Galatians 3 19 through 4 3. Let's be attentive to the reading of God's Holy Word. What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come and to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin. That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now, I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all. but is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time or the time appointed by his father. Even so, we, when we were children, were under the bondage or were in bondage under the elements of the world. May God bless the reading of his word. Let's pray for his blessing on the preaching. Our father in heaven, we pray that as you are our father, that you would teach us and raise us, Lord, as those. Who may be still in their immaturity, raised from servants to sons. And Lord, teach us of that great gift of your law, Lord, that we would be driven to Christ and see ourselves Lord, to rejoice in the history of the progress of a revelation and redemption that is accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ and to have a greater understanding, but also by the Spirit to make application of this word to our lives. So we pray, bless us and have mercy upon your people and be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Well, did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery. God, having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer. And the way that God has accomplished this, we've seen in our text, is in that covenant to unfold it over the course of history. And just as the seals in Revelation are the unfolding of the history of the world, one seal is broken and then there's the next thing that happens. So it is like we have these seals Pointing it these pointed Administrations or or covenants that are truly all one promise that has been given by the father to the eternal sign and So we have in our text Really the whole argument coming to the to the crux. Why Sinai? Can we get? Genesis 315 we get that seed of the woman and We get Abraham justification by faith alone. What is going on in Sinai for 1500 years? And so this is what we have set before us. The purpose of the law is our first point. Second, the excellence of the gospel, and then third, some applications. But first, the purpose of the law. We cannot be justified by works, but only through faith. Just as Abraham was justified through faith. And as we've asked through this working through of Galatians 3 and 4, where does this leave us with Sinai? Where does this leave us with the law delivered to Moses? And that is finally what we get to in this text. Again, if you've read Galatians 3 up to this point, and you get to that point, you say, what is the purpose of the law? And then you look at the next verse and you say, oh, this is exactly what Paul's asking. You know that you've read it right. And so what is the purpose of the law? When we speak of the uses of the law, there are three. The first use of the law is to show us our sin and the need of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ alone. And the second use of the law is that with the law comes consequences. And so the law and the consequences together restrain man. They hold him back like they bridle him back. You may hate someone in your heart, in your heart. You ought not. It's a sin. You may hate someone in your heart, but you won't go and murder them because you know if you do, you'll be put to death. That's how the law goes. It restrains sin. And then the third use of the law is that it is a rule of life. That the law is good, and we don't abolish it. We uphold it. We obey it. That's perfectly summarized. Those three those three uses of the law, as they're called, are summarized in First Timothy one, where he says, Now we know that the law is holy, just and good. It's holy. It drives us to Christ. It's just it holds us back and it's good. We walk in this way. But what Paul is is showing us here is this first use of the law. Sometimes it's called the pedagogical use of the law, the teaching use of the law. What is the purpose of the law given at Sinai? It is to get us to the gospel. It is to hold forth throughout the whole law, to hold forth our sins as well as the salvation that is in Jesus Christ and him alone. And so to demonstrate this particular use of the law, the apostle describes the law really in six general ways. But before we see these six ways, we have to ask ourselves this, what does Paul mean when he talks about the law? We saw before that when Paul speaks about the law, sometimes he speaks of it as a covenant of works, like in the beginning of this chapter. At other times, he speaks of the law as the rule of life, And then at other times he speaks of the law to refer to the whole system given at Sinai. And that's how he's using it here. How do we know that he's using the law here to refer to Sinai? For two reasons. First, he speaks of the law as something temporary. Verse 19 and 25, he says, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. This can't be speaking of the covenant of works, because mankind, as long as they're from ordinary generation of Adam and are not united to Christ, they'll be under the guilt of that covenant. That will continue. It cannot be speaking of the laws of moral rule of life, because again, the law is eternal. It is a reflection of the eternal holiness and righteousness of God himself. And so it can't be speaking of the moral law, but it's rather speaking of the various laws that are given to Israel which find their end, the ceremonial law and all of these laws which find their end in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's speaking about Sinai. But not only does that temporariness show us he's speaking about the law of Sinai, but his use of we and his use of you. So sometimes Paul speaks in verse twenty three, twenty four and twenty five in chapter four, verse three. He says we. And then there are other times in verses 26, 27, 28, 29, he says, you. We is referring to the people, the Jews, we is referring to to to ethnic Israel, the people who were there and their descendants who were given that law at Sinai. He's saying this is this is us. And then the you is speaking to the whole church of Galatia to you. Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile baptized together into Christ. He's making a we versus you distinction here, and so for those reasons we see he's referring to Sinai, the law given at Sinai. So what? Why Sinai? Here are six descriptions given to us by the Apostle Paul. The first is that the law is like a mirror. Now, this is really a drawing from James, but this is the idea of what he's he's telling us. The law is given, he says in verse 19, because of transgression. There was always sin. But Paul uses the word here, transgression, the idea of going beyond something. Not just missing the mark, which is where the word sin comes from, but but that, you know, the thing and you go beyond it anyways. There was always sin, but the law was given to expose exactly what those sins are so that when you hear the law, you see yourself in a mirror that you've broken it, that you've gone beyond it, that you have transgressed the law of God. Paul says in Romans 7, 7, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness until the law had said you shall not covet. The idea here is that I was prone to all of these things by my sinful nature, but then the law comes in and it gives me the word for the thing that I've been doing. And now I know the thing and now I can't help but continue to do the thing because I know what it is. The law is given because of transgressions so that the law was given to Israel so that they would see even though they've been called out by God, even though they have been given the sign of circumcision. Even though they have a special propriety as the apple of God's eye, the beloved of the Lord. They would still see this law and then see their sins very clearly. They would see their need for a savior. Think about the laws about clean and unclean. And you read through the Levitical code and think to yourself, would anybody ever be clean at any point in time? And the answer is basically no. And that's the whole point. The through these laws, Israel is being taught, you are constantly under the state of defilement. You are never in your own person really capable of going and having direct communion with the almighty and living God. Think about the sacrifices. Friends, the sacrifices were not meritorious works of Israel. The sacrifices weren't simply laws to be obeyed that made Israel right with God. They were living confessions of the Jews that they needed this savior. They needed they deserve death and they need salvation. The sacrifices themselves were a confession of their dependence upon God. And in a way, the moral law continues to do this for us today. Whenever we go through the commands, if you spend time in your prayer day in and day out, praying through the ten commandments and confessing your sins to the Lord, then you go a step further and you may maybe you take one commandment a day and you look through the larger catechism. On each commandment. And you you see how much You have sinned against the Almighty God. And you are still even this day in need. Of that Savior Jesus Christ that you've never arrived. That there is never a point in which you read the law and you and you're able to say I've done that. The law is added because of transgressions. It gets us to the Savior because it shows us our need for him. Second, the law is a servant. Verse 21 is the law against the promises of God. Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. So he says here, the law is not the gospel. It doesn't bring life, but it rather serves the purposes of the gospel. The law is a servant. A wound exists in order to be healed. The terror exists in order to be sewn together. The law shows the problem. The gospel is the solution. The command is not the promise, but it points us to the need of a promise. The law is like a servant. The law is like a jailer. Verse 23, 22 and 23. But the scripture has confined all under sin. But before faith came, and here he uses faith as a metonymy, as the attribute for the thing itself, like the crown, we speak of the crown. for power or for the king here. He speaks of faith, referring to Christ. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. He's using the language of being under a guard, under a jailer, being kept in imprisonment. The law was like a jailer. Think about Israel. Israel was confined by the law. that they should not leave Israel. They were tied, they were so tied to their family inheritance that their lands were returned to the original families every 50th year, the Jubilee. They were tied to that place. In the in the land of Israel, that's where the sacrifices were offered. That's where there was the tabernacle or the temple or the high priest. And it was only there. You couldn't get this somewhere else. And so even David, David is in Moab and he's exhorted by God, the prophet, he says, don't stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. The law was a jailer. It was keeping Israel under lock and key. And why? What was this preparative for? Well, it was to protect them from idolatry of the surrounding nations. We sang from Psalm 106. This is exactly what happens. As soon as Israel starts going out into the world, they start going crazy and they're taking on all of the idolatries and sacrifices, even sacrificing their own children. But the idea of the law confining them and saying you cannot leave this place. is to protect them from the idolatry of the surrounding nations so that they would know that there is one God and one savior. Israel before and think of how the Lord did this. He ingrained. Here, oh, Israel, the Lord, your God is one. That was so ingrained in the people, and then they begin to take in all of the false gods and all the idolatry. And so then Israel goes and continues to go into their apostasy. And the Lord sends them away into Babylon, into the very seat of polytheism and idolatry of all kinds. And he he punishes them so sorely and then he brings them back. And Israel doesn't have an idol problem anymore. Idolatry is gone. God is one. The whole point of confining them was to teach him that. Was to teach him that God, there is one God, there's one Savior. It's preparing them to remember that their strength and their protection was only in the Lord. And people can come, foes surround me, but what can mortal man do to me? The Lord was ingraining this in them so much that the men were those who were commanded to go and celebrate the feast three times a year. And so all of the men would leave their wives and children and homes and would go to one place to the temple. And the Lord told them That when you do this, I'm teaching you, when you do this and all of your men are gone and you're at your most vulnerable point, I will make it so that no other nation covets your land and attacks you. The Lord confines them to teach them that their strength and protection was only in the Lord. And the Lord confines them into this one place so that the church knows that they are distinct from the world. You have the land of Egypt and you have the land of Goshen. And so the law is like a jailer. All of this is being built into the very DNA of the church. So that when the gospel arrives in its fullness in the personal work of Jesus Christ, that that identity is so present and prevalent into the church that then she is prepared to go out to all the nations. The law is like a jailer getting ready to release in the time of the gospel. The law, fourthly, is like a tutor. The law was our tutor, our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Sinai was a schoolmaster bringing the young church into the instruction through living illustrations and object lessons. So that what is given an outline in the Old Testament is given in its form in the new. It's filled in. It's like Sinai is like a coloring page where all you have are the outside lines, the black lines, and the New Testament, the coming of Christ is the coloring into the page. It's the schoolmaster, it's the instructor. Just for an example, think about, here's 11 examples, the weakness of the tabernacle. Tabernacle teaches us that Christ would dwell among us and taking upon himself even the weakness of our nature, but by his resurrection showing that even that will be glorified. In the temple, Christ is the fullness of the Godhead. In Christ, the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. And by the spirit of Christ dwelling in us, we are made temples. The lampstand. Christ is the light of the world. And the church, because of Christ's presence among us, is light to the world. The showbread. Christ is the bread of life who feeds and satisfies all who come to him. The golden censer, which held coals from the altar, that Christ is the pleasing sacrifice in whom the Father delights. And our prayers arise through his mediation as pleasing to him. The Ark of the Covenant shows us that the favor of God abides on those who are in Christ. The manna inside the covenant crisis, the bread of life, Aaron's rod, which blossomed inside the Ark of the Covenant. Christ is the true and great high priest, and he is the king and head of his church, who has established a government by pastors, elders and deacons over his church. The tables of the covenant in the Ark. Christ is the fulfiller of the law and Psalm 40. Your law is part of me written in my heart. The veil in the temple that Christ, his body would be broken for us and that the division between Jew and Gentile should be no more. The mercy seat that Christ's blood was sprinkled for us for the satisfaction of God's wrath and the cleansing of us from from our sins. This is true of all of Sinai. This is true of all the law, so much so that the apostle says in Hebrews 9.5, he simply says, of these things we shall, we cannot now speak in detail. Hebrews 9.5 is the part of the sermon where he says, I've already given you 20 examples. I could keep going. You know I could keep going. I'm not going to keep going, but you should go and keep going. The whole law there speaks to us of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Why? Because it's a teacher. It's a schoolmaster. Fifthly, the law is like a guardian. Not just a guard, but a guardian. Verse 4-2. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians. So the church is like an heir. We're inheritors, we're co-heirs with Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham. And when we are united to Christ, we are made heirs with him. And so the law is like a guardian, a guardian is a servant who oversaw the person of the child. Where to go? Where to go, the law is like a guardian teaching the church to delight in the assembly of the Lord above all else. What to do? This is what you this is the guardian would be the person. Think of the governess telling the telling the young child, this is what you need to do today. The law tells to be clean and holy before the Lord, who to associate with. Don't hang around those kids anymore. The law teaches the church to love first and foremostly one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. to know that corruption and corrupt counsel and friendship of folly will lead one to destruction. The law is a guardian, a servant overseeing the person of the child, but not only that, a steward. Same verse. Governors are guardians and stewards. The steward was a servant who oversaw the property of a child. So a guardian oversaw the person of the child. The steward oversaw the property of the child. The laws like this steward teaching Israel, do not give up your inheritance, even at the expense of receiving the riches of the world. To be like Naboth, when he is approached by Ahab and Ahab says, sell me your vineyard. I love your vineyard. And he says, the Lord forbid it me that I should give unto thee the inheritance of my fathers. That's what the law teaches them. It doesn't matter who's coming to offer you and what they're offering. Do not give up your inheritance. Why? Because that's a type of heaven. It doesn't matter if the world is promising you the whole earth. Do not give up heaven. Do not trade heaven for earth. You have gotten a bad deal. Do not fear the one who kills the body. Fear the one who kills the soul. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. This is what the law does. It teaches you not just who you should be, but what you should value and love. And so the law is a teacher. It is the law we've seen is like a mirror. It's a servant. It's a jailer. It's a tutor. It's a guardian. And it's a steward. All excellent things, all purposeful things. But let us not overlook the fact that the gospel is still more excellent. All of the law is subservient to the gospel. And so throughout this passage, we have nine excellencies of the gospel. First and foremost, the gospel, not the law, is the fulfilling of the promise. What then, what is the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Our Lord Christ fulfills the requirements and receives the promises of the law. He is the sacrifice without spot and blemish. He accomplishes our salvation in himself. He bore our curse upon the tree for us. He was made a curse for us. The gospel is the fulfillment of the promise, not the law. The law shows us our need for the promise. The gospel is from God himself. Whereas the law is given through Moses. We have this interesting passage in 319 through 20. It was appointed through the angels by the hand of a mediator. Now, a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. The idea here is that the law was given through a mediator, but the promise is given immediately by God. The giving of the law was attended by the glory of angels. This is seen in Deuteronomy 33.2, not in your Hebrew Bibles, but in the Greek Septuagint. It says that the law was delivered by angels. And that is picked up by Stephen in Acts 7.53, when he says that the law was delivered by angels in Hebrews two, where the apostle says that the law was declared by angels. And the idea here is that the angels are those attending the giving of the law. But that it's given through the hand of a mediator of a go between who is Moses. Deuteronomy 5, 5, Moses says, I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord. Moses is the mediator here. So the law is given through a mediator, but the promise is given by God himself. God gave to Abraham himself the promise. He spoke with him and said, I will do these things for you. I will call you. I will bring this to you. And then we ask ourselves, but the gospel has a mediator. Yes, there's one mediator, Jesus Christ. But again, step back, look at our text. Who has even that promise been given to? It's been given by the father to the son and the eternal decree. And so Jesus Christ, as the seed of Abraham, and as the God man, he fulfills the terms of both parties. He satisfies divine justice because he's God. God is not a debtor to any holiness of any creature, but he is debtor, as it were, to himself. Only God can satisfy the demands of God. And so Jesus Christ is true and very God satisfies those demands. But not just that, as true and very man, he assumed human nature to redeem the nature. And so this is what John means in John 1 when he says the law was given through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He is saying the law came through a mediator, but the promise is from God. This God who is one God in three persons. The law was delivered to a people through a man. The gospel has come to the world from God who became man. In the gospel, thirdly, we are liberated from the jailer of the law. Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterwards be revealed. But the jailer has been defeated. The jailer has fled. Romans 5, 20 through 21 says the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The church is no longer confined to one land. But it's to go to all the nations. In the gospel, fourthly, we are released from the tutor of the law. After faith has come, we're no longer under a tutor. The ceremonial law has been fulfilled. Colossians 2 says these were a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Hebrews 8 13. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. We've we've graduated from the school. That's what the new covenant is. It's the graduation ceremony. Now you are free from this tutor, teacher, schoolmaster. In the gospel, we exit the master as a servant under the law and enter our maturity as sons. So we exit the master as a servant under the law, and we enter into our maturity as sons. For you all are sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Three twenty six. The law is a hard master. And there is no relenting of it. But in the gospel, how much liberty and assurance we have by the Holy Spirit and what greater experience of communing with God through Christ, what rich treasures we have in the fullness of the scriptures. We have been given a great treasure trove of goodness and inheritance in the Lord in this life and in the life to come. Sixth, in the gospel, we are baptized into Christ, which is greater than the circumcision that was given under the law. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. A baptism is greater than circumcision because circumcision signifies death. It is the bloody cutting away of the flesh. Baptism signifies life. It is being buried with Christ and raised to new life with him in the washing away of sins. Circumcision was applied only to men, whereas men and women receive baptism. And so for this, the sign itself is greater. In the gospel, all are made one in Christ, rather than continuing to be divided from one another as under the law. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is, a better translation, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So the distinction between Jew and Gentile is eradicated. The idea is that the two are to be brought together. Freedom will pervade throughout the nations because of the gospel. There's no there's there's neither slave nor free Even slaves were to be considered as brothers even when they kept their social status. They were still to be considered brothers And you see this in the case of Philemon going back you see our Onesimus going back to Philemon you see this in the case of Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6 and But even considering more greatly that that freedom will continue to pervade. I mean, one of the results of the gospel is the eradication of slavery throughout the world. And even male and female are made one in Christ. Think of this, only men participated in the feasts. Deuteronomy 16, 16, it says three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord. But men and women participate in the ordinances equally. Only men were kings and priests. Today, all the church together is made kings and priests of the Lord our God spiritually in Christ. And so in the gospel, all are made one together in Christ. The idea is that we have right standing, equal standing before the Lord and before one another. Now, the grace is not a grace is not obliterate or abolish the distinctions of nature, but rather brings them to a greater and greater maturity over time. And so we have all one in Christ, all in equal standing and in unity together in Christ. In the gospel, we are assured of our receiving the promise because Christ has accomplished our redemption, he says. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heir, according to the promise 329. The whole point is here that Christ has received the promise. And if you are in Christ, if your faith is in Christ, you also receive the promise. So that Jesus even says Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Why? Because Abraham. Is in Christ and he rejoiced to see the fulfilling of the promises given to him. And so we receive the promise and we're more assured of this. We have the whole the whole word of God. And in the gospel, we are released from the bondage of the ceremonial law. It says in verse 4-3, even so, when we were children, we were in the bondage under the elements of the world. Elements of the world here refers to the ceremonial law. It is the rudiments, the foundations, the elements, which are sensible and physical, they're of the world, rather than spiritual in their nature. And it is from these that we have been freed. John 4, Jesus says to the woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The idea here is that the elements of the world, these sensible rudiments these sensible ABCs, these worldly, physical, tangible, ceremonial ABCs of the faith, that we will not be in bondage to them anymore. We will worship God where we are throughout the nations. Now, some applications from this. Having seen the purposes of the law, having seen the excellence of the gospel, let's make a handful of applications. The first is this. First, improve upon your baptism. Remember your baptism. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Have you been baptized? Then you are one who is marked off and belongs to God. You are bound in covenant with him. Continue to take hold of Christ this day. Psalm 86 we had this in the sermon this morning. Psalm 86 concludes. Give me a sign. Give me a sign. That I that my enemies can see and they know that they are defeated. Give me a sign that I can know that I am your servant. Friends, God has given you that sign in your baptism. In your baptism, you declare or your parents declare on your behalf that the flesh, the world and the devil has no hold because Jesus Christ is risen from the grave. And so you who have been baptized, remember your baptism and take hold of Christ this day, turn from your sins or be torn limb from limb. Those are your two options in Psalm 50. Take your take the covenant of the Lord upon you, which you do in baptism and keep it or be torn to pieces. But you may say, I've seen so much friends, the Galatians literally lost the gospel and the apostle reminds them you've been baptized. These are people who forgot justification by faith alone. And Paul says, have you been baptized? Remember that. You've been put, you have put on Christ. You do not belong to the flesh. You do not belong to the world. You do not belong to the devil. You belong to God. You belong to the one whose name has been put upon you, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. But you may say baptism is only an outward sign. Yes, and it is a means of grace. Do not deprecate what God has given as a gift. It is a sign. Baptism is a sign pointing you to Christ. It is a seal to encourage you who do look to Christ. And so as you believe in Christ. Remember your baptism and persevere in faith. God has set me apart for himself. He has washed me with the water as he has sprinkled me with the blood of Christ. Secondly, this instructs us, this passage is very instructing in how we should understand the lives of young Christians. Those baptized into Christ in our true sons, but are immature in the faith and treated like servants. They're spiritual infants and they need the tutelage of the law. Paul, it's not that we're applying this. It's not like we're applying a corporate illustration to a single person. Paul does that. Paul takes the the illustration of the life of a single child. And he says this is true of all of Israel. And it's still true. It is true of young Christians. Those who are young, who are baptized young as infants, who are being raised in the faith, Who are those who would say there's not a day I didn't know the Lord. And we don't need to be looking for some conversion experience for them. They belong to the Lord. But what are the how are they being treated? They're treated as servants. This is why we're not paid a communionists. Because though they may be sons, they still are like servants. They're being tutored. They're being trained. They have a jailer, a governor. Saying don't go here. Don't be with these people. You need to love this. This is what you need to do. I think about the lives of these children. They often find the harshness of the law and the discipline of the father. They find it often. Because they're in need of it often. Why do children, why are children so much more disciplined when they're two or three or four? And not when they're 12 or 13 or 14, hopefully it's because they need it. Right there, there are many sins that are revealed to them in their life. So that there's one particular sin that that is being put to death. And then they're learning at a young age, you need to honor your father and your mother. And this is what it means. And they're having to learn that it's the same thing with with those who are converted later in life. Whereas you're converted later in life, and it seems like there's just one sin that you're working on for a while. And then there's another sin that you're having to work on for a while. And all you're doing is coming across the the harsh discipline of your father. But it's a goodness. It's a kindness. Why? Because that's the experience of those who are under tutors, who are under a governess. They are more bound, these children. They have less liberty of conscience because they're unsure if this or that might be a sin. There's a tenderness to them. those who are convinced of a particular doctrine, like exclusive psalmody, singing the psalms in the worship of God. And one of the first things that happens when you when you enter into that cage stage of the regular principle of worship, it's like, well, can I listen to any other kind of music ever? And the answer is yes. But there's such a tenderness to that. Why? Because that's what children are like. They don't have the fortitude of conscience to enjoy the liberty and complexity of life. The stories that we read to our young children, they're black and white, good guy, bad guy, no in between. As we grow older, we read stories that have more complexity, that have more color to it because that's how life really is. But with our children, They're more bound. So it is with those who are young in the Lord. And what should we do with these? Well, we ought not to be impatient with the weaker brother. We not ought not to be impatient with the young Christian. You're that young person who is really feeling what it is to be under the tutelage of the law and starts to buck back at it. We should be patient. We should bear them up. We should encourage them to be stronger. And so there are two ditches, just like dealing with children. There are two ditches, beating them down and coddling them. Do not just beat down young Christians. Provoking them to rap, constantly putting them down. Don't do that. Just like you shouldn't do that to your children. On the same hand, you shouldn't coddle them. Oh, it's OK if you stay a week and baby Christian. It's not. You're not going to last. That's not OK. And so they are to grow up from the law being their schoolmaster to enjoy what liberty there is in the gospel, the sweetness and the strength that there is in the maturity of the Christian mind. Thirdly, do not stay a baby Christian. Perhaps this applies to you. Don't stay a baby Christian until it says until the time appointed by the father. Do not remain in your infancy. Grow in the Lord. This is your desire of your pastors, of your elders, that you would grow into the maturity of Jesus Christ. Paul says, When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Don't stay a baby Christian. Fourth, don't look for other mediators. A mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. And there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Don't look to saints. Don't look to angels. Don't look to Mary. But also don't look to the cult of personalities which lurk in every corner online and many churches. When you start putting up this guy as your Moses and mediator, that this guy goes up into the Sinai of his study to bring you the treasures of heaven week after week. Be warned against that. Don't go and find other mediators. Fifth, enjoy then the blessing of worship free from the smells and bells of ceremony. Even we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Friend, you are not in that time. That has been removed. The world constantly, and the church constantly, is looking for ceremony. Some look for ceremony. Some look for the smells and bells. Some look for the tangible, sensible false worship. Some look for it from tradition. Others from innervation, but it's all the same. It is going back to weak and beggarly elements to stimulate the senses, to provide false assurance that what we're doing is really pleasing to God. The flesh craves tangible false worship over true spiritual worship from the people of God. Don't believe me? Here's some examples. Some want candles. Others want light shows. God wants the pure light of the word to shine forth. Some want incense. Some want smoke machines. God wants his people to pray, which is the incense. Some want organs and boys' choirs. Some want rock bands and praise teams. God wants to have his songs sung on his own instruments, the choir of his congregation. Some want all of the feast days. Some want Hallmark holidays. But God wants us to enjoy the perpetual institution of the Christian Sabbath, the Word's Day. Some want vestments and funny dresses. Others want skinny jeans and v-necks. But God would have us to be adorned with decency and good works. Some think they need a thousand different prayer books for worship. Others think they need a thousand different technologies for worship. But God would have us to have our Bibles, some bread, some wine, some water. Some want speculation rooted in doctrine. Others want speculation rooted in feelings. But God would have us to go to the law and the testimony, because if they don't speak to these, there is no light in them. Are you tempted to want to go back to the ceremonies, to the outward contrivances of man? Friend, the thing that you're looking for, communion with the ever-living and triune God, is not found in the momentary use of fleeting means, but in the long-term use of the appointed means of grace. You want to grow as a Christian, you need water, the word, and bread, and wine. And you need that for a long time. That's not a meager meal. It's manna from heaven. The widow's oil never ran out, as simple as it was. And the blessings of the Spirit never end, though the means be simple. Don't go back to ceremony. Sixth, live together as one in Christ, in unity as a church. You are all one in Christ Jesus. Congregation, live like it. Live like those who are one in Jesus Christ. And lastly, be ever growing in the Lord. This is the whole point. God gave the law to get us to the gospel. God gave his law to the church. Israel was the church of God. In order that she might grow up in maturity and in stature and spread throughout the nations. And this is true of the individual Christian life. The laws of the flesh, the gospel is of the spirit. The flesh profits nothing, but the spirit is life. So beloved of the almighty God, grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ as you are true and very sons of God. Servants remain in their ignorance, but sons come into their inheritance as they develop. And may it be so with us. The law says do the gospel. It is done. The law says do and live. The gospel says you're made alive now do. We're not motivated by fear as if the law were a covenant of a covenant of works. We are not hindered by the law as if it were ceremonies, but in delight in Jesus Christ, you are to walk in a lively faith, which is the only kind of faith that God gives. And so may God bless his word to us. Let's pray. Almighty God, we give you thanks for your word and we ask that you would grow us in maturity and in stature for the sake of your own glory and name through Jesus Christ. Amen.