Divine Covenant – Moses
Sermon Downloads
Sermon Transcript
[00:00:00] Rolls to Galatians chapter three. We are gonna start reading in verse 15, and we'll read through verse 24, Galatians chapter three, beginning in verse 15. If you are able, please stand and hear this for what it is. The living, the true, the needed word of God,
beginning in verse 15, brothers. I speak in terms of human relations, even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. Now, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say and to seeds as referring to many, but to one and to your seed.
That is Christ. What I am saying is this, the law which came 430 [00:01:00] years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise for if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise, but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. Why the law then?
Why the law? It was added because of transgressions. Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now, a mediator is not for one, whereas God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promise of God? May it never be for If a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin. So that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in [00:02:00] custody under the law being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith.
May God bless the hearing, the reading and obedience to his word. Please be seated.
Number one on your outline. So there are a couple of things in the bulletin. On the back of one of the song sheets is a, uh, foldout page that looks like that. And then you also have the fill in the blank sermon outline. So in the fill in the blank sermon outline, number one is need for God's saving work.
The need for God saving work. Covenant of law, covenant of law. So there's four things that I want to s say about the law and about covenants in general. As we get started today. We've been talking about covenants, and I have tried to demonstrate through the very [00:03:00] words of scripture that God only interacts with man via a covenant.
He entered into covenant with Adam in the garden. And when Adam violated that covenant out of his grace, he immediately entered into another covenant with Adam promising him a coming seed, who had overturned the work of Satan, clothing him via a sacrifice of animals, picturing something else, barring him from the tree of life, and yet doing it in such a way that it was our hope.
It was our hope to return. And then God enters into covenant with Noah, preserving creation, and then God enters into covenant with Abraham, giving him that promise, making the promise that was inherent in all his previous covenants, but making it clear, I will be your God and I will be the God of your children, and you will be my people.
That promise has never changed. And now we come to Moses and most people, when we speak of the Mosaic Covenant, most [00:04:00] people, I think the writer of Hebrews does this. They, we refer to it as the old Covenant, and that's fine. That's proper biblical language. But today I want to view it as the covenant of law.
Because nobody really disputes that God entered into covenant with Moses. We all know that. We all agree. The words are so clear and plain. In fact, if you look on your outline, I've given you an outline of the book of Deuteronomy as well as an outline of Exodus Chapters 20 to 24. And if you look at that outline, you can look at it in more detail on your own, but in the ancient world, there were what was known as Suan Vassal, treatings.
It's just a fancy way for a superior and an inferior. A king would come and it would conquer a foreign nation, and then instead of killing everyone, the king would enter into covenant With this nation, the king would be the sousan. The defeated people would be the vassals and the king would give them conditions and everything.
And basically there would be an introduction. There would be a historical prologue. I've [00:05:00] conquered you, you now serve me. There would be stipulations requirements. There would be blessings and curses, and then there would be something set up for the king's son or a future king, and we see that the book of Deuteronomy is written exactly like that.
God is entering into covenant with the people of Israel. We see that Exodus chapters 20 through 24, the 10 Commandments again written just like that. God is entering into covenant with his people. The second thing that I wanna point out about this covenant, and I'd like you to turn to Exodus chapter two.
And while you're turning, keep your finger in Galatians 'cause we'll be back. But while you're turning to Exodus chapter two, let me just give you a running start in Exodus chapter one. Jacob comes to Egypt and Exodus chapter one in just a few verses, kind of covers the last several chapters of Genesis.
Pharaoh dies. A new Pharaoh comes on the scene and he puts the people of Israel under bondage. You remember the story of the midwives and how Pharaoh tried to kill the firstborn. Interesting. Pharaoh tried to [00:06:00] kill the male seed. And then in Exodus chapter two, we see the birth of Moses and we see that Moses gets himself into some trouble and he flees to Egypt.
But I want you to look at verse 23 and 24, and I want you to hear these words maybe differently than you've ever heard them before. What's missing here, because we tend to miss this in Exodus chapter two, beginning in verse 23. Now, it came about in the course of those many days that the King of Egypt died.
This was the king that wanted to kill Moses, which is why Moses fled. The king is dead in the sons of Israel's side because of the bondage. And they cried out, let me read that again. And they cried out and their cry for help because of their bondage rose to God. So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now, there's a couple of things here. First of all, [00:07:00] kids in your handout, uh, there's a question about what nation did Moses rescue or did God rescue the people of Israel? This verse answers it. Pharaoh was the king of Egypt, and you'll note that the Israel's side, and literally these words speak of an intense emotional cry.
It's a groan, a gasp. Of their bondage, and literally the word there is slavery. Pharaoh had enslaved them and he had put them under hard labor, and the people are crying out. They're groaning, they're moaning, they're feeling it emotionally, and they cried out in this word for cried out. Literally. It means to cry from a sense of emotion, to cry from a broken heart.
But what didn't you hear? Because. When it says they cried out for help, the words for help really aren't in the text. You could translate it that way, but what didn't you hear? And this is significant. [00:08:00] Who did they cry to see? We assume because the verse goes on, that their groanings rose up to God. We assume they cried out to God, but that's not what the verse says.
It just says they cried out. And I've pointed out in the past that when the people were in were in Egypt, they started worshiping Egyptian gods, they started serving Egyptian idols. And it is extremely telling that this passage doesn't say they cried out to Yahweh because most of the time when this word is used it, it attaches an object to what they cried out to.
In addition to that, when Moses is before the burning bush, Moses' biggest problem is how am I gonna introduce you to the people? What's your name? What should I call you as if the people had no clue and I submit to you, they didn't. I submit to you that they cried out. They moaned and they groan, but they were not crying out to Yahweh.
They were not crying out to their God because they stopped serving him and they were worshiping the idols of Egypt. And so the verse goes on, [00:09:00] because God is omniscient. God is all knowing. He hears their groaning, but does he respond to their groaning? It's not what the verse says. God remembered his covenant.
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that's why God responds, and that's why God rescues the Israelites, as we've seen in every covenant, God takes the initiative. The third thing I wanna share with you as we get started is the law did not begin with Moses. The law did not begin with Moses, and it didn't end with Moses.
It takes a new shape. Jesus. But the law didn't begin, nor did it end with Moses, uh, several months ago. Maybe it was a year ago when we were looking at the Book of Genesis, and if you're interested, I can send it to you again, but I gave you a table. And what I tried to demonstrate is every one of the 10 Commandments can be found in the book of Genesis.
The people, both pagan and God's people [00:10:00] understood these laws. They understood that adultery was a sin. They understood that murder was a sin. They understood that lying and stealing were sinful. Because Romans chapter two verses 14 and 15 tell us that God has written his law on all of our hearts. So the law didn't begin with Moses and it didn't end with Moses.
In Matthew chapter five verses 17 and 18, Jesus says, I came not to a novel law, not to set the the law aside, but to fulfill it. And not one jot or tittle is gonna fail while heaven and earth exists. And in Romans chapter seven. Beginning in the seventh verse, Paul writes this, what shall we say then, is the law sin?
May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. And then in chapter or verse 12, so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The fourth thing. So number [00:11:00] one is just the covenant continuity from Adam. Now we're at Moses number two.
God takes the initiative. It is likely that the Israelites were not even crying out to him. Number three, the law precedes and post dates Moses. And number four, the decalogue, the 10 words in, in the Greek text, it's the 10 words. It's always the 10 words and the 10 words In the Greek text in Exodus 34, 28, Deuteronomy four 13, and many other passages, it is.
Equivalent to the covenant. The 10 words are the covenant, just like we saw with Abraham. Circumcision is the covenant. Why? Because circumcision in picture form, describe what the covenant was all about in the 10 words in verbal form. Describe why God added this extension to his covenant.
So in Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 13, so he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to form. That is the [00:12:00] 10 words, and he wrote them on tablets of stone. So that's number one on your outline. That's also our introduction, number two on your outline, and we're gonna camp out here. Number two on your outline is how does the law work?
How does the law work? You might be wondering if you haven't figured it out yet, why? If we're talking about the Mosaic Covenant, why are we going to the Book of Galatians? And if you're not there, go back to the Book of Galatians. And the reason that we're going to the Book of Galatians this morning is again, nobody doubts that God entered into covenant with the people of Israel.
Nobody doubts that. We typically call it the Mosaic Covenant. And I will have an updated chart for you next week showing how all the pieces and parts in the Mosaic Covenant respond to every covenant that preceded it. But what we don't understand and what is greatly debated in the church today is what do we do with the law of God?
What do [00:13:00] we do with the law of God? How do we handle the law now that Christ has come and Paul answers that very question. In Galatians chapter three, so number two on your outline, how does the law work? How does the law work? And just to give you a running start, in Galatians chapter one and two, Paul gives us this long extended defense of his apostleship, his authority, and his apostleship had been called into question.
So Paul defends his apostleship. And it's not until we get to Galatians chapter three. He hints at it, but it's not until we get to Galatians chapter three where Paul gets to the meat of his argument. How is a person made right with God? How is a person justified before God? How does circumcision and the law and all these things that the Judaizers are hassling the Galatian church over?
How do all these things fit in? How does faith fit in? And I want you to look at chapter three, verse one, and we're gonna fly through some of this. We'll start to [00:14:00] slow down around verse 15. But I want you to look at how Paul begins his argument. Because it's a warning. It's a warning to everyone sitting here today.
Chapter three verse one. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes. Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Now, there's a couple of things we need to understand about Paul's very strong language. You foolish Galatians, and this is not, he's not saying Galatians, you're not very smart.
Galatians. You're not very intelligent. No, he acknowledges they're intelligent. What this word means is you are unwilling to use your mind. You foolish Galatians. You are unwilling to think this stuff through. You're buying into what these false teachers are saying, and you're not even thinking it through.
You're not going [00:15:00] to the Old Testament scriptures. You're not studying this. Use your minds. That's the insult. And then he uses the, the language of the day. He says, who's bewitched you? And there's a, a play on words because in the original it literally says, who's given you the evil eye? Because it was believed in Paul's day that certain witches and sorcerers could look at you a certain way and cast a curse upon you.
So Paul literally says in the Greek, who's given you the evil eye? You foolish Galatians, who are unwilling to think this through. You're unwilling to, to think about what I've taught you about the gospel. Who's given you the evil eye? And here's the play on words before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
It. And what that expression publicly port portrayed refers to is that when Paul was with the Galatians, he explained the crucifixion. He laid it out in plain and simple words. And when he left [00:16:00] the Galatian Church to plant other churches, he left with an assurance that they understood. It was publicly portrayed, it was publicly laid out for all to hear and all to understand.
But now you've closed your minds. You've quit using your brains. Who's bewitched you? This starts with some pretty strong words. Verse two. This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by works of law or by hearing with faith in verses two through nine? Basically expand on this.
Did you become believers? Did you become Christians? By the works of the law. No, you're a gentile church. I didn't introduce the works of the law to you. I introduced faith. I introduced justification by faith, and he proves it with the Old Testament. He cites Genesis 15, six, Genesis chapter 12, verse three.
I will bless those who bless you. I will curse the one who curses you, and all the [00:17:00] families of the earth will be blessed in you. You see the Gentiles, the Jews should have expected that the gospel was going to the Gentiles, and that's Paul's faith. Paul's point, but it was a gospel of faith. He quotes Genesis 15, six, and we know now these are hyperlinks, so we know we gotta go back and study the whole passage.
Well guess what we already have so we can bring all that knowledge with us. Abraham believed in this promised coming seed, this promised seed to the woman, and God imputed it to him, counted it to him as righteousness. Why you foolish Galatians? Would that change now? Why would it change? Now look at verse 10.
You see the law. What Paul is trying to demonstrate here in verses 10 to 14 is the law illustrates the curse or the law reminds us. Emphasizes reveals the curse. You see, none of us can obey the law 100%. None of [00:18:00] us. There's only been one human being in the history of the world that has obeyed the law 100%, and that's Jesus Christ.
All of us have failed. And so the law brings with it a curse. The law cannot save you. Doing good works. Do not add to your salvation. Do not make you any more acceptable to God. The law brings a curse. Look at verse 10, for as many as are the works of the law, when you obey the law, when you do the things of the law.
From one. From one perspective, that's a really good thing, but from another perspective, if you're using it in an attempt to earn salvation, you're under a curse. For as many as of the works of the law are under a curse for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform.
There, he cites Deuteronomy 27 26. Now that no one is justified by the law, before God is evident, for the righteous man [00:19:00] shall live by faith. Habakkuk two, four. So he cites the law and he cites the prophets. It's always been, the gospel has always been a promise, and it has always been received by faith.
It's not what you can do, it's what God does. It's what God does for us, the law, and if you're taking notes, if you're gonna write anything down, the law demands. The law requires perfection, and so the law cannot save because none of us are perfect. And in verses 13 and 14, we see that Jesus has become our curse.
In verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. And this word for curse, it's just, you know, the English Bible, we wanna translate things that are palpable. It simply means to be damned. To be under a curse is to be damned. And Christ redeemed [00:20:00] us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us.
For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, Deuteronomy 21, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith. Now this is interesting. If we think about our past covenants. If we think about the rainbow, for instance, we've talked about the rainbow, and what did the rainbow symbolize?
It was a war bow pointing towards God. It was God's way of saying, I will take on the requirements of the covenant, and if I don't fulfill the covenant, death will come. And then we get to Abraham and we have that picture of that flaming oven and that cloud of smoke going through the dead animals. God was saying, I will take on death if I don't fulfill this covenant.
And then we get to the, the sign of circumcision, same thing, death and resurrection. And then later in Abraham's life, Abraham [00:21:00] takes his son, Isaac. And there's this, there's this sacrifice. And his son is symbolically sacrificed and he dies. And even Abraham believed that God brought him back from the dead.
And finally when Christ comes, he does that very thing. He fulfills all those signs. He takes on the curse of the covenant and he goes to the cross and for three hours while he's hanging on the cross, it gets pitched black. And he experiences in three hours the eternal wrath of the Father, and he pays the price for our sin.
Because the wages of sin is death and it's an eternal death. And because Jesus was man, he was a worthy sacrifice, because Jesus was God. He could, he could take that penalty in an eternal sense. Jesus became our curse. And it's interesting, he became our curse in verse 14, so that the blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit.
It's interesting. [00:22:00] Blessings are promised Abraham, but the promise of the spirit really isn't. But what Paul is showing here is that all the covenants are connected because where do we find the promise of the spirit? We find it in the book of Joel. Joel Promises what we Believe The Day of Pentecost is where the spirit was poured out on the church.
Because Jesus had died and risen from the dead. We find this promise in Jeremiah tied to the new covenant. I will write my laws upon your heart. I will put my spirit within you and kids. This is important. If you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in you, and he's never gonna leave you kids. You're never alone in this world.
If you believe in Jesus. So Paul continues to refer to the law, to the prophets, and he continues to tie God's promises to a promise. And then in verses 15 to 18, he kinda shows how the promise to [00:23:00] Abraham is superior to what God did with Moses. But I want you to notice verse 15, because remember how he started you foolish Bewitched Galatians.
But look at the language in verse 15. Brothers, brothers and Paul elsewhere says that when somebody falls into sin, that we should bring them back in a gentle manner. And Paul is not calling into question their salvation because he doesn't have magic eyes. Not even the apostles could look into the heart and see who was truly saved and who wasn't.
These were covenant members and he continues to treat them as members of the Covenant, and so he addresses them now as brothers and in calling them brothers, he's making an appeal. And I make the same appeal to anyone sitting here today. Are you in Christ? Do you know what it means to be in Christ? If you are in Christ, do you know how to walk with him?[00:24:00]
Do you strive to walk with him? Do you strive to live your life in faith? Or is it just something you think of occasionally? Brothers, engage your minds. Engage your thinking. Go to the word of God. Listen to what Paul says here. There are so many Protestants that have one foot in Protestantism and one foot in the world, one foot in Protestantism, and one foot in a false religion.
Scriptures are not that hard to understand. Listen to Paul's words, brethren. I speak in terms of human relations even though it is only a man's covenant. Yet when it is ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. And I wanna stop, and I wanna say something here because I've been talking about how God expands his covenants and some, some of you may think, well see, he's adding conditions.
No, he's not. I've also argued that everything that God has done in subsequent covenants is found in that first covenant [00:25:00] with Adam and Eve after the fall. After the fall when God enters into covenant with Adam and Eve. There's sacrifice. There's a promise of redeemer, there's a promise of seed. There are requirements, there are blessings and curses.
It's all there. And what God does with every subsequent covenant is he doesn't change anything, but he expands it in the sense that he explains it in more detail.
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham, Abraham, and his seed. He does not say and to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one, and your seed that is Christ. So Paul interprets this passage the same way that we interpreted it when we were there in the Old Testament. It always pointed to a future seed, somebody who would come and crush the head of Satan.
And the only one that has ever done that, the only one that could ever done that is Christ Jesus. And Paul acknowledges here what we've talked about, and that is [00:26:00] this, both Hebrew and Greek word for seed has a singular meaning, but it can also have a plural, meaning it can refer to one individual, but it can also refer to a multitude.
And here Paul narrows it down as we should. And the promise was always to Christ. The promise was to Jesus that he would redeem the world, that he would have a people that he would crush the head of Satan. That the, the, the seed of the woman, the true followers of God would follow in his footsteps. That he would save a people for God almighty.
What I'm saying is this, verse 17, the law which came 430 years after God engaged Abraham. The law which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to null the promise. So the law [00:27:00] didn't come to give a second way of salvation. Salvation was already promised by faith in the seed of the woman.
So we have to ask why the law? And I don't have time to, to get into this aspect. Now, I'm just gonna throw out a few things to maybe hook your interest. But it is fascinating because Paul clearly says here, the law, which came 430 years later, so God enters into covenant with Abraham. He makes Abraham a promise, and 430 years later, God gives the law.
Again, if you're interested, I can give you the details, but if you, if you go back in history and you look at the date of the Exodus. You add 430 years to it, guess where you end up? Genesis chapter 12, when God called Abraham to come to the Promised Land, Genesis chapter 12. By the time you get to Egypt, 215 years of past, so the people [00:28:00] of Egypt, when Jacob goes to Egypt, the people of Egypt are in Egypt for 215 years.
Then when you calculate the death of Joseph and, and the new Pharaoh, you're down to about 147 years of hard labor. But God counted the entire time that he called Abraham and Abraham Dwt in the land of promise. He counted that as a kind of persecution, as a kind of longing for the promise. 430 years later, I gave the law, and the law does not do away with the promise.
This is maybe the most important question this morning because we need to ask why the law? Why did God give the law? Because I'm telling you, this is one of the most debated things amongst evangelicals today. How do we view the law? How do we treat the law? How do we understand the law? And I'll just, I'll be honest, I'll lay it on the table right now because.
Paul is gonna make very [00:29:00] clear that it is God who gave the law. And God gave the law for a very specific reason. There was a reason he gave it. It was part of his plan of salvation. And had he not given it, few would be saved. And yet there's a theological school of thought, probably the most popular in Evangelicalism today that says that the people should have rejected the law.
It says that when the people went to Mount Sinai and God offered them the law, they should have said no, as if it was in their hands and not in the hands of God. God gave the law and God gave the law to save people. Look at verse 19. There's two reasons that God gave the law here in the Book of Galatians.
Why the law then? Why the law? And this first one just blows our mind and we struggle with it. It was added because of transgression. It was added [00:30:00] because of transgression. What does that mean? It means that God gave the law so that sin would increase so that people would have a better understanding of what sin is, and so they would actually sin more.
And if you think I'm making it up, listen to the words of Romans chapter five, verse 20. The law came in so that the transgression would increase. And literally this word increase means to become more and more to, to grow in abundance. God added the law because there's something about the law that pokes at our sinful heart.
There's something about the law that that godes us. And when God says no, when an authority says no, all of a sudden we wanna do it. And you see, God gave the law because clearly the people while they were in Egypt didn't know what they were supposed to do. They had lost track of what they were supposed to do.
They were worshiping the false gods.
The law came in so that [00:31:00] transgression would increase, but where sin increased grace, abounded all the more. The law came both to define sin and so that sin would increase so that people would see their need. For a savior, it is a gracious thing. People needed to see their need for a savior. People needed to see that they were imperfect.
People needed to see that they could not save themselves. But there was something else about the law. Paul continues to write, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. So in one sense, from one perspective, and we'll look at it, the law was a temporary thing.
It was put into place and it was to function in the way that would increase sin until the Christ came. And Paul is making another point here when. God entered into covenant with Abraham. When God made his promise to Abraham, it was God and [00:32:00] Abraham face to face. But when God entered into covenant with angels, and we read about this in Deuteronomy 33, Psalm 68, and right here, God came to Mount Sinai, but so did a multitude of angels, and it was the angels that transmitted the law to Moses, and then it was Moses that transmitted the law to the people.
So God is. Two parties removed versus God directly speaks to Abraham. You see, there's something more impressive about the promise. There's something more intimate about the promise. The law was given for different reasons. Look at verse 21 and kids. This is on your handout. Kids, if you're taking notes, this is the fill in the blank verse verse 21, is the law then contrary to the promises of God?
Does the law contradict God's promises? May it never beta in the Greek. It is the strongest way of saying no. The law [00:33:00] does not contradict the promises for if the law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the point is the law was never given to produce life.
The law was given to demonstrate death. The law was given to demonstrate the need for life. It never had the power to produce life. Verse 22, hammers the coffin shut. Verse 22 says, the scripture has shut up everyone under sin. So that purpose, so that the promise by faith in Christ Jesus might be given to those who believe.
Again, strong language. The scripture has shut up, literally confined or imprisoned everyone under sin. Go back and read Romans chapter three for all of sin and fall short of the glory. God, there is none. Righteous, not even one. There is none who seeks for [00:34:00] God, but all are under the power of sin. And that's what Paul is saying here.
The law was given to increase sin, and the law was given to demonstrate that everyone is under sin. So when we share our faith, one of the things we talked about at the Bible study is we need to know the law of God and we need to bring it to bear because if people don't think they're sinners, they'll never seek a savior,
and it functioned that way until the coming of Christ. So why the law? Because of sin. To define it, to increase it. But the law also, and this is the second reason, it also functioned as a tutor. It functioned as a tutor to lead us to Christ. Verse 23 we read, but before Faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed.
And this idea of being kept in custody means to be detained. It means to be confined, guarded. Verse [00:35:00] 24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor. Some of your translations may say something like, school Master, the law has become our tutor to lead us purpose Clause to lead us to Christ. Here's his point, so that we might be justified by faith.
And when you take this all in context, it's why the reformers talk about justification. By faith alone, the law does not add to our justification only faith in Christ Jesus. The law is our tutor and Paul will pick up on this language and he'll expand it more in Galatians chapter four. But you may remember the story Rich people in the Roman Empire, they would hire a slave and basically it was the slave's job to take care of the children.
It was the slave's job to educate the children, to feed the children, to instruct the children, all those things. 'cause mom and dad didn't have the time for it. And this slave, this school master, this tutor, would raise the kids until they reached a certain [00:36:00] age of maturity and then the kids would be introduced back into society, basically back into the.
Authority of their parents, and that was the function of the law. And just as the tutor in this illustration was temporary, so the laws function in this sense was temporary. It functioned this way until the coming of Christ. Now let me be specific because this is easy to confuse. It functioned this way for the covenant people of God until the coming of Christ.
It still functions this way with unbelievers. It doesn't function this way to believers anymore.
How does the law function today? How should we understand the law of God today? How should we understand it in our lives? And so I wanna share with you as we bring things to a close, I just wanna share with you what reform [00:37:00] theologians, what I believe the Bible teaches are the three uses of the law.
Because the law, like I said, it predates Moses, but it also, it's still here and I'll, I'll attempt to demonstrate that as we look at this. But the first use of the law is what theologians call the pedagogical or the teaching use. John Calvin said it was the law functioned as a mirror and the first use of the law, not so much with covenant members, but with the unbeliever, is it reveals our sinfulness.
It reveals our sinfulness. It still functions that way in part with us, but we're already with Christ. So we can still use the law when we confess our sins, when we know what we should confess. But not only does the law reveal sin, because the law reveals sin, it also reveals the holiness of God. I've said this before, the law is simply a transcript of God's holiness, and we don't live up to it.
That's Paul's argument here in [00:38:00] Galatians chapter three. I've mentioned this, but let me read a, a portion in Romans chapter three, beginning in verse 10, for it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. Unbelievers will not turn to God unless God acts first.
No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together. They have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. And in verse 19, this is Romans three. Jump to verse 19. You don't have to turn there. But now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. As Christians, Paul makes very clear in chapter six of Romans, we're no longer under the law.
We're no longer under it in terms of a curse, so that every mouth, every mouth might be closed and all the world may become [00:39:00] accountable to God. That's what the law does. The law reveals sin, and the law reveals the holiness of God. The second function of the law is to restrain evil. The law is used to restrain evil.
When you get a chance later today, go back. Go home and read Romans 13. The law is used to restrain evil. In one Timothy chapter one, verse nine, listen to what Paul says, and one of the things we have to keep in mind, and sometimes we fail to do it, is we need to learn to read our Bibles. Paul has much to say about the law.
That's why I'm giving you the three uses, and we can't take what he says in Galatians as the final word because he has more to say elsewhere. Yes, the law reveals sin. Yes, the law leads us to Jesus Christ, but it also reduces evil. It also restrains evil. First Timothy chapter one, verse nine, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous [00:40:00] person for a Christian.
For those who are lawless and rebellious for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers for murderers. Again, the law is used to restrain evil. Listen to Romans chapter two, verses 14 and 15. I've already mentioned it, but. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience, bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.
So the law even works in the life of the unbeliever, and, and we have to understand that it's gonna increase their sin, but at the same time, they're gonna wanna hide it. It's, it's gonna decrease. It's this paradox, but it functions both ways. It reveals their sin. They know they're a sinner, but it also publicly reduces sin [00:41:00] because people know it comes with a penalty.
Romans 13 and the last use of the law. So we have the, the teaching use of the pedagogical use. We have the political use, restraining of evil. And then lastly, we have the normative use. And this is how it functions in the life of a believer. This is how it functions in the life of a covenant member.
I can sum it up in a, in a very short verse, John, chapter 14, verse 15, and John is writing to the church and John says, if you love me, and this is being spoken to everyone here today, if you love God, there's a very simple way of proving it to yourself, to your neighbor, to.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will [00:42:00] keep my commandments. That means we need to know 'em. That means we need to know what it is that God commands us to do In Titus chapter two, verse 1114. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men instructing us.
That's the law portion, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. That's how the law functions for the believer, and it is the very law, the very law given at Sinai, the decalogue, the 10 words that if you are a believer in Christ Jesus today.
They have been rewritten on your hearts in the new Covenant in Jeremiah 31 and the writer of Hebrews, and I will read his version. The writer of Hebrews quotes this in Hebrews chapter eight, and I'm gonna jump to Hebrews chapter eight, verse 10. And he's clearly speaking of the [00:43:00] new covenant and he's citing Jeremiah.
And in verse 10, he says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel After those days says Yahweh, I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts and you should all recognize this next line. And I will be their God and they will be my people. Even the new covenant involves the law, but it is rewritten on our hearts and is written in a way that we desire to obey it.
It's written in a way that we are empowered to obey it. You see, what we've seen in all of these covenants is a continuity, and I've said this before, but I'll say it again. To me, the greatest proof of scripture, the greatest proof that scripture is the very words of God is the continuity. Is the fact that you've got multiple languages, 40 plus people, multiple continents [00:44:00] writing at different times, and yet it is so consistent.
We see this covenant that runs throughout it, and it is so consistent, offering up the same promises, the same conditions, the same penalties, the same promised savior. You see, the mosaic covenant was not a blip on the scene. It had a significant purpose. It was given and the law was added. Added in the sense made plain.
It was already written on our hearts, but it was made plain in writing to reveal sin, to uncover sin, to show the need for a savior. And as I just said, this same law is written on our hearts in the New Covenant, only now it's written in a way that we want to obey. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
God has empowered us to do so. God's plan of salvation has always been a promise. [00:45:00] I will be your God, the God of your children, and you will be. My people believe in the seed of the woman, and as I've said in the Old Testament, they looked forward to the seed of the woman. In the New Testament, we look backwards because as Paul says in the very last verse of chapter three.
Verse 29, if you belong to Christ, if you're in Christ, if you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. So he begins in the middle of the chapter seed singular Jesus. But by the time we get to the end of the chapter, you, the group of believers are Abraham's seed heirs according to promise, not according to law, but according to promise.
You see in all of these covenants, we see that God promises to take on all the requirements, all the responsibilities, and all the conditions [00:46:00] of saving a people to himself. And that is what Jesus does on the cross, and that is why the only requirement, and you, everyone in this room, you're gonna have to check your own heart.
The only requirement is faith. And even that comes from a changed heart. Even that is a work of God. God is a good and a thorough savior. By faith alone, we are saved justification by faith alone, sola fide. It runs throughout the entire Bible and it runs throughout every covenant that God has ever given us.
Even the law covenant, let's pray.
Father in heaven, thank you for the law. Forgive us Lord. Most evangelicals do not know your law,
and it would be almost [00:47:00] impossible to repeat it all in the New Testament.
Father, help us to know your law. Father I, I simply pray that verse back to you. If you love me, you'll obey me. Father, we've already had a time of confession, so we don't need to do that again Lord. But we can acknowledge that we still fall, we still fail. So father, spirit of God remind us that part of responding to our sin is confession, is repentance, is finding somebody to hold us accountable.
That too is love. That too is obeying your commandments. So father, I pray that every man, woman, and child in this building today would love you, and it would be demonstrated biblically. It would be demonstrated in obeying you, obeying you out of [00:48:00] gratitude, obeying you out of thanksgiving, obeying you out of love, knowing that it doesn't add to anything because you are a great savior.
Please help us acknowledge that, Lord, help us acknowledge that you have done it all. It may be mysterious, it may go against other things in our thinking, but it is true. You have done it all. We are saved by faith alone. We are saved by looking away from ourselves. Give us this faith. And Father, I pray that you would give that faith to every child in this room.
That every child would turn to you, that every child would love you, that every child would express to their parents. Today or soon that they love Jesus. Thank you. God. Thank you for all your covenants. Thank you for their consistency. Thank you that the message has never changed and help us to believe for we ask all this in Christ's name, and all of God's people said, amen.
Amen.
