The Right Use of the Law

March 8, 2026

The Right Use of the Law

1 Timothy

Preached by Ryan Hayden on March 8, 2026

Manuscript
Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1 this evening. We're going to talk tonight about the right use of the law. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of videos about Islam lately. I'm very interested in what's going on in the Middle East and very interested in the mentality and history of Islam. One of the key things about Islam is how they view the Quaran. The Quaran is to them absolutely perfect and it is just a bunch of laws. Laws to be obeyed and submitted to. Their whole philosophy could be summed up in just submit. In fact the word Muslim means one who submits and the word Islam means to submit. You look at Judaism and Judaism is all about the law. It's pretty simple. You have these five books of the law: - Genesis - Exodus - Leviticus - Numbers - Deuteronomy The rest of the Bible is just explaining the law and their history. But then when you think about Christianity, it's a little bit complicated when it comes to the law. On the one hand we believe the law is perfect. We believe the law was breathed out by God. On the other hand we believe that we are not under the law in the same way that people in the Old Testament were under the law and that we have freedom in Christ. How do we reconcile those two things? Hopefully the message tonight is going to help with that. It's going to help show you what is different about Christianity versus Judaism and Islam. And how we as Christians are supposed to use the law Let's go ahead and read verses 1 to 17 of 1 Timothy 1. > [1](#) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; > [2](#) Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. > [3](#) As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, > [4](#) Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. > [5](#) Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: > [6](#) From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; > [7](#) Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. > [8](#) But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; > [9](#) Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, > [10](#) For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; > [11](#) According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. > [12](#) And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; > [13](#) Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. > [14](#) And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. > [15](#) This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. > [16](#) Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. > [17](#) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. > 1 Timothy 1:1-17 (KJV) Last week I told you what I think the main thrust of this book is. Paul is writing to Timothy's protege, who he has left behind to kind of clean things up in Ephesus. Ephesus is the main city in Asia Minor and it's sort of the home base for churches in that region. Ephesus is probably Paul's most successful ministry and yet Ephesus is starting to slide into false teaching. The people that are doing the false teaching are elders from that church, not outsiders. And so Paul sent Timothy to go there and stop it and to reinstate sound doctrine. Now last week I told you it probably wasn't outright false doctrine. It's not like these false teachers were teaching another gospel, like the people did in Galatia. It's more likely that they were adding to the Bible with myths and genealogies and fables. It's like the Bible and the message of the gospel wasn't enough and so they had to add to it and go to a "deeper level". And the last verse we looked at last week is verse 10, where it says that these teachers desire to be teachers of the law but they don't understand what they're teaching. Then in verse 11 Paul starts on this big digression about what the law is for. And his basic point is the law is for the gospel. The law is to bring us to the gospel. Then in verse 12 Paul starts a second digression, a digression from the digression about the gospel. So there's a lot to unpack here. Look at verse 8. > [8](#) But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; > 1 Timothy 1:8 (KJV) This is kinda word play, isn't it? The law is good if it's used lawfully. I looked it up in the Greek and the word plays in the Greek too. The word “lawfully” is a form of the word that's used for “law”. What's Paul saying here? He's saying the law is good if you use it right. And it's bad if you use it wrong and these false teachers were not using the law right. So our question tonight is: How are we supposed to use the law? Now I think it's important that when we talk about the law here, we're not talking about the ceremonial law of the Old Testament or the civic law of the Old Testament. We're not talking about how many sheep you're supposed to bring to an offering. Or how you're supposed to do the meat offering or something like that. That form of the law was obviously replaced by Christ. We are talking about the moral law of the Old Testament. Stuff like: - God's laws for how we treat each other - God's laws for sexual ethics - God's laws for how we think about Him The kind of laws that you find in the Ten Commandments. The Old Testament has all kinds of moral laws and moral guidelines. How are we supposed to use them and think about them? I'm going to give you three right uses of the law tonight. The law of God does three things for people: 1. It restrains 2. It condemns 3. It defines 1. The restraining work of the law. =================================== One of the jobs of the Old Testament law is to set boundaries for everybody. Pretty obvious examples here: - \*\*Thou shalt not steal.\*\*It is wrong to steal. We build from that all kinds of specific ways that people steal from each other, right? All of them are wrong and this wrongness is defined by God's holy law and that wrongness sets the guidelines for society. - **Thou shalt not kill.** The actual word there means murder. It is wrong to murder. It is wrong to purposely harm other people. - **Thou shalt not commit adultery.** Sexual sin is bad. Marital fidelity is good. Those are familiar examples from the Ten Commandments but if you read the Law, it goes into a lot of detail in all of these areas: - It goes into detail of property crime. - It goes into detail of murder and killing and manslaughter. - It goes into detail of sexual sins. And that kind of law has restrained mankind for all of human history. Paul talks about this here in verses 9 and 10. > [9](#) Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, > [10](#) For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; > 1 Timothy 1:9-10 (KJV) There is a restraining work of the Law. Let me give you kind of a practical example: speed limits. As much as we would love to say we don't need speed limits, I think they restrain our behavior. Even if we drive above the speed limit all the time, we judge how far, how fast we drive based on that limit. It is a restraining work. I was watching a video of people driving in Tehran, Iran, the other day and there's just no holds barred. People go the wrong direction down the road. You ever seen the video of cars driving around India? We need laws that restrain us. Without law things devolve into chaos and mankind's worst instinct just goes crazy. So the first work of the law is restraining work. The second work of the law is… 2. The condemning work of the law. ================================== I think this is what Paul was getting at here in 1st Timothy chapter one. This is a theme of Paul's writing in Romans and Galatians. The law shows us how sinful we are so that we turn to Christ. This is what Paul's talking about in Romans chapter 3. Listen to this. > [19](#) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. > [20](#) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. > Romans 3:19-20 (KJV) One of the most important works of the law is to show us that we can't keep the law. Again going back to the Ten Commandments, the first commandment is "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." You're not doing that. You are not putting God in first place in your life all the time. The third commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Every single one of us has broken this commandment. You sing a hymn and your heart isn't in it. You just took the name of the Lord your God in vain. If you flippantly pray but you're not really thinking about it, you are taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. The fourth commandment: remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Nobody has a perfect record there. And so it is as you go through the Old Testament law and you look at these moral laws: none of us measure up. None of us. The only person that ever did measure up to the law is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so one of the purposes of the law, rightly used, is to show us our need for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to show us that we can't save ourselves. That's why Paul said in verse 11: > [11](#) According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. > 1 Timothy 1:11 (KJV) One of the main purposes of the law is to point us to the gospel. It restrains the world in a general sense by showing us what is right and wrong and it condemns us so that we run to Christ. There is a third correct use of the law and that is: 3. The illuminating work of the law. ==================================== As believers we are not under the law in the same sense that people in the Old Testament were under the law. We understand that the law doesn't save us. But we also understand that the law represents the mind of God. So as believers, as those that are going about trying to think of how we're supposed to live our life, it is helpful and useful for us to see God's mind in the Old Testament law and understand how God wants us to think and how God wants us to act and how God wants us to treat each other. I'm going to use another illustration here. Hopefully this helps you understand this. When you're a kid you are under your parents' rules. Your parents might or might not have had very clear and specific rules for you as a child. Maybe those rules were: - Be in at a certain time every night. - Finish your chores before you go out and play. - Take your shoes off when you come in the house. I don't know what your parents' rules were, okay? I'm just you; I know they had them. And when you're under your parents' roof, those rules are the law. You break those rules, you'll be punished. They're going to uphold those rules. But you know I am not under my parents' house anymore. I can stay out all night if I want to. I can do my chores when I want to do my chores or not do my chores at all. I can wear shoes wherever I want to. I'm the parent now! But you know what? Even though I'm no longer under those rules of my parents, I can look back now with a different set of eyes and appreciate what they were trying to do. How many of you look back on some of the rules that your parents might have had and you see them differently now that you're an adult? Any of you still do those things that you kind of bucked against a little bit when you were a child? Where I went to college, the Bible college I went to, very strict dress code. Kind of a ridiculous dress code. Okay like we were wearing ties every single day. We were not allowed to wear blue jeans off campus unless we had some kind of manual job. No shorts around unless we were exercising. Very very strict rules. And like everybody else I kind of bucked against it a little bit. I didn't like those rules. I don't follow those rules anymore. I don't always wear a tie and I wear blue jeans to work every day because it's actually in my work handbook that they want you to wear blue jeans. But you know what? I am very grateful because I think that rule book taught me some principles about how to dress. We are not under the Old Testament law but that doesn't mean we cannot look at the principles of the Old Testament law and learn a lot about how we can live. That Old Testament law contains the mind of a God who doesn't change. That Old Testament law contains the wisdom of the most wise one who ever lived. And while it doesn't control our life as Christians, it ought to illuminate our life as Christians. So three right works of the law: 1. The law has a restraining work. It restrains evil. 2. It has a condemning work. It shows us that we don't measure up to point us to the gospel. 3. It has an illuminating work. For Christians we're not under the law but we can still learn from it. Rejoicing in Grace ================== Now Paul, after he talked about the Law (and remember his main thrust is the Law shows us the need for the Gospel), after he talked about it in verses 12 to 17, he goes into another digression where he talks about his testimony. Paul was somebody who knew he had run afoul of the law. He says, "I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious." The word injurious means somebody who is an insulter. In the book of Acts when it first introduces us to Paul, it says that he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the church. Paul was a man who was obsessed in his hatred and his tearing down of the church. And yet he said, *"I obtained mercy."* Then he says in verse 14, *"And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus."* Paul, probably more than anybody, understood mercy and he understood the grace of God. He understood that he did not deserve his salvation, that it happened because of the merciful and gracious work of God. And then he says in verse 15, (what a blessed verse): > [15](#) This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. > 1 Timothy 1:15 (KJV) This is true. Everybody should accept this: that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Not the righteous but sinners. Not the holy but sinners. Not those who deserve it but sinners. Then he says, "Of whom I am chief." Paul understood himself to be the chief of sinners. He understood that more than anybody he only had what he had because of God's mercy. And he saw himself and you see this in verse 16. He saw himself as a pattern for how God was going to save other people. God showed mercy and grace to him so that other people could see the pattern of how God saves they would believe. So we're talking tonight about how to use the law and I think this last section here is still related to how to use the law because it shows us the main way how not to use the law. We don't use the law in a way that makes us puffed up. We don't use the law in a way that makes us an accessory to our salvation. The law condemns us so we go only to Christ. It does not give us bragging rights. Those bragging rights belong only to our Lord and Savior. And Paul wraps up this paragraph in verse 17 with a praise, a doxology about how God deserves praise alone: > [17](#) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. > 1 Timothy 1:17 (KJV) Listen I started the message by talking about the difference between Christianity and Islam and Judaism as it pertains to the law. In Islam and in Judaism the idea of the people is you have to do the law in order to be right with God. But Christianity, we believe that God wanted to be right with us so much that he sent his Son to fulfill the law for us and to be punished in our place so that we can be made right with him. Because of that God is so much more glorious. We are recipients of his grace. The one thing we must never do is use the law as something to pat ourselves on the back with, to use the law as something to make us feel better than everybody else with, because that's not its purpose. Its purpose is to point us to Jesus. He deserves all the honor and glory. Let's stand together and pray.

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Ryan Hayden

Ryan Hayden

Lead Pastor

Ryan has served as the lead pastor at Bible Baptist since 2011. A native of New Hampshire, Ryan attended Crown College of the Bible in Tennessee where he met his wife, Amanda. Together they have five children. Ryan loves expository preaching, exercise, and spending time with his family.

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