Well, we should go ahead and get started. I am only going to very briefly stand up here and just greet everybody and welcome you to King's Cross this morning. We are continuing through an Orthodox catechism, but as we have done previously in this series, we've coordinated some other teachers to take some of these sessions. And we're going to have our brother, T.J. Lucason, teaching today. If you're new to the church and you don't know T.J. very well, I just wanted to mention T.J. is one of our students with Reform Baptist Seminary. T.J. is a part of our ministerial cohort here at the church, and I'm very thankful for the gifts that the Lord has given him. I'm looking forward to sitting under your teaching today, brother. So I'll let you pray a service out, and at this point, I will simply walk down and listen to the lesson. Good morning. Good morning, all. Let's pray, and then we'll get started. Father, we thank you. for the church. We thank you for your word that you have given to us that we might know you. And we ask this morning that as we consider your commandments, that you would bless our understanding, that we would recognize how this reflects your character, that we would seek all the more to honor those you have placed in authority over us, that your established order would be continued and that you would be glorified. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so you will notice I did put this code on here. If you want to see the slides on your phone or also just have them later to reflect upon and email me about my errors, you'll be able to see all of it. So if you scan that, you should be able to access that, and that code will reappear at the very end. If you do need to walk up to the TV to grab that real quick, you may do so. But we are continuing through the orthodox or an orthodox catechism. We're not claiming this is the only orthodox catechism, but it is an orthodox catechism. So we have been working our way through the section of the catechism, which covers the Ten Commandments, the law of God under the grander category of gratitude in recognition that all of our obedience ought to rightly flow from gratitude for what God has done for us, through Christ, in order to bring us our salvation. And so today we reach questions 116 and 117. And so I'm just gonna put those up on the board in their entirety. Question 116, what is the fifth commandment? It is honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. And then question 117 is meant to explain, well, how do we do that? What does God require of us in the fifth commandment? That we yield due honor, love and faithfulness to our parents and to all who have authority over us. and submit ourselves with such obedience as is fitting to their faithful commandments and chastisements, and that by our patience we endure their mannerisms, thinking within ourselves that God will govern and guide us by them." So in order to try to expose some of what's here, what I've decided to do, and this is based on the fact that my first draft of this presentation would have probably been a two-hour presentation, and I thought we should actually have church later. So I cut it down, and the way I cut it down was I went back through everything, and I made like one summary statement for each section and said, if I can't boil this down to a sentence, it's not going to work. And so what I've actually come to you with is five theses. And two of these address more the It's kind of an introductory material because we have moved now from the first table of the law, the first four commandments, into the second table. And so two of these have to do with that, and then the latter three have to do with the fifth commandment particularly. So, the first thesis. And these are not controversial, I don't think, but I'm stating them as theses. That might be because I'm a... student right now, and you have to think about these things. The second table is that part of the moral law which summarizes man's duty to his neighbor. That is thesis number one. Thesis number two, in scripture, disregard for love of neighbor is frequently depicted as invalidating professed love for God. So here we're gonna be talking a bit about the importance of the second table, the fact that we can't, because it's number two, that doesn't mean it's unimportant. Number three, the fifth commandment is that which establishes societal order by demanding the proper reverence for superiors. Number four, superiors are honored by grateful acceptance, joyful obedience, and patient trust. And then number five, when superiors are honored, long life and prosperity are promoted. So that is what we're going to attempt to work our way through this morning. I think that we can do it. So, Thesis number one, the second table is that part of the moral law which summarizes man's duty to his neighbor. So if you've been here in recent weeks, you know that the first four commandments have been discussed, and in those there's been much talk of how is it that we honor God. The second table of the law transitions from that duty which is towards God into that duty which is toward man. But we should define a couple terms here. in case there are any who are unfamiliar with them. The second table, when we say second table of the law, we're referring simply to commandments five through ten of the Ten Commandments. You will notice that that means there are six commandments about how to love neighbor and four about how to love God. Perhaps, again, that is God's way of communicating to us. These are very important also, even though they are second in And then the moral law, what does that phrase mean? It is the eternal standard of righteousness derived from the character of God and summarized in the Ten Commandments. So when we use those terms, when you see them in the theses, when you read them in the catechism, that is what we are getting at. So the second table is made up of one positive command and five negative commands, all of which concern our conduct toward our neighbors. So when we say positive command, we mean something that you are told to do. You should do this. And the one positive command is our command today. Honor your father and your mother. That is something to do. Whereas the negative commands are commands that say, do not do this. They are forbidding you from a given activity. Five negative commands are do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, and do not covet. So that is the shape we have of the second table of the law. One, do this. Five, don't do this. Now, we understand that every one of God's laws has both positive and negative implications. So if there's a command, do not murder, you might argue that, well, perhaps then the law about having a railing around your roof in ancient Israel was the converse side of that. If you're not supposed to murder, you are supposed to value life and protect it as well as you can. So we can see that all of these would have implications on the opposite sides. But with the way we read them, there's one positive command and five negative commands. So continuing on in thesis number one, Jesus demonstrates this division in the moral law between the first and the second table in Matthew 22, 36 to 40. When he's asked an important question, somebody asks Jesus, what is the great commandment in the law? We all know this passage well, I would imagine, but Jesus responds, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. He could have stopped there. He was asked, what is the great commandment in the law? And he tells us, love the Lord your God. But he chooses to go on, and again, I think this emphasizes for us the importance of the second table. He chooses to simply include it, even though he wasn't asked for it. A second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So in conclusion for our first thesis, we would say this, the second table of the law is an eternal standard by which the love of neighbor is defined. So hopefully in the coming weeks as we discuss the second table, you will have a clearer and clearer picture of what does Jesus mean when he says, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, he means do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet, honor your father and your mother. These things, those should give us sort of data points as we think about what does it mean to love neighbor. But that brings us to our second thesis. In scripture, disregard for love of neighbor is regularly depicted as invalidating professed love of God. So to put it positively, we might say this, those who do not love neighbor do not actually love God. That seems to be a fair point that we can draw out of a number of texts. I've chosen two to discuss this. 1 John 4, 19-20, very famous passage, one that we quote often, especially the first verse of it. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. So we seem to get this implication from this that if the people that are right in front of you, if you don't love them, then it might be a stretch to claim that you love the God who you cannot see. And I think it's interesting because we quote, especially the first part of that verse, very often, we love because He first loved us. And I know I've done this, where when I quote that, what I'm talking about, I'm kind of usually justifying Calvinism. I'm saying, I love God because he first loved me, like he initiated, I did not initiate. And I think that's true, and that's fine. But I don't think that's what John is actually emphasizing in these verses. I think John is emphasizing the reality that we love our neighbors because God first loved us. And you see that with his discussion of loving brothers there in the latter part of the verse. For this one, it's a little long, so if you could turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 1, 10 to 17. I think we can see this played out a little bit as well in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 1, verses 10 to 17. And we're going to see here a reality, which is God's sort of disposition towards those who come to the temple and they offer sacrifices, they do all the things that they think they ought to do when it comes to their religion towards God, but they are not doing what they ought to do in their piety towards man. And we see the way that God describes this in these verses. So I'll read verses 10 to 17, and then we will look at a few particular portions in there, three particular passages. So beginning at verse 10 of Isaiah chapter 1. God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah, says this, Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Those, obviously these are, he's not talking to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, they have been erased a long time ago. So he's using those titles as sort of derogatory. Like, you're acting like those people. But going on, verse 11. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, and the calling of convocations, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. So in those verses, I think we see God give a description here of the sort of person who thinks that they are doing all the first table right. I love God. I bring him sacrifices. I do all the things that I'm supposed to do, but is not loving neighbor. We saw in verse 13, God rejects the worship of the people. He says, bring me no more vain offerings. I don't want your offerings. But he doesn't quite say why yet. Verse 15, he gives a little bit of an explanation. He says, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. That combination doesn't make sense to God. He says, don't gather solemnly to praise me while promoting injustice and not helping the widow and the fatherless. in the world. But then verse 17, I think we get a little bit more description here of exactly what has angered God. He says this, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. So I think what we see here in Isaiah is the importance of the second table clarified. which is that we can, well, actually, I'm gonna read you a quote. I think it's very good. It's in my conclusion here for this thesis. As the Puritan Thomas Watson says, by the first table, we walk religiously toward God. By the second, we walk religiously toward man. He cannot be good in the first table that is bad in the second. Thomas Watson speaks incisively and wisely there, but he wants us to remember that love of neighbor is not an optional add-on to true religion. Remember how James defines true and undefiled religion. It is to care for the widow and the orphan and to keep oneself unstained from the world. We must remember that even though we're moving into the second table, which might seem of second importance, and perhaps technically speaking it is, that does not mean that it is in any way expendable. We remember Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees and how they would tithe on their mint and their dill and their cumin, the smallest matters of sort of first table observance. You know, I'm going to worship God in all the most astute and perfect ways. And yet, what did they neglect? Justice and mercy and faithfulness. And Jesus pronounces woe on them because of that. He says, woe unto you. That is a declaration that judgment is coming. And that is because they were neglecting the weightier matters of the law. And so we should remember that as we move into discussing the second table. But now we move on to discussing particularly the fifth commandment. And so thesis number three, the fifth commandment is that which establishes societal order by demanding proper reverence for superiors. And now I will say probably prior to studying and preparing for this and reading a number of older Protestant sources, this is maybe not how I would have summarized the fifth commandment a few weeks ago. But the more I read them, the more I saw that they were emphasizing the importance of maintaining the order which God has established in the world. And that the one of the ways, not the only way certainly, but one of the ways we do that is by honoring the authorities that God himself has established. We see this quote from Calvin, and here he's describing the scope of the commandment. So the commandment says, honor your father and mother. No Protestant essentially has ever said, that means only your father and mother. Like, everyone else, don't worry about them. Just, you know, do what you want to do. No, pretty much all the Protestants have just said, father and mother are synecdoche, is the word Calvin uses at one point. You know, it's a stand-in for the larger whole. And so Calvin says this, since the maintenance of his economy, that is the order God has established, pleases the Lord God, The degrees of preeminence, that is kind of the superiors and inferiors of society, established by him, ought to be, this is strong language, inviolable to us. As an American, I, inviolable, I don't know about that, Calvin. But he says, this then is the sum, that we should look up to those whom God has placed over us, and should treat them with honor, obedience, and gratefulness. I think Calvin is supported here in Romans 13 one, A famous passage we've talked a lot about in the last few years, broadly as the American church. But Romans 13.1 contains an imperative and that imperative is immediately grounded in an indicative. So a command and then a statement of fact that tells us, gives us rationale. Why should you obey this command? The imperative, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For, here's the indicative, there is no authority except from God. and those that exist have been instituted by God. So God has established in our world a variety of authorities or superiors. You see that word superiors a lot in the Protestant sources, so I've been using it. I think it's helpful. The Protestant tradition has agreed virtually unanimously that this commandment requires honoring all authorities appointed by God. not only father and mother. Obviously, if we wanted to be very strict in our reading, I guess you could say that this commandment only says father and mother, but we do still have a number of other commandments, such as Romans 13.1, Ephesians 5 and 6, and all these commands about honoring father, honoring husband, honoring church leaders, things like these. And so, we do recognize that at the very least the scriptures do call us to the honoring of the proper authorities that God has instituted in our world. So in his commentary on the Ten Commandments, Pierre Verret, who was actually a friend of John Calvin, says that the Fifth Commandment has particular regard to the order and rule which is necessary among men, and the authority of superiors toward those over whom they exercise authority, and the honor and obedience which those under authority must render to superiors. So the idea we're getting at here is that God is a God of order. We see this in 1 Corinthians. God is a God of order and he actually crafted human society with spheres of authority. And when those spheres of authority, when the authorities in those spheres are not honored properly, then society does not function the way God has actually designed it. So the order established by God is founded upon the authority that he's granted to these various roles in society. And if those roles are dishonored, society cannot stand. I think this is most immediately obvious and perhaps this is why God chose to use the example of mother and father in the commandment when we see it in the household. If the parents of the household are not honored, then order and peace are banished from the household. There cannot be honor in a household where the father and the mother are not properly honored. There won't be peace in a household like that. And I think we can extrapolate from that and say similarly in a church. where elders are not honored. There is not going to be order in that church. And in a society where civil magistrates are not honored, there will be order in that society. But we do recognize, as I've just indicated, the commandment is not limited. So we're talking here about scope. It's not limited only to biological parents. So while many Protestants, if you go pick up Thomas Watson, or Thomas Boston, or Vermigli, or I'm gonna say Vermigli, is Alessio here, he'll correct me on Italian pronunciations. You can go find all these lists, Bullinger, and they'll each give you a different list of exactly who you're required to honor based on this commandment, but they're all very similar. And our catechism acknowledges this in the answer that we already read. We yield due honor, love, and faithfulness to our parents and to all who have authority over us. That's quite broad. You might argue, maybe that's too vague. Maybe we should be more specific. But I think it's a good answer and I think obviously we exercise wisdom in the way we understand it. Conclusion for Thesis 3. The Catechism teaches, in accord with the Reformed tradition, that the 5th commandment demands reverence not for parents only, but for all those who have received authority from God. And the scope of this commandment is not so narrow that you can just say, well, I'm nice to my parents and so I've kept the fifth commandment. The scope is broader than that. And now we'll talk about, well, what does it mean to honor? So thesis number four, superiors are honored by grateful acceptance, joyful obedience, and patient trust. So when we look at the entire answer to question 117, who do we honor? All those who have authority over us, including parents. And what do we do? We submit ourselves with such obedience as is fitting to their faithful commandments and chastisements. and that by our patience we endure their mannerisms, thinking within ourselves that God will govern and guide us by them. So I've attempted to summarize that in these three pairs of words, grateful acceptance, joyful obedience, and patient trust, but I'll attempt to show you where I draw those from. So grateful acceptance. We accept those who God has placed in authority over us, thinking within ourselves that God will govern and guide us by them. So we recognize actually our elders and our fathers and our civil magistrates are actually gifts from God. that God has granted to us, and we accept them knowing God has a purpose in that gift to us, that he will guide us through them, and we trust that. So we gratefully accept that God will guide us, therefore we accept the magistrates, the elders, the fathers, the mothers, all the different roles of authority in our lives. Under joyful obedience, we submit ourselves with such obedience as is fitting to their faithful commandments and chastisements. I teach at a school and you'll hear grammar teachers say often that you should obey right away with a cheerful heart. That's a common refrain and they make it rhyme somehow, I don't know how, I just remember the basics. But the idea, I think it's important because grudging obedience is not honoring. It ought to be joyful obedience that we strive toward. And we're gonna look at a quote from Bollinger shortly that I think he captures this really well. And I think he explains for us why this honor that we render to the authorities in our lives ought to be a joyful obedience to them. But then patient trust, you may not have, the line there is we endure their mannerisms. That's kind of language for, they're weird. They've got failings. They're not perfect. None of our leaders are Jesus. And so, in the way we interact with them, we recognize God has indeed installed this human being who has flaws and failings in authority over me. And this person's not perfect, but God actually knew all their flaws before he determined this. And God knew my flaws. And God knew that somehow in that interaction between this person and me and their flaws and my flaws and their wisdom and my need of wisdom, that that person can actually still lead me and teach me and guide me well in whatever way God has determined. And so we endure their mannerism patiently trusting that God actually knows, God has a plan, and that it will work properly. So, thesis number four, let's continue here. In application, this honor will have a varying nature. Depending on which type of authority is in view. So for example, the obedience that is due to your parents is different from the obedience that is due to civil magistrates or to pastors. I have a quote here from Vermigli. I'm going to continue to say that. And it's sort of a long quote, but I think it is worth reading. And again, if you scan that code, it'll come back up at the end. You can get the whole quote and there's a link to the whole work where you can find this quote. But he gives some good examples of the way this fleshes out. So he says, if a man shall be instructed by a godly pastor and teacher of the word of God and shall be brought to regeneration. So you're listening to someone preach, he is your pastor and you get saved. He's your spiritual father in a certain sense. And the same man have therewithal a father, of whom he was begotten, so a natural father, or have children, and the question be asked, whether he be more bound to his pastor, or else to his father and children, we must not answer absolutely. Vermigli is saying there's no yes or no answer to that question. You're not more bound to your elders than to your family, or more bound to your family than to your elders. You're bound differently to them. Your responsibilities to them are distinct. And sometimes when those come into conflict, you'll have to make decisions. But generally speaking, the way God has divined, the spheres of authority, those things don't generally contradict strongly. So we must not answer absolutely, seeing with our answer the matter would not be expressed. But we will say that in those things which concern spiritual friendship, we ought more to obey the minister of the word that teacheth us rightly and admonisheth us out of the holy scriptures than either the children or the father, if they persuade things that are contrary and repugnant. So you're a man or a woman and your pastor gives you spiritual advice that you are, he tells you you should do this. And then your dad gives you spiritual advice. You're more obligated to obey your pastor than your dad when it comes to the realm of faith because God has installed your elders over you as authority rather than your father in terms of that sphere. But he goes on. He says, and in particular, he does make the note, this is particularly true if the advice your father or your children give you is repugnant. If it's real bad, don't listen to it. So that's important to remember. But if we demand as touching things of another sort, namely of food and maintenance, there is more due unto parents and unto children than is unto others, though they be ministers of the word of God." So if you're a father in this room, you have a greater duty to see that your wife and children and even your elderly parents are fed than to see that our elders of the church are fed because of the way God has established. So if you got into dire straits and you had to choose, am I going to buy groceries or pay our elders salaries? You got to choose your kids because the way God has defined the boundaries in our relationships. So, to summarize the honor that is due to proper authorities, I don't think we can do better than what Heinrich Bollinger said in his sermon on the Fifth Commandment, where he says that to honor is to give praise to God as for a benefit received at God's hand. So the authorities in our lives are benefits that we receive at the hand of God. And as for a thing given from heaven that is holy, profitable, and necessary. The authorities God has granted to us are holy in that they are gifts from God, they are profitable, we can gain from them if we will submit ourselves to them, and they're necessary. Our society cannot function, our families cannot function, our churches cannot function, and our civil sphere cannot function unless we are obedient to the authorities God has granted. So to honor is to be dutiful and to obey, and so to obey as if it were to God himself. by whom we know that our obedience is commanded, and to whom we are sure that our service is acceptable." So, conclusion for thesis number four. Proper honor entails accepting authorities in the recognition that they are established by God, obeying those authorities as if we are working for God or as unto God, and patiently trusting that God will use even their failings for our good. I would argue when you wanna talk about honoring father and mother or keeping the fifth commandment, I think that is a good summary that Bollinger gives us and then I've attempted to do something similar down below without his learnedness. But thesis number five. When superiors are honored, long life and prosperity are promoted. Some of you may have your prosperity gospel spidey senses tingling right now. Just saying what the commandment says. So the fifth commandment is the first and only. It's interesting when Paul quotes the fifth commandment in Ephesians, he says it is the first commandment with a promise. It's also the only one with a promise. So I don't know why he says first, but he was inspired. But of the 10 commandments, that's accompanied by a promise. We see that here in the commandment itself, Exodus 20, verse 12. honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you." I've highlighted the promise there. So here we will attempt to answer two questions. I think these are important questions and hopefully they'll make sense to you. The first one is, is there a logical connection between the command that God gave in the first part, honor your father and your mother, and the promise The long life in the land, is there a logical connection between those or, well, we'll discuss that further momentarily, so I won't get into the options. Two, does this promise still apply under the New Covenant? I think that's a vital question for us to consider, and so we will attempt to do that as we get close to concluding. So the first question was, is there a logical connection between the command and the promise? And I think we have, this is a yes or no question. So we have two options here. Option number one is no. The reward could have been replaced with any benefit to the same effect. So an example of that sort of non-logical connection would be, you say to your child, if you clean up the toys, I'll give you candy. There's no logical connection between cleaning and receiving candy. It could have been five bucks or a cheeseburger. But that's the reward you chose. And so there you are. That's the reward. That's one option. Option two is that there is a logical connection between them. Yes, long life in the land is the natural result of honoring one's superiors. So an example of this is if you go to bed early, you will feel rested tomorrow. Well, why? Well, that's because it is going to bed early and resting longer, which makes you feel more rested. So there's a logical connection between those. I'm going to argue that option two is better, that I think we should see built into this commandment that when we keep this commandment, it will naturally lead to long life in the land and blessing. But I may have given away the answer for the second question, but we'll get there. So as we already noted, the Fifth Commandment is that which most obviously tends to the preservation of order in society. So Calvin, again returning to Calvin in his, this is from his commentary on the Fifth Commandment. He says, although charity, that is love, contains the sum of the second table, Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, that's the sum of the second table. Still, mutual obligation does not prevent either parents or others who are in authority from retaining their proper position. So there are some throughout church history who have heard the gospel and thought that this erases all social strata. There are no levels in society anymore. There are no more superiors and inferiors because the footing is level at the foot of the cross. The ground is level. We all are equal. I think Calvin would say there are certain senses in which yes, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We are all justified in the same way by faith in Christ. There are no works that play into it. God is not a respecter of persons. And so you are not justified because of where you are in the social strata. But also the gospel does not erase the social strata. So he says, So he says, Society doesn't work if we do not honor father and mother, if we do not honor elders in the church, if we do not honor civil magistrates. Society falls apart in that scenario. He kind of continues this a little bit later in his commentary. He says, the natural sense of the commandment itself dictates to us that we should obey rulers. So here he broads it, not just parents, but rulers, and that's a broad term. If servants obey not their masters, the society of the human race is subverted altogether. So the superiors, or when superiors, are dishonored. Conflict is introduced into our lives, in that we are placing ourselves in opposition to the authorities which God has established. And so in a certain sense, when you oppose authorities, you are opposing God, insofar as those authorities are acting on God's behalf. We obey the faithful commandments, as the catechism said, of our authorities. But when you oppose those, when you kick against the goads of the godly authority that has been placed over us, then you are opposing God. So examples here, when parents are dishonored, strife enters into the home. When elders are dishonored, strife enters into the church. And when magistrates are dishonored, strife enters the civil sphere. Obviously, all of that is very contradictory to long life in the land. When we introduce strife by our disobedience, by our lack of honor for those God has placed over us, that is going to come at the cost of long life in the land. You see this over and over in the Old Testament, in the dishonor that the people have. Like you think about the way they dishonor Moses. And the way that they murmur against him and they continue to receive different punishments for that, it does not go well for them in their dishonoring of authorities. So, that leads us to our second question. Does this promise still apply under the New Covenant? I think that because Paul references this promise in Ephesians 6, that indicates to us that even though the exact method of how God fulfills the promise to us may be altered, the promise itself remains valid. So we see that in Ephesians 6, 1-3. Paul says this, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. And he's quoting here, honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. It is interesting to note that where Paul says, in the land, he actually uses a Greek phrase, which is most commonly translated, apparently, I'm gonna learn Greek next year. But apparently, I learned this from somebody smarter than me, when Paul uses that phrase, in the land, in Greek, it's actually more commonly translated, upon the earth. which many take as sort of a new covenant adaptation of the old covenant promise. Obviously in the old covenant, they received the law at Mount Sinai, and they were on their way literally to the land of Canaan, which God was going to bless them with and give to them. And if they kept the covenant, they would have long life in that specific piece of geographic real estate. That is not the case for the new covenant. There's not one piece of land that we look to and say, if I'm real good, It's free real estate. That's not what's going on here. But Paul expands. He says, upon the earth, if we honor our father and mother, then it will go well with us. And we may live long upon the earth or in the land. So, conclusion here for our fifth thesis. Whether under the Old or New Covenant, honoring superiors leads naturally to long life and prosperity. Under normal circumstances, those who honor father and mother, pastor and magistrate should expect God's faithful fulfillment of this promise. I do not think that our transition into the New Covenant has abolished this promise. I do think that God, under normal circumstances, again, we probably all can think of multiple exceptions to this. And we know God's plan and those exceptions was perfect. That faithful young man who died at the age of 25 from cancer and honored his parents. In a certain sense, you might say he's an exception to this, but in the grander sense, and many commentators make this point, that no matter what happens in this life, God fulfills this promise ultimately by shepherding us into the eternal land flowing with milk and honey, which is the new heavens and the new earth. We will all experience that. But that should not mean that we don't expect any temporal blessing in this life. I do think we have merit or reason to expect that when we honor the authorities God has placed over us. So we'll end now with just a couple or three applications here. So, number one. Recognize the eternal validity of the fifth commandment as one aspect of the moral law. The moral law is abiding because it's based on God's eternal character, which is unchanging. And so we expect that these commandments retain their validity. Number two, remember God's call to congruity. We love neighbor because God first loved us. We keep the second table because we love God in the first table. But if we claim to love God and don't love brother, we are lacking congruity, lacking integrity. Then finally, number three, reverence every authority established by God in faith that God will preserve and prosper you. God is a God who keeps his promises. And in normal circumstances, we should expect that. Okay, that's the conclusion, but I do have recommended resources. If you scan this, you can get the slides on your phone, and then you can actually click on those links. Right now, you can just look at the pretty color blue. But those are all resources I would recommend. They were helpful to me in preparing this. Let me pray for you now before we head off to church, unless Pastor Nick has anything he wants to add before we depart. No, just thank you. It was great. Of course. Yeah. All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have spoken to us. We thank you that you are faithful. that you make promises to your people and that by your spirit you enable us to follow you, to do as you command. Without you, we would be helpless to obey your commandments. But by your spirit dwelling in us, we are able more and more, as you sanctify us, to do these things. And so we pray that you would enable us more and more, that we would faithfully obey those who you've set over us in authority, and that we would receive the blessing you promise in relation to it. We pray all this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.