Galatians chapter 3. I've titled
the lesson, The Schoolmaster's Lesson. Now, I tell you all the
time, look to Christ. And I hope you don't get tired
of hearing that statement, that message, that look to Christ.
Because I'm going to tell you again this morning, look to Christ.
And I'm going to tell you that again this morning, because that's
the message of the whole Bible. The Old Testament and the New
Testament. The message is, look to Christ. The lesson of the schoolmaster
law and the lesson of the gospel is the same lesson. Look to Christ. Look and live. Now, we know no
man can be justified by the law and the sight of God because
all men are sinners. We don't have the ability to
keep the law. We don't have the desire to keep the law. The only
way a sinful man can be redeemed from the curse of the law is
in Christ. And that redemption that's in
Christ is by the promise of God. It's by promise. God made that
promise to Abraham and he made that promise to every believer.
The promise of salvation and righteousness in Christ. Salvation
is not by the law. Salvation is by promise. By God's
promise of grace and righteousness in Christ Jesus. So look to Christ. Now we're going to pick up in
verse 15 of Galatians chapter 3. Brethren, I speak after the
manner of men. Though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now there are basically two kinds
of covenants. The first kind of covenant is
where each party, there's two parties enter into this covenant
and each of them agrees to do something. You do this, and I'll
do this. You do this job, I'll pay you
this much. That's a contract. The second
kind of covenant is a will. In a will, there's just one party.
That party says, this belongs to me. I'm going to give it to
you when I die. It's a promise. That covenant
is a promise. And men enter into covenants
like this all the time. You can't do anything in business
without a contract anymore. You can't do business on man's
word anymore. You've got to do it on a contract.
Men enter in and sign contracts like this all the time. Each
party signs a contract. And nobody can change the terms
of that contract unless both parties agree to the change.
And if a person does not fulfill their end of the agreement, They're
punished somehow. They've got to make some sort
of restitution. And nobody can argue against it. Because the
terms of the contract were set when both parties signed it.
When both parties agreed, they ratified that contract and they're
both bound to the terms of that contract. Nobody can change it. And men also sign wills. People
do this every day. They sign wills to what's going
to happen to what belongs to them when they die. And unless
there's a miscarriage of justice, Everything in that will is distributed
exactly as it's written in that will because that's the desire
of the person who signed it. You can't change the terms of
that will unless the testator changes it. It all belongs to
him and he should be the one to decide how everything is divided.
Well, that's two kinds of covenants. We understand those. It's part
of our everyday life. Well, God made a covenant. Before
time began, God made a covenant. The father and the son entered
into a covenant. They entered into a contract.
The son said, I'll do this. The father said, I'll do this.
It's a contract. The son agreed to become a man. He agreed to produce a perfect
righteousness that he would impute to his people. He agreed to suffer
and die for the sins of those people to satisfy the law's demand.
The soul that sinneth, it must die. The law requires death for
sin. The son said, I'll die for their
sin. And the father agreed to save those people. He agreed
to accept all those people made righteous by Christ, that Christ
died for. Salvation is completely dependent
on Christ doing all the work that's required of the sinner.
That's what he agreed to do. And the father said, I'll accept
that work. And then the father bound himself
to another contract. This contract, this covenant,
or not a contract, it's a covenant, is like a will. The father bound
himself to the covenant of grace. God made a promise. He made a
promise to make his elect righteous in his son. And he doesn't require
anything from us to do it. It's just God's promise. I'm
going to give you this because I will. Because of my grace,
I'm going to give this. We don't do anything to ratify
the covenant of grace. We just receive what God promised. It's a will. It's His covenant
of grace. And in the covenant of grace,
the only party bound to do anything is God. God bound himself to
give grace and righteousness and salvation and every spiritual
blessing in this covenant of grace. The Father bound himself
to do that. Now, I'll tell you what that
means. That means we cannot lose our salvation because we do something
or we don't do something. Because salvation is by promise.
It's the covenant of grace. And we can't do anything to earn
that salvation. It's all based upon the promise
of God that he's going to make his people righteous in Christ. It's God's promise. And that
covenant, just like covenants we enter into, that covenant
is ratified. That covenant is ratified by
the blood of God's own Son. He sealed it with His own blood. Now, do you think it's going
to change? No. It's been ratified in the blood
of God's Son. And it's been ratified. It's
been confirmed by two immutable, unchangeable things. God's Word
and God's oath. He confirmed this covenant. Then it can't be changed by anybody,
can it? It can't be changed unless God changes. And God never changes. He never changes. And the Father's
promise that He made in that contract with His Son, that promise
was made to Christ. And it was based upon the doing
and dying of Christ. Look in verse 16. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. Now, the promise of this contract,
that promise was made to Abraham. Abraham couldn't enter into a
contract with God. He couldn't do anything to obtain
righteousness. He couldn't keep any law. He
couldn't uphold one end of the contract. That promise of the
contract was not made to Abraham. It was made to Christ. Christ
is the seed. And the promise was made to Christ. Because Christ could hold up
that end of the contract. He could earn a righteousness.
He could earn salvation that he would give to his people.
Now, God did make promises to Abraham. He made three promises
to Abraham. But really, all three of those
promises were made to Christ. And they were made to Abraham
to show us Christ. To show Abraham Christ and to
show us Christ. First, God made this promise
to Abraham. He promised Abraham, you're going to have this land.
This land you're dwelling in right now, you're going to live
in it with tents with your son and your grandson. I'm going
to give it to you. You're going to have this land.
Sure enough, he did. His seed inherited that. Israel
came in and without firing a shot, they took possession of the promised
land because God gave it to them. But mainly that promise was made
to Christ. that His seed, everyone who's
in Christ is going to have rest in Him. They're going to have
salvation in Him and the promised Savior. And in Christ, we have
a land of plenty, don't we? In Christ, we have a land of
rest. We rest in Him and it's a land
of plenty. What do you need that you don't
have? Now, I mean, I'm not even talking about physically, but
even physically, what do you need that you don't have? And
spiritually, what do you need you don't have? You have everything
in Him. You're complete in Him. Christ
is that land flowing with milk and honey. He is the land of
plenty. Then God made another promise
to Abraham. Abraham had no children. But
God promised Abraham, you're going to have so many descendants,
you can't count them all. You count the stars. As easily
as you can count those stars, that's how easily you can count
your descendants. You'll have more of them than you can count.
Sure enough, it happened, didn't it? Both from Isaac and from
Ishmael, Abraham had more descendants than anybody can count. But mainly,
that promise was made to Christ. See, this promise was made to
Abraham to give us a picture of the promise that was made
to Christ. The father promised the son, you'll have more people
than you can number. You're going to save a number
no man can number. And they're all going to be there.
Not one of them will be lost because it's God's promise. Third,
God promised Abraham all the nations of the earth will be
blessed by his seed. And that happened. How many nations
in history were blessed for Israel's sake? A king was a friend of
David's. That nation was blessed? Oh,
they were blessed. Why? Because that king was a
friend of David. That nation was blessed for Israel's
sake. And after our Lord died, who
was the first people that took the gospel to the whole world?
It was the Jews. The descendants of Abraham. The
whole world was blessed because of those Jews. But again, mainly,
that promise was made to Christ. That promise was made to Abraham
to give us a picture of the promise made to Christ. That all of the
earth will be blessed by the seed of Abraham. By Christ. He's
going to have a people from Every nation, every nation is going
to be blessed by through salvation in him. Now, those promises were
made to Christ. They were made in Christ. They
were made based upon the work of Christ. Now, when was that
promise made? The promise of grace was made
before the world began. Well, then nothing that happened
after the world was created can change that promise. That promise
was made before the earth was created. Look in verse 17, and
this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before God
in Christ, the law which is 430 years after, cannot disannul
that it should make the promise of none effect. God confirmed
His promise to Abraham. He made the promise and then
He confirmed it. 430 years later, the law was
given. Now, it's just obvious. It's
impossible for that law to change the purpose of God or the promise
of God, because God doesn't change. He did give the law 430 years
later in time. That doesn't mean God changed.
That doesn't mean the way He's going to save men changes. Nothing
that happens in time. Now, Dale and I were talking
about this earlier. We don't understand what God's
doing today in time. We don't have any idea what God
is doing. But whatever's happening in time, whatever's happening
today in 2014 cannot, will not alter God's eternal purpose of
grace in Christ. Can't do it. And this little
speck of time that we live on this earth, our obedience to
the law can't change that promise. And our disobedience to the law
can't take that promise away because it's a promise of God.
And it's based upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not upon us. Now verse 18, for if the inheritance
be of the law, it's no more promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Now the inheritance, Paul uses
this word inheritance. This is the gift of the will,
the covenant of grace. The inheritance can't come by
obedience to the law. You know why? You can't earn
an inheritance. You earn a paycheck. You receive
an inheritance. You receive an inheritance based
upon the work of someone else and based upon the will of someone
else. Someone else works to accumulate
something. It's theirs. It's the product
of their work. And they give it to you based
on their will, not yours. It's their will. They decided
this is what I'm going to give to you and you receive it, not
because you earned it, but because it's the gift of someone else.
That's salvation. Salvation is a gift. You can't
earn a gift just like you can't earn an inheritance, you can't
earn it. Salvation cannot be by promise and law. Impossible. It can't be by grace and works
because they're opposites. They oppose one another. They're
going in opposite directions. And I'm so thankful Scripture
makes this abundantly clear. Salvation is by grace. It's by
God's grace alone. Abraham didn't do one thing to
deserve salvation. Abraham didn't do one thing to
earn righteousness. God gave it to him by promise
because it's just God's will. Abraham, I'm going to give it
to you. And he received it because God gave it to him. Now that's
salvation. That's how Abraham was saved.
And if you and me are going to be saved, we're going to be saved
the exact same way, by God's eternal promise and His grace
in Christ Jesus. Okay. What about the law? That's the $100 million question,
isn't it? What about the law? Why was the law given then? The
law was given to point us to Christ. Look in verse 19. This is the question. Wherefore
then? Wherefore then serveth the law? What purpose does the
law serve? Paul said it was added because of transgressions, till
the seed should come, to whom the promise was made. See the
promise, what is made to you is made to the seed, is made
to Christ. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Now Paul says the law was given because of transgressions. And
this is what he means. All men are sinners. We're vile,
we're mean, there's no bounds on our sin and our behavior and
our thought. So God gave the law. God gave
the law to temper our actions by threat of the law. God gave
the law to him us in. Maybe we won't do something if
we're afraid of being punished by the law. Secondly, when Paul
says the law was given because of transgressions, he means this.
God gave us the law. So we see sin for what it is.
So we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. So that we would see
sin is really rebellion against God's law. The law was given
to show us our sin nature. The law forbids sinful thoughts. You don't want to think sinful
thoughts. You can't stop it. It just comes through and you
think, oh, That's awful. Where'd that come from? Came
from our sin nature. We wouldn't know that if it wasn't
for God's law. Sin is not what we do. Sin is
what we are. That's why the law was given.
Man doesn't become a thief when he embezzles from his employer.
You know, typically he starts stealing a little bit, you know,
and then it grows and grows and grows and grows. Well, he didn't
become a thief when he stole that first dollar. He stole that
first dollar because he is a thief. That's his nature. And God gave
us the law, so we'd see that about ourselves. Look at Romans
chapter 7. This is what Paul says. God gave
the law because of transgressions. To show us our sin nature and
our need of Christ. That's why the law was given.
In Romans 7 verse 7. Now what should we say then?
Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law said thou should not covet. As soon as the law told
me don't covet, that's when I started coveting my neighbor's goods.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive, or I thought
I was alive, without the law once. But when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. Now was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. It's the sin that's
in me that's the problem. But sin, this is why the law
was given, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that
which is good. that sin by the commandment might
become exceedingly sinful. That I might see sin as exceedingly
sinful. Now that's why the law was given.
But that law was done away with once Christ came and fulfilled
all the commandments of the law. Christ came and he suffered and
he died. So the law is not in effect for
God's elect. The law has absolutely no effect,
no power, over God's people because Christ died to satisfy the law
and put it away. The law was given to reveal our
need of Christ, to reveal our need that somebody has got to
come and produce a righteousness and an obedience to this law
I can't produce. And the law was given to show
us we need Christ to be our sacrifice. Somebody's got to come and have
perfect blood. Somebody's got to come as that
perfect lamb to pay for all the disobedience that I'm full of. And the law required all those
sacrifices. The sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
The sacrifice of the Passover. The burnt offering. The sin offering.
All these sacrifices. And all those sacrifices required
of the law were never given to put sin away. They were all given
to point us to Christ. They offered those sacrifices
over and over and over again. It was pretty evident that sacrifice
didn't put away sin or I wouldn't have to offer it again. We need
to look for someone to come with the sacrifice that will put sin
away. And once that sacrifice is offered, the ceremonies are
done away with. We don't offer those sacrifices
anymore. We don't have need of the type
anymore. Now we've got the person. Now we've got the lamb. And even
the way God gave the law showed us man can't deal directly with
God. We need Christ. God gave the
law by a mediator. God gave the law to Moses. And
Moses gave the law to the people because the people couldn't deal
directly with God. And God gave the law that way
to show us we can't deal directly with God either. We need a mediator. God gave the law through a mediator
to show us our sin has already separated us from God. See there
at the end of verse 19, this law, it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. Now if there's a mediator, this
is what Paul's saying here, if there's a mediator, this shows
you there are two parties that are at odds. They're separated,
they're at war, they hate one another. Now, you don't need
a mediator if there's just one party. You know, if you're mad
at yourself, you don't need a mediator. You're going to get over it real
quick if you're just mad at yourself. The only time you need a mediator
is if there's two parties, and they're at odds. Look at 1 Timothy
chapter 2. Christ is that mediator between
God and men. These are the two parties that
are our sins. has set us at odds with God.
We've declared war on God. Now who's going to be the mediator
that can come between those two parties and touch both parties?
1 Timothy 2 verse 5. For there's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ who can come and touch both parties. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ who can come and satisfy both parties and bring them together. And verse 6 tells you how he's
going to do that. Who gave himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time. Christ gave himself as a ransom. He gave himself to be sacrificed
for the sin of God's elect. And God sees that sacrifice and
says, I'm pleased. God, the Holy Spirit comes and
gives you eyes to see. You see that sacrifice of Christ.
You say, I'm pleased. That's all my hope. I'm coming
to Him. And you're reconciled to God
by the sacrifice of Christ. Now you see how your sin can
be put away. You see, God's one. Now this
is that second kind of covenant I told you about. It's the will
that just requires one party. God's one. And God gave that
promise of grace and life in Christ Jesus by Himself. By His own will. And Christ is
the testator. He's the testator of the will.
And then he rose again to be the executor of his will, to
put his will in force. Now, verse 21, is the law then
against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. Now, the law is not against grace,
not at all. The law does not contradict the
promise of grace. Now, think about it. God gave
the law and he gave the promise of grace. Well, they can't contradict
one another because God's not going to contradict himself.
The law was given to show us we need something better than
the law. The law was given to show us we need Christ. We need
the promise of grace in him. The law was never given as a
way a man could earn his own righteousness. If that were possible,
if it were possible, you could keep God's law and you could
be righteous in yourself. Then God would be a monster because
he killed his son for no reason. That can't be so. If a man could
make himself righteous, what did Christ need to come for?
If a man could atone for his own sin, why did Christ need
to die? God forbid that we think God's
law and God's promise contradict one another. God gave the law
so we'd see this. There's no argument. Man needs
a promise of grace. Man needs a substitute. Man needs
a sacrifice. Verse 22, this is what he says
here, But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. Now, it doesn't matter what I
think about myself. I'm a sinner. And it just doesn't
matter what I think about myself because Scripture says I'm a
sinner. That's the end of the discussion.
It doesn't matter if I think I'm better than this one or I'm
better than that one because I don't do this or I do that.
It doesn't matter. The scripture, the inerrant,
perfect word of God has concluded all men, that includes me, all
men are sinners, that we're under the curse of sin. Now, there's
no point in us talking about anything else unless we agree
on this. It's so because God's word says
God's Word is perfect and it means exactly what it says. No
matter what else I think, no matter what else I see, no matter
what else I've always been taught, God's Word is so. It's the most
foolish thing I've ever heard of for a person to say, I can't
agree with that because that's not what I've always been taught.
So what? So what? We're wrong. What we've always been taught
is wrong. Let God be true and every man a liar. This word is
so. I'm a sinner. I see it. God says so. God's word is truth. God's word says all men are sinners. Not only do we not have the ability
to keep the law, we don't have the desire to keep the law. So
then, the only way anybody can be saved is by the promise of
God. The only way is by the gift of
God's grace. It's not through our obedience.
It's through the faith of Jesus Christ. See what he says there?
That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. That faith of Jesus Christ is
the faithfulness of Christ. To fulfill all the law and to
obey all the law for his people as their representative. The
obedience, or really we should say the disobedience of a believer
doesn't have anything to do with it. The obedience of a believer
before God is what Christ has done. Not what we've done, it's
the faith of Christ and what Christ did for us. And even our
faith in Christ is not something we did to obtain salvation. Isn't
faith a gift of God? Faith in Christ is the result
of the faith of Christ. It's what Christ did for me and
what he did is that he's faithful to do his work for me and he's
faithful to do that work in me. Now, verse 23, but before faith
came, this is before Christ came, before the object of faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should
afterward be revealed. Before Christ came, before the
object of our faith came, we were under the requirements of
the law. And the law kept showing us over and over and over again,
we can't keep the law. And the law did that for this
reason, to shut us up to Christ. The law just kept hemming us
in. You failed this way, so we go this way. The law says you
failed here. And everywhere we go, the law kept showing us we're
failed. So that we're hemmed in to this one hope, Christ. That's why the law was given.
or shut up to the faith of Christ, the obedience of Christ that
he would give to his people. So here's the purpose of the
law, verse 24. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith, not by
works, by faith. The lesson of the schoolmaster
is go to Christ. The law showed us we can't be
justified by our own obedience to the law, so go to Christ. The law kept pointing out over
and over and over again how we failed. So we need a perfect
representative. Now that's a hard schoolmaster
that never gives a passing grade. Not only never gives an A, that
never gives a passing grade. That's a hard schoolmaster. But
it's the best lesson for us. And the best way I can think
of to illustrate this is when I was a junior in high school,
Show up for school the first day. Oh boy. First class of the day. English. With the most, at least
in my opinion, the most dreaded teacher in the school, Mrs. Sylvia.
I thought she was an old bat. I'm telling you I didn't like
her. She's about five foot nothing and just hard as nails. When I was in school, this is
the way I looked at things. I did real well in all metasubjects,
except English. I mean, I just didn't have it,
you know. So, whatever I got in English
was fine with me. If I got a passing grade of any
sort, that's fine by me, because I'm putting my energy in the
other classes. I do good in me. I feel good about myself in these
other classes. And I coasted along like that until my junior
year of high school. And one day as I was leaving
class, Miss Sylvia, five foot nothing Miss Sylvia, grabs me
by the back of my collar and pulls me back into class. And
with that finger up in my face, she made it abundantly clear
to me, this is not going to cut it. You're going to do your best. I demand it. I demand it. And she told me, you think about
what kind of man you want to be. You're a teenager now. You
think about what kind of man you want to be. You going to
go out and do your job halfway? You need to establish this habit
right now. She said, I'm going to demand
that you establish it in my class. You're going to do your best.
I don't care what your best is. And she had a paper I'd written.
She shook up my face. She said, this is not your best.
Oh, my goodness. You know what? I learned to love
Miss Sylvia. I love that woman. She was probably
the best teacher I ever had. She retired at the end of the
year. I guess I was too much for her. She retired. And my
senior year was not near as pleasant because she was not in that building.
That's the law. The law is a hard schoolmaster. But it's the best schoolmaster
we could have. Because the lesson of the schoolmaster
is quit your works and trust Christ. Go to Christ. You can't
be justified by your own works, so go to Christ. No matter what
way you look at the law, that's the lesson. Go to Christ. And
it's the best lesson we can ever learn. Now, if we don't learn
that lesson, if God does not teach us that lesson, we'll be
damned. It's the best lesson we can ever
have. We have no hope in ourselves, but salvation's in Christ. Now,
verse 25. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under schoolmaster. Once Christ is revealed to our
hearts, we quit the relationship with the law. We quit that relationship
with the ceremonies of the law and rest in Christ. Christ has
kept the law for his people. So we owe no obligation to the
law. None. Christ is the end of the
law. So, does the law have any purpose
for a believer today? No. It does not. No purpose at
all for any believer. What about the law? Is it our
rule of life? No! The law is not your rule
of life, not if you're a believer. Christ is your rule of life.
The purpose of the law today is the same purpose the law always
had, to show men our inability and to drive us to Christ for
redemption and forgiveness of our sin. Verse 26, For we are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ, you have put on
Christ. So 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. And if you be Christ,
then are you Abraham's seed, and your heirs according to the
promise. Now all men are one in Adam. We're all one in Adam,
we're all just like him because we have Adam's nature. All believers
are one in Christ. We're all children of God the
same way, by faith in Christ Jesus. And every believer is
just like Christ. You're born with the nature of
Christ in the new birth. Now that birth, that new birth,
it's not by works. It's not by your will or your
choice. The new birth happens by the will of God and by the
grace of God. When Paul says here, you've been
baptized, he's not talking here about believers' baptism. He
means being immersed in Christ, being put into Christ. So if
you're in Christ, you're clothed with Christ, aren't you? That's
why he says you put on Christ, that's what he means. You've
been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Every believer is
just alike. We all have the exact same righteousness,
the righteousness of Christ. We all have the exact same identity. It's the identity of Christ,
who he is because we're in him. Now, being in Christ. Supersedes
any earthly distinction that we have. Remember, Paul wrote
this letter because these Judaizers came in and told the Gentiles,
you've got to be like the Jews. Every believer is in Christ.
The Gentiles don't need to become like the Jews. They're all one
by faith in Christ. They're all one in the new birth.
They're all born with the same nature. And any time we let bigotry,
we don't have a problem with Jews and Gentiles today. We've
got plenty of other bigotry. And any other bigotry, any other
earthly difference, if we let make a difference, Anytime that
happens, it always means this one thing. We've forgotten grace. We're all one in Adam and we're
all one in Christ. And the only protection from
that way of thinking is look to Christ. That's the message. And people who receive this promise
of grace and righteousness in Christ don't earn it. Paul says
they're heirs. You're heirs according to the
promise. You receive that gracious promise
of God based on Christ, what He's done for us and what He's
done in us. So look to Christ.