In the sermon titled 'The Law: a Faithful Friend' by Mike Davenport, the speaker explores the significance of the law within the Christian faith. Focusing on Titus 2:11-14, Davenport discusses the threefold use of the law as a mirror reflecting God's perfection and human sinfulness, as a restraint of evil, and as a guide to what pleases God. He emphasizes that the law, while not a means of justification, remains a vital rule of life for believers, directing them to live in accordance with God's will. Davenport reiterates that the law does not conflict with the grace of the gospel but rather complements it by teaching believers to live righteously. He warns against viewing the law as a means to earn salvation, instead advocating for understanding it as a guide to living out the Christian faith in obedience and love. The sermon encourages believers to embrace the law as a 'faithful friend' that enriches their spiritual journey.

If you would turn in the scriptures to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. Titus 2 verses 11 through 14. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works." Let's look to the Lord in prayer as we begin. Gracious God, we come to you solely in the name of Jesus Christ, through his blood and through his righteousness, therefore boldly approaching you.

Lord, we ask that you would hear our cries to come and to shepherd us, even as we sang earlier, that you would shepherd us, your people, that you would feed us today. Prepare a table for us, even in the presence of our enemies, and lead us by those gentle waters, that we may drink deeply of your grace and your love today. Father, help us as we open your Word. Show us marvelous things. Give us hearts to embrace them.

And may we worship you, the triune God, with all of our being throughout all of this day. We pray in Christ's holy name, amen. You may be seated. Well, many in this place had the privilege just three days ago to attend the wedding of a young man and a young lady from this congregation. Many of us, if not most of us, were there to witness the vows, witness the exchange of the rings, the token of those vows.

And then afterward, we heard the loud and clear announcement, and I now present to you Mr. And Mrs. Adam Short. With that fresh reminder in mind, I would like for you this morning to envision a married couple. Unlike this couple who have now been married three days.

The couple I want you to think about have been married for 35 years. Their kids are grown, gone, and they are now grandparents of 12 marvelous grandchildren. And let's say that you and your family have been invited over to this couple's house for dinner one evening. And as you're seated there around the table, this wonderful hostess getting the last things in place, takes a seat there beside her husband. And during the meal, looks over to him intently, looks in his eyes and says, Dear, I hope that you notice that this is your favorite meal that I'm serving tonight.

And I also have your favorite dessert for later this evening. Earlier today I picked up your dress shirts from the laundromat and your prescriptions from the pharmacy. And when I got home before I started dinner, I washed your car and vacuumed out the interior. What would you think of this woman? You would come away thinking that this woman surely loves this man.

But what if the next words out of her mouth directed to her husband were, can I now be your wife? I hope that you would be shocked, somewhat alarmed. I mean, you were there the day they got married 35 years ago. You were there when they said their vows. You were there when they exchanged the rings.

You were there when they became mister and missus. They became husband and wife that very instant, and have remained so ever since. Well, if you were sitting there and you would witness the first part of that, you would have rightly assumed that this woman loves this man, and the love for this man showed itself in kindness. It was the natural outflow of a relationship that was established 35 years ago and not some attempt to earn a standing, to earn a place. Well, there are people in this world that approach the Christian life much the same way that this woman approached her actions toward her husband.

Can I now be your wife? Sinclair Ferguson in a sermon on faith alone said, the moment I think as a Christian believer that God accepts me because of my level of sanctification, that's the moment I've begun to destroy the gospel. We have sought in preceding weeks to show that our relationship with God is not established on our own righteousness. It's not established on what we do. I hope that's clear.

I hope that's clear. Today I would like for us to note how the actions of this wife toward her husband in the story I gave is rather a proper response to a relationship already established and already secure. I would hope we would not hear any of that, at least that last part, can I now be your wife? I hope we would never hear that. May it not be so in our Christian life.

The title of today's message is The Law, A Faithful Friend. The Law, A Faithful Friend. You see, for the new covenant believer, the law is a faithful friend. That which was our schoolmaster, our tutor, has become our best friend. Reform teaching with the authority and the application of Scriptures holds forth what has come to be known as the threefold use of the law.

You can find this in the handout provided to you. In those three purposes of the law are described like this. First, the first use or the first purpose of the law is to be a mirror. In this mirror, we see the reflection of two unalterable truths. We see who God is in His perfection, in His unchanging righteousness, but we also see in that mirror a reflection of who we are at our very root, the nature, who we are by nature.

We see both the measure of righteousness and we see our utter failure to measure up to it. And these two reflections, what do they do? They point us to the only one who was righteous and it instructs us to place our confidence solely in Him and not in ourselves. That's what this mirror does for us. And we saw this the last time we were studying in this subject of the Ten Commandments there in Galatians 3 where Paul calls the law our schoolmaster.

And it is our schoolmaster for this reason, to bring us to Christ. The second use or the second purpose of the law is as a restraint of evil. You see, the law in and of itself will never change human hearts. In fact, Paul argues back in Romans 7 that it actually has the opposite effect. It actually stirs up sin.

However, the law can serve to protect the righteous from the evil that may come to them by those who are unjust by allowing for and even calling for a limited measure of justice in this earth until Christ judges all things when he comes again and we all stand before that judgment seat of Christ. We read in the book of Romans that the sword has been placed into the hand of the governor and he is to execute justice And he's to do this according to the law, and it acts in that way as a restraint of evil. And then the third use of the law is what we see here to reveal what is pleasing to God. It shows us what pleases Him. And this is the focus of the message today.

The law enlightens us as justified saints and as adopted children. It enlightens us what pleases our Father. What pleases Him? See, He is the One whom our soul now loves, and because of that, the One whom we want to delight. The Christian, now justified apart from the law, only in Christ, now delights in the law even as God delights in his law.

We recently have studied the words of Jesus in John 14, if you love me keep my commandments. If you love me keep my commandments. This argues the late R.C. Sproul, is the highest function, the highest purpose of the law to serve as an instrument for the people of God to give him honor and glory. Well having noted the three uses of the law as defined by the Reformers, I would like for us to focus our attention this morning upon the last paragraph of chapter 19, or the last three paragraphs actually of chapter 19 of the 1689 Second London Baptist confession.

Now, with a crowd this size and with the reality of all of us here coming from varying backgrounds, there may be someone here this morning thinking that confessions, they're not necessary or they're not spiritual or they're actually contrary to Scripture. Well if that's where you are, I would highly recommend a book to you. It's by Carl Truman entitled The Credal Imperative, and it's a book of less than 200 pages, a very readable book. And in the introduction of this analysis of his, why creeds and confessions are necessary, He writes the following, Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who do not. Rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions that are written down and exist as public documents subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique, and those who have private creeds and confessions that are often improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny nor susceptible to evaluation and, crucially and ironically, not therefore subject to testing by Scripture to see whether they are true.

So he says, divided up that way, Everybody, every church has a confession. It's either whether it's public or it's private. He goes on to state his purpose in writing this book analyzing the need for creeds and confessions. And he does this to show that first, creeds and confessions are thoroughly consistent with the belief that scripture alone is the unique source of revelation and authority. He goes on to show that creeds and confessions are necessary for the well-being of the church and that churches that claim not to have them place themselves at a permanent disadvantage when it comes to holding fast to that form of sound words, which was so precious to the aging Paul as he advised his young protege, Timothy.

And then he shows that the need for creeds and confessions is not just a practical imperative for the church, but it's also a biblical imperative. And so this morning, as an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ, I want to heed those words that Paul gave to Timothy in 1 Timothy or 2 Timothy 1.13 to hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard. So, let us turn our attention then to paragraph five there on the handout. It reads this, the moral law doth forever bind all as well justified persons as others to the obedience thereof and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any anyway dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation?" Well, in his exposition of this confession, our brother Sam Waldron plainly states, the confession asserts the fundamental truth that the obligation to obey the law is an inherent and unavoidable part of all human existence.

In other words, the law binds men forever, whether justified or unjustified, simply because as creatures they owe such obedience to the Creator. So the Ten Commandments bind unsaved persons. Matthew 19, 16 through 22, we read of the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler was told that he must keep the Ten Commandments. They were binding upon him.

In Romans 2 verses 14 to 15, the Gentiles, Paul says, show the work of the law written in their hearts. And therefore, because of that, they have law, Even though at the time of Paul's writing, they didn't have written law. But that law in their hearts was a witness because God had placed it there. Romans 3 verses 19 and 20, the law speaks to all under it and thus places guilt upon the entire world because of it. Now, how can the entire world be guilty except for the fact that the law is binding upon everyone in the world.

That's the only way they can become guilty is if it's truly binding upon them. 1st Timothy 1, 8 through 11 declares that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. And so we see the Bible teaches throughout that the law, the Ten Commandments, bind unsaved persons. But the Ten Commandments also bind saved persons. They bind the believers.

The New Testament stresses the importance of love in the life of a Christian, and Romans 13, 8 through 10 declared that the love which we are to have is bound up with the keeping of the law of the Ten Commandments. This love that we owe both to God and to our neighbor is bound up in the Commandments. 1 Corinthians 7 19 teaches us that the ceremonial aspects of the law no longer matter, but what does matter is the keeping of the commandments of God. And then if we were to turn to Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 25 and all the way to the beginning of verse or chapter 6, Paul throughout this passage brings many aspects of the Ten Commandments to bear upon the life of the New Testament believer. And then in James 2, 11 through 12, James states that Christians will be judged by the liberating act of the law, having been liberated by Christ to now obey it.

Well, please note the way the writers of the confession end this paragraph. Lest we should conclude that Christ brought an end to the binding nature of the law, these writers of the Confession state, neither doth Christ in the gospel anyway dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation. Turn with me to two passages. First, the words of Christ in Matthew 5. Look with me at Matthew chapter 5.

This should be very familiar. It's a portion taken from what has been has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. And there in Matthew 5 verses 17 through 20 Christ here speaking says, 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 by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them He shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Does that sound like Christ was teaching an abrogation of the law? Was he saying that the law no longer applies? It's a wonder that men would destroy that which Christ would not destroy. Christ here gives a sober warning to any who would break even the least of the commandments or who would teach and encourage others to break them." And so that begs the question, can a person be guilty of breaking a commandment if God Himself has removed it or destroyed it?

Of course not. That would be illogical. And so it is easy to see. Christ does not dissolve our obligation to the law, not in terms of our justification, not in terms of our sanctification. He has come and fulfilled the law on our behalf to make us right with God, but he did not destroy the law in the process.

Christ in the gospel, as the writers of the confession have brought in their assessment, Christ in the gospel strengthens the obligation to the law that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Now, how did the foremost apostle to the Gentiles view the moral law? Did Paul seek to dissolve it? Well, look with me at Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3.

And remember that this was the apostle to the Gentiles bringing the new covenant to the Gentiles. Chapter 3 verse 21 of Romans, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe." So that's telling us of the righteousness of God that is ours through justification. It's the obedience that Christ did. Now skip down to verse 27. Where is boasting then?

It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law?

Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there was one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not.

On the contrary, we establish the law. Now, please note the last statement in that text. We establish the law. Paul makes this statement in the very context of declaring the righteousness of God revealed in Christ that comes to all who believe And it comes to them, Paul says, apart from the law. The apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who knows the faults and the intents of the hearts of all men, asks the question that all men, who by nature do not want to have any authority over them but want to know, is the law made void by the exercise of faith in the one who obeyed it perfectly in our place?

And here is the God-breathed answer, certainly not. Paul's statement, we established the law means that they were seeking to uphold or sustain the authority and the force of that law. And my friend, we must not forget that Paul is seeking to establish this law by divine inspiration in the hearts and minds of new covenant believers. It's on this side of the cross. That's the context.

We're not free to change or ignore the context. Well, let's move on to paragraph 6. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly, discovering also the sinful pollution of their natures, hearts, and lives. So as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, Together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of His obedience, It is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions in that it forbids sin. And the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them, although freed from the curse and unallayed rigor thereof.

The promises of it likewise show them God's approbation of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works. So as man's doing good and refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and detoureth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace." Now, the opening statement of this paragraph is the very thing that we try to establish in the previous messages. And if you will look closely, you will notice the very words of Scripture right in the middle of it. True believers are not under the law. And we sought to understand those same words, not under the law, In their natural context, places like Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8, and Galatians 3, where we discovered that not being under the law refers to, as we see here explained by the confession, not under the law as a covenant of works, that the law is no longer our means of justification before God.

And therefore, finding the obedience of that law in the perfection of another, that is Jesus Christ, the law is silenced. It can no longer condemn. We echo the words of the hymn writer, Let us love and sing and wonder. Let us praise the Savior's name. He has hushed the law's loud thunder.

He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. He has washed us with his blood. He has brought us near to God. What the law cannot do, Christ did. Christ did.

Let us love and sing in wonder. Let us praise the Savior's name. Samuel Bolton, in his book, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, rightly declares, we cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the gospel that we may be justified, And the gospel sends us to the law again to inquire what is our duty as those who are justified. Well, don't let the length of this paragraph discourage you.

It is good to boil something this size down to the main thing it is trying to say and then to itemize what remains in a list type fashion, maybe as sub points. And so the main thing this paragraph is trying to say is that the true believers remaining obligation to the law is not one of keeping it for justification, but an obligation to that law as the basis for how they walk in newness of life. It's to be a rule. It's to be a guide, showing them the will of their Father in heaven and their duty to Him, not just as Creator, but also as their Father. Now, the rest of the paragraph shows how the law informs believers so to walk.

It says you must walk, and this is how. Number one, it directs them and it binds them to walk accordingly. The believer echoes the words of David in Psalm 119 verses 130 and 133, the entrance of your word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple, direct my steps by your word. Secondly, it reveals to them the remaining corruption of their hearts and points them to humiliation and repentance, The only right response. James, in the first chapter of his epistle, describes the man who looks long and hard in the perfect law of liberty.

He is not one who simply glances and then goes about his way and forgets what manner of man he really is. But rather, in that law, he continues day and night, and thereby he sees what he really is by nature. Third, it continues to point believers to the Christ whom they have believed for justification. It continues to remind them of the covering they have in the righteousness found in his perfect obedience. It was the law that not only revealed to the Apostle Paul there in Romans 7 his remaining sin, But that law also pointed him to the only hope of deliverance through his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so that he declared, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

The law said, you know, he said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourth, it reminds believers of God's righteous requirements and restrains these natural corruptions that Paul just talked about in Romans 7. We quoted together the words of David in Psalm 19 earlier in our service, reflecting upon the benefit of the law, the statutes, the judgments of God to the believer, David says, moreover by them your servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? In other words, apart from this law, how can we understand?

And I think Paul had this in mind when he said, hey, before I had the law, I didn't know what covetousness was. David says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Those were the benefits of the law. And then fifth, this paragraph shows that for both the temporal afflictions and also the blessings that believers may experience based on their response to the law. In Psalm 119, 67, and 71, the psalmist declares, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word.

Well, how is that? It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes." He went astray from the law. He was afflicted because he went astray, and the law was the light that brought him back and showed the right way to go. But this same Psalm opens up with the following declaration, Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. They're blessed.

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. Sam Waldron picking up the thought from the previous paragraph in the confession and tying these together says it like this, Christ strengthens the original authority of the law. He does not put the content or the matter of the law on a new foundation. He does not eliminate the obligation to obey our Creator, but adds the obligation of the law by carefully stating that true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works. And so they're now to obey not only the Creator, but the Redeemer, but the Redeemer as well, right?

So he carefully qualifies the binding obligation of the law by carefully stating that true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, which was required by their creator because of man's fall. But now with the Redeemer, he says, but as a rule of life. And he goes on, those who think of all law keeping as legal must understand that there is an enormous practical and experiential difference between being under the law as a rule of life and under it as a covenant of works, i.e. As a method of earning salvation. The believer is not under the law as a method of justification.

As a covenant of works, the law is a strict slave master who pays only the wages of death. As a rule of life, it is a law of liberty in which the Christian delights. The sentiment, don't let the law of God in your conscience, is the error here Refuted. Of course, we must not let the law of God in our conscience as a covenant of works. Otherwise, we're just like that wife that we talked about in the beginning.

But unless the law of God is in our conscience as a rule of life, " he says, we have no part, no part in the salvation found in Christ and the New Covenant. Let me repeat that again. But unless the law of God is in our conscience as a rule of life, we have no part in the salvation found in Christ and the New Covenant. Well that brings us to the last paragraph of the Confessions chapter of the Law of God. Paragraph 7, neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the law requireth to be done." Turn back with me to Titus chapter 2 once again, that passage we read at the beginning, Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14 again.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works." Scripture like this helped to form the conclusion Mr. Waldron comes to in his confession or exposition of the confession, the law and the gospel do not conflict. Rather, the grace of the gospel and the Spirit of Christ enable us to freely and cheerfully do what God has revealed in the law. How could the law and gospel conflict? The very purpose of the gospel is to deliver men from lawlessness and cause them to obey the law of God.

That's what the gospel does. You see it right here. Saving grace has appeared. And that same saving grace goes on to teach us something about what God would have us, who were saved by that grace, to now do. My dear brother and sister, Christ's whole purpose in giving his life was to redeem us from lawlessness and to redeem us to a zeal to keep that law.

This saving grace does not leave us where we are. It doesn't leave us. That same grace teaches us Christ did not die simply to get us out of hell. He died that He might once and for all justify us by redeeming us from every lawless deed, but also setting us apart to be a sanctified people. And that sanctification is evidenced as we see in the text here by denying what his law deems ungodly and lustful, and then living soberly, righteously, and godly as defined by that same law.

That sanctification is evidenced by watchfulness and prayer as we look for his glorious appearing. And that sanctification is also evidenced by a people who not only do good works but actually have a burning zeal to please God in those works. I again share the wisdom of Samuel Bolton. That which Christ has redeemed us to, he cannot be said to have redeemed us from. But he has redeemed us unto service, and therefore cannot be said to redeem us from service.

Indeed, he has freed us from the manner of our obedience, but not from the matter of our obedience. We now obey, but it is from other principles, by other strength, unto other ends than we did before. Previously, the principles of obedience were legal and servile. Now they are filial and evangelical. As the law was given with evangelical purposes, so it is now kept with evangelical principles, principles of faith, of love, and delight, which causes the soul to obey and facilitates the whole of obedience.

The love of Christ constrains, yet is the obedience free. Love knows no difficulties. Things impossible to others are easy to them that love. The grounds of obedience differ. Here to fore, fear was the grounds of obedience.

Now the grounds of obedience? Love. Previously the strength was our own. Now we have fellowship with the strength of Christ. Our works are said to be wrought in God by union with him and by fellowship with him as we can do nothing without him." Remember those words back in John 15 we just studied?

Apart from me you can do nothing. He says, as we can do nothing without Him so we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And this strength He has promised. He tells us that He works all our works in us and for us, Isaiah 26-12, the required works of grace in us and of duty for us. The ends before were for justification in life.

Now they are for other ends, to glorify God, to dignify the gospel, to declare our sincerity, to express our thankfulness. And then he says, before we obeyed, but out of compulsion of conscience, now we obey out of the promptings of nature, which, so far as it works, works to God as naturally as stones move downward or sparks fly upward. Thus then it is that we preach the law, not in opposition to, but in subordination to the gospel." That last part of that final paragraph says, the Spirit of Christ, subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the law require to be done. It's beautiful. It enables us to cheerfully, to freely obey our God.

It's summed up so thoroughly in something that was sent to me just a couple of days ago. Do this and live, the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better word, God's grace does bring. It bids me fly and gives me wings." Well, if you have never put your faith and trust solely in Jesus Christ, then the law to you today is it's not this kind of friend. Today the law is a harsh schoolmaster to show you your sin and your need for Christ.

But my friend, all of your todays will soon come to an end. And when you breathe your last, the law is set to be your accuser before the righteous judge of all the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ. As you appear before that judgment seat of Christ, the law will appear as well. There, the law will present all the evidence, all the evidence of your failure to keep each and every law perfectly. There the law will stand and accuse you of your neglect, of your failure, and of your resistance.

And there the law will call for your condemnation. And because you are outside of Jesus Christ and because he will not be judged in your place, you will be judged by the perfect standard of that law. My friend, your only hope for salvation is Jesus Christ. His perfect obedience, His substitutionary death, both of which satisfy the righteous and holy demands of an offended God. Trust in him today.

Trust in him today. Do not delay. Do not enter eternity with the law as your accuser, trusting Christ today who obeyed that perfect law so that this law may become your friend. And you, my dear Christian brother and sister, can you say with the psalmist, oh how I love thy law, I love it. Can you call this law a faithful friend?

If you are in Christ Jesus, trusting in his merits and his atoning work for your salvation, then the law is your faithful friend. But have you spurned that faithful friend? Have you refused to acknowledge your obligations to that law? Have you determined that you know best and that you will decide how it is you will serve Christ. I close with these words from Mr.

Bolton. Judge of the law a right, and then let it be your care to maintain it. Let not Moses take the place of Christ, but at the same time make a right use of Moses. When works and obedience take their right place, when the law is rightly used, then it is holy, just, and good. But if we use that law as our life, then we trample the blood of Christ underfoot and make his life and death in vain.

Let the servant follow the master. Let Moses follow Christ. Let the law follow grace. Let obedience follow faith. And then all act their proper and designed parts.

Remember what Zacharias said, you were redeemed that you might serve, Luke 1, 74, that you might live unto him that died for you. Reason from mercy to duty, not from mercy to liberty. Oh, beware that the great things of Christ do not make you more careless. Take heed not to abuse mercy. It is a sad thing when Christians abuse the grace of Christ.

It would be a sad matter if believers should grow more slack and sluggish. If that which should quicken them slackens their hands. If a man should say in his heart, Christ died, I need not pray so much. Christ has done all, therefore I need do nothing. The doctrine we advance should strengthen and not weaken your engagement to duty, should heighten and not lessen your engagement to duty, and it should quicken and not deaden your heart's affections.

It should inflame and not cool your spirits." Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. May God make us the people Christ died to have. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your law. Oh God, give us grace to use it as we should.

Lord, if we're outside of Christ, that it might be our schoolmaster, our tutor, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith in him. But oh God, if We claim the name of Christ and are truly trusting in him for our soul justification. Oh God, may your law, may we see that your law is our true friend. And may we love it, may we delight in it as an expression of you in your perfection, the one whom our soul loves. Give us help in these matters.

Help us not to swing too far to either side, but to walk according to the light of your word. Help us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.