Opening our Bibles this morning again to Exodus, we're at chapter 31 in the last verse of that chapter. Just so happens in God's providence that we have arrived in the catechism at the exact same place. Wonderful how that works. So we will this morning be paying attention to the Heidelberg Catechism as well as this evening in terms of The beginnings of an understanding of the law of God. So I would encourage us this morning to be attentive and open by the spirit to these very things. So in a moment, we'll continue there. Page 242, I believe, or three. 243, reading only question and answer 93 in a moment. leaving 94 and 95 for this evening. 242, thank you, 242. First beloved to the Word of God, and we have just this verse before us this morning, very full and rich of Exodus 31 and verse 18. And when he, of course God, had made an end of speaking with him, Moses, on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony. Tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. Thuster Congregation, God's perfect and glorious word. Keep your Bible open if you would, but let's turn then to the Heidelberg Catechism. And again, ask this preliminary and basic question of 93, how are these commandments divided into two tables? The first has four commandments, teaching us how we should live in relation to God. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor. These things, beloved, the word of God does teach, and therefore, We do believe. Let's come again to the throne of grace and ask help of him this morning. Let's pray. Our father, we have come from a variety of experiences this past week. We've seen things that perhaps we wouldn't want to have seen, heard things that we would rather not have heard. Perhaps, Lord, as we went through the reading of the law and the confessing of our own sins, perhaps we made a choice to see things that we ought not have seen, to behave in ways that are not becoming of the believer. But certainly we've noted these things in our life in the world this past week. Now we come to your word and of the great significant thing that is here for us to grasp. And we need your Spirit's help. We praise you that He is here exactly to do that, to enable our understanding. Give us, O Lord, to grasp these things that you have for us. It will be for our good and more so to your glory. And so hear our prayer as we offer it in Jesus' name. Amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Almighty God never allows any one of His words that He has spoken to fall unfulfilled. So it is that now we come to the fulfillment of Exodus 24, verse 12. I'm going to read. We come to the fulfillment of Exodus 24, verse 12, and it is shown to be completely true where God said, Then the Lord said to Moses, come up to Me on the mountain and be there. And I will give you tablets of stone and the law and the commandments which I have written that you may teach them." Forty days Moses has been there. He ascended. He went up to God to be given revelation. Now we've been thinking about that in terms of the blueprints that he was given about the construction of the tabernacle and its presentation of the gospel and of the new humanity being made by God as is seen there. But not just those blueprints. But to perceive rather the blueprints of righteousness. God wrote with his own finger a summary of righteousness. This summary, God's law never changes. One ruling coming down, and notice how common that is for us to think about this in civic life of governmental workings. One ruling coming down from the Supreme Court of the United States can be changed by a later Supreme Court, like we pray will happen with Roe v. Wade. But this law, you see, a definition of righteousness come down from God for which Moses had to go up to receive and then brings down to the people, it never changes. It will never be overruled, never be vetoed, and cannot ultimately finally be ignored by anyone. And for its correct use, we must have Jesus Christ. Savior and Lord. But these things, beloved, and here's the problem we face in our day and in this culture, these things, beloved, the church today must know and live. God gives his never-changing law to his servant for announcement application, and adherence. Again, you'll find that in the handout in your bulletin that God gives his never-changing law to his servant for announcement, application, and adherence. We'll see that in the following four ways. First, what other action could better show permanence? Second, this permanent law must be announced by the church. Well, when? Next, this permanent law must be applied by the church. Okay, why? And then this permanent law must find adherence in Christians. We'll wrestle with the question, how? But beloved, God gives his never-changing law to his servant for announcement, application, and adherence. Well, we think about this in terms of what other action could better show permanence. We've been kind of hinting at, as we've been going now through this last section of Chapter 31, that we're kind of already, as those who know this narrative fairly well, we're already kind of handicapped because we've been thinking ahead to Chapter 32. And perhaps we know 32 so well that we know what's going to happen when Moses descends down, and his ears hear certain things, and his eyes perceive certain things. We know that his anger is going to flame. That's the way the text puts it in 32. And he's going to throw down and break the tablets of stone, Aaron having already broken covenant with God. But believer, do not lose sight of this fact. God used His own finger to engrave these tablets. We're reminded of that again in Exodus 32 verse 16. Now the tablets were the work of God. I'm in Exodus 32 verse 16. The tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. As it were, God's finger pressed down making a channel through that solid rock creating words of cosmic permanence. That work has never been abrogated. It's never been overruled or changed. But our problem, our problem, mine, yours, is that we live in a world which says, nah, not so much. This verse, 31-18, needs to be seared into the minds and entrenched onto the hearts of God's people. It is, as a dramatic conclusion to Moses' 40 days up in God's presence, up in the realm, as it were, of revelation, that we know that when Moses comes down from God's presence, he, Moses, does not return void. Empty handed. That word God spoke from Sinai in chapter 20. He wrote from Sinai chapter 31. And Moses comes down carrying righteousness. Now we need to think about this as Moses as a type, a precursor, a preview of the mediator. Of a certain extent, he shows us something of the work that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do. And you need to hold on to that for chapters that are yet upcoming in Exodus. But think about this. As this type and preview of the mediator, he comes down from God carrying the very demand making the mediatorial office necessary He comes down carrying in his own hands the need for the Lord Jesus Christ. What has God written on the tablets? Our catechism puts it this way. Two tables. First, how we should live. And notice the language of the catechism. I think it's very helpful here. How we should live in relation to God. Is that more than just nearby? Isn't that familial language? How does a child live in respect to a father? Who is this father? What's he like? The first table of the law makes it very clear how we are to live in this relation to God. And then second, what we owe, again, very helpful language. We wouldn't necessarily think of it that way. What we owe to our neighbor. These things never change. They are written in stone. Of all the other commandments and the applications and statutes of the law that we find written all over the Scriptures, none like these were written by God's own finger in stone. They are inviolable, unbreakable, unbending. Moses sends Him down carrying stones. Permanent records of what He has said to all humanity. And there is no way And this is the problem so many in the church face today. And there is no way to properly hear the gospel apart from having heard the law. No way. How many things must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? Were you thinking of that just now as I was saying that to you? That second question and answer of the catechism come to mind. How many things must you know first? How great my sin and misery are. And the catechism asks us then, how do you come to know your misery? What's the answer from the law? The law of God tells me who tells this law. God has not shifted the responsibility of giving the law to any other, but he himself has done it. Do you see that? He says, here's what I've said, and I'm writing it in stone so that you will not possibly miss it. The lawmaker, the king, writes, how do we know there's a king? We hear this question often. What about those people who have never heard, those people who live in faraway lands? Well, beloved, there are no faraway lands anymore. I hate to break it to you. Everyone's hearing, but aside from that, Romans 1 makes it very clear that all know the law is written on every heart. Yet here church is exactly, and we need to grasp this, here is exactly where we need the understanding of who Moses was and the office that he fulfilled to be seeing God's servant for now the church to take up as our responsibility. That as God decided to use a certain second cause A man, now the whole church, especially in the offices of the church, to make God's work known. Does God still do that in our culture, in our day? Interesting question, isn't it? If we were to poll a wide spectrum of churches in our particular day how would many churches answer the question what does the church today have to do with the content commandments the church is the means to an end so secondly this permanent law must be announced by the church when There are, in God's perfect wisdom, three main uses for His law, and each of these three need to be presented, and each needs an answer. God has given His law to His church to present that He, God, might then, through the church and its proclamation of the gospel, answer the first use of the law. The first use is what Aaron will see as Moses comes down and the two meet up. That's what will first grip humanity as the law written by God's finger comes down as it were from the mountain. As Moses comes down and meets Aaron and Aaron's leadership of the people, what Aaron will see about the law is the fiery majesty and purity and blazing brilliance of an unchanging righteousness. the law as a mirror of the beauty of God's perfections. And Aaron as the leader and the people with him, the law showing to them like a mirror, the picture of their own sinfulness. Have we lost that sense of the first use of the law today? God wrote with his own finger on stone that He is holy, holy, holy. And by that He says that all sin makes every human unholy. Does the world need to know this anymore? We ask the question, what did Moses bring down from the mountaintop, as it were, from heaven to the people? He brought down revelation. The revelation that God is beautiful in His perfections. That He is bright and brilliant and resplendent in His blazing purity. That there is a standard of right and wrong for life or death. And that He Himself, God, has written that standard with His own finger. And being the eternal God and His standard thus wise, it is unchanging. And people are dying. People are dying not having ever heard a clear presentation of God's righteous perfections because the church has grown timid. in our day and afraid in our day to say it. To announce this first use of the law. To say to people in their choices, whichever one wants to extol and affirm and agree to and say, well, that's great. You be who you are. I'll be who I am. We won't ever come into company with each other. You're fine. I'm okay. You're okay. What about the church? What needs to be announced by the church? Well, Romans 3.20, that the law gives the knowledge of sin. Romans 4.15, that the law gives the knowledge of sin. Romans 5.13, that the law gives the knowledge of sin. Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5, that at least this, as we begin to understand it, that the law gives the knowledge of sin. That I am a sinner. I'm not okay. You're not okay. By doing this, the announcement of the law, we are showing the need for pardon and to have guilt removed. Galatians 3, verses 19-24. We are making it clear that only by Jesus Christ can a man or a woman come under that guilt and have that condemnation, Romans 8, 1, removed. in the teaching and the praying and the counseling, and yes, of course, this mostly the preaching of the church, their needs, there must be this first use of the law. Or there will be no need for Jesus Christ. And when the prophetic voice of the church, which is supposed to be like this, thus saith the Lord, is quieted and becomes timid and their ministers crawl around on their bellies not wanting to offend or hurt or possibly upset any, death alone ensues, eternal death. Is this solved by the reading of the commandments in a church service on the morning of the Lord's Day? Well, not entirely, but it must be done. It must be done. God has written with His finger so that all will listen when we say, turn to Jesus Christ because of your sins. If people say, which sins are those? Then we are in trouble. You see, He sent His Son to save us from violations of His commandments. This permanent law, then, must be applied by the church. If the answer to that question a moment ago, when must the law be announced by the church? Now. If the answer is now, it must be announced now, in our culture, in our day, no matter what anybody is saying about their behaviors and their actions, well, then, it also must be applied by the church. And do you understand the answer to the reason why? Look at our culture. Some of you are old enough to have remember, or you've heard your parents or grandparents or great grandparents say, I remember when the commandments were taken out of the schoolhouse. It's being pulled out of the courthouse. Well, we could discuss whether or not that's all that important. We could discuss that. There'd be a very, a variety of opinions on whether the commandment should hang in a schoolhouse, but beloved, that was merely an action indicative of the spirit of the age. And that's the problem. The church, you see, was given the law both to announce it but also to apply it. In terms of the second use of the law, we discuss its civil use. The law can help establish or secure civil order and protect the righteous from the actions of the unjust. Every time a police officer pulls somebody over for speeding on the highway, it is an application, whether or not the officer or the one being ticketed wants to admit it is an application of the commandments of God. And we can extend that and think about all the areas and avenues of our lives that are benefited by and blessed by and helped by a civil use, the second use of the commandment. the righteous, protected from the unjust, by a clear pronouncement of lawfulness, and a clear denouncing of unlawfulness. And this clarity brings conviction of sin. But it is only when the law is black and white, right or wrong, when things are made very clear in the use of and application of the law, that that begins to happen. It is the primary means the Holy Spirit uses to convict sinners, that is the law is. And that clarity about right and wrong must be applied by the church. Moses did not descend down the mountain with 10 suggestions in his hands, you see. And the very fact of his anger when he saw the idolatry and adultery going on in the people proves it. Think about a couple of the obvious and current examples in our culture. Abortion is murder. But if the church is silent and allows for abortion, what is the church saying about the law? It is saying that the sixth commandment is not so important after all. Homosexuality and transgenderism is vile sexuality, and it is idolatry. And if the church allows for it and says, well, it's just OK with us, then we are saying that the seventh and the first and the second commandments are really meaningless, after all. Now, if we think about that with the obvious societal and cultural issues, isn't it true about all the more unpopular topics? like what we do with our money and our time and the raising of our children. Do you realize that apart from the second use of the law, no murderer would see her need for Christ? When she asked a doctor to abort her child, and that no Sodomite would know his sin? Do we need proof today that the church has become afraid to use our prophetic, thus saith the Lord, voice? I want you to think about this. There are other things we could say, but these are so clear and so pertinent in our society today that we'll all be able to connect with them. That the church has become afraid to say, thus saith the Lord? Look at how many major retailers and even minor retailers are gleefully using the gay pride flag colors in their advertising this year as composed to last, and this year as opposed to five years ago, or this year as opposed to 20 years ago. And you ask the question, why is our culture changing so rapidly? Why do grandparents get unhappy and upset about what's going on in the culture? And grandkids are like, well, what are you getting so worked up about, Dad? That's just the way people are. Grandpa, come on. But our culture is changing rapidly. The pace of it is almost unbelievable. Why? Well, at least one of the reasons. There are many. But at least one of the reasons is the fact that no longer is the law upheld in all of its uses by the church to whom the Lord has given it to say with all the application that needs to be said and obviously we don't have time this morning to be even begin to touch on all the applications and areas of applications of the law but to be able to say about all of those things look god has said something he said something because of it the church's quietistic spirit about the law people are no longer seen their need for jesus christ Do you believe that? We must tell them of their great peril through applications, civic and otherwise, of the law. It's not just about good order and safety for the church to be able to do what the church is called to do. Yes, of course it is that. to freely exercise Christianity in our day? Yes, of course, those things. But much more, it's all about the reason for the need for the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you even conjure up in your mind what it would have been had Moses coming down from the mountain, holding those commandments in his hands, those two tablets, having then come and heard what he heard and saw what he saw, had said to them, well, not so bad. Let's move on. Let's worry about other more important things. We can't even think of that. It's almost blasphemous to say it that way. We cannot remain silent. We pray for godly legislators. We vote for people who uphold the word of God and not otherwise. We strive to support financially and prayer-wise and in other means those who have a desire to uphold the law of God in our culture and our society. And all of that we do on the positive side of it. But on the negative side of it, when we say these things about God and his law, we hope and expect people will come and say, look, I've been sinning. I've been stealing from my employer. I've been misusing certain privileges that were given to me. I'm violating the civic laws around me. What do I do? Is there a civil punishment to be paid and dealt with? Yes, of course. Is that the only thing? No, the catechism says, of course not. There's much more. You've offended God, but there's hope. Turn to Jesus Christ and be saved from your sins. Only a few of us might be old enough to remember this, but a certain well-known evangelical leader, 20 or more years ago, went into a prison to a death row, and he sat and he had a conversation with a serial murderer. He tells that this murderer, having heard of the law of God and of the gospel, confessed and repented before he was finally executed. Only God knows. But you see, beloved, that's exactly it. God will call all actions to a day of reckoning. Fourthly, then, this permanent law must find adherence in Christians. How? But it's not just the church's institution. It's not just in our order of worship in our liturgy, including that reading of the law. Yes, those things, but there's more than that. It's not just the church through her elders upholding the kingly magisterial office of Jesus Christ and punishing violations of the commandments because you've heard those commandments being mentioned in terms of church discipline. Yes, it's that, but it's more than that, you see. It's also the churches as new humanity. Second Corinthians 517 new creation showing that newness by lawfulness. And here we think of the significance of the third use of the law. And then this. Third use of the law, the rule of faith for the believer. Now listen. is the Christian reminded of our great need for Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. Have you ever asked why? Why this third use of the law and the weightiness of it? Oh, I challenge you. Look back at church history. The reformers, look at the Puritans, look at the Scottish and the English and the Dutch saints and their striving to understand the law of God. Look at all of these Christians who before us have said, no, this third use of the law is very significant. And ask the question, why? Is it to make out of us new legalists? Neonomians, a new law? No. But it is rather that when we strive, and we should, we must, strive to obey God and all of his commandments that we find most clearly for us again and again and again the need for forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The other way of dealing with things is very dangerous. Aaron learned well from his father Adam Because when Moses confronted Aaron, gave excuses. Oh, it's these people. Oh no, it was that furnace. I just threw the gold in there and this thing popped out. We're pretty skilled in doing the same. We are called to strive believers. Strive in terms of a desire for obedience to the Lord because he is magnified by such striving. By our striving to be holy. But Christians, do you realize? Do you realize that when we see striving? After holiness, what we actually are doing is that we are downplaying the necessity of the righteousness of Jesus Christ for our ongoing walk as a believer. Is that how we walk as a Christian? Oh, I was saved once. I made a profession of faith once upon a time. I'm good. Or do we rather say, no, look, I love the law of God. And I desire the law of God. Yes, I don't want to look like the world. I don't want to live like the world. But more than that, I want to glorify God. I want to honor Him with my life. I want everything about me to show forth the excellencies and the beauties of God's holiness and His righteousness. And when I'm striving for that, I love Jesus Christ all the more. We find ourselves, as we strive to love God's law, on our knees saying, Jesus, it's all you. I need you. But where are we, you and me, in terms of our submission to the law? How is it that we can say with the psalmist, oh, how I love thy law? You will notice that the catechism written to Christians says, Table 1 teaches. It says, Table 2 teaches. Here's where the Holy Spirit uses preaching. The Holy Spirit uses this event that's ongoing right now. Preaching. to make us aware, to make us aware of the applications of the law, to make us aware of the need to announce the law, to make us aware of the eternal, abiding, unchangeable reality of the law of God, the Holy Spirit makes us aware. But not only that, He calls us to account. Have you ever had that occasion and that event in the midst of preaching where you said, now that's for me. I'm hearing that. The Holy Spirit is bringing me to account in terms of the Word of God. I've been rather flippant. I've been rather lazy. I've been rather disinterested. I've been cold-hearted. And you begin to say, oh, change me, God. Change my heart. Renew a right spirit within me again. Because after He makes us aware and brings us to account, He shows us our need for Christ. As we come to love the Lord Jesus Christ all over again, then we see ourselves growing in holiness. Where are you at? Which of those things is ongoing in your life right now? He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with his finger, so that his people, Psalm 1, would meditate on that law day and night and begin to resemble trees, well-watered, fruitful, healthy. Moses came down from above, bringing what God wrote with his own finger. Believers, what God has written, none can erase. Amen. Lord, I would praise you for the wonderful work that you have done in our hearts that we love your law. We realize that in our daily struggle and our Christian walk, we love it sometimes less and sometimes more. We vacillate between a hotness in terms of holiness and a coldness in terms of worldliness. We pray you. That we would learn to love Jesus Christ above all and more and more. And then see that work that he by his spirit is doing. Giving us a desire after holiness. Lord, we praise you. That we have a simple love for you and for righteousness in your law. Help us to apply these things in Jesus name. Amen.