The Purpose and Power of God's Law

before we dig in if you don't mind let's just um go to the Lord in prayer uh again father Lord thank you um for this special Sunday and for the time that we were able to have today with our Filipino brothers and sisters over there in Wahu Lord thank you how um you were bringing all peoples from all around the world to you Lord and it's just so evident here in Hawaii uh Lord Would You Now guide me um as I speak and would you have your word proclaimed in your holy and precious name we pray amen amen so we are in 1 Timothy we're going to pick up from where Pastor Peter left off last week in verse 8 so it's 1 Timothy chapter 1 and I'm going to read verses 8- 11 it says but we know that the law

is good if a man uses it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the Lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for Sinners for Unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mother others for manslayers for wh whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for menstealers for liars for perjurers and if there be anything other that is contrary to the doctrine according to the Glorious gospel the Blessed God which was committed to my trust now last week Peter kind of launched us off into the core aspect of the book of First Timothy we've been going through a couple weeks of introduction and uh Pastor Peter noted that Tim that Paul

had commanded Timothy to or told Timothy to command some to stop teaching other doctrines and Peter taught us that Doctrine is just a a set of beliefs as defined by God's word and Peter also noted that there are some that should say why should we know Doctrine uh we know that Jesus Christ died and rose again and we found salvation in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone and if we have that do we need anything else and while that aspect of Christ is the core Doctrine everything is built on that and the reality is that whether we think about it or not is that we all live our lives uh daily According to some kind of Doctrine to some kind of set of truths we all hold beliefs that govern how we

view life how we view work how we review relationships and how we view worship and these views we hold we have these originally um from how we grew up and how we've been affected by society and and we assume they are correct until they have been evaluated by God's word by biblical Doctrine and often times and I found this in my life often is that as it gets evaluated by biblical Doctrine we find out how worldly we actually are and how much we are missing the Mark we have been misled by false Doctrine and if we were to ignore Doctrine and we pick up false ideas um it's it's a horrible position for us to leave ourselves in because the reality is is we will then go on to promote other or or

promote the uh taking on of false doctrines that we hold on to and we will do that being fully convinced that we are correct we will go about damaging others as well as damaging ourselves and so Peter's point last week about the idea that doctrines matters is very much true Doctrine is not just for the church but it's it's for all believers because it covers all manners of Life Second Peter uh chapter 1 ver3 I'll just read this to you uh speaking of this matter it says according uh as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness God has given us in his word all things that we need to be able to evaluate life and godliness so that we know how to live now

I remember when I was a a younger Christian a pastor came up to me and he was trying to get me to understand this idea and he told me this and it's always stuck with me is that if you have a solid Biblical Doctrine and you work on building that up what happens is you wind up developing a grid that you wind up filtering life through and you can filter it through that biblical grid and understand how you are to respond and how how you are to review life according to God's truth and so we want to know these things we want to grow in these things so that we understand how to live and so that we live rightly before the Lord and so for that reason we need preachers and we need uh teachers to

Proclaim to us sound biblical doctrines so that we can rightly live however if we have a preacher or a teacher who proclaims false doctrines they're damaging because we look to the preacher and the teacher is one of authority who's speaking to us for for God and who has taken the time to study God's word and if they are not careful with what they are teaching and whether they are they are proclaiming and they teach us something wrong uh that's hugely damaging to the church because we're assuming that because they are the preacher or teacher we need to believe this and so it's damaging and so we understand why why Paul tells Timothy to command these others to stop Peter so rightly pictured it

when he described that as a military term of a command to to quit this action it's damaging it tears down it is is bad to be in the church now Paul doesn't tell us as he's writing to Timothy what these false teachers were teaching but as we look through the rest of the book of First Timothy we can get an idea to what these false teachers were were teaching on in chapter 4:3 he's speaking or Paul's talking of false teachers and he he notes that they teach to forbid it forbid marriage and to abstain from eating certain meats and that idea there or that that note there abstaining from eating certain Meats um helps us to understand what they were doing and what they were doing uh is is using the

law or misusing the law regarding the dietary requirements of the law and preaching it to the people we not know ex exactly what these guys were talking all or what these guys were preaching all the time but we know this from the the context of First Timothy is that they are misusing the law and then that brings us to our passage tonight because now as Paul is called for it to stop he now comes to this passage and he corrects false Doctrine by now showing us how the law is to be used and as we look at our passage we're going to see that the law was not meant for everyone but it's it's meant to be used according to the gospel it's meant to be used according to the gospel so that men and women

are saved and so that they will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior so let's look at this passage 1 Timothy 1 8-1 let me read it again here it says but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the Lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for Sinners for Unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers for hor mongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for men dealers for liars for perjured persons and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound Doctrine according to the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God which is committed to my trust Paul now as

he starts to address this issue the first thing he tells them is is that the law is good uh Paul if you're familiar with his writings if you're familiar you remember our Roman study you know that he was accused of uh of of um abandoning the law and in no no case does Paul call or want to abandon the law uh Paul here starts off immediately uh making sure that they understand his Viewpoint of the law and he and he calls it good and and in the Greek there's several different words that that get translated into English for good and and the one here that he uses is not the one for or one that's typically used for morally good uh but the one that's used for good of character in fact sometimes that

word gets translated as beautiful uh because of what it's pointing towards and the law is in that sense is what Paul says it's it's yeah it's morally good but but the whole aspect of it the whole character of the law Paul says is good it is from the Lord it is good and he says but we know this indicating that not only does does he hold this viewpoint but the false teachers hold this Viewpoint and so he starts at this common point but then he immediately launches off to address the issue that's going on and the issue that is going on is that the law is not being used as it was intended to be used to use the law therefore in a manner that it was not intended that misuse of the law is an

illegal use of the law and in that sense it's actually being you're guilty of the law for using in that manner and the result is false Doctrine and so Paul goes and starts to correct them and he tells them that that the law itself was not intended or is not to be applied I guess is a better way to say this is not to be applied to everyone first part of verse 9 knowing this that the law is not made for the righteous man now if you're like me maybe the very first time you read that and you think oh righteous man uh oh this is somebody who is able to keep the law but then your brain immediately goes back to Romans and you think oh wait there is nobody that can keep the law so that's not the

correct understanding who is the righteous well Paul doesn't explain it but he doesn't have to this is Timothy he's writing to Timothy who understands Paul's uh position understands what Paul means when he says this and because we've studied Romans we know what Paul means as well too and and what Paul is pointing to here is he's pointing to the righteous are those who have been made righteous those who have been justified in their relationship to the law those who are believers in Jesus Christ you see for the believer who is in Jesus Christ we have received righteousness as a gift Romans 3: 21-22 says this 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 Christians you see Reed the righteousness of God by having faith in Jesus Christ that he died for our sins and in doing that took on the penalty of breaking of the law and then he was raised from the dead uh which is shows the father's acceptance of his um of his um taking on the penalties and shows the father's Acceptance Now the the Jesus Christ now Reigns in heaven and so those who will believe this of Jesus Christ now receive a God's righteousness and we receive it permanently it's not something that we can lose we we remain righteous in

Colossians chapter 2: 13 it says and you uh being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven all your trespasses having been forgiven all your trespasses not just some not just past but all of them past present and future are forgiven at the cross there was one offering uh for sin made at the cross of Jesus's life and in doing that he covered all the sins and so the Christian then remains righteous in regards to the law but that does not mean then that does not Grant the belief Bel than to uh continue in sin even though uh their sins are forgiven the Christian should be driven to seek forgiveness every time they fall back into

sin it's not a freedom to continue in sin and 1 John 1: 7-9 John addresses this and he says but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin but if we say that we have have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness John here tells us that to be in the fellowship we need to walk in the light which is meaning to be free from sin but the reality is we can't stay in that light we get tempted uh in our own fleshly desires and we and we fall back into sin which is why John

says that any believer that says they have no sin is deceiving themselves the reality is we're going to fall back into it but the thing is is when we do fail and we do fall into sin it when it which then damages the fellowship that we have with the body and with Christ it doesn't change our position with Christ but it it requires us to have to seek forgiveness to come back into the fullness of that Fellowship our sin affects the fellowship and then to correct that Fellowship we must confess our sins and the wonderful truth in all of this is that John reminds us that our Lord is faithful to forgive us uh and to cleanse us from unrighteousness uh every time we come back to him seeking

forgiveness for the sins that we've fallen into and and I don't know about you guys I love that idea of God's faithfulness that is like one of the most exciting things about our Lord that I just I just love to hang on to is because we are so Unfaithful in what we are right so often we want to walk in that light and we just get sidetracked and go off something that our desires pull us to and our Lord is always faithful he doesn't do that and he's always there ready to forgive when we come back and so being in the light is where we are to be and being in the light is where we should desire to believe but the believer is also commanded to be in that light the believer is commanded to pursue

righteousness as well too in Romans chapter 6 verse 6 verse sorry Romans chapter 6: 13 it says do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from Death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness and you're members to God as instruments to righteous it's not simply in our minds we cannot say we pursue righteousness if we just sit there and read our Bible and then do nothing look at the passage it says it's through our members that are the instruments for righteousness we physically live out the righteousness and we are to do this with such Vigor that that we can become all this fruit to

the Lord I love the picture that's in Philippians chapter 1:1 there it says that we would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God we are to pursue righteousness uh to the extent that we're like this fruit basket that is coming to the Lord uh for his glory not for ours not to give us a better life but for the glory of our savior and so we pursue righteousness to have those fruits to come and to give those to the Lord for his glory and for his praise and so to summarize in this first point the law is not for believers because we have received the gift of righteousness that legal penalty for sin was paid once and for all by the

death of Jesus Christ on the cross and so the the believer is free from those from the punishment of the law however but the righteousness of the law then is not to be ignored by the believer instead the believer lives in a pursuit of righteousness not in fear of punishment but get this it's it's out of love this is a wonderful aspect of our Salvation we're in in our relationship with the with the laws it's not something that we pursue that we think we're going to get smacked down for if we don't stay in line all the time we pursue it then out of out of love out of a desire in the heart and the and the wonderful thing about this is that desire to want to follow after the Lord the desire to

want to live out righteously uh is and because it's driven by the law um means the law the law itself the specifics of the law we can not ignore but we can still live out even though we don't know all the aspects of the law let me explain myself on that one a little bit more I think when when in this in the context of this passage when Paul and the uh false teachers are speaking of the law they are speaking of the Old Testament law what's in the Old Testament the reality is is most western Christians don't study that part of the Bible right I mean when was the last time you sat down to do a study in Deuteronomy or Leviticus and when was the last time you sat down and really gave the Book of

Numbers a whole lot of thought right that's the core of the law though but yet think about it though as Believers we know how to live out righteousness and the reason why we know how to live it out is because we live it out according to the law Romans 138-10 says this oh no man nothing but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law for this Thou shalt not here's the law Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet if there be any other commandment is briefly then comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore

love is the fulfilling of the law we should know those aspects of the law we should know um Deuteronomy and Leviticus and numbers and we should uh periodically go back and refresh our understanding of those books we should not ignore those but at the same time what I what I find wonderful is the fact that in love we can still live out in righteousness if if we will live in our faith through love we will then fulfill the law know what drives our love our love is then driven by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ this Lord Jesus Christ who has taken away our sins it is the Lord Jesus Christ when belief in him brings us to be a child of God it is from that faith in Jesus Christ that we are then

Made Alive inside and that life inside us does desire to be with our Lord and so we then live or pursue righteousness out of love we desire to be holy then as he is Holy so the law does not apply to the believer now how I describe the reaction the new relationship that the believer does have with the law is that how your um attitude is to the law do you have within you a desire to pursue righteousness are you driven by love to fulfill the law or do you have a fear of punishment if you have a fear of punishment and you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior I'm here to tell you that you are currently following a false Doctrine and to step away from that and to look to your savior who has paid

the uh penalty so that you are no longer legally guilty of the law because of your sin you can Rejoice because the penalty has been paid and you can then live out the law or live out seeking righteousness based in love because of the God who has Loved You Now who does the Allah apply to then let's look at second part of verse 9 through verse 10 this is who the law applies to for the Lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for Sinners for Unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslayers for hor mongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for menstealers for liars for perjured persons and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound

Doctrine the law applies to law Breakers the law applies to law Breakers and Paul here as he's as he starts to build his argument or as he builds his argument he breaks down the law Breakers into two groups really and the two groups the one being um those that commit sins against God and the other one being those that commit sins against others and his point being that both are equally a guilty before the law and the first few ones that he addressed are those that trespass directly against God and he gives um in in in this grouping he gives it in a manner where he gives the um internal attitude first that then results in the expression of the uh of the attitude through sin and he lists the

first one of of being Lawless and disobedient and Lawless lawlessness it speaks of of a person who has no uh commitment to any kind of law or any kind of standard they follow after their own desires which then leads to uh disob obedience against all Rule and this is a a person who's rebellious in heart and rebellious in in action and the law is going to condemn them then there's the ungodly and the Sinners ungodly speaks to those who reject any authority of of God they have no regard for God they have no regard for his law and as a result they they they live out a life full of sin the Unholy and the profane the Unholy person does not care about what is Holy he does not care about what is

right what is set aside what is special their their decisions are not based on what is right they're indifferent to right and so they live a life that tramples down things that are holy things that are set apart for God and here the law will convict all of these people their actions are uh confronted by the law I'm sorry their actions are are are exposed or their actions expose their hearts and and what what happens is both are guilty the law shows them to be guilty then by their heart by their motive but also by their action in a sense they're doubly guilty and in and deserving complete and utter punishment uh for what they have done and then Paul goes into a second grouping and he groups

the sins of those who sin against others he talks about the murderers of parents this is Extreme isn't it murd app parents it's the ultimate breaking of the law that occurs in Exodus 20:2 there it says honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has giving you people are called to honor their parents and murder is the is the ultimate dishonor of your parents they are guilty before the law manslayers which just means murderer in Exodus 20:3 it says you shall not murder you know they are guilty of the law hor mongers and those that defile themselves with mankind hor hormonger just means a person who's sexually impure and and that phrase there

um those that defile themselves with mankind is uh those who practice homosexual acts and for these both are guilty before the law Exodus 20 vers 14 you shall not commit adultery men Stealers men Stealers this is the only time this word is used in scripture uh and and um it means a kidnapper or or slave slave traitor and they're guilty as well too in Exodus 21: 16 it says whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death liars and perjurers those who speak lies about others are also guilty before the law Exodus 2016 you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor so Paul lists all these sins against others and as you look at this list you

see that that these are extreme sins you look at these things and you say well that's obviously a sin but but Paul what he's going to do is he's or what he's doing in and giving these extreme examples is he's setting us up to understand his final point but but just in case uh you think the smaller sins can get written off he he ends the section by saying if there be anything else that is contrary to sound sound Doctrine any other sin any other thing that's contrary to sound Doctrine or God's truth breaks the law of God and the one who does these things will feel that unrestrained wrath that is set aside for those who are guilty and those who are wicked before the law and so what we see then

regarding the law is that it shows Humanity's guilt and it shows Humanity's need for a savior Paul is accurate when he says that the law is good the law is good but for Humanity the law is bad news we cannot keep the law it exposes our sin it exposes our Rebellion against God from internal attitudes as well as the expression of those attitudes it exposes our wickedness against others but the wonderful thing about the law is it exposes our need for salvation it exposes our need for savior the law Works according to the gospel verse 11 according to the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God gospel gospel means good news that was a term that wased used in the uh ancient Greek to describe word that

they would get from the government usually of a military victory that the Romans had secured somewhere off uh far away and they were getting the information hey good news we got victory that word is also used to describe um uh rulings that the emperor had made uh for the benefit of the people and as it came to them it was hey good news we have this ruling from the government for you and what wind up happening is Paul and other New Testament writers basically hijack that term and then use that term uh to describe the the what what what the gospel is right the the working of of Christ for salvation so great is that news that they they copied that word to Define it and and it speaks of the

wonderful um good news that we have when compared to the bad news and the reason why I believe that Paul used these extreme sins is to then how how powerful and how great this good news that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ really is because through faith in Jesus every type of wicked person that he just described can be saved listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 99-1 it says know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor eminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor Covetous nor drunkards nor Revival revivals nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God and such were some

of you the people in the Church of Corinth were those Wicked kind of Sinners but no more they were they were washed but they were Sanctified but they were Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God the law presents bad news it is good but it presents bad news for us because we can't keep it but the thing is is we have such a greater good news the great good news of the Gospel is that we are saved from the Judgment that comes from us breaking the law how do we apply this I'll briefly address this then we'll close up all this means then because Paul's talking about Doctrine remember right he's wanting to get rid of back bad Doctrine and then bring in good

Doctrine so all this means then regarding the law and the gospel is that if we are to remove guilt or legal guilt and the associated punishment that comes with it from the gospel we are not proclaiming the gospel and we are proclaiming a false Doctrine legal guilt God's justice and wrath are just as much a part of the gospel and we should often include that with our presentation now obviously appropriately and with love right we want to show the good news that's what we want to teach but you got to know what the good news is for if we don't we give a false Doctrine if our gospel presentation is to Simply Save people from their personal problems if it's to save marriages if it's to save

family relationships and and that's the focus of what you're being saved from we're not proclaiming the true gospel if our gospel is proclaimed to give mental peace or a better life now and that is the focus of the Gospel that is the saving aspect of the Gospel that we're saying we're preaching a false gospel we're preaching a false gospel and we're presenting a false savior in fact in that kind of presentation I don't think the the savior is even the proper word because that's not what a savior does a savior rescues a savior rescues us from death rescues us from death so that we have joy the Savior rescues us so that we can live you I've grown up around the ocean my entire life and just I'm

I like being in the water and I grew up around it so it's normal but what's also normal about living around the water is you have visitors that come that aren't used to the water and they're not used to the aspects of the water and so just from growing up next to the water you wind up pulling people out of the water every once in a while and you wind up saving visitors and you know what they're always so full of joy and like often times so full of joy you just kind of want to get away away as quick as you can right because kind of uncomfortable but that's the heart of being saved that we rejoice and we're filled with joy because we've been rescued from the pit brothers and sisters may we give the true gospel may we not water it down with a lot of the nonsense that comes in sometimes but may we present our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who saves us