[0:00] Now, as most of you will be aware, we have been working in previous weeks through the next section of the biblical basis behind the confession of faith.
[0:11] And we come this morning to the biblical basis behind chapter 19 of the confession of faith, which is entitled, Of the Law of God.
[0:23] And one of the things we will notice in the passage that we read in chapter 22 of 2 Kings is we see there a contrast between our own best efforts, as Josiah was seeking to do his best for the Lord and to be faithful and repair the house of God and be a God-fearing king, our own best efforts, and the weight of perfection required by the law of God.
[0:49] When Josiah read the law of God, he didn't think, oh, that's great, I'm okay, because I'm walking in line with the law of God. He realized how far short he fell.
[1:00] He realized how his kingdom was under judgment and how there was no hope for them at all except the Lord have mercy upon them. The law of God.
[1:12] Now, the law in one sense is given first to Adam at the time of creation. And we don't just mean in that sense, oh, yes, he was forbidden to eat of the tree of life and forbidden to eat that fruit of the tree of life, of the knowledge of good and evil, I beg your pardon, that he was forbidden to eat that.
[1:31] It's not just that law. God gave to Adam at the time of creation laws regarding work and marriage and procreation and so on. It's not just the fall that brought these things about.
[1:44] Although, yes, human beings didn't reproduce till after the fall, although it's only after the fall that God says, you know, you'll go out and till the ground and it will bring forth thorns and thistles and it won't bring forth its fruitfulness to you.
[2:01] And in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That is the curse.
[2:13] But it is not itself the work. Adam had already received instruction from God and direction from God as to his work. If we go back to chapter 2 in Genesis, we read, for example, from verse 5.
[2:26] And there he put the man on earth.
[2:56] And at verse 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. To dress it and to keep it.
[3:08] This tending of God's good creation of the garden is now Adam's work. The very fact that it said previously there was not a man to till the ground indicates that Adam's work was tending the garden, digging the soil, planting perhaps new plants and maintaining the fruitfulness.
[3:27] This was the work. And it was blessed work. It was harmonious work. Likewise, when the woman is created and brought to the man, they're in harmony, they're in love with one another.
[3:38] It's only with the fall and with sin that that relationship becomes distorted and disharmony comes into it. As we see in chapter 3, verse 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
[3:53] In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. Thy desire shall be to thy husband. He shall rule over thee. The sense of domestic tension and strife is there. But that is the result of sin.
[4:06] The gift and the institution of marriage is part of God's law at creation. As is the command to work. As is the Sabbath. As we see in chapter 2 again.
[4:17] Verses 2 and 3. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
[4:31] Now he didn't rest and he's tired. God doesn't get tired. He has all power in heaven and in earth. He has rested because his work is complete at that stage. And he rests by way of example.
[4:43] Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man. And God rested on the Sabbath in order to set the witness and example to the man whom he had created.
[4:56] Men and women whom he had created. Now parents become like it or not and for better or worse the most significant example in the lives of their children.
[5:07] If for example we were to let's say a travelling bus or something here. A tiny wee toty coming out with really foul mouth language. My goodness that's such a wee child.
[5:18] Coming in with all these swear words and everything. But what would you conclude? You wouldn't conclude what a wicked child. You would conclude this is what they're healing at home. You think that's what those wee children are healing at home.
[5:29] And they are picking it up and thinking it's normal. Likewise if every child are terribly well behaved or whatever. We don't think what a good little child that must be. You'd think what a well brought up child that must be.
[5:43] Children will come to reflect the values, the behaviour, the speech, the attitudes of their parents. Particularly in their formative years. So it is vital then that the example that is said be an example that is positive, that is good, that is holy.
[5:57] When God rested the seventh day it wasn't for his own benefit. It was in order that man should imitate what God does. The Sabbath is made for man.
[6:07] The law then that God gave to Adam is both positive with work and with marriage and the Sabbath and rest and so on. And negative in terms of the forbiddenness, forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[6:23] There's that which he must do and that which he must not do. The law then is written in the heart of Adam. It is written in the heart of the covenant line of his descendants, the Lord's people thereafter.
[6:37] And they know instinctively something of what the Lord has done and what he has put in their hearts. For example, when we go to Exodus 16.
[6:49] After the children of Israel have been brought out of Egypt and they don't know what they're going to eat and the Lord gives them manna from heaven. He sends them manna every day. He sends a certain portion.
[7:00] And they are to gather a homer, however much a homer is, for each person, each family and so on. No matter how much they gather, they still only had that much. And no matter how little they gather, they still had enough.
[7:12] Every man according to his eating. And Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. Some of them did leave of it till the morning and it bred worms and stank. The idea was you're not meant to stockpile it.
[7:24] You're not meant to hoard it. Every day the Lord will provide sufficient. Give us this day our daily bread. And they gather it every morning. Every man according to his eating.
[7:34] When the sun waxed hot, it melted. It came to pass that the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread. Now, how are they able to gather twice as much? The implication is that the Lord enables them to gather in twice as much.
[7:47] Whereas before, no matter how much they gathered in, they still only had one homer each. He that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no lack. But on the sixth day, the Lord enables them to gather twice as much.
[8:00] And the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses and said, he said, this is that which the Lord has said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today and seed that you will seed.
[8:13] And that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses baked. And it did not stick. Neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today.
[8:25] For today is the Sabbath unto the Lord. Today he shall not find it in the field. Six days he shall gather it. But on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And came to pass that there went out some other people on the seventh day to gather.
[8:38] And they found none. Now, this is Exodus 16. The ten commandments are not given until Exodus 20. Four chapters later.
[8:49] So, that's when you get verses 8 to 11 all about remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy and so on. And yet, nobody says to Moses, Sabbath day? What's a Sabbath day? What does that mean?
[9:00] Never heard of that before. There is buried within their national identity. Within their national character. We might say as old-fashioned writers, their racial memory.
[9:11] There is this sense of this consciousness of God's teaching. God's law. It is, in a sense, written in their hearts. It is written, in one sense, in the heart of mankind from their creation.
[9:28] Because if you think about what Paul writes to Romans chapter 2. He says, So, the law of God, as given to Adam, is buried in the consciousness of the children of Israel.
[9:59] They sort of instinctively know. When God is giving them the commandments in Exodus 20. About saying, you know, there's only one God. Worship me. That they know this is the God of our fathers.
[10:10] You know, when Moses went to them, was going to them after the Lord appeared to them in the burning bush. And he said, you know, when I go to them and I say, the God of your fathers has appeared to me.
[10:22] And they'll say, who is he? What is his name? But they would know that there was a God of the Hebrews. A God of the fathers that they ought to have known. That they worshipped long ago. It is buried in their subconscious.
[10:35] It is instinctively known in the heart. But it is there. Likewise, these commands not to set up idols or graven images like the Egyptians had. They knew, yeah, that's right.
[10:46] We're not like them. They would know that instinctively. And yet God is now codifying it in the Ten Commandments. Likewise, the command not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to be lying and stealing and coveting and so on.
[11:01] These things are being codified and set down in stone. Because no doubt, although the Israelites had forgotten these things. Or perhaps neglected them, which is perhaps more likely.
[11:16] That is not the same as never having known about it in the first place. God is not giving them these commandments as brand new never heard of them before. He is rather codifying and setting in stone that which was once known and remembered in the heart.
[11:33] But had been forgotten and or neglected by the covenant line at Mount Sinai. They are being reminded and called back to a law once written in the fleshy tables of the hearts of their forefathers.
[11:50] Buried in their own national and historical subconscious. Subconscious. Instinctively, when they are reminded, they knew, yes, yes, that's right. That makes sense. They knew these things.
[12:02] The command to worship only one God. The prohibition on idols. All these things. They are reminded. As we read in Romans, even the Gentiles, even heathens. They know that you're not meant to murder.
[12:13] Otherwise, when Moses killed the Egyptian, why wouldn't everybody say, well, so he committed murder. Well, it's not a problem. It's not a big deal. Even for the pagan Egyptians, murder is wrong. Even for the pagans in Abraham's day, when there was the risk that one of the kings would take Sarah as his concubine or whatever.
[12:31] God spoke to himself, that's another man's wife. You're not allowed to touch her. They knew instinctively this was wrong. It is written in their hearts, as it were, from creation.
[12:42] But when we lose sight of what the Lord has said before us, either through neglect or forgetfulness or willful repositioning of the boundaries of what is right and wrong, so that those boundaries now fit in far more with our own desires, then having neglected or forgotten or become the heirs of those who sought to shift the boundaries, then we fall into the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the position of the Lord.
[13:12] A good king compared to many others, doing his best and trying to be good and do the right thing and repair the house of God and show his devotion to the Lord, Jehovah there.
[13:24] But on discovering the huge differential, the huge gulf between God's law and his own, Josiah's own performance, he becomes afraid.
[13:39] And he wants to find out if it is really as bad as the scripture says. And so he goes to find out, and yes it is. That's what Huldah the prophet tells him. 2 Kings 22, verses 16 and 17.
[13:52] Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read. Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands.
[14:09] Therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched. But Josiah will be spared the judgments on Israel and Judah because his heart was tender and humble before God and there was real repentance in it.
[14:26] And to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall he say to him, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse and has rent thy clothes and wept before me.
[14:45] I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers. Thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace. Thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.
[14:58] But notice that Josiah's personal repentance, the personal relationship of his heart toward the Lord, it spared him. But it could not change the outcome or the judgment of God's law.
[15:15] And yet still we see the effect of the law of God upon Josiah. If we were to carry on into chapter 23, when you're not see Josiah saying, oh, that's fine, that's me.
[15:27] I'm sorry, I'm okay. Everybody else can look after themselves. No. Once he knows the law of God, he sets himself there to root out the idolatry, to put down evil, to set up the worship of God in a more firm footing, to turn the nation back to being a covenanted people, to set up the worship of the Passover and all these things.
[15:50] So, likewise, for a Christian, being aware of the requirements and the weight of severity of God's law causes neither complacency, as though there was no need to bother, because, hey, it's all been done by Christ, so we don't have to worry about it, nor despair, as though there was no hope for the sinner.
[16:12] Despite the knowledge that of ourselves we will never be good enough, but rather it produces, like Josiah, a solemn determination to be more faithful, so far as in us lies, to be humbly joyful in the Lord and what he has done, but to root out every possible sin from every possible part of our lives, over which we have any jurisdiction, as Josiah did.
[16:45] He was able to root out idolatry and sin from Judah and even into Israel, who had lost their king by then. Whenever he had influence, wherever he had authority, wherever he had power, he rooted out sin and he put in righteousness, as far as within him lay.
[17:03] Now, there are things that we don't have jurisdiction over. If we're only a junior employee in one place, we haven't got as much power as the boss, and if the boss is an enemy of the Lord and hates anything to do with the gospel, then our workplace is going to be influenced by that.
[17:18] But if we end up being promoted, and we end up having his job, then we have greater influence to do good, to take out little instances of evil or wickedness or whatever from the workplace to promote that which is good.
[17:33] We can do that if we have that power or influence, wherever we have jurisdiction, whether those under us in our employment or those in our home, if we have authority over them, whether children or whatever, whenever we have any influence, we can do good according to God's teachings and commands.
[17:55] This is what Josiah seeks to do. It is the response of the converted person to the law of God, a solemn determination to be faithful, to root out sin wherever possible.
[18:07] Over every part of our lives over which we have any jurisdiction, and to worship the Lord faithfully. We see in chapter 23, if we were to turn the page, and verse 21, the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
[18:27] Surely there was not hold in such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah, but in the 18th year of King Josiah, when in his Passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.
[18:42] And he instructs there to be faithfulness in worship. And he observes it himself. But God will not alter what is gone forth out of his mouth.
[18:54] He will always be faithful to his word, to his law. God's laws are not given in order to take away our liberty or our benefit or our enjoyment.
[19:08] So rather like if you spent your life, you know, scrubbing the clogs with a washboard and cold water and soap or whatever, and you just had to work away and then wring them out with a mandolin, and then somebody says, here's a washing machine.
[19:20] This will do it for you. There's a tumble dryer. It'll sort it all out for you. And you think, oh, I don't know what to do with it. Well, that's okay. Because look, here's the instructions. It'll show you what to do. And there's the book.
[19:31] You can go by the instructions. That'll wash your clothes for you. That'll dry your clothes for you. It'll save you so much time and so much hassle. Your life will be so much easier. Well, plug it in.
[19:42] No, that doesn't work. Can I push it on that? Never mind. I'll just go back to scrubbing the clothes again. But the instructions are given to make your life better. If we will follow God's instructions and teachings and commands, we will find our life is so much more blessed and smooth and helped and strengthened.
[20:02] Because these are the maker's instructions. These are intended to be of benefit or blessing to the Lord's people. But when God has set, whether it's laws of regard to his word or the laws of nature, if you throw yourself out of a plane without a parachute, and there's no use saying on the way down, oh, well, I hope if I amend my life and I repent and everything, they may be gone and make me float back up again instead of splatting into the ground.
[20:27] We may repent on our way down. We may be genuine. We may be converted and saved before we hit the ground. But we are still going to hit the ground and splat at the end of the day. Because that's God's laws of nature.
[20:38] He will not change his law that has gone forth out of his mouth. And our repentance and our turning to him, we may be saved in our own soul because of what Christ has done.
[20:52] But it will not change God's law itself. The example of Josiah at the end of chapter 22 and throughout chapter 23 gives us an illustration of how a converted person whose heart is right with the Lord, who has repented, who has known perhaps that they themselves will be saved by Christ, they'll be all right, they'll be okay.
[21:18] The Lord has said he would bring him to his grave in peace. It's an example of how such a converted soul responds to the law of God. It is a fallacy and a falsehood propagated by some who would desire a lightweight, easy believism conformed as much as possible to this world that the law has ceased.
[21:41] No, there's your washing machine, there's your tumble, that's okay. You don't have to follow any instructions. Look, just use them as a shell, stack things on top of them. Look nice, big white boxes. You can put things inside them and you can use them for storage space.
[21:52] You don't have to go by the laws and instructions so you don't get the benefit of them. The law has not ceased. And now under the gospel we are free from the law so we can do as we please.
[22:03] Well, as with most heresies, there is always a grain of truth in every heresy. And in such falsehood, this grain of truth is, oh, the law is gone, you can forget about the law.
[22:16] Now under the gospel and the grace, we can do as we please. Well, yes, the grain of truth there is that the truly converted, born-again soul is indeed free in Christ to do as they please, to live as they please, without fearing the condemnation of the law.
[22:34] But the fact of the matter is that if we love the law, the fuller, the deeper, the richer, the freer, the more whole, wholesome, or complete truth is that a soul truly born again, truly converted, loves the Lord with all their heart and soul and mind and strength and desires to please Him in every detail of their lives.
[23:00] Love God and do as you like is true. But if you love the Lord, to do as you like is to do as God likes. Your heart wants what God wants.
[23:12] Your desire is to obey Him. Your desire is to seek out what He has written in His Word and make your life conform to that.
[23:22] That's the response of love. It's not the slavish fear to try and buy favour with them. It's the response of love. So yes, there's a greater truth in the head.
[23:34] You say, oh, it's on the greatest mind. And people are like, we don't have to worry about this or being godly about that. We can do what we like. But if that doing what we like means that we go back to the world and the sin that we use our liberty as a cloak for license, then it just proves we were never converted at all.
[23:52] Was David not born again of God's Holy Spirit? When he wrote Psalm 90, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
[24:04] The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
[24:16] The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold.
[24:27] Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. It's that with a born-again heart that writes those things.
[24:40] It's inspired to write these things. Likewise, in Psalm 190, verse 97, we read, Oh, how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
[24:54] Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. And when we love the Lord, his word guides us and keeps us from sin and makes us love him more.
[25:13] We see in verses 133 to 135, Order my steps and thy word. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts.
[25:27] Make thy face to shine upon thy servant and teach me thy statutes. It becomes almost the opposite of a vicious circle. It becomes a gracious circle. As we're delivered from trouble and helped with our problems and difficulties, we love the Lord even more.
[25:42] We desire more and more of obedience to him and of delight in his word. And likewise, when we love him, the lack of reverence for his word.
[25:55] Sin in the world grieves us. Verse 136, Rivers of water run down my eyes because they keep not thy law. It wounds us in the heart when we see God's law despised, when we see his word trampled underfoot.
[26:11] But we might say legitimately, what is its purpose now? We are under the gospel now. We're not under the Old Testament. Christ has fulfilled it all. So what now is the purpose of the law?
[26:23] We read in Romans 5 at verse 20, Moreover, Paul writes, The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
[26:36] It's like sort of an inspection. You know, you think, you hope everything's to be found okay with your inspection, but the purpose of inspection is to find where there are things that need attention.
[26:47] And the law is there to show up where sin is. When I was a wee boy at school, and I think they've repeated it since then in my children's day with different colors. We were given little tablets, little pink tablets, and said, when you go home and you brush your teeth, then you chew one of these tablets.
[27:04] And when you chew, look at them around you. Yee. And it'll show pink where all the plaque is. So when you've cleaned your teeth and you think they're nice and sparkly clean, you read the pink tablet and then if there's still pink on your teeth, that's where all the plaque is and you're going to keep scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing until finally your teeth are white and it gets rid of the plaque.
[27:24] But it's only because of the tablets showing up the color. And you see what you thought wasn't there. Now, I think in more recent generations, my children were young, they did with blue tablets. But the point is the same.
[27:35] It's to show up where there's a need still to attend to the cleaning of your teeth. And this is the purpose. The law entered that the offense might abound.
[27:45] It shows up where there's sin that needs to be addressed. So likewise, does that mean it's a problem? Does that mean it's a fault? Well, we read in Romans 7.
[27:56] What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I have not known sin but by the law. For I have not known lust except the law had said thou shalt not covet.
[28:07] But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. But without the law, sin was dead. I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
[28:20] In other words, I thought my teeth were clean when I looked in the mirror until I took the tablet. Then I saw just how much plaque there was there. The commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
[28:32] For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceive me and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.
[28:43] Was there not which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good. That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
[28:57] For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin. See, the law is spiritual. Verse 12, The law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.
[29:09] Verse 16, If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good. Verse 22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
[29:20] There's nothing bad about the law. This is the New Testament, remember, is being written here. So the law shows up the problems. Likewise, 1 Timothy, it's on the front, of course, of your information sheet, chapter 1, verse 5, The end of the commandment, the purpose of the law is charity, love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfaithed.
[29:44] That's the purpose of the law. Love is the reason God gives us the law. The purpose, the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of good conscience and of faith unfaithed.
[29:57] Love out of a pure heart. Faith being strengthened. So likewise in Galatians, we read in chapter 6 and verse 2, Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
[30:12] And yes, okay, a couple of verses on it says, Every man shall bear his own burden. Well, that doesn't mean that's an instead of, it just means you bear your own burden and then you try and help with other people's burdens too.
[30:23] If we turn to chapter 5 in Galatians, verses 13 and 14, For brethren, you've been called to liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
[30:36] For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
[30:50] Likewise, if we go back to Romans, we see in chapter 13 there what Paul writes. He writes from verse 8, O no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
[31:06] Now, remember that's the law as respects our love for our neighbours. It's not an instead of the loving God. Everybody loves somebody. You know, if you love somebody, that's who fulfilled the law.
[31:16] Hitler loved Eva Braun, but I don't think that meant that Hitler fulfilled God's law. Stalin loved his mistresses, but I don't think that meant that he fulfilled God's law. When it says, he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law in respect of their duty to that person.
[31:34] For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not be a false witness, thou shalt not covet, if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[31:47] Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Likewise, if we love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, then we will want to obey him and we will want to care for others.
[32:06] Yes, as Jesus said, you know, as we read in Matthew 7 and verse 12, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.
[32:17] Why? For this is the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets. The whole Old Testament summed up. When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, who was there with him?
[32:30] Moses, the personification of the law. Elijah, the personification of the prophets. The law and the prophets but Jesus in the centre and they were talking with him, who tells us, what about?
[32:42] About his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. In other words, the death of Christ is fulfilling all the law, paying the price in full for all who would trust and believe in him.
[32:57] The law and the prophets. Christ is the glory, the fulfillment, the personification of the law and the prophets. How can we not love it when he embodies it?
[33:11] Think of how the Father must love this Son who alone out of all humanity fulfilled God's law to perfection.
[33:25] Adam couldn't do it and if Adam and Eve couldn't do it when they were made perfect, how could any of us born and conceived in sin ever do it? But when the Father looks upon the Son and he sees in Jesus Christ that perfect manhood and perfect Godhead fulfilling the law, personifying the law, summing it up in himself, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
[33:59] This is what we have. For the law was given by Moses, yes, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. of his fullness that we all received and grace for grace.
[34:13] He is the personification of the law. He is the personification of grace. He is the fulfillment of it all. We might say, you know, in all reverence, when we look upon Christ, we look upon the law in its fullness, in its fulfillment, in its blessing.
[34:34] If you think about Psalm 119 that we made reference to earlier, think of how often in that Psalm the term word and law are used interchangeable.
[34:46] God's word and God's law or commandments are used interchangeably. The word was made flesh. The law was made flesh, fulfilled and dwelt among us.
[34:58] This is what we receive in Christ. A fulfilled law completed and perfected. A fulfilled love completed and perfected. A fulfilled faith complete in him.
[35:11] Remember what Jesus said, think not that I have come to destroy the law and the prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. For till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
[35:27] Jesus said, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. We might say in all reverence he that hath seen Christ hath seen the law in all its beauty and fulfillment.
[35:39] So, for the love of him, let us, yes, love others and do it better than we have been. Let us love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.
[35:52] This is the law and the prophets. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith and faith.
[36:03] Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets. And if we can take one final verse in Romans, this is what we read Romans 10 at verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment, the objective, the target that we aim at.
[36:26] Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ is the end of the law.
[36:37] How can we not love the law of God if we love the Christ who is the fulfillment of it? Let us pray.
[36:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.