So Lord may graciously help me. I turn your prayerful attention to the epistle of Paul to the Galatians chapter 3 and reading verse 24 for our text tonight. Galatians 3 and verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3 verse 24 here.

The Apostle Paul is defending the great doctrine which was so much central to the Reformation. The doctrine of salvation by faith. This was the great one of the hallmarks of the Reformation, that it was not by works, but it was by faith. Paul remonstrating really with the Galatians, oh foolish Galatians, because they had come as it were to know the Lord and to have faith in the Lord and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and then they'd listen to others that said well that's all very well but you've also got to do all these works, you've also got to gain salvation with adding things to it.

And Paul is very sharp because he's saying you undermine the whole of your salvation when you think like that. And so what Paul is trying to explain here is these great truths. And as the Lord helps me, I want to try and simply explain. It's not an easy thing really to understand all this.

But if you go back to Genesis 12, Genesis 12 really sets the scene. The 12th chapter in the Bible, so early on, this is described in the New Testament as the gospel was being preached. So often people say, oh, you don't want to worry about the Old Testament, we just preach from the New Testament. The Old Testament's just the law, the New Testament's the gospel. But Christ, or Paul says, the gospel that was preached to Abraham, The whole Bible is so precious, not just the New Testament. The New Testament is precious, but so is the Old.

If you look at Genesis 12, now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee. I want you to look at this, it's a single-sided covenant, it's God promising Abraham, there's nothing to do with Abraham having to do anything.

It's totally what God is going to do. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee, and in all thy families, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. It's an unconditional promise. It's a promise with no strings attached. God has said he will do this for Abraham. He's promised he'll do it. And Abraham received that promise by faith. Not by works. He wasn't circumcised yet. It was by faith.

And you see Paul's argument here in Galatians 3 is this, that God gave that promise to Abraham and then 430 years later you find the children of Israel at Mount Sinai and there they're given the Ten Commandments and many laws and Those were not unconditional. They would say, if you do this, you'll be blessed, and if you do that, you'll be cursed. They were unconditional, sorry, they were conditional. Conditional on obedience.

And he's saying that, use this as an illustration. If I promise to give somebody an inheritance in 20 years time, let's say, I promise that I will give you this house in 20 years time. And then 10 years later, I come along and say, I'll give you this house if you do this, this, this, and this, and something else, and don't do something else. You'd say, well, you didn't say that at the beginning. You promised that you'd give me that house. And now you're saying, I've got to do this, this, this, and this, otherwise I won't get it.

And that's the argument really in Galatians 3. He's saying God promised Abraham these blessings and the law that was given later, 430 years later, can't undo the promise. Because you see if I then put conditions on the promise 10 years down the line you say well you said you promised and now you're changing, you're not being faithful, you're not being truthful, you're not being honest with me, you're making a promise and then putting conditions on it later on. And God is not unfaithful.

So that's Paul's argument here. He's saying that the law was given, but then you might say, well, what's the point of the law then? And that's where he's dealing with this. He said, well, if the law then was conditional, why was it given then? And that's why he's going to explain that. And so that's really where we come to verse 19 of the chapter that we read, Galatians 3 verse 19.

Wherefore then serveth the law. Why was the law given? If the promise had already been given of the inheritance, why then was the law given? Wherefore then serveth the law. It was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but of God. Is the law then against the promises of God? Does the law get in the way of the promises if you put these conditions in it? Paul says, God forbid, no it doesn't. It doesn't.

So what's the purpose of it then? For if there had been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. In other words, if there was these ten commandments that you could keep, and if you kept those commandments you could attain heaven, then people could get to heaven. But the reality was that we come short. And that's the problem. If you look already in verse 10, we said, for as many as are the works of the law under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continue, if not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Perhaps I'll bring you on to an illustration I used, I think, some time back here. But it's really from Leviticus. Leviticus, one of the things it goes through is leprosy. And it talks of somebody who's got leprosy and how the priest had to diagnose whether you did have leprosy. And there's all sorts of tests they had to do to make sure it really was leprosy. You can read about that in Leviticus 13. It's a long chapter all about how to diagnose leprosy. And leprosy is a picture of the Bible of sin, really. But if you look in Leviticus 13, and come to verse 44 in that chapter, Leviticus 13 verse 44, it says, it goes through all the signs, then it says, he is a leprous man, he is unclean.

The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean. His plague is in his head, and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent. This is what you have to do if you've got leprosy and you've been proved that it's true. your clothes be rent, his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry, unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled, he is unclean, he shall dwell alone, without the camp shall the habitation be.

Full stop, and then it goes to talk about what happens if you've got leprosy in clothes. That's it. What I'm saying is if you got leprosy and diagnosed, all you got told is you had to go outside the camp, you had to cry unclean, and that's it. You could do that for the rest of your life. You'd still be outside the camp. You'd still be unclean.

There was no remedy. That's a picture of the law. That's all the law could do. The law is very sensible. There's nothing unsensible about Leviticus. If you've got somebody with a plague, we did it with the COVID. If you have people that are contagious, you keep them separate from other people so they don't mix all the infections everywhere, and it's very sensible. But for the people who have the disease to be kept alone and just to stay on their own forevermore, it doesn't heal them, does it?

And that's all the law can ever do. All the law can do is condemn. condemns. It's not wrong. It's good. It's right. We would say medically it's very sensible. But there's no cure. And so you see this is. For if there had been a law given which could have given life. Then verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. All under sin. So yes in the case of leprosy it was a few people that had leprosy and they had to stay outside but now we say actually when it comes to a spiritual state we're all in that state. There is none righteous, no not one. The law just condemns us all. It's a righteous law but it It doesn't save. All it does is shut us out. It shuts you out of the camp. It doesn't save you. There was no...

We would go to a doctor, wouldn't we, and we say that you'd go and have a diagnosis of what's wrong with you, and the next thing that would be on your mind is, and what treatment can you give me? How can you make me better from this disease? Well, with leprosy, they could do nothing. in the law, had nothing.

You say, but there was something about if they were cleansed. The priest had to cleanse them. All the priest did was ratify the fact that they had been cleansed. And that's what Jesus, when he cleansed those lepers, he said, go and show yourself to the priest and get officially checked that you are cleansed. That's all the priest did, was check that they were cleansed. Didn't cleanse them.

A picture of the law. And that's the foolishness of thinking that keeping the law can get you to heaven. The law cannot get you to heaven. All it can do is condemn you. But the law is good. It shows the holiness of God. It shows the righteousness of God. But we're always on the wrong side of it.

People say, oh, we need justice. Well, unfortunately, When it comes to our spiritual state, crying out for justice doesn't do much, just much good, really. All we're doing is crying, oh, I want justice. Well, I'm sorry you're condemned, then, if you want justice. The law is loud as thunder cries.

The soul that sins against me dies. It's all the law can do. Now, so what does Paul then say? But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. You see, the law couldn't give it.

Faith does. Faith in Christ does. But before faith came, we were kept under the law. and shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So there's been a progressive as it were revelation of how we are to be saved. The law was given at Mount Sinai and then a greater revelation was given and of course the Lord Jesus came in the fullness of time.

But in verse 24 that we've named as a text we have this, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. to bring us to Christ. So really Paul is asking the question wherefore then serveth the law? What's the point of the law? If the law doesn't save what's the point of it? Well verse 24 tells us what the point of the law is. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. That is the purpose of the law.

Now perhaps when you think of the word schoolmaster you think of a teacher, you think of somebody who teaches a class. But I understand this word schoolmaster is not that. What it was was the tutor that looked after the person, the minor, the young person that was going to school and made sure they got to school. It was the person that made sure that they got to school and didn't get lost and didn't go in other ways and didn't get waylaid. He made sure that they got to school. Wherefore, The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That's what the law is there for. How does it do that? Well, the law, as I said, it condemns. And as you try and keep the law, as you try and work do those things that are right in God's sight, and you try and walk godly, you try and love the Lord with all your heart, you try and hate wickedness and love righteousness. When you try to do all those things, you suddenly realize you come short. You come short. You come short. You come short. And every time you come short, what is this schoolmaster saying?

Go to Christ! This is not a refuge. You see, the cities of refuge in Israel, there's so much gospel in the Old Testament. The cities of refuge, six cities of refuge, three on the left-hand side of Jordan, three on the right-hand side of Jordan. They were to flee to these cities of refuge.

A city of refuge was never far away. An approachable Christ, never far away. And when that person who had inadvertently killed somebody, a manslayer as it was referred to, they would run to the city of refuge and the avenger of blood would chase them. And they would run as fast as they could to get to that city of refuge. There was no refuge outside of the city of refuge. They would be killed.

When they got to the city of refuge, then you see, there was a place of safety. And if they, in that picture in the Old Testament, if they were found that they hadn't meant to kill the person, it was by mistake, then they could carry on living in the city of refuge.

And had to stay there until the death of the high priest. Christ, you see, is our high priest. And it's his death. sets us free. They couldn't go outside the city of refuge but you see it was the avenger of blood that was chasing them and if you like the law is like that avenger of blood that's chasing us, chasing us. This schoolmaster that says get to the city of refuge, don't wait here, it's no place of safety, you keep trying to keep the law, you're not in a good, there's no refuge there at all. You have to go to Christ.

This is the purpose of the law. And the fact that it's unbending, and you see, you might say, oh, I like a law that's a little bit soft. Don't be so strict. Just a bit easygoing. Just imagine if the manslayer, having killed by mistake that person, they said, oh, don't run so fast to that city of refuge. Just enjoy yourself on the route to the city of refuge. The Avenger of Blood comes and overtakes them and kills them. You see, there's no refuge. That was a picture. And there's preciousness in that picture, but also in that picture that was in the law, it comes short. Why does it come short?

Well, where would David have been? Having killed Uriah the Hittite purposely, for his own benefit, for his own cover-up of adultery, where would he have fled to? No city of refuge for David, was there? If he'd have fled to a city of refuge, he wouldn't have been safe there.

But you see, the gospel is so much greater. Come unto me, all ye that labour, and a heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The first thing was when you entered that city of refuge, were you a murderer or were you a manslayer? Was it manslaughter or was it murder? And if it was murder, you were killed. David wouldn't have been safe in a city of refuge.

But you see, the gospel, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And why are we safe? Because that manslayer, as it were, that avenger of blood, has found one, the high priest. and put him to death, so that now there's therefore now no condemnation to adulterers, to murderers, or sins more vile than they.

You see, this is the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. It is a gospel but it's a gospel that points to Christ and faith in what he has done and not in the works of the law. And you see, the person explaining, the person writing Galatians is Paul, Saul of Tarsus that was. And Saul of Tarsus was one of the biggest advocates of salvation by the law.

He lived it, I don't know how many years he lived it for, but many years he lived in that way. He lived trusting in his own righteousness, trusting that he'd kept the law, a touch in the law blameless. This was his way of salvation. He was very proud of it. He was very forward in pushing himself to be the greatest among the Pharisees. And you see now he writes to totally undo all that scheme that he was so much part of. He knew what he was talking about. He was there. He was doing this. This was his religion. This was his life. This was his hope in the law. But you see, as we spoke of this morning, but God who commanded the light to shine in our hearts, but God who commanded the light to shine hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And then he looks at all his works righteousness and he says they're all rubbish, refuge. false. You see, just imagine if you'd had these cities of refuge and then you had another little city that somebody else had said was a city of refuge that actually wasn't. Well everybody that run in there wouldn't have been safe would they? And Paul doesn't want you and me to run into this city of refuge of the law because it is no refuge at all. And so the law in its strictness, in its unbending nature of saying the soul that sinneth it shall die is your friend. It's your friend. It's your schoolmaster that's saying you cannot stay here. You have to go to Christ. You cannot.

You see all the time you say well you know I think you're a lot better than the people down the road. I think you'll be alright. I think God will accept your person. You're a lot better than those people. You didn't do this, that and the other. You're pretty good. All the people around this area say you're wonderful. That's all rubbish, isn't it?

In the face of this law. You see, it makes us satisfied with a work's righteousness. And by nature, that's exactly where we all are. We think that by keeping a certain set of rules and doing these things and not doing those things, that we're a lot better than those people over there. We'd be acceptable to God. But the law comes as we have in verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the law to do them. You see, you might say, well, 95% of the time I've been a really good honourable citizen. Well, what about the 5%?

You see, If Adam and Eve, I mean, I don't know how many days they lived in paradise without eating of the fruit, I'm not sure. But it would have been of no avail for Adam to say, well, 25 days I've been living here and haven't eaten of the fruit, but I've only eaten of it today. Well, I'm sorry, you've eaten it, you've disobeyed, you're out.

You see, it's not good enough to say, well, 95% of the time I'm not doing that. But actually, when the Lord opens our eyes, it's not 95% of the time that we're doing God's will. Not 95% of the time we're loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbours ourselves. In fact, we never do it. We never do it perfectly. We never love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We always come short. Sin is mixed with all that we do.

But here's the hope, you see. When you've realised the emptiness of a religion that's all based on your own works, then you start to appreciate a promise that's been given you of a perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. Not a 95% righteousness that you've marked it as, but a perfect righteousness. See, like we had this morning, but unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.

This is what he came to do. This is what he came to do. But all the time you see the law. See, people say preaching the law, we don't want to do that. It's God's appointed means to bring people to Christ. That's what Paul says. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

How many children, if they had a chance, would skip school? How many children have you said, well, you know, go to school if you feel like it. And if you don't, if you don't feel like going to school, you stay at home. How many of them will say, well, I think I'll stay at home, thanks?

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. You've got to go to school. You've got to go to Christ. You've got to go to this one. There is no other refuge. There is no other place of refuge from the avenger of blood. Every other refugee, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, no other refuge will matter.

Well, when you try and get a job, don't you? You want references from people. Oh, this person says I was wonderful, and that person says I was wonderful. Perhaps we think we'll get to heaven, we'll have a few references from people, and we'll get in somehow. References from other people, whether they be King Charles or whoever they be, it won't get you into heaven.

We need to have a righteousness. We need to be trusting in the only righteousness that there is. The son of righteousness who arises with healing in his wings. so that we can know peace with God. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. So people that say, well, you'll keep preaching the law. Oh, just preach the gospel. Just preach Christ. Well, yes. Paul says it's the preaching of the law and the preaching of there is no hope of you ever reaching the standard of God's righteousness yourself.

And I can stand here and tell you that, but you can still think I'll probably be alright, he doesn't know what I'm like. But when you come to realise that for yourself, when you come to see that you've striven for something, You see one of our hymn writers, hymn 144, picks this up very beautifully. Jesus my all to heaven is gone.

He whom I fix my hopes upon. His track I see and I'll pursue. The narrow way till him I view. The way the holy prophets went. The road that leads from banishment. The king's highway of holiness. I'll go, for all his paths are peace. This is the way I long have sought.

I don't think you'll ever know it unless you try and seek it. and mourn because I found it not. My grief, my burden long has been because I could not cease from sin. How do you know you can't cease from sin if you've never tried? I can tell you you can't cease from sin, but you try it.

You try and keep the law. You see, you try and satisfy the requirements of God's law. You try it yourself. Well, this one tried. The more I strove against its powers. I sinned and stumbled. But that's not because somebody told them that, it's because they've experienced it. They've tried to keep the law. And what does the law do? It's that schoolmaster that brings you to Christ.

The more I strove against its power, I sinned and stumbled, but the more. Well, you say, this is horrible. This is defeating. It makes me feel like giving up. Till late I heard my saviour say, come hither soul, I am the way. You see, there is a way. There is a way. There's a promise. There's a covenant ordered in all things and sure. Not upon conditional promises, but upon unconditional promises.

I think James Taylor, when he was preaching here recently, he went through that covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. And it was passing between those pieces. And Abraham was asleep. He never passed between the pieces. It was a single-sided covenant. It was God had agreed that he would do that to Abraham. Nothing to do with Abraham. And Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. And that's a righteousness you see where there's no place for boasting. You can't say, oh, well, I was very clever. I did this. No, there's no place for boasting.

And that's why the lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Redemption is totally of God. Do you see, the whole word of God is, this is a revelation of God. But this is the experience of God's people, the Lord's people as they are led, led to see the holiness of God by his law. It shows the holiness of God, the righteous standard of God.

Some people get the idea that Paul doesn't like the law. No, he thinks it's very, very good. He says that directly in Romans 7. Let me just quote that. Romans 7 verse 22, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Paul hasn't got a problem with the law.

Oh, it's wonderful. It's holy. What was in the ark? The Ten Commandments, kept perfectly by Christ. Who is our example? Christ. So breaking the law is not an example of following Christ, is it? But you see, he kept the law, so his people can be accepted in him. So they can then desire to live out those things in their lives, not to gain salvation, but because they've been given it.

You see, it's a totally different way round. All the time we're trying to climb up to God by keeping the law. It's all about our works. But faith is about resting. in a finished work. Oh, I think there's a place for, as it were, striving to keep the law ourselves and then to come to the conclusion, not because I've told you, but because you've experienced it, that the law is impossible to keep.

And why is that good? Because it drives you to Christ. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That we might be justified by faith. That's the purpose. By faith. Faith in what Christ has done. Faith in his sacrifice. Faith in his suitability. Faith in his righteousness.

And so everything you see is not about us. It's about him. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. We're no longer as it were, because we've come to be sons. You see, this is the point. In verse 26, for ye are all the children of God now. Suddenly we're not servants trying to please our master by a set of rules. Now we're children. We've been brought into the family of God.

We have been given a heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. We also notice and are sad about the sin that doth so easily beset us. Read Romans 7. Oh, wretched man that I am, says Paul the Apostle, a regenerate man, but struggling under the remaining sin in him, the darkness that remains. Remember, the darkness will remain in this world. Just because God has said, let there be light, the darkness is still there at times, but it is bounded. What a mercy, it's bounded. With the ungodly, it's pervasive all the time.

There's no fear of God before their eyes. But has God brought you to fear him? Has he brought you to hope in his mercy? Has he brought you to call upon him? But then you see your weaknesses, your sin, you mourn over it, you see the darkness, you wonder about why, if you are a child of light, how you could ever be walking in darkness, and a chief trick of Satan is to bring God's people into bondage, to destroy their faith.

You look at Job, Job had all those things taken away from him, but that's all over and done within a couple of chapters. What's the rest of the book about? Seeking. to undermine his faith, his hope in God. And the devil was attacking that, attacking it. If God was with you, you wouldn't be there, just what they said to Christ. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross, mocking, jeering, You see, his faith in God was genuine.

Oh, he wasn't perfect, Job. He needed salvation. I know that my Redeemer liveth. You don't need a Redeemer if you're not fallen. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith, not by the works of the law.

Where then is boasting, it is excluded. There's no place for boasting. You won't go to heaven and see some place where they were particularly, got there by their own wonderful high standard, no. There's no group in heaven that got there by their own high standard.

They all got there because they washed their robes. and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they there. The only reason. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many as you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. You've made a public declaration that Christ is my righteousness.

Not my keeping of the law. Now that doesn't mean that there you'll say, oh don't keep the law, don't worry about keeping the law. That's utterly wrong. You try and tell somebody you love that what they love is rubbish. God loves his own law. He kept his own law. I did not come to destroy the law, I came to fulfil it. And if you think breaking the law doesn't matter, go to Calvary. See what it cost him. See what it cost him. See the Lord of glory dying. See him groaning, hear him crying. Look, ye sinners. Ye that stung him, look how deep your sins have stung him. Dying sinners, look and live. Oh don't treat sin lightly.

I'm not here to say the law doesn't matter. But the purpose of the law is to drive you to Christ. No refuge outside. And if you preach a gospel where there's a refuge outside of Christ, it's a lie, it's a deceit. There is one place of safety and that's not halfway to the city of refuge, not three quarters of the way, not 11, 11 twelfths? No, you have to be there, in that city of refuge. But Christ is much better than a city of refuge. He is the one that has atoned and paid the price of all the sins of his people. So there is therefore now no condemnation. But then the chapter ends with this beautiful thought.

And if you be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed are people that walk by faith not Jews people that walk by faith some of them are Jews and heirs according to the promise. You have received that promise back in Genesis 12, that in me and to all the families of the earth be blessed. Every person, every human being that has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is including in Genesis 12. The gospel was preached to Abraham.

It wasn't just to the Jews. The whole word of God is one glorious truth. May we be amongst those who lay hold upon that truth. who are brought by that stern schoolmaster. You must go to school. You must not stay away. You must go to Christ. There's no refuge outside him. And then find that this one is everything that we desire and come as heirs of the promise. Amen.