S. CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW

CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW

SCRIPTURE READINGS: How readest thou? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast answered right - this do, and thou shalt live. - Luke 10:26-28.

I read a passage from the tenth chapter of the letter to the Romans beginning, "My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

Without taking a text at all tonight, my purpose is to present to you two plans of salvation in the very simplest way that I know how. When you read the Bible, have you not been struck with the difference between the direction given by our Savior as recorded in the paragraph of Luke, and the direction given by the Apostle Paul as recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Acts? A certain lawyer stood up tempting the Savior saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus said, "What saith the law? How do you read it?" And he quoted the law.

Jesus replied, "This do, and thou shalt live:" But when the jailer propounded the question to the Apostle Paul, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

There is a great difference between doing the commandments of God in order to inherit eternal life, and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved, and the two plans are presented by Paul in the tenth chapter of his letter to the Romans.

Now I want you to listen as carefully as ever you listened to a statement in your life, to certain things which I wish to say on these two plans of salvation. The first statement is that man is a creature, a moral creature, and under law. The law which he is under is expressed briefly in that paragraph in Luke: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul and all thy strength and all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now, in a few words, that is the law.

Mark you that the law takes hold of the disposition, of the affections. Thou shalt love. Thou shalt love God. Thou shalt love thy neighbor. Mark you how comprehensive it is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; with all thy soul; with all thy strength, with all thy mind." Notice how comprehensive it is in the other: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Now that is the moral law under which a man lives - to which he is subject.

Let us notice in the next place when a man is righteous under this law. Moses describes the righteousness of the law thus: "That they which do these things shall live by them." A man is righteous under the law when he keeps it. He is unrighteous if he does not keep it. That law is the measure, the standard, of our thoughts, imaginations, being, work or words; of all that’s in our minds, in our souls, in our strength, in our heart, and to be righteous under that law, you must comply with the requirements of that law.

Let us see what is the scope of that requirement, how far it goes. Let me read a passage on it. The Apostle James says in James 2:1-26 to the twelve tribes, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, ’Do not commit adultery,’ said also, ’Do not kill.’ Now if thou commit no adultery, yet thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."

Take another passage: In Galatians 3:1-29, the Apostle Paul discusses the scope of the law, where he says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." What, then, is the scope of this law? What must you do to be righteous under this law? You must comply not only with every requirement of it, but you must continually comply with every requirement of it. You must not only love God with all your heart, but you must love God with all your heart all the time. Cursed is every man that continueth not, and if he ever violates it in one particular, then he is guilty of breaking the whole law.

What kind of a defense would you call it if a man was indicted before our courts for murder, and when the question was propounded to him by the judge as to what he had to say as to why sentence of death should not be pronounced, he should get up and say, "I admit that I have committed this murder this one time, but I want to call your attention to the fact that it is the only offense I ever committed. I never stole any money, never committed adultery, never bore false witness, and this is the only hour in my life when I have broken the law. Therefore, in view of my conformity to the law all the rest of the days of my life, and in view of the fact that this is the only one of the statutes which I have violated, I think I ought to be acquitted?"

What would the judge say? The judge would tell him that the committing of that crime made him a transgressor, and that when he had complied with the law all the rest of his life he was entitled to no credit for it, for it was what every citizen was required to do.

Now that is what James means when he says, "The same God who said, ’Thou shalt not steal,’ said also, ’Thou shalt not bear false witness."’ In other words, that part of the law which says "love thy neighbor as thyself" is just as much violated in one of these directions as in the other direction. So that we understand now what is meant by this law under which all the people are subjects. "Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength and with all thy mind, and for all the time, and thy neighbor as thyself."

Well, suppose a man violates one of the provisions of this law, either with respect to God or with respect to his fellow man, then what is the penalty? The penalty is declared in two scriptures with great solemnity and plainness, "The soul that sinneth it shall die," and the other scripture which says, "The wages of sin is death."

Now, having gotten these points clearly before your minds, viz: first, that man is under the law; second, the law which he is under; third, the scope of that law; and fourth, the penalty of the violation of that law-having gone thus far in these statements, let us ask a question: Is there on this earth a righteous man? Would any of you this night stand up before God and lay your hand upon your heart and say, "I am a righteous man; I have never violated that law; I have always with my heart loved God; I have always loved my neighbor as myself; I have never in thought or word or deed, violated at any time any one of the provisions of this moral law under which I live?"

I do not know what answer you would give, but I want to give you some answers that are contained in the Word of God, on that subject, and the first one is a statement made by Solomon at the time the Temple was dedicated. At the dedication of the Temple he made a prayer and the prayer looked to a certain way by which sins committed against God might be forgiven and in that prayer, parenthetically, he says, "For there is not upon the earth a just man that liveth and sinneth not."

Listen to what the Apostle John says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth it not in us." Again he says, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make God to be a liar." Wherein does it make God to be a liar? Let us read and see, Psalms 14:1-7, as follows: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good; no not one."

God looked down from heaven to see if there were any. Not occasionally one, -not if all men were doing right, but God looked down from heaven to see if any of them were doing right, and His solemn declaration is that not one of them was found to do right.

Now, take these three declarations of Scripture: That of Solomon that there is not a just man upon the earth that liveth and, sinneth not; the declaration of the Apostle John that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, and that if we say we have not sinned we make God to be a liar; and then God looked down from heaven to see if any were doing right, and He found that none were doing right.

Where, then, does this subject ¾ this statement ¾ bring us? To what conclusion have we arrived? That by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified in God’s sight ¾ that is, so far as the righteousness that comes by personal obedience is concerned. All of us are sold under sin ¾ Jew and Gentile. Not one that ever lived upon the earth can be found that kept this law at all times and at all points, and whenever any one of them breaks any point in the law, violates any provision of the law, at that time that soul comes under the condemnation: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

Therefore, when that lawyer tempted the Savior and put that question, "Master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered, "What does the law say? What is required in the law in order that a man may live-may have eternal life?" And the lawyer quoted it. Then Jesus said, "If you want to know what great thing you are to do to inherit eternal life, go and do those things," showing what He wished to bring about that He wanted to shut this man up and show him that he was already condemned, that there was no way by which he could be justified in the sight of God by the law, by his own personal righteousness.

What, then, can be the solidity of the hope that any man has in his heart of being justified in the sight of God by selfrighteousness? Take any kind of a. man. I am not talking about the worst classes of men ¾ the out-breaking sinners-men who are confirmed drunkards or red-handed murderers. I am not even talking about the good citizen merely, but I mean that you may take the loveliest and purest woman that ever lived upon the earth. You may take the noblest man that ever lived upon the earth, and, with these select specimens, bring them up before this law of God which says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself, and at "all times thou shalt do this," and that woman and that man would come under the condemnation of the law. You know you never saw a woman who could escape under that law. You never saw a man that could. It follows, then, that so far as that plan of getting to eternal life is concerned, if there be no other way than that way, men are lost.

Just here we look at another statement. Jesus comes into the world. God loves this lost world, and He so loves it as to give His Son in its behalf; and when Jesus comes into the world, for whom does He come? We shall let Him answer. He says, "I am come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He did not expect to find any righteous people. He knew before He left heaven that there were none such. He came after the sinners-transgressors-under the condemnation of the law.

Take it again where He says, "The whole need not a physician," ¾ that is to say, "I did not come to seek well people. My visit to earth was not to find men or women who were spiritually well. I came to find sick people-people whose souls were sick. I came as a physician, but not as a physician to a hospital. I came as a physician into a country over which the pestilence had blown its breath, and you men and women and children in it were subject to that pestilence."

Another scripture: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation" ¾ worthy for you to accept, worthy for me, worthy for your father and mine, worthy for our children. "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation." What is it? "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" Sinners! If He came into the world to save sinners, and the way of salvation is blocked by their own personal conformity to the requirements of the law, how does He propose to save them?

Mark you, these people are condemned. They have been tried. The sentence of death has been pronounced upon them, and the interval of time that intervenes between the pronouncing of the sentence and the executing of the penalty and the fact that they are alive, is evidence only of the forbearance of God in the suspension of the penalty until there shall be submitted unto them another way of life. Now what is that other way of life? There must be in that other way of life some sort of satisfaction to that violated law. Jesus Christ cannot come and save any one of those who have been condemned to death, and allow God’s holiness to remain unsullied unless what they owe He pays-unless the penalty which has fallen upon them, falls upon Him. That leads us to a word. The word is "vicarious" ¾ in the place of another. And when we say Jesus suffered vicariously, we mean that He suffered in the place of somebody else and hence, if Jesus makes an expiation for sin and He not being a sinner, it must be a vicarious expiation; that is, it must be an expiation for somebody else. Now, in order to save those who are under the penalty of the law He must suffer vicariously, in their stead. When did He suffer so?

Now, I want to get you to fix your mind on a certain event ¾ a certain transaction, a definite thing in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. When was it? By what deed upon His part was this expiation made? Was it when He was born? No. Was it when He worked miracles? No. Was it when He rose from the dead? No. When He ascended into heaven? No.

It was when He died on the cross.

We are to be saved by the death of Christ. If we are to be purchased we are to be purchased by the blood of Christ. But what do the Scriptures say about that? The Apostle Paul says, "The gospel that I preached unto you, how, that according to the Scripture, Christ died for our sins."

How does he express it in his letter to the Romans? "Whom God set forth to be a propitiation for our sins." Set forth. When? What part of the setting forth was efficacious? It was when His blood was shed.

What does Peter say upon that point? He says, "Who bare our sins in His own body on the tree." What does Paul say about it in his letter to the Corinthians the second time? He says, "God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." What did Isaiah foresee? He says that "God laid on Him the iniquity of us all," and "by His stripes we are healed."

Now we are coming up to the plan of salvation. We are coming up to that plan that stands over against the first plan presented a while ago. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, Moses described the righteousness which is of the law that they who do these things shall live by them. That is one plan, but the righteousness, which is of faith-how is that? He says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; that the word was nigh them, even in their mouth and in their heart-the word of faith which they preached: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Now, I want to get before you as a conclusion from what has been presented heretofore the shallowness of the hope upon which any man rests who is trusting to any kind of selfrighteousness as a means of justification when he comes to stand before the bar of God. I know some people that are good people, humanly speaking-good citizens, debt-paying men, outwardly, at least, moral men ¾ who affect to reject the idea of being saved by a vicarious expiation by the righteousness of somebody else, and these men are passing through life, going on toward death and soon will be at death, and after death come to judgment, utterly discarding any hope of eternal life from the righteousness which is in Christ, and they do not feel that they are very great sinners.

Now, I want to quote some scripture to them. The Apostle Peter says, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," except the name of Jesus. He means something by such a broad statement as that. Take what our Savior says in a certain parable of His, that whosoever climbeth over the wall and cometh not in by the door of the sheepfold, the same is a thief and a robber, and He says, "I am the door, and whosoever does not come into the sheepfold by the door is a thief and a robber."

Now it is a very difficult matter to make that moral man believe that he is a thief and a robber, but that is just what he is. That is God’s declaration with reference to him that any man who tries to get into the sheepfold in any other way than through Christ as the door is a thief and a robber.

Take this scripture: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha," that is, let him be accursed when Christ shall come. Here is a man that does not love the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, a moral man. We look at him and see in him a great many things to commend him, humanly speaking, and we know he is near death, and after death is the judgment, and that Christ comes at the judgment. Here is the solemn declaration of God’s Word that if that man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ he shall be accursed when Christ shall come. He comes to the judgment ¾ to the final judgment ¾ to be accursed. That means to be accursed forever. It means to bear an eternal penalty.

Now hear this scripture: The Apostle Paul says that if we hear an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than this gospel hat Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that we are to be saved by faith in the blood of Jesus, that this is the only way a man can be saved-he says that if an angel from heaven come to this earth and preach any other doctrine that that, that angel would be accursed.

Then take this scripture: Jesus said it himself. He said it upon the memorable occasion just before He ascended into heaven. He had been upon the earth and these are His last words. Listen: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," every one. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned." That is His own declaration.

Then this scripture: "He that sinned under Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the everlasting covenant an unholy thing?"

Now this moral man, this self-righteous man, in assuming to stand upon his own righteousness in the sight of God, has declared that he did not need a Savior-that he was not a sinner, that he did not need a physician. He has trodden under foot the Son of God ¾ he has counted that blood that was shed upon Calvary an unholy thing; he has done despite to the Spirit of grace. And this scripture: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that He hath risen from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

These are the two plans of Life, and it seems to me that the way is so plain that there can be no mistake about it. Here’s the law. You cannot deny that it is holy; that it is just; that it is good; that if God made you, you are a moral, dependent creature and under law, and that law says that you are to love God; you admit that law to be holy and just and good, and that you are to love God with all your heart. Certainly you would not leave out a part of your affections that could be fastened with love upon God. And that if you are under obligation to love Him at one time, you are under obligation to love Him at all times and to love Him supremely at all times. And that if you are under obligation to love your neighbor today, you were yesterday and you will be tomorrow, and if you are under obligation to love him at all, you are under obligation to love him as you love yourself, because he is entitled to what you are entitled to, and if you love him you will not hate him at all you will not tell lies on him, nor steal from him, nor bear false witness against him, nor covet anything that he has if you love ,your neighbor as you love yourself you won’t do any of those things. Now then, the supreme question for you to answer is, "Have I done this?" Have you complied with this law?

I close with this: With all men, white and black-with all people that you have ever known or heard of or of which this scripture gives any description ¾ there is a sense of right and wrong. They do know some things as right and some things as wrong. But says one, "The heathen that have not the law, Paul says that their hearts and their consciences convict or acquit them with reference to some things, as to whether they are right or whether they are wrong."

Now it follows that wherever there is a right and a wrong there must be a law which makes one thing right and another thing wrong. And it also follows that where there is a law and a law-maker and subjects of law, there must be responsibility to the law, and wherever there is responsibility to law, and a violator of the law, there must be a judgment. There must be a trial. There must be an arraigning of the guilty before that bar ¾ that tribunal of justice ¾ and when he comes to stand before that bar then the supreme judge is just.

Now what hope has he that he will be acquitted and not condemned? What reasonable hope? What one that can give sleep and rest when he thinks about it? Do you. feel satisfied about it? Why is it that you are disturbed at times with fear and apprehension? If you are satisfied about it, why is it that when you have been alone you have condemned yourself?

"And if our hearts condemn us (and this is the Word of God) God is greater than our hearts."

One question only. Is there any chance for you of escape by way of your own righteousness? Can you come under that plan which says, "Do and live?" Can you stand up before God and claim that you have kept the law and that you are righteous in the sight of the law?

If not, then, I do ask you how do you expect to be acquitted? How do you expect to escape from the penalty, if you reject Jesus Christ? What name under heaven known among men, can you trust, if you reject vicarious expiation ¾ that personal expiation? If you reject Jesus, what can you obtain by faith in another? If you turn away from this, you furnish a righteousness for yourself, but hear the declaration of the Savior, describing the man without the wedding garment at the wedding supper. The man that came in was in his own righteousness and when the king came in he said to him, "Friend, what doest thou here without the wedding garment?" And the man was speechless. The king said, "Take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him forth into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

If my mind ever reached a conclusion, with all the earnestness with which I ever believed in a proposition and with all the assurance with which I ever rested my soul on any foundation, I do rest it upon the declaration that whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. That other way is closed. It’s barred. We are lost under that. This is the only way of escape, and now I want to implore you tonight to do what you have never, perhaps, done before in your life. Fasten your mind upon the two roads that open before you. One or the other take. Do you take the road that will make you stand at the last in your own righteousness? Or do you take the road that will make you stand in the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Two ways open out before your feet. Death is in both and after death the judgment. May God’s Holy Spirit impress upon you with an impression that can never be effaced the vast importance of a speedy settlement of this question. The Lord says, "Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth."

Jesus says that God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son to die for sinners, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The blood falling from the Cross flows to you ¾ flows in its saving power ¾ and tonight will you count it an unholy thing? Will you tread under foot the Son of God? Will you do despite to the Spirit of, grace?

Let us unite in prayer, that at the parting of these two roads, the way of life and the way of death, every person in this house may decide this question forever.