1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,680 Now, let's open our Bibles together, please, to the book of Galatians, which is, of course, 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:16,260 a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the churches in that part of Asia Minor. 3 00:00:16,260 --> 00:00:22,920 Most of us enjoy receiving letters, especially letters from our children. 4 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:29,800 I came across a letter from a boy scout recently who was at scout camp and wrote his mother 5 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:35,600 a fine letter telling her all about the occurrences at the camp. 6 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:40,080 It reminds me a little bit of that song that was popular 40 years ago, not that I knew 7 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:47,320 it very well, but it was a song called, Hello, Mother, Hello, Father, Here I Am at Camp Granada. 8 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,440 Remember that? 9 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:55,800 Just imagine yourself, the mother, receiving this letter from a young person at boy scout 10 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,560 camp telling you very easily and naturally what's been taking place. 11 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:05,980 Dear Mom, our scout master told us all to write our parents in case you saw the flood 12 00:01:05,980 --> 00:01:07,960 on television and worried. 13 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:09,980 We're okay. 14 00:01:09,980 --> 00:01:14,160 Only one of our tents and two sleeping bags got washed away. 15 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,920 But luckily none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for 16 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,320 Chad when it happened. 17 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:24,720 Oh yes, please call Chad's mother and tell her he's okay. 18 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,480 He can't write because of the cast. 19 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:31,440 I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. 20 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:33,340 It was neat. 21 00:01:33,340 --> 00:01:39,600 We would never have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning. 22 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:45,280 Scout Master Webb got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. 23 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:50,680 Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire, so he probably didn't hear him. 24 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:57,280 Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? 25 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:03,600 The wet wood still didn't burn, but one of our tents did, and some of our clothes. 26 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,360 And John is going to look weird until his hair grows back. 27 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:12,920 We'll be home on Saturday if Scout Master Webb gets the car fixed. 28 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:15,620 It wasn't his fault about the wreck. 29 00:02:15,620 --> 00:02:18,720 The brakes worked okay when we left. 30 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:23,280 He said that with a car that old, you have to expect something to break down, and that's 31 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:27,160 probably why he can't get insurance on it. 32 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:28,600 We think it's a neat car. 33 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:33,920 He doesn't care if it gets dirty, and if it gets hot, sometimes he lets us ride on 34 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:35,560 the tailgate. 35 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,920 It gets pretty hot with ten people in the car. 36 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:43,360 He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolmen stopped and talked 37 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,520 to us. 38 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:47,600 Scout Master Webb is a neat guy. 39 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:49,920 Don't worry, he's a good driver. 40 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:53,160 In fact, he's teaching Terry how to drive. 41 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:58,000 But he only lets him drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any traffic. 42 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,080 All we ever see up there are logging trucks. 43 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:05,480 This morning all the guys were diving off rocks and swimming out in the lake, and Scout 44 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:10,800 Master Webb wouldn't let me because I can't swim, and Chad was afraid he would sink because 45 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,360 of his cast. 46 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:15,660 So he let us take the canoe across the lake. 47 00:03:15,660 --> 00:03:17,340 It was great. 48 00:03:17,340 --> 00:03:22,760 You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. 49 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,220 Scout Master Webb isn't crabby like some Scout Masters. 50 00:03:26,220 --> 00:03:29,300 He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. 51 00:03:29,300 --> 00:03:33,700 He has to spend a lot of time working on the car, so we're trying not to cause him any 52 00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:34,960 trouble. 53 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:35,960 Guess what? 54 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,560 We've all passed our first aid merit badges. 55 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:44,980 When Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. 56 00:03:44,980 --> 00:03:47,500 So Wade and I threw up. 57 00:03:47,500 --> 00:03:52,500 Scout Master Webb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. 58 00:03:52,500 --> 00:04:00,680 He said they got sick that way with the food they ate in prison, too. 59 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:06,180 I'm so glad he got out and became our Scout Master. 60 00:04:06,180 --> 00:04:11,920 He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. 61 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:16,640 Well I have to go now, we're going into town to mail our letters and buy bullets. 62 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:19,520 Don't worry. 63 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,280 Don't worry about anything. 64 00:04:22,280 --> 00:04:25,740 Love, Corey. 65 00:04:25,740 --> 00:04:30,140 Well let me tell you, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter that was more meticulously and carefully 66 00:04:30,140 --> 00:04:33,120 written than that which we have just read. 67 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:38,780 It was, however, a letter freely expressing his heart to the Galatians. 68 00:04:38,780 --> 00:04:44,060 He chose his words carefully, and of course we know that the Holy Spirit superintended 69 00:04:44,060 --> 00:04:51,800 those words so that what Paul wrote became the very words of God Himself. 70 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:58,760 Paul writes with alarm at the betrayal of the Galatians, the betrayal of the gospel. 71 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,240 They knew better, but they were not thinking. 72 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:07,800 It was as though, he says, a magic spell had come over them. 73 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:13,240 They had believed the gospel of grace, but now some of them were accepting a new thinking, 74 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:20,560 a new message that one had to also keep the rituals of the law in order to be right with 75 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:26,360 God and to experience the blessing of God. 76 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:34,360 It was necessary, they said, to keep the law in order to earn God's favor, which was made 77 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,600 possible, they admit, by Christ's death. 78 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:48,280 So Paul writes very plainly and sternly at times to assert to them that God promised 79 00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:55,640 justification by faith apart from works of the law. 80 00:05:55,640 --> 00:06:01,360 Now I need to stop just a moment and define justification, because that's one of those 81 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:07,080 big words that sometimes is unfamiliar to people these days. 82 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:14,240 To be justified means, essentially, to have a right relationship with God, a relationship 83 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:26,640 that comes about by God declaring the believing sinner righteous in Christ. 84 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:31,360 It means more than just as if I had never sinned, a little statement that a lot of us 85 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:40,040 have learned in the past, and which is true enough, but it also means that God imputed 86 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:44,480 Christ's righteousness to us. 87 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:51,000 It's not as though all of the negatives were removed and were brought back to zero. 88 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:57,800 It means that God has also given to us all of the righteousness that belongs to His Son, 89 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:09,800 Jesus Christ, so that we can say, I am fully, completely, and eternally accepted by God. 90 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:19,000 And God says to you and to me, whom He has justified, I count you as precious and as 91 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:24,440 loved as my own Son. 92 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:30,560 Justification means that God has received us, that He fully accepts us in Christ, never 93 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:32,560 to reject us. 94 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:38,920 Now in chapters three and four of Galatians, Paul is arguing regarding this doctrine of 95 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:40,280 justification by faith. 96 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:45,800 And last week we saw him use three arguments, an argument from their own profile, their 97 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:51,520 own spiritual experience, an argument from the patriarch Abraham, and an argument from 98 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:57,400 the prophet Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith, said that prophet. 99 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:04,200 Now as we come to our text for today, beginning in verse 15, he argues from principle what 100 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,000 a covenant is. 101 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:15,040 You see, he's saying now, God has made a promise, and a promise is a promise. 102 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:20,000 God has promised justification by faith apart from works. 103 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:28,800 And to underscore this theme, this message, Paul uses several means in our text. 104 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:35,120 First of all, he relates a comparison in verse 15. 105 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:36,120 Follow along in your Bible. 106 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:42,440 He says, Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations, even though it is only a man's 107 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:51,040 covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. 108 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:53,360 In this verse, Paul relates a comparison. 109 00:08:53,360 --> 00:09:02,480 He is comparing God's promise to a human promise made in an agreement or in a covenant. 110 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:09,600 And he says, even with humans, even on the human level, an agreement is an agreement. 111 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:17,800 And he said, once an agreement has been reached, it cannot be annulled, and it cannot be amended. 112 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:25,600 Now let's not read into what Paul says, the laws that may affect agreements in our day. 113 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:31,400 Paul is thinking, of course, of the covenants and agreements in his day, which were fixed. 114 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:37,800 And he says, once the covenant is made, it's permanent. 115 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:42,120 Once the promise is given, it's given. 116 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:50,120 And of course, his point is that God has promised justification by faith apart from works. 117 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:59,080 And God is not going to change that promise by adding works now to the equation. 118 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:05,760 His point is, if men make agreements and they're not annulled and they're not amended, how 119 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:10,880 much more is that true of God? 120 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:17,960 The second thing then that Paul does is that he recounts history, verses 16 through 18. 121 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:25,280 Again, follow along in your Bible, where Paul says, now the promises were spoken to Abraham 122 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:27,660 and to his seed. 123 00:10:27,660 --> 00:10:34,640 He does not say, and to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, quote, and to 124 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,760 your seed, that is Christ. 125 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:46,160 He is referring here to God's restatement of his promises to Abraham in Genesis 22, when 126 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:49,840 God very specifically says, and to your seed. 127 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:55,800 And Paul says, by the inspiration of the Spirit, that when God said that to Abraham, his primary 128 00:10:55,800 --> 00:11:01,260 reference was the Messiah, Abraham's descendant, the Christ. 129 00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:12,240 He says, what I'm saying is this, the law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate 130 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:19,400 a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 131 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:26,440 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise, but God has 132 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:33,760 granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. 133 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:39,880 Paul reminds us that there was a time when God made promises to Abraham, promises of 134 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:47,280 a land, of a great nation, and the promise that he would bless all the nations of the 135 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:52,380 world through Abraham's descendants. 136 00:11:52,380 --> 00:11:56,400 That means all of the Gentile nations of the world. 137 00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:01,160 For Abraham himself, you recall, was a Gentile. 138 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:08,100 Not only was this promise made to Abraham, but it was made to his seed, Christ, and in 139 00:12:08,100 --> 00:12:12,880 his seed, who is Christ. 140 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:18,320 In other words, the promises that were made to Abraham, Paul says, will be realized through 141 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:24,280 Christ and in Christ, his human descendant. 142 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,380 It was a promise that God made. 143 00:12:26,380 --> 00:12:33,620 Now he says, 430 years later, and we don't have time this morning to go into the number 144 00:12:33,620 --> 00:12:41,460 issue here, but the main point that Paul is making is later, later, God did make another 145 00:12:41,460 --> 00:12:46,000 covenant with Abraham's descendants at Sinai. 146 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,780 It's called the law. 147 00:12:48,780 --> 00:12:55,880 By the way, it's the same law that these false teachers influencing the Galatians were 148 00:12:55,880 --> 00:13:00,280 trying to enforce on them. 149 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:04,280 Paul says it is true that God later made another covenant with Abraham's descendants. 150 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:11,040 However, the law did not invalidate God's earlier promise given hundreds of years before 151 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:14,240 to Abraham. 152 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:22,320 God's promise was that he would fulfill his covenant with Abraham unconditionally. 153 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:30,440 Abraham believed God, and as a result of that was justified with God. 154 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:40,320 Paul's point is that the promise that leads to justification by faith is still valid. 155 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:48,360 It is not annulled, it is not amended by the ensuing law. 156 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,640 What he is saying here is that the promise still stands. 157 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:59,880 The promise of God's blessing to those who believe still stands. 158 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:03,800 It is not changed by the giving of the law. 159 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:13,080 And he is warning here that one cannot mix promise and the law, faith and works. 160 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,920 They are mutually exclusive. 161 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:24,840 As we saw last week and suggested at least, there are still those today within Christendom 162 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:34,320 and certainly outside of Christendom that try to tell us that faith alone is not enough, 163 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:42,600 that we must do something in order to earn credit with God, to earn merit that God then 164 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,160 might bless us. 165 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:52,400 That is the same sort of heresy and false teaching that Paul is arguing against here. 166 00:14:52,400 --> 00:15:00,200 He says just because God brought the law later does not mean that he abrogated his promise. 167 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:06,480 God still honors faith and faith alone. 168 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,720 That raises some questions. 169 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:15,680 And that brings us now to the third means by which Paul is underscoring his theme, justification 170 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,640 by faith alone. 171 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:24,000 The third means that Paul uses is that he reflects on some questions. 172 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:31,540 He asks the questions that might normally be in the mind of someone thinking with him. 173 00:15:31,540 --> 00:15:34,120 We begin reading in verse 19. 174 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:37,760 He says, why the law then? 175 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:44,520 It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency 176 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:51,720 of a mediator until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made. 177 00:15:51,720 --> 00:16:00,520 Now mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one. 178 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:05,040 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? 179 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,980 May it never be. 180 00:16:07,980 --> 00:16:13,520 For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed 181 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:15,400 have been based on law. 182 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:27,200 But the scripture has shut up all men under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ 183 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:30,820 might be given to those who believe. 184 00:16:30,820 --> 00:16:38,080 But before this faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the 185 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:41,720 faith which was later to be revealed. 186 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:50,680 Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified 187 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:55,800 by faith, period. 188 00:16:55,800 --> 00:17:00,520 There are two questions that Paul raises and answers. 189 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:06,600 The first question is this, and it's in the minds of the people undoubtedly. 190 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:13,680 All right Paul, if God later gave the law and it didn't change the idea that God blesses 191 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:19,480 faith in His promises, why did God give the law? 192 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:22,360 Why the law then? 193 00:17:22,360 --> 00:17:28,200 And Paul answers briefly here, more fully actually in Romans. 194 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:40,840 The reason for the law was to define sin, to give definition to specific transgressions. 195 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:50,200 Now sin existed all this time before the law, but when the law came, it exposed what sin 196 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:51,200 looks like. 197 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:55,160 It gave it a certain character. 198 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:58,680 Now Paul acknowledges that the law is important. 199 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:06,720 In fact, he says it was mediated by angels and by Moses. 200 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,840 It was that important. 201 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:17,180 But he says on the other hand, the promise that God would bless those who have faith 202 00:18:17,180 --> 00:18:26,320 in Him, the promise was given directly by God Himself, not through a mediator. 203 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,720 And therefore it's better. 204 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:35,920 Furthermore he says the law was important, but it was for a temporary time, for a specific 205 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:40,240 purpose until the seed should come. 206 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:41,880 Who's the seed? 207 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,720 Verse 16, it's Christ. 208 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:53,800 And so the law had a temporary setting, and therefore it was inferior. 209 00:18:53,800 --> 00:19:02,040 It had a purpose, and it still has a purpose today in exposing sin. 210 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:09,720 But it is not as glorious as the promise of God, which is that He honors faith. 211 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:23,000 A dear friend of mine by the name of Fred Brown, who was an evangelist, gave a message 212 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,360 one time regarding the law. 213 00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:34,380 And in that message he compared the law, among other things, to a dentist's mirror. 214 00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:36,880 I went to the dentist this last week. 215 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:42,400 You know the best part about going to a dentist, it's when you go out the door. 216 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:43,400 It's when it's all done. 217 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,720 It's such a good feeling, isn't it? 218 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:53,940 And as I lay back there in the dentist's chair, and the technician began to check my teeth, 219 00:19:53,940 --> 00:19:57,360 she put this mirror in my mouth. 220 00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:07,720 And she began to look for problems, for cavities or cracks, for stains on my teeth from coke 221 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,720 and tea and coffee. 222 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:20,480 And of course there was none there when they were finished. 223 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,840 Now that mirror that she used exposed the problems. 224 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:26,880 Thankfully there were very few. 225 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:31,520 But the mirror couldn't fix the problems. 226 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:37,360 She had to get out some other instruments and tools to go to work on my teeth, to scrape 227 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:43,960 and to poke and to scrub in order to do the job. 228 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,280 But the mirror exposed the problem. 229 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:48,720 You see, that is what the law is about. 230 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:50,600 Fred was right. 231 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,200 The law can expose the problem, but it can't fix the problem. 232 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:58,320 It wasn't intended by God to fix the problem. 233 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:00,640 And that's what Paul is saying here. 234 00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:08,640 Don't mix up the law with God's promise, which is the problem solver. 235 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:12,880 Now there's a second question. 236 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,840 That is, is the law then contrary to the promises of God? 237 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,160 And Paul's immediate response is, no way. 238 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:22,320 It's not contrary to the promises of God. 239 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:29,920 Now he says, if there had been a principle of law that might have been given that could 240 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:36,280 have produced righteousness, then justification would have come that way. 241 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:45,440 But he says the fact is that the scripture, the law, has shut up sinners under sin. 242 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:50,840 The word shut up here means to be in confinement together. 243 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:57,200 In other words, what the law really has done is to put us into prison as sinners so that 244 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,760 there's no escape for us. 245 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:08,440 And in doing this, it begins to prepare us to see that we are unable to earn our own 246 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:11,840 righteousness before God. 247 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:17,540 We can't find our way out of this dilemma. 248 00:22:17,540 --> 00:22:25,600 It exposes our sin, and indeed it shows to us the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. 249 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:36,260 And in that sense, it comes around us like a military garrison to imprison us. 250 00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:38,440 And he compares it also to a tutor. 251 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,240 He says the law is like a tutor. 252 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:48,720 Not the kind of tutor, by the way, that they have at the University of Minnesota. 253 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,440 But this is a specific kind of tutor that Paul is talking about in that day. 254 00:22:52,440 --> 00:23:04,360 It was most usually a very well-educated slave to whom a wealthy master would commit his 255 00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:07,760 minor children. 256 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:18,240 This man, this tutor, would then be responsible for bringing the child to a point of maturity. 257 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:20,680 Paul is saying that's really what the law was like. 258 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:30,320 It was preparing us for maturity, which is the point when we understand that justification 259 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:40,280 is by faith, not by the law, which has only been our tutor to bring us to see our need 260 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,960 of this gift of God. 261 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:50,980 Well we finally close in verses 26 to 29 with Paul's fourth means for underscoring that 262 00:23:50,980 --> 00:23:53,920 justification is by faith. 263 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:58,020 Here he reveals the results of this. 264 00:23:58,020 --> 00:24:09,280 In doing this, Paul wants to show us the superiority of the promise of God that comes by faith. 265 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:15,980 Its superiority over law keeping and works. 266 00:24:15,980 --> 00:24:22,600 He says in the first place, the one who believes the promise of God has a new position. 267 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,040 Let's read the text first, beginning in verse 25. 268 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:32,080 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 269 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:39,200 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 270 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:45,360 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 271 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:47,320 There's neither Jew nor Greek. 272 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:51,120 There's neither slave or free man, neither male or female. 273 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:55,680 You are all one in Jesus Christ. 274 00:24:55,680 --> 00:25:06,040 And if you belong to Christ, then your Abraham's offspring errs according to promise, not law. 275 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,600 Errs according to promise. 276 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:14,880 He gives us here five results of this justification by faith. 277 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:21,080 The first place, the one who believes the promise of God in Jesus Christ has a new position. 278 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,040 No longer a child who is under a tutor. 279 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,080 But he's come to maturity. 280 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:32,200 He has believed in Jesus Christ as his sin bearer. 281 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:37,320 And as a result of that, now he is a son of God. 282 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:41,400 This is not a term that necessarily represents male or female. 283 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,320 It is a term that represents maturity. 284 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:54,960 For one was declared a son in that day when he arrived at the point of entering manhood. 285 00:25:54,960 --> 00:26:02,080 It was a term that was reserved for those who were mature and considered full grown. 286 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:09,040 He says that we now have this position as those who have been justified by faith. 287 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:14,260 God considers us His mature sons. 288 00:26:14,260 --> 00:26:23,640 We are already in His family as adult children who have privileges and responsibilities as 289 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:24,640 adults. 290 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:32,560 Secondly, He says those who believe in justification by faith in Christ have a new identity. 291 00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,560 He says we were baptized into Christ. 292 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:41,560 Baptism is symbolic of identification. 293 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:48,120 We are baptized into Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, which means we are identified with 294 00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:49,120 Him. 295 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:51,440 We have a new identity. 296 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:56,080 His point is that we are now clothed as it were with Christ. 297 00:26:56,080 --> 00:27:04,460 So that when God sees us, He sees us clothed in His Son. 298 00:27:04,460 --> 00:27:10,620 We sometimes say, God accepts me just as I am. 299 00:27:10,620 --> 00:27:14,320 That really is not true. 300 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:23,560 God accepts me in Christ, not as I am, but as Christ is. 301 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:25,680 That's the greater truth. 302 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,120 I have a new identity. 303 00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:34,280 When God sees me, He sees me perfect and righteous in His Son. 304 00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:42,160 There's no issue between God and me, and God and you, if you have been justified by faith. 305 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:49,120 Thirdly, He says that the one who believes the promise of God has a new unity. 306 00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:56,200 He says before there were all kinds of human distinctions based upon social standing, or 307 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,640 upon ethnicity, or gender. 308 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:04,680 But He says in our standing with God, that is no longer the case. 309 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:09,860 All of those human and earthly divisions are taken away. 310 00:28:09,860 --> 00:28:11,480 We have a new unity now. 311 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,480 We are together as Jew and Gentile. 312 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:18,560 By the way, that is one of the sub-themes of Galatians. 313 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:25,440 Paul wants to be sure that the Jewish believers understand that the Gentile believers are 314 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:30,120 fully accepted by God and one with them, and that they don't have to undergo any rituals 315 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:33,640 of the law to become as good as the Jewish believers. 316 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:35,000 We are all one now. 317 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,120 There is a new unity. 318 00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:42,520 A fourth result for those who believe the promise of God is a new relationship. 319 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:46,520 He says now you belong to Christ. 320 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:54,800 You see, before we had no relationship with God, but now through faith we have been justified 321 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,360 and we belong to Jesus. 322 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:09,200 Jesus said in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. 323 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:12,600 He says my sheep. 324 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:19,360 You see the one who is justified by faith belongs to Jesus Christ. 325 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,100 A new relationship. 326 00:29:21,100 --> 00:29:26,600 And finally he says the result of believing the promise of God in Jesus Christ is that 327 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,880 the believer has a new inheritance. 328 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,040 We are Abraham's offspring. 329 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:37,240 We are heirs with Abraham. 330 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:43,240 Now the point that Paul is making here is not that we will inherit the earthly promises 331 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,940 of Abraham. 332 00:29:46,940 --> 00:29:54,000 Those are yet to be fulfilled to Abraham's earthly descendants in the coming kingdom. 333 00:29:54,000 --> 00:30:00,180 His point is that we have become the spiritual heirs of Abraham and that with Abraham we 334 00:30:00,180 --> 00:30:07,760 inherit a justification by faith that we now have a right relationship with God because 335 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:16,920 we too have believed the promise of God, which is in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. 336 00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:23,080 And so this is Paul's fourth argument, a powerful argument for the gospel. 337 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:28,120 It is based upon the principle of promise. 338 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:36,520 In closing I want to remind you never to forget this, that God will keep His promises. 339 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:41,120 You can count on God to do that. 340 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:47,600 God has so ordered our experience in this world that He ordains that we should live 341 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,920 by faith in His promises. 342 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:57,980 Not just that we are justified by faith, but that then we continue to live by faith. 343 00:30:57,980 --> 00:31:05,800 We live in a world that very much says that seeing is believing, right? 344 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:10,200 But God says, know us the other way around for the believer. 345 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:17,360 He says, for you, my children, believing is seeing. 346 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:22,220 The just shall live by faith. 347 00:31:22,220 --> 00:31:31,840 And so whatever your circumstances today, child of God, God has provided promises for 348 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:33,360 you. 349 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:37,680 These promises address your issues. 350 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:41,720 Maybe you're sitting here and you have an issue of the assurance of salvation. 351 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:51,240 That was a huge issue in my life in my later childhood until I became a teenager. 352 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,360 And maybe you today are struggling with that issue. 353 00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,640 How do I know that I know that I'm saved? 354 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:01,360 God has promises in His word related to that. 355 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:07,400 Maybe you're struggling today with unanswered prayer. 356 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:11,880 Or maybe there is some question mark about the future in your life and you're saying, 357 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,760 I don't know what's going to happen. 358 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:19,240 There are promises of God that relate to that. 359 00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:26,400 Maybe you have a crisis in your personal life, in your relationship with your wife or your 360 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:31,140 husband or with your employer. 361 00:32:31,140 --> 00:32:32,960 Maybe there's a crisis in your personal life. 362 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:38,680 I want to tell you something, God has promises in His word related to all of the issues of 363 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,360 life, whatever they are. 364 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,080 And so walk by faith. 365 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:50,120 Trust Him with your life. 366 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:55,040 God blesses those who live by faith in His promises. 367 00:32:55,040 --> 00:33:03,920 The story is told about old Uncle Oscar who took his first airplane ride. 368 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:10,380 He was of course, like most people the first time up, fairly apprehensive about it. 369 00:33:10,380 --> 00:33:15,000 His friends were eager to hear how it went when he landed and so they, at the very first 370 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,560 opportunity, inquired of him how he enjoyed his flight. 371 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:21,660 You know what Uncle Oscar said? 372 00:33:21,660 --> 00:33:26,560 He said, well it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but I'll tell you this, I never 373 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:32,740 did put all my weight down on that seat. 374 00:33:32,740 --> 00:33:35,080 I can identify with that. 375 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,660 Maybe you can too. 376 00:33:37,660 --> 00:33:45,520 You know, folks, we're on the airplane and we can put our weight down. 377 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:52,780 We can trust this God who has justified us by faith to meet our needs in life. 378 00:33:52,780 --> 00:33:54,720 So let's believe on Him. 379 00:33:54,720 --> 00:34:02,480 Let's put our weight down on the promise of God and receive the blessings that He so desires 380 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:04,480 us to have. 381 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:05,480 We have to close. 382 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:08,480 Let's pray. 383 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:15,280 Now if after we have prayed and dismissed you desire to have more personal prayer, I 384 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:16,280 invite you to come. 385 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:21,480 I'm going to stand here at the front afterward and you're welcome to come and we'll pray 386 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:22,480 together. 387 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:30,040 Father, I pray that wherever this message finds us today that it may encourage us to 388 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:35,800 trust your promises and not to lean upon our own understanding or to depend upon our own 389 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:43,760 wisdom or ingenuity or our own works, our own efforts, our own performance, but wherever 390 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:51,360 we are today in our spiritual journey, may we learn what it means to really believe you 391 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:59,880 and to sit down in the seat and to relax and put all of our weight upon what you've promised 392 00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:03,240 us in your word. 393 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:06,960 In Jesus' name, amen. 394 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:07,960 God bless you. 395 00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:17,640 Amen.