Before we open the Word this morning, I'd ask that you join me in just a brief word of prayer. Let us pray. Father God, we are grateful that you have given to us your Word. We are grateful that you are a kind and merciful Father to us, and that when we, your children, ask you for food, you do not give to us a serpent or stones, but rather, O Lord, you feed us with bread and with water, but not simply any bread and water, but you feed us with the Lord Jesus Christ, the manna from heaven, he who quells all of our hunger, and You give us the living water, the water of eternal life, which flows from beneath your throne in Zion, the water that quenches our thirst forever. We pray, Lord, that you would give to us that bread and water even now. We pray and ask all of these things in Christ's name. Amen. If you would, let's open our Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 21. Deuteronomy chapter 21. So we have this morning's sermon text. And let me say before we do so that it's a privilege to be here with you this morning. And I also have to say that if I've missed anything in the order of worship, I pray your forgiveness. I always feel much more comfortable at this point in the worship service because I say, okay, now I know what's going on. So let's go ahead and give our attention to the Word. And what we want to read is we want to read Deuteronomy chapter 21. And we want to read verses 18 through 23. Deuteronomy chapter 21, beginning in verse 18, which in your pew Bibles is on page 192. So let's give attention to the reading of God's word, beginning in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 18. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He's a profligate and a drunkard. Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, he must not leave his body on that tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Well, beloved, I think that we can say with a great degree of certainty that the Bible is one of the most beloved books of all time. There is, in fact, no other book that comes even close to it in terms of all-time bestsellers. And perhaps for that reason, it is admired both by believer as well as even unbeliever alike. I think many colleges, for example, who make no pretense to promote the Christian faith will study the scriptures in courses on literature because they will see the Bible as a great piece of literature. To this end, I can remember, I think one of the first times I gave serious academic study to the scriptures was not in seminary, but was in a college class on great literature. And in fact, what I was given the task of doing is writing a paper on encounters at watering wells in the book of Genesis. I can still remember that to this day. Though, of course, my memory is not that bad. It wasn't terribly long ago. But if pressed, most who study the Bible, even well-intending Christians, will acknowledge that there are some very difficult passages. Passages that when we read them don't exactly appear to be that understandable at first glance. I mean, think of the Apostle Peter who could write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that there are some things in Paul's epistles that are difficult to understand. So that if one under the inspiration of the Spirit can say that, well, then we can know that perhaps that there are other passages in the Scriptures that are not always immediately understandable to us. And I think that perhaps we can say that about these two little passages that we have before us this morning because at first glance, they appear to be somewhat barbaric. I mean, putting to death by stoning a rebellious son and then publicly hanging the one who is guilty of a capital offense. I think in our own day, if you asked most people on the street what they thought of such things, they would say, well, certainly that's over the top. And so, while the unbelieving world might admire the scriptures for a certain amount of time, you press them enough and eventually they would reject them and say, nope, this is one of the reasons why I would reject the Bible because look, here we see this passage certainly has to be filled with barbarism. Certainly that's something that only a cruel tyrant would do. I mean, for real, who could think about doing such things to their children? Who could think about taking a criminal, executing him, and then publicly displaying him? Well, I think the reaction of some Christians is to say, well, I believe the Bible, but certainly there's got to be a way to explain this one away. It's kind of like getting a cup of coffee, a big, thick, black mug of coffee, and taking a sip and saying, boy, that's much too strong. And then like I do it, you want to dump a lump of vanilla ice cream in there to kind of soften it out. Try it one day, it's really good. Well, what I want us to see, beloved, is I don't want us to take either approach. I don't want us to try to soften the blow of this passage. I want us to see it in all of its barbarity from a certain sense. But on the other hand, I certainly don't want us to reject it out of hand either. But rather what I want us to do this morning is I want us to see how this passage organically connects to Christ and then to the church, to us, to you and to me. And I want us to see the connections here in this passage and I want us to see the depths of our sinfulness and then more blessedly the depths of God's love for us in Christ. Because whatever heinousness that we might perceive here in this passage will then be rightly connected not to some sort of injustice on God's part, far be it, of course not, but rather instead to the grotesque nature of our sin. And rather than face the penalties that are described here in this passage, we can instead relish and rejoice in the hope that another, that Jesus Christ has come to take our place to deliver us from the curse of the covenant, that stoning and that hanging upon the tree that we so justly deserve. So let's enter into the passage and see so that we might understand it, see its connections to Christ and then see how it bears upon us. We begin looking, of course, at verse 18 and we see what appears to be at first glance this troubling law about the rebellious son. And it seems troubling to us, I think, because it seems overly harsh, a bit over the top. I mean, it says there in verses 18 and following that if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, that his father and mother were supposed to take him out to the elders that the city gate and they were to say this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. And here the NIV says he's a profligate. Other translations say he's a glutton. He's a glutton and a drunkard. And they were supposed to go and take the son and they were to stone him, for his gluttony, for his drunkenness. Now, we should note a few things before we go forward. And we should recognize that, first of all, this wasn't just a penalty for, say, any kind of garden variety disobedience. For you children out there, it's not that, oh, you didn't clean your room, so it's off to the city gates you go. Not that fast. But rather, this is a pattern of persistent rebelliousness. I mean, if you're called a glutton, chances are it's going to show. If you're called a glutton or a profligate, the fact that you eat and consume so much food is going to show. So in other words, you're going to be able to see that pattern of sin. And if you're a drunkard, well, that too, that too is going to show because you only get the reputation for being a drunkard if you're consistently and regularly found drunk. But on the other hand, this isn't the only element that we see here and that not only is it having the characteristics of being a glutton and a drunkard, but it's also not heeding the voice of your parents. Rebelling against them when they say, hey, this is wrong, you need to repent of this. And the child says, you know what, go mind somebody else's business, not mine. So here we should recognize that it's this repeated pattern of rebelliousness, incorrigibility. But the second thing to observe is that this command is not really out of line with many of the other commands that we find in the Old Testament. In the 21st chapter of Exodus, God told the Israelites that if any child attacked his father or mother, he was to be put to death. Likewise, that anyone who cursed his father and mother, that child too was to be put to death. Moreover, I think we should also recognize that when we're talking about a child, I don't think we're talking about a small child. My three-year-old has said some things to me before that I think, okay, that's not good, but that's not the type of child that we're talking about here. We're talking about someone who's at least in their late teens, if not older. Now, what was the point of all of this? Why the execution of the rebellious son? Why the stoning of this glutton and drunkard? Well, quite simply, it was to preserve the integrity of the land. In other words, if God is holy, he dwelt in the midst of his land, well, then his people were to be holy as well, And this type of conduct was not to be tolerated among the people that were supposed to represent the holy and righteous character of their covenant God. Now, as we move forward in the passage, we go on to verses 22 and 23, and we see the instructions concerning the display of one who is guilty of a capital offense. Now, again, we should recognize here that this is not the institution of death by hanging. But rather what it is, it's that the one who was guilty and executed, it's that person who had been executed that was then supposed to be displayed for all of Israel to see. The idea was, is that if someone was guilty of a capital offense, well then all of Israel was supposed to be able to see so that the person could be recognized as one who justly fell under the covenant curse. So that it would shine forth God's righteousness, His holiness, His justice against sin. But so that it also too would serve as a deterrent so that other Israelites would recognize if I conduct myself in a similar manner, well then the curse of the covenant will justly fall upon me in a like manner. But we also know from what the passage says that the Israelites were not supposed to leave the executed criminal out all day. But at the end of the day, before the sun went down, they were to remove the body because again, God did not want His holy land to file, the land of His dwelling, the place where He lived in the midst of His people. He, a holy God, was supposed to dwell in the midst of a holy people. Therefore, sin in any form was not to be tolerated or in this case, the consequences of sin, death by execution for a grave and heinous sin. Now what I want us to recognize before we proceed is this, is that do you see that the two passages were meant to be put together? And do you see the overall intent of the two passages? I think it's often the case that we read the first one, we kind of disconnect it, and then we read the second one and we don't recognize that, no, they were meant to be together. In what way? And this is where I think at times it's important for us to enter the shoes, to enter the shoes of the people of whom we read in the text. Think of it this way. You're a parent. You're a mother. You're a father. And your child, your son, is a glutton and a drunkard. Not only would you have to go and take your son to the city gate, watch him be executed, but then, if that were not enough, I mean, think of it, on the heels of that, you would think, can I just now take my son and can we bury him? Because this is such a shameful thing. This is such a painful thing. No, but then your son would be displayed publicly for all of Israel to see. To see that your son had fallen under the curse of the covenant. No one, I can't imagine anyone, would ever desire to have a child with that goal in mind. I mean, think of the most heinous of people in the history of the world. Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, you name them. And I guarantee you that when their mother held them in their hands, in her hands, that she never looked and said, Here, I hold a mass murderer. Oh, parents love their children. They want what's best for them, ideally. So how much of a horrible thing would that be, to have to do that with your son? Your disobedient, rebellious son would be hung upon the tree for all of Israel to see. Let that weigh upon our minds. Because in one sense, like I said, I don't want us to try to take that black cup of coffee and to smooth it out, if you will, with a lot of lumps of sugar or with some ice cream or with some milk. No, we want to see this in all of its force to recognize its weight. Now, as we reflect upon the passage, I think it's perhaps something that might cross our minds. I think it certainly crosses the minds of a number of people in the broader church and certainly in the unbelieving world, is how can this be consistent with the characteristics of a loving God, a loving and merciful God? I think one answer that people come up with is they say, well, certainly that was the angry God of the Old Testament. But we now serve Jesus. He's the loving God of the New Testament. Now, I won't name the seminary, but my professor, that's more or less what my professor told me. Don't worry, it wasn't a reformed seminary. But that's the idea, some people will say that. But yet we shouldn't go that direction, but rather instead we should recognize is that we constantly have to keep at the forefront of our mind that all of Scripture, and in this case the Old Testament, this particular passage, is pointing us to Christ. It's pointing us to Christ. So if this is the case, what are the connections to Christ? Well, before we go there, I think we still have to tease out a few more details. And that I want us to focus in particular still upon the rebellious son in particular. And that what's fascinating about this passage is that to our knowledge, this command was never carried out in ancient Israel. There's no record of it. No record of any parent, any father or mother taking his son or her son out to the city gate and having him stoned. No record of it in the Old Testament. And in fact, we find the exact opposite. And that there are specific instances in the scriptures where we find rebellious sons and parents, particularly well-known fathers, if you will, who were unwilling to punish their sons in accordance with the scriptures. Can you think of any examples? Think, for example, of Eli, the priest, from the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel says about Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, It pulls no punches when it describes them quite literally in the Hebrew as sons of Belial. Some translations will call them wicked or worthless men, but that kind of softens it. To give you an idea, it would be kind of like, what's one of the most incendiary adjectives that we can use to describe a person? And you frequently see this in politics, unfortunately, and it's totally misused, but you say if somebody's a Nazi, that's one of the most incendiary comments that you can make about someone because you're basically saying that this person is utterly and morally depraved. Well, that's something of the nature of what it is when the scriptures call Hophni and Phinehas sons of Belial. Why? Well, because in the scriptures, sons of Belial incited idolatry. They were those who began insurrection and rebellion. They were those who were sexually immoral or they were others who were very much indebted to lying all the time. And so we certainly know from the narrative that Eli's sons were all of these things because the narrative is very clear in 1 Samuel chapter 2. What did Hophni and Phinehas do? Well, when the people would come to bring their sacrifices, what they were supposed to do is they were supposed to give the Lord's portion to the Lord and burn it upon the altar. Then they were supposed to take a smaller portion from themselves and then give the other portion to the one who was sacrificing. But that's not what Hophni and Phinehas did. They took it all. And they took it by force. They said, if you don't give it to me, I'm going to take it from you. They were corrupting the Lord's worship in a very aggravated way. Which I think in one hand is perhaps evidence of their gluttony. Because they were taking these sacrifices so that they could consume them for their own pleasure. In fact, this is the very indictment that the Lord brings against them in 1 Samuel 2, verse 29. Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribe for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel? Hophni and Phinehas were gluttons. Now, Eli, their father, was not deaf or dumb to all of this, and he approached them and he warned them and said, what is this that you're doing? But do you know what 1 Samuel 2.25 says? His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 18. The rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him. Hophni and Phinehas would not listen to their father. They would not heed his call to repentance. But did Eli go far enough? The answer, of course, is no. He didn't. He wasn't simply supposed to rebuke them, though that was certainly incumbent upon him, but rather he should have gone, gotten some of the other priests together, and said, you need to assist me in taking my sons out to the city gate, to the elders, so that they can be judged, because they are gluttons. They are corrupting the Lord's worship. They will not heed the words of my rebuke. They are out of control. Now, again, let's show a little sympathy to Eli. I think that we can perhaps sometimes look at the people that we read of in the scriptures and we can quite quickly say, well, he should have done this or he should have done that. But yet again, let's enter into his shoes. And which father would be prepared and willing to take not one, but two of his sons out to the gate to see them executed? I mean, how many of us, how many fathers here, if your son, God forbid, was accused of a heinous crime and taken off to jail and then found guilty, we would perhaps say, okay, I understand that this is what the authorities have to do, that they have to put my son to death, but certainly I don't want to be the one that has to do it. So in that sense, I think we should look with a little sympathy towards Eli. But in the end, we should recognize that what Eli would not do, the Lord did for him and he judged Eli and Hophni and Phinehas and he took their lives. here this father would not do as the law required. What about King David? Another very prominent father in Israel's history. You recall that David had a son named Amnon? And that Amnon was sinfully smitten with his half-sister Tamar? And he had his way with her, overpowered her, and conducted sinful immorality against her? And according to the law, this is a capital offense. This is a capital offense. And yet what happens in the narrative is that the narrative tells us that David was furious. But that's all it says. He just got angry. What was he supposed to do? Well, if he's guilty of a capital offense, he was supposed to go and take him out, have him stoned, and then not only have him stoned, but then have his body displayed for all of Israel to see that he had fallen under the curse of the covenant. But what's fascinating here is that the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, Greek translation of the Old Testament, adds the following statement. He, David, would not hurt Amnon because he was his eldest son and he loved him. Now, whether or not that phrase is a part of the original or not is a discussion for another day. But at minimum, what it shows us is that the ancient readers of the scriptures recognized that David was deficient in his handling of his sons. He had a weak spot for them. He loved them more than he did God's law. And we know, of course, that as the story progresses, that the situation was only made worse because in his failure to deal with Amnon, Absalom, his other son, took matters into his own hands and he murdered Amnon. But what's interesting here is that Absalom told his men that when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, take his life. Now, how would Absalom know that Amnon would be merry with wine unless he had a reputation for it, unless he was a drunkard? So not only was David turning a blind eye to his son's gross immorality, but he was also turning a blind eye to his drunkenness. We know, of course, that David's lack of dealing with these situations, this particular Absalom, just spun out of control until Absalom led a coup against his father. And eventually, Joab, the commander of David's armies, eventually did take Absalom's life. But the point here is that David was irresponsible. He did not follow through as God's law had commanded him to do. The bottom line is this, is that there's no record of Israel ever executing this command. But I don't want to say that it's nowhere present in the Old Testament. Because remember, beloved, ultimately all of the scriptures are about the Lord Jesus Christ. And what God did on a small scale by writing this law and having it instituted is he decided to apply that law on a grand scale to the people of Israel as a whole. And he was doing so not simply to show that you're going to follow my laws, but rather ultimately to point forward to the person and work of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Recall that when God talked to Moses and he said, you go tell Pharaoh to let my people go, he told him, tell Pharaoh, Israel is my firstborn son. Israel was God's firstborn son. Now, do we know whether or not Israel was an obedient son or a rebellious son? We know quite quickly and easily from the history of the Old Testament that Israel was not an obedient son. But we do see that God had an intimate relationship with his people, his firstborn son. Hosea chapter 11 says that when Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. God through the prophet describes his intimate relationship with his son And in such a way is that he says, I taught Israel how to walk. For you fathers out there, I think you know something of what I'm talking about. For you mothers out there, you know what an intimate thing it is and what a special thing it is and an exciting thing it is to teach your child how to walk. I mean, as a younger man, when I read that passage in Hosea, I would think, well, I'm sure that's special. But it was not until I helped my son learn how to walk. As he taught it along, it's something that I'll never forget. It's something that I look forward to in teaching my four-month-old how to do, how to walk. So beloved, God's relationship with Israel, his son, was very intimate, but yet God had greater concern for his holiness. And we know that Israel was characterized in Hosea chapter 4 as a stubborn heifer. Verse 8 in chapter 4 in Hosea, he says, they feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness. In other words, the priests were saying, yeah, go ahead and sin more because if you sin more, you'll have to bring more sacrifices and we'll get more food and we'll get to eat more, so keep on sinning so that the sacrifices abound and we can fill ourselves on these sacrifices. But Hosea also describes Israel, God's son, as being a drunken son. Hosea chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, They will eat but not have enough. They will engage in prostitution but not increase because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves to prostitution, to old wine and new, which take away the understanding. When Hosea describes Israel, he says, You won't cry out for the Lord. Instead, you weep on your beds and all you cry out for is more wine. So like a drunk looking for his next drink, that's what Israel was doing. They were rebellious, they were disobedient, they were gluttonous, they were a drunk son. And so what did God do? But he put his son Israel to death by exiling him from the land, sending him away into Babylon. And we might not think that that doesn't sound like death. Well, beloved, it was. Because if to dwell in the presence of God was akin to life itself, well then to be exiled from God's presence was certainly death. I mean, think of the Aaronic blessing. What is, if the Aaronic blessing encapsulates the utter joy and the goal of the godly Israelite, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, then to be separated from that glorious presence of God's face as he was there in the tabernacle and later in the temple would be akin to death itself. So God essentially was saying to his people, this law will be enforced there will be one who will suffer for it but he also said that there is hope and there is deliverance from the curse of the covenant because what God did is not only did he send his people into exile his son but he also said through the prophet Ezekiel my son who will suffer this curse will rise from the dead and this is what we read of in Ezekiel in the 37th chapter when the prophet stood over looking over this vision of Israel in exile that he likened to a valley of dry bones when the Lord told him speak, speak to these valley of dry bones son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel they say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone we are cut off therefore prophesy and say to them this is what the sovereign Lord says O people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord. Do you see the big picture? Israel, God's son, is sent into the death of exile but then raised from the dead. And what we can say, beloved, is if we look back at Deuteronomy chapter 21 and the stoning of the Son, suffering the curse of the covenant being hung on a tree, it's painted in big broad brush strokes there for all of Israel, but yet it all finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. You see, it's Jesus, God's only begotten Son, who suffered in exile as he was crucified, as the 13th chapter of Hebrews tells us, outside the camp. And that Christ suffered the curse of the covenant as he was cut off from the people and most importantly from the benevolent presence of his Father. But he was not left in death, but instead was raised through the power of the Holy Spirit because Jesus was not guilty of sin, but rather he was perfectly obedient to every jot and tittle of the law. You see, here is the big difference, is that Israel was guilty. Jesus Christ was not only innocent, but perfectly righteous, having fulfilled every obligation of the law. And here is the total irony about all of this. Here is the irony about this, is that Jesus is perfectly obedient. He does everything that the Father commands him to do. For it was his meat and drink to do the Father's will, even unto death, death on the cross, as Paul tells us in Philippians 2. But what did the people say? What did the religious leaders say? In Matthew chapter 11, and here, this passage I believe invokes Deuteronomy 21. He says, For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say he is a glutton and a drunkard. Do you hear what the people were saying? Jesus is eating with sinners and tax collectors, but they don't see his perfect righteousness, his obedience to the law, and they have no record of ever wanting to see Deuteronomy 21 applied, and yet the one case that they have is they're saying, this man is a glutton and a drunkard. This man needs to be taken outside the city gates and stoned. What an utter irony it is to think that the one perfectly obedient man was the one man that Israel, through her leaders, sought to see to suffer under this law. But here's the amazing thing, beloved, is that Christ indeed did bear the curse of the covenant for us. You see, Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, where he quotes Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23. He said, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. See, I think one of the bigger problems when we read a passage like Deuteronomy 21 is that we want to place ourselves only in the position of the parents. We only want to place ourselves in the position of the parents because in the passage, it's the parents who are righteous and they have to do the difficult thing and put the unrighteous son to death. How many of us, when we read the various narratives, whether it's David and Saul, do we think of ourselves as David? How many of us, when we read Hosea, for example, we think of ourselves as faithful Hosea and not faithless Gomer? But the truth of the matter is, beloved, is that when we read these narratives, we have to turn our thinking, if you will, upside down. And when we read Hosea and Gomer, we should recognize that it is we who are faithless Gomer. We are sinful Saul who persecutes the anointed of the Lord. Or in this case, we are the rebellious son, the one who deserves the curse of the covenant. Indeed, this is what Paul says in his letters in so many different places, but certainly Romans is evidence enough. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. For the wages of sin is death, he says. So that when we read this passage, beloved, We cannot flee from it. We cannot run from it. We shouldn't try to weaken it. We shouldn't say that this is somehow unjust, but instead we should see the heinousness of it and that the heinousness of the passage is not in that God is cruel or unjust, but rather that is the nature and the consequences of our sin. But praise be to God that God intervenes on our behalf and he sends his only begotten son, the perfectly obedient and righteous son, to intercede on our behalf and to take the curse of the covenant on our behalf so that we do not have to suffer that curse so that we can enter into God's presence and dwell there for all eternity never to be taken away from God's presence ever knowing that Jesus Christ has been cut off on our behalf that he has borne our sin that he was hung on that tree of the cross so that we might have life so beloved when we look at this passage we should not flee in horror but rather what we should recognize is that we are looking at the full demands of the law and we should throw ourselves upon our faces at the foot of the cross and say oh father have mercy upon me a sinner one who deserves that curse and when we see the grotesque nature of the penalty we should therefore see the weight and the curse of the covenant that falls upon us and for in this we see the weight and the depth of the guilt and of our sin and shame. But then at the same time, we are able, and we had this vista opened up, where we are enabled to see the even greater depths to which Christ condescended on our behalf so that we would never, ever have to suffer the curse of the covenant. Beloved, this is something for which we should rejoice. This is something that should fill our hearts with joy, knowing that ours is not curse, but rather ours is blessing, so that in the last day, when we finally enter into the New Jerusalem, we will dwell eternally in God's presence and not be outside with the sexually immoral, with the liars, with the cowards, with the drunkards. So, beloved, give thanks that we serve a kind and merciful God, one who redeems us from the curse of the law by sending his only begotten Son. Think of the costly nature of that sacrifice for God the Father. As he watched his son suffer knowing that he was just and recognized that God gave his son for you. Rejoice that we have, beloved, a kind and merciful redeemer, one who shares his inheritance with we who once hated him. And unlike the elder brother and the prodigal, the elder brother does not begrudgingly give us his robe. He does not begrudgingly give us his signet ring. He does not begrudgingly attend the wedding feast or the feast begrudgingly, but rather instead He rejoices and He freely gives to us all that is His so that we may enjoy and fellowship and dwell in His presence at the wedding feast of the Lamb for all eternity. In the end, when we read this passage, beloved, rejoice that Christ suffered a curse on our behalf so that we could dwell in the presence of the Triune Lord for all eternity. Let's bow together in a word of prayer. Father God, we give you thanks that you are merciful to us in so many different ways but especially in delivering us from the curse of the covenant. Oh Father, when we see the intensity of the curse and the consequences of our sin we are so wont to flee and to somehow mitigate our obligations to the law. Oh Father, forgive us for trying to find solace in ourselves and our own pretended righteousness and we pray instead that you would fill our hearts with contrition, that we would flee to the foot of the cross and to the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would rejoice and we would be freed of all guilt and shame knowing that the curse no longer stands over us, but that we have the freedom of sons and indeed co-heirs. For what wonderful manner of love is this that we should be called children of God? Oh, Father, we pray that we as your people would be filled with this truth, that we would tell others of the wonderful deliverance from the curse of the covenant, of the wonderful work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would enable our churches, the reformed churches of this country, even those churches, O Lord, that are beyond the reformed community to preach this message of both law and gospel, of death and of grace, that you would enable the United Reformed Churches, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, all of your churches, O Lord, where you place godly men in the pulpits to herald the gospel, to take this message forward into the sin-darkened world, that you would bring your saints home as this wonderful message of grace goes out. Oh, Father, we give thanks for your love. We give thanks, O Lord Jesus, for your willingness to sacrifice yourself on our behalf. And we give thanks to you, O Holy Spirit, for applying the work of Christ. Glorify yourself in our midst, we pray. Fill our hearts with thanksgiving and praise. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.