The Law and You

Do you know the law? What do you think of rules? Do you obey law and rules? Do you want to obey law and rules? Or do you plan to work around law? In a TV interview this week, Supreme Court Justice Scalia spoke of upholding the laws in the Constitution of the United States of America. The interviewer, however, intimated that enforcing its rules was absurd. In fact, Mr. Scalia himself was a bit out of touch and out of date. A U.S. president cannot create law. That must be done by two joint houses. Yet a recent Washington Post article was entitled, in part, Naked Lawlessness. It referred to a president's statement back in March of 2011, where he said, with respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations of immigrants through executive order, that is just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed. Later, he explained publicly, now I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own, but that's not how our system works. That's not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written. Later, he explained that he must follow that law. He said, America is a nation of laws, which means I, as president, am obligated to enforce the law. I don't have a choice about that. On June 15th, he boldly broke that law. What was the result? Cheers! Cheers and celebration! Now, the U.S. government is currently suing those who enforce one of its immigration laws.

In March of 2012, Virginia's Attorney General said that he would refuse to follow a Supreme Court ruling stating, quote, it's not like there are criminal penalties.

An article from the Canada Free Press dated June of 2012 says this, kind of looking at some of these loose, loose breakings or whatever, at least some would consider violations of law, in their own words, the United States has drifted into lawlessness. Pass a law. Ignore any questions of its legality, because legality doesn't matter. If the Supreme Court threatens to investigate, threaten the Supreme Court. Let me ask you this question. Do you think that breaking the law is okay if a situation justifies it? Actually, that question is posted on AnswerBag.com. Do you think breaking the law is okay if it is morally justified? If we listen in to some of the responses that people gave online, here they are. Yes, breaking the law is okay, but the law is usually based on morals. Well, it used to be. That was one person's comment. Another one, it's even okay to break the law if your reason is not morally justified, since the authorities do it all the time.

Lawlessness saturates the news every day. Lawlessness of nations, of leaders, of companies, of churches, of colleges, of teachers, of athletes, of parents, of children. Our news is just riddled. It's over the top with lawlessness in all of those categories. And you can think of many examples that take place.

Humans seem to agree with the late Bertrand Russell, who once stated, outside human desires, there is no moral standard.

Kind of make it up as we go. And so there may be a moral reason not to obey a law based on a situation, since there are no moral standards beyond human desires. What's the big deal about law and rules? Or is there a big deal about law and rules? As church members, as members of a covenant that God has made with those intended to be his first fruits, what and why do we need to be concerned about rules? What are the issues and why? Should we care? I think we know that the bottom line is, as Jesus Christ himself set forth and the apostles, that if you obey the rules, you'll have an abundant life and you'll live. If you disobey the rules, you're going to have a tragic life and you will die. So let's see why today the rules exist and what they can do to enhance our lives and, in fact, prolong our lives forever. The title of the sermon today is The Law and You.

The Law and You.

Humans are inclined to break rules. The number one stated reason that I've found is the law is considered unfair in a certain situation and therefore a justification mounts and grows to break that law.

We see this exemplified in Genesis 2 and 3 chapters where God gave a law in Genesis 2, but in Genesis 3 there was an unfair exception, an unfair situation developed where that law could not emotionally and rationally be followed and therefore it was broken. God extracted a penalty. There are other instances in the Bible, many of them, from beginning to end, but a classic would be Uzzah. You were not to touch the ark or the covenant unless you believe we're in the priesthood, but as the ark came by, it stumbled, it tripped, the ark was in the process of falling off and falling over. Uzzah said, I understand the law. God says, do not touch the ark or the covenant, but in the current situation, I am obligated or the right thing to do is to break the law and he grabbed the ark to protect it and God struck him dead. There's this concept that's floating around out there that people are beginning to realize that if one complains fervently that the law somehow harms them, restricts them, somehow whatever, if they complain loudly and firmly enough and fervently enough, then the thought is that the law does not apply to that situation. Let's put this in perspective. A person's driving down the freeway, light comes on behind from the police. Normally, the person would pull over and receive a fine, but in this case, you see the car is stolen. So pulling over would mean going to jail. So it's very, very common today as the person continues to drive and drive faster and drive in incoming traffic and eventually something happens and the person then will even try to run away from the law. See, the mind assesses that in this situation, the law would not work. It would not apply. It would not apply well. It restricts me. It somehow impacts me or hurts me, and therefore, I am not bound to keep that rule or that law. It transposes into our church culture because we are products of our society. You and I grew up in the society. We are living in the society. We see it. We hear it. We smell it. We taste it. As much as we don't think we're a part of the world, we sure are in the world, and it influences us, and the mindsets influence us.

Peter warned that many in the church twist Scripture in their situation so that they can violate law. This is nothing unusual. This is what humans do. We all do it. We need to recognize it.

We, too, can have our Scriptures ready to justify any situation that might come up to where we might be able to excuse ourselves from the law. For instance, here are some scriptures that we could have ready. The Pharisees kept the letter of the law. Don't be Pharisaical. You don't want to be Pharisaical, do you? They were all about twiggy little parts of the law, how much they should tithe on incense and mint. Don't be Pharisaical. In other words, don't tithe carefully.

You're in the Philadelphia era of the church. Some presume. Revelation chapter 3. You're doing the work, so your level of obedience to the law is fine, obviously, because the Philadelphian era is fine. That's the logic. We love the Sabbath. We all love the Sabbath. We also keep the Sabbath. But you don't need to prepare for the Sabbath because the disciples didn't and David didn't.

That's what people conclude from passage in Matthew 12. You can't earn salvation by works, so don't try to be so careful about works of righteousness. Titus 3 verse 5. Obedience, then, is legalism. Keeping the law is trying to earn your salvation, which is called legalism. You don't have to do that. Don't do that. Don't do it carefully. Don't do it tightly. Do it flexibly. Flexible Christians. Virtual Christians.

Romans 7 verse 6. Here's a good one. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. So keep the Spirit of the law, but ignore the rules. Ignore the laws.

Love the Sabbath, but don't really keep it. Like the Ten Commandments, but don't feel bound by them.

You're in the Spirit of the law. So love the idea of law, but don't practice it. See, in an age of lawlessness, law can get real fuzzy, can it? It can get real fuzzy. We can all get real flexible and start doing what society is doing and everybody else is doing and people in the freeways are doing and what government officials are doing and schools are teaching. And the next thing you know, are we people of the law? Or are we some sort of new age law lovers that don't do law? These are good questions, I hope. I hope that I'm kind of intriguing you, pricking you a little bit to think about you and law.

The symptoms that we might look for of fuzziness or lack of comprehensive following of God's law would be things like disobedient children. Oh, hallmark of the end time. Disobedient children that disobey parents' laws, but it's part of a society where laws aren't really obeyed, you see? Disobedient members to God's laws in a society where it's kind of odd to be strict about laws. Look in your life as I look in mine and see, are there any symptoms? Even Paul said that he was not immune to this. He saw the symptoms in his own life. He said, I stand for rules. I stand for laws. But I don't keep them. I don't keep them. I'm finding. So we could convince ourselves, or maybe deceive ourselves, that we are people of law. Commandments, laws, rules. We love the law while being like Paul and not actually keeping the rules and the law, but somehow being okay with that. Paul wasn't okay with that, as we'll see in a little while. Rules are for your life to be happy, fulfilling, exciting, rich. Paul and us, we understand that rationality. I think we all like the laws. We like the rules. We believe in them. We might die for them. I guess the better question is, do we die to our old self in order to keep them? Or is it just the concept, the idea of the rules? Do we say, ah, yeah, great rules. I'm all for the rules. Paul was all for the rules. We understand that rationally, but it's not our rational thought that performs, is it? Let's just stop here and talk about two things that the Bible talks about and humans have kind of played with. I'm not coming across that as well. I'm not coming across that as one that I understand this. But you know, the Bible talks about love God with all your heart and your soul and your mind. There's some different elements there. It talks about body and soul, heart and I think people have, down through time, have figured out that there's a couple of thought processes or thought generators that we do. One is more the intent, more the conscious, more my intentions, and the other is the actual doing part of it. So in the cerebral sense, we can say, yeah, we love the law, but as Paul says, that which I love, I don't do.

There's a duality there somewhere. You can put whatever name you want on it or try to understand it however you can. We have a reality that's rational, but we have another reality that's doing. One thinks about it. One thinks it's a great idea. It's a great concept. It forms a good intention. This is what we're going to do, but that's up here. That's somewhere out here in the gray matter. And then our arm moves. It's like, hey, what are you doing? We weren't going to do this today. Oh, but we are. Because I have this thing that says I'm thirsty. Oh, I thought I was fasting. Nope, you're thirsty. But I was going to fast. Nope, you're thirsty. So you see, with my mind, I might have one thing, and I might be directing my body, but I have all these emotional-driven responses that my body does. You see how the two... you might think you're in charge up here, and you come up with all the ideas, and then you find at the end of the day, you've done a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't on the plan. How does this work?

The heart looks at a situation. Not that you have two brains, but the heart is the emotional center. It's the compelling center. It's the one that, is it fair? Is it right for me? Is it good? Does it smell, feel, touch right? The heart comes along, and it makes the decision, the compelling, here's what we're going to do. Two trees.

When Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, our heart now decides. It's sort of, after the logic and after the intent, the heart comes along and says, now let's see, is this really fitting for right now? I mean, I know we came up with a plan, but does it really fit? Is this really what we need to be doing right now? Is this what's best for me?

See what happens here. We can end up justifying breaking the rules. What is the consequence of that? Well, it's an unhappy life. At the moment, it seems right, though. It feels right. It is so good, but it ends up bringing unhappiness to oneself, to those around. Unfulfillment. It can lead to broken relationships. It can lead to poverty. It can lead to conflicts. It can lead to death, and ultimately, there's no future in that, because God defines that as sin or missing the mark. You have the mark, but somehow you missed it. You said, this is what I stand for. This is what my conscience is going to lead me to. This is my intent, but you miss the mark. You're somewhere else. That's where you end up. That's what we have to fight. The consequences of humanity missing the mark, having good ideals. Humanity has some very, very good ideals. Love, peace. You know the peace sign? Happy faces, rules everywhere, lots of laws, international laws, international courts, good benevolent charities, etc., etc. What's the result of, sort of, as you hit a situation and the heart kicks in, and the emotion, and you assess and analyze what you should do, and you do that. What's the result of that? 9-11. That's the result of that. Live beheadings on TV, suicide bombers, wars, failing economy, divided countries, people in worse and worse circumstances, a globe that cannot sustain life.

It looks good, it sounds good, it feels right, but the consequence is bad.

And so if you and I are using this knowledge of good and evil from our heart, from our passion, emotion driven, we'll look at every situation and decide what's best. That is the course, that's where it's headed. The ultimate human response is found back in Revelation 17, 12-14. See, what happens is these wonderful, logically human driven things from soft heads that look at a situation and say, well, this isn't fair to use the law at this, so we won't. And this isn't fair to use the law for that, so we won't. And I'm screaming loud that this won't work for me, so I don't. And when society then starts to come apart, the response, the human response, is always to make more strict law. And people look for a leader who will come in and say, force people to do it. Force people to do it. And we see this in Revelation 17, verse 12-14. Revelation 17. Here's what's sort of coming as one of the responses to the world in which we live.

Revelation 17, 12. Ten horns, which you saw, are ten kings who have received no kingdom as of yet, but they received authority for one hour as kings with the beast. They have to give up their sovereignty, and they have to pull into a religiously supervised organization. Verse 13. They are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority, which hasn't worked. They will give it to this single mindset. Verse 14. These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings. But notice carefully, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful. Somebody didn't go down that path. Somebody didn't break those laws. Somebody wasn't part of that society and ended up with Jesus Christ at his return coming to make war with him, and they were chosen and faithful. What were they chosen and faithful in? Well, we're going to see. It has a lot to do with law. Press Europe ran a review of an article that was published in Depress, which is a German newspaper on June 20, 2012. It's entitled, Ten Countries for a United States of Europe. We just read here about ten kings. I'm not saying this is the sequel or the fulfillment, but nevertheless, it's interesting. It's interesting to see in our current world right now, with the choices that have always been made that haven't worked, here's a solution being proposed. Ten EU foreign ministers participating in a study group for the future of Europe aim to exert pressure to transform the European Union into a federation along the lines of the United States. They propose to put an end to the dominance of national government leaders. The management of borders, defense, and public spending will be transferred to the federation. You see where this type of thing goes. You have this breakdown, globally, until the only way for it to survive is harsher and stricter and more enforcement. But it's all a continuation of lawlessness, of lawlessness against this and against God.

Law and you boils down to a very vital concept. We need to realize that humans like laws. In our rational mind, we like laws. We make a lot of laws. We make a lot of rules. I noticed at camp there are rules for camp, but evidently that wasn't enough because one of the dorms, at least, made a list of their own rules on top of our rules and posted them on the door. We like rules. Rules are going to solve everything. The only thing is that our heart does not like rules. We like rules as far as this will solve the problem. But our heart, when it comes up to the rule, says, hey, this rule is a little problem here from what is right at this moment, at this minute, for how I feel, for what I want to do, for where I want to go, for how I want to get there, what speed I want to get there, who I want to go with, what I want to do when I get there, etc., etc. This rule is in the way. So we have this, and let's try to understand why. The mind likes laws, but the heart does not.

The best description I can give is an individual, god-made, that's trying to use a bunch of gray matter up here with little firings in the brain. It doesn't really understand a lot.

It is that we have rational thought, and that provides our intentions. I don't know about you, but I can lie in bed at night, get up in the morning and say, here's what I'm going to do. Tomorrow is clear as a bell, as I'm lying in bed. Tomorrow is so clear. Here's what I'm going to do. That's my rational thought. Whatever the headquarters up here, the director of the body, comes up with on the pillow, we're all in. At least up here, we're all in.

Let's go to Romans 7, verse 12. I'll try to show you how I sense that this works. Romans 7, verse 12.

Therefore, on my pillow, the law for tomorrow, the rules, the direction for tomorrow, it's a good thing. Paul says, Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. It's great. Let's talk on the Sabbath about keeping God's law. Everybody in? Let's see. Raise your hand if you like God's law. Let's see. I think we're all in. The law is holy, just, and good. The commandment, we're all good here.

They're good for your life. They're good for your spouse. They're good for your career. They're good for your family. They're good for the church. They're good for you being in the kingdom. We're all in on the law. Now we have the emotional doer. That's the other part. It's not my heart down here beating. It's just an organ that can be transplanted, stopped. But I have this part. In some cultures, it's called the kidney. Some it's called the liver. It's your emotional center. People will equate with an organ of some kind. I guess it's a different part of the brain. I don't know. I only have one, and it doesn't work that great. So the other part is the emotional doer. That's the part that's going to get up tomorrow morning. It's going to go do what the rules were, the law, the plan, the intents were on the pillow last night. Now, I want what is good, and I want what is fair. As I get up and as I go, I want what is right for me, what I perceive is right. See what's happened? Last night on the pillow, we came up with the plan. Now we're dealing with events moment by moment, situation by situation. Look at verse 5, Romans 7. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. I thought we said we like the law. And yet, in the flesh, just you and me as human individuals have passions called sin which don't want to do the law, they want to do something else. So when I get up in the morning, yeah, I've got this plan, but at the same time, my body's saying, oh, we want to do things that aren't on the plan here. I've got some other things in mind. One book, interesting book called Switch, says it's like the rider on an elephant.

You've got your body, the elephant, and you've got your determining brain up here. It's like the rider. The rider's going to tell the elephant what to do. And it works to a point. You've got to realize there's a couple of different parts here. You've got a rider, and you've got an elephant. And they both kind of have a mind. As long as the elephant is in line with the rider, you're going to do what the rider wants. But the elephant's pretty big. Elephants sometimes get ideas of their own. So don't always go and do what the rider wants them to do. So here you have the heart, the emotional doer. If we look in verse 15, it says, for what I am doing, I don't understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice, but what I hate, that I do. In any given day, your elephant may not be doing what you said you were going to do. Your body may not be doing. Your heart may not be conforming to the plan, to the intentions, to the conscience, to what you stand for. And this is our problem. Your problem and my problem, every minute of the day.

It's not just, how could I have done that? No, you've got two parts here somehow. Paul here is talking about this. How is it that what I hate I'm doing, and what I love I'm not doing? There's some kind of a duality, some sort of a two-part, some sort of a rider and an elephant, some sort of a heart, and some sort of an intent that are not always the same.

This is really, from what we see in Paul's writing here, the crux of whether we live or die forever. It's pretty important to figure this out. We have rational thought that likes laws. Here's how it here's how it works. You go to bed at night, you wake up at one o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the morning, you've got a headache, mouth is dry, you feel like you've been run over by a truck.

Come to the conclusion, I'm not, I didn't live yesterday right, I'm going to make some changes today. Here's what we're going to do. No coffee, no sweets, no fats, no refined anything, no soda pop, no alcohol, and I'm not looking at women. All right, just this is my rational thought, yeah, I'm cleaning up my life tomorrow. Okay, good, works great. Go back to sleep, you wake up the next morning, time to go, up you go. Now comes the emotional doer, comes the heart kicks in.

The heart looks at situations as they come up, right?

I smell coffee, wasn't expecting to smell coffee. When you smell coffee, dopamine starts to be released into the brain. It's a drug that God made. It's associated with pleasant things. The heart likes pleasant things. It likes emotional responses. And I was ready to obey the rules today, but my heart is, likes dopamine. It likes sweets. It likes tasty things. It likes fatty things. It likes fragrant, exciting, passionate things. Whenever there's a focus on me, whenever there's intrigue or excitement, dopamine is released into the brain and it starts filling up in various places, and it gives a very nice feeling. Cute women release dopamine in the brain. A lot of other things release dopamine. So now you're up for the day. Got the plan? Today is going to be different. I'm all ready to obey the rules, but I wasn't expecting the aroma of coffee. So I think coffee actually is good for me today. Exception number one.

Cinnabuns.

They are written with an S, by the way. Cinnabuns. Cinnabuns just are right for the moment.

You know, everything goes out of the head as you go past that place. The smell of bacon and pancakes with syrup is exception three, four, and five. The cold, crisp bubbly of cola in a glass, weeping with a little bit of condensation on the outside. Exception six. Beer goes with tacos at lunch. That's exception seven. I wouldn't, but the fries and the onion rings just came out of the fryer. And they are unbelievable. Just today.

She made that homemade dessert for me, especially, so I can't tell her no.

That's number ten.

Wings are free during happy hour, where you get two-for-one drinks. That's eleven, twelve, and thirteen.

And it's just ending. Would you like another round, sir? Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

And why does she have to be so sexy? Seventeen!

Back in bed at two a.m., you're thinking, you know, I've had a worse day. I feel worse than I did last night. What happened? What happened? What happened to the plan? Never again. Never again. Tomorrow, I'm going to change. What do you think?

Tell you what, you might do it for a day or two, but your heart's not in it. See? Your heart is not in it. The heart is in dealing and pleasing and fulfilling, it likes dopamine, it likes all the sensations. And so, you have no buy-in. You've got, what's the old saying, the road to hell or the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Everybody has the good intentions, but like Paul said, how to do it is so different. It's like the rider on the elephant. You might force him to do something for a few times, but when the elephant says, you know what, this is too hard. I don't like exercise. I don't like this denial. I miss my dopamine. I miss my sweets. I miss whatever I saw and felt and did, not just then, but as it comes up, I know what's best for me. I want to do it.

That elephant will take over. Your emotion-based doing, somehow, this heart will override the conscience and follow the dopamine. That's my simple solution. Here's the proof. Mark 7, 22-23. Mark 7, 21-23. Let's look at what Jesus says here. Mark 7, 21. He says, For from within, out of the heart of men. Not out of the rules we make and all that we agree to, but from somewhere in there, from the emotional heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, not just thoughts about them, but these things, you see, that release dopamine. Just look at the list here. Dopamine is getting dumped. It's when you walk up to this, you don't plan for it. You're not for it. You're not, you know, I don't stand for this. I don't think anybody in society hardly ever does, but when you bump up against it, it just seems right. Covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these things that we bump into one at a time, a little here, a little there, and they seem right. Christ said that, and he said, all these evil things come from within and defile a man.

These are the feel-goods in Paul's discourse. Let's go back to Romans chapter 7, and let's look at verse 19 now. Romans chapter 7 and verse 19 says, For the good that I will to do, I do not, but the evil that I will not do, that I practice. The heart, the emotion, the pleasantry, the fittingness of it, the heart goes ahead and validates the breaking of the law. It doesn't apply to me. This is better. This is right. Let's drop down to verse 21. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. See, here's however you want to separate it. There's this duality, duplicity. There's an inward man, and there's an outward man. There's the conscience, or the one up here who has the intentions for the day, and then somehow there's going about doing it.

But I see another law and my members somewhere in there warring against the law of my mind. The two are not harmonized. The elephant and the writer are warring against each other. And guess who's bigger? You know? The little brain thing up there that on the pillow at night says, here's what we're doing, is a lot smaller somehow than the emotional side and the rest of the body. He continues that they bring me into captivity to the law of sin. What he's talking about here is bringing him into captivity to the penalties of the law, the penalties of sin, which is death, which is in my members. That's a terrible, terrible thing. So what's the solution to liking the laws and obeying the laws? Or liking, I guess, the solution. What's the solution? Well, we need to like the laws and we need to obey the laws. How do we do that? Well, we have to involve both halves. They can't war against each other. Somehow we've got to get the two in harmony. How can you do that? Well, somehow you've got to combine the rational liking of the law with a heartfelt emotional loving of applying the law in every situation. The head and the heart have to work together. How is that done? Let's look back in verse 4 through 6 and Paul will explain how this is done. How you can do this. How I can do this, if we really want to.

Romans chapter 7 verse 4.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. Actually, we have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. We have become dead to the penalty of the law. We've been freed from slavery to sin through the body of Christ. That you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

The fruit is righteousness that we're to bear. Righteousness is the keeping of the law. Now, this law is better than the law that God gave with Israel. It's better than going out and doing animal sacrifices. But as Jesus said, I did not come away with a flick of the law. Not the smallest little thing of the law. But that law is going to exist.

Verse 5, For when we were of the flesh, you and I are in the flesh. The word here should be of the flesh. When we were of the fleshly carnal mind without God, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. Breaking the law goes to death. The wording here is poor. Peter said it was poor and hard to understand, and people would use this to their own destruction. But what he's talking about here, the passions that were aroused by breaking the law through lawless deeds, or of lawless deeds, were at work in our members which bears fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the penalties of breaking the law, which is death, separation, misery. Now that we're baptized, he showed in the previous chapter, in chapter 6, we're freed from slavery to sin. We're no longer to be slaves to sin.

Why? Because our old heart can be harmonized with our intentions. Now we have been delivered from the penalties of breaking that law, having died to what we were held by, which was, died to sin, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

You have to realize that the newness of the Spirit involves capital S, Holy Spirit, and the newness of the Spirit means actually transforming the heart into a loving, excited, emotionally on-board participation of a law that's been magnified and expanded, not one that's been done away with. The law wasn't eased in any way by the New Covenant. In fact, it was made much infinitely more difficult. You can remember that Jesus said, you've heard it said of old, man shouldn't commit adultery. Well, now if you even look on a woman, just imagine you've broken that. It's very hard. You've heard of all that you shouldn't murder. I say now if you even call somebody an idiot, be in danger of the lake of fire, that's very, very difficult. So it's not that he eased it in any way, made it more difficult, but he made it possible. Made it possible through the Holy Spirit. We receive the Spirit that we read of in verse 6, and we keep the law now in the newness of the Spirit. Keeping the law means keeping all of it in all of its fine details. Every part of it, everything that God said, more accurate than ever, more focused than ever, it's been more magnified than ever, but we now can have a heart that's linked up and we can actually do it. How can you do that?

Jesus' point is obedience is not only possible now, it's required. He says, if you're, forget Pharisaical, if your obedience and righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees, you won't even be in the kingdom of God. And they were picky. Sure, they had some other laws as well, but those laws were to surround God's laws so that they didn't break God's laws. That was the intent, anyway. So he says, your righteousness has to be better than Pharisees. Better be careful with God's law. Better not say, oh, we're keeping the Spirit of the law, but not the letter. No, the law has to be kept perfectly and can be. But how? It seems impossible. Let's go down to verse 24 and 25 and find out. Paul says, I've been by himself. He calls, he says, oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ. That's who's going to do it. So then, with the mind, I serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the penalties from the law, when we sin. And every day we have to repent of sin. Every day we fight a little harder.

We have to fight. We have to wrestle. We have to keep God's law. Again, how can we do that? David was a man after God's own heart. Interesting, he didn't say, David is a man after God's own convictions, or he likes the law. David got passionate with the law. He said, I love the law. There's passion in there. But David was a man after God's own heart, it turns out. There was something else. He had a new father. He was engendered from above. He had a spirit. How do we get that? Well, David said in Psalm 51 and verse 10, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit, the Holy Spirit in me. That's how we get it. That's how we link the heart and the intent, is by having God's Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself, come live in us. He and the Father come and live and dwell in us and replace us as that temple and get a clean heart, a heart that's on board, a heart that loves the law, a heart that's passionate. When it comes up to any situation, it says, now the law fits here. Now the law fits here. The rules work, the law works, the rules work. You may not see how it works, but I love the rules. I'm passionate about the rules. We're following the rules, and at the end of the day, life is good.

We find in 1 Timothy 1.5, the purpose of the law, the purpose of the commandment, is love from a pure heart. It can't just be good intentions. It has to be from a pure heart. That's what the law is intended to do, is to link, and then we become passionate doers. Our doing side is fully bought in. Again, how do we get that?

Matthew 22, Christ's first great commandment was love the Lord your God with all your heart.

It's easy for us to say it with our lips, with our intentions, but if we're not careful, we'll say we love God, but we don't have time to pray and study. We say we keep the Sabbath, but we don't really...as things come up that we want to talk about, think about, do, or not prepare, whatever. That's fine. You kind of go through life, if you're not careful, that we don't have the heart. Here's what David said in Psalm 119, verses 32 through 34. Now here's an individual who asked for a clean heart. He got it. He asked for God's Holy Spirit. He got it. He transformed and became a man after God's own heart, connecting the two. And he said in Psalm 119, verse 32, I will run the course of your commandments. Here's his rational writer directive side. Here's what we're going to do. I'm in charge. Somewhere up here says, I'm in charge. Here's what the body's going to do. I will run the course of your commandments, for you shall enlarge my heart. See? You will enlarge my heart. I will become a godly, emotional doer. You will give me a large heart. We'll convert the elephant. That's what we'll do. The writer and the elephant will match up. The thing up here and the body are going to work together. Verse 34, give me understanding. Give me your Holy Spirit, and I shall keep your law. That's the writer. We're going to do this. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. See how David marries the two. He manages the two. He pulls them together. I have the intent, but I also have the heart. Give me your help. I'll do it with my heart. David ends up a man after God's own heart. That's what you and I are to become. What are the rules of God about? They all boil down to, love God, love fellow man.

Guess what? Dopamine flows when you love God first and love your fellow man. We don't sense that as humans, but I think it even flows better and stronger in some cases. It's really good stuff when you love your wife. You can't lust over something that you have.

You can sure enjoy your spouse a lot. There's a lot of dopamine in love. There's a lot of dopamine in romance. When you give and you make and you enjoy, and there's good-smelling stuff, and there's friends, and there's smiles. Smiles, people looking at you, telling you they like you, releases dopamine. There's nothing like having good relationships. Feeling good about God loving you dumps dopamine. You know when you don't feel you're quite right with God and you're not right with your spouse and you're not right with your employer and your neighbor?

There's no dopamine. About all you can get it from is maybe a can of cola or some sticky thing that smells good for a few minutes, or looking at something that's not yours that really messes up your life for a while. See, once you and I look at doing what's right and buy in, the emotions of the heart can just go crazy.

If you want to see a heart that's passionate and crazy and nuts, read the Psalms. Read David. Sometimes, how can this guy be doing this? Dancing down the street and jumping up and down. How can he be saying he loves God's law and on and on and on and on? Well, dopamine. Well, I'm just saying that. He got passionate. He got excited. He loved it. And you and I do, and we can. The more we keep God's law from a godly heart.

Assess your heart. Did you carefully obey God's command to keep his Sabbath holy all day? Or as you went through the day, did that intrigue you? Well, I really need to do this. Break the law. I really need to do that. You know, did you follow his command in preparation? Or did you say, nah, I had other things to do. What this week will you do to carefully obey God's law this month, this year? You know, those who kept the rules this week lived an example of the kingdom of God.

They were ambassadors of God's kingdom. They were ambassadors of God's law in a lawless world, and they reaped the blessings of the results, and they showed that in their life. Those who came to the kingdom of God and those who continue to keep God's laws and rules, they're promoting the kingdom of God. And the result of that is in their life is love and joy. Love and joy. That's what we want in life. Love and happiness.

Those who rationalize around the rules God calls lawless. Let's look in Thessalonians 2 and 7. We have to understand how lawlessness is a hallmark of our age, and we have to recognize it and fight it. It says, for the mystery of lawlessness, it's a mystery. Why is it a mystery? Because everybody's about law. We have so many laws and rules, and the governments are always making more laws and rules. But it's a mystery of lawlessness. It's at work. Verse 9, the coming of the lawless one, at the end time, this great leader who's going to be against God's law but making his own, is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

So there's control and power. And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because notice, they did not receive the love of the truth. They received the truth. Some did. Got the truth. Got the truth. Yep, I got the truth. Do you have the truth? Yep, you have the truth too. Good. We're a truth. Wonderful. Do you have the love? Do you have the emotional heart? Do you keep the truth?

Do you obey the gospel? Do you love the commandments and do it? Here are some people that did not receive the love, the doing from the heart of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they may all be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. That decision-making, dopamine-flooding choice that we as humans will make without God's Holy Spirit. Verse 15, therefore, brethren, because of this, he's saying, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions, as Thayer's Greek lexicon would say, hold the written and or oral teachings which you were taught, whether by word or by our epistle.

We are to hold to those. Obey, be rulekeepers, be law-biders. You know that in Revelation 22, about verse 14, it says, those who do his commandments, keep his command, do them, they will be in New Jerusalem, and many other statements like that in the Bible. So don't fall for dopamine-driven excuses like, keep the spirit of the law, but not the letter. Avoid legalism. Don't be a Pharisee. Be a balanced Christian. A little sin, a little obedience, you know, balance. Don't major in the minors. Instead, instead of that kind of stuff, have an ear for what Jesus said to the churches.

You know what Jesus said to the churches? Six of the churches in Revelation that I don't think people are listening to, they don't really go there, says, your obedience to my law is shaky. I'm not sure you're going to make it. That's what he says. We need to listen. We need to have an ear and listen.

Let's let God speak to that. I like to read you some excerpts from the Bible. Just listen. These are all quoted straight out of the Bible. Therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and understanding. Be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you.

It will be righteousness if we are careful to observe all these commandments. Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe. You shall be careful to observe all.

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all of His commandments, which I command you. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it, and you shall not add to it or take away from it. If you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments, that He may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law in these statutes.

This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgment, and therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. If you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them, set your hearts on the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law. In the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever.

But it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Law. Law is good. We all rationalize that law is good. Rule keeping is to begin in childhood. It says in Ephesians 6.1, children obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. The first commandment with promise goes all the way to the end of the Bible. We are to obey God and keep His commandments.

Abraham was an obedient example of the Father of the faithful. God said that I have known Him in order that He may command His children and His household after Him that they keep the way of the Lord and to do righteousness and justice. He was the Father, the painter, He was the the teacher in a sense. He continues to teach us today by example. And that example has stood throughout civilization, the time that God has put us on earth. So what about you and me? What are we doing in our Sodom and Gomorrah? What are we doing in this present evil age about law? Let's go back to Romans the 13th chapter. Romans chapter 13. As we finish this up, there's an important chapter. It begins with, let all, every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Verse 2, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. You and law is not only biblical law or divine law, but also social law, the laws of the land. It says in verse 4, these rulers are God's ministers, servants to you for good.

Verse 5, therefore you must be subject. Verse 6, pay taxes. Verse 7, pay taxes.

In verse 8, oh no one, anything except to love one another, for he who loves one another has fulfilled the law or is fulfilling the law. For the commandments, and he states the commandments here, are summed up as you shall love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Verse 11, and do this, knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep, break out of what this world is doing and the course it's taking. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness. This week there was a film about darkness, about a dark night, works of darkness and evil and killing, and it was premiered at midnight in the dark, and the people in the film wore black. And right before the film was shown there was a trailer in which showed an upcoming film, and in that four men walked into a theater up to the movie screen facing the audience and pulled out automatic weapons, began firing into the audience. Within minutes of that trailer being played, somebody came in alive dressed in black, showing himself and using a name that was part of this dark film and began shooting, shot 70 people in the audience. It's a dark world in which we live. We need to come out of this darkness. It says here, let us cast off the works of darkness. Don't be part of the lawlessness of this age, and let us put on the armor of light. Jesus Christ is the light. We need to put on His armor. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in what the human flesh would say. Oh, this would be right. This would be fun. Oh, this might be good. This would bring dopamine. No, not in revelry and drunkenness and lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. So in conclusion, what's the big deal about rules and law? Well, your life depends on it. Your happiness depends on rules and law. If you obey the rules, you live. If you disobey the rules, you die. I'd like to conclude with something that Jesus tells us to make this very clear. Matthew 13, verses 40-43. Matthew 13, beginning in verse 40.

Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. He's saying, make no mistake. This is very certain. He's talked to the churches. He's warned us. He's given us the Word. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness. And He will cast them into the furnace of fire, and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous. What are righteous people? They're those who obey God's laws. The righteous will shine forth as the Son in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.