I want to bring this message
this evening, 1 Timothy chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope, unto Timothy, my own son into faith, grace,
mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord,
as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister
questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now the end
of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved,
have turned aside unto vain jangling, designed to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm.
But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, 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 manslaves, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stoolers, 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." Now, back over here in verse five
is where I get my subject. Verse five. Now, the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and of faith unfaithful. The end of the commandment, the
end of the commandment is charity, charity, love. Now, the apostles,
talking to Timothy, told him to teach no other doctrine. Don't
listen to fables. Don't listen to men's tales. A fable is something you tell
with some kind of a moral story in it, but it's not really a
true story. Man-made story. Don't listen to that. Don't pay
any attention to them. Don't worry about your genealogies.
All they'll do is enter more questions. And I'll tell you,
we need godly edifying. Now, the end of the commandment.
Now, when he says the end here of the commandment, he means
the aim or the purpose of the commandment. The end of the commandment
is charity. The end of it, the aim of it,
the purpose of it is charity. And here's the thing. The aim
of the law, and I want to deal with this business of the law
tonight, if I can, the end of the commandment, is charity. The aim of the law The goal of
the law is to engage our hearts and cause our hearts to love
God and love one another. And that's what the law does.
That's what it was given to us for. Now, look with me. You keep
this and look over in Matthew 22. We'll see this in a minute. This is what our Lord said here.
And since we can't, we'll see here in a few minutes why the
law is used lawfully. But here in Matthew 22 and verse
35. And you know the gospel tells
us to go even further, and as Steve read in the study tonight,
you know, we love one another. This is the commandment that
you believe on God's Son, Jesus Christ, and that you love one
another. He that loveth God, God abideth in him, and he abides
in God. Here in Matthew 22 and verse
35, look what it says, Then one of them, which was a lawyer,
Asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which
is the great commandment in the law? That's ten commandments.
Which one's the greatest? Everybody's got a view of what's
the greatest law. Which one is the one you've got
to keep the most? And our Lord answered him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your mind. That's the first and the great
commandment. Love God. That's what the law's
aim is. It calls us to love God. And
watch this, and the second is like unto it, I shall love thy
neighbor as thyself on these two commandments, and all the
law and the prophets. So the end of the commandment,
the aim of it, is to engage our hearts to love God and love one
another. And the gospel tells us even to love our enemies and
to do good to them that hate us. And he said, Paul said, as
though I speak with the men of angels and tongues of angels
and have not charity, I'm a sounding brass and I'm a tinkling cymbal.
And this is called the royal law. And I want to show you another
one over in Romans 13. People want the law. I tell you,
I've met so many people that want law. They want the law.
They want the law. And they want to bring people
under the law. Well, the law in the end and age of it is this.
Look here in Romans 13 and verse 8. Talk about the law. James called it the royal law. The royal law. Owe no man anything
but to love one another. My goodness. Ain't that something? No matter what anybody does for
you, they ought to do it out of love for you. And if you owe
them anything, you owe them to love them. By love serve one
another. And that's why he says, oh no
man, don't get in debt to a man by saying, well, he done this
for me, so I need to do that for him. He went there for me,
so I need to go there for them. It's the love, our faith works
by love. And oh no man, none nothing but
to love another. And watch this. For he that loveth
another, what has he done? He's fulfilled the law. For this,
thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not steal, thou shalt not bear witness, thou shalt not covet,
and if there be any other commandment is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, Love
works no ill to his neighbor. He's not going to lie to his
neighbor. He's not going to take his neighbor's wife. He's not
going to kill his neighbor. He's not going to steal from
them. And he's not going to covet what they've got. Love your neighbor
as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor.
Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Fulfilling of the
law. And then back over in our text.
And then this is out of a pure heart. He says, now the commandment,
the end of the commandment, the aim and purpose of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart. Who in the world would get a
pure heart? Peter says that God purifies
our heart by faith, and the sprinkling of the blood purges our conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And he says only
the pure in heart shall see God, so it's an honest heart. And
one thing the Holy Ghost does for us as believers is makes
us honest before God, makes us honest with ourselves, makes
us stand before God and admit things we wouldn't admit to anybody
else for nothing. We're honest, a pure heart, because
God sees it. And then a good conscience, out
of a pure heart and of a good conscience. A good conscience. How do all men have a good conscience? If our hearts condemn us, God
is greater than our hearts, for God knows our hearts. A conscience,
a good conscience, is a conscience born of offense. It's a born
of offense toward God. You don't offend God. You've
not made, you've not said anything against God, you bow to God,
you don't argue with God, you have no offense toward God, you're
thankful to God, you bow to God, you bless God, and then you have
no offense toward man? You don't have no offense if
you offended anybody, if you got a grudge against anybody,
or you got any offense against any man. If you don't, you've
got a good conscience, born of offense. And, oh, it's the blood
of sprinkling that purifies that conscience. And I'll tell you,
as old Scott said, I'll tell you, the first time I heard it,
it was one of them things that, oh, he said, a perfect sacrifice
will quiet a screaming conscience. Ah, it doeth. And then he says,
the end of commandment is carried out of a pure heart, of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned. You know, feigned means to pretend,
to play act. Feigned is you're sick. But a faith, unfeigned, is that
it's real. That it's not pretend. A real,
genuine belief of the truth. Sincere belief. Honest belief. A need to believe. And beloved,
where there is true faith, there's always good works and love. And
where there's love, these things are the fruits of it. It's charity. A pure heart, a good conscience,
and faith unfeigned. A real, genuine faith. Now watch
what he says next. He says, "...from which some,
having not aimed yet in the margin," he says. "...not from which some, having
swerved, have turned aside unto Benjamin." Now here's what the
law says. The end of the commandment is
charity. But some seeing that, knowing that, what they do is
they turn aside from that and swerve from it. They miss the
meaning of the law. When you swerve to get away from
something, that means you're trying to miss something else.
And these fellas look dead at this thing and says, that's not
what the law means to me. So they swerve. They're going
another direction. They miss the end, the goal,
the aim, the purpose of the Lord. Then what do they do? They turn
around and they're just vain janglers. That means you've got
a bunch of bells and you're just ringing them and driving people
crazy with it. Vain janglers. Oh my, they miss the mark. Turn
aside. Turn aside from this commandment
of charity out of a pure heart and a conscience and faith unveiled. And this vain jangling means
foolish talk. You missed the end of the commandment.
You're a vain jangler. You're a sounding brass, a tinkling
cymbal. And what is the mark of these
men that have this foolish talk? They swerved. Not only did they
swerve, but they turned aside. And they make this vain jangling,
this talking. And here's the reason they do
it, their motive for it. Look in verse 7. designed to be teachers of the
Lord. They want to be teachers. Not
teachers of Christ, not teachers of grace, not teachers of faith,
not teachers of love, not teachers of patience and kindness and
love and mercy. And that's what our Lord told
the Pharisees. He says, oh, you lay heavy burdens
on men, grievous to be born, and you pay tithe of men and
anti, and you leave off the weightier matters of the law, judgment
and mercy and truth, and all designed to be teachers. And
James says this, he said, be not many masters. Don't desire
to be a master, don't desire to be a teacher, because if you
do, your condemnations greater. And oh, and why they desire to
be teachers. They desire the preeminence.
They love the preeminence. They like to be called teachers.
Rabbis! Rabbis! And they want to be teachers
of the law. Of the law. And you can always spot some
of them. Legalism takes a lot of forms. And I'll tell you,
it's two things. I'll give a personal way. That's
a legalist. And I'm telling you, I know this
is so. The first thing they'll say is,
how do you discipline the church? How do you discipline people
in the church? That's the first thing they want to know. What do you do if people commit
adultery? Anybody done that in here lately?
You see how ridiculous it sounds? The gospel answers these things.
The gospel deals with these things. And I've been pastor here 32
years, and never once have we ever brought charges and put
anybody out of the church. Not one time. Have we had sin
in the congregation? Yes, we have. Have we had people
that have done things that ought not do that? It started right
here with me, myself. If you have been around me a
time or two and seen some of the things I've done, you said,
I'm not going to list that fellow ever again. I'll tell you what,
they need to run him over. But they love to be, and secondly,
they always say, well, what's your rule of life? What was Abraham's
rule of life? And he was called of God 435
years before the law was ever given. What was his rule of life? He believed God. He walked by
faith. He didn't have no Ten Commandments
to walk by. He had God's word and God's promise
and God's presence and God's power and that's all he needed
then. And what about Enoch? Enoch walked
with God. What was his rule of law for
walking with God? And that was, he was the fourth
man from Adam and he walked with God for 300 years. And there
wasn't no 10 commandments. But these fellows desire to teach
that. And oh beloved, And the reason
they turn aside and decide to be teachers of the law is because
they don't preach and teach the aim or the purpose of the law.
And that's what he says next. Designed to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say, they don't have a clue
what they're saying. And they are keep affirming something,
telling something to be the truth, that they don't know what they're
telling here. Don't know what to tell. Neither what they affirm.
They say, I'll tell you the truth. I affirm that this is so. And
they don't even know what they're talking about. That's what Paul's
saying. They don't know what they're talking about. And oh,
they don't understand what they say. They don't know what they're
affirming. And I tell you, when fellows
bring this, they disturb us of the peace of believers and troubles
of the church. And I'll show you that. You look
with me over in Galatians just a moment. That's why Paul said,
He says, if righteousness come by the deeds of the law, then
Christ is dead in vain. Huh? If righteousness come by
the deeds of the law, then Christ died in vain. Galatians chapter three. Oh,
my. They don't know what they're
affirming. They don't know what they're saying. They don't understand.
They don't understand the consequences of what it is to bring men under
the law and to bring men under the curse. And then Paul starts
out here, O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you, beguiled
you, enticed you, and mesmerized you, that you should not obey
the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth crucified among you. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? Was your keeping the law? Is
that how God gave you the Spirit or did He give it to you while
you were listening and faith came to you and that's how you
got it? And he asked another question. Are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, God saved you by Spirit, called you
by Spirit, filled you with His Spirit, taught you Christ by
the Spirit, made you know your sin by the Spirit. Are you now
made perfect by the flesh? And he says, have you suffered
so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain, and I'll
ask you another question. And he therefore that ministers
to you the Spirit, or ministers by the Spirit, and worketh miracles
among you, Does he do it by the works of the law? Does he do
it by the works of the law? By being obedient to all kinds
of ceremonies and rituals? Or by the hearing of faith? Oh,
look down in verse 10. Talking about they need to understand
what they say or where they're from. For as many as are of the
works of the law are what? Under the curse. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written which
are in the book of the law, to do them, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God's is evident, for the just shall
live by faith. And we'll show you another one. Acts chapter 15. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. That's why he says these fellows
don't know what they're talking about. The end of the commandment
is charity. When the gospel comes and brings
that blessed truth to us, look what it says here in Acts 15.1. And certain men, which he's the
teachers of the law now, desired to be teachers of the law, and
certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and
said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. Oh, boy. I sure hate somebody
come tell me that right now. That's the only way I can be
safe, be certain. Well, now watch what he says down in verse, I
believe it's verse ten. Now, this is Simon Peter talking
here. He says, Why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, just like
God saved the Gentiles. Now back over here in Timothy,
and that's why, beloved, They desire to be, they turn, they
swerve, they've missed it, they've missed the whole purpose and
meaning of the law. And then Paul says in verse 8
here, they understand neither what they say nor the word they
affirm. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Use it the way it's to be used. And now when he talks about the
law here, he's talking about the moral law of the Ten Commandments.
And I'll tell you why we know it's good. It's good because
God's the author of it. It comes from God Himself. God
gave us this. And it's a wonderful thing. Paul
said it's holy and it's just and it's good. And it contains
good and excellent things. Have no God before Him? I don't
want to know one of the gods now that I know the true God.
And do you love God as much as you would love Him? Huh? And oh, beloved, it contains
good and excellent things. And it is good if a man uses
it lawfully, uses it for the purpose that God designed it
to be used. Well, how in the world do we
use it lawfully then? How do we use the law lawfully?
I'll tell you. One reason why we don't use it
to obtain life, I know that. That's not a lawful use of the
law. We don't use the law to obtain righteousness. We don't
use it to obtain salvation. We don't use it to obtain acceptance
with God. All the law will do then is just
curse us and condemn us if we try to approach God on the basis
of law. And we don't use the law, not
to use it lawfully, we don't use it as a rule of life. Now
the legalist would have you go to the cross to get washed from
your sins and then go back to the law to prove your holiness
and your righteousness and your sanctification. But now here's
the difference. God gave the law to prove and
to show us our sinfulness. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. No, listen, he says, you that
desire to be under the law, don't you hear what the law says? And the lawful use of the law
for unbelievers is for the knowledge of sin. It brings the knowledge
of sin. It brings conviction of sin.
To shut men up to Christ. But it's lawful use for us as
believers is to obey it in the hands of Christ from a principle
out of love to Him. Can I show you that? I believe
I can. Galatians 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I absolutely find nothing wrong
with the law. I just know, I know that We'll
get to this in a minute, that Christ fulfilled it in our room
instead, but at the same time, Paul said, I love the law of
God after the inward man. I do. I love it. I've got no
fault with it. And he said here in St. Corinthians
5.14, For the love of Christ constrains us. Not the law, the
love. The law condemns. The law pronounces
a guilty. The law convinces a sin. But
the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge. We
come to this conclusion. If one died for all, if Christ
died for all his people, then all died with him. Then we're
all dead with him. Is that not right? Then all died
with him. Now watch this. And that he died
for all, and all for whom he died, those that he died with
him, that they which live should hit not hithforth live unto themselves,
live for themselves. But unto him which died for them,
and rose again for them." Now, that ain't motive enough that
Christ's bearing our sins. And our faith works by love.
Now look here at verse 9 and 10. Knowing this, Knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man, then what does he mean by
that? Now, no man is righteous in himself. He ain't got a righteousness
of his own. Never has had a righteousness
of his own. The only righteousness he can have is the righteousness
of Christ charged to his account, put on his account. So that the
law is not made for a righteous man. And the righteous man here
is the man who believes in Christ and believes in Him with all
the heart and believes unto righteousness. The man who is righteous here
is the man who lays hold of Christ's righteousness by faith and the
consequences of that life by faith in Christ's righteousness.
He lives soberly, he lives righteously, and he lives godly in this world,
though not yet without sin, but God's law. Now listen to me,
the law is not made for a righteous man. Does God's law lay on you
as a weight or a burden as a believer? Does it? No, we've been lied in the law
of God. His commandments are not grievous. And I'll tell you, does His curse,
does His curse and penalty lie on you as a punishment that you
feel like you'll have to bear one of these days? No, it's not made for righteousness.
It's not a terrifying law bringing us into bondage and fear. And
it's not a law that we despise forcing us into a way of life
that we don't want to live. Do you know how awfully—remember
how bondage we were when we tried to be saved by our doing, and
tried to be saved by the way we dressed, and tried to be saved
by getting rid of our television, tried to be saved by going to
still other service we could go and by time—and remember the
bondage of it? There was never no peace, never
no rest. Oh, it was just everything bothered
you, and it was such a heavy burden to be borne. And Christ
took that burden away. That's what the law does. When
you try to be saved by doing, you get under a burden and a
weight. Christ bore the burden, the weight, the sin, the guilt,
the curse of the law. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. To who? Everyone that believes. And that's why Paul says the
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh. That means we're not trying to
have this flesh make us acceptable to God, but we walk after the
Spirit. And, oh, beloved, the law is not a hard taskmaster.
But here's what the law is for. It's for the lawless and disobedient
to convince them and to show them of that, for the ungodly
and for sinners. for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, and for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
that means people that steal somebody and sell them for slaves,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
contrary to the Son of God. That's the who's the law for,
and it's against such persons. And it's against their deeds.
And it comes as an accuser and condemning and terrifying law. You know, people seem to not
care. I mean, they just... Most of us in here somewhere
got a brother or a sister or a cousin or a child that's living
in fornication, adultery, or homosexuality. Or drunks or something
else. Now, ain't that true? Drug addicts
or something. And if God ever... and that's
the laws against them. The laws against them. And we
need to tell them that God's against them. That if you live
in the way you live, God's against you for that. That's not something
you should do. It's not something you should
think. It's not a way that you should act. And I tell you, locks on doors
are not made for honest men. I'll never go into anybody's
house If it's not even locked and the
screen door's open, I'll holler if ain't nobody home, I'll leave. But ain't no lock ever kept a
thief out of another man's house. Is that not right? Lock's not
made for people. A righteous man, you know who
it's made for? That thief. He's gonna get in. He's gonna
get in. And oh, do not steal, kill, etc. They're not rules needed for
righteous men, but laws enacted to control and convince ungodly
men. And what's this? And I love this
right here. Not made for them only. And the law is made for
those who come with anything contrary to sound doctrine. The law's against anything. That's contrary to the doctrine
of Christ. You know, the fellow gets up
with another doctrine. The law's against him. You know
why? He's setting up another god,
he's setting up another righteousness, he's setting up another salvation,
setting up another redemption. The law takes notice of it. The
law lies against it and condemns it. Now listen to me now. There's a harmony. There's a
harmony between God's law and His gospel when you rightly understand
it and use, and it's used right. What's contrary to one is contrary
to the other. The gospel no more, no more excuses
sin than the law does. Is that not right? The gospel
no more excuses sin than the law does. And what's contrary to the law
of God is also contrary to the gospel of Christ. If it's contrary to the law,
it's contrary to the gospel. But the only difference is the
gospel brings life, and the law brings condemnation. And that's
why when we hear the gospel, it makes us run to Christ, and
not to law. That's why our Lord said, I came
not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. To fulfill it. And
then He says, if it's contrary to some doctrine in verse 11,
And it is contrary according to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God which was committed to my trust. According to the
glorious gospel of the glory of God. My, my. Paul said, we've been entrusted
with this gospel. This is committed to my trust.
Oh, God gave us this gospel of His glory. He said, here it is. I'm going to give it to you.
I'm going to trust you with it. And what he does, Paul here, sharply,
sharply rebukes those who labor and to degrade the gospel and
suggests that it might lead to a life of sin. And how many times
have we been accused of that? Well, if I believe what you did
and believe I was going to be saved forever, I'm going to be
saved for eternity. And that Christ did it all and
I have nothing to do, that my righteousness is not in my own,
but the righteousness of another. I believe that. I could go out
and just live in sin and still go on to heaven. I don't know
anybody that believes the gospel that believes that. I don't know
anybody that ever believed the gospel and comes close to preaching
that. Do you? But I've heard a lot of preachers accuse us
of that. And I've heard a lot of people accuse us of that.
But oh, beloved, I'll tell you what leads to a life of sin.
You get under the law. And the law will bring you into
bondage, because all you're trying to do is bring... Whosoever is
under the law is under the dominion of sin. Lay down the law to somebody, and there's only one thing he
can do. He's either going to submit to it and say, yes, I'll
keep it, or else, no, I ain't going to keep it. I'm breaking
out from under this yoke. And Christ broke that yoke for us. Oh my, if you try to mix law
and grace, it just won't work. And the gospel of our Lord, and
it's called the gospel of the glory of our blessed God. The
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed the glory of God's wisdom. Oh, the wisdom of God in the
gospel. How God can be both just, just, just and holy and righteous,
and at the same time, Save sinners, and make them righteous and just
as He is, and do it in a just way. Oh, the wisdom. Where's that
wisdom seen at? In the Lord Jesus Christ. And
oh, it reveals the glory of His love. He loved us with an everlasting
love. Loved us with eternal love. And
it's the glory of His righteousness. Oh my, ain't you grateful that
God showed you and taught you and made you to know that your
righteousness is the very righteousness of God itself? That it's His
righteousness and He gave it to you? And now you rest in what
He did and quit trying to do what you do? And oh, it reveals
the glory of His holiness, the glory of His grace, and it's
all sufficient. And he says, we've been entrusted
with it. Paul says, you know, who makes
you to differ? Who makes you to differ? And
then he also says, we have this treasure, this treasure in a
clay pot, in a clay pot. Here's this, this is a glass.
Could be broken very, very easily. Get pretty, fairly cheap. Probably
buy a bunch of them for little or nothing. But boy, look what
it holds. When you're thirsty, look at
that. Beads on there, that's good and
cold. That holds one of the most precious commodities on the top
side of God's earth. It holds water. The water's the only thing worth
anything in that glass. And the gospel, the Christ in
us, the only thing worth anything in us. It does rhyme. The cross and the gospel is the
only thing in us worth anything. The rest of us ain't worth nothing.
And oh, I tell you, beloved, the gospel, the gospel doesn't
need to be hedged in with laws, rules, and ceremonies. Righteousness
by faith. And faith is by grace, not in
obedience to law. Christ was delivered for our
offenses. For our offenses. Offenses against
what? God, His law, that was raised
for our justification. And all we stand justified in
God's sight. Now, the end of the commander
is charity. out of a pure heart, out of a
good conscience, and faith unfaith. That's what it is. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, blessed be
Your name. Blessed be Your glory. Blessed
be Your power, Your wisdom. Your Majesty, Your Grace is so
abundant. Father, we thank You for the
day. Oh, You gave us a day. You gave us a day to fellowship
together, to enjoy one another, hear the gospel, to believe this gospel. Oh, how blessed we are to believe
it. To believe it. to embrace it,
and to need it, and to want it. Oh God, we thank you for working
that in us. Father, bless this gospel to
the heart, to the mind, to the understanding. And teach us,
teach us, Lord Jesus Christ, the way to use the law lawfully. Not to use it for anything but
what you intended for it to be used for. We ask these things
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.