In this sermon, the preacher discusses the purpose of the law in relation to the people of Israel. He emphasizes that the law was given to reveal their sinfulness and to lead them to the need for a savior. The preacher contrasts the law with grace, highlighting the difference between the demands of the law and the gift of salvation through faith. He also mentions God's original intention for Israel to be a kingdom of priests, but due to their failures, only one tribe was chosen. However, in the future, during the millennium, the entire nation of Israel will fulfill this purpose.

And now in verse 5, he says, "...Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all, for all the earth is mine." And his question is going to be, are you willing to keep the commandments that God will give to you? And we'll see in a minute their reaction to that. And they're going to exchange grace for law, by the way, and a great many people do that today. But you and I live in a day when God saves by grace and he doesn't save by law. And what a contrast there is between law and grace. What a difference it is. The law demands, grace gives. The law says, do. Grace says, believe. The law exacts. Grace bestows. The law says, work. Grace says, rest. The law threatens, pronouncing a curse. Grace entreats, announcing a blessing. The law says, do, and thou shalt live. Grace says, live, and thou shalt do. The law condemns the best man. And grace saves the worst man. The law reveals the character of God. And it also reveals the weakness of man. Paul says, now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth might be stopped, the whole world come guilty before God. God never gave the law to save at all. Somebody says, then why was the law given? And as many of you have heard me say before, no one was ever saved by keeping the law. You couldn't mention a one. Moses, here, was a murderer, friends. He was no law keeper at all. And he's going to get very angry, we're going to see, and lose his temper and smite that rock twice when he shouldn't even have smitten it once. This is something that we need to note very carefully, that the law was given, friends, for a very definite reason. Paul says in verse 19 of Galatians 3, Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added, not because of, but for the sake of transgressions. Tell the seed should come to whom the promise was made. You see, the law was given to reveal that we were sinners. And it was just given temporarily. Tell the seed should come, and that seed is Christ. And Paul goes on to say in verse 24, Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now, the schoolmaster here is not a schoolteacher. It is a slave that took the little child that was born into a home of a Roman patrician, or a well-to-do Roman citizen. And he took the little child, clothed it, that is, in the sense he dressed him every morning, washed him, blew his nose when he needed it, and paddled him when he did. And then there came a day when the little fellow grew old enough to go to school. So the schoolmaster is the one who led him to school. And the word is pedagogus, which means to take the little one by the hand and lead him to the school. Now, the law, friends, is our schoolmaster, our pedagogus. He's the one that takes us by the hand as little children, brings us to the cross and says, Little fellow, you need a Savior. You need to be saved. You're a sinner. Now, the law is just that. And these people are given the opportunity. And now notice the reaction of these people to all of this. In verse 6, And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You see, God's original intention for Israel was that they were to be a kingdom of priests, that all of the tribes were to be priests. But because of their failure to go in at Kadesh Barnea and their failure here at the giving of the law, and they made the golden calf, why, he only chose one tribe. But his ultimate goal, and in the millennium, you'll find that the entire nation of Israel will arrive at that original purpose of God, that they are going to be a nation of priests here on this earth. That'll be long after the church is removed and will be in heaven with the Lord Jesus in the New Jerusalem. Now, he says, Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.