If the law can’t save us, why did God give it?

In Galatians 3:19-25, the Apostle Paul explains why God gave His law, even though no one is saved by keeping it. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt walks through what God’s commands are really for.

If we are saved by faith, some people wonder, then why have rules at all? Paul answers that the law was never meant to save us. Instead, it shows us our sin, holds back evil, and points us to Jesus. Paul calls the law our “tutor,” like a guardian who guides a child until the time is right. John Calvin said the law is like a mirror, because it shows us what we are really like. The ceremonial rules of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ, but God’s moral law — such as do not murder, do not steal, and do not covet — still stands.

Questions this study answers:

1. Can keeping the law save us? No. Paul is clear that no one is made right with God by keeping the law. The law cannot give life; it can only show us our need for a Savior.

2. What does it mean that the law is a “tutor”? A tutor, or guardian, guides and protects a child until they are grown. In the same way, God’s law guides us and points us to Christ, the only one who can save.

3. Do Christians still need to keep the Old Testament laws? The ceremonial laws, like dietary rules, were fulfilled in Christ. But God’s moral law still reflects His character and shows us how to live.

“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” — Galatians 3:24 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This is Part 6 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

[soft music] What's the point of God's laws? Why does God give us laws to follow? Laws that seem to prohibit so many of the things that we want to do. In Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul explains why God's laws are both a good and necessary thing.

All right, the law. Let me ask you a question as we start this morning. Where do laws come from? There's all sorts of laws, and when we go out and operate in the society around us, there's all sorts of laws that involve the traffic, how we operate one with another, how we govern each other. There's all manner of laws that we have to deal with in the world around us, so where did they come from? The short answer is this: if you have a law, you have a lawgiver. Now, who's the lawgiver? What is a lawgiver? Well, as you've probably figured out as you go through life, a lawgiver is one who's in authority. A lawgiver is one who's in charge. For example, preschooler attends the first day of preschool, walks into the room. There's a teacher there. Now, the preschool instructor, on the first day, tells the class what the expectation is, tells the class what they may do and what they may not do. The teacher, the instructor, is the one in charge, the one with the authority to tell the students how to behave, what they are to do. See, laws originate from lawgivers, and lawgivers are those in seats of authority. Now, are certain authority figures of greater authority than others? Is there a greater authority than the preschool teacher? Well, yes. In a school system, you would find that the principal and the superintendent and the like, there's a cascading or a hierarchical form of authority in that setting, and that's true elsewhere as well. We have teachers who have authority in a classroom. We have cops that have authority throughout the community. We have state government. We got federal government and the like. There is a cascading or hierarchical form of government that creates laws that govern those in the community. Now, with that said,

what happens when you get to the top? Let's say we all get that. We got Civics 101 here. We understand that there's laws and there's a structure and all that. What happens when you get to the top? What happens when you get to the top form of governance in a society, a community, a nation? What happens? More to the point, is there a form of authority that's greater than any earthly or national authority? Well, in a church setting, that's exactly right. In a church setting, I should hope we would think so. In a church setting, our view, our understanding is that there is what you would call a transcendent authority. You have man's laws, and then above man, you have God. And God transcends all men, transcends all kingdoms, transcends all nations. This distinction is a distinction between what you would call humanism and theism. Humanism is the idea that man is the measure of all things, that you and I and our peers and our contemporaries across the globe, that we're the measure of all things and what our thoughts are, what our rules are, what we say goes, that that's the way the world works. That's humanism. Theism

suggests or posits that above us, there is a God. Theos. There is a God above us. Theism presupposes, even if you haven't named Him yet, it presupposes there's an authority that's greater than you and greater than me and greater than those in Washington and around the globe. We believe that there is a God who ordains and decrees certain things and certain rules and certain practices that His creation is to follow. There is a creator who governs the created. So that's one of the most basic tenets of theism. Now, let's say that we're all in agreement so far. I hope we are. Let's say we're all in agreement so far. There is a God. He makes the rules. We follow God's rules. Okay. How did He make the rules that He gave us to follow? If God made the rules, what was the basis for the rules that He made? Did God, as He was thinking this all through, as He was thinking the Ten Commandments and the like, did He roll the dice in heaven? Is that how He did it? Did He flip a divine coin to figure out whether murdering or not murdering, stealing or not stealing would be the lay of the land? Well, no, not in the least. That would be dreadful if that's the way He did things. And fortunately, that's not what He did. He didn't create laws because He just had an arbitrary whim one day to do so. He didn't say certain things should go just because that's what He decided on one day by the flip of a coin. Rather, the laws that God has made for you and I are an extension of the nature of God Himself. So what God did, He makes creation, and He says, "Okay, creation is going to be governed on the basis of laws and decrees that are a reflection of me, a reflection of my will, not theirs. If they make the laws, they'll change the laws from one generation to another, from one culture to another. It'll be anything goes. Everyone will do what's right in their own mind. However, I will make the laws, and laws that I make will be a reflection of my character, who I am." And so when it tells you not to murder, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to covet, and the like, He's giving us rules and precepts that flow from His own attributes of holiness and rightness and justness and patience and peace and mercy and all these different things. His rules reflect Him. Now, because that's true, what happens if you keep His rules? If God gave you laws to keep, and you keep them, what will happen? You'll become more like Him. If God gives rules and you keep them, you will become more godly as a result, and that's a good thing. That's something that we should want. Whatever the case is, let's consider these things and more. Let's talk about the purpose, the role of the law, why God has given us laws, what the utility of the law was in the Old Testament, and what the utility of the law is in the New Testament, and see if we can discern any things that are helpful in our faith this morning. If you would, return with me to verses 19 and 20. We'll look at these, and we'll just work our way through the balance. Verse 19What purpose does the law serve? Right out of the gate, Paul's addressing the topic du jour, the thing we're talking about here today. What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions. Till the Seed, capital S, because it's a reference to Christ, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now, a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. All right. In this section of his letter, Paul begins by asking the question, what purpose does the law serve? If you are an Old Testament Jew, if you're a New Testament Christian, if you're a modern Christian, you may wonder, again, what purpose does the law serve? Well, now we talked about one of them. It makes you more godly if you follow it. But that's not the only purpose. That's not the only purpose. If you have a child, and you've made a plate of hot, delicious cookies, and you put your plate of hot, delicious cookies on the counter, and you give your child a cookie, and the child goes, "Yay, this is wonderful," and they eat the cookie, and they enjoy the cookie. Well, what do they do next? They want another cookie. So they go for the cookie, and you say, "No, no, not right now. You may not have another cookie." Now, in their minds, they know what they want. They want the cookie. They liked the first one. They're sure they'll like the second one as well. They're still hungry. It still tastes good. They want the cookie. You, however, know certain things. You know that, well, they might fill up before dinner. You know that dinner might be ready in a half-hour. You know that there's any number of reasons why they really don't need to have another cookie just then, even if they want it. So you have all sorts of reasons why you tell them no, and you lay down a rule. Thou may not havest another cookie. So the kid hears that. They still don't understand it, but they understand that you're an authority and that you've told them how it should be. Now, the irony is sometimes if they push on that a little bit and they ask, "Why? Why can't I have a cookie? Why can't I have a cookie?" You have a whole lot of reasons you could give them. But you know what the number one reason most parents will say at that moment is? Because

I said so. In that moment, what you'll do is you'll appeal to your authority. You'll say, "The reason thou mayest not have another cookie is because I said so." You'll appeal to your authority, and you're right to do so. And in fairness, God, He's given us rules to follow, many that are greater than cookie consumption. He's given us all manner of rules to follow. And sometimes we come to Him with the question of verse 19. Why? What purpose is this? What purpose does the law serve? And God, He could, of His own volition, just tell us, "Because I said so." He says, "You want to know why you can do blank and you shouldn't do blank? Why? Because I said so." Now, He could do that. He could tell us that, and He'd be totally right and just in doing so. He doesn't owe us any explanations. When He appeals to His own authority, He's right. He doesn't have to tell us the answer. But fortunately, fortunately for us, He does. So often throughout the Word, He does unpack and explain these things. He does help us to understand why He's given us certain laws, why He's told us things to do and things not to do. And again, the principal reason we talked about before is because if you keep God's laws that are a reflection of God's nature, you in turn will become more godly by doing so, which is a good outcome. With that said, when Paul asks the question, the rhetorical question, what purpose does the law serve? He's asking it in a slightly different way, or at least he's driving to a slightly different point. He says, "What purpose does the law serve?" Now, remember, he's writing to folks who've embraced legalism. So he says, "What purpose does the law serve?" And then he answers his own question in verse 19. He says, "It was added because of transgressions." Now, what do you and I do with that? That sounds like circular reasoning. Why was the law added? It was added because of sin. Well, why do we sin? We sin because of the law. What's Paul talking about here? What relationship does the law have to our sinfulness and our transgressions and the like? Well, let me give you a hypothetical example here. Let's say that you have a king. You have a king, and the king decides one day he's going to pass this new edict. New edict. And here's the edict. He's going to say, "Everyone in your front yard or on your house, you need to hang, say, a green flag," something like that. You put a green flag on your house. Now, up until the moment he made that edict, no one had ever thought twice about green flags. No one could care about green flags. But the moment the edict came down, everyone cared.

Everyone cared. The moment the edict came down, green flags were the talk of the land. Now, some folks responded. There was a law that came down from an authority figure. Some folks responded to the existence of that law by running out and buying a green flag, making a green flag, and putting it in their yard. Others, however, responded to the law by burning green flags or by putting a yellow flag in their yard to mock the king. Now, what's the point? What's the point of this story? The point is this, that a law can have a dual and simultaneous effect. It can prompt the faithful and obedient response of some, and it can incite still others to rebel and to sin. In either case, what happens is when a law comes out, when God or a king or anyone else institutes a law, the minute that happens, the thoughts and the tendencies of those who are subject to that law are brought to the surface. John Calvin, when he talked about laws, he says one of the main things that a law does is it's a mirror for you and I. Our response to whatever the law is tells us a lot about our own characterNow, what does that have to do with verse 19? What did Paul mean when he said the law was added because of transgressions? Well, when Paul says the law was added because of transgressions, he was saying that the law does one of two things with regards to sin. It either restrains sin, it either prompts people to obey and follow, it either restrains sin or it inflames it. The law, any law that you implement, will do one of the two things. It either encourages you to fly the green flag or to burn the green flag. Whatever the case, the desires of your own heart are borne out, as a sinner or a saint. Let's look at this in verse 21. "Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law." Now, what's he talking about here? Remember, in the context of Galatians, he's talking to people who have begun to think that they can get saved, be saved, by things that they do. Some of them have misinterpreted the law in such a way that if they keep the law or all the laws or most of the laws or what have you, that that will make God happy, and that they can be saved as a result of doing that. To that, Paul says, if there had been a law that could have done this, if there had been a law that could have given life, truly then righteousness would have come through the law. But it didn't, is what he's going to go on to say in the next verses. I knew a young lady once. She professed Christ, and she believed herself to be a Christian. Others believed her to be a strong Christian. However, this young lady had once committed a sin that in her eyes was so heinous, so terrible, that she feared, she thought it would forever disqualify her

from salvation, from the kingdom. In other words, she believed the gospel, but there was this ongoing tension between the breaking of a very significant law in a very significant way and the promise of forgiveness. She felt the weight of the law upon her and the weight of guilt upon her.

And yet she did realize that scripture talked about forgiveness. But in her mind, because of the pain and guilt she had,

she couldn't reconcile the two. There was just always this tension between those two things. Some people worry that they can never be forgiven.

If that's you, don't.

That's not the message of scripture. The message of scripture isn't that 98% of sinners will be forgiven. The message of scripture is that all those who bend the knee to Jesus Christ and repent and profess faith in Him will be saved.

With that said, while this individual was worried that she could never be forgiven, others believe something different. They believe that if guilt comes from breaking laws, if I broke a law and I'm guilty and I feel bad because of it, then I can be saved if I just keep other laws or keep more laws. As long as the ledger offsets, I'll be good. Some feel so weighed down by a singular law and a singular sin that they think they're forever cast away from God's golden shores. Others, no matter what horrific thing they've done-- You ever see mobster movies? The mobsters go out and they have killed, and they throw people down in the Roman carpets and throw them over the bridge and the like. And then what do they do? They run to church, they immediately confess, and they walk out all smiles. Why? Because they have a sense that as long as you do certain things, those will automatically offset the other things, and then you're good. Some people believe that as long as you do more good things than bad things, that that's fine. Whatever the case, whether you think you're convicted by one sin in such a way that God can't save you, or whether you think that as long as you have 51% good deeds and 49% bad deeds that you're saved, either approach to the law, either approach to works, either approach to faith, all of that's wrong. You can err in both extremes. There's no law that can keep you from receiving God's grace. There's no law that can keep you from receiving God's grace, and there's no law by which you can earn God's grace. Remember, we're not talking just about a few verses in Galatians. We're talking about the whole book, and this is the message of the whole book. You can't earn it. You can't earn your salvation. You can't earn your way into God's golden shores. And at the same time, there's no singular thing that you're going to do that's going to keep you from God's golden shores.

The answer to this individual who sinned once or the individual who sinned a million times, the answer is the same for both. You're saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. It's the message of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, all of Paul's letters, all the Gospels. And that's what Paul's talking about in verse 21 when he said, "If there had been a law that could do this," if there was a law that God had given us, if He had given us one law that you keep that and you're good, if there was a law that could have given life, then righteousness truly would have come from that law.

But it didn't. Let's look at how he builds on this in verses 22 and 23. "But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given," to who? "To those who believe." Not those who did enough, earned enough, were nice enough, kind enough, gave enough, what have you, but rather to those who believe. "But before faith came," before this faith came, "we were kept under guard by the law." There was a time when you and I were behind bars, so to speak, spiritual bars. We were kept by guard by the law, "kept for faith which afterward would be revealed."

Let's say for our purposes that the entirety of scripture or the gospel could be boiled down to these two verses. Let's say for our purposes it could be boiled down to this. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And number two, the wages of that sin is death. Let's say that's all you had to work with. Let's say if you open up the Bible, it's one page long. It says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that the wages of sin is death. The end.

What shape would we be in then?

If that's all we had, if all we had was a declaration that there is a law that you've broken and the wages of breaking that law is death, the end, ours would be a most hopeless state indeed. If that's all that God ever told people, that everyone's a sinner and everyone has to pay the penalty of that sin, then that would be a hopeless situation for us to be in. And at one point, that is the situation we were in.At one point, that's the situation that mankind was in. When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, there was no decree, no rule that said God had to intervene and promise a solution, give a solution, especially as costly a solution as sending his own son to die for mankind. At one point, mankind was behind bars, so to speak. At one point, the creation had broken the creator's rules. And the reason that's bad, the reason that's a problem is because the payment's greater than man can survive. And so if all we had was the law,

if all you had was page one of the Bible that said two things, that you're a sinner and the wages of sin is death, then on the day you stand before God, if that's what you were matched up against, you'd be in horrific shape, as would we all. In these verses we just read, Paul says, "Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law." Lock, stock, and barrel. We were kept under guard. The law confined us. It oppressed us. It imprisoned us. The law did that. However, the good news is that God didn't leave us in that position behind those spiritual bars. As we've said on other occasions, upon Christ's death and resurrection, we're set free from the law's curse. A very brief gospel presentation, but an important one is this. The problem is that we're sinners, and the wages of sin is death. God's solution to the problem is to send his only begotten son, his innocent son, the spotless lamb, and that lamb, when he died on Calvary, when your sin and my sin was imputed upon Him and His righteousness was imputed upon us, this was the means of our salvation. And the only thing you have to do, the only thing you're called to do, is to respond through faith. That's what it means to be justified by faith. I bet you've heard that somewhere. Well, that brings us to our final verses, verses 24 and 25, where you're going to hear it again. Let's look at verse 24. "Therefore the law was our tutor." The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor. In the verses leading up to verse 24 and 25, Paul's been talking a little bit about what the law can do and what it can't do. What it can do, the threefold purposes of the law, you may have heard that before. What it can do is it can reflect our impulses. When a law comes around, the way we respond to that law reflects something about ourselves. It's a mirror to us. Furthermore, the law, when it's given, it can restrain sin or it can even incite sin, as surprising as that is. But the one thing that the law can't do ever, ever, ever is this. It can't save you. The law can only condemn you. Well, in verses 24 and 25, Paul adds one more thing, one important thing that the law does. And he says that the law, it tutors us. The law, it tutors us. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, God has always used laws in order to instruct us, to teach us. This is what's called the pedagogical or instructional aspect of the law. Now, what's a good example of this? Well, the example you've heard me share before is this. You remember in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 22, there was this law that was given to the people in the Old Testament. "You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together." All right.

Deuteronomy 22 gives a law. It says, "Thou shalt not wear a tunic, a bathrobe, whatever, of mixed fabrics, wool and linen and the like." Now, when we hear that, especially in our day, when we're not under this form of ceremonial law, but when we hear that, we look down at ourselves and go, "Well, dear heavens, I've got silk and tweed and cotton and all manner of different things."

If God didn't care now, why did he care then? What was that law about? And why something that seems so arbitrary? Is God this cosmic Armani? Was it about style? What was his point? What was the rationale? Well, there was a point. There was a point behind this, and it was to teach the people. You see, the pedagogical aspect of the law, the teaching, the prohibition against wearing mixed clothing, it had nothing to do with fashion. Nothing whatsoever to do with fashion. What it had to do with was holiness. See, here's the thing. The biggest threat to Israel throughout the centuries, it was not the Philistines or the Ammonites or the Moabites or the Hittites or what have you. It wasn't really them. The biggest threat to the Israelites, the children of God, was this, that if they were to marry and intermingle and accept the practices of the pagan nations and the gods, lowercase G, of the pagan nations, that what would happen to their true faith is that it would become sullied and poisoned with the beliefs of the pagans, which were not true. The biggest threat to Israel was always that Israel would begin to believe the same things about Baal and Asherah and whatever else that their pagan neighbors believed. And so God gave the people rules about clean and unclean, about not mixing. He gave them rules that when they followed those rules, it taught them something. When they followed a practical thing like what they dressed in, it taught them a spiritual truth. The prohibition against wearing two types of clothings was nothing about God caring as a fashion designer about their wardrobe. Not whatsoever. It was about holiness. When they dressed in this one fabric, it was a reminder every day of their need to be pure, of their need to be set apart, of their need to be different, not to accept syncretism, which is the blending of different practices. Issues regarding food. We live on the Gulf Coast. Most of you know this. I love a good shrimp po'boy. I do. It's one of my favorite things in the whole world. I recently told my wife, I said, "If I ever die, don't put flowers on my grave. Just from time to time, lay a po'boy there." [laughing] I love shrimp po'boys. And yet, if I lived in the Old Testament economy, I couldn't eat them. Why? Because it was used, shrimp and shellfish and all these other things, were used to teach and to instruct the Israelites about that which was unclean, that which was not holy, that which was profane. God used their wardrobe, God used their diet, God used all these things to instruct them. He gave them laws to teach them and to tutor them. But in timeIn time, the lessons were learned, or they were ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ, and because of that, especially the ceremonial laws were no longer applicable. The law exists to tutor. Now, some laws don't apply, but some still do. You still shouldn't murder, for example. That's still bad. Stealing, theft, coveting, and all that, still bad, and you can learn a lot about God and about the world around you just by obeying those laws. The law still teaches us. The Ten Commandments still teach us. Whatever the case is, the purpose of Old Testament laws, the purpose of the moral law, the Ten Commandments, the laws written on our heart, has the exact same intention. Paul says in verse 21 that the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. So we're looking to wrap up here shortly. I'll share this. There's an evangelist from New Zealand. Some of you may have heard of him. His name is Ray Comfort. And he approaches, if you ever watch any of his videos, he approaches folks on the street, and he asks them a series of questions regarding the law, and he uses these questions as the means to bring them to Christ or to share Christ with them. First of all, he'll talk to someone on the street, and once the conversation is going, he'll say, "All right. Let me ask you. Have you ever told a lie?" He'll ask the man on the street. And the man on the street will be a little taken aback because that's not something you usually get asked, but the man on the street, especially with a camera in his face or a microphone there, he'll say, "Well, yeah. I suppose I probably have. I've told a lie." And he goes, "Okay. So what does that make you?" The guy will say, "Well, a liar?" "Oh, yes. Okay. Let's stop there." And then he says, "Well, I got a second question." He says, "Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever stolen anything? A pencil, a paperclip, what have you. Anything across the scope of your life." And virtually everyone will say, "Well, yeah." "What does it make you?" "A thief?" "Okay." Then he'll ask him another question. He could do this all day, but he'll ask him another question, and he'll say, "All right. Have you ever looked on someone with lust in your eye, lust in your heart?" And again, people don't like to admit these things, but generally speaking, they respond, "Well, yeah." Then he'll say, "All right.

In your own words, you're a liar and a thief and an adulterer at heart.

In your own words, you've done these things." Then he says, "Let's just stop there. We could go through other commandments, other laws too, but let's just stop with those." And he asks them this question, "What are you going to do about that?" Or "What do you expect God to do about that? God gave laws and rules for you to follow, and you, of your own volition, are saying that you broke them. And you, of your own volition, are acknowledging it wasn't right that you broke them. Do you expect God," and he asks this in a generic sense, "Do you expect God, whoever he is, whatever he looks like, whatever he does, do you expect him to deal with Hitler?" "Oh, yeah. He's going to deal with Hitler."

"Well, what about you?

Is there a sliding scale? I mean, is God just?" "Well, I suppose he has to be just." "Well, if he's just, what about you?

How will he deal with

your sins?"

Now, why is the evangelist

trying to get folks to admit these sorts of things at the outset of his interaction with them? Why is he talking about sin? Sin and the law, some of the least popular things for you and I to even begin to share with our neighbor, the man down the street, or our coworker, or whatever. Why does he start there?

Why does he start with sin and the law? Well, he's doing, in his view, what verse 21 suggests. He's getting them to acknowledge the existence of laws, the existence of laws that they have broken, and if they understand that there are consequences for having broken the laws of someone who's bigger than themselves, his hope in talking with them is that this will pave the way to demonstrate their need for Christ, their need for forgiveness, their need for atonement, what have you. The law was a tutor to bring us to Christ. That's Paul's word. The law was a tutor. It is part of our instruction. It helps demonstrate our need. The more we understand what the law is, the more we ruminate on the consequences of it, it's far more likely that we'll look for a solution from the law's curse.

In short, a man needs to know about his problems before he'll care about a solution.

You have loved ones. You have coworkers.

However you go about it, however you go about it, with whatever tact and grace and timing and whatever God lays upon your heart to do,

let me encourage you in the strongest way I can encourage you. When you share the gospel with such an individual, you have got to include the problem of sin. You can't hide it or water it down and be faithful to them and to the God who you're serving. You have to introduce people to the law in some context. Otherwise, they won't care about the solution of Jesus. Who cares about a solution to a condition that people don't think they have? If you go and approach someone on a street corner, and you walk up to them, and you're wearing a white lab coat, and you've got a vial in your hand, and you say, "Congratulations, I've got the cure for some terrible 10-syllable disease," they will look at you as someone who's not suffering from that disease, and they'll say, "I don't care." They'll run from you, especially if you do this on a street corner. They won't care. Why? Because you're introducing a solution to them for a problem they don't think they have.

Conversely, we see in scripture that the law is a tutor to bring us to Christ. The law should be part of our instruction to our children. It should be part of our evangelism into a fallen world. With our just remaining few moments, let me ask you a closing question. How is your relationship with the law? It's one thing to talk about the guy on the street corner. It's one thing to talk about any of the different examples we've used today. How about you? What's your relationship with God through his law? And let me ask you it even a different way. Are there laws that you find in the Bible that prevent you from doing the things that you want to do?Does God give you laws that prevent you from doing things that you want? Well, in the human sense, I'm sure that there are. There may be a lot of things you want to do, or your flesh might desire, that God has told you can't have, for good reasons. Now, do you find that frustrating? Possibly. I know our fallen world certainly does. Our secular world doesn't like to be reminded that there's a God who has laws and rules that dictate how people are to function in marriage and their interactions with one another and the like. The secular world portrays the God of the Bible to be a cosmic killjoy, who's intent on ruining our fun. In the secular world, they picture God as this old, old dude far away with a long flowing robe. He can barely see quite right, good intentions, and yet old and antiquated and the like. And they view what He has said as something that's as antiquated as He is. And if you hold up His rules, His precepts, His laws, the Ten Commandments or what have you, they will keep it as far at arm's length as they possibly can because many of them perceive that if they were to follow those rules, that that would impinge on their freedom or their fun.

But here's the thing.

Can you name a single law that if you were to break it, won't harm you or others? Can you name a single law of God's, a single one of the Ten Commandments, for example, that if you were to break it, won't cause harm to you or someone else? Imagine a world where everyone just lied. People stole all the time, murdered. Imagine a world where everyone coveted their neighbor's goods or their neighbor's wives or the like. You come to think of it, that's not too far off from the world we live in. But where has that gotten us?

Where has lawlessness got us? If we stand back and you and I are just representatives of the human race across 6,000 years, and we had to give account for how humanity has operated across all these years with regards to God's law,

where has it gotten us? What benefit has all the sin, all the law-breaking-- God gave laws right from the beginning to Adam, and to Abraham, and to Moses. He gave these good, wonderful laws. We've broken them as individuals, as a society, and the like. Are we happier as a society because we've done so?

Are we happier as a society for doing so? Are we better equipped for all the sins that we've done? Have we truly known better than God? And if we have known better, are we better off because of it?

Is our world any happier, better equipped? Are we more fulfilled? Are we more prosperous and the like? Is the world a better place because we turned away from God's laws?

No. Mankind has not benefited in any broad-based, lasting way for six millennia of law-breaking, not in the least. The world's a toilet. It's a cosmic cesspool. It's not utopia. All the law-breaking hasn't gotten us any closer to utopia. Not only has sin failed to benefit us, but it's actively just killing us, our culture, the world around us. The Book of Judges, those of you who spent time in scripture, do you remember how it ends?

Nod your head if you remember how it ends, the last verse.

It says that the people did what was right in their own eyes.

If you read the Book of Judges, you can see how that turned out.

It's no different in our own day. Obedience to God's laws is good for people. Breaking God's laws is bad for people. It's true for churches, it's true for nations, and cultures, and societies. It's true for you and I as individuals. If there's a sin you're considering or are actively engaged in right now, this week, this month, there's something you're doing that you ought not because you think it'll give you a greater benefit for doing so, stop. If there's a sin you are considering or actively engaged in, then know this: There's a way that seems right to a man, but it leads to what?

Death. Don't contribute to the cesspool. Don't drink from the cesspool. Jesus invites us to do this in John 14, "Whoever has my laws, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it's he who loves me. It's he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him." This week, this morning, let's pray for the grace to keep God's laws as a nation, as a church, as families, and as individuals. Let's pray.