It had
been a long case, and the man had served on the
jury for several weeks. A friend said to him,
"You must have heard so much law in the past
few weeks that you're almost a lawyer."
"You're not kidding," he answered.
"I'm so full of the law that it's going to
be hard for me to keep from cheating people when
I get back to my business." Are you that
full of the law?
Let's look
at the source. One day the Lord Jesus said,
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God." Some of the words that have proceeded
out of His mouth are the commandments. And the
Bible says, "This is the end of the matter;
all hath been heard: fear God, and keep His
commandments; for this is the whole of man."
You're not a man until you live by the words that
proceed from the mouth of the Lord.
"Well," you say, "there are 10
commandments. Must I keep the whole law to be a
whole man?" Indeed. The Bible says,
"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
stumble in one point, he is become guilty of
all."
"But,"
you wonder, "why was the law given?"
Let's look at the service. It's written in 1st
Timothy 1:9, "The law is not made for the
righteous man." Well, then, for whom? The
Bible answers, "the lawless." Who are
they? The people who know the law, but who in
cold blood and with eyes open, deliberately break
it. "The law is made," says the Bible,
"for the disobedient." These are the
unruly and the uncontrollable. They refuse to
accept any authority. They refuse to obey the law
of the Lord or man. "The law is made,"
says the Bible, "for the ungodly." The
ungodly aren't indifferent, they're irreligious.
Not only do they disobey God, but they also defy
Him. "The law is made," says the Bible,
"for sinners." Who are they? Those who
have sold themselves to sin. They have abandoned
themselves to their abomination. They have no
moral standards at all. "The law is
made," says the Bible, "for unholy and
profane." The unholy destroy all that's
decent, and the profane tarnish everything they
touch. They never help, they hinder; they never
bless, they blight; they never lift, they lower.
They desecrate God's day, disobey His laws and
defile His creatures. "The law is
made," says the Bible, "for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers." This
expression describes a child who's lost from
reverence and respect to shame and sin. And
remember you can kill your parents with
wilfulness as well as with a weapon, with
disobedience as well as with a dagger. "The
law is made," says the Bible, "for
manslayers." They're murderers. It's a sin
to take a life personally, as did Cain; or by
proxy, as did David. And it's wrong for a man to
kill himself with dissipation as well as with a
dagger. To indulge in any pleasure at the cost of
an early death is wrong. And to expose a weaker
friend to evil is murder. An alcoholic died an
awful death. "I killed him!" exclaimed
a friend. "I led him into dissipation. I was
strong enough to take it, he wasn't. I killed
him. His blood is on my hands." "The
law is made," says the Bible, "for men
who sin sexually with women or with other
men." Adultery and sodomy have broken more
homes, shattered more lives, fevered more brains,
cursed more children, diseased more bodies than
tongue can tell. "The most obvious form that
a rotten civilization takes," said Elton
Trueblood, "is in an absurd emphasis on
sexual pleasures, both in practice and
literature." "The law is made,"
says the Bible, "for menstealers." God
hates the sin of kidnaping. And "the
law," says the Bible, "is made for
liars." The Lord Jesus said, "I am the
truth," and He also said, "the devil is
a liar, and the father of it." It's either
the Savior or Satan. Where do you stand? Whose
side are you on? Are you following the Savior and
truth, or the devil and lying? You know where the
liar will spend eternity, don't you? The Bible
says, "All liars shall have their part in
the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone."
Let's look
at the significance. Why was the law given? The
Bible answers, "To bring us to Christ."
Like a mirror, the law reveals our sins; it can't
remove them. But Christ can! A chaplain asked a
dying soldier, "Can I do anything for you,
son?" "I need someone who can
undo," he answered. And Christ is that one.
He can undo the tangles. Salvation is more than
the eraser of a pencil rubbing out the sins of
the past; it's also the lead whereby you write a
new life. Trust Him now!
copyright 2000 Guido
Evangelistic Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New King James Version.
Click here to go to the next message in this
Sower Scripture Study on the book of First
Timothy.
This series of messages on
the books of the Bible were originally written
for broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program,
"The Sower." They are collected and
reprinted here for your enjoyment and spiritual
edification.
