We're going to be in Galatians
3 again, if you would like to turn to Galatians
3. So the question that could be
risen or arise whenever you're talking about
the law, how that it doesn't justify a man, how that no righteousness
came by the law, that salvation can't come by the law, and that
life can't come by the law, it may bring the question to mind,
what's the purpose of the law? What's the purpose of the law? Can't produce anything valuable,
only condemnation. What's the purpose of the law?
I've titled this message, The Purpose of the Law. purpose of
the law. In our text, Paul's going to
describe the law in a much different manner than he has before. Not
different as in totally opposite, but different as in a different
viewpoint, a different viewpoint. He calls the law a schoolmaster,
a schoolmaster. It's important to realize And
as I said this the first hour, the issue that we're dealing
with here is the Galatians. The Galatians are a divided church
from Gentiles and Jews. And the Jews believe their gods
elect because they've been circumcised. Or at least to some degree, it's
evidence of that salvation or part of that salvation. And those
that are not circumcised, the Gentiles, obviously are not elect
because they're not circumcised. That's the attitude, anyways,
as how it is being. It's segregation is what it is.
Literally, it's Self-righteous racism. That's the best way I
can put it. But it's all of works, and the
Lord's not of it, for sure. All false religion does is it
puffs up. Puffs up. You remember some of
you who are in false religion, you ever remember feeling, well,
I hate to say it, but better than somebody else because of
what you believe. I believe that, and you don't.
I know something you don't know. Can anybody else relate to that? It's embarrassing. It's really
embarrassing because that's the truth of whatever one of us do
in false religion. We look and that's what the scripture
tells us clearly that knowledge puffeth up. That's all that knowledge
can do. But, oh, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whenever he reveals himself, we're not given just knowledge.
We're given the wisdom of God. And it makes us understand we're
nothing. We're just sinners that need
a savior. And it's got to be by grace alone. Everything in false religion
makes one examine self for assurance, for evidence, or for the cause
of their salvation. And if we are examining ourself,
or if we are looking to something that we can see as part of salvation,
as evidence of salvation, we're not looking to Christ. We're
not looking to Christ. This is the error of modern day
works religion. False religion states you must
turn to the law. Christ is all but you have to
go back to the law. The law is not a moral compass
for the believer. Brethren, the law was not given. We're going to find out what
the purpose of the law was. But the law was not given for. Righteousness, the law was not
given for justification. The law was not given for redemption
in any way. And going to the law only can
produce certain death. You remember what Paul said,
you're under the curse of the law if you return to it. I think
it was this chapter he said that. No, it's not of the law, it's
of faith. That's how we look to Christ.
We don't look to the law. The law makes you examine self. The
law makes you examine yourself. Faith enables you to look to
Christ. That's the difference Paul's
giving them here. Paul's pointing out that the
Gentiles were never given the law. The law came to the Jews.
The law came to the Jews. The Gentiles were never given
the law. First and foremost, you're saying you're going to
put them underneath the law. The Lord never gave them the law. He gave
us the law, the Jews. And life can't come by the law.
This is what Paul's pointing out to them. You can preach it
all you want. You should live this way, you should do this
way. Whether it's the ceremonial law, how we approach God. Whether
it's the moral law, how we live our lives. Or whether it's the
civil law, how we treat others. Cannot produce life. Cannot produce
life, just produces iniquity. And I wrote an article that's
in our bulletin this morning. God hates, Psalm 55, God hateth
all workers. of iniquity, why? Because they're
offering themselves to God in the room instead of his precious
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people, and I love so much the fact that
we have, we see throughout scripture, God's not a respecter of person.
So when he saw sin upon his own son, he spared not his own son. So he's not a respecter of person,
but that can also be said to race, to creed, to he's not a
respecter of person. Everything in salvation is by
grace alone, grace alone. It's not what you know, it's
who you know. And the only way we can know him is if he enables
us to know him freely by his grace. For its people, whether
they're Jew or Gentile, whether they're bond or free, whether
they're, doesn't matter what they are, they were saved on
the cross of Calvary, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he shed his precious blood, when he offered himself up to
his father, his father was satisfied, he justified his people. That's
when they were saved. There's nothing we can add to
or take away from that. The law, whether it was the social
or moral or ceremonial law, it was not given for salvation in
any way. It was given to reveal sin, and
it was given to reveal types and shadows of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the ceremonies that they
went through, we're gonna hear about that just in a minute,
but all of the, everything in the temple, Everything in the
temple, from the overlayment on the outside, to the porch,
to the pillars, to the sacrifice, to the high priest, everything
about the temple under the Mosaic law pointed to Christ was a type
and shadow of Him. Can you imagine they couldn't
see it? They were worshiping as they
were told to, but some of them, they didn't believe, they couldn't
believe. But what about when the Lord was on this earth? That
doesn't surprise us, because he was on the earth and there was
people, they couldn't see him. They didn't know who he was.
And it's the same today. If he come in our midst and he
sits down with us, if he physically manifested himself, and he will
not do that. He's gonna come back one more time. That's it
for his people. And we're gonna be with him forever,
scripture tells us. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. But if he was to come into our midst and sit down, you and
I could not see him. naturally on our own. We wouldn't
recognize him. Isaiah 53 said, there's no beauty
in him that could be found. Not of man, not of man. Man didn't
see anything beautiful in Christ. They saw a threat to their self-righteousness.
They saw an insult to their good works. They saw the substitute
that they did not want to have. We will not have this man reign
over us. And it would be the same today. So these three, the civil, the
moral, and the ceremonial law, these three sum up the physical
demands of the law, the physical responsibilities of the law.
But what about the spiritual side of it? What was the purpose
of the law, spiritually speaking? It's not going to make a man
alive. It's not going to save him. So what was the purpose
of it? Well, That brings us to our first point. Let's read our
text. That's a pretty long intro, I know, but that's okay. Galatians
3.21, and we're gonna read all the way down to 25. Is the law
then against the promise of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. That's simple, isn't it? Very
simple. But the scripture hath concluded all understand 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 unto the faith, which should afterward
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
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. The first thing the law did is
found in verse 32. The scripture hath concluded
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. I missed that first part of the
verse. That was the part where the point is, I'm sorry. But the scripture
hath concluded all under sin. That's the first thing that the
law exposed. That's the first thing that the
law was used for. To prove and make everyone guilty
under the law before God and that every mouth would be stopped. that none can look at the Lord
and say anything against Him because we're made, we see that
we're made sinners by the law. When Paul said it this way, he
said, when the law came, sin revived and I died. And I died because of the sin.
Sin revived because the law entered. It exposes our inability to please
God. It shows His holiness and therefore, our unholiness, it
shows his righteousness, and it shows our lack of righteousness,
it shows his sovereignty, the law shows his sovereignty, how
holy he is, how sovereign he is, and it shows our inability,
our unable to do anything to please God. Think about all those
sacrifices the children of Israel would have to do. Even though
they were trying to keep the law, they still had to sacrifice.
Why? Because they couldn't keep the law, and the sacrifice never
put away their sin. Never put it away. No one can keep God's law. I put perfectly there, but I
don't even have to put that. No one can keep God's law, period.
If you've broken one, you've broken them all. We've all broken
them. Our nature can't keep God's law. And this is a very important
subject because so many people preach a gospel that hinges upon
what you do and what you do not do. That's the law. Every time
you hear something, you hear preaching, somebody says, do
this and don't do that. That's the law. They're putting
you under the law. And what we say, when we say, believe on
the Lord, Jesus Christ, what we're saying is, is if you can
believe, you're going to believe the Lord's give you faith to
believe. Believe is not a choice. Believe is bestowed. It's by
grace through faith, believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ. So
we're not giving a law. When we say that we're telling
you, this is what the Lord commands to his people and his people
do that. Look at verse 21 and 22 again.
Is the law then against the promise of God, God forbid, for if there
had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. The law first and foremost, why
was it given? What was the purpose of the law?
To reveal our sin. To show that we are sinners. That we need, that's the second
point, we need a substitute. We need a substitute, I'm getting
ahead of myself. The only way that we can see
that we're sinners. Now, I understand something. You can look and see if, let's
use an example. Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor. Don't lie. That's what that is.
Don't lie. And we lie. Okay, well, I've lied. So now
I've sinned and I see that I've sinned. But to be made to feel
guilty for that sin, to be made to feel sorry for that sin, The
Lord has to be, and we have a conscience, I understand that, but the Lord
has to be the one that gives repentance and faith or you won't
see that as bad as it is. Well, it was just a white lie.
You get what I'm saying? Well, it's still a lie. Whatever the sin may be, the
point that I'm making is mankind cannot see their total depravity
their total depravity based upon the law. They can see that the
law says this and okay, I'm now I'm a sinner because it says
this and I've, I've sinned against the law, but they don't realize
that they can't do anything about it to fix it. So law points it
out. God is holy. We're not, but you
can't, I can't do anything to fix it. There's the, that's the,
that's why we need a gospel. That's why we need the Lord Jesus
Christ. No one will be able to see their horrid condition unless
the Lord gives faith by His Spirit to see that. The law couldn't
bring us to Christ. The law couldn't give us refuge.
The law couldn't give us shelter. All the law could do was condemn,
to point out justice deserved. That's all it could say is justice
deserved. Wrath deserved. Eternal torment deserved. This
is what the purpose of the law was for. It'd be the Lord leaves
us to ourself. There's ones that if we don't
have faith to believe will be like the rich young ruler that
came to the Lord said, what must I do? What must I do to inherit
eternal life? Turn with me to Mark chapter
10. Look at verse 17. And when he
was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? Jesus said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There is none good, but God.
There's none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments,
and I see the Lord always, always gets right to the righteousness
of the individual, right to the self-righteousness, that's what
he did. He knew what the man was gonna tell him before he
even asked him, or before he even told him. Thou knowest the
commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do
not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and thy
mother. And he answered and he said unto him, Master, all these
have I observed from my youth. What a statement. What a statement. Talk about religion puffed up.
We talked about that earlier. This man thought he was perfect.
That's what he just said to Christ. I'm perfect. I'm clean. As far
as the law is concerned, I'm blameless. I'm blameless. Paul
even said that once whenever he was talking about his pedigree,
he said, you think you have something to boast him with the law. Let
me tell you a little bit about where I was at with the law.
He said, I was, uh, the Pharisee of Pharisee circumcised the eighth
day of the tribe of Benjamin as concerning the law blameless.
He said, and everything that I counted as good, he said, I
counted all, but dung now that I may win Christ. Let's see what
the Lord tells him. He says, all these I observed
from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him, loved
him. Now that tells me two things.
Number one, that man was an elect child of God. And number two,
all the iniquity that he just confessed unto Christ, Christ
was going to bear that on the cross for him. That's exactly
right. Lord doesn't love but one way
and it's perfect. It's eternal, it's everlasting.
If he loved him, there's a few people in scripture that you
can look at by the words of our Lord and by what the scripture
says. You're like, I have no doubt that that man or that woman
right there is in glory. I have no doubt. This is one
of them right here. When Lord looked at him, he loved
him. He loved him. And said unto him, one thing
thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give
to the poor and thou shalt have treasure. in heaven and come
take up the cross and follow me. And he was sad at the saying
and went away grieved for he had great possessions. He had great possessions. He
couldn't see that those possessions didn't fulfill his need because
he couldn't see his actual need. He thought he was self-righteous.
He thought the law had justified him. So the law was given to
show us that we're made guilty, to show us that we're sinners.
And yet those that try to work the law somehow, the lie is you
can do something to please God. Now that I'm keeping the law,
I can justify myself. I can become righteous by myself.
And that's what this man was saying. All these I've observed
from my youth. I'm perfect. I'm perfect. No, he wasn't. The law was given to reveal sin,
that every mouth be stopped and the whole world be made guilty.
That's the purpose, first purpose of the law. What does the scripture
tell us? Romans, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. How would you know that if the
Lord didn't tell you? How would we know that if the Lord didn't
tell us? We can rejoice in having the law because of what it revealed.
Not what it did for us, but what it revealed that was there. I've
told you it's a, it's a mirror. That's all the law is, is a mirror.
It can't make you righteous. It can't make you holy. It can't
make you good. It can't make you just, it can't redeem you.
It's a mirror. It can show you you're a sinner and you need
a savior. That's all it can do. That's
all it can do. Well, let's go back to our text. Back to our text, Galatians three. Second purpose of the law, look
at verse 23. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. The purpose of the law, he tells
us plainly, was to be a schoolmaster. I've got the definition of that
here. It says, it's a guardian's role to oversee a child's education,
ensure their safety, and guide them often to and from school.
So they're there to protect them, to ensure that they're educated,
and to keep them from danger. The word is guardian, schoolmaster,
guardian. What was the purpose of the law?
It was to keep the children of Israel away from false gods,
from false idols. It was to show them No, this
is God that you serve. He's not false. He's not fake. You want to serve God, you're
going to serve him this way. Serving these fake gods, you're
not going to accomplish anything. It's also important to note that
the schoolmaster was for children. Schoolmaster wasn't for adults.
That's what he was talking about here whenever we keep reading
on here a little bit. He says, once faith was given,
you no longer were under a schoolmaster. Once the Lord birthed you into
his family, once he made you alive, you no longer was a child,
so to speak, where you needed. He's calling the children of
Israel children is what he's doing. And they certainly did
murmur like children, didn't they? They certainly did complain. What were the children of Israel
constantly doing they needed to be focused on? protected from,
turned back again. Does he not say so many times,
you went after these strange gods again. You went after these
strange gods again. You remember whenever Moses,
think about this. They had just saw the army of Egypt drown in
the Red Sea. They had just walked across the
Red Sea. So many hundreds of feet deep, they tell me. the walls of water on each side.
They just walked through that. They just sung the praises of
God. They get to Mount Sinai. Moses has gone too long in their
opinion. And what do they do? Do they wait on the Lord? No,
they tell Aaron, make us gods. Make us gods that we may say,
here be your gods that brought you up out of Egypt. And Aaron,
what'd he do? Did he say, I can't do that?
No, he said, well, break off your earrings and I'll make you
gods. The Lord, Lord told Moses while he's on the mountain, get
you down, Moses, Israel has corrupted themselves. So before the law
was even given, they were breaking the law. And you see, you see
that thou shalt have no other gods before me. Here they are.
They're dancing around a calf, a golden calf. That's us by nature. We desire to see something with
our eyes. We desire trinkets. We desire,
uh, oh, there's so many things that we, like to hold on to around
Christmas time. Nativity scenes is one of them.
Is that not true? It's graven images. It's all it is. Our flesh
desires to see something. Well, these children of Israel,
the Lord said, get down from the mountain. And he came down,
he saw the golden calf. Joshua said to him, there's a
noise of war in the camp. There's a noise of war in the
camp. He said, that's not the noise of war. That's the noise
of singing and dancing. They knew what they were doing.
He was in rage when he saw him. Threw the tablets that the Lord
gave him down right then. Ground the whole thing up to
powder and made him drink it. I find it interesting, though,
whenever he asked Aaron, Aaron's his brother, you understand?
So it had been a brotherly conversation. Anybody have brothers, you understand
what I mean. Man, what are you doing? And
he said to him, he said, I just took their earrings
and threw it in the fire and out popped this calf. I mean,
that's literally what he said. Can you believe that? Wouldn't
take ownership of the situation. That's us by nature. Now he broke
the other law. That's lying. That's our nature. That's our nature. Yet we can't
see it unless the Lord gives us the ability by repentance
to see it. Purpose of the law was first
to reveal their sin. The second was to guard and keep
them from idols. To draw them away from strange
gods. Back to the true and living God. To show them God is holy.
And he's a jealous God. It's what he said in Jeremiah.
I'm a jealous God. Not to be messed with, not to be trifled
with. He's holy, he's holy. In order to worship God, think
about all these sacrifices they did. This is something that while
they were under the law they saw. I have to continue to make
sacrifices in order for God to not destroy me. I have to continually
make sacrifices. Once a year they would make sacrifices.
You and I in this day and age, which we live, people think the
same thing. Well, I have to make sacrifices in the flesh also
because they go to the law and they'll go and they'll, uh, they'll
sacrifice time. They'll sacrifice what they wear.
They'll sacrifice something they eat or don't eat or drink or
don't drink. They'll do all these things as part of their righteousness. Lord said, none of that will
make you righteous. You're going back to the law again. You're
going back to the law again. What the picture was, All those
sacrifices is we cannot produce what God requires. We need a
substitute. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And our blood's tainted. He's
not going to take our sacrifice. Everything that we touch, we
defile. That's what the law showed. I touched that. I defiled it.
You remember what they, and I'm not just talking about the Ten
Commandments. I mean, the whole of the law is, it's massive. It's massive. Impossible to keep. But what would the Lord tell
him? He said, don't touch the mercy seat. Well, that was, that
was a rule. That was a law. Don't touch the
mercy seat or you'll die. Matter of fact, when Moses was on the
mountain, he said, don't come near this mountain or you will die. If
an animal touches it, it will, it will die. Well, what happened? Well, one time David was bringing
back the ark from the mercy seat. The ark's the same thing. He
was bringing back the ark from the Philistines and it began to fall. And Uzzah
decided to touch it. What'd God do? God killed him
right there on the spot. God's holy. This is what the
law shows us. God means what he says. And he says the wages of sin
is death. The sacrifices showed us that
we need a substitute. We need a substitute. The last thing, that is the last
thing. I missed that part. Lastly, to cause us to see we
need a substitute. Can't keep God's law. I cannot
produce, I cannot produce that which he requires. I cannot live
the life that he's pleased with. I cannot pray a prayer that is
not full of sin. I cannot preach a message. I'm
preaching to you right now. Everything I'm doing is if he
doesn't bless it by his spirit, if he doesn't wash it in his
blood, it's utterly sinful. That's just the truth. Everything
we produce, everything we are is sin. This is what the law
shows us. You need a substitute. I need
a substitute. I need a savior. I need one that can touch God
and not be destroyed and yet touch me and not be defiled.
And that's who the Lord Jesus Christ is. That's what he did.
You and I touched God, we couldn't even touch the mercy seat. How
are we going to touch God? He would destroy us. That's what
we see. We need to substitute. Some of these that went sacrificing,
some of these that were doing these sacrifices, some of them
because we know there were Jews that were Moses, for example.
We know he was elect. We know that Joshua was. We know
some of these really went and worshiped God whenever they would
make these sacrifices. Some of them just went to church.
You ever just went to church before? I have. I spent 20-something
years just going to church. What are you doing Sunday? You
want to go do this? No, I got to go to church. Why? Well, God
says I have to. And I was trying to establish
a righteousness by even going to church, making work out of
it. This is what we do. They just went to church. They
were going through the motions. But we didn't worship God, not in
false religion. No, Lord, he's not gonna meet
with a false gospel. We never saw the meaning. They
never saw the meaning. That's what I'm saying. Nothing's
changed is my point. Nothing's changed. It's been
this way ever since the beginning. Adam tried to worship on his
own by covering himself with fig leaves. Lord said, no, I'm
not going to receive that. Cain decided he was going to
worship on his own by bringing the fruit of his hands. Nothing's
changed. We attempt to attain righteousness,
never realizing it's just iniquity. How do you know that? Because
the law said so. The law said so. we're ever learning,
but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Our Lord
teaches us trying to keep the law is just an equity. Now let's
read this text one more time. 21 through 25 is the law then
against the promise of God. God forbid for if there had been
a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture has concluded
that 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 unto the faith which should afterward
be revealed. Wherefore the faith, the law,
wherefore the law was our schoolmaster 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. It's important we understand
the law can never, can never bring you to Christ and cause
you to believe. And that's what people believe.
If I do this and I do this, God will be satisfied with me. The
law points his Lord's people to Christ, but shows us We can't
have anything to do with the law for justification or for
righteousness because Christ is now our justification and
our righteousness. Remember, I talked about the
temple, how the temple, everything in the temple pointed to the Lord. That's that's
that's that's a great example, because it was the table of showbread. That's the bread of life, the
candles. That's the light of the world. Everything that was
there, the seven golden candlesticks. That's the number of perfection.
Everything pointed to Christ. And yet there were some. They
were just going to church. They didn't see anything, did
they? They didn't see anything. That scares me because I don't
just want to go to church. I want to see my savior. I want to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. I need him. Because the law is not going
to help me. The law can only condemn me. The law can only
show how corrupt I am. The law can only tell me and
reveal I need a substitute. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
who we need. He is who we need. were showed that his substitutionary
sacrifice is the sacrifice we must have. His perfection is
the perfection we must have. His life is why and how we live. We're in him, so his life is
our life, and our life is hid with him in God, in Christ Jesus. His death, his death is the reason
we're justified. His blood is the reason we're
made righteous. His resurrection's evidence of that. His holiness
and his substitutionary work is the reason we're sanctified.
Sanctified by his spirit. We need his electing grace, his
determinant counsel, we need his lordship. You look at the
temple. We need his priesthood. We need
the one that can go within the veil. We couldn't enter into
the veil until he ripped it in twain from top to bottom by his
own death. That veil is a picture of Christ. That veil is a picture of Christ.
You have three colors in that veil. You have the red. You have
the blue. You have the purple. You have the blues on the top.
That's his royalty. He condescended to became a man
in red. I can't remember what the purple
is. You have to forgive me. I can't remember. But it represents
Christ. It's his humanity, his deity. Anyways, I hate when I do that.
We need his sovereignty as king. As king. We need his holiness. as Lord and both Lord and Savior. We need his perfection. We need
everything about him because he's everything we're not. He's
everything we're not. We don't need him to help us.
We need him to save us. We don't need him to help us
do something. We need him to become our everything before
God. This is what everything that was revealed in the temple,
everything that was revealed By the law, you can't please
God. We can't please God. I need him to become my everything
before God, or I'm still nothing before God. And the law can't
change that. The law can't change that. No
matter how good of a life we feel that we live, no matter
how many good deeds we feel we've done, the Lord said it does not
count for anything. It's going to burn up. The only
works that matter is the Lord's works. I need his works to be
my works. I need his life to be my life.
I need his death to be my death. I need his resurrection to be
my resurrection. I need him to be mine, and I
need to be his, most importantly. We need him as an advocate. We
can't enter the veil. We can't approach the throne
of God. We need him to be our Esther,
the one that the king's pleased with. Remember the story of Esther?
King had set a decree, he didn't know exactly what he had done
because he had condemned Esther's race, the Jews. And it was all
because of Haman being jealous over Mordecai, her uncle. Mordecai
comes through and says, you've got to go talk to the king or
we're gonna die. We're all gonna die. And she
said, I can't approach the king because if he doesn't raise the
scepter and show favor towards me, he will kill me. And he said, if you don't go,
we're all gonna die. I love what she said to him.
She said, if I die, I die. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said before he came to this earth. He knew that he was going to
have to die, but he knew the love that he had towards the
father and the father towards his people. It was the sacrifice
that would save his people from their sin. He knew he was going
to die. Why do you think he kept saying,
my time has now come? He knew, that was why he was
born. But what happened with Esther?
Well, she enters into the throne room of the king and he raises
the scepter. Brethren, when the Lord saw sin
upon his son, when the law's demands were being met, when
justice was being satisfied, God did not spare his wrath. He poured out his entire wrath
upon his son for the purpose of redeeming his elected people,
to satisfy the law's demands on our behalf, to justify us
freely by his grace so that the scepter could be raised to you
and I. But the only way that could happen
is if the scepter didn't raise to him that day. Well, the good news is, is Esther
was able to intercede. She's able to advocate. That's
what our Lord does for us. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an advocate.
We have an advocate. We have a mediator. Don't you
love the thought that we pray unto the Lord and we know a little
bit of how sinful we are, but it's our nature, so we really
don't know. Lord just revealed enough of it for us to have given
his repentance and given his faith to believe him, know that
we need him. Don't you love the fact that when we pray, the Lord
takes that prayer, he washes it in his blood and he presents
it to the father. Perfect, perfect. Unto the Lord's
will. We don't know how, we know not
how we ought to pray. So he intercedes for us. This
is who we need. The law can't do any of the things
I've described in the last five minutes. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ we've got to have or we'll perish. We'll perish under the
wrath of God forever. Thank God he is the end of the
law for righteousness. The end of the law for righteousness.
All these types and pictures, they're right in front of Israel
and they couldn't see them. Even when he was upon the earth, men
couldn't see him. Can I see him? Can you see him? By faith? The
only way we're gonna see him is by faith. Everything else
is gonna be by sight. That's not seeing him, that's
seeing self. Can I see him? I've got to see him. What would you have me do unto
you? Lord, my sight. I need my sight. Jesus, Son of
David, have mercy on me. Give me my sight. What did the
Lord say? Receive thy sight. I will. Lord, if thou will, I can be
made whole. I will be thou made whole. See, he's got all the power.
The only one that has the ability. We've got to have him. If we
look to the law, brethren, our flesh cannot see our need for
him. Can reveal that we're sin. Can't
take us to him by faith and cause us to believe. We can see that
we need a substitute We must have his faith bestowed.
Then and only then can we say, Lord, I delight in my law. I delight in my law because I
realize if you hadn't given me that, I wouldn't know anything
about you. If you hadn't given us the law, how would we know
anything about God's holiness unless he told us? It revealed
we can't keep how holy he is. We need a substitute. Aren't
you thankful that Christ is the one that fulfilled all the demands
of the law on his people's behalf? all that amends of God on his
people's behalf. Purpose of the law was to make
everyone guilty. Number one. Number two is our schoolmaster.
Our schoolmaster guard, guard the Lord's people from idols.
And lastly, it calls us to see we need a substitute. what great
substitute we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the purpose
of the law. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless it to our understanding
in Christ's name. Amen. We're gonna