Our text is found in Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians 3. And it looks at what the purpose
of the law was. Why did God give the law? If salvation and all the blessings
of God are by promise, if God has given us an eternal inheritance
by promise because he will be gracious to us and he has a people
whom he loves and will be gracious to, if it's by promise and that
promise is established in the blood of Jesus Christ, what purpose
then does the law serve? Why was the law given? especially
when we know by the revelation of the gospel that the righteousness
of God is Jesus Christ. Now, I said that we're in Galatians
3, so leave a marker there, but turn over to Romans chapter 3. We'll be looking at a few verses
from that text this morning. Romans 3, verse 21 and 22. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. It's made known, being witnessed
by the law, which says, shut your mouths, don't boast, and
by the prophets, which say, look to the servant of God, look to
the salvation of God. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith, of Jesus Christ. And when I see that verse, I
remember Galatians 2.16, which makes it clear that it's talking
about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of
God is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. There's no difference. It doesn't
matter if you're Jew or Gentile. There's not a righteousness for
the Jew and a different righteousness for the Gentile. All are saved
by the righteousness of God, which is through the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what purpose, then, was the
law given? What purpose did God give the
law? Because the law, we know, came after the promise was made
to Abraham. Go back to Galatians 3. Galatians
3, 17 and 18 says, Paul says, In this I say that the covenant,
the covenant of promise that was confirmed before God in Christ
the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul it. It doesn't replace it, it doesn't
take away the promise of God, that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, that inheritance that he speaks of is eternal life
with our God. If the inheritance be of the
law, well then it's no more of promise. no more by promise,
but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Now, this brings us
to our text in verse 19. Paul asks, wherefore then serveth
the law? Why was the law given? And the
answer follows. It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and
it That law which was given was ordained by angels in the hand
of a mediator. So the first thing that I want
to look at with you this morning is that God had a purpose in
giving the law. What was that purpose? Why did
God give the law? And in verse 19 we're told it
was added because of transgression. So we'll look at that. And then
second, What we see in the giving of the law and in the writing
of the scriptures which record the history of Israel under that
law, we have given to us pictures and types of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that these things reveal, and by the power and glory of our
God, He takes that law which was given for a purpose, to show
the transgression, He also reveals to us Jesus Christ, and He shows
us the pictures and the types of which the law speaks of, of
which the law points to, of Jesus Christ. And it was given by the
hands of a mediator. And we see in the mediator, again,
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it blesses our hearts by
faith as we behold the salvation of our God in Him. and how he
works salvation for his people who absolutely need his grace
and salvation. So the title is an obvious one,
Why Was the Law Given? And let's look at it. So if God
always intended to justify his people, to make them righteous
in the righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ, if he
always intended to justify them in the covenant of promise, that's
God's promise, his word to you is that he is your righteousness,
if that was God's purpose, that to make known to us the will
and purpose of God by grace, that God will be gracious to
us because he's given us his word and he reveals that word
in our hearts by faith, receiving, saying God, God promised this,
God's given me his word and he reveals faith in us which believes
that word and trusts him to fulfill that word to us in Christ according
to promise then why establish a covenant that is based on merit,
that has blessings only based on merit? Why would God establish
that covenant after giving us the promise? Wouldn't that be
confusing? Is that some kind of a contradiction?
Is God contradicting himself? Because when the natural man
looks at the scriptures, he thinks that the God of the Old Testament
is somehow different from the God of the New Testament. And
that's not at all the case. That's not at all the case. There's
a purpose why God gave the law. And while the natural man stumbles
over what that purpose is, though, he doesn't see what the purpose
of it is in truth, right? He looks at the law and says,
oh, God wouldn't give the law unless we could keep it. You've
probably heard that. God wouldn't give a law that
you can't keep. That wouldn't be right. they
don't understand. And so they get to working and
laboring trying to keep the law and they come up with ways to
explain away their sin and just call the mistakes or mishaps
little slip-ups and explain away why they're doing what they're
doing and somehow justify themselves and believe God will justify
them in the law. But the child of God is taught
by the Spirit of God. It's not that we know these things
without grace, but the child of God teaches us and reveals
to us the mystery of God through the gospel. What God has shown
us. Showing us our depravity. Showing
us our need of His grace. Showing us that our God, that
the true and living God is our God. And He's blessed us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so the law was given and
the scriptures were written to make known for us to read them
and by the glory and power of God who gives us his spirit to
make known to us we're corrupt, we're depraved, we're defiled,
we're ruined in Adam and our sin. And so he tells us in verse
19 plainly, the law was added. because of transgressions. The
law was added because of transgressions. And in Romans 5.20, Paul adds
to that. He says, the law entered. Now that word entered is actually
the same law as is in Galatians 3.19, which says it was added.
The law came alongside that the offense might abound. In Romans 3.19, Paul expounds
this more, saying that the law was given that every mouth may
be stopped, that the boasting of this flesh would cease, our
mouths would be closed, and all the world may become guilty before
God. God gave the law to make clear
to us the depths of our sin. When God said to Adam, that you
shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
for in the day that you eat is thereof thou shalt surely die
and the giving of the law and the recording of that law in
the scriptures and beholding Israel trying to live under that
law and make a righteousness for themselves that law shows
us the breadth and the depth of our death When we hear the
law rightly, when we hear the law by the spirit, we see, whoa,
I'm dead. I'm in trouble. I need salvation. I've offended holy God, and he
is angry with me justly, and I'm condemned under the law. And so we see what our God tells
us in the gospel by the spirit, He must be born again. We say,
I need to be born again. I need a new birth because my
first birth in Adam is defiled, corrupt. I'm depraved. I'm not
righteous. I have no righteousness. I have
nothing to boast of before God. And so the Lord is making us
to know that we don't keep the law perfectly. Even Paul. a man who was trained in the
school to be a Pharisee. And he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. And according to the law's interpretation,
as a Pharisee, he could boast that he was blameless. But when
the Spirit came and the Spirit taught him, he cried out in Romans
7.24, recorded for us, O wretched man that I am, who shall save
me from the body of this death? that death in Adam. We died. We surely died in Adam. And so the Spirit makes us to
know you're not coming to the Lord in the righteousness of
the law. You're not justified by the righteousness of the law.
You're coming up short. you coming in the law and your
own righteousness shall be cast into hell justly by the true
and living God. And so by faith we receive the
testimony of scripture where he says in Galatians 3.22 that
the scripture hath concluded all under sin. You read this
word and you see it by the Spirit, you see everyone's a sinner. Even David, a man after God's
own heart, was a vile sinner. Even he sinned grievously against
the Lord. And so we see none, there's none
righteous. In fact, go back to Romans 3. Look at Romans 3, and
at the very end of verse 9, we pick up there where it says that
we are all under sin. Romans 3, 9, at the very end
of it, we're all under sin. And then Paul continues by the
Spirit, quoting from the scripture in Romans 3, verse 10. As it's
written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. A sepulcher, that's a grave site
where you lay the dead, dead bodies. With their tongues, they
have used to see the poison of asps, venomous snakes, is under
their lips. So that when we try to teach
others and tell others how to come to God, According to this
flesh, all we're doing is speaking poisonous lies that just thicken
the veil that's over our hearts and minds and just seals us up
in the death that we are in Adam. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they
not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes." And that's an amazing thing because we're laboring
and we're busying ourselves because we are afraid to die and we don't
feel that we've done enough But we won't listen to God. We're
going to keep trying to come in our own way, in our own righteousness,
by our own religion, doing our own works, thinking that God
will receive them. He'll receive them. There's no
fear of God, who declares to us, we're all sinners. We're
all sinners. And so Paul's writing this with
the experience and the knowledge, declaring that gospel to law-keeping
Sabbatarians who, when he came into the synagogues and preached
the gospel faithfully from their own scriptures, hated him for
it and tried to murder him numerous times in order to silence him.
And the same was true of the heathen, idolatrous Gentiles
who made a living off of their idolatry and were upset and angry
with Paul and also wanted to kill him because he was taking
away their business. He was taking away their patrons
because he declared and showed the foolishness of man trying
to work a righteousness for himself. And so all men hated Paul because
they hate the true and living God. their enmity against God. And so the law was added, why? Because of transgressions, so
that we would know that by the deeds of the law there shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. And so God is faithfully declaring
to you his chosen sheep. to declare to you the truth,
to make us to know that God gave the law so that we would know
and understand, that's not my righteousness. God is God, He's
true and living God, but I need a salvation, I need a righteousness
which God speaks of, the one whom He declares, the one of
whom He speaks. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
because He's my righteousness, not my religion, not my righteousness,
not my works, not my lineage, not my will, but Jesus Christ
is the righteousness, He's the salvation of God's people according
to Promise. Promise. And faith receives this. Faith knows this. Faith has an
understanding of this, which is revealed to us by the grace
of God, and so the law was added because of transgressions. That's why the law was given. Not because you can keep it.
It was given to show you how depraved and how dead we are
in Adam. Now, the law has a second purpose. God in wisdom is the one who
gave the law. And he gave it in such a way
so that it reveals to us Christ. It shows us the types and the
pictures of the salvation of our Savior. And it shows us the
grace which he has for his people, which is revealed even in the
Old Testament under the law by the prophets. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 10, and we'll look at a few verses here in Hebrews
chapter 10, so don't turn away too quickly. Hebrews 10 verse 1. For the law having a shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers thereunto perfect. So we're told here that
the law is a shadow of heavenly things. The law gives us a pattern
of the salvation that our God has given to us for his people. When it refers to the priesthood,
for example, The priests under the Old Testament, and I'm quoting
this from Hebrews 8, 5, it says that they serve under the example
and shadow of heavenly things, so that we see in the law that
we need a more perfect righteousness. We need a salvation that only
God can give, because this flesh is defiled, this flesh is fallen. We need a perfect Savior. We need a complete salvation
by Him. And the natural man doesn't know
that. But you that know it, you that understand this, that's
the grace of God which has revealed that to you. You that receive
that and believe Christ by faith, that's the grace of God which
has given that to you because the natural man doesn't hear
that. Whatever he hears is just picked
up by the birds of the air and taken away, and it bears no fruit,
no fruit in him. He may say, he may give a scent
to it and say, I agree with that, but it bears no fruit in him. He doesn't believe the Word of
God to him. And so in Hebrews 10.4 it says
there that it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins. That's true. Under the law they
were required to sacrifice bulls and goats and doves and they
could, depending on what they had, they could purchase things
under the law and sacrifice them to the Lord. It's free will offerings
and sin offerings and burnt offerings under the law, but that's not
what took away sin. That didn't take away the sin
of the people even under the Old Testament. But it does show
us that sin, our sinfulness, requires death. It harkens back
to the garden. When Adam rebelled against God
and they fell in sin, God went and slew two animals and took
the skins and covered their nakedness, showing us that death is required
for sin. Death is required for sin. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But it also makes us to hear
what God is saying in His promise when He foretold us that another
would come, that a substitute would come whom He would send.
to save his people, that we'd be looking for that salvation,
that we would know that declaration which tells us, unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, that we would rejoice with Simeon
in the temple at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to know
and to behold the salvation of God has come. The promise of
my God has come. He has kept His word unto His
people. He did not leave us. He did not
abandon us. He's not thrown us in hell as
we rightfully deserve, but He's provided that salvation through
His Son, through the promised salvation of His grace and word
to us. And so, We rejoice, we're made
to rejoice that Christ has come and taken away our shame. He's taken away our reproach.
He's put away our sin and we stand before the throne of God
faultless because of the grace of God in Christ. And this is
confirmed for us in Hebrews 10 verse 14, for by one offering,
All the offerings we made under the law, they didn't take away
sin. But by one offering, He, Christ our Savior, hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. We need a high priest. Christ
is that high priest who made one offering for us. And He provided
that one offering which could take away sin, the offering of
His own body. He gave Himself to put away the
sins of His people. He took our place. He died our
death. And by His life, we live. And we live in Him. And He is
our prophet. He is our prophet who declares
unto us the way unto the Father. and he reveals in us that he
himself is the way. We know the way unto God because
Christ is the way unto God. And then there's the temple.
The temple is a picture of Christ. He's the one in whom we worship
God. He's the one in whom we have
fellowship with God and know him. When John saw that holy
city, the new Jerusalem, It says in Revelation 21, 22, and 23,
he said, I saw no temple therein. When I looked at the new Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband,
he said, I didn't see any temple in that place, because the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city
had no need of the sun. neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb of God
is the light thereof." So, in other words, the law was given
to reveal to us the glory of Christ. The law was given to
show us that this is a pattern of things to come. And Christ
is all our salvation. He's made everything to us that
we need. All our salvation was given into
the hands of the mediator, Jesus Christ, the righteousness of
God. And so by His grace, we cry out. We're taught to sing and to worship
in glory in Christ. We see this in Revelation 411,
where the people say, thou art worthy, O Lord. to receive glory
and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created. Everything, it's
speaking to the pattern of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God isn't saying, that's
good, I'll use that. I'll take that principle or that
law and I'll show them how it's of me. No, that law exists and
is in place because God is showing us the glory of his son and everything's
in his hands. And so the law served this purpose,
and Paul tells us, till the seed should come. Till the seed should
come. The Gentiles weren't under that
law. Now we are, thanks to religion, and I don't mean that in a good
way, but because man has confused the truth, he tries to bring
us under that law, rather than looking to and declaring the
promises of God in Christ, that we should walk by faith in Him,
that we should cry out to Him by the spirit of adoption which
is given unto us, whereby we know the things which God is
teaching His people. And so that law was given till
the seed should come, so that once Christ, who is that seed,
that promised seed that God spoke of, till He came, And at that time, the law's purpose
was ended. It accomplished that purpose.
The law made known, the law had served its purpose in making
known to us the transgression. And so Christ is the fulfillment
of the law and His Spirit has written the law in our hearts
and in our minds so that we see the truth of that law, that we
know it's more than just hating your enemies. The law teaches
us not to hate our enemies, but to love them. So that even Stephen,
when he was being stoned by the Jews before his death, cried
out to the Lord, Lord lay not this sin to their charge. And the Spirit teaches us that.
The law doesn't say anything about not hating your enemies.
But the Spirit teaches us to love our enemies, to love them,
and to do good unto others, and to pray for our enemies, and
to help others where we're able to help them. and to make those
sacrifices. And so, by the Spirit, we're
taught to walk by faith. By the Spirit, we see our need
of our God's grace. We look for His promises to be
fulfilled unto us. What the law couldn't do, it
could not give us life, Christ has given us life. And by His
power, by His glory, He makes that promise known to us. Now,
Paul adds this, regarding the law, he says there at the end
of verse 19, that it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. The law required a mediator. If you remember, when you read
the Old Testament, you see God was angry with the people all
the time. They were always of disobeying
the Lord. They were always going astray. They were always going out of
the way. It was just a matter of time before the people rebelled
against God. And God was angry with them.
We read a couple times where God said, Moses, stand back.
I'm going to destroy this people. And Moses, as the mediator, said,
hold up, God. God said, I'll make another nation
your loins." And Moses said, hold up, Lord, don't destroy
the people. The nations will hear that you
brought them out of Egypt only to destroy them in the wilderness.
Now, is Moses more merciful and compassionate than the Lord?
Absolutely not. Is the God of the Old Testament
somehow different than the God of the New Testament? Absolutely
not. God is showing us through the
giving of the law that in the law you're going to meet an angry
God. A God who is just and holy and
righteous and perfect in all his ways and if you try to come
to God in the law, you're going to die. And so he made Moses
a mediator to stand in the gap there, picturing what Christ
has accomplished for us through promise, through grace, through
mercy. And that's what he's saying in
Galatians 3.20. He says, now a mediator is not
a mediator of one, but God is one. And what the Spirit is teaching
you, his people, is God's not angry. with you in the covenant
of promise. You're not coming to an angry
God and facing Him in your own righteousness. You're coming
to Him in the Lord Jesus Christ who has appeased the wrath of
God, who's put away that wrath of God, who's delivered it. God
was never angry with His people in the covenant of promise. covenant of promise. He never
counted us his enemy. There's no threatenings and worries.
You know, when Moses was the mediator, what did it say at
Mount Sinai? There was thunderings and lightnings
and rumblings. And God said, if one of them
so much as touches the mountain, thrust them through with a spear.
Drive them through. Put them to death, Moses. And
Moses, the mediator, said, I exceedingly fear and quake. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. That's the covenant
of works. But in the covenant of promise,
it's grace, grace, all in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't come
to an angry God in wrath and in fury. But God never counted
us his enemy in this covenant of promise, but by nature, we
were enmity against God. We were enemies of God. We hated
God. We did things our own way, and
we would not come to Him in the truth. Why? Because we're darkness. We're darkness. We're enemies
of God. Notice the language in 2 Corinthians. Go to 2 Corinthians
5, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20. All there in Christ, established
in Christ, says all things are of God who hath reconciled us
to himself. We're the ones being reconciled
to God. God hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us, the church, the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, or to know, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God to beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God. You be reconciled to God. You're
the one who has a problem with him. But he's given his son. He's put away your sin. There's
no more wrath. We're not coming to him in the
fiery mount. We're not coming to Mount Sinai.
We're not coming to the God of wrath. We're coming to the God
who has reconciled us to himself, who's put away our sin, and who
blesses us with an eternal inheritance by promise, in promise, in grace,
in grace and in mercy. In Colossians 1, 21 and 22, it
says the same thing. And you, that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind, That's us. We are the ones who held
God in enmity by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. And so Christ did
this in the covenant of promise to minister to us. the promises, to give unto us,
to assure us by the giving of a spirit that we have in him
an eternal inheritance, that we live by him and we know him
and we've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. And so to close, back in Galatians
3, 21 and 22, In conclusion, Paul asks, is
the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. No way. For if there had been a law given
which could have given life fairly, righteousness should have been
by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. And so the promises made to the
children of promise, the children of Abraham, the children of faith,
that's not changed, it's not been altered by the giving of
the law. The law is simply served to show
that salvation is by promise. It is by grace. And that promise
is made unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on him and you
shall be saved. And you shall know peace and
fellowship and righteousness by the true and living God according
to promise. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy. Lord, we
thank you that you teach us and clarify and tell us over and
over again that the law is not our righteousness, but that Jesus
Christ is our righteousness, and that the law was given to
make it known to us our depravity and our need of a complete salvation,
which is all in Christ. Lord, thank you for teaching
us this. Thank you for the giving of your
spirit that makes us to know what no one in this world knows
except you give it to them. Lord, thank you. And we pray
that you would help us to be faithful with this ministry of
reconciliation, that we would preach with clarity and simplicity
the word of reconciliation, that you would call sinners out of
darkness, out of confusion, out of death, into the light and
life of your son Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right brethren. I think the
kids are out back if you want to find them.