Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Freed from the Law - Part V
Vern Peterman · Jul 29, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 28
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261911163209

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We've been going on with this theme, Freed from the Law. You have a new handout for this morning, and it's one page. That's it. And the reason it's only one page is there's so much in it. How about that? Actually, this is a passage that we've gone back to a few different times because it contains within it other aspects of our riches in Christ, our unfathomable riches.

And so certainly those will be included in Ephesians 2, 11 through 22, that we've quoted here. We want to particularly make a focus on freed from the law means that the law of Moses was taken completely out of the way, and I'll get right to the point as I summarize it, the Messiah did it. And so imagine if you were Paul, you're writing to Gentiles in great part, but a very significant percentage of the church body is composed of Jews who have come to believe in Christ as their Savior. We know that from several different points that's made clear.

One other thing, in the book of Hebrews by several different lines of evidence was probably written to the Christian believers who were Jewish in and around the area of Ephesus. And this is not a certainty, it is quite possibly, maybe even probably written by Barnabas to the Jewish believers in Christ living in and around the area of Ephesus. So what is he doing here as he's writing the book of Ephesians, what doesn't necessarily come out strongly to us English readers in our own context, is here is Paul and he is writing to a significant number of Jewish believers, not the majority, but a significant number of Jewish believers, along with a great number of Gentiles. So he's writing to Jews and Gentiles, and his language actually, in Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2, keeps switching between Jewish terms and Gentile terms.

And so imagine if you can tell Jews who are, and we're going to see that this morning in the Acts series, who are, how do I say, zealous for the law. The word zealous in the Greek means hot. They have a burning for the law. Can you imagine trying to tell these Jews that their Messiah, The long promised Messiah they've all been looking for, for ages, has come.

And when he came, he died on the cross and put the law out of the way. Can you imagine trying to tell Jews that? This is why it was so difficult for Paul. He had to have Jesus meet him face to face on the road to Damascus so that he could, oh, and have one of these aha moments. Right? Yes.

Well, convincing the Jews that their Messiah had come would be pretty hard as it is because they didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah. He did things on the Sabbath they weren't supposed to do. Yeah, and so the Jews by and large have rejected Christ as the Messiah on several different counts. And one of them is the Jews didn't then, don't now, believe that the Messiah is deity.

So here comes Jesus and what does he do? He says, I am, using the same words that were used with Moses in the burning bush, I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the gate. I am the resolution in life, every time claiming deity. Why didn't they believe the Messiah was deity? They have not then, and they have not at the outset. It is a blindness. Because you can go, for example, where is Jesus going to come back? When He comes back, where is He going to land?

Mount of Olives. This is Zechariah chapter 13. It says when the Messiah comes back, His feet will touch the Mount of Olives, and you know what He's going to do? He's going to resurrect the Old Testament and Tribulation saints. right then and there, and he's going to break open the now blocked up, ricked up Eastern Gate. And he's going to go right through it. And it says in Zechariah chapter 13 that the Messiah's feet will touch the Mount of Olives and it will be God.

The feet of God are going to touch the Mount of Olives. I hope it's real soon. It could be as soon as seven years from today. But he's going to come for us first. We're going to witness it, not from here. We're going to witness it, we who believe, we're going to witness it riding along with him as his feet touch the Mount of Olives and he goes through the Eastern Gate. We'll be right next to him, coming with him as his bride. among the armies of heaven.

But they didn't believe that. So Jesus would make these claims to deity, and what would they do? They'd pick up rocks. They didn't then, and they don't now. They think that Messiah is simply a descendant of David, and they don't believe and he claims to deity as strongly as the Old Testament makes that claim. There is a, as Paul describes it, a blindness that is set over their eyes. They do not see it. They do not see it. So here is Paul, he is writing to Jewish believers They've come to believe that Christ is the Messiah, so they've gone that far.

The first time that Christ is presented as the Messiah in Ephesians is in Ephesians 1.10. But it's not the last time. He's claimed to be the Messiah about three dozen times in Ephesians. And we're going to read one of them right here.

So let me read Ephesians 2.11-22. Therefore, remember, by the way, remember, that's a very important word in the New Testament. It's a reminder of something that they already know. Remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ.

And the Holman Christian Study Bible has the Messiah, and for good reason, and that's in the Greek. There's a definite article there. It has the Messiah. Just like Caiaphas asked Jesus face-to-face, he maybe even got nose-to-nose for all we know. Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? Did Caiaphas believe in a Messiah?

No. He was a Sadducee. He didn't believe in one. So no matter what Jesus answered, he wouldn't believe it anyway. But he wanted Jesus to say it. Are you the Messiah, which would have been said probably sarcastically? Yeah. So does that mean all the Gentiles who were not Jews prior to Jesus were not saved? No. Because... Isn't that what this is saying? No. Because... Salvation was by faith for all time, including Noah, a Gentile, including Enoch, a Gentile.

But they were simply not a part of Israel, and that's the distinction that he makes here. He says, at that time you were separate from the Messiah. excluded that is separated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers by separation to the covenants of promise.

What covenants are we talking about? What are the covenants of promise? Starting with what? Covenant with Abraham. Covenant with Abraham. Covenant with the land covenant. We talked about them previously. We talked about the Abrahamic covenant, the land covenant, the law covenant. And the Davidic covenant, so you've got these covenants that are specifically. And then before that, there were others. But the covenant starting with the covenant with Abraham, going on into the law covenant, the land covenant, the covenant with David, all these were covenants that were explicitly and exclusively Jewish.

And you guys were outside of that as Gentiles. So, he says, separated by separation from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God, the Greek there is atheos, very similar to the word atheist. We even say it without God, meaning atheistic in the world. In the world, and the world is the cosmos.

13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, and that is in the Holman Christian Study Bible, by the blood of the Messiah. Brought near by the blood of the Christ, the Messiah. For he himself, the Messiah, is our peace.

Okay, this is where the Jews are going to go. Whoa, this is going to be overwhelming news about what the Messiah did there, Jewish Messiah, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. And how did he do it? Verse 15, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man. Yes.

Okay, so I assume that this enmity, which is the opposite of the peace, is also the wrath that they're talking about in Ephesians, right? The wrath of God on the unbeliever. Okay, so that actually is specifically looked at carefully as a different thing, because this enmity is enmity between human beings. Whereas the wrath of God, which is later in Ephesians, in chapter 4, Later in Ephesians, the wrath of God is the wrath of God against man. This is specifically an enmity between Jews and non-Jews that existed.

So what did he do? He abolished in his flesh most of the law. He took part of the wall down. He reduced it down so there's only 10 commandments that we really got to look at. Right? Or what he did is he made it so that we're just not under the sacrificial system but the rest of the law applies. Or maybe he just took the punishments out of the way but the law is still there.

What do you think? What did he do with the wall? He got rid of the whole thing. Every last stone in the wall. And so what was the law? Here was holy and righteous and good. The Messiah, the promised Messiah of the Jews was the one responsible. for taking the law completely and entirely out of the way for us in the body of Christ. And when did He do that?

At the cross. Did anybody there, aside from Jesus, did anybody there recognize that that was happening that day? No. Not at all. Not at all. It took years until they had this, oh, that's what he was doing moment. Were they just blinded? No one saw what was happening? Yeah, think about it. What happens is God does things, but people don't understand it until years later. Why?

Here's John. He's standing there in front of the cross, probably as far as we can tell, the disciple who stood the closest to Jesus. With Jesus' physical mother right by his side. So here's John. Does John say, okay, there's the lamb and he's doing this and this and this and this, including he's taking the law out of the way. Is that what he understands? No. Why not?

When would the Holy Spirit be given? The Holy Spirit would not be given until the day of Pentecost. Yeah, almost two months later. The Holy Spirit is given, and from that day forward, they begin having aha moments. For decades. For decades. We're going to see in this Acts series, especially as we get towards the end, the Apostle Paul is going to come from Caesarea to Jerusalem. How long is he going to be in Jerusalem before he goes back to Caesarea? days. Not long. And he goes right back to Caesarea, and he spends two years there in a prison cell, while the Romans are changing governors. Multiple times.

Why does God have him in a prison cell? Here is the guy appointed, I mean, he You think God would have him really busy and clear the way? God puts him in a prison cell for two years. And by the way, that's exactly what God wanted. Why? Yeah, one is so he could grow. Yes, I think that's one. This glorifies God. But I think there's another very important purpose.

Paul had earlier spent up to three years, about three years, with Christ personally. And the location of that is probably in those deep ravines that you see in and around Petra. He'd go out in one of these ravines and spend time with Christ again and again and again. And Christ would teach him personally. I think the evidence is such that that happened again during his prison stay in Caesarea. It's there that he learned, Paul, you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Paul, you're seated with Christ in heaven. Paul, set your mind on things above.

He's going to abolish in his flesh, as he dies, the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man. This never existed before. It's a brand new creation. Thus establishing peace, and he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. So was the law injured. Was the law swooned? Did the law faint? The law was satisfied and completely abolished and put to death.

100% we don't get to keep pieces of it. He didn't do it in shades. He didn't do it in percentages. Completely, totally, out of the picture with regards to the church. Was the law put to death? Put to death the enmity, which is ultimately the relationship between them, right? By doing what? By abolishing in his flesh, through the cross, the law. So died in relationship to is the best and most accurate description. put to death the enmity, the law is not in the picture. Does it mean that it was not inspired? No. Does it mean that it was not holy and righteous and good? No. Does it mean that we completely ignore the law and shut our eyes and our mind to it?

No. Why? There is, and there's a great deal of truth from the law that we need to understand. Here is, for example, in the law, the Jews were to circumcise every male on the eighth day. Any exceptions? Nope. Even if it was a Sabbath, you circumcised on the eighth day. It was that important. So now, Does circumcision have an application for us in the body of Christ? The answer is yes.

He explains that to the Galatians. In the law, they were required to have Passover. The Jews had all kinds of different laws and things that they invented that said you should not go and make yourself destitute. Even you could lie to Roman tax collectors under the law, they said, because otherwise you might be destitute. But, if you have to, sell everything you have so that you can observe the Passover. How about that?

But who is our Passover? Christ. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Christ is our Passover. So should we focus on studying the New Testament then, a lot more than the Old Testament? As we look at it, the answer is, look to the Old Testament with the insights that we have from the New to understand what the Old Testament was pointing to. Now, instead of saying, we're just not going to look at the Passover at all, we look at, oh, here's the Passover, which I read about first taking place there in Exodus, and it's all about Christ. I look, here's Genesis and God Institute circumcision and I find out, well, heavens, I've got something to learn from that.

So the thing is there is much to learn from the law. 1 Corinthians 9 and 10 would be a good place to start. But it's certainly not the only place. Much to learn from the law. And so it is foolish for us to just say the law is bad and to shun it. but we learn it entirely under grace, not by putting ourselves under the law.

It sounds to me like the law was necessary when the authority, when the sin nature and the flesh was in authority. So that's when the law was basically in effect. When Christ came, He gave the provision for forgiveness of sins and the authority goes from the sin nature to the new man.

So you're describing the context within the church, right? Yes. So it seems like the law and the authority being in the sin nature are connected, whereas the law is not necessary when the authority is in Christ, the high priest, and all the changes that took place on the cross, right? Yes, so let's describe it quickly.

Before Christ died on the cross and those things affected for the church were put into place, the sin nature is a ruling monarch. The sin nature is a ruling monarch But then what happens, just like I Amin, just like Ferdinand Marcos, the law became a deposed dictator. Did the law cease to exist? No. The sin nature was a deposed dictator. The sin nature ceased to exist. So these things are cast out, and the sin nature, in fact, is that's the deposed dictator that loves to grab towards the law or react to it.

It doesn't care either one. And the sin nature will say, you know, pick me, pick me, pick me, when it comes to the law, and at the same time rebel against it. And either one is fine. The sin nature will do either one. And it's because the sin nature has got no answer. Gayle?

Yeah, so even though the law is holy and just and good, before the cross it was our enemy. And now we have no relationship to it at all. Yeah, so as we look to it, the law was, even though it's holy and righteous and good, and God-inspired, it had no answers for us, because why? Was our heart condition holy, righteous, and good? No. Okay? We're just simply not up to it. That's the problem. Okay?

And so putting the law there, which is holy and righteous and good and inspired by God, putting the law in place only does what to the sin nature? Gets the sin nature all stirred up, and it either wants to volunteer, this is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, hey I'll pick the good, until I switch to the bad, right? And that's the problem with the sin nature. The sin nature will go both ways. And you've probably been through that. Oh hey, that's really good moral stuff, good moral grounding. And then on the other hand, you have this rebellion going on. What? You're asking me to do this and telling me I can't do that?

Yes, Marla. So, I understand everything up to this point in history, as far as the relationship to the law and us, but that part that is mystified to me is part of the millennium. We will be there and the law will be there. Yes. Okay, so let's ask this question. Will anyone in the Millennial Kingdom who is resurrected be under the law? No. What does the law prescribe for violation? Death.

And you've already been there, right? Been there, done that. We in the body of Christ will be an island of pure grace. during a time when the world is ruled by law, but the Jews will have a significant and substantial and huge difference from what they were under, under the old covenant. And that is that they will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit to know and to live out the law and to be empowered to live it out. And it even says in the Old Testament there, Jeremiah 31, verse 34, it's a good place to start. No teachers, no rabbis. You won't need them. Why? Because people will know it from the heart. Get all 613 of those things nailed down. Right from the outset. Wake up in the morning, 613, bingo! 365 things not to do, got it. I know it, and I'm empowered to live it out. Imagine what it will be like for them.

God saw a common need for both the Jew and us in the body of Christ, because neither one of us is up to living out righteousness on our own, even though it's objectively available. Not happening. So we answered that common need in an entirely different way. So for us in the body of Christ, the law is not written on our heart. No, we don't need that.

We have Christ indwelling us. Will Christ be present for the Jews during the Millennial Kingdom? Yes, it says that the Holy Spirit will be indwelling them, but the Messiah will be physically present with them. Different. Is the Messiah physically present with us right now? No. He indwells us. He has no need for the law himself, because he is the very definition of righteousness.

So you're saying every Jew during the millennium will be indwelled with the Holy Spirit? Yes. Does that mean they all accept the Holy Spirit but they will be indwelled with it? Well, what you see is every single Jew entering the millennial kingdom will be a believer. And so I had had this question, what about those born afterwards? I found a passage, and I think I included it in last week's handout, that says that every single Jew afterwards will also be. So, very interesting. Let's take a look at the rest of this.

Verse 17, and he came and preached peace to you who are far away and peace to those who were near. This is quoting some Old Testament passages. For through him, that is through who? Through Christ, we both have, who's we both? Jews and Gentiles, have our access in one spirit to the Father. This is what Randy taught on some weeks ago. This is a special privileged introducer to introduce us to the Father. We have privileged access to the Father. Can you imagine, here are the Jews, they've got this phenomenal temple. Amazing, amazing temple. They have this astounding temple and It's so holy that there's a part of it way in the back there, Holy of Holies, that only a qualified high priest can go into.

And can he go in anytime he wants? Nope. Can he go in there the day before he's supposed to? Nope. And how about the day after? Will that work? Nope. One day a year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he is allowed to go into the Holy of Holies which hasn't existed for almost 2,000 years. But he was allowed to go in there, into the Holy of Holies, and carry out certain very specific things, and that's all. But you and I have an entirely different situation.

We can run into the throne room of heaven and say, And in its essence, jump on God's lap. Jump on the Father's lap and say, Papa. And we can do that anytime. We don't even have to dial 1-800-HEAVEN. Don't need that. This is the world's best wireless connection. This is better than Wi-Fi. We should help you appreciate that privilege. Definitely not.

Imagine here in ancient times, if you ran into the king's throne room just unannounced, what would happen? You would get slaughtered real quick. The soldiers would be under order to take you out. You'd turn from a walking living person into a massive, you know, chopped up flesh. Run through, for sure. But you and I, we, we get to run into the throne room of heaven.

Anytime. We don't need an appointment. Anywhere, anytime. Pardon? Anywhere, anywhere to. Anywhere, anytime. Don't need any 1-800 heaven phone call. Don't even have to have it on speed dial. It's better than the internet. Yeah. It's better than Wi-Fi.

So, verse 19, so you are no longer strangers and aliens, versus Ephesians 2.12 where you were strangers and aliens, right? But you, Gentiles, are fellow citizens with the saints, are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Apostles and prophets are three times those words in that order in the book of Ephesians. This one is the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

The next chapter, chapter 3, you'll see the word triple again. Chapter 4, you'll see it again. Three times. This is the first one. On the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Then verses 21 and 22 are a Hebrew poetry pattern where you see either a repetition of words or a rhyming of words and terms. So you see in verse 21 it starts with what? In whom. Verse 22 starts with in whom. It's the same in whom, isn't it? Who's the whom, right? In whom the whole building, or as it says in verse 22, you also are, right? Being fitted together or being built together, between those two, is growing into, so you see the into is the same in both, right?

A holy temple and a dwelling of God. What's a temple? A dwelling of God, right? built into a holy temple, the dwelling of God, in the Lord, in verse 21, and in the Spirit, in verse 22. And one more thing, the temple in Jerusalem, was it completed when he wrote this?

It was not. They had a couple of years before they'd get it done. They had 18,000 workers working on it when he wrote this. It was still under construction. So here are the Jews with this temple that they're really big on. 18,000 Jews working on this temple. And the stuff that's in the inner part, by the way, was done by the Levites because it was an operating temple. Levites had to be trained. They trained 10,000 Levites to work on all the fancy stuff in the middle part. Quite a deal. And when they laid off 18,000 workers in 63 AD, There was a riot. But the temple will still be under construction, so Paul rides on that as he writes to the Jews. He says, God's building a temple too. And it's you.

Just an observation, when he created the world, there was a period of time when he formed, and then there's a period of time when he filled, just so he formed us to each other. The ways of God just pops right out of these verses. God does things in stages, doesn't he? And you can see, okay, he brings things into existence and puts things into formation and then he does the creation of the entities that fill it. Here what you see is God lays a foundation. That's what we're going through in the book of Acts. God lays a foundation through these apostles.

But is He done? When is God done with this building that He describes here in Ephesians 2? When is He done? When the last Christian believer comes in and we're all taken home. The day of the rapture, August the 8th. The last Christian believer comes to know the Lord and says, OK, now, that's it.

I'm calling them all home. That will be the final day and the building will be done. And not until then. And you're a part of it. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you, every single individual believer, are a temple of the Holy Spirit. But, chapter 3, he has the whole church body as a temple. That's what this is talking about. The whole church body is a temple. He's building it. It's all the church.

Why did Moses not have any part in this? Moses gave the law, right? And this was Israel. Israel was baptizing to Moses. We're baptizing to Christ. It's a wholly different baptism. He gave Israel the law. By the time Moses was done, all 613 of them, individual statutes of the law were given. How many of those 613 were abolished in order to bring about the body of Christ? How many? 613 of them were taken out of the way in order to establish the body of Christ. And he is still building the temple the body of Christ until the day he calls us all home.

So up in verse 19 it says apostles and prophets, so doesn't it say in Hebrew someplace that Christ was the last prophet? So is this Old Testament prophets he's talking about here? Okay, so this is an important rabbit trail. The Apostles and Prophets that are referenced here, and you see them at the footnote, footnote 4, Ephesians 2.20, 3.5, and 4.11. That's the Apostles and Prophets every single time, but there are different things that are said about the Apostles and Prophets. This first one is foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.

The Apostles were the Apostles explicitly for the who? For the church, to establish the church, right? And so these were the apostles that were there for the establishment of the church, for the writing of scripture, to put things in place as a foundation. Alongside them were the prophets in New Testament definition.

And what do we mean by that? What does the word prophet mean? We're telling the future. It includes foretelling the future, but it also means foretelling, and so you would have those, even as we saw in last Sunday's passage, here is Philip, the evangelist, and he has four daughters who are what?

Prophetesses. The gift of prophecy in the New Testament context is to provide direction and guidance and insight for the church in lieu of the complete New Testament. As the New Testament comes to completion, the need for prophets comes to completion. But there was a place for them, because the apostles couldn't be everywhere, there was a place for prophets to speak direction to the church and give direction and insight and guidance.

And some of it might be talking about the future, and we saw that with Agabus last week. Paul, you're going to get bound up when you go to Jerusalem, right? And so we'll see that foretelling the future, but others of it was simply, you know, we ought to do this and not this. Giving guidance for the church, because while they had the Old Testament, that applied to whom? to Israel and to Jews, and there were things, many of which could be applied, but there were also new things about the church that were yet to be revealed.

The prophets also, in addition to helping with guidance to the church, were also those who wrote alongside the apostles, but were not apostles. And can you think of some who are not apostles, but who wrote New Testament books? Mark is one. John Mark is one. So far as we have any evidence, he was not an apostle, but he did in fact write the Gospel of Mark. And Luke, who wrote over one quarter of the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts that we're studying here in our main service. He was one who wrote in a prophetic capacity.

Was that all? Who else do we have as authors of the New Testament who are not explicitly and officially apostles? Pardon? Timothy, although he didn't write scripture that we have, we do have him having a significant part in places and we could say that he was likely a prophet and also we can very clearly say he was an apostolic delegate. Paul said, I sent you here for this, right? Same thing with Titus. I sent you here for this. So they definitely acted as apostolic delegates.

But who else wrote books of the New Testament who are not apostles? James, Jesus' half-brother. We're going to see him in today's account in the Acts study. He was one who wrote in a prophetic capacity even though he was not explicitly an apostle. So Peter was an apostle, right? So he was an apostle, but are there other New Testament books, or is there another New Testament book? Jude would be another one. So here is James, Jesus' half-brother. A younger, from everything we know, half-brother would be Jude. And so he wrote the book of Jude.

So what you have is others who wrote alongside with, and we would say substantially, with the approval of the apostles, and the apostles sponsored their writings, and they wrote in a prophetic capacity. Okay, so here's Barnabas, possibly, and I think likely, but that's as far as I can go with it, the author of Hebrews. Nonetheless, he was obviously a person who operated in a very special capacity and whom the Apostle Paul, even after their agreement, had a great deal of regard for Barnabas.

So, hmm, kind of amazing. So that's apostles and prophets. Those who are explicitly apostles, Acts chapter 1 deals with who those are by name and deals with the replacement of Judas with Matthias, right? And then we have those who spoke in a prophetic capacity or wrote in a prophetic capacity. Yes?

The reason I brought that up is because That's where a lot of air has come in to establish a lot of the cults. I mean Joseph Smith was a prophet and a lot of the charismatic churches have prophets. So what you have a problem with in every era since then, and the problem actually began in New Testament times, what you have a problem with is people coming alongside who are not apostles, or some claim to be, people who are not prophets, though some claim to be, and to have them going and proclaiming things. Montanus in the second century said, first of all, he had two women who were his primary supporters who had both left their husbands in order to follow him.

What's wrong with that? Right? Problem. Second problem. Montanus claimed to be giving new revelation including that Christ was coming back to Asia Minor, the area around Ephesus. What's wrong with that? When Christ comes again, where is He going to come? Israel. Mount of Olives. We know that from Scripture. So here's a guy who comes up with additional revelation that contradicts Scripture. Did you get thumbs up or thumbs down? Thumbs down, right? Doesn't compare to Scripture. The problem.

So we have, just to kind of bring things into focus here, this passage touches on a lot of issues and people have asked some good questions, made some good comments, but the focal point here for this is the Messiah died on the cross to abolish for us in the body of Christ. to abolish the law as applicable to us.

It doesn't mean the law is not relevant. It doesn't mean we don't honor it. It doesn't mean we don't consider it inspired. The law is not bad. Bad-mouthing the law is not biblical. But we're not under it. We are simply to learn from it. And we better learn all that we can. Because without it, you won't understand grace. How about that? We need to learn from the law in order to understand grace. People who try to just push the law away, oh that's not relevant to me, will not be learning all about what grace is about. We need it. We need to learn from it. Even if we're not under a single one of them, we better be learning from it. Because it's there on purpose. God inspired it for our benefit.

See that? Okay. Let's call it good. And by our usual practice, this is five minutes early. People aren't pressing their noses against the windows. So, let's pray. Heavenly Father, how wonderful it is that we can just run without hesitation into your throne room and jump on your lap and call you Papa. And thank you that this law is no longer in the way in terms of our being under it.

We are indeed to learn from it. And you gave it on purpose. It is holy, righteous, and good. And as a matter of fact, we need it to better and more fully understand grace. And we look to you just to have you teach us, teach us from the heart that we would be disciples of you personally, that we would learn from you personally and directly and intimately. And so we just entrust the rest of our time together in fellowship and in teaching and worship to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.