Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. We're going
to continue our study. We're almost finished chapter 3. Today
we won't finish it. I want to look at the last verse
by itself, where we are told that if we're Abraham's seed
where if we're in christ and where abraham seed i want to
look at that verse a little bit more in depth um and heirs to
according to the promise so that verse has always struck me always
struck me it shows that god's people god's elect are the israel
of god and so we're looking at that a little more in depth next
week lord willing if the lord allows but let's read verses
21 to 29 and we'll get right into the message Galatians chapter
3 verses 21 to 29. The name of the message is God's
Promised Children. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which should have given life fairly, 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 before faith came, we were
kept under the law and shut up under the faith, which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law, and that word
revealed there, It means an unveiling. It means an unveiling of something
that was hidden before. So faith in Christ was hidden
from us. Christ was hidden from us. Who
God was, was hidden from us. And praise God, He's revealed
it to us. He's revealed Himself to us. It's just amazing. Absolutely. I just can't get over that. 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 Christ Jesus. And the next few verses here
are our text, verses 26 to 28. 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 is neither Jew
nor Gentile, there's neither bond nor freedom, there's neither
male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then ye
are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Magnificent
portion of Scripture. Absolutely magnificent portion
of Scripture. Last week in our study, we looked
at verses 24 and 25 of Galatians chapter 3, and we saw that the
word schoolmaster there in our text doesn't mean what we think
it means, which we would more like when I first looked at it,
I thought teacher. It doesn't mean that at all. In homes of
wealthy Greeks and Romans, there'd be a trusted servant who would
take the children to school. The servant was called a pedagogos
in the Greek. And it means a child conductor.
Child conductor. And that's the same Greek word
used here for schoolmaster. He didn't teach the children,
but he took the children to the teacher. He took the children
to the teacher. He couldn't teach them anything.
But he could take them to the teacher. See, that's what the
law couldn't teach us, salvation. The law can't save, it can only
kill. So it takes us to Christ. It
takes us to Christ. And remember when we looked at verse 24, the words to bring
us are italicized, so it's not in the original Greek. So it's
wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, unto Christ, that
we might be justified by faith. So it brought us to Christ. It shut us in, didn't it? We
had nowhere else to go but to look to Christ. So the purpose
of both the moral and the ceremonial law is to bring us to Christ. That's the purpose of it. So
like Peter Goges, the law directs God's promised children unto
Christ. Now remember, as we're going
through this epistle, we're dealing with law and grace. You've got
the false teachers who are saying you must be circumcised, which
is the law, to be saved along with having faith in Christ.
And then you have Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, bring
a strong rebuttal to that. calling it not another gospel,
but it's something that will damn one's soul if they believe
it. It's not good news. If you have to do anything for
your salvation, it's not good news. It's not. Because there's
no way for us to save ourselves. So it's not good news. And the
difference between law and grace is one kills and the other one
makes one alive in Christ. The law kills, spiritually, and
Christ makes us alive. My. And this topic is again so
important that God moved the Apostle Paul to pronounce a curse
upon anyone, including an angel from heaven, who would preach
another gospel. Who would preach another gospel. My oh my. Anyone who would dare
preach salvation by man's work instead of by God's sovereign
grace in Christ, God pronounces a curse on him. That's serious
business, isn't it? That's serious. That's how serious
God himself is about the gospel. He sent his own son to redeem
us. He sent the son of his love to
redeem us. No one messes with the gospel
of God. He's absolutely sovereign. Oh, my. My oh my. The Lord Jesus Christ justified
all the elect. He justified us, didn't he? He
justified us at Calvary's cross. He paid the ransom price for
our souls. Fully redeeming us. Fully redeeming us. Purchasing
our souls by his precious blood when he died for sinners. Then
he's raised again, the scripture says, for our justification.
God raised him from the dead. For us. My. And when the Lord gives us faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we find out that He is
the only Savior. We find out there's salvation
in no other, not even ourselves. See, man's trying to save themselves
when they're doing something that they believe will gain them
merit and salvation. They're actually making themselves
a God. They're actually making themselves
a Savior. They're vaulting themselves over God. God won't have any
of that, will he? He says, I won't share my glory
with anyone. And he pronounces, he says, there's
no salvation in any other other than Christ in him, other than
my son. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. My oh my. He's not pleased by anything
I do. In my flesh. No. No, no, no. And when the Lord gives us faith,
he purges our sins, doesn't he? He purges our sins from us. Or
when Christ died on Calvary's cross, he purged our sins. And
then when he gives us faith, he purges our conscience, doesn't
he? From dead works. To serve the
living and true God. Now we want to serve our King
because we love him. Because we love him. And if one does not believe God,
one does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and continues in
the religions of works, then they do not have the faith of
God's elect, no matter what they say. If someone adds works to
salvation, they do not have the faith of God's elect. We, as Tom said one time, we
come to the table with nothing, nothing. Nothing. We have our
own sin, but we don't come adding anything to our salvation. We're
just poor bankrupt sinners, saved by the grace and mercy of God,
right? My, and what's led us to that condition? Well, the
Lord used the law to shut us in, and then we're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to believe. It's
absolutely magnificent. Without true saving faith, one
die in their sins and spend eternity in hell. That's the truth. But people don't want to hear
that. They don't want to hear that nowadays. Number one, they
don't believe in God. Number two, they don't believe
in hell. Well, they're both real. Whether people believe in them
or not. My oh my. So this is such an important
topic, beloved. This is a very sobering topic. It's so important.
But yet, on the flip side, it brings such great joy to we who
are the people of God. Because all the promises of God
are yea and amen in Christ. And if we're in Christ, they're
all ours. We're heirs according to the promise. Isn't that magnificent?
And we're going to find out in chapter 4 we were heirs and didn't
even know it. And you couldn't tell us apart
from the goats. in our natural state and we had
no idea? Did you have any idea before
the Lord saved you that you were one of his elect? Did you even
have an interest in that? I couldn't care less back then. Oh my, this is wonderful. I had
a chance to talk to my daughter this week. Please keep praying
for her. She's starting to pray and she's reading scriptures
and stuff and asking me questions. So just please keep lifting her
up in prayer. And we were talking about how
simple faith is in Christ. It's just trust in Christ, just
looking to Him. Just look into Him and Him alone.
It's so wonderful how, and I was telling her how the law's schoolmaster,
how it shows us our sin and brings us to Christ and reveals to us
that we can't go anywhere else but Him. We don't have any other
hope, do we? Other than Christ. No other hope
at all. My oh my. And it's such an important topic
because if we mix any kind of works in with salvation in Christ,
then it's actually a damning thing. It won't save. It won't save. So we come totally
empty-handed. What does that song say? Nothing in my hands I bring.
Simply to the cross I cling. Yeah. Nothing. Empty-handed.
Empty-handed. Look into Christ. Look into Christ. I like what Sir Purjan said.
Sink or swim, I'll trust in Him. I love that. I've been saying
that all the time in my head lately. Sink or swim, I'll trust in Him.
Oh my. So true, isn't it? Let's read
verse 25 here. This is such an important topic
as well. Because we are saved from our
sins as believers. By faith in Christ, we're saved
from our sins, but if one dies outside of Christ, they're dying
in their sins. So you can have someone who thinks
they're going to be saved by believing on Christ and doing
some works, and they pass away and they wake up in hell. That's how serious this is. And
I was thinking something today. Tell me if this is true. I was reading some stuff about
these climate people, and they're going around throwing soup on
Van Gogh's paintings and doing all this other stuff. Recently,
they went and desecrated William Wallace's sword, or tried to
desecrate his sword and that thing. They're all up in arms
about climate, right? OK, now take away climate even. Put anything else in there, right?
Anything else, right? Politics even, anything, right? Worrying about this or worrying
about that, just any. It's natural for us, I was thinking
about this today, this morning, it's natural for man to be just
wound up tighter in the clock about stuff and have no care
for their soul. all wound up about the climate,
and yet have no concern for their soul. None. And it just struck me how blessed
we are as God's people to be more concerned about our souls
than anything else in this world, and to trust Christ and Him,
knowing that. So people are getting, and I'm
just gonna, this is just me going, people are getting wound up about,
say, the climate, right? But it's just temporary, because
we know that everything in this world is temporary. But again,
the things that are of eternal value, no care at all. It just shows you. And I just
thought, praise you, God, for revealing Christ to me, because
I'd have been right there. I'd have been wound up just tighter
than a clock, probably about something else. It's true, isn't it? It's so
true. We are so blessed, beloved, that
we are in Christ and that he's revealed himself to us. And now
we see this world. It's his world. We're to be good
stewards, aren't we? I'm not saying we're not supposed
to take care of things. We're to be good stewards. But
it's his world. He'll do with it whatever he
pleases. He says it's going to all burn up at the end. Right? Mankind has so much thought in
other things and no concern for their souls. And I was right
there. Before the Lord saved me, I didn't care. I was more
concerned about me. Looking out for number one, they
used to say. You remember that? Yeah, we're all smiling because
we know. We know. Oh, isn't it distinct
what God's done in you, in us, and for us. Oh, it's magnificent. Okay. Look at verse 25 here. But after faith has come, we
are no longer under a schoolmaster. So in other words, since Christ's
come, God's holy law has been perfectly honored by him. He
perfectly honored God's law. Now remember, he's sinless, so
he's not doing it for himself. He perfectly honored God's law.
Who did he do it for? The elect. You and I, God's people. We who
are born again. Out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. Oh my. And as I said last week
in that message, the lawful use of law, we are not against the
law. Not at all. We can't find any
fault in it, can we? No one can find any fault in
God's law. It's holy, just like He is. But
we can't fulfill it. So the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, comes down from heaven and perfectly fulfills the law
in our room and place. So that now the law doesn't have
a claim on us. We're redeemed out from under the law. It's
still holy. It's still perfect. But it doesn't have a claim on
us. Now, we're not going to do things
that are contrary to it, are we? We don't want to. God's people
don't want to go out here and just sin as much. No, that's
antinomianism. We have nothing to do with that
at all. Nothing to do with that at all.
We desire to live a holy life, don't we? But we're just sinners
saved by grace too, aren't we? Yeah. So we just, we live trusting
Christ every day. Looking to Christ every day.
resting in Christ every day, as much as we can. Oh my. What did Peter say? Lord,
help my unbelief. That's the cry of every believer,
isn't it? Help my unbelief. So the Lord Jesus Christ justified
all his lack when he paid the ransom price for our souls. He
justified us all. And Christ is our righteousness.
See, my righteousness, if I stand before God in my righteousness,
He's going to say, depart from me. But if I stand in the righteousness
of Christ because he's put me, that right, that coat of righteousness
on me, he's gonna say, well done. I didn't do nothing. But who
did it? Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Enter into the joy of my rest,
all because of what Christ did. Not one thing I did, but all
because of what Christ did. That'll make you rejoice, won't
you? Oh, it'll fill your heart with joy. He cried, it's finished,
and it's done. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes, Romans 10 4. And Jesus Christ is every
single believer's righteousness. If you're sitting here and you're
a believer, Christ is your righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. And we're dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that we should be married to another, even to
him who raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God, Romans 7 4. We're married to another now.
We're married to Christ. Oh, it's so wonderful. So what
does this mean for we who believe on Christ? It means exactly what
Paul says, stand fast in the liberty, the freedom. We're free. Free from the law, happy condition.
Free, free in Christ. but we won't use that liberty
for lasciviousness, will we? No, because the love of Christ
constrains us from sin. Paul wrote that in Corinthians.
Love of Christ constrains us from sin, but we are free. We're
free at last, beloved. And the believer can say, thank
God I'm free. I'm free in Christ. Absolutely,
totally free in Christ. And notice the change of verbiage
here in verse 25 and 26. One commentator brought this
up, a Greek commentator brought this up. I thought this was amazing.
In verse 25, he's speaking in the first person. He says, but
after that faith has come, we are no longer under schoolmaster.
So he's speaking in the first person there. And remember, this
is written to the Galatian church, right? It's mostly Gentiles,
but there are Jews there too. Because the Jews, they scattered
all over, right? And they were merchants in all
different cities and all different professions, right? And the Lord saved some of them.
And so this church was comprised both of Jew and Gentile people.
And notice in verse 26, we see him changed to the second person
with the word ye. So in verse 25 he says we, and
in verse 26 he says ye, which Weiss brings forth is a reference
to both Jew and Gentile, because of the topic that he's speaking
of here, which is justification in Christ alone, that the law
and the gospel don't mix. So what he's doing here, he's
setting forth the separation between Jew and Gentile has now
been broken down See, there was a quarter of the Gentiles at
the temple in Jerusalem, right? But that's no longer there anymore. The veil has been torn asunder. So both Jew and Gentile can now
enter in. That's why the scripture says
to you and I who are Gentiles, as far as I know, we're all Gentiles
here. The scripture says, let us therefore
now come boldly unto the throne of grace. See, there's no separation
between Jew and Gentile anymore. we're gonna see we're one in
Christ. And that's what he's bringing forth here with that
change of verbiage when he says ye, he's bringing forth both
the Jews and Gentiles in the church, right? Because remember
there was disagreement. He says, now look at this, for
ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So
he changes from the first person to the second person. and brings
in both the Jews and Gentiles together. Because that's really
what we are in Christ, aren't we? We're all one. We're all
one in Christ. And we see that in verses 27
and 28. For as many of you have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew
nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free.
There's neither male nor female. For you are what? One in Christ. We're one. Do you know it's a man that's
made different denominations? All true born-again believers
are one in Christ. There's only one church in heaven,
right? Composed of what? All believers. There's only one
gospel. I'm not saying there's multiple
gospels. There's only one gospel. There's only one Spirit. And
there's only one Jesus. But men have made denominations.
and split us all up into different little sects. But all true believers
are one in Christ. And we will be one in glory. All true believers. Now there's
a difference there, right? Between true and false believers.
I'm not the judge of that, right? I can know from certain groups,
I can say, oh yeah, I'm pretty sure that person's, you know,
just by what they say even, right? Bruce Crabtree said, God will
do what's right. Right? He knows the difference. He knows
the difference. So that's beautiful. We're one
in Christ. So here he's, with a change of verbiage like that,
he's bringing forth the Jew and the Gentile together. He's bringing
them both together. It's wonderful. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. Again, he's sending forth that
the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile is gone. It's
broken down. And all believing, all believers are one in Christ.
And the word children, translated children here, is huios. And
it's an important word here. This word signifies someone full
of age, come to the full age. Now remember that in what we
looked at last week, right? Once a person became of full
age, they no longer needed the schoolmaster. So the scripture's saying, even
though we're just babes in Christ, once we've been born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, we've come of full age. Where now, we don't need that
schoolmaster anymore. Now the Holy Spirit's our teacher.
He's the one who has us grow. Now we're not full age of maturity,
right? But what it's trying to do is it's showing us that there's
a separation. Once the law brings us to Christ
and reveals Christ to us, the law no longer is the schoolmaster
and we're of the full age. Isn't that wonderful? When I
read this, I was just so excited. It's incredible. Now, I nowhere
feel like I'm still, I've been preaching for almost, what, I
don't know how many years now, 15 or getting close to 20, but
I'm just scratching the surface, beloved, what I know about Christ.
Same with you probably, right? We just, we have so much to learn.
And as God's pleased to reveal it to us, we learn and we grow,
don't we? It's wonderful. So this word, children, signifies someone of
full age. Under the law, the individual
was under a schoolmaster, under a guardian. Now under grace,
one heirship has been revealed and you're no longer under a
schoolmaster. My oh my. And now the context
of the words in Christ Jesus must be separated from the words
by faith. And we know by faith, that's
God-given faith, right? He gives us the faith to believe
on Christ. But Weiss brings forth that they
are put at the end of the sentence so as to form a distinct proposition,
which Paul is going to enlarge in in the next verses, which
are, we're one in Christ. We're one in Christ as believers. In Christ in Christ what magnificent
to two words so magnificent in Christ in Christ Beloved we're
in Christ He's our Savior. He's our Redeemer. He's our Lord
and who put us in Christ God the Father It's amazing Let's read that
verse again. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now, just as a case of our justification,
our faith in Christ does not cause God to adopt us as children. Our faith doesn't cause God.
God doesn't say, well, look down through time and say, well, you
know, Wayne's going to choose Christ, so I'm going to, I'm
going to adopt him. Doesn't work that way, does it?
My faith has nothing to do with my adoption, except that because
I'm a son, God sent the spirit of his son into my heart, and
yours too, wherever we cry, I'll cry, I have a father. You see?
And we're going to see that in chapter four. It's absolutely
amazing. So my faith in Christ does not
cause God to adopt us. No, my faith in Christ is a gift
from God. There's no cause in me that would cause God to adopt
me. And no cause in you either. It's pure mercy. It's pure grace. And it's absolutely wonderful.
Our faith in Christ is actually evidence of our adoption. It's
evidence. How do we know that? Well, look
at Galatians chapter four, one chapter over, just turn there.
Our faith is evidence of our adoption. We see this so clearly
in verses six and seven of Galatians four. It says, and because ye
are sons. Well, when were we sons? How
long have we been sons for? For maternity. Ephesians 1.4,
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. But as we're going to look at
two weeks from now, we were heirs and didn't even know it. Had
no clue. And that's at the first part
of chapter 4. But look at this, verses 4, 6, and 7. And because
ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
heart, crying what? Abba, Father. That's what every
believer does. Oh my. Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son. Right? And if a son, then what?
An heir of God. Through who? Christ. That's magnificent. We are heirs of God through Christ,
beloved. We're born again, given faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are sons. We are
sons by God's choosing. way before the foundation of
the world. And we're given faith to believe
on Christ. That's, again, evidence of our justification in Christ. God predestined us into the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise and the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1,
5, and 6. If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the
law, Galatians 5, 18. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, Romans 8, 15. Herein
is love, Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, as Christ is, so we are in this world. There is no
fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4, 17
and 18. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Now. Not later, now. Now are we the sons of God. 1 John 3, 2. Boy, beloved, we
are loved with an immutable, perfect love by God the Father
in Christ Jesus. And think of this, the love of
God will never be turned away from His only begotten Son, will
it? Never. Will His love ever be turned
away from the Son? You know what that means for
us? We're in Christ, right? His love
will never be turned away from us. Never. My, oh my, that's so wonderful. That's so wonderful, beloved.
Never be turned away from us, ever. Nothing, absolutely nothing,
Paul wrote. And that's why Paul wrote this.
Absolutely nothing. can separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Romans chapter 8, verses
35 to 39. Nothing. That's caught for rejoicing,
isn't it? We're children of God, beloved.
By God's choice. By God's doing. Oh my. Jesus Christ by himself
purged our sin. Now let's read verses 27 and
28. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew
nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Now baptized
into Christ there is not referring to water baptism, not at all. It's referring to being baptized
by the Holy Spirit of God, born again. made alive in Christ,
an operation of God that only God can do. We can't persuade
God to do it. He does it. He does it. Oh my, this is when we receive
the spirit of adoption. You know, until we are baptized
into Christ, until we're born again, we cannot see or perceive
the kingdom of God. We just can't. It must be revealed
to us. Christ must be revealed to us,
or we're never going to know him. And notice it's the Holy
Spirit is the one who baptizes us into the body of Christ. We're
born again. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free. And in our unregenerate state,
we have a carnal mind, a darkened mind. And we can't receive the
things of the Spirit. That's why before we were saved,
when someone came and talked to us about Christ, we didn't
want to have nothing to do with them. Even though we were heirs. But
we were just dead in trespasses and sins, weren't we? And this is why people who are
in that unregenerate state think that the preaching of the gospel
is foolishness. They see no value in it. But
we see great value, don't we? Great value. Oh my. Because only, you remember this
too, spiritual things can only be discerned by one who's born
again. By one who's born again. I was
telling my daughter this week, when she was little, when she
was just one, I was reading the Bible, and there was nothing
there. I wasn't born again. There was nothing there. I told
her that. I said, this is paper and ink to me. But I said, when
the Lord saved me, sweetie, oh, my. That whole book changed. It changed. It did, didn't it?
It's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. So beloved of God, rejoice. We have received. we have received
the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. The miracle of God's grace is
according to His sovereign power and according to His sovereign
will. We were born again according to His sovereign power and according
to His sovereign will. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. Man's works and man's will have
nothing to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit here. That's
why we call that when the people pray the prayer of decisional
regeneration. There's no regeneration there.
There's no spiritual regeneration there. See, this is a work of
the Spirit. And I'll tell you what, when
He does a work, we are new creatures in Christ, aren't we? We are new creatures in Christ. And rejoice, we've been raised
from spiritual darkness. We've been raised from spiritual
darkness because you're sons. God sent the spirit of a son
into your heart, whereby you now cry, Abba Father, glory be
to God. Glory be to God. Jesus Christ
has redeemed us out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
made us kings and priests unto God. And verse 28 says, there
is neither Jew nor Gentile, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus.
There's only one body. There's only one body. That's
made up of all believers. One body of many members. And
all the members are part of that one body. One spirit. It's only one spirit, the Holy
Spirit of God, that we are baptized into that one body. Whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, all have
been made to drink of that one spirit. And all God's born-again, blood-washed
children receive the same Holy Spirit. That's why our spirits
bear witness. Ain't that wonderful? It's wonderful. And if we receive Jesus Christ,
God has given us all things pertaining to life, godliness, knowledge
of him, and then he calls us unto glory. So God's church is
one big family. Isn't that wonderful? The children
of God. Actually the children of promise.
The children of promise. It's absolutely wonderful. Just
incredible how good God is to us. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?