Not Under Law? (Galatians 5:18; John 1:17)

Introduction and Elder's Mandate to Convict Gainsayers

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 4th, 1996, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now before we pray and turn to the ministry of the Word of God, I do want to state briefly my gratitude to you, the Lord's people, for your prayers on my behalf during the two Lord's Days that I, with my wife, was out in the state of California. God willing, this Wednesday I shall take ten minutes or so to try to distill a report of the blessing that was so evident from God's hand upon those days of ministry. It is good to be back amongst you. I have to go all the way back, I believe, to last August to have two Lord's Days in a row when I was not here. At least amongst you, worshiping and ministering the Word of God.

1:06 But we do thank you for your prayers, and God willing, some of the details of how God answered them will be set before you on Wednesday evening. Now let us pray and ask God's help, even as we have prayed in the singing of the hymn we have just sung, that God would send His Spirit in conjunction with the Word and meet. With each one of our hearts, let us pray together.

1:36 Our Father, we were reminded in the opening psalm, read in our hearing and sung together, of your gracious invitation and your sure word of promise. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Gracious God, may we not be found tight-jawed and closed of mouth, this morning, but spiritually may our mouths be open, and opened wide. And will you not be faithful to your promise then to fill us?

2:16 Again, we remind you of the words that fell from the lips of your Son when He said, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. O Lord, we remind you of these promises and pray that even now as we come to the Scriptures our thirst will be increased, and that you will give not only what we have asked, but do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or even think, according to the power that works in us. Meet us then as in the expectation of faith. We turn. We turn to your holy word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

3:09 Now many of you gathered here this morning know that this past Wednesday night we conducted our annual business meeting as a congregation, and among the issues of business we had the confirmation of four of your office bearers. Mr. Davies and Mr. Johnson were confirmed, as deacons and Pastors Lamar Martin and A. N. Martin, as elders.

3:46 And this act of fresh, concentrated examination of men in the light of the Scripture and in the light of their walk and ministry before you as a congregation has many beneficial effects. And one of them is that those of us who are reconfirmed are given a fresh sense of our stewardship and are led, I trust, to a renewed examination of our responsibilities as elders or deacons and are led to a fresh commitment to fulfill our God-given job description as it is set before us in the word of God and to do so in renewed, acts of dependence upon the Spirit of God. And this has certainly been true with me, and as I have reflected afresh upon such watershed passages as 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1, I have been reminded that one of the very clear responsibilities of elders is delineated by the Apostle Paul in Titus 1, and verse 9,

5:10 where he writes that elders must be men who hold to the faithful word which is according to the teaching that they may be able both to exhort in the sound or healthy doctrine and to convict the gainsayers. Elders are to be men competent to exhort, to exhort, to encourage, to motivate by means of wholesome teaching. But their task is not done when they have only exhorted in the wholesome or healthy or sound doctrine. They must also engage in the task of convicting the gainsayers. And when you ask the question, what is a gainsayer? A gainsayer, etymologically and in its common usage in the New Testament, a gainsayer is one who speaks against something.

6:19 And in the context, a gainsayer in Titus 1, 9 is someone who speaks against any aspect of the wholesome teaching which is the apostolic doctrine, the doctrines of the Word of God. And what does it mean to convict them? Well, it doesn't mean to hold them before a civil court and have them committed to jail for heretical teaching, but to demonstrate their errors to be contrary to the truth, to seek by the Word of God to persuade their judgment and the judgment of God's people in such a way that they stand condemned in the theater, of their own consciences. Now, in the course of our introductory studies on the Ten Commandments, it is this second task of Titus 1, 9 that I am presently seeking to fulfill as mandated by the Word of God. Having demonstrated from nine pivotal passages in the New Testament that the Ten Commandments are a changeless and a binding standard of righteousness

7:43 upon all men, having set forth the clear evidence that all the realities of the blessings and privileges of the full light of the gospel do not set aside or abrogate the Ten Commandments as a succinct summary of moral duty, I began, three Lord's Days ago, to take up several of the passages which are often brought forward by gainsayers, by those who speak against the Ten Commandments as being a binding standard of righteousness upon new covenant believers. It is not delightful for me to do this. I am conscious that, in doing it, one can fall prey to a spirit that is contrary to that which is clearly forbidden or that is forbidden, fall prey to a spirit that is forbidden. In 2 Timothy 2, 24, the servant of the Lord must not strive or be argumentative, pugnacious, but must, with gentleness, seek to instruct those that oppose themselves.

Review of Romans 6:14b: 'Not Under Law, But Under Grace'

9:07 But, of course, according to Titus 1 and verse 9, my task is not accomplished by merely instructing in the sound doctrine, considering those nine passages that clearly indicate the presence of the Ten Commandments as a changeless standard of righteousness in the new covenant community, but to seek to convict gainsayers that, should such be among us, we might convict them and win them to the truth, and that you, the Lord's people, may be immunized against what so often comes from the mouths of gainsayers in the language of the Apostle Paul in the form of fair speech, fair and persuasive speech. And so the first of such passages that we consider, was Romans 6.14b, the Apostle's statement, you are not under law, but under grace. And by examining the crucial concern of this passage, as it is identified in Romans 6.1,

10:30 by looking at the central issue by which Paul addresses that crucial concern, giving the facts, the facts in verses 3 to 10, the exhortations in verses 11 to 13, we saw that the crowning affirmation of the whole passage is, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. And the conclusion to which we came was this, that in this passage, to be under law means this, that you stand, stand before God as a creature accountable to God, with nothing between you and God, but the law in its naked holiness, demanding, commanding, condemning, and even galling and provoking to sin. To be under law is to be a creature standing before Almighty God, with nothing between you and God, but the law and what it can and cannot do. But in the context of Romans 6, to be under grace is to stand before God, accountable to Him in terms of His holy law,

11:59 but you do not stand before God with nothing but the law between you and God, but you have a, a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled that law, who bore the curse of that law, who by His union with us and our union with Him has broken the dominion of sin, who by the Holy Spirit has given us a new heart, has written His law upon the heart, has given a disposition of delight to obey, to obey the law of God. This is to be under grace. And so far from teaching that the child of God who is under grace has no relationship to the Ten Commandments as an abiding, changeless standard of righteousness, Romans 6, 14b teaches just the opposite. If indeed we are under grace, having been delivered from the curse of the law, having been delivered from the condemning power of the law, having been delivered from the galling, sin-provoking pressure of the law, we are now in union with Christ,

13:25 free to run in the way of God's commandments and to serve in the language of Paul in the newness of the Spirit and not in the way of the law. In the oldness of the letter. Now with that brief summary behind us, what I purpose to do this morning is to complete this obedience to Titus 1-9 by looking at two other passages that are often brought forward in the service of seeking to persuade Christians that they ought not to let the Ten Commandments get inside their consciences and should not be in the way of God. And shape their understanding concerning right and wrong. That this is beneath the privilege of a new covenant believer. And the second of such passages, Romans 6, 14b being the first, is Galatians chapter 5 and verse 18. So if you will please turn with me to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 18.

Exposition of Galatians 5:18: 'If You Are Led by the Spirit, You Are Not Under the Law'

14:35 We read in this text, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now shouldn't that settle it for everyone? If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. And this passage is brought forward and used to support the opinion that if we have been born of the Spirit of God, if we have received, if we have received, if we have received the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Sonship and Adoption, the Spirit of Power and Enablement to live a life well-pleasing to God, if we give ourselves up to the tutelage and to the governance of the Holy Spirit, if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law. We have no need for the Ten Commandments to instruct us with respect to the Holy Spirit. We have no respect to what pleases God and what displeases God. We have no need to go to the Ten Words thundered by the voice of God from Sinai.

15:53 We have the Holy Spirit within to lead us into a path of righteousness. And to go to those Ten Words is in essence to denigrate the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that, that teaching is often extrapolated from this text, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now as we did with the Roman 6 passage, and as we do responsibly with any passage, we must never simply dip into the Scripture and rip a text out of its setting, especially when it comes in the midst of the very closely, knit, logically tight strain of argumentation. It's one thing to dip into a proverb where you have these various proverbs collated many times with no relationship between one proverb and the one that follows, though certain of the proverbs do have thematic organizational presence in the book of Proverbs, but certainly in the epistles of Paul, it is clear, it is utterly irresponsible to treat verses in that way. So we must ask several basic questions. Question number one, what was the practical problem

17:22 in the churches at Galatia? When Paul picked up his pen to write or to dictate to a secretary the words of this epistle, what was the problem that he was addressing? Was it a problem in which believers, trusting only in Christ, in the perfection of His life, in His substitutionary death, and in the strength of the Spirit, were looking to the Ten Commandments along with the words of Jesus that were being passed around orally and repeated by the apostles, beginning to show up in some of the epistles? Was it a problem in which believers, trusting only in Christ, were using the Ten Commandments as an aid to educate their consciences as to how they might please Christ? Was that the problem in the churches at Galatia? Well, not according to the book itself. For you will notice in the very second paragraph, Galatians chapter 1, Paul identifies the problem.

18:34 I marvel, I am amazed, that you are so quickly removing from Him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, which is not another gospel, only there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. Let him be a curse of God. What was the problem?

19:14 The problem was a perversion of the very heart of the gospel. They were being moved to what Paul says is a different gospel, but really was no gospel. And what specific error was the focus of this abandonment of the gospel? Paul says you are abandoning the gospel.

19:41 And those who are leading you to abandon the gospel have the very anathema, the curse of God upon them. Well, that leads to the question then, what specific error was the focus of this abandonment of the gospel? And the answer is clear in the epistle. Look at chapter 2, verses 15 and 16.

20:04 We being Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles yet, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. What was the specific error that was the focus of this abandonment of the gospel? Very clearly, they were teaching that men find acceptance with God based upon their own law works, their own performance of obedience to the law of God. This is amplified in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? Who brought you under a spell before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified?

21:18 This only would I learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? You see what the issue was? Christ crucified as the only hope of sinners.

21:33 Christ's work on behalf of sinners being the ground on which the Holy Spirit is granted as the gift of the Father, as the attestation of sonship and of adoption. He says, this terrible thing that has happened to you, He said, who has bewitched you? Who has mesmerized you? Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith?

22:04 You see what the error was? Works of the law being the ground of receiving so-called redemptive blessings. Chapter 4, verses 8 to 10. Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods.

22:21 But now, but now that you have come to know God or rather be known by God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly rudiments wherein you desire to be in bondage over again? You are observing days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain. What were they doing?

22:50 They were subjecting themselves to special ceremonies and special days and special seasons not as matters of innocent cultural observance, but believing these things were necessary for salvation. So much that Paul says, if you are going to be resting upon your performance of these days and feasts and ceremonies, all of my labors to bring you to trust in Christ alone have been in vain. Look at verse 21. Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

23:33 Now in what sense were they desiring to be under the law? Was it that they were looking to the Ten Commandments to hone and to sharpen and enlighten their consciences as to how to please God? That was not the issue. They were looking to the whole Mosaic system as necessary to their salvation.

23:59 They were abandoning their liberty in Christ. Notice chapter 5, verses 2 through 4. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Did he mean if one of them had a child circumcised simply as a cultural or as a hygienic thing, Christ would profit them nothing?

24:25 No! What he is saying is, if you submit to circumcision, thereby binding yourself over to live as a Jew under the Mosaic framework, believing that this is essential to your salvation, Christ will profit you nothing. For I testify to every man that receives circumcision in this way, he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are severed from Christ here is the key issue, you who would be justified by the law, you are fallen away from grace.

25:09 Now dear people, do you see the pastoral problem there in the churches of Galatia? It was not a problem of people of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds who had new hearts desiring to know how to live, to please their God out of a motive of evangelical obedience, looking to the Ten Commandments as one of the courts of influence upon their conscience, and so Paul picks up his pen and says, Stop it! You are falling from grace! That is another gospel!

25:49 That is not at all the concern of the apostle when he writes this epistle. The error was nothing less than the sole destructive heresy of seeking acceptance with God on the basis of circumcision leading to keeping the whole Mosaic system. In other words, what the Judaizers were teaching them was this, Christ was a good starting point for salvation, but if you wanted a complete salvation you needed to go back to Moses and the whole Mosaic system as a way of life. It is all right to start with Christ, but Christ by faith is not enough. You must go from Christ by faith to commitment to the whole Mosaic system if you would be justified. And it is that sole destructive error that Paul is attacking in this entire epistle.

27:04 And he is telling them, no, Christ is not the starting point of salvation, He is the beginning, middle and end of our salvation. It is Christ alone, by faith alone, that brings us into the blessings of divine forgiveness, the gift of the Spirit, and all of the wonderful redemptive blessings purchased by the Lord Jesus. Now, having looked at the central problem in the churches at Galatia, the specific error that was the focus of that problem, as Paul deals with that problem, he had no trouble saying as he does in chapter 5 and verse 1, for freedom did Christ set us free. Stand fast therefore and don't be entangled in the yoke of bondage. Now what was that yoke of bondage? Was it using the Ten Commandments as a guide to moral conduct?

28:15 No. The yoke of bondage was going back to the whole Mosaic system as essential to salvation. For later on in this very chapter as we saw a few weeks ago in verse 13, knowing that some might abuse his call to liberty and freedom, he says, for you, brethren, were called for freedom, only don't use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

28:56 Here he says you are to be concerned with the moral law and you must understand that in fulfilling that law not to earn life and to earn salvation, but out of gratitude to the God who loved you in Christ and who in Christ procured a complete salvation, that you must love one another and with genuine love, take the posture of serving one another. And when the question is asked, how do I in love serve my neighbor? I turn to the second table of the law for the law becomes love's eyes and without it love is blind. Now then, when he comes to this portion, here we're coming close to our text now, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh is continually lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other that you may not do the things that you would. Walk by the Spirit in Christ having embraced Him by faith you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit not on the basis of circumcision and keeping the law but on the basis of what Christ has done. He established that

30:25 in chapter 3 verses 13 and 14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Christ and the Spirit received by faith. Christ's work on our behalf not only removes the curse of the law but forms the basis of God freely giving us His Holy Spirit described in chapter 4 as the Spirit of Sonship enabling us to say Abba Father.

31:10 Now He says to these Christians the Spirit given to you not by your law keeping not on the basis of circumcision not on the basis of submission to Mosaic rituals and ceremonies and dietary laws and feast days and fast days but the Spirit given upon your believing in Christ alone you must now walk in the power under the gracious tutelage and influence of the Spirit and in so doing you will not have a lifestyle marked by fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And why do they need that exhortation? Because there is a constant antagonism in this present life. The flesh will be continually lusting against the Spirit. Though you are indwelt by the Spirit though the Spirit has come and broken the dominion of sin there is still remaining sin here called the flesh. And the flesh is not dormant and inactive it is constantly lusting striving against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.

32:24 These are contrary the one to the other that you may not do the things that you would but if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now in that setting the larger problem that Paul is addressing the specific manifestation of that problem what do these words mean? Well you see we are right back essentially to the significance of their use in Romans 6. He says if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.

33:04 Is it possible to live a life led by the Spirit in which the Holy Spirit will enable me to render evangelical obedience to the law of God that I may truly love my neighbor as myself and thereby honor every institution of authority established by God? Honor the sanctity of the sexual relationship? Honor the sanctity of life and of truth and of property? Is it possible?

33:36 Yes! Why? Because I am not under the law. I do not stand before God with nothing but His law commanding.

33:48 Demanding, threatening, condemning and calling me. If I am in Christ I have received the Holy Spirit and having received the Holy Spirit I now have been given a divine enablement to please God. Where once my heart was in enmity with God my carnal mind was enmity to Him and not subject to His law by the regenerating renewing work of the Spirit and by the indwelling of the Spirit as the Spirit of adoption I now look upon God as my loving Father whom I desire to please and who has given me His Spirit that I may be enabled to please Him. The Spirit who testifies of Christ who takes of the things of Christ who so unites me to Christ that the very virtue and strength of Christ is operative in me. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.

34:59 You are not in that pathetic state where all the law can do is demand and command and condemn and call. You are now as children of God in the posture where the fruit of the Spirit can and will be manifested in your life. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, long suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness meekness, self-control against such there is no law. There is nothing in the law of God that will ever condemn love, joy, peace long suffering kindness, goodness faithfulness, meekness self-control. But is there anything in God's law that will condemn and point out your sin when you are not loving and when you are not meek and when you are not long suffering and when you have allowed things so to fill your vision that you become temporary practical atheists and are not living in the peace that Christ has promised to his own? You see this text brought forward to do service to the notion

36:25 that the child of God must never let the Ten Commandments get into his conscience is an absolute perversion of this text. There is no warrant whatsoever when viewed in its large setting of the particular concern there in the churches of Galatia the error which the apostle is addressing. As one servant of God has stated it succinctly if one is to offer resistance in the struggle between spirit and flesh one must be in the service of the spirit and not in that of the law. That the demand of the law remains is clear from verse 14 and this is not denied. The issue in short is the strength the power that is necessary for the fulfillment of the law. And that only comes when we are not under law but under grace. And to be under grace is to be in the realm of the spirit is to be indwelt by the spirit and to walk and to live in the spirit is to walk and to live under the governance and direction of the spirit and in that state

37:51 we have not merely hope that we shall know great and increasing measures of conformity to Christ and more and more victory over this and that sin. We have solid grounds to expect this for we are not under the law but we are under the tutelage of God's grace. And so when Galatians 5.18 is used to advance a notion that a Christian is not to regard the Ten Commandments as a binding changeless standard of righteousness this is to ignore the core issue of the Galatian letter it is to ignore the preceding context in which Paul explicitly alludes to the Ten Commandments and it is to overturn the general teaching of the word of God in short it is to twist the scriptures. Now passage number 3 and final passage John chapter 1 and verse 17 and this treatment of passages abused is not exhausted these are introductory studies but I hope our treatment of these will give you enough acquaintance with the principles of responsible handling of these passages that others that may be brought forward in times of your own weakness

Exposition of John 1:17: 'The Law Was Given Through Moses; Grace and Truth Came Through Jesus Christ'

39:20 or in confrontation with others you will be well armed to handle them. John chapter 1 and verse 17 here is a favorite text of those who would say with the coming of Christ and the full manifestation of God's redemptive work in Christ we have passed through the period where the Ten Commandments have anything more to say to us for the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and the way the text is used is as follows if you in any way cling to anything connected with Moses to that extent you are relinquishing your adherence to the grace and truth that came in their fullness in the Lord Jesus Christ Moses gave men the law and often in this passage people assume that means the Ten Commandments and in their mind this is the way they read it for the Ten Commandments were given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ therefore to use the law as a binding guide to educate the conscience of a Christian

40:44 is to live beneath one's gospel privileges is in some way to denigrate or fail to appreciate the fact that through the Lord Jesus grace and truth have come that have advanced us beyond any need of the influence of the Ten Commandments as an abiding companion in the theater of our conscience to teach us how to please God now what does the verse really mean well those of you familiar with the gospel of John know that John begins in the beginning and he takes us back before time in the beginning was the word the word ever was there was no time when the word was not in the beginning the word was continually on was continually being in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God and here John breaks in upon his readers with this announcement that the central figure in his gospel is a person who is divine he is the eternal word

42:11 separate from and distinct from the Father and yet he is God one with the Father in sharing in the divine essence and he speaks about the word in terms of his activity of creation verse 3 in his work of life-giving power in illumination he subject is the word verses 1 to 5 then in verse 6 he introduces John the Baptist who was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus there came a man you see the contrast there came a man in the beginning was the word and the word was God there came a man you see the contrast the word God John the Baptist a man there came a man sent from God whose name was John the same came for a witness and then the subject is John bearing witness to the word bearing witness to our Lord Jesus and then in verse 14 we have this astounding statement and the word who was in the beginning with God himself God

43:38 the one to whom John bore witness the word became flesh while never ceasing to be what he always had been eternal God the word he becomes flesh he doesn't cease to be all that he ever has been he begins to be something he never had been the God man the word became flesh and dwelt among us tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten from the father now notice full of grace and truth we beheld the glory of the incarnate word whether John is speaking here quoting the testimony of John the Baptist or whether John is speaking of himself exegetes differ and it's of no consequence for our purposes this morning anyone who beheld the glory the outshining of the inherent perfections of the eternal word made flesh what did they see they saw glory that was unique to one who was the only begotten of the father and who was full who was the plenitude who was the only begotten of the father

45:06 who was the repository of grace and of truth grace the unmerited favor of God to hell deserving sinners truth all reality all reality as opposed to error all reality as opposed to type and shadow and figure and foreshadowing everything until the word became flesh all of God's previous revelations in himself were pointing to something more glorious something more grand something more amazing something more astounding everything was pointing forward forward forward and in the fullness of the times God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law and John writes we beheld his glory the outshining of his inherent perfections as of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth now notice how he comes back to John's witness John bears witness of him and cries saying this was he of whom I said he that comes after me is become before me for he was before me for of his fullness we all received and grace in the place of grace

46:34 greater grace supplying present measures of grace for the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ now do you sense something of the drift of the passage the great focus is the glory of Christ a glory that has its tap roots in his eternal glory in his eternal existence as the uncreated word a glory to which John himself bears witness a glory that involves the word becoming flesh and while the incarnate word shining forth the perfections of his being in such a way that you could come to only these two conclusions if you had spiritual sight the uniqueness of his identity the only begotten of the Father and the uniqueness of his mediation of grace and of truth grace and truth are found from the garden of Eden onward was it not grace and truth that came to Adam and Eve when they rebelled against God

48:01 and they ran from God and God in grace took the initiative to seek them out God in grace said I will break up your alignments with the devil I will put enmity between the devil between the serpent and between the woman between his seed and her seed it was grace that came in the garden it was grace it says that made Noah what he was Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord it was grace that took that idolater Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans and called him and made him Abraham father of the faithful there is grace all the way through the Old Testament and there is truth there is blessed glorious eternal truth but you see in Jesus Christ the fullness of grace and the fullness of truth has come to its ultimate expression and to its final expression Hebrews 1.1 God who in time past spoke unto the fathers through the prophets in many ways in many forms hath in the end of these days spoken unto us in a song

49:29 and this is what John is affirming in the mind of God in the mind of a Jew when you thought of the instrument through whom God had made his most fulsome revelation of his mind and will it was Moses and here is the contrast and grasp it as you look at the text here in this passage we see that there is a threefold contrast the law the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ there is a contrast between the law and grace and truth second contrast something was given or delivered and something or someone came a different word is used the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ so you have a contrast between law grace and truth something given something came and then the contrast Moses and for the first time John uses his full name Jesus Christ the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ now what is being said

50:56 now I know this is demanded that you think and I make no apologies for it I repeat it if you are too lazy to think then it is right for God to curse you with a mind that will receive heresy for you are to love the Lord your God with all your mind as well as your soul and with all your strength and all your heart here the word law in verse 17 is not referring to the ten commandments as a changeless abiding standard of righteousness it is speaking of the whole Mosaic administration Moses was the mediator par excellence of the old covenant it was through Moses that the book of the law was given it was through Moses that the table of the ten commandments was carried down from the mount after they were inscribed with the very finger of God it was through Moses that all the ceremonies of the Levitical system and the priesthood and all of the civil legislation the entire moral civil and ceremonial law was mediated through Moses and that is why Moses had such a place in the estimation of the Jews

52:22 they said we are Moses disciples they say in John I believe chapter 9 whose disciple are you we are Moses disciples Moses was the great mediator of the whole administration of law and that whole administration of law although it was permeated with grace and truth was all pointing forward to and preparing men to feel the need of what the fullness of grace and truth in the coming promised seed of the woman every lamb that bleated when its throat was slit was a bleat that pointed to the lamb of God every priest who washed himself and adorned himself according to God's ordinance was a prefiguring of that one who is our great high priest would enter once for all into the presence of God with his own blood and there sprinkle it as it were on the altar in the very presence of God on behalf of his people all of the mosaic system was pointing forward to and seeking to shut men up to a felt need

53:49 of the fullness of grace and the fullness of truth reality no longer type and shadow no longer bulls and goats and lambs and pigeons and he goats pointing to the great sacrifice but the great sacrifice himself hanging on a cross under darkened heavens and the frown of God ringing from his soul the language of dereliction and abandonment my God my God why have you forsaken me this is reality not type not shadow this is truth and so what John 117 is saying is this the law as a covenantal administration as an epoch in God's ongoing purposes of redemption that law was given delivered through Moses given to and delivered through Moses he was the great mediator of that old covenant but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ grace in its efficacious working comes through Christ truth reality

55:17 no longer types and shadows come through Jesus Christ and this text is so important because if you grasp what it's saying then when you turn to three other passages that I'm only going to mention I believe you'll have in your hand to unlock them perhaps you've been troubled when you've read 2 Corinthians 3 where Paul contrasts the glory of the old covenant administration with the glory of the new and he says one is passing away the glory of that which is passing away doesn't compare with the glory of that which remains that's not talking about the ten commandments and whether or not they have a place in the conscience of the new covenant community it's talking about the whole Mosaic administration as preparatory to the coming of the new covenant administration and John 1 17 is germinal is seminal it is a succinct statement of what is opened up in greater fullness in 2 Corinthians 3 similarly Galatians chapters 3 and 4 Paul argues God made promise to Abraham that men would be saved by faith 430 years after along comes the law what's he talking about the whole Mosaic

56:45 administration is added on top of the promise not to cancel the promise but to prepare men for the coming fulfillment of the promise and when the fulfillment comes in Christ he says now that Christ is come you're no longer under the law he's not talking about no longer under the guidance of the Ten Commandments he says you're no longer under that Mosaic administration that performed a temporary function in the purposes of God preparing for the coming of the promised Messiah and that's the argument of Hebrews chapters 7 through 10 when he says that with the coming of the better covenant and the better mediator and the better promises all the old have passed away but it's interesting in the very heart of demonstrating that he says in the new covenant God says I will write my law upon their hearts and upon their minds will I write them so you see dear people of God when these passages are used to say that anything that smells of Moses that comes out of the period of Moses is to be behind us if we would fully appreciate the full goodness of grace and truth in Christ is an irresponsible handling

Reasons Why Professing Christians Reject the Law's Relevance

58:13 of the word of God now then in closing a question that I hope some of you are asking I say pastor it seems quite plain to me as you've worked through the passage walked through them with me I don't think you've pulled any intellectual and mental gymnastics and exegetical sleight of hand it seems so plain when we look at the context and intent of the writer and the application made why do professing Christians take such a position does that question bother you it bothers me why do professing Christians then grab on to Romans 6 14b not under law under grace no relationship to the ten commandments if you're led by the spirit not under the law if I'm full of the spirit I don't need the ten commandments law came through Moses grace truth have come through Jesus Christ I'm taking up with Christ I have nothing to do with Moses why do Christians professing Christians take this position well I believe there are three major reasons and I can lay them out in a very short time number one a true believer may be over reacting to a wrong use of the law which was harmful to his own soul a true believer

59:41 may be over reacting to a wrong use of the law that was harmful to his own soul for example someone may have been brought up in a home where he was taught the ten commandments with his ABC's and there was such an application of the ten commandments to his conscience without ever pointing that distressed tender law sensitized to the fact that the purpose of the law was to show him his sin that he might flee to Christ who perfectly kept the law who embodies what it means to keep the law to the glory of God and all that person can remember is the constant rubbing of the sharp teeth of the law like a rasp upon his sensitive tender youthful soul rasping cloying shredding his soul and when he comes to the place where he finds in Christ the one who perfectly kept the law who died under the curse of the law and he finds for the first time peace of conscience all of the connotation of the ten commandments is something he wants to run from like hell itself and the reason he does that is

61:09 because he's over reacting to a wrong use of the law that was harmful to his own soul or he may have been in a religious climate where people were basically Judaizers they really believe that if you kept the law and its external demands and you did your religious things you were accepted with God oh yes Christ fit in there somehow he was the starting point or he was ancillary but only to lead to something else and because they were in an environment where there was a harmful use of the law they react from anything that has to do with the ten commandments now listen carefully one old writer made this observation and I've never forgotten it and I've had to constantly test my soul with it he said whenever we perceive an error and we reject it we assume that the further away we move from that error the closer we come to the truth you hear me this wise person said whenever we perceive an error and reject it we feel the further away we move from that error the closer we are coming to the truth when in reality in

62:38 reacting against that error we may go clean through the balancing point of truth and go into an error of the opposite direction and so if I'm speaking to some who know that their souls were harmed by an imbalanced improper use of the law don't let your battered damaged psyche determine the place you will give to the ten commandments in your conscience let the responsible exposition of scripture lead you into a responsible interaction with the law of God in dependence upon the Holy Spirit so I believe there are good and godly Christians who reject any contact with the ten commandments in a conscious way however because God's written that very law upon their hearts and given them a predisposition to keep that law their lives are much better than their theory and they are godly people and they love Christ the kink is in their head rooted in the scars in their souls so when you meet someone

64:05 who brings up these objections don't immediately go for the juggler vein deal gently you may be dealing with someone who's been scarred and spiritually harmed by an unwise use of the law but then there's a second reason why Christians reject this clear teaching and bring up the very verses that we've looked at a true believer may have an area of controversy with God which the law is addressing a true believer may have an area of controversy with God which the law is addressing in this case the error in the head with these texts we've looked at is rooted in the perversity of remaining sin in the heart now does the Bible teach that true Christians can have areas of controversy with God my Bible surely teaches it from Genesis to Revelation it never teaches it in order to justify or to set up an example but it is honest in showing us that true believers a man after God's own heart like David can have a controversy with God in the area of lust and adultery and of murder and of pride and surely if there's a true believer who's got a controversy with God the law

65:35 raw nerves of which is going to be are going to be pinched by a careful exposition and application of all ten of the commandments he's going to try to find some way to wiggle out from letting the raw nerve endings be pinched and that may be true of some of you you may find your judgment is persuaded but your heels are still dug in why because you've got an area of controversy and you know sooner or later when we get to the second the third the fifth the seventh the eighth you've already begun to get more acquainted with the ten commandments than you have been in years saying where am I going to get pinched remember moral controversy with God will make your head play tricks on you and that's why there are true Christians who react this way but then thirdly and finally a spurious believer may be manifesting the true state of his heart when the ten commandments are preached why do some professing believers have as their favorite texts the very ones I've considered with you and sought to show their proper meaning why are they their watchword not under law law came through Moses Moses is done grace and truth came through Jesus

67:04 Christ if led by the Spirit you're not under the law they are spurious believers whose true state of heart is described by Romans 8 7 the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God you see there's nothing like a close careful application of the ten commandments to blow off the lid of a spurious faith because you see when we encounter the law it is God's will confronting your will let me illustrate you may take your little son or daughter out in the spring where there's some fruit trees and you say to your son or daughter sweetheart son honey however you address them that is an apple tree now what are you doing your mind is confronting the mind of your child with information you're seeking to impart knowledge concerning a certain tree that it is a certain kind of tree and that it bears a specific kind of fruit it is the mind of a father confronting the mind of a child seeking to impart information son sweetheart honey that is an apple tree which is the apple tree

68:32 that is the apple tree daddy good the information has come in in the fall when the tree is laden with fruit you take the same son or daughter and you say go to the apple tree pick an apple and bring it to daddy now father is not merely confronting the mind of his son or daughter it's not merely mind passing information to mind it is will exerting authority over another will right sweetheart honey no matter how you say it go pick an apple for daddy now at that point you don't want sweetheart honey son whatever you call him looking up and saying daddy I believe in apple trees that's an apple tree you say son the question is not whether it's an apple tree the issue is go pick an apple and bring it to daddy daddy I really believe it's an apple tree I really do you see there are a lot of spurious Christians oh they love expository preaching oh they love the opening up of the scriptures as long as it's mere information as long as God's mind is confronting their mind

70:00 they have a fascination of mind with the revealed mind of God but let the ten commandments begin to touch their thoughts and motives and words and deeds and they squirm why it's divine will impinging on human will and there Paul says the carnal mind is enmity against God it may not show up in the realm of the thoughts of God but when the will of God is articulated it is not subject to the law of God that's why some of you have a predisposition to some of the very texts that we've examined and they're wrong use because your faith is spurious your Christianity is merely intellectual you have never known the mighty work of God excising your heart of stone giving you a heart of flesh writing his holy law upon your heart giving you an inward disposition and delight to be able to say with David in our Lord I delight to do thy will oh my God yea thy law is within my heart yes daddy I'll gladly pick an apple if that will please you that's the

Conclusion and Prayer

71:27 disposition of a son is it yours if God spares us to go through this exposition perhaps God will show some of you whether or not your faith is real or spurious may the Lord help us I know there I should say I know I'd be surprised if there aren't some of you saying oh but pastor please deal with this text please deal with that but we've got to get to the ten commandments and I must still set before you by way of introduction the principles that will guide us in our exposition and then our goals for this exposition and God helping us will cover those matters in the next two weeks that are before us let us pray our father we thank you for your word and while we are grieved that that word is so often twisted rested from its plain intention to the destruction of men's souls we ask that your holy spirit would help us that we having no known controversy with you may desire to be taught your ways oh Lord have mercy upon us that with all of our hearts we may be able to say with the

72:57 psalmist I will run in the way of your commandments when you shall enlarge my heart we pray for those who sit among us who have a controversy of will that is fundamental because they have never bowed to your dear son have never known what it is to be transformed by your grace have mercy upon them for those who may have an area of controversy Lord search us and try us and know our hearts for if we are yours we do not want that controversy to continue we want our Lord Jesus to have the full reward of his sufferings in every part of our lives seal then your word to our hearts and dismiss us with your blessing resting upon us we plead in Jesus name Amen