Time to begin a new class together for this fall. And so Ben, if you want to hit record there. Yeah, we'll be talking about the law of God this fall and lots to talk about there. And I hope this class will be a blessing to you. Before I really launch into it, I do just want to acknowledge the terrible tragedy that our country has faced this week with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And just to mention, like I know a lot of people in our churches are really, myself included, really grieving this and the grievous evil that it is. And so we were just talking before this time, the elders and I, that we'd like to have a special prayer meeting at seven this evening. If anybody wants to come out and just pray, pray for his family, pray for our country. Pray for, you know, that the gospel would still advance, that we wouldn't become discouraged. And just that God would minister to our own hearts in this time, that we would keep being focused on hope and about what God is doing, how he's bigger than evil of this, even of this horrible scale. So I'll mention that again before the service, but definitely want to pray for him and pray for his family, I should say. Yeah, and also dedicate this class to God. So why don't we pray once again here. Lord, thank you that you are bigger than all our sin. And we praise you that your gospel will advance, your kingdom will advance, no matter what evil people try to do to stop it. And we pray that that hope I hope that really nobody can thwart you, that the nations are just a drop in the bucket compared to you and your awesome ocean of power. That, Lord, we don't need to be afraid. We don't need to be alarmed. that Lord, we really can rejoice even as we grieve. And we do pray that you would help us to grieve rightly and not as those who have no hope. And we do pray for our nation, for healing, and that Lord, you would really draw near in this time and do something beautiful out of this terrible tragedy. And Lord, we know that part of why Jesus has come is to create obedience on earth. That's what we pray every time we do the Lord's Prayer, that you would be obeyed on earth as your will is done in heaven. And that's why we want to learn about your law, because we want to do your will. And we want not just to do your will, we want to love your will and to love your law. And so we pray, dedicating this course for the fall into your hands. We pray that it really would stir us up with a deeper, richer understanding of your law. And that we would really become, as your word describes it, wise in discerning people who know good and evil, and are able to discern what's a matter of obedience, what's a matter of wisdom. Help us to know what you would have us do in response to all that Christ has done for us. And it's in His name we pray. Amen. I will hopefully got a handout coming in there should be there in the back if not. But. Yeah, so why are we doing this class? So part of it, it's my mission as your pastor to give you your daily and yearly diet of wholesome soul food. So Paul says, Acts 20, we did not refrain from declaring the whole counsel of God to you. So what is the whole counsel of God? The whole counsel of God is everything that God has spoken in his word. And so we are not going to be a cherry-picking church. We're not going to say, oh yeah, we'll always talk about this one part of the Bible we really like, but we'll just neglect a lot of other stuff. Like, that's what the heretics do. You know, they pick the parts they like and ignore the other parts. Yeah. Okay, yeah, thank you. Yeah, and if we need to run more off, I'm sure we can. Yes, so every fall I try to do a class on theology and we just sort of are stepping through what's called the loci of theology, so these different theological headings. that kind of cover the whole gamut of what does the Bible talk about. So we've had classes on God, scripture, salvation, even going more narrowly in like who is Jesus, work of the Holy Spirit, had a class on covenant. And so now we're going to talk about the law. And, you know, then in other parts of the year we do other things. So we do classes on practical matters, usually in the spring. We usually do classes on books of the Bible in the summer. And then sprinkled throughout are sort of specialized topics. So that we're really trying to cover literally every dimension of the Bible. every dimension of theology, every dimension of life, so that you really are getting the whole counsel of God. So specific goals for this class. Here are some specific goals. One is this, that you would know what the law of God is. So what actually has God commanded? And I'll give you a hint, it's bigger than the Ten Commandments, but on the other hand, the Ten Commandments really do cover it all. So there's a tremendous depth in those commandments. So what is God commanded? We should know how to answer that question. In particular, we should know how to answer that question for us in the new covenant. So there's gonna be this big issue, we're gonna spend a couple weeks on it. How do we deal with all these old covenant laws that were clearly for the old covenant people. Like, do we just ignore those because we're not in the old covenant anymore? That won't be the answer. Spoiler alert. But how do we apply them well so that we really honor the fact that Jesus has made a new and better covenant for us? So that's one of the questions I want you to be able to walk away from. I also want you, I hope, to have the right attitude towards the law. So there are a lot of Christians who are just sort of like, wow, I'm so glad Jesus came, so now we don't have that heavy law on us anymore. And this attitude towards the Old Testament law as something that's like, man, I'm just so glad that was for those guys, not for me. Is that the attitude the word of God encourages us to have? I'm gonna show that it's not. And then, you know, one of my goals even just for this class today is to start getting us to see that the law is just one part of a larger thing which we call our relationship with God. And that if we see the law in its proper context, it will revolutionize how we read the whole Bible. So I want you to see the law in context. So why don't we get started and just define terms. What is meant by the law of God? So for the purposes of this class, when I say the law of God, most of the time what I will mean is what does God require of human beings at any point in history, and like I said, what may be required prior to Jesus, truly, what is required prior to Jesus, and what is required now, is actually going to be different in some ways. On the other hand, it's going to be the same. So, we really will be required, wherever we are, going from Adam all the way to the end of history, we will always be required to love God with all that we are, and love our neighbor as ourself. But how we express that will change depending on where we are in the story. And so, you know, it was sin not to offer the Passover and the Old Covenant because of what God had done in the Exodus. It would be sin for us now to slaughter a sacrificial lamb because Christ, the ultimate sacrifice, has been offered. So what does it mean to obey God at any point in history? That's what we would call the law of God. What are all the things God wants us to do today? Or what did it mean to obey God for Israel? And so when we talk about what was required, God gives us clear statements. And there's actually this extraordinary prayer that's a Sumerian prayer, really old, where the guy is praying to a God he does not know, and lamenting the fact that he doesn't know what this unknown God wants him to do. And he's saying, oh God, the God that I do not know, if there's anything that I've done that's wrong, and I don't know that it's wrong, please pardon me. And it's just like really sad, because he's like, it's a prayer of a man in darkness. That is not us, and that has never been the people of God. God has always spoken very clearly, here, O Israel, this is what the Lord requires of you, to love the Lord your God, et cetera, right? And so in the Bible, we have the old covenant law, which was contained in these chapters, Exodus 19 through 40, book of Leviticus, some parts of Numbers have legal material, and then basically the entire book of Deuteronomy, These are things that show us very clearly in precepts, this is what you must do. If you are a part of Israel, this is what you must do. And even as we'll dive into some of those, we'll realize that there's differentiations even within that, but we'll save that for later. But then for the church, what is the law of God? Well, it's scattered through the entire New Testament. Of course, especially we see it in Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and those practical parts of the letters like Romans 12 through 16, Ephesians 4 through 6, etc. But I just want to remind you, like that word New Testament, it really is new covenant. So like when you open up your Bibles, you pick up your Bible, There are two big sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. But testament is just an old English word for covenant. So, what is the Old Covenant? It is everything from Genesis to Malachi. This is the Old Covenant. Every document is a covenant document from the covenant Lord, showing us how we should live. And really, what are the prophets doing? They're expounding the very clear covenantal precepts of Exodus and Deuteronomy. And they're saying, hey guys, you're not doing this. These are the consequences. And then what is the new covenant? Well, Matthew through Revelation. These are covenant documents, even those letters to the churches. They are words from the covenant Lord to the covenant people saying, I hereby bind you to believe and to do everything that is in these books. You need to believe everything that I'm teaching you and you need to do everything that I'm telling you. And so we understand that these books are part of a larger thing, which we call a covenant. And that's the next point. But before I dive into that, any questions, anything I've said so far? Okay, well, I think it's an eye-opening thing to say that the Bible is not a book of laws. How does it change things to think of the Bible as the epic rescue story of God, in which there are some laws, versus, here's the handbook of all the things you're supposed to do. Here's the laws. So how does our view of the Bible change when we go from, here's a law book, all the stuff you're supposed to do, the manual for what it means to be a follower of God, versus this is the great epic rescue story of God and his love. Ryan, yeah. Looks like right behind you there, yeah. So it changes our perception of who God is. Nice. The common conception of God is that he is a cosmic killjoy. Yeah. That all he wants to do is just kill our fun in life. Yeah. Because he's not going to let us do what we want to do. Right. Versus the God who reveals himself in Old and New Testament as a God who reached down into darkness Reaching in and grabbing us out and bringing us into his light and love and covenant. Yeah, beautiful I think it's it's a great kind of opening when you're sharing the gospel with people. It's like Do you did you did you know that? The Bible is really not so much about what we're supposed to do. It's about what God has done for us Like I think most unbelievers don't know that So thank you for that, Ryan. Yeah, I think it changes our view of God. Yeah, I think in the back I see Debbie there, and then also looks like we got one up front too. Well, what he said was absolutely true. But I think it's more true for the younger son, when you look back at the story of the prodigal son. The elder brother would say, oh no. Oh no, you mean I can't just obey this list of laws and I go to heaven? Because some people, they like to keep rules. God owes me to go to heaven because I kept all these laws. Yeah, look at all this stuff I did. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, really, the gospel is at the heart of this, isn't it? Did I see a hand up front? Yeah, we'll have a hand here and then... I think it changes the idea that it's a heavy, like a weight, and it's light. I mean, it makes me think of Jesus Christ saying, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Beautiful. It goes from being a weight on you to something that you're able to carry, you're able to, and you love to have on you. I love Spurgeon's final sermon where he talks about what a good master Jesus has been to him his whole life. And here's a guy who's been through horrible suffering in terms of terrible gout and other health problems. And he's like, what a great and loving master my Savior is. Obedience to him has been my greatest joy. If he went and said I had to go back and do it all over again, I would do it a thousand times, you know, because of the joy of serving him. Yeah. I couldn't believe that the law of God was ever a bad thing since I was a teenager and read the Bible. I read from beginning to end without anybody to explain it to me. I read Deuteronomy and I saw God gave his law because he loved his people. over and over again. And that when his people kept the law, it was because they loved God back. And he wanted them to know, this is how you live the good life. And that's what you get from just reading it. Yeah, this is the God who commands us to rest. This is the God who in Deuteronomy 14 says, hey, when you bring your tithes, have a little party before me. And if it's too far for you to come, Just change it into money and when you get to Jerusalem, buy whatever you want and enjoy celebrating before me as you're bringing the tithe in. This is the God who says, hey, if you've got a poor guy and you're holding his cloak as a pledge, you've got to give it back to him before evening so he has something to sleep in. This is not a slave driver, right? Yeah. So I think if we view the Bible as just a set of laws, we're tempted as Americans to think of it as we do in America, if it doesn't fit modern days. we can update it. We're good to go. It's something that is old, 2,000 years old. It needs to be updated to what the current circumstances is as compared to the second side where we're all lost. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. And God in his goodness came and said, here, I'm going to deliver you. Nice. Yeah. One more observation that I, a lot like Trina was saying, that when I was younger, I read through the Bible trying to understand it myself without really anybody telling me anything. And I came across a lot of really interesting stuff, like get rid of all the moldy bricks in your house and throw them outside of the city gates and all this kind of stuff. But what God was doing there was protecting them from things they couldn't even understand. Like now we know if you got mold in your house, it could be damaging you and hurting you. There's so much wisdom in everything that he commanded them to do. It's just full of wisdom and love and how to have a blessed life. That's what it creates. When we obey the laws, we get a blessed world and a blessed life. When we disobey, everything turns bad. And we have to trust him on the laws where we don't see it, where he's telling us, yeah, you need to save the special relationship between a man and a woman, that special intimate relationship, you need to save that till marriage. And again, the temptation, going back to Ryan's comment, would be, wow, what a killjoy. Or maybe it's God saying, I want you to be deeply blessed in this sphere of your life, and this is the way. The God who designed this relationship. He's telling us, this is the way I made this to work. So yeah, really what I'm trying to, in this point here, get us to realize is that the laws in the Bible are never isolated. There's no book of the Bible that's just laws. Every book of the Bible fits those laws, those commands, into something larger, which is God's covenant relationship with his people. So, you know, just turn with me to Exodus 20. The Ten Commandments. Hopefully some of you kids learning your catechism already know this. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments? The preface to the Ten Commandments is, I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Or as ESV has it, out of the house of slavery. And then he says, you shall have no other gods. Right? So first, the identity. I rescued you. I saved you. You're not a slave anymore. And then, now here's how you live as a free person. Don't have any other gods. Don't commit adultery, et cetera. And Deuteronomy 1-4 just expands this preface even more. So Deuteronomy 1-4 is a story. How does Deuteronomy begin? It's a story of how God has been gracious and compassionate to them, even in their wilderness wandering, gave them the victory over the first kings of the land, and then God launches into, now here's what you're supposed to do. So it's this common pattern. God's grace, Therefore, you obey. And it's repeated in the New Testament. So, Jesus, when he begins the Sermon on the Mount, he says, blessed, blessed, blessed. And he names those who are poor in spirit, who are humble, trusting in him, as blessed. And he says, now, because you're the light of the world, because you're the salt of the earth, because you're the new humanity, now this is how I want you to live. And really, all over Jesus' teaching, it's the same thing. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. repent and believe the gospel, like Mark 1 15. There it is, the entirety of Jesus's teaching distilled into one verse. Kingdom of God has come through Jesus, through his death and resurrection. Therefore, repent, believe, live for me. You see, covenant identity, who we are incorporated into Christ, leads to covenant obedience, what we're supposed to do. And the New Testament letters all have the same pattern. So you've got Romans 1-11, what Jesus did. Romans 12-6, how you should obey. And there's a big transition word, therefore in light of the mercies of God, in other words everything I just said in chapters 1-11, offer your bodies as living sacrifices. That's going to be 12-16. You know, Ephesians 4, and light of the calling you have received, now live in a manner worthy of that calling." And some letters, like Hebrews, have the grace intermixed with the what you're supposed to do. Here's some grace about Jesus, now here's what you're supposed to do. Here's some grace about Jesus, now here's what you're supposed to do. So you can have that structure too. But the point is, there's never any place where it's like, okay, everybody here just needs to be good. That's just not how the Bible rolls. I was just thinking the enemy of this proper biblical perspective is the way the gospel has been presented many times in our country, I think, through history, you know, not history, but for a period of time where it's just, you get all the good, you just get all the good stuff, and there isn't any response on your part that talks about the rest of your life. Yeah, actually, thank you for that. There's actually kind of two abuses we could talk about. One is what Betty's saying. where like, here's all this grace, and then at the end of it, like, hope you have a great day. And there's no application, no demand to repent at the end of the sermon. That's bad. That's what we call antinomianism, which is when, yeah, God's just gonna forgive you, and so now go your merry way, and there's no demand. to now live in covenant. But then the opposite, which is also a huge problem, is legalism, where there's no gospel, and it's just, now you guys need to do this, and this, and this, and you've really been bad at this, and that, and that. And when I asked Jack Boko, the coworker with James, what do you see as being one of the greatest pastoral issues in Africa? And he said, legalism, moralism. that when you go to church, you don't hear about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. You hear about how you have been bad and you need to be good. And so like, this part of this lesson is, is kind of like two huge check boxes for every sermon, right? Do you hear the grace of God in Jesus Christ? Check. Do you then hear how you're supposed to live in light of that grace? Check. Okay, good sermon. If you only hear one of those, The pastor needs a talking to, kindly. Or you're not in the right place. This is not a church that's gonna do that for you. The last point I think is important here. Laws show us how to thrive in our relationship with God. They show us how to love as He first loved us. Here's the designer of creation telling you, this is how I designed human beings to operate. Parents are always saying, I wish this little kid came with an instruction manual. Well, you actually do. the manufacturer actually included the instruction manual in the box. Here it is. This is what it means to be a good image bearer. This is how you reflect God's glory well. This is how you fulfill the purposes for which you are made. There's this great quote from Bob Ink, one of my favorite theologians. He says, and it's not just original to him, but he always is saying it, grace restores nature. So the purpose of the gospel is to make us be what we were always designed to be from creation. Namely, people who are awesome at loving God and loving our neighbor. So that's what the law is for, so that we would thrive. God loves us so much, he doesn't want us drinking poison. But because we're fools, we like to think poison tastes good. You know, that's a Proverbs, right? Stolen bread tastes sweet. That's the lie. Any questions about this part about God's laws being part of something bigger, what we call the covenant relationship? So like the evangelical emphasis, you know, do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Good. That's good. That's what the Bible is really centered on, is personal union and communion with God. But it's not just an individual thing, right? We're all in covenant with God. And therefore we all need to obey the covenant Lord. So it is an intimate relationship, but it's also a, you know, Jesus is your savior, but he's also your Lord. You gotta have both. That's kind of what I'm saying. Okay, well, let's talk about grace and how it surrounds law. So I already talked about this part, that grace comes before law, but the law itself is grace. It's a gift. And let's just look at a few of these passages. So Deuteronomy 4. Deuteronomy 4 is a great, great passage where Moses is trying to get them to see like, You guys should be really glad you're getting this. Excuse me. So read with me in Deuteronomy 4, starting in verse 5. See, I've taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? So talk to me about this passage. What is this passage, what's the attitude that this passage wants us to have about the law? What are some things it wants us to really know and embrace about God's law? Near to God. Yeah. And that's why he's given us this. Right. And in fact, it says he is already near to us. You have a God so near. Right. That he's given you these commands. Therefore, we should embrace that. Right. Good. Yeah. The thoughts about what is this saying about the law of God up front? I see in here that we glorify Him among the nations when we obey Him. He is made known that way. Yeah, we make God famous, that's what glorify means. We make him famous by our obedience so that the nations will look at these laws and they're like, where did you get these? And all you have to do is read other ancient or Eastern law codes like Hammurabi or there's a whole bunch of other ones. And you realize, oh wow, there's so much wisdom and so much justice in the law code that God has given to us. Yeah. I feel like that's kind of what's missing from our society right now. Even with the thing that happened recently with Charlie Kirk. I mean, people are just, they don't seem to see The reason why we need God's laws, they're guardrails for our society, not to just go off into absolute insanity and chaos. And it seems to be saying here that all of the other nations should be able to look at God's laws and just be like... Yeah, wow, awesome. This is amazing. If every country had laws like this, wow, we'd just live in paradise if people followed them. But why is it that people today are not able to see it? Yeah, and we'll talk about that. Why do we hate God's law when we should love it? But I think... You think about the Queen of Sheba coming. What so impressed her about Solomon? Yeah, it was his wealth and everything, but also it was his wisdom. and the way in which he was living out the law, the law of God. Yeah, does anybody else have thoughts about Deuteronomy 4? It's really, isn't it incredible? It's like, it's saying, look, God so loved you guys, he gave you the law, all right? What nation has a God so near? that he's given us these great statutes and rules, they're so righteous, as everything I've said before you today. Like we've got the best thing. What's the best thing? It's the best law. So like, again, this is encouraging us to the spirit of Psalm 19 and Psalm 119. Remember these Psalms? I'm just gonna read at random from Psalm 119. It's the longest chapter in the Bible. What's it saying? Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. He talks about, Lord, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies. It is ever with me. You know, so he's rejoicing in the law. And I guess I just want to ask you, do you rejoice in God's law? Is it something that you want to know more about? Like, are you stoked about class, this Sunday school class this fall? I hope you are, because that's what God wants us to see. To obey it is our glory. I love, real quick, just flipping over to Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. Look at how it describes Israel in this passage. This is at the very end of the kind of legal portion of Deuteronomy. And it says, Deuteronomy 16, sorry, 26, 18 through 19. The Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he's promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments. Okay, so keep all his commandments. And that he will set you in praise and fame and in honor, high above all the nations that he's made. and that you should be a people holy to the Lord your God, as you promised. So you get it? By obeying the law, we become glorious. Did you know that man's chief end is to glorify and enjoy God? What's God's purpose in salvation? It's to glorify us, to make us beautiful. Obviously it's for his own glory ultimately. But like when we obey well, Titus 2 says we adorn the gospel. And we make other people look at our lives and say, yeah, I wanna be a Christian because you guys have the best life. Yeah, Ryan. Ronald, could you pass Ryan the, thanks. I think one of the best examples of that principle in play is our own nation here. The founding of our nation was based off biblical principles. Yeah, they were self-consciously trying to enact these things. And God so blessed our land that other nations wanted to come here and enjoy that blessing as well. Yeah, multiple people in Egypt saying, take me back with you. Like, take me back to America. Yeah, as broken as our country is, we are still very blessed by that heritage. Yeah, yeah. The ladies are studying first Peter too. And you know that, what he calls them as the treasured possession is what Peter says about the church. And so, just that, you know, the new covenant is so small compared, like short, compared to the old. And yet it's absolutely chock full of references to the old that they're assuming, hey, this applies to you now. And they're assuming knowledge of God's law. So when a lot of the letters are talking about the law, they're saying, okay, think about these things. This is even Sermon on the Mount. This is the heart of it. This is how you're to understand it. And so when we read Deuteronomy, it's like, okay, you treasured possession of the church. This is you. Thank you for that. I think, I wish I had more time to develop that, but I think my final comment for today is just like, We need to remember that, yeah, there are two covenants in the Bible, old and new, but there is one ultimate covenant that runs through it all, what we call the covenant of grace. And if you have time to read Westminster Confession 7-5 at the bottom, it says this exact thing, that the covenant of grace was differently administered in the time of the law and in the time of the gospel, but it's the same covenant. We must resist and in fact hate and defy what's called the heresy of Marcion, which said that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, God in the New Testament is a God of grace. False and evil. No, it's the same loving, gracious, and holy God in both. And so when we come to the old covenant, we need to realize, hey, this is entirely surrounded by grace. It was grace that they got into it, it was grace that they got those laws, and I didn't get a chance to develop it very much, but even at the end, it says, look, when you really blow it and you defy my covenant, there will still be grace for you then. I will bring you back from exile. Like, that's amazing. They had the death sentence on them and God resurrects them from the dead. So yeah, we need to love and celebrate God's law. I have on the back there, you know, it's hard to imagine someone saying, I love all the rules at school or man, you know, I just love traffic laws, you know, like probably not. But if you view God's law as how to thrive in your relationship with him, I think you'd start to see, oh wow, this is a gift. And I can tell you actually, being in Cairo, that yeah, traffic laws really are awesome. They really are, they're amazing. So, all right, well, let's thank God for his grace. Lord, thank you for your law. And we confess that we have succumbed to the false ideas of Satan, that your law is something oppressive, it's something that we should try to shake off, that it's this heavy yoke. that really is all about you controlling us and not about you blessing us. And we pray that we would just have our minds completely transformed and conformed to your view of the law, which is that it is an amazing gift. And that Lord, we would be excited about the Sunday school class, that we would want to know more about your law, that we would just really delight in what you've given us in the law. and that we would know that it really is part of this great covenant relationship of grace. And it is in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. All right, thanks everybody.