We open the word to Galatians chapter 3
and we're going to be considering verses 19
through 29.
Paul has proved that salvation is by grace
and not by the keeping of the law.
He's proved it in two ways.
First of all, personally from his own life,
chapters 1 and 2, and then doctrinally from
the Old Testament scriptures, chapter 3 verses 1
through 18.
And having proved that salvation is by grace
and not by the keeping of the law,
he has raised an important question.
And he anticipates that question in verse 19.
Wherefore then serveth the law?
If the law cannot save us, then why
was the law given?
If the law cannot sanctify us, why should
we bother to honor the law?
Jesus said, I have not come to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it.
And Paul himself writes in Romans chapter 7
that the law is holy and just and
good.
Now, Paul, if the law is good, what
is it good for?
This is a logical question.
Because when it comes to this matter of
the law, people go to extremes.
And if there's one thing you want to
avoid in this matter of the law, it's
an extreme.
In fact, let me put it this way.
Your attitude toward the law helps to determine
the quality of your spiritual life.
If you and I have the wrong attitude
toward the law, we're going to have the
wrong kind of a spiritual life.
If we have the right attitude toward the
law, we're going to have the right kind
of spiritual life.
In fact, let me go just one step
farther.
Our attitude toward the law determines our attitude
toward authority in general.
Young people who have the wrong attitude toward
God's law will have the wrong attitude toward
the authority of their parents.
Policemen, teachers, deans, employees who have the wrong
attitude toward the law will have the wrong
attitude toward employers, foremen, superintendents.
And this, my friends, is one of our
big problems today.
Now, in Galatians 3, 19 through 29, Paul
explains that there are three possible attitudes you
can have toward the law.
Two of them are wrong.
Only one of them is right.
Now, what are these three attitudes?
The legalist says the law is my master.
Paul says that's wrong.
The anarchist says the law is my enemy.
Verse 21, is the law then against the
promises of God?
And the anarchist, the antinomian, anti, against, nomos,
the law, the one who's against the law
says, yes, the law is against the promises
of God.
And so while the legalist is saying the
law is my master, the anarchist is saying
the law is my enemy.
And that's wrong.
But along comes the mature Christian.
Notice I said the mature Christian.
He says the law is not my master,
the law is not my enemy, the law
is my servant.
Wherefore then serveth the law?
Let's consider now these three attitudes toward the
law.
You examine your own heart and find out
which one expresses your feeling.
First, the legalist who says the law is
my master.
Now for Israel, this was true.
Under the dispensation of the law, the law
was their master.
Look at it.
Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions until the
seed should come to whom the promise was
made.
And the law was ordained by angels in
the hand of a mediator.
Now a mediator is not a mediator of
one.
Obviously a mediator stands between two.
But God is one.
Is the law then against the promises of
God?
God forbid.
For if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should
have been by the law.
But the scriptures hath concluded, and that Greek
word concluded means confined in jail, but the
scripture hath concluded all under sin.
That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe.
But before this faith came, this faith in
Jesus Christ, we Jews were kept under the
law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterward be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, our tutor,
our guardian to bring us unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith.
But after faith is come, we are no
longer under a school master.
For ye are all the sons of God
by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many as you as have been
baptized into Christ, and there he's talking not
about water baptism, water never put anybody into
Christ, he's talking about the work of the
Holy Spirit.
As many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female.
For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
You see when Israel was under the law,
the law performed three functions.
Number one, it was a mirror to reveal
sin.
Verse 19, it was added because of transgressions.
Now sin existed before the law, obviously, but
sin is not transgression until a law is
given.
A little child, for example, sins, doesn't realize
it sins.
Then it reaches an age of accountability and
understanding where it knows that when mother draws
the line, that's as far as you can
go.
And going over that line is transgression.
And so the law was given as a
mirror to reveal sin.
Secondly, the law was given as a jailer
to restrain sin.
Paul is saying that the law was like
a jailer who kept confining everybody until there
was only one way out, faith.
Thirdly, he tells us the law was a
tutor, a guardian.
This word schoolmaster does not refer to one
of our school teachers.
It's the picture in the Greek world of
a slave who guarded a minor child from
home to school and back.
Now the slave didn't make the child grow
up.
The child grew up in spite of the
slave.
The slave's job was to protect the child
so it might grow up, to keep the
child from getting into danger and mischief, to
discipline the child, to make sure the child
came from home to school and back home
again, a guardian.
And the law did this.
The law took the nation of Israel and
protected the nation and watched over the nation
and disciplined the nation until it came to
the maturity of times and Jesus came and
fulfilled the law.
So to the Old Testament Jew, the law
was a master, a mirror to reveal sin,
a jailer to confine, and a guardian to
conduct and protect.
But you see that's all the law could
do.
If you make the law your master, the
law can reveal sin but the law can
never remove sin.
I'm sure that today many of you at
some point looked into the mirror.
Some of us looked into the mirror to
see if our faces were dirty.
Those of you who are so blessed looked
into the mirror to comb your hair.
Some of us don't need a whole mirror.
You look into the mirror and the mirror
says your face is dirty but you don't
wash your face in the mirror.
The law says to you your face is
dirty.
You've done this, you've done that, you've done
something else.
The law can reveal but the law cannot
remove.
And the law can restrain but the law
can't redeem.
The law can be a jailer to confine
us but it cannot change us.
Why we have more laws in America today
than we've ever had and we have more
lawlessness than we've ever had.
Did anybody ever have the idea that the
passing of a law changed anything?
It doesn't change anything.
We have laws against reckless driving.
Oh?
We have laws against illegal parking.
What difference does it make?
The law doesn't change anything.
The law can confine, the law can restrain
but the law cannot change.
That's the frustration of legalism.
Here is this high standard and the person
says I'm going to reach that standard and
he can't do it.
The law can protect but the law cannot
perfect.
The law can protect the child as it
goes from home to school and back.
But the law doesn't make that child grow
up.
The law simply protects the child until the
child can grow up.
He matures from within.
Paul is going to talk more about that
in chapter 4 on how the law relates
to spiritual maturity.
And so the legalist says the law is
my master and I say it's too bad.
The law can reveal sin but not remove
it.
The law can restrain but not redeem.
The law can protect but not perfect.
The law can chain you but not change
you.
And furthermore, Mr. Legalist, I will say to
you that the law is not our master
today.
When you read Romans and Galatians and Hebrews,
you discover that the Christian is dead to
the law.
That the Christian is not under law, he
is under grace.
I read here in verse 19 of Galatians
chapter 3 that the law was not part
of the original equipment.
The law was added.
Israel began with grace.
On eagle's wings, God picked them up and
delivered them from Egypt.
They started off with grace, not with law.
The law was added.
Why?
To let Israel know what was wrong.
To warn them, to protect them, to restrain
them, to guard them until Jesus should come.
The law was given at the hands of
a mediator but grace is not given through
a mediator.
Apparently God gave the law to the angels
and the angel gave the law to Moses
and Moses gave the law to Israel.
And so Israel was twice removed from God.
This is not true in the gospel.
The gospel came to us in the person
of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
And therefore the person who goes by law
and says law is my master is removing
himself from God.
The person who goes by promise is drawing
himself closer to God.
The law was temporary.
Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgressions until.
Until.
All the way through this passage he says
now God did this temporarily until.
Until the law was temporary.
The law was never meant to be permanent.
In verse 21 he comes out very boldly
and says the law cannot give life.
Of course all the law can do is
give death.
The law says this do and thou shalt
live.
And we say I can't do it.
And then the law says the wages of
sin is death.
Now if the law cannot give life, then
the law cannot sustain life.
If I could not receive life by the
law, then I cannot develop life by the
law.
And so Mr. Legalist, you say to me
the law is my master and I say
I feel sorry for you because that's not
why the law was given.
Then along comes the anarchists.
We have a number of these today.
They come along in verse 21 and they
say is the law then against the promises
of God?
This makes me think of Book of Romans.
Back in the Book of Romans Paul raises
the same question.
Well we're not under law.
We're under grace.
Therefore it's just sin.
Ever heard that?
You watch out for that.
There is a brand of antinomianism, anti-law
in our evangelical churches today that says especially
to young people, hey don't let anybody talk
to you about rules and regulations.
You're free.
You live under grace and grace means you
can do what you want to do.
And if you should do wrong, God will
forgive you.
Ever heard that?
That's not scriptural.
You see the legalist does away with grace
and the anarchist, the antinomian, does away with
law.
And God never wants us to do that.
The antinomian, the one who says live any
way you please, you're under grace, you're free,
the antinomian has plagued the church from the
Paul's problems in Corinth.
In Corinth a group of people got saved
and they say hey we're under grace.
We'll live any way we please.
He had to write to them and say
oh no, liberty does not mean you live
the way you please.
Liberty means we live to please God.
The worst bondage in the world is living
to please yourself.
I can't think of a more terrible bondage
in the world, a more egotistical experience in
all the world than getting up in the
morning and say I'm going to live today
to please myself and I'm going to do
it my way.
That's not freedom.
That's the worst kind of bondage.
That's where the prodigal son got his start.
Father give me.
It was not until later on when he
said father make me that things began to
change.
Freedom doesn't mean give me.
Freedom means make me.
Over in the little book of Jude, right
before the book of Revelation, Jude has a
bit of a warning for us on this
whole thing.
Jude was going to sit down and write
a letter, a book about salvation.
Verse three.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write
unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful for me to write unto you and
exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for
the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints.
For there are certain men crept in.
Now certain men crept in unawares who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly
men, turning the grace of our Lord into
lasciviousness, taking the grace of God and saying
oh you live under grace therefore you can
satisfy all the appetites of your life.
They never seem to have heard of what
Paul wrote to Titus.
One of the great passages, Titus chapter 2
verse 11, for the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching
us.
Grace doesn't just save us, grace teaches us,
grace disciplines us.
Disciplining us, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and
godly in this present age.
Now the antinomian, the anarchist comes to me
and says just a minute, is there not
in the bible a contrast between law and
grace?
Yes, several times in the word of God
you find these contrasts.
Hebrews chapter 12, we have not come to
a mountain burning with fire, we haven't come
to a fearful place where the voice of
God made everyone shake.
No, we have come to Mount Zion, to
the heavenly Jerusalem.
There's a contrast there between fear and love,
between God shaking and God graciously reaching out.
Yes, there's a contrast.
Second Corinthians chapter 3, there's a contrast, the
whole chapter.
The old testament law was written on stones,
the new covenant is written in our hearts.
The old covenant written by the finger of
God, the new covenant written by the spirit
of God in our hearts.
The old covenant glory was fading away, the
new covenant glory gets brighter and brighter.
The old covenant glory meant condemnation, the new
covenant glory means salvation.
The old covenant, the ministry of death.
The new covenant, the ministry of life.
The old covenant, bondage.
But says chapter 3 of second Corinthians, under
the new covenant where the spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty.
There's contrast.
But let me underscore this tonight, even though
there is contrast in the Bible between law
and grace, contrast does not mean conflict.
Contrast means cooperation.
There's contrast between husband and wife.
This does not mean competition, it means cooperation.
Law prepared the way for grace.
Grace is seen in law and law is
fulfilled in grace.
And there are some of these ultra-dispensational
teachers who give us the impression that now
that we're under grace you can forget about
law.
And it almost leads to antinomianism.
May I remind you that both law and
grace came from God.
They can't compete with each other.
That both law and grace glorify God.
God was glorified in the giving of the
law.
God is glorified in the grace of Calvary.
Both law and grace center in Jesus Christ.
He was made under the law.
He said, I've not come to destroy the
law, I've come to fulfill it.
He lived under the law.
He didn't keep the traditions, he kept the
law.
And the Lord Jesus Christ makes it very
clear that we as his followers have a
standard to follow.
I've been interested to note that nine of
the ten commandments are repeated in the New
Testament letters for Christians.
The one that is not repeated is remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
You don't find that.
But he says, be ye holy for I
am holy.
God's standard of righteousness still stands.
It's still wrong to lie.
Anyone who holds on to grace as an
excuse for lying doesn't understand either law or
grace.
It's still wrong to steal.
It's still wrong to commit adultery.
Still wrong to bear false witness.
It's still wrong to dishonor your parents.
Still wrong to covet.
The antinomian says the law is my enemy.
And my Bible says the moral law of
God still stands.
Now actually among us Christians, the moral law
goes deeper.
You know this.
Jesus said it has been said thou shalt
not kill, but I say don't get angry
with each other because anger is murder.
It's been said you shall not commit adultery.
I'm not going to change that.
I'm going to go deeper.
Don't lust in your heart.
It's been said you should not bear false
witness.
I'm going to go a little deeper than
that.
Be careful with everything you say.
Let your words be marked by simplicity and
sincerity.
Just say yes or no.
Anything more than that is of the evil
one.
And so we Christians are not released from
obeying the moral law of God, ceremonial law
fulfilled in Christ, the Jewish law of calendars
and feasts and fasts all fulfilled in Christ,
the moral law fulfilled in Christ and now
fulfilled in us who walk by the grace
of God.
This is what Paul talked about over in
Romans chapter 6.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
And he answers and says God forbid.
And so we're not going to listen to
the antinomian, to the anarchist who says law
is our enemy.
We're not going to listen to the legalist
who says that law is our master.
We're going to listen to Paul who says
law is our servant.
Now friend, if you're unsaved, law is your
master.
If you are an unsaved person, the law
of God is over your head and God
is going to judge you by his law.
But those of us who have trusted Christ
as our savior are no longer under law.
We can't be condemned by law.
We have already been saved by grace and
having been saved by grace and received a
new nature.
Law is not our enemy and law is
not our master.
Law is our servant.
I do not work to please the law.
The law works for me.
Let's look at this now.
Galatians chapter 3.
Paul tells us that we Christians have a
mature standing before God.
In verse 26, for ye are all the
sons.
Now our authorized version is children, but it's
not that word for born ones.
It's the word for mature ones.
For ye all are the sons of God
by faith in Christ.
When you were born into God's family, instantly
you were adopted to be a mature adult
son.
God does not deal with us as with
little babies.
As far as time is concerned, someone here
may be only three days old in the
Lord.
And he may be prone to say, well,
I'm just a little baby.
You can't expect a whole lot from a
baby.
But the Lord comes back and says, wait
a minute, when you got saved, I adopted
you and gave you the position and the
privileges of an adult son.
That means you know how to talk.
That means you can start walking.
Babies can't do this.
This means you can start signing checks and
drawing upon your spiritual inheritance.
God deals with us as adult sons.
And none of us can say, well, I'm
too immature.
Oh, no.
All of the resources and all of the
responsibilities and all of the riches are available
to every saint no matter how young or
old he may be.
He says in verse 27, that we were
baptized by the Spirit into Christ and we
put on Christ.
May I share an interesting truth with you?
In the Roman Empire, when a child reached
the age of maturity, he changed clothes.
You could always tell how old somebody was
because if they were wearing a certain kind
of a garment, they were immature.
They were underage.
But when that boy reached that age of
maturity, that age when he was accepted, he
took off a child's garment and he put
on an adult garment.
That happened to you when you were saved.
The Holy Spirit of God baptized you into
the body of Christ and He took off
the old childish garment and He gave you
the garment of righteousness with an adult standing
before God.
You see, laws are necessary for immature babies.
When my children were all small, we had
to run our home on law.
Don't you go near those stairs.
Do not put a fork in that socket.
Don't go near the highway.
I'm sure that our children, when they were
just growing up, thought, boy, this is a
terrible place to live.
It's a jail.
Don't do this and don't do that.
Remember the mother who took her little son
out visiting and the boy looked around and
this lady had a lot of antiques and
things and he said, oh my, look at
all the pretty no-nos.
But you know what?
If you don't start children off with law,
they'll never live long enough to experience grace.
They'll either burn themselves or kill themselves or
run out in front of a car or
do some dumb thing.
You know, our Christian schools, and I have
preached in many, many Christian schools, our Christian
schools should not have to have rules.
Every student on that campus should be so
mature that out of love and the grace
of God, he does what's right.
But in every student body, you have a
few babies.
Same thing is true of a church.
You have to have certain regulations or you
have chaos.
And Paul is saying to us here, God
deals with us as adult sons.
We're baptized into the body of Christ.
We're all one in Christ.
Now the law separated Jew from Gentile.
Grace doesn't do that.
The law separated men from women.
The law separated slaves from free people.
The law even separated rich from poor.
There's special laws for the poor.
Grace doesn't do that.
Grace says don't drag that stuff into here.
We're all one in Jesus Christ through the
Holy Spirit of God.
And he says in verse 29, we're living
by promise.
We're not living by threat.
Now little children live by threats.
You can't explain to a little two-year
-old what a 10-ton truck is.
I mean that highway seems such a beautiful
place to play.
Jump over the yellow line back and forth.
Yeah.
Try to explain this.
All a child understands is punishment and reward.
Punishment and reward.
That's all a child understands.
Then it gets older and starts to learn
a few things.
You can reason with it and you can
make promises.
And you no longer say, now if you
go near the highway, I'll spank you.
You say, you want to live, don't you?
I'll make a promise to you.
If you don't go near that highway, I
promise you trucks won't hit you.
Now what do you live by?
Do you have joy at night because you
got away with something?
You go to bed at night and say,
boy, I really conned them today.
That's not very mature.
Children do this.
Children go to bed at night and they'd
laugh and chuckle under the covers and say,
boy, we really fooled dad today, didn't we?
Some of God's children act like that.
But you can't fool him.
The mature Christian says the law is my
servant.
Now, how does the law serve me?
How does the law serve me today?
Oh, the same way it served me before
I got saved.
You know how the law helped me get
saved?
How did the law help me get saved?
Number one, it revealed my sin.
The Holy Spirit of God took the word
of God and held it before my face.
I said, hey, I'm dirty.
Well, I'll start to do better.
I'll be confirmed.
I'll do this.
I'll do that.
And the more I tried to save myself,
the more the jailer came along and said,
no, no, that won't save you.
That won't save you.
The law revealed my sin to me and
the law restrained me and convicted me.
And then the law led me to Christ.
That happened to a fellow in the Gospels,
a fellow we call the rich young ruler.
He came running up to Jesus.
How did he get there?
The law brought him there.
He said, all these things I've done from
my youth.
Then why aren't you happy?
Because I'm not satisfied.
The law doesn't satisfy me.
The trouble is, he didn't receive Christ either.
And so the law served me by helping
me get saved.
How?
It revealed my sin.
It crowded me to Christ, as Dr. Maxwell
writes in his book.
It led me to the Savior.
Then the Holy Spirit showed me grace.
Unless you're convicted by law, you're not going
to be converted by grace.
And you don't hear much of that kind
of preaching today.
Much of the evangelistic preaching you hear today
has nothing to say about the law of
God or the holiness of God, the righteousness
of God, the judgment of God.
It's a cream puff kind of evangelism with,
oh, God will help you get over your
headaches.
God will help you get a better job.
Come and give your heart to Jesus because
all the football players have done it.
That's right.
And the Lord Jesus didn't preach like that.
And John the Baptist didn't preach like that.
And Paul didn't preach like that.
How does the law serve me now that
I am saved?
Same way.
It shows me my sin.
The word of God is still a mirror
that shows me my sin.
We won't go into it now, but read
Romans 7.
In Romans chapter 7, Paul has that experience.
The law showed him his covetousness.
The law showed him how wicked his being
really was, his flesh.
And the law drove him to being wretched
and saying, what's the deliverance?
How can I be delivered?
And the answer came through the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You know what Christians do?
Christians try to put themselves back under law.
I'm going to tithe.
I'm going to pass out so many tracts
a week.
I won't do this.
I will do that.
And it goes along pretty good for about
three days.
Then it all falls apart and they discover
that they're pretty sinful and of themselves.
They can't do it.
That's what Romans 8 is all about.
Romans 8 says the righteousness of the law
is fulfilled in us who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit.
That's a beautiful thing.
As you walk in the spirit, the spirit
of God uses the word of God to
produce the righteousness of God.
I can't make myself righteous.
The law can't make me righteous, but the
Holy Spirit can use the law to help
me grow in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ.
So the mature Christian says the law is
my servant.
He says with the Lord Jesus, I delight
to do thy will, O God, thy law
is within my heart.
That's what Jesus said.
Do you delight to do God's will?
When you read the rules of the road,
you say, well, I don't need these rules.
I delight to do God's will.
Do you find from your heart as you
read the word of God, the spirit of
God enlightens you and then enables you That's
what Paul's talking about here.
He's saying let's be grown up.
Little children need a master, but mature people
can be trusted with a servant and the
law is our servant to help us on
this way of life.
That we have in Christ.
Let's pray together.
Oh, Father, we're so prone to extremes.
We either deny grace by our legalism or
we deny law.
By our anarchy.
Grant to us that beautiful balance where law
is fulfilled in grace.
Oh, how beautiful it is that the grace
of God through the spirit of God produces
the righteousness of the law in us as
we walk in the spirit.
I pray that you'll deliver us from being
immature, from enjoying breaking your law, just because
we want to help us, Lord, not to
walk on that dark edge of lawlessness.
Rather, help us to walk so close to
you that we don't even need to be
worrying about law.
We are so wrapped up in love.
As Jesus said, if you love me, you'll
keep my commandments.
Thank you that law has become our servant.
Oh, Father, may we lawfully use the law.
In our lives through your spirit.
I pray in Jesus name.
Amen.