We're on the Law of God, Article 19, of 1689, Second Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith. And we're going to go through and read and study along and see what the scripture has to say and whatnot. So, Wyatt, I'll let you pray for us. In the Lord Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. And I pray for all of you. The people recovering from Hurricane Emma, and I pray for the people in the hurricane of Hurricane, what was it, Hazel? And Jesus, I hope everyone that's not even in the hurricane, but having struggled and using that. And please help Mommy. So Diane just made it through the security. She had three TSA agents check through her luggage and everything. And they had to scan her snacks for bomb residue. She's like, that was funny. Yeah, you know how they do that, don't you? They take a bite out of each corner. Nope, that, yep, that is a graham crackers. Started because we're only going to have about 20 minutes or so. Point one of article 19. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience which was written in his heart and he gave him very specific instructions about not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So Genesis 127 starts out and it says, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. So God made Adam in his image, The one passage that's not on here should be a few sections down where it says, and God told Adam that he could eat of any tree that he wanted to, any fruit that he wanted to, except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Okay, so Genesis 2, 17. Go ahead and read that, Gary. Good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Okay. So there it is. That's what I was saying. Notice that the prohibition there was that God gave one specific rule, one specific command. Nothing else that was done prior to eating the fruit was sin. You can kind of look at it with Adam as the preamble to sin. When you give a preamble, you're giving the declaration of what your intentions are. You know, the scripture's fairly clear. I mean, there's theologians that argue with this, but the scripture is fairly clear that Adam was with Eve when Eve was tempted by the serpent. Because the scripture, if you'll read Genesis, it will kind of give you that indication that they were together. But the point is, is the serpent went and spoke to Eve. And he did not defend Eve. He didn't kill the serpent, step on his head, whatever else. He just kind of sat there. He just kind of sat quietly by and let it happen. But think about the, the act. Yeah, so there you go. So you have to think about the act that is going on here, is that Adam's sin, in Genesis 2.17, we find out that it was a sin, it would have been a sin, a violation of God's one command. So God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience. OK, I mean, I'm not going to dispute that to any degree that it was a law of universal obedience. It was something certainly that he had to obey. I'm not I'm not certain that I would I would call it a law of universal obedience in that case because you notice that when Eve Committed the sin when Eve did not obey when Eve ate the fruit and obeyed the serpent nothing happened to her It wasn't until Adam sinned now if you want to talk about the issue of federal headship the reason was that he was the federal head, not Eve. He was the one that was supposed to be the spiritual leader, not Eve. He was the one that was supposed to stand up and defend what was right and do what was right. It was not expected, it was not a condemnation upon her, because the bloodline, the seed comes through the man. comes through Adam. In fact, the Hebrew says that Eve came from Adam, or woman come out of man, not man out of woman. That messes evolution all up, doesn't it? But anyway, if you go to Ecclesiastes 7.29, we read this, lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, But they have sought out many inventions many sins many Many devices or different ways to sin if you want to look at it that way It's it's the same thing in Romans where we find out that it's the deceitful wicked heart of man to sin That's it's what's in the heart of man. It's we sit in Genesis as well when when God comes down and he Looks upon the the world and and he condemns the world and he floods the world and Noah comes out of the ark and he says, I'm never going to do this again because the heart of man is wicked, it's evil, it's corrupt, it's absolutely depraved. Well, in the sense that it has to be Adam, that he made man upright. You have to think about it this way. God actually did make man upright. I mean, if Adam had not sinned, I've heard the argument, well, if somebody else had sinned after Adam, then it would have continued on. No, here's the issue. With Adam being the federal head, he's the first, right? If he's got purple blood, everybody else has got purple blood. If he's got whatever trait, everybody else has got that trait. Since he was made right, everybody else would have been right. If somebody else had sinned in his bloodline, his family line, that individual would have been condemned, not every single individual ever born. Well, that person's bloodline, and then whoever he tainted, yeah. Yeah, whoever they had tainted in sin, sure. Yeah. So, I mean, there probably still would have been an outwork. Of course, you could have said, well, they had a pure bloodline, blah, blah, blah. But by this, Adam and all his descendants were bound to personal, total, exact, and perpetual obedience. Listen to what it's saying here. That this universal law that was bound to Adam, well, and particularly the obedience to God in that they not eat of the fruit. Okay. By that law. But because they did, the law was expanded into many different things. You have to look at it. It wasn't a written law, but it was a law that was in the heart of man. We've talked about this. Before Moses wrote the law down, you see Cain and Abel. Their first sin was murder. And God told them, told Cain, this is wickedness, don't do this, this is wrong. Yeah, he knew, yeah. But then you also have, if you go forward, you know, you start looking at, you look at slavery, you look at, you know, the murder, the selling of Joseph into slavery, you look at adultery, you look at lust, you look at wars, destruction, hate, all those things are being played out throughout the generations before the law was given. But the Bible tells us that the law's purpose is to what? It's to expound or expose or magnify what sin is. It makes it perfectly plain that every single person, that what you're doing is, it actually is sin. You know, that people might say, well, I feel like this is wrong. Well, that's fine, but it's not about your feelings. It's about what God says is wrong. And while you may feel that it's wrong, God delineates what's right and wrong. He's the one that delineates what is sin and what's not. And you think, when the fruit, whatever it was, was on the tree before it was eaten, there was only one sin. And that is eating of that fruit. The implication is not, well, that fruit. The implication is disobedience to God. Romans 10, 5. Now what I want to point out in Romans 10, 5 is this. There are teachings, and we're going to see some of this here, that we're going to have to deal with. What I want to point out is Romans 10, 5 says, talks about the difference between Moses and what he's talking about on the law and the law of Christ and that we are now dead to the law. Now here's what I want to point out. Romans 10, 5, for Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law. In other words, if you want to be seen as righteous by the law, that's very easy. All you have to do is keep the entire law perfectly and absolutely never violate it because The law's only purpose is to tell you what the standard is and to condemn you as soon as you break it. It doesn't give grace. It doesn't give righteousness. It doesn't give anything for you. It tells you what the standard is. Now, if you keep it all perfectly and do every single jot and tittle perfectly, never, never violating it, then it says, okay, you've done what is righteous, okay, by the law standard. The problem is nobody ever did it. The only one that's ever done it was Jesus Christ. That's the purpose he came. He came to perfect the law. The Bible says he came to fulfill the law. And what he's talking about here, he says this, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. In other words, okay, you're going to say you're going to be righteous by your work of obedience. Well, first of all, that was already failed by Adam. So before you even get to your work of obedience, you have a sin nature. You're already condemned under Adam. Romans goes on and tells us that we're all condemned under Adam. Even before we sin personally, we have the family bloodline of sin. Every one of us. So we're all condemned under the law. Okay? Keep going. Being promised life, upon the fulfilling of the law, and threatened with death upon the breach of it, at the same time Adam was endued with power and ability to keep it." Now let's point out Galatians 3.10 it says here, Kristen you want to go ahead? For as many as are of the works of the law, I've heard this claim, well, if I don't know the law, I'm not under the law. Well, this says here, if I'm not a Jew, I'm not under the law, in other words. But it says here, the works of the law. In other words, the law says you shall not murder, right? So if it says you shall not murder and you're angry at your brother without a reason, you hate somebody, you're doing all those things that work up to the violation, and even the Old Testament says if you hate somebody without a charge, you're in sin. It actually calls you a murderer. And Jesus pointed out even more expounding upon that, which is why we talk about the law of Christ. But going on, Galatians 3.10, for as many as are are of the works of the law are under the curse. Now think of what I'm saying. If you are a product of the works of the law, then you're cursed. Even if you say, well, I'm a Jew, I'm a Gentile. Now, you gotta remember who Galatians is written to. And I actually heard a really good study on this, on the book of Galatians. Paul Kaiser actually talked about this really a lot, and we may actually pull it up and listen to it. Talks about the book of Galatians. There are sections in Galatians where Paul is addressing, look, we're Jews. We've got the law. You're Gentiles. You're under the law. You're now under the law. And he talks about the fact that you've been set free from the law, but you've been condemned by it. In other words, Galatians 3.10 is specifically talking about those that are under the works of the law, which is every single one of us. Now look at what it says. For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. So the implication is, if you're trying to work out salvation, if you're trying to maintain righteousness, if you're trying to build a rapport with God that's honorable by keeping His commandments, by keeping His law, if you're trying to do those things, you're cursed. Because what you've done is you've acknowledged that God has a standard, that He has a law, And you've acknowledged that it must be kept, and if you violate it at any point, then you're condemned by it. It doesn't justify anyone. Right? That's not the purpose of the law. Like we keep saying, the law's purpose is not to make anyone righteous, it's to show us what righteousness is. And everybody that fails that standard is crushed and cursed by the law. It is the speed limit sign right down the road here. And the cop that goes by that speed limit sign perfectly will not give you a half a mile an hour over. He's doing what he's supposed to do. Think about it. If the speed limit sign is 30, you know, And on this interstate, on this highway, everybody's doing 60, 70, 80 miles an hour, whatever the interstate usually is. And there's this one section and it says 30 miles an hour. And everybody's like, I'm not doing that. Is the law wrong? Now you may argue all day long about the validity of that 30 mile an hour speed limit sign, but that's what it is. You don't get to argue, you have to obey. But you say, I'm not gonna obey that because I don't think it's right. And that cop on the other side of that speed limit sign says, but I keep the law perfectly. And because you didn't, because you didn't, you're condemned by it. And he gives no grace, because the law gives no grace. Think. Think about it. Every single time a police officer does not pull you over for violating the law, he's giving grace. Okay? Every time. Even if he violates the law himself. Okay, that's a different subject. But, now go on to 312. The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Now, that's very important. The law is not of faith. In other words, the law cannot produce faith and faith does not produce the law. It doesn't produce a drive, an absolute fastidious passion, dogmatic desire that I have to keep every law perfectly or I'm condemned. That's not what faith is. Faith is I'm condemned and Christ redeemed me. Well, it yeah the law is that thing that condemns us and faith is that thing which says That Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. That's what the Bible tells us clearly. So let's keep going Okay, the same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall Romans 2 14 through 15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience Also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another I mean This is pretty pretty cut and dry, but let's let's look at it. You know just so we understand it This is talking about the difference between the Jew and the Gentile You know Romans 1 to 3 he puts everybody under a condemnation of the law. Paul is setting out to tell everybody that they're condemned under the law. And what I want to point out is this. This is where we come up with the understanding that outside of Christ everyone is under the law. Okay, every single person outside of Jesus Christ is under the law. So it's not unfair or unright. It's not wrong to claim that every single person who sins, whether they know they're sinning or not, they're still guilty. Let's go back to that speed limit sign. You're driving along. and you're doing 55. And all of a sudden, it drops down to a school zone and you don't know about it. You didn't know, you have no clue. Let's say, for example, you're driving along, you're gonna take a right, and you turn into a school zone, and it happens to be an active school zone, and there's no flashers because you're too close. You just pass the flashers, you turn, and you take off, and you're going back up to a speed, and all of a sudden, cop pulls you over. Didn't know I was breaking law officer. Look, I'm sorry. I look if I had known that's too bad. You should have known Yeah, he's got he's not going to tell you oh it's okay just because you didn't know and that's what's being said here to the Gentile who says who says I didn't know I don't have the law and here's what saying The the commandments were given to the Jewish people But that didn't exonerate all the Gentiles that didn't have it The Jew agreed the Gentile, you know, you know, there's the Jew and there's everybody else and you think you go look in the Old Testament How many times do you see look at Nineveh, for example? They had not one single drop of the Ten Commandments given to them, you know but here comes Jonah he comes walking in he tells them they need to repent they're like I Well, actually, he did not tell him to repent. I apologize. He did not. He actually came in and told him, in 40 days, you're going to be destroyed. And they repented. They cried out to God. They confessed. They believed. You know, they cried out and said, you know, perhaps this God will relent and he won't destroy us. And they came in repenting. And he did. And actually Jonah was angry because he says, I knew you, that you would forgive them if they repented. And I didn't want them to be Forgiven I wanted them to be destroyed. I want you to destroy them and he actually reviled and hated God because God did not do what he wanted done, which was to destroy all the people and They were still in sin against the Holy God But they didn't know it but that didn't that didn't exonerate them It's the same issue as if you go into a land. I mean, here in America, we have certain laws. And we've seen it happen how many times where somebody goes into the Philippines or goes over to Peru or goes over to wherever, and they break a law there. I mean, South Korea, North Korea. They go in places and they break laws that we look and are like, that's the stupidest thing in the world. I remember when I was younger there was a kid, teenager or something like that, went on a trip and I want to say he was in Peru but I could be wrong. He goes in and he actually spit on the sidewalk. And in that custom, that was like one of the biggest offenses you can do. It's like in China, you're sticking your fork in your food, sticking it there. It's just a huge offense to the people. He spits on the sidewalk. No, he spit out his chewing gum. He spit out his chewing gum on the sidewalk. He got like 39 lashes from a cane for that. Yeah, he got caned like 39 lashes or 30-something lashes, it was a bunch. Everybody's all aghast and uproarious, but wait a minute, this is our law, you violate it. I didn't know, too bad. You know, yeah, I mean, you have to make it your business to know and keep the law. And that's what's being said here. The sovereign God of the universe, the ruler of the universe, he's got a law. And just because you say you don't know it, that doesn't justify it. That doesn't make it okay. Now keep going there. Having not the law or a law unto themselves. In other words, it's in their hearts. It's not saying that their standards are different. Think about it this way. The pagan world has standards. But if you go talk to that pagan world, it's all built upon the presupposition of Jesus Christ, of God's law. In other words, no murder, adultery, that's wrong, rape is wrong, incest in most cases is wrong, unless you're Muslim, but a couple of other groups. But for the most part, you see that While they don't have the Ten Commandments, while they don't have the law of God, they don't have the Bible, the word of God, they still, when you open the scriptures up, they live by those standards, the rules, the law that was written in their conscience. Now this one says, the reason for this or the proof of this is that it shows the work of the law written in their hearts. Their conscience bears witness either for them or against them. Even if they say, I don't know the Ten Commandments, you sit there and you pull them out, and you say, see, you're condemned just like everybody else. Exactly. So it goes on, and that was point two. And was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments and written in two tables, the first four containing the duty towards God and the other six, the duty to men, or to man. Deuteronomy 10, four, I'll let you go, Gary. As we look at this, we see that there was a law that was given to Adam. It was not exactly as enunciated as after the fall. But after the fall, it became more and more evident in the actions of mankind and the condemnations that God brought for these actions. As we start going farther and farther along, we get to Deuteronomy. And we get to Exodus and Deuteronomy, we see that God has begun to make it perfectly clear of what His expectation is and that all men are under this expectation. Now, we've talked about the Ten Commandments being written, the two tables. The first is the duty to God, the second is the duty to man. But Jesus Christ expounds that. Think about what He says. And I use this all the time when I'm sharing the Gospel. And say, you know, you can wrap up all the commandments under this. Have you loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have you loved God perfectly the way He deserves to be loved? No idols. You know, God is first and foremost in your life no matter what. No idols. You worship Him the way He prescribes that He will be worshiped. You know, you will not put anything that you consider to be equal with God. Have you loved Him perfectly? Everybody I've ever known says, Well, not perfectly, okay? Then you violated the standard of God because where I come from on that is Jesus Christ said the greatest commandment is this. And he expounds it. He doesn't just lay it to the side. He expounds all the commandments. Love God perfectly. Honor God. Worship God. Serve God. Him alone. And then he says, and your neighbor as yourself. And love your neighbor as yourself. So he not only gives the entire Ten Commandments in one statement, But then he expounds it and says that the greatest issue is to love God perfectly the way he deserves to be loved and to love every other human being just as you would love yourself. And then you can break that down to that golden rule. So it's even more than the Ten Commandments. It's what's the expectation you would have upon yourself. Then you should do that expectation upon all men. And so he brings it out even more. We'll talk about that much later. Deuteronomy 10.4, he wrote those tables down and he gave them to Moses. In the midst of the fire, it says, on the mount, in the midst of the fire, the day of assembly. In other words, every man was gathered around for 40 days and he gave this law to man. Let's go just for a minute more. Point number three, besides this law commonly called the moral law, God was pleased to give the people of Israel ceremonial laws containing several typical ordinances. These ordinances were partly about their worship and in them Christ was prefigured along with his attributes, qualities, and actions, his sufferings, and his benefits. In other words, these are types and shadows that were given. Now one thing I want to point out here, There are people that want to separate the three tables of the law. They want the moral, the ceremonial, and the sacrificial. The problem is, is the moral and the, I'm sorry, the ceremonial and the sacrificial are all hinged upon the outworking of the moral law. and how you're to worship God, and they were an explanation of what God expected in His moral law, and you can't separate those. So I want to make it clear that I'm not a covenant theologian. I don't believe in covenant theology. I think it's wrong and it's an error. I am obviously progressive dispensational. Of course, I tell all the new covenant theologians that your problem is you're not new covenant. You're just denied the one part of dispensationalism that you need to hold on to. No, no, no, no. Covenant theology does that. The New Covenant theology, the only issue that I have with the New Covenant theology part is what they do with Israel. They set it aside and New Covenant theology says, and it's not new in the sense that it's new, but they say we hold to the New Covenant in Christ The covenant theologian says, well, we go back to Abraham and whatnot. Now, I want to point this out. You know, people ask me all the time, don't you believe we're under the Abrahamic covenant? I said, no, wait a minute. We're under the new covenant in Christ. Now, does the Abrahamic covenant get fulfilled in Jesus Christ? Absolutely. But I'm not under the mosaic covenant or the abrahamic covenant. I'm under the new covenant in christ. I'm not going to sit here and assume Your position your covenant theology position that we're still under those old covenants This because i'm going to prove it here You know here in a few weeks or a week or so that the bible tells us clearly that those old covenants were done away with By the introduction of the new covenant and the death of the one that gave the testimony There must come the death of the testator. The one that died must be the one that brought in the new covenant. And that's what Jesus Christ did. And he was that perfect covenant keeper and he brought that in. a lot of the groups even covenant theology will teach that Israel is Was set aside and the only actual Israel is the church of the Old Testament You know, they were in the Old Testament all true Israel and the Old Testament was that became the church And so they it's a replacement theology and then they say oh, no. No, we're not replacement theologians No, no, no. We never were replacement. We always were the church. No, sorry, but that's the mystery. The mystery of the New Covenant is the church, is wrapped up in the church age. But that's going to come to an end, and that's what the Scripture clearly explains to us. It'll be coming at a time when the bride of Christ will be taken away and God will begin to continue that 70th week of Daniel when he will begin to continue the work that he did that started with Israel to redeem his nation of Israel, his people of Israel. In the Bride of Christ, exactly. And I'm telling you, the thing is, Jew and Gentile now is saved under Christ. When the rapture takes place, what we'll see is Jew and Gentile will be saved again, but it will be under the, there'll be a changing of the guard. It will go back to the Israelites being the ones that are supposed to be, that are fulfilling what they're supposed to be doing in the Old Testament, which is going out proclaiming. Yeah. So we're going to end at point number three on article 19 and we'll pick that back up and for Anybody that hears this and you're wondering what in the world you talking about? There are several sermons we did on this on the the the place of the law and the understanding of the law did four or five of those and if you want to want to know more about Israel obviously look at the look at the sermons we did on Israel and the New Covenant and look at what we did with Israel and New Jerusalem and eschatology so look at those as well so Wyatt you started out by praying for us once you go ahead and end it by praying for us You're working under a forceful basis, but I get it. Work this rest of the day.