1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 19, and
I'm using the New American Standard translation.
Verse 19, For though I am free from
all men, I have made myself a slave
to all, that I might win them all.
To the Jews I became as a Jew,
that I might win Jews.
To those who are under the law, as
under the law.
Though not being myself under the law, that
I might win those who are under the
law.
To those who are without law, as without
law.
Though not being without the law of God,
but under the law of Christ, that I
might win those who are without law.
To the weak I became weak, that I
might win the weak.
I have become all things to all men,
that I may by all means save some.
I do all things for the sake of
the gospel, that I may become a fellow
partaker of it.
Let's pray once again.
Our Father, we are so thankful for this
privilege to be able to gather together and
look into Your Word.
To sit at the feet of the Lord
Jesus and listen to what He would have
to say to us this morning.
Father, we think of this Word there again.
It is written in the Prophets, they shall
all, all be taught of God.
And we confess, Lord, this morning, that if
You don't teach us, there will be no
teaching done.
Lord, we confess that we can't teach anything.
We can't learn anything.
It's only by the power of Your Holy
Spirit.
And we ask You that You do that,
that the things that are said might be
right and the things that are heard might
be right.
We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
We began last evening to consider this great
subject of the law of Christ.
And we saw three great principles in the
message last night.
The first one is, we saw something concerning
the real purpose of the law of Moses.
Now, I appreciate this because one of the
brothers talked to me this morning about this
phrase, law of Moses.
Where does the Bible say the law of
Moses?
And that's good.
That's very good because we need to have
scriptural terminology.
And if you say the law of Moses,
you get to thinking, well, it was just
Moses' law.
God didn't give that.
It's just the law of Moses.
Well, it was the law that God gave
through Moses.
When we say the law of Moses, we've
got to be careful.
But nevertheless, even the Lord Jesus said things
like this.
You remember in John chapter 5, He says,
who is the one that accuses you?
It's even Moses, in whom you have put
your hope.
And so there is terminology like this in
the Bible, and we're not far off.
We could just say Moses.
That would be the most scriptural.
You could just say the law of Christ
as opposed to Moses.
But I think, I trust you'll get the
idea when we talk about the law of
Moses.
It wasn't Moses' law.
God gave it.
And it was absolutely perfect for what God
gave it for.
Now, when you come to the New Testament,
there is a certain strain of teaching that
talks about the inferiority of the law.
And Paul talks about these weak and worthless,
beggarly elements and so on that you desire
to be in bondage to and so on.
There is an aspect in which the law
was inferior, not because of anything wrong with
the law, but because it didn't take care
of the real problem we've got.
And it was a type and shadow in
many ways of what was coming.
On the other hand, you have another strain
of teaching in the New Testament that talks
about the law as holy and just and
good and spiritual.
And that's talking about the essence and the
heart of the law, and that never changes,
beloved.
That has to do with the very nature
of God.
And we'll see, Lord willing, today that this
law that God gave, the very essence and
heart of that law, has never changed, never
will change.
And that is the reality that is brought
out in the very person of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
So there's two sides to that thing.
On the one hand, we've entered into the
realities of which the Mosaic law, the Mosaic
covenant was just a type and shadow.
On the other hand, we've entered into the
heart of what was the center of the
law of Moses.
You see, the two things are both there.
Well, what was the real purpose of the
law of Moses?
The law of Moses was not given ever
for the purpose of adding conditions to the
promises made to Abraham.
We saw that yesterday.
That was never the purpose.
The purpose for which it was given was
to be a schoolmaster, a tutor, a child
conductor to lead us up to Christ, to
teach us about Christ.
And it teaches us about Christ and leads
us to Christ in many, many ways.
And particularly, historically, the Jewish nation, it conducted
them up to the time when the Messiah
would come.
And then after that, Paul says, we're no
longer under that schoolmaster.
So we saw something of the real purpose
of the law of Moses.
And secondly, we saw that even though many
of the Old Testament promises appear to be
physical in nature, and if all we had
was the Old Testament, we might read them
as just physical in nature.
Nevertheless, when we get to the New Testament,
we find out that their real meaning is
spiritual.
And in the case of Abraham, for example,
we found out that God promised him a
seed.
And that seed was really Christ.
He promised him a nation.
That nation was the church, the true holy
nation, the true people of God.
He promised him a land, and that land
is the new heavens and the new earth.
We will inherit the world.
If we're Christians, the meek shall inherit the
earth.
And then he promised him a blessing.
And we saw that the blessing is much
deeper than anything physical.
It didn't just have to do with having
more cattle and so on.
The blessing has to do with the fact
that instead of the curse being upon us,
we're justified and blessed in the sight of
God.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute sin.
All of those things were deeper spiritual meanings
of promises that seem to be physical.
Now that is something that we find repeatedly
in the New Testament.
You remember in Psalm 89, God made a
covenant with David.
And He said that He would establish David's
seed forever, and that his seed would reign
on his throne, and that the throne of
David, He says, is going to be like
the sun forever before me.
Like the moon and like the sun before
me.
Like the days of heaven, it actually says.
Now what's that mean?
What's He talking about?
Well, we get to the New Testament.
We find out the Lord Jesus Christ in
Luke chapter 1.
He sits on the throne of His father
David, and of His kingdom there will be
no end.
And He'll reign on that kingdom forever.
See, that's a spiritual reality.
Several passages that we could look at like
that.
So that's the second thing we saw.
These promises, though they were physical in the
Old, we find out the real fulfillment is
spiritual in the New.
And we use the New Testament to try
to understand the meaning of the Old Testament.
Not the other way around.
You don't take a candle to try to
look at the sun.
You take the sun to look at the
candle.
And that's the reality that we have here.
And then thirdly, we saw that the key
to understanding the Bible is the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You go anywhere in the Scriptures, and you
remember after the resurrection He did that.
He took them through the Scriptures and showed
them all the things.
And I mean, throughout the Old Testament, throughout
the whole Bible, the center, the culmination of
everything is Christ.
God was moving toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was summing up all things in Christ.
So with that little review and introduction, we
saw yesterday that the Christian, according to the
New Testament, the Christian is not under the
law.
He says that.
We're freed from the law.
We're released from the law.
We're dead to the law.
All of those terms are used.
Now, the question is, what does it mean
that I am released from the law?
What does it mean that I'm freed from
the law?
It cannot mean that now it's OK to
commit adultery and steal and kill and murder.
See, that's not what it means.
But what does it mean when it says
I'm free from the law?
Well, it's very wonderful what it does mean.
And I want to look at that today.
First of all, and all of this is
introductory to this thing of the law of
Christ.
What does it mean that we're free from
the law?
Well, first of all, the Christian is no
longer under the curse and condemnation of the
law.
We're free from the law in that sense.
We're no longer under its curse and condemnation.
You see, every lost person lives his life
under a curse.
Galatians 3.10, as many as are of
the works of the law are under this
curse.
They're cursed.
And the lost man is walking around all
the time with a curse resting upon him.
All the time.
Now, even when everything seems to be going
well, when his garden is perfect and he's
got a lot of money in the bank,
he is resting under a curse all the
time.
Beloved, you don't want to be in that
spot.
It doesn't matter how good everything looks on
the outside.
He's under a curse.
The wrath of God is abiding upon him.
And sometimes as Christians, we forget what it's
like to be back under that curse.
Free from the law, oh happy condition.
Jesus has died and bled.
There's remission, you see.
So, this freedom from the law, first of
all, freedom from the curse.
Are you a Christian?
If you're a Christian, there is therefore now
no condemnation.
There's not one little speck against you in
the eyes of God's law.
If there were one little speck, if you
had to pay for one thought, one wrong
thought, you'd be in hell forever.
There's not the slightest bit of condemnation upon
you in the eyes of God's law.
You're free from the law, the curse of
the law.
It's been paid for you.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law, having been made a curse for us.
One of the reasons that a Christian can
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory
is that his sins are gone forever.
He is in a position where God no
longer imputes sin to him.
Now, this is an amazing thing.
Let me try to illustrate it.
Suppose I get up this morning, and I'm
a little bit unkind to my wife.
I don't think I was, where is she?
And I don't even realize it.
I don't even think about it.
You know, I don't even realize that I've
been unkind.
I sin.
And I go off to work or whatever,
and a little bit later I begin thinking
about it.
Boy, I really, I sin.
And I ask the Lord to forgive me.
Oh, Father, forgive me.
And I call my wife and ask her
to forgive me.
Now, think about this.
I committed a sin.
It was a real sin?
Yeah, it was a sin.
I didn't realize it at the time fully,
but I did later.
Now, between there and here where I confess
it, suppose I died in between there.
Would I have gone to hell?
No.
You know what that means?
That sin was not imputed to me.
Even though I had not yet even recognized
it or confessed it.
Now, let's make it a little harder.
I get up in the morning, and I'm
a little unkind to my wife, and I
know I'm unkind to her.
I know I committed a sin, and I
go out the door.
And boy, that's bothering me.
I'm not going to be able to go
on like this.
That's struggling around, and after a while you
can't take it any longer, and you call
your wife and say, would you forgive me?
I'm so sorry for what I did.
Now, suppose I'd died and gone to hell
in between there.
I knew it was a sin.
Would I have died and gone to hell?
No, I wouldn't have gone to hell.
You know what that means?
And I can prove that to you.
Why was it bothering me all the time?
Because I'm a Christian.
Because I'm a child of God.
And whenever you get ready to confess it,
you say, oh, Father, forgive me.
That means you're a child of God, you
see.
Now you say, well, you're talking about, you
mean even when you know you've committed a
sin, it's not imputed to you?
It's not laid to your account?
That's what I'm talking about.
There are sins and there are iniquities I
will remember no more.
Well, aren't you afraid that you're going to
give liberty and license to sin?
Not if you're dealing with Christians, because Christians
already sin more than they want to.
Isn't that true?
Now, suppose I get up in the morning
and I yell at my wife and I
go off.
It doesn't bother me and I do that
every morning.
Well, if I die, will I go to
hell?
You better believe it because you're not a
Christian.
That's the problem.
That's what real regeneration is, you see.
What a blessed thing.
There is therefore now no condemnation to anybody
that's in Christ Jesus because every bit of
the curse of your sins has been paid
for in full.
And it's not that those sins are hanging
out there somewhere and God said, I'm just
going to sweep it under the rug and
not think about it.
That's not it.
That sin came down and was paid for
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Free from the law.
There's no curse hanging upon me anymore, you
see.
What a blessed freedom that most basic, simple
thing is.
But there's a lot more than that to
this freedom from the law.
How else are we free from the law?
Well, we're free from the law as a
means of obtaining righteousness and life.
We're free from the law as a means
of obtaining righteousness and life.
Now, you know the principle of the law.
Do this and you'll live.
That's the principle of law.
Do this and you'll live.
Now, if all God did when you become
a Christian is He just forgives you and
wipes out the slate, you're at point zero
now.
Now you've got to do this and you'll
get life now.
That's not the way it is.
Let me just read the principle to you
in Galatians 3.
Paul speaks of this righteousness that comes through
the law and he says this, However, the
law is not a faith.
On the contrary, he who practices or does
those things shall live by them.
Now, I used to think this is what
it meant.
I thought, he who does those things shall
really live by them.
You know, get in there and really live
by them.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying if you'll do those things, you'll
live.
You'll gain life.
There is a way to get life by
keeping the law perfectly and meriting perfect righteousness
under the law and meriting life.
The law promised that.
There's one man who did that.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only one.
But there is this principle.
Do this and you'll live.
Now, the lost man, he's under this bondage
of the law because the law all the
time bearing down on him this curse.
We talked about that in point 1.
But not only that, he's all the time
having to try to somehow merit righteousness and
life.
He's got to try to fulfill something in
order to have life.
Now, beloved, if you're a Christian, you're no
longer in that condition.
You don't have to fulfill anything in order
to have life.
It's been given to you.
You don't have to fulfill anything in order
to work out righteousness and merit.
In the eyes of the law, that's been
given to you.
The perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a thing this is.
When I was a college student, I worked
hard to try to get an A at
the end of the course.
And everybody else did.
Or a lot of them did.
But I had one class that was different.
My senior year, I went into that class.
It was an upper level chemistry class.
I got to take it because when you
get into upper level chemistry, it's basically physics.
And that's what I was studying.
And we came in there.
There was only 3 or 4 guys in
that class.
And all of us had been studying this
stuff for years.
And the teacher sat down with us.
And he said, fellows, the first thing I
want to say, you all have an A.
So you don't have to worry about what
your grades are going to be.
And he said, now we can just enjoy
the material.
That's what happens when you become a Christian.
God says, I'm giving you an A right
now.
You don't have to worry about that anymore.
Now you can just enjoy the material.
That's what it is.
To be free from the law.
I don't have to earn anymore.
I don't have to earn my sonship.
I'm a son.
I got up this morning.
I was a son of God.
And I'm a son, not because of my
righteousness, but because of His righteousness.
He's fulfilled the law for me.
It's been laid to my account.
To put it another way, the way the
Lord Jesus did it.
He says, you have eternal life.
If you behold the Son, believe on Him,
He has eternal life.
You don't come into condemnation.
It's not that I hope I will have
eternal life.
If you believe on the Son, you have
eternal life.
Isn't this amazing?
It's your possession.
You have eternal life.
I remember one time way back when I
was there in Germany.
Many years ago, my co-pastor and I
now, we were there in Germany.
We had a little coffee house thing and
I was cleaning the floor.
We used to mop that floor every now
and then.
And I was there working and all of
a sudden it dawned on me, I've got
eternal life.
I've got eternal life.
I'm free from that bondage to have to
perform to become a son.
His smile is upon me.
To put it another way, just like this
lost man is walking around with a curse
on him all the time, a Christian is
walking around with a blessing on him all
the time.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
will not impute sin.
Now that means when your tomato plants are
wilted, and the lost man's tomato plants are
blooming and everything's great, you're in a far
better position.
I mean, even you might be lying in
prison with somebody beating you and rats crawling
around on you.
You're a blessed man.
Blessed, blessed, blessed is the man who has
eternal life.
He's in a state of blessedness.
And even when God has to chasten you,
you know what He's chastening you?
He's chastening you because He loves you, because
you are a son.
Far better to have a spanking from your
Heavenly Father than to be a criminal out
here under the wrath of an angry judge.
You see, punishment, strictly speaking, that has to
do with satisfaction of justice.
Chastening is suffering inflicted not for satisfaction of
justice, but for the good of the offender.
That has to do with love.
God chastens us because He loves us.
And all the way to the woodshed, you
know, He's holding your hand.
And all the way back, He's holding your
hand.
Isn't that something?
Isn't it amazing that King David could write
Scripture?
After the affair with Bathsheba, he could write
Scripture?
How could he lift up his head again?
Because he's a son.
Blessed is the man to whom God will
not impute sin.
So the Christian, he's free from the law.
He's free from the curse.
He's also free from this work in trying
to gain the favor of God, trying to
gain life.
He's in a blessed position.
He gets up in the morning, blessing upon
him.
Blessing, blessing everywhere.
If he starts to go astray, isn't this
blessed?
That there'd be someone there that would bring
him back, even if he has to use
a rod?
What a blessed thing!
If you've got any evidence in your life
that God won't let you go on in
sin, what a blessed thing it is.
Whenever He leaves a man, oh, what a
thing.
When He leaves a man to go down
a path of wickedness and sin and nothing
calls him back, what a fearful thing that
is.
Number three, we're free from the law in
this sense.
We're free from the law as an external
rule on the outside that contradicts our real
nature and desires.
And you've got to realize the lost man
is in a condition where he is in
bondage to this thing.
It's on the outside of him.
And it's constantly hemming him in and condemning
him and slapping his hand.
He wants to commit adultery and he reaches
out and the law says you shall not
do that.
He wants to steal.
The law says don't do that.
He is bound up and hemmed in under
the law because it contradicts the things that
he really wants and loves, you see.
That's a bondage.
The law constrains him and restrains him with
fear and with threats.
And the lost man hates the law of
God.
But the Bible says the carnal mind is
enmity against God.
It's not subject to the law of God
and neither indeed can be, so those that
are in the flesh cannot please God.
So he's bound up under this thing that's
cursing him and demanding his obedience and he
actually hates it at the same time.
That's a bondage.
Paul says you've been freed from that.
How have you been freed?
The law has been put on the inside
of you now.
Isn't this amazing?
God writes His law on the heart.
The lost man, every time he wants to
do something, the law contradicts him.
There's a bumper sticker or a sign of
some kind, I don't remember, I've seen it
and maybe you've seen this.
It says everything I like is either immoral,
illegal or fattening.
Now that's quite a confession, isn't it?
That's the lost man talking there.
He likes things and he can't do them
because he's restrained and restricted and constrained by
this external law that he hates.
Not so with the Christian.
He's got the law put on the inside.
He's not under law really at all.
He's in law and the law is in
him.
And that verse there in 1 Corinthians 9,
he's actually in law to Christ.
Inimos Christu.
He's in law to Christ.
He's got the law inside of him.
Now let's look at this.
Paul talks about this in Galatians 5 and
verse 18.
If you are led by the Spirit, you
are not under the law.
Now, see I'm not just making this up
when I make this third point.
I'm talking about something the Bible tells us
is one aspect of our not being under
the law.
What is it?
If you're led by the Spirit, you're not
under the law.
Now he goes into the deeds of the
flesh and what they are.
And he says that those who practice such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.
Look at this.
Against such things there's no law.
In other words, you just be who you
really are as a Christian.
You walk in the Spirit.
You will never once run into anything that
says thou shalt not.
Isn't that something?
What does Paul say in 1 Timothy?
Is it 1 Timothy 1 or 2 Timothy
1?
He says the law was not made for
a righteous man.
No need for it.
It's for murderers and so on.
Remember that?
I'm not quoting it very well.
Let me give it to you.
This is incredible.
2 Timothy.
Somebody help me.
1 Timothy 1.
1 Timothy 1 and verse 8.
We know that the law is good if
one uses it lawfully.
You've got to do that.
Realizing the fact that law is not made
for a righteous man, but for those who
are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and
sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those
who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and
liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary
to sound teaching, according to the glorious Gospel.
You know, I don't see any signs in
here that say shoplifters will be prosecuted.
You know, hopefully, now some churches you might
need that.
But when you're dealing with saints, it's irrelevant.
You know, pigs like to wallow in the
mire, but sheep don't find such an attraction
to that mud hole, you know.
They have signs up here, no wallowing in
the mire.
That's irrelevant.
You're free from that.
Now, you want to get a feel for
it?
Think of what heaven is like.
You think there will be signs up, thou
shalt not commit murder?
All you've got to do is just rejoice
in God, you're free!
Be who you are, walk in who you
are, and you'll never run into anything that
contradicts you or shuts you down or says,
don't go there.
We're talking about liberty.
That's the word Paul used.
He says, stand fast in the liberty.
Liberty from what?
Liberty from the curse.
Liberty from the demands to try to merit
life.
Liberty from this thing that restricts you and
confines you and threatens you all the time.
You don't have that because the law has
been put inside of you.
Walk in the Spirit, you're not under the
law.
What else does it mean that we're not
under the law and we're dead to the
law?
Well, we're dead to the law in this
sense, that we have moved out of this
whole realm of demand and we've moved into
the realm of supply, or as the Scripture
calls it, grace.
Now, listen to the way Paul says it.
Romans chapter 6 and verse 14, For sin
shall not have dominion over you, for you're
not under the law.
You're not over in this realm of demand.
You're not under the law.
You're under grace.
There's two realms.
Over here is the realm of the flesh.
You're not in the flesh.
It says that.
You say, well, I kind of got in
the flesh.
We know what that means, but the Christian
doesn't live in that realm.
That's not where he lives anymore.
He lives over here in the realm of
the Spirit.
Over here is the realm of law.
Over here is the realm of grace.
Paul says, I died to the law and
I might live to God.
He's passed into a new realm, you see.
This is the realm of sin.
Sin reigns over here.
This man's living his relationship to God as
one of law and as one of condemnation.
And he's walking in the flesh and sin
is reigning and death is reigning.
This guy over here, he's got a new
relationship to God.
He's living in the realm of grace.
He's in the Spirit.
And instead of sin reigning, righteousness is reigning
and life is taking place.
Now look at how Paul says it in
Romans 5.
He says, As the law entered, that the
offense, the sin, might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound.
Now get this.
That as sin hath reigned in death...
Here's sin sitting on the throne.
It's riding on your back and it's reigning
and it's beating and it's going to...
How effectual is it?
It's effectual.
It puts you right down into hell and
kill you.
That as sin has reigned in death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life.
Grace over here is reigning.
Now don't you like to have grace reigning
on you?
I mean, sitting on your back.
Grace reigns.
It's the realm of supply instead of the
realm of demand.
We're in this covenant Brother Mack talked about
last night.
God says, I'm going to do this.
I'll actually work in you to will and
do of My good pleasure.
He says there in Jeremiah, He says, I
will not turn away from them to do
them good.
That's wonderful.
But Lord, that's not the real problem.
You never did turn away from Me.
What does He say?
And I will put the fear of Me
inside them so that they won't turn away
from Me.
This new covenant you see that we're in,
I'm talking about the realm of supply.
It's when God sees all your sins ahead
of time.
He knew about that.
Sometimes you commit things, even as a Christian,
you do something and you get a little
glimpse of how wicked you are in yourself
apart from the working of the Lord Jesus
Christ and it shocks you.
I'll tell you what, it didn't shock Him.
He knew all about that before He chose
you and He chose you with the purpose
not of you performing good enough to make
it, but with the purpose of changing you
and making you like His Son.
You see, grace is going to reign until
it gets that thing out of you.
He knew all about it before He ever
chose you.
Think of Peter there.
He looks at him and says, You're Simon.
I know exactly who you are.
You're Simon.
Now I'm going to call you Peter.
I'm going to call you The Rock.
That's a miracle, isn't it?
A whole new person, you see.
And He says, I'm going to work in
you until you are a rock.
We talk about guys like George Whitefield.
I don't know of anybody that had three
or four thousand converted in one sermon except
Peter.
And George Whitefield didn't raise the dead as
far as I know, but Peter did.
Isn't that incredible?
Think of the glory God got out of
that fisherman Peter turning him into, I mean,
Simon turning him into a Peter.
It's incredible.
Grace reigns, safe in thy sanctifying grace.
That's what Brother Mack talked about last night.
Safe in thy sanctifying grace, almighty to restore.
That grace is almighty to restore.
Born onward, carried onward, sin and death behind,
and love and life before.
Oh, let my soul abound in hope and
praise Thee more and more.
Grace is reigning.
What's it mean to be free from the
law?
Paul says you're in a different realm now.
You're in a different realm.
You've moved out of that.
You're in grace now.
Sin shall not have dominion over you for
you're not under the law anymore.
You're over here.
You're in the realm of grace.
Grace is reigning over here.
And grace is going to ensure that you
one day will be just like the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Isn't that a blessed thing?
You're going to be just like Him.
God is determined.
He's intent on it.
He says, I will, in this new covenant,
I will be their God.
Aren't you thankful He's determined to be your
God?
He says, I'll cleanse you from all your
filthiness and all your idols.
I might let other people worship idols, but
I'm not going to let you.
You're going to worship Me.
I'm going to be your God.
I'm going to rule over you.
And every Christian says, Hallelujah, Lord, I want
You to rule over me.
I want You to tear all those idols
out.
I want You to make me holy.
I want You to make me pure.
I want You to be my God.
I want You to be the one that
I worship and only You.
Free from the law.
Why?
Free from the realm of demand and living
in the realm of grace.
Living in the realm of supply.
In this realm, ultimately, nothing ultimately depends upon
man.
Ultimately, it depends upon God and the faithfulness
of God.
Grace is reigning.
I got to thinking a few weeks ago.
How in the world can I grow as
a Christian?
And I went back to those words of
the Lord Jesus.
He said, I'm the vine.
You're the branches.
If that means anything, it means that we've
got His very life flowing through us.
That's what it means.
His life is in us.
You know, people teach this thing.
They say, if you just walk close to
God, you get really close to Him, He'll
give you more of the Holy Spirit.
You know what that's saying?
The fruit of love and joy and peace
is the Holy Spirit.
You have more love, more joy and more
peace, you'll have the Holy Spirit.
That's not what it says.
The fruit of the Spirit is love and
joy and peace.
When the channels are clean and open, and
there's no sticks blocking the channel and that
water's flowing through, there's life, there's fruit.
He that abides in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
It's not talking about attaining something.
It's talking about realizing where you are and
staying there.
That's what the word abide means.
It's just remain where you are.
The Puritans
were a very godly group of men, and
I profited a lot from them.
But one thing they went wrong in.
One of their statements was this.
Moses sends us to Christ in order to
be justified.
Now that's true.
But then they said Christ sends us back
to Moses in order to be sanctified.
Christ doesn't have to send you back to
anybody.
The way to grow, beloved, is not reading
a 10,000 page book on the Ten
Commandments.
It's that thick.
And concentrate on how sinful you are.
Concentrate on your duty.
Now there's duty.
Brother Mac's going to be talking about it.
But the foundation of it all, I love
the way he did that.
He went to the foundation of it all
first, and that is God working in you.
Grace, this life of Christ flowing through you.
Otherwise, you're going to struggle around.
I've done it.
I've fought the bad fight of unbelief.
You know, struggling, striving, trying to produce something
that He already told you He's the one
that produces in you.
Fight the good fight of faith.
Realize what He's already done for you.
Count upon the fact of what He's done
for you.
That's what the word reckon means.
It doesn't mean pretend.
It means count upon this.
Decide, deduct it.
The way of holiness is not law.
Even New Testament law.
That's not the way of holiness.
The way of holiness is looking to Christ
and dwelling in Him and being occupied with
Him.
What does Paul say?
He says, we with unveiled face behold Him
as in a mirror, the glory of the
Lord.
Just behold Him.
What happens when you behold Him?
You get changed.
You're being changed.
I can hear ten sermons on law and
all I do is get worse.
I get one glimpse of Christ and all
that stuff goes out the window just like
that.
The heart of this thing is love for
a person.
It's not doing a list of rules.
We're talking about a principle of life flowing
out.
That's what grace is.
That's the realm of grace.
Well, number five.
The Christian is no longer under the law
as a covenant rule of duty.
This is the last one in case you're
starting to get worried.
The Christian is no longer under the law
as a covenant rule of duty.
Now, that means we're free from all those
countless rules and regulations and all of that
stuff.
If we go even further, we're not under
the Ten Commandments as a covenant rule of
duty.
We're not under any of the covenant that
God made through Moses.
None of it.
The rule of duty for a Christian is
not the Ten Commandments.
The rule of duty for the Christian is
the law of Christ.
And the law of Christ is a much
higher and clearer and more glorious and beautiful
thing than the law of Moses.
You remember what Moses said?
He says, there's a day coming when God's
going to raise up a prophet like unto
me from among your brethren.
You give heed to everything He says to
you.
And you remember in the book of Acts,
that's quoted concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who has come now.
And you listen to everything He says to
you.
And anybody that doesn't listen to what He
says is going to be cut off.
This is my beloved Son.
Hear Him.
There's not three tabernacles.
Not one for the law and one for
the prophets and one for Christ.
There's one for Christ.
We talked yesterday.
Was He a true prophet?
Yes, He was the only true prophet.
He's the only one who has spoken the
very words of God.
He whom God has sent speaks the very
words of God.
For He gives not the Spirit by measure
unto Him.
He spoke every word He said.
You know, any human teacher, merely human teacher,
has got wrong emphasis and lopsided here and
there.
And you know, it's a wonder anybody ever
gets anything.
But everything He said, everything, was perfect.
He that has seen me has seen the
Father.
This is what's so blasphemous about actors trying
to act like Christ.
You can't even hold a towel the way
Jesus held a towel.
You can't do it.
I know that because I've seen a little
bit of Christ in some of my brethren,
and it's something so wonderful you can't begin
to imitate it.
I can't make my face right now look
the way my face looks when the Holy
Spirit of God has poured out in my
heart.
There's a glow, there's a radiance.
You can't imitate it.
If you've even tasted a little bit of
it, you know, well, what must it have
been like for Christ?
What must His face have looked like?
I don't know what it looked like, but
I know it didn't look like what you
think it looked like, thanks to all of
Hollywood and everything else.
The beauty of His person.
The fullness of deity in bodily form.
What must it have been to look at
Him?
What must it have been to see Him
wash their feet?
You remember the law came with glory.
That mountain was shaking.
It was like a furnace.
This whole mountain was just like one little
stove pouring out flames and smoke, and everything
was shaking.
What a thing it was.
Paul says that glory is nothing whatsoever compared
to the glory that we're a part of.
Nothing.
I would have loved to have been there,
I guess, the day the law was given
on Mount Sinai.
I mean, just to see the sight.
But I'd a lot rather have been on
that mountain where the Son of God Himself
sat down and said, You have heard but
I say unto you.
You have heard but I say unto you.
What a thing must it have been.
What's happening there?
Well, He's not throwing away and trashing the
law of Moses.
It was perfect for what it was intended
for.
What's happening there?
Well, He's getting down.
He is the King Himself.
The kings come on the scene.
And He's giving the laws of His kingdom.
And He's giving laws that are designed for
a spiritual nation of 100% regenerate people.
That would have never worked in a physical
nation of mostly unregenerate Jews.
That wouldn't have worked.
I was talking to one of the brothers
yesterday about this thing.
What did God say?
If somebody tries to lead you astray, even
if it's the wife of your bosom, even
if it's your best friend, you don't pity
them.
Your eye shall not spare them.
You get them out there.
Your hand will be the first to stone
them to death.
Do you remember that?
That was God's commandment under the Old Covenant.
You didn't come into the prayer meeting and
say, Pray for my husband.
He's become a Jehovah's Witness.
That wasn't it.
Why was God so strict?
Why was He so mean, apparently?
Well, it was this strict schoolmaster holding in
place this unruly nation of mostly unregenerate people,
physical nation, so that they wouldn't apostatize and
totally destroy themselves before the Messiah could come.
You see?
They needed that strict schoolmaster.
They needed a fence around them.
But now, in the Sermon on the Mount,
what's He doing?
He's laying out spiritual laws for His spiritual
kingdom.
He's not coming with a whole new code.
That's not what we're talking about.
We talk about the law of Christ in
a sense.
All He did was just give a few
pointers here and there about the reality of
it all.
He's coming with the essence and heart of
everything.
And He's giving us some pointers.
But you see, now He's living inside of
us.
He doesn't have to give us some codified
thing that covers every situation imaginable.
We've got a Teacher living inside of us.
You have heard you shall not commit adultery.
I can take it a lot deeper than
that.
You not even look at a woman to
lust after her.
You have heard you shall not commit murder.
Well, He says what I'm talking about is
you don't harbor that hatred or bitterness in
your heart.
The child of God doesn't hate people.
We know that we've passed from death to
life because we love the brethren.
He that hates his brother is a murderer.
You know no murderer is a Christian.
No murderer has eternal life.
I've heard pastors stand up and say, you
know, we Christians ought not to hate each
other the way we do.
That's not what a Christian is.
That's how you know you're a Christian.
We know that we've passed from death to
life because we love the brethren.
That's how you know.
You see,
the one is the law of the tutor,
the strict schoolmaster, keeping these slaves in line
until they reach sonship.
The other is the law of the full
-grown son.
Much greater liberty.
Much more responsibility.
Now, you think about this.
My son now is, I think, 22, and
he's married and gone.
But when he was still living under my
roof, when he was two or three or
four or five years old, I told him
when to brush his teeth.
I told him when to go to bed.
I told him when to get up.
Every single thing.
You see, but if your kid's 21 and
you've got to tell him to brush his
teeth and put his socks on, there's something
wrong.
We're living in the realm of full-grown
sons.
I mean, we don't have 613 commandments.
We've got the spiritual reality and principles of
sonship and maturity.
The law of Christ surpasses the law of
Moses as much as sonship surpasses servanthood.
Not because the law of Moses was bad
in any way.
It was perfect for what God intended it
for.
But we're living in a new realm now.
We're living in a spiritual kingdom.
Now, in closing, here comes a question.
What do we do with this Old Testament?
I pick out here that much in my
Bible.
That's quite a bit compared to that.
What do we do with this Old Testament?
Just throw it out?
Is that the thing we do?
Now think about this.
We call this first part of our Bible
the Old Testament or Old Covenant.
But this is not the Old Testament.
This thing that comes in the first part
of our Bibles contains the Old Covenant.
See, that was part of it.
The Old Covenant.
We are not under the Old Covenant anymore.
See that?
But this thing is still the Word of
God to us.
It's still the revelation of God to us.
Now, what did Paul say to Timothy?
He says, all Scripture says, God breathed.
It's profitable for doctrine and reproof and correction
and instruction and righteousness that the man of
God might be perfect, mature, fully equipped.
The New Testament hadn't been written yet when
he said that.
It was just being written.
He's talking about the Old Testament.
It's profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction.
It's God breathed.
It's a revelation of God to us.
We're not under the Old Covenant.
But every bit of this Word here is
God's Word to us.
Now, let's look at it in Matthew chapter
5.
Really, we have so much.
There's so many areas that we won't get
to it all.
But we've got to see this before I
close here.
I've got plenty of time yet.
They gave me a bunch of time.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17.
Do not think that I came to abolish
the law or the prophets.
Now, what's he talking about?
He's talking about this Old Testament revelation, the
Scriptures.
I didn't come to abolish those things, but
to fulfill.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven
and earth pass away, not the smallest letter
or stroke shall pass away from the law
until all is accomplished.
Not the smallest letter or stroke.
Don't get any idea that he came to
throw away the Old Testament.
In fact, lots of it hasn't been fulfilled
yet.
It hasn't taken place.
He says it's easier for heaven and earth
to pass away than for that to happen.
Until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from
the law until all is accomplished.
God has not changed in the least between
the Old and New Testaments.
And the heart and essence of what pleases
God has not changed in the least.
It comes right in the New.
Lord willing, we'll see that in the next
message.
It will remain forever the same because God
hasn't changed.
He'll remain forever the same.
So, here he says here, the law and
the prophets, not one stroke of one letter
will pass away.
Now, that's all fine.
The problem is, you've got to read the
next verse.
And that's when it gets hard.
Verse 19, Whoever then annuls one of the
least of these commandments, and so teaches others,
shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven.
He's talking about Christians.
Whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, what in the world does he mean?
He's talking about the law.
And he says, you've got to keep even
the least of these commandments.
What were some of the least commandments?
Let's turn back to Deuteronomy 22.
Deuteronomy 22 and verse 9.
You shall not sow your vineyard with two
kinds of seed, lest all the produce of
the seed which you have sown and the
increase of the vineyard become defiled.
You shall not plow with an ox and
a donkey together.
You shall not wear a material mixed of
wool and linen together.
Now, surely those are some of the least
commandments.
Jesus said, if you annul one of the
least of these commandments, and teach others so,
you'll be least in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, I don't know.
In Romania, when I have a translator at
this point, I usually look over and check
out what kind of material his shirt's made
out of.
Because you can't have mixed materials in your
clothing.
I'd say almost all of us have broken
one of the least of these commandments this
morning.
Is that what he's talking about?
How do we keep the least of these
commandments?
Well, beloved, we have the answer right here,
don't we?
You remember?
You shall not plow with an ox and
an ass together.
What's Paul say?
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
What's he referring to?
He's referring to this least commandment.
And he's saying what this really means is,
don't be linked up with unbelievers.
Now, you see, Christians keep this commandment, not
to plow with an ox and an ass
together.
They keep it in a much deeper way
than any Jew ever kept it.
You see that?
He's talking about our attitude towards God's revelation
to us, that He's given to us.
And our attitude is one of desiring to
submit ourselves to the entire revelation of God
from one end to the other.
And we can go back here and we
see all kinds of things about Christ and
about our life in Christ.
That's the approach we take.
Are Christians under the Old Covenant?
Not one bit of it as far as
the Old Covenant is concerned.
Even the Ten Commandments, we're not under that
anymore as the Old Covenant as such.
But as far as God's revelation to us,
we're under the entire thing, even the least
of these commandments, you see.
Because it's the Word of God to us
and we submit to it.
Now, it's a blessed thing.
What's another one of those least commandments?
You shall not muzzle the ox while he
treads the corn.
Now, you remember how Paul dealt with that.
Let's just look at that before we close
here.
Right back in this chapter in 1 Corinthians
9.
1 Corinthians 9 and verse 6.
Or do only Barnabas and I not have
a right to refrain from working?
Who at any time serves as a soldier
at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard and does not eat
the fruit of it?
Or who tends a flock and does not
use the milk of the flock?
I'm not speaking these things according to human
judgment or according to man, am I?
Or does not the law also say these
things?
He appeals to that as authoritative, you see.
But not just straightforward authoritative, no.
Authoritative as viewed through the eyes of Christ
as a Christian.
Interpreted from the New Testament, you see.
You see that?
It's all ours.
It's all profitable.
But you've got to approach it as a
spiritual man.
And it's no longer given to us as
a bondage and a bunch of rules we've
got to work out and try to keep.
It's given to us as a light shining
to us.
Showing us.
Helping us, you see.
Now, Paul says, look, the law also says
this.
For it is written in the law of
Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while
he is threshing.
God is not concerned about oxen, is He?
Or is He speaking altogether for our sake?
Yes, for our sake it was written because
the plowman ought to plow in hope.
And the thresher to thresh in hope of
sharing the crops.
Now, does God care about oxen?
Yes, He does care about oxen.
I mean, God doesn't.
He doesn't want us to mistreat even animals.
But Paul says, compared to the spiritual application,
it doesn't amount to anything.
The big thing, he's saying.
The big thing is, he was talking about
the way we treat ministers of the gospel.
You see, it's viewing this Old Testament revelation
as a Christian.
And along with the guidelines.
Now, look, this has to do with everything
from A to Z.
Every one of these commandments.
And the stuff that I'm teaching here doesn't
necessarily tell you right off the bat.
For example, how does the Sabbath apply?
And if there's differences among us on that,
we don't have to split up about that.
Because that has to do with trying to
understand what God was saying to us, you
see, in the Old Testament.
And we go to the apostles and try
to see how did they interpret these things.
That's the way you approach it.
The big thing is this.
We don't make our interpretation of the Old
Testament as an authoritative, binding rule on other
Christians.
Unless the apostles did it.
You see?
This gives us an approach to this whole
thing.
Well, we still haven't gotten to the law
of Christ.
We haven't talked about that.
Lord willing, we will do that in the
next session.
Amen.