Peter Allison's sermon, 'The Blessing of the Law Pt 1,' explores the foundational role of God's law in personal and societal governance. The sermon is based on Proverbs 28, with a focus on verses 2, 3, and 4, emphasizing that without self-governance rooted in God's law, external governance becomes oppressive and tyrannical. Allison addresses the failure of churches to uphold the law, resulting in social and cultural decay. He uses historical examples, like New Zealand's economic reforms, to illustrate the benefits of adhering to God's principles. The sermon argues that God's law reflects His character and that love is the fulfillment of the law. The law teaches us our duty to God and the impossibility of fulfilling it without Christ, whose sacrifice redeems us from the law's condemnation. The sermon concludes with a call to delight in the law by understanding it as a reflection of God's love and character.

Proverbs 28, for our scripture reading. We'll read verses 1-12, but we'll be looking primarily at verses 2, 3, and 4. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Because of the transgression of a land many are its princes, but by a man of understanding and knowledge right will be prolonged. A poor man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no food.

Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all. Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of glutton shames his father. One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion gathers it for him who will pity the poor.

One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer, is an abomination. Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he himself will fall into his own pit. But the blameless will inherit good. The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor who has understanding searches him out. When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory.

But when the wicked men arise, men hide themselves. May the Lord be gracious and merciful to us according to His Word. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. It is truth. Sanctify us Lord by your truth.

And bring to us that word this morning in the power of the Holy Spirit and sanctify my sinful lips that they may proclaim what is holy and good. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. The blessing of the law. The blessing of the law of God. Why do we have churches today, churches that might be called, or very recently were considered, evangelical, Bible believing churches.

Why do we have them approving of homosexual fornication or the destruction of history or transgenderism? And I think the answer really comes down to that the church has become ashamed of the law of God today. Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes. But by a man of understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged. Another way to translate that is that because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes, Many are its rulers, but a discerning man of knowledge gives it stability.

The transgression of a land is the violations of the law of God that as a nation abandons the law of God, because it's ashamed of it, because as the people of God we have ceased to be the salt and light of the earth, Because as the people of the land abandon that law and turn away from it, thinking that it is not a good standard, that it's either not necessary or that it's irrelevant, The Bible says that many, many are its princes. That's because self-government is the foundation of all government and Without self-government, sin abounds. And when sin abounds, other governments begin to take over. But ultimately, without self-government, all government is impossible because the state can never produce enough policemen to watch every single person every single minute of the day. And then of course, the policemen themselves are sinners.

And so who then watches the policemen as they watch every person? You see, it's impossible. But that's what happens. Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes. Because of the transgression of a land, government explodes.

See, where there's no self-government, then families have to step in. And provide government of the individuals within their family. See, if you have no self-government in a home, if everybody just walks around and drops the trash wherever they will, the house soon becomes a mess. And so the mother and the father have to step in and provide instruction. They have to provide governance.

That the trash is not dropped wherever it is last used. But that it is put in a trash can. That the dishes after the meal are cleaned and put away. There has to be this training, this instruction. The family government has to step in and provide training and teaching.

But what happens if the family fails to do this? And there is no self-government in a home and no government in the family, well, ideally the church would help out, begin to disciple. If the families are not discipling within the home, there is a church. It's another net. It's a second net.

A second safety net. To come in and to disciple families and to teach them how to live in a way that is honoring and glorifying to the Lord. But what happens when churches fail to disciple families, then that disorder that's within the home and that disorder that's within the church becomes a disorder that is within a culture. And the lack of self-government that allows somebody to drop a trash in their home wherever they last touched it, becomes people that will dump the trash on the roads wherever they last needed it. Becomes People who are lawless in society as well.

If there is no self-government in the home, and there is no discipleship in the church, then people grow up ignorant of the law of God, unrestrained. And when that happens, the state explodes. And government rules explode. An abundance of transgressions leads to the growth of government, which we might call tyranny, having a policeman in every home, watching everything that we do. See, as the state seeks to do what the conscience and all other governments have failed to do.

Just look at the federal government. The federal registry was about 2, 500 pages in the 1930s. And that's after a massive explosion of the federal government. I don't know what it would have been before that. Maybe they didn't even have one.

But now it's in the 80, 000 to 90, 000 pages annually. That's representing an explosion of rules and an explosion of princes. No one knows really even how many laws there are, federal laws there are today. Forty years ago, the Justice Department had a project to try and determine the total number of criminal laws. And the project lasted for two years as they tried to determine the total number of federal laws.

They called through some 50 different titles and 23, 000 pages of federal law, and they compiled a list of over 3, 000 criminal offenses. And that was 40 years ago. It's only grown exponentially since then, such that no one even claims to know anymore. People say that everybody commits three felonies before breakfast. I don't know.

But how far of a cry that is from Ten Commandments. And when the government explodes, when there's an increase of princes, that brings a poverty and a tyranny to people. New Zealand is an interesting example, and this is an account that's related by Maurice McTeague, who was a minister of public works there. He said that New Zealand's per capita income in the late 50s was right about number three in the world. In other words, they were a fairly prosperous nation, number three behind the US and Canada.

But that by 1984, a mere 30 years, they had sunk to 27th in the world. Unemployment was over 10, 11 percent. They had 23 successive years of deficits. Their debt was, an annual deficit was sometimes almost 50 percent of their gross domestic product. The cumulative national debt was 65% of their gross domestic product.

Their credit ratings were continually being downgraded. They were spending 44% of the total, the government was spending 44% of the total domestic output of that country. Investment capital was exiting the country. Government controls and micromanagement were pervasive at every level of the economy. Foreign exchange controls meant that you couldn't buy a subscription to The Economist magazine without permission of the minister of finance because economist magazine was foreign publication.

People couldn't buy shares in a foreign company and surrendered their citizenship. There were price controls on all goods and services. An employer couldn't pay his employee a penny more, couldn't give him a bonus if he wanted to. There were price controls on all shops and all service industries, wage controls, there were import controls on the goods that somebody could bring into a country. There were massive levels of subsidies on everything that they produced in order to keep them viable.

For example, well young people of course were leaving the country in droves. Who would want to live in a place like that? But there a new government came in in 1984 and they asked two questions of government. What are you doing And why? And what should you be doing?

What are you doing? And what should you? What's the law of God say that you should be doing? And when they started that process and started asking those questions, and started confining themselves to what they should be doing, the Department of Transportation went from 5, 600 employees down to 53. The Forest Service went from 17, 000 employees down to 17.

When they applied it to the Ministry of Works, which Maurice Matigue was the Secretary of, the Minister, they started out with 28, 000 employees and ended up with just him. Because everybody else was there doing construction projects and so on. And there were many other people that could do those construction projects just as well as the Ministry of Works. In 1984, the typical New Zealand sheep farmer was receiving 44% of his income from government subsidies. Almost half his income came because the government just paid him.

The major product of these farmers was lamb. And lamb on the international market was selling for $12.50 a pound. So the government paid each farmer another $12.50 so they could get $25 for their lamb. They sold it, they got half their money from the sale, and the other half from the government. They came in and decided they're going to do away with all subsidies to the sheep farmers.

Of course, the sheep farmers didn't like it. They're going to lose half their income. How are they going to live? But once they accepted that reality, that they weren't going to get any money, they put together a team of people to figure out how they could get about $30 per lamb carcass. And they thought it would be difficult, but they thought they could do it.

It required producing an entirely different product, processing it in an entirely different way, and selling it in different markets. And within two years, by 1989, they succeeded in converting their $12.50 product, which is what they actually sold it for, they converted that into something worth $30. By 1991, it was worth $42. By 1994, it was worth $74. And by 1999 they were getting $115 from each carcass.

They applied the law of God, producing stability. There is stability in a business where they can get $115 per lamb. When they were only getting $25 before and half of it was coming by a government subsidy, which just meant that the government was taking it from everybody else. What do you suppose happened to investment capital and the droves of youth that were leaving the land? Verse 3 says, a poor man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no food.

Law breaking by even the powerless. And the law breaking is when you are oppressing people, you are breaking the law. You are hurting them and keeping them from being able to live in obedience to the law of God. And so even the poor, oppressing the poor brings famines and food shortages. And we're talking about here, when we're talking about people who oppress the poor, we're not talking about this poor oppressing the poor is not just people without money.

Rich oppressing the poor would do the same thing. We're speaking here about people that have poor character. They oppress people and they ruin countries. Now how are the poor oppressed? People of poor character oppress the poor.

And it's like The effect is food shortages. The effect is like a driving rain that leaves no food. A driving rain destroys what it falls on instead of watering it. How do they do that? Well, in our culture, One of the ways is minimum wage laws Those who are not worth the minimum wage are not able to find work Who are the people that not worth the minimum wage?

Those are the poor people Those are the very people that need them a wage of any of some sort They need that money more than the wealthy. And so the very people who need the work the most are unable to work. The people who could benefit from their labor are also deprived of the labor of these people. For example, I remember hearing a contractor some number of years ago who said he was because of the minimum wage restrictions, he was no longer able to hire someone to pick up trash at his construction sites. This could have been a 10 year old, a 12 year old, who's paid, I remember when I was 9 years old, I worked on a farm that my father ran, and I was paid 50 cents an hour, and I thought I was rich.

50 cents an hour. That wasn't much money even back then. But it was what I was worth and I was happy to work for that. I was nine years old. And I remember one, I remember one week I actually earned $16.

I thought I was rich. So this contractor could no longer hire somebody to pick up the trash at his work site. So what does he have to do? Leave the place a mess? No, he's going to have to pay somebody a lot more to go around and pick up the trash.

What does that do? That means he's a lot less profitable. That means the price of his house goes up. Because he's paying somebody to pick up trash at three or four times what that should be worth. Work laws prevent the young from working in productive environments.

The law doesn't allow a 15 year old young man to work in a place of meaningful employment. Oh, he can ride his bike up and down the street. And then we wonder why young men at 18 are irresponsible, because we have deprived them of the ability to work through our work laws, to work at meaningful places. Why can't he work at some place where he can learn some valuable skills? At shops where they actually do things.

You see, that is oppression of the poor. The very people who lack these skills and who can benefit from learning these skills are deprived of the ability to get them. Mandatory education laws are another way the poor are oppressed. They keep our young in school trying to force everybody to be an academic. 100% of people have to go to school to be academics when we only need 2 or 3 or 5% of our population to be academics.

And it prevents these young people from going into business and becoming profitable, keeps them in a classroom. There's nothing wrong with the book learning, but it's not for everybody. In fact, and so if you talk to most people today, they will tell you that what they learned in college and high school is not what they do for a living. That they didn't, they don't need those skills that they learned there for their living. Of course not, because what schools teach are academic skills.

And academic skills are not needed in most jobs that are done today. The vast majority of jobs have nothing to do with academics. They have to do with making cabinets, fixing cars, computer databases, managing IT systems, selling. None of these things are academic. None of these things need academic skills.

We need to know how to read and how to do arithmetic. And with those skills, the people in our history, historical pasts, are far better educated than most people today with their college degrees. Edison is a really great example. He went to school a short time. He did so poorly that his mother simply took him out.

There were no mandatory education laws. If school wasn't for him, academics weren't for him, that's fine. His mother took him out, taught him how to read. He had a love for reading that he kept the rest of his life. And he also liked to experiment with things.

And so at the age of 12, he sold fruit, snacks, and newspapers on a train as a news butcher, 12 years old. By 13, he had, he was turning out $50 a week profit, Most of which went to buying equipment for his electrical and chemical experiments. And he had four assistants, employees, at 13 years of age. He sold fruit, snacks, and newspapers on the train. And he printed his own newspaper on the train as it moved.

He set up a little print shop. That's a 13-year-old. Mandatory education, work laws, and minimum wage would prevent anybody from doing what he did today. His entrepreneurship was behind some 14 companies including General Electric and he died with 1093 patents than most of any person. But what he did was impossible today, at least not without breaking the law.

Oppression of the poor leaves no food. We are deprived of the people like him who brought great benefit to our culture. He invented the light bulb, he invented the phonograph, the ability to record the human voice. These things would be lost. Now the fourth verse says that those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them." What do we mean by the law?

Those who forsake the law, praise the wicked. But such as keep the law, contend with them. Well, there's a lot of different ways that the word law is used in the Bible. It's used as a doctrine or a system or a principle. Where is boasting?

It is excluded. By what law? Of works, no. But by the law of faith. That's Romans 3.27, Romans 8.2.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. Or Romans 7. But I see another law in my members warning against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. The law is being used there as a doctrine or a system or a principle, a system of truth. The law is also used to refer to the commands associated with the Old Testament temple and tabernacle worship.

There are commands related to how they were to do that worship. We call those the ceremonial laws. Hebrews 8.4 says, For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law. There are priests that are descendant of Aaron, just like Abijah was telling the northern tribes that they had kicked out all the priests that were, according to the law, that were the sons of Aaron. Or Hebrews 10.1, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers their unto perfect.

The law was a shadow of the things that came. That ceremonial law was a shadow. Hebrews 10.8 talks about the sacrifice and burn offerings for sin you would not, neither had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Those sacrifices were offered according to ceremonial law. So the law is used in the Bible as a principle, a system of truth.

It's used as ceremonial laws. It's used to describe the moral law. The moral law is that which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, Matthew 12. Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath or where Jesus is asked, Master what is the greatest commandment in the law? It's talking there about this moral law of which the Ten Commandments are just a summary.

Now if the Ten commandments are a summary of the moral law, they are not the entire moral law, they are just summarizing it. So the moral law is a lot more than that. Moral law is what is our duty. The law is used in the Bible to describe the Pentateuch. Luke 24, Jesus said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning me.

The law of Moses is referring to the Pentateuch there. And Jesus is saying, I came to fulfill everything that was written in the Pentateuch about me. I came to fulfill everything that was written in the prophets about me and in the Psalms, the writings. Or, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." I jumped ahead. In John 1, Philip found Nathanael and said, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did right.

Moses in the law wrote about Christ. He's speaking of the Pentateuch. Moses wrote of Christ in the Pentateuch. Now the word law is also used to refer to all of the scriptures, not just the Pentateuch or the Ten Commandments, but all the scriptures. Jesus said in John 10, is it not written in your law, I said you are God's.

Is it not written in your law, I said you are God's. Now where is he quoting from? He's quoting from the Psalms. Is it not written in Psalm 82? So he's using the word law to refer to the book of Psalms or the scriptures as a whole.

And then Romans 7 where I jumped ahead, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. The law of God. There he's not saying I just delight in the Pentateuch but he's saying I delight in all of the scriptures woe to you scribes and Pharisees for you paid ties mint of the mint cumin and anise and have committed the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. When he says they have committed the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, he's talking about they have committed the weightier matters of the Scriptures, justice, mercy, and faith. These ought to have been done and not leave the other undone.

Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The law and the testimony are there held as synonymous. The testimony of the Lord is the word of God. The law then is the word of God.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The scriptures are what are completed, converting the soul. So when we speak of law here in this verse, we're referring to law in those latter three senses. The moral law, which is the duty that God requires of us, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, the moral law then being, or the Pentateuch, or the scriptures as a whole. The moral law is our duty to God and that is comprised of all of the scriptures.

The scriptures, as our catechism has said, remember teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. So the moral law that summarizes the Ten Commandments is really all of the scriptures. All of the scriptures teach what we are to believe about God and the duty that God requires of us. And every passage of the scriptures teach us that we cannot keep, we cannot obey the law in our flesh, that we are under the wrath and condemnation of the law for our failure, and that we deserve torment in hell for all eternity. Not only have we offended an infinite God, If we can't keep the law in our flesh that means we can never stop sinning We continue to sin for all eternity the mere fact that our body and our soul are separated in death Doesn't keep the sinner from sinning That's a terribly desperate plight to be in.

The sinner cannot stop from sinning. He's incapable of keeping the law of God. And so for all eternity the sinner continues to sin against God. And so God's judgment is for all eternity. That is a desperate plight to be in.

But thanks be to God the scriptures also teach us that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to pay the penalty of our sin by giving life, by giving his life in place of ours and so by giving his life in place of ours. And so by giving his life in place of ours, he propitiated the wrath of God. He turned that wrath of God away. He appeased that wrath of God against us. He has made us alive together with him, having forgiven us all trespasses, having wiped out or canceled the written record which was against us based on the law.

He canceled our debt owed under the law that was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. The law also of God also teaches us that this very same Jesus also lived in perfect obedience to the law of God and that his righteousness is made ours by faith. This message, this message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It's the power of God that working in us enables us to walk in obedience to the law, to delight in this law.

Those who are being saved delight in the law. Delight in the Law. Psalm 1, but his delight is in the Law of God. And in his Law, he meditates day and night. Psalm 40, I delight to do your will, oh my God, and your law is within my heart.

Psalm 119, their heart is as fat as grease, But I, David said, delight in your law. Or in verse 77, Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live, for your law is my delight. Verse 92, Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Or, 174, I long for your salvation, O Lord. Your law is my delight.

Or Romans 7, Paul said, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Now, why does the one who is in Christ delight in this law? Why do we delight in the law? Right, wasn't the law what brought us condemnation? Well Yes, but the grace of the gospel of God is that that condemnation is removed under the law by Christ.

But we delight in the law because the law is a reflection of the character, or We might even say the law is the DNA of our God. And of course we delight in our God. The law is summed up in one word, love. Love. O know in anything except to love another, Romans 13, for he 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 bear false witness, and you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment it is all 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 fulfilling of the law what's it mean to love it means to fulfill the law but God is love God is love And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in the world. See, God is love.

That's who he is. And what is love, but simply the fulfilling of the law? So that's why we say that the law is a transcript of the character of God. It's what God is. And so when we delight in it, we are delighting in who and what God is Now there's an interesting statement here Love has been perfected among us in this and if love is perfected that means what that That means our ability to obey the law has been perfected.

That we may have boldness in the day of judgment. We may have boldness in the day of judgment. Here's what Matthew Henry says, and it's, I can't say it any better, and I didn't have time to try and summarize it, but, so I'm just going to read you. It's a little bit lengthy, but I think it's worth it. Matthew Henry said, Happy are they who shall have holy fiducial boldness before the judge at that day, who shall be able to lift up their heads and look him in the face as knowing he is their friend and advocate.

Love prevents or removes the uncomfortable result and the fruit of servile fear. There is no fear in love. As far as love prevails, fear ceases. We must here distinguish, I judge, between fear and being afraid. Or in this case between the fear of God and being afraid of God.

The fear of God is often mentioned and commanded as the substance of religion. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and so forth. And so it imports the high regard and veneration we have for God and his authority and government. The fear of God is regarded as the substance of religion, and so it imports the high regard, it conveys the high regard and the veneration we have for God and His authority and government. Such fear is constant or consistent with love.

Yes, with perfect love, as being in the angels themselves. But then there is a being afraid of God which arises from a sense of guilt and a view of his vindictive perfections. And in view of them, God is represented as a consuming fire. And so fear here may be rendered as dread. There is no dread in love.

Love considers its objects as good and excellent, and therefore amiable and worthy to be beloved. Love considers God as most eminently good and most eminently loving us in Christ and so puts off dread and puts on joy in Him. And as love grows, joy grows too, so that perfect love casts out fear or dread. And those who perfectly love God are from His nature and counsel and covenant perfectly assured of His love, and consequently are perfectly free from any dismal dreadful suspicions of his punitive power and justice as armed against them. They well know that God loves them and they thereupon triumph in his love.

That perfect love casts out fear, the apostle thus sensibly argues. That which casts out torment casts out fear or dread. And because fear has torment, fear is known to be a disquieting, torturing passion, especially such a fear as is the dread of the Almighty Avenging God. But His perfect love casts out torment, for it teaches the mind of perfect acquiescence and complacency in the beloved, and therefore perfect love casts out fear. If there's fear, it's a sign that our love isn't perfect.

Let us long for and hasten to the world of perfect love, where our serenity and joy in God will be as perfect as our love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. And so perfect fear, love casts out fear because perfect love is perfect obedience of the law. And where there is perfect obedience, there is no fear of judgment. Of course, we know that in ourselves we can't keep that law.

But the gospel of the grace of God, the unmerited goodness of God to us, proclaims that God has imputed to our account the righteousness of the perfect Son of God. And so by faith we lay hold of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And we too can have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as He is righteous, because as He is, which is righteous, so we are in the world. Now, That's the law.

That's the law. It's what the believer delights in and loves because it is God. It is God's character. Now What is the law then in which we delight? What does this law talk about?

It talks about a lot of things. We've talked about the grace of God in Christ. The law of God, the testimony of God gives that to us. But it also talks about other things. It says that people that worship other gods should be put to death.

Do we believe that? Do we believe that that is what the holiness of a loving God requires? Is that love? Well, according to the Bible, yes. You see, when we ignore that, we praise the wicked.

But if we love the Lord, then this text says those who keep the law contend with the wicked. If any man or woman be a witch or consults with familiar spirits, they should be put to death. That's what the law of God says. Is that what we delight in? Do we delight in the Lord?

Such that these things are an abomination that offend us? If any man blaspheme the name of God, the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous, or high-handed blasphemy shall curse God in like manner. He should be put to death." See, at one time these laws were part of our culture. These laws were the laws of our land because the people feared the Lord and they contended against the evil, the wicked. But those who forsake the law, praise the wicked.

And that's what we have today. We have a nation that has forsaken the law of God because we have a church that's forsaken the law of God. If you read these things in most churches, they would be horrified. And the result is the wicked are praised. But rather, if we love the Lord, we're going to love who the Lord is, not who we think He is.

We are going to love the Lord as He has revealed Himself in His Word. We are going to love the Lord Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself, not as we have imagined Him to be. If any man commit willful murder, which is manslaughter, committed upon premeditated malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in necessary self-defense, or by mere causality of his will, he shall be put to death. There's premeditated murder. Now, thankfully, we still recognize that law, and we still contend against those who do these things.

But that by itself is not the complete law. And the law goes on. And the law goes on. And speaks about man stealing. People that steal men.

We have a proliferation of trafficking that's man stealing. Because we have ignored the law of God, and so we have a culture that's being overrun with human slave trafficking. Because the Bible says, God's law says, if any man steals a man, he should be put to death. If a man rise up as a false witness and to willfully testify against another man's life like they did with Naboth, they testified that he was a blasphemer which in that day they still put blasphemers to death. In fact it was done all the way up into our times as well, our land.

It's only been In the second half of the life of the United States that these laws have ceased to be the law of our land You see if we love the Lord We will love him as he's revealed himself in his word, and we will contend. We will contend against the wicked. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked. Those who keep the law contend with them. The word of God, the testimony of the scriptures transforms culture.

When the righteous contend against the wicked, that has a transforming effect. We become the salt and light of the earth. And that's what we pray for in the Lord's Prayer, that I will be done on earth as it is already being done in heaven. If we love the Lord, then we will love the Lord as he has revealed himself, who he is. And these things that are an abomination to Him will be an abomination to us.

And we will take His Word, His law, and it will be our meditation, it will be our delight. And we will walk in it, and the land will walk in it. Of course as we said that only comes that only comes by the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Help us to love your law, to love the words that have proceeded from your mouth, to love all of your testimonies, to delight in them, to meditate upon them, to walk in them.

For in them, Lord, your character and your heart is revealed and shown to us. Oh Lord, we thank you so very much for the righteousness of Christ, without which we could not see you. We thank you for His sacrifice, His obedience, His canceling the debt against us, so that we can have boldness in the day of judgment before you, the righteous and just judge of all the earth. Oh Lord, may we by faith apprehend your grace to us in Christ, that we might know through the testimony of your Holy Spirit that you do love us and that you are satisfied and pleased with us through Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that if there are any here today who are yet in their sins, who are yet under your wrath and condemnation, that Lord, you and your grace might draw them to you.

That they too might know this love and this freedom from guilt and the debt. I ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.