I invite you to open your Bibles this morning to this morning scripture text which can be found in 1st Timothy, the 1st chapter,

verses 5 through 11.

The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscious and a sincere faith.

For some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussions.

Wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they

are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully,

realizing the fact that the law is not made for the righteous man, but for those who are

lawless and rebellious.

For the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers,

for murderers and immoral men, homosexuals and kidnappers, liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious

Gospel of the Blessed God, which I have been entrusted. Father, we want so badly as a congregation to use the law lawfully because we see that shipwreck can be made of churches and ministries and families and lives and eternities when the law is used unlawfully.

And so I pray that I would be a faithful expositor of your word today.

And that we as a people would grow in our understanding of what it means to be justified by faith alone apart from works of the law, and in doing

that to know the path to a lawful use of the law.

Guard us from Satan, now I pray,

may all his fiery darts be quenched in the faith of those who pray in this service.

May unbelievers in this service feel welcomed, so welcome that they are drawn all the way in to faith and salvation and

eternal life.

Strengthen your church now through this word I pray and fulfill the law whose goal is Christ for righteousness to all who believe in lives of love.

In Jesus, name I pray, amen.

Well the question is crying out for an answer now, and some of you have expressed the question to me over recent weeks, namely, well what then should we do with the law. Because we've been in Romans now for a long time and repeatedly I have pointed to the weakness of the law and the inability of the law to do what has to be done.

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