From Greenville, South Carolina, we present, Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, preaching Christ in all His fullness. This is Alan Kearns saying hello to you and welcome to Let the Bible Speak as we continue our study of the law of God. For a number of weeks due to a prolonged period of overseas preaching engagements, I'll not be able to comment on the topics of interest that I have been referring to day by day on the program. That, however, will give us a longer period in each program for each day's Bible study. And, as I've been saying, given the vastness of the subject we're covering, I think that will prove a very good thing. I hope that you'll stay tuned for the rest of today's broadcast as we consider the subject of what the Bible terms the curse of the law. We appreciate the constant flow of interest and response that we receive from our listeners. We're glad to be able to make some valuable resources available to you, and these are all free of charge. We have mentioned at times various special messages on cassette or CD. We have said before you our Let the Bible Speak full-color quarterly magazine, which always makes interesting reading. And recently I've been mentioning our monthly Let the Bible Speak audio magazine, a CD or cassette with testimonies, Bible studies, and music to bless the heart. Now, you may obtain any of these, or all of these, by writing or calling us here at Let the Bible Speak. If you're writing, our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina, 29615. And our toll-free telephone number is 866-877-LTBS, 866-877-5827. Our website is LetTheBibleSpeakRadio.com or in the abbreviated form, ltbsradio.com. And there you'll find many items of interest, including our broadcasts, commentaries on topics of interest, both in audio and text versions, and, of course, our internet bookstore. So I hope that you'll make sure to visit us soon at ltbsradio.com. So whether you write or call toll-free, or get on the internet at ltvsradio.com we trust that you'll be in touch today. Praise the Savior, ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms us, before God breaks faith and arms us. Nothing moves and nothing harms us while we trust in Him. It's the first thing the law does. It exposes sin. for what it really is. The second thing it does is that it condemns sinners for their sin. Cursant is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. What is the meaning of that text? In simple, everyday English, It means that all who fail to render a complete and perfect obedience to God's law are under God's curse. The word curse is really a terrible word. Among men, a curse is usually spoken with ill will and malevolence. It's what's called a malediction, an evil saying. A curse is really a wish for some evil to fall upon the one on whom you place that curse. That's the curse among men. But that's not so with God. When God curses, He does not express a wish. He pronounces a judgment. A judgment on one who according to his law is worthy of his wrath. Now that is the curse of the words of our text. It's the righteous judgment of a holy God pronounced in strict accordance with God's holy law. Now that makes this text a very serious statement for sinners. You see, by nature, sinners are inveterate rebels. Men are determined sinners. Sin is not only something they do. Sin is something they serve. That's the language of Scripture. They serve. Sin, Paul tells the Romans, rules in their heart. Sin governs the principles of action in their soul. Listen to Romans 7, verse 23. Paul says, I see another law in my members. Underline the words, law in my members. Warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Now what is that law? I pointed out in a former study, But you've got to be careful studying this subject of the law in Scripture, because the word law is used in many, many different ways, even in the same context. What is this law of sin in the members? It is a principle of wickedness, a principle of evil that rules like a monarch in the soul, and impels that man to rebellion against God. Sin, my friend, is not merely negative. Sin is a very active, positive, self-seeking, self-serving, God-hearing, Christ-dishonoring principle. So deep is this principle of evil in the soul of man, that everything a man does is corrupted and depraved. Does he read his Bible? He brings to that Bible reading a heart of corruption, filth and arrogant rebellion against God. Does he bow his knees to pray? Even as he bows his knees, his heart rises up in rebellion against God. Does he touch anything? He sullies it with the filth of his touch. That's something. of the biblical truth of the total depravity of the soul of man. Because sin is not just what man does. Sin is the monarch manswers. Sin is this inherent principle. So evil is it that it even makes God's holy law an occasion for sin. It does this in many ways. For instance, it decries all divine authority. It is sin which rises up within your breast and says, what right has God to ruin my fun? What right has the church to come preaching, as this preacher preaches, to try to put the brakes on my own life and my own ideas? I'm hurting nobody. I want to do my thing. What is that? That is this evil monarch of sin rising up and decrying the very right of your Creator to be your lawgiver. Then, of course, It works very, very subtly by taking the very thing that the law prohibits and making it desirable. Paul deals with this at some length in Romans 7, that when the law says, Thou shalt not, this monarch of sin so twists and turns that he takes that forbidden thing as Satan did the forbidden fruit and makes it the most desirable thing in the world so that the very law of God is perverted by inherent sin as an occasion, an opportunity. to drive you deeper into rebellion against God. Now, put all that together and what have you got? You've got a terrible picture. Governing His soul, man has in Him a law of rebellion. And then in the book of the law, God has written His law of retribution. That's why I said the statement of our text is a very serious one for sinners. There's a law within every man, a law of sin. Then there is that law of God written by the finger of God that calls forth doom and damnation on that sin. That's why Paul calls God's law the law of sin and death. The law of death. What is God's law for the sinner? It's a law of death. He wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3, and he said, the letter killeth. Again, I don't want to get off on a tangent, but I do need to say that there are so many superficial preachers running around telling you that Paul means that strict compliance with the Scripture is a deadly thing, and really you should come and have a very loose compliance. That's not what he's talking about. When he says, the letter killeth, in context he's saying, the law. That's the letter of the law he's talking about. The law killeth. He calls it the ministration of death. He calls it the ministration of condemnation. It is a law of death, as he wrote to the Romans, the wedges of sin. is death. That death is real. I want you to understand that. This is the curse of God's law. That death is real. That death is personal. That death is total, physical, spiritual, and then eternal. Do you remember those terrible words of Revelation 20, when John and Vision saw the dead, small and great stand before God, and the books were opened? The books were opened. Man on earth may shut the book of God's law, and live their lives in total defiance of that law. But hear me well, my friend. There is going to come a day when God will open the book, and no man will shut it. The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. He describes how the sea gave up the dead that were in it. Death and hell, or death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to the works. Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is what? The second death. This is the law of death executing its curse. The law exposes sin for what it is. The law condemns sinners for their sin. Never fall for the devil's lie that because God is a God of love, He will abrogate His law and He will never condemn sinners. The law condemns sinners for their sin. But I need to point out a third thing in dealing with the curse of the law. that the law condemns sinners for seeking salvation by partial obedience to it. You see, as I pointed out at the beginning, there's something that comes very natural to every man, and that is to do something. To do something to put God under obligation to him and earn his way to heaven. Men talk glibly about keeping the Ten Commandments, living by the Ten Commandments, or living by the Sermon on the Mount, or living by the example of Jesus, or doing something or other. What they're talking about is rendering At best, a partial obedience to God's law. I could prove from Scripture that a partial obedience to God's law is a total disobedience to God's law. I want you to understand that. Partial obedience to the law of God is, in reality, total disobedience to God's law. And that's why the law of God condemns men for trying to be saved by partially obeying the law. We read tonight in Galatians 3.11 that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8 verse 3, What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemn sin in the flesh." Let's stop there. What the law could not do. The Greek text actually says, the impossibility of the law. Or the inability of the law. Or you might translate it, the powerlessness of the law. What is it that it's impossible for the law to do? What is it that the law has absolutely no power to perform? Well, Paul tells you here in Romans chapter 8, and it is to set sinners free from condemnation. You can say, I'm going to try to obey God's law. You'll not free yourself from condemnation that way. You can't do it. Because remember what I've said. Every partial obedience is a total disobedience. So that even your attempts to save yourself by the law end up damning yourself more and more comprehensively as a lawbreaker. The law can only do one thing to a sinner. Only one thing. And that is condemn him. The law can do absolutely nothing else. It is powerless to do anything for a sinner but expose his sin and condemn his soul. If that where all the Bible had to say about the curse of the law, we would live in a sad, sad world indeed. I want you to stop there. The curse of the law is something real. It is something terrible. It is something truly awful, the curse of the law. The very words should chill your heart. They reveal the face of a frowning deity, of an offended God, of a wrathful judge, the curse of God's law. But I have one thing more to say about the curse of the law. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. The law commands and accepts perfect obedience. That's the implication of our text. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. The implication is, blessed is everyone that continues in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. And I know that implication is just because didn't we read in Romans chapter 7 that the law was ordained to life? The law was ordained to life. We have in the Bible reading tonight a quotation from Leviticus 18 and verse 5 that the man that doeth the commandments shall live in them." When the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus, wanting to know what to do to be saved, what did Jesus say? You know the commandments. Now, the Lord Jesus was not saying, do your best to fulfill the commandments and you'll be saved. What He was saying is what Paul later said, if there ever was a law given that could do men good, this is that law. Its tendency is to life. It is a law that commands obedience. It is a law that accepts perfect obedience. The tragedy is that in man, it never finds it. Where can the law find one who has perfect obedience? Where can the law find one who is free from the guilt of Adam's first transgression? Where can the law find one who is sinless in nature, sinless in principle, and sinless in practice? Is there such a one? Bless God there's one. There's only one. The blessed, blessed Jesus. He is the one. The law of God searches out the thoughts of Christ, the feelings of Christ, the motions of the soul of Christ, the words of Christ, the deeds of Christ, the inner man and the outer man. And the law of God stands forth with the verdict, God is well pleased. Here is the perfect man. If there were any way for sinners to be invested with His righteousness, then those sinners would stand blessed and accepted before the holy law of God. And bless God, that's what the gospel of Christ is all about. That is the very point of the gospel. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. That's the final great truth about the curse of the law. God has accepted Christ. And He has accepted us in Christ who shed His blood for us. Christ, by His life, fulfilled the precept of the law. Christ, by His death, paid the penalty of the broken law. Christ, who has perfectly pleased God and fulfilled His law, has received the blessing from God, not just for Himself, but for all who believe in Him. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak, the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America. I hope that you found today's broadcasting a blessing to your heart. If you'd like to email us, our email address is ltbs at freeprez.org. Or if you'd prefer, you may write us at Let The Bible Speak, 1207 Haywood Road, Greenville, South Carolina, 29615. We would love to hear from you. If you'd like to know how to be saved and how to be sure you're saved, we'd like to send you my booklet, A New Beginning, and I think that you'll find it very helpful. Each quarter we publish a free full-color magazine, Let the Bible Speak Quarterly, with a good variety of Bible teaching and testimony. It's available to all who request it. If you'd like to receive more information about the Free Presbyterian Church of North America and its ministry, we'd like to send you our booklet, Separated Unto the Gospel. Or if you'd like to have tape or CD copies of the messages here in Let the Bible Speak, you may have them by contacting us, or you may visit us on the web at letthebiblespeakradio.com. Now that's a lot of information to digest all at once, but you can find it all on our website letthebiblespeakradio.com. There you'll be able to listen to and download our programs, visit our online bookstore, and read a text version of each day's commentary. So visit us today at LetTheBibleSpeakRadio.com This is Allan Kern saying, thank you for listening. I trust that you'll join us each day at this time, Monday through Friday, as we Let the Bible Speak.