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1-26-2025_CPC_Sunday_School_Westminster-Confession of Faith #19
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Chapter 19 of the Law of God in the Westminster Confession of Faith is discussed. It emphasizes the importance of discretion and valor. The chapter is said to be the greatest in the confession and should be read before going on a deserted island. It addresses the Gospel, God's grace, and the role of believers and non-believers. The beauty and importance of the law are highlighted. The confession was written to restore correct teaching to the church. The importance of following God's Word rather than worldly advice is emphasized. The purpose of humans is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The chapter discusses God's pardon from the curse of the law and compares it to an executive order. God's authority is the highest and His pardon is more valuable than a jury trial. We continue in Chapter 19 in the Law of God. There is an expression that discretion is the better part of valor. You guys heard that expression? Discretion is the better part of valor. Many a speaker has been up here discerning with a lot of discretion and a lot of valor, not willing to say that, yes, this chapter is the greatest chapter in the Westminster Confession of Faith. With a lack of discretion this morning, lack of valor, I will step in and say, on record, that Chapter 19, if you are on a deserted island and have to select one chapter from the Westminster Confession of Faith, take Chapter 19 with you. First, read Chapter 5 before you go on the deserted island, understanding the providence of God has you there. Read Chapter 1 about the beauty of how the Westminster Confession is structured, starting off with Holy Scripture, that we don't know about God by sitting on an island watching the stars. We need the revelation of God. In no chapter will you find the Gospel, will you find the balance in where we most run off the rails, in God's grace, in God's law, and what we do with life. Not only that, for ourselves of how we understand this truth for those that are not God's children. This is going to apply to God's children. It's going to apply to those that are not God's children. This is going to apply to the Creator of the universe. It's His world, and this is His expression of what to do in His world. We, as believers, should be most attuned to that, most excited about that, and most growing to that. But it also has tremendous benefits, as we will see this morning, to those that do not bow their knee to God the Creator. Our outline this morning is we will do a brief overview, reminding us of the beauty of the Westminster Confession of Faith, a review of Pastor Mark's last week, 19.1-19.4. We will do 19.5, 6, and 7, and hope to save time at the end for a discussion. If we remember where we are and why we are studying the Westminster Confession of Faith, we have, in the 1600s, a time in the church when the church is overwhelmed in their distortion of God. They do not see God rightly, and this has profound effects for how they live, how they think, how they act, how they, as a church, are worshiping the Lord. So, in the 1600s, you have, through the Catholic Church, a profound control of the church and people that are pushing back to restore how God has revealed Himself in His Word, to reveal the sufficiency of the Word, and you have a desire to bring back orthodoxy into the church. So, you see Bach's sheet music there, where he would sign his work, SDG, Soli Deo Glorii, To God Alone Be the Glory, him writing during this time, his beautiful music, To the Glory of God, and he is lavering away, the divines are lavering away, the Westminster Assembly, on returning correct, straight teaching to the church. How many of us are in the same boat this morning that are paying for dental work for our children? Painful, if anyone is in this boat. It is not cheap. We are seeing an orthodontist. What is the desire for healthy teeth that should look like straight teeth? I have a friend, they have maybe nine kids, and he told me, Paul, when our kids had their baby teeth, they were all perfectly straight, and I don't know what happened when they fell out, but they fell down the tree and they are all this way and this way. Five, ten thousand dollars later, we put that time and that money and that energy into an orthodontist to achieve straight teeth in the same way. Ortho, straight, doxy teaching, the Westminster divines put time and money and energy into giving us a document of straight, correct teaching. Now, if all we do is walk out of the Sunday School series and know things correctly in our head, it is not a loss, but correct things in our head should lead to any correct teacher, any correct book that is proclaiming true things about God. There should be a part in that book where it leads to praise. So, here is the expression. Ortho, doxy, straight teaching should lead to doxology. We see the truth and we see the doxology together. We see praise together. So, orthodoxy should lead to doxology. And all of that, what is the chief end of man? That doxology, that praise of God should lead us to live our lives differently. This is our introduction of, again, why are we in the Westminster Confession of Faith and into Chapter 19 and the beauty of the law. Now, who knows best of how we should live than our Creator? There are a lot of people that will offer you suggestions of how you should live. Go to any grocery aisle and just try as you may, keep your eyes away from the advice that is right before you, and it will say 10 tips to flatter abs, 10 tips to greater peace. There is no shortage of people that will tell you how you, as a creation, should live your life. We are given our orthodoxy, our maturity should lead us that our first place, that when we are wanting to know what we should do in life, what other people should do in life, whether we are counseling ourselves or other people, should not be a magazine in the aisle, a book in the secular section, but should be the Word of God, because who better knows you and knows what you should be doing than your Creator? I'm going to take a tangent. Does anybody recognize who that is? You see his name there, but does anybody recognize the name? I see one. Eric and I at the men's night talked briefly about this, kind of an offshoot of Wendell Berry, but not as much of a purist as Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin. We use machinery, but Joel Salatin's approach to farming is that one area of a farm shouldn't look like soybeans year after year after year. This is not the way our world was meant to work. Rotate in crops. Rotate in animals to the crops. Have the cows walk along the fields, providing manure where the agriculture will grow. Have the chickens come behind the cows and scratch all of the manure and have all of this working together in harmony. Joel Salatin's famous expression is the pigness of the pig, the cowness of the cow, that every creature has an intended purpose. Let that creature thrive in its intended purpose to our benefit, so that when a pig is fully able to be a pig, we taste pork like we've never tasted before. When a cow, instead of being locked in a feedlot, is allowed to graze and allowed to live in the cowness of a cow, then we taste beef like we've never tasted before. This is Joel Salatin's premise. I'm going to borrow that and talk about the wonderful creationness of creation. Where do we get that from? If we get the wonderful pigness of pigs in Joel Salatin's book, where do we get the wonderful creationness of creation? What book do we get that out of? You guys know the answer to this. All of us, whether pigs, ships, submarines, all of us need to go to our resource manual to understand what we are supposed to be doing. That ship and that submarine are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The shipness of a ship is put on full display. We don't swap those two. If the ship is acting like a submarine, or a submarine is all the time acting like a ship, our United States Navy has serious issues. We are not ready for war. The book that we turn to is our Holy Bible. The marvelous creationness of creation. What is our purpose? What is our purpose from Scripture? We know this. Question one. What is your chief intent? To glorify God and enjoy Him. There is a famous theologian that talks about it being a pagan idea that when we do God's will, it will lead to dreary and awful consequences for us. If I ask the Lord as a young man that I want to follow you, surely He is going to take everything good away from me and say, you, go become a missionary on a remote island. This pagan idea that our Lord doesn't invite us in to not only the greatest end that we have which is to worship Him, doxology, but to be enjoying Him forever. What is our purpose? Isaiah 43.7. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. God formed us. He created us for what? His glory. Not to us. Don't focus on your belly button, oh Lord, but to your name. Give glory. This is our purpose. So when we look at God's pardon from the curse of the law in chapter 19, we look at what has been used often times as a helpful analogy for understanding what is our position before God's law? Is it a jury trial where you stand before a group of people and they look at you and they analyze you and they say, not guilty. Or maybe even better, they say acquitted and innocent. They look at you and they say that we have weighed the charges and we find you to be not guilty. Let me ask all of you. Executive orders have been in the news this last week. They've been in the news this last couple of weeks. Executive orders only mean anything because of what? That seal right there. If I gave you an executive order, I'm flattered if you think it means something. It does not. An executive order only pardons you from all crimes, past and credibly. You can even do it in the future. But why? Because you have the highest authority in the country. There is no higher authority than the executive branch. He selects the attorney general. The attorney general selects his federal prosecutors. The federal prosecutors prosecute the crime in the United States. There is no higher authority than that seal right there. How many of us would rather sit before a jury trial and have somebody say not guilty or rather have a piece of paper that has an executive order on it that says you're good to go. Everything you did in the past, everything you might be prosecuted for in the future, I'd rather have the executive order in my hand. When we are before God himself, there is no higher seal. There is no higher authority. What does our sin deserve at the hands of God? Every sin, even the least. Being against the sovereignty, goodness and holiness of God and against his righteous law deserves his wrath and curse both in this life and that which is to come and cannot be expiated except by the blood of Christ. When we are in Christ this morning, we have an executive pardon in our hands that says that the curse of God does not curse you. God does not condemn you. There is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. This is our great executive order that we have in our hands for those who are in Christ Jesus. My first time in Dallas, maybe 15, 20 years ago. I'm a young guy. I'm just starting off as a prosecutor and I work all day, fly into Dallas, get my rental car and I find the beauty of the open roads of Dallas before me. Lots of lanes to choose from. It's late and you want to get to your hotel. Well, it turns out that compared to, and this is all my lead up, which is excuses to make myself seem a little better in this story, that the compact rental that I was in moved a little quicker than the old Ford Taurus I had back at home. Before I knew it, I was going over 20 miles an hour faster than the speed limit in our area here in Dallas. I met for the first time the law enforcement of the state highway patrol. Well, this was not part of my plans. His plans was to pull me over and to explain to me Texas law. Texas law, as he explained to me, I remember that if you're going over 20 miles an hour more than the speed limit, that he can invite you forcibly into the back of the jail. I explained to him my purpose for being in Dallas was to visit a prison. I explained this to him. I was going to use everything to my benefit to try and get out of this. I shared with him that, sir, my hope, I am here tomorrow to visit a prison. My hope was to go through the front door of prison and not the back door. With that, he said, well, drive safely, have a good night, and let me go. This was the kindness that Texas showed me many years ago. Now, when we enter this world, we do not have the ability to negotiate. We do not have the ability to talk with law enforcement and have us explain to them, but I'm really not that bad of a person. We don't have the ability to negotiate what Adam has already done on our behalf. As our federal head, Adam has already positioned us to be in jail, if it will. Adam has already positioned us to have the curse of God resting on us. In Romans, we have the beautiful explanation of this truth, that in 18 and 19, so then, as through one transgression, Adam's sin, there resulted condemnation to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Here, pictorially, we see that born into this world, you are already the recipient of Adam's transgression. He has already represented you. This is not even to mention your own sin. This is just your position before the Almighty Sovereign Lord, is that you are entered in the back of the jail, right? This is your position. Thankfully, there's more. There's question 22, did all mankind fall in the first transgression, affirming and summarizing Romans 5.18. Romans 5.19, even so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. So, what did Christ do? What did Christ do on our behalf? Christ, if he was not God, then what he did does not matter for us. Christ, if he did not live a perfect life, then what he did did not matter for us. Christ, if he did not die to serve the punishment, to appease the Holy God, then his sacrifice does not matter to us. Christ, if he did not rise from the dead, his sacrifice does not matter to us. But it is Christ living the perfect life. It is Christ being God and man. It is Christ dying on the cross, and it is Christ rising from the dead that makes that one, his obedience, death and resurrection, allowing the many, his church to be made righteous. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Romans 5.19. Larger Catechism, question 32, did all mankind fall into one? The covenant of grace, we have gone through covenants, was made with Christ as a second Adam, and in him would all be elect as his seed. Now what? What place does God have in your life? Look at these pictures and ask yourself, which resonates most with me when I think about God's law? Which of these four pictures, just without knowing anything about it, resonates the most with me when I think about God's law? Is it A? Is it B? Is it C? Is it D? D is the right answer. In case you were tempted to pick the wrong answer, D is the right answer. Why is that? Option A, do you view God's law as condemning? Option A, do you view God's law as condemning? Now each of these pictures has some truth in it, some usefulness in it, but how do we view God's law as a whole? Is it you condemned before God, wagging his finger, you behind the prison cell bars, saying that, well, I'm just going to give you, here's a Bible, and you do the best you can, here's three square meals a day. Is this your mental picture of God's law? There is a very real aspect of God's law in a very prosecutorial sense that we need to be convicted. We need to be convicted of our sins and brought into godly grief, as we will see in the reading of the law later this morning. But if we stay there behind the bars, if we stay convicted and don't flee to Christ, then this is the wrong way to view God's law. Option B, God's law is the Old Testament. You'll hear this. Evangelical Christianity is confused by this often times. This is what makes chapter 19 so beautiful in clearing up this distortion of how do we view God's law. That's the Old Testament. My Bible reading plan is in the New Testament. I threw out all my old stuff to the goodwill. Why are you keeping old stuff in your theology? Yesterday, this is today, the law is expired. This is heresy. We will see that the law of God represents and reflects the character of God. You look me in my face and say that the character of God is expired. You won't do that. That is not true. The character of somebody doesn't expire. The character of God continues to be expressed in his word and through Christ all the way back from Adam to Moses to Christ and for us today. Practical advice. Wake up at 5.30 in the morning. Do planks. Read your Bible. Drink some electrolytes. Read God's law. It's practical. It's useful. But it's no more than that. These are things that can help you in life. If you are having trouble driving a screw in, use an impact wrench. These are practical things for you to consider. If your view of God's law is take it or leave it, it's practical, it's useful, I want to know about it, but it's not binding to me in my life, then you would be incorrect. Like we said, God's law, freedom. We'll talk about freedom here shortly, but as we talked about last week, God's law is an expression of his character. Jerry Bridges talks about God's law in this way that as we drive a car, think about what you do when you drive a car. Do you find it more exciting to drive off in the trees there? There's a sense of lanes that's helpful for you in your journey. There's a sense of lanes that is good and right. It's the same for playing the piano. I am going to play the piano as I just feel like it. Next thing I know, if your kids tell you, skip the lessons. I've got a plan. I just feel like I know how to play the piano. It takes their fists out and starts. You're going to stop that pretty quickly. He is not playing the piano within the way that a piano was meant to be played. In life, how is life meant to be lived? We have God's law. We have a lane. In that, we have freedom. Freedom for, freedom from. Let's talk about that. Galatians 5.1 and then 13. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Why did Christ set us free? For freedom. For you were called to freedom, says 13 brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Stay in those lanes, but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If I say that I am free, that word in and of itself never occurs in a vacuum. If you can give me an example of it, then I'm going to learn something from you. Free always means free from, free for. We have freedom as a country. That's not just a static, isolated, in a vacuum word. It is freedom from. We only appreciate freedom because anybody that reads their history recognizes that there are situations in which people are more constrained in life. Freedom from, constraint, freedom for. Freedom to do what? If you say that I am free and you just stand around all day, then I will question if you're free. Freedom is only free if you're doing something with it, if you're moving somewhere, if you're going somewhere. Galatians 1 and 13 and 14 give us very clear what we have been freed from, a yoke of slavery, what we have been freed for, to love and serve one another. Where do we find this? In the law, bringing us back to chapter 19. Christ, as we will see, summarizes the whole law. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Elsewhere, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Adam, he deviated from how he was created to operate, breaking the law, and there were severe consequences. We saw that. Let's look quickly by way of review of what we talked about last week. We talked about this covenant. Adam breaks the law. Moses codifies the law. Christ fulfills the law and gives us even a greater and a law with more muscle in it. Chad's very helpful in this way where he says God's norm for good behavior was not annulled by sin any more than normative statements about good health are annulled by sickness. How many people the last month have been fighting sickness, right? In our families, showing the club, like when your child or you became sick, did that say anything or did that obliterate healthiness? No. It more said that you are not what you are supposed to be, healthy. The only idea that we know about sickness is because we know about health, right? That is, Lord willing, what our norm is, is being healthy. We know about sickness because we know about health. Nothing changes about health when we get sick. If anything, the law was more clearly revealed than ever before. This is in Christ. As human consciences corrupted, God openly codified his law. As their hearts hardened, God took what was written on their hearts and had it inscribed on two tablets of stone. So we have here the law continuing in Moses and then in Christ, as we will see. All right. This brings us to 19.5. Any questions, thoughts before we move on? In 19.5, we are going to look at this, 19.5, 6, and 7. Let's see where we get to. The moral law, however, does not pertain to every, does pertain to everyone. So in 19.5, reminding us that God's law is not just for his church. It is for everyone. Why? Because God has authority over everyone. In the gospel, Christ does not in any way remove this obligation but rather strengthens it. So Chad, again, really helpful. Whatever the reason for thinking that the moral law of God has changed in the new covenant era, we have reason to think the Westminster Confession of faith is correct in judging that Christ in his gospel actually strengthens our obligation to keep the law of God. Jesus does not wipe away the Ten Commandments. He solidifies it. How does he solidify it? We talked about this. What does Jesus say that all the law can be summarized in two things? The first four commandments of our duty towards God, the last six commandments of our duty towards man. Jesus did not wipe away the Ten Commandments when he said they could be summarized as two. In a way, Jesus actually fortified the moral law when he simplified it in telling us that the whole law hangs on two commandments, a wholehearted love for our God and a warmhearted love for our neighbor. Jesus presented a regal summary that James calls the royal law. How many people this last two weeks have been able to have a fire of some sort to keep them warm? What a wonderful thing to have a fire. We have in our house, if the fire gets lit in the fireplace, it's not too long before everybody finds the fire, finds a spot by the fire, grabs a book. The fire just draws people in. What does Jesus say about how we should be first towards God, a wholehearted love for our God as summarized, and then a warmhearted love for our neighbor? Let me ask you a question. You don't have to answer this out loud. How is your fire towards your neighbor? How is your disposition towards your neighbor, towards the people around you? Is it warm? Do people want to get closer to you or farther away from you? If our calling is a warmhearted love towards our neighbor, does the warmth of your heart draw people closer to you or do people want to get a little farther away from you? Good question for us to reflect on as we think about Christ's calling of God's character, Christ's calling of the law, and us as Christians, how we are to understand our continual obligation, not just towards God, but towards our neighbor. 19.6. We're going to go through these quickly. I want to use, I think it's beneficial, some pictures to help us think through the three uses of the moral law. This is something that we have, that many of you will be familiar with. We talked about the three types of the law. We talked about that last week. You guys remember what those are. Number one, a ceremonial law. We no longer, in the corporate confession of sin this morning, there will not be a baby lamb that will come forward. That has been done away with, the ceremonial part of God's law. The civil law, Israel is a theocracy. That was the second type of God's law. We are not a theocracy. We can draw general equity from it, usefulness from it. It should spur our minds on to think about how we can love people, but it's not binding on us. The moral law is still binding. That's the third type. Now, within that subset, there are three primary uses of the moral law. 19.6 has three primary uses. There are many uses, but the three primary uses we will see here. Number one, it acts as both a mirror and a pedagogical, is what they say, approach. It teaches us something. It is a mirror and a whip. Don't ask me how long it took me to make that graphic. A mirror and a whip. What does a mirror do? This morning, you see something that may need to be improved in the morning. You see a true reflection of something. The mirror in this regard has two layers to it. Number one, you both see yourself. You see where you fall short. If all you do is look at the mirror and the law of God and just stand there and feel condemned because you fall short, then the pedagogical, the teaching role of God's law has fallen way short. It should start there and show where you fall short, but then what? Where does it lead you to? This is what Calvin calls the whip. It should take you. It should whip you towards Christ. I can't do it on my own. After attempting to do what is ordered in the law, and so feeling our weakness under the law may implore the help of grace. I can't do this on my own. And so we have a mirror that reflects not only ourselves, but reflects God and his character. So the mirror is twofold. Where we fall short, the mirror is a reflection of God, and all of that should drive us, point us to Christ. That's the first use of the law. Second use. First is pedagogical. Second is civil or restraint. Here we have a picture of a police officer. He does not skip arms day. He is impressive in his strength, but also in his authority. There's a very real sense of God's law that has usefulness not only to us, but to people that are not God's children, to restrain them from evil. That law is written on everybody's heart, that when you steal, that there are universal aspects that you know, you may try and sear your conscience, but you know that that is wrong. It leaves you, God's law being written on your heart on the day of judgment, for those of us in Christ, that we have no condemnation on the day of judgment. For those of us that are not in Christ, inexcusable, inexcusable, because there is no condemnation on the day of judgment. Inexcusable, because they know, and they've known God's law, and their breaking of God's law will have consequences. Having said all of that, before judgment, there is a civil restraint, a usefulness for us, that as we walk around and drive around, people know that thou shall not steal in their hearts. That's useful, and that is restraining of evil. Imagine if we lived in a world where evil was not restrained. We have a, for all of our warts and difficulties in our country, we have a very useful and healthy respect for the presumption, the goodness, the rule of law, right? When we see that offended, it offends us, right? We have an assumption that the rule of law is fair in this country. It's not until you go to another country, it's not until you go to a country where they don't have that. May you recognize how good the robust restraint of evil is in our society. Use number two, a civil use for civil restraint. Lastly, what they call a normative use, that is now our guide. It is a family code. How are we to act together? How are we to act in life? We have the law as a guide for believers. Jesus tells us that even in the best of circumstances, an ideal scenario, where we have done all that we have commanded, we must say we are unworthy servants, and have only done what is our duty, Chad Van Dicksorn. Now not condemned, we have the obligation to do our duty. Jerry Bridges talks about that at the end of the year, we just finished 2024. How many of you received a certificate from the DMV from thanking you for your good driving in 2024? Anybody? I didn't get one. Those of us that didn't get any tickets in 2024, we fulfilled our duty. We enjoyed the privilege of driving around to each other's house. That's in and of itself, the privilege of driving. That is, in and of itself, our duty to stay between those two lanes. The benefit of that, in and of itself, is the driving around. The benefit is doing your duty is that you get to live well and drive well. That's the third use of God's law. Questions on the three uses, three primary uses of the moral law? Seeing none, we'll finish with 19.7. None of these uses of the law is contrary to the grace of the gospel. They rather beautifully comply with it because the spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do voluntarily and cheerfully what the will of God revealed in the law requires. 19.7 finishes with a bow on it to remind us that the law in the New Testament, in Christ's sacrifice, is not done away with, but that they beautifully comply. This great quote by Chad Den Dixon where he says, sometimes people are praying for guidance and discernment from God when they really need to pray for compliance and obedience to God. How do I handle this difficult family situation? On Titus, we are told what a Christian household is to look like. Fathers, we are told what our roles and responsibilities are. How are we to have an affection for our children that cultivates their affections in a way that is the way that we were meant to live as fathers? God gives it to us in his scripture. Young men, how are you to keep your ways pure before the Lord? We don't have to pray for discernment about how do I do this? He tells us, flee from evil. He tells us what we are to set before our eyes. We have in God's law very real things that we are to obey and comply our life with to our benefit and to God's pleasure. 19.7, the law is that family guide that we all live under. How are we to do the difficult labor of parenting our children when we are tired? How are we to live with our husbands? Husbands, how are we to treat our wives? All of this has been laid out for us. As we pray in situations where we may say, I just need a really good counselor to really walk me through that. We do need good counsel, but if the counsel isn't being driven from obedience and compliance to God's law, then you have not picked a good counselor. This is why we should counsel ourselves with God's law. We should counsel each other with God's law. That is a great benefit not just to ourselves, but to others. That is chapter 19 in its whole. We started off thinking about the law throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. We affirmed strongly that the law in the moral law hasn't been obliterated by Christ, but it has been strengthened. Look at three primary uses of the moral law. Then we reaffirmed at the end that God's law in the New Testament beautifully complies with God's grace. That is section 19. We have some time for thoughts or questions if anybody has any. The Ten Commandments written on Adam. It seems like a trick question, Liz. We have in Adam a very unique position in this covenant of life and works, where only Adam could have before the Lord fulfilling his obligation, enjoying life in the garden, doing what the Lord said he should do. Only Adam had an expectation that none of us can claim that God bless him and that God keep that covenant of works. We have no such position but in Christ. The law written on our hearts, whether that is an original creation or whether that is post-fall, I would submit, thinking it through up here, with an asterisk on my thought, giving me the opportunity to come back and revise, that it was a part of God's original creation because we continue to see not a change of God's law but more and more an opening of God's law. It's only man's hardening of heart that requires God to be more and more emphatic about what he requires. From the very beginning, I don't see that Adam walking around stealing. I don't see Adam walking around in violation of any of the Ten Commandments or even in the summary of the commandments with Christ because he is enjoying life to the full. Adam is holy and happy. We don't see revealed to him, Adam thou shalt not steal. Adam is holy and happy as a creation and is walking around not stealing, is walking around enjoying his duty in the garden. Good question. I don't know that I've ever thought about that. Thanks, Lee. Other thoughts on that? Yeah, that there are certainly things in the covenant that he said that Moses, how do we think about Moses, how do we think about Noah, that they are, we have what we talked about in the civil law, this typology all pointing to Christ. They are seeing through clouds dimly, seeing things about Christ, seeing things about the need for blood, for sacrificing, atoning for sins, and all pointing to a once and for all sacrifice. Dan, let's get the microphone if you could please, over to Dan. I've actually thought about this several times in the past and I want to make an argument that you could actually say by eating that was forbidden, they broke every single one of the commandments nearly in the same day. So they made a God of their own image, meaning that I wish to have that which God read from me. So they had a different view of who God was and to worship him wrongly is to like break, basically break all the first three. The only one I can say that maybe they didn't break is I don't know if they ate the tree, the fruit on Sunday, but the garden in and of itself was a type of Sabbath, so we could say that every day was a Sabbath rest for Adam and Eve. But, you know, within that first narrative, you know, Adam, rather than taking responsibility, bears false witness and, you know, says well no, it's blame shifting, which is another type of, you know, bearing false witness. Certainly he dishonored his father that by eating of that tree, God told him you shall surely die and he in and of himself took his own life and there's a spiritual death and he is complicit in that, so in a way Adam committed murder. He coveted, you know, Eve sees the fruit that it's desirable to be wise and it's pleasant to eat. She desired to have that which was not hers, so she was not satisfied with the providence that God had provided for her. I mean, so it's kind of a fun exercise to think about all the Ten Commandments and just saying fundamentally like this is what is not yours and to take what is not yours at its root is our dissatisfaction with who the Lord is and what he's provided. So, I think in a way, no, they didn't break the Ten Commandments. In a way, yeah, they broke every single one of them in one fell swoop. Thank you, Dan. Eric? After that, here's a softball. When Christ said this is the new covenant in my blood, this cup, what old covenant did that replace? Softball. You mean in terms of the Noahic specific covenant? I mean, what we have, you know, through our covenant series is a series of covenants that is insufficient, but it is useful and it is binding. So, in terms of Christ, you know, saying that this is and we will do this this morning, what is he saying but that it has replaced the need for all other and any other covenants. So, in terms of what specific, I'm not sure if you're saying what specific covenant, but it has obliterated the need for any other blood, any other sacrifice to to make amends for sin, appease the wrath of God, where under that blood we are no longer condemned. And so, if that answers your question, I didn't know if you were asking a more specific question. Please feel free to follow up. Yeah, it does not. That is correct. Yeah, and that's why Christ, you know, we talked about why Christ, you know, as God, as man, as, you know, a perfect law keeper, all of that had to be true. And so, if you have all of that together and then all of that package in a sacrifice to appease the wrath of a holy God, God himself accepts that, that that is more than sufficient, raises him from the dead, raises him from the dead, then he can say that this blood, you know, has fulfilled all the law. This blood has fulfilled all the appeasement. This blood has fulfilled all the wrath. And so, drink of this in remembrance of me. So, yes, not only followed all the law, but that fulfilled, you know, the requirement of the law. John? I was going to say, I was going to say, when you say obliterated, I wouldn't use that word particularly, and I would say more in Christ. In the supper, as you said at the end there, it was fulfillment. It wasn't an obliteration, because there is a progression in the covenants, and this is the final flowering of the covenants. It's Christ. Of the covenants is Christ's death on the cross for our sins. So, he has fulfilled, he has satisfied completely what, everything that came before, and we can't do that. So, that's why we look to him for that fulfillment, for that obedience. We rest in him. The bands thing about the Sabbath, the idea that Adam and Eve took away, how they broke the Sabbath, was they broke the rest that they had in Christ. They said, I don't want to rest in what Christ has done and will do. I'm going to do this myself. And so, they've broken that rest. Yes. That could have been the Sabbath day, the second day, but the whole idea that we're resting in Christ, and that's the fulfillment in the supper, is he is our rest. Thank you, John. I like to say, not new covenant, old covenant. It's older covenant, I think, Bruce qualified when I read. The older, older covenant, the newer covenant. There's not a replacement. There's a satisfaction. That's good. Yeah. Thanks for improving that. All right. We have reached our time. Keep talking about this. That's chapter 19. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, thanks Lord for your word, which leads to life. We pray, Lord, that reflecting on your law this morning would prepare our hearts to praise you and enjoy you. We thank you for all this in Christ's name. Amen.
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