Amen. I take your Bibles now
turn back with me to Galatians chapter three. Entitled this message, the purpose
of the law. As we've been going through this,
the apostle has clearly stated the distinction between the two
covenants. Last time we discussed, I preached
to you, I talked to you of the covenant of law being a covenant
of works. Do this and live, don't do this
and die. It is a covenant between two
parties and each one of them are totally responsible to fulfill
each one's obligations. God's obligation is to give life
to those who obey it and death to those who don't. The obligation
of man in this covenant is either obey the whole law or die because
of disobedience. So we see the distinction between
that law and the law of grace. He says the law of the covenant
of promise, the covenant of promise Paul likens unto a last will
and testament. You remember that He says though
in verse 15, Brethren, though I speak a manner of men, as though
it be about a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth or addeth there unto. Last will and testament
is a covenant in which the testator is totally responsible for everything. He is responsible for decreeing
who gets His possessions and He is responsible for accumulating
those possessions to give them. He is responsible for everything.
And so you see the difference between the two covenants. He says, Now to Abraham and to
his seed were the promises made. He said, Not to seeds as many,
but as of one, to the sty seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ the law, which
was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that
it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise." So we see the distinction of the covenants. And even so, God's will in testament
was decreed and given to Abraham to be a blessing. It was given
by promise. And that this promise should
come through Jesus Christ. That it should be obtained, purchased
by Jesus Christ and received as a promise of the Spirit through
faith. So in verse 16 through 18, Paul
testifies that the promises that were made were made to Christ. Were made to Christ. to Abraham
and to his seed. And again, this amplifies the
responsibility. Abraham, his responsibility simply
was receiving it. And we know that even this is
part of the covenant of promise. But really, all the promises
of God are yea and amen where? In Christ. So this covenant the
Father made with the Son, and the Son bore all the responsibility
of this covenant. So when Christ came into the
world, you remember what he said, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me, and this is the
Father's will. that of all he had given me I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. And so all who Christ represented
will obtain this promise, every one of them. So as none then could add or
take away from a man's covenant, how much more can none add to
or take away from God's covenant, God's promise? And so the law,
the covenant of merit, the apostle says was 400, in verse 17, 430
years after. It was after Abraham received
this promise of God. Now the promise of God was made
in eternity with Christ, but in time Abraham received it.
And you remember Isaac received it, and Jacob received it. All
of the patriarchs before the law was given, before they went
into bondage, They all received the same covenant of promise. They received the Spirit through
faith. They all did before the law came. He said 430 years, but listen,
no matter what, it cannot disannul or take away the promise. It
can't have any effect on the promise. He said for the inheritance,
Where if the inheritance were of the law, there would be no
more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. You
see oil and water. These two cannot mix. You cannot
have a covenant of promise and a covenant of works. It's either
a covenant of promise or it is a covenant of works. And God
gave it to Abraham how? By a covenant of promise. And that's how he gives it to
every one of us who believe. We have a covenant of promise
which the law has no part in. So then what effect, we went
over this, what effect does the law have on the promise? Nothing. nothing it cannot disannul or
make the promise of none effect so the only reasonable question
then is comes up in verse 19 wherefore then serveth the law
okay if the law has no part in your salvation None. That all your salvation was purposed
of God, accomplished by Christ, given to you by the Spirit of
God, and kept by the power of the Spirit of God, then why did
God give the law? If it's not a rule of our life,
if it can't be mixed with this or added to it, what does it
do? Why then did God give the law? The answer is right there. It
was added because of what? Transgression. It was added because
of transgression. It was superimposed, but not
to the covenant of grace. It was superimposed to the law
that's written in our hearts. It was to magnify the law that
was already given to us when we were born. Now you read that
in Romans chapter 1 and 2, the Apostle plainly lays this out.
That didn't matter if you were a Jew or a Gentile. The law of
God was first written in your hearts. Listen, before you ever
heard thou shalt not steal, you knew as a child when you took
something it was wrong. Why? The law of God was written in
your heart. Now what does the law of Moses do? The law of Moses
adds a magnifying glass to it. It magnifies sin. It super exposes sin. That's what it does. And I read
you this before. Go to Romans 7. And again, Paul's
experience here is our experience. We know this. What Paul went
through in Romans 7 is our experience. Look at verse 9. Paul says, I
was alive without the law once. I was fine. When I read the law,
I honored it. In my own mind and heart, I was
okay. Me and God were square. I was
alive. But what happened? When the commandment
came, when it became a reality, what happened? Sin revived and
I died. And so what? The commandment
which was ordained to life the commandment I thought to be ordained
to life. That's how Paul and every Jew thought that if we
obeyed this commandment as best we could, God would be pleased
with us and be accepted. He said, I thought this was the
way to life. What did I find? I found it to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. The law because of sin slew me.
And then he magnifies the law. Look at this. He says, Wherefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? He's saying this. The law is
perfect. Now is the law to blame for this? Who's to blame? It's not the
law, the law is perfect. Then what is it, Paul? God forbid,
but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good. That sin by the commandment might
become exceeding sinful. You see why the law is there?
Wherefore then serveth the law. It was added to magnify the transgression.
That sin might become what? Not just sin, but exceeding sinful. Not just a mistake. Isn't this
how human, our nature views sin? As errors? Mistakes? God doesn't say it's a mistake.
He says it's treason. To lie is treason. To commit adultery is not an
error, it's treason. What we think so lightly of,
the law doesn't, testifies it's not a light thing. It's a very serious thing. And
so if the law is used lawfully, it's good. The law must have
its place. It's necessary. God wouldn't
have gave it if it wasn't necessary. It was necessary, and it's necessary
for us to use the law as it was intended, and not superimpose
it on the covenant of promise, which religion does. See, the problem is not the law,
it's me. I'm the problem. My sin is the
problem. Now notice this, the duration
of the law. He said, wherefore then serveth
the law. Go back to your text. Let me go back to my text. There
it is. He says in verse 19, wherefore then serveth the law was added
because of transgression. How long? What was the purpose
of this law and what's the duration of it? Till the seed should come
to whom the promise was made. The duration of the law was until
Christ should come. Now that Christ has come, the
law is of no more effect. No more effect. All of its sacrifices,
ordinances, and commands are now and forever removed. Why? Because Christ has come. The covenant promise, the heir
of all things has come. That's what it was purposed to
be for until He come. Now the Jews were under this
law. The nation of Israel was under this law and it was a carnal
thing. The law for them was a carnal
thing. They had to obey these ordinances. And with the obedience
of these ordinances under the law, they received carnal blessings. In other words, somebody didn't
come in and conquer them. Somebody didn't come in and famine
was kept from them. You know, at one time when God
says, I believe it was twice a year, they're supposed to,
every male is supposed to go to Jerusalem. Who do you suppose
protected all their stuff while they were gone? Who do you suppose
protected all their stuff while they were gone? That no raiders,
no plunderers ever, you know, and they could set, if you were
a thief, you'd maybe try to set your clock to those two times
a year. But as long as they kept those ordinances, God kept them
from being robbed. So they received carnal blessings
for this. And they were carnally distinguished
between them and the rest of the world by the obedience to
this law. But the law was not just carnal. This is what was important. The
law was spiritual. Even though they were under it,
they couldn't keep it. Outwardly, they tried. Outwardly,
they were blessed. But spiritually, they couldn't
do it. Remember what Peter said in Acts chapter 15, he says,
Now therefore why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples that neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Now we were under that law, remember boys, we were under that law,
but our fathers and we could not bear that yoke. Now why are
you, since Christ has come now, why are you trying to put it
back on them? No, he said, We, Jews, are going to be saved just
like them, without the law. without the law. So the duration
of the law was until Christ came. Jesus said this, Verily I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth shall pass, not one jot or one
tittle shall pass from the law till, I like that, until all
be fulfilled. And what did Christ do? He fulfilled
the law. And what's happened to the law
now? It's removed. It's removed. Now how was the
law given? It was given by a mediator. Look back at 19. He said, Till
the seed should come to whom the promises were made. And it
was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator
is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Moses was the mediator of that
old covenant. Remember when God sent Moses
down and he says, I'm going to give you commandments, and if
you do those things, then you'll live. And what did Israel say?
You go, we'll do it. We'll do it! Well, they were
all emphatic, they were energized, they were excited, God's going
to give us a law, and we're going to do it. Then God came down
in fire and justice, and you know what they said? Hey Moses,
you go up for us. We're not so sure about, we're
not so sure we're gonna please Him. You go up for us. You remember
Moses went up and received the law and came back down. They'd
already broken it before it even got down. They'd all out there
fornicating before it even got down. This also reminds me that Jesus
Christ is the mediator of a better covenant, isn't it? Of better promises. The promise
of the law was my death. I promise you, you're going to
die. That was the promise of the law. I got a better promise.
The law of this mediator of a better testament says, I promise you'll
live. I swear by myself, you'll live. A promise of better things. Not
cursed, but blessed. In the hands of a mediator, Jesus
Christ, we are blessed. And so the law of God was in the hands of a mediator.
And the problem with the law is this, God was the offended
party of this. When you get a mediator, it's
a mediator of two parties, isn't that right? A mediator is not
a mediator of one. You've got to have two parties
in order to mediate. Under the law, God was the offended party. And Moses being the mediator
could only curse those who are being mediated. But consider this, by the mediator
Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God. We are reconciled to
God. That's the blessing of His mediatorship. Now then look at verse 21. He says, Is the law then against
the promise of God? Is the law against the promise
of life? Now the law swears death and
the promise of God swears life. Now is the law an obstacle to
this promise? Is the law the cause of our death? Is the law the obstacle to the
promise? God forbid! That law is no obstacle. For if there had been given a
law whereby it could give life, verily, righteousness should
have come by that law. He said, if it were possible
that God give life by law, then that's how it would have been.
If it were possible. If it were possible, do you suppose
that God would give his only begotten Son to die for our sins?
If there was another way. But it was not possible. Why? Verse 22, this is why it's not
possible to be saved 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. God is in no way contradicting
Himself to give the promise and then give the law, because they
are completely different covenants And because we are all under
sin, the law was never purposed to give life. That's why it cannot
come by law. Behold again the absolute ruin
of our nature. This is what the scriptures conclude
about you and me. What does God conclude about
our nature? Listen to this. All under sin. That's what God concludes about
our nature. Very simple thing. All under
sin. We are all ruined. The old Puritans
used to say that a man is a tripartite being. We have body, soul, and
spirit. But when they talk about the
nature of man, they're talking about the heart, the mind, and
the will. And I want you to know this,
that the body, soul, and spirit of a man is ruined. And the heart,
the mind, and the will are also ruined. We are totally, completely
ruined. Isaiah said the whole head, you
see. and the whole heart is faint
from the sole of the foot to the head. That includes everything
about you. There is no soundness in it but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's what God, when
He says all understand, that's what He's telling you. You are
all, all of you, all of your person, all of your being, and
all of us in general, all of us are under sin. You know what God said before
the flood, before He sent the flood? He said, ìThe thoughts
of the imagination of the hearts of man was only evil continually.î
Thatís what God said about our hearts and minds. Well, you say,
ìPreacher, thatís before the flood, and after the flood men
got better.î I beg your pardon. Listen, there were only eight
people left in the whole world. Listen to what God said after
there were only eight left. God says, He smelled that sacrifice
that Noah offered and said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground for man's sake because the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his youth. What changed? Nothing. Nothing. Even our righteousness, as Isaiah
said, are filthy rags. So why then give the law? seeing
it cannot justify us, we are all under sin, it cannot mediate
for us, it cannot reconcile us. But what it can do is this, expose
sin. That's what it can do. What God
purposed it to do was expose sin. Look back at verse 22, All under
sin, for what purpose? Is that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ? That the promise, the promise
of eternal life, the promise of forgiveness of sins, the promise
of everlasting love and mercy and grace, that was the promise.
How does it come? By faith of Jesus Christ. By faith of Jesus Christ. Paul says that in order that
the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given to those
that believe. By the revelation of God's grace,
we see our sin and that the law is no means of help. Have you
seen that? You that believe, have you not
seen that? Is that not clear to you, plain to you, that the
law is no helper? Every time I look at the law,
it's no helper to me. It's only a condemnation to me. So the only means of our salvation
and eternal life which was promised of God was only obtained by the
faith of Jesus Christ. It was only merited. All that
promise was merited by the faith of Christ. What does he mean
by that simple phrase? He means all of the righteousness
was merited by the obedience of Jesus Christ. All my righteousness.
that's contained in that promise was merited by Jesus Christ.
Every bit of it. Every stitch of this robe was
stitched by Him. When I think of the robe of righteousness,
I think of that wedding feast. You remember there was a great
king and he had a wedding feast for his son. And he told those
to come and those that they wouldn't come. So he went to the highways
and the hedges and he grabbed the worst and the murderers,
the thugs, The outcasts, the lepers, he grabbed all of them
and said, you come in. And as he was coming in and he
was looking through the crowd, he noticed a man who had not
a wedding garment. Now back then, you didn't even
bring your own garment. Matter of fact, it was an offense
if you brought your own garment because the king had supplied
brand new clothes. He wanted everyone in his assembly
to be the best dressed people. He cleaned them up, he washed
them up, and he gave them a brand new robe. But there's this one
guy in there who says, man, you know, I got something better
than those robes. My mama made this. I'm going to wear this. Surely
he'll be honored. I'll honor my mama. And I'm going to bring
this into the wedding feast. You remember what he said. He
said, sir, friend, why you have not a wedding garment? And what did he do with that
man? He cast him into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Cast him into hell. You see,
by the faith of Jesus Christ, he had made the wedding garment
himself. And it's an offense to add anything
to it. So we that believe simply receive
what he's made. He's made the righteousness of
God. And we, by faith, receive it. But not only this, by the
faith of Jesus Christ, I'm talking about his blood sacrifice, that
his offering was so sufficient that God's justice, seeing sin
in the very body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Peter says
it, that I bear our sin in his own body on the tree, and justice
seeing sin in his own body condemned him and he suffered for it. And when justice was finished,
when he could ask no more, justice looked inside and saw
no more sin to punish. Justice says, I'm finished. And
Jesus out loud said it, it is finished. That's what he means
by the faith of Jesus Christ. He's talking about what he accomplished. He did this freely, without merit,
without our merit. You didn't deserve this. As I
read to you earlier in Romans chapter 4, that God commended
His love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died.
He didn't wait for you to get better. He didn't look at you and say,
OK, now He's gotten better, I'm going to go ahead and send my
son. No, you were yet enemies. You were still haters of God
when He did this. Much more now being justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath to come. For if, when
we were our enemies, we were reconciled to God by His death,
by the death of His Son, so much more being reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life." You see, He, by His obedience, has reconciled
us to God. And God forbid that any man should
think or teach that our works have any part or merit in this
salvation, this covenant of promise. I want you to know this and bear
this deep, that even your receiving it, your receiving it, does not
merit it. This is what men think about
faith, that God has made all of these promises, Christ fulfilled
all of these promises, and in order for it to be really yours,
You have to exercise faith. I don't say faith is necessary,
but faith is not an exercise of the human nature. It is an
exercise of a born-again nature. Faith is the exercise of God's
grace. You cannot believe except God
give you faith. So what glory do you have in
your faith? You try to lean on your faith
for a little bit. See how it happens. See what
happens. There are times when we are given so much faith that
I could just... You know, like Luther standing
before the tribunal. He said, Here I stand. Kill me
or what? I'm not going to repent or recant. Now, should he lean on that faith?
No. We lean on the object of our
faith. We lean on the object of our
faith. So our faith doesn't get any glory for this. The promise
is given to us who believe, but it was fulfilled and comes to
us by faith of Jesus Christ, And it was Christ who was made
a surety, a mediator of a better covenant, and He, listen, this
is what our faith receives, is that He did obtain everything
we need. Everything we need. Go again to Hebrews 10. I believe
Hebrews 10 is like a crescendo of this. It's just a beautiful,
He's explaining how Jesus Christ is the mediator of a better covenant,
how Jesus Christ is the high priest. He explains all of that
and then he gets to the finish of his work. He gets to show
us the end result of this high priest. Look what he said. In
verse 9 he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. In order
to what? Take away the first, he established
the second covenant. Listen, by the which will? I
come to do thy will, O God. By the will of God. We are what? What are we? We're sanctified. We are declared to be holy through
the will of God. Isn't that what he said in Ephesians?
That you should be holy without blame before you in love. Now,
Through what? The offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. We were sanctified by the will
of God and sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. Now, how many times were you sanctified? Made holy? Once. Once. Every high priest,
standard daily ministering, offering at times the same sacrifices.
That can never take away sin but this man. You look at that
man. Isn't this what faith looks at? Faith looks at this man.
Faith doesn't look within. Faith doesn't look without. Faith
looks to this man. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do? He sat down.
Those priests daily standeth. That's what he's telling you.
They stand because they're never finished. But this man, after
he had done one sacrifice, he sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting something. Our Lord Jesus Christ expects
something, that His enemies will be made His footstool. Now why
does He expect this? For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And He says what? The Holy Ghost
witnessed of this before in that old covenant, testifying of a
new covenant. He said, I'm going to make a
new covenant with them, Not like I made under the law, I'm going
to make a new covenant with them that I will not remember their
sins and iniquities no more. I will not remember them. So we are sanctified by the will
of God, by the offering of Christ. We are perfect. Now look back
at your text. Verse 23. Scripture has concluded all under
sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given
to them that believe. You believe? Do you believe?
Then what the faith of Christ has accomplished is given to
you. It's given to you. But now he goes back and he says,
again, going back to why the law was gained. He said, but
before faith came. Whose faith is he talking about? He's not
talking about your faith. He's talking about the faith of Jesus
Christ. Before this faith of Jesus Christ came, before the
revelation of our salvation came, what? We were kept under the
law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Now the law testified of His
coming. The law testified of His work.
But it was only shadows and pictures and types. The real hadn't yet
come. And so they were kind of in the
dark on this stuff. They only saw a little light. Consider what you've been given.
I've been preaching here for about 30 so minutes and listen,
you have more light given to you in that 30 minutes than they
had their whole life. Why? Because now the dawn has
come out, the sun has come up. And you can see everything that
has happened in the past very clearly. You saw those Jews were
under that bondage. They were under that covenant.
But you know what? They weren't saved any different
than we are. What did they find under that
covenant? Just exactly what Peter said. It was a yoke of bondage
that we couldn't bear. And yet now, that Christ has
come, the light is shined out of darkness. It's clear to us
the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was to
magnify sin. The purpose of the law was to
what? Lead me to Christ! I like what old Pilgrim, he ran
into that legalist. Remember in the book of Pilgrim
Progress, old Christian ran into that legalist. And he said, you're
going the wrong way, you gotta go up the mountain here. And
he got up there, it was Mount Sinai, and he got to the top
and it was thundering and lightning and he felt death was upon him
and wrath. He keep going. No, he turned
around and went back. Went back and then where'd he
go? Went to the cross. You see, that's what the law drives us
to. The law drives us to the cross. That's its purpose. It drives us from self. We, by
nature, were in bondage and darkness. That's what the law revealed,
that we were prisoners. We couldn't free ourselves. But then when the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ was shown through the
preaching of the gospel, light came in. We understood our need. We were kept under the law until
faith be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. And after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. You see, the law was a schoolmaster.
And the old Greek, I'm gonna deal with this, Lord willing,
in the next message. But the schoolmaster was a slave
itself. Schoolmaster, the headman, the
king, or potentate, would put a man who was his slave, who
he trusted, over his children. And they would be under, though
they were heirs of everything, They would be under this slave.
Until when? Until they came to a certain
age. And then they would what? They don't have any more need
for the schoolmaster. They were lords over the schoolmaster. That's how he likens the law.
The law has a purpose. It's useful when it's used right. What is it used for? To expose
sin. What is it used for? It is used
to point us to Christ. that by the faith of Christ we
are justified, that we are justified by faith. Not our faith, His
faith. We're justified by faith. And
after faith has come, what happens? We are no longer under a schoolmaster. We are convinced and totally
convinced of His perfect work. Therefore, we know this, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law for righteousness to who? Everyone that believeth. Have you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Did you believe according to
the law or did you believe according to the covenant of promise? You
that receive Christ know it's according to the covenant of
promise and the law had no part in it. Had no part in our righteousness,
no part in our sanctification, no part in our redemption, no
part in our wisdom. And as we go through life, the
just will continually live by faith because the law has no
part in it. The law has no part. We are saved
by the faith of Jesus Christ according to the covenant promise.
We receive the Spirit of God through faith. Yes, necessary.
You must believe. Listen, you must believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. How can I believe except God
give faith? And when He gives it, what is
it? It's just you're receiving what
you were promised. You're receiving what God promised
to give you. And so, does the law have any
part in the believer's life? No. We are free from the law. This should bring joy and peace.
I'm so thankful that I'm saved by a covenant of promise and
not a covenant of works. Because it's not dependent on
me, it's dependent on the testator. It's dependent on the mediator,
Jesus Christ. And I believe his work's perfect.
It doesn't need my work to be added to it. And this was at
the problem of the Galatian churches, that they were trying to add
their work to his. And Paul said, that's not the
gospel. That's another gospel. God keep us, because I'm telling
you we're tempted by this. The flesh is always tempted to
look within and look at our circumstances to determine whether God loves
me or don't. It doesn't have anything to do
with it. My hope of God's love and mercy
is wrapped up in one person, Jesus. If God loves me, he loves me
through him. If God saves me, God saves me by Him. If God keeps
me, God keeps me because of Him. So where does the glory belong? Who gets the glory? Do you have any glory to claim? Is there anything you want to
raise your hand and say, well, I've done... Anything you want
to add to it? Not one stitch. I don't want
to add one stitch. His robe is perfect. And by faith,
I just simply receive it as it is. The righteousness of God
in Christ. And that's how I live. Daily,
believing on Him. I pray God give you the grace
to do the same. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Holy Father and merciful, gracious
God, thank you for your grace. Thank you that you've named such
a sinner in your covenant promises of mercy and love. Thank you
for Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. Open our hearts that we should
see him glorify his work and take no glory to ourselves.
Bless your church. Bless your people. Give them
peace and comfort and joy and rest in Christ. I ask you to
do this for Christ's name's sake. Amen.