Today I'm going to First message
here. I'm really going to stay on the
same theme basically with both messages but here in Galatians
3 My text is verse 27 Galatians 3 and verse 27, but let me just
show you the context of this the title of the message is clothed
with Christ Clothed with Christ Now, as most of you probably
know if you studied the book of Galatians, Paul is standing
in defense of the gospel against false preachers who sought to
bring believers back under the law of Moses and try to promote
salvation in some way, at some stage, to some degree by the
works of men under the law. And of course, Paul, as you know,
in Galatians chapter one, he made it clear at the very opening.
He said, that's another gospel. And that word in the original,
another, means another of a different kind. Not another of the same
kind, but another of a different kind. That's a false gospel.
And of course, man, by nature, as you know, does not know and
desire what the Bible communicates and reveals as the reality of
grace. real grace, salvation by God's
sovereign electing grace, which tells us that in any way that
the blessings, salvation and all of its blessings can neither
be deserved by us nor earned by us in any way. And man, in
our pride, in our self-righteousness, in our spiritual deadness, we
just insist on making the difference between saved and lost, between
heaven and hell, something that we do for God. And that's salvation
by works. And, of course, those works vary
with different cultures and different denominations, different philosophies. To some, you've got to do this
or that or the other. But Paul makes it clear that
salvation, and really what he's talking about here in Galatians
2 and 3 is the justification of a sinner before God. What
is it to be justified? It's basically two things. It's
to be cleared of all guilt, thereby not deserving of condemnation. And then it's to be declared
righteous before a holy God. That's what it is to be justified.
And the great question of all questions is how can that happen?
It's a two-fold question. It's a two-sided question. It
goes like this. Number one, on one side of it
is the character of God. God is a holy God. He's a righteous
God. He must do right. He cannot receive
and bless and accept into his fellowship and presence a sinner
without his nature, his holiness, his righteousness being honored. So on one side of it, the question
is how can God justify a sinner and still remain true to himself,
be honored? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? That's one side of it. The other
side of it has to do with us. We're sinners. And you can't
deny that fact. Well, people do deny it, but
I mean, before the court of God's justice and in reality, you can't
deny that fact, that we're sinners. And that if God at any time or
at any stage of our life would give us what we deserve, it would
be eternal damnation. The psalmist expressed that in
so many ways and one way that I think of quite often is Psalm
130 in verse 3 Where he said Lord if thou Lord should us mark
iniquities Who would stand who among us? The Bible tells us
there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
that seeketh after God there's none that doeth good and And
you know how I always interject on that, you know, most people
would have to, if they were true to what they really believe,
whenever they read scriptures like that, that's Romans 3, 10
through 12, whenever they read scriptures like that, they would
really have to say, there's none righteous, no, not one, except
me. There's none that do a good,
no, not one, except me. If they really were true to what
they believe and what they claim, Bible's clear. Among the sons
and daughters born of Adam, fallen in Adam, ruined in Adam, born
of Adam, there's none righteous, no, not one. And understand that
doesn't say there's none religious, no, not one. Man's a religious
being by nature. It's just the religion of idolatry
until God intervenes and reveals himself and changes the person. So it's how can a sinner be just
before a holy God? Well, the Bible's clear on that
issue. That's the gospel. The answer
to that question is the gospel. It's an old, old story. It's
nothing new. It's old as eternity because
God before the foundation of the world devised the way and
the plan of salvation for sinners in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ by his grace. And that's what Paul is bringing
forth here. Well, the question comes up then,
now listen to this, look down at verse 19 of Galatians 3, he
says, wherefore then serveth the law? Well, if man, and here's
what he's saying now, if man cannot be saved, or be made righteous
by his works under the law, then why was the law given? What was
the purpose of it? Well, here's the answer. Look
at it, verse 19. It was added because of transgressions, till
the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it
was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. So the law
was given for this reason, it was added because of transgressions. Now, man, you could say it this
way, man by nature knows that he's not perfect. But how sinful
are we? We don't know that by nature
and won't admit to it by nature until the spirit of God convinces
us of sin. And what I mean by that is just
what I said before. If God, you know, I had a man
tell me this one time. He said, well, I know I'm not
perfect, but I haven't done anything to deserve hell. I said, well,
you better read the Bible. Because by nature, we all deserve
hell. That's why salvation is by grace. And he asked this,
he said, well, what's required for salvation? And I told him,
I said, perfect righteousness. And he said, well, nobody can
do that. And I said, that's right. That's why salvation is by grace.
that reigns in righteousness through Jesus Christ. Now that's
why I need Christ. Because I can't do that. So why
does the law give it? To show us our sin. That's what
he's saying here. It's like a mirror or we might
say today more like an x-ray machine. It goes right to the
heart. And it shows not only the outward sinfulness of man,
but the inward corruption. Look at verse 20. He says, now
a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. There's
one God. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. So he says in verse 21,
what is the law then against the promises of God? Now, God
made promise to Abraham and that promise was a promise of grace.
That's how God saved Abraham, by grace. If you're saved, that's
how God saved you, by grace, not by your works. It was all
conditioned on Christ, not conditioned on you. Well, is the law then,
that law that was given, is it against that promise of salvation
by grace? He says, God forbid, for if there
had been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. In other words, if there was
any way that a sinner could be made righteous by the law, then
righteousness would have come by the law and not by grace.
But look at verse 22. He says, but the scripture, that's
God's word, hath concluded all under sin. all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. In other words,
salvation is for those who believe in, rest in, and trust Christ
for all righteousness, all forgiveness. The forgiveness of sin comes
how? By His blood, not by my tears. There was a preacher in
Atlanta, I heard him say this on TV years and years ago. And
here's what he said, he said, the cost of forgiveness is repentance. And I said, oh no. The cost of
forgiveness is the blood of Jesus Christ. There's the cost. There's
the price paid. And if you ever see that, you
know what'll come? Repentance. That's the fruit
of the death of Christ. But he says in verse 23, now
listen to this, he says, but before faith came, now what does
he mean by that, before faith came? He says, before faith came,
we were kept under the law, that's the nation Israel, under that
law, the law of Moses, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Now what does it mean before
faith comes? Does that mean that under the law, faith wasn't the
issue there, believing? That those who are saved didn't
believe, they didn't have faith? Well, you know better than that.
Read Hebrews chapter 11. And it talks about the hall of
faith. Even in the Old Testament, those who were saved believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They just looked forward to the
promise of his coming. as given by the word of God.
But what faith is he talking about? He's talking about Christ
himself. It's like you could say it this
way, before faith came, before Christ came. Because Christ is
the object of our faith. Faith was in the promise of God.
What did God promise? To send Christ. And he said before
Christ came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. When? be revealed when? When
Christ would come. So he says in verse 24, wherefore
or for this reason the law was our schoolmaster or our tutor
to do what? You see that? To bring us unto
Christ. To show me that I'm a sinner
who cannot be saved by the best efforts that I give in trying
to keep the law, and to show me, to drive me to Christ, God's
Messiah, that we might be justified, declared righteous by faith,
that is, by looking to Christ. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is the object of faith. You see, my believing doesn't
save me. Christ saves me. I believe in
Him. You see that? So he says in verse
26, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Who are the children of God?
Those who believe and rest in Christ. Now, look at verse 27. Here's clothed with Christ. For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, there's a metaphor there.
And it's like putting on a suit of clothes. put on Christ, put
him on like a garment, all right? Now hold that thought. There's
two things here that you need to understand. Number one, you
need to understand what it means to be baptized into Christ. For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, now when we think
of the word baptized, we normally think of the ordinance of believer's
baptism, like what we're gonna do today. Rodney's gonna confess
Christ, in believers baptism. That's a New Testament ordinance
of confession. That's what that is. And what
happens there is it's a public confession of Christ before men
and it's an identification with Christ in symbol going down into
the water and coming up out of the water. His death, burial,
and resurrection. And Rodney, what you're going
to be confessing is that when Christ died, you died. When he
was buried, you were buried. When he arose again, you arose
again. He's your substitute. He's your representative. He's
your savior. He's your Lord. That's what you're
doing. That's a public confession. You know, baptism does not save
you. Baptism does not wash away your
sins. That's the blood of Christ. Christ
saves us and his blood. And what are you doing this for?
You're confessing the fact that Christ is your savior by the
sovereign grace of God. And that's what that baptism
is for. But what does the word baptized literally mean? Well, in a lot of translations,
you'll see the word immersion. And that's okay. That's a pretty
good translation of it. But literally, here's what it
means. It means placed into. And you could read it this way.
It says, for as many of you as have been placed into Christ. All right? And that's one of
the reasons that we baptize the way we do. We don't sprinkle,
we don't pour, because baptism means placed into. When you're
baptized in the ordinance of water baptism, you're placed
into the water. What are you confessing? You're
confessing your death, burial, and resurrection with Christ.
You see? And that's what it symbolizes,
and we do it properly to symbolize what it properly means. But to
be placed into Christ, well what does that mean? Well let me give
you these things right here about baptized into Christ. Number
one, all who are truly saved by the grace of God were first
placed into Christ in what the Bible calls eternal electing
grace. Chosen before the foundation
of the world in Christ. Now you, I won't, we won't turn
there because time won't allow us, but go read Ephesians chapter
one and notice how many times it'll say in Christ or in him. It talks about being predestinated. in Christ, predestinated unto
glory in Christ, chosen before the foundation of the world in
Christ. That's eternal electing grace. That's the covenant of grace,
what the scripture calls it. The everlasting covenant of grace
made before time ever began, before this world was ever created.
God chose a people and gave them to Christ and placed all of the
responsibility of our salvation upon Christ. That's what the
Bible means when it says, for example, in Isaiah chapter 9
and verse 6, it says, the government was upon his shoulder. You know
that Isaiah 9, 6 passage is talking about, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, talking about the incarnation to come.
And it says, the government was upon his shoulder. That's the
government of the kingdom of God. And it's upon the shoulders
of Christ, not upon your shoulders. Listen, if it were upon my shoulders
or your shoulders, it would be a failure. It's not conditioned
on you or me, it's conditioned on Christ. Why did he come into
the world? To fulfill all those conditions.
So the first way that we can say according to God's revealed
word that we're placed into Christ is in election. Eternal electing
grace. God chose a people. and gave
them to Christ. Read Ephesians 1. For example,
2 Timothy 1 and verse 9 says that we're partakers or participants
of a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. That's what that's talking about.
All right, number two. We're placed into Christ in redeeming
grace. Now I want you to turn to Romans
6 on this one. And I'll be referring to Romans
6 a little bit on the next message too. Romans 6, redeeming grace. All whom God
chose before the foundation of the world and placed into Christ. And what that means is Christ
was made their substitute, their representative, their surety,
that's the word I was looking for, their surety. All the responsibility,
all the sins, even before they were committed. He took them
and became responsible for them, just like a debtor takes the
debt and says, put it to my account. All right? Well now, in time,
he had to come and pay the price. And we were placed into Christ
in redeeming grace. Look at verse three of Romans
six. He says, no you not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death. As many of us as were placed
into Jesus Christ, we were placed into his death. What does that
mean? That means when he died, he died as a substitute for sinners. Who were they? All whom God gave
him before the foundation of the world. He calls them his
sheep. He said, my sheep, the good shepherd
gives his life for who? The sheep. That's right. His church, what is his church? That's the redeemed of the Lord,
the called out ones. And they were placed into his
death. What does that mean? He died as a substitute. He died
as a sin bearer. He died as a sin offering. Not
for his own sins, because he was sinless, but for the sins
of his people charged to him, imputed to him. He was made sin.
Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4 says, God sent forth his son
in the fullness of the time to redeem them that were under the
law. Look at Romans 6 now, look at verse 4. Therefore, we are
buried with him by baptism into his death. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was. How
can you say that? I wasn't there personally. I
was there representatively. I was there in my substitute.
He had my name on his heart. He had my name on his shoulder.
There's a great picture of that in the Old Testament. Do you
know who it is? It's the high priest. Remember, he had the
names of the 12 tribes of Israel, six of them on the amulets of
one shoulder and six of them on the amulet of the other shoulder,
and then he had a breastplate. Had the names of the 12 tribes
of Israel. That's who the priest went into the holiest of all
for. Well, that's a picture of Christ having the names of his
people, his sheep, on his shoulder, meaning he took all the responsibility
to pay our sin debt to God's law and justice and work out
righteousness for us, and he had them on his heart. He said
he loved his, John 13, 1, he loved his own until the end.
That word in there means the finishing, the completion, the
perfection of the work. Just like he said in John 19,
30, it's finished. That's the same word. All right. So when he was buried, I was
buried. Now verse four, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. When he arose again, I rose again.
And the fruit of that is a sinner saved by the grace of God walking
in newness of life. Now that brings us to the next
thing, that's regenerating grace. But look at verse five first
of Romans six. He says, for if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. When Christ died, the old man
was crucified. What's the old man? That's my
connection with Adam in death and sin. That's gone. And that's past tense there,
is crucified. You can say was crucified. It's
not a process, it's a done deal. That's what that means. Whatever
Christ did, he finished it. He said that in John 19.30, as
I mentioned before, it is finished. And the old man, that is our
connection with Adam in sin and death, was conquered completely. Christ made an end of sin, Daniel
9.24, he finished the transgression, he made an end of sin, he brought
in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up the vision and the
prophecy and made a way into the holiest of all. So he says,
the old man is crucified with him, verse six, that the body
of sin, that is the whole realm of sin, might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead, that
word dead there means spiritually dead, legally dead, is freed,
that word freed means justified from sin. Now, the third way
is that we're placed into Christ is regenerating grace. And that,
look, go back to Galatians 3 now. We could go to so many other
scriptures on these issues. But look here in verse 27. For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, you put him on. Now, how's
that happen? That's by faith. This is being
placed into Christ in regenerating grace. This is the new birth. This is when God, the Holy Spirit,
is sent by the Father and the Son to impart life, spiritual
life, to the spiritually dead. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. It means we have no desire for
the things of God, no will for the things of God. You see, the
myth of free will is a myth that the world has latched on to just
because they know we make choices. We make choices every day, but
that doesn't teach the doctrine of free will. It teaches us some
of the old theologians used to say the doctrine of free agency.
I mean, you will choose what you're going to eat. We're having
a dinner after the service today, and there's going to be a lot
of good food back there, and you're going to make some choices, aren't you? You
know what you're going to choose? I'll tell you exactly what you're
going to choose, every one of you, what you desire. You young people, you may go
back there and you may find, I don't know if anybody made
Brussels sprouts, but that's not one of my favorites. You
may see some Brussels sprouts. You're not going to choose Brussels
sprouts, are you? Because you don't desire them. Why don't you desire them? That's
just your makeup. It's the way you are. There are
people who like that stuff. You know there are people in
this world who like Brussels sprouts. I can't understand it, but they
do. Now, I can eat them if they're fried up in bacon and all that,
you know. Put bacon on anything you desire. But what is it about
that, you know? You're going to choose what you
desire. Well, spiritual death means this. It means that no
sinner by nature desires the things of God. Now, that doesn't
mean he doesn't desire religion and morality and things like
that. But the things of the glory of
God we have no desire for. And you can tell that in the
preaching of the gospel. How do you react to the preaching
of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ? And so you're gonna choose what
you desire, but man by nature doesn't desire, but the Holy
Spirit in time is sent by the Father and the Son to impart
life where there was no life, spiritual life. And he'll give
you the knowledge, he'll impart knowledge A knowledge you didn't
have before. It's called in 2 Corinthians
4, 6, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He'll show you things you hadn't seen before, your sinfulness
and depravity, total depravity. Total depravity doesn't mean
that every man is as bad as he could be, but it means this,
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth
good, no, not in God's sight. He'll show us our need for Christ
and the grace of God. He'll make us like that old publican
beating on his breast saying, God be merciful to me the sinner. I have no other hope of salvation
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Nothing can keep me out of hell
and get me into heaven but the blood and the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name,
on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
You'll see that nothing that comes from you or done by you
or you're unable to do will save you. And what will you do? When God the Holy Spirit does
this, you'll put on Christ. You'll believe in Him. That's
a way of saying believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you shall
be saved. You'll put Him on like a garment.
Now this idea of the garment. Now, we do then confess publicly
like Rodney's going to do today. Jesus Christ in believer's baptism. I want to make a statement. That's
what you're saying. I want to make a statement today
that this This is my, Christ is my savior. He's my, he's the
Lord my righteousness, Jehovah Sikhanou. That's what I want
you all to know. And that's the way that Christ
commanded the New Testament church to confess that publicly. Well, this idea of putting on
Christ as a garment, why is that necessary? Well, you know it's
always been a metaphor for salvation, putting on as a garment. Now
some people, some people take it literally and just go all
kinds of places with it they should never go. Like for example,
you know, we put on Christ, we put on his righteousness as a
garment. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 61. Let me show you this. Isaiah chapter 61. And look at verse 10. And this
is a prophecy of Christ. In fact, when Christ began his
public ministry on earth, which lasted about three, three and
a half years, he went back to his hometown of Nazareth. He
went into the synagogue and they stood up and they read scripture.
And this is the scripture they read right here. And he stood
up after that and he said, today, this scripture is fulfilled before
your very eyes. And he was saying, I'm the one
that Isaiah was talking about here. And you know what happened? Of their own will, they got up
and wanted to throw him over a cliff. And of course, he walked
right through, didn't he? That's man's will right there.
Well, we're not going to have this man to rule over us. But look at verse 10. He says,
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful
in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. You see the metaphor there? Garments
of salvation. And what are the garments of
salvation? It's all of salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. God clothed me with the garments
of salvation. All the blessings that God has. for a sinner in Christ. But look at the foundation of
it. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. Whose
righteousness? Not mine, not yours, but Christ. What is that righteousness? It's
his obedience unto death in place of his people that brought forth
the full payment of the penalty of all my sins. And that equals
out to the righteousness that God requires of me that I find
in Christ. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Now, where did
all that come from? Well, let me show you this. Go
back to Genesis chapter three. Genesis chapter three. You know,
we sing a hymn. Well, tell me the old, old story.
And I used to sing it when I was in false religion. And the thing
about it is I'd sing at him. I didn't even know what the old,
old story was. Thought I did. But look here. Here's the old, old story. You
know the story of Adam and Eve. You know how they fell. How Adam
disobeyed God and he fell. And you look there at Eve ate
of the fruit. She was deceived. Adam knew full
well what he was doing. He took sides with his wife and
with Satan against God and brought the whole human race into sin
and death. And look at verse 7 of Genesis
3. It says, and the eyes of them
both were opened and they knew that they were naked. Now, nakedness in the scripture. Nakedness in the Bible symbolizes
unrighteousness. It symbolizes an exposure to
the wrath of God. That's what that nakedness is.
It symbolizes judgment, humiliation, and shame. That's what nakedness
does. And when Adam and Eve saw their
shame and their humiliation, What did they do? Look at verse
7. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. They
wanted to cover their nakedness. Now those fig leaves are symbolic
of man's works trying to hide his sin, his nakedness, his exposure
to the wrath of God, and his self-justification. It symbolizes
the righteousness of man, which will not do. The righteousness
of man could not keep Adam in the garden before the fall, and
it could not gain him access back into it. What does this
show us? Our need of something greater
than anything we can produce. It shows us our need of the righteousness
of God. What is the gospel, Romans 1,
16 and 17? It's the revelation of the righteousness
of God. You see, I don't need the righteousness
of man. You pick the best man on earth. Think about this. Pick the best
man who's ever lived on this earth, who ever will live, other
than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's God man. But the best man,
it's altogether vanity. That will not save you. It will
not save you. I need the righteousness of God.
Well, after that, God gave a prophecy of the coming seed of woman,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man in one
person. And then over there, it says
in verse 21, look at Genesis 3, 21, it says, unto Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord make coats of skins and clothe
them. Now, how do you make coats of
skins? How do you do that? You kill an animal. You shed
blood. You see, the Bible has taught
from the beginning that without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sin. Sin demands death. And this animal,
I believe it was a lamb, but, you know, it doesn't matter.
It's death. That's the penalty of sin. And out of that death,
God made coats of skins and he clothed Adam and Eve. What does
that represent? That represents the righteousness
of God. that comes through the death
of sacrifice, the death of a substitute. And you know what you see next
in Genesis chapter 4? You see Cain and Abel. Here's
these two boys coming to worship, bringing an offering. Cain brings
an offering. The best of the works of his
hands, the field, presents him before God. God says, can't accept
it, Cain. Without the shedding of blood,
no forgiveness, no righteousness. And then here comes Abel, bringing
what? The blood of the Lamb. That's
what God requires. Now that animal blood didn't
do anything for Abel, except, except it did two things. Number
one, it pictured the coming Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who would put away sin. And it set Abel apart from Cain. That's what the Bible means,
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. It set Abel apart
from Cain. It said Abel coming by the grace
of God as a sinner seeking mercy. Abel, you know what Abel was
doing when he brought that down, what? He was putting on Christ, whom
he saw as the promised Messiah to come. And that's the garment
of salvation applied. Back over here in Galatians 3,
for as many of you as have been baptized, placed into Christ,
You put on Christ. You know, how do I know? How
do I know that God chose me before the foundation of the world in
eternal electing grace? How do I know that Christ redeemed
me on the cross, worked out a perfect righteousness by which I can
come before God like Abel and be accepted? How do I know? I've been regenerated by the
Holy Spirit. given life and knowledge. I'll
tell you how I know. I put on Christ. Like a garment. Now that doesn't
mean he's just outward. It means everything. It means
he's my all in all. I have no other hope but Christ.
That's how you know. Put him on. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And repent of everything else.
All your religion, all your experience. Forget about him. Put him in
the back. Paul called him dumb. He said I that he said that I
may know him Christ and be found in him whom to know is life eternal
Not having my own righteousness, which is a but that which is
through the faith of Christ Put on Christ. All right