Good morning. We're going to open our Bibles right now to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, we're going to continue our journey through Romans. And I've been looking forward to sharing this message with you. And just a reminder where we've been. We were back in Romans 6, and we looked how we are dead to sin, but alive to God. And we've been set free to serve. Last week, we focused on those verses where If you remember, when he asked me to circle, underline, highlight, take notes on the secret to serving the Lord and doing it with the right attitude is knowing the right thing, right? Knowing that he died and was buried and rose again for you, knowing, and then you reckon that to your life. You reckon that to your life, and then you yield to him as you present yourself to him every single day, and then you get involved and you serve, and what a difference it makes, because we've been set free to serve. Now, here's what's gonna happen in today's passage, because I want you to look with me at Romans chapter seven, and I'm only gonna focus on the first six verses today, but here's something that's very important, is noticing, now I have the new King James here, And if you look at the New King James, you'll notice the very first word is or, and it goes back to the original Greek there, and there is that connecting word there in the original in the Greek, but some of you don't have that in your Bible. They left that out for some strange reason. And so therefore, this is connected to chapter six. That's why I want you to see. Chapter seven is connected to chapter six. Paul is still going on with his argument here, with his encouragement, and he says this. He says, or do you not know, brethren? For I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by so that we should serve See, this continuation of what we had and say, so we should serve in what? In the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. And so this morning, I ask the Lord, please bless the reading of your word and the preaching of your word. And even before I preach, I'll have some things I want to share with you as far as, I want to share a little bit about the family because we're, this passage is about the brethren, is addressed to brethren. I got a message this morning from Carissa Clark. Carissa Clark is a graduate from Appalachian Bible College. She is now a missionary out in Utah. And she wrote this this morning. And she says, dear praying friends, please pray today, Sunday, November 16th, six o'clock tonight, the ministry that she's part of, they're having a big evangelistic event. And right now they've rented this place. The 10,000 seats have been spoken for in Salt Lake City. Many local churches are serving as we will stream this. I don't know of anything on the scale happening here before. Methods of evangelism that work in other parts of the country usually don't work here. But it's a key moment and one thing that's happening since the death of Charlie Kirk, young people have been awakened. So pray tonight at six o'clock as they share in an evangelistic event out in Salt Lake City, right? And this is Carissa, she said, I'll let you know what happens. Thank you so much for praying with us. So we're gonna pray for Carissa. We're also, again, thinking of our text today as being the body of Christ and what it looks like to serve. Randy Martin, Randy Martin's grandfather, Malin Martin, who would come here often because of his health. He hasn't been here in a long time. He would show up for our special services. We even sang up here with me before. And a dear friend of mine, old farmer, he went home to be with the Lord this week. So pray for Randy when you see her today. Encourage her. Bud Lupton, pray for him also. He has a heart issue and he couldn't have surgery and a date for surgery was bumped way up in December and they prayed and they moved it. There's a lot going on. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna ask, before I preach, I'm gonna go ahead and lift up some folks to the Lord. Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your holiness and for your helping hand this morning, for your presence, for the personal relationship that you have with us, Lord. I thank you for another opportunity to open up your word this morning as you open our hearts and our minds to the truth that stands forever. Lord, I pray for your one church, the members of which are scattered in many churches all over the world. where we realize that we are one and we must be one with each other as we are one and united in you, Lord. We intercede today on behalf of the Martin family. We pray for Beverly, who is, I'm sure she is grieving this morning, along with the rest of the family. We lift her up to you. We pray for Bud as he waits for that day to have the surgery. Pray for Donna Smith, who has been moved from Carroll County Hospital, Lord. into a rehabilitation facility. We pray for Fred Arnott this morning, as he has just been weak lately. Pray for Sam Brown, praise you that he's here today with his back. We pray for Rich Wilson, and we lift up the Sipes as they even traveled all the way down to Florida to witness to Robin's brother. We pray for Jane Richardson as she is traveling. We pray for Martin Mason, Lord, as he will be having his surgery soon. For Douglas Pickett, Lord, who's having a rough week this week. Pray for Dawn Pickett as she ministers to her family as her sister is down at the moment. And pray for Jackie Bensing, pray for her family, and thank you that she is back and as she continues to minister to to her family out in Cincinnati. We think of all the young families and the young men, and we think of Mary Hawkins and Jerry Thurber, Lord, and Carolyn Caswell. All these folks, just lift them up to you. You know what's going on in their ministries. And I praise you, Lord, for yesterday as the Ironmen gathered together here in a fellowship hall and as we talked about things and we looked into your word and focused on being thankful for the good and the bad, Lord. And even I just praise you and just thank you for Joe and all that he's done with Sam, with that ministry. We think of Chris Allnut this morning. Think of that he's back. He was sick last week. We think of Word of Life. Their big evangelistic event was this past Friday night. I'm still looking forward to hearing the results. Lord, we thank you so much for CEF, for Greg and Deb. We lift them up to you. We are so thankful. They already answered a prayer. I'm excited to see what you're going to do in and through them. And even now, I pray, as we look way down the road, as they need help, they need help, Lord. And the board needs help, and I always look for board members and supporters, and Lord, we just lift them up to you, and we're gonna trust you and depend on you through it all. In Jesus' precious name I pray, amen. So let's come back to Romans chapter seven, and we're gonna look at these first six verses this morning. And as we look at this, I want us to take note. First of all, I'm gonna ask you a question, and you don't have to answer this, okay? I'm gonna ask a question. You do not have to respond. You only shake your head, yes or no, okay? Just think, because I don't want to get you in trouble, but has your spouse ever asked you this question? If I died before you, would you ever get remarried? Right? That's an interesting question. Have you been asked that question before? I know I have been asked that question, right? And it's one of those trick questions, as you know. Because you know if you say yes, well, who are you thinking of? And you say no, what's the answer? Is it really that bad? Do you know this is the occasion that Paul is sharing in our passage today, this scenario? And he's gonna use it to teach us something, right? But I want us to also realize as we look at this passage, I want you to notice that there are something in us humans, in human nature, that make us wanna do what? Go to... extremes, right? But since we are saved by grace, some have argued that we are free to live what? to do whatever you want, which is the extreme of license. I can, hey, I can do whatever I want, right? We saw that back in chapter six. But the other side of that, as we move into chapter seven, some argue, but we cannot ignore God's law. We're saved by grace, to be sure, but we must live under law if we're to please God. This is an extreme expression of what? legalism. And guess what? We don't want to be either, do we? We're not legalistic, and we know we don't have licenses to do whatever we feel. So Paul is addressing those who think they have license in 6, Romans 7, you know, the legalists. But the word law in this chapter is used 23 times, and we have to establish this from the get-go. What really is legalism? What is legalism? Some of you I have been in ministry for many years. I have served in ministries that have been very legalistic. I'll never forget when I actually even applied for a ministry years ago and they had a list of things like the do's and don'ts. And now I'm so thankful for my upbringing, because my dad taught me something very valuable, along with my pastor that I had as a child, because we were not in a legalistic church when I was younger. Sad to say that church did become legalistic. But the pastor that planted that church was not legalistic at all. He depended heavily on the Holy Spirit's leading. And we didn't have a lot of check, you know, a checklist. We didn't have that in the church I grew up in. But I will tell you this, I remember we were applying for a ministry and the ministry had a checklist, do you go to the movies? And I checked yes. Eh. Do you play cards? Well, I played Uno. Check. Right? And you had all these things. And they asked this question. Do you dance? I'm like, I really, I had to say, define what you mean, right? Because David dance, right? So I remember going through that, and I remember getting a call from the headquarters. We see how you answered these questions, and we need to clarify something. What do you mean? I said, yeah, I take my kids to the movies, but I don't take them to every movie. Would you have a problem if you joined our ministry that you would stop going to the movies? I said, no, if I can submit to the authority, I could do that. But I want you to know where I stand. I'm not going to lie on this checklist just to make you happy. How about the cards? Well, if you're talking about gambling with cards, you could have been more clear. But yes, we play games with cards. How about dancing? Define dancing. You're talking about just moving to music? Because I move to music, right? I do that. And as I worked through that, the ministry that we were part of, we're actually very thankful that we had that conversation. What came out later was, many people say, I know what you're talking about, I'll just say no, even though, guess what? They do. Right? When I was at a church up in Pennsylvania, one thing I found out, here I'm the new guy coming in, I didn't know all the culture of that church, and every church has a culture. And I go into this church, and I take the youth group bowling. And man, I got in trouble for going bowling. I'm like, what's wrong with bowling? Well, guess what? Years, I mean years earlier in this church, the local bar was the bowling alley. So in the minds of the older folks, I'm taking them down to the bar. Well, I didn't look at it in that light, right? Something else that was in their documents. The men wore long-sleeved shirts. Why? This went way back after the war. Years ago, men come home from the war, and they got saved, and many had tattoos. Well, the men in the church decided, that's all of us, just start wearing long-sleeved shirts so that we don't make these guys. So it was a good reason why they started, but it ended up in the documents that men wear long-sleeved shirts. Now I'm saying all that because that's what can happen in ministry, in your life, and guess what happens if you start all of a sudden, you're saved, you put your faith and trust in Christ, now your old man has died with Christ, you have put your faith in his death, his burial, and his resurrection, now you're gonna be living this resurrected life, and all of a sudden you start coming to a ministry, and all of a sudden, guess what they do? They hand you a piece of paper and say, you wanna join our church? Here's 77 rules that we have here in our church. What will that do to you spiritually? What could that do? Now I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna give you both extremes. Some people love that. Some people love the checklist, right? I like being told what to do. I'm not one of those guys, don't give me the checklist, right? Because I really believe that the Holy Spirit leads me in God, and it depends, or maybe I just think too deeply. But I also don't believe the other side where I have license to do whatever I am willing to submit. Now here's the word I'm gonna share with you. I remember years ago, I'm old enough, and some of you younger folks, you don't get this, but you older folks, you'll know when I say the name Keith Green. Remember Keith Green? Came on the scene. Man, he stirred up stuff in the church. This guy is singing songs in the church in a new way. Man, that really stirred the pot. And everybody's like, hey, what do you think about this Keith Green guy? You remember? And we had to go through this time as a church, like, okay, what style of music? And a lot of churches had a knee-jerk reaction, and they said, we will only sing the hymns. And over here, you have churches say, no, we don't believe in just singing the hymns, because the Bible says that, guess what, even in heaven, there's gonna be a new song that we're singing. So if you look at it from a biblical perspective, you have to step back, but I will tell you, there are churches that say, no, this is the version we use, this is the only songs that we sing, and they put themselves in a box. And once you put yourself in a box, man, it's hard to get out. Can I tell you, since the founding of this church, we decided we'd never put ourselves in a box. We come here to worship. We just come here to worship. Now, we sing hymns and we sing praise songs, right? And I know some of you, and here's the word, you prefer the hymns. That's awesome. I prefer bluegrass music. Right? That's my preference. But we don't sing in here, because I know my wife hates it. Right? But we have preferences. Right? It's okay to say, I have a preference, but I totally understand this. And that will help you. Earl Hawkins, years ago, he told me this. He says, you know what? When we first brought these drums up here, he's thinking, what are we going to do with those drums? Right? And then he's reading in the Bible and he says, you know what, I read a verse talking about the music. Where's Earl? Great Earl, I can't remember what verse you told me, but all of a sudden God spoke to Earl's heart saying, guess what, when you have a drummer and he's saved, do you tell him to switch his instrument or does he just play the drums for the glory of God? No, he plays his drums for the glory of God. You see the attitude there? And the reason I'm spending so much time in this introduction is because I will tell you, I don't know where you're from, where you've been, but I will tell you this topic in chapter 7, that's why it's so important because Paul says, I need to spend time on this. Because on this side, between the legalism and the liberty, it is such an issue, it will destroy you as a believer if you let it. And we have to avoid that at Cross Like Bible Church, both sides. And so therefore, as we look at Romans 7, verses 1-25, here's the three points we're gonna look at. Today, just if we're gonna look at point one. The Law in Light of the Believer's Deliverance. The Law in Light of the Believer's Deliverance. We're gonna look at the freedom that we have from the law. Later, we're gonna look at the death and then the delight. But today, I just want us to focus on the believer and the law and focus on the freedom, the deliverance. Because I want you to notice here that these verses, one through six, These verses continue the discussion that Paul began in Romans 6.15, answering the question, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? And we know the answer is no. So what does that look like? Well, you get to chapter 7 here, verse 1. I want you to know the reasoning of Paul. He says, And look at the last verse he just shared in chapter six was, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Or do you not know that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Now he's gonna point back to the law. And just so you know, I know we have some new believers in the class. I was meeting with Gil and I met this week and I was showing him the difference between the Old Testament And the New Testament, there's a big difference. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And so in the Old Covenant, we find the law, right? Now here's the thing you've got to understand. If you are studying, in the early church, under the teachings of Paul, guess what he was preaching from? The Old Testament. That's the Scriptures. In the New Testament, you get to the book of Acts, that's the Scriptures. They don't have the New put together yet. So can you imagine being a new believer, Jew and Gentile, and you're learning the scriptures? There's a lot in there about the law, isn't it? And so what do you do with all these things? And even go to Book of Acts and you see the first, Acts chapter 15, they had this big meeting where all the missionaries and church planters came together and that was the topic. What do we do about this law? Because over here, some are saying when people get saved, we gotta put them under the law. No, we can't do that. That's not how it works. And there was a decision made in Acts chapter 15 about this. But I want you to notice the reasoning, or do you not know that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Is there a question mark there? But notice the recipients here. This is only the second time in this letter that he uses the term brethren. The first time was in chapter one, verse 13. Now we're in chapter seven, and he says, or don't you know brethren? So when he uses the term brethren, what do we know about the recipients? These are believers. They are Jew and they're Gentile. Now he does know, now it's gonna lean heavily on the Jewish side because that's where this law, although in the original, You could actually even take the word the out of that one statement. It says, for I speak to those who know law. The definite article was not there in the original. And so, for I speak to those who know law, which would include Jew and Gentile, although mainly it's coming from the Jewish side. We'll see that because we're going to see the illustrations used later in the chapter. And so we're talking to brethren, the Jew and the Gentile, and I want you to notice the releasing that takes place. Here's the question, that's why I asked you the question earlier, and it gives this illustration of being released from something. For the woman who has a husband is what? What does it say there? Is bound by the law. I want you to notice the power of the law here. The power, the authority. For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband for how long? What's it say? Now was that just in the Jewish culture or was that something even in the Gentile culture? It was in the Gentile culture also. Did you know that? Now, this is not a passage to teach divorce. You say, what about divorce? That's not here. Paul's not using this to talk about that subject in this passage. He's sharing with us our relation to the law. So therefore, he says, when you're under and you're bound by the law, guess what? That's your authority. And the law says that when you get married, until what? Till death do you part. Right, it's even in the vows today when I perform most wedding ceremonies. Sometimes I have had couples that wrote their own vows and they'll actually reword things and you won't see that line. Kathy and I went to a wedding a couple years ago for one of her co-workers and she wrote her vows and she said that they would remain together as long as they were in love. That's crazy, isn't it? But here he says, here's the law. Now you're bound under the law, under the authority of the law, right? You're not released from the law as long as you live. But if, here's the question, if he dies, if the husband dies, she is what? She's released from the law of her, why is she released? Because the law, this man's not bound to the law, but really the emphasis is that she is not bound to the law. Because whenever you die, I don't care what the situation is, this is just marriage. Yesterday when I left Iron Man, I've sort of come up 27, and people start blinking their lights at me. And right at the straightaway, down in the holler, you'll note the state troopers, they're back there shooting radar, right? And people were blinking their lights, and I'm looking at my speedometer, and you know, and I got over the hill, there were two people who were already waved over, right? Now, let's say, let's say someone come over that hill, topped out at 150 miles an hour, and a police officer is shooting radar, and he waves them over, and he loses control and runs off in the woods, and next thing you know, he's dead. Would the police officer write him a ticket? Now they put him in the morgue, right? What happened to the law? He's not bound to the law anymore because he's dead, right? That'd be very foolish. And so remember that point in your mind because if the husband dies, she is released from what? The law of her husband. She was bound by the law, now she's released from the law. So then if while her husband lives, Now, if he's still alive, guess what she's bound to? She's still bound to the law. No, she's not gonna go out and get married or she's gonna be an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free. You see these words that he's using to get his point across? She is free from the law so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. And so let's move on here. Let's go ahead and how does this relate to us? I love how Paul says, therefore, my brethren, let's bring this home to us. You also have become, what? Dead to the law. Now I'm gonna point out something in this verse that's very important. Don't get confused. There are commentators have written on this passage and man, they just have muddied the waters by the way they interpreted this. But it's plain in this verse what he's saying. You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. Now remember the woman was released from the law? It was the woman released from the law. She wasn't bound by the law. In this verse, you being like the wife, not the husband who died, right? He's not under the law, he's dead. She is still bound or now unbound. She's released from the law and therefore that's what Paul was saying. You also have become dead to the law through what? The body of Christ. Well, wait a minute, the husband died previously, but you know what Paul is sharing with us here? The death that the wife has toward the law. Because look at this, because that you may be married to another. We're not bound to that law. To the old man was the one crucified with Christ, right? It was the old man. He's crucified. So therefore, the reason why it points to Christ, and look what it says, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God from when we were in the flesh, the sinful passage, which were aroused by the law, we're at work in our members to bear fruit. So therefore, now that we are saved, guess what? The law didn't die in this passage. Did you notice that? The law did not die. The husband died. The law's still there, but she's not bound to the law. So she is dead to the law, but she's resurrected into what? Well, we are resurrected into Christ. We're not bound by the law. Now, we're gonna get, when we finish this chapter, Paul's gonna bring in some other points in, but don't you forget the law. The law is still in effect in a certain way because the law does what? And that's what he's referring to here, talking about The passions, for we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, we were aroused by the law. When we were sinners, guess what the law did? It had a purpose. It convicted us of our sin and our need for a Savior. And we're gonna see by the time we get to the end of this chapter, Paul's saying, here's why this is so important, because the law cannot save. The law can't even condemn a believer. There's no condemnation, right? The law can convict us. It arouses the sin so we turn to the Savior. So he wants us to get that through our minds from the very beginning, the relation of the believer to the law and the relevance of this. But now we have been delivered from the law. We've been delivered, having died to what we were held by so that we should serve in what? In the newness of the Spirit. And I love that because everything that we've been studying is, guess what? The old man has passed away, but all things have become new. Now I have a construction background, and I will tell you this. I would much rather start fresh and build a new home than do a remodel job. And if you ever do a Romano job, someone may give you a quote, but just remember this. They will find things that they did not see at the beginning. There's always, right? Because there's so many problems. So when you start fresh and new, and that's what God did with us. He says, no, we're not, this old man, this old self, this old lifestyle, we're putting that on the cross. Man, we're gonna start fresh here. This is new. Now. I want you to catch this. I want you to catch this. Do me a favor. Do me a favor and turn with me to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. You see, one day I would love to write a book, several books, but this would be one of them. I've always wanted to trace Jesus with this in mind. I love following his footsteps, but in Luke chapter five, starting at verse 27, look through the Gospels with this in your mind, how Jesus was preparing his disciples for the church age. for the church age. Jesus knew, he's investing in his disciples who, they're before the cross, right? Does Jesus know that the church is on this side of the cross? Does he know Pentecost is coming? He sure does. So, would he spend all these years investing in these men, and kind of hold them accountable to the Old Testament system? Well, he taught them, he was there to show them how they're connected. And Luke 5 is one of the best passages where it shows, look at verse 27, and it says in Luke 5, and after these things, he went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi, Matthew. sitting at the tax office. And he said to them, he said to him, follow me. So he left all rows up and followed Jesus. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great number of tax collectors. Now again, I don't have a lot of time to explain to you, but between the tax collectors, right, and Samaritans in this culture, they were both hated groups. Jesus has called Matthew this tax collector, because they were working for Rome to collect the money, and they'd always take a little extra for themselves. And the others who sat down with them, and the scribes and the Pharisees, what did they do? They started to complain, because they were the legalists. They were the legalists. Although there were some license there with the Sadducees, but the Pharisees especially, they were legalists. Because man, they knew the law inside and out, and they had their list of rules, over 600 laws they had on their checklist. And they complained against Jesus' disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have come to call The righteous, but sinners. I have not come to call the righteous, but I have come to call sinners to repentance. And then they said to Jesus, why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise those of the Pharisees, but yours, you eat and drink. And he said to them, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and they will fast in those days. Then he spoke a parable to them, that no one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one. Otherwise, the new makes a tear. And what he was talking about, when you take a new piece of fabric and put it on an old garment, when you go to wash it, one would stay the same and the other would shrink and it would tear the garment. But also, he says this, but also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new, what? Wine into old wineskins. or else the new wine will burst the wineskin and be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into what? New wineskins. And you know what Jesus is doing here as you dissect this passage? He's preparing his disciples for the church. Because he looked at, the reason why these Pharisees, it was like the old wine and old wineskins. and he's preparing his disciples this new wine and new wineskins, and he said, you can't mix the two. Because you take, right, you put the new wine and old wineskin, what's gonna happen to the wineskin? It's gonna burst. And that's what the early church was going through when you read the Bible, why you have all these folks come out of Judaism, coming into Christianity, and they were trying to take the old wine, or even putting, the church was putting new wine into these old wineskins, and it was just making a mess of things. And so therefore, Jesus himself, as he prepared his disciples, and there's a lot I could share with you in the book of Acts, I'm not gonna go there, but I'll just end with this. Now that Paul's on the scene and he's a church planter, he's going out there, he's planting the churches all over the known world. What group was it that followed Paul with just a thorn in his side everywhere he went? The old Judaizers. You remember that? They did not like this guy. And he came out of that group, by the way. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees at one time. But if you want to read something interesting this week, you turn to the book of Galatians. And the book of Galatians is all about this topic of license and legalism. And you get to Galatians 2 verse 4. This is what it says. And this occurred because of the false brethren secretly brought in who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage. And as he wrote Galatians, he's writing to a group of people that they were trying to be brought back into bondage. They were losing the joy of their salvation. And he described what that looked like. As a matter of fact, when you read Galatians, that's the only book that Paul never starts off with a compliment. He just jumps in and just lays it out. He's very upset. And then he explains, as you go through the entire book in Galatians 2.12, for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew. He's talking about Peter, he goes, Paul even had the love for Peter enough to point out his failure, and guess what even Peter himself did? Here he is, in Acts chapter 10 was his struggle with God sharing with Peter. No, it's a new day and things have changed. You can now eat things that were formerly unclean under the Jewish law. And he says, not so Lord, not so. Yes, right? And so he goes off in Acts chapter 10 to Cornelius at his Gentile's house and he sees the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of these Gentiles and God's opened up the eyes of Peter. But by the time you get to Galatians, And I must bring this up because if this can happen to Peter, it can happen to you. Because what Peter did was, he was going down to the church in Galatia, and he was having his ham sandwiches with these guys. And then all of a sudden, when a group from Jerusalem came down, the Jewish guys showed up. Peter left this table and went over and sat with his Jewish buddies and acted like he wasn't partaking. And Paul says, Peter, you're wrong. That was sin. What are you teaching these people? And he had to straighten out Peter. Galatians 5.1 says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Galatians 6.13, For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. Even the guys pointing that direction, they're not enjoying life. One point, Paul was, in Philippians, he was of that same fold. He was circumcised the eighth day in the stock of Israel, tribe of Benjamin. He goes, if anybody could boast, I could boast, but not today. I look back and all that stuff that I did to gain favor with God was nothing but loss. Nothing but loss. Hebrews 13.9, we have a challenge. Do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace. Be established by grace. There's so much here that I don't have time to share this morning, but here it is in a nutshell. I hope today that you understand what Paul is saying, that if you want to please God and serve Him, Because God says this, now that we're under the new covenant, he told the older guard, he says, you know, one day the law was written on these stones, but one day I'm going to write the law on hearts of men. And that's where we are today. He has written his law. We have his word, don't get me wrong, we have his word that we follow, but he also has written his law on our hearts. So as we serve him, we serve him because we what? We love him. It's not because it's on a checklist somewhere. Serve him because you love him, right? And we only love him because we understand what he first loved us. Even in the law, Deuteronomy chapter six, moms, dads, teach your children from the time they are born to do what? Love the Lord with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength, right? Teach them to love me. Let them know I love them. Show them the works I've done. There's so much more I could say, but I'm going to have to close as we consider the law and the believer. Dear Great Assembly, Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this morning as we move from this service to our Sunday school class, Lord, and focus on how to walk wisely in this foolish world. Lord, this is all connected. We want to be wise, not in our own eyes, but Lord, we want to walk wisely as we follow you, your will and your word, as we consider your work and what you're doing in and through us, Lord. And so Lord, even help us. Help us, Lord. Help us as only you can. Let's not forget. Let's look ahead with joy. serving you with the right heart. You say, Pastor, you may say, Pastor, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have this relationship. I don't even have a relationship with the law. I don't even have a relationship with Christ. And right there where you are, whether you're here listening live or even later streaming this service, if the Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart, convicting you at this very moment that you need Christ as your Savior right there where you are. You can bow your heart and say, dear God, I admit that I have sinned and my sin has separated me from you. I admit that, but I believe with all my heart that Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again. I believe it, and therefore at this very moment, I call on you to forgive me, to cleanse me, to save me as only you can. Come into my life. My desire is for you to be my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name. Oh Lord, we thank you so much for your continuous seeking and saving the lost. Thank you also, Lord, that those of us who are saved, Lord, we have the freedom that we have. We have the freedom to serve you with the right attitude and what a joy it is. In Jesus' name, amen.