Published: May 25, 2025 | Speaker: D. Aaron Wells | Series: Deuteronomy - The Law Is Good, If One Uses It Lawfully 2 - Part 4 | Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:1-6
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Well, this is the law is good if one uses it lawfully session 21. Um, last week I received a question actually. Okay. So as far as the
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proverbs thing, I received feedback on both sides of of the issue. But what made uh the ultimate difference for me and we are going to move into the meat
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of Deuteronomy today. Um but what made the ultimate difference was a question I got from Justin Matisse um which uh which I'd like to address here briefly. Um so he said uh question
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for you from the teaching on Sunday. You spent a lot of time talking about unfolding and unpacking what is revealed. Do you have a sense of how much of that is because of our
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disconnection from living as an Israelite in that time and or how much of it that unfolding and unpacking was actually expected of the Israelites, the
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people hearing these words, you know, would they also have to continue to study and unpack it? And then he says, in other words, do you feel like it is the same task laid out before us that
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was essentially laid out before those who received these words originally? I thought it was a great question. Um, a few uh scripture references come to mind
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and I'm not going to say that I have the, you know, some sort of deep insight other than human knowled like human nature uh into these things. But a few
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scripture references come to mind uh in contemplating that question. Um one the first from the law u from Deuteronomy 17
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18-20. This is speaking of the eventual king of Israel and the expectation laid upon him as the chief judge and exemplar of the nation. And when he sits on the
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throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests. and it shall be with him, and he shall read
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in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his
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heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and
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his children in Israel. So I kind of am thinking of this question in terms of the less obvious or the more obvious to the less obvious. Um
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was it expected that the children of Israel would understand these words? I think yes. Is he is to the their king is to write a copy of this law that he may not
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turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or the left. That implies understanding. Were they to study this law? Yes. Their king is their chief
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exemplar and he is to in fact write it for himself. Okay. Have it approved by the priests and to be under their tutelage and then to study it all the days of his life. So I think understand
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yes study. Yes. Um how about the requirement of help? Another uh scripture reference comes to mind um uh Nehemiah 8
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Nehemiah 8 uh in speaking of the reading of the law in front of the people by Ezra the scribe uh which I guess is itself a a data point in the text but um in listing
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the how he read it um first that he stood up before them and and read it openly in the sight of the people for he was above all the people and as he
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opened it all the people stood Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen. Amen." lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped Yahweh with
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their faces to the ground. also Yeshua, Bonnie, Sheerba, Yamin, Akab, Shebati, Hoda, Maaya, Kela, Azar, Azar, Yosabad,
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Hanan, Pellaya, the Levites helped the people to understand the law. While the people remained in their places, they read from the book, from the law of God
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clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. So, do we and did they require help with
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their understanding and study of the law? Yes, I think that's evident. And I guess the the question then becomes under the in the presence of and
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under the ministry of the Holy Spirit known as he is now among his people. Is that the case even now? Do do we do we still are we still able to read and
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study with understanding? Do we still require help? Is it is it different or the same or both? Um to get in that too heavily would would require um a lot of
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time. But I'll just say that I think the the witness of the scripture says that we are able to enter into these things. um certain efforts of ours will be
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different. I think I mean there you mentioned the cultural divide that's that's obvious that's not going away. Um uh on the other hand can we enter into
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it? Uh it was written for us. Peter u speaks of the prophets earnestly looking into these things for their fullness and and yet knowing in the
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spirit that it would not be complete uh without us. Uh Hebrews makes a similar statement that without that without us these th those who died in faith were not made perfect. Um but uh another
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maybe more obscure um saying of Paul's came to mind for me. um in him saying, "You then, my child," to Timothy, this is 2 Timothy 2, "You
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then, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others
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also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his since his aim is to please the one who
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enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. And this was the phrase that
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stood out to me. Think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. And if that doesn't sum it up, right? Think over what I say. In
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other words, speaking of our efforts and the need in time to come into a deeper understanding of the teaching of the word, but also the Lord will give you understanding in
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everything. Um, so I think that the words Go ahead,
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That is that is a wow. Um what a question. Um I I at least would hope that the the
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Given the given the unity of the people of God, okay, given the fact that those saints died in faith, right? A faith that was made perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ and his ministry, his death, his
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resurrection, and that we live in the fulfillment of that one with those people. I I would like to hope that the sense that we unpack here would be
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substantially similar to the sense that that they would give if they were giving the right sense. I don't mean that they knew everything that there was to know. I think it's a it's this much
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and I I would like to think that we are able to enter into the sense they would get plus. As far as their understanding of the Christ, we know that those who
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died in faith looked ahead in faith to him. Um how they understood that I think is partially mediated through the prophets. Um so did the children of Israel have the best sense of who the
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one to come was? No, they knew that they were looking ahead for another though because Moses told them that. Uh please the root of what they would
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have understood have understood correctly. God reveals himself to the
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So I think the mistake we make in thinking of the Jews that they were circumcribed by the Mosaic law that law was given as an extension
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of the of the Abrahamic understanding of that law would have been
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contrab and of itself. Not without the basis, the foundation. I think the sense they would have given it would have been the context of context of Abraham in the context of Abraham. I
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should I should clarify. So the for the sake of the recording the the context of their understanding of the Christ who was to come would be the promises made
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to Abraham which the law though it though it revealed and even um increased transgression did not nullify. Um but
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when I say the law I'm I'm meaning all of the above there. I mean I'm meaning Genesis through Deuteronomy. Um, so that's included in not in most people's
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thinking. Okay, I'm that's why I'm clarifying what I mean when I say the law. I mean I mean the whole law from from Genesis 1 all the way to Deuteronomy 34, that's that's the law.
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and and Israel when they I I assume that when when when when Israel contemplated the law or what the king wrote down was Genesis through
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Deuteronomy. Um we have no other evidence there. So I just want I just wanted to clarify what I mean by by the law because you're right. What people mean is the from the mountain forward
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and that's that's not a right understanding of what the law is.
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we but I think that that okay sure we we can there is an understand that's that's kind of what I meant when I said this and there there is an understanding that that we may enter into that is the that
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is the same understanding as they had we have more and therefore it is incumbent upon upon us to seek out that fuller understanding while not losing the
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kernel of it. Um yeah um
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were is that God is hopeless because they have come from a culture lots of others.
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I think it seems to
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me that was my Yes, I I don't disagree. Actually, that's really what we're going to get into here. I think this is where we actually meet that reality that there is a thesis to the law. Uh there is a main
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statement, a main thrust. And and if if there's any if there's any main statement, this is it. Um let's um let's turn to uh Deuteronomy 6. Um it's also
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up on the board, but uh I've heard complaints that uh my my whiteboard handwriting is not yet fully developed. So, um, you might want to consult your
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Bibles. Oh, yeah. He thought it was by fake Hebrew. All Hebrew. All right. Deuteronomy 6. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that Yahweh your God commanded me to
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teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear Yahweh your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes
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and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that
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it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Here,
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O Israel, Yahweh, our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words
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that I command you today shall be on your heart. So this opening paragraph to this next unfolding has a has a really
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important place in the text and it it has one of those structures that uh I've been I've been mentioning. It has a kiastic structure. So for the sake of you know putting a picture in front of
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you the there will be a a main opening and a series of statements that will all sort of come down to a main a main message of some kind and
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then a series of statements that work back out in reverse often elaborating on the on the statements going in right and applying them. Okay. But all centered
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around this main thesis that's referred to by scholars as a keyasm because it's shaped like the Greek letter key or kai.
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Okay. Um so I've I've written the text up here to to look at that because I think that the that those phrases that often read to us as kind of throwaway phrases um
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they're seem less applicable to us. We mentioned that uh the blessing to your descendants, that of the land, etc. that we often sort of glaze over when reading
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those. And yet they have a really important place in this thesis statement of the whole commandment that Yahweh commissioned me to teach you. Um
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and I want to look at that. So you have um first uh now this is the commandment Yahweh your God commanded me to teach
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you and there's a main statement that I I brought out in part one. The commandments of God were taught the people of Israel for their doing
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them. And without that doing them, they are u spiritually speaking meaningless to the people. Okay? Okay. They they will not do as mere moral precepts. Uh
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they will not do as a monument. They are for your doing them. Okay. And this is verse one. Mark that here. This is in our
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copies verse copies verse two. This is verse three in your copy. And this is 4 through six right here.
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Then there's a litany of statements that that deal that deal with you're doing them. Okay? A sort of who, what, when, where, why of of statements. Where will you do them? In
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the land that you are going over to
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it. In the land. Okay. Why? That you may fear Yahweh and who you and your son and your son's
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son. How? By keeping them. Okay. By guarding them. Okay. And to what end?
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that your days may be long. Now, I'm going to mark this one off. This one's This one's kind of This one's kind of special. We'll get
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to that in a second. Okay. And then another very bold commanding statement.
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commanding statement. So therefore, okay, in light of this here, this here, therefore, and be careful to do them.
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You can getting somewhere here.
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Therefore, and then a litany of statements that is working out these in reverse. Okay? That it may go well with you. Okay? And that your days may be
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long. What what does this mean? What kind of days? Right? I mean, is is is long life any good that it may go well with you? Okay. the quality of that life
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that you that you may multiply greatly. Okay? What what is what's the point that you may fear
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Yahweh you and your son and your son's son? What's the character of that multiplication? Is a spiritual multiplication not just children but godly offspring. Okay? And greatly
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multiplied. Okay? and
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land flowing with milk and honey. Not just a land, but a prosperous one. Is this unclear to to anybody what what I'm trying to illustrate that there's an
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explanation being given of these things working out from the central command here in light of these things here and be careful to do
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them. Anybody unclear what I'm trying to illustrate? I don't want to overexlain. There's no need to do that. Um but if but if you're unclear, please let me know. And then
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here. O Israel, Yahweh, your God. Yahweh is one. You this really I double underlined this. I shouldn't have done that. I was being emphatic and didn't uh stay consistent here. Single underline
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that. Okay. You may do them. You may be careful to do them. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your
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soul and with all your might. Okay? So both both come down. Um and as
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part of our study last time, one of the things I illustrated was you'll have a sort of a statement A, a statement B, and then and then a synthesis of those statements that
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follows. And that happens here too. Okay. This is the commandment your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them here, O Israel.
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And the essence of what that doing is. Okay. So, some themes
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me even I know I said I'd come back to that. Let me come back to that now. Okay, you have these middle statements. By keeping all his statutes and words which I command you all the days of your
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life. By keeping all of his statutes. Okay. And then you have down here that you may multiply greatly as Yahweh the God of your fathers has promised
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you. Okay. They will be keeping his words to him because he has kept his word to them. Everybody see the relationship there? Okay. So, some themes emerge and this is
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a well-crafted thesis statement to what follows. Okay. Very much in this. You got this too. It's it has all the parts. Okay. So, themes emerge then that we're
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going to be looking at in in what follows in explanation. The first is in red, his land. Okay. It is God's intention to bring his people into his
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land. And it is a land overflowing with goodness. In this land, they will do his words. And back to our understanding of
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h how we understand the law versus them. That is a statement that cuts clear across redemptive history. Okay? We enter into that hope, his seed.
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It is God's intention to make a people who live and grow both deep and wide by the fear of his name and by his words. Is that not so among us as well?
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Do we not understand that to be God's purpose in bringing us together? Why would he give us a heart of flesh for a heart of stone? He did not intend us to also enter into that hope that we would
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be a people who live and grow by the fear of his name and by his words. Okay. And third, his life in blue. Okay, it is God's intention to give his people
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length of days full of blessing and their blessing will be and grow from the doing of his words. Okay? You might hear
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the echo of a familiar phrase to us all from the New Testament. I said, "It is God's intention to give his people length of days full of blessing." Anyone hear eternal life in
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that? You should. Okay. God's purposes are are evident in in at the very least in kernel form
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right here at the beginning. Okay. And the the divine reasoning of all of this right at the at the very core of Moses
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teaching is that Moses commanded these things by the command of Yahweh. Okay. Therefore, here, O Israel. Okay. And
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then secondly, Moses taught these things that you may do them. Okay. them. Okay. Therefore, be careful to do
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them. Do you have a comment? Just to comment on that eternal life because so often the idea of eternal life is life after death.
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Right. might a little bit better Jesus's statement. He believes in me will have life abundantly that abundantly. Sure. I think that brings in more of current
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situation by the eternal situation doesn't Oh, I see. Yes. So, I had no intention of of saying that that our understanding ought to just run straight off to some
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distant eternal life understanding. I appreciate you what you're saying. I'm I'm restating it. I have no intention of saying that our understanding of these things runs away to some distant
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eternal life that we haven't yet experienced. No, we're we stand in these things. So when when he says this as the essential expression of the hope that we
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have come to believe after all do we not worship Israel's worship Israel's God? Okay that that when the Lord said that that the the gift of God was eternal life or he will have that in me
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he will have life and have it abundantly that that is Moses meant for this to be now for the people of Israel and the Lord Jesus intended the same thing.
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Right. Sure. Sure it is. Um it absolutely is. Um
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soon afterwards. But but that but that fear of him will extend from that that love. I thought first I was afraid of him. So
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therefore I what you have to say, right? And then sometimes afterwards I love him. Well, I don't doubt that that the that the people of Israel in their
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immaturity were I mean I I I've said I've referred to the law as both refuge and rod. Okay. So there's the reality that for the people of Israel, the the law was a a hard master. Okay. And and
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the fear the fear of God could realized in time could could very easily be just that a fear of reprisal.
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But what the apostles teach us is that fear has to do with fear of judgment. But perfect love casts out fear. Okay?
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fear. Okay? We're we are expressing that that this thought I said that I'm saying that this expresses the the seed of what was yet to be
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realized that it may be that the that the fear the fear in the sense that you're using it was all that might motivate uh national Israel at one time
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or another. But in the fullness of these things, the real fear of Yahweh would extend from you are loving Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Um
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that I I think that's the tough thing about about about about studying the the law or or I would you know since I mentioned the Proverbs last week, I think that's the tough thing
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about studying this. You have to let this word stand for itself and let the text define what this means. Now, immediately you don't get a definition.
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You don't get a dictionary definition of what he means by that you may fear Yahweh, you and your son and your son's son. But you do start to get the unfolding of that definition right here.
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That's why I show these kinds of relationships, that kind of structure in the text. This is the value of a sort of literary look at it is that you start to
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see this is starting to be defined now and we expect it to continue to be defined. The fear of God is known by the way his
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way his people conduct themselves before him. It's the only way you see it. Okay? It it does not mean that the essence of that fear is my behavior. Okay? You
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can't see my love for God, but by my works. You can't see my super awesome faith for God except by my works. It is worked out in with all your heart. Can't
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see that. With all your soul, can't see that. Ah, and with all your might.
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But I but I don't I think it's important that we that we do not try to rebuild the fear of judgment as our motivation for obedience. Okay.
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I would say that the fear of Yahweh among us is new creation that that it is a new thing.
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Yeah, I think we can all enter into that judgement, right?
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Right. And and And and now you you may
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And that that's exactly that's exactly what I'm saying when I say I do not I I want to as part of our teaching in the
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not I want to carefully re rework what it means to fear God via the love that he has set among us and that we now by his spirit have for him. I want I that is a deep central
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goal to why I chose Deuteronomy and why I I just keep going with it. Okay? Because it is so important that our fear of that our fear of the Lord not be fear
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of reprisal. We preach that there is no reprisal that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So our fear of God cannot have to do with
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fear of punishment. It may be that in reality that's that's still there. I I deeply empathize with what you're
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saying. I mean, I'm saying that yes, me too. But the the study of the law is not going to do us any good unless we recognize that it was never the purpose
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of God for it to remain with fear of punishment, right? That there was coming, you shall love Yahweh your God.
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Um, let me keep going. Uh, we're we're uh running out of time, but I do need to cover these things. These are important things. So, uh, in part one, um, we we
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talked about how the law and the land are closely tied. Uh, that he gave these, uh, words for you're doing them as surely as he was giving them this land for possessing it. Okay? That
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they're they're not separate. Okay? Um, notice also the the juxtaposing of his words which I command you and as Yahweh
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promised you. I mentioned that earlier that his words which I command you as Yahweh promised you. Okay, both the law and the promise are for the
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people of God and their children. And they they go together. So the law, the land, the the the the the blessings to son and son son,
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they're all tied in. They don't get separated. Okay. Secondly, that the fear of Yahweh and the belief in his promises would be demonstrated in keeping the commands and extolling his goodness.
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Okay? As well as teaching their offspring to do the same. That this I'm saying this comes out of the law. that you may do them. Fear God by doing them and that
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your days may be long in doing them. In other words, okay. And I would to what to what we were talking about just now. I had written down having such a mind as
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this always would necessarily mean going well with them and their sons forever. Always and forever.
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um that that if that if they had at the point at which Israel was given a mind such as this always, they would have going well with
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them and with their sons forever. That's what I talked about last week was that Peter expresses a Mosaic formula in order to say this is this is
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now and this is the gift of the Holy Spirit. All that was was demanded, professed, promised in the law is a gift in the Holy
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Spirit. We are to understand that it sws up all of those things that well-being to son and son son. And what that means, I'm not here expressing. I'm simply
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saying we need to start with the idea that when the people of God have such a mind as this always, they necessarily have it will be well with you and with
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your sons your sons forever. Okay. forever. Okay. um the literary relationship between chapter five and and six which I've
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diagrammed before um given given that this is the this is the commandment which he said you I'll teach you the
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whole you shall teach the whole commandment now this is it should be unsurprising that I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery is then
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extended by what the Lord calls the first and great commandment here. O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. To be unsurprised that this is the expansion of that first commandment or
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what I called the first rubric. But secondly, and maybe a little more unexpected, the the command to honor father and mother also looms very
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large in the wording of Moses continued teaching. Right from the beginning, did you notice all three themes are present in the fifth commandment or what I called the second rubric? Honor your
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father and your mother. Okay? That your days may be long that it may be well with you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you. The fact that honor for father and
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mother is then extended with instructions pertaining to parents instructing their children that you may fear Yahweh, you and your son and your
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son's son. It illustrates that reciprocal relationship that I talked about in part one that underlies the command to honor father and mother. Okay. Um, secondly, speaking of
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that first rubric with Yahweh your God, Yahweh is one. I thought about this as a result of a comment that that Ariel made uh when we looked at these things. Um
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uh and this is just a little bit silly, but uh but
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um now why do I do that? looking at the intersection of all that's swn up in the statement. Yahweh our God. Yahweh is one, right? He is our God. Okay. Yahweh is
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ours, our possession and we are his. Um we one of the I guess the seinal statement of the first discourse of
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Moses ending in chapter 4 um beginning in verse in verse 32 uh is real important for what Moses is unpacking here. For ask now of the
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days that are passed, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened,
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or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and still live? Or has any god
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ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by mighty hand and outstretched
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arm, and by great deeds of terror. All of which Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes. He is ours, our possession, and we are his. He is also
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one God. Yahweh is the only God and there is only one. Continuing to you it was shown that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no other besides
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him. Okay. But he's also the intersection of ours and one. He is only our God. Yahweh is God. The nations gods are
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not gods. not gods. continuing, "Out of heaven he let you hear his voice that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out
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of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers and chose their seed after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence by his great power, driving out nations from your
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presence greater and mightier than yourselves, and bringing you in to give you their land for an inheritance as at this day. this day. Okay. Finally, he is our one God. Yahweh
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is our God and we have no other. Continuing, "Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
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There is no other. Therefore, you shall keep his statutes and his commands which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days
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in the land Yahweh your God is giving you all the days. There it is again. Same three
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things. So, you shall love Yahweh your God. think that the words of the Lord in John help us a tremendous amount here in
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14:12-18. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father.
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Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you
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will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
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him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to
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you in doing the commands of the Lord carefully. We love God and this because he has set his love on us. Okay? Their love for Yahweh is both the source and end of their
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obedience. And so it is with us. If such a statement sounds strange or tentative to you, it may be by reason of a culturally poor definition of
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love. Unfortunately, these verses uh that I just read are often separated in your copies by a heading. Okay? But Jesus relates. They're not separated in
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what he said to his disciples. Jesus relates, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it directly with the followup." If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Okay? Because he loves
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the father and the father loves us, he will do as we ask him. How much more fitting is it that our love for him be expressed and made complete in doing as he has asked us?
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I keep seeing this pattern and it seems that Jesus words are the completion of it. And the pattern goes like this. You you keep my words that I command you. I
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kept my word to your fathers and here you are the children. Therefore, you keep my words and teach them to your children and I will establish my word
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with you and with your children after you. uh Hebrews uh 12 gives us another perspective on the matter, saying that Jesus is the source and end of our
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faith, especially that faith made manifest in endurance. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so
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closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set
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before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility
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against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin. Paul in Ephesians 5 says, "Therefore, be imitators of God as what?
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Beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. You see that the that the obedience of the
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people of God extending from the love that he said among them and extending from the from our love for him. These words that I command you says Moses shall be on your heart. Okay. And
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this being truly the case, no longer shall knowledge of God come through instruction of on in the law. Okay, this is what we find in the
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prophets helping to un helping us to understand the end of these things. Okay, Christ being the end of the law for all who believe. Okay, what does he
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say in verses that are so familiar to us in Jeremiah 31? But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh. I will put my law within them,
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and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know Yahweh, for they shall all
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know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Hence why I
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say if if it is truly the case that these words I command you will be on your heart, then no longer is the knowledge of God coming through instruction in the law, but rather from
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the heart, the seat of his Holy Spirit. What was worded for the people of Israel as a command is for us descriptive of who we are in Christ. The unleavened
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bread that they ate during the Passover was to be the law in their mouths, says Exodus. But we who are in Christ feed on the flesh of the son of man, the
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word. The law commanded the law on their hearts. And we in Christ, the word have the law written on our
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hearts. If we use the law to examine our behavior, okay, or to scare ourselves, we will not profit by it. For it will
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only expose our sin. If our minds are so set on the flesh, the law is for death. That's Paul's major argument in the first half of
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Romans. But these words of his were to be on our hearts, a feat we were powerless to perform. But the preaching of the gospel became for us Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For
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this reason, I've labored hard to demonstrate how we are to use the law lawfully. If it's about what we must do, we will reap nothing but
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corruption. If it describes who we are, though, we may seek the wisdom that underlies the law and get understanding that I may keep your law and observe it
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with my whole heart. That's from Psalm 119. And I've heard numerous people say, "I can't figure out," and this is a great question to ask. How is it that the psalmist can say, "Oh, how I love
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your law." your law." How if it's for death, how can he say, "Oh, how I love your law." It is because he is anticipating
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that work made complete in us that the law will be on our hearts and we will by it get understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. By having what is in the heart,
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we will observe it with our whole heart. And they were commanded to observe it with their whole heart. we have the reality and what flows from it will be a more full and complete
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obedience redounding to God's praise. Um, speaking of wisdom and I I realize I'm going over but again I I consider these things important for
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clarifying what is it that we are among ourselves preaching every day as we live and especially every week as we gather. What
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is it that we are proclaiming? This is Proverbs 28 1-5. The wicked flee when none pursues,
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but the righteous are as bold as a lion. When a land transgresses, it has many rulers. But with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long
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continue. A poor man who oppresses the poor is beating is a beating rain that leaves no food. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. Evil
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men do not understand justice, but those who seek Yahweh understand it completely. In believing his word, we
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have for ourselves what the children of Israel required Moses to give them, to mediate for them. We have it for ourselves. They looked ahead for
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another. We possess that other even Jesus Christ. Let's
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pray. Our father, we lift up our voices to you, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom your promises are known completely.
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We give you thanks that we are indeed to receive your receive your land and that we are privileged to fear you all our days and we
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anticipate you teaching as well through us our children and our children's children. You having made a family that is born from
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above, not after the flesh. And especially in the concern for our own children, we we lift our hands and our voices to you and and we ask, be
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gracious, oh Lord. Give the growth. Take them for
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yourselves. And we thank you for that gift of life that you have set in our hearts and that we now proclaim that all in Christ Jesus will live and they will live abundantly. We thank you in his
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name. I'm at