You want to turn in your Bibles to Galatians. Galatians chapter 3. I'm going to read in just a moment, starting in verse 15. While the law of God, law of God, cannot save us, yet it serves the redemptive goal of leading us to Christ. While the law of God cannot save us, nevertheless it serves us in pointing us to Jesus Christ. The law pursues you. A state trooper who is pursuing a criminal read the commands of God, then you discover that the law is pursuing you. The law accuses you. The law interrogates you. The law proves your guilt. The law brings evidence against you. It brings witnesses. It shows the video. It plays the audio. It demonstrates our crimes and transgressions. The law judges you, it sentences you. But the law cannot save you. When I say you, I mean me. The law shuts down our self-righteousness. The law shuts up our protest and our excuses. And in doing all this, the law points us to Jesus Christ, the Savior. Because the law bears witness that I cannot save myself, but it bears witness to the Savior, Jesus Christ. So look with me at Galatians 3, and we're going to pick up at verse 15. To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 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." Moses, the mediator and the angels. Now an intermediary implies more than one party. If there's an intermediary, two parties in the covenant. Now an intermediary implies more than one party. 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, 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. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Look back to verse 15 again. To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say into offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean, the law which came 430 years afterward does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Number one, God's promise to Abraham versus the law given through Moses. God's promise to Abraham versus the law given through Moses. Paul begins by asserting the sacredness of a covenant. Even a human covenant cannot be annulled or amended once it has been ratified. The promises made to Abraham are gospel promises, and they are given freely by God's grace. All of these promises have their final and their ultimate fulfillment in the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord. God promised three things to Abraham. He promised him a seed, he promised him a land, and he promised him a blessing. Now Paul explains that the promised seed, the offspring of Abraham, actually points beyond Isaac to Jesus Christ. Christ is the inheritor of the promises, the gospel promises that were made to Abraham, and Christ is the mediator of God's promises made to Abraham with us. He is our mediator of those promises. The promised land, so you have the promised seed, which is Jesus Christ. The promised land was not just Canaan from the river of Egypt up to the Euphrates. But Abraham, what? He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. Hebrews 11 and verses 8 through 10. The promised land is ultimately fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, as Paul says in Romans 4.13, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. So you have the promised seed, who is Christ. the promised land, which is ultimately the new heaven and the new earth, and then you have the promised blessing in the gospel of forgiveness and freedom in Christ. So Galatians 3 and verses 8 and 9 say, and the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Did you hear that? The scripture says that the gospel was preached to Abraham beforehand saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of the faith of Abraham are blessed with Abraham, the man of faith. And so it's important here for us to take note on that point that God's promise equals God's free grace. God's promise equals God's free grace. So we read about the promises that were made to Abraham. They are gospel promises and they are made on the basis of grace and not on the basis of works. Now look at verse 17 for a moment once more. This is what I mean, the law which came 430 years afterwards does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. The Mosaic Code, we say the law here, he tells us what it is, the law which came 430 years afterwards, this is Mount Sinai, and it is the terms of the Mosaic covenant that the law comprises. The law that was given 430 years later does not change, or annul, or amend the gracious character of God's promises to Abraham. And these promises were ratified by God's word. He spoke them to Abraham. You can read them in Genesis 12, verses one through three, and verse 17. Again in chapter 15 and chapter 17 and chapter 22 and other places. And so the law when it was given, it does not amend, it does not annul what God promised to Abraham when he spoke his word. They are ratified by his word. Not only that, but they are ratified by God's oath. So God made the promises with his word, and then he held a ceremony which we talked about on Wednesday evening with Abraham, an oath ceremony in which he told Abraham to bring to him certain animals, and the animals, Abraham cut them in half for this oath ceremony. They were laid on either side, and it was God himself. He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abraham, because this was not a bilateral covenant. This was a unilateral covenant. It was a covenant between God and Abraham, but God took all the responsibility. And so he himself, while Abraham slept, passed through the midst of those animals to signify that he would see it accomplished. He would do it. And that brings us to our second point, the right use of the law. The right use of the law. Look at verse 19. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to the promises 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. You saw that illustrated in the unilateral covenant established by the oath ceremony. Verse 21 is the law then contrary to the promises of God. So the gospel promises made by God to Abraham are not received by keeping the law. You cannot earn his promises. Remember this, that God's promises equal his grace. His promises equal his free grace. You cannot earn his promises by trying hard or being good. And you cannot merit his promised blessings by impressing him by your religious efforts. This is the error of the false teachers who were attacking the gospel among the Galatians, these Judaizers who were seeking to turn these Gentiles into Jews by their practices, to keep all of the commandments of the law. They misunderstood God's purpose in giving the Mosaic law, thinking that they could keep the law that they could lead a life of virtue. Well, indeed, I'm sure that in the eyes of other people, they may have thought, these are people of great virtue, look how they keep the law. But this outward fulfillment only concealed a deep self-worship. Self-justification is rooted in the worship of self. And so it was only a concealment of the impurity of self-righteousness that was there. Paul is explaining why the law cannot save. That's what he's doing here. Using the law to attain righteousness is actually blasphemy. For we boast in ourselves instead of boasting in our God, our Savior, instead of trusting in Him. And this is nothing but deception and hypocrisy. We deceive ourselves into believing that the externals of obedience are real obedience from the heart. but there is a grave difference between what is outward and what is inward. The covenant of works contained in the Mosaic code, Leviticus 18.5, do this, right? Do this and you will live, you shall live by them. It was not a means of salvation. Look back at Galatians 3 and verse 10. Verse 10 and 11. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. Paul is making this clear. If you have understood the law, you would know that it is a tutor, a guardian, that is meant to lead us to faith in Christ. It is not the Savior. We are not saved by the law. Those who have seen even a glimpse of their own guilt More guilty before God, the more they try to keep its commands, because the law is relentless, and it constantly demands righteousness from us. The law tortures us. It demands an answer. Where is your righteousness? Where is your consistency? You do this, but you say this, and you think this. Why did you fail? What went wrong? What's wrong with you? The sorrow and suffering of living in a fallen world, a sinful world, it actually leads us into more rebellion, more blasphemy. We wish that there was no God. We wish that there was no law, that there was no judgment, that there was no eternity. Isn't that the philosophy of the world around us? that there is no God, no law, no judgment, no eternity. An atheist is really someone who wishes there was no God, and he wishes it so strongly that he deceives himself. The fool, Psalm 14, verse 1, has said in his heart, there is no God. The real torture of hell, as it already begins, so there is a conscious everlasting suffering that is hell. It is a place and it is terrible. The Bible describes it. Jesus is the great preacher of hell in scripture. He talks about it more than anyone else. But hell for eternity is begun on earth." Listen, the real torture of hell as it already begins to be felt in this life comes when a man feels in his conscience that God is against him, and he cannot endure to be close to God. He tries to run away from God, but he cannot get away. For the omnipresent God meets him everywhere. He confronts his conscience. He's close to him. He presents his wrath. The omnipotent God holds man in his hands. He tries to run from the omnipotent God, but he cannot get away. This is the terrible condition of the man whose conscience is awakened, who now experiences the wrath of God revealed from heaven. Romans chapter 1. He burns with hatred for the one who holds him prisoner under the sentence of death. It's important to understand that long before the law was given on Mount Sinai, that it existed. In fact, the law, the moral law of God, is eternal. When it was given on Mount Sinai, it was spoken in the words that Moses gave, the terms of the Mosaic covenant between God and Israel. He gave them the 613 moral, civil, ceremonial commands that were read to the Jewish congregation. And the congregation responded, all that is spoken, we will do. They made that commitment. All that is spoken, we will do. So long before Mount Sinai, God's commands were in existence. His moral law was already in existence in the beginning. Adam and Eve lived and rejoiced to keep God's moral law. That's right. In fact, their fellowship with God was shaped by their obedience to his commands. The law of God is eternal because it is the revelation of God's righteousness, and God is righteous eternally. Our first parents lived and fellowshiped with God by means of his law under a covenant of works before the fall. They were created with original righteousness. Adam and Eve had no sinful nature before the fall. But after the fall, man could no longer keep moral law. Human sin changed our relationship to God, and it changed our relationship to God's law. Now the law accuses us. Now the law judges us. It sentences us to death. The law, by its commands, increases our sin. It tells us not to, and we want to. It stirs up our rebellion. It makes us aware of our guilt. We go to sleep at night. We climb. between the sheets, and our minds go to all of our failures and sins before God. It causes us to feel shame before the Lord, and shame even before one another. Even the human ability to blush is a sense, is in a sense, it is a revelation of the fact that the law of God is written in our hearts, and that we are aware of what sin is, and we know right and wrong, and we feel guilt, we feel shame because we were made in the image of God. Like Adam, when the voice of the law comes, we hide in the trees of the garden. Now, this is how that the law is our guardian. Fallen man is both unwilling and unable to fulfill the law's commands. Yes, and unable to fulfill the law's commands because the law requires personal, that is, it is not merely external, it is the whole man, it requires personal obedience, it requires perfect obedience, it requires perpetual obedience. The law of God demands a pure heart, perfect obedience, perfect love for God. Moreover, the law does not offer any help to fallen man to fulfill the law. It only commands and it demands and it damns when we are falling short. This is how the law awakens a sinful person which is all of us, awakens the sinner to recognize our guilt and embrace the fact that we are under the wrath of God. That is how the law of God leads us to repentance, Romans 2. God uses the law to open our eyes and strike our conscience with guilt, and our hearts are gripped with the fear of judgment. In the Garden of Eden before the fall, The law was a means of community with God, but now it is a different story. The law proves that we are under the dominion of sin and becomes an instrument of God's wrath. It shuts our mouth. The whole world appears as guilty before the throne of God. The Bible gives us three uses of the moral law. I want to mention these to you. They're so important for the Christian to understand and remember. And if you know them, they will help you understand the law when you study the Bible. The Bible gives us three uses of the moral law. It's the use of the law to curb sin and crime as administered by civil governments in human communities, or by parents in maintaining the order of their home, or by teachers and leaders seeking to accomplish education, safety, and so forth. So in 1 Timothy 1.9, Paul says that the law was intended for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. This is the civil use of the law. Every nation has laws. Every town and village has laws. laws. All of these are a reflection that God is the great lawgiver and that man made in the image of God feels the weight of right and wrong and knows that he must hold himself and others responsible for obedience to the law. Now the second use of the law, the first was the civil or the political use of the law, the second is the pedagogical use of the law. This is the use of the law as a mirror to show us our sinfulness. So Paul explains in Romans 3 and verses 19 through 20 that through the law, we have the knowledge of sin. Through the law, we have the knowledge of sin. So the moral law is written in every human heart and it convicts us of our sin and our accountability before God. And when the law functions this way, Paul describes it as the ministry of death. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 7. The law ministers death to us, it ministers the curse to us, but that is part of its work. It is the mirror that shows us what we are. And we could add to that second use of the law, the use of the law as a mirror, that not only do we see ourselves in our own sinfulness, but we also see Christ in his righteousness, who perfectly obeyed the law. And so the law commends Christ while it condemns us. That's the second use of the law. Third, you have the normative use of the law. And this is the law functioning as a guide. What is the will of God? How can I understand God's will for my life? The law guides us to do the will of God. It is useful to the Christian. Every believer needs the law of God. The law of God, although not a covenant, abrogated as a covenant, we are not under the law as a covenant, but nevertheless, we are still under the law of God. If you read all the commands given by the apostles in the New Testament and by our Lord Jesus himself, those commands are the laws that are part of the new covenant. Just as the law was a part of the old covenant, so there are and many of them are repeated in the new covenant. Many people don't understand this. So you have all of the Ten Commandments mentioned again, except for the Sabbath, which is fulfilled in Christ. Yet the principle is still there of setting aside time for the Lord. Nevertheless, you have these commands that are given. If a person moved from Canada to America, And they saw that there were speed limit signs. They would say, oh, how about that? They're under Canadian law. Because they have the law, these speed limits, up in Canada. And so they must be under Canadian law. No, no. And just so, we are not under the Mosaic Code. But we are under the new covenant. And the new covenant has law as well, the commands of God. They are not burdensome, for the Spirit of God fulfills the law of God in the believer, although it will only be perfect when we are made whole, when we are glorified. So the normative use of the law is a guide. It guides us to do the will of God. It's not a means of justification, but it reveals to us what is pleasing to the Lord. Paul says in Romans 7.22, I delight in the law of God after my inward. That is a Christian speaking there. Although we may fail to keep the law, nevertheless we delight in the law of God. David, Psalm 119, also delighting in the law of God. And that brings us to the final point, number three. The goal of the law is to bring us to Christ. The goal of the law is to bring us to Christ. So look again at verse 23. Now before faith came, now let me just say this. So let's just notice all these, that it came and that it's coming and that it comes and so forth. This is so important in understanding how the law leads us to Christ. Try to emphasize those parts. Now before faith came, pause there one more time. So in verse 22, he speaks of the promise by faith. Abraham is looking for a seed. He'd been promised a seed, a land, a blessing, and he's looking for those things. And his faith, he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He is looking to the promises. So the promises. The promise by faith, verse 22. Now verse 23, now before faith came, that is the fulfillment of the promise through the incarnation that Christ came into the world. He says, before faith came, we were held captive under the law in prison until the coming faith. So notice those expressions, faith, before faith came, until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came." So there is a redemptive history element that the law fulfills as it is leading us to believe and put our faith in Christ. So he says, Once more, verse 24, so then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, and by faith coming, he means the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. See, the incarnation, God entered our world. It was a promise, and now it has come to pass. Other promises have not been fulfilled yet that the covenant with Abraham made known. But we're in anticipation of them, and we're enjoying many of them. Verse 25, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So he demonstrates here how important baptism is because it is the mark of a Christian. This is one of the reasons I don't believe that the Emperor Constantine was a Christian. May have made some confession, but he refused believers' baptism until he was on his deathbed. And he did so probably because he still wanted to do some stuff like kill some people that he needed to get rid of. So baptism is a Christian's confession. This is when a person publicly confesses their faith in Christ. So Paul speaks of it here as signifying our salvation. He says, verse 27, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You have been clothed with Christ. You've been placed into Christ. There is neither. So in Christ, it doesn't mean that these distinctions are meaningless, but it means that in Christ, we are all sons of God, that we are all part of the family, and that we all have this privilege of adoption and the title to be called child of God. So there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ. And if you're Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. So number three is that the goal of the law is to bring us to Christ. And we read those verses before faith came, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. The law was our guardian until Christ came, but now that faith has come, Christ is the goal of the law. Listen to these scriptures. Acts chapter 10 and verse 43. Here we're just talking about my favorites, let me tell you. To Christ, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. What does it say? To Christ, all the prophets bear witness. Jesus said in Luke 24, the law and the prophets and the Psalms all bear witness to Christ. So Acts 2.10.43, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. You'll find the gospel throughout the Old Testament because It was written by prophets, they had prophetic gifts, and others had both the office and the gift, but the entire Old Testament has prophetic authority because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Romans 3, 21-23, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. How about that? Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. There it is again, no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 10, one through five. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, that is Israel, is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness. This is Romans 10 verse four. For Christ is the end of the law. He is the goal and fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that's based on the law, that the person who does the commandments must live by them. And you can't be saved that way. The law cannot save you, but it bears witness to the Savior. Now, Paul mentions three ways that the Mosaic Law, in this passage, he mentions three ways that the Mosaic Law differs from the gospel promises that are given to Abraham. Look back at verse 19, where he begins with that question, why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, so that because of transgressions is important, until the offspring should come, so that's very important, to whom the promise had been made. and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. So let me point out three things here. Unlike the promises that were given graciously without regard for human guilt or merit, the law was given on Sinai because of transgressions, because of human sinfulness. It was never intended to be a means of justification As the Judaizers were teaching, rather the law was intended to confront and expose our wickedness. Next, the law has a redemptive historical function in God's redemptive plan of the Bible, the story of Scripture. Paul said that the law was added until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. It was a means of bringing us historically toward the coming of Jesus Christ, and even now, spiritually, causing us to be brought unto the realization that we need the Savior. The law not only points out our wickedness, but it points to the Savior, the coming Messiah. Christ is the end of the law, meaning that the purposes of the Mosaic Code find their fulfillment and completion and goal in the incarnation of the Son of God. I read those verses to you, that the law and the prophets bear witness to the gospel. So when the law exposes our wickedness, it also commends the righteousness of Christ, the one who obeyed the law for us. Finally, the law differs from the gospel promises to Abraham because God confirmed his promises by his word and his oath. He held that unilateral, oath ceremony with Abraham and caused Abraham to fall into a deep sleep while he himself walked through the midst of the sacrifices. He was saying he alone would accomplish the terms of the covenant, a unilateral covenant. So Paul says in verse 20 that God is one, that is, he has made this covenant the gospel covenant and keeps the gospel promises by himself for his own glory and it does not depend on us. In contrast, the law was mediated by angels and by Moses. It's a bilateral agreement between two parties. And Israel pledged obedience. Whatever is written, whatever it says, we will do. So the law was never intended to be a means of justification, but rather to be a tutor to teach us our guilt, to teach us that we are unwilling to obey God and we are unable to meet the demands of the law. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now suppose you and I want to have a contest to see who can throw a baseball the farthest. And maybe we get one of the Braves outfielders to compete with us. And I throw it, but it really doesn't go very far. And you throw it, your throw goes several hundred feet. Now, I guess I left out a little piece of this. Contest is, can I throw a baseball from Anniston to Birmingham? So mine goes. 50 feet. You're able to throw that 300 feet. Amazing throw. And then the Braves guy gets up and, wow, he's throwing 400 feet. Well, that's all amazing, but none of us can throw the ball to Birmingham. See, the best isn't good enough. The worst isn't good enough. Whether you're the worst or the best, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how you rate. If we were going to compete and say, we're going to have a contest to swim across the ocean, we want to swim to Europe. We're going to visit Europe. We're going to swim there. And I drown before I get 50 yards out into the ocean, probably before 20. And maybe you're a great swimmer, and you can swim for 50 miles. Amazing. But neither of us, no matter what our attainments, neither of us is able to swim all the way to Europe. We will not make it to the coast of Dover or whatever place that you might hope to land. And it is that way with the law. It proves to us that we are unable to keep the commands, that we are unable to be righteous. The standards of the law show us how short we fall. That's their purpose, in order that we might see what our Savior has done, that He obeyed the law perfectly, and that He, the very righteousness of God, through His active righteousness and obeying the law, went to the cross where my sin and your sin was imputed to Him, and where By faith, his righteousness is imputed to me, though I am a sinner. Yet by faith, I am righteous. So Paul says that the law is our guardian. That it has imprisoned us as captives under sin. The law shuts our mouth so that we cannot boast. And it points us to believe in Christ. The law is our tutor, teaching us our need of the good news. of forgiveness by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. When a sinner believes in Christ Jesus, then he is united to Christ by faith. There is union. Consequently, he becomes an heir of the promise with Christ. Christ is the heir, he is the seed, he's the offspring to whom the promises pointed when God made his promises to Abraham. And when you are united with Christ by faith, then you also are a son being led to glory and you become a child of Abraham as well because you are living by the faith of Abraham and you are saved just like Abraham did by trusting in God. He believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness. the spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham. We become part of the spiritual family, the family of faith through Jesus Christ. Like Abraham, we look for the world to come, the new heaven and the new earth that Christ will establish at his return. And even now, we enjoy the blessings of this salvation, but there are more blessings to come. God has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ. He fulfills All of his promises, they are yes and amen in Christ. So when Christ, the Son of God, became incarnate, he entered our world. He revealed who God is. He shows us the goodness of God and the love of God, the truth of God, the justice of God, the wisdom of God. He shows us all of his mercy and grace. He invites us to turn from the lie of our own goodness. Stop believing that lie. He invites us to turn from the lie of boasting in what we have accomplished or looking down our nose at somebody else because they're a worse sinner than we are. We both drowned in the ocean. Nobody can throw a baseball to Birmingham. You and I, whatever differences there are, they don't matter because we both are damned. We both fall short of the glory of God. So he invites us to turn from the lie of our own goodness, from the lie of all the idols that we trust in, and embrace with joy the promises of forgiveness and freedom Jesus Christ saved. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.