You're in the book of Galatians.
You and I have come here to the 24th verse. And I want
to begin reading there in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, our teacher,
our tutor, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith, But after that faith is come, we are no longer under
a schoolmaster. For we are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." I
don't know how many times I have gone through this book, probably
three or four times with you. And I've tried, as we've studied
through it again together, to refrain from going back over
my notes. from previous studies, and I
think I've been pretty successful in doing that. And the reason
I don't want to go back and look at my notes is because I need
to be refreshed myself. I need the Gospel set before my eyes in God's Word. I need to study it. I need to
relearn it, just like you do. And I remind you what Martin
Luther, the great theologian, said concerning his congregation,
they asked him one day, they said, Brother Luther, why do
you Sunday after Sunday feel a need of preaching the simple
gospel to us? Every Sunday, they said, you
preach Christ to us. And he said, I do that because
every Sunday you forgot the gospel. Don't you find yourself doing
that? And that's one of the reasons that I enjoy this book of Galatians,
because it deals with the simplicity of the gospel. It deals mainly
with justification. If you and I are sinners and
God is holy, how can He possibly save us? How can He possibly
justify us? And that's what this book is
about. Now, we looked last week there. In verse 19, at the question
that had arisen, that wherefore then serveth the law? Why did
God give the law? And Paul gave different answers
to that question. One, of course, he said there,
it was given because of transgressions. It was given to restrain sin. The law deters sin. If this world was a righteous
world, if this world was filled with the love of God in its heart,
you could throw away most of our laws. A righteous man, a believer,
he can be ruled by faith, he can be ruled by hope, he can
be ruled by love. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. But you and I don't live in a
saved world. We live in a world full of fallen sinners. And therefore,
sinners must be ruled by law. Sinners must be guided, sinners
must be threatened, and sinners must be punished, because we're
sinners. We're sinners. So why was the
law given? He says, first of all, because
of transgressions. That is to deter it. It's a deterrent
against sin. And then we saw this, and I want
to remind you of these things. The law was given to magnify
our sins. To magnify our sins. He wasn't
given to deliver us from sin, but to magnify our sin. The Apostle
Paul said this in chapter 7 of Romans in verse 13. He said,
The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and it's just, and it's
good. Was that then which is good made
death to me? Is the law death? God forbid! The law is not death. The law
is good. The law is just and it's holy.
But he said sin, sin, that it might appear death, working death
in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might
appear as it is. Now is it exceeding sin. Exceeding sin. Why did God give
the law that sin might appear before our eyes and in our hearts
as it really is, exceeding sin? And then here in our text this
evening, the Apostle Paul reaches this conclusion out of what we
looked at last week. He says concerning the right
use of the law, Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. The law is not a savior. The
law is not a sanctifier. The law is not a keeper of the
righteous. The law is at first and foremost
our teacher. It proves our guilt. By the law
is the knowledge of sin, and it magnifies our sin in our own
sight, and sending us to someone else to be saved. Someone outside
of ourselves. Not our own righteousness, but
to be saved by the righteousness of another. The law is our schoolmaster. It teaches us. It doesn't deliver
us. It teaches us. that we need deliverance. And we must find that deliverance
in somebody outside ourselves. And that's Jesus Christ our Lord. And you and I as believers, as
children of God, we feel this law working in us almost daily. Experimentally, we feel the working
of this law in us. The knowledge of sin, even in
our best duties, is to teach us that the way of salvation
is not in our religious duties. It's not in our attitude, though
it be a good attitude. It's not in our conduct, though
our conduct be holy. It's not in our frames of mind
or our attitude or how much we love. The law is almost constantly
proving, even to the child of God, that in your best state,
you're altogether banished. You feel that, don't you? And
that's the right use of the law, reminding us that in our best
duties is mixed with sin. And when it does this, you and
I are often cast down within our souls. But the law is simply
teaching us and humbling us that we must always be saved by another's
obedience outside of our own. That's a good use of the law
when it does that. Someone who has no sin, but someone
who was made sin for us. And here in verse 24, I want
you to note this. When the law has done all that
it can do, it adds nothing to the work of Christ and His grace. All the law can do is simply
prove and magnify our guilt and send us to Jesus Christ. And when it's done that, that's
all it can do. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us into Christ. that we might be justified by
another means, that is faith, by believing in Christ. And when
we've apprehended the Lord Jesus by faith, the law can do no more. It's fulfilled its task. Its
task was to prove our guilt. It proved it. Now we look to
Christ and the law has done its course. It's run its course.
It's done its duty. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Now, if we begin to feel our
guilt, we begin to feel condemned in our conscience, and we say
this, I've got to mend my ways. I've
got to get my act together. I've got to clean myself up.
I've got to start reading. I've got to start praying. I've
got to start fasting. I've got to separate myself from
my sins. Such thinking shows that we don't
understand the law. We don't understand the nature
of sin And sin has deceived us. If you
talk to someone and they begin to feel their guilt, the first
thing they want to do is to straighten their life up. That's the most
natural thing a natural man can do. I've got to start doing better. Thank God he uses such things. When you and I begin to see our
sins and we begin to feel our guilt, this is not the time or
the place to make promises of restitution and reformation. But this is the very time to
own that guilt and to come to Christ by faith. This ain't the time to straighten
ourselves up and get our acts together and work this guilt
off by some religious duties that we could do. But this is
the time to say, I'm a guilty sinner and come to the Lord Jesus
by faith. And even say this to Him, though
I see my sin and feel my guilt in my conscience, And according
to God's law and His commandment, I deserve to be cast out and
cursed forever. But I come to God by another
way. I come to God by a new way and
living way. That is, I come through the obedience
of someone else. And that is the grace and the
love and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. and say this, though
I'm a sinner in myself and find sin in everything I do, yet for
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will justify me and forgive
me of all manner of sin and blasphemy and will be a merciful and tender
Father to me." Now, ain't that sweet news? That's the gospel
of free grace. and the free love of Christ for
the most unworthy, law-condemned sinners that don't talk about
reformation, but talks about regeneration and justification
by the grace of God. We don't have a gospel of morality.
We don't preach a gospel of morality. But we preach a grace that when
it enters the heart, it regenerates, and teach people that deny ungodliness
and well-nourished. Now some have thought when they
hear us say such things, that such language would only give
people a license to sin. Since Christ has come to save
us, and He saves us apart from our own obedience and righteousness,
And He saves us for His marriage's sake. Therefore, they say, let
us sin more and more that grace may abound. For the more we sin,
the more grace He gives us. We have had people to tell us
that. We've had people to accuse us of that. That's the nature
of grace. If we're never accused of that,
we're probably not preaching free grace. And there are others
that hear us talk about such free grace. They do continue
in sin, and they use this grace to sin with. We've seen that
too, haven't we? How do we remedy this? How do
we remedy this? We cannot. The apostles could
not remedy this. If they could not, you and I
cannot. You and I, for the sake of our
own soul's salvation, and for the comfort of our poor, afflicted
conscience, it's left to you and I not to
be so much concerned with how people abuses the truth of God's
grace. But the question we must ask
is this. Are we going to be honest with
Scripture? Are we going to be honest with
Scripture? And what does the Scriptures tell us? That we are
sinners, and that we cannot deny. The law proves our guilt, and
it magnifies our guilt, and in our best state, we're altogether
vanity. Now, brothers and sisters, I
ask you one question. Is that truth or is it not? Are you at your best state altogether
vanity? Is sin mixed with everything
you do? It's either yes or no. You're
a sinner or you're not. That's what we have to be concerned
with. Go to the pages of Holy Scriptures. If some will deny it, then let
them. But what have you and I got? What have we got to go to, to
judge ourselves with? God's Word. That's it. And what
does it say about us? If God does not speak highly
of us by nature, it's not because He could not, would not, but
He cannot. He cannot. He's truthful. He shows us ourselves, blisters
and all. And secondly, we must face this
truth, not only that we are sinners, but that God, for the mere sake
of Jesus Christ His Son and our Redeemer, forgives all manner
of sin and blasphemies and justifies and receives us as a tender and
pitiful father, all, all because of someone else. Now is that
so or not? Does God not forgive us of all
manner of sin and blasphemy? And does He not do it for the
sake of someone else? Someone said, if you're not careful,
and you preach this too much, and you emphasize free grace
too often, that it will lead even the righteous to sin. Well,
I'll say this. This is the very way that a believer
is brought to hate his sin, and to abhor his self because of
it. This is the very way the conscience
is kept tender, and the heart is filled with love to God, and
goodness towards God's people. When they see grace, they see
themselves, because the law has showed them their sin, and they
see this redeeming Christ. And therefore their conscience,
their hearts, their spirits are effected. This is the only way
that I know of that a man or a woman can walk confidently
and yet humbly before the Lord. Grace, the grace of Christ. Grace, as we see it here in the
scriptures, is very distasteful to the flesh. The grace, the
definition that we hear of today in this world is very different
than Bible grace. Be ye kind one to another, tender
hearted, forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake has
forgiven you. How much sin has God forgiven
you? Even that which you see, which you know that He's forgiven.
Not counting that He's forgiven that you have no knowledge of.
What kind of blasphemous has risen up in your heart? What
kind of thoughts of hate and wretchedness? And yet He's forgiven
all. Why? Why? For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Will God forgive sins? Yes, He
will. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. This is so distasteful to flesh. When we say that sin still remains
in us and we daily offend, when the Lord says, I'll be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities, will
I remember no more? And we complain about this unrighteousness,
this remnant of sin, this old nature that remains in us. We
complain about it. And they tell us, please don't
do that. You offend me. Please don't do that. You give
me a license to sin when you talk that way. But what's the
truth? What's the truth? Oh, flesh draws back here and
says, you give men a license to sin without any concern. But the question we must ask
is this, do we offend or do we not? I'm not talking about outward
sins. I don't know the last time that any of you sinned against
me outwardly. I'm not talking about what we
do with our hands. I'm not talking about where we
go, what we see. But I'm talking about what takes
place in the man's heart. There's where we offend. There's
where God sees. He don't see as man sees. He
sees within. If we say and we try to convince
ourselves that we're not yet sinners, then we have forgotten
what the schoolmaster has taught us. We've forgotten the spiritual
nature of the law and the exceeding sinfulness of one foolish thought, or how one thought of lust is
worthy to be damned, or one thought of hate in the heart towards
somebody is murder. Have we forgotten that? There is an incurable plague
of sin in the human heart. And to deny it is to be dishonest. No matter what the motive for
denying it is. I want to hide it from people.
I don't want to talk about it. I'm afraid somebody might be
offended or it might lead somebody into sin. I don't care what the
motive is. Is there a plague in our hearts
that we call sin that's incurable? What does the Bible say? That's
all that matters. Are we sinners or are we not?
Are we vile? Are we offensive? Are we unworthy
or are we not? The prophets proved this to us.
The apostles proved this to us. The law proves it to us. Our
experience proves it to us that we're such people. And to deny
it is to be dishonest or blind or
both. Then how can we be justified
from this? If this is our case, how can
we be justified from this? How can we hope to be saved while
we see such sin in ourselves? It's the law's work in office
to teach us this. The law is our schoolmaster. And what does it do? It exposes
sin in the heart. And it magnifies sin in the heart. If you think you're a good person,
you don't know the nature of God's law. And if you don't know
the nature of God's law, you don't know the nature of yourself.
And if you don't know the nature of yourself, you don't know the
nature of the Savior. The law is our schoolmaster. to teach us of our wretchedness. And it does this almost daily. We feel it. We experience our
sin. And we must be constantly apprehending
Jesus Christ the Savior by faith. By faith. It's the law's work in office
to make us aware of our wretchedness. But when it's done that, it can
do no more. That's all He can do. The Law
is our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ. And when it's
done that, what must we do? You must look away from the Law. You must look away from your
sin. You must look away from your unworthiness. You must look
to Christ alone and His obedience and His grace. There is where
you find rest. There's where you'll find peace
with God. And our daily experience teaches us that. You experience
this in your soul, don't you? The law will do three things
to us. Number one, it will tempt us
to self-righteousness. You get to feeling a little bit
guilty, and what will you do? You'll go off and do something
religious. And then you'll begin to trust in yourself. The Lord
Jesus Christ gave us a whole parable on those who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Number two, the law will drive
you to despair through the knowledge of sin. Why did Judas hang himself? Why did Judas Iscariot go out
and hang himself? He saw he was condemned. Where
did he see that? The law taught him that. He saw
it in his conscience and he despaired. There's no hope. Kill your fool-theft
man. And that's what he did. Or the
law will drive us to Christ and His grace to be saved by Him
and Him alone. And that's where we have peace
with God and joy and communion in the Holy Spirit. And when
the law has driven us to Christ to be saved, it's finished its
work. It can do nothing else, brothers
and sisters. That's it. But after that faith
is come, see it there in verse 25? But after that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Why? Because you're not under the
law. You're not under the law. Sin
shall not have dominion over you anymore. You're not under
the law. Until faith came, we were kept
under the law. But after that faith is come,
you're no longer under the law. Why? Because faith is come. Faith
has come. I saw a documentary the other
night. I didn't watch very much of it, but I watched some of
it, and it was in an isolated place. They had a TV crew there,
and they were back up in the mountains someplace, and there
was a monastery there. And that's where they used to
put a lot of the monasteries, put them back up away from the
towns. And you read Luther, you'll find out why they did that. In
the 1500s, Martin Luther, he was in a monastery. And what they did was they'd
isolate those monasteries, and those monks would go there, and
they thought the way to subdue sin, where it wouldn't have dominion
over you, was to isolate yourself from society, and you couldn't
see sin. And you couldn't hear sin. And if you started to feel
it in your conscience, go out and sit on a sharp stick. They
did that. I've read it. Lay on the cold
floor naked on a winter's night. Martin Luther starved himself
half to death in a monastery trying to subdue his sins and
rid himself of his guilt. Trying to bring himself to the
place where this law and sin would not have dominion over
him anymore. But verse 25 says this, That
the only way to free ourselves from the dominion of sin and
the curse of the law is by this faith. It's not punishing our
bodies. It's not separating ourselves
from society. But the only way to escape the
curse of the law is by faith. Until faith came. But when it
came, When faith came, you're not under the law anymore. You're
free from sin's dominion and its guilt. And what's the apostle
saying here? He's saying this, as long as
you and I struggle against sin, as long as we try to justify
ourselves from it, we're under its dominion. We're under its
power and guilt. But as soon as our faith lays
hold upon this redeeming Christ, Then we're free. If the Son shall
make you free, you're free indeed. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. But how do we apprehend Christ?
How do we get a hold of Him? By faith. Believing in Him. Believing in Him. Old poor Luther,
bless his heart, when he was a monk, And he'd almost fasted himself
to death to keep sin from having dominion over him. He said one
day he was climbing up the stairs on his hands and knees, and this
word came to him, that just shall live by faith. And he said, never
before was I free until at that moment. It's faith. Until faith came, we were kept
under the law. But the instant faith comes,
you're free. You're free.