I appreciate your prayers as
I try to bring the message from the Word of God. I'm tired. I'm going to try to bring a message.
I hope God will bless it to your hearts. If you look with me at Romans
chapter 7 a moment, And we'll be looking at a few
verses in this chapter. And then at 1 Timothy, if you want to turn
there, the first chapter. There's something born in us. as human beings,
wants us to have rules to follow and laws to keep, and they bring it over into Christianity. But I want to talk to you this
morning about a believer's relationship to the law of God. the believer's
relationship to the law of God. Let's read these few verses together
in Romans 7, beginning with verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, in
other words, you know these things, for I speak to them that know
the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
He's dead. He's dead. So then, if while
her husband liveth she is married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. He's dead. Wherefore, my brethren,
you also, as believers, are become dead to the law. Now that word,
dead, just means dead, I reckon. Dead. Just like if a woman's
husband is dead, she's no longer under the law of her husband.
He's dead. And we are become dead to the
law by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you should be married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God. We are married to Christ,
married to Christ, dead to the law. For when we were in the
flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered
from the law, dead to the law, that being dead wherein we were
held, we were under the law, under bondage of the law, That
we should serve in newness of spirit, not in the old letter
of the law. We're dead to the law. The believer
is dead to the law. Now let me show you another passage
of Scripture in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Let me begin reading with verse
1. This is all tied together and
important. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and Jesus
Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still
in Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some that They teach no other doctrine, neither give
heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather
than godly edifying which is in faith. So do. Now the end
of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, an honest
heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith, sincere faith, from which some having turned
away, turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers
of the law. Now, I've experienced, I've been
confronted by some of these. They want to be teachers of the
law, bring us under the law. But they understand neither what
they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. It had a purpose. God gave it
on purpose for a purpose. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for the righteous man. Do you hear that? The law is not made for a righteous
man. We're dead to the law. But the law is made for the lawless
and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, and of
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
That's what the law was made for, to show them that they were
out of line, they were out of step, they were under the bondage
of the law and the judgment of the law and they needed to have
a change. They were condemned to condemn.
Now, there are so many passages in
the New Testament that testify of the believer's
relationship to the law. It's hard to know which ones
to read, but I just read two very important ones. Nevertheless,
from the beginning in the New Testament church, notwithstanding
what the scriptures said, notwithstanding Acts 15, what the apostles determined,
that we're not under the law. There are many preachers who
would bring the believer back under the bondage of the law. Now, the whole letter to the
Galatians is written to confront this error. There were people
who came in and wanted to bring them back under the law. Paul
said, I came to preach the gospel to you, the gospel of God's free,
sovereign, justifying grace. These folks want to bring you
under the law. And this is what they said exactly, found it in
Acts 15. They said, we know that you believed.
That's good. We know that you've been baptized.
That's good. We know that you've received
the Spirit like we did at Jerusalem, back in Pentecost. That's good. But this is exactly what they
said, except you keep the law of Moses. You ain't going to
heaven. You find that in Acts 15. It
was a controversy back then. And it carried over to Galatia.
Some of these people came down there. Paul came down there and
straightened it out. Wrote them a letter. The whole letter to the Galatians,
Paul addresses this error. He told them this. This is how
important it is. He said, if you become entangled
again with the law, you profit nothing from Christ. No profit
from Christ. If you look to the law for any
part of your salvation, you've lost Christ. You've lost Christ. His exact word, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Galatians. I want to declare
unto you today that the law of God is holy and just and good. Paul said that. The Scriptures
testify that. We know that's true because God
is holy and just and good. It's a reflection of His holiness. It's a reflection of His character.
The holy law of God. God is holy. Now, like the Apostle
Paul, I can truly say that I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. But in Christ, in Christ, the
believer is fully, totally, and entirely free from the law of
God. Totally, fully, entirely. He's not under the Old Testament
law of tithing. That's gone. The law had been
kept for it. He died under the Old Testament
law of the Sabbath. Some people say Sunday is our
Sabbath, the New Testament, the New Covenant Sabbath. That's
not so. Christ is our Sabbath. And it says that clearly, plainly. Christ is my rest. Christ is
my rest. Listen to this simple passage
of Scripture. Romans chapter 10 and verse 4,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believeth. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to every believer. There is no sense whatsoever
in which a believer is under the law of God. I've written
this down carefully. And I'm going to read it to you
carefully. I want you to understand it and get a hold of it. I think
most all of you do. We have no covenant with the
law. We are under a covenant of pure
free grace. We have no commitment to the
law. Our commitment is to Christ who
obeyed the law for us. We do nothing by constraint of
the law, but the love of Christ constraineth
us. That's what the Apostle Paul
says. Now, please listen carefully to these statements I've written
down once again. The law was never given to save
sinners, and it can never serve that purpose. The law was given
to reveal sin, not to put it away. The law shows us what we
are. When we stand before the law,
when we read the statements of the law, we say, oh, it's me.
I've got to have help. The law was never given to save
sinners, and it can never serve that purpose. Relations 2.16. The law was never given to motivate
the people of God, and it cannot serve that purpose. Now, listen to this. The law
was not even given to produce sanctification and holiness in
the people of God, and it can never serve that purpose. Now,
what it was given for? It was given to reveal sin. It was given to shut us up to
faith. That's what the law was given for. And you find that
last statement in Galatians 3, verses 1 through 3. The law was
given to slay men. Look at Galatians 3 just a moment. Galatians chapter 3. Verse 21, is the law then against
the promises of God? No, sir, God forbid. For if there
had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. If there had ever been a law
given that could have given life, God would not have sacrificed
His Son. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the law. Shut up to faith, which would
afterwards be revealed in bondage to the law. waiting upon faith,
the gospel. Whereas the law was our schoolmaster,
this is the conclusion, to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith. That's what the law did. That's what the law did. Paul
said one time, he said, before the law came, man, I was doing
good. But when the law came, sin revived
and I died. I died. I died. Found out what kind of fellow
I was. Romans chapter 3. Turn back there just a moment.
Romans chapter 3. Verse 19. Romans 3.19. Now we know That what things whoever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. What does the law do? It makes
men guilty. It shows their guilt. It shows
what kind of condition they're in before God. Therefore, by
the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin, not justification from sin, not salvation from sin,
the knowledge of sin, that we might flee to Christ, a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. That's why the law was given,
not to save, but to condemn. But now the righteousness of
God, without the law, without the deeds of the law, by us,
Verse 21, the righteousness of God without the law is manifest,
being witnessed by the law and by the prophets. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe, and there is no difference. For all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption That's
in Christ Jesus. But I'll tell you this. You turn
on over. Let me read some more. I want
you to see this. Whom God has set forth, verse
25, be a propitiation. God sent His Son to be the satisfaction. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
of our sins through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed through the forbearance
of God. to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus." The gospel shows that God is just in justifying
the ungodly, that the holy lawgiver is just in justifying the lawbreaker
because of Christ. Christ kept the law for them,
for them. their representative, their substitute,
their surety. Christ did it all. Now, to declare,
I say at this time, right here today, that he might be just
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where he
is boasting, then, there is no place for it. It's excluded.
By what law works? No, sir, by the law of faith.
We simply believe. We don't work the gospel. Obeying the gospel is believing.
Not doing, but believing. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's
good. But then another question arises. Is he the God of the
Jews only? Is he not also the Gentile? Yet
Gentiles too, he is God of all, seeing it is one God who shall
justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through
faith. Now this is that other question. Do we then make void
the law through faith? I'm justified by faith. What
does that have to do with the law? Am I setting the law aside? God forbid we establish the law. Through faith, we establish the
law. That's what faith does. I'll
show you that in a moment. But the law was given to reveal
sin, and it works well. The Apostle Paul said so in Romans
7, verses 9 and 10. Before the law came, I was alright.
But when the law did come, sin revived in me, stirred up in
me, and I died. I was dead. Dead. And it does its work well. The
law can only reveal sin and condemn the sinner. Every time I just
strictly consider the law alone, What does it do to you? Condemnation. Because no man can keep it, except
the God-man who kept it for us. A lot of people think they're
keeping the law and living by the law, but they're just choosing
what parts they like. There was a whole law. Christ
said this. Paul said it in Romans again.
The whole law is summed up in these two things. Love God with
all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. If you
love God with all your heart, you're going to keep the first
table of the law. And if you love your neighbor with all your
heart, you're going to keep the second table of the law. And
that is all these things that have to do with our relationship
with each other. If you love your neighbor as
yourself, you're not going to lie about him. You're not going
to try to steal his wife. You're not going to do any of
these things that are forbidden. This man that one time told me about
a friend he had, Talked about keeping the law. You keep the
law? Yes sir, yes sir. One day he
came over here to Madisonville during the war and he saw a boy
get off the train in a soldier's suit and he thought that was
his son for a minute. Looked like his son. I've done
that on television. I see these soldiers over in
Iraq and I say, that looks like our son. And sometimes it really
did, they kind of all look alike. But anyway, he went back and
told this fellow about that and said, I tell you, my heart just
did a flip when I thought that was my son. He said, if you loved
your neighbors as yourself, you'd have done the same thing if you'd
have been my son. Nobody loves his neighbors as
himself. Nobody. But Christ did, and He did it
for me. He satisfied the law for me. Now, faith doesn't do away with the
law. Look at Galatians 2, just a moment. Galatians 2. I sort of remember the first
time I saw these two verses together, and they tied together in my
mind and my heart. And it just shows in a brief,
brief passage how we're justified before God, how we're free from
the law, free from condemnation. Verse 19. Paul said, and I declare
the same thing, I, through the law, am dead to the law, that
I might finally live unto God, freely live unto God, through
the law, dead to the law. Paul, how could that be through
the law, through the law? Did you keep the law? He said,
I sure did. And he kept it in the person
who is borne witness to in the next verse. I am crucified with
Christ. I am dead to the law. The law
has already killed me. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth 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. through the law, dead to the
law. When Christ died, I died. When He lived in perfect righteousness,
He gave it to me. That's my righteousness. What
a wonderful, wonderful gospel. The law dealt with my sin while Christ hung on the cross.
My sin was put on him. Peter says he bore our sins in
his own body on that tree. And doing so, the Bible says
God made his soul an offering for sin. My sin has been paid
for. And the justice of God, the law
of God has been satisfied. And through faith in Christ,
I enter into that freedom, that justification, that liberty.
Christ has set me free. The law dealt with my sin, satisfied God. Now, as borne
witness to in several other places, we're dead to sin and alive to
God. Free to serve God. Let me show
you a passage back in Romans a minute. Free to serve God. Look at verse 14 of Romans 6. Sin shall not have dominion over
you because you are no longer under
the law. You are under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Perish the thought! For know ye not that to whom
ye yield yourselves service to obey, his service ye are to whom
ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? There's two ways to go, two ways
to live. That's all. But God be thanked,
God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
unto you, the gospel. Being then made free from sin,
you became servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as ye have yielded your members' servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members' servants
to righteousness unto holiness. Serve God. Please God. For when
we were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
You didn't have any. All of your righteousnesses were
filthy rags in God's sight. But now, being made free from
sin, become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end is everlasting life. Everlasting life. For the wages
of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In Christ, we're free from
the law. That's what Christ's life and
death is all about. Satisfy, he obeyed the law, every
jot and tittle from the heart. Who for? For his elect, for me. Law's done with me. I'm free
to serve Christ. And that's the only way you can
serve Him freely, cheerfully. The only way. If we're driven
by the hounds of hell or the whip of the law, it's not satisfying
God. It's not serving God. He must be served freely. When Christ met on the cross,
or hung on the cross, he met the holy law with my sins and
satisfied God for them. Now, in Christ, through faith
in Christ, through faith, we're dead to the law and alive to
God. We're dead to the law and free
to serve God. The law of God has no more power
over the believer than a dead husband has over his wife. And
that's not much, is it? He's dead! The law has nothing
against me. The law now justifies me. And
the Bible says concerning Christ, that he is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins because he satisfied the law for us.
It's justice, justice, justice, pure grace, pure justice. Salvation. It comes through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to read something before
I close. Something that I tried to quote
a while ago, but never made it too well. But now I want to read
it to you. Acts chapter 15. Turn there. No sooner than the gospel had
been taken to the Gentiles, the controversy came up. The question,
well, how are the Gentiles justified? What relation to the Gentiles
do they have to be circumcised now and brought under the law
of Moses? And some people wouldn't let it go. They had a big conference
down in Jerusalem. And though they settled it, should
have, because it was inspired of God, their answer. Certain men which came down from
Judea taught the brethren that except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you can't be saved. That's what they said. Now look up here. Verse 7, And
when they had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them,
Many brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles from my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bared them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
to us. And God put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we are able to bear? When you submit to the
circumcision of Moses, you have submitted to keep the whole law
of God, as they were supposed to in the Old Testament. But
they broke it on every hand. The way to keep the law of God,
satisfy God, be justified, made righteous before God, is to trust
in Christ who did it. Who did it. And God looked upon
him and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God's well pleased with him.
I'm well pleased with him. Tickled to death. And that's
the only salvation there is. It has nothing to do with keeping
the law. That's been done by Him for me. But we love Him. We're constrained
by the love of Christ, and we serve Him freely. We're not driven. We're not forced. We're not under
rules and regulations. We're under the hold of the Word
of God. If you love me, He said, you'll keep my commandments,
and we try to. May God bless these words to
every heart. For Christ's sake, okay, Kevin.