Romans chapter 3. If you were not with us last Lord's Day morning, we began a series last Lord's Day morning dealing with the issue of the gospel and how it relates to what we're suggesting, really the twin errors of legalism and antinomianism. And this morning we come, Lord willing, to deal with the error of legalism more in particular. Last week we commented upon the rejection of grace by those that are lost. Today, Lord willing, we'll speak to the answer of grace to legalism, next Lord's Day the answer of grace to antinomianism, and then the following Sunday or the week after, probably, the adulteration of grace by those who are saved. And I trust that we'll know and be seeking the Lord's presence and great wisdom and help as we consider these, as we suggested, very slippery things together. I probably should, with reference to this morning's message and next Lord's Day's message in particular, put a footnote in here. I have over the years listened to a series of tapes dealing with a particular controversy in the history of the Church of Scotland, the Marrow Controversy, by a contemporary man who taught formerly at Westminster Seminary, Sinclair Ferguson. I just put a footnote at the beginning of this message because I've listened to those tapes so many times that I'm sure I'm going to quote him both deliberately and accidentally. My wife is afraid I'm going to break out, not into the Ulster dialect this morning, but to a Scottish accent as I go through. Well, if I do that, then you'll forgive me for that as well. But my footnotes are there. I am absolved of all the great charges of plagiarism that I'm sure that will come upon me. The reason I wanted to pursue this is because I believe this is a perennial danger for the people of God, for the church, and it is something that we need to be constantly on our guard with as it comes to the things of God. How we deal with others, how we deal with sinners, and how we deal with ourselves, and how we approach the things of God. Do we approach our God in a bondage legal spirit? Do we approach Him with disregard to His law and the spiritual demands of that law? Or do we approach Him in His Son, Jesus Christ? So, I pray the Lord will give us wisdom as we consider these things this morning. We're reading in Romans chapter 3. I want to begin reading in verse 19. Just read briefly down to the end of the chapter. Again, trust the Lord will deal with us as we read together from His inspired Word. Romans chapter 3, beginning in verse 19. Now, we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. Laymen, we trust the Lord's own blessing again to be upon the public reading of his inspired Let's bow our heads and our hearts again together. Our Heavenly Father, as we would again enter into Your presence in Jesus' name, Lord, claiming afresh the merits of His blood, we come asking for the assistance of Thy Spirit in preaching the gospel. I pray that Thou will give help of Thy Spirit in hearing as well. We would not Suggest it as just a trite phrase. But how often have we prayed in the words of others that you would hide the preacher and the listener alike behind the cross. Or thrust from us even thoughts of ourselves as we are gathered here together in this body. I pray that each of us would be mindful of the word of God. Desirous that God would speak to us. And then if in his mercy he would speak to others as well. and we would later rejoice. Lord, we ask today that thou would close us in with thee. Give help of thy Holy Spirit. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I want this morning to begin again with an illustration that I suggested to you last week. In many ways, this illustration is the conclusion to which we are seeking to get in our thoughts about the law and the gospel. about the gospel and antinomianism. I said last week that very often we consider that these particular errors are two ends, two extremes on a line. That we have the legalist on one hand, we have the antinomian on the other end, and that in the dead center of this line is the truth of the gospel. And I submit to you that very often this is the way that the natural mind, that the flesh begins to think of these errors of antinomianism and legalism. Perhaps we should pause, I know I've said last week we'll get into these definitions more fully as we approach each error. But some have asked about this large word, antinomianism. It's just a word that means against the law. There's a Greek word for law, it's nomos, and you find that word in the nomian part of antinomian. An antinomian is a man who's against the law. As we suggested last time, it's loosely defined at times in our thinking and our experience as those that live loose, that are not quite as particular about their standards as the legalist. The problem is, is in our thinking, and we put it on this line, we get the thoughts again that if I ever perceive myself to be a little bit toward the Antononian side, that I'm not yet conformed enough to God's law, then I must go down the line the other direction. Try and find that dead center, that balance as it were. My only problem is finding out when to stop along the way. The same thing with a legalist. He perceives himself to be legalistic. He's a little too stiff. He needs to loosen up. And so, he would travel down the line the other way. And again, seeking to discern that balance in the middle. Friends, neither of these errors is answered. by going in the direction of the other error. And that is why I suggested that it is not a line. If we were to put it on a graph, it is a triangle. And the Gospel is above both of these errors. And the way against or away from each of these errors is never in the direction of the other. It is in both counts, to the grace of God, to an understanding of the Gospel, to an experience of the Gospel. And so I say let us be very careful that we understand. I suggested as well that these issues are somewhat slippery. Because while we would try and put a label on particular individuals or looking at ourselves, we would see on the one hand, or we would suggest on the only hand as it were, that here we come to someone who's a legalist. And yet very often you'll find that both of the errors reside at the same time in the same heart. Because in so many ways, they're not two errors. They are the same error, the same denial of grace as it is found in different outworkings in the particulars. I offer you a suggestion this morning in thinking about that. We ended last Lord's Day morning looking at the Pharisees. We saw in their reaction to both the preaching of John the Baptist and the preaching of Christ, that they were ready to accuse each of these men of one of these errors. They looked at John the Baptist. They saw his preaching of repentance. They saw his manner of life. They even saw his rebuke of them. And they were overwhelmed with such a man. And they said of him, he's got a devil. And then when Christ came and they saw the Lamb of God, eating with publicans and sinners, they looked at him and said, who can this be? The friend of such people. And so in a real sense, they look at John and they say, legalist. And they look at Christ and they say, antinomian. When in reality, while they were accusing those that possessed the truth, those that were both preaching grace, remember as Christ said, wisdom is justified of all our children. There was no contradiction between John and Christ. They were both preaching the gospel. The Pharisees accused both John and Christ of legalism and antinomianism, when in reality, they were guilty of both. They were guilty of both. You might say, now wait a minute. You know, a lot of us, we grew up under the Bible, we went to Sunday school, we've heard about the Pharisees, and we know they were just a big bunch of legalists. Absolutely. Their legalism is displayed in so many pages of the New Testament. You think about one in particular, when Christ and the disciples gathered to eat and the Pharisees observed them. And they came to Christ and they challenged Him and said, what is this thing you do? You and your disciples eat with unwashed hands. They weren't accusing Christ and the disciples of having poor hygiene. Christ explains as the passage goes further. They had taken to themselves of the traditions of their fathers, ceremonial rites of cleansing, where they would wash themselves. They washed everything before they ate. It wasn't because there was dirt or salmonella or whatever. It might be possible that something they've gotten in the markets somewhere along the line could have possibly been touched by a Gentile. And so they washed their food, they washed their hands, they washed their clothes, they washed their tables, they washed their plates, they washed their couches, they washed everything. These ceremonial rituals so that they might show that they have no contact at all with Gentiles. And they noted that Christ and His disciples did not go through these ceremonial washings. And they looked at them and they cried. This is antinomianism. You are not doing that which the law requires. So we can see in that, in so many other examples, that they were legalists. But what of the other thing? How is it possible that we could say that these men, this bunch, were also antinomians? You have to go no further than the Sermon on the Mount. As Christ preached the true spirituality of the law of God, they were shown to be those who were against the law. They had no understanding of the reality of what the law was. That it touched the thoughts and the interests of their hearts. So I say, you can see just in that illustration how so many ways these things are slippery for us. How we can so easily go from one error to the other and miss the gospel entirely because it's not on the same plane at all. So we must be very careful as we pursue these things. The Pharisees replied to, reacted really to John's preaching that they needed repentance by saying that he had a devil and he needed to be purged of it. Friends, can I suggest to you, the devil of legalism was in the Pharisees. And the devil of legalism is something that is very easy for us to fall into. I suggest to you, and I'll not take the time, on recent occasions we've touched upon this. We live in times where the modern church has been preaching what we call easy-believism. Raise your hand in church sometime in your life. Live like the devil the rest of your life and enjoy heaven forever. But the answer to that heresy, that's antinomianism, is never legalism. But the reaction at times in the church to that heresy is legalism. Evangelical writers in challenging that antinomianism have gone into print with legalism. I was at a conference several years ago up in Pittsburgh. There's a man who's a leading evangelical now, publisher of Reformed books. And he's speaking against easy-believism. Took the audience straight to the law. Never brought them to Christ. Friends, that's a fearful thing. Because, yes, I must run from the heresy of antinomianism, of being against the law of God, of saying God's law doesn't matter and that I'm not to pursue it. I can live like the world. I can live like the devil and still enjoy the presence of God. That's heresy. But it's equally heresy to say the remedy to that is self-righteousness. The remedy to that is my own pursuit of the law. And I fear that there are many today, and sadly there are many, even within reformed churches, that are pursuing with a legal spirit this issue. That was one of the things in the tapes I mentioned by Sinclair Ferguson. He talked about in the Church of Scotland, in its particular point in history, how it was leaning toward legalism. And I fear that there are many today, even those that embrace and announce themselves as preachers of the doctrines of grace. that in them has developed a legal spirit. Some even as others have suggested this whole pursuit of sanctification by vinegar. That's not the gospel. Long-faced Christianity, never enjoying the pleasure and smile of God. You haven't arrived at grace. When you have sanctification by vinegar, And you've got to stir up your willpower to do those things that you really aren't interested in in the first place. And the bondage comes upon you. So I say it behooves us to be careful as we look at these things. But this morning, what comes to our attention then is the answer of grace to legalism. And I want to suggest to you this morning four things. We'll do it firstly, Lord willing, with legalism defined. And then secondly, legalism developed. Thirdly, legalism displayed. And fourthly, legalism dispelled. And I trust the Lord will give us grace and give us help as we consider it this morning. So firstly this morning, legalism defined. What is legalism? We talked about it. We dealt with it somewhat last week. But what really is legalism? Well, the dictionary definition of legalism for us would be it's just a straightforward teaching that men are justified by their works, that men, by their own pursuit of the law of God, achieve a right standing with God. And that certainly is legalism. But as we look at our experience and we look in church history, we understand that things usually aren't quite as straightforward as a definition like that. It's more subtle. And as you find in the Scripture, very often it's not merely a straightforward works righteousness, but it's a blending of grace and works. So we can talk a lot about grace and still be legalists. The whole book of Galatians really deals with that problem. But I think it's important for us as we seek to define legalism to pause just for a little bit and think through the normal thinking the normal caricature, the normal characterization of legalism. We live in times in which very often anybody that seeks to live according to the Bible, let's be more specific, anybody that seeks to govern his life by the law of God is branded a legalist. I don't know how many times I've been called a legalist. The standing of the free church, the preaching that we embrace, Our view of the Lord's Day in particular, then it's actually the Christian Sabbath. Legalist. Legal, legal, legal. Friends, a legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law of God. A legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law of God. You go to the Scripture. Look at the giants of the faith. Those that preached against legalism. The Apostle Paul. How are we to understand him then? He preached against legalism. Let's look at his life then. Did he illustrate that point by living like a wretch? Did he seek to give real meat to his charge against legalism by ignoring the law of God and how he lived? Not at all. And recognize with me that as we look at the Scripture, as we look at grace, grace never works to disparage the law of God. Grace never asserts itself at the expense of the law. That's why I wanted to read from Romans 3 this morning, the last verse of the chapter. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. May it never be. Rather, we establish the law. The gospel is a full recognition of the claims, the demands of God's law. God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. So a legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law. It is not someone that follows the law. Rather, legalism, a legalist is someone who seeks to obtain merit by the law. Perhaps bore you with repeating these things, but again, a legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law of God, but rather someone who seeks to obtain merit by the law of God. You see, it's not that we follow the law of God that's the problem. It's how we use the law of God or how we attempt to use the law of God that becomes the problem. And I fear, in the popular thinking, it's just anyone that has high standards. In the church today, we dismiss them and say, oh, he's a legalist. Oh, that church, they're legal. Let's not worry about them. That's not the definition of legalism. Are we to look at our Lord Himself, whose life was perfect obedience to the law of God, and say there's a legal spirit? There's something to be shunned and pushed away? No. That is to be embraced and pursued with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But we're living in times where people will charge anyone who puts the goal before God's people of following the law of God as a legalist. Again, friends, a legalist is not someone whose life conforms to the law in all his pursuits and all his attempts. It is someone who seeks to obtain merit by the law. That's how he uses the law. That's the problem. As we consider, then, legalism defined, we've got to recognize that legalism is not just a distortion of the gospel. That's how we normally think of it. Legalism is a distortion of the gospel, and again, we get through our little line, and it's to one extreme, and we've got to get it straightened out. No, legalism is not just a distortion of the gospel. Legalism is also, and this is vital, legalism is a distortion of the law. Legalism doesn't understand the law. There's almost a sense in which the legalist is the one who needs, in the greatest way, to be challenged about his understanding of the law. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul did to the Galatians? And again, remember, the Galatians were those who were suggesting that it was not merely that we come to Christ for salvation by faith, that we need the grace of the gospel. They admitted those things. They were happy to say that we depended upon grace, that we needed by faith to embrace Christ. But then, alongside of these things, we needed to add in our own pursuit of the law. We needed to add in ceremony. We needed to have these Gentiles circumcised. Then we could rest. Then we could be at peace with God. What does Paul say to the Galatians? He took their position, again, distorting the law. to its logical conclusion. He said, you that desire to be justified by the law, do you not hear the law? Listen to what the law really is. That's what Christ did in the Sermon on the Mount. The Pharisees, there they are, sitting in all their legalism. And what did He do? He took them right to the law. Get a good look at the law, He said. Because legalists, by their very definition, are distorters of the law. Make the law to a keepable standard. Legalism developed. It's the favor of God. Get there. And what does Paul say? They wanted to glory. Where? They want a glory in your flesh. That's why he cries, Ye, having begun in the Spirit, are ye made perfect by the flesh? That's where we get that glorious refrain from which we have that wonderful hymn, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there was a failure to truly grasp at justifications by pure grace alone and received by faith. I'm tempted here to pursue That's a pretty lengthy tangent. We've preached on this so many times over the years. But what comes in alongside here is the whole issue of the nature of faith. What is saving faith? It's very easy, particularly with Arminian thinking, to look at faith as a work. That which we have done, which is added to the work of Christ in order to secure our salvation. This type of thinking flows out of the very thoughts of universal redemption. There is this generic work that Christ has done, but there is no value to it until I affix to it something I bring. And that that I bring, they define as faith, and so supposedly we are free from the charge of legalism, but yet what is this faith that is preached? What is this activity of man that the sinner has the ability to bring in and add to Christ? Faith by its very manipulation and the thoughts and preaching of so many today in itself becomes a work. Many are resting upon their act of believing instead of resting upon Jesus Christ alone. You see, faith has as its very living principle an abandonment of trust in myself and an embracing of Christ alone. It is a recognition that it is in this work and this work only that I can be saved. And it's a joyful receiving of that work in your behalf. Faith is not my righteousness. Faith is a vehicle through which I embrace the righteousness of Christ, which is the only thing God will accept. Perfect obedience to His law. You see, this is why so many struggle today, I believe, and the whole issue of easy-believism comes along. But then again, we're getting a little bit close to our topic for next Sunday, so we'll pass on. But I suggest to you as well, as we still consider here secondly, legalism developed. It's not only a failure to understand and pursue justification by faith alone, by pure grace alone. But it is a failure to distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and the law as a rule of life. The terminology I've just put before you is terminology that has, in the tradition of the Reformed faith, become very much entrenched and very precious. These are terms. These are words that we can use to communicate vital ideas. The important thing is not that we nail down these phrases or these particular terms, but to understand the truth they are seeking to illustrate. If I am to be free of legalism, I must distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and the law as a rule of life. A covenant of works is what we have in our thinking as an arrangement between ourselves and God whereby we, by doing certain things, by achieving certain successes, can earn the favor of God. In our terminology in the Reformed churches, in our confession, we even use the term a covenant of works as a statement of the original relationship between God and Adam. There are some Reformed men that struggle with that terminology. I don't want to overly pursue the debate, but some would much rather use, and perhaps it would be safer for us, the terminology of a covenant of life. Because, friends, understand, even prior to the fall of man, even before Adam ever entered into sin, our relationship to God was built upon grace. When God created Adam and placed him in the garden and said to him, of all the trees of the garden, you may freely eat. What is that but gifts? What is that but grace? You see, part of the original success of the devil was to introduce even into that situation a legal frame. Well, who is God? Jesus said that you can eat of this, but you can't eat of this. What a harsh God this is! What a legal frame He's put you under that you can't eat of this one tree! That's looking at it exactly backwards. What a gracious God He was to create man in His own image, to give life to this one who had no existence at all, and say, Not only that, I'm going to create you in My image to enjoy Me. To enjoy everything that I've made in all of creation. Even putting it underneath you. You as My regent to rule and reign over these things. Friends, that's just grace. That's grace. The devil came in and said, Oh, who is this God? What right does he have? And Satan sought to bring in and succeeded in bringing in a bondage spirit to Eden. Legalism develops. Failure to distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and as a rule of life. It must come back to particular thoughts here. As a covenant of works, as a means of obtaining a standing with God, the law is no good for me anymore. Scripture says, if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law. If there was something that we could manipulate, let us be even more bold If there was something that God could manipulate into a covenant of works, then that's the way we would have been saved. That speaks of the awfulness of the gravity of the immensity of the cost of our salvation. I didn't intend to go there, but did you notice in our opening Bible reading this morning in 1 Peter, 1 Peter 4 and verse 18, it's a verse sometimes that catches us off guard and we're a little troubled. We read there again, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? We can read that verse and think, well, man, if believers are just barely saved and we're just hanging by the skin of our teeth, man, boy, the unsaved, boy, what a mess they're in. That's not the point of that verse at all. The word there, scarcely, means with difficulty. And the point is, is that our salvation presented a difficulty to God. How is it that He can remain just and still admit sinners into His presence? The only way was the Gospel. For you see, any other covenant of works has to ignore sin. You can look at it in Human terms. You have a man, he's a murderer. He's caught. He's recognized. He's an admitted murderer. What do you put before him? Promise, from this day forward, that you will never murder again. What if the murder is already committed? But no, we're putting a couple of works before him. He's never going to do it again. What of the murder he's already committed? You see, friends, as a lawbreaker, as one, as David said in the psalm we sang this morning, guilty from a mother's womb, what contract can we enter into that will fix the problems we already have? You see, as a covenant of works, the law is no good to us. The legalist is one who fails to distinguish the law as on one hand, a covenant of works, and on the other hand, a rule of life. You see, this is to just outright steal from Brother Ferguson an illustration. He said, when we look at the law, It's not like we're looking at a car that will get us to glory. Because if we look at the law in that way, it's lacking in engine, it's lacking, to use his terms, in petrol, in gas, it's lacking in tires, it's lacking in road, it's lacking in everything. No law can give life. But do we then throw the law away? No, that's the antinomian wrong answer. We distinguish then between the law as a covenant of works and as a rule of life. It isn't a car. There's no way we can hop into the law and arrive anywhere. But it is a map for us. Having been justified by faith, it does direct us into the things that are in harmony with God's nature. things that are in accordance with His law, how we should live and order our lives. But again, it is not in any way that we are seeking to obtain merit. That's following the law as a rule of life, not as a covenant of works. I love an illustration that Dr. Allison gave years ago when I was in the theological hall. The illustration of the law as a tightrope. And here's where we would struggle back and forth with a legal spirit versus a gracious spirit. You see, if we look at the law of God as a tightrope, and we fix it between two points, and we raise it as high as possible, miles if it were, into the air, and we tell the sinner to go across this line, here we see the law as a covenant of works. There is life and safety if you arrive at the other side. And again, these illustrations are always messed up somehow. We could picture in our minds, perhaps, somehow, some guy that could get across that tightrope, even if it were miles and miles long. But you see, that's not the point. The point is no sinner can. And the sinner recognizes that when he is coming to write terms with the law. A legalist is one who refuses to come to right terms with the law. He redefines the law so he can feel like, yeah, I can get across this and God can be pleased with me. I can use the law as a covenant of works. I can obtain my own salvation. But then what of the law as a rule of life? Do I then, in embracing Christ by faith, taking the grace of the gospel and throw that law away? You know, it's amazing as you look at the Scriptures, and particularly when you look at the Apostle Paul. It isn't in the Old Testament. It isn't in Psalm 119. Though there are plenty of exclamations there about loving the law of God. But it isn't there that the Scripture speaks about delighting in the law of God after the inward man. Of rejoicing in the law as that which is good, that which is holy, that which is spiritual. New Testament views of the law. But you see, this follows an understanding. I cannot find in the law a covenant of works. I cannot seek to use it to earn the favor of God. He gives me that only by grace. He gives me that only by Christ's perfect fulfillment of that in my place. But once I have come to Him for salvation, once I have that perfect standing with God, then I use the law not as a covenant of works, but as a happy rule of life. In Dr. Allison's illustration, he said at that point you take the wire from its lofty perch and you put it right down upon the ground. And when underneath you have the imputed righteousness of Christ, you have acceptance with God already and forever in place, You're free to run in the way of His commandments. There's no fear. There's a rejoicing in using the law as a rule of life. There's a rejoicing even in coming to understand more of the spirituality of the law, to recognize forever, this is the way in which I will live. Joy and the calm that it even gives in your relationships to others. I'm going to challenge you this morning. I'm throwing up a lot of rabbit trails and throwing them out. But I think one of the biggest problems in relationships between husband and wife, between us and our neighbors, between us and our employers and everything, is guilt. You're dealing with guilt. Recognize your own insufficiency. Boy, I don't want anybody else to know that. And they happen to mention it. Boy, it sets you off. Why? And then you're ready to point out their faults. Why? Illegal spirit there. We must hurry or we'll have to lengthen our series to months rather than weeks. One of the things that Ferguson pointed out, he said, we begin then to understand a little bit of the psychology of the Spirit of God in Romans 7 when it speaks about the law as our former husband. One of the reasons it is so easy for us to get ensnared in legalism over and over again is because it was our former husband. And you stop and think of that. And again, the psychology that's involved. No relationship, no bond more intimate than that of marriage. When such a bond is broken, And the case, even when the party dies, it is only in the death of that other party. We're going to bring in all the debates about divorce and the scriptural allowments for that, but even there, it's death. Whether the person is physically dead or not, there's a separation, a cutting off. The echo at times. That former husband. This is the way our fallen hearts and minds tend to go. And that is why it is so easy for us to develop a legal spirit. But I want to come thirdly this morning and hurriedly to legalism displayed. How then is this spirit displayed? How does it manifest itself? You find, again, we're just giving highlights here. There are other directions even in the development we could have gone. In the display of legalism, certainly we could go. But two very key things I would suggest to you. Firstly, a self-righteous temper. And secondly, a bondage spirit. And I just ask you, before we even get into these, isn't this where a lot of the church is trapped today? There are a lot of people seeking to pursue the things of God, and yet they can't get out of a bondage spirit. They can never have a smile on their face as it comes to Christianity. whether it's with reference to themselves or reference to others. What about the self-righteous temper? Legalism will be displayed in a self-righteous temper. You look at the illustrations of this in the scripture, thinking perhaps in the weeks ahead, I don't know if I will, but returning to the parable of the I've almost got the new title in my head already, the parable of the elder brother, the prodigal son. What was the spirit of the elder brother? As the prodigal returns and he meets with the gracious embrace and love and full acceptance of the father. The elder brother that never went out, never went to party like the prodigal did, looks and he's offended. He says, you never killed a fatted calf for me, you never had a banquet like this for me, and I've been here all along, slogging away. I never went out and partied like that. What's in that elder brother but a self-righteous temper? What he's worried about is not even necessarily his own position, but he's saying, how can you let this brother of mine, back into this home, have a feast for the likes of Him. What does that say that there's a legal heart in me? What was that with the Pharisees? How can you, Christ Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, claiming to be a prophet of God, sit and eat with the likes of them? You see, the legal spirit is there It's displaying itself in a self-righteous temper just as those laborers you remember in the vineyard of Christ's story of the man that hired those to come in and labor in his vineyard. And he agreed with them upon a certain sum for their labors throughout the day. And then he went out later on in the day and brought in some more. And then he went out further in the day and brought in some more. And then he went out at the very last hour of the day and brought in more. And at the end of the day, he displayed the same gifts to them all. And those that had borne the heat of the day looked and said, what is this? And you see their self-righteous temper was there. Let me put it to you this way. Perhaps you have been a believer for a long time. Perhaps by the grace of God you've been spared to go out in the world and know of its immoralities, whether by experience or peering through the windows at them. Maybe you've never known drunkenness and all these other things. And then all of a sudden, somebody in the prayer meeting talks about a neighbor or someone who's on their deathbed and they've been a wretch all their lives. And they want the preacher to go and speak to them. And so he does. And here this wretch lays dying and embraces Christ for salvation. What's your spirit? Do you look at that and say, well, you know, I just don't know. That man all his life, you heard the gospel, we witnessed to him all these things and he never would listen. He never would change. He never would do right. And now we're going to go and tell him he can be a Christian the same way we can? And here I am down here slogging away and he's dead next week and he's up in glory? What's that? That's a legal spirit. I want to tell you, friends, I want to rejoice at that! That God would take one like that, even in his last breath, as the thief upon the cross, and bring him to glory! I want to be able to look, even as we read in Acts, of those chief priests and of the Pharisees, not a few that believed and were accepted and taken into the kingdom with the blood of Christ on their hands! Why? Because that's the same way I hope to be accepted as a sinner. taken into the kingdom. The self-righteous would say, no, the likes of them can't come. Friends, if that's true, we say with Paul, do you not hear the law? Then the likes of you can't come either. Because maybe not indeed, but in thought and inclination of will, each of us is such a sinner against the law as these. Let us read afresh the Sermon on the Mount. You see, it's as Paul said in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. It doesn't read the wages then of life, the wages God gives of good people. No, it reads the gift of God, His eternal life. We recognize in the case even of such a Suppose deathbed conversion. But there is a change of heart that occurs in real salvation. Were God to miraculously bring them off their deathbed, they would not be the same as they were. But the point is, is they don't have to come off that deathbed and walk a few steps in your steps in order to get to glory. It's grace. Grace for them and grace for you. But also, legalism as it is displayed, very often brings a bondage spirit. The legal spirit, the person can be energetic. They can be content with themselves because that's where they're looking. And they've got blinders on, they don't see the law. But there are others, sadly, have a legal spirit as well, and it isn't displayed in any self-confidence at all. It's displayed in a spirit of bondage. It's displayed in a lack of assurance, in a striving, in a continual frustration. And friends, I believe this is where a lot of Christians are today. You look in churches where there's almost a treadmill in the center aisle of people going forward to rededicate and re-rededicate, and they continually pursue decision after decision after decision. Why is this the case? Because within them, there is still of this bondage legal spirit, the thinking, how could God accept me? I haven't done good enough. I haven't perhaps even repented enough of my sins. I haven't pursued my daily devotions enough. I haven't pursued my witnessing or my prayer or anything enough. And the bondage spirit just comes and it rests upon you and it leads to defeat. I ask you, you come to a point of conviction, you're not in the Word. You make resolution, I will be in the Word. I will read five chapters, or perhaps six a day, for a month, maybe two months. You achieve your goal. But then suddenly, some things get out of wire. You're busy. You only get a couple chapters in one day. And then you miss a day completely. And you miss another day completely. I'm not advocating that. But I'm saying this is reality. The legal spirit says, man, I've blown it now. It's no use. And you don't go back to the Word. Because you were never pursuing the Word in gospel grace as food for your needy soul. You were pursuing it in a bondage spirit to say, Lord, I did what I said I was going to do. I've got five chapters in today. But then the day comes you miss it. and you don't feel like you can face God anymore. Well, the problem is you weren't facing God in Christ those days you did get the man. You were serving out of bondage instead of in grace. And that's a legal heart. And ultimately, when you begin to stumble, and you finally come to the place, I've walked that aisle of rededication so many times, I can't walk it anymore. You come to terms and recognize the answer is not there. It can lead to despair and ruin. And the need is to come to right thinking on the gospel. My standing with God isn't built on any of my pursuit of the law. There I am trying to use this law as a covenant of works again, where it's broken and dead because of that, or in that way. But as a rule of life, as a gracious God who has accepted me already in Jesus Christ with perfect standing, then I can say, Lord, what a wreck I made of this week. Lord, feed me afresh today from this Word. Show me Christ again. Legalism, I say, is displayed most often with either the self-righteous Friends, again, we could pursue these things. Holding others up to a wrong standard or a personal standard rather than a biblical standard. A self-righteous temper or a bondage spirit, that's how legalism is displayed. Very quickly and finally, how is legalism dispelled? I'm in good company with the one I've taken so much from today, because as he got to the last of his, I believe, five or six points, he just had to say, grace, grace, grace. Legalism is dispelled with preaching a gospel of imputed righteousness. That's the illustration that Dr. Allison gave, that underneath There is the righteousness of Christ, the perfect obedience to the law that God still requires. But it's already there, and it's imputed to you by faith, by grace alone. You go through the Scriptures. Romans chapter 5. speaks of this imputed righteousness. There you have, coupled with 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapters dealing with the first and the last Adam. There is no condemnation, chapter 8, to them that are in Christ Jesus. Why? You go to chapter 5 and you see that in Christ, I have been placed in Him, in covenant union with Him. God has dealt with me in Him and in Him alone. He dealt with my sins in Christ. He dealt with my need of righteousness in Christ. And there I have free and full salvation. I was listening several years ago now to some tapes that were given to me by a friend on the law of God. He gave them to me in particular with reference to my book on dispensationalism. There were three one-hour sessions dealing with the law of God. A lot of good material there, dealing with the law as the moral law throughout all the dispensations being the same. Dealing with the spirituality of the law, of all the inward thoughts and intents of our hearts that were involved. Some good material. reference to the debate between the dispensationalists, those even without that label that are of a genuine antinomian spirit denying that those ten words, those ten commandments are binding upon us today. But as I began to listen and I was on a trip and had time in the car alone, I began to be somewhat concerned that in this presentation and this accurate presentation of the law and all of its demands, that there was something missing. Finally, close to the closing moments of the third and final session, the minister made a remark that gave me some cause to be encouraged. He said, if you believe that all I've suggested over these last two and a half sessions brings us into great bondage, into a fear of condemnation underneath all the weight of this permanent and holy and spiritual law, then I would urge you, and he took us to Luke, I believe it's 13, where the Scriptures speak about forgiving our brother, no matter how many times he would sin against us, and then the turn, how much more then will your heavenly Father forgive you when you repent. He began then to speak about sin, and even got into particular sins, and stumbling, and falling, and even repeatedly falling, and yet coming and repenting again, and God forgiving. And I thought, well, so far, so good. But then he closed, and he was done. And I was just at the point of nearly wrecking my car. And I said, no, you're not finished. Yes, if I come to know of my own life, I am as a believer, if I recognize anything of God's law and God's words and His demand upon me, I must daily be penitent. I must daily confess, Lord, I have come short of the glory of God today. And I can, even as he rightly suggested, rejoice that God will forgive me today a hundred times and tomorrow two hundred times. But see friends, it's not merely at perpetual repentance that I need to be left. I need to be left with the very root of the whole, which is faith. and faith that Christ has fulfilled the law for me. And not only does God look at me and have eternal patience with me, as it were, that He forgives me and forgives me and forgives me, but boy, I'm just going to have to forgive Him again tomorrow. Do you see the implications this has for us in our thinking about the very nature and character of God? That somehow God has to twist His arm behind His own back to get up the willpower to forgive me yet again, and then yet again, and then yet again. The character of God is that not only will He forgive me every one of my sins, but He will smile upon me because in His beloved Son I am a King. Here is perfect righteousness that He happily reckons as mine. That's what it means to be accepted in the Beloved. Friends, I say it's not merely perpetual repentance we need. It is perpetual faith. Here, there is a joyful position that I have with certainty. God smiles upon me. When I was yet a sinner and ungodly, He set His love upon me. Not merely a reluctant, well, I'll let Him by. No, He set His love upon me. And you see, that's where when we come even with that much of a bondage spirit, we're listening to the echo of Satan from Eden. We place ourselves in bondage all over again, when in the gospel there's liberty and joy in Jesus Christ. You see, friends, if we're preaching the gospel right, if we come, and that's where really we've just, even in this extended illustration, come, Romans 5, imputed righteousness. If we finally come to terms with that gospel truth, then there is a logical and fleshly question that comes, shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound? Perhaps one of the most flattering things that can ever happen to us is for someone, when they hear our explanation of the gospel, step back and say, well, you're then an antinomian. It's an indication that they may have understood some gospel truth. But you see friends, acceptance by Christ's work alone, a rejection of any of our works as a ground of acceptance with God, a casting off of a legal spirit, never in the gospel logic, never in gospel experience, leads to a heart that's happy to continue disobeying God. Lord willing, that's where we'll go next time as we come to deal with the error of antinomianism. But I submit to you again, these are not two extremes on either side of the gospel. They're in so many ways different manifestations of the very same rejection of grace. And I pray the Lord will give us wisdom as we consider these truths. Give us power. This is not just something for the schoolhouse in which to write our little theology reports about. This is power for living. This is gospel thinking. And I pray God will give us grace to discern any of that legal spirit that we need to root out and give us the grace and power to run in the way of His commandments because we've come to grips with grace. I pray the Lord will undertake and give us help as we consider these, as we said, sometimes slippery things in our hearts and lives. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask Thee today, be gracious to us. We stand in need of grace, but we rejoice at the great grace that has been given us in Jesus Christ. Write Thy Word upon our hearts. I pray that even in meditating upon the Gospel of Grace, even some more of those fruits of the Spirit will be seen in us. And so we ask, write these things upon our hearts. Bring us, Lord, in Your will, even as tonight in Thy will we come to the Lord's table to worship and praise and sing and rejoice free and full salvation in Jesus Christ. I would say again, if there are any that are outside of Christ this day, I urge you, do not go another day outside the kingdom of God. If I can be of any help to you in the things of God, I'm happy to sit down with you and speak again. of the gospel of the grace of God. Lord, part us with Thy blessing, and I pray that even in these hours that intervene, in our thoughts, in our meditations, in our conversations, we'll be happy to speak of the things of Thy kingdom. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.