3ABN Today

The Law of God

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: C. A. Murray (Host), Kenny Shelton & John Lomacang

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Series Code: TDY

Program Code: TDY016028A


00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people
00:12 I want to spend my life
00:18 Removing pain
00:23 Lord, let my words
00:29 Heal a heart that hurts
00:34 I want to spend my life
00:39 Mending broken people
00:45 I want to spend my life
00:51 Mending broken people.
01:06 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Today,
01:10 Present Truth.
01:11 This is a special edition of 3ABN Today program,
01:15 where we discuss the things of God,
01:18 the work of God,
01:20 the law of God, the rule of God,
01:22 the word of God in this present age,
01:26 and we have instituted this series of programs
01:29 to sort of just come back to the roots,
01:33 the center of our faith, those things that we hold dear
01:36 that we preach and teach as pastors here.
01:38 I've got Pastor John Lomacang,
01:39 Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church.
01:41 I've got Pastor Kenny Shelton, Behold the Lamb Ministries.
01:44 As pastors, every now and again in your preaching,
01:47 you always go back to the basics.
01:48 You want to take your people back
01:50 to the basic beliefs of the church,
01:52 and it's part of the--
01:54 I don't want to say the liturgical year
01:56 but, every few months you want to come back to,
01:58 who we are and what we are and why we,
02:00 we believe what we believe.
02:03 And so this program seeks to do in an international way,
02:06 what we all do in our pulpits for our churches
02:09 and that's every now and again,
02:11 we need to re-plow that ground where we started, how we began.
02:14 So we're gonna, it's going to be a doctrinally based program
02:19 that looks at our foundations, our roots.
02:21 Today, gentlemen,
02:22 we are gonna be talking about the law of God.
02:24 And something you all know well.
02:29 You know, I'm thinking
02:30 when we talk about the law of God.
02:33 When someone talks about the law,
02:34 I always ask, well, what law you're talking about?
02:38 Because there are two separate bodies of law,
02:41 and a lot of people mistakenly just lump it all together
02:46 and say it all stopped at the cross.
02:48 Well, something did end at the cross,
02:49 and something is eternal and forever
02:52 and I know we will--
02:53 we will dive into that tonight.
02:54 What I like about these programs,
02:56 critically working with these two gentlemen,
02:57 who are students of the word.
02:59 We don't get together in a smoke filled room
03:00 and compare notes.
03:05 We put out the topic.
03:06 We each study on our own and since we're studying truth,
03:10 truths tends to bring it together Pastor John, you know,
03:13 and we always tend to end up on the same page
03:16 because we are animated by the same spirit.
03:19 We're studying the same truth and the Bible is one.
03:22 You know, it's not,
03:24 there's not a whole bunch of Bible,
03:25 it's just one word.
03:26 And when you study the word in truth and humility,
03:29 you come to the same conclusion.
03:30 So I never worry about,
03:32 I wonder if Pastor Kenny gonna say someone I don't like,
03:33 I wonder if Pastor John will say someone I don't agree with.
03:35 We inevitably and invariably disagree,
03:38 because we study in truth and the word is truth.
03:40 I mean we agree, we agree.
03:42 Did I say disagree? You said disagree.
03:43 I mean agree.
03:45 O, Lord I mean agree. I understand.
03:47 I mean it's hard to miss anything
03:48 with these large ears.
03:50 You know, I think whenever you get together
03:52 and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us.
03:53 The Holy Spirit is the most reliable G.P.S.
03:55 God's positioning system. Amen.
03:57 And the point of the matter,
03:58 it doesn't matter where we start in our journey.
04:00 It's going to lead us all to the same destination.
04:02 And that's to make sure
04:04 that what we speak is from God's word
04:05 and it's the truth of God's word.
04:06 So that's why we--
04:08 we study independently,
04:10 we start from different destinations
04:12 by God's leading,
04:13 He leads us to the same conclusion.
04:15 And, you know, when you speak about truth,
04:16 you can't help but come to the same conclusion.
04:19 Because truth is truth no matter how you put it,
04:21 if I put the address of 3ABN in a G.P.S.
04:24 and you put the address, and I put the address,
04:27 doesn't matter if we put the same address,
04:28 we land up at the same place.
04:30 If we pray for the same God enlighten our eyes
04:33 and teaches through the same word.
04:35 We're gonna come up with the same conclusion.
04:37 Well said.
04:38 It's just when we decide to turn off the G.P.S.
04:40 and meander in the maze of mediocrity that we find out
04:44 we're at a place that God would not have let us.
04:47 Now, what's happening in the Christian world today
04:48 is people have as you said lumped things together.
04:51 They've lumped the directions of the Ten Commandments
04:54 with the directions of the ceremonial law.
04:55 Precisely.
04:57 And they've thrown out the baby in the bathwater.
04:59 And now, you have many Christians out there
05:00 that are saying, we're free
05:02 and they're driving around without a G.P.S.
05:04 and that's why they are where they are today.
05:05 Yes.
05:07 So God's positioning system, God's system of promises,
05:10 God's system of morality
05:12 and that reveals His character has never been abrogated,
05:15 never been abolished, never been nailed to the cross.
05:17 I thought about it this morning, I said, you know,
05:19 if the law could have been nailed to the cross,
05:21 why would Jesus have been nailed to the cross.
05:23 Get rid of the law,
05:24 so you don't have to get rid of me.
05:26 See but to show how--
05:27 show how enduring and perfect and--
05:32 are necessary to get rid of the law of God is,
05:35 Jesus had to come,
05:36 because God could not get rid of His law.
05:39 That's right.
05:40 He says, so, he came to live in harmony with it,
05:43 to die as a result of its transgression
05:46 and to give us another opportunity
05:47 to have eternal life.
05:49 Well said.
05:50 We're gonna talk about the nature of it,
05:51 the nature of the law where I begin this morning.
05:54 You know, let's begin with the word of prayer.
05:56 I think the nature of the law,
05:57 and the nature of man really is the issue here.
05:59 And let's just begin with the word of prayer.
06:00 Yes.
06:02 Loving Father in heaven, we're gonna open Your word
06:04 and we pray that those who are watching
06:05 and listening to the program open their hearts.
06:07 Amen.
06:08 Father, You desire so much for us to understand truth
06:10 but it is not in our,
06:12 it is not in our just putting forth of the scriptures
06:14 but it is in the fertile soil.
06:16 The condition of the soil, there are stony hearers today,
06:19 there are thorny hearers, there are wayside hearers.
06:23 We don't want the enemy to come and snatch up what is sown.
06:26 We want people to have deep roots in Your word.
06:28 So today, as we study this all important topic,
06:32 your law.
06:33 We pray that people will listen
06:35 as the Spirit of God impresses their hearts,
06:37 in Jesus' name...
06:38 Amen.
06:40 Amen. Amen.
06:41 And I like where you started Pastor John,
06:43 and I just want to reemphasize that when we talk about law,
06:47 we will identify what law we're talking about.
06:49 Because in Exodus Chapter 25, the Ten Commandments
06:52 was put in the ark under the mercy seat.
06:55 That's right. It's okay. In Deuteronomy.
07:00 It's just terrible thing, Deuteronomy 31,
07:03 the Law of Moses,
07:04 that that law of contained in ordinances
07:07 was placed in the side of the ark
07:10 in the separate compartment.
07:11 So there are two bodies of work,
07:13 one written with the finger of God
07:15 as eternal as God is Himself.
07:17 And since the law is a transfigure
07:19 of God's character,
07:20 God Himself would have to alter a change.
07:22 That's right. For the law to change.
07:23 Of course, the Lord says,
07:25 "I am the Lord God, I change not."
07:28 So that's eternal.
07:29 I was talking with a fellow one time,
07:31 we were talking about the law, law, law,
07:33 and the pastor and I said, you know, and I, you know,
07:38 when you're young, sometimes you're kid of foolish.
07:41 And I wouldn't do this now, but I did do it then.
07:42 I said, "You know, your wife is pretty good looking,
07:46 and I really like to date her."
07:49 And she caught it right away, he got upset, and I said,
07:53 "You know, you, your wife is..."
07:54 I said, she's pretty hot,
07:56 and I said, I like to date her."
07:59 And he's like, "What?"
08:00 I said, "Well, man, there's no law."
08:02 There's no seventh commandment,
08:03 so what's the problem, you know...
08:05 What's the problem, there is no law.
08:06 The laws are invalid, so what's the problem?
08:08 You don't have problem with that, do you?
08:10 And then we kind of went into the little thing,
08:12 and I was trying to get him to understand
08:14 that the Ten Commandments are not pick and choose.
08:17 They're not ten suggestions.
08:18 No, they're not, thank you, very much.
08:20 Nor multiple choice.
08:21 Yeah, they are eternal as the God who gave them,
08:23 so when you talk about something being about us,
08:26 and nailed to the cross, you need to define that
08:28 because the Ten Commandments are as eternal as they are
08:31 as they represent the God who gave them.
08:33 Amen, amen.
08:34 Well, Kenny, you've been quiet.
08:35 Well, no, I'm just, I'm digging in,
08:38 I'm locking into all these good thoughts,
08:40 but the thing that really caught me while ago was,
08:43 I think that 3ABN
08:46 is the only Christian television network in the world
08:49 to where you can get different speakers up
08:53 as the bottom-line most generally,
08:55 we end up in the same place.
08:58 People who call many times they're astounded,
09:01 because they're saying, "Now, wait a minute.
09:03 We watch a lot of others Christian thing,
09:05 and this one will say this,
09:07 this one will say this on the subject
09:09 and they all have different things to say
09:10 and they end up in different places."
09:12 But this station 3ABN,
09:15 they pretty much end up in the same place,
09:18 even though they've never met, they've never studied together,
09:22 but somehow they just open the book
09:24 and every one of you speakers.
09:25 I've heard they say, "And your speakers pretty much
09:27 come to the same conclusions."
09:29 At least we should because it's a Bible.
09:31 And so they marvel at that,
09:33 and they're looking for that unity of spirit
09:35 and the Holy Spirit leading and guiding force
09:37 to come up in this unity of belief.
09:40 Excellent, excellent.
09:41 John, I'm gonna give you little chance
09:43 to roll a little bit
09:44 then we'll feed off you from the next little bit.
09:45 But give us of what that which you have man.
09:47 Okay, well, let's first of all
09:49 let's start with a single word nature.
09:52 We'll start with the nature of the law.
09:55 Let's go to Psalm 19:7, 8, the nature of the law.
09:59 And it will describe exactly in these texts
10:02 what law is talking about.
10:03 It's not talking about anything arbitrary,
10:05 what's wonderful about the Bible,
10:07 it not only describes what it's talking about.
10:09 But it makes it very clear
10:11 as to the foundation on which it stands.
10:13 See, it's amazing and you have to forgive me,
10:14 because that's my first set of text too.
10:16 Psalm 19, you know, I said okay,
10:18 sooner or later one of us is going to jump on Psalm 19.
10:21 That we're perfect just keeps coming out, doesn't it,
10:23 there's something about perfect.
10:24 It does. It does. I mean, you can't hide it.
10:26 That's right. Okay. I'll read it for you pastor.
10:28 "The law of the Lord is perfect,
10:29 converting the soul,
10:31 the testimony of the Lord is sure,
10:33 making wise the simple.
10:35 The statutes of the Lord are right,
10:37 rejoicing the heart."
10:38 And verse in the next.
10:39 "The commandment of the Lord is pure,
10:41 enlightening the eyes."
10:42 Do you want nine also?
10:44 Oh, no, just right to this. Okay.
10:45 Now here is the key, the law of the Lord is--
10:47 let's say it together, is perfect.
10:48 Is perfect.
10:49 It is not the...
10:51 It is not the imperfection of the law that's the problem.
10:53 Why would you have to get rid of something that's perfect?
10:56 Can you imagine somebody say,
10:57 this is a perfect masterpiece, throw it out.
11:00 Yeah.
11:01 That's a perfect transcript of God's character,
11:03 get rid of it.
11:05 God couldn't make anything more perfect,
11:06 we don't need it, we want imperfect things.
11:09 That the perfection of the law is not the issue,
11:11 it's not the nature of the law but the nature of man.
11:14 So let's look at the other side of that Jeremiah 17:9.
11:17 Let's look at the other side of that
11:19 and then I'm gonna give you one more text
11:20 to merge them together.
11:22 Jeremiah 17:9.
11:23 So if the law of the Lord is perfect.
11:27 If the commandment of the Lord is pure,
11:29 then there's nothing wrong, it's perfectly pure,
11:32 it's perfectly pure.
11:34 How many people would say, man, that gold is perfectly pure,
11:37 let's throw it out.
11:39 Yeah, and I don't know if you're going to get there
11:40 but you have to forgive me.
11:42 But, but, but, Paul says in Book of Romans 14.
11:46 We're going there.
11:47 You going there? Okay. We're going there.
11:49 So we are on the same page.
11:50 There you go. Yeah, we're going.
11:52 When he said prefect though, then it go on to say,
11:54 it converts--
11:56 The soul. The soul needs to be converted.
11:59 We as the people need to be converted.
12:00 This is where we can start,
12:02 this is something that's concrete
12:03 that we can stand on because it's a perfect
12:06 and what he said is the teachings.
12:08 Is the illustrations, is the life of Christ.
12:11 So I like that,
12:12 that's a good foundation which to stand.
12:13 That's right, when in other words,
12:15 I like the way you say
12:16 that when you stand on God's law,
12:18 when you follow these principles,
12:20 you cannot help but to live a converted life.
12:22 Amen. Amen.
12:24 And the Spirit of God comes in
12:25 and lives that life out through us.
12:26 I want to make that clear because I was saying last night
12:28 and you mention the Bible study.
12:30 Yes, we need the power and presence of the Holy Spirit
12:34 to live in harmony with God's law.
12:36 We can't just pick one and say today,
12:37 "I want to do the seventh today,
12:38 tomorrow I'm doing fifth,
12:40 the fruit of the Spirit comes in.
12:43 The power of the Spirit is manifested,
12:44 so we live in harmony.
12:46 I can do all things through Christ
12:47 who strengthens me.
12:49 But now, we look at the nature of the law
12:50 and now let's look at the nature of man.
12:52 Anybody had Jeremiah 17:9, you want to read that Pastor Kenny.
12:54 Sure.
12:55 It says, "The heart is deceitful above all things
13:00 and desperately wicked, who can know it?"
13:03 Now we got a perfect law,
13:06 a perfectly pure law and messed up children.
13:11 How many children do you know
13:13 want to do what their parents tell them to do.
13:15 I mean...
13:16 Not naturally. Okay, you have children.
13:19 How many parents can say to their children,
13:22 here's what I want you to do and the children say,
13:24 "Yes, mom.
13:25 Yes, dad, I'll never stray away from the course
13:27 that you've established."
13:29 The issue is a perfect Heavenly Father,
13:31 with a perfect law have imperfect sinful children
13:36 whose hearts are not just deceitful above all things
13:39 but the hearts are desperately wicked.
13:42 So here, you have a perfect law and a wicked man.
13:44 What's the problem?
13:46 Somebody is gonna say, "I don't like that."
13:48 When you tell somebody to do right
13:49 and they're wicked, desperately wicked.
13:51 They gonna find something wrong with what you told them to do.
13:54 Precisely. So they could go against it.
13:55 And Paul makes that very, very clear.
13:57 He said, there're couple more things they want
13:59 and then I'm gonna through back to you guys.
14:01 Romans 7:12, 14, let's look at that.
14:04 Roman 7:12, 14 when we get to verse 14,
14:07 we will see that Paul pulls the two together.
14:10 He's gonna reiterate now in the New Testament,
14:12 because a lot of people say,
14:14 "Well, that was the Old Testament."
14:16 I just started with Psalms and Jeremiah, they say,
14:17 but that's the Old Testament.
14:19 Now we are going to the New Testament.
14:21 Something's holy and good, amen.
14:22 Okay, okay, now if you got Romans 7:12.
14:24 Sure. Okay. Go for it, Pastor Kenny.
14:27 Okay, the Bible says, I like this, the Bible says,
14:31 "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy,
14:34 just and good."
14:36 Okay, so once again, now this is New Testament.
14:38 The law is what? It's holy.
14:40 The commandment is what?
14:42 Holy. Holy.
14:43 And just and good.
14:44 So here it is, perfect, pure, holy, just good.
14:49 Why would you want to get rid of that.
14:50 You wouldn't because, when you say,
14:52 the word like you're holy, you tell you're holy,
14:54 to me that reminds me of God is holy.
14:57 He is a holy, so he is holy as God is holy.
15:01 His character, it's just a beautiful thing.
15:03 And the tension is John says in John 8:7, the carnal mind.
15:08 Ah, now, we're going--
15:09 We're going there--
15:10 This is hot.
15:12 Romans 8:7.
15:15 We're going, see.
15:17 We're unfolding it-- It's all right.
15:20 Now verse 14 of Romans Chapter 7, Pastor C.A.
15:23 So right now before you read that,
15:25 that the law is perfect, pure, holy, just good.
15:30 Why do you want to get rid of that?
15:33 But the sinful desperately wicked heart
15:37 looks at something that's pure, holy, just good and says,
15:41 "I don't want to live in harmony with it.
15:43 There you go. That's the problem.
15:44 Every one of those words in is dealing with spiritual.
15:47 Thank you. What is the law?
15:48 Yeah. Okay.
15:50 Now let's add another one to it, verse 14.
15:51 Here we go, "For we know that the law is spiritual:
15:55 but I am carnal sold under sin."
16:01 Okay. So let's stop there. Have mercy.
16:02 Now listen, we're gonna add another component to law.
16:04 The laws is holy. Come on.
16:06 Is the law of the Lord is perfect.
16:09 It is pure, it is holy,
16:11 it is just, it is good, it is spiritual.
16:13 Correct.
16:15 Perfect, pure, holy, just good, spiritual.
16:19 Why would we get rid of that? Why throw it out?
16:21 I'm with you. See where I'm going.
16:23 But what's the problem with the man?
16:25 His heart is deceived above all things
16:26 and desperately wicked.
16:28 He is carnal. He is sold under sin.
16:31 One more thing now, Romans 8:7.
16:35 Pastor Murray, this is where you were going,
16:36 so I'm gonna give you the right to say that one.
16:38 Okay.
16:39 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
16:44 for it is not subject to the law of God,
16:45 neither indeed can be."
16:48 So right away Paul hits the nail on the head.
16:52 Nothing wrong with the law,
16:53 but I want to admit the carnal mind,
16:58 that mind that is deceitful above all things
17:01 and desperately wicked.
17:03 The mind that he said is sold under sin.
17:06 He said, "His enmity," you know what that means?
17:09 There's a disparity between...
17:11 There's a tension between the mind that's imperfect.
17:15 And the law of God that is perfect.
17:16 Right.
17:17 And so he says,
17:19 "I know the carnal mind is enmity against God."
17:22 And then he says,
17:24 "It is not subject to the law of God
17:27 neither indeed can be."
17:29 In other words, no matter what you tell me,
17:31 I'm gonna always find fault with something that's perfect.
17:34 You're right, John, I'm thinking of Psalms 119: 172
17:39 right where the Bible says,
17:40 "All your commandments are righteousness."
17:44 So how can a carnal mind
17:47 flow in the direction of righteousness,
17:49 they're antithetical.
17:51 So you're very, very correct in saying that
17:55 without a conversion experience,
17:57 the law of God not only makes no sense,
17:59 you can't see, you can't hear and understand it,
18:01 you certainly cannot do it.
18:02 Right. So what's the convenient thing?
18:04 Kind of do away with it. You get rid of it.
18:06 You get rid of it, but to get rid of,
18:08 to get rid of the law,
18:09 you'd almost have to get rid of the God who gave it.
18:11 You can't have one without the other,
18:14 because the law is, is...
18:16 It's the second clearest explanation of who God is,
18:18 the first of course is Jesus.
18:20 That's what the Book of Hebrews tells us.
18:21 But the second clearest is the law,
18:24 so you cannot get away from the law.
18:27 I like the way you said that
18:28 Jesus is the expressed image of the father.
18:31 He came to show us, God with us.
18:33 And then secondly as you said the law.
18:36 A transcript of God's character,
18:37 Pastor Kenny, what do you have for us?
18:39 Well, I was just thinking
18:40 what you've been talking about here is,
18:42 we talked about the spiritualness of the law,
18:44 and reason the world can't understand it
18:47 and they don't want to see it.
18:48 You've been bringing that up perfectly.
18:50 It's because, it is in 1 Corinthians,
18:51 spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
18:55 So you can't understand
18:56 the spirituality of the law of God.
18:59 If you're not spiritual,
19:00 if you haven't made a commitment to Jesus Christ.
19:02 And I always feel, find this.
19:04 If I'm studying the Word of God,
19:05 and I want to find out what truth is.
19:07 We know line upon line, precept,
19:09 but I have to come as a learner.
19:13 There's a lot of people who come,
19:14 they want to tell you how things are,
19:16 and you know, where this is what.
19:17 I always say...
19:19 I'm a learner in the school of Christ
19:20 and I will always be leaner through the ceaseless ages
19:22 by the grace of God.
19:24 Thus we come with open minds open hearts,
19:26 lay everything on the table and say,
19:27 "God, what do you say in Your word?"
19:29 What does the Bible say?
19:30 Well, had been brought out rather clear here how holy,
19:33 just and good, and spiritual the law is,
19:35 and in order to comprehend that,
19:37 we must have the Holy Spirit
19:39 and we must be spiritual minded,
19:41 and then it begins to make sense.
19:42 Majority of the world are not spiritual minded.
19:44 So that's why they reject it, that's why you throw it out.
19:46 That's why they make excuses for their lifestyle.
19:49 Yeah.
19:50 There is another little wrinkle that we're gonna--
19:53 we just talk we're gonna bring up in a subsequent show
19:56 that kind of flows out of this,
19:58 why people are so anxious to jettison the law.
20:02 Because they're substance aimed,
20:03 they want to do or better still don't want to do.
20:07 But we're talking about 1 John 3:4,
20:10 "He that committed sin does also transgress a law,
20:13 for sin is the transgression of the law."
20:17 By the law is the knowledge of sin.
20:19 So, if you do away with the law,
20:21 you have no more a definition for what sin is.
20:24 So that's like, it's like isn't a days of the judges,
20:26 everybody does what, what's right in his own mind,
20:28 because you don't have any standard to go by.
20:31 So the law has to be perpetual,
20:33 because every generation needs to know
20:36 what the definition of sin is.
20:37 I need to know what the speed limit is.
20:39 You need know what the speed limit is,
20:41 so that we can judge ourselves
20:43 by that sign that says 70 miles an hour and no faster."
20:46 You know, so I'm trying to go back to the Greek,
20:51 but it's, He that committed sin does all trust.
20:54 It's hamartia, missing the mark is anomia
20:57 from which we get anarchy.
21:00 This wildness you know, hamartia is, is anomia.
21:04 If you miss the mark, you're just,
21:06 you are lawless, you know.
21:08 And so, you need the law to define sin.
21:10 I need to know what sin is.
21:12 Because my conscience has been seared,
21:15 I'm not converted.
21:16 I cannot trust my own judgment on some of these things.
21:18 I need to go to the word and find out,
21:20 is this thought in my mind of God or is it not of God.
21:25 And the law tells me that
21:26 so the law is not just a bunch of dos and don'ts,
21:29 it keeps me on the right path.
21:31 And shows me what God wants for my life.
21:33 And you know the way the Bible defines
21:34 that I'm glad you went to the Greek application
21:36 because it defined sin
21:38 in a number of ways in the Greek.
21:39 Because you know we generally say sin a sin,
21:41 but the Greek really brings it up
21:43 because one definition of sin is
21:45 we aim at the mark and we miss it.
21:48 We fall short of the glory of God.
21:50 That's the hamartia.
21:51 That the hamartia, but the other one is
21:53 we don't even aim at it.
21:54 Yeah. Yeah.
21:56 No, no target. We don't even want to aim it.
21:58 No, you won't aim it. That's the sinful man.
22:00 He's not subject to the law of God,
22:02 neither can he be.
22:03 That's the sin that reigns and he doesn't even aim at it.
22:06 He finds it irrelevant even to aim at.
22:09 And so, when we talk about this topic here,
22:10 it's really important that we're not talking about,
22:13 we're not talking about unconverted people
22:14 that have an issue with the law.
22:16 Because the law of God means nothing
22:17 to an unconverted person.
22:19 Really, what we're talking about here
22:20 are Christians that have heard about God's law,
22:23 and for some reason they've been taught
22:24 that is irrelevant.
22:25 So this topic right now,
22:27 I'm gonna go to the unconverted man side now.
22:30 Because what I've talked about thus far
22:32 is really in context with the converted person,
22:34 the person that says, "I'm a follower of Jesus."
22:37 So if you are a follower of Jesus,
22:39 and the law is, the law is pure and holy,
22:42 and just, and good, and spiritual.
22:45 And what's wrong with it?
22:46 In fact, nothing's wrong with it.
22:48 The issue is our hearts.
22:49 You know our hearts are deceitful above all things
22:51 and desperately wicked.
22:52 We have to pray for a heart transplant.
22:55 Yes. A renewing of our mind.
22:57 But look at Paul talked about this in Romans Chapter 7.
22:59 Romans Chapter 7 is a powerful book.
23:01 Yes, it is.
23:03 In Romans Chapter 7, Paul talks about
23:05 who he was before he was converted.
23:08 Yes.
23:09 What happened when he was converted?
23:11 And we're gonna look at that, Romans 7:7.
23:14 All right, Romans 7:7.
23:16 Well, to give it, to give a context.
23:19 We need to go ahead, and start with Romans 7:5.
23:23 Okay.
23:25 "For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions
23:30 which were aroused by the law were at work in our members
23:35 to bear fruit to death.
23:37 But now we have been delivered from the law,"
23:40 Let me tell you what that means?
23:41 That's not delivered from the obligation
23:43 but delivers from its condemnation.
23:45 Thank you very much. The curse.
23:46 The curse of it, exactly.
23:48 Because once you live out of harmony with it.
23:49 Once you violate a law.
23:51 Let me give an example:
23:53 You cannot drive 100 miles an hour
23:54 in the 35 mile an hour speed limit zone.
23:56 And not expect something gonna happen tragically.
23:59 But once all of a sudden they post that speed limit,
24:02 you can't say, "I didn't see it."
24:05 Matter of fact, I'll tell the story in a moment,
24:07 but let's keep going, I don't want to divert.
24:08 But, pastor, I want you to go back
24:10 and just hit that point one more time,
24:11 because that is the crux of so many arguments,
24:14 that mistakenly assess
24:16 what our relationship to the law is now.
24:18 Okay.
24:19 The answer, well, not the answer
24:21 but one of the things that gives your light
24:23 is right across the page in Romans 8:1.
24:26 "There is therefore now no condemnation
24:29 to those who are in Christ Jesus,
24:31 who do not walk according to the flesh,
24:33 but according to the Spirit."
24:34 So plug that back into that--
24:36 Okay, here we go. You just read.
24:37 So when we read verse 6, and it says,
24:39 "For we have been delivered from the law,
24:41 having died to what we were held by
24:44 so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit
24:46 not in the oldness of the letter."
24:48 What in fact was being said is, you see this letter
24:51 and you can't do anything about it
24:52 because you have no spiritual power
24:55 to do anything with it.
24:56 And so you see this requirement
24:59 but because you are in the flesh,
25:00 it is a law of death to you, it just condemns you,
25:04 because you have no power to live in harmony with it.
25:07 But when you are born again, the Spirit comes in.
25:09 Now, the power is made available,
25:11 so that this law that seems to be against you
25:14 now all of the sudden you're in harmony with it.
25:15 Precisely.
25:17 So all of the sudden this,
25:18 you can't find anything that matches
25:19 but all of the sudden the Spirit comes in and says,
25:21 "Okay, good there you are, now you're in harmony with it."
25:24 I thought it was just going to condemn me
25:25 but now I'm in harmony with it,
25:27 because the Spirit comes in and connects us together.
25:29 That's why the very next verse is there.
25:32 If it was only verse 6, we can conclude anything
25:34 but look at verse 7.
25:35 "What shall we say then? Is the law sin."
25:38 What's the answer? Certainly not.
25:41 On the contrary,
25:42 I would not have known sin except through the law,
25:46 for I would not have known covetousness
25:48 unless the law had said, "You shall not cut it."
25:51 That's the Tenth Commandment.
25:53 But sin, here it is, he's going back to the issue,
25:56 "But sin taking opportunity
25:58 by the commandment produced in me
26:01 all manner of evil desire
26:04 for apart from the law sin was dead."
26:07 And I got it, this is powerful,
26:09 until I saw a speed limit that says I was speeding,
26:12 I wasn't speeding.
26:13 I wasn't speeding, right. Exactly.
26:14 Yeah, yeah.
26:16 Once I saw that sign that I was speeding
26:19 I'm now I'm dead.
26:21 He caught me. Okay. You're guilty.
26:24 I see a police coming after me.
26:25 Yeah, I'm dead. I'm dead.
26:27 Yeah, I'm busted. Yeah, I'm caught.
26:29 If I go 65 mile an hour speed zone,
26:31 that all of the sudden dropped to 35.
26:33 That's where the police hangs out right there.
26:35 Once we see that, ah, I'm caught
26:38 and that's what he meant in verse 8,
26:40 "But sin taking opportunity by the commandment
26:43 produced to me all manner of evil as I."
26:45 I want to speed for apart from the speed limit
26:48 I'm all right.
26:50 But once it shows up, I'm dead, I'm caught.
26:53 Now this is verse 9.
26:55 "I was alive once without the law."
26:57 I was having a good old time on the autobahn in Germany
27:00 going at 125 miles an hour,
27:02 but I come back to America with the same car.
27:04 Right. You have to cut it down. And I can't speed.
27:06 'Cause I'm in a different place, the law is there.
27:08 He said so, verse 9.
27:10 "I was alive once without the law."
27:12 But when the commandment came, police was hanging out,
27:16 sin arrived and I died.
27:18 I couldn't speed any more.
27:19 And the commandment which was,
27:21 and the commandment which was to bring life,
27:23 I found to bring death.
27:25 I used to say, I was a law abiding citizen
27:26 but when I went to Germany,
27:28 I was so glad they had no speed limits
27:29 on the autobahn.
27:31 Now, I come back to America.
27:32 I really don't like the law anymore.
27:33 Right. That's right.
27:35 I'd rather live in a lawless society
27:36 on a speedway where I could speed without any restraints.
27:38 But then he jumps back in, "For sin--"
27:41 Verse 11, "Taking occasion by the commandment,
27:44 deceived me, and by it killed me."
27:47 Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy,
27:52 and just, and good.
27:54 I got to confess,
27:56 I'm in trouble and Pastor Kenny, now I want--
27:59 Now Paul is talking about.
28:00 He says, "If you're partying,
28:02 you're gambling, you're pool hustling."
28:04 I just described my former life.
28:06 If you're party gambler pool hustler.
28:08 If you're drinking, if you carousing,
28:09 if you're going to bed
28:11 with people that don't even belong to you.
28:13 If you steal the stuff, you feel good,
28:17 three thieves, robbers, fornicators,
28:20 adulterers they all feel good.
28:22 But all of a sudden, somebody pulls them over and says,
28:26 we got a description of the last bank robbery
28:28 and it's you.
28:29 He says not me.
28:31 We got the fingerprints and it's yours.
28:32 Oh, it is.
28:34 All the sudden the law now
28:35 that you have been running away from ignoring
28:37 caught you and you're dead.
28:38 You could do one of two things.
28:40 Now, a person who is not guilty
28:44 does not ask for mercy.
28:47 Right. Yeah.
28:48 A person who is not guilty asks for justice.
28:50 Asks for justice, yeah.
28:52 But a person who is guilty asks for mercy.
28:55 See that's why the Bible says, "The Lord, God merciful,
29:00 the long suffering because we're all guilty."
29:03 We got to come to that conclusion, we're guilty.
29:05 Lord, you're just, we're guilty.
29:06 Yeah. Absolutely.
29:07 But for people to say, "I demand justice,"
29:10 means you're not guilty.
29:11 Yeah.
29:12 We demand, we beg for God's mercy.
29:15 We're guilty. We're guilty.
29:16 All have sinned and what? Come short of glory of God.
29:19 Which is why, the just shall live by faith.
29:23 And we are recipients of his grace.
29:27 If we were not guilty, we don't need grace.
29:30 I'm not guilty of anything, I don't need grace, I'm fine.
29:34 But once you become--
29:35 once you butt up against that law,
29:37 and realize that that you can't do that,
29:41 I need grace.
29:43 Right. I'm gonna fall, I am undone.
29:45 I'm gonna need your grace, I'm trying
29:47 but first of all my efforts are insufficient, and second,
29:51 I'm always going to fail, and I need, I need your grace.
29:54 And of course, Hebrews tells
29:56 that God has made provision for that if we sin.
29:59 Come on.
30:00 You've got to advocate with the Father.
30:02 You know, so, so it's been taken care of.
30:03 Your mess has already been cleaned up.
30:06 There's a maid there waiting to mop up that stuff,
30:08 you know.
30:10 If you sin, you got to advocate with the Father.
30:11 So it all points back to the fact
30:14 that the law is still in vogue.
30:15 It is still in force.
30:17 It's not gone anywhere,
30:19 and we still are called to obey.
30:22 You know, faith, faith grace, grace.
30:24 Praise the Lord. Yes.
30:26 But, obey, obey, obey.
30:27 Well, Bible does say
30:29 by, by grace are you saved through faith.
30:31 So we're not advocating, or keep the law,
30:33 work your way into heaven, you've got--
30:35 The law it's what he said while ago.
30:37 The law simply points out what sin is.
30:40 I wouldn't have known what sin is,
30:42 if the law had not said this is the wrong thing to do.
30:45 So, it reminds me of a--
30:47 You were talking about being stopped by the policemen.
30:50 We're coming home late.
30:51 It's not been but couple months ago.
30:53 Real late pastor, you know,
30:54 I do some of my best sleeping while I'm driving.
30:57 Can somebody pray for me?
31:00 Think about it, I told somebody,
31:01 they say, "You look all sleepy,"
31:03 I said, "I don't take a drive, pray for me."
31:05 Anyway we were coming home late,
31:07 we'd been speaking somewhere.
31:08 Yeah, it was, it was like, late to me
31:10 was like 11 o'clock as we'd been on Sabbath
31:12 all day long speaking all day and driving back from Missouri.
31:15 And we were down in Vienna
31:16 and I was coming on the hard road there and 45.
31:21 And I didn't even realize, I mean,
31:22 I'm just going along and I'm driving fine,
31:24 I thought but my foot got a little bit heavy.
31:27 And so I was probably going 75, and it's 55,
31:30 there on 45 there,
31:31 and I started turn right into our driveway
31:34 about 1,500 feet we live off of the road.
31:36 I started to turn right, and when I turned right,
31:38 I looked in my rear view
31:40 and I see all these lights going
31:41 and those lights have been following me for a long time,
31:44 I didn't know 'cause I was asleep.
31:45 You know, and so I thought
31:47 we're right in the pool right here
31:48 is just a one lane road,
31:50 I'll just go and pull to the house
31:51 'cause it's just 1500 feet I pull there.
31:53 And so, I went ahead and pulled in,
31:55 it was dark in there and the police got out he said,
31:57 "You know, you're going like 75.
32:00 I said, "You know, I really don't know
32:01 what speed I was going because I was, I was asleep."
32:06 I said, I was asleep.
32:07 You know, they hear all kind of stories.
32:08 I said, I was at sleep. He said, "Yeah, you sleep."
32:10 "When I put my lights on,
32:12 I expect you to stop right there,
32:15 you don't take me down some dark road back into."
32:17 I said, "Well, I live right here."
32:19 He said, "Doesn't matter where you live here or not,
32:20 I'll turn the lights on."
32:22 I said, "I didn't see the lights"
32:23 number one.
32:24 And then he said, "Where you been?"
32:26 I said, "Well, we've been doing some speaking
32:28 and be honest with you
32:29 I really, I actually fell asleep,
32:31 I did not know, you turned them on."
32:33 So he looked at me, so I guess I was asking,
32:35 can I say I broke the law.
32:36 I was guilty of sin.
32:38 He had every right to ticket me,
32:40 and he was so aggravated
32:41 because, I didn't stop to begin with,
32:44 that he let me know, you don't do that,
32:46 you're going to get a ticket,
32:48 and so I just told him the truth of what happened.
32:50 Give me your license, and he went back to his car.
32:53 Pretty soon he come back and I said,
32:55 "Lord, You help me, I really was,
32:56 I shouldn't have been asleep, I need some grace."
32:59 You know I'm thinking about that grace,
33:00 I'm guilty of sin.
33:02 I should be punished, I should get a ticket.
33:04 But you know what?
33:05 He came back, this is interesting,
33:07 he came, it's like, like 11, 11:30 at night.
33:09 Dark as it could be out there is no night light
33:10 or anything in the house and now I'm gonna turn on.
33:13 He handed my license back to me,
33:14 he looked at me, and he said, "You know what?
33:16 I have the tendency to believe that you were really tired
33:20 and worn out and you fell asleep
33:21 and you did not know it."
33:24 I said, he said, "Here have a good night.
33:27 Try to stay awake."
33:29 And I looked at myself, thank you Lord,
33:32 I looked at him and I said, "Thank you, sir."
33:34 To me that was extended grace, I did not deserve,
33:37 it's long story but you still see
33:38 this is the way it works in our life,
33:40 guilty of sin, under the condemnation of the law,
33:42 because I broke it.
33:44 But he extended unmerited favor, grace.
33:48 Why would someone come back
33:49 after they just choose you, good.
33:51 Right.
33:52 And then say, I tend to believe you
33:54 that you really were asleep.
33:56 And I thought how do you come across that
33:57 when walking back to his car to write the ticket.
33:59 Yeah. Only the spirit of God.
34:01 You know, what amazes me?
34:02 And that's dynamic I've had a number of those incidents
34:04 seems to be very candid about it.
34:06 I've gone through Indiana
34:08 and, but, I didn't claim sleeping,
34:10 I just said to the police officer,
34:13 I said honestly.
34:14 He said, "Did you know how fast you were going?
34:17 I said, "I think so."
34:19 He said, "Could you tell me why?
34:20 I said, "I was looking down on my G.P.S."
34:23 And he said, "You know he could give me a ticket."
34:26 He said, I'll tell you what,
34:28 "Could you just keep it down and just call it a evening."
34:31 I said, "Officer, I really appreciate it very much."
34:34 Because he could give me a ticket.
34:36 We'll try these stories, I've got.
34:37 Let me have a quick one.
34:39 I was heading to prayer meeting on Wednesday night,
34:41 on the cross on an expressway in Queens
34:44 trying to get to Manhattan.
34:45 And as the Lord liveth, and as I so liveth,
34:48 I was flying, New York City cop, he stops me.
34:51 Oh, boy.
34:52 And he says, "Where you going, man?
34:55 I said, "I'm going to church." "You going to church?"
34:59 I said, "Yeah, I really am, I'm going to prayer meeting."
35:01 And he said, "Give me your license."
35:03 So I have a number of policemen in my congregation
35:06 and they gave me what's called a P B A clergy card,
35:10 and they said, "Whenever you get stop,
35:12 pull that out with your license."
35:13 So I pull them both out together.
35:14 He said, "What's that?" I said, "That's my P.B.A card."
35:16 That means that you make a contribution
35:17 to the retirement fund.
35:19 And it just clergy on the card.
35:21 He says, "You really minister?" "Yes, sir I' am."
35:24 He said, "You believe in God?" I said, "Yes sir, I do."
35:26 He said, "Slow down,
35:27 or you're gonna meet your boss."
35:30 You know, it's New York city cop,
35:32 he said, slow down, or you're gonna meet your boss.
35:34 There may been some truth in that, that's right.
35:35 I made my way on to church.
35:37 You know, so we praise the Lord.
35:38 Praise the Lord. That's grace.
35:40 But, it's an explanation
35:42 of what we're talking about here,
35:43 you get something you don't need
35:44 because you broke the law because the law is there.
35:47 You know, I was looking at James
35:48 and you know, we've turned the corner
35:50 on our last several minutes.
35:52 But James calls it the law of liberty.
35:54 Amen.
35:56 Before we sat down here, we all got powdered up.
35:58 And we didn't take time to really look in the mirror.
36:01 We sat down, but Tammy came and put the powder on,
36:03 we assume--
36:05 Assumed. That she did a good job.
36:06 You know, we assume that she did a good job.
36:08 And we put ourselves in her hand, you know.
36:12 James uses that explanation,
36:13 he says, "It's like a person looking in a mirror.
36:16 And you see that you're not together.
36:19 And you go away, and you totally forget
36:21 what you just saw.
36:23 You don't make any, any, any changes
36:25 but he calls it the law of liberty.
36:27 What we forget is God did not give us these, these rules,
36:32 these guidelines to stunt our growth
36:35 or to curb our fun or to hurt us any way.
36:38 But we understand that by doing these things,
36:41 our lives are better, our lives are sweeter.
36:43 We are more in harmony with the God
36:45 who gave them to us
36:47 and they are not grievous we are told.
36:50 They're not, they're not hard, if you're in Christ Jesus.
36:53 Amen. That's right.
36:55 If you're not there impossible. Yes.
36:57 But if you're in, in Christ Jesus,
36:59 it's like we're all married.
37:00 If your wife says, "Honey, give me a drink of water."
37:03 Yeah. Yeah. That's legalism.
37:06 "I don't want to get you a drink,
37:07 you making me work."
37:08 You know, I love you, I told you, I love you,
37:10 so get your own water you know.
37:12 But if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
37:16 And what's interesting about that text.
37:18 It's followed by and I will pray the Father--
37:21 And he would send in--
37:22 And he would send in another comforter.
37:23 Conditional...
37:25 Yes, so that commandment keeping is conditional
37:28 to the reception of the Holy Spirit.
37:30 And of course, it is the Holy Spirit
37:32 that helps you with your commandment keeping,
37:33 they are intertwined and interconnected
37:36 and you cannot separate them.
37:38 How can you do away
37:39 with something that's gonna be the perfect law of liberty.
37:42 Pastor John probably going to go there,
37:44 but the perfect law of liberties
37:45 will be used in the judgment.
37:47 So how can you do away with that
37:49 which is going to be used in the judgment of all mankind.
37:51 Ecclesiastes Chapter 12:13.
37:53 You know, that's the whole duty of man
37:55 right there in James 2:10 through 12.
37:59 It's called the perfect law of liberty,
38:01 which you've been bringing out here.
38:03 That will be used in the judgment
38:04 so if it's done away, you can't--
38:06 not important.
38:07 Yeah, what's the rule by what you tell me I'm guilty.
38:09 Yeah. Come on. If you got no law.
38:10 In fact, let's go and read it as Pastor Kenny referred to it.
38:13 James 2:10 to 12. That's the good ones.
38:16 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law,
38:18 and yet offend or stumble at one point,
38:21 he is guilty of all.
38:22 For he who said, Do not commit adultery,
38:24 also said, Do not murder.
38:26 Now if you do not commit adultery,
38:28 but you do murder,
38:29 you have become a transgressor of the law.
38:32 So speak, and so do,
38:34 as those who will be judged by the law of liberty."
38:39 Love it.
38:40 James 1:25,
38:42 "But he who looks it's the perfect law of liberty
38:47 and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer
38:51 but a doer of the word and this one will be blessed
38:55 in what he does."
38:56 And so you cannot, you cannot.
38:59 You cannot ignore God's law.
39:01 I want one of you to turn to Psalm 1 very quickly.
39:04 And while you're turning them,
39:05 I'm gonna talk about Romans 7 very, very carefully here.
39:07 When we come down to the crux of the issue,
39:11 we're saying to Christians and by the way,
39:12 if you're not a Christian, you need the grace of God
39:14 to bring you into a relationship with Him.
39:16 This does not apply to you, but in fact,
39:19 you know what's amazing about and the Bible says this,
39:21 "You are, you are living in sin."
39:24 So to say that, to say that a sinful person
39:27 who does not have the power of the Spirit of God
39:29 in his life, or her life,
39:31 should keep the commandments of God,
39:32 were putting on you more than you can bear.
39:35 You cannot honor God's commandments
39:36 because you don't have the power to do it.
39:38 And even those of us,
39:39 who come into a relationship with Jesus
39:41 need the power of the Spirit of God every day,
39:44 to live in harmony with God's law, for it's God,
39:46 it is God who works in us both
39:48 to will and to do of His good pleasure.
39:50 He who has begun a good work in us
39:51 will complete it,
39:53 Philippians 1 and Philippians Chapter 2,
39:54 but Romans, I want to look at Romans 7 very quickly,
39:58 and then I'm gonna turn to Psalms 1
39:59 because Psalms 1, I'm gonna show you the blessing
40:02 of living in harmony with God's love.
40:04 But Roman 7:15 to 17
40:06 shows Paul now in the converted matter.
40:11 He is now, his eyes has been opened.
40:12 He has given his life, Jesus is now living in him.
40:15 And Paul says "Here is the issue".
40:19 Verse 15, here is the issue.
40:22 Roman 7:15, "For what I am doing,
40:26 I do not understand.
40:29 For what I will to do that I do not practice
40:33 but what I hate that I do.
40:37 If then I do what I will not to do.
40:42 I agree with the law that it is good."
40:45 Did you get that? Yes. Good.
40:46 "But now it is no longer I who do it."
40:50 Correct. "But sin that dwells in me."
40:52 Now, in all of his quandary
40:54 he says "This is what I want do,
40:56 but this is what I'm doing."
40:57 This is what I don't want do,
40:59 but this is what I end up doing.
41:01 This is what I hate, this is what I love to do.
41:03 I can do it what I love to do,
41:05 because sin is in control."
41:06 So until we die to sin, we die in sin.
41:11 So, this whole idea that--
41:12 if you live in sin,
41:13 you will fulfill the things of sin.
41:15 But if you now walk in the spirit,
41:17 the spirit now gives you a power to accomplish
41:19 what the natural man can never do.
41:21 But Paul says, and I want to add to this
41:24 before we go to Psalms 1,
41:25 Psalms 1 is gonna be our caps on text.
41:27 Okay.
41:29 But Hebrews 10:16.
41:30 Now let me tell you, this is why Paul has his issue.
41:33 Now, we don't walk around today,
41:34 Pastor Kenny, Pastor C.A.
41:36 We don't walk around with big two tables of stone.
41:39 We don't pull out the Ten Commandments
41:40 and say clunk, clunk.
41:42 One to four, five to ten, right?
41:45 We don't do that. So where are they located?
41:48 In our hearts, in our minds. Okay.
41:50 Hebrews 10:16. Okay. I knew you're going.
41:53 I know you're going. Where are they?
41:55 Yeah. Why do we have these conflicts?
41:58 Why is Paul even caught in the conflicts
42:00 unless there is something that's always present with him.
42:03 That's making him think about what he just did.
42:06 Yes. You want to read that one?
42:08 Hebrews 10:16, as Pastor Kenny turns it.
42:10 We're gonna see the reason why many Christians,
42:13 the reason why the battle continues
42:15 even after we're born again
42:16 is because, the Lord did something.
42:18 He says, "You could run away from the mountain
42:21 where I gave the commandments,
42:23 but you can't run away from your--"
42:25 Read it. I'm not gonna stop there.
42:27 And that's, that's were it started,
42:29 you're talking about the law was given on the mount
42:31 and written on tables,
42:33 but to me that was never God's plan for Him
42:35 to stay outside of man.
42:36 They'll do us no good outside they must come in
42:39 this covenant knows that verse that you wanted was it?
42:42 Hebrews 10:16
42:43 "This is the covenant that I will make with them
42:46 after those days, saith the Lord,
42:48 I will put my laws into their hearts,
42:51 and into their minds and I will write them..."
42:54 Into their minds I will write. Yes.
42:56 Isn't that beautiful? So what he put it?
42:58 Yeah, he's put in--
43:00 Here and here. And here.
43:01 So when you have a, When you go,
43:03 when you say, ah, man, I should, shall I do that?
43:06 Come on now.
43:08 Oh, man, what I just do? What did David say?
43:11 Thy word have by "Hid in my heart,"
43:13 he knew that, he knew this
43:15 that I might not sin against thee.
43:18 This is a crucial, crucial point.
43:20 Because folks that were under the new covenant,
43:22 under the new covenant and of course
43:24 any time, I go to Hebrews 10,
43:25 my mind goes back to Jeremiah 30:1.
43:27 You know, which prefigures that afterwards I'm gonna,
43:31 I wanted a new covenant
43:32 and then Hebrews kind of tells you what that is,
43:34 is not a changing of the old.
43:36 It's taken the old awful stone and put it in your stony heart
43:40 and softening your heart.
43:41 So that the contractual obligations of the covenant
43:45 have not changed.
43:46 It's just that you don't have to read it and say,
43:48 "Okay, this is what I have to do, now it's inside."
43:50 You do it automatically
43:52 as a consequence of an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.
43:56 When Christ comes into your life,
43:58 those commandments are not grievous,
44:00 they're not hard,
44:01 there's something you want to do
44:03 because you want to please the God who gave them.
44:04 People say though don't they pastor
44:05 that this is the covenant of the New Testament.
44:08 It's a better covenant.
44:09 I say praise God in this sense, it is better
44:12 because it's ratified by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
44:14 That's the only different
44:16 rather than the blood of bulls and goats
44:18 which was sufficient.
44:19 Yeah. In the day before Christ.
44:21 By faith, you believe in that, sufficient covered your sins,
44:24 praise God, but it's beautiful when you think about it.
44:27 Nothing is different.
44:29 When people talk about the covenants new and old,
44:31 basically, because they really don't know
44:33 what they're talking about, may I just be bold.
44:35 If they did all you have to do
44:37 is look at what the old one said
44:39 and it really was not the first covenant.
44:41 Abraham had covenant, you know Moses had covenant.
44:43 But we're talking about how God was talking
44:44 so we go right down we look,
44:46 and we say just what you were saying everything.
44:48 Oh, it's identical but one is ratified
44:51 by the blood of Jesus.
44:52 That means everlasting, it means it's unchangeable,
44:54 it's there.
44:56 And that's why the Book of Hebrews was written,
44:58 it was written to Hebrew Christians,
44:59 so we're thinking, you know what,
45:01 maybe I got to go back into the system,
45:03 I'm kind of used to it, you know,
45:04 first of all the Jewish religion
45:07 at least was recognized by the Romans.
45:09 But this new Christianity thing is, is kind of a mess,
45:12 we're getting killed and slaughtered.
45:14 Maybe I need to slide on back into what I'm comfortable with
45:17 and Paul said, no, no, no, no, no
45:19 Jesus is the real deal.
45:22 Thank you. That's right.
45:23 A beside there is no other, so that this new covenant is,
45:27 is you have bulls and goats.
45:29 And he says it, "Really bulls and goats could never do--"
45:32 you know it's not, that's not,
45:33 the blood of bull could never wash away sin.
45:36 It was done in faith, that one day Christ would come,
45:39 and in His power,
45:40 truly cleanse you from your sin.
45:41 So you don't want to slide back because, if you slide back
45:44 there is no propitiation for your sin.
45:46 You got to stay right where you are.
45:47 And still faith do it.
45:49 Let me inject a scripture into that
45:50 what we've talked about here,
45:52 so that those who are watching the program
45:53 can understand what we're saying.
45:54 Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:12.
45:57 I got my finger on it, right.
45:59 Oh, man alive, see.
46:01 Hebrew 9, okay, let's go Hebrew 9:9,
46:05 and I got to get to this Romans very quickly,
46:08 speaking about the law.
46:09 "It was, it was symbolic for the present time
46:12 both gifts and sacrifices offered
46:15 which cannot make him who perform the service perfect
46:18 in regard to the conscience."
46:19 In other words, no matter how much blood he shed,
46:21 he knows he still messed up.
46:22 Can't do it, right.
46:24 "Concerned only with foods and drinks various washings
46:26 and fleshy ordinance imposed
46:29 until the time of refreshing or reformation."
46:32 But verse 11, "But Christ came,
46:35 as high priest of the good things to come.
46:37 But a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
46:40 not made with hands, that is not of this creation."
46:43 Verse 12,
46:44 "Not with the blood of goats and calves,
46:46 but with his own blood
46:47 he entered the most holy place once for all
46:50 having obtained eternal redemption."
46:52 And I like verse 13, 14.
46:53 "For if the blood of bulls and goats,
46:55 and the ashes of a heifer
46:57 sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
47:00 for the purring of the flesh,
47:01 how much more shall the blood of Christ
47:05 who through the eternal spirit,
47:06 offered himself without spot to God
47:09 purge your conscience from dead works
47:12 to serve the living God."
47:14 And then it says in verse 15, "And for this reason
47:18 he is the mediator of the new covenant."
47:21 Which is, "I will put my law in your minds
47:23 and write them on your heart."
47:25 Precisely. Did he get rid of it?
47:26 No, no, no.
47:27 He's the mediator of it, he says,
47:29 "Now, let me give you a new covenant."
47:30 I'm gonna tell you, I'm the one mediating that one.
47:32 If it's done away with, what is he mediating?
47:34 Exactly, so now go to Paul, real quickly Romans 7,
47:37 let's wrap this up.
47:38 Romans 7, we got to get this in here.
47:40 Praise God for this topic.
47:41 You know, we never thought
47:43 we could cover so many scriptures
47:44 in such short period of time.
47:46 Let me stop talking and read Romans verse 22:23.
47:49 Now, under this new covenant, this mediator now
47:52 that's done with the blood of bulls and goats,
47:54 and calves and heifers,
47:55 but his own blood, perfect blood,
47:57 perfect sacrifice, he was crucified, risen again,
48:00 he's alive, he's the mediator now of a better covenant,
48:05 which is now putting the law in my mind, into my heart.
48:07 But now Paul's, so where is the law?
48:09 In my mind and in my what? Heart.
48:11 Okay, now look at Paul, Romans 7:22,
48:13 pastor why don't you read that for us?
48:14 All right, here we go.
48:16 Romans 7:22,
48:17 "For I delight in the Law of God
48:19 according to the inward man.
48:21 Verse 23.
48:23 "But I see another law in my members,
48:26 warring against the law of my mind,
48:28 and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
48:31 which is in my members."
48:33 Exactly, so where is this war,
48:35 the law in his members was the law of sin and death,
48:39 is warning against the law of his mind.
48:41 Why the law of his mind?
48:42 Because that's where the Lord put it under the new covenant
48:44 in your mind, in your heart.
48:46 He said, "I delight in the law of God
48:49 according to the inward man."
48:50 I have no issues with it.
48:52 But when I look inside, I see another law.
48:56 The law of sin and death that's the nature.
48:58 That's the carnal Adam nature.
49:00 So here's the beauty of Christianity,
49:01 this is beautiful.
49:03 We're born again, we're born now
49:05 into the nature of the second Adam.
49:07 But we still have the flesh of the first Adam.
49:10 This is powerful, we've got the nature,
49:13 the pardoning grace of Jesus forgave our sins.
49:16 Each day we are being sanctified,
49:18 but there's one thing that's still hanging on,
49:21 the flesh of Adam.
49:23 We have to deal with this flesh of Adam
49:24 till we have the perfect body
49:26 that will be given at the coming of Jesus.
49:27 So the beauty of the Christian life
49:29 is in the imperfection of our flesh.
49:32 We can live in perfection to God's law.
49:35 By the spirit that abides within us.
49:37 Isn't that, isn't that divinity
49:39 and humanity blended together--
49:41 Now, you've got to Romans 8. Okay.
49:43 Now you got, now this is where Romans 8 comes in.
49:46 Romans 7:27,
49:47 read the last verse in Romans 7,
49:49 and then read Romans 8:1...
49:50 I know where you're going. Okay.
49:51 "So then, with my mind--
49:54 The context--
49:55 Paul says, "I messed up, but I need some hope."
49:58 Last verse Romans 7, first verse Romans 8.
50:00 "So then with my mind I myself serve the law of God,
50:05 but with the flesh," the law of sin, and that see,
50:08 if it was just written on tables of stone.
50:11 I could put the tables of stone down
50:12 and I'm done with this, I'm done with it.
50:15 But, but the war is not there anymore, it's in here.
50:17 No matter where I go, it's there.
50:19 Yeah, I can't get over from myself
50:20 because it's in there.
50:21 So I know, I know, I've read the Bible,
50:24 the Holy Spirit is convicting me of my sins.
50:26 I know and there's a battle.
50:29 What do I do? Well, free your self.
50:32 Amen. Finish verse 7, the last verse.
50:35 Romans 7, the last verse. Let me put my glasses on.
50:37 Hurry up. Free yourself.
50:39 "So then with my mind I serve myself the law of God.
50:42 But with the flesh the law of sin."
50:45 Okay. Thank God for Romans 8:1.
50:46 Amen. Yeah.
50:48 "There is therefore now no condemnation
50:52 to those who are in Christ Jesus,
50:57 who walk not according to the flesh,
50:59 but according to the Spirit."
51:01 And in verse 2 it's a powerful one,
51:02 can you read verse 2 quickly.
51:04 Now this law that was messing Paul up,
51:06 this law that was in him, this law of sin.
51:09 Look what the Lord did now,
51:10 when the Spirit of God comes in,
51:11 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ
51:15 Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and dead.
51:19 Now this law of sin, it's not the commandments,
51:21 it's the nature of humanity.
51:23 It's the thing that Adam was bound by,
51:26 and as an Adam all die even so in Christ,
51:28 all shall be made alive.
51:29 So Pastor Kenny, Pastor C.A.,
51:31 and those of you watching the program.
51:32 We've got the problem.
51:34 Our natural flesh is gonna mess us up every day.
51:36 But if we submit to the law of the spirit of life,
51:39 we could live in harmony with the law of God.
51:41 And Paul will say and then we can say like Paul did,
51:44 "I delight according to the law of God."
51:46 Amen, amen. So praise God.
51:47 "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
51:49 We can only do that by God's will.
51:50 Flesh has to die.
51:52 Flesh has to die to live in the Spirit of God.
51:54 John, you are so right.
51:55 And you know it occurs to me that
51:57 if one has not fostered a relationship with Jesus.
52:01 If you're not in Christ,
52:02 we just put you under a heavy burden.
52:04 Yeah, we've given you a task
52:06 that is impossible for you to do.
52:08 So if, if you haven't developed a relationship with Christ,
52:11 the first thing you need to do is get Jesus.
52:13 Amen.
52:14 And once you get Jesus, then we're speaking to you
52:17 because the Bible says, "When you are in Christ,
52:20 there is no condemnation."
52:21 "And if you're outside of Christ."
52:23 Yes. Condemnation.
52:25 So and not only is there condemnation is that,
52:27 the more you try, it's like though,
52:28 the further I try, the behind I get.
52:30 You can't, can't, cannot do it.
52:32 So we've got a newsbreak coming up,
52:35 then we're gonna come back with little closing thought,
52:36 kind of put a little bow on this.
52:38 This has been a very, very good and interesting discussion.
52:40 Amen.


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Revised 2016-05-26