Christ is king. Amen. All right. We're in a series. What is reformed Baptist? We're on week seven and really we're talking about how we understand the law of God. And I would say again, I think I've said this a few times. This is a broader reform position. It's not just a reformed Baptist position. This is the reform position on the law of God. And we're on the last part of this. So next week, we're going to look at covenant theology. The thing about next week is, which I'm getting ahead of myself, but we did a whole series on covenant theology. So I'm going to try to make next week just one lesson. Summarize, but last week, let me catch us up. We tackled objections to God's law. So you've heard these before equating prohibitions of mixed fabrics or unclean foods, making those equal to like moral sins of homosexuality. So we did that by understanding the difference between the moral law, the eternal and changing moral law flowing from God's character, summarizing the Ten Commandments versus, remember the other word we used, positive laws that are covenant specific, that are revealed, they're temporary, circumcision, not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We went into the threefold division of the Old Testament law. We saw the moral law transcends across all covenants, but the ceremonial law has been fulfilled and abrogated. The judicial laws have expired with Israel's nationhood and all fulfilled in Christ. Anyway, that was last week. You have to go back and listen. That's all we got time to cover or we'll just perpetually be stuck in a loop of never moving forward. So tonight, the threefold use of the moral law, okay? So the moral law of God is summarized. Just a reminder, when I say moral law, what am I talking about? The moral law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments. It's written on the hearts of men by virtue of them being made in God's image. In other words, every culture, the culture doesn't have to have a Ten Commandments to know some of these things by virtue of being made in the image of God. Does that make sense to everybody, hopefully? It is a reflection of the holy character of God, and it's rooted in his eternal and immutable goodness. The law is good, okay? The question we're gonna answer tonight is of what use is the moral law today? okay before we get to that let me lay down some important teaching just some back um what am i trying to say foundational regarding the Ten Commandments. Let me give you a quote from Thomas Watson. Hopefully it's on your sheet, maybe not. More is intended than is spoken, referring to the Ten Commandments. Where any duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden. Where any sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded. I want you to understand the Bible's teaching on the Ten Commandments in this way. And the best place, it's on your sheet, but you have to turn there, Matthew 5. Okay, just to understand that when we talk about the Ten Commandments, we're not just talking about this cold, rigid, outward obedience. But in Matthew 5, Jesus puts it this way, verse 21, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, now He's expanding, He's not contradicting this, He's expanding this, I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. What you see wrapped up in there, by the way, what commandment is that, did I mention? Here's how our kids remember it, it's number six. don't know if that's but anyway they remember it so thou shall not kill so thou shall not murder and the idea is Jesus is saying there's more to this than just what is laid down there's all surrounding all this There is, if you, it's not just about why I didn't murder someone, but hating your brother in your heart. You're broken in this. And then he's saying it's not just about hating your brother in your heart, but even reconciliation. So by command, not only can you not hate your brother, you have to what? You have to love him. Practice, you know, have reconciliation. All this is wrapped up in the sixth commandment. The seventh commandment, similar. Okay, I'm just going to tell you what we do 7th commandment. This is for our our kids remember it. So 7th commandment Thou shall not commit adultery. All right, so there it is But they remember it verse 27 You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart All right so note there same thing as the sixth commandment all right um so the moral law is more than just what is the rigid meaning, okay, so when God says, thou shalt not murder, or thou shalt not commit adultery, it's not just about bare outward keeping of those commands. You can bare outward keep the commands, I didn't say that well, and you can still break them in your heart. Now the opposite's not true, the opposite's not true. You probably heard arguments, even from Christians, they sin and then they say what about their heart? God knows my heart, right? So they break these commandments, but then they try to say, yeah, but it's about the heart. Well, no, you can't do that, right? That doesn't work. But to note what Watson is saying is that when something is prohibited by God, the opposite duty is commanded, and I just want you to think about this before we get into the uses of the moral law. So let's use these commandments, the sixth and the seventh commandment, and you can feedback here. The opposite duty. OK, so what is prohibited? The opposite duty is commanded. That's just the reality. So what is prohibited in the Sixth Commandment? Thou shall not murder. What is prohibited? Taking life, the unjust, let's put it that way, the unjust taking of human life is prohibited in the sixth commandment, okay? Therefore, it also commands the opposite. It prohibits the unjust taking of human life and also commands the opposite, which is what? That's right, that's right. So in the sixth commandment, if you say, Well, I haven't murdered anybody, I haven't hated anybody in my heart, but you have an opportunity to preserve life and you don't, you've broken the sixth commandment, okay? Seventh commandment, what is prohibited in the seventh commandment? Thou shalt not, what? Commit adultery, that is prohibited. So the opposite duty is commanded. What is the opposite duty? Yeah, faithfulness, right? I mean, so if you're just like a cold-hearted wife or a cold-hearted husband, and you say, well, I've never, I've never been unfaithful to you. Okay, but it's not just about being unfaithful, but also being what? Faithful, right? So I lay all that down for us to understand that God's moral law is quite expansive. Right, you understand? How it just filters into all of life. So with this concept, we're gonna consider what use God's moral law is today. And historically, Reformed theologians have held to three uses of the moral law. There's all sorts of ways that you can say this in Latin phrases and all that, but I'm just gonna give you simple alliterations, all right? So first. Number one and number two are usually flip-flop, but we're gonna start with this one. Number one, what is the use of the moral law today? Number one, restrains the sinner. I'm acting like I'm preaching and you don't have this in front of you. Okay, you can just look down there and read it yourself. Okay, so number one, restrains the sinner. Louis Burkoff says, the law serves the purpose of restraining sin and promoting righteousness. This is one function of the moral law. Gearhardtus Voss, if any of you guys are looking for a baby name, Gearhardtus, okay, there you go, says, little baby gear artist. The law serves to prevent a profuse outbreak of sin. It is a restraint on sin and aid to promote civil righteousness. And then Calvin, this function of the law is this, at least by fear of punishment to restrain certain men who are untouched by any care for what is just and right unless compelled by hearing the dire threats in the law. But they are restrained, not because their inner mind is stirred or affected, but because being bridled, so to speak, they keep their hands from outward activity and hold inside the depravity that otherwise they would wantonly have indulged. Anytime you get a quote with wantonly, it's great. Makes me think of Chinese food. Okay. So this is what Calvin's saying. This is what all these guys are saying. Calvin explains a little bit. What they're saying is this moral law of God The Ten Commandments, summarily containing the Ten Commandments, it is a restraining work whereby men would say, well, I hate that person in my heart, and it's not about me fearing God. I don't fear God, but I don't want to be in trouble, so I will not murder that person. Does that make sense? That's the reality, that's it. Okay, so I'm going to give you some biblical basis here, Romans 13, 3 and 4, this is on your sheet. So here's what you have to think about with Paul saying, The government is a servant of who? God. Now, they don't always live that way, do they? They don't always act that way, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. They don't always acknowledge that, but God has given government as an institution to prevent anarchy, chaos, okay? But you have to think. The text says categories. Categories are the words good and bad in. What kind of category? I'm not asking that well, probably. Moral categories. That's what I was looking for. That's right. The words good and bad are in what category? Moral. They're moral words. Well, is there stand like who gets to say what is good this pop just get to say well This is good. And this is bad right now. Listen, you listen to people by the way, this would be an argument I think it's a strong argument for God you have a lot of atheists that talk about You know, if there is a God, then why does he let evil happen? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, pause. You just use moral categories, right? The moral category of evil. If there's no God, there's no morality. We say, well, yeah, there is, it's human construct. Human construct is moral. So whatever we, whatever majority says is moral is moral. Okay, well, one time the majority said slavery, chattel slavery in the United States was moral. Is that right? In Germany, the majority said that, you know, getting rid of the Jews was right. Well, then people get to thinking, well, okay, well, maybe it's not moral. That's right, it's not the majority. Then what is it? There's a standard. What's the standard, do you know? It's God's law, okay? The objective standard is God's law, and to break that standard is the standard of wrong. So I'm gonna actually make this argument for a minute. I've said this to you before. You don't have to hold this position, by the way, but this is the position I hold. I would make the argument that the Ten Commandments not only can be displayed in public places in America, like schools, courthouses, parks, whatever, not only do I think that it's right, not only do I think it's constitutional, I would also argue that it ought to be done. It should be done. The civil magistrate, Romans 13 says, is God's servant and bears the sword to punish evil and promote good. And you can't promote good without a standard. You can't punish evil without a standard. So it must be defined by an objective standard which is the moral law etched on every human conscience and summarized in the Decalogue, that is the Ten Commandments. So Tom Hicks writes, the external application of God's law cannot change the heart. Only the gospel does that. But the civil or external use of God's law does restrain evil for the temporal well-being of the individual and the group. It also can help to protect the group as a whole from the temptations that come from unrestrained external evils. So here's a question you'd ask yourself. If we don't display the Ten Commandments, and by the way, I am not saying displaying the Ten Commandments is gonna fix our nation. Only the gospel's gonna change hearts. However, it doesn't matter, you cannot get away from this. It's simply impossible. You have to have some standard that people are conforming to So it's not like oh, well, we're gonna take away the Ten Commandments and everyone is just gonna conform to this neutral non-religious Standard right those people try to make the argument separation of church and state well, I would make an argument that secularism is the worst kind of religion and Right? And so it's not about the idea that are you going to serve a God or not? It's what is it? It's which God, right? Which God are you going to serve? And so for the state to come in and say, well, you know, we're just trying to keep everything neutral. And you know, no, no religion is supreme. No, that's actually contrary, I would argue, I would even argue now I know we can get into arguments about Christian nations and all that kind of stuff. But I would argue that the moral framework of the founders was, I think, unquestionably That's right, Connell, unquestionably Christian. Now, well, what about Benjamin Franklin? Well, he was a humanist, I get it. Yeah, sure, we can cherry pick some guys, but we can also look at a lot of evidence for the framers of our Constitution, understanding that you don't have a country and you don't have rights apart from God. And I would also make this argument. This is another important argument, and we'll move on. about displaying the Ten Commandments. We want them displayed not only because they are a restraining agent against evil in society, but guess what else? They should also restrain evil where? In the government. Because the Ten Commandments should be a reminder to the government, you're not God. Because the first one says, you shall have no other gods before me. Guess what, government? You're not God. This is not a nanny state. You're not in control. Not only are you not in ultimate control, but one day, government, you are a servant of God, and one day you will give an account to God for your actions. So, what is the first use of the moral law? It restrains the sinner. Second use of the moral law. It reveals the Savior. If you want to know the word, it's pedagogical is the theological term. Pedagogy, it's like teaching. It teaches us who we are. The law teaches us who we are apart from Christ and therefore drives us to Christ. So Louis Burkoff says, in this capacity the law serves the purpose of bringing man under conviction of sin and of making him conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In that way the law becomes his tutor to lead him to Christ and thus becomes subservient to God's gracious purpose of redemption. So Romans 3.20, for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So the law gives us knowledge of sin. Now, I want to clarify here. I'm not saying that the law always points every person to Christ in the sense that everyone who hears the law, they see their need for Jesus and they run to Jesus and they get saved. That's not true. For many, hearing the preaching of the law, it hardens their heart. Or at least internally, it causes them to double down, reject God all the more. But here's a quote, it's Reformation Month, so we'll hear from Luther and Calvin. Luther says, What is that word? I've got a typo. Blanching. Okay, mine says B-L-A-N-D-H-I-G-N. Okay, blanching and quaking at the rustling of a leaf. I don't know what was being said there. Anyway, they are terrified because of the law. Calvin says, the law warns each one about his own unrighteousness and makes him certain of it to the point of convicting and condemning him. So this use of the law, the purpose of it is, okay, so people say, Well, we just, people just need to know that God loves them, right? Or you've seen those little Jesus statues, which I completely disagree with. I don't think they're wise for multiple reasons, but you know, you just need a little Jesus. Here you go. Or, hey, guess what? Yeah, I think it's a problem with the second commandment, but even more than that. You have people say, look, people, stop, people just need to know that God loves them or hey we heard this Sunday but I didn't use this quote but I heard one time I think it was all man who's that guy on CNN Larry Larry King one time Larry King asked Joel Osteen he said why don't you ever preach against sin don't you ever preach about sin you know and he just said well I just feel like my calling is to just tell people about God's love okay Listen, the problem is, if we just go around giving people little Jesuses, beyond all the other problems with it, you just need a little Jesus. We just say, hey, just God loves you. Hey, Jesus loves you. Hey, Jesus loves you. We're never addressing the problem that Jesus came to address, which is what? Not that we love ourselves, we don't love ourselves enough, but our sins. That's why the Gospel of Mark starts out the first 15 verses. It's like, it doesn't take very long. It takes a whole 15 verses for Jesus to start preaching this word, repent. That's Mark 1 15, repent. And so do we need to understand God's love? Amen. But God's love shows forth all the more magnificently in the fact that Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty for our sins. There's a song from the late 1800s. We've sang it here. We've seen it a lot. It's not in the new hymnal. It's called at Calvary. Second verse goes like this by God's word. At last my sin. I learned then I trembled at the law. I'd spurned till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary. So when we speak of this use of the law to reveal the Savior, what we mean is that the law shows us our guiltiness, our vileness. It is a mirror. We look into the mirror and we see what we really look like. It convicts us of our sin and it leaves us without any hope in and of ourselves to be reconciled to God. That's the law. And then the gospel comes in. This on your sheet, 1 Corinthians 15. Now I'd remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you're being saved, as you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died." Why? for our sins in accordance with the Scripture. That He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. This is the Gospel. Paul summarizes the Gospel. And you can't understand the Gospel unless you understand what? S-I-N. Sin. And this is what the law does. It shows us sin. So Tom Hicks says, at the right time, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the elect to their unlawfulness through the preaching of God's law and leads them to the gospel of Jesus Christ, His cross and resurrection, so that they see and delight in the goodness and holiness of God and agree with the law's judgment upon them, such that they cast themselves upon Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of their souls. So this preaching of the law, okay, is not just about showing that we are sinners, because there is a sense, by the way, that we know we're sinners. We know we're guilty before God. There's a sense that's already true. But this preaching of the law not only does that, but it furthers that understanding, but it also leaves us no ground. Why do we preach the law? Because the law leaves us no ground for any hope within ourselves. at all in keeping the law as a means of reconciliation with God. You understand? The law comes in, and we're going to talk about this one in a few weeks too. We preach both law and gospel. If you preach only law, So this would be preaching law. The Bible says, thou shalt not kill. The reality is, it's not only that you have murdered, or some of you maybe have murdered, I don't know, but it's also if you hated someone, a brother in your heart, a relative, a neighbor, a fellow countryman, if you've hated them in your heart, you've broken the law of God. And guess what? If you've broken the law of God, you're guilty of all the law. If you've offended the law on one point, you're guilty of all of it. And God says that those who violate the law of God deserve death. The wages of sin is death. And the wrath of God is coming upon all lawbreakers. And God is going to crush them underneath His feet because they've broken His law. And He is good, and He is righteous, and He is holy. Is anything I said untrue? What have I just preached? The law. I've preached the law. But it's not enough just to preach the law. We have to also preach the gospel, which is that Jesus came to fulfill the law and he has kept the law and he has secured righteousness for his people and died for our sins under the wrath of God and risen again from the dead. And if we put our faith in Christ, we are counted as righteous in him. But we have to preach the law. A few months ago, it's been a while now in May, We had the Roman Catholic debate. I pointed out that not only do Roman Catholics not understand the gospel rightly, they get the law wrong, okay, because they posit a system by which we can keep our justification up by our good deeds. But if you really understand the law, it drives you to Christ, okay, since only Jesus is able to perfectly keep the law in such a way as to merit justification. All right. so number one what use is the moral law today number one it restrains the sinner it is a very much needed help to society and now let me mention this too there is a this isn't a conspiracy theory this is not a well it's just what religious people say what i'm about to tell you is fact There is a direct correlation in a nation that runs from the righteousness of God and the moral depravity and chaos that you see. That's not like, oh, that's weird how that happened. It's like, why is my head getting wet? Every time it rains, my head gets wet. I wonder what the correlation is. Water falls from the sky, gets your head wet. You reject the law of God, society is gonna crumble. And so we see, right? And that's why people say like, you know, the Obergefell's hard to say, the Obergefell decision in 2015. Homosexuality or okaying that, making that a constitutional protection in our nation, it's not hurting you. You don't wanna marry a, you don't wanna have homosexual marriage? Then don't marry a homosexual or whatever. They thought they were real smart saying that. No, when you take your fist and raise it up to God and shake it in his face, you're going to have consequences in your nation, and we see in that, okay? Same with abortion, we go on and on. So the law functions to restrain the sinner, secondly, reveal the Savior, and then thirdly, rules the saint. So we're not antinomian, anti meaning against, namos, a Greek word for law. A lot of people live a Christian life this way, so we need to really think through this last point. Louis Burkhoff says, the law is a rule of life for believers, reminding them of their duties and leading them in the way of life and salvation. So have you ever heard someone say like this, you just need to be Christ-like? Yes, amen. I agree with that. Christians should be Christ-like, right? But what does it mean to be Christ-like? Did he follow a standard? Is there a standard that Jesus followed? Yes. What is that standard? The law of God, right? So, here is how our confession puts it. Very helpful. Beautiful, actually. Chapter 19, verse 6, or verse, sorry. Paragraph 67. True believers are not under the law as a covenant of works to be justified or condemned by it. Yet it is very useful to them and to others as a rule of life that informs them of the will of God and their duty. It directs and obligates them to live according to its precepts. It also exposes the sinful corruptions of their natures. hearts and lives as they examine themselves in light of the law they come to further conviction of humiliation for and hatred of sin along with a clear view with their need for Christ and the perfection of his obedience the law is also useful to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions because it forbids sin the punishment threatened by the law shows them what even their sins deserve, and what troubles they may expect in this life due to their sin, even though they are freed from the curse and undiminished severity of it. The promises of the law likewise show them God's approval of obedience and the blessings they may expect when they keep it, even though these blessings are not owed to them by the law as a covenant of works. If people do good and refrain from evil because the law encourages good and discourages evil, that does not indicate that they are under the law and not under grace. These uses of the law are not contrary to the grace of the gospel, but are in sweet harmony with it. For the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the human will to do freely and cheerfully what the will of God as revealed in the law requires." That is such a good two paragraphs. So right now, just listen and I'll help explain that. We're talking about believers. We're talking about those who have been born again. And the law for us is not. So you say, but doesn't the Bible say we're we're no longer under the law, but we're under grace. Amen. What that means is that the law does not stand over us as a covenant of works. We're going to get into covenant theology again next week. But just to remember, the covenant works essentially says, do this and you will what? Live. Obey, and you will what? You'll live. Obey, and you will have life. That's the essence of the covenant works in the garden. That's not our relationship to the law. The law does not come to Connell and say, Connell, keep this law, and you'll keep life. Rather, Hicks puts it this way, do this because life is already yours, right? Morality cannot justify you you cannot be a good person in and of yourself by the laws standard Because the law still don't think that after Jesus that the law now is lessened Right Jesus comes and you say well the law Now Jesus lowered the standard. No, no. No, he met the standard. So now what's the standard for Christians? I It's still perfection. Guess what? In and of ourselves, we definitely can't meet that, right? Now, left to ourselves, those who do not meet the law are under a curse. The Bible says, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Nothing that you have done before or after your conversion merits a single ounce of justifying grace in your life. Obedience to the law good works will not give you eternal life and they are not what keep your eternal life. Okay, so very important that we get this right. So you but then you ask because you're a good Bible student and you said well, but what about good works? Well, it's a good question. Titus 2 14 says Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself of people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Are good works necessary then for a Christian? Well, it depends on what you mean by the word necessary. Do you mean that good works are necessary for the Christian's justification before God? The answer is no. Are good works a necessary outflow of what God has done in the hearts of His people? Yeah. Yes. You say, well, that doesn't really sound, it just sounds like we're just, you know, nuancing terms or we're just having differences. It's just semantics. Let me read to you John Calhoun. It's a little bit longer quote. I'm sorry, but I couldn't find a place I wanted to cut it off. So just listen to the whole thing. You can read as I read it. Good works cannot be done, but in obedience to the law. in the hand of the mediator as an authoritative rule of conduct. And they cannot be performed but by persons who are vitally united to Him as the last Adam and who have communion with Him in His righteousness and fullness. A man, in order to perform the smallest good work, must be justified on the ground of the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to him. And therefore, his good works arrive too late to form any part of his justifying righteousness. as it is impossible for a man to be justified in the sight of God by the works of the law before conversion. So it is equally impossible for him to be justified by his good works after it. Good works will indeed justify the believer's profession of faith before men, but not his person before God. Such works, not being performed under the law as a covenant, and at the same time not being perfect, cannot enter into the ground of his justification. But they may manifest him to have true faith and to be already justified by faith. And so the evidence is profession of faith. They evidence his profession of faith before men to be sincere. Good works are strictly enjoined to the law of God and of the highest importance to the honor of God and also the advancement of holiness and comfort in believers themselves. OK. I'm not gonna work through all that, that's the whole lesson. Let me just try to summarize it. Believers do good works. Good works can only be those things that the law says are good. Does it make sense? So you could be like, I don't know, I'll try to think of something crazy. I don't know, I can't. Okay, yeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. Give to where? Yeah, yeah, it's like I'm going to be generous to Salvation Army, not with the church. And this is good. Well, no, you can be generous with them, but not an expense of your generosity in the church. And, you know, so that that's that's an excellent example. And. So the question is, with these good works, since they have to be what the law says, What is our relationship in keeping them? Our relationship in keeping them is not keeping them as the way of salvation. Instead, Tom Hicks says, this is on your sheet, God graciously accepts our attempts to obey the law by His Spirit while clothed in the righteousness of Christ. So God is not lowering His standard for us. But he is accepting of us in Christ because Christ has kept the law perfectly for us. And so now we really actually and genuinely delight to follow God's law, albeit imperfectly, but we're empowered by the Holy Spirit and we're forever justified by the work of Jesus. I can give you an analogy I heard this one time it's not mine original but when your kid now some of you dads you maybe you're harsh you know but your kid brings you a picture you look at the picture and you're like what is that a whale that's like no that's you dad you're on a horse or something you know and you're like okay I mean how many of you rip it up like that's terrible paint it again you know you're like oh yeah I'm now I'm talking about if they're like Braden's age like 17 you can be like that I'm talking about like when they're like three okay okay when there is a there is a there is an age where you're like okay drawing is not you but you know they're like three and you're like that's beautiful why because it's done with sincerity of heart They're doing it. It's not a perfect analogy, but this is the same way. You've never in your life painted a picture of the law in a way that's worthy of anything from God. You've never kept the law in such a way that God owes you something. But, listen, this is so important. Adherence to the moral law of God is not optional for the Christian. It's not take it or leave it. It's not like, well, I don't feel led to do that, right? You know, I just feel led to, I feel like, well, let's use Sunday. That's a great example. Let's use Sunday as an example. You know what? I just don't feel led together with the church today. Well, I'm sorry. It doesn't matter what you feel, right? This is what God has commanded. So this is what we do. God hasn't changed. We follow his law, but only in Christ. imperfectly, always coming up short, but clothed in the righteousness of Christ with a genuine desire and power from the Holy Spirit. You want to hear some good quotes, you know, little pithy quotes. Thomas Watson is the king of them. And he says, the moral law is on your sheet. The moral law requires obedience, but gives no strength as Pharaoh required brick, but gave no straw. But the gospel gives strength. It bestows faith on the elect. It sweetens the law. It makes us serve God with delight. The law says do this, but gives no power. The Gospel says it is finished. And now here's the power to walk in newness of life with God. Does it make sense? So again, our confession, chapter 16, paragraph five and six. We cannot even by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life from God's hand due to the huge disproportion between our works and the glory to come and the infinite distance between us and God. By these works, we can neither benefit God nor satisfy Him for the debt of our former sins. When we have done all we can, we've only done our duty and our unprofitable servants. Since our good works are good, they must proceed from His Spirit. And since they are performed by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot withstand the severity of God's punishment." But this one's hopeful, paragraph 6. Nevertheless, believers are accepted through Christ, and thus their good works are also accepted in Him. This acceptance does not mean our good works are completely blameless and irreproachable in God's sight. Instead, God views them in His Son. And so He is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, even though it is accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections. This is what we're talking about. What does it mean to be a Reformed Baptist? This is what it means. Part of what it means. To see the beauty of God's law. To see the harmony of the law and the gospel. The law revealing our sin. The gospel revealing our Savior. Grace enabling our obedience to Christ. The moral law shows us who God is, who we are, how redeemed people are to live for His glory. It restrains sinners, reveals the Savior, and rules the saints. Let's stop there.