The Law Was Added Until the Seed Came

Transcript

GR 2094
7/23/2017
The Law was Added Until the Seed Came
Galatians 3:19-22
Gil Rugh

We are studying the book of Galatians together but perhaps before you turn to Galatians you might come to 2 Timothy, just a reminder, 2 Timothy. In chapter 3 of 2 Timothy I was just going to read this to you but it would be good if you see it. In verse 16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” It is God’s Word. As such it deserves our complete and full attention.

If you are in 2 Timothy look in chapter 2, verse 15: “Be diligent” (be zealous, passionate) “to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.” Note this, “accurately handling the Word of truth.” It is a reminder to us. I know you are here and committed to the truth but studying the Word is serious business.

A danger that settles down over the evangelical church, if I can use that broad term for churches, that claim to be Bible believing is, we become lighter and more superficial with the Word of God. This is serious business with God and must be with us. God has spoken. Now He says, “You be diligent and apply yourself earnestly to the study of My Word so that I can approve you as one who handles My Word correctly.” It is not enough to handle it and you know this desire.

I shared with you a recent article in a theological quarterly. “We ought to move away from this emphasis on having to deal so seriously with the Word and its original meaning and so on and just cut right to the application of the Word and how pastors and teachers feel and think it could be applicable to you. Let’s just do that.” You know we are not looking for the approval of men. We have to be serious about the Word and handle it accurately.

Now Paul is aware this is going to have diminishing returns in some respect because down in chapter 4, verse 3 after exhorting Timothy in verse 2 “to preach the Word in season and out of season” when it is popular and when it’s not if I can express it that way, “reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they won’t endure healthy teaching.” That is terrible! People who profess to believe the Word, trust Christ, but they are not interested in healthy teaching but they heap for themselves teachers, popularizing of the Word of God.

I mention this because we are in two challenging books. On Sunday mornings we study the book of Revelation. We have to pay attention and give careful consideration.

Come over to the book of Galatians where we are studying and we are in chapter 3. Sometimes you get into these sections like this and you say, “You know we are into the details and the Mosaic Law and no longer the Mosaic Law. Do I have to know all these details?” Well, why do we think God said it? He says He is going to hold us accountable for handling accurately His Word. He didn’t ask us to be His editors, to do as they have done Reader’s Digest form of the Bible. Let’s just highlight the things that might be more interesting and let’s do more general paraphrasing of the Bible that won’t mire people down in details they probably are not interested in anyway but we as God’s people aren’t here to do studies for people who are not interested in the Word of God.

We have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Remember Paul had to rebuke the Corinthians. He said something sad had happened to the Corinthians church. I can’t give you the meat of the Word of God. I have to continue to give you milk because you haven’t matured. And I am not giving this as a rebuke to you just an encouragement, a challenge. It is fine that babies get milk and then we have baby food you know especially prepared, easily digested for them but it is not good to be 20 and to have just the milk or the baby food. Something is wrong and that is what he said to the Corinthian church and that leads to all kinds of problems and conflicts and divisions and everything else they had. That is just a reflection of your immaturity.

So we come to grapple with the Word of God in the book of Galatians chapter 3 and I appreciate these are challenging sections. He is comparing the Mosaic Covenant with the New Covenant given in Christ. The work of Christ has brought to an end the Mosaic Covenant. Some still do not understand that. They think the Mosaic Law is still in force, that we still lived under the Ten Commandments and other portions of the Law.

We have emphasized verse 16 in our previous study. “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.” And he is contrasting the promise given to Abraham and the Law given to Moses and there is a major difference there. The promise was given to Abraham. The Law was given to Moses and to Abraham’s descendants was given the promise. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.

Now here he makes one of those detailed unfoldings that would not have been clear with just the Old Testament; “to his seed.” He does not say, “to his seeds” as referring to many but rather to one and “to your seed,” that is to Christ.

Now remember what he says in verse 17. The Law came 430 years after the promise was given to Abraham and what was given to Moses, the Law can’t invalidate or change what was given to Abraham so very important point. Now he makes clear in the promise given to Abraham there is the word ‘seed’ used and we talked about seed can be used as a plural or it can be used as a singular. It can be used collectively and it is repeatedly in the Old Testament for all the descendants of Abraham. It can also be used singularly to refer to one person. That is what he is talking about in verse 16.

Come back to the book of Genesis. We have done this but it becomes such a major issue it is crucial we understand it. Begin in chapter 12 and you have the summary of the Abrahamic Covenant given in the opening verses of chapter 12 and what God promises to Abraham. He says in verse 3, the last line there, “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” But he is going to be referring to a particular person who is a descendant of Abraham who will bring the blessing as you are aware.

Down in verse 7 you will see ‘seed’ used as a collective. Verse 7: “The Lord appeared to Abram and said ‘to your seed.’” We have it translated ‘descendants.’ But as you have in your margin it is the word ‘seed.’ No different when it is referring to all of his descendants, plural, collectively or just one but he says “And to your seed I will give this land.”

Come down to chapter 13, verse 15: “For all the land which you see I will give to you and your seed.” He is talking about physical land because he said, “Look north, south, east, west.” We have looked at this but verse 16: “I will make your seed as the dust of the earth so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth then your seed…” obviously He is talking about more than one person because He said, your seed won’t be able to be counted and “walk about the land I will give it to you.”

Now you come over to chapter 22 and there are many other references to the seed but we have looked at those in prior studies. Look in chapter 22. Now he repeats what He has promised to Abraham and we have looked at the repeating of the blessings. He says in verse 16: “By Myself I have sworn declares the Lord.” Note that. This is important. This is a promise. There is not a contingency here.

Remember in the establishing of the covenant in chapter 15 and the formalizing of it with the dividing of the animals Abraham went to sleep and God passed through the divided animals taking full responsibility for that covenant. That is what He is saying in verse 16, “By Myself I have sworn declares the Lord.” Verse 17: “Indeed I will greatly bless you. I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, as the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of their enemies.” That is plural, collectively. Your descendants, the Jewish people but note verse 18: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” The New Testament doesn’t change anything promised but in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16 Paul makes clear that God’s intention in verse 18 was a singular seed. So you see he doesn’t change what the covenant promises, what the promise was but he does clarify. There are seed in verse 17 as the descendants, the Jewish people as we know them who receive special promises but verse 18 is talking about seed in a singular. So later revelation can clarify but it can’t change. It can’t wipe out the promises of verse 17, to his physical descendants but there is a clarification made that verse 18 is referring to seed singular because the blessings not only for the Jewish people but for all the nations of the earth would come through one descendant of Abraham, Jesus Christ. We have His genealogy, both sides in Matthew and also in Luke.

So I want you to see, there is no changing because remember once a covenant has been ratified we have seen in Galatians, you can’t change its provisions. So there is no changing on the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant with the coming of the Messiah. It doesn’t matter whether it is 400 years that go by or 2,000 years go by. You have the Abrahamic Covenant given, it is promised and you can’t change its provision. But he didn’t change anything. There are provisions made for all of his descendants and there is a focus on what could be accomplished by only one descendant. That is where New Testament, additional revelation gives more clarity. It can add to it but it can’t change it.

While you are here, this promise is repeated. Remember the line has to come Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. So come over to chapter 26 of Genesis and now we are dealing with Abraham’s son, Isaac. Remember he is the only one. He is the son of promise. There are other sons, Ishmael being the firstborn to Abraham but it had to be the child which comes from Abraham with his wife, Sarah and then to Jacob. Here it is Isaac. So you have “The Lord appeared to him” in verse 2. Verse 3: “Sojourn in this land. I will be with you and bless you for to you and your seed I will give all these lands. I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.” Again, that seed collectively on physical land. He is telling them, “You stay in this land. Don’t go down to Egypt because this land is the land I am going to give you.” You can’t change that. It is inherent repeatedly in the promise of this covenant. “I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, give your descendants all these lands.” It is more than just one that is physical descendants and then note the last part, “By your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” Well what we have later revealing that the blessings founded in the salvation provision of one descendant of Abraham will provide blessings to all nations.

So you see the distinction and yet no change. I keep emphasizing this because we talk about reformed theology, covenant theology. They think with the coming of Christ everything changes and now Israel doesn’t have a future because all of the promises are focused in one person, Christ. Well the enablement for it all to be accomplished does center in Christ but the last part of verse 4 doesn’t nullify what is said in verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4. All that we have in Galatians 3:16 is a clarification and a distinction drawn. You might not have picked up if we didn’t have later revelation.

Come to one more passage and then we have to go to Galatians. Chapter 28, you have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So this is the line and then with Jacob he will have 12 sons. They will be the 12 tribes and you will see the seed enlarging, the physical descendants.

In chapter 28 and we are going to go to verse 10 and we have Jacob and here we have Jacob’s ladder within this passage not too long ago. In verse 13: “The Lord stood above,” (above this ladder reaching to heaven.) “I am the Lord God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to your seed.” So it is a physical land, the very land you are on, I will give to your seed, collectively, your descendants. “Your seed will be like the dust of the earth.” You see the repetition. We have only picked out these to go from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We will spread out to the west, the east, the north, the south, in you (now note this) “and in your seed, in you and in your seed.”

Remember in Genesis 12 God had said to Abraham at the beginning there, first note of the Abrahamic Covenant. “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” So here you have it. “In you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed.” You have that same breaking out and it is the descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob singular, Christ that all the nations will experience blessing to salvation He provides. And that salvation He provides will be the foundation of course for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who also have the faith of Abraham to experience the provision not only of God’s spiritual salvation but the fulfillment of all He has promised including the inheriting of the land and the setting up of the kingdom.

So this understand, later revelation can clarify and sometimes it makes it easier but it doesn’t change the provisions. So we understand with greater clarity that the Abraham Covenant includes this provision for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob collectively, they are descendants, physical descendants but the word “seed” and you can see how God is so clear, provides salvation in one person.

Alright with that we come back to Galatians. A little bit of review from 16 and that is why verse 17 which we looked at of Galatians 3 “The Law which came 430 does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God.” So we saw how that was already included in the provisions of that covenant. There is a clarity. There was provision for the physical descendants and there was provision which would be provided by one descendant but no change in the covenant. It is just clarified in a way we might not have understood. Just like some of the prophecies of the first coming and the second coming of Christ. They didn’t become clear until later revelation had come.

So the Law given later can’t nullify what God had ratified earlier. So “if the inheritance if based on Law,” verse 18, “it is no longer based on promise but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.” Now we get to this point and it might sound like well why did He give the Law? What is the purpose of bringing in the Law? So you have verse 19: “Why the Law then?” I mean it seems like you have done such a good job Paul of showing that the Mosaic Law, the Mosaic Covenant couldn’t add to or change the Abraham covenant and that was given by promise well then what is the purpose of the Law? That is what he is going to give. It was “added because of transgressions.”

So important here, the Law had a purpose. It is a later addition. So it is outside the bounds if you will of the Abrahamic Covenant. The other covenants of the Old Testament like the Davidic Covenant and the Palestinian Covenant, the New Covenant are all developments of the Abrahamic Covenant and its provisions. The Mosaic Covenant is a later addition. It was added because of transgressions and that word we have translated “because of.” It indicates here that what he did when He gave the Mosaic Law and this ties to what He is talking about with the one seed. The Law was given to clarify the issue of sin. “It was added because of transgressions.” A word that here we have translated “because of” can denote purpose. It was added for the purpose of transgression. It was to make clear sin. Now the Law wasn’t given to cause people to sin because of their sin they react to the Law that way as we will see. But it was given to show sin as sin; more of that in a moment. So that would prepare the way for the coming of the Seed which was necessary to deal with sin.

So after living under the Law for 14 or 1500 years Israel should have been ready for the Messiah because it revealed how sinful they were and they needed a sacrifice, things like that.

Let’s look and see here, “It was added because of transgressions having been ordained through angels by the agency of a Mediator until the Seed would come to whom the promise has been made,” the promise that He has talked about back in verse 8. “All the nations of the earth will be blessed in you.” Remember that is the Gospel beforehand. “The Seed which is Christ” (in verse 16.)

So wasn’t an add-on, not part of the Mosaic Covenant. It is important to show sin as sin and it was only given, it was given later and for a designated period of time until the Seed promised in the Abrahamic Covenant would come. Then it would have served its purpose.

So you see the Law there. It is something added later for a set duration. What was promised to Abraham has no conditions and will ultimately be fulfilled forever. “So until the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made.”

Come back to Romans chapter 3. We noted that Galatians is something of an abbreviated Romans in many ways. Romans chapter 3 Paul goes into greater detail. We are not going to go through all that Paul has to say. You will note verse 20 of Romans 3. The last statement there; “Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” What the Law did was reveal sin as sin. So now you had clarification. God says “You must do this. You must not do this.” Now it was clear. When you don’t do what God says you must do you have sinned. When you do what He says you must not do, you have sinned. So what the law does is turn the light on the real condition of mankind by revealing. Well I don’t know, am I a sinner? Well you know you have 613 commandments in the Law. You have all these rules and regulations and requirements and how you can be defiled before God. You must bring these sacrifices to acknowledge your need of a sacrifice but those sacrifices could never take away sin. So they were what? Revealing to people their sin and their need for a Savior.

Come over to chapter 7 while you are here of Romans talking about the Law and he talks about the problems with the Law here as well. Note what he says, verse 7: “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!” On the contrary, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about covet if the Law had not said, “’You shall not covet.’” But then the problem was “sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind.” We see this going on in the world today as we reveal to people what God says is sin. All of a sudden that is what they want to do. There is something about our fallen nature. It is revealed. That’s what the Mosaic Law did for the nation Israel.

You understand the Law was given to the nation Israel. That is the only nation God chose for Himself. He didn’t give the Mosaic Law for the Assyrians. There was no priesthood provided in Assyria. The priest that could bring the sacrifices that God required was in the nation Israel and it was Aaron and then the descendants and only those of the tribe of Levi could function in the context of priestly activity and all this. So it revealed sin to the nation. It doesn’t mean everybody else weren’t sinners but there wasn’t the clarity of it. So that is what he is saying here.

So sin took opportunity and when the Law it shined a light so bright it had that negative affect because Israel kept breaking the Law which indicated what? They were sinners under condemnation.

So verse 10: “This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me.” From the standpoint all God was saying was what His holiness required. So no problem, do it. How, that’s wonderful. Now we know how to be holy before God. The problem is verse 11: “Sin taking opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it killed me.” That doesn’t mean others weren’t sinners and they were sinners before the Law was given but now there is a clarity given. So nothing wrong with the Law.

Verse 12: “The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” You see this quoted in reformed theology because they say “Well see, we want the Law. It is good.” The problem is the Law couldn’t accomplish so it served its purpose. It was only active until Christ came.

Verse 13: “Did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be!” It was sin. It wasn’t the Law that made me a sinner. It was my response to God’s Law, Paul is saying that revealed me to be a sinner. It didn’t make me sin. When you tell your child not to do something and he does it you didn’t make him sin but having that instruction revealed when he rebelled.

So the problem, verse 14: “The Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” And that is why he says in verse 18: “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Sin dwells in me, evil is present in me, verse 20, verse 21.

Alright, come back to Galatians. “So the Law was added because of transgressions for the purpose of transgressions” to reveal the need. That is why today we start out, we have to talk to people about the fact that they are sinners, otherwise people say, “Yes, I’ve trusted Christ.” But they think they have to go to church, they have to be baptized, they have to take communion, they have to go to confession, they have to “fill in whatever the religious convictions are to be acceptable.” They don’t understand what sin does. Sin condemns you.

Okay, note the character of the Law. “It was ordained through angels by the hand of a Mediator.” Now remember here it was only at the end until the seed would come. So it had a beginning and it had an ordained end. That is key in the plan of God. So this is not a covenant or a promise like given to Abraham. This is an add on necessary for a period of time. “It was ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator.”

There is not much said in the Old Testament about angels’ role in the giving of the Law. Psalm 68, we won’t turn there. Verse 17 says “The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as at Sinai in His holiness.” Well we are not told in the account given that the angels are there and then later in the book of Acts chapter 7, Stephen refers to the Law as ordained by angels and Hebrews chapter 2, verse 2 says “the Law spoken through angels” but here his point is it was ordained through angels so those were involved in giving it to Moses who is the mediator. So he was the one between God and men and the go between. And there is a characteristic of the Mosaic Law. We call it a conditional covenant. At the establishing of the Abrahamic Covenant when it was ratified what was Abraham doing? Remember in Genesis 15? He was sleeping. God swore by Himself as we read a little bit ago.

But at the giving of the Mosaic Law, come back to Exodus chapter 19, Exodus 19. You have here we are going to have the giving of the Mosaic Law. So they gather here. Verse 3: “Moses went up to the mountain” and then he is instructed by God to tell the people this and verse 5: “Then if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant then you will be My people.” The end of verse 6: “These are the words you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” So Moses comes down to the people. Tells them all the words the Lord had commanded him. Verse 7: “And all the people answered together and said, ‘all the Lord has spoken we will do.’” So you see Moses is the mediator.

God says here are the conditions of the covenant. You pass them on to the people. The people said we will sign on to the covenant. So he mediates and brings them together. This is different than the Abrahamic Covenant. He is contrasting the difference. We won’t look at the other passages because of time but in Exodus 20, verse 19, 21, 22, Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 5, verse 27. Moses is referred to as the mediator between God and the people.

So come back to Galatians. “Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the Seed would come.” So you ought to have marked in your Bible verse 19: “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, (that’s its beginning point) until the Seed would come.” That is its culminating point.

So now we’ve got clarification. The Law was not only added later. It had a cutoff point. “To whom the promise had been made.” Now we have the mediator, verse 20: “Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.” And that is the great statement in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4 “For our God is one.” There is only one God. Now we have a mediator. Just a little bit aside. You might say, “Well isn’t Christ the Mediator of the new covenant? And isn’t there “one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus” in I Timothy 2? Yes, but God is one who is Jesus Christ. ““In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In Him all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form.” So He is a man and the Mediator between God and men but He is not just a man, he is God. So you have God in effect mediating like He did with Abraham. It is only God involved. That is the point here.

“Now a mediator is not for one whereas God is One.” The point is the distinction. The Abrahamic Covenant was mediated in a human kind of agreement with Moses getting a message from God bringing it to the people. Then the people agreed to it. With Christ being a Mediator it is on a totally different level. He came and what? He fulfilled what was required for the covenant Himself, the God man. So with the new covenant God simply says, “Here is what I am going to do.” And Christ comes, the second person of the Godhead and does it.

“So now a mediator is not for one but God is one.” There is uniqueness. This is going back to the singularity of the Seed in verse 16, the one Seed, Christ and recognition here. That One who will implement the new covenant is God. So God did it Himself. The second person of the triune God has implemented the new covenant in His blood. What did we say when we partook of the communion service? “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus said. Well what about our agreement to it? Well this is a covenant established by the work of God. The Mosaic Covenant in its installation was done is such a way to make clear to man he couldn’t keep it; this kind of mutual agreement. God says, “This is what you must do to be holy for Me.” Israel says, “We’ll do it” and then what happens? Failure, failure, failure, failure, failure and the Mosaic Covenant was filled with the provisions for failure because what do you have? Priests and the necessity of sacrifices being offered again and again and again and again. All of this what? Prepare for the coming of the One, the Seed singular, God Himself coming to earth to do what only He could do.

The Law had served its purpose, showed the futility of man being able by his actions to be holy. It revealed he is corrupt within and he’s constantly coming back for forgiveness.

Verse 21: “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have been based on the law.” Point clear, no problem with the law. It just showed what? Man was sinful as we saw in chapter 7, I am evil. Sin dwells in me and so here I have the Law. Well, I would be willing. God just tell me what You want done, I will do it. Well there is only One who does that, Christ. But we are sinners so the problem was a law couldn’t impart life because of man’s sinful condition. It is not a problem with the Law. We read in chapter 7, “The Law is holy and righteous and good.” But to give it to a people enslaved to sin, all it does is turn on the light and reveal how sinful they really are and how hopeless and helpless they are to redeem themselves. So you have the sacrifice reminding them their sin, they need a sacrifice in anticipation for Christ and then verse 22: “But the Scripture has shut up every one under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

So you see God has done what needed to be done. All you could do is believe Him, contrary to the Law. The Law said, “Do this and you will be holy.” But no one did it. Now what does God say, “I have done this, believe it and you will be holy;” a whole different situation. Not me agreeing that I’ll do what You require, the deeds of the Law so we had the Law for 1,500 years showing Israel. All you have to do is read Israel’s history. They fail repeatedly. Moses is on the mountain getting the Law. When he comes down with the Ten Commandments on the stone and Israel is all over the place so he breaks the stone. He’s got to do it again and it just goes on and on and on and that was the intention. It wasn’t to cause Israel to sin. It was to remind them.

So now Christ has come. The purpose of the Law has been accomplished. We will get into that. There is going to be a little break but he is flowing through here. So you understand the Law because what is happening? People were trying to infiltrate the Galatian churches and tell people they have to put themselves under the Law.

You see why you have to understand Scripture and with clarity. The Law was only until the Seed would come. It is an attack on Scripture for people to say, “Well we are still under the Law.” We shouldn’t be confused on this. Well it says one seed so all the promises even those given to the collective descendants of Abraham, they have all been fulfilled spiritually. That is a lie! That is a distortion and corruption of Scripture! That is changing the provisions of a covenant ratified that God says can’t be changed! There is no excuse for being confused! That is why Paul started chapter 3: “You foolish Galatians. Who has put you under a spell?” There is no excuse to be confused. It is clear. These provisions were in the Abrahamic Covenant for a Seed collectively, for a Seed singularly and the blessing of salvation that would be provided and foundational for everything and the Law was added so that sin would be clearer and more clearly seen and how great the need was and how incapable, unable and unwilling sinful men are to obey God and live a holy life and cleanse themselves.

So, the provision of the sacrifices that could never take away sin and he is going to on to say, “Those sins forgiven back in the days when the Law was operative were forgiven not on the basis of those animal sacrifices but on the basis of the sacrifice that the Seed” (singular) “would provide” and that is how we are forgiven today. Not on the basis of our performance because we are no more successful in that than anyone else was in history.

We recognize God has done it. He has established a new covenant which is within the framework of the Abrahamic Covenant and that will become clearer as we move along. Therefore salvation is available to Jew and Gentile alike when they respond in faith to the covenant provision God has provided in Christ.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace. Lord thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your Spirit who enlightens our minds, gives us understanding. We have to be diligent. Lord we have to apply ourselves earnestly to the study of Your Word so we can handle it correctly and accurately. We desire Your approval as we handle Your precious Word. Lord as we live out Your Word in our lives in a variety of ways and places in the week before us we pray that You might be honored. We pray in Christ’s name amen.