[0:00] Galatians chapter 3. Those of you who have been with me for a while, we have been going through Galatians and we took a break for Thanksgiving and Christmas season and now it's time to get back to Galatians for a little while.
[0:20] I'm not saying we won't take a break here and there, but we'll get back to it for now. Galatians chapter 3. Previously, as we've been going through Galatians, Paul has encouraged the Galatians to not turn back. No turning back.
[0:40] You've been going this way with Christ. You've learned who He is. You've learned about the salvation that He gives. Do not turn back. Do not go back to Judaism. Do not go back to your idols.
[0:51] Do not go back to your atheistic lifestyle. Do not go back. Take what you have learned and move forward for Christ. Especially now that you have the Word of God coming to you.
[1:04] You have God's words being spoken to you and in the context of the way God meant them. He says, do not turn back. He has given them a defense of grace and why grace is superior to the law.
[1:18] He has given them lessons on justification by faith. That you have come to be justified just as if you'd never sinned because of the faith that you put in Christ.
[1:31] He's encouraged them to rest in the assurance that Christ liveth in me. He has talked to them about that. He's also encouraged them to continue in the Spirit of God that helped save them and then also to continue living in a family of faith.
[1:46] He has given them all kinds of reasons to believe. Don't go back. Live in the grace and the faith that God has given to you.
[1:59] Now He's going to continue on today with the promise of faith. The promise of faith. Look with me beginning at verse 15. It says, It says,
[3:08] Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God?
[3:21] God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, Verily righteousness should have been by the law.
[3:35] But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
[3:45] But before faith came, But before faith came, we were kept under the law, Shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, That we might be justified by faith.
[4:03] But after that faith has come, But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Let's stop there. Let's have a word prayer. Father, Father, I pray this morning that you would help us to understand.
[4:18] Lord, there are some difficult things that you read through this passage of scripture, Lord. But Lord, help us to make them easy. Help us to make them understandable. Lord, help us to make it so that we can see The promise that was given to us by faith far exceeds any keeping of law.
[4:40] Lord, because the promise of faith was given by you to us. You gave the law, yes, to help people to understand their need for grace, their need for the promise.
[4:54] But Lord, the promise, a promise given to us by God himself, Lord, what more could we ask for? Because you're a God who cannot lie.
[5:05] You're a God who is always faithful. You're a God who is immutable, unchangeable. Lord, I pray that you would help us today to understand just what you have given to us in the salvation that we have.
[5:19] Lord, minister to hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. In the first 14 verses of chapter 3, that we already looked at back before Thanksgiving, we saw Paul prove that, by using the Old Testament, that Abraham was justified by faith and not by the law.
[5:46] Every other believer then, whether they be Jew or Gentile, comes to God the same way, by faith alone. The principle of that faith alone was put into effect when Jesus Christ went to the cross, shed his blood for us, so that we might have salvation through him and through him alone.
[6:11] This next section we're looking at, verse 15 and on today, Paul's anticipating. The Judaizers are going to come up with questions. They're going to come up with arguments of why Paul is wrong, and Paul's anticipating what's going to happen there, and he understood that Abraham and all of his descendants were saved by faith before Mount Sinai, before the law was given.
[6:37] They were all saved by faith. So then after the law was given, we have to make a decision. Was the law given to replace grace?
[6:52] Replace faith? Was it given as a supplement to faith? What is the purpose of the law? And their conclusion was that, yes, Abraham was saved by faith because there was no law yet.
[7:04] But once the law came into being, that's how you got saved, was by keeping the law. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. How many more times can I say no?
[7:15] He says, that is not what God is doing. He says, I want you to understand, God gave the law not for salvation. Okay then, Paul, so what's the purpose of the law?
[7:30] Paul says, let me tell you what the purpose of the law is. And he's going to give us three things. How did you know that? Because it's a sermon. It's going to have three points at least, right? Those three things that Paul's going to give them is the why it is not by the law.
[7:46] First of all, he's going to show them the reliability of the covenant. The covenant that he made with Abraham is reliable. The covenant he made with Abraham is something that's not going to change.
[8:01] Look at verse 15 again. He's going to illustrate this promise. In verse 15, he says, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant.
[8:15] Stop there. He says it's a man's covenant. He says, look, I want you to understand. There's a covenant that's been made with a man, Abraham. He says that word covenant, what's that word mean?
[8:28] An arrangement, a contract. God made a contract with Abraham. Abraham, Abraham, I am going to do something special through you.
[8:40] I'm going to do something special through your people. I am going to give you salvation. I'm going to give you a person who's going to come through your line, who is going to offer salvation for all of mankind.
[8:55] Abraham, I'm going to give you someone who's going to change the entire course of the world. And I'm giving you this covenant. I'm giving you this as a contract to help you understand.
[9:09] Let me illustrate it this way. Before you die, most of you probably have a will. That will is a contract, a covenant, an agreement that when you die, these things are going to happen.
[9:23] And it's not something you go in and change willy-nilly. Usually, wills don't get changed ever. And he says, look, I'm going to give Abraham a contract, a covenant that's going to be unchangeable.
[9:37] Notice the importance of it. Look at the last part of verse 15. He says, Yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto.
[9:49] It's not a contract that you're going to change. It's not a contract that's going to be just like, oh, we're going to set that aside and we don't care anymore. What he's getting ready to point out is, yes, the law came.
[10:01] But when the law came, you didn't just set aside the promise that God made. God made a promise to Abraham. And I want you to remember the promise that he made. He's made a covenant with him.
[10:16] And then, notice God's promise was imputed. Imputed to Abraham and to the Jewish people and others.
[10:26] Look at verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one.
[10:38] And to thy seed, which is Christ. He says, Christ is going to come. Christ is going to make all the difference. Abraham, first of all, this covenant you have is unconditional.
[10:52] I am making this covenant with you. There's going to be someone who comes. His name is Christ. He is going to fulfill all the promises that I am making to you.
[11:04] And when God did that, it's an interesting thing. God swore by himself. You know how you go into court, put your hand on the Bible, I swear to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing.
[11:18] God says, I swore that I would keep this based on me, based on myself. If God doesn't keep it, it's against him and him alone.
[11:31] Hebrews, we've been in Hebrews during the Sunday school time. Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 17, it says this, We're in God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.
[11:50] That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. Who hath fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us?
[12:05] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. God says, I'm going to give you this covenant and I'm going to swear about this covenant based on two immutable things.
[12:21] Immutable, big word. Not able to be modified. Not able to, the other word I want.
[12:33] Anyway, can't be modified. God says, I'm giving it and I'm going to base it on two things. Me and my word. I'm a God who cannot lie.
[12:45] I'm a God who always keeps his promises. I'm a God who does not change. I'm going to give you this promise based on me. Matter of fact, if you were to take the time to go back into Genesis and read about this covenant that he made, I think beginning in verse 12, chapter 12, you'll find that God did something very unusual.
[13:08] Usually when people were making a covenant, they would do a sacrifice and basically they would take the sacrifice, they would divide it in half and they'd put parts of the sacrifice on either side. Then they would walk through together claiming the fact that based on this sacrifice, I am going to keep my promise to you.
[13:27] Well, if you read the one where God did this with Abraham, God caused Abraham to go to sleep and then God laid out everything and then he woke Abraham up in time to see God himself walking down through.
[13:44] Not Abraham, God himself walking through and he says, Abraham, I'm going to keep this promise. You have to do nothing.
[13:55] You don't have to do anything. This promise is to you and I'm going to keep it. You know, that's kind of the promise God has made to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus made the sacrifice.
[14:06] We don't have to do anything other than believe that he did it. We don't have to keep the law. We don't have to do good works. We don't have to do...
[14:18] All we have to do is believe that God will keep his word, which is what Abraham was going to do. Believe that God would keep his word. And his covenant was also specific. It was specific.
[14:29] God had told them what he was going to do, how he was going to bless them. As a matter of fact, God started this promise before Abraham. Remember over the last few weeks during Christmas, there's been a verse you've heard over and over and over again.
[14:44] Genesis 3.15. It's up there behind me again on the screen. He made it to Adam and Eve and he said this in Genesis 3.15. He said, Look, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.
[15:02] It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. There's going to be a Redeemer coming. There's going to be a Messiah coming. There's going to be someone coming who is going to defeat Satan once and for all and he's going to come through Adam and Eve.
[15:21] Abraham, he's coming through you. He's going to be part of your family. So, whether before or after Christ, you know how we get saved?
[15:33] The same way. Remember there are verses in the Old Testament and I think they even mentioned a couple times in the New Testament. Abraham believed and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham believed.
[15:46] It didn't say Abraham did anything other than believe and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And God says, look, I'm going to do the same thing for you. All you have to do is believe and I'm going to give you the salvation.
[16:05] Which brings us to the third point. God's promise confirmed. God confirmed that promise by Jesus Christ. Look at verse 17 and 18.
[16:16] And this I say that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect.
[16:33] For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. He says, look, the law came 430 years after Abraham's covenant.
[16:49] It didn't change a thing about the promise I made to Abraham. It didn't replace the promise I made to Abraham. It doesn't have anything to do with the promise I gave to Abraham except to help you realize sin.
[17:06] I'll talk about that some more in a minute. See, the promise made to Abraham was a permanent one. It was unchanged. It's immutable it talks about. There's no time that the law could nullify the promise that God made to Abraham.
[17:21] When God said, I'm going to do this, Abraham, God said, I'm going to keep my word. And I'm basing it on me and my word which cannot change, which cannot, I cannot lie, I cannot do anything other than tell you the truth and Abraham hears what's going to happen.
[17:37] He explains that the inheritance was not earned. Notice what he said there in verse 18, the last part. It was given to Abraham.
[17:51] Abraham didn't do a thing to earn it. It was given to him. When we choose salvation, God gives us the salvation.
[18:02] When we choose to believe, he gives us what we need. Matter of fact, you read there in Galatians, go back to chapter 2, verse 21. Galatians 2, 21.
[18:13] I do not forsake the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He's saying, look, if God's going to change it, if he's going to say, here's the promise I made to Abraham, but now you have to keep the law, he's like, why did he send Christ to start with?
[18:36] Why did Jesus come? Why did Jesus go through everything he went through? Why did he face the cross? Why did he die? Why did he rise again? Why did he do all those things if we're going to be saved by keeping the law?
[18:48] He could have stayed in heaven. No need to go through all this stuff if we're saved by keeping the law. So, the question comes, look at verse 19, the very first sentence, wherefore then serveth the law.
[19:07] In other words, number two, what is the reason for the law? The reason for the law. Why did he give it? If he made this covenant with Abraham that could not be annulled, could not be replaced, why did he give the law?
[19:28] Well, first of all, to reveal man's need. Look at verse 21 and 22. It says, Is the law then against the promises of God?
[19:39] God forbid. For if it had been a law given, which could have given life, barely, righteousness, should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
[19:59] okay, what does all that mean? He says, look, I gave it to you to help you to understand that because of sin, you cannot do things on your own.
[20:13] I gave it to you to understand that you're going to need something else. Verse 22 says, But the scripture hath concluded all under sin.
[20:24] All of us have sinned. He says, I'm going to tell you about the needs that you have. Listen to Romans. It's up there on the screen.
[20:34] Romans 7, 7 and 8. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law.
[20:48] For I had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for without the law, sin was dead.
[21:03] Concupiscence. Big word. It basically means desires and lust. Usually it refers to sexual type things, but desires and lust.
[21:14] He says, we have a desire for things. We have a desire for what we want. He says, no.
[21:26] He says, the reason I gave the law is so that you would understand that. The reason I gave the law is so that you would know. Because he says there, the last part of verse 8, for without the law, sin was dead.
[21:39] Let me illustrate it this way. You're down in High Street in Ellsworth. You watch on High Street why they do this, I have no idea.
[21:50] But on High Street, part of the speed limit is 35, and part of it is 25. Okay? Let's take those signs away. Good point, but you know, we'll take those signs away.
[22:07] We take them away, and now I decide it's not too busy on High Street today, just a few cars out there. I want to do 100 down through here. What's to stop me?
[22:18] Somebody in my way. They might slow me down maybe. I can go around them. But there's nothing to stop me because there's no law.
[22:29] There's nothing there. But you put those signs up, and now there's a law that says you got to go this fast. God says, I gave you the law so you would understand.
[22:44] There are things that I want and things that I don't want. There are things that are good for you and things that are not good for you. Going 100 miles an hour down High Street and Ellsworth is not good for you. Not good for a lot of people.
[22:56] He says, I gave you those to help you to understand right from wrong. To help you understand what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad. That's why I gave you the law.
[23:08] He says, without the law, sin was dead. There is no sin. There's nothing I'm doing wrong. I'm doing anything I want because I can.
[23:19] But if I have that attitude, do I need a savior? No. I can do anything I want and I'm good. He says, I gave you the law to help you to understand your need for a savior because there are things out there that will kill you.
[23:37] There are things out there that will send you to hell. There are things out there that will cause you to go astray in your life. He says, I gave them to you, first of all, to show you your transgression.
[23:50] To show your transgression. Look at verse 24. He says, wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
[24:01] He said, I gave you that law so that you would have a schoolmaster. You would have someone teaching you. You'd have something teaching you this is right, this is wrong. You'd have something teaching you and here's the standards.
[24:13] He says, so I gave you it so it could be a schoolmaster to bring you to Christ so that you would understand your need for a savior.
[24:26] You are not going to be able to keep God's standards on your own. You know, you've heard the saying before, if you break one of the commandments, you've broken them all.
[24:40] What does that mean? No, I didn't break them all, I broke one. Let's use thou shalt not covet. We were talking about being covetous. Number ten of the ten commandments, thou shalt not covet.
[24:52] Okay, I really want what John has. I like John's stuff and he's got good stuff and I want what John has. I'm coveting after his stuff.
[25:04] So I broke one commandment, right? I didn't break thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not. No, but when I broke that tenth commandment, I broke the law.
[25:18] So I'm guilty of all of them because I broke the law. He says you need to understand here's what God wants. Here's what you're not going to be able to do.
[25:31] Therefore, you need a savior. You need someone who's going to help you. Second thing is the law could not give life. The law could not give life.
[25:42] Romans chapter three, verse 20 says, 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.
[25:57] That's the verse we just looked at. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Verse 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of them that believe, for there is no difference.
[26:20] He says, look, the law is not going to save you, but Jesus will. Jesus is going to help you. Which brings us to the third thing. He says the law condemns all men.
[26:32] Look at verse 22. Again it says, But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. One of the most famous verses in the Bible, Romans 3, 23.
[26:45] For all has sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us has sinned. Is there anyone who has kept the law so that they could go to heaven based on their own works? No.
[26:57] He says for all has sinned. We're born with a sin nature. I've mentioned before, babies don't have to be taught how to do certain things. Any of you remember your parents teaching you how to lie?
[27:13] Now here's how you lie to people. You do it with, and make sure you don't smile and you don't do this and you keep your face straight and you just, ooh, very serious. Nobody's parents taught them how to do that.
[27:24] But it's in us, isn't it? He says you've all sinned. You were born with a sin nature. Savior. Therefore, you need a Savior. Which brings us to the second thing.
[27:35] Why the law? To reveal the superiority of Abraham's covenant. To reveal the superiority of Abraham's covenant. Look at verse 19 again.
[27:47] Wherefore then serveth the law. It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator.
[28:00] Now, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. That goes back to what I was talking about. The mediator. God did the sacrifice with Abraham, without Abraham being a part of it.
[28:17] Abraham, I'm making this promise to you, but you just stay over there and let me make this promise. You don't have to do a thing. God is a mediator of our salvation. You don't have to do a thing.
[28:30] You just need to trust Christ and believe in him and see what he does. Which brings us to a third thing.
[28:42] The reception of salvation. He says, look, do you understand? You don't need to do anything. Everything that was done is done through Christ. We look to Christ for everything we need.
[28:54] There is nothing that we're going to do that's going to save us. We need a savior because of the sin that's in our life and we need to have Christ there in order to take care of that sin.
[29:05] So how do we get to salvation? Look at verse 22 again. He says, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
[29:19] He says, look, you're not going to be saved by keeping the law. That's not going to happen because we've all failed. We've all sinned. But you come to Jesus Christ and he says he's going to give.
[29:33] Remember he gave the promise to Abraham. He's going to give to you that believe. You just trust him. Again, in Romans 3, it said, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
[30:04] There is no difference. He says, God has given you a way of salvation. God has given you a way to be redeemed. You don't have to worry about the fact that we're all sinners.
[30:18] We are. But he said, you put your trust in Christ, that law has absolutely no effect whatsoever. Romans chapter 5, verse 1.
[30:30] Therefore, being justified by faith, justified just as if I had never sinned. He says, all of us have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He says, all of us have sinned.
[30:40] But he says now, he says, being just as if I'd never sinned by faith. By claiming the promise that was given to us, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[30:55] He says, I've provided salvation for you. All you have to do is believe. It is so simple, and we try to make it so difficult.
[31:07] But it is difficult sometimes. Because our nature is, I've got to do something to earn it. I've got to do something to make it right. I've got to do, and he says, no, I've done it.
[31:23] I've taken care of it. He's actually given us, number two, letter B, the provision of justification. The provision of justification.
[31:35] How did he do that? 23, 24 and 25. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us under Christ, that we might be justified by faith. And after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
[31:51] He says, look, in verse 23. Sorry, I shouldn't have read that to you. But in verse 23, it says, but before faith came, we were kept under the law.
[32:02] That word kept has the idea we were guarded. We had prison guards, military guard around us. They were keeping us in.
[32:14] What were they keeping us in for? They were trying to put up boundaries so we would not go outside and do things that were contrary to what God wanted us to do. It was a schoolmaster.
[32:25] It was teaching us. This is right. This is wrong. But how often do we neglect those instructions? Don't touch that stove.
[32:40] What's the first thing a kid wants to do? Touch the stove. You tell somebody, don't do this. What's the first thing they want to do?
[32:50] God says, I gave it to you as a schoolmaster to help keep you in. But us being us, we fall short.
[33:03] And so then God says, look, I'll give you a way that you can be justified. I'll give you a way that you can have that forgiveness of sin that you're going to need.
[33:13] I will give you a way to have a savior who will take care of the problem. Once we place our faith in Christ, there's no more need for guards.
[33:24] There's no more need for a schoolmaster because we have the one who wrote the law living within us. The one who wrote the law is now guiding us and leading us.
[33:37] We have Christ in us. He says, you don't need that schoolmaster anymore. You have the one who wrote the law. You come face to face with Jesus Christ.
[33:51] You come face to face with him who has given you the salvation you need. Romans 614 says this, for sin shall not have dominion over you for year not under the law, but under grace.
[34:04] He says, look, when Jesus comes into your life, you don't need the law anymore. When Jesus comes into your life, you have his grace.
[34:16] You have God's riches at Christ's expense, or as I like to say, you have God's redemption at Christ's expense. You have what God knew you needed to have in order to overcome sin and have a home in heaven.
[34:35] I was talking about Hebrews there. We've been studying Hebrews chapter 10. Regarding at verse 15, it says this, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord.
[34:55] I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. Stop there. He says, the lawgiver now lives within you. You don't need these laws and things because the lawgiver is now there.
[35:10] Verse 17, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. He says, you ask Jesus to come in, he wipes away those sins. He wipes away all of that.
[35:21] He puts it as far as the east is from the west, the Bible says. Verse 18, now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. God has taken care of it.
[35:33] There's nothing we have to do. So what is he teaching us here in this last part of Galatians chapter 3? He's saying, look, we've all sinned.
[35:45] And we all know we sinned because God gave us a schoolmaster to teach us. He gave us the law, which came 430 years after he promised Abraham forgiveness of sin.
[35:57] After he promised Abraham that you believe and it will be accounted to you for righteousness. He said, I gave him that to you so you would know, so you understand that there are limits, that there are things you should not do.
[36:10] And I gave it to you so you would know that when the seed, which is Christ, he said, came, you would know that you needed him because you could not keep that law.
[36:23] And because you have him and you ask him to come into your life, you don't have to worry about that law anymore because you have the law giver living inside you. He said, you have the one who wrote it now performing in you.
[36:42] God has given us so much. And Paul's saying through this whole book, do not turn back. Do not go back to the old. Do not go back to Judaism.
[36:53] Do not go back to your idols. Do not go back to other things because you're taking yourself back under things that are not going to save you.
[37:04] You have Jesus Christ. You have Jesus Christ who has saved you. You have Jesus Christ who gave himself for you. You have Jesus Christ who is the savior of the world.
[37:15] You have everything you need in order to live for God and live in heaven with him for all eternity. You have God.
[37:25] You have God it all. Do not go back. I don't know if everyone here this morning is saved. I don't know if everybody here this morning knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
[37:38] But if you don't, let me tell you, the freeing, the release that comes from knowing Jesus Christ, from knowing that he has done it all, he made the promise.
[37:55] He made the sacrifice. He made the unconditional circumstances for which you can come to him and know forgiveness of sin.
[38:11] If you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior this morning, but you'd like to, come talk to me. If you'd like to know you can be free from sin for all of eternity, that you have a home in heaven, come and talk to me after the service.
[38:26] I'd be glad to take the Bible and show you. For those of you who are saved, you know one of the great things about this whole passage? We can go before God.
[38:39] When Jesus Christ went to that cross, talked about the middle wall of partition was taken down. We can go directly before the throne of grace. We can stand before God and talk with him and pray with him and fellowship with him.
[38:54] How am I able to do that? Because Christ took care of the law. Because Christ gave us a promise.
[39:07] And therefore, I can stand redeemed before him. There's a song hint. I stand redeemed. Let's stand. Let's stand.