Law & Grace

Matthew 5. If you don't know where to go by now, you're in trouble. Matthew chapter 5 as we continue on in this. Actually I only want to finish up where we were last Wednesday.

I just got halfway through kind of one area in here, but let's stand and pray. Actually, yeah, let's do that. Father, we do just again thank you and praise you for your love for us, your goodness, your mercy.

Lord, we thank you for this phenomenal sermon, unbelievable sermon, so powerful. And Jesus, we just pray that as we study this Sermon on the Mount, it would study us. And Lord, more than just study us, that Lord, that your word would be written on the tablets of our heart.

That Lord, that we would become living epistles known and read of men. Lord, that we could be a people that we, as we read the Sermon on the Mount, we could truly say these are the things that God is fulfilling in my life. But Lord, these things don't just coincidentally happen.

They just don't kind of just occur. Lord, they're requests. No one just goes to heaven by falling into it.

We go to heaven by falling in love with it, by desiring it and choosing heaven. And Lord, we just pray that we would choose your word and that where your word shows us something in our life, Lord, that needs to be broken. That Lord, that we would be poor in spirit.

That we would, maybe areas of our life tonight, there's just something you want to look and say, you're not poor in this area. You're not poor in spirit. Or you have sinned, but you don't mourn over it.

There's no sorrow. You seem to be quite content with it. Doesn't really bother you.

Hasn't produced a meekness. But Lord, we ask that it would. That your spirit would just speak to our hearts and touch us and break us and mold us.

And then Lord, fill us. Lord, as you said, blessed are they that are filled. Lord, that as they hunger and thirst for righteousness, Lord, you fill us.

And Lord, we just pray that as a result of that, there would just be a merciful, a mercifulness in our heart. There would be a purity in our heart. A peacemaker, Lord, dwelling powerfully, wonderfully.

The greatest peacemaker in the world, reigning as king within us. And Lord, our lives as a result to others around would become the salt of the earth, the light of the world. They would want to know what's transformed within us.

And Lord, we ask that you would just take this sermon as we look at it. That you would strengthen us and bless us, every one of us. Father, we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. I also quickly want to mention on Sunday, we talked about a construction ministry that we're getting quite excited and serious about.

And any of you men that you have a trade, any one of the trades, or maybe just a labor, but you you love to get out and work and anything, you know, you can do, you want to help. And the men's ministry, we're kind of helping. We've already offered in some specific areas, Calvary up in Running Springs, over the castle in Austria, some work that's going to be need to be done over there soon.

And then also Calvary Chapel in Huntington Beach. But there's others that we're already talking with of just ministries to help them build out their churches. And just to come alongside them, and to love them, and to minister to them.

And we're so excited. And there was a wonderful response on Sunday morning. I was told that an awful lot of men came to sign up and want to volunteer for that.

But if you didn't hear about it, or you're just hearing now, or you did hear but the line was so long and you left, tomorrow night at the men's ministry, there will also be kind of an update on that stuff as well. So be aware of it. But tonight, as we get to verse 17 of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5. Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whosoever shall do and shall teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now we got into this last week.

And as we got into it, I need to back up just a little bit into it because I didn't finish with it. And so I'm gonna finish it tonight. But need to back up just a little and make sure we're all on the same page together.

Because so far here in the Beatitudes, and this was so far in the Sermon on the Mount, there's been in the process of the Beatitudes, there's no doubt we've mentioned so many times now, a transference in a sense of ownership of our life. Is what has really occurred in the Beatitudes through being poor in spirit and mourning over our sin and becoming meek before God, hungry and thirsty for Him, being filled with Him. There's an emptying of our own life and a filling of His.

There's a transference of the throne. He's taking over the reins. He's taking over the thrones of our hearts.

This is really many of the ways that the process, the ministry of lordship is being fulfilled. That when we come and we long to have Jesus Lord of our life. And it's all done by a work of His Spirit.

And no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who comes in and He humbles us. He convicts us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

And He humbles us and He breaks us. And He produces a meekness within us and a brokenness within us. And our heart and our life is now open.

We're crying out to the Lord, take over my life. Run it. Be king.

Be master. And so far here in the Sermon on the Mount, this is the processes of transformation. The processes of growth.

The processes of maturity. The processes that are behind being Spirit filled. I don't believe a person can even dream or have the concept of being filled with the Spirit if they have anything, if the Beatitudes aren't something that they also look and say that's what happened.

They may not have understood the Sermon on the Mount or heard it. But if somebody is truly filled with the Spirit, they've also in the process been empty to themselves. And they've also been broken.

They've also been mourning over their sin. In the process of the filling, there's the emptying and there is the great desire. And so here essentially there's the draining of self, the filling, you know, with the Lord and the hunger for Him.

And these are pretty much the foundational aspects of the Sermon on the Mount. So much of the rest of it now has to do with my relationships. Whether my relationship with myself, my thinking, my relationship with the world, my relationship with Satan, my relationship with money, my relationship with trials or the rest of the Sermon on the Mount as we'll see as we go through it.

It's kind of the outworking of the indwelling. That here in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, this transference of power has happened. And this new reign is entered in.

Jesus is, I'm telling him that He's the Lord of my life. And if indeed He is the Lord of my life, the rest of the Sermon on the Mount are going to become things. I'm looking at and see, so that's what He's doing.

That's where He's going. That's now what He wants to change in my heart or my life or my thoughts or my relationships or various concepts. But it has so much to do with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount and various relationships.

But the first relationship He touches on, and perhaps the most powerful and most important of all relationships, is that which we looked at here. The relationship with the law. And here is, we mentioned last week, when Jesus is speaking of the law, He is speaking, I believe, centrally basically all of the law.

The Ten Commandments, the moral law, the civil law, the Levitical law. Through the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, it's filled essentially with, again, the law. They're called the books of the law.

And in that you have ceremonial law given, you've got civil law, you've got relationship law, the marriage is talked about, raising your children, problems in you know, in law and how to handle, you know, legal matters and justice and witnesses and how you just work through all sorts of things. But every structure essentially of law and of governing over man. Now these laws, all of essentially, came in as a consequence of one thing that happened.

The fall. Man fell into sin and he lost a right relationship with God and the law has to tell him about that. He's lost a knowledge of an approach to God.

The law helps him with that. He's lost how do we relate with each other. The law helps us with that.

And what do we do when we're not relating? And how does a society handle things? So the books of the Pentateuch are just filled with all of this structure, the law. And all of these things that told you how to live. And you were under the law all day long.

Whether it was the spiritual and the Ten Commandments before God or you were looking at the structural or the civil or the moral or everywhere you go, every relationship you're in, there is some on how to do it. What is now to be expected of a person, how they are to behave. And this is how these people, and we all live and hear, but when you come to the Sermon on the Mount, this is how this person's always been living so far before we met Christ.

Before we were poor in spirit and we mourned and we're meek and now we're hungry for Him. He's become, you know, the object of our affections. He's become now one that's taking over our heart and our life.

He's becoming king. He's becoming master. He's becoming Lord.

And at this time, when all of this is occurring, Jesus is well aware that He is now essentially almost competing with the thing called the law. That men outside of Christ, outside of His love and His life and His dominion and His power and not knowing it and understanding, have been living by. To try to keep from killing themselves or others or destroying everything around us.

So the law. Now Jesus as He looks at this huge relationship that every man has. These standards, these obligations, these promises, these responsibilities of life.

These things that tell me if I've done good or bad or what I ought to be doing all the time. These other things that have lorded themselves over me in a sense. Now Jesus, realizing that in the Beatitudes, He has now taken over as King and as Lord of our life and now, He wants to talk to us about this relationship.

What His relationship is with the law. And as we looked at it last week, Jesus did two great things there for us. Number one, He fulfilled the law as He said there.

And all of the responsibilities of the law. He paid for everything that has been ever failed in the law. You know, when we come to Him and all of the whole thing before God, before man, before society, before everything.

Jesus looks and He says, you failed in everything but I forgive you and I love you and you're mine. And when He fulfills the law, we looked at that quite extensively last week. And He said, I've come to destroy the law or the prophets.

He says, exactly the opposite. I've come to fulfill it. But as you'll also recall, if you remember last week and you were here with us, the law, there is something there as the standard.

He has come to replace it as well as we looked at last week. Not merely just simply to fulfill it and now I just walk on someplace, but the place that the law once had in my heart, in my mind, in my thoughts. That just like everywhere I go, when I go to work and what are the laws, what are the rules here? That when I go, you know, into the home and okay, what are the obligations, the responsibilities of being a husband or a father or a wife or a mother or in all these laws that we live by.

Many times not even aware, you know, of them. They are so powerful, they are so constant around us. But now Jesus is saying, I'm fulfilling that and I want to take the place of it.

You see, because as we also looked at, the law has, is a powerless thing. Its only ability really is to condemn. It doesn't help.

The law, if you've ever, you know, most of you probably at one time or another tried to hang wallpaper. And usually once is enough, you know, or something. But the, particularly for a guy like me with one eye, you need at least two to hang wallpaper, I think.

But you know, when they, but when you hang wallpaper, you know, you always got to have a plumb line. And all that a plumb line does though, it doesn't help you hang the wallpaper. It just simply tells you, you don't know what you're doing, do you? You know, that's all it really does.

Each time you put it up there and, but it doesn't hang it, it doesn't fix it, it doesn't straighten it, it doesn't have a thing when you put it up there that all of a sudden, you know, this, and the paper slides over straight. It just says, you're dumb. You blew it.

Tear it off and go hire somebody, you know, or whatever else on it and, or just paint it, you know, or whatever. Go rent another place or something. But the, the thing is, is that that, the law, it doesn't do anything.

It's just a plumb line. And it is something there that Jesus, though, again, as I said, He wants to replace it. And that's precisely what He is all about.

And in Romans 7, I'll just read it quickly. We spent a little time in there, but it's important to the foundation of where we want to go tonight. Because that's the place that He wants to have in our heart.

And there's a wonderful illustration, a story that we looked at in Romans 7, when He says, No ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long that he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that she should be married to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that you should bring forth fruit to God.

Verse 12, he goes on, he says, Wherefore, though the law is holy, and the law is holy, just, and good. But here Paul gives, I think, one of the most wonderful illustrations in all the Bible, when you stop and you look at it, talking about our relationship with the law. And here Paul, on one hand, he starts off, he says the law is holy, just, and good.

But in a sense, there in his illustration, he says that a human being, by nature of just living in this life, we marry the law. We are married to it, you know, in his illustration here. And wherever we go, there's this law, there's this standard, as we mentioned last week, it is wonderful standard, you know, that he's holy, and he's just, and he's good.

There's nothing more wonderful than the law. It's a great law. It's an impeccable law.

Mr. Law, when we marry him, he is the most handsome, smart, intelligent, wise, good human being you'll ever meet. He never misses a beat. He's absolutely flawless.

He fulfills the law. He is holy. He is just.

He is good. As he said, he's as good as good can be good. He's the epitome of that which is holy, and that which is just.

And he lives every day that way, every breath, every behavior in the law. And who wouldn't we want to be married to Mr. Law? And indeed, what a wonderful person in all the world, but as we also mentioned last week, there's one rather negative attribute of Mr. Law that makes him virtually intolerable to live with, and that is that he expects the exact same behavior from Mrs. Law, if you'll recall, in the sense that as we read and looked at Galatians 3.10, there Paul tells us, he says, where is it? Galatians 3.10. Well, I don't know where it is. I don't have it in my notes.

But anyway, I forgot to put that down, but it's the law. There he says, you got your Bible, write it down, look at it later. You can find it.

And I think it's 3.10. I don't even know where it is now, but there he says that cursed is everyone that fulfilleth, not all that is written in the law, both to do it. You see, the law is this very wonderful husband, wholly just and good, but he just has this very terrible attribute about himself, and that is he curses everyone that doesn't do everything he does, both to do it. He says every time you don't do everything that is perfect in the law, I'll curse you.

I'll curse you to your face. And that makes it real hard on the marriage. And that begins to get very, very irritating very quickly when this guy, every day of his life, everything he does, everywhere he goes, everybody he talks to, every conversation is flawless and it's perfect and it is holy and it is right.

And it's quite tremendous. Only poor Mrs. Law, she's sitting here, nothing wrong, remember, with Mr. Law. He's holy, he's just, he's good.

The problem is Mrs. Law. She just can't keep up with it. And so she's condemned all day long.

He just turns to her all the time when she's thinking that something's not right or she says some little thing or she, anything's out of place, he looks over and he says, curse you, my dear. You know, sort of a thing. He says, now that's sin, you know, and don't ever do that again.

Curse you, curse you, curse you. And all constantly. It's very tiring.

It's got to wear on the marriage. Maybe some of you are married to a guy like that. I don't know.

But the, but at the same time, when that happens, it definitely wears things down. But here, as Paul explains, as we looked at last week, the most wonderful thing happens, as Paul explains here in Romans 7, and he says, the woman that has a husband, he's bound to her, to the law of her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

In other words, as long as she's married to Mr. Law, that's it. She's stuck with him. And, but he does go on to say there, but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law.

So that she's no longer an adulteress, although she'd be married to another. And here, Paul, he goes on, and he tells us, and he says, Wherefore, my brother, ye are also become dead by the law by the body of Christ, that ye should not be married to another, even him who raised Christ from the dead. And here, Paul, he says, the one, one of the most wonderful things in all the world happened one day with Mrs. Law.

She woke up, and there was Mr. Law. He was still wholly just and good, not a hair out of place, and absolutely impeccable, but he was wonderfully dead. He was beautifully dead as a doornail.

He looked over at her, and she got up, and looked at him, and did stuff wrong, and he said nothing. She was quite happy about it. But the reason is that so she may be married to another, even Christ.

And here, under God's grace, and here, essentially, what Paul is communicating here is that there is a way out of the marriage to the law. There is a way out of this guilt. There's a way out of this condemnation.

There is a way out of this constant cursing. And essentially, it's what the Beatitudes are all about. That when somebody comes to replace the law, to fulfill it, and to put it away, and to be done with it, that there is one that has the capacity to fulfill everything in it, all the accusations, all the standards, pay all the debts, and actually put the law to death, in a sense, and then take his place.

And this is precisely, you know, what Jesus Christ came to do. And to set me free from the law, and to take the place that the law once had within my heart and within my life. And that when I understand that, and I begin to realize that's the essence of the Christian life, is that I'm going to be subject, essentially, to one or to the other.

Either I, every day, you don't have to be a Christian real long to realize you're married to one or the other. And, but there isn't any options, really. Either the law is dead because Christ is alive in my life.

Either, and the law has lost its authority and its power by virtue of me looking to him, or I'll gravitate right back to that, essentially. But when I am truly looking and realizing, here in this sermon, when I'm poor in spirit, I mourn over my sins. I am meek before God.

I am hungry and thirsty for righteousness. I'm filled with him and his spirit and his life, and he's setting up his place and his dominion within my heart. He's giving me a merciful heart, and he's giving me a purity of mind, and he's giving me a peacemaker and a nature of a peacemaker.

And he's sending me out to live for him. He wants to be the object of my life. He now will say, we'll get rid of the law and its authority and its power as you enthrone Christ.

As you see that he has his right place within you. Because, you see, essentially, there's only two laws, as far as when you pick up the Bible, that govern life. And back into Romans 8, in fact, Romans 8 to me, a lot, and 7 and 8, is really a lot of Paul's version, almost, of the Sermon on the Mount.

I want to look a little at that, so please turn over to it. But in Romans, in chapter 8, Paul writes, he says, you know, there is now therefore no condemnation that then which are in Christ Jesus. Verse 2, he goes on, he says, the law, the spirit, the life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

If so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But here Paul is just wonderfully, in a sense, when you look at the Sermon on the Mount and the things that Jesus is saying there, he's talking about there's a law and there is the Spirit.

There's these two forces there in the world, and if you live in the flesh you will subject yourself immediately to the law. But if you're in the Spirit, you now subject yourself to the Spirit. It's your choice.

Until you come to Christ, of course you have no choice, for he says if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his, so you're just left with one. You've got the law to live with every day in your own flesh to try to fulfill it or ignore it or do whatever you're going to do with it. But the wonderful thing that happens to a person when they come to Christ is that there is now the opportunity to choose whether I want to be subjected to the law of the flesh or the law of the Spirit.

If I, in whichever one I'm going to subject myself, that is the one essentially I'm going to be. And of course in the law of the flesh, in the principle of just the old nature in the law, Paul writes in Galatians 519, he says now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are the ease and adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations. He gives quite a list there of pretty raunchy things.

If you want to read them, you can sure read them, but we're all pretty familiar with them because we know the flesh. If you have any trouble with those things, then you're just not being honest. We can envy, we can hate, we can, you know, have all these great capacities within us all the time.

It's the nature of the flesh. We all have it. Until we come to Christ, then we still have that, but we also, as Paul says going on in verse 22, he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love.

And then he goes on and describes it, joy, peace, patience, and he lays it all out. And he says, but the wonderful thing is there's these two laws. Now they're available.

And Jesus here, when he looks and he's giving this Sermon on the Mount, I'm moving in to first a relationship with him. And if the relationship is there with him, then he is now saying, don't worry about living under the obligations and the responsibilities of the law. Seek me, live in me, and desire me.

And, you know, of living by the law, essentially, not of the flesh, but the law of the Spirit, God's Holy Spirit. And of course, that was a law that essentially governed Jesus's life every moment of every day of his life. And I think in some months ago, I did a study on Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

And in that, you may recall, if you're here for that, I mean, Jesus, Luke 1 tells us Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9, 14 tells us Jesus offered himself without spot to God through the Holy Spirit. Luke chapter 4 tells us Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit.

He says, Luke 4 says he was led by the Holy Spirit. Luke chapter 4 tells us that Jesus, he returned in the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, later on, there when Jesus was in the synagogue, he explained all the things, he says, I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life.

When he opened up Isaiah 61, and there he wrote out of it, he found the place where it was written, and then he said, as he quoted, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me. And then he laid out all the things he was going to be doing for the next three years. And he says, listen, I want to explain to the whole world who I am, what I'm going to be doing, and also, most importantly, how I do it.

I do all the things. And when you're watching me, I'm not going to have a lot of time to stop in the next three years all the time. And when you say, how'd you do that? Where'd you get that sermon? How'd you heal that sick? How'd you raise it? How'd you walk on? How did you, how, you know? And he says, I'll tell you before any of this happened, how I comforted anybody, how I'm going to heal anybody, how I'm going to bless anybody.

He says, I'm going to do it all because the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. He has anointed me. Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was led, literally driven by the Holy Spirit. He was under the power of the Holy Spirit, from Bethlehem to the Mount of Olives.

He lived entirely in the realm of the Spirit. He subjected himself totally to a far greater law than the law of man, and all these things that Adam had to, was subjected to because he fell. There Jesus lived under the principle that Adam should and could have lived under, but forfeited when he sinned.

And he was driven out of the garden, and all these structures were made, and from now on Adam's got to go out and live by all these rules, and these regulations, these laws, and these responsibilities. Had he not sinned, there born of the Holy Spirit Adam was. The Spirit of God brooded over him.

And there he, you know, he walked with God. He was in the image of God. The life of God flooded him and filled him.

He didn't need any law. He would just naturally, by being, you know, not with any law, any rule, anything written down, you better do this, you got to do this. He would have just fulfilled it.

But sin entered him. And then sin entered in, and of course there, all of a sudden they're treating each other wrong. So the woman now gave us me.

She did it. He's blaming her. He's being unjust and unfair, and you got to set up laws for that.

And then she comes back, and she says, ah, the devil did it. And you made the devil, so you work it out. You know, I mean, she looked over there to say, I'm not taking responsibility for this.

And so he has to set up all these laws. The next thing you know, they're, you know, Cain kills his brother. And you got to make laws.

By the way, do you know how long Cain hated his brother? As long as he was able. Anyway, I don't want to, forgive me, that's a John Corson type of thing. If I ever do a thing like that, come up and hit me, will you please let me just, I spent a long time with him today, and I got to, I got to cleanse myself of that.

But we have, but you need all these rules, and these regulations, and these laws, because we sin. But when you're born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and the law of the Spirit, here in Romans says, the law of the Spirit, he says in verse 8, he says, the law has, the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death. That if I understand the greater law, the law of the Spirit, I don't need to be concerned about the law of man, and about these laws, these rules, these regulations, these standards.

It's interesting, the, in verse 6 he says, you know, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And here, as Paul writes to him, he says, if you're gonna just live in your flesh, you're gonna have the law, you're gonna, and it'll kill you anyway, you'll never fulfill it, never can, never have, no, never will, nobody ever did it. But if you are spiritually minded, if you have a mind for not the law of man, or your own flesh, but a mind for the Spirit of God.

And that word mind, it's a wonderful translator, what the word essentially means there, it means there, to direct one's mind to a thing, to seek and to strive for one's great interest or advantage. And the word essentially means to be obsessed. Paul looks there, and he says, you can, you can live in the flesh, and you will have to be governed all the day.

You live in the flesh, there'll be rules and regulations, you'll never fulfill it, your wife will be mad, your boss will be mad, the cops will be mad, everywhere you go, you'll blow the laws. If you're living under your own flesh, you'll never fill the law, but if you are obsessed, if your mind is given over to the things of the Spirit, it's life and peace. When there's something there to where it, Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death.

This is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. And here Jesus, before he can go on and talk about all the other relationships, he says, I got to know where you are, what, what are you obsessed with? Then the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes, a mind has become obsessed with God, and are no longer obsessed with ourself, and who I am, and what I'm all about, I'm obsessed without, about the Lord, and about his love, and about his life, and about his power, and about his goodness. He also tells us there in verse 4, back up in Romans 8, he says, for the righteousness of the law, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

If somebody's mind is obsessed with the Spirit, they'll walk in the Spirit. The word, you know, walk, you know, essentially there means to order one's behavior. That first when I just decide, Lord, you've set me free, you've come into my life, you're the Lord of my life, sit on the throne of my life, take this place, I don't care about myself, I want you.

And then he sits there, and then now Paul says, be obsessed with him. And then order your steps out of that obsession. What he tells you, what he wants, what he is, you know, is leading you.

And then he also goes on, he goes on, we won't get into this so much, but in verse 13 he says, but if you walk after the flesh, you'll die, but if through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you'll live. Here he says, through the Spirit. If you're obsessed with the Spirit and you walk in the Spirit, then through the Spirit you can even, you can even mortify the deeds of the flesh.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, you may be looking, say, you know, I'm a terrible husband. I'm a terrible wife. I'm always taking it out on my husband, taking it out on my children.

I'm impatient, and I'm hostile, and I'm angry. I'm always doing this, and it's my flesh. It's my nature, my flesh.

And, but here Paul says there's only one way to deal with that. And the way you do it is you become obsessed with the Spirit of God, so much so that you order your steps by the Spirit of God. Then when you go home, you will have the power of the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh.

But otherwise, when you get home, you'll get home all by yourself, and then everybody will know it. But the, but here is Paul, though, is wanting, you know, to lay these things out. It's essentially, here is, is Paul and Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount, when he is telling us there he has set up his throne.

We're poor in spirit. We got off the throne where we mourn over our sin. I never ran it any good.

Forgive me, and I meek about it, and I transfer the authority. He takes it over. I begin to study him, become obsessed with him.

Then Paul, you know, says in Romans 8 there, now there is a whole new law, the law of the Spirit. It's a wonderful law. Both laws are always there every day, though.

It's kind of like the law of aerodynamics. I remember one time I was on a plane, and I'm sitting next to a fellow, and he was an aeronautical engineer. And I asked the guy, I said, tell me something.

How does the law of aerodynamics negate the law of gravity? And he said, it doesn't. Law of gravity is always there. But the law of aerodynamics supersedes it.

It's a greater law. And essentially, what happens, maybe some of you, tomorrow you may go get on an airplane. And you know, you bought a ticket, and you go down to the airport, and you go in, and you'll just give them the ticket, spend three hours being frisked and everything else, and then finally you'll sit down in a plane.

Now you could sit in your own office and sit there and go nowhere. But you, if you go into a plane and you sit down in a plane, you just rest in it, just like you were in any other chair. But you sit in that chair, you go somewhere.

They shut the door, they take that thing out on a runway, they get it up to about 140, 150 miles an hour, they pull the stick back, and off they go. And next thing you know, they're up going, you know, 25, 30,000 feet in the air, five, six hundred miles an hour. And in no time, you're in Phoenix.

Didn't, no energy expended, particularly. You aren't tired. People get off the plane and say, how long did it take you to get your own hour? Aren't you tired? No, I just sat.

You know, in the old, I mean, sort of thing. But you see, the law of aerodynamics. You subjected yourself to the law of aerodynamics and it took you, you know, to another realm, another place, very quickly.

That's essentially what the law of the Spirit is all about. It is one that when you subject yourself to the law of the Spirit, the next thing you know is all of a sudden it takes you to a whole new realm. And just by sitting in it the same way you would any other place.

And here Paul, he's actually right. He says, you're in the Spirit. When you come to Christ, he says, you have the law of aerodynamics.

You have the law of the Spirit. You don't have to work at it. Don't have to do anything.

Just read. But if you, but if you don't get in it, if you won't get in the plane, you won't go anywhere. But if you will get in the airplane, the next thing you know is you'll be flying high.

And you'll be traveling fast. And, but at the same time, the law of gravity is still there. All the time.

Never stops. And if you don't believe me, just go over and open the door. And step out.

And you will immediately subject yourself to the previous law. The law of gravity. And down you will plunge.

And find yourself there when you're, when you hit, and you smack, and you smack it hard, you have a, you will understand the gravity of the situation, you might say. But you come and hit me. I'm sorry.

But anyway. But the thing is, is that if you put yourself in one, stay in it. And the amazing thing is, you can get out very easily.

Anytime. You're not forced in, like in an airplane. You can get in this law, and you can walk away any moment you want.

We've all done it. But as soon as you walk away from it, or you step out of it, gravity takes over, and the nature of the flesh takes over, and down you go. The flesh is once again there.

And that's, Paul was, that's why he was so amazed with the Galatians. He looked at them, he says, hey fellas, why is it, after having begun in the Spirit, are you trying to complete yourself in the flesh? Why after God has given you this wonderful life and power in the Holy Spirit, why aren't you just, why do you ride anything else but that plane? Why don't you just be obsessed with the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, live in this greater law? Because the moment that you step out of it, there is another law that is always there that you will immediately subject yourself to it. The flesh.

Down you go. And it is something there, if you notice there, it's always there. But the Lord is always there to want to make us do better.

Like, you know, remember Matthew in 13, when Peter, they're on a terrible storm. Middle of the night. And they've been fighting all night, they're absolutely exhausted, they look and they see, they thought it was a ghost, it was Jesus, but they cry out with fear, it's a ghost, and then Jesus speaks, he says, it's alright, don't be afraid.

And then Peter, just typical Peter fashion, you know, doesn't calculate much, but he had a great faith for a few moments down then. But he looks at him, he says, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water, and Jesus is great, come. And he looks at the Lord, he can't be, he's so excited, he gets out looking at the Lord, off he goes, and he's walking on the water.

And then it says, when he hears the wind, and the wind looks at the waves, what happened? He takes his eyes off the Lord, looks at that, remembers, hey, I can't walk on water, what am I doing? And down he goes, he's sinking. And then he prayed one of the most wonderful prayers in the Bible, Lord save me. You know, save me, you know, he cries out, and immediately the Lord saved him.

Took care of him, he puts his eyes back in the Lord, and they get back in the boat, and the sea's calm. But that's exactly the way life is for us. If I look at him, I'll walk on water.

If I look at him, another law, the law of the Spirit, when he's my obsession, Lord, save me. If it's you, Jesus, bid me come on the water. If it's you, help me in my home.

If it's you, fill my heart. If it's you, transform me. If it's you, give me the fruit of your Spirit.

And he does. But then I can get out there in the middle of the thing and think, hey, you know, I'm pretty good at this. And the next thing you know, down you go.

Because the law of the flesh is always here in this life. It has nothing to do with how long you've been a Christian, or how good or how hard you tried being one, how mature you are. If you get on an airplane and you take off, and you think, you know, I've been up here a long time now.

Going to London, I've been on this plane nine hours. I think I got the idea. I think I'm probably pretty good at this thing here.

I mean, and so I think I'm going to see if I can fly. And you open up the door and they'll look and say, no you can't. Sorry.

Down you'll go. It has nothing to do with how mature you are, how long you've been a Christian. The law of aerodynamics is only if I subject myself to Christ.

And the moment I'm not, down I go. You may think, well, maybe these pilots, some of them they've been flying 50,000 hours. They've had a whole career.

Certainly that guy ought to be able to fly by now. No. Doesn't make any difference whether he's a, you know, one day old baby that's on that airplane, or this guy has been flying planes his whole life.

And he's really good at it. He can't fly any better than that little baby. He may understand a lot about the airplane.

He may be able to build an airplane. He may be able to build one in Greek and Hebrew and do it backwards and forward. He may know all sorts of stuff about airplanes, but he still can't, if he steps out of that plane at 30,000 miles, down he will go.

It will happen. I heard a story once of a fellow, he got on an airplane, and there as he gets on, he's getting into his seat, and he looks over next to the, right to his seat, there's a parrot. A parrot sitting in the seat next to him.

He's absolutely amazed, but nobody else is saying anything and wondering about it. So he just sits down. The plane has taken off, but as it takes off, the next thing you know, this parrot, he's a nasty parrot.

And there the stewardess walks by and says, hey, stewardess, hey, yeah, you, the dumb blonde one, get over here. This guy's looking at her. Did he say, you know, he's listening to this.

Terrible. And he said, give me a martini or something. And this, she's just obviously shaken and rattled and, you know, what, you know, but she's trying to be a good stewardess, hold the thing down.

She said, okay, you know, he said, make it a double, you know, and this, she said, would you like any, well, I'd just like a cup of coffee, please. It'll be fine, just coffee. Well, a moment later, you know, she comes back and she's got the martini, but she forgot the guy's coffee.

Well, he's a little, you know, where's my coffee? Well, she said, I'm sorry, I forgot. And then, by then, the parrot had taken a little sip and throws the glass down. He said, I said, a double.

He said, a double? You give me a double, you stupid, wretched woman. And this guy just can't believe it. But she said, okay.

And she goes back and she said, what'd you like? He said, just black coffee. Well, she comes back a moment, she's got the thing for the stupid parrot, but still didn't get his coffee. And he's in first class, and he's upset now.

He's realizing, you know, this isn't nice to talk that way, but it works. So he finally upset, he turns around, he says, you know, you are a stupid, wretched, dumb waitress. I want, give me my coffee and get it now.

Well, now she's had it, and she goes up, talks to a couple of the stewards up there. And the next thing you know, the stewards come, grab the two of them, the parrot and this guy, go over and open up the door and throw both of them out. And here they are tumbling down to earth.

And on the way down, the parrot looks over at the felon, he says, I got to hand it to you, buddy. For a guy with no wings, you sure got guts. You know, but, but you know, that's the average Christian.

We take off all the time, we love the Lord, we look at him, we're flying higher than a kite, and then we take our eyes off the Lord, and we sure got guts because we hit it hard. We don't have wings. We subject ourselves to that law, down we go.

Hard we hit. That's the, and then though, the law now beats us up worse than ever. We get down there on the ground and we say, look at what you did.

How do you, you flashed your, you lost your temper, you blew it, you said, told your wife you're going to be loving and nice, and you're no different than you ever were. And we aren't. The only thing that's any different than anybody is the law of the Spirit.

And as long as I rest in it, I'm flying. The power is there. The distance is there.

The, the, the, the, the love is there. The nature is there, because it comes with the principle in the life of the Spirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

But the moment I take my eyes off, down I tumble. And then the enemy sits there and says, you're a terrible Christian. You're a miserable Christian.

You're a wretched Christian. How long you been a Christian? You still can't fly. You still can't fly.

You've been promising God you're going to fly. Look at you. You're bloody and terrible.

But Paul just simply says, you know, that no, no matter what, in Romans 8, in fact in Romans 8, 8, he says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. He says that, you know, the, the, the law or the, the flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Try as long as you want, you will never fly, Paul says.

You will never do it. That nature can never sustain itself. And if we are in the flesh, no matter how nice we are, how hard we try, we've already crashed.

We just don't know it yet. And how important it is. If we can just learn that, Lord, that's my problem.

I, I have a choice tonight. I have a choice right now. I either subject myself to the law of Christ, the law of his spirit, and I'm set free from the law because Jesus takes the place.

He fulfills it. He replaces it entirely. I remember one time, many, many years ago, I shouldn't tell this, but it just came to my mind.

And I, that's no excuse either. But anyway, any of you that know Kay Smith, you know, she's got such a heart for the Lord. And so she's such a spiritual woman.

And she's just always kind of thinking and she's in tune wonderfully. And I remember one time years ago, I don't know if she remembers it. Well, I'm sure she doesn't.

She's so spiritual, she wouldn't remember. But the one day I come through the office and she's in there. And I said, just walk past her.

And I'm a, I'm a little kidder now and then. But as I walked past her, I just stopped for a moment. And I looked at her and she looked at me and I said, Kay.

She said, yes. I said, Romans 8, 8. What is that? She said, I don't know. I said, I don't hear.

She said, why? Well, I just felt like the Lord just gave it to me and just wanted me to tell you that, do you? She said, what's it all about? I said, I don't know. Well, Romans 8, wonderful chapter on the Spirit. I guess, I don't know.

And then I walked away. Well, Romans 8, 8 says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. A little while later, Chuck comes to me and he says, would you leave my wife alone? Quit messing with her head.

She came into my office. She said, oh Chuck, guess what happened? But if we're in the flesh, we're over. It's done.

The moment. We cannot please God. And the issue in life is when I come there and realize the Lord looks at you and I and he gives to us this wonderful option right now, every day of our life.

The law of the flesh or the law of the Spirit. And it has no, it has nothing to do, no bearing on my greatness or my maturity or my ability to fly a plane. It has my, my ability to love the Lord, to be obsessed with him and say, Jesus, I have given you my life.

Through the Beatitudes, I have rejected the old nature. I'm tired of myself. I'm tired of my flesh.

I'm tired of my nature. I want to replace it with you. Take over.

And the Lord is more than happy to do it. He loves that we would be married to another, even Christ. And that there, at that point, instead of a law that comes and condemns us, he says, come unto me all that labor and heavy land.

I'll give you rest. My burden is light. My yoke is easy.

I am meek and lowly of heart. But when we can just come, what law are you subjected to right now? Now, you may be, you know, if you're, if you're not flying anywhere, if you're just sitting on the ground, you can be nice. But when we decide with our life, with our home, our marriage, our family, I want to go someplace.

I don't want just any old standard. I want to have all that God wants for me. I want to have any home.

I want to have any marriage. I want God's hand upon me deeply and wonderfully. I want to have the best of the things of the kingdom.

I want the firstfruits of the spirit. Then the Lord just simply says, well, if you want to fly that high, you then you'll fly as high as you're obsessed. And as high as you order your steps after that obsession is what you'll have.

And you're free. And rather than going back and all the rules and the regulations and the standards, being able to just put our eyes on the Lord. And like Peter, when my eyes are there, I'll walk on water.

The moment I take them off, down I go. The problem was, it wasn't that the water sucked me. The problem was I took my eyes off the Lord.

I lost the obsession, but that we would keep it. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word and your love.

And Lord, I thank you, Jesus, that you look at us and say, I'm here to take that place. But you're going to live with one law or another. You'll either discontinue, just get beat up and get beat up and get beat up.

And then you'll condemn yourself and feel like you're a terrible Christian and kick yourself around and then just make a new law. You'll make a new promise. You'll set a new standard.

God, if you'll forgive me, I'll be better, I promise. Give me another try. And yet, Jesus, you look and say no.

No matter how long you try, no matter how hard you try, no matter how high you set the standards and no matter how great the promises, until you're obsessed with the Spirit, you won't do it. Until you set your eyes on Jesus Christ and say, fill my heart and fill my life, you haven't got it. And Lord, I pray that even as James tells us there that faith worketh by love.

And Lord, that when we just decide, I love you, Lord, I love you, faith comes, it works, it's operated by love. Because we love you, we'll get on the plane with you. If we love you, we'll buy the ticket.

If we'll love, we'll be obsessed. If we love, we'll say, Lord, I want to go home tonight looking at you, desiring you, filled with you, walking in your Spirit. And then the moment I think I'm fine, well, thanks, I'm okay now.

Down I'll go. Lord, we pray that you would teach us this great truth, because the rest of the sermon, the rest of our life is dependent upon it. It's not by our own strength, not by our own deeds, but by the power of your Holy Spirit, you want to work within us.

And we ask now, Lord, that you would just fill us afresh with your Spirit. Lord, that we can make a choice. Jesus, please help me set my eyes on you, my obsession on you, my mind on you.

I want to mind the things of your Spirit. I want to walk in your Spirit. I want to, by the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh.

I'd love to go home, and instead of just having the hostility, the anger, the disappointment, or my nature, Lord, just coming out and doing his thing, how wonderful to go home and, by the Spirit, mortify, put to death, put an end to those old things of my life, and to walk in you. We just thank you for your love. In Jesus, your wonderful name, we pray.

Amen.