Father, now as we stand before You, we ask that by the power of Your Spirit we would be allowed to sit at the feet of Jesus our Lord and to receive from Him. And we come now ready to eat His food for our souls, to be renewed in the mind and transformed in the heart so that we will become humble servants like Him and bring glory to Your name. For we ask this in His name, the name of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen. Please be seated. Turn with me, if you would, to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I've been preaching through this wonderful and powerful epistle of the Apostle Paul in our morning services at Christ URC. And most of us are probably very familiar with what this book is about. Paul was writing it as somewhat of an apologetic. There's a very polemical spirit to this book in that he is trying to correct some very grievous errors that the so-called Judaizers, these people who were distorting the gospel, were bringing to several churches in the region of Galatia. Churches that Paul had helped plant and churches that he was very familiar with. and he has heard report now that these churches are being influenced by this false teaching, this confusion of law and gospel together, and a denial of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And so he writes this letter, of course, with, as I said, a very polemical tone, really, in trying to correct this terrible problem that was essentially a denial of Christianity altogether. I will draw your attention today to verses 21 through 25, but to give us a little bit of context, I'll begin reading at verse 19 of chapter 3. Chapter 3, beginning at verse 19. Let us hear now God's Word. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law and imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So far the reading of God's Holy Word. Something that Paul does often in his letters, he does it frequently in this letter, but in many of his letters, is to anticipate objections from his hearers, and really to anticipate logical fallacies that he expects them to bring up. He anticipates his hearers making straw man arguments, or slippery slope arguments, or false dichotomies. Most of us are familiar with these. We're familiar, I'm sure, with the false dichotomy. You know that logical fallacy. Every parent here of teenagers has probably encountered a false dichotomy at some point when they say something like, If I don't go to this party or if I don't go to this concert, then I will never be happy. That's a false dichotomy. Other things we hear sometimes are things like, Either I keep smoking or I'll get fat. I don't want to get fat, so I'll keep smoking. That's a false dichotomy. And we hear them tossed around in theology as well. Either you believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six literal 24-hour solar days, or you don't believe in the authority of Scripture. False dichotomy. And this is exactly the kind of thing that Paul anticipates when he asks the rhetorical question in verse 21. He's made this clear distinction throughout chapter 3 between the law and the Gospel. And now he anticipates some of his readers or hearers in the churches of Galatia to object to it. You can already hear their objections to everything he has said. What are you saying, Paul? Are you saying that God's law and God's promises are opposed to each other? Are you saying that God's covenant with Abraham and his covenant at Sinai contradict each other? Paul, either the law gives us life or it's opposed to the promises of God. And so Paul anticipates this kind of thinking. This is what he does in his letters. And so he asks one of these rhetorical questions where he already knows the answer. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? And then comes one of his classic answers, certainly not. Certainly not. And he shows that the law and the Gospel are not in contradiction to each other or in competition with each other as two different ways to be saved, but rather that they are two very different things that are complementary of one another. Both are necessary. And both do very different things. And yet, we must not confuse one with the other. And the truth is, as Christians, even living in the 21st century here in the West, this is one of the most important distinctions we will ever make in our understanding of God and what He has done to save us. This distinction is as important as the distinction of Creator and creature, or even good and evil. If we get this distinction wrong, we will go wrong everywhere in our understanding of Christianity and it will have a dire effect on us personally in the Christian life. It will turn us either into Pharisees or drive us into despair. And the fact that Paul spends so much time explaining this and hammering this distinction throughout this letter, it shows us how important it is to God that we understand it. So let's grow today in our understanding of God. And what Christ has done for us. Let's listen to what Paul says about the law and its function. Now in verses 21-25, to which I want to draw your attention now, he makes three points about what the law can and cannot do. Three things about what the law can and cannot do. He says, first of all, the law reveals sin. It reveals sin. Secondly, the law cannot make a sinner righteous. It cannot make a sinner righteous. And finally, the law drives a sinner to Christ. Let's listen to what he says. First of all, the law reveals sin. It reveals sin. In verse 19, he asks this rhetorical question, why then the law? And he answers, well, it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come. In other words, if justification does not come through the law, but all comes through promise, why did God give the law? If it comes through God's covenant of grace with Abraham, as He has said previously in the chapter, it's all by promise, and it's not through His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, which He made 430 years later, 430 years after that covenant He made with Abraham, Well, then why did he bother giving the law at all? What was the point? Paul says, well, it was added. It was added because of transgressions until the offspring whom he identifies as Christ should come. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means that God gave the law at Sinai in order to better reveal our sin and show us our need for Jesus Christ. Now, that isn't the only reason he gave his law at Mount Sinai, but it is the main reason. The law reveals our sin. It reveals the pollution in our hearts. It exposes our sinfulness and shows us our guilt. Now, do you remember that scene in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings? Or for those enlightened ones among us, those who've read the books, Do you remember when the fellowship entered the mines of Moria? Those dark mines. And amongst that fellowship, amongst those people who were involved with this journey, as they were going through the mines, there was this dwarf, Gimli. And he was confident that inside those mines, he would find good things. Delightful things. The fabled hospitality of the dwarves, he said. Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. That's what you're going to find in these mines. He was confident that inside Moria, they would see life, happiness, and everything good from the dwarves who lived there. But what they couldn't see as they began to go into the mines was that the place was really a crypt. It was a tomb. It was filled with skeletons and the rotting corpses of dwarves. It wasn't until Gandalf, that wizard, he took his big staff and he illumined his staff with that rock and could begin to see what was inside the mines that it revealed what was really there. It was a tomb. It wasn't a place of life. It was a place of death. It wasn't a place of happiness and joy. It was a place of weeping and sorrow. It was a place filled with filth, really, because it had become overrun by the orcs. Well, that's how it is with the law and how it exposes the sin in our own hearts. Like the bright light of Gandalf's staff that showed what was really in the minds of Moria. Well, the law shines like a bright light and exposes what is inside our heart. And like Gimli, who was confident that Moria was really a good place, full of life, well, we too are self-confident and self-righteous. That in our hearts, well, we're pretty good people after all. And what we'll find there is pretty good things. That's how we think. Just think of all the little platitudes we hear in our culture all the time. Those little sayings that maybe some of you mothers will even open up today around your dove chocolates on the inside. What does it say? Just follow your heart. Follow your heart? But what's inside our heart? See, we assume that what's inside our heart is good. We're like Gimli, the dwarf. Inside those minds, you're going to find good things. But in fact, God tells us it's another story. As Paul said in Romans 7, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. You see, God gave His law to Israel at Sinai not only to tell them how He wanted them to live and not only to restrain sin, but also to expose sin. It was added to the Abrahamic covenant. Added to that Gospel covenant of grace. Not to decrease transgressions, but to expose transgressions. To be a light to show what is really there. That's why he says in verse 22 that the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin. And in verse 23, that we were held captive under the law and imprisoned. You see, the law shows us what we really are in our fallen nature. It reveals the fact that we are guilty before God. Trapped, imprisoned, held captive to sin. It tells us the truth. And that's really because, as Paul says in Romans 7, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. He doesn't mean there that in the absence of the Tenth Commandment, people don't covet. No, people covet whether or not they know the Tenth Commandment, of course. Rather, Paul is saying that the Tenth Commandment makes us aware that our covetousness is sin against God. What we already know sort of vaguely to be true intuitively and subjectively becomes objectively clear in the light of God's law. And that's because the substance of the law, that is the commandments to love God and to love neighbor, they're written, they're stamped on the conscience of every human being. That's why we were made to love God and to love neighbor. Remember that when you're explaining the gospel to your neighbor. As Spurgeon said, we have an ally in the conscience of every man. The law. He suppresses it, but he still intuitively knows it's true. As C.S. Lewis said in his classic Mere Christianity, if you want to see how much people know it's true, just take someone's seat from them. What are they going to say? Hey, I was sitting there. Well, how does he know that? How does he know that it's wrong to take someone's seat? Because the law is pressed on his conscience. Because we're creatures made in the image of God. We know the substance of the law by nature. But the preaching of God's law, clearly what it does is it moves people from the subjective, you know, I kind of feel like this is wrong, to the objective. God says it's wrong. And the one who hears the law proclaimed no longer simply feels guilty. They know they have sinned against God. And they have a choice now. Either suppress that truth more by lying to yourself and saying, I'm a pretty good guy. Or simply crying out to God for mercy. The law shows us what we are. It brings us back to reality. It's like an x-ray that reveals a broken bone or a colonoscopy that reveals a cancerous tumor. It shows us what is there. Boys and girls, think of this as it applies to your moms. Today is Mother's Day after all. Imagine your room is really messy. I'm sure your room never really is messy, but just imagine it was messy. And your mom goes in there and she sees this messy room and she says, you need to clean up this room. And you look at that pile of toys and clothes and everything you need to clean, and it's going to take so long. And so what do you do? You open up your closet door and you just push everything inside the closet and you close the closet. There, done. Your mom comes back in. Wow, you did such a great job. She opens up the closet and the mess is still there, right? Putting it into the closet actually didn't fix the mess. The mess is still present. That's how it is with God's law. God's law is like your mom opening up the closet and seeing all the mess still there, still present. God's law exposes what is really there. But it cannot make the mess clean. It cannot make a person righteous. It cannot give life. And that's the second thing that Paul says. The law cannot make a sinner righteous. The law reveals sin, but it cannot make a sinner righteous. Listen again to what he says in the latter part of verse 21. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. So the law exposes sin and shows us what is there, but it's powerless to change the sinful heart. The law might restrain sin to a certain extent, but it cannot change the heart. It cannot make the sinful heart righteous. the sinful heart will continue to do what it does even under the law. Sin. This was vividly illustrated to me once when my son came home from the San Diego Zoo. We live fairly close to the zoo and so he's often going there and his favorite thing to see is the tiger exhibit. So he bolts always first to the tiger exhibit and sees these massive cats enclosed inside this beautiful, well, it's not really a cage, it's this exhibit. And it's very lush and it looks like a jungle. And, of course, you're protected from the tigers by these massive walls. And there are these huge windows through which you can see the tiger. Well, on one occasion, he and many people were sitting there watching these impressive animals, muscular cats, one laying fairly close to the window. And as they're sitting there looking at the muscles and his fur and the colors and they're admiring what God has made with this massive tiger, suddenly a duck flew overhead and it landed in what it thought was a very lush, nice part of San Diego, and it sort of, you know, fluttered its wings and waddled over to, well, wow, there's a stream here, look at this, and these trees, and this is wonderful, how did I miss this place? And so it goes over to the stream, and it begins to drink, and well, the duck didn't see the cat, but the cat saw the duck, and everybody through the window could see what was happening, and that tiger, even though it's been in the zoo, acted like a tiger. It did what tigers do. The ears went up. It went into its stance. It saw that duck with what seemed like a laser beam of vision. And it slowly began to move and then it just darted and grabbed the duck in its jaws and feathers flying everywhere and shrieks of horror from all the people watching and cheers from the little boys. Well, what happened? What happened in that situation? Well, the tiger got a good lunch. It got duck. But the point being is that the tiger is still a tiger. And that's how it is with the law. The law is like those walls. It can restrain to a certain extent, but it has no power. Those walls have no power to change the tiger. The tiger did not look at that duck and say, well, there's a duck. I know normally in my former life I would have eaten that duck, but now I'm civilized. I've been made righteous being here in the zoo and these walls have tamed me. No, it continues to act like a tiger. And that's the same with the law, loved ones. The law needs to be preached and we need to hear it, but make no mistake about it, the law cannot change the heart of a sinner. It cannot make a person righteous. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law, Paul says. But righteousness does not come by the law. And we should not expect unbelievers to act like regenerate people simply from hearing the law. The law can only reveal their sin and to some degree restrain it. But apart from the Gospel, which alone gives life and alone makes the heart righteous, well, the law can only entice sin and stimulate it more. And this is why Paul says in Romans 5, verse 20, Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. And you see, this is one of the reasons why it's so important for us to distinguish between law and gospel. If we don't, we end up with a blend of the two and you end up with legalism and moralism and a message that cannot change the human heart. And ultimately, it's a message that's destructive and doesn't offer sinners hope. The legalists and the moralists say, oh, if we could only get people to obey God's law, if we could only get our nation to be more obedient and to obey God's law, but then the method they propose to reach that goal is to give more law as if the law had the power to make people righteous. And the legalist and the moralist offer the sinner no relief from his guilt. No power to be changed. The moralist hears that sin is simply external. It can be dealt with in a greater resolve to try a little harder and be happy. And that's why legalism and moralism, you see, they're so destructive to Christianity. And the truth is, loved ones, even the most Reformed of us, We're all recovering Pharisees. We still have a tendency to go back to this. This is why we need to hear this. But ultimately, it's a message that gives a false hope in the law. People who are still imprisoned under sin, held captive under God's just condemnation. The law cannot make a person or a community or even a nation righteous. Just look at Israel. Israel had the law. Israel had the law not by a continental congress, but by God Himself descending upon Mount Sinai. And were they a righteous nation? We know the story. Read the book of Judges. Listen to the books of 1 and 2 Kings. Listen to the prophets. Israel had the law. And yet they were a nation that became a nation of idolaters, murderers, fornicators, thieves, liars. they had all the law that a nation could ever have and yet they defiled the Holy Land and brought curses upon themselves why? because of what Paul says in verse 21 the law cannot give life or make a person righteous and this is really Paul's point in saying that the law is not contrary to the promises if the law could impart righteousness and life then it would be in competition with the Gospel. You'd have two ways of salvation. But it can't. So it isn't in competition with the Gospel. It's not contrary to the Gospel because it does something entirely different from the Gospel. And that brings us to the third thing that Paul says. The law drives the sinner to Christ. The law reveals sin. The law cannot make a sinner righteous. The law drives the sinner to Christ. Listen again to what the Holy Spirit says by Paul in verses 22-25. That the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. You see, Paul calls the law a guardian. What does he mean by that, a guardian? The Greek word that he uses here is the word for pedagogue, a tutor or guide. And in the first century Greco-Roman world, it was common for wealthy families to hire a pedagogue. Usually it was a well-trained slave. And this person really served as the child's babysitter and to some degree instructor and protector from about age six until late adolescence, the pedagogue, the guardian. And throughout that time, the child was under constant supervision, constant guidance, constant discipline of the pedagogue, constantly being babysat, and understandably so. Ancient drawings often depict the pedagogue as holding a rod of discipline to administer punishment when the child got out of Lyme. And what Paul is saying is that in God's whole plan of redemption, Well, the Mosaic Law, the Sinai Covenant, was this pedagogue that raised Israel from childhood to adolescence. It was for guidance. It was for instruction. It was for discipline. It told God's people what to do and then punished them if they failed to do it. It showed them their utter inability to keep it. It caused them to look for one who could keep it. One who would deliver them from the demands of this babysitter. One who would enable them to do these things with a heart of gratitude. And that person, of course, is Christ. The law, the Mosaic law was put in place until Christ, the offspring, the offspring of Abraham came. It was a guardian, a pedagogue that was necessary for a period of time. And the same is true of us even now as we hear the law. It continues to show us our guilt and drive us to Christ. Our only hope for salvation, it's not in ourselves, not in keeping the law, not in doing a little better this year, trying a little harder, but by faith alone and Christ alone. Our only hope for the transformation of our hearts. If you want to be a better Christian, if you want more fruit in your life, then the answer is Christ. You look to Jesus. And by the power of the Spirit, He will produce these things in you. And He'll give you a heart even that makes you willing and ready to obey the Lord's law and commands in gratitude. Our only hope for the change of our hearts, For the renewal of our minds is the Gospel which proclaims Christ. Christ. For only the Gospel, not the law, can give life and make us righteous. And the law continues to do this in all of us, loved ones. It continues to drive us to Jesus who is our only source of life and righteousness. Listen to the way that Heidelberg Catechism questions 114 and 115 put it. It puts it so well. It asks, Can those who are converted to God keep these commandments perfectly? Remember, this question comes at the end of the Ten Commandments. Answer, no. But even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of disobedience, yet so that with earnest purpose they begin to live not only according to some, but according to all the commandments of God. Then it asks, why then does God so strictly enjoin upon us the Ten Commandments, since in this life no one can keep them? Answer, first, that all our life long we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature and so the more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ. And secondly, that we may continually strive and beg from God the grace of the Holy Spirit so as to become more and more changed into the image of God till we attain finally to full perfection after this life. So what the Catechism is saying and of course what God's Word ultimately proclaims is that even now as we hear the law as Christians, even now we're reminded again and again of God's will for our lives and we're being driven to Jesus Christ as the only source of transformation. The only source for life and righteousness. The law has its function to reveal God's righteousness that exposes our sins and shows us how we are to live, but it doesn't give us the power to do it. That power comes from the Gospel. Remember what Paul says at the beginning of Romans. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. You know, sometimes we hear that and we think, well, he's talking about conversion there. He's talking about a non-believer becoming a believer. Well, that's true, but he's talking about all of salvation. And salvation includes not only your conversion and your justification, but Christian, also your lifelong process of sanctification. And what is the power for your sanctification? The Gospel. That's why we need this food delivered to us each week. That's why Christ descends by the power of the Spirit and feeds your soul and gives you rich food, fine wine for the soul, what you need so that you will be transformed. so that you will be renewed in the mind because our salvation is still being worked out in us by the Spirit who continues to sanctify us and conform us to the image of Christ. And the means to that end is the Gospel. The law shows us our poverty. The Gospel brings us good news of riches in Jesus Christ. The law shows us that we are terminally sick. The Gospel brings us good news about the cure. The law reveals that we are starving and dying of thirst. The Gospel brings us the good news about Christ who is the bread of life and offers us living water. The law shows us that we are in prison because of our sin. And the Gospel tells us about the One who came to set the prisoners free. The law kills, but the Gospel makes alive in Christ. So what response does all of this create in us today as believers? What does understanding these distinctions, these distinct yet complementary roles of God's law and His Gospel, what does this do to us? Well, two things in particular as we close. First, it gives us a blessed assurance. A blessed assurance of our salvation in Jesus Christ. It shows us that our salvation is secure not because of our performance, but because of Christ's performance. Not because of our personal experience of transformation, but because of Christ's experience of obeying the law perfectly. And it tells us, as Paul tells us in Romans 8, that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh and for sin, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. It gives us a blessed assurance and causes our hearts to soar and find comfort in Jesus Christ. It's good news. It's water for the soul. But secondly, it causes us, as I've mentioned before, to take delight in living according to the commandments of God. Hearing of what God has done for us in Christ it calls from us a response of joy of taking delight and living according to His will and doing so in all good works according to His commands knowing these distinct yet complementary roles of God's law and His gospel shows us that in Christ we are free free not to go on sinning in that sin that the law condemns but free to obey God's commandments for we have been made new. Free to obey them in joy and gratitude which only the Gospel can do to us. It's only because of the Gospel that the law now by the power of the Spirit gives us, as the Reformed scholastic Francis Turreton put it, sweet direction. Sweet direction. Now as we hear those commands, it sweetly directs us, sweetly guides us into paths of righteousness by the power of the Gospel. The Gospel says, Christ kept the law for you and gave you life. And now for those who are in Christ, the law sweetly says, do these things now because you live. Do them because you live. And because of the Gospel, His commandments, they're not burdensome. They're not burdensome because the burden's been lifted. The debt has been canceled. You owe nothing. His commandments now are not burdensome, but a delight. O Christian, hear the good news that God announces to you today. The promise of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. They have been given to you because of Jesus Christ. Rest in Him. Amen. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And we thank You, O Lord, for the good news of Jesus Christ. Thank You for the work of Your law that exposes our sin, O Lord. Lord, we do not take refuge in it, but rather in what Jesus Christ has accomplished. And we thank You that because of Him and by the power of Your Spirit that You are now leading us in paths of righteousness to obey Your law out of joy and gratitude. Lord, may we do so, we pray, this week in our personal lives, in our homes, in our workplaces and our vocations, in conversation with our neighbors, with strangers, with loved ones. Lord, with uplifted head, may we seek from You the power that You give us because of Jesus Christ and in the Gospel to obey Your commands willingly and in happiness and in thankfulness. Lord, we pray that You would remind us today that we are free in Jesus Christ and of the good news that You have announced to us. Help us, we pray, Lord, to maintain these distinctions that You Yourself make in Your Word and to do so rightly. We know that the devil would cause us to confuse them, that our own sin has a tendency to muddle them up. Lord, may we see what Your law and Your Gospel do. They are not contrary to one another, but complementary. May they both be used in our lives so that more and more we would worship You in spirit and in truth and obey You and in joy and gratitude. Hear our prayer today, Lord. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.