Let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter five. Today we'll be primarily looking at verses 17 through 20, but I want us to go back and begin reading again. I know we've read it several times, but begin reading in verse one. And seeing the multitude is speaking of our Lord, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying, he was the prince of preachers, he is the prince of preachers. And he taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, and they mourn because they are poor in spirit, and for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. What he's doing here, he's describing the character of those who are part of the kingdom of God, those who are born again of his spirit. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And blessed are they which are persecuted. Why are they persecuted? For righteousness sake. for Christ's righteousness. And for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely and they do this for my name's sake. What is our response? What should our response be to this persecution and ridicule? Rejoice at being and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. This is how, he said, it's always been. They always hate God, they hate his son, they hate his prophets. Then he said, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt hath lost its savor, its saltness, where shall it be salted? You can't salt salt. If salt has lost his influence, it is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Men don't light a candle and put it under a bushel, but a man lights a candle and puts it on a candlestick and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men They may see your good works. When they see these things, they see this light, they see Christ, and they're not gonna glorify you. They'll glorify Him. They'll glorify your Father, which is in heaven. That He would make us the salt of the earth, that He would make us the light of the world, and that He would bless us. And He really has blessed us. Verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness, and you can apply this not only to those he was speaking to that day, but unto us right now, that except your righteousness exceed that of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And this is our text. Let us pray. Our Father, what a blessed people we are to be able to gather in your name. If we have a desire to be here, you gave it. Because without you, we're nothing. Bless those who are here to listen, open up their ears, help them hear, help them to understand and to comprehend what you're saying to us in these verses. Help us to remember that the only righteousness we have is the righteousness that you've given unto us because of your perfect obedience. in your sacrifice unto death. Give us a word of utterance now and we beg this in Christ's name. Amen. Verse 17. Wonder what people thought when our Lord is just beginning his ministry. What's he coming to do? What about the law? What about the law God had given the nation of Israel? The moral law, the ceremonial law, the religious law, these were laws that God gave these people. And they revealed the mind and the will of God and these laws were strict. These were strict. But they thought, what's he gonna do with the law? What's he gonna do because we're gonna see he makes reference to the scribes and the Pharisees who thought they kept the law. They prided themselves in what they did or didn't do, and when other people didn't measure up to their rules, they were always critical and condemning. But our Lord is gonna show us, even in this sermon, what true righteousness is and how it is obtained. He didn't come, he said, think not that I come to destroy the law. I didn't come to destroy the law. I come to destroy the works of the devil. That's what he came to destroy. And the primary evidence of the works of the devil is mainly shows itself in self-righteous religion. I've come to destroy the works of the devil. That's all it got down to. It was just a form. a ritual, a routine, but people idolized these people. They idolized those scribes and Pharisees. They thought, well, if anybody's godly, it's sure those men. The scribes who transcribed the scriptures and the Pharisees who were very strict about what they dressed, what they ate, what they wore, how far they walked on the Sabbath day, what they could eat, what they couldn't eat, they were gonna see in a little bit, they were even concerned if you didn't wash your hands before you ate. This was all in their mind. And Christ is gonna expose it. And he's gonna teach them. These are his sayings, he says. You know what he's gonna do? He's going to interpret the law. to these people, they didn't understand. What is the purpose of the law? The law is good if a man use it lawfully. So there is an unlawful use of the law. The unlawful use of the law is trying to force a man to be righteous when it cannot, the law cannot give a man righteousness. It can only condemn him. Think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy but to fulfill. Don't you imagine that I've come, like your teachers, to destroy the law with the prophets. I've come to fulfill. In doing this, he's setting himself as opposition to the scribes and the Pharisees. You know what these people knew? They knew what they'd been taught. Who taught them? the scribes, the Pharisees, the high priest, the Sanhedrin, the 70 men on that council, they taught the people. They taught them what? They taught them what they said God requires. And our Lord said, except your righteousness exceeds theirs, you're not entering the kingdom of heaven. Basically saying, with their righteousness, they're not entering. We need to find out, and the world needs to find out, how can a man be righteous in God's sight? How can he that is born of a woman be clean in his sight? How can that be? How can that be? Here's what they said in the book of Acts. Here's what they accused his preachers of doing. I know this was after he's ascended to glory. And these men, they come preaching Jesus Christ and him as Lord. They come preaching his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin. In Acts 6.14, it says, we've heard him say, or I can't remember if it was Peter, which one they're talking about. We've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered unto us. And they were partly right, because I don't know when that was written, but in AD 70, you know what happened to that temple? It was destroyed. You know what happened to that system? It was destroyed. You know why? It's been fulfilled. It served its purpose. Our Lord said, he said, you tear down this temple, speaking of his body, and he said, three days, I'll raise it up again. A member of the disciples, they looked at those buildings and they said, look Lord, look at all these beautiful buildings. Look, ain't it so beautiful? Look at all this religion, see how impressive it is? He said, there ain't gonna be one stone left upon another. It's not gonna be thrown down. You know why? The true temple, the true mercy seat was standing there in their presence, it was him. All those pictures, Picture who? Him. All those were just shadows, but a shadow is a shadow of someone. It was a shadow of him that was to come. Just a shadow, just a shadow. The law of God is perfect. God's law, here's what it demands, perfection. in thought, in motive, and in deed. We're gonna see, our Lord says, when you do your alms. Why do you do your alms? Don't sound the trumpet like the hypocrites do. I heard Henry say one time, it's almost as important what a man does, I mean why he does it, as what he does. Why does he do it? He's going to speak to us on prayer. Why do we pray? Why do we pray? What's the reason we pray? Those are questions to be asked. And we ask ourselves over and over those questions because we know our heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He came to fulfill the law. He came to complete the design, to fill it up with what was predicted, and he was a prophet to the law and the prophets. He was a prophet that was greater than Moses. You know who the real prophet is? It's him. There's only one person who ever held all three offices. Part of his office was he's the prophet, he's the priest, and he's the king. That's only him. He's the prophet, the priest, and the king. The law of Moses contained many sacrifices and rites and symbols which were designed to shadow forth the Messiah. And they were fulfilled when he came and offered himself as a sacrifice to God. This scripture must be fulfilled. This prophecy must be fulfilled. He must be born of a virgin. All the prophecies, Psalms 22, all those things that predicted him coming. All the law and the prophets, they all spoke of him. Where's he to be born? The prophet said, in the town of Bethlehem. Our Lord was on the cross, it was said that he thirst and they gave him vinegar and when they did, he said, it is finished. That the scriptures might be fulfilled. That they might be what? fulfilled. If it's fulfilled, it's full filled. No one else could fulfill it. No one else could measure up. There's only one. He came to fulfill the law and make it honorable. How did he fulfill the law? By obeying the commands of the law. He was made under the law. Did you know he was born under the law? Do you know when they took that census there in Bethlehem, that's why they had to go to Bethlehem, was to be, when it talks about being taxed, it was not so much being taxed, it was an enrollment. So it was like, they're coming around taking, we're gonna take a census of how many people live in Collegeville, how many people live in Bethlehem, because that king probably wanted to know how many was of the house and lineage of David. And when he was born in Bethlehem, Their names were Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. He's numbered with the transgressors. He's born under the law. When he's eight days old, you know why they took him to the temple? God required it. God required it. Every male, when he's eight days old, The mother, she was required under the law for purification. All those things were under the law. He fulfilled it. Why did he go to the temple? Three times a year, the law commanded it. Everything the law demanded, he fulfilled perfectly. No one else did. He fulfilled the law by making good of all the promises of the law. The law also said, do this and live. That's what it said. Do this and live. Adam, you do what I say and you will live in this garden. If you break my commandment and partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. And Christ fulfilled the law. every jot and tittle, if you do this, you'll be blessed. And he did this, so we would be blessed. And that's how we're blessed. That's the only way we are blessed. Apart from keeping the law, you're cursed. You break one sin, you're guilty of the whole law. You know what it says in the book of James? You say, well, it's just one little sin, All Adam did was one disobedient act, and look what it did. You know why? He broke God's law. He broke it. Now someone has to fulfill it as a man. As a man, he must fulfill what God demands. The soul that sins, it must die. The wages of sin is death. and it must be perfect to be accepted. God won't just accept any offering, just any sacrifice. Cain thought that. Cain thought, well, I can just bring whatever I want to. It's the best I've got. Surely God will accept it. Oh no, it's not perfect. It's not a blood sacrifice. Without the remission, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. How do we know that? The law says that. The law requires it. What sacrifice am I to bring? Two turtle doves or two young pigeons? What am I supposed to do on the day of the Passover? Take a lamb, separate it from the flock. It can't be just any lamb. It must be perfect. It must be put up for four days and then slaughtered and roasted and eaten. The law commanded it. He fulfilled the law by fulfilling all the types. He's the true Ark of the Covenant. In Romans 3, 31, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. We establish the law. His commandments are not grievous. He didn't come to destroy the law. That's what they probably tried to accuse him of. He came to fulfill it. It's like they're walking through the cornfield one day His disciples, it's on the Sabbath day, and they're hungry, and they've probably been out walking a lot. They reach over and get a ear of corn and just start shucking it and rubbing it with their hands, and they start eating it. First, he says, oh, you can't be doing that. Do you not see what your disciples are doing? That's against the law. They can't be doing that on the Sabbath day. You know who the Sabbath day was? It's Christ. When we meet today, it's not a Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath was on Saturday. We meet on the first day of the week. Why do we meet on the first day of the week? It's because he that fulfilled the law and satisfied the law rose on the first day of the week. That's why we meet. He is our rest. There was no work to be done on the Sabbath. So they took that literally and said, well, we're not gonna do any work. And I've seen, I've been through this, I've seen where people, and don't take me wrong, but they said they wouldn't do anything on Sunday at all, nothing. I remember when we was a little boy, they had what's called blue laws. You may remember them. Nothing inside the city limits was open, nothing. A supermarket, a gas station, nothing was opened on Sunday. And it was a law. No such laws now. But you know, but then, I remember somebody asked me one time, they said, this is just an illustration. We just had a new steakhouse come in. I was probably in my early 20s, and we didn't have any steakhouse. That was a big deal, you got a steakhouse, you know. And I asked him, I said, you gonna go down to that steakhouse? Oh, no, no, no, I'm not going to that steakhouse. I said, why not? He said, they got a saloon in it. A saloon in it? I didn't even think anything about the saloon. I was just going to get something good to eat. And I just thought for a minute. I said, you remember that store down there you stop at every evening, every evening, and buy gas? He said, yeah. So I said, I think the last time I was in there, they sold beer. You ever go to the supermarket? Well, sure I do. I said, last time I was in there, they sold beer and wine and alcohol. They sold the whole thing. What's the difference? But you see how men get the idea that if I'm around those things, it's gonna defile me. It's not what goes into a man that defiles a man, it's what comes out of the mouth that defiles the man. You know what they said about our Lord? They said, he's a friend of publicans and sinners. He's just an old winebibber. He's just an old wino. All he wants to do is sit around with people and eat and drink wine. I'm thankful he's a friend of publicans and sinners. Now verse 18. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. God can't just say, well, we won't worry about that law. That is really not important, that's a lesson. We won't worry about that one. Oh no. He gave every law, every regulation, every requirement for a reason. And every one of them must be kept by a man. God requires it. The Amplified Bible reads it this way. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, until heaven and earth pass, not the smallest letter or stroke of a pen shall pass from the law until all things which it foreshadows are accomplished. For it says there, for verily I say unto you, You notice you read that word verily a lot of times in the Gospel of John, sometimes he says it twice, verily, verily I say unto you. I say what this means is, or I, a man, who am the a man, say unto you, and his name, one of his names is the a man in Revelations 3.14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these sayings, who's this saying this? The amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. This word amen is one of our Lord's precious names. When our Lord uses this term to use it, he puts his name to what he delivers. Verily, truly, verily, I say unto you, I put my name upon this, there shall not one jot or one tittle pass from the law till all be fulfilled. I think jot meant it was the letter I of the Hebrew, and then tittle was just a little bit enough. You could make one little mark and could change the whole meaning of the word. None of it's gonna pass away. He's gonna dot every dot and he's gonna cross every T. It's all gonna be fulfilled, every bit of it. Not one little bit will pass away. Till all, you imagine that, all is fulfilled. God demands it. And you know what? He fulfilled it. He fulfilled it for somebody. He fulfilled it in somebody's place. It's not the righteousness that the scribes and the Pharisees, it's something that far exceeds that righteousness. The grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of God endureth forever. The Old Testament as much as the new, The law is truly as the gospel. Everything in the law must be fulfilled. All of its prophecies, all of its precepts, and all of its penalties. You think about that. Its promises, do this and live. Precepts, this is what God commands. He came to magnify the law. He fulfilled it first in himself is our surety. The surety, you know, is someone who takes full responsibility for somebody else. I've looked at that a couple of times. I preached this morning on the radio along those lines as Judah was the surety for Benjamin. He said, I will take full responsibility, daddy, for that boy. God trusted, God trusted all his children to his son. God trusted his son to fulfill all the law in their stead. He trusted his son. And you know what he did? He fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. And then he did it, he fulfills the law in his people. Do you know because of what Christ has done that God now looks at me as someone who has kept the law perfectly? That's justification. Declared righteous just in God's sight. You say, well, I can't fulfill the law. I know you can't. Men try, but it doesn't matter. They just can't. You don't have the ability. But he did. He's done. He died in my place. He satisfied the law in my place. He gave me a righteousness. And then thirdly, in the doom, in the punishment of the wicked, that's the fulfillment of the law. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Every man that lives must give an account For his sin, every man will be judged according to his sin, either by Christ and his righteousness or by their deeds. And that law will be fulfilled when that sentence is passed. Depart from me, I never knew you, you that worked iniquity. The law will be fulfilled. Men like to skirt around the law, don't they? Long will I live. People have, they have no respect for God. They have no respect for the requirements of God. They have no respect for the law of God. There's no justice. It must be fulfilled. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make it honorable. It's honorable. There's nothing wrong with the law. Everybody wants to find fault with the law, don't they? Go home and read Romans chapter seven, first couple of verses. He describes it like a woman being married to a man, like us being married to the law. He comes in and he says, Katie, have you worked all day? She said, yeah, I worked all day. I said, well, you need to clean the house. It's a little dusty. You need to sweep the floors. You need to iron the clothes. You need to wash the clothes. You need to wash the dishes. You need to fix supper. You need to, need to, need to, you need to do this. It's do, do, do, and you go, I've done it. And she goes, I've cleaned the house, and I put a white glove on, and he goes over on top of that window face, and he does that. I says, where'd all this dust come from? And you know what, the first thought we think, boy, he's a mean husband. He just demands too much. He's not a mean husband. We're just not good wives. He said, we were married to the law. We were married to the law. And the law, what did the law say? Do this and live. But if the husband be dead, we're freed from the law, that we can be married to another. And this one that we're married to now says, you sit down. I've got this. I've cleaned the house, I've made you perfect in my sight. It ain't what you do, it's what I've done. You see the difference? It's not that he was a, that's what he required. Some people talk about the bad side of God. You go to Mount Sinai, you'll be terrified. You will be scared to death. If I married to the law, I'd be afraid for him to come home. I'd be dreading him coming home, really. Not that nothing wrong with him, but the problem's with me. I'm not perfect. And nothing I do is good enough. And here's what men gets mad. Well, God'll just look over it. Oh, no, he won't. God demands it. And if he said the baseboards and everything has to be clean, he'd clean them. Whatever God demanded. You know what God demanded? He demanded he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Why did God not spare his son? His law had to be fulfilled. The law. Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoso shall do and teach them the same shall be called the great in the kingdom of heaven. I said if we break one commandment, we've broken them all. He said you break one of the least and teach men so. How were these people taught? They were taught. They were taught what? They told them what? They said, this is what the law says. And we're gonna see as we get on into this sermon, the Lord said, you've heard, you've heard that it was said by them of old time. Well, he's gonna deal with divorce, he's gonna deal with the law, he's gonna deal with anger, he's gonna deal with all. He said, you've heard that it was said. He said, you've heard that it was wrong to commit adultery. Here's what I say. If you look on someone else with a lustful eye, you've committed adultery in your heart. Oh, isn't that different? Really? Remember one day they brought that woman to our Lord and they said, we've caught her in the act of adultery. Where's the man that was caught with her? He may have been standing in the crowd with them. We know what the law says. The law said she ought to die, that's what it said. But what do you say? And he rode on the ground like he ignored them. And he looked them right square in the face and he said, you that are without sin, you cast the first stone. And their conscience, they were convicted and they went away. And the Lord said, where's your accusers? She said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin. Law said, yes, you ought to die. The law says, we ought to die. Well, how can God show us mercy? Well, it was good news to that woman. He said, you go and sin. I ain't going. I don't condemn you. We're condemnable. That's OK. Yeah, that's for sure. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Turn with me to Matthew 15, just over a couple of chapters. These scribes and Pharisees, these lawyers, these teachers of the law. It says in Matthew 15 verse one, then came to Jesus, scribes and Pharisees, which were at Jerusalem saying, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They didn't say anything about the law, did they? They transgressed their traditions of the elders. You know what traditions are? It's things that have gone on for so long, they could have not a bit of truth in them, but they become a tradition, and people make a law out of it, and it's just a tradition. The tradition of the elders, for they wash, your disciples don't wash their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and he said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God? You transgress the commandments of God by your tradition. For God commanded, and he's telling them what God commanded. God commanded, saying, honor thy father and thy mother. And he that curses his father or his mother, the law said, let that man be put to death. But here's what you say. But you say, whosoever shall say to his father and mother, it is a gift, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honoreth not his father and his mother, he shall be free. And what they were saying, what I think this is saying, is what they would say, instead of helping their parents, They had a responsibility under the law to honor their parents, but instead of doing that, they would try to justify not honoring their parents, and they said, I want to give a gift to the Lord. I can't do that because I've set this apart as a gift. He said, and you honor not your father and your mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. "'You hypocrites! "'Did not Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, "'This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, "'and honoreth me with their lips, "'but their heart is far from me? "'But in vain do they worship me, "'teaching for doctrines.'" Now, what's this? The commandments of God. What did our text say? "'Wherefore, he that shall break "'one of these least commandments, "'and shall teach men to break God's commandments, They were teaching men to break God's commandments. They were substituting God's commandments for their traditions. And that's usually how it is. Men come up with their confessions. There's many confessions. There's the Wesleyan. There's the 1689. There's just so many confessions. Those are things that men say, this is what the book says. And most of the time when it gets done, you know what they do? They lay their traditions over the Word of God. This is what Mr. Calvin said. This is what Mr. Luther said. What does God say? And that's what God said to those people. You've made your traditions and you're trying to justify what you do or not do for your mother and father, and saying it's a gift. The self-righteous, instead of honoring their parents when they needed help, they said, we cannot help because our money's been devoted as a gift. to God. It reminds me of like when the woman was standing there pouring the alabaster box of ointment on our Lord's head, and Judas says, what a waste. We could have taken this and sold it and given it to the poor. Doesn't that sound good? Our Lord said, you always have the poor with you, but I won't always be with you, and she's done what she could. True worship, and I want you to get this, true worship with God will cause a man to honor his parents. Jeff, I'll never forget it, as long as I live, that day you spoke a few words about your daddy. And you made mention of that right there. You never stop, even when they're dead, you never stop honoring your parents. And that still applies today. Did you know our Lord, but our Lord's the only one that ever did that perfectly? Don't you see this? When he's hanging on the cross, there stands his mother. She's a widow. And I'd say all her other children that Joseph and Mary had after our Lord was born, I don't think, at that time, I don't believe any of them were believers. Who's gonna take care of her? He said, John, behold thy mother. And he said, basically, woman, behold thy son. And John took her home with him and took care of her. Even when he was hanging on the cross, he was concerned about honoring the law of Almighty God. And he did. And he did. Verse 20, for I say unto you, that except your righteousness or our righteousness shall, unless it exceeds the righteousness of the Fives and Farskies, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God. He said it was a proverb among the Jews that if two men were to enter heaven, one must be a scribe and one must be a Pharisee. They studied the law. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was an external righteousness. They wanted you to see it. They wanted to pretend. Always be careful for people who are pretending. Still water runs real deep. Those who are always making a lot of noise, it's real shallow. Just external. They were strict in abstaining from adultery, theft, murder, and adultery. But they had no thoughts about covetousness, hatred, coldness of heart toward God, and therefore did Christ say unto you, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within you are full of extortion and excess. He said, you know what? You devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. And I can tell you this, only God can spare us from them things. That's true. Their observance of the law was just a partial one. They put more stress upon the ceremonial aspects, precepts, than upon the moral requirements. Our Lord said, you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, you pay tithe on all these little things, but you've omitted the weightier matters of the law. What are the weightier matters of the law? Judgment, mercy, and faith. You're not worried about those things. But you like to stand in the temple and say, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. I pray twice or three times a day. I give tithes of all that I possess. And I'm not like this old publican over here. Multitudes of people who profess to be believers abstain from external acts of violence, yet they hesitate not to rob their neighbor of a good character. The Lord lets us see things. People think, you know, want you to believe that they're, that they want to really worship God and then they don't hesitate to run down their neighbor. And let me tell you a little, can I tell you a little secret? A little secret. If somebody will talk to you about somebody else, you can guarantee, as good as I'm standing here, when you're gone, they'll talk about you. I can tell you if they talk about me, they don't even know the half of it. Who makes us to differ? The righteousness was partial, stressing certain parts of the law that they thought that they could keep. which were suited to their taste in ignoring or nullifying other aspects of the law. Let me read you this in closing. It was ignorance of the law which brought about and permitted Phariseeism to flourish. That's where it breeds and grows because what? They don't understand the law. What is the law? Why was it given? What's the unlawful use of the law? What is the lawful use of the law? You know what the lawful use of the law is? It's to show a man that unless God shows him mercy, he must die. God kills. Why does he kill? He kills with the law. Paul says, I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. He kills, the law kills and makes alive. He wounds, he cuts, he wounds with the law and then he heals. That's how he always works. Men want peace and joy without conviction. There is God bringing you by Sinai. You see the wrath and judgment and you see what God requires and you know what you do? You fall on your face. And you say, hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne. The law came by Moses, but watch, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. How can God, how can God that is a just God forgive you? How can he? God just can't look over sin. God just can't forgive sin. Here's what men think, that God just forgives. He forgives because he pays the debt. May God give us his righteousness, and that's the only way we'll ever see his face. Without his holiness, we'll never behold him. Lord William will pick up there next week.