Presence of Moral Law in the New Testament (5)

Introduction: Christmas Season and Christian Liberty

0:04 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 24th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn in your Bibles with me to Paul's letter to Timothy, his first letter to his spiritual son and fellow worker in the gospel, 1 Timothy, and follow as I read in your hearing verses 3 through 11, 1 Timothy chapter 1, beginning with verse 3. As I exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to the word of God, nor to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to the word of God, nor to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questionings rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith, so do I now. But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned,

1:25 from which things, some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain talking, desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners. For the unholy and profane, for murderers or smiters of fathers and smiters of mothers, for murderers, for fornicators, for homosexuals, for those who kidnap or steal men, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing, that is against the law in which it is written, believing in it. Or that we should, then, be countless and そう you too, come on and do the same which is herein is not minute meaning,

2:40 contrary to the sound doctrine, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Now I am quite confident that there's no need for me to inform the youngest to the oldest among us that we gather this morning in the midst of the mixed madness of that time of the year designated by good and bad that must all come together, and that is to address your mins heaven, Ochap the Christ's season, which is the JUST wasn't meant for that. take hinaus all those feminist jurists from all sides of the universe, those of all form and all beings to infer history. as the Christmas season.

3:11 Within this congregation, there always has been and there yet remains a broad spectrum of differing convictions as to how this day should be regarded and precisely how it should be celebrated. And that difference of perspective concerning the so-called Christmas season and the day in particular literally ranges all of the way from conscientious non-recognition and total non-participation to a full engagement in every aspect of the seasonal celebration except those aspects. That would constitute a breach of the moral law of God. In this place, Romans 14, 4 and 5 is literally worked out with respect to this season. Who are you that judges the servant of another?

4:19 To his own Lord he stands or falls, yea, he shall be made to stand, for the Lord has power to make him stand. One man esteems one day. I.e., December 25th above another.

4:35 Another esteems every day alike. Let each man have his posture dictated by his elders. No. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.

4:51 He that regards the day, December 25th, regards it unto the Lord. And he that eats, eats unto the Lord. For he gives God thanks. And he that eats not unto the Lord, to the Lord he eats not, and gives God thanks.

5:07 For none lives to himself, and none dies to himself. Now, those of us in leadership have always sought to be sensitive to this climate of diversity regarding the Christmas season. Now, I know that's been frustrating to some of you. Some of you who have a conscientious non-participation have yearned, and perhaps even secretly prayed, Lord, show our elders the light, and bring one of them forth to thunder against the paganism of Christmas.

5:44 Well, the Lord bless you for your prayers. He hasn't answered them yet. And as long as some of us have a conscience rooted in Romans 14, you will never have those prayers answered from this pulpit. On the other hand, there may be some of you who have felt, well, why be screwed?

6:02 Go with the flow. It has to do with Christ and his birth. Why in the world can't they get more on board, and at least have a poinsettia there, and one there, and a little something to just let people know we're not one massive congregation of Scrooges who could say in unison, in a way that would make the original Scrooge envious, well, I'm afraid your expectations and prayers will be disappointed as well. But what we have sought to do over the years is to keep the issue precisely where it belongs, namely, in the category of things indifferent, or the category of Christian liberty. And here in the house of God, so to arrange the services of the Lord's Day nearest to the so-called Christmas Day, in such a way as to maintain the purity of the worship of God as mandated by the Word of God, while at the same time seeking to be like God in Christ, and seize the opportunity of the season to be a springboard or a catalyst to direct our attention

7:27 to certain elements of God's life, the biblical truth which it is appropriate to highlight at any time in the house of God, which is the pillar and the ground of the truth, the whole of God's truth, including the birth narratives of Matthew 1 and 2, of Luke 1 and 2, and passages throughout the Old and the New Testaments which set before us the wonder of the incarnation of the second person, of the Godhead. And so, this morning, you have noticed, I'm sure, from the regular reading of our psalms in a consecutive way, to the selection of the psalms and hymns to sing, to the reading of the Word of God, this has been a plain-Jane, ordinary Lord's Day morning service, and it will also be the same with regard to the ministry of the Word. However, this evening, we shall regard the approach of December 25th as a pointer and a catalyst to focus our attention upon some of the biblical teaching concerning this stupendous fact and the significance of the fact of the enfleshment of God, the astounding reality

8:55 that the Lord of glory became an infant in the manger. And therefore, the hymns sung, the scriptures read, and the Word preached will, God willing, tonight, focus upon a theme that does resonate with some of the concerns of the season without introducing one element into the worship for which we have no biblical warrant. Now, I know the old saying that he who seeks to walk down the middle of the road gets hit with the traffic from the middle of the road. And I know that.

9:30 And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. But so long as where I stand on the road is paved by the Bible, I shall take the bruises from the traffic in both directions and bear my bruises with dignity.

Purpose of the Sermon: The Abiding Validity of the Ten Commandments

9:48 So with this brief explanation for the rationale of the organizing and selected principles for the worship of the day, knowing that we have newcomers amongst us, this is your first, quote, Christmas season at Trinity, we have visitors among us, I felt I owed it to you to let you know that I am not a half-mortified Scrooge, nor am I a half-sanctified worldling, nor are your elders, but we are seeking to act out of biblical convictions as God has given us light on those matters. Now, with that explanation behind us, we are going to be able to we are therefore going to plod right on this morning with message number nine in our introductory series on the Ten Commandments. And at this point in our study, I am seeking to establish in the consciences of the people of God in this place, and the unconverted as well, the principle that the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Words of Moses, the Ten Words of God, spoken, written by the mouth of God upon Sinai, written by the finger of God upon tables of stone, and that not once, but twice. Those words then laid up in the Ark of God that the Ten Commandments

11:17 are indeed a changeless and an abiding and binding standard of righteousness. And the line of argument that we have been developing for the past several Lord's Days, is that in the New Testament documents, the Ten Commandments are set forth as this unchanging and binding standard of righteousness. Starting with Matthew 5, 17-20, and coming all the way through to James 2, verses 1-13, which we studied last week, we have looked at eight, pivotal watershed passages which clearly teach that the Ten Commandments are subsequent to the coming of Christ, subsequent to the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of apostles, and the giving to us of a completed New Testament canon, the Ten Commandments remain as a binding, as a changeless, authoritative standard of righteousness. This morning, we come to the final passage that we will examine in seeking to establish this principle

12:43 concerning the abiding validity of the Ten Commandments. And it is the passage that I read in your hearing from 1 Timothy, chapter 1. 1 Timothy, chapter 1. And as we attempt to think through this passage, we will consider, first of all, the problem identified in verses 3-7, and then the problem corrected in verses 8-11.

13:16 And I must say at the outset, you must bear with me in that I have come with more full notes than I normally bring into the pulpit. I normally bring three and a half to four pages of closely handwritten notes, this morning I've brought five, because I want to be concise and precise and get the exposition done within a reasonable length of time. And I don't like to have my face in my paper, but that will be necessary at some points, for your edification is more important than my enjoyment of preaching. Alright?

Problem Identified: Ignorant and Arrogant Law Teachers (1 Timothy 1:3-7)

13:55 So let us, as we come to the passage, remembering our purpose, we are seeking to see what this passage says to support the principle that the Ten Commandments are found in the New Testament documents as an unchangeable and binding standard of righteousness upon all men. And in conjunction with seeking to prove that principle, we come to our ninth major passage, 1 Timothy 1, 3-11, which introduces us to a problem. And we want to consider then the problem identified, verses 3-7. As I exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, that you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questionings, rather than a dispensation, of God which is in faith, so do I now. But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a faith unfeigned, from which things, some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain talking, desiring to be teachers of the law,

15:24 though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confess, nor whereof they are evidently affirmed. Now what's the gist of these words with respect to identifying the problem that they address? Well it is evident that while Paul was in Ephesus with Timothy, he became aware of some strange winds of doctrine that were beginning to blow around and to affect the church at Ephesus. Paul was constrained to leave Ephesus and make his way into Macedonia, or Greece, and he left Timothy behind, and one of the major purposes for which he left him behind was embodied in a solemn charge that he gave to Timothy. And that charge was that certain men would not teach a different doctrine. And then there follows a description, and here the commentators differ, of whether or not you have one central doctrinal aberration that needed to be corrected, or whether you have two or three doctrinal aberrations that needed to be corrected. But we don't need to sort that up, because this much is clear.

16:46 Either one of the major doctrinal aberrations that needed to be corrected, or one aspect of a larger aberration is very clearly identified in verse 7. There were those who were desiring to be teachers of the law. And the phrase teachers of the law is the translation of one lengthy Greek word, which is a compound of the Greek word for law, nomos, and teacher, didaskalia. And so it is said that they were seeking to be nomos didaskaloi, the plural.

17:30 They were seeking to be law teachers. Now this is the very word used in Luke 5.17 of the doctors or the experts in the law who often were found in company with the Pharisees. It is used in Acts 5.34 in a similar way.

17:51 And as we look at the verse, we see what their desire was. They were desiring to be priests to be received and given a full scope of opportunity to be teachers, experts, in teaching the law of God. That is what their desire was. But now their deficiencies, Paul says, are two.

18:17 Number one, they are ignorant of what they are saying. Look at the text. Though they do not understand what they are saying, and the Greek word for not understanding means they didn't have it sorted out in their noggin. They did not have a clear intellectual perception of what they were saying.

18:41 Furthermore, their ignorance merged into arrogance. Look at the text. For they do not understand neither what they say nor whereof they confidently affirm. And even the Greek word has overtones to it.

19:01 You can just hear these fellows very dogmatically saying, take it upon my word. It's this way. And Paul says, they don't understand what they are saying when they are speaking in an ordinary tone, and particularly when they wax emphatic and enthusiastic and extremely confident, they are manifesting the arrogance of ignorance. Now here was their problem.

19:28 That there in the church were these people desirous to be teachers of the law. Their deficiencies were they were ignorant and their ignorance merged into arrogance. And the effect of their teaching was to undermine the whole end for which all of God's truth has been given. Verse 5.

19:52 The end of the charge. Why am I concerned? To leave you behind, Timothy, to correct these doctrinal aberrations. Here's the end.

20:02 Here's the goal. That by the maintenance of pure doctrine, there may be the advancement of real godliness amongst God's people. The end of the charge is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. And these people, he said, have swerved.

20:22 They've turned aside from this great, great possession of truth that produces godliness. And they've moved into a desire to be speculative. They've moved into a realm of stirring up fruitless discussions and questions. They are even handling the sacred law of God in a cavalier way that does not in any way contribute to the great end for which all of God's truth was given to produce love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.

Problem Corrected: A Simple Assertion – The Law is Good (1 Timothy 1:8a)

21:01 Now, do you see then the problem identified from the passage? Have I carried your judgment in that overview of the drift of the text that that's the problem identified? Now then, consider with me secondly the problem corrected. Verses 8 through 11.

21:18 The problem corrected. As we saw in our study of James 2, 1 to 13, James had four ingredients, to what I called his spiritual purgative. He had four spiritual paddles with which to give loving pastoral chastisement to the Hebrew Christians who were showing respect to persons. Well, how does the apostle seek to correct this problem?

21:46 What tools does he put in Timothy's hands in order to correct this problem? Well, it's interesting that he gives to Timothy four major categories of thought to be the corrective to this problem in silencing these self-appointed, ignorant but arrogant law teachers. And the four categories are first, a simple assertion, then a necessary qualification, then an expanded explanation, and fourthly, a crowning consideration. First, he makes a simple assertion.

22:26 Look at verse 8. But we know that the law is good. Here are these people desiring to be law teachers, experts in the law, but they speak out of ignorance. Their ignorance merges into arrogance.

22:45 And I'm going to have to say some things to correct their abusive use of the law. But at the very outset, I want you to know, Timothy, and when you correct these errors, Timothy, you must do so in such a way that people do not come away denigrating the law. So at the very outset, he gives a simple assertion, and he says, but we know, that is, we know and grasp with clear mental perception that the law is good. Literally, good the law.

23:22 There is no to be verb. And when you find that construction in the original, it is emphasizing the quality of something. Good the law. Not evil the law.

23:33 Not bad the law. Not nasty the law. Good the law. It does not say the law was good.

23:46 If ever there was a time when it would be appropriate to teach that the Ten Commandments, as we shall see, that is the primary reference to law in this passage, had no regulative authority under the New Covenant, here was the place to do it. All Paul would have to say to Timothy is, look, you have got these people desiring to be law teachers. They do not know what they are saying, and their ignorance merges into arrogance, but we know that in the New Covenant there is no place for the Ten Commandments. End of discussion.

24:29 End of discussion. That is what we know, Timothy. And get in their face and tell them that is the truth. That is not what he said.

24:39 He starts out by saying, we know the law is good. We know the law is good. Does that have overtones of any other passage we have studied? I hope you have heard it.

24:51 It has overtones of Romans chapter 7, when after speaking of what the law could not do, and how in union with Christ we died to the galling, condemning, non-saving power of the law, Paul wants to correct any notion that the law itself is sin, beginning in verse 7 of Romans 7, and he culminates his argument in verse 12, so that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. The commandment is good. Here he says, we know. We have an intelligent perception of the nature of the law, and it is this. It is good. Now then, the simple assertion is followed by a necessary qualification. Verse 8b.

Problem Corrected: A Necessary Qualification – If Used Lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8b)

25:52 We know that the law is good, simple assertion, but now necessary qualification. If, if a man use it lawfully. And here he uses a play on words in the original. The law is good if a man use it lawfully.

26:12 And the word lawfully means according to the rules that pertain to its use. This is the very word used in 2 Timothy 2.5, where in the athletic arena he says, if a man contend in the games, that is in the Olympic competitions, he is not crowned, he is not given the wreath of victory, except he has contended, here is our word, lawfully. You must not only be the first to cross the finish line, you must have kept all of the rules, and kept within the boundaries, and not fouled along the way.

26:50 Now that is precisely the word used here. He gives a necessary qualification. The law is good, if a man use it lawfully. And this statement of qualification indicates that the God who gave the law, gave it with specific purposes in view.

27:12 And as long as it is used for those purposes, and those alone, it is good. The same way I may say to you, food is good, if you use food for the purpose for which it was given. Why was food given? That we might enjoy it in the full spectrum of the various tastes and flavors?

27:38 Yes. God could have made us without taste buds, and God could have made everything totally bland, so that it smelled and tasted like the most bland thing you can think of. No, food is good for enjoyment, food is good for nourishment, food is good as a bond of social interaction. All of the uses of food is good, if we use it lawfully.

28:06 But use food to clog up your arteries and bring upon yourself an early heart attack. Use food to pile up excessive pounds of fat and strain your cardiovascular system. Use food for the sheer, sensuous delight of its taste and then vomit it up as the bulimic does. You are not using food lawfully.

28:32 Food is no longer good to you because you are using it in an unlawful way. But the problem is not with the food, it is with your use of it. Our sexual appetites and capacities are good if we use them lawfully. To be the expression of total, selfless mutual commitment in the bonds of marriage, the frequent coming together of a husband and wife is good in and of itself, irrespective of whether it issues in the conception of a child and procreation.

29:10 It is not just functional, it is good if it is used lawfully. But when that relationship is used to gratify sensual, selfish passions outside of marriage, or to brutalize and take advantage of another within marriage, it is no longer good because it is being used unlawfully. It is true with sleep. You get the point that he is making?

Problem Corrected: Expanded Explanation – The Law's Purpose for the Unrighteous (1 Timothy 1:9-10)

29:40 When he says the law is good, that is a clear, simple affirmation that we must never think of the law as intrinsically something evil, even in the New Covenant, even after Christ has come, even after the Spirit has come, even after the apostles have already by this stage left behind many documents that would become part of our New Testament canon, part of our abiding revelation of the mind and will of God. The law is still good if, if, here is the necessary qualification, if a man use it lawfully. Then we come thirdly to the expanded explanation. Verses 9 through 11. What does it mean to use the law lawfully? Well, he is going to give us an expanded explanation. And here it is.

30:34 Verse 9 begins the expanded explanation. As knowing this. You see, you come back to your noggin. Not only must we know that the law is good, but we must also know with the same kind of intelligent, discerning grasp upon the facts as knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers or smiters of fathers and of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for men-stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. Here is the expanded explanation. I should have said verses 9 and 10. Now he begins by saying we know this.

31:38 And the first thing we know is that the law was not Now follow me closely. He does not use a standard word that he would have used if he was not seeking to convey something very significant when he says for we know that the law is not made. He uses a verb which points to the formal institution or the formal enactment or the formal establishment of the law. It points to the thing that God did at Sinai.

32:14 And he is saying the law as instituted by God was not instituted for literally a righteous one. You have a singular use of the word for a righteous one. And it doesn't say righteous man, righteous person. It just says a righteous one.

32:37 The law as instituted and given by God with His very mouth, inscribed with His own finger upon the tables of stone placed in the ark. It was not enacted. It was not established. It was not instituted for a righteous one.

32:57 Why? Because no such righteous one existed on the face of the earth. He uses the word in exactly the same way Jesus uses it in Matthew 9, 13. Jesus said, I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

33:16 Is Jesus saying that they were actually people on earth who were righteous and didn't need to be called to repentance? No. He is saying I did not come to call the righteous. If there were such who were perfectly right before the eye of God in the light of His law, I would have nothing to offer them.

33:36 I did not come to call the righteous. But I came to call sinners to repentance. And we know from the whole teaching of Scripture from the fall of our first father Adam, there is none righteous. No, not one.

33:52 There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeks after God. And so Paul is saying because these would-be law teachers were trifling with the law as though they had no sin to be exposed. They were using the law as a springboard for silly discussions that had nothing to do with producing love out of a pure heart, of a good conscience which you cannot have without dealing honestly with sin and going to the blood of cleansing which alone can purge the conscience and faith that is unfeigned and genuine.

34:33 That faith that only exists where a man sees himself devoid of all righteousness of his own and goes out of himself to trust only in Christ as his ground of acceptance with God. So he gives this stroke of negation. We know that the law is not made. It was not instituted.

34:55 It was not enacted. According to Galatians 3.19 the law came in alongside of God's previous promise of grace and mercy to a multitude of sinners made to Abraham. And the law came in, the Scripture says, that sin might be seen as sin.

35:16 That sin might abound. That by the law the transgression might be known and become exceedingly sinful. The law was enacted to expose sin as sin wherever sin is present from the most aggravated manifestations of sin to its most subtle forms. Now in taking a quick trip through the list of the sins mentioned, the sins which the law is intended to expose and condemn when used lawfully, three things are ever evident from this list.

The Law's Purpose: Parallels with the Ten Commandments

35:54 And I'm giving you in a matter of hopefully seven to eight minutes, ten minutes, the fruit of I wouldn't know how many dozens of hours of laboring over the passage. So please tighten your seat belt and hang in there with me. The first thing that is evident as you study this list carefully, looking at the conjunctions, looking up every single word and its use in Scripture, its use in other literature with no light on its significance, its use in the Old Testament translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, you come to this conviction, number one, that the special sins or specific sins are categorized in a way that parallels the Ten Commandments. The specific sins mentioned are categorized in a way that parallels the Ten Commandments. Look first at the general statement. Knowing this, the law is not made for a righteous one, but, and here's the first couplet, for the lawless and unruly.

37:05 That's the canopy statement to describe the character and the disposition of those for whom the law is made. The first word, lawless, refers to those who refuse to acknowledge that any law exists to which they are accountable. It's the alpha privative in front of the word law. They act and think and conduct themselves as though there were no law and no God who gave the law.

37:36 They are a law unto themselves. Doing their own is the only law by which they live. And then coupled with that, he describes the lawless and the unruly. And the word unruly could be translated rebellious.

37:56 Those who may acknowledge that there is a law, but they say, ain't no way I'm going to be subject to it. So God's made a law, so what? I'm going to do what I want to. And so he couples, as the canopy statement, of those for whom the law is made, unrighteous men manifesting their disposition of unrighteousness.

38:22 How? By this attitude that says there is no law nor God who stands behind the law. And if there is, I have no intention to be in subjection to it. Romans 8, 7 is the best commentary on this first public.

38:38 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. Then it is my judgment shared by several commentators that the next two groupings are primarily God-word manifestations of sin.

38:55 You have two more couplets now. Look at them. Knowing the law is made for the lawless and unruly. Now two more couplets.

39:04 The ungodly and sinners for the unholy and profane. Group number one, ungodly and sinners. The word ungodly means the irreverent and the irreligious. When it is used without that little a in front that negates it, it is speaking of those who are committed to the pattern of a life of godliness.

39:30 It is internal love for God manifested in a lifestyle in which everything about God touches everything about the way they live. But it says here they are the ungodly, the irreverent and the religious and as such they are sinners. And here the word for sinner is the word that means to miss the mark. They constantly live missing the mark of God's standard for what they ought to be as His creatures made in His image, made to glorify and to enjoy Him.

40:07 This couplet is found in 1 Peter 4 and verse 18. The only other place in the New Testament where the two things are found together. So you get the picture. Who are these people for whom the law was made?

40:18 Those who say, well, the first commandment says thou shall have no other gods before me. I can't bother to stop and think who God is and what there is about Him that is worthy of being loved with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. And oh yes, if there is a God, well, surely He wants to be worshipped. But I can't be concerned as to investigating His word to find out how He desires to be worshipped and who He is.

40:48 And what kind of worship will please Him if I choose to worship? I'll worship in a way that makes me feel good, a way that satisfies me aesthetically. I'll dictate how I worship whatever God I choose to worship. You see, that's the essence of the ungodly, irreverent and irreligious.

41:07 And as a result, the whole pattern of life is one of being a sinner, missing the mark of God's standard with respect to what He demands of the creature toward Himself. The second group that parallels the first table of the Law, look at the words, for the unholy and the profane. And here the word unholy points to a lack of inward purity, a lack of inward cleansing, and the word profane is the very word used of Esau in Hebrews 12, 16. A profane person is one who treats things that are sacred as though they are common. One commentator says, such as walk on everything sacred and make it as common as dirt. That's the profane. So God's person, they profane Him by acting and living and thinking as though He is utterly unworthy of being loved and being chosen as their God.

42:18 His worship, if they have anything to do with it, it is mere formal, it is mere empty, it is mere rote. There is no heart, there is no desire to honor Him and please Him. His name is not sacred to Him and His day is an irritant to them. There, I say, in those first two couplets are these broad strokes that underscore the sins that primarily point in the direction of the first table of the law.

42:51 But then notice what follows. You have a more strict parallel with the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth commandments. Look at them. The law was not made for a righteous one but for lawless unruly ones.

43:08 That's the canopy statement. Then two couplets describing their relationship to God in the first table of the law, ungodly and sinners, unholy and profane. Commandment number five, honor thy father and thy mother. What do they do?

43:25 They smite or even murder. And here there's a debate as to the precise meaning of the word. No matter how you cut it, it isn't sweet. Here they rise up and strike their parents in the face or with their mouths.

43:39 That's why you would be put to death in the old covenant not only if you smoked your father or your mother but if you cursed them. You could be put to death for mumbling under breath concerning mom and dad to hell with you. Some of you would be dead if you lived in Israel under the old covenant. You'd be dead!

44:04 It's cool, isn't it? You think it's cool? God's law threatens you with eternal death if you don't repent of the disposition to be a curser and a smiter and even a murderer of mother and father. Fifth commandment.

44:21 Sixth commandment. Look at the text. The law is made for those who smite fathers, mothers. Then he says, for manslayers, the general term for murderers, those who wantonly break the sixth commandment.

44:36 Thou shall do no murder. You shall not kill. You shall not kill in a way not warranted by God. They take the lives of others.

44:49 Seventh commandment. It is made, he says, for fornication. Fornicators and homosexuals. The word fornicators all kinds of male, female, sexual aberrations.

45:03 The word fornication brings within its orbit in the New Testament the more technical sin of adultery where a married person breaks the marital covenant in desire or act with another person. Whereas fornication is broader. It takes in every form of sexual aberration. And even that aberration which is manifested when men cohabit with men.

45:31 Seventh commandment. What about the eighth commandment? Thou shalt not steal. Look at the text.

45:43 The law was made for men stealers. What is the worst thing you can steal from another? His very person or life. The Greek word means one who snatches by the heel.

45:58 Probably has reference to those who trafficked in forced slave trade. Who literally made a trade of stealing people and selling them as a commodity. Or keeping them as their personal property. The eighth commandment.

46:14 The ninth commandment. Thou shalt not bear false witness. What do they do with that? Look at the text.

46:20 For liars. For liars and false swearers. They play loose with the truth. They know what the truth is.

46:30 They deliberately twist it. Half state it. And even under oath they will swear that they are telling the truth and they are lying through their teeth. You see how it follows the pattern of the ten commandments?

The Law's Purpose: Including All Manifestations of Sin

46:44 Anyone who refuses to see that I say is willfully blind. Here then is the first strand of the correction in the expanded explanation that he gives. Is he tells them that these sins are categorized in a way that parallels the ten commandments. The second thing you need to observe in this list is this.

47:11 The sins are identified in their most aggravated and heightened manifestation thereby including all lesser manifestations of that sin in kind. You follow? Read through this list and say well if the law is just made for those who are guilty of these sins the sins listed are the most aggravated expression of the violation of God's holy law. That's right.

47:42 But by mentioning the highest the most aggravated the most base expressions of these violations of the law God includes all of the lesser manifestations of sin. Lenski the Lutheran commentator has captured this principle so clearly when he writes the reason for listing the grossest sins throughout the list is the same of that for the wording in the ten commandments. Jesus made it plain in Matthew 5.21 that the commandment thou shalt not kill is dealing with the grossest expression of ill will but it includes within its scope an angry spirit breaking out in abusive speech and in failure to do everything to maintain amicable relationships with my fellow men. And Lenski rightly points out that as the commandments themselves come condemning the sin in its most aggravated form so Paul does this as he works down through the commandments as Jesus explained it by forbidding the actual crimes the law against murder and adultery etc. also forbids everything that leads to these crimes

49:11 beginning with the faintest stirring in the heart. The worst must be named so as to include it but naming the tree thereby names its roots down to the smallest rootlets. You see the imagery? By naming this mighty oak this gnarled oak-like ugly manifestation of insubordination to one's parents rising up to strike them or to kill them he says you trace it down to the roots and to the smallest rootlets.

49:45 That irritation you feel when for no good reason when mom and dad say son, sweetheart take out the garbage and you inwardly resent them. And their authority left to develop itself that would become murder of your own mother and father. And the law is given not for righteous ones who've never known the stirring of rebellion against parental authority who've never known the stirring of lust and inordinate sexual appetite the law is not made for those who've never known what it is to want to disregard the authority of God the sanctity of His being of His worship of His name and of His day. The law is not made for such for they don't exist here on earth. There was only one who ever existed on earth who was the righteous one concerning which that law could find no fault in Him. But for all of us the law has been made that we might know and see our sin.

The Law's Purpose: A Sweeping Catch-All Description

50:58 And by identifying these sins in the most aggravated and highest heightened manifestation He thereby includes all lesser manifestations and the third thing you must notice about this list and it's crucial. The list of specific and aggravated forms of violations of the law of God are followed by a sweeping catch-all description. Look carefully at your Bibles. Paul says my list is by no means exhaustive.

51:29 Knowing this the law is not made for a righteous one but for it's made for lawless unruly ungodly sinners fornicators abusers Now look at the last part of verse 10. And and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine the law is made for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. Grammatically that is precisely how one can read the passage. Yes the law is made to put its finger on those who fit the canopy description. They are lawless and unruly. They manifest that specifically in terms of the first table of the law. They manifested in gross and vile ways in terms of the law.

52:35 But the law is not only made to point out those sins in their most aggravated form down to their roots and all of their rootlets. But he says unless you think the list is complete the law is made has been enacted to expose any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. The sound doctrine is a phrase unique to the pastoral epistles and it means the truth of the gospel. It means the truth of apostolic instruction about how we are right with God and how we ought to walk before God. All of the specifics that are found in the pastoral epistles. In other words Paul is saying the law is used from the grossest manifestations of the violations of the ten commandments down to the most refined rootless sin the root rootling sins of the Decalogue and and any other thing that is contrary that stands against the moral and ethical implications of the

54:04 gospel. You see that in the passage if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. You say Pastor if that's so then what he is saying is that the lawful use of the law is this that it is to point out sin as sin wherever sin is present in the heart of a godly blameless holy man or woman of God. And if that's the conclusion you come to you are exactly right. Now having looked at the simple assertion the law is good the necessary qualification if one use it lawfully the expanded explanation knowing the law is the only way to change the law and the law and the law is the only way to change the law and the

Problem Corrected: A Crowning Consideration – Consistent with the Gospel (1 Timothy 1:11)

55:33 law is to What is according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God committed to my trust?

55:44 Well, grammatically, and here I'm not going to give you a grammar lesson in Greek grammar. Grammatically, it applies to the whole section dealing with the fact that the law is good if a man use it lawfully and everything that follows is in perfect accordance with the truth of the gospel as it was entrusted to the Apostle Paul. In other words, Paul says, everything I have written concerning the lawful use of the law is in perfect harmony with the good news of the gospel. A gospel in which the perfections of God shine forth.

56:28 Look at the text. It is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. In the gospel, there is the outshining of all of God's perfections in their most intense and dazzling brilliance. In the gospel, God's holiness shines forth.

56:51 In the gospel, the perfections of His love shine forth. Mercy and truth meet righteousness and peace kiss one another in the gospel. And he said, this gospel that is the breaking forth of the perfections of all of God's holy character, it is this gospel committed to my trust. And Timothy, when you insist that the law be used lawfully there at Ephesus and shut the mouth of these ignorant, arrogant, would-be law teachers, that the law might have its proper use, Timothy, don't let anyone tell you you have forfeited the gospel because you're telling the truth.

57:33 You're teaching the use of the law. Don't let anyone tell you you're denigrating from the glory of the gospel. No, Timothy, what I've told you is perfectly consistent with all that God has revealed to me of His glory in the gospel. That, I say, is the crowning consideration.

Truth 1: Any View of Law Contradicting Gospel is Unbiblical

57:56 Now, in closing, you've been very patient. I hope I haven't hopelessly confused you. I've done my best not to. I want to state, I want to state two truths as we close our message this morning.

58:09 And if God will help you to get hold of these two things, by the blessing of the Spirit of God, you can be kept from errors on the left hand and on the right to the rest of your earthly pilgrimage. The first is this. Any view of the function of the law which contradicts any truth revealed in the gospel is patently unbiblical. Any view, of the function of the law which contradicts any truth revealed in the gospel is patently unbiblical.

58:47 Paul says, the law is good if a man use it lawfully, and when it's used lawfully, it resonates perfectly with the gospel of the blessed God committed to my trust. There is never a note that will ever come out from the loudest, right use of the law being beaten that will be in dissonance with the sweetest tones of the gospel. There'll be beautiful harmony. Never will there be cacophony.

59:20 Never will there be a negation of any of the sweet notes of the gospel when there is a lawful use of the law. Let me try to illustrate that briefly. In the gospel, what does God say to us? We stand before, him as sinners condemned by his law. We hear as it were the thunders upon Sinai. We see the lightning dashing from its craggy peaks and we see the thunderbolts and the lightning and the voice of God and we stand fearful and trembling, condemned and doomed. We say oh God where can I go for refuge and God says my son perfectly kept the law you've broken. I spoke out of heaven on several occasions and said this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. I made him under the law and he has perfectly kept that law and my son is going to the cross where I will pour out all of the vials of my righteous holy wrath against the broken

60:29 law. As he stands in the place of and as the surety of all of his people and the scripture says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having been made a curse for us behind the cry of dereliction, behind that agonizing piercing wail of abandonment. My God, my God why have you forsaken me? There was the activity of God making him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might.

61:01 Be the righteousness of God in him so when the sinner standing before Sinai trembles in his boots crying out where shall I flee to have a righteousness that will stand the scrutiny of the eye of God now and in the day of death and in the day of judgment. In the gospel God says it's in my son. It's to be found in his perfect life lived under the law. It's to be found in his substitutionary death under the curse.

61:31 of the law. It is in my Son, in my Son alone. But, O God, if it's in your Son, in your Son alone, how can I get it? Must I crawl on my knees? Must I fast?

61:43 Must I pray? He says, No, no. Simply believe on my Son. Cast the weight of your sin-sick, hell-deserving soul totally, entirely upon my Son. And in Him, believing in Him, you will have a perfect righteousness that will pass the scrutiny of my own eye in the last day. That's the Gospel. That's the Gospel. Now, if anyone comes along and says you want to get forgiven and accepted and justified and right with God, you've got to do penance. You've got to do this. You've got to undergo the sacraments. You've got to get your life sorted out. You've got to start keeping these rules and that rules. What are they doing? They're bringing in law and negating the Gospel. Don't listen to them. Any view of the function of the law which contradicts any truth of the Gospel is patently unbiblical.

62:43 And furthermore, when having laid hold of Christ by faith and possessing a righteousness in Him, you now want to please Him and you want to honor the God who has graciously saved you and you say, But God, I know if I'm to please You, I must keep Your commandments. And you turn to the law. If anyone says, Here now in that very law that condemned you, there is ability and power to live a holy life, you say, No, that's not Gospel. The Gospel is the Christ who alone can give me acceptance with God. It is only in the virtue of His life and His power abiding in Him, drawing strength from Him, that I can live well, pleasing to God. As surely as the law has no power to justify me, the law has no power to sanctify me. My whole salvation is in Christ. So don't let anyone ever use the law in a way that contradicts the truth of the Gospel. That's what I mean. You see it?

Truth 2: Any View of Gospel Contradicting Law is Unbiblical

63:45 But now the second point is equally valid. Hear me carefully. Any view of the Gospel which contradicts the abiding sanctions of the law is patently unbiblical. You see it?

64:06 Any view of the Gospel which contradicts the abiding sanctions or functions of the law is patently unbiblical. The sound doctrine of the Gospel includes and is consistent with the present lawful use of the law. Paul said it. The law is good under the Gospel if we use it lawfully.

64:34 What's its lawful use, Paul? To expose sin wherever sin exists. From its grossest forms in the patterns of life of some people who sit here this morning who are described in that list to the most refined sins of the heart of the most mature godly saint in this place. Wherever sin is present, the law's function is to expose sin.

65:06 Therefore, the law has lost none of its authority. It is still called a royal law as we saw in James 2. It's lost none of its qualities. Paul said it is holy and good. The law is spiritual. Nothing has changed in the authority of the law, the qualities of the law, but has changed, has changed is this. The condemning, terrorizing, gnawing, sin-galling power of the law is forever buried in Christ's tomb for me as a believer. Can I put it to you this way?

65:51 We go back to standing under Sinai, condemned, trembling. Where shall we flee? The law thunders against us. The soul that sinned, it shall die. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. We stand before Sinai condemned. We cry out, Where shall I flee? And God in the gospel says, You flee unto my Son.

66:21 In Him is a perfect righteousness woven upon the loom of His perfect life in His substitutionary death, validated by His glorious resurrection and now conferred by Him in His living, presence at the right hand of the Father. It's in Him and is to be had in Him by faith and faith alone. And the trembling sinner runs into Christ and running into Christ he now can say, There is therefore now no condemnation to me who am in Christ Jesus for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned my sin in the flesh of His dear Son. And knowing now that Sinai's thunders and lightning and thunders of condemnation have nothing to say to me, they've spoken all they can speak to my surety and substitute and He has silenced them. And out of love and a desire to please so gracious a God and so wonderful a Savior I say, O God, I want to please You. How can I know in the details of life what it is to please You? You know what God

67:35 says? Among other things, my law is a standard by which to help you to know how to please me. And so He sends us back to the law. But when we go back to the law, not a different law, for that law is holy. How can something that is holy be made better? If it could be made better, it was not holy. It was imperfect.

68:01 If it's not perfectly just, how can it be called just and good? And righteous. But we go back to that law, but wonder of wonders, that very law, we find, has been written on our hearts, giving us an internal delight in it, a disposition to keep it, and when we see it, no longer does it gall us into sin. We find that we delight in it, and we long to run in the way of its precepts.

68:31 And when we now look at Sinai, we do not see lightning, and we do not hear thunder, and the voice of God that makes us tremble. But we stand, as it were, before that which God spoke on Sinai, with our hand held in the nail-pierced hand of the Son of God. And we see that that standard that exposed our sin, and held us captive in our sin, and galled us even to more sin, is now the standard that we regard so that we can say, with Paul, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Oh, how love I thy law, yea, thy law is within my heart. And I will need the constant instruction of the Ten Commandments, as part, not the whole, as part of that which is to condition my conscience until I come to the place where sin is no more.

69:39 And if anyone tells you, that there are provisions in the Gospel which utterly negate any abiding functions of the law, rear back on your hind legs and turn them to this passage and in grace and loving firmness tell them they're dead wrong. Because when you get wiser than God with respect to what you need, to help keep you in the way of righteousness till you come to the place where there is no more sin, God will chastise you for your folly and some of the most notorious sins committed in the history of the Church have been committed by people who under the guise of magnifying the grace of God in the Gospel took the Ten Commandments out of the theater of their conscience and gave themselves over to subjective inclinations as to what pleased God. And I could tell you sordid stories that would make you vomit that are written in the pages of Church history. And they happened even in the day of the Apostles. He says they turned the grace of God into license.

71:02 People having fornicating relationships in the Spirit. And it's happening this day. And when someone says, doesn't the Bible say thou shalt not commit adultery? Oh, that's the old Mosaic law.

71:14 But we are so filled with the Spirit that we live above that law. We can fornicate in the Holy Ghost.

71:23 Yes, I'm not exaggerating dear people. In God's name, wake up! Some of you that are careless with your conscience, you're sitting ducks for that very kind of teaching because it answers to your sloppy life. If you're serious about a life of holiness, you want to come to those ten words with no legal terrors.

71:47 With no dread of condemnation in all the freeness and liberty of the consciousness of your acceptance in Christ. The utter silencing of all the threats of the law. Receive that law from the hand of your gracious Redeemer. To get inside your conscience and show you your sin. Show you the path of duty and of holiness. That more and more we might live well pleasing unto our God. And for you who have not fled to Christ, you've got nothing but Sinai with its thunders, my friend. Sinai with its lightning.

Call to Repentance and Prayer

72:29 Sinai with its terrifying voice. And if you won't hear that voice and repent now, you'll hear it again in the day of judgment. There'll be an echo. There'll be a similarity because it's the voice of the God who made you and never asked for your consent when he placed you under his law and said this do and thou shalt live, this fail to do and you shall die. Oh turn you, turn you. Why will you die? There's a perfect Savior with a perfect righteousness answering to all the demands of a perfect law. Go to Christ. Go to now. Go to him for all that he offers to sinners. Let us pray. Our Father as we have sought, to lay hold of these vital issues.

73:32 We feel so keenly the limitation of our own understanding. Lord I confess to you the frustration of seeking to express the inexpressible. And pray that your spirit will take your word and that in so far as we have rightly expounded and applied it, may he be our teacher, sealing it to our hearts with power. Oh God, in a lawless age, a lawlessness that we see all around us this day, when multitudes in this metropolitan area have clenched their fist and said to you, you have no right to claim of me one day for yourself.

74:17 Lord, we marvel at your patience. We marvel at your long suffering. We marvel that you do not make the earth open up as you did with Nadab in a bayou and swallow it. We marvel at your love for us up alive.

74:32 Oh God, have mercy upon those who sit here impenitent, who sit here rebellious and ungodly, who will not acknowledge your claims. Lord, track them down until broken and penitent they cast themselves upon the offered Savior. We pray for your people, any of whom have been influenced in any way by false teaching concerning the place of the law and the life of a believer. Deal with their consciences, deal with their wills, deal with their secret reserves concerning this or that sin that they know will be exposed if they were to prayerfully meditate upon those ten words that you spoke from Sinai.

75:16 Lord, have dealings with all of us and help us especially in the midst of all of the moral madness of this season with which the world seeks to carry out its celebrations. May we as your people keep ourselves unspotted from the world, seeking to bring forth unto you the fruits of holiness. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.