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Well, this is the law is good if one uses it lawfully, session 28. Um, if you turn with me in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 9, uh, first I'm going to read uh, Deuteronomy chapter 9
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and most of 10 because it forms um, I've put the sort of the Deuteronomy road map uh, up here and it it forms uh, a cohesive block and so deserves to be
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treated on its own. Um, so I hope that as we go you'll be able to hear some of the things that I'm going to highlight uh in the first segment of um my own
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discourse uh on this that much of what we've read and studied before is echoed in this text and is focused on
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one event as a case and point. So give give careful attention to the reading. Um, this is Deuteronomy 9.
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Here, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified
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up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, who can stand before the sons of Anch.
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Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is Yahweh your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you
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shall drive them out and make them perish quickly as Yahweh has promised you. Do not say in your heart after Yahweh your God has thrust them out before you, it is because of my
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righteousness that Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land. Whereas it was because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is driving them out before you. Not because of your
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righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you. And
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that he may confirm the word that Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know therefore that Yahweh your God is
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not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness. For you are a stiff necked people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked Yahweh
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your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. You have been stiff necked against Yahweh.
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Even at Horeb, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. And Yahweh was so angry with you, he was ready to destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant
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that Yahweh made with you, I remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone
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written with the finger of God. on them all the words that Yahweh had spoken with you on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And at the end of 40 days and
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40 nights, Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then Yahweh said to me, "Arise, go down quickly from here. For your people whom you have brought up
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from Egypt have acted corruptly, turning aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them and have made themselves a metal image." Furthermore, Yahweh said to me, "I have
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seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff- necked people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make
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of you a nation mightier and greater than they." than they." So I turned and came down from the mountain, the mountain burning with fire. And the two tablets of the
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covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you quickly from the way that Yahweh had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tablets and threw
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them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before Yahweh as before 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank
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water because of all the sin that you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that Yahweh bore against
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you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. And Yahweh was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I
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prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Then I took that sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and I burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very
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small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain. At Tabar also, and at Masa and Kibro
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Hatava, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. And when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, "Go up and take possession of the land I've given you," then you rebelled against the
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commandment of Yahweh your God, and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been stiff necked against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. So I lay
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prostrate before Yahweh these 40 days and 40 nights because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to Yahweh, oh Lord Yahweh,
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do not destroy your people or your heritage whom you have redeemed through your greatness whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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Do not regard the stiff- neckedness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin. Lest the land from which you brought us, say, because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land that he
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promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness. For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power
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and by your outstretched arm. At that time Yahweh said to me, "Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain
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and make an ark of wood, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark." So I made an ark of accasha wood, and cut two
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tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets in the same writing as before the 10 words that Yahweh had spoken to
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you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And Yahweh gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made.
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And there they are as Yahweh commanded me. The people of Israel journeyed from Beerat Benyakan to Moser. There Aaron
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died and there he was buried and his son Elazar ministered as priest in his place. From there they journeyed to good Gdah and from good Gdah to Yok Bata a
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land with brooks of water. At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to stand before Yahweh to
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minister to him and to bless his name to this day. Therefore, Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. Yahweh is his inheritance, as Yahweh your God
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said to him. I myself stayed on the mountain as at the first time 40 days and 40 nights. And Yahweh listened to me that time also. Yahweh was unwilling to
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destroy you. And Yahweh said to me, "Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people so that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them."
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So this passage then forms another third distinct section, okay, in Moses in the first part of Moses' second discourse, okay? Okay. And you can hear that by the here, O Israel. You had here
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O Israel. Here Israel, here O Israel, here O Israel. And then later you will have and now. Okay. So we can hear that it's a it's a paricopy on its own. Okay.
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At the end of the previous section where we finished last time, Moses taught them, "And if forgetting you forget Yahweh your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship
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them, I solemnly warn you today that perishing you shall perish. Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because
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you would not obey the voice of Yahweh your God." And now in the first verses, Moses turns it in the other direction. Okay? you're surely going in and Yahweh is going to make the nations of the land
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perish before you for their wickedness. Okay? So, do not therefore forget that you have already turned aside and served other gods.
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other gods. Yahweh relented at that time because of the prayer of Moses and because he's righteous. Okay? Keeping his promise to their father Abraham. That was 40 years ago at this time. Now Moses' audience
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stands at the cusp of possessing the land and they have been told that Moses will die on the east side of the Jordan that he's not going over with them.
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Okay? If they continue in the ways that they displayed from the start in the wilderness, then the law, which is what's going to be left with them, will only be a witness against them and Moses
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will not be there to stand for them. Okay? So to put it the short short version, this is what happened the last time I went up a mountain and left you.
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Okay? Because as as you may know, he's going to go up a mountain and die and leave them with the priests, the house of Aaron. Did you see the parallel? I've said before, this is kind of a tale of two mountains. Okay? Moses went up the
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mountain once, sorry, same mountain twice and they eventually will go up two mountains one time and the law would be put forth vocally from both. But there's
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also a tale of two mountains going on here as well that he's looking ahead to the mountain on which he will die. So this is what happened the last time I left you. Okay, they know and have been
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told in the first discourse, okay, which was chapters 1 through 4, that their fathers shrank back in fear and unbelief and were therefore unable
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to enter the land. Okay, most of Moses' audience have lived their entire lives in the wilderness because of this. Moses taught them already. And this this is another thing that we've observed in the
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text thus far. We've we've had our sort of twin motifs that are that overlap one another. Okay. One is of um
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take care or take heed. Okay. Okay. And the other is
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and that sort of that that runs all through here. Okay. It's really like that and sort of like this. Okay. So he's already told them to take care
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not to forget. And it struck me that this this is a decay that comes from failing to stir up one's heart to remembrance. Take care not to forget. But then we've also seen more recently
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in chapter 7, 8, and now in nine that Moses is also teaching them the how and why of forgetfulness. Okay? Warning them of the kind of danger in the heart that
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is stirred up on purpose. Okay? the kinds of things stirred up in the heart that promote that forgetfulness that erode the remembrance. Fear in chapter
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7, pride in chapter 8, and now the most pernitious, self-righteousness. pernitious, self-righteousness. Okay, so in this section, Moses teaches them. I hope you can hear that in the
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words. I want you to become attuned to listening for those repetitions and seeing in them. Oh, that's what he's trying to tell us. beginning, middle,
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and end that it was Yahweh's righteousness that carried them, especially his faithfulness to keep his promises. As for their hearts, they were prone to turn quickly aside, fully
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deserving destruction. But Moses stood for them, interceding before before God for them, worked tirelessly to set the camp to rights that Yahweh might indeed
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dwell with them. Okay. Moses bore the burden. And now the and now of the middle of chapter 10. Chapter 10:12. And
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now all that remains is to love Yahweh and keep his word. Moses bore the burden and now all that remains is to love Yahweh and keep his word. Are there any
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questions or comments on that? What we've done thus far? Okay. I hope I've made it that clear. Um
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um so let's let's move into our text then verses 1 and two. Here O Israel, you are to cross over Jordan today to go in and possess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great
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and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, who could stand before the sons of Anak.
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of Anak. Um if you remember last last part last last year uh in the first discourse chapter 1 uh beginning in verse 26 um there were some very similar things said
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uh related that were said to the old generation. Yet you would not go up but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God. and you murmured in your tents and said,
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"Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt,
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saying, "The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven, and besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."
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Then I said to you, "Do not be in dread or afraid of them. Yahweh your God who goes before you will himself fight for you just as he did before you in Egypt
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before your eyes. And in the wilderness where you have seen how Yahweh your God carried you as a man carries his son all the way that you went until you came to
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this place. Yet in spite of this word, you did not believe Yahweh your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in fire by night and cloud by day to show you
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which way you should go. So, we've already heard this. This is the point at which the old generation fell. So, in a way, we we've we've
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reached the point where now we're actually addressing something new, a new failing. Hey, their their fathers fell in the wilderness because they did not remember what Yahweh did for them in
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Egypt. Okay, they did not observe how Yahweh had led them in the wilderness. Okay, that's that's chapter 8. Okay, where Moses has expounded for us in detail how how God has guided them and
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what they are to remember and what that means. Remembering Egypt, remembering the wilderness. Okay. And therefore their fathers for fear did not go up
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boldly against the Anakim in their cities, but rather rebelled and perished in the wilderness. But Yahweh said to that old generation
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that their children whom they said would become prey of these people great and tall would surely go into the land in the lifetime of Joshua and Caleb. That was a certainty. So that that is also
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expressed in Deuteronomy 4 at the end of the first discourse in the finale where Moses says,"For I must die in this land. I must not go over Jordan, but you shall
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go over and take possession of that good land." Speaking to his immediate audience, "Take care, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make a carved
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image, the form of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden you. for Yahweh your God is here's here's a phrase that was used in our text a consuming fire a
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jealous God. So on the one hand a consuming fire to consume their enemies but on the other hand a consuming fire in your midst and you agreed to do his word and he is in your midst a consuming
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fire for the for the perishing of anything that sets itself up against Yah. So the the reason then
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as we move down that that Yahweh is bringing them into the land is is not their righteousness.
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And it isn't the fact that they lasted in the wilderness either. He's very clear about that. Do not say in your heart after Yahweh your God has thrust them out before you, it is because of my righteousness that Yahweh brought me in
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to possess this land. And I want you to notice a a turn of phrase that I didn't focus on because my aim in the first discourse was to demonstrate that this is a tale of two generations, right? That this is where the old generation
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passes out and it's the new generation story. But did you notice that what how he addressed them as far as the rebellion in the wilderness before they where they were supposed to go in the land. You would not go up. You rebelled.
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And here is the same thing that remember and do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to sin. And we'll get to that in a second. But as far as verse
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four is concerned, having dealt sum summarily then with these nations that are greater than I, as this is a quick recap almost here at the beginning of this segment, the the real obstacle to
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true belief in this generation is going to be self-righteousness. The people may assume that their righteousness is superior to the old generation because they're not going to shrink back in fear and not go up.
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Maybe it's natural to think that they're better off. But the narrative that follows serves to show that they are indeed associated with their father's sins. They are by definition participants in
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those sins. Now, I want to say that that's not just a matter of them having been there and participated. Every last man in the camp other than Moses, Joshua, and Caleb was not of fighting
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age. They weren't of voting age in the in the assembly yet. Okay? They weren't 20 yet. And and if you're if you think about the way demographics go at this
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point, most of them weren't born. The majority of them, at least the slim majority, were not born at that time. And yet Moses indictes the his whole audience. you you did this. Okay, he's
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already established in chapter 7 that they are rightful sons of their one father Abraham. Okay, they are inheriting the promises because they are in him if only they continue in
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remembrance. Okay, but here Moses is similarly describing them as rightful sons of their fathers in the wilderness. Okay. Filling up the measure of their sins in their own flesh. If they are
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stiff necked toward Yahweh and forget, they are at a precarious point. Their history doesn't show a legacy of obedience to the law, but of quickly falling away. There's a parallel, I
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think, for us uh in Romans. It was something that was uh that Chuck majored on uh in his uh preaching series, and and I'm glad he did. It's a it's a very
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important um it's a very important passage for us. Um it's Romans 11. This is seven starting at verse 17. This
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is speaking of the this is speaking to Gentile believers as to their attitude toward the Jews who have failed to
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believe. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive chute, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant
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toward the branches. If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off
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so that I might be grafted in." That's true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. You stand fast through faith. So do not
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become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither would he spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God, severity
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toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. So, ironically, Moses here
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is telling the Israelites not to be arrogant toward the nations that Yahweh is cutting off from the land because they stand in the faithfulness of God. So, it's almost the converse message to
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to Israel here. Don't don't be arrogant. Don't think that it's your righteousness for what you're going in. It's the wickedness of those nations in a in very like manner to what Paul is telling us.
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Don't think that it was because of something particular in you that God chose you. The the Jews are who have fallen away fall away for unbelief but
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you stand by faith. On the other hand, he verse five. Okay. Not because of your righteousness or the
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uprightness of your heart. And I want to point out again I pointed out that there's a there's repetition here right in the right at the immediate context. I mean he's basically said twothirds of
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verse 5 already in verse four. Okay. This rep repetitive language is meant to recast the same sayings in a in a in an
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evolving and rolling context. So notice what he adds. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart. Are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of
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these nations, Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you. We've already heard that. Now, what he adds is that he may confirm the word that Yahweh
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spoke to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And I've already said that he is treating Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as living entities to whom he is obligated by contract. Okay?
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and he's good for it. And I and I've spoken on that in another place. And it is it is of interest too that in the same passage in Genesis 15 where it says
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that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was believing that God would indeed give him uncountable descendants. Okay? and that
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they those descendants in the fourth generation would indeed go back into the land having been sojourners in a land not their own. But in that same passage,
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it's hinted farther down that the timing will be when the Amorites sin reaches its completion. So even back in Genesis, there is a an an interplay here. the wickedness of the nations as an affront
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to God's righteousness will be dealt with. And he will use as the means his own faithfulness to his people to whom he made the promises. It will not be
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their righteousness that drives out their wickedness, but rather God's righteousness that is is driving out those nations and keeping faithfulness to the people.
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So they there's no mixture of the two at in a manner of speaking uh Yahweh is judging the land by the
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righteousness that is the faith of Abraham. Okay? Just as he will judge the world by the righteousness of one man Jesus and we stand in his righteousness
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by faith. And this begins to touch on the on the full parallel for us as to how we see ourselves in these things. But we should address the fact that
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Israel is actually called to remember their guilt. Um, so before I do that, any questions or comments thus far before I get into that issue? Sure.
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>> I agree. I agree. I I think Yes. So when when evangelicals are established in particular, they they become very much like what we would easily see the the Jewish nation being
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self-righteous. Yes. Was there a hand up up here? Sure, Mark. >> Over the years, I've had discussions with people of the Old Testament
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where they accuse God of murdering innocent people. innocent people. >> Here he uses the word wickedness.
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But we're only seeing Israel's side. What is the wickedness of I mean, I can imagine they do not acknowledge God as God and the creator,
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but is that really? >> There's got to be because he speaks he speaks in Genesis 15 of their sin reaching its completeness, right? Reaching its fullness. So, they were not
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they did not acknowledge God in the days of Abraham. Four centuries later or so, um their their sin has reached a height that is something way further than it
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was in the days of Abraham. So that's that's for one. Um for the other, as far as what is the nature of their sin, um we're not told. Uh and that that was
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part of my uh point in looking at the seven nations and what does that mean and what do you do with that information? Um because really scripture
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gives us very little in the way of clarifying what was their sin aside from a few mentions in in the law as to such abominations they have done for their
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gods. So many of the things that God explicitly re um restricts Israel from doing a lot of the things that are sexual in nature um and are are are
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mentioned um the I know the passing through the fire, passing children through the fire is is in there somewhere, but as far as a detailed
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account of just how bad their sin is, so we would know for sure that that they really really deserved it, I think I would I'm of the opinion scripture really withholds really withholds that certainty from us. Aside from
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believing what the Lord of all the universe says of those things, God said that their time was now and had been,
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right? I think we are left needing to trust the witness of of history and cultures perfect witness. Uh James, I saw your hand first.
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And they're often indicted by the prophets for things and say like God drove peoples the peoples of the land out for this. Why are you doing it? So yes, you you do get pieces of that of that puzzle. U yeah. So when I say a
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detailed treatment, I mean like in a in one place justifying what God does. That's withheld. Um but you do get many different breadcrumbs uh in there to get
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a picture of it. Sure, Chuck. >> I was just thinking we live in a day indigenous people are glorified by being
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even through Noah >> right >> basically describing what happens to people who are unfettered in their
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>> right >> that's the history of indigenous people outside the grace of God throughout mankind's history including this land, >> right? >> We hear a lot of wonderful things about
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the Native American and and they worship the work of their own hands. There there is nothing really
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more to say about that. You you might say that it's possible that there were plenty of other nations that that deserved it too. Um that that God made his righteous choice is beyond our
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Well, I think that that the witness of scripture shows us that it is it is true of of all who remain under the judgment of God that they do bear the iniquity of their fathers.
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evangelicalism is that and I don't know about everybody here. I I'll speak from my own experience and and assume that there's some touch widely here that we we come
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to a passage like this and we we may have been taught to then bring our own guilt to remembrance because they
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were or taught to confess. Um, and and this definitely was a major major push among among the PCA where where I came
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from was to get together and and confess the sins of the nations and of our fathers and things like that. I'm going to say upfront that for the people of God to do that is
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for the people of God to do that is a falling from grace. We'll say that
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>> Daniel Daniel lived in a context that was still under the law. Um I'll let me uh I running out of time. Let me let me address the points that the notes that I made on on this because hopefully it'll
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clarify what I mean. Um, so the question is, do we bring our guilt to remembrance? And and if so, if not, what is it that we remember as a people, not
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under law, but under grace? Okay. How do we see ourselves before God in light of these words where he says to them, "Know therefore that Yahweh your God is not
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giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff necked people. Remember and don't forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness.
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From the day you came out of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been stiff necked against Yahweh. Even at Horeb, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. And Yahweh was so angry with you. He was
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ready to destroy you. So I think in context of this passage as I've said you can't they can't see Yahweh's continuing faithfulness especially beyond them to
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their children who have not known it without carefully considering their participation in the sin of their fathers. Okay the in Deuteronomy 5 back here they were told not with your not
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with our fathers but with us did Yahweh speak the law at Horeb. Okay. And here he's telling them not our fathers but we who rebelled against Yahweh and his law
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at Horeb and both are true at the same time and they can't be separated not by the law. Okay. I think psalm many of the psalms psalm 106 which I printed for you
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or printed the reference for you there is is one of those psalms that illustrates this concept as a practice. Okay. So, it was a practice. The case I'm making is it was a practice for godly Israel to bring to remembrance
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Israel's sins. Israel's sins. Anyone disagree or doubt that? Doubt that that is true. Okay. But as the father has unfolded his
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purposes to us in scripture, we come to see these things in their fuller light without at all diminishing the potency of Moses' words here to his immediate audience. Okay. So there are four points
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uh I guess four aspects of this declaration uh really of this passage that bear looking at. First is the Amorites. Okay. Um because we're here
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speaking of the wickedness of those nations and then moving to the stiff necked attitude of the people. Uh second Peter 2:9 Peter 2:9 uh the apostle Peter having given
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several examples of both the patience and power of God in dealing out righteous judgment on wickedness and also preserving the righteous and not even a particularly
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very righteous man. Lot is his example. Okay. He says that if God has so dealt with the ungodly in history, which is what we're talking about here, right? If
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God has so dealt with the ungodly in history, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. So the the the
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judgment on the Amorites for for us shows God's patience and his and the certainty of him executing on his word. Okay? And that means judgment, okay?
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That he will set all to rights is evidenced for us in the flood and in Saddam and Gomera and in the destruction of the Canaanites. Okay? So for the Israelites then
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Israelites then uh the as I said the sons of Israel are connected to all of their fathers back to Abraham, but the connection is a mark in the flesh. And I think that's the real important point here. Their connection to their fathers is a mark in
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the flesh. meaning they bear not only the mark of the promise made to their fathers, but they also bear their sins. And I think this is borne out for us in uh in Matthew 23
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by the Lord when he says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, "If we had lived in the days of
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our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets." In this way, you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up
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then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets and wise
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men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you will fogg in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on
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earth. From the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zakaria, the son of Barakya, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon
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this generation. this generation. But notice his turn. They they say, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have done this." He goes, "Aha, they are your fathers."
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That's his argument. That's it. That's the whole argument. Okay? And so hopefully what I the things I read next take on new force for you knowing this.
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Acts 15, Peter assembled with other elders to discuss the question as to whether or not gentile believers need to be instructed and brought under the law
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primarily by circumcision. Okay? He says um so it says but but some of the believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said it is
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necessary to circumcise them and and to order them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and elders were gathered together to consider the matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter
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stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who
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knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore,
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why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through
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the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. Saved from what? The wrath of God that was stacked up generation after generation.
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We believe we're saved from that. Why would you want to put them under this when it has been nothing but a burden to us where we have borne generation after generation of sin? They profess that Jesus had come to save his people from
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their sins. their sins. So again taking on new force I I hope for you as well as for me the declaration by Hebrews 9:15 that a death
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has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Okay. Right. It underscores the very necessity for
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God to act further if his people were to be freed from guilt further than the law. Okay. So thirdly, so first the Amorites and their wickedness. Second, the Israelites and their position.
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Third, the righteousness of God. Okay. in it is in the historical reality of the Lord Jesus having dealt with sin by means of his death on the cross that
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God's righteousness pictured for us in his faithfulness to the sons of Israel in our text is fully revealed. Okay, so Romans 1
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Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it
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the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And further on in in his argument in chapter
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3 uh verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it to it, the
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righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift
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through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine
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forbearance, he had passed over former sins. They still existed. They still were. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be
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righteous and the maker of righteousness of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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I hope those things take on new force. And what does he go on to say in in Romans, if you're familiar with this a few verses down, by this faith in Jesus Christ, we do what is it is declared that Israel did not do. We uphold the
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law. Okay. How then? How then do we see these things? We agree with the words of Moses, not for our righteousness. I think that's clear.
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But with the further step that in Jesus Christ, the indictment here expressed a stiffnecked people stiffnecked people is removed from us
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since we are marked by the same spirit by which Christ was marked as son of God for life. They were marked in their flesh as sons of their fathers. We are
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born from above. Do you see the transfer there? And Paul puts it in a nutshell in 2 Corinthians 5:21. He made him who knew
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no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Not to us, but to your name be glory, oh
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Yahweh. So what is it that we remember? We remember that the greater glory, a new agreement not like the old was yet to come. Okay? How much more how much
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greater the glory of the promise spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah now that we've read these things that he'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not like the old one. And part and parcel of
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it, I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. So first we remember that God does not remember our sins against us. Our guilt is not
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brought to remembrance before God. Secondly, we remember the destructive of God, destructive judgment of God poured out on sin that we see in a picture in
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history, but the fullness of which was not born by us, but by Jesus. We remember the body of Jesus broken for us. We remember his blood, the price of
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that new agreement in my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. And we remember that he is coming in power to judge and purify the whole earth in
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righteousness and to live with us in it. Okay? On the one hand, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, these things are written down in as examples for us that
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we might not desire evil as they did. Okay? were warned by them that there's nothing down that road for us. That's going back to being under the thumb of the law for us to desire the things that
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the people of Israel desired. Okay? But on the other hand, these things may be read out to us as as Peter does in his second letter. Uh he says uh stirring up
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your sincere mind by way of reminder. Okay? And I would love to read the whole chapter there. I'm out of time. But he he concludes saying, "Therefore,
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beloved, since we are waiting for these, that is the judgment of God on the whole earth of which I've been speaking." Okay? Since we are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot
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or blemish and at peace. This is among yourselves. Okay? And count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you
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concerning the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction
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as they do the other scriptures. But you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care,
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take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
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be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Father, we thank you that you have given us a an immeasurable hope
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that we would have the the accusation written against us removed and be able to freely say not of us and to profess that we mystery
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on mystery have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Thank you in Jesus.
