WCF 19.5 WSC 106 (Of the Law of God)

Do you use God as a means to escape reality or do you submit to God and His reality??

If you are not living under grace, you are living under works!! So pray, “forgive us our debts” Look to Christ!

Sin is a builder and you are an ant. Even a community of ants can’t move that boulder. Church cannot save you from sin! Only Christ, who is God does!

The moral law, however, does pertain to everyone, saved and unsaved, forever, not just with respect to its content but also in relationship to the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it.(1) In the gospel Christ does not in any way remove this obligation, but rather strengthens it.(2)

19a. The moral law(bullet# 1) doth forever bind all(bullet# 2), as well justified persons as others(bullet#3), to the obedience thereof(bullet# 4);(1)

1 - moral law: God’s unchanging law of righteousness, as commanded by God to Adam, to Moses in the form of 10 commandments… and summed up by Christ into 2 commandments Matthew 22:37,39-40 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

2 - doth forever bind all: meaning it will never change or be done away with and will always apply.

How do we know that it didn’t go away after OT?

Romans 13:8–10 “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Paul first starts off by referring to some of the 10 commandments and then maintains what Christ stated as 1 of 2 greatest commandments… “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”, which is not a new commandment but echoes Leviticus 19:18 “… you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

As a matter of fact, when Christ in Matthew 22:40 says “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” He is referring to Leviticus 19 and Deut 3-5

To who?… (NEXT)

3 - as well justified persons as others: To everyone. Both saved and unsaved. In what way?… (NEXT)

4 - to the obedience thereof: meaning moral law is and has always been the required standard of righteousness for everyone that has ever lived, to be followed perfectly to be justified before the righteous God…

That is why whether you are justified or not, no creature can be exempt from judgement according to this standard… (NEXT)

19b. and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it(bullet# 1).(2)

You’re not simply bound to the moral law because the law is there to keep, but because it is given by God, the one with full authority over existence itself as creator God. Not only that, the moral law reflects God’s unchanging, holy & righteous, good and pure nature.

Now how in the world would anything short of perfect obedience to this righteous law be acceptable to a perfectly holy and righteous God? As if God should cut you some slack for disobeying Him once and not count it against you as evil enough to let it slide. Don’t you see that a compromising God is no righteous God at all?

But He is perfect, and His law is perfect...

James 2:10–11 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”… (NEXT)

19c. Neither doth Christ in the gospel(bullet# 1) any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation(bullet# 2).(3)

1 - Christ of the “good news”: based on the gospel accounts of scripture—not fake Jesus or made-up Jesus in some of our minds that continues to justify our sins because Jesus “loves me & tolerates my life of sin”. This version of Jesus completely contradicts the Jesus in the gospel who taught and preached against any tolerance of sin as He understood it is sin that stands between people and God.

As a matter of fact He said Matthew 5:30 “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Therefore, Christ does NOT in… (NEXT)

2 - any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation:

… of keeping the unchanging moral law of God.

He said it Himself? Matthew 5:17–18 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

So the principal as Christ Himself declared was not to destroy the law, but to fulfill them. and echoed by other authors between the OT & NT: like Moses, Matthew, Mark, Paul is:

“To love your neighbors as yourself”… truly because of your love for God, Himself.

James 2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”

As it turns out, the moral law is in fact the law of Christ as He fulfilled it fully in our place as we could not.

In the next two weeks we will cover how we are bound to the law of Christ, not out of obligation to be justified before God, but because Christ fulfillment of it through grace… and what this looks like in our lives.

; Ephesians 6:2 ““Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),” ; 1 John 2:3–4 “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” , 1 John 2:7–8 “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.”

2. ; Romans 3:19 “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

3.  Matthew 5:17–19 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” ; Romans 3:31 “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” ; James 2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”

Romans 6:15 “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” , James 2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”

Q 106. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

a. In the sixth petition, which is, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin,1

We are first praying that God would guard our church from becoming tempted.

But let’s think from the perspective of being one body in Christ now:

Where do our temptations come from (for the collective body)?

1st: from within ourselves (in our remaining flesh). You think that our desires of sin & flesh does not impact one another? Think again! Because your passions may come out whether you intended to or not. We think that we are good at hiding sin from one another, but even the action of concealing has effects the church. Why? Because it isn’t fruitful.

So even though our spirit desires Christ in our new nature, the instruction here is to pray that God continually kill the passions of our old, dying fleshly nature, which we know hates God and His law, continually causing internal strife within us.

This is why Peter, James, and John failed to keep watch and pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane even though they had a true desire to follow and listen to Jesus. So after waking them up, Jesus cays in Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

And the fact is that we are so pathetic and powerless in our flesh, so what chance do we have against the 2nd cause of our temptation?

Satan - liar and murderer from the beginning

Jesus called him the prince/ruler of this current world (John 12:31). And at one time, Satan was allowed to work directly in our hearts as we were also once his spiritual children of disobedience, living fully in the passion of our own flesh according to John 8:44 / Ephesians 2.

And though he doesn’t have the same access to our hearts as he once did before being adopted by God Himself, he is still more than capable of accusing & convincing us of being beyond God’s grace and will entice your remaining/dying flesh with worldly desires and fears...

He tried to do this Friday night on Halloween while we had outdoor worship service. As we were praying, all of a sudden sister Dary experienced...

And Satan will continue to do so, so long as God allows him to exercise the limited authority that he has been given. And so it is key to recognize and trust in God’s infinite wisdom and authority over all of creation, including Satan, to realize that he is powerless with his schemes before God. So Joseph, son of Jacob/Israel declared to his brothers (sold as slave) Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

And that is why Jesus prayed to the Father John 17:15 “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”

And He continues to intercede for us in heaven Romans 8:34 “...who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

As the Holy Spirit who is now indwelling continues to intercede for us within our hearts. Romans 8:27 “... the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

By Him alone, we are enabled and able to now resist against our flesh and Satan

b. or support and deliver us when we are tempted.2

In other words, when we have already fallen into temptation, what do we mean by praying “deliver us from evil”?

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

So when we pray, we should have full confidence and trust in God to help us navigate our way out while acknowledging it is by the empowering of His Holy Spirit to help us escape sin.

So we can never give ourselves any credit(pat on back) for climbing out of temptation, thinking that “we” did it!

But let’s join Paul as he claimed of Christ 2 Corinthians 12:9 “...My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Does this scripture bring peace and assurance to you that He will never leave or abandon you, even though you may “feel” like a complete failure at times?

2. Luke 22:31–32 ““Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”” 2 Corinthians 12:7–9 “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Hebrews 2:18 “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”