About the Author

Thomas Ray Floyd was born in 1953 in Simpson County, Mississippi, the son of Roy Thomas Floyd and Lina Sue Shows Floyd. Thomas Ray's mother was a member of a Primitive Baptist church, and he cut his teeth on the doctrines of distinguishing grace.

When he was a small boy, his father was converted to Christ and became a member of a Missionary Baptist Church. Thomas Ray joined the church of his father when he was 13 years old, and thought of himself as a Christian. The doctrines of grace that he had heard as a child continued to be precious to him and when he became an adult, he joined a Primitive Baptist Church. When he was 27, Thomas Ray made his first effort to preach the gospel in public and was ordained to the full functions of the ministry in 1985. In 1986 he was convinced under the preaching of Rolfe Barnard (by tapes from Mt. Olive Tape Library), the written sermons of Spurgeon, and the ministry of Elder Zack Guess that he had been a false professor and cried out in agony of soul to the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and truly save him. And He did! Floyd then began to preach the gospel as he had been taught of the Lord.

Floyd has pastored churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee and until recently was pastor of a church plant known as "Particular Baptist Fellowship." He and his wife Brenda presently attend Zion Baptist Church at Polkville, Mississippi, pastored by Elder Glen Hopkins. The pulpit ministry of Zion Baptist Church can be heard at Sermonaudio.com.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

The Believer's Love of the Law of God

(Article for publication week of 9-5-AD 2013)

"O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the the day" (Psalm 119:97).

The Psalmist expresses the delight of every true believer. The believer in Christ can never be an antinomian, but can truly say he loves the law of God. This is the heart's delight of believers under both Covenants for we find the Apostle Paul expressing the same love for the law of God in Romas 7:22 where he says, "for I delight in the law of God after the inward man."

A Christian does not love God's law because of any hope of saving himself by his own keeping of it. A thousand times no! A saved person knows he is always coming short of what God's law requires, and he knows that his very best is tainted by sin, and he knows that God's law requires perfect and perpetual obedience, and this he is not able to perform. If it were left to us to save ourselves by keeping the Ten Commandments we would be damned and doomed forever. But even though a converted man knows he cannot save himself by law keeping, he still loves the law of God and it is his rule of life. Thank the Lord we are not under the law's condemnation, nor are we under the law for our justification (Romans 6:14).

A believer loves the laws of God first of all because he sees the perfections of a Thrice Holy God in His moral law. As we read in Romans 7: 12 "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just , and good."

The believer understands the law of God was given by God as reflection of His Own Holy Character. The Ten Commandments tell us what God requires as far as our duty to Himself, and our fellow man.

Secondly, a believer loves the law of God for by it he knows what is sin. We read in I John 3:4, "sin is the transgression of the law." A believer knows he may not make up his own standard, or accept the world's standards, but he must abide by God's holy standard. Sin is not the transgression of any man's pet peeves, nor the transgression of what is socially acceptable, nor the trnagression of what is politically correct, but it is the transgression of the moral law of God. Those who reject God's law end up calling evil good, and good evil as we see in our nation, and sadly in the professing church.

Thirdly, the believer loves the law of God because it was written in his heart in regeneration (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). When a a poor sinner is born from above (John3: 1-8), he is a different person. He begins to hate what he once loved, and begins to love what he once hated. Regeneration, the new birth makes a person a new creature who loves God and His Laws and His Ways. Thus the believer is saved from the dominion of sin and now desires to obey God. Though sin still remains in a believer (Roman 7:20), it is not the controlling power of his life and he does not live in sin (I John 3:9).

Fourthly, the believer loves the law of God because he knows he is in right relation to it. By the obedience of Christ, the believer in Christ is constituted by God in right relation to His Holy Law (Romans 5:19). Our Lord Jesus Christ kept the law of God perfectly, and His obedience is accounted for righteousness to all who believe in Christ (Romans 4). Not only that, but Christ paid the penalty for all of the believer's law- breaking. Every sin that a believer has ever committed, and all the sin a believer ever will commit was charged to Christ and He paid the price on Calvary's cross. Therefore, the believer is in right relation to the law of God.

So you see, a saved person will not be lawless, but he will love the law of God, and be meditating upon it. God bless you all my dear readers.

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