[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 3. We'll be in Galatians chapter 3, verses 15 through 29 this morning. Galatians chapter 3, verses 15 through 29.
[0:13] We are making our way through the book of Galatians, Paul's letter to the church at Galatia, a church he was very familiar with, a church which he helped to start.
[0:23] The terminology would be he planted that church and he stayed around long enough to raise up elders or rise up elders in that church. And when he started a church, one thing we understand that is unique about the New Testament, and it really is unique about church in the New Testament, is there are things you don't find as it pertains to the church in the New Testament.
[0:44] One of the things you don't find about churches in the New Testament is buildings. The New Testament churches did not meet in buildings because the Jewish people, and most of the time where the churches began, life centered around the synagogue.
[0:59] The Jewish synagogue. And where the church started in Jerusalem in particular, and especially throughout the Jewish societies and Jewish cultures, the Jews were in the habit of synagogue worship, meeting in the synagogue.
[1:13] And Paul began many of his missionary endeavors, or many of his missionary travels, going to where the people were gathered together. And he would go into the synagogue, and he would open up from the scripture, and he would preach Christ, which usually led to a number of people coming to faith in Christ, through sometimes through rejection, and it going to the Gentiles, other times through Jewish people in curiosity.
[1:35] But the church would meet in homes. This is why when we read letters in the New Testament written to particular churches, we must not come to the conclusion that he is writing to Ortrecht's Baptist Church, and it's just a letter that's going to be read in this meeting.
[1:50] This is a letter written to the church at large in the region or the city of Galatia, depending upon your interpretation, and meeting at multiple locations in multiple houses or in multiple common places.
[2:04] The church would be kind of scattered around the town or scattered around the region. And Paul is writing the church to encourage and even at times to admonish the believers, which he had invested in.
[2:16] And this is why we see that the church would take time to invest and rise up elders, multiple leaders within the church to maintain the different locations and to maintain the different meeting places that would happen.
[2:30] But Paul is writing to a church he's very familiar with, and he's writing to a church to correct a false teaching that had very quickly crept into that church, and it is a teaching pertaining to the truth of salvation, defending the gospel, because he came and freely they had accepted Christ, and freely they had believed in him, and by grace they had been saved.
[2:51] And then all of a sudden came in this, well, now we need to work to maintain our salvation. We need to do all these good things. We need to follow this list of do's and don'ts, and we need to become more like this.
[3:03] And Paul is correcting that false doctrine, and he is correcting that false assumption and defending really the true gospel, and that is you're saved by faith in Christ and faith alone.
[3:15] And that is your salvation, that is your righteousness, and that is the free gift given to you. And he is writing to this church to correct the problem that is going on. This is probably, if not the first, one of the first writings of Paul.
[3:30] This was something that was very near and dear to his heart, something that resonated throughout his ministry. And the reason was, is because he had lived the majority of his life to this point, attempting to win the favor of a holy God through perfect obedience.
[3:46] He had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He had memorized major portions of the Old Testament. As to the law, he said, blameless. By whose standard? By man's standard. He said, any other believer or any other practicing Jew would look at me and say, you are doing a good job.
[4:03] As a matter of fact, he had been to the best seminary of Jewish teaching. He had sat at the feet of the best teachers. He had worked so hard. He wanted so hard to be pleasing to God, he began to persecute people that believed differently than him.
[4:18] He began to persecute the way. That would turn into the church, right? Because he saw Jesus Christ as one who was blaspheming, who was claiming to be God when he was not God.
[4:29] He was living his life to the best of his ability. But thanks be to God, even in the best of his ability, God knocked him on his feet on Damascus Road. And God showed him that, Paul, your ability, even the best of your ability, is not enough to even get near my glory, near my holiness.
[4:48] And God woke him up. And who did he use to wake him up? He used Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who called out to him, why are you kicking against the goats? Why are you denying me?
[4:59] I am what I say I am. I am what I am. You need to come to me. And Paul saw this freedom that came from being saved by faith in Christ alone. This freedom from legalistic obedience to the law.
[5:10] Did it say that he didn't have to live good anymore? No, that's not what it said. But this weight of burden lifted off his shoulders. So when he preached the gospel, he preached the true gospel. And when he was concerned about churches, he was concerned that they understood correctly the true gospel.
[5:25] And then he would adamantly defend the true gospel. And that's what we find in the book of Galatians. In Galatians chapter 3, verses 15 through 19, I want you to see with me this morning, faith's triumph over law.
[5:40] Faith's triumph over law. So if you are physically able and desire to do so, I ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God found in Galatians 3, starting in verse 15.
[5:51] I'm going to read to the end of the chapter, which gets us down to verse 29. Paul says, Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations. Even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.
[6:07] Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say and to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one and to your seed, that is Christ. What I am saying is this, the law which came 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to nullify the promise.
[6:27] For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on promise, but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
[6:48] Now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
[7:04] But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed.
[7:20] Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
[7:36] For all of you who are being baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
[7:52] And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. God, we rejoice in the great opportunity and the privilege you've given us to read and to hear and to see your word.
[8:09] We pray, oh God, now that our eyes would be opened, our ears would be attentive, and we would hear not a voice of a man, but Lord, we would hear your word spoken to us. And God, that in hearing your word, we would have lives that were ready to respond to it in obedient faith.
[8:22] And we pray that these things would be for your glory and honor. We ask it all in Jesus' name. And amen. You may be seated. I want you to see from this passage, faith's triumph over law.
[8:34] Beginning in Galatians 3, Paul begins to defend justification by faith alone. He has stated the problem of the gospel in Galatians 1 and carried it on into Galatians 2, and we've looked at the reality of living the crucified life, and now he is beginning to defend the justification by faith in Galatians 3.
[8:55] He spends three chapters stating the problem and the defense of the problem, and then he spends the last three chapters of the book of Galatians applying the truth of the gospel, what it looks like in daily application.
[9:06] So we get to the stated defense first, and then we get to the application. But I want you to see this morning as he lays out for us what he continued beginning in Galatians 3.
[9:17] Starting in the very first bit, he begins an argument from Old Testament context, because many of the things being introduced were not new to man. It wasn't like when somebody just finally came up with the idea that if you're going to believe in faith, in Jesus Christ, and be saved, then you have to live this way.
[9:32] No, they were taking what had already been given to man in the Old Testament and began to make it have application through the cross of Christ. That is, they began to add to the cross.
[9:43] They began to say, yes, yes, Jesus is good enough to save you. Jesus died for you. Surely, surely you can be forgiven through Christ. But now that you have been forgiven through Christ, it's up to you to make sure you live your life the right way.
[9:55] And let's just go ahead and say there, my friend, there is a lot of burden and weight in that responsibility. Because if we are honest, we could not live good enough to be saved.
[10:06] Why do we think we can live good enough after we are saved? That's just to put it blunt. We really do ourselves a great disjustice if we think we desperately need someone to redeem us.
[10:18] But once he redeems us, we can say, okay, Lord, we got it from here. We'll take over. Because if we couldn't do it good enough at the beginning, then by all means, we cannot do it good enough at the continuation of it.
[10:30] You say, oh, but all things have been made new. I've been born again. I'm a new creature. And I'll say amen to that, that through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of you. But I would also say that Paul says, I am not yet what I should be.
[10:42] Yet I press on towards the goal that Christ has called me to, knowing that in that day, I will be made complete. So why do we think that in the incompleteness and in the imperfections of a discounted body, we think that we can live out the perfections of the commandments of God.
[10:59] And this is exactly what was going on. And it is the same problem that man has always had. Surely someone does not love me enough to forgive me freely and to keep me freely. Surely there is something I must do.
[11:12] Every religion you ever find anywhere, which by the way, is all over the place, because man was created and designed to worship. And there has never been discovered a new people group, a new man, a new somewhere.
[11:24] Well, I walked through the middle of a jungle and I found someone that I never knew was in existence. The major thing is that as soon as you find them, you find that they are worshiping something. Now, it may be trees, it may be animals, it may be seasons, it may be moon, it may be stars, but they are worshiping something.
[11:39] Maybe it's their leader or something of that nature. Man was created to worship. And most of that worship follows this pattern. If I'm good enough, I will be accepted.
[11:50] If I do this right, then maybe, if it's a worship of thinking that I'll have a next life, in my next life I'll progress on, in my next life I'll progress on. There is great danger in that, because we also know deep down inside of us, we will never be good enough.
[12:06] Because if we ever thought we were good enough, we'd quit having that nagging problem. Now, Paul wants to free us from that. Paul shows us here, faith triumphs over law, because all law is, is the legalistic requirements of what you must do.
[12:22] And people like that, even though we don't really like what it says. We want someone to tell us, what should I do? How do I need to live?
[12:33] And then I'll go do it, and I'll take care of myself, and I won't have to have a relationship. I will handle it. Paul says the problem is, is that that doesn't work, but faith has triumphed over the law.
[12:46] Faith, while it sounds simple, is very demanding and very trying. Why? Because faith requires a relationship. And you have to live in communion with the one who has done it all, rather than going out on your own and doing it yourself.
[13:02] I want you to see three things this morning, of why faith is greater, or why it wins the battle over law every time. Number one, you see the unchanging promise. Faith's unchanging promise.
[13:16] Again, Paul is going back, and I love his arguments, because every one of his arguments are not circumstantial. Rather, they are based upon Scripture. They are based upon the Word of God. And we see the unchanging promise of faith.
[13:29] He says, Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations. Even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. What is he doing here?
[13:39] He is using an illustration from man, or an illustration which we are used to, to illustrate, or to open up the window of a divine truth. And he is saying this, that when you make a covenant, and you sign your name to it, and the other side of the party signs their name to it, that covenant, or that agreement, cannot be changed once it has been ratified.
[13:58] Once it has been sealed, it is there. It cannot be changed. You can't add to it, and you can't take away from it. It is binding, he would say here. We see this throughout Scripture, how the binding elements of man's covenant have been used by God to fulfill his promises.
[14:14] And Paul is saying, in reality, that if it is that so with fallible man, how much so with a perfect God. That when God enters into a covenant, when he enters into a relationship, when he makes a promise, nothing can change that promise.
[14:35] And he does not go back to Moses, the giver of the law. He goes back further than Moses, and all the way back to Abraham, where we have the initiation of God's covenant of promise.
[14:46] Really, we could go all the way back to the book of Genesis, and we could see how God made a promise to Eve, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There's this great word here, the word seed, which Paul illuminates, or he highlights for us.
[14:58] And you can follow that seed throughout Scripture. You know, when you read of the fall of man, and it says that Satan will bruise his heel, but he will crush his head.
[15:08] The Scripture is very clear. It says, the seed of a woman will crush the head of Satan. It does not say the seeds of man, which means the descendants of a woman. And by the way, in Scripture, the seeds are always given to the men.
[15:22] You are a seed of your father. You are not the seed of your mother, because the seed rests in the father. You are a seed of the father. And God was very clear in what he said, the seed of a woman, which meant the man would have nothing to do with it.
[15:34] And here we have the virgin conception and the virgin birth of Jesus. The seed singular of a woman will crush the head of Satan. God does not give the authority to all the descendants of man to crush the head of Satan.
[15:45] That was only given to one descendant of a woman to crush the head of Satan, and that is Jesus Christ. And we can follow throughout the Old Testament, even into the New Testament, this seed.
[15:55] One thing you find in particular is every promise God makes is based upon this singular seed, which is Jesus Christ.
[16:06] So that's a lot to be said, and this is all it means. Every promise you find God making in the Old Testament rests in the fulfillment and the person of Jesus Christ.
[16:17] Everyone. It does not rest in the faithfulness of man. It does not rest in the ability of man. It does not rest in the works of man. It rests in the reality of Christ.
[16:29] And we see this here because God made a promise, and that promise is unchanging. How do we know it's unchanging? Now, the promises were spoken to Abraham. I don't have time to take you back to Genesis 12 where we read the Abrahamic covenant, and now that's one promise, and then go to Genesis 15, and we read the continuation of the Abraham covenant, and then we read the ratification of the Abrahamic covenant.
[16:53] So you have Genesis 12 and Genesis 15. You can check those. You write those down. You go back and look at it. Genesis 12, you have God calling Abraham out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans. Genesis 15, God promises that he will be a father to many nations, and then he ratifies that covenant.
[17:08] You may remember this real weird scene where Abraham takes the animals, he sacrifices the animals, and he lays half the animal over here, half the animal over here, half of it over here, half of it over here, and all day long, Abraham's trying to run the vultures off of the animals because, you know, vultures get around dead animals, and Abraham gets tired of running vultures away from the animals, and Abraham kind of falls asleep, which he's tired, and then Abraham looks up, and as he looks up, there's a fiery furnace passing back and forth between the carcasses of the animals, and we read that in our American society, and we go, that's weird.
[17:41] What in the world does that mean? And we have to go all the way back to the practices of that time. That was a way of sealing a promise, is that I would kill the animal, lay it out, and then I would take the torch halfway, you'd take the torch halfway, and we would meet, and we would both walk back and forth between it, and then we would say, I signed my part, you signed your part.
[17:59] What is unique, and we'll get to this in just a minute, is Abraham never signed his part. God passed the furnace back and forth by himself. He made it when Abraham was asleep. So the promise that was given to Abraham was only signed by one party, and that is God himself.
[18:13] Just keep that in mind. We're going to get to that. But there's a number of promises because it says, the promises which were spoken to Abraham and to his seed, it does not say into seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, and that is to your seed, that is to Christ.
[18:26] He says, what I'm saying is this, the law, now I'm going to test your biblical knowledge here because some of you reading this ought to go, wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. And the law, which came 430 years later, that's where it should get you.
[18:41] Because by the way, the law was given after the nation of Israel came out of Egypt, right? And they went into Egypt under Joseph. Joseph went there as a slave, right?
[18:51] And they were in Egyptian slavery for 430 years. Now, Abraham received the promise of descendants. So we skipped over all of the generations of the ones who preceded Joseph.
[19:05] There was about a thousand years span between when Abraham received this promise and then Moses got the law given to him at Mount Sinai. And why in the world did Paul say it only came 430 years later?
[19:17] Well, it is because this promise was reinstated or re-spoken to each coming generation, each successive generation. Joseph was reaffirmed in this promise.
[19:28] God promised the same thing again. He continued the same thing every generation. 430 years after the last time God renewed this promise, they were given a law. What is Paul saying?
[19:39] Paul says, just because they received the law, it does not null and void the promise. God had already made a covenant. It doesn't change the promise at all. Now, I know I'm getting deep, but stay with me here because the Bible tells us, and this is kind of the application of all of this, and you need to understand sometimes we, to understand these passages, we got to get a little deeper.
[20:00] And I know people say, you're just speaking way over my head. Well, right now, let's see if we can move it from over the head to right to the heart. God said, Abraham, follow me, and I'm going to give you a land. And the Bible says, Abraham followed him.
[20:13] Abraham followed him. Now, what has to happen before you follow? If I tell you, hey, if you'll follow me out back, I'm going to give you something pretty cool. Whatever would be cool in your mind.
[20:24] I mean, to Abraham, land was pretty cool, right? So if I came up to you and said, hey, if you'll just follow me, I'll give you something, what would have to happen? The first thing is, you'd have to believe I was really going to give you something back there. Right? So Abraham believed God, followed God, and went after, left the Ur of the Chaldeans.
[20:39] And he went into what is the promised land. He's following him. God says, that's great, you believe me this far. And he says, Abraham, look up to heaven and see the stars of the heaven. And Abraham's looking up to heaven and God says, Abraham, I promise you that though your wife is barren and though you don't have any children and though you're looking around and it's just you, I promise you, Abraham, that your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the heaven and greater than the sand on the seashore.
[21:01] And the Bible says, in Genesis 15, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him as to righteousness, which means, really it's a great way of saying it. Abraham said, amen to that, God.
[21:12] And God says, since you believe I can do this when it seems impossible, I'm going to say you're in good standing with me. Now let me ask you, what did Abraham do? He believed God, followed God. Abraham gave him a promise that made no sense to mankind.
[21:24] It made no sense. Abraham was as good as dead. His wife's womb was as good as gone. And God says, I'm going to multiply your descendants. And Abraham just said, amen. He said, I don't know how you're going to do it. I don't understand how it could happen, but amen to that, God.
[21:37] Thank you for your promise, which by the way, let me, I'm about to preach myself into a tizzy. When you come into the scripture and you see where God says he's going to do something, you have no way of knowing how he's going to do it.
[21:48] The only response you should have is say amen to that, God. God says, I'm about to do this. You just say amen, amen. I mean, because you don't need to figure it out. You don't need to rationalize it. You don't need to pin it out. And hey, I'm a guy who likes to write plans out.
[22:00] You don't need to do all that because sometimes you just got to say, amen, God. It sounds cool. I'm going to trust that you're going to do it. I can't wait to see how you're going to do it. Abraham thought that that was cool. I did. He said, amen. And God says, now you're righteous.
[22:11] What did Abraham do to this point? Nothing. God called him righteous. Again, another side point. This is good. And I'm just on the first point, but this is good stuff. If God says you're righteous, I don't care what anybody else in the world says about you.
[22:23] If God says you're righteous, it doesn't matter that if you, if you lie a couple of times about who your wife is, I'm not saying that you should do that because Abraham did that. And we read all this story of Abraham like, yeah, but he messed up here and he messed up here.
[22:36] But what we forget is before he messed up, God already told him he was righteous. And God didn't tell him he was righteous because he was good. God didn't tell him he was righteous because he was perfect. God told him he was righteous because he believed.
[22:47] And God says, I promise you you're righteous. And all he said was, amen. He believed the promise. Now the greatest promise I can ever think to God ever made that blows me away that I can't really understand it is God promised.
[22:59] I'm going to send my son. He's going to live a perfect life. He's going to be born of a virgin. Boom blows my mind. Doesn't make sense. You can't figure that out. He's going to be the seed of me. He's not going to be the seed of man. He's going to live a perfect life.
[23:10] He's going to die a sinless death for the sinners. He's going to take your pain, your responsibility, bear it on his back. I'm going to turn my face from him. He's going to be laid in a tomb.
[23:21] And on the third day, he's going to come back and he's going to be raised to walk in the newness of life. And then he's going to send to me. And I look at that and God says, if you believe that you are righteous. And I look at that and I say, I don't understand it, but amen to that because I need that, right?
[23:35] I need someone to bear my pain. I need someone to take my responsibility because I can't do it. And that's all you say is amen to that. God, I believe that you've done it.
[23:46] Now, listen to me. What am I placing my faith on? A promise. It is a promise. Whatever comes after that promise does not nullify the promise.
[23:59] For a thousand years, the descendants of Abraham lived according to that promise. Then they were given a law that since they already had that promise, this is what their life should look like. That law did not discount that promise.
[24:10] Why? Because God had already signed that promise and said, if you believe me, you're righteous. If you believe me, you're righteous. If you believe me, you're righteous. The law says, but if you can't do this, you're not righteous.
[24:24] We'll get to that in just a minute. If you can't do this, you're not righteous. If you can't do this, you're not righteous. And you go, well, according to the law, I fail, but according to the promise, I'm good. Well, what should you do? The law does not change the promise. Faith triumphs over law because it is an unchanging promise.
[24:40] It is an unchanging promise. Number two, we say that faith triumphs over law because of the superior quality. Just in case you think that I'm choosing faith because it's easier, just because you think that I'm choosing faith because it seems simpler, I want you to see this superior quality.
[24:55] All right. We see the superior quality and it goes on down here. It says, what I'm saying is this, verse 17, the law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God.
[25:07] You see that phrase? Previously ratified by God. That's that fiery furnace going back and forth between the dead carcasses. Okay. That's the ratification. That's where God signed his name on it. What was Abraham doing when that happened?
[25:19] He was sleeping. He was tired, right? He was laying down and he woke up and said, well, what's going on here? It's amazing how many cool things happen in scripture when people are sleeping. The garden of Gethsemane, the disciples were sleeping on the Mount of Transfiguration.
[25:33] They were kind of sleepy, right? There's all these things and God shows up and wakes them up when they're sleeping because God says, it's got nothing to do with you. It's got everything to do with me. So God ratified this. Okay.
[25:43] Verse 18, for if the inheritance is based on law and is no longer based on a promise, you need to hold on to this for when we're in. But God has granted to Abraham by means of a promise. Verse 19, why the law then? Here's the question.
[25:54] If God promised it, why the law? Well, because the promise was given to the seed, Jesus Christ. It would be multiple generations, multiple years before that seed came about. So why the law?
[26:05] It was added because of transgressions. Why was it added? Because of the sin nature of man. God knew that he's made a promise and even the sin nature of man, even understanding that promise could not live according to any good standard.
[26:21] If you want to know what man looks like without the law, look at what man looks like in the days of Noah, which by the way, these are the days of Elijah. I love that song. But we also understand that the Bible says, as they were in the days of Noah, so shall they be in the days preceding the coming of the Christ.
[26:37] The second coming. And if you want to look and see where our world is going, you look and see what was going on in the days of Noah, and you see man living without a law. You see man living in his transgressions. Having been ordained, this is what I want you to see, verse 19, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
[26:56] We're looking at the superior quality of the promise. Now, when God made a promise, God said, Abraham, this is what I'm going to do. Abraham, follow me.
[27:07] Abraham, follow. Abraham, this is what I'm going to do. Abraham said, amen. That's all he did. He didn't do anything else. He said, amen. He says, Abraham, I'm going to show you. I'm going to do this by signing this covenant with you. So he fell asleep.
[27:18] He signed the covenant. He passed the fiery furnace. And he said, okay. And then God is always sending his, his angels before him. He's always making these promises and he's speaking to his people. And he's speaking to his people.
[27:28] And what you always see is God is saying it. God is saying it. God is promising it. God is promising it. And all you see of Abraham and his descendants is they are just receiving. They're like sponges. They're receiving those promises of God.
[27:40] They're not doing anything else. They're just receiving what God promised them. And then comes down for the law. And the Bible says it was given through angels. We have a way of looking at that going.
[27:51] That is so cool. God spoke through his angels. That is awesome, right? Let's be careful. We do not attribute too much glory to angels. They are beautiful.
[28:02] They are majestic. They are powerful. They are of great ability and even supernatural ability. And they do wonderful things. But we also find in scripture that angels are the servants of the believers.
[28:15] That's that to me, that that's a, that's a pretty good deal, right? They are your servants. They are servants of the believers. They are not greater than believers. They are servants of believers. But it says that he gave it through angels to a mediator, to the people.
[28:30] We're looking at the superior quality of the promise over the law. The law came. The Bible tells us here, this is an exposition of what happened in Exodus.
[28:40] The angels told Moses what to tell the people. That's how the law came. That's how the law came. Ordained through angels to the mediator, that is the man Moses, to the people.
[28:52] So it passed from God to the angels, from the angels to Moses, from Moses to the people. And people said, this is it. When God made a promise, God himself walked into the presence of his people and said it.
[29:08] Now we know, and I'll prove to you we know, we know that the less ingredients added to anything makes it superior in quality. There are commercials that talk about dog food.
[29:21] And they're reading the list of ingredients on bags of dog food. And it promotes the superior quality of the dog food that has the less ingredients than the other one. And I'm not here to promote dog food. My dog's just happy to eat.
[29:33] Right? And we understand that. We're not here to talk about that. When you have a package and you want to eat a healthier lifestyle, what do you do? I want to see what has been added to this. Right?
[29:43] I want to see, is this pure or is this been modified? Is this been added to? The less ingredients, the better. Right? The less times it's been handled, the better.
[29:54] This is what all organic stuff is. And hey, I'm not against that. Right? I love growing a garden. And I love that. If I'm going to eat green beans, I'm going to know those beans grew in that dirt. I'll wipe that dirt off.
[30:04] I pop those beans. So I don't like popping beans. Don't get that habit. I've done that, you know, a lot, but I pop those beans. My wife took those beans and prepared those beans. And we ate those beans and they taste so much better because we know what is in them.
[30:16] Right? I know how much bacon grease she added to those beans. Amen. I know what was floating in there when she cooked them, but I know what was added to that because it makes it of a little superior quality of stuff.
[30:27] How much more so when it comes to the agency of the way God moves. When it came to the law, God gave it to an angel. An angel gave it to Moses and Moses gave it to the people and the people gave it to one another and pass it down from generation to generation to generation.
[30:43] Or you can just go back to where God himself said something and what he said. It is superior in quality. When we read that God says, if you believe me, you're righteous. He didn't send an angel to say that.
[30:55] He himself said that. What is he showing us? This is so good. It doesn't involve mediators. Always involve multiple parties. He said, this doesn't involve multiple parties because we see the disappear that the law says this.
[31:07] You do and I will. If you do this and I will do that. Right? That's what the law says. The law says, if you do this and you obey me and you fulfill this agreement and you live like this, then I will do this and I will do this.
[31:21] This is how God spoke through the law. The promise simply says, I will. I will. It doesn't say you do anything. It just says, I will call you righteous.
[31:31] I will call you faithful. I will call you my child. I will call you redeemed. I will call you forgiven. I will do this. It's a promise. And my friend, listen to me. When you begin to remove processes and steps, it always makes it greater in quality.
[31:46] We see the superior quality of faith over the law. The third and finally, I want you to see the inclusive nature. I want you to see the inclusive nature of the law. And this is a great argument that Paul lays out right here.
[32:00] He says in verse 20, now a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one. Again, talking of the mediator came from multiple parties. God is one. He gave this great promise.
[32:12] Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Because we have this argument, oh, it's contrary to the promises of God. Well, we misunderstand the place of the law. Okay.
[32:22] So is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
[32:34] What is the end result of the law? The law, now when I'm speaking of the law, I'm speaking primarily of the Old Testament, in particular, the first five books of the Old Testament. So I'm speaking primarily Old Testament religion, or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible in particular.
[32:48] What is the end outcome of that? We've talked about that. Everybody's dying. The end result, if you take it to his utter completion, which I love to take things to his final fulfillment.
[33:00] Some things sound great on the beginning, right? Some things sound great when they're first spoken of, but let's take it to his final end result. And when we read that, and we see it, and we take it all away as far as we can, in the end, everybody dies.
[33:17] Because in the end, we all fall short. And in the end, we all mess up. And in the end, none of us are perfect. So the end result of the law is death. But what does he say here? He says, if it could lead to life, then there wouldn't need to be a promise.
[33:30] But it can't lead you to life. It can only lead you to death. But it says here, in verse 22, But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin.
[33:43] The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This is where we begin to understand the inclusive nature of the law.
[33:57] Who received the Scripture? The Scripture is the Old Testament. It was the Jewish people, right? Now, we have the privilege of being in the family of God. And I'm going to show you why in just a minute.
[34:08] And I know it's getting deep, but just stay with me. If we lived in the days of Christ, anybody in here are Jewish? Because I don't want to make false assumptions. Anybody here of Jewish descent?
[34:20] Okay. If we were alive in the days of Christ, or in the days preceding the coming of Christ, everything you have in the first half of your Bible would mean nothing to you.
[34:33] Genesis to Malachi would mean nothing to you. Because it didn't apply to you. It wasn't for you. It had no truth for you. It was a Jewish book given to Jewish people.
[34:45] I'm not saying it's wrong. Now, stay with me. So, I just need to discount the Old Testament. Wait a minute. Let's stop here, okay? Stay with me. That's all I'm saying. I'm saying let's take the application. That at that time, Paul is saying, it shut everyone of who?
[35:00] God's chosen people up under the law. Why the law? So that God could preserve His people that were to be the conduit that the seed would come through.
[35:12] God had a people. And He didn't have a people because He's in the habit of picking teams. He didn't have the people because He was showing favorites. He had a people because He had a seed that was going to come at a time in a place in history from a particular group so that it would show the awesomeness of God's fulfillment and promises, right?
[35:28] He had a people for the sole point of making all of these bold predictions and bringing every one of them to pass. And the only way He could do that because if Jesus just showed up randomly and started saying things, anybody ever met someone who said they were God?
[35:42] I mean, you can put your hand up. Anybody ever met someone? I have met someone who told me they were God. I mean, I have. And I had the same conclusion you would have when you walked away. I walked away from him. That man is crazy.
[35:54] Why? Because anybody can walk up anytime. You know, I think I'm God. And you know, you have no way of validating that. Jesus, when He said this, had validation. He had proof. What proof did He have?
[36:05] This is what God said about me. This is what God said. This is how it happened. And He pointed back to a people and God's movement through that people to validate the fact that He was who He says He was.
[36:15] So this is why God chose the people. The law was given to the people to maintain the people so that Jesus could flow through there. Okay, now stay with me. I want you to see the inclusive nature of faith.
[36:28] It says, But before faith came, we were kept in custody. Who again is we? Paul is of Jewish descent. We were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith.
[36:43] Now, it doesn't mean it would teach us things. It's just the word tutor here is that the wealthy people of Paul's day would have someone who would take their kid back and forth to school, would kind of hang out with them after school.
[36:54] It wasn't really those who taught them anything, but it was those who kept, it was those who made sure your kids weren't getting in trouble. Anybody want to be my tutor? You just hang out with them, right?
[37:04] Make sure the kids don't get in trouble. Make sure they're doing what they're supposed to. It's not really your job to instruct them in anything, but this is the word that he's using. It would just maintain the children until they would grow to maturity and they would learn the things they should learn.
[37:19] So it says that the law became the tutor that would hold us in place to Christ until Christ was there so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
[37:30] Now, here's the inclusive nature. What I want you to understand, the law had a particular people involved. Now, don't discount the law. Don't walk out of here saying, preacher said, I don't have to worry about anything in Genesis to Malachi.
[37:41] Don't say, preacher said, I don't have to worry about doing any of the Ten Commandments because I'm about to turn that on its head, okay? Stay with me. But by nature, in its origination, God gave the law to a particular group of people to preserve that particular group of people so that his promise could come about.
[37:56] Now, here's the inclusive nature. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For you are all. Now we're including people.
[38:08] According to the law, I had no place in the family of God. According to the law, I had no part in the promises of God. According to the law, I was of wrong descent.
[38:22] I was of wrong nationality. According to the law, I didn't belong. Faith tells me this. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
[38:33] For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither. Here's the inclusive nature of faith. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
[38:44] There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. It is not separate.
[38:55] The law separates. The law divides. The law keeps a group of people isolated. Faith brings together. Faith unites.
[39:05] Faith promotes unity. Faith includes. And if you belong to Christ, here it is, God promised Abraham, you believe me, you're righteous. And if you belong to Christ and you are Abraham's descendants, heirs, according to what?
[39:21] Promise. Heirs according to promise. The law could not include everyone in the family.
[39:31] Praise be to God through faith in Jesus Christ. All are included. It does not remove your nationality. It does not remove your race.
[39:42] It does not remove your gender. It does not remove the position. But it says in the family of God, we're all included. Through faith. Through faith.
[39:52] Through faith. Now, in closing, just so you don't leave and so I don't get in trouble when I get home and my wife says, so you just told everybody they don't have to keep the law because it didn't apply to them.
[40:04] Let me say this in closing. It says that those who have placed their faith in Christ and have been baptized in Christ have been what? Clothed in Christ. I want to ask you something. I think Christ lives according to the law.
[40:19] I know He did. He is the fulfillment of the law. So if I'm walking around wearing Christ, guess what? I'm going to look like Christ. I'm going to fail but I'm not just going to say, I put Jesus on so I'm going to live however I want to live.
[40:35] There are some places I don't want to put Jesus on and take Him to. There are some things I don't want to put Jesus on and go and do or say or act or behave.
[40:47] And yet I fell in those things and that's where He elbows me and says, hey, I'm still here. Hey, I'm still here. I am clothed. You clothed yourself with me. I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here. So it's no longer an inclusion thing since I am included and faith has included me in the family of God.
[41:05] Now, praise be to God through He who has clothed me with Christ, I can begin to act like the family of God. And man, sometimes that looks just like the law.
[41:18] But I'm not trusting in the law. I'm trusting in the garment of Christ. Because see, faith triumphs law every time. Every time.
[41:28] Let's pray. Lord, I thank You so much. I thank You for Your faithfulness to us even when we are unfaithful. I thank You, O God, that every great truth we see in Scripture is based upon Your promise and not our worthiness, not even our faithfulness.
[41:45] Lord, I pray that we would take that. We live it out. We live our lives set apart for You. We live our lives clothed in Christ. Or whatever it is You want us to do today.
[41:56] Lord, You know us better than we know ourselves. We just give You the freedom right now through the power and presence of Your Holy Spirit to search every heart, try every mind, know every thought.
[42:08] God, make us who You want us to be. We ask it in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
[43:02] Amen. Amen.
[44:02] Amen.