In this sermon, the speaker begins by praying for guidance and blessings for the congregation. They emphasize the importance of living in grace rather than under the law, both in personal lives and in the home. The sermon highlights the ministry of grace and truth, which is to bring healing, freedom, and liberation to those who are brokenhearted and bound. The speaker also emphasizes the beauty of the combination of grace and truth, and encourages the listeners to allow the divine influence and power of God's grace to work in their hearts. The sermon concludes with a reminder that the messages are freely available for anyone to share and distribute.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, blessed be the Lord this morning for the rich blessings we've already received. I'd like us this morning to turn in our Bibles to John, chapter 1, to begin a reading there. I'd like to give a teaching this morning that's been on my heart for, oh, I'd say a few months and was brought upon my heart as a fresh burden during the revival that was going on around here. The title of my message this morning is, The Spirit of Law and the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of Law and the Spirit of Grace. Now, there are many areas where the Spirit of Law or the Spirit of Grace can affect, but I believe I'll be directing most of the message on how this affects relationships. Relationships with one another. Relationships between husbands and wives. Relationships with children. The Spirit of Law and the Spirit of Grace. In John, chapter 1, where we had you turn, we want to read from verse 12 through verse 18. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. This morning, as an introduction, I'd like us to consider the difference between the coming of the law and the coming of grace and truth. The Scripture here says that the law came by Moses. But if we could just for a moment lay a little groundwork for the message and go back and remember how the law came. Exodus chapter 20 is where we would drop in and read, if we were going to read, about when the law was given. But if you remember, God told Moses to gather the people together. God told Moses to sanctify the people. He said, I'm going to appear unto you tomorrow. And then the people were to gather outside and around the mount. And Moses was to go up in the mount, and there God spoke to the people of God. They heard His word. They heard His law. And we know the scene that is laid there, Mount Sinai. It's a place of trembling. There was a place of thundering. There was fire on that mountain. And the Bible says that the people exceedingly feared and quaked as they heard the word come forth from that mountain. Well, this is the way that the law came by Moses. And it had its effects upon the people there when they heard it. And all down through the centuries after they heard it, that law had its effect upon people. And the Bible says that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What a different way that grace and truth came. We heard a little bit already about it this morning. Here He comes, just like everybody else. Humbles Himself, fulfills all manner of righteousness. He is baptized there of John in the river Jordan. The Spirit of God descends upon Him. Out into the wilderness He goes. He comes back. Yes, we read it there in Luke. He's seated there speaking to the people. And what is the ministry of grace and truth? But to bind up the brokenhearted, to minister grace to people, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to loose those that are bound, this is the way grace and truth came. And when John described it, he said, We beheld His glory. Oh, it was beautiful. It was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. And He was full of grace and He was full of truth. And that's the testimony that we have this morning of our Lord Jesus. He was full of grace and He was full of truth. And what a beautiful combination those two make together, don't they? Grace, that is the divine influence and power of the grace of God working in the heart of an individual. And truth, that's the divine revelation of the mind and will of God. And we read in the Scriptures that our Lord Jesus was full of both of them. He was full and running over of the grace of God, the divine power, the unction, the strength that was needed to live the way He needed to live. And He was also full and running over of the truth of the Word of God. That was our Lord Jesus. The law came by Moses, but it came in a very different way than the coming of grace and truth. Words like this we read in the Scriptures as our Lord Jesus begins to manifest Himself and His ministry upon the earth. The people marvel at the gracious words that come out of His mouth. Words like this are spoken to the people. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Very different than the law that came on Mount Sinai. But totally different influence and effect. And that's what I'd like to speak about some this morning. There is a difference in the effect of the law than there is in the effect that grace has upon our lives. There is a difference in the attitudes that flow out of a life that is controlled by principles of law as compared to the life that flows out of one who is controlled by the principles of grace. And maybe that would be a good way to divide the two of them in our minds this morning. There are those who live by principles of law and there are those who live by principles of grace. And the principles of law and the principles of grace are very far away from each other. The spirit of law and the spirit of grace, the influence of the principles of law compared to the influence of the principles of grace in somebody's life. Turn over with me to 2 Corinthians yet. For a reading there, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? We're in verse 1. Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Here are epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart. And notice the difference there again. The effect of the principles of law compared to the effect of the principles of grace. One is only written on a table of stone or a piece of paper or a book somewhere, but the other is written on the fleshly table of the heart. Big difference. Big difference. And such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. There again we see the difference. The principles of law and the principles of the spirit or the principles of grace. One kills and the other gives life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Now let me just explain a little bit what that word ministration means. It's basically the same word as ministry. That which flows out. That which flows out of a life. That which flows out of a family. That which flows out of a congregation. We have a ministry. The ministration of your life or the ministration of your family or the ministration of a church. It is that which flows out. Ministry. It's the effect on others. That's what it's talking about. For if the ministration or that which flowed out of condemnation be glory, how much more the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. You see, the law was given as a ministration of condemnation so that its effect and its influence would be that which would bring condemnation. It would be that which would bring death. It would be that which brings somebody to a place where they realize that they cannot do it and then only turn to Christ where they can find the grace of God to do it. But the ministration of righteousness that produces and fosters righteous living. That's what that little verse there is saying. That ministration which produces and fosters righteous living, it exceeds in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. The ministration of righteousness is so much more glorious than the ministration of condemnation. It just clouds it out of the way. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses which put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Verse 17, Now where the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty, power to do the will of God. Let us remember that little phrase, that little verse there as we go through many different points here this morning. Remember that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, or power, or grace, or strength to do the will of God. So, obviously when we begin to ponder this whole matter of the effect of the principles of law compared to the effect of the principles of grace, surely we want to lean on the grace side because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That is power to do the will of God. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The principles of law and the principles of grace, these two have very different effects. If you are an individual who finds yourself living after the principles of law rather than the principles of grace, and I know that there are some in this room because it became very evident through the three weeks of revival that we had that some were leaning on living after principles of law and others were experiencing the grace of God in a beautiful way in their lives. So listen, there is a big difference between the two of these. It will affect the way you think about God. If you are living by principles of law, it will totally affect how you think about God. Number two, it will affect how you think about yourself. And number three, it will greatly affect how you relate to others. Think with me. If in your mind you are thinking and relating in your Christian life after principles of law, that means you have to do something in order to please God. That is going to affect the way you look at God. Because every one of us know if we stop and think about it that if you have to please God by the things you do, then if you don't do everything that you are supposed to do, you are not pleasing God, and thus you live under God's displeasure most of your life. That is not the will of God for a Christian, to live under that sense of God's displeasure. And by the way, it is a false sense of God's displeasure. It is a theology that we brought up in our own mind. Number two, it will affect how you think about yourself. Because if you are living after the persuasion of the principles of law, then you have got to perform. And if you don't perform, you are a failure. And if you are a failure, you will begin to think like a failure. You will feel like a failure. You will make decisions like a failure. And you will be a failure. That is the way it works. And number three, I will save that one. But these two are very much apart from each other. The one, if you carry it all the way to its end, you will have a Pharisee. And the other, if you carry it all the way to its end, you will have a beautiful example of Jesus Christ upon this earth. Which one do we want? Do we want to be a Pharisee? Or do we want to be a beautiful example of Jesus Christ? The Pharisees were afraid of God. The Pharisees were proud of their attainments. And they figured they were pleasing God by their attainments, and they were proud of their attainments. And the Pharisees had very little influence on other people. On the other hand, our Lord Jesus Christ was not afraid of God, but He rested in the love of His Heavenly Father all through every day. He was filled with humility and meekness, rather than pride of attainment. And last of all, He was the most influential man that ever walked on the earth. Which one do we want? The Spirit of Law and the Spirit of Grace. They are very different from each other. They will affect our influence on others considerably. They will affect the way you raise your children. They will affect how you relate to your spouse. They will affect how you relate to your brothers and sisters in the Lord. And they will also affect how you relate to a lost and dying world. We'll see these as we go down through several points of comparison between the Spirit of Law and the Spirit of Grace. We'll be able to see that there's a great difference in the effect or the influence that we have on other people. There is a danger of our hearts being established by laws and not by grace. If you'll turn over with me to Hebrews, I'll remind you of a verse that Brother Aaron preached to us here a few weeks ago in an opening. I believe the name of his message was that established in grace was the title of his message. It was such a blessing, such a thrill to listen to him preach about having our hearts established in grace. Well, the very fact that our brother needed to preach that message shows us that there's a danger that our hearts can be established in laws rather than grace. Read the verse with me in Hebrews 13, verse 8, 9 and 10. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Let your hearts be established in grace, not in meats or in laws, in legal codes and rules. Don't let your heart be established in legal codes and rules, but rather let it be established in grace because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So let your heart be established in those things. So let us look at a few of these differences. I have 15 of them, believe it or not, but I don't plan to spend a long time on them because I'd like you to get the principle of operating under law and operating under grace. I want you to see the difference of the two. First of all, the spirit of the law demands. The spirit of grace encourages. There's a big difference between the two of those. The spirit of the law demands. It allows no excuse. It must be this way and no other way. But the spirit of grace encourages. And by that I mean it comes alongside and encourages you in the direction of holiness and righteousness. Big difference between the two of those. One demands, the other encourages. Go this way. That's right. That's good. Keep on going. That's right. Keep your heart open. Just keep going. This way. This is the way to go. The other demands. You'll do this. And you have no choice. And there's no excuse. This is the way it'll be. This is the way you'll do it. One is the spirit of law. The other is the spirit of grace. They have a tremendous effect on how we relate to people, don't they? Second of all, the spirit of law condemns. The spirit of grace convicts. Big difference. Condemnation is judgment. Condemnation is heavy. Condemnation brings the heart down low. But conviction simply enlightens the heart. One is condemnation. One is conviction. Conviction. That still, small voice. That sweet prompting of the Spirit of God inside of the heart of God's people. Conviction. The spirit of grace is just a gentle spirit that comes alongside and enlightens our heart. You know, you shouldn't have done that. Think of it. Think of how the grace of God works in your life. You make a mistake. You say something out of sort. And it might be five minutes. And all of a sudden you have that little quiet moment there by the kitchen sink or at your workbench. And here it comes. You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have done that. But the spirit of law condemns. That was wrong. That was wrong. That's evil. You're wicked. And all those kind of things go along with it. If we are moving in the spirit of law, that's going to have a very different effect than if we're moving in the spirit of grace. And I believe when we work with people, God would have us work like the Holy Spirit, not like the law with other people. And just come alongside, give a gentle encouragement. You know, that wasn't a very good thing to do. Rather than to condemn, to judge, to give feelings of failure and judgment, rather than that gentle wooing of the spirit of God. Number three. The spirit of law brings bondage. And the spirit of grace brings liberty. Now, the word bondage means just what it says. Bound. The spirit of law brings bondage. It binds. It hinders. If you're moving under the principles of law, you're probably failing in your Christian life. You probably try but fail. And try but fail. And try but fail. But the spirit of grace brings liberty. For where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That is, power to do God's will. Liberty. Emancipation. Proclamation. You're free! You can do what you want to do now. You can do the will of God. You can serve the Lord. You can have victory over your sin in your life. The spirit of grace gives liberty or freedom or emancipation. A freedom to do the will of God. The other brings bondage. Number four. The spirit of law is never good enough. It's never good enough. You ever feel that way? It's never good enough. Well, that's the spirit of the law. It's never good enough. You always fail under the spirit of the law. The principle of law is always never good enough. You always fell short of it. You maybe got it here, but you lost it here. And you gained a little here, but you lost down here. The principle of law is never good enough. But the spirit of grace is always excited by each step that is taken. Spirit of grace is acceptance, encouragement, praise. Often heard, you want to raise your children right, give them about nine doses of praise to every one dose of correction. Then another nine doses of praise and then one dose of correction. Why? Because the spirit of grace is an encourager. It is always excited by each step that is gained. And the grace of God, when you take even a baby step in your Christian life, the grace of God is right there to say, That's good. That's right. You're going the right way. Keep on going. Don't quit now. Keep on going. But oh, the spirit of law, when you take a step, one step in the right direction, the spirit of law is right there to say, That's not good enough. You could have done better than that. Why didn't you do it this way? What about your motives? And on and on they go. The spirit of law and the spirit of grace, very different one from another. Number five. The spirit of law curses and the spirit of grace blesses. Curses. You have failed. Judgment is coming. There is a payment due. For that which you did wrong, you failed. But the spirit of grace blesses and shows a way to victory. Even in failure, the spirit of grace shows the way to victory. Even in total failure, the spirit of grace comes along and says, There's a way out. Get up. God will help you. Keep on going. But the spirit of law comes alongside of one who fell and curses and brings judgment and tries to make the load heavier on top of them. Big difference between the two. The spirit of law is critical, and the spirit of grace gives the benefit of the doubt. Critical. Always finding something wrong. It's a little bit like never good enough, but I think it's worthy of a point in itself. The spirit of law is critical. It finds something wrong. It's always finding something wrong. But the spirit of grace gives the benefit of the doubt. Benefit of the doubt. I thought of these verses over in 1 Corinthians 13, where it's giving a definition of love, and it says of love, among other things, it says, Love hopeth all things and believeth all things. Love gives the benefit of the doubt. Love believes in the other. Love hopes the best in the other. Love gives the benefit of the doubt. The spirit of grace gives the benefit of the doubt, rather than looking for something wrong, and trying to find something to put a finger on, and being critical as somebody else. It just comes alongside and gives the benefit of the doubt. And the first response, if the grace of God is stirring in the heart of an individual, the first response will be, well, there must be some other explanation. Surely, there must have been a reason for that. It gives the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn't you like to have the benefit of the doubt? So would your brother. So would your sister. So would your children. So would your wife and your husband. Wouldn't you like to have the benefit of the doubt? But the spirit of law is critical. Always finding something wrong. Number seven. The spirit of law remembers sin. Again and again and again. Just like in the Old Testament, under the law, they'd come, they'd offer the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, but a year later, they had to come back again, and offer it again, and a year later, they came back and offered it again. The spirit of law remembers sin, but the spirit of grace forgets it. What? What was that? I don't even remember. What was it you did? I don't even remember. I don't even remember it. The spirit of grace forgets. The spirit of law remembers it, reminds you, reminds you again, reminds you again, and again. But oh, the grace of God just forgets it. Buried in the deepest sea, separated as far as the east is from the west. So are my sins separated from me. Number eight. The spirit of law exposes sin, and then leaves you there. That's all law can ever do, is expose sin, and then leave you there. That's all the law could ever do. But oh, the spirit of grace comes alongside and forgives and covers where we're willing to deal with it. That's what the grace of God will do. It'll come alongside and encourage you to repent, to be forgiven, and to cover it so that it's gone, so that nobody else finds out about it. Number nine. The spirit of law is rejection, and the spirit of grace is acceptance. Law drives away. It'll drive you away from God. It'll drive you away from people. It'll make people want to run away from you. They won't want to be around you. Spirit of law is rejection. But the spirit of grace is acceptance. It says, come. Come. Come to God. Come the way you are. Come and be forgiven. Come and be cleansed. Oh, listen. Probably the greatest motivation of the growth in our Christian life comes from the acceptance that we have of the Heavenly Father. Is it not so? I don't know of anything that motivates me more to go on in my Christian life than to know that God accepts me right where I am. And I don't mean that God accepts sin. But God accepts me right where I am. If I'm clear in my heart, God accepts me. And sure, maybe six months from now, He'll begin to show me something else that I need to deal with, and I'll see it. But all that six months, God was loving me. He was accepting me. He was blessing me. He was encouraging me. And that very acceptance caused me to have my heart open so that God could minister to me about another need in my life. The Spirit of Grace accepts, but the Spirit of Law rejects. It makes you want to run away from God. But the Spirit of Grace makes you want to run to God. Number ten. The Spirit of the Law tends toward exclusivism. And the Spirit of Grace is free to all. Hallelujah! Free to all! Red, brown, yellow, black and white. They're all precious in His sight, but not so with law. The principles of law and those who live after the principles of law, they tend toward being a sect, or they tend toward being an individualist. This is how I see it. This is the way it's going to be. I don't care if I have to be by myself. This is the way we're going to do it. That's not that way with the Spirit of Grace. Rather, it says, others, Lord, yes, others. Let this my motto be. Quite a difference between the two of those, isn't it? The Spirit of Law has no mercy. No mercy. When you have failed under the Spirit of Law, there's no mercy. But under the Spirit of Grace, there's complete mercy. Release, forgiveness, encouragement, acceptance, total mercy through the blood of Jesus Christ. But total mercy compared to no mercy, no forgiveness. The Spirit of the Law and the Spirit of Grace, they're very different. Number twelve. Under the Spirit of Law, the highest goal is performance. Under the Spirit of Grace, the highest goal is a relationship. The one, performance. The other, relationship. Boy, there's a big difference between the two of those. If we are living our lives to perform and we are basing our acceptance on performance, or if we base others' acceptance on performance, or how we accept others on performance, then if they don't measure up, we don't accept. And if we don't measure, we don't feel God's acceptance. Because the highest goal is how you perform. But not so with the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of Grace, the highest goal is relationship. Oh Lord, help us to see that one. As I pondered this message, and there are dozens and dozens of ways that we could go, but I had to think of many of the plain churches and how that they are so much on the performance side that if you come in among them and you don't look quite right, or you say kid instead of children, or a few things like that, there's this silent, mysterious wall that comes up there. And it comes up there because of the theology of performance. And you didn't perform right, so things don't go right. But oh the grace of God, let the grace of God come over our hearts as individuals and as a church that the highest goal is relationship. Relationship with the God of Heaven. And relationship with God's people. And relationships with the lost and dying world out there. And there's a big difference between the spirit of law and the spirit of grace if you come and visit a church like that. The one you'll go away wondering what happened. The one you'll go away not feeling accepted. But the other you'll go away saying, they loved me. They accepted me just the way I am. I want to go back again. There's something magnetic about those people. And I tell you what it is. It's magnetic because it's like God. That's exactly the way God is with every one of us. I mean God. He wants a relationship with us. That's number one. And He'll walk with us. I mean He'll walk with us when we have long hair. And He'll walk with us before we got rid of our cigarettes, brethren. And He'll walk with us when we're failing in this area. And He'll walk with us when maybe we're not as meek and quiet as we ought to be. And He'll walk with us when we're not as modest as we ought to be because number one on God's list is a relationship. And we've got to be the same way because it's godliness to be like God. Amen? So it's godly to accept somebody right where they are. It's godly to come up and put your arm around some fella who has long hair, who's been born again for only two weeks. It's godly to come up and put your arm around him and encourage him and bless him and accept him and love him. It's God-like to do that. In the law, the highest goal is performance. And we all come up with our own levels of performance. But you better measure up to my level of performance. And I had to think, you know, with our children, this one comes pretty close to home. You begin to ponder our children. And I think we need to have some performance in our minds. I'm not against that. But let number one be relationship. Relationship. I don't know anything that motivates a child to do what Papa and Mama say more than a sweet relationship with Papa and Mama. Nothing but, oh, the burden of a little child whose father and mother moves under the principles of law and sets up the rules of performance and withdraws their acceptance and their blessing and their encouragement when the performance isn't what it ought to be. Poor child. Poor child. That child's view of God will be very mixed up. Number 13. The spirit of the law tends to details. The spirit of grace to flexibility. What do I mean by that? Well, I guess a good way to put it is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. You know, the letter of the law, we can follow the Pharisees and we can study Jewish history and it doesn't take us long to find out what the spirit of law does. If you leave it by itself, it will make up 5,000 Sabbath rules over the course of 200 or 300 years of things you should do and shouldn't do. It will make a book this thick just to read so you can learn how to behave on the Sabbath. But the spirit of grace or the spirit of the law is the principle. And in the principle is flexibility. There's a big difference between the two of those. Tends to details. You'll do it this way. Down to the detail. You'll wear these. You'll part your hair here. You'll wear your hair this way. You'll wear this kind of covering. You'll wear black shoes and only black shoes. The principle of law tends to details. But the spirit of grace or the principles of grace, it tends toward a flexibility. Number 14, the spirit of law tends to be negative and the spirit of grace positive. I didn't have time to do it, but if you're one who struggles with being negative, I would encourage you to take a study of the Gospels and study the Pharisees. Just do a study on the Pharisees in light of this whole matter of negative, doubtful, unbelief. And you'll find an answer to your need because principle of law tends toward the negative. That's just the way it is. Because you never can measure up and there's no faith where there's law. They can't dwell together. But where there's a spirit of grace, there's this positive, faith-filled, encouraged, uplifted look toward the God of heaven, trust in the circumstances of life, faith in God that completely comes out in a different way. The spirit of law and the spirit of grace. And last of all, and we said this already, but I think it's worthy to make it a point. The spirit of law is like a Pharisee. And the spirit of grace is like Jesus. Consider this. The law creates rebellion. The law stirs up the flesh. The law drains spiritual life. You know how many times I've talked to a brother or a sister who's been born again. I mean, one of those fresh new births. They're about a month old in the faith and they go back to their old church and sit in the service and listen to the message. And when they get out, they feel like they need to go to church because all the life has been drained out of them. That's what law does. That's what it does. Consider with me. Law creates rebellion. Law stirs up the flesh. Read it there in Romans 7. It's supposed to. That's what God gave it for. So that it creates rebellion. So that it would stir up the flesh. So that sin would be revived. So that we could see our evil condition. But brothers and sisters, if we're in the grace of God, if we're washed in the blood of Jesus, if we are no longer walking after the flesh, but after the Spirit, we should have no part with any of that which the law does, but rather the Spirit of grace working in our hearts to produce a holy life. And I know we'd all have to agree that the end result of grace is always higher than the end result of law. Always, always, always. It will always be higher. It will always reach higher than law. It will always do it. Well, these issues came up over and over during the revival. In some cases, we had to conclude and give very clear counsel. You are living under the principles of law rather than the principles of grace. Are you living after the principles of law rather than the principles of grace? The principles of grace. There's liberty. There's power. There's strength. There's overcoming ability there. But after the principles of law, it's just not there. You don't have it. It won't be there. It can't be there. It's contrary to God's law for it to be there. Are you living after principles of law or principles of grace? Think with me for a moment here. And we're just about done. But think with me. What kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to be one who encourages? One who gently reproves? One in whose life flows out liberty and grace and power? One who's always excited when somebody else takes a little step forward? One who blesses those around you? One who gives the benefit of the doubt? One who is willing to forget sin? One who encourages people to be forgiven and repent and have their sins completely covered? One who accepts and blesses? One who's free and open and reaches out to all? One who has complete mercy toward others around him? One who's flexible? One whose highest goal is relationship? One who's positive and filled with faith? One who is like Jesus? Or would you rather be one who's always demanding, condemning, heaping failure on others, bringing bondage upon them? One who is never satisfied? One who's never good enough? One who brings curses and judgment and payment due? One who's critical? One who remembers sin again and again and again? One who exposes sin, but then just leaves them set? One who has rejection coming forth out of your life? One who tends toward exclusivism rather than an openness to those around them? One who has no mercy? One whose highest goal is performance? One who tends to the details and they're very important to you? I mean the details, and if the details aren't right, I get frustrated inside. I'm not free. I come to church, lose my joy, lose my blessing because the details are really important to me more than relationships. One who's negative? One who's like a Pharisee? You see, the difference between the two of these is very big and they've got to affect our relationships. And I realize, as I meditated upon this message, that probably nobody here is going to fit into one category or the other. But let us be open before the Lord and allow the Spirit of God to reveal to us how are we operating? How are we operating with our children? How do we operate with our brothers and sisters? What kind of an eye do we have when we look around us? How do we relate to a lost and dying world? You know, there are those who look around them and say, they don't want it. They're gospel hardened. It's too high for them. Nobody wants to pay the price anymore. And I tell you, that is the spirit of law. That's what it is. They have theologized the thing away so bad that they haven't done anything for decades. Which one do we want to be? What is the answer to this problem? Well, there is an answer. If you sit here this morning and you say, Oh, that's me. That's exactly how I find myself. Those are the very struggles that I have in my heart. Oh, there's an answer. Hallelujah. There's an answer. Number one, acknowledge where you're at. First step to victory every time. Just acknowledge. That's where I'm at. Number two, repent. Turn away from it. See it for what it is. And turn away from it. Number three, establish your heart in grace. That's the answer. Yes. Same old answer. Walk in the grace of God. Be filled with the Spirit. Move in the Spirit of God. Walk after the dictates of the Spirit of God rather than the dictates of your flesh. Put off religion and put on Christ. Put off the doing and put on the being. And you'll find yourself beginning to think differently, respond differently, talk differently, share differently. And you'll be a little grace of God going around the midst of the congregation. You'll be a little grace of God in your home, guiding your children, encouraging them, blessing them, guiding them forward and onward. You'll be a little grace of God moving around the congregation, walking out in the world around you. And rather than seeing someone and wanting to heap judgment and condemnation on them, you'll be one who comes alongside and says, you know, there's a way out of this. There's a way out. There's an answer for your problem. I know what it is. Listen to me. Big difference between the two of those. When I think of this whole matter of being established with principles of law rather than principles of grace, I have to think about children. I cannot get away from it. It haunts me in the back of my mind. And I guess the reason is I get a lot of letters from around the country from people who've listened to the home tapes, but they've approached it from a law point of view rather than a grace point of view. And they see, well, the answer to this whole thing is to make a bunch of rules for my children. And the answer to this whole matter of my children is to spank the child every time the child is wrong. And they see that the answer to this whole thing is for me to get stricter on my children. And somehow, as they listen to all those tapes, they miss the grace that was in there. And they only came up with the law of the matter. And then they try it and it doesn't work. And then they write me letters and they're totally frustrated. And they say things like, I don't know what to do. I spank my child and spank my child and I spank my child. And they're only getting worse. And I've spent many hours pondering those letters, trying to figure out what is going wrong. And I believe that I found the answer. They're approaching the whole matter of raising their children from the principle of law rather than the principle of grace. And remember, the highest principle of law is performance. And the highest of grace is relationship. And they've not built a relationship with those children. They've only laid some rules along them and told them, now, Brother Denny says this in his tape and if you don't, you're going to get a spanking. But that's not grace. That's not grace. Grace builds a relationship. Grace moves in love. Grace moves with encouragement and blessing and praise. And yes, sometimes grace comes in and corrects and disciplines, but then it moves right back into the area of relationship and blessing and encouragement. May God enlighten our hearts both with our children and the relationships that we have with one another in the world around us as to how we're relating to people. And may I say again in closing, remember, if it's off, it will affect the way you view God, it will affect the way you view yourself, and it will affect the way you view people around you. May God add His blessing to the Word. Shall we kneel together in prayer? O Father in Heaven, we come Thee in Jesus' name this afternoon. Lord, my heart, my mind goes to the Scriptures there in Zechariah. Lord, where the prophet saw one standing shouting, grace, grace. Lord, we know that it's so when we get to glory and we stand in Your very presence and we look upon Your face and we see the beautiful place that You've made for us, we're going to shout grace, grace, grace. Father, I pray this morning, letting each and every one of our hearts be established in grace. Father, I pray that You'll enlighten our hearts to grace. I pray, Father, that You'll reveal any area where we are living by a regulated code of rules rather than by the grace of God. O Father, we just lay this message before You. Lord, I realize it should have had three hours for all the groundwork that needed to be laid for it, but I just lay it before You and I pray, Father, that You'll take the Word and minister the hearts of those. God, just give direction to us. Father, I pray for our children this morning. I pray blessings upon them. Father, I pray, God, that You'll minister to their needs also through this message. Father, O God, teach us to be like Jesus. That's our prayer. Teach us to be like Jesus. Lord, we don't want to be anything else. Lord, and many times we just don't see. Open our eyes, Father, and let us behold His image and be changed into the same image from one place of glory to a higher level of glory. O God, we ask Your blessing on the further service. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we want to go on with the service and just open the meeting up at this time for testimonies of victories this week, for blessings, a word of praise. Maybe some of you brethren would like to give a word about the message. We just want to open it up at this time and we're going to do as we have been and just ask brethren who'd like to share a little bit to come over here. Sisters, if you have something you need to share, make a confession, share a blessing, you can rise to your feet and come to this side over here. We just want to open it up for a few minutes here for anyone who would like to share before we move on. Is there anyone? Thank you. Okay. I've just been sitting over there. I don't know what to say, but since I've come this morning, just praising God for working in my life. I thank God for those revival meetings that just began to stir my heart to order my conduct aright. And I can't tell you what Brother Danny said, just the whole thing. I'm just so encouraged about the way that the Lord has been working in our home. I'm sure in two weeks' short time nobody really notices all the difference, but I sense the difference in my heart. The difference between the spirit of the law and the spirit of grace. And I just thank God. My heart is just rejoicing at the way that God is working and what Danny said about... It just keeps reminding me to order my conduct aright and I shall see the salvation of God. And it's just incredible what that little verse... God putting that in my heart just has been changing my attitudes, my anger, all those negative things that he listed down under the law. And it's been filling my heart with the spirit of grace toward my children, toward my family. And I'm just praising God. I must confess that I've had too much of the spirit of the law in my life and not been exclusive and so forth and not willing to spend more time with my brothers and playing games and things like that. I want to repent of it. I thank God for the message today. I appreciated it so much. It just kind of confirmed what God has been trying to teach me and the relationship between God and I. It's just so sweet when we live in grace. I know as I look back on my Christian life, the times that I lived in the law, the times that I lived in grace, the times I lived in grace is just so much sweeter. And I just thank God for it. And I thank him for the way that he has led and for the blessing that this congregation has been to us. I know since we've been here, the acceptance that we've felt here has been such a blessing and a growth in our life. It's helped us so much to just grow. And I just thank God for the privilege that we have of being in a brotherhood like this and I say I'm open to anything that anyone would have to share to me. And if I come in offense to anyone, that you would feel free to come and share it with me. I just want to be free with each one. And also I want to learn to, continue to learn to have the spirit of grace rather than the spirit of the law, especially with my younger sisters also. I know the way I respond to them will affect the way that I will respond to my children in future years. And I just want to learn all that God has for me. Praise the Lord. What a blessing to be here today. It's just what I needed. It's so clear to me this morning that how I've been living under the law. I know there's times that I have victory. I know what a blessing and a peace it is. But then I go back to the law again. I just want to acknowledge that this morning. I want to be completely free from it. I want to repent of it. Of being under the law and the struggles that it has been for my wife because of the performance that I want to see out of her. That she's not up to where I think I would like her to be. I just want to repent of that this morning. I just ask for your prayers that I would live under the law of the Spirit not under the law. I thank the Lord for the message this morning. I did much thinking during the message. About six, eight months ago someone had asked my son as you were growing up how did you view God as a loving Heavenly Father or a vengeful God? He said a vengeful God. That's what the Spirit of the law will do to your children. I realized also this morning that even though God has done a big work in my heart and continues to do a work on living in grace I realize there's still some areas in my life where I still live under the law. And I do want you to pray for me that I would be totally free of this. This marvelous grace of our loving Lord. I just praise God for His marvelous grace to me. Many of you remember how I had fallen there for a few years. And it's just what Brother Denny was... I've experienced what Brother Denny was talking about this morning a relationship with Jesus Christ. And many times since that time when I've fallen, I've fallen and I've stumbled. But again, I would just turn to Jesus Christ. He was always there. He ministered to me grace. The truth of His Word. He was never there to condemn me. And I can say that's what's brought me through. Just His marvelous grace. Each time He's reached out, He's touched me again. Afresh and anew after I'd fallen and stumbled. And I still stumble at times. But praise the Lord I can trust His faithfulness. I can trust that He'll be there each time I stumble. Each time I fall, His grace will be there again to pick me up. I just want to thank the Lord for the work that He's doing in my life. I just can't explain what the last week has been. It's just never been that way in my life before. It's just like a new world is opening up to me and I see. God has just stripped me from all my own ways of thinking and the way that I thought about God. I know I was living under the law so much. And I want to confess too that I've had a lot of negativism in my life and critical attitudes and just an inward pride so much to the extent that I couldn't even feel the Spirit of God working in my life. I had unbelief. But this week the Lord just showed me His grace. I don't have to worry about anything. I can just be free and live under His love. And I know that I just feel like I took a little baby step but I know that God is with me and that He'll see me through if I keep my eyes on Him and just keep that sweet relationship with Him and not let condemnation. That was another thing that I really struggled with was I could never really understand why I couldn't... I couldn't understand why I would tell people that I didn't feel convicted. I wouldn't feel convicted. And it was because I was condemning myself. And I would try and look back in my life and pick sins up instead of just trusting the Lord and letting Him do the work. So I just thank you all for your prayers. I praise God for the message this morning. We have a balanced God, don't we? This thing of law and grace. I had to think about how God put it there. He said, grace and truth. It isn't all grace. We need some truth with it to see where we go wrong, to see wrong in others, see wrong in ourselves. But He has it balanced with grace. Just another addition to the message, another picture I'd like to bring up in your minds of the two different realms that we were looking at this morning. I had to think of the... Just going back in time a little bit further than Moses, let's go back to the Garden of Eden and notice the two different trees that were there. What were they? One was a tree of life. The other was the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't it a picture of the same thing we were looking at this morning? What are we going to be feeding on? That knowledge of good and evil? You know, the picking out of wrongs and rights? Are we going to be feeding on that tree of life? Especially, I praise the Lord for this message. It just met the deepest needs of my heart. I know the Lord has really been working in my life and I just praise Him. He's really showing me the difference between law and grace. But I felt I needed to come up here and confess, especially the needs in my home, and how I've been trying to perform and using the law instead of grace. I just want to repent, especially my children and my husband. I just want a good relationship instead of performing. I want to give God again the glory for this message. I know it was Him I had control of this message today. The message this morning was just such a picture of what God has been trying to teach me in the last number of years. We have such a human tendency to live under the law because it's something physical we can see. And God has been delivering me from that. But this morning the message spoke to my heart that it's not just that way in my life, but I'm that way in my home. We're going to have a home that's in order, and this is how it's going to be, rather than that spirit of grace and that nine doses of encouragement that He was talking about. And it just explains everything so well, especially when I think of a sermon Brother Denny preached on Paul's burden for his people. It just really turned up the burden this morning. When I think about all the people that they want what's right, but yet how to get it, they're on the wrong track to get there. And yesterday we were to a wedding in Delaware, and there's a cousin of mine that married and lives in Delaware, and they were down to the wedding too. Now he's a, I don't know how to term it, but I say he's an invisible Mennonite. And Mennonites, we have visible and invisible. And Christians, we just have visible Christians. There's some that call themselves, but they aren't really. He's what you'd call an invisible. He can't really tell any difference from anybody else. And he was talking about this. He loves to study. And he was in the Rosedale Bible Institute, and he did a study on the German Mennonites and the Swiss Brethren. And he said the German Mennonites tend to be, this is the way it is. We're going to live, we're going to order our lives just like this. And they set everything down in order, exactly how we're going to do it. And he said the Swiss Brethren were a little different in that. They were just kind of kooks. And I was thinking about that this morning. And it's not a difference from where you come from, whether you're Swiss or whether you're German or whatever you were. It's a difference whether you're going to choose to live under grace or whether you're choosing to live under the law. And I want to live under grace because there's power there. Well, I just thank God for the message this morning. I know it did speak to my heart because I know in the past I have had that critical attitude and that spirit of judgment on others. And back in the revival, I confessed and asked the Lord to take it away. And I can sense that He is doing that, that I'm able to look upon people with more love and compassion. Yesterday I had just such a beautiful experience of that. The last two days I was working with some of these temporary fellows. It wasn't people that we hired, but I was working with somebody else. And the person that we got, we're working for, hired some of these people. And this one man was such a, he had long hair down past his shoulders. And he looked, you know, you could tell that we came from completely two different worlds. But it was just such a blessing to look upon him out of a spirit of love and compassion and realize that God loves this man and I need to too. There's no point in judging him. And to just be friendly with him and share with him. It was just such a blessing. And then yesterday it seemed like the Lord was just teaching me all day long to simply lay down my plans, what I had planned, and just leave it up to the Lord. Because the day went totally different than what I had planned. I had planned on working only half a day and about 12 o'clock comes along and everything was just going all backwards for me. But anyway, it worked out that I was supposed to be picking up stones with this one fellow. Totally unexpected. I had my whole afternoon planned. But on the way there I just said, Well, Lord, I don't know what you're trying to do. I said, I'll just lay my day before you. Just help me be a blessing or whatever. And I got over there. Here it turned out that I was working with George is his name. We had worked the day before. And we were working there in silence for a while. And I was just praying and asking the Lord, Lord, just give me a heart of love for him. Let me minister to him some way. He had shared the day before how he was going in the middle of a divorce. But he hadn't shared anymore. And so finally I just was able to ask him about his personal walk with the Lord and if he has one. And then he just broke down and started sharing with me the hurts that his marriage had been through and everything. It was just such a sweet blessing just to be able to tell him that there is hope. There's hope for him. And there's hope for his wife even though it looked like a totally hopeless situation. There is hope if he's willing to get back to the Bible. And he was just so open and just so hungry. And I just walked away from there and I just said, thank God, you know. There was a reason that he changed my day just for him. And I just want to continue. I just ask all of your prayers that I continue to look through people with the spirit of grace in my heart. Not that I leave up with the truth that God has showed me, but rather that out of grace I minister to people. And I just sense a real need in my own heart for that. That I'd be free from that judgmental spirit and rather look at him as a spirit of love and compassion like Christ did. And I just ask all of your prayers and ask your forgiveness for those in the past where I know I had that kind of a spirit towards and I just want that to be healed and mended. I thank and praise the Lord for the message that was clearly for me. It just verifies that a lot of other people have been sharing with me. And I don't want to be a Pharisee. I want to be like Jesus. I can see so clearly that I've been largely living under the law and comparing myself a lot with others and finding myself with their experiences and their lives. And just looking at Jesus and finding my acceptance in him. And because of that I've even drawn back from greeting others because my experience wasn't just like others. And I find what I share with me felt like even if... the point that I never feel like I've done enough or even if I had an experience like a real... I question even that. I just don't want myself to be under too much doubt and condemnation. And let the Holy Spirit show me the truth of sin in my life and convict me. And I just choose to repent of all that and where I've expressed that spirit among you all and toward you all. And I know I've been aware lately of my conversation with myself because I tend to examine and question things too much to be critical of things in the church. And I just ask you all to forgive me and pray for me. I choose to repent of it and renounce all that and just be established in the grace of Christ and be free in him. Thank you. I can say I appreciate the message very much on what Dan just preached. I just have a few verses to share here. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said thou shalt not covet. He's just saying that the law is still used to bring people to recognize their sin. But we should not live under the law if we're free in the spirit, praise God. And Galatians 5 verse 1 says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's for the Christian. We should not be entangled again with that yoke of bondage of trying to perform. But we're free. We're free. God has accepted us into his kingdom right the way we are. And we're free. Let's not try to perform to try to gain his respect again. Praise God for the message. The whole time Brother Denny was talking I just thought, well, this is me, this is me, this is me. It's a real problem in my life. It may be the problem, although maybe it's just the one God's dealing with right now. I had such a sense at my conversion of being delivered from law. A lot of law, a lot of religious law. But it seems there's still a root in my heart that I haven't really been delivered from. It's the law of my own actions, my own doings mainly. I'm sure it comes out to other people, especially my family, that I am critical and condemning and harsh with them. But I just go in circles so much about my own failures. It's like when Brother Denny says about exposing sin and leaving you there, that's just how I feel so often. I just see myself as a great sinner, but I don't know what to do about it. I don't know where to go. I don't know how to get the victory over what I'm struggling in. I can see that it's a lot just because I haven't accepted grace. I want to confess this and just ask you to pray that I will come into this freedom of grace and that God will complete the work that He has begun in me. I do know there are times when grace has prevailed in my life and they've been very sweet to me. I'm not sure what happens when I fall back into the law, but I know it's not just in what I do. I can't deliver myself from the law. I just want to look unto Jesus. I just noticed this verse on the board that says, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches. I just want to trust Jesus to do that for me in this. Well, I want to thank God for both messages today and especially the Lord convicted me through Denny's message on the spirit of the law and spirit of grace, especially in raising our children. I think when I got the vision of a godly home, in my zeal for that, I got into that trap of the spirit of the law. I've been aware of not wanting to get into that. Somehow I get into that trap again and I just want to be free from that. And I realize that one thing I was thinking about, if we can lose our children just as easy, maybe not just as easy, I don't know if it's just as easy, but we can lose our children by having the spirit of the law.