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Well, good evening. I'm going to continue our study tonight, looking at our glorious tutor, the series where we're trying to understand the law, the Mosaic law, from a Christian perspective. Key verse, Galatians 3.24, the law is our tutor. Galatians 3.24 says, Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ.

So the purpose, the schoolmaster, is to lead us to Christ, but there's a purpose for leading us to Christ, and that is so that we may be justified by faith. When God told Abraham, your wife Sarah is going to have a child, well, he laughed. When Sarah heard that she was going to have a child, she laughed.

God is about bringing about the impossible. You think about what he is doing through the gospel, he is bringing about a righteousness in the earth. And that's good news. Because the world, as we study it and study in Scripture, Very quickly, the world after God created it declined very quickly into a point where a worldwide flood was needed.

So God spared some individuals and Noah and his family, and it's going to start again. But we realize very quickly that the problem with humanity wasn't washed away in the water, but it was something much deeper than that. And so God set forth to do the impossible, and that was to bring about righteousness in the earth.

It's like he told Abraham, Sarah's going to have a child. Huh? Watch me. Watch it happen. And so, what we have in Genesis through Revelation is that unfolding message and gospel that is preached very early. And through the law, God shows us Christ. But He shows us Christ so that we may be justified, made right by Him, and in Him, and with Him.

So that's our introduction to we looked at this, this introduced this topic some weeks ago. Tonight, I want to make another inspiration. Installment, the second part. Is the Christian under the law? I don't plan to spend a whole lot of time on this tonight, but really an installment, a question that we need to ponder.

We've already looked at why we should study the Mosaic law. And another important question to that is: is the Christian under the law? There's a couple of misuses of the law. Number one, trying to be justified by it. Looked at it this morning, a performance-based criteria, trying to live up in our own fleshly standards on our own, trying to live up to God's righteousness is futile.

A performance-based relationship with God is one of slavery, not freedom. So, trying to be justified by the law is certainly a misuse of it. But another misuse of the law is failing to recognize to whom it was originally given. Failing to recognize to whom it was originally given.

And that's what I want to talk about tonight. Answer this one question: is the Christian under the law? Now, I'll ask a lot of other questions as we go through, but is the Christian under the Mosaic law? Question. I'm going to talk to you about the Ten Commandments.

You can turn in Deuteronomy chapter 5. I'll be spending some time in Deuteronomy. But the Ten Commandments, think about the Ten Commandments, what are they? At the heart of the law are the Ten Commandments. They were the commandments inscribed by the finger of God, written in stone, placed in the ark, placed there in the Holy of Holies.

There they were, the words of God written by the finger of God. At the heart of the laws are these Ten Commandments. Now, Deuteronomy 4:13 says this. Get there. So he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform. That is, the Ten Commandments. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

And notice what he says in Deuteronomy 4:13. The Ten Commandments were referred to as His covenant. Do you see that? So He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform. Now, notice further what He says. That is what? The covenant, that is the Ten Commandments.

So, the Ten Commandments were referred to as his covenant. Do you see that? Ten Commandments as His covenant. Certainly, at the core of the Mosaic laws, are these Ten Commandments. They are declared a covenant, or certainly part of the covenant, but they're at the heart of this covenant.

Some of the very first things that God expressed to Israel. So, whatever is true about the Ten Commandments is true about the whole law. And what I mean by that is, if we can look at the Ten Commandments and we can understand what is the relationship that the Christian has to the Ten Commandments, then we've certainly answered the question: what is the Christian's relationship to the whole law?

A lot of people like to take the Mosaic law and break it down into different components and say, yeah, the Mosaic law is binding upon the Christian today, but really not the ceremonial law because the temple's not there, and really not the civil law. So, some of the moral law, that's what we're under, and then it becomes a bit of a parsing and dividing which ones are moral and that kind of thing.

And so, the answer that is typically given is that we are under the Mosaic law, kind of, parts of it. But certainly, if we can relate to the Ten Commandments, which people refer to as the moral law, if we can understand how we are to relate to the Ten Commandments, and certainly that's the core which people would say, yeah, we're still obligated to the Ten Commandments.

So forget the ceremonial law, forget the civil law, but yes, we are under, as Christians, we are under and obliged to follow the Ten Commandments. So, whatever you can say and understand how we're to relate to the Ten Commandments is going to say something about how we're to relate to the whole law.

Is the Christian under the Ten Commandments? And that's what I want to further go a little bit deeper. Look at that. Scripture has something very clear to say on this, by the way. And that's what I want to show you tonight. First of all, first question I want to ask: to whom were the Ten Commandments expressly given?

So, if we're reading through the text of the Torah, we need to know who the Ten Commandments were expressly given to. And that is emphatically and very clearly stated to the Exodus generation. To the Exodus generation. Look what Deuteronomy 5:3 says. The Lord did not make this. Covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all of those of us alive here today.

You see, a very definite category of people who the Ten Commandments. By the way, Deuteronomy 5:3 is in the context of the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 5:1, then Moses summoned them and Israel and said, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking to you today in your hearing, that you may learn and observe them carefully.

And then he goes on and starts listing off, I am the Lord your God. You shall not have other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. And he goes right on through the Ten Commandments. So these statements are taken right in the context of the Ten Commandments.

But notice that the covenant was not made with the fathers, but with us, with all of those of us alive here today. Moses is about to send them off into the promised land in the plains of Moab about Deuteronomy about to go into the land after 40 years.

So that's who he made the covenant with, all those alive today. Were Christians alive? Were you and I there that day? Another commandment. The command is very clearly to those who are alive here today. Look what it says in 5:6: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

A very specific category of people. Those who were in the house of Egypt and had come out, that group, that generation, that generation is the one to whom the Ten Commandments are expressly given. Those who came out of Egypt. Oops, I don't know what happened there. Something that needs to be pointed out is that there was no distinction in the law between the moral and the civil code.

When we're talking about the moral law, we're certainly talking about those Ten Commandments. The penalty. Let me just take you through this. The penalty for not obeying the Sabbath. What was that? In Numbers 15:32. Now there was a guy going out while they were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation, and they put him in custody because it had not been. Declared what should be done to him. So there was this guy that the Sabbath law has given you. You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath.

Here is a guy in Numbers 15 who actually goes out and is gathering wood, and they say, You're violating the Sabbath. Now, we need to bring him to Moses. What are we to do with him? And notice, they go and they inquire of the Lord, what should we do with him?

And listen to what he says. Then the Lord said to Moses, The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Sabbath was violated. And the Lord said, he shall surely be put to death. God is very serious about Israel taking a rest. But the point I want to bring to your attention is the Sabbath was not just some isolated precept of a moral code. We typically think of the Ten Commandments as the moral code.

And, yeah, we get that you shall not make yourself an idol, you shall not take the Lord's name in vain, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery. But among them is the Sabbath. You shall honor the Sabbath. You shall observe the Sabbath to keep it holy.

And so it's important to note that there wasn't this distinction. The Sabbath was to govern the civil order of this society. It wasn't just, the Sabbath was an isolated precept of a moral code, but an integral part of a legal system that governed the whole nation. The Sabbath.

It was to be kept. And you can see by God Himself, He's very serious about it. The Sabbath. So there's no, there's no, if you're a Jew, under the law, there is no distinction. It's all moral, if you will. There's no distinction between moral code, civil code. It's one.

It was a part of a theocracy that God was in their midst, and they were to live under his ways. It's important, kind of maybe a little bit of a rabbit trail, but important to understand a little bit of what the purpose of the Sabbath was. But it was a sign.

The Sabbath was a sign for Israel, much like the Noahic covenant had the rainbow, much like the Abrahamic covenant had circumcision. Well, the Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. The Sabbath was the sign. And so, how you treat the sign is how you treat the treatment.

You treat God, or how you refer to the covenant that God made. So it's kind of like how you treat the flag is an indication of the American flag, is an indication of what you think about the American government. And so the same is true with the Sabbath, like how you treated the Sabbath was very much an indication of how you regarded God and the Mosaic covenant.

But it was a sign that would teach faith and obedience. In Exodus, there's the first Sabbath that takes place in Exodus chapter 16:27. Now, what had been happening is they had been, God had told them to go out, there's manna, you're going to eat manna, and then you can gather it, but only gather enough for one day, because then it's going to rot.

And guess what? Some people learned the hard way. They said, I'm going to get it extra. I'm going to have some tomorrow. And God got on to them for that because they didn't obey. They gathered some for two days. Well, then here comes the Sabbath day. And guess what?

Six days, there comes all that manna, and you can't keep it till the next day where it grows maggots or whatever. But on the sixth day, you can go get twice as much, and it doesn't rot. And it's to allow you to take that rest. Now, mankind needs a rest at this point.

And God wants Israel to take a rest. He wants to teach humanity faith and obedience. Trust in him. So there is faith-building exercises. The Sabbath is an incredible thing. So it came about on the seventh day, this is the first Sabbath, that some people went out to gather, but they found none.

Then the Lord said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. It's a gift. Here it is, day of rest. Wow, and the older you get, the more you really realize just what a gift that is, rest.

But God's teaching us something. See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you bread for two days. On the sixth day, remain every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested. Now, it's interesting to note that you just talk about, let me just take that further.

You had not just the seventh day. You had the, after seven weeks, you had Sabbath. You had year of Jubilee. You had a sabbatical year after seven. And so now think about that for a moment. Just think about us shutting down our economy for a whole year and just trusting God to provide for a whole year.

It's one thing. It was very difficult for them to get the hang of it for just one day. But a whole year, to set that aside. And that took some faith and some trust. But it was a sign. It was a sign that sanctified. It's not only a sign that taught faith and obedience, it also taught them what sanctification was.

Exodus 31:13, but as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely observe my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Something you need to understand through the Sabbath, through this day of rest.

I am going to be the one who sets you apart from all the other nations. This is going to be distinctively you. Of course, he's teaching them something. Exodus 31, 17, It is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he ceased from labor and was refreshed.

So God ceased. He wasn't tired when he created, but he set in motion that he looked back and reflected upon all that he had done, and it was good. And that's what he wants man to do, is to reflect upon him, reflect upon his works. And you know, if you're going to do that, you're going to have to set time in your day.

You have to set time in your routine, in your week, oriented around reflecting upon God, his work. It's also a sign for judgment. God knows that Israel isn't going to honor the Sabbaths that he gave. And so he tells them in Leviticus, You, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of the desolation while you are in your enemy's land, then the land will... Will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. That sign is going to be a marker. All the Sabbaths that you would not honor, observe, are going to be observed.

That's going to be the time marker. That's the sign that's going to be used so that the land has its rest. You're going to go into, and then you're going to go into exile. You're going to come back after the land has had its rest. It's going to give it.

All the days of the desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your Sabbaths while you were living. So you get this idea that all this God is pointing to. He wants man to take a rest. Man needs a rest. Man has been cast out of the Garden of Eden to go to till, to labor, and to toil.

And here comes Noah promising a rest. Actually, his very name meant he will give us rest. Come into Israel in Egypt all those hundreds of years and being brought out of slavery. Guess what's nice? Rest. God wants them to learn rest. Physical rest, yes. Spiritual rest, all the more.

Learn how to trust. And all this points forward to a final rest, spiritual rest. It's going to. Certainly, be Jesus Christ and his work. What puts the anxious soul to rest? Jesus Christ, relationship with him, and all that the gospel brings. But all this is pointing to how God is going to sanctify his people and a sign for faith, to sanctify, and for judgment.

Second question: we've looked at to whom the Ten Commandments were expressly given, the ones coming out of Egypt, that generation, very explicitly. But let me also show you what, who wasn't, who the Bible expressly says the Ten Commandments were not given to. It was not given to the patriarchs.

Remember in Deuteronomy 5:3, the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers. This was not a covenant that was made with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. This wasn't it. They were expressly out of it. Again, he iters, but with us, with all of those alive here today. So the covenant wasn't made with the patriarchs.

It's also not made to the Gentiles. Show you. Come to Ephesians chapter 2, 11. Therefore, remember that you, the Gentiles in the flesh, that is according to fleshly descent, all the other nations other than the Jews, remember. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants.

Promise of having no hope and without God in the world. You see, the Gentiles were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel. They were strangers, foreigners, aliens, that is, outside of the covenants. All of them. So listen, if the Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of Israel, and if the Ten Commandments were a covenant, how could the Ten Commandments relate to them?

They don't. I know some people's might, well, wait a second, what about what? You mean I can kill people? No, you can't kill people. Come back. Come back with me. We'll walk through that. No, we're under a whole different law order. So the question is: is the Christian under the Mosaic law?

No. Christian is not even under the Ten Commandments if you study your Bible carefully. Now, does that mean you can go lie, cheat, steal? No. Is a Christian without a law? No. Absolutely no. What is the law? Christians are under the law of Christ, disciples of Him. We'll get to this in Galatians chapter 6.

But you're not under the obligation to not kill someone, but you're not to despise a person in your heart. You're to love a person. So you're not, it's like, yeah, the line isn't for you not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to even covet.

Because you know what? Coveting something that somebody else has isn't loving that person. And you're under the command and the law to love one another as Christ does. And you'll see very quickly that all these, in fact, all the other nine of the Ten Commandments are reiterated. Jesus touches upon them, all but the Sabbath.

And he is our rest, spiritual rest. But all of them are reiterated, not because he's giving out another list of commandments, but it's a Under being a follower of Christ, that you're going to learn not just to kill people, but you're going to learn to love people as he did.

I often say it like this: if you came to my home and you were to babysit my children, and I'm about to leave the kids at home with you, and I say, just be let me get my kids in here in the room, and I would say, Oh, by the way, Josiah, don't kill Anna.

Anna, don't steal all of Liza's stuff. And Liza, don't you, you know, start lying against everybody, telling whatever. You might say, you know what? I may not want to really babysit these kids anymore. If I really have to worry about somebody murdering somebody, it tells you something about those kids, right?

Well, that's the thing. You look at this law. Who has to tell somebody, don't go murder, don't go lie, don't go doing these things? What kind of a people are inclined to that? A very corrupt people. We're under the law of Christ. Follow him. You will obey the moral code.

You will obey it. By virtue of your growing in Christ's likeness, he obeyed the law. He was, it reflects the righteousness in him. Yeah, of course, he's not going to kill somebody. Of course, he's not going to commit adultery. Of course not. Because that goes opposite in the direction of loving God and loving each other.

So the law is our tutor. The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. As Paul will say again in Romans 10:4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Okay, questions? Take