Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
FREE PRESBYTERIAN ISSUES -- GOSPEL ISSUES -- PROTESTANT ISSUES -- EVANGELISM ISSUES -- CALVINISM
ISSUES -- C.H. SPURGEON INDEX -- SERMON NOTES -- MAIN
READ: 1 TIMOTHY 1:1-11 TEXT: v5-11 RIGHT USE OF THE LAW OF GOD [SERIES 2]
For many Christians, either because of no teaching or because of false
teaching, the law of God is a distant subject, hardly on the radar of
their thinking
[i] Some are so taken up with the promises/God and the spiritual goodie
bags which God has for His people, that they forget about their
responsibilities and where such duties are found
These are they who either look blankly at you (or even worse!) when you begin to relate that privileges bring responsibilities
They are a bit like the young but growing child who is expected to contribute to helping in the household chores
He looks in disdain or horror at the pile/dishes or/drying cloth
Yet this cannot continue and the wise parent will not be intimidated by the sulks or the tantrums that follow
[ii] Others have been told by erroneous teachers that the NT Christian has nothing to do with the Law/God
That it was only for the Jew and no one else
Any attempts to say otherwise will endanger the speaker to the reproach
of being a dread legalist – a Pharisee/enemy of grace
Again: This misperception needs to be tackled/removed
Our passage is as a good as any to see truth/law established
Here is Paul writing to his son/faith and colleague/pastorate
Yet right away, early 1st chapter, he introduces this subject
Does that not denote that it is important?
The language which he uses about those who took another line –
accusing them of vain jangling (v6) and ignorance (v7) shows again that
this matter cannot be ignored as of no real consequence
Passage yields us 4 thoughts re: the Law/God and the Christian
1) WHAT THE LAW WAS IN ITSELF:
A/ By the law, we are referring here to the OT/general and the Commandments in particular
These were still a “big deal” in the days of Paul and Timothy where the church was still distinctly Jewish in its thinking
As we will soon see, the law/abused and Paul had to tackle this
He had to take on the extremists and this necessarily cast Paul into a bad light – as if he had no regard for the law/God
This rumour/ill report had been doing the rounds for years
When Paul went up/Jerusalem (Acts 21: 21) James told him of the thousands/Jewish Christians who had heard bad things/Paul:
And they are informed of thee, that
thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake
Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither
to walk after the customs.
This all meant that Paul had some explaining to do
Was he really against the Law/God?
If so – why? What was wrong with it? etc.,
Here was Paul’s big chance (another one) to state his love/Law:
B/ Paul was not against the Law/God - Was nothing wrong with it
We know that the Law is good (v5) – kallos (calligraphy)
You never have Paul denigrating the law/God in any epistle
Yes…, he speaks about the law being a ministration/death (2
Corinthians 3) etc., but that was because the sinfulness/man made it so
i.e. man’s sin was the cause/death – not the law itself
The Law (he says) is good – Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. (Romans 7:12)
You can’t say that if the Law is over strict or cruel or fatally flawed within itself
C/ Righteous character/Law is because its author is good
The law/God was written by the finger/God
And
he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon
mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the
finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)
It expresses His holy thoughts and desires
D/ No one can honestly go down the various commandments and find fault with these commandments
Yet worldly minded men try to do so
They
say that is too restrictive for people to wait until they are married
until they partake of each or that the idea to be one woman for one man
for life is also too Puritan
This (they say) curbs their enjoyment and freedoms
Or that it is wrong to insist on telling the truth every time etc.,
Such complaints, however, do not detract from the goodness/law
Such complaints only exposes the wickedness of the complainer
The Law is the mighty anvil on which many hammers/wore out
So the Law is good in itself
2) TO WHOM THE LAW WAS GIVEN:
A/ I know that it was given to Moses/COI on Sinai (Genesis 19)
But to what end?
Not just for the sons/Abraham through Isaac (i.e. the Jews)
The Law has a universal aspect to it also
10 Commandments are for all men of whatever creed/location
You can stand up in any Gentile setting and read the 10 Commandments and tell the people that these are binding rules
You can warn Gentiles of the consequences of disobedience
No one can rightly say that you are scare mongering
It is a universal law for all time
Even before the formal giving of these Commandments, they were still in effect and men were judged as they broke them
When Cain was punished for killing Abel- we learned: Do not kill
One man for one wife was an established principle from Eden
When the wickedness of Cain’s line is set forth - we are
given (among others) the sinful example of Lamech who took two wives
So there is a universal aspect to the law/God
B/ Now Paul explains this further when he says that the law was not made (appointed) to the righteous man
The argument is a little polemic in that there is none righteous
But he uses the idea to open up the idea a little clearer;
The Law was given to expose the wickedness of man
Therefore the righteous man does not need it
Christ employed a similar argument in Luke 5:31-32
The whole do need a physician but the sick
No body goes down and sits for hours in A&E for the fun of it
You go down because you are sick or injured for help
The Law/God is God’s X-ray machine for our souls
Someone thinks that they are in good spiritual shape
They tell you that they feel good and deserve heaven
OK, we say, let’s get under God’s X-Ray machine and see
As we go down these commandments in an honest/thorough way, we see (and hopefully they will do also) a true reading
What do we see when the Law/God opens up the heart:
The
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the
foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and
bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:5-6)
Oh dear! God’s standards are not quite our standards, are they?
They are tougher and more thorough because our standards are
so compromised by the dominion/sin that we are under
A man with a diseased eye or who is blind cannot see properly
He is not the man to give an accurate assessment
Especially upon himself with his vested interest
C/ But by the perfect law/God is the knowledge/sin
We need to get sitting with all those vile folk listed in v9-10 and somehow convey this message that they are condemned/own sin
We must see ourselves in this list
It is so comprehensive – “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23)
D/
Let us not think (as proud man starts to do) that having gotten the
honest assessment that we can use this same law to work our way back
into fellowship with God
That is a Pharisees interpretation of these things
Either we weren’t listening or we didn’t believe the report
God is not only telling us: we are sinful but that we are hopeless
It is good to see that we need to be reconciled to God
It misses the point to think that we can attain it ourselves
An honest grasp of the Law will show us that we need to be saved by the grace/God alone without the deeds/law
Paul opens up this up in the next passage:
v13 I obtained mercy
v14 Abundant grace
v15 to save sinners, of whom I was chief
One reason (under God) why few people are getting saved in this day/generation is because there is no Law preaching
What! Have sinners trembling in their seats?
No…make them comfortable in non threatening environments!
Entertain them and keep them amused and they will come back!
Feed them on a diet of positive thinking and feel good sermons
That’s not the answer, is it?
There’s the answer to Mary Hearny’s trouble in the NHS! (Sarcasm!)
Sack the doctors/surgeons and bring in the clowns
Get people laughing in the beds/trolleys (I think not)
3) HOW THE LAW WAS ABUSED:
A/ Notice that Paul says that the Law is good if…(v8)
Let me repeat: The Law is always good in/off itself
Illustrate: You take some good wholesome food – like bread
Not the sweet stuff with sugar that rots your teeth etc.,
Bread is good if you eat it sensibly and part/controlled diet
But if you stuff your face with it – surfeiting – then you are going to run into problems
You will be physically sick and become overweight etc.,
So food is good (essential) but only bad if you abuse it
Likewise here when Paul attaches an “if” to the Law/God
The law is good if you keep it within its intended use
But if you start abusing it – then it becomes dangerous
Not because it is dangerous in itself but through your abuse
B/ Paul speaks of those who had turned aside to pervert/Law
They listened to false teachers who took them off course (v6)
This is awful indictment on them:
[i] They swerved – they left the good, straight road
They had received good sound teaching but not they rejected it
This isn’t good enough!
[ii] They swapped the sincere milk/word for vain jangling (v6)
no doubt this vain jangling came well packaged
In our day, it would come in a well bound, well presented book
and/or DVD with some big wig’s name endorsing it
Listen to how Peter describes such in his epistle:
And through covetousness shall they
with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a
long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2
Peter 2:3)
The Greek word for feigned is literally plastic
Cunning men – but still vain jangling (empty noise) at the end
Imagine swapping the truth/gospel for that!
Paul marvelled when the Galatians did something similar
One thing for someone never to have tasted of the good things
He is stuck in his dearly held, generations old traditions etc.,
But to have tasted the good and to spit it out for the error is beyond reason or justification
[iii] Further indicted in that only some have so swerved
Evidently not all and not even many
Greek word for some = some in particular
I am not advocating the herd instinct here
(No Reformation if Luther followed that principle)
But you really do have to take a good long look at things before you
change – check the new information that is so tempting
Check it out/authoritative source of faith/practice: Acts 17:11
C/ Commentators give various examples of the abuses of the law in the Jewish rabbinical teachings
There were fanciful interpretations and stretched applications
Fine example of this would be seen in the presence of the various groupings in Israel at that time which are exposed in the NT
Sadducees: No spirit world – no resurrection etc.,
Pharisees/Scribes
etc., Where a son could literally refuse his duties towards his ageing
parents and say that his money/life was being dedicated instead to the
church
This is what Paul wanted Timothy to deal with in his pastorate
4) THE RESTORATION OF THE LAW OF GOD:
We have seen the damage with the false teachers inflicted
People knowing/truth had been seduced by worthless teachers who did not understand what they said or foolishly affirmed
This in itself was creating another generation of false teachers
For the new converts were now desiring to be teachers
The poisoned fountain head was sending out dangerous streams
What could Timothy do?
A/ He himself was not to give heed to such nonsense (v4)
I don’t think that means ignore the errors/false teachers
But not to get caught up in it nor promote it
Sometimes you get that in Evangelical Churches
Unity of the church is put before the truth/God
Things get tolerated even if not particularly welcome
B/ The true use/law was to be promoted (v9-10)
Sometimes we can chase the heresies all over the place and forget to do the positive work
If the people know the true use of the law (convict etc.,) then the vain jangling will be all the more obnoxious to them
C/ Timothy was to be very specific in its application of it
Paul gives a very good example of how to be! (v9-10)
Notice even at the end: And if there be any other thing contrary to sound doctrine (v10)
D/ Not only the true preaching of the law – but of the gospel
itself in all its glory – for that is entrusted to the Christians
May God help us to be faithful to our trust
THE END