Well, my aim in recent messages
from New Testament epistles is, and has been, to define as clearly
as I can what the Word of God defines as the true biblical
gospel. The gospel, the good news. Good
news of acceptance with God. God who is holy, God who is judge.
acceptance with God, peace with God. These are lovely terms,
these are gracious terms. To the soul that knows it's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment, to know peace with
God and acceptance with God. It's like soothing balm on an
aching, raging sore. It's the answer to how should
a man be just with God. Last time we considered two husbands. God says, call me by the names
of these two husbands. Firstly, Barley. Remember Hosea
chapter 2, 16. Barley. Barley was a harsh, strictly
fair, absolutely fair, but strictly just, with no mercy, with no
allowance for failure. absolutely fair but strictly
just, and God said, don't call me any more, Barley, for in that
day you shall call me Ishi. Another husband, Ishi, tender,
gracious, loving, Sweet-natured. This is what God is saying to
his people. By nature, like everybody in the flesh, we are all, whether
we like it or not, married to barley. We're under a marriage
relationship with the law of God, which says, do this and
live, fail in the slightest respect, and die. For the soul that sins,
it shall die. But God says to his people, in
that day, in what day? In the gospel day. when the gospel
of the grace of God in substitution in Christ comes. Don't call me
Barley, that harsh husband anymore. Call me Ishi, Ishi. And what
did we see in Romans 7 verse 4? In Christ, if you're believing
in Christ, you are dead to the law. The marriage relationship
with the law is gone because you're dead. Just as a wife is
no longer bound to the husband who she's been married to all
her life, but when he dies, That marriage relationship is over.
It's ended. You're free to marry another.
And he says in Romans 7, 4, you're dead to the law, Bali, that you
might be married to another, Ishi, which is Christ in the
grace of the gospel. And it's a new relationship of
grace, of love, of forgiveness, of acceptance, of peace in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a glorious position
to be in. But there are always, throughout all ages, those who
seek in the name of religion to bring us back under the yoke
of law. A yoke? Do you know what a yoke
is? What the yoke I'm talking about is not the yellow in the
middle of an egg, that's Y-O-L-K. This is a Y-O-K-E. It's that
which, if you've seen oxen ploughing in a primitive culture, they're
pulling a great big heavy cart or a plough, and there's a pair
of them. together, these cattle. And they've got a thing over
their shoulders, over their necks, which is a heavy thing. It joins
them together, makes them walk together, so they pull together,
and they feel the heavy weight, the load that they're pulling
behind them. It's a yoke. It's a heavy yoke. It's a burdensome
yoke. And there are those in religion,
especially in so-called Orthodox Christian religion, who always
are seeking to bring us back under the yoke, the burden the
burden, the heavy burden on your neck of the law. Judaizers they
were in the early church. They went up to Antioch where
they were talking about Gentile believers having believed the
gospel of grace and people from the sect of the Pharisees who
said they had believed the gospel too came up from Jerusalem and
said, ah, you must obey the law of Moses. You must go through
all the rights of the law of Moses. You must do this. You
must not carry burdens. You must not, you must be circumcised
to the men, all this kind of thing is what they said to them.
They put them back under the yoke of the law, at least they
sought to in the early church. And it's the same, religious
folks in all ages, and no less today, very prominently today,
orthodox legalists today, whose mantra is, this is what they
say, This is what they say, the law of Moses is the believer's
rule of life. How should I live? How do I know
what to do that's right and wrong as a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ? They will tell you, you go to
the law of Moses. They tell you, you go to Christ
for salvation, but then having been saved, you go back to Moses
to know how to live. That's not at all what the Word
of God teaches, either in Old Testament or in New Testament,
not in any way. They trouble believers. They
maybe have troubled you, if you're a believer, at times. In Galatians
5, verses 10 and verse 12, Paul calls them, those that trouble
you. Those that trouble you. What
is their error? I'll tell you what their error
is. They say, number one, they say this, that sinners in salvation
are justified by blood redemption of Christ. Nothing wrong with
that, is there? No, absolutely not, nothing wrong
whatsoever. But this is where the error comes
in. Secondly, they say, you are progressively sanctified, you
get more and more holy, you get more and more fitted for heaven,
by improving the way in which you keep the requirements of
the law. So as you go through life, there
was a day when you did such and such a thing, but you've put
that to death now, you've stopped doing it, oh, you're getting
more sanctified. There was a day when you didn't do such and such
a thing, oh, but you're doing more and more of it now, so you're
getting better and better, progressively sanctified by improving your
conformance to the requirements of the law, with the objective
that, When we get to what is called the judgment seat of Christ,
when the end comes and we all face God at that judgment seat
of Christ, they say you will either be rewarded for how well
you got sanctified or you will be punished or rebuked for how
the things that you left undone that you should have done and
that day of judgment you're a believer and there'll be some believers
who'll be strutting around with a lovely great big shiny crown
with loads of because they've done so well, oh have they been
such good people and there'll be others who didn't do this
properly and Oh, you know, they slipped into sin there, and oh,
they're going to get a public rap on the knuckles. And they
might get into heaven by the skin of their teeth, but oh,
they're going to be hanging their heads in shame. The scripture
nowhere says anything of the sort. That is their error. That is the lie that they put
on believers, in bringing them under that yoke of bondage. You
see, what they say defines the covenant relationship that they
teach exists between God and his believing people. And it's
a lie, because it's not like that. The covenant relationship
that exists between God and his believing people is entirely,
entirely, with nothing else added, entirely based on the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely everything. There
are those, we make a difference. I don't want to tar all of them
with the same brush. There are some who aggressively
teach it, who aggressively defend it. venomously defend it, I would
say. Others go along with it unwittingly,
seeming to support it because they haven't really thought it
through, and in other respects they're sound. I trust God will
give us the grace to make a difference, because there is a difference
to be made. Some are the vehement proponents of it, others just
haven't really thought about it and go along with it, but
nevertheless it's an error that needs to be avoided. The error
of legalism. What is the error of legalism?
Look at Romans 10 verse 2. Paul is talking about those of
his own nation. He was a Jew. He was a Jew. And
he says, I bear them record, the Jews, the Israelites, the
the Israel of the first century, of the time of Christ. I bear
them record that they have a zeal for God, a zeal. But that zeal
is not according to knowledge. That zeal is not based on truth. That zeal is not based on a correct
understanding of the relationship of sinners to God. They have
a zeal for God. Oh yes, you can't deny that.
They're zealous for God. Paul would tell you that he was
the most zealous of them all as a Pharisee. He was without
rival. He was vehement in his opposition
to anybody who didn't toe the line exactly with the requirements
of the Jewish religion. Because he goes on to say in
verse 3, they, the Jews, those with the zeal for God, being
ignorant. He calls them ignorant. Ignorant. ignorant of God's righteousness.
They claim to know all about God's righteousness, in truth
they know nothing about God's righteousness. They go about
to establish their own righteousness. They go about to establish their
own. You know, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 64 verse 6, all our
righteousnesses, all the things that we try to do in establishing
by our works our righteousness before God, do you know what
he says they are? Good attempts, oh well done,
not bad, no. Filthy rags. Horrible, horrible,
defiled, filthy, that's what they are. This trying to be sanctified
by the works of the law, the law of Moses, it's like that
seamless, perfect robe of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ with
which he clothes his people and we try by our works of sanctification
to sew onto that robe these filthy rags of our own attempts. No. Not right at all. Absolutely
wrong. You see, they go about trying
to establish their own righteousness, but they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is on
an altogether different plane to anything that we naturally
perceive as righteousness. You know, in Isaiah 55 when God
says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways.
My ways are so far high above your ways, there's just no comparison. And so it is with righteousness.
What we deem to be righteousness, The righteousness of God is on
an altogether different level. Anything we do is never perfect
enough for God's righteousness. Oh, he's a bit harsh, isn't he? A bit extreme. No, this is the
nature of God. This is the one who is the creator
of this universe, the giver of life. The very nature of the
being, the infinite being who is God, is this thing called
righteousness. And we come nowhere near it in
ourselves, nor can we ever. We need to understand this thing
about the righteousness of God. You see, our righteousness, our
righteousnesses, are worthless, not only for justification, Anybody
listening to this, if you think, oh yes, you'll accept that, you'll
admit that, that your works cannot justify you before God, but oh,
surely your works can sanctify. No, they can't. Your works are
just as useless for sanctification. You see, what it consists in,
this legalism, is rules and regulations for Christian living. They apply
in different ways in different places. You know, the things
that religious folks teach are holy in some places and not holy
in others. It used to be when we were young,
in the north of England, in the Baptist church in the north of
England, the most evil thing that you could do would be to
smoke a cigarette, or to have a drink of beer, or to go to
a dance on a Friday night. Oh, what a wicked thing that
was to do. how dreadful that was to do. Just the list is interminable
of the things that you were not supposed to do because it was
defiling and degrading. And there were these rules that
were just like what Paul says in Colossians 2.21 when he tells
the believers in Colossae, don't let anyone judge you in these
things. They'll say to you, touch not. Don't touch that, it's evil. Don't taste that. Don't do that. It's evil. Oh, you mustn't handle
that. It's evil. they have their sabbath
days. They're not really sabbath days,
you know, these religious folks' sabbath days. Oh, Sunday is the
sabbath in its Christian form. No, it's not. It's a pseudo-sabbath. It's what you make up to be a
sabbath, but it isn't. The sabbath of God is the seventh
day, and the rules and regulations for it are laid out clearly in
the law of God throughout the books of Moses. The law for the
seventh day is laid out because we know that that was just a
picture, that was just a picture of rest from works. Which rest
from works? The rest from works that we have
when we trust Christ, as Hebrews 4 tells us, a Sabbath which remains
for the people of God. Now these legalists, they have
pseudo-Sabbath days, when they tell you, oh, Let's make up our
own rules. You know it was in the Old Testament,
don't pick up sticks on the Sabbath day, and don't walk more than
a certain distance on the Sabbath day, and all of those, well they
make up their own rules. They have, don't watch television
on the Sabbath day. don't use your car some some
are so extreme don't use your car on the Sabbath day and and
don't don't don't buy anything from a shop on the Sabbath day
and Don't don't pick a flower don't do anything like that because
it's just rules and regulations made up by man Burdens as the
scripture calls them acts 15 verse 10 This is the Apostle
Peter who was a Jew himself and he's speaking to the council
at Jerusalem who are discussing the situation at Antioch, should
they make the Gentile believers conform to the law of Moses,
and Peter says this to those gathered with him, If you make them conform to the
law of Moses, you're tempting God by putting a yoke upon the
neck of the disciples. That same yoke as I was describing
before, a heavy burden on the neck of the disciples. And he
says this, and let's be honest, neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear that yoke. We couldn't do it, so let's not
be hypocrites in telling them they've got to do it. That's
what Peter said. The Apostle Peter said that.
The Apostle Peter said that. I often think those who are legalists
today, as Paul says to the Galatians in chapter 4 and verse 21, you
who desire to be under the law, you're always telling people
we're under the law. He says, don't you hear the law? Have
you not read it? Don't you hear what it says?
Don't you hear what a harsh requirement it is? How you could never keep
it if you did everything you possibly could, you couldn't
come close to it. No. As Jesus said in Matthew 23 verse
4, talking about the Pharisees and these legalists, he says,
they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, heavy burdens, and
they lay them on men's shoulders. He's talking about religious
do's and don'ts. They put them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves, because they're hypocrites, will not
move them with one of their fingers. They're just hypocrites. They
won't do it. Galatians 6 verse 12, Paul talks of them making
a fair show in the flesh. A fair show. Oh, it looks good,
doesn't it? You know, the ones who, when
they were fasting, to make a show before everybody else. They try
and make themselves look like they're a bit pasty and sickly.
Oh, I'm having a really good fast. Look how ill I look. Oh,
what a good religious thing I'm doing. How good I'm being. You
see, it's just complete and utter hypocrisy. Galatians 5 puts it
like this, Galatians 5, sorry, Colossians 2, that's where I'm
meant to be going next, Colossians chapter 2, if I can find it, Colossians chapter
2 and verse 16 yes verse 16 that's right let
no man therefore judge you in meat or drink let no man tell
you what you ought to do in respect of a holy day or of the new moon
or of the sabbath day don't let people put rules and regulations
on you those things were a pattern a shadow of things to come but
the body the reality is Christ. All those Old Testament things
were pictures which are fulfilled in Christ. They were just patterns
pointing to Christ. But He has come. The body is
Christ. Let no man beguile you of your
reward in voluntary humility. You know, Take your shirt off
and beat your own back and make it raw. Wear a horsehair shirt
for discomfort just to show what a good thing you're doing. As
used to be the case with Catholic penance, you know, make your
knees bare climbing the steps of the cathedral in penance to
say sorry for your sin. worshipping angels, intruding
into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in
his fleshly mind. This is what legalism does, and
not holding to the head. Who is the head? Christ, from
which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment,
ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase
of God. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments
of the world, and we've seen that, I am crucified with Christ,
I am crucified with Christ, yet I live. Nevertheless, not I,
but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. If ye be dead with Christ from
the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world,
are ye subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle
not, which all are to perish with the using, those are just
rules and regulations, of people, after the commandments and doctrines
of men. Which things have indeed a show,
just a show. It just says to people, aren't
we godly people, aren't we holy people? They've got a show of
wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body, but
not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. They don't do anything
for you whatsoever. They're just external things
puffed up in your fleshly mind. We saw last week, and I'll stress
it again, to use the illustration of Bali and Ishi, the two husbands
that God says by nature we're married to Bali under that legal
relationship, but under the Gospel we're married to Ishi, but for
sure you cannot be married to both Bali and Ishi at the same
time. You must die to one that you
might be married to the other. You must die to Bali, the harsh,
legalistic husband, to be married to Ishi, the gracious, Christ-centered
husband. You must die. You cannot have
both at the same time. Now be clear, because this is
what they always accuse us of. When legalists hear us say this,
they say, ah, it's because you want to live as you want. You
think that sin doesn't matter. That's what you're doing. You're
teaching people that sin doesn't matter. And you're teaching people
to disobey the law of God. Of course we're not. Paul was
accused of it. What does it mean then? Can we
sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Of course not. No,
it's not licensed to sin. As Paul tells the Galatians,
talking about the works of the flesh, the works of the flesh
in Galatians chapter 5, the works of the flesh are these, adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. of the
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
They which do such things. Oh, didn't David commit adultery
with Bathsheba? Yes, he did, but he didn't stay
in that state, did he? He said his heart was broken. Read Psalm 51. when Nathan the
prophet pointed out to him his terrible sin in that situation
with what he did in arranging the murder of Uriah the Hittite
that he might have Bathsheba as his wife. His remorse overflows
in Psalm 51. The true child of God is not
immune to sin, but the true child of God doesn't like to stay settled
in that state, in that situation. No, not at all. Paul is quite
clear. Shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. In terms of what we do, is it
do's and don'ts? Well, no, but in terms of gospel
principles, it is. Look in verse 8 of chapter 4
of Philippians. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, does it matter how
we live? Of course it does. Whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any
virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things, and not
the works of the flesh. and of licentiousness and debauchery
and everything else that goes against the truth and the law
and the justice and the righteousness of God. No, the law is not wrong,
of course not. It's holy and just and good.
But in the gospel, in the gospel, by the grace of God and by the
spirit of God, God makes himself some volunteers as opposed to
press men. If you were to ask In the Navy,
in the days of Captain Hornblower, I know he's fictitious, but you
know, about the time of the Napoleonic Wars when the British Navy was
at its height, and if you were to ask the fictitious Captain
Hornblower, what would he sooner have? Would he sooner have, do
you know they used to have press gangs that went around and they'd
capture drunk men from the ale houses and they'd pressed them
into becoming sailors in the Navy. Their families would, where's
dad gone? Oh, he was captured by the press
gang at the pub last night and he's now in the Navy and that's
it, they don't see him again, that's how it used to be. Pressed
men, forced from what they were doing to go and become sailors
in the King's Navy, pressed men. And if you were to ask Admiral
Hornblower, would you sooner have a hundred pressed men, or
would you sooner have ten volunteers? You know what he'd tell you any
day. I'd sooner have ten volunteers. I'd sooner have ten who want
to do it. than a hundred that don't want
to do it. Think about your place of work.
What would you sooner have? Any day, people that are willing
and want to make it work, rather than those that are having their
arms twisted up their back and don't really want to do it. Because
the ones who are willing do a better job. And what does God say? He
makes his people willing in the day of his power. He makes his
people willing in the day of his power, when the flesh naturally
is not willing. What is the end? What is the
objective of the law of God? 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. The end
of the law is charity. The objective of it is love.
That's the objective of what is the expression of the character
of God. Here's the problem with the law
as the covenant relationship with God. Now we're back in Romans
chapter 10. Look at verse five, this is the
problem, you see the law is good, but this is the problem with
it. This is the problem with it, as far as attaining to the
righteousness of God. Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. The man which doeth, right, you
say that the law is your rule of life. Well, you better live
by it. Oh, I have, I do. You know, the
Israelites kept saying that, didn't they? You know, when Joshua
said to them, you need to do this, that, and the, oh, we'll
do all of that. And he knew that they couldn't keep it. He knew
that they wouldn't keep it. You know, the people said to
Moses, oh, we'll do everything that God has said. And Moses
disappeared up the mountain to commune with God for a few days.
And Aaron made a golden calf for the people. The very thing
they said they wouldn't do within days they were doing. That's
the nature of the human heart. This is the problem. If you say
you live by the law of God as your rule of life, the man which
doeth those things shall live by them. As Galatians 3 verse
10 says, quoting Deuteronomy, that all things, cursed is everyone,
cursed by God. You know, you could be cursed
by people who, you know, you can say sticks and stones may
break my bones, but calling names won't hurt me. But if you're
cursed by God, you are cursed indeed. Cursed, says God, is
everyone that continueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them, to do them, to do them,
never failingly, always perfectly to do them. That's the problem
with it. There's nothing wrong with the law apart from the flesh,
for the law was weak through the flesh, because it's the flesh
that can't keep it. The natural man still likes to
think he can be righteous enough for God, so he keeps coming back
to the law, whether his own private law or Moses' law. They think
that they must do something. I remember that old lady in Southampton
I've told you about many times and she said to me that she was
doing all her works for God because, I quote, I don't want to go into
his presence empty-handed. Oh dear, to the true heart that
knows the gospel that's a shocking statement. The words of the hymn,
the words of the hymn, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to
thy cross I go. Naked come to thee for dress.
Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Saviour, or I die. I
can't bring anything. I'm bankrupt. But people are
like a moth. You know, if you sit outside
on one of these nice, hopefully we're gonna get a nice warm summer's
evening this evening, and it might be nice to sit outside,
and now it's August, it's going dark earlier, and you sit outside
and you put a candle on the table to give some light and before
long you'll have a moth that will come close because it's
infatuated with the flame and yet that very flame is the thing
that will destroy the moth if it gets too close to it and that's
what we're like by nature in the flesh coming back to law
it's the very thing that will destroy us You cannot back both
sides. You cannot. See again what Galatians
says in chapter 5. Behold, this is verses 2 to 4
of chapter 5. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that
if ye be circumcised, or if you do anything else which says I'm
doing my little bit for the law of God that I might increase
my favour with God, Christ shall profit you nothing. Well, surely
I still have the profit of Christ and I can do my little bit extra.
No, no, no. As soon as you do your little
bit extra, Christ shall profit you nothing. I testify again,
says Paul, to every man that is circumcised or does anything
else to earn favour by law works before God, I testify that he
is a debtor. As soon as you do a little bit,
then you better keep the whole lot perfectly. Christ is become
of no effect. What? He doesn't save me from
my sins. No, he doesn't save you from your sins. And to you,
whosoever of you are seeking to be justified by law, you are
fallen from grace. Are they not harsh words indeed? But that's the truth of the scripture
concerning our relationship with the law. So it is religious ignorance
to try to establish your own righteousness with God, as we've
seen. You must submit yourself to the
righteousness of God. And we know that from Romans
chapter three, righteousness doesn't come by law works, but
by faith of Jesus Christ. So in what respect then, verse
four, is Christ the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth? As a means of achieving the righteousness
required by God, The law is ended by Christ. Do you hear that? As a means of achieving the righteousness
that God requires, the law is ended by Christ. Whether it be
justifying righteousness or sanctifying righteousness, the law, as a
means of living, is ended by Christ. We're no longer married
to Bali, we're married to Ishi. The law was never given as a
means to save sinners, or as a motivation to godliness, or
as a rule of life. It wasn't. Again, I'll refer
you to Galatians. You don't need to turn to it,
I'll turn to it quickly. Chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. Foolish
Galatians, says Paul, who's bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth, crucified among you? This is what Paul preached, I
determined to know nothing other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
This only would I learn of you. Tell me this, you Galatians,
did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? or by the
hearing of faith? Of course they received it by
the hearing of faith when the gospel was preached. Are you
so foolish, having begun in the spirit by faith, are you now
made perfect by the flesh by your going back to law works?
Of course the answer is clearly not true. Why was it given then?
We know. I'll be quick. It was a schoolmaster
A schoolmaster, to Christ, doesn't say in the original, to bring
us to, it's a schoolmaster. What does a schoolmaster do?
A good schoolmaster teaches you, teaches you soundly and clearly.
The law teaches us. What lesson does it teach us?
How hopeless it is to try to win favour with God by law works.
It teaches us that there is no hope in that, but that there
is only hope in Christ, the substitute God has sent, the surety. It
shows us the utter hopelessness of law works for the righteousness
required with God. And the trouble is, today's legalists
don't hear what the law really demands. It's demand for absolute
perfection and satisfaction. Think about it. Think about it.
When the moral law was given, written on tablets of stone,
What other law was given to go with it, absolutely hand in hand
with it, was the Ceremonial Law. The Ceremonial Law of Temple
Worship and Temple Sacrifices. What was Temple Worship and Temple
Sacrifices all about? It was the Gospel of Christ in
picture and in type and in pattern that he came and fulfilled. It
was the blueprint for everything that Christ would establish.
So with that law, which man could never keep, was given, why did
they sacrifice animals? Because they hadn't kept the
law! Why was there a scapegoat? Because they hadn't kept the
law! That's why, that's what it was all for. So how is Christ
the end of it? He has perfectly fulfilled it.
Isaiah 42, see it's throughout the Scriptures, not just New
Testament, Isaiah 42 verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. Whose righteousness sake? His
son's righteousness sake. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased, said God. He will magnify, who? Jesus Christ
will magnify the law and make it honorable. Jesus himself said,
Matthew 5, 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. The law has no charge to bring
against the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfied the law's demands
in every respect, he kept it perfectly and then He satisfied
the law's demands for a cursed death on sinners, the sinners
who are his people, whom the Father gave him. When he was
made sin for his people, that his people might be made the
righteousness of God in him. So that curse, on anyone that
keeps not all things written in the book of the law to do
them, Three verses later on in Galatians 3, but Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He's bought us liberty from that
curse. How? By he himself being made
that curse for us. The curse must be made because
the law has been broken, but he was made it for us. So the
law has no remaining claim on those for whom Christ died. We
read it almost every week, but Romans 8, 33 and 34, who shall
bring any charge to God's elect? Can't do it. Even Satan learned
that. Revelation 12, if I can cast
your minds back almost two years, even Satan learned that in Revelation
12 when he in fury discovered that the people he was accusing
of not being fit to be in heaven had already been redeemed by
Christ. So how is the end of the law
established? How is it? Certainly not by law
works as a covenant relationship to earn approval from God. No.
It's by what Christ has done. As Paul says to the Philippians,
chapter 3, 8 and 9. This religious law works he talks
about, he's being the best Pharisee ever. What good is that to you
Paul? You know, on your CV, how do
you count your incredibly good obedience to the law of God?
He said, I count it like a pile of dung. Oh, this is the Bible,
isn't it? Oh, what terrible, shocking language.
Paul says, I count it as a pile of dung. It's worthless. It's
worthless. It has no value whatsoever. Why? That I may win Christ and
that I may be found in him. Where do you want to be found
when you're called out of this life into glory? Think about it, everybody. Think
about it. Before too long, every one of
us, where do you want to, I want to be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which
is by faith, righteousness of God made over to his people by
the faith of Christ and apprehended by the faith he gives us to believe
him. The righteousness which is of faith, two minutes left.
Do you not desire the acceptable righteousness that God requires. Don't you desire it? Look in
verses 5 and 6 again of Romans chapter 10. This is the problem
with the righteousness of the law, that the man that does these
things shall live by them. But verse 6, but the righteousness
which is of faith, that's a different righteousness. speaketh on this
wise. Say not in your heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ
up from the dead, but what does it say? The word is nigh you,
even in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach. Now, I bet you're all thinking,
what on earth does that mean? I was following that until we
got to those words, and then it's suddenly, what's he talking
about? Well, it's actually alluding
to a passage in Deuteronomy 30, and we haven't got time to look
at it now, but look at it for yourselves later. Deuteronomy 30, verses
11 to 14, and it's almost a direct quote of this with a bit of adaptation
for New Testament context. Where there, God is saying to
his people, this is the law I've given you. Now, don't go saying,
do I have to go on a long sea journey to find some religious
guru who will teach me how to live right? No. The word is clear. You don't have to do that. You
don't have to ascend into heaven or down into hell or go on a
long sea journey to find it. It's right next to you. The word
is right next to you, whoever you are, sitting here or listening
to this on the internet, wherever you are, the word is right. What
is it? It's that word. The word is nigh you, even in
your mouth, even in your heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. What's the word of faith? If
I was to ask you, And I hope you've been listening these last
few years. If you were to describe in one word what do I preach,
well I'd accept two answers because they're both the same reason
really. One is the word gospel, good
news, and the other is the word Christ, because that's who the
good news is. I'd accept either of those answers
because I'd know what you mean. The word of faith which we preach
is the gospel of salvation accomplished by Christ. And how does it come
about? That if you shall confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, it proves that you are
amongst those he saved, as he said to the Thessalonians, by
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Have you heard
the gospel preached? Have you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished? Have you called
upon his name? You know, that's what people
did. You would read right back in the Old Testament, right at
the start of Genesis, the time of Seth, and evil and the effects
of sin were spreading rampantly. And then it says, and men began
to call upon the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, shall be saved. You see, it's by this
faith, and the righteousness which is of faith and not of
law works, that actually the demands of the law and the objective
of the law is met. Because as Romans 13 says, love
is the fulfillment of the law. Do we make the law void through
this faith? No. We establish it. In actual
fact, the only way you can satisfy the demands of the law of God
is by faith of Jesus Christ, not by your futile works, whether
of justification or sanctification. He, of God, is made unto you
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
That's what it accomplishes. In Isaiah 45, 24, surely shall
one say, in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come. And all that are incensed against
him, all who refuse to believe him, shall be ashamed. Ashamed
in what way? Ashamed in the judgment. Now,
let him that glories, glory in the Lord.