Now, when Paul says in Romans
chapter six, verse fourteen. You are not under law, but under
grace. He certainly implies that there
are only two conditions under which a man can be. He's under
law or he's under grace. Here there is not a third option. Nor is there such a thing as
being both under law and under grace. There are only two options,
law or grace. And you can only occupy one of
them at any given time. So right now, we've got what
here, 35, 40 people, maybe, I don't know. Not too good at estimating
crowds, if you would even call this a crowd. However many of
us there are here, everybody here is in one of those two conditions. You are under law or you are
under grace, one or the other. Now Paul, in
Romans chapter 3, verses 19 and 20, teaches us about the terrible
and powerful ministry that the law has over those who are under
it. Now the testimony of the law,
notice this, and this is actually what attracted me to this particular
scripture, the testimony of the law, its message, its ministry,
is only for those who are under it. Not everyone is under it. Now
that probably comes as a shock to a lot of religious people.
And the reason is, is that law is so natural to our way of thinking. We realize that our race came
into condemnation because our representative, Adam, broke a
law. And therefore, it is quite natural
for us to think that the way to remedy the breaking of that
law is for each of us not to break the law. And this natural
way of thinking is even given some credence, even given some
authority, by the fact that God did give a law. And He made it very clear to
those to whom He gave it, they were supposed to keep it, and
if they kept it, they would obtain life by it. So I've even got
some authority of Scripture for this being under law. And it would seem, so long as
we leave our thoughts to our natural way of thinking, it would
seem that there is no way to ever come in a position where
we are not under that law. Now, the law, and if you look
over at Romans chapter 7, the law has jurisdiction over a man
as long as he is alive. Romans chapter 7, verse 1, Do
you not know, brothers? For I am speaking to men who
know the law, that the law has authority over a man only as
long as he lives. Now, that means that this morning,
if you are alive, you're under the law. That's what it says. And if you're under the law,
You're not under grace. Now that may sound, particularly
those who have listened to me preach for a long time, that
may sound like I'm going back on what I've said before, but
you hold tight. You'll see how this all works
out. There's a beauty in the gospel. The law has authority,
dominion, jurisdiction over a man as long as he lives. So if today
you are alive, you are under the law, and if you're under
the law, you're not under grace. To be under the law is to have
one's blessings from God determined by his success at obeying the
law. Now, being under the law may
mean other things, but it certainly means this. It means that whatever
blessings you get from God are going to be determined by whether
or not you have obeyed the law. It says over here in Romans chapter
10, verse 5, Moses describes in this
way the righteousness that is by the law. The man who does
these things will live by them. Now, what does he mean by that?
He says there wasn't anything about blessing in there. Well, blessings are
only for the righteous. God blesses the righteous. Therefore,
when Moses says that the righteousness of the law is described this
way, the one who does these things will live by them, what he's
saying then is the only way to obtain God's blessings by the
law is to be righteous by the law, which means that you did
the law. And the converse, or the opposite
of that maybe is the right word to use, is this. Cursed is everyone
who does not continue to do every point of the law. So any blessings
that might come to us through the law must come to us by continually,
at all times, doing the law. Recognizing that the law is righteous,
holy, and good will not get you the blessings that come by the
law. Doing your dead-level best to
keep the law will not get you the blessings that come by obedience
to the law. Actually, perfectly, continually
keeping the law is the only way you can get blessings by the
law. Therefore, he who is under the law, the only way he can
ever get blessings from the law or through the law is if he obeys
it always continually. And then let me make this point.
There is nothing that a man can do to change whether he be under
law or under grace. It would sure be nice, imagine
even just with the law of men, and they bring you into court
having accused you of something, and you could make this claim. I'm free from any judgments that
this court may give me. And they say, why? Because I
am not under the jurisdiction of the law that this court represents. That would be pretty handy if
you were a criminal now, wouldn't it? Because if you could prove
it, if you could just simply say, I've decided I'm no longer
under that law, then you could get away with
anything. Now, The law has a threefold ministry,
and this threefold ministry will be accomplished in every man
or woman that is born into this world. In some way, by some means,
this ministry of the law will be accomplished. Now, Paul starts
with the fruit and works his way down to the root, because
these three things, you know, you've got, shall we say, foundation
and middle part, roof, or root, trunk and fruit. But we're going
to start with the root. Here's the first thing that the
law does in its terrible and powerful ministry among everyone
over whom it has the jurisdiction. First of all, and we find this
in verse 20, therefore, no one will be declared righteous in
God's sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law,
we become conscious of sin. Now, there is more here than
merely us being made aware of what sin is. When it talks about
us being conscious of sin, It's not saying that the law simply
makes us aware there's a such thing as sin, or even the law
merely sets up the standard by which way we may determine what
is sin and what is not. He is talking about that the
law has the power to make us aware that we are sinners in
the sight of God. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,
it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the descriptions it
gives of Him is that He knew no sin. Now, certainly, our Lord
knew that there was such a thing as sin. And certainly, the Lord
Jesus Christ knew what was sin and what was not. He knew it
a lot better than any of us here. Nonetheless, it was said of him,
he knew no sin. And the reason he knew no sin
is because he never did any sin. Therefore, the law's ministry
in him could never make him conscious of sin within himself. It just
wasn't there. But the law awakens us to the
reality that despite all of our efforts and, you know, Despite all our attempts at being
good, we're not. And despite all our attempts
at doing righteousness, we don't. That's what the law teaches us.
It makes us conscious of sin. This illustration may help. Imagine you're a little child. And you've been told, see that
jar is full of cookies, leave them alone. Now, your parents walk out of
the room and there you stand, there's you, there's a cookie
jar. You know there's such a thing as sin and you know what it is. It would be to take one of those
cookies. But you don't know sin until
you reach in there to take a cookie and mom or dad walks back in
and catches you. Because they are the law. The
law was not simply the rule. The law was them. And they walk
in and they see you with your hand in the cookie jar. And everybody
here knows what that is. Maybe as a child, you didn't
do it with a cookie jar, but every one of us remembers what
it was like to be caught doing the very thing that we were told
not to do. All up until the time you were
caught, you knew it was wrong, but you didn't know sin. You didn't know that sin. You
knew it when you were caught in it, and your guilt was pressed
against your conscience. you are made conscious of sin.
And that's what the law does. God put that law in the conscience
of man, and even if what he does is never known by other men,
yet within his conscience is the awareness and the accusation
of sin. And not just sin against the
commandment of men, it's sin against the commandments of God.
Secondly, now the root ministry, shall we say, of the law is to
make us conscious of our sin. Then secondly, it's this, and
we find this at the end of verse 19, the whole world held accountable
to God. Now, the whole world covers a
lot of people. covers everybody in it in this
case. And this world word held accountable, the King James translates,
it's guilty. Strictly speaking, it means under
a sentence. Under a verdict of guilt with
the. Associated sentence. So a man. is made conscious of sin. He's
made to know sin because he's declared guilty by the law. Secondly,
and imagine a man now standing before the bar of justice and
the jury has found him guilty. Now he's made conscious of his
crime. He is the guilty one. And then the judge says, you
have been found guilty of capital murder and you are hereby sentenced
to death. And he becomes a man under sentence. And that which was already an
unbearable burden, the knowledge of sin and guilt, becomes even
more unbearable when we come to a knowledge and understanding
that this sin puts us under a sentence of death. And then the fruit of all this
ministry of the law is this, that every mouth may be silenced. Here's how you know that the
law has done its work in the heart of a man. He gets real
quiet. You know, when a man is brought
to trial, he may loudly proclaim his innocence. He may stand right
in the court. And they say, how do you plead
guilty or not guilty? And they say, not guilty. They
stand there with their shoulders squared and their head up and
they're proud. Not guilty. And throughout the
trial, they may continue to declare their innocence, both by their own testimony and
by bringing in other people that will testify of their innocence. And you know something? Folks
do that in the face of God. Oh, they'll say, I know I've
done some wrong things, but they'll still think that somehow or another,
by what they've done, they can declare themselves good enough
and not worthy of judgment from God, not worthy of punishment
from God. And they'll declare it themselves.
They'll try to manipulate their own history so as to make it
look like they've truly been righteous people. They will talk,
ask them, Mom, was I a good boy? Yes, you were a good boy. See,
God, I was a good boy. Preacher, do I come to church
faithfully? Yes, you come to church faithfully. See, God,
I'm a good churchgoing person. He may bring in his Sunday school
teacher who will testify that he memorized more verses than
anybody else in his Sunday school class. He may bring forth the testimony
of his faithful attendants, buttons and ribbons and stuff like that.
Oh, men will bring all kinds of things. They'll be really
loud until the law says you are guilty and condemned to death. And have you ever noticed how
quiet men get once the judge pronounces an irreversible sentence? Of course, in our society, and
I suppose it's a good thing, a judge may pronounce a sentence,
but then the guy will go on babbling because he feels he can appeal,
and he'll appeal, and he'll appeal, and he'll appeal. And finally,
that day will come for his execution date, and they will make one
last-ditch effort to the Supreme Court of the United States. But
once the Supreme Court says, no, he is guilty, carry out the
sentence. quiet. They have nothing to say because
there isn't anything to say. The issue is settled. When the law has had its work,
men get quiet. The sad thing is some men are
never going to get quiet until they stand before God. And the day of grace is gone. The door of salvation has been
shut. The last appeal has been made
and it has been rejected. And there is nowhere to go. And men are going to get real
quiet. But even their silence won't help them. You know, over the years that
we've been together, I've done a lot of preaching about how
the believer is not under the law, he's under grace. But I
hope that in all of that preaching, you have never been or never
gotten the opinion That the law is somehow weak. That the law has somehow been
utterly set aside. Brethren, it's still there. It
is still in force. And many in that day will find
that they are under the law. They are conscious of their sin.
They are under the curse of God. And there's nothing left to say. However. I said every man living
is under the law. Yet Paul said to some people
like you and me. You are not under the law. You
are under grace. Now, if you're under law and
if you come into the presence of God under law, there's no
hope for you. And everything will end with
you being real quiet because there's nothing left to say.
But there are some who by the grace of God have had this ministry
of the law worked in them to the full extent, and they have
been made conscious of their sin, they have been made aware
of the punishment which rests upon them because of their sin,
and God has shut their mouths. Brother Ed Hale, some of you,
you never met him, but you remember him, remember him primarily,
Brother Herm Rosenboom used to sing so many of his songs, and
there was one of his songs, I can't remember anything else about
it, I just remember one of them was, one of the lines was, Shut
my mouth, became guilty. Have you? Here's how I know that God, or
here, I shouldn't put it that way, here's how we can sometimes
detect that God has been gracious in his application of the work
of the law, somebody gets real quiet and
quits arguing with God about his sin, about his guilt, and
about what he rightly deserves at the hand of God. He quits
boasting of his own righteousness. He won't even boast of the fact
that he doesn't boast of his own righteousness. He just shuts
up. We may not like that phrase,
shut up. When I was a child, that was considered something
you just don't say. It's mean, it's harsh. You don't tell someone
to shut up. And that's that's probably a
good thing. That's that's kind of a rough way to talk to people,
man to man. But God has every right and every
authority to tell every man, woman, and child, you just shut
up. Be quiet. You have nothing to
say. And oh, how wonderful it is for
that man or woman who has been brought to that point in this
life. Because God, if He's really been
brought to that point, then God is working in him and is about
to transfer him, translate him from the jurisdiction of the
law to the jurisdiction of grace. You said, wait a minute, the
law has power over a man as long as he lives. Well, look over
here then at Galatians chapter 2 verse 9. Excuse me, verse 19, Galatians
chapter 2, verse 19. And remember this, as long as
a man lives, he's under the law. Listen to what Paul says. For
through the law, I died to the law. So that I might live to
God. I have been crucified with Christ,
and I no longer live. Remember what I said? Not what
I said, what the Scriptures say. The law has authority over man
only so long as he lives. Paul says, I'm crucified with
Christ, and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. What does he mean by this? Through
the ministry of the law, through the work of the law, as it was
carried out against the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone who is
in Christ is made dead to the law. Let me demonstrate that.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ, that God sent His Son, and this
is in Galatians 4, God sent His Son to the world, born of a woman,
born under the law. Now, all through our Lord's life,
the law would testify concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is
a man without sin. Here is a man without condemnation. Here is a man worthy of the blessings
of God. But according to a covenant,
an agreement made between Jesus Christ, the Son of God, And God
the Father, there came a time when God took all the sins of
all of His chosen people and charged them to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the law began its awful ministry,
its terrible and powerful ministry, not to justify Christ, not to
declare Him innocent, but to make Him no sin. He who knew
no sin, and I think it's legitimate to put it this way, he who knew
no sin was made to know sin. Oh, he did not have sinful passions
arise in him. He didn't do anything that was
wrong. In fact, never did a heart beat
with more love for God than did that of the Lord Jesus Christ
as He submitted to God completely. Never was a man more righteous
in his character and in his actions than was the Lord Jesus Christ
when He poured out His soul unto death. Nonetheless, in the sight
of God, in the sight of the law, our sins were made to be His
sins. And maybe we could put it this way. He was caught with
our hand in the jar. That's the closest way I know
how to put it. He was caught. with our hand in the jar. And
he was made to know our sin. And he became guilty. He became
accountable. He came under sentence by the
law. And is it not interesting how
quiet our Lord became? In the show trials that were
made for him, they were put there for our sake. But when they accused
him. It says he did not give an answer. Why? Having been made guilty
with our sin, there was no answer. And in that state, our Lord Jesus
Christ died. And if we were in him when that
happened, we died too. And the law has authority and
dominion over a man only as long as he lives. Now, when Jesus Christ died,
And by this, it doesn't merely mean that his body was put to
death. It means all, gathers together all that that curse
of death means, whatever it is, that the unbelieving world will
suffer for eternity. Jesus Christ suffered that on
the cross. Death was poured out on Him.
And He was poured out unto death. And once death was accomplished, he was no longer under the law. For the law has authority over
a man only as long as he lives. Remember how on the Mount of
Transfiguration that it says Moses and Elijah talked with
the Lord Jesus about the death that he should accomplish? All men die in the sense that
all men will someday lay aside this body. And everyone who dies
in his sins will go to a place of torment forever. A place of what the Bible calls
eternal death. Why is it an everlasting death? Because they can never accomplish
death. It's as though they work at it
for eternity, but they never get it done. They are never able
to experience within their own torments and with their own accursedness. They're never able to absorb
the fullness of what death means. That's why it just keeps on going.
Why was there an end to the sufferings of Christ? Because He and He
alone accomplished death. The Bible refers to eternal judgment
as the second death, but it's the second death that never ends.
And therefore, there is a sense in which those who die that second
death continue to live and therefore they continue to be under the
jurisdiction of the law, which forever will carry out its horrible,
horrible ministry. But those who died in Christ,
their life is hid with God in Christ. Yes, they live, but they
live a different kind of life. They live a life that wasn't
given to them under the jurisdiction of the law. They live a life
that didn't come to them from their first father, Adam, who
broke the law and made them to be both in nature practice, to
be lawbreakers themselves. They have another life that is
free from the law, it is the life of grace. We are under grace and this grace
of God has a wonderful ministry among all those who come under
its jurisdiction. It's the exact opposite ministry
as the ministry of the law. We said that the law makes a
man conscious of sin. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
9. What does the gospel do? And when it speaks of grace,
it's speaking of the gospel. It's speaking of the good news
concerning Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done. That work of him perfectly obeying
the law and of him accomplishing death, That's the good news. And that good news, when it is
pressed upon our hearts, has an opposite effect from that
of the law, whereas the law makes us conscious of our sin. In Hebrews
chapter 9, verse 9, it says, This, meaning the old covenant,
is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts
and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience
of the worshipper. In other words, the ceremonies
of the law, they never did clear any man's
conscience before God. In fact, as he stood there, if
he understood what was being said by those sacrifices, they were an annual reminder
to him that he is a sinner under the judgment of God. But it says
that if Those sacrifices, these next verses, if those sacrifices
could make a man ceremonially clean, now not actually clean, but ceremonially,
he could go, he could live among the Jews and he, you know, that
kind of thing. Verse 14, How much more then will the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished
to God, Cleanse our consciences from acts of death so that we
may serve the living God. These acts of death can mean
two things. It can mean the sins we do that
bring about death, or it can mean those dead works that we
do trying to obtain God's favor when dead men Men who are spiritually
dead and under the law, when they try to do works that'll
get them the blessings of God, they're nothing but dead works.
And the blood of Jesus Christ purges our conscience from that
sense of need to do anything to obtain the blessings of God.
Our conscience before God is clear. Why? Because everything that needs
to be done has already been done. And that which is done need not
be done again. So the gospel comes to us. Now
it doesn't free us from a knowledge that we have sinned. It doesn't
free us from the sense of shame that we should have among one
another for the kind of people that we are. But it does free
us of any sense of guilt before God, a sense of any obligation
that we must do more in order to obtain His favor. It's already
all been done, as the hymn says, long, long ago. Secondly, the gospel comes to us, we who
are under grace, we who died under the law in Christ, were
therefore delivered from the jurisdiction of the law and now
are under the jurisdiction of grace. And the gospel comes to
us and teaches us that we have been rendered without punishment
in the sight of God. Now imagine how this must feel
to a criminal if he knows full well that he did the things of
which he has been accused. However, the verdict has come
back not guilty. Understand this, once they say
not guilty, it doesn't matter. what actually happened in history. So far as the law is concerned,
it didn't happen. And therefore, when such a one
stands before the judge, the judge says, you've been found
not guilty. There will be no punishment for
you. You are free to go. You who believe Christ, Do you
realize this? There is no sin on you. There may be sin in you, but
there's no sin on you. And there is no punishment awaiting
you. None. It says in Romans chapter
eight, verse one, listen to this and see if God will give you
grace. to lay hold of it. Therefore, there is now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus,
the law of the spirit of life. That's the gospel, by the way,
has set me free from the law of sin and death. That's the
law. Isn't it beautiful how God worked
all this out? He saves us in a way that does
no violence to His law. In fact, He can use His law to
bring us to a point that we see our need of His grace. And by
the work of His Son, He translates us or transports us from the
dominion of the law to the dominion of grace. And it's all done in
such a way that even the law will give its amen to what has
been done. And then thirdly, look over here
at Psalm 51. The law makes us conscious of
sin. The gospel makes us free of guilt
in the sight of God. The law brings us under judgment
and a sentence of death. The gospel delivers us from judgment
and brings us everlasting life. And in Psalm 51, the law shuts the mouth. But grace, verse 15, Psalm 51,
O Lord, open my lips. and my mouth will declare your
praise." Under judgment, men get real
quiet. Under law, men are forced into
silence. Under grace, men are compelled
to praise. That's why our Lord could say
if a man will disown me before me and I'll disown him before
the Father. Why is that? Because the only way a man would
disown Christ is if he were, if he had not
had a work of grace done in his heart. If God does something for somebody,
if God takes a man out from under the jurisdiction of the law and
puts him under the jurisdiction of grace, That man's mouth, he's
going to be willing to confess Christ. He's not only going to
be willing, he's going to be insistent on confessing Christ. He will feel within himself the
necessity of declaring his praises. Because grace opens the mouth
that the law shuts. It doesn't open it until the
law shuts it. And when it opens it, when it
opens man's mouth, the man will say different things than he
said before the law shut it. But it will be open and it will
be full of praise. Now, has God ever shut your mouth?
If he has, did he ever open it again? Some of you may have felt
at least some of the effect of the ministry of the law, and
you've been taught, at least with your mouth, not to boast
in your own righteousness, though probably in your hearts you still
do. But if the law certainly has
taught you, if it has taught you to shut your mouth about
your own righteousness, then why not lay hold of His
grace in Christ Jesus And have your mouth opened in
praise to God because of his righteousness. All right, Eric,
if you close our service.