Good evening, everyone. Good to be here tonight. First of all, let's spend some time reading God's Word. We have a pretty sizable text this evening, so open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter 21, and let's read from verses 12 to 32. Would you stand with me in honoring and reading God's Word together? Exodus 21, verses 12 to 32. This is the reading of God's Word. He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from my altar that he may die. He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He who kidnaps a man whether he sells him or is found in his possession shall surely be put to death. He who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. If men have a quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and he does not die but remains in bed, If he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall go unpunished. He shall only pay for his loss of time and shall take care of him until he is completely healed. If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken for he is his property. If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner has been warned yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death if a ransom is demanded of him then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him whether it gores a son or daughter It shall be done to him according to the same rule. If the ox scores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Amen. Please be seated. Let's pause for a moment of prayer, shall we? Father, we come to you with thanksgiving in our hearts for giving us the great privilege of studying your Word, for it is indeed the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. It is the double-edged sword that pierces through our hearts and judging the thoughts and the attitudes of our heart. We thank you that your Word feeds our soul. At the same time, it convicts us of sin. Would you, in your Spirit, apply the Word of God to us toward change, for the transformation of our minds, to a deeper consecration of worship and also to wield it as the weapon in doing spiritual battle, winning souls for Christ. Lord, we give you thanks for the men that you have granted to our church and our fellowship to equip the saints and we thank you for their labor in the Lord. We thank you for our brother Jeremy, in the way that you are maturing him and preparing him for the purposes of eldership and we continue to lift up his family and ask that you would strengthen his wife and his child and may his family and his life and his doctrine and his walk with you be exemplary in all ways and provide the basis of solid ground for ministry and co-laboring together with me for the body of Christ, along with the guidance of the elders. We thank you, Lord, for our brother Matt and our sister Sandy and their preparation. We give you praise that you have set them apart for the work that you have prepared for them in Taiwan. We pray for Matt that you would give him a spirit of wisdom and of knowledge and understanding, that he will proclaim the word boldly, equip the saints there at EBCT and proclaim the gospel to the lost, and that you would reap much fruit from his diligent and faithful labors. We commit to you, our brother James, in his continual progress in the seminary, at Master's Seminary, we ask that you would richly endow him with understanding and a deeper love and appreciation of your Word, and that he would be ever more faithful to the call of Christ. Lord, we give you thanks for Ben and Dennis and their faithfulness in Taiwan. We pray for Ben, especially as he prepares to embark upon the journey and be better equipped in seminary this fall. And we ask that you would give him a smooth transition, help him, Lord, to pass the baton of faith smoothly to Matt as Ben and Dennis transition back to the States, and we commit them to you. We give you thanks for our tent makers, for our brother Scott. We thank you for our sister Hazel. We thank you for our sister two sisters who are preparing to go right now and We just thank you for our sister Jennifer and the way that she's been so faithful there even surpassing her one year of commitment and love for the body and in her service to the rest of the Saints there We just give you thanks for the sacrifice and the love that they demonstrate with all the saints at EBCT and our summer team that's there. We thank you for all the good reports that we're hearing so far. We continue to lift them up in prayer and ask that you would keep them and protect them and empower them and energize their testimony and help them to be not be sick or unhealthy through their process, but help them to be vibrant and energetic and take the gospel to every living soul who will lend an ear to hear. In the streets of Taipan, the campus of National Taiwan University. We give you thanks and praise for the wonderful ministry of the word and the equipping of the gospel ministry through our brother JM. Thank you so much for the way that you're equipping our saints through him. We continue to lift up our brother and ask you to strengthen him and richly bless his life as he serves you by serving the saints. We ask for your continual blessing upon the training and the equipping of the men of our church. And we thank you for the wonderful ways that our women in our ministry, not only the singles and the married women, but also the college students, we thank you how they're blossoming into fine young women of Christ, understanding their God-given roles and desiring to serve and grow in submission to Christ. And thank you for all the blessings that we and our church receive through the ladies' service. and we thank you for the outreach ministries we thank you for children and the augmented homeschool and all the volunteers we just thank you for a sunday school teachers and their commitment to christ and that the accurate teaching of the word of god and their love for the youngsters just thank you lord for all these things and uh... we thank you for the blessing of gathering together once again during the midweek when we're so busy and our days are so filled with business and and uh... and the things that perhaps pertain too much of the things of this world. Now, Lord, would you focus our attention on the heavenlies, help us to dig into the Word of God, teach us the Word in a way that it would not only be something that we would hear only, but that we would be doers of the Word, and so not to deceive ourselves, and that we would be workmen. Would you hide your servant behind the cross? Would you allow the word to go forth boldly with the clarity of the word, really grip our minds with the passion for the word, change our actions and our motives and our hearts and help us to be transformed and to be better servants of yours as a result of this time together. So we commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, last week, in the previous passage, we studied the hospitable relationship. Today we're going to see the hostile relationships here, as we think about the holy horizontal relationship through the law of God. we must understand the character of God, the purposes of God, of why He gave these commands to His people, Israel, and the eternal principles that are still binding on us today. And if you know anything about the law of God, you know that God is a God of justice and He loves righteousness. He expects His covenant people to enact these laws in a theocracy where God was King and Israel were His subjects. How does this apply to those of us who are in the New Covenant, those of us who are subjects to the Lord Jesus Christ, we're disciples of Him, What does this mean? And so we need to understand that we are not under a theocracy or theocratic kingdom. But the interesting thing about it is, is that Israel was and Israel will continue to be in the Millennial Kingdom. They are now in this period of national apostasy and God is saving few of them and bringing them into the one fold, one body, the Church. But there will be a restored Israel during the thousand-year reign after the Great Tribulation, where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will once again be the King and the Monarch, the Sovereign over Israel. And the Israelites will once again look to the Law of God, the perfect Law, and they will keep and abide by it. And of course, the nation of Israel will, for the majority of them, will submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, but then the individuals will reject the word of the Lord and a few of them will and it's surprising to me that the word of God says in Revelation that after a thousand years or over when Satan is released they will actually follow the deception of the enemy and will actually attack Jerusalem and the holy hill and the temple of God and God will have to judge them one final time. It's an incredible reality that that human sinfulness is just beyond human comprehension. The heart is deceitful above all else and who can know it? It's desperately sick, but praise God the Lord knows the heart and he gave us the remedy for that. So what is the overall lesson of these laws. Well, when they're a hostile relationship, the Word of God comes in and becomes the judge and the final arbiter of all problems within the theocracy of Israel. Let me give you a backdrop of what happens to a people that abide by God's law and what happens to a people that ignore God's law. Have you noticed Israel did not have a police force? It did not have a standing army. You say, well, under David's reign it did, under Solomon it did, yeah. It was only under Saul when men requested of the prophet Samuel, give us a king like all the other nations. Then Saul became the king and some sort of a governmental system had been established instead of a full-blown theocratic kingdom where God was the king. And so God told Samuel, they didn't reject you, they rejected me. And they rejected God's form of rule, but they wanted man's rule instead. And so all of Israel's history, even while there were some great kings, like David and others, all the whole of Israel's history is about deviating from the very perfect law of God that he gave during the wilderness journey. What happened when men kept the word of God, the law of God? They experienced tremendous protection from the Lord, prosperity, they experienced a spiritual revival, and when they deviated from the law of God, they experienced incredible unrighteousness, immorality, and injustice, and social upheavals, invasion from foreign enemies, and they experienced famine and pestilences, all kinds of judgments that the Word of God promised in His Word. If you go back to some of the recent history, you'll note that the Nazi party, with Hitler at its helm, really came into its ascendancy in power in post-World War I Germany with the minority vote. They had just a little bit over 30% of the vote. And yet Hitler and his party gained full control. Now, most of the Germans supported Hitler until it was too late, when they really understood his real agenda. then of course if you want to institute an agenda you have to completely ignore the laws of the land and that's exactly what this power did. He completely ignored the law of the land. basically set himself as the Supreme Chancellor, Supreme Ruler of Germany, as the Fuhrer, and then he changed everything around. The economic system, the military system, the human rights system, education system. And believe me, before they built the death camps in Majdanek, Treblinka, or Auschwitz, they were talking about racial annihilation in the lecture halls of Berlin. PhDs and scholars who supported Hitler and his ideology way before these things were ever even invented or built. And so Hitler basically changed an entire national system around. We look at our Constitution, and I'm amazed, frankly, being an immigrant into this country, having studied a little bit about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, I'm just shocked to see many people today talking about church and state, church and state, about the separation clause, which never appears in the Constitution. I'm shocked to the point where things like the income tax is never in the Constitution. The federal government has absolutely no right to tax labor. and yet that's being done. The Federal Reserve, there is absolutely no room for the Federal Reserve, a conglomerate of private bankers who are controlling national policy, economic policy. The power of the presidency, the executive branch, things like the executive orders, that was just unheard of until recent times. That's a modern thing. and all these new laws that are all of a sudden accepted as the norm when they have absolutely no basis in our Constitution. And yet the incrementalism that have overtaken us in our country, we're just almost blasé to it. Many of the people who are educated in the public education system accept evolution as the norm because the education system has been completely taken over by the state. That wasn't the case. for most part of America's history. Public education was not known, and yet our country produced some of the brightest and the sharpest minds under a very limited homeschool and private school systems. And yet we find that the church is weakened. These policies that have never been introduced into the Constitution are taken as the norm today. And it's funny how people talk about what is constitutional and what is unconstitutional and yet they completely ignore the constitution. What they mean is what I decide, what I like, what I favor is constitutional and what I don't like, what I decide is not right is unconstitutional. Many times human opinion and Supreme Court opinions without any legal precedence came into our legal system. And our country is a very different place today than as the framers and the founders intended it or as our history for 150 years have carried us. So we find ourselves in a very, very weird environment that had nothing to do with the original intent and the founding members of this country or the Constitution. Now, if you can understand, you can go read the entire Old Testament, you know how far Israel has deviated if you look at the law and how they lived. Because somewhere down the line, some leader, some religious support, some movement came forth and decided to ignore God's law and do their own thing. That's exactly what happened and was the downfall of Israel's depravity. And it wasn't just moral and spiritual, that was the foundational. But that affected economics, that affected politics, that affected education, that affected everyday life for Israel. And this is what we understand. We can be a tremendous student of history when we study scripture. So there's much for us to reflect upon. How in the world have we come so far in our country in this way? It's one question we can ask. But as the Church, we can ask the same question. How in the world has the Church of Jesus Christ come so far to a place where we find ourselves, where we consider things like Church membership, Church discipline, a commitment of membership, attendance, financial giving, personal involvement in evangelism and missions. These things are not commonplace in most churches of today, where it was very common. It was part of the very fabric of the early Christians. We just expect few people, the professionals, to do all the work while we spectate and just check out church once in a while or on the weekends. And this is the kind of spiritual life that most Americans are used to and comfortable with. That is far, far in deviation from the original church and how the Lord Jesus Christ founded the church and how He's building the church. So we can learn a lot about how far we've deviated from the ideal and the norm when we study the scriptures, both in the Old and the New Testament. So there's a lot of practical lessons here that we can learn. And there's important things that we need to transmit to our children as well as reform our minds and our thinking. So let's take a look at the relationships that the Word of God addresses and how His law is supposed to be applied in that society and which really reflects God's character. Israel is commanded to accurately understand and to maintain justice when there are hostile relationships, when there are conflicts between people. In these verses, four crimes are listed which require the death penalty. Notice the phrase in verse 12, it is introduced here, shall surely be put to death. We've seen that before. But this is the general principle that begins, and you'll find this all over this passage. Look at verse 15, "...he who strikes his father or mother shall surely be put to death." Look at verse 16, "...shall surely be put to death." Look at verse 17, "...shall surely be put to death." So first what we have is we have general principle of the death penalty, the capital crime, And there are some things that we need to learn before we look at the specific cases that the Lord brings in His law. First, the assault on people in a general way. He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. To murder a fellow human being is to attack the image of God. It's a violation of pre-Mosaic law that God gave from the very dawn of time to very first human beings. Cain knew that when he slew his brother he was guilty. Intuitively he knew because there was a moral compass that God has built into his human nature and his humanness. But more than that, Cain had a relationship with God, and he knew God to be the lawgiver. God clearly warned him about sin that is couching at the door and his desires to overpower him, but he must master it. He was warned, he was given a method of overcoming sin, and yet he did it anyways. After the flood, God gave Noah in Genesis 9, 6, "...whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man." Look at the rationale. If you kill man, you must be killed. Why? For in the image of God, He made man. Justice was expected to be carried out by Israelites themselves. They didn't have a standing police force. They didn't have a military. And yet justice was expected to be carried out. Who will carry them out? They must. they must appoint for themselves those who are integrous and faithful, wise and experienced men as their judges. Whose responsibility? It is the people's responsibility. God gave these commandments to them. As they obey God's laws, His mandates, they are to be blessed with people who serve the people. So justice was expected to be carried out by the people, and in this case, the relatives of the victim. But in the heat of vengeance, there may not be time for proper investigation and adjudication. And so God gives specific laws and instances. But before we get there, I want to just kind of point to some things. When a society detaches its fundamental reality of life, when a society belittles life, When the society ignores where life comes from, it comes from its creator. It sort of says in the Declaration of Independence, we are endowed by our creator certain unalienable rights like life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and so forth. The state doesn't give rights, the creator gives rights. Our founding fathers understood this. They made this the foundation of their claim on seceding from Great Britain, the tyrannical government, And they made this as a claim for them to find the providential leaning toward independence. Now, whether we agree with all that happened or not, that's not the issue. The issue is that there are people who understood that rights came from the Creator, not from government. you will have a distortion and flagrant violation of justice when you lean on man to give and preserve rights. Because human life is not what God says, I'm sorry, human life is not what God says it is, but what man defines it to be now, and that is what is being promulgated in our society today. But human life, biblically, we know, comes from God, is defined by God, and is protected by Him. And that is the foundation of all law. If you get life wrong, chances are you're going to get a lot of other things wrong. And that's why life issues are the foundational issues of any society. And in our society, things like abortion and euthanasia, these are all life issues that have been blurred by humanistic philosophy. We need to get back to the basics. Verse 13 says, "...if he did not lie in wait for Him." That points clearly to the differentiation and distinction between intentional and unintentional violence here. First and second degree murder. That's the difference between murder, first degree, with malice and forethought, and manslaughter, unintentional, accidental death. So God says in verse 13, But God let him fall into his hand. It is very clear that the Israelites understood the providential hand of God in people's affairs. Then I will appoint you a place. Notice, a place will be designated. And when they went into the land of Canaan, God designated 6 cities of refuge. And cities of refuge were connected with the priesthood, especially the high priesthood. then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee." So the judges of Israel are to be careful to distinguish between intentional and unintentional violence. And we must recognize this is a remarkable distinction in a time where vengeance was the norm, where huge familial feuds were the norm, and even societal wars were the norm. People went to war because it was the season to go to war. Might was right back in those days. And if you could conquer a city or a land, why wouldn't you? Conquering and enslavement was the normal way that one city or one kingdom would become wealthy. And that was the norm. Incidentally, the Greek writer Homer records that the Phoenicians occupation was kidnapping and enslavement. No wonder God says, my people shall not be identified with such heinous crimes. So this is a remarkable distinction. First and second degree murder. I mean this is very subtle considering the law of the land at the time. An interesting phrase here, but God let him fall into his hand. Interesting phrase God let him fall the Lord is in control. There is no such thing as fate there's only Providence and The Lord said and I will appoint you a place that he may flee Israel did not have a Force to enforce their laws it was expected to be enforced locally and before it was enforced tribally and nationally. So justice was expected to be carried out by the people that was immediately present, the town folk, the relatives of the victim, and that's the way that God intended. Very different system. Whereas in all the city-states that the Israelites would go into and conquer in Canaan, every one of those systems was a monarchy. Might was right. Some of these kings were worshipped as gods. They did whatever they wanted. They made the law. They changed the law. They did whatever they wanted. And yet God said, no, you shall live by my laws. And this is the way you should do it. In the heat of vengeance, there may not be time for proper investigation. And so the manslayer was afforded protection by God in these cities of refuge until judges and jury could be formed to properly investigate and adjudicate. That kind of jurisprudence is an amazing thing in light of the historical context. That kind of protection for the manslayer before he's proven guilty in cities of refuge, this is just unheard of. Again, notice how the Lord provided opportunities for justice to prevail and not revenge to prevail. The law served to protect the accused until he was tried, and until he was found guilty, he could not be prosecuted. Now look at verse 14. Now if this is familiar to you, those of you who are pre-law or you're studying law, then if you study these passages of Exodus, especially Deuteronomy, then you can become expert in not only in biblical law, in the perfect law of God, it will help you very much to understand constitutional law, which we're further and further walking away from in our country. Let's take a look at the next passage. If, however, notice there's an if clause. It shows it's a conditional clause. So it could be, it could not be, but this condition is obvious. I mean, it could happen any day. If a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, and this happened frequently, so as to kill him craftily, notice this is a description of premeditated murder, there was absolutely no protection. You are to take him even from my altar that he may die. That's a very bold and powerful phrase, even from my altar. Because even if someone were to cling to the altar, and if you know what the altar is, the altar is within the boundaries of the tabernacle proper. You would have to go inside that tabernacle proper, which was forbidden. Only the Levites could go in there. And if you go in there and you try to hold on to the altar, it could not be the brazen altar because that was hot. When things were burned under, so you would have to go actually inside to the holies, and then the holy of holies. You're basically determined to die. You're throwing yourself at the mercy of God, and this is a sign of complete and utter dependence on God, so help you God. That's what it was. And actually in 1 Kings 2.28, there was a guy who did that. His name was Job. He used to be the commander of the army under David. But David, when he was about to die, left the will to Solomon and said, Solomon, I want you to remember Job, performed a treacherous act, he cannot be left unscathed." Use your wisdom, take care of business. Do not let him go down the shield, down to the grave in innocence because he is a violent man. Guess what happened? Solomon was being installed as a king officially by Nathan the prophet, and all the while there was a completely new political movement that's going on to support Adonijah. Job, being the most powerful military man, was supporting Adonijah. He's the most popular guy. He has the best political clout. The Solomon is nobody. He's the son of an adulterous relationship. He is too young. Most of the people who were politically savvy did not think that Solomon would become king. But David, in his illness, appointed Solomon as king. When that truth was found out, the news came to Job, it says in 1 Kings 2.28, Why? Because that was tantamount to political treason. And now he's in big, big trouble. He has just offended the newly appointed king, and he is not about to go unscathed. He is not about to escape this one. And not only that, he sided with the wrong team. He sided with a guy that was in direct opposition to Solomon. But look at the next verse. Notice where he went. He went into the very tabernacle. This is pre-temple, obviously, right? David's still living. And behold, he is beside the altar. He's beside the altar. He's holding on to the horns of the altar. There are four horns. He's holding on to them. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiah, and saying, Go fall upon him. That's just Hebraism by saying, Go kill him. Overtake him. And why do you think that Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, had the guts to go inside the very tabernacle that was forbidden? Because there was a command like this, verse 14, If any man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor and is to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from my altar, that he may die. There is a conditional clause in the law of God that would allow certain very restricted times when there is a flagrant first-degree murderer who had fled into the tabernacle just to get himself some sort of protection, a religious protection, so that he won't be overpowered. Solomon said, no, don't fear him. Go in there and get him. And Benaiah went in there and slew Joab. And we know that that's history. There's no rest for the wicked when the Lord is the Lord of justice. Now, what do you understand about the character of God here? You understand that God will not allow the wicked to persist. We understand that God is a God of absolute justice. Now, we cannot expect perfect justice in this side of eternity, but we can surely expect that God will bring about His perfect justice as the writer of Hebrews reminds us in Hebrews 9.27, just as it is destined for man to die once and after that to face judgment. Real judgment comes after we die. Now the general principles have been laid out. The Lord dealt with general principles of life and what He thinks about its proper punishment. Now He's going to go into more specific cases here. We saw the general principle of assault. And what is the consequences of that? Now we're going to see the abuse of parents here in verses 15 and 17. Verses 15 and 17. So the first case that the Lord brings to Israel's attention after the general principle is the physical abuse against one's parents. This was a direct violation of the 5th commandment. As is the entire violation of harming your neighbor. Murdering is a direct violation of the 6th commandment. And verse 15 says, And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. There's that familiar phrase, shall surely be put to death. It's interesting, in Hebrew, that's the same word, death, repeated three times in noun and verb formats. That's for emphasis. Death, death, and dying. and it's translated, be surely be put to death. The message was clear. The children who had no respect for their parents usually have no respect for any other authority. And they only want their own selfish and sinful way. And children who demonstrate such wicked violence against the very people who procreated them, gave them life and sustenance, must be eliminated from society, else the society will have to pay much greater consequences later on. That's the message. And God is serious about children acting in hostility toward parents, the abuse of parents, whether it's physical or whether it's verbal. Look at verse 17. And he who curses his father and mother, same penalty, shall surely be put to death. God makes no distinction between those who demonstrate malicious attitude in speech and those who act maliciously against parents. The one who curses his parents obviously expresses evil intent. Such overt examples of evil against God-ordained authority must be put away from the community of God, and that's what God says. The Apostle Paul says in the End Times, men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, and in 2 Timothy 3, verse 3, unloving. irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." That first word in verse 3, unloving, is astorgos. Actually it's in the plural, astorgoi. It's noun. But Greek has a way of using the same word as a verb or a noun. And it's a negation. The A in front of the word negates the word. Storge is the noun. And here, astorgoy here in the plural, unloving people. Storge was a natural familial love. It's the love that a parent has for a child and child naturally has for a mother or father. And yet it says unloving. There's no natural affection at all in the end times. Isn't it amazing that our society, especially our culture and the media, promote rebellion? In its music, in the movies, in its attitude, and especially through its education at school. It promotes rebellion. Disrespect to parents. And I said it again. I said it before and I said it again. We're living in rapidly changing times where generation gaps seem to be huge because our parents come from pre-computer generation and we're born and immersed into a computer generation. We may just kind of look down upon them and think that they're somehow not sophisticated. There's a language barrier. There's a cultural barrier. It's easy to look down upon them with disdain and think, well, they're not very sophisticated or intellectual. It's easy for young people to do that. On top of that, you have the whole society moving against parents, belittling especially the father figures. The Word of God is very clear. Only the authority which trumps parental authority is the Lord's authority. And God says, if you curse your father and your mother, you demonstrate hostile behavior and speech, you shall be put to death. And that's the heart of justice. That's the heart of righteousness that the Lord wants us to know. He who assaults must pay. And he who abuses must die. Now let's continue with the next passage. Acts of violence here described in verses 16 and 18 to 26. First there's the kidnapping in verse 16. And he who kidnaps a man Whether he sells them or he's found in his possession shall surely be put to death. Most of us in our society are familiar with kidnapping for ransom money and also for the horrible sin and the wicked sin of abuse and sometimes sexual abuse. But in a poor economy, kidnapping for the purpose of enslavement was the most common reason why people, innocent people, would be just snatched away from their home and their family and be taken to a faraway country. That's what happened to Joseph, remember? It was the wickedness of hatred and jealousy of his brothers that landed Joseph in the hands of the Ishmaelite traveling salespeople who bought them and then sold them to the Egyptians in Potiphar's house. We already know that for sure that pagan nations, this type of activity was commonplace. After all, even in the first century, the entire Roman government ran on slavery. Where did they get the slaves from? They conquered lands. They just snatched people away and they enslaved them. Forced slavery was commonplace. God commands that Israel understand the evil of theft and the greater evil of human theft. And such heinous crimes in Israel will not be tolerated by God. Such crimes were once punishable by death in America. But now kidnappers get a slap in the hands. Sexual predators get a free pass. It's amazing how we are so sophisticated in our views and we consider such civilizations that exercise the capital punishment barbaric. Now I'm afraid that history will show that we are the barbarians. ignoring what is true, good, and perfect, the law of God. Let's take a look at the next passage, verses 18 to 21, bodily injuries. Verse 18, And if men have a quarrel, and one strikes the other with the stone or with a fist, and he does not die, but remains in bed, and that's the condition of verse 18. All of these laws are to be carefully studied by the judges of the land, because these are civil and criminal laws that must be interpreted and exercised. The penalties incurred upon the perpetrator of bodily injury here point to God's standard of justice and the necessary adjudication in proper compensation. And this passage assumes that no quarrel should cross the boundary of physical violence. It assumes it. And it also assumes in the context that a stone or a fist was used, therefore, it wasn't premeditated. It was in the heat of anger and violence. It wasn't the use of a knife or a stick. It wasn't a preparation to exercise violence. It was in the heat of anger. So that's what's described here. So if somebody gets hurt, but he does not die in verse 18, but remains in bed, If the strike was malicious but controlled to the point of preserving life, somebody picked up a stone but he didn't strike him hard enough so that he would die, there must not be a full punishment of death. He shall go unpunished. Now this term doesn't mean that he shall go free, scot-free, no. It says he shall go unpunished. Oftentimes the word unpunished means that his own life shall be spared. But there's always a caveat. but appropriate compensation must be rendered by the perpetrator of the crime and the basis of the compensation are based on two major factors. Look at the next phrase. Loss of time and medical expenses here. Verse 19. If he gets up and walks around on his staff, and there's a clear indication that he has enough strength to walk around, even with assistance of a crutch, then he who struck him shall go unpunished. does not mean that he goes scot-free. He shall only pay for his loss of time and shall take care of him until he is completely healed. In a time in history and in a culture where the person who has the might can do whatever he wants and who is weak has absolutely no recourse, no appeal to the king, Because the king is going to listen to whoever has the might, whoever has the money, whoever is loyal to the royal court. He's not going to listen to Joe Nobody who got hurt. It was just too bad. Go home before I kill you. That was the way that things were handled back in those days. And yet God says that will not be in Israel. And yet without any police force, no military, no major supreme court system, all this is expected to happen locally. That's what's amazing about this law. It's expected to happen locally. The power of God's law under the submission of faithful people. That is a formula for a great blessing indeed. Let's continue on. Since a hurt man can't walk, or if he can walk, he can't work, a calculated fee must be rendered along with the proper fee for medical expenses. So it's very clear. If you commit any crime as related to violence, you must pay. And if you kill somebody, you will pay with your own life. That's very clear. So we consistently see God's standard of justice and righteousness, but also His value of human life. We see that. Let's look at the next phrase here, verses 20 to 21. Injuries incurred on property. And this is what happens in verse 20. And if a man strikes his male or female slave, notice there's no distinction between male and female in this case. And it's very important because God does make a distinction in other cases. It says here, if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. Notice what happened. A slave died. How? With an instrument. That means he picked it up and he used it as a weapon. So it's serious. This is not a heat of the moment where he just slapped the slave or struck him with his hand. He used a weapon. He used an instrument and he did this. Not to discipline the servant, but he beat him so hard that he or she died. Verse 21, If however he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken, for he is his property. Now, before we inject our 21st century morality and ethics and our standard into that century and that generation, let us be amazed at the incredible law that we just read. Because you will not find such a law even existing. Any kind of rights or protection for any slaves, you won't find any law of any protection for any rights for any slaves in any culture during that time. You just won't. but you do here. You see the Bible writers assume and the community of Israel as well as the New Testament community they just simply assume that slavery was a necessary evil. That's hard for us to understand that how an almighty God and all good God could allow such a thing. Well he did because It was a culture where the sinfulness of man and the power and the might of governments and kingdoms and empires subjugated their fellow man into slavery. That was the norm. Thousands of years of history had made that practice normal, acceptable, and in God's infinite wisdom and His foreknowledge, He knew that one day it would cease to be that case, even though we still have that going on today. but for the most part it would cease, and this kind of horrible abuse would cease. But for the people of Israel, God simply allowed it because it was a necessary evil that existed during that time. This is a way for God to protect the slaves, though. But we're going to study a little bit later on how God wonderfully protected these poor folks, and we're going to see that. But let's focus a little bit here. The injury, if the injury is severe enough, the slave would gain his freedom from it. And notice how severe the injury must be. Look at verse 26 and 27. If a man strikes the eye of his male and female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. If the striking of the face causes one of his eyes to rupture or not usable, basically blinded in one eye, that would give him complete freedom according to the law. Look at the next passage. And if he knocks out a tooth of his male and female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. An eye or a tooth in anger by the master would free the slave. That was just unheard of in that generation. So it wasn't that he would chop off his arm. It would be a simple thing like this. So the ambiguity of the law here, he shall be punished, points to the need of the judges to carefully investigate and allow proper punishment to be applied, even for the master. And if the master is known to be cruel, and he routinely beat his servants with weapons at times, and if that could be proven, and other witnesses would come forward, yeah, that guy's a wicked guy, he's a mean guy, he just mistreats everyone, and this is not This is not foreign. The slave died because the man used the weapon. It says, he shall be punished. You know what that means? Even the master cannot go scot-free. He must be put to death. God's law is perfect. Human life is so precious that it even transcends social class and power structures and levels recognized in that society. What is untouchable in foreign cultures, in God's kingdom, in his theocracy, it's equalized because of his perfect standard of justice. That we can rejoice and give praise to our God. So, I think the passage is very clear that if he survives, shows that the damage was not as severe to cause the immediate death, that the slave would be let free if the damage is severe enough. If it caused them great harm, he would be let go for free. And it's up to the community to enforce that law. Now, it would be quite unthinkable for a slave owner to kill his slave or beat him senselessly, because a slave would be valuable, be valuable property, who can bring income and even prosperity. So it would be against common sense to mistreat slaves. One of the more fascinating fields of study is why God made a differentiation between the masters and slaves. That's a fascinating study here. But before we get into those kinds of things, we need to realize in the New Testament, Philemon, the Hebrew slave owner, as I mentioned last week, was told by the Apostle Paul that in light of what Christ has done, freeing us from the bondage of sin, Philemon the slave owner is now supposed to receive back his runaway slave Onesimus as a brother. And talk about God breaking down all the social barriers, economic and status barriers and cultural barriers in Christ. That's amazing. And that was expected, again, to be the norm. So we need to understand that in Christ, none of these things really matter. But we still need to understand character and the heart of God and there's reasons for exacting these things. Now let's take a look at the next segment of scripture verses 22 to 27. Accidental deaths. Now we've covered the first degree murder, premeditated murder. What about second degree manslaughter? What happens here? Verse 22, and if men struggle with each other, interestingly at the first example of manslaughter is about a pregnant woman. Very interesting, I thought. Men struggling with each other and strike a woman with a child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there's no further injury. That's the scenario, if. That's the case law, if. So we are not told why a pregnant woman is so close to be injured by two men fighting. But the best assumption in this scenario is that the pregnant woman is the wife of one of the men. perhaps the man who is being beaten. So she jumps in there, tries to save her husband from being overly beaten, perhaps being killed. Old Testament scholars disagree to what this next word means, rendered miscarriage here by the NASB. The New King James renders it gives birth prematurely, and the ESV, which has the most literal rendering, says children come out. That's what it says. So if a child comes out, it's better to look at the New King James and the ESV, and I believe that they have the translation of this Hebrew phrase correctly, and the NASB gives a slightly over-translation of miscarriage, pointing to the connotation that the child that comes out prematurely dies. That's what happens in most miscarriages. But the next phrase in the context shows that this is not a miscarriage that led to death, yet there is no further injury. Further injury to whom? To the mother or to the child. No further injury. He shall surely be fine. Who's the he? That is the perpetrator, the one who caused this woman to be hurt. Had to be the perpetrator, the one who was beating probably the man that the woman was trying to protect. Surely be fine as the woman's husband may demand of him. It is up to the community, once again, to make sure this is properly understood, interpreted, and applied. And he shall pay as the judges decide." Notice the plural, judges, to give objectivity. Notice where the responsibility lies. It lies with the people, with the community. So if there's no further injury either to the woman or the child, there must be financial compensation of which the amount is to be determined by the judge in light of the request of the woman's husband. Now here's the contrast here, verse 23, but if there is any further injury, now the lex talionis, the law of retribution is applied here. In light of the provision of the accidental death of the context, we must be careful to understand that the Lex Talionis, the law of retribution, points to God's tender protection against those who are most vulnerable. Here's a woman and her child, most vulnerable and most tender, need great protection in that society. And here are two men violently fighting with each other. What does the Word of God tell us? It told the Israelites, first of all, that you can take things and you can disagree with each other and you may even be violent. But if your violence, if your action causes harm to a bystander who happens to be a woman who is pregnant with a child, the weakest and most vulnerable people, I want you to know, I will hold you responsible. That's the message of the law. All Israel must understand that life is precious. and the most delicate and vulnerable life of a pregnant woman and her child must be highly regarded. It can't just keep fighting when she's there. The man who was probably beating up another guy when a woman who's pregnant comes along and obviously she's pregnant, he needs to back off. Because if she gets hurt, he's going to have to pay. That's what the law says. Very interesting. The context is very interesting. Why a woman? Why a pregnant woman? Very interesting. Notice the Lex Talionis provides the boundaries of justice. The punishment must fit the crime. The judgment, therefore, must be fair. No more, no less. If one is blinded by the guilty aggressor, the punishment cannot be a slap in the hand. It must be eye for an eye. Or if one has a broken finger as a result of the fight, and the result of the guilty aggressor to the woman or even to her child, the punishment cannot be the blinding of the eye. The punishment must fit. The crime must demand the right punishment. The perfect balance of God's justice is clear and it's remarkable. That's why the Lex Talionis is given in very vivid detail, not to show that all these things must be meticulously applied. God is not interested in telling His people to practice crushing one another's members as revenge, he's showing a principle, like kind for like kind. If one is blinded by the guilty aggressor, then one must pay the penalty that's equivalent to that crime. This passage is not dealing with personal revenge, we must recognize, but civil justice, right? It was up to the judges of Israel to enforce God's laws, not to allow individuals to take revenge indiscriminately. And that's very clear from the text, the mentioning of the judges and so forth. The legal system has to be perfectly just or else face harsh criticism, or even worse, ignorance, or complete ignorance by the people because it doesn't matter, or abuse by the masses because of its ineffectiveness. As the New Testament believers, we have the privilege of waiving our legal rights to the glory of God and not demanding compensation. This is what Paul argues for in the Church of Corinth. The Corinthian people who are taking one another to court, Paul says, why not be wronged? Why drag the name of Christ through the secular legal courts? And he argues for that in 1 Corinthians 6. We've already studied that, so I won't belabor that. But we need to understand that God's law says very clearly that judge has to see that justice is done and the law is respected. You can't just ignore the law. You must apply it. And that message is very clear. Now let's take a look at the personal injury to the slave. We saw what happens when it's a woman and a child. It's eye for an eye. If somebody commits a heinous murder, you don't say, hey, 10 years in jail. That just doesn't fit. You get $35,000 to keep one criminal in jail. He gets color TV, weightlifting equipment. He gets conjugal visits sometimes in some prisons. He gets three square meals a day, a warm bed. That is not justice. It's not justice to the victims, and it's certainly not a respect of the law. No wonder our country is in a mess. It's in a mess because people who claim to have studied the law ignore it, suppress it, belittle it, and they spit on the very character of God. If you want to go into law, then be passionate about justice and fight injustice. But if you don't care much, don't go into law. Because if you do, you'll sell out just like everybody else, and you'll become the enemy of God's justice, not a friend. Christians, be warned. Do not be pressured into doing things that you know you can't handle. personal injury of the slave." Verse 26, "...if a man strikes the eye in his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free." We've already read that. "...on the account of his eye, and if he knocks out a tooth, a male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth." Again, we find a different standard for the slave. But the justice is still upheld in the punishment of the master in his own loss of a valuable labor power and economic gain through the slave. There's no distinction here, male or female. A severe blow to the eye or broken tooth is sufficient for the slave to go free. That's a wonderful way that God protects the weak and the rights of even the slaves who had no rights in their climate and culture. And yet God gives them rights. Who gives rights? God does. Why do we insist on rights? Because God gave them. And we need to protect the rights of others, not insist on our own. And that's the duty of the Christian, isn't it, in our society? Look at verse 5. I'm sorry, verse 28. Personal injury, now here, through an animal. This is kind of an interesting thing. It's hard for me to find parallels because this involves an ox. I guess the best I can do is if you own a pit bull, I guess. You let him go free and you got a Rottweiler and you thought you got him trained, but you lead him off the leash and he goes around and bites the neighbor's baby and the baby dies. This is very rare, but it happens. We find these things in current events in the news and stuff. But here's a condition where if an ox gores a man and a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten. That's kind of an interesting way, stoning an ox. The capital punishment of stoning was given to Israel to demonstrate certain things. Number one, you don't just stone anybody, you stone somebody worthy of death. You stone them because you don't want to defile your hands. And so you pick up a stone and you throw at them, that way you allow the stone to do the striking and the killing, you don't have to directly deal with them. So it's kind of a picture of a separation at the same time exacting the punishment of God as given to the people of Israel. The typical stoning wasn't done just in the middle of a field, it was usually done at the edge of a cliff. They would take the person to the edge of a cliff, throw him over, and at the bottom of that cliff were sharp jagged rocks, and they would fall on it. and that would crush most of his internal organs or it would just pierce through and they would come and they would examine if the victim was still breathing and the first witness would cast the first stone and the second witness would cast the second stone and everybody else around would pick up stones and kill it and put a big heap on it and that would be it. That's the capital punishment. That's what God demanded that they do to this ox. Not eat the flesh. What does this mean? You shall not get any economic gain from even an animal who violates the very preciousness of the life that God had created in the image of God in a human being. That must not be mistaken or forgotten. We're in a generation where people treat their pets better than human beings. And we have this crazy organization called PETA, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. to talk about animal rights, you might as well talk about the personality of a rock animal having rights. No, we have rights because we are given rights by our Creator. Now, we shouldn't be cruel to animals because it's more about us and our character. If we practice cruelty as if there's no big deal, then it really dehumanizes us. We become subhumans. but to attribute these God-given rights to these animals and at the same time belittle human beings. We're the people who want to save the whales. Why not save the babies? Why not save human beings? What does God think about human life? The law makes things clear. The owner is ultimately responsible if his possession causes harm to others. If your car, parked improperly, rolls down the hill and strikes somebody, it's your fault. Especially in light of the fact that such potential harm is clearly known to the people. This ox has a habit of goring. Look at verse 29. If, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring, it's a violent ox. And its owner has been warned, yet he does not confine it. It kills a man or a woman. The ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. This ox should have been hamburgers, right? Steak and hamburgers, but the owner kept it. Why? Because look at what an ox was to an agrarian economy to a person who owned it. It's like owning your own tractor or an SUV. This is a very important commodity in your overall economy. This ox could have really pulled a plow. This ox could have pulled a wagon. This ox could have done a lot of labor for you. And when it was not useful, then you can have a barbecue party. So you had a lot to gain from an ox. So you kept it. Even if it wasn't perfectly controlled, you kept it because to get rid of it would really get rid of very much economic value. And so there was great motivation for the ox owner to keep such an unruly ox. And yet, what did he do? He did not calculate into his equation the potential danger and harm this ox could do by killing somebody and that would mean a great catastrophe for him. So I guess in our generation, I think machinery would be equivalent, which has a track record of failure, and yet used for economic reasons without regard to human life or health. What if an airline president understood that many of the airplanes in his fleet had massive problems and it could go down any minute, but because he wanted to make money, he said, keep flying, keep flying, use cheaper parts, fake parts, and imported parts, modified parts, and the problem failed. What happened? He would be liable, right? You know, I don't know if you remember Space Shuttle Challenger. They said that when they found the problem, this is so ridiculous, I don't know if it's believable, it was a small O-ring that cost less than a dollar that failed, that leaked fuel, that caused the booster rockets to catch on flames and burst. There goes the space shuttle and goes the lives, the pilots and the astronauts that were piloting that. It's these... careless, knowingly careless acts, all the while belittling human life, that's what God is angry at. The most common animal that could do harm in that generation was an ox. A donkey couldn't do much harm, a chicken couldn't do much harm, but an ox could. God gave ox big horns and it can get aggressive. Verse 28 says, If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten." No economic gain from this bad ox. Why? Because he's guilty of human blood. Where does that come from? It comes from pre-Mosaic law again. Again back to Genesis 9 verse 5, "...and surely I will require your lifeblood, from every beast I will require it." and from every man from every man's brother I will require the life of man whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man so the owner of the ox would lose a valuable commodity for his unfortunate event, but he must pay further ransom if such an accidental damage or death occurs. So the next passage gives stipulations for a foreseeable and predictable event. It says in verse 29, if, however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring, this is not an isolated incident, this could have been prevented, it was foreseeable, it was predictable, if that pit bull bit one kid, it might bite another kid. And the owner better keep that pit bull in control or a leash because if it bites again, he has absolutely no recourse. And that's the kind of an idea that we're looking at. This tells us so much more about the character of God. He wants to protect His people. He values lives, human lives. And it says, He does not confine it, and it kills a man or a woman. The ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death." There it is. That's how serious it is. Now this is second-degree manslaughter. I mean, you're not even involved in it. Your animal that you own is involved in it. You can say, well, I didn't do anything wrong. It was my dog that did it. that you're the owner of the dog, and you knew that your dog had a history of biting people, you did not keep it in the house, you let it out, and it bit someone else, you're guilty. And according to God's law, in that society, that dog owner should have been put to death. That's what God thinks about life. There is no recourse for being consciously negligent. The law of God assumes that the owner of the property is fully responsible for it. Fully responsible. If a man knows that his child is reckless but still gives him the key so he can go out for a drive and the child hits somebody, a man's guilty. So the penalty stage of such crime must be very clear. Verse 30, If a ransom is demanded of him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is demanded of him. Of course, whatever should be qualified by whatever the judges deem righteous, right? There's an objective standard. What's the same rule? Lex talionis, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. The punishment must fit the crime. The crime must deserve a level of punishment that is equal to it. That's lex talionis. It's the lady justice blindfold and scales. It has to be balanced. Not too much, not too little. This is what God says. Now this is so commonsensical to us, is it not? This is so obvious and yet why is justice perverted? It's perverted because of man's sin. A judge who is in a constant state of adulterous affair, when he judges an adulterer, he will tend to be more lenient because in that way he's trying to pacify his own sins and justify it. Right? So what happens when the system gets perverted? We tend to elect leaders and people over us who want to judge us who are much like us. rather than holding them to a high standard and expecting them to be as meticulous to the law as possible, to be blind to bias as possible, so to give us justice and nothing but justice, we actually want bias, favoritism, blind eye. And what happens? All of us pay. That's what happened to Israel. It's what's happening here in America. It cannot happen in the family. It cannot happen in the church, right? Because if the spirit of truth resides in us and he rules over our lives. Justice and only justice must be upheld and righteousness. That should give us ample room to understand what God demands. And then we look at how that was perfectly resolved at the cross. When our Heavenly Father, in order to forgive us and to save us, paid the ultimate cost, right? By giving us His Son, who paid. And you look at what Christ did on the cross. How much He paid. He drunk the full cup of the wrath of God. Being separated, taken upon all of our sins upon Him. Being cut apart from the precious fellowship that He had with the Father. Along with all the shame and the scourging and the curse of the law. He paid dearly. That's God's standard of justice. In God's standard of justice, somebody must pay. Nobody gets out free. And the penalty must equal the crime. We committed a sin against an eternal being. Should we get a slap in the face? Slap in the hands? A few days in jail? Or should we forever be locked up in an eternal jail cell of torment because we sinned against an eternal being? That seems perfectly just enough, and yet Christ paid the penalty, so we wouldn't have to. Friends, if you understand justice, I believe that you will understand and appreciate the grace of God much more. In such cases, the lex talionis applies, whether it gores a son or a daughter. Same rule. Same rule must apply. David knew very well that his sin of murder of Uriah, just to be compounded by his sin of adultery with Bathsheba, required his own death under the law. And yet what grace he must have experienced when Nathan the prophet said, you shall not die. What grace Adam and Eve must have experienced when God said, I will show you grace and took an innocent animal skinned it and gave it to Adam and Eve to cover their shameful nakedness. What grace Cain received, and yet he didn't appreciate and understand it. What grace all of us have received through Christ. The price of the redeemed slave is 30 shekels of silver, surprisingly. Very surprisingly. 30 shekels of silver. I want you to study that in the New Testament. You'll quickly realize that Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver. And study the significance of that, and I think you'll be thoroughly blessed. Well, verse 32, as we conclude that the ox gores a male or female slave, the owner shall give his or her master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned." Once again, not to be used for meat, no economic gain, but only justice. So these laws teach us, again, the justice and the righteousness of God, God's value of human life above property, right? Even the lowest of human life as deemed by the society, women, children, slaves, and yet God considers them valuable because they're image bearers of God. And he gives that to his people, the covenant people, and expect them to keep it. And what we can learn about this is that we are notorious lawbreakers. We fall under the judgment of God. God expects us to keep the law and we will break them. There's no way we could keep the law. And this is what Israel found out, that they could not keep the law. They knew the law, but they couldn't keep it. They found themselves as notorious law breakers. And they needed to repent, but they needed to ask God help. Lord, we cannot keep your law. We need a savior. We need a helper. And so God provided Christ the Messiah. And so every time you look at the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, that does not mean that gives you the license to break God's law and saying, well, who can be righteous? Who can be perfect? This is the standard that God will use to judge every one of us. But when we say, Lord help, Christ is our help, right? And He paid the penalty for all of this. And He gives us His perfect righteousness. Now He changes our hearts and gives us now a desire to obey God's law. Before we dreaded it. Now we have a desire to please Him. Now the law of God is no longer bitter, but it's sweet. It points to the Lord Jesus Christ. We couldn't keep it, but he did. And so as we understand God's graciousness and his grace, we revel in it. And at the same time, our motivation is being renewed daily by the Holy Spirit. And now we want to keep God's law, not so that we can be righteous, We can't be righteous through the keeping of the law, but that because we want to reflect the character of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. We want to honor and please him and we want to do things that would promote our greatest welfare and his greatest glory. So our motive is very different for keeping God's law. I pray that you would understand that and that the gospel frees us from the penalty of the law and from the bondage of the law, and yet, surprisingly, in a mysterious way, it gives us the great joy over the law. The great saints, even in the Old Testament, said, oh, how I love thy law. There's nothing wrong with the law of God. It's perfect, good. It can never lead us to salvation, it can never make us right, but boy, could it tell us about the character of God, and how awesome He is, how perfect He is, And yet, what a marvelous thing it is that He loves us and gave His Son, who kept the law perfectly. So I pray that as New Testament saints, you understand the role of the law, understand the character of God, understand God's nature and His protection, His value of human life. Now let's make sure that in our conduct, in our lives, these things reflect the very one that we worship. Let's pray and close together. Our Father, we give You thanks and praise for reminding us of your holiness and your righteousness reflected in the law and how you value human life. Lord, we thank you that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us so that we can be redeemed and saved and we can enter into your presence. Lord, it is through our Lord Jesus Christ we understand the value of human life. For when He said, what does a man gain if he gains the whole world, yet loses his very soul? And what will he exchange for his soul? He, in those rhetorical questions, gave us the great value of the soul, the value that we have, because You have placed that value in us, in Your image. And by making us and then redeeming us, we're twice Yours, Lord. We find our value in You. May we take the great joy of our salvation, the freedom that we have from sin, and the great joy that we have for your law to the nations and show them their sin, that they're impossible, incapable of keeping your law, but point to the Savior who kept every one of them and who paid the penalty for breaking all of your laws, and who died on the cross to do away with sin and to give us a place in heaven, which He offers to us as a gift, and who invites us to live for Him for all of eternity. Lord, what a joy it is to be serving the Master. Now would you propel us into a life of obedience, a life of joy, of proper motivation, of pleasing and honoring You, and submitting to Your law out of joy for what Christ has done, what we could not do. And we give You thanks, Lord, for all these rich blessings. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I have a wonderful Bible study discussion.