Galatians chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses 19 through
26, the Lord willing, this morning. I've just simply entitled this,
The Purpose of the Law. The purpose of the law. Paul begins here in verse 19
of chapter 3 of Galatians, "...wherefore, then serveth the law." What is
the purpose of the law? And he gives the answer, "...it
was added because of transgression, till the seed should come, to
whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by the angels
in the hand of a mediator." Now, a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily 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. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law. shut up unto," you're going to
see in a minute that word is until, "...shut up until the
faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith." But after faith has come, we are no longer
under a schoolmaster, for you are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus." Now, the purpose of the law. The apostle
Paul sets forth just before this a clear distinction between the
two covenants, two distinctly different covenants. The covenant
of the law is likened unto a contract, a contract between two parties,
in which both parties must achieve their purpose in order to obtain
the goal. We're building a church building.
We agree to pay. He agrees to do the work. If
we both do this, we should have a church building. It's the same
with the law. God says, I will give you life
if you obey the law. And the law says, if you don't
obey the law, eternal death is the only reward. And so the law given by God to
man promises life to only those who obey. But to the guilty,
what does it promise? A curse. Read that in chapter
verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the law, under the curse of the law. The
Lord has written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. Therefore, what is
the conclusion? Righteousness cannot come by
the law. That's the conclusion. No man,
it is verse 11, but no man is justified by the law on the side
of God, is evident. That's clear. If you see the
law as a covenant, a contract, then you know it is impossible
for us to obtain life by it. Now, the second kind of covenant
he deals with, he talks about in Verse 15, he said, "...Brethren,
I speak after the manner of men, though it be a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disanother addeth to it." What
he's talking about is a testament, a will, a will. This is the covenant of grace.
His kind is like unto a will. And so then, in a covenant of
will, all the gifts that are purposed by the testator are
freely given to the beneficiaries. In other words, no work is required
of the beneficiaries. All the responsibility and provisions
rely solely on the testator. Even so, God's will and testament
Has decreed to give the blessing of Abraham in that what he been
talking about in verse 14 that the blessing of Abraham might
come to the Gentiles This is what was willed. This was what
was determined by God the blessing of Abraham And what is this blessing
that we are? that this blessing should come
through Jesus Christ, that it should be obtained, purchased
by Christ, and then received through the Spirit by faith.
This is the will or testament of God. So in verse 16 through
verse 18, Paul testifies that the promises in the testament
were made with Christ, The seed. Now what is this? Again, I want
to emphasize this. It's very important that you
understand that all the responsibilities, then, of the covenant rest solely
upon the testator. And we know that this testator
is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the testator
of the will, so all the responsibilities are resting upon the performance
of Christ according to God's will. So that all who are given
to Christ, who He represented, should obtain the promise and
receive the Spirit through faith." Isn't that what Christ said in
John 6? He said, this is the will of Him that sent me. That of all He had given me,
I should lose nothing. Raise it up again at the last
day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. That everyone He had given me should come to Me. and that he would not cast out
one who comes to him. So then none could add to this
testament or take away from it. That's what Paul said. He said
if a man's testament you can't add to it or take away from a
man's testament, how much more could you add to or take away
from God's will? You can't. No man could add anything
or take anything from God's will. So the law. Paul said this law,
it was 430 years after God testified to Abraham about His will. It
was 430 years after. He gave it to Abraham and to
his promised Abraham and his seed. So then this law can by
no means be added to or subtracted from the covenant of Christ.
It had nothing to do with the covenant. Nothing. So what effect then does the
law have on the promise of God? None. It has no effect on the
promise of God. Our obedience or our disobedience
has nothing to do with this covenant. Our obedience to the law or disobedience
to the law has nothing to do with this covenant of promise.
What part, then, does the law play in our salvation? None. It is a distinctly separate,
different covenant than that of the will. He cannot disannul
nor make the promise of none effect." So, the only reasonable
question then is going to be asked. It's a reasonable question,
isn't it? Why did God give the law? What is the purpose of the law?
If the law has no purpose in the salvation of God's elect,
wherefore then serveth the law? What was it given for? Why did
God give the law if He never intended for us to obey it to
life? To obtain life. Well, Paul answers
it, I like that. So I don't have to guess. You
don't have to guess why the law was given. He says it. It was
added because of transgression. That word added means superimposed. Now listen, there was a law long
before the law, wasn't there? When Adam sinned, what was written
on his heart? Why did he run from God? Why
did he sow fig leaves together? Because there was a law written
on his heart. The problem with this is man
is constantly searing his conscience. When you're little kids and you
see a little kid say a bad word, boy, they just put their hand
over their mouth. They know they did it. They're
not supposed to. They know they might get in trouble, so they
put it on. But time goes on. They get older, they get what?
They get bolder. And pretty soon those words don't
mean anything. And it goes on and on and on. So what God has
done by superimposing this law is that He has codified what
is sin. So there's no, that's your opinion
about what sin is. No. God's law was superimposed
so that you should know sin. That sin should not be a matter
of culture or indifference. is sin. It was superimposed so
as to reveal sin. It was not added to the work
of Christ. It was not added to the covenant. Nor does it make a believer holy
after he comes to Christ. He doesn't return to this law
as a rule of life. It was added lend because of
transgression. It was given to express and expose
the true nature of transgression. You see, the law is spiritual. It's not carnal. It's spiritual. And what does this mean? Since
it was given by God, it is a spiritual law. It's a spiritual law. In other words, it deals not
only with the external, outward actions, it also deals with the
inward thoughts and motives of the heart. This is what the Jews
missed completely. They thought if they just obeyed
the carnal, outward deeds, that they were okay. No. Jesus came
and told them, He said, look, if you lust on a woman, you've
committed adultery. So the law is something much
deeper than just outward actions. It was superimposed to show the
spiritual condition of man. Go to Romans chapter 7. This is Paul's testimony of his
own conversion, of his own experience of grace. He says in verse 9, He said, for I was alive without
the law once. What does he mean? He means they
thought he was alive. He thought he was alive unto
God by his obedience. Until when? But when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. You know what the law does? It only stirs sin. It doesn't Help. If I were to mention any commandment,
you automatically think of something you've done in relationship to
that commandment. Thou shalt not lie. Okay. Well, man, that stirred up sin
in me. That stirred up all the guilt
in me. That didn't help me one bit.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength,
with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself." Stirs up
the guilt. That's all it does. That's what
Paul said. When this commandment came in
spiritual power, when the Holy Spirit actually revealed what
this law was doing, sin stirred up, and I found out this. I wasn't
alive. I was dead. And the commandment, verse 10,
which was ordained to life, which he thought was ordained to life,
and truly there is a promise there. If you obey it, you shall
live. But what he thought that was ordained to life, he said,
I found unto death. What he thought to obtain life
by obedience, he found the law to be the ministration of death.
For sin," now he gets to the root of the problem, "...for
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me."
Now, the law slew him. Why? Because of sin. What did he find out? Wherefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. You know,
he found this out, the law is good. I like this. Someone asked Brother
Scott Richardson, he said, do you hate the law? Always preaching
free from the law, free from the law. He said, do you hate
the law? He said, no, I love the law. I lay flowers on its
grave every day. That's right, it's dead to me,
and I'm dead to it. But the law, we found this out,
it's good. There's nothing wrong with it. Was that thing which is good
made death unto me? No. What made it death? Sin. Sin. But sin was the problem. That it might appear sin, working
death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment..."
You want to know the purpose. Here it is. Here's the purpose. "...that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful." Now do you see the purpose of
the law? To stir up sin so that sin might be exposed. Law, friend, is useful. When? When it is used lawfully. And so then when sin is exposed
by the law, what then can the law do to help me? Nothing. Nothing. That's not its purpose. to help me. Its purpose is to
kill me. And the only reason that holy
and just thing kills me is because of my sin, my sin, my guilt. And because of sin, I can never
be justified by that covenant. Never. Now then, he also tells
us something about the duration of this covenant. That this covenant
has a purpose, but the purpose is limited. It has a limited
purpose. It has a shelf life. It only has a certain time that
it's going to be inactable, and then it's going to be done away
with. Notice the duration. He says this. Look back at your
text. He gives us the purpose. Let's read again. Verse 19. Let me get back over to my text. That'd be good, wouldn't it? He said, "...wherefore then serveth
the law, it's added because of transgression." Here, then he
gives the duration, teal. Until, it's going to do this,
until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Who is this seed? It's Christ.
This law was only to be enacted and in service until the seed
come. And after the seed come to whom
the promise was made, the law then was to be put out. You're going to see it later
in that illustration that he talks about Hagar and her seed,
which is Ishmael, was put out. When the seed come, when Isaac
came... Nope. You don't have any part
with this. You get put out. They were put
out, so is the law. When Christ came, it was removed.
Why? Because Christ has come to whom
the promises were made. Paul says it in Romans chapter
10 and verse 4, Christ is what? The end of the law for righteous,
to everyone that believeth. Over in Acts, you remember they
try to superimpose this law onto the Gentile believers. And Peter,
let me see if I can find this, I believe it's 15 and 10, let
me see. He says this, why now, therefore,
why tempt ye God to put the yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we could bear? But we believe
that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. And salvation comes not by that
covenant, but by the covenant of will, by the covenant of grace.
Jesus said that when he said, I think not I come to destroy
the law, but to do what? Fulfill the law, and not one
jot or tittle of the law shall pass away until when? Now, he
gives an until. It is coming until all be fulfilled. Isn't that what he said? I've
come to fulfill, and when I have fulfilled, then it's done away
with. Duration. Law. Then he starts talking about
it being given as a covenant again. He's talking about it
in the hands of a mediator. And it said, "...it was ordained
by angels, or given by messengers, in the hand of a mediator." That
would be Moses. Now, a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. What is he saying? This is kind
of strange language here. He's talking about Moses being
the mediator of that covenant. That covenant was given to Moses
in mediation between him and the people of that nation, Israel,
the Jews. It was given to that nation as
a covenant. And he says, when you talk about
a mediator, you're not talking about one person. You're talking
about a person standing between two parties. And he's wanting to tell us this.
I want you to know the gravity of this, because God is one of
those parties. And when you're talking about
that covenant, remember God has upheld His end of the covenant,
this law. He said, if you will obey, I
will do this. If you do not obey, I will do
that." Guess what? God is faithful on both accounts. Faithful on both accounts. God
is the offended party, friends. He's the offended party. So in the law, God is the one who is offended. And this law stands to testify
that no man can be reconciled to God through that mediator,
Moses. There was a reason Moses was
not allowed into the promised land, because it's a picture
that that mediatorship was not sufficient to bring us to God. And so, another
question is asked in verse 21. He says, is the law then against
the promises of God? Is the law an obstacle? Is the
law in contradiction? Did God contradict Himself? Now,
God promised over here, but then He gives this law over here.
Is God contradicting Himself? For Paul's sake, God forbid you
should say such a thing. God's not contradicting Himself.
And listen, the law is no obstacle to grace. It's an obstacle to you and me
that we can never overcome. But to God it is no obstacle
at all. Matter of fact, God says that's a totally separate covenant.
That doesn't even have to deal with you. You're over here. You're
under this covenant. You're not even under that covenant.
So how is it an obstacle? You go down the highway, you're
heading north, and the south lane's blocked. Now what does
that have to do with you? Is that an obstacle for you?
No. Your way's clear. Now, if you're
heading the other way, it's an obstacle. Paul says, God forbid. That's
not an obstacle to God. He said, if it were possible,
if it were possible to honor that law, He said, God forbid,
for if there had been a law given, which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have come by the law. He said, if
it were possible, God would not have sent His only begotten Son
into the world. Isn't that right? That would be horrific of God. That would be a monstrous act,
to send His Son to die when there was another way. You see that in shows all the
time. Somebody gives you, they say,
do this or die. And then somebody says, well,
there's got to be another way. If there was another way, you'd
do it, right? How much more so God? If there
were a law that you could obey, then surely it should have come
by the law. But what does it say? It's impossible, verse 22. But what the Scripture hath concluded
is this. All under sin. This is a problem. This is why
the law is not the covenant for life. Because all are under sin. God in no way contradicted himself
to give the promise and to give the law. Because they are different
covenants, and because all are under sin, the law was never
purposed to give life. And I want you to see by this
declaration of Scripture, the conclusion of Scripture is that
all are under sin. Now this definitely means all
inclusively, all men, inclusively under Adam's seed. We are all under sin. But I want
you to see that this is more than just inclusively everyone. This includes the whole of our
own being. All of me. is under sin. The Puritans used to divide the
whole man into these parts. They would say the body, the
soul, and the spirit. And then they would say the mind,
the will, and the heart. This makes up the whole man.
I want you to know this, that the whole man is corrupt. The
body, the soul, the spirit, corrupt. The heart, the mind, the will,
corrupt. It hath concluded that the whole
man..." Isn't that what Isaiah said? He said, "...the whole
head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of our foot even
unto our head there is no soundness." No wellness at all. Before the
flood, God saw that the wickedness of man was great, that every..."
Listen, imagination of the thought. It's not just the thought, it's
even the imagination of the thought. Before you even had the thought,
it was evil. And not just one, every one of
them. What's that scripture? The plowing of the wicked is
sin. Now, plowing is not sinful. Just you doing it is sinful.
You. You make it sinful. And you know what he said? Well,
that's before the flood, right? People say, that's just before
the flood. After the flood, everything was great, because there were
only eight people left. Surely, man got better. Listen to what
he said after the flood. He said, for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth. He said the same thing. The imagination is evil. There's
no difference. What about our righteousness? Isaiah said, in Isaiah 64, 6,
he says, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So what does
the Scripture conclude? That all of our whole being is
under sin. So why then give the law, seeing
it cannot justify, it cannot mediate, it cannot reconcile
us to God? But what it can do is expose
guilt for this reason. Now, expose this guilt. Look
back at your text and see why it is given to expose guilt. That the Scripture concluded
all under sin for this purpose. That the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. By the revelation of God's grace,
we have seen our sin. We have seen that the law can
by no means help or deliver us. So the only means of our salvation
and eternal life, which is the promise of God, is only obtained
by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's what it brings us to,
doesn't it? It hymns us in to this one hope. It brings us down
to only one way. I'll tell you this, God, you'll
never come to Christ if you can think there's another way. If
you still have some hope that there's another way, you will
never come to Christ. But God strips us of every other
way so as to bring us to Christ. So that the faith which is of
Jesus Christ, that righteousness, might be given to us who believe. Without it, you wouldn't know
it. And so then, it is freely given,
without merit, without works, or without obedience. Do you
know what you have to do to have this promise? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Believe it. Can you believe? Can you believe? If you can, you should. Listen,
if you can, you will. You will. You will believe it. And God forbid that any man should
think or teach that our believing has anything to do with fulfilling
this covenant. That's the teaching of freewill
works religion, is that our faith somehow completes the puzzle. It says God put a puzzle together
of salvation, and there's one piece left. And you've just got
to add that one piece, which is your faith. No. Faith is just
the evidence that the puzzle is finished. That's it. Faith just sees the puzzle and
receives it that it's done. That's all. It doesn't add one
thing to the work. The promise is given to us who
believe. But it is fulfilled by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It was Christ who has made surety
of that better covenant than Moses. An eternal, everlasting
covenant, and it was fully, completely conditional upon his obedience."
Now, go ahead and turn to Hebrews 10. I'm going to read this and make
some comments and then close. I think Scott's ready to do some
jumping jacks. Hebrews chapter 10, and look
at verse 5. He said, Wherefore, when he cometh,
that's the seed, the one who to promises was made. When he
cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast no pleasure. What is that the law? He said,
I have no pleasure in your obedience to the law. Therefore he prepared
for him a body. And then in this body he said,
Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do what? To do thy will, to fulfill the
last will and testament of God. to come in the room, and do the
will of God in the room of his elect, above when he said, Sacrifice
an offering, and burn offerings for sin, thou wouldst not neither
had pleasure therein, that were offered by the law." Isn't that
what it just said? I think it just said that. It's a law. That's
what he means. Then said I, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. What for? That he take away the
first, that he might establish the second. He takes away the
curse of the first so that he might establish the blessing
of the second. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. When? And how often? Once for all. Once for all. Was a law do in
every priest standard daily ministering off and off times the same sacrifices
that can never take away sin But this man after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever Sat down. I love it because a
priest never could sit down. He never had a chair in there
That's tiring work, wouldn't it? That was a tiring work. They had to get up every morning,
make those sacrifices, and then do it in the same fashion in
the evening, always taking care of that tabernacle, always working,
never sitting. But Jesus had done it one time,
and God had Him a throne to sit on, not just a chair, a throne. And He sat down. On the right
hand of God, from henceforth, listen, expecting. Why? Because
the work's done. I expect it to be done. It's
going to be done that my enemies are going to be made my footstool.
For by His one offering He hath perfected, hath, past tense,
perfected already. What's the duration of this covenant?
Forever. That old covenant only had a
small duration and it was gone. This covenant endures forever. To who? Them that are sanctified,
set apart, made holy by God Himself. We were made holy in election
by the will of God. Purpose to be holy. We were made
holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. And listen, when Christ in the
Spirit came by faith, you were made holy in a new nature. You
were set apart for the service of God. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up, until the faith that should afterwards
be revealed. This faith that is to come was
the faith of Christ. Not our faith. The faith of Christ. Paul said we were shut up to
that law until he came. Is this not our experience? That we were shut up. sin and
the law, chained under the condemnation of God, and then in grace, Christ,
the great emancipator, opened the doors of our hearts. The light flooded in our cells,
exposing the shame and guilt of our chains. The air of the
Spirit caused us to smell the stench of our own guilt." And
what did He do? He didn't just come in and open
the door, did He? He came in and took us out. We didn't escape from prison.
We were freed from prison. We're not going to heaven by
the skin of our teeth, people. We're going to heaven with the
full merits of righteousness made by Christ. And when He came,
when He delivered me, when He revealed His covenant
to me, What then has the law to do with
me? It goes on later and he says,
Paul says, look, the law was just a schoolmaster. That was
just meant for a period of time, but after that Christ had come,
after that faith had been revealed, His faith had been revealed to
us, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. were sons. I am a son of God. By what covenant? Not by law. The law only exposed
my sin. None to help. Christ is the covenant. By His obedience and death, I
am free from the law. And so what's my rule of life?
Faith. Once received, what do we keep
doing? We keep receiving. We keep believing. Until when? Until I don't need
faith anymore. When faith is lost in sight,
I won't need faith anymore. But until then, I need faith.
And so that's how I live. Two covenants. Which one are you under? I'm under grace. Therefore, the
law has no purpose for me. May God bless us. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.