The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. All right, well, let's pray once again and ask for the Lord's help. Father, thank You for those who have gone before us, those who have labored in Your Word, those who have paid a price for following you and serving the church, and we thank you, Father, for our confession of faith. We pray that you would help us today as we look at this important topic of the law, and we pray that you would give us wisdom and insight by your Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. We're in chapter 19 of the Second London Baptist Confession, and it is of the law of God. In a sense, there's somewhat of a logical progression. From chapters roughly 10 to 18, we've had categories or topics that deal with salvation, and then the Christian life, having finished with assurance last week. And now we get to the law of God. And for us, as a Christian, 21st century evangelicals, for some of us, this will sound incredibly strange to spend so much time on the law of God. But what I want to say is that if it sounds strange to us, it's because we're the ones that are out of the mainstream of Christian history. In the early church, you had catechesis. which was instruction for new believers. And in the early church, catechesis basically revolved around three things, three patterns or paradigms for learning the Christian faith. The first was the Apostles' Creed, which would teach how or what we are to believe. Then you would have the Lord's Prayer, how we should pray. And then you would have the Ten Commandments, how we should live. And the Ten Commandments were seen as the sum of the moral law of God, and they were also seen as a guide to holiness the Christian. Now again, that sounds strange to us, especially if we come from, let's just say it's sort of a broad evangelicalism, because oftentimes within broad evangelicalism there really is no theology of the law except for a superficial appeal to Romans 6.14, we're no longer under law but under grace, and then what that means to us is that somehow we completely dismiss the law of God. And it's important to understand that to just simply dismiss the law of God for the Christian really has never been a part of orthodox Christianity and orthodox Christian practice. In fact, the law of God has always held a central significant role for the Christian church in its life and practice. And so, without going into a lot of detail about why we are, in a sense, in a little backwater bayou, I would just say that because of the influences of dispensationalism and New Covenant theology, we basically just marginalized the law. And yet, at the time of the Reformation, for instance, there was an outworking of the theology of the law, and that outworking didn't just spring up with the Reformation, that outworking was actually rooted in previous centuries of Christian theology. So for instance, when Luther writes his small catechism, he has an entire section on the Ten Commandments and their application to the Christian life. That's sort of important to point out because a lot of times we think of Luther as the one who pitted law against grace or law against gospel, and yet Luther saw the commandments as having a role in the Christian life. When Calvin writes his famous Institutes There's an entire section on the Law of God, the Heidelberg Catechism, an entire section on how to apply the Law of God, in particular the Ten Commandments, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism. In fact, the Puritans reflected in the shorter and larger catechisms actually do a brilliant job of how to apply the commandments because what they do is they look at the commandment in terms of what it prohibits or what it enjoins, and then they look at the, in a sense, the flip side of the commandment. So for instance, in the sixth commandment, you shall not commit murder, the catechisms would look at what's prohibited in that command, but then they would understand that that prohibition to not murder had a positive corollary, which was, therefore, if we're commanded not to murder, then we are commanded to do everything we can to preserve life. and they would work out the implications negatively and positively. And so, throughout really the overwhelming majority of Christian history, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, as a summary of the law of God, was the basis for ethics. In fact, in most ethics textbooks, especially those that are in the Reformation tradition, you will have a section dealing with the Ten Commandments. And so the Reformers and those that followed all were in a fundamental agreement that the law as a whole was divided into three parts. You had moral law, civil law, ceremonial law, and moral law was summarized in the Ten Commandments. Ceremonial law had to do with the priesthood and the sacrifices which would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Civil law had to do in a sense with the application of moral law to Israel's civil life. So for instance, you might remember reading in the book of Deuteronomy that if you build a house, what are you supposed to do? What's that? Yeah, put a little guardrail, a parapet or something like that around the roof. And you go, oh, that's profoundly irrelevant. And I would come back and I would say, actually, no, it's not irrelevant at all. What it was was a civil application of the sixth commandment, you shall not murder, by protecting people from falling off of your roof, okay? And so then we go, oh, well, it's a civil law. So obviously that only relates to Israel. And I would say, well, In one sense, the civil law dealt with Israel as a covenant nation, but is there not actually an application for us to understand even from a civil law? And the answer is yes. So here's one very practical application. When you came into church this morning, you saw young people out in front shoveling the sidewalks, and probably putting down ice melt. I don't know if they did that or not, but let's just assume they did. Why would you do that? To protect people. It's a demonstration of neighbor love. You don't want some of the real old people coming in and falling down, all right? And so I would say that there's a continual application of the law of God in its threefold division. Then there was also, in a sense, the threefold use of the law. And the threefold use of the law was, first of all, the first use was to show us our sin. Romans 3.20, through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Roman 7-7, I would not have known about coveting unless the commandment had said, you shall. not covet. And so the law actually shows us our sin. There is what we would, it would be the pedagogical use of the law of bringing us to Christ, showing us our sin and then pointing us to Christ. And then there would be the civic use of the law where, or the social use of the law where the moral law is seen to be the undergirding of our civil laws that restrain evil. And here's something that we often forget, the very foundation of the rule of law and a society of laws is actually rooted in God as the lawgiver. And so there is the second use, which is basically the civil restraint of evil with accompanying punishment. And then the third use of the law was the application of the law to the Christian life. So here's basically where many of us have come from. Free from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin all I want and still have remission. Well, we wouldn't say that necessarily, but we would say free from the law, blessed condition. And then what we would do is if somebody said, well, how do you know how you ought to walk? We would say, well, the Holy Spirit leads me. And we end up then having this very subjective, amorphous standard of what being led is and what holiness looks like. And the reformers actually never made some sort of fundamental distinction between law over here and then the spirit over here. And if you're a Christian, you're over here and have nothing to do. the perspective was is that the commandments, the law of God, in a sense forms the track upon which the Spirit then impels me, right? So it's not law without spirit, but it's also not spirit without law, okay? So when we come to chapter 19, We end up having seven paragraphs, so it's a pretty hefty chapter, seven paragraphs on the law of God, and the first paragraph's gonna deal with the law of God at creation in what we will identify as the covenant of works. Then you have the law of God after the fall and at Sinai in paragraph two, where the confession actually will make a connection between the law given at creation and the law given at Sinai. And then paragraphs three and four, there will be somewhat of an extended treatment on the Mosaic law with its purpose and its fulfillment. And then paragraphs five and six deal with the perpetuity of the moral law of God in the life of the Christian. And then paragraph seven deals with the law and its relationship to the grace of the gospel. And so what I wanna do before we dig into the first paragraph is I wanna just make just a few basic observations that in a sense may help us sort of have a framework to understand why the confession is dealing with the law the way that it is, all right? And this is gonna be pretty simple, I think. And the first, so think of it this way. So the first wall that's gonna go up, all right, is simply 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. So this is, by the way, this is the classic text on, Inspiration, right? So Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, he says, all scripture is God-breathed, right? And is profitable for doctrine, correction, reproof, and instruction in righteousness, so the man of God may be thoroughly furnished, equipped for every good work, okay? Now, the reason why that passage ends up being relevant to talking about the law is because when Paul wrote all scripture, what did he specifically have in mind? The Old Testament, the Old Testament. The New Testament is not completed when Paul writes 2 Timothy. You know, and most certainly there are gospel fragments and maybe even complete gospels, and there are certain letters flowing, but the New Testament's not complete. So when Paul says all scripture, he has at least primarily in mind the Old Testament. And for Paul, when he says all scripture, and he's making reference to the Old Testament, now, of course, by extension for us, all scripture now includes both Old and New Testaments, but when Paul said that, that included the law, all right? So think about this. Paul actually had the audacity to think that the law was profitable for doctrine. Paul actually thought you could read, let's just say, the first five books of Moses and have doctrine. He also thought that the law was profitable. for correction and reproof, right? Now, I don't think anybody would actually quibble with that part, right? That the law is profitable for correction and reproof, right? Because that's what the law does, right? Calvin has this great section in the Institutes where he says, he says, the law is like a whip that beats a dumb ass, okay? He meant a donkey, all right? And the idea was that the law actually has this sting to it, right? And so nobody would quibble with correction and reproof, but what about instruction and righteousness? So whatever we think about the law, it has to comport with what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. The second part of our structure here would be this, and this will be very quick. The Decalogue, that is the ten words. That's what the Old Testament refers to as the Ten Commandments. the ten words, is the sum of the law, and it actually holds a unique place in biblical revelation. So the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, actually holds a unique place in biblical revelation. First of all, the Decalogue ends up being central to, oh, I didn't even realize I made slides. I couldn't figure out what you were looking at. I thought maybe it was like the Christmas party slide. It holds a unique place in biblical revelation. So it is central to the Mosaic Covenant. You have it in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy chapter five. But interestingly enough, it is the only Scripture that we have that is explicitly said to be written by the finger of God. Think about that. Out of all the Scripture that we have, and all of it's inspired 2 Timothy 3.16, right? We don't just go, you know, I don't know if you've heard this expression, red-letter Christians, have you heard this? Only, you know, okay, so that's stupid, all right? have...red-letter Christians should have the whip of the law Okay, I'll just stop there because there's too many things actually going in my mind. All scriptures God breathed. My dad called me on Saturday and he's like, hey, I'm reading the first 10 chapters of Chronicles. What's up with this, right? And he says, well, how does this apply to my life? And of course, the first 10 chapters of Chronicles is just genealogy. I told him, you go through, count every fourth letter and see what words you can come up with. The first 10, 11 chapters of 1 Chronicles are just as inspired as the book of Romans. Equal inspiration, but not necessarily equal profit. If you were gonna be on a desert island for the rest of your life and you can only take one book with you, I doubt it would be First Chronicles. I think you probably would take Romans or Ephesians or something. But here's this, here's this scripture that God has given us, 66 books, and only one part's written by the finger of God. Also, The Ark of the Covenant, which is seen to be the very symbol of God's presence in the midst of his people. Inside of that ark, there are three items. Aaron's rod, which budded, a jar of manna, and the two tables of law, upon which are written by the finger of God. the ten words. So I would just suggest to us that whatever biases we've grown up with regarding the law, that we would at least stop and think for just a second, it is absolutely central in such a way that it alone holds pride of place of being written by the finger of God. The third thing that I would say has to do with, obviously, the relationship between the New Testament and the law. I actually don't remember, Nathan, did I finish these slides? Okay. Okay, so maybe that's why I don't remember doing it, because I didn't finish it. So we come to the New Testament, And we read, so put it this way, can you find negative statements about the law in the New Testament? Yeah, absolutely. Negative statements about the law. Can you find positive statements about the law in the New Testament? Absolutely. So, Here's oftentimes what we do, is we take the negative statements and we use them to color our entire perspective on the law. It's important though that we understand that first of all, the New Testament looks at the law as being good. And the reason why the law is good is because it reflects the character of God. And so if you have a Bible, we're gonna look at just a few passages real quick here. The first is in Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven, which by the way, when you get to Romans seven, you can find statements about the law which are really good, and then statements that seem to be like, you know, somewhat negative. But notice what Paul says in 7.12. He says, so then the law is holy. So why is the law holy? Because God's holy. And the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The fundamental problem with the law is not the law. So here Paul says unequivocally that the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Look at the way James talks about the law in James chapter 2. In James chapter 2, starting at verse 8, James says, if however you are fulfilling, what's that phrase? The royal law. The law of the king, right? If you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. But if you show partiality, you're committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Is it a good thing to be convicted by the law if you're transgressing? Yes, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he's become guilty of all, which actually is another way of saying, what does God require of us? perfect obedience for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not commit murder now if you do not commit adultery but you but do commit murder you've become a transgressor of the law so speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of Liberty Wow So James says that the royal law is actually the law of liberty, for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Notice that in verse 12, speak and act as those judged by the law of liberty. In other words, should your life conform in speech and conduct with the law of liberty? Absolutely. I don't know any other way to actually read James chapter 2. And so, the law is in itself good, it is the royal law, it is the law of liberty, and it is a law that actually reflects love. James actually says it right here, does he not, when he says that you're fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. By the way, Paul's gonna do the same thing in Romans 13, eight through 10, and then in Galatians chapter five and verse 14, where Paul is going to say that love is the fulfillment of the law. So in other words, The way that the Ten Commandments have traditionally been understood is that you have, and we'll touch on this in the confession, you have the first table of the law, Commandments 1 through 4, that deal with our duty to God, and then Commandments 5 through 10, which then deal with our duties to our neighbors. Therefore, that's why the law can be summed up in love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. So neighbor love ends up fulfilling the commandments given relating to our duties to our neighbor. Now, to be sure, and this is important in Paul, and we'll talk about this a little more, but this is not just me having a self-determined love to my neighbor and thus I fulfill the law, it is the Spirit of God working in me producing the fruit of love which causes me to fulfill those commandments in relation to my neighbor. The law also obviously reveals sin, which is a very big part of the New Testament perspective on the way the law works. And so think about the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five. There's something that's a little unnerving about Matthew chapter five, is there not? Does Jesus just say, forget Moses, I'm here to tell you something different. It's not actually what he says at all. When he says, you have heard it said, but I say to you, it's not as if Jesus is dismissing what you've heard said, but what he is doing is by his authority as the son of God, is he is actually explaining to us the spirit of those laws. So last week when we looked at the obedience of Christ, we said Christ's obedience was inward. Why? Because the law requires inward obedience. It requires not just that I avoid committing an act of murder, but it also prohibits that I have anger in my heart towards my brother. It not only means that I physically abstain from committing adultery, but it means I don't lust after a woman in my heart, right? This is what Jesus does with the law. So if you can read the Sermon on the Mount and you can read Matthew chapter five and go through it unscathed, I would simply tell you go back, read it again with your eyes open because there's no way to go through and to look at the Sermon on the Mount and in a sense the law through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount and think somehow I'm a good person. This is what the law does. is it convicts us of sin, it shows us our sin. And so there are some very powerful and positive things that are stated about the law, but sometimes the New Testament speaks in terms that seem to be negative. And I would just point out one simple observation about all apparent negative comments regarding the law. that is, they appear in the context of the law being unable to save us or justify us, or turned into a job description by which we think we're able to earn the favor of God. And so, for instance, when Paul says, For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. He's simply making an observation about the law that he says explicitly in Galatians chapter three, which is that the law simply cannot give life. And so, We'll look at this more because the confession actually touches on this. There is a sense where the law is limited in what it can do, and here's one of the realities is the law does not innately have the power to change my heart. It can tell me what's wrong with my heart, But it cannot fix my heart. And so, one other observation about the New Testament and the law, and that is that Jesus Christ fulfills the law for us by obeying it. That's what we saw last Sunday in Romans 5, 18 to 19. And also, he fulfills the law by suffering its curse for us. So if the standard of the law is personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience, and none of us actually have ever done that, which by the way, that's what Paul outlines in Galatians 3, 10, 11, and 12, and then Paul says that Christ actually redeemed us from the curse of the law, the curse of the law is judgment upon lawbreakers, So Christ actually redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Having become a curse for us! so that as it is written, cursed is everyone who's hanged on a tree. So Jesus Christ comes and he fulfills the law by fulfilling all of its just requirements. That's our justification, which we're gonna hear more about in Romans, surprise, all right? And then he also fulfills the law by suffering its penalties in my place. So you know what that means? And this is absolutely Glorious, what it means is that the law can no longer condemn me. If I'm in Christ and God has imputed Christ's perfect righteousness to me, what can the law require of me? If Christ has endured the suffering for a broken law and fulfilled the justice of a broken law, then how can the law condemn me, right? Fourth, the new covenant in the moral law. So, look over at Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 31. By the way, I think, my conviction is, is that when you start to understand the law like this, then you go to Psalm 119 and then end up having a much deeper appreciation of what the psalmist is celebrating there, right? Jeremiah 31. Behold days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers. So what covenant was that? What's that, huh? Yeah, but I'm looking for some, mosaic, yes, thank you. It's not like the law, the mosaic law, which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke. So was it the law's fault or was it the people's fault? Right? The law is not the problem. The people are, okay? although I was a husband to them." In other words, God was so warm and tender and kind to them, and they still broke it. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they again will be my people and they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother say know the Lord for they'll all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more so in the New Covenant What does God, in Ezekiel 36, 25 to 27, tells us the Spirit that does this, what does he write on our hearts? What does he put within us? The law. Now, in one sense, we're gonna see in the confession, in one sense, there is something that's put in us at creation, that we can't shake, all right? But we have no desire, let alone power, to actually submit to it and live for God's glory by it. So what happens in the new covenant is that God, by a miracle of his Holy Spirit, in accord with regeneration, comes, and what does he put on our hearts? He puts his law on our hearts. And what does he write on your heart? Don't boil a kid in its mother's milk. Is that what he writes on your heart? He writes his moral law upon us, and by the way, because it's the Spirit who's at work, there is a new desire and a new power to walk in his ways. And so, For those that want to completely dismiss the law, I just said, well, what's written on your heart in the new covenant? Actually, that is one of the points of continuity between the old and the new covenants, is the law continues. The point of discontinuity is that the law was on stone external. In the new covenant, it is written on heart and it's internal. All right, so one last one and then that's the introduction and we'll be done. The law and sanctification, third use of the law. So turn over to Romans chapter eight. This is the law and sanctification. Familiar passage, but I want us to think about something that we might not notice when we read this. So Paul says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. By the way, the Mosaic law is the law of sin and death. We're gonna see today, what does the law do? It actually increases the trespass. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did." Actually, if you notice the text, it just says, God. It actually has an awesome ring to it, right? For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh is an offering for sin. He condemns sin in the flesh so that, here's the result, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Now just notice, just for a second, no condemnation if you're in Christ, right? So the law can't condemn you if you are in Christ. God will not judge you if you are in Christ. Why? Because there's a new law. I think probably 2A is in reference to the new covenant, and it set you free from the law of sin and death. In other words, to be set free, or in the language of Romans 6.14, not to be under the law, is not to be under its condemnation anymore. I can't be condemned. I'm safe in Christ. You know, John Newton has some of the best theology in our Christian hymns. He has a hymn, Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder, and we sing it here. And there's a line that just makes my heart sore. Justice smiles and asks no more. So this is what God accomplishes for us in his Son. The law couldn't do it, why? Because of the weakness of the flesh. Whose flesh? Not the law's flesh, our flesh. And so God does it by sending his Son who condemns sin in the flesh, but verse four, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. By the way, I don't think that that's a reference to Christ's active obedience. I think this is actually ethical, so that what the law requires is actually fulfilled in us, and how is it fulfilled in us? Not according to those who walk in the flesh, but those who walk by the Spirit. In other words, it's the very spirit who lives inside of us who now gives us the desire to walk in God's ways and to fulfill his law by love, to love God, to love neighbor, to walk in his commandments. And so, Paul says something similar but much shorter in Galatians 5.14. You know, you go through and you read Psalm 119, and it talks about walking in God's commandments, walking in God's statutes. For the Christian who has the Holy Spirit, The Christian can actually say and should be able to say, oh how I love thy law, it is my meditation day and night. It reflects the will of my father who is good and who loves me. Now does the law still have a convicting power to it? Absolutely. In fact, Sometimes the law can really beat us up, right? Because even as Christians, we don't look at the law and say, wow, today was like an A plus day in walking in God's commandments, right? The law still shows us our shortcomings. The law still points out our sin. I mean, this is one of the functions of Romans 7, 14 to 25, is I concur with the law of God in the inward man. But I still cry, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And so the Holy Spirit, who works through love, fulfills the law in the Christian. By the way, fulfilling the law by love, by the Spirit, is different than saying the demands of perfect obedience. The demands of perfect obedience have been met. And so this is not, by the way, so Romans 8, 4, this is not justification. which is Christ fulfilling the law for us, that's justification. It's sanctification, the Spirit fulfilling the law in us. Now, I've told you 6,000 times, the world turns on prepositions. There is a difference between saying Christ fulfilled the law for us and the Spirit fulfills the law in us. And so it's the difference between justification and sanctification. Well, we'll stop there. We've got six minutes, five minutes for questions, comments, protests, riots, demonstrations, outbursts, or letters to the editor. I was kind of hoping to get through this and get on with it and then stop at 10.10 and not give you a chance to ask any questions, but here we are. Oh, good. I take no hands. Yeah, go ahead. Well, only, did everybody hear that question? Okay. I know Vic didn't. So Jesse's question is, you have moral, civil, ceremonial. the moral is still an obligation to obey the moral law, an obligation to apply and obey the civil law. Is there anything, he asked, for us to do regarding the ceremonial law since Christ has fulfilled the ceremonial law? And the answer, to that is there's nothing for us to do in reference to those, the commands of the ceremonial law, but there is something for us to do in applying the fulfillment of the ceremonial law. So in other words, we don't just say, ceremonial law fulfilled by Christ, put that over here, that's now done. How does Christ fulfill the ceremonial law for us in his priesthood, in his sacrifice, and in his intercession, all right? So what that means, at least one thing that I would point out, what that means is that as I read my Old Testament, and I am going through, let's say I'm going through Leviticus where there's a lot of ceremonial law. I am looking at that explicitly in terms of fulfillment through Christ as my priest and as my sacrifice. How do I take the fulfillment of the ceremonial law in Christ and continually apply that to my life. I don't bring a lamb to church on Saturday. What do I do? I appropriate to myself the finished work of Jesus Christ continually. What does that look like? Well, it means that I understand that in a state of grace, all of my sins are forgiven, right? So I think of passages like 1 John 2, I write these things to you little children that you may not sin, but if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, right? Who's the propitiation for our sins and not ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. And so there, So then I'm going to Christ as my priest. I'm making confession, I'm looking at him as my mediator. So I look at, in a sense, sort of applying the fulfillment of the ceremonial law every time I take the Lord's Supper, every time I confess my sins, every time I have a tremendous sense of gratitude for the intercession of Jesus Christ. Every time I read, and of course the New Testament is replete with references to the blood of Christ, right? So every time I read about the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ, Christ laying down his life, I look at that in terms of what was required, and I see the fulfillment of it, and it leads me to gratitude, it leads me to worship, it leads me to thanksgiving. I would see it in terms of the application and the way that I appropriate that to my life, okay? Good question. Chad? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. And the question was, how much did Old Testament believers actually see Christ in terms of fulfillment, in particular of the ceremonial law? don't know that we can answer that with something definitive, but if you read Hebrews chapter 11, there is obviously what marks these Old Testament believers is the life of faith, the life of confidence in God. My to put it this way, my instinct is to say that Old Testament believers understood more than we give them credit for, okay? I can't help but to think of Jesus in John chapter 8 when he said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it. Does that mean Abraham saw something up on Mount Moriah that we don't really know, right? When he went to offer up his son, did the Holy Spirit help him connect the dots, right? I mean, it's fascinating to think about, but I do think that they probably understood more than we give them credit for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, amen, very good. Yeah, that is a great observation. And by the way, you guys, most of you have heard of Ray Comfort, right? One of the amazing things that Ray Comfort does is he, as just sort of like a typical mainstream evangelical New Zealand guy, he actually rediscovered through reading the old dead guys of the power of the law in evangelism. And so the Puritans used to say things like this, is that the law is the needle that makes the hole for the thread of the gospel. So, all right. Well, I hope this has been encouraging to you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your law. Thank you for Jesus who's fulfilled it for us, and we thank you that you've written it on our hearts. We pray, Father, that in the hour to come, we would worship you in spirit and in truth, and that our hearts would be lifted up in wonder and love and praise. In Christ's name, amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.