Facts You Should Know About the Law

Well, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles this morning to Galatians chapter 3. We're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Galatians. Just opening up God's word every Sunday and learning what God wants us to believe. And that is our authority.

What I have to say shouldn't mean anything to you unless what I say conforms with God's word. If you don't have a Bible with you, there should be a hardback copy of the Bible somewhere on a seat in front of you, maybe underneath that seat, and you will find our text for this morning on page 148. 148. Find the middle of the Bible.

There should be a tag somewhere and then go to page 148 after that, and that's our passage for, today. the title of the message this morning is, Facts You Should Know about the Law. Doesn't that just grab you? I know that a number of you woke up this morning just thinking, Lord, I wish I knew more about the law.

And here you come to church, and we're going to learn about that. Isn't that amazing? No, I know that that title does not grab you, but guys, trust me, there's awesome stuff in the message for today that will revolutionize your appreciation for Jesus, revolutionize your appreciation of the Old Testament. It'll revolutionize the way that you evangelize people and share the gospel with the lost.

and also to help set the stage for the dynamic of what's happening in Galatians at this point, I want to start with an illustration. Let's, let's have a little bit of fun, OK, shall we, and talk some chemistry, OK. I want to talk about dihydrogen monoxide. I've been researching that this week.

Dihydrogen monoxide is just about everywhere. It's in every lake, ocean, stream. In our oceans, business companies in the United States dump literally millions of gallons of this stuff into our streams and into the oceans every year. It's everywhere.

It's often in the air that we breathe, and it's even on the campus here at Cornerstone. But let me give you some facts about dihydrogen monoxide that may unsettle you a little bit. Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of dihydrogen monoxide, but the dangers of this substance do not end there.

Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of dihydrogen monoxide ingestion. Can include excessive sweating, nausea, vomiting, and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent on this substance, withdrawal from dihydrogen monoxide means certain death.

Nobody who has become dependent on this substance has ever been able to successfully withdraw from that substance without dying in a matter of a couple of weeks at the most. Dihydrogen monoxide is also known as hydroxyl acid and is the major component of acid rain. This substance contributes to global warming, can cause severe burns, contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape, accelerates the corrosion and rusting of many metals, may cause electrical failures, and decreases the effectiveness of automobile brakes.

And get this, guys, if this doesn't scare you, nothing will.

Dihydrogen monoxide has been found in every cancerous tumor that has ever been removed. They have found large deposits of dihydrogen monoxide in those tumors. Dihydrogen monoxide has caused over $100 billion in property damage in the United States in the last three years alone. And a few years ago, dihydrogen monoxide was single-handedly responsible for causing the deaths of over 200,000 people in Southeast Asia in a matter of two hours' time.

Now guys, everything I just read to you is absolutely true about this substance that is called dihydrogen monoxide, and yet I am sure that it gives you a negative feeling about this substance. Back in 1997, a kid named Nathan Zoner did a science fair project on this substance. And he laid out the facts that I just read to you along with many other facts that you can get off the internet if you're interested in researching this further, and he shared these facts with his classmates.

And at the end of presenting these facts to his classmates, he asked them the question, what should be done about dihydrogen monoxide?

And 86% of his classmates, 86% of them said that this substance should be banned. What they did not know. Is that dihydrogen monoxide is merely a scientific name for water. And we all know that there are some other facts about water that if one knows these other facts about water, then it balances the picture out and we're not so quick to ban this substance because it is essential to life.

And this science fair project done by Nathan Zoner back in '97, it illustrates an unsettling reality. And that is that all it takes, guys, to lead someone to a wrong conclusion. is not simply lies. Yeah, lies will do that.

But all it takes to lead someone to a wrong conclusion is incomplete truth. is facts, but only some of the facts and then withholding other facts. Now I begin with that this morning because that's exactly what's happening at this point of the book of Galatians. You guys know what Galatians is all about.

People were starting to look to the law and their obedience to the law to be saved by, and Paul is saying, no, salvation. Not through the law. Salvation is through Jesus Christ and through Him alone and it's not at all through the law. And in the process of teaching the Galatians about the true way of salvation, Paul has made a number of statements about this thing called the law, the Old Testament law, and almost everything that Paul has said about the law up to this point of the letter has been negative.

In fact, look at this list, Up to this point of Galatians, and there's some repetition here because Paul repeats himself, Galatians 2:16, the law can't justify anyone. Galatians 2:17, the law can't justify or make righteous anyone. Chapter 2, verse 19. The law kills.

Chapter 3, verse 2. The law can't give you the Spirit. Chapter 3, verse 5. The law doesn't bring you God's blessing.

Chapter 3, verse 10, the law curses everyone. Chapter 3, verse 11, the law can't justify anyone. Chapter 3, verse 12, the law is not of faith. Chapter 3, verse 17, the law cannot undo God's promise to Abraham.

And chapter 3, verse 18, the law does not bring salvation. Now that's what we've learned about the law up to this point of our study of Galatians all the way through Galatians 3:18. And based upon these facts alone, if Paul were to stop here in terms of giving us truth about the law, every one of us probably would conclude, if this is all we knew is what's on the screen, we would conclude that the law is bad. That the law should be banned from the Christian life and from churches, we would conclude that Christians should never have anything to do with the law at all.

We would conclude that the law is the enemy of the true way of salvation, and we would definitely conclude that if we're ever sharing the way of salvation with lost people, we should definitely never use the law. We would come to those conclusions, would we not, if all we knew about the law. what Paul has revealed up to this point of Galatians. One commentator says, as Paul comes into verse 19, it's almost as if Paul realizes he's made his point too well.

That it is not the law. It is Christ, and Paul has made his point so well that he now fears that the Galatians are like, OK, it's Jesus and Him alone and the law. That's the bad guy, and we're going to throw this out and ban it. We never want anything to do with the law again.

The law is bad. In fact, look at the questions that Paul anticipates from them based on what he has revealed. Verse 19. Why the law then?

In other words, what good is the law based on what you're saying, Paul, about the law? What good is the law? And look in chapter 3, verse 21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

Or in other words, is the law the enemy of God's promises? Is the law the bad guy? Is the law the enemy? What good is the law?

Paul knows that based on the facts that he has taught us about the law up to this point of Galatians, these are the kinds of thoughts. That we will have about the law. And so beginning in verse 19, Paul wants to give to the Galatians and to us 7 facts about the law, 7 facts that are designed to help us to appreciate the place of the law in God's salvation plan. And again, guys, if you can understand these facts and master them, it's going to enrich your appreciation of the genius of God.

you're going to be blown away by the genius of God. It'll enrich your appreciation of the Old Testament. It'll enrich your appreciation of Jesus, and it will also revolutionize the way that you evangelize or share the way of salvation with those that are lost in their sins. And so beginning in verse 19, let's begin to collect these facts and do some fact finding that Paul reveals for us regarding the law.

The first fact that we learn about the law that Paul teaches us so that we know its place in God's salvation program is this that the law was introduced by God because of our sin. The law was necessary and was introduced by God into this whole mix and into our lives and into world history because of our sin. Look at verse 19. Why the law then?

Here's his answer. It was added as a supplement because of transgressions. That's merely a big word for sin, doing bad things. In other words, God added the law.

He made a promise 2000 years ago to Abraham. You guys remember, and that is Abraham in you and through your seed, all the nations are going to be blessed. And we know from Galatians what God was thinking when he made that promise to Abraham 2000 years before Christ. That God was thinking about the fact that He through Christ was going to save people of all the nations through faith alone in Christ alone and make them righteous.

All right, that was God's plan. But About 400 some odd years later, God adds the written law into the mix. And why? He added it because of transgressions or because of sin.

In other words, God observed that we had a sin problem. God also observed that we needed salvation from that sin problem. But God also observed that we did not know that we had a sin problem. And he observed that we would never have thought that we needed salvation from that sin problem.

And so God added the law into the mix. He introduced the law so that we would know of our sin problem and hence our need for salvation through Jesus. In fact, just to put it simply, God introduced the law to reveal that we have a sin problem, to reveal the depth and the magnitude of our sin problem, and to reveal to our own consciences the need for salvation from our sin problem. if God did not introduce the law, what would have happened?

He would have sent Jesus into the world. Jesus would have died, been buried, raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of God. God would have said to us, Believe in my Son, and you will be saved. And we would have looked at that and yawned and said, Well, that's all very nice that he did that, but frankly I don't need salvation.

I don't have a problem. So God introduced the law so that we would see that we had a problem. We are fallen in sin. We are rebels at heart, are we not?

How are we ever going to see that we're rebels? Well, God gave us the law that communicated His will to us. Then we react against that law and we come to see for ourselves the rebels that we are. none of us like being told what to do, do we, especially by someone in authority over us.

There's something in the human psyche that that just cuts against the grain of to be told by an authority what to do and then to just happily do that. We are rebels at heart. And I saw this on display a couple of years ago, and I'm going to share with you something I did as a parent. I'm not recommending this.

In fact, probably what I did is open to criticism by some of you, but I did it, so I'm going to share it with you. A couple of years ago I got a DVD camera and was fiddling around with it one day and so I thought I would do an experiment with my children, my two youngest children, Benjamin and Brianna. And so I set up the camera on the dresser in our bedroom and then I called Benjamin up to the room and so he came up and sat on the bed with me and I had a box in my hand and we talked for a little bit and I said I've got some stuff I want to talk to you about, but I said oh what I've got to go downstairs.

I've got to get something.

I'll be up in just a minute. But before I left, I said, Benj, I'm gonna set this box right here. Do not open this box. Do not even so much as touch this box.

Do you understand me? Yes, I understand. Well, I go downstairs, the camera is running. A minute later, I come up and he's sitting all prim and proper on the bed.

And then I told him, I said, the camera is right over there and it's been running the whole time I've been gone, and he was like, Oh no. And I said I would like to watch the what it taped along with you. So we sat down together and we watched it, and it was really fascinating. As soon as, as soon as I walked out of the room, he leaned over to see that I was gone, and then his attention was riveted on the box, and he was looking at it.

And looking at it from every side, and then he took his hand and he got real close to the box, but he never touched it, but he got real close. Then his boldness increased and he actually touched the box and then he lifted up the lid, looked in and about then he hears my footsteps coming up the steps and he put the box down and then he's sitting all prim and proper when I walk in. So it provided a great opportunity for me to talk to my son about, our sin natures and our rebellious will, but after that lecture, Benjamin said, Dad, do this to Brianna.

And I am thankful to have a son committed to the spiritual growth of his younger sister.

So I did the same thing with Brianna and I walked out of the room after telling her don't touch the box, and to her credit, she never touched the box. But The whole time I was out of the room, she was riveted to the box. She looked at nothing else. When we watched the video together, she was staring at the box.

And just really perplexed, like looking at it from every side, she even took her hand and got close to it and then retracted her hand before she touched it. But she paid attention to nothing other than the box. Now, had I walked out of that room and never said anything about the box, Brianna probably would have been focused on whatever else. But the fact that I gave the prohibition.

Made her interested. That what is in my two children. is in all of us, is it not? God says thou shalt not, and something about the command.

Excites within us an interest in the very thing that has been prohibited. The apostle Paul was just like Benjamin in Brianna. Listen to how he describes what happens in Romans 7. He says, What shall we say then?

Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law, for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, You shall not covet. And remember, thou shalt not covet is the 10th of the 10 Commandments, and he's like, I would have never known coveting was bad unless I was told not to covet.

But now look at how he explains this in verse 8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. When the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died. Man, does that resonate with you?

Paul would say that doesn't make the law bad. The law does not put sin inside of us. That sin was already inside of us. But when the commandment came, the sin within us became alive.

That commandment, the law merely brings to the surface the pollution of sin that was in us all along. And what, because of Paul's interaction with the law and he looks at these commands and prohibitions and that excited sin within him, and he found himself behaving even worse than he would have if there never was a law, upon realizing that about himself, when Paul saw the way of salvation through Jesus, what did he do? He embraced it and he would have never embraced it if he was not brought to an awareness of the fact that he had a sin problem.

To understand the depth of his sin problem and to understand the fact that he needed deliverance from that sin problem.

So why? God's going to save people by faith and give them righteousness simply by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Why would God add the law? He added the law because of sin.

So that we would know we have a sin problem and need deliverance from that sin problem. There's a second fact about the law that Paul wants us to understand so as to balance out our perspective on the law, and that is that the law came from God to man through angels and Moses. Part of his goal is to show us that the law has its own level of grandeur about it. There's a beauty and a grandeur about the law and its origin.

Look what he says in verse 19. Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator. And who's the mediator?

Moses. All right, so it came from God through angels to Moses and then from Moses to the people of Israel. Now it may surprise you to know that angels had something to do with the passing of the law on to from God to Moses, but actually, if you guys go to Acts 7 to the speech that Stephen gave in the book of Acts to the Sanhedrin, listen to what he says by describing How the law came about, he says this Moses is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and Moses received living oracles to pass on to you, you who received the law as ordained by angels.

And Hebrews 2:2.

The writer of Hebrews speaks of the Old Testament law as the words spoken through angels. Now we don't understand the mechanics of how all of this took place, but the sense you get is that the law came from God, the 10 Commandments and all the other 613 regulations came from God, through angels to Moses and then from Moses to the people. of Israel. Now, I don't want you to lose me here.

There's a little bit of a sidetrack, because Paul is speaking positively about the law here saying it came from God through angels to Moses, from Moses to the people of God. but he can't resist making a little bit of a comparison that on the surface is not readily clear. Look at verse 20. He says, now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one.

I just want to tell you guys that verse 20 is noted by many writers as one of the most difficult verses in all of Paul's epistles. One commentator said there's over 300 interpretations of verse 20. I don't know how he could come up with a number like that, but I just share that with you to alert you to the fact that this is a notoriously difficult passage, and I'm not going to solve it here this morning. I don't even know how to fully solve it, but I can try to give you maybe a paraphrase that captures at least something of the sense of what Paul is communicating.

Here's what I think Paul is trying to communicate in verse 20. he's just said that the law came from God through angels, through Moses, essentially to the people of Israel. So there's mediation there, and it's a little bit indirect. It's not God speaking directly to the people of Israel.

It was him speaking through an angel to Moses from Moses to the people of Israel. Paul then says, now a mediator is not needed for a one party promise. I think that's what he's saying. A mediator is not needed for a one party promise, whereas God is a party of one, and he was the only one who made a promise to Abraham.

I think that's the sense of what he's trying to convey. And and to explain that, you guys remember from last week how Carlos was explaining how God made the promise to Abraham. God spoke that promise directly. It was not indirect through some human mediator.

He spoke it directly to Abraham and It was a one party promise. God cut those animals or had Abraham cut those animals in half, and who was the one who walked through those animals? God. Did he ask Abraham to?

Did you say, Abraham, I want you to walk through those animals, and I want you to make a promise to me, and if you do this and this and this, then I will bless you and my promise will come true? No, it was a one party promise. God was the only one who walked through those animals that had been cut in half. And so, there is no mediator needed for a one party promise.

The Old Testament law, however, God spoke it through Angels to Moses through Moses to the people of Israel. The people of Israel needed to respond and ratify the covenant. By when the blessings and the cursings were being read, they had to say amen. So be it, to those blessings and curses.

They needed to respond and agree to that and ratify that. It was a two party promise. The law was. However, the covenant with Abraham was not.

Well, you guys can study that further and explore the other 299 views of verse 20, but moving on, there is a third fact about the law that is revealed at the end of verse 19, and that is that the law was divinely intended to reign until Christ came. Paul knows the Galatians are thinking the law is bad now. Based on what Paul is saying, it's the enemy. We need to throw it out.

It should have never been in existence. He's made his point almost too well, but he wants them to know, hey, The law was introduced by God because of sin. It came from God to man through angels and Moses. There's a beauty and a grandeur about that, although it's not as glorious as the gospel, but fact number 3, the law was divinely intended to reign until Christ came for a period of about 1500 years.

Look at verse 19. Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Who is the seed?

Jesus. All right. And so the law was given about 1500 years before Christ, died and was buried and was raised until the gospel became a full historical reality and up until that time, from the time the law was given in about 14. 55 BC until the time that Christ died, was buried, and was raised and ascended, God intended for the Old Testament law of the 10 Commandments and the other 600 some odd regulations of the law to reign supreme during that time.

He's trying to tell the Galatians this was a part of the plan of God. But having given those facts, Paul then moves to 1/4 fact about the law, and that is that the law was never designed to impart life and righteousness. The law was never designed to impart life and righteousness. Look at verse 21.

He says, Is the law then contrary to or the enemy of the promises of God that God gave to Abraham of salvation through the seed? Is the law the enemy of the promises of God? May it never be, for if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law. His point is, guys, in a nutshell, is that the law is not the enemy of the gospel because the law was never intended to serve the same function as the gospel.

If the law had been created by God to actually impart life and to impart righteousness, well, that would make it an enemy of the gospel because the gospel claims to impart life and impart righteousness. But he's saying the law is not the enemy of the gospel. Because the law was never intended to serve the same function as the gospel, the law was never designed to impart life and to impart righteousness. In a way, Paul is defending the negative things he said about the law.

Paul has said 3 times in Galatians so far that essentially the law cannot justify or make anyone righteous, right? But he's now wanting to say, hey, the reason I can say that without disrespecting the law is because the law was never intended to actually accomplish that purpose. In fact, just to illustrate, a silly illustration. I'm not sure what this is doing down in the office, but this is a can of Raid, and this particular one specializes in killing ants.

Now, if I stood up here and I said I want to tell you some facts about raid, and the first fact is that raid. Does not serve as an effective bath soap. Do not use this in the shower to clean your body. This is not an effective shampoo.

Do not use it for that purpose. this would make a terrible toothpaste. Do not use this to clean your teeth. Now, if I made those truth statements about this can of Raid, would any of you think, Milton, what are you doing dissing the Raid can for?

You would never think I'm disrespecting this because you would know the raid was never intended to serve those purposes. But let's say there are people in this congregation who I have found out are brushing your teeth with raid. And you're having some problems. with your mouth and your teeth, I would then say to you, Hey, raid is not an effective toothpaste.

What I'm doing is I'm not speaking against the raid. It was never intended to serve that purpose. I'm speaking against the misuse of the raid, and that's exactly what Paul is doing here in the book of Galatians. He's not speaking against the law when he says the law does not impart life and righteousness.

Because the law was never intended to impart life and righteousness, so the law is not the enemy, it's the misuse of the law for a purpose for which it was not intended that is the problem that Paul is seeking to address. And so Paul in verse 21 says that the law was never designed to impart life and righteousness, and that's how I can say repeatedly in this letter and in many other letters and in my preaching ministry that the law does not justify anyone. That's how I can say that over and over again and not be disrespecting the law because it was never intended to serve that purpose.

You say, Well, what was its purpose?

He is. The first statement of the purpose of the law, fact number 5 about the law, is that the law was designed to lock us up under sin so that faith in Christ would be our only recourse. That is the purpose of the law, in a nutshell, to lock us up under sin so that faith in Christ would be our only recourse. Look at verse 22.

But the scripture, and when he says scripture, he's meaning the written law, the written 10 Commandments, and all the other commandments. But the written law has shut up everyone under sin. So that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. That's why God gave the law.

To lock us up Under sin So that we cannot escape, and we're left with our only recourse being Jesus Christ. And believing in him. That is the function of the law, to lock us up under the condemnation of sin, to lock us up under the awareness of our sinfulness and the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the depth of the pollution of sin that is inside of us, to lock us up under the awareness of the guilt of our sin and our inability to be delivered from that by performing in a more righteous way in obedience to the law.

That is the purpose of the law.

I was reading this week about John Bunyan. You guys know who he is, the guy that wrote Pilgrim's Progress a few 100 years ago. Next to the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress is the best selling book of all time. If you've never read it, I would encourage you to read it.

But John Bunyan, just a portion of his testimony real quick. he had a really filthy mouth and was known by all as just an incredibly profane man with his language, but reading excerpts of his testimony this week, he was sharing how he was in church one day as a young man, and he heard a sermon on just one of the 10 Commandments, and he felt so convicted and condemned by his disobedience to that one command repeatedly. That it haunted him over the next few days and he just knew, I am condemned.

I am condemned, I am lost.

Around that time, he was talking to a woman in the town where he lived, speaking to her through a window. And hurling all manner of profanity as he was talking to this woman, just filthy, perverse, profane, and this woman actually began to tremble from what she was hearing and she said to John Bunyan, she said, You are the most ungodly man I know. Well, the reason it was significant coming from that woman was that she herself was one of the most ungodly women in the town, and she's telling him, You are the most ungodly man and the most ungodly profane speaking man that I know, and you make me tremble.

Well, that really struck him to the core.

And so he began to clean up his act, and he resolved, what, I am never going to use another profanity again. I'm going to clean up my tongue. And, and not do that anymore. And so listen to what he says.

He says, I set the commandments, that's the law before me for my way to heaven, which commandments I strove to keep. And as I thought, Did keep pretty well sometimes. I continued to live so a year though I knew not Christ nor grace nor faith nor love, and I was nothing but a poor painted hypocrite. He goes on to say my inward and original pollution was my plague and affliction that I saw at a dreadful rate, always putting forth itself within me, and by reason of that, I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a toad, and I thought I was so in God's eyes too.

I guess back then toads were bad. But You see what he's doing. He's Looking at the law, trying to obey it as his way of salvation, trying to perform, trying to be righteous, and yet there was a pollution inside of him that seemed to be just pumping forth to where he was left so dissatisfied with his inability to be righteous in his own performance in his own behavior, and he's left with the conclusion. That I am loathsome.

In my own eyes. And in God's eyes. How did he come to that conclusion? It was the law.

That took him there. This is a man who at this point in his life, got locked up effectively by the law under sin. And left at a place where his only recourse was Jesus. And to believe in Him for deliverance.

And it was soon thereafter that John Bunyan actually did that. In fact, he heard or was reading in Scripture where Jesus said, Anyone who comes to me, I will in no wise cast him away. And John Bunyan saw those words. He's like, Anyone, anyone who comes to me, that includes me.

And he said the devil tried to say to me, No, anyone does not mean you, only lesser sinners like you. he was so persuaded of his sinfulness that he actually looked at this promise from Jesus and thought, I'm too much of a sinner for this to apply to me. That's how much the law had done its work, but then he says, I reasoned it through and realized, no, Jesus said anyone, and anyone means anyone, and that includes me, even the worst of sinners that ever lived, and he says that I came to Jesus by faith, and oh, the explosion of love that I experienced in my heart for Him.

I was ready to die, he said.

I just wanted to die to go be with God and to show my love to Him. That's what the law does. It locks us up under sin. So that faith in Christ is our only recourse.

That's what Paul teaches us in verse 23. There's a 6th fact about the law that is synonymous with the 5th fact, but I want to keep it separate because there's a nuance here that stretches out the idea. And so I want to treat it separately. In verse 23, a 6th fact about the law is this, and that is that the law was designed to keep us in its custody until faith in Christ came.

look what he says in verse 23. But before faith came, we were kept, and the word kept is the imperfect tense. In other words, we were continually kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. You see, God command.

In the law to lock us up, to get us under sin and an awareness of our own sin to where Jesus is our only recourse, but God also knew that we're going to try to escape, right? We see the law and it's like, man, I've been doing a bad job. I've got to clean up my act, and we're going to try to perform. We're going to try to do better.

We're going to try to escape and get out from underneath that. But God commissioned the law to not just lock us up, but to keep us in its custody and not let us escape. Prisoners love to escape. And everyone loves a Prison Break story.

There's, I think there's a TV series on now called Prison Break or something like that where the whole point of it is guys are in prison. There's all this security around, all these odds against them, and over the length of the television season, they end up getting out of prison or something like that, but the law. has been commissioned and created by God to lock us up. And to keep us in that spot and to keep us in its custody.

So that we cannot absolutely cannot escape. why? Because I want you to imagine it this way. This is the spot where salvation through Jesus is going to flow.

We were over here. God commissioned the law to put us over here under sin and to keep us there, right in that spot where God's salvation was going to flow. What did Jesus say when he was on the earth? He says, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

I didn't come for righteous people, but sinners. Why would he say that? Isn't everyone a sinner? No one's righteous.

Yeah, what he's really saying is I didn't come to minister to people who think they're righteous. I came for those who know their sinners. In other words, I came for those whom the law has done its work and who are in this spot. Those are the people I came for to bring salvation to.

And what, as the law locks us up in custody under sin and as it holds us there and won't let us escape, and whenever we try, it won't let us, and failure after failure persuades us even more of our sin, it seems like the law is our enemy, doesn't it? But it's actually being our friend. A few months ago, we've got a dog. Her name is Roxy, and she's about a 65, 70 pound boxer, and A few months ago, she had this growth that was growing out of a particular just on her back end towards the left side.

I don't want to go into too much detail here, but it, it was getting, it was getting larger and larger and grossing people out, so we knew we needed to get it removed. And so I took her to the vet and when we got to Dr. Butchko's there off the 60, Roxy was fine going in and loved seeing all the other animals and when they called our name, she came right with me back into the operating room. And they ended up putting her to sleep and they removed the growth and stitched her up.

Well, we then, I came and picked her up the next day and and brought her home, and about a week later the stitches were coming undone, so the wound was reopening. So about a week later I took her back and went into the waiting room and Roxy was totally fine, enjoying all the other animals. They called her name and I walked back there. She comes obediently right with me.

And we get her up on the table and the vet looks at her and says, Wow, we've got, we got to do something here. He says, what? I'm going to staple her this time. So without putting any local anesthesia, using any of that, he just closed the wound and stapled her.

And so now pain is associated with being at that place. A couple weeks later, I came back for them to take a look at her like they had told me to, and when we pull into the parking lot, Roxy starts shaking. And and she comes out of the car obediently with me and we go into the lobby of the of the the vet, and she is just, she's clinging to me, she's nervous and not enjoying the other animals there at all, and then they called her name. And it was time to take her back into the room where she had gotten hurt before.

And when I stood up to take her back, she was on a leash. She laid down on her back and just went completely limp like a dead animal. And, and I, I was like, come on, Roxy, and I was trying to pull her and I'm dragging her on the floor. She's skidding on her back and she, she wasn't moving and so I thought, man, the only thing I can do is pick her up.

So I try to get my hands underneath her, but whenever I'm like trying to get my hand underneath, she rolls that way and I can't, I can't even get underneath her to pick her up. And then even when I did get my hand underneath her, under one part of the body, I tried to pick her up and the rest of her body was completely limp. And she was like a rag doll, and it was all I could do to get her into that room, and everyone, there were about 20 people around with their obedient animals and And they're all, they're all giving me advice and telling me what to do, and I felt really stupid, but eventually I got her gathered up in my arms and I took her into the back room and I set her on the table and put her in a standing position and I held onto her right next to her face, and another worker held on to her back end while the staples were removed.

And during those that 1015 minutes where I was holding Roxy, she was looking at me with her big brown eyes.

With a look that said, You are my enemy. And it, it was, it was a pathetic, it was a pathetic look where she's like, why are you doing this to me? But what, I was doing that for her good. To put her and then to keep her in custody right in the spot where she could get the help that she needed and what, 15 minutes later she loved me.

she got down from the table when we left the vet she was like on cloud nine just really happy and happy on the ride home. And I was glad that I did the work that I did to get her where she needed to be and then to hold her in custody there and that's what the law does, guys, for us. We need help. We are sinners.

The law was designed by God to show us the depth of our sin. gravity of our sin and then to lock us up under sin because that's where God's salvation is going to be coming. That's where the help is that we're going to need. And then the law kept us in its custody and did not let us escape.

Imagine if the law got us right where we needed to be and then let us escape. And then Jesus came and said, I am your Savior. We would have been, well, thank you very much, but don't really need that. I'm doing fine on my own.

Listen to what one writer says about this very passage and about the law. He says the law was all the while standing guard over its subjects, watching and stopping every attempt to escape, but intending to hand its subjects over in due time to the care of faith. The law posts its ordinances like so many sentinels round the prisoner's cell. The prisoner tries again and again to break out, yet the iron circle will not yield.

The deliverance will soon come, though. The day of faith approaches. It dawned long ago in Abraham's promise. Even now its light shines into the dungeon, and the prisoner hears the words of Jesus, Thy sins are forgiven thee.

Go in peace. And the law The stern jailer has after all been a good friend. If it has reserved its prisoner. For this On that day that you walked out of that cell into the arms of Jesus, If you would have looked back at the law, the jailer, the law would not have been pouting like, Oh, I lost another one.

The law would have had a smile on his face. And would have nodded at Jesus, and Jesus would have nodded at the law. A nod of approval saying thank you. You did your job, law.

And you had them and kept them under sin. Because that's where my salvation came. The law rejoiced on the day that you escaped into the arms of Jesus. And that leads to the final fact about the law, which sums everything up, and that is that the law was specifically designed by God to lead us to Christ.

To lead us To Christ. Look at verse 24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified. By faith.

Now the word tutor is a little misleading in our language today. Today, a tutor is someone who actually, does the teaching. The Greek word that is translated tutor. Is the Greek word we get our English word pedagogue from.

And back in this day in Greek and Roman society, a pedagogue was usually a slave, and when a boy turned 6 years of age, from age 6 all the way to his late teens, a pedagogue was assigned to him, and the pedagogue would teach the boy manners and other basic life skills and was allowed. By the dad to use a switch if necessary in disciplining the boy. It was the pedagogue who walked the boy to school when he was of school age, and the pedagogue would carry the boy's satchel and other school equipment.

And when the boy arrived at school, the pedagogue would stay at the school with him, often in the classroom with the boy while The boy listened to his main teacher, and when the boy left school that day, it was the pedagogue's responsibility to drill the young man and to refresh his memory of the lesson and to ensure that he was doing his homework and mastering the lessons that he had been taught.

And Paul is saying the law. Was our pedagogue. That led us to Jesus. It walked to school with us, carried our stuff, took us to Jesus, and even now the law plays a role in our lives as believers in continuing to point us to Jesus.

And to make sure that we are appreciating Him as our Lord and our Savior. Guys, just we're running out of time here. Let me just throw some thoughts at you real quick. This is the last slide.

Appreciate the law. The law is beautiful, created by God for all the reasons we've looked at. The law is what led you to Jesus, and you need to bless the law. You need to bless the Lord for this creation of God.

that puts you in a position to where Jesus was your only recourse. Also, even as a believer, use the law when preaching the gospel to yourself. Paul, when he's rehearsing the gospel in Romans 567 and 8, man, he talks about the law a lot and even reviews like for example, thou shalt not covet, and he's reviewing what that did to him in terms of exciting the sin that was inside of him. when I preach the gospel to myself, a lot of times what I will do is go through the 10 Commandments just to review the depth of my failure, not so I could be beaten down, but so that I could then really see the magnitude of the grace of God.

It's like, look at how I failed. I failed at every one of them millions of times, and And this is what I deserve for my failures, and yet look at what God has done for me and the grace and the forgiveness. And I had no righteousness that I could have come before God with. I struck out on every one of God's commandments, but Jesus perfectly obeyed.

The law and I came to him by faith. I looked at my righteousness. I looked at His righteousness, and suddenly I said, I don't want my righteousness anymore. I want his, and I believed in Him and God forgave me of all of my sins, and He gave me the righteousness of Jesus as a gift.

Reviewing the law, even as a believer enhances your appreciation of the gospel. I would also challenge you guys to use the law when preaching the gospel to the lost. that we have a mamby pamby. smarmy version of the gospel that's often out there where people go up to the lost people and say, hey, God loves you.

Jesus loves you. Won't you believe in Him? And people are thinking, well, of course he does. What is there not to love?

I'm a great person and a good guy, good gal, and yeah, I believe in him because he believes in me, it's, it's that mentality. We got people getting saved who never knew that they were lost in the first place. And think about it. Are you interested in leading people to Christ?

Are you? Well then, when you read a passage like verse 24 that says the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, you're going to go, Whoa, what a resource here in helping lead people to Jesus. If this is what the law does, I want to use the law to help people to see their sin. To see the gravity of their sin, and for them to realize that they need salvation from their sin problem, and from the condemnation of their sin, so that then when I speak of Jesus, they're now in the spot.

Where Jesus can really help them. So use the law. When you're sharing Christ with the loss, go through the 10 Commandments. Thou shalt not lie.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Go through those commandments to help people to see that they have broken the law of God. They're under God's judgment, and they need a Savior.

And that's why Jesus came. Also, never use the law for purposes for which it was not intended, guys. The law is never intended to help enrich your standing with God and to make you have favored status with God. That's not the purpose of the law.

If you try to use the law for that purpose, you're going to get chewed up and spit out. You're going to be majorly woefully defeated. The law is designed to point you to Jesus, OK, to point you to Jesus all the time. Appreciate your freedom from the condemnation of the law, and ultimately appreciate Jesus who obeyed the law perfectly for you so that now all that was left for you is to look to Him.

And believe in him. And be delivered from sin and its condemnation and to be saved forever. Let me ask you to bow your heads. Lord, what a glorious God you are.

I pray that if there's any in this room right now, who have been living under the law, trying to obey the law and be a good person. Lord, just help them to see, just penetrate their minds and help them to see that their only recourse is Jesus. They can never be good enough to be righteous before you. Help them to understand that the purpose of the law is to show them their sin and to show them their helplessness to save themselves, and to show them that their only hope is Jesus.

And may they believe in Him today for us. Who have believed in Jesus, Lord, we are so prone to look back to the law as a way of being righteous. May We always keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And appreciate the law because the law points us to Him.

May we be forever, Lord, riveted in our focus and in our love, in our worship, and our appreciation on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to him be all the glory. And all God's people said, Amen.