The Law of Christ - Part 2 — Charles Leiter

Paul’s Freedom and the Law of Christ

Well, let's look at these verses once again. It won't hurt us to become really familiar with this passage in 1 Corinthians 9. Paul says in verse 19, "...though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.".

He is free. That's the reality. He's free from all men. "...but he willingly makes himself a slave to all, that he might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew.". That explains some of the things that happen in the book of Acts.

"...that I might win Jews, to those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ.".

He doesn't want us to think that he just ran wild when he was with the Gentiles. He was under the law of Christ, or in-lawed to Christ. "...that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.

I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the Gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.". If we just very briefly look back at where we've come so far, we've seen three great principles in this first session.

The Purpose of the Law of Moses

One is that we saw something concerning the real purpose of the law of Moses. It was never given as an alternate method of salvation. Nobody has ever been saved by law-keeping. And God didn't set it up for that purpose.

It was never given to add conditions to the promise made to Abraham. Even in human contracts, you can't do that. And it was never intended as a means of salvation. What was its real purpose? Well, Paul says it was a child conductor, a tutor, to lead us to Christ, to expose sin, to convict of sin, to give types and shadows and examples of the coming Messiah.

You see that in John the Baptist. When Jesus came on the scene, He said, Behold, the Lamb of God. This is the real One. All that was foreshadowed in the law. So, the real purpose of the law. Then secondly, we saw that even though many of the promises made in the Old Testament appear to be physical in nature, and even have an initial physical fulfillment, yet when we come to the New Testament, we find that they had a much deeper significance.

It would take quite a bit of time to read even a representative number of passages, but one of them in the Old Testament, God talks about making a covenant with David. And He promised David that He would never lack a man to sit on His throne.

He said, it's as enduring as the sun, the moon. And that sounds pretty permanent. And the way it's all worded, it sounds like the lineage of David. David's sons, you know, one after another, sitting on His throne.

When you come to the New Testament, let me just read it to you. Luke chapter 1, this is verse 30. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.

Now, this is an angel speaking. This is a divine interpretation of prophecy. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. You see, this is the fulfillment of those promises where God told David, you'll never lack one of your seed, one of your descendants will reign on the throne forever, like the stars, like the moon, like the sun forever.

Well, this is it. The Lord Jesus is the fulfillment. One more, let's look in Acts chapter 15. This is where James is giving his interpretation of the Gentiles being saved. They meet there at Jerusalem at this council, and Peter tells about what God had done in the salvation of the Gentiles.

And verse 13, after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "'Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.

And with this, the words of the prophets agreed, just as it is written.". Now, we're getting an apostolic interpretation of Old Testament prophecy. And this is what he says, "'After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins and restore it.'".

Now, where's the building at? You know, you start looking around, maybe it's talking about rebuilding some temple or something. He said, this is what's already happened when Christ came and did the work that He did on the cross.

He's rebuilt the tabernacle of David. The Son of David is now reigning, you see. Verse 17, "'In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,' says the Lord who makes these things known from of old.".

So James says, look, this is a fulfillment of Scripture. God has rebuilt the tabernacle of David which has fallen, and now He's bringing in the Gentiles. You see, He takes it in a spiritual way. There are so many things like this.

"'Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain shall be lifted up,' makes straight in the desert a highway for our God.". It's not talking about a building project over in Palestine. "'Every mountain shall be made low, the valley shall be exalted,' is saying every proud person is going to be brought down.

Every humble person is going to be lifted up.". You see, these are New Testament ways of understanding these Old Testament prophecies. And then thirdly, the key to understanding the whole Bible is Christ.

And we won't spend more time on that, but you remember in Ephesians 1, He says, "'All this took place with a view to administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ.'".

He's the culmination of everything. Okay, so thus far we've seen that Christians, I'm going to just quote what Paul and others say, Christians are not under the law, they're free from the law, they're dead to the law, they're not under a tutor.

Freedom from the Curse and Condemnation of the Law

Relationship of a lost man to God is one of law. That's not the way it is with a Christian. He's not under law anymore. He's dead to law. So what does that mean? What does it mean to be dead to the law?

Does it mean that it's no longer wrong to murder? We know that can't be, so what does it mean that we have died to the law? Now, I want to go through several things with you very briefly, but I hope we can lay hold of these.

First of all, the Christian is dead to the law and free from the law. He's free from the curse and condemnation of the law. Paul says, as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. If you're still under the law, you're cursed.

Because if you're under law, you've broken that law and the curse of the law is resting on you. If you're still under there, you're cursed. And the lost man lives under a curse all the time. The wrath of God abides on him.

Now think of this, you may see this fellow out here, everything seems great, his kids are successful, they're not having any big problems, his tomatoes are all growing really great, and all the while, daily, he's living under a curse.

He's got the wrath of God abiding on him. He lives under perpetual curse. That's not true for the Christian. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. There is what?

Therefore now, no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. When you first become a Christian, you have this sense, my sins are gone, and God really does accept me. But after you've been a Christian a while, and you start realizing, you know, how much sin there is remaining and everything, you start to feel a little bit condemned and defiled.

Well, beloved, that is a lie. If you're a child of God today, there is not one tiny speck, not one little tiny sin that is remaining on your account. If there was, you'd have to go to hell forever to pay for it.

Sin is not imputed. God says, there are sins and there are iniquities, I'll remember no more. That whole category of sins and iniquities, it's gone. That's unbelievable. Christians aren't out on probation.

Their sins are no longer remembered. And it's an amazing thing. I mean, let me try to get across to you what this is. Maybe I used this when I was here last time, I don't remember, talking about justification.

But suppose that I get up this morning, and I'm a little bit unkind and rude to my wife, and I don't even really think about it. And I go off to work, and it dawns on me, that was sin. It wasn't intentional, but it was sin.

The Bible talks about that, you know. Unintentionally sinning. There is such a thing, a lot of it. And you realize it was sin, and I call my wife up and ask her forgiveness, or when I see her I ask her forgiveness, I ask God to forgive me.

Now, I committed a sin, and maybe it was two or three hours before I even realized, what if I had died in between there? Would I have gone to heaven or hell? Somebody nodded. If you nod, that doesn't answer my question.

You go to heaven. You realize what that means? That means during the time that you committed that sin, till the time that you realized and confessed it, during that whole time you remained in a justified state.

The sin was not imputed to you. It wasn't on your account. Now, suppose I knew. Suppose I was unkind to my wife, and I knew that I had been unkind to her. It was a known sin. I mean, I go out the door, I close it a little bit too hard, and go off in a huff to work.

I know none of you have ever experienced that as a husband. And all morning long, it's bothering you, it's bothering you. I thought that was wrong. You call your wife and ask her forgiveness, you ask God's forgiveness.

Now, that was a known sin. Suppose you had died between the time that you committed and the time you confessed it. Where would you go? I hope you'd say you'd go to heaven. You'd go to heaven. Now, think of what that means.

God did not impute that. There are sins in there, iniquities, I will remember no more. I blotted them out. They're gone. That's incredible. The Jews look at that and they say, Man, if that's true, then let us sin that grace might abound.

And if that's what's going on in your heart, you see, people say, well, that'll give... The Pharisees say, well, that'll give a license to sin. You know why? Because Pharisees read their Bible because they have to, and they go to church because they have to, and they hate being around Christians, but they have to.

See the difference? A true child of God... Why is it that it bothered me all morning? Because I'm a child of God, and I remain a child of God. You say, well, maybe that'll give a license to sin. If you're a true Christian, you already sin more than you want to.

Isn't that true? Because God says, when there are sins in there, iniquities, I'll remember no more. He says, I'll write My law on their heart. He puts something inside of you that wants to be like Him.

That's the difference between religion and being a Christian. Now, the flesh is gravitating all the time towards evil. That's not who you really are as a child of God. That's part of who you are, but that's not the deepest truth about you.

The deepest truth is you want the Lord. He's made you new in the innermost being. So, the Christian is no longer under condemnation. Now, that's a glorious thing. But secondly, we're free from the law as a means of obtaining righteousness and life.

Righteousness by Imputed Grace Rather Than Law-Keeping

You see, the law said, so that sins will die, we're free from that. We're no longer under the curse. But the law also said, do this and you'll live. If you want life, you've got to obey. And what happens when you become a Christian is God gives you the righteousness of Christ, and no longer are you under this thing that's saying, you've performed, or you're not going to have My favor.

You're not going to have life. You're not going to have blessing unless you perform. And so, if you do well one day, you think, wow, I did good today. You know, I'm God's son, God smiles on me. And if you don't do well, you feel like you're under the curse.

That isn't true. Now, if you do something as a Christian that's displeasing to God, eventually He'll chasten you. But chastening is a totally different thing. Chastening is suffering inflicted out of love for the good of the one being chastened.

In other words, it's a proof of my sonship. In other words, the Christian abides in a continual state of blessing. Romans 4, David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works.

Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin. That's the Christian. Here he is, his tomato plants are all wilted, and he's in prison, and he's a son of God, and he's blessed all the time.

He's abiding under perpetual blessing. And if he sins, God loves him so much, He'll give him a spanking and get him straightened out. That's a glorious thing that God loves me like that. I am no longer, and I'm free from the Law, that I've got to perform in order to have God's smile or blessing.

In the ultimate sense, His blessing is upon me all the time. Like I said, it doesn't mean that some of our actions may displease Him. And because He loves me so much, because His smile is upon me in the ultimate sense, He will chasten me in order to make me more like Christ.

Now, that's a totally different situation. Paul says, we're free from that. You have the righteousness of Christ. He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Freedom from the Law as an External Rule

How else is a Christian free from Law? Well, he's free from the Law as an external rule that contradicts his true nature and desires. Now, why do I bring this up? Well, because in experience, what the lost man experiences is a bond, it's a constriction.

He's constrained and restrained by threats and fear. You know, there was a bumper sticker years ago, everything I like is either illegal, immoral, or fattening. Well, the fattening part is one thing, but everything I like is illegal or immoral?

What's that saying about the heart? But you see, the lost man reaches out to steal, and the Law says, you shall not steal. He wants to commit adultery, it says, you shall not commit it. He's hemmed in, he's in bondage to the Law.

Christians are freed from the Law. How does that happen? He puts the Law inside of you so that you want to be the things that the Law requires. How does Paul put it? We probably ought to turn to this.

This is so important. Galatians 5 and verse 18. If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the Law. Now, he's not talking about something that changes from one day to the next. He's talking about the state of Christians.

Christians are those who are Spirit-led, and they're not under the Law. Now, the deeds of the flesh are evident, and he goes through all those things, and says that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Now look at this phrase. Against such things there is no Law. What's he saying?

He's saying, just walk in the Spirit, just be what God has made you to be, and you will never have a restriction. But you'll never run into a fence called the Law. You're free. Now, I wish I could get this across.

Think about heaven. Here we are all in heaven, and you come around the corner and there's a sign, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You see, the reality is there in your heart. You don't want that.

You're totally free. When you get to heaven, the principle that God has put in your heart to love Him has become the only reality in your life. Now, right now, we're still battling the flesh. But the principle that's in us is a love.

That's what he means when he says, I'll put my Law inside of you. A love for righteousness. That's why in 1 Timothy 1, 9 and 10, he says, the Law was not made for a righteous man. It's made for all these different...

I'd better read it. Realizing the fact that Law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God with which I've been entrusted.

In other words, the Law is made to restrain the wicked. Christians are in a different category. There's something that's happened inside of them. And they no longer are restrained from evil all the time by outside force.

There's something inside of them restraining them. We're staying over at the Tom's, and I don't see any of those cameras up, you know, trying to make sure we don't steal anything. No sign shoplifters will be prosecuted.

You see, when you're dealing with Christians, we had a book room there, and we've got cash in there. And somebody said, when I was talking about this, they said, well, you don't leave a lot of cash in there, do you?

I'm not afraid of Christians stealing that. See the difference? I mean, there might be some lost kids there that are in deep trouble and need. They might take something out of there. But I'm not really trying to make sure.

I don't want to let Jan get in there. She might steal something. We're free. You're free to be who you really are. It's a glorious thing. You're free from the law. How else are we free? Well, we're dead to the law in the sense that we've moved out of the whole realm of demand, and we're in the realm of supply.

Grace as the Realm of Supply

Now, this is a little different. It's similar, but it's a little different than what I'm talking about here. We've moved out of the realm of demand, and we're in the realm of supply, or what the Bible calls grace.

Romans 6 .14, sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law. You're not in the realm of demand. You're under grace. There's two realms. You know, there's the realm of law, and over here is the realm of grace.

There's the realm of the flesh. Over here is the realm of the Spirit. There's the realm of condemnation. Over here is the realm of justification. This is the realm of sin. This is the realm of righteousness.

We're over here in this realm. And over in this realm, nothing depends ultimately on us. Back in that realm, when you were under the law, it did depend. It was conditioned on you. Let me give you an example of this.

Peter has a problem with self-confidence. It's a sin problem. He's over here in the realm of grace. The Lord Jesus engineers a situation where Peter will fail so that that problem with self-confidence can be dealt with, so that he can be stronger.

And He says, after this is over, when you turn again, not if you turn again, you'll be able to help these other guys out. You'll be able to strengthen the brethren. You see what we're talking about? A realm of supply rather than a realm of demand.

You may be shocked in your Christian life. You may have things come out where you're shocked at how much sin still remains, and how bad you still are in some way. But God isn't shocked. He knew all about all that before He ever chose you.

And He sets to work when He saves you. He says, look, I won't turn away from you to do you good. Not only that, I'll put the fear of me in you so that you won't turn away from Me. That's supply. That's grace.

And so He undertakes to do for us everything. He says, I'll cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. There's things in your life after you become a Christian, and God says, I'm going to work on those.

I'm not going to leave you alone until I make you like Christ. It doesn't depend ultimately on our performance. It depends upon His faithfulness. He says, I will reign over you. I will be your God. I'll cleanse you from everything.

I'm going to get the job done. Now, if you don't find that happening in your life, then you need to be afraid. But if you're a child of God, you find that happening. Sometimes you may try to walk beyond what you are, and you fall back a ways, but lo and behold, there it is under that reality of great God's...

You know, I remember one night I was teaching a Bible study to the students, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, and I was coming into our house, and I dawned on them, and I thought, I really am a Christian. I'm a Christian.

I mean, God has changed me. I love God. I really do. Isn't it a glorious thing? We're free. We're free. No longer is it dependent upon you. You're out of the realm of demand. You're in the realm of supply.

You're free from the Law. I will work in you. I'll work in you. He says, I'll work in you, both to will and to do of My good pleasure. The fact that you desire to do what's good, I worked it in you. And then once you start desiring it, it's a long ways before you actually get there, isn't it?

But He says, I'll work in you to do of My good pleasure too. Safe in Thy sanctifying grace, Almighty to restore. Born onward, carried onward, sin and death behind, and love and life before. Oh, let my soul abound in hope and praise Thee more and more.

Carried forward by grace. What did He say? He says, talking about the Law of Moses, Romans 5, the Law entered that sin might increase. Not as the Jews thought that men might save themselves by law keeping.

No, the Law entered that sin might increase. But where sin abounded, grace abounded, it increased all the more. That as sin hath reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life.

We're living in a realm where grace is reigning. Now, in the old realm, sin reigns. That means sin gets on a man's back and it rides him down till it destroys it. It rides and beats him to death. Now, what happens when you become a Christian?

You're out of that realm of demand. But grace is reigning. How much? As much as sin used to reign. Don't you like having grace riding on your back, you know? Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Grace is reigning over you, working in you, keeping you from going astray, causing you to turn toward God, the realm of supply. So, that's the realm we live in.

God has put His very life in us, and grace is reigning. And the way we bear fruit, according to the Lord Jesus, the way you bear fruit is not by looking at the Law. It's by abiding in the Vine. If you abide in Me, and I abide in you, what happens?

You'll bear much fruit. What's He saying? If He's saying anything, He's saying the way you get fruit is not by rules and externals, it's by internal life that I've put in you. How are you going to bear fruit?

Abide in the Vine. Basically, He's saying, the word abide just means continue, stay where you are. It's not saying, go out and climb the highest mountain. No. Stay where you are. Abide. You know, the Puritans were a group of godly men, and I don't want to categorize them, but there was a little bit of a flavor of looking back at the Law.

Sanctification through Gazing on Christ

And one of the men actually said, Moses takes us to Christ to be justified. That's the Tudor, right? The Law leads us to Christ. That part's good. He said, Christ sends us back to Moses to be sanctified.

Now go back and start studying those commandments. You know, I've got this thousand page book on the Ten Commandments. And really dig in and try to concentrate on your duty. Beloved, Christ doesn't need to send you anywhere to sanctify you.

He doesn't need to send you back to Moses. You look at Christ, that's entirely sufficient. Paul says, we're gazing at Him. We're being transformed into the same image, even from glory to glory, by gazing on Christ.

The problem with most of us is we have so little glimpse of Christ. It's not that you don't know enough commandments. The way of growth in the Christian life is not by focusing on Law or on sin. I've got this problem with sin, man.

I've got to really zero in on that sin and think about it day and night, and really work on it to get out of it. No, you just need a little glimpse of Christ. That stuff goes out the window so quickly.

Temptations lose their power when thou art not. Haven't you experienced that? You get a little glimpse of grace. You get a little glimpse of Christ. It's like, I don't want that stuff. The way of holiness, beloved, is not Law, even New Testament Law.

It's the power of the Spirit. What did we read? The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and so on. We are not called to produce those things. It's the fruit of the Spirit. We're to be channels.

We're to be rightly related. Let Him live that. And haven't you experienced that? You get on your knees before God. You get cleansed of your sins and you think again. You lay hold again of what He's done for you.

And all of a sudden, the joy is there, and the peace is there, it's the Spirit having free course. Alright, I've spent too long on those, but it's wonderful stuff. We're dead to the Law. There's another way, number five.

The New Covenant and the Law of Christ

We're free from the Law as a covenant rule of duty. The Law of Moses, we're not under that anymore, as a covenant rule of duty. Now that means, you see, when God gave the Law, He gave a unit. It was all these commandments.

613, the rabbis said, all of that was the Law. That is not the covenant we're under anymore. We're in the new covenant. No longer do you have to bring a lamb or something when you accidentally touch a lizard carcass.

All of that stuff, including the ten commandments. Now listen to me carefully here. Again, what did I say? I said, I'm not saying murder is right now. I'm saying that those things as a unit, we're not under that anymore.

None of it. We're not under those. We're free from it as a covenant rule of duty. Not that the Law of Christ, now over here in this realm, the new covenant, not that the Law of Christ contradicts any of that.

God forbid, it fulfills and surpasses it. Just like I said, which one's higher? You shall not commit adultery or love your wife as Christ loved the church. You're dealing with something much, much more that takes that in and goes way beyond it.

Never in any sense, in any way, shape or form is Christ throwing that out. He's taking it way beyond. But nevertheless, our mindset is, I'm not under that anymore. I'm over here in this realm. I'm looking at what Jesus said.

I'm looking at what the apostles said. Now there's questions coming up, I hope, in your mind. We're going to talk about them in a little bit. But think of this. Back in the Old Testament, Moses said, he was prophesying.

He said, God said through Moses, there's a day coming when I'm going to raise up a prophet like you from among your brethren. Remember that? Toward the end of Moses' life, or somewhere in there, he says, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you from among your brethren, and anyone that doesn't listen to the words of that prophet will be cut off from among the people.

So now, this great Moses says, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you. Let's look back here, and probably ought to turn to this in Deuteronomy 18. Verse 15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like Me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to Him.

This is according to all that you ask of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire any more lest I die.

And the Lord said to me, they've spoken well, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.

Now you might say, well, I could be talking about any prophet, but you get over to the end of Deuteronomy chapter 34, at the time of Moses' death, verse 10, chapter 34, and this is the closing words of Deuteronomy,.

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. For all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent Him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all His servants and all His land, and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

They said, no, there hasn't been anybody like that. Now let's turn to Acts chapter 3. Acts 3 and verse 22, Peter is preaching here. And verse 22, Moses said, The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.

To him you shall give heed in everything he says to you. And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. That was the Jewish branches that were broken off from that olive tree.

And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announce these days, it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

For you first God raised up His servants and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. So here's this promise again, you see. But Christ is the prophet like unto Moses. Did He speak to God face to face?

There's never anybody that spoke to God face to face like He did. Did He show the mighty signs and wonders like Moses? Well, He went way beyond anything that Moses did. Christ swallows up and replaces Moses as a lawgiver, just like He swallows up and replaces Aaron as a priest.

And He swallows up and replaces David as a king. Is Christ a true priest? He's the only true priest that ever lived. Aaron was just doing stuff there with rams and stuff. He wasn't interceding truly and taking away sin.

Aaron was a shadow. Christ is the reality, you see. The only real priest that ever lived was the Lord Jesus Christ. Was He a king? Yeah, He's the only king who's ever been. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Everything that any other king, David or Solomon or whoever, they were just little shadows. They were weak men. Now beloved, listen to this. Is Christ the lawgiver? Yeah, He's the only lawgiver that's ever been.

Moses was the shadow. He is the one that speaks the very words of God. Now that gives you a little different perspective about the Sermon on the Mount. People say, well, all He's doing there is correcting false Jewish ideas about what Moses said.

No, He is not. You've heard this about performing vows. I say to you, don't do it at all. How is that correcting false ideas? See, you've heard, you shall not commit adultery. I say to you, whoever looks on a woman to lust has committed adultery already.

The law of Moses was not talking about that. He was talking about a civil nation exercising the death penalty for an actual act of adultery. A judge in Israel had no way of knowing whether somebody committed adultery in his heart.

Now that doesn't mean it was right back then. In fact, we learned from Job that he wouldn't look on a woman. But the fact is, the Mosaic law itself was dealing with a civil nation. Now what do we have?

The Sermon on the Mount and the Laws of Christ’s Kingdom

Well, that mount was glorious where God gave that law written by the finger of God. But if you have eyes to see, there was something more glorious than that. If I could choose, I would like to be there at that mountain and see that mountain on fire and all that, no.

I'd rather be at the Sermon on the Mount where God incarnate sat and said, I say unto you, you have heard this, but I say unto you. What's He doing there? He's telling us deeper things, yes, but what He's doing is He's giving the laws of His kingdom.

And these are laws that could never be given to a civil nation, a physical nation of mostly unregenerate Jews. Most of them were unregenerate. Look at the way they lived. But He's giving laws that are for a nation of 100 regenerate people who all know the Lord, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The stuff that's absolutely impossible for anyone other than one empowered by the very life of Christ outside, coming from outside themselves and filling them with strength to do it. And these are not legal, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, number, they're guideposts.