You can turn in your Bible to the book of Exodus. So we have been studying through Galatians. And what I'm doing today is we are taking Galatians 6.2 and taking a hard look at what the law of Christ is. Galatians 6.2 says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And so we want to think about God's law and what this means, the law of Christ. And there's so much more than I could possibly say about this, but I trust that this will be a good introduction. And perhaps on a Sunday evening soon, we can have another opportunity to talk about these things and to have questions and answers. So I hope to do that soon as well. Did you know that there were two tables of stone made by, well, there were two, but there was one set and then another set that was made by Moses? And what happened to that first set that another had to be made? Well, I'm sure many of you reading your Bible, you know the story. But we're going to look here at Exodus 32, and we may back up just a verse into 31, 31, 18, as we think about God's holy law. So that's the first point. We want to answer the question, what is the law of Christ? And we want to begin by thinking about God's holy law. So in Exodus 31, verse 18, it says, and he that is the Lord, he gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. And if you look across the page in chapter 32, verse 15, he speaks also about these tablets of stone. It says, Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets that were written on both sides. On the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. So this is the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. And as you may know, there were 618 commandments in the law of Moses. But the centerpiece of God's law is his moral law. And it is summarized here in the Ten Commandments. And these were written upon tables of stone by the finger of God, written on the front and on the back. And the work was the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved in stone. And these contained the Ten Words, as they are called, or the Ten Commandments. You see, when God made a covenant with Israel and made them into his nation, ruling over them as a theocracy, they had God as their leader. No one voted God in. This was a theocracy in which God ruled directly over the nation of Israel. As part of that covenant, they had obligations and the terms of the obligation were the laws that God gave them. And at the core of the laws that God gave them was His holy law, His moral law. And His moral law is not only given at Mount Sinai and in the Mosaic Covenant, but we find the moral law of God back at the very beginning in Eden, even before sin came into the world. We have the moral law of God because it is an expression of God's character. God's unchanging, eternal holiness and righteousness. And in relation to man, our response to His unchanging, eternal holiness and righteousness is that we would keep His commandments. His law, His moral law, is the expression of His commands. And we respond to it with humility and submission. And so throughout the time from the beginning, God's moral law has been describing, defining the relationship that God has with man. But here is the theocratic law of God given to the nation as He formed them for His people. And at its center, the moral law that is given an expression of his character. His moral law is the ethical requirements of his character. God is holy. Be ye holy, for I am holy. And the law called for perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience. No other choice. In fact, we find in Leviticus 18.5 And Paul quotes it in Galatians chapter 3. Do this and live. Do this and live. So within the covenant of Sinai, the Mosaic covenant, was the covenant of works. Do this and live. And what Christ brought about which is so marvelous, what the grace of God brought about was live and do this. And that's what Paul argues for through the book of Galatians. The legalists, the Judaizers had come in. They were upsetting the church there. They were telling them, yes, you must keep the law. if you're going to be saved. You can't just believe in Christ. You also have to be circumcised. You have to keep the commandments and the festivals and so forth if you're going to be saved. Do this and live, they were teaching. And Paul explains that no, under the grace of Christ, it is live and do this. That is what the book of Galatians is all about. But here we have God's covenant with Israel, the Mosaic covenant, and it demands perfect obedience. And what happens before the law even comes down the mountain? The law is broken. The law in the hands of man is broken. And so if you notice in chapter 32 back at the beginning, verse 1, When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who should go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said, Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And you can read commentary on this in First Corinthians chapter 10. as they were committing all kinds of sexual sin, as they had synchronized the idolatry of the peoples around them with their worship of the Lord, and now they were worshiping a golden calf as though that was representative of the Lord their God. The broken law. So God's holy law, that's first. And second, the broken law. They broke the law of God. If you look a little further in chapter 32, we read verse 15 and 16, verse 17, when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear. And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. So we go back to verse 19. And as soon as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. The broken law of God. His breaking them, His smashing them was just representative of our transgression and sinfulness that we are law breakers. that we have broken the law of God. We have rebelled against His commands. We have defied them all. If we walk through the moral law of God, as told in the Ten Commandments, we would find that in every command, we have transgressed the law of God. And so we are law breakers. In Galatians chapter three, verse, Verse 19, Paul says, for through the law, I died to the law. Through the law, I died to the law. This is the first use of the law, actually. You know, there are three uses of the law. The first is the law as a mirror to show us our sins. The second is the law as a curb to restrain us from sin. That's called the civil use of the law. And then the third is the normative or the moral use of the law, the law as a guide. But what we see here is the law as a mirror that shows us our sin. Through the law, I died to the law. The law bears witness that I am sinful, that I do not render to God personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, but that my thoughts are only sinful continually. That's the nature of mankind after the fall. We are a fallen people. And so the law shows us our sinfulness and shows us that we need a savior. It shows us that we cannot measure up. When we read in chapter three, I think it was 219 I was mentioning earlier, when Paul says through the law, I died to the law 319. is when he says, why then the law? Why was the law given? He talks about Abraham and the promises that were given through Abraham. And then 400 years later, the law is given. He says, why then was the law given? And the law was given because of transgression. And once again, he's dealing with this first use of the law as a mirror, that the law was given to be a tutor. And sometimes we call this the pedagogical use of the law. It was given as a tutor and a guardian in order to bring us to Christ. That as the law brings us to an end of ourselves and shows us how sinful we are, God's holy law, God's broken law, as it shows us who we are, then it guides us to the only one who can preserve and protect, who fulfills the law of God. And that brings me to number three, Christ, the fulfiller of the law. Christ, the fulfiller of the law. So if you look in Exodus back at chapter 25, you have the instructions here to Moses for the building of the tabernacle, and the very first thing that Moses is to make is the Ark of the Covenant, and the description of it starts at verse 10. Now, the whole tabernacle is a picture of Christ. It is the place where God will meet with his people. God is holy. How can we meet with him? There has to be sacrifice. There has to be sanctification. There has to be forgiveness. There has to be justification. And so the tabernacle speaks of the person and work of Christ. If you look at verse 8, 25 verse 8, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. How can we dwell with a holy God. Well, there has to be a provision for sinners. And the tabernacle represents pictures, the work of Christ in that provision. And we have here the instructions about the Ark of the Covenant. This is called procedural discourse that we're going to read here. And so please bear with me. But will you read with me starting in verse 10. Where he's receiving instructions about the Ark. They shall make an arc of acacia wood, two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it and two rings on the other side of it you shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold and you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them the poles shall remain in the rings of the ark they shall not be taken from it and oh listen listen here and you shall put into the ark the testimony that i shall give you Now you see after the testimony is a reference to the tables of stone on which was written the moral law of God. In fact, look just a little further, he talks about the mercy seat. He said, you shall make a mercy seat. We sang about that this morning. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work. shall you make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings. their faces one to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be and you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you." So if we had read further in chapter 32 we would have realized that God after the sin of Israel and after the intercession of Moses and there was forgiveness although there was judgment there was judgment but there was forgiveness and then God told Moses to carve out two new stone tablets to bring them up on the mountain and Moses himself this time writes the writing on the tablets for the people. And they are called the testimony, the Ark of the Testimony. He says, put the testimony that I will give you. That was the moral law of God. He says, there I will meet with you, verse 22. And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the Ark of Testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. Now brothers and sisters, the Ark is a picture and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I will tell you that in the tabernacle you have wood and gold, you have cloth and you have embroidery in gold and so forth. So wherever you have wood or cloth it is a type and a picture of Christ and his humanity. Wherever you have metals whether it's gold or brass, it is a picture of Christ in His deity. And here the Ark of the Covenant, central to the counsels of God, first in the instructions given to Moses for a meeting place. How can we meet with God? How can we fellowship? We are sinners. We are lawbreakers. Well, the law is preserved when it is placed inside of the Ark of the Covenant. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He fulfilled the law for us. And the mercy seat was placed over it, the law was placed inside, the mercy seat was placed over it, and it was there that the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the covenant and the new covenant is ratified in the blood of Jesus. This represents the blood of Christ shed for our forgiveness as lawbreakers. The atonement that is made in our behalf so that we might be forgiven and have the righteousness of God imputed to us. Christ always did that which pleased the Father, scripture tells us. He kept all of the law of God. Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter 4, that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, made under the law to redeem those that are under the law. And so Psalm 40 and verses 5, let me just turn to it for a moment. Psalm 40 and I think it's verse 5 through 7, You have the words of the Messiah, the words of Christ himself to the Father as he talks about what he is going to accomplish. In fact, it's quoted in Hebrews chapter 10 as well. But let's just read it here from Psalm 40 verse 6. In sacrifice and offering, Christ is speaking here. in sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law is within my heart. You see, just as the ark contained the tablets of stone, and they were preserved there. Outside of that, when He comes down the mountain, they are smashed and they are broken. In the hands of man, they are broken. But in Christ, they are preserved. The perfect righteousness of God, glorified in the person of Christ, and especially in His death and resurrection, in His humanity and His deity. He glorifies the righteousness of God. We behold the righteousness of God in Him. And when we have imputed to us the righteousness of God, it is as though we did the things that He did. As though we spoke the things that He spoke. As though we thought the thoughts that He thought. Because we have been granted the righteousness of Christ has been given to us. And yes, the righteousness of Christ is the righteousness of God. Actively lived out in obedience to the law, but imputed to us who come by faith. And this is the only way we can be saved. The law's demands are too high, too hard for sinful people like us. And so the Ark of the Covenant is a picture of Christ as the fulfiller of the law of God. He kept God's law perfectly. I have come to do your will, O my God, yea, your law is within my heart. He is the Ark of the Covenant. When we say that Christ is the fulfiller of the law, not only did he actively obey all of God's commands and kept the moral law, but also he fulfilled the law in that All of the ceremonies that were given, they were all pictures and types and shadows of the salvation to come, of Christ and His life and in His death and in His resurrection. When we read of the priesthood and all the laws regarding the priesthood, we read of the sacrifices and all the laws of the sacrifices. These are all pictures and types and shadows of the salvation that we have in Christ. So the law, the ceremonial law, the dietary laws, they're all fulfilled in Christ. That's why we are no longer under those laws. The moral law remains in that third use of the law. And Paul says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We'll come to that in just a moment. Christ fulfilled the law typologically. You can read Hebrews 10 and you'll read about that. Well, fourthly, Christ the mediator of the law. Brothers and sisters, do not receive the law from the hand of Moses. It is only death. By the law, Paul says, I died. It is only death. The law accuses, the law exposes, the law condemns, but it cannot save. There is no power in the law to save. The law says do this and live, and we can't do it. Christ our Savior, He did it. And He gives to us His righteousness. He gives to us forgiveness for our sins. He paid the price for our sinfulness, our transgressions. He bore them on the cross, in His own body on the tree. And so Christ is now exalted as King and Lord of all. Jesus Christ is Lord. Say it with me. Jesus Christ is Lord. And you and I as believers are under the Lordship of Christ. And as our King, he administers his law, the moral law of God, the unchanging, eternal, ethical requirements. that are an expression of God's holy nature. And Christ administers that law to us. And we say, well, how does he do this? How does Christ administer that law in our hearts and to his people? Well, it's in the nature of the new covenant. And so I'd like you to turn once more to Ezekiel 36, I know I'm having you work so much harder than usual, it's usually we're in one place, but Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel 36. Verse 25, so the way that Christ administers the law to his people under the new covenant is explained here, and it is through the Holy Spirit. So look with me. I'll pick up at verse 25, Ezekiel 36, 25. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. and I will give you a new heart, oh here it is, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh that is a tender heart and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I give to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God, and I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses." In the New Covenant, He promises to us justification, and He promises to us sanctification. Ultimately, glorification as well. And right now, though, we're in the process. We are partially sanctified people, but Christ is reigning over you. He is your king, and he is administering his law in your heart through the Holy Spirit and the Word. So he rules over his church, he is the head of the church, and he rules over the church by his word, administered through the Holy Spirit. In fact, even this morning, the way that Christ is ruling over you is by the preaching of the word, so that you would humble yourself, so that I would humble myself, because listen, I'm listening to my preaching even as I'm preaching to you, we are all under the Word and the Spirit of God is working to promote repentance and humility and meekness and obedience to transform us so that the law can be fulfilled in us because bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ so that the law of Christ might be fulfilled in us. This is the nature of the new covenant. Christ administrates his law through the Holy Spirit. This is the third use of the law. That second use that I spoke of, civil use, has to do with government. But this third use has to do with God's law as a guide, God's law as a mirror to save us, to show us our sin. That's how he guides us to the Savior, to lead us to the Savior. The pedagogical use of the law to teach us our need of the Savior and point us to Christ. And then the third use of the law, the normative use, the moral use of the law. The law is a guide. So that for you and I, we are set free from the law as a covenant of works. Do this and live. And rather, because Christ has done all things well, because the law has been preserved in him and he has given us his righteousness, now he tells us, live and do this. So turn back with me to Galatians chapter five and six. Galatians five and six. The law. The law of Christ has other titles in the New Testament. It's called the royal law, the law of liberty in the book of James, and in Romans 8, it is called the law, the law of the spirit of life, the law of the spirit of life. This is how obedience is produced in your life, is because Christ is administering the law not just as a standard that accuses you, the mirror function, but he is causing you, he has written his law into your heart and he is causing you to desire to obey him. He causes you to grieve over your sins and he motivates you for obedience to die to sin and to be alive unto God. What Christ is doing through the Holy Spirit is administering the death of Christ and the life of Christ in us so that we are dying to ourselves and we are alive unto God. And so he tells us in chapter 5 and verse 14, The whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So Christ gives the summary of the law in Matthew 22 and the other gospels as well, Matthew 22, 27 through 30. And the law, as Christ gives it, when he's asked the question, they're tempting him, what is the greatest commandment? He says that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your mind and all your strength. and that the second is like unto it, that you should love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands, Christ says, hang all the law and the prophets. In other words, this is the very center and the core of God's law. And so God's moral law requires us to worship God and to love and delight in him. And it calls us to serve our neighbor, to put his interests ahead of our own, and to be sacrificial in our attitude toward ourselves. So toward God, toward our neighbor, toward ourselves, the moral law of God is summarized. And Paul says, in one word. Did you notice that? Four, verse 14, the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so that expression of love includes both our piety towards God, our worship of Him, that we exalt Him above all else, and our concern for those around us that we care for them and serve them. And that we do so with an attitude of sacrifice, even as Christ had, that He came not to be served, but to serve and to give Himself a ransom for many. And it is when we are filled with a heart of worship and a heart of service, a heart of sacrifice, that we fulfill the law of God. And Christ administers this law in us, not by the threats and accusations that do this and live, because we can't, but He says live and do this. And so through the Holy Spirit that He gives to His people, He is training us, teaching us, guiding us, encouraging us, exhorting us, moving us, directing our lives to become more and more like Christ. And he uses the word in the process. The spirit works through the word. Christ administers his law in his church by the spirit through the word so that we know what is pleasing to him and we are enabled to please him. Christ is the Lord. So the law under Moses had its legal form. And the legalists in Galatians were trying to bring that back. But the law in the hands of Christ has its gospel form. And there his commands are not burdensome. And yes, Old Testament saints knew about this as well. Just read Psalm 119. Oh, how I love thy law, right? Wondrous things, Lord, show me wondrous things out of your law. Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is perfect. David understood this principle, and so the law of God was to him, it came to him, mediated through the person of Christ, even under the old covenant, because he was believing and trusting in the salvation that the law pointed to and gave witness to in Christ. And that's why he delights, he writes that whole psalm of how delightful God's commands are to him. And you and I, when we are regenerated and born again and given the Spirit of God, we are then enabled to walk with God, to live for God, to glorify God. We walk with the Spirit. We live by the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit. Who is the Spirit? The Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Father. It is the Holy Spirit who is working these sanctifying truths in us. Well, I know there is much more to say, but that's sufficient for today. Would you stand with me? Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.