We're going to be in Galatians
chapter 4. If you would like to turn, we'll be there both
hours. We traveled, as you all know,
quite a ways, and when you do that, you see a lot of signs,
and you see a lot of churches, and you see a lot of religious
things, a lot of non-religious things. We saw a sign that says,
if you can't take the heat, then you better get saved. And I thought,
there's no scripture that talks with that language. Matter of
fact, the Lord, never offered salvation to anyone. He offered
himself to his father. and his father was well-pleased
to save his people from their sin. If the Lord did approach
someone and said, wilt thou be made whole, that was not an offer
for them to be made whole, that was him drawing the confession
from them, sir, I have no man. It was for him to draw the confession
that they were incapable of helping themselves. Or like the woman
at the well, she said unto the Lord, I have no husband. Go call
your husband. Why did the Lord say that? I
have no husband. No, it's well spoken. He was
gonna show her who he was in revealing him being the prophet
that he was. She said, sir, I perceive you're
a prophet. Because he told her, he said, you've had five and
the one you have now is not your husband. Oh, sir, you're a prophet. Well, we worship in this mountain.
Now he's drew the confession of her righteousness out, and
it's that they worshiped in that mountain rather than Jerusalem.
So the Lord, he never offered salvation to anyone. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
there is a general call that goes forth from this gospel that
says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But only when the Lord
makes his word effectual to the heart, only when he gives us
ears to hear and eyes to see, will we hear and see and believe,
and therefore he gets all the glory. Christ says, come unto
me, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but we neither have the
will the free will to do it, nor the ability to do it. We're
bound to this flesh, and this flesh is other than God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, because they're contrary to him. The things of
God are spiritual, they must be spiritually discernable. A
spiritually dead creature can't receive the things of God, he
has to be made alive first. So to say that Christ offers
you salvation means that you do something when you're dead
in order to become alive. That doesn't make any sense,
does it? No, it doesn't. Now what did the Lord say? Well,
this is what he's dealing with in Galatians. What did the Lord
say? He doesn't say do, he said it
is finished. He says it's done, it's accomplished. Salvation's been accomplished.
So what does say do? The law says do. And when you think you've done
enough, do more. And when you think you're finished
doing, do even more. There's no rest. There's no rest
with the law. I've titled this message, What
the Law Says. What the Law Says. Now let's
read our text, Galatians 4, 21 through 26. That's actually our
text both hours. It's a lot in this. Galatians
4, 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by
a free woman, but he who was of the bondmaid was born after
the flesh, but he that of the free woman was by promise. Which
things are an allegory for these are the two covenants, the one
from the Mount Sinai, which gender to bondage, which is Agar, For
this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem,
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all." This
hour, we're going to look at what the law says. He says, you
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? That's where the title came from,
what the law says. What the law says. The law says
work. And when you've worked, work
some more. And after you get done working,
work some more. And there's no rest. We can look
at the tabernacle, we can look at the temple and see that there
was a very obvious piece of furniture missing. It was a chair. The priest's work was never,
ever, ever done under the law. The law couldn't save anyone.
The law couldn't bring salvation. The law couldn't bring righteousness
to pass. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. So his work was finished.
His work was finished. The old covenant says do and
live. And this is alive and well today. These Galatians, they were a
church. They were a believing church
that had Judaizers come in, was trying to mix law and grace.
And just like today, you go to churches, when you start mixing
law and grace, it's no longer of grace, it's of works. But
salvation's of the Lord and salvation's all by grace. This is what men do though, they
do and live. to try to keep the law in order to please
God. But do you know what pleases
God? His son. I can't please God in my flesh.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. That's simple, isn't
it? That's a simple truth, and yet
it can't be believed unless the Lord causes us to believe it. So you that desire to be under
the law, do you hear what it says? The law demands perfection.
Ask yourself, are you perfect? Ask me, am I perfect? We know
the answer. We're not perfect. Well then,
the law can't help us. It can only reveal the sin that
we are, the sin that we do. That's it. That's what it was
given for. So that every mouth would be, everyone would be made
guilty and every mouth would be shut. Would be shut. You know, we're not even good.
Not only we're not perfect, we're not even good. Somebody said,
well, he's such a good man. No, he's not. Not according to
what our Lord said. And I understand what we mean
when we say stuff like that. It's a nice guy. He does nice
things. You know, he's friendly. He helps people. They label that
as good. And those are good things to
do. But the Lord looketh upon the heart. The Lord looks upon
the heart and none, scripture's clear, there is none good, no
not one. No, we're utterly sinful from the top of our head to the
bottom of our feet. We are utterly sinful. Remember the man that came to
Christ and said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? The Lord said, why callest thou me good? There's none good
but God. And I love that he was actually
talking to God, but the Lord always pointed to the Father.
Isn't that glorious? And the Spirit always points
to the Son for salvation. It's all the Lord, every bit
of it's the Lord, isn't it? So the question is, if you want
to know what the law says, ask yourself this, how do you see
yourself? How do you see God? Because the scripture and nature
and the law reveals there's a God and he's holy, but God is the
only one that can reveal he's God. Otherwise, men, and this
is what goes on in all false religion, men have misconstrued
thoughts about who God is, about his power, about his person,
about his character, about his love. Everything about him is
misconstrued because we liken him unto things that we have
seen with these natural eyes. You cannot, we cannot believe
God by these natural eyes. The flesh can't receive the things
of God. We can't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. No, the Lord must give us, we
must be born again, born of his spirit to believe on God. And if we are, what does the
scripture tell us? We're all taught, they all shall be taught
of me. We're taught that he is God and
we are not. He is sovereign, he is holy,
he is just. He's opposite of we are in every
single way. Only God can reveal his glory.
And his glory is only found in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember Moses said to him,
Lord, show me your glory. He said, well, no man can look
upon my face and live, but there is a place near me. Place near
me and when I pass by you, I'll put you on the rock. in the cleft
of the rock. And I'll show you my hinder parts.
Well, what does that represent? Well, that represents Christ
being our covering, Christ being our cleft of the rock. And it
represents what the Lord has already done. You remember when
David said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life. That's what we see when we look back, goodness
and mercy that the Lord's bestowed. Why? Because we see the cross
of Calvary. That's the hinder parts of the
Lord. His finished work from the beginning of time. That's
the hinder parts, that's what he's already accomplished. This
is what the Lord showed to Moses and this is what he reveals to
his people when he makes them alive. Just like the law demanded, everything
pertaining to worship today in false churches is based upon
what you do. And that's where false religion
gets it wrong. Man-made religion gets it wrong.
It's not what you do, it's what he hath done. It's not what I
do, it's what he hath done. It's not what we have merited,
but what the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished.
This is our hope, not ourselves. These Judaizers come in and they
say, no, you have to look to Christ, but then you have to
look at yourself too. And that's going on today in this day and
time that we live. A lot of the times the gospel
ain't preached anyways, but if it do, it's a half gospel, which
is a lie. But these Judaizers were saying
you need to examine yourself. I've even heard men preach on
the topic because Paul actually said examine yourself and see
if you'd be in the faith. Paul's not saying examine your
life, check for fruit, see if you have this or this or this
that you're producing. No, look inside of you and be
completely honest with yourself and see if there's anything that
you are hoping in for your salvation other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is what it is to examine yourself. See if there'd be anything. What did David say? Search me
and know me, oh God. Create in me a clean heart. Renew
in me a right spirit. My heart's bad, my spirit's bad.
Give me a new one. Need a new one. These Judaizers were teaching
the lie. They were teaching what the law says. Men today go to
church, they live their lives, and look at their own lives,
and they look at the lives of others, and they believe that
God will accept them because they're not as bad as this person,
or they're better than this person, or they haven't done this, and
they haven't done that. If you talk to someone religious, that's
what you're gonna run into. And you and I will be labeled
as somebody that don't have morals because we are free from the
law. That's the only conclusion that
the non-believer can come to. Oh, you guys are, You guys are
just living frivolously like nothing matters. That's not true.
We live looking to Christ. We live longing to see him, desiring
to hear of him and from him. Don't be deceived, brethren. What's preached today in this
time is it's either the moral law, the civil law, or the ceremonial
law. And all that it says, all that
the law can say, is guilty to the sinner. Guilty, guilty, guilty. And the wages of sin is death.
This is the guilt that has already been pronounced by the law to
those who are not found in Christ. Our only hope is to be found
in Christ. The law doesn't speak good news
to a sinner. It says guilty. It says judgment
must be executed. Justice must be satisfied. God
will not acquit the guilty. Think about it this way, in a
court of law in this day and time that we live in, if I commit
a crime and the consequence for that crime, I've broken the law,
and that consequence for that crime is death, do I believe
that I'm gonna be able to appear before that judge and tell him
how good of a guy I am and how nice I am and how I'm gonna do
all these good works and it's gonna fix it? Because that's
what men are telling today, that if you do good deeds and you
live this moral life, then God's going to accept you. God accepts
one person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. God will not accept
me, and he will not accept you the way that we are in this flesh.
We must be made new. We must have his spirit born
from above, a new creature in Christ Jesus. If not, he will
not accept us. What do you think that judge
is going to say to me if I tell him, well, I'm going to clean
my life up. I'm going to do this. I'll stop
doing this and that. And I'll make sure to never do it again. That
fixes it? No. Justice must be satisfied. Justice must be satisfied. And
the saddest part that people get wrong is that God is not
a respecter of person in that he that spared not his own son
but freely delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? He didn't spare his only begotten
son. How do I think for two seconds
that God's gonna spare me because of the life that I'm living?
When Christ's life was perfect, And yet when he was made guilty,
the Lord set a wake sword, smite the shepherd. The sword of justice
had to be, it had to be plunged into the Lord for you and I to
be set free in order for justice to be satisfied. Otherwise God
is an unjust God, but that's the only way that he could be
just and the justifier of his people. With all that in mind, let's
look at verse 21 again. Tell me ye that desire to be under
the law, do you not hear the law? We live in a day and time,
and it is very sad because people are doing and doing and doing,
and they're doing it in the name of Jesus. They're doing it in
the name of God, but they don't know who God is. They don't know
who Jesus is. As I said to begin with, the
Lord has to reveal himself before we have a clue who he is. I said this a couple weeks ago,
but do you remember when the Lord first revealed the truth
to you and you opened up scripture and you started seeing the Lord?
You started seeing things totally different than you ever had before,
where before it was just a story and all of a sudden you're like,
wait a minute, that's pointing to Christ, or that's pointing
to Christ, or oh, that's what that means. I never saw that before.
I've read this passage 15 times and never saw that before. Why
is that? The Lord revealed himself. And
in revealing himself, that means he gave you his spirit in order
to understand his word and believe it, all by his faith. Gospel is clear here. These people,
they keep saying do, and do, and do, and it's never gonna
be enough. It's never gonna be enough. What
does the gospel say? Come unto Christ and rest. Rest, it is finished. It is finished. God is all in salvation. God elected a people. The Son
redeemed those people. The Spirit regenerates those
people when the fullness of time comes according to His will.
What part of that equation do you and I fit in to do? There's
nothing about that that says we do anything. Coming to Christ
is one that is enabled to come to Christ. Coming to Christ is
one that has been called. We sung that song, You're Called.
And as 2 Timothy 1.9 tells us very clearly, God saved us, then
he called us, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, given to us before time ever began. Here's the good news. The law
says death. The law says judgment, the law
says guilty, but Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Christ is the end of the law.
Do you know what the law says against the believer? Nothing. Nothing. It says perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy, justified, made the very righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus, never having sinned once, never having sinned
once. His blood was sufficient to put
away our sin, the sin of God's elect. He satisfied judgment
on our behalf as our substitute surety. He satisfied justice. He alone did business with God
on the cross. And I don't want to make it just
sound like it was just a transaction. It was so much more than that.
But the Lord took our sin unto himself and gave us his righteousness
freely by his grace. Now what part of our law keeping
is gonna help that? The blood was successful, there's
nothing else to do. You tell a dead man that, one
that's still spiritually dead, we're not gonna be able to understand
that. We're not gonna be able to, just because our flesh says
there has to be something to do. I was talking to a person
recently, and I told him the gospel, And they said, yeah,
but if I believe what you believe, I won't know if God really elected
me or not. And I said, well, what makes
you think that you have any hope of salvation right now? They
were like, well, I figured doing is better than not doing, because
of all the stuff I'm doing. And I said, actually, that's
not true. That's called iniquity. And God
hates the workers of iniquity. We are so geared in our minds
to do something in our flesh to try to please God. We want
to be our own God. We want God to accept us the
way we are. And the Lord says, no, I accept the Lord Jesus Christ. My love is conditional based
upon his finished work. But on him being my son, you
have to be found in him. And the Lord's people says, amen,
amen. I can't put myself in Christ.
But that's what the election of God did. We were given to
Christ before time ever began. That's what we talk about the
Lamb's Book of Life, the names that are written in there. Those
names are the Lord's elect, that's who that is. He was the only
one found worthy that could open the book and loose the seals
thereof. Those seals represent the judgment of God, the perfect
judgment that fell on Christ on the cross for his people.
He satisfied judgment, justice, and the law. That's why the Lord says, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Christ. Thou shalt be
saved. Don't try to keep the law. You
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Well,
what does the law say? Guilty. That's it. Lord said,
don't go to Sinai, don't come near it. Even if an animal touched
it, it would be killed. You can't come near Sinai. That's,
it's revealing God's holiness. It's revealing God's, it represents
judgment and you're not going to find peace there. The law
doesn't say peace to the sinner. It says death, death. After I said this to someone
recently, something similar along these lines, they asked me about
good works. And I was saying, what do you
believe in good works? Because James tells us very clearly
that you have to have good works. And I love the verse that says
that the Lord ordained his people unto good works, that we might
walk therein. That's very clear to me that
we do it and don't even realize we're doing it. We don't look.
And what this individual wanted was something that they could
see. And that's what, as we're going through Galatians, I think
that's what the Lord has really impressed upon me to try to teach
us as he's taught me is that it's not what we see. Everything
in false religion is about what we see, every bit of it. It's
about what you do or don't do. It's about where you go or don't
go. It's about the life that you live. It's about how you,
it's all about me and what I do in this flesh. But God's gospel
says it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about
him. As far as works are concerned,
James was referring to an antinomian. You know what an antinomian is?
That's a person who rejects morality. They live frivolously and then
they brag about how free they are. But Paul was clear on this
and it doesn't even... Doesn't, I don't know how they
even get this. But Lord said, should we continue
in sin that grace may abound, God forbid. You know what that
means? God's gonna forbid that. He's not going to allow you to
continue in sin that grace may abound. Why? Because he keeps
his people looking to him. That's why. Are you going to
sin? Yes. I'm breathing, aren't I? So we're
sinners by nature, sinners by practice, sinners because of
what we do and because of what we are. But should we continue
in that sin and brag about it? No, absolutely not. We look to
Christ, and anything that we bear forth that comes good out
of us comes from him, comes from him. I'm talking about the love
that we have one towards another, the servitude, servant's heart
that we have one towards another, the love for his gospel, the
love for his people. These are the things that the
Lord gives. We didn't have that before in false religion. We
had a fake type love, but it was all based upon, I gotta tell
on myself, because it was all based upon what you do or didn't
do, because I was, so-called friends with somebody that I
would have called a brother at the time. It's not my brother
now. But he was doing something that it really bothered me. I'm
not gonna tell you what it was. It's really petty. Really, it's just
petty. But I broke fellowship with him.
I thought, well, I'm better than that. I'm not gonna be associated
with this guy. And that's how religion does. It puffeth up.
It makes you look like a peacock to the world. But to God, we
look like Our righteousness is filthy rags.
We look dirty. We look dead. We look corrupted. We look sinful. And that's what
the law points at. And that's when we're in that
state, the law saying that's you. This is you. Here's the
mirror. Look at yourself. You're a sinner. You're a sinner
by nature practicing. Our flesh takes pleasure in sin.
Aren't you glad the Lord constrains his people? He restrains us,
he constrains us, and he causes us to look to him, because if
he didn't, boy, we would be hurting. We'd be in trouble. God's chosen people live exactly
how they want to live, looking to Christ. There'll be times
where you have unbelief. There'll be times when you don't
think about praying or don't think about reading the Bible
or don't think about a message, but pretty soon something will
happen. It'll make a hunger in you that
the Lord puts there where you have to hear something about
Him because you're hearing way too much about everything else
going on. Tell me more about Him. Tell me more about our substitute. Can't run to the law for peace.
Law doesn't comfort me. I can't look at my life and say,
okay, now I know God will accept me. He's made it very clear in
his word, he is not going to accept me. But he accepts the
Lord Jesus Christ and all those who are in him. All of his elect. We never look to self as part
or evidence of our salvation. And we don't live the opposite
of that either, where we think, well, nothing matters. What's
the point? We don't have that attitude. We know everything, why everything
happens. Happens to the purpose of God.
It happens for His glory, His honor. Happens because of His
will, because He has the determinant counsel. He's seated as King
of kings and Lord of lords. That's why it happens. So many
times, brethren, there'll be people, though, They'll say,
well, if I believe what you believe, I would just do whatever. And
what's the point of going to church? What's the point of doing
this? Number one, we're commanded to. But I desire to come to service. I desire to hear of him. I love
him. And you do, too. That's why we're here. Solomon
was dealing with this thing whenever he talks about pondering the
meaning of life. Now the Lord's people do not
ponder the meaning of life. We know the meaning of life,
even if we're discontented in life, we know the meaning of
life. What the world was created for, was created for the Lord's
glory, for the salvation of His people. was to give Christ a
bride. It was all for the Lord's purpose
and will. That's why it was done. So the
believer doesn't ponder life like the non-believer does. But
if you're caught up in false religion, you have to ponder
life because you're looking all the time outwardly. We would
be looking all the time at people around us. We're pondering, well,
what's the point of this and what's the point of that? Well,
I need to do this better and I need to do that better. Now
I see myself getting better. You're constantly pondering life. Turnovers, hold your place here.
Turn over to Proverbs five. We just preached from this a
few Wednesdays ago. Well, Proverbs went pretty slow,
so I guess it might have been several Wednesdays ago now. Look
at verse one. My son, Proverbs 5 verse one,
attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding,
that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman
drop as in honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But
her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her
feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou
shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are movable. that thou canst not know them.
Do we see who the strange woman is here? That's the false gospel.
That's the gospel that says do. That's the gospel that points
you to the law and says you can please God by bringing the works
of your hand. You can please God by the life
that you live and God will accept you. And what does it say here?
We just read it. Verse six, lest thou shouldest
ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst
not know them. There's no stability in false
religion. Have I done enough? Have I done
enough? You remember Mr. Rogers? I've
used this analogy before. Mr. Rogers on his deathbed, his
righteousness was all the good that he had supposedly done for
children and through the television and different things, trying
to help people. And he looks at his wife at the very end,
he's about to die, and he looks at her and he says, have I done
enough for God to let me into heaven? Have I done enough? You know what she said? Absolutely.
Absolutely. Without a doubt. That was his
righteousness and the Lord did not give him a gospel preacher
to preach to him before he died. That man did not go to heaven.
It's that simple. That was his confession. No,
the confession has to be Christ is all. Christ is all. Those that go to the law, can
they not hear what the law says? It says you're damned, you're
doomed, you're condemned, you're convicted, you're guilty, and
therefore you must die. And yet men continually try to
fix it by what they do. They make a covenant with death,
and with hell they're in agreement, the scripture says. and they
ponder the path of life. They're constantly thinking,
have I done enough? Well, I've done this, and I've
done this, and I've done this, and they'll convince themselves. See, our
heart's so wicked and deceitful that we can convince ourself
that God's going to accept us. We can convince ourself that
we have, as men, as I said the first part of this, got saved,
and that's not true. We might have had a religious
experience, but salvation's of the Lord. We didn't get it. That's
not something you go to Walmart and get off the shelf. The Lord
freely bestows it by His grace. We're just the benefactors of
it because of His finished work. What I'm trying to say is that
we will deceive our own hearts in believing that our law keeping,
our moral living, our social, how we're treating others. Somebody
told me recently that the Lord's gonna let her into heaven because
she's nice to people. That was her words to me and
that broke my heart. That's not good enough. Being nice is good. It's the right thing to do. But
oh, the sin that we are, the Lord has one remedy, and only
one, and it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you, not your works, not your
law keeping, not your lifestyle, not your understanding. When
I see the blood of Christ, I'll pass by you. That's our only
hope. It's our only hope. Most ponder the meaning of life
because there's no rest in their false religion. False religion
is just a prison where many, many are bound by the chains
of darkness. And yet, unless the Lord shines the light of
his glorious gospel through to our hearts, we'll remain in those
chains of darkness until the pit. God's gospel reveals the
meaning of, God's gospel reveals the meaning of life. What is
the meaning of life? Christ is all in all. Christ
is all in all. Salvation is actually accomplished. Rest on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest on Him. Strange woman here
is the false gospel. And you can read this if you
want. It goes down to verse 14. I'll read verse 14. It says,
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and
assembly. That's what false churches are, all evil. Somebody talks
about concerts and different things being demonic, and some
of this, I don't even know how to elaborate on that, but the
most demonic thing that you will hear is a man get up in front
of a congregation and say, Jesus loves everybody, Jesus died for
everybody, all you have to do is make your choice. That's demonic,
it's demonic. And this strange woman, is going
to cause whoever falls victim to her, whoever the Lord does
not call, the Lord does not keep, will fall victim to her, and
they'll ponder their entire life, they won't have any peace, they
won't have true rest, and they'll go all the way down to the pit. But the gospel reveals the meaning
of life, that Christ is all, Christ is all. Why do you think they hated Christ?
Because he told them the truth. He told them the truth. These
individuals, and I'm not picking on anybody this morning, I'm
just telling you this is the difference between us and them. This is
what they believe, this is what we believe. We don't flee to
the law anymore. We know better, we've been taught
of God. It's certain death. No one, what does the scripture
say? No flesh shall be justified by
the deeds of the law. That's point blank, it's simple,
isn't it? But these individuals live in a altered perception
of reality. When the Lord saved us and called
us by his grace, the world changed. Can you relate to what I'm saying
on that? I'm not trying to talk weird. It changed. You saw things
different than you used to see. You saw your sin, for one, that
you hadn't really seen. You felt it. You loathed yourself. Things changed. Things completely
changed and you actually were living in reality finally. But
before Christ came, everybody lives in a false perception of
reality. They don't live in the real reality.
You know, our reality is, is that we're with Christ in God
right now. That's the reality of the believer.
That's glorious, but you can't believe that if you haven't been
called out of darkness into light and may be given faith. And that's
where the understanding comes is just believing it because
he said it. My point is this, they hated Christ because he
told them the truth, he told them reality. Here's the reality
of the issue, that you are a sinner and you need a savior. Christ
is the only savior, he is the only way, he's the only truth,
and he is the only life. And no man come to the Father
but by him. Away with this man. Let his blood
be upon us and on our children. We won't have this man reign
over us. We want to do our law keeping. We're in good standing
in society. We have everything that we need
physically. And they hated him. They hated
him. Man wants to make, man wants
what makes them feel good. And the gospel does not make
you feel good in your flesh. It can't, because the flesh can't
receive the things of God. But oh, the new man, does he
not rejoice? Is there not true peace when
you hear these words, fear not, the Lord hath put away your sin.
That's real peace. It's not something that can be
bought, something that can be fabricated or earned. It's something
that was, It's something given freely by grace alone. Fear not. Yeah, you're the man, you're
guilty, but fear not. The Lord hath put away your sin.
The Lord hath put away your sin. That's why he says here, you
that desire to be under the law, do you hear what the law says?
It says guilty. It says death. It says eternal judgment. Eternal
separation. But the gospel is Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. Now, back to Galatians. I just wanna read this one more
time. 21 through 26. Tell me ye that desire
to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written
that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other
by a free woman. But he who was of the bondmaid,
bondwoman, was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman
was by promise. Which things are an allegory,
for these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and he answereth to Jerusalem, and answereth to
Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. In a second now we're
gonna look at the rest of those verses, basically. I only got
through the one. I intended to do a little bit
more, but that's okay. I'll tell us, I have one closing point
I want to make. The law operates entirely by
sight. The law operates entirely by sight, not by faith. Hebrews
11, six says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him,
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. False religion operates
in the lie. It operates by sight. The law
was all by sight. Salvation is by grace through
faith in that not of yourself, it's the free gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. False religion lives in
a false perception of reality. And I wrote this down and underlined
it, because the Lord gave me this while I was studying. And
I don't use long words often, and I'm gonna say perception
of reality, and I'm gonna try to explain what I mean by that.
But I never wanna, like Paul said, I didn't come with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but by demonstration of the spirit with
power. So my intention, is to never have long words to point
to myself, but this is what the Lord gave me. To the flesh, perception
of reality is more real than reality itself. To the flesh,
perception of reality is more real than reality itself. I'll
give you an example. Men go and watch a magician do
magic tricks. That's perception of reality.
That's not reality. That didn't actually do what
the man made it look like it did. But the perception of reality,
our brains buy into it because we perceive it. Maybe he changed
a card. Maybe he pulled a rabbit out
of a hat. I don't know what he did. But that's the perception
of reality. Illusionists are the same way.
Illusionists are the same way. How about movies? Movies, you
buy into those movies. I mean, a lot of that's computer
generated. You get what I'm saying here? A lot of that's a bunch
of, if you got on the set, you'd be like, well, this is nothing
like the real thing. That's a perception of reality. Now, here is the
biggest one, false preachers. False preachers give a false
perception of reality that you can be good enough for God the
way that you are. He will accept you if you do
your best. Keep the law and God will save you. God will do this
and obligate him by, that's a false perception of reality. And that's
what our flesh loves to go after. Why do you think the entertainment
world is a billions of dollar industry? People want to be entertained.
They want to be, they're mind blown. Churches today have, I
mean, they're circuses. They're circuses. They're for
entertainment purposes. This is what the law leads to.
It leads to more flesh and more flesh and more flesh. It cannot
lead to God. leads to more flesh and it shows us that we're sinful
and yet men say well I'm not as bad as I used to be and they
call it getting better we're not getting better we're getting
worse this is the trick this is the trick of all false religion
men alter God's truth God's gospel and they shift the attention
of the glory of God's gospel from where it rightfully belongs
on the Lord Jesus Christ to the flesh. They shift it to the flesh,
to me and to you, and says, examine yourself, see if you're doing
good enough, see if God's gonna accept you or not, and if you're
doing this and this and this and this and this, you've checked all
the boxes, and you've done the A, B, C, one, two, three, repeat
after me prayer, you're good to go. That's a false perception
of reality. It's the lie. It's the lie. Flee the law, run to Christ. Flee the law, run to Christ.
He is salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. The
law says death. Look to Christ and live. Believe
his truth. Believe his truth, not the altered
reality lie. Believe his truth. If you can,
you will. My hope is that we all can. Let's
pray. Father, thank you for your word. We pray that you would take it
and bless it for understanding for your glory in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's take a break.