Okay, let's pray together. Father, thank you for this time to be together to look at Galatians and to read it together. We are so blessed to have the word of God in our language and to be able to study and read it together. We thank you for the great work of your church in the past and the sanctifying work of your spirit and bringing about a pure understanding of the word. And we pray you'd help us to grow in grace as we look at the wonderful truths that you have revealed to us in the pages of the book of Galatians, and I pray you'd be with Ryan's grandpa during this difficult time, and I just thank you so much. He's a believer, and I pray that you would bless him in this time in his life, and just bless you and praise you for saving him. And I thank you for my son Malachi, his birthday being today, and I just thank you for his life, and what a blessing he is to me and to our church. So Lord, be with us now as we read scripture together and discuss it, and I pray that it Encourage our hearts convict us and help us to have a greater zeal and passion to know you and to follow after Righteousness and to glorify you and all that we do in Jesus name. I pray amen All right, one Galatians 3 and we made it through verse 14 last time But just by way of review real quick remember Galatians right out of the gate Paul is emphasizing the origin of his gospel that he preached, that it came directly from the Lord Jesus. It wasn't even something he learned from other apostles, that it came directly from Christ. And then he gets right into there in Galatians chapter two, the whole issue that took place with Peter, who did know better. He did know that it was okay to eat with Gentiles. He did know that it was okay to have the unclean foods. And Peter did understand the gospel. And yet he was intimidated by a group that came from James, near Jerusalem, who said that in addition to believing in Jesus, you also needed to be circumcised and keep dietary laws. Not just... So the things are good with you with Jews, but to be right with God, okay? So this is the first very serious false gospel that comes up. And I've mentioned to you all the new perspectives on Paul and some of the odd theological trends that go on today and some of the weird books that are coming out and everything else. And I just wanna encourage you. You can understand the Bible without being an expert on Second Temple Judaism. You can understand the Bible without reading these thousands of pages of tomes and everything else. And again and again, if you just read through the Bible and read it constantly and read the same things over and over again, just constantly working your way through the Bible, you'll see what's wrong with all this stuff. You know, reading the New Perspectives on Paul, and them saying, oh, the Jerusalem Council wasn't even addressing the issue of salvation. It's not even about that issue. That's just a Protestant-Catholic thing. That's just a medieval invention of Roman Protestants. And immediately I'm thinking, Acts chapter 15, what does it say? Look at it again. Real quick, Acts 15. I remember reading that, and the New Perspective writers saying, that's just so naive and childish to think they were even talking about, they're not even asking questions about being saved for going to heaven. What does verse one say of Acts 15? Certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. I think they were talking about salvation. Okay, look at verse five. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. in order to be saved, right? That's the context of what they're talking about. Okay, so I really wanna encourage you, don't ever be intimidated by men that have advanced degrees or wear clerical collars. Just take them to the bar of scripture and you can see what's wrong with what they're saying, okay? And very often people do that. They're intimidated because, well, this guy's a letter scholar and he graduated from some fancy university in Europe whose name, I can't even pronounce the name of the university he went to, and this, that, and the other thing, but the fact is, You just take them to the bar of scripture, you can see what's wrong with what they're saying, okay? So Paul immediately corrects Peter and says in verse 16 of chapter two there, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. And remember, I also mentioned to you, you will encounter this eventually at some point in your life. people trying to limit what the phrase works of law refers to. Trying to say it merely refers to circumcision. It merely refers to dietary laws and things like that. But the phrase works of law, as David pointed out last time, remember we looked at Galatians 5. If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And he says, and you are a debtor to keep the whole law, right? Not just certain aspects of it or anything like that. And remember, why do people do that? Why do people try to limit works of law to merely dietary or circumcision, things like that. Okay, makes it easier. Why else? They want our works of obedience to the Ten Commandments to play some role in making us right with God. So when they hear, we're justified by faith apart from works, they'll say, yeah, apart from circumcision and dietary laws, but we still have to keep the commandments and do this, that, and the other thing in order to be saved. And that's dead wrong, just completely dead wrong. Now, back up, let's go look at Galatians 3. I'll read real quick 1 through 14 again, and then we'll start going slowly through verse 15. He says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Now, think about how potent that argument is. His main argument against a work's salvation is, I preach that Christ was crucified. In other words, in his thinking, you can't believe in that and think that your works are gonna play a role in getting you into heaven. You see how he's doing that there? He says, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Verse two, this only I wanna learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Now remember, I pointed out verse three is kind of a verse that refuse all attempts of doing this. What is, if anyone here has ever studied the classic Roman Catholic doctrine of how you get to heaven, what do they teach? How does it happen, I'm sorry? Okay, the sacrament of baptism, completely gratuitous baptism in the name of the triune God by a priest in the Roman church justifies you before God and infuses what they call sanctifying grace into your soul. That sanctifying grace will then begin the process of transforming you, and then it creates new habits. And as you get more grace infused into your soul through sacraments and doing everything else, you can become more righteous. And those works that are not strictly meritorious, they are what they call meritum de congruo. They're congruent merit. meaning it's fitting for God to reward those works. Okay, so you begin purely by grace, purely by grace, but at the end, at the final judgment, what is it that's gonna determine whether you go to heaven or not? Your works. Verse three, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Having begun by grace, are you now gonna get in by works? This takes care of every version of this. The New Perspectives, the Federal Vision, the Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Arminianism, I mean, it's all encompassed under one verse here. You don't begin by grace and then finish by works. Okay, that is not what scripture teaches, and that's just an absolutely potent verse. Having begun in the spirit, having begun by grace, are you now gonna be made perfect by your works or by the flesh? And then, verse four, he really, in verse four, is questioning their salvation. See that? Have you suffered so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, what did these people tend to suffer a lot of? Persecution. He's saying, if you guys don't get this, then pretty much all that suffering was in vain because you guys aren't even Christians. Okay? It's pretty rough stuff. All right, now look at verse five. Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." Now, just remember, using the way that Paul uses this terminology, what does it mean if someone is of the works of the law and someone is of faith? What does that mean? Exactly, what they're relying on to get them into heaven. And that's why I look at verse 10, see it? For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, curse is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So there it is again, notice he doesn't narrow it down to ceremonial, dietary, it's everything in the book of the law. And you see the opening phrase there, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Any person who is trusting in however nuanced way they want to put it, in what they do to get them into heaven, they're cursed of God. Okay? Now, doesn't that, do you see how narrow this road really is to get to heaven? Okay? It's, you either trust in Christ alone or you're lost. That is the biblical position that's always been true. It always will be true. It doesn't matter how many people get this wrong. That's always the truth. Anyone who is trusting in their works. I don't care if they say, all of our works that we do are made possible by the grace of God. We couldn't do them without the help of grace. Yeah, but they're still your works, aren't they? Okay. That is not the truth. And that's not the gospel. Okay. All right. So we don't want to be of the works of the law, right? We don't want to be trusting in that at all. Okay, verse 11. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Now, what that means is, if you want to go to heaven by the law, what do you have to do? Keep it perfectly, from conception to casket. So you'd have to- I'm sorry? By the time you're born, you're already done. That's right. As soon as you're conceived, justification by works to any degree at all is already not a possibility. That's why the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, he's got to come into the world free from sin. He can't have a human father, just like the first Adam didn't. He does not have a sinful nature. He enters into that covenant, that broken law covenant, and keeps it for us. And that's why we believe in our account that is righteous. We believe in that righteousness is imputed legally to our account. Yes, sir? Wouldn't it be possible to believe that if you didn't believe in original sin? To believe the true gospel? No, that you could, that words could save you if you didn't believe in original sin. If you don't believe... Yeah, they don't believe in original sin. I think the majority of professing Christians in the United States don't believe in original sin. I mean, if you think that man has the ability in himself to repent and believe whenever he wants, you don't believe in original sin. You know what's amazing? In the history of Christian thought and theology, that was seen as heresy. To say that man in himself has the ability Repent and believe in Jesus anytime he wants that was seen as heretical that was condemned in the early church and at the Council of Orange and 529 with the help of Augustine remember the whole Augustinian Pelagian controversy They argued about original sin and what the fall did to us And as many historians of Christian thought and theology point out the church definitively answered that question man is born in original sin and And he is not able to be saved apart from God's unconditional electing grace and the way Augustine put it, by God's power, God's powers are what saves him. But there's all these undercurrents of semi-Pelagianism that are still riding along the way. And it really doesn't come to full fruition to a giant, huge controversy until what? The Reformation. The Reformation finally brings it back to the forefront. And that's where they really had to deal with it again. And I think, really, at the end of the day, Roman Catholicism really does not believe in original sin. They hold to the idea that, well, you need predisposing grace, and God's gotta do something prior, but the decisive factor is always left with us in that system. Whereas we know from Scripture, what's one of our precious, what does the I stand for in the tulip? Irresistible grace. In other words, what is the most glorious, biblical, historical example that illustrates irresistible grace? Saul of Tarsus becoming the Apostle Paul, what's another one? It's even more graphic than that one. It's the final miracle Jesus did in John's Gospel, remember? John 11? Lazarus! What's Lazarus's condition? He's dead. Okay, now, could Lazarus resist or assist in his own resurrection? I mean, I've heard people make odd comments about that. I mean, I remember a Reformed theologian saying, could Lazarus in the tomb have gone, eh, I don't want to, when he said, Lazarus, come forth? And yet that's exactly what happens to us. We are, what is the biblical imagery to describe us in our sin? We are dead. And what does God do? He makes us alive, okay? Yes, sir. Just a quick anecdote. Joe Moorcraft once said... Yeah, I love the Moorcraft anecdotes. He said the reason he had to put Lazarus' name first, he said because the whole graveyard would have emptied. Yeah, I've heard that too, yeah. If he didn't say Lazarus, come forth, every dead person on the planet would have come out of their grave. Yeah. So that's the biblical imagery, is that man does not have the capacity. Once we've fallen into sin, We've lost communion with God. We've also lost our ability to will any spiritual good at all. So what happened to us in the fall is much worse than most people think in terms of what it did to us. And remember, I've emphasized this all too as well. I emphasize this too because this helped me years ago. The reason that man is not able to come to Christ is he doesn't want to. The desire isn't there. And unless God changes the heart, it's not gonna happen. And that's why we pray, and we pray, and we pray. We witness, we share the gospel, we put the gospel before people. But you've got to pray that God will be the one who will act and will make that come alive in people's hearts. And it is irresistible. It's an irresistible effectual work. It makes creation more important, doesn't it? It makes what? Creation more important. You've got to keep Adam and Eve. That's right. Yeah, you can't. That's why you're getting rid of Adam all the time. Yeah. I have a book in my life and read it all yet. I think one of the creation groups put it out It's called in search of Adam Because there's a lot a lot of people question whether he was a real person or not Just what are the implications of him not being a real person? Right then I think we would have to throw away that Christ was a real person wouldn't we through one man's disobedience sin comes into the world through one man's obedience that many are made righteous and So there's nothing good that comes from these weird attempts to allegorize or things like that in Genesis 1 through 11. That's a vitally important section of God's word. Isn't provisionalism a huge problem? And that seems to be very, very widespread. Provisionalism? Oh, yeah. That God sent Jesus to die, not for particular people, but so that whoever wanted could get saved. Yeah. Which means that nobody's going to be saved, because nobody wants to be saved. Nobody cares about God. That provisionist, y'all heard of provisionism? It's a big thing in the Southern Baptist Convention. John O'Rourke and I debated a couple of them. You can actually see that debate on YouTube. That was a fun evening, talking to those two guys. And it really is, I've mentioned to you guys before, they really have the lowest view of God that I know of. Because in their position, God doesn't love anyone enough to save them. He doesn't. He does not love anyone enough to save them. He only loves people enough to make it possible for them to save themselves. But still, that doesn't take into account what Scripture says about what the fall did to us. What did Jesus say in John 6, 44? How many people are able to come to Christ? None. He says, no one is able. What do they say? Everyone's able. So who are you gonna go with there? All right, look at verse 13. So here you have one of the clearest statements of the substitutionary atonement in the gospel. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, or in our behalf. As it is written, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. So the curse of God, as opposed to the blessing of God, the curse of God rests on all who disobey his law, which is everybody. Everybody disobeys his law. Jesus redeems us from the curse of the law by being cursed on our behalf. So that's a key point there. And I've mentioned to you all before, there's a really good book. It actually won Book of the Year from what I've read about it. I think it came out in 1954. It's called The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross by Leon Morris. And I was really wrestling with this idea of limited atonement, like the dreaded L, like the evil, horrible, Calvinistic L. And I remember sitting in the lobby at the Westin. The Westin Hotel was connected to U.S. Bank, where I was a computer programmer. So on my lunchtime, I just ran over there and would read as long as I could on my lunchtime. Morris's explanation of what the what the biblical were a Greek word for redeem means here in Galatians 3 13 is what pushed me over the edge Look at what it says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse in behalf of us that term redemption referred to the buying back of prisoners of war like when when Kings would fight each other if Some of their army was taken prisoner the king that lost would have to redeem those captured soldiers by paying a price. And so the price that we have to have paid for us is Christ being cursed. This is not hypothetical. This is him actually bearing the curse. Every person he did this for is redeemed from the curse. You see what I'm saying? If you say he did this for every human being and the entire race of man, then the curse of God cannot rest on anyone. Can it? I mean, it's not a hypothetical redemption. It is the real thing. It's a real redemption from the curse of the law. And it's substitutionary, having become a curse in our behalf. As it is written, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we would receive the promise of the Spirit the Holy Spirit through faith Okay. All right. Look at verse 15. So now we get to the new the new part Brethren I speak in the manner of men Though it is only a man's covenant yet if it is confirmed no one annuls or adds to it Okay, now what he's gonna talk about here in this section, the Jewish people, most of them at the time of Christ thought that the Sinaitic covenant had added conditions to salvation. Why do you think they thought that? What happened at Mount Sinai? What did God give them? Ten commandments, okay? So their assumption was, okay, so here's some stuff that we've gotta do to be right with God. We've gotta keep all this now in order to be right with God. And what Paul's gonna argue here is that when God swore a promise and made that oath to Abraham, that was a long time before the Ten Commandments were even given. And what he's arguing here is if human beings get together, if you and I get together and come up with a contract to sell one of each other's houses to the other, and we agree to the terms and we both sign it, can someone come along later and change that? Well, we've agreed to. And that's why he says, look at verse 15 again. Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it's only a man's covenant, though two people get together, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. So what he's going to argue here is the giving of the law did not change the promise, the graciousness of that promise in any way at all. And he's going to explain why the Ten Commandments are given. Why was the law given to them? So look at verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed, where the promises made, he does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ. If you look at the Hebrew of that citation, that's Genesis 22, eight, is that, what is that, 22, 18? Who is the seed there? Christ, Jesus, okay? Look at verse 17. In this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, notice how clean this is in his thinking. If the inheritance, if getting into heaven is by our works in some way, it's no longer a promise. You see how in his thinking, you can't mix those two concepts. And yet I'm telling you, every pseudo false form of Christianity tries to do that. tries to say, no, no, no, no, it's grace and works. And Paul says, no, no, no, if it's grace, it's not works. And if it's of the law, it's not grace then, it's not of a promise then. Okay, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Now I want you to see this, turn back in your Bible to Genesis 15. And as you're turning there, I've shared this anecdote with you many times. But the first Ligonier conference I ever went to, this is before I even had children, when I could do things like that. Myself and a friend, we were on our way to becoming reformed, and I really wanted to hear this R.C. Sproul guy speak in person. He was in Pittsburgh, I lived in Akron, it wasn't very far, and he was speaking at a church, and I had this Bible, this actual Bible with me, because at that time I thought you had to have a new Geneva Bible to get to heaven. But he made the comment, he gave a series of lectures on the church, on ecclesiology in the church, And someone asked the question from the audience, what's your favorite Bible verse? What's your favorite Bible verse? And he said, Genesis 15, 17. And everyone, you could hear the whispering of the pages. Everyone's like, what does that say? But let's work up to it here. Look at verse one of Genesis 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? Then Abraham said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. So what's Abraham struggling with here? Serious doubt, right? It's like, you know, time's a-wasting here. We were already too old when you promised this, and years have gone by at this point, and they still haven't had a child yet. Verse five, then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. You know who that really is talking about? That's the church. The stars in the heaven, count them, Abraham, if you can. That's how many, when he says, so shall your descendants be, who are the descendants of Abraham? All believers across the testaments and all the ages of time. Okay, now look at verse six. And he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Okay, so there you have Abraham's justification. Abraham is justified here. Now notice, this is Genesis 15. Circumcision has not even been given to Abraham yet. And that's one of Paul's arguments in Romans 4 for a completely gracious justification. He says it's even before he was justified, before he was circumcised, so that there should have been no way for the Jews to make the error of thinking that circumcision justified you before God. But did a lot of them still make that error? Yeah. And who else makes a similar error about baptism? A lot of professing Christians, right? After the time of Christ. Okay, so he believes and it's accounted to him for righteousness, verse 7. Then he said to him, I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? So he said to him, bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Here, I just have to interject. Evidently, having one-on-one conversations with God wasn't enough to convince him. I've always thought, wouldn't that be kind of like, yeah, it's kind of cool that you actually chat with me about things like this. How do I know for sure that's going to happen? Like, okay. Verse 10, then he brought all these things, all these to him and cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And you read this, and you're like, what in the world is going on? A three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram. OK, so these aren't little ones. These are full-grown animals. And he cuts them in half. Yeah, what a bloody mess this would have been. I mean, I was there for the pig thing, and I just watched it. from a distance, but that was vile to watch. To watch them use a buzz or a sawzall or whatever they're using to cut that thing in half. So he cuts these very large animals in half, verse 10, and he brought all these to him and cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. Okay, now, so he arranges them kind of in an aisle. So there's a half here, a half here, a half here, here. So there's an aisle of, giant pieces of severed animals. Okay, now look at verse 12. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then he said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass, so here's Sproul's favorite verse. And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. Does anyone know the historical significance of this kind of thing? Have you heard about the suzerainty treaties and that kind of thing? Okay, this is how covenants and treaties were made between parties back then. They would cut large animals in half, and then the two parties making an agreement, you know, I promise never to invade your territory or take any of your stuff or do this or that, we make this promise, and they would join arms and they would walk together down between the pieces of the animals, and it's called a self-cursing oath, a self-maladictory oath. If I fail to keep up my promise, then may the fate of these animals fall upon me. Now, does Abram pass down between the pieces with God here? God goes by himself. In a fire theophany, a smoking torch comes down and passes through. This is God's promise to save his people. And Sproul made the comment, he read this and kind of commented on it, and made the point, verse 17 is the only reason any of us are going to heaven. That's because God swore, I will make this happen. And so the whole thing is gonna fall on Him. That's why our works, to say that our works are decisive in some way in saving us, is the ultimate insult to God's promise and His oath that He swore. This is His project to glorify His grace. And that's why Paul is so emphatic. See, look back at Galatians 3 again. You see it at the end? Having just read that, Verse 15 again. Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Okay, so the God passing between the pieces of those animals, that's God swearing the oath. There's nothing else that can be added to that. Nothing is allowed to be added to that later. Okay, verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he does not say into seeds as of many, but as of one into your seed, who is Christ. And that's right, the Hebrew is singular there, seed. Verse 17, in this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. So any group that teaches that we have to keep the law or obey in some way to save ourselves is annulling the promise, is destroying the whole gratuitous nature of God's plan of redemption. Okay, so that's why we've gotta be so clear about this. In verse 18, if the inheritance is of the law, it's no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Okay, so there's the law and the promise. So what's the point of the law then? When Paul went out and preached this message to Jews, do you know that they heard this and then they lied about him constantly? What do they say about him? What do they say he was actually teaching? That's right this man in fact in Acts 21 I forget what city Paul goes into he said everyone here has heard you teach people to forsake Moses You're teaching people that they can just live like the devil and still go to heaven Okay, he was lied about all the time about this. He told people, your keeping of the law has no bearing on your salvation. Your obedience to the commandments, to the prohibition against adultery, idolatry, stealing, has no effect on your salvation. You can't do anything whatsoever. You have no merit. Your works play no role in saving you whatsoever. So what do people constantly ask him then? Why did God even give him the law then? Lo and behold, look at verse 19, see it? What purpose then does the law serve? When you read Paul's letters and you look at the points he's making, you need to, as you're reading it, know people asked him these questions all the time. He would preach something and they're responsible, well, does that mean this? Well, what's the point of the law then? Why did God even give it to him then? If it wasn't to save them. Okay, look at verse 19. It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Okay, so it was added because of transgressions, it says there. Now I just wanna read the footnote here, this is helpful. Probably in order to define sin specifically as sin against God, explicitly, God's explicitly stated will, and so to make sin that much worse. It was because although the law of God is on man's heart, it's, what do we do with it though? We suppress it, we distort it. God needed to give man a written copy of his will, right? So it was added because of transgressions, because of all the ways we distort it. Now verse 20 is a difficult Bible verse. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. In fact, I was looking at William Hendrickson's commentary today in preparation for this, and he says in his comments on verse 20, rather than going through the 497 interpretations of this, I'll share the one that I think is the best and that's the only one he gives you. And he says, Moses spoke on behalf of God as a mediator, but the promise was made by God as one, just one party, unilaterally swearing this oath. So there wasn't even a mediator for the giving of the promise. There was a mediator for the giving of the law, so he's just kind of heightening the fact that God is the one who swore the promise, okay? So that's about the best I can do on that one there. All right, verse 21. Is the law then against the promises of God? 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. Okay, so the Mosaic Covenant is part of the covenant of grace. It's part of the covenant of grace. The law was not given as part of that covenant to make us right with God. It was given with a very specific purpose. As you're gonna see here, look at verse 22. But 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. So the law has several functions, several purposes. Have you ever heard of the idea of the threefold use of the law? The three uses of the law? Has anyone ever heard that idea? Ryan has, the seminary guy? Sure. All right, so let's go through them. What are the uses of God's law? To convict us of sin. To convict us of sin. Okay, Luther called that the theological use of the law. I'm sorry? As it convicts us of sin, it points us to our need for a redeemer, for a savior. There's a civil use to it. It shows mankind in general what righteousness is. And there's also, for those who are redeemed, the way that we evidence that we are redeemed. It's the way that we show God that we love him. What did Jesus say? If you love me, you will do what? Keep my commandments. In debates with Roman Catholic apologists, Roman Catholic individuals, I have heard them say, well, we're not justified by faith alone. Jesus said, if you love me, you will what? And everyone in the audience goes, keep my commandments, yeah. Is that talking about how we're made right with God? Is that talking about that? Of course not. And so it's like, It's the strangest thing. When you listen to people talk who are legalists or hold to a false gospel, everywhere the Bible commends good works, how do they interpret it? Yeah, that must be how you're saved. So if scripture says, commands us to do good, God redeems us from all our lawless deeds and purifies for himself his own special people who are zealous for good works. See, we're saved by good works. Okay, and that's just not the case. Good works are how we show our thanks to God. Good works are how we adorn our profession of the gospel. Good works stop the mouths of adversaries, okay? Good works silence our opposition. We live a godly life, but no true believer is ever gonna trust in their own good works, okay? We trust in the finished work of Christ. We do good works because we are redeemed, not to become redeemed, or to stay redeemed, or to be finally redeemed. or all the other fun ways of doing this, okay? I know, it's convicting stuff, isn't it? That's right. That's right, and we love it. We look at the law, and when you read the law, read the commandments of God, don't you think, I want to do this better? Like, I want to do this, and it breaks our heart and burdens us to see others not caring about the law at all, to see the lawlessness of our society. Remember the way that 2 Peter describes Lot? Lot lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. What does it say about his life there? He was tormented by seeing and hearing all their lawless deeds. I mean, it just tortured his soul, okay? So, that's the way a true believer sees the law. We recognize this is why we need Christ. As we've gone through the Ten Commandments, I've been doing some reading on prohibition against lying. There are so many ways you can lie, so many ways you can bear false witness. Those two catechism answers are the longest ones in the entire larger catechism. What is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment is just huge. That answer is like, It's like a fifth the size of the whole shorter catechism. It's so long. But what does that show us? It shows us how much we need Christ, but it's also a picture of the righteousness that he lived by. Like Jesus never violated those commandments in any of those ways that are prohibited, and he never failed to conform to those either. Okay, so y'all understand, Paul's going through all this theological stuff here about God made a promise to Abraham that was about the gospel. Abraham had the gospel preached to him. He just believed. and is justified, God gives the law later. That's not something that's then added into the promise as a condition of it. And yet, what were the Judaizing false teachers doing? That very thing. They were adding the law as a condition of being made right with God. And that's why Paul is saying here, this is so serious that this is a false gospel. In fact, if I myself come back and tell you something like this, may God damn me. If an angel from heaven comes and tells you this, don't listen to him. That's how serious this is, that's how important this is. Okay, so look at verse 25. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. So once a person believes the gospel, the law is not really my tutor in the same way it was before. Like, you really do, once you're a Christian, you're converted, saved, and you're trusting in the finished work of Christ, the law, you look at it as fatherly instruction rather than like the judge coming after you to damn you to hell. Okay, Christ bore the curse, I don't bear that curse anymore. All right, verse 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Okay, you see how clean, crisp, and clear that is? Not through works, not through circumcision, not through anything you do, not by anything at all, just by faith in Christ Jesus. How am I a son of God? I have faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 27. 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. Now, remember how much I have labored to help you all understand sacramental language in Scripture when I've preached on that? Verse 27 is a very commonly misused Bible verse. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So, I guess, to really put on Christ and be saved, you gotta be baptized, right? This is an example of sacramental language. God speaks of the signs as if they do what they're signs of. God does that a lot. He does it with circumcision. He calls circumcision my covenant. Baptism is called the washing of regeneration. You're baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. What does he call the bread? This is my body. What does he call the wine? This is my blood. Okay, so the signs are spoken of as if they do what they signify, and that's, it's unfortunate. That's caused a lot of confusion among a lot of people. It's like, people tend to be like a drunken person. They either, sacraments are confusing, so let's just forget about them. God shouldn't have even given them to us. Then other people will look at scripture and they get up on the horse and they get drunk and fall off the other side and become hyper-sacramental. Baptism regenerates you. Baptism unites you to Christ and gives you all the blessings of the covenant. That's one of the things that the Federal Vision guys said. Y'all ever heard of a fellow named Steve Wilkins? Steve Wilkins, he said that. He said that baptism unites you to Christ and gives you all of the blessings of the covenant. Regeneration, justification, adoption, forgiveness of sins. A good Reformed theologian's like, isn't perseverance to the end one of the blessings of the covenant? And Wilkins is like, Okay, baptism gives you all the blessings of the covenant, except that one. Because what would that mean? If baptism gives you all the blessings of the covenant, what does that have to mean then? That's right, you're going to heaven. If you're Trinitarian baptism makes you right with God, you have all the blessings of the covenant. That was a good question though. Good reformed theologians pinned him on that and said, perseverance to the end is one of the blessings of the covenant. He who begins a good work and you will carry it on to completion. Regenerate justify someone and then fail to bring them all the way to heaven. Okay, so don't let verses like that That's a great verse that all those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ I think about my own baptism, even though it was a little bit late Mom, it's okay But I think about that a lot how that God put his mark on me when I was baptized It's a blessing. It's a huge blessing I the moment we believe we're baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit. That's right. You could see it that way too, sure. And then I think we are a lot of baptized. That's right. We need to go back to, you know, verse 3 there. He's talking about more physical baptism, but verse 3 wouldn't be true. That's right. You are right. Yep. See, and that was the thing. I always knew, like, my Church of Christ friends and my Roman Catholic friends, especially my Church of Christ friends, I always knew, like, I know there's something wrong with the way they're interpreting these because The passages that address how you're justified, they don't bring up baptism anywhere. It's just not there. It's by faith in Christ, apart from works. You look at Romans 3, 4, 5, baptism's just not part of the discussion. And yet, you'll have these isolated statements here and there. And it's just, God likes to use sacramental language. He likes to speak sacramentally. So, yes sir? And I've heard one of those, I think it was probably Church of Christ people before, say that it's not a work because someone else is doing it to you. them forcibly against their will, does that work? No, but so. You have to agree to it, so that's some part of your work in there. That's interesting, so it's not a work since someone else dunked you, or whatever. They try that, but it doesn't work. The beauty of reformed theology is that it allows you to Go as far as scripture does without falling off one side of the horse. But you don't stop short of it either. We should have a very high view of baptism. And we should have the highest view possible of the Lord's Supper, which is simply to believe what scripture says about it. It is a means of grace. It is something that has a sanctifying influence on us. It is a real communion participation in the body and blood of Christ. I mean, that's the way scripture talks about it. Our own theologians talk about it as mysterious. There is a mysterious communion of the believer with the body of Christ. It's not a physical or corporeal thing, but there is that Greek term koinonia, fellowship, participation, communion. Whatever that means and entails, that's what it is. I can't tell you all the mechanics of it, but that is what it is. That's what the Lord's Supper is. And baptism has the efficacy of a signifying seal. It's like the king's signet ring. That's actually the specific term that's used to describe it. The king's ring and the wax. Like God's mark is now on this person. And I love that. If you have a child that's wayward, they can't wipe away their baptism. And I just pray, pray that God will go after them and get them. That's our only hope. Titus 3. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. It really is talking about that, the Holy Spirit. We're baptized into the Holy Spirit, but that's what the washing is a sign of. That's why it's called washing of regeneration. I'm sorry? It does, it does. But just remember, remember I've used the illustration that If you're on your way to the beach and you got your Superman beach towel and your QT tanning lotion and everything, and you see the sign that says beach one mile ahead, and you unpack the car and put out your towels and put your suntan lotion on under the sign, people would think that's pretty weird, wouldn't they? Because the sign isn't the beach. The sign tells you the beach is over there. The sign is supposed to point us to the Christ, right? My faith is not in my baptism. My faith's in Jesus Christ. So it's ironic. The sacraments have often become the objects of faith rather than pointing people to what they're supposed to be signs of. You see the point? So would it be correct to say when somebody comes up to you and says, I believe, sir, that you have to be baptized to be saved? And I would say, yes, by the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Is that correct? I mean, thank you. He would probably say, does the Holy Spirit believe in immersion or sprinkling? Does he actually do the baptism? He would probably still think you're talking about water baptism, but yeah. Just remember, it's a sign. I mean, even circumcision, as much as the Jewish people did believe that it did make them right with God, when it's instituted in Genesis 17, he specifically tells Abraham, this is a sign of my covenant. Okay, so the point was to point Abraham to the coming of Jesus, not to circumcision itself. So it's confusing the sign with what it signifies, so we don't ever want to do that. Okay, let's look back at Galatians, at the end of Galatians three there. Verse 28, 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, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. I had a liberal quote Galatians 3.28 as a rationale for women pastors and women elders. There's... I was like, are you serious? You know who else cites this verse in that same fashion? Y'all ever heard of Bill Hybels? Pastor of Willow Creek. I read four books by Bill Hybels. I wrote a paper on the church growth movement when I was in seminary and read four books by Bill Hybels, and he used that verse to argue for ordained women leadership as elders. Like you said, the context of the passage has nothing to do with who can be an elder or a deacon or a pastor, nothing. And same thing happened actually a couple years ago here, not with anyone that was ever a member of our church, but an individual, a woman I knew who had been an elder, she had served as a ruling elder, cited this passage to me in email correspondence. And I just thought, wow, So make sure that you allow for context when you're reading scripture. Yeah. So I think it's safe to say God expects us to read the verses before and after individual sentences and things like that. He expects us to do that. All right. So verse 29, you see how clear it is in his thinking again? If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed. and heirs according to the promise. See, in Paul's thinking, you have to be an heir only according to the promise. And we receive the promise by faith in Christ, not by anything that we do. Okay, all right, we'll look at a little bit of chapter four here. 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. So a child, before he's of age, he doesn't have a right to the estate yet, right? He's just like a slave in the house, okay? Verse two, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father, okay, in order to get his inheritance and to get the estate. Verse three, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And always remember, why is he saying this here? This is yet another argument against salvation or justification by works. Because if God did this, how could you think that your law keeping is playing any role in getting you into heaven? If God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, how do you think your works could play any role in this at all? That's why that's there. That's why everything in the book of Galatians is there, to illustrate that very point. It is entirely gracious and has nothing to do with our law keeping whatsoever. Okay. What about the word, there's three elements or elemental things, that's always kind of, I come across that in the other places where it's used, it always seems kind of vague. Is that the term stoicheia? Is it? Here, the way it's functioning here, in bondage under the elements of the world, meaning, I think in this passage, any system of works righteousness consisting of obedience to commandments. I think that's how he's using it there. Because when he used it, isn't it in Colossians 2, the other one? There's several of them. I think there's one in Hebrews also. There may be a couple in Hebrews. I think in Colossians it's more like worldview, like basic principles, worldview kind of is the way the term is used. It's in 2 Peter 3.10, 3.12, Galatians 4.3, Galatians 4.9, Colossians 2.8, 2.20, and 1 St. Hebrews. Yeah, I think it's just referring to any system of works, righteousness at all, is gonna lead to bondage. As long as you're believing that, you're in bondage under the elements of the world, under a false system. But that's why we have to trust in Christ alone. That's the only way out of that. And really, with the Jewish people, there's a whole long discussion we can go into about what is the role of the law in the Old Testament? I think it's pretty clear in Galatians 3, the point was to show them their need for Christ, but, The giving of the law did not change the gracious nature of the promise. That's the main thing you want to get out of that there. Did you have your hand up, sir? Yes. And then along with the giving of the law, you have the sacramental system of the lamb to show the need for atonement. That's right. So those who went hand in hand. Yeah. The commandments and the way of worship was supposed to show them their need for a savior. Like the Passover lamb and all the sacrifices, all the blood offerings, all that stuff was supposed to ingrain into them the need for a savior. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And that's why the chapter seven of the Westminster Confession goes into that in detail. They didn't have as much clarity as we do, but the Passover lamb, the ceremonies, the sacrifices were used by the Holy Spirit and to build them up in salvation and faith in the coming Messiah, and was efficacious for them. But we have the thing that they were longing to see, at least believing Jews were longing to see. So. Their sins were covered. Ours have been taken away. When Jesus died, their sins were taken away, the Old Testament saints. Right. Our sins are taken away, the same thing Yeah, they're actually forgiven now. They are actually atoned for. Okay, well why don't we stop there. Any other comments or thoughts? All right, let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you again for this time to be together. Thank you for each person here. Thank you for this great section of your word. Help us understand that. If it's by faith in Christ, then it's by the promise of God, and it cannot be by works by which we're justified, by which we get into heaven. Help us to be able to recognize distortions of that in our time and to stand firmly upon the finished work of Christ and Christ alone. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you all.