We come to the conclusion of our Ten Commands series. The Law of God and the Gospel of Christ. How does the Law and the Gospel fit together? How do they relate to one another? Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24. The Word of the Living God is found in Galatians chapter 3 verse 24. Therefore the Law was our tutor. to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. This is the word of God. Many people today have the law and the gospel backwards. They think they need to keep the law in order to become Christians. As a result, they are frustrated with failure and frustration and shame and guilt. They do not understand why the gospel does not work in their own experience. Their problem is they're placing the proverbial cart before the horse. Salvation is by the grace of God alone, received by faith alone. We do not keep the law in order to be saved, we keep the law because we are saved. The law condemns, but the gospel of Jesus Christ saves. The law reveals our sin, but the gospel reveals our Savior. The law makes us guilty, but the gospel of Christ offers us forgiveness. The law demands payment, but in the gospel Jesus Christ has paid our debts to God the Father. The American evangelist, Deal Moody, said, The law is a mirror to show us who we are, but you cannot wash yourself in a mirror. cannot make us righteous. The law cannot save. The law cannot sanctify. However, what the law does do is it reveals our sin and it points us to the Saviour. In Romans 3.31 we read, Do we then make void the law of God through faith? Certainly not. God forbid. On the contrary, we establish the law. So what does the law do? The law of the Lord convicts us of sin. The law of the Lord condemns transgression. The law restrains evil. Now, the law may not change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. The law also drives people to Christ. It is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. The law also guides us in our sanctification process and our discipleship road. 1 John 3 verse 4 defines sin as lawlessness. Sin is law-less-ness. We're living in a very lawless society, an antinomian society, antinomous, anti the law of God, hostility to the law of God. James 1.25 says, But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hero but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Psalm 19 Verse 7, which we began the service with, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. What converts the soul? The law of the Lord. The law reflects the character of God. The Ten Commands are a reflection of the holiness of God. You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy. The law lies at the very heart of the New Covenant. In Jeremiah 31, we read in verse 31 to 33. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. I will put their law, I will put my law in their minds and I'll write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The new covenant takes the law of God which was written in tablets of stone and writes it on our own hearts. Do you know what it is like to have the word of God renewing your mind? Do you know what it's like to have your conscience captive to the word of God? Behold, the days are coming, says Lord, when I'll make a new covenant to the house of Israel. I'll put my law in their minds and I'll write it on their hearts. That is where we are now in the new covenant. God's law needs to be not just on a tablet of stone or up on the wall. It needs to be in our hearts and governing the renewing of our minds. We human beings are not created to be autonomous, that is, a law unto ourselves, where every man does what is right in his own eyes. No, we are made to be theonomous, that is, subject to the law of God. This is not a hardship for a believer, because God has created us in such a way that we are grateful, and grateful obedience brings us the greatest joy. Duty and delight coincide. King David wrote in the Psalms, Psalm 119, the longest Psalm, which is all about singing the praise of the law of God, rejoicing and delighting in the law of God. Psalm 119, verse 35, let me walk in the paths of your commandments because I delight in them. Psalm 119 and verse 97, oh how I love you Lord, it is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119 verse 113, I love your law Psalm 119 verse 1 I love your commands more than gold yes more than fine gold I mean there are these adverts which say that the woman's best friend is a diamond and all these things advertising rings well the scripture says the commands of God are more precious than gold more precious than anything and sweeter than honey The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7 verse 12, Therefore the law is holy, and the command holy, and just, and good. Which is not what you hear a lot of people saying today. You hear a lot of ministers hostile to the law of God, as though the law is evil. But the gospel in Romans says the law is holy, and the command is holy, and just, and good. It cannot be otherwise. It reflects the character of God. Romans 7 verse 25, delight in the law of God according to the inward man. Do you delight in the law of God? Do you walk in the paths of God's commandments? Do God's commands guide you as to what to do? Do you love God's law? The apostle John wrote in 1 John 5 verse 2, by this we know that we are the children of God. When we love God and keep His commandments, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commands, and His commands are not burdensome. And whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. So the question is, do you love God? Do you strive to keep His commands? Have you experienced victory over the world? The fallen human hate hates God's law. First of all, because it is law. and rebellious man hates law and because it comes from God and the unregenerate man actually hates God. However those who know God and love Christ love his law and want to keep it not in order to be saved but out of gratitude and in order to please God. Gratitude for God's grace and mercy and in order to please our Heavenly Father. God's children also find that the Holy Spirit leads them into degrees of obedience to God's law that they would never have been able to attain before. I mean at first it looks unattainable, but it's like running. At first you can't run around the block without stopping and getting out of breath, but just by practice and perseverance you can soon find you can run fairly long distances and if one keeps at it for years you can run marathons. Same with the mountains. First time climbing a mountain is very, very hard, even a hill. But practice and perseverance, you find your stamina increases. You find that you've got a greater capacity. We can stretch our minds and we can stretch our muscles and we can stretch our faith and strengthen our faith and deepen it by perseverance, by practice, by not giving up. John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress shows us literary vision of the relationship between the law and grace. In a spiritual masterpiece, the main character, Christian, is brought to a large, beautiful parlor by an interpreter. And the room has not been dusted or swept in many years. It's thick with dust and cobwebs. An interpreter calls a man with a broom and asks him, please sweep the room. As the man sweeps, the room is filled with dust, causing Christian to choke, to cough, and to gasp for breath. Then the interpreter calls in a lady and bids her sprinkle the room with water. After dust settles, the room is easily cleaned. What means this, Crystal asks Interpreter. Interpreter replies, the room is the heart of man that has never been sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel of Christ. The dust is his original sin, and the inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. He that begins to sweep at first is the law, and that just leads one to choke, but she that brought in the water and did sprinkle it is the gospel. What John Bunyan is here explaining is that the law stirs up our sin until our spirits can hardly breathe. We choke. We choke with the sin that is swept up into our faces by the law until we're convicted and realize the utter depravity of our situation. But there's no salvation in that dust on the broom. Those who are outside of Christ do not want to hear the law of God because they know they're guilty. The wicked love the darkness, they hate the light. But those in Christ often when hearing the law of God it makes fearful if we forget the grace of God. In Pilgrim's Progress we read that after Krishna had struggled for a long time with exhausting great burden of guilt and sin strapped to his back he made his way up the hill of Calvary and as he climbed the top of the hill he saw the cross and upon that cross he saw the Son of God hanging there and as he lifted his eyes to look at the cross the burden of his guilt fell off his shoulders and it rolled down the hill and it disappeared into dark sepulchre, never to be seen again. And then three shining angels appeared to Christian, greeting him, Peace be unto thee. And the first one declared to him, Thy sins are forgiven thee. And the second angel removed from the filthy, foul rags of his unrighteousness and clothed him with a white robe of Christ's perfect obedience. that he might stand faultlessly before holy God and worship him and then the third angel gave him a sealed scroll with a guarantee of eternal salvation in the paradise of God in the celestial city in his sermon on Galatians chapter 3 verse 24 entitled the stern pedagogue or the strict teacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon declared the law which is so sharp and terrible to men when it only deals with them for their good Will, if you and I die without being brought to Christ, be much more terrible to us in eternity when it deals with us in justice for our punishment? You that have despised Him as the Saviour will have to appear before Him as your judge. Oil is soft, but set it on fire and see how terribly it burns. Love is sweet, but curdle it to jealousy and see how sour it is. If you turn the lamb of Zion into the lion of the tribe of Judah, beware, he will tear you to pieces and there will be none who can deliver. The pierced hand was outstretched with invitations of mercy, but if these are rejected, oh sirs, I'm telling you solemn truth and hear it, I pray you, before I send you away, if from that hand that was pierced you will not take the perfect salvation that he has prepared to give to all who confess their guilt you will have to receive it from the selfsame hand that blows of the iron rod with which he will break you in pieces like a potter's vessel that's all a quote from Charles Burton as he expounded on this text Galatians 3 and verse 24 the stern pedagogue or the stern strict teacher We must be absolutely sure of this. Nobody can reach heaven by keeping the Ten Commands. You are a guilty lawbreaker and you need God's forgiveness, pardon and mercy. Any serious examination of the Ten Commands will convince any honest person to cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness. Any one of the Ten Commands that we have expounded should be sufficient for us to respond in the words of that tax collector in the temple, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. There can be no grace where there is no guilt. There can be no mercy where there is no sin. If you are not a sinner then God cannot have mercy on you. Where misery is not felt, mercy will not be experienced. and it certainly will not be appreciated. No one will plead for mercy until he first admits his guilt. You cannot seek after salvation until you recognize that you are a lost, hell-deserving sinner. The commands do not make us clean, they show us why we need cleansing and they prompt us to seek our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alone for our redemption. Nobody can be saved until they recognize that they are lost. You don't appreciate the good news until you understand the bad news. The justice and holiness of God. The depravity of man. The day of judgment. It's a point that a man wants to die on after that judgment. So, the commands do not make us clean, but they do show us that we need cleansing and they prompt us to seek our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ alone for redemption. As we consider the duties required by the Ten Commands, we recognize we have not perfectly performed any of these duties. When we consider sins forbidden in Ten Commandments, we must admit that we are guilty. We are guilty lawbreakers and we have no hope of being saved perfectly by obeying the Ten Commandments. To those who recognize their plight, the Word of God comes. Isaiah 55 verse 1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in it. Your soul will delight in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. On the first Christmas evening Angels from heaven declared to the shepherds outside Bethlehem, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all people. The gospel is good news for those who recognize that they've broken the laws of the living God. God sheds his grace upon those who acknowledge that they're lawbreakers and criminals who stand before the throne of a holy God. God welcomes us who once hated and rebelled against him. he forgives our sins and he adopts us into his family as sons and daughters of the king of kings and then he commissions us as his servants and as his soldiers to serve his kingdom and fight the good fight of faith if you will but bow before him and confess crimes of rebellion then the gifts of eternal life can be ours no good works of man have ever been enough to cover the wickedness and rebellion of human depravity. Only the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ has ever been enough to pay for our atonement. It is absolutely imperative that we get the order of things right. It is after we have trusted Christ alone for salvation that we are redeemed and adopted into the family of God. It is then and only then that we are able to obey the commandments, not in order to be saved but because we are saved. In other religions good works are done in order to. Man endeavours to reach utter and find God, or Nirvana, or whatever it is that they seek in different religions. However, only in Christianity are good works a therefore, which come afterwards. Religion is man reaching up to God, trying to at any rate, or pretending to. Christianity is God reaching down to man, in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. Before the first commandment was given in Exodus 20, God declared, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me." And so salvation, or exodus, preceded the law. And it's only once we've experienced God's gracious redemption that we are able in any meaningful way to obey the law. Once we've yielded and surrendered our lives wholeheartedly to Christ, experiencing His cleansing and transforming power, then we're able to see the law of God search our hearts, inspire our souls, direct our strength and rule in our minds. on the highway of holiness. Just think how the children of Israel first needed to have the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death would pass over, that they would be spared from the final tenth plague which killed the firstborn of all of Egypt. After that they were led out of Egypt and they were led through the Red Sea. Now that's the order, and then they received the Ten Commands in the wilderness. And so it is. So this is the way we need to understand it. With the Holy Spirit within us and guiding us, God's moral law becomes our standard, our guide, and our protection. As we seek to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, trusting in His power alone, we find the truth of what Jesus taught us. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. In the ten short precepts of the Ten Commandments we find all moral virtues. We find the full compass of our accountability to our Creator and our responsibility towards His creation. The essence of all of God's just decrees and statutes is distilled and summarized in the Ten Commandments. God requires total obedience of all persons to all implications of His law. The Westminster Lodger Catechism, question 99, teaches, the law binds the whole man unto obedience forever. It is spiritual, and so it reaches our understanding, our will, our affections, and all other powers of the soul, as well as our words, our works, and our gestures. Where a duty is commanded, the contrary sin is forbidden, and where a sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded. So, do not bow down to idols, is the negative. Worship God alone is the positive. And don't just worship God alone. Worship God in spirit and in truth. Not through buying to an idol meant to represent him. Do not commit murder means we must protect innocent life. Do not steal is the negative. Work hard and be generous is the positive duty required. And be generous. That's the opposite of stealing. do not bear false witness means we must stand for the truth and fight for the truth and proclaim the truth do not covet well that's the negative the positive is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness so studying the ten commands it's also necessary for us to consider the issue of legalism legalism is a distortion of obedience and it twists motives it twists purposes seeing good deeds as a way to earn God's favour, which is actually quite arrogant to think that our humble, inadequate efforts could ever earn God's favour, be good enough. You know, it's like somebody gives you the most precious, wonderful gift. Imagine that you were given the most precious jewel in the universe, something bigger than a Cullinan diamond. and you give two cents back. I mean, is that not an insult, the person who's just given you this great gift? We need to accept it and be grateful, not try to insult the giver with our very inadequate efforts. Gratitude is what is needed. Legalism produces arrogance, contemptuous, adherents who conceal their self-seeking and their pride and they squeeze out all true humility and kindness and compassion and that is why the Lord Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and their legalism so wholeheartedly in Matthew 23 for example. The legalists amongst the Pharisees thought that because they were descendants of Abraham they were guaranteed approval by God We are not saved by race, we are saved by grace. They formalized daily observance of the law, down to the minutest details, yet they avoided the very heart of the law. Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, whose outward show hid in the corruption. They were brooder vipers, whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones and corruption. The Pharisees whom Jesus condemned presented themselves as faithful keepers of the Law of Moses, yet in emphasizing minor details, they were neglecting what really mattered most, humility, justice, mercy. Their elaborate and misguided interpretation of law denied its true spirit and its true nature. They substituted human tradition for God's authoritative law and they bind consciences where God has left those consciences free. They were hypocritical. They were condemning others and acting for human approval. good works to be seen with a trumpet blaring and on the street corners and where they could be seen. And Jesus said, if you really want to serve God, if you really want to be generous to the poor, do it quietly. Nobody can see it. Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing. Very much the opposite end of the way the Pharisees were operating. Legalism attempts to place man's traditions as high as God's law, maybe even above God's law. The Judaizers whom Paul opposed were legalists who taught that you could only be saved through keeping the law of Moses and they taught Christian believers that you must first become a Jew before you can become a Christian and they claim that circumcision and Saturday Sabbath observance are absolutely essential to salvation. The Judaizers denied the sufficiency of Christ And they taught adherence to Jewish ceremonial law, which were only shadows that pointed to the reality, which was Christ. We don't need a tabernacle or temple today. We have a greater tabernacle and temple in Jesus. We don't need a high priest. We have a greater high priest in Jesus. We don't need their offerings. blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. Jesus is the Lamb of God. His blood washes clean from all sin. We have a greater High Priest. We have a greater salvation. We have a greater offering. We have a greater temple. We don't need their laws. We have the law of Christ. And so on all these different areas we could say these ceremonies like Saturday, the Sabbath rest is just a shadow. The reality is Christ we read in Colossians. And so the Apostle Paul wrote against the heresies of the Judaizers in Galatians and Colossians, warning that the legalism was corrupting the way of salvation and bringing unbearable burdens upon God's people. The law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, to lead us to Christ, that we can be justified by faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, And learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. And you will find rest for yourselves, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light. He gives more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sends more strength when the labours increase. To added afflictions He adds His mercy. To multiplied trials is multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed before the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's forgiving has only begun. His love has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power, no boundary known unto men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He gives and gives and gives again. John Newton, the one-time slave trader, turned pastor and author of the hymn Amazing Grace and I Ask the Lord, which we just sung, he wrote I am not what I might be. I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. But, I thank God, I am not what I once was. And I can say with the Great Apostle, by the grace of God, I am who I am. Oh, to grace our great debtor, daily I am constrained to be. And let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, O take and seal it, seal it from thy courts above. You can see with some of these hymns why it's often said, to sing once is to pray twice. Many of these great hymns are greater than any of the prayers that could ever come from a heart and often in the singing of a great hymn of the faith that is saturated with scriptural truths it is like praying twice. Grace turns counters into gold, pebbles into pearls, sickness into health, weakness into strength and want into abundance. The law says do The gospel of Christ says, done. The law says, go. And the gospel says, come. Though your sins are scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. We read in Isaiah 118. Jeremiah 31 verse 3, we read, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? You've heard the law of God. You've heard the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you confessed your sins and admitted to your rebellion against Almighty God? Repent and be converted. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him. And so have God, for He will freely pardon. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. Let us pray. As we bow and pray, let us just be silent for a moment and reflect upon these ten commandments and these messages and the law of God and the gospel of Christ and ask what is God saying to me this day? Are there sins I need to confess? Are there commands I need to obey? Are there commitments I need to make? Is there a prayer I need to pray? Lord God, we thank you for your perfect law of liberty. We thank you, Lord, for the tremendous, strong, solid foundations that we see for society, for our families, for our homes and our communities. We thank you, Lord God, that you know us better than we know ourselves. We thank you, Lord God, for your mercy and for your grace, that you have loved us even when we have been rebellious to you, We thank you, Lord God, for your matchless love, for your grace, for your undeserved favor. We thank you, Lord God, for the wonderful privilege we have of being your children, being your sons and daughters, being your servants and your soldiers. Thank you, Lord God, for rescuing us from the kingdom of Satan. Thank you, Lord God, for delivering us from bondage, darkness, and death. Thank you, Lord God, for adopting us into your family, and making us part of your heavenly kingdom, your earthly army, your church worldwide. We thank you Lord God for the church triumphant in heaven and that we can be part of the church militant on earth. Deep in our faith we pray, wide in our vision, we pray this in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen.