No Other Gospel

Good evening everyone and welcome back to Church of the Bible. It's a blessing to be here today. Announcements just so everyone knows, we're still behind, we're still struggling getting our broadcast and service back up online after everything that happened at the service. A crash a few weeks ago. I'm able to put videos up after but they don't stream live still.

I guess they stream live but they don't save after, so we're still struggling with that. I also wanted to let everyone know we had the mission team from Salt Lake and Provo area down here this weekend. It was a blessing to have them. We had a baptism yesterday, so we just want to praise God for the work that he is doing there and for that new brother in Christ as well as lots of stuff coming up here in the future. We're planning a mission trip out to Texas mid to late summer to work with a church over by Dallas Fort Worth area.

So the Lord is, God is doing a lot of stuff right now and we just want to praise Him for that. Have time to thank him. This Wednesday we are planning on Bible study at 630 here in Zoom and I think we're in Exodus 34 where we left off. We didn't do Bible study last week with some people not being able to make it and I got injured. So we didn't have Bible study last week.

And then I believe for those from Cedar, we're going to be talking about what we're going to be doing here moving forward. So plan on getting with me and having a conversation. And with that said, let's worship and let's pray and spend some time worshiping God. Then we'll dig into his word. Father, we thank you that we could be here today and for your faithfulness and goodness to us.

Lord, I thank you for the turnout yesterday at our event, Lord, for those who are active in the neighborhood and who came. And, Lord, those leads that we can begin sharing the gospel, the people we talked to yesterday in Minersville one other, we thank you for your due. And we thank you that you're moving here in Milford and that you're moving in Cedar and that you're moving throughout the nation. And we just praise you for that. And Lord, I thank you for earlier today as well, that you are faithful to our prayer request and that you took care of the situation for us.

Lord, we thank you. I ask now as we go into service that our minds will turn from worldly things, from everything that would distract us. Lord, let you be our sole focus and our heart's desire, Lord, as we worship you now and I pray as we go into your word that will not only hear it, but it will seep into us Lord, and cause us to be doers of your Word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

As storming tempest roar we cannot win this fight inside our rebel heart we're laying down our weapons now we I wide we surrender you holy ground you made a way for peace laying your body down you took our rightful place this freedom song is much in all we raise our wide light we surrender all the we raise our wife no over love that's what we lift the cross lift it high lift it high we lift the cross lift it high lift it high we live the cross lift high did I we left the cross, did I lift it high we live the cross lifted high lift it high we live the cross lift it high lift it high. We live the cross is deep. We live the cross it high.

We raise our wife. We surrender to you.

We raise our wife the love your love is one. We raise our wife. We surrender.

We raise our wide light the cross it high when we live the cross it high did high oh, we raise the cross lift it high we live the crowd heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like but I heard the tender whisper of love the dead of night and you tell me that you're pleading that I never alone you're a good, good father it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and I'm loved by you it's who I am it's who I am it's who I am oh, when I see many searching for far and why would I know? We're all searching for answers only you provide us, you know just what we need before we say you're a good father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are.

It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. Because you are perfect.

You are cursing all of your way to where you are you are cursing all your with you so undeniable I can hardly speak peace so unexplainable I can hardly think as you call me deeper still as you call me deeper still as you call me deeper still in love you're good, father. Who you are, who you are who you are.

Who I am too. I do. You are.

I'm loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am it's who I am. Your good body it's who you are it's who you are it's who you are and I'm loved by you it's who I am it's who I am it's who I am.

Perfect in all ways I love you I perfect in all the way he's our rescue are free from forever oh, how sweet it sound oh, how great about we'll raise the Lord I'll rescue there is good news for the captive. Good news for the shame. There is good news for the word who walked away.

There is good news for the doubter the one religion fail for the good Lord has come see? Can say he's our he's our we are free from forever.

Oh, how great you will raise the ground as you're the blind man. Riches for the poor. He is friendship for the word the world ignores he is pasture for the weary rest for those who strive oh, the good Lord is the way the truth alive yet the good Lord is the way the truth alive he's our rescue he's our rescue we are free from sin forever.

We will raise the Lord. I'll let you come and be chainless come to the first it.

There is redemption for every affliction here at the foot of calvary.

Some come and be changed. There is redemption here at the Foot. Oh, count the reason we are broken forever we'll read the mouth. We will bring the Lord I rescue we will bring the Lord our rescuer.

Amen. One other announcement I made last week I wanted to make one more time today because we had a lot of missing people. We are calling through our worship music collection we've been going through and we are eliminating a lot of songs from rotation. We're going through and noticed we have a lot of music that while Christian in nature does not directly praise and worship God, a lot of it is talking to ourselves and we want worship to be entirely directed toward God. And last week we felt impressed as we were selecting our music rotation for the week, we felt it pressed upon us to start eliminating everything that's not directly worshipping God.

So with that said, we've already removed about eight songs from rotation and we're removing more as we find them, and that is putting a short on some worship music. So if any of you have a worship song that is directed toward God or toward Jesus or the Holy Spirit that you would like to see in rotation and you've not heard it, please text me. Give me the song name and author, and we'll see what we can do to get that in and start filling up our selection again. I just wanted you to all know the direction we're heading there, what we're feeling, God telling us and how you can help. So with that said, turn in your Bibles with me, if you would, to James three.

And while you're turning not James three, Galatians three. I see my wife making a face at me. She's saying, that's not what you told me for Scriptures a few weeks ago. I think three weeks ago now, we started going through the Book of Galatians on our Sunday evening service. And in the first chapter of Galatians, we saw that Paul was really hurting.

He had a burden because he had gone and he had preached the gospel to those in Galatia. And he says that he was astounded at how quickly they turned from the message he gave them to go back to other gospels and doctrine. We read the warning in Galatians One eight and nine about if any other gospel is preached other than the one that Paul had given them. Initially we saw warnings in there that people would try to pervert the gospel and if it was ever true in the first century, it is so true today as well that people will pervert the gospel. They'll try and twist it for their own gain, twist it to lead you astray for power, for all sorts of things.

And we were cautioned against it. And in chapter two we had started reading about some hypocrisy in the church about being one way in front of some people and another way in front of others and how that was counterproductive to what it is that we do. There's no integrity in that. We don't show the God whom we worship when we live two lives like that and we're hypocritical in front of people. And then last week we stayed in Galatians Two.

But we laser focused on verse 20 where Paul says, therefore it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives through me and the flesh and this life that I live. He says he lives it through faith. And we really went in depth. What does it mean for Christ to live in us? What is our part in the work that we do or don't do, rather, what is not our part?

Right? What did Christ do for us and how does he live through us? So we're going to continue through in Galatians Three today and we're going to continue to see, as Paul writes to the church in Galatia about to the Judaizers, about going back to the Law and what the Law was never intended to do. Let's begin with verses one through five. There are some problems that Paul addresses.

He says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as having been crucified? I want only to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit? Are you now trying to be made complete by the flesh?

Have you suffered so many things for nothing? If indeed also it was for nothing? Therefore does the one who gives you the Spirit and who works miracles among you do so by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith? I'll read verse six here real quick. Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness, so there's a problem here.

They're being confused or as Paul puts it, bewitched by the works of the Law, right? They're falling into this human pattern of thinking that our works, our deeds, our rituals, all these religious rites and ceremonies, that they are what save us. And we had seen this problem. Last chapter in chapter two is there were issues with the Judaizers and sympathizers who were of the circumcision and the Gentiles who were not of the circumcision. And we saw that problem start to creep in with religious tradition, and Paul had to drive home that point.

That religious tradition does not save you. The Galatians are confused here, and they believe that they're going back into the old man, that it is the workings of the flesh, the law, and the Judaism rights that save them. Paul, he needs to correct them in doing this. After he calls them out, he says, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? And this is a critical distinction we need to make.

At what point did we receive the Spirit of Jesus Christ who here received Jesus Christ when they felt they had finally done enough works, enough good deeds, that they had finally made it? Who has ever felt that they've done enough, that they've made it, that you got there and you could pat yourself on the back? Fact the more I've tried to work, the more I try through my own flesh to be acceptable unto God, to be holy and to be righteous and to be deserving of what he offers. The worse I feel, the worse I feel, because I know I come up short every single time. I come up short every day because I sin, I falter.

Sometimes I'm double minded. Sometimes things do not go the way I want them to go. I'm reminded of the things that I've done in the past, and I feel really bad when I try to do that. I never feel spirit filled when I'm working in my own power. But how many of you, when it was in that moment that you heard Jesus speaking into your heart, when he says, if you would trust me, if you would just give your life over to me, he says, I've taken care of it.

We sung in our first song today, Lift the Cross, the lyrics to that. The war is over.

When we are working in our flesh, we are actively fighting in that war. Whether we know it or not. We are active in our flesh. We are waging war against God, and it wears us down. But when we are in Christ Jesus, the war is over.

We're no longer in that battle, but it has ended. It's been proclaimed because Jesus has risen from the dead. And so it is by the hearing of faith that we have received the Spirit of God. And he corrects them in verses three through five, says, are you so foolish that you begun by the Spirit and you're now trying to be made complete by the flesh? These Judaizers, they grew up in the Jewish tradition.

They had these laws to follow, these temple ceremonies, to follow all of these different holidays and little regulations to follow. And then they were swooped up by the Spirit of God. They were saved and then they fell back into their old ways. They resurrected the old man. And they try to then begin Adam back in the works of the law, reimposing conditions upon salvation.

Paul corrects them. Right. Why? He says, why have you suffered so many things for nothing? This was for nothing, says the one who gives you the spirit and who works miracles among you.

Does he do so by the work of the law or by the hearing of faith? As you look through the Old Testament and there's story after story and account after account of miracles of God, right? Beginning with the flood, with the promises to Abraham, what we saw with Isaac and Jacob. Then you have in Egypt, as they cross the Red Sea on dry ground, as God delivers to them manna from heaven, as he is with them and he sends his spirit before them to guide them through the desert. We see the walls of Jericho fall.

We see with Elijah a kid raised from the dead. In all of these things, where do we see the works?

Where have we ever seen the miracles of God follow the work of men? Where it was merited. Certainly there were no works of the Israelites in Egypt that merited their exodus.

They had become defiled. They were worshipping the Egyptian gods and they had Egypt deep rooted into their hearts and in the wilderness, certainly they had done nothing deserving of the many miracles of God. Abraham, he was an idol worshipper. His father cast them. He made a business out of it.

Abraham was a habitual liar. Lot, we saw lot he was caught up in sexual sin. In all of these miracles, we have seen that it followed the hearing of faith, as it says here in verse six says, abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. Let's read six through nine before we continue. So Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.

Then understand that the ones who have faith, these are sons of Abraham. And the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith proclaimed the good news in advance to Abraham. In you, all the nations will be blessed. So then the ones who have faith are blessed together with Abraham who believed.

So Abraham is saved by trusting in God. Where were the works? When was the law given? Did Abraham know the law of God? Did he have the Ten Commandments?

Did he have the 600 and some odd statutes in the Levitical Law that followed?

No. The law came 430 years later. 430 years after Abraham lived, did God hand down his law to Moses? Abraham could not have been saved by the law, for he did not know it. But he believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.

By the way, you can find that verse as well in Genesis, chapter twelve, where we read it for the first time he believed God, he was saved. Because when God made promises to him, when God proclaimed his identity to him and made a promise to him of what he would do, abraham believed him. Abraham wholeheartedly put his trust in God. And when God said, get up from your home, from your nation and your father's people, and leave and go to this land that I will show you, abraham just believed God. He believed that God would show him a land.

He believed that God would give him descendants despite his old age. And it was that faith, that belief, that gave him his salvation.

Likewise, it is that same faith and belief today that saves us. We are not justified by our works, nor can we be. We can never dream of it. Paul writes in Romans three and into the beginning of Romans four, he says that if the promise was of the law, there would be no promise. If the promises of God was predicated on my abilities, there'd be no promise.

I would have no hope. But it is through trusting in Jesus Christ that we receive our salvation. It is written, he says, that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We read in verse seven, he says, then understand that the ones who have faith, these are sons of Abraham. But this might be confusing to the Judaizers.

Christ in the Gospel of John called them out on this as they begin to butt heads. And Christ says to them, he says, you say that you have Abraham as a father, and if you knew Abraham, you would know me, but you are children of your father, the devil. You call them out on this. They had believed that because they were descendants of Abraham, that they were his children and that they were heirs of the promise. And Paul addresses this.

I encourage you to go read Romans chapter nine, where Paul addresses this in depth. Right. Was not Ishmael the first born of Abraham, but he was not a son of Abraham. He wasn't even counted. Later on in Isaac's life, when God tells him to go and sacrifice him, god tells him to sacrifice your one and only son whom you love.

Though Ishmael was indeed flesh and blood of Abraham. Ishmael was not a child of Abraham. Was not Esau and Jacob alike? Both children of Isaac? But Esau was denied the promise and not counted in the seat of Abraham, but it flowed through Jacob.

And so we see, and Paul breaks this down in Romans nine. We see then that physical descent was not what mattered here. The circumcision of the flesh, paul writes about in Romans being Jews in the flesh only or Jews inwardly, right? You had the circumcision of the flesh and the circumcision of the heart. And that fleshly resemblance to Abraham meant little in the eyes of God.

But he says, those who are believers. Those the ones who have faith are sons of Abraham.

They are children and heirs of the promise that makes all of us whether we are a Jew or Gentile. Those who are of the faith, who have the faith of Abraham, we are his children in the promise because we have the same faith that he fathered, that he that God started in him 4000 years ago.

We see here the promise made to all nations. This is beautiful. In verses eight and nine, the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Proclaim the good news in advance to Abraham. In you, all the nations will be blessed.

So then the ones who have faith are blessed. If God had intended to save us through our works, through our obedience to the law and our own means, why did he not hand the law down to Abraham? I mean, let's go 2000 years back. Why did he not give the law to Adam? Or after the destruction of the world and the flood, when he had saved Noah alone and restarted with Noah and his family in the human race, why was the law not handed down to Noah?

Why didn't God not give a law to Abraham? Why was it some 25 to 2800 years after the creation of the world that God handed down the law?

It's because he never intended to save us through the law. He never intended for our obedience, for our works to be the means of salvation. He intended through faith. And because Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness, then through him would all the nations of the world be blessed? Has God fulfilled that promise?

Has every nation in the world been blessed? Did God say that every person in the world would be blessed? No. But he said every nation, right? There are people from every nation, every language, every tribe from every people group in the world have been reached at some point with the gospel and have had the ability to believe in the name of Jesus Christ.

And so every nation has been blessed through the seed of Abraham. Was Christ not a seat of Abraham through the line of David? And so he clarifies this. He says the ones who have faith are blessed. It does not matter your nationality.

It does not matter what your background is, who your parents were, what their religion was. Those who have faith, the faith of Abraham are blessed together with Abraham who believed. Look at verses ten through 14 with me. He says for as many as are the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things that are written in the book of the law to do them.

Now it is clear that no one is justified in the sight of God by the law because the one who is righteous will live by faith. But the Law is not from faith, but the one who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So verse ten tells us that as many are of the works of the law, are under a curse. For it is written, cursed as everyone who does not abide by all the things that are written in the book of the Law to do them. How many of you could keep the Law?

How many of us can keep just the Ten Commandments? Let's put aside the other 690 statutes in the viticus and just look at the Ten Commandments, right? Just look at those first three. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. How many of us have broken that commandment?

How many of us have not worshipped money or ourselves, or the creation, or the government or some other institution? Every one of us are guilty of put in another deity, be it a false deity, another deity before God. Every one of us were dead in our pride. And when we are boasted up in our pride first, Timothy puts it being puffed up in conceit we have established our throne above the throne of God, and yet God has said, thou shalt have no other gods before me.

We can't keep the first commandment, and there's still nine more to go. He says that his name is holy and that we should not use his name improperly. How many of us have ever, whether it was verbally out loud or even in our minds, in our hearts, have used God's name improperly, whether as a swear word or invoking it in means and terms that he wouldn't appreciate?

How about the commandment to honor thy father and mother, to obey them, to respect them, to treat them right?

And just as children, I can guarantee each of us have broken the commandment. How about an adulthood as adults? How many of us have never dishonored our parents?

In my adulthood, I can count. There's too many times for me to count on my ten digits that I have dishonored my mother where I've been disrespectful as an adult, let alone as a selfish child.

How about the last commandment? Thou shalt not covet. Right. The 10th commandment thou shalt not covet. Paul writes in the Book of Romans that if it weren't for that commandment, he would not have known lust.

He would not have known theft, he would not have known the other violations of the other commands. But that last command, thou shalt not covet. Man, that will get every one of us. We haven't even looked at the other statutes of the law, but we can identify that neither, none of us, there's not one of us who can keep the law. And so by the law is no one to be justified.

It's written in verse eleven, no one is justified in the sight of the God. By the law we cannot be. James 210 I'm going to pull up James 210 here real quick. James 210, it convicts us, it says, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in 1.1 point only, he says, has become guilty of it all. So think about that.

The law of God over 690 individual statutes. And it is written in the Bible that you can keep the 690, you can keep 689 of the complete law of God. And if you stumble in that last one, that 690th one, he says, you have become guilty of the entire law. You have violated the standards of God, his righteous and holy expectations for the way we live.

So it doesn't matter in what way you violated it, but you have brought the curse of the law upon you. And there is no way. The law, it provides a way to live, a standard of living that is righteous and acceptable to God, but it provides no justification. It's a law. And violators of the law must be prosecuted.

It is written in Romans, chapter six, verse 23, that the wages of sin right the prosecution, the penalty for sin is death. And so we cannot be justified in the works of the law, but those, he says, who live by faith.

I realized I'm still in James, which is why it's not saying what I thought it should say. He says the righteous, the one who is righteous, will live by faith. We will fixate our eyes upon Jesus Christ and him alone, and we will follow Him, and we will trust wholeheartedly in the work that he has done.

We will live by that faith. But the law is not from faith. The law was not given from a position of faith.

That burden, that curse was never God's desire for humankind. But the Law had to be given, it had to be handed down. Romans three tells us the purpose of the Law. The reason that God had to give it to us was to shut us up so that we can stop boasting in ourselves, in our works and what we were doing, and that we could realize our need, that we were condemned. The law was handed down so that God could say, look, Matt, at all of your shortcomings, look at the way that you're living.

It does not produce life, it produces death. And so that curse had to be given as a necessity so that I could look to Christ and live.

It was a necessity so that I would know and thank God that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, it says, by becoming a curse for us.

Two Corinthians, chapter five, Paul writes that God was at work. In Christ, to bring us to him, right? To end that war between us, the enmity between us. By making the one who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. Christ, he became the curse.

He traded the just one for the sinners. He died in our place in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. Look at that. Might come to the gentiles in Judaism. Where were the Gentiles?

Were they included? Do they have hope or promises and the knowledge of God? No. And they should have. They should have.

The Jews were told to be a light to the world, but they took what they had. They thought they were privileged, and they were. They were given the light of God, but they took that privilege and they closed, put a lid over it in a box and kept it for themselves. And Christ died that all could be saved. Jew and Gentile.

That the promise of Abraham, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Scriptures proclaim that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not all who keep the law of God, not all who are born of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Paul writes it fairly simply in Romans ten nine, that if you would confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And there's a period at the end of that statement.

Not a semicolon, not a comma, a period, not if you would confess and believe and then this and that, and maybe if you're good enough, but a period through Christ, all would be saved. Verses 15 through 18 says, brothers, I am speaking according to a human perspective. Nevertheless.

Nevertheless, he says, when the covenant of a man has been ratified, no one declares it invalid or adds additional provisions to it. Now, to Abraham and to his descendants, the promises were spoken. It does not say and to descendants as concerning many, but as concerning one. And to your descendant, who is Christ now, I am saying this the law that came after 430 years does not revoke a covenant previously ratified by God in order to nullify the promise.

For if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.

What does all this mean here? There's a lot here. He goes from talking about the law and the curse and how everyone is. And then he says in verse 15, he jumps into a totally different line of thought. He says, I'm speaking according to human perspective.

But when a covenant of man has been ratified, no one declares it invalid or adds additional provisions to it. What does this have to do with anything?

Especially if you read this in the context of the region it was written in Angalatia. There is no law known in that region similar to what Paul is writing here. But if we go back to the Old Testament, to traditional Judaism, there was a law that when you had ratified a covenant or when you had ratified your last will and testament, that it could not be changed. How many of you remember when we were reading about Jacob and Esau? And Jacob steals the blessing of Esau, him and his mother, they go and they make a stew and they bring it to Jacob sorry, to Isaac.

And he gives him the blessing. And then Esau comes in and he pleads with his father, he says, did you not leave anything behind for me? And he had nothing to give him. And that is because of the law in Judaism that your will and testament or your promises and covenants, once ratified, could not be changed. It didn't matter if down the road you had a change of heart or a change of mind, if circumstances changed, once you had ratified a covenant, a promise, it was set, it could not be declared invalid.

There could be no new provisions. And what Paul is telling us from a human perspective, he says in verse 15, is we know that God will keep his word. Right? God made a covenant with Abraham and in that covenant he placed no provision on Abraham's part. It was on God alone.

All of the provisions of the covenant, of the promise and blessings of God was solely based on God and his truthfulness and on no provisions or burden on Abraham. Nothing that Abraham did would be able to change it. And Paul is right and that that covenant has been ratified and because it's been ratified, it could not be modified. And he says in verse 16 that this promise was to Abraham and his descendant. This is cool.

His descendant. I learned something new when studying for this. It took me by surprise. Paul writes to his descendant, as in one and not his descendants. But when we read in Genesis twelve the promise of God, god says I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, I'll curse those who curse you. All the families will be blessed in you. And he says here in verse twelve, not verse twelve, verse seven of chapter twelve says to your offspring.

In other translations it says to your descendants. And we read this in the plural sense in English. But Paul writes in Galatians here he says it does not say to your descendants as concerning many, but as concerning one to your descendant. Did you know that the Hebrew word in the promise that God made to Abraham in chapter twelve is in the singular english translates it to the plural as if to many descendants. But in the Hebrew it's singular.

The promise that God passed through Abraham to his descendants was to one person, and the promise was to Christ. Right through Christ is the promise. Through Christ is everything and the promise will come true. He says this in verse 17. That the law again.

When did the law come? It came after 430 years. And it does not revoke a covenant previously ratified by God in order to nullify the promise. God had already made the promise 430 years prior. He had already intended it to be that way.

And the law, which came as a necessity to show us our need, to show our lack and why we needed a savior, does not nullify the promises that God made. But the problem is, the Jews almost acted. Where do they feel like their nationality, their identity begins when you look at the Jewish mindset, does their identity begin with Abraham?

They look at Abraham as their father. They know that the promise was given. But when you look at where they truly begin their identity as a nation, they begin that identity at Mount Sinai after they came across the Red Sea and the law was handed down to they look at that moment is when their national identity had begun. And they have a mindset almost as if God forgot to add these provisions back when he knew Abraham. And so they have now added to the promises of Abraham through worldviews, through a human perspective.

They have tacked on the law of God to the promise of Abraham, as if you required both, as if you required the promise and the law. And the two are incompatible.

So Paul writes that the law does not revoke the previous covenant. The law does not revoke it, does not change it, it's not in addition, it merely is a necessity to show why we needed the covenant. And he says in verse 18 that the inheritance is from the law. It is no longer from the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise. One of my favorite verses, it's found in the Book of Romans, chapter eleven, verse six.

And Paul writes in Romans eleven six, he says, for if it is by grace, it can no longer be by works. For if by works, grace ceases to be grace, and if by works it cannot be of the law of grace, for then works ceases to be works. So you cannot mix works and grace together. Works means when you work for something, you earn it right. You have a wage you deserve, you have a merited claim to what you receive.

But grace means the unmerited, unfavored, undeserved right with grace. It's given to you not because you deserve it, but out of love, out of mercy and compassion. So Paul writes that you cannot mix the two, you cannot have grace and works, because if it's by grace and you have to earn it, then grace no longer exists. It falls apart. And if you do have to earn it, it cannot be of grace, because then works fall apart.

The two are mutually exclusive. I talked with a girl in Cedar about six weeks ago, and she says, Well, I don't see the incompatibility. You can have both. And I was like, how? And so I said to her, okay, I've got here's a $20 bill.

So I said to her, Now, I'm giving this to you as a gift.

And so she says, okay. I'm like, did you work for it? She says no. Did you do anything to deserve me giving this other than just I wanted to give it to you? She's like, no.

Okay, now that you got the $20, I need you to come to my house tonight and mow my lawn and trim the edge and trim my trees for me as a condition of that $20. And then I asked her, I said, but is that still a gift now? She says, no, you made me come and work for it. I said okay. The same is true of salvation.

It cannot be of grace and of works. They are mutually exclusive. If we tack on works the burden of the law to the salvation and grace of God, then it is no longer by grace that we are saved. So we cannot have both of them together. Look at verses 19 through 23.

We are almost done. Why then is the law? It was added on account of transgressions until the descendant should come to whom it had been promised, having been ordered through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now, the mediator is not for one, but God is one. Therefore, the law opposed to the prom, therefore is the Law opposed to the promises of God.

May it never be. For if a law had been given that was able to give life, certainly righteousness would have been from the law. But the Scripture imprisoned all under sin in order that the promise could be given by faith in Christ Jesus to those who believe. I said 23, but I meant 22, everyone. So the Law, again, it was given out of necessity of transgression.

We, as a human race are sinners. We were sinners. We do not obey the laws of God. But how can you even know that you have a need that you are transgression the law of God if you don't know the law of God? Right?

If there was no law handed down, can you really be transgression the Law? If God never said, Thou shalt not steal, and you went and took something that was not yours, could it really be a transgression? Thank you. So God handed the law down as a necessity because of the transgressions, so that we would then know, hey, this is part of my shortcomings this is why we are in the situation we're in. This is why there's death and disease and destruction.

This is why we need someone to come so that the promise could be given by faith in Jesus Christ to those who believed. And let's look at the last few verses here, 23 through 29. He says, but before faith came, we were detained under the law, imprisoned until the coming of faith was revealed. So then the law became our guardian until Christ, in order that we could be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham errors according to the promise. So before you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord, before you say, god, I am taken off my crown, and I'm bowing to yours.

You are under the law. You are under a curse, a burden that condemns you to eternal death. But once you give your life to Christ, once you accept his gift, you are no longer under that burden. Right? There's a difference between the Law and Christ.

The law says do this. It demands something. Do this. And Christ says, Accept this. So when we stop being under that burden that demands, do this and do that and go to Christ, he says, Accept this.

And what do we accept? Do we accept him? We accept his gift and that we cannot do it on our own, that we cannot live righteously, that we cannot dig out of the pit that we have dug. And he says, this is beautiful. When you are in Christ, there is neither Jew or Greek.

It doesn't matter if you were physically descent from Abraham or not. There is no difference. Once you are in Christ Jesus, you are the same. You are his. You are filled with his spirit.

You are both sinners before, and you are both saved by Christ. Now there is neither slave nor free, right? Your worldly position here, whether you were a rich man and you have many people working for you, or back then, many slaves, or whether you were dirt poor in Christ, it did not matter. Our status here makes no difference. In the eyes of God, he shows no favoritism.

But we are all the same, right? Male or female? In this world, there's a gap between male and female. But there is no favoritism in God, he says, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.

If anyone is hearing the message of the Gospel today, maybe you're tired of comparing yourself to your neighbor, to the status. Well, I'm not as popular as them or as good as this person, or I don't have what they have. If you're tired of the disparity that exists in this world, if you are tired of being burdened, and if you don't have Christ, you know you're burdened, you don't need me to tell you that you are burdened. And if you're tired of it, you can give it all up right now. You can leave all of that behind you and you can become Christ, right?

No more curse, no more threat of eternal punishment and damnation. No more disparity between you and your neighbor, but you and Jesus Christ, you can be his today and you can claim Him as yours if you can. Only right now, admit that you are a sinner, that you violate the law of God. And that means admitting that there is a God, there is a Holy One who has handed down a law that has imprisoned us. But believe today that Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, believe he came and he lived for you, he died for you.

He became a curse on Your behalf so that the just one could die, that the unjust, that the sinner could prevail. And just tell Him today, lord Jesus, I'm ready to take off My crown and follow you. And he says, you'll be saved. He says that Whosoever would confess me before his fellow men, I will confess before the Father. And whosoever will deny me?

He says him will I deny? So if you're ready today to leave this behind, I invite you. So we go to our closing prayer to accept Jesus into your heart, to believe in his promise and trade the curse and the burden that you have for the promise, confess Him and let us all know. And right after service, we will be having Communion. So I'm going to run upstairs right after we pray and get my communion.

We'll be right back down here to worship Christ through his supper as we remember his body and his blood, his sacrifice. And then I'll see you guys all next week. For anyone who is watching the live stream, don't forget it won't save until I upload it. But I invite you to come here into zoom with us. We're going to go to our closing prayer now, and if you're ready to leave behind the bondage of the law and receive the grace of God, please repeat the first portion of the prayer after me.

Let's pray. Father, I admit that I'm a sinner. I admit that I can't see myself and God, I admit that you're there. I know that I've denied you my whole life. I know that I've lived a life that ignored you, that has put others before you.

But I admit, and I proclaim Your existence, that You've given a law that I can't keep and that I am under a curse and a burden. And I believe you, Lord Jesus Christ, I make you my lord and my king. And I believe you when you say that you died for me if I would confess you, if I would remove my crown and submit to yours. And so, Lord Jesus, today I ask you to come into me, to give, to take away this heart of stone of mine and give me a heart of flesh to be my lord and make me yours. Make me your possession.

Save me now, please. And I thank you for that. And Father, I ask just as the judaizers 2000 years ago reverted back to the law, Lord, it's so easy for any of us to begin adding works and provisions and requirements to the grace that you offered. It's easy. So would you protect us, Lord, from doing that ourselves?

From adding all of these requirements that you have never imposed on us, Lord, and just trust in you alone? And would you be glorified as we do that? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.