Now I'm going to talk to you, God willing, for the next couple of Sundays at least, on the subject, the believer's law. The believer's law. John chapter 5, verse 1, there was a feast. of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent or crippled, paralyzed people, blind, haught, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down. Now, my friends, there wasn't any time that an angel went down. They're all lying there because they are hooked on superstition, just like we are. How many of you won't walk under a ladder? How many of you go around, go the other way if a black cat crosses in front of your path? On Halloween, how many of you put a, you know. There was no angel, but these people were hooked on this superstition. They were waiting there superstitiously, but what they thought was an angel, they were watching that water. And when that water was troubled, they thought an angel had troubled it. And they believed that whoever got in the water, verse four, after the troubling of the water was made whole of whatever disease he had. And there was a certain man there that had been sick for 38 years. 38 years. I moan and groan and complain when I get sick. I hadn't had any sickness much in my life, just some of you. Brother Carl Perry's had a lot. His wife has had a lot. Some of the rest of you have suffered some things. I've lived a pretty charmed life. An old friend of mine, John Reisinger, when we went to see John, he was about 90 years old. Mine was still good. He had started a Bible study in the nursing home where he was. And he said, you know, I'm hoping that I'll just pass away in my sleep and wake up in glory. But he said, I don't think it's going to happen. He said, I think I've got to suffer a while. Because he said, I've lived such a charm life. I've had very little suffering. A certain man was there, verse 5. He had been sick 38 years. And somebody else is there. Jesus is there, verse 6. And Jesus saw him. Now, he didn't see Jesus. Jesus saw him. And Jesus knew that he had been now a long time in that case. He'd been sick for 38 years. He'd probably been coming out there 35 years waiting for the angel to move the water. And he said to the man, the impotent man, wilt thou be made whole And the impotent man said, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. and on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews said to him that was cured. Can you imagine this? He's been sick 38 years, and this is all they got. They don't say, praise God, how in the world, what happened? No, they say, it's not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath day. He said, he that made me whole, the same said to me, take up your bed and walk. And they said, what man is that said unto you, take up your bed and walk. We want to know who he is. And he that was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had conveyed himself away a multitude being in that place. And afterward, Jesus found him later. And he said to him, Behold, you are made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. Apparently there was some lifestyle he had had that had brought on this sickness to him. And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus that had made him whole. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his word. Let God's people say, praise the Lord, and you may be seated. All of us human beings are quite naturally legalistic in our thinking and in our conduct. We'll sing next time, brothers and sisters. Life as we know it is not possible without rules and regulations, and these rules and regulations make us somewhat legalistic in our thinking and in our lives. From our earliest childhood, we received laws regarding boundaries and ethics and virtually everything else. Your parents told you don't go past this line, don't go out of this yard, don't go here, don't go there. This is right, this is wrong. You can do this, you can't do that. Well, from the very beginning, in fact, according to the Bible, the Creator limited the first man, Adam, by a spoken word, a spoken law in Genesis 2 verse 15. The Lord God took the man, put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it, and the Lord God commanded the man. That's a command. When God says something, that's a command. It doesn't have to be part of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments didn't come along until much, much, much later, but you could still sin without the Ten Commandments, because this is hundreds of years before the Ten The Lord God commanded the man and said, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. In the day you eat, you will surely die. Much later in history, God called a man named Abraham. And out of Abraham, the Lord raised up a nation, the nation of Israel. And then to lead Israel out of Egypt, they went down into Egypt. With Jacob, 70 souls, and 400 years later, they were a nation of millions of people. And to lead Israel out of Egypt, the Lord called a man named Moses. And through Moses, God gave laws to Israel. He gave laws regarding foods. He gave laws regarding worship. He gave laws regarding morality. Both blessings and curses were attached to those laws. And last week we read about some of those curses and blessings from Deuteronomy 27. Remember when Israel was going into the promised land, before they went in, the Lord said there are two mountains here, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. He took representatives from six tribes and put them on Mount Gerizim, and he put six representatives from the other six tribes. There were 12 tribes of Israel on Mount Ebal. And when the curses were read, the curses of the law. Well, God said, if you do this, curse it to you, curse it to you, curse it to you. When the curses were read, those on Mount Ebal had to say amen. I taught you last week what amen meant. And when the blessings were read, those on Mount Gerizim had to say amen. Now, here's the thing. It's one thing to amen the law, but it's another thing to keep it. You can say amen, I know this is right. What about thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind, and all thy strength? How many of us have done that? None of us have done that. So we can amen what's right, but it's another thing to keep it. Israel did not obey the laws, but the Lord was long suffering with them. And so he sent the prophets to warn them. And he sent natural calamities. The Lord is in natural calamities. This is God's world. There's no hurricane, there's no storm, there's no tornado, and there's no earthquake unless God's involved in it. He's either involved in it by direct command or he's involved in it by permission. And he sent natural calamities on them, he sent pestilences, and he sent all kinds of things, and they persisted in their disobedience. And then he raised up other nations against them to chasten them, and still they persisted in disobedience. And then to save them from the curse of the law, the Lord sent his own son, Jesus, into the world. And those who embrace Jesus as Messiah, whether they're Jewish or Gentile, they embrace him as their savior king, those persons are called Christians or believers. And as I say, Christians are made up of both Jews and Gentiles. We're reading in the New Testament that God has broken down the middle wall of partition between the Jew and the Gentile. In Christ, you're neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, black nor white, you're all one in Christ Jesus. Now, whether Jew or Gentile, if you're a Christian, You're not under the law of Moses. Now here we often sing, free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus has bled, and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Christ has redeemed us once for all. So if we're not under the law of Moses, we're not under this law in the Garden of Eden, what law are we under? Are we under any law? Are Christians lawless? Now, I want you to look. I hope you got a Bible. If you don't, in front of you, you'll find a few Bibles. Luke's Gospel and New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let's begin here in Luke chapter four. Matthew, Mark, Luke, chapter four. I can just tell you about these things, but I want you to see some of them. I want you to notice. this. Luke 4, in verse 31 through 36, we'll look at verse 33. In the synagogue, in the Jewish synagogue, the place of worship, there was a man that had a spirit of an unclean devil. And he cried out with a loud voice, let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him and said, hold your peace and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him down and he came out of him and did not hurt him. And they were all amazed and they said, what a word is this? With authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. When was that miracle performed? It was performed on the Sabbath day. In Luke chapter five, we just read about that guy who was sick for 38 years. That was on the Sabbath day. All right for you to take up your bed and walk. You've been sick 38 years, but you can't be doing any walking here on the Sabbath day. That's a work. That's prohibited. Luke chapter four, he did this on the Sabbath day. Luke chapter six. Luke chapter six, verses six through 10. You find another miracle. Now Jesus is doing these miracles to show that he's the Messiah. Luke chapter six, verses six through 10. It says in verse six, and it came to pass on another Sabbath. He entered into the synagogue, he taught, it was a man, he had a withered hand. Watch this now, the scribes and Pharisees watched him whether he had healed on the Sabbath day. So they could accuse him of being a lawbreaker. He can't be the Messiah keeping the law if he's breaking the law. And he knew their thoughts, verse eight. And he said to the man that had the withered hand, rise up, Stand forth in the midst. He rose up, stood forth, and Jesus said unto them, I'll ask you something. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And he looking around upon them all said unto the man, stretch forth your hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness. You talk about self-righteousness, you talk about a person that's lost. Nobody is so lost as a religious person. People think they're going to hide from God in religion. And they commune one with another what they might do to Jesus. All right, Luke chapter 13. We can't look at all of these, but Luke chapter 13, verses 10 through 17, you find there the woman with the spirit of infirmity. Luke chapter 13, verses 10 through 17. The woman had a spirit of infirmity. What day was it? Well, it was the Sabbath day. Verse 10, he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman there that had a spirit of infirmity for 18 years and she couldn't lift herself up. She was bowed over, a little worse than I'm bowed over. Somebody asked me one time, so why are you looking down like that? I said, I'm looking for money. She was bowed over and she couldn't straighten up. And when Jesus saw her, verse 12, he called her to him and he said, woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And verse 14, and the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. And he said, there's six days. You can heal people, don't be healing them on the Sabbath day. And the Lord said, you hypocrite. Do you know Jesus talked like that? Let me tell you this. I'm going to say this if you don't hear anything else I say. If you are a sinner, Jesus Christ will receive you. It doesn't matter what you've done or where you've been or how low you've been, he'll receive you. But he would have no patience with self-righteous people. He passed them by. And he said, you hypocrite, do not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? You mean to tell me you're not going to feed your animals? You're going to let your animal die because it's Sabbath day? No, every one of you feeds your animals on a Sabbath day. Oh, not this woman being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day. And when he said these things, verse 17, all of his adversaries were ashamed, but the people rejoiced. Well, there are other instances. There's one in Luke 14. A man with dropsy, Luke 14, one through six. He had dropsy. His legs and arms were swollen. I think it's very much like edema. And Jesus heals him and let him go. In John chapter nine, we read about a man that was born blind. And the Lord told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and he was healed. That was on the Sabbath day. And then we come back to John 5, where we were at the beginning. Man been sick for 38 years. And Jesus made him well on the Sabbath day. So I want you to observe, first of all, that each of these miracles were wrought on the Sabbath day. What is the significance? What was the point of his doing this? How could Jesus as a Jew do these works on the Sabbath day and not violate the command to honor the Sabbath day and to keep it holy? Well, here's the first answer. You're gonna have to follow along with me now. Here's the first answer. He is Lord of the Sabbath day. Check this out in Matthew chapter 12. Would you like to turn over there? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Matthew chapter 12. Again, I can quote these passages to you, but I'd like you to at least see them. I'll tell you where the others are. Matthew chapter 12. He says, And verse 8, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. You see, what brought this on? Well, if you look at this chapter, you'll see that verse 1, Matthew 12, verse 1, it was a Sabbath day. They're walking through a field of corn. You see that in verse 1, Matthew 12, verse 1? Walking through a field of corn. His disciples were hungry. The law allowed people who were hungry walking through a field to break off an ear and to eat it. There was nothing illegal about that. But here's what the Pharisees called attention to. They didn't wash their hands. Nowhere in the law did God say wash your hands, but they had built up a whole system of codes and laws in their religion, and they made that equivalent to the law of God. Just like churches today, they have the list of rules and regulations and laws, and if you want to be part of our church, then you dot these I's and cross these T's. But we're not worried about the rules and regulations of men. We want to know what God's word says. So they began to pluck the ears of the corn, verse two, when the Pharisees saw it. They said, why do your disciples do what's lawful during the Sabbath day? And he said, haven't you ever read what David did when he was hungry? He went into the house of God, verse eight, and he ate the show bread, which was called holy bread. They put out fresh bread every day. And that bread had to stay there for a certain while before it became what we call common bread, when anybody could eat it. It was not lawful for them to eat, but David took it and he gave it to his men. Have you not read in the law, verse five, how on the Sabbath day the priest in the temple profaned the Sabbath and the blameless? I say unto you that in this place, verse six, there is one greater than the temple. He's talking about himself. If you have known what this means, verse seven, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I'm not trying to get you to do a bunch of things. you would not have condemned the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day. Verse eight. Now that's also found in Mark chapter two, verses 27 and 28, that he is Lord of the Sabbath day, and also found in Luke chapter six, verse five, that he is Lord of the Sabbath day. What does that mean? It means that the Lord of the day is greater than the day he made. You see, the purpose of the law, the purpose of the Sabbath days rather, was to respect and honor the Lord of that day, not the day itself. And we must remember also that the law, the Sabbath days were given to Israel. They were not given to the Gentile world. Christians are not bound to any holy days or any holy ceremonies or any holy rituals. Is that in the Bible, Brother Sasha? We can't look at all these passages, but I'll tell you where this one is, and then I'll quote it to you. It's found in the book of Galatians chapter four, verses 10 and 11. Galatians chapter four, verses 10 and 11. Paul wrote to the Galatians, and this is what he said. You observe days and months and times and years. I'm afraid for you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Paul was concerned about the saints in Galatia because he had labored to show them the meaning of grace and salvation through faith in Christ, that Christ himself is the only one who has ever totally, completely, perfectly kept the law of God. Nobody else ever has kept the law of God. I have not, you have not, and no Jew ever has. If Jesus is the only Israelite to have kept the law of God, and he's the Lord of the Sabbath, as well as the Lord of all days, and he is pleased to grant mercy to those who believe in his obedience to the law, that's okay with me. You hear what I'm saying? If you have a substitute, if you're playing a basketball game and the coach takes a person out and puts in a substitute, the substitute goes in for the person that was coming out. Jesus is the substitute for all of us lawbreakers. He becomes our substitute. He becomes our righteousness. All that he did in keeping the law becomes our righteousness and our obedience through faith in Him. You see, He didn't need to keep the law because He was born without sin, right? He was born as a virgin, born of a virgin. Mary, who had not known a man, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and planted the seed of God in her womb and she gave birth to Jesus and He was called the Son of God. The Son of God has the same nature as God the Father. Jesus is God. Let's turn to John chapter one for just a moment. Gospel of John chapter one. After all, if we're gonna learn something about the Lord and what kind of God he is and what he's done, we need to look in our textbook. You don't need to just have some confession of faith drawn up by a church somewhere. You need to check out the manual. John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. Everybody following me so far? Look down at verse 14, verse 14. And the word was made flesh. The word that was with God that was God became a man, was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. How was the world created? God spoke a word. He said, let there be, and there was. The word that he spoke became a man. That's a great mystery. No sense staying up tonight trying to figure it out. But that's what the scripture teaches. The scripture teaches that we're in such bad shape, only God can save us. And if Jesus is not God, we're in trouble. Because we're trusting him to get us out of trouble. So Paul wrote to the Galatians and he said, you're wasting your time observing these days, these months, these times, these years, these ceremonies. He said, I've been trying to teach you, I've been laboring among you to teach you that all of your salvation is in Christ. It's not in days. You guys know that there are many, many, many souls and they'll go to church two or three times a year. They go to church on Thanksgiving. They go to church on Christmas. They go to church on Mother's Day. They go to church on Father's Day or some other day. But other than that, they don't have any interest in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, I'm telling you the truth. Paul had taught them that the precious blood of the sacrifice of Christ purchases our salvation. The doing and dying of the Lord, that's who saves us, not the keeping of days and seasons, not the observance of holy days and holy rituals and holy ceremonies. We do not trust in anything, any day, any act we do, any ritual, any ceremony, anything other than Jesus Christ alone. For our justification and for our sanctification, and if you don't know what those things are, just hang on, maybe not today, but I'll tell you what they are. Christ is our all and in all. He was an old man that didn't have any education. He was not like Matty. He was not a straight-A student. He didn't even get out of grammar school. But he came to know the Lord. He was like the old woman that a friend of mine visited in the hospital. She was very, very sick. She was very, very ill. And he said that she had lost so much weight that her bones were sticking out. But she said she knew the Lord, and he said when he walked into her room, and believe this or not, her name was Maddie. And when he walked in the room, he said, how you doing, Miss Maddie? You know what she said? The Lord sure do must love me to do me like this. That's what she said. The Lord sure do must love me to do me like this. The Lord made her a testimony of His grace. She believed. She didn't believe the Lord could do her wrong in any way. If she got sick, she was going to trust Him and praise Him. If she's in the throes of health, she's going to trust Him and praise Him. If she doesn't have any money, she's going to trust Him and praise Him. If she's wealthy, she's going to trust Him and praise Him. And it doesn't make any difference whether it's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, she's going to praise Him. The Lord sure do must love me to do me like this. Well, this fellow was like Miss Maddie. He didn't have any education, but he came to know the Lord, and he came to the church deacons and the church elders, and he said he wanted to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. Said he wanted to be baptized, and he wanted to confess Christ before the church. He'd be part of the church. And they said, well, now, Uncle John, we have to ask you a few questions. Gotta make sure you're dogmatic here, you're correct. And they said, did you know anything about justification? He said, all I know is I'm a sinner, nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is my all and in all. They said, well, that's good, John, but let's ask you something. Do you know anything about, have you ever heard the term inflapsarianism? He said, I don't know nothing at all except I'm a sinner, that's all, and Jesus Christ is my all in all. And no matter what they asked him, that's all he said. And finally, they had to admit Uncle John into the church. The only thing you need to know, the only person you need to know is Jesus Christ. He must be your all and is all. And Paul is telling these Galatians in Galatians 4, that Christ is there all and in all, and that the time he spent teaching them was all in vain if they are trusting in anything other than Christ, or in addition to Christ. So let's remember these three things. All of the feast that God gave to Israel All of the things that we observe, you know, we have Easter. Easter supposedly is in honor of the what? The resurrection of Christ. And people, they get, they're empathetic and sympathetic with Christmas, supposedly relating to the birth of Christ. But all the feasts and holidays, whether Jewish, or Christian, all of these things have nothing to do with our salvation. And let me tell you this, all of the feasts that God gave to Israel, all of those feasts and all of those ceremonies and all of those things pointed to Christ, pointed to the Messiah and were fulfilled in him. Now, I want you to follow me. I don't know how far I'll get today, but I want you to follow me. Modern theologians have taken the law of God and categorized it. They have divided it up into sections. And so they talk about the moral law, the ceremonial law. There is no such division given in the Bible. The law is one big whole package. So see, there are many, many, many people today that say, well, now Jesus did away with the ceremonial law. We don't have to keep those ceremonies anymore. He did away with the dietary laws. We're gonna have to follow those, what we eat and what we don't eat. But there are other aspects of the law that has to do with ethics and morality and all of that. And we're still under that. But if you are, you're in trouble. Because the law demands not that you just be a good boy and a good girl, not that you just obey outwardly, but you have to obey inwardly. I want you to turn to Matthew's Gospel, chapter five. Matthew's Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, chapter five. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus sets what he teaches as over against what the Jews have said that the law teaches. See, what they'd done, they had added to the law and they had made what their rabbis taught the law said equivalent to the law. That's what religion does. Religion adds to the word of God and takes away from it. But Jesus is going to give them the true meaning of the law. I'll try to get you, you know, two or three times I've ordered 30 and 40 and 75 books, and I've given them out free to you. Because your gift and offerings to this assembly help pay for those books. And there's a book written by my friend John Reisinger, I mentioned John yesterday when I spoke in Dalton, Georgia, on the 50th anniversary of this church down there. John Riesinger has a book. I taught on this a long time before I read John's book. It's called, But I Say Unto You. And it's right here in Matthew 5. Look now, look at verse 18. I say unto you. Verse 20, I say unto you. Verse 21, you have heard that it was said, verse 22, but I say unto you. Verse 26, I say unto thee. Verse 27, you have heard that it was said, verse 28, but I say unto you. Verse 31, it has been said, verse 32, but I say unto you. Verse 33, you have heard, verse 34, but I say unto you. Verse 38, you have heard, verse 39, but I say unto you. Verse 43, you have heard, verse 44, but I say unto you. There must be something going on here. So what is he saying? Well, let me just give you a little, just a little whiff of it. The law of God does not only demand outward obedience, but inward obedience. Not only does the law demand your deeds, what you do, but what you think. Not only what you think and your deeds, but why do you do it? Your intent. What's your intention? Is your intention, when you do the right thing, is your intention wholly and completely to glorify God? Or do you have a little self-interest in it? You can't keep the law, my friends. Listen to me. If you could keep the law, God would not have sent his son. He sent his son because we can't keep the law, we're hopeless. So notice this, for example, notice this. These are the ones that we can relate to. Verse 27, verse 27. You have heard that it was said by them of old time. Now let me tell you what them of old time means. He didn't say you've heard it was said by the word of God or by God's law. Them of old time refers to the rabbis and the teachers and their interpretation of what God said. Them of old time are the old writers, the old rabbinical writers. You see, the Jewish people have a whole group of works and writings by the rabbis that they've accumulated over the years. And they've come to the point where they believe that is as authoritative as the word of God. See, the Jews believed that when God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, And you check me out on this if you don't think I'm right. That when God gave the law on Mount Sinai, he whispered into Moses' ear the true interpretation of that law. And that was called the oral law. And the oral law was never written down for centuries. And then a rabbi took it upon himself to write down what he said God gave to Moses as the true interpretation of the law. And that became what we call the Talmud, the Talmud, T-A-L-M-U-D. The Torah, or the Torah, that's the law, the Talmud, that's the writings of the Jewish rabbis telling us this is what God meant when he said what he said. That Jesus said, You have heard that it has been said by these old writers, but let me tell you what it said. All right, here it is. Verse 27. You've heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. Now we know what the common definition of adultery is. But Jesus said, I say unto you, the common definition of adultery limits it to the outward But Jesus said it's more than that. Verse 28, whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her in his heart. What does that mean? It means there aren't any men who haven't committed adultery. That's exactly what that means. And I'm afraid today that she's been slipped to the other foot. Now, the women, they're dead involved. You know, every Mother's Day, I usually say, I'm not for women being equal to men. Don't throw any stones at me now. Because for a woman to be equal to a man means she has to go down. We don't want her going down to be equal to the man. We want her to be up on a pedestal. We want her to lift our women and our wives and our girlfriends above all of that. So Jesus says, If you ever lusted after somebody, and let's just take adultery out of it, let's take thou shalt not covet. If you've ever wanted something that belonged to somebody else, and you wanted it enough to take it if the situation were right, you broke that law. My friends, he goes on to say, In verse 31, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. It has been said, it has been said by them of old time. I say unto you, whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries her that is divorced, commits adultery. Look, I've got an old marriage manual. I'm old enough now, I got all these old marriage manuals. And the marriage manual I've got is so old, it's the one the United States used until about 40 years ago. And 40 years ago in California, they came up with what's called a no-fault divorce. You ever heard of a no-fault divorce? Well, a no-fault divorce means, and that's the basis now of most divorces, a no-fault divorce means that if you didn't cook his eggs right, he can divorce you. I mean, for any problem whatsoever. Didn't like the way you looked there, I want a divorce. So now we've gotten past that and young people don't even want to commit to marriage. We'll just live together. We won't have any committal. Because that way I'm not obligated, you're not obligated. That's where we are today in the United States. Once you cast off what God says, you can only go down. It's just a matter of time. So I want you to understand that all of these, but I say unto you, Jesus is giving the full scope and the intent of the law as God gave it, not as men interpret it. There are many people who say, well, I've never murdered anybody. I've never murdered anybody. But Jesus said here, verse 21, You have heard that it was said by them of old times, you shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment. My goodness. I don't believe that lets anybody off. Whosoever shall say to his brother, Rekha, which his own expression means you are worthless, no good fool. shall be in danger of hell fire. You see, my friends, we are sinners and God is holy, and only one person has ever met the standard of God, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the only one that has the authority to tell us what to do and when to do it. And that's what I'm gonna be teaching you in the next few weeks, that Jesus' word is our law. The believer's word is our law. Now, there's nothing wrong with what Moses said. Moses said, don't kill. Well, that's still right. Still wrong to kill. Moses said, don't steal. Still wrong to steal. Moses said, don't covet. Still wrong to covet. He said, don't commit adultery. Still wrong to do that. There's nothing that Jesus tells us to do that contradicts the law, but his word is superior over the law, so that when you're in your own mind, you condemn yourself because of thoughts or whatever you might have. You can plead the blood of Jesus. who is above all of that, whose blood paid for our sins. You see, this thing of serving the Lord is a battle. As I said recently, the devil is not after the average person, he's after the person who believes in Christ. When you come to Christ, you're gonna have trouble. You're gonna have a fight with yourself. You're going to have a fight with your flesh. You're going to have a fight with the world. You're going to have a fight with demons and the devil. You're going to have a fight with everything. This is a war. This is not peacetime for Christians. This is battle time. We look forward to the time when we shall be with the Lord. And when we shall see him, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. When we look upon his face, the one who has saved us by his grace, then we'll be able to cast all of our crowns down at his feet and say, thou art worthy. Thou art worthy, oh Lord, you were slain by the holy law of God. and you have satisfied and rendered justice to the law, satisfying all of the demands of a holy God. Thank you, Lord, for redeeming us. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for calling us. Thank you, Father, for sending your Son to take our place. In the game of life, Jesus came here and he took the place of everyone who comes to him, trusts in him, believes on him. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Is that what Scripture said? That's what Scripture said. The sovereignty of God is not something that gets in the way of coming to Christ. It's the only basis for coming to Christ with any confidence. If you need him, come to him. What did he say? One more passage, John's Gospel, chapter six, John's Gospel. Chapter six. I wonder if there's anybody here today that God has taught. Anybody here today that God has taught? Or Ralph Barnett used to say, when you come here to worship, if all you hear is my voice, you'll leave here like you came in. But if in my voice you hear the voice of God, you'll never be the same. Here's what Jesus says in John chapter six. Watch it now. Verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me drawing, and I raise him up. Watch it now. You know, I've told you all those little lessons about can and may. Now do you know the difference between can and may? May is a word of permission. May I come to you? That's a word of permission. Everybody has permission. The problem is can. Can is ability. Can I come to you? Not unless the Father deals with you. How do you know if the Father deals with you? Well, here it is right here, verse 45. It is written in the prophets. Specifically Isaiah 54, 13, written in the prophet, they shall be all, they shall be all, who's that? They shall be all, all who come to Christ. They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and has been taught by the Father comes to me. Now is that clear? Everybody God teaches comes to Christ for their salvation. Now, He says, verse 37, same chapter, John chapter six, verse 37, all that the Father gives me shall come to me, and not only that, him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. That means if you really and truly and sincerely in your heart come to Christ, nothing Once he receives you, there's nothing that can ever separate you from him. Oh brother, that's dangerous. No, that's not dangerous. That's not dangerous. If he doesn't keep you, you won't be kept. People say all the time to me, as they do to you, take care of yourself. I said, I can't do it. I've already tried it. Only God can take care of me. I cannot. I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. That's what we used to sing. The B-I-B-L-E, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. I've never forgotten it. You'll do well if you stand on it. Let's stand together. We'll ask our musicians now to come forward and let me say to you with all the sincerity of my heart, what we need is we need the Lord Jesus Christ taught and preached in our churches. We don't need more entertainment. We don't need to be trying to entertain our boys and girls. We need to be sitting them down and opening up the word of God and say, do you know anything about him? You can have hayrides and you can have Halloween and you can have everything else and go to hell. But you can't have him and go to hell. The only thing a church ought to be doing is teaching people about Christ. I lied a while ago, I said it's the last passage. I'm going to quote this one to you if you want to see it, you can. It's in John 5 again, here's what it says. Jesus said to these Jewish people in verse 38, John 5 verse 38, he said, you do not have his word abiding in you. And the way I know that is, for whom he hath sent, him you believe not. If you have the word in you, you'll believe the living word, Jesus. Search the scriptures, search the Bible. In them you think you have eternal life. These are they which testify of me. Amen, of me. And you will not come to me that you might have life. You'll come to church, you'll come to the parties that the church throws, you'll come to all this other stuff, but you won't come to me. He said this thing right here, as I tell you all the time, this is a hymn book, H-I-M, it's all about hymn. And if you don't see hymn, you've missed it. You've missed it. May God bless His word and cause us to rejoice only in Him.