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, giving 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 that dealt with the law of God and and 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 witness 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 7, 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 as 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 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 wanna 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. 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 5, 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, 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 of 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. Like, 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 up 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 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 Reformed 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, it 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 purge 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 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 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 100 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 going to be judged by the one who has kept this law. You're going to be side by side with the perfect Christ who has kept this law.

And listen, you're going to be weighed in the balance. And if you are not clothed in Jesus Christ, you are going to be found wanting.

You're going to 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 has, 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. Now, this takes us back to the

Israelite. The Israelites were a physical descent, 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 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, 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 kind of, I don't know how long I've been kind of 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.

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. So 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? 1 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 Judea, 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.

And 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 chapter one, 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, hmm. 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 first Corinthians, it talks about building upon the foundation of Paul and building upon the foundation of Apollos.

First 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.