So that was some of the honest answers at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And here's where this is so important in our discussion of the law in the 1689 and the understanding, because when we go forward a little bit more, all the things that the 1689 has stated that we've been looking at it's binding on the conscience of every single person and you know based on an Old Testament covenant and these things like that they're going to kind of back up a little bit and say well this this this this this and what we're trying to do is we're trying to establish that the law of of God in the Old Testament There is no concept of the threefold tablets or tables of the law, the ceremonial, sacrificial, and the moral. It's all one law. And part of the proof for that is that people will say, well, when we did away with the law, we did away with the ceremonial and the sacrificial. In other words, the government are ceremonial and the sacrificial religious. But the moral law we kept. But what he was just saying, as you just saw, is that Christ fulfilled the Old Testament law. And we've read that already so many times that it's almost, I don't want to say the word mundane, but it is so many times restated in so many ways in the New Testament that to miss it, it can be dangerous. Because Paul says to the Galatians, I marvel that you are so quickly drawn away to another gospel, which isn't another gospel. And he's talking about Judaizers. He's talking about people that believe in God. They believe in the law. They believe in the commandments. They believe in the codes of Christianity. They believe in Christ even. But what they do is they say, you've got to become a Jew. You've got to keep the old law to become a Christian. And they add to the law. They add to the gospel, actually. so The danger is you can go too far in this thing For those that say that that when we're talking about the doing away with the law or the fulfilling the law and it being arbitrated We're only talking about the civil and the ceremonial Paul says I did not know sin, but by the law He didn't say I didn't understand that I wasn't keeping the ceremonial portions of the rituals correctly, but by the law. He didn't say, I didn't realize that I wasn't keeping the religious aspects of the governmental system, except for the law. He said, I did not know sin, but by the law. He says, I didn't know I was involved in idolatry until the law exposed me, the Holy Spirit showed me that I was coveting. Romans 7, 7. What shall we say then is the law sinful? Certainly not. Nevertheless, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what sin was if it had not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said you shall not covet. He wouldn't have known it. Now, we've asked this question. I want to restate this question. What ceremonial law does that coveting fulfill? It's not in there, is it? What moral law? Thou shalt not covet. Which one is it? Remember? That's the 10th commandment. You shall not covet. It's part of the moral law of God. You see, here's the issue. When we're talking about the law of God, we have to be very careful not to become legalistic or worse, change the gospel. I had this discussion with a group of people just the other day, dealing with this issue of the moral law and dealing with the keeping the nativity. We actually, when one of the sermons that we posted on video, somebody comes on there and says, oh, well, you're in sin. You're violating the scripture because Jeremiah talks about these pagan trees that you have here. Talking about that Christmas tree. It's a pagan tree. You're not to have it. It says it in Jeremiah. It talks about the trees that they go out and cut and they put it in the houses. I sent a message back to the person. I said, have you ever actually read what that's saying? because we actually talked about that in the conversations from the porch. We actually, I'm sorry, Council of Google Plus guys sat down. Diane was listening to a lot of it. We sat down and we talked about the keeping of the commandments and it's the way it deals with a nativity and, you know, worshiping Christ and, you know, Christmas trees and all kinds of stuff. This person says, well, that's violating the Old Testament law. First of all, he was becoming legalistic. And secondly, he didn't know the scripture. I could have said, you do err, sir, not knowing the scripture. I could have, but I didn't. You see, the whole point was, Jeremiah doesn't talk about Christmas trees. Jeremiah talks about pagan idols. It's actually talking about building an idol, manufacturing an idol out of wood and covering it with gold and, you know, trimming it out with gold to make it an object that you worship. So, we can become so legalistic that we forsake the very intent and meaning of the Word of God. And we bind burdens upon men, including ourselves, that are too heavy to carry. I want to look at Hebrews chapter 9. Now even the first covenant had regulations of worship and earthly places of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section in which was a lamp stand and the table and the bread of the presence. It's called the holy place and behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place. having a golden altar of incense and an Ark of the Covenant covered by all sides with gold in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets above it were cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak of in detail. In other words, we don't have them, okay? These preparations having thus been made, the priests go in regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but into the second, only the high priest goes, but once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic of this present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. So in other words, throughout the entire Old Testament, their conscience was still stained. In other words, they weren't completely covered in this sacrificial system. Okay. But deal only with food and drink and various washings regulations of the body imposed until the time of reformation. Talking about Christ. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places. not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For the blood of bulls and goats, or goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish, to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." You understand what's being said here? He's laying out that there's a foundational Principle in the Old Testament under them under the keeping of the the covenant, which is the sacrificial system as part of the covenant Okay, he says that covenant could never purify you because all it ever did was just cover your flesh You need your spirit washed And that can only happen, remember in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah talked about his sin, woe is me for I am undone, I am man not in clean lips. He is at the temple, he has the most holy place of God. And what did the angel do? The angel comes over and he grabs a coal off of the altar of sacrifice. It's the altar of sacrifice of Jesus' blood. It's not the altar that does the cleansing, it's the sacrifice that did the cleansing. Does that make sense? So the first covenant was only a covering, it was only a typology. The second covenant is the one that makes all the other covenants obsolete because it's the perfect one. Now listen, thus it was necessary for the copies, listen I jumped forward, yes I did, I don't want to do that. Verse 15, therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, that word will is important. The last will in testament is given when you say I decree this to this. And what has to happen for that will to take effect? You have to die. You have to die. Yes ma'am? I just said it. Yeah. It's somebody saying this is what's going to happen to all my stuff for all those people I want to give it to. There you go, conveyance. She knew exactly what that meant. So listen here. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Think about it this way. I can write a will a mile long and give everything I want to give to everybody I want to and write it down. But it doesn't take effect till I die. So I can change it all I want to. But when I die, there's no changing it. Now, here we go. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats and water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the blood itself and the people. Now think of that. The significance of the blood of the bulls and goats is not the animal sacrifice, but what it represented. saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. In the same way, he sprinkled the blood, both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Thus, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Listen to this. For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. For then he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. That ends the Roman Catholic mass, by the way. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man once to die, and after this comes the judgment, So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who eagerly await him." So here's the point. The sacrifice has already been paid. The covenant is brand new, and the one that made the old covenant is gone. He died. The one that made the new covenant, he died, and he rose again. We saw that in Galatians last week. He died and he rose again. Actually, we saw that in Romans. I apologize, I said Galatians. And this is Hebrews chapter 9. Well, Jesus Christ was the covenant giver. Well, it's like I told you last week, we were talking about the Romans 7, 2, or actually 4 through 6. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. that you may be married to another. Jesus Christ was the one that gave us the old covenant in the Old Testament. He's the one that was there and he's the one that gave the people of Israel the old covenant. But he established a new and better covenant, it says here, so that we may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead. That's Jesus Christ. right so the old covenant is dead by virtue of the fact that a new covenant came in that was a new and better covenant and the one that gave that covenant had made the sacrifice in his blood, died and rose from the dead. That's through the body of Christ, it says. Does that make sense? Having said all of that, like I was telling you, I really want to encourage you guys to read Galatians because The whole point of Galatians is that we are under a new covenant as we listen to the Southern Baptist Seminary teaching that we're under a new covenant and that's a new and binding covenant upon us. The question comes. Does that mean that as Christians we don't have to keep the commandments of God. We don't have to be under the law. Well yes and no. We are under the commandments of Christ and as we just heard from the Southern Baptist Seminary the gentleman that was speaking makes it clear that the law of Christ is to love. I had a conversation with a gentleman there. I was telling him about this. I had a conversation with a gentleman, and he says, well, what is the commandments? What is the law of Christ? What is that specifically? And we started talking. I told him, I said, that is such a big issue that we're going to talk about for a while. And it was a sub point that he was just throwing out. And I didn't have anything ready, but I kind of let him know. I said, look, I want you to think about this. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Okay, the first commandment is God is first. Second commandment, no idols. Third commandment, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Fourth commandment, keep the Sabbath day. No words. Okay, so four commandments have to deal with loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? The other commandments deal with how you deal with others. your neighbor. So he says the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbors. It's the law of love. If you keep all of the laws of Christ and the law of love you are keeping the Ten Commandments. But he's done away with the commandments in the fact that he fulfilled them. But he's reinstated them in the fact not reinstated magnified them to perfection in how we're supposed to treat God and each other. They still speak to us, that's the whole thing. They still speak to us of how we should conduct ourselves, what God expects. They still speak to us of what God's commandments are for the whole world. And we still use them to tell people this is God's requirements. And the only way they can be fulfilled is in Jesus Christ, the one who died for the new covenant, whose blood we're under, right? Now, the question is, is how well are you doing keeping it? Well, we fail it. That's that's the whole point. Now, john MacArthur, just I want to read this real fast. And when we're done, okay, john MacArthur says, he says, Romans seven, six released from the law. He says it's not freedom to do what God's law forbids. And here that's important. It is not saying, we are not saying, I don't think anybody says that I know of, that's even theologically sound, nobody says that we can break God's commandments. We can violate God's commandments all day long. You can sin as much as you want to. No. Hold on, let me rephrase that. Yes, but you just don't want to. Paul Washer actually says, as a Christian, you can send as much as you want to, but the problem is God changes you want to. He makes you not want to send. He's changed your heart where you want to be like Christ. And Christ fulfilled the commandments out of love, not duty. We want to fulfill the commandments out of love. Honor your father and mother, obey your parents and the Lord, all those things. But we also look in the New Testament to see how Christ and how the apostles magnified those commandments. Okay. So next week we're going to actually, next week we're going to actually start talking about the next section of, I'm talking about the law. And what we're going to do is we're going to point out the fact that the 1689 writers start qualifying their statements and start kind of jumping into where we're talking about. But see, the issue that, the reason we brought all this up for the weeks that we brought this up, for the month or so that we brought this up, is because there's a qualitative difference. We say that we're under the law of Christ. We say Christ perfected the law and made it impossible for anyone that's not under the blood of Christ to even possibly attempt it. There's no righteousness in man. All of our righteous deeds are his filthy rags. We can't take anything before God. It must be through Jesus Christ. Okay. And so we want to make sure we're clear that the reason we say we're under the law of Christ is you don't know what love is, except for Christ explained it to you. He gave it to you in your heart. Amen. All right. Father, Lord, I just want to come before you and thank you for our short lesson today. And Lord, I want to thank you for just teaching us and exposing us to truth in Jesus name. We pray, Lord. Amen.