The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

and may God bless you! My dear friends, you who are quickened, let me advise you to beware of the devil; he will be sure to be after you. Keep your mind always employed, and so you will escape him. Oh, be aware of his devices; seek to “keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” The Lord bless you, for Jesus’ sake.

      The Uses Of The Law

      No. 128-3:169. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 19, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

      What purpose then does the law serve? {Galatians 3:19}

      1. The apostle, by a highly ingenious and powerful argument, had proven that the law was never intended by God for the justification and salvation of man. He declares that God made a covenant of grace with Abraham long before the law was given on Mount Sinai; that Abraham was not present at Mount Sinai, and that, therefore, there could have been no alteration of the covenant made there by his consent; that, moreover, Abraham’s consent was never asked as to any alteration of the covenant, without which consent the covenant could not have been lawfully changed; and, besides that, that the covenant stands fast and firm, seeing it was made to Abraham’s seed, as well as to Abraham himself. “This I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no more by promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Therefore, no inheritance and no salvation ever can be obtained by the law. Now, extremes are the error of ignorance. Generally, when men believe one truth, they carry it so far as to deny another; and, very frequently, the assertion of a cardinal truth leads men to generalise on other particulars, and so to make falsehoods out of truth. The objection supposed may be worded thus: “You say, oh Paul, that the law cannot justify; surely then the law is good for nothing at all; ‘What purpose then does the law serve?’ If it will not save a man, what is the good of it? If of itself it will never take a man to heaven, why was it written? Is it not a useless thing?” The apostle might have replied to his opponent with a sneer — he must have said to him, “Oh, fool, and slow of heart to understand. Is it proven that a thing is utterly useless because it is not intended for every purpose in the world? Will you say that, because iron cannot be eaten, therefore, iron is not useful? And because gold cannot be the food of man, will you, therefore, cast gold away, and call it worthless dross? Yet on your foolish supposition you must do so. For, because I have said the law cannot save, you have foolishly asked me what is the use of it? and you foolishly suppose God’s law is good for nothing, and can be of no value whatever.” This objection is, generally, brought forward by two sorts of people. First, by mere cavillers who do not like the gospel, and wish to pick all sorts of holes in it. They can tell us what they do not believe; but they do not tell us what they do believe. They would fight with everyone’s doctrines and sentiments; but they would be at a loss if they were asked to sit down and write their own opinions. They do not seem to have gotten much further than the genius of the monkey, which can pull everything to pieces, but can put nothing together. Then, on the other hand, there is the Antinomian, who says, “Yes, I know I am saved by grace alone”; and then breaks the law — says, it is not binding on him, even as a rule of life; and asks, “What purpose then does the law serve?” throwing it out of his door as an old piece of furniture only fit for the fire, because, truly, it is not adapted to save his soul. Why, a thing may have many uses, if not a particular one. It is true that the law cannot save; and yet it is equally true that the law is one of the highest works of God, and is deserving of all reverence, and extremely useful when applied by God to the purposes for which it was intended.

      2. Yet, pardon me my friends, if I just observe that this is a very natural question, too. If you read the doctrine of the apostle Paul you find him declaring that the law condemns all mankind. Now, just let us for one single moment take a bird’s eye view of the works of the law in this world. Lo, I see, the law given upon Mount Sinai. The very hill quakes with fear. Lightnings and thunders are the attendants of those dreadful syllables which make the hearts of Israel to melt. Sinai seems filled with smoke. The Lord came from Paran, and the Holy One from Mount Sinai; “He came with ten thousand of his saints.” Out of his mouth went a fiery law for them. It was a dreadful law even when it was given; and since then from that Mount of Sinai an awful lava of vengeance has run down, to deluge, to destroy, to burn, and to consume the whole human race, if it had not been that Jesus Christ had stemmed its awful torrent, and bidden its waves of fire to be still. If you could see the world without Christ in it, simply under the law, you would see a world in ruins, a world with God’s black seal put upon it, stamped and sealed for condemnation; you would see men, who, if they knew their condition, would have their hands on their loins and be groaning all their days — you would see men and women condemned, lost, and ruined; and in the uttermost regions you would see the pit that is dug for the wicked, into which the whole earth must have been cast if the law had its way, apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Indeed, beloved, the law is a great deluge which would have drowned the world with worse than the water of Noah’s flood; it is a great fire which would have burned the earth with a destruction worse than what fell on Sodom; it is a stern angel with a sword, athirst for blood, and winged to slay; it is a great destroyer sweeping down the nations; it is the great messenger of God’s vengeance sent into the world. Apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, the law is nothing but the condemning voice of God thundering against mankind. “What purpose then does the law serve?” seems a very natural question. Can the law be of any benefit to man? Can that Judge who puts on a black cap and condemns us all, this Lord Chief Justice Law, can he help in salvation? Yes, he can; and you shall see how he does it, if God shall help us while we preach. “What purpose then does the law serve?”

      3. I. The first use of the law is to reveal to man his guilt. When God intends to save a man, the first thing he does with him is to send the law to him, to show him how guilty, how vile, how ruined he is, and in how dangerous a position. You see that man lying there on the edge of the precipice; he is sound asleep, and just on the perilous verge of the cliff. One single movement, and he will roll over and be broken in pieces on the jagged rocks beneath, and nothing more shall be heard of him. How is he to be saved? What shall be done for him — what shall be done? It is our position; we, too, are lying on the brink of ruin, but we are insensible to it. God, when he begins to save us from such an imminent danger, sends his law, which, with a stout kick, rouses us up, makes us open our eyes; we look down on our terrible danger, discover our miseries; and then it is we are in a right position to cry out for salvation, and our salvation comes to us. The law acts with man as the physician does when he takes the film from the eye of the blind. Self-righteous men are blind men, though they think that they are good and excellent. The law takes that film away, and lets them discover how vile they are, and how utterly ruined and condemned if they are to abide under the sentence of the law.

      4. Instead, however, of treating this doctrinally, I shall treat it practically, and come home to each of your consciences. My hearer, does not the law of God convict you of sin this morning? Under the hand of God’s Spirit does it not make you feel that you have been guilty, that you deserve to be lost, that you have incurred the fierce anger of God? Look here; have you not broken these ten commandments; even in the letter have you not broken them? Who is there among you who has always honoured his father and mother? Who is there among us who has always spoken the truth? Have we not sometimes borne false witness against our neighbour? Is there one person here who has not made to himself another God, and loved himself, or his business, or his friends, more than he has Jehovah, the God of the whole earth? Which of you has not coveted your neighbour’s house, or his man servant, or his ox, or his ass? We are all guilty with regard to every letter of the law; we have all of us transgressed the commandments. And if we really understood these commandments, and felt that they condemned us, they would have this useful influence on us of showing us our danger, and so of leading us to flee to Christ. But, my hearers, does not this law condemn you, because even if you should say you have not broken the letter of it, yet you have violated the spirit of it. What, though you have never killed, yet we are told, he that is angry with his brother is a murderer. As a negro said once, “Sir, I thought me no kill — me innocent there; but when I heard that