The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 16, 2011, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Please turn your Bibles to John, chapter 14, verse 15. And I'll add my welcome to those of Pastor Carlson and Pastor Smith, to all of you men who are visiting with us for the pastor's conference. It's good to have you here. I'll just read this one verse, this statement of the Lord Jesus that we have in John 14, verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Now let's look to the Lord in prayer and ask for His help as we come to the ministry of the Word this morning. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we do thank You for Your Word, and we especially thank You for these words of the Lord Jesus Christ that are recorded here for us. And now we do believe that we lack the ability to understand and profit from these words the way we need to, the way we desire to as Your people. We believe we need the help of Your Holy Spirit. So grant us Your Spirit. We remind you of the promise of the Lord Jesus that you are more ready and willing and able to give your spirit than we are to give food to our own beloved children. So hear our prayers and send him this morning for we ask it all in your son's name. Amen. Well, as many of you know, the theme of this year's Pastors Conference is the Law of God. We don't, as a general rule, give an overall theme to our Pastors Conference. But we did this year, and one of the reasons we have done that is because we believe the law of God is a very important topic. And it is a topic regarding which there is a lot of fuzzy thinking in our day and age. And so, we thought it would also be good, or at least I thought it would be good, to include you, the brethren in the church, in the ambience of the pastors' conference, if you will. And then also to give the pastors a running start as we head into our conference tomorrow morning. But especially, I'm preaching on the subject of the Law of God this morning. for the sake of all of you who are here, in particular the members and the attenders of Trinity Baptist Church, so that you might have some helpful instruction and exhortation. And it's instruction and exhortation, as I said, is in general much needed in our day and age regarding the law of God. Much of what I'm saying are things that I said several years ago back at a Trinity men's retreat. I never preached it in the church here, but I thought this would be a time. And the particular topic related to the Law of God that I want to address today is the use of the Law of God in the Christian life, or the use of the Ten Commandments, if you will, in the Christian life. We touched on the different uses of the Law of God this morning in the adult Sunday school class, and this is one of the important uses of the Law of God. It is very important I don't believe that most of professing Christianity in our day necessarily believes it is very important, the use of the law of God in the Christian life. I even include evangelical Christianity in that statement. It's true that to some degree we could say an antinomian spirit and tendency pervades the professing Christian Church in our day. Antinomian simply means against the law. And this is certainly nothing new to say that there's an antinomian spirit or an antinomian mentality even among professing Christians. I was reading a book in this past week regarding English Calvinistic Baptists in the 18th century. And I read there that in 1789, there was a pastor named Caleb Evans, and he wrote a circular letter to the particular Baptist churches and the Western Association of Baptists in England. And in that letter, he was addressing the idea that the law is not the rule in the believer's life. And here's what he said regarding this idea that the believer doesn't have to follow the law as his rule of life. He said, a notion more corrupt, more false, more full of evil and dangerous consequences cannot possibly infect the human mind. The peace it brings is a false peace and it will be found to be only the prelude of destruction. Now perhaps Caleb Evans was guilty of hyperbole to some degree when he said that there couldn't be a worse doctrine. But he certainly was right to say that it was full of evil and it is very dangerous. You are familiar, if you've been a Christian for very long at all, with the arguments that people bring to tell you that you should not be concerned with God's commandments in your life if you are a Christian. In fact, people like to make biblical arguments and tell you you don't have to take heed to God's law in your life. They'll quote scripture And they like to take all the negative statements about the law of God in the Scriptures to tell you that you don't need to worry about God's law if you're a Christian. For instance, Paul's words in Romans 6, you are not under law, they say, but under grace. Or they'll quote Paul from Romans 7, But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by. Or Galatians 5 and verse 18, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. or Paul's words in 1 Timothy 1, the law is not made for a righteous person. And that can sound very persuasive when they quote the Scriptures and when you consider that Paul has made such strong statements as this, negative statements about the law of God. One brother back in Minneapolis some years ago pointed out to me something that he had read from a preacher with a Reformed reputation, and here's what it was. He said, Romans 7 verse 4 says, When you were saved, you died to the law as a way of ordering your life. Now, I do believe there are many godly people who say and teach unbiblical things. And they may even say and teach unbiblical things about the law of God. And, if they're really godly people, we just have to say this about them. They are thankfully inconsistent. Their life is better than their doctrine. But not everyone is like those people. And when they say things even like that, their teaching is very dangerous, because it gets into the ears of people who may not be as good as they are. And so we can say their teaching is not as pernicious as out-and-out antinomianism, or what has been called practical antinomianism. No one is teaching that you should disobey any of God's commandments when they say those kinds of things. But my point is simply this. They are not teaching what the Word of God says about a very important subject, and what they say is therefore dangerous nevertheless. Well, let's consider then the issue that's before us here this morning. The issue that I want to address, that I'm going to focus on, is what theologians have called the third use of the law. The third use out of three. Theologians have pointed out, and we got into this subject just for maybe 30 to 60 seconds, I think it was, this morning. What are the different uses of the law of God? The first one that has been pointed out that the Bible teaches is that the law of God is used to restrain men from sin. It even has a societal use, as some have called it. Many of our civil laws are based on the law of God, the law of God that we call the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, the law of God that was written on our hearts. when we became creatures. The law restrains men from sin. We have laws against things like murder and stealing and so on. That's one use of the law of God. The second use of the law of God is this, to convict people of their sins so that they may see their need of salvation. Pastor Smith was saying that if you think that you're really a good person, you should listen to what the law of God says. The law of God tells you you're not a good person, not by nature, not as you come into this world. The law is used to convict people that they are sinners so that they might see their need of salvation. It's the Puritan view, a view that is right. They said that the work of the law, as a general rule, precedes that of the gospel. People need to see that they're sinners in need of salvation before they are ready to embrace a Savior who offers a Savior from salvation. And then, and this is the use that I want to address, there's the third use of the law. And that is, it is a rule of life for believers. In other words, the Ten Commandments, I should regard as a Christian, I should regard them as a rule for my life. That's what they are. I need to obey them. I should look at them this way, that they are something that God actually wants me, as a Christian, to heed and to obey. John Calvin wrote this in his Institutes. He said, the third and principal use which pertains more closely to the proper purpose of the law, finds its place among believers in whose hearts the Spirit of God already lives and reigns." You see what Calvin is saying? He says, yes, he knows we have the Spirit, but he says we still need the law. And he says this third use of the law, that it's a rule in our lives, is not only the principal use of the law, it's the main use of the law. The other uses are proper and right, but he says, this really is the proper purpose of the law, to show us how to live. So that's the issue we're focusing on, this third use of the law, that it's a rule of life for Christians. Now, I just want to give you a brief catechism about the use of the law in the believer's life. It's a very brief catechism and only has three questions. And the first one is this. What are the uses of the law. And this is just recapping what we've just seen. The answer is this. One, to restrain men from sin. Second, to convict people of their sins so they may see their need of salvation. Third, as a rule of life for believers. That's the third use, that last one I mentioned. Second question of the Catechism is again very simple. It's this. You say, It is for believers? And the answer to the second question is, yes. The third question is, how so? And the answer to the third question comes in two parts. And this answer is constructed from the Westminster Confession of Faith. And I'll quote the Westminster Confession of Faith. It's from our Baptist confession as well, but that's where it came from originally, Westminster Confession of Faith. How so? How is the law a rule of life for believers? First part of the answer is this, it's negative. It does not justify or condemn them as in a covenant of works. And now the second part of the answer is, But it is a rule of life for them, showing them their duty before God, and showing them their sins, so that they might go to Christ for forgiveness, and for power to obey His will. That's my brief catechism, very, very simple. But that's the nuts and bolts of this doctrine, that the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, are for our use as Christians, and it is the will of God that they should be so. Now I also want to say something briefly about history, the history of doctrine in regard to this matter of the law being of use to the Christian. I want to give you a little bit of the testimony of the Christian church on this subject. And it's significant for us because We, as Reformed Christians, are in a minority in one sense in Christianity throughout the world, but in this matter, historically, we are not in a minority. On this issue, over the whole history of the Christian church, we are not in a minority because we say that the law of God does have a place in the life of believers. Of course, all the Reformed confessions say that we are under the law in this sense, that it's a rule for our life. Yes, we are to obey God's law. The Reformed confessions say that. But the Lutheran doctrinal statements also say that we are under the law in terms of the third use of the law. Many people don't think they are. I remember a man who left our church many years ago back in Minneapolis, and he told me he was leaving the church because he believed what Luther taught about the law. Well, he had read Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians, and there were all these negative statements, some overstatements about Moses and how terrible Moses was and the law was and all that stuff. I said, but you know, that's not all Luther wrote about the law. And that's not all Luther said about the law. I said he believed in this third use of the law. He believed that you should obey God's law, His commandments. Luther regarded it as one of his most significant works, his small catechism. And the whole first half, or the first part at any rate, of that catechism is an exposition of the Ten Commandments. And here's the conclusion of that section. Luther wrote this, God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments. We should therefore, and we as Christians, we should therefore fear His anger and do nothing against such commandments, But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep them. We should therefore love and trust in Him and gladly obey all His commandments." And the Lutherans wrote in the century in which Luther himself died, the 16th century, in the formula of conquered. doctrinal statement of Lutherans that Christians are to meditate on the law of God day and night and continually exercise themselves in the keeping of it. And even in a Baptist confession here in this country that's not our confession, but a confession of Baptists. It is a Calvinistic confession, the New Hampshire Baptist confession, one widely accepted a hundred plus years ago by Baptists in the north and in the western part of our country. They wrote this about the law of God. They said that the purpose of the law, excuse me, I shouldn't say that. They say that later. Let me just quote what I have here. They said, to restore fallen man through a mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law is one great end of the gospel and of the means of grace connected with the establishment of the visible church. My point is simply this, it's to say that I, in saying what I'm saying, am not out of the mainstream historically when I speak about the law of God in this way. Reformed Baptists are not out of the mainstream historically. Reformed Christians are not, or at least we could say were not. It seems more and more maybe we are becoming, but overall we are not. So just that brief historical lesson. Now fourthly, and this is the most important thing obviously, I just want to give you some biblical proof for these assertions. We started out in a sense with biblical proof when I read John 14-15. Let's start there in asking what does the Bible teach about this subject? Are we as believers in Christ really under the law in the sense that it's a rule for our life? Let's look at John 14 verse 15 once again. These are Jesus' words to the apostles on the night before He died. And here's what He says in John 14 and verse 15. He says, If you love Me, keep My commandments. Now, in the first part, Jesus gives us this first part of his conditional statement. the prothesis of his conditional statement, if you love me. No one questions that love is our obligation. Love to God, love to Christ. Nobody denies that the Christian is obliged to love. Where the question comes in, are we obliged to keep God's commandments? That's the question. Well, notice what Jesus is saying here. He is asserting that you can only love Him if you keep His commandments. He's saying your assertion that you do love Him is empty if you don't keep His commandments. Some people, when they face a statement like that from the lips of the Lord Jesus, will respond by saying something like this, Well, Jesus' commandments are different from the Father's commandments. There is a different set of commandments that we are to obey as New Covenant believers, as Christians. And in answer to that, what we would have to say is a number of things. First of all, Jesus never gave us some different set of commandments. I know there's the New Commandment, but you come right back to the same question again. The New Commandment is that you are to love one another. And what is love? If you love me, Jesus says, keep my commandments. The New Testament knows of no other set of demands or laws than God's laws or commandments. Think of what Jesus said to the rich young ruler. He said, you know the commandments, right? And then he didn't say, but now let me inform you about what my commandments are. No, he started simply quoting a number of the 10 commandments. The 7, the 6, the 8, the 9, and the 5. He quoted in that order to the rich young ruler. In other words, they were the Father's commandments that he said he knew. Those are the commandments Jesus refers to. And consider about this whole doctrine that Jesus has a set of commandments or laws for his people that are different from his father's. Consider that one of the great things that Jesus told people throughout the course of his public ministry, it especially comes out in John's Gospel, is that he is one with the Father. He said in John 5, I can do nothing of myself. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. His will, and in terms of commandments, that means His will, is one with the Father's. Or He said in John 7, My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me." His doctrine, His commandments are not any different from the Father's. Or He said in John 15, verse 15, All things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. Jesus didn't come here to teach us something different from what the Father has taught. And as He said in John 10, verse 30, I and the Father are one. Jesus didn't come and try to distance himself from his father, from what his father taught, from what his father wrote with his finger on Mount Sinai. Besides the fact that there is no unique or separate or additional set of commandments that the Lord Jesus gave us, it is unthinkable that he would give us different commandments from those of his heavenly Father. So there's one text for a biblical proof that Christ wants us to obey God's commandments. Another one is Romans 13 verses 8 through 10, if you'll turn there. Romans 13 and verses 8 through 10. Here the Apostle Paul is writing about how we are to deal with our fellow human beings. And he says that we need to love our fellow human beings, Christians and non-Christians. And he says this beginning at verse 8, owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, There's the 7th, the 6th, the 8th, the 9th, the 10th commandments. And, if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Some people would come to this text and say, well, you know, you see there, we are given new commandments just to love one another, but that's not the way the text reads. It's not saying you do something besides keep the commandments. It says you love men, and the way you love them is the way God has always told us we should, by keeping the commandments that help in our relationships with them. John Murray wrote this. He says, the summary does not obliterate or abrogate the expansion of which it is a summary. The Ten Commandments are a summary of all God wants us to do. Jesus gave us an even shorter summary. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. Now if I summarize something, I'm not saying do away with that, I'm just helping you to realize better and remember what it is. And that's what he's saying there. He says, love fills to the brim the cup which the law puts in our hands. So you could reword verse 8 this way. It says, O no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. You could reword it this way. Make sure you leave no outstanding obligation except this one, which you will always have Fulfill the law by loving your neighbor. I told you about one man who left our church and said he wanted to go to a Lutheran church. He never did really have the guts, I think, to go to a Lutheran church. He went to some other church. But there was another guy who left our church. He did go to a Lutheran church many years ago. And before he left, he asked me this question, How do you resolve the tension between love and obedience? In other words, on the one hand, I feel like I'm supposed to obey God's commandments. On the other hand, I feel like I'm supposed to love God. And I said, what tension? There is no tension. The things go together. As Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. And then one other text is 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1, verses 8 to 11. Let's notice the Apostle Paul's words here in 1 Timothy 1 beginning at verse 8. He says, "...but we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Let's work our way through this passage, asking and answering five questions. First, what is the connection or the transition between these verses that I just read and what comes before it in 1 Timothy 1? Well, it's in verse 7. Paul remarks in verse 7, about vain talkers wanting to become teachers of the law. So that brings him into the subject of the law. In verse 7 he says, they desire to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. So having mentioned the law, he goes on to verse 8 then, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. There are false teachers, they like to teach the law, or fancy themselves to be teachers of the law. And Paul is basically saying that whatever they had in mind about being teachers of the law, I want to tell you about the law and how it should be taught. So there's a connection. Second question is this, what is the truth about the law? Well, Paul says it here in verse 8, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So it's good, that's the truth about the law, as long as it is used lawfully, as long as it's used in a right way, the way that God intends it to be used. Similar to Paul's statement in Romans 7, There's that section where he speaks about God's law, verses 7 to 12 of Romans 7. He begins with a question, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Because he had said some negative things about the law. Is the law sin? Certainly not, he says. And then he concludes, therefore the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. So Paul is saying that here when he says the law is good if one uses it lawfully. In other words, not like these false teachers want to use the law. Third question is this, what law is Paul talking about? What law is he talking about? Well, in particular, he's talking about the Ten Commandments, or what we would call the moral law. He's saying that law, in particular, is good. And we see that in verses 9 and 10. He starts out with a general description of people who are violators of God's law, when he says, the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, people who break laws, people who are insubmissive. They need the law of God. They need the law of God to corral them in a sense, like the first use of the law, keep us from sin, restrain us from sin. But then he goes on and he gives a number of specifics about who the law is for, the lawless and insubordinate, then he says the ungodly, for sinners, for the unholy and profane, and so on. And there's a good argument to say, and I won't do, say much about this, if you want to read it in a commentary, George W. Knight III has written on this subject, I think very well. But the point is, is that we can follow these statements that he makes, or these phrases he gives, and see how they line up with Commandments 1 through 9 of the Ten Commandments. He says they're the ungodly and sinners the unholy and the profane. And we could analyze those words and show how, in many ways, they really fit in with the first four commandments, either generally or specifically, Numbers 1 through 4. That word profane there, bebelois, the verb form of it is used in Matthew 12 by Jesus, used in Isaiah 56 in the Septuagint. Both of those are statements regarding defiling or profaning the Sabbath, the fourth commandment. So Paul wasn't just pulling words out of the air here. And then we come to what we call the second table of the law, beginning with honor your father and mother and so on. Notice what Paul says, For murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, violators of the 5th commandment. For manslayers, killers, murderers, violators of the 6th commandment. For fornicators and sodomites, violators of the 7th commandment. For kidnappers or man-stealers, violators of the 8th commandment. For liars, for perjurers, violators of the 9th commandment. And if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, which of course there is. There's one more commandment that he didn't mention. And there's all the other commandments of God that hang upon the Ten Commandments, the summary of the law of God. What law was Paul talking about? He was talking about the Ten Commandments, about God's law, the summary of it. And the fourth question then is this, what is the key to using the law? Because Paul said it's good if we use it lawfully. What is the key? Well, the key is, if you will, it's application. That's the key. And the important thing is that the law has to be practically applied, first of all. It has to be practically applied. He spoke about these vain talkers who wanted to be teachers of the law, verse 7, but did not understand the things they said or which they affirmed. And what was true about these? Well, if you read 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus especially, you find out that these were men who just liked to spin myths and fables. Look back at verses 3 and 4 of 1 Timothy 1. He said, as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. In other words, he's saying these are men who might open up the books of Moses to preach a sermon on them, and they might never come to any of God's commandments. They'll get stuck in a genealogy, and preach their whole time just on genealogies, and they'll go far beyond just what the Scripture says about myths and fables. And then they'll get in an argument about these things with other kinds of vain talkers like that. And they will never tell you anything useful for your life or instructive about your relationship with God and your fellow men. So the law, first of all, has to be practically applied if it's going to be used right. And the second important thing about using the law in a right way is it has to be applied to the right people. It's a matter of to whom it is applied. The law is good if one uses it lawfully, and then he goes into this subject about whom we should address. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person. Now some people immediately respond, there you see, it's not for Christians, it's for unrighteous people. We're righteous. And there's an element of truth to that objection. But it doesn't hold, because let's look at what Paul says. I've already showed you that he's saying that the law is for people, the lawless and insubordinate, ungodly and sinners, and the people who violate all of God's commandments. That's who the law is for. They break all the commandments that tell us what God requires of us. That's who the law is for. So what Paul is saying, it has to be applied to violators of the Ten Commandments, as we've seen. So the worst of people, obviously, the worst of people, people who would murder their father or mother, kidnap someone, fornicate, lie, etc., etc., etc. And by the way, Paul is saying, that includes me. Would he distance himself from this list of sinners? In some ways, yes. He couldn't be a Christian if he couldn't in some way. But what does he say about himself in this very passage? You know the words very well. Verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. of whom I am chief." So the law has to be applied to the worst of people and to Paul and therefore obviously to everyone in between. Which means whether you are a Christian or not sitting here today, it means to you. The law of God needs to be applied to you. Paul did not distance himself from that ungodly group of people he described. Wretched man that he was. He did not. He said, this is who the law is for. And so Paul's teaching here is very similar to Jesus' statement. In Luke 5, verse 32, Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And so Paul's statement is very similar to that. He's saying, the law is not for the righteous, it's for sinners. And just as if you are a Christian, when you hear those words of the Lord Jesus, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners, you are the first person to stand up and say, that's right, He came for sinners, that means He came for me! And so in the same way, we should respond to Paul's words here. The law is not made for the righteous. People who don't need it. It's made for sinners. That is, it's made for me. That's what the law is for. And then my fifth question is this. But don't the law and the gospel disagree with each other? Don't they disagree with each other? Well, not in Paul's mind they don't, because he says after he tells us about the law being made for these people and it should be applied to them, he says in verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, and then we could parenthesize those other two verses, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God committed to His trust. The Confession says it this way, Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law, and they told the uses of the law, neither are they contrary to the grace of the gospel, but they do sweetly comply with it. If we ask how, they answer this way, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done. That's a subject I should expand. Maybe next time I preach, I'll get to the law and the gospel. But let me go on to some practical exhortations, brethren, on this subject. Practical exhortations. The first one is this. We should labor to understand the right use of the law. In some ways, it is a difficult thing, isn't it? You have those negative statements, and you have many, many people screaming in your ear, in a sense, the law has nothing to do with you if you're a Christian. You have to work to understand the right use of the law. Study the scriptures. Study the confession of faith. Not as a Bible. It's not the Bible. But it helps you to understand what the Bible teaches on a difficult subject. And the teaching of those confessions at this point is very good. There was a hymn we were going to sing in our hymnal that's really very good, and Pastor Carlson asked me which one I'd selected, and I didn't select that one, and part of the reason was whenever we sing that hymn, I get tempted to get up and start preaching on the text of the hymn. It's so good. 449, if you want to look it up on your own. It's good, sound doctrine about what the Bible teaches about the law of God. We should labor to understand the right use of God's law. And one of those uses is, brethren, that it's for our lives to direct us how we should live. Second thing is this, be aware of the many different manifestations of antinomian teaching. Teaching against the law of God, especially against the idea that Christians should use it in their lives. There is a lot of that out there. And it doesn't all come in the form that I mentioned earlier, that people will quote, we are not under law but under grace, therefore you as a Christian don't need to bother with God's law. It's dangerous teaching, it's unbiblical teaching, but it comes in various different forms, and it comes from many different angles, and people who have many different motives. Some people will say things like, well, you know, Jesus said He came to fulfill the law, and then He went on to tell us some different things from what the Ten Commandments say, which He did not. But people will say that. And then they'll say something like, well, you know, it only is for the Christian if it's repeated in the New Testament. I mean, that's an antinomian teaching. It's something against God's law. Or some people, if they see that you are very careful to do what the Word of God says, whether you're doing something that you read in the New Testament or the Old, the fact that you're deeply concerned about it, the fact that it's a matter of conscience, the fact that you're very careful to carry it out, they see you doing that and they say, whoa, whoa, whoa. Brother, I think you're a legalist. Or at least you're in danger of being a legalist. Or you see people like the man I mentioned, who set love in opposition to obeying God's law, as if it has to be one or the other, but they don't go together. Or people will say, as I mentioned earlier, well, Christ's law is different from the law in the Bible, different from the Ten Commandments. Or maybe you're just a person who has an innate dislike for commandments. Maybe your antinomianism is something like mine that bubbles up from within. You don't need to hear people criticizing God's law to be disposed not to like it. Maybe you just have a dislike for anyone telling you what to do, including God. Or maybe you just have a dislike for the fact that Christian liberty doesn't mean absolutely unrestrained liberty. Or maybe you worry that if you focus on sin and God's law and obedience to that law, you will become a legalist. Or maybe you already are a legalist if you focus on those things at all. Or you'll become self-righteous. Or you'll become introspective in a very harmful way. Or you will lose assurance of salvation. Well, I share all those worries with you. But that's the fact that a bad thing can happen is not a good reason not to do a good thing. See, my point though, antinomianism comes from many different directions. It has many different faces. But you need to remember, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. He said, whoever does and teaches my commandments, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, I delight to do your will, O God, and your law is within my heart. Paul said, I delight in the law of God in the inward man. And he said circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. It mattered to Paul. It should matter to us, brethren. A third application is this. We should use the law Paul says it's good, the law is, if we use it right. If we use it lawfully. So we should use it. We should not refuse to use it. We should not be afraid of using it. Even if we think, well, if I do, something bad could happen. It could! If you believe in Christ, something bad could happen. You could be imprisoned in some countries or lose your life. It's not a reason not to do a good thing. And you should use it without constantly having the warnings of well-meaning, perhaps, what I will call grace-minded Christians ringing in your ears in such a way that it weakens your grip on the law of God or the grip that the law of God has on you. You should use it. You have a problem with something like we saw in a recent adult Sunday school class? You have a problem with malicious speech? Well, there's a lot of texts in the Bible to help you. There are proverbs to help you. Many, many. But start here with the sixth commandment. You shall not kill. It tells you you shouldn't turn your tongue into a weapon to stab people with. You have a problem with lying? Start with the ninth commandment. Problem with coveting? Start with the tenth commandment. Tells you your need of forgiveness for your sins, your need of Christ, and so on. We should use the law. Listen to John Calvin's words, which are very good at this point. He says, again, Because we need not only teaching but also exhortation, the servant of God will also avail himself of this benefit of the law, by frequent meditation upon it to be aroused to obedience, be strengthened in it, and be drawn back from the slippery path of sin. In this way, the saints must press on. For however eagerly they may, in accordance with the Spirit, strive toward God's righteousness, the listless flesh always so burdens them that they do not proceed with due readiness. The law is to the flesh like a whip to an idle and bulky ass to arouse it to work. Even for a spiritual man, not yet free of the weight of the flesh, the law remains a constant sting that will not let him stand still. Use the law in a lawful way for the good of your soul. And that leads to the next thing. I said we should use the law. Second thing is this, we should use it in a right way. We should use it in a right way. I'm especially focusing on this use of the law in our own lives as a rule for believers. There are other ways we should use it. We should use it when we speak to unbelievers. We shouldn't be afraid to tell them that they really need to obey God's law. It's really the second use of the law when you do that, isn't it? But you're recognizing the fact that people need to understand they're sinners if they're going to listen to you when you tell them you know a Savior from sin. They need to know they are lost. Think of Jesus' words that when the Holy Spirit would come into the world, He would convict the world of sin. Well, what would He use to convict them of sin? The law of God. Remember how John the Baptist spoke to Herod and said, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. It was against God's law. God's law defines sin. It defines sin, not just for Christians, but for every one of us here. For every person in this world. You might say, well, it doesn't define it for you. It does define it for you when it says you shall not bear false witness. And then you say, well, I only tell little lies. I only tell white lies. I only stretch the truth. I might do something like this. I'm not really sick, but I call into work and say that I am. But I have the sick time. It's lying. It's breaking God's law. God's law calls things that you do lying or stealing. It calls looking at pornography lusting. And it says that's fornication or adultery, which is sin, which leads to death, which will mean your death if you don't turn from your sins and find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The law tells you, you need to repent of your sins. And the law doesn't take you to Jesus Christ. But it puts you in a position that makes you realize you need some help from somewhere. And the only one that can help is Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that you need to believe in Him who laid down His life for sinners and that He's the only one through whom you can find forgiveness from your sins. And you should believe in Him. He will save you if you trust in Him. But we are to use it not only when we talk to sinners, but we are to use it in our own lives, brethren. We are to use it in our lives. We are not to follow the vain talkers and misuse the Law of God. We're not to follow the Judaizers, as we call them, who tried to get people to resurrect the Old Covenant and to tell them that they could earn their salvation by obeying God's command. You can't. And it would be wrong to teach only the Law. It would be very wrong. Or to teach it as the Pharisees did. Or the vain talkers. But it's not wrong for you to use the Law of God in a righteous way in your life. Let me just quote from the Confession again. As it says, some of the ways we should use it. We're not under the law as a covenant of works so that we could be justified by it. But we use it to help us to discover the sinful pollutions of ourselves, our natures, our lives. To see that we're sinners. So that we might come to further conviction of, and humiliation for, and hatred of our sins. And also that we might come to a clearer sight of the need that we have of Jesus Christ. and the perfection of His obedience. It's one of the things that was preached here recently by our brother Frank DiWana, talking about Christ being obedient in His sufferings. And remember how he went through a number of areas in Christ's life that if you just take some time to meditate on upon it, you realize, yeah, Christ had to obey God's law in that way, that difficult way, that obscure way. And the law of God reminds you, yes, He needed to do that to save your soul. And it gives you a greater appreciation of Christ. And likewise, as it says, to restrain us from sin. And also it says, because the promises of it in like manner show us how God approves of our obedience and what blessings we may expect upon the performance of them. So we should use God's law, and fifthly and finally, just briefly, we should have a good attitude toward the law. We should have a good attitude toward it. Think of Jesus' words, I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart. Many of us We don't, even as Christians, deep within, there's somewhere in the recesses of our hearts, we don't have the love of God, love of God's law that we should. Not like Jesus loved for his father's law. And we may not want to admit it, because we are reformed Christians. I mean, look at our confession. We do love the law. We really do. But there's something, as I said, within you that is always bubbling up, always bubbling up. And it may not be this, but maybe it's the thing I find bubbling up in myself. I just really don't want to always be told what to do. I don't like it. I don't. Natively, I do not like it. And it makes me slow to obey God's law. It makes me not love God's law the way I should. And I work at it. One of the ways I've worked at it over the years is I've just taken the commandments of God, and I've gotten down on my knees, and I've prayed, Lord, You gave this to me for my good. And I know I sinned against it. Forgive me of those sins. And I know Jesus obeyed it in my place, Thank You, Lord Jesus. And I know You want me to follow it today. Your Spirit helping me. Give me the grace and the strength. And I know that it will bring glory to You. Do that. Work over those things. Meditate on those statements of Paul and Jesus. I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. I'll just close very briefly then with my testimony. Even though, as I said, I don't always live up to it. But here is my testimony. Here is why I love God's law. Because it helps to convict sinners, one of which I am, like nothing else in the world. There is nothing better that God has given us to convict us, arguably, than Christ on the cross. But even then, what was He doing but obeying His Father's commands? And I love it because it shows me how to please God like nothing else in the world. And it impresses upon me my need of Jesus Christ like nothing else in the world. And for that reason, it keeps me at the foot of His cross and utterly depending on Him. And it keeps me in His bosom. May God give me grace to stay there. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word and we thank you in particular for your law, which we believe is good. if it is used lawfully. Help us to understand what Your Word says about how we should use it. And help us to use it in those ways by Your grace and by Your Spirit's power for the glory of Jesus Christ, Your Son. And we ask this in His name. Amen.