The sermon 'Of the Law of God' by Jason Dohm explores the foundational role of God's law as described in Psalm 19, emphasizing its perfection, trustworthiness, and importance in the life of believers. Dohm discusses the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, focusing on its systematic approach to understanding the law of God. He distinguishes between moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws, explaining their historical context and relevance. The moral law, expressed in the Ten Commandments, reflects God's eternal nature and is relevant for both believers and unbelievers. Ceremonial laws, fulfilled by Christ, pointed towards Him and are no longer binding. Judicial laws, specific to Israel, provide underlying eternal truths. The sermon highlights the harmonious relationship between law and Gospel, stressing that believers are not under the law for salvation but use it as a guide for righteous living, helping them recognize sin and understand God's will. Ultimately, the law and Gospel are seen as friends, working together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to produce good works in believers.

Please turn to Psalms 19. I'm going to be reading from 7 through 11. As we listen to this, may we be encouraged, without this, there's nothing. This is the bedrock of everything. If this is not true, then everything falls apart.

And we should take great delight in the fact that God is this. That this is not just about a book that's truthful, but about a God who's truthful and trustworthy and loving and loves to be, loves to demonstrate his truthfulness in our lives. Psalm 19, starting at verse 7. 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 true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward." This morning the sermon is an unusual one. I'm trying to think if we've ever done this in our 11 and a half years of existence. I think the answer is no. I'm actually preaching on a chapter of our confession of faith, the Baptist's confession of faith from the year 1689. I love it that we're tethered theologically to something that has stood the test since 1689.

And not things that have been thought up within the last century, but it really is historic Christianity in many ways, and it has survived the many challenges of the centuries. And We don't exalt the confession as scripture or put it on the same plane as scripture. Nothing is scripture, but scripture. Nothing deserves to be set alongside scripture. So scripture gets the top bookshelf, and there's only one book on that shelf.

That's the Bible. Everything else has to go on a shelf beneath it. And I always want to think that way. I always want all of us to think that way. But the scripture has been given by God in perfect wisdom.

And it's not systematic. There's not a book of the law of God. There's a truth about the law of God here in this text, and a truth about the law of God here in this text, and a truth about the law of God here, in this text and a truth about the law of God here, in this text, all throughout the Bible. And so there is value in bringing together these different truths that are taught in different places of scripture, and having a systematic view where you bring it all together and teach comprehensively. So that's what the 1689 Confession attempts to do in the different categories.

It's wonderful to say we just believe the Bible, but honestly until you unpack what you think the Bible is teaching in categories, that statement by itself actually doesn't mean that much at all. Most heretics throughout the centuries have said the same thing. I only believe the Bible, so you've got to actually get down to what you think the Bible teaches. And that's the value of a confession, as it does that and provides definition and a system of teaching. So today we're talking about chapter 19 in the 1689 Confession, which is of the Law of God.

And you can't gather very many congregations to hear preaching on the Law of God. But here we are. And I'm glad to be here. Because it's very important to understand the law of God in its proper place. How it is connected with, but separate from the Gospel.

So there are many debates and controversies about law and Gospel. And they're important. They're actually worthy of squabbling over because if you begin to attribute things to the law that God attached to the Gospel, or vice versa, you end up with a real mess. You end up trying to earn your way in things that only the work of Jesus Christ will do. So, The law and the Gospel are friends.

They don't need to be reconciled. They're already reconciled and we just need to understand them correctly. I hope we get to the end today of these seven articles. Sometimes you will hear them called paragraphs, sometimes articles, but chapter 19 of the 1689 Confession has seven articles or seven paragraphs and we're just going to go one by one and look at what it says. Let's pray.

God, we want to have hearts that are connected with the psalmist when he said, oh how I love thy law. That we would have hearts that are inclined to see the beauty of it, and not the hardships of it. And that we would see you reflected in the perfections of your law. And know you better by having your law and studying your law. Thank you for the Gospel and all that has been done by the Lord Jesus Christ and His keeping the law and then laying down His life for sinners.

Doing all the things that the law could never do. Help us to understand how the law and the gospel relate to each other and how they are distinct but friends. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I've taken each of these seven articles and done something that's dangerous, but I've done it for the sake of time. That is to summarize it.

Why is that dangerous? Because really godly, knowledgeable, Bible loving, Bible teaching, Bible studying, Bible memorizing men. An ocean of them worked on these and they worked on every word of the confession. So, and When you read it, you get this sense of how dense it is. So the confession in some ways reads like some of Paul's letters.

Every phrase is so pregnant with so much truth that to take all this work that they did on debating over the word that ought to be used and then to just change the words of it is a little bit dangerous. But to go through these seven articles in a single hour, it really does have to be summarized. So I'm going to give you a summary of each article, and it doesn't match perfectly with the words of the confession. The words of the confession are more precise and better than what I'm giving you, but I really don't have a choice. So I refer you to the confession for something better than the summary that I'm giving to you, but understand why a summary is necessary.

So here's my summary of Article 1. So I am putting this in my own words, but you could track through the confession whether it's in the same order, and I'm attempting to say at a summary level the same things that the Confession says. Article 1, my summary. God wrote the moral law on Adam's heart and a particular precept of not eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he and all his descendants were bound to obey.

Life was promised upon obedience and death upon disobedience, and he was given power and ability to obey." So I know we could do a whole sermon on that. We're not going to. We're going to keep moving. We know the explicit law, meaning if you go to Genesis chapter 2 and say, what did God actually say to Adam? This is what God actually said to Adam in Genesis 2, 16 and 17.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." So That is explicit. God said it to Adam. Those words entered his ear. It was one commandment. One tree.

Don't eat the fruit of that tree. If you do eat it, you'll die. If you Don't eat it, you'll live. But was that all? Here's a question that you might have considered.

Was that all? What do I mean? Here's what I mean. Was worshiping another God wrong then? Was murdering wrong then?

Was stealing wrong then? Did Adam have a sense of all of these things? And the confession says yes, and I believe that it's accurately representing Scripture in saying yes. Those things were wrong then, and Adam had a sense of it then, a much clearer sense than you did, because Genesis 3 and sin coming into the world and the warping of our natures had not happened then. I want you to consider Romans chapter 2.

You can turn there if you'd like. You don't have to, but you can. Romans chapter 2 verses 14-16. Romans chapter 2. What's Paul doing in Romans chapter 2?

He's condemning us all. He's condemning people who had the written law of God, and condemning people who are born in places, or born into families, where they don't have the written law of God, and he's saying, you're all guilty before God. And so he gives us The basis for saying someone who's never owned a Bible could be guilty before God. In Romans 2, 14-16. Listen, Romans 2, 14-16.

Paul writes, For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience, also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. So he's saying a couple of things here. He's saying that people born in places or in homes where they have no access to the law of God have actually been made with a sense of good and evil, of right and wrong, and have been given a conscience to alert them where they're encroaching on that right and wrong, and that if they never saw a Bible, if they never heard a sermon, they will stand before God and their consciences will show up as a witness against them to say, I knew it was wrong to worship other gods, but I did it anyway. I knew it was wrong to murder and to hate, but I did it anyway. I knew it was wrong to steal and lie, but I did it anyway.

I will not need any external witnesses. You will witness against yourself, even if you never had the written law of God." And that was clearer with Adam, before sin came and inclined us away from these things in our original state, mankind's original state, we were actually inclined towards seeing the good and beauty of all that God had made us with a sense of knowing. It is true that sin has clouded our sense of this and that repeatedly sinning sears the conscience and makes us increasingly insensitive. Even in people who have sinned over and over and over and over and over again, and have seared their conscience, and have made themselves as insensitive as they can be, They know in their heart of hearts that they're doing every day in their thoughts, in their words, in their deeds, things that are not right. They know it.

That's what the Bible teaches. The Ten Commandments have always reflected the perfections of God. So they're not just a do and don't list. They're actually in place. They actually describe what God is like from both sides of the coin.

From the don't do this because God isn't like this, doesn't like that. And from the other side of the coin, do this because God is like this and he loves these things. But they were not codified, the Ten Commandments were not codified, they were not given in writing until Mount Sinai. So a lot of human history happens before Mount Sinai. They don't have it in writing, but it is on their hearts.

God has given them a sense of it. So they'll not be able to say as they stand before God the Judge, I didn't know God will say, you know that's not true. And they will stand as a witness against themselves. Don't think of this wrongly. In the beginning, there was no indwelling inclination towards sinning.

You've never lived a day in this condition. You've never lived an hour in that condition. So you have to understand that Adam and Eve were fundamentally different. Adam and Eve before Genesis 3 and the fall were fundamentally different than anything you've ever experienced. Their sense of right and wrong was so much sharper than it ever has been for us.

And it's pretty sharp for us. So clear to them. Because it wasn't clouded by this thing that has happened to our nature with sin coming into the world. Adam and Eve had a power and ability to obey given by God that we've never enjoyed because our nature is the fallen nature. That's Article 1.

Article 2. The same law written on the heart, which was a perfect rule of righteousness, was given by God in writing on Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments. The first four contain our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man." So what this is saying is, it was true before Sinai. Worshipping another God was wrong before Sinai. Murder was wrong before Sinai.

And people were murdering before Sinai. And people were committing adultery before Sinai, knowing that it was wrong, even though it wasn't in writing. Stealing, lying before Sinai, knowing in their hearts that it was wrong, but it wasn't in writing yet. God gave it to us etched in stone in Exodus chapter 20 from Mount Sinai. And there are these first four commandments that tell us about our duty to God, loving God, and then there are these last six commandments that tell us about our duty towards our neighbor, loving our neighbor.

Let's go to Exodus chapter 20. I think it's true to say that There is no account of any written law of God before this. God speaks the one law, don't eat of the fruit of this one tree, in Genesis chapter 2. And I believe this is the first written law that is received in Genesis chapter 20. I'll read 1-17.

Did I say Genesis? It's Exodus chapter 20. God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." This codified all that the unseared human conscience testified to.

In other words, it put in writing what was already on the heart of a person who was unseared by the repetition of sin, unhardened by sin. It was testifying in the human heart before it was ever given in writing, but now it is etched in stone by God so that no matter how much you sear your conscience, this written testimony stands against you. The confession gives us this clear division. It's sometimes called the two tables of the law. Have you ever heard it called that?

Commandment 1-4, no other gods before the God of Scripture, no images in worship, no taking His name in vain, observing the Sabbath day, those are about our duty towards God, or loving God. And then commandments 5-10 about our duty towards our neighbor. Things like murder and adultery and stealing and lying and coveting. Jesus in Matthew 22 says, The greatest commandment is this, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." What is he teaching? He's teaching that every other commandment in all of scripture can either be hung on, loving God, All of these other commandments are either about loving God or loving your neighbor, and often it's both. So it gives you this framework, loving God and loving your neighbor. So all the Commandments are simply the commandments of love. Paul teaches that so clearly in the New Testament.

Article 3. Here's my summary. Besides this moral law expressed in the Ten Commandments, God also gave Israel ceremonial laws which regulated their worship and prefigured Christ which were fulfilled by Jesus in his incarnation and are therefore taken away. So now the confession is starting to talk about a distinction between laws. It began with the moral laws, the Ten Commandments.

And you can hang all the other commandments of Scripture to those Ten different commandments, these Ten moral categories. But now it begins to talk about ceremonial laws, which the confession says regulated the worship of Israel before the time of Christ, and prefigured Christ, pointed to Christ, were shadows that Christ would then come and be the substance of, or the reality of. Listen to Colossians 2 verses 16 and 17. Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 and 17. Paul says this, So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." You have to come and say, Paul says, don't let anyone judge you about these things.

You have to acknowledge that under the Old Covenant, we were judged according to those things. Believing people were judged according to food and drink. There are all these dietary laws. Paul is saying those dietary laws aren't in effect anymore. They were to regulate your worship under the Old Covenant and to point forward to Christ.

These new moons and Sabbaths. There's a whole discussion I'm going to bypass about why we think the Lord's Day is the Christian Sabbath and how this isn't a violation of that. That's a long discussion. If you're troubled by it, please talk to me afterwards. I think there are good explanations for that.

There were many Sabbaths in the Old Testament ceremonial law that were part of the theists and the Old Testament calendar of worship that pointed forward to Christ. The purpose of these ceremonial things was to point to Jesus. It was a shadow to point to the reality. And once Jesus comes and the reality is there, there's no point to the shadows. Or Hebrews 10 verse 1, listen to Hebrews 10 verse 1.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. The author of Hebrews is saying these sacrifices were a shadow of the thing to come. They couldn't accomplish the things that they were just pointing forward to. Only the thing that they were pointing forward to could accomplish those things and that was Jesus and he did come and he did accomplish those things and now we don't need the shadow. Because Jesus has come and accomplished all that he was being pointed towards by these shadow of the things to come and not the image of the things and he's success What is he talking about here these sacrifices the sacrifices in the law and then in in Hebrews chapter 10 So this is the same chapter.

I just read verse 1 now listen to verses 9 and 10, He, God, takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will, by the will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So God took away the first, the shadow of the things, to establish the second, what they pointed forward to, and it says so clearly here, that was Jesus and his sacrifice in the place of sinners. So God takes away the first, the ceremonies and the shadows from the Old Testament law to establish the second, Jesus. There's no point in doing the things that foreshadowed Jesus, now that Jesus has come and done his work.

Article 4. Article 4, my summary. God also gave Israel judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, and no longer regulate anyone. However, the general equity of those laws reflect eternal truths and are very useful in every generation. So we had the moral law, which is the Ten Commandments, expressed in the Ten Commandments, and it is eternal because it is a reflection of an unchanging God.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Ten Commandments reflect his moral perfections and have always been true and will always be true. And then you have the ceremonial law which regulated the Old Testament worship and pointed forward to Christ. But now Christ has come and he's done his work. So there's no point in those things that pointed forward to him because now you can just look at Christ. You can just read the Gospels.

Now you don't need those ceremonies. And now we're giving a third kind of law in the Old Testament which is judicial laws. Israel was a family, but it was also a nation, and it had a constitution, and it was this Old Testament law, and it regulated that people. The 1689 confession was made in 1689, and Israel didn't even exist then. So the confession says, God also gave Israel judicial laws which expired together with the state of that people.

So you get there that it was written during a time where there was no Israel. Now God has miraculously and unforeseeably to, if you'd ask any of the framers of the confession, I think they didn't have it in their mind at all that Israel would be a nation again. I would be surprised if they did. But at the time when they wrote it, Israel didn't exist. But it says that those laws were for Israel.

And so they don't regulate anyone. But in every one of those judicial laws, there's a general equity. What is a general equity? It is an underlying eternal truth. That's why God gave it to them, Because there was something good that undergirded all of those judicial laws.

So we can still learn from them, still should learn from them. They can help us. They were designed to help us. Let's give some examples of that. Deuteronomy 22, if a daughter was found to have engaged in sexual immorality, she was to be stoned at the door of her father's house.

This was for the nation of Israel. So this does not bind us today. We are not required to do that today. Deuteronomy was the constitution of the nation of Israel. It is not our constitution.

But what is the general equity? What is the underlying eternal truth of that? That sexual purity matters a lot to God, and that parents bear a responsibility for that. We might not be bound to carry that out, as Israel was bound to carry it out, but we are bound to learn sexual purity matters a lot to God so it should matter a lot to us. Parents are responsible to secure and protect and preserve the sexual purity of the children that God gives to them, which is why this immoral daughter would be stoned on the steps of her parents' house.

So there are underlying eternal truths there. That is no less true. Sexual purity mattered to God and does matter to God and will matter to God. Parents were responsible to care about that and to protect it and secure it and are and will be. Because this judicial law has an underlying eternal truth that we should still learn for.

I turn to 1 Corinthians 9. Paul actually does this himself. He traces one of these judicial laws out and draws the general equity, the underlying eternal truth out of it, and then applies it to something in a different category. 1 Corinthians 9 verses 9-11. Paul writes this, verses 9-11.

1 Corinthians 9, 9-11. Paul writes this, For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. So you have an ox and it's treading out grain and you can preserve the most grain by muzzling the ox so it can't consume any of the grain, but The Old Testament law says don't do that. The ox who's doing the work to separate out your grain ought to be free to participate in his labors by eating as He works. Verse 9b.

Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it all together for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow and hope and he who threshes and hope Should be partaker of his hope if we have sown spiritual things for you Is it a great thing if we reap your material things? So he takes this Judicial law if you have an ox and it's treading out the grain, don't muzzle it, let it eat as it works, and he brings it forward and uses it as a justification for support for preachers of the gospel who should labor in hope and should participate in their labors through support. He's taking the general equity out of an Old Testament judicial law and saying there's an underlying eternal truth that was always true and is the underpinning for the Old Testament judicial law and that truth has modern broader applications.

And so it's true. Article 5. Article 5. My summary. The moral law expressed in the Ten commandments requires obedience of both believers and unbelievers, all being under the authority of our Creator who gave it.

Christ in the Gospel does not dissolve this obligation, but actually strengthens it. Listen to Hebrews 9.27. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Believers will be judged or unbelievers? Both.

We're all going to die. We're all going to be judged. Then judged against what standard? Did you worship other gods? Did you honor your parents?

Did you commit adultery? Did you lie against the standard of the Ten Commandments? Which says what God loves and what God hates. Micah 6, 8 says this, He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Mankind is required to do justly.

Mankind, both believers and unbelievers alike, are required to love mercy. Mankind is required to walk humbly with the God who is. How do you know that? Because God tells us what it means to do justly in His Word, in His law. God tells us what it means to love mercy in His law.

God tells us what it means to walk humbly with Him in His law. What does Jesus say? Listen to Jesus in Matthew 5. You may want to turn to Matthew 5. Matthew 5 is towards the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5 verses 17-19. Matthew 5 verse 17, Jesus 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." And then in the verses that follow as the sermon progresses, Jesus goes on to expand the understanding of the law, which includes not just outward actions, but thoughts and motivations and words. So Jesus says, I didn't come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And if you break one of the least of these commandments, and by the way, it's not just outward, that can happen in your thoughts, that can happen in words that are whispered. If you break the least of these commandments, or teach others to, than your least in the kingdom of God. So he actually even strengthens the obligation in the gospel.

In the Gospel, under the Gospel. Article 6. My summary. My summary. True believers are not under the law as a covenant of works for salvation or condemnation.

Yet it is a rule of life to them, informing them of the will of God in their duty, and binds them to walk accordingly. It also helps them see their sinful pollutions to teach them to hate sin and to flee to Christ. And it instructs them about sowing and reaping in this life. So we have two long sentences there. Let me try to take them sentence at a time and do some unpacking.

So the first sentence is this, true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works for salvation or condemnation, Yet it is a rule of life to them, informing them of the will of God in their duty and binds them to walk accordingly. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Saved or not saved has been settled to those who truly believe in Jesus. Never to be reopened. Now there is such a...there are fakers.

There are people who look saved but were never saved, but people who are saved, that matter has been settled not because of them but because of Jesus and his blood which cleanses away all of their sins Past present future So true believers true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works for salvation or condemnation, because that has been settled. But the law remains for the true believer as a rule of life. In other words, what's good, what's not good? What does God like, what does God not like? What should I do, What should I not do?

We learn these things from the law. So the law has a continuing function, although it has nothing to do about whether the true believer will be saved or not saved. That is wrapped up in what happened on the cross, which is finished work. Romans 10. Turn to Romans 10 if you'd like.

Romans 10. Paul is so clear in Romans 10. I'm so thankful. I'll be reading Romans 10 verses 1 through 4. Romans 10 verse 1, Paul writes, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, here we should be thinking about blood righteousness, cross righteousness. They being ignorant of God's righteousness, the righteousness of the Cross, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, we should be thinking about law keeping, righteousness through law keeping. They wanted to establish their own law keeping righteousness. Have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Look at verse 4 again. This is the punch line. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Now there are professing Christians, there are real Christians, who want to take out that phrase for righteousness and just say, for Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes.

That's not what Paul said. Paul said, the law is the end, for Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes. That's not what Paul said. Paul said the law is the end, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The righteousness of the believer comes from Christ to everyone who believes.

Does that mean that has no continuing value for the believer? Quite the contrary. It has tremendous continuing value. How in the world would you know what Christlikeness looks like without the law? You would have the gospels, that would tell us something.

But in the gospels, Jesus is fulfilling the law. He's keeping the law on behalf of His people. This is built on the truth of Romans 8.3. Listen to Romans 8.3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh. The law can never give you life. The law can never give you life. The law can never give you salvation. Salvation through law keeping, sailed, left the harbor a long time ago with Your first sin, your first act of pride or selfishness in your thoughts or your words or your deeds.

The law cannot do that. God did it by sending his Son to condemn sin in the flesh. So believers don't look to the law for life. The law can never give you life. But we do look to it for a reflection of the perfect righteousness of God so we can walk as Jesus walked.

Let me say that again. Believers don't look to the law for life. But we do look to it for a reflection of the perfect righteousness of God, so we can walk as Jesus walked. It tells us how to walk. It tells us what it means to love God and love your neighbor.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Listen to Romans 13. This is my last stop. We have one more article, but this is our last reference to look up. Romans 13 verses 8 through 10.

Paul says this, Romans 13, 8 through 10, Oh, no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, That's one of the Ten Commandments. You shall not bear false witness. That's one of the Ten Commandments. You shall not covet.

That's one of the Ten Commandments. And if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So Paul is saying, you know what it means?

You want to know what it means? To love your neighbor? Look to the Ten Commandments. It tells you how to love your neighbor. If you want me to add, yes, but it means doing it from the heart, amen.

Yes, it means doing it from the heart. There's a counterfeit, which is external only, where the heart is disengaged and it doesn't count. Amen. I affirm that. You're right about that.

But it doesn't disconnect it from the laws that God has given to us, as if they're irrelevant And now we just follow our heart the Bible doesn't teach that Old Testament Bible doesn't teach that in the New Testament So key Paul tells you how to love your neighbor go look at the Ten Commandments and do those things from the heart the second sentence of Article 6 The law also helps them also helps believers see their sinful pollutions to teach them to hate sin and flee to Christ and it instructs them about sowing and reaping in this life. Let me give you two texts from Galatians. The first is Galatians 3 24. Galatians 3 24 says, Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith. So the purpose of the law was not to be keep it perfectly so that you can live.

The purpose of the law was to show you how far short of that you were and to render you hopeless in salvation by law keeping. If you study this book and your hope, You came to the book hoping that the book would help you be good enough to be good in the sight of this God. It will teach you about the perfect holiness of God. It will expose every defect in your thoughts, in your words, in your deeds. It will render you in despair of ever having anything to do with this perfectly holy God having been shown what you're like.

This is the sense in which the law is a tutor. It should send you running to Christ. Oh, I have no hope unless you bleed for sinners. So as an unbeliever, the law breaks my pride and convinces me that there is no hope in myself. God gives the law for that, to break your pride.

You proud sinner, come look at what holiness looks like and compare yourself to it with an honest heart. See your standing. See what the verdict against your life must be to convince you that there is no hope in yourself. That if there is a hope, it will have to come from outside you. And as a believer, it continues to help me identify areas that look nothing like Jesus.

How often Do you come away from reading your Bible and say, oh my, there's such a long way to go. I'm so far from the perfections of Jesus. That's good. How are we going to grow if God doesn't show us where we look nothing like Jesus. And then Galatians chapter 6 verse 7, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Old Testament or New Testament?

It's Galatians, it's New Testament. Sowing and reaping is taught in the New Testament. Who is it written to? Unbelievers or believers? Believers in Galatia.

The Gospel is wonderful. The Gospel secures heaven for all who truly believe, but it does not universally suspend the law of sowing and reaping even for believers. If you think that the gospel universally suspends the law of sowing and reaping and that you can't bring destruction into your life because you believe in Jesus, you're a fool. You're a fool. You'll learn soon enough that stubborn disobedience in your life can bring destruction.

Yes, you'll go to heaven after suffering consequences in your life here. The law teaches us about blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Discipline for disobedience. I should call it discipline. I revoke curses for disobedience, just because I don't want it to be misunderstood.

Jesus has born the curse for believers. Article 7. My summary. The uses of the law in article 6, so all that I just talked about, that the law does have a continuing function in the life of the believer, the uses of the law in article 6, are not contrary to the grace of the gospel, but sweetly comply with it in the hands of the Holy Spirit. It's just saying that the Holy Spirit uses the law to bring forth the fruits of the gospel in the life of the believer.

Paul says this when he writes so clearly, when he writes to Titus. Listen to Titus chapter 2 verses 13 and 14. Titus 2, 13 and 14. Paul writes, 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. We're so inclined to a man-centered view of the Gospel.

But here Paul is saying, he's pulling us out of a man's interview of the gospel, and he's saying that Christ redeemed us, Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from the lawless deeds, and to purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works. So you see the law and the gospel are not the same. God has given them from different purposes. The law is a tutor to drive you to Christ, to bring you to Christ. The Gospel is the only way you can be saved.

If you're to be saved, It has to be a righteousness that comes from outside of you. Jesus' righteousness lived out in His life and His atoning death. They are not enemies, they are friends. God has caused them to work together. Never think that the law is a product of the mean Old Testament God, while the Gospel is the product of a nice New Testament Jesus.

Please don't ever think that. I want you to hear this. Jesus loves the law as much as the Father. And the Father loves the Gospel as much as Jesus. I know you walked in here knowing that!

Can I remind you? That's all I ever do on Sundays is remind you. I don't think I say new things. I'm reminding you. We have to remind ourselves Jesus loves the law as much as God the Father ever did.

They have one view of the law. It's called the doctrine of divine simplicity. One will. One will. God the Father loves the gospel as much as Jesus does.

God sent Jesus. Jesus was happy to be sent. Jesus was happy to obey the law. He loved the law. Only the gospel saves, but we need the law also.

If you could have a world where all the law was stripped away, and you could just be left with soft teachings about Jesus and His mercy, You should be sorry. The law teaches us what God is like. You have to have the law to know this God, and to see your sin. Jesus, we pray to you as a gospel-loving judge. I thank you for an opportunity to bring together the different truths about the law in your word and to see how they do sweetly comply with each other.

They are friends. I pray that you would help us to think rightly. When wrong thinking comes in, and we begin to condemn ourselves as if we're trying to lock, keep our way into your kingdom, Oh, confront us. Let the work of your Son be magnified and seen clearly by us. And when we ever begin to think of the laws being against us, or being something that is not good, I pray that you would give us the heart of the psalmist, Oh how I love your law.

Thank you for revealing yourself to us in your law. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.