In his sermon, Paul Carrington addresses the role and significance of the law of God as outlined in the Second London Baptist Confession, emphasizing its enduring relevance for both believers and non-believers. He articulates the lamentable gap in contemporary Christianity between love for the gospel and godliness, highlighting the pervasive antinomianism that undermines the moral fiber of both the church and wider culture. Carrington recounts the transformational journey of figures like the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther, who moved from legalistic adherence to the law to a grace-centered relationship with Christ. He stresses the importance of viewing the law not as an enemy of grace but as a complement to it, serving as a guide that reveals sin, directs believers toward godliness, and underscores the necessity of the cross. Carrington contrasts Mount Sinai, representing the law, with Mount Calvary, representing grace and redemption, to illustrate the fulfillment of the law in Christ's atonement. He concludes by advocating for a high regard for both the law and the cross, urging believers to appreciate the grace that enables them to fulfill the law's requirements through the indwelling Spirit of Christ.

Well, good evening. Tonight we gather to finish off the back half of the Law of God here in the Second London Baptist Confession. And you know, as you reflect on what we covered off this morning, as Mr. Brown was preaching through the book of Nehemiah, especially in the second chapter. What you see are walls that have been totally destroyed and decimated and then grown over because of neglect.

And in much the same way we're going to be exploring the law of God and what's happened even in our day today when you consider the low view of the law of God. And so in the first half we covered paragraphs one to four and this tonight, this time tonight, we'll be covering paragraphs five to seven. But just by way of recap, one of the things that we talked about last time was the lamentable gap that often exists between our love for the gospel and our our love for godliness and this low view that's really permeated our culture in terms of the view of the law of God. And this almost antinomian streak, this antinomian streak that runs right through the vein or the course of our Christianity has contributed to what Packer calls our present moral flabbiness in the church as well as in the broader culture. And we talked last time about this sense of this burned over district, right?

When you consider what's happened in our day where Everyone has seemingly made a decision for Christ or some sort of knowledge of Christ and yet may not have come to true repentance and a true sense of who they are before the living God. A lot of that has to do with a very poor, low view of God's law. And we're hoping in our lives, we hope tonight in this church to to have a recalibration and hopefully to build up some of these walls focusing on the role of the law of God in our lives, especially as believers and for me I found that the more I was contemplating the law of God and thinking more about it what it was doing for me it was driving me more to look at the cross and one verse in particular stood out as I was thinking about the the law of God over and over again and and thinking about myself personally and one of the verse that popped into my mind and that I looked at and had a chance to really kind of dwell on was in Galatians chapter 6 where You know Paul has labored for these people in Galatia.

There's four different towns in Galatia that he's been preaching and somehow Judaizers had come in and disrupted things and told them no the way to be saved is to actually go back and keep the law, the ceremonial aspects of the law, and all these different things that they were promoting. And at the end of it all he talks about how these men were rejoicing in their numbers, that they got another notch in their belt every time a true believer or someone who was claimed to be a true believer Reverted back to trusting in the ceremonial law, but Paul says but God forbid That I should boast or glory or joy except in the cross of Jesus Christ and if you think of Paul's singular object in his ministry. What was it? It was surrounding the cross of Christ. It was this view of what actually happened there for him, for sinners, and the great accomplishment that took place.

You look all over his writings and that's what you'll find is a man who he took his eyes from Mount Sinai to another mount Mount Calvary and a place both of them were ominous days when the when we read in in Exodus what happened blackened skies thunderings earthquakes But when he met the Lord Jesus Christ, his eyes were taken away from his hope that he can scale Mount Sinai and somehow make himself acceptable just simply gazing upon Mount Calvary. And so it's very important for us to understand the place of these two mountains in the scriptures and what they both signify. He saw a great work of redemption for hopeless sinners and salvation through atonement and most of all satisfaction of divine justice that in Christ God was punishing sin the wrath of God poured out against sin and against sinners specifically and I looked at this and and you know you look all the way through history and you see a man like the Apostle Paul what was he trying to do he was trying to keep I think the Jews have something like 613 laws not just the Ten Commandments but then they they surround the Ten Commandments with more and more fences and they have the ceremonial aspect of course and the judicial aspect but they've created this this almost impossible impossible task of trying to maintain 613 laws and he tried his best he called himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin he was circumcised the eighth day he says a Pharisee of the Pharisee And when it came to the law, at least outwardly, I was blameless.

And he took a man like the Apostle Paul, and he was able to tear his gaze away from that to Christ. You look at another man like Martin Luther and he made this statement he says and here's a man he was a monk before he was converted and he says I kept the rule so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by sheer monkery, it was I. I mean he was top of the line and yet totally bankrupt when it came to his righteousness before God. And you'll remember If you've read Pilgrim's Progress, do you remember what Christian's name was before he became Christian? It was graceless.

His name was graceless and on his way He had that burden and there he was walking along and he was told by evangelists to go to the Wicked Gate, but he happened to bump into a man named Mr. Worldly Wise, who told him to go see a man named Mr. Legality in the village of morality. Shorter distance, A place that he would be able to get to and hopefully be eased of this great burden that he had on his back And so he was going there, but as he was going the overhangs of The path as if it would come over and crush him in any moment was causing the fear until he met evangelists along the way and he was rebuked quite sharply by evangelists. But the idea is what does the village of morality have to do with the celestial city?

There's no comparison. And so for those of us who have who have set our eyes on the celestial city of marching to Zion, of one day being united with Christ let us give up any hopes of of doing it through the flesh of working out our salvation in terms of keeping the law outwardly thinking that somehow we'll avail somehow with God it just doesn't come to that place because the slopes of Sinai are just too impossible, too difficult to summit. And so, far, far better to fall at the foot of the cross. And that's my hope tonight, is at the end of it all we don't just have another understanding of another doctrine but that it drives us to understand the value of the cross. What was happening there?

God was punishing sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. He didn't minimize his law. Remember months ago when our brother was giving us a talk and he gave us the view of the son, I think it was the father and the son talking in eternity past, and he's told him how I will not relent, that you will pay. All wrath will be poured out upon you.

And that's exactly what happened on the cross. So may we have a high view of the cross and a high view of the law. You know, in Christ, Just think about this, right? In Christ, on the cross, God showed his wrath and his hatred against sin a thousand times more vividly than ten eternities of hell because of who Christ is because of Christ being so perfect and so innocent that when he poured out his wrath on his son it spoke so loudly of God's holiness justice and hatred against sin that it should it should take our breath to consider who we're actually dealing with and and this Christ with whom we have to do and John Stott said it this way and I pray we would all see it this way he says until you see the cross as that which is done by you you will never appreciate that it is done for you this isn't some exercise of God sending his son to the cross to die for sin only but it is for your sin You are guilty and I am guilty and yet here he did this for us that we might be redeemed and brought to Christ.

And so may God prevent me, my hope and prayer is that God would prevent me from boasting and other things even good things like You know you can boast about family you can boast about church you can boast about your knowledge But may God prevent it may our soul message be The cross of Christ and may we seek to glorify him and everything if you want to see God's justice and holiness Go to the cross if you want to see God's love and compassion go to the cross and last time when we were talking what we saw about the law was that the law is good it's just it's holy right it's not like what we sometimes hear about in in our modern day where the law is so disregarded and almost seen as an enemy of grace in the gospel that's not it at all and to tamper with the law is to trifle with the gospel in fact without the law there is no gospel and So we need to have a proper Understanding what the law is and and when we look at the deckle of the moral law the Ten Commandments, right?

That first table of the law. What is it in some? It's a sum of a love towards God and what is the second table those six commandments it's a sum of love towards man and so only carnal man butts up against the law of God because the law of God is a law of love it's good altogether Which one of the commandments would you would you strip out and say well that one doesn't really apply Because all of them are laws of love towards God and laws of love towards man, and I remember having a friend Years ago a guy that I worked with and I thought he had come to faith, he was baptized in the church and you know he was coming to church, he was reading the Bible, but somewhere through the course of time we would meet every week, we'd meet for lunch and sit down and talk and he said, you know Paul, he says, oftentimes I so regret that I wasn't just left in blissful ignorance. I wish sometimes I didn't know that God is just so that I could have continued in my ignorance, enjoying the things of this world without any thoughts of being judged by God.

And later on, over the course of time, of course, he had no love for God. He was baptized, he went to church, he did all those things, but he never had an affection for God's holiness and God's goodness. In fact, he saw it as in opposition to what he really wanted to do and he ended up falling away because he was never Truly in Christ because he saw the law as forbidding that which is good in his mind what was good and often times we can have that in our mind you know we can often hear about that you we so want to jump the fence you know we have a fence around our backyard and one of our children could be sitting on the deck and Saying I can't wait to get over that fence see what's on the other side. I can't wait to spread my wings and go Another child could say Lord. I thank you for that fence because it keeps me safe same fence But because of the disposition of the heart It makes all the difference how you view the law is so important.

It's actually a litmus test of Our relationship to God's kingdom and so last time we talked about the ever-present dangers of antinomianism Which is our people that are against law people who have a view of Christ claim to be Christians but have a very very low view of God's law and actually say that To have any desire to keeps God's laws total legalism and on the other side we do have legalism as well You know you can you can think like Luther or you can think like the Apostle Paul that sure I can summit that mountain I can get to the top you have a terrible misunderstanding there's a ditch on either side either as an antinomian or as someone who's a legalist someone who's trying to make it be justified in their own sight before God But the person who understands grace loves the law. And that's what we'll see tonight. And there's two reasons for that, because it's good and also because its giver is good, who is God. And so we'll be talking about these different aspects of the law tonight and we'll start off in paragraph chapter 5. So we've got three paragraphs.

Chapter 5 is a fairly, or paragraph 5 is a fairly short one. Chapter, paragraph 6 is quite long. So we'll break it up a little bit and then we'll talk about paragraph 7 to finish it off. And so paragraph 5, it reads the moral, and this is to do with the permanence of the law that the law is permanent and we saw a little bit Of that in paragraphs one and two, but it says this that the moral law doth forever bind all as well justified persons as others to the obedience thereof and that Not only in regard to the matters contained in it But also in respect of the authority of God the creator who gave it neither does Christ in the gospel anyway dissolve but much strengthen this obligation so that first phrase it says the moral law doth forever bind all as well justified persons as others to the obedience thereof and in paragraphs one and two show that that that man is forever if you are the offspring of Adam which everyone here is and everyone in this world is then you are obligated and bound to the law to keep the law God didn't reduce the law you have an inescapable obligation to keep God's law now we'll talk about the implications of the gospel of the covenant of grace in a little bit but but just want that to be clear that God's law summarized in the Ten Commandments is binding upon all mankind.

And you know, you can have people that think, well, you know what? I don't believe in your God, so therefore it's not binding upon me. In fact, we had that interaction a few weeks ago with some, a group of young people downtown, and having a conversation, a discussion, it kind of got a little bit amped up and one of the young lady said she thought she had the trump card threw it down and says you know what excuse me I actually don't believe in your God and Therefore has nothing to do with me whatsoever as though the creator of the universe Who has existed from eternity past is ruling by the consent of a 20 year old young lady That's not the case whatsoever God's law is binding upon all and I told her this I quoted CS Lewis And he has it this way and I didn't quote it perfectly to her, but got the gist of it, but this is what he said, A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him then a lunatic can put out the Sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell what you say doesn't diminish what God has said his word stands forever and paragraph 3 what we saw last last week was the abrogation of the moral law ceremonial law excuse me and then paragraph four we saw the expiration of the judicial law with the end of national Israel and so what we're left with after the abrogation of the ceremonial and the expiration of the judicial, the third aspect is the moral law of God.

That was put in, you remember, that was put into the Ark of the Covenant, the decalogue was actually put into the Ark. Well that still stands and is still binding upon us today. We want to make sure we're understanding it's the moral law that we're grasping not simply the law including the ceremonial and judicial aspects and we again we talked about that last week well the second part of this says this and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it that is the law but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. And Sam Waldron kind of said it like this, and when the 1689 confession was being put together there were people who were saying well in an antinomian strain The only reason if we should obey the law is because we are grateful to Christ but not because we're obligated To keep the law. Well this part of the of the confession totally Explodes that view That well, we just do it from our heart.

We keep God's law by our heart Not because we're obligated by God to actually do it our our obedience Does not just stem from gratefulness to God. It should that's part of it But it also is a recognition of what we spoke about last week. Do you remember how we talked about that creator-creature relationship that even before the Ten Commandments were given, God made that very clear that he is the creator right from the very beginning, the very first words of the Bible, in the beginning God. Well, that is forever binding. And so we don't just keep it because we have fond feelings towards God but because of the fact that he is our Creator and it's more of a matter of the heart that it's dealt with here and then it says this to finalize it It says neither does Christ in the gospel anyway dissolve but much strengthen this obligation.

Have you ever met anyone who says I love Jesus I just hate the Bible or I hate the church or I just don't like all the things that have been overlaid on top of them and they formulated and fabricated in their own mind this Jesus that's just cuddly and goes around hugging people and telling them nice things teaching some moral precepts but not actually making any demands Well, that is not the Christ that we we run into in the scriptures and when you think of the sermon on the mount Perhaps the most I think personally and I think most of us would agree the most powerful sermon ever preached in his sermon his inaugural sermon where he kicked off his ministry after giving the Beatitudes, blessed are you, and goes on the lines. He goes into something, he says this, to lay out really the whole thesis of the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5 he says this, 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 shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven and of course he goes on to expound To exposit the law he goes through a number of the different laws and not only does he tell you What the law says and repeats it but he says but I say unto you he plums the very foundation of the law and looks at the actual intents and the motives of the heart he leaves every single one of us guilty because you can avoid committing adultery but are you guilty of looking at a woman to lust after in her heart?

Both of them are a breach of the law and you'll be guilty most likely of one. If you're not guilty of that you'll be guilty of hatred of your heart or some other aspect of it And that's what he was doing is really pointing to that but the question would be if Christ came to abrogate the law and get rid of it, then why would he spend his inaugural sermon? Strengthening the law It's a question to ask because that's really the issue in our day. People say, well, he's done away with it. Well, why did he then spend the bulk of the sermon, all of chapter 5, going through the moral lot and further strengthening it, heightening the standard of holiness?

It's a question to really ask ourselves. He didn't reduce, but he increased the rigor by showing the true intent, getting to the motives. And so it's really important that we get that. And not only the Lord Jesus himself, but if you think of the Apostle Paul, what he did in Romans chapter 13 of verses 8 to 10 he says this Oh no Oh no one anything except to love each other For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law For the commandments You shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal You shall not covet and any other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself Love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore. Love is the fulfilling of the law He quotes four of the actual laws in the decalogue and then sums it up as a law of love.

He doesn't reduce it. And even when you think of Ephesians chapter 6 and some of the children will know this, where the Apostle Paul talks about how children should obey their parents. He's quoting from the law. Obey your parents. Honor your father and your mother for this is the first command with a promise.

He goes right to that and so all of this to say that the law of God, this notion that we have is somehow that the law of God is no longer important, is not brought out in the New Testament whatsoever. In fact, you see the exact opposite as he says here, not only is it not dissolved, but it's much strengthened in its obligation. And so, not the smallest letter, when he says, not a jot or tittle, nothing will be removed or abrogated, could anything be more clear. That's really the question So the next question is this that if the moral law is not abrogated, right? If it's not abrogated if it's still enforced then what is the believers relationship to it?

And that's what paragraph 6 deals with and so Paragraph 6 is a long one But we'll try to we'll try to get through it and if anyone has questions we can talk about it after but in Chapter paragraph 6. I'll just read the first part of it here. Let's see where it gets to I'll try to get to the word Obedience, I'm not sure if it'll match up perfectly But it says here although true believers be not under 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 pollutions of their nature's 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. And so that first phrase there and we'll get into the rest after but it says although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned.

And what we're seeing here is that true believers that is remember in the last chapter of the second line of Baptist confession we heard the phrase temporary believers or even unbelievers well those those folks they're still under the covenant of works but by faith we've been those who have come to Christ by faith through repenting for their sins, they've become justified by faith and so therefore it is not by works of the law. We've entered into that new covenant set free from sin, but not only from sin, the committing of sin, we've been set free from the power of sin so that we're no longer slaves. That's the beauty of the covenant of grace. And that's why Paul says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

Grace is not an excuse to sin but he's saying the exact opposite because you are under the covenant of grace now you're no longer supposed to allow sin to have dominion over you and so neither are we eternally condemned so when you do commit a sin right which I commit you break the law we all continue to break the law of God But when we do we have an advocate with the father So that we can go to him and our sins are separated because when we were justified right our sins past and our sins future everything was summed up in Christ and done away with cast into the ocean so to speak and so we've been declared as though we are righteous before him and so this is so important that we're not under the law as a covenant of works any longer and that's how that first phrase says yet it is of great use to them as well as to others that is the law in that as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs them, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly.

And so, as I said earlier, antinomians would argue that even feeling bound to obey the law is slavery. But what they're saying here is that the law serves as a rule of life. It's of great use in other words It's beneficial. It's for our good that the law is there. It's not salvific It doesn't save us But it's there for some very very good purposes even in the life of the believer and so it's beneficial in a number of different ways you can see it says as a rule of life and it's informing them of the will of God and their duty it directs them and binds them to walk accordingly could you could you imagine a game any game that you play either professional sports or any game that doesn't have rules?

And so you just kind of do whatever you want, you know, you're playing ball and all of a sudden somebody pulls in a whole other rule from another game and holds you guilty for that or do you ever have ever see a referee being called a legalist because he says that there's a breach you legal it well that's his job he's there to maintain the rules of the game and in much the same way the law stands As a rule of life it reveals God's will It tells us what our duty is and also it tells us that we're bound to walk accordingly Really what it is again as I said earlier that fence is meant to keep us safe. It's meant to protect It's meant to show us what the standard of righteousness is so that we could better please God and then it says this Discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures hearts and lives so as examining themselves thereby they may come to further conviction of humiliation for and hatred against sin and This this serves not only for the believer it serves for the believer But it can also serve for the unbeliever as well this this idea that when the law of God is laid out and you talk to somebody because what is the problem?

So many of us, especially in an unregenerate state, have a very, very high view of who we are. And we compare ourselves among ourselves. When someone says I'm a good person, what they're saying is I'm a good person in comparison to those around me but they've forgotten that that is not the standard of holiness or righteousness those around you it's not some sort of sliding scale that you as long as you're 1% or 10% better than the norm, that somehow you're acceptable before God. But God's standard is high. And so what the law does when it's promoted and when it's properly put forward is it brings about these different things, examination like we heard about today, this idea that we need to walk around and examine ourselves What are we gonna examine ourselves by it's gonna be by the moral law of God What are we allowing into our lives?

Where are the breaches? Where are the doors hanging off the hinges? It's Hopefully we're looking at the law of God and seeing what God demands and then asking God seeking God to have those breaches repaired think about it from the ungodly perspective where Paul when it says this discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures Hearts and lives you Remember when Paul was before Felix and he was preaching him it says Felix trembled when Paul spoke of righteousness Self-control and the judgment to come it says he trembled and then he sent Paul away He says I'll hear you I'll call for you again But he was trembling when he began to understand the holiness of God in Contradistinction to the way that he was living this carefree life and so it convicts us of sin as believers It's good for us, but also for unbelievers what it does is it reminds them of their inescapable obligation to God it brings them back and allows them to see their guilt before God And then it says this together with a clear sight of the the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience and again, this goes back to the cross The perfection of his obedience.

He kept not only the ten commandments in terms of the written word But he kept the law of God Perfectly all the way down when he plumbed the depths of it to look at the motives the intense of the heart He kept it perfectly. He did it perfectly Without any breach of thought without any bad day. He lived his life perfectly before God. His heart inclinations. And on the other side of it, what do we see when we look at ourselves?

What does Romans say? It tells us in Romans chapter 3 that there is none good. No not one. And it talks about the fact that every mouth should be stopped and become guilty before God because of what we've done in our breach in our behavior in so many millions of different ways that we transgress against God and when you begin to get catch a sight of this true perfection we're no longer looking on the horizontal plane but looking man between man but now looking towards God and then instead of just seeing this overwhelming force of guilt all of a sudden now you shift in your eyes look towards Mount Calvary that sets the sinner free and this is what should should be the great burning desire in all of our hearts as we talk to people about the Gospel the power of the gospel that's why Paul says I'm not ashamed of it Because in it is the power of God unto salvation. It's amazing what God has accomplished for us Well, it goes on to say this 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 And so he's speaking to the regenerate here and you all know this if you're if you've come to Christ you all know This war that goes on in your members don't you this fight that you're constantly having The flesh and the spirit Paul talks about in Romans 7 he talks about it I think in Ephesians as well or in Galatians 5 he talks about it this warfare that's going on but but the law It really does forbid sin and because of our new nature that we've been given We'll never do it perfectly But we have the ability now to war where before there was no ability to war we had free will to only sin and to do evil and wickedness continually but now all of a sudden as a new man there's a new woman in Christ you now have the equipment with God remember Jesus said how he is the vine, the true vine, and we are the branches.

Without me you can do nothing. But with me, all things are possible. That's basically what we can say. Where a sinner can now begin to walk in righteousness, a rotten fruit can now become healthy that never happens in nature and this is what this is what Paul says in in first Corinthians but when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord that we may no longer be condemned with the world and that's what this particular section is saying here we're no longer being judged as though to be destroyed but we will be chasing when we breach God's rules when we breach the law of God he doesn't just let you off scot-free if you're a son you will be chasing you will be brought under the rod of God, but it's out of love versus out of wrath. It's an entirely different relationship.

And so it goes on to say this, that the promises of it likewise show them God's approbation or approval 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 and and what this is basically saying is that God does bless his Children for their obedience you can read in different Scriptures that he will he that will love life right Peter says that he that will love life and see good days Let him refrain his lips From speaking evil and talks about guile in other words. There's a blessing to obeying God But it's not due to them outside of the covenant of grace. God doesn't owe it to us It's it's the mercy of God and then it ends with this it says so as man's doing good and refraining from evil Because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other is no evidence of his being under the law and not under grace it's a kind of complex so you got to read it probably a few times over and by the way I mean sometimes you're going through the paragraphs and it's like you by the time you get to the bottom of the paragraph you forgot what what it started that's just this I think more symptom of our day where we're used to reading things in kind of 140 character increments, you know, Twitter or whatever.

But this is the problem. So as man's doing good and refraining from evil, Because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other is no evidence of being under the law and not under grace I think what he's saying here is again. This is where anti-nomians would cry foul and say aha You are trying to obey the law. We've got you you legalist You're trying to obey the law And he's saying that attempts to obey the law does not mean that you're not under the covenant of grace or that you're trying your best to make yourself acceptable before God. Because as we've gone through, remember the order of the second London Baptist confession We've already talked about justification.

We've talked about some of these amazing Doctrines all the way through well by keeping the law and aspiring like mr. Brown was reading psalm 19 this view of the law of God and Psalm 119 how it talks about, oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. That's a regenerate heart and that's what oftentimes is come against. And so what this paragraph is dealing with here is that the law is not only a covenant of works Though it is for those who are outside of Christ, but it is for those who are regenerate a rule of life Informing us of God's will It's a tutor that points us to Christ. It's a restrain of corruptions for the regenerate person who sees that you want to please God and the law, oftentimes what God has said will hold you back.

You could steal that, but the Bible says thou shall not steal and so you don't do it because you have a heart towards God like we Heard this morning and that's also a motivation for good And so the law is actually a means of grace if you if you remember nothing else think of the law of God instead of in opposition to grace. It's actually a means of grace that God has given to us to help us in our walk. And finally we'll end with paragraph 7. This is a shorter paragraph and all it's doing really, this very short paragraph, is it's really making the point of the last sentence in paragraph 6 what we just what we just covered it says this neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel let that be forever banished from your mind that these two things are somehow not together 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 require it to be done it's such a beautiful paragraph what a way to end this chapter I love that that phrase does sweetly comply with it and it's all because of the spirit of Christ living within us.

That makes all the difference. As you enter into the covenant of grace, then Christ is now living in you. He changes your nature, your disposition towards God, towards the law. So that before where that fence was holding you back from doing all you wanted to do, all of a sudden you say, Thank you Lord. Thank you for your care.

Look at the wisdom of your law, how it restrains evil. Lord, help me to obey you. It's all to do with the disposition of the person who's beholding it. And so this first phrase it says it refers to those aforementioned uses right we talked about the fact how it's beneficial as a rule of life and to bring about conviction of sin and restrain those convictions Or those remaining corruptions in the believer all of it again is by the indwelling of Jesus Christ Well, I want to end with this one That last phrase the spirit of Christ Subduing and enabling the will of man To be that to do that freely and cheerfully Which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done And I think the Apostle Paul sums us up very well better than I think anyone else can in In a few succinct verses when he is writing to Titus and he says this in Titus chapter 2 For the grace of God so remember that 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 what from every Lawless deed you see he starts with the grace of God And then he talks about how he gave his son to do what What did he give his son for?

Well, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous of good works. This idea of being, doing the will of God freely and cheerfully is that not the disposition of the regenerate soul towards their God you fail I fail but you want to do good you want to walk in the light of God's Word and so that's really really key and so if God himself characterizes the new covenant as Causing his people to obey his law like we just heard then it seems rather obvious that the goal of the new covenant Which is you know represented in the gospel is obedience to the law by being transferred into a state of grace. So that's my hope for all of us is that we could be amazed at the perfection of the law on the one hand but also on the power of the cross on the other side. Don't only gaze at one mount and forget the far surpassing other mountain where God Slew his son for sinners like you and I to accomplish This this union to bring us into the covenant of grace that we may say with the psalmist, oh how I love your law.

It is my meditation all the day. May we be driven to Christ to see our own imperfections and love him and cling to him all the more. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening and we are so thankful for your law Lord I pray I pray that my heart would be more inclined to meditate on your law and To glory in it Lord to see your wisdom to see you the God who gave it as worthy of all obedience honor and praise Lord we we do thank you for it and I pray also father that if there are some as I know there must be unregenerate sitting here tonight Lord that are looking at that fence looking at your word and feeling constrained and feeling somehow that they know better or they can chart their own way. I pray Lord that you would bring repentance.

I pray Lord that you would cause them Likewise to say how great is your law how good you are Lord bring them into the covenant of grace Through your son Jesus Christ we pray amen