All right, in Galatians chapter
3, you may have heard in history
or history lessons of what they call the Rosetta Stone. And that
was a stone that was found back in the late 1700s in Egypt. that was the key to understanding
and translating what they call Egyptian hieroglyphics. You've
seen that probably in different books or on television or something. You could see Egyptian hieroglyphics. It's a way of writing a language
that uses symbols. And when they first began to
look at Egyptian hieroglyphics, they didn't understand. Nobody
could understand what it really meant, what it was saying. But
then in the late 1700s, they found this Rosetta stone, and
it had hieroglyphics on it, it had another language, and it
had ancient Greek on it, and it was the key that unlocked
Egyptian hieroglyphics. They could understand it. Now,
they could use that ancient Greek, which they did know what it meant,
they could use it to translate the hieroglyphics. Well, what
we've been studying here in Galatians is full of what we might call
Rosetta Stones for understanding the Bible. There's just certain
keys that the Lord gives us that just unlock things for us. For example, we've talked about
justification before God, how a sinner can stand before holy
God and be pronounced, declared not guilty, to be righteous before
God. And of course, the scripture
tells us plainly that that's by the grace of God and based
on the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and nothing else. Nothing we do or nothing that
comes from us can recommend us unto God. And that's a key to
understanding the scriptures because it puts everything within
what I call, as I mentioned last week, the paradigm of grace.
So that when you read the book of Genesis or the book of Exodus
or the book of Leviticus all the way through in the New Testament
to Revelation, Everything is to be interpreted and understood
within that paradigm of grace. And if you step outside that
paradigm, you've lost the meaning of scripture. When you look at
the if passages, for example, what are they saying to us? Are
they putting salvation or any part of it conditioned on us?
And the answer is no, because when you say that, you've stepped
outside that paradigm, you've left that key. that opens up
the understanding of the scripture. Well, one of the things that
helps us especially to unlock the mysteries of the Old Testament
and the Old Covenant is right here. Look at verse 19 of Galatians
3. He says, wherefore then serveth
the law? Now the law he's talking about,
that word wherefore, that means why. Why did God give the law? The title of this message is
Why God Gave Israel the Law. And you know, most of the Old
Testament is the history of the nation Israel under the Old Covenant. Now that was a period of about
1500 years. From Moses to the cross, you
could say. And most of the Old Testament
takes up that 1500 year period of Israel as a nation under the
law. Well, Paul's point here is this.
The law cannot save us. The law of Moses, the law at
Sinai, that's what he's talking about, the 10 commandments, the
ceremony, it cannot save us. All it can do is pronounce us
guilty. The law cannot remove sin. Remember
he says in Hebrews chapter nine, I think it is, nine or 10, he
said the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Those
were types and pictures and symbols, you see. The law cannot make
a sinner righteous. The law can show us what's wrong,
but it cannot give us the cure. So that no sinner can be justified
by deeds of the law. And he makes the point here that
salvation has always been and always will be by the grace of
God based on the righteousness of another. Not the righteousness
of man, but the righteousness of God, which is embodied in
the person and work of Christ as the substitute and surety
of his people. So the question comes, well why
then did God give the law? Now there's several places where
this is stated, but right here in Galatians chapter three, look
at it, what it says. If we as sinners now cannot be
justified by the law, if we cannot be not guilty, be righteous before
God, if the law cannot give us life, now that's another issue. Can the law give a dead sinner
life? And the answer is no. Give us a heart to obey its precepts? No. Then why did God give the
law to Israel? He says in verse 19, it was added,
and that word added there means that it was brought alongside
of. That's what it literally means.
It was added because of transgressions. That's the first thing he says.
Why was the law given? It was added. It was brought
alongside of. Now brought alongside of what?
It was brought alongside of the promise that he's been talking
about. See, the promise is the promise
of the gospel of salvation, conditioned on Christ, who fulfilled those
conditions, and the promise of grace, salvation by the grace
of God, the promise of righteousness, the promise of cleansing from
all sin that comes through Jesus Christ alone. The law was brought
alongside that for a purpose. The first one he says, it was
given because of transgressions. God's law is his standard by
which they were to measure sin and righteousness. What does
God require? And he says transgressions here,
you know, I think there's probably about five words in the New Testament
that describe sin. The most common one is the one
you find in the familiar verse Romans 3.23, which says, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the
most common Greek word for sin in the New Testament. And what
that means, it means to miss the mark. Here's a person trying
to establish a righteousness of his own before God. And that's
how Paul incidentally, you remember in Romans nine, described Israel
under the law. They were trying to use the law
and their obedience to the law to establish their own righteousness
before God. And he says, they did not attain
it, they missed the mark. And you say, well, some of them
got, you know, in human language, we would think like this now.
We would say, well, some of them got a little closer than others.
Doesn't matter. The law doesn't say do your best. The law says in Galatians 3.10,
look at it, for as many as are of the works of the law, those
who are trying to establish their own righteousness by their obedience
are under the what? The curse. For it's written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in what? All things which
are written in the book of the law to do them. Over in Galatians
chapter five in verse three, Paul writes, for I testify again
to every man that is circumcised. Now, circumcised there meaning
you're using that to make yourself righteous before God. as an act
of obedience thinking that it'll recommend you to God. He says
that he's a debtor to do the whole law. Every jot, every tittle. What did Christ come to do? He
came to keep the law, every jot and every tittle for his people.
So sin is to miss the mark. Another word for sin is right
here in our text, Galatians 3.19, transgression, that means to
break the law. That means not only do we not
measure up, we don't hit the mark, the standard, but we literally
break the law. That word transgression means
to step across the line. Another word for that in the
New Testament for sin is trespass. You go on some property and you'll
see a sign that says no trespassing. That means there's a line there
you cannot cross. because somebody else owns it
and they don't want you on it. Well, that's the way the law
is. To step across the line is to transgress the law. It means
to go too far. Remember in 2 John, what is it? Verse nine, I believe it says,
he that, what is that? Somebody, I can't quote it right
now. Those who, what is it? Huh? We forgot it. See, I gotta write
these things down, all right? But it says, he that transgresseth
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, what it means is they
go too far. They leave the word of God and
they go into things that are human inventions and origins
and ideas. And that's what happens there.
Another word for sin is iniquity. Remember in Matthew 7, 21 and
22, or 22, I think it is, or verse 23, where he talks about
you that work iniquity. And you know what that comes
from. Iniquity means that it's unrighteousness. It's a transgression of the law,
but it's like rebellion in the sense that it doesn't balance
out. It's unequal. That's where that comes from.
And what he's saying there in iniquity is that nothing we do
by way of obedience, in our best attempts, we'll balance the scales. You know, you've heard people
maybe say, you know, when I get to judgment, you know, God's
gonna weigh my good works with my bad works. Well, it'll never
equal out. And I just hope my good works
outweigh my, it won't do it, it's iniquity. And you remember
what the false professors in Matthew 7 were pleading. Haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? They weren't pleading immorality, but what they were
pleading didn't measure up to righteousness. Well, why was
the law given? To show us that we cannot measure
up to righteousness, that we need a righteousness we can't
produce, that we need Christ. And then another word for sin
is the word debt. You'll find that over in Galatians
five and verse three, when he says a debtor to do the whole
law. That's one of the common words for sin. Over in Hebrews
chapter two and verse 17, where it talks about it behooved Christ
to be made like unto his brethren, it behooved him. That's the Greek
word for debt, the same word there. In other words, Christ
took my debt. When you sin against God, you
run up a debt. And it's a debt you can't pay.
We're spiritually bankrupt, see? So what did God do? Well, he
charged our debt to Christ. And Christ paid the debt in full,
and in return, he charged righteousness to us. And that's the whole issue
of the ground of salvation and the gospel of God's grace. Well,
God's law was given to Israel to expose their sinfulness, their
iniquity, and the impossibility of salvation and righteousness
being attained by their best efforts to keep the law. So look
back at verse 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgression. Now here's another thing that
you need to see. In other words, now, he's showing
the need of mercy and grace in salvation. And incidentally,
you might, just sometime in your own personal study, read through
2 Corinthians chapter three. That's where the apostle Paul
talks about the greater glory of the new covenant in Christ
as over the old covenant, the law that Israel's under. And
remember, he calls the law the ministration of death. administration
of condemnation. So think about that. But here,
secondly, he says, till the seed should come to whom the promise
was made. Now, first of all, that shows
us that the law was temporary. The law is given to Moses. Now,
when we say the law was temporary, understand, we're not saying
that morality is temporary. You know, I've heard people say,
well, if we're not under the Ten Commandments now, then is
it all right for us to go out and kill? No. No, it's not all
right for us to do that. But murder was sin before Sinai,
wasn't it? Did Cain do wrong when he murdered
Abel? And that was before Sinai. So
that wasn't a new law given. The law given to Israel in that
form was temporary. And you know what word tips you
off to that? In Galatians 3.19, it's a little four-letter word,
till. It was added, he says, because
of transgressions, till. Until what? In other words, it
had its time. It was given in that form to
that nation for a temporary time. So it was temporary, it wasn't
eternal. And when did it end? It lasted from Sinai to Calvary. Christ Jesus came to keep the
law, to fulfill the law. He abolished it by way of fulfillment. He said in John 19.30, what's
it say there? It is finished. The veil in the
temple was rent in two from top to bottom. The way into the holiest
was made manifest through Christ. And so he says, till the seed
should come to whom promise was made. Now the seed there's already
been defined, that's Christ. Remember that, we talked about
Abraham and his seed last week. He said, and not to seeds as
plural, or as many, but to thy seed, which is Christ. In other
words, that whole law was set up as a system under which God
kept that nation and guided that nation for the express purpose
to bring Jesus Christ, the Messiah, through that nation according
to the flesh. And when he came and when he
kept it, that was its abolishment by way of fulfillment. Now, he
says in verse 19, he says, and it was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator. Now, the law was given to the
Hebrews by agency of angels. Stephen mentioned that in his
message in Acts 7. You can read about that at the
end of his message in Acts 7, 51, where he talked about how
it was given by angels and Israel did not keep the law. So it was
given by that agency. They were messengers of God.
We don't read much about that in the Old Testament in order
to see what all actually went on. But we know what the message
was because Moses wrote it down in the first five books from
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now that was
the message given. And that was the law written.
And then it was given through Moses as the mediator. Now Moses
was a man. He was a sinner saved by grace. And you know when Christ spoke
to the Pharisees, he told them, he said, Moses wrote of me. Moses
pointed sinners to Christ. Everything Moses wrote as he
was inspired by the Holy Spirit was not seeking to bring sinners
under the law for salvation. It was given to point sinners
to Christ for salvation. And Moses was just as convicted
by the law of sin as any sinner saved by grace. So what he's
showing here is the superiority of the promise and the covenant
with Abraham who received it directly from God. You know,
Abraham, God gave Abraham that promise without a human mediator
like Moses. He gave it directly to Abraham.
Now, the covenant of promise has a mediator. one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But there was no
human mediator like Moses between God and Abraham. It was only
Christ, and it was given directly to Abraham. But this law covenant
was given to Israel through a human mediator named Moses. But God
gave it directly to Abraham. And you know, there's a big argument
amongst people, you know, well, how much did Abraham know? Well,
the only thing I can tell you is what the New Testament tells
us. Remember in John 8, 56, what Christ said? Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and he was glad. And I'll leave
it with that. But look at verse 20 of Galatians
3. He says, now a mediator is not
a mediator of one, but God is one. Now, you know that most
commentators, when they get to that verse, they'll tell you
they really don't know what it means. Why did he interject this? Well, we know he did it by inspiration
of the Spirit. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one. Nor is it if there's a mediator,
there's got to be two parties. But he says, but God is one.
What does that mean? Well, the language may be difficult
for us to understand Paul's meaning here. And as I said, a lot of
commentators say, well, we don't know what it means. But it seems
to me that this is his point, if we keep it in the context,
as he continues to show the superiority of the promise of the gospel
made to Abraham, which was a manifestation of the everlasting covenant of
grace over the law. And here's what I think he's
saying here. He said, the covenant that God made in the law of Moses
was a bilateral covenant. Now what do I mean by that? It
was made between two parties, God and Israel. Moses was the
mediator. And it was a conditional, a bilateral
covenant is conditional. It's like if you and I make an
agreement that I'll give you something or you'll give me something
conditioned on us performing certain duties. You see, a mediator
is not a mediator of one, there's two. That law was a bilateral
covenant. It had blessings and promises
conditioned on the obedience of the nation Israel. And what
happened? They failed. The scripture says
that. They failed. Stephen said that
when he brought up Israel under the covenant in Acts chapter
7. They kept it not. Remember when
Jeremiah prophesied of the covenant, of the new covenant, he said,
God said, I'm going to make another covenant, a new covenant with
the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant
I made with their fathers when I brought them out of Egypt.
That was a bilateral covenant conditioned on them and they
fell. And of course the whole old covenant is a glaring scriptural
testimony that if any part of salvation is conditioned on me
or you, we're gonna fail. Ain't that right? We'll fail. We're no better. Are we better
than they, Paul said? Are the Jews better than the
Gentiles? No and no wise. Well, let me ask you, are the
Gentiles better than the Jews? No and no wise. We're all under
sin. None righteous? No, not one.
None good? No, not one. And you know, most
people today, when they look at the Old Testament, they act
and they sort of imply or state it out, you know, that yes, Israel
did this, those rebellious, stiff-necked people, but we're gonna do better.
And the answer is no, we're not gonna do better. We haven't done
better. We're no better than them. If salvation were under
a bilateral covenant, we'd be doomed forever. That's why the
law was given to show that. But God is one. And what he's
saying there, I believe, is this. Israel failed to meet the conditions
of that law covenant, that bilateral covenant, but God's covenant
with Abraham, which is indicative of the gospel, the everlasting
covenant of grace, is a unilateral covenant, one God. It's between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It's not conditioned
on man. One God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. It was all conditioned on God
the Son incarnate. It's a unilateral covenant. It's
not God saying, I'll do this if you'll do your part. Because
if that's the case, that's a bilateral covenant, that's death for sinners. God is one. It all comes from
salvations of the Lord. And there's absolutely no way
that we as sinners could be saved any other way. God's covenant
with Abraham is a success because Christ kept all the conditions
for his people. He is the Lord our righteousness.
He is our substitute and our surety. So look at verse 21.
Now, 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. No, the law's not against the
promises. Now remember back in verse 19,
it was added because of transgression. It was brought alongside to show
the need of that other covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace,
the new covenant as fulfilled in Christ. That's why it was
given. God had already set that up before the foundation of the
world had any. When did Christ become my surety? Before the
world ever began. That's what the scripture teaches. And that covenant never changes. That way of salvation has never
changed and never will. So here, later on, after the
world was made, and after a couple thousand years, Here God gives
the law to Israel. It was added, it was brought
alongside that promise to do what? To show us our need of
mercy. Our need of the grace and mercy
of God. Our need of righteousness imputed. That's right. Now, does that
mean the law's against the promise? No. Now some people pit it against
the promise. when they make salvation condition
on the sinner, but that's not why it was given. It was given
to show the need of grace in Christ. But if there had been
a law given that could give life, that could save us, then righteousness
would have been by the law. We would have had no need of
Christ. We would have had no need of grace, but look at verse
22. but the scripture hath concluded all under sin. Now are there
any exceptions to that? No. No. Israel was no exception. America's no exception. All men and women fell in Adam. All under sin and death. And
why? He says that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ, that's the faithfulness of Christ, might be given to
them that believe. In other words, there's a promise,
and there's the purpose of the law, and there's what God has
laid it out so that we can see it right there, that all salvation
is given to them who believe that Christ is our surety, Christ
is our hope, Christ is our righteousness. You see it? So it's not an issue
of the law versus the gospel according to how God gave it. It's the law added alongside
the gospel to show the need of the gospel, to show the need
of salvation by grace. Now again, The Pharisees, the
unbelieving Jews, they pitted the law versus the gospel. But
what they did actually is they just condemned themselves. Because
that's the way it is. If salvation is conditioned on
sinners, that's condemnation. But thank God that salvation
was conditioned on Christ keeping the law and satisfying his justice
on our behalf. All right.