And turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 3. I believe the Lord's put two
messages on my heart. They tie in. You're going to
find the main message is going to tie right in with this message.
Since you're here for Sunday school, you're going to find
that the main message, which is called the lawful use of the
law. the lawful use of the law. There's an unlawful way to use
the law and there's a lawful way to use the law. And so I
really believe the Lord has just put these on my heart. I've been
wanting to preach that message for about five years. And so
I had put it together for last week, just didn't come together,
but this week it came together. And so I pray the Lord will allow
me to preach it the way I feel it. And We have such freedom
in Christ. And the scripture tells us not
to be yoked again under bondage. And that means any kind of thing.
Anything that people would put upon us for performance, right? Well, if you're not doing this,
how can you be a Christian? So anything that people will
put upon us for performance, all has to do with that. Anything
that people put upon us for salvation that we have to do, it's all
a lie, beloved. And we're going to see that even
today in the message in Sunday School here today as well. And
as we've looked at our study of Galatians, we've learned that
the book of Galatians was written to expose false teachers and
false religion, which is basically man-based salvation. You can
boil all the religions of the world into two religions. You've
heard me say this. You've heard Henry say this.
You've heard other grace preachers say this. Two religions, works
of grace, they all come from one or the other, right? And you can see it. You can see
it. Catholicism is all about what you do. Seventh-day Adventism,
you have to go to church on Saturdays and do all this stuff to be saved.
Campbellism, which is Church of Christ, you have to be baptized
to be saved. Some Pentecostal churches say
you have to speak in tongues in order to be saved. Those are other gospels. It's not the true gospel. And
then you even hear some people say, well, we have a full gospel
and they only have part gospel. There's full gospel churches
out there. I didn't know the gospel wasn't complete. It's good news, isn't it? So
it's good news because it's God's salvation. It's based upon what
Christ done, not based upon what we do. You see? And that's the
key, isn't it? So Galatians written to expose
false religionists who want to mix law and grace. Travis, you worked in the speed
shop, and my dad worked as a trailer mechanic. And I mentioned this
a couple weeks ago, that when you see oil and water on the
floor, they don't mix. They separate, don't they? They
separate. And when oil does mix with water,
I remember it pooling up. And you could see all these colors,
but they didn't mix together. See, grace does not mix with
the law. The law has a use. And I'll tell
you what, we can't find any fault in the law, can we? Not at all
in the law of God, because it comes from our great God. We
can't find no fault in the law. It reflects a holy and righteous
God. But when man mixes man's sinful
works with grace, it's no longer grace. And that's what these
fellows were doing. They were taking a portion of
the law and said you must be circumcised along with faith
in Christ to be saved. And that's not true. There's
nothing that we sinful human beings can do to obtain salvation. Not even in a part. And I'll
tell you this, Christ doesn't need no help saving his people,
does he? He did all the work. See, but
the reason we're, and I'm not looking down on folks like that
because I was in religion, I came out of all that, and I remember
my mentality was that there's something I have to do. And we're
wired like that. We come out of the womb wired
like that. There's something I have to do. Surely it has to
be something that includes something like, it can't be so simple as
grace alone. I remember talking to someone
so dear to me, and they said, it's that simple? And I said,
yeah, just look to Christ. Just look to Christ. And that's
what makes people stumble, is the simplicity of the gospel.
The simplicity of faith in Christ and Him alone, by His shed blood,
redeeming our eternal souls. The fact that He did all the
work, so there's nothing for me. Remember the Philippian jailer,
what must I do to be saved? Nothing. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Right? Just believe. So let's look at Galatians chapter
3. We're going to read verses 19 to 24. And we're going to see again,
Paul's bringing forth the purpose of the law. what the law is for,
what it does. It says, wherefore then, servant
of the law, it was added because of transgression till the seed
should come, to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained
by angels in the hand of a mediator. Verse 20, now a mediator is not
a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against
the promises of God? Now this is a natural question.
This is a question that natural man will ask. This could even
be a question that believers could ask. Well then what's the
purpose of the law then? Remember who the true author
of these words are. God and the Holy Spirit's going
to tell us by the hand of Paul. I always have to remind myself
that when I'm reading the scriptures that these words are really God's
words. These men just penned these words.
They were inspired by God to write these words. Is the law
then against the promises of God? God forbid, let it never
be. For if there had been a law given
which could have given eternal life, verily righteousness should
have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. But here's our two verses today. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Look at that. We're the children
of God by faith in Christ. And our text will be verses 23
and 24. Let's read that again. 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. Now, see those words there. See
those words there, verse 23. I was in chapter 4 there. Look
at that. See those words. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster.
See the words, to bring us? That's not in the original Greek
text. their italicized. Whenever you
see italicization in the King James Bible, it means it wasn't
in the original text. It was added for readability.
So let's read it without that. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. The only
one who can bring us to Christ is God. See the law, what it does, the
law strips us of any hope. And I still, I'm not saying it
doesn't bring us to Christ. I say it all the time. But God
uses it to bring us to Christ. It's by God's power that we're
brought to Christ. See, what the law does, it slays us. There is absolutely no hope for
us when we look at the law. You know, people say, well, the
Lord said you need to obey them. Yeah, and we do, don't we? But
we know that we can't obey any of them. So are we to kill? No. It's a good thing not to
kill. Are we to steal? No. It's a good thing not to steal.
Are we to use the Lord's name in vain? No. It's a holy name.
Are we to covet our neighbor's wife? No. Not at all. Are we
to commit adultery? No. It's not a good thing to
do that. It just goes on and on and on. My oh my. It's good that we don't
do those things. But you see, man, and this is
why I think these two messages are so relevant for today even.
Because man has no care for the commandments of God. We have turned our back on God. We have. And even when I was
younger, do you know when I was young on Sunday, you could roll
a bowling ball down the main street and not even hit a person.
Because everything was closed. You all remember that, right?
Everything was closed. Even the people who didn't believe
in God, they enjoyed that day off, didn't they? But see, now
it's all about commercialism. It's all about money. Well, we're
losing a day of revenue here. And God set that day aside. It's good for us to rest, isn't
it? But who's our rest? Amen, sister. So we don't have
to set aside a certain day. We don't have to set aside a
certain day, do we? Because our rest is in Christ,
in Him alone. But I'll tell you what, it was
sure nice. Sundays were family time. You don't see that as much anymore,
do you? Oh my. Oh my. So verse 23 here says,
before faith came, we were kept under the law. We were shut up
under the faith that afterwards should be revealed. Now we're
going to look at what that word means later on. You know, we
were concealed. We had no idea who God was. He
was concealed to us. And that word means it's like
an unveiling. It's wonderful. He's unveiled
himself for us in the sense that here I am. Remember Isaiah? Oh, he sure got a glimpse of
the Lord, didn't he? Oh yeah, and what did he do? He was on
his face. See, there's no fear of God nowadays. There's no reverence
for God. But I'll tell you what, on that
great day there'd be a lot of knees shaking and quaking when
they have to stand before God. Oh my. In verse 22, verse 22
mentions the faith of Jesus Christ, and verse
23 is talking about the faith of Jesus Christ and the faith
of all believers as well. We do not have faith naturally. It's not something we have. It
has to be given to us. In our natural state, we want
absolutely nothing to do with God, and that's what we're seeing
now, right, in this world. And there's nothing new under
the sun. We see it and we're like, man, it's horrible. It
is horrible. Horrible to see man's depravity, isn't it? But
there's nothing new under the sun. Nothing new under the sun. Oh
my. So faith is not something we
have naturally. It has to be given to us. So
every one of us here who are believers, we have been given
the gift of faith. by God. He has given that to
us. I remember a time when I didn't
believe. Vicki and I were talking and we were looking at pictures
of Brother Billy and his wife KJ. And we were looking at those
pictures and Vicki goes, they look like totally different people.
And I said, that's how I feel about who I was before and who
I am now. It's like a totally different
person. different thoughts, different
feelings. The things I once loved, now
I hate. The things I once hated, now
I love. That's all God, beloved. That's all God. Think of this.
We're sitting here, we all love the Bible now. We love the gospel. 40 years ago, we didn't. Some of us. I didn't have any care. I was
18 years old, 19 years old, living a crazy life. No care at all. Isn't God gracious? He didn't
let us destroy ourselves back then. So God must give us faith
to believe on Christ. And all the elect of God, all
his promised children were redeemed from the curse of the law. We're
redeemed out from under the law. The law had a rightful claim
on us. And we're redeemed out from under that law. And all
our sins being removed, they're gone. We remember them, but they're
gone in God's eyes. He doesn't remember them at all.
And that's hard for us to comprehend because we remember our sins,
don't we? But he don't remember them, beloved. They're washed
clean in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean,
every single vile sin we've ever committed, washed clean, gone. from God's eyes. Oh my, let us
live in that. Let us live in that joy that
all our sins are forgiven. All of them. All of them. We've been redeemed from the
curse of the law because Christ has made a curse for us. And
our sins, they were laid upon Christ and he bore them all. And then he gave us his perfect
righteousness. Oh, he is a perfect, sinless
lamb of God, the just one dying for the unjust. And we were under
the curse of the law until Christ came. He had a claim on us, beloved. And he removed that curse. He
fulfilled, he didn't set us, remember, he didn't set aside
the law of God. See, a lot of people, we gotta
remember, he didn't set aside, he honored it. He fulfilled it. He magnified it. He did that which was impossible
for you and I. He did it for us. That's incredible. What a Savior. What a Redeemer.
And our text says, before faith came, rejoice, beloved. Christ
has come. Christ has come, and we're being
given faith to believe on Him. Let us rejoice. Oh my, our Savior
came to bring in everlasting righteousness, and He accomplished
this work for His people. My oh my. Take note of verse
23. It says that before faith came,
we were kept under the law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Look at that. But before faith
came, we were kept under the law. Shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Take note that our text brings
forth that the faith of Christ must be revealed. That's what
it says right there. It must be revealed. See, it's
something that we don't know naturally. We don't know it naturally. We don't know Christ naturally.
It must be revealed. And this brings forth that in
our natural state we did not know Christ. We did not know
who God was. Now we might have had a God of
our imagination. We might have had a God who we
could control. But it's not the one true living
God. He's uncontrollable. You ever think of that? You ever
think no one controls our God? No one. See, we live in a world
where we control our own little environments, don't we? We think
we do. Yeah, exactly, sister. We think
we do. We try to, right? We try to control our little,
live a little peaceful life and say, well, if that person is
going to be like that, I'm not going to talk to them anymore,
so I'll just be over here now. And God is not controlled by
anybody. He has no restraints. He has
no advisors. He is absolutely sovereign. That's what makes it amazing
that he saved our souls. He didn't have to. But in his
great love for us, he planned and purposed that. It's absolutely
amazing. And the faith of Christ cannot
be obtained by anything we do. Anything sinful man does can't
gain the faith of God. This scripture tells us plainly
it must be revealed. So there's no way for me to get
it in my natural state. Well, that takes, I pray in a
prayer, right? Walk in an aisle. Making a so-called decision for
Christ. The only reason I chose Christ
is because He chose me first. The only reason I love Christ
is because He loved me first. See, we do choose and run to
Him, don't we? We can't deny that. We do. But
we have to be born again first. We have to be given faith by
God. See, that's all the work of God. And Christ has to have
redeemed us on Calvary's cross. And we run to him then, don't
we? But it's all God's work, isn't it? See, this has to be
revealed. I marvel at this because there
was a time when it wasn't revealed to me, and to you too. And now
look what we know, look what we've learned. And that all comes
from God too. We can't even boast in our learning,
can we? We can't boast in our knowledge.
Because it all comes from him. He's the revealer. He's the revealer. And we're still learning things,
aren't we? A sermon gets preached or we're reading scripture and
something just goes whoosh! And we're just like kids in the
candy store. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. My oh my. So God brings his promised
children under the preaching of the gospel of him, Jesus Christ,
and him crucified. And this faith will not be revealed
under the preaching of the law of Moses. No. There's people who just preach
the law to people. There's no salvation there. Do, do, do,
do, do, do, do. We preach done. It's done. It's finished. It's completed
by Christ. We just look to Him. Oh my. But we do cry to sinners. We
do cry out to sinners. Flee to Christ, don't we? Turn
to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners. Knowing that if
they do, it's God that's done the work. And we rejoice. We rejoice. And under the preaching
of the gospel, God reveals, God the Holy Spirit reveals who Christ
is. Reveals why he came, who he came for, and where he is
right now. Where he is right now. He's raised
from the dead. He's seated at the right hand
of God. And marvel at the fact brought
forth in this scripture that God reveals the gospel to sinful
men and women like you and I. He even does that. He could have
left us groping in the dark, beloved. But he chooses to reveal
himself to us. And he does it at the time of
love. It's our appointed time of love. And then we just cry
out for the rest of our lives, Abba Father. Oh, you're everything
to me, Lord. See the word revealed there in
our text? Literally, it means to remove a veil. That's what
I was getting at earlier. We had a veil on us, beloved.
And God's revealed the veil, and now we see God for who He
really is. See, I had a God of my imagination,
would weigh me in the scales of justice. Am I good when I
weigh my bad? Well, I found out I got no good,
not at all. I'm down here. Oh my. Isn't it true? He unveils Himself. He removes
that veil, and we're like, we're just like Isaiah. I'm in the
dirt, Lord. Woe is me, I'm a man undone.
And I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. That's all man's
depravity, when he said that. Oh my. And think of it. Think of that. He unveils the
truth to us. He unveils who he is. My oh my. It means literally to remove
a veil or covering. Exposing to open view. I like
this. This is awesome. Exposing to
open view that which was hidden. He was hidden from us. And now we have exposed to our
view the glory of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now we see the Redeemer. when
we never saw him before. Now, now we see that God is holy,
and that everything that proceeds from him is holy. Right? Everything. My. We did not at one time know the
true and living God, but now we know him. Now we're born again.
We can see, we can see by faith who he is now. He's revealed
himself to us. And who's the object of God-given
faith? It's Christ, right? In Christ alone. He's the object
of God-given faith. He came into this world, was
manifest in the flesh. By faith, the Old Testament saints
looked to Christ, Jesus, the Messiah. And by faith, we look to Christ
as the one object of our faith. Now think of this, too. Christ
must be revealed, right? And he was to be revealed at
a certain time. At the appointed time of God,
he came into this world, sent by God the Father, right? But
before his incarnation, he lay in the bosom of the Father. And he was in great measure hid
under the types and shadows in the Old Testament, right? They were just what, pictures
of Christ. But to those who believed, those
who had God-given faith, they saw in those types and shadows
Christ. And we know that the prophets,
the law and the prophets, they testified of Christ, didn't they?
Because of the Lord's own words. Now he's been revealed. He's
come. He's been revealed now to you
and I, too, as believers. He was once hidden from us. And
what's been revealed? That he came to save his people
from their sins. He's the great Savior, the Redeemer,
the Lamb of God, who shed his precious blood, his precious,
precious blood, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, shed his
blood to redeem us, to save us. And think of this. The testimonies of the father
by a voice from heaven of who he was. This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. The testimony of John the Baptist.
Behold the Lamb of God. Testimonies of who he was. His
miracles testified of who he was. That he was God incarnated
in flesh. All these things and by the spirit
of wisdom and knowledge. testified of who he was. Look
at verse, let's read verse 24 now. Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we must be justified
by faith but after that faith has come we are no longer under
a schoolmaster. The words to bring us again are
not in the original text which again should read wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster unto or until Christ that we might
be justified by faith. So the law The law shuts us in,
again, to where we have nowhere to go. Nowhere to go at all. Now, in
our times, a schoolmaster directs the students who are in the classroom
and teaches and instructs pupils. We call them teachers now. Teachers
now. But, excuse me, that's not the
meaning of this Greek word. That's not the meaning of this
Greek word. Beloved, this Greek word for schoolmaster does not
mean schoolteacher, but child conductor. In homes of wealthy Greeks and
Romans, there would be a trusted servant who would take the children
to school. They wouldn't teach them anything,
but they'd take them to school. The servant was called a paedagogos,
or child conductor. This is the Greek word here used
for schoolmaster. Not a teacher. Therefore, he didn't teach the
children, but he took them to the teacher who they'd be taught
by. Now we see what's going on, don't
we? Therefore, the law does not save.
but it brings us to the one who can save, the only savior of
sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one. So the purpose
of both the moral and ceremonial law is to bring us to Christ,
beloved. That's what its purpose is for,
is to bring us to Christ, to bring us to a point where we
have nowhere else to go, no one else to look to. So like a pay-the-go-guess,
the law directs God's promised children unto Christ. And by
his perfect obedience to the law of God and to the will of
God, right, Christ fulfilled the law of God that we might
be justified by faith. He did it all. So the law's purpose,
like a schoolmaster, like a pay-the-go-guess, was just to bring the children
to the teacher. It can never teach us anything.
The law kills. It can't give life. It slays. But it brings us to the one who
is the giver of eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's
wonderful, isn't it? And we know from Romans 10 forward,
the scripture declares, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So for us, as believers, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. He's the Lord our righteousness,
isn't he? The law is being fulfilled. The
righteousness of the law is being fulfilled by Christ's obedience
in life and is our representative. And the justice and law of God
is being fulfilled by Christ's satisfaction in his death. So
in his life and in his death, he satisfied the law and justice
of God. He did it for us. He was sinless. He's representing somebody, isn't
he? He's somebody's substitute. They're
called the elect of God. It's wonderful. Romans chapter
4. Turn with me if you could real
quick just to Romans chapter 4. I'm going to try to wrap this
up in five minutes here. Romans chapter 4. Let's look at verses 20 to 25.
This is speaking of Abraham. Romans chapter 4, verses 20 to
25. It says, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded. See, God's people were fully
persuaded, right? That God's able to save us, aren't we? That
what he had promised, he was able also to perform, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone, or that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed. Look at that. The same righteousness
that was imputed to Abraham is the same righteousness that's
imputed to us. Christ's righteousness, God's righteousness, oh my. But for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed, if we believe on him, there's the clause. See,
this righteousness is not imputed to everybody. Christ didn't die
for the whole world. He did die for a people. And
for those people, this perfect righteousness will be imputed
to them. And they'll be given faith to believe. If we believe
on him that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who,
look at this, was delivered for our offenses. Delivered for Wayne
Boyd's sin. Put your name in there too. Our,
our offense, our sins. and was raised up again for our
justification. See, death had no claim on him.
He's a sinless, spotless lamb of God. It can't hold him. Up
from the grave he arose. In a mighty triumph over his
foes. Right? Up he goes. Oh, it's wonderful. It's so wonderful. And remember
what we're dealing with here, we're dealing with the difference
between law and grace and the subject. The subject is just
too important to just take a casual look at it, it really is. It's
as relevant for today as it was then. And it's so important that
God the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to pronounce a curse
on anyone, including an angel from heaven, who would dare preach
salvation by man's works. Look at Galatians 1, verses 8
and 9. This topic is so important of mixing law and grace and how
it's a false gospel, that the Holy Spirit of God had Paul pen
these words. And this is strong language here.
This is strong language. Look at this. Galatians 1 verses
8 and 9, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any
other gospel, any other one other than salvation in Christ alone
plus nothing, any other one. And I don't care how sincere
the person is. These are the words of God the
Holy Spirit, right? Any other gospel unto you than that which
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be damned
in the Greek. That's strong language, isn't
it? Oh my, as we said before, so to say again, now he's gonna
emphasize again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then
that what you have to receive, let him be a curse. That's why,
that's why it's so, when a man's preaching the gospel, and this
happened to a friend of mine, he lives in Georgia, you guys
know him, and they said, well, he not preaching the gospel. That's a serious offense. You're
accusing a man sent by God that he's not preaching the gospel?
That's a serious offense. That really is. In God's eyes,
because there's only one gospel. There's only one. And note our
text brings forth that we're justified by faith, which is
in Christ and him alone. Look again, but after that faith
has come, we are, oh, sorry, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by what?
Faith, God-given faith. Faith in who? Faith in Christ,
in Christ alone. And when the Holy Spirit gives
us faith to believe, Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior, he purges
our conscience from dead works. Dead works, just purged, purged
from dead works. To what? To serve the living
and true God. Here we are, a bunch of rebels in our natural state,
now we're serving God. Now we're rejoicing over God,
what he's doing in our lives. I never even used to think of
that, did you? My. Now some of you were raised in
a Christian home, and you heard those things, but it became a
reality for you when the Lord saved you. But for me, that stuff
wasn't even talked about. My, oh my, I know some of you
grew up in the same conditions I did. There was just nothing,
we just didn't hear about it. But to know that Jesus Christ
justifies all his elect by paying the ransom price in full, that
the justice of God demanded for our souls, oh, how that makes
our hearts burn within us with joy, with joy, great joy. And if we do not believe the
record, the word of God that he gives, and if we continue
in a religion of works, We do not have the faith of God's elect.
People say, well, he was a Christian. Not if he believed in a workspace
salvation. I don't care how sincere he was.
It's Christ and him alone that God, and we saw in Galatians
1, God doesn't mess with that, does he? If God takes it that
serious that he says that if a man's not preaching the gospel,
let him be damned, then we ought to take it serious too, eh? Oh
my. But I'll tell you what, rejoice.
Rejoice, beloved of God. God has revealed himself to us.
He's taken the veil that he was hidden from us, and now we know
him. Let us leave here just praising
God for his mercy, his goodness, and his grace.