Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. I received a letter from a dear
young lady who came to visit the church here with her uncle
a couple of years back. After the service, she came over
where I was sitting and talked with me for quite a while. She
talked to me about the gospel how their family had came out
of this reformed church and how happy and free they were being
delivered from the bondage of the law which was being preached
to them on a regular basis and which let them always, always
in doubt of their salvation. And in her letter, she writes
that she recently broke up with a young man. This is a 19-year-old
girl. And she recently broke up with
a young man that was still a member of that church. And that he didn't
understand why. He didn't understand why she
didn't want to pursue their relationship any further. They grew up together.
They attended that church together for years. And he didn't understand why
their family had left the church and why they felt it so ungodly
to continue to preach the law to them. Why is that so ungodly to preach
the law to save men and women? And so she gave him one of our
CDs, and this is what he said after he heard. She gave him
that CD I preached on coming to Christ out of John chapter
6. And he said, I agree with him
that we need to come to Christ by faith. But in his preaching,
he never tells us why. He condemns the preaching of
the law, but ignores the fact that all of the apostles preached
the law to converted men and women to instruct them in their
morality and daily conduct. After all, the Lord himself said,
I'm not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And so everybody
is required to continue to try to uphold the law. even though
we know that we can't. And she writes to me for counsel
as to how to answer this young man. And after reading her letter,
I decided to bring a message concerning these things for him
and for her and for you and anyone else who might be struggling
over these same things. Actually, the very book of the
Bible that he refers to as a proof text for what they believe and
preach was written to rebuke the very error that he's defending. He used the book of Galatians
as a proof text. Galatians chapter 2 verse 21,
Paul said, I do not frustrate, and that's what it is when you
preach law to believers. He said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Paul also asked this question
in his letter to the Galatians. He said, tell me, ye that desire
to be under the law, do you hear the law? Do you know what the law says? What is it you hear when you
hear the law being preached? How is the law being preached
to you? You that desire to be under the law, do you hear the
law? Have you ever heard God speak through the law? Do you
know what it says? Is this something you look forward
to? Is this something that you believe
in your mind is good for you? You that seek to be under it,
what do you hear when you hear the law? Do you hear somebody
saying, now you need to do the best you can? The law doesn't
say that. Do you hear the law saying, if
you do the best you can, you're going to be all right? You that
seek to be under the law, do you hear the law? What are you hearing when you
hear this law preached? My friend, the law requires perfection. It must be perfect to be accepted. It requires absolute perfection,
not the best you can do. The law demands continual. Unbroken and spiritual obedience
and motive, thought, and deed. Can't be a break in it. You can't
obey it for a little while and then not obey it for a little
while and then obey it for a while. Continue. And not just when you
reach the age of accountability, from the cradle to the grave. The law is not a blessing. I
don't know how to get that across to men and women in our day.
The law is not a blessing. The law is a curse. That's not
my opinion. That's what God says in His Word. For as many, listen to this,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone who continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law, to do them. Not to aspire to do them,
to do them. Not the hearers of the law are
justified before God, the doers, the doers. The law demands total
obedience, not just a few chosen precepts. It demands total obedience
in all of its precepts. Paul tells us in Galatians 5,
verse 3, he said, For I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
that is, circumcised as a religious duty, that he is a debtor to
do the whole law. Now, if you take it in your mind,
well, preacher, I'm not saying that we're under all 400 and
some precepts of the law, but I do believe in the Ten Commandments. Let me tell you something. If
you look to those Ten Commandments as a means of righteousness,
you're obligated to do all 400 and some precepts. You're obligated
to go out here and get a lamb. And there's going to have to
be a priest to it established. And there's going to have to
be common priests. And you're going to have to build
a tabernacle or a temple. And you're going to have to put
up the veil. The high priest is going to have to take the
sacrifice. You're going to have to have the altar. You've got
to have it all. You can't just take out a few chosen precepts
and say, now this is what the law is all about. No, that's
not what the law is all about. If you're going to be righteous
before God, if you're going to win God's affection and win God's
approval of you through the law, You're going to have to keep
it in perfection. You're going to have to keep it all. And you're
going to have to do it continually from the time you're born to
the time you die. If you miss one precept, in motive,
thought, and deed, you come short anywhere of that law, and you're
damned forever. Is that too hard? The law demands total obedience. And listen to this. He said,
I testify again to you. Every man that's circumcised,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. Listen to this. Christ has
become of no effect unto you. Whosoever you are who are justified
by the law, you're falling from grace. You're falling from grace. You
that desire to be under the law, do you hear the law? Galatians 3.21. Paul asked this
question, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given,
which could have given life, barely righteousness should have
been by the law. There's nothing ungodly in the
law. Are you listening? But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Now, he's
not saying here that the law is sinful, but he's saying every
man who's under that law is. And that's why it's a curse.
That's why it's a curse. Paul said, the law is spiritual,
but I'm carnal, sold unto sin. The law requires what we can
never do. Therefore, it is a curse upon
fallen men. It justly and righteously condemns
all men, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. In Romans 3, verse 19, he says
this about the law. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped. Every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before God. What the law does,
when we talk about preaching the law, what the law does is
condemn. It condemns. It can only reward
perfection. It can only justify the innocent. It can only bring peace to those
who perfectly obey it. Now, there's four things which
the law can never do. The law can never do these four
things. The law can never save sinners. It's an absolute impossibility. You're going down the wrong road.
The law can never save sinners. Listen to this scripture. By
the deeds of the law, that is our obedience to the law. Somebody
stands up and teaches us the law. Thou shalt not, thou shalt
not, thou shalt. Go on and on through all precepts.
He teaches us the law. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh, none, be justified in God's sight. For by the law,
is the knowledge of sin. All the law can tell you is that
you're a sinner. You failed. You come short. Listen to what men say who hear
the law preached when they go home. I don't pray enough. I don't give enough. I don't
serve enough. And you never will. And you never
can. The law can never be used Here's
the second thing. It can never save sinners. No flesh is going to be justified
in its sight by the deeds of the law. Secondly, the law can
never be used to motivate the people of God to holiness or
service in the kingdom of God. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and
2. He said, I beseech you by the
law. That's not what that says. He
said, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
word, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. And then thirdly, the law was
never given as a rule or standard of life for the believer. In
Colossians 2, verse 6, he said, as you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up
in Him, and established in the faith as you have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving, and beware Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, that is, after the traditional religious understanding of men,
after the rudiments or basic principles and concepts of men,
and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. And then
fourthly, the law was never given for, nor can it ever be used
to produce a sanctifying work in the believer. Christ is our
sanctification in every sense of the word. Now listen to this
here in Galatians chapter 3 verse 1. Paul is dealing with these
people. They were saying the same thing
that this young man is saying. They were trying to defend the
same thing that this young man's trying to defend. He's saying,
well, the law, if it don't save a man, it certainly has a place
in his sanctification. It certainly has a place after
his salvation. No. No, it don't. And he says
here in Galatians 3 verse 1, O foolish Galatians, Who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I know of you,
received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? It's not the law which sanctifies,
but the preaching of Christ crucified, applied to the hearts and minds
by the Spirit of the living God to chosen sinners. That's how
it comes. The law was given to point men
to Christ. It was given to take away his
excuses. and to leave him guilty before
God. It was given to expose his sins
and show him his need of a substitute. But the law was never made for
a righteous man. Isn't that what Paul wrote Timothy?
He said, you remember this, the law wasn't made for a righteous
man. A righteous man is righteous. What use does he have of the
law? He's righteous. But the law, he said, was given
for the ungodly, for the disobedient, for the lawless, and for sinners.
And I'm going to tell you something. That which forever damned Israel
was their ignorance of their need of Christ. Now here's my text, Romans chapter
10. Let's read these first four verses. Here was a man who at one time
believed that the law could save a sinner. His confidence was
in himself that he could actually obey this law. And it was through
his ignorance of the law that he gained this confidence that
I read to you about over in Philippians. And now he says this, this old
converted Pharisee, listen to him talk. He said, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel. Well, I thought
Israel was God's elect. Well, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Saved from what? Well, my soul, in the definition
of any mainstream religious organization today, they'd be considered saved. They do consider them saved.
Listen to them talk about natural Israel over there. They'd be
saved in the eyes of every religious church in this land today. They believed in God. They looked
for the coming Redeemer. They went to church on a regular
basis. They tithed of all they had.
They fasted and prayed. They read the Scriptures. They
weren't murderers, adulterers, or extortioners. They lived clean
lives. They sent missionaries out. Saved
from what? Listen to it in verse 2. For
I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. For they being ignorant, of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Are you listening? For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Isn't that what
that says? And this is one of those broad
and inclusive statements that takes in every sense of the word.
You take this word and run with it as far as you can go. He is
the fulfillment of the law. That's what that young man said. Even Christ said he wasn't come
to destroy the law but fulfill it. He did fulfill it. That's
why I don't have to. He did fulfill it. He did honor
it. He is the fulfillment of the
law. He is the conclusion of the law. He is the goal of the
law. And he is the reason for the
law. The law was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. There is no righteousness of
any kind, be it justifying or sanctifying, to be had by our
obedience to the law. The life and death of Jesus Christ,
His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, His life
under temptation and trial, His life in the face of His enemies,
His life and death has exalted the law and made it honorable. And He alone manifested the glory
of God's justice and holiness and goodness and mercy and grace
and love by accomplishing for us what we could never do for ourselves,
He exalted the law and made it honorable. He accomplished our
justification. He accomplished our redemption. And in doing so, He become the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. When
I look at that law and that law condemns, I've been justified
in Him. He satisfied the law. When I
look on how to live, I don't understand the law. Do you? My
soul. People talking about following
the law, they don't understand the law. Believers are dead to the law,
Paul said. The law judges in our substitute,
condemned us and justly put us to death. It's done all it can
do to us. Once a felon is put to death,
the law is satisfied. You don't go out there to the
grave and read him the law anymore. He is dead. The law is through
with him. It is done with him. He is no
longer under the law. There is no such thing as a law
for dead men. In Christ, the believer is completely
free from the law. Well, don't that leave him lawless?
Absolutely not. He is not under the law. He is
under grace. God didn't just turn him loose.
He didn't deliver him from the law to go sin some more. He delivered
him from the law and put him unto grace. He ruled by new principles. He's not ruled by legal principles. He ruled by grace. He doesn't
serve God by legal principles, but rather out of the principles
of grace. He's constrained by love. Paul
said, the love of God constraineth us over in 2 Corinthians 5. Our
motives are born of gratitude and appreciation for all that
is done for us. And men who look to the law for
guidance are ignorant of Christ. And they're looking only at the
law. And they don't understand what
it means when it demands things. Take love, for instance. What's
man's interpretation of love? Is it not just a passion, a feeling? One day he wakes up and he said,
I love the Lord. Next day he don't feel anything.
Well, has he lost the love of God? Love is more than just a
passion. It's more than just a feeling.
We don't understand that law. When it said to love God with
all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, he's not just talking
about a passion. He's not talking about you maintaining
some kind of a passion. Listen to the Scriptures. God
manifested His love for us. He commended His love for us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the
love of God. And you can't learn love in a
dictionary or in a law book. You learn it in the person of
Jesus Christ. You see that love manifested
in His life and death on the cross. You learn love by seeing
love manifest. And it's the same with giving
and kindness and just generosity and honor. We learn these things
as they're revealed to us in Christ Jesus. We look at these
things in the law, we don't even know what it means. Don't even
know what they mean. And believers live in the Spirit.
What in the world does that mean? Does that mean we're just floating
around on a cloud in our mind all day? What's he talking about
here? They live in the Spirit. Well, the Spirit of Christ abides
in them, showing to them the goodness and necessity of Christ's
rule. Showing to us, comforting us
by giving us a knowledge of how we've been justified, of how
we're kept, kept by the power of God unto salvation. Showing
to us the unchanging love of God in Christ Jesus and revealing
to us sound principles by which to live and work and worship
God. Believers have no covenant with the law. We live under the
covenant of grace. As sin reigned unto death, even
so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. I beg you to look at those who
insist on putting their hearers under the law. Their hearers
had no peace. They had no peace. They had no
assurance. They had no rest. They had no
fellowship but only degrees of standing. You're way up here
or you're way down there. Didn't our Lord say to those
Pharisees, these were men who should have been at the top of
their game. They should have been at the top of their spiritual
understanding. And He said to them, you choose
the chief seats of the synagogue. Well, they should have been sitting
in the back, shouldn't they? And they would have been if the
principles of grace had been reigning in their hearts. But
when the principle of law gets into your heart, then there's
high seats and low seats and middle seats. They have no fellowship, only
degrees in their standing. And they're judgmental. They're
demanding. And they're intolerant. Grace
is the basis of our fellowship in Christ Jesus. And I warn you,
Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law. You're falling from grace. You
don't know anything about grace. It's not by accident that the
law was given on a mountain that smoked and burnt and lightning
and darkness filled the air. And if so much as a beast touched
that mountain, it would be thrust through with a dart. Israel said,
you go up and talk to God. And that's what that law preaching
does to men. They look to this man who says
he keeps it. They look to him and they tell
him to go up on the mountain. It is not by accident that that
law was given on that mountain. The law condemns us and demands
our execution and appoints for us a place among the damned.
Every man whose name was not written in the Lamb's Book of
Life was judged. You can read it for yourself
over in the book of Revelation. Every man whose name was not
found written in God's book, in the Lamb's book of life, was
judged according to their works and cast into the lake of fire
with the beast and the false prophet and the demons from hell. Every last one of them. Would you stand before God on
the basis of your law keeping? The laws appointed you a place
with the dam. Another one of the accusations
this young man made about me is that I ignored the fact that
both Christ and His Apostles preached the law to their convert.
You can't ignore what ain't there. He didn't preach the law to his
convert. He preached Christ to his convert. Even Christ preached
Christ to his convert. Paul preached Christ to his hearers,
not moral reform. The lives they lived were They
were exhorted to live out of a gratitude and love for the
Savior. You remember that scripture I
quoted to you a while ago when Peter, so ashamed of himself,
having fled and quit the ministry and denied Christ and everything,
went back to fishing. And he was out there on that
boat and took some of the other disciples with him. And there
he was sitting out there on the boat and he looked over there
and there was a campfire. And he saw who it was. It was the
Lord. He jumped out of that boat, swam up there on the bank, and
that's when the Lord confronted old Peter. And he said, Peter,
do you love me? Boy, I tell you, he didn't say
anything on the first account except, Lord, you know all things.
Oh, I tell you, he looked back. I done quit the ministry. I done
denied the Christ. I've done this. I've done that.
I've done this. I don't know if I love you or
not. That wasn't how he was talking before, was it? You know what the Lord told him
to do? Feed my sheep. What was his motive? Do you love me? Do you love me? Support my preachers. Do you love me? That's the only
reason. That's the only reason. Do you
love me? See to it that the gospel is promoted throughout the world.
What's my motive? Because the law tells me to,
because I'm commanded to. Do you love me? You see what
I'm saying? This is how to motivate God's
people. It's not through law. Not through law. And you don't
tell men to go do something and then just leave it to themselves
to try to figure out what it is you're talking about. You
talk to them about love, tell them what this love is. You talk
to them about gratitude, tell them gratitude for what? Oh, their lives, they were exhorted
to live out of gratitude. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say put on the books
of Moses. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh. Beloved, these men didn't
preach law. God delivered them out of that
legal bondage into the liberty of Christ and they preached Christ.
Stand fast, Paul said in Galatians 5.1, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with that
yoke of bondage. Let me close with one more accusation
he made about the message that he listened to. He said he tells
us to come to Christ, but he never tells us why. Oh, I beg
your pardon. I just didn't give him the reason
he was looking for. I tell men to come to Christ
because He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes in Him. I tell men to come to Christ
because He's the only way to come to the Father. I tell men
to come to Christ because in Him is life and rest and peace and joy and
hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And I tell men to come to Christ
because He's the propitiation for our sins, that which alone
enables God to be just and justifier. And I tell men to come to Christ
because He's our sanctification. God hath made Him to be unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And yet, having
said all these things, Man is drawn to the law like a moth
to the flame. He still runs back to the law. May God be pleased to show us
the difference between works and grace, between law and Christ,
between merit and mercy. In one of the decisive battles
for the independence of Texas, Sam Houston led a battle to defeat
Santa Ana in what historians call the Battle of San Jacinto. And after Texas become a republic
with old Sam Houston as its president, he passed a law. And this law
provided free land to any soldier who fought with him in that battle. And sometime later, some years
went by, a man by the name of Knobby Horsley was accused of
defrauding one of the local farmers, cheating him out of his land.
And the landowner took him to court. He took old Nobby to court,
and on the day of his trial, they were shocked to see the
great Sam Houston come in. And he stood next to this notorious
thief, old Nobby Horsham. And to make things even more
confusing, nine out of the ten jurors that he sat under were
all farmers who had been defrauded by men like old Nobby. So when
the trial began, old Judge Finzi, he asked Colonel Sam, he said,
do you have any witnesses to call? And old Sam said, just
one, your honor. And he called old Nobby. And
he come up and sat down. And then limping to the witness
box, being wounded in that battle, old Sam Houston limped over to
the witness box. And the whole jury all of a sudden
just got silent. They got silent. The whole courtroom
sat there waiting to hear what the great Sam Houston was going
to say. And he said, Nobby, he said,
Where were you on the afternoon of April 21st, 1836? And old
Nobby said, why, I was with you, Colonel Sam, at the Battle of
San Jacinto. Your Honor, Sam said, the defense
rests. The defense rests. And old Judge
Fenzie said, case dismissed. He was with him. He was with
Him. And everything which God has
promised to chosen sinners is there by virtue of their union
with Christ. We were with Him as He lived
under that law. We were in Him in His death and
in His resurrection and were seated with Him, accepted of
God at His right hand even now. Righteousness is not by the law. Righteousness is in Christ. And
in Christ, all His people are righteous. You can't see that
in the mirror, but you can see it in Him. And that's where we
look. We look to Him.