The Three Purposes of the Law

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Well, I'm glad I didn't go to Disney World, too.
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I'm glad it didn't work out.
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You know, you always have dreams as a kid, you know, and my dream was to go and work for Disney.
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But the Lord had much better plans.
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Alright, so open up your Bibles to Galatians 3.
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We're going to look today.
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We're going to look at verses 19-29, but I don't suspect that we're going to finish that.
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But it's all one idea, so we might.
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Let me erase this off the board, because I'm going to be doing some writing.
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But like I said, open up to 3.19.
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Alright, let's read.
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Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.
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And it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
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Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
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Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not, for if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
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But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
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Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
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So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
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But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
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For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
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For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There is neither slave nor free.
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There is neither male nor female.
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For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for this time to study.
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Thank you for these men.
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Thank you for set free.
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And I pray, Lord, as I seek to preach this word that you would keep me from error for the sake of your name, for the sake of their conscience and heart and for the sake of my own conscience, Lord.
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I want to see you glorified.
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I want to see your gospel go out.
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I want to see people get saved and I want to see, Lord, believers be encouraged and called to repentance and good works and all of those things, which are all good.
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And Lord, to do that, it has to be a work of your spirit.
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So I pray that your spirit would be here while we study, that he would be the teacher, that I would decrease and Christ would increase in his name.
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Amen.
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All right, gentlemen.
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I feel as if as every week, it's incumbent upon me to at least give a short overview of what we have looked at up until this point, rather than jumping right in.
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I know some of you are new, haven't been here before, or maybe some of you have missed a week or two.
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And so let me just very quickly give you the bird's eye view of what we have looked at.
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The book of Galatians is written by the Apostle Paul to a region in Southern Turkey, which would have been referred to as Asia Minor at this particular time in history.
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And the Southern area of Galatia, there were churches, Lystra, Iconium, and Derbe and some others.
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Paul had gone through there on his missionary journey.
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He had planted churches there.
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And after he planted churches there, other people came in and distorted what he taught.
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And we've talked a lot about that.
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What were those people called? Judaizers.
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Judaizers.
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What did the Judaizers teach? Circumcision.
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Yeah.
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They taught- Christ is not enough, right? You have to also keep the law.
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And the law was the first circumcision.
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Food laws.
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Sabbath.
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All those things, right? And so Paul is explaining that this is not the case.
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The law, while it is good and profitable, is not what saves.
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In fact, he has stressed all through chapter two that if we believe we are justified by the law, we are lost.
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That we are justified by faith and not by works of the law.
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He says that over and over several times in chapter two.
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In fact, he says by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
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Why is that? Why is it that no one will be justified by the law? Because law isn't intended to justify.
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Law is intended to condemn.
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The law is not intended to justify you.
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The law is intended to condemn you.
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It doesn't have the purpose of saving.
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It only has the purpose of indicating your lost condition.
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So we get to chapter three, and Paul begins to show that this is confirmed in three ways.
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First, it is confirmed by experience.
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We see this in chapter three, verses one to five.
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He asks them questions.
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Were you saved by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? And the answer's by faith.
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So it's experience.
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That's the first five verses.
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He's confirming his message by their own experience.
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Then in verses six to nine, he confirms it through the life of Abraham.
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Was Abraham saved by faith or by works? By faith.
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And we know he was saved by faith because there was no law.
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The law didn't come until 430 years later.
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There was no law to be held to.
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It's the faith that saved Abraham, not the law.
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And then we get to verses 10 through 17, which is what we have been looking at the last few weeks.
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And Paul says it's also confirmed by Scripture.
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So not only is it confirmed by experience, not only is it confirmed by the life of Abraham, but it's also confirmed by Scripture.
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And Paul gives us several Scripture verses to look at and to trust in and to see that his message is correct.
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Well, today, when we get to verse 19, Paul asks a question.
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And it is the natural question to follow up his message.
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His message is this.
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You are saved by faith and not by the law.
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The promise of God comes by faith and not by the law.
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The promise Abraham received was by faith and not by the law.
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Therefore, verse 19, why did we have the law? That's the question of verse 19.
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If what you're saying is true, Paul, if what you're saying is we're saved by faith, and that is what you're saying, and if what you're saying is we're saved through Christ alone, and that is what you're saying, why the law? What was the purpose in God giving the law? And that's the question we're gonna answer today.
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Why did God give the law if it was not intended to save? Why did God give the law if it was not intended to save? Well, before we actually begin to work our way through the text, and we are gonna go line by line like we always do, I want to provide for you what is known as the three purposes of the law.
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So if you're a note taker, you might wanna write this down.
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This marker is...
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I'm gonna ask...
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Do you have a darker marker? Can I borrow a darker marker? Thank you.
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How many of you have ever heard the three purposes of the law? You know what that is? Okay, all right, so a few of you have already been...
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Thank you, brother.
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A few of you have already been made familiar with this, but some of you haven't, and this is an important, I think an important foundational thing.
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We're gonna see this is in the text, but I think it's good to have this information first so that when we're looking at the text, you'll get an idea of how Paul is making his argument.
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Because one of the things that we have to understand is Paul is not saying the law is bad.
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What Paul is saying is the law doesn't save.
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There's a difference, there's a difference.
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Just because something doesn't save us doesn't mean that it's bad.
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Just because something doesn't have the power to save doesn't mean it doesn't have any power at all, right? So Paul's not condemning the law.
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He's not saying the law is evil and faith is good.
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What he's saying is salvation is not by law, it's by faith.
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That doesn't mean the law doesn't have a purpose.
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So we need to understand the law has several purposes.
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And over the years, theologians and scholars and biblical teachers have come to a consensus that the law has three purposes at least.
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And so that's what this is.
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We're gonna look at the three purposes.
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The first one is kind of a long, strange word and I will explain it.
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The first one is pedagogical.
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Now that word pedagogical is an odd word.
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So I will explain it to you.
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But the three purposes of the law are pedagogical, civil, and moral.
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The three purposes of the law are pedagogical, civil, and moral.
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And understanding these three uses of the law help us to see why the law is still good even though the law does not save.
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Now let's look first at the word pedagogical.
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How many of you have ever heard of the word pedagogue? Have you, you know what that word means.
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Guardian, don't you? It does mean it's translated as guardian or tutor, later.
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And it's the Greek word pedagogue, the idea of a tutor.
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Pedagogical simply means that it's a teacher, it's a guide.
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Okay, so the first purpose of the law is to function as a teacher or a guide, but it's guiding us towards something.
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It's guiding us to Christ.
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It points us to Christ.
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Why does it point us to Christ? Why, let me write this down.
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We'll say it's a guide.
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Did I spell guide wrong? Oh, okay, it didn't look right.
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You ever spell it right? Something like that, did I spell it? Okay, and it guides to Christ, why? Because the first thing the law does is show you that you're guilty.
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The first thing the law does is show you that you are absolutely desperate.
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We've all done this before, but just for the sake of the fact that there are new guys here, go through the law, one law at a time.
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The most simple one, thou shall not lie.
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Okay, I have lied before.
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Well, then you're a lawbreaker.
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Revelation 21a, all liars will have their place in the lake of fire.
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If that's the only thing you'd ever done was lie, you'd be worthy of hell.
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And that's not the only thing you've ever done.
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In fact, you've not only done it once.
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So we could go through the law and we can find ourselves guilty before God.
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The most wicked thing a man can do is consider himself righteous before God outside of Christ.
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Because if he considers himself righteous before God outside of Christ, he doesn't understand sin and he doesn't understand righteousness.
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Righteousness, true righteousness is God's alone.
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And of course, Christ who is God in the flesh was righteous.
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But you remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, said, good teacher, what must I do to be saved? What did Jesus said? Why you call me good? And Jesus wasn't denying his own goodness, but what he was saying is why would you call anyone good? There is only one good who is God.
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God is the only one who is good.
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Why would you go around identifying men as good? Now there are some who would say, well, the Bible says Noah was a good man.
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He was perfect among his generations.
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Job was a good man.
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You have to understand that those are relative statements.
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In the same way that I might say, hey, I know Pastor Mark, I love Pastor Mark, he's a good man.
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When I say that, some people always want to correct me.
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There's not good, no, not one.
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I always want to be, you know.
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And I say, yes, from the perspective of genuine righteousness, Pastor Mark's not good.
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Neither am I.
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And neither are you.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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If you put me on a scale, if you put Jesus here, and you put the most wicked person in history over here, and I don't know who you might think that is, Adolf Hitler, you know, one of those despots, you know, Genghis Khan, whoever.
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You put the most vile and wicked man on this side of the scale, you put Jesus on this side of the scale, where am I gonna be? Not in the middle.
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I'm gonna be standing right next to that guy because I'm a sinner.
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The difference between me and Christ is so much wider than the difference between me and Hitler.
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The same seed of sin that was in the heart of Adolf Hitler is in me.
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Because I am also a son of Adam.
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And my capacity for wickedness is tremendous.
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The only thing that keeps me from being wicked is the grace of God.
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And I'm not saying that to sound uber righteous or whatever.
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In the most humble way I can say, I could be so much more wicked because it's in my heart.
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I think things that are awful.
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I wanna do things sometimes that are wicked.
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And I have to stave off those things because they're in my heart to do those things.
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To break the law is the desire of natural man.
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And so the first purpose of the law is a tutor.
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We think of a tutor like Mrs.
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Jenkins who's sitting down teaching us the ABCs.
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No, a tutor in the old days would be the person that whacked you into submission.
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They were a servant of the house that was raising the child by virtue of the switch.
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What do they call it? A rod.
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By virtue of the rod.
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And what does the Bible say? If you spare the rod.
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Yeah.
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It actually says if you spare the rod, you hate your child.
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That you're not showing them the discipline they need.
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We've all seen children that didn't receive discipline.
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They become wayward.
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Well.
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So the first purpose of the law.
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Purpose.
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First purpose of the law.
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Is to guide us to Christ by showing us our sin.
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By showing us our sin.
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It becomes a teacher.
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A pedagogue.
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A tutor to show us our sin.
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That's the first purpose of the law.
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And we're gonna see that actually next week probably when we get to verses 21 and following where it actually says that.
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It says that.
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Verse 24, the law was a guardian.
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That's that same, that's that word pedagogue in Greek.
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All right, so the first purpose is the pedagogical.
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Now the second is civil.
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How does the law serve a civil function? Well, it restrains evil.
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Most men do not fear breaking the law simply because of a moral duty.
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Most men fear breaking the law because of the penalty associated with breaking the law.
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You don't drive the speed limit because you think going 85 and 90 is wrong.
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You drive the speed limit because you know if you drive 85 or 90, you're gonna get punished.
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And that's why, a great example of this is when you are driving along and you see those lights behind you, or maybe you don't see the lights but you see the car with the lights, what do you do? You slow down really slow, right? And you start looking, you know? Like me right now, I got a taillight out on my truck.
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I gotta get it fixed.
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And I'm nervous because I haven't had a chance to go get it fixed yet.
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Every time I drive, I'm nervous that somebody's gonna notice I got a taillight out and I'm gonna end up getting pulled over and I'm gonna get in trouble.
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I don't wanna get in trouble.
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And if I see the police officer coming up behind me, it's gonna make me even that much more nervous.
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I've got a friend, Adam, who's a police officer.
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He said, I hate to drive my police car.
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He said, because everybody slows down in front of me.
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I can't go anywhere.
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You know, everybody's always, because they're so scared.
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The law functions to curtail man's desire to do evil.
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The law stands as a warning post.
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So the law has that second purpose.
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And that second purpose is to restrain evil.
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We need restraints on our evil.
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Amen? I figured that's an amen moment.
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I need restraints on my evil.
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Now, there are time when the law itself becomes evil and oppressive.
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As Christians, we are called to obey the governing authorities unless they tell us to disobey Christ.
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That's right.
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If the law tells me I can't witness, well, I'm gonna witness and take the consequences, right? That's the, because the law can't, what did the disciples say in Acts, was Acts 4? We must follow God, not men.
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And the idea is not that they're not gonna follow man's laws when the man's laws are righteous, but when man's laws are unrighteous and they're trying to keep us from doing the things God commands, then we have to obey the higher authority.
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There's a higher magistrate.
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Man has the ability to make laws and those laws should be followed, but when God's laws trump those laws, you have to follow God's laws.
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And so the second purpose in the law is to restrain sin.
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It has that function.
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And so that's the second purpose of the law.
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Now, the third purpose of the law is what we call moral purpose.
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And this, what we would say, reveals God's will, or maybe even better, reveals what is pleasing to God.
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Reveals what is pleasing to God.
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You guys read Psalms here? Y'all read Psalms as part of your studies? How often do you go through the Psalms? Often.
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Often, often.
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The pastor's going through a number on Tuesday.
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Every Tuesday we go through one.
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Okay.
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But we have Psalm classes from time to time.
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Okay.
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He's working three Psalms.
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Cool.
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Well, what I'm thinking particularly is Psalm 119.
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What does Psalm 119 over and over say? I delight in your law.
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I find joy in your law.
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I'm comforted by your law.
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Over and over and over, there's this idea that the law has a good purpose in the life and it brings comfort, it brings joy, it brings delight.
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Why? Because it shows us God's will.
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It tells us what God would have us do.
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And so the law has a moral function in the life of the believer because it shows us the heart of God.
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The law shows us the desires of God.
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And therefore, the law has a good function in showing us what we should desire.
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I can tell you this.
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I don't always desire what the law desires.
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And almost in every case, it's either I'm misunderstanding the law or it's my wicked desires that are overcoming what the law wants.
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The law would command of me to love my neighbor and even love my enemy.
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And I don't like that.
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I don't want to love my enemy.
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I don't want to do good to the one who persecutes me.
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I don't want to be a friend to the person who hates me and try to love the person who does me wrong.
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But the law commands that of me.
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Because that is what God has done for me.
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I was God's enemy and He loved me.
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The Bible says while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.
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And you know what a sinner is? It's a person who is opposed to God.
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So while I was opposed to God, He loved me still.
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And so He tells me, love people who are opposed to you because I did that for you.
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So the law shows me God's will and shows me what pleases God.
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So first, it shows me my sin and points me to Christ.
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Second, it restrains the natural desire for evil that is within me by giving me the consequences and showing me what those consequences are.
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And third, it shows me what the will of God is.
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And the third purpose of the law is the purpose I think that's often most neglected.
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Because as Christians, we have experienced the first purpose of the law because we've been driven to Christ.
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We know we need Christ.
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So the first purpose of the law is that function has functioned properly if we've come to Christ.
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That part's done.
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And the second purpose, the restraining of evil, that's always happening.
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But the third purpose, do we wake up in the morning and ask ourselves what would please God today? What in my life would be pleasing to the One who made me? I said this years ago and it kind of became sort of a mantra for me.
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To do life the way the author of life intended life is the best way to do life.
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And that sort of just became a mantra in my mind.
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I came up with that years ago because I was running into people who were doing life opposite of the way God said.
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For instance, people who say, well pastor, I love this woman and even though we're not married, we're gonna live in the same house and we're gonna live and sleep in the same bed.
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We're gonna act like we're married but we're not gonna get married.
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And I say, but that's a sin.
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You need to get married.
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If you're gonna live together, you need to be married.
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Oh, but pastor, I'm happy.
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I don't care if you're happy.
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God doesn't care if you're happy.
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He cares if you're holy.
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And I'll take you to the mat on that one.
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God is not as concerned about your happiness as He is concerned about your holiness.
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And if you can be happy living in sin, there's something wrong with your heart.
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And it was in the midst of that as I was dealing with several issues like that, I just came up with this idea.
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God has a way for life to be done.
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It's explained in His Word.
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And if you do like the way He intends it, He made life.
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He's literally the author of life.
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And to do life the way the author of life intended life to be done is obviously the best way to do life.
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Any way that's opposed to Him is gonna be bad.
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That's right.
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He's got a way to live.
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Now, if you live for Him, I'm not saying your life's always gonna be peaches and cream.
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If you live for God, you're gonna be persecuted.
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Jesus said, they're gonna treat you like they treated Me, and they will.
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If you live for God in a godless world, the godless people are gonna hate you.
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Jesus said, I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.
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And I'll divide a man even in his own family.
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Fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and fathers-in-laws and mothers-in-laws.
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And I've seen that in my own family.
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I've got believing family members.
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Bless God, my mom and my stepdad, or they live down in Keystone, but they come to church with us sometimes.
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And they profess faith.
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And my dad and my stepmom are members of my church.
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And there was a time when all four of them were members of the church.
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And that was weird, having all four, step-parents and everything.
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But it worked out.
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But I have other family members who'd hate Christ.
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Who hate the Word.
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And I tell you, people in my church are closer family to me than those people who are by blood family.
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Because Christ creates a bond that blood cannot create.
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You've all heard the phrase, blood is thicker than water? But it's misunderstood.
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People think what that means is family is closer than not family.
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It's not what it means.
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The actual quote is the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
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The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
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And what that means is the relationships formed in Christ are stronger than relationships formed by birth.
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Relationships formed in Christ, because the people that are in Christ are the people you're gonna spend eternity with.
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The people that are not in Christ, when they die, you're not ever gonna see them again.
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By the way, that's a reason why you should be sharing Christ with them.
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If you're concerned about your mom and daddy, if you're concerned about your sister and brother, if you're concerned about your son or daughter, the most important thing that you can do for them is to share Christ with them.
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Now, you can't save them.
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But there's nothing else they can.
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They're like drowning people and you're the one standing there with the life jacket.
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Are you gonna offer that? Are you gonna extend that to them? And now I've kind of gone off the subject a little bit, you understand my point, is you have the gospel of Jesus Christ, the only thing that can save.
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And it is what brings people to a real and lasting and eternal relationship.
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So we have the law.
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The law has three purposes.
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And I wanna give you three words to go with because I know pedagogical, civil and moral kind of, here's three pictures in your mind.
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Pedagogical functions like a mirror.
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The law is a mirror showing me my sins.
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What does James say? He says, some people go to the law like a person going to a mirror, sees what he needs to change and then goes away without changing anything, right? It's like you wake up in the morning, you walk into the bathroom, you see that your hair is all disheveled, you need to shave, your teeth's all gummy and your breath all funky.
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And you say, you know what? I'm good, I'm gonna go.
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You don't do anything.
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That'd be rough.
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It'd be rough for you and everybody around you.
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The law is a mirror.
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It shows us our imperfections and our need for Christ.
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So that's the pedagogical role.
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The law is a mirror.
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The law is also like a curb.
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What is a curb intended to do? Stop things, right? You put a curb out so that people can't go any further with a car.
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The law is intended to restrain evil.
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It works like a curb.
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Some people jump the curb.
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A lot of people jump the curb.
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But it's got the point and purpose.
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Like I said, let me tell you.
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I know we could probably go back and forth about the police and maybe they sometimes have done things that are ungodly and certain police officers maybe have treated you poorly.
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But I will ask you this.
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What would happen if tomorrow there was no law, no police? How long before the entire society would divulge into absolute anarchy? We'd kill half our own.
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Exactly.
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And that's what when we talk about a curb.
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The law functions to curb the sinful appetites of men.
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Somebody mentioned The Purge? Now I've never seen that movie, but I know what it's about.
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Keep a thumb on the pulse of all contemporary pop cultures.
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I know what people are talking about.
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But the whole movie is based on the idea that once a year they have a day where you can do anything, break any law, and you will not be punished.
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So people have to board up their homes and steel cage themselves in a room because you never know if there's some fool out there that just wants to kill you for fun.
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Or maybe you hurt somebody's feelings and they're gonna have one day where there's no law, one day where there's no punishment, one day where they can have their total depravity set free.
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Imagine.
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Years ago, I went to a seminar.
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It was taught by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman.
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He's a former Army Ranger and he teaches seminars for police and military men on how to deal with the stress of being in a life or death situation.
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And he and I are friends.
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He's a Christian.
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And he invited me to come sit in his seminar.
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Eight-hour seminar.
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Limited to police, but he let me come just because he and I were friends and I was his guest.
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And so I got to sit.
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And for eight hours I was riveted.
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I mean, imagine sitting in eight hours listening to a guy talk.
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And it was awesome.
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We broke for lunch and we had a few breaks here and there, but he was just story after story after story of things that he had seen, things that he experienced, things he'd written about.
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He wrote two books, On Killing and On Combat.
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His whole mindset is how to teach people how to be in combat, how to face those things.
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And one thing that he said in his seminar, and I'll never forget it, he said if the world were ever to go one day without the law, it would never recover.
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If law was suspended for one day and there were no consequences and men could do what they wanted without any punishment, the society that that was happening in would never ever recover.
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So when we talk about the law as a curb, that's what it's intended to do.
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It curbs the evil appetites of men giving them consequences for their sin.
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Now the last one, the moral is like a compass.
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So we have a compass.
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What does a compass do? It leads us.
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It points us in the right direction.
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That's what the law does.
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It says this is God's will.
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This is God's purpose.
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This is God's desires.
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True north, and your heart's going to want to go east, west, and south, but here's the right way.
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The way the author of life intended.
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This is the way.
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And so the law has three primary functions.
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It functions as a mirror.
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It functions as a curb.
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And it functions as a compass.
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Now all of that was introduction.
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Amen.
33:53
Now we're going to begin to go through the text.
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With those things in mind, and I'll be referencing back, with those things in mind, I want to start going through the text and I'm just going to make comments as we go.
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We'll go as far as we can today.
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We'll stop wherever we stop.
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We'll mark where we are, and next week we'll continue on.
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Sound good? Alright.
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So Paul asked the question, why then the law? And he says this, it was added because of transgressions.
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Now, before we even go any further, what does he mean it was added? Well, it wasn't part of the covenant given to Abraham.
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Abraham's covenant did not include a law.
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Abraham's covenant was a covenant of promise.
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It was an unconditional promise from God.
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I will bless you.
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I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.
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And in you shall all the nations of the world be blessed.
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That was the promise.
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Genesis chapter 12.
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God didn't say, if you do this, I'm going to do this.
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Or if you do this, I'm going to...
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He did tell him something to do.
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He says, come out of your home and go to the land of Canaan that I'll show to you, and I will bless you.
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And I will bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you, and in you all the nations will be blessed.
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But it was an unconditional promise.
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I am giving you this promise.
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Later, in chapter 15, He brings them outside, shows them the stars of the skies, and says, look up, see the stars of the skies.
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All of these stars is going to be like your descendants who are going to be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
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And Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
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It was a promise.
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There was no law attached.
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There was no if-and.
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There was no conditional if you do, I'll do.
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No, it was I have made this promise.
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Abraham was an...
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And here's the thing about Abraham.
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He was an idolater.
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Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.
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He was part of a family that was idolatrous.
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He was called out of that.
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It was a salvation by grace.
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It was salvation also by divine election because he chose Abraham even though Abraham wasn't worthy to be chosen in the sense of him being ultimately a righteous person.
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God chose him because it was God's desire to choose him.
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It was God's choice.
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It's the first time we see, not really the first time we see, but it's in Scripture, one of the most obvious examples of God choosing whom He will.
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He chose whom He will.
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He chose Abraham.
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You're going to be the vessel of My mercy.
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And through you, I'm going to bless the world.
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And that's going to be through Christ because Christ is a descendant of Abraham.
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So this is the promise.
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But what's added to the promise? That's the question in verse 19.
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He says, why then the law? It was added.
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It was added what? It was added to the promise because of transgressions.
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Now that statement is a little hard to translate because when we use the word because, it can have several meanings.
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If I said, you know, brother, you're wanted because of murder.
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That can mean I want you because you committed murder.
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Or it could mean I want you because you're good at murdering and I'm going to get you to murder somebody for it.
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You understand? The word because of can have nuanced meaning.
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Just like the word for, wanted for murder.
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I either want you because you murdered or for committing a murder, right? Yeah, for murder for hire, right? Same way with the word because.
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And so when he says it was added because of transgressions, there's a little bit of ambiguity here.
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I actually think the New Living Translation gives a really good translation here.
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And I'm not a huge fan of the NLT, but you know what? Sometimes a dynamic equivalent helps with what's being said.
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Dynamic equivalent is just a different translation method.
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And this is one of those times where I think the New Living Translation helps because this is the way it translates and see if this helps you.
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It was given alongside the promise to show people their sin.
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Yes? I got, this one's from like the 70s, man.
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It's called The Way, so I don't really know what.
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I'm not sure, I don't think I've heard of that one, but read it, read it.
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It goes, it's very simple.
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It's kind of like NIRB, but not as, well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given to show men how guilty they are of breaking God's laws.
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Man, that's actually not bad.
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That's more of a commentary.
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That's what I said.
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That's when you start getting into translation, sometimes you're getting more of a commentary than the actual word.
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But that's what the actual verse is saying.
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The reason why the law was given was to show men how sinful they are.
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So which one of that, is it that? NIRB, NIRB, NIRB.
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Huh? NIRB, NIRB.
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It's the first one.
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The whole purpose, the reason the law was given was because of transgressions, in the sense that it was showing how sinful men are.
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And still transgress against the law.
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Yes, but it shows us how deep and wide are our transgressions.
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Brother, you want to say something? I'll let you.
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I just want to ask, is that because, as in based on, as in we're being past tense, or it would have said past transgressions, wouldn't it? Well, it's...
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Based on transgressions, is that the same as because? I don't know.
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I don't think, I'm not sure.
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I'm thinking how based on would fit.
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It was added because of transgressions is the idea of saying it was added because of the transgressions of men.
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It was added because men needed to be shown their transgressions.
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That's the idea.
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So whether or not I would say it's based on, it's more it's added to show what their transgressions are.
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And here's, I'm gonna give you some verses to go with this.
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Go ahead, go ahead.
40:30
Okay.
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Okay, and that's why the Scriptures in the Bible, my people perished for lack of knowledge.
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Does that, that has a whole lot to do with the law.
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Yes, yes.
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They, through Jesus Christ.
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Yes, the law showed them how sinful they were and the more you know about the law, the more you know you need Christ and the more ignorant you are, the more you realize, the more you think you don't need to be saved.
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Yes.
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So yeah, I would say that would fit with that.
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Now, holding your place in Galatians 3, go very quickly to Romans and look at Romans 5.
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Okay.
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Now, therefore, just as sin, oh, this is verse 12, Romans 5, 12.
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Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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Now, I could spend all day on this, but I want to make it, I want to make it, I want to simplify it so we can move on.
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Ultimately, this is what Paul is saying.
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From Adam to Moses, there was no law.
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Not in the sense of a formal declaration of law from God.
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And yet, people still died.
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What is death? Death is the result of sin.
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The Bible says we die because we sin.
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The wages of sin is death, right? So why did they die? Well, actually they died because of the sin of Adam.
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That's the argument Paul's making.
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They died because of the sin of Adam.
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But his point is this, they didn't have the same thing Adam had.
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Adam had a law from God.
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Don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and if you do, you're going to die.
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They didn't have that.
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So they went through their lives without law, and yet they still died because they were still breaking the law.
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So the law was given to show them why they were dying.
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We were born without a choice.
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Yeah, well, we were born in sin.
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We were born, and we were given sin nature because of our first father, Adam.
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We inherit his nature, and we live as he lived.
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Right, we're sinning 22, down to 19 and 29.
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Okay, getting down too far.
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Now 19 and 20, are you in Galatians? No, I'm in Romans 5, 19 and 20.
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Where he says, for as one man's disobedience, the many became sinners, so that the one man's righteousness, the many will become righteous.
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And then 20, the law came along to multiply the trespass, but where sin multiplied, there is multiply.
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Yeah, the law comes along to multiply the trespass.
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It doesn't mean the law came to make us worse sinners.
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What it means is the law comes along to show us our sin.
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The law comes along to multiply our understanding.
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And I'm going to show you another place where Paul says that very thing, but go ahead.
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Dude, I love this translation, bro.
43:51
It's like I'm reading that.
43:52
I feel like you wrote it, dude.
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Adam caused many to be sinners because he disobeyed God, and Christ caused many to be made acceptable to God because he obeyed.
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The Ten Commandments were given so that all could see the extent of their failure to obey God's law.
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That's right, that's exactly right.
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So there, you see why the law.
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Paul says, why the law? It was given because of transgressions.
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It was given to show men their sin.
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Now, you go ahead.
44:19
Actually, I'm just saying, it's to show the salvation, right? For the promise that was offered.
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That's right, because the more we see the depth of our sin, the more we see the- The need for a savior, the need for a savior.
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I was going to say the same thing.
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I'm sorry, say it again.
44:36
I was going to ask where he at.
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Yes, the further we see ourself in sin, the more we realize God had reached down to pull us out.
44:43
Yes, sir.
44:44
I need you to say one as well.
44:45
Okay, share it with me.
44:47
I'm glad we're excited.
44:49
I like to be excited.
44:49
Go ahead.
44:52
I'm gonna say, well, I do not understand what I am doing because I do not practice.
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I do what I hate, but if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
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So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.
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Well, I know nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh.
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For the desire to do what is good with me, but there is no ability to do it.
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Well, I do not do good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
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Now, if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin that lives in me.
45:27
So I discovered this principle.
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When I want to do what is good, evil is with me, or in my inner self.
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I jointly agree with God's law, but I see different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
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What a wretched man I am.
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Who would rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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So then, with my mind, I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin.
46:00
Yes, and the part that you...
46:01
I actually have that.
46:02
That was the very one I was fixing to go to.
46:04
But right before where you started, go back up to verse 7.
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In chapter 7, What shall we say? That the law is sin by no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.
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It made us aware.
46:20
That's right.
46:21
And he goes on to say, I wouldn't know what it meant to covet if the law didn't say, Thou shalt not covet.
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Now, I would still be coveting, and I'd still be sinning, but I wouldn't know what it was.
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I wouldn't know the depth of it.
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I wouldn't know that coveting is evil if the law didn't say, Don't do that.
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See? So yes, you're right.
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You just went a little ahead of where I was going to be.
46:41
But it all follows that same train of thought, right? The law comes in to show us the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
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The law comes in to show us the depth of our depravity.
46:55
And pastor, check out 13 chapter of Romans.
46:59
Okay, 13.
47:00
It says, Let every soul be subject unto the high power, for there is no power but of God, the power that is being ordained by God.
47:09
It says, Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance.
47:15
Ordinance is what? Law.
47:16
Yep.
47:17
Yep, and that's talking about civil law.
47:20
So when we disobey the civil law, we're disobeying God because He put that in place.
47:26
Yep.
47:26
So, what is the first purpose of the law? Paul tells us in verse 19, it was added, going back to Galatians, it was added because of transgressions, meaning it was added to show us our transgressions until, and this is where we're going to end because we're out of time.
47:42
We'll just finish verse 19.
47:43
Until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
47:52
Now, I might not get to all this, but let me just say this.
47:55
Who is the offspring? Nope.
47:59
Jesus.
48:00
And I say that because of last week.
48:02
Remember, I didn't say offsprings.
48:05
I said offspring.
48:07
And that's why, if you look at verse 19, the word offspring in the King James or other versions, it says seed.
48:13
He's capitalized.
48:14
Yeah, and you go back up to where he mentioned seed last week.
48:20
Remember what he said.
48:21
I said seed, not seeds.
48:23
Because it is Christ, the seed of Abraham.
48:26
Christ is the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham.
48:29
And the law was given until the seed comes.
48:35
Because the law points us to Christ.
48:39
The law had a purpose, and it had a purpose in the midst of Moses to Jesus.
48:45
This is why the Gospel says the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ.
48:51
Does that mean the law is ungracious or untrue? No.
48:55
But the law's purpose was not to extend grace, but to show us our just penalty.
49:02
The law's purpose was to stand for truth against our sinful wickedness.
49:07
And when Christ came, He brings grace and truth that when we look at the law and see how dead we are, we can look at Him and know through Him we can be made alive.
49:16
The law kills us.
49:19
Christ gives us life.
49:21
So next week, we'll begin halfway through verse 19.
49:24
That's what I was going to say, because we've got a whole sentence left.
49:27
Well, because he's going to talk about the intermediary.
49:32
And here's the point.
49:33
I'll give it to you now, but I'm going to reiterate it next week.
49:35
When he says the law was put in place through angels by an intermediary, and that intermediary implies more than one, but God is one, what he's saying is this.
49:43
The law is less than the promise.
49:47
Here's why.
49:48
The law was given directly to Abraham by God, and there was no...
49:53
Remember we talked about the smoking fire pot going through the two animals? The law was based on a promise made by God without anyone in between.
50:01
God Himself came down and gave Abraham a promise directly.
50:05
No intermediary.
50:06
The law is less than that because the law comes through an agreement with an intermediary.
50:14
Moses and angels functioned as an intermediary between God and man, and there was a condition.
50:22
Do this and you will be blessed.
50:26
It was a conditional covenant.
50:27
It wasn't a promise.
50:29
It was a conditional agreement.
50:32
If you do this, you will receive this.
50:33
If you do this, you will be blessed.
50:35
So the law is not like the promise.
50:39
The promise comes by God.
50:42
No one in between.
50:43
God to Abraham.
50:44
And it's absolutely based on the promise of God.
50:47
It's not based on the works of Abraham.
50:49
But the law comes through angels, to Moses, to the people, through this intermediary relationship, which makes it immediately less of a direct thing, but also makes it less in the sense of the law is conditional.
51:09
So that's what they would call a Sinaitic covenant? Sinaitic covenant.
51:13
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:14
From Mount Sinai.
51:16
Yes, the law was given at Mount Sinai, and so was the covenant.
51:19
That covenant had a sign.
51:21
The sign was the Sabbath.
51:22
It had all kinds of laws and restrictions, the dietary laws, clothing laws, all those things, and the priesthood, and all of those things pointed to Christ.
51:30
Yeah.
51:31
Mosaic? Huh? Mosaic? Well, the Mosaic covenant is also sometimes referred to as a Sinaitic.
51:39
Sinaitic, yeah.
51:40
You're the one who said that everything in the Old Testament is pointed to Jesus Christ? Absolutely.
51:45
I believe everything in the Old Testament is intended to point us to Christ.
51:48
In fact, in a couple months, in Sovereign Grace Academy, I'm gonna be teaching a survey of the Old Testament, and part of the survey of the Old Testament is to show how every part of the Old Testament is intended to point to Christ.
52:00
To Christ, yeah, I didn't miss that sign.
52:01
Absolutely.
52:02
And listen to this, this is what I say, man.
52:04
All right.
52:04
And God saw that the wickedness of man was greater than the earth.
52:09
This is in Genesis 6.
52:10
Yeah.
52:12
Greater than the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of him, his heart was only evil continually.
52:19
And he repented to the Lord, and he had made man on earth.
52:24
That was pointing at man, and he saw that in man, and that continually evil was in their heart.
52:32
Isn't that a point that a lot of people need to say here? Yeah.
52:35
I mean, people need something.
52:37
Absolutely.
52:38
To keep them from death.
52:40
Yeah, the very heart of the depravity of man is seen from the very beginning.
52:46
The only intentions of his heart was evil continually.
52:49
Isn't that so? Yeah.
52:51
Let's pray.
52:52
Father God, I thank you for this time to study.
52:54
I pray it's been fruitful and encouraging to these men, and I pray that you'll use it to guide and direct them.
53:00
Those who don't know you, Lord, to you, and those who do know you, toward a closer walk with you.
53:06
In Christ's name, amen.
53:07
Amen.