Are you loving the Law of God? Do you see the beauty of the God's Law? Until we seek to conform our lives to the obedience of the Law we will never love it correctly. While the Law can never save us, it will lead us to repentance unto Christ. And turning to Christ, we love him and delight to obey his commandments.

Well, I bring you greetings from Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina It's so it's so good to be here. I'm So thankful to be in Arizona again. What a beautiful part of the world this is And thank you for allowing me to come and to be with you. It really has been a blessing. I'd like you to open up your Bibles to Psalm 119 and find verse 97.

That's Psalm 119 verse 97. And when you find that, I'd like you to put your finger there and also turn to Galatians chapter 3 verse 11. Galatians chapter 3 verse 11. So these two texts I'm going to read that will really form the basis of what I want to bring to us this morning. Psalm 119 verse 97 and Galatians 3 verse 11.

Psalm 119, 97. Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day You through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever be with me I have more understanding than all my teachers For your testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have not departed from your judgments for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

Through your precepts I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. This first text is speaking of the beauty and the loveliness of the law of God and then secondly in Galatians chapter 3 verse 11 but no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith yet the law is not of faith but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

These two texts on the law will really form many of the things that I want to try to bring to us this morning, but could we pray before we begin to speak of them? Oh Lord, that you would come and that you would enliven our hearts for things that are true, that you would take the words of scripture and drive them deep within our hearts and that they would make us alive in ways maybe they haven't we haven't been That you would protect us from thinking wrongly about your law That you would come Lord and exalt your son Jesus Christ the one who kept every law for us so that we might be preserved from the condemnation and the curses of the law. Lord we thank you that you have given us such marvelous things for our souls. And I pray now that you would help me to glorify your Son, to praise you for your wonderful kingdom, and to say, oh, how I love your law. And Lord, that You would give us all such a heart within us, that we might fear You and keep all Your commandments, that it might be well with us and with our children forever.

Amen. Well, you as a church have been part of a reform movement in the church over the past several years that has sought to return to some of the basic elements that have really dropped off the radar screen in modern evangelicalism. And essentially, you've returned to a very important understanding. And it's the understanding that Scripture is sufficient, That scripture is the guide, that God leads his church through his word and through his word alone. And you've also, as you've done that, you've recognized that it's very difficult to do that because it does two things.

It confronts so much in you and it also offends so much in others when you turn to Scripture and Scripture alone because it really confronts man's autonomy. And that's always a problem when you confront man's autonomy. And it also contradicts an antinomian age, an age that is antinomian against the law of God. And so it's troublesome to do that, it's a hard road to travel because the modern church today has a confused view of the law of God, actually a very low view of the law of God and is predominantly at this time antinomian. And so we have a difficulty in church life and family life and every part of our lives when we have recovered what has been a historic reformed understanding of the law of God and its complementary relationship with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that God brings us to things And we have a hard time because we can only think one way about the law of God, rather than to think in a way that's harmonious with all of scripture.

It's easy to quote one verse about the law of God, but it's a little bit more difficult, but actually more wonderful, to look at all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation to see what God has said about it. Now, I know that you're a church that's going through the book of Deuteronomy. And as a result, you're dealing with the law of God. And what I'd like to do this morning is to speak of how to look at the law of God since you're in the midst of doing such a thing. And I know that there are a few things that are more misunderstood than the relationship between the law of God and the grace of God.

And I'd like to somehow take us through a process to pull back maybe from the book of Deuteronomy and see the law of God through a number of other lenses. And what I'd like to do is I'd like to give you five ways to use the law lawfully. The apostle Paul said to Timothy that the law is good if only if you use it lawfully. And so the law of God must be used lawfully. And I want to give you five ways, and I want to give them to you right up front and then take them one by one.

And I hope this will be a blessing to you, particularly as you continue in your studies in scripture as you go forward in the church. Five ways to use the law lawfully. First of all, if you're going to use the law lawfully, whatever you call your view of the law, at least say what Jesus said about the law. Say what the apostles said about the law. The second thing is understand what it means to be free from the law.

Number three, know how to interpret the law. And I'm going to give you nine things to ask about every law of God. And then number four, understand the continuity of the Old and the New Testaments. And number five, Make sure you fulfill the Great Commission because the law of God is in the Great Commission. So, five ways to use the law lawfully.

So the first way to use the law lawfully is to say what Jesus and the apostles said about the law. I love how Thomas Watson spoke about the goodness and the beauty of the law of God. He said this, quote, Scripture is a mirror to show us our sins. Christ's blood is a fountain to wash them away. And essentially, that summarizes what Christ and the apostle said about the law of God and as well as as the prophets.

And so let's talk about that. Let's talk about what Jesus said about the law. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, Jesus said, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will not pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever, but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So whatever you're you call your view about the law, just make sure that you say the same thing about the law that Jesus did. You'll find yourself on solid ground. Think about the Apostle Paul.

What did the Apostle Paul say about the law? In Romans chapter 7, he said, I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. In other words, Paul was just like David, who said, oh, how I love thy law. Paul delighted in the law of God and the inward man. In First Timothy 1.8, I quoted this earlier, but that we know that the law is good.

So the law is good. If one uses it lawfully. Or he said in Romans chapter 8, he tells us that he really believed that only that only the carnal did not subject themselves to the law of God. You have people say, I'm not going to subject myself to the law of God. Well, Paul says that just means that you're full of carnality.

He said in Romans 8, seven, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So it's a sign of carnality to reject the law of God. In Romans 13, verse eight, Paul said that he who loves another has fulfilled the law. So you can see the law actually working every day in church life when people love one another. You know, one of the one of the most wonderful parts of being part of a church is it's a community of love.

You can always tell when The law is rejected because people don't love each other. Because the law teaches you what it means to love. I don't know if you've noticed that the meanest people in the world are the people who've rejected the law of God. The reason is because they're not governed by an external testimony. They operate according to the carnality of their heart and they're not governed by God.

In Galatians chapter 2 verse 6, we read that the law is not against the promises of God. In Galatians chapter 3 11 we learn that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God for the just shall live by faith. So you have to recognize that that the obedience to any part of any law has nothing to do with your justification. You cannot be saved by keeping the law. It cannot add anything to your account.

In Galatians chapter 3 verse 20 we learn that the law is our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. In Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 the Apostle Paul said that the Old Testament saints were never justified by the law but by faith. He said, yes indeed I count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection you know Abraham was was justified by faith not by the law Abraham lived hundreds of years before the law was given. There was no way he could have been justified by keeping the law. He didn't have the law the way that Moses delivered it.

He was justified by faith and by faith alone. In Romans chapter three, we learn that the law and the faith are not contrary to one other. In fact, faith establishes the law. In Romans Chapter eight, verses one through four, we read that for what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did by the sending of his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on the count of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

So the apostle Paul says a lot about the law of God. Whatever you whatever position you think you take about the law, make sure that you say the same things that the apostle Paul says about the law. How about how about James? How about James, the apostle, James, chapter two, verse 10? For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of them all.

In other words, no one has ever really been able to keep the law of God, because if you stumble in one single point, you've broken every law. So none stand before God in any way to be justified by the law, because we cannot keep the law. John, the apostle John, said this in John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. And what he was saying is that it's love that comes first. If you love me, then you will keep my commandments.

The keeping of the commandments is a result of love. You know, you can keep the commandments out of some form of fleshly obligation, but that doesn't, but that doesn't really stand before God. But if you love him. You will keep his commandments, so it's a sign of love for God. John said that that loving God and law keeping are inseparable.

In 1 John chapter 2 verses 4 and 5, he said, he who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in him. In other words, we know that we are in him because we keep his commandments.

We are not we are not in him because we keep his commandments, but we know we are in him because we keep this commandments. There's a vast difference between those two things. In John, in 1 John 3 verse 4, we learn that sin is antinomianism. It is lawlessness, the exact word, anomia in the Greek language. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is antinomianism.

It is lawlessness. It is against the law of God. John also tells us that law keeping shows that you abide in Him. In 1 John 3.24, he said, Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him, And by this we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. Well, that's the testimony of the New Testament.

How about David? He spoke of the perfection of the law. He said, the law of the Lord is perfect in Psalm 19. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold.

Yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. By them is thy servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward so whatever your view of the law is just make sure you say the same thing that David said about the law you'll be on solid ground in Psalm 2 David's in Psalm 1 verse 2 David said Happy is the man who keeps the law. If you go to his son Solomon, Solomon in Proverbs chapter 28 says some of the most astonishing things about the law that really should be terrifying to anyone who has really rejected the law of God. In Proverbs 28, verse four, what he what Solomon says is that when you forsake the law, it puts you on the side of the wicked.

He said in Proverbs 28 for those who forsake the law, praise the wicked. So if you forsake the law, you're just praising the wicked. But he says such as keep the law contend with them. In other words, keeping the law is actually engaging in the battle against evil. It's contending with the wicked.

You know, God has called his people to contend at the gates with the wicked. And one of the ways that the church contends with the wicked in the society is by keeping the law. But if you forsake the law, you quit contending with the wicked. We are in a battle. We are soldiers in a war.

And it's important that we understand how we wage that war. We wage that war with the word of God, with the sword of the spirit, with the word of truth and law and the word of grace and mercy, both held together at the same time we use the law to terrify of sin and to drive to Christ and we use the law to constrain our evil and to show us what pleases God. Solomon also said in that same chapter, he said that keeping the law makes you a discerning son. He said in verse 7, whoever keeps the law is a discerning son. But one of the most remarkable things that Solomon says about the law is that he says this in verse 9 of Proverbs 28.

He says, one who turns his ear from hearing the Law. Even his prayer is an abomination. You know, you might have friends who say that they don't need the Law of God at all. You need to tell them that if they really have taken that position, then their prayers are an abomination before God. You need to tell them that.

They're on dangerous ground because they're not thinking, they're not thinking biblically about the law of God. They're thinking in a fleshly way. In Proverbs chapter 13, verse 13, we know that there's a reward for fearing the commandment. Where he says, He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded. And Proverbs 29, 18 says, happy is he who keeps the law, Proverbs 6, 23 says, the commandment is a lamp and the law alight, reproofs and instruction are the way of life.

That's what that's what Solomon said about the law. So whatever whatever you want to call your view of the law, make sure you say the same thing that Solomon said about the law. Or how about Moses? Moses says that love is summed up in the law. Love is a command of the law.

And if you call people to love one another, you're calling them to keep the law. Anytime the preacher stands and says, brothers and sisters, love one another from the heart, Be tender hearted, be compassionate toward one another. Forgive one another, bear one another's burdens. Whenever you read that in your Bible or whenever the pastors of the church stand up and appeal to you to love, They are asking you to keep the law of God. Because every law is the law of God.

In Leviticus chapter 10, Moses says that the law helps you discern between good and evil. He said this in verse 10 of Leviticus 10. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean. And you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses because knowing the law helps you to know how to discern what's going on around you in the world. It helps you to distinguish between light and darkness.

It helps you discern between what's good and bad This is why fathers need to know the law because that way they'll they'll be able to distinguish between good and evil when it comes Up in their children and in their own hearts as they're raising their children But Moses says it'll help you distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and therefore you should teach the Israelites the decrees of the Lord. If you go to the prophets, you'll find the prophets are constantly speaking about the downfall, the spiritual, the moral, the personal, the relational downfall, the devastation that happens when the law of God is rejected. The prophets stand up and they always say the same thing, Return to God and His law. You've set aside the law of God. Return, return.

That's the voice of the prophet. Hosea said in Hosea 4, verse 4, he said, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you've rejected knowledge. Because you've rejected knowledge, I reject you. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Because you have forgotten the law of God, I will also forget your children.

It terrifies me to see Christians running around saying that they just that they do not need the law of God because when I look into their eyes, I know that it means that God will be rejecting their children. God makes a vow in Hosea four. That when you forget the law of God, he will forget your children, he will destroy them. That's a terrifying outcome. It's a terrifying thing to reject what God says is holy, just and good.

That's what Paul said about the law. In Hosea chapter 8 verse 12, He said this, I have written for him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing. You know, the law is a strange thing to people today, you know, you are going through the book of Deuteronomy here at Heritage Baptist Church, you read the law and you think, oh, this is so strange to my ears. And what happens when you read the law of God, and it happens to everyone, They're offended. You're offended by the law of God.

Because it offends your sense of justice. You say, no, that's not just. It offends your sense of love. You say, no, that's not loving. But no, The problem is not with the law of God.

The problem is with the corruption of our hearts. When we read the law of God on a defense, it's us. We need to recognize what's happening. What's happening is that the corruption of our own hearts is being revealed. And God is showing us just how wicked and corrupt and ungodly we are, how our minds have been twisted.

Our sense of love, our sense of justice has been so mangled by the world. We've been so conformed by the world. When we read a law of God, It offends us. And the problem is not with the law. The problem is with us and our hearts.

And it's designed to correct us and reform us to change our thinking about everything. So when a law of God offends you, recognize this. The problem is not with God. It's that we have been so corrupted by this world. So the first way that you use the law lawfully is that you say the same things that Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul and the rest of the apostles and the prophets and the Lawgiver Himself.

Find yourself saying those same things and you can stand firmly upon them. The second way that you use the law lawfully is you understand what it means to be free from the law. What does it mean to be free from the law? What does it mean when Paul said you're not under law, but under grace? What does that mean?

If you don't understand that, you can't really understand the law. So what does it mean to be free from the law? In Romans chapter 6 verse 4 we read that we have been freed from the slavery to sin. What shall we say then in Romans 6? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Certainly not. How shall we who die to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? And then if you skip to verse seven, he says, for he who has died has been freed from sin. And then he says in verse 11, Likewise, you reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And in verse 14, he says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So what does that mean? Well, one of the best explanations of what this means is found in the confession that this church embraces, the Baptist Confession of 1689. In chapter 21 of that confession, it's a chapter on Christian liberty and of conscience. And it explains what does it mean to be free from the law.

And here's what paragraph one says. The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God and the severity of the curse of the law. So those three things are mentioned first. It means that you're free from guilt. It means that you're free from the condemning wrath of God and from the severity of the curse of the law.

In other words, Jesus Christ has protected you from the from the wrath of Almighty God. That's what it means to be free from the curses of the law. And the apostle Paul quotes the Deuteronomy. In Galatians, Chapter three, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, He's talking about the curses that were laid upon Jesus Christ to relieve you from being a recipient of the wrath of God and being destroyed by it. The confession continues, you're also being delivered from this present evil world, from the bondage of Satan, from the dominion of sin, from evil afflictions, from the sting of death, from the victory of the grave and of everlasting damnation.

And the confession also says, as also in their free access to God and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but childlike love and a willing mind, all which were common to believers under the law for the substance of them. But under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law to which the Jewish church was subjected and in greater boldness and access to the throne of grace and in fuller communications of the free spirit of God than believers under the law did ordinarily partake. In other words, the writers of the confession said that you're free from the condemnation of the law and the fear of that condemnation on the one hand. And also you're free from the bondage of the ceremonial law. And God has poured out his spirit and there's a new way of worship, better promises, a better covenant and more power against sin as as as the power of sin and death is broken by Jesus Christ.

So there's much more given to the New Testament believer in the law. So you have to understand what it means. To be free from the law. The third way you use the law lawfully is you have to know how to interpret the law. You have to know how to interpret every law.

Now, I'm going to give you nine questions that you should ask of every law. You're going through Deuteronomy now. As you go through each law, ask these questions and you'll understand what God is saying. Now, there are some laws that are more difficult to understand than others. God gives us laws that bend our minds and cause us to search the scriptures, and we often don't understand them because we don't understand scripture very well.

Because we've not nourished our minds in scripture. We don't know the word of God well enough, and so we don't make the right connections. So we're all like babes growing up to learn how to understand scripture. So if you don't understand the law of God, it may be because of the corruption and wickedness of your heart, it may be because you just don't know God well enough and you've not studied the scriptures. It may be because it's one of those very complex things that bends our minds like sovereignty of God.

But here are these nine questions that you should ask. Number one, what does this law reveal about the heart and character and nature of God. Because every law will tell you something about God. Learn of God. What does it say about the heart and the character and the nature of God?

Question number two. What kind of law is it? There are three different kinds of laws in the Old Testament. And none of these laws are contrary to the gospel. In fact, they are all designed to drive you to Christ and to embrace his gospel.

The three kinds and so that the law and the gospel harmonize, but what kind of law is it? There are there are three kinds of laws? There are ceremonial laws. God was pleased to give ceremonial laws. And they passed away as a result of the coming of the Messiah, They were the shadow of the good things to come.

Is it a judicial law? That's the second kind of law, is it is it a law that governs society? Most of the laws in in Deuteronomy are judicial laws. God gave Moses his law to govern his people, Israel, and so most of the laws in Deuteronomy are judicial laws, but they all also point to Christ. You know, one of the wonderful things about going through the book of Deuteronomy, I preached through Deuteronomy a few years ago, is that Jesus Christ is pointed to on every page of Deuteronomy.

It was so wonderful. You cannot study Deuteronomy without studying Jesus Christ on every page. But there are judicial laws. Now, the Baptist confession explains this with clarity, how you understand them. He says, God gave Israel judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general equity only being more of moral use.

The judicial laws were suspended when Israel was conquered. And so what happened, what how you properly understand the judicial laws is you recognize that they were given to Israel specifically for Israel, but they were but they are of moral use today. In other words, they all have something to say. It would be wrong to look at a judicial law of Israel and to say that's a bad law. No.

It was a law of God. It was a law that was given by Jesus Christ for his people. And we should never be found saying this is a bad law. They are all good laws. They came from God.

They were God breathed. And let not anyone say that they are unjust or unloving laws. But our perspective is that they that their moral equity. Needs to be understood. Because they do bear witness to the heart of God.

You know, there's a wonderful article that Charles Spurgeon wrote many years ago called The Perpetuity of the Law of God, and he speaks of these matters. Just go ahead and Google it, The Perpetuity of the law of God by Charles Spurgeon, or just put Spurgeon and the law, it will come right up. But you'll see with clarity how this understanding exists. Charles Spurgeon embraced the Baptist confession of 1689 as his confession and the confession of his church. So.

So is it a ceremonial law, is it a judicial law, or is it a moral law? Those are the three kinds of laws. Paragraph five of the confession says the moral law does forever bind all. In other words, the moral law of God is eternal. And so you should ask yourself, is it a moral law or is it a judicial law Or is it a ceremonial law?

Now, you will find moral law existing in ceremonial law, and you will also find some moral law existing in judicial law. You'll notice that as you go through. You'll say, oh, that is a moral law. The rest of scripture makes it very clear. If you look at those laws from Scripture as a whole, you'll see how those laws are repeated and explained and illustrated in different ways.

And so you'll notice that some judicial laws really are moral laws in their heart, in their core. So look for that as you go through. So the third question or the second question you ask is, what kind of law is it? Moral, judicial or ceremonial. Here's the third question.

Who is given responsibility to carry it out? Who is given the jurisdiction to carry out this law? This is really important. When it comes to murder in the law, who is given the jurisdiction to carry it out? The individual?

No. The church? No. The civil government? Yes.

The punishment of murders is not given to individuals or churches. The church doesn't bear the sword, it bears the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Preaches the gospel, it baptizes, And it does discipline. The teaching of children in the law is given to fathers. Fathers teach your children when you sit in your house, when you walk, by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up.

The instruction of children is always given to fathers. That's the jurisdiction. You have to ask, who is the law? Who is given the responsibility to carry it out? The capital crimes are never in the hands of individuals.

There are witnesses and there are various other authorities involved. But you have to ask who is given the responsibility to carry out this law. That'll clarify many of the laws of the Old Testament for you. Here's a fourth question. How is it fulfilled in Christ?

So when you encounter a law, think how is Jesus Christ fulfilled it, how has he become a living picture of it? How has he spoken of it? I mean, you see this brilliantly illustrated in the Sermon on the Mount, where the Lord Jesus is really doing exposition on the law. And he says, remember the law of adultery? Let me do exposition on it.

Let me tell you what that meant. The law about murder in Deuteronomy. Here, let me tell you about that. The law regarding adultery. Let me tell you about that.

Jesus is doing exposition on the law, and he's actually giving you more than what Moses told you about the law. And he and the Lord, Jesus makes it very clear that the law is not wooden, It's a lie that applies to everything. He said, don't think of the law against adultery in a wooden way. Don't think that it just means that if you lie with someone, not your wife, you've committed adultery. No, it begins in the heart.

He says, don't think of murder as just stabbing someone. Murder is far, far more broad than that. It's not, the law is not wooden. It goes into the very inmost part of your being. The law comes in and convicts you of many things in your heart.

And so you can't just because you haven't stabbed or shot or murdered anyone doesn't mean that you're not a murderer. Because murder is deeper, it's broader than just killing someone. Because the law is alive, it's not wooden. And it's meant to apply to the deepest part of your soul and all of your thinking. It's meant to unmask your sin and to terrified your sin, to draw it, to drive you to Jesus Christ and to help you to understand what pleases him.

So you have to ask, how is it fulfilled in Christ? Here's a fifth question. How does it explain love? How does this law illustrate love? Because every law of God is a law of love.

And if you don't like that law, it means you don't like love. How's that? In Galatians, chapter five, verse 13, the apostle Paul said, for you, brethren, have been called to liberty, but only only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. And in verse 14, he drops the hammer and he says, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So every law is fulfilled in love.

One word sums up everything. Love toward God, love toward your neighbor. One word. So you should always ask, how is this a law of love? And you'll find yourself in a lifelong journey.

Of learning how to love. This is one of the things that God has for His children is to teach them how to love. And He does so many things to teach you how to love. He gives you His law. He gives you His church where love is always challenged.

He gives you a husband and he gives you a wife to teach you how to love. He gives you children to teach you how to love. He gives you a job and authorities and he puts you in a state and he's always he's always giving you some something some tool in His hand to teach you how to love. Every law is a law of love. Here's the sixth question.

How does it reveal sin? Because the law is also given to reveal your sin. Paragraph six in the Baptist Confession speaks of this, I just encourage you to look at it. Romans 6, 13 says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, yet you are not under law but under grace. And then he goes on and speaks of the fact that we cannot despise the law, but let it tell us who we really are.

Paul also says that the law inflames sin. It actually makes you sin. It not only reveals it, it also stirs it up in you. Because it reveals it in a particular way. Here's a seventh question.

What's the applicability of the law? How am I supposed to apply this law? You know, you should ask, how does it, how should this law affect my conscience? What's, what are the implications of this law on my behavior? How should it change my behavior?

Because it's meant to change you. Or, how is this supposed, How is this supposed to be put to work in my marriage or in my home life or my work life? Because only God is worthy To build your conscience to to create your conscience You know our consciences are seared from sin and our conscience is sort of have to be renewed And we renew our conscience by the washing of the water, the word of God. So let your conscience be built by the law of God. If you let your conscience be built by your own self, then you'll find yourself in a pathway of increasing corruption.

But if your conscience is built by the law of God, then you'll be continually cleansing your conscience. Question number eight. What happens when this law is ignored in these areas? What happens when this law is ignored in my family? What happens when this law is ignored in our church?

What happens when this law is ignored in the state? And then ask, have I ignored it? You know, if you if you ask if you ask this question, you'll you'll get tremendous insight on what's going on around you. And the real reasons for things, why things are going wrong. Because the law can teach you to discern what is really going on in your nation, in your family, and in your church.

Question number 9. How does this law exalt the gospel? How does this law exalt the gospel? Because every law is not only a law of love, it always exalts the gospel because it shows the hopelessness of man to keep the law. It always exalts the grace of God.

It always stands as a testimony to the love of God in Christ Jesus, where all the curses of the law were laid upon Him. He hung upon a tree. And all of the wrath of God that you deserved, all of the curse of the law that you deserved was laid on Jesus Christ. So every law is also a reason to exalt the grace of God in the Gospel. So let it not be that anyone ever thinks of the law of God without considering the beauty of the Gospel, the desperate state of our souls in sin, how hopelessly lost we are, how we've broken every law, how we're just like James, even if we could keep the whole law, if we break one, we've broken them all.

Because they're all interrelated, by the way. They're interconnected. And they're interconnected to this one word, love. And so by breaking anything regarding love, you've broken all the commandments, because all the commandments are laws of love. So those are the questions to ask about the law of God.

If you want to use the law of God lawfully, ask those questions. The fourth way to use the law lawfully is to understand the continuity of the Old and the New Testaments. And we have to think rightly about our Bibles. There are some people who only have appreciation for the red letters in the Bible, the letters of Jesus Christ. There are some who believe that only the New Testament is applicable today.

Is that what Jesus said? Is that what the apostles said? No, that is not what they said at all. In fact, if you if you read your Bible, you learn that every word of the Bible is a word of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is himself the word of God.

Jesus Christ wrote the Old and the New Testament. Jesus Christ breathed his word. Spurgeon said this, the whole of the sacred scriptures from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation is the word of Jesus Christ. So every single word of the Old Testament is the Word of Jesus Christ. The fifth way to use the law lawfully is to fulfill the Great Commission.

Because you cannot fulfill the Great Commission without a proper use of the law. In Matthew 28, verses 16-18, the Lord Jesus Christ delivers the Great Commission. And you see the transforming influence of the power of God as the gospel is preached all over the world. And the disciples of Jesus Christ are commanded to do something in the Great Commission. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.

We are to go into the all the world. And baptize and to teach all things that Jesus Christ commanded. So you can't fulfill the Great Commission unless you teach all things that Christ commanded and all things that Christ commanded are found from Genesis to Revelation. So you cannot fulfill the Great Commission unless you teach the law of God And you teach them to obey all things that He has commanded. In other words, you can't fulfill the Great Commission unless you teach people to obey.

To fulfill the Great Commission is to teach people to obey the law of God. So you can't even fulfill the Great Commission without teaching the law of God and and and calling people to obey it. So there's there's first of all, in the Great Commission, there's the activity, it's teaching. And secondly, there's the requirement to observe or to obey. And the third is the content is all things that he has commanded.

These are the things that we must do. We must teach to obey. And the Lord Jesus Christ uses a word, obey, to obey, to observe, terrao. It occurs 60 times in the New Testament. And it's a word that he uses not just about the delivery of information, but but actually the transformation of life.

Jesus desires an obedient church, obedient to what? To his word, To His laws. Jesus desires an obedient church. You know, preaching obedience has fallen on hard times today. We live in a toleration generation and people want preachers who don't call to obedience.

And the moment they make demands, they're called legalists. It's the spirit of the Pharisees, you know, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent. And we have to ask ourselves, is calling for obedience legalism? Because in so many people's minds, if you call for obedience, you get called a legalist. But Jesus Christ in the Great Commission, if that's true, then he's calling his people to be legalists because he commands his disciples to teach them to obey all things that I've commanded.

And let's be clear, Jesus is not a legalist And Jesus isn't calling His disciples to be legalists, but He is calling His disciples to teach to obey. This is Jesus Christ's vision for His church, that He would have an obedient church. You know, I know there are a number of church leaders here. You know, and the question in your mind and in your people's mind is, hey, what's the vision of this church? But one of the visions of Jesus for his church is that he would have an obedient church.

You know, people often ask me in our church, what's your vision for the church? And one of the first things that comes to my mind is that the vision for Jesus for His church is to have an obedient church. So I pray that we have an obedient people. So that means we have to call for obedience. And we have to define it.

A Christ-centered church is a holy church. It's a praying church. It's a fearless church. A Christ-centered church is a happy church. It's a church full of love.

It's a church full of grace, but it's also an obedient church at the same time. And honestly, you can't have one without the other. You can't have an obedient church unless you have a praying church. You can't have a loving church unless you have an obedient church. You know, this is not my personal vision.

You know, the Bible says that obedience is a sign of eternal salvation. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9 it says that Jesus became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Obedience is a fruit of repentance. Revelation chapter 3 verse 3 and 4 says, remember Therefore, you who have received and heard, hold fast and repent." Obedience also shows you that you love Him. John 14.15 says, if you love Me, you'll keep My commandments.

Obedience shows that you're loved by your Father. John 14.21 says, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love Him and manifest Myself to Him. Jesus says that if you keep His commandments, He will manifest Himself to you. Isn't that amazing?

You know, the people who say I don't have anything to do with the commandments of God. I don't need obedience. What that means for them is that Jesus won't be manifesting Himself to them. What a sad way to live in this world. Obedience is a condition of abiding in His love in John 15, verses 9 through 14.

Verse 10, Jesus says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Obedience is also a sign that Jesus Christ is your friend. In John 15, verse 14, Jesus says, you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Obedience is a mark of discipleship. In John 17, 16, Jesus says, I've manifested your name to the men whom you've given me out of the world.

They were yours. You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Obedience causes you never to see death in John 8 51. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. So one of the elements of the Great Commission is obedience, to teach all things that I have commanded you.

This refutes the limited reductionist view of evangelism that says that you're fulfilling the Great Commission if you deliver the gospel message and wait for the rapture. No, to fulfill the Great Commission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to baptize and to teach them to obey all things that I've commanded. By the way, It takes a long time to do that because our obedience comes slow, doesn't it? It's a progressive process of sanctification. Notice that the Great Commission assumes the gospel, It doesn't really even speak of it.

It speaks of what happens when you embrace the Gospel. So, the Great Commission is comprehensive. All things. You teach all things. All of His commands, all of His principles, all of His counsels.

That means that you, in the Great Commission, you say what He says about sin and salvation and judgment, and the family and marriage and purity and modesty and work and everything. That's how you fulfill the Great Commission. You speak of all things which he's commanded, you deliver the whole counsel of God. That includes the laws of God. Here's what Charles Spurgeon said.

What is God's law now? It is not above the Christian, It is under a Christian. Some men hold God's law like a rod in terror over Christians and say, if you sin you'll be punished with it. It is not so. The law is under a Christian.

It is for him to walk on, to be his guide, his rule, his pattern. We are not under the law, but under grace. The law is the road which guides us, not the rod which drives us, nor the spirit which actuates us. The law is good and excellent if it keeps its place. And so I commend you to the ways that, the five ways that you would use the law of God lawfully.

One, say what Jesus and the apostles and the prophets said about the law. Number two, understand what it means to be free from the law. Number three, know how to interpret the law by asking the right questions of it. Number four, understand the continuity of the Old and the New Testaments. And number five, fulfill the Great Commission.

You know, the law has so many wonderful uses. It shows you who you really are. It exposes the corruption. It even inflames sin in you to drive you to Jesus Christ. To me, the most wonderful use of the law is that it drives me to Jesus Christ and it drove me to Christ for salvation.

It showed me that all people are born with inborn sin. And there was a stain that nothing could take away that I'd broken all the laws of God. But Jesus Christ was born, born sinless, stainless, And he kept every law. He kept the law for me. He did what I could not do.

And as a result of his keeping the law, the very best of him was laid on me and the very worst of me was laid on him. And he died on a cross and his and my sins were transferred to him, he was made sin for me. And he imputed his righteousness. And he made this great exchange of righteousness, his righteousness for my corruption, And that opened a door. It opened a door to heaven.

To be before a holy God. And it made the sinner able. To stand before God. Boldly before the throne of His grace. And there was the Lamb of God, the sin bearing Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who is the substitute. Who was the substitutionary atonement, fulfilling all of the Old Testament ceremonial law. And he took sinful man and holy God and brought them together, and he actually made A reconciliation between God and man. And he made it so that the wrath of God did not rest upon man. And he protected from the curses of the law and made us free from the curses of the law.

And he made peace. Between rebels. And a holy God satisfying the wrath of God through the punishment of his son. Redeeming us from slavery, from sin, like buying us back off the slave market. To be redeemed, to be bought, to have a price paid for our sin and the whole riches of Jesus Christ being bequeathed upon us so that we're now rich in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Immeasurable riches. Grace greater than all of our sin. Transferred to our account as if in our bank accounts poured hundreds of millions, trillions, quadrillions of dollars to offset all of our liabilities, to come and take care of all of your liabilities, all of the liabilities of the past, every sin of the past, every murder and adultery and theft in your heart and in your life. Every murder and theft and adultery in your heart now. And every sin of the future.

And yet, it was overwhelmed by the riches of the mercies of Jesus Christ, justified by faith, pardoned, no condemnation, ransomed to make us free who call upon his name. And not only ransomed once. But ransomed forever, finished him saying it is finished. Crucified, buried, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, so that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. That those who had no hope would have hope.

Those who had refused would not be refused. But if you do refuse the Gospel, you will be destroyed. And all the curses of the law will be laid upon you. And you will be deprived of all of the riches of the glory of the mercies of Jesus Christ if you do not turn and repent. But if you hear His voice, His voice that says today is the day of salvation, and you come to Him, and you hear the voice of Jesus who says, Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me and you'll find rest for your souls. Come to Me. Be washed. Be clean. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they be as crimson, they shall be as White as wool. Say to the Lord, I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me. Say, oh, how I love Thy law. It's my meditation all the day.

Say to Him, I believe in You. I repent. I receive You. I obey You. Let the churches of Jesus Christ uphold the law of God for the glory of the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ, that there would not be a single proud person in the church who thinks that somehow by some law keeping, they're better than any person in the church.

Let not any person think that their sanctification buys them any favor before God. Let's not have a proud church, but a church who loves the law of God and basks in the mercies and the grace of the free love of Jesus Christ. Let's have repentant churches. Let's have humble churches who love the law of God. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, that You would teach us Your ways in this heavenly journey. That You would give us hearts to hear and ears, minds to understand. Oh Lord, I pray for the people here in this church that You would bless them. That You would help them to say, oh, how I love Thy law, and that You would give such testimonies of Your love in these churches. Amen.