FBC Adult Bible Study

Law and Gospel in Sanctification

Hopefully you picked up a handout for what we're gonna be talking about today. This is ongoing in the series on holiness that pastor's been teaching us for quite a few weeks now. And the title, this is based upon a book by Drs. Barrett and Beeke.

The title that we have is Making Use of the Law and Gospel. Now, there's an unknown person, an unnamed person in our congregation who has been involved in a ministry known as Law and Grace. Is the gospel a gospel of grace?

Yes, so whether we call it Making Use of the Law and Gospel, we could also call it Making Use of Law and Grace. And since Jim's been doing that for how many years? 30 years, why don't you just come on up and teach?

I'm just kidding, okay. You couldn't read my scribbles anyhow. They're Sanskrit or hieroglyphics or something. So you do have a handout, and I'm gonna follow, I think, a little bit of the trajectory of what pastor does.

The difficulty sometimes in preaching or teaching is you have so much that you need to cover, and if you run out of time, then you either speed up or you just let it hang. So you do have printed notes.

We're gonna get as far as we get, and you can finish reading it during the sermon. No, just finish reading it at home, so we'll go. So we have to have an introduction, right? And the more I thought about this, I had to have an introduction to the introduction, so we might not even get to the notes.

Join me, please, in Galatians. I wanna look very, very quickly at three or four passages in Galatians. Galatians chapter three. So I think you can appreciate that the gospel, which is a gospel of grace and law, if we don't get them in balance, can we have issues?

Yes, if we go too much grace, there's a problem. If we go too much law, there's a problem. So they have to be carefully balanced. So this is the introduction to the introduction to the Sunday school class.

In Galatians chapter three, look at verses two and three. Paul asks, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Do you see the tension already beginning there?

Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? In other words, the law and works. Jump down to verse 10. For those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

Paul's not saying that the law is bad. He's saying if we rely on them for salvation, that's bad. And then let's go over to chapter five, please, in verse 16. Chapter five in verse 16. And this is perhaps the most key verse on this whole subject.

Paul says, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So the true way to a sanctified life is encapsulated right here in this verse. We need to walk by the spirit.

Paul is, and he argues this if we took the time to really spend more time in Galatians, he's saying that the law or legalism can never restrain the flesh. Would we agree with that? It can't restrain the flesh.

And we would define flesh as the unredeemed human fallenness. But let's go down to verse 18, and then we'll get to the introduction since we're finished the introduction to the introduction. Verse 18, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

If you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. What Paul means by that is if you're being led by the spirit, you're not depending upon the law to save you because of the gospel of grace. That verse, verse 18, doesn't mean that we never sin, but it does mean that we don't always sin.

Do you see that? Before we were Christians, did we always sin? Yes, even if we did good stuff, right stuff, we were doing it for the wrong reason. And if it's a wrong motivation, that's sin. So again, this verse doesn't mean that we never sin, it just means we don't always sin because currently we are in this process of sanctification.

So the Holy Spirit trains us with the word so that we sin less and obey more. Okay, this may come as a shock, but the world's a mess, isn't it? If you've read, if you've listened, it's a mess. So that's been true of some countries for centuries, other countries for decades, and obviously we can look at our own country and we can see that there's a progressively increasing downhill spiral.

So this morning's topic, making use of the law in gospel or making use of the law in grace, should hopefully offer some insight into our current crisis. It is ironic that we have a society that is constantly wringing its hands and saying we really, we have this lack of ethical behavior, we have all of these problems, the murder rates are up and this and that and all these other things.

We've got all this absence of ethical behavior, and yet, by and large, individuals and society as a whole will continue to reject fixed standards. So there's an irony in that. We live in a day that everyone, what does judges say?

Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And this leads to turmoil and even moral anarchy. So what's the solution for this? The lament of our nation and around the world? Well, I think we could all agree that we need a set of standards, don't we?

But the problem then is whose set of standards? Well, currently, the politicians are fighting it over because when they're passing laws, they are passing some level or not of morality and ethical standards.

If we're gonna have a set of standards, those standards have to have two requirements. Number one, those standards must be absolute. And number two, those standards need to be external. What do I mean by that?

Well, I could sit down with Roger and I could sit down with Jim and the three of us could determine, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna set up a set of standards for the whole world. Now, that would be really, really scary.

Actually, it wouldn't be. I think these would be two good guys to work with, as many of you would be. But the problem is if we have our own set of standards, do our own standards over a period of time tend to change?

Yes.

Now, the more mature we become as believers, those standards are gonna change less and less as we become more Christ-like. But since we're finite, our standards can change, which means standards that we establish today might not be nearly as good as they will be six months from now.

So what we need is we need a set of standards that are absolute and external beyond us. And of course, we've gotta go to God for that, right? God and his revealed law. Because God is immutable. He knows the beginning from the end.

And when he sets a standard, it's as relevant as good back then, currently, and going forward. Because he is perfect, absolute, and unchanging. We need, of course, to look to his standards. And we would say amen to that.

But the problem is most unbelievers, and even a lot of Christians, will tend to regard God's standards as either outmoded or strange. You know, Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. There may be variations.

They didn't have LSD and ecstasy back then. But the principles will still apply. They had different drugs. So there is really nothing new under the sun. We need to look at God's standards. I find it interesting on occasion when people are talking about ethical situations, I'll sit down and I'll say, okay, let's do a quick comparative of the various religions.

And if we were to take all the major talking points of each of the major religions, which of those talking points would be best for society? And what I'll do is I'll simply take them to the 10 commandments, or the two commandments, right?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, soul, right? And love your neighbor as yourself. If we were just to fulfill those two commandments as the entire country, would that get rid of 99 .9 of the problems?

They'd just clear right up, absolutely. So why do people, why are they not willing to do that? Romans 1 .18 says people suppress the truth because of their unrighteousness. So we've got some issues, you already know that.

We're now done with the introduction. We're ready for the notes. So if you've got those in front of you, let's go ahead and start right there with the first of these bullet points. Now, as we go through the notes, there's going to be four of these little arrow bullet points.

If I die before I get to the end of the Sunday school class, make sure you get those four arrow bullet points. Just drag me out, throw me in the car, and then we'll wait for Pastor Ron for church, or you guys can wait for him.

But these are the four bullet points that you really want to think about and assimilate. So let's look at the first of these. Christians should live daily within the parameters set by God's absolutes.

This is because there is an inseparable link between the directives of God's laws and the grace of the gospel. Now, this should be more clear as we move along. And again, part of the reason I like detailed handouts for you folks is I know that in my own situation, if I'm listening to a Sunday school class or hearing a sermon, and the pastors will say some really phenomenal things, I can't keep up with them.

So the stuff that's in print, I didn't write. I stole it from the book, okay, from Drs. Beeke and Barrett. And I just want to share that with you. So that's the first bullet point. Bullet point two, it is only when the works of the law are elevated above the gospel of grace, or when the works of the law become a prerequisite to the gospel of grace that problems ensue.

That is really critical. Is the law important? Absolutely. Wasn't Paul hammering the law? No, he was saying if you take the law out of context and elevate it, there's a problem. And that's what this verse is saying.

If we just go with gospel slash grace and forget the law, there's a problem. If we just go with the law, there's a problem. So these authors would argue, and I agree, just along with Paul, they're both important, keep them in balance, and they will reinforce each other.

So the purpose of the law, and there's three sections, A, B, C, as we coast through these notes. Right thinking about the gospel will produce right, and this is where you get involved, fill in the little blank, will produce right conduct.

So right thinking will produce right conduct. Our purpose in life, 1 Corinthians 10, 31, I've given you the reference, but it simply says our main purpose in life is to glorify God. Psalm 73, 26, our second major purpose in life is to enjoy God forever.

You've heard that phrase? I mean, if we didn't have forever, could we really fully enjoy God? No, it's gonna take forever to enjoy Him. And the third purpose in our life, according to Romans 8, 29, is that we need to be progressively conformed to Christ, conformed to Christ.

So if the believer is to be Christ-like, he must live according to the precepts of the law, because during his earthly life, Christ conformed perfectly to the law. Would you agree with that statement?

Did Christ fulfill the law perfectly? Yes, if it was good enough for Him, then it should be good enough for us. But we don't follow the law for salvation. We do it out of obedience to Him. That's the difference.

So being like Christ, glorifying and enjoying God are not vague directions. God has made the means to the end very, very clear. So it's not just that Paul and the other writers of the Bible said, here's a stack of 3 ,000 laws or 2 ,000 laws or however many.

They just didn't say, okay, best of luck, folks. Do the best that you can. No, He gave us help. First, He has given us His word. And God's word is the only rule for faith in practice. And you've heard this before.

God's word is sufficient for faith and a spiritual life, isn't it? God's word is entirely sufficient for that. So one of the first benefits of the law is that we have the word to give us everything we need for salvation and our spiritual walk.

Number two, in addition to having given us the word, He also gives us His law, which serves to help the believer to fulfill the goal of becoming Christlike, i .e., ongoing sanctification. So the word, the law, and then finally, He's given us His spirit to guide and to help us.

In a very real sense, conformity to Christ is measurable by obedience to the law. Remember, that's not a works for salvation. It's a works because of salvation. We desire to do that because what Christ has done for us.

In this next statement in your notes, we'll spend just a little bit of time unpacking it because it is so important. The liberty of the gospel involves freedom from the law as a means of gaining divine favor.

Number two, freedom from law's penalty and guilt, and, and I really love this, the freedom to be holy. So is it important for us to have favor with God? I would think so. I got two heads going up and down on that one, okay?

We need to have favor with God, and that is achieved, of course, in one of two ways, by works, i .e., the law, that doesn't cut it, or because of favor with God through Christ. Again, when God looks at us, each of us that are believers, he doesn't see dirty old Roger there.

He sees a fully glorified, fully sanctified Roger because he's looking at Roger and all the rest of us through Christ. We know that, right? So that's the first thing, favor with God through Christ, not by following the law.

And then when it comes to freedom from the law's penalty and guilt, what do we have? We have eternal life through Christ. And then lastly, we do have the freedom to be holy. Before we were Christians, we could only choose, we might choose good things, but again, for the wrong reason then they were bad choices.

Now, as Christians, we do have the freedom to choose. We can choose to sin, or we can choose to do what's right. So there's a lot in that last statement. God's law defines the sphere of pleasing behavior.

Think about that for a minute. God's law defines the sphere of pleasing behavior. We now have an arena that we know that we can walk in. And if we know that we're walking in that sphere as unto the Lord, it is pleasing to God.

So we endeavor to keep the law, not to gain divine salvation or favor, which is legalism, but because we have received divine grace, that is the gospel for sanctification. So we wanna make sure we get the cart before the horse.

We don't work to get favor. It's because of the favor of what Christ has done for us, we desire to follow the laws that are applicable to us. This is the next statement in your notes. From my perspective, this is probably the most important thing that we can dwell on.

So you got the bullet, and it's bold, and it's underlined. I was gonna put it in Greek, but I didn't know how to do that, and I couldn't read it anyhow, so this is as good as we're gonna get. Those in Christ are free from the law as a means of life, as a means of life, but they are not free from the law as a way of life.

Does that make sense? I hope it does. So think of the law as kind of a map that we've been given to help us, to help lead the way. The law and the gospel, we're partners, and are partners in defining and enabling the pursuit of holiness.

Join me over in Galatians 3 .24. Galatians 3 .24, hopefully you're still there. Down through the years, in my own little mind, as I've struggled with the balance between law and grace, or law and the gospel, I really was trying to get my head around, why the law, why the law, why the law?

Because as an immature Christian, you can look at the law, especially Old Testament, they really messed up, they couldn't follow it, it was a disaster, and not just the 10 Commandments, but hundreds of laws beyond that, which we'll shortly get into.

So I'm thinking, can somebody concisely define for me, what was the purpose of the law? And here we have it, I really like this verse, 3 .24. This is what we read. So then, the law was our guardian or tutor until Christ came, in order that we may be justified by faith.

That verse says a lot, and if you've ever struggled with this idea of law and grace, or law and gospel, you need to spend some time looking at this verse. A guardian, back in the day, was basically a person that was hired, generally a very, very trusted slave, hired by the head of the house, to go ahead and keep an eye on the kids, because the parents weren't overly involved in their kid's life.

So the guardian was really responsible to take that young person and get them to adulthood, where now they would be responsible citizens. So what was the law? It was a guardian. It was a tutor to direct us toward Christ.

All of us, as we have, at some point in time, become a little legalistic in our lives, and we thought, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this, and we fail, and we say, we throw up our hands, I can't do this on my own.

That's an important point to arrive at. Because we can't fulfill the law on our own, we really have to throw up our hands and say, who do I need? I need Jesus. So the law directs us to Christ. It's a tutor, it's a guardian.

That's the heavy stuff, folks. So if you got through that, hang for the lighter stuff. So let's look at the categories, and I hope that was helpful and not confusing. We wanna look at the three categories.

These include moral, ceremonial, and then the civil or the political. So first of all, under moral, these are well-delineated in the Decalogue. They are equally valid for the Christian faith. So even though they're Old Testament, do they still apply to us today?

Yes, if we were to go to, and we won't read this entire path, we won't read this passage, I'm sure you are well-acquainted with it. If we were to look at Matthew 5, 17 through 37, that's a portion, as you know, of the Sermon on the Mount.

This is where we see those little phrases where Jesus would say, you have heard it said, but I say. So what would he do? He would say something like, you have heard it said, it's wrong to murder. And we're going, whew, dodged the bullet on that one.

I've never killed anybody. Wanted to kill a few people, but I never killed anybody. But then he drops the hammer. What does he say? But I say, if you have had anger in your heart towards someone you are guilty of murder, boy, did he raise the bar.

I don't want to try to figure out how many people I have murdered. And then he goes on, and we'll just do one more. You have heard it said, if you commit adultery, but what does Christ do? But I say, if you have had lust in your heart, did Christ really raise the bar?

I mean, in the Old Testament, it was bad enough, but he really raised the bar because now what he's, and it really applied back then, they just didn't get it. It's not so much the actions, it's the heart.

And their actions were just showing the heart. And Christ said, the heart is really where it's at. Because your heart can be wrong, you may not commit it physically, but if we've thought it, it shows that it's a heart that still needs work by the Lord.

So again, these moral laws of the Old Testament are equally valid for our Christian faith. And then the passage in Matthew 19, 16 through 20, that was the rich young ruler. And of course, the point that Christ is getting there is if you break the law in any of the components, then you are guilty.

So Christ, and this we wanna look at, please, join me in Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 22. Christ summarized the 10 commandments, and we just alluded to this briefly a few minutes ago. In Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 through 40, let me go ahead and read this familiar passage.

Matthew 22, 36 through 40. So the Pharisees, as we know, who are always trying to trick up Christ, you would have think they would have figured it out pretty quickly, they couldn't do it, but pride got in their way.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law? And he said to them, you shall love the Lord to God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophet. So there in Christ's exceedingly distilled, concise statement, we have an encapsulation of man's duty both to fellow man and to God.

It is in these laws that God clearly reveals to man, and particularly to his people, the conduct that is pleasing to him. They define the sphere of ethical behavior. So again, how nice would the world be if the entire world just followed these two commandments for a day?

Phenomenal. Is that simple? Yes, but it's simply impossible because we can't do that apart from Christ. So continuing, please enter notes. The moral commandments were not given, not given as the condition for Israel's deliverance from bondage, but as the means for their living as a redeemed people.

So grace existed before the law, didn't it? Was God showing lots of grace before he got to the law at Sinai? Lots of grace. In fact, remember in the garden after they sin and he provide a covering for Adam and Eve?

Wasn't that covering a forerunner of the atonement to cover our sins, to take care of them? It's just full of it, we don't have the time to go there. So grace existed before the law. Israel's redemption and our redemption creates an attitude toward the Lord that makes obedience both necessary and pleasurable.

So let me say that a different way. It's not follow the law to gain the favor in salvation. It's because of what Christ has done for us that our response to him is a willingness and a happiness to follow what he says.

And the law is there as a guideline for the ethical behavior that we need between each other and in relationship to God. So that is the moral law. Then we get to the ceremonial. Lots and lots and lots of ceremonial laws.

These are the ones that when if somebody's teaching or preaching on these things, boy, you can be asleep in a second, right? Because it just doesn't seem to apply. And it really doesn't to us anymore, but notice what it says.

The ceremonial laws were picture prophecies of Christ and they declared timeless gospel truths. Again, we don't have the time to get into it, but I think that's a great summary statement from the authors of the book as they put the ceremonial laws in perspective.

And then we have the civil political laws. Let me read this and then hopefully explain it. In the Old Testament, there were specific applications of the moral law that were given to Israel as a visible and political entity.

In other words, here's the idea. You have the 10 commandments. If people had the right heart attitude toward those 10 commandments, then you wouldn't need all the civil and political laws. Let me explain that.

Do we have speeding limits, speeding laws?

Yes.

Well, if you're in a subdivision and you think, you know, if you're really thinking correctly and if you're really a respective of your neighbors and the little kids, are you gonna drive slow through there?

Yes, that's loving others as yourself. But because people are selfish, now we have to have speeding laws to make those folks slow down because they're not putting the needs and concerns of others. So do you understand how many civil laws do we have in this country?

Gazillions. Why do we have to have so many civil laws? Because we're not willing to look at those two commandments that Christ gave, right? If people were really putting God first and loving others as themselves, we could get rid of all of the civil laws.

Think about that. Our politicians would be out of a job. Think about that. Don't worry, it's not gonna happen, folks. Okay, so let's look at the 10 commandments. If you wanna flip back to Exodus 20, you can.

In this, we're just gonna do a quick flyover. We have 12 minutes to do 10 commandments. We just might get it done. So Exodus 20, literally 10 words, that's what the 10 commandments means in the Hebrew.

They are a summary of the moral standards and requirements of God. Commandments one through four talk about our duty to God. Commandments five through 10 talk about man's duty to fellow man. So we'll just look at this ever so briefly.

First one, verse three. You shall have no other gods before me. So the first commandment talks about the object of worship. This commandment demands exclusive allegiance to Jehovah as the only true and living God and as the God of the covenant grace and mercy, the Lord will not tolerate divided worship.

The inclusiveness of this command should guard against any and all offensive behavior and motivate pleasing conduct outwardly and meditation inwardly. You say all of that out of that little itty bitty commandment?

It's all in there, folks. It's all in there. Literally, the Hebrew on there means, when it says before me, it literally means to my face. So you've all had the occasion where somebody comes up and they get into your face, right?

God is saying, hey, this is in my face kind of stuff. So make sure you're doing it right. Anything that distracts from or competes with absolute devotion to God is a defiant insult to the God who made us and graciously saved us.

So this first commandment identifies the object of worship. Commandments two through four talk about the way to worship. So let's go ahead and look at verses four through six. This is the second commandment.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water underneath. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandment.

So this second commandment eliminates all possible physical representations of God. It demands observing and keeping pure all that God has ordered for true worship. You know, it's really impossible to represent the infinite God by our finite notions, right?

I mean, just the idea, and we've all laughed at this, where somebody would cut a tree, make a log, carve a thing, set it out, and say, that's God. Well, wait a minute, didn't I just make that? Aren't I smarter than that, hopefully, and now I'm going to worship?

So that's uncommon, I mean, uncommon sense. It's foolishness, but we have some more subtle gods that we all incorporate in our own lives on occasion, right? The vehicle of worship often becomes the object of worship.

Now we're gonna step on toes here, folks. Can music, can a church building, can denominational distinctives become a God? Yes, they can. So that other stuff, I don't think too many of us have carved stuff sitting around the house.

We're too sophisticated, but some of this other stuff, Satan can get a little sneaky with us. Let's look at the third one, verse seven. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

The third commandment prohibits the misuse and the abuse of the divine name. It demands that in speech, thought, and action, his person be regarded with holy reverence and honor. So we must not manipulate God for private purposes.

In the ancient world, there was this thing called name magic, name magic. And what people would do is they would invoke the name of their God to encourage their deity to do what they wanted to have done.

Do you catch that? So, oh, God, you know, and they just invoke the name, and you're kind of putting God over a barrel, so to speak. Too often, the world mentions God to sanction or promote some activity.

Have you ever heard the phrase, God bless America? Now, we can say that. I don't like to say that anymore. I like to say, God, if you would change the hearts so that truly they could be blessed. But for a person to casually, or for people to say, God bless America, they're invoking name magic.

They're kind of like saying, okay, God, I mentioned your name, so now you owe us stuff. That violates the third commandment. Fourth commandment, verses eight through 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, you or your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. That's pretty clear. Pastor has spent a lot of time talking about this in the past, so I'll just go with this paragraph that we have in your notes.

Although the Sabbath principle existed from creation, this is the first command to basically make it holy, or to keep it holy. The word Sabbath, as you know, comes from the root that means to cease. The basic idea signifies separation or withdrawal regardless of the day of the week so designated.

It is a day of rest and remembrance. We can get legalistic if we say, okay, it's gotta be this day, because some people might have to work on Sunday, the first day of the week, right? And we know all the theology behind that.

The idea is as the Lord rested on the, in that case, the seventh day, we need to have a day set aside. And so for the average Christian whose work schedule doesn't conflict with it, we go with the first day of the week.

Do we really set aside the day, brothers and sisters, the way that we should? It's important. If it was good enough for God to cease, to rest, it's good enough for us. The fifth commandment, verse 12, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

So verse, or the fifth commandment is the requiring of the honoring of parents. It sets forth the family as the primary social unit. Have we lost that unit? Have we lost society? It just trickles down.

And establish the principle that submission to all divinely ordained authority is necessary. The word honor involves both an internal attitude and an external expression. So those cute little kids that are sitting down on the inside, but standing, or sitting down on the outside, but standing up on the inside, remember that?

Now this covers it all. And then Deuteronomy 440 and Ephesians 6, 1 through 3, extend the promise of life and prosperity to the children of those who obey. Did you know that? For those of you that have kids, you might want to run those passages by them and say, you know, God has established a certain number of years, in the appropriate context, not in the middle of an argument, but God has established a certain number of years.

And if you're a disobedient child, and you don't get over that, and you're just ongoing and ongoing, it says in Ephesians 6, God may take a few years off your life. Commandment number six, verse 13, you shall not murder.

This prohibits the illegal taking of life. It does not refer to killing in war or the act of capital punishment. Different Hebrew words. Don't have time to dig into that. Verse 14, commandment number seven, you shall not commit adultery.

This prohibits all sexual impurity. Strictly speaking, this refers to the violation of the marriage bond. Obedience to this commandment demands purity in body, mind, affections, communication, and behavior.

Well, that's a pretty broad stroke of the brush there. Pretty broad. Commandment number eight, we see that in verse 15. You shall not steal. This goes beyond the robbery of things. This is so wide-scope here, folks.

It includes fraudulence.