The Law Mediator

Of all the Old Testament prophets, Moses held the distinction of being the mediator of the law. He was held in high esteem for bringing down from Mount Sinai the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Today, we continue our series on holding out hope. The Longing of Israel for a Coming Messiah. Our focus will be on Jesus as the law mediator, fulfilling the role Moses began so long ago.

Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller. Today, the second of three looks at a long-expected Jesus. Our focus will be on the Law Mediator. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and Assistant Pastor Larry McCarthy.

Well hey everybody and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so glad you're here and joining us today as we look at Jesus the law mediator. Jesus comes to disclose God's heart. and his justice and to fulfill all the requirements of the law in the Old Testament. Jesus is the faithful one.

He's the one we need. And so would you join me as I pray and give this service to the Lord? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that Jesus has come to show us your heart. to reveal all that you are in every way so that we might live rightly before you.

And Father, thank you that Jesus not only shows us your law, but also fulfills all the requirements of the law. He is our righteousness, and so we come to worship him today. Help us to do that. For the glory of your name, we pray this. For Jesus' sake, amen.

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. for he who is mighty has done great things for me. and holy is his name.

and mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things. and the rich he is sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Concerning this salvation, The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully. Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ.

and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. In the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you. By the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. things into which angels long to look.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, and filled with glory. for you are obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. we light the rose-colored candle of joy. Angels, we have heard.

On high, sweetly singing o'er the plains, and the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains. Go on, inaction stay on. In action, shepherds, why this jubilee, why your joyous strengths grow, say what may the tidings be which inspire your Heavenly song, oh Lord, in anxious day, in anxious name, come to bath the heavens see him whose birth the angels see. Come adore, unbend and knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn king. Oh, in anxious day old.

Even shall see his name See within our manger lay Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth Mary Joseph Landorate with us sing our Savior's words in shall see his name Oh Oh God, ye faithful, joyful and shy of your heart be to pray. Come and be called Him for God, He comes. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore the Lord.

Sing us of angels, sing in exultation, sing of His series and Glory to God, glory is abyss, O come let us go with Christians bring me on this happy mind. Jesus to thee of glory or the souls hell using God. Our God is with us and God is with us who could stand against us. Our God is with us in your will Our God is with us And His God is with us Who could stand against us Our God His with us? You alone, Father, are worthy and we.

We come this morning to adore your holy name. Thank you, Father, for loving us. Thank you, Father, for allowing us to come into your presence, and we thank you, Father. for this place we call The Moody Church.

Now Would you be glorified in all that we do? We pray. Father, we come into your presence this morning and we thank you for giving us access to you yet again. Our collective cry this morning from all parts of the city, from all parts of the country, literally from all parts of the world. is the same.

We cry out for mercy, Father. There are many things that would distract us from your truth today, and Whether it's depression, Despair. or the discounts at the store. These distractions take us away from the truth. of the real reason for the season.

And so, Father, we ask you to forgive us for those missed opportunities that we've had to share the truth. Would you be merciful, Father, and even allow us yet again another opportunity to be salt and light where you've placed us? We certainly pray this morning, Father, that your word would go forth with power and authority from this place we call The Moody Church. But I ask, Father, that if you would, For every pastor in the city of Chicago, that you would anoint them now. Bring your anointing, Lord, that makes preaching easy.

Let your word go forth with power and authority. Give your children even now holy boldness, Father, to courageously proclaim the cause of Christ. In Rogers Park and in Evanston, and on the West Side, and on Garfield Boulevard, on Quincy Avenue, in Riverside. Use us, Father, we pray. And for that person who is closest.

To spend an eternity without you. Have mercy, Father. For the gangbangers who are bent on violence today, would you touch their hearts today, Father? For the mother who's concerned about her son, for the father who's crying out to you even now about his daughter. For the children who are concerned about their parents, we ask you for mercy, Lord.

Take away the distractions now. Allow us to focus. on the truth. Meet our needs as only you can, and find us always quick. To give you the honor, to give you the credit, to give you the glory, to give you the praise.

Now we pray. In the matchless name of Yeshua, Jesus. Our Saviour. Our king. Amen.

We are looking at five ways that Moses was holding out hope for the coming of Jesus. Moses, of course, wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And together we know these books as the Pentateuch. And according to Jesus at the end of John chapter 5, Moses wrote of me, Jesus said, in these books. And while Jesus does not show up by name in these writings, they are full of threads, of themes that are all pointing ahead to the person and work of Jesus.

And so we've seen here in this series how Jesus is the curse breaker. He's the new Adam who has come to free us from the curse of sin and death. We have seen how Jesus is the covenant keeper, how he's the new Abraham who is faithful where all of us have failed. And today we come to the truth that Jesus is the law mediator, that he is the new Moses who stands in the gap. For us.

The Old Testament character of Moses is famous for a number of things. He's famous because God chose him to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. He's the one who miraculously led the people of Israel through the parting of the Red Sea to safety. He's the one who provided water and manna and quail in the wilderness, the provision for the people of God. But above all else, Moses is famous for his role in bringing the Ten Commandments down from the mountain, Mount Sinai, bringing the law of God.

Of all the prophets in all of the Old Testament, Moses had the particular distinction of being the mediator of the law. The mediator of the law. He was the only one. Until that is, Jesus came. And all along, as we're going to see today, Moses was pointing the way to Jesus.

And you say, well, Philip, you know, I don't quite follow you. How exactly does Moses and the law of God point the way to Jesus? I don't quite see it.

Well, great question. I'm glad you asked. That's what we're going to do together this morning.

So let's start here this morning by looking at Moses, the mediator of the law. Please open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. And just to set it up for us here, God appears on Mount Sinai in a great glory cloud with thunder and lightning and smoke and fire, this huge eruption of glory. And then God gives these 10 commandments. or what we know as the decalogue.

We're going to look at that here in just a second. Would you bow your heads and pray with me as we open God's Word this morning? Father, we ask now as we turn to your holy word that you would speak. that you would show us more of Jesus. How He is faithful and true.

and help us walk in obedience to you today. as we await This Advent season, the coming, the celebration of the presence of Christ for us. We pray this in His beautiful name. Amen. Amen.

So the Ten Commandments are roughly divided, if you will, into two buckets. The first four focus on love of God.

So the first four are, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall make no idols. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. And remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. These are about our relationship with God.

The next six commandments relate to our love for others, our relationships with others.

So five through ten are, honor your father and mother, you shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false testimony, and you shall not covet.

Now, immediately after God gave these ten commandments in Exodus chapter 20, verses 18 to 19, if you look down there, you will see: Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and stood far off, and said to Moses, You, you speak to us, and we will listen. Do not let God speak to us, lest we die.

So the people of Israel, in confronting this massive display of the holiness of God, they chicken out a little bit. They say, listen, Moses, why don't you go to God, you find out what he wants, and then you come back here and tell us. We'll listen to what you say. Moses, please, would you be the go-between? Would you be the mediator between God and us?

And so that's exactly what Moses does. He goes up on the mountain, and God lays out for him his law, not just the Ten Commandments He's spoken here, which are sort of the centerpiece of this Mosaic law that is given, but also an additional 600 or so commandments governing all the ins and outs of ancient Near Eastern life.

Someone has counted up these commandments and has found there are 613 in total. I have no idea if that's accurate. I have never felt the need to double-check the math.

Okay, but there you go, 613.

Now these commands range from moral standards to legal practices to case law and jurisprudence. There is dietary and health standards. There are social customs and even national holidays. This was all of it, and when you add it up, it was basically to make Israel unique. To stand out from her neighbors, to live differently than her surroundings, because she belonged to God.

and was therefore to be holy. For example, here, just as a summary passage, Leviticus 18, verses 1 to 5, say this. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.

You shall follow myself. My Ross. and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules.

If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am God. The Lord. God says, you are my people. You obey my statutes, you follow my way, and if you do what I say, you will live, you will flourish by them, you will find life in doing things my way, for I am the the Lord.

So, the law here sets apart the people of Israel for their sanctity before the Lord, and it sets them up for success. in life.

Now, a famous summary passage at the end here of the Pentateuch is in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 15 to 20. And this really captures the essence of what God is doing in the law. Verse 15. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take possession of it.

But If your heart turns away, and you will not hear. but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them I declare to you today that you shall surely die. Perish. You shall not live long. in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore Choose life. That you and your offspring may live loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For he is your life and your length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give. Them.

He says, here, you have two alternatives. On the one hand, if you obey, there is life and goodness, a land and promise and blessing to come. And if you disobey, Death. Evil. loss, perishing, and curses.

Everything hinges. on how you respond. The ball's in your court, Israel. What will you do? And of course, historically, they enthusiastically agree.

and then epically fail. Time and time again.

Now, because of Israel's repeated failures before the law. The law often gets a bad rap. But there's much goodness in the law, if you think about it. There's five contributions that the law makes. Let me just highlight them quickly for us here this morning.

Number one, the law discloses God's character. The law discloses God's character. Before the law was given, Israel knew relatively little about God. Oh, they knew the promises of Abraham, you know, Isaac and Jacob. They knew the preservation that God had brought his people through Joseph in Egypt and the 12 tribes who lived because of that.

They knew the name of God that had been revealed to Moses. I am that I am. But now in the law, they begin to understand just how holy, just how majestic and righteous and pure and awesome God is. And through the law, there's this refrain over and over again. It's in Exodus 19 and Leviticus 11 and 19 and 20 and 26 and 21.

This refrain, be holy as I am holy. Be holy. As I am Holy, the holiness of God. The law was God's self-disclosure. This is a good thing.

To see God as He really is. The second thing the law contributes is the law clarifies the standard. The law clarifies the standard. Before the coming of the law, people really didn't know what it was that God wanted. Oh, they knew they owed him something, but the lines were a bit fuzzy, they were unclear.

And all of a sudden, the law comes down and it draws the lines very clearly. And even though the standards were extremely high, even impossible, at least you knew where the lines were. At least you knew where you stood. And there's grace in that, friends. Every teacher will tell you that in the beginning of the semester, at the onset of the year, the most important thing you can do is establish firm standards for your classrooms.

Because if the students know where the lines are, they actually, there's peace and rest and consistency in this. Students thrive when they know where the lines are. And God in the law, friends, was establishing those lines. Giving us clarity around the standard. The third thing the law did.

Is the law revealed our sinfulness? The law revealed our sinfulness. No matter how hard people tried to obey the law, to remain clean. To toe the line. It was impossible to do it all the time.

Everyone sinned. everyone eventually became unclean. Everyone fell. Sure. It's as if God was using the law as a giant object lesson.

to teach his people, listen, God is holy. And you are not. Yeah. There is no one righteous, not even one. All we like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us have turned to his own way. As Paul will write, all have sinned and fall short of the glory. of God. And it's hard news to hear that we're sinners, friends, but there's grace in being told what is true. What is real?

Because the fourth thing, the law, gave us is the law provides for atonement. The law provides for atonement. Not only does the law reveal our sinfulness, it also drives us. to grace. Within the law, there's a whole system of sacrifices that God lays out here.

When you sin in this way, here is a corresponding sacrifice. If you want to be forgiven and atoned and made right with God, the sacrifice is the way to deal with your sin. In other words, God anticipated that his law would be broken. And so he made provision for a means of grace. That there could be forgiveness on the basis of a listen, listen.

A substitutionary Sacrifice. That we could be atoned for our sins, forgiven, set free, and made right with God on the basis of a substitutionary sacrifice. The fifth thing that the law gave us is the law guides us in righteousness. The law guides us in righteousness. Despite the fact that no one could keep the law 100% of the time, the law was in fact a reliable guide to life.

when people did keep it. They found that life was full of beauty. and goodness. and human flourishing. That's why David in the Psalms describes the law of God in such glowing terms.

He says, it's full of life. It's sweeter than honey, than honey dripping from the comb. It is a lamp to my feet. It is a light unto my path. I rejoice in the law of God.

Friends, there is goodness and grace in the law that God mediated through Moses. And so throughout all of Israel's history, they looked to Moses as the greatest prophet they'd ever known. And Moses himself prophesied in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. From your brothers, it is to him. You shall listen.

And so they waited. For a prophet like Moses to come along. And prophets came and went, but none of them was a great mediator in the way that Moses was. Was. Until one day, When a young Jewish rabbi arrived on the scene, and stood up on another mountain.

and presented himself as Jesus, the new mediator of the law. Jesus, the new mediator of the law.

Now if you flip over in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 in the New Testament, What we find here is what we call the Sermon on the Mount, okay? And Matthew is very intentional in telling us this takes place on the mount, on the mountainside.

Now, why would he highlight that?

Well, he's trying to remind us, show us. That Jesus is on the mountain just as Moses was on the mountain. He's the go-between. He's the mediator between God and man. And this is what Jesus says in some of the early verses in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 to 20. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God. of heaven.

Now, Jesus shows up and he says, Look, I'm not here to abolish the law and the prophets. I'm not getting rid of what came before. I'm actually here to fulfill them. The word fulfill is plei rao in Greek. It means to fill up or fulfill or bring to its true meaning.

Jesus helps to flesh it out here in the context down in verse 18 when he says, not one iota, that's a character, or dot, that's a penstroke, will pass away from the law until all is accomplished.

So you have the idea of accomplishment that is here parallel to the word fulfill.

So fulfill and accomplish, these are parallel concepts. Down in verse 20, we get another clue. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

So he's saying that the righteousness that is needed is one that is exceeding, overflowing, overabundant. It is beyond what is there in the scribes and Pharisees.

So the idea of fulfill here runs parallel to the idea of exceeds, okay?

So Jesus is saying, listen, I'm not here to abolish what came before. I'm here to fulfill it. I'm here to accomplish it. I'm here to exceed it and outstrip it. I'm here to fill it up, fill it out, and fill it to overflowing.

Now, let's look at how this actually works in each of the five ways that the law makes contributions here. Let's see how Jesus fulfills them. Number one, Jesus fully discloses God's character. Jesus fully discloses God's character. In the law of Moses, we got a sketch of who God is.

Now Jesus comes along and fills out that picture with crystal clarity. For example, in John chapter 1, verse 18, this is what John writes, No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Jesus has come to reveal the Father. Colossians 1 verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God.

Hebrews 1, 3 says, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. See, Jesus has come as the full revelation of the character of God. He is Immanuel. He is God with us. In him, all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.

As Jesus will say, to see him is to see the Father.

So the law revealed the character of God.

Now Jesus comes and fully discloses the character of God in Himself. Secondly, Jesus fully clarifies the standard. Jesus fully clarifies the standard. If we thought the bar couldn't be raised any higher than what was given in the law, we would be very wrong. Jesus fills up the standard to a whole new level.

In the Sermon on the Mount, he repeatedly says this phrase: You have heard it said, but I say to you, He says, you know, you've heard, do not murder. I tell you, don't even be angry. He said, you've heard, don't commit adultery. I'm telling you, don't even lust in your heart. He says, you know, they used to say, don't break your oaths.

And he says, I'm telling you, let your yes be yes, your no be no. Let every word come from the integrity of your heart. He's showing us that, listen, God wants a righteousness that goes beyond the outside to the inside. He wants a righteousness that is not surface level, but goes to the very depths of who we are. He wants something that goes beyond behavior to the very heart of ourselves.

He says, look, the Pharisees have been teaching you. That righteousness basically comes down to good behavior. But I'm here to tell you. that righteousness is having a good heart. goodness on the inside.

In Matthew 5, verse 20. Jesus says this, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, You will never enter the kingdom. of heaven.

You want to go into the kingdom of God? You need a deeper, a fuller, a higher, a better righteousness than theirs. You need an inner righteousness, an inner goodness that flows out into every part of your. Life. You want to know what the standard is.

You therefore must be perfect. as your heavenly father is. is perfect. Matthew 5. Forty-eight.

After all, this is what the law and the prophets have been after all along. In Matthew 22, this is what Jesus says. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You want to know what God wants, Jesus says. He wants love. A heart of love. That loves God with all that you are, and loves people as if. They were you.

In John 13, verses 34 to 35, Jesus goes on to say this, a new commandment I give you. that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. And by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

So Jesus comes here, friends, and he's laying down a new commandment. Not six hundred and thirteen, not ten, but one. Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you are also to love one another. How has Jesus loved, friends?

Well He's just washed his disciples' feet. becoming the servant of all. and he is about to lay down his life in exchange for theirs.

So Jesus, what is the standard? What does God require? He requires a love. Just like mine. He requires that we become self-sacrificing servants.

of all. And don't you see, number three, that Jesus fully reveals our sinfulness. Jesus fully reveals our sinfulness. Listen, if it was impossible to keep the law of Moses, it's even more impossible to keep the law of Christ. No one loves the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

No one loves our neighbor as ourselves. No one loves just as I have loved you. No, our hearts are full of sin. That's why our lives are full of sin too. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7, verses 17 to 18: so every healthy tree bears good fruit.

But the disease tree, bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear. Good fruit. In other words, our behavior... is the fruit Our hearts are the root.

And the problem lies not in the sin in our behavior so much as the sin that is in our hearts. And no amount of sin management, no amount of behavior modification, no amount of religious striving will solve the heart problem that we have. In Matthew 23, verses 25 and 26, Jesus goes after the Pharisees again. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee. First, clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may also be. Clean. He says, look, you're spending a whole lot of time trying to clean up and tidy up the outside of your life, get your behavior in line. And you can put a good face on it, and you can fake it till you make it, but you're only fooling yourselves.

The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? And Jesus reveals the depths. of our sinfulness fully. The fourth thing here is that Jesus fully provides atonement.

Jesus fully provides atonement. Not only does Jesus fully reveal our sinfulness, he also drives us to grace. Because He Himself is our sacrifice. Jesus anticipates that His law will be broken. That's why he provides a means of grace.

in himself. Forgiveness on the basis of a substitutionary sacrifice. To make atonement for our sins, to make us right with God, forgiven and set free in Him. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness. of God.

So Jesus, fully righteous though he is, he's the fully righteous one who fully kept the law of Moses, who fully embodies the law of Christ, who fully exchanged his life for us. Dies in our place and for our sake, taking our sin upon Him, so that in exchange He might gift to us by grace His own perfect righteousness, so that we might be fully atoned. by his substitutionary sacrifice. And so, friends, don't you see the righteous requirements of the law were fully met in Jesus, who offered himself on our behalf. to make us right with God.

Aren't you glad? But not only that Number five. Jesus fully guides us. in righteousness. Jesus fully guides us.

in righteousness. Not only does Jesus gift us his own righteousness, by grace through faith for all who will believe. He also gives us a new... Heart. and fills us with His Holy Spirit.

so that we might actually begin to walk in true righteousness. This is amazing, friends. But in Romans chapter 8, verses 3 and 4, this is what Paul writes: For God has done. what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

So Jesus, friends, fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law when he died in our place and for our sake, when he offered his perfect life of righteousness for us on our behalf. But now by his spirit Paul says, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled. There's our word, fulfilled. In Ah as we walk according to the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit enables a righteousness in us that could never have otherwise come from us.

Galatians 5, verses 22 to 23 says this: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And then he adds, Against such things there is no Law. Why does he add this? As we walk by the Spirit, friends, we walk in the very righteousness that the law required all along. but we could never accomplish because we were trying to do it in our flesh and by ourselves.

But now with the Spirit. We are able to walk out the righteousness that God has required all. Along. In other words, Jesus is making us into a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come, the new covenant promises are coming true.

This was promised in Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27. He writes, And I will give you a new heart, God's speaking, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. In other words.

through Jesus' atoning life, friends. And through His Spirit's enabling presence, Our Father is making us like himself. He is growing us. Growing in us a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. He is teaching us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

He is teaching us to love our neighbors as ourselves. He is conforming us to the image of Christ that we might love one another just as He has first loved us. He is transforming us from the inside. Out. It's a new tree.

with new roots. And new. Fruits.

So, what's the takeaway for us? Friends, I want to, for our takeaway today, I just want to read a quotation from C.S. Lewis. In mere Christianity, this is the line. The command, be ye perfect.

is not idealistic gas. nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures. that can obey that command. Let me just read that again.

The command, be ye perfect. is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures who can Obey that. Command.

That's why Jesus said, do not think. that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them. But to fulfill them. He's the law mediator.

Friends. He has given you by grace, by his spirit, by his atoning. Death, all that we need for life. and godliness. And he calls us.

To be holy. as he himself. is holy. Like father, like son. Conform to the image of Christ.

Walking. by the power. of the spirit. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for Jesus.

who fulfills the law we could never keep. whose righteousness satisfies All that you desire. Who fills us with Your Holy Spirit. To enable us to become what we cannot become on our own. that we might be like you.

Sons. daughters of the Most High God. A holy people. Pure. Righteous.

Undefiled. Glorious. In Christ. This is what Christmas is all. Abound.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Our benediction today is from Jude at the very end, verses 24 and 25.

Now unto him who is able to keep you from stumbling. and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen and amen. On today's Moody Church hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with a message looking back to the time of Moses and how he was holding out hope for the time of Jesus, the one who was the law mediator.

John the Baptist introduced Jesus by saying, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Next time, we'll see Jesus as the sin atoner. We'd like you to have a brand new daily devotional in time for the new year. It's called simply Running to Win. And has one verse per day with comments from both Erwin Lutzer as well as D. L.

Moody. It's yours as our thank you when you give a gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. For details, call 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to MoodyChurchHour.com.

That's MoodyChurchHour.com or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.