The Law of God

So I have been listening to some really good teachings lately, for those who havent heard the John MacArthur one from the Preach The Word conference do yourself a favor and get it from Mitch, but I have found that I have started to really examine myself and I think that God is showing me and growing me in something that I would like to share. This Country is in a moral downward spiral that I personally dont think we are going to recover from, at least not any time soon, and Im asking myself, where is the Church? Then yesterday I listned to a teaching by Voddie Bauchum and he quoted something that really hit me, it was this:

"The root of our trouble putting it quite plainly seems to be that we neither know nor care much about the law of God. On the one hand we do not give ourselves to studying and applying the law, in the way that our evangelical forefathers did. Our neglect of the Old Testament in particular bears witness to this, on the other hand our thinking unlike theirs has a lawless tinge, there is a antinomian streak running through it. We act as if our freedom from the law has made it a matter of comparative unimportance whether we keep the law in daily life or not. We appear to care more for right faith than we do for right living, we show a greater concern to be orthodox than to be upright. We seem to be more anxious to know the truth than we are to adorn it by our behavior. We are it appears more interested in feeding our own souls than in doing good to our neighbor. We lap up the doctrinal chapters of the epistles but we skate over the ethical ones. Our Lord accused the Pharisees of antinomianism, telling them that they had overlooked the weightier demands of the law, justice, mercy, good faith. Would he not have reason to bring a similar accusation against us? Here then is the root cause of our present moral flabbiness, we have neglected Gods law."

-J.I. Packer

Then as if that wasnt enough he followed that by reading what Jesus said:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-20

I am as guilty as anyone in buying into what I know rather than what I do. Now I realize by Jesus saying they had to be better than the most moral upright people of their day, was to point them to himself and say apart from Him there is no other way. But the law was not Gods failed attempt at saving us, the law is perfect. So I asked myself, what I was striving for, was it to gain knowledge and truth or was it to be like the Christ? Sadly I realized I wasnt where I should be and I thank God for showing it to me. To quote I believe it was G.K. Chesterton when he was asked what was wrong with the world, he replied "I am!". In asking where is the church, God showed me where I am and if a revival is ever going to start it will start in the church. Anyways, if youve read this far thank you for joining me in this public self examinaton of myself and I looking forward to seeing some of you down on Alvarado tonight.
Tom
2 Corinthians 13:5