A Law of God in the Light of the Kingdom

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Grace Family Baptist Church. Gfbc's mission is proclaiming the supremacy of Christ to all men with a view of biblical conversion and comprehensive discipleship. Thank you for visiting Gracefamily Baptist dot Net. I don't remember the first time I saw a scantron. You know, that little test where you bubble things in and it comes back graded. Questions are all through a falls or multiple choice because it's the only thing you can do when you can get a scantron test, you know. I don't remember the first time I saw that. I experienced that. We didn't have any of those. Went to college here in town at Rice and Rice University was just a little bit larger than my high school. Our student of faculty ratio was seven and a half to one. We didn't have many classes with scantron. Everything was blue book tests. You had to write it all out. We used to be happy when we saw scantron. I never know, I never knew how how those things worked until one day I went into the office and I realized what they did was they took a key, they called it, and the key was a scantron with all the right answers on it. You take the key and you put that through the machine. Now the machine knows what all the right answers are. Then you take all of the tests and you put them through the machine after the key has gone through, and they're graded based upon whether or not they match up. With the key. You know, in many ways, that's what we see when we look at the person and work of Jesus Christ as it relates to the law of God. If we want to understand what it means to walk with God in accordance with his law, if we want to understand what it means to be righteous before a holy God based on his standard, we need the key, and that key is Christ. And here in this passage that we're examining today, Jesus all but says that for us, in so many words, that he's the key to understanding the law of God. He's the key to understanding our role, our disposition toward our position as it relates to the law of God. And this is difficult for us understanding God's law in light of the Kingdom. It's difficult for us for a number of reasons. Let me just give you a couple of them. The first reason it's difficult for us is that we are very uncomfortable in the light of our culture with the law of God and feel like we need to apologize for God. For example, we've fought several times about Deuteronomy chapter twenty two. And you go to Deuteronomy chapter twenty two. And this is why, by the way, most people don't like to even deal with Deuteronomy, and most churches don't like to teach through Deuteronomy or do anything like that because they feel like they have to always apologize for God. So you get to Deuteronomy twenty two, and here deuteronmy twenty two, we have the law of God case law, if you will, as it relates to purity, as it relates to adultery. Deuteronymy twenty two. We see if a man believes that a woman that he married was not a virgin when they married, goes to the father's house and makes the accusation. The father has to present evidence that the daughter was a virgin upon marriage. If the father is not able to produce such evidence, and if it is discovered that the young woman was not a virgin upon marriage, then she is brought to the doorsteps of the father's house and stoned to death. Now here's the problem most Christians, within the context of our culture, rather than try to explain that to people who already don't like God, who already don't like religion, most people, rather than explaining that, would rather just act like there are two gods, one on the left side of the Bible, the other on the right side of the Bible, and that God over there on the left side of the Bible, that mean nasty one. We really don't talk about him. You know, he's like the crazy uncle that everybody has and doesn't want anybody to meet. Amen. Maybe you don't have that in your family, that person in your family that you'd rather people not know was part of your family. Oh really, there's nobody in your family that if they walk through the door of the church this morning to visit you on Resurrection Day, you'd say. That's how we treat the Old Testament law. That's how we act about the Old Testament law, like it's something that we can just cover up, and because of that, we don't really try to get there and see how it. Applies to the way we live. We don't try to get there and see what the principles are behind it. But there's another issue. This is more of a theological and doctrinal issue. We've heard this phrase over and over again. It's used in the Scripture. Paul uses it a number of times, nearly a dozen times. We are not. Under law but grace. And we hear that, we say, amen, how will you praise the Lord? We are not under law, we are under grace. Now, it's one thing to use that terminology. It's another thing altogether to understand that terminology. We know that we live during a period of theological illiteracy and biblical illiteracy. So if you give somebody a phrase like that and they don't have an understanding of the Bible, and they don't have a grasp on systematic theology or biblical theology, what do they come away with? They come away with. All that stuff on the left side of the Bible is irrelevant to us. Here's what they also come away with. I don't have to examine my life or walk in any way in light of or in accordance with the law of God. Why should I. I'm no longer under law, I'm under chrace. So that's the understanding that many people have. So we're embarrassed about things that we find in the Law of God, and we're confused about God's law in light of the Kingdom of God. And as a result of it, we either stay away from it, or if we don't, just stay away from it altogether, we misunderstand and misinterpret our relationship to the law. And as a result of that, here's what we see. Listen to this from J. I. Packer. The root of our trouble, putting it quite plainly, seems to be that we neither know nor care much about the. Law of God. On the one hand, we do not give ourselves to studying and applying law in the way that our evangelical forefathers did. Our neglect of the Old Testament in particular bears witness to this. On the other hand, our thinking, unlike theirs, has a lawless tinge. There is an Antinomian streak. Antinomianism means no law. There's an Antinomian streak running through it. We act as if our freedom from the law has made it a matter of comparative unimportance whether we keep the law in daily life or not. We appear to care more for right faith than we do for right living. We show a greater concern to be orthodox than to be upright. We seem to be more anxious to know the truth than we are to adorn it. By our behavior, we are, it appears, more interested in feeding our own souls than in doing good to our neighbor. We lap up the doctrinal chapters of the epistles, but we skate over the ethical ones. Our Lord accused the Pharisees of Antinomianism, telling them that they had overlooked the weightier demands of the law, justice, mercy, good faith. Would he not have reason to bring a similar accusation against us? Here, then, is the root cause of our present moral flabbiness. We have neglected God's law here, here. We have neglected God's law. Well, so what does that mean? I mean? Does that? Does that mean that we need to go and you know, erect a law around the law like the Pharisees did. Does that mean? What? What does that mean? I'm glad you asked in our passage today we had an answer to that question. Matthew Chapter five, beginning of verse seventeen. We have the key not only to understanding the entire Sermon on the Round on the Mount. Think about it this way. If this was if you looked at this as an essay, if you look at the Sermon on the Mount as an essay, and we teach our young people how to write essays, and some of your young people are so tired of writing essays. You know, anybody in the room just wish you never again heard one three one in your life. Anybody in the room, you know, yes, thank you Lord, No more one three one I don't want to write or one three one. You know, you write your first paragraph, and of course at the end of your first paragraph you have to have your thesis statement, and in your thesis statement you give your arguments, and then you have your three chapters in the one three one, which basically has found expound on your thesis statement. Then you have your concluding paragraph where you wrap the whole thing up. And okay, you know what, if the Sermon on the Mount was a one three one, our paragraph today, Verses seventeen through twenty would be the thesis statement. This is jesus whole argument in the Sermon on the Mount. It's the key to understanding everything that he's about to say, not just in the Sermon on the Mount. But listen. This paragraph is the key to understanding everything that Jesus does, says, and is in relationship to the Law of God. This single paragraph. Let's examine it verse seventeen. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dos will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them, will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never. Her enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What a thesis statement, What a close to his thesis statement. You don't get this right, You don't understand this. If you're never going to enter the Kingdom of heaven. This is the foundation of the kingdom ethic. If you remember we talked about Christian ethics, and how the Sermon on the Mount is really a foundation for Christian ethics, for the ethics of the kingdom, right actions, right motives, right goals. And here in this one paragraph he gives us the foundation upon which all of that is to be built. The several things that we learn here about the Law of God as it relates to the Kingdom, and if we grasp these, it will revolutionize the way we view ourselves within the context of the Law of God. The first thing is this, we see that the Law of God, it's perfect. It's perfect. Look here in verse seventeen. Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. In other words, when I talk about the law being perfect, as the Psalmist says, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, many people look at Jesus as though somehow the law was either broken. And by broken, I don't mean that somebody broke the law. I mean the law itself. It's either it was broken, it's something that's broken, something that didn't work, or that the law was sort of plan a. And then Jesus comes and he's planned b Jesus says, I didn't come to abolish the law. Those of you who think that, who think that somehow, you know, there were all of these different plans, and now all of a sudden, here I am so that they're no, no, no, no, no, no no no. There are people who think, well, first God tried without him, didn't work. Then God tried again after that with Noah, didn't work. Then he tried with the Patriarchs, didn't work. Then he tried with Moses and the law didn't work. Then he tried with David and the Kings didn't work. Now finally there's another plan that God has and finally this one is going to work. As though somehow, somehow there was something wrong or something broken about the Law of God, far from it. Jesus said, I didn't come to do away with the law. He didn't even come to fix the law. He didn't come to do away with it. He didn't come to fix it. Why because he didn't need to. The Law of God is perfect. It doesn't need fixing. The Law of God has always been perfect. The Law of God will always be perfect. The Law of God is perfect because the God of the Law is perfect, so whatever our attitude. Towards the law, and for many of us, that's the problem. Here's another reason that we have difficulty, because we have this sort of radical dispensational view of salvation, and by radical dispensational view of not talking about just that theological construct. But here's what many Christians believe. Many Christians believe that the Saints and the Old Testament were saved by keeping the law, but then after Christ you're saved by faith. This is what many, many, many Christians believe. And therefore it just makes sense that Jesus needed to come at some point so that we could get away from that old concept of being saved through the law and now have a new idea of being saved apart from the law. If you were here as we've preached through the life of Abraham, you know that's nowhere in your truth. Also, if you were here as. We preach through the life of Abraham, you know spent a great deal of our time in the Book of Romans where Paul in the Book of Romans explains Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Why was Abraham righteous? Why was he saved? How was he saved by faith? How are the saints in the Old Testament saved by faith? But when you say that to people again, what's the first question that comes? Well? How can they have faith in Jesus if Jesus wasn't born yet? The answer Genesis three and verse fifteen, the proto Juangelion, the first proclamation of the gospel. God promised that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. It's the first promise of the gospel. It's the first proclamation of the gospel. What do Adam and Eve believe from that moment on? We sinned, We're gonna die, But there's a deliverer who's going to come. Those ten generations that we see in Genesis chapter five, from Adam to Noah through the line of Seth, what do we see? The promised seed is on the way. He's coming. Noah's daddy names him Noah because he believes that a deliverer is going to come. Where does he get the concept from? He got the concept from Adam, the promise that was made in Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. That's where he got it from. Abraham gets a promise from God. The promises about what the promised seed? Isaac then comes. Is he the ultimate promise Seed? No, He's not the ultimate promise seed. Then God's gonna make a point. Isaac's two boys are gonna be twins. What are we gonna do, Rebecca, Shall we flip a coin? No, God's gonna work it out. The older is going to serve the younger. In other words, it's Jacob, not Esau. Who's the promised seed. That's fine. Well, then what happens? Then we come later on and we see this picture of Jacob, and we see these twelve sons of Jacob, and all of a sudden, we see this picture in Jacob's life. And when we see this picture in Jacob's life, what do we look at? We see Jacob is in love with one daughter but gets the other one instead, and we see this love story, and we interpret this love story, and we think the continuation of the seed is going to come through the one that he really loves. Nope, the continuation of the seed was through the wife he didn't even want. Judah was born to Leah, not Rachel. And Jesus Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah, not Joseph. We come all the way to David. David's always gonna have a descendant of his on the throne. How's that gonna happen? One of David's boys? It all points forward to Jesus. So, in other words, Jesus is not Plan B. Jesus is the fulfillment of plan only. Amen. I've said it before, I'll say it again. God is not running for God. He's God. He needs no contingency plans. He's God. This is God's plan. So look here again. This is also key. If you do any research on this verse, you're gonna see a lot of work on this verb. Pleru. And what do we mean here by fulfilled? And some look at this and say, do not think that I've come to abolisht the law of the prophets. I have not come to a boist, but to fulfill them. As though Jesus is saying, in my life need to fulfill the law. That's not the point he's making in that verb. This is an eschatological statement. Jesus says the law and the prophets were pointing to me. That's what he's saying. I'm the fulfillment of these things. The law's perfect. The law doesn't need my help. The law's perfect, and it perfectly anticipated me, It perfectly pointed to me. So the first thing we need to need to understand, we're gonna understand God's law in light of the kingdom, is that the law is perfect. There is nothing wrong with the law. Listen to what John Calvin said. Christ therefore now declares that his doctrine is so far from being at variance with the law that it agrees perfectly with the law and the prophets, and not only so, but brings the complete. Fulfillment of them. Jesus is saying here, I'm not at odds with the law, and the law is not at odds with me. There's nothing wrong with the law. The law is perfect. That's hard for us to hear, because that's not what we get in modern American evangelicalism. Law bad, grace good. The law is perfect, the law is wonderful. Listen to what Mouse says about the same idea. To the pious jew, the law was perfect and unchangeable. Jesus' life and teaching appeared to many to indicate a lower view of the law. He healed on the. Sabbath, failed to perform ritual do and was lax and observing religious feasts. It was necessary, therefore for Jesus to point out at the beginning of his sermon the relationship of his teaching to the law. Because of what he's about. To do, and again, sermon on the Mount, his teaching comes before what he's doing. He's laying a foundation for everything that he's about to do. And what he's saying is, when you see what I'm about to do, it may look like I have a problem with the law. News flash, the law is perfect. I don't have a problem with the law. The law doesn't have a problem with me. The one with the problem. Zeke. You think you understand the law, but you. Have no none whatsoever. It's the laws perfect. Secondly, not only is the law perfect, but the law is also timeless. Look at verse eighteen. For truly, I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot. Again, the smallest letters in the Hebrew alphabet, not the smallest stroke, not a breath mark will pass from the law until all is accomplished. The laws timeless. So again, the idea that there was this time or this period where we needed a law, and not all of a sudden, there's this time or this period when we don't need the law. Not only is that incorrect, but it's a direct contradiction of the teaching of Jesus himself. Jesus says the law is timeless. So there's not this hard and fast break that happens when Jesus comes on the scene. There's not a sense in which the law was wondering and it was great up to a point, and all of a sudden, Jesus is on the scene. So we can just throw that away. It's not necessary anymore. It's no good anymore. It's outdated. Now we need something different, we need something new. Nothing can be further from the truth. The law is timeless. Jesus presents himself as the eschatological. Fulfillment, not a replacement of the law. And again this is difficult for us. Why because we've heard it over and over again, and we've said it over and over again. In fact, one of the words that we like to throw around is legalism. We have no idea what the word legalism actually means. You know, what legalism means to the average American Christian legalism means you pay more attention to the law than I do. That's what legalism means. You know, legalism means doctrinally. Let me just keep just give you here this brief definition. It's actually a long definition. For Bill Baldwin. We won't read all of these points, but I just read a few of these. What legalism really is. Number one, using the Mosaic Covenant as though it is a covenant between you and God. Using the Mosaic Covenant as though is it a covenant between you and God? Okay, God, here's the Mosaic Covenant. I'm going to keep it so that I can be blessed because I keep the Mosaic Covenant. Because it's covenant. Flee me and you. Number two. Attempting to be justified by one's own work. Attempting to be justified by one's own work. That's what legalism means. You're actually trying to be justified and think that you're gonna get into heaven by what you do. Number three, attempting to be sanctified by one's own work. You actually think that you're. Going to become a better Christian because of your own effort. Number four suggesting that our worth or worthiness, our self esteem and self satisfaction or lack thereof, rest on our own works. Number five, any. Attempt to please God judicially, or any supposition that our sin as believers has resulted in his judicial displeasure. Again, his judicial displeasure. Talking about justification. There, that's what legalism is. Legalism has to do with our non understanding justification. Legalism has to do with our trying to please God because we keep the law. Legalism has to do with us trying in and of ourselves to satisfy the righteous requirements of God. Legalism is that works righteousness that we've been talking about. That's what legalism is. Not delighting in the law of the Lord. No, we should delight in the law of the Lord. It's timeless. Listen to what MacArthur says on this point. So the moral standard set by the law does not change under grace, indeed, it could not. It is a reflection of God's character. But divine grace actually empowers us to fulfill the moral demands of the law in a way that the law alone could never do. The only way that the law could change is if God changed. God gives us the law as a picture of what holiness and righteousness looks like. The only way for the law to change is if God changes his mind about what's holy and what's righteous. So God would have to say, you know what, I gave it a real good go back there in the Old Testament. But I think me and my son Jesus, we can do better. No, the lost timeless. Thirdly, God's law is relevant and applicable right here, right now, in our lives today. God's law is relevant and applicable. Look with me if you will, next verse, look at verse nineteen. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least than the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Here's what's ironic. Here's what we've said. You want to be a really good Christian, stay on the right side of the Bible. Stay away from the law, because that law stuff that's antithetical to Christianity. Jesus says. You want to uphold a kingdom ethic, obey the law, teach the law. Huh sounds ironic, doesn't It almost sounds out of place, really makes us uncomfortable. But why why because of our misunderstanding of this race. Listen to the London Baptist Confession, our Church's confession of faith, and its statement on the Law of God, and how relevant and applicable the law is even right here and right now. This is number six in that chapter on the Law. Although true believers are not under the law. That's true. We're not under the law. We're going to explain it in a minute as a covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned. Yet it is of great use to them as well as to others, in that first as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty. It directs and binds them to walk accordingly. Secondly, it says it restrains their corruptions, and thirdly it shows them God's approbation or of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance there are. In other words, the law is a good thing for believers. Why because if the Law of God is perfect, and you want to be holy as He is holy, you've got to have a standard. Where do you get a standard, the law of God, the law of God. You want to have the right attitude toward your own sin and not just become an antonomian and lasts of days a little and live anywhere you want to live. What do you do? Do you erect some standard from somewhere else. Do we just sort of put our heads together here and come up with some rules that we think would be really good for us to follow, or do we go to the law of God. It's God's law, It is relevant, it is applicable. But finally, let's relieve some of the discomforts, shall we. God's law is. Insufficient for justification. It's insufficient for justification. You're not gonna be saved by it. Look at verse twenty, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. He just set a mouthful. But here's the. Question, what did Jesus actually just say. Did Jesus just say the scribes of the Pharisees worked real hard, and they got pretty close. But if you want to get in, you got to go further than they did. Is that what he said? The Pharisees, for example, had six hundred and thirteen laws, six hundred and thirteen. Laws. They were the gold standard of ethics in Jesus day. One reason we don't understand this statement is because for us, the word pharisee is a pejorative term. You pharisee. Here's what I want you to grasp. You can't understand what Jesus is saying unless you understand this during his day, during his age. If you were alive during the first century and you asked somebody, who are the most ethical people, the most godly people, and the most righteous people you know of, there would have been no hesitation. They would have said, the Pharisees, nobody's more godly than they are, nobody's more righteous than they are, nobody's more ethical than they are. That would have been the answer, bar none. And unless we get out of our own understanding, and again we hear this word and it's a pejorative term because of that, we don't understand the shock that this would have had. Jesus just looks at his hearers and he's preaching this message, and he's talking about the law, and everybody's going, yeah, I already feel really bad about it because the Pharisees have six hundred and thirteen laws, and I can't keep those six hundred and thirteen laws. Jesus is saying, well, first, here's what I want. You know, lost, perfect, lost, timeless, the loss relevant, and it's applicable. I didn't come to destroy, it didn't come to replace. And I want you to know that. They're going, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. You got to keep the law. And then he drops this on him, if you want to be part of my kingdom, you have to be more righteous than the most righteous people any of you know, to which immediately their minds would have gone to. Whoop. There's no hope for me. I can't even keep the six hundred and thirteen that the Pharisees have. How many more do I need? Jesus? Matter of fact, I can't even. Remember two thirds of them. There's six hundred and thirteen laws. I mean, if I'm gonna travel on the if I'm gonna walk around on the Sabbath, I have to mark out my journey. Why because I can't take one step too many. If I take one step too many, then I've actually worked on the Sabbath. I've broken one of the six hundred and thirteen laws. They had laws about what when you could spit on the ground and when you couldn't, and what your spittle could do when it hit the ground. Jesus says, your righteousness has to exceed their righteousness. All the air would have gone out of the place right there. First, First, you tell u that your kingdom is about all these people who are the people that we don't want to be, the meek, the gentle, the broken, the persecuted. So you start off with a downer right there. Now you come to us and say, we've got to be more righteous than the Pharisees. You don't understand what Jesus means here until you go to the six antitheses that he gives right after. And we're going to preach through each one of those six antitheses. So we're not going to do that now, but let me tell you what we're going to see in each one of these six antitheses. When Jesus talks about anger and lust and divorce and oaths, well, when he talks about these six antitheses, here's what Jesus is doing every last one of them. Here's the pattern. You've heard this Now when he says you've heard this, he's referring to the Pharisees. Remember, this is his thesis statement that we just got in these few verses right here, these four verses, we got his thesis statement. Now, after his thesis statement, he's gonna give us his arguments, and in each of these six antitheses, here's what he's gonna do. He's gonna say, you've heard this about murder. In other words, here's the standard of the Pharisees right here. Okay, here's the standard that you've been judging yourself by. You've heard this. Here's what I want to say to you. That's not good enough in every one of these six things. That's what Jesus is gonna do. This is what you've heard, and that's hard for you. Guess what I'm here to. Tell you that's not good What do you mean? Here's what I mean. It doesn't get to the heart of the matter. You don't kill him, but you hate him. The holiness and righteousness of God is not just about not killing him. You can't even hate him. You haven't committed. Adult frey, but you less than your heart. The righteousness of God is not about you just working hard enough to restrain yourself to. Not do the thing. No, that's not good enough. In other words, here's what Jesus is communicating in the Sermon on the Mount. You can miss me by not obeying the law, and you can also miss me by obeying the law. The Pharisees miss me. But they missed me by obeying the law. But what do you mean. Yeah, See, they're counting on the law for their justification. They don't look at the law and see this beautiful, unreachable, unattainable standard of God that drives them to their knees in repentance. No, they look at the law and actually believe that they can get there from here. And because of that they miss me. They missed me. There's a ditch on that side of the road. But fulks, there's also a ditch on the other side of the road. Well, we cannot attain to that. We can never get there. Jesus paid it all all to him, I owe, saydlefster. Christians state he watched it. Why this know? Therefore why bother? Let's just sin? All the more so that grace may bound. Paul's answer to that mag ganoia, may it never be Here's what Jesus is saying. Here, there's a righteousness beyond anything that you've ever seen. And you can't even get to the righteousness that you've seen. I'm talking about a righteousness far beyond that. The law is perfect, the lost timeless. The law is relevant and applicable, but the law is insufficient. The law was a road sign on the way of that place of final culmination and completion. If the law in and of itself had been enough, then we could have stopped right there. But we didn't. We moved beyond Sinai. It wasn't enough. It was the wrong mountain. You see, the hill that we needed, it was just outside Jerusalem. Were the one who kept the law perfectly, laid down his life on behalf of his people, who can't even keep it in part. Were the only righteous one obeyed to the end, laid down his very life, paid the price for your sin, took the wrath from my sin, swallowed it up in righteousness, bled and breathed his last, and on the third day rose again with all power in his hands. You want to keep a law, here's a little secret. You must be found in the one who did it. You have to be found in Christ. So now we go back to Genesis chapter twenty two, and what do we do with Genesis chapter twenty two. We've already said we don't act like it doesn't exist. But what do we do with Genesis chapter twenty two? I don't like it, and I don't want to talk to my friends about it. I wish it wasn't in the Bible, this idea of stoning a young woman because she wasn't a virgin when she got married. I despise that. I've learned how to sidestep it, just act like it's not there. Most people don't read the Bible, so they're not going to bring it up. I leave it alone in my own Christian life. Because, after all, we're not. Under the law, we're under grace. That was for those people in the Old Testament. Well, all that stuff's gone now they were saved by faith. So what was the law stuff. Let's go back where we began, Deuteronomy chapter twenty two, and we look there and we see that this picture when we have our beautiful daughter before us, and there are a couple of choices, we can look at our beautiful daughters before us, and we can say sweetheart, be afraid, be very afraid, because this is what God's law says about little girls who were not virgins. So don't do that. Just don't do it, because God hates it so much that in the Old Testament they used to put young ladies to death for it. So don't you do it. Don't you do it. In fact, not only do I not want you to do it, I'm going to give you some rules that will help you not even get close to it. Don't talk to boys, don't look them in the eye. By the way, what I just described to you was the pharisaical model of keeping the law. Why did they have six hundred and thirteen laws because they said, just what I just said, God's word says, God's Law says, don't do this. In fact, not only do we not need to do that, but we don't even do to do this or this or this or this or this or this, because all. Of that would lead to that. That's how they got their six hundred and thirteen laws. Jesus says, there's a better way. We look at our beautiful daughter and we say, sweetheart, if you want to know what holiness and righteousness looks like, as it relates to this issue of our purity. Let me show you something here and do the run of the chapter twenty two. It'll send chills down your spine. And when we look here in Deuteronomy chapter twenty two, here's what I want you to know. That passage of scripture right there. It's here in order to show us God's picture of perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. But I want you to know something. In and of yourself, you can't do this. You can never do this. And in fact, if you just work real hard and do it in and of yourself, you'll go to the altar as a young woman who has never laid with a man. But you won't go there pure because you're incapable of making yourself pure. I want you to look at Deuteronomy chapter twenty two, sweetheart, and I want you to recognize that the only way that you could be this picture of purity is if you are united to the one who laid his life down so that his bride could be pure. And I want you to give yourself to him, and I want you to trust him, and I want you to recognize that the only reason that a young woman would move to a place of adultery like this is because she's coveting, she wants something that's not legitimately hers, and because it's idolatry. She's not satisfied with the only one who was ever meant to satisfy her, the person of Jesus Christ. And she's trying to find her satisfaction that can only be found in Jesus in some young man and an illegitimate sexual relationship that will only drive her deeper into dissatisfaction. I want you to see this, I want you to understand it, and I want you to recognize that the way out of this is not just closing your eyes and gripping your teeth and trying real hard, but the way out of this is being satisfied with the only one who can ever fulfill all of your needs. By having a life that's devoted to the right understanding, the right view, and the right worship of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Give yourself to him. He will keep you pure and have as high a you of sex as God does. That he never wants you to think it's bad, that he never wants you to think it's ugly. It is wonderful, it is beautiful. It is glorious. You need to anticipate it. It's an incredible gift from God. And it's only when your view of sex is high enough, not when you're scared. It's only when your view is high enough that this will even be something that you'll aspire to. Did we render the law irrelevant? No? Did we make it a means of self justification. No. We teach you that the law is perfect, the law is timeless, the law is relevant and applicable. But the law is insufficient to save. Only Christ can do that. Is it easy for us to do that with God's law? No, not at all. Thanks work for us to go through Leviticus and do her hoonomy and look at all of the laws of God and especially all of these case laws and figure out what the principles are there and how it is that we adjust our lives accordingly. That didn't mean we don't do it. Jesus gives us a key to understand the law, and that is this, see all the law through the lens of Christ and His kingdom. Are we under the law? Nope, we're not. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the lad Lord. We're not under the law and it's only because we're not under the law that we're actually free to render joyful obedience to the law, and that not of ourselves, because it is Him who works in us, both to will and to do his good pleasure. So if you're here today and making every effort you can to keep the law and finding yourself frustrated and broken and downtrodden again and again and again, let me ask you this question. What's the key that you put in this scantron before you started trying to take the test? Was it your own ability? Was it self righteousness? Was it another person that you look up to? Or was it Christ and the understanding of the law that we get from him. Here's the other thing, Jesus says, come to me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my look upon you, and learn of me, probably meek and lowly of heart. My burden is easy, my yolk is easy. Rather, my burden is light. You know what I found. When I'm weary, worn down, beating up, I usually find that I'm the only one on the yilk at that time, and I'm usually carrying something that I was never ever assigned. If you can't say amen, you ought to say, olsh. There are people in the room who need freedom today. There are people in the room who need liberation today. There are people in the room who need to come to the Lord's table today, maybe for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time ever. And instead of the sort of introspective navel gazing trying to find worthiness in ourselves to come before the table, we actually recognize that there is none, and we are finally. Free to rejoice in the grace of God. Not rejoice in the grace of God because now there's no law and I can live any way I want to and it's all paid for. No, rejoice in the grace of God because I'm not under the law. I've been saved by Christ, and as a result, I'm now free for the first time to live in a right relationship with God. When it comes to the law perfectly, huh uh. Sanctification is an ongoing process. But here's the good news. When I'm walking with Christ and my focus is on him, and when I look to the law and recognize the sin in myself and always turn it back to praise and worship, because Christ kept the law and repentance and faith that he is the one who will also keep it in me. Something interesting happens. Instead of being on that roller coaster where I'm always beating myself to death. Every now and then I look back and I say, hey, wait a minute, I've grown. I'm not what I ought to be. He's not even what I want to be. But I'm not what I used to be. I've grown. How do I know that I've grown? What's the measure? Oh, I would argue, it's the law of God. I look more like the righteousness that I see in the Law of God, and it's his work, and it's the fruit of my justification, not the means of my justification. That's the distinction. The Law is perfect, the lost, timeless, lost events, and applicable. But my friend, the law is insufficient for your salvation. That is precisely why Christ came, kept the law, died for sin, rose again on the third day, ascend it to the right hand of the Father. And here's the beautiful piece that we often miss. He's seated there, not just gloating in his victory. But what does the Bible say He's doing forever making intercession for us. I'm grateful for those of you who tell me from time to time, fastor Rodi, we're praying for you. I'm grateful for those of you. Somebody you even keep up with the calendar and events and stuff like that. And you know, hey, how was so and so I saw that you were going to be there, I prayed for you. That's wonderful. That means more to me than you can know. But you know what means even more than that. At the King of kings and the Lord of Lords is forever making an a session for me? Can you keep the law? No, you can't. The greater is he who's in you than he who is in the world. He's the only one who's ever kept it. He's the only one who will ever keep it. So how do you and I accomplish it? By being in Him? So the next time you look at the law of God and recognize that you're not cutting it, here's what I want you to ask yourself. Not am I trying hard enough at this thing? But ask yourself, am I firmly rooted and grounded in Him? That's the way the righteousness being firmly rooted and grounded in Christ, who is our perfect righteousness. You've been listening to the podcast, or Gracefamilybaptist dot Net. Grace Family Baptist Church is located in Spring, Texas. For any questions or comments regarding Grace Family Baptist Church, caltel free at eight seven seven six five one eighty eight fourteen, or go online to Grace Family Baptist dot Net