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[0:00] All right, I got to keep an eye on the clock so I see it back there. Feel free to let me know if I need to keep my eye on it more closely.

[0:12] It is so good to be here. I love coming to church. I love being with God's people and rejoicing in the Lord through song and hanging out with people. Rob, I appreciate you sharing what you did today and the way that you've invested in our family and our kids. And really, everyone here has done that, has been such a tremendous blessing to me and our whole family.

[0:39] So it's a great pleasure to be able to speak to you this morning. What's on my heart this morning is to talk about a battle, a battle that has been raging for, I'll say, 2,000 years. You could maybe think about it differently, but for at least 2,000 years.

[0:57] And that's the battle between law and grace. Law and grace. Now, most of us are familiar with one of the big battles that we fight that's a universal battle, the battle between good and evil.

[1:16] people. We see our nation spiraling evermore into darkness, and not just our nation, but it seems every nation in the world. And, you know, sometimes we think that this is new, but this has been the story of the world for thousands of years.

[1:34] This weekend, I watched a documentary that just came out called One Child Nation. And it's a documentary about the one-child policy in China and the effect that it had on that nation. And, oh my goodness, it's quite a look into what that policy has done to the nation of China and how it's affected the people.

[2:07] I interviewed so many different people who've been affected by that, whether they were the ones carrying out the forced abortions or forced sterilizations or whether they were the victims of those types of things.

[2:20] The people who, you know, picked up the babies who were left on the side of the road and took them to the orphanages. Things like that. It was a reminder of how dark times can get.

[2:39] And so that's a battle, the battle between good and evil we're all familiar with. But I wanted to talk about this battle between law and grace, and it's a battle that I don't know that everyone is necessarily aware of.

[2:50] Many Christians don't know that the battle exists. And the battle is this. In Romans 6, verse 14, it says this. It's an amazing passage, if you think about it. Sometimes we don't always think about what we read, right?

[3:07] It says this, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Not under law, but under grace.

[3:19] And ever since the Reformation, anyway, one of the things that has been a kind of a strong theme throughout at least Protestant Christian churches is this idea that we are saved by grace, right?

[3:33] What's the passage that tells us how we're saved? Somebody shout it out. All right, I heard it. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

[3:44] And it says this, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And our church is called, what?

[3:59] Grace Bible Church. We make a big deal out of grace, and we should, because the Bible makes a big deal out of grace, doesn't it? If you look at the Bible, especially the New Testament, right?

[4:10] In the New Testament, there's a lot written about grace. There's actually a lot written about the battle over grace, especially if you read the book of Galatians, Paul's letter to the Galatians.

[4:25] And so, but when we become believers, we want to live like believers, right? I tell my kids, I said, when you're looking for a spouse, the number one thing, you know, because you could marry somebody, there's all kinds of different people out there, right?

[4:44] There are tall people, short people. There are people who, you know, are different in all kinds of different ways. Some people who have gifts and talents and other things. Some people who are funny, some people who are serious, all that kind of thing.

[4:58] But the most important thing is that you marry, what, a believer. That's the most important thing. But also after that, we want them to marry somebody who lives like a believer as well, right?

[5:13] That's just as important. And so it's important for Christians to live like Christians. And so in order to do that, we can get into, we can, you know, look for, well, how can we do that?

[5:28] How can we make sure that Christians live like Christians, live like they ought to? And there's this tendency to bring in the law, right?

[5:38] And so, hey, if we're going to get Christians to live like Christians, to live how they ought, then we need to bring in the powerful tools to make sure that that's going to happen.

[5:52] It's a great goal, right? We want Christians to live like Christians. But is that how God wants us to live? So I want to talk a little bit about that and the history of the law.

[6:07] What is the law? How did it come into being? Well, back in Exodus, right? Who's the one that brought us the law? Somebody shout out his name.

[6:18] Moses, Moses. And so he was leading the people out of Egypt and they came to this mountain. And we know that he went up into the mountain and he brought down these Ten Commandments.

[6:30] But before he did, there's this passage in Exodus chapter 19. And he made a covenant with the people. And he says this. He said, Exodus chapter 19, verse 5.

[6:43] Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. For all of the earth is mine.

[6:54] And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. So God had this plan. He said, I've got this law and these ordinances and commandments.

[7:08] And if you follow and obey them, I'm going to make you a special people. And so the law is great, right? He came up with all these commandments and basically turned it into a book, right?

[7:24] And we have that book with us today, right? That law is written here in this Bible. It tells us what to do and what not to do. Couldn't be easier, right?

[7:35] Here's what you should do. Here's what you shouldn't do. All you have to do is read it or at least keep it on your coffee table and then do what it says.

[7:50] And then you'll be blessed going in and blessed going out, blessed in the countryside, blessed in the city, as it says, right? There's all these blessings that come with the law.

[8:01] How we'll be blessed or Israel will be blessed by keeping it. And so you shall not murder, right? Check. Check. You shall not commit adultery.

[8:16] Check. I'm doing pretty good. Honor your father and mother. Well, I'm doing better than most people, I think.

[8:32] You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Well, we don't have to let anybody know about that one. It's not good, right?

[8:47] Is it? Does the law work? Did it work with Israel? The law is good. The Bible says that in the book of Romans. The law is holy and righteous and good. What's the problem?

[9:00] The problem is you and I. We're rotten. Corrupt. And maybe we forgot about the curses of the law.

[9:14] There are all those great blessings, right? You read those. You'll be the head and not the tail above and not beneath. Sounds pretty good. But with that law comes the cursing of the law.

[9:26] You can read about those in Deuteronomy. And instead of life. And instead of life. Instead of the law giving us life by following it.

[9:37] We found that we failed to live up to the demands of the law. And instead got death. And what is death? What is death in biblical terms?

[9:51] We know that physical death. Physical death is not necessarily. It's not ceasing to exist, right? Physical death. Physical death is a separation of our soul spirit from our body. And spiritual death is also a separation.

[10:07] We're subject to that spiritual death, which is separation, not from our body, but separation from God. So, what does it mean to live under the law?

[10:20] What does that mean, live under the law? You know, some people will say, well, the Bible says we should not live under the law. But that's probably just talking about kind of the ceremonial aspects of the law, right?

[10:35] The traditions. Some of the things around circumcision, right? That one's made very clear in the Bible. Galatians especially. That believers are no longer under the law of circumcision.

[10:47] Sabbath, tithing, dietary restrictions. Lots of these things. And really, there aren't that many Christians that try to adhere to those things.

[11:00] It says, even in Galatians chapter 5, Paul says, if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. It's a pretty big statement. But there are some people who do think that we need to keep these laws in order to kind of be completely right with God.

[11:20] You know, it'll give us some extra credit maybe if we do those things. But I tell a story as a way to kind of show that keeping those kind of rituals in the law, how they're counterproductive, how they're not useful.

[11:41] And I tell this story. There was a family back during World War II. This is a fictional story. It's not real. And a dad is an officer in the Navy.

[11:53] He gets called to war. He has to go and he has to leave his family. And the family is obviously grieved and they're going to miss their dad.

[12:06] And they all give him hugs and then he leaves. And they decide they're going to create a tradition. He said, we're waiting for dad to come back.

[12:16] We want him to come back. And so what we're going to do is every night at dinner, we're going to set the table for the whole family. So we usually have dinner as a family at the table. And we're going to set a place at the head of the table for dad.

[12:33] So that we can remember him and remember that he's coming back. And so they did that every night. They'd set the place for dad and there would be an empty spot at the head of the table for dad.

[12:45] Well, a year passes. The war's over. Victory. And dad comes back and the family is overjoyed. And so he, after all the hugs and everything, and he's hungry.

[13:02] Everybody gets, you know, ready to eat. They set the table all around. There's that place at the table for dad. And dad goes to sit down at the table and the kids say, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, dad.

[13:14] No, no, no, no. You can't sit there. Why not? Well, this is a special place. You know, this is a special tradition that we have. To remember you and that you're coming back.

[13:28] And I say, what? Yeah, yeah, we've been doing this for a whole year. You know, it's very important to us. And you can see how kind of silly that is, right?

[13:40] Because, as the dad would say, you don't have to do that anymore. I'm back. I'm here. That tradition was for me. And it says, kind of speaks to this in Colossians chapter 2.

[13:55] It says, let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Because all of these things are shadows of things to come.

[14:08] But the substance is of Christ. And so these things, circumcisions and Sabbaths and festivals and all those things, they had value then because they pointed to something that was coming future.

[14:20] But when you have the real thing, you don't need those traditions anymore. You don't need those rituals. And so that's a good point, right? Those are things that we don't, as New Testament Christians, as grace Christians, we don't look to those things to provide its value because we have Christ now.

[14:40] But what about the rest? What about the moral laws? You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. Certainly, we're under those laws, right?

[14:56] Well, the Bible says that you're not under law. And it doesn't say half of the law or part of the law. It says you're not under law at all. Open up to Romans chapter 7.

[15:28] So we find out from Paul, especially in Romans chapter 7, that the law might not be what we think it is. It might not have the value that we thought it had to help us to live upright lives.

[15:46] And we're just going to kind of hop around here a little bit. But it says in Romans, yeah, Romans chapter 7, verse 5, it says for chapter, or verse 5, when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

[16:07] So it says this, Paul says this about the law, that the law aroused sinful passions in us. Well, that's not good. And it ultimately what?

[16:20] Bears fruit to death. It was work in our members, that's our flesh, to bear fruit unto death. And then he talks about specifics.

[16:33] He gets into specifics. In verse 7, he says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Well, no, certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, right?

[16:45] The law tells us in black and white, this is right and this is wrong. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet.

[16:59] But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, well, sin was dead.

[17:11] So without the law, without these commandments telling you what is right and what is wrong, the sin was kind of dead in you. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

[17:28] And the commandment, which I expected to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me.

[17:39] Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. There's another, there's another verse in the Bible.

[17:49] We won't, we won't necessarily go there, but it's in 1 Corinthians 15, chapter 15, verse 56. And it says this about the law. And it's talking about something else, but so this is kind of a side comment in that, that part of the Bible.

[18:04] It says this, it says, the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is what? It's the law. The law gives strength to sin.

[18:18] So how can the law help us to live, live how we ought to? Going back to chapter 7 in Romans here, it says this in verse 13, has then what is good, the law, the law is good, right?

[18:36] Has it become death to me? Certainly not. But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good. So that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

[18:55] And so that's the job of the law. law does not help us to be good. The law shows us that we're bad. And that's a necessary thing, right?

[19:11] Because I shared, I think it was last week or a couple of weeks ago, about an opportunity we had to go share the gospel with people out at the Pumpkin Festival. And one of the things that I do when sharing the gospel with people is before I spend the time to talk to them about the gospel of grace and God's willingness to forgive them and accept them and give them a new life, you gotta get them lost first.

[19:44] Because a lot of people don't know that they have the need, right? Because a lot of us, this is me, before Christ, we're doing pretty good, right?

[19:57] I mean, okay, I'm not perfect, but you know, I sin every once in a while. But, you know, not as bad as most people.

[20:12] And so it's important in talking to people about God and eternity to talk, to take them through the law. because the law is that thing that God instituted, it's a tool to make sin exceedingly sinful.

[20:29] To take the areas of our lives where we justify ourselves, right? Because we're pretty good at that. To justify, oh yeah, well, you know, I downloaded that movie off of that website.

[20:43] I didn't pay for it, but, you know, it's not gonna really hurt anybody. Um, whatever it is, right? We justify ourselves. So the law comes in and it says, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.

[20:58] And it makes that sin exceedingly sinful. Galatians 3, 24 says this, therefore the law was our tutor, our teacher, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

[21:13] But, after faith has come, we don't need the tutor anymore. And so, here's the battle, here's the debate.

[21:31] We, a lot of people agree, um, you're saved by grace through faith. But, you know, once you become a believer, you gotta, you gotta have something, you have to have something to keep them in line, right?

[21:50] Something like, like a threat, right? Threats can, can be good for keeping people in line, to motivate people to, to do, to do what's right.

[22:03] And so, it goes like this, right? Well, you know, we're saved by grace, but, you know, if you don't, if you don't always do the right thing, you know, God's gonna take away some of his blessings.

[22:17] Or, you'll be subject to, you know, maybe some cursings. Or God's, you know, maybe if you, if you don't do what's right, and you fail to live up to God's standard, then, God will remove his presence from you.

[22:34] You know, you'll still be saved, but, God will just be distant and far off. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Has anybody ever heard this before? So, let's use the law.

[22:52] Let's use the law to make sure that people live, that Christians live how they ought to. Because that works for Israel, right? Being under the law helped them to live holy lives, right?

[23:05] When we read the Old Testament and they were under the law and how wonderful and amazing they were and how they upheld God's righteousness and lived upright lives and were such a stellar example of light and truth.

[23:23] Didn't seem to go very well. So, here's the question. If you don't have the force, the threat of the law to make sure that Christians live right, that they do what they ought, well, what do you have?

[23:46] What's left? What do you have then? If you don't use the law, what is it? And I think the beginning of Romans 7 tells us the answer.

[23:59] So, if you're still there in Romans 7, we're going to read this passage. Chapter 7, it says this in verse 1, Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

[24:20] For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.

[24:34] He's given an example. You know, we have marriage and, you know, God intended that one man, one woman, marriage forever, right?

[24:46] Not one man, two women. One man, one woman, right? But, if there's a death, right? Either side, then the spouse is free to marry anyone else that they want.

[25:02] Verse 3, So then, if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. That thing ought not to be so, right?

[25:14] You don't marry another one if you stay with the man you're with, right? But if her husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress, even though she has married another.

[25:32] So in marriage, if your spouse dies, you're free to marry. And, so he kind of finishes up the thought with this, Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ.

[25:48] there was a death involved when we became believers. You have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another.

[26:01] To him who raised, who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit unto God. God So I know this is, can be confusing for a lot of people.

[26:14] The law seems to be, you know, the perfect resource for how we can live lives that are upright, lives that are pleasing to God. But what God says is, that's not the answer.

[26:30] What do we replace the law with? We replace it with God, with him.

[26:40] It turns out that what we needed the whole time was not a set of rules with threats telling us, well, if you don't do these things, this is what's going to happen.

[26:58] we didn't need just a system of rules and the consequences that would follow. Now, that was useful because it pointed us to the answer.

[27:14] But what we needed the whole time was God himself. That we would draw near to God, the God who created us every single day of our lives.

[27:28] walk with him, come to him with our every need, open up the Bible, have our minds renewed with his thoughts.

[27:45] We could learn to love, not by a threat of what would happen if we don't love, but by knowing God's love, knowing how wide his love is, right?

[28:02] Being immersed in the depth of his love, as it says in Ephesians, that we would know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth of his love for us, and not only for us, but for all the world, even a world that rejects him, that kind of love.

[28:21] love. And we can abound in that kind of love by knowing him. Galatians 2 verse 19 says this, for I through the law died to the law.

[28:37] Why? That I might live to God. So the answer is God replaces the law.

[28:52] God himself. Even from the very beginning, from the very beginning of creation, the very beginning of the age, this is even what our first parents, Adam and Eve, needed, right?

[29:09] Their eyes were opened, they ate of the tree, their eyes were opened to good and evil. What is that? That's the law, isn't it? The law shows us what is good, what is evil.

[29:21] Their eyes were opened to good and evil, they partook of the law, and they saw their own nakedness, and they were ashamed, and what did they do?

[29:34] They ran away. They ran away from God, and they hid. And then what did they do, right? They found some leaves and used the works of their own flesh, their own hands, to try to cover themselves.

[29:52] And that's what even we as Christians can do. We kind of muster up our own flesh to do what is right, to do what is good, so that we don't have to be ashamed.

[30:03] God did them to have done. They should have gone to him the whole time, but they hid.

[30:19] So we don't need a book of laws, a book of ordinances, except for one thing, right? And God had this whole plan throughout generations and centuries of why he brought the law in, because he needed to teach the entire world a lesson to the people of Israel.

[30:38] And that was that we are sinners who are rotten to the core and we need, we have a problem that needs to be solved.

[30:50] He wanted to show us how much we needed him. So, what does that mean regarding the law? Does that mean we just take the law and we just throw it away and forget about it?

[31:04] Well, no. The Bible says we just read the law is holy and just and good. And it continues to be a reference to us, right, for what is right and wrong.

[31:20] It says, and Paul said to Timothy this in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, he said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and for instructions and righteousness.

[31:34] Paul wasn't talking about the New Testament, it didn't exist, right? He was talking about the Old Testament law. It's good for instructing people in righteousness, for showing them, well, this is right and this is wrong, because sometimes we're hard-headed, we don't know.

[31:48] I had an experience, this was several years back, but had lunch with a guy I met at a Christian event, it was a Christian business event, and we were talking about our lives and his church and all the things that we were doing, and then he mentioned his girlfriend, and I, oh, cool, he's got a girlfriend, and then he mentioned they were living together.

[32:14] I was like, oh, okay, and, you know, asked him about that, and he seemed completely oblivious that there was any problem with that whatsoever, and so I followed up later, and I sent him an email, and I just sent him a Bible study, he said, you know what, this is what the Bible says about how believers ought to live, and, um, and I didn't hear from him, I didn't hear back from him for a while, until I met him again face to face, and I was like, oh, he probably doesn't like me very much, but you know what, he came up to me, he says, you know, I never got back to you, but he said, I want to thank you for sending that to me, he said, I didn't realize that that's what the Bible taught, and I made some changes in my life, and it ended up, you know, my girlfriend left me because she didn't want to be under those kinds of rules and regulations, but it was good, he said it was good, and so some people just don't know, right,

[33:27] I mean, there are people who are lost as a kite when it comes to just knowing basic things about right and wrong, so we can take them to the scriptures and say, here, here's what is good, here's what is not good, and so we can take believers like that to the scriptures and say, hey, even the law of Moses, say, here, this is what the law says, what is good and what is not, and instruct people in righteousness, but when the Bible says we're not under the law, here's what it means, it means that we are not under the jurisdiction of the law, we're not under its power, because the law has a power over us, in fact, in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, it says the law is the power of sin and death, it's the law of sin and death, the law that says, like it says in Ezekiel chapter 18, the man who sins, he will die, that's the power, that's the authority of the law, that's the jurisdiction of the law, if you abrogate this thing, if you don't follow, that's what the law says, you'll die, we're not under that anymore, it doesn't have the power of condemnation, in fact, we'll read from chapter 8, just the next chapter over, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in

[34:54] Christ Jesus, anyone who's trusting in Christ is in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation whatsoever, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

[35:34] So it turns out that if we take ourselves out from under the law and under its jurisdiction, that we have, we are enabled, we're empowered by God to actually keep those moral requirements that are in the law.

[35:51] here's an example of what it means to live under the law and not under the law. A couple of verses, this is one of the things that Jesus taught, and Jesus taught, and I think this church knows that as well, but Jesus taught under the law, right?

[36:06] He didn't, Jesus didn't teach the gospel of grace, he taught under the law. And he says this in Matthew chapter 6 verse 15, he said that believer, he said that if you want to be forgiven, then you have to forgive.

[36:25] And if you don't, God's not going to forgive you. Right? That's a threat, right? That's the law, the law's a threat. Forgive others, if you don't, God will not forgive you.

[36:39] That's the law. But Paul, teaching under the dispensation of the grace of God, he said this, I'll look up just one of these, says it a couple of times, but in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32, it says this, you find it real quick.

[37:01] He says, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Now, that's a big difference, isn't it? Do this or else, do this because God was so amazingly great in doing the same thing for you.

[37:28] And can we see how that would make a difference, how that would change a person from the inside out? Rather than making us kind of adhere to a list of rules externally, God can change us from the inside out through himself because we know him and love him.

[37:46] So here's the deal. When you fail, because we all fail, we've all failed in the past, some of us are failing now, and it's likely we might fail to live up to God's standard in the future.

[38:00] So whether you kind of just stumble one time or maybe there are people in this room who are just wallowing in a pit of despair, just wallowing in sin and filth and misery, even as a Christian, that happens, that can happen.

[38:23] And people around you will look and say, wow, you are a mess and you're a wretch. And Satan will remind you, right? He'll tell you. And you look in the mirror and, yep, he's rich.

[38:44] It's true. But then God asks us to see with the eyes of faith and let God be true and every man a liar and believe what God said about you, that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, regardless of your failures.

[39:07] others. And you can declare God's word about you, that I am righteous in his sight because he made me righteous, because he counseled me righteous.

[39:22] And the number one benefit of that is that because we're righteous, regardless of what we do or how we fail, we don't have to run and hide from him anymore.

[39:36] He accepts us. We're not under condemnation, even when we fail. And we can go to the source of our need, go to God himself.

[39:52] We can run to him. On the flip side, hey, I had a good week. I had a good month. Hey, I've had a good year.

[40:03] I'm doing pretty good. But there's also a temptation there, right? To put our confidence in our flesh. Hey, I'm pretty good at keeping this law thing.

[40:18] We want to continue to put our confidence in Christ. That the only thing that matters when all is said and done is what he did for us in Christ. on that cross.

[40:32] And we want to let Christ transform us from the inside out to be like him. The Bible says that we could do that in 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

[40:45] I'm going to read from that and then we'll finish. We'll finish. We'll finish. We'll finish. We'll finish. We'll finish.

[40:56] We'll finish. I'm going to start in verse 4. And we have such trust through, so it kind of starts mid-thought here, but we'll kind of get to the main point a little bit.

[41:09] And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. He's the one that makes us sufficient.

[41:21] Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, and the letter refers to the law. We're not ministers of the law, but of the Spirit. And the Spirit is God.

[41:33] For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The law kills, but it's God who gives us life. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, the law was a glorious thing, right?

[41:56] I mean, it's glory, in the face of Moses. How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

[42:08] For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, in comparison, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

[42:21] Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

[42:32] But in their minds, they were blinded, for until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away only in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

[42:46] Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and the law, now the law is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

[43:01] But we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[43:12] And that's that last part I want to focus on. As we look on Christ, as we relate to Him, as we are filled with Christ's life in ours, we will be changed, not externally, like the law might do through threats, but we will be changed in our motivations and our desires, we will desire to live and be like Christ, and changing into His image from glory to glory.

[43:43] And so that's why the battle between law and grace and this whole debate about whether we're under law and grace matters so much, because it matters, on how we relate to God, whether we're going to live a life with God or a life with the law.

[43:58] Going back to the marriage analogy, we died with Christ to the law so that we could be married to Jesus Christ. Are we going to go back to the law as our side mistress after we've died to her?

[44:15] God forbid. We don't want to do that. So I'll wrap it up. But before I end, I want to finish with this.

[44:31] God's grace is available to everyone, but God requires that we accept it. God's grace is going to be and if today there's anyone here who is not in Christ, then today you are under the law and you will be judged by the law.

[44:57] And your only hope is in your power to keep that law and do what's right. And a lot of people are trusting in their power to do that.

[45:15] I recommend against it from personal experience. But you have the opportunity and this is the gospel, that instead of trusting in yourself and your own good works, you can trust in the blood of Christ shed for you.

[45:33] it's a gift that Jesus gave to the entire world 2,000 years ago, available to anyone, no matter their circumstances, no matter their background, no matter how deep in sin they are or how well they're doing or think they're doing.

[45:52] So if that's you, I would encourage you to put your trust in him and you'll never be ashamed, never be ashamed again. Let's pray.

[46:03] Father, this battle between law and grace is so important. It's a huge portion of this, the scriptures. It's one of the passions of my life.

[46:19] I pray that you would speak to each one here and show ways in which we may be looking to the law, setting aside the grace of God, as it says in Galatians 2.21.

[46:33] Rather than putting all of our cards in, all of our chips in with Jesus, putting all of our confidence in you, Father, reveal to us if there's any ways in which we're putting our confidence in ourselves rather than you.

[46:48] And show us, Father, how we can each and every day live a life with you, living with you, communing with you, learning about you having our minds renewed with your thoughts and your mind, that we will be changed from the inside out every single day, being changed into your image from glory to glory to glory to glory.

[47:13]  We thank you for your gift of righteousness for us. In Jesus' name, amen.