Let us turn to our Bibles to Hosea chapter 8. Hosea chapter 8 verse 12. Hosea chapter 8 verse 12, let us listen attentively to the Word of God. I have written for him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing.
Let us pray. Here God we read a stinging rebuke of the people of God in the time of Hosea, in which you remind them of the greatness of your law, the wonderfulness thereof, but they look at it as though it were a strange thing, perhaps even an obstacle to their own lustful evil desires to go their own way and to do their own thing, especially in worship. Our Lord and Savior, may we learn from this opportunity in time, going into the text here, of the greatness of your law, of your holy will revealed for us and given to us, God, for our good and for your glory and to thereby, Lord, honor you all the more to protect us from treating it as a strange thing, God, but rather a familiar thing in the best sense of the word, God, is that which is comforting for us as an expression of your will and love for us.
In Christ Jesus we pray, amen. So this verse highlights a persistent problem among the Jews, even before the time of Hosea, the growing indifference towards the law of God. He gave them great things in the law, as we read in Deuteronomy, for example, but to them it is a strange thing, something foreign to them.
This strangeness is both in terms of their ignorance, for more and more in each generation, as we saw, they knew less and less, it appears, but also in terms of their commitments, even in those who knew the law, they made excuses to void or water it down, they turned it into something strange. Both are probably in view here in this text. Now the word law here, as in most other texts in the word that we know of, Torah, often translated law, means specifically that which is taught, and as such it includes different teachings, but also overwhelmingly the law as such, the moral law in particular, but the law, the word Torah can include others, such as the judicial law, the ceremonial law, but it’s especially the moral law I wish to dig into, and of course that the Lord God is concerned with here in Hosea and the prophets in general.
So I want to unpack this truth that the Lord’s law is great indeed by talking about its nature in general, and then drilling down into the beauty of its moral truth, in the age of relativism of course, and lastly its glory insofar as it is a tool in the hand of the Spirit of God to draw us to Christ, to draw, drive us away from sin in ourselves, and when the gospel comes along, then Christ is all the more sweeter.
The Law’s Greatness in General
So for the first point here, again a reminder there’s different ways to slice the pie of describing things often in life, and same with the law, and so I picked these three points here. The law’s greatness in general, and I’ll cover some of the principal characteristics of the law of God.
First and foremost here is the universality of the law of God, the moral commands of our Lord, His precepts. It’s great in extent that it covers every moral being in all situations. Every human, whether they are believer or not, is under the binding moral authority of God’s commandments, bound by the law.
Even the great and the greatest among us are bound therein. Its greatness is such that even without the Bible, the wonderfulness of the law, its universality of the law is such that those without the Bible know its truth. Do not forget that.
You ask yourself sometimes, how do people do the things they’re doing in America? These shootings, young kids murdering people at school of all places. Don’t they know what’s going on? They do. Romans 2.14, for example, from when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law.
These, although not having the law, are law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts. That is, he’s making a contrast between the Mosaic law, the Jewishness, that’s the context of Romans 2, as you recall, about Jew and Gentile. They don’t have that.
They don’t have what you Jews have, but nevertheless, they have it in their hearts. It’s written on their hearts. And of course, the end of Romans 1 reminds us of a long, detailed list of sins, that they know these things, they make excuses about them anyways.
I have read parts, probably more than most average Americans, but not as much as a police officer, of those terrible diaries of the covenant. And the latest one in Minnesota, a transgender gentleman who wrote in Cyrillic, as you recall. And you can see them ginning themselves up over the years of hate and of wanting to murder people.
And they even admit in their own writings, something’s not right here. He almost used those kind of words, the one in Minnesota. It’s quite amazing.
I took screenshots. This is evidence of what you read here in the Bible, again, that is further proof. They know what is wrong, but they were building themselves up, as we say, ginning themselves up over the many years until they came to an explosion point and sought out easy victims, of course.
They know the law of God is on every man’s heart, as much as they flee from it. It is a perfect law. Psalm 19, you know, you’re gonna find lots of Psalms and Proverbs talking about the law of God.
Lots of verses that can cover a lot of these characteristics of the law of God. It’s just its universality, but it’s perfection. Psalm 19, 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
It is without error and does not deceive. But man-made laws, of course, especially false religions, do. They’re often irrational some way or the other, error prone, but the God’s holy will in the Ten Commandments is perfect.
It’s personally binding, not just universally binding in the sense of, well, sure, it’s everybody kind of in general, but it’s particular. It goes to every conscience in this world, not just for the nations, but everyone in between, but for the individual, the small, the weakest, the greatest, the most powerful man on this world. He is also bound by the law of God.
All are equally bound by the moral commandments of our Lord and Judge of the universe. Often care is given, of course, for the rich and powerful to carve out exceptions for them. In our society as well, I know we grew up and talk a lot about we have, you know, quality before the law, we have justice in America, but we know that’s not absolutely true.
Lots of exceptions and excuses and errors and sins, even in our society, but not with the moral law of God. He does not make excuses and carve out exceptions for rich, powerful men to break some little part of his Ten Commandments. He is the just creator of all, and his law reflects that for the greatest and the smallest.
And as such, that’s personally bonding. It’s bonding in a twofold fashion. This, too, is part of its wonderfulness, its greatness, its powerfulness as God’s holy will for his creation.
It externally binds and it internally binds. Externally, of course, it directs the whole body towards righteousness and away from wickedness. The hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, we know this, although, again, we make excuses in our society, especially with our bad influence of Hollywood and entertainment and the like.
We want to make a little excuse here and there, but it’s still bonding nevertheless. Entertainment is not an exception clause to God’s will. It’s personally bonding externally as well as internally.
Psalm 119 2. Psalm 119 2 we read, Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. The Old Testament was never a religion of externality, although the externality was strongly there, to be sure, right? The temple, the priest, the land itself was an external form and representation of God’s care and goodness for his people, a type of heaven, ultimately. And so it has an externality that’s very strong, to be sure.
But that was never to overshadow and subdue and wipe out the heart matter in the Old Testament. And the greatest of them, the psalmist here, David, recognizes, who seek him with their whole heart. That is what the law of God calls.
It is never merely externally binding. Another example of this in common popular culture, there is a talk show host on the radio. He gets around.
He’s been around a long time. He’s of a different religion than ours, religion there in the Middle East, Jewish religion. And he, you can find the video yourself, it’s out there.
I remember hearing it before it was even videotaped. And he was making excuses for certain sins and violations of marriage, vows, and the like by saying, as long as it’s internal and not external, it’s okay. Don’t care what you watch or what you see.
You’re just like, what? What kind of a religion teaches that? Well, apparently his does. That as long as you don’t externally break your marriage vow with your partner, with your husband, your wife, keep all the lust in your heart, it doesn’t matter. He said it with a straight face.
You’re just like, what? What is this? That’s not the law of God. The law of God covers the heart and the hands. External and internal.
Proverbs 13, or Proverbs 3, 1. My son, do not forget my law, but let your, what, heart keep my commandments, in thought, in word, and in deed. It is a perfect law, and is universally binding, and is binding in all that we have and all that we do, with our hands and our heart. Men may try to judge the heart, and try to make laws to control the heart and the conscience and compel them, but only the law of God can ultimately do that.
In comparison, the two-fold comparison here, this was a helpful little thing, although he has several pages, I don’t know if he’s a Puritan, I think he might have been Anglican. Weems, W-E-E-M-E-E-S, has a thick book on the Ten Commandments from the 1600s, going through standard explanation, as the Puritans do and the like, and he explains in the beginning there, one of the greatness of the law of God, here in comparison to the judicial law, and in comparison to the ceremonial law, which I thought was a very helpful thing here. So the Old Testament judicial law, as we know, those particular applications of the Ten Commandments to the land promise as well, but not just that, but the punishments often, called penology.
There are applications as such, and not to be confused with the Ten Commandments per se, although often they can be very intimately tied to it, such as the death penalty, you expect something of the death penalty somewhere along the lines when it comes to murder, for example, but a lot of the other laws do vary according to circumstances. Our confession mentions the judicial laws as no longer bonding beyond the general equity thereof, because there are some modifications. I like to bring the example of, you know, back in the old west in the 1800s, someone stole your horse, that was some serious stuff, compared to today, steal your horse, well, you just get your horse value back, but back then, you could die out in the west without a horse, because the circumstances have changed, the law will change according to those circumstances, but it’s still the what? Which law is being applied? The law of God! To that particular situation of preserving life, although particular details change, don’t get lost in details, that’s awful with the judicial laws, but the moral law of God is always the same and everywhere binding, that’s part of its greatness, and of course, the ceremonial law, on the other hand, although it’s clearly transient, it’s done away with, we have a little bit of that today, right? We forget about that, we have what? Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, we’re not going to have that in heaven, we have the marriage feast of the lamb forever, it’s perfect fellowship with him, no longer does anybody get that, we don’t get baptized anymore, we don’t need that, that’s externality, the Old Testament had lots of externality, amazing, beautiful things like the temple, we went over that on Wednesday night, we went through 1 Kings, when Solomon built that temple, and how much gold and precious silver was involved, it’s this majestic, huge, glorious temple, and I’m sure it was, and we’d love to see a time machine and check it out, but that’s nothing in comparison to the beauty of the law of God, of his holy will for his people, we’ll talk a little bit about that.
The Law’s Greatness in Moral Truth
A little bit later, secondly, the law’s greatness is a moral truth, or immoral truth, or the moral truth it gives us, it’s of course an expression of God’s moral purity, it is his will revealed for us in his creation, on our hearts, and in the word of God, is found the will of God, that is the law of God, in particular, the commandments, the precepts, the requirements that he has given his creation, again, unlike the judicial ceremonial, the law of God was what? Given from heaven, declared from a voice, and written on stones, showing its uniqueness, its specialness, its greatness, for us, it is described as holy, just, and good, Romans 7, 12, therefore the law is holy, and the commandments holy, and just, and good, of course in contrast, Paul is saying, I am not, I am carnal, I am under sin, I am fighting these things, God’s great will for us is holy, just, and good, it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing indeed, and these are descriptions of God himself, because this is his word to us, and therefore they have the characteristic of him, this perfection, this goodness, this holiness for us, and so identified with him, the law of God is so identified with our Lord and Savior, that in saving us, and delivering us from death, from sin, from hell, and Satan’s kingdom, he gives a promise with respect to the law of God, that very law that we broke, and thought were indeed, we were born sinners, and want nothing to do with his holy will in our lives, but even so, he says, I’m going to give you what?
My Holy Spirit, I’m going to purify you, and how does he purify us? With the law of God. Hebrews 8, 10, 14, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their mind, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
He writes the laws of God upon our heart. It’s engraven, not on stone anymore, but on flesh. It’s part of us in a way it wasn’t before when we were sinners, because as sinners, we efface it, we try to tear it down, we tear out our skins as it were, and our soul, and try to hide, and shred it up.
We don’t want to have this guilty conscience, and this law upon our mind. But here, he renews this sense of the law of God, this clarity of the holy commandments, as an expression of his love, how much he identifies with the law, with our lives, and the goal of salvation, which is to be holy, and to enjoy God, and to glorify God, and enjoy him forever. You enjoy him by being holy.
That’s part of the package deal. It is great, of course, with respect to moral direction, and giving us a moral compass in our lives. Psalm 19.10, again Psalm 19, and the other Psalms 119, lots of verses there.
Moreover, by them your servant is what? Warned. Don’t go this way, be in a place of being, go that way instead. Psalm 19.7b, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, not wise in the sense of you just kind of wake up and now you can do math, but morally wise, you understand right and wrong in a way, as Paul says elsewhere in the Psalms, that my teachers don’t even teach me.
I know more than them because I have the law of God. That’s the greatness of having this thing. And so we often, and by God’s grace, it’s a good thing to remind ourselves, meditate and think about the wonderfulness of when our nation took the law of God seriously, when you went to school.
And at one sense it wasn’t that long ago. Some of the older generation may remember a little bit about that. They had what? The Ten Commandments in school.
Up until the 50s. Because we understood its powerfulness and its helpfulness, even for unbelievers, in giving us a moral direction and compass as a nation, collectively. In a world, of course, of conflicting moral systems, of every man doing what is right in his own eyes in the American context, and it’s bleeding into the church, unfortunately.
We need this reminder of how wonderful the law of God is. Proverbs 29.18 again. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraints.
But happy is he who keeps the law. Remind you again, the Proverbs, like the Psalms, use a lot of Hebraic poetry. So you have synonymous parallelism.
You say the same thing twice, but you also have an antithetical parallelism, where you say the one thing and then you say the opposite. That’s what you have here in Proverbs 29. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off what? Moral restraints and run around and do their own thing.
But, here’s the contrast. Happy is he who what? Keeps the law. That’s the opposite of having no revelation.
It’s to have the revelation of God’s law. That’s what he’s saying. And that is a good thing.
And it’s what? The people. But happy is he who keeps the people. Not just the Jewish people, but any people.
They’re also blessed. They follow the Lord God. And it’s God’s people, of course, in particular.
Now, the law of God is great and wonderful and majestic in so many ways. And so wonderful, so marvelous, that there’s an entire chapter dedicated to it. Remember that? Psalm 119, we sung two parts of it this morning.
It was Psalm M, I don’t remember what it was, 119 something. And this evening it was 119 B for Bravo. There’s a lot of them.
There is 176 verses in Psalm 119. It’s the longest chapter in the Bible. And that’s its topic.
The law of God. The precepts of the Lord. His holy commandments.
And his will for his people. It’s in a acrostic. Which, it’s divided into the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
With each line beginning with that letter. And it’s broken up, I don’t remember how many verses per letter of the alphabet. And it uses ten different words for the word Torah or law.
Commandment, ordinance is another one, for example. The greatness of God’s law, as we read here, because I have written for him the great things of my law. Hosea 8, 12.
Is that it is good. The law of God is good. Many things in life are good for their effect upon us is what we often thank them for.
But the law of God is good even if no blessing ever flowed from it. Indeed it is more precious than gold. It is a goodness for us in terms of blessing as well.
Not just its nature of being God’s revelation for us. The blessings that we get, these good things that come from the law of God. Psalm 119, 165.
- Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. I could have used that this morning in Sunday school class when I went over peace.
As one of the fruits of the spirit. In cultivating the peace. A lot of things you can say about the fruit of the spirit.
But one thing that you can tie it into is the law of God. The fruit of the spirit should never be divorced from the law of God. Because the law of God tells you when you are hating somebody.
When you are not showing them kindness and the like. Or goodness as the case is in this case. And peace.
Here we have great peace have those who love your law. Peace with one another because you strive to do the right thing of course. And especially peace with God through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior who has obeyed the law for us.
Of long life is another good thing of the law of God. Here the good thing being the effects and the blessings for us. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise.
That you may be well with you and you may live long in the earth. Ephesians 6. God indeed did give good blessings. Attached to the law of God.
And his kindness for his people. But again even without that. It is a blessed and good thing nevertheless.
It is great with respect to the world. The world will see and understand and know the greatness of God’s law. The marvelousness therein.
Deuteronomy 6.6 is one of the classic passages you may recall. In Deuteronomy 6.6 we read. Therefore be careful to observe them what the law of God the Lord is telling them through Moses.
For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes. And say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near it.
As the Lord our God is to us. For whatever reason we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments.
As are all in this law which I set before you this day. Now at the end of the day of course. It is especially the church that the world sees us take the law of God seriously.
As a nation unfortunately we’ve fallen so far in America from the law of God in many ways. The world won’t see it as much. But especially in the church we are what a holy nation.
A peculiar people. To show forth his name and his praise. First Peter.
And that part of that showing forth of God’s greatness. Is our taking his law seriously. That we have it as a blessing.
And we receive it as a good thing. And we are thankful for what the Lord has bestowed upon us. And giving us his word.
And I mentioned this before. Here’s the verse right here. Showing and reminding us of how wonderful the law of God is for us.
How precious it is. Psalm 19.10 we read. It is more to be desired are they than gold.
Gold. Yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
The precious things of life. I would like to have a little more gold. I could use a little more things with the money in my life I’m sure.
And food. Honey is a sweet food. It’s a good dessert.
I like my desserts. I like my ice cream. What does he say here? Is this the law of God is more desired.
Your statutes. Your holy commandments. And sweeter than honey.
Because those things will fade away. Dessert’s gone. The gold.
The value goes up. The value goes down. The material things of this world.
These blessings which have their place to be sure. Are temporary. But the law of the Lord is forever.
And always a good thing to follow. And to be under. The man with the Lord’s law is more blessed than the richest billionaire living in wickedness.
It is easy to say, I know. But it’s hard to live. But we are called to live and believe this truth.
There’s lots of billionaires out there. Unfortunately, they’re not saved. The greatness.
The law’s greatness. The third point. Not just in general.
The Law’s Greatness in Preparing for the Gospel
And its natures. As I went through some of the characteristics of the law of God. Its universality.
It’s applicable to all. The highest and the lowest. As well as its moral purity.
And its guidance. And a day and age of wickedness. But here, thirdly and lastly.
The law’s greatness in preparing for the gospel. It is not the gospel. It should never be confused with the gospel.
But it is given by God for many reasons. One of them is to prepare us. To equip us.
To wake us up. To tear us down. To be a stumbling stone, even, in our lives.
That we would fall on our face and realize this is a terrible life to live without God, our Savior. Exposing wicked actions is one way it does this. Exposes evil to such a degree that, again, the sinner knows he is sinning.
And yet makes excuses nevertheless. Romans 1.32 is what I alluded to earlier. Who, that is, the unbeliever.
That’s how he starts out that whole section there. They all know that there is a God. He is a judge.
That they are in sin. But they what? Suppress the truth and unrighteousness. He goes through some examples there.
One of which, of course, is the heinous acts of homosexuality. And then he goes through another long list. Verses 27, 8, and 9. Down to verse 32.
Who? These people. Knowing the righteous judgment of God. They know the righteous commandments of God.
Judgment here doesn’t mean necessarily what he’s going to come and punish them. But also judgments as the law of God. What is right and what is wrong.
What you judge to be right and what you judge to be wrong. That’s often the use of the word judgment there, for example, in the Old Testament. Knowing the righteous judgment of God.
That those, so he’s explaining what he means here. Those who practice such things. That long list of sins in the prior verses.
Or deserving of death. Now they do the same. They do them.
But also what? Approve of those who practice them. That’s why sin is communal. And so is righteousness.
Sin is communal because they want to reinforce their wickedness and make excuses for one another. Say, it’s okay. We’re all in this together, brother.
No. A thousand times no. The law of God exposes all that.
Sins of all kinds are condemned. Another list we have in 1 Timothy 1.19. Or excuse me, 1.9. 1 Timothy 1.9. That the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and insubordinate. That is, the particular use of the law is to expose the lawless and insubordinate.
For the ungodly. For the sinners. For the unholy.
The profane. Murderers of fathers. Murderers of mothers.
For manslayers. And it continues on. And a short list.
That’s shorter, actually, than Romans 1. But that’s what it’s there for. We need this. They need this exposure.
They need to hear the law of God. His commandments. And His holy requirement for them.
And it’s not just the sins that they do. That they commit. But also what? The sins of omission.
What they’re not doing. That they ought to do. Men and women, we all know.
We’ve seen these horror stories of people on tramways and the like. Being attacked and stabbed. And people standing around doing nothing.
And we’re like, this is horrifying. What is wrong with these civilians? With these pedestrians? Because we know intuitively, even not doing something can be a sinful act. A very egregious sinful act, even.
We know it. And they know it. And that’s because the law of God says as much.
And it’s there in creation. On their hearts. In the word of God.
That sins of omission are also just that sin. And it exposes not just omission and commission. But particularly hearts.
Wicked hearts. That’s where the power of the law especially resides when it comes to conviction. The heart of the matter.
It is a spiritual scapegoat, in other words, in the hands of the Holy Spirit. The story of Peter and Simon the Magi reminds us of this in Acts 8. Where he wishes to buy. Can you imagine the crassness of this? Buy the power of the Holy Spirit.
What? Peter turns to him and does what? He rebukes him. There’s that example this morning of guarding the truth. In this case, bringing the truth to bear upon a heart.
Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness. And pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart. What? The thought of your heart.
Not just your words. Not just the money in your hands. The thought of your heart, he says, may be forgiven you.
For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound in iniquity. That’s especially what the law of God is for. The heart.
Jeremiah 17.9 reminds us. The heart is deceitful above all things. And desperately wicked.
Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his way. According to the fruit of his doings.
And that’s what? He’s clearly talking about the law of God there. He defines the fruit of doings by the law of God. As the judge.
He judges and weighs the heart. And he judges and weighs the heart by the law. By the commandments.
By the requirements. By the stipulations. Of the creator of all.
And it’s important to understand this fact. Because external acts may look good and legitimate. People can do lots of good things.
And I want that. Again, in society. I don’t want people running around saying.
Let me show you what I really think of my heart. No, thank you. They can do lots of nice things.
But inward be full of dead men’s bones. And the law of God exposes that. That’s the most powerful part.
An important part of its use in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And that’s a needful preparation in the law of God. This is important.
Not just for the Christian. Because we need conviction as well. Right? We never forget.
The law and the gospel are also still needful for the Christian life. Yes. And for conviction as well.
Yes. But this I’m painting here. And drilling in.
Especially for the unbeliever. To drive them to Jesus. It’s part of Christ’s ministry.
Mark 1.14. Now after John was put in prison. Jesus came to Galilee. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.
And saying, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. This is great.
All right. This is the end of the show. It’s a new age.
But what does he say? Repent! And believe in the gospel. Repent. Repent from what? Hate what? Turn away.
Change from what? Change your mind about what? Sin! That’s clear to the context. He came to preach the law of God with respect to sin. Repentance.
As a preparation and equipment. To tear them down. Because they have so much pride and arrogance.
That you are nothing before God. It is not your circumcision. It is not your birth.
We are the sons of Abraham, they said. Jesus is like, you want the sons of Abraham? God can make them right from the stones. Who are you? You’re nothing.
Kind of arrogant response, isn’t it? Because that’s exactly what it was. An arrogant response. So he brought that kind of conviction.
Yes, he brought the great marvelous news. Himself. In the flesh.
I’m here to live and die for my people. But he also opened his mouth and brought judgment. Because they need to hear it.
And people responded by God’s grace and did repent. They did repent. Matthew 5, 17.
Do not think that I came to destroy the law. Jesus says. Oh, the prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. They are part and parcel of his ministry. In the Old Testament prophets.
The New Testament apostles. And the pastors of today. The law is given.
And to be used. And to be taught. To bring conviction.
To awaken guilt. So they understand. Why do I need a Savior? Why do we all need a Savior? Because we are wretched sinners without our Lord and Savior.
It’s not just to be mean and heartless. Never the case. People will look at it that way.
They will interpret it that way. You can be as kind and helpful as you want. As we saw.
They will still shoot you. They don’t care. They think you’re evil.
Whatever the case is. Whatever is going on in life. If you’re a Christian and they don’t like you.
That’s what they’re going to say often. Praise be to God. Most of them don’t.
But they’ll just say you’re heartless. Why do you bring up these things? Because God tells us. The law of God is a wonderful great thing.
And it’s a great tool to bring about reformation. And change of heart. Personally and collectively.
In society and in the church as needed. Of course it’s only one step. The other step is the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
You need the power of the gospel. Because the law is powerless to save you. The law is part of the Christian life.
This will be the first sermon in a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments. I thought it appropriate to stop here. In Hosea.
On verse 12. I have written for him the great things of my law. And not just to go over them in general.
We know them from the shorter catechism. I’ve talked over them over the years. But to cover some parts that we don’t typically think about for example.
To give us a different perspective in some regards. Because there’s a lot of meaty stuff there in the word of God. And summarized in a larger catechism on the Ten Commandments.
In other words to highlight the lesser known parts of the commandments. And lastly here again. A reminder the law is not gospel.
It is a wonderful thing. It is a great thing. It is a marvelous thing.
Because it reflects the holiness and the perfection. And the greatness of our God and Savior. But it is not the gospel.
It’s nature is unique from the gospel. But it’s still a wonderful thing nevertheless. It’s a moral truth.
A pure truth. And it’s there to prepare the hearts for the good news of Jesus Christ. The law is not the power of Godly living.
That is Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit within us. But it is the path of holiness. It tells us this is how you’re supposed to walk and live as a believer.
And you can because you have the Spirit of God. You have a clean conscience. Because you are justified by Jesus Christ and faith alone.
And not by your obedience to the law of God. You are sanctified and you’re being purified. And you can, brothers and sisters.
And you shall continue to walk this path. Romans 8.3 reminds us that one of the great goals of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is to bring us back into a right relationship to him and his holy law.
Romans 8.3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Which is to say through your fallen nature. Can’t obey it.
God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.
That the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. He not only fulfilled it for us. That’s the great act of justification.
He obeyed the law. Perfectly for us. And it’s imputed to us.
By faith alone. But in our sanctification it is he who is working in us. The righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us.
In you who do not walk according to the flesh. But according to the spirit. You are born again.
And you are now walking this path of obedience to the law of God. In thought, word, and deed. Yes, a little bit here and there.
Yes, you stumble. But in the stumbling right. You stumble forward.
You’re falling forward. Towards your walk towards heaven brothers and sisters. Because the spirit of God is indeed living and breathing in you.
And has brought you what? Born again. And in Hebrews 8 we read. Engraving the law of God on your heart.
Praise be to his name. Because it’s a great thing to have. Let us pray.
It is indeed a great and wonderful blessing. A marvelous tool in our life God. A light in a dark world.
Our Lord and Savior. And may we treat it as such. An important part of the Christian life.
But again God not to forget. Nor replace the gospel with the law. The law gives us guidance, direction.
Does not give us the power of the Holy Spirit. That comes from your grace and your mercy. We pray for more of that there by God.
So that we would obey. Not so that we can say look how wonderful we are. But so that we can bring more peace God.
More security. More fruit of the spirit in the Christian walk. With those around us in our church God.
And be a witness and example to the world around and at large. We ask these things by the blood of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ who has obeyed and walked this path for us.
And is now living in us by the power of the spirit. So that we can continue on in this life. To take the law of God is a great and marvelous blessing.
Amen. Yes, amen.