Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, the message will be preached from 1 Timothy chapter
1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. We'll begin at verse 1, but the
title of the message is taken from verse 8. Let me read verse
8. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 8, it says,
but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. if
a person uses it lawfully or rightfully. Now, sometimes it's
hard for us to understand exactly what the law is or what law is
he speaking of. Most people's minds go to the
10 commandments, but it's more than that. But what we're going
to talk about today is the right use of the law. That's the title
of the message. And so let's go back to 1 Timothy
chapter one, beginning at verse one. And we read there, it says,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our
Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. So he established
this letter, whatever he's going to say to Timothy, it's going
to be said in light of the gospel. Because that's our hope. That's
the hope of sinners saved by the grace of God. The gospel
of God's grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
the only hope we have of salvation. It's the only hope we have of
the forgiveness of sins. It's the only hope we have of
righteousness, coming to the Father, seeking acceptance, being
made right with God, by God's grace, through the blood, or
we might say through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that is His work on the cross to redeem His people, where He,
as our surety, the surety of God's elect, having our sins
imputed to Him, charged to Him, went to the cross and became
our substitute under the law. And that's so important now because
we're going to talk about the right use of the law. Christ
went under the law. Galatians 4 and verse 4 says
that in the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son made of
a woman. That's Christ, holy, sinless
humanity. He's God manifest in the flesh.
He was made of a woman and made under the law. He was made under
the law in the sense that the law was upon His shoulders to
keep its precepts and to satisfy its justice, and that's redemption. So He was made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And
so God, our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope, our
hope of righteousness. And there's no other hope. Now,
don't get deceived by this modern day progressive, they call it
progressive Christianity, that talks about there's more ways
to God than Christ, because there is not. You cannot be a Christian. Now you can call yourself anything
you want to call yourself. You can call yourself a Christian,
but you cannot truly be a Christian. That is a follower of Christ,
resting in Christ, following the teachings and the doctrine
of Christ. You cannot truly be a Christian
and believe that there are more other ways to God. Christ said
in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and
no man cometh unto the father but by me. First Timothy, I believe
it's in chapter three, but I'm not sure about that. Don't quote
me on that, but we can look it up. But it says there's one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Peter said in a message that's recorded in the book of Acts,
there's none other name given among men whereby we must be
saved. And that's the only way. So this is how Paul starts the
letter. And he's speaking, he's writing
this to a young preacher who was under Paul's tutelage. Paul was his mentor. His name
was Timothy. This is the first epistle of
Paul to Timothy. And understand now, Paul is writing
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit here. In verse two, he says,
unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, Paul looked at Timothy
like a father would look at a son. Now we know there's only one
Father, Heavenly Father, and that's God. And we're to call
no man father in that sense. But Paul is speaking of his love
for this young man and his teaching of this young man. And the fact
that Timothy had come to a saving knowledge of Christ through his
mother and his grandmother. We learn that later on in second
Timothy. But he says, grace, mercy and
peace from God our father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, he's
recognizing Timothy as a brother in Christ. We're in fellowship,
we believe the gospel. And he says in verse three, as
I besought thee to abide at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Now, Timothy was at the church at Ephesus. Now, you know, historically,
that was a group of Gentile and Jewish believers that God had
raised up by the instrument of Paul's preaching in the city
of Ephesus. And we have a book called Ephesians,
the Ephesians letter. And Paul wrote that. And what
he did is he, at this time, he was in prison actually. When
he wrote this to Timothy, he was in prison for preaching the
gospel. And a lot of people, when they heard about Paul being
in prison, a lot of believers, they were discouraged. But Paul
writes, he writes here in 1 Timothy, he wrote in the book of Philippians,
don't be discouraged about my situation. Because through his
bonds, he would say, through his chains, he says the gospel
has been promoted. God has used that awful situation
to spread the gospel. And Paul said, that's what it's
all about. That's what this is all about. So he says, I besought
you, I beseeched you to abide there. Stay at Ephesus, Timothy,
and help them, guide them. As I go into, when I went over
to Macedonia, Paul left Timothy there when he went to Macedonia,
but later on he was in prison. And he says, here's the point.
Charge them that they teach no other doctrine. What doctrine
is he talking about? No other doctrine than what?
The doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of His glorious
person. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God,
manifest in the flesh. God with us. That's who He is. That's what He had to be in order
to save us from our sins. And don't let them teach anything
else on that. If they do, then you stop them.
You bring them to task. and say, wait a minute now, you're
denying the gospel of Christ because the gospel concerns this
person, this specific person, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And then the doctrine of his
finished work to accomplish the salvation of his people and ensure
their final glory. And that's his work on the cross,
his work of redemption. His work as the surety of His
people, the substitute, the redeemer, the life giver, His death, burial
and resurrection, not just as a possibility of salvation, if
sinners would cooperate, that's not the gospel, but the assurance
that all for whom He lived and died and arose again the third
day, they shall be saved, they shall be born again, they shall
be brought to faith. Christ said in John chapter 12,
I believe it's verse 32 and 33. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up, crucified on the cross, will draw all unto me. That is all
of his sheep that he spoke of in John chapter 10. My sheep
hear my voice. and those that he spoke of in
John chapter six, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me that all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. What a glorious message
that is. And so this is what he's talking
about, the doctrine of grace, salvation by grace. And when
it comes to the Christian life, the doctrine of grace that motivates
God's people to obedience, to prayer, to worship, not by the
law, not by legal threats of punishment or loss of reward
or mercenary promises of earned reward. That's not, see, that's
using the law unlawfully. That's what we're gonna get to
here. Those who say we're saved by grace, but that we're sanctified
by works or law keeping, they're misusing the law. And that's
really one of the main things that's happening in these churches
in the New Testament. A lot of times you would have
Gentile believers saved by the grace of God, just like Jewish
believers. but you would have unbelieving Jews who disguise
themselves, who claim to be Christian, but they wanted to bring Gentiles
under the law so as to keep it in order to be really saved or
really holy or really righteous or to earn their rewards. And
that's the doctrine, one of the doctrines that Paul says, don't
teach. So you charge them. that they teach no other doctrine.
And then verse four, 1 Timothy 1.4, he says, neither give heed
to fables and endless genealogies. You hear that today. The Jews,
especially genealogies, because one of their main claims to salvation
was their physical connection with Abraham or their physical
connection with one of the tribes of Israel. He said genealogies
mean nothing, your physical birth Though it might be a blessing
of God on this earth, physically, but it has nothing to do with
eternal life. It has nothing to do with righteousness.
And if you're a Jew, and you have a genealogy that takes you
back to Abraham, I want you to know this, listen, if you don't
believe the gospel of God's grace in Christ, you may be physically
connected to Abraham, but you're not spiritually connected to
him. All who believe the gospel, are the spiritual children of
God, the spiritual children of Abraham. That Abraham, meaning
the covenant of promise to send Christ, and that connects them
with that. But actually they're children
of God. And so don't give heed to fables. Fables are lies, just
like stories that tug at your heart. You know, some preachers
do nothing but tell stories. And they might tug at your heart.
But my friend, we're here to preach the gospel of salvation,
the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. He says,
all these fables and endless genealogies in verse four, which
minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith. So do. In other words, what they're
preaching in their fables and their genealogies, their ideas,
their opinions, all it does is just raise more questions, but
it doesn't give any answers. The answers that come from God's
word of how God can be just to justify the ungodly, the answer
on how a sinner can be saved, and it's all of grace. Now he
says in verse five, listen to this, this is where we get to
the meat of the matter here concerning the law. And he said, and I want
you to understand when the Bible says believers are not under
the law but under grace, what that means is that if you're
in Christ, sin cannot be imputed to you. And you cannot be condemned
by the law. whatever law you're talking about.
But here's the law that he's talking about. He says, now the
end of the commandment, you say, which commandment? Whatever commandment,
is charity out of a pure heart. That's love. You remember when
a lawyer, which back then referred to a student of the law, the
law of Moses, came to Christ and asked him, he said, good
master, what is the greatest of all commandments? And Christ
told him, he said, well, there's one God, and to love God perfectly,
without any sin, without any division, and to love your neighbor
as yourself, that's the greatest commandment. And so love God
perfectly, love your neighbor as yourselves, realizing there's
one God. And that's the end of the commandment.
You can talk about all the laws under the Old Testament law of
Moses. Somebody said there were 600
and some different laws. There was a ceremonial law, there
was the moral law, the Ten Commandments, there was the civil law, there
were dietary laws, all of those laws. But the summation of it
all, was love God perfectly, love our neighbors ourself. And
that's what he says. The end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart, an undivided heart. Now, what
is a pure heart in the Bible? He says, and of a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned. That is a sincere faith. Well,
look at those three things there. That pure heart, When we speak of the heart in
the Bible, we're speaking of the mind, we're speaking of the
affections, and the will. What we think, what we love,
and what we desire. It speaks of the conscience,
and he mentions conscience separately here, pure heart and of a good
conscience. And a faith unfaithful, what
is the conscience? It's the seat of judgment in our minds, in
our hearts, whereby we determine in our minds what we think is
good and what we think is evil. When we look at somebody and
we see them do something wrong, we say, well, that's sinful,
that's our conscience telling us that. And then a faith, that's
faith, God-given faith is looking to Christ. for all salvation. Now under the law, now here's
where we get to using the law lawfully. The law was never given
to sinners as a way of salvation, as a way of righteousness. Let
me read on and I'll come back to these three words, but look
at verse six. He says, from which some, having
swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling. That's empty talk. That's what that is. People talking
about religious things, but it means nothing, it's empty. And
then verse seven, desiring to be teachers of the law. They
wanted to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what
they say nor whereof they affirm. They don't really understand
what they're saying. They're using the law unlawfully. But
we know, verse eight, that the law is good if a man use it lawfully,
use it rightfully. Now, as I said, first of all,
realize that the law, any law in any generation, you know,
when we speak of the law, we often, we speak of the law of
Moses, the Ten Commandments, but there was law before Mount
Sinai, the law of conscience, the law of God spoken. It was
just, you know, the Bible says that, the Ten Commandments says,
thou shalt not kill. Well, it was just as wrong, sinful,
to kill before Mount Sinai, and it's just as sinful today, after
Mount Sinai, to kill. Murder is sin. Stealing is sin. Adultery is sin. All of these
things that are mentioned. But the law was never given to
sinful mankind to be a way of salvation. Why was the law given? Well, let me show you in Romans
chapter five. What he's been talking about
here in Romans five is judgment under condemnation and righteousness
under life. Judgment under condemnation happens
because of sin. Righteousness under life happens
because of Christ. Now, if you could ever find an
individual who was perfect according to the righteousness of the law,
well, that person doesn't need salvation. If you can keep the
law, and Christ spoke that, he said, the well need not a physician. Those
who are righteous, they don't need the cure. Like a well person,
he doesn't need the cure. And Christ said, I came to call
sinners to repentance. So why was the law given? Well,
look at Romans 5 in verse 19, or verse 20, rather. It says,
moreover, the law entered, entered into the world that the offense
might abound. What is the offense? Well, sin,
breaking the law. In other words, the law only
brought forth the reality of our sinfulness, our depravity. Our fallen Adam, we fell into
a state of sin and death, spiritual death and depravity. And it says
in verse 20, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. We're
not saved by law. The law just shows us like a
mirror how awful we are, how we're in need of a righteousness
we cannot produce. And if I use the law in preaching
any other way, then I'm using it unlawfully. The law is to
be a word of conviction. Paul mentioned that in Romans
chapter seven, when he talked over in Romans chapter seven,
he said, for when I was lost, when he was unregenerate, he
thought he was keeping the law. He thought the law was justifying
him by his works. But when the Spirit of God opened
his eyes in conviction, He saw that everything that he thought
recommended him unto God was loss, actually condemned him. But he says here, where sin abounded,
where that law shows the awfulness of my sin, even my best works
that fall short of the perfection of righteousness that the law
requires, grace did much more abound. And what is that grace? Look at verse 21. That is, sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life, not by my works or my law-keeping,
my best efforts, but by Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you see that?
And then look over in Galatians chapter three. What he's talking
about here is how the law given to Israel through Moses on Mount
Sinai did not cancel out the promise of grace that God had
already given to Abraham. The law wasn't given in order
to make men righteous and to be of salvation. So he asked
the question in verse 19 of Galatians 3, listen to this. Wherefore
then serveth the law? What does the law do? It was
added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. The seed, there's Christ. The
law was given because of sin, to show sinners their need of
a righteousness that could only be brought in and produced and
accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, till the
seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was
ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now go back to
1 Timothy 1. Listen to verse nine. Now this
is after he said, we know the law is good. You see, when we
say the law is good and not evil, what we're saying is the problem
in this issue of the law and our relationship to the law,
the problem is not the law. The law is good. The problem
is us. You understand that? We're sinful. And we cannot attain by our law-keeping
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
So what is the right use of the law? In the hands of the Spirit
to drive sinners to Christ. Look at verse nine, knowing this,
that the law was not made for a righteous man. If you're a
righteous person, which you're not, and I'm not either, in ourselves,
by our works, We don't need the law. But the Bible says that
by nature there's none righteous, no not one. But the law was not
made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, verse 10, for
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind. And
that's homosexuality. And he says, for men stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons. And if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel,
verse 11, of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. The law was made to expose our
sin and depravity and our need of the righteousness of the law,
which can only be found in Christ. And that's his righteousness
imputed to his people. That's the righteousness of the
law. Romans 10, four says, Christ is the end, the fulfillment of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. Well,
look back at first Timothy one in verse five. That's what this
thing is about, the pure heart. Our hearts are not by nature
pure. Bible says the heart is desperately
wicked, deceitful, who can know it? By nature, when we say, when
we quote Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, what that means is that we've all sinned, we've
all missed the mark, and no matter what we try to do, even at our
best, we fall short of the glory of God, which can only be found
in Christ. So how do we have a pure heart? Only as the Spirit
in the new birth under the gospel of peace and righteousness and
grace, brings us to see Christ. And he purifies our heart, our
minds, our affections, and our will, not in the sense of making
us sinlessly perfect within, but in the sense of driving us
to Christ for salvation, for peace, for forgiveness, for righteousness. And then he talks about the good
conscience, The good conscience is the conscience that's cleansed,
that is set free, exonerated by the blood of Christ. In other
words, you see the conscience. People say, well, my conscience
is bothering me. The conscience of a sinner without Christ is
set there to condemn him. And when that condemnation is
removed by Christ, that's the good conscience, and that brings
us to faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and repentance of dead works, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. That's the right use of the law,
to drive us to Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness,
to everyone that believes. And there's no other way. There's
no other right use of the law. Now people say, well, now we
need the law to guide us. We need the word of God. We'll
talk about that next time. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.