The Yuba Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by Pastor Don Fortner
of Danville, Kentucky. For information about how to
obtain a copy of this sermon, please visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. And now, here is Pastor Don Fortner. As Rex was reading a moment ago,
I thought how totally appropriate that that man should be so meticulous
if he is going to keep God's law that he take the cap off
and prepare the water on the night before the Sabbath in order
to take his medicine without breaking the Sabbath day. How
totally appropriate, totally so. And totally appropriate for
this reason, that salvation, acceptance with God, being able
to stand before God acceptable forever, justified forever, must
come one of two ways, and there's absolutely no middle ground between
the two. It must come totally by perfect
legal obedience on your part, or totally by free grace through
the obedience of a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other
words, if you would be saved, you must either entirely, I can't
stress the word enough, entirely and perfectly keep God's holy
law, which you cannot do. or you must be saved entirely
by God's free grace without any works of any kind on your own
part. There's no middle ground between
the two. If you put your hand in the work anywhere, anywhere,
you're going to hell. If you ascribe salvation, to
any degree, at any point, to something you do, you've missed
Christ, you've missed the gospel, and you don't know God. Salvation
is either altogether by God's free grace, or altogether by
your works. And it cannot be by your works.
Now with that in mind, turn with me to Romans chapter 10 and verse
4. Romans chapter 10 and verse 4.
Paul is explaining to us in this passage why it is the Jews stumbled
over Christ the stumbling block and tripped up over grace and
went to hell. Because they sought righteousness
not by faith, but by the works of the law, by their own obedience.
And because they thought themselves capable of keeping God's law,
they did not and would not and could not submit to the righteousness
of God that's in Christ Jesus. Look here in Romans chapter 10
and verse 4. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Now, knowing
something of the just severity and strict demands of God's holy
law, knowing that the law demands the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. That's the demand of God's law.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. There are no exceptions.
There are no exceptions. If God finds sin on you or on
me, if God finds sin anywhere, He'll punish it. He said, I am
God, I will by no means clear the guilty. I will not pardon
sin. I will not put away sin. He said
that plainly in the strictest sense of the word. Justice demands
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Knowing that the law demands,
it must be perfect to be accepted. You bring a sacrifice to God,
he said bring it perfect or I won't have it. It must be perfect to
be accepted. Knowing the utter terror of God's
holy law, when I read this great and glorious statement, Christ
is the end of the law, immediately two questions pop into my mind.
How and to whom? How is Christ the end of the
law? In what sense is Christ the end of the law? How far do
we carry this? How far does the New Testament
carry this statement? And to whom is Christ the end
of the law? Now let me answer those two questions
this evening. First, how is Christ the end of the law? What does
Paul mean when he makes that statement? Number one, and this
is going to be a little bit repetitious, but I want you to look at the
scriptures with me, and I want you to see plainly what the scriptures
teach. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
end of the law's object and purpose. He is the purpose and object
for which the law was given to begin with. Turn to Galatians
chapter 3 for a moment. Galatians 3. We're going to look
at several scriptures, and I want you to see that this is the clear,
plain teaching of the New Testament. This is where we differ vehemently
from Reformed men and Protestants in various denominations. We
teach plainly and clearly according to the New Testament that there's
absolutely no sense in which believers are ruled by, motivated
by, condemned by, or obligated to the law of God. Our only covenant
head, our only law, our only motive, our only governing principle
is Jesus Christ himself. Now here in Galatians chapter
3, The Apostle Paul is writing to the Galatians, who had these
Judaizers to creep in, and they said, now we understand salvation
by grace, and we understand that man's justified by the obedience
of Christ, but you know you can't tell people. You just can't say
there's no sense in which men are under the law. Surely, surely
Paul did not mean for you to understand there is nothing for
you to do for acceptance with God. You certainly must keep
the law, be circumcised, or do something in obedience to the
law in order to be sanctified before God. And Paul says, oh
no, no, no. The law was given as a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. And once the law has served that
purpose, once the schoolmaster has brought us to the maturity
and the possession of adulthood, then the schoolmaster has no
other function. Look here, Galatians 3, verse
24. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. But notice the words, to bring
us, are in italics. Quite literally, Paul is saying
the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. The law was our
schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we're no longer under the schoolmaster.
Let me see if I can illustrate it for you. Under Greek and Roman
law, a man who was a man of any means, whatever, might have his
sons a professional hired tutor, a schoolmaster. The schoolmaster
not only was responsible to teach the child, teach him his letters
and teach him mathematics and so on, he was responsible for
the discipline of the child under the father's tutelage as well,
so that that schoolmaster received his instructions from the father.
If the child got out of hand, the schoolmaster didn't say,
now Mr. Smith, your son needs his bacon today. Oh no, he just
took him back to the woodshed and wore him out. That's what
the schoolmaster was for. But once that child came to the
age of maturity, once he became the heir and took possession
of the father's house and the father's goods, then the schoolmaster
dare not take the switch to that boy again. Dare not do so. Now
the schoolmaster is under the son because the son is there.
The schoolmaster was designed to bring the child to adulthood
and maturity. And after that's come, then the
child is no longer under the schoolmaster. And the schoolmaster
has no right, no authority, no power to exercise any control
or discipline over the child. That's exactly what Paul says
here. The law was our schoolmaster. Notice he used the word was.
He didn't say the law is, he said the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ. But now, having come to Christ,
having come to faith in Jesus Christ, the law no longer has
any obligation or authority over God's elect. We are free from
the law. The law, someone said, was God's black dog by which
he fetches his sheep to the shepherd. But once they've come to the
shepherd, the dog better leave them alone. The law has nothing more to do
than with God's people. The law's purpose was to expose
our sin, nothing else. Just to make us know our sin.
Paul said, I had not known sin, except the law had said, thou
shalt not covet. And then when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. I had a letter just last week
one day. Someone wrote to me, I think I may have some idea
who it was, but they didn't seem to want me to know, so it doesn't
matter. But they said, in what sense is it that Paul says, the
law revived, sin revived, and I died when the law came? What
does Paul mean by that? And I wrote back and said, this
is exactly what he means. When the commandment came, the commandment
stirred up that natural, carnal depravity of the man's heart.
And that's what it does to you. When the commandment comes and
God says, I am God, this is what you can do. This is what you
cannot do. The man in rebellion says, I'll do what I will. I'll
do what I will. And then you die. For the commandment
declares judgment and death against you because you've broken God's
holy law. The law shows me what the result of sin is. It is separation
from God like Adam was driven from the garden. It is death,
temporal death, spiritual death, eternal death. The only way I
can obtain mercy is by God Almighty giving me what He Himself alone
can give, a bloody sacrifice acceptable in His sight. For
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of my sins,
no remitting my breaches of God's law. The law reveals our utter
helplessness, for it demands perfection. It demands satisfaction. And we can't get it. We just
can't get it. The law shows me also my great
need of Christ as my substitute. Our only hope before God, turn
to Romans chapter three for a moment. Our only hope before God is that
God himself will give us one who is able and willing to satisfy
his holy law. I said before, the law declares
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That means you're going
to die and I'm going to die. There's just no getting around
that. Either that or God's going to abdicate his throne and abdicate
his law. And that's just not going to happen. Well, how can
a man both die and live? Only in a substitute. Only by
the merits of a substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ comes as
our substitute, our surety, our covenant head, our representative,
and He is now the propitiation for our sins, the justice-satisfying
sacrifice by which God in His holiness can be just and the
justifier of him that believeth. Look here in Romans 3.24. Paul
tells us, being justified freely. What a blessed word. It's the
same word that's used when John says that our Lord, our Lord
speaks and John records it. They hated me without a cause.
It's the same word without a cause. Justified freely. I mean, Babi
Estes, there's no cause in you why God justifies you. No cause
in me. Why? God justifies us. But what
about our repentance? That's not a cause. What about
our faith? Our faith won't get the job done.
Well, what's the cause then? We're justified freely by His
grace, but look at it, through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood. Now, look at this next line.
To declare God's righteousness. Oscar Betty, you were taught
all your life to declare God's love. But that's not what that
says. Now, God's love is the cause.
It is God who loved us, who sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And it is the love of God which motivates him in
sending his son. But the reason he sent his son
was to declare his righteousness, you see? For the remission of
sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. to declare,
I say at this time, just so you be sure you get it, His righteousness
for this purpose, that He, God Almighty, might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Well, what does that
mean? It just means this. God cannot
forgive Rex Bartlett's sin and Don Fortner's sin. except he
do so in a manner that is altogether consistent with his declaration,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And altogether in consistency
with this requirement, be ye holy as I am holy. No other way
for God to forgive sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes,
set forth by God's purpose, by God's decree, by God's word,
according to God's will. And he bears our sin upon the
cursed tree and makes propitiation for our sins. And God looks at
him in his obedience and in his blood. And he said, that's enough.
Now on the grounds of justice, man can be pure in my sight.
I'll be just and justify the ungodly. Give me Christ then. I want nothing to do with God's
naked law. Not only is Christ the purpose
and object of the law, the one to whom the law appoints, the
Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law. Turn to Isaiah 42.
Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 21. Now here's the prophecy. You can look in verse 4 and see
that he's talking about his servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. My servant
shall not fail. Now then, look at verse 21. Here's
what his servant shall not fail to do. The Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake. What a word. He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. He's the only one who ever did,
the only one who ever could. He who is the Lord our righteousness
has magnified God's law and made it honorable as a man. How? You remember when our Lord Jesus
said in John chapter 19 in verse 30, it is finished. But if you
turn back two chapters to John chapter 17, he had already said
that. He said, Father, I finished the
work you gave me to do. Well, which time did he finish it?
Both times. Both times. As a man, he fulfilled perfect
righteousness. meeting all the demands that
God had for the life of a man. He lived in this world from the
time that he was conceived in his mother's womb to the time
that he expired upon the cursed tree. He lived in perfect obedience
to God, working out a perfect righteousness for us, weaving
for us a garment of spotless righteousness with which we would
be clothed forever. And he said, I finished the work.
He gave me the dough. But there's something more to
be done. Sin must be punished. Justice must be satisfied. It's
not enough just that the law will be repaired. The law must
be satisfied. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was made to be sin for us, met the demands of God's
holy law by paying our debt to God's justice. And when he had
finished suffering the whole of God's wrath to the full satisfaction
of divine justice, when he, the Son of God, with one tremendous
draft of love, Great damnation drive! He said, it's finished.
Blessed be His name, it is finished. In Christ then, I am free from
the law, for I have met all its demands. By one man's obedience,
I have been made righteous. In the Lord Jesus Christ, I hear
God speak and declare, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Turn to Romans chapter 3 and
verse 31. I want you to see this. This is not supposition. This
is not a point of fine theology. This is not something I've worked
out in my own brain. My brain's not that big. This
is something that God declares in His Word. The only way sinners
can fulfill the law is by faith in Christ. Folks say, well, we
ought to live by the law. We'll put the law up. We'll have
this as a rule and ten commandments, and we're going to do our best.
That's not good enough. If you imagine that somehow,
by you doing your puny best at keeping the Ten Commandments,
will give you a better standing before God, you've lowered God's
standard. You brought the law down to your
standard, and that'll never work. Well, how on earth can a man
fulfill the law? Believe on the Son of God. That's
all. Look here in Romans 3 31. Do
we then make void the law through faith? Folks tell me that. Well,
don't tell me. They tell other folks about me.
Y'all make more of the law through faith. Y'all said law's no good.
Y'all said law's useless. Oh, no, no. You're the one who
says law's useless. We declare we fulfill the law.
Look at it. God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. How? By faith in Christ. God
demands of this sinner. Oh, let me see if I can get your
attention. Will you listen to me, you who are sitting here
tonight on the brink of eternal damnation? You who are yet without
Christ, will you listen to this preacher? If you're not in too
big a hurry to go to hell, will you listen to me? God demands
of you perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. And he's
going to get satisfaction. He demands of you satisfaction
for all your transgressions and sins, your sins of nature, your
sins of omission, your sins of commission, your iniquity, your
transgression, and your sin. God demands satisfaction. He's
going to get it, either in you or in a substitute. How on earth
can you ever satisfy those demands? How can I stand before God perfectly
right? without sin, with no debt, with
no obligation, with absolutely nothing owed to His justice.
How on this earth can it be done? I believe on the Son of God. That's it. That's it. I mean,
that's it. That's how we fulfill the law.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law as far as its
purpose and object is concerned. He's the end of the law in fulfilling
it. And Christ is the end of the law in the sense that he
is the termination of the law. Oh, now, preacher, you didn't
mean to say that. You heard me right. Christ is the termination
of the law. Look in Romans chapter seven
in verse four. Folks frequently quote our Lord's statement, I
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. Listen,
there you can't say Christ's termination of the law. I didn't
say destroyed it. I said he terminated it. Insofar as his people are
concerned, it's terminated. Look here at Romans 7, know ye
not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that
the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. For the
woman, now uses an illustration, the woman which has a husband
is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the
husband is dead, she's loose from the law of her husband.
We don't anticipate this happening, but should it come to pass that
Don Fortner would have dropped dead tonight, and Mrs. Fortner
hangs around here, and she meets some fellow who's as good-looking
and sweet and all as I am, and she says, well, I believe I'll
marry him. And then you find out that she's taken his name.
Who in their right mind is going to say she oughtn't to do that? She gave up Don's name, took
his name. That's what she ought to do.
Don's dead. Dead. Well, don't you think she ought
to have some respect for him? He's dead. He's dead, that's
all there is to it. But don't you think she ought
to still live by the rules he had? Oh no, she's married to
another man. Don's dead. D-E-A-D, dead. Well, what does that mean? That
means she's got no more obligation. That means she's got no more
responsibility. And don't you give her a hard time. She gets
married the next day. I'm dead. That's all there is to it. Just don't
fret about it. I'm dead. This is what Paul says.
I stress that for this reason. Look at the next verse. So then,
in verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become, what's that
word? Can you read it? Dead. That's about as terminated
as you can get. You're dead. Dead to what? To the law. Well, in what sense? Just any sense the law represents.
That's exactly what it means. Dead to the law by the body of
Christ. That is, when Christ died, I died, and now the law
has nothing more to do with me. Christ terminated the law as
a covenant of life. We are not under the law, but
under grace. He terminated the curse and penalty of the law.
Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law, being made
a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. In Christ, every believer now has a just, righteous claim
of merit upon the grounds of perfect justice to everything
and everlasting glory. Everything. Preacher, you don't
mean to say that. I wish I could say it in such
a way you couldn't possibly question it. Every believer in Christ,
every child of God, through the merits of Christ's blood and
righteousness, has a rightful, just claim of merit upon everything
God possesses in His grace and glory for guilty sinners. Everything. Listen to this, Colossians 1,
verse 12. Paul says, You be thankful to God. Give thanks to Him who
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in life. What does that mean? That means,
Larry, we're worthy right now of God's smile and God's approval.
And have it. Worthy to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in life, not by our merit, blessed
be his name, but by the merit of our substitute. Worthy to
be accepted of God. Worthy to possess the inheritance
of glory. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled
all things required in the law for his people. Do you see the
sweet mystery of salvation by the substitutionary work of Christ?
Oh, what a sweet mystery. The law has no claim upon those
for whom Christ died and never can, never can. Christ is also
the fulfillment of the law. of all the law's prophecies,
types, and ceremonies. Let me just give you a couple
of summaries. We'll come back and look at these
another time. You remember when God sent Israel out of Egypt,
and he did so by the blood of a Passover lamb. Now, the blood
of that Passover lamb was just the blood of a lamb. It didn't
mean a thing, except as it represented something. And it represented
Christ, the true Passover. That makes it mean something.
That makes it mean something. That Passover lamb, as the sacrifice
of the Passover lamb was made year after year after year after
year after year after year, for 2,000 years it was made. If the
high priest came in once a year with the blood, not just any
blood, but the blood of the appointed Passover lamb into the Holy of
Holies and sprinkled the mercy seat, and thereby God declared
in prophecy and type, there's one coming one day who shall
sprinkle the mercy seat one time with his own blood and obtain
eternal redemption for us. Now Christ has come and he's
obtained eternal redemption for us, and we will never again sacrifice
the Passover lamb. Never again. We ought to be kind
and sweet, and when the Jews observe the Passover, we ought
to observe the Passover with them. If you want to be an idolater
and go to hell, go ahead. But I'm telling you, God's people
have their Passover in Christ, the true Passover. The Scriptures
tell us about the Sabbath day. Rex mentioned it just a little
bit ago. This Sabbath day was required of God, and men were
required to do no work on Saturday. I wrote this one time and said,
from midnight Friday night to midnight Saturday night, they
couldn't do any work. And I got all kinds of letters. Folks said, you don't
know what you're talking about. The Passover was kept from sunup
to sundown, or sundown from dusk to sundown the next day. And
I said, I know, but I'm not talking to Jews over there. I'm talking
to y'all. I understand that. I'm telling you this, though.
On the Passover day, fellas didn't do a thing. They didn't do anything.
I mean nothing. Nothing. Under penalty of death.
Why do you reckon that was given? Why do you reckon that law stood?
Because if you do anything with which to attain God's favor and
find rest for your soul, if you do, I don't care if you pick
up a stick. I don't care if you light a little fire. It doesn't
matter. If you do anything, you miss Christ. Christ is our savior,
the believer. The believer is that man, that
woman, who has quit working for God's approval. Now, this is
so contrary to human flesh and human reason. If a woman says
or does something, gets her husband upset, she knows she's out of
line. She knows she lost her temper.
She said things she oughtn't have said. Our child does this
with mother or father. You say, boy, what can I do to
make up? What can I do to make up? And
you go buy gifts and you start working and you know, you start
doing things or everything you think will possibly please them.
And it works for us because we're like you. We're sinners, but
it'll never work with God. How are you going to make up
with God? You can't. You can't. Well, how
does a man ever find acceptance with God? I trust the son of
God. And my father, I'm resolved never,
ever, ever. to do anything, to attempt to
appease your wrath, satisfy your justice, turn away your anger.
I trust Christ alone. Now I'm at rest. Come unto me,
all you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Would
you find rest for your soul? Then rest in Jesus Christ the
Lord. We don't practice or teach tithing
around here. Folks get upset sometimes. They
hear that. How come? Because the tithe was
the law that represented something. It represented total ownership
by God Almighty. That's all. Total ownership by
God Almighty. Lord, everything I have is yours. Everything.
Believers give because they love Christ. We're free. Entirely
free from the law. Who's free? Everyone who believes. God help you then to believe
on His dear Son and walk in that freedom, that liberty, where
with Christ alone can make you free. Amen. You have just heard a sermon
by Pastor Don Fortner of Danville, Kentucky. For a copy of this
message, please visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. This is Pastor Rick Warta of
the Yuba-Sutter Grace Church. Each Sunday we meet at 11 a.m. in the Yuba County Library located
on the corner of 2nd and C Street in downtown Marysville. We pray
that God would be pleased to make himself known to you in
the gospel of his son.