Growing in Grace #1 - the Law of God — Bob Hoekstra

Father, we thank you so much for the great love you have for us that's proven and offered to us through Jesus Christ. We thank you for your Word and the great truth and power of it. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who guides us into all the truth.

We ask you now by your Spirit to unfold for us these glorious avenues of the grace of God and all that it is to mean in and through our lives. We come humbly, eagerly, with hunger and need seeking you, Lord.

Thank you for your great promise that whoever believes in you will not be disappointed. So we anticipate joyfully all that you want to do in this time together and we commit it to you for your work. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Growing in the Grace of God

This December will be 30 years since I met the Lord. The 25 years before that, I must say, are a very sad tale. But this side of Christ, it's been increasingly rich and blessed and encouraging. And for 28 years plus, the Lord has let me teach His Word and I have come to love to teach the Word of God.

The number one theme in the Word of God that I love to teach about, I believe it's the number one theme in the Scriptures and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Well when you think about the Lord Jesus Christ, that leads you to the number one characteristic about the Lord Jesus and that is the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love to teach on the grace of God. In fact, for three consecutive quarters at the Bible College, I've been teaching a class called Growing in the Grace of God, 12 weeks, 2 hours a week, 24 hours on this tremendous theme and I've never enjoyed teaching the Word of God more in my life than these last three classes.

However, 24 hours I feel like still we're just scratching into the early layers of the depths of the grace of God. I've been praying for some time that the Lord would let me offer this as a six-hour seminar for Calvary Chapels and other churches and the time is now and the place is here and we're going to study about growing in the grace of God.

Grace Rather Than Law

By way of introduction, Romans 6 .14, Romans 6 .14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. In relating to God and developing a life with God, Christians do such under terms of grace, not law, grace, not law.

We develop a relationship with God, a life in the Lord by God's grace, that is by His provisions for us and His work in and through us. We do not develop all of that by terms of law, that is by trying to live up to the rules and regulations of Almighty God by our own best ability.

Galatians 4 .21, by way of introduction, tell me, you who desire to be under the law and do you not hear the law? The natural inclination of virtually every Christian, once we become a believer, once we are Christians through faith in Jesus Christ, the natural inclination out of love in our hearts, desire to please and serve God, is to consider now that it's all going to depend on how well, how fully and completely we do it for the Lord God, our Savior.

We are inclined naturally to live under law. God says do it, we want to do it. God says don't do it, we don't want to do it. God says here's my standard, we want to live up to it. And we just naturally start out there.

Plus, that's the way we learn to live anyway. Hey, you can do it. Hey, it's in you. Come on, you've got to do it. You don't, who will? Well, we've left God out of the formula and it's a glorious truth when we begin to learn more and more to live by the grace of God, to grow in and by the grace of God.

Those who want to live under the law, and that's virtually every Christian at the beginning, at least unwittingly, they don't really hear its radical message. They know neither what it is really saying, nor are they yet aware of some of the inability of the law of God.

We're going to look at four things today concerning the law of God. We're going to learn of its message, its inability, its ability, and its fulfillment. Now, it might seem like a strange place to begin in a six-message study on the grace of God.

I thought we were studying the grace of God. What is this, the law of God? Oh, the relationship between the law of God and the grace of God is strategic. Do you know where our appreciation for the grace of God really grows and develops?

It's as we understand the law of God. Tonight, the study will be called The Grace of God, and we'll be increasingly ready and hungry to study it, I know. Because though the law of God is glorious in its own right, it primarily is there to appetize us for and show our desperate need for the grace of God.

The Law's Call to Holiness and Perfection

First the message of the law of God, the message. That is, what it says, what the law of God is saying, Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19 is a good place to find a summary statement of the law of God.

It's right here in the first five books of the Bible, which are primarily about the law of God. Exodus 19, verses 1 through 4, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods. I am the Lord your God. Some of the commandments of God are given here.

Stay away from idols, treat your parents properly, with respect, and honor the Sabbath. And then it's all summarized in two words, be holy. A two-word summary of all the law of God is be holy. Why? Because God is holy.

Well, how holy do we have to be? Well, obviously, a holiness that will measure up to a holy God, basically as holy as God himself. We won't read it, but this is quoted and repeated directly in 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16, where we're told again to be holy.

And again it says, For I, the Lord your God, am holy. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, God is holy. God is still holy. God is always holy. He always was. He always will be, and he is today.

Be holy. We serve a holy God, and the law says be holy like that holy God. Now Matthew 5, verse 48, gives another amazing summary of the law of God. Matthew chapter 5. Much of the Sermon on the Mount, which this verse is from, is about the law of God.

We'll touch on that later. In fact, it's the law of God intensified. There's a great summary of God's law in Matthew 5, verse 48, which says, Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Another two-word summary of all the law of God is this, be perfect. How perfect, we might ask? I mean, after all, as the saying goes, nobody's perfect. How perfect? Listen carefully. As your Father in heaven is perfect.

The message of the law of God is be as holy as God if you want to relate to him by your best effort to measure up to his commands and standards. The message of the law of God, if you want to relate to a perfect God through your performance before his standards and laws, then here's what you need to be, perfect.

Well, what about the saying, nobody's perfect? Yeah, it means everybody's in trouble. That's what it means. Be perfect, as perfect as your heavenly Father is. Note well, the law does not say, do your best, after all, what more could God expect of you?

The startling fact is, God through his law demands far more of us than just our best because our best is not perfect holiness. Our best is not perfection like God himself. So, many of us have always behaved before the law as though God graded on a curve.

Well, I'm going to do the best I can and, oh, thank God, it looks to me like it's better than she's doing or better than he's doing and, oh, maybe I'll at least get a C minus in glory. That is not what the law says and I think the fact that many seem to want to live under the law.

By their own best effort, they're going to please God. By their own best effort, they're going to get into heaven. By their own best effort, once saved, they're going to be fruitful and effective Christians.

Galatians 4 .21 says, you want to live under the law, do you not hear what the law is saying? You want to relate to God on your own best effort before his demands and commands? Okay, then let me summarize it for you in two words twice.

Be holy, be perfect. How holy? As holy as God. How perfect? As perfect as God. That's the message of the law of God. May we not water it down. May we not make it less than it's saying because if we make it less than it's saying, we aren't letting it fulfill the work that it is able to do in our lives.

The Law Cannot Perfect or Justify

Before we look though at the ability of the law of God, next we're going to look at the inability of the law of God. That is, what the law of God cannot do. Now beware, these aren't my opinions about the law of God.

When you talk about the inability of the law, it's almost like, wait a minute, who are you to talk like that about the law of God? The law of God is not able. The law of God is able to do what it was intended to do.

It is not able to do what it was never intended to do. In Hebrews 7, verses 18 and 19, speak to us from God himself concerning the inability of the law of God. The inability of the law of God. There's a built-in weakness in the law.

Not God's oversight, not God gave the law and then people tried and they couldn't do it and he goes, oh, I should have made it different. No way. God has never made a mistake and never will. He knew exactly what he was doing with the law and he knew it had an inability.

Hebrews 7, 18 and 19, for on the one hand, there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. For the law, the former commandment in line here is the law. For the law made nothing perfect.

On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, a better hope than the law. We'll look at that extensively tonight and a bit at the end of our study today. There is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

You want to come close to, get to know, walk with, live with a holy, perfect God? You need a better hope than the law of God. There is a better hope. It's called the grace of God by which we do draw near to God.

Here's the inability of the law. It has a weakness, God says. The law made nothing perfect. Now think about that for a minute. The law of God demands perfection. But the law of God cannot provide perfection.

That's fine. The Lord has another way to provide what the law demands. But the law has this inability. Though it demands perfection, it cannot provide it. In the area of justification as well as sanctification, the law cannot provide what is needed before a holy and perfect God.

Justification, starting out with God, new birth. Sanctification, growing with God, maturing. The law makes nothing perfect, neither in the area of justification nor sanctification. Galatians 2 .16, the next verse in our outline, emphasizes the fact that the law cannot justify.

Galatians 2 .16. Notice how this verse works backwards and forwards two or three times, a contrast of how we're justified and how we're not justified. Before we read it, remember, justification means being declared innocent, not guilty.

And the one declaring it is the holy, perfect, righteous judge. Justification. Knowing this, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that.

In fact, we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Why? For by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. It's a pretty strong verse, isn't it? Just works it back and forth.

Only by faith, not by works of the law. Not by works of the law, only by faith. Why? Because it can't be by works of the law. Okay, Lord, I think we're getting the point. No one will be justified by works of the law.

In other words, God gives us his holy standard, and no one, by their own working to live up to the law, will come to that point where God says, come on, come on, just one more step. Okay, I declare you innocent, not guilty, no sin, you're righteous.

Who are we kidding? If we didn't know many verses that tell us no way, we're already convicted inside with our own inability to walk in perfect obedience and righteousness on our own best effort before God.

How are we justified? How do we get declared innocent, not guilty, forgiven? We're justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. So the law cannot save us. It cannot give us a perfect standing before a holy, righteous, perfect God.

We probably, most of us, now understand that issue, that the law cannot justify. That's why most of us are here. Most of us, maybe not all of us, most likely not all of us, but most of us are probably Christians.

We've been justified by faith in Jesus Christ. We finally admitted we're not going to earn heaven. We're not going to get in God's family on our own best effort to live up to his standards. And we pled mercy, grace.

In repentance, we ask for forgiveness and new life, and we were justified by faith in Jesus Christ. No one can be a Christian unless they understand it's not by works of the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Law Cannot Sanctify Christian Life

But this next area, sanctification, Christian living and growing and maturing and serving and being fruitful, which is where we're going to concentrate mostly in these six studies, because we're looking at the subject growing in the grace of God, not just being saved by the grace of God.

And the law also cannot sanctify us. That's Galatians chapter 3, verse 2. This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Now, is that a verse about justification or sanctification?

Is that a verse about starting out with God or growing up with God? It's a verse about starting out with God. It's a verse about justification. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit is in your life. If the Holy Spirit is not in your life, you're not a Christian. First Corinthians 13 says, If we have not the Spirit, we're none of His. The Spirit lives in a Christian.

The Spirit brings that new life of Christ to us. How did we receive that? That is, start out. How did we get the Holy Spirit in our lives? Letting us be born again by the Spirit of God. Was it by works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

Was it by trying our hardest to live up to the law, works of the law, until God said, Oh, you're doing so much better than everyone else. I just can't hold my spirit back from you any longer. Really, that's not why we're here.

That's not how I got the Spirit. No one can get the Spirit that way. It was by the hearing of faith. We heard we were sinners and we believed it. We heard Christ died for us and we believed it. We heard He would forgive us if we would call upon His name and we believed Him.

The Spirit came into our lives by the hearing of faith. Now the immediate transition in verse 3 is to sanctification, a life day by day with Christ. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Oh, what a question that is. Having begun with God, started out with the Lord. Having found new life, new birth by the Spirit, are you now growing up, being made perfect, maturing, being sanctified, being made more and more like Christ by the flesh?

Are you so foolish? I was. I've met very few Christians who weren't that foolish. We all start out that foolish, I think. Thanks, God, for bringing me in your family. New birth, justification. Oh, wow, watch this.

I love you. I'm going to bless you. This is all for you, Lord. Will you go out and stagger and stumble and try and hit and miss? Are we so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are we now growing up in the things of God by the flesh, by human effort to live up to the standards of God?

Are we that foolish? Maybe you are that foolish. And I don't say that in any condescending or self-righteous way, because that's exactly where I was the first three years as a Christian. I know I was that foolish.

But you know what? After three years a believer, an amazing thing happened to me. A little Bible study group in our home in Dallas, where I was studying at Dallas Seminary, and the three couples wanted to gather for prayer, and it kind of grew to a dozen couples, and then they wanted to hold public meetings.

And the next thing I knew, I was a pastor three years after I was saved. You talk about staying one week ahead of the hounds. I mean, every week I learned everything I knew and told it all, and then prayed for another week to do it again.

But I mean, I was the oldest man in the church. I was 29 years old, you know. Well, for four or five years I was still so foolish as a pastor, that having begun in the Spirit, I could be perfected in the flesh.

Oh, how I preached the law to those dear saints. Strange thing was, they loved it. Just like I did when I started out. Yeah, just tell me what God wants. What do you think, I'm kidding or something? Yeah.

That's it? Amen. Just like Israel. All that you have said, we will do. And the entire history of Israel in the Old Testament is a story of how gloriously they did everything God asked of them. I mean, we're to learn from these things.

We don't have to go through all of it by personal failure in order to learn. We'll have plenty of them, but we can learn some. We're told in 1 Corinthians 10, that the history of Israel was written for our admonition, so we can learn from them.

See, the inability of the law of God is this. The law cannot justify, but neither can the law itself sanctify the inability of the law of God. It's built into it. God did not ever intend for the law to save people or grow them up.

Now, some folks at this point are ready to, therefore, let's just blow up the law and get rid of it. Let's annihilate it. My goodness, it can't save you or grow you up, you know. Makes me think of those old commercial years ago when they blew up Jack in the Box, you know.

Oh, we don't need him. He's gone. He's out of here. I think I heard his back, but so is the law. The law is still here. Just because it can't save us and cannot mature us, doesn't mean we toss it out.

Why? Because it does have some very strategic abilities. It can't save us, it can't mature us. It can't justify us, it can't sanctify us, but it is given to do certain things and it does them well. Let's consider the ability now of the Word of God as the law is given in it, the law of God, its ability.

The Law Reveals God's Character and Sin

Consider Genesis through Deuteronomy and Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Just think about them for a moment if you're a bit familiar with the Word of God. Genesis through Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible.

Written by Moses, they're about the law of God, the law of Moses, the law of God given through Moses. It's the basic explanation of God's law. Think of Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaching.

In many ways, the Sermon on the Mount is sort of an intensification of the law of God. Recall how it was taught in many places. Jesus said, you have heard it said, and he would quote the law of God from the first five books of the Bible.

Then he would add, but I say to you, and he intensified it. You have heard it said that you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you, if you lust after a woman in your heart, you have committed adultery.

Whoa! It's more intense than we thought it was. The law of God, what can it do? It reveals God's character. He's a holy God. He's not a cheater, a liar, a thief. He's not an adulterer. So we're not to be.

It reveals His character. That's one of the abilities of the Word of God, as the law of God reveals His character. It also reveals His standards. It also reveals His will. Do this. Don't do that. The law can reveal these things to us.

But remember, it's sort of like a spiritual yardstick, though you maybe have never seen one of those. When I was a child, everyone had a yardstick. Ours was used to measure and to treat the children. A yardstick, a three-foot ruler.

Now you've got a metal push-button retractable tape measure or something like that. But whether it's a tape measure, a measuring rod, or a yardstick, that's a good picture of the law of God. It holds up the standard, the measurement, of what life should be before God.

But it can't make you what it measures. You know, if you stood someone up in your household, someone in the house wanted to be 6 '2", and the tape measure comes out and they're only 5 '8", you go, well, we've got to get you up to 6 '2".

Here, eat 14 inches of this tape measure. That won't help them grow up. That tape measure just shows how far they fall short. That's what the law of God is. The law of God measures the perfect life that we're called to lead.

But what it does, it shows us how far short we are. And we don't grow up to it by only feeding on the commandments that measure us. It's like a yardstick, showing God's character, His standard, and His will.

To put it more specifically, the ability of the law of God, Romans 3. Romans 3, verses 19 and 20. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become accountable before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now here in these verses, three abilities of the word of God are given. It's able to silence every mouth.

If we had to stand before God and justify ourselves by the standard of the law of God and explain how well we did or why we failed, and God says, be holy, be perfect, and we stand up before Him and we go...

Silence stops every mouth. What can we say? What He demanded, we aren't on our own.

This is the end of side. A. To listen to the rest of the message, please turn the tape over now.

And God says, be holy, be perfect, and we stand up before Him and we go... Silence stops every mouth. What can we say? What He demanded, we aren't on our own. Second, the entire world is accountable to God because all have violated His standard.

His glorious standard of holiness, all have fallen short of it. Third, the law gives us the knowledge of sin. Ultimately, how do we know that cheating and lying and killing and lusting and craving and coveting is sin?

And the law tells us, you shall not do it because it's unholy in the sight of a holy God. The law does have ability, and we want to let the law do its work. The greatest work of the law is in Galatians 3 .24.

Therefore, the law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, our child trainer, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. The greatest ability, the greatest purpose of the law of God, is to tutor us, teach us, train us, instruct us of our absolute, total need for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The law says, be holy, and we go, I'm unholy, and the law says, you need Christ. The law says, be perfect, and we go, perfect? I'm not. Yes, you need Christ. It tutors us to Jesus Christ. It has another interesting work it can do in the life of a Christian.

Once we have found Christ, even, it can deal with rebelliousness or carnality. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. In no way is this study inferring that the law of God is bad. It is good if one uses it lawfully.

If you try to use it to get people saved and forgiven in heaven, that's an unlawful use of the law. It's like telling a little boy, Johnny, you be good and obey the Ten Commandments and do the best you can and you'll get to heaven someday.

That's unlawful to tell a child that. It's against the law of God. That's not true. But that doesn't mean the law is bad. The law is good if we use it lawfully, if we use it for the reasons God sent it.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate that is rebellious, for the ungodly, for sinners, for the unholy and profane and murderers, and the list goes on.

Primarily they're speaking of the unsaved who are walking in godlessness. However, Christians sometimes walk after the flesh and behave that way, become lawless, rebellious, insubordinate to God the Heavenly Father.

Walking by the Spirit Rather Than Under Law

Galatians 5 .18 is a good verse to read with this because it tells us by implication an amazing and somewhat frightful thing that's happening to us then. Galatians 5 .18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Led by the Spirit? Not under the law. What if you're not being led by the Spirit? The implication is you're putting yourself back under the law. If we're led day by day by the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit, depending on the Spirit, we're not under the law.

We're not relating to God by how well we perform to the standards of God. We're relating by the Spirit working in and through and with us. But if we're walking in self-sufficiency, walking according to the flesh, we throw ourselves in rebellion back under the law.

And the law can have a work in our lives as Christians then. The law can minister rebuke from a loving Heavenly Father. It can minister our need for a humbling in light of the rebelliousness and self-sufficiency in our lives.

We who are not walking by the Spirit have put ourselves back under the law. And the work the law does there is humble us, show us our self-centeredness, our self-sufficiency, our self-will. It says you need to get back to dependence on Christ and His Holy Spirit.

So the message of the law is be holy, be perfect. But the inability of the law is this, it can't make us perfect, either in justification or sanctification. Then what is its ability? Well, it reveals God's character, His standard, His will.

It makes us accountable to God, gives us no defense, and lets us know what sin is and thereby tutors us to Jesus Christ. But our last question, how is the law fulfilled in our lives? To put it another way, how are its demands met in our day-by-day Christian living?

Jesus Fulfills the Law

Well, this is an exciting, encouraging truth starting in Matthew 5, verse 17. Matthew 5, verse 17. Jesus said, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Jesus did not come to blast away, annihilate, and remove the law of God. Because it still has a purpose and various abilities to fulfill. Jesus said, I did not come to destroy but I came to fulfill. See, Jesus didn't come to annihilate God's law, He came to fulfill that law.

Now think of the ways that He fulfills it. Three in particular. Number one, Jesus fulfills the law by example. He fulfills it by His life. Think of this. There was one human being and only one, but there was one, who lived on this earth and never violated the laws of God.

He said, I do always those things that please my Heavenly Father. The Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The scriptures say, He was without sin. He fulfilled the law by His life.

He fulfilled its every demand. What it said, He did. What it described, He was. The Holy Son of God. Perfect man at the same time. A second way He fulfilled the law was not in His life but in His death.

At the cross. In that, He was fulfilling the penalty of the law. The law said, the soul that sins must die. And we were all under the curse of the law and deserved death. He died on the cross that separated Him from the Father where we should have died.

Thank God He fulfilled that law. Otherwise, we'd have to fulfill that part ourselves. It would be all over. An eternal death would be ours for the eternal crime of transgressing against an eternally holy God.

But here is where our study concentrates in these six times together. The third fulfillment of the law. Jesus fulfills the law by empowering us day by day to walk in godliness. Colossians 1 .27, you may recall, says, Christ in you the hope of glory.

Christ in you the hope of glory. What's our hope of getting to glory? Christ now lives in us. What's our hope of a glorious life day by day that brings glory to the Father? Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Think of this. The same Lord Jesus Christ who never once sinned before the law, now lives in you if you're a child of God. My hope of a life that pleases the Father is like Galatians 2 .20 says, I've been crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The more I depend on the Holy Spirit, the more I look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the more he is expressed through me, the more I do measure up to the law of God.

The more my life looks like the life Christ lived that never violated the law. Specifically, two more places as we wrap up our study. Specifically, Romans 3 tells us how Jesus fulfilled the law in the area of justification on our behalf.

Justification Through Christ's Righteousness

Romans 3 .21 -24. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Listen, brothers, sisters, this is good news. And listen, if you're here with us today and something like this is buzzing through your mind, what on earth is he talking about?

It well may be you don't know the Lord yet. Maybe. And it may be that these verses are the very ones God had you here for today. See, the righteousness of God is there in the law. It says be righteous just like God.

But notice, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Oh, the law of God tells us how righteous God is, how righteous we ought to be.

But here is a righteousness that's apart from the law. Available not through the law. Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. To all and on all who believe for there's no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

If you're with us studying or someone studying down the road by tape and you hear this and it's nothing but confusion or condemnation, remember, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You might think, my goodness, I guess I don't fit in with these religious people.

They seem to be able to handle all this holy, perfect, righteous law stuff. No, we couldn't. We couldn't live up to it either. We all fell short. And apart from Christ in us, we would fall short more and more every day.

Be encouraged. You too who have fallen short in sin, don't measure up to the glorious standard of God. Verse 24 says, You too can be justified freely by His grace. How? Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Christ died on the cross, paid the debt for sin, brought us out of bondage to sin, that we might be justified freely by His grace. Justified. Declared innocent. Declared not guilty by His grace because Christ paid the debt.