Open up our Bibles, right? And we're in Exodus chapter three. We're gonna, by hook or by crook, I wanna try to finish this law up tonight, but if you're just coming here tonight, you're entering into a long study, I think it's like 16 weeks now, we've been going at it, just talking about the way God moves, the way God deals with people, the different conditions by which he has had relationships with people, whether it was innocence in the garden, or dealing with people on the basis of their conscience or how he established human government how he reached out to Abraham by promise and now under Moses this law that he gave his people and what that means and really what we've been focusing on a lot is How that's different than kind of what we have as a church In the New Testament church that is and and the big thing that really separates this I hope forever in your mind is that the law was primarily for the land The Jews were promised a physical piece of land, and they had to be given laws to be governed on that physical piece of land when they had a physical, literal nation. You say, well, why don't we have all these laws? Well, because the Bible says we're supposed to be constrained by love. We didn't enter into a political government when we asked Jesus to save us. We entered into a love relationship. And hopefully you husbands and wives don't have a set of do's and don'ts by which you govern that relationship. If so, please don't tell anyone because it's probably a really cold an icy relationship. It's like, thou shalt have the dinner on the table at 6 p.m., thou shalt call me Lord. Like if that's how it is, then we've got a very, that's not how relationships work, right? Relationships are governed by love and communication. Everybody's saying, I think the ladies are saying amen, but not by law, but a government, a nation needs laws. If a nation doesn't have laws, you have anarchy. You've got tribalism. Yeah, I saw something about that on the news. But anyway, I digress. So you need laws. And in Exodus chapter 3, we see that the law was primarily for the Jews in the land. Exodus chapter 3 is where God is getting Moses. And you see how so much of Moses' law pertains to the Jews being in this promised land to build this nation that God would Work through now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of Midian And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God even to Horeb now That's Sinai so Horeb is right. It's the same place that he's gonna get the Ten Commandments It's the same place where he's gonna get the law God calls him in the place where he's gonna get the law and And it says there in verse two, and the angel of the Lord, that's appearance of God there, that's actually a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, appeared unto him, and I'm ringing a little bit, right? Appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. That's a great emblem of Israel. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And I said this weeks ago, the first mention of the word holy is not even about God, it's about a piece of dirt on the Sinai Peninsula. It's a physical place that God first calls holy. Notice that's where the law is going to be given. Now the law did two things. The law showed us God's holiness, amen, And the law was revealed on holy ground. And God's making a connection there that the law and the land are connected. This holy ground is where the holy law is going to govern for a holy God to minister. So God's connecting the holy ground to the holy law that would come down at that ground. Now, the church, as I said, is not under the law. because we're not promised any land. Now some of you might get a nice little piece, thank God for it, but that's not in your salvation promise. I mean, in the book of Ephesians, the church is called a spiritual organism, right? We're a spiritual organism. We're not connected to the earth. We sing this world is not our home. You know, it's celestial body The book of the song of solomon compares the church to he likens the church to the moon We don't take we're not connected to the earth We reflect the light of the sun and we might influence the tides of the earth But we're not connected to the earth as this spiritual organism ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 says all of our blessings are spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now some of you might have a little more than the guy next to you. None of that might be any indication of God's smile on your life. Now, in the Old Testament, it was. If you had a lot, that meant God smiled on you a lot. Here, it's not an indication. Some people might be liars, crooks, and thieves. Some people might have money because God knows they can be trusted with money. And some of you might not have money because God knows he can't trust you with money. Money is nothing to God. It's the love of money that gets people in trouble. So God says, our blessings are really up there. Colossians says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Because our life, our future, our hope, even our ministry into eternity is not really connected to the earth. Now, I'm thankful for everything earthly God's given me. I'm thankful for a decent house. I'm thankful for some cars to drive. I'm thankful that I had to run and shove food in my mouth before church, and I had enough money in my pocket, not even on my credit card, to be able to buy it, right? That's a blessing, but that's not an indication of necessarily God's favor on my life. It's always spiritual with God. Now go to Leviticus 14. That's a big contrast. You got some people that are trying to build the kingdom down here. You know, they're going to build this big kingdom and they're going to get this big, you know, this Tabernacle Baptist Church or Temple Baptist Church or Sanctuary Baptist Church or we have a Kingdom Hall. Like this is not, there's no kingdom down here. My kingdom's not of this world because I follow Jesus Christ. And when in Leviticus chapter 14, if you look at verse number 33, you see God reiterating again to Moses, right in the midst of these laws and rules and regulation, that all the instructions and all the warnings and all the prophecies and all the stuff in the law was meant for the land of Palestine. Look at it, Leviticus 14 verse 33. And the Lord spake unto Moses, unto Aaron, saying, When ye become into the land of Canaan. And it keeps going on. These rules, these regulations were really in part to be used to govern them when God brought them into the promised land. Right? It's connected to the land. So that means We always think of the law as moral, yes. The law provided, yes. I don't know why I'm writing on the board. Some of you are going to write this down because you think it's important, but I just feel an impulse to do it. I got a feeling. Well, right, the law provided moral boundaries. And we read about those a lot, right? Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, right? Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, right? Honor thy father and thy mother, right? Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor bow down thyself thereto, right? I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me. I think I missed a few, but those are some of the moral laws, right? But the law also had geographic and political laws. It provided moral boundaries for the children of Israel to live righteously, and it provided political boundaries for them to have a nation, right? It was to govern their living in a physical piece of land. Now go to Deuteronomy chapter 29. Right? Because the moral boundaries would help them be the righteous people that God wanted them to be, and the geographic boundaries were to govern their location and their habitation in the land of Palestine. Now that's a controversial word, I know, but we'll talk about that just for a second. Now in Deuteronomy chapter 29, Deuteronomy chapter 29, The Lord is now going to give Israel some conditional stipulations for occupying the land. And this is commonly called the Palestinian Covenant. Now, it's at the end of Deuteronomy. Notice Deuteronomy 29 verse 1. Look what it says there. Deuteronomy 29 verse 1 says, These are the words of the covenant. which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, not at Sinai. That's where the Mosaic covenant was made. That's where the law was given. Now they're out there wandering and God's making another agreement with them, which is commonly called the Palestinian covenant. Look what it says, beside the covenant, which he made with them in Horeb. So beside the deal and the agreement he made with Moses at Mount Sinai, God's given them some other terms. Now don't be afraid of that word Palestine or Palestinian. That word Palestine or Palestinian appears four times in your Bible. One time it's Palestine, three times it's Palestina. And it refers to the land, never a group of people. It's the land was called that. In fact, that name Palestine, the Roman emperor named Hadrian tried to change the name of the land of Israel to the land of Palestine around 132-135 AD to try to de-emphasize the Jewish people's connection to that land. but it has always been the name of a place. There has never been a, the only Palestinian people that have existed in history have been Jews, right? Have been the Jews inhabiting that land, the ones who inhabited the land of Palestine. It is a very recent invention. It is a very post-1948 invention to now call that the name for a people separate from the Jews. Now that's controversial for you. I'm sorry the facts hurt. I mean, truth hurts, but that's just the truth. You can take with you what you want. I'm not telling you, you decide with what you want. But Palestine, according to the word of God, is a place where the Jews were living. And now this thing about a Palestinian people and a Palestinian state is a very recent construct to try to delegitimize God's call for the Jews to live on that land. All I want you to see is, before I get too many strikes, that Palestine did not refer to people, but referred to a place. If you go to chapter 30, the Palestinian covenant was a conditional covenant that had the stipulations for if you want to occupy the land now, Jewish friends, Jewish nation, you better follow these terms, okay? So let's go, if you want to enjoy the land, and there are seven conditions. that the Lord gives him here. Seven conditions. I'm not going to list them all here, but if you're taking notes or listening and want to know how long I have to speak, I'm going to give you these seven stipulations. Number one, dispersion for disobedience. That's the first thing, he warned them. Number one, dispersion for disobedience. Here's the land, you can live here, enjoy it, you know, have me be your God, but if you don't want to abide by these commandments, if you don't want to stick with what I told you to do, I'm gonna scatter you. Look at Deuteronomy 30 verse one, the Lord says, and it shall come to pass when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, Whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee. You see, God's telling you already that you're gonna get scattered, you're gonna get dispersed, all right? I wanted to go back and say something. I forgot to say something. All right, we have a bunch of covenants we've said so far, right? The Abrahamic covenant. That was unconditional. The Abrahamic covenant was unconditional ownership of the land. This land is yours. It's promised to you through Abraham. You're gonna get it. We saw that. We saw the Mosaic Covenant that provided moral boundaries. Now we're seeing the Palestinian Covenant that's providing geographical boundaries and temporary conditions for living in the land. And there's another covenant to come, the New Covenant, which is a future covenant, which will be Israel getting fulfilled ownership and occupancy of the land. So, sort those covenants out. We've touched on them, maybe I'll write them down later, but now I gotta get to my Palestinian covenant. So the first stipulation was, if you disobey, you're getting dispersed. If you don't draw nigh, you're gonna get knocked out. That's what he's saying. If you don't want to be around me, then you're not going to get this land. I'm just going to scatter you all over the place and just mix you up in all these other nations. That's a stern thing. He's promising them a nation. He's promising them a nation with boundaries and walls and parameters, a physical blessing. He says, hey, if you don't want me, you don't get that. That's why they had trouble after Jesus. Jesus says, you don't want me, you don't get this. I'm not just coming here to crush the Romans. I'm here to bring you righteousness as well. If you don't want righteousness, you're gonna get scattered again. And that's what happens to them. So the first stipulation is in this Palestinian covenant is, hey, you disobey and you will be dispersed. Number two, look at verse two. and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart and with all thy soul. The second thing that's listed in this Palestinian covenant, that there will be a future repentance. for the nation that's a blessing he says number one i might have to punish you i might have to chasten you i might have to scatter you but number two he says in the future you're gonna have a chance to repent that's a tremendous blessing because the father chastens his son a good father chastens his son with a little whack sometimes, a little pain sometimes, a little scourging sometimes. We read those verses in Hebrews 12 and we say, oh, that's about child rearing. No, it's not. It's about God and the nation of Israel. It's about the father, how he deals with his son corporately, the nation of Israel, and he scourges him and he chastens him. Why? To bring him back into a right relationship with him. And that's what a good dad should do with his children, but that's what the greatest dad does with his nation, his son, Israel. Verse three, right, verse three. But it's okay, I teach at 7 a.m. and you don't phase me. You don't phase me. You gotta do better than that. You gotta just, somebody's gotta fall asleep or just like throw something at me. Please don't, challenge not accepted. Pete, Pete, I don't trust Pete. He's like, watch this, woof, you know. Deuteronomy 30, verse three. Here's the third condition. The Lord's gonna come back. the second coming of Christ, the return of the Lord. He says right there, he says, So what a blessing that part of this future, part of this Palestinian covenant, these stipulations is you're going to mess up, you're going to get scattered, you're going to get a chance to repent. And when you repent, the Messiah is going to come back. Now we read verses in James chapter four that we love to quote to each other and spiritualize and they make great preaching a great devotional application. Draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to thee. And you can fulfill that today if you feel away from God, if you take a step towards God, God takes a step towards you. But that's literally fulfilled when the nation of Israel draws nigh to God and Jesus Christ literally comes back into their midst. The book of James is to whom? The twelve tribes scattered abroad. So that verse is literally, doctrinally fulfilled when this nation in distress cries. Can you imagine this? A nation in distress says the iron dome ain't helping us. This thing ain't helping us. We're in trouble. The nations have surrounded us. We have sinned. We have sinned. We repent. And then the eastern sky splits and the Messiah comes back to redeem and save his people. That's a great blessing. Literally fulfilled when Israel repents. And that's a great spiritual lesson, too, right? Because if you won't repent, God's just going to stand over here and let you be a knucklehead. God's not desperate. He'll plead with you. But if you're content to be a knucklehead, He's just going to stand here and let you just keep making a mess of your life until you realize you need Him. And then when you say, by the way, I need you. Oh, thank you. Yes, I know you do. I'm here now. That's how it is. He's just watching you. You ever had your son or your child try to do something? and they can't do it, you know they can't do it, you're just like, can I, no, okay, you got it, sure. You know, they're trying to twist a bolt or something like that, and once they busted their knuckles a few times, like, can I, all right, sure. This is how you do it. You just do it for them, right? That's how God is. God's like, you like that? Does it feel good? No, it hurts, right? Let me show you. Okay, and then God moves in. When you draw an eye to God, He draws an eye to you. But you've got to repent first. You've got to turn to Him, and then He turns to you. Now, fourth condition. Am I up to number four? Fourth condition is verse six. He's been affecting their body in the past, but now he's gonna circumcise thine heart. And the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. Folks, we're talking about the next thing is, oh no, verse, did I skip? I skipped five. Go to verse five. Verse one was dispersion. Verse two was repentance. Verse three is the return. Fourth stipulation. You guys usually participate and call me out when I'm wrong. Verse five, and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Israel will be restored. Better than it was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel will be restored. Future condition, future promise, future stipulation. When you repent, because when Jesus comes, He restores. Right? When you ask Jesus Christ into your heart to save you, what happens? He restores your soul. When you make a mess of your life and get away from Him and you ask Him to come back and get involved in your affairs, what does He do? He could restore your marriage. He can restore your children. He can restore the joy and all the things that you've lost. When Jesus comes, He's the one, He's the restorer of our soul. So what's going to happen when He returns to a nation? He's going to restore them to their land and all the promises so they were better than they were before. That's the blessing of our God. Look at verse number six. This is our fifth stipulation of seven. Some of you are mentally ticking it off. Verse number six, and the Lord God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. Now we're going to get Israel's national conversion. We get excited when some kids get saved at a fair, and that's awesome. We get excited when somebody maybe gets saved in a Sunday school class, or a master clubs class, or maybe after church sits with somebody and gets it right, or at a youth group, or sitting in a driveway after a youth camp, or maybe on a street corner, or a nursing home, or in a house that you gotta do some work in. It's exciting, right, when somebody gets saved, right? Amen? Can I get an amen on that one? All right, all right, thank you, thank you. How amazing is it when you got converted? And you just got converted personally and spiritually. Your breath didn't change. Your ugly face didn't change. Your bank account didn't change. Your height, your stature, the pounds you have to lose that the scale keeps telling you every morning. None of that changed. You know what changed? Your spiritual condition changed. And the angels rejoice over that. God gets excited about that. We clap our hands and sing a new name and glory because about that, But how amazing when a nation is converted, when this nation that's been prepared by God for thousands of years calls upon the Messiah, Yeshua, in spirit and in truth, and doesn't just get converted like one guy over here and one lady over there, but gets converted nationally and literally. The Bible says that's so big that what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead. God, the whole planet is gonna get regenerated when the Lord does that. I mean, trees are gonna sing, the rocks are gonna cry out, the trees are gonna clap their hands. When that happens, I mean, people shouted and sang when you got saved, but not a lot of people knew it. The whole world is gonna see Israel get born again in a day, and nature itself is gonna get regenerated. Nature itself is gonna sing. It's such a big deal when this nation is born again. Hallelujah, that's part of this covenant. And I think I'm up to six, six, number verse, stipulation six in verse seven, all right? Verse seven, and the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. Part of these conditions is that God would judge Israel's oppressors. Payday someday. You know, there's a story in the Old Testament when this wicked king Ahab and his nasty wife Jezebel, The lady's going to be studying Jezebel tomorrow. Please don't bring home any applications from Jezebel's life. This is all, do not be like this woman, right? This is all like, don't be like this woman, okay? But Jezebel stirs him up to steal a vineyard from a man named Naboth, who was a good man. and God got him in the end. Ahab goes out to battle, somebody shoots an arrow right through his chest, and his wife gets thrown out of a tower and trampled by a horse and eaten by dogs. It took some years for that to happen, but payday someday. You gonna steal that man's vineyard? God says, you gonna steal that righteous man's vineyard? I'm gonna get you, Ahab. I'm gonna get you, Jezebel. I'm gonna pay you back. Hey, how much sore a punishment for all the wicked that have tried to steal God's vineyard? The nation of Israel is God's vineyard, and these people are trying to steal it. The Antichrist, pictured by Ahab, and that spirit of Jezebel that's pictured by Jezebel, they've been working and conspiring to steal the vineyard from God and his people. You don't think he's got a recompense coming? He's got payday coming. He said, well, I don't see anything happening now. God doesn't settle his accounts now. God settles accounts. Somebody said you've heard the famous anecdote of the atheist farmer who mocked his friends and say, you know, where's the crop? Where's the crop? Where's the crop? And he said, God doesn't settle his accounts in October, right? When God settles his accounts, he does it in his time and in his place. But when he does it, it's for real. And then the last stipulation, number nine, number seven is in verse number nine. All right, number nine, verse nine. The last stipulation, the seventh stipulation of this covenant is in verse nine. And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good as he rejoiced over thy fathers. The last stipulation is that there will be national prosperity for Israel. Everything's gonna be good. It ain't good now. But one day, it's going to be very good. Amen? Hallelujah for that. Because when you're right with God, you prosper. That's the application. Well, you know, the way of transgressors is hard. Some of you, life feels like you're punching rocks because you're walking contrary to God. Whether you're at home or sitting here, I don't know your heart, but if the way of transgressors isn't hard, doesn't mean life isn't hard. Life's got its car accidents, and its sicknesses, and its difficulties, and its rough bosses, and its long days. That's just life, people. That's not an attack of the devil. That's you driving your life, your car, on this broken road called Earth. You're living in a fallen world, so you're going to take your licks if you want to go contrary to it, that's just life. But the lack of joy, the lack of peace, the lack of victory, the lack of calm in a storm, you know what that is? That fact that your life hangs in doubt, that was a judgment from God for being away from him, Deuteronomy 28. He says, when you guys are away from me, you have no assurance of your life. Because that security and that peace that you can have in a storm comes from the fact when you're right this way, you know you can handle whatever comes this way. And when Israel gets right with God, man, he makes them to flourish. And now go to Leviticus 26. It would have been great, that was my last point, it would have been great if they kept all those stipulations. But we know the story. The nation did not adhere to these conditions and they lost the land. Leviticus 26, 33, the Lord warns him right in the middle of his law. He says, and I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. God told them you're going to be dispersed. You're going to be scattered among the heathen. And yes, there were periods in Israel's history where there was peace, where there was prosperity, especially under Solomon's reign, right? There was a lot of rest. There were no wars. But folks, if we're honest, that land over there has been soaked in blood for centuries. I mean, they had to go through 70 years of captivity under Babylon. Then, during the time of Christ, there was the Diaspora, where they were scattered again after Titus came in and destroyed their temple. I mean, it's just been one thing after another. Thankfully the return and restoration of the Jews will ultimately be realized in the millennium When God makes a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah and then all this peace forevermore That's talked about in Jeremiah 31 Hebrews chapter 8. So let's move on now. Let's talk about go to Hebrews chapter 9 Let's talk about now. I'm hurrying the failure of this dispensation because every dispensation has a failure to it. Innocence had a failure, they get expelled. Conscience had a failure, got sent to flood. Government had a failure, they built a tower and God whacked it. A promise had a failure, they didn't believe, they end up slaves in Egypt. And the dispensation of law has a failure, right? It has a failure. for lack of a better word, a moral failure because there's a moral component to the law, and it has a political failure or a geographic failure because there's also a political and geographic aspect to the law. The one that we're going to hopefully shout about a little bit on Thursday night is the moral judgment or the spiritual judgment that fell on Christ at Calvary. Look at Hebrews 9, verse 15. Spiritually, morally, the judgment of the law fell on Jesus Christ at Calvary. Hebrews 9, verse 15, the Bible says, and for this cause he, meaning Jesus, is the mediator of the New Testament, so he's bringing a New Testament around, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament. So one of the reasons Jesus died was to take away all the transgressions that were committed under the law. All those offenses, all those sins that they were covering, that they were covering with the blood of bulls and goats, which could never take away the sins, the Lamb of God had to come to actually take those sins away and pay the price for those transgressions under the Old Testament law. Go to Galatians chapter 3. I'll show you this. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Let's look at this great verse here. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. You know what the law was? The law was a curse. The law was against you. The law said you're guilty. The law condemned you. The law worked wrath. And if the law was that curse, Jesus Christ drank that curse for us. Jesus Christ took that poison for us, right? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. In the Old Testament, this serpent came and bit the people. God said, make a serpent of brass, put it on a pole, and everybody that looks upon it shall live. Take the object and the vehicle of that curse and let everybody look at it in faith when I lift it up. And Jesus Christ becomes the very thing that God hated, he became the curse himself, and he says, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me, and if we look in faith to Jesus Christ as our hope, he forgives us, because he became a curse for us. When Jesus Christ hung on that tree, he died under the curse of the law. You read it right there, it's in front of you, right? Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. and he hung on a tree to become a curse. Thank you Jesus, it goes right there. How about 2 Corinthians chapter 5? Just a little bit to the left, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look at verse 21. You know, I'll speak for myself here, sometimes we know these things so well, the gravity of them doesn't really hit us anymore. Like, when you really step back and think about the magnificent plan of God he worked out here to make you be able to walk free and innocent in his sight, it's glorious. We just know it so well our ears are dull of hearing. We want to be tickled. Like, give me something new. Give me another angle. Give me a different verse. I don't have too many new verses, but I have this great thing that God established a law and Jesus Christ stepped in to take the punishment for all of our transgressions of that law and all of his people's transgressions under that law. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, For He, meaning God, hath made Him, meaning Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Now, Jesus Christ actually became lust. He actually became lies. He actually became blasphemy. He became the sin that we take so lightly. But He became that on the cross. That's why the Father had to turn His back from Him. Because in that moment, He was the curse. He was sin, and he had all that wrath was poured out upon him, because that was the place where God could just kind of rage upon him, and not take it out on your hide, but take it out on his son's hide. And in that moment, he wasn't just this victim, he wasn't just this martyr, he became sin. That's why he sweat those drops of blood, because he had become the most vile thing that ever could happen. Go to Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. What a savior, what a savior, amen, amen, amen. And somebody wants to put their, whoever they want next to that. It's just, it's kind of a little sad. Romans chapter 10. You know, I was just thinking of this illustration. You know, my son, CJ has his one year anniversary of being off treatment for one year next week, and now he starts going to Sloan Kettering every three months, but man, Every time that blood is drawn, your heart skips a beat. And I sit there and I wait for those numbers to come in. And the thought of just any of those little leukemia cells being in his bone marrow again just makes you tremble. Jesus Christ is sitting in the garden of Gethsemane. He knows what's coming. He knows what's about to be put on him. He knows what's going to get put into his body because he bare our sins in his own body on the tree. Why do you think he sweat drops of blood? I mean, why do you think he just was in agony? Because this vile, I mean, if I as a father could just have a little smidgen of sympathy and understanding, what is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, who could see all things and understand the gravity of what was going to happen? Of course he trembled. Of course he sweat drops of blood. Of course he said, my father, if it be possible, He wasn't just going to die. That was the easy part. It was the wrath of God that was going to be poured out on him, that he was going to become that curse and be cut off from his father. That was the horror. Romans chapter 10, verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth. Now because he did that, Christ is the end of the law. There's no need for the law to be righteous if you're in Christ, amen? You don't need the law to be righteous, amen? Are you saved, amen? You don't need the law to be righteous. God made you righteous in Christ. You know, you hear about, I know they're talking now about driving over the highway. And on the highway, not over the highway, that's the wrong preposition. I'm driving on the highway and I got all the signs, right? Don't light a fire, don't start a fire, high fire alert. So anyway, to control forest fires, they do prescribed burns. They do controlled burns. They'll burn out a spot to kind of keep the fire from advancing that way because the fire can't burn where it's already burned. And guess what? The wrath of God can't fall where it's already fallen. And if the wrath of God fell on Christ and you're in Christ, the wrath of God can never fall on you. Because you're in Christ where the wrath of God, the fire, so to speak, has already been burned. The curse of the law can't touch you in Christ because Christ was already cursed. So you can never be cursed. You can never be cut off. Amen. Go to John chapter 19. Go to John chapter 19. What a Savior. Amen. John 19, verse number 30, is another familiar verse. So Jesus Christ satisfied all the demands of the law and finished the atonement. In fact, we always quoted this verse. We look at John 19, 30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. So he doesn't die as a weakling, he dies strong, he cries with a loud voice, and he fulfills all the law, fulfills all the demands, fulfills all the prophecies, he says, it is finished. So I don't have anything else to complete. It is finished. Now, let me just show you how amazing this is. Go to Luke chapter 23, go to Luke 23. Let's see illustrated now what happened to your savior. Let's see him become that curse. Luke chapter 23. This is not too late in that crucifixion ordeal, right? He's up there about six hours, right? And this is earlier on. And in Luke 23, 34, then said Jesus, what's your Bible say next? Then said Jesus, what? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But notice, early on, while he's just bleeding a little bit and getting his back stuck to that wood a little bit, he's able to call God his father because he was still in a right relationship with him. In the beginning at the cross, he was able to call God his father because he still had not been made that curse yet. He hadn't had that whole thing poured out upon him yet. But when you go to Matthew 27, Matthew 27, this is now at the end. Matthew 27 is now that ninth hour, right? And the sixth hour through the ninth hour. So now we're getting there. We're getting towards the end now. This is getting right when he's getting ready to give up the ghost, and the Bible says in Matthew 27, verse 46, I'm sorry, the ninth hour, I apologize. It says, and about the ninth hour, so we're right there, man. We're at the end. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my father, my father, why hast thou forsaken me? No, it doesn't say that. I'm glad some of you made a face and got some agita across your face, like, huh, stone him, right? It says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because at the end, Jesus Christ could only call him God because he was dying in the place of a sinner. And a sinner can't call God Father. A sinner is cut off from God. A sinner, you know what most sinners will say? When that plane goes down? Or they see that, whatever that happens? Or they're in that artillery fight? You know what those words are gonna be? Not oh my father, oh my God. Oh my God, oh God, will be some of the last words many people ever say when they head into a tragedy. Oh God, dear God, because the sinner doesn't have the relationship you have. Can't call him father, not born again. Now in the beginning, Jesus Christ would call him father. Father, forgive them, because he hadn't been cut off yet. But right there at the end, when God pours out the cup of his wrath, it could only be, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he was cut off out of the land of the living and separated from his father, because he was dying in your place, the place of the condemned. He became a curse. That is the spiritual judgment and failure of the law being taken out on Jesus Christ. But if you would go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, let's look at the political failure. because the law had moral boundaries and political boundaries. The law had a moral aspect and a political aspect, so it comes, serves to, it makes sense to me that the law would have a political, a spiritual failure, a judgment that falls on Christ at Calvary, and a political failure that ends up in Israel's dispersion in 70 AD, right? This is Calvary, where Christ died, And this is the dispersion when Israel is scattered. Because the law was supposed to govern them in the land. And if they didn't want the God of the law, they weren't gonna get the land of the God. God was gonna scatter them if they didn't prescribe to these conditions. And in Deuteronomy 28, 64, he warns them back there. He says in Deuteronomy 28, verse 64, he says, and the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth, even unto the other, and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. So the law included curses, and there is a political, geographic curse that has not fallen on Christ. He dealt with the spiritual, but it's fallen on those people because they're now going to get scattered. And if you go to Luke chapter 21, when Jesus Christ was there, he warned of this coming judgment against Israel if they rejected him. And by Luke 21, he's seeing the handwriting on the wall. It's very clear that the leaders are conspiring to reject him. So in Luke 21, Jesus Christ gives this very stern warning. It's also in Matthew 24, but here we're gonna read it in Luke 21, verse 24. The Bible says in Luke 21, verse 24, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And 70 AD, 70 AD, Titus marches into Jerusalem and ransacks the city, and the great diaspora, the scattering of the children of Israel all over the globe happens around that time. Just like Jesus said, just like Moses said, just like God told them, that if you don't want to submit to the God of the law, you'll lose the land of the God. Right, you'll be scattered. And if the law has a moral and geographical component, the judgment under the law has a spiritual and a political component. Conclusion. Romans chapter 7. Two verses left, Romans chapter seven. What can we learn from the failure of the law? I'll give you two takeaways, and then we'll be done. And then we can just turn the corner on the law, and maybe, Lord willing, next time start talking about the church under grace, which might be a little more personal for you. Romans chapter seven. Here is the first big takeaway that I see. Number one, you must be born again. You must be born again. You say, what do you mean by that? No amount of law can fix your wicked flesh. No amount of rules and regulations can change this thing for being the putrefying sack of sin that it is. Romans 7 14 says, for we know that the law is spiritual, nothing wrong with it. But I am carnal, sold under sin. There's nothing wrong with the law, there's something wrong with me. That's why I can't keep it. Jesus said, the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. I was a lost man. I really tried to reform. I tried to constrain and resist and do certain things, and I would stretch that rubber band. We got one, right? Where's that box? Give me this box. I'm stepping off camera. I'm getting crazy now. You could take that rubber band. Hello there, I stepped into your living room, right? He went right past me. You take that rubber band, you could stretch it, but it always goes back to its form. And you could try and discipline it and hold it like this for weeks at a time, but just give it a shot, just let it go, just let up a second, and it just always goes back to form. That's the flesh, man. No laws and regulations can change this from its original shape. It's always gonna snap back to that. And the law's good, but I'm carnal. I'm sold on the sin. I mean, Israel had 613 laws. You're gonna come up with 614? Like, how many are you gonna get? It's like, and I'm gonna totally get political. It's like these people that do these tragic shootings. And they say, we need more laws. They broke 50 laws when they did it. You want 51's going to stop them? No amount of law is going to fix the wicked flesh. You could try to constrain it, but it can only be constrained. But eventually, it's going to snap back to its original condition. No, man doesn't need a reformation. He needs a regeneration. You can't change his old nature. He needs a new nature. He needs this thing to get crucified so you get a new nature in Christ, right? You must be born again. If you're sitting here today, no amount of religion is going to get you to heaven. No amount of good deeds is going to get you to heaven. No amount of prayers and alms and thanksgivings is going to get you to heaven. Only thing that gets you to heaven is trusting what Jesus Christ did on that cross and admitting that you're helpless apart from the blood of Christ. You don't need to be reformed or turn over a new leaf. You need to be saved, regenerated, the Bible talks about. That's number one. Number two, you can't get the blessing if you're not on blessing ground. Go to Matthew chapter six. This will be the last verse. Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. You can't get the blessing if you're not on blessing ground. You see, Israel broke the moral law and they faced a political judgment. They broke this law and lost the land. They couldn't keep the righteousness and they lost the place. So that tells me that you can't get the kingdom of heaven which is a political, physical place, without the kingdom of God, which is a spiritual, righteous condition and kingdom. Look at Matthew 6.33, when Jesus gave his great sermon on the mount, he tried to tell the nation this, and they didn't get it. His whole ministry was trying to tell them this, and they didn't get it. And most of us sitting here today don't get it. We think Matthew 6.33 is a way to trick God into giving you physical blessings. Well, I went to church, God, so you're going to give me a car. Well, I went to church, God, so you're going to give me a wife. Well, I went to church, God, so you're going to give me, you know, monetary, you know, remuneration. No, that's not what it's about at all. It's Jesus standing up on this Sermon on the Mount, which is his constitution of the kingdom. What will his kingdom be like? And he says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be added unto you. You don't get in the kingdom of heaven without going through the kingdom of God. You don't get the political blessing without the spiritual righteousness. You don't get the blessing if you're not on blessing ground first. Because God's ultimate purpose is to populate his kingdom with sinless beings like himself. He wants, when this whole thing called time ends, and God gets back to jump where he wanted to start, and he starts to populate the cosmos with people that want him and choose him and want to be with him, you know who they're going to be? They're going to be people that don't have sin, that want to fellowship with a holy God. Because sin is getting dealt with in time. I chose to deal with my sin at Calvary so I can get it taken care of, right? Amen? So that's taking care of. Sin is dealt with in time. There is no sin in eternity. God deals with the sin problem now. And God wants people that want to live and habitate and fellowship with a holy God forever and ever. So how could he possibly get you into that kingdom if you don't want the righteousness first? Because God wants righteous people. God wants people like himself that want to habitate and live with and fellowship with a holy God. Israel forgot that. They said, crush the Romans. Give us back our place and nation. Not until you get righteous, people. And when Israel gets right in the tribulation, he comes back and gives them this. But they had to get this first. And there's a lot of good preaching in there for you, because everybody wants the this. They want the husband. They want the wife. They want the job. They want the joy. They want the peace. You got to get this right first. When you get this right first, all these things shall be added unto you, the things that are right for you. God never blesses cursed ground. Just ask Cain. Cain said, look what I brought from this cursed ground. God said, I don't want that. God does not bless things that he's already cursed. Those things have to be made right before he can bless them. And if you want God's blessing, you need to walk in God's way, the way of righteousness. Those are some lessons from the law. And Lord willing, next week, we'll start talking about the church age. But thank you for your attention. Thanks for being here tonight. Hopefully you got something. Before you leave, just grab some tracks, put them in your pocket when you go to the store or put them out at your house on the 31st or leading up to that. And I love to not carry as many of those home, but thanks for being here tonight. Let's have a word of prayer.