This morning we're reading in the book of Romans, chapter 5. I want to begin reading in the twelfth verse, which I trust is the most familiar verse to us in this chapter, and then read down through the second verse of chapter 6. So Romans, chapter 5, beginning in verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. It was the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also as the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Amen. We'll end our reading there and trust the Lord to add again His own blessing to the public reading of His inspired Word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts again together. Our Heavenly Father, as we would come Pause even in these moments before we consider Your Word. We come in Jesus' name, asking Thee to undertake for us. Lord, we are poor and needy creatures, and we need grace and help. The understanding of Your Word, Lord, we need grace and help in the outliving of Your Word. And I pray that You will give us discernment and grace as we consider and have been considering in these days these weighty topics of the Gospel. of the law and of grace. And I pray that today, thou wilt yet again be pleased to give us help and to draw near to every heart. We pray and ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as you know, over these last few weeks we have been considering what is really a very vast topic, and a topic, as I've suggested, that really touches nearly the whole of our Christian experience. And that is how the gospel, how the gospel of grace relates to the errors, not the opposites, but the twin errors of legalism and antinomianism. And we have been considering these things under really the illustration of the triangle. that the normal tendency is to think of a line with the gospel in the middle, one of these heresies on one end and the other heresy on the other end, and we just have to find that perfect balance. And again, the reality is not, if we were to illustrate it, a line at all. It's a triangle with the gospel up and away from both of these. The answer to legalism is never to go in the direction of antinomianism. The answer to antinomianism is never to go in the direction of legalism. It is to go away from them both unto the gospel of grace and what God has said in His Word and what God has done and is doing in the hearts and lives of His people in the gospel of grace. I want this morning, as we begin, to suggest to you somewhat from the fourteenth chapter of Romans. We will not take time to turn there, but in that chapter the Scripture deals with matters that are indifferent. That is, matters that are not sin in the lives of God's people. Questions that people may have, in particular some of the New Testament examples in this whole realm are the issues of the ceremonial law, some of the Jewish feast days and holidays. Things like this, where some believers were of the mind they should participate in these things, other believers were of the mind they didn't need to or that they shouldn't participate in these. And as the Scriptures deal with these things indifferent, there's admonition given that the one that did partake of these things should not, the one that felt free to enjoy these things, should not judge the one who did not feel free. to partake of these things, and the one that did not partake of these things should not judge the one, or rather, despise, did I cross those? The one who did partake should not judge those, or the one that did not partake, I'll try and get this straight here, should not judge those that did, and the one that did partake should not despise those that did not. I'm glad I'm not preaching on that topic this morning because it's very obvious I'm going to cross those all day long. Those are things indifferent. Matters that God's law doesn't speak to. And I may have reference to that a little bit later in the message. But it's the two attitudes that I want to bring to your attention here as we begin. That of despising and the other of judging. You have here, if I can straighten it out this time, the man who did not engage in an activity. He thought that he could not engage in that. His conscience would not allow him, even though it was a matter indifferent as far as God's law was concerned. He held himself back from this. The admonition is, do not judge the other man that partakes. From the standpoint of the man that partakes, do not judge. Or despise, rather. Have an attitude, as it were, about the man who refuses these things. Judging and despising. Now I say, the topic in Romans 14 is on things indifferent. There's an important note there, and as I said, we perhaps will relate to that later. But the spirit that's brought out in these things, I think very often, is something we have to wrestle with as we deal with legalism and antinomianism. Because I think if you go to Romans 14, as people did deal with those things that were indifferent, the way they got to judging or despising was to treat these things as if they were not indifferent. To take these things and to mold and make of them a covenant of works. Mold and make of them into something legal. Something either that had to be embraced or had to be shunned. And that's where the spirit came in, of judging and despising. Well, I say I believe these spirits are fitting in our discussion of legalism and antinomianism. Because as we come today, Lord willing, to consider antinomianism, there is that spirit of despising. There is at times in this an attitude against those that would live a holy life. And again, I'm changing the gear from the things indifferent now to matters of the law, matters clearly in God's word. But let us again remind ourselves as we considered last week what legalism is. A legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law of God. We could even state it more forcefully. A legalist is not someone who passionately, zealously, rigidly, religiously seeks to conform his life to the law of God in every jot and tittle that is stated that boldly. That is not the definition of legalism. However, I believe in the popular context of the church today, it has become the definition of legalism, and that's wrong. A legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law of God, or who seeks to have his life in every detail, in every area conformed to the law of God. A man becomes a legalist only when he rests upon his obedience to the law. when he rests upon his pursuits of the law of God, in whole or even in part, as any ground of obtaining merit in the sight of God. So again, a legalist is not a man whose life conforms to the law of God, but rather a man who seeks to be justified by his pursuits of the law of God, who rests upon his own fulfillments of the law to obtain the favor and pleasure of God. So you see here, that is why a man who is genuinely a legalist often so comes to embrace a self-righteous or a judgmental spirit. That's going to be present when a man is pursuing the law, seeking to get credit for what he's done, seeking to earn something from what he's done. That will then make him a judge. when he looks at another who isn't striving as he is to get that credit. So he can either push himself up by saying, look at what I've done. I thank thee that I am not as other men. Or he can look at the other and judge him and say, look at this one. How much better do I look when I can point out the flaws in him? Friends, that judging and that legal spirit is something that should be foreign. to the people of God. But today we turn, not, I suggest to you again, to the opposite danger, to the opposite error, but in so many ways to the twin error of antinomianism. Here we have, when it is present in its strongest form, displayed for us the heart the Apostle Paul warned against on the other hand in Romans 14, that of despising. Friends, it is a fearful thing again. The topic we're dealing with today is not the matters indifferent, but the spirit there again is a fearful thing when a man in the pursuit of things contrary to the law of God will despise those that are pursuing the law of God. And I say, I believe much of this spirit has come to rest upon the church today. Even the professing evangelical church, and sadly in many ways, even some of the professing Reformed church, And that is a fearful thing. Again, we must be careful as we discuss this today, for it is true that there are some people that are believers who, in a technical sense, in a theological sense, are antinomians. And yet, if we were to sit down with them, speak with them of their lives, speak with them of their convictions, watch them and how they pursue the things of God in so many ways in their lives, they are seeking to follow the Lord. They are seeking to obey God's Word and Law in all that they do. They're a prime example of what I shared with the Young People's Fellowship or the Adult Fellowship in our church in Greenville on Friday night dealing with dispensationalism. These are a prime example of people whose lives are a lot better than their theology. Or to put it another way, and perhaps better, the theology of their heart is a lot better than the theology of their head. The theology of how they seek to live and what they really believe to be true of Christianity and of the gospel is better than what comes out of their mouth when they try and articulate their doctrine. And so, as we come today to deal with antinomianism as this other heresy contrary to the gospel, I want to try and hedge us in to be very careful here. There are different forms of antinomianism. There are different ways in which it is displayed among people that profess Christianity. And so, there are some things that I may say today that may apply to the heresy itself, and even apply to some people that are of this heresy and of this teaching. that might not apply to everyone else that can technically come under the label of antinomian. And so I want us this morning to consider this because it is again something that is perennially a problem for the Lord's people. Today then we deal with the answer of grace to antinomianism. Firstly this morning we perhaps should spend some time then giving a description of antinomianism What is it? The term antinomian is a word perhaps some of you are familiar with. I trust by now in this series at least you have heard it a few times. But it's come time now for us to define it. You remember early on in our study I dealt with legalism and antinomianism under some loose and popular definitions. That being a legalist is someone that lives a strict life and an antinomian being someone that lives a loose life. Well, those are loose and not adequate definitions. I trust we've given the good definition of legalism last Lord's Day and already in our introduction here this morning. But today, what of antinomianism? What is it? Well, the word itself simply means against the law. There's a Greek word for law. It's the word namos. And the prefix added to that, anti, can mean at times against or instead of. And this is a word that came to us in church history, if my sources are correct, around the time of the Reformation, when Martin Luther, in his fresh understanding of the doctrine of justification, gave him liberty and release from the bondage of Roman Catholicism, and of a work's righteousness, and of the mingling of justification and sanctification, all these errors and heresies that are and have become what Roman Catholicism is. When Luther was liberated from that and coming to understand justification by faith, there were among his followers, and one in particular named Agricola, that in seeing this doctrine of justification by faith alone, that we're saved not by our works or even mingling or mixing our works or any part of them with Christ's work, but by His work for us alone. The fleshly and logical thinking to that is, well, does it matter then? how we live. There were some, I say, in that day that began to teach that very thing. It doesn't matter how a Christian lives. Luther himself was appalled that his doctrine would be taken in that direction that he, with his spiritual mind and understanding, knew was not the truth. And it was in that arena, in that period, that the very term antinomianism came into its own. And since that day, we have in the church used that term to speak of those whose mindset is, I can have Christ and I can have sin. I can be on my way to heaven and I can live a life that is unchanged. I can still be pursuing the things of the world, the flesh, and the devil just like I did before I was a Christian. If we were to come to a more technical and perhaps even more accurate definition of antinomianism, again, these that are against the law, We have to define it as those people who take the view that the moral law, or to use as we speak of it in its summary form and statement, that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding on the believer as a rule of life. That I say in a general sense is the definition of antinomianism, the teaching the belief that the Ten Commandments, or more accurately, the moral law of God, is no longer binding on the believer as his rule of life. Now, let us understand here again. There's a common phrase, and I think at times it's good, that we, in orthodoxy, use when it comes to salvation by faith alone. We say, we're saved by faith alone. Then we add faith is never alone. Well, that's good, but I don't think it goes far enough. What we're dealing with here is the topic of justification. We're justified. We're given a right standing with God. We're given title to heaven. We're numbered among God's people. All of these things that make mark us and cause us to belong to the people of God, in justification, this is by faith alone. It is the work of Christ on our behalf that is imputed to us. It is, again, that work God in the Gospel does for us in contrast to the work that He does in us. That is justification. So we're justified by faith alone. But in conversion, in salvation, we've got to recognize that our salvation doesn't just consist in justification. Justification is only part of the Gospel. It's only part of conversion. It's only part of Christianity. The classic statement of this we find in Romans 8, which we will, Lord willing, come to as we close this morning. Whom he justified, then he also glorified. Salvation includes more than just justification. We are justified by faith alone. But here, really, to give the conclusion at the beginning, Here we see the spirituality of the gospel. The gospel is not merely a legal transaction, whereby, as is true in our justification, God accounts us as righteous when we are not righteous. When we are sinners, we are justified by the death of the Son. The gospel isn't merely that legal transaction. That's the foundation. That's the bedrock. That, as Luther even termed it, that doctrine of justification is the doctrine that marks the standing or the falling of the church. Or to borrow the terms of another, it's like Atlas. It has everything else resting on its shoulders. But the gospel of our salvation does not merely consist of justification. There is sanctification and glorification. There is work done for us in that judicial courtroom of heaven. But there's also work done in the believer. And a saved man is a sanctified man. A saved man is one whose life then is pursuing the moral law of God. Here's where again, just as the error of legalism, it behooves us to distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and the law as a rule of life. As a covenant of works, the law is done away. But as a rule of life, the law remains. And it is the denial of this that is the definition of antinomianism. They deny that the law remains for a believer, for a justified sinner. They deny that the law remains as a rule of life. I want you to turn with me, if you would, or you may not need to turn, still here in Romans, to chapter 6, verse 14. There's a verse here that perhaps for many of you, you would have heard preached in other circles in a very different light than you'll hear it here this morning. We read verse 14, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. For so many and for decades now in the church, this has been taught as two different dispensations. Two different periods of time in the Bible's history. And the implication of that for the believer, and this is one form of antinomianism. Dispensationalism in so many ways is one of the forms of antinomianism that is so prevalent in the church today. They say that the law is no longer binding. It was binding on people in the Old Testament. But for us in the New Testament, it isn't binding. We're under grace. We're saved by grace. And we don't have to deal with the Ten Commandments. The only time we would even think about having to deal with them is if we find one of them repeated in the New Testament. We come to see, as you go on, and I'm sure so many of you have heard it preached, that all of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament except the Sabbath. To borrow the words of Sinclair Ferguson again, from whom we've taken so much material for this study, a believer is left not with a mosaic deca-log, ten words, deca-log, but he's left with some Christian novema-log, nine words. Friends, the moral law of God has never come down to a novema-log. We don't have time in our study this morning, perhaps someday we should pursue it, to go through all the New Testament teaching and even the very usages of the word law. In the Bible, the word law can mean more than the Ten Commandments, but it can never mean less than the Ten Commandments. And I say antinomianism by its definition is the teaching that the law is done away as a rule of life. for the believer. Now, I want to suggest to you this morning here, again, Romans 6.14, that's not talking about two different dispensations. You're not under the law, but under grace. It's talking about the believer's relationship to the law and how it changes at conversion. I'm no longer under the law as a covenant of works. I'm no longer under the law and its bondage of having to obtain my own righteousness. I'm set free from it. And it has to do with my relation to the law before and after salvation. I want to give you a definition this morning. Because it's very important as we consider antinomianism that accounts that as mine. This, friends, is Christian liberty as the rule of life for the believer. It would suggest that the law is done away as a rule of life. That I have nothing to do with the law. I want to give you this morning some different types of antinomianism, really. There is, and again I borrow here from Dr. Ferguson in his fine treatment of this in this series on the marrow controversy that I mentioned. There's a doctrinal form of antinomianism. And here's where you see many in their systematic theology that have come against the teaching that the covenant of works or the moral law or the ten commandments, these terms in so many ways synonymous, that these things are done away. Some of the men that even got into hyper-Calvinism, which is a theology quite distinct from the doctrines of grace and even five-point Calvinism as we embrace. Most people today call us hyper-Calvinists because we believe in all the five points. We maintain the Westminster standards. No, that's just Calvinism or historic reform theology. Or if we were just to be more plain about it, it's just what the Bible teaches. That's it. But there is such a thing as hyper-Calvinism. There were men even under the guise of that came, interestingly enough, into an antinomian position in their views and their teaching of justification. Most of us are not perhaps familiar with this, but when it comes to this doctrinal form or this systematic form of antinomianism, there is a form of this that has touched so many of us, and that is in the modern theology of dispensationalism. And here is a theology again. that sees law, and I know there are great transitions going on now, but sadly, even some of the most recent men are not dealing with the root problem of that system. They're not dealing with the doctrinal problem of that system. Here these men suggest that the Ten Commandments are something in themselves that are Jewish. They do not belong to the Christian today. They only belong to the Jews of the Old Testament, and any application, any carryover is just what we learn from the epistles. Well, I would almost, as it were, be happy enough with that, because I believe we find the whole of the law in the New Testament Scriptures as well. But you see what comes in here, and this is where we come in even to the exegetical forms and variations of dispensationalism. These men hold that the New Testament removes law as a standard. They hold then that even in the New Testament, when we pursue these various commandments, it's in a different way than they pursued them in the Old Testament. And so you see, what's at stake is something far greater than even any listing of commandments, any listing, any definition of the law. The very nature of law comes in here. The very nature of how to understand the gospel comes in. Well, there's a saying in the Old Testament, they pursued the law and it is by this means that they were justified. Or they had to now, after being rebuked in that by the dispensational critics, they said, well, no, no, no, there's even faith that they had mingled in as they pursued the law. But now we pursue things differently. We want by love, not by law. We're to be motivated by a higher principle than they were motivated with. Friends, this is something that the Bible knows nothing of. I love Horatius Bonner's treatment of this in his book, God's Way of Holiness, where he deals with holiness and the law. You may have some copies of that still in our back bookshelves there. He talked about people that would have this teaching, and this was prior to the real flower of dispensational theology coming in. But he said, here is a marvelous thing, that men say that with the motivation of love and the pursuit of Christ, and of Christ-likeness being our goal, that we should cast the law aside. He said, here's a marvelous thing, Christ's life was one perfect fulfillment of the law of God. How can we then pursue Christ and throw the law away, consciously put it behind us? I agree, we must agree that love is the motivating principle. But you see, that's the very thing Christ told the Pharisees who thought they had the law. He said, no, the thoughts and intents of your heart are included in these commands as well. Because you see, friends, the Ten Commandments again, they're not just ten rules. They're not just ten particular or ten specific things that we are to do or to not do. That's true of them. But it's far greater. The Ten Commandments are just like the table of contents. for sin. They are, as I stated often, they are a statement of one moral principle as it touches the various particulars of our lives. And I challenge you to look at the whole issue of sin and righteousness and find anything in that whole category that doesn't come under these ten words. Let's try one. Marijuana. I've read my Bible through from cover to cover a lot of times. Never saw anything in there about marijuana. I don't know what's wrong. What? Tenth Commandment. I should not covet. What are you doing when you pursue drugs? Booze, drink, cocaine, marijuana, whatever. You're coveting. You're designing something you don't have. You're seeking to pursue something that you perceive yourself not to have now. Maybe it's happiness. Maybe it's contentment. Well, you break the law of God. Going into these things to pursue that. But you could look at it in another way. You could find it under other commandments as well. And I like to refer to this when I look at the New Testament. The two occasions in the New Testament where the first commandment and the tenth commandment are said to be the same thing. Covetousness and idolatry. Paul says, nor a covetous man who is in idolatry. On another occasion he says covetousness, which is idolatry. You see, the ten words, the ten commandments are just a statement of that one moral principle of pure love to God. You look at it in this way, he that offends in one point is guilty of all. I'm angry at my brother without cause. Christ said there, I'm condemned by the commandment, thou shalt not kill. But I didn't kill him, yes, but what was my heart toward him? I failed to love him. I failed to reverence him in the way that he should be respected and honored. I dealt with him harshly in my heart, though my hand never touched him. So I transgressed his law. But then, I'm guilty of those first commandments and the first table of the law as well. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? How can I have had perfect love to my God and have disobeyed him with reference to my neighbor? You see how the whole is so woven together and can't be separated. You see, friends, there's a lot more at stake here than any listing of these laws. It's an understanding of what the law is. Ferguson pointed out he had a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the theology and even the exegesis of people today that were denying that the Ten Commandments or the moral law abide as the rule of life. He said he had a sneaking suspicion it was because of their distaste for the commandment regarding the Lord's Day, the Sabbath. But I like what he said after he said he also felt like there was a whole lot more than ten percent of the law that was at stake in this debate. the whole issue of what it is. Well, this has to do with antinomianism, and again, as you would recognize in what we've said already here so briefly and hurriedly, this is a topic that gets into systems of theology, and it's a debate very large, much larger than our one sermon here today. But there are those who with their manipulations of the Scripture and their formation of systems seek to come out from under the Ten Commandments, seek to come out from under the Law of God, and this is antinomianism by theological definition. Now let me again say that. There are many people that are under theologies that teach this, that deny the Law of God as a rule of life, and yet ultimately they show in their heart of hearts, their real heart theology, that they agree with the commandments as a rule of life. They pursue the law of God. They seek to live exemplary lives, even by the standard of this law. It's just they get some wires crossed when they try and state it theologically. And some of the teachers they've been under have led them astray. So that again, let us be careful that we not just try and make this something that we just blast everyone with as far as how they live, because often they're just inconsistent between their living and their doctrine. The joy is when we can get our doctrine and our living together with some understanding and maturity, and then go on in the things of God. So we must be careful. But there's another form of antinomianism that is different than these that are our brethren. And this is a practical form of antinomianism. And this is just ungodliness. This is just wickedness. For men to say with cold and unregenerate hearts, I can claim Christ, and I can live like the devil too, and there's nothing you can say or do about it. That's not evangelicalism. That's heresy. So I want us to come and consider secondly this morning the scripture's response to antinomianism. I want you to turn with me, if you would, to the first epistle of John. First John, chapter 1. Some of you will remember that several years ago, we have taken occasion to look at the first chapter of 1 John and the first few verses of the second chapter. And you see here that there are three great heresies that the Apostle John begins to deal with in this book. The heresy that comes first in this list is the one we're dealing with today, antinomianism. We read in verse 6, If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie. and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now, there's a formula that is found here. And again, we'll not preach this whole chapter, but there is in this threefold statement, or three different heresies he deals with, a formula. He gives a statement of the heresy. He says what these people are actually saying. Then he gives a comment on the heresy. What God has to say about it, and then he gives, following that, the answer. Well, in this first one that we've read, the heresy of antinomianism, the heresy is for a man to say that he has fellowship with God, and yet he walks in darkness. That is, he claims to be a believer. He claims to be rightly related to God, and yet his walk, the constant pursuit, the given direction of his life is in sin. That is this heresy of antinomianism. I can have God and I can have sin too. I can have Jesus Christ and I can have my pleasure and my sin and all of these things. And the scripture's response to antinomianism is, it's a lie. If we say this, we lie and do not the truth. Now friends, that's not me. That's not a handful of preachers. It's not a denomination. This is God's own comment on this heresy. You can't say you belong to God and then have sin be the constant direction of your life. It's a lie. If you turn back a page in your Bible to 2 Peter chapter 2, You find this very same thing couched in the midst of what, for us Calvinists, is often a very difficult passage to deal with, as those of Arminian and other persuasions would come to us. We read in chapter 2 of 2 Peter verse 2, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." I say the reason this text is cast in our face at times is because it is suggested here that those that the Apostle speaks of here as bringing in damnable heresies and these walking in pernicious ways, that these are people obviously lost, yet they're people that the Lord bought. And so they argue from this text a universal doctrine of the atonement. Well, we have dealt with that in other occasions, and we'll not take great time here, except that when you understand the context of this passage, it becomes very clear that that's not what the Apostle is teaching. He's dealing with damnable heresy. He's dealing with what we saw over in John's epistle. It is a lie from the pit. And here is the heresy. These are saying, I have been bought by the Lord. I belong to Him, yet I'm going to walk in pernicious ways. I'm going to live in my sin. And the Scripture statement to this is, this is damnable heresy. If you turn with me back to Romans, we read in this passage perhaps the most familiar and most clear statement of the Scripture in responding to antinomianism. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Is this then the case, that belonging to Christ and enjoying Him by free grace and that free grace alone, that we then should even try and magnify His grace by living in sin and say, look how powerful the gospel is. It saved me before, but now, even going worse and worse, it still saves me. Is there not a certain logic in this? Look even at the way the apostles uses the language here, how the Spirit of God puts it before us. If you go back in chapter 5 to verse 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. He uses the same term here. What should we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Maybe in being saved by grace and grace alone, if I continue in sin and I go on pursuing sin, it's going to make God's grace get bigger and bigger and glorify God all the more. Again, there's a certain logic in it. But it is a perverted and fleshly logic. And it meets the response of the Spirit of God, may it never be. God forbid. John said, it's a lie. Or as Peter said, it's a damnable heresy. You see, friends, the logic of antinomianism is fleshly logic. It misses what is the root of the whole thing. Spiritual conversion. It misses the reality of a new heart. We're not saved by getting a new heart And then from that new heart, trying to earn the favor of God. But when God saves us, He implants a new heart within us. And the heart of a man that has truly been saved could never say, let me continue in sin that grace may abound, because he now abhors sin. You turn the page in Romans to chapter 7, even when the genuine believer falls into sin, even when he's tempted and would run into sin, He can't sanction it. He despises it. He recognizes it as a transgression of God's law, because the Spirit within him strives against the flesh. It strives against sin, and sin is the transgression of the law. So you see, friends, as we come in conclusion to understand, true conversion must always be contrasted with antinomianism. If a man is speaking the language of the antinomian, I can be saved and have my sin too. He hasn't been truly converted because the heart within the true convert could never speak that way. And the reason we suggested at the beginning of this study some of these things are somewhat slippery is because it involves so many things. As we said, conversion is not just justification. Salvation is not just justification. Justification is the legal arena. It is the foundation. Here is that as we see in the confessional standards, work done for me. But we can say with a spiritual heart and mind and rejoice that there is also now work done in me. Here God, by breathing life into me, is giving me a new sight. He's giving me a new attitude toward His law. He's giving me a new attitude toward, or should we rather say, against sin. As Paul said in Romans 7, even when we stumble into sin as believers, it's not the real me. It's not I, but sin that dwelleth in me. The antinomian misses this. because conversion includes both the work done for me and the work done in me. I want you to turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I know our time is hastening on. I believe Romans 6 and Romans 8 in particular speak to the whole spirituality of the matter, that as a believer I am a changed man. I look at the law differently. I can't say that it doesn't matter. I can't say that truth and righteousness are irrelevant to how I live. I have to constantly say, my fulfillment of it is always imperfect. My hope for glory is never built on my pursuit of the law. But my desire, having that perfect standing in Christ, my desire is now to be made like Him in whom I've been given this standing. But if we needed it, not so much from the spiritual implication. As Paul works through in Romans 6 of the fact of the transaction or the change, transformation in our lives that takes place when we are converted, of dying to sin and living unto God, there is Romans 6. If we needed it more, even in a straightforward statement and command, we find it here in 1 Corinthians 9. To them that are without law, as without law in the parenthesis, verse 21, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without the law. You read the context of this chapter. Paul says here in his work of evangelism among the Gentiles, he says, I have made all things to all men. made myself first nineteen's servant to all, that I may gain them more. Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law, as without law." What is he saying here? You can see how it was lived out in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle Paul is with the Jews. He recognized their ceremonies. He recognized their feast days. He even took upon himself a vow under the Old Testament economy and its means there. When he was with the Gentiles, he put these ceremonies and things aside. He wouldn't even try and confuse them with any of the history and heritage of these things. So he's saying, to the Jews, I became a Jew. To those without law, i.e., to the Gentiles, I became as without law, as the Gentiles. I stood as described in Romans 1 and Romans 2 as they do, not the recipients of the oracles of God, and yet under the law of God, condemned by it, needing to be freed from it, needing to be saved. Paul said, I lived in and among them as they lived themselves. I showed them, without the ceremonies of the law, without these rituals of Leviticus, their need to be saved, their need to be changed. But even in this statement of coming to the Gentiles, those here described as those without law, Paul saying to them, I became as without law, it will not be misunderstood. And he puts in the parenthesis of our text, Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. If we were to translate this to our modern doctrinal terms, what Paul is saying here is when I was dealing with the Gentiles, I didn't mess with the ceremonial law. I didn't want to confuse them. But lest I confuse you here, my readers, I wasn't separated from the moral law. not being without law to God, but very much under that law to Christ. Paul recognized the law abiding as a rule of life for the believer, under the law, in law to Christ. I want to close this morning. Again, we've been long in these studies, but there's been almost more definition this morning than actual preaching and dealing with this thing practically, but Lord willing, next time we'll pursue that. Friends, at the end of the day, there's a great indication in our attitude toward the law of God as to the condition of our heart. We understand Christian liberty, freedom from the bondage of having to obtain my own righteousness by the works of the law. Well, there's joy and there's gospel, and again, one of the Maybe at times one of the best commentaries that you've really grasped the gospel and you're preaching it right is when somebody could hear it and say, well, does that mean you're an antinomian? You may have gotten through. But then you come to Romans 6. You see, that's Romans 5. Then you come to Romans 6 and say, no, not antinomianism. Why? Because in the gospel, God not only justifies us legally, and the work of Christ imputed to us. But then in our sanctification, He begins that great work of bringing us to glory. Romans 8, whom He justified. If we could paraphrase, He's not leaving alone throughout this life. He's going to bring them right through to glory. And all along the way, this process that we call sanctification, being set aside, that Scripture deals with in so many other places, this is a work that's going to be going on in me. And that can never be done without the law. I'm in-lawed to Christ. Because now, knowing what truth and righteousness is, that's what I must be. That's what I must pursue. You read in 2 Corinthians 5.17, a verse the Lord used greatly, "...my own heart and life." Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There is the spirit that the antinomian misses. All things are become new. The new man is renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, the scripture says. You see, and with this text we close, when a man has been captured by the gospel, justified by the blood of Christ, made new, this new creation in Christ Jesus. He looks at the law of God, and he doesn't see it anymore as that which threatens him and would cast him to hell. He rejoices he's freed from it in that way. But he also, when he looks at it, he says, of course, this is what man was created for. This is how man was created to live and to commune with his God face-to-face. This is what glory will be when I'm finally rid even of the vestiges of sin that remain and I can enjoy God's presence not merely by His Spirit dwelling in me now, ministering Christ to me now and conforming me more to His image now, but conforming me finally to His image, ridding me of all sin and letting me see Him face-to-face. That's when with an understanding of what the law is, you can say with John, His commandments are not grievous. The antinomian looks at the law and he says, what a grief, what a burden, who would want to do that? Who would want to live this way? That's not a believer. A believer looks at the law and says, of course this is life. Of course this is living. These commandments are not grievous. My very happiness is wrapped up in this kind of living. My very enjoyment of the presence of God is wrapped up in this. Because this is what God is. How can I claim to belong to Him and say, I don't want to be like Him? That's heresy. I say we've just touched upon it today because Tentacles go in so many directions. We've dealt in closing with the practical antinomian that would want to throw the law away and want to live an ungodly life. That man's not a believer. Friends, let us even try and get some of the cobwebs of the poor theology out of our minds. Recognize with love and then teach these other brethren the doctrines of grace. The law is a covenant of works versus a rule of life. and see the liberty and freedom of Christian liberty from the law as bondage, but yet to be in love with the law as a reflection of our Savior whom we love, and to say happily as that new creature, His commandments are not grievous. This, I think in many ways is why it's so hard to grapple with on paper, because it's a spiritual thing. You have to have a new heart to look at the law that way. and say it's the joy and rejoicing of my heart. I pray that God will give us wisdom and give us help in dealing with these weighty matters. God, free us from, not only in our own hearts and families and in this place, of any hint of antinomianism that may purge this church of it today, that she might again show forth what it really is to be and live as a Christian. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask Thee today to undertake for us what I pray by Thy Spirit Thou wilt take from the Word and teach us today. These things that we hasten through, I pray that we will, in meditating upon them more fully, find in this food for our souls. and the joy and rejoicing of new and renewed hearts. Truly, Your commandments are not grievous. I pray that Thou wilt graciously help us to rejoice even today in the answer of the Gospel to antinomianism. We pray and ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. you.