(Exodus) Exodus 19:7-8

Now, verse 7, "...And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him." Now, listen to these people, what self-confidence they had. Verse 8, "...And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord." Now, this is going to be the beginning of this dispensation of law that came in at Mount Sinai when God gave the law to these people.

And it goes all the way from Mount Sinai to Calvary, all the way from the Exodus to the cross, all the way from one mount to another mount. It is the revelation now that a people under ideal conditions are not able to keep the law. But will you listen to them? Verse 8, "...And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Now, my friend, they haven't even heard what he's going to say.

God says, Would you like to have my commandments? Would you like now to be under law? They said, well, bring it on, we'll keep it. And that's the attitude of a great many people today, that you can please God, that natural man can please God. And friends, it's been demonstrated for 1,500 years, these people under law made a failure.

They made a terrible failure. They were not able to keep the law. And it's impossible for the natural man to.

And that's exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 8, the reason God has us on a different plane altogether, that we can never please God. The law was given to control that old nature, and it doesn't because the old nature is a communist. You can't control it.

It is a revolutionary. And will you listen to what he says in Romans 8, verse 6? 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's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Now, you and I have an old nature, and that nature is at enmity against God. It can never be obedient unto God. Have you made that discovery in your own life? Have you found out that you're a failure at meeting God's standard? And thank God he has another arrangement, and the self-confidence of people today who tell me that they keep the law, and that there's nothing that makes a hypocrite out of a person.

And to walk around and say today, I keep the law, when you know you don't measure up to God's standard at all. All right, now let's look at it. God's going to give them the law.

They say, bring it on. What self-confidence, what arrogance, if you please, and what awful, unspeakable blindness and ignorance this is. And yet there are multitudes today, after God's already demonstrated that man could not be saved under law.

He gave that dispensation. It's been tried out, and it's been tried out under ideal conditions. More ideal, by the way, than today.