1 Timothy 1:7-11

From Paul to Minister Timothy about the Church – the household of God, the assembly of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth - LOCAL BODIES LIKE THIS ONE

Last time Paul’s charges in verses 3-5 to REMAIN leading this local church – significance of that task and that the AIM of the local church is Genuine Christian love, and we talked about the apparent belief of Paul that churches would struggle with forgetting that aim, losing our bearings and wandering off into vain discussions and controversies. Choosing stewardship over speculation. Choosing to feed the sheep.

There were men using the law to stir up controversies instead of what it was meant for.

1:7-11

The Law is Good

If One uses it Lawfully

I think we often have a gut negative reaction when we hear the word law, and there is reason for that, often it has been used incorrectly and the New Testament makes that clear

Romans 3:28 Gal 3:11, Gal 2:15-16

The Law is NOT for justification – salvation – to give you a path to God.

The whole OT is in some sense one great proof that just giving someone a Law will never be enough to make them righteous. You proved that this morning when you drove right past that law sign that said 45 mph at 51. The law cannot make you lawful – righteous.

But there is a lawful, that is a Good use, of the law.

It is even said here that the proper use is In accordance with sound doctrine – Gospel

The law is not the enemy of the Gospel – is not anti-Gospel, in fact, most often, the law is the pre-requisite for the Gospel.

The Law is Good to “Make us Unrighteous”

Lk 5:32 – I have come not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance

Spent so much time in Luke series - O those poor righteous? NO! There are none righteous! . . .

Rid us of Self-righteousness – perhaps the greatest enemy of salvation, the greatest weapon of the enemy, the most insidious poison

As long as you think you are a pretty good person worthy of heaven, you will never be saved.

The law is useful to cure you of that ailment.

Romans 3:19- 20, 4:15, 7:11-12

Matthew 5 – lust -adultery – anger – murder, Well I’ve never cheated . . . murdered . . . covet . . . dishonor parents. So much of what you do is purely selfish, that even the good things you do you do for selfish or self-glorifying reasons. You don’t pray like you should. You don’t worship like you should. You don’t give like you should. You don’t disciple like you should. You don’t evangelize like you should. You don’t work as hard as you could. You fail as a parent, as an employee, as a husband or wife, you fail and then spend all your energies convincing yourself that your failures weren’t really your fault. You judge others by their worst actions while judging yourself by your best intentions. You wake up and go to bed thinking about yourself.

It is good for you to feel guilt. Feel it. Feel the weight of your sin, on your back like an anvil, contaminating not just your actions but your very bones, your heart, your soul.

Hear the law of God, if you can even admit that you have broken one of those laws then you are guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10– For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it . You are culpable. You are guilty. You are damned.

The law puts a burden on our backs, the correct burden on our backs, so that we know our only hope of ever having it removed is Christ.

It is being shown that you are naked, and in shame searching desperately until you see that Christ is the only one with clothes to spare.

It is, to use a parable, like when some dark cellar has not been opened for years and is full of all kinds of loathsome creatures. We shut the blinds and lock it up and live as it if isn’t there. We may walk through it not knowing they are there. But the law comes, throws the doors open, takes the shutters down, lets light in, and then we discover what a vile heart we have, and how unholy our lives have been. And then, instead of boasting, we are made to fall on our faces and cry, “Lord, save me or I perish. Jesus you are my only hope.”

“The law ‘renders us inexcusable’ and so drives us to despair. Then, ‘naked and empty-handed’, we ‘flee to his [sc. God’s] mercy, repose entirely in it, hide deep within it, and seize upon it alone for righteousness and merit’”

The hardest person to save is the one who doesn’t know he is drowning.

The Law is Good because it shows us ourselves, our unrighteousness, and thus Drives us to Christ the Righteous

Galatians 3:13–14, Rom 10:4, Ac 13:39

You are in desperate need of God’s grace, whether you are lost, or whether you’ve been saved for a 8 decades, you today stand still in desperate need of God’s grace.

The Law is Good to “Make us Righteous”

After the law has made our unrighteousness clear, and we have turned utterly to Christ for salvation, the law helps us to know how to please God.

The message of the Bible is never, you are under grace now, so you no longer have to obey the law or be moral.

Many scholars point to a parallel in the list here and the 10 commandments

Both Law and Gospel demand the same moral standards

It is not that the law demands moral living but the Gospel allows license

It is noteworthy that the sins which contravene the law/ the 10 commandments, are also contrary to the sound doctrine of the gospel. So the moral standards of the gospel do not differ from the moral standards of the law. We must not therefore imagine that, because we have embraced the gospel, we may now repudiate the law! To be sure, the law is impotent to save us, and we have been released from the law’s condemnation, so that we are no longer ‘under’ it in that sense. But God sent his Son to die for us, and now puts his Spirit within us, in order that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us.

The focus on obedience doesn’t leave, focus on legal things in that sense doesn’t lessen, in some senses it increases, and that is one of the reasons for salvation

1 Tim 6:3, Jer 31:31, Ezek 11:19-20, Gal 5:13-18, Rom 7:4

Sound doctrine demands law-following – not for salvation but from salvation, not in hopes that God will save you but because he has

I live to please my wife not because I hope . . .

Recognize that you are not enough, that you are not righteous, that you rely entirely on God’s grace through Christ.

Once you have bowed to Christ, realize that you are no longer slave to sin, and that Christ is strengthening you to help you obey, never perfectly, but truly.

Romans 6:14 – Sin shall no longer be your master, since you are not under the law but under grace.