nothing but the highest
opinion for this law. You look at the law and say,
it's good. It's just. It's holy. And what the law says is sin,
you say is sin. And what the law says is sin,
you avoid it as sin. Now you say, Bruce, how's that
going to jive when you say the law is not your root of life?
I don't know. I can't bring all these together. But I am being
honest with you. When the law says you shall not
make unto you any images, you don't make images, do you? What about these people that
say the law is their rule of life? I stand by the Ten Commandments.
You go down south and they've got these Ten Commandments all
through the yard. I stand by the Ten Commandments.
And you go to the church where they worship, And you'll see
these images everywhere. They've got pictures and statues
and crosses everywhere. And you say, if you stand behind
the Ten Commandments, if you love them, why are you violating
them? Oh, I love the Ten Commandments. They're my rule of life. Then
why are you full of hate in your heart toward your neighbor? Why
did you just bear false witness against your neighbor? Is that
not sin? Why did you lie? Why did you
steal? Is that not sin? If you're in
Christ, you love these laws. You love these commandments.
You're just not saved by them. You're not justified by them.
They mean nothing to you concerning your righteousness before God. That's in another. That's in
Jesus Christ. And though He don't save us by
these commandments, He don't keep us by these commandments,
I tell you, we're not saved contrary to them. We don't walk our Christian
life contrary to these commandments. That'd be impossible, wouldn't
it? To live a Christian life and have other gods before our
God, our covenant God? To make statues and images? To
bow down and worship them? To bear false witness, to lie,
to cheat, to steal? That's not the Christian life,
is it? Have I confused you thoroughly? I'll take one more week. If you're
in computer jail, I'll get you next week. Lord bless you.