Pastor Grant Brown's sermon, "The Law of God (Part 3)," delves into the fundamental nature of God's law as presented in the Ten Commandments, emphasizing its foundational role in the Christian faith. He begins by referencing the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which outlines the purpose of man's existence: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The sermon connects this purpose to the adherence to God's moral law, which is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. Pastor Brown elaborates on the three uses of God's law: as a guide to Christ, as a rule for believers' conduct, and as a restraint against societal evil. He underscores the importance of the preamble to the Ten Commandments, highlighting God's grace and salvation as the foundation of His law. The sermon draws parallels between the Ten Commandments and the act of creation, suggesting that the giving of the law anticipates a new creation in Christ. Throughout, Pastor Brown stresses the authority of God's words, urging listeners to acknowledge and obey them, as they are not merely human utterances but divine instructions. The sermon concludes with an emphasis on baptism and the covenant relationship God establishes with His people, marking them as His own and providing His law as a gift for living in accordance with His will.

Hear now the word of our God. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. May God bless the reading and now the preaching of this is perfect word. Amen. Maybe seats.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins in this way. Question number one. What is the chief end of man? Children, do you know the answer to that question? Some of you do.

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That's what I'm talking about. Question number two builds upon that answer, what rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him forever? What rule?

Answer, the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy Him. Question number three, what then do the Scriptures principally teach? Answer, The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. Question 39. What is the duty which God requires of man?

Answer. The duty which God requires of man is obedience to his revealed will. Question 40. What did God first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience? Answer.

The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law. Question 41. Okay then, where is the moral law summarily comprehended? Where is the moral law summarized? Answer, the moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.

I think that's just excellent. In less than a minute, yeah less than a minute, what did the Westminster Shorter Catechism just systematically teach you? It taught you that one of the primary ways to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever is by obeying the moral law summed up in the Ten Commandments. It sort of taught you. It took the catechism 45 seconds?

Well it took me like 45 minutes to do the last two Sundays some of you might be wondering 45 seconds 45 minutes maybe just leave with the catechism next time duly noted For the past two Lord's days we have examined the three uses of God's law. Use number one, it is a tutor that leads us to Christ. Use number two, it is a rule for how believers are to live. Use number three, God's law is to be used to restrain evil in a society among the unregenerate. So that's how the law of God is to be used yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

So now we turn to the moral law itself in Exodus chapter 20. You can also find the giving of the Ten Commandments, the giving of the moral law in Deuteronomy chapter 5. We're going to be spending our time this morning in Exodus chapter 20, where God gives the Ten Commandments. And as you no doubt noticed from our reading of the passage just a moment ago, before the Ten Commandments are given, what is there? So what we read in verses 1 and 2, there is a preamble.

There is an introduction to the giving of the Ten Commandments. If you miss the preamble, you're going to miss the foundation that the laws built upon. And that foundation is the grace of God. That foundation is God Himself and His grace. That's the foundation of the moral law of God.

The foundation is the salvation of sinners in Jesus Christ. So if you take away the grace of God, if you take away the foundation of the moral law, if you take away the preamble, if you take away the new creation that God has brought about in His Son, if you take away the covenant that God has made with you, His Church, if you take away the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, all of that's in the preamble, If you take any of that away, you literally take out the building blocks upon which the Ten Commandments are built upon, and it will crumble in your life. I don't need that law. You need the preamble. The preamble, the preface to the Ten Commandments, is the reason and the basis and the fuel for why the Ten Commandments matter and why they matter to you.

You want that fuel, don't you? I mean, we want the foundation of the law so that we might delight in the Jesus Christ that it leads me to. We want the foundation of the law so that we might delight in the law that that Jesus Christ then leads me back to to know how to live. We want the foundation, we want the fuel that this preamble gives us so that we might delight in Jesus Christ, his law, and his gospel because he delights in them too. And so it's to that foundation, it's to that preamble of the moral law of God that we now turn.

I want to read it again, it's only two verses. Exodus 20, verses one and two. Then God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And then God proceeds to give the 10th canvassal. That is packed full of awesomeness.

So notice the first phrase in our passage this morning, then God spoke all these words. Then God spoke all these words. God spoke. Beloved, as you are confronted with the moral law of God, you need also to be confronted with the fact that it is from God. God spoke it.

God spoke all of these words. God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and the Maker of earth, has spoken. He is not silent. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is inspired by God, it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

That very much includes the giving of his law. What you are reading this morning, what I will be preaching, and what you will be called to heed and obey week after week after week is from the Almighty God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. That's Hebrews 13, 8. The one who speaks to you through this word and through these commandments is the one in whom there is no variation and no shifting shadow. James 1.17.

Which means, if that's true, and it is, then God having spoken, and these being His words, and these being his commandments, it means that you must listen. You must heed his words. When you go home today, and when you go home every Lord's Day, you are Not to go home with the thought that all you heard today was from a man. Not in this church. You haven't merely heard the voice of a man.

Sure, you're hearing my voice right now. But this book was opened to you. The book of the law was opened to you. And the book of the law was read to you. And the book of the law was opened to you and the book of the law was read to you and the book of the law was proclaimed to you you didn't just hear from a stick you heard from Almighty God when God's from Almighty God.

When God's Word is read, today you hear this book of the law proclaimed, God is speaking to you. And his voice will either leave you hardened unto everlasting damnation and everlasting death or His voice will leave you softened unto faith and everlasting life. So children, children, please listen to me. Children, answer this question for me. When you are at home and your sister or your brother or your friend let's say, they tell you to clean your room.

You got a friend over and they say, hey, clean your room for me. Friend, do you do it? Straight up no. If your sister says to you, we've got some sisters in our household, you need to make your bed. You need to put your clothes away.

Put your socks away. I can tell you the answer in my household pretty quick. No, not going to do that sister. Why? Because it's your sister, it's your friend, it's your brother talking to you and they don't have authority over you do they?

But if your father or your mother were to say it to you, if your father says to you, sweetheart, clean your room please, do you listen to your father? Yes you do. If you don't, your rear end will probably hurt. You're going to get a spanking. Why do you listen to your parents more than you listen to your siblings or your friends?

What's the answer? Because your parents have authority over you. When your parents speak, it really means something. They speak with authority. It's the same words.

Clean your room from your friend. Your father says, clean your room. You don't listen to this one, you listen to this one. Don't you kids? Children?

The only thing that's changed is the one saying it. How much more so than with God? He has spoken these words to you children. To you children. Listen to him.

He the one with all authority in heaven and on earth, the one who is in authority over your parents. He has spoken in this book and through his law obey him. He and his words, it will be good for you. You will be like a tree planted firmly by streams of living water. You will bear fruit in its season.

And it will be so good and delightful the days of your life, no matter what comes. Children, your God speaks to you, so listen to Him this morning. God speaks every Lord's Day, children. Every Lord's Day, I need you to get this, kids. Listen to me, please.

Every Lord's Day, you ascend the hill of the Lord. You ascend to the mount of the Lord, and you hear His words on that mount. You hear the words that He spoke then to His people then and those same words are now spoken to you today. Sunday mornings really matter because you hear from God. Gathering together on the Lord's Day really matters, children.

And that's why you need to go home, children. You need to go home today and you need to thank your parents. You need to thank your mother and your father for the great gift that they give you to meet with God's people. You need to ascend the hill of the Lord every Lord's day so that you would hear from the God of your people, with your people together. So go home and thank your parents, children.

You know what, in fact, do it right now. Turn to your parents and thank them. Thank you, mother and father, for bringing me here so I can hear God speak. You go ahead and do that, children. Go ahead, I'll give you a second.

And then parents, you can say thank you to them. You're welcome. Our text this morning begins with that phrase, then God spoke. Then God spoke. All these words.

And what were those words? What were the words that God spoke? Well, they were the 10 commandments. That phrase commandments is literally of the 10 words. The 10 words.

When you see that phrase, the Ten Commandments in your Bibles, they could easily be translated the ten words. Now you're going to see that in Exodus 34. You're going to make a note of this. Exodus 34 you're going to actually see the phrase the ten commandments. And actually the Hebrew translation more literal would be the ten words.

God spoke all ten. God spoke all ten. Can you think of another time that God spoke words command ten times in the Old Testament? Where in the Old Testament did God speak exactly ten times? Well, how about Genesis chapter 1?

And God said and God spoke ten times Genesis 1 3 and God said that there be light Genesis 1 6 and God said let there be an expanse Genesis 1 9 and God said let the waters be gathered Genesis 1 11 and God said let the earth sprout vegetation Genesis 1 14 and God said let there be light in the expanse of the heavens. Genesis 1 verse 20. And God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures. Chapter 1 verse 24. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures.

Chapter 1 verse 26 and God said let us make man in our image. Chapter 1 verse 28 and God said to them be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1 29 God said to them behold I have given you every plant for food. Ten times. Ten words.

At creation God spoke that phrase and God said and God spoke happens exactly ten times And now you have in our passage, God speaks ten words. God speaks ten times in the giving of his moral law. Do you think that's just a coincidence? I suppose you could say, well yeah. You think it's a coincidence that God gives his moral law to his covenant people in ten words, and he's having done the same thing in just the book prior?

In creation? It's not a coincidence in my mind. When you read of God speaking the Ten Commandments you are to remember God speaking at creation. The original audience would say he speaks ten times, he spoke ten times in Genesis 1. The giving of God's law, listen to this, the giving of God's law anticipates the coming of a new creation.

When this law is fulfilled, When this law is kept, there will be a new creation. What happened after God's first creation in Genesis 1 and 2? What happened after God spoke ten times? God's first ten words of creation, what happened? Genesis 3 happened?

And Adam sinned? Adam did not keep the law of God that was present in the garden. Instead, Adam brought about the curse. Adam plunged the world into sin and condemnation. Adam failed.

Now you have an Exodus. God speaking 10 words. What happens after God gives 10 words here in Exodus? Do you remember what happens? Israel sins.

Israel follows their first parent Adam into the same kind of idolatry. I mean literally, immediately after God gives the law to his people, after he says the ten words, before the ink has even dried, So to speak, they're fashioning a golden calf. They're fashioning an idol breaking God's law. So like Adam, Israel breaks the same law of God. The moral law of God existed in the garden with Adam.

It did. It's God's eternal moral law. Adam broke it. Then God then wrote that same eternal moral law down on stone for Israel here on Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus. And what does Israel do?

Israel breaks that same law. And so the question comes, it should be coming up to you, if you're in the original audience, you're saying, creation and the ten, there's some kind of connection, both ten times. The question should come to you, will there ever be a new creation? Creation in Sinai, God speaks ten times. The giving of the law anticipates a day when all of creation will be made new.

But like Adam, Israel failed. Will there ever be a new creation? Will there ever be a new creation? Jesus comes. And He is the true and better Adam.

He is the second, final Adam. He is the Son of God. He is Everything that Adam should have been. Jesus comes. He is the true Israel.

He is everything that Israel should be. And he comes and makes Matthew 5.17 happen. He comes and makes Matthew 5.17 happen. He fulfills the law. Jesus keeps the law.

If you embrace my thesis that the Ten Commandments are connected in some way to creation, then what were the Ten Commandments given and written down in anticipation of? Ten Commandments were given and written down in anticipation of a Savior who would come and fulfill the covenant of grace. A Savior who would come and begin a creation anew. Jesus comes fulfilling the law for what reason? To make all things new.

Not a coincidence. What day did God give the law to Israel? If you were to look just prior to our passage this morning in your Bibles, What day did God give the law to Israel? If you were to look just prior to our passage this morning in your Bibles, what day did God give the law to Israel? As he's about to speak these ten words, what day is it?

Well look at Exodus chapter 19, just, you don't even have to turn the page, I bet. Look in Exodus 19 verse 16. Just look above our passage this morning. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16, What day? So it came about on the third day.

On the third day when it was morning that there was thunder and lightning flashes in a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and he stood at the foot of the mountain. What day did God deliver these ten words to his people? The third day. Who was it that rose up from the grave on the third day? Who was it that was the first fruits of a new creation?

The Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, 18, He is also the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. He is the beginning. What does that sound like?

In the beginning. He is the beginning. The firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. 1 Corinthians 15, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep, for since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection from the dead. For as an Adam all die, so also in Christ all would be made alive, but each in his own order Christ the firstfruits.

2nd Corinthians 517, if anyone is in that Christ he is a new creation. Ten words of the law, the ten words of God and the giving of the law, the ten words of creation, the law of God was given on Mount Sinai in anticipation of the Savior who would come and make all things new. And Jesus Christ came and did just that he fulfilled the law of God he fulfilled these words of God he fulfilled these words of the law that anticipated a new creation then the same God man Jesus who fulfilled the law rose upon the third day and in his resurrection he began the work of a new creation. So what a Savior you have, Christian. What a Savior you have.

The law keeper has come to make all things new and so if you're here this morning and you're wondering you're asking the question all right you're saying that this is the law of God does the law of God apply to me is the law of God for me Do the Ten Commandments apply to my life as a Christian?" Well, the answer is really simple. Are you a new creation in Jesus Christ? Yes. Then this is the law of God which His new creations delight and obey. If you're here and you're asking, am I to keep the moral law of God summarized by these ten words, does the law of God apply to me?

The answer is simple to you, for you. Do you live in the world that the creator Jesus Christ has made? Do you live in this world that the same Creator Jesus Christ has claimed as his own through his atoning death and resurrection? Do you live in this world that he rules and reigns over with all authority in heaven and on earth as the ascended son of man sitting at the right hand of the ancient of days. Do you live in the world in which beginning at his resurrection this son of man is right now making all things new through the power of his gospel?

You live in that world? Yes you do. Therefore the law of God very much, yes the law of God very much applies to you. The moral law of God summed up in these 10 commandments applies to you. So this is the law of his world.

This is the law of his world, and he is making all things new. So what a glorious thing then to have his law, Christian, as new creations in Christ Jesus. What a glory you have in the gift of God's law, a tutor that leads you to Christ, a restrainer of evil in Christ's world, and a rule of life for his new creation. Then God spoke all these words. Verse 2.

Saying, I am the Lord your God. I am the LORD your God. After reminding you of creation in his preamble, the lawgiver now identifies exactly who he is. He is Yahweh. He is Yahweh.

This is God making it explicitly clear this is no pagan deity. This is no false God that is giving this law to you. Who is it? This is the one true living God this is the covenant keeping God the Lord your God who gives you his law I am the Lord your God custom acting I'm gonna put pause right here it is very hot so if you could have them put a pause right here if you could have some men real quickly open those windows just maybe a little bit or something, or maybe try to make the air come on. I know, it's super hot up here.

And Aaron told me last night at the game now he said bring bring the heat man I'm just like obey me I am is there a way to Is there a way to make it cooler? Thank you Justin. I'm not trying to make my sermon longer. Your God, after reminding you of creation in his preamble the law of the this God identifies who he is who is he it's the Lord in all caps Do you know what that word means? Do you know what that word means in all caps?

It means it's the word Yahweh. It's the Hebrew word for Yahweh. Do you know what Yahweh signifies? Yahweh signifies this is the God of the covenant. This is the covenant-keeping God.

This is the one true living God. God is here in the preamble. He's making sure there's no way that you miss this. This is not some false god. This is not some pagan deity.

No, this is the one true living God, the Lord Yahweh your God. This is the one who gives you his law. I am the Lord your God. That word there, Lord, it's in all caps, Yahweh. So who is it that's giving a law?

It's the covenant-keeping God that's giving you the law of his covenant It's the God of Abraham. It's the God of Isaac. It's the God of Jacob. It's the God who made the heavens and the earth, it's the God who put Adam in the garden, it's the God whose law Adam broke in the garden, it's the God who came down to Adam after his law breaking and he sought him out in the midst of his sin. That's the one who's now speaking his law.

Now you just take just what I just said and you say that one who could have obliterated Adam, that one instead who came down and made a covenant with Adam, a covenant of grace promised to Adam, that's the one who gives you his law. And you're going to say his law is something that you don't want? Shame on you. The God who is speaking here is the covenant-keeping God who promised Adam a covenant of grace with a seed that would destroy the circle. It's the same covenant-keeping God who promised that same seed to Abraham, a seed that would be a blessing to all the nations, to all the world, And that seed was who?

Jesus Christ, Galatians 3. That's who the seed was. This is the covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, the Lord, who has written history through covenants. He's the one speaking to you. It's the promise keeper Yahweh who is the lawgiver here in Exodus chapter 20, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

So what kind of covenant has the one true living God made? Well, he has made a covenant of redemption before the foundations of the world were laid, Ephesians 1, 4. He's expressed that covenant in history, in real history, through the covenant of life and the covenant of grace. We've talked about that in Sunday School. He promised it to Adam.

He made it more explicit and formalized the covenant of grace with Abraham. How so? What did God do? This God who is giving the law, he took the carcasses of the sacrifice, when he made the covenant with Abraham, he formed a path of sacrifice. God walked through that path lined with carcasses in Genesis chapter 15.

And God says to Abraham, in this moment, as he's walking through the path, I am going to send you a seed. I'm going to save the world through the seed. I'm going to bless the world through the seed. I am making a covenant with you Abraham, but only God walks through the covenant path. Only God is the one who will make sure this covenant is maintained.

God takes on all of the covenant obligations. God will do this. God will keep his promises. God will keep his covenant, which is precisely what he did in sending his son Jesus 2, 000 years ago, wherein all of the covenant promises of God find their one. Yes and amen.

Now, some of that might be a little bit too heavy for you. I'll bring it back. This is the God speaking in Exodus 20 who gives his law to you. It's the same God is giving his law to you today that made everything and it was good. That covenant keeping God.

So when we say the law is good, it existed when all was good. Don't call what God calls good evil. Don't insist that God who made heaven and earth, who put Adam in the garden, even when Adam fell, he went after Adam, made a covenant of grace with Adam, made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and with you. Then gives you his law and says, now here's some bondage for you. Here's something to just make your life worse.

The exact opposite. Yahweh is the one speaking. The covenant-keeping God is the one speaking. It is the same God who gives you a new heart to keep his law. So what sign does the covenant- keeping God give to Abraham in the book of Genesis?

Do you remember what covenant sign God gave to Abraham? Do you remember? Starts with a sss, ends with erm-shiz-in. Circumcision. He gives him the sign of circumcision so that Abraham and his offspring would remember who they are.

They are the covenant people of God. They are a covenant people who belong to Yahweh, the God of the covenant, the Lord your God. He gave Abraham the sign of circumcision. He marked Abraham and he marked Abraham's offspring out. These are my people.

These are my people. And now here in Exodus, you have God's covenant people and God marks them out once more. Beyond circumcision, how else does God mark out His people in the book of Exodus? Do you remember? Exodus 14.

Just six chapters before our chapter this morning. In Exodus 14, He baptizes them in the Red Sea. God baptizes his people in the cloud and the sea. That's how he marked them out. Baptism.

The New Testament says it exactly. 1 Corinthians 10, 1 through 4. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, And all ate the same spiritual food. And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them.

And the rock was Christ." Colossians 2, 11 through 12. And in Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with them through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead friends The covenant-keeping God speaks to his children It's verse 1 next is 20 verse 1. He speaks to his children. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's verse 2, the covenant-keeping God.

And this covenant-keeping God, he gives his people the mark of the covenant. He baptizes his people. He marks them out as his own, and then he gives them his law as his people. The law is given to the covenant people of God. You're supposed to read this preamble and you're supposed to be absolutely amazed that God has spoken to you.

And then that God has given his law to you, and you're to be amazed that he's given his law to you because he's marked you out as his own. God has given this law to you because he's marked you out as his own through the water of your baptism and the eating of his body and the drinking of his blood and the circumcision of your heart. You are to be amazed that he has marked you out and made you a part of his covenant. He is your covenant God, And you are a member of His covenant household. And as a member of His covenant household, here is the law of His house.

Verses three through 17. This is the law of his house. This is the law of God's house and in his almighty and sovereign grace the repentance and faith in Jesus Christ he has made you a member of his family his covenant household through the finished work of his son So Christian you think on that You need to think about this deeply. On the day that Jesus was baptized, God the Father, covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, spoke from heaven and he declared, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Do you remember that?

It's what God said. It's a covenant declaration God the father to God the son. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Christian, you were baptized in Christ Jesus. You received the sign of God's covenant in your baptism.

And at your baptism, God declared to you, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter. You are my covenant child And I am well pleased with you by virtue of your union with my son Jesus Christ Christian you receive the sign of the covenant in your baptism and every Lord's day here at this table. This is the visible mark that you belong to the household of Almighty God. It's the same household that he is speaking to here in Exodus 20, those justified by faith in Christ, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, the God of Isaac. This same God speaks to you right now today.

I am thy God. I am Yahweh, your God. I paid for you with my son's life. You belong to my household now. You belong to my people now.

You join the same line as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. These men are your people. These people are your people. I am thy God. And so here is the law as a gift from me to you, God says.

Here are the house rules. Here are the house rules. I give you the house rules because you're part of the house. It should make you blow away. It should blow you away.

I give you these rules for life because you're mine, because you belong to me and my covenant. And this law is the law of the covenant. Christian, that should bring you a great deal of comfort when you read the law of God. Again, I said this in the first sermon as we began this study for the law of God. Never ever think that the law of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ are at all at odds.

You don't reconcile friends. They are hand in hand. The law brings you to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ regenerates you and brings you back to the law that you might know how to live as a member of His covenant. So children, children, I will talk to you again.

When your parents give you the house rules, you know, when your mommy or your daddy says something like, here's how you are to behave in my house, Here's how you do our behave in the Brown household. You don't get to run upstairs, do you? No. You might think, you might think, I don't really like those rules. They seem kind of burdensome to me.

Don't think that way. Children, don't think when your mother and your father give you the house rules that they are somehow mistreating you. Don't think that way. If you think that way, just hear this story. I was teaching at school one day.

I used to be a math teacher. Taught middle school math some years back. And I remember talking to some of my students about their home lives on one particular day. And I had one student who came up to me. In fact, this is kind of a conglomeration of a lot of students.

But this student said to me something like this, Mr. Brown, when I'm in your classroom, I feel really safe. When I'm in your classroom, I can actually learn. I have fun. And the first day that I was in your classroom, I was like, whoa.

He's got some expectations. And I don't know if it was going to be fun. And now I'm a week in, and it's like, math is fun? I don't know if I should say it. But math might be fun.

Math might be fun. And then he said this, and I majored in paraphrasing, but he said something like this. I wish my home was like that. Wish my home was like that. I feel like in your classroom, even though the expectations are very high, I feel like I belong.

I feel safe. I feel like I can thrive. I never liked math before. I know I like it. I wish my home was that way.

Children, that student felt like he belonged. Why? Because the person in authority over him cared enough about him to give him a law. Here's the law for those who belong to me in my classroom for this hour. Here's the law for those who belong to me in my classroom.

I will be your teacher, and you will be my student. I get you for an hour. Let's get after it. And so far from hating the law of my classroom, the student grew to love the law. Why?

Because the law of Mr. Brown applied to him. Because the law of Mr. Brown was given to him. I was his teacher, and he was one of mine.

Children in ways infinitely better than that story I just shared, the law of God has been given to you because you belong to Jesus Christ by faith. The law of God has been given to you as a gift so that you might, by entrusting Jesus, you belong to God. God saved you by dying on the cross in your place. God made you his own by raising you up from the grave with his Son so that you would walk in newness of life and to demonstrate that you're His, He gave you the sign of your baptism, the sign of the Lord's table, and after the sign of the covenant, He says, and here's my law, here's my law, here's how to walk in the newness of life that I've made you to walk into. Here's how you walk in accordance with your baptism.

Here's how you walk as people that drink my blood and eat my flesh. Here's how you walk with my name imprinted upon you. Here's my law. It's the law of my household. Welcome home.

I am the Lord, thy God. I have adopted you through the shed blood of my son. I have made you an adopted child of mine, and now I give you the moral law." That's what's going on here in the preamble. So Christian, if you get this, if you get what I'm preaching up here, it will change everything about the way you approach the law of God. If you get this, you'll say something like this, I am a great sinner.

I was far off and without God, without hope in the world. I am pagan. I am a Gentile. I have been adopted. I have been brought near by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ, and I have been made a partaker of this covenant that we celebrate every Lord's Day at this table.

Here at this table, I'm a covenant member? It's astounding. It's astounding. If you get that, what you want more than anything is for that same covenant-keeping God who made you a member of his covenant. You want that same covenant-keeping God who adopted you in his household.

You want him to tell you, here's how you are to live. Here's what life, real life, everlasting life looks like in covenant relationship with the everlasting God. Here is my law. Then it's for my household. It's for my children.

And God has done exactly that. Right here. So that you may say, by grace, through repentance and faith in Jesus. Oh Lord, I love For it is the law of the covenant that I have been graciously grafted into It is the law of the Lord, my, my God. That phrase at the middle of verse two, I am the Lord, your God possessive.

If you're going to talk fairness, he should have left you in your depravity. No, I am your God. The Christian says, God has made me a partaker in the covenant of grace. He is my God. The law of my God.

The law of my people. The law that I love. Let's pray. Oh God that you would work such a wonder, you'd make the law such a delight. You would do this in the name of your son Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. And for his name say we pray. Amen.