The ABC’s of the Christian Life (12): Following Jesus Christ Rightly #6c – Understanding Law & Grace

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Today we continue our consideration of the Bible's teaching about God's law.

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More specifically, today we'll attempt to show Christians that they are to live under God's law toward Christ, which is also sometimes referred to as the third use of the law.

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Very important principle. The law of God is an important subject of God's word.

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And by the way, the hymn we just sang so beautifully sets forth our Reformed understanding of the law of God and its purpose and role in our lives.

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The reason for the importance of this theme or this subject of the law of God is maybe considered in the following.

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I've listed a few reasons. First, the law of God is an important subject because apart from a proper understanding of God's law, you will not be able to read and interpret the scriptures rightly.

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For the subject of the law of God permeates the entire Bible. If we're wrong here, we may be in error in many and significant ways.

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Secondly, the law of God is an important subject because apart from a proper understanding of God's law, you'll not be able to really understand the

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Bible's teaching about a number of important matters, like God's grace, righteousness, reconciliation, justification, sanctification, and many other vital and essential biblical subjects.

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The law of God must be understood rightly. And third, studying what the

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Bible says about the law of God is important because there are strange but very prevalent teachings.

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What we're saying about the third use of the law today is understood and accepted by relatively few

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Bible believers today because they've been influenced and affected by other teaching.

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And so this third use of the law is rather unique, mostly a characteristic of Reformed people, those who understand and believe historic

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Protestant teaching about these matters. For there are many Christians that ignore, diminish, or even deny the role of God's law among believers, and we want to correct that.

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Fourthly, knowledge of the law of God is important for us because we live in days characterized by lawlessness, both inside and outside the church.

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There is a refusal of even professing Christians to recognize and yield to biblical authority.

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Some, because of a faulty understanding about God's law, deny the authority of large portions of Holy Scripture.

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That was for another people in another time, does not apply to us, to me.

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While they say they're Bible believers, at the same time they'll say that the Old Testament is no longer authoritative for the

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Christian. After all, we're not under law but under grace. And others will go so far as to say that even portions of the

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New Testament are not to be regarded as authoritative by Christians in this church age.

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I've got a few quotes if we get to it today where some very influential people have taught pastors that they were training, men they were training for the pastoral ministry, that the

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Sermon on the Mount largely does not apply to you and me as Christians, which is amazing.

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They argue because the Jews were under the law until the cross, much of the teaching, even of Jesus, is not for the church.

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Still others say that because we're under grace, we're free from any and all laws of any kind.

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Well, they are lawless in their belief. And those people become careless and really lawless in their practice.

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And again, this plagues Christendom today, evangelical Christendom. Then fifthly, an understanding of God's law will bring clarity to one's thinking about issues of morality and decision -making.

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There's clarity, understanding, precision that comes with it. And so as we address this matter of the law of God, at first it may not seem like a very practical matter, but it very much is so.

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An understanding of God's law provides a clear understanding into the nature and will of God and will help us to know where and how we can determine what kind of behavior pleases

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Him that's set forth in the law of God. And so for these reasons, among others, we have sought to present what the

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Bible teaches about this very important law of God in order to follow Jesus Christ rightly, we must understand this subject rightly.

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But as we have said before, we're addressing matters that are not essential to believe in order to have salvation.

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People can be wrong about this and still be Christians, thankfully. Thankfully, that's the case.

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But again, we're addressing what we believe is necessary in order to live before Christ in a right manner, to follow

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Christ rightly, and to be able to be put in a place where you can experience as much blessing from God as possible in this fallen world as His people.

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And so for the last two Sundays, we've addressed the important understanding of rightly understanding the nature of God's law and grace.

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But we need to spend a day addressing this matter once more or more fully so that we may understand what has come to be known in Reformed theology as the third use of the law.

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And so as Reformed Christians, that is as ones who believe in the historic Calvinistic understanding of the

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Holy Scriptures, we advocate that the Lord has three purposes for His law for us.

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And in order to understand this clearly, I could do no better than rehearse to us the theological note in the

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Reformation Study Bible. They have theological notes interspersed in the Bible, and this one is entitled

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The Threefold Use of the Law. And this says it far clearer and better than I can.

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And so here it is. Every Christian wrestles with the question, how does the Old Testament law relate to my life?

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Is the Old Testament law irrelevant to Christians, or is there some sense in which we are still bound by portions of it

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As the heresy of antinomianism, that would be lawlessness, namos is the

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Greek word for law, antinamos, anti -law, speaks of loose living, basically, lawlessness, becomes ever more pervasive in our culture.

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The need to answer these questions grow increasingly urgent. The Reformation was founded on grace and not upon law.

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Amen. Yet the law of God was not repudiated by the Reformers. John Calvin, for example, wrote what has become known as The Threefold Use of the

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Law in order to show the importance of the law for the Christian life. And so a reference to the

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Institutes of Christian Religion is systematic theology. The first purpose of the law is to be a mirror.

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On the one hand, the law of God reflects and mirrors the perfect righteousness of God. The law tells us much about who

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God is. Perhaps more important, the law illumines human sinfulness.

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Augustine wrote, The law orders that we, after attempting to do what is ordered and so feeling our weakness under the law, may learn to implore the help of grace.

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The law highlights our weakness so that we might seek the strength found in Christ. Here, the law acts as a severe schoolmaster who drives us to Christ.

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The second purpose for the law is the restraint of evil. The law in and of itself cannot change human hearts.

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It can, however, serve to protect the righteous from the unjust. Calvin says this purpose is by means of its fearful denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment to curb those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude and justice.

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The law allows for a limited measure of justice on this earth until the last judgment is realized.

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And here we have the third use of the law that we're addressing today. The third purpose of the law is to reveal what is pleasing to God.

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As born -again children of God, the law enlightens us as to what is pleasing to our

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Father, whom we seek to serve. The Christian delights in the law as God himself delights in it.

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Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. This is the highest function of the law, to serve as an instrument for the people of God to give him honor and glory.

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By studying or meditating on the law of God, we attend the school of righteousness. By definition, that's what righteousness is, life in conformity to the law of God.

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We learn what pleases God and what offends him. The moral law that God reveals in Scripture is always binding upon us.

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Our redemption is from the curse of God's law, not from our duty to obey it.

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We underscore that one. We are justified, not because of our obedience to the law, but in order that we may become obedient to God's law.

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To love Christ is to keep his commandments. To love God is to obey his law.

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That is a very good, concise statement of what the Scriptures teach regarding the law of God.

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And so I had to read the entirety of it for us. We can do no better than that. However, it's a sad reality that among professing

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Christians, relatively few would affirm the third use of the law.

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Very few Christians understand and affirm this. Rather, it's commonly believed that Christians are not responsible before God to live according to his law.

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They argue we're under grace, not law, and therefore Christians are free from having to obey the law of God.

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And there are people, I might say, I know, who refuse to come to this church because they regard us as legalists.

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They don't know what they're talking about, but this is their thought because their church emphasizes grace teaching.

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They don't emphasize the law of God, and they're out of balance. And we'll talk about why this is the case.

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First, I would like us to consider the teaching of one passage of Scripture which is erroneously claimed to teach that Christians are not bound to keep the law of God, that it has no authority over them.

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And so we want to look at Galatians 3 where we'll consider Paul's instruction early of the entire chapter.

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We're not going to be able to go into detail, but we'll read a paragraph and then I'll comment on it to make sure that we understand what's being written.

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And so before we read that, however, let me give a little bit of background. It's a little repetitious from two weeks ago because we addressed

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Galatians 4 in the first 10 verses, I think, of Galatians 5.

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And here we're looking at chapter 3, kind of going backwards. Paul wrote this epistle to the churches that he had founded in the region of Galatia, which is probably what is central southern

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Turkey of today. Numbers of churches. We don't know how many. But after Paul left that region to go elsewhere,

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Paul's teachers came into those churches and promoted errant teaching, respecting the nature of salvation in the

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Christian life. And so Paul proclaimed to the churches the gospel of God's grace, that sinners were saved by grace through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, apart from any merit of works whatsoever.

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But these false teachers, these Judaizers, claimed that Paul had taught them error.

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And so they repudiated Paul's apostleship and they declared that God actually bestows his salvation, yes, on those who believe on Jesus, but faith coupled with keeping

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God's law as meritorious works in order to gain

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God's approval. And so we're talking about the need to obey

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God's law, but in no way is our obedience meritorious. These Judaizers said it was through faith in Jesus, coupled with your good works, you earn salvation, much like Roman Catholicism teaches today in a number of other denominations as well.

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Grace plus law -keeping between the two of them, you merit or you earn or you obtain salvation.

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We're not talking about that, of course. But this is what the Judaizers taught.

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And so they taught another gospel. And so whereas Paul taught them they had a saving relationship with God through a covenant of grace, in other words, based on what

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Jesus did, these false teachers or Judaizers taught that a saving relationship with God was attained through what they did.

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That is, according to a covenant of works. And so Paul taught salvation by grace.

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The false teachers taught salvation by the merit of keeping God's law. So obviously

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Paul's addressing this and correcting this error. And that's what we have here in Galatians chapter 3.

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It's important to understand what Paul's addressing here in chapter 3. He's addressing God's law as a covenant with Israel.

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In other words, as God gave his law through Moses, particularly the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, constituting

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Israel as a nation. And the nation of Israel's relationship with God was based on them keeping the law, not as meritorious works, but to demonstrate their faith and love for God.

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Well, in Galatians 3, Paul explained God's purpose for having given his law through Moses. But the

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Israelites had failed to understand the right, proper role of God's law as a temporary covenant.

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And here in chapter 3, Paul speaks to this matter, that the Mosaic covenant of the law was temporary in nature.

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And so in the first two paragraphs, verses 1 through 9, we read of Paul asserting justification through faith alone.

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This is how sinners come into a right relationship with God. He wrote, O foolish

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Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes

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Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you.

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Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the

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Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?

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And therefore he, God, who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

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Just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

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And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,

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And you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing

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Abraham. What's Paul doing here? What's he saying? Well, the apostle reasoned with these

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Christians that they had formally embraced the gospel that he had proclaimed to them and that through faith alone

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God had transformed them by the work of the Holy Spirit. He had preached to them

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Jesus Christ crucified as the only way of salvation, and they had embraced that gospel. But they had departed from that doctrine through these false teachers.

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They were now trusting in the performance of good works, performing, doing God's law in order to be saved from their sins.

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And so Paul accused them of being ignorant and foolish. Why do you want to go that way? He even suggested that someone had bewitched them to believe such nonsense, such error, after having formally heard, known, and embraced the truth.

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And so he reasoned with them, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? In other words, did

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God transform your lives through faith or had He done so due to works that you had performed? Obviously, it was when they had believed the gospel that they experienced the grace of God transforming them.

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Their lives were changed. Paul then reasoned with them that it was through faith that God had justified them in order that God's promise to Abraham would be realized and that God had promised

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Abraham he would become the father of many nations, in other words, Gentiles. And these churches of Galatia were comprised mostly of Gentiles, although there were

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Jews among them, too. Those who have faith as Abraham had faith are

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Abraham's spiritual children. And by the way, that's what counts today, always has since the first century, since Christ came.

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It's not natural -born descendants of Abraham who are the true people of God. It's not

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Jewish people, but rather it's people with the same faith that Abraham had. They are the actual children of Abraham to whom the promises of God are given.

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Much of evangelicalism in Nazareth regarding this is not by race, but by grace to those who believe like Abraham believed.

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They are the spiritual children of Abraham. You and I. Abraham was our father if we believe as Abraham did because God had promised

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Abraham he would be a father of many nations. And this is realized in this church age, we who believe.

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People of faith, whether Jew or Gentile, comprise the Israel of God. That's what he said. Whereas Isaac was children of promise.

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If God justifies sinners through faith and not through doing the works of the law, the question then may be asked, what is the outcome of those who believe they may be saved by keeping

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God's law? That's what these churches had embraced, this error. And the answer is that the law brings a curse.

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You can't be saved by the law. He reasons, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it's written,

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Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. If you want to go that route, you've got to be perfect.

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And nobody is, of course. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

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He's quoting Habakkuk 2 .4, one of the most quoted verses in the New Testament.

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Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them.

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That's the way of life under the law. You've got to obey it. But the way of faith is different, of a different nature.

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He argues in verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it's written,

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Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That, in other words, so that, here's a purpose clause, so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the

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Gentiles and Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through him. Anyone who intends to be saved by keeping the works of the law are under the curse of the law.

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You cannot be saved by keeping the law as a way of salvation. That supposed law keeper is actually under God's wrath because the law can only condemn sinners.

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And we spoke about the reason for this last week in some detail. Although God had established a covenant of works with the human race through Adam, who was mankind's federal head, when he broke that covenant of works in the garden, thereafter no one could be saved by the covenant of works.

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That is, no sinner can be. But when sinners believe the gospel, as Abraham had believed, then

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God thereafter regards and treats the believing sinner as righteous. God declares the believer to be righteous.

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And this qualifies the believer then to be the beneficiary of God's promise to Abraham. And Paul is declaring that God's promise to Abraham was the gift of the

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Holy Spirit, who gives life and transforms people, makes them into the kind of people that God would have them be.

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Well, we next read of God's changeless promise to Abraham in verses 15 -18.

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Brethren, I speak in the manner of men. Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

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Those days are gone. Now to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made, he does not say, and to seeds, or as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is

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Christ. In this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed by God in Christ that it should make the promise of no effect.

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For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

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Paul, do an analogy of the covenants that men make with one another when they enter a covenant, an agreement.

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They don't change it after they agree to it. They keep the terms of the covenant they agree to. Similarly, God did not change

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His covenantal commitment that He had made with Abraham when the law came. He didn't change with regard to Abraham.

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But Paul takes great care to say that when God had originally made His covenant with Abraham, He did so with His seed, not seeds, singular rather than plural.

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And what Paul was saying is that when God originally promised the blessing of life to Abraham, He did so specifically to Abraham and Jesus Christ, His seed, not to His physical descendants, but rather to Christ, His distant descendant.

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And therefore, when God covenanted with Israel through Moses 400 years later at Mount Sinai, a relationship with Israel, the nation of Israel, based upon keeping

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His law, that covenant, that legal covenant, could not and did not annul His covenantal commitment to Abraham.

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And so Paul reasons that if God's promise of salvation was due to keeping the law, it could not be based on God's promise.

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If salvation came through keeping the law, then it would be because God owed you a debt that He had to pay you for having merited

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His favor, earned His favor. And so he says it's impossible to be saved that way.

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Well, this leads to the question, well then, what was God's purpose for establishing His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, a covenant based on Israel keeping the law?

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The Ten Commandments were the covenant. God came, gave the Ten Commandments.

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Israel came, embraced His Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, the two tablets of stone, were the covenant, the basis of agreement, the basis of blessing of God to the nation of Israel.

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The Ten Commandments themselves were the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel.

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And so, again, the question is given, what then was

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God's purpose for establishing His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, a covenant with Israel based on His law?

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And so we read God's purpose for His law in verses 19 through 25. What purpose then does the law serve?

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It, now it's careful to recognize He's talking about the law as a covenant. It was added because of transgressions until the seed, that would be

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Jesus, should come to whom the promise was made. It was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

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It's understood that most of the law God gave to Moses was through angels. And then

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Moses gave the law to Israel. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

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Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.

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But the scripture is confined to all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed, and therefore the law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that, here's the purpose clause, so that we might be justified by faith.

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But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. And so Paul is talking about the temporary nature of that covenant that God made with Israel based upon the law that has come to an end.

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So Paul declared that God's covenant with Israel through Moses was intended to be a temporary covenant which would serve only until Jesus Christ came to whom the promise of Abraham was given.

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One might conclude that it would be wrong to do so, that the Mosaic covenant based upon God's law would therefore be in conflict with God's promises.

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And Paul is saying, no, not so. For the Mosaic law, he argues, never promised life.

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It's not in conflict with God's promise. It's just different. It's a different sort of covenant. Rather, God gave

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His law through Moses in order for sin to be recognized and seen in all its hideousness.

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The law as a covenant served as a tutor, an instructor, which would prepare

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Israel, prepare them, and lead them to faith in Jesus Christ. That was the purpose of the law as a covenant with Israel.

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Now look at verse 25 closely, which reads again, But after faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor.

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And here is the source of the problem. Paul declared after faith came, that is, after faith in Jesus Christ was proclaimed and required in the gospel, there was no longer need for the law as a tutor.

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Earlier, we spoke of those who deny the third use of the law, that the law of God continues as a rule of life for the believer.

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They wrongly take this verse. Others like it, but verse 25. To argue their position, they say something like this,

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Since the law was God's tutor to lead us to Christ, and after faith in Christ was announced in the gospel, we no longer need to obey

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God's law. And so they say, all obligation to law -keeping has come to an end, because we're under grace, not law, they argue.

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We just need to believe, they say. We don't have to keep God's law. But it's clear that what

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Paul was addressing in this passage was God's law as a covenant, not

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His law as an unchangeable, abiding standard and expression of God's holy nature.

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And this is where their confusion and error enters. Yes, the law is a covenant, that is, as a basis on which the nation of Israel maintained its relationship with God, had come to an end after faith had come in Christ.

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But God's law as a rule of life continues for believers in this age of grace.

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And yet apart from Reformed Christians, this is denied by most.

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They argue we're under grace, we're not under law, and therefore we don't have to obey God's law. It doesn't matter whether you obey it or not, because we're under grace.

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And that is not what the scriptures teach. Yes, we're not under the law as a covenant.

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We don't relate to God based on keeping the law. No, we relate to God based upon Christ keeping the law on our behalf.

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But now He enables us to keep His law by the Holy Spirit that He gives to us.

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The law of God continues as a standard, as a reflection, as an expression of who

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God is and what He's like. He's holy in His nature, and that's reflected in His law.

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We cannot be saved by keeping His law, but after we become saved through faith in Christ, through the power of the

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Holy Spirit, He enables us to conform our lives to His law. In other words, we become like Christ.

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People argue, no, you don't have to be conformed to the law, you have to be conformed to Christ. Christ was the embodiment of the law.

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If you become like Christ, you're going to become law -like, aren't you? Because His entire life was a life of obedience to the law of God.

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If you become like Christ, your life is going to come into conformity to the law of God, because that was the standard which governed

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Christ, and He lived according to that law without any infraction whatsoever.

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Well, let's just look lastly at verses 26 through 29, then we'll move on. Paul wrote,

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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

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That's the promise God made to Abraham. And so all former distinctions between Jews and Gentiles have come to an end when faith is placed in Jesus Christ.

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We who believe are in union with Jesus Christ, to whom the promise of life was given. And because every believer is in Christ, all believers alike are in Him.

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There are no distinctions between believers, neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor male nor female.

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We're all one in Christ. And that's how we are to regard one another and treat one another, by the way.

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Well, let's look now at several verses that declare the abiding rule of God's law for the Christian.

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And this can be... I can cite many verses or passages that speak to this.

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I thought I would just throw out a few that clearly show the law of God continues to be a rule for the life of the believer.

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1 Corinthians 7, 19. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing. But what is something?

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Keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Paul is writing to a church. Keeping the law of God is what matters.

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It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. That's not the issue. Keeping the law of God is the heart of the issue.

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Romans 7, 25. Paul wrote, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, so with the mind

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I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. And again, over the years, and over 43 years,

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I've been in about every kind of aberrant teaching imaginable. The Lord has brought me through it. And there was a time when

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I believed what I'm denouncing today. And that's what I was taught.

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And I readily believed it. This verse always troubled me. How could

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Paul the Christian say, with my mind I serve the law of God? Because I had viewed the law of God only in a negative light.

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It can only condemn. How can Paul say I serve with the mind the law of God? I realize, always realize, there's something incongruent in my thinking.

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Something deficient here. And another thing that troubled me, how could David write

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Psalm 119, I love thy law? Because I was taught that the law was something that you wanted to jettison from you and avoid because it can only condemn and ruin you.

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I failed to see because nobody taught me the third use of the law.

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And I was in error about it. And there are a lot of people that way today. So one of the reasons

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I'm vehement about these matters is I'm, you know, I'm inwardly shivering when

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I consider that period of life when I had thought in these terms. God forgive me.

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Well, here's several other verses. Romans 13, 8 -10. Paul recites a number of the

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Ten Commandments, clearly showing of their abiding authority and validity.

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Oh, no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

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See, we have to fulfill the law for the commandments. And then he quotes a number of them. You shall not commit adultery.

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You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. If there's any other commandment.

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No, all the commandments, all the law are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. He's not saying love stands in place of the law.

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But if you're loving rightly, you're going to be fulfilling the law of God. The law is the standard.

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And John writes in his epistles, you know, this is the love of God that you keep as commandments.

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This is how you define love. This is what love looks like. Ordering your relationship with others based upon God's law.

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1 John 2, 4. He who says, I know him, does not keep his commandments is a liar. The truth is not in him.

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1 John 3, 24. Now he who keeps his commandments abides in him. 1 John 5, 3.

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For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. See, the law of God is perfectly congruent with the life of the

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Christian. Blessed, and then the Revelation 22, the last chapter of the

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Bible. Blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.

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It's not because they merit entrance into the city by keeping the commandments, but it's to describe their character.

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They're ones who live in obedience to the law of God. Not perfectly, but it orders their existence.

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And so the law of God abides as a rule of life for the believer. True believers are to order their lives according to God's commandments.

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And yet we need to recognize, very importantly, that the law of God that we follow is the law of God under the rule of Christ.

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That makes all the difference. And so we need to understand what this means. God's covenant with Israel mediated through Moses, which was based on law keeping, came to an end when

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Jesus Christ died on the cross. With the death of Jesus, the Lord God established a new covenant with his people.

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Jesus Christ himself was the basis of the covenant. We emphasized earlier the Ten Commandments were the basis of the covenant with the nation of Israel.

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Under the new covenant, Jesus Christ himself is the basis of the relationship that we have with God.

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Not the law, but Christ, who kept the law on our behalf. And so God's testimony to the end of the

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Mosaic covenant may be seen in the event upon the death of Jesus. In Matthew we read, Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

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See, God did it from top to bottom. When the earth quaked, the rocks were split. Our relationship with God thereafter was available only to those who believed on the crucified, risen, and enthroned

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King Jesus Christ. But the Lord Jesus now reigns over his people according to the standard of God's law.

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It's the law of the kingdom. He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to his people, who enables them to keep the righteousness of God's law.

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And Paul declared that this was the purpose of God sending his Son into the world, to make law keepers.

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So in Romans 8, For what the law could not do, it was weak through the flesh. See, the law cannot make anybody holy because we who are fallen can't keep

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God's law. The law does not empower anybody to become more holy. It was weak through the flesh.

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But what the law could not do, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

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He condemned sin in the flesh. Why? Here's a purpose clause. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

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He's not talking about justification. He's talking about sanctification. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled.

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Not credited to you, but realized in you. Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the

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Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the

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Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded, that is to be an unsaved person.

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To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Verse 7.

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Because the carnal mind, that's the non -Christian, is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither can be.

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That's the non -Christian. He cannot be subject to the law of God. But in contrast, the

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Christian is always subject to the law of God. Not perfectly, and it grieves us that we're not.

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But he goes on to say, so then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh, but in the

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Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells within you. And he went on to say that those who are led by the

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Spirit, they are the children of God. And being led by the Spirit in Romans 8 is being led to keep the law of God and empowered to keep the law of God.

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That's how you identify a Christian. One way is the law of God.

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The scriptures order their lives as they're enabled by the Holy Spirit, whom the risen and enthroned

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Lord Jesus gives to his people. And so as Christians, we remain under God's law, but as directed through Christ rather than Moses.

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And so although we're not under the law as a covenant, we are under the law to Christ. And that's very important.

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Because we're all naturally born legalists. We tend to look to the law directly apart from looking to Christ.

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And that's a problem. We have to learn not to do so. Paul wrote of this in 1

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Corinthians 9, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win them all.

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To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law.

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To those who are without law, he's talking about Gentiles, as without law. But then he wants to qualify himself.

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He doesn't want anybody to misunderstand not being without law to God. See, that can never be. But under law toward Christ.

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Every Christian is under the law of God toward Christ. That I might win those who are without the law.

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To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

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And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you, is what he says.

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I'm constrained to live in this way, that I might also benefit from the gospel

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I'm proclaiming, he says. So let's consider what it is to be under the law toward Christ.

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The Lord Jesus himself taught that the law of God was the rule of life for the believer, for his people.

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He taught on the Sermon on the Mount. Moses went up on the mountain and came down, gave the law to his people.

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Jesus went up on the mountain and gave his new law to his disciples, citizens of the kingdom.

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That's what he did, the Sermon on the Mount. It was like he's a new Moses speaking to Israel, and he sets forth his law,

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God's law, clarifying and correcting some of the misunderstanding that the people had regarding the law of God.

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And so we read of our Lord's teaching on God's law to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. For example,

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Matthew 5, 17 -20. Do not think I came to destroy the law of the prophets.

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I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

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He's arguing the law is an abiding authority over his people. It never comes to an end.

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Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, and there are a number of them today, you don't have to keep

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God's law. All you have to do is believe. Jesus kept the law for you. It doesn't matter how you live, as long as you believe you're safe.

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That's what they're told. Whoever teaches men this way are going to be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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You're going to have true Christians that teach wrongly about this, but they're not going to have much glory when the

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Lord returns and His kingdom is manifest. But whoever does and teaches them,

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I hope I'm in that group, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

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He's not talking about imputed righteousness here. Some people respond, how can

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I possibly have righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees? He must be talking about the righteousness that is imputed to me,

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Christ's righteousness imputed to me by faith. No, no. Jesus is saying your lives better manifest more righteousness than those scribes and Pharisees or you're not going to inherit the kingdom.

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See, the problem is the scribes and Pharisees, their righteousness was only outward. Nothing inward.

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And Jesus was telling His disciples, you better have a righteousness that is clearly demonstrated and manifested from your heart that permeates your life.

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It's not just external, but it's internal. And He went on down, citing the commandments of the law and internalizing it, showing forth the spiritual nature of the law.

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And so He was teaching the crowd, His disciples, how to live before God. They were to live a life of good works.

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He said to them, you're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. Let your light so shine among men. And in this immediate context, the

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Lord tells these people what He determines is right conduct. And so He came to fulfill

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God's abiding rule of life, God's law. Don't think I came to destroy the law.

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I didn't. I came to fulfill it. He came to fulfill it in His own life, but He also came to fulfill it in the lives of His disciples.

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And He does so by giving them the Holy Spirit. Clearly, He set forth the abiding law of God.

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And He cited the commandments. He cited the errant tradition that was commonly believed about the commandments.

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And then He gave a spiritual application of it. No, it's not just outward adultery.

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It's the adulterous heart. It's not just outwardly killing somebody, but it's murderous intent, anger in your heart.

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And He applied all of the commandments in this internal spiritual way. And this must be true of Christians.

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And it is true of Christians because they're born of God. They're born of the Spirit. And the

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Lord went on to apply other Old Testament laws to the people, correcting their false understanding and practice.

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Now we're right in the middle of page 8, I believe, in your notes. Many wrongly believe that He was changing the content of the

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Old Testament. You heard Moses say this, but I say this. They're wrong. He was correcting wrong understanding of the

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Mosaic law. Clearly He's setting forth the law of God in the

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Sermon on the Mount as a principle of justice that's steadfast and unchanging in the mind of God and should be evident for all nations throughout all history.

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We'll skip over to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7 .21. He basically declares that the rule and standard of God's law will be the basis of God's future judgment.

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Judgment Day is coming. And he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my

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Father in heaven. See, Christians do the will of God in heaven. And the will of God is set forth in God's law.

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Only they will be granted everlasting life. Not because they earned it. That's not possible. But their lives demonstrated a life consistent with the law of God.

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And so he says, you have to do his will. What is his will? Matthew 7 .21 -23. Again, Not everyone who says to me,

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Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. We're at the top, page 9. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

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Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, have we not preached your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name.

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See, miracle workers doesn't necessarily assure that people are Christians. No. He says,

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I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And that is the best translation of the word here.

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The NIV, I think, uses the word evildoers. New King James, I think, says iniquity.

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It ought to be translated as lawlessness. The Greek word is anomion.

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Again, you can hear the Greek word namos for law. The ah in the front cancels it.

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Non -law or against law. He's referring to anomions here. All right.

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This is what it is. And he says, there are going to be many there that day who claim that Jesus is their

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Savior. Lord, Lord, I preached for you. But they did not order their lives according to the law of God.

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They live lives of lawlessness. And he says, depart from me, I never knew you. You workers of iniquity.

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Point one, it stresses this. The Lord Jesus did not set aside the law of God as a rule of life.

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He reinforced the law as a rule over all aspects of thought and life. The law of God is what

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God uses to instruct us in the way of righteousness. It shows us wherein we fail. It will be the basis of God's judgment on the last day.

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It shows our need for God's mercy and our failure, our need for forgiveness of sin. And it also shows that we need the power of the

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Holy Spirit if we're going to live this way. Aren't we? But King Jesus gives his Spirit to his people.

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If you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, you shall live. This is what the

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Scripture, what he says in Galatians. We have a couple more minutes because I want to address this last matter.

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Now let's address the error. It's important that we understand this. Great error exists.

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Popular but errant belief exists among many Christians that biblical law in any and all forms has no place in the life of the

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Christian. This is unfortunately the position of many, I would say, even the majority of evangelical

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Christians and church attendees. The law, they would say, with any and all of its rules are not to be imposed among Christians for the

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Christian is under grace, not law. And we are under grace. We're not under the law as a covenant.

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We're under the covenant of grace. But that doesn't mean that the law doesn't have authority over us.

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No, it is and does under Christ. The result of this errant teaching is that we have lawlessness among Christians with respect to how they live before God and few seem to be challenging their belief or practice.

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I have a friend that attends another church and he's so frustrated because whenever he comes forth with a commandment from the

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Lord, Word, and confronts something or some issue that's clearly sin, he's accused of being a legalist and not pushing and promoting grace teaching.

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It's commonplace. People claim to believe the gospel, but they live with no sense of an objective standard of behavior for Christians, as long as you love however they want to define love.

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And oftentimes, it gives people a license to sin in their own minds. This started out in a big way a little over 100 years ago with the influence of classical dispensationalism promoted by a

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Plymouth Brethren guy, J .N. Darby, greatly popularized by Schofield in his

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Schofield Study Bible, who in turn had a disciple. Schofield was a mentor to Lewis Barry Schaefer who founded

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Dallas Seminary, which has influenced so many institutions and put so many people into pulpits for the last about 85 years or so.

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And most evangelicals have accepted this teaching or have been influenced by the teaching of this classical dispensationalism.

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Well, top of page 10, what is their position respecting law and grace? The major point was this, that the two systems relating to God, law and grace, are so different in nature the two can never exist.

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The Old Testament dispensation of law from Moses to Calvary was an age of law. But now is the age of grace.

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Law was law, now grace is grace. And so this system of teaching respecting law and grace appears to be very logical and seems to be taught in the scriptures.

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This is what I was taught after I was first converted. And the manner in which some of these writers have set forward their teaching is reinforced by the teaching of many others.

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And so they view law and grace as two principles, distinct and antithetical, opposite to each other.

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And so often these two principles are set as opposed to one another. Here are Lewis Perry Schaeffer's words,

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Since law and grace are opposed to each other at every point, it is impossible for them to coexist, either as a ground of acceptance, we would say amen to that, before God, and then he adds this, or as a rule of life.

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Uh -oh, because this is exactly what we're saying. The law abides as a rule of life. Of necessity, therefore, the scriptures of the

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New Testament which present the facts and scope of grace both assume and directly teach that the law is done away.

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Consequently, it's not enforced in the present age in any sense whatsoever. The present nullification of the law applies not only to the legal code of the

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Mosaic system and the law of the kingdom, but to every possible application of the principle of law.

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In other words, you can never set forth a law before Christians because that is viewed as legalism. And the result is a certain view of grace constructed and a certain view of law, and these become overarching principles by which the entire

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Bible becomes interpreted and applied. This view of law and grace resulted in some significant interpretive problems.

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After all, if the age of grace began with Calvary or Pentecost, and everything before was under the dispensation of the law, what application is there for the

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Christian of Old Testament teaching? For that matter, what teaching of the Lord Jesus is for New Testament Christians since he lived under the law and was teaching to Jews who were under the law?

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And the conclusion of dispensationalists such as Schofield, Schaeffer, Walvoord, who was the president of the Dallas Seminary, Charles Ryrie, who was a systematic theology professor, was that most of what

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Jesus taught the disciples is not to be regarded as authoritative for Christians.

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So these dispensational theologians assume wrongly that whenever God's blessing was contingent on obedience, it must be due to the works righteousness principle.

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In other words, anytime there's a command and you do it, they assume that when you do it, it must be meritorious, obligating

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God to be favorable to you. And that is at the heart of their error.

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They conclude that any and all such commands are legalistic and do not apply to the New Testament believer.

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They believe any and all works mentioned in the Bible are meritorious. That's where they're wrong. This leads them to think in only two categories, grace and meritorious works of law -keeping.

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Any and all commands that demand obedience in order to obtain God's blessing are viewed as legalistic and should not be applied to the

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Christian. So Louis Perry Schaeffer, here are his words. When any work is undertaken for God, by which it is hoped thereby to gain favor, that work is wrought of necessity on the basis of pure law.

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On the other hand, when any work is undertaken for God because it is recognized that divine favor and blessing already have received, it is wrought in harmony with pure grace.

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And thus the highest ideal of grace, if prostituted by the motive of securing divine favor, takes on the character of law.

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And that's a wrong conclusion. Yes, you can have people legalistic who think that way, but oftentimes we are encouraged to obey

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God's law, and God promises blessing if we do it. And it's not legalistic. It's not meritorious.

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It's just that God blesses obedience that's born of faith. And they don't understand this.

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I'm not going to read that more extended description of this hermeneutic, his view of interpreting

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Scripture. But the first full paragraph on page 11, the result of this hermeneutical principle, in other words, they apply this interpretation to all of Scripture, is that all works demanded of God in order to receive

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His blessing were seen as meritorious works. In other words, by definition, legalistic.

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And we're not under the law. We're only under grace. And so this results in classical dispensationalism, picking and choosing what portions of Scripture apply to New Testament Christians.

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Some do, some don't. And the outcome of this thinking is that whole portions of the

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Word of God are practically excluded from the Christian canon. They do not apply. Here's Spurge Schaeffer.

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The teachings of grace that will be found comprise all the teaching of the epistles and acts, and certain portions of the

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Gospels, apart from their mere historic features. In discovering the fact and scope of the teachings of grace, it would be noted that, first, the

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Christian's daily life is to be directed only by teachings of grace. The law is excluded from the great teachings of Christ.

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And third, the law is excluded from the teachings of the apostles. The life and service of the apostle

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Paul is an illustration of a life which is lived under grace. And so here we see how classical dispensationalists advocated that only some of Scripture is to be authoritative

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Word of God to New Testament Christians. And this principle was applied to interpreting

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Jesus Christ as well. And so look at what Schaeffer wrote.

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This will make you cringe. There is a dangerous and entirely baseless sentiment abroad which assumes that every teaching of Christ must be binding during this age simply because Christ said it.

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In other words, not all teachings of Jesus are to be viewed as authoritative to you as a

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Christian. The fact is forgotten that Christ, while living under, keeping and applying the law of Moses, also taught the principles of his future kingdom.

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See, in the future millennium, they say it will apply, but not during this church age because we're under grace.

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Well, again, the informed Christian almost reels under the absurdity of these words. But again, the point we're making is that they fail to understand that the

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Bible does speak of God's blessing upon ones who are obedient to his law, but that God does not bless the

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Christian because he regards obedience as meritorious. It's simply because God blesses obedience that's born of faith.

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Drop down to about a little over halfway on page 12. Thankfully, you know, some of the progressive dispensations like MacArthur, they've corrected some of these more bizarre, absurd assertions.

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They were set down in the Schofield Bible, in the New Schofield Bible, in the Ryrie Study Bible, which you shouldn't have, by the way.

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It all reflects all this errant teaching. They redefine repentance. Repentance isn't turning from sin to Christ.

01:00:08

Repentance is just changing your mind about who you think Christ is. You didn't believe on him before, but now you understand he's

01:00:15

God who came. Believe on him. Repentance has nothing to do with you turning from sin. That is legalism, they say.

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And so you never preach. Command people to turn from their sin. You tell them only to believe on Jesus.

01:00:29

It's a perverted gospel. It's another gospel. Well, thankfully, again, they've been modified somewhat.

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But regarding the Sermon on the Mount, Schofield wrote this in his Study Bible, page 1 ,000. I looked at it this morning.

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For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount, in its primary application, gives neither the privilege nor the duty for the church.

01:00:51

In other words, the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to you as a Christian, is what they advocated. These, in other words, instructions of the church are found in the epistles.

01:01:02

The Old Testament, much of the Gospels, do not apply, they say, because we're not under the law.

01:01:09

And so they go through the Bible and they pick out law passages and they pick out grace passages and they say that only grace passages apply.

01:01:19

Now you might think, I've never heard of this stuff. This doesn't apply. Why are we even considering this? Because there are men in the pulpits all over the land.

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There are people who wouldn't believe this if they heard it. But these are principles that govern their thinking and their interpretation of the

01:01:35

Bible. And so what happens is when they stand up in the pulpit, they're only giving their people what they perceive to be grace teachings.

01:01:43

And they never preach the law of God as it's set forth in the Scripture. And I think it takes away the authority of the

01:01:51

Word of God to confront people in their sin, to bring them to repentance. And so people are lulled into thinking, hey,

01:01:59

I'm under grace, and that means it doesn't matter how I live as long as I believe on Jesus because he kept the law for me.

01:02:06

And they're going to be sadly, many of them, disturbed and distressed on the Day of Judgment when

01:02:13

Jesus says to them, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. We have a responsibility to order our life according to the law of God, not thinking that we're going to earn

01:02:24

God's favor. No. But Jesus is Lord, isn't he? And we can't do it in our own strength.

01:02:31

He put the desire in us. We want to do what's right, but we don't have the ability as Christians. The ability rests in the risen

01:02:39

Lord Jesus who's enthroned, who gives the Holy Spirit to his people to enable us to desire and do the will of God.

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And if you think that you can set the law before you and go out into the world and live for Christ, you're going to fall on your face.

01:02:58

No, the law tells us what we're to do, but then we have to beseech Jesus each and every day.

01:03:04

Jesus, may you give me a fresh feeling of the Holy Spirit to enable me to do your will today, or else

01:03:12

I'm going to fall. I'm going to fail. And so we put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, and then we can begin to encounter and experience the power of God enabling us to defeat sin and to resist the devil and to flee temptation.

01:03:30

But it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit that God promised to give to Abraham and his seed,

01:03:36

Jesus Christ, who then gives to his people who believe on him. And that's why this is so important, this third use of the law that governs our lives.

01:03:46

Amen? Forgive me for going so long, but you got the point. And may the

01:03:53

Lord help us to be true to him and to one another. Thank you,

01:03:58

Father, for your word. We pray that you would help us, our God, to be like Christ, ones who order our thinking and our lives according to the righteousness set forth in your word, which you have set forth,

01:04:13

Lord, in your law. But we thank you, our God, we don't relate to you based upon law, our keeping of the law, but based upon Christ having kept the law on our behalf.

01:04:23

We stand in his righteousness, not our own. But we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would give your people a fresh measure of your

01:04:32

Holy Spirit to enable us to do the things you command us. And in the end, our God, we will give you all the glory for all that we do, for we pray in Jesus' name.