As Rex was reading a moment ago,
I thought how totally appropriate that that man should be so meticulous
that he is going to keep God's law that he take the cap off
and prepare the water on the night before the Sabbath in order
to take his medicine without breaking the Sabbath day. How
totally appropriate. Totally so. And totally appropriate
for this reason. that salvation, acceptance with
God, being able to stand before God acceptable forever, justified
forever, must come one of two ways, and there's absolutely
no middle ground between the two. It must come totally by
perfect legal obedience on your part, or totally by free grace
through the obedience of a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other
words, if you would be saved, you must either entirely, I can't
stress the word enough, entirely and perfectly keep God's holy
law, which you cannot do. or you must be saved entirely
by God's free grace without any works of any kind on your own
part. There's no middle ground between
the two. If you put your hand in the work, anywhere, anywhere,
you're going to hell. If you ascribe salvation to any
degree, at any point, to something you do, you've missed Christ,
you've missed the gospel, and you don't know God. Salvation
is either all together by God's free grace, or all together by
your works, and it cannot be by your works. Now with that
in mind, turn with me to Romans chapter 10 and verse 4. Romans
chapter 10 and verse 4. Paul is explaining to us in this
passage why it is the Jews stumbled over across the stumbling block
and tripped up over grace and went to hell. Because they sought
righteousness not by faith, but by the works of the law, by their
own obedience. And because they thought themselves
capable of keeping God's law, they did not and would not and
could not submit to the righteousness of God that's in Christ Jesus. Look here in Romans chapter 10
and verse 4. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Now knowing something
of the just severity and strict demands of God's holy law. Knowing that the law demands
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's the demand of God's
law. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. There's no exception. There's
no exception. If God finds sin on you or on
me, If God finds sin anywhere, he'll punish it. He said, I am
God, I will by no means clear the guilty. I will not pardon
sin, I will not put away sin. He said that plainly in the strictest
sense of the word. Justice demands the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. Knowing that the law demands,
it must be perfect to be accepted. You bring a sacrifice to God,
he said bring it perfect or I won't have it. It must be perfect to
be accepted. Knowing the utter terror of God's
holy law, when I read this great and glorious statement, Christ
is the end of the law, immediately two questions popped into my
mind. How and to whom? How is Christ the end of the
law? In what sense is Christ the end of the law? How far do
we carry this? How far does the New Testament
carry this statement? And to whom is Christ the end
of the law? Now let me answer those two questions
this evening. First, how is Christ the end
of the law? What does Paul mean when he makes
that statement? Number one, and this is going
to be a little bit repetitious, but I want you to look at the
scriptures with me. and I want you to see plainly what the scriptures
teach. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
end of the law's object and purpose. He is the purpose and object
for which the law was given to begin with. Turn to Galatians
chapter 3 for a moment. Galatians 3. We're going to look
at several scriptures and I want you to see that this is the clear,
plain teaching of the New Testament. This is where we differ vehemently
from Reformed men and Protestants in various denominations. We
teach plainly and clearly according to the New Testament that there
is absolutely no sense in which believers are ruled by, motivated
by, condemned by, or obligated to the law of God. Our only covenant
head, our only law, our only motive, our only governing principle
is Jesus Christ himself. Now here in Galatians chapter
3, The Apostle Paul is writing to the Galatians who had these
Judaizers to creep in and they said now we understand salvation
by grace and we understand that man's justified by the obedience
of Christ but you know you can't tell people. You just can't say
there's no sense in which men are under the law. Surely, surely
Paul did not mean for you to understand there is nothing for
you to do for acceptance with God. You certainly must keep
the law, be circumcised or do something in obedience to the
law in order to be sanctified before God. And Paul says, oh
no, no, no. The law was given as a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. And once the law has served that
purpose, once the schoolmaster has brought us to the maturity
and the possession of adulthood, then the schoolmaster has no
other function. Look here, Galatians chapter
3 verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. But notice the words bring us,
to bring us are in italics. Quite literally Paul is saying
the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. The law was our
schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we're no longer under the schoolmaster. Let me illustrate it for you.
Under Greek and Roman law, a man who was a man of any means, whatever,
might have his sons, a professional hired tutor, a schoolmaster. The schoolmaster not only was
responsible to teach the child, teach him his letters and teach
him mathematics and so on, he was responsible for the discipline
of the child under the father's tutelage as well, so that that
schoolmaster received his instructions from the father. If the child
got out of hand, the schoolmaster didn't say, now Mr. Smith, your
son needs his bacon today. Oh no, he just took him back
to the woodshed and wore him out. That's what the schoolmaster
was for. But once that child came to the age of maturity,
once he became the heir and took possession of the father's house
and the father's goods, then the schoolmaster dared not take
the switch to that boy again. Dare not do so. Now the schoolmaster
is under the son because the son is there. The schoolmaster
was designed to bring the child to adulthood and maturity. And after that's come, then the
child is no longer under the schoolmaster. And the schoolmaster
has no right, no authority, no power to exercise any control
or discipline over the child. That's exactly what Paul says
here. The law was our schoolmaster. Notice he used the word was.
He didn't say the law is, he said the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ. But now, having come to Christ,
having come to faith in Jesus Christ, the law no longer has
any obligation or authority over God's elect. We are free from
the law. The law, someone said, was God's
black dog by which he fetches his sheep to the shepherd. But
once they come to the shepherd, the dog better leave them alone.
The law has nothing more to do than with God's people. The law's
purpose was to expose our sin, nothing else, just to make us
know our sin. Paul said, I had not known sin,
except the law had said thou shalt not covet. And then when
the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I had a letter just
last week, one day, someone wrote to me. I think I may have some
idea who it was, but they didn't seem to want me to know. So it
doesn't matter. But they said, what in what sense is it that
Paul says The law revived, sin revived and I died when the law
came. What does Paul mean by that?
And I wrote back and said this is exactly what he meant. When
the commandment came, the commandment stirred up that natural, carnal
depravity of the man's heart. And that's what it does to you.
When the commandment comes and God says, I am God, this is what
you can do, this is what you cannot do, the man in rebellion
says, I'll do what I will, I'll do what I will, and then you
die. For the commandment declares
judgment and death against you because you've broken God's holy
law. The law shows me what the result of sin is. It is separation
from God like Adam was driven from the garden. It is death,
temporal death, spiritual death, eternal death. The only way I
can obtain mercy is by God Almighty giving me what he himself alone
can give, a bloody sacrifice acceptable in his sight. For
without the shedding of blood there's no remission of my sins,
no remitting my breaches of God's law. The law reveals our utter
helplessness, for it demands perfection, it demands satisfaction,
and we can't get it. We just can't get it. The law
shows me also my great need of Christ is my substitute. Our
only hope before God, turn to Romans chapter 3 for a moment,
our only hope before God is that God himself will give us one
who is able and willing to satisfy his holy law. I said before the
law declares the soul that sinneth it shall die. That means you're
going to die and I'm going to die. There's just no getting
around that. Either that or God's going to
abdicate his throne and abdicate his law and that's just not going
to happen. Well how can a man both die and live? Only in a
substitute. only by the merits of a substitute.
The Lord Jesus Christ comes as our substitute, our surety, our
covenant head, our representative, and he is now the propitiation
for our sins, the justice-satisfying sacrifice by which God in his
holiness can be just and the justifier of him that believeth.
Look here in Romans 3.24. Paul tells us, being justified
freely for a blessed word. It's the same word that's used
when John says that our Lord, our Lord speaks, and John records
it, they hated me without a cause. It's the same word, without a
cause. Justified freely. That means, babiestus, there's
no cause in you why God justifies you. No cause in me why God justifies
us. But what about our repentance?
That's not a cause. What about our faith? Our faith
won't get the job done. Well, what's the cause then?
We're justified freely by His grace, but look at it, through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has sent forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. Now look
at this next line, to declare God's righteousness. Oscar Betty, you were taught
all your life to declare God's love, but that's not what they
said. Now God's love is the cause.
It is God who loved us, who sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, and it is the love of God which motivates him in
sending his Son. But the reason he sent his Son
was to declare his righteousness, is that it? For the remission
of sins that pass through the forbearance of God. to declare,
I say at this time, just so you be sure you get it, his righteousness
for this purpose, that he, God Almighty, might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Well, what does that
mean? It just means this. God cannot
forgive Rex Bartlett's sin and Don Fortner's sin, except he
do so in a manner that is altogether consistent with his declaration,
the soul that sinneth it shall die. And altogether in consistency
with this requirement, be ye holy as I am holy. No other way
for God to forgive sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes
set forth by God's purpose, by God's decree, by God's word,
according to God's will, and he bears our sin upon the cursed
tree, and makes propitiation for our sins, and God looks at
him in his obedience and in his blood, and he said that's enough.
Now on the grounds of justice, man can be pure in my sight,
I'll be just and justify the ungodly. Give me Christ then,
I want nothing to do with God's naked law. Not only is Christ
the purpose and object of the law, the one to whom the law
appoints, the Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law.
Turn to Isaiah 42. Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 21.
Now here's the prophecy. You can look in verse 4 and see
that he's talking about his servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. My servant
shall not fail. Now then, look at verse 21. Here's
what his servant shall not fail to do. The Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake. What a word. He will magnify
the law and make it honorable. He's the only one who ever did,
the only one who ever could. He who is the Lord our righteousness
has magnified God's law and made it honorable as a man. Now, you remember when our Lord
Jesus said in John chapter 19 and verse 30, it is finished. But if you turn back two chapters
to John chapter 17, he had already said that. He said, Father, I
finished the work of good and evil. Well, which time did he
finish it? both times. As a man, he fulfilled
perfect righteousness, meeting all the demands that God had
for the life of a man. He lived in this world from the
time that he was conceived in his mother's to the time that
he inspired upon the cursed tree, he lived in perfect obedience
to God, working out a perfect righteousness for us, weaving
for us a garment of spotless righteousness with which we would
be clothed forever. And he said, I finished the work.
He did what he did. But there's something more to
be done. Sin must be punished. Justice must be satisfied. It's
not enough just that the law will be repaired, the law must
be satisfied. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was made to be sin for us, met the demands of God's
holy law by paying our debt to God's justice, and when he had
finished suffering the whole of God's wrath to the full satisfaction
of divine justice, when he, the Son of God, with one tremendous
draft of love, drank damnation dry, he said, it's finished.
Blessed be his name, it is finished. In Christ's I am free from the
law, for I have met all its demands. By one man's obedience I have
been made righteous. In the Lord Jesus Christ I hear
God speak and declare there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. Turn to Romans chapter 3 and
verse 31. I want you to see this. This
is not This is not supposition. This is not a point of fine theology. This is not something I've worked
out in my own brain. My brain's not that big. This
is something that God declares in his word. The only way sinners
can fulfill the law is by faith in Christ. Folks say, well, we
ought to live by the law. We'll put the law up. We'll have
this as a rule and king commandments, and we're going to do our best.
That's not good enough. If you imagine that somehow by
you doing your puny best at keeping the Ten Commandments will give
you a better standing before God, you've lowered God's standard.
You brought the law down to your standard and that'll never work.
Well, how on earth can a man fulfill the law? Believe on the
Son of God. That's all. Look at Romans 3
31. Do we then make void the law of faith? Folks tell me that,
well they don't tell me, they tell other folks about me. Y'all
make board the law through faith. Y'all say the law's no good.
Y'all say the law's useless. Oh no, no. You're the one that
says the law's useless. We declare, we fulfill the law. Look at it. God forbid, yea,
we establish the law. How? By faith in Christ. God
demands of this sinner. Oh, let me see if I can get your
attention. Will you listen to me, you who are sitting here
tonight on the brink of eternal damnation? You who are yet without
Christ, will you listen to this preacher? If you're not in too
big a hurry to go to hell, will you listen to me? God demands
of you perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. And he's
going to get satisfaction. He demands of you satisfaction
for all your transgressions. your sins of nature, your sins
of omission, your sins of commission, your iniquity, your transgression,
and your sin. God demands satisfaction. He's
going to get it, either in you or in a substitute. How on earth
can you ever satisfy those demands? How can I stand before God perfectly
righteous without sin? with no debt, with no obligation,
with absolutely nothing owed to his justice. How on this earth
can it be done? I believe on the Son of God. That's it. That's it. I mean, that's it. That's how
we fulfill the law. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
end of the law as far as its purpose and object is concerned.
He's the end of the law in fulfilling it. And Christ is the end of
the law in the sense that he is the termination of the law.
Oh, now preacher, you didn't mean to say that. You heard me
right. Christ is the termination of the law. Look in Romans chapter
7 and verse 4. Folks frequently quote our Lord's
statement, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.
They say, now there you can't say Christ is the termination
of the law. I didn't say distorted, I said it terminated. Insofar
as his people are concerned, it's terminated. Look here at
Romans 7. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law has dominion
over a man as long as he lives. For the woman, now he uses an
illustration, the woman which has a husband is bound by the
law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband
is dead, She's loosed from the law of her husband. Now, we don't
anticipate this happening, but should it come to pass that Don
Fortner were to drop dead tonight, and Mrs. Fortner hangs around
here, and she meets some fellow who's as good looking and sweet
and all as I am, and she says, well, I'll bury him. And then
you find out that she's taken his name. Who in their right
mind is going to say she oughtn't to do that? But she gave up Don's
name, took his name. What's she ought to do? Don's
dead. Dead. Well, don't you think she ought
to have some respect for him? He's dead. He's dead, that's
all it took. But don't you think she ought
to still live by the rules he had? Oh no, she married to another
man. Don's dead. D-E-A-D, dead. Well, what does that mean? That
means she's got no more obligations. That means she's got no more
responsibility. And don't you give her a hard time, she gets
married the next day. I'm dead. That's all there is to it. Just
don't fret about, I'm dead. This is what Paul says. I stress
that for this reason. Look at the next verse. So then,
in verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become, what is that word? Can you read it? Dead. That's about as terminated as
you can get. You're dead. Dead to what? To the law. Well, in what sense? Just any sense law represents.
That's exactly what it means. Dead to the law by the body of
Christ. That is, when Christ died, I died, and now the law
has nothing more to do with me. Christ terminated the law as
a covenant of life. We are not under the law, but
under grace. He terminated the curse and penalty of the law.
Christ has redeemed me from the curse of the law being made a
curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. In Christ, every believer now has a just, righteous claim
of merit upon the grounds of perfect justice to everything
and everlasting glory. Every day. Preacher, you don't
mean to say that. I wish I could say it in such
a way you couldn't possibly question it. Every believer in Christ,
every child of God, through the merits of Christ's blood and
righteousness, has a rightful, just claim of merit upon everything
God possesses in His grace and glory for guilt to set us. Every
day. Listen to this, Colossians 1
verse 12. Paul says, you be thankful to God, give thanks to him who
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in his life. What does that mean? That means,
Larry, we're worthy right now of God's smile and God's appreciation. And heaven. Worthy! to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in life, not by our merit, blessed
be his name, but by the merit of our substitute. Worthy to
be accepted of God, worthy to possess the inheritance of glory.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled
all things required in the law for his people. Do you see the
sweet mystery of salvation by the substitutionary work of Christ?
Oh, what a sweet mystery. The law has no claim upon those
for whom Christ died, and never tell, never tell. Christ is also the fulfillment
of the law, of all the law's prophecies, types, and ceremonies. Let me just give you a couple
of summaries. We'll come back and look at these
another time. You remember when God sent Israel out of Egypt,
and he did so by the blood of a Passover lamb. Now, the blood
of that Passover lamb was just the blood of a lamb. It didn't
mean a thing, except because it represented something. And
it represented Christ the true Passover. That makes it mean
something. That makes it mean something.
That Passover lamb, as the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb was made
year after year after year after year after year after year, for
two thousand years it was made. If the high priest came in once
a year with the blood, not just any blood, but the blood of the
appointed Passover lamb into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled
the mercy seat, and thereby God declared in prophecy and type,
there's one coming one day who shall sprinkle the mercy seat
one time with his own blood and obtain eternal redemption for
us. Now Christ has come, and he's obtained eternal redemption
for us, and we will never again sacrifice the Passover lamb.
Never again. Somebody says, well, we ought
to be kind and sweet, and when the Jews observe the Passover,
we ought to observe the Passover with them. If you want to be
an idolater and go to hell, go ahead. But I'm telling you, God's
people had their Passover in Christ, the true Passover. The
scriptures tell us about the Sabbath day. Rex mentioned it
just a little bit ago. The Sabbath day was required
of God, and men were required to do no work on Saturday. I wrote this one time and said,
from midnight Friday night to midnight Saturday night, they
couldn't do any work, and I got all kinds of letters. Folks said,
you don't know what you're talking about, because Passover was kept
from sunup to sundown, or sundown from dusk to sundown the next
day. And I know, but I'm not talking
to Jews over there, I'm talking to y'all. I understand that. I'm telling you this, though.
On the Passover day, fellas didn't do a thing. They didn't do anything.
I mean nothing. Nothing. Under penalty of death. Why do you reckon that was given?
Why do you reckon that law stood? Because if you do anything, with
which to attain God's favor and find rest for your soul. I don't
care if you pick up a stick. I don't care if you light a little
fire. It doesn't matter. If you do anything, you miss
Christ. Christ is our Savior, the believer. The believer is that man, that
woman who has quit working for God's approval. Now this is so contrary to human
flesh and human reason. If a woman says or does something
that gets her husband upset, she knows she's out of line.
She knows she lost her temper. She said things she oughtn't
have said. Our child does this with mother or father. You say,
boy, what can I do to make up? What can I do to make up? You
go buy gifts and you start working. You know, you start doing things.
Everything you think will possibly please them. And it works for
us. Because we're like you. We're sinners. But it'll never
work with God. How you gonna make up with God?
You can't. You can't. Well, how does a man ever find
acceptance with God? I trust the Son of God. And my Father, I'm resolved never,
ever, ever to do anything to attempt to appease your wrath
Satisfy your justice. Turn away your anger. I trust
Christ alone. Now, I'm at rest. Come unto me. Oh, you that labor and heavy
laden, how do you fare? Would you find less for your
soul than rest in Jesus Christ the Lord? We don't practice or
teach tithing around here. Folks get upset sometimes. They
hear that. How come? Because the tithe was
a law that represented something. It represented total ownership
by God Almighty. That's all, total ownership by
God Almighty. Lord, everything I have is yours. Believers live
because they love Christ. We're free, entirely free from
the law. Who's free? Everyone God helps you then to believe
on his dear son and walk in that freedom, that liberty, where
with Christ alone can make you do it. Amen.