The Book of Hebrews 8:7-13 The New Covenant with Israel - I
Hebrews 8:7-13 · Vern Peterman · Dec 1, 2013
Hebrews, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492648495037

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Before we step into the passage, just want to bring up again the electives that we're contemplating for next year. We'll have the sign-up sheets up for next week. We don't want to confuse the sign-up for the Christmas party with sign-ups for the electives. So we'll have the sign-ups next week, but we want to make sure you're aware of them so you can consider it carefully.

Roger and Bob and Jeremy will be teaching through the Book of Acts, a really cool book and it's rather astounding to think of what the Apostles and those along with them learned during that approximately three decades of time. Really amazing to consider. The Book of Colossians, just a fantastic book, one of the books that points us to our our heavenly position and put our minds there. So Mike and Courtney and JD will be teaching through that one.

And then Randy and I will be teaching through Bible survey. And by the way, this will not be just an academic survey, but it will be done with the intent that we're growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through this and beholding the Lord through his word. So at any rate, we'll have science for that next week, and just want you to be aware of those to consider them.

And of course, some people tell me, well, I can't pick. Well, you don't have to, because you can listen in and even get handouts and things like that on the other ones. OK, so now we're going to continue into the passage here, Hebrews 8, 7 through 13.

And the passage kind of breaks down in this way. It's a sandwich. And so what we're going to do is we're going to approach the sandwich this way. We're going to first eat the bread off of each end, and then we're going to eat the middle. So that's our approach. We're going to first eat the bread off, and then eat the middle. All right. So what does that mean? It means we're going to read, first of all, verses 7 through 13, and then go into the middle of it, and then have quite a bit of discussion of some of the topics in there. So verses 7 and 13 read like this.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." Okay, so let's compare the old and new covenants here.

So the old covenant, which is under the law of Moses, is the covenant that has 613 laws. Got those down? Got them all memorized? 613 laws that you got to follow. 365 of them are laws that you cannot do. Things not to do. And the others, the remaining ones, are the things that you must do.

The New Covenant is the New Covenant for Israel, as we'll be reinforcing here, for Israel in the coming Millennial Kingdom, which could start as soon as seven years from today. So we'll be talking more about the details on that. Let's look at the next one. The Old Covenant was the first one. This New Covenant is the second to replace it.

Next, The First or Old Covenant was not faultless, even though, and I'm taking this out of Romans 7.12, it's holy, righteous, and good.

We don't need to badmouth the law. We don't need to. It's holy and righteous and good. It reflects God's moral character. And we'll talk about what's the problem with the law. We don't need to badmouth the law. The law isn't the problem. the new covenant is a better covenant with better promises that's from Hebrews chapter 7 verse 22 and chapter 8 verse 6 better covenant with better promises as we've said before Hebrews is brought to you by the words more and better and so it's more better the old covenant it says here and this was of course 19 centuries ago the old covenant ready to disappear The New Covenant, however, is deliberately sought.

God pursued this New Covenant, okay? Deliberately sought out. It's not just sort of a haiku, like a happy accident, right? It's not a happy accident, it's deliberately sought out. It's intentional. The next thing is growing old, but what that means is growing old as in worn out. Okay? Worn out. Like some of the clothing I've thrown away in the last month, right? Worn out. The new covenant, however, is not just new in sequence, it's new in kind. That's what that word new means in the Greek. It's not just new in sequence, it's new in kind. And finally, the old covenant is obsolete. And with that, I have to bring something up. How many of you recognize this? Recognize that? Yeah. I've talked to a number of people. I bring up the word slide rule, and they go, huh? Excuse me.

I went to college in the era where they were, yeah, you'd still have these. They still had these. They had calculators available. But something that would add, subtract, multiply, and divide was so expensive that a lot of students didn't have it. And so for a while, they required that you use these for tests and things like that, because a lot of students couldn't afford the fancy calculators. So this is a slide rule for doing multiplications and square roots and cube roots and all those kinds of things. And believe it or not, my father memorized this. He didn't need this. He'd slip it around in his head. So anyway, you're free to take a look at it.

But when I was going through engineering school, in the middle of engineering school, they put these on sale at San Jose State at the bookstore. And I'm not sure that they were flying off the shelves, even at a sale price. Because compared to the calculators, these were a little tough.

But they are definitely obsolete. One of my instructors, he would go down the hallway clutching it to his chest, you know, near and dear to his heart. So what happened is they were made obsolete. Why? Because of electronic calculators, which at the time, you know, would cost like triple digits in dollars to buy. And now you can get them for, you know, somewhere around 10 bucks or something like that. They do all kinds of fancy scientific things. So the calculators made the slide rules obsolete. The new covenant has made the first obsolete. That's the picture that we get here. All right.

Now, you have also in the middle of page one this chart, and it shows all five of the covenants with Israel, beginning with the covenant with Abraham. And with the covenant with Abraham, which we list there, Genesis 12, 1-3, the reality is there are a great many passages we could reference. This is not only the beginning one, but it's the defining passage that starts it off. All the subsequent references to the covenant with Abraham give reinforcement and more detail.

You have the Old Covenant under Moses, which was given at Mount Sinai, is where the law was passed along, including the Ten Commandments, but not only the Ten Commandments. And this is given in Exodus 19, 1-6, and subsequent passages as well. You have then the land covenant when Moses is at the end of his life and the Israelites are about to enter into the land. That's passed along from Deuteronomy chapter 30 and other passages around that. And then the covenant with David several centuries later where David is promised that one descendant of his would sit on the throne. And then finally the new and better covenant that we have here is 590. The reality is there are several different dates we could give from the various prophets, from primarily Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But 590 is the date for Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, which is quoted in this passage here in Hebrews.

So we have those five covenants with the Jews given in the Old Testament, all five of those covenants are in some way or another, in greater degrees or lesser degrees, at least touched upon in the book of Hebrews. All five of those. Okay, so it's the the Old Covenant under Moses, the law that is the primary focus of today's passage, and then this new and better covenant. Again, those are both covenants with Israel. We have here a new covenant timeline. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel we have passages there, and by the way those aren't the only ones, but those are some, where the covenant is promised. God promises and gives the content of the covenant in those passages.

Next we have the covenant confirmed. The covenant was confirmed by a sacrifice, Christ's death on the cross. It was typically the case, and we'll touch upon it some more, typically the case that some sign or gesture, often a sacrifice, was given to confirm a covenant. And so the covenant was confirmed here by Christ's death on the cross. That was the confirmation of the new covenant.

That is why, when we see here, as we take the Lord's Table monthly, and we will not always but often use this slide, And 1 Corinthians 11, 23-26 is one of those passages. Right here, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. That's what Jesus is referring to. It's the confirmation of the new covenant. And here is expanded and explained. It's not in your handout, but it goes this way. this cup represents the blood I will shed on the cross tomorrow remember this was hours away from Christ's crucifixion about nine o'clock the next morning he would be crucified about three o'clock that very same day less than 24 hours from this time that he's speaking these words he would die this cup represents the blood I will shed on the cross tomorrow which among several purposes, and we'll look at those purposes next week, will confirm the new covenant promise for Israel. This cup represents the blood I will shed on the cross tomorrow, which among several purposes will confirm the new covenant promise for Israel.

That's the expanded and explained of what Jesus was saying. In reference to a new covenant, the disciples would only have understood this term New Covenant from the Old Testament prophets, right? That's how they would have understood it. They would have at least begun to understand what he said in these words.

Finally, the New Covenant fulfilled in the last chapters of Isaiah, you find all the way into the very last one, you find a description of the fulfillment of the New Covenant. And it's fitting to be the last chapters because that's the time yet to come, right? The last days of this earth.

So just to make sure we have it clear, from the days of Noah into New Testament times, covenants had three common elements. Three common elements, a sacred promise, a swearing by a deity, and a gesture or sign, often a sacrifice. And what we'll find often in the Old Testament is God swears by himself.

Isn't that interesting? The swearing by a deity. If one of those parts was missing, people would have thought, well, wait a minute, where's the other part, right? And that's the way the culture would have understood it as a covenant. You've got to have the three parts. If Jesus had said, this is the new covenant in my blood, but there hadn't been a promise, like out of the Old Testament, there hadn't been a swearing by a deity, they would have said, huh? What do you mean, new covenant in my blood? All three parts were there.

A covenant was a promise with a sacred character. So I could just say, hey, I promise I'll open up the front door. That's not a covenant-worthy issue. It's a sacred promise. A promise with a sacred character, either because it was made by God or God has called as a witness. You can have a covenant between two people in which God was called as a witness. Or God himself would make the covenant.

That's what you see repeatedly in scripture, including those five that we look at here in that chart. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, God promises a new covenant. Occasionally you'll see it, and we'll see it in a little bit here, spill over from other books, but those are the primary ones. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are the primary ones for the new covenant.

So we have some big issues at stake, and not that kind of stake. And not that kind of steak either. Some of the most momentous issues that are brought forward in this passage include how are we, church saints, to view the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments within that law? Is the law of Moses something, boy, we ought to really pursue and get down pat? In fact, what most of the church tends to do, if they follow the law, is they want to trim it down. Most people want to trim it down.

They'll say, well, I want to follow the ten. Oh, wait a minute, the Sabbath thing is a little bit hard to follow, so maybe nine. Oh, wait a minute, I've got to tithe in there, so we'll make it back to ten. No, take the Sabbath and we'll move it over to Sunday, and then we'll add the tithing, and so now we've got eleven.

So a lot of people want to take the law and trim it down, and as a result, they don't need that much grace. The reality is God gave this heavy, hefty law so that we realize we need hefty lots of grace. We in the church are not under the law of Moses, and that's on purpose. One of the purposes that Jesus went to the cross for was so that we would die in relationship to that law. What is the New Covenant and what relationship does the church have with the New Covenant?

We'll talk about that some more in a little bit here. But it's an important one. I was telling Nancy, I've seen churches say, New Covenant Baptist Church, right? And they'll talk about the new covenant and various kinds of terms applicable to us here in the church. And that's some confusion. Instead of realizing, no, this was promised very deliberately and specifically to Israel. So what's our relationship? Well, we'll talk about that in a bit.

Another one that comes up, here's an example. Nancy and I, some years ago, went to a church where they had, here's John Fisher's album, The New Covenant. And it's got some great songs in it. And there was a kind of a dramatic thing that went along with it.

But it was based on at least a partial misunderstanding of what the New Covenant is. The New Covenant is for Israel and not for us. There is a connecting point between us and the New Covenant, and we'll talk about that shortly here. How is the church different from God's chosen people called Israel? Those are some issues that are at stake here in understanding what is the new covenant. So here's a quick story on the old covenant.

The law of Moses was inspired by God himself and that's one reason why I say let's not bad mouth the law. The law isn't the problem. The law isn't the problem. God inspired all 613 of those laws. He intentionally gave them. Those reflected God's holiness and that He is a moral God.

The pagan deities had no relationship to morality. Especially in Greek and Roman times, you might even pray to steal better or to lie better. You might say, you know, I want that guy's wife, and so I'd like to have this guy dead. And you might pray for that under the pagan deities. So the pagan deities did not have any connection to morality.

But one of the things that the Old Covenant did, and it gave the Jews a clear understanding of, God is a moral being. He is a holy God, unlike the pagan deities. In the law and grace in the first Corinthians series, we even learn from the law. So the law is not to be bad-mouthed. The law is to be learned from. It's to be regarded as inspired by God, given by God.

The law is not the problem. The really big problem with the law of Moses is you and I can't do it. You and I cannot do it. That's the problem. That's one reason why so many in the church get this compulsion to start trimming the law down. Oh, that'll make it a little more possible. Besides that, keeping track of 613, I just can't do it. Right? But the problem is not with the law. We don't need to trim it down. The problem is man cannot do it. That's the problem with the law.

The Law of Moses never could save anyone. You know, if you followed all 613 laws, then good luck with that. That still doesn't save anyone. How are people saved? By faith. Always. The Law doesn't determine who gets saved. The Law determines who gets blessed or cursed. Very important to understand. The Law determines who gets blessed or cursed. If you obey it all, then you're blessed. If you disobey, then you're cursed. That's what the law does. It doesn't save anyone. It never could. The law, as the Apostle Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 3, is a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. A ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation.

This new covenant I mentioned is misunderstood by a number of people. Here are some of the ways in which it has been understood. The first one is the idea that church takes Israel's place in the new covenant that was for Israel. Therefore, I get all of Israel's promises. So that's how it's been understood by some. Problem.

Is that what the Bible says? You see, those who teach this, teach that God has rejected Israel. God has rejected Israel. As a matter of fact, some of them in the early centuries, even up until recently, have said God hates the Jews. And if you're a good Christian, you will too. Yeah, it's pretty radical, huh?

Here's Romans 9.4 to compare.

Paul writes, the Israelite to whom belongs, notice the present tense, the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service. It's one of the reasons why we say the new covenant is for Israel. It's not the only reason, but it's one reason. Israelites to whom belongs the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service. Romans 11, 1 and 2.

I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be! For I to him an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. And you get the impression that God has not rejected his people.

Right? Israel. You get that definite impression when you read those verses. The covenants included the new covenant, which belonged to Israel, because God has not rejected his people. The Church does not replace Israel. The New Covenant is to replace the Old Covenant. See the difference there? The Church does not replace Israel. The New Covenant is to replace the Old Covenant. Another proposal. The Church is a partial participant or beneficiary of the New Covenant with Israel.

And that was frankly what they taught at the seminary where I went. They taught that one. As if we in the church need Israel's leftovers. And especially during this holiday season, you know, you got lots of that sort of thing. We don't need Israel's leftovers. God has blessed us with what? Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I don't need Israel's leftovers. Don't need that.

Here is one of the passages that causes people to think, well, I get some of this. Here's Ezekiel 36, and it's another one of those places where the new covenant is brought out. 36, 27 through 30, I will put my spirit within you. Does that sound like it's for the church? At least that part, yeah. I will put my spirit within you. Every believer here today has the Holy Spirit within him or her all the time. So that part so far, it sounds like, well, that fits. So that must be something I get some kind of share in. Now let's look at the rest of it.

"...and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to observe my ordinances." Is that for us? That's the law, right? In verse 28, "...and you will live in the land..." Oh, wait a minute. That sounds like Israel to me. You will live in the land I gave to your forefathers, so you will be my people and I will be your God. You'll be my people, I'll be your God. That sounds good, right?

So at least part of it seems like it fits. Then let's go to the next one. Verse 29, Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. That sounds more like earthly blessings, right? I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations."

So you see a couple of lines in there that seem to fit. The rest of it just fits Israel. It's the new covenant for Israel, not for us. And we'll talk about the things that are in common shortly here. The church is another idea. The church gets a new covenant, and Israel gets the new covenant in the Millennial Kingdom.

Dr. John Walvoord was one who initially taught this, among several. Charles Ryrie. Walvoord went home to be with the Lord about a decade ago. Ryrie, as far as I know, is still around, last I checked. But they taught this. There are two new covenants. About 1980, both of them kind of came to the realization, no, I don't think so anymore. And I talked to both of them about this. And yeah, they realized, no, that's not quite right.

That there is a new covenant for Israel, and that's it. New covenant for Israel, and that's it. So the new covenant for Israel, all the passages about the new covenant fit that. Alright, so now we have our Hebrews 8, 7-13, and we're going to look at the middle of the sandwich here. Verses 7-13, or 7-12 actually.

For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, For they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

Now what's he quoting from? He's quoting an Old Testament passage here. It's Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. That's the passage. And some people ask the question, well, wait a minute. When I read those two passages, they're not exactly identical. What's going on there? I want to address that. OK? A little puzzling.

Why are there differences between the Old Testament quotes of the New Testament quotes of the Old Testament and the original Old Testament passage? The Old Testament is mostly in Hebrew. In some parts, Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic. This is translated directly into English then, from Hebrew, and in some cases from Aramaic. But the New Testament quotes of the Old Testament went from Hebrew to Greek to English. See that? An extra step. And it's because of that double translation that you will sometimes find a difference in wording. The meaning is still there, but a difference in wording because of the double translation. But the New Covenant is for Israel. That's clearly the case out of this passage. The ethnically descended ones from Jacob and his physical sons.

The house of Israel and the house of Judah is referring to what was at that time the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Israel as a nation having been divided in two right after Solomon. So the house of Israel in verse 10 is the only one given, and that's because in the coming millennial kingdom there will not be a divided nation, right? It will be the house of Israel. So that's why you see in verse 10 it just says house of Israel and not house of Judah as well.

Verse 9 refers to the covenant under Moses, the new one that's not at all like the old one. And here is the map of what things will be like in the coming millennial kingdom. The land area is promised in Genesis 15, 18 through 21. The tribal divisions are given in Ezekiel chapter 48. So this is what Israel will look like as soon as seven years from now. Isn't that amazing? Astounding. It goes all the way into the Euphrates River.

Okay, the problem with the Old Covenant is that it says just do it, right? Just do it. But who does it? You do it, right? That's the problem with the Old Covenant. In this passage we just looked at in verses 10, 11, and 12, God says, I will. It's not you will, I will. God says, I will in these verses.

He will do it all graciously with no ifs. That's the problem with the covenant under Moses. There's if you do this, if you do that, if you don't, then this. No ifs here. God says, I will. It's definitely going to happen. No ifs. God is the one who's going to pull off the knowing. They will know the law. and the living out of the law on Israel in the Millennial Kingdom. He's going to do it. I will, I will, I will, and I will. The New Covenant will be all God's doing, and the relationships will be first toward God under the New Covenant.

Here's the problem with the law. Here's the 613 laws. What's the first thing you've got to do when you get those laws? You've got to work on getting to know them. And by the way, you don't want to mess up on that. Picking up firewood a half hour too late could be deadly. So first of all, you've got to work on knowing them. And then the other thing is if somebody breaks it, how does it get enforced? Somebody else is going to do it. So everybody is looking at themselves and other people.

And since there's 365 things you're not supposed to do, what are you focused on? Stuff you're not supposed to do, right? Thinking about it all the time, because you don't want to do that. So the problem is all me, right? It's all me. It's like I'm practicing my scale, Do, Re, Mi, Mi, Mi, Mi, and you're stuck on me, right? That's the problem with the law. You're stuck on me.

He's going to place the law in these Jews in their minds and in their hearts. Placing it in their minds is so that they will know it. They won't need any rabbis. Okay? No rabbis. You don't need one. Because they will know the law. And the second thing, the law will be placed not just on the minds, but on the hearts. So not only will they know it, but be lived out from the heart. Okay? They will know it and they'll live it out from the heart. So the minds and the hearts. For us in the body of Christ, minds and hearts have a place, but God works differently.

It talks about minds and hearts, here's Philippians 4.7, God works in our hearts and minds differently, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds, where? In your position in Christ Jesus. A whole different deal. So have you got the law written on your heart? No. Christ died to separate you from the law. It's in Christ Jesus is where the minds and hearts are dealt with.

Here's Hebrews 8.10, fulfilled in Hosea 2.23. God says, and this is again very clearly directed to the Jews, I will sow her for myself, where? In the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who were not my people, you are my people. And they will say, you are my God. This is the fulfillment when they are in the land. When they're in the land.

The law is radically different between Israel and the church. God gave Israel the law of Moses and the new covenant for Israel will have the Holy Spirit indwelling them to know and to live out the law of Moses and be blessed by that obedience. But for the church, Christ died in part, among several purposes, so that we have died in relationship to the law and have the Holy Spirit indwelling us to live the life of Christ apart from the law.

Why is it that we don't need to focus on the law for righteousness? Because Christ is righteous and He is the one who is to be living His life through us. Does Christ need to worry about the law to be righteous? No. Christ lives out righteousness as a part of his nature.

The law blesses earthly and we are blessed heavenly. The law blesses earthly and we're blessed heavenly. So God's written word promises the new covenant specifically for the Jews. That's what says there in Jeremiah 31, 31 and verses following. specifically for the Jews, who will not be set aside, they are not rejected of God, who will be empowered to live out the law.

They will be given the Holy Spirit, every one, all the time, to be empowered to live out the law from the mind and from the heart. We in the church, however, are empowered not to live out the law, but have died unto the law, and are instead empowered by Jesus Christ himself living his life through us. An entirely different purpose. That's why we don't harp on the law here at Holly Hills, right? We learn from the law, but we don't harp on it because life is to be lived out in an entirely different way.

Here is the connecting point between us in the church and the new covenant. Christ's death on the cross was the confirmation of the new covenant. That's why Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. So the Jews could live out the law of Moses by the Spirit. Isn't that interesting? The Holy Spirit's work within them will be to know and live out the law from the heart.

Christ's death on the cross was also where we in the church were joined with him in his death. Same death, Different result. Entirely different result. So that we died to sin, the world, and the law. Those three things. Christ's death on the cross accomplished multiple things, which we'll go and take a look at next week, with different groups of people.

Israel, the church, the nations, etc. Now, how will each one of us be adequate and sufficient for the ministries that the Lord has placed before us? How will we be sufficient? It's because we try real hard? It's because we put forth a really valiant effort? No. It's because the Lord will make us adequate by His doing. What or who will we rely on to meet the needs?

The Lord intends that we rely on Him. Where will our confidence for our ministry come from? How do we have confidence as Christians? Our confidence is always to be found in Christ and He in us, Our sufficiency is always to be found in Him and He in us. That's where our adequacy lies.

So, in all these things, why do people get so confused? Why all these, you know, several different proposals about our relationship to the New Covenant? People get so confused about the Law, Israel, and the Church because they don't understand that God's holiness and His righteousness can be lived out by varying means.

He can put the Holy Spirit in us to live apart from the law. He'll put the Holy Spirit in the Jews to live out the law. Isn't that amazing? God is glorified by each, but he doesn't put the Holy Spirit in us in order that we can better live out the law. He's going to do that with the Jews, but not with us. He's got a different purpose, a different way of being glorified with different people.

People also get confused because God does some things that seem to be similar. He puts the Spirit in our hearts. He will put the Spirit in the Jews' hearts during the coming millennial kingdom. Does that sound the same? Yes it does, but for entirely different purposes. It sounds similar. Why would He put the Spirit in us and put the Spirit in them too? in the coming millennial kingdom. It's because we have common needs. You and I can't pull it off, and neither will the Jews. They couldn't pull it off under the law of Moses. They need the Holy Spirit to do it. You and I can't pull it off by ourselves. God doesn't say, try really hard to be a good Christian.

We are not adequate of ourselves, therefore the Holy Spirit is given. The Jews have proven that they were not adequate of themselves, therefore the Holy Spirit will be given for them to know and live out the law. We have similar needs. And one more thing, they will know and live out the law, but will the Holy Spirit in the coming millennial kingdom, in the new covenant, will the Holy Spirit be given by grace or by law? They will graciously have the Holy Spirit. They won't have earned it. They will graciously have the Holy Spirit in order to live out the law.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't God gracious? God's gracious. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have shown your graciousness to us. You will show your graciousness to Israel as well in this coming kingdom, which may be starting very soon. And Lord, as we look at this, we thank you for your amazing grace shown to us. We pray, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.