The Bounds of Love

This morning we begin a new series on God’s Law, as found in Exodus 20. From now until Palm Sunday, we’ll read through each of the ten commandments as the sermon text, and use each of them in our confession of sin. This week, you’ll also notice Jesus’ summary of the Law from Matthew 22 (“You shall love the Lord your God … You shall love your neighbor as yourself”) and many psalms and hymns which speak to the importance of the Law, the Word, and the Commandments. Alleluia! How Blest The Man (Psalm 112) and Blessed Are All They (Psalm 1) speak to the blessings that come when we delight in God’s Word. In Teach Me, O Lord, Thy Way Of Truth (Psalm 119) and How Shall The Young Direct Their Way (Psalm 119), we ask the Lord to make us walk in His commandments and to hide His Word in our hearts—because we need His help. Just as the Israelites needed a mediator between themselves and God, we also confess (in the words of Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me) that the labors of our hands cannot fulfill the law—instead, we cry to Jesus “Thou must save, and Thou alone.” My prayer for this series is that God will use the reading, preaching, confessing, and singing of His Word to write, as My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness puts it, “His law of righteousness” on each of our hearts. —Henry C. Haffner