We read the word of God from 1 John chapter 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him that beget loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his son. He that believeth on the son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that ye shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, And the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Thus far the reading of the Holy and Divine Scripture is on the basis of that passage and many others that we have the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 44. What doth the Tenth Commandment require of us? That even the smallest inclination or thought contrary to any of God's commandments never rise in our hearts. but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart and delight in all righteousness. But can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments? No, but even the holiest men, well in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience. Yet so, that with a sincere resolution, they begin to live not only according to some, but all the commandments of God. Why then, why will God then have the commandments, Ten Commandments, so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them? First, that all of our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin and righteousness in Christ. Likewise, that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in the life to come. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the passage in 1 John that we read and the Lord's Day 44 that we considered this morning are both almost unbelievable in what they teach. The John in 1st John makes a remarkable statement. There is a sin that is not unto death. That's astounding. God is a holy God. God is a righteous God. God does not let sin go unpunished. And the punishment for sin is death. All sin. All sin must receive the punishment of death. And yet John says, there is a sin that is not unto death. And the question is, why does John say that? And John says that because John makes another remarkable statement. We are in Jesus Christ. The relationship of the child of God to Jesus Christ is that he is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. So that positively he is a member of Jesus Christ and negatively he is not of the world. The child of God is an astounding creation of grace. The child of God is plucked out of the world. The child of God is cut out of Jesus Christ. The child of God who is conceived and born, dead in trespasses and sins is grafted into Jesus Christ and that child has life. He has a life that can never die. He has a life that is rooted deeply within his heart. He has a life that fundamentally consists of the implanting of the spirit and such is the character of that life that in his heart of hearts he cannot sin. And when he does sin, that sin is not unto death. And that sin is not unto death, and you better remember this, and you need to take comfort in this, over against all your sins, you cannot sin unto death. Doesn't matter how you break God's law. Remember, John says, all transgression of the law is sin it doesn't matter how you sin no matter if you make an idol or a graven image or you take God's name in vain or you're an adulterer or thief you cannot sin unto death that's the remarkable reality about the child of God And it's that truth, I cannot sin unto death, that truth that allows the child of God then to consider what the law actually teaches. All sin is transgression of the law. And the child of God, as the one who cannot sin unto death, the child of God can look at the law and the child of God can look at his sins in light of the law and he doesn't fear and quake. Why? Because he's been freed from that law. That stands behind what John is saying in 1 John 5 and what the catechism is teaching in Lord's Day 44. We have been freed from the law. Who teaches that? Who teaches that you're freed from the law? If you have a minister who teaches you that you are freed from the law, you have a true gospel preacher. Many will say we're freed from death. Many will say we're freed from sin. Many will say we're freed from wrath, but we're freed from the law. And in what sense are we freed from the law? We are freed from the judgment of the law for failure to keep it. The law's word always is that whosoever does the things of the law shall live in them, and whosoever transgresses the law shall die. Now if we can sin a sin that is not unto death, we are not under that law's condemnation. We are freed from it. The law cannot say to the child of God, you must keep me in order to live. The law cannot say it. From that sense, the child of God is absolutely free from the law. And from that point of view, the child of God also is even exalted in Christ above the law. He's above the law. you say oh it's antinomian to be above the law no it isn't it's christian christ is above the law christ is lord also of the law christ doesn't submit to the law he's lord of the law he fulfilled the law and we are in him And we are too exalted above that judgment of the law. That's why there's not a sin unto death. That's why there's a sin that's not unto death. You and I sin. We sin every day. We sin in all that we do. And it's never unto death. Because we are in Christ. It's in that understanding too that the child of God can even go to God for the forgiveness of sins he doesn't go to God asking for the forgiveness of sins doubting whether he has it he goes to God asking for the forgiveness of sins because he knows that he has it he knows that his sin is not unto death his sin grieves him His sin bothers him and he hates that sin, but he knows it's not unto death. Because in Christ, I'm above that judgment of the law. And it's only then that the Christian too can listen to the law strictly preached. The catechism here talks about good law preaching. It's important that the church know about good law preaching. The law always has a place in Christ's church. The law is never cast out of the church, but always Christ brings to the church that law. And the question is, what is good law preaching? And good law preaching is strict law preaching. That's what the catechism teaches. Why will God have his law so strictly preached? since no man in this life can keep it. Because that law for the Christian who is freed from its condemnation, that law has a good work to do. That law's work is not to save you. That law's work is not to bring blessing to you. That law's work is not to provide life to you. But there is a good work of the law. And chief among the law's works is that it teaches you who you are. It teaches you who you are by nature. And the catechism here shows itself to be masterful in its treatment of the 10th Commandment. It goes right to the heart of the 10th Commandment, And therefore it goes right to the heart of the law, and it brings right to our consciences who we are in light of the law. That law can't condemn us, but that law can and does point out who we are. And so we consider this Lord's Day under that theme, the perfect law of God and the Christian. Let's look at the laws, perfect demand, I'm going to examine the imperfect perfect Christian and we're going to look at the preaching of the law strictly. The Tenth Commandment in its literal language forbids covetousness. You cannot covet your neighbor's house, you can't covet your neighbor's wife, you can't covet your neighbor's manservant or his maidservant or his ox or his ass. There are things that the neighbor has and you may not covet those things that the neighbor has. And coveting in the language of Scripture is simply desiring. God made man a desiring creature. Man can no more not desire than man could not breathe. Desiring simply belongs to man's life in the earth. God made that man a desiring creature. And so as such, coveting in its broadest sense is simply desiring. and man desires all sorts of things. And God then in the 10th commandment exposes an evil desiring, that man's desiring is gone awry, that man's desiring is motivated by sin and by his own lust. And so we use the word covet. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not have evil desires toward your neighbor's house or toward your neighbor's wife or towards your neighbor's manservant, or maidservant, or ox, or ass. You may not have those wicked desires. But when the Catechism exposes man's desiring, the Catechism comes to the heart of the law and what that law says about man. All the other commandments are, strictly speaking, outward. You can't make yourself an idol. And so John also says, little children, keep yourselves from idols. You can't carve yourself something that you put your trust in. You can't have something in your life in which you place your trust. You can't have a graven image. You can't with your mouth take the Lord's name in vain so that somebody hears you swearing. You can't commit adultery with your neighbor's wife. And you can't steal things out of your neighbor's garage. Those things are all very outward. And so man can hear the law, and man can say, I do not in any outward way offend against the law of God, and so I keep that law of God. That's what the Pharisee always does. The Pharisee always makes the law very external. The Pharisee also bends that law into something he can do. The Pharisee, even in the outward sense, never takes the strict letter of the law. The Pharisee always bends that law, makes that law doable. But at least the Pharisee always makes the law external. The law simply addresses the life that man can see. And so the Pharisee says, I have not slept with my neighbor's wife, and I have not stolen my neighbor's things, and I do not take the Lord's name in vain, and I don't have any obvious idols in my life, and so I have kept the law. And the Pharisee does that, commandment one, commandment two, commandment three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and he says, I've kept them, kept them, kept them, kept them, and he checks the boxes off in his life, and then God says, ah, but you can't covet. And he destroys all the Pharisee's pretension at self-righteousness. I can't covet. But that talks about my heart. That talks about my mind. That talks about something I can't even stop doing. Thou shalt not covet. And when God said that, thou shalt not covet, the catechism explains that to mean God saying, you must be perfect. You must be perfect. And don't take that, when I say you must be perfect, don't take that in the external sense. You must do perfectly in your life. That's not what the catechism means. When the catechism says be perfect, the catechism addressing your nature. Your nature is the totality of qualities and powers that makes a man a man. There is a human nature. There is a horsey nature. There is a bovine nature. There's an ovine nature. There's things that make a sheep a sheep, and a cow a cow, and a horse a horse. There is an angelic nature, and there is a divine nature. A nature is very simply all that makes you you. God speaks about that nature when he summarizes the law. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. Man is a body, and in that body man is inhabited by, or rather, one unit with his soul. Man has a mind, he's a rational moral creature. He thinks about things. He plans things. He can carry things out with his body. And at the heart of all that is man's heart, which is the spiritual fountain of man's life, out of which comes all the issues of life. And so God, when God says, thou shalt not covet, God is saying, in everything that you are, With your mind and your heart and your body and your soul and your spirit, you must be perfect. And if you are not perfect, you are damned. That's simply the law. If you are not perfect, you are damned. The law doesn't say and the law doesn't mean ever be outwardly a good person. The law doesn't mean try your hardest. That's often what preaching of the law becomes. Preaching of the law becomes a laying out of the calling of man, and the preacher will say, now, beloved, we do this all by grace. And what he means by that is this. Try your hardest, and God's grace will help you to try your hardest. That's law preaching. But if you try your hardest, God will graciously accept your imperfect works as good works. That's what law preaching became in the Protestant Reformed Churches. I would dare say you could pick a sermon at random off Sermon Audio or off of YouTube and listen to law preaching in the Protestant Reformed Churches. It will have that sense to it. Here's what God requires. and here's God's grace, now you give it your best shot, you give it your best effort, and God will reward you. God will receive all your good works. You try to be a good parent, and God will make your children turn out. You try to support the school, and the school will exist. You try to love your wife, and you'll have a happy marriage. There's a blessing of God in the way of your obedience. That's law preaching. But you can't do that with the 10th Commandment. There isn't even in the 10th Commandment, try your hardest. The 10th Commandment looks at you really apart from all your doing. Take all your doing out of it. Take all your thinking and all the works of your hands and the paths of your feet and all your plans. Take it all out of it. Just you in your nature. before you think one thing or do one thing you and your nature and the law comes to you and the law says here's God's perfect demand and here's you and you're lying flat on your back you don't even hold up to the law because that law says be perfect be perfect not do perfect be perfect And if you are not perfect, understand, before you do one thing, before you think one thought, if you are not in your nature perfect, the Law simply damns you. That's the requirement of the whole Law. The First Commandment isn't about not having some carved image in your living room. is that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and if you don't do that, you're damned don't even bother getting to the rest of the commandments if you are not consumed as Christ was with the love of God you're a wicked person Don't talk to me about going to church and having an orderly house, or working hard, or having the right goal in life. Don't talk to me about that. Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? So that your whole being, every waking moment, and even while you sleep, you only dream about God, and you only think about God, and you only serve God, and you only seek God. With all your power, you're damned. If you don't do that, if that's not who you are. Do you see that there's no salvation in the law? That's the whole point of the law. The law never came. God did not give the law in order that by that law, he would displace his son, Jesus Christ. He didn't give the law that by that law, he might provide another way into heaven so that there's really two ways into heaven. God didn't give the law even to provide a remedy for you, to teach you to be a better person. God gave the law to make salvation by the efforts of man to be an utter impossibility. Whenever you hear the law, you have to think of this. I can't be saved. If you hear the law and you say, oh yeah, I did that, I did that, I got pretty good on that one this week, I'll try better next week, and I did this and did that, then you don't have faith. There's no salvation and there's no hope in the law. The law is like a great big millstone that someone puts around your neck and it drags you all the way to the bottom of the ocean. So that if you're above the Marianas Trench and you put a millstone above your neck, you're going all 36,000 feet down. You're not stopping until you hit the bottom. That's the law. Can't you see that in Israel? All things were well with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. And you'd even say all things were well. When God brought Israel through the Red Sea and to Mount Sinai, all things were well with Israel. Israel was going along just fine. And then God saddled them with the law. You know what the law did to them? It destroyed them. And the end of that law was that there was not one stone left upon another in the city of Jerusalem, but it was a burning heap. That's what the law does. The law simply destroys man. Doesn't help man. The law never comes to you and says, now, you can't have any idols. Let me hold your hand and I'm gonna make sure that you don't build any idols and you don't have any idols and I'm gonna help you. The law never does that. The law simply says to you, you don't have any idols, then the law finds an idol in your life and the law simply beats you to death. That's a law. That's its requirement. And let's just review what the catechism says about the law. That even the smallest inclination, you know what an inclination is, right? Just a little lean. Just a little lean. not the smallest inclination or thought contrary to any of God's commandments never rise in our hearts but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart and delight in all righteousness if that's not you then the law damns you that's all the law can say to you and yet the catechism asks and then answers a remarkable question but can those who are converted to God perfectly keep these commandments understand what that question is that question is not can a man perfectly keep these commandments the answer to that is an obvious no God of course made Adam so that Adam was able to keep God's commandments Adam as he was in the garden could love the Lord as God and did love the Lord as God for a certain period of time with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength that's even hard to comprehend that there was at one time a man who did that man is so vile and we've lived with that vileness for so long it's hard even to comprehend who Adam was but he did God made Adam in such a way that as king of creation you might say all Adam's thoughts were of God. When you look at a tree, it takes you several logical steps to get to God. Okay, you look at the tree's beautiful construction, it's a marvelous construction, and you look at the leaves, and you say those are beautiful leaves, and it must have very deep roots, and oh yes, God made it. Takes you a while to get to God. Adam looked at a tree, and he saw God's word in it. And Adam saw that with every single creature. Fishes, and birds, and deer, and tigers, and lions, and trees, and grass, and dirt, and rocks, and gold, and the sun, moon, and stars. Wherever Adam looked, all he could do is see God. And you might say he could see and hear the very word of God that created that thing. He saw as God saw. And yet there was a problem with Adam. And Adam's problem really was the law. And that law came to Adam in the garden in the form of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we call that, God called that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because by means of that tree, Adam learned what is good and what is evil. Gotta teach Adam that. And that tree very simply taught Adam this. What is of God is good, and what is not of God is evil. that really was the law as it came to Adam and that law was Adam's problem because if Adam had one inclination or thought contrary to that law he died for Adam there was no such thing as a sin that is not unto death Adam was judged strictly according to the law So that you might say Eve was beguiled. That's the difference between Adam's sin and Eve's sin. Women sinned different in the garden than the man did. They were beguiled. Satan tricked them. And that must be because there's something in the nature of a woman that Satan can get at to trick them. That's why God says they can't be office bearers in the church. Satan will go right through them and destroy the church. Adam's sin was very different. Adam saw his wife falling, and she ate, and he was standing there watching this all happen, and he really, at that moment, had fallen. His inclination was all wrong. He stopped desiring God. He stopped loving God. He loved himself, and he was done for. And he sinned with his eyes wide open. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew what he wanted. He did not want God, and he wanted to eat of that fruit. And he fell. He could keep the commandments, but one sin, he lost everything. There was no such thing with Adam as a sin not unto death. And man now, man can only sin unto death. That's what man by nature is. All his sin is unto death. There's no hope of deliverance for the natural man in his sin. He can't sin and say, oh Lord, I'm so sorry, I'm not gonna do that again. He can't even stop desiring sin. The sole man can do is love sin and hate God. and so of course there is with the natural man no keeping of the Ten Commandments that's what the Catechism taught earlier in the Heidelberg Catechism with Lord's Days 2 and 3 uh... what is our misery that we are prone by nature to hate God and the neighbor the natural man cannot love God the natural man can do only loving of sin that's the natural man but that's not the Catechism's question can man keep the commandments? Catechum's question is can those who are converted? and in John's language those that are born of God you have your first birth which is of the flesh and according to that first first birth all you can do is sin and then there is another birth it is a birth that comes out of the eternal counsel of God it's a birth that comes out of heaven and that birth lays hold on your heart and it begets you again as a child of the living God that's what it means and then you might say that takes place beneath the level of your consciousness for most of us probably that was in our mother's womb that's not always the case but within the line of the covenant that's the case ordinarily God begets again his children to eternal life in the very womb of their mother and conversion then is what takes place at the level of the consciousness God addresses his children in the very depth of their being he testifies to them and he witnesses to them by the spirit and by the word and by the water and by the blood and he assures them that they are gods and they have eternal life you might say he turns them from sin to the living God in the very level of their consciousness so that in the depth of their being there are new creatures And in their minds and hearts, they consciously know what sin is, and they consciously hate that sin, and they consciously turn from that sin. That's what the catechism is interested in. Or you could simply say this, he's interested in the true Christian, you and me. Can we keep the commandments perfectly? That's really an audacious question. and you'd be inclined to say, of course not don't you know who I am? of course, no and the catechism says that, no no and you can cleave to that no too, no that's what the child of God does with his sin he's grieved by that sin he hates that sin, but he's not surprised by it you shouldn't be surprised that you sin don't you know who you are? by nature you hate God and the neighbor and I would say this too, besides you can't even begin to understand how sinful you are have you really understood sin thoroughly? and what sin is? you like to focus on big things. Well, I was mean to my wife, or I was disobedient to my husband, or I disobeyed mom and dad, and you focus on those big things, but you're missing most of your sin at that point. And you think that if you've conquered some external vice, okay, that you've become a better person, but you miss half your sin. You miss three quarters of it. You miss 90% of it. You mess who you even are. Think of all the times that the smallest inclination to thought contrary to God's commandment did arise in your heart. Now we're dealing with sin. Now we're beginning to understand who we are. Think of all the time you don't hate sin. Think of all the time that you don't love righteousness. Think about all the time that not a thought of God arises in your heart. You're so concentrated on what you got to get done that day, you will forget all about God. Now you're dealing with sin. Can you keep the law of God perfectly? No. No. But, and this is remarkable, even the holiest men while in this life have only a small beginning of disobedience. And you have to define disobedience. Disobedience is defined in the question and answer above. There, God describes perfect obedience. And the Catechism says we do have a small beginning of it. In the German and in the Dutch it's beginsel, a principle. if you can think of that principle as an acorn and that acorn is going to die and it's going to sprout into this absolutely massive black oak tree huge you have the acorn and all life long it stays an acorn it's a principle it's all there but it's a principle That's what you have. And that's what John is talking about when John says, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. John cannot mean there that you don't commit sin because just prior to that he says there's a sin that's not unto death. Just prior to that, John says, if you see your brother's sin that's not unto death, pray for it. There's a sin that you don't pray for, that's the sin unto death. What John means there is the sin against the Holy Spirit. That's the one who is enlightened by the truth, who tastes of the powers of the world to come, who tastes of the word of life. That man who commits that sin unto death can only appear in the church. It's impossible for him to appear in the world. You can't have that man in the jungles. You can't have that man in some God-forsaken country. He can't appear there. That man can only appear where the truth is, and you might even say this, that man can only appear where the truth comes clearly and sharply as it does nowhere else in the world Judas was such a man the Pharisees were those people the Pharisees could have gone they could have hidden for a long time you wouldn't know how rotten they were but Christ came And it was in the very coming of Christ that those men were, as it were, stirred up to reveal who they were. This man, and I will say this, and I believe this, this man can only at this point in history appear in the Reformed Protestant churches. That's where Christ comes. And Christ comes with clarity and with power. So that all who hear that word are, as it were, lifted up into heaven itself. That's who this man is. This man, as it were, sees heaven. He sees its glories, and he sees Christ upon his throne, and he sees the great city of God, and he sees God's people in that city, and he can smell the glorious smell of the new creation. He says, I hate it. I hate it. And he calls God's work the work of the devil. He calls the truth wickedness. He puts Christ to an open shame. He does despot to the spirit. Think about that. Only in the church can that spirit come so close to a man. That spirit, as it were, comes into that man, and that spirit lays that truth upon that man's black heart. And that man punches the spirit right in the face and says, what are you doing? I hate that truth. Get it away from me. And he stomps all over the spirit. That's the sin unto death. Child of God can't do that. utter impossibility. A child of God can sin a lot of sin. A child of God can walk in sin for a long time. A child of God can blaspheme God. But he can't do that. There's a sin unto death. When you see it, There's no hope for that man. You don't have to pray for them. You know where they're going, and they know where they're going. But there is a sin that's not unto death. You pray for that, for yourselves, for your children, for your wife, for your husband, for the church. But there's a more astounding reality about you and me. You can't sin. You cannot sin. You almost had a loss of words to describe it. You cannot sin. But that's the truth. and that's who you truly are the child of God is not a mixture it's not who he is the child of God is that new person that has been begotten of God that new person that as it were lives in his heart that new person which is so moved and so actuated and so dominated by the Spirit that he never sins that's why the child of God always sins differently the child of God can sin and he can have a good time sinning because he's got a wicked nature but his heart is always against it In his heart, there's always that testimony, that's not who you are. You have been begotten from above. You may not do that. You are one of God's children. Why are you living like the world? There's always that in his heart. That can never go away. And that's the astounding reality that the Catechism is talking about. the holiest of men well in this life have only a small beginning of disobedience yet so that with a sincere resolution they begin to live not only according to some but all the commandments of God and you must understand something about that the law the law does not make God's children live that way it's grace not the law the law exposes who you are as a wicked person but the law never makes you keep God's law the law never gives you grace the law never gives you any help it's grace it's the spirit inside you it's your regeneration it's the powerful call of God it's not the law And so why even preach the Law? It's a very good question. And the Catechism gives really a two-fold answer to that. First, that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature. God will have His Law preached to you as imperfect, perfect Christians because you may never forget your sinful nature. You may never forget what that nature is, what that nature is capable of, and how sinful that nature is. That's why God wants His law preached. When the minister comes to you and the minister says, you can't do this, and you can't do that, and you can't do this, and you can't do that, the purpose of that is for you to say, I am a terrible sinner. That's why God will have His law preached. And what's God's purpose in that? That you wallow in your sin? You wallow in your guilt? You wallow in your doubt? No. God wants His people to know that they're sinners, thus become the more earnest in seeking remission of sins and righteousness in Christ. The law has been doing this since the law was given. The law is a servant of Jesus Christ to shut us up to him. Man's tendency is always to trust in himself. Man's tendency is always to make himself something. Always to give himself some credit. always to mitigate his own sin. You see that all the time. Somebody comes to you and they start to talk to you about how terrible that guy over there is. He does this and he does that and I can't believe he does this and I can't believe he does that. What's that person doing? I'm not that bad. And then the law comes and the law simply says, well, are you perfect? Are you perfect? then leave him alone because you've got bigger problems you're not perfect and the law is the instrument to drive God's people to Jesus Christ that they seek remission of sins and everlasting life in him not in themselves then the catechism says likewise this is why God will have his law preached likewise that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God till we arrive at the perfection proposed to us in the life to come. God wants us to endeavor, that we constantly endeavor and pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God. There's a wrong way to explain that. The wrong way is this, that the child of God In that principle, remember he has a principle of the new life of Christ, that the child of God endeavors, he's working really hard, and he becomes progressively more holy in his life. And you would say something like this, that principle in him grows. It doesn't stay a principle, it grows. It begins to sprout into the oak tree seed. and the child of God then by his endeavors the child of God can be a little holy and then a little more holy and a little more holy and a little more holy that's not true that's not what the catechism means when the catechism says more and more conform to Christ's image the catechism is insistent even the holiest of men have the principle He doesn't say the holiest of men have the oak tree. The holiest of men have the principle. Stays a principle. What does the Catechism mean then when the Catechism says more and more conform to His image? It's the outworking of that principle in the life of the child of God. Stays a principle. but all his whole life must be brought into conformity with that principle so that he thinks more like God, so that he purposes more like God, so that he wills more like God, so that he looks more and more like God in his life. God has the law preached that we endeavor that. We pray for God's grace for that. and I say the law does that because the law brings into sharp focus what a perfect man is that's what we'll have in heaven the perfection proposed to us that's not an offer if you work really hard then you'll get perfection that's not the idea promised God promised us perfection. In heaven, I'm going to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I'll never have one thought that arises in my heart contrary to His law. I'll be consumed with the thoughts of God and with seeking the glory of God. I'll have that in heaven. And the law presents that to us as in a mirror and says this is the perfect man. And as a child of God, begotten of God, I want that in my life. I want to be that person. And I ask God for that. Lord, make me more and more in my life to look like Thee. The law doesn't give that. Catechism says we ask for grace. The law doesn't give that. the law presents us the picture this is perfection and we ask Lord grant thy grace daily to me that I might know myself to be a sinner that I might receive forgiveness the cross of Christ that I might have thy spirit to conform me more and more to that glorious image of Jesus Christ amen let us pray Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee for the preaching of Thy Law, too. And that preaching of the Law comes with the Gospel, so that we're not cast upon our own works, but we're cast upon Jesus Christ, who obeyed that Law perfectly, whose righteousness is ours by faith, and whose spirit lives within us. Lord, ever move us by thy spirit that we might hate sin, that we might confess ourselves to be who we are, that we might believe thy promise, and that we might hope in heaven. We ask all this for Jesus' sake. Amen.