WWUTT 572 If One Uses It Lawfully?

The Law Is Good When Used Lawfully

We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Binding the conscience of the sinner to realize that they're still enslaved to their sin and they need a Savior to set them free when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Might be a little bit shorter lesson today, but we'll see how far we get. I don't know that my voice is going to hold out the whole 20 minutes here. First Timothy chapter 1, beginning in verse 8, the Apostle Paul writes to his servant Timothy,.

Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Christians Are Not Lawless Under Grace

I think my voice cracked a couple of times there, but we're making it. So one of the things that I mentioned yesterday is that as Christians, we are still called to obedience. Just because it says in Romans 6 that you are no longer under the law, but you are under grace, that doesn't mean that you are lawless, does it?

I mean, if you were lawless, then you could do whatever you wanted. There was no law to bind you, so therefore you could just do whatever. But as Paul points out, also in Romans 6, that if we have submitted our members to sin, then we're still enslaved to our sin, but we need to submit our members to righteousness and become slaves of righteousness.

So there is still a law that binds us. It's just not the Mosaic law, which brings about death. Romans 7, 5, while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

So in our attempts to keep that law, we could not have saved ourselves. There was no way to do it perfectly, and we could not have done it righteously. God would not have received our offerings of keeping his law.

If it were not for Christ, we would have been lifting up those offerings with filthy hands. And as it says in Isaiah 64, 6, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy God. So it is Christ who has set us free from the bond of the law, from that yoke of slavery that we were under.

And now we are free in Christ to worship God in a righteous way. And what we offer to God in obedience to Christ is received by him because Christ has cleansed us. He is the one that has released us from our sin, forgiven us of our sins and clothed us in his righteousness.

So now we are able to obey God in a way that is pleasing to God. So if we're no longer under the Mosaic law, why should we still have to read the Old Testament? I mean, why would we even go through the Ten Commandments?

Well, one of the things that the Ten Commandments reminds us of is who we used to be. We were once lawbreakers. So whenever we hear the law read to us, it reminds us of the sins that we once were in. But furthermore, we are reminded of the law because we use it to bind the conscience of those who are still under the law.

If they've not been set free in Christ Jesus, they're still under the law. So we use the law to show them that they're still in bondage to their sin, realizing that they need to be released from that, that there is nothing that can free them from that.

As long as they continue to strive and strive to keep the law and do the law and be righteous in and of themselves, they're only enslaving themselves all the more. And so the law shows them the slavery that they're under and their need for a savior, a redeemer who has purchased them and will set them free.

And then once they come to that awareness, that's when we can show them Christ. So that's what that's what the law is good for. It is still good. The law is spiritual, as Paul says to the Romans. So it it brings about this awareness, this understanding in the heart of a person who thinks that their way is the right way.

As I pointed out, I believe in Proverbs yesterday. I believe yesterday I pointed out out of Proverbs. It says in two places, in fact, that every man believes that he is right. Every man thinks that he is right in his own eyes.

And so the law reveals to him that he is not right. He is he is not right at all. He is wrong before God and is is desperately in need of righteousness. The righteousness of God. So Paul says this in Romans 3, 19 and 20.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So those who are under the law, when they are shown the law, their mouths are stopped. They cannot proclaim their own righteousness anymore because when they are told, do not tell a lie and they're reminded that they're liars.

They can't proclaim their own righteousness because they realize, OK, I actually have broken the law of God. I've broken that one today or I broke it yesterday, you know, or when we hear from Jesus in Matthew chapter five, that if you've even hated someone in your heart, you have committed murder against them in your heart.

Then they realize, OK, I've never actually ended a person's life before. But now that you say that to me, I know that I have hated a person and murdered them in my heart. I remember a pastor friend of mine using this particular analogy.

He said that that when you hate somebody, it's like keeping them chained up in a dungeon in the pit of your heart and you go down into that dungeon and you beat them or you or you torture them to death.

Now, they themselves don't actually feel hurt at all. Or maybe they do. Maybe your hatred has manifested itself outwardly to make them feel bad or to tear down their spirit. And maybe you haven't ended the life of their body.

But what you've said to that particular person is certainly torn them down in their soul. And so that that's what that's what Jesus is pointing out in Matthew chapter five, when he says that if you've even hated a person, then you've murdered them in your heart.

You are hating something that was made in the image of God, an image bearer of God. And so it's as though you hate God himself. That is why it is equivalent to murder, because murder comes from the same sort of heart, the same sort of attitude of heart, that sort of contempt for another person.

And so when you reveal these things to a person, when you tell them about the Ten Commandments or you show them what it is that Jesus has said, they become aware of their sin and the heart is conditioned to now hear the gospel.

And that's that's the lesson that Paul is bringing to Timothy's attention here, that we know that the law is good if it's used lawfully to bind those who are under the law to realize their sinfulness and their need for a savior.

So he's contrasting that with the false teachers who have swerved from the truth of the gospel and they've wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, but they're actually really bad at it because all they're doing is they're burdening a person, but they're not giving them any relief with the gospel.

So he's telling Timothy, you can't teach that way. You have to be one that understands that the law is good when used in the right way, the way that the false teachers are using it. They're using it badly.

They're really bad at it. And they're they're bringing the law of God into contempt that people would see God as just a person who is a restrictor rather than a God who has indeed released us and set us free.

He's a God full of restrictions rather than a God full of permissions. That's what it is that that a person who's hearing nothing but law without the relief of the gospel, that would be the impression that they get.

So Paul is teaching Timothy to use the law in a right way, knowing that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient. And so then when you share the gospel with the person whose conscience has been bound by the law, you shouldn't tell them now you can go do whatever you want.

They shouldn't be left with that impression, but they also are still called to obedience. So you as a Christian still must obey Christ and the the person who hears the gospel for the first time must still also be called to obedience, because when you share the gospel, you are demanding from the hearer that they respond to it.

And so responding to the gospel is a call to obedience. When you tell a person to repent, they obey by turning from their sin. And that's in the spirit of Christ. If the spirit of Christ is in their heart, they will they will turn from sin and they will worship God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So the gospel is not just news that is proclaimed, but it is also a message that must be responded to. We obey the gospel. We don't just preach the gospel, but we obey it as well. Remember what we read at the start of Second Thessalonians chapter one, where Paul says that Jesus Christ will return from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, yes, the gospel must be obeyed. One of the the signs of a true believer in Christ is that they obey what it is that he has commanded. But we do that with joy. See, we're not burdened by it. We're not enslaved by it.

We're set free to worship God through Jesus Christ. It is our delight and our joy to do this, whereas before we were miserable wretches in our sin. Now, in Christ Jesus, we have been set free from the bonds of sin and death into the righteousness of Christ.

Prayer for Freedom to Obey the Gospel

Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you so much for these reminders from your word. And even according to your law, we are reminded of these things. So I pray that we would live as people who are free, not using our freedom as a an excuse to go out and sin, but instead our freedom enables us to worship you in a right way.

And we praise God for that. So with our whole lives, with everything that we are and with all that we do, may it be in obedience to the call of the gospel of our blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.