The Christian and the Law: Learning, Loving, and Living It

Puritan Reformed Church Phoenix

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For some 119 our topic

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How a Christian should use God's law to live and what we're gonna do is

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I've taken a Gone through the whole psalm and we're gonna look at the main Things taught that are repeated throughout the psalm.

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I'll read the first five verses Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the

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Lord Blessed are they who keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart

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They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently Or that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes

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We've seen that the moral laws the Christians rule for sanctified sanctified living that when habitually obeyed

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Leads to covenant blessings and we've also looked at the importance of walking according to all of God's statutes

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As we consider psalm 119 would also benefit from examining all the various things that we are required to do to be a mature wise obedient Christian and There are a number of things required that are so important.

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They are repeated a number of times for emphasis The psalm is very repetitory using slightly different term words.

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It means slightly different things But it's basically saying the same thing over and over again Let us examine each thing in its logical order for edification first If we were to benefit at all from God's commandments, we must learn what they teach

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Psalm 119 7 71 73 Learning the moral law leads to the worship of Yahweh because the law reflects

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God's nature and character Psalm 119 verse 7 The Christian who comes under some sort of affliction will greatly benefit under these circumstances by studying and learning lods the

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Lord statutes Verse 71 and we're to pray for understanding so that we would better learns God's commandments verse 73

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We learn the law in order to praise and we praise all the more when we have learned And my last point today, which

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I just have one page on I don't want to go too long as on We're making covenant renewal we're promising to keep the commandments and learn them and I have three quick quotes here here's on Newpold in practice you praise

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God by esteeming his word so precious that you make it your business to learn it Such learning is an act of faith and praise

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Dixon David Dixon sound praises of God are the fruit of soundness and piety and righteousness and the holiest of God's servants are but scholars and students in the knowledge and obedience of both and then

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Matthew Henry Though Christ keep a free school and teach us without money and without price yet. He expects his scholars should give him thanks both for his word and for his spirit

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To learn means to receive God's instruction Torah Torah The purpose of learning the law is so that we would know how to keep it

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Deuteronomy 5 1 here. Oh Israel The statutes and judgments where I speak in yours to stay that you may learn them and Be careful to observe them observe them

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So we have to learn obviously what it teaches before we can follow what it teaches When Moses gave the law to Israel, he said this

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Deuteronomy 414. This is the covenant renewal The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments in order that you might observe them in the land

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Which you come over to possess And here's

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Thomas Manton. It is a learning as the effect will necessary necessarily necessarily follow

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Such a light and illumination is to convert the soul and frame our hearts and ways according to the will of God For otherwise if we get understanding of the word nay, if we get it imprinted in our memories, it will do us no good without practice the best of God's servants are but scholars and students in the knowledge and Obedience of his word end of quote

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Christians who are serious about sanctification wisdom and justice Should read God's law and study it carefully for it forms the core of Christian ethics

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The Proverbs are an application. The prophets are preaching Against people breaking the law and what to do to repent

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The New Testament simply reflects the law of God and makes applications it does not give us any new ethics at all

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If one refuses, excuse me, if it defines social justice And it sets the ethical parameter of church discipline for ethical infractions

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In fact, Yahweh gives us an excellent reason for studying and learning God's laws when he calls them his righteous judgments verse 7 the word righteous

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Zedek Refers to perfect absolutely correct just judicial decisions or perfectly correct moral actions

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Jehovah's laws are perfect. Totally just absolutely righteous because God is infinitely holy and righteous

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John 1 1 5 God is light and in him is no darkness at all the word righteous or righteousness

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Embodies The thinking and behavior that God expects of all of his people We must judge our thoughts

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Hebrews 4 12 Jeremiah 6 19 words Matthew 12 36 actions

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Ecclesiastes 12 14 by the Lord's perfect law word for the judicial sentences of God are always right and Are never wrong

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Hebrews 2 2 And I'll just say When the Bible talks about sanctification when the

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Bible talks about justice when the Bible talks about church discipline when the Bible talks about Civil penalties when the

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Bible talks about how to apply a lot of society it never ever refers to natural law

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Ever God's revealed moral laws are the standard not simply for temporal judgments

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Proverbs 1131 But also for the great white throne judgment at the final day John 12 48 when professing

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Christians Malign God's Old Testament moral laws as defective too harsh culturally conditioned only for Israel too particular or not flexible enough and Thus seek to replace the revealed moral law with some vague

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Undefined natural law theory they not only reveal a lack of faith in the Word of God But implicitly malign the

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Lord's character who gave us the law the law is the greatest gift other than Jesus Christ It's a greatest gift of mankind for we are a fallen people who need direction

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Apart from the law We will follow our own ways as we read the Bible and we know that that leads to disaster every single time some 119 137 138 142

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Righteous are you a Lord and upright are your judgments your testimonies? Which you have commanded are righteous and very faithful your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and your law is truth

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Psalm 19 7 8 and 9 be The law of the Lord is perfect and sure

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The statutes of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord is pure the judgments of the

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Lord are true and righteous altogether and then Paul After he slams the law as not being able to justify anyone it convicts of sin

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It's we're not to look to it for justification But he wants to get the he doesn't want people to get the dispensational impression that God has a

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Unfavorable view of the law the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good

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The moral law revealed in Scripture is based on God's character and thus is totally righteous good.

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Holy moral true Consequently, it must be believed and obeyed

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It is the only true totally true and solid foundation for personal and social ethics once again

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God never tells us to look to natural law for anything other than to show that those who do not have written revelation

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Are gonna go to hell. That's all it's used for in Romans. That's all it's used for Psalm 19. Yeah The universe reveals that there is a true

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God who created everything Yes, that's true. And it shows that you're worshiping idols. You better repent follow

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Christ and then submit to the written law It is faithful for those who believe and obey it and those who believe in our bait are blessed by God Not only with progress and sanctification and spiritual blessings

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But also with a productive happy life We must acknowledge this important fact and reject the unbelief and negativity regarding the

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Old Testament moral laws common among evangelical Evangelicalism was stained and permanently damaged seriously by dispensationalism that arose in the 19th century

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What's his name John Nelson Darby or something like that Charles anyway Darby ism and that Permeated the

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Schofield Bible that permeated fundamentalism that permeated evangelicalism and now everybody has a negative view of the law pretty much

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It used to be that Methodists and Episcopalians and everybody used to be required to memorize the

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Ten Commandments and study the law of God that's that after dispensationalism that went away and sadly reformed churches have been influenced by Evangelicalism modern reformed even conservative ones

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The faculty of Westminster Seminary East put out a whole book against theonomy

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Not the crazy bad things that came out of a theonomy movement Not the corruptions and worship and and all kinds of the crazy things they criticized it for the good things

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That as a society should follow the moral law of God for its judicial code. They criticized it for that Well, if you don't follow the laws of God whose laws are you going to follow?

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Hillary Clinton Obama Trump I don't trust Trump Why should

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Christians accept as their long -term earthly goal the establishment of any system of civil law other than the one set forth in the

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Bible? In other words, why should Christians affirm in principle the acceptability of any law order other than biblical law in every area of life why should they enthusiastically choose the second best or third best or even a totalitarian civil order and Preference to biblical law them without if we follow biblical law

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When professing Christians reject God's revealed perfectly righteous and just law order they must choose some form of fallen man's law order and America which at one time was predominantly

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Christian this it fervent first involved syncretism With a very strong remaining

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Christian influence. They were influenced by John Locke and the left the right wing of the Enlightenment These are apostate

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Christians who were influenced by Christianity, but they weren't Christians But a secular humanism has become the prominent predominant worldview.

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The law order has become much more untypical and in our day demonic They just had a vote we're not going to allow men pretending to be women to play in women's sports

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All the Republicans voted for it. All the Democrats voted against it except for one. These people are demonic.

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They're satanic the word righteous or righteousness embodies

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The thinking and behavior that God expects of all his people. We must judge our thoughts Hebrews 412

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Jeremiah. I already read that. Sorry in addition natural law Biblically defined comes from the same

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God as the written and scripturated law There's one

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God. There's one law. There's not two laws There's not a nature does not real reveal something different if if we could read it.

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It's fallen and we're fallen the noetic effects of sin It's not a reliable standard for us But even if you could read it perfectly which we can't even if you could it would be the same law revealed in Scripture So why do you reject the written law, which is perspicuous for some vague?

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Undefined law Because you want human autonomy and ethics because you want flexibility

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Because you don't like the penalties because you don't want to say homosexuals ought to be put to death, etc, etc, etc

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That's the issue Only God's revealed law converts the soul and moves our hearts and lives according to the will of God To become skillful in righteousness and wisdom

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We need to read the word study it and consider it carefully So the Holy Spirit can bring it to remembrance when we are tempted or fallen to sin if one refuses to read his

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Bible and study it carefully, he will remain immature and easily manipulated by the devil and his followers and Any of you go on you can go on YouTube and you can see these these sophisticated intellectual atheists

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Who will meet with? Evangelicals and they make mincemeat out of them because they don't know what they're talking about All these sophisticated atheists when they talk about the

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Bible virtually everything they say about the Bible is a complete lie And if you know your Bible you could refute them in five seconds

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This truth is one reason why God has instituted the reading of the Word of God as an element of public worship every

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Lord's Day Proverbs 29 18 where there is no revelation or if you have the old

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King James vision the people cast off restraint But happiest you keeps the law

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Jesus says Matthew 5 20 For I say to you that unless your righteousness succeeds the righteousness of the

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Scribes and Pharisees You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven as we read and study the law

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We're to pray for God to teach us the truth 119 12 26 33 64 66 68 108 124 125

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He prays repeatedly teach me teach me teach me We need the

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Holy Spirit to enlighten our mind so that we know and understand the truth therefore John speaks of true Christians saying 1st

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John 2 20 you have an anointing from the Holy One and You know all things in contrast to those who apostatized and Paul concurs saying he was spiritual judges all things 1st

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Corinthians 2 15 Man's autonomous use of reason puffs up and justifies sinful thinking and behavior

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While God's teaching leads us into all truth It humbles us it makes us dependent on him and shines a bright light of spiritual illumination on the path

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That we are required to walk the truth supplied to our hearts by the

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Holy Spirit draws our hearts to the truth and clines our hearts to love and obey it Keeps our feet in the path of obeisances as our

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God We must cherish and greatly value the amazing blessings of God's revealed moral law

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By which the infinitely holy and righteous God tells us how to live To this instructor.

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We must submit ourselves if we would practically keep the statutes of righteousness The king who ordained the statues knows best their meaning and as they are the outcome of his own nature

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He can best teach us by his spirit. Our study is noted must be accompanied by prayer

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For a deep understanding an application of the moral law cannot be accomplished by fallen men or human strength

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We are completely dependent on God for a correct knowledge of the truth Listen what

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Paul says about the regenerate man So people are saying. Oh, well, we could be neutral.

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We can have natural laws are our order. We can have pluralism Christianity will treat it the same as witchcraft and Satanism.

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It's all the same. It's no big deal. Now. Here's what Paul says The Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God Because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart therefore we praise

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Yahweh and pray that the Holy Spirit would cause us to prize his statutes and walk in them to be more and more conformed to The nature of our

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Lord Psalm 119 64 68 the earth the Lord is full of your mercy Teach me your statutes.

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You are good and do good Teach me your statutes Beside all external teaching we have a need of an inward and effectual teaching from God the

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Holy Spirit to make the knowledge lively and Fruitful and another important way to learn

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God's law is to memorize it or lay it up in our hearts. This is another emphasis Psalm 119 11 your word

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I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Here's Proverbs 7 1 2 3

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My son keep my words lay up my commandments within you keep my commandments and live and my law as the apple of your eye and bind them upon your fingers and write them upon the tablet of Your heart it is wise to memorize laws and sections of Scripture Especially in areas in which we are weak and more easily tempted

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That the truth revealed is on our minds ready to be applied by the Holy Spirit Instantly and what you can do while you're memorizing passages take five three by five cards write the passage down Keep it in your pocket when you're tempted whip the card out and just start reading it over and over again

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Memorize it put it on your heart When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness

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He had appropriate scripture passages ready in his heart memorized that he quoted against every specific temptation

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Boom, boom, boom Satan. Boom. Here's an uppercut. Here's a here's a slam to the face

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Every temptation is answered immediately perfectly using the Word of God A gun without ammunition is useless in battle

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We must have our God -given ammunition to get sin ready and loaded so that temptations are destroyed the moment they appear

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It is the only way that we can have a noble and good heart that keeps the word and bears fruit with patience

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Luke 8 15 as Solomon says Proverbs 3 21 to 24 my son let them not depart from your eyes

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Keep sound wisdom and discretion so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble

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When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes when you lie down your sleep will be sweet And you're

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Psalm 2 10 to 12 when wisdom enters your heart And knowledge is pleasant to your soul

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Discretion will preserve you Understanding will keep you to deliver you from the way of evil from the man who speaks perverse things

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We're to lay up God's Word in our heart as our cherished daily rule as The way to shape our daily character as a bulwark against the fiery darts of the enemy

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We're to put it firmly in our minds to meditate on it So that God's view of what is good and what is evil becomes our view

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We must strive to bring our world and life view and conformity to the Holy Spirit's view If we do not want to offend

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God it is necessary to know exactly what he says and requires of us There is no real cure for sin in the life other than placing

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God's Word in the heart to know understand and Obey it. Oh You say you have faith you read your

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Bible you say do you love the law? Do you read the law? We need to learn it. We need to meditate on it.

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We need to understand it And yes, we need to memorize it. The moment he doubted God's Word was the moment that Satan's lies and temptations became effective

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When the word is hidden in the heart the life shall be hidden from sin and the

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Old Testament having a law in the heart Was a characteristic of the holy believing remnant Isaiah 51 7 listen to me

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You who know righteousness you people and whose heart is my law? Do not fear the reproach of men nor be afraid of their insults all who desire to be godly will suffer persecution

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Second we must not only learn God's law, but we must pray and seek to understand it and this is emphasized a lot

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Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. Indeed. I shall observe it with my whole heart So I'm 119 34 and if this is repeated in different ways in 73 99 100 104 125 130 140 169

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Here's a hunt. Here's 99. I Have more understanding than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation

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Proverbs 4 4 B and 5 and 7 Let your heart retain my words keep my commands and live get wisdom get understanding

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Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and in all you're getting get understanding the word understanding buying and Understand and understanding

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By yeah, nah refers to discernment Making proper conclusions and applications or having a proper comprehension that leads to proper actions

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You got to know it You got to learn it You got to understand it you got to learn how to apply it to life to everyday situations

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That's wisdom. The fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge Proverbs 1 7 Through knowledge meditation and the repeated experience of applying various laws to temptations conflicts complex or difficult situations, etc one develops biblical discretion in wisdom

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The ethical principles of God's law must not only saturate our hearts, but we must learn how to think speak and act during trials

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Temptations and regular everyday life that are consistent with the Christian world and life view

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Proverbs 2 2 1 2 2 treasure my commands within you So that you incline your heart to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding

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All direction rests and must rest upon God's fundamental Torah law discretion a

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Parent's law a teacher's law an employer's law must be an application of God's law

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God's law when so applied becomes the fabric of life and the direction of society

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God's law of course is given to all men We have it in a special way as covenant law the godly society and godly men will meditate that mediate that law to each new generation and Thus will ensure their health and welfare

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Forsaking the law means forsaking direction in life a Society and men which forsake

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God's law lose wisdom thereby all discretion all direction Relativism commands a society and with it comes a moral paralysis a demonic worldview

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And chaos look at California these DEI hires these imbeciles these evil wicked socialists spending a hundred and fifty billion dollars given to bureaucrats that are supposed to go to the homeless which is just money paid off and Letting their state burn to the ground

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Solomon's warning applies to modern America Proverbs 13 13 to 14 he who despises the word will be destroyed

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But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded The law of the wise as a fountain of life to turn away to turn one away from the snares of death

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Go look at our cities. They're empty Excrement needles drug addiction insanity.

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That's what happens when you forsake the law of God Therefore the moral law can only be truly learned understood and properly applied in the context of the covenant of grace

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True wisdom and knowledge belongs to genuine Christians who possess the Holy Spirit One must revere the true and living

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God before one can revere the Lord's law word and walk in a manner that glorifies Christ The man of faith rejects human autonomy and thinks

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God's thoughts after him True wisdom and understanding only comes from God the

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Lord tells us how to live and how to prosper therefore Solomon says Trust in the

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Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in All your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths

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Do not be wise in your own eyes fear the Lord depart from evil Proverbs 3 5 to 7

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If you ever see something in Scripture that you don't you don't think is reasonable Then you want to try to water down with some kind of natural law theory.

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Well, I'm telling you you're wrong God is always right. And if you your thoughts differ from what

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God says, you're always wrong some of the crucial things to keep in mind as we learn how to apply

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God's moral out of life or as follows number one The Ten Commandments are only summaries of them whole moral law

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Therefore it is necessary to study all the moral commandments and case laws related to each commandment for example

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The first commandment requires not only believing in knowing and acknowledging that Yahweh is the only true and living

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God But also that we must love honor reverence trust. Thank obey and serve him as the only true

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God it excludes idolatry all false religions atheism agnostic ism complacency heresy apostasy, etc

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The second commandment not only forbids bowing down or serving a false God, but also all the faults unauthorized worship invented by man

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And by the way, the best way to look at this is just go to the larger catechism and look at the proof text they use

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The sixth commandment forbids not only murder, but also unlawful hatred violence and name -calling the commandment not to commit adultery forbids all sexual immorality fornication

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Homosexuality bestiality uncleanness incest unlawful divorce and remarriage, etc to restrict the moral law to only the

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Ten Commandments greatly limits one's ability to learn wisdom and Apply the moral law to all areas of life the scripture reading today from Exodus 22 is absolute brilliance

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You catch the guy with an animal one for one He gets away with it and you lose the prosperity of owning that animal and it having babies or giving you milk or whatever

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Then he's got to replace fivefold for this threefold for that. It's all perfect wisdom. It's all perfect justice

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To say oh, we don't believe in that. That's for the Jews only that's just unbelief interestingly if one reads the whole

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New Testament and Lists every ethical exhortation found therein He will soon discover that all the requirements can be organized or grouped together under each one of the

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Ten Commandments The original Reformers Puritans and Presbyterians understood this and thus we see this truth applied brilliantly in the

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West Westminster larger catechisms exposition of the Ten Commandments which by the way proves that they were all theonomous in the biblical sense of the term every commandment has

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Things about witchcraft things about this things about that outside the Ten Commandments explaining the fullness of the commandment because I mean, you know,

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I've known I know these strict Presbyterians from Scotland some from Australia and They say oh, no, the

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Ten Commandments are Moral law everything outside the Ten Commandments is positive law doesn't apply to us.

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It's for the Jews and Then they want to go to natural law Totally unbiblical totally robbing us of this wonderful law that this gift of God number two

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God's world Commandments whether in positive do this or negative form do not do that Form always always logically requires opposites recording responding duties

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For example the requirement to love your neighbor Leviticus 19 18 means that we are not allowed to hate

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Bear grudges against or gossip about our neighbor behind his back Read Leviticus 19 16 to 18 read the context

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Paul tells that thievery must be replaced by lawful work Ephesians 428 anger by loving reconciliation

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Ephesians 426 unlawful sexual lust and fornication with Christian heterosexual marriage first Corinthians 7 9 course jesting or corrupt speech with edifying words

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Ephesians 429 lying is to replace with speaking the truth in love Ephesians 425 The empty vein philosophy of this world must be replaced with a

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Christian world and life view Therefore a crucial aspect of applying the moral law to our own lives involves not only forsaking sin

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But also replacing that sinful behavior with a godly counterpart, and I'm very pleased you got a lot of Jay Adams out in the front

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He's an expert in this field And he came in when everybody was teaching secular psychology in conservative seminaries, and he said this is a bunch of nonsense

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We've got the Bible. We got the law of God. Let's apply it If this procedure is applied diligently and consistently we will progressively be

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Dehabituated to our own sinful lifestyle and become habituated followers of righteousness

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Number three God's moral commandments are spiritual and must be applied to the heart before one can walk according to the law

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This point means that we must apply the commandments not just to outward acts But also to inward thoughts as well as words

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This important truth separated Christ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount with a rank externalism and legalism of the scribes and Pharisees This teaching means that we must not coddle or tolerate sin in our hearts, and we must never purposely enter into temptation

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Proverbs 4 23 keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life Proverbs 3 1 my son do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands number 4

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The moral law contains many case laws So that we can learn how to apply the moral law to the situations all situations in life that are not specifically mentioned in Scripture And we saw that again with a reading of Exodus 22

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Here's another law if a man ox Has a violent tendency to attack human beings and the owner of the ox is made aware of it

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And he refuses to fence in the ox or restrain it with ropes He is held liable criminally if that ox scores a person

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Exodus 21 28 to 30 32 He must make the appropriate restitution can't even be put to death if someone is killed

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Exodus 21 29 This can this case law can be applied to all dangerous animals including pit bulls and Rottweilers If a man has a dangerous

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Pit bull honest a dangerous pit on his property like an unfinished Well, and does not properly cover it so that another person's animals may fall in and suffer death or injury.

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He must make full restitution Exodus 21 33 to 34 this law could easily be applied to all sorts of situations such as fencing for a swimming pool

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The point of such case laws is that the cases cited can be applied by logical deduction and close analogy to all sorts of situations within society

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The situations on life that may require civil involvement and restitution are in the many thousands

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Yet God's law cannot deal with every possible situation specifically It would be over a hundred volumes 200 volumes for a the

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Bible would be hundreds of volumes and thus impractical for everyday people and be Societies come up with all sorts of inventions that did not exist in the days of Moses They didn't have cars

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The various case laws however can be applied to every conceivable human situation One can even infer drunk driving and speeding laws from biblical requirements about safety

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Preserving or protecting human life and the responsibility of restitution for damages We have guidelines by which

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Christian men with wisdom can apply principles of justice therefore the common objection

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That the law given to Moses was only for an ancient culture is toad and is totally inadequate for modern society.

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It's simply untrue It's false Get godly men of wisdom to apply the law to society and you'll have a way better just law system than we have today

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Where a guy can get drunk and mow down five people and kill them and he he's out in five years or whatever ten years

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Or rapist and murderers get out. They don't they're not put to death

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We are limited to the ethical requirements given by Scripture In other words the Bible alone is the ethical is our ethical standard man does not have the authority to create ethical rules out of thin air

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But the ethical standard is Scripture must be applied to every year of life and this requires biblical knowledge understanding and wisdom

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True wisdom is learned from God pride and rebellion seek wisdom and autonomous human reason and self -law

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James 313 to 17 who is wise and understanding among you let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of Wisdom, but if you have bitter envy and self -seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth

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This wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly sensual demonic For we're envy and self -seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there

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But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle Willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy

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Third and this is my last thing and I just have a paragraph here. I'm gonna add to this later

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I wanted to keep it short Psalm 119 teaches us to fully commit ourselves our whole lives to God by promising to keep the law

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For example, I will keep your statutes verse 8. I will not forget your word verse 16 I have kept your testimonies verse 22.

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I will cling to your testimonies verse 31. I shall keep it to the end verse 33 I shall observe it with the whole heart verse 34.

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I shall keep your law continually verse 44 I do not turn aside from your law verse 51. I keep your law verse 55

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I have said that I will keep your words verse 57. I did not delay to keep your commandments verse 60, etc

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Etc. I stopped there in public and private worship.

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We're to note Our covenant responsibility to faithfully follow Christ by loving him and keeping his commandments

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Many have spoken to the Lord's Supper as a covenant renewal ceremony the bread broken and the wine poured out together with our eating and drinking thereof

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Points us to the sacrificial death of Christ in our union with him By singing and praying the Psalms we reaffirm our commitment to the covenant

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You don't get that with him nitty We have covenant renewal in the Lord's Supper and we have covenant renewal on our worship

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Psalm 119. Yes, it's about sanctification. It's all about sanctification but it's also about covenant renewal our

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Commitment to the covenant our commitment to obey Christ our commitment to love the Lord if you love me keep my commandments

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Read first John read the Gospels How do you know if you're a faithful disciple of Christ do you habitually keep the commandments

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That's covenant Faithfulness and that's what our lives are all about Let us pray father.

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We give you thanks for your law Help us to understand it cause us to love it

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Give us an understanding of it and Help us apply it Cause us to love your

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Lord with our whole heart and obey his law with our whole heart the whole law

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For the rest of our lives every day and when we fall and we all sin Forgive us our sins and cause us to learn from it and not do it again to get up and learn

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And give us understanding to obey your holy law in Jesus name. Amen Obviously It applies to the elect

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Well, it's a it's in a sense it's a gift to all mankind and but it only really helps the elect because they're the only ones who have the

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Holy Spirit who have that can understand it and have the love of desire to follow it But it is still all men are responsible to obey it for example

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Laws on incest cannot be derived from nature They simply can't

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Yet in Leviticus 18 one of the reasons he gives for can Destroying the seven Canaanite nations.

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Is there a bit of they're committing a lot of incest so But it's one of those things.

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Yeah, obviously it applies to elect the law the law is given to all humanity But for us its covenant law we agree you read

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Exodus 19 you read the Exodus 24 you read Deuteronomy 5 and 6 or 4 5 and 6 where it's the new covenant the second covenant the recovenanting

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God gives the law Man promises the people obey promise to obey it faithfully over and over and over again

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So our chief task as Christians now that we're saved and we have Christ You know,

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I'm not taking away from Romans 6 and all these passages that we focus on Christ. He's the efficacy of our sanctification

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He's the power. He gives us the power the Holy we get the Holy Spirit only because of his death and resurrection but our standard is that law and The Bible focuses a lot on that standard and that's not emphasized anymore.

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It's not emphasized even a reformed churches anymore and that's a shame Jay Adams emphasizes it because he's dealing with problems constantly and how do you deal with problems?

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What are problems derived from? Unless it's something that's that's beyond your control like you get a disease or something.

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It's all sin And what does that mean? You need the law you need wisdom you need application.

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That's why he's so good Well All revelation is a gift but It's a condemning letter

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On the one hand it's a gift because it is from God and it is the truth on the other hand Subjectively, it's a saver of death.

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It's good. It's a condemning letter solely because they don't have the ability to believe it But it's still true and it's still good and If you look at societies that have made progress like Japan countries that imitated

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Northern Europe deliberately Their size societies improved if you can have external benefits

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From being in a Christian culture, even though you may not be a believer But that's just going to condemn you all the more in the day of judgment

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Yeah, I don't believe in the modern OPC Weird view of common grace and in the

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Christian Reformed Church in this view of common grace. I think that's nonsense I think it's all nonsense and I even had a couple sermons on it that are somewhere

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Any other questions you have more go ahead, is that okay? Covering You're liable

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Well, they're preventative in the sense that if you do a then we're gonna do

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B to you Yes, and and if a guy's if you are told if you get drunk and you go out and you kill somebody

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Yeah, we're gonna hang you in the public square or you're gonna be stoned to death. There'd be a lot less drunk driving

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Yes, and it certainly wouldn't be repeatable. Yeah Their Deterrence because the consequences and that's the problem today.

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We don't have justice where a guy our President I think it's today's his last day our current president

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Took a bunch a whole bunch of murderers off death row who committed horrible, you know Rape and murder and one guy walked in a bank and shot a lady in the face the first thing he did

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They should be put to death. That's justice. And if you read those passages a society that refuses to put murderers to death will come under judgment and Then you had abortion on that and you better be better be ready