Galatians 3; Matthew 5:17-20
First, we’ll be looking at Jesus works from Matthew chapter five, verses 17 through 20. And then we’ll take a peek at Galatians chapter three, all 29 verses. So Matthew chapter 17, Jesus is speaking about coming not to abolish the law, but coming to fulfill it. In Matthew 5, beginning at verse 17, this is in the context of the Sermon on the Mount and just after the Beatitudes. And Jesus says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, You will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then over to Galatians chapter three, probably not a terribly easy passage, but y’all were paying attention some years ago when we went through Galatians, I’m very sure. And you remember it all. Galatians chapter three, remember the Galatians were running well in their faith, but some, Law keeping, law teaching, people had come in and they’re having to keep festivals and feasts and even demanding some be circumcised. And so Paul yells at the Galatians. And in chapter three, verse one, this is where he is not so nice. He says, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes. that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it, once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say into off springs, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean, the law which came 430 years afterward does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it is no longer comes by a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made And it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not.
For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs, according to the promise.
Amen. This is God’s great and gracious word. Somehow today I have landed on the task of explaining the law in one sermon and the gift of tongues in another. What have I done? Here’s a good way to begin thinking about our subject tonight. You have been to church before.
And you have felt like the preacher was beating you over the head. You’re bad. You’re terrible. You’re backsliding. You’re not pleasing the Lord. You’re not honoring your parents. You know, your hair is too long. Your skirt is too short. You know, you’re not homeschooling. You’re not eating the Old Testament diet. You’re not voting Republican. not doing the Dave Ramsey diet, the budget, you know, on and on it can go.
You’ve been to church before and you feel like you have been beat over the head, be better, do better, quit this and start doing that. And you leave church feeling that God is displeased with you. Now the leaving with God feeling displeased with you is the really bad part. Guilt, guilt, and guilt, and more guilt. And you’re told, rededicate your life, try harder, be better, do better, quit your backsliding, walk the aisle, come forward. You are crushed and never comforted, and you are never encouraged. that you can rest in Christ alone for your salvation.
Now, the job of the pastor is not to do that. If you have ever sat in a church that is every week leaving you feeling that way, your pastor, that pastor has failed to do his job. In fact, the job of the pastor is to encourage those who are in Jesus Christ to take notice and encouragement that they are in Christ and to live in such a way. The job of the pastor is to discourage those who are not in Christ, that they are not in Christ and need to be found in Christ. It’s basic gospel ministry. The job of the minister is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
If you follow our shorter catechism on the effect of the reading and the preaching of the word of God. It simply says the reading and especially the preaching of God’s word will comfort and build up saints in their most holy faith. Notice it doesn’t say beat them over the head and tell them they’re a bunch of backsliders who need to tithe more and join the deacon board. The job is to comfort and build up saints in their most holy faith. Now in comforting and building up saints, you may take them down to their knees where they repent. And they come to the gospel yet again and walk by faith because they haven’t been doing that. There may be that, but your job is to comfort and build them up.
And the other side of that is to convince and convert sinners by the promises of God to salvation. And in convincing and in converting the sinners, you may say hard and harsh things. You may speak of judgment. You may speak of disobedience and God’s displeasure. but it’s the end. We comfort and build up saints, we convince and we convert sinners.
Now, a hard-hearted believer may leave church and because they love their sin more than their savior, they may fall headlong into a life of backsliding. And yes, maybe they do need to be whacked on the head by the elders. That’s figurative, right? I don’t think we’ve whacked anybody to this day. We probably would have liked to, but we haven’t.
And it could be that a person recalcitrant in their unbelief comes and comes and comes, but the more they hear, the less they believe. Those things are possible, but it is the job of the pastor to encourage and to comfort and to build up. It is the job of the preacher to convince and convert sinners to salvation. And so, yes, we’re going to talk about the law tonight, but we’re going to talk about it in a way that I don’t think will make you leave thinking, oh, I’m such a failure.
I must do. I must be. I must try. I must strive. I’m so horrible. I’m so terrible. You may feel that way for a moment. But there’s got to be both law and gospel. There’s got to be law and grace. You don’t get off the hook, but you do see the way through. So we’ll talk for a moment about the law and the gospel. Now, let me make a couple of distinctions that I think will be helpful.
When we read the Old Testament, the first five books of the Bible, that Moses wrote, they contain in them three types of law. Now we’ve got the 10 commandments, which we often call the moral law. And we’ll see tonight that it is broken up into two tables.
The first four commandments deal with God, no idols, no graven image, no name in vain. And remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. So the first table of the law, four, deal with our relationship to God. The second table, commandments five through 10, those six help us live in right relation with our neighbor, honor our parents and those in authority over us.
Do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet. And so we often refer to that as the moral law. And the moral law is what we are speaking of when we think of the law of God and the life of the believer. That’s primarily what we’re speaking of. Now, in the Old Testament, when you’re reading the books of Moses, in addition to the moral law or the Ten Commandments, there’s what we call the civil law. Israel was a theocracy. It was a godocracy. It was a nation peculiar to God and his people. And so God gave a civil law, a national law to the people of Israel.
They couldn’t run stop signs. Well, that’s not in there, but you get the idea. These were civil laws that if this or that, or this or that took place in the life of the nation of Israel, this is how God wanted his judges to deal with it. And so there’s the moral law, the 10 commandments. There’s the civil law for the theocratic nation of Israel. And then third, there was what we call the ceremonial law. That’s the Levitical law, the laws of the cult of Israel.
You shall take a lamb without blemish. The priest shall lay its hands on that lamb and he shall commit to it the sins of the people. And it goes on to explain the scapegoat or say it’s the peace offering, the first fruits offering or what to do if you have leprosy or what to do if there is mold found in your house or what do you do with. this situation or that. So you’ve got the moral law, the 10 commandments, you’ve got the civil law, the theocratic laws of Israel, and then you’ve got the ceremonial law.
You read the New Testament and the ceremonial law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We no longer need to offer ceremonial lambs or bulls or sacrifices because the everlasting lamb of God has been slain. And as the book of Hebrews tells us a thousand times, those were types and shadows in the old Testament ceremony, pointing to the reality, Jesus and Jesus has come.
And Jesus is the full final and accepted sacrifice. And you’ll see things like in the book of Acts, where Peter has a dream and the, the blanket from heaven is shown with all kinds of foods in it. And God declares all foods to be clean. What was formerly unclean is now clean. And so we have bits and pieces like that in the New Testament to tell us the ceremonial law has been fulfilled. So what do we do with the ceremonial law? What do we do with the civil or theocratic law of Israel? Do we just say all done?
Don’t need it. Tear those pages out of your Bible. Get a Sharpie and write over those, you know, just draw a black line over Now, you don’t want to do that because partly because it’ll bleed through and then you can’t read what’s on the next page because we have thin Chinese printed Bibles. So you don’t want to do that. But no, here’s the real reason you don’t want to do that.
We believe that the laws of God that have been useful for a time in the life of God’s people and have been fulfilled in Jesus or because there is no longer a theocratic nation. And since we’re not dispensational, there’s not going to be another one, just so you’ll know. We believe that you can look at the ceremonial law and you can look at the civil law and they can provide what we call general equity principles for life.
Okay, should you live in a house with mold? No, you shouldn’t. It’s not in my job description to come inspect your houses and bring my little cloth and find mold. But if you got mold in your house, it’s a general principle that mold is not good for your health.
See, most of the ceremonial laws in the life of the Israelites, they were for holiness and healthiness. You don’t want to spread mold. You don’t want to spread leprosy. You also don’t want to spread sin. And that’s why we would get rid of sin in the camp.
So we can look at the ceremonial laws. We can look at the theocratic laws. It’s not good to run Hebrew stop signs. They didn’t have those, but you get the idea. There’s what we call the general equity or principle. We can build a nation of laws that are founded on Judeo-Christian values, Hebrew principles. That’s a good thing. We can live wholly clean lives.
During COVID, we would get the, Trader Joe’s things of soap at our house. And it said on the thing of soap, cleanliness is next to godliness. There’s a little something to that, isn’t there? If the Old Testament cultic or ceremonial and even civil laws led to cleanliness, which led to holiness, we want to be clean.
We want to not be unclean. clean. Those are big words, redemptive words in the Bible. Okay. So back to the law. And now we’re talking about the moral law. Now we’re talking about the 10 commandments, which you just so laboriously read out loud together. Uh, what about the law? What about obedience to the law?
Let me say just here at the beginning, and to get this out of the way, We do not obey the law in order to earn righteousness. Okay, we cannot do that. It is not possible and it does not matter if you set out to try it and we’re pretty good at it. You can never obey God’s law perfectly and earn your justification. It is impossible and here’s why.
Remember when God made Adam and Eve and he brought them into the garden and he gave them all kinds of standards, but the one we know specifically in Genesis 2, 17 of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it in the day you eat of it. You will surely die. And you guys are good theologians. You’ve been around and you know, the fourfold state of man is outlined by Thomas Boston. And I think St. Augustine probably mentioned it.
In the garden, it was possible for Adam to not sin. He could choose not to eat and live. And it’s our understanding that after a probationary period, if he did not eat of the tree, that he and Eve and their offspring after them would live perpetually in righteousness. And the goodness of God in the garden and the goodness of God and his glory would have spread across the face of the earth there would have been no sin. Now we’re going to get that in the new heavens and the new earth at the last day.
But it was also possible for Adam to sin. And we know from Genesis chapter three that Satan came in the garden and he took God’s best gift, Eve, and he seduced Eve into being a god unto herself and to living autonomously apart from God. And the food, the tree, became a delight to her eyes. And she took some and ate it and gave some also to Adam who was standing there with her.
And he failed to keep the garden. He was working it and making it produce, but he failed to keep it. He should have taken that garden implement and killed the serpent and said, not in my garden, not in God’s garden. But he was seduced along with his wife.
And so after Adam and Eve sinned, it was not, or I’m sorry, it was only possible to sin. And so could Adam and Eve in their state of sin and misery, could they have said, you know, God, we want a do-over. We want to be like the third graders out on the kickball field or on the wiffle ball field. And you know, when you strike out, you say, can I get a do-over? You know, that principle, play yard rules. And we give do-overs all the time. We give do-overs, but God does not give do-overs.
If we disobey and we’re Adam, we have failed. We have thrown and thrust all mankind into sin and misery. And so Adam is our representative, brought all mankind into a state of sin and misery. And so born naturally, born with the sin nature, it is only possible for us to sin against God. It is not possible for us to not sin in our natural state. We have to be born again from above. And so we who are Christians, it’s possible for us to sin and it’s possible for us to not sin. That’s why we struggle to live by the spirit and not sin. And we struggle with living by the flesh and sinning. Now there will be a day, we talked about this many weeks back in the Heidelberg, there will be a day when death is our entrance into glory, but death is also an end to our sin.
And so that fourth stage of the fourfold state of man is in heaven, it will be not possible to sin. That’s a wonderful thing to put on your grave marker. When you’re there and your dates are complete, it is not possible for you to sin because you have been glorified.
And so if we’re talking about the law, And not a one of us can obey it perfectly and be justified. It’s for the big reason that we are born with a sin nature. And from that sin nature will proceed actual sins. You can’t not sin. All a child needs is, you know, a mouth. No. And what’s in that child’s heart will come out. And that’s why children are given to parents to teach the law of God and to teach the grace of God. And when we come to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are under no longer under the law, but under grace.
So when Adam failed in the garden, what did Jesus do in the wilderness? In the wilderness when he was 40 days and 40 nights, not in paradise, not in Eden with a wife and fruit and beauty and air conditioning. But what did Jesus do when he was in the wilderness sent out by the spirit?
He was hungry. He was tired. He is weary. And what did Satan do? He offered him an easy way out. I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. Don’t go to the cross and get them. Just bow to me a little, little nod and it’s yours. Or you’re hungry. Take these stones and turn them into bread or jump off the spire of the temple and command the angels. uh, to rescue you. Don’t put God to the test. Man shall not live by bread alone.
Um, and then, uh, he, he continued in obedience. And so, uh, Satan tempted Adam in the garden and paradise. He flunked his disobedience is ours. Jesus in the wilderness obeyed God, and that obedience is now ours. So we talk about being justified by faith, justified not by the works of the law, but being justified by faith. And what is justification? It’s just as if I never sinned, so our sins are wiped away, but it’s also just as if I have always obeyed. Have you obeyed God perfectly? Yes, in God’s sight. Now in Satan’s sight, you haven’t. And what is he going to do? He’s going to accuse you. He’s the accuser of the brethren. And he’s going to be leaning over God’s shoulder in heaven and saying, don’t take him.
Don’t let her in and start listing stuff. but in God’s sight because he sees Christ. He sees Christ obedience. It’s just as if you’ve never sinned, your sins are paid for, but it’s also just as if you have obeyed. And so when we come to the New Testament as a believer, when we come to the law as one, no longer under the curse of the law, but under the grace of Christ, we look at the law in a couple of ways. First, we see it as a restraint.
How many people do you know don’t murder simply because it’s not good to kill another person and that law is written in their heart because they are made in God’s image. They may be a sinner. They may not be a Christian, but they know deep down it is not right to kill. We know all sorts of people like that. They are unbelieving people, but the law written on their hearts restrains them from evil.
So the law serves as a restraint. Usually if you tell people not to do something, if they got a decent conscience, they’re not going to. If they see a 35 mile an hour speed limit sign, they’re probably going to go 35, maybe 36. So the law of God is a restraint, but it’s also a mirror. It shows us our sin. If you look in the reflection of the mirror of the law, perhaps like James says, you will see yourself as you really are.
And you will say, I need a savior. I need a Jesus. I need a Holy spirit. I need a cleanser. I need a watcher. I need a helper. And so the law of God restrains evil, but it shows us our sin and points us to Jesus. But here’s where we want to land tonight.
This is what’s often in a biblical scholarship and reform, Presbyterian circles, maybe some other folks are picking it up. It’s often called the third use of the law. So John Calvin, the French theologian, one of our heroes of the faith, spoke of the third use of the law, not the restraining evil part, not the, it points us, it shows us our sin and points us to Jesus part. He does love and talk about both of those. But he said the third use of the law is the most important.
So tonight, if you’re scratching your head and you’re thinking, where does the law of God, not the ceremonial and not the civil, but where does the moral law, those 10 commandments we just read, where do they fit in my life as a believer? Well, they will teach you God’s righteous standards. The law of God will teach you God’s will, God’s ways, God’s perfections. It will give us a guide. It will give us a map and it will show us his right standard.
If you obey it, it cannot save you because you’re born with original sin and you have committed actual sins. You have struck out and there are no do overs. But if you are a believer saved by faith, you are justified before God by the obedience of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. And so our job, think of the Heidelberg guilt, sin, grace, Jesus.
Now we’re in the section on gratitude. How do we live a life that pleases the Lord? We look at his law. We see it as his standard and therefore our standard. And we strive with the spirit’s help to live by the law of God, meeting his holy standard and living according to the better lawgiver, Jesus. And so when you read the 10 commandments, you don’t read them and say, oh, I don’t measure up. I’m a failure. I’m a flunker. I mean, maybe for a second, then you remember Jesus.
But we read the law of God and say, this is how I can live for the glory of God and the good of my neighbor. This is how I can live to please God and show him how thankful I am for what he has done for me. And so tonight, I hope that you’ll have a good understanding of where the law of God in the life of the believer fits. It cannot save you. but it can let you live by the Spirit in a way that is pleasing in God’s sight, but it is also a blessing to your neighbors who see. Now, we gotta ask and answer this one question as we wrap up. We still sin. I still sin. Are there effects in my life from sin.
For example, we read in the Fifth Commandment, honor your father and mother and it will go well with you. What happens if you don’t honor your father and mother or people in authority over you? It won’t go well with you. You say, OK, I’m saved by Jesus. I don’t have to honor my parents because I’m free from that curse. Oh, no, no, no. Have you ever seen a child grow up in a Christian home and their parents did the best they could and taught them uh, to live for Christ and to live for God and to live by Judeo Christian standards. And they’ve said, you know, that’s for you, mom and dad, but not for me.
Uh, it’s not going well for them and perhaps that will lead them to Jesus. But, but what about the believer who decides, you know, I’m, I’m a Christian and I’ve been a goody two shoes long enough. I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna cheat on my wife or I’m gonna cheat on my taxes or whatever. There will be temporal, judgments. You will not be cast out of God’s sight if you’re justified by faith alone because you committed some sin. But you may in this life experience hard things. Think of King David. Remember, he saw Bathsheba and took Bathsheba. And then he had her husband knocked off out on the front lines of battle. And she had a child. She lost that child. And then they had other children.
But David forever had to live with the Not everlasting, but temporal curses. And so one of the things I think we have to think about as we live the Christian life, yes, we are free from everlasting condemnation. But if you choose and you live by the flesh, you will reap the flesh in this life and it may go to you with your go, go with you to your grave and have everlasting effects. That is something to think about and consider. We are not free in this life from the temporal effects of sin. And other people’s sins will hit us as well, but we are free from the everlasting condemnation that comes from our sins. Let’s give thanks to God. Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for the chance to think about, to sort through the law of God and how it fits in our Christian life. We want to please you. You’ve given us a standard.
So help us to be like King David and delight in your law. Help us to be like the Psalm one person who doesn’t sit, walk or stand with the ungodly, but meditates on your law day and night. And may we be like Joshua, where it doesn’t depart from our mouth. We don’t go to the left or the right, but we walk the straight and narrow path. It’s by your help that we do that. It’s for your glory. We do it, but it’s also good for our neighbors. good for ourselves to have happy and holy and helpful lives. So give us your grace. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.