Okay, we're gonna look at Galatians
3 in verse 22. Now last week I finished Galatians
chapter three, but Mark Pennell and I, we were having a discussion
back there about the law. Look at verse 22, it says, the
scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. So
I've entitled this lesson, All Under Sin. All Under Sin. And what Mark and I were talking
about is, Paul is showing here, now you know in this whole book
of Galatians, his purpose is to show that no Israelite could
have ever been saved by deeds of law. No Israelite could have
ever been justified by their works under the old covenant
law. So it's deadly for any so-called Israelite Jew who claims to be
a Christian to come in and try to put Gentiles under that law.
Because he says it over here in Genesis chapter two, that
no flesh shall be justified by deeds of the law. And when he
says no flesh, he means Jew and Gentile, that includes everybody.
He's talking about there's no physical human being fallen in
Adam who can be justified by the law. So the thrust of what
he's saying in the book of Galatians, and I wanted to get this clear
in our minds before we go through chapter four, the thrust of what
he's saying in the book of Galatians is that the Jews under the old
covenant are no longer under the Mosaic law, the law of Moses,
the old covenant law. That law's been abolished. Look
at verse 23. He says, but before faith came,
Galatians 3, but before faith came, that's before Christ came,
we were kept under the law, that's the Jewish nation, that's the
Israelites, that's not the Gentiles now. No Gentile was ever under
the law of Moses. Now, false preachers, look at
our situations today in our lives, false preachers may have tried
to put us under that law, and some tried to, but we were never
by God's commandment, Gentiles were never by God's commandment
under that law. The only way, the law was given
to Israel and Gentiles were included in that law only as they were
proselytes. And you know what a proselyte
is, that's a convert. In other words, you remember
Christ told the Pharisees, you encompass sea and land to make
converts. In other words, and the only
way a Gentile could be under that law is to become part of
the Jewish nation and the males had to be circumcised. So that's
what it was. You had to convert to Judaism
to be under that law. But no Gentile was under that
law by commandment of God. So look at verse 23. But before
faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. That law was given for that 1500
years from Sinai to bring them up to that time of the cross.
that time of the new covenant. And as a schoolmaster, as a tutor,
that we might be justified by faith, the law instructed them
of their sinfulness, their depravity, and the impossibility of salvation
by their works. In other words, it was like a
mirror or an x-ray machine, we might go so far, to show them
that we're sinners. That by deeds of law, we cannot
be made righteous before God. And of course you had the types
and the pictures in the ceremonial law, which pictured the promised
seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness.
In other words, don't look to yourself. That's what the law
was about. Don't look to yourself, look to Christ. Don't look to
your works, look to the grace of God. Don't try to establish
your righteousness of your own, rest in the righteousness that
is to come, the righteousness of God in Christ, which he will
come in time, and which he will establish by his obedience unto
death. So he says in verse 25, but after
that faith is come, that promise of God of the Messiah to come,
after he's come, look at it, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Now what was the schoolmaster?
The law. No longer under it. So the thrust
of Paul's message here is that, listen, these false preachers
who claim to be Christian who are trying to put you under the
law, that's a deadly, ungodly message. It's another gospel. And they themselves didn't keep
the law. And we as a nation, the Jewish
nation, we're no longer under that law. And the Gentiles were
never. Now, many things that Paul writes
here in these passages apply to Gentiles who were never by
God's command under that law. And that's what I went back to
verse 22. Now, the scripture, look at it.
The scripture hath concluded all under sin. Now, Paul's thrust
again is to show that the Jewish nation was under sin because
of the law. The law condemned them. But that
truth can apply to us too as Gentiles or the Gentiles back
then because the scripture has concluded all of us under sin
too. So understand now, the law was
given to Israel. Gentiles were only included if
they proselyted, but Gentiles were never under that law. So
here comes the question. This is what Mark and I were
discussing. Well, what law were Gentiles under? What law concluded
the Gentiles under sin? Now, we know to be concluded
under sin, there's got to be a law. You can look over in the
book of Romans, for example. Romans chapter four. Listen to
this in verse 15. Romans 4.15. He says, because
the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, There's no transgression. If there's no law, then there's
no sin. Incidentally, if there's no law, there's no righteousness.
So if the Gentiles weren't under that law, then what law were
they under? They had to be under some law.
And look across the page there in Romans 5. Look at verse 12. It says, wherefore, as by one
man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Now death by
sin, is the law's judgment against
sin. I'll show you that in just a
moment. It says, so death passed upon all men for that all sinned,
for until the law, sin was in the world. In other words, before
what Paul's saying here is before Sinai, before the law was given
on Sinai, sin was in the world. Sin didn't begin when God gave
the Ten Commandments. Sin began back with Adam. And
he says, but sin is not imputed where there's no law. Sin is
not charged where there's no law. Listen, if sin began at
Sinai, then God could not have charged anybody with sin before
that. Because sin is not imputed where
there's no law. And then let me read you one
more passage here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is an interesting
passage. I think a lot of people misinterpret
this. But in 1 Corinthians 15, 55, listen to this. It says,
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
And then in verse 56, it says, the sting of death is sin. The
reason we die is sin. The poison, you might say, that
brings death is sin. But he says, and the strength
of sin is the law. Now that's the power of sin to
condemn sinners. Where is that power? It's in
the law that condemns sinners where sin is imputed. See, David
said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Now the ones to whom the Lord imputes iniquity are cursed. But God couldn't impute iniquity
to them unless there was a law, unless there was a standard.
So here's a couple things, or several things I want you to
consider. First of all, God's law did not begin at Sinai. That
wasn't the beginning of God's law. That was the beginning of
that form of the law given to that nation for that covenant.
The Ten Commandments, the ceremonial law, the Mosaic law, they call
it. But God's law, listen, God's
law has always been and will always be an expression of His
holiness, His righteousness, His justice. The law is as eternal
as God. God's law has always been the
standard of goodness and righteousness. And God's law came in particular
forms in a particular form to a particular nation at Sinai.
But God's law was before Sinai. During that, it was before Sinai,
it was during that time, and God's law was after Sinai. So
God's law didn't begin at Sinai. Here's the second thing. God
revealed himself in different ways in the Old Testament. For
example, the first expression of God's law to man was found
in Genesis chapter two. When he told Adam and Eve, remember
he said, of every tree of the garden you can eat, except this
one of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis
2, 17, he says, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. That's the law. It's not codified
in 10 commandments there, but it's there. And Adam, listen,
Adam knew when he sinned, he knew that when he partook of
that tree, following his wife Eve, he knew he was breaking
God's law. He knew he was disobeying the
law. And then plus Adam had a conscience,
which is a part of the divine image in which man was made.
God laid upon his conscience a sense of right and wrong according
to God's standard. And even though before the fall
he had not experienced sin in himself, he knew it was wrong
to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God's commandment
was laid on his conscience when that law was given and his conscience
was clear as long as he obeyed. And when Adam sinned, his conscience
was defiled, and then it became a guilty conscience. Now, I've
heard people say that before Adam sinned, he didn't have a
conscience. I disagree with that. I believe Adam had a conscience,
but he didn't have a guilty conscience. He didn't have a condemned conscience.
He didn't have a defiled conscience until he thought, and I don't
know his thought processes, and I can't climb into Adam's mind
and give you the 1.1.2.3 of it because the scripture doesn't
tell us, but he disobeyed God. He sinned in unbelief. Somebody
said, we've been listening to a message where a fellow that
said Adam did what he did because he loved his wife as if it was
something noble. Oh no, Adam sinned, disobeyed
God. He sinned against God and he
knew full well what he was doing. But now here's the third thing.
God gives us the answer. What law were the Gentiles under?
Well, God gives us the answer back in Romans chapter one, and
I want you to turn to Romans one, and I'm gonna give you just
a brief summary here of how God the Holy Spirit, how he led the
apostle Paul to bring the whole world in guilty. Now, you know,
the conclusion here, You turn to Romans 1, but let me just
show you this. You know how in Romans chapter
3, he says they're all under sin. Now that's the same thing
in our text, Galatians 3.22. The scripture hath concluded
all under sin. And then in Romans 3 and verse
20, the grand conclusion is this. Therefore by deeds of law there
shall no flesh, Jew or Gentile, Be justified, be made not guilty,
be declared righteous in God's sight, in his sight, by deeds
of the law. You cannot do it. By the law
is the knowledge of sin. Now, if the Gentiles weren't
under the law of Moses, what law were we under? Well, here's
the answer. Look at Romans 1.16. Now Paul
says there, In Romans 1.16, he says, for I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified,
risen, righteousness by him, salvation by his grace alone,
salvation, forgiveness of sin by his blood alone, that's the
good news of the gospel, how God can be just to justify the
ungodly based on his righteousness alone. I'm not ashamed of that,
Paul says. That's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek or the Gentile. In other words, if anybody's
gonna be saved, I don't care what nationality you are, what
race you are, I don't care what socioeconomic level you're on. If you're gonna be saved, it's
gonna be by God's grace based on the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way for any of
us. I don't care who we are, what we've done, what we've tried
to do. And he says, the reason the gospel is such good news
is that, verse 17, for there is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. You know what the righteousness
of God is. That's the merits of the obedience unto death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he quotes from Habakkuk there,
he says, as it is written, the just or the justified shall live
by faith, live by looking to Christ. Now, here's the question. Why do I need the righteousness
of God? Why does anybody need the righteousness
of God? Well, Paul sets up the book of
Romans as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, almost like a prosecuting
attorney here. And he's bringing all the evidence
that condemns mankind and Adam, according to works, because of
their sin. He's bringing forth the evidence.
And here's the evidence. Here's why if God were to charge
you with sin, you would be justly condemned. Here's why you need
the righteousness of God. Here's why you can't establish
the righteousness of your own. You see, you're a sinner, all
right? And he starts off in verse 18.
And he's really dealing with the Gentile world here. And he
says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Now, what truth do men hold in
unrighteousness? Any truth that God gives them
in any way, shape, form or fashion. And here's what he says, look
at verse 19. Because that which may be known
of God which man can know of God, what he's saying, even by
nature, is manifested in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Now, how did God show it? Look
at verse 20. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made. Now, here's the law of creation.
The Gentiles were under the law of creation. Somebody said, well,
the Jews were under that law too. Yes, but there were no Jews
at this time when Adam fell. There weren't any Jews until
Sinai. Actually, the word Jew came later
because it's a form of the word Judaism, Judah, the tribe of
Judah, which became the prominent tribe in the southern kingdom.
And that's where that term come from. Actually, before Sinai,
they were called what? Anybody know? They weren't called
Israel because Israel didn't come till Jacob. You know what
they were called? Hebrews. From Hebron. They were called Hebrews. So
you had the Hebrew children in Egypt. So they weren't called
Jews and they weren't called Israelites until later. But here's
the law of creation. And he calls it that which can
be known, he said, by the things that are made, verse 20, even
his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Somebody says, well, what about people who've never heard the
gospel? Well, the Bible says they're still without excuse
because of the law of creation. And it goes something like this.
I'm not gonna read all through all these verses to chapter three,
because we don't have time. But it goes something like this.
I mean, you look at this beautiful creation. you look at the glory
of the sun, all right, or the glory of the moon, or the glory
of the trees and all of that. And of course we all tease about
tree huggers and all that and environmentalist and all that,
but that's not what I'm talking about. When man by nature in
his fallen condition, it's kind of like this, and I don't want
to simplify it too much, but it's kind of like this. You look
up and you see the glory of the sun. What does man by nature
do many times? He bows down and he worships
the sun. That's fallen man. What should
he do? What does God, he should say,
boy, there must have been some kind of wonderful great being
that created that and I need to seek more knowledge of him.
That's what we won't do by nature. And look at it, he says in verse
21, look at this. Because that when they knew God,
They glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Now, a lot of people try to take that verse and say, well, he's
going back to the time, for example, right after the fall or something
like that. We don't know what he's talking
about here other than What he's saying, here's the point that
he's making. What knowledge did, that man did have of God, man
perverted. Now that's the point of that
verse. Now you can climb in there and figure out if he's talking
about right after the fall or right before Noah's days or whatever,
whatever you wanna do. Be my guest. I don't think you'll
be successful. You may come to a dogmatic position,
but it'll be yours. But what I'm telling you, here's
the point of the verse. Whatever knowledge man had about God in
the beginning, he didn't use it to glorify God, he used it
to exalt himself. And it says in verse 22, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of
the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man and to birds and four-footed beasts, creeping things, wherefore
God, or for this reason, God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into
a lie and worshiped and served the creature The creation more
than the creator who's blessed forever. Amen. Now there's the
story. That's the law of creation. And you can see there's a digression
there. Where it started out, usually that's the way heresy
is. It starts out innocently, but then it goes down, down,
down. To where the abuse of the body
and things like that, those are things associated with idolatry.
And you can read the rest of that verse, but let's go on to
chapter two. Now what he is explaining there
can apply to all mankind by nature in some form or fashion, but
it mainly deals with the Gentiles. But now in chapter 2, he comes
to the Jews under the law of Romans 2. And he says, therefore,
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest,
for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for
thou that judgest doest the same things. But we're sure that the
judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit
such things. Now here's what he's saying.
When the Jews judge, the Jews under the law now, When they
judge the Gentiles to be condemned by the law, they're actually
condemning themselves. And you wanna know why? Because
they don't keep the law either. The moment you say, or a human
being, a fallen human being makes this statement, I know that he's
going to hell because he's a great sinner. You know what you've
just done? You've condemned yourself. because
you're a great sinner too. I'm a great sinner. And then
you get into all these silly arguments, well how great of
a sinner do you have to be? That's not the, sin demands death. Only righteousness demands justification,
salvation. And you know the conclusion Paul
comes to? There's none righteous, no not one. And then he goes
on, look down at Romans 2. Look down at verse 11. He says,
there's no respect of persons with God. God's not gonna respect
your person. Now your mama's and daddy's will.
They'll respect your persons. Maybe your children will. You'll
respect their persons. But God is no respecter of persons. What do you mean by that? Verse
12, for as many as have sinned without law shall perish without
law. That's the Gentiles. They didn't
have the law of Moses. Doesn't mean they didn't have
a law. All right, read on. And as many have sinned in the
law shall be judged by the law. In other words, if there's sin
in your life, that's it. There's no possibility of you
being saved by your works. He says, for not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall
be justified. Remember over in Galatians 5
when he says, those who think circumcision will recommend them
unto God, they're debtors to do the whole law. And then verse
14, now look, here's another clear answer to what Mark and
I were talking about last week, about what law were the Gentiles
under. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, now they
didn't have the law of Moses, that's what he's talking about.
but they do by nature the things contained in the law. These having
not the law are a law unto themselves, which shows the work of the law
written in their hearts. What is that law written in their
hearts? Their conscience, also bearing witness, and their thoughts,
the mean, while accusing, else excusing one another. In other
words, The moral laws that are found even in the law of Moses
were just as binding before Sinai as they were during Sinai. For example, do you know it was
a sin for Cain to kill Abel? You know that, didn't you? Nobody
has to argue with you about that. In other words, the law thou
shalt not kill was just as binding on Cain and Abel as it was on
the children of Israel during the Sinaitic covenant. That wasn't
a new law. That was an old law. The law
against adultery. Marriage was set down even before
the fall between a man and a woman. And it was just as wrong to commit
adultery before Sinai as it was during Sinai. You see, those
laws were put upon our conscience by the law of God, written on
our heart. And so what does he say? Now just jump over to chapter
three now. Like I said, you can read the
whole thing. But look at verse nine. He says, what then? Now here's the conclusion of
everything that this prosecuting attorney has come in to condemn
the whole world by nature in Adam under the law. And he says, what then? Are we
better than they? Are the Jews better than the
Gentiles? No. He says, no, in no wise. For
we have before proved and that means charged, you must have
that in your concordance, both Jews and Gentiles, that they
are all under sin as it is written, none righteous, no not one. There's
none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. And that's the conclusion. So
all, Jew and Gentile, under sin. The scripture hath concluded,
all under sin. All Jew and Gentile are void
of righteousness and cannot attain righteousness by their works
or their will. All Jew and Gentile who are saved
are saved by God's grace through Christ and his righteousness
alone. And there's no other way of salvation for anybody, Jew
or Gentile. And so the Gentiles were under
the law of creation, the law of conscience. It was always
there. And it's just as binding to prove
that we're all sinners and that we cannot be saved by our works
and that our only hope of salvation is righteousness by God's grace
in Jesus Christ our Lord. All right.