I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning to the second book of the Bible. We return this morning after some time to our study in the book of Exodus. And this morning we come to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19. I'm going to read the entirety of the chapter. We're only considering the first eight verses. I just want to say, by way of introduction, some passages are easier to understand and grasp. Some are more challenging. And I don't act in any way this morning as if I have come to perfect understanding of what is a very challenging section of Scripture. And so I felt the temptation preaching this to say, well, maybe I should just move it to the evening, right? And then I thought, well, I don't believe in sermonettes for Christianettes, okay? I believe that you are a mature congregation. I believe that you have heard the law read over and over and over and over for years. And have you ever spent any time in what precedes the giving of the law? And what happened with the giving of the law? I grew up, I heard the law read, it was closed, sounded like a bowling alley, the Bible set the pew. And that was it. That was it. I didn't have really any grasp of fully what was happening with the giving of the law. If I can help you with that today as a pastor, I'll be really grateful. It doesn't mean all your questions will be answered, but we're going to make a good start. This is Exodus chapter 19 this morning. This is the word of the Lord. On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they camped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain where Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and that you may believe forever. You also believe forever. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people. And they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain. The Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, go down and warn the people lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you yourself warned us saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. And the Lord said to him, go down and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest He break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And I want you to now skip down to verse 18 after the giving of the law. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off. And said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word this morning. I don't know how you felt hearing that this morning. maybe you've never thought about what surrounds the giving of the law, but we really do come this morning to a very important section of Scripture that I believe helps us to understand the entire plan of salvation. And I want to begin with something that the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament to help and guide our understanding. That's a principle of biblical interpretation. The New Testament makes this clear for us. when he said to New Covenant believers that they are not under law, but under grace. Do you know that he says that under law? He references that distinction 11 times in the New Testament, as many as I counted. Under law and under grace. Big distinction for the Apostle Paul. And this was very important for him. In fact, we're going to look at what that means this morning. But just listen for a moment to these passages. We're trying to put the Bible together this morning to these passages that you know. For instance, Romans 2. For all who have sinned without the law perish without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. Romans 3. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. That every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God. When Paul said later on in Corinthians that he wanted to become all things to all people for the gospel's sake, he made distinctions of different kinds of people. He made a special classification of those who were under the law. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, and then he immediately qualifies though not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law to those outside the law Gentiles they weren't handed the law of God and put under it I became as one outside the law not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law there's this distinction everywhere I mean you've read it all your lives and we can't ignore them. There are those, there are the distinction of those under the law and those outside the law. What is he talking about though this morning under the law? I want to explore that with you. There's no doubt Paul was speaking of the nation of Israel. He says that. His whole point in the first chapters of Romans is that God specifically handed Israel the oracles of God. God handed Israel the law and he put them under the law. And the effect of that by putting Israel under the law of God was that when the world would study the nation of Israel, and think of still how much emphasis there is to this day on the nation of Israel. When the world would study the history of Israel, that nation, that people, they would say, wow, that was the people who got closest to God in the earth. And when they got really close to god as close as they could in the earth up to the edge of sinai it should have the effect of stopping up the mouth of everyone it's a teaching tool and you say what what what what is god teaching us about israel what do we learn about the nation of israel we're going to unpack that today and tonight but but but when it says paul says when they were put under the law it had the effect of stopping up the mouth of everyone, everyone should have said, who can come near this God? It's that simple. That was what Paul said is the effect. And this is why you have in the New Testament language that maybe confuses you, but you have language all over the place that says the law kills. The law brings wrath. The law of the ministry on stones is a ministry of death and it faded away all over all over all over and what a moment when the apostle paul comes and says but you are not under law but under grace romans 6 i wonder if we're as excited about that as we should be i wonder if we understand what he just said to us under the inspiration of the spirit and the purpose today my single great purpose is to help you understand that understand that distinction and help you understand what the righteous standard of god is what he demands and you're going to see this is christianity 101 it's going to help you with evangelism witness it's going to help you understand what the kind of christian life should look like now in relation to the law and it impresses upon us the basic truth that we need a pure and a holy life before a holy god and without which no one can come near the holy mountain of god and that's what is before us today that that the lord wanted to teach the world to ask the question if israel was the special people of god and they were handed the law of god and they were put under the law of God and then they broke that covenant how in the world can anyone ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place Isaiah 6 I saw a glimpse of the glory of the Lord and I ducked and covered and I said woe is me prophetic curse on me Lord who can be saved remember the apostles asked that to the Lord who can be saved you've all got to grapple with that question in your life you've all got to feel the weight of that question in your life how in the world am i going to get there see how basic this is it's the question the most important question you'll ever ask in the course of your existence on earth and it gets about as basic to christianity as it gets so stay with me this morning as we work through this for a little bit and that you would appreciate that distinction that the apostle paul makes that you're under grace in returning to the question i've posed what does it mean to be under the law paul said that israel was put under it and you asked the question when was israel put under the law and that becomes very important when looking this morning at exodus chapter 19 as we open up chapter 19 we notice here that moses has offset this uh completely from everything else that has come before. You could see this if you looked at the original language. There's no connector to this. It is basically a decisive break so that Moses wants you to know this is almost like a superscription here. This is a brand new section of Exodus. Something big is about to happen right now. Something very big in redemptive history. So look at verse 1. On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt. On that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. It's a fascinating section of scripture because here we are back where Moses had originally started and first met the lord and remember you see all caps there the lord is all caps this was the one in the burning bush we have met christ and here he is uh now the mountain is going to be on fire and god is speaking out of the mountain it's not a bush it's the mountain but something interesting happens and you'll notice here that we have the establishing of a covenant notice the structure and and and many scholars have recognized over the years that that what we have is a kind of classic what they call susan vassal treatise treatise here that they've dug up over there uh all the time between kings and nations and and covenants that were made and you have the same sort of structure we find in the book of exodus in the book of deuteronomy of these covenantal arrangements that they have dug up in history well when you come to verse 3 you have an introduction to this this what we call historical prologue and you have a stating of their history together and the lord the lord begins to rehearse his history with with them he tells moses moses you tell the children of israel this you saw what i did to the egyptians how i bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself the lord wanted israel to think for a minute and never forget of all of the wonderful acts of deliverance that he had done for them the whole nation of egypt and think about it the most powerful nation on the face of the earth at that time he had knocked over kicked over pummeled took down the mightiest king on earth for them and he says, and I bore you on eagle's wings to myself. They knew what that meant. Eagle was a mighty predator. It soars sovereignly in the sky. The Lord says, I brought you right to myself. I bore you on eagle's wings. I did everything for you. I've been moved by the love of God in exodus for these people haven't you he gave them so much he delivered them he shattered their bondage they didn't even ask for it they didn't even want it they wanted to go back he he takes them out and he shelters them and when they're getting hit egypt he has a shield around goshen so they're not even getting touched in the midst of all the chaos in the earth and then once he brings them out he triumphs at the red sea i don't need to rehearse all this we go out into the wilderness he feeds them he rains down manna from heaven quail on their doorsteps he gives them drink the lord strong and mighty the lord cared for them and loved them and you stand back and you say he was so committed to this project and you say why one reason he made a promise to Abraham years ago I'm going to do this nothing's going to frustrate it and he fulfilled you come to the end of Joshua he fulfilled every good word that he spoke to Israel regarding the land the land promises to Abraham he gave it to him he did everything you know what if the Lord and we began to rehearse in the course of our lives how much the Lord has done for us it'd be scary how much we've missed. You've seen what I've done for you. Where do we start? Many of you have by birth been set apart. Many of you, He trained from the beginning. He's loved you the whole way. He's helped you the whole way. He's cared for you the whole way. He's met all your needs. Who is without? He's given you freely to drink and He's given you to eat and enjoy in the midst of a sinful and perverse generation. He's given you all sorts of good gifts from the Heavenly Father to enjoy and things to enjoy. He's plundered Egypt for you. And he sustains you to this day. It would be overwhelming if God pulled back the veil and you looked down the corridor of life and you looked at every place he has been all along the way, sustaining in his kind providence, defending you and helping you be dead by now if you weren't, by the way. And he had done all this and he's brought you to this place And then on top of all of these added benefits, he's given you his son. Let me ask the question. What has Israel been like to the Lord? Knuckleheads! Have they appreciated any of this? Did they understand anything of what it cost to have all this? Did they think they deserved it? What have they been like? what's going on in your life? You've had all this. Would you honestly say you've shown to God a lot of gratitude in the course of your life? Moaned about maybe his worship? I don't want to go worship. Do my own thing. Complained? Has the course of your life had any complaints? What about gossip? What about greed? How much stuff do you want constantly? More from him. What did Israel understand? I mean, I'm grappling with that. What did they understand? Did they think that God did this because they deserved it? Because God would later say, I don't want you ever to think that because it is not because of your righteousness that I did any of this. I've been taken by the wonderful, relentless love and grace of Christ to deliver Israel from bondage and bring them to the promised land all to fulfill what He spoke. His commitment He made with Abraham in the covenant of grace to do it, and He would not waver on it. And we've been moved deliverance after deliverance after deliverance after deliverance. We relish in them in this. And seriously, we relish. But they have done nothing in the course of their existence with this God but complain and attack him. And we're just used to this now. We're used to this in our study of Genesis and Exodus. 69 chapters you've studied with me through these two books so far. Can you believe that? 50 in Genesis and now we're in chapter 19 of Exodus this and what have we seen grace grace grace grace comfort comfort comfort comfort and the thing we're starting to wonder in our study of this these this this whole nation being brought together is do they appreciate that grace very much because they just keep doing the same thing over and over. Is there ever an end to this? You know? Is there a deep desire to change on their part? Do they really want to stop complaining and lead holy? Can they, if they feared Pharaoh and had respect for Pharaoh, can they really go on and treat the Lord like this, who's pure and holy? And you see, it's these questions that we sort of painfully have to stop and answer for a moment as we come to this break in the book of Exodus and begin, is that this reality and all this deliverance I've not seen now ready? I've not seen one act of contrition, one act of sorrow, one act of bowing the knee one act of saying I'm sorry Lord thank you where's the thank you? Moses sang a song but Israel has not displayed it one scene of repentance i have not found they charge god in chapter 17 with wrongdoing they charge him with being a covenant breaker and and and i'm pausing and i'm saying you know we've been studying what all this this typified in other words being brought out of egypt we were in bondage to slavery to our sins uh being heading into the land and being delivered by pharaoh we've been delivered from satan and being passed over we have the resurrection and entering into the the wilderness journey now it's a life of sanctification did they understand any of this you see that the only thing they really knew was the one attribute that he chose to uh display before them and that's the love of god and this is the problem when things are all out of whack isn't it in other words uh did they know anything of the of the holiness of this god well they had seen the plagues but it hasn't really shown up in the course of their own lives um they did they know much of his majesty and how similar is the problem today think about how similar is the problem in the church today everyone comes to church everyone wants to hear gospel gospel love love comfort comfort comfort this is this is what we all want and i hear a lot of preaching about this and and and everyone comes up they come in as they are and they leave just as they are great It's like going down to the man at the beach. He's got a six-pack of beer. Hey, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Why won't you come? Hey, great, he loves me. Because he downs the beer. The point being, you have not given him any kind of motivation or any kind of conviction to stop getting drunk. God loves me. Everything's great. And the attitude that often comes out before God, even in the course of our own lives is when everyone comes and goes. That can't go on. So this leads me to ask, whatever's about to happen, Paul wanted everyone to understand it seems so radical. Whatever's about to go on here seems so radical that he said, I don't want anyone to think that what is about to happen on Mount Sinai could ever annul grace. He understood it was such a radical contrast of what's going on here. I don't want anyone to think that it's going to annul my grace to you. It's not. The law which was added 430 years later, Paul said cannot annul the covenant God made beforehand with God in Christ, right? Which was displayed in the covenant of grace. It can't get rid of it. It can't stop it. It's not undermining it. In other words, what you need to understand is that whatever's about to happen right now was meant to be a teaching tool for the world and it's your best teaching tool and witness. What is it? Israel goes under the law. He was not presenting a new way of salvation by law keeping. I get that out right now. He was giving a witness to the demand of the law. You understand that? He was giving a witness to the demand of the law for the world to study. Israel didn't know it. They had forgotten what in the world got them into this mess of life in the first place, hadn't they? how many people are running around today in the world they don't even they're not even thinking about where did this mess come from and how did this all happen and why is everyone in such misery they're not even thinking about it it's not even on the radar and and and and Israel was the same thing why in the world did they need to be delivered it was because the original situation with Adam in the garden had wrecked humanity and Paul says you see the law has a purpose of bringing wrath. For where there, here's so important for this morning, where there is no law, there is no transgression. In other words, if you don't have the law, you have no concept of what's going on in your hearts. No concept of what's happening in the blackness of your own life. And that leads to now what happens here this morning notice verse 5 now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation keep that in mind these are the words that you shall speak to the people of israel now what strikes you about that is the lord says this is a covenant this is a covenantal arrangement here and a covenant here we could just basically define it as this solemn pact or agreement about the way of achieving some kind of defined happiness in other words here's the agreement here's how you will be happy what strikes you about it if you were to take your pen and you were to look at this you'd say something something kind of bothers me here something kind of bothers me here it's that little word if glares now exodus 19 to 24 are a unit and it's the whole giving of the law here think carefully about this if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you will be a special treasure to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation this gets down to the basic way we read the bible as i did with psalm 15 something just conditional was said a conditional covenant was just made and we stand back that sounds arminian i remember hearing a protestant reform minister years ago got so nervous about this he tried to find every loophole under the sun to explain that if really doesn't mean if you can't look at exodus 19 and tell me that something conditional did not just happened something very conditional just happened and it's nothing like genesis 15 it's nothing like genesis 15 why when genesis 15 happened and the covenant of grace was given remember what happened abraham's asleep and god splits the animals tells abram split them in a row god in the night walks with legs pillar of fire remember uh the the smoking oven and a burning torch he passed between those pieces and and the new testament comes along and says guess what in the covenant of grace god took an oath i'm going to fulfill it abraham's asleep and remember what hebrews says an oath for confirmation is the end of all dispute god took the oath in genesis 15 thus god determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Two things God did. By two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, you might have strong consolation. You might have peace in your lives. He did two things when he cut the covenant of grace. He made a promise and then he swore an oath. I'll do it. And you go right to the cross. Now, we call that an unconditional covenant of grace because unconditionally i'm not fulfilling that covenant it's unconditional to me it's conditional for christ to fulfill it it's unconditional for me and paul was so moved by genesis 15 he said everyone look there that's justification by faith alone abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness christ for righteousness now what's happening here if you keep the covenant then you'll be my special treasure in the earth holy nation so what happens verse 7 so moses came called the elders of the people and set them before them all the words that the lord had commanded him and all the people notice this collectively answered together and said that the Lord has spoken we will do all do you say that today well you'd be violating the heidelberg which says you do make a beginning but it's a small beginning who's standing up today and saying I will absolutely keep the law who swore the oath not God so Moses brought back the words of the Lord the words of the people to the Lord covenant was just arranged. I had a poster in my, I'm trying to keep this as basic. Forgive me if I'm going way over your heads. I'm trying not to here. I think it's so important. Maybe this will help. I had a poster in my room as a kid, and I was a basketball player, and it had a bunch of basketball players going for a rebound. The ball's high. Everyone's reaching high for the ball. One player's in the center, and a hand's on this, pulling it down, and it says at the bottom of the poster. Do your best. God will do the rest. I like that poster. That's not what just happened on Mount Sinai. The poster God made said, here's the ball. Here's the terms to go get the ball. With all your enemies on your back, you better get the ball. We'll get it. We'll get it. No mess-ups. All the words we'll keep, Lord. Do you see the mammoth problem here? This is what led to Jesus and the Pharisees and the mess we're going to look at tonight. And Paul takes this principle in Galatians 3 and says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under its curse, for it's written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do all things written in the book of the law to do them listen god was not saying do your best i'll do the rest it's not that hard i said to my wife uh i said to darcy i said what what do you think it means when god says and this is my way of sort of testing that i don't become all high and mighty in the pulpit and think that i'm some great theologian i i i i'm really careful i want to know how the the person in the pew is hearing this and i said listen what do you think when paul says God put Israel under the law. Why did he do that? She didn't grow up reformed. She grew up in a sort of baptistic church, was very conservative preaching church. She has no context for any of the disputes that have gone on in the reformed world with law and gospel. And she says, well, it's not that hard. Isn't God just teaching us that you don't want to be under the law because no one can keep that perfect standard and we better run to Jesus? Amen. You got it. You got it. That's the message. I felt really good. That's Christianity 101. They formally pledged to keep the law and were put under it, meaning that the law had the power over them to judge them in the terms that were set. The law had the power over them to judge. And in that case, the terms were, if they didn't keep it, what were the terms? You're going to lose your status as a holy nation. that's what he says so so what is this teaching us here it is no one's going to appreciate grace until you begin to comprehend your own inability and your own drastic need until you understand the heart that beats in you is not a good heart as society wants to tell you listen to your heart don't listen to your heart and we know how this went as paul harvey used to say and then comes the rest of the story right behold the days are coming says the lord that i'm going to make a new covenant with the house of israel the house of judah not like the covenant that i made with their fathers on the day when i took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of egypt ready which covenant my covenant which they broke all the words will do you broke it what happened to him well god put him under the law so that you he would teach the world that the people who were closest to god who were handed the oracles of god who were given the law did not have clean hands and a pure heart the hill of sinai you notice in this section is black and it's on fire and everyone's all of a sudden at the end of this they might have stood back and say uh-oh what did we just agree to because before moses ever comes down with the law what are they doing at the bottom of the mountain making a calf this is our god who brought us out they're breaking the first commandment what happened to the northern kingdom of israel done what happened to the southern kingdom. What a tragic history. Where is the nation of Israel today? In belief or unbelief? Are they still God's special nation in the earth? That's my question. Is Israel today God's special nation in the earth? People want that. I would love to see all of Israel come and be saved. That's Paul's burden in Romans 9 and 10 and 11. I want my heart for my countrymen is that they would be saved. But they lost that special status, didn't they? and over the long history of israel the bible says this is where they stumbled brothers and sisters this is where they stumbled they tried to establish their own righteousness before god and you need to study that history and understand it that's why paul is explaining to the jews why god put them under the law what paul says what purpose then did the law serve galatians 3 what purpose did it serve galatians 4 it was added because of transgressions it was added because of exactly what you've seen in israel no sorrow no repentance no turning they just arrogantly kept trying to do it themselves and no appreciation for grace in other words they sat in the pew every week and they said ho hum it doesn't really matter and they didn't take it all very seriously well they took their law keeping seriously for the wrong end. And Paul says, remember in Romans, by the law is the knowledge of sin. For I would not have even known I'm a coveter unless the law had said thou shall not covet. Now, if you want to know how the New Testament's operating, it's operating this way. Look how practical this is. A man comes running up to Jesus and says to him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? two verbs, I'm going to do this. And you should stop and say, what arrogant man. What an arrogant man. The Savior has come to die to pay for sins, and he's saying, you tell me how to go get eternal life. Not salvation, I don't need to be saved. I want to get eternal life myself. Arrogant. And what does Jesus do? You know the commandments. Go do them. did you see what just happened? And he says, I've kept them. Really? You've kept them? I'll tell you what, why don't you go sell all your possessions and give them to the poor? Then you come back and follow me. And for the first time in that man's life, he did what? He faced sadness in his heart. It was the best thing that could have happened. Because he walked away thinking, I am not making it, and I can't do it. It's just a marvel. It's all over the Bible. And it so bothered the disciples that they looked at this upright, perfect man and they said, Lord, if that guy can't be saved, who then can be saved? See how we all have to come there? And the answer Jesus gave is, with you it's impossible. But that's why I'm here. with me, God, it's possible. This comes down to the basic Christian witness this morning when you talk to people who want to know about Christianity, what keeps them away. What keeps people away from Christianity is very clear. They have no idea why they need it and we haven't, we have not pitched it so that they know why they need it. They'll tell you they're good people. I mean, I sat with my grandfather on his deathbed and told me he's a good person. He wasn't handed the law of God. Israel was handed the law of God. So if I'm dealing with someone like that, I got a message from, let me tell you about Israel. They were handed the law of God. And they tried to do their best. And it went disastrously. And that's why Paul says in Galatians 4, tell me, you who desire to be under the law, if you want to be under the law, do you hear the law? Are you hearing what it's saying to you? The law made very clear the righteous standard. And every time, brothers and sisters, you feel guilt in your hearts over your sins and you feel convicted and you're going to go through this. I go through this as a pastor. There are times I panic. I think I know what I am. I know the scraps I give this God. I often feel sick with my own life. And what has just happened? the law has done its work the law has done its work and it's brought me to despair so that i look to who jesus you feel it you know it paul says the law was your tutor to bring you to christ and when here it is we'll close with this and when the fullness of time came listen to this God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law he went under it for you in order that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of son and if you are led by the Holy Spirit you are no longer under the law Galatians 5 Romans 6 but under grace since jesus went under it by faith in him you go under grace the law has no more power to condemn you that's what just happened this is the basis of romans there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus the law lost its power to kill you the law lost its power to judge you and condemn you it's done it's over for good period and that's why on that day when two books are open there's two books opened on that day there's the lamb's book of life and in that book not one deed is written you know what's in the lamb's book of life just your name then there's the book of deeds for all of those who have not turned to jesus who were under the law or even not even having the law will be judged outside the law by the law all their deeds of the whole course of their life are written down and they're going to have to give account you don't want that that's why we tell people flee to jesus by faith god said to israel if you keep them then you'll be my special people my holy nation in the earth what did peter say to us to fulfill that in christ not if then he said you are same language exodus 19 my holy nation you are my special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into this marvelous light it's done for you in Christ and that is Jews and Gentiles together who believe that's the Israel of God and now doesn't this mean so much as we close now hear this afresh this morning I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. And I am so thankful I'm free. With humility and contriteness of heart, I've been born on eagle's wings to Christ. Thank you, Christ, since you worked so hard to keep that for me, I can now say in my heart as a free son how I love your law, oh God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, these things we realize unless your Holy Spirit opens our hearts to understand and apply. They'll go right over us. I pray this morning that the message that was preached reached every heart here and they understand what is so basic to Christianity. It's the whole Gospel. We renounce our own righteousness and we understand that Christ is for righteousness. Christ for righteousness. And having confidence in Him, May now we establish the law in our lives as a way of saying thank you for saving us. For now we have understanding. Being under grace, may we live for your glory and being thankful, desiring to keep your commandments with cheerful, joyful hearts since we are forgiven and since the power of the law to condemn us is done and there is now for no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.