Speaking Evil of One Another

James 4 and the Tongue as the Source of Conflict

We're going to read the whole chapter, chapter 4, it's only 17 verses, so starting in verse 1, James chapter 4. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask, and you ask and you do not receive because when you do ask, you ask with wrong motives, so that you would spend it on your own pleasures.

You adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose?

He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep, and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom.

Those are encouraging words. Now humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. And do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and he judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are a doer of the law, but you are not, I'm sorry, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and one judge, the one who is able to save and the one who is able to destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor?

Come now, you who say, today, tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in a business and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow for you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or do that. But if it is you boast in your own arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows to do right the things to do and he does not do it to him, it is sin.

Speaking Evil, Judging, and the Law of Christ

As we've been going through these one and others, so far, does anybody remember how many that we have gone through that deal with the tongue? This is in the pages of Holy Scripture. How many have we done so far that deal with the tongue?

Anybody got their list? List, list, list, list, list, okay.

Slander. Hey, does anybody's translation say slander in this one, in verse 11? What does yours say, Mike? Speaking of evil, it was... Speaking of evil. Anybody say slander? Okay. No? Okay. All right. What else?

These are negatives, so do not lie to one another. Any more? Well, the good majority of the ones we are dealing with in this text or actually in that whole chapter deal with things that come out of our mouth.

And he says, and we're going to focus on verse 11 specifically, but he says, do not speak evil against one another. What does it mean to speak evil against someone or to speak against someone? It certainly could be these things, right?

What else? All right. This specific thing, it says to judge a brother. To judge. Remember, that was one that we also did. Do not judge one another. So what does it mean to judge? Y 'all must be sleepy.

Call a brother into judgment. What does it mean? Does it mean don't make a discerning act? Did you raise your hand or did you put your glasses on? I say to say, you... What does it mean to judge someone?

Are we to make judgments? All right. So there is a type of judgment to make and a type of judgment not to make. Is that correct? False judgment. All right. What's a false judgment? Accusation is not true.

This actually could be two ways. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I was just going to say... No, false accusation. Right? What did you say? Accusation. Okay. False accusation could bring condemnation. But what other type of judgment?

Can we make a discerning judgment towards someone without sitting against them? Yeah. Based on the truth. Based on the truth. Yeah. I would say, yeah. But we also can, at the same time, bring condemnation on somebody on by the truth, too.

So I'm not to... No, you're not. Okay. Because we can't. If we speak to someone down to someone in such a way as the Pharisees did. A lot of times what the Pharisees were saying was true. Remember what Jesus said?

Hey, don't do what they do. Do what they what? Say. Okay. So what they were saying was true. But how did they conduct themselves as being, quote, leaders, the religious leaders of the time? How did they talk to the people?

Down. Down. Condemn sending. Condemn sending. So there is a type of truth that we can speak to someone that could be condemning them. Okay. But what type of judgment can we make to someone that's a discerning judgment?

You can warn someone. I'll just tell you, make it easy. If you've ever stole something, you've been caught with embezzlement, you're not helping with the church books here. Okay. That's easy. That's a discerning.

That's making a judgment, right? We're saying, hey, we're going to, as the standing before God on the day of judgment, give account how we spend our money. We're not knowingly going to let somebody who embezzled money from somewhere else go, hey, we want you to keep our books for us and have access to the bank account.

Okay. All right. What other kind of judgments can we make? Well, everything has to be judged on. Sure. Yeah, that's exactly what Jesus said in John chapter seven. He says, when you make a judgment, you make a righteous judgment.

So we're gone. And that's exactly what this text is fixing to talk about. So if we make a judgment, what's the standard? God's word. God's word, specifically in this context, is the law of God. Or under the new covenant, it would be the law of Christ.

Can y 'all see that? I know I'm going lower. It would be the law of Christ. Anybody know the difference between the law of God and the law of Christ from the old and new covenant? I know you do. Don't everybody speak all at one time?

Say it again. What's the difference between the law of God and the law of Christ? There is a distinction that's made in scripture. The law of God was that which was given under the old covenant. Once Christ come, when I do this, I will explain.

This goes away as being a covenant. Now we go to the law of Christ because Christ fulfilled all of the Mosaic law. Understand? Anybody not following me? Understand? Not understand? You're under grace.

There is a distinction between the law of God and the law of Christ in the sense that the law that God gave Moses, a better way to say it would be the law of Moses and the law of Christ. It says through the law, through Moses came what?

The law. And death brought, again sure. Did the law ever have the ability to give life? Let me ask you that. What did it do? All it did was kill. All you had to do was look at the sacrificial system. Constantly killing stuff because the law required that.

But it says that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So the law that Christ fulfilled, now we follow the law of Christ. Now are some of the laws of Moses have continuity with the law of Moses? Well, most certainly.

Specifically here, we'll use this one. Just don't lie. What did the Mosaic Law say? Do not bear false witness. That's making a judgment on someone. If you bear, like John Madden. And we're going to go here.

Under the law of Moses, what did it mean to bear false witness? And it's context. Remember, we want to know what it means. We have to know what was intentional to its original author. Bear false witness.

What does it mean to bear false witness? Say something that's not true about somebody else. That's true. In a court of law.

Specifically, that is true. It's a lie. And I know a lot of times we go, Hey, we did the Ten Commandments and we go, Hey, that one, do not lie. Yes, but not in its immediate context given the law of Moses.

Bearing false witness had to do with going before the assembly and me saying, I think we went over this when we did the do not lie. Me saying something. Mom, you get your closest. Saying something wrong about Mike.

Okay. We get together. Two witnesses. Me and Dan get together and say he was picking up sticks on the Sabbath. You're done. All right. Yeah. So we go before under the law of Moses. We take Mike and say, Hey, he was picking up sticks.

He says, okay. You two grab two rocks. And we got to be the first one to put the bricks to his cranium. Okay. That's but let let's say. When we bear false witness against him and he wasn't picking up sticks.

What was supposed to happen to me and Dan under the Mosaic law. If we lied about him. What are the death penalty that was supposed to have been imposed on Mike for breaking the Sabbath. Now the assembly beginning with you cracks us in the head with the first rock.

So bearing false witness had to do with the court of law. Well, once that the law of Moses. Somebody clear in their throat to say something. That's usually what it is. Once Jesus came, he fulfilled the law of Moses.

It's no longer bearing false witness in the court of law, although we shouldn't do that. We should not speak against another. Do not speak falsely against one another. Now, should we lie in the court of law against someone?

No, but the Mosaic law is done. Therefore, that law under the do not bear false witness under the Mosaic covenant is gone. And was James a Jew? The guy that wrote this book. Was he a Jew? Yes, he was.

Who was he? Jesus half brother. I would believe he's Jewish. Okay. And he uses a number of things in here that we begin to be at the beginning where he points back to the Mosaic law. What does he say here?

He says. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source for your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have. What does it mean to lust? So now James is doing what Jesus did.

And the law said, do not covet. He says, now, do not lust. Great word can be the same. Epimathia. Do not lust. It says, do not covet your neighbor's wife, his cattle, his oxen, man, servant, maid, servant, whatever.

Okay. Does that not sound very consistent with, hey, don't lust after another man's wife. Don't lust after another man's cattle. His junk. Yeah. Yeah, exactly what it means. So he says here. You lust and do not have.

And then what does he say in verse two? You do what? You murder. And this is he's really hitting home with the law, isn't he? And then he goes on and he says, you commit murder. And then he says, you're envious.

Well, what's envious? Same thing as coveting me. So he's really driving home the continuity. Now that Christ has come, hey, the law of Mo, the covenant of Moses is gone, but Jesus has inaugurated a new, a new law.

And that law has some consistencies with the old covenant. And it's that which is a standard of morality, which says, do not lie. Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not covet. That's what he is saying here.

And in doing so, all right. When we have, when we lust and we commit murder, where do those things begin first? They first begin within our heart. Does it not? Then what do we start doing immediately?

Yeah. We slander. We may not, um, when he said, do not devour, bite and devour one another when we did that one, did it really mean that they were doing like us? Like I like to watch, you know, I remember, I like to watch the national geographic where little law, you know, or something's running across the way and the tiger or like that wipes the legs out from underneath.

Okay. Is that what he meant? We were not to do to one another. No. What does he mean by bite and devour one another? Words. And how do we do that with our tongue? Hey, if you just go back, just, what's that one chapter.

Yeah. We go back one chapter. This is nothing but the, he sets up what, what he is going to say in four verse 11 and the previous chapter, by talking about that, which is his, uh, is the big problem for man and it's his tongue back in verse three, chapter three, verse 20 says, let not many of you become teachers my brother and knowing they will incur a stricter judgment.

Okay. Um, if you're going to incur a stricter judgment and you're a teacher, how are, how is that going to transpire by opening your mouth and using your tongue? Right? So there's a sin against by using the mouth right here that has to deal with the tongue.

So he is already saying, Hey, the tongue can cause you a problem if you're a teacher, cause you're going to have a stricter judgment. He says, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble and what he says, he is a perfect man and able to bridle his whole body as well.

Now, if we put the bits in the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we do, we direct their entire body as well. I understand what that means. Anybody ever rode a horse? You put a bridle in its mouth and you pull, you pull one way or the other.

Where's the horse's head go? Yeah. Like a steering wheel. He's going to go on. He's going to use something else here. He says, and look at ships. Also, though they are great and are driven by strong winds and are still directed by very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires.

You ever seen a gigantic sailboat? Have you ever seen what's on the bottom of it? There's a little old, on the bottom of just a little old fin. And that's what, obviously the mass they can to guide it.

But when there's no wind to blow at the direction, there's a little rudder on the bottom that they can turn. And that little old tiny piece of wood or fiberglass, wherever it's made by now, it turns that whole boat.

Well, here's what he says here. Are still directed by very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is small, is a small part of the body. And yet it boasts of great things.

See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire and a very world of iniquity. And the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets a fire the course of our life and set on fire by hell for every species and beast of birds and reptiles and creatures of all the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. And with it, we bless our Lord and father God. And with it, we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God from the same mouth, both blessing and cursing my brethren.

These things ought not to be that way. You see what he is saying that our mouth, our tongue can cause great sin to one another. And it causes great sin to one another by judging one another, speaking evil against one another, by slandering one another, by biting and devouring one another, by causing division, by lying, by coveting someone else's junk, as we said, lusting after somebody else's stuff.

And then we murder with our tongue, whether it's somebody's, we murder with our tongue, somebody's character. Can we not slay someone's character with our tongue? How?

Speaking falsely. You can even speak the truth.

You can speak the truth in love. You sure can. That's what, I think that is the correct, the biggest fallout as far as speaking the truth within the community of believers is speaking the truth in love.

Hey, we can say the truth, but is it said in love? Now I'll even say, I'll go so far as even to say there are times that we speak the truth and we are trying to convey that or speaking it in love. But did our hearer take it that way?

That's where we as Christians, brothers and sisters have to be very careful. Man, it would be a chainsaw to a blade of grass and shouldn't be that way. So we need to make sure when we do speak the truth in love, that, that, that we're conveying love to that person.

As I understand it, what we're saying is because we care, not because we're trying to be as the Pharisees were to be condemning. When it says that the, that the tongue, it can't be tamed. Can our tongue really be tamed?

Taking the thought captive. If we take the thought captive, that certainly would slow down what comes out of our mouth because this don't do it on its own. It starts here. So that is, that's, that's right.

We could, we could transform our mind by the renewing of our mind. We renew our mind by the power of the scripture, right? We read the word, put that in so that when it comes out of our mouth, we have an opportunity to bring those thoughts into captivity, obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ before we say it.

That's what we should do. How else?

Support of sanctification, don't you think? Oh yeah. I mean, listen to a radio station and God went to say something and he said, fellas, I really feel some sanctification right now because what I want to say ain't what I should say, or what I, but yeah, what I want to say ain't what I should say.

So, I mean, it comes through sanctification.

Sure. And do we, um, when we all got saved, did we all know exactly how to speak? Did we? I didn't. Did I baby? I did not. I did not. That's part of the fruit of the spirit. Temperance, patience. And how does that come?

That's something, that's a fruit of the spirit that has to be honed. It has to be pruned. It has to be in an order for that, that fruit to be pruned. What has to happen? Old stuff's got to be cut off so that it can be.

So if we want to cultivate temperance, self-control, how are we going to do that? We have to put things in place that we think before we speak. And is what I'm saying going to bring honor and glory to Christ first and foremost is what I'm going to say, going to honor the Lord and is it going to be edifying to my brother or sister in Christ?

I think we forget that part more than anything. What we're supposed to say is to edify and build up. Is it not? And if it says we've done, I think one of the ones we've done is to encourage and to exhort one another.

How do we do that? By opening our mouth, by using our tongue. You see, I mean a good bit of these one another's has to do not just with physical, the actual acts, but has to do with our mouth. It says we're to teach one another God's word.

Well, how do you do that by opening your mouth and using your tongue? And it says here that how great a, and then we'll get back to chapter four in a second. He says, the end of verse five, he says, see how great such a forest can set a flame, such a small fire and a tongue is a fire and a very world of iniquity.

The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell. You understand that the words that come out of our mouth, once they come out, you can't retrieve them.

Too many toothpastes. I was just fixing to say, I did a biologic lesson with a young people one time. Got a little trial size of toothpaste and had them squeeze out as much as they could. And you know, the process of getting it out and everything.

And I said, okay, put it back in. And you should have seen their faces, you know? Yeah.

I was going to say a cork tube, but no, that's a, you can always put the cap back on a toothpaste. You're not putting a cap on a cork tube. Once it comes out, it just sort of keep oozing, you know? So once that word goes out, that's what it's saying here.

Hey, once you say something and it's harmful and hurtful, you can't retrieve it. Like Gary said, that's why we need to bring every thought captive to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ and think before we speak.

Hey, this forgive and forget garbage is just not true. Okay. That is some Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra baloney. Okay. It said Dr. Phil crap. Okay. It's just not, it's not true. There's no such thing as sinning against someone and forgetting.

There's no way he does not forget. He cast as far as the East is from the West and he never holds it against us again. Can God forget? No, he can't. God knows all things, but in the context of what he's talking about, he cast them as far as the East is from the West to never be used against you again.

Now we did the forgiveness. Now that is true. When we forgive someone, that is how we should forgive. We should forgive someone in such a way that once we forgive that person and that can be difficult.

We went through all that. We're not going to use it as a point of contention. Right? Let's say you have somebody speaks evil against you. They lie about you. They come to you. They seek forgiveness. Okay.

It could be a very grievous reputational sin that damaged you. There may be some counseling involved. You do realize forgiveness may be granted. Okay. But you realize you still have to work through that.

So that means some of that stuff is going to have to be talked about. That doesn't mean it's never talked about again. It means it's never brought up for a point of contention or hostility again. And that can be difficult.

That can be difficult. So as the human, the human tongue is a, is a weapon here, right? Basically what he said, it's a deadly poison. Out of it comes blessing and cursing. It is amazing how we can in the one moment say, Oh, bless the Lord.

Oh my soul. All that is within me bless his Holy name. And then we turn right around and our brother and we stick him right in the back. Isn't it? No. Is it true? That is what we do. I'm saying that's our consistent pattern of life.

I'm just saying that is how we act. That's what he said. It ought not be that way, but that is what it is. A good bit of the time. So he, he goes on, he continues on dealing with hypocrisy. Hypocrisy has to do with words.

Um, and you get back into James chapter four and he says, do not speak evil and goes on to verse 11 and says, do not speak evil against one another. Brethren for he who speaks against his brother or judges, his brother speaks against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are no longer a doer of the law, but a judge. You understand when you make a judgment and a act of condemnation with the mouth to your brother or sister in Christ, you have just set yourself up to be God.

That's what you've done. I didn't say it. It said it right there. We don't see it that way. We make a judgment on someone who can judge only God. Now I understand we've got tattoos and stickers and only God can judge me.

People don't really understand what that means. In other words, they want you to just, Hey, you just don't tell me about my lifestyle. That's what they're wanting you to do. But there is only one person that can judge and there's only one person that does judge and that's God.

But he has given us a standard by which we should hold one another accountable and it's in the Holy pages of scripture. And when we judge one another and we have condemnation, we are no longer a doer of the law.

It says we now become a judge of it and then we become the standard of how we're going to say what's right and wrong. And he says it should not be this way. It says in verse 12 that there is only one lawgiver and one judge.

And what does it say? That one, that one lawgiver, one judge is able to do save and to destroy. That should, that right there should be enough for us to go, you know what? I should really be careful of how I speak against someone because God's the one.

Hey, God does have the right. When we speak evil against someone and he should, but by his grace he does not. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's right. All right. Any questions, comments? We got about 10 minutes. I don't want to start another one cause we won't get finished.

But the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart will be acceptable in your sight. Yeah. I think the hardest thing for us to do is think before we speak. What's really bad is when we think and we articulate what we're going to say so that we can hurt someone.

We go, you know what? I don't want to, if I say it this way, it'll cut more. Now we do that, don't we? And we get this narrative in our mind and we go, man, if I say it this way and then we kind of practice it out and God, I'm going to say it like this.

And I'll just add a little punctuation here and a little passion when I say it there. And man, that'll cut them. Bible says it should not be that way.

Wisdom, Self-Control, and Speaking Truth in Love

Kind of like a Solomon says in Proverbs, in the multitude of words there's one that's not said. Yup.

That is what we all lack is wisdom. Yeah. Wisdom. What is wisdom? Certainly is, but we can think like God. Even if we thought like God, we can have the truth of God, which we do have, right? We do have, but if that truth, if that wisdom and truth is not applied, that's a dumb individual wisdom.

What is wisdom? It's the truth of God applied. Hey, Solomon was the wisest man to ever live. Was he not? But how much of his wisdom was actually applied? I mean, we know that he wasn't real smart to build the Ashtoreth and all the idolatry temples for his wives.

And what did God say in the Mosaic law? Don't take a bunch of wives because what are they going to do? They're going to pull your heart away from the true and living God. So did he take the wisdom that God had given him?

Did he use it and apply it? No, he didn't. At least not in that area of his life. You know, were there times that, you know, Solomon had had times of great wisdom and used great judgment and ruling the kingdom?

Yeah, but man, there was a time where he it looked like he was heading this way. Read the book Ecclesiastes. He gets to the end and says, hey, at the end of it, all of it is is to is to love the Lord God and serve him for your days are nothing but a vapor here today and gone tomorrow.

Yeah. Speaking of wisdom, people with wisdom, you know, if you if you go to the Old Testament and you read the person with the most applied wisdom was probably Daniel. We don't see any character, quote, flawless.

Daniel, Daniel took the wisdom that God had gave him, the revelation that God had gave him, and he applied it and he did it with with boldness and without hesitation. And he constantly called those into account, which were which were opposing God.

The Law Written on the Heart and the New Covenant

So anything else? So explain.

We're under grace. Sure. Explain how the Old Testament law of God doesn't apply anymore.

I would say the Old Testament law is no longer a binding covenant.

But we still but we still follow. I mean, I mean, simplistically, let me say it's in commandments, OK? I mean, we still follow the Ten Commandments.

Do we look at the Ten Commandments and see principles there that we can pull out and use that are applicable? But is the Ten Commandments a covenant anymore? Because it can't save. It can't save. And then you some of those you have to change what the Sabbath means.

You have to change what bearing false witness means. You know, I understand. And I know it's difficult because we go, oh, well, the Ten Commandments are a standard of morality and they're in our courthouses and all that.

But just let you know that civil religion that's in our courthouse. They don't care nothing about that. The the Mosaic Covenant, i .e. the ten words, the Ten Commandments were foundational for all of the other six hundred and thirteen commands and prohibitions that came into in the in the Mosaic legislation.

Does not mean that they're irrelevant. So if you're that's what you're hearing, that's not what I'm saying. OK, I'm not saying that Ten Commandments are irrelevant. I'm just saying they're no longer a binding covenant.

Should we should we bow down and worship graven images? Oh, I know. Where do we see that in under the new covenant? Don't worship idols. What is it? What does Paul say? Abandon idolatry. OK. What about honor your mother and father?

Should we honor our mother and father? Yes, we should honor our mother and father. It's even said that in the under the new covenant. Should we should we under the Mosaic legislation and under the Ten Commandments, under the under the Sabbath?

Can is it Saturday or Sunday? Which one is it? See, it was on Saturday. So technically speaking, we'd be worshiping on the wrong day. It's still in force. And then you get into the whole I don't have time to get into all that.

But then you get into the Christian Sabbath, which is just a hermeneutical hopscotch to change the day. Can't go such thing as a Christian Sabbath. You can say what you want. The Sabbath is on Saturday.

The Lord's Day is on Sunday. And we worship on the Lord's Day on Sunday, because that's the day that Jesus Christ resurrected from the grave. Every day should be every Sunday should be Easter Sunday. That's why we come and worship on Sunday.

But if somebody wants to worship on the Sabbath and they want to keep the they want to try to keep the Mosaic legislation as an act of worship, I'm not going to say they're wrong. OK, if they have that conviction, we actually when we planted that church, we were we were renting Beth Israel's synagogue on Sunday because they worship.

They were Messianic Jewish community. They worshiped on Sunday. So we rented their sanctuary on on Sunday. You know, I mean, I had conversations with one of the rabbi dudes over there and he said, no, we're not doing it thinking we're better.

We're doing it because this is the way Jesus did it. I says, what what about the Lord's Day? And he said, this is just the way that we seem deem it right to worship. I said, so you think we're wrong for worshiping on Sunday?

And he said, no, that's why I left it, because if he would have said yes, well, then he has set up a standard of his own righteousness. But they worship on Messianic Jewish worship on Sunday because they want to still kind of hold to the heritage of the Jewish culture that help or make it more confusing.

OK, I thought it up. Conversation. Yeah. But if you say if you heard if what you heard by any stretch of the imagination, I said that the Ten Commandments are irrelevant. I did not say that. I want you to make sure they are.

OK, there's principles. Hey, it when Paul says all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, instruction, righteousness. What what with all the scriptures at the time, the Old Testament.

So what did Paul have to go around and do? He was teaching the Old Testament. So when he if we were let's say we were going to teach through the mosaic legislation, we would look for principles as we taught through that.

First of all, we would teach it in its historical context. What did this mean to the original intention of the authors? I mean, from the author to the audience, it was written to. Then we go, OK, is this even applicable today?

I mean, how many of us are going to have a disagreement on some land or try to do it and take off our shoe and throw it? Y 'all remember that? I mean, are we going to do that? How many in here got concubines?

How many want concubines? Don't raise your hand. You see what I mean? So there's laws that were in the mosaic legislation that were because of the culture he was doing things to protect them. What about the left or right law?

You know, my brother does. I got to raise up C to my sister-in-law. Dude, that ain't happening. Doesn't apply. No, we're not doing it. So it's that kind of stuff to where you go. OK, is the, was it the Ten Commandments or all of the mosaic legislation?

Well, it's interesting too. Jeremiah, he says he writes that new covenant law on a heart. So in the old covenant, they didn't have the law written in their heart. They only had to look at a table of stones.

Sure.

Sure. Yeah. The tablets were in the stone that actually, you know what? Nobody could go look at. Remember that? They were in the Ark of the Covenant. Now they, one dude, a year, went in there one day with some funny clothes on, did his little thing in there and did his little sprinkling and all that to make atonement.

But nobody was ever to look into the Ark of the Covenant and see the Ark meaning what? The carrying the box that contained the covenant. They never saw it. So that's a good point. And on now that under the new covenant, God takes and what was written on stone now writes it on our heart.