Well, good morning and welcome to Christian Life Academy. This morning we're going to take a slight detour. It's the third Sunday of the month, which we normally do church history. But since I was sick last week and you all watched a church history video, this morning we're going to do what we would have normally done last week, which is our how to study the Bible track. So this morning we're talking about how we read and interpret the scriptures And we've been talking about this on the second Sunday of the month for the last year or more. And we've talked about the methods and the principles that we use as we read our Bible to help us understand it. So we talked about the analogy of scripture, which basically is we let the more Clear passages help us interpret the more difficult passages. In other words, use your cross-references. We talked about the analogy of faith, which means that we let what scripture teaches as a whole on any given subject help us interpret a particular passage dealing with that subject. And we talked about some other principles such as typology, where we're seeing Christ in all of the scripture. And the main thing that I hope that you've got out of this is that as we're reading our Bible and seeking to understand it, the most important thing we can pay attention to is the context. the literal context of the passage that we're reading, the historical context in the story of redemption, the overall canonical context of the entirety of Scripture. Those three contexts are the most important tools we have in helping us to understand what we're reading. The other thing I hope that you've gotten out of this is what our goal is. As we read our Bible and seek to understand it, our goal is to glean what God's intended meaning and purpose is in the text. As important as it might be to know what Moses meant, It's far more important to know what God meant, because God sometimes meant things that Moses couldn't necessarily have known. But by his spirit, he inspired Moses and David and these other human authors to write the text. So our main goal is to find the divinely intended meaning of the text. And one of the primary ways that we do that is we read the scripture with what we ended up calling Christological literalism. In other words, the whole thing is about Jesus, right? So we're looking for Jesus as we read the Bible. We're wanting it to point us towards him in some way. In the last few months, what we've done is gone over some things that we should not do as we read our Bible. We looked at errors and mistakes that we could make as we read our Bible. But this morning, we're gonna start down a new path, and sort of the guiding principle for this new path is something I took from the title of a book written by John Siardia, and his book title was this, How Does a Poem Mean? Notice he didn't ask, what does a poem mean? He asked, how does a poem mean? And the point of the book is that it's very difficult to get at what a poem means if you don't understand how poetry works. You have to understand how poets use language, metaphor and simile and whatnot. And then once you understand how they're using language, then you can get at what they mean by the words that they're using. And my point in that is to say that our all wise God knows not only what he needs to say to humanity, but he knows how best to say it. And as he has inspired the scriptures, he used a multitude of different literary genres. So in the scriptures, as we read them, we'll find historical narrative, but we also find law, proverbs, parables, poetry, psalms, prophecies, apocalyptic visions, letters that were written. There's all these different genres and we don't read them all the same. We read Paul's letters and they're very logical and linear. He's making arguments. We don't necessarily read poetry that same way because poetry is going to use a lot of metaphor and simile and figurative language. So we need to understand how God has spoken before we can understand what he has actually said. So we're going to spend the rest of this year on this particular track of how to study the Bible, looking at various genres of literature in the scripture and what do we need to understand about how God has spoken in that particular genre so that we can understand what God has said, and we're going to begin where the scripture begins, with the five books of Moses, which we typically call the five books of the law. So we're going to talk about how do we read the law or the Torah. You might have heard the term Torah, which means law or instruction, and it's referring to those five books of Moses. You might have also heard them referred to as the Pentateuch. That comes from the Greek penta meaning five and tuk meaning tool. So these are the five tools or the five books that have been given for our use. So how do we go about reading these five books of the Bible? all sorts of different genres even in these five books but primarily we call them the books of the law and so we need to understand how do we read the law of God and there are a couple of principles that I want to start with that we can get right from the books of the law. So if you want to turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 30. Deuteronomy of course is the fifth book. It's the last book of Moses and at this point Now Moses has restated the law for the generation of Israel that is about to enter the promised land. Moses is not going to go with them into the promised land and so he has restated for them what they need to know as they are about to go in and claim their inheritance in the land. And at the end of the book, in chapter 30, we're very near the end, Moses, as part of his closing sermon to them, gives them three principles for how they ought to understand what he has written to them. And so we'll begin in chapter 30, verse 11, and we'll read verses 11 through 14. For this commandment, which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. So what's the principle here that Moses is telling us about how we ought to read what he has written in the first five books of the Bible? He is saying that we ought to read it expecting to understand it. It's not a mystery, right? God has not hidden what he wants you to know. We don't need a secret decoder clue in order to figure out what God intended here. It's clear, it's accessible. If you pay attention to it, it's right there, it's very near you, it's in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it. So we need to read it expecting that we're going to understand it. If we think about Jesus in the Gospels, in the New Testament, He deals with a lot of questions about the law. And when they come and they ask him questions or they try and trip him up about the law, Jesus never says in response to their questions, well, look, I understand your confusion because the law is really kind of complicated right there. He never says that. What does he always say? Have you not read? Like, he just expected that if they had read it, they should have understood it. It's clear. It's understandable. Now, this is what we call the perp- perpiscuity of the scriptures, right? It is clear and understandable. It's not a secret code. It's not something we have to decipher. It means what it says. Okay? So, that's the first principle. The second one we find in the next set of verses, in verse 15 through 19. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. And the principle here is how are we supposed to read, this is really all of scripture, not just the law, but how are we supposed to read it? As if our life depended upon it. This is a matter of life and death. This is not trivial matters. that God is addressing. He's addressing matters of eternal importance, very significant things. And so we need to read them with great care and attention, knowing that this is important. The almighty holy God has spoken to us. He didn't speak frivolously. He told us things we really need to know. The third and probably the most important principle is found in verse 20. That, or so that, so here's the purpose. That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey his voice, and that you may cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. How are we supposed to read the scriptures? We are supposed to read them expecting to meet God there. That's the purpose. That's why God gave us the scriptures, right? The primary purpose of the scriptures is to bring us to God. We don't read the scriptures just so that we gain a whole bunch of knowledge. We read the scriptures so that we can know God. That's why we're going to the scriptures. We're not supposed to read it as a how-to manual to improve our life. Rather, we're supposed to read it because it is the story of the one who has redeemed our life and we want to know him. The Christian life is not about decoding divine secrets and mysteries. Rather, it's about knowing the divine one. So we are to read the scriptures so that we can know the God who gave them. So there are three basic principles for how we ought to read the Bible as a whole, but particularly the books of the law, because the books of the law tell us that's how we're supposed to read them. If we think back over the course of what we have discussed in this study over the last year, we could come up with some other principles that we ought to read these books of the law, first of all, as Christian scripture. They're not simply for the Jewish people. They're not simply the history of Judaism. They're Christian scripture. They're given to us by God, by Christ, and so we ought to read them as Christian scripture, as pointing towards Jesus. We ought to read the law and understand that it is good because it reflects the character of the God who gave it. And throughout the New Testament we see references, we'll look at one of these later, that talk about the law being good. It's good. We ought to read the law, and this is important, we ought to read the law as both complementary to but distinct from the gospel. As Christians, we need to understand the distinction between law and gospel. The law says do this and live, and you can't. None of us can keep the law. The gospel says Christ did it for you. Believe in him and live. So we need to have that distinction between the law and the gospel. We also need to read these five books as foundational. Genesis is the book of beginnings. It sets the stage for the rest of redemptive history. To quote from Richard Barcelos in his book title, we need to get the garden right. We need to understand how God made man in His image, what it meant that Adam fell into sin, and the promise that is made there of a coming Redeemer. We've got to get that right because it sets the tone for the rest of Scripture. So these books are foundational to our understanding of all of Scripture. We need to read these books knowing that they are God's Word. Second Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy and he tells him that the holy scriptures that he has known from a youth have made him wise for salvation. That's the holy scriptures of the Old Testament which includes these books of the law. They make us wise for salvation. They do point us to Christ and to the promise of the redemption that we have in him. We do need to read them understanding that they are in large part historical narrative. Read Genesis, it's a story, it's a fascinating story. Most of Exodus, Exodus is an incredible story. Now we get into Leviticus and Numbers, there's less story and more law and regulation, but for the large part, Genesis through Deuteronomy contains a lot of historical narrative. But we also need to read it understanding that there are parts of it that are poems, songs, sermons, prophecies, imagery, and patterns, and figurative language. So we need to read it being aware of these different things. We also need to read it understanding this is the oldest part of the Bible. We're about 3,500 years removed from when Moses wrote it. And particularly the first part of Genesis, we're what, some 6,000 to 8,000 years removed from when the events occurred? That's a big gap historically. And so we need to be aware of cultural differences as we read it and not import back into it our own cultural ideas. We need to be aware of that historical distance. We need to read it knowing that even though large portions of it are historical narrative, we need to read it as theology. It's not simply a history book. It's theological history. It's there to teach us something about God and about ourselves as sinful human beings. Made in His image and looking forward to the redemption that comes than the promised Messiah. And therefore, we need to read the books of the law as applicable to us, right? It is useful, it is helpful for us today. We're gonna talk about that a little bit more here in a minute. Here's a brief outline that you could use for these first five books of the Bible. Genesis 1-11 shows us the need for a Savior. Genesis 12-50 is the giving of a son. Exodus and Leviticus is the giving of a covenant. Numbers and Deuteronomy, the giving of the land. That's a pretty basic outline for how we could understand what's going on in these books. As we read through them, we'll notice some themes. The themes of the law, obviously, which we're gonna talk about this morning. The theme of the land is a big one, the promised land. The two biggest themes, though, I think, throughout these five books are the problem of sin, and the presence of a holy God in the midst of a sinful people. Those are the two biggest themes that we find. And so we find the presence of God with Adam and Eve in the garden and then them being exiled from God's presence because of their sin. And then all of these laws that we read are helping Israel know how they're supposed to deal with their sin if the holy God is going to dwell in their midst. And so those are some of the major themes that we find there. But there are two important things that we need to understand as we think about reading the law. We read Genesis and we go, okay, this is a story. The story of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Joseph. It's easy to read it, it's a story. We get to Exodus, it's the story of the Exodus and Moses and it's an engaging story with miracles and great deeds. And then in the middle of Exodus, Moses starts getting instructions from God about the construction of the tabernacle. and it starts to get rather boring. We get into Leviticus and all of these laws about sacrifices and ceremonies and feasts and laws about the judicial life together as a community. How are we supposed to read all of that law? Well, there are two things that we need to keep in point and points we need to keep in mind when it comes to reading the law. The first one is we need to keep in mind the threefold division of the law. Now this is a very, might I say, reformed way of thinking. We'll find this encapsulated in all of the reformed confessions to look back at the law and see it as divided into three different types of law. And if we fail to make those distinctions, we're likely to fall into some errors. either errors of legalism or antinomianism, which means against the law. So we need to understand the threefold division of the law. Does anybody want to tell us what the three types of law are? Ceremonial, judicial, and moral. Three types of law. The moral law, the ceremonial law, the judicial law. What's the moral law? the Ten Commandments. It's the moral law of God, right? We find it in Exodus chapter 20, but it really starts before then even. So, I'm going to read some excerpts from our confession, chapter 19, of the law of God. It would be a good place to look for some help in this regard. Listen to what it says in paragraph 1. God gave to Adam, so we're going back to Genesis 2, to the very beginning here. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart. and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil." So, he gave Adam a law written in his heart and a particular precept of not eating the tree. So, we've talked in the past about positive law, which is tied to a specific covenant. Adam wouldn't have known he wasn't supposed to eat of those two trees unless God had told him specifically. we wouldn't know that we were supposed to baptize people unless God had told us specifically to do that. Those are positive laws. But there's a law that was written on Adam's heart at creation. And it says that God bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience. So in the covenant of works that Adam was in in the garden, that law that was written on his heart He and all of his offspring were bound to keep that law for themselves. You couldn't count on somebody else keeping it for you. You had to keep it. You had to keep it in its entirety. You had to keep it exactly and you had to keep it perpetually for your whole life. One slip up and you failed. And he promised life upon the fulfilling and threatened death upon the breach of it. And he endued him with power and ability to keep it. God gave Adam the power and ability to keep the law that was written on his heart, but he chose not to. It wasn't that he was incapable, it's that he chose sin. Now listen to what it says in paragraph two. This same law that was first written in the heart of man, So that law, written on Adam's heart at creation, is what we're talking about, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written on two tables, the first four containing our duty towards God and the other six are duty to man. So the Ten Commandments is that law that was written on man's heart at creation. We instinctively know we're not supposed to kill each other. It's part of the law written on our hearts. We know that. So that's the moral law. Now, I'm going to skip down to paragraph five in the Confession, which says the moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof." So, forever. The moral law still binds us to what it called personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience. And that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ and the gospel anyway dissolve, but much more strengthens this obligation. We're going to look at that in a few minutes too. Christ actually strengthens our obligation to keep the moral law. So the Ten Commandments is the moral law. It is still binding on everyone everywhere. But we have other sorts of laws. We have the civil law. So if we go back to paragraph three, our confession says, besides this law, commonly called moral, referring back to the Ten Commandments, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws containing several typical ordinances. That means they were types. The ceremonies were types pointing forward to Christ, who is the fulfillment of them. partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation, that is, to the time of Israel as a nation, are by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only lawgiver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken away. In other words, those ceremonial laws that were given to Israel all through Leviticus and Numbers and stuff, the sacrifices, the feasts, the festivals, they were fulfilled in Christ. So as we read these books of the Bible, those laws can point us forward to Christ. We can go, oh, he's our Passover lamb. We're not supposed to keep the Passover. Because Christ is our Passover, right? So now we keep the Lord's Supper as a positive law of the new covenant. But we need to understand that. Otherwise, if we read this, if we don't understand this distinction, we think the ceremonial law is binding on us in the same way the moral law is, we're gonna start thinking we need to keep the dietary laws and the festivals and feasts of the old covenant. Might think we need to start offering animal sacrifices. It's not the case. All of that has been fulfilled in Christ. Paragraph four then says, to them also he gave sundry judicial laws. So here's the third distinction of the law, the judicial law. Which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution. So the laws that God gave them for governing their life together as a nation, expired with the state of that nation. We're not obligated to them. We don't have to build parapets around our roofs anymore. That was a judicial law that God gave them. Now, as we think about and read these laws, we might notice that those judicial laws are really outworkings of the moral law so that people can live in a society together. We'll talk about that more in just a minute. But it goes on and says, their general equity only being of moral use. And so as we read the first five books of the Bible and we see these judicial laws about how they're to live their life together as in a community. We're not obligated to those laws in the way they were, but they do have a use. Their general equity is of moral use to us today. And so we're going to talk about that here in a moment. But this is the first distinction that we need to make is the three types of law that we might read in the first five books of the Bible. The moral law, the civil law, the judicial law. But what are we to do with all this law? As we read it, what purpose does it serve? Well, it serves three purposes for us, and this is historically known as the three uses of the law. And this can be traced back at least to Calvin. He probably got it from Augustine and other church fathers before him and from the scriptures, ultimately. And we're going to see that. But Calvin sort of systematized this for us and talked about the three uses of the law. This is in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, book two, chapter seven, beginning about paragraph six. Calvin talks about three different uses of the law of God. So as we read Genesis to Deuteronomy, we read all these laws, ceremonial laws, judicial laws. They have three uses for us. The first law, he says, the first use of the law is that it teaches us our need for a savior. As we read the law, the law acts as a sort of mirror that shows us just how sinful we are. We need a savior. This is what Calvin says about it. He says, the law shows God's righteousness, that is, the righteousness that is alone acceptable to God. It warns, informs, convicts, and lastly condemns every man of his own unrighteousness. Now, what this means for us is that as we read the law, one of the things we need to be careful to do is we need to let it convict us of our sin and we don't need to read it and go, wow, Paul really needs to read this, because boy, this is really hammering his sin, right? No, I'm supposed to be looking at how it's revealing my sin, not somebody else's, as I read it. Calvin continues and says, for man, blinded and drunk with self-love, must be compelled to know and to confess his own feebleness and impurity. So this is what the law does for us. It shows us the standard of God's righteousness, holds it up as a mirror to us and goes, you can't do this. You have failed. You have not lived up to the standard. You're a sinner. You've violated the law. You're in danger of judgment. You need a savior. That's the first use of the law. The second use of the law is that it restrains sin. And this might be called the civil or congregational use of the law. And Calvin is very careful in this section to argue that the law does not change our hearts. When it restrains sin, it's only doing so in an outward way. When the law says, you shall not murder, and we have that as part of the judicial law for Israel, and they had laws against murder, and there were punishments for someone who committed murder. That law restrains sin because somebody would look at the punishment and go, yeah, maybe I won't go kill my neighbor that I'm angry at because I don't want to suffer that punishment. But he's still angry at his neighbor. He still hates him in his heart. So the law doesn't change the heart. It just regulates the outward behavior. But Calvin says, this constrained and forced righteousness is necessary for the public community of men. In other words, if we're going to live together in society, we have to have some laws that restrain the worst of our behavior. Otherwise, we would just be killing each other and stealing from each other and all these things that the law forbids. So we have to have laws threatening punishment in order to restrain us from behaving in these sinful ways so that we can live in society with other people. Now this is where we have to be careful, because we read these laws in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy about how the moral law was put into work in the laws of the nation of Israel as a commonwealth. And then we ask the question, well, should those laws be the laws of the land today in the United States? Well, they're based on the moral law. They're outworkings of the moral law, which are binding upon all men everywhere. So, should we have laws against murder? Yes, we should, and we do. We have threatenings, punishment for that murder. But the law in Deuteronomy requires us to stone murderers. We don't do that today. We don't take them out and throw rocks at them until they die. We have other means of punishment. So, we're not obligated, as our confession said, to work those laws out the same way in our nation as they were worked out in the ancient Israel. More precisely, our confession said that their general equity is of moral use. Now, what did our confession mean by that? What it means is that as we look at these laws in the Old Covenant, particularly the judicial laws, we have to figure out how do they work for us today, and we have to figure out who is the us. They were laws for the nation of Israel, a theocratic, holy nation under the governance of God. Is that the United States of America today? No. Where is the holy nation under the governance of God today? It's right here. It's the church. The church is a holy nation with Christ as our king. So when we look at these old covenant laws that governed their life together as a community, we need to be asking, how should these things inform how we govern our life together as a church? And so that's what the general equity is referring to. So if we look at Deuteronomy 17, We have laws here, particularly a law against someone who would engage in idolatry, so someone who worships false gods. If there is found among you, this is Deuteronomy 17.2, if there is found among you within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God in transgressing his covenant, who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded. and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. That's severe. The punishment for idolatry is death by stoning. As we think about how does this apply in the church today, Let's continue reading. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. That's familiar language. We see that language in the New Testament. He shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you. Now when we get to the pages of the New Testament, We find church discipline is to be enacted on the testimony of two or three witnesses. But we don't stone somebody to death for idolatry. What do we do? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we find Paul instructing the church there, someone who is in unrepentant sin. He says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together as a church, as a community, as the people of God, along with my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus." So what are we talking about? We're talking about excommunication here. We're talking about putting somebody outside the fellowship of the community, outside the fellowship of the church because of their sin. He says in verse 13 particularly, but those who are outside God judges. Therefore, and then he quotes from Deuteronomy 17, seven, put away from yourselves the evil person. The general equity of those laws in Deuteronomy for stoning someone that has committed idolatry or committed some heinous sin in the church, if somebody commits that sort of idolatry or commits sin and is unrepentant of it, ultimately it leads to church discipline, the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they refuse to repent, they're put out of the fellowship. They are cut off from the people of God. In the Old Testament, they are cut off by being put to death. So the general equity is to the church and to church discipline. It is not that we are to stone people in the United States who don't worship Christ. So that's how we're supposed to read that law, and that's how the law still serves today for Christian churches to help restrain sin. It restrains sin for people to know, I have to repent of my sin or I'll be cut off, I'll be excommunicated from the fellowship of the church. That's a restraint on our behavior. The third use of the law, Calvin said, is that the law serves as a rule of life for the believer. This is the sanctifying use of the law. The law, he says, is to the flesh like a whip to an idle and bulky ass, to arouse it to work. Even for a spiritual man, not yet free of the weight of the flesh, the law remains a constant sting that will not let him stand still. In other words, we read the law, not only does it show us our sinfulness and restrain our behavior in the public community of God's people, but as we read it, it ought to prod us and goad us to live in a certain way. right, to get to work, as Calvin said. It's not only saying, here's how you were supposed to live and you failed, and then it says, and don't do this in the community, in your relationship with other people, but instead do this. That's the third use of the law. So I wanna show you how this works. In Exodus chapter 20, the 10 commandments, we have verse 13, you shall not murder. There's the law, you shall not murder. All right, if we turn to the pages of the New Testament, Matthew chapter five, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he references this law and he says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. So he's quoting the law. And whoever murders will be put in danger of the judgment, but I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, raka, or in other words, says to his brother, you dummy, that's what raka means, empty head, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire. What has Jesus thus done with this law? He has held it up and said, you can't keep it. You think you kept it because you didn't murder your neighbor, but you hated him in your heart, and that's the same thing. So you've failed to keep this law. You've failed to live up to the righteous standard of the law. That's the first use of the law. Now, in 1 Timothy, as Paul writes to his young protege in Ephesus, Paul, writing to Timothy as he pastors a church, says to him, In chapter one, verse three, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrines. We're talking about the life of the church together. We're supposed to teach, tell some people they're not supposed to teach other doctrines, things that don't accord with the sound doctrine Paul was taught. Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in the faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good, so there it is, this is how we're supposed to read the law, knowing that it's good, if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate. for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. That's what the law is for. It is to restrain our sin. It's made for sinners. And it's supposed to govern our life together as a community. That's the second use of the law. And then in Romans 13, Paul, again, writing to the church, writing to Christians in the city of Rome, tells them in Romans 13 verse 8, O no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. What's Paul saying? Not only don't murder, don't hate, but you need to love your neighbor. This is how you're supposed to live. That's the third use of the law, the sanctifying use. So that one law, you shall not murder, serves as a mirror to point out our sinfulness, that we can't keep that law because in our hearts when we're angry at someone, hating someone, we've broken the law. It serves to regulate our behavior together. Don't speak those angry words. Don't behave in that way because we're not supposed to behave that way. And it serves a sanctifying use, telling us how we are supposed to behave. How are we supposed to behave? Loving each other. Not only not hating each other, but we're supposed to actively love one another. So those are the three uses of the law. So as we read Genesis through Deuteronomy in this genre of scripture that we call the law, We need to read it understanding that what the law is doing is reminding us that God is our king. He is the one in authority. He is the law giver. He has rescued us from slavery to other masters. And we see that in Exodus as God frees his people from Egypt. But what does that represent? It represents our slavery to sin. God frees us from our slavery to that sin and brings us under his authority. and has given us a law that regulates how we are to live as His people. So as we read the law, we need to understand it in that way so that we rightly apply it. We don't drift into legalism, we don't drift into some sort of theonomy or Christian nationalism trying to make these laws the laws of the United States of America, but rather we use it in our own hearts to bring us to repentance, to regulate how we behave as God's people and covenant together as a church, and to sanctify us so that we learn to live as those who have been remade in His image by the redemption that we have in Christ Jesus. Let's close in a word of prayer.