WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:19.820 Last week we continued our study in 1 Timothy by reading verses 3 to 11, and we considered the Apostle Paul's argument for the necessity of sound doctrine for maintaining a healthy church. 2 00:00:19.820 --> 00:00:41.720 We saw that true biblical teaching acts as a spiritual foundation, protecting a congregation from the sickness that comes from false teaching and superficial myths that these heretical teachers were teaching in the church at Ephesus. 3 00:00:41.720 --> 00:00:55.400 So Paul talks about the contrast to the heretical leaders, legalism, and the novelty, and all those things that they were teaching. 4 00:00:55.400 --> 00:01:22.040 The contrast to that is that the truth of God's word should be taught for the glory of God, and the truth of God's word produces in listeners who receive it in faith a Christ-like love that arises from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 5 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:31.580 Healthy doctrine nourishes the soul and ensures that a church can become a vibrant pillar and a foundation of the truth. 6 00:01:31.580 --> 00:01:33.467 And that's what we strive for. 7 00:01:33.467 --> 00:01:38.520 We are seeking to explore the truth of God's word. 8 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:56.280 Now today, I'm going to begin, I'm going to read verses 3 as I mentioned a moment ago, we'll read 3 to 11, and then we'll begin our study with verse 8 so that we can understand what is the purpose of God's law. 9 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.620 That's the topic we want to consider this morning. 10 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:04.980 Why did God give us his law? 11 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:39.320 This is God's Holy Word: As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculations rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. 12 00:02:39.320 --> 00:02:47.800 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 13 00:02:47.800 --> 00:03:06.180 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. 14 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:47.240 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. 15 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.780 Let's ask God to bless his word to us. 16 00:03:50.780 --> 00:03:58.760 Father, we thank you for the richness of this passage that we have just read. 17 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:15.980 We thank you, Father, that you have given this book to us, to know how to protect our church, Mayflower Hills Baptist Church, from wrong teaching, from wrong doctrine, to keep us a healthy people before you. 18 00:04:15.980 --> 00:04:18.800 We ask, Lord, for your help today. 19 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:32.800 Father, as we study this passage from verse 8 to verse 11, so that we can understand the purpose that you have given for law, I pray, Father, that you bless this to our heart. 20 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:51.300 That you help us to comprehend it by the power of your Spirit, and Father, that you apply these truths to our soul that we may be changed so that we would live out and grow in the love that we have for you, and Father, for the love that we have from each other. 21 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:55.540 Bless us in this way, we pray in Christ's name. 22 00:04:55.540 --> 00:04:59.460 Amen. 23 00:04:59.460 --> 00:05:06.360 Well, I'm going to begin this morning by talking about the danger of good people. 24 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:12.060 The danger of "good people," and you have to put that in quotes. 25 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:23.980 The people who have come into the church at Ephesus are people who are accepted and who look good to the people. 26 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:28.420 They come to them looking like good Christians. 27 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:38.640 In fact, they probably present themselves as people who aren't just ordinary Christians, but they are superior in some ways. 28 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:41.560 And they know the truth. 29 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:49.220 Paul, when he is writing this letter, the conflict that he has is not with atheists on the outside. 30 00:05:49.220 --> 00:05:54.280 The conflict that he is having is with Bible teachers in the church. 31 00:05:54.280 --> 00:06:00.780 These are people who claim to believe the Bible and who want to teach the Bible. 32 00:06:00.780 --> 00:06:06.480 They have framed themselves as experts in the word of God. 33 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:14.700 So in Ephesus, these false teachers believe themselves to be experts in the law of God. 34 00:06:14.700 --> 00:06:20.700 So that's who he's talking about. 35 00:06:20.700 --> 00:06:34.550 But the problem is, they were using the word of God, the law of God, to present speculative ideas and vain or empty discussions. 36 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:39.700 They were very confident in their understanding of the purpose of God's word. 37 00:06:39.700 --> 00:06:53.340 They believed that they knew what it meant, and yet Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that they want to be teachers of the law but they do not understand what they are saying. 38 00:06:53.340 --> 00:07:15.780 So the issue here that we are dealing with is people who are teaching and instructing people and have positioned themselves as authorities in the church at Ephesus who are teaching the Old Testament law to them, and they have misinterpreted God's word. 39 00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:20.130 And they're teaching the church a misinterpretation of the word of God. 40 00:07:20.130 --> 00:07:30.420 They're reading the word of God, they're quoting the word of God, and then they're saying what they believe that word means, but they don't know what it means. 41 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:34.040 They don't understand the purpose of the law. 42 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:40.180 But then that begs the question for us, do we understand the purpose of the law? 43 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:42.460 And so that's where we're going today. 44 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:49.420 We want to explore, why did God give us the law? 45 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:51.400 Why did he give us the Ten Commandments? 46 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:55.660 Why did he give us the moral law that we find in scripture? 47 00:07:55.660 --> 00:08:03.640 Now the false teachers that Paul is addressing believe that the law is good. 48 00:08:03.640 --> 00:08:09.880 And so when Paul begins to explain the purpose of the law, he agrees with them. 49 00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:18.600 Notice that in verse 8. 50 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:23.240 But we know that the law is good, if one use it lawfully. 51 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:24.920 The law is good. 52 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:28.160 We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. 53 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:38.000 And he says the same thing pretty much in Romans 7:12, that the law is holy and righteous and good. 54 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:49.420 And he is expressing the truth of that because what the law actually does is it represents the unyielding, perfect character of God. 55 00:08:49.420 --> 00:08:57.800 The law shows us the pure character of God, his holy standard for all of mankind. 56 00:08:57.800 --> 00:09:00.260 It reflects his holy nature. 57 00:09:00.260 --> 00:09:02.540 So it's good. 58 00:09:02.540 --> 00:09:15.580 Now if you read the Bible, the New Testament, there are passages in the Bible, particularly from the Apostle Paul, that might make you think that Paul doesn't believe that the law is good. 59 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:18.220 Let me remind you of a few of those. 60 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:26.860 For example, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 6 through 9. 61 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:41.100 In that passage, Paul calls the law the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone. 62 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:47.120 He's talking about the finger-written Ten Commandments. 63 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:54.480 The ministry that is brought death, which is engraved in letters on stone. 64 00:09:54.480 --> 00:10:02.300 Now, is a ministry that brought death, is that something that's good? 65 00:10:02.300 --> 00:10:07.733 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. 66 00:10:07.733 --> 00:10:13.780 (Galatians 3:10) In other words, the law brings a curse. 67 00:10:13.780 --> 00:10:16.070 Is a curse a good thing? 68 00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:31.240 In Galatians 3:13, he talks about the curse of the law, and it is a curse that we need to be saved from. 69 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:37.160 And when you're thinking about the law of God in that way, well, it doesn't sound very good, does it? 70 00:10:37.160 --> 00:10:44.520 So here Paul says that the law is good. 71 00:10:44.520 --> 00:10:53.720 There are other passages in the Bible, a passage where Paul talks about the law provoking people to sin. 72 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:58.160 That's an interesting observation that Paul has. 73 00:10:58.160 --> 00:11:06.820 Romans 5:20: The law was brought in so that the trespasses might increase. 74 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:10.140 That's interesting, isn't it? 75 00:11:10.140 --> 00:11:18.073 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us. 76 00:11:18.073 --> 00:11:24.985 (Romans 7:5) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 77 00:11:24.985 --> 00:11:30.620 (1 Corinthians 15:56) So he's saying that the law, there's a sense in which the law stirs people up to sin. 78 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:42.000 It's like you walk into a building, and next to the wall there's a sign that says "Wet Paint." 79 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:50.000 And there's something about that sign saying "Wet Paint" that makes you want to touch the wall and see if it's really wet paint. 80 00:11:50.000 --> 00:12:01.200 When the law spells out something, real often it stirs people up to do the very thing. 81 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.640 To do the thing. 82 00:12:04.640 --> 00:12:24.020 Augustine in his famous memoir, he writes that he talks about how when he was a boy, he stole apples, not because he needed them, but I guess because it was prohibited. 83 00:12:24.020 --> 00:12:26.560 The main reason is because it was something he shouldn't do. 84 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:34.380 And something stirred up in him to cause him to want to steal something just for the sake of stealing it. 85 00:12:34.380 --> 00:12:42.820 There's that aspect, and the law of God can stir us up to desire to sin. 86 00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:45.400 It's kind of an interesting thing Paul points out. 87 00:12:45.400 --> 00:12:50.640 That causes us to come to an end to ourselves really. 88 00:12:50.640 --> 00:12:55.840 So Paul, do you really believe that the law is good, if you believe these things about the law? 89 00:12:55.840 --> 00:13:10.000 And Paul's answer to that question, do you believe that the law is good, is: Yes, we know that the law is good, if you use it lawfully. 90 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.680 So how does this fit together? 91 00:13:15.680 --> 00:13:21.940 In verse 9, Paul begins his explanation for us. 92 00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:29.540 Realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person. 93 00:13:29.540 --> 00:13:33.400 The law is not made for a righteous person. 94 00:13:33.400 --> 00:13:35.720 Now what does that mean? 95 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:42.300 There's a couple of possibilities of who the righteous person is when you're studying this. 96 00:13:42.300 --> 00:13:45.140 There's a couple of possibilities that are both true. 97 00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:52.560 For example, there are many that understand this in the first way: the law is not made for the righteous person. 98 00:13:52.560 --> 00:14:06.500 And they're talking about the fact that if there were no sin in the world, if everyone was righteous, there would be no need for the law. 99 00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:08.570 That's true, isn't it? 100 00:14:08.570 --> 00:14:11.100 That certainly is true. 101 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:24.680 I mean, if everybody drove perfectly safely on the highway, we wouldn't have any laws for reckless driving. 102 00:14:24.680 --> 00:14:26.540 There would be no need for them. 103 00:14:26.540 --> 00:14:31.180 Nobody, no state legislator would worry about enacting such a law. 104 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:41.740 So if everybody were righteous, the reason that we have the law in the Bible that God gave it, is because people sinned. 105 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:44.700 Because of sinners. 106 00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:52.740 And that's a truth that this passage could be the main focus of this truth. 107 00:14:52.740 --> 00:15:08.640 But there's another good possibility that's also true. 108 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:22.060 And Bible teachers like John Stott and John MacArthur view the passage in this way, and it is also true, so it could be the primary meaning. 109 00:15:22.060 --> 00:15:24.020 I think probably it is. 110 00:15:24.020 --> 00:15:36.940 That Paul is using this word "righteous," the righteous person, in an ironic way. 111 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:43.180 In a way similar to the way Jesus said, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 112 00:15:43.180 --> 00:16:04.740 And so if that's the case, then the righteous here are not people who are truly righteous, but people who are using the law as a means of righteousness. 113 00:16:04.740 --> 00:16:09.520 To gain righteousness through the meticulous keeping of the law. 114 00:16:09.520 --> 00:16:16.760 They're using the law as a ladder to climb their way to heaven. 115 00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:19.800 So that's a very strong possibility. 116 00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:26.800 Because what comes next is a list which is the target for the law. 117 00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:40.680 Paul lists this long list of lawless behaviors in verse 9. 118 00:16:40.680 --> 00:17:09.800 Realizing the fact that law is not made for the righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. 119 00:17:09.800 --> 00:17:11.800 So look at this list. 120 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:14.820 That's the purpose of the law, Paul says. 121 00:17:14.820 --> 00:17:20.280 The purpose of the law is because of these people. 122 00:17:20.280 --> 00:17:35.060 And something that I should point out here that many people point out when they're teaching this passage is that this list is interesting because it corresponds basically to the Ten Commandments. 123 00:17:35.060 --> 00:17:50.000 The First and Second Commandments: "No other gods before me" and "No graven images or idols." 124 00:17:50.000 --> 00:18:02.700 This would correspond to the ungodly and sinners. 125 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:06.060 Because they fail to love God exclusively. 126 00:18:06.060 --> 00:18:11.860 They're practicing idolatry or living without regard to Him. 127 00:18:11.860 --> 00:18:16.420 The Third Commandment: Taking God's name in vain. 128 00:18:16.420 --> 00:18:24.060 The term unholy corresponds to all those who fail to sanctify the Lord's name. 129 00:18:24.060 --> 00:18:27.560 The Fourth Commandment: Sabbath keeping. 130 00:18:27.560 --> 00:18:36.060 The word profane represents or describes people who trample on things that are sacred. 131 00:18:36.060 --> 00:19:16.840 And so it corresponds to not recognizing what God has set aside as holy. 132 00:19:16.840 --> 00:19:20.120 The Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and mother. 133 00:19:20.120 --> 00:19:26.980 And so on this list you have those who strike or kill their fathers and mothers. 134 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:37.040 And that's a pretty flagrant violation of not honoring your father and mother. 135 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:40.340 The Sixth Commandment: Do not murder. 136 00:19:40.340 --> 00:19:40.840 And then he lists murderers. 137 00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:43.760 The Seventh Commandment: Do not commit adultery. 138 00:19:43.760 --> 00:19:53.640 And he lists here immoral men and homosexuals and those who violate the biblical boundaries of sexual purity. 139 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:56.300 The Eighth Commandment: Do not steal. 140 00:19:56.300 --> 00:20:09.660 And this is interesting, because Paul lists kidnappers, enslavers, is what the word could mean. 141 00:20:09.660 --> 00:20:29.360 People who would kidnap someone, usually a child, and sell them into slavery. 142 00:20:29.360 --> 00:20:31.860 Horrible, horrible sin. 143 00:20:31.860 --> 00:20:44.760 If you're talking about the sin of stealing, what could be worse than stealing the life of a person? 144 00:20:44.760 --> 00:20:52.400 The Ninth Commandment: Don't bear false witness. 145 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:55.780 Liars and perjurers directly break that commandment. 146 00:20:55.780 --> 00:21:01.280 And whatever else: Which would certainly include covetousness. 147 00:21:01.280 --> 00:21:08.440 But covetousness is a sin that is committed by everyone who has committed any of these other sins. 148 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:10.880 It's preceded by covetousness. 149 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:20.660 So it's a foundational sin. 150 00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:31.040 He's actually singling out the extreme examples of people who would be violating the Ten Commandments. 151 00:21:31.040 --> 00:21:33.540 So it's a list. 152 00:21:33.540 --> 00:21:38.360 I had to ask myself, why does he use these extreme examples? 153 00:21:38.360 --> 00:21:51.660 And I'm pretty sure he's using the extreme examples so that we understand that what they are doing, they're guilty and deserve the punishment that is due them. 154 00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:53.933 For justice to be done. 155 00:21:53.933 --> 00:22:12.721 You know, it's easy for us to recognize that a person who comes and steals a child, sells them into slavery, deserves what they're going to get. 156 00:22:12.721 --> 00:22:16.300 Other lists in the Bible reflect this, lists that Paul gives. 157 00:22:16.300 --> 00:22:37.800 For example, in 1 Corinthians 6:9: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? 158 00:22:37.800 --> 00:22:58.700 Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 159 00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:02.760 You see, that's a pretty dire penalty. 160 00:23:02.760 --> 00:23:17.740 You're on this list, you're not going to heaven, is what it says. 161 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:24.400 Let me give you another list. 162 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:29.220 This is in Revelation 21, beginning in verse 5. 163 00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:40.400 It is God the Father, the picture is in the future at the last judgment, when God is passing judgment on people. 164 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:56.280 And he who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." 165 00:23:56.280 --> 00:24:00.920 And he said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 166 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:02.980 Then he said to me, "It is done. 167 00:24:02.980 --> 00:24:07.140 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 168 00:24:07.140 --> 00:24:13.500 I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 169 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:19.780 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 170 00:24:19.780 --> 00:24:41.330 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." 171 00:24:41.330 --> 00:24:45.720 See, that list corresponds to this list. 172 00:24:45.720 --> 00:25:02.840 That list corresponds to people who are sinning against God and deserve eternal judgment, eternal justice. 173 00:25:02.840 --> 00:25:06.210 So how do we see this? 174 00:25:06.210 --> 00:25:16.440 I'll tell you how the false teachers were likely looking at this in their thinking about the law of God. 175 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:24.780 They see the law as the ladder that they are using to gain perfection before God, to climb to heaven. 176 00:25:24.780 --> 00:25:37.340 And they look at lists like this in the Bible and they think to themselves, "I am really glad I'm not on that list." 177 00:25:37.340 --> 00:25:39.900 It's easy to do that. 178 00:25:39.900 --> 00:25:48.180 It's so easy for us to do that. 179 00:25:48.180 --> 00:25:54.760 And some of us might be thinking the same thing, it's quite possible. 180 00:25:54.760 --> 00:25:59.480 This is where we get the true purpose of the law. 181 00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:07.620 The purpose of the law is to show us, you and me, that we are on this list. 182 00:26:07.620 --> 00:26:13.000 Do you notice how the list becomes so general towards the end? 183 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:30.080 It includes all these sins framed in the grossest way, but it also talks about anything contrary to sound teaching. 184 00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:33.080 It talks about people who lie. 185 00:26:33.080 --> 00:26:34.610 Have you ever told a lie? 186 00:26:34.610 --> 00:26:38.420 Have you ever told more than one lie? 187 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:42.280 What do you call a person who lies? 188 00:26:42.280 --> 00:26:44.580 We call them a liar. 189 00:26:44.580 --> 00:26:57.960 Revelation, what God says at the end, all liars Are we on this list? 190 00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:20.340 The purpose of the law is to teach us that we're on the list. 191 00:27:20.340 --> 00:27:32.300 If you go to the doctor and he is suspicious that you might have a serious illness, so he suggests that you go get checked out with an MRI machine. 192 00:27:32.300 --> 00:27:53.220 And so you agree to do that, and they put you in that little chamber and slide you in, and the magnets whirr, and you're in that really dark, confining spot for a while. 193 00:27:53.220 --> 00:28:19.820 And then you slowly come out of the thing finally after a long time of listening to loud noises, and your body has just been radiated with lots of radiation, and they use that to create these scans of your body, and they come out and eventually they show you or tell you, "You've got this tumor in your lung," or wherever it is. 194 00:28:19.820 --> 00:28:28.960 You've got this tumor. 195 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:33.220 What if you say to the doctor, "Hey, put me in there again. 196 00:28:33.220 --> 00:28:41.520 Put me in that MRI machine again, because I want to be radiated a little more so that I can eliminate this cancer." 197 00:28:41.520 --> 00:28:45.140 Well, that's crazy, isn't it? 198 00:28:45.140 --> 00:28:54.300 If your doctor suggested such a thing, then you would know you need to see a different doctor because it makes no sense. 199 00:28:54.300 --> 00:28:59.780 The law diagnoses the illness. 200 00:28:59.780 --> 00:29:05.500 The law of God exposes our sinfulness. 201 00:29:05.500 --> 00:29:13.080 And we recognize our sin, but the law of God has no ability to remedy that sin. 202 00:29:13.080 --> 00:29:14.860 No ability. 203 00:29:14.860 --> 00:29:26.480 That's why all those things that Paul is describing about the law becoming a curse for the person who is trying to keep it, climbing to use it as a ladder to heaven, it's true. 204 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:28.200 The law is good. 205 00:29:28.200 --> 00:29:30.820 The MRI machine is good. 206 00:29:30.820 --> 00:29:39.500 I do some woodworking as a hobby every now and then, and I can look at a board and think, "Well, that's a perfectly straight board." 207 00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:56.200 And then I can take a steel straight edge and lay that against the board and say, "Well, that board needs some work to be corrected before I can use it," because the curves, the twists begin to show up. 208 00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:59.720 Only when you put it against the straight edge. 209 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:06.640 And so that's what the straight edge is like, the law of God. 210 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:10.620 It's God's holy, perfect standard. 211 00:30:10.620 --> 00:30:12.800 It's His righteousness. 212 00:30:12.800 --> 00:30:17.920 And when we are measured against it, all of our crookedness shows up. 213 00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:22.920 The Apostle James used the imagery of a mirror. 214 00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:27.960 You look in a mirror and you see all the dirt that's on your face. 215 00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:31.480 But you don't use the mirror to try to scrape it off. 216 00:30:31.480 --> 00:30:40.200 It's of no use there; it drives you to the basin where your dirt can be washed away. 217 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:54.900 So what happens is that people look and think about the law of God and they measure themselves based on the law of God by themselves, real often. 218 00:30:54.900 --> 00:31:02.180 They'll say, "Well, I wasn't doing too good a few years ago, but now I'm doing pretty good. 219 00:31:02.180 --> 00:31:12.500 Compared to the way I was doing before, I think I'm doing really well now." 220 00:31:12.500 --> 00:31:17.660 Or they compare themselves to other people. 221 00:31:17.660 --> 00:31:25.020 If they compare themselves with other people, they can truly look good. 222 00:31:25.020 --> 00:31:32.893 They look at themselves and they look at that person over there and they say, "Wow, look at me. 223 00:31:32.893 --> 00:31:38.420 I am so glad I'm not like that publican over there. 224 00:31:38.420 --> 00:31:48.020 I'm so glad I'm not like these people on this list." 225 00:31:48.020 --> 00:31:50.420 But you know what the standard is? 226 00:31:50.420 --> 00:31:56.200 The standard is the perfect righteousness of God. 227 00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:57.660 God's perfect righteousness. 228 00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:00.780 That's what you have to put on the scale on this side. 229 00:32:00.780 --> 00:32:03.120 You're going to put your righteousness over here? 230 00:32:03.120 --> 00:32:15.520 Well, on this side of the scale, God's golden, perfect righteousness, which is infinite. 231 00:32:15.520 --> 00:32:34.540 And over here on our side of the scale, we put in our little featherweight righteousness, and we think that that's going to balance this scale. 232 00:32:34.540 --> 00:32:42.780 Not going to balance the scale. 233 00:32:42.780 --> 00:33:05.240 You see, the point of this passage is that if we are going to protect the church from the heresy of legalism, we will do that only when we use the law as a means to expose our sin, rather than as a ladder to earn our way to heaven. 234 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:23.480 The purpose of the law is to show us that we're sinners deserving of God's eternal judgment, but the wonderful purpose of the gospel, this gospel in verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. 235 00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:35.900 The purpose of the gospel is to tell you that yes, you're a sinner, but Jesus Christ came to save sinners. 236 00:33:35.900 --> 00:33:43.380 Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 237 00:33:43.380 --> 00:33:51.640 Matthew 1:21 says that Jesus came to save His people from their sins. 238 00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:56.580 If you're not a sinner, He didn't come for you. 239 00:33:56.580 --> 00:34:04.980 For people who have a false righteousness, they never hear the truth of the gospel. 240 00:34:04.980 --> 00:35:18.120 What Jesus did when He came is He actually lived the perfect life. 241 00:35:18.120 --> 00:35:19.980 His record book was perfect. 242 00:35:19.980 --> 00:35:24.750 And ours is a huge deficit. 243 00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:29.460 The perfection of Christ's life He gave over to us. 244 00:35:29.460 --> 00:35:37.620 And the debt that we owed is paid by the blood of Christ on the cross at Calvary. 245 00:35:37.620 --> 00:35:45.340 He paid the debt that we owe, and He credits us with His own perfect righteousness. 246 00:35:45.340 --> 00:35:52.380 So Paul calls it the glorious gospel of the blessed God. 247 00:35:52.380 --> 00:35:54.720 Because He's the blessed God. 248 00:35:54.720 --> 00:35:57.920 God is satisfied in Himself, in His glory. 249 00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:07.380 He is completely content, and He is absolutely rich in His goodness. 250 00:36:07.380 --> 00:36:17.720 And He doesn't need us trying to keep that law, climbing that fake l adder to make Him happy. 251 00:36:17.720 --> 00:36:19.200 Not at all. 252 00:36:19.200 --> 00:36:23.860 What He offers is grace to us. 253 00:36:23.860 --> 00:36:30.060 Overflowing, out of His goodness, He offers goodness to us. 254 00:36:30.060 --> 00:36:41.340 Not because we're good, but because He is extraordinarily, overflowingly good. 255 00:36:41.340 --> 00:36:52.400 The question is, are you trusting the free gift of grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ, or are we still trying to climb that ladder? 256 00:36:52.400 --> 00:37:00.147 Only the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ meets the demands of righteousness that the law requires. 257 00:37:00.147 --> 00:37:01.740 I will close with that. 258 00:37:01.740 --> 00:37:03.140 Let's pray. 259 00:37:03.140 --> 00:37:04.980 Father, thank you. 260 00:37:04.980 --> 00:37:11.480 Thank you so much for the abundance of your grace to us. 261 00:37:11.480 --> 00:37:20.120 We thank you, first of all, that you gave us sinners the law of God so that we recognize that we're sinful. 262 00:37:20.120 --> 00:37:23.820 Otherwise, we would never know it. 263 00:37:23.820 --> 00:37:36.340 We thank you, Father, that it is a means to diagnose the deep illness that we have, the fact that we're on a list and doomed for an eternity apart from you. 264 00:37:36.340 --> 00:38:06.220 But Father, just as you wrote to the Corinthians, such were some of you, but you were washed. 265 00:38:06.220 --> 00:38:12.720 Father, we thank you for the washing of the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. 266 00:38:12.720 --> 00:38:21.260 We thank you that because of the work of Christ, our sins are put behind your back, never to be remembered anymore. 267 00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:29.220 Father, we thank you for the promise that when we sin against you, if we confess our sin, you're faithful and just to forgive all sin. 268 00:38:29.220 --> 00:38:36.140 We thank you, Father, for the richness of your precious gospel, your precious gospel to us. 269 00:38:36.140 --> 00:38:55.480 I pray, Father, for the whole counsel of God. 270 00:38:55.480 --> 00:39:08.540 And we ask, Father, that because of this, because of what you've done for us in Christ, Lord, let us live for you out of the love that grows in our heart. 271 00:39:08.540 --> 00:39:14.600 Let us strive to please you in every way because of the rich grace which we have received. 272 00:39:14.600 --> 00:39:17.840 Thank you, Father, for all you've done for us. 273 00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:27.100 We praise you and ask Father that you bless this church and bless each person, everyone who hears this sermon. 274 00:39:27.100 --> 00:39:41.760 Father, we pray that you give a special blessing to them, that they may glorify your name, that they may bring glory to you by the power of your grace, by the mercy that you've shown us. 275 00:39:41.760 --> 00:39:45.800 We ask this to the glory of Christ our Savior. 276 00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:47.800 Amen.