Pastor in "SUNDAY SERMON - The Beauty Of God's Law (Part 2)" dismantles myths that the law burdens believers, arguing instead it revives souls alongside the gospel. He critiques secularism as a deadly religion lacking atonement and asserts socialism bans true generosity by ignoring property ownership rooted in gratitude. Analyzing Psalm 19:7-14, he details how God's law is perfect, sure, right, clean, enduring, and true, contrasting divine design with human "Candyland rules." Ultimately, the sermon concludes that Christian joy requires fighting for faith through obedience, as all sin stems from presumptuous pride. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Natural Revelation for the Unbeliever00:10:29
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Our sermon this morning comes from Psalm chapter 19, verse 7 through 14.
This is going to be part one.
All in all, we'll be ultimately, Lord willing, it.
Enduring, if you will, three parts to Psalm chapter 19.
If you were with us last Lord's Day, I spent time preaching the beginning of Psalm chapter 19, namely verses 1 through 6.
If I were to divide and give theological headers to this text, I would divide it into two parts.
Psalm chapter 19, verse 1 through 6, is where we see natural revelation or general revelation.
I title that sermon The Sermon of the Skies.
David focuses his attention to the glory of God that is communicated by what God has made, his physical creation.
And in particular, David emphasizes the heavens, not the spiritual heaven, but rather the physical heavens.
That is the sky and the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, the clouds.
And I don't know if you were paying attention this week, but I couldn't help in light of that sermon last Sunday.
To see the glory of God revealed even more than I ever have in the skies that we had this week between thunderstorms.
And there was one particular sunset on Tuesday night when my wife and I were driving back from a date night that we had together.
And it's just the skies, it felt as though they were literally screaming the glories of God.
There was this lower layer of cloud and a higher layer of cloud.
And so it was like the sun was somehow in between.
It literally looked just like Psalm chapter 19, the first six verses, verse five and six, where it says, That God has made a tent for the sun, and that it comes out of that tent from one side of the horizon and sets in the other, and then back.
And it literally looked as though there was constructed between two layers of clouds a tent, and the sun was retreating back into this tent and just shooting forth rays of multitudes of color.
And as that was going on, lightning was beginning to pick up in another side of the sky, and it was just majestic.
And I couldn't help but think of Psalm 19, verses 1.
Through six, the skies speak to the glory of God, and so we looked at God communicating to all men, believers and unbelievers alike, in natural revelation by what He has made, particularly emphasizing the skies that God communicates His glory.
We focus on how that message of God's glory is perceived by men in one of two primary ways.
One person, namely the unbeliever, perceives the glory of God communicated through natural revelation.
As judgment.
But the Christian sees the glory of God communicated through natural revelation as joy.
So there is one word that the skies preach again and again and again and again, and that word is glory, glory, glory.
But that one message of the glory of God is perceived by men depending on their status before God, whether they're in Christ or in Adam.
That one message of glory is perceived in one of two ways.
As judgment or as joy.
Romans 1 speaks to the unbeliever that he is without an apologia, without an apologetic, without excuse.
So, what God reveals, his glory, by what he has made through natural revelation, it strips the unbeliever of any escape from judgment.
So, the glory of God displayed by what he has made in natural or general revelation to the unbeliever is judgment.
But to the Christian, it is joy.
The unbeliever, he may not be thinking correctly, it's likely that he's not, but if he were to think properly, he would have looked at the sky on Tuesday night and trembled,
knowing that the thunder that was rumbling and the lightning that was striking and the rays of the sun as it set behind the firmament bursting forth all speak to the majesty and the power of God that will be directed towards him for all eternity in the form of wrath and righteous indignation.
But for the believer who is covered by the blood of the Lamb by grace through faith, we look at all that majesty that reveals the power of God, and we see that all his might, all his strength, all his power is being worked in our favor.
It's being worked toward our good.
Romans chapter 8 God is working all things for the good of people.
No, not all people.
For the good of those who love him and have been called according to him.
So that was Psalm chapter 19, verses 1 through 6.
So that would be the main header.
If we took Psalm 19 and divided it into two parts, we have God's glory as judgment for the unbeliever and joy for the believer displayed through natural revelation.
Now, Psalm 19, verses 7 through 14, we see God's glory again communicated now through special revelation, namely his law, namely the law of God.
So, we saw natural revelation, specifically the skies, speaking and preaching the glory of God.
Now we see special revelation, God's glory, being spoken, namely through his law, as great righteousness, but also great goodness, great benefit, great joy to the believer once more, to those who obey God's word.
So, without further ado, I've written this in your notes.
The first verse of our text today says this.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
If every day with Jesus is better than the day before, we would have no need to be revived.
So let me go ahead.
If we had Christian myth busters this morning, that's the first myth that I would be busting.
The first myth, although it's a pithy statement, although it sounds pretty and poetic, the idea that when someone says this sentiment that every day with Jesus is better than the day before, that's simply not true.
It's simply not true.
If it were true, if that were the reality, Regardless of whether or not it should be true, it's simply not the reality.
If it were the reality, there would be no need for the idea, the Christian concept or principle of restoration, of revival, of being restored.
And yet we see that in Scripture time and time again.
Restored from what?
Well, apparently, there's such a thing as having a spiritual bad day.
Apparently, there is a need for even the Christian, and I would argue, even the faithful, Christian, even the most elite of Christ followers, to be revived, to be restored.
David, I believe, is a hero in the faith.
He's a hero in the faith.
I don't believe that David is a nominal.
I don't believe he represents a nominal Christian.
I believe that David is someone that we should aspire towards.
Jesus being the chief example, the only one who is sinless.
And David is, in many senses, a type of Christ.
But God didn't pick a loser, for lack of a better phrase, to be a type of Christ.
David was a man after God's own heart.
He was a king that was righteous, arguably the most righteous king in all of Israel.
And that's why Christ.
Was going to sit on the throne not of Saul but the throne of David.
The throne of David.
And so David is a type of Christ, he is a model, he is a model for Christian faithfulness.
And yet, David needs to be revived.
And he says that it's the law of the Lord that revives him.
Now, here's the second myth buster.
All right, first myth buster every day with Jesus is better than the day before.
The second myth buster is that the law is a burden and that the gospel is the only means by which God revives the soul.
That's also a Christian myth.
Christian churches today, they are so afraid, so afraid of even having the faint remnants of legalism that they cannot speak of the law of God in any positive light.
It's just gospel, gospel, gospel.
I'm fond of saying this.
We are a gospel centered church.
I am a gospel centered pastor.
We love the gospel.
But the whole idea of gospel centrality is that it implies if the gospel is the center, it means there's something else.
If the gospel, if not, then we should quit using this popular phrase in evangelical churches today gospel centered, gospel centered.
No, what you often mean, the proverbial you, is gospel myoptic, gospel truncated, gospel exclusive, gospel everything.
The gospel is not the center for many churches, and it's not the center for many pastors in their preaching today.
The gospel is not center, it's exclusive, it's everything.
There's nothing surrounding the gospel.
For it to be the center, there has to be something else.
But most churches won't preach anything else.
Grace, grace, gospel, gospel.
Well, the reality is the gospel is the center, and I would argue that what flanks the gospel on either side, what makes it the middle, the center, is the law.
The law of God.
Which is not just right, but good and holy and right.
As the psalmist says in Psalm 119, the law of God is good.
The Gospel Flanked by Law00:04:34
And as we see in the first verse of our text today, verse 7, chapter 19.
The law revives the soul of man.
It doesn't crush the soul of man.
Not only is there a crushing work of the gospel, but that crushing is meant to point that weary individual towards Christ, towards the gospel.
There's a crushing of the law, rather, is what I meant to say.
There is a crushing work of the function of the law that ultimately crushes the person.
It puts upon them such a weight that they know they cannot measure up.
To what God requires, and it drives, it's meant to drive the person to the cross where they find mercy, where they find a covering, a substitute.
Right?
But there's also a sense in which the law, it not only crushes the individual, driving them to the gospel, but it also revives an individual, it restores an individual.
And I think the implication here in verse 7 is obedience to the law.
So the law, and seeing the fact that we can never perfectly obey, crushes us and reveals our need for a Savior.
But then, for the Christian, as we strive by grace to obey the law, as we obey the law, it revives us.
It provides life.
There is a reward for obedience.
Now, our culture uses the term privilege.
And that's another thing that I want to speak to for a moment.
We speak of privilege.
This person has privilege.
That person has privilege.
This intersection group has privilege.
The Bible doesn't use the word privilege, the Bible uses the word blessing.
Now, is there such a thing as undeserved privilege in the sense that it was something that was taken wrongfully, immorally, something that was robbed?
Yes.
There is a way to be privileged by theft, for instance.
The Old Testament speaks of that.
There are times where rulers or the rich could exploit the poor, and they would benefit, they would have a tangible monetary benefit or privilege, advantage, by cheating.
Right?
I mean, Zacchaeus was privileged, right?
Zacchaeus being the tax collector who climbed up in the tree to see Jesus as he was passing by.
He was privileged.
He was financially better off than most of his contemporaries by robbing people.
So there is a way to be privileged.
Now, I think that that is misapplied often in the woke cultural narrative of our society today, but there is, to be fair to the argument, there is a legitimate sense in which people could have an immoral.
Privilege that was taken, they are benefited because it was taken from someone else.
All right, so that disclaimer being made, the Bible often speaks to blessing.
And as an example, let me just say this if by God's grace he preserves me, and the marriage vows that I made to my wife I keep till the day I die, and my role and responsibility that God has given me as both a husband and also a father I diligently strive to fulfill.
If I keep my covenant to my wife, And I keep my vows, these implicit vows that have been made to my children to protect and provide and to teach them and train them.
Guess what?
My kids are going to be better off than most kids in this nation.
Now, is that white privilege or is that biblical blessing?
The reality is that if you work hard, can you be robbed?
I'm sure there are hardworking people in North Korea who are not benefiting from their work because there is such a thing as oppression.
And a wrongful, immoral sense of privilege for those who exploit.
But in a country like ours, I think we just have to pause for a moment and say, sure, there are some levels of injustice, but by and large, there is really no country, not only presently on the planet, but throughout all of human history, that has more of a blank slate, a position of neutral, unbiased opportunity.
To where, in most cases, not all, but in most cases, if you are hungry in America, it's your fault.
See, poverty is always linked to sin.
Now, I have to give a disclaimer for that statement, right?
Because people can take that the wrong way.
This is what I would use, okay?
Apathy vs Domineering Abuse in Marriage00:09:18
So, the disciples with Jesus, they pass by a man who was born blind.
And what do they ask?
They say, Whose sin made this man born blind?
Was it his parents or his?
And Jesus says, Neither.
But rather, he was born blind.
It's a sovereign act of God.
It wasn't due to his sin, it wasn't due to his parents.
He was born blind so that the glory of God might be revealed.
Namely, through the miracle that was about to take place, the power of Christ that would restore his sight.
But here's the thing the disciples asked a very specific question.
They said, Whose sin made this man born blind, his or his parents?
So, Jesus, the truthful answer in that instance was neither.
But had the disciples asked, Did sin in general make this man blind?
Jesus' answer, I have no doubt, would have been yes.
Because it is only by sin that death entered the world.
It is only by sin that sickness entered the world.
If there had been no sin at all in general, if Adam had not sinned against the thrice holy God and taken of the fruit and eaten it, thinking that he could be like God, believing the lie of the serpent and listening, Genesis 3 says he listened to his wife.
I always tell husbands sometimes, you know, wives, please tolerate, be patient with me as I make this statement.
But I tell husbands sometimes, I'll say, well, you know, sometimes a husband will acquiesce.
And it's not even because of fear of man.
Usually it's not like this trembling fear, insecurity of the husband.
A lot of times it's an idol of comfort for men, I've noticed.
And so it's not so much, oh, I just, I'm so terrified about what my wife thinks about me.
And so I wanted her approval.
And so even though I think not that the wife is always wrong, but in this particular instance, she was giving wrong, unbiblical counsel, and I acquiesced.
A lot of times I've realized it's not because he's afraid of his wife or fears or desperately wants her approval.
It's not as much an idol of approval or the fear of man in regards to his wife.
It's usually an idol of comfort.
I've already argued with her, Joel, and fought this battle.
Brother, trust me, we have spent hours.
I've tried.
My wife is, you know her, you know how unreasonable she is.
I'm like, no comment, no.
I'm not affirming that statement.
But she's so unreasonable.
And so it's not even I'm afraid of her, it's I'm tired.
I just want to watch TV.
I just want to be done with this fight.
This fight is tiresome, it's exhausting.
And so there are times in which we still commit the same sin that God actually says to Adam listen to your wife.
That's what he actually says to Adam.
When Adam, in Genesis chapter 3, when God is dealing out the curse, he says to Adam, because you have listened to your wife, cursed is the ground because of you.
And I've noticed that not just in society, not just in culture, but in the church today, there are men who are peacemakers, and hear this, but not truly, not in the biblical sense.
They are peacemakers through the means of deception.
If you're achieving peace by lies, it is a peace that is faulty in its undergirding premise.
It is a foundation that is already cracked, it is something that will not last.
Like a house of cards, this peace will crumble.
There are many homes, many marriages.
Where there's a peace in the home, but it's not a peace that has been achieved through righteousness and by the word of God and submission to God's word, but rather it's a peace that has been ultimately achieved by a husband's idol of comfort and willingness to say whatever he thinks he needs to say to his wife to get her off his back.
That is far too common among Christian men in the church today.
That there's no tension in the marriage because.
The husband in courage and in faithfulness and truth is leading his wife and washing her in the word?
No.
Because the wife is very opinionated.
She's a bit of a feminist, although she may not admit it.
She carries her complimentarian card, but she's also kind of a female lion and roars from time to time.
And she's kind of ruling her husband.
That was the curse for women.
Your husband will rule over you.
Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you.
Meaning, God has designed that the husband should be the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church, but there's something in the heart of woman because of sin.
Complimentary, just for the record, a husband's leadership over his wife is not the curse.
The curse is that she wouldn't like it.
That's the curse.
So if sin had never entered the world, Adam still would have been the head of Eve.
Period.
But if sin had never entered into the world, Adam would never abuse his headship, and Eve would have never resented his headship.
She would have loved it.
And just for the record, men can abuse that headship in two ways.
They can be overly domineering, and pastors, we say, what a courageous sermon.
That pastor called out men and said they're boys you can shave.
That's not courageous.
You want to be courageous?
You want to be courageous?
Preach on the sin of women.
Preach on the sin of women.
Because you hear, oh, that courageous pastor, he's calling out men in the church and telling them to stand up and tell them to be men.
It's not courageous.
The woke left will applaud you for that sermon.
If Joe Biden is agreeing with your sermon, it did not require courage.
If Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris like your sermon, it didn't require courage.
I'll hit a little closer to home.
If Beth Moore likes your sermon, it did not require courage.
But if everybody's upset with you, then you either preached a bad sermon or maybe one of your best.
So, all that being said, a man can fail in two ways.
He can be overly domineering in his headship, but to be fair, he can also sin by being apathetic.
Abuse and apathy.
And I would argue that by and large, in America today and in evangelical churches in America today, I'm not saying that no.
No professing Christian husbands have ever been abusive towards their wife.
That's not my statement.
So don't take it out of context.
What I am saying, though, is I believe the vast majority of Christian husbands, as they fail in their headship over their wife and children, it is far more often the sin of apathy than it is the sin of domineering abuse.
And the left worked really hard in our nation by not even politically, but culturally, in the culture war, to achieve this.
I mean, think of like every single comedic sitcom since the 90s.
The wife, everybody loves Raymond.
She's attractive and intelligent.
The husband's an idiot and out of shape.
The Simpsons, right?
Marge, attractive and intelligent.
And she tolerates Homer, whose job is a joke, right?
He has to push one button at work, you know, and just sits there and eats donuts and then he comes home and sits on the couch, right?
I mean, we could go on and on and on.
Like, for 30 years, Every single comedic sitcom has emphasized the competency and intelligence and proficiency of women and the stupidity and failure of men.
But these men, notice, they're not abusers.
Their sin is not that they're overly domineering or abusive in the home towards their wife.
Their sin is they're apathetic, they're lazy, they're couch potatoes.
They won't speak up, they don't lead.
And I believe that that's the bigger problem.
If we were in a different culture, in a different time in human history, I might be railing on the men in this sermon about being overly domineering.
But that is not the sermon of the hour, because it's not the need of the hour.
I believe the need today is not for men to stop oppressing their wives.
I believe the epidemic in the evangelical church in America today is for men to start actually leading their wives.
And one of the reasons why families leave churches, and I have experienced this firsthand, One of the reasons why families leave churches is because a pastor preaches something faithful that actually indicts not just men in his church, but women.
The women don't like it.
They go home and complain to their husbands, and their husbands don't have the spine to say, Hey, because the wife will create this false dichotomy.
Are you going to agree with me, your wife, or the pastor?
And what he should do is immediately remove himself, recognize that as the false dichotomy it is, and say, I'm not siding with you or the pastor.
I'm siding with God's word, and the pastor happened to get it right.
So it's not pastor versus you, it's God.
And insofar as the pastor is faithful in his preaching of God's word, then yeah, I agree with the pastor.
But not by virtue of the man, but by virtue of the message.
By virtue of the message.
I don't even know how God amen when, but I'm glad I did because it's so valuable.
It is absolutely so valuable.
So, this idea, I remember, because you listen to your wife.
Genesis 3.
Why Poverty Is Linked to Sin00:02:09
So, God's dealing out curses.
The woman, it's greatly increased pains in childbearing, right?
But it's also the sense that she's going to want to rule over her husband.
Your desire will be for your husband.
Just for the record, don't misinterpret that.
Because some people will say, yeah, she just, Her desires for her husband.
She just wants intimacy with her husband.
Now, that's not what your desire will be for your husband in that context means your desire will be to wear the pants, but he will.
He will.
That's the curse.
And again, the curse is not his headship, the curse is her resentment of the headship and his failure in headship.
Now, for the husband, the curse for him is the ground.
Not just that humanity has been cursed because of humanity's sin, but all of creation, the dirt.
Will now produce thorns and thistles.
Again, just like the woman, the curse is not headship of a husband, but rather his abuse and apathy and her resentment and desire to rule over her husband.
Likewise, with the man, the curse is not work, men.
It's like, gosh, if Adam had never sinned, I wouldn't have to work.
No, no, no.
He was always placed in the garden to work and keep it.
That's literally the words used to work and keep it.
The curse is that the ground would work against him.
So the curse is not work, and the curse is not even hard work.
The curse is a futility of work, a frustration in work.
That there are times when a man would work hard and it still wouldn't pay off.
See, before sin entered the world, whenever a man would work hard, it would always benefit him and others.
Always.
Now, it doesn't mean that he didn't have to work.
He would have to work and he would have to work hard.
But he would always have a guarantee that he would reap the benefit, the fruit of his labor.
Whereas, because of the curse of sin, there are times when men work hard and it doesn't pan out.
Their work doesn't work.
And so that's the curse in regards to men.
So, because you listened to your wife, because you listened to your wife, that's one of the things that God says to Adam.
Freedom Without God's Law00:14:48
So I remember that's how I got there because you listened to your wife, but how did I get to because you listened to your wife?
Does anybody remember?
I can't recall.
What?
I can't recall either.
Because you listened to your wife.
All right, all that being said, point is this gospel centrality.
Gospel centrality includes the law.
It's not gospel onlyism, it's not gospel myopticism, it's not gospel exclusivism.
If the gospel is the center, I would argue what's flanking the gospel, surrounding the gospel that makes it the center is the law of God.
On the left and on the right, on one side, it's the law of God in its first use.
Some of you may not be familiar with the three divisions of the law and the three uses of the law.
Three divisions of the law God's moral law, civil law, and ceremonial law.
Moral, civil, ceremonial.
The ceremonial law, the priestly sacrificial system that we had with covenant Israel in the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, this has been fulfilled by Christ.
It's all been fulfilled.
Christ fulfilled the moral law as well.
But it's been fulfilled by Christ in such a way that it has been abrogated.
It's been abrogated.
So we no longer need to sacrifice animals.
We no longer need to have a priest who goes into the Holy of Holies and makes remission of sin because we have the high priest, not the order of Aaron.
Not the Levitical priesthood, but rather the high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
We have Jesus Christ, and he has made sacrifice by being the sacrifice once and for all.
No other sacrifice needs to be made.
Okay, so the ceremonial law has been abrogated, but the moral law has been fulfilled by Christ.
That is, he lived, he fulfilled all righteousness, he was holy in everything that he did, but it's been fulfilled in such a way that it has not yet been abrogated and never will.
So the moral law still applies.
That's why I read the Ten Commandments every single week.
I don't read Levitical Code about sacrifices, dove offerings, and grain offerings every week.
But I do read the Ten Commandments because that's the decalogue.
That's the moral law of God, which Christians are still required to obey.
Not as a means of salvation, that would be legalism.
But because we have freely received salvation by grace and faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the moral law.
The civil law are those things which pertain to Israel as a nation.
Right?
Like a precipice on the roof.
Right?
Which would be like a railing, like a fence.
Now, that's not ceremonial.
You don't do that to be cleansed from sin.
And it's not necessarily moral in the sense that it's something that's eternal.
Right?
So, if there aren't precipices on the roof in heaven, nobody will be in sin.
Right?
But if there isn't truthfulness in heaven and people are lying, you would be in sin.
You see what I'm saying?
So, the Ten Commandments, they're eternal.
Right?
They never change because they're rooted in the immutability.
Immutable character and nature and essence of God Himself.
They're a reflection, the moral law is a reflection of God's own essence, His own holiness, His own character.
The civil law are things that were particular to Israel, like a precipice on the roof.
Now, here's the deal all these civil laws, ultimately, you can track every single one of them back to a blueprint, we might call it the blueprint, the original coding of the law, which is the Declan, the Ten Commandments.
So, the commandment to have a precipice on the roof, why was that?
Because in their culture, without air conditioning, it would be hot during the summer months.
People would sleep on the roof to receive a cool breeze.
And in their sleep, if they weren't careful and there wasn't a railing, someone could roll off and die.
So, precipice, what does that root back to in the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt not murder.
And thou shalt not murder, the essence, the heartbeat of that commandment, thou shalt not murder, is actually stated not in the negative but in the positive, which is thou shalt esteem life.
That's the blueprint.
And that's just taking the sixth commandment in regards to murder.
And we could do it with all ten.
And every single civil law that we could find in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Exodus, we could track back to one of the Ten Commandments as the original code, if you will, for righteousness, the blueprint law.
And so the Ten Commandments endure forever.
Their particular or specific applications will change based on time and culture.
So for us, no precipices on the roof, but speed limits on the highway.
Thou shalt esteem life, the sanctity of human life, because human beings were made in the image of God.
Do you understand?
So here's the point.
Both Westminster and 1689 confession say this the ceremonial law, the priestly sacrificial system of the old covenant Israel, has been fulfilled by Christ and abrogated because he now is our once and for all sacrifice and our high priest who makes intercession for his people at the right hand of God.
So the ceremonial law has been fulfilled and abrogated.
But the moral law is eternal and endures forever.
That's the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue.
And the civil law that was particular to Israel.
The phrase that both of these confessions, Westminster and 1689, use is the general equity of the civil law still applies.
Let me give you an example of that.
New Testament, New Covenant, a verse that I love in my bias because of my position you shall not muzzle the ox while it treads the grain.
The Apostle Paul, so not just in the Old Covenant, not just in Old Testament Israel, but the Apostle Paul in the New Testament cites this Old Testament, that's not ceremonial.
You're not cleansed of sin by making sure not to muzzle the ox.
That's not like a sacrifice or a priestly ritual.
So it's not ceremonial law.
It's also not the eternal moral law.
It's not thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery.
So what is it?
It's like the precipice on the roof.
It falls into the category of civil law.
But Paul, what does he do?
He gleans from this particular civil law the general equity of the law and applies it to the principle of why a minister of the gospel has a right to receive.
His living from preaching the gospel.
Do you understand?
So that's how we, in a Christian sense, as New Covenant Christians, no longer Israel, theocratic Israel, Old Covenant, Old Testament Israel, but that's how we, as New Testament, New Covenant Christians, can still and must, I would argue, should, it's an obligation, should still utilize not just the moral law, the Ten Commandments, but even the civil law.
So we can look to all these civil laws, and insofar as there is a general equity, that is, A general principle, ethical, moral principle in those laws, right?
So it's, well, it's what some scholars would call case law, right?
So it's not each and it's not a one to one ratio of civil law of Israel should be the civil law of America, right?
Because that's another heated debate, right?
Like, are you a theonomist?
Are you, you know, theocratic?
This is what I believe.
I believe that America should be Christian, it should be a Christian nation.
Why?
Because I believe that all people have an obligation, not just Christians.
But God's law was actually given not just to Christians, but to humanity.
That all Christians have an obligation as creatures made in the image of God, they have an obligation to the Creator to obey His commandments not to steal, not to lie, not to murder, not to have any other gods.
And so I do believe that every nation, not just America, but every nation should be Christian.
Well, what do you do as a Christian nation?
You legislate righteousness.
You legislate righteousness.
Well, who gets to determine righteousness?
God or man?
See, you only have two choices.
Rush Dooney was famous for saying this.
Some of his stuff is whack.
But Rush Dooney was famous for saying, it's not whether, but which.
It's not whether, but which.
So that's interesting, even with cancel culture.
Have you thought about this?
Because I've often said, man, cancel culture, that's horrible.
But here's the reality we've always had cancel culture.
And every culture, in every society, in every nation, has always had cancel culture.
Israel had canceled culture.
You know what was called?
The reigning orthodoxy and its corresponding blasphemy laws.
There are certain things you can't say.
Well, what about free speech?
Doesn't that come from Christian roots?
Well, even within Christian roots and freedom, the law of liberty, there are still certain things you cannot say.
The question is not whether, but which.
Something's going to be canceled.
In our nation, it's not like all of a sudden we started canceling things and we never did it before.
No, we used to cancel communism.
Now we cancel liberty.
We used to cancel Marx.
Now we cancel Jefferson.
George Washington, John Locke, Adams, Dr. Seuss, whatever it might be.
So we've always canceled something.
And God's people, even in the Old Covenant and in the New Testament, they always were canceling something.
There's always a reigning orthodoxy, and depending on who is your God, your reigning orthodoxy, your blueprint moral law, that determines what is blasphemy in that particular culture.
So, to speak out against transgenderism is blasphemy.
To speak out against Darwin is blasphemy, and you will be canceled.
In some way, you might lose your job, or you might just be publicly mocked on social media.
But there's always an orthodoxy.
It's not whether, but which.
There's always a law.
That's my point.
And there are always rules for speech what is acceptable in a culture and what is not, based on what they deem as virtuous, what their particular law is.
So, here's the options.
Right, this idea, well, we shouldn't be a Christian nation, that's wrong to impose our morals on someone.
Morality is always going to be imposed.
Here's the question Whose morality will it be?
In the case of pro life versus pro abortion, pro murder, it's not pro choice.
Pro murder versus pro life.
Here's the idea it's either going to be the morality of God imposed on the mother and the abortion doctor, or it's going to be the morality of the mother and the abortion doctor imposed on the child.
Not whether, but which.
We are imposing morality.
We are imposing the false morality, the unrighteous immorality on 60 million children over the last 48 years in their mother's womb.
So you don't have this option of neutrality.
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
Neutrality is a myth.
There is no moral neutrality.
A man is either for Christ or against him, everyone has an allegiance.
To someone or to something.
So here are your two choices as it pertains to law it is either theonomy, that is God's law, or autonomy, which is man's law.
And autonomy is a myth.
There is no autonomy, there's no neutrality, but there's also no autonomy.
A man who thinks he governs himself will find out in the end that he was sorely mistaken.
There was a transcendent, universal, eternal law given by the lawgiver that reigned above him, and he failed.
To obey it.
And he will not be judged on that final day in accordance with his own standard, his own law, his autonomy.
He will be judged by theonomy, by God and God's law.
So the idea of a theocracy, a Christian state, insofar that it's a one to one ratio of Israel to America, that is not a biblical concept.
That's not a biblical concept.
Where you take Leviticus and you say, There's not a precipice on your roof, we're going to fine you.
That's not a biblical concept.
So there is a way to go too far.
But I believe that evangelical Christians have retreated.
They've overcompensated.
The pendulum has overswung.
We're so afraid of being called legalistic.
We're so afraid of being called theocrats.
We're so afraid of being called spiritual zealots and crazy right wing, you know, alt right, weird, whatever, that we've just said, oh, no, no, no, no.
We're just for freedom.
We're just for neutrality.
And we think that freedom just means that everyone can do whatever they want.
That's not freedom, that's licentiousness.
So there's law and licentiousness, lawlessness.
We think that the absence of God's law would be freedom.
No, the absence of God's law is licentiousness, not freedom.
And licentiousness, lawlessness produces death.
So the three divisions of the law moral, think Dekelah, the blueprint of God's law.
Ceremonial, think priestly sacrificial system, not only fulfilled by Christ, but abrogated because he is the final sacrifice and he is our forever priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Then civil law, not a one to one ratio from Old Covenant Israel to, you know, common day America or Russia or Canada.
But what we can do with the civil law, and I would argue we must do, And the confessions, Westminster and 1689, argue we must do is we must extract from the civil law given to Israel the general equity, that is, the general moral principles, and apply them in a right and wise way in our culture today.
You must not muzzle the ox, all right?
We can apply that not only to pastors as Paul does, but we can take the general equity of that Old Testament civil law and apply it to any worker and say, the worker is worth his wages.
Whatever he does, if he does good work, he's worth a decent wage.
You see how that works?
So that's not theocracy in the crazy sense, and that's not theonomy in every sense, but that's what I and other people like Doug Wilson would call general equity theonomy.
And in that regard, then yeah, I'm a theonomist.
Because I think the only alternative is to be an autonomous, to be given to subscribe to autonomy.
And given the choice of maybe getting it theologically wrong a little bit, But submitting to theonomy, God's law, versus submitting to man's law.
Secularism Lacks True Atonement00:03:23
Man's law, you say, well, theonomy, Joel, look at the dangers, though.
You could go, look at the Crusades.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Christianity has to answer throughout Christian history, church history, for the ways that God's law has been misapplied and where Christians have gone too far in theocracy and theonomy.
We have to answer for that in the thousands who have died.
But here's the other side of the coin secularism, autonomy, man's law has to answer for Mao.
They have to answer for Hitler.
They have to answer for the Nazis.
And they have to answer for China right now.
And camps.
See, that's the thing.
People, you know, Bill Maher and all these, they'll point to the Christians and say, but look what has happened in the name of religion.
Look what has happened in the name of secularism.
60 million babies murdered in less than 50 years in one nation.
Christianity's never done anything like that.
I'm talking the wackiest, kookiest Christians you can imagine can't come close to Roe.
Can't touch that.
I mean, you got to tip your hat, give credit where credit is due.
Secularism has killed more people than any religion combined.
The most deadly, and it is a religion, the most deadly religion on planet Earth is secularism.
Close second, Islam.
That's a freebie, which does promote violence.
There are plenty of peaceful Muslims, but that's because they're nominal Muslims.
A true, faithful Muslim flies into buildings and kills thousands.
That's Islam carried out faithfully.
It's the feature, not the bug.
The feature of Islam is violence.
See, whereas Christianity, well, what about the Crusades?
That's the bug, not the feature.
Christianity, violence is the bug, not the feature.
Islam, it's the feature, not the bug.
But here's the crazy thing secularism is worse than both of them combined.
Secularism has more casualties on the books than any other religion.
And make no mistake, it is a religion.
There is an orthodoxy, there are blasphemy laws what's canceled, what's not permissible, what you can say, what you can't say.
There are priests in this religion of secularism, the woke priestess and priest.
Robin D'Angelo is a priest.
The Frankfurt School is a host of priests, a Levitical priesthood, if you will.
So there are priests, there are laws, there are blasphemy rules, there is a worship, a practice of worship.
But you know what there's not?
Only Christianity, only the religion of Christianity has atonement for sin.
See, Islam, secularism, Hinduism, all of it, all of it, they all have law.
They all have orthodoxy.
They all have priests and practices for worship.
What they don't have is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What they don't have is forgiveness of sins.
What they don't have is cleansing from iniquity.
What they don't have is atonement.
And that's why all they'll ever have is just like Rome, which is not Christian, Roman Catholicism, is penance.
Again and again and again, your anti racist homework has to be done.
And it's never enough.
It's never enough.
You got to go back and apologize, and then you got to make reparations, and then.
20 years later, we realized those reparations really were an insult to injury because it wasn't enough, and we got to do it again, and we got to do it again, and we got to do it again.
Guilt Begets Obligation, Not Generosity00:03:47
But Christ and Christ alone says, It is finished.
And by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, your conscience is clear, your sins are forgiven, and you are clothed in the righteousness of God.
Only the Christian faith has atonement.
Every religion has law.
Every religion has blasphemy rules, orthodoxy, priest, worship, but only.
The Christian faith has the gospel of Jesus Christ.
All right, all that being said, I'm going to have to go really, really, really fast.
I'm not doing this whole text.
I already said two parts, but I thought I was giving myself some headway by ahead of time deciding to do two parts.
And I just need to realize if I really want to give myself headway, I just need to go into every sermon and say, This could be a 50 part sermon.
So, all that being said, here's the deal the law of God is beautiful and good and perfect and true, and it revives the soul.
It revives the soul.
It doesn't save the soul.
Notice that.
It revives the soul.
The only thing that can save the soul is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But obedience to the law for the dreary, weary Christian can bring a sense of revival, restoration, life, and blessing.
Privilege, there is such a thing.
I gave that disclaimer.
But in many cases, what we call privilege actually is blessing.
It's actually blessing.
We can look to families and say, you're privileged.
No, hey, look, that husband just kept his vows to his wife and provided for his kids.
Did you know, just statistically, statistically, even if you're a deadbeat dad, if you just don't divorce your wife and stay in the home and provide some kind of a paycheck, your children will be better off than most.
So much crime, incarceration, out of wedlock, childbirth, so much of it can be tracked back to what?
A particular race?
No.
No, to fatherlessness.
And there are cases where fatherlessness might have a higher rate or a higher statistic in a particular ethnicity, but it's not the ethnicity, it's not inerrant to ethnicity, it's inerrant to God's design for family.
And any culture, any country, or any ethnicity, or any time period that doesn't honor and uphold God's perfect design for families, for husbands and fathers to be present, is going to experience disadvantages.
Their prodigy will experience.
Pain and harm.
That's just common sense.
And then those who experience privilege, it's not because of whiteness.
No, it's because of family.
I really believe that.
Even non Christians, unbelievers who don't even love God, if by God's common grace they adhere to God's law in regards to the family, and a husband chooses to be faithful to his wife and a protector and provider for his children, his children will be privileged.
No, the Bible uses the term blessed.
And blessing, here's the beauty of viewing it as blessing.
Blessing actually allows you to do more good for those who don't have it.
Because when you call it privilege, the corresponding immediate implicit feeling is guilt.
You have privilege, AKA, you're guilty.
But guilt doesn't beget generosity, it begets obligation.
And obligation always allows for people to do the bare minimum.
So if you view it as privilege, then you're guilty.
And if you're guilty, you won't be generous.
If you view it as blessing, then you're not guilty, it's actually yours.
How the Law Revives the Soul00:15:11
By God's grace, it's actually yours.
And when something's actually yours, you can be generous.
See, socialism, it bans generosity.
It bans generosity.
There can be no generosity without property ownership.
It's only when we can say, This is mine.
By God's grace, of course, everything ultimately belongs to Him.
I'm a steward.
But this is, God has entrusted this to me.
It belongs to me.
I have ownership.
And now, because I have ownership, I actually have the opportunity to give generously.
And the root of it is gratitude versus guilt.
If you're blessed, what do you do?
You say thank you and you give to others.
If you're privileged, what do you do?
You feel guilty and you give just a little bit there, trying to pay your dues for your PR so that people don't think that you're racist, oppressive, fill in the blank.
So, all that being said, all that being said, God's law is not just the right thing, it's the good thing.
Churches need to preach the law of God.
It revives the soul for the Christian.
It doesn't save, but it does revive the soul.
When we obey God's law, things in life work.
Better.
Period.
Life works better when God's law is obeyed.
So, if every day with Jesus was better than the day before, we'd have no need to be revived.
But Christian joy in this life is not static, it fluctuates.
Joy appears to fluctuate in relation to our circumstances, but in reality, hear this joy only fluctuates in relation to your faith.
It's not in relation to your circumstances, it's in relation to your faith.
As you struggle to believe, you will struggle to find pleasure and joy in Christ.
Therefore, the daily preservation of our joy is not a guarantee for the Christian.
It must be diligently guarded and protected.
Christian joy is vulnerable because Christian faith is vulnerable.
Our faith in God is under constant and continual threat from three great enemies of the Christian in this life that is, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
This is precisely why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 24 not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers.
And that's a co worker, really.
We are workers with you for your joy.
What do we glean from this verse?
This verse clearly reveals that Christian joy is something that we must work for, and it is a daunting work that requires the aid of others.
We are working with you for your joy.
So, Christian work, it's not the default setting, it's not static.
If you're going to have joy in Christ, if you're going to have a soul that is revived, right, the soul needs to be revived because every day with Jesus isn't always better than the last.
So, there are down points to this Christian life, there are valleys, not just Peaks, not just mountaintops, but valleys, our joy has to be fought for, and the fight for joy is a fight for faith.
And this is a fight that we must enlist.
This is why we believe in the church.
One of the reasons why.
Because we must enlist other saints in our army as we wage the war for joy.
The war for joy is a war for faith, and faith comes by hearing.
We need to preach to ourselves, and we need saints, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, who will preach to us as well, who will remind us not about what we feel, But what we know to be true.
So, in the midst of difficult circumstances, we can fly by the radar.
We can fly by the dials, right?
That we have the true north, the Word of God being preached to us by ourselves and others that reminds us not what we feel, but what we know and brings us faith.
And as we bolster our faith, as we've seen even in Psalm 16, as faith bolsters, what I want you to see today is that joy increases and rises as well.
So, therefore, the continual work of preserving joy is only achieved by the continual fight for increasing.
Faith.
And the weapon made available to the Christian waging this war is the Word of God.
There's a fight for joy.
The fight for joy is a fight for faith.
And the way that we fight for faith is by the Word.
Every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the Word of God.
We preach to ourselves, and we need co workers who will work with us for our joy by preaching God's Word to us as well.
And this is what David sees when he writes Psalm 19 7 through 14.
He is speaking of the Word of God, more specifically God's law, and how it ultimately revives the soul by bolstering faith and increasing joy.
Let me say that again.
Don't miss that.
David is relishing and rejoicing in the law of God because, in the law of God, in the hearing of the law of God, it bolsters faith and increases joy.
It increases joy.
Does the gospel do that?
You bet you.
But so does God's law.
And God's law is what's referenced in our text today.
So, God's law is what a faithful minister must preach.
We need to stick to the text.
So, here's a couple verses Romans 10 17.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Hebrews 4 12.
The word of God is living and active.
It's sharper than any two edged sword.
It pierces to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
So, the word of God is our sword that we use, it's our weapon that we use in this fight for faith, which is ultimately a fight for joy.
It's a fight for joy.
The law of God, I'm going to run through these real quick, and then next week we're going to dive in and really unpack it more.
But the law of God, I want to just this week, I want us to quickly work over the purposes and products.
All right?
The purposes and products.
Next week, what we're going to do is we're going to look at the law of God, prosperity, and pleasure.
I've already really laid a framework for that today, which I didn't intend to do, but I'm glad I did.
Prosperity and pleasure that proceeds from obedience to the law of God.
We'll see that next week.
And we'll also see a danger that David says at the end of Psalm 19 that he prays.
It's a prayer that God would keep him from presumption.
And pride, presumption and pride, which are obstacles to obedience in God's law.
So we'll look at the prosperity and pleasure that comes from obedience to the law, and we'll look at the danger of presumption and how David prays against it.
All that next week.
I just want to spend about seven minutes on the purposes and products of God's law by working through just the first few verses, verse 7, 8, and 9.
In your notes, I've written this God's glory, which is synonymous with his goodness to man, manifests greatly in the works of creation, that is, general revelation.
As we saw last week in the first six verses of Psalm 19.
However, this glory is revealed all the more in and by the Word of God, that is, His Word, His special revelation, as we'll discover in verses 7 through 14.
The Scripture, which serves as the infallible rule for both our duty to God as well as our delightful expectation of God, is of much greater value than the skies or the sun or the moon or the stars.
The Scripture is of even greater value than the air we breathe or the food that we eat.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Matthew 4 4.
Therefore, verses 7 through 9, the psalmist provides for us an account of the six purposes.
That's what we're going to see here.
In these three verses, David's going to list six specific purposes of the law and the products, the benefits, what these six purposes of the law produce.
Okay?
So here we go.
Continue.
Next paragraph.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
That's the first thing we see.
The law is perfect.
Perfect, and it revives the soul.
So there's a purpose to revive the soul.
The law of God is perfectly free, that is, from all moral corruption.
And therefore, it is perfectly designed to accomplish its end, that is, to revive the soul of the weary man.
There is nothing more wearisome.
Remember our prayer from the Valley of Vision we've been doing each Lord's Day.
There's nothing more wearisome than sin.
Our prayer from the Confession says that there is no trial so hard.
To bear as a sense of sin.
So, therefore, the law of God revives the soul of man by revealing to him that which makes him weary, namely his sin.
It's the law of God which is like an MRI scan that detects disease or a tumor or cancer.
And the gospel of God is ultimately the treatment that cures the disease.
That's how the law of God revives us.
So, that's what I want to do as I go through these six statements in these three verses, six purposes of the law of God.
I want to show you how.
I think that's what Christian meditation does as we think deeply on God's Word, and I think that's what good preaching does.
Good preaching doesn't just say what, and it certainly needs to say why, but I think it goes even one step further.
This is what God's Word says, this is why God's saying it, and this is also how.
How it works.
Tell me how.
So, first thing that we see about God's law, the first purpose of the law and what it produces, first purpose is to revive the soul.
It revives the soul.
But the question is, how?
How does the law of God revive the soul?
Because I've been preaching that this whole time.
It revives the soul, revives the soul.
How?
The law of God revives the soul by removing from us that which wearies the soul.
That's how.
And how does the law of God remove from us that which wearies the soul?
Well, that which wearies the soul is sin, it is moral imperfection.
But notice the law of God, by contrast, it is sufficient to remove imperfection because the law is perfect.
That's what David is saying.
The law of the Lord is perfect, and therefore it's sufficiently equipped for its task of removing the imperfect, and the imperfect is that which wearies the soul.
So, because the law of God is perfect, it can reveal to us the imperfect, namely sin, and then the sin can be uprooted by grace and faith in the gospel and obedience to the law, which ultimately will take away the sin that wearied us and revive us.
That's how the perfectness of the law of God revives the soul.
Next, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The law of God is trustworthy.
That's what it means, sure.
Trustworthy, credible.
It is reliable in both its ability to reveal sin, that is the first use of the law, and its ability to make wise, that is the third use of the law, a lamp unto our feet.
It guides us, it's a compass.
In other words, the law of God can be trusted to guide even the most immature believer in the direction of wisdom, which leads to life.
Look at Psalm 119, 105.
It says this Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
All right, so this is just the first verse of our text today.
Verse 7, Psalm 19 7.
First, the law of the Lord is perfect.
Therefore, it reveals to us the imperfect, namely sin, which wearies the soul and allows us to uproot it by grace to revive the soul.
Law is perfect.
It revives the soul of man.
That's the first half of verse 7.
Second half is the law of the Lord.
It's not just perfect, morally perfect, but it's also credible, reliable, trustworthy, sure.
It is sure.
We can trust it.
And by being sure, what does it do?
It makes wise, doesn't just give wisdom, produce wisdom.
What I'm saying is this it doesn't just make the wise wiser.
That would be good in its own right.
But notice what's so incredible about the second half of verse 7 of our text it says, The law of the Lord, it's so sure, so trustworthy, it can make the simple wise.
I'll say it like this by way of analogy or illustration chopping wood.
Chopping wood is not rocket science, but it's still hard.
See, there's a difference between complexity and difficulty.
Those things which are complex can be difficult.
That's a type of difficulty.
But there are some things that are actually not complex.
It's not complicated.
It's simple.
It's pretty straightforward, but it's still hard.
Chopping wood, it's not rocket science, but you're going to work up a sweat.
So is the law of God.
It's sure.
See, it's not just perfect, because something can be perfect, but intricate, like a strand of DNA.
A strand of human DNA, I mean, it's perfectly designed by God, but I don't get it.
Maybe Steve and Rashawn do, but I don't get it.
It's complex.
It's perfect.
But see, what the second half of verse 7 tells us that's so beautiful is it's not perfect in mere complexity, in intricate perfection and beauty.
It's also simple.
It's not rocket science.
It's sure and it's trustworthy.
And it's so user friendly, for lack of a better phrase, that the simple can put the law of God into effect, into practice in their life, and the simple can become wise.
That's encouraging.
The next one, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
So it's perfect, it's sure, and now you see it's right, rejoicing the heart.
So the purpose is to revive the soul, it's to make the simple wise, but it's also to rejoice the heart.
So not just to revive the soul when you're weary, that would be kind of like rest, restoration, revival, but also to celebrate, to rejoice the heart.
So not just to bring the heart out of a state of fatigue back to equilibrium, but to elate the heart.
To excite the heart so that the heart rejoices.
The law of the Lord is right, rejoicing the heart.
In your notes, I've written this.
The law of God perfectly aligns with the character of God Himself, speaking again to God's moral law.
And God is the eternal standard for unchanging principles of good and evil.
In other words, God's law functions as the master blueprint, which perfectly details exactly how God designed the world and how He intends for us to live in it, how life works.
We live in God's world as God's creatures.
We need to follow God's rules.
Not because they're arbitrary and He's trying to steal our joy.
No.
God sets rules because it's His world and we're His creatures.
And He knows which rules we should live by because He knows how life works.
He knows how the world works.
He knows how we work.
And so when we follow His law, we follow His rules, His rules for life, His principles, eternal, unchanging principles of good and evil, guess what it produces?
Happiness.
Happiness.
It rejoices the heart.
See, God's law.
Sorry, I lost my place.
It's the blueprint that perfectly details exactly how God designed this world and how we're meant to live in it.
The law of God reveals how life actually works as well as what doesn't work.
Therefore, if we submit to God's law, our hearts are gladdened and rejoice.
Have you ever wondered?
I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again.
The Clean Enduring Moral Law00:13:55
Have you ever wondered how in the world Jesus could say with integrity, All who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you rest?
Because it seems like coming to Jesus demands that we follow Jesus, and doesn't Jesus say there's a cost to discipleship?
There's a cost of following him.
I mean, coming to Jesus, yes, we find grace for our sin, but we also find the Jesus who heals us, forgives us of our sin.
But then what did he say?
Go and sin no more.
We always leave that part out, right?
So he might take the man who is lame, who is lowered by his four friends through the roof.
But Jesus, he doesn't just heal that man.
He says, he actually, the first thing he says is, son, your sins are forgiven.
And the Pharisees and religious rulers and scribes are complaining, who is this man who thinks he has the authority to heal sins?
And Jesus says, well, what's harder?
To say, Your sins are forgiven, or rise up and walk.
But so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, Rise up and walk.
And the man is healed.
And Jesus heals him because he cares about his physical needs, but also as a sign that proves that Jesus is the Son of Man, which is, the Son of Man is just, we see that in Ezekiel.
He was called the Son of Man.
It's Jesus' favorite phrase for himself.
What it means is God, divine.
So Jesus is proving his divinity and therefore his ability to forgive sins by a miraculous healing.
But then what Jesus says to this man and many others is, Go.
And sin no more.
So come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.
How is the guy who is morally perfect and demands moral perfection from us the guy who's going to be the best person to coach us in rest?
Sounds like that guy, you come to him, you're not going to get any rest.
Sounds like if you come to him, it's going to be a lot of work.
Right?
I mean, come to Jesus and get rest?
How?
Well, because again, the thing that wearies us the most is not the burden of God's law.
The thing that wearies us the most, we don't realize this, but you have to hear it.
Because if you don't hear this, You'll see God's law maybe as right, but you won't see it as good.
I want you, church, to see not only the law of God as the right thing, but the good thing.
The good thing.
The law of God, although impossible for any man to perfectly obey but Christ himself, the law of God, although it's so difficult, it demands moral perfection, the law of God is burdensome in a sense, but nothing in human society or life has ever been more burdensome.
Than sin.
The reason you're tired is not because of the high standards of moral perfection that come from the law of God.
The reason that you are actually tired, and you have to believe this and you have to see it, the thing that wears you out, the thing that produces anxiety, the thing that produces fatigue, the thing that makes you just want to quit in life, it's not the high standard of God's law.
It's your sin.
Your sin wears you out.
Because not obeying God's law, Following our own rule book instead of God's rule book, that's what makes life not work.
It's God's world, we're God's creatures, He has God's rules.
And He makes these rules because He knows how the world works, He made it, He knows how we work, He made us.
And when we think we know better than God, we say, Well, I'm going to lower the standard so that I'm not so tired all the time.
But by lowering the standard, you've adopted another standard, an alternative standard for a world you didn't make, and for a life that you didn't give.
And so you think that you're going to lower the standard and find relief by imputing your own lower, easier standard.
But your standard, your rules don't work in this world.
You're applying the wrong rules to the wrong board game.
God made the board, so God writes the rules.
And you might think your rules are easier, but guess what?
If you're trying to go by the rules of Candyland when you're playing chess, you think that that might give you some relief.
It doesn't work.
Ultimately, what it does is it ensures that you lose chess every single time.
And there's a misery that comes with loss.
There's a vexation, an exasperation that comes with the disappointment of life again and again and again.
And you will only ever experience disappointment if you're trying to beat a chess master by the rules of Candyland.
That's what it is.
That's what it is to impute our own law.
We think we're giving ourselves relief by saying, I'm going to follow this easier, lower standard of law than God's.
But we're applying a different, Set of rules to a world that was not designed by us.
God designed it.
And so there is a relief and a rest that comes by submitting to God's law because it's what works in this life.
The fear of the Lord is clean.
No, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
So now we see the commandment of the Lord is also pure.
It opens the eyes, it illuminates, it reveals.
See, the law of God is clear, it's not cloudy, it's not complicated.
It's not a mystery.
It's not a mystery.
So that goes back to the surety of the law.
It makes even the simple wise.
This again is maybe another way of David saying what we've already seen.
The law of God, although difficult to obey, is not complex.
It is user friendly.
It's not a mystery that has to be decoded.
It is something that is straightforward.
It's something that is simple.
It's pure.
It opens the eyes.
It's clear.
It doesn't have murkiness.
It doesn't have cloudiness.
It's not complicated.
Even the simple can become wise.
By looking to God's law and obeying.
Next, the fear of the law is clean, enduring forever.
There is nothing in God's law that does not belong there.
Last illustration I'm going to give.
When you guys leave today, you know what I'm going to do?
When you leave today, I'm going to do the same thing I do every afternoon when you leave.
I'm going to walk around the house and clean.
You know what I'm doing when I walk around the house and clean?
I am behaving as a king in my kingdom, and I am going around and I am pronouncing judgment.
That's what I'm doing.
I see a pillow laying in the middle of the couch, and I judge that pillow.
For being in its wrong place, I pronounce judgment and I move that pillow to the side.
I find something on the ground and I get the Dyson and I suck it.
I pronounce judgment.
That's what God's judgment is.
Remember the flood in the days of Noah.
The flood of God was cleansing.
That's what God does in his judgment.
He removes the dross.
He removes the dirt.
He removes sin.
All that which doesn't belong.
It's not according to his will, it's not pleasing to him, it's not righteous.
And so, you and I, that's what we do when we clean up a house.
We're going around exercising judgment.
And that's what we do by the grace that God provides by the power of his spirit in sanctification.
We're removing dross, removing sin through repentance.
And through practicing holiness.
Well, that's what's being said here by David.
The commandment of the Lord is clean.
And look, he's again speaking not to the civil law, not to the ceremonial, but the moral law.
This is what he says the moral law of God, the moral commandment of God, it's clean and therefore it endures forever.
The dirt in my house will not endure forever because I'm too OCD to let it happen.
It won't endure forever.
And the sin of man will not endure forever.
Because it's either been dealt once and for all by Christ at Calvary for the Christian, or it will be eventually dealt with by God in His judgment in hell.
Sin will not endure forever.
Dirt will not endure forever because cleansing is coming, judgment is coming.
But when God comes with His Dyson vacuum to His law, there's not one speck of dirt to remove.
It endures forever because it's clean, it's shiny clean.
Sparkling clean, perfectly clean.
You can put it under a microscope and you cannot find one piece of filth or dross or dirt that needs to be removed.
There's no way to improve it because the law of God, that is his moral law, stems from God's own nature.
It cannot be improved in the same way that God can't be improved because you cannot improve on something or someone who is already perfect.
The law of the Lord is clean, it endures forever.
There is nothing in the law of God that does not belong there.
There's no dirt or dross that needs to be removed.
Therefore, the law of God will endure forever and can never be repealed.
The ceremonial law has been abrogated, but the moral law concerning the fear of God endures forever.
Morality can never change.
Time cannot alter the nature of good and evil.
Matthew 5, 18 through 19, Jesus says this.
He says, Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, which won't happen for the record, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
Therefore, Jesus is speaking here, and he's kind of addressing two things.
There's a sense in which the civil law will pass away, the ceremonial law will be fulfilled and abrogated, but the moral law of God, not one jot or tittle, iota or dot, no crossing of the T, no dotting of the I will ever pass away because the moral law of God will endure forever.
Even in heaven, we will esteem life.
Even in heaven, we will esteem truth.
That's if you just look at the moral law of God in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and try to get to the root of it.
Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt esteem life.
Thou shalt not lie or bear false witness, thou must love the truth.
Right?
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Thou must rest in Christ and find rest in God and in worship and not in living our own way.
Thou shalt not commit idolatry, worship other gods, or worship a God by what we see, create a graven image.
Thou must not take the Lord's name in vain because he's a thrice holy God.
We shouldn't covet, be jealous of what other people have.
We shouldn't seek to steal.
We should honor our fathers and mothers.
I mean, think about that.
In heaven, will we still do those things?
Of course.
In heaven, we'll be filled with people perfectly loving the truth and therefore not lying.
Perfectly being content in Christ and therefore not coveting or trying to steal.
Perfectly loving our neighbor because we love God and have been loved by Him and therefore not committing murder in the physical or in the heart.
That's what heaven is.
So, heaven, when all sin is gone, what remains is God and His law.
That is His moral law being perfectly fulfilled, and that's why heaven will be without mourning, without sadness.
He'll wipe away every tear.
You know why He'll wipe away every tear?
Or better yet, how He'll wipe away every tear?
By wiping away every remnant of sin.
That's how.
How will Jesus remove every ounce of sadness?
By removing every ounce of sin.
Because that's what makes you sad.
And so, the reason why sin will be forever gone is because God's law will be forever present and forever obeyed.
The law will not pass away because it's good.
Lastly, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Some translations say the judgments, and I prefer that.
The judgments of the Lord are true.
See, God's law stems from God's judgment, it's a reflection of his character, yes.
But everywhere we see the law of God, we see the judgments of God.
See, God's law is perfect because he judges perfectly.
His judgment is perfect.
When we choose to live by our own law or our own standards, it's merely because we trust in our own judgment more than God's.
So God's law is right because his judgments are wise.
Have you ever?
You need to do that.
You need to intrinsically link the law of God with the judgment of God, it's a helpful Christian practice.
It's a helpful theological concept.
It's true.
Link the law of God with the judgment of God.
And therefore, don't just think of God's law in terms of his holiness.
Think of God's law as his judgments in terms of his wisdom.
When you look to the law of God, don't just see God as holy and having a morally perfect law.
Think of God as the one who is infinitely wise and omniscient and makes perfect judgments.
In every case, in every circumstance, in every scenario, with every person, in every time, in every culture, God knows exactly what to do.
He knows exactly what to do.
And here's the beauty here's the beauty.
He wrote it down in 10 years.
Commandments.
And all we have to do is believe it, obey it, and apply it.
And we can have perfect judgment.
Why?
Because it's not ours, it's His.
So God's laws are right because the righteousness of God's holy law is synonymous with the wisdom of God's perfect judgments.
And at the end of the day, all sin can be defined as this all sin is ultimately man in his pride and presumption.
That's what we'll see next week.
That's why David prays against it.
Lord, help me not to be.
Presumptuous.
All sin is man, whether it be conscious or subconscious, believing that he's wiser than God.
I'm not going to obey your law because I have created for myself my own custom set of standards.
And I'm trusting in my own law more than your law because I trust my own judgments about life more than your judgments about life.
And I trust my judgments more than your judgments because at the end of the day, not only do I think I'm holier than God, I think I'm wiser than God.
That's the problem.
Thanks so much for listening, but real quick.
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