UK drivers travel on the left side of the road. The driver's seat is the left hand in the car. There are roundabouts to go around in a clockwise direction. Most cars are a shift stick. The handbrake is between the driver's seat and the passenger not a pedal. All indicator signals are amber and brake lights red. Every car has a fog light in red. The UK has motorways of two to five lanes not freeways. The fast lane is to your right. Overtaking on the left is illegal. Markings on the road are always in white. Road signs come in three shapes: circles command, triangles warn and rectangles inform. Speed limits are not as complex as the US. The Highway Code contains the British traffic laws. Apart from that law you do not know if you are speeding or violating anything.

Translation: 'What shall we say, then? Is the Highway Code sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the Highway Code. For I would not have known what speeding really was if the law had not said, 'anything over 70 mph on a motorway is wrong.' Quoting the Ten Commandments is supposed to be a deterrent to breaking them. But quite the opposite happens, sin results because you break them.

1. 'Keep off the grass' makes children want to walk on it.

2. 'Don't touch wet paint' makes the curious touch it.

3. 'Be silent when in the library' makes every child giggle.

4. 'Quite in class' makes any child tap his pencil on the desk.

5. 'Private' on a door makes you want to know what is behind it.

If there were no law you would probably not be tempted. Do and not do is not God's way to stimulate you into good works but grace is.

People will always live up to how they see themselves. God sees you as righteous, holy and pure like a virgin bride. Grace produces this. Have you seen a dog cower at his master? The law of the master probably produced in that dog this kind of posture by a good beating and intimidation. The dog has no joy. The purpose of the dog in the day he was created was to hunt but the master's law has crushed this. Think about another dog that loves his master not from his intimidating law but love in his heart. His master taught him this love not through his laws but showing him what he was created for. The dog now lives in vital union with his master. The dogs leash is not his master's law but his master's love. Obedience is now a joy because he wants to please his master. He still needs correction but the master does not crush him through discipline.

Unless there is law there is no clear violation and sin does not register. Without the Highway Code I do not know if I am doing something wrong.

But Lot was selfish, rebellious, lived at the gates of Sodom and committed incest with his own daughters but Paul calls him righteous.

The law kills. Not can kill but will kill.

The ministry of the law given by Moses is death.

Using the law to motivate believers to live right is counterproductive.

Pouring the law into a believer fuels his life to sin. Antinomianism says we can do what we want because we are not under God's law and he will respond like a passive grandfather who lets us get away with it. But this is not true.

The believer is not a law leash but a love leash that is compelled not controlled to obey God.

He is referring to the law of love written on the heart. If I do not have the Highway Code I do not know that I am breaking a law therefore sin cannot be acknowledge. But this is where the similarity ends. The law says you are what you sow. You are speeding or you are law abiding. A sinner is born a sinner and cannot be a Christian by keeping the law. So people have a performance based Christianity where the more they obey the more God loves them. To claim a perfect performance as a believer is a complete lie.

But this is like trying to get a good suntan so I can pass myself off as Italian. I am a white English-man and this is how I was born. I cannot change how I was born unless I am born again.

The heart is the deepest dynamic of your life. The prophet Jeremiah puts it in no uncertain terms about the heart.

The physical and psychological desires we have like food, drink, rest, self-esteem and sexual satisfaction are all part of God's blueprint for you before Adam sinned. Christ had all these needs.

These are good desires that are met according to God's will. Sin will drive you to seek the satisfaction of these desires. It will feel good to satisfy them this way but the believer finds it totally unrewarding and empty. Your needs are met but you feel the most miserable person. You did not have bypass surgery but a complete new heart.

From the jungles of the rain forests to Wall Street people will do bizarre things to seek the favor of God. Between the Old and New Testaments there is 400 years silence. There was no prophetic voice. When you consider how long the Constitution of the United States and the Supreme Court have been in existence it did not take long before the original intent was so corrupted. Think what 400 years does to a nation left in the hands of 'the will of the people.' 6000 Pharisees were formed controlling the religion of the state making sure they were never exiled again. Their job was to interpret the law. The Ten Commandments went to 613 commandments. 248 were positive and 365 negative. Of the 613 commandments there were multiple suplemants. The classic was the Sabbath commandment becoming 39 commandments in itself. Without grace the church is left in the hands of elected men on a board or committee who will systematically kill off the life of Christ.

Thank God that Mary was pro-life. There were no more prophets speaking so God sent his own son to speak. Christ put a face on God.

The ministry of Christ was under the law not under grace. Grace only came on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. Grace is revealed in its entirety through the letters of Paul not in the Gospels (See illustration). The law is a minister of death and condemnation designed to convict of sin and show you that you are not holy. It poured salt on the wound but gave you a hunger for a Savior. The Sermon on the Mount intensified the law. Not only were you guilty of murder if you killed someone but if you thought it, you were just as guilty. The same for adultery. To add insult to injury he said the eye must be plucked out and the hand cut off. He was saying that the Highway Code was not to be broken but if you even think about speeding you are just as guilty. To conclude his sermon Christ poured salt on the wound.

It left them with the single thought that they needed something more than the law but a Savior. In their minds God was performance based and Christ had just delivered their death sentence. They were wrong on the first account but correct on the second. Christ had told them it was impossible. This offended those who were law based so they crucified Christ, got rid of the body before the Sabbath, repaired the veil that led into the Holy of Holies and got everything in shipshape before church on Sunday.

Reading the Gospels will produce hopelessness in you listening to what Christ was saying under the law. It was a ministry of death and condemnation. But it led the people to hunger for a Savior. The need to change has to be realized before the desire to change. Why would anyone want to change something that is not broke? Christ came to shake everything that can be shaken.

Christ answered by challenging on five of the Ten Commandments. He sincerely responded with straight A's on every one. He then asked the question 'what else must I do?' Christ was setting him up to realize he needed a Savior. Christ asked him to give all his money to the poor. He approached Christ with confidence knowing that he had kept the law. But he walked away knowing he needed a Savior. Why don't we insist that the wealthy give away their wealth to have eternal life? Because we are under grace and we know that giving financially does not give you eternal life. But Christ did not minister under grace but the law.

Since Adam sinned men had no law to convict them of sin. Through Moses the law was given that convicted me of sin. Christ ministered under that law taking it even further to the issues of our hearts. The law left us condemned and needing a Savior who could give us a new heart. Now you are not under the law but grace. Not on a law leash but a love leash where it is your desire to obey God and his good pleasure to receive it.

Listen to this teaching as given on Sunday evening Feb. 19th.

We all play silly games to enhance our worth and significance. Even when we win such games Paul states you will still lose in the final analysis. Many chase their tail looking for a solution to acceptance. Two thirds of the earth's population believes it is a great shame to embarrass your family. It forces acceptance through loyalty. But self-acceptance can go away faster than saying; 'cancer, divorce, stock market or car wreck.' Every culture plays the poker game of acceptance and the stakes are getting higher. Christ has already liberated you from that game.

1. Farming community a farmer must wear the right cap with the right seed company on it to let other farmers know he trades with the best.

2. Financial community there is a hierarchy of vehicle with all the bells and whistles that sets you apart from the rest. Everyone wants what you have.

3. Educational community the competition for certain state and national awards somehow makes that teacher or administrator more accepted.

4. Who is the force behind child movie stars? The parent pushes their child in the television series Show Biz Moms and Dads. Contests become reasons for acceptance. Mom and dad have an acceptance problem.

Implicit within that command is the premise that you are created with a God-given self-worth. The question is, who or what is the source for that acceptance?

If the result of who you are comes from your own work you already have your reward. Where your work will be evaluated is key to its origin.

Psychology is only a recent practice and has made helpful discoveries. It is the study of human behavior. But its practitioners help people to develop a trust in themselves. Self-confidence, self-esteem, self-reliance and so on. The basis for each of these is self.

Christ is not living in you to help you as though your contribution is somehow needed in the equation. You do not shoulder the load but Christ does. Never add the phrase 'along with God's help.' There are certain conditions that are not something you need help with. They are sinful ways. The power of sin in your flesh must not master you. Christ in you is the power of God for your salvation.

Attaching scripture to human models does not allow the Holy Spirit to counsel you. It is not the Holy Spirit's help we need but the Holy Spirit. True counsel is discipleship. It leads the person being counseled to abandon all trust in their own flesh and depend on Christ in them. Self-help will make you feel better but you have been working against the Holy Spirit in the process.

The willing counselor has a good motive but the wrong method. God's goal is not always to make you feel good but to conform you.

Christ demonstrated love, patience, mercy, goodness, boldness, compassion, generosity, understanding, silence, wisdom, integrity and sacrifice. Where did Christ get the power to be these things? The Holy Spirit. You cannot say it was because he was God's Son because he laid aside that majesty.

Christ got all his power for living from God.

How mature you are as a believer can be determined by how much you rely on Christ in you or your own flesh. God is always working to bring you to the end of yourself.

The need for acceptance comes from God. God is love and he created the need to be loved and accepted in us. Your life began with no knowledge of God so you sought to be loved by people. But people do not give love freely but the old fashioned way of merit. The desire is from God but the method for satisfying that desire is not from God.

It is not a do-it-yourself job. If you want acceptance you must first belong. Look at sports fans that will wear the team's colors in the hot sun in a crowd. There is no need to keep warm because it is hot. But the need to belong drives them. The critical issue is other people. If a single sports fan were on a desert island they would not wear the teams colors. He would use the colors as a pillow.

The power of sorority. If you have a badge, emblem or pin you would wear it with pride on any item of clothing. It makes you accepted in that group. But again, the issue is other people. On a desert island the power of sorority means nothing.

The acceptance from a group of people. King Saul was a plain man before he was king. But as soon as he got the taste of pleasing the crowd he changed.

He was maintaining an acceptance in people rather than in God.

He was begging for one more curtain call. Most of the Old Testament kings referred to God as being the prophets God not their God. People are good at a creative alternative to what God intended.

500 gold shields surrounding Solomon. Rehoboam was his son who turned back to Baal.

He created an alternative.

Bronze was in and gold was out. He made it politically correct. But he was raised as the richest kid in the world.

We need to feel we belong and have value. God put that in us. But he never intended for us to be independent of him in meeting that need. Live in an area known for its high class, have all the bells and whistles but when your spouse leaves you for a younger model all you have means nothing. Have you met people called 'captain or major' but their war was over decades ago. Why hide behind that title? Once more, the game can only be played in front of others. Where there are no others it does not matter.

Your performance is the currency people use to buy love and acceptance. People will even kill for it and die for it.

These two Jewish generals were bored so they had two teams of 12 fight each other until they were all dead. These young men loved life and were trained in the military but were afraid of not being accepted. Like Japanese kamikazes. Young men preferred death than face rejection. People will do the more crazy things to not lose face with their spouse, kids, boss, employees, congregation, pastors and so on. They kamikaze themselves. The acts of stupidity increase just to save face. The journals of young men who fought at Gettysburg all show they thought it was madness but wanted to be included and feared the rejection more than death.

The need to be accepted is a powerful force in you. God put it there. How do you satisfy that need? If all your resource were taken away would you still be satisfied with Christ?

This teaching is part of a new series The Chronicles of Christ. Other teaching series can be found by clicking the links below
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 1.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 2 & 3.

If you would like to see previous transcripts or hear audio available in the last series Discovery.God you can find them here.:

• Promise Land to Promise Life Series
  
• Discovery.God Series