He that keepeth the commandment
keepeth his own soul, but he that despiseth his ways shall
die. Now nothing could be clearer
in the word of God than that nobody keeps God's commandment
perfectly or meritoriously. That's the word we use. Meritoriously
means simply to earn favor, to meet a requirement of righteousness. Meritorious. Nobody keeps God's
commandments in a meritorious way. It doesn't earn any favor
with God when you do something that's relatively good in this
world, such as worshiping Him this morning. That's relatively
better than not worshiping Him this morning. But it's not meritorious
because we're sinners yet. In our hearts we still have a
heart of flesh that's full of sin and our motives are messed
up. Our will is depraved. The intensity, if you could even
use that word, of our worship is weak. And so we fall way far
short Anything that would come close
to being acceptable in the sight of God even in even as believers
And again, that's very clear In the scriptures now if if sinners
could keep God's commandment perfectly or in a meritorious
way Then salvation would have been by the law. That's what
the scripture says and Listen to Galatians 2 21 Paul wrote
to the church at Galatia. I do not frustrate the grace
of God And that word frustrate means to do away with or reject.
I do not Reject the grace of God For if righteousness come
by the law Then Christ is dead in vain If a sinner can be righteous
before God by keeping the law Then that's how sinners would
be saved The Lord Jesus Christ didn't just come to die for it
so that people would feel sorry for him like religion seems to
think he came to be His people's righteousness and sin offering
all of our righteousness Everything he did is meritorious before
God. But to say that any righteousness,
even a supplemental righteousness, would come by the law would be
to frustrate or do away with or reject the grace of God. And that puts you in a really
bad place, and me. Christ is dead in vain. What
a horrible thought perish the thought God forbid Galatians
321 I should have you turn there. Let's turn together if we go
a little bit long this morning, then I'll make up for it later
Galatians 321 This is the next chapter from
where we just quoted in Galatians 2 Galatians 321 and Is the law then against the promises
of God? If a sinner can't be saved by
the law, then does that make the law contrary to the gospel? God forbid. No, no. You see, the law is honored by
the gospel. The law's not done away with
by the gospel. The gospel doesn't frustrate
The law, any more than the law, frustrates the grace of God when
used lawfully. The law is consistent with the
gospel. The law just can't save you, except that Christ has kept
the law for you. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, and let's face
it, If the law in the garden wasn't good enough to produce
and preserve life in us, you can have everything you want
except that. That's pretty easy law, you would
think, but not for sinners. Because you see, the problem
with a sinner is not they prefer that fruit over that fruit. The
problem with a sinner is they want to be God. If it was just
a matter of taste, we had plenty to eat. We had plenty to enjoy,
paradise. No, it's a matter of authority.
It's a matter of who's gonna be God. And as long as that one
thing was withheld from us, we could not tolerate that. The potential for sin within
us was suggested by Satan and we fell for it. and head over
heels because of the sinful heart desiring to be God. You can eat
whatever you want to eat. You shall be as God's. So if there could have been a
law given, that probably would have been it. Maybe we could
keep that, no? No? Which could have given life,
then verily righteousness should have been by the law. If we could
keep a law, then we would be righteous by that law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. All under sin. And the gospel
didn't come in spite of that, the gospel came because of that.
That was true because of Christ. It wasn't plan B. God gave the
law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. God's purpose all
along was a bride for his son, not a bunch of little do-gooders. That the promise that, that,
so that, God did it that way on purpose. God wasn't thwarted
in the garden or any time that you sin. It's according to his purpose.
He's concluded us all under sin so that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them, I believe. The promise
by faith of. Not faith in, it does come by
faith in Him, by grace through faith. But it's the faithfulness
of Christ. It's in Christ and His faithfulness
to the law that all of God's promises are yea and amen. Might be given. There's your
part in it. We just receive. We just receive
what God did for us in His Son. So you see what we're saying,
keeping the commandment, that's not something we're able to do
in and of ourselves. So why does the Lord say to his
disciples in John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments? Why does he say that? Well, the
key word there is love. If you love me, do what I tell
you to do, do what I say. If you love me, If you love him,
he's already saved you. And you know how he saved you?
By free grace through faith in Christ. Faith which works, by
the way. Faith without works is dead.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy 1, please, verse 15. 1 Timothy 1,
15. This is what the law means to
the believer right here. 1 Timothy 1.5. I said 50, it's
1 Timothy 1.5. Now the end of the commandment,
that's our text. If you keep the commandment of
God, End the purpose the goal purpose of the commandment is
love Out of a pure heart And of a good conscience And
of faith unfeigned True Unhypocritical honest and faith in Christ That's
the goal of the law You see that love The goal of the law is not
obedience. I Want you to think about that
for a minute? The goal of the law is not your obedience to
God Do you think God is naive about that? You think he gave
his law so that you would keep it? God's not that naive No, the
end, the goal, the purpose of the law is love. To love Him. Love out of a pure heart. Well,
how did our heart get pure? And of a good conscience, how
did our conscience get pure? And of faith unfamed, faith in
Christ. You know what a good conscience
is? It's not one that, that somebody has that's, you know, their good
is outweighed their bad. Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, my good outweighs my bad, at least, you know. That's not
a good conscience. If you've ever sinned one time,
you're a goner. A good conscience is one in which
countenance is no guilt whatsoever because it trusts in the Savior.
A good conscience is one that's able to say, who shall lay anything
to my charge? It is Christ that died. That's
the only good conscience there is right there. If you're able
to say that, nobody can charge me with any wrongdoing because
my Savior died for my sins according to the scriptures. That's a good
conscience right there. And love. The end of the law
is love, not obedience. Of course, we desire to obey
God's law as believers. We're gonna read that in a minute.
But that's not the end of the law. If the goal of the law is
to get you to obey God, then the law is a failure. No, the goal of the law is love.
Paul said, I love the law of God after the end with man. You
know why he loved the law of God? Because he loved God. And
he wanted to please God. He wanted to honor God out of
a pure heart. That's the only kind of heart
that'll want that. And the only pure heart is the one washed
in the blood of God's son. So you see how the law is not
something that we ever obey. And you could put that qualification
that we never obey the law perfectly. But if you haven't obeyed the
law perfectly, you haven't obeyed the law. We don't have to put
that qualification on it, do we? I don't have to say I have never
obeyed the law. I've never obeyed the law unless
I've done it perfectly. But my Savior did. My substitute
did, my redeemer did perfectly. That's the only way you can obey
God is perfectly. If it ain't perfect, it's not
obedience. It's not what he said. All right, so now the end of the
law is not what people think it is. It's love, a good conscience,
and faith unfeigned. The goal of the law is to cause
you to look to Christ and believe on Him desperately, urgently. I'm a goner under God's law,
unless Christ kept it for me. And so I look to Him, I believe
on Him, I trust Him for that, unless Christ has washed me from
all of my guilt before God's law, that I'm a goner. from which some having swerved have turned aside
unto vain jangling." What's this vain jangling? They're just rambling.
They're just saying stupid stuff. What do you mean, Paul? Well,
they desire to be teachers of the law, but they don't know
anything about the law. They think the purpose of the
law is for you to do good so you can go to heaven when you
die. That's vain jangling. That's foolishness. That's blasphemy
is what that is. That's trampling under your nasty,
sinful, wretched black feet, the blood of God's son. That's
what that is. Nor where have they affirmed,
but we know that the law is good. It's not that the law is bad.
The law is good if a man use it lawfully. They're not using
the law lawfully when they say the law is a means to gain favor
with God, to gain acceptance with God. That's not using it
lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. The law is made for sinners.
It's not made for righteous people, that's saying, and it's also
saying this, it's not made to make righteous people, to make
people righteous. It's not for that. But for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, that's what the law is for. And so if the law, contrary,
Far from doing anything about that, it actually reveals that
in us, the ungodliness and the lawlessness, and where's our
hope? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. For murderers of fathers and
murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, why do you
think The law says those things. Why is there a law that says
thou shalt not kill? Because we're murderers, that's
why. If nobody ever murdered anybody,
what would be the need to have a law that says thou shalt not
kill? for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
And all of that is, isn't this brilliant and wonderful? According
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. It's the gospel
that tells us don't look to Sinai, don't look to the commandment
for salvation. The commandment is pointing you
to Christ for salvation. That's using the law lawfully
is to see it as the schoolmaster that it is. To cause you to flee
to God's son for righteousness. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Boy, that doesn't sound like
the gospel much, does it, to call you a whoremonger and a
liar and a murderer and a kidnapper and all kind, everything. No,
it is. You need to know that about yourself. And you need to know that the
only hope for a wretch like you is God's darling son, the savior
of sinners. Sinner's righteousness if he
has any is Christ and him alone Romans 10 1 let's turn over there
to and I'm well We got to look at this Romans 10 1 if we're
going to talk about righteousness and keeping the commandment and
how that that That's life according to our text We've got to keep
the commandment it to have life and But we see the impossibility
of that in and of ourselves. Romans 10, one, brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God. My goodness, why do they need
to be saved? They're zealous for God. That's what they need
to be saved from, their zeal. because it's not according to
knowledge. Their zeal is to keep the law, to be outwardly as righteous
as they can so that they'll be accepted of God. That's not according
to knowledge. That's not according to the truth
of the gospel. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness have not submitted themselves, oh, wait a minute.
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness. That's what everybody's gonna
do that's ignorant of God's righteousness. If you haven't seen that Christ
is the righteousness of God, you know what you'll do? You'll
try to please God yourself. You'll try to do good things
so that God will say, I'm happy with him, I'll take him to heaven.
People say things like, well, if anybody's going to heaven,
my old mama will. She was such a sweet person.
A lot of sweet persons in hell. The blood of Christ is the only
thing that washes sin away. And everything we do is sin. Old mama's sweetness was sin. That's what we need to understand.
And we loved her for it. We loved her. I'm glad I had
a sweet mama. But that's not gonna stand up
before God now. That's not gonna measure up.
She's gonna have to have Christ. And me too. Going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted. It's a bowing,
isn't it? It's a submission. Because it's
a confession that everything I do is evil. My good can't outweigh
my bad, because I don't have any good. My righteousnesses are as filthy
rags in the sight of God. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Where is that found? For Christ
is the goal of the law. Christ is the termination of
the law for righteousness. You will never look to the law
for righteousness again once you see the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he did for you. Never again. To everyone that believeth, for
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. The only
way to be righteous according to the law is to do it perfectly
in thought, word, and deed. That's why when the Israelites
had that attitude, that misunderstanding of the law, that they were gonna
do it in order to live, Paul said, I pray to God that he would
save them from that. He would save them. But the righteousness which is
of faith, the only righteousness there is for a sinner, is by
faith in Christ, because he is our righteousness. The righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this, why say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead, but what sayeth it? The word
is neither, it's even in thy mouth. God'll put it in your
heart. His law, he'll write it in your
heart. And when he does, you'll know
that you'll never measure up to it. And you'll look to Christ
for righteousness. And you'll say so. It's in your
mouth. And shout, look at verse nine. Which is what we preach, verse
eight. Even in thy mouth and in thy heart. that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy
heart that God hath raised him from the dead. You see, confessing
the Lord Jesus is talking about in this context concerning the
righteousness of the law. When you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus, you're confessing that the only way I'm gonna be
righteous in the sight of God is by the Lord Jesus and his
righteousness. And shall believe in that heart
that God raised him from the dead you'll be saved That way
by Christ and what he did For with the heart man believeth
unto Righteousness, so how do you keep the law? How do you
keep the commandment according to our text? With your heart you believe on Christ. Unto righteousness. And you're gonna say so, aren't
you? With your mouth, confession is made unto salvation. If Christ
is all of your righteousness and all of your works are filthy
rags, you're gonna let everybody know that. There ain't gonna
be any doubt in anybody's mind that ever hears, never knows
you, You lean not on the arm of the
flesh that you have no confidence in your flesh, but you rejoice
in Christ Jesus So what's our text saying who
is he that keepeth the commandment well I Again, just because the law can't
save us doesn't make it bad. In fact, those who believe on
Christ for righteousness strive to honor God's law. Isn't that
what Paul said? I know that in me, he said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. As a believer, no good thing.
For to will is present with me though. I want to, I want to
honor him. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For the good that I would do,
I would do. I would do, I would worship him
this morning with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength and
love him like that. But how to perform that, I find
not. And the good that I would, I do not, but the evil
which I would not, I don't want to dishonor the Lord, do you? But that I do. That I do. In this flesh, that I do. When
God saves a sinner, that sinner will strive to obey and honor
the Lord out of love for Him who first loved us. But as Paul
lamented over, we cannot keep the law as we would or as is
required of the Holy God. So the second point here is vital.
Two things. That first, the law's not bad. We desire to keep the law. There's
only one way a sinner can keep the law John 6 26 listen to this
carefully in closing Jesus answered them and said verily verily I
say unto you you seek me not because you saw the miracles
But because you did eat of the loaves and were filled Labor not for the meat which
perish it But for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of God, the Son of Man shall give unto you, for
him hath God the Father sealed. So he's saying don't strive and
work for bread and fish, for meat that perisheth, for earthly
physical food, but spiritual, eternal food.
Work for that, labor in that effort, on that basis to Be fed with
the bread of life and to drink the water of life Labor for that
so he's talking about working and so their question comes This
way what shall we do that? We might work the works of God.
How do we labor? For this eternal bread that you're
speaking of how do we? Accomplish that what all do we
have to do? I? Jesus answered and said unto
them. This is the work of God. This
is what you have to do That you believe on him Of whom
he had seen That you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
how you please God That's how you are Acceptable with God. That's how you measure up to And faith is not a work. He's
not saying there that quit doing that work and do this work. He's
saying the way that you please God is not a work. It's faith. It's the gift of faith from God.
Faith that he gives. What a blessed paradox that most
will never understand. Those who strive to keep the
commandment for righteousness will never obtain righteousness.
But those who obtain righteousness are those who rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. To despise God's ways, our text
says, which most sinners absolutely do, is to hate grace. Is to hate God's way of salvation,
which is his son. to hate God's way by grace through
faith in Christ, and the end result of that, as our text says,
is eternal death. In Christ Jesus, I have kept
the commandment of God, according to our text, I have. And God
says, well done, thou good and faithful servant, not because
of anything I have ever done or ever will do. But because by his grace I stand
before him in my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen,
let's pray.