Reformed Theology Pt 8 | The Mosaic Covenant (Point 3) | Law of God | Theonomy

Our text for today is.

Found in Matthew chapter 5.

Again, will be in verses 17 through 20.

Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20.

Let's pray.

Father Lord, today we.

Gather to adore.

Your son.

To worship you through him, to worship him, to worship your spirit.

To worship the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Given thanks to you always.

In our life.

Where we thank you for this church.

For the people who attended.

Lord, please.

I know I speak with this congregation when I ask for you to speak to us through your word.

Help me to articulate the message that this passage has for us.

And I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen,

alright, so this is the.

Part 8 of our series of reformed theology.

Our theme.

Is the Mosaic Covenant slash the law of God and I was thinking it's

quite funny how most everything that we've been dealing with in Sunday school, we looked again

at Christian liberty that dealt with the law of God and in our catechism we're going

through the law of God that it seemed to be a perfect time for this.

This portion of the series to drop.

Our timeless truth has been God's law is holy and as Christians, I know we all

agree with that statement.

God's law is holy.

And I know we all agree with this, that it should be taught correctly.

The reformed and the Lutheran historically have taught the three divisions of the law

as well as the three uses of the law.

And as we transition, the three divisions of the law are as followed.

One, the moral law.

Two, the ceremonial law.

And three, the judicial law.

The Jews did not separate it.

It was just the law.

During the Reformation, we looked at the scriptures and we saw that there's three divisions.

You got the moral, which commonly called the Ten Commandments.

And from the Ten Commandments, if you could picture a spout, that the moral law is a

spout.

And as the law comes out of the spout, the moral law, it

separates into ceremonial and to judicial.

The first part of the Ten Commandments point to our duty to God.

Second part, our duty to our neighbor, to humanity.

The three uses of the law are as follows.

The first use of the law is law and gospel.

It's used as a mirror for both believers and unbelievers.

To the unbeliever, I think we all have seen this take place.

If you witnessed to someone or if you watched, let's say, most people

should know who Ray Comfort is.

His method of evangelism is that he uses the law to show their people their

need for Christ.

The Bible says that the law is perfect for converting the soul.

That we use the law in a way to show people their sin and their need for

Christ.

And I mean, there's times where I use this.

If I'm speaking to someone who is self -righteous, I'll say, have you ever told a lie?

What does that make you?

A liar, you ever stolen something?

Well, what does that make you?

It's a thief.

You ever looked at someone to lust for them?

Well, Jesus said, that's adultery.

And so I use God's law, the moral law as a mirror to

show them their need for a savior.

But it also is a mirror for the believer.

Romans chapter seven, verse seven says this, Paul speaking, why?

I mean, what then shall I say?

Shall we say that the law is sin?

By no means.

Yet, if it had not been for the law, he's speaking as a believer, I would have not

known sin.

For I would have not known what it is to covet if the

law had not said, you shall not covet.

So the law is used as a mirror.

This is the first use of the law.

The second use is the civil use of the law.

It's kind of a curb, if you will.

When you're driving down the road, a curb or guardrails

can keep you on the road.

It keeps you from gearing off the path.

And so the Reformed and the Lutherans,

so the Reforms would see that the first use of the law, law and gospel, is the

first use.

The Lutheran would say that what we see as the second use is the first use.

It's the same, but it's just order different.

So the second use right here, what I'm talking about, the second use is being, for the civil

use, the Lutheran would say that that's the first use.

The Reforms say, no, it's the second, but that doesn't matter.

I just wanted to point that out.

In this case, you go and look it up, you say, hey, you got those backwards, or you might have been listening to a Lutheran, so.

So it's used as a curb, and it's for government.

It's for rulers to give rules.

It's to bridle.

I gave the illustration once about when you ride a horse, you put the bridle on the horse's mouth, and you're able

to steer the horse in the direction that you want to go.

Well, the law is used for that.

It restrains evil for all of life.

So the first use of the law is for unbelievers and believers.

The second use of the law is for unbelievers and believers.

The government, or anyone who, you can

look at the moral law of God and see the do's and the don'ts.

You're probably not gonna live in a nation where they say, okay, go out and murder

whoever you want.

No punishment.

Like, no, people don't want you to go and murder people, so they have a law, a rule, that

if you kill someone, you will be punished.

I think in Texas, you will be killed.

If you kill someone in Texas, you're gonna die in Texas.

I believe it's something like that.

But there's rules, and we get that from God's moral law, the do's and the don'ts, and this is for

believers and it's for unbelievers.

The third use of the law is strictly for believers only.

The third use of the law, it's the law as a guide for Christian living.

I gave the illustration of Christ being our flashlight, that whenever we read Scripture, we

read Scripture in light of what Jesus Christ has

accomplished.

We don't read Scripture forgetting what Jesus Christ has already

done.

That is a dangerous way to read Scripture.

I gave the illustration last week about a movie

about this man who was blind, had a Bible, but the enemy who

wanted the Bible didn't know that the Bible was written in Braille because the enemy wanted to get the Bible

in order to control the people.

And how would he have done that?

By teaching the Bible not in light of what Christ has done.

It's fairly simple.

If you teach Scripture in light of what has been accomplished,

you cannot have a tyranny

because Christ has freed us.

So our text today, Matthew chapter five, verses

17 through 20, please read with me.

Jesus speaking, 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 passes away, 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.

In my sub point outline, we will see how Jesus is the

fulfillment of the law, how he fulfilled the law and the prophets four ways.

And we've looked at two of them.

First one by fulfilling them.

Second, by bringing judgment.

The third point, which we'll look at today by properly teaching them.

And the fourth point by the righteousness of faith.

And as we transition, we will use the third use of the law.

We will be using the third use of the law so we as Christians can understand the

text.

We'll look at the Bible as Christ being our flashlight in light of what he has done.

And remembering what he's done as we teach the passage.

I think we all agree with that.

That's, you know, amen, hallelujah.

All right, point number three.

By teaching them, by properly teaching them.

And this is chapter five, verse 19.

Let's read that again.

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.

I pointed out a couple weeks ago that Jesus raised the standard.

That in this text, dealing with the law, Jesus raises the standard.

And I pointed to Matthew 5, 27 and 28.

He says, Jesus, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with

lustful intentions has already committed adultery with her in

his heart.

He did this by generalizing the law.

The seventh commandment is you shall not commit adultery.

Jesus takes this commandment and he raises the standard to lustful intentions.

You shall not commit adultery.

If you look at a woman with lustful intentions, you are guilty of committing adultery.

He raises the standard.

Now, how does he do this?

How did Jesus do that?

He did it by applying the 10th commandment.

You shall not covet.

He took the 10th commandment and he applied it to the seventh commandment.

You shall not commit adultery, but you shall not covet.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

You ever thought about that?

He used the law, the moral law, to raise the standard on the moral law.

He used one commandment to raise the standard on a previous commandment.

They're building off of one another.

Jesus takes the standard and he raises the standard by using the standard.

What we have him is him expounding, him explaining, him exegeting the moral

law to deal with a moral sin.

Masterful.

I didn't realize that until I started studying the series.

Like just looking at it, like really diving into him,.

Thinking, oh, he's genius, he's so brilliant.

Like I would have never thought of that, right?

He's just building off of the law.

He uses the law to explain the law.

The law of Moses called for the death penalty concerning the sin.

Adultery.

You commit adultery, you die.

The law of Moses called for the death penalty.

But Jesus calls for radical confession.

Look with me.

Verses 29 through 30 of that same part.

If your right eye causes you to, if your right

eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown

into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and

throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole

body go into hell.

Now, listen.

Even if, even if he's actually talking

about gouging out your eye, okay?

Even if he's actually literally talking about gouging out your right eye and

cutting off your right hand in a literal sense, this is not what the law of

Moses called for.

It's something different.

Even if he's speaking literally, cutting off your right hand and gouging out your eye, this

is not being put to death.

In 1 Samuel, something takes place.

In chapter 11, we have

Nahash.

It says, then Nahash, the Ammonite, went out to besiege

Jebish, Gidiot, and all the men of Jebish said

to Nahash, "'Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.'".

So you have these Jews from Jabesh

and you have this king, the Ammonite king, Nahash, come in and he takes

control of Jabesh and these Jews plead with Nahash

to make a treaty with them and Nahash

replies in verse two, but Nahash, the Ammonite,

said to them, "'On this condition, I will make a treaty with you,

"'that I gouge out all your right eyes "'and

thus bring the disgrace to you.'".

On all Israel.

So he tells them that, yeah, I'll make a treaty with you if you let me gouge out

your right eye.

But in doing so, it's gonna bring disgrace on all of Israel.

Months ago, probably close to a year ago, we went through the book of Jonah in our Sunday school

and it comes to that portion where the storm is raging, everyone has done

sacrifice to their God, they're trying to get the storm to stop, Jonah's

down at the bottom chilling, he's asleep, not worried about nothing, and they come to him

terrified, they're panicked.

And Jonah knew what was going on, he's running from God.

And he tells them, he says, "'Throw me over

and it'll stop.'".

You know, basically, just that idea.

You throw me over, it's my God doing this, he wants to punish me, you

throw me over.

And I thought to myself, why doesn't he just jump?

Why doesn't Jonah just jump?

Why does he have them to throw him over?

Which took me down a rabbit trail, that it was a Jewish belief that no,

that a Jew could not harm themself in any way.

That's where you get that verse in Leviticus where it talks about do not tattoo or pierce yourself, you're not tattoo or

pierce yourselves for the dead.

Because they would take, the people at that time would take these large rocks and they would soak them in ash and they would carve,

they would cut themselves and carve with stones, large rocks, they would carve into themselves.

And they would cut themselves.

As someone that had experienced a death to deal with the pain, we see this now today

that people would cut themselves for the dead.

They would cause bodily harm to themselves for the dead

using sharp rocks.

And it was a belief in Judaism that if you cause bodily harm to yourself, you

would bring disgrace upon the entire nation of Israel.

But if you killed yourself, you would go into the lowest pit of

Sheol to a punishment unimaginable.

Jonah, being a Jew, knew that he could not cause any bodily harm to himself, much

less throw himself overboard to his death,

fearing Sheol, the worst part of hell,

according to their belief.

So even if Jesus is literally speaking about actually

gouging out right eyes and cutting off the right hand, this is not what the law of Moses

is calling for.

It's calling for death.

And in our text, I believe Jesus is making a clear distinction between physical punishment

for breaking the commandment versus eternal punishment for

breaking the commandment.

Under the Mosaic covenant, the punishment was death.

Under the New Covenant, the punishment is that your whole body is thrown

into hell.

Your whole body thrown into hell.

Which is greater?

Which is worse?

Right?

The standard has been raised, ladies and gentlemen.

Now I would say an application to this text is Jesus is saying that it is better

that you should bring shame upon the entire nation of Israel than that your

whole body end up in hell.

Now, what does that look like for us?

What does that look like for us?

We have churches filled with people who are living in sin

and they are afraid to bring their sin public.

They are afraid of what they would look like to the church.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is better that you confess your sins, even if it means that

you bring shame upon Covenant Reform Baptist Church than for

your whole body to be thrown into hell.

That's what that means.

If you're living in sin, whether it's in deed or thought,

you need to confess that sin, even

if it means you bring shame upon me.

If I'm living in sin, I need to confess my sins, even if it brings shame upon you than for

me or you to end up in hell.

This is serious.

That's why when I pray for someone, if someone calls me to pray for them, I ask them, do they have anything they want to

confess?

There's people in here that can witness to that.

Give them an opportunity to confess sins, for it's better

that you confess your sins than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And that's the point Jesus is trying to make here.

There's something going on.

There's an earthly, then there's a heavenly.

Let's look back at the text.

Verse 19, therefore whoever relaxes, makes little is what this means.

Whoever relaxes, makes little, 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, whoever teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

So the question here is, is what is the least commandment?

A Reformed Baptist pastor, theologian by the name of Sam Waldron points to

Matthew 23, 23.

If you're a part of our Sunday school class, that book that we teach from,

it's a commentary by Sam Waldron.

23, 23, this is Jesus giving the woes to the Pharisees.

He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,

for you tied mint and dill and cumin and you have neglected the weightier

matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

So in this text, it points out the weightier matters of the law,

being justice, mercy and faithfulness.

The least of the law in this text seems to be speaking about tithing.

It says, you tithe mint and cumin.

Let me make sure I got that right.

Mint and dill and cumin.

Like they would, if they had 10 peas, I don't know if they ate peas back then, but if they had 10

peas on their plate, they would set one aside for the Lord and eat nine.

Like they were faithful when it came to tithing.

But Jesus was like, you are neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness.

It's good that you tithe.

You're supposed to tithe.

You're commanded to tithe.

The text points it out, the eighth commandment,.

You shall not steal.

We are to give back to God by way of faithful churches.

Right?

We're not to steal.

We are to tithe.

This is the least of the commandments.

This is the least of the commandments.

Under the Mosaic law, for stealing, you had to pay a restitution of four times the

value that you have stolen.

Listen to this.

Under the new covenant, the Bible says, let the thief no longer steal.

That's different.

That's different than the law of Moses.

Look at Ephesians.

Ephesians chapter four, 25 through 28.

Let the thief no longer steal.

Rather, now, under the law of Moses, if you stole something, you had to pay four

times the amount.

New covenant, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work

with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with

anyone in need.

Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouth, but only such as to do

good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to

those who hear.

And so you have to ask yourself, well, did

something happen?

Why isn't Paul saying that this person that's stolen

something needs to pay back four times the amount?

Something has changed.

Grace has come.

Jesus Christ has not done away with

the law.

The church has not done away with the law, but it's applied different

in the new covenant.

We're not under the old covenant.

We're under the new covenant.

The law's still there.

Do not steal.

That's still applicable.

We're not supposed to steal, but the punishment has changed.

The third use of the law, like I said earlier, is for Christians only.

Here's another one to consider.

First Corinthians chapter five, 12 through 13 says this.

For what have I, this is Paul, for what have I to do with judging outsiders?

Speaking of non -believers.

What do I have to do with judging those who are outside the church?

Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges the outsiders, non -Christians, purge the

evil person from among you.

Now in Sunday school, we was talking about Christian liberty.

How we're not gonna call sin what the Bible doesn't call sin, but if someone's in our congregation and they're

living in actual sin what the Bible calls sin, we are to confront them

as lovingly as possible.

Call them to repentance.

In the case of what's taking place here in Paul, we had a man who was sleeping with his

father's wife and coming to church, bringing his father's wife

with him, like he wouldn't hide in it, living in open sin.

Paul said, you purged that evil person from among you.

Get him out of there.

Notice he wasn't going to the temples

at this time where people were openly living that way, telling them to purge that from among

them.

Now was he preaching Christ, calling people to repentance and faith?

Yes, but he was not trying to bring this law upon the government.

It was for the church.

The law of God is for the church, but it's applied different under the new covenant,

under the church.

We're not to judge the outsiders.

If someone, if I know someone, my neighbor who's sleeping around on his wife, I do not

go and remove him from the church.

He's not a part of the church.

He's not a part of the church.

I have no bearing over him.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 25

says this.

Hebrews 12, 25.

Before I read it, the concept of

the two punishments come up.

I spoke about it a little earlier, the earthly versus the eternal.

The earthly is the physical punishment and it versus the eternal

punishment.

So the concept of the two punishments is the earthly punishment versus the eternal

punishment.

Now look with me at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 25.

It says, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

Now this is speaking about Christ.

For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, speaking about Moses,

much less will they escape if they reject him who warns from

heaven.

What we do in life now post Old Covenant has eternal

value.

When I'm preaching on the streets, I call people to consider Christ.

Why?

Because there's nothing more important than where you will spend eternity.

Every one of us are going to die.

Right now, if you're hearing my voice, you are going to die within,

you know, some of us a few years, others a hundred years.

But one day you're going to die and you're going to stand before a holy, holy God.

And listen, the Bible talks about his law, but it doesn't say that we'll be judged by this law.

We're gonna be judged by the one who has kept this law.

You're gonna be side by side with the perfect Christ who has kept this law.

And listen, you're gonna be weighed in the balance.

And if you are not clothed in Jesus Christ, you are gonna be found wanting.

You're gonna be found wanting.

And that has eternal value.

Your eternity is at stake.

That's why I try to get across to people as I'm on the street or as I'm up here and I'm preaching

that what we do with Christ, that what we do in this new covenant, our

eternity is at stake.

And we'll get to that in a little more in a minute.

But the idea here is that the old covenant offered earthly blessings if you kept it,

i .e. the land of Canaan.

And it offered earthly punishments if you broke it, i .e. removal from the

land, sacrifices, and death.

So if you kept the covenant, the Jews were allowed to live in the land.

If they broke it, they had to make sacrifices.

They could be put to death.

Ultimately, they will be removed from the land, which that's what took place.

Under the new covenant, the new covenant offers eternal blessings for those who receive it, i

.e. Jesus Christ.

Receive Christ, you get Christ, you get salvation, you get eternal life with the Father.

And eternal curses if you reject it by your whole body

thrown into hell, which is worse.

Which is worse, being put to death physically or your whole body thrown into hell?

Jesus is not relaxing the law.

He's bringing it to bear.

And he's doing so by using the law.

But he's also teaching it in light of the new covenant.

That the old covenant punishments do not apply to Christians,

to those who follow him.

It's radical confession.

It's let the thief no longer steal.

If it's someone in our church that's unrepentant, living in sin, we remove them from our body.

We don't put them to death.

We don't stone them.

Paul says, remove them.

I believe our text is teaching that if we do not teach the commands in light of the

victory that we have received in Christ, him fulfilling the old covenant by bringing in

the new covenant, then we will be teaching the commandments falsely.

We will be falsely teaching the commandments.

I wanna read that text.

One more time.

Therefore, have in mind everything I've said so far.

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.

So the question here is, is what is the kingdom of heaven?

The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is synonymous.

This takes us back to the Israelite.

The Israelites as a physical descendants of Abraham are a kingdom

people.

Remember, as I was going through reformed theology, we started getting into the covenant theology, I made it clear

that the Israelites are a kingdom people.

Jesus now moving from the earthly kingdom people to the heavenly, i .e., the

kingdom of heaven.

The earthly, excuse me, to enter the earthly kingdom, one had to be

born.

More specifically, born a Jew under the law.

To enter the heavenly kingdom, one has to be born again.

This is the gospel, right?

John tells Nicodemus, he says, unless a man is born again, he cannot see.

This is with your eyes.

With your eyes, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.

Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

That something has to happen to this man or woman in order for them to enter

into the kingdom of God.

And so this is where the gospel, this is where the Holy Spirit comes and he applies the purpose.

He applies the purpose by the message of Christ.

And the message of Christ is given by those who believe in Christ.

That we as believers, we preach, we teach the message of Christ.

Jesus said that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to

teach them all that I have commanded you.

We're to tell people, especially like right now in this season that we're in, the

season that I like to call the incarnation.

Whenever the creator enters creation, the infinite became finite.

When the God -man, Jesus Christ, took on flesh, when he was wrapped in

a garment of flesh.

And in doing so, this God who took on flesh,

Jesus took our punishment.

And I kinda, I don't know how long I've been kinda harping on the idea, well it's not an

idea, the biblical concept of Jesus Christ living the life that we could not live and Jesus Christ

dying the death that we deserve to die.

I guess it was about six months back, I knew that we was gonna come to this portion and I knew that I

had to have it ingrained in your head before we got here, what this actually means.

That when Jesus lived the life that we could not live, this being his

act of obedience, it's that he's loving God and he's loving his neighbor.

He's actively loving God with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind and he's loving his

neighbor as himself.

His act of obedience, he's keeping the law.

And in his passive obedience, even though he loved God and loved neighbor, he was treated

under the law as if he did not.

He was sacrificed and he was put to death.

Jesus took our punishment.

He lived the life we could not live and died the death that we should die.

That although you and I have broken God's law, God has paid our fine and

full by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to live the life we could not live, to die the

death that we should die by taking our punishment.

The Bible says that Jesus died for our sins.

I cannot explain that well enough.

I know, listen, I would have a better chance of filling this water bottle with

all the ocean water in the world.

Like taking all the ocean and putting it into this single bottle.

I would have a better chance of doing that than to correctly articulate to you the glories of God and what

Jesus has done when he lived the life we could not live and died the death that we should die.

I fail miserably at explaining it, of how he

died for our sins.

The Bible says in John that sin is lawlessness, that

sin is breaking God's law, right?

First John, it says that sin is lawlessness.

Now think about this.

If this law is put upon us today, if we're still under the

Mosaic law, that didn't happen.

We're not forgiven.

Nothing happened.

If the Mosaic law is applied today, nothing happens.

Let us go home, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

It's no good, it's no good.

Christ done nothing.

If we're under the law of Moses, Christ done nothing.

If we're under the Judean, I mean the civil laws of Jerusalem, Christ done

nothing, absolutely nothing.

You're still in your sins and when you die, you're gonna go to hell, your whole body is gonna go to hell.

That's why it's important to teach the law correctly, because Christ did live the life we could not

live.

He did die the death that we should die, and that when he come, the law was only until he came and

done these things.

So when I tell someone that Christ took their punishment, that he died for their sins, I'm telling them that

this law that they have broken, which breaking the law is sin, that Christ has already paid that payment.

And you do not have to pay that payment.

If you're in Christ.

For those that are not in Christ, they will pay the penalty.

But it's not by being put to death in an earthly sense, it's by their whole body thrown into hell,

which is worse.

He's not relaxing the law, he's raising the standard.

For those who have entered the kingdom of God, who have been born again,

they are not under the Mosaic law by way of covenant.

If you have been born again, you are under the law of Christ.

You're in the kingdom of God.

You have been born again.

And that's even to those who falsely teach the commandments.

Look at this, it says the text is telling us that there will be brothers in heaven who have taught

the commandments wrong.

That's what it says.

It says, therefore, whoever relaxes.

One of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least, where?

In the kingdom of heaven.

They're still in the kingdom of heaven, even though they're teaching this wrong.

The book of James tells us that a teacher will undergo stricter judgment.

James 1, verse three.

Well, okay, sorry, I was about to read the wrong passage.

For you know that those...

I mean, for you...

No, that's not the...

Anyways, I must have written it down wrong.

But it tells us that there's a stricter judgment upon those who

teach.

And then in 1 Corinthians, it talks about building upon the foundation of Paul and building

upon the foundation of Apollos.

1 Corinthians chapter three, I'm going to go by memory.

That if you build upon this foundation using hay, stubble, and straw, it

will be burnt up and you will be saved, but only as one who passes through

fire.

We're called to build upon the foundation of Paul and Apollos with gold and silver.

That we are to build upon the foundation teaching the exact same things that they're teaching.

And if we do that, it will not be burnt up.

But in the kingdom of God, there are those who falsely teach, I believe out of ignorance,

the law of God.

In closing, I believe the best way to teach this

is the historical way of teaching the law.

The best way to teach the law is the historical way of teaching the law.

Those who are Reformed, those who are Lutheran, teach it the same.

And that is through the three divisions of the law and the three uses of the law,

which we have clearly seen and which we will clearly see when we get to the law and gospel

distinction.

That'll be a month or so ahead of us.

But next week, we will pick back up in this point and we will focus

more on general principles.

We will focus on how is it the church

reads the Bible in light of what Christ has done.

I wanted to get into that more today, but time prevented me from doing so.

So next week, we'll look back at this point and we will also finish,

we'll look back at this point and then we'll go to point number four and finish it.

So we'll close out the Mosaic Covenant next week and then the week of Christmas,

we'll get into the Davidic Covenant, how Christ the King came into the world

as the son of David.

I'm available to anyone who wants to have a conversation.

If you need prayer, if you're sick in body, I'd love nothing more than to pray for you.

Pastor Cal's available.

Josh is available.

If you need anything, please come and talk with us.

Let's pray.

Father, Lord of heaven and earth, the creator of all things, you who

took upon flesh, you who looked down from your throne and saw that no one would seek you,

so you stepped down from the throne and you entered into

humanity.

Lord, I pray for this congregation.

I ask that your richest blessings will be upon them, that you will fill them with joy

through your Holy Spirit.

Lord, I pray that when they mourn, that your spirit will comfort them.

Lord, I pray for all the tragedy that's taken place this week with the tornado.

I pray for all the victims.

Lord, I pray that your hand be upon them.

And God, I pray that you use this as an awakening to show them that life

is precious, that it's a mist, that you're here one minute and you can be

gone the next, that nothing is promised, and that our death is the wages that we

have earned.

It's something that we deserve.

And that we won't look to you as a way of saying, where were you when this happened?

But we'll look to you and saying, Lord, help us, be with us, lead and

guide us through this tragedy.

Lord, I pray for your supper.

I pray, Father, that you use it to grow us in holiness,

to conform us to the image of your Son.

And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.