Well, we had a small technical difficulty, a spill in aisle one, but I think we're back on track. Praise the Lord for the gospel, right? Praise the Lord for the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord that we have heard the gospel and believed the gospel, that our eyes have been opened to the truth, that His Spirit has brought us from death to life, that we know the Father through the face of His Son that has been revealed to us, that we enter into a time like this with full confidence that we are accepted, that we are received, that no matter what you came here carrying, whether it just be the distractions of an anxious life or some sin that you think has its hold on you, you enter into the presence of a Father who loves you because of the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. And so let's continue to meditate upon that as we open up His word to Matthew chapter 27. I will be reading from Matthew chapter 27 verses 3 through 10. And as we prepare to do so, will you please stand for the reading of God's holy and inspired word. That's Matthew chapter 27 verses 3 through 10. 27 verses 3 through 10. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, what is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priest, taking the pieces of silver, said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel. And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed it directed me. This is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. You may be seated. All right, will you please pray with me? Gracious Father, we do ask for your help, Lord. Would you open our eyes? Would you continue to meet with us as you have been pleased to do thus far? We gather in the name of your Son. We ask this in the name of your Son for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Martin Luther wrote virtually the whole of the scriptures and the understanding of the whole of theology, the entire Christian life even, depends upon the true understanding of the law and the gospel. I believe he was correct. Now, in order for you to understand why I would Enter or or offer a intro into this sermon with the words of Martin Luther about the law and the gospel We will have to do a little bit of spade work. So you'll have to bear with me And so let me just dive into the text itself I want to help us see what is there and then and then we are going to then we're going to step back and Consider what that means in the light of all the scripture OK, that usually means about an hour and 45 minutes. I'm going to try to condense it down into half that time, but we got to begin. Israel refuses to amend her ways. And so God will annul his covenant with her, with Israel. OK, I'm offering that as a as a big idea of what we find in this passage. And it is not clearly or explicitly, at least at first glance, indicated in the narrative portion of the text itself. We will have to get into that fulfillment formula that Matthew offers at the end. But let's just start at the beginning. Israel's rejection of God's son here in this text is the ultimate and final offense against God. So judgment is going to be leveled against Israel. Now this is already, if you remember, for those who have been around for the rest of Matthew, from the beginning, you have seen this demonstrated and communicated many times in the Gospel of Matthew. Almost from the very beginning, Jesus' ministry has been portrayed as pitted against the leaders of Israel. Now remember, the leaders of Israel represent Israel. the representative of Israel as a whole, that is Israel, the nation, the geopolitical entity that came into existence at Mount Sinai through the covenant that God made with them there, that that covenant stipulated that Israel would become, quoting Exodus, paraphrasing Exodus 19, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation if they listened to the Lord's voice and kept his covenant. The Bible, the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, is largely the story of Israel's failure to do just that, that is to keep covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel. It is largely the record of their inability or unwillingness to obey God's voice and to walk in his ways. Instead, they walk in the ways of the nations and they listen to the voice of just about everyone except for God. And so they become like the nations and their end is like the nations that dwelled in the land before them. Now, this, of course, led to that is their disobedience led to the exile. Both the northern tribes known as Israel and Judah are conquered and removed from the land. Judah is eventually, of course, released from captivity and some return. And there is a partial restoration, a one might argue, unimpressive restoration in the promised land. But the nation remains, by and large, throughout that period of the return, throughout that period, the close of the canon, the record of of that and the incarnation of the word, the birth of the son of God. Throughout that period, the nation remains, by and large, under foreign control for the better part. that whole time. And as I was saying, Matthew, from the beginning, paints a very unflattering picture of Israel's response to the arrival of her Messiah, an arrival that that the nation as a whole was waiting for. King Herod attempts to kill him before he reaches two years of age. The last covenant, old covenant prophet, John the Baptist, comes on the scene in true Old Testament fashion with spit and vinegar, calling the leaders of Israel a brood of vipers and telling them that their biological relationship to Abraham is not going to help them. that the axe is already laid at the root. And so the Gospel of Matthew begins. Jesus' first recorded activity is no less condemning of the representatives of Israel. Jesus demands righteousness greater than the scribes and the Pharisees for admittance into the kingdom of God which he is initiating. He uses the leaders of Israel as negative examples in his Sermon on the Mount, commanding his followers repeatedly not to do as they do. Jesus' ministry soon brings him into direct conflict with some of the scribes when he claims to have the authority to forgive sin. Matthew chapter 9. He is flatly condemned for fellowshipping shortly thereafter, fellowshipping with sinners, and by the end of chapter 9 is being accused of doing his miracles and his work through the power of demonic forces or in collusion with the devil himself. From there it gets worse, if you can believe it. In chapter 10, Jesus says that it is one's relationship to Jesus, not Abraham, not birth, that will depend or make the difference with entrance into the kingdom of before the father. In chapter 11, Jesus issues woes against the cities that he has been ministering in because of their lack of repentance and their lack of a faithful response to Jesus himself. Chapter 12 is a practical catalog of conflict With jesus's repeated assertion that he is greater than everything that has come before him chapter 13 explains that the kingdom is not going to come as many expected through the restoration of an earthly kingdom the geopolitical entity known as israel, but instead through his word and faith in his word They will have a heart-altering effect so that people will leave everything to follow jesus As it Goes or and so it goes chapter by chapter so that when we arrive at the triumphal entry In matthew chapter 21 the triumphal entry of jesus into jerusalem We are not surprised to see jesus cursing a fig tree symbolic of the curse that is about to come upon israel Warning the leaders of impending judgment through parables doing verbal combat with the representatives of israel and finally issuing his strongest condemnation yet in chapter 23 of those leaders and lamenting then over Jerusalem and declaring the future destruction of temple. So my point is it's not. I mean, the whole the whole gospel has been leaning heavily in this direction. So that by the time we get to this passage, we understand why it is that Matthew writes that in these events is the fulfillment of what Jeremiah prophesied. And then quotes actually quotes Zechariah. We'll get to that in a second. So we read this judgment as being fulfilled in these events. Now, if all we had was a record of Judas returning the payment and betraying Jesus, the ironic response of, well, we can't receive this blood money into the temple. and then buying the potter's field, we might be somewhat perplexed what we are to make of this event, this situation. But Matthew doesn't allow us to just come to our own decision about what it is that Matthew is communicating or what God himself is communicating through these events, does he? He writes, then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah saying and they took the 30 pieces of silver the price of Of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me now I've already mentioned this alluded to it. I think I stated explicitly you search as you might you will never find in Jeremiah that quotation In fact, if you look in your footnote of your Bible, it will it will send you to Zechariah chapter 11 it is almost a verbatim quote he actually takes the mesoteric text and The Septuagint and and and does a combination of the two but it is Zechariah chapter 11 That's why you have the footnote sending you there. So why would Matthew say that the prophecy is? The prophecy is from Jeremiah. Well because this is actually a strategy or a technique used in Jesus's day that was quite common you would have the composite formation of a quotation that combines two different different prophecies but combines them both and then only refers to one source often the more obscure though sometimes sometimes the more obvious often the more obscure though like in this text, so if you just looked at the the quotation, you would not end up in Jeremiah, but Zechariah. So Matthew says this is a prophecy of Jeremiah, so that the reader or hearer also goes to Jeremiah and looks at Jeremiah and attempts to understand how this these events possibly could fulfill Jeremiah. Now, while some commentators point to Jeremiah 32 as the likely reference here, I would actually disagree. I agree with Carson and Beal when they point to the Jeremiah 19 as having far more similar content in the context itself. being most likely what Matthew had in mind. Jeremiah 19 is parallel with what we find in Zechariah chapter 11. So while Jeremiah 32 might be far more hopeful and pleasant to read, that's the account of Jeremiah being told to buy from his cousin a field because there is this implication or promise that though Judah is about to be conquered, there is a day when once again Israelites will own land in that place. But Jeremiah 19 is the more likely reference. It makes better sense of how Matthew saw this event between Judas and the priest as fulfilling these prophecies. Both passages prophesy the judgment of Israel for rejecting their covenant Lord. Both texts. In fact, you could really go back to Jeremiah 7 where it begins and there's a similar reference. And there, they are warned. They are told to repent, to amend their ways, to execute justice, and do not say, the temple, the temple, the temple, as though that will save them. What does God require of them? But to walk in his ways, to hear his voice, and to obey. According to that covenant established at Mount Sinai, that is what was required of them. And so, God warns that there is judgment coming. because over and over again, they do not listen to the voice of the Lord brought forth by the prophet Jeremiah, Zechariah, either one. In fact, it is very telling that in both of those, Jeremiah, if you're familiar with the prophet Jeremiah, not just in chapter seven or chapter 19, in the book as a whole, Jeremiah is a persecuted prophet. He is rejected, his word is rejected. He is told that it will be rejected from the very beginning. Of course, that is a very similar song among all the prophets. God's people, that is Israel, by and large, responded very unfavorably, to put it kindly, to the words of the prophets. Israel has always rejected the Lord and his messengers. Jeremiah summarizes it well at the end of chapter 19 when he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I pronounced against it because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words. Jeremiah had lamented, by the way, at the end of chapter 18 that they will not hear me, they do not listen to me. And so Jeremiah himself calls for the judgment that the Lord is about to bring upon God's people. so Israel has always rejected the lord and his messengers. This is one of the primary ways that the event here fulfills the words of jeremiah and zechariah the the the irony of the Chief priest and the elders representing the Sanhedrin Representing the leadership of Israel as a whole being very concerned about the traditions of men That is not bringing blood money into the temple, but caring nothing about the innocence of Jesus is supposed to scream irony What is it to them if Jesus is innocent? But what are we going to do with this money? Because, you know, our traditions say that we're not supposed to bring it into the temple. Now, that is very concerning. Israel's response here in our passage is par for the course. You don't even have to know the Hebrew Bible well, and you're probably familiar at least with Moses being rejected, people refusing to listen to him, usurping his authority. And Moses was kind of the pinnacle of Old Testament prophetic work, right? What about Elijah? How did his prophetic ministry go? Was he well received by Ahab and Jezebel, for instance? I think they gave him a warm welcome a couple times. Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel go on down through the prophets. All of their ministries are marked by conflict and rejection like adam therefore israel has Consistently failed to listen to the voice of the lord They have followed after the ways of the nations and not the way of the lord like adam israel refused to walk with the lord and to obey his word both the context of zechariah and jeremiah involves the lord sending his prophet to the people to shepherd them or or to call them to repentance, to amend their ways, and the people refuse to listen, they refuse to follow, thereby rejecting not just the covenant messenger, but the covenant Lord, the covenant King. So this is the fulfillment of every former prophet type, from Moses to John the Baptist, every rejection, every refusal to listen and to obey, to rend their hearts and to amend their ways, to execute justice, this is the fulfillment of that, has culminated, if you will, in this moment. And what should we expect then as a result of covenant unfaithfulness? We're gonna get to in just a second, but I'm just gonna go ahead and reveal my hand. According to the covenant that established Israel as a nation, we should expect curse, we should expect death, we should expect being cast out or cut off. Here is Jesus, the true and better prophet, and they are doing to him just as they have done to all the others. just as Jesus declared, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah. Here is the record of no one that even confessed collusion in injustice. They, by their own admission, don't care if Jesus is innocent, even though God's word demands that they not only care, but execute the justice that God requires in the land. According to their own word, It isn't right to bring blood money into the temple. This they obey, but the word of the Lord they disobey. But this time they're not simply ignoring and rejecting the word of Jeremiah and Zechariah, now they're ignoring and rejecting the word incarnate. They refuse to hear the word made flesh. God has now sent his own son, and the response is no different. They are more concerned about what to do with the money they paid a man to betray him than they are about the transgression of God's covenant. Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And so, as the Lord spoke through Jeremiah and Zechariah, judgment will be executed against all the covenant breakers. The covenant that granted the nation of Israel favor will be annulled, according to Zechariah chapter 11. The covenant that brought Israel union will be broken. according to Zechariah chapter 11. It has brought and will bring only exile and death. As Paul will later explain that the covenant that made Israel a nation has served to increase sin and has brought a curse upon all who attempt to be justified through it. This is the final word of the covenant made with Israel at Sinai. The verdict is guilty, the sentence is death, and the future is silent desolation. Like Adam, Israel will suffer the same fate, exile and death. So here's the question. That's the text. That's what it's saying about Israel. And so we have a question before us this morning that desperately needs to be unpacked in light of that. Because if we are to believe what Matthew is communicating here, it means that we have a certain perspective about Israel. Now that's a hot button issue today. In fact, you're not allowed to say some of the things I'm about to say. But I answered to God not man and so I'm gonna say him anyway Is this the end of Israel this text, this judgment, because that's what it speaks of in the prophets. It seems to be what has been pointed to throughout the book of Matthew. There is destruction of the temple is coming. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, right? Paul will later say that those who belong to the earthly Jerusalem are actually children of the slave woman, Hagar. Is this the end of Israel? What's the answer? How do we answer that? How do we respond to that biblically? Yes and no. Yes and no, that's the biblical response. Israel's relationship is actually established on two distinct principles that we must rightly understand to interpret the Bible as a whole, and especially a text like this, or the gospel, or to rightly understand how it is that Israel, as a geopolitical entity specifically, not just speaking of a Jew individually, but the nation of Israel, how it is that they relate to God. Because the question, the most important question that any of us could ever ask and ever answer is how does anyone relate to God? It is the very question that God's holy word begs from the very beginning. Made created in right relationship to god having been Lost or having lost that right relationship. How is it that one will ever be made right again? What's the plan? Is there is there a couple different ways that god's going to go about it? Is there one way and how do we know? I am going to assert this morning that there is two ways to be right with God. Clearly stated in the scripture, two distinct ways. The one is law and the other is gospel. Two ways. Two ways that one might be right with God. Law. and gospel, works or faith. The two covenants, there are two covenants, I would argue as well. The covenant with the patriarchs and the covenant at Sinai, really based upon those two distinct principles, depending upon them as the means by which one might be right with God. One means by which one might receive the promised blessing that God extends to his people the ultimately his very presence. So in order to rightly understand what Matthew means, not just in our passage, but throughout his gospel, that Israel is undercoming the judgment of God and the implications of how God relates to the nation of Israel, even now to this day, how to interpret that or how to understand it. We have to understand these principles underlying these covenants. So let's think covenantally for a moment. The covenants are referred to as the covenants of promise. All of them move the promise Forward all of them are interdependent and interconnected. So i'm going to begin talking about two distinct covenants But that doesn't mean that they're they're utterly distinct. They're connected. They're interdependent The the covenant with at sinai for instance is born out of the covenant made between god and adam. I'm, sorry abraham Just as as that covenant with abraham is born out of what takes place between god and adam but there are It might be helpful to just offer this briefly, but I believe it was Meredith Klein who first did the in-depth study on the different types of covenants in the ancient Near East. And there are there's more than two, but you can you can see these two at work often and broadly. And the first is a suzerain vassal covenant. Suzerain vassal covenant is is a covenant made between a suzerain, a king, Someone who rules and a vassal someone who has come under the rule of this king often comes after the suzerain Rescues the vassal from some threat or or he just rescues him by bringing him into his kingdom And now after being brought into his kingdom he establishes the relationship and says listen I rescued you whether you wanted to be rescued or not. I And now you belong to my family. You're welcome. And this is what you must do in order to stay in my good favor, if you will. Or this is what will happen if you don't. That's a suzerain vassal covenant. The other is a land grant or a vassal land covenant. And in that covenant, the suzerain decides for some reason just to bless a people or to bless a king or to bless a land. And so he states, what it is that he is going to give. And there's there's no emphasis upon the stipulations. And so we see these two covenants, one based on works, one based on favor or grace at work, largely in the ancient Near East. For our purposes, of course, we have to recognize that redemptive history as a whole is actually propelled by covenants. God didn't get the idea of covenants because they popped up in the ancient Near East. The idea of covenant actually popped up in the ancient Near East because it's God's idea. It's how he establishes relationship with his people. So we see it from the very beginning. Redemptive history progresses through various covenants between God and his people and if you've never heard this you've never thought about her if you've never read your Bible Covenantally you you you've never read it. Well All right. So this is extremely significant History begins with God making a covenant with the very first person Adam the covenant established a relationship between God and Adam and like all covenants it defined his his Obligations for the covenant members and described the consequence of either keeping or breaking the covenant Life with God in his garden doing his work and knowing his joy for all eternity is the implied blessing for keeping that covenant Of course, we understand that it would require perfect obedience for Adam to remain in that blessed state or even to to receive the fruit of the tree of life and be confirmed in that blessed state. The covenant curse is explicitly stated as death. And so this covenant requires obedience from the covenant partner and the end result of the covenant is the direct result of the covenant partner's faithfulness. Adam must be obedient to receive the blessing or if he is disobedient he will die. When Adam fails the covenant curse is announced. but it is not immediately executed because God promises in the very act of cursing, in the midst of the curse, to save his people from the guilt that has just condemned them to death. We see, in fact, Adam actually believing God, acting on faith as he names his wife, not the mother of all the dead, Though that's what God said would happen for transgressing the covenant. But instead, in faith, Adam names Eve, Eve, the mother of all the living. Life would come through the seed of the woman. We see blood shed and Adam and Eve covered in the skins of the animals, covering their nakedness even before they are exiled. Is at this point that a different principle becomes the means by which all of God's people will be made right with God So let me just be clear at the beginning the principle at work is law It's we we were created to walk in the obedience of of God law, to hear his voice and to respond faithfully, to live according to his will, that his will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. And when Adam transgresses God's law and sin enters the world, it changes us so that we no longer desire to do what it is that God wills, but instead the sin that is crouching at our door has its way over us. It dominates us. We live under its rule, we become its slave, thereby earning the wage that sin earns, death. But immediately we see a new principle at work. God makes a promise and an act of faith or belief in God's promise is a restoration to right relationship to God. It is accounted to people as righteousness. Covenant made with Noah contains both the reaffirmation of the need for obedience to God's mandates and the threat of death But also contains the promise to not end history until God has accomplished accomplished all his saving purposes I'm just going to move right past that because we got to move To Abraham with the call of Abraham the promise declared in the garden takes on greater clarity and import Abraham or more specifically Abraham's seed will become the conduit through which all the earth will be blessed every tongue tribe and nation will ultimately receive blessing by virtue of their relationship with Abraham More importantly, for our purposes, the relationship with Abraham is confirmed with a different type of covenant on the basis of a different principle. Paul makes this point in Romans 4. Abraham is called by God's grace, and the blessing of God that is promised is received by faith, not works. It's given as a gift. It's not wages earned. Praise be to God, because we know from the story of Abraham that the wages would have been death. Read chapter 16 carefully when the relationship is finally formalized in Genesis 15. It is only God who commits. To walking through the cut animals that is. Portraying or demonstrating that he will take upon himself the failure of either covenant party to keep the covenant demands of the covenant. Itself the principle that forms the basis of this relationship is not obedience, but faith. It's not obedience, but faith This is further demonstrated by abraham's failure in the very next chapter. I just mentioned in chapter 16 just like adam abraham listens to the voice of his wife and sarah takes hagar and gives Hagar to abraham abraham takes and eats of the forbidden fruit or lays with hagar What should follow is a curse of some type. And if you're following along the biblical storyline, that's exactly what we would expect. Every time we have seen God speak to man and demand obedience, and man fall or fail to obey God, curse has followed. And yet, here is Abraham recapitulating the Edimic story, and what follows is not curse, but a renewal of the covenant. So if you're following along the story, it should make you scratch your head and say, Wait, curse, not favor. But chapter 17 says nothing of Abraham's curse for covenant failure, but only God reiterating his promise to Abraham. What is significant is that this covenant seems to be, if you read the storyline, it seems to be unassailable. It seems to be unbreakable. There seems to be nothing but blessing attached to it with no mention of curses for covenant transgressions. So this is a different type of covenant than the one made with Adam. And I would argue that the one made with Noah as well, that the Abrahamic covenant is of a different type. Abraham and God's relationship with Abraham established by grace and secured by God's oath with no threat of curse for transgressions provides a very different means by which one is made right with God. It's not law. It's not based on what Abraham does. This is Paul's commentary on Genesis. Paul argues at length, both in Romans and Galatians, that it's not based on what Abraham did, but on God's favor, God's grace, God's mercy, God's steadfast love. God proclaims the promise and people believe and it's accounted to them as righteousness. That's a very different principle than you will receive according to your deeds. So what is Mount Sinai? Which one is it? Well, it establishes a relationship that requires obedience. And that results in either blessing or curses dependent on the faithfulness of the covenant partner does it not? What does that sound like does that sound more like the covenant with Adam or more like the covenant with Abraham in fact he There's all sorts of places we can go, but just quickly, turn to Exodus chapter 32, verses seven through 14, and I'll show you what I mean, and hopefully, in the course of doing this, show you how important this is to the interpretation of our Bible as a whole. Let me just catch us up real quick. God has redeemed his people out of Egypt He has brought them faithfully to Mount Sinai. They have already grumbled and complained and disobeyed the Lord But here he is bringing them to Mount Sinai where he is going to establish a new relationship with them That's what covenant does it establishes a new relationship and the relationship that he's going to establish is he's going to turn a group of people into a nation right a kingdom of priests and a holy nation is what they will become and at Mount Sinai. And so he makes covenants with them. He tells them how to build the tabernacle so that he might dwell in their midst. He establishes the priesthood so that they can atone for their sins. He establishes all of that. And then we have chapter 32. Probably don't need to read it. Everyone knows the golden calf incident to pretty clearly Disobedience me just show of hands disobedience or faithfulness disobedience. Okay, right so Israel clearly disobeys and so what is the consequence or result of Israel's unfaithfulness It depends. It depends on what covenant you are working from. If you are working from the covenant of Mount Sinai, here is the consequence. It's clearly stated in the text itself, and it is this. I have seen this people, and behold, it is stiff-necked. Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation out of you, Moses. That's the result of the Sinai covenant. Are you tracking? According to that covenant, Israel is consumed right there and all that's left is Moses. And they're starting over. So wait, wait, wait, but that's not what happens. Why? Because Moses appeals to God, he intercedes and says, wait, God, remember you just made this covenant at Mount Sinai with him, you just entered into this relationship, give him a little more time, is that what he says? Let's find out. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? By the way, why did he bring him out of Egypt? because the promises he made to the patriarchs, just as he told Abraham he would, he has done. Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains? He appeals to God's own character and reputation, him, to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. And here it is, listen very carefully. Remember the covenant you just made with them and the 10 words you spoke, because I'm sure they'll get it right next time. Wait, no. Sorry, my eyes are not as good as they used to be. Let me try that again. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that is Jacob. Remember them why? Remember them how? Because they were such beacons of righteousness? Have you read their stories? Is he appealing to their obedience? He's appealing to the promise. He's appealing to the covenant made with the patriarchs. So on what basis should God forgive? Not on Mount Sinai. Not on those grounds. Not on that basis. Mount Sinai demands, requires law. Requires, I'm sorry, obedience. Obedience to the law. So it is. throughout the rest of Israelite history that every appeal is grounded in the patriarchs, not Sinai. Here's what's crazy. You know what's crazy? Is that we still go back to Sinai. We go back in all sorts of ways. And we want to attach ourselves to that community as though that geopolitical nation, again, I am not talking about just descendancy here, all right, I'm not talking about Jews individually, I'm talking about that which was constituted by covenant at Mount Sinai. The writer of Hebrews is clear, and so is Paul in Galatians, right? to attach yourself to that covenant is to commit to perfect obedience. And so that's one way. I mean, it's a way, all right? I don't suggest it. Like, if you've read your Bible, it never seems to end well, but it is one way that you might be right with God. If you are perfectly obedient, then God will accept you. You know, if you rule over sin in such a way that sin does not take hold of your heart, if you respond rightly, if you hear God's voice and you obey Him, if you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, always, and love people as yourself, always, then you and God are okay, and you really don't need to be here with us. But for the rest of us, who actually are wretched sinners, who, according to the law, would be among those standing at the base of Mount Sinai, partying it up with Aaron in front of the golden calf, waiting to be consumed by God's wrath, just storing it up, just storing it up for the Day of Judgment. That's the rest of us. I suggest flee from Sinai and cling to Christ who actually accomplished that which was promised to Abraham. I don't know where I'm at. I was gonna go to the Davidic covenant as well. I think that's a recapitulation of the Abrahamic covenant. It's based on promise as well. So that even when God says, when your son commits iniquity, I will discipline him, but I will never remove my steadfast love from him. That's promise. That is only received by faith. Let's try to pull this together. This is what I want us to see. There's one problem and one solution. It's like we can get all caught up and there's all sorts of things that we feel like we need to know and understand. And there is, there is a lot. But let's at least all agree and see clearly what the Bible says about this. There is one problem and one solution. There's one problem and one solution. and Israel demonstrates the problem. Now listen, this is, I mean, if you ever hear me or think you hear me saying, and Israel blew it, and not hear me saying, Israel is representative of humanity as a whole. We are Israel in one sense, right? We didn't have the advantage, we didn't have the oracles of God, I understand there is an important difference, but it's not this, they're bad, we're good. It's just that they were set apart. for God's purposes to move redemptive history forward, to protect the seed that would come through the woman who ultimately would bring the salvation promised to Abraham. Promised first in the garden. So, Israel demonstrates the problem. Israel's a microcosm of humanity as a whole. It's all of us. Israel rejected their Lord, and we rejected our Creator. Israel has every reason to trust and follow the Lord as we read the scriptures. But we, too, know God's power and nature, do we not? And yet suppress the truth and unrighteousness, choosing to worship that which He created instead of the Creator, who is above all and over all. Praise be to Him. Israel refuses to follow and walk in the ways of God, and so have we. According to the law, Israel deserves a divine curse, exile and death, and so do we. So this problem, this problem, this one problem, that's the problem. This problem is our problem. We knew God. We refused to trust. We refused to follow. According to the law, according to the covenant by which we have related to God before coming to know Christ, we deserve exile and death. There's only one solution. Listen, I know that you've ever heard the story of the koala bear story. The Sunday school teacher comes in and she wanted to try something new and she's trying to get the kids' attention and so she's explaining that, you know, what's a bear? What's like a little bear? And it's got a black nose and lives in Australia and it eats What is it, eucalyptus leaves or something like that, I think. And anyway, so she's leading the kids along, and all the kids are just sitting there dumbfounded. And she asks the kids, what is it? And all the kids are just sitting there looking at her, like confused. And finally, one kid raises his hands. I don't know. I mean, it sounds like a koala bear, but I know it's Jesus. I mean, so I know that we might get to that place, right, where what's the solution? It's Jesus. We know it's Jesus. God forbid. Right? God has one solution, one plan from Genesis, from before the foundation of the world. It was to redeem his people in Christ. He didn't make it up on the fly. There wasn't a plan B. It was Christ all along. Everyone who's ever been saved from the garden to the consummation has done so by believing in the promised Messiah to come or the Messiah who has come. There's no other means of salvation, none. If you abandon that, you are back to works of the law, and you are condemned. God's word is clear. So, one solution. One problem, our problem. One solution. It's God's solution. The righteousness of God has been revealed as these two seemingly opposing principles, law and gospel, intersect at the cross of Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the law of God while atoning for our sins so that we might be made right with God by pure unadulterated grace, deserving death but receiving mercy, deserving to be cast out but receiving favor and love. At the cross, the law of God is kept for God's people. Jesus was obedient unto death. At the cross, the demands of the law for the cursed death of every sinner is satisfied for God's people. Jesus propitiates the wrath of God. At the cross, the promise of steadfast love towards those who by their wages earn the disfavor and disdain of God is ultimately demonstrated and eternally secured. That is the steadfast love of God. At the cross, the law and the gospel both, they both say amen. An insufferable paradox of redemptive history becomes an incredible portrait of God's steadfast love for his redeemed people. Praise be to God. All right, so we started with a quote from Luther. I'm going to end with a quote from Richard Sibbes, the Bruce Reed, a Puritan, who writes this. Moses, think about these words. Moses, without any mercy, breaks all bruised reeds. and quenches all smoking flax. For the law requires personal, and he's not wrong, listen, the law requires personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience from the heart, and that under a most terrible curse, but gives no strength to keep it. It is a severe task, master, like pharaohs requiring the whole tail of bricks and yet giving no straw. That's an apt description of the law. Christ comes with blessing after blessing, even upon those whom Moses had cursed, and with healing balm for those wounds which Moses had made. Please pray with me. Gracious Father, Father, as we look down the corridor of redemptive history, we see two paths. One, a broad road that leads to destruction. Father, a path where we attempt to earn favor in your sight, but only store up wrath for ourselves. Father, we thank you for that narrow path. that leads to life. Father, we thank you for the life, death, and resurrection of your son, his ascension, that even now he's at your right hand interceding on our behalf, that he has made a new and better covenant in his precious blood. Father, as we prepare to celebrate the supper that you have provided through sending your son, that his body might be broken for us and his blood spilled for us. Would you help us to meditate upon the security and confidence that we have because of the covenant established with the blood of Christ? Father, thank you for the promise fulfilled in him and that by faith we have been brought into your presence, accepted and loved, and that nothing in all of creation can separate us from that love. Father, help us to have no fear and to be glad and rejoice in the salvation that is ours. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, in whom we pray, amen.