Good morning, good morning, good
morning. What a handsome group. I might get all kind of awards
but it ain't going to be for being handsome. Let's take our Bibles, turn to
1 Timothy chapter 1. And our subject this morning is the Law and the Gospel. So I'd ask you to hang on to
1 Timothy chapter 1, because this is the center of what we
are covering this morning, though it may seem at times that we've
abandoned it. I do not intend that to be the
case, so we'll just have to see how it goes. In this first chapter,
we'd like to read the first 17 verses. Before we do, may we
pray. Lord, thank you for letting us
live to see this present hour. Thank you for this group of people
that have gathered here this morning. But Lord, if all we hear is a
man's voice, we might as well have been doing
something else. But Lord, if you speak, if you speak to us in the language of your holy
word in regard to your grace and to
your mercy, which is wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful. Whatever our state, we beg mercy
upon us. Bless the reading of your word,
the preaching of your word, and the hearing of your word. We beg these mercies for Christ's
sake. Amen. Now, I was kind of struggling
with what to call this by way of a title. I have two and I'm
not sure which one will be the permanent one, the law and the
gospel. And there's still another statement
in this chapter that will challenge us if we use this title, the
gospel use of the law. There's only one right use of
the law and that is the gospel use of the law. The law slays
us and Christ raises us from the dead. And that is the experience
of every believer. I mean now, while we're in this
world, we are to understand these things and to pay close attention
to them as we hear them read and spoken of. Beginning in 1
Timothy, we start on verse 1 of chapter 1. And I think I talked
too much and forgot to lead in prayer after I said I would,
but let's try it again. Lord, we call upon Your name
this day. through the name of our precious
Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus, who alone has merit at your throne. He simply asked and it's done. How wonderful, how wonderful
indeed. without one iota of selfishness. He prays for His people whom
you've given Him in old eternity. And He communicates to us that
which converts the soul, raises us from spiritual death to spiritual
life. What a glory, what a glory indeed. Lord, as we turn to this portion
of your Word, we beg your blessing upon its reading and upon our
hearing and understanding. If we are to understand these
things, the triune God must be at work,
else we shall not understand it and probably not even hear
it. We thank you for our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright, chapter 1 and
verse 1, 1 Timothy. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God, our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. As I besought you to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge
some that they teach no other doctrine. If a doctrine is new,
it ain't true. If it's true, it is eternal in
both directions. Let us not forget that. Verse 4, neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies. When I was reading this this
week, I thought about a guy that runs a small business not far
from here and somebody told him I was a preacher. I sure didn't
tell him. He said, where'd Cain get his wife? I don't know and I don't care.
And this book doesn't mention it. We better be asking where does
Christ get His bride? That's the one we ought to be
interested in. But this guy is too stupid and dumb just like
me. I was in that same boat that he was in, given all kinds of
crazy things that you run into in the scriptures and you decide
to chase them for a while and they don't do anything for you,
can't help you. What verse? Huh? Neither give heed to fables
and endless genealogies, which minister, produce questions rather
than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. Now the end of the commandment, you might say the end of the
law, is charity out of a pure heart,
and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which
some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring
to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm, but we know that the law is good, if a man use
it lawfully, hence the lawful use of the law. Knowing this,
that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. And I would insert at this point
that these are the persons that God saves in Christ, the lawless
and disobedient. For the ungodly, here's a whole
list now, these are favored people in the Bible. How come they're
not favored in the local church? Because they're not sinners,
that's how come. You try to tell people that I
remember one of the first statements I ever made in this auditorium
that got me in some deep trouble, which I didn't mind getting into.
You just gotta see if somebody's hearing once in a while. But
I caught a fella still awake that usually slept through the
whole 11 o'clock service on Sunday morning. And I said, let me ask
you a question. For whom did Christ die? He died
for the ungodly, not the godly. How come not the godly? Because
there ain't none. That's how come. If we're godly, it's God's gift
to us in Christ. We sure didn't earn it on our
own. We didn't work it up. No, it is the work of God's grace
in the gospel of Christ. The law is not made, verse 9,
for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.
Have we ever seen ourselves in that light? Then it adds, for
sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and
murderers of mothers, for manslayers. Oh, preacher, I ain't never done
any of that. Well you don't know a thing about yourself then.
Do you remember about well over
2,000 years ago there was a fellow in Jerusalem that they hanged
on a cross and he died? Now what did he do that for? Just
to make you richer and more fulfilled? thinking you're a good person? The only life we can have from
God is that that comes through that man that died on that tree. And if I don't need, some people
say, well that's more than I need. That's because you're blind as
a bat. That's all that is. If we don't see sinner, when
we look at ourselves, something's terribly wrong. Verse 10, continuing the list,
for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind,
for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if
there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who has enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
Putting me into the ministry. Boy, Paul was sure faithful,
wasn't he, before he was converted? He was going around putting Christians
in jail and putting as many of them as he could to death to
get rid of the very mention of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He said, he counted me faithful. I was not faithful, but God says
I'm faithful and put Him in the ministry. Verse 13, who was before a blasphemer,
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
And then this famous statement in verse 15, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Paul was no little sinner and
he knew it. And just betwixt us chickens
ain't nobody that's little when it comes to being a center. We're
high rollers in that department. Of whom I am chief. The chief of centers. Now mull
that around in your mind and see if you can embrace it with
both arms, both eyes, both ears, Verse 16, Howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting, Now unto the King, this is King
Jesus, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's stop right there now and
see if we can make some headway. into what else we have to look
at this morning, I think, in trying to understand this subject
of the lawful use of the law. One of the verses in this passage,
verse 8, says the law is good and the passage goes on to show
when it's used lawfully, the lawful use of the law. Now I can't ask you to turn to
all the places that I would like to this morning. I will include
you in some if you will not report me for abuse may be
a good way to put it. How about turning to Luke chapter
16. Luke 16. Our Lord is having an encounter with the Pharisees
in Luke 16, beginning at verse 14. And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous, heard all these things, and they derided or ridiculed
Him. I don't know how this could be
possible that people don't like Christ, do you? You'd think in today's religion,
I mean if you want to go to a church, I bet there's a dozen in this
area that's fully seated, without any spaces. You know why? Because they're not hearing the
true gospel, that's how come. They're not even hearing the
true God being preached. But a long time ago, God came to this place and it pleased Him to let me be here for a good
many years to preach the gospel. Some of you kids Never knew anything else, but
watch preach right here. I'm so glad, I think I am anyway,
that you didn't have to go through the Tommy rot we went through
to get to this place. Verse 14, and the Pharisees also,
who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided
him. And our Lord said to them, You
are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knows your
hearts. For that which is highly esteemed
among men, particularly religious people, is abomination in the
sight of God. And I'm not talking about some
holy place. I'm telling you every Baptist
church in this county, that's what they're telling their people.
What God here condemns. It's poison. Absolute poison. Abomination. If religious people
like it, it stinks. It's an abomination. The Law and the Prophets were
until John, John the Baptist. Since that time, the Kingdom
of God is preached and every man presses into it. Now don't
take every man too far. Let me identify who this every
man is. He's every man who finds out
That he's ungodly, that he's a sinner, that he hates God,
that he doesn't love Christ. And if he can own up to those
things, I think God will meet him. In fact, he doesn't know
it yet, but he's already met with him. To get us to approve
of what we before thought was the worst thing on the face of
the earth, The law, this is verse 16, the
law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom
of God is preached and every man presses into it. And it's
easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tiny little
comma or an eye, you know, a dot for an eye, than one till one
tiny bit of the law to fail. That is a sobering statement
indeed. Now would you, while you're here,
if you'll just run over to John's gospel for a moment. In John chapter 7, with the way that religious people
throw the word and name Jesus around, you read the Bible and you find
out that not many people Love the Lord Jesus. Let me read it
to you right here out of this book. Verse 16 of John 7. Jesus answered them and said,
they've just charged him with not having studied in their school
and got their degrees and their doctorates and all this kind
of stuff. The Lord Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaks of himself seeks
his own glory, but he that seeks his glory that sent him, the
same is true and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give
you the law? Now here's our subject, the law
in John 7, I lost it, 19, thank you sir. Did not
Moses give you the law and yet none of you, not even one of
you keeps the law? Why do you go about to kill me? Of course, they deny the charge. They say, we're not trying to
kill you. Well, they're waiting for the opportune moment. That's
all they're waiting for. But guess what? They can't touch
him without God's permission. Why did he go to the cross? Because
he came into this world to go to the cross. If He doesn't go to Calvary,
the whole human race is going to hell and nowhere else. But if Christ died, and He did,
He died willingly and voluntarily, and whomever He died for, in
all the generations that will ever be on the face of this earth,
and nobody knows how many that is. It might be today, or tomorrow,
or it might be a million years from now. I don't know. That
doesn't change a thing. Christ is everything in the economy
of God. Oh, if we could truly learn that
lesson. This law that is good if it is
used lawfully is the very transcript of the mind of God. Paul qualifies
the character of the law in regard to this poor sinner. It's good
if a man use it lawfully. Conscious of its infinite purity,
of its demands of unsetting obedience, conscience having violated every
aspect of God's holy law, we are enabled by grace to lay hold
of Christ. And remember these famous words
in Romans chapter 10 and verse 4, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. To whom? To everyone that believes. Therefore, believers are to be
judged on that point. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, died
on Calvary's tree in order to save his people from their sins. Christ is the absolute end of
the law or the search for righteousness. Therefore, anybody who thinks
they can keep at least part of the Ten Commandments I'm sent
by God to tell you that you can't keep one of them, let alone half
of them. And if you can't keep them all, you have the same punishment
if you just broke one. The truth is, I don't think anybody's
ever existed that didn't break all of them myself. And if we could read our Bibles
in the right fashion, begging help from above, we could probably
understand better a lot of what's on the pages of this Bible. I don't know how to respond to
the people in other churches, and in this one for that matter, that do not like what they have
to hear in order to be saved. Just a short while back, I had a graveside funeral over
here in the cemetery. So you got live people on this
side and dead people on this side. Instead of just standing under
the tent and talking to the immediate family, I chose to stand outside
the tent and raise my decibels a little bit and tell some people
what it means to die. What it means to die. If you're in Christ, It is a
glorious home going, but if you're not in Him, it's too late. It's too late. So I spoke to
the group pretty frankly and emphatically. Didn't deliberately try to hurt
anybody's feelings. But the minute I finished, some
fellow walked up to me and he said, now, preacher, you know
you made some people mad here today, don't you? I didn't have time to give him
a full lesson. If you don't make people mad
with the gospel, they're not going to hear you. So I said,
well, that's not my problem. I'm a gospel preacher and for
me to preach something other than what I believe and is found
in this book and backed up on virtually every page in our Bibles, I'm not apologizing. If you know I'm doing the funeral,
just don't come. Honest. Alright, back to our text. Let's see, I about forgot what
that was. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Let's read verses 9 through 11. Again, in 1 Timothy chapter 1, knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine." Sound doctrine. There's a track
around here somewhere about Tom Harding, a little small booklet
anyway, And the name of it is Sound Doctrine.
If you look far enough, you can find one. If you can't find it,
I'll find it for you. And somebody may have to show
me where it is. And after that statement, sound
doctrine, verse 11 says, according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God which was committed to my trust. To my trust. You guys that teach and preach,
this is a sacred treasury. We must ever, ever seek the Lord's
help and aid in preaching and teaching. It just simply has
to be. Let's go back. Well, we weren't
there yet. Let's go to Romans. Will you
look at there? Mine just opened right up. And
there's that sound doctrine track I was talking about. Gosh! Now I knew it was in here, but
I didn't know I put it there. But that's wonderful. Romans chapter 7, just two verses. Verse 7. Romans 7, 7. What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid! No! I would not have known sin but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, You shall not covet. Now whose words are these?
The Apostle Paul's. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, worked or wrought in me all manner of concuspience. Now go home and get your dictionary
and find out what that word means. If I had my other Bible, it's
written in the margin, but I'm using my new one. So, sorry about
that. If you want a real definition,
contact Tim James. He's pretty up to date on that
one. For without the law, sin was dead. Without the law, Sin was dead,
for I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. That's what the law does. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. This law is designed to teach
us sinners God's holiness and our total depravity. This sets
forth the holiness of the God-man Christ Jesus, whom nobody except those that
the Lord purposed to do so, nobody else would bow to that. Not a
decent Pharisee in all of Palestine. except the one God conquered,
and his name was Saul of Tarsus. So, for whom then was the law
made? It's not made for the righteous.
We've seen that several times in this passage in 1 Timothy. I can't find the exact verse,
so I'll just pass over that one. This sets forth the holiness
of the God-man Christ Jesus. And we conclude now in this passage,
for whom was the law made? The law is for sinners. sinners and only sinners. They are the same persons whom,
given God decides to make it true in
their soul, these are the people that it
universally condemns. Every believer In this place,
this has taken place in us. Oh, I imagine we've owned up
to being a sinner, but I ain't talking about just a little T90
sinner. I'm talking about the chief of
sinners. We're not only not good, We are
terribly, terribly bad. The only possibility of safety
from the law's condemnation is to be in Christ. Every man is condemned until
God issues that call of sovereign grace And we come a running. We come running. Let me read
that to you in 1 Corinthians 6. You don't necessarily need
to turn, but if you want to, I'll give you about 10 seconds
maybe. 1 Corinthians 6, 11. 1 Corinthians 6, 11, And such were
some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit
of our God. There's you, a definite call
of God by sovereign grace. Wonderful, wonderful indeed. How about, I hope you didn't give
up on Corinthians, I've just about lost mine but I've retrieved
it. I'm going to chapter 15 now in
1 Corinthians. Chapter 15, beginning at verse 56 and verse 57. The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." We often speak
of Christ as our substitute, and indeed He is. He took our
place on Calvary's tree. We deserve to be there. But he
didn't. And yet he promised his father
that he would redeem a people so vast and numberless that nobody
can number them. Now I hope, I do truly hope,
that in previous centuries there must have been more believers
than there are now. Because where the true gospel
is preached, you don't have to drive far in any direction and
see hundreds and hundreds of cars parked at this huge edifice,
you know, and the preacher ain't got enough backbone to tell the
truth if he knew it. I know. I've been there. The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I could go another 30 minutes,
but I'll not. punish you that badly.