Alright brethren, let's go to
Galatians chapter 3. It's instructive to see how the
Spirit of God moved Paul to answer this division at Galatia. And
this is the Spirit of God who gave Paul the words to write.
And how he answered this He declared that the grace of God has made
all his people one through faith in Christ. Look here in verse 26, he says,
for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew
nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. God put a difference between
Jew and Gentile. male and female, bond and free,
he put a difference between them when he gave the old covenant
law. There was no Jew and Gentile
until God gave that old covenant. There was no such thing as Jew
and Gentile, it was just Gentile. When God gave that old covenant
law, he put a difference between Jew and Gentile. He put a difference
in the law, there was a great difference between male and female,
bond and free. It was so prevalent under the
old covenant, they even had a partition in the temple that separated
Jew from Gentile. They had a separation from male
and female. There's still churches in the
South that are so legal in their teaching that they have two doors.
Men enter one door and women enter the other door. They keep
that division. based on those outward carnal
things. But here was the lesson in that. In God giving this law
and making a difference, the lesson in that was, is God alone
makes his child to differ. He's the only one that makes
his child to differ. But see how he gave that law
written on tables of stone and made them differ outwardly, just
temporally speaking, But when he writes the new covenant on
the heart, he makes his people to differ spiritually. And he's
the only one that can do that. He's the only one that can do
it. But the carnal Jews, the carnal Jews who were coming here
and they were preaching to these Gentile believers, like all men
who were dead in sin, like all men spiritually blind, They came making something of
those outward differences because they were puffed up by the difference
they had thought had been made by the law. It appealed to their
pride. And so they came putting an emphasis
on those outward differences, on outward works of the law.
They thought being born the first time being natural sons of Abraham,
that made them children of God. And since Gentiles weren't born
in Israel, they hated Gentiles. And the males thought themselves
better than the females. And them being free, they thought
themselves better than the bondmen. There was a prayer the Jews would
pray, and they would pray and say that they would thank God
they were not born a Gentile, a woman, or a slave. And so when they came here preaching,
these ones that appeared to believe on Christ, or where they came
here preaching to these ones that believed on Christ. And
they were saying to them that it wasn't enough just to believe
on Christ. They said if you want to be a
true child of God, you have to be circumcised, come
under the law. You have to live like we do or
you can't be a child of God. You can't be a true son of Abraham.
You can't be a true heir of God. You remember The pride that one
time there were some Jews who claimed to believe on the Lord
Jesus, and he told them, he said, if you continue in faith, if
you continue believing on me, you'll manifest, you're my disciples
indeed. And the truth will set you free.
And that offended them. They said, we be the seed of
Abraham. We were never in bondage to anybody.
How are you saying we're gonna be made free? And that was the
spirit, that was the spirit here. They thought they were better
than these others because of these outward differences. And
that was the heart of these false preachers. They taught the Gentile
believer that faith in Christ was not enough. They had to conform
to these outward works of the law or they couldn't be children
of God. And the unifying message that
the Spirit of God brought there, The unifying message, the message
to unite, didn't listen to those outward differences. It didn't
listen to what these men thought made them better than others
outwardly. It wasn't that. It was the message that God's
children are made children by God, by his grace. God's children
are made righteous by Christ. God's children are saved through
faith in Him, trusting Him, Christ, to do it all. God makes His children,
children by grace, and they're the true seed of Abraham. They're
the ones that God, in eternity, when He made His will and testament
of what His promise of who His heirs would be, these are the
ones He chose, all of grace. That was the unifying message.
It was the message that pointed them to Christ, away from themselves,
away from these outward differences, away from these things that made
them to differ, to Christ, to say, He's the only one that's
made you to differ. That's the unifying message.
Now, first of all, the Spirit declares that those with true
faith, and you just think how How wildly radical this was to
these Judaizers who were Jews and they thought that these Gentiles
couldn't be true children of God unless they came under the
law. The Spirit of God here says that if they had true faith in
Christ, they were all equally the children of God. He says
here in verse 26, you are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. He didn't leave anybody out.
He's speaking to those God had gifted with faith in Christ.
Those that truly believed on Christ from the heart. Whether
they were Jew or Gentile. Whether they were bond or free.
Whether they were male or female. He said you are all the children
of God. And it's manifest by this one
thing. You believe on Christ. That's
it. That's it. You believe on Christ. He didn't
appeal to outward carnal differences. He didn't appeal to that. He
didn't appeal to outward distinctions or outward works of the law.
He didn't appeal to that. He didn't make any of that of
necessity. Why? That would have created
more division. That's exactly what it would
have done. It would have made some be set over the other. and
it made them feel justified and made the others feel like they
didn't measure up to them. Instead, he says, you are all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. This is God's
way of dealing with this problem. He sent the message that said,
it's not what you've done, it's what Christ did. You're all the
children of God manifest this one way. You trust Christ. You believe on Christ. You rest
in Christ. You rest in Christ. Now, faith
in Christ doesn't make us the children of God. Faith in Christ
doesn't make you the children of God. Faith in Christ is not
really what makes you a believer. God makes you a believer. And God gives you faith in Christ.
And faith is the fruit of what God's done for you. It's the
fruit of what God's done for you. It's because God-given faith's
the fruit that manifests that God already made you His child. You were His child, that's why
He gave you that faith. He made us His children by calling
us in eternity by His free and sovereign grace, not because
we were Jew or Gentile, not because we were male or female, not because
we had done anything good or done anything evil, simply because
He would. by His grace, and in time He
reveals that to those He chose. He comes to you and He sends
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts and He gives you faith
in Christ, not to make us children, but because He already made us
children. You look there in Galatians 4.4,
it says, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son made of a woman. The Scripture says He was coming
forth made of a woman because His brethren were flesh and blood. That means He knew who He was
coming for. It says here, He came made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. Them that were under the law.
He knew who was coming to redeem. And here's why He was doing it.
That we might receive the adoption of sons. He already knew who the sons
were. He knew who the children were. He was coming to redeem
us from all iniquity, from all sin, taking us out from under
the curse by being made a curse for us, brethren, that we might
be given the Holy Spirit and brought into the adoption and
made to know we're children of God. That's what He was doing.
He knew who He was dying for. And he accomplished this. He
was made a curse for his people and put away our sin and made
us righteous. And now look what he says here.
Verse six, and because ye are sons, because ye already were
by God, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. You know over in Romans eight,
he said the Holy Spirit makes us cry, Abba, Father. Here he
says, the spirit of his son is in your heart crying, Abba, Father.
If you believe, if you cry to Father, Father, whatever you
and I do in spirit, it's because Christ is in you and you're inseparably
united. And sometimes when we can't pray,
he said in Romans 8, the spirit helps us with groanings that
can't be uttered. but he did it because you are
sons. Wherefore, you're no more a servant,
but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Christ redeemed those God had
made children by election. That's who he came for. Look
at Ephesians 1. I'll show you this for those
that might not know. Ephesians 1, look at verse 3. It says there, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace. You
see there, he says Christ came and redeemed his people, and
because your sons, because you were predestinated unto the adoption,
he spent the spirit of his son into your heart, just like he,
at the exact predestinated time, and brought you to faith in Christ.
And so, faith in Christ, brethren, is the fruit that God produces
in His child that manifests, God made us His children. He
made us His children, redeemed by Christ. He said in Ephesians
2.8, He says, by grace are you saved through faith, and that's
not of yourself, it's the gift of God, lest any man should boast.
We're His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus on two
good works, one of those being believing on Christ and God before
ordained that his people shall walk in that. They're going to
walk in the works he ordained. So you see what I'm saying? So
these Judaizers that came there, now get what they were doing.
They were appealing to the flesh. They were appealing to something
in man. They were saying, unless you
come under the old covenant law, you can't be children of God.
It's one thing to believe on Christ, but now you gotta come
under the law or you can't be children of God. But the spiritual
lesson in the law is God's the only one that makes us children.
He's the only one that makes us to differ. He gave that old
covenant law written on stones. He writes a new covenant on the
heart. You remember he taught this to Peter. There was the
law of clean and unclean animals, and the purpose of that law was
to say it's God who makes the difference between that which
is holy and that which is not holy. He used to picture what
he does for his people. And so he's getting ready to
send Peter, who's a Jew, he's getting ready to send him to
some Gentiles to preach the gospel. And so he puts Peter in a trance,
and he drops his sheep down from heaven, and there's all these
unclean animals in it. And the Lord said, Arise, Peter,
kill and eat. Peter said, Not so, Lord. I've
never eaten anything unclean. I've never broken that law. I'm
not going to break that law and eat these unclean animals. And
the Lord gave him the meaning and gave us the meaning of what
he was teaching by that law. He said this. He said, What God
hath cleansed, what I've made holy, what I've sanctified, what
I've made pure, that call not thou common. He says, now go
to this Gentile. Go to this Gentile who I sanctified
in divine election. Go to this Gentile who I have
redeemed and perfected forever by my one offering. Go to him
and preach the gospel to him. He's my child and he's predestinated
to the adoption of children. I'm sending you to him to preach
the gospel to him. And this is what Peter said after
that. He said, God which knows the hearts, He bare witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost just like He did us Jews. And he said,
and he didn't put any difference between us and them. He didn't make us to be saved
one way, us Jews, and make those Gentiles to be saved another
way. There was no difference. He said, He purified their hearts
by faith. And so Peter said, don't tempt
God by bringing these Gentile believers back under the law.
He said, the truth of the matter is, we believe that through God's
free grace, through his sovereign grace, us Jews who had the law
are not gonna be saved by the law. We're gonna be saved like
these Gentiles are, by the grace of God who chose us, who redeemed
us, who called us, and who's gonna bring us home. We're gonna
be saved like they are. This is my point to you though.
He didn't base their sonship. He didn't base them being true
children of God on anything they had done. Nothing they had done. Not anything they were by their
first birth, not anything that they were as far as being a male
or a female or bond or free or anything they had done by the
law. He said this is the one evidence that you're a child
of God. He gave you faith in Christ. You rest in Him. That's the total opposite of
all that other stuff. Resting in Christ. Now that's
the message the Spirit sent Paul with to create unity where there
was nothing but division. Now secondly, look here. He declares
that we who believe all have the same righteousness. We all
have the same righteousness. the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
in verse 27, Galatians 3.27, as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ or unto Christ have put on Christ. The carnal Jews
thought the law made them differ. But spiritually, the law declares
there's no difference between anybody. You know, that's what
the law really declares. There's no difference between
any of us. Back up there, a few verses, he said the law concluded
us all under sin. Now that when spiritually we
hear the law, that's what you hear, the law concludes us all
under sin. Paul said, what then, are we
Jews better than these Gentiles? No and no wise, we before proven,
both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin. Now if we're gonna esteem others
better, really esteem others better,
and we're gonna be one, You know what the Spirit of God's going
to do first? He's going to make us all to be sinners. That's why He didn't come there
and appeal to one being a Jew or one being a Gentile. He didn't
come and appeal to anything in them or anything they had done.
He came there and said, first of all, what this law really
says is we're all sinners. Guilty in ourselves. can't do
anything, can't say anything. He brings you down. He brings
you down to see yourself as the chief of sinners. And when he
does that, that's what's going to create unity with brethren. You can't exalt yourself over
somebody else if you're on the bottom. And then the Spirit declared
that as many of you as have confessed Christ in believer's baptism,
truly confessed Him, truly been immersed into Christ, you've
put on Christ. It means this, through that faith
that He gave you, God has robed each believer in the very same
righteousness of Christ. You've been robed, just like
you put on a garment, you've been robed in the same Righteousness. The exact same righteousness.
Every true believer has one righteousness. We're equally righteous. The
righteousness of God. And that righteousness is Christ.
We're equally perfect. We're equally robed in the garment
of His righteousness. Go to Romans 3. Let me show you
this. Romans 3, 22. I know that's what Paul's saying
because this is what he says everywhere he goes. Here in Romans 3 verse 22, he says there that the righteousness
of God is by faith of Jesus Christ. And look at this, it's unto all
and it's upon all. That faith of Christ, that righteousness
of Christ, it's upon all them that believe. For there's no
difference in ourselves. There's no difference. All have
sinned. Everybody He saves are sinners,
guilty, that can't open our mouths to commend ourselves for anything.
We're all guilty. And He says, and we've come short
of the glory of God, but we're justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Justified freely
by Christ shedding His blood to redeem us. who God set forth
to be the mercy seat through faith in His blood. And so, he's
saying to us, brethren, he said, you that have confessed faith
in Christ, you that have confessed Him in believer's baptism, You've
put on Christ. You're robed in the very same
righteousness. Now what does that mean for us,
brethren? It means that Christ has taken down all the middle
wall of partition. He's taken away the differences
that we thought made us to differ. Look at Ephesians 3 again, and
look at verse 13. He's talking about here, about
the Jew and the Gentile, and he's speaking here to Gentiles,
And in verse 13, he says, now, I'm sorry, Ephesians 2, 13. He
says, now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off are
made near by the blood of Christ. For he's our peace. He made both
you and Gentile one. He made us one with God. He's
broken down the middle wall of partition between us. What's
he talking about? He abolished in his flesh the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of two one new man, so make in peace, and
that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross. Having slain the enmity thereby,
and he came and preached peace to you which were far off, and
to them that were nigh. The same message, for through
him, through him only, we both have access by one spirit to
the Father. How's God gonna create oneness
of heart? What's the message He's gonna
use to create oneness of heart? Is it to go and say, now you're
a Jew, you're a little better than that Gentile. That's not
gonna create oneness. Ladies, is it gonna create oneness
with you? Somebody come and say, now you're women, you're a whole
lot better than these men. Or how would it make you feel
if you came to the men and said, you're men, y'all are a lot better
than these women. No, that's not gonna do it. But the message,
it says we're all on the same plane of sin, guilty, with no
leg up in ourselves. But here's the good news. By
God's grace, by the righteousness of Christ, he's robed us in the
very same righteousness. Now you can have some oneness.
Now you can have some oneness if that's blessed by the Spirit.
That's the message that he's gonna bless to do it. He declares
our differences are gone in Christ. Not gone in the flesh, but they're
gone in Christ. And we're one in Christ. He says
here in verse 28, there's neither Jew nor Greek, Galatians 3.28,
there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free,
there's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ
Jesus. The world tries to create oneness
by the law. Now let's try to, let's learn
from this. These Judaizers came with this legal spirit and they
were trying to create a oneness, children of God, but they were
doing it using the law which always points out differences. And it's going to leave you with
differences. Now the world's been trying to legislate oneness
and peace between the races and between the sexes. Has it worked? You can get people outwardly
to treat other people better, but it doesn't make you love
them in your heart. That's just so. What's going to make people one? If Paul had justified them by
saying something outward or something done by them, made them to differ,
If he had justified these Judaizers in that, said something you did,
something about you has made you to differ, he'd have made
one think they was better than the other one. They wouldn't
have created unity. They'd have made the division
worse. But the Spirit of God made him endeavor to keep the
unity of the Spirit by declaring God's made you one in Christ. You're one in Christ. Outwardly,
the differences may still exist. Culturally, we have to abide
by laws and customs of the day. They had a problem with this
at Corinth. The slaves said, well, since
I'm free, I'm a free man in Christ now, I'm not bond or free, there's
no bond or free, so then I just need to run away and be free.
And Paul said, nope, abide in the calling wherein God's called
you. If you're a woman and God's given you grace and saved you,
it doesn't mean now you're a man, you're still a woman. in this
world, but in Christ, we're equal. In Christ, we're one. In Christ,
we have the same righteousness. In Christ, there's no divisions. It's only this gospel that's
gonna make sinners love each other and be one. That's it.
Nothing else will, because this is the only message the Spirit
of God blesses to create that unity, and he's the only one
that can do it. I can't do it. And if I come to you trying to
create unity to you with the law by justifying you and condemning
another, I'm not going to create unity. The Spirit's the only
one that can do that. And He's going to do it through
this message right here. Isn't that so? Look over here at Ephesians
4 and look at verse 2. Paul is doing, he's exhorting
them to do, but he's doing what he's exhorting them to do. Look
at this in Ephesians 4.2. Paul is doing this with all lowliness
and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing them in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of spirit and the bond of peace. And what was
the Spirit's unifying message that he had Paul write? Same
thing as he wrote to Galatians. There's one body, there's one
spirit, even as you're called and one hope of you calling,
There's one Lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism, there's
one God and Father of all who's above all and through all and
in you all. That's the message the Spirit's going to bless to
make us see. It's not anything outwardly about
us that makes us to differ or makes one better than another.
When I start feeling like I'm better than you, because you
did something and I didn't do that, you know what's going to
keep me from being puffed up and getting on a soapbox against
you? For Christ to remind me I'm a guilty sinner. That's all
I am. A wretch. A wretch. Don't you need to say something
to the brother? Yeah, but I can't do it until I'm made to know
I'm the wretch. Because I won't do it in lowliness.
I'll do it in a legal spirit. We gotta be brought, we gotta
be brought, this is the message. If the word turns me to Christ
alone, if the word I'm hearing is turning me to Christ, if it's
centering me on Christ and turning me to Christ, if it's making
me to hear of His righteousness alone, if it's making me know
I don't have anything in me to even look to, it's Christ only. If that's what I'm hearing, I'm hearing the word. I'm hearing
the spirit. I'm hearing the message the spirit
has sent. Judaizers were doing the opposite. They were turning
them from Christ back to themselves and to one another. And you know
what that results in? Confusion and division. You can't hear. You can't hear. You're sitting there. You were
hearing. You were being blessed. You were rejoicing. And then
here comes this message that turns you from Christ to you.
and you can't hear anymore. But the Spirit's message that
He's blessing is turning you from you, and you, and you, and
you, and all of us from each other, and saying, we have nothing
to boast in. There's our righteousness right
there, Christ, and in Him, we're one in Him. That's the message
He's going to, He's going to break our heart, our fleshly,
proud, self-differentiating self, and bring that down. And the
Spirit's going to make us say, I'm one by His grace. I'm one
with Christ. I know that's the message of
the Lord because this is the prayer of our great high priest,
Christ. He said, pray to the Father in
John 17, 21. I pray, Father, that they all be one. As thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the
glory which thou gavest me, I've given them, that they may be
one, even as we're one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. I can't create this oneness in
the heart. But I know the message that God
uses to do it. And I'm trying to tell you the
message God's going to use to do it. So that when I need to hear this
message, you speak this message to me. And when another brother
needs to hear it, you speak this message to them. This is what
brought you out of your sin and rebellion and everything in the
beginning was this message of the gospel. This is the message
we keep using. For everything. For every situation. Now lastly, let's look at this. He declared, we have the same
inheritance. We're the same children of Abraham
and we have the same inheritance. That's each other. Look at verse
29. And if you be Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. Now this is the all important
thing right here. Here it is. Where I was born? Nope. Is it what my sex is, if I'm
male or female? Nope. If I'm bond or free? Nope. If I've strictly adhered
to the law and kept the law? Nope. Here it is. If ye be Christ. There's the important thing.
If you're Christ. If you're His. If you're His. If you're Christ and you're Abraham's
seed. If you're Christ, you're children
of Abraham. The true Israel of God. The true Israel of God. That's
what they were saying. They were trying to make natural
Israel to be the true Israel of God. He just said, nope, they're
not. The true seed of Abraham are
those who belong to Christ. See, this thing's spiritual.
It's not about what we do. It's not about what we don't
do. This is the message that will make you do what you're
supposed to do and act as you're supposed to act. But no other
message will. Anything else is just gonna create
pride and arrogance and self-righteousness and division and self-justification. This is the message that's gonna
humble the heart. We're spiritual sons and daughters
of Abraham. Now look at this, and if you're
Christ, you're heirs of God according to God's promise, according to
his will and testament. That's what it is, a will and
testament of God. your heirs. You know the Judaizers,
they were going to make a difference in the inheritance too. If they
would have had their way, they would have made a difference
in the inheritance. How do I know that? Because I hear Judaizers
preaching all over the world today. And they're telling you
that you've got to work to indebt God to pay you when you die so
you get the biggest mansion on the best side of heaven so you
can look down on the poor saints on the bad side of heaven. You
think that's going to be a thing in heaven? No. Why? We all have the same inheritance.
What is it? Look at verse 6, Galatians 4,
6. God has sent forth the spirit of his Son in your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. He said, how am I going to give
them a goodly inheritance? They're going to be brought to
call me Father. Verse 7, wherefore you're no more a servant, but
a son. And if a son hears your inheritance, you're an heir of
God. through Christ. What do we inherit?
God. You're an heir of God. He said
to Abraham, fear not, I am your exceeding great reward. He said,
I'm your part and I'm your inheritance. J.C. Philpott said, all the love
of God, the goodness of God, the holiness of God, all his
happiness, bliss, and blessedness, all his might and majesty and
glory shining forth in the person of his dear son in the blaze
of one eternal unclouded day. That's the saint's inheritance.
It's him. It's him. Everything's in him. And that's the message that he
uses to make his people stop looking at us and look only to
him and unite us. Takes away all the division,
all the differences between us and makes us all equally sinners. but makes us equally righteous,
equally children, equally children of Abraham, with an equal inheritance,
with the same righteousness. That's unity, oneness. I pray
you'll bless that. Let's observe the Lord's table. Brother Scott, if you and Ravi, you and Ravi, would y'all
pass the elements out? Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we do thank you, Lord, for your son, the body you prepared for
him, the reminder that this table is meant to be for us. Help us
to remember.