Galatians chapter 3, okay? Guess this sunshine looks like it brought out a goodly crowd tonight. We're gonna have to pray for more sunshine. It's a... Chicago worked differently. I'm serious, if we'd have a blizzard up front, we'd have a house full of people. They couldn't go no place else, you know. Couldn't go swimming or nothing like that. So, can't come to church. I said, boy, I just keep praying for these blizzards to happen. I told you one year we had Sunrise service, we had an ice storm. I mean, I had some willow trees in my yard and they was limbs bent down all the way to the ground. My cousin came in from, he was going to Oberlin Medical College at that time. He come into Chicago downtown, couldn't get out of there because everything had shut down. I went and got him. And I saw the song later from the neighbor church there. And he said, preacher, are you having sunrise service tomorrow? I said, yes, we are. He said, my pastor is supposed to, your pastor is supposed to preach for us. I said, until everybody shows up for sunrise service, I was going to take them out for breakfast, you know what I'm saying, over to Regency Steakhouse. They have a mortgage board breakfast there. And back then it was about $2 or something. Now it was $4 or something. They was 72 people showed up for that sunrise service in the midst of an ice storm. I brought home about $210 a week. I think it cost me $220. But the men in the church, they had mercy on me. I noticed some of them come by dropping money in my pockets. I was out about 20 bucks, so it wasn't bad. I said, I could get a crowd like that out in an ice storm, you know, a sunrise service. That may have been No matter how many people came to church, that's probably one of the biggest crowds I ever had for a sunrise service. All right, open your Bibles, I told you, to Galatians chapter 3. Now we're looking at the different dispensations for some of you that's here with us now, that's not been here the last few times. The Bible's broke down in different dispensations. Let me say that again. Am I on, sir? All right. Galatians chapter three, like I said, the Bible's broke down in different dispensations. Now dispensation, I've told you before, and y'all know that it's just a period of time. That's all. And a Bible dispensation is a period of time based on how God deals with mankind. And God deals with men differently in different dispensations. I had to learn that. I told you that when we first started on this, uh, till we, get what dispensation we're in, we can get ourselves to, well, have a whole lot of problem trying to figure out anything all about the Bible. And I told you that in Matthew chapter 10, our Lord God gave them that commission to cast out demons, cleanse lepers, raise the dead. Man, when I first started preaching, I just go at it, you know what I'm saying? You know, but the Lord had to show me that was a commission given to those disciples to give to the Jews, because the Jews require what? A sign. What do the Greeks seek after? Wisdom. And Paul said, we preach Christ, him crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block. To the Greeks, foolishness. To us which are saved is Christ, the power of God. And we thank God for that tonight. Now, this week we're looking at the dispensation of the law. First off, let's go back to last week. Like I said, I ended up quite quickly with the patriarch generation, excuse me, dispensation, or they're called the covenant dispensation. It was in Genesis chapter 12. God gave that covenant to Abraham. There were seven parts to it. You can read them there as you got your list there. And one thing about that covenant, it was an unconditional covenant. What do I mean when I say unconditional? Everybody understand? Marcus made some comments on that even teaching in the Sunday school class about different things that was conditional and unconditional. What do we mean with unconditional? He didn't have to do anything to merit it. Right. Abraham did not have to do anything to get the benefits or blessings or merit that covenant. God said, Abraham, I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to make a contract with you. That's what a covenant is. Go make agreement with you. And like I told you, remember we read back there where God told him to take those heifers and those animals and cut them in half, lay each side like this. Now, tradition teaches us, custom teaches us that when men made covenants back then, that each one of them would go apart and walk in between those animals, making a circle. Two circles makes a number eight. Number eight is a new beginning with God. I told you the book of Ruth, that's the eighth book in the Bible. Ruth was a Moabite. They came into this world through incest. They went out into the congregation, I think, to the 10th generation. And Grace brought her in. It was a new beginning for the Moabite people there. She ended up becoming the great-grandmother of David the King, you know what I'm saying? Her great-great-grandmother, David the King. And so you got... Unconditional means Abraham didn't have to do anything. If you... Look down at what I made a comment and parenthesis down there. Abraham was asleep. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abraham and God passed through that between those animals, his own self. So Abraham didn't have any conditions to meet or anything he had to do. Now the law is different from that. The law is a conditional covenant and the law was never intended to save nobody. It's teach you how to walk, what God required out of you. The Bible says the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to whom? The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law shows us what God demands or what God requires out of you and I. And when I can't produce it, I have to run to a refuge. I have to run to Christ and hide in him. Those song people used to sing, I don't know if you ever heard it. I found a hiding place. I found a hiding place from the God's law, from God's wrath. I found that in Christ. Now, the law was never intended to save anybody. It's always been by grace through faith. So somebody said, well, why give a law then that couldn't save you? And, uh, Look with me in Galatians 3 and verse 19. Paul asked that question to his own self. Warfare then serveth the law. If you look back at verse 18, he said, for if the inheritance, remember I preached to you here Sunday morning about an inheritance. An inheritance is something that you Get that somebody gives you, hands down to you, you don't do nothing for it. Like I told you, give you an illustration. My father gave us about five acres of land apiece. I inherited that. I didn't do nothing for it. I got it because I was his child. You understand that? And so, for if the inheritance be of the law, he's talking about this inheritance, Abraham covenant. It is no more a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. He said, wherefore then serveth the law? What's the purpose of the law? Well, it explains that to you there. It was added, why? Because of transgressions. Because of transgressions. How long? Now the law is a temporal thing. Now this, listen to me, this covenant that God made Abraham, that's a perpetual or permanent covenant. It's never going to be dissolved. God's going to fulfill that covenant when it comes back to rain. And one part of that covenant gave Abraham, he said, I'll bless them, bless you, and I'll do what? If you listen to him, if you look in the book of Matthew, I forget this, 24, 25, chapter 24, 25, when he comes back to judge the nations, he gathers all nations before him, and he says to those on the right hand, enter ye in ye, what? Blessed are my father. And why are they going to enter into the millennial kingdom there? Because I was a hunger, and you fed me, I was thirst, you gave me drink, I was in prison, you visit me. When did we do this to you, Lord? We don't even know you. We never saw you. As often as you did unto least these my brethren, the Jews, you did unto me. Did you find it there? Okay. Greg, look at your concordance back there. Find Matthews at 25. As often as you did unto least these my brethren, you did unto me. That's when Christ comes back to judge your nations. It should be the title of your heading on your Bible there, if you've got a heading there. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, set up on the throne of His glory, and shall gather together all nations before Him, set up on the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided from his flock. From the goats? Yeah. And he'll say to those on his right hand, put sheep on his right hand, goats on his left hand, and then he'll say to those on his right hand, enter ye in what? Ye are blessed of my Father. Then he goes on to say, I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me a drink, I was in prison, you visited me sick, et cetera, et cetera. And they said, where did we do this to you? He said, as oft you did unto Lisa these, my brethren. See those Jews come under that Abrahamic covenant. God said, I'm gonna bless them and bless you. Listen, I'm gonna curse them and curse you. The ghost, on the other hand, you can read it when you get home. Tell them what chapter and verse it is. It's chapter 25, starts verse 31. Chapter 25, verse starts verse 31. To the ghost, he said, depart from me, you curse to my father. For I was hungry, and you fed me not. I was thirsty, but I will not do this unto you. As often as you did not, and the least of these, my brethren." Listen, God's going to bless those nations and they're going to go into the millennium based on how they've treated the Jewish people over the years. Abraham, promise that. I'll bless them that bless you, curse them that curse you. Now it says here, how long is this added? This law, in Galatians 3.19 there, it was added because of the transgressions, comma, till the seed should come. Now what seed is he talking about? Christ. No, it's Christ. Look back over in verse 16. Now to Abraham and to his notice, and the Holy Ghost penned this down and said, drive a stake down the side of this. To his what? Seed. Not seed's pool, not his descendants, his seed. Where the promise is made, he saith not. He made it specified there. He saith not, and to what? Seed's pool. as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Then it goes on to teach us if we're Christ's seed, we're Abraham's seed, and we're heirs according to the promise. We're heirs to that covenant. Now there's some parts of that covenant, that land promise, that God made to Abraham later, we're not partakers of that, okay? We're not getting that land, that's their land over there. We're the Gentile. So he said this law was added to show In other words, what he said is to reveal how the hideous character of sin. Sin's a three-letter word, but sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you can afford to pay. And it does a lot of damage. You're right in the middle of it. He's talking about himself. He said, I was right in the middle of it. I think we could all apply that. You know, I, S, I, N. And so the law was added to this covenant of grace to show how hideous sin was, like I said. I told you over the years, there's 613 precepts in the law. Mark's been teaching on Sunday mornings about the church at Galatia, how they're trying to keep the law, except you be sacrificed, keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. That's what they were preaching to them, teaching them. But the Bible says, if you offend the law in one point, you've offended or broken the whole law. Okay. They picked out one point. And really, I don't know if what they were except you'd be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, that circumcision was a sign of the covenant that God gave Abraham, was a grace covenant. But they applied it as a law, made it a law. And so, what if you were circumcised and you kept the other 612 precepts of the law, how many, does anybody know how many there is, where they're at? Can you name them all off? I don't. 613 precepts of the law, but if you offended law in one point, if you broke one of those precepts, you're guilty of the whole law. Now, Christ is the only one that ever kept the whole law. And what he did, he kept the law in my behalf and put it on my account and gave me credit for it like I'd done it. That's what we call imputed righteousness. Now, sin was imputed to us through Adam. It was handed down to us, in other words. We've been given a sinful nature. Like I said, all of us are just rotten to the core, folks. You'd be a whole lot meaner than what you really are if it wasn't for the grace of God. And you're probably a lot meaner than what you think you are. I was coming into church here a few weeks ago, and a couple said to me, I said something that was getting along real good, and they said, you've got to look behind closed doors pretty sure. I said, oh, I know what that's like. I told you over the years, Wanda and I fought from the day we met. And people would come to the house and knock on the door, and we'd put on our hypocritical smile. Come on in. It's so good to see. What are you doing here? We're never going to get this fight finished. You folks aren't like that, are you? You're a whole lot better than I am. But 613 precepts of the law. Now, let me just, I made a little note here I got down here. Over the years of studying the Bible, in Psalms 15, why don't you turn there to Psalms 15. Mike, why don't you turn to Isaiah 33 for me? And then somebody else turn, Junior turn to Isaiah 56, okay? Jane, why don't you turn over to Micah chapter six? If you've got an index Bible, it's easier to find. I know I've probably looked those little prophets up sometime. In Psalms 15, what does it say there? I'm not over there. What were, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall abide in thy tabernacle. Now here's, he breaks it down, like I said, to about 10 or 11 precepts, sir. That is 11. You got 11? Yeah, that's notes from what you said before. Notes from what I said before. Boy, he ain't on the ball tonight. He got his notes. What does it say there? You want to go ahead and read? Yeah, read the 11 precepts. Who shall dwell on that holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart, He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is contend, but he honoreth them and feareth the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and change not, he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh against the innocent, he that doeth those things shall never be moved. In other words, David condensed the 613 precepts of the law down to 11 there. And when you look over at Isaiah 33, who got that? What's that? You're ready? All right. Isaiah 33. Look at verse 14, 15. What does it say? of sinners of thine are afraid, for their voice hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting furnace? He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despises the grain of oppression, that shaketh his hand from holding a prize, that stoppeth his ears from hearing the blood that shall his eyes So there's about six precepts, sir. Isaiah, contest it down. You got that mark too, huh? Boy, this guy's really on the ball now. He took his... I got the chapter, I just got Isaiah 6. Yeah, okay. Then Isaiah 56. Yes, sir. Yes, I'm sorry, verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, keep your judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near, to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the sabbath from deluding it, and keepeth the hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord speak, say, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people. Neither let the mute in you say, in order to, what is that? D-U-M-N-U-C-H-S. Unix. I'm not over there, so I'm glad Francis can tell you that. And choose the things that please me and take hold of my courage. Even to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better without sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Hold up right there. In that verse 1 there, he condensed it down just to two precepts men had to do. Anybody get Micah? Read me verse 8. Chapter 6, verse 8. He had showed the old man the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, and to live in mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Three things. Read them again. To do what? What does God require? Three things. Do justice, was it? Read that verse eight again. Okay. He has shown thee, O man, what is good, Now what's the Lord require of you? Now go ahead and read now after that. Justice, love, mercy, and walk humbly before thy God. Micah reduced it down to three concepts also. But now, Habakkuk. Anybody know what he condensed it down to? One precept. And Paul gives that in verse 17 of Romans 1. Verse 16, 17 said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jews first and also the Greek. That's verse 16 in Romans 1. Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, for it is written, the just shall live by faith. He brought down to one precept. He quoted from Habakkuk in Romans 1. Verse 4. Chapter 2, verse 4. Okay. Thank you, sir. I didn't have that wrote down even. He's really on the ball. He didn't have Micah wrote down, but you had it back. Okay. So, but Paul, when he's preaching to the Romans, in chapter 1, verse 16, he said, I'm not ashamed. of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jews first and also the Greek. And then in verse 6, 17 said, for therein is the righteousness God revealed from faith to faith, for it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now on the law here, I've told you that And my teaching over the years, now you may find some commentators, you may find some preachers and some teachers that give you different parts of the law, but I condensed it down to, keep it simple for us, three different parts of the law. Most of the times in our life, in our young Christian life, and even as a young preacher sometimes, when people talk to you about the law of Moses, what do you just, comes to your first thing on your mind? What's that? The Ten Commandments. Right, the Ten Commandments. But the law of Moses, I told you, is broke down in three different parts, or at least I broke it down in three different parts. We've got the Ten Commandments. We've got the civil law. That's how civilians deal with each other. If you and I take one another to court today, we go to civil court, civilians, dealing with each other. You take me there because I did this to you, did that to you, and let the law decide who's right and who's wrong. Then there's the ceremonial or the worship, or you can call it the ordinances part of the law. And I made a little note here. I don't know if it's on your page or not, but I put, that's the most important part of the law, not the 10 commandments. Because the worship part, or the ordinances part, that taught them how to approach God. Don't you think that's the most important part of the long walk? Now, the Ten Commandments just says thou shalt and shalt not, do and don'ts. That's all it is, basically. And a lot of times, our religion sometimes is... A lot of people's religion is a bunch of rules. Do this and don't do that. I've had people talk to me, if you live by these rules and do this, I said, Christianity is not a bunch of rules, of do's and don'ts, because most of us, if you're like me, fail those do's and don'ts. A lot of things I should do, I don't do, and a lot of things I do, I shouldn't do. But the Ten Commandments, I told you, was on two tablets. Everybody's nodding your head so everybody remembers that, right? And those two tablets, even though they're ten commandments, only say two things. The first four teaches you what? Did everybody hear that? If you want to take notes, write it down. The first four commandments teaches us, mankind, our responsibility towards God or towards our Creator. Thou shalt have no other gods before thee. Thou shalt not make thyself any graven images. Thou shalt not take the Lord thy God's name in vain. And remember the seventh day, keep it holy. Right? Now, one of you young people tell me what the fifth commandment is. You're going to tell me? You're young enough, go ahead and tell me. Honor thy father and thy mother that may be well with thee, that thy days may be long upon the earth. Now listen, the Bible, Stephen, specifies that's the first commandment with a promise to it. Those others had no promises to it, just said do and don't. Thou shalt have. In other words, just don't do it. Thou shalt have no other God before thee. Thou shalt not make, have no other God before thee, excuse me. Thou shalt not make in thyself any graven images. Just don't do it. Thou shalt not take the Lord thy God's name in vain. Just don't do it. Remember the seventh thing, keep it holy, do it. Do and don't. That's all it says. The first one's got a promise. The first one with a promise is that fifth commandment. Honor thy father and thy mother. It may be wealthy. Thy days may be long upon the earth. Now the next five, what do they teach us? Our responsibility towards our fellow man. I said the Ten Commandments, I want to say two things. Your responsibility towards your Creator, your responsibility towards your fellow man. Thou shalt not kill your fellow man. Thou shalt not steal from your fellow man. Thou shalt not commit adultery from your fellow man. Thou shalt not bear false witness, my fellow man. And what's that last one? Thou shalt not covet. Now, I think the reason God put covet as the last one, because it's covenants, makes us break all them others. Kill them, steal them. We coveted his money, killed him for his money, or we coveted his wife and killed him, right? It's the covenants that cause us to steal, to kill, commit adultery, to bear false witness. So, those ten commandments say two things. Your responsibility towards your creator, or towards God. Your responsibility towards your fellow man. When Jesus was in the world, a young man came to him and said, what is the greatest commandment? In other words, he won't know what the greatest one, I guess he figured if he could keep that greatest one, he'd have all the rest of them be okay. And Jesus said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy strength, and all thy mind. And he didn't stop there. He said, and the second one is like an under this. The first one, your responsibility towards your Creator. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength, and mind. The second is like an under this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And on these two commandments hang all the law, all the law. That not only took in the Ten Commandments, that took in 613 precepts, all the law and the prophets on those two commandments. Now you'll never love God like you should till you're born again. The Bible says in herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation. That word propitiation means satisfaction given for our wrongdoing, propitiation for our sins. He loved us and gave his son to satisfy the sovereign God so that God could tell Adam's race, you can come on back home. The civilian part of the law. What's that? The civilians, right. How civilians deal with each other. In other words, if I've told you this, use the illustration before, you ought to remember it. If your ox guards somebody's slave, you go to court? Why are you supposed to pay him for that dead slave? Right. That's what the laws taught. 30 pieces of silver, and that's what the price they sold the Lord out for, for the price of a dead slave. 30 pieces of silver. They didn't value them as much, did they? There's a whole concept of laws. This is just, you don't have to turn over, Exodus 21 verse 12. He that smiteth a man so that he die, what are you gonna do with that? He shall be put to death. He that smiteth his father or his mother, shall surely No question about it, be put to death if they kill their father and mother. He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, surely be put to death if you kidnap somebody. Kidnapping was a capital punishment. It still was in this country up to a few years ago. I don't know if it still is or not. He that curseth his father and his mother, or surely be put to death. These are just civilian laws. Verse 22, if men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her, in other words, if she lose a baby, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him. And he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. There's 613 precepts of the law, not just the Ten Commandments, but how civilians deal with one another. Then let me try to get But this last one I said is the most important part, is the ordinance part or the worship part of the law. That taught him how to approach God. Now, listen to me, when Moses went up on the mountain, before he went up there was Mount Sinai, thundering, lightning. Fire. That's the way God manifests himself. It was so frightful, Moses, his own self, said, I exceedingly feared and so darn quaked. Shook in my boots, in other words, as we would say. The people said, let Moses go up and talk to God. In other words, they want a mediator. Let Moses go up and talk to God on our behalf. lest we die. We couldn't face that. And how are you going to approach God? He says, Moses, build me a tabernacle. Here's the blueprint. Here's the pattern. Let me show it to you over here. I don't know whether... Now Moses is up there 40 days and 40 nights. God wrote the Ten Commandments. Moses wrote these other 613 precepts of the law, besides the Ten Commandments, or that's included in that. Moses writes all this down. The people's afraid to go before God, they want to... And they said, how are we going to approach God? We know we need a mediator. See, for you and I tonight, we're so blessed. The Bible said there's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ. Listen, Christ will be my mediator. He was my mediator. He is my mediator. He'll be yours tonight. If you're saved, he's your mediator. He went to God in your behalf. He said, Father, forgive Homer Hensley, because he don't know what he's doing. Save that sinner. Remember on the cross. And God is your mediator. Christ is your mediator between God. He said, okay, if you want to approach God, there's only one thing that will hide your sin. One thing that appeased God's wrath. Do you ever have somebody mad at you and you want somebody to go to them, talk to them and say, see if they'll stop being mad at you? God said it takes the blood. Tell him, in this tabernacle, I'm going to meet with him. It's called a meeting house. It's a place where I can meet with him. Remember, folks, you said we're going down to the meeting house. Anybody old enough to remember that expression? No? Joyce is? Okay. I think she's about 140, I think. I kid her because I seem like every year she has two birthdays. She told me one Sunday here, so I'm 140 now. And it takes the blood. Before God, in this tabernacle that you're going to build here, well, I'm not going to get a chance to get to it. Let me just close out there. We'll go with the tabernacle, the seven pieces of furniture that's in there, the mercy seat, the Shekinah glory of God. It's a meeting house.