Salvation is by grace through faith, not by the law, as demonstrated by the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, the example of Abraham, and the law's inability to save. The law, given 430 years after Abraham's salvation by faith, only serves to condemn by highlighting sin and transgressions. Christ's death underscores the impossibility of salvation by law, as the law's purpose was to reveal sin and lead people to faith in Christ. Therefore, believers are no longer under the law's tutelage but are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, heirs according to the promise, not the law.
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Last week we looked at the first three of five doctrinal proofs that salvation is by grace, through faith, and not by the law. The argument of Galatians is that the Gentiles never were under the law, that we are not saved by keeping the law. and neither do we keep saved by keeping the law. We are neither saved nor kept by our adherence to the law. This doesn't make us lost. No Christian would ever say that we can do as we please now.
People who say that don't know the Lord. We love the Lord. What we do for the Lord, we do because we love Him. And this is a much higher state than any legal ever gets into. The first five verses of chapter three we saw give us the proof that the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit came by the believing of faith and not by keeping the law. No Jew ever received the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The Spirit came upon certain men and spoke through them, but they never were indwell by the Holy Spirit.
That's the first proof that salvation is not by law. If the law couldn't do that in the Old Testament, it certainly wouldn't do it in the New. And these Christians had received the Holy Spirit, so they must have received the Holy Spirit through faith and not through the law. The second argument is a very strong one to a Jew, and it ought to be a good one for us as Gentiles too, and that is the example of Abraham. Abraham was a Gentile. God saved him and he became the head of the Hebrew nation. He was the first Hebrew. But he was saved just by grace. The law wasn't given for four hundred and thirty years after that. So if the head of the race was saved, depart from law, then why should the rest of them think that they had to be saved by law?
And this was a great encouragement to us. It was Gentile too. If God could save him by faith, he could save us the same way. And the third argument, which reaches from verses ten to fourteen of the third chapter, is the argument that the law could do nothing but condemn. And the law brought a curse. That's in verse ten, and he quotes here from Deuteronomy chapter twenty-seven, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. began as soon as you were accountable, and you kept the law perfectly for all of your life until just a little while before you die, and then you break one law, and then you keep it perfectly all the rest of the time, you will be lost forever.
This is exactly what God said. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that that are written in the book of the law to do it. And James tells us that he that keepeth the whole law and yet offends one point. That's not one of the commandments, but just one point of the commandments. He is guilty of all. And the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, None of you keepeth the law. So this is a very potent proof. The law could do nothing but condemn. Now beginning with verse fifteen, where I study tonight, brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet as it be confirmed, no man dissed another, or added there too.
This was written in the good old days when an agreement between men was worth something. The agreements between nations aren't even worth much anymore, but that it's taken for granted that if men make covenants with each other, You have no right to disenow that covenant. You can't add something to it. If a person makes out a will, and then later on decides that he wants to change that will or add something to it, this has to be witnessed. He has to initial the change. He has to make a record of it.
And nobody has any right to change that. And an agreement between two men is even more sacred. When people make an agreement, no individual has a right to disenow or to add to that agreement. That's the argument. Now, to Abraham and his seed, where the promise is made. He saith not unto seeds, that is, many descendants. The word seed here is the use of a descendant. as of many but as one and to thy seed which is Christ now he's only quoting a part of it what he actually said was in thy seed will all the families of the earth be blessed I'm going to bless the whole world to your descendants and he calls attention to the fact here that even the possessive even the plural even the plural in scripture is inspired now some people tell us that the Bible is inspired only as to the thoughts.
The latest thing, Neo-Orthodoxy, which is sweeping the country, and it's one of the most subtle things that's ever come over to our country, Neo-Orthodoxy is simply the using of orthodox words with another meaning attached. First we have modernism, and then we have liberalism, and now we have Neo-Orthodoxy. And these things are devilish. These things are misleading. And God's people are being swept off their seats by this kind of false teaching. The neo-orthodoxy people say, yes, we believe in inspiration.
They say, that's orthodox. But ask them, what do they mean by inspiration? And this is what they mean. They mean that if you read something and it inspires you, then it's inspired. That's all they need. This is what's explained in Niebuhr and Barth and all the rest of their writers. They all say exactly the same thing. If you read something, it doesn't make you never really read it in the Bible or the Denver Post. If you read something and it inspires you, then it is inspired. Isn't that ridiculous? That isn't inspiration. Inspiration is a translation of a Greek phrase which simply means God breathed. And just as I expressed my thoughts through the medium of my breath, my breath carries my thoughts out to you in words.
So God breathed into these men the words that he wanted them to say. Now it's true that he used their vocabulary. It's true that you can see the marks of the individual upon this. But God, the Spirit, carefully protected and guarded the writings of these men so that they might use only the right words out of their vocabulary in the right place. And this verse tells us that he even protected it so far as to make sure that there was not a plural when there was supposed to be a singular. Now that's being pretty careful. So he says, notice that he said not to seeds, but as a many, but one.
to thy seed, which is Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ was the descendant of Abraham, in which God promised that the world would be blessed. Now this is part of the covenant. Verse seventeen, this I say, that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot just be known, that it should make the promise of none effect. Imagine people saying, although God promised Abraham, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to give you a descendant, and in this descendant, I'm going to bless the whole world.
And then four hundred and thirty years later, the law is given, and people say, no, but you can't have any blessing unless you keep the law. You see, that's going back and changing the covenant, which no one has a right to do. Or if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more a promise. but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Now you have to make a choice. Is it going to be of law or a promise? Well, if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of a promise. The promise of God is the free grace, the free gift of God, given the man by grace. Now he said if you're going to turn to the law, you just know the promise.
If you're going to accept the promise, then you can't have the law. You cannot mix the two any more than you can mix oil and water. You can make an emotion that you can't mix oil and water. You can't mix law and grace. This was given to us in the book of Romans. I'm sure you're familiar with this, but we really turn and look at it. Book of Romans, which is a parallel book, companion book for the book of Galatians, very helpful in understanding justification by grace. In Romans you have the positive side of it, we are justified by faith, by grace.
In Galatians you have the negative side of it, we are not justified by the law. The verse that I wanted is in chapter eleven of Romans and verses five and six. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant, according to the election of grace. And notice this. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
Does that sound like a tongue twister? It really is quite simple. All he's saying is that it's either one or the other. You can't have both. The word grace means gratis, free. The blessing of God bestowed without any cause on our part. That's exactly the opposite of works, isn't it? The principle of works means that if you earn it, you get it. If you don't earn it, you don't get it. So he says it's got to be one or the other. The minute that you add law to grace, it's no more grace. The minute you add grace to law, it's no more law.
So you have to decide whether it's going to be law or grace. So both Romans and Galatians emphasize this truth. You cannot be saved partly by works and partly by grace. Back to Galatians chapter three now. verse eighteen and if the inheritance be of the law it is no more a promise they're four hundred and thirty years apart now abraham was given the promise four hundred and thirty years before the law came which is going to be god gave it to abraham by promise this is a strong argument now the last argument of the five begins with verse nineteen and carries over into the next chapter And the argument is simply this, the law wasn't given for that purpose at all.
Salvation cannot possibly be by law keeping because the law was given for entirely different reasons. The purpose of the law then is given to us in these verses. Now this is in three parts. The first reason, verses nineteen to twenty three, is to show that man is a sinner. The second reason, twenty-four to the end of the chapter, is to lead us to put our faith in Christ. And the third reason, the first seven verses of chapter four, is to deal with sinners as minors, M-I-N-O-R-S, immature children.
Now let's consider these three. Verse nineteen, wherefore then serve us the law? If the law was not the means of our salvation, then why was it given? For it is certain that God gave the law. It was added. Get that little word, added. It was supplemental. It was not part of the original plan. It was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come. Now the end of verse sixteen says, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
So, for the word seed or descendant, just read Christ till Christ should come. The law was given until Christ should come. Now, have Christ come? Well, certainly. Then why try to put people back under the law now? We'll see that's the argument as we proceed in this chapter. till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator, Moses. We don't know anything about the angels, what part they had here, except this and one or two other places. One place, he says, that the Jews were given the law by the disposition of angels.
That is, they must have handed it to Abraham. That seems to be the thought, because Abraham is the mediator. Abraham is the go-between. Abraham is the one who received the law, brought it down off of the mountain. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one. That is, if you have a mediator, you must have two parties. Where you have a mediator, this means there are two parties. The word mediator is simply a go-between. Media is the word middle. In-between. So a mediator presupposes that there must be two parties to the agreement. But he says, the law was given through a mediator, but God is one.
What's the meaning of this? Why, simply, when God is making a promise to Abraham without any provisional, without any strings attached, you don't need a mediator. You see the point? A mediator necessitates there being two parties. So when the law is given, we have a mediator. There's an agreement between God and man. But when God blessed Abraham, there was no mediator because God acted directly. He didn't say, now Abraham, let's make an agreement, get somebody to mediate here now. Let's make an agreement. If you do so-and-so, I'll do so-and-so. No. There was no if at all. The Abrahamic covenant was totally without ifs and buts and provides those and any of these kind of things.
So God is one. God simply made the promise and no mediator was necessary. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, barely righteousness should have been by the law. What is the sense of God giving up His only begotten Son to die on the cross if you and I could be saved by the law? This is a colossal mistake. This is one of the most awful things that you could imagine. God would not be God if He allows His own dear Son to suffer like He did at the cross when you could just well have been saved by keeping the law.
You see the argument? It's utterly ridiculous. Salvation could never be by our works. The fact that Christ died shows that that's impossible. But the Scripture has concluded All under sin. The word concluded here is the word confined or shut up, closed up, locked up. The Scripture has locked everybody up under sin. That is, all condemned. All people counted sinners. What does God lock us all up for? That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them to believe.
God did not lock the world up under the law in order that they might be lost. He sent the law to lock them all up so that he could say, no, I'm going to open the door for you to come out. I'm going to make a way for you to be saved. I allowed the law to lock you up in all in one tank. And that's true. You won't feel very complimented by this. But God locks us all up together. It doesn't matter if a man is the worst libertine who ever lived. He locks him up with the Sunday school superintendent. All lost because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Isn't that what he says in the third Romans?
We studied that together in this class. There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now there's a difference in how much we sinned, of course. But there's no difference in the fact that we are sinners. And because we are all sinners, then God has locked us all up. But he did so, not to embarrass us, not to punish us, but he encloses all by this iron bound of the law. He tied us up by these chains of the law in order that he might say, now I have a way of salvation that will let any of you out by faith of Jesus Christ. That sounds too simple?
Well, let me tell you that if you think it's too cheap to be saved by grace through what another has done for you, it's certain it wasn't cheap for him. It wasn't easy for him. If you think what the Lord Jesus went through in Calvary, there's just one reason for that. He did it for your sins, mine. He did that because he loved us, because he wanted to redeem us. It wasn't easy for him. And now by faith in him, verse twenty-two says, the scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise of faith of Jesus Christ, that is faith in him, might be given to them that believe.
To them who do what? To them who believe and get baptized and join church and keep the same commandments and live righteously from now on. Now, wait a minute. Don't add to the Word of God. This is what's being taught all over Christendom today. What do I think you've got your part to do? What is your part? What part could you possibly do? If the law condemns me, and that's what it does, the very minute I put myself under the law, I find that I'm a lawbreaker and therefore I'm condemned. If that's true, then what do I have to offer? I have to accept it as a free gift because I'm bankrupt. And so are you.
Remember the story the Lord Jesus told about there are two people, one owed fifty pence and the other owed five hundred pence. And he said when they had, what's the next word? Nothing. Nothing to pay. He frankly forgave them both. If ever you're going to go to heaven, you're going to go to heaven as a bankrupt sinner, accepting a free gift from God. And how that hurts our pride. Oh, how that hurts our pride. One lady said to a man who was preaching along this line, she said, I can't accept a belief like this.
Why, she said, I've been a church member and I've worked hard at it for twenty years. If I believe what you're teaching, I'd have to lose twenty years of church membership. Well, it wasn't funny to her. I tell you, she felt it keenly. And the man said to her, My dear lady, you'll either have to accept God's free gift and be saved by grace or you'll never be saved at all. She left when he prayed for her. She came back the next night, looking miserable. And the next night, the next night, finally after about three or four nights, she came to him and she said, I just have to get this settled.
I just have to get saved tonight. He said, you can't afford it. You lose twenty years of church membership. Oh, she said, what does that amount to? I need peace and I can only get it in Christ and I want him now. And of course she got saved. Yes, you lost your twenty years of church membership because I was just dead works. That's what the Bible calls it. The book of Hebrews says that the blood has to purge us from dead works to serve the living and true God. You have to be saved from dead works as well as from wicked works. The wicked works would be the openly ungodly things that we do. The dead works would be the religious observances that we tried to please God with before we were saved.
All right, this was God's way. It might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept that the same word is concluded in verse twenty-two. Locked up, confined, shut up under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, that is because this is true, because the law shut me up in a pen waiting for Christ to loose me because that's true the law was really and here he changes the figure there he said he's like a jailer locks you up until Christ comes along to set you free so he changes the figure now and he said the law is like a slave it isn't really a schoolmaster It's more like the, well, actually it's almost like our English word for a truenot officer.
The schoolmaster was the slave in the wealthy family, whose job it was to see that that boy got to school every day. And then when school was out, he was there to get him and see that he got home. See? In other words, he's the controller of the person of this minor child. So he says the law was like that to us. The law forced us, forced us into a pattern. The law held us. The law insisted that we do what we were told until. That's the thing. Until when.
In the King James Version, it reads, Wherefore the law is our schoolmaster, to bring us under Christ but to bring us is in italics this is what I very much appreciate about the King James Version now I use other versions I know some of you do have them and use them here in your studies I use them at home but I use the King James Version when I'm reading and I do it for this reason it's more familiar to most of the people than the other and in addition to that it has the honesty to italicize any words which are not in the original.
Now, in translating from one language to another, if you know two languages, you know this problem, you can't always transliterate word for word. In order to get the idiom into another language, you may have to add some words. And so the translators of the King James Version tried to add certain words that they thought would make the sense. In some cases, they didn't really help it. And this was one of them. Be better to try it either way. Whenever you find italicized words, try reading it with or without the words. In this case, it's much better without. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. Unto it in the sense of time, until Christ came.
The law was our training tutor or our custodian until Christ came. that we might be justified by the law? Oh, no, by faith. But after that the law, after that faith has come, we are no longer under a child trainer, schoolmaster, truant officer, controller of the person. Now, if faith comes, why sure? Salvation by faith is preached everywhere. All right, then we're no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye believers are all the children of God, or sons of God, in the wise version says, by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. A baptism here is looked at in the dual sense. I believe, first of all, you have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is an inward thing. you can't see this happen you can't feel this happen but we know this is what happens when we receive Christ because first Corinthians chapter twelve and verse thirteen says for by one spirit are we Christians all baptized into one body when you receive Christ as your Savior the Holy Spirit puts you baptizes you into the one body now this is why we get baptized because this has already taken place because I have been put into the one body by the Holy Spirit therefore Roman six says therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death I was buried in baptism water baptism because I was put into the body of Christ through the work of the Spirit of God and in so doing I put on
Christ I put on Christ in the spiritual sense when I received Christ. I put on Christ in the profession sense, in the outward sense, when I got baptized. An illustration of this has been sometimes used and may be helpful, and that is the swearing in of a soldier and the putting on of the uniform. Now, when does he become a soldier? Well, he becomes a soldier when he takes the oath. person who is wearing in this group of soldiers asked them all to raise their right hand and then repeat after him and now he says you're in the army look here they stand all dressed in same kind of clothes that they were before you look at them you say well that's not those are not soldiers that's just a bunch of civilians well then one of the next things I don't know exactly what's next but one of the next things they do anyway is to line up and get some clothes that don't fit them go to the dressing room and put on the uniform and then pack up the old things and send them home tomorrow.
Now what's happened? Well, you say, now they're soldiers. No. They became soldiers when they were inducted, when they were sworn in. But they put on the uniform of a soldier in order that other people might see that they are. You become a Christian when you receive Christ as your Savior. But then you ought to be baptized and in this public confession of faith in Christ you confess him you so to speak put on the uniform by this act of baptism now it has much deeper meaning than that but that at least is something that we can get hold of as a reason for baptism now verse twenty six again you're all the children of God or the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus Now you know whether this has happened to you or not.
I can't tell. Have you received Christ Jesus? Have you put your faith in Christ Jesus? Have you believed on Christ Jesus? Well, if you have, then you're one of God's children. As many as received him, to them gave you the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. John one and twelve. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now here he's speaking about our position in Christ.
In contrast to this, in the fourteenth chapter of First Corinthians, where he's talking about the church, there he makes a distinction between male and female. He makes a distinction between people who have this gift and those who have that gift. There is a distinction in the church. In the church, only the men are permitted to speak. This doesn't mean they're superior in any sense at all. It may be quite the contrary. In the case of Aquila and Priscilla, I purposely reversed the order. They're always called Priscilla and Aquila. That's Mrs. and Mr. so-and-so. God never mentions them any other way. Once in the King James Version, it's reversed, but in the revised version, in every case, He mentions Priscilla ahead of Aquila.
She evidently was the superior one so far as her ability was concerned. But yet she did not take the place of being a public leader. There is no such thing as a lady minister, a lady elder, or bishop. There's simply nothing in the Bible about women taking a place of leadership in the church. and a woman who is subject to the Lord I think would be quite happy to have it so. He gives some reason for this and the reason is not in the superiority of the man or his deeper spirituality or his better knowledge of the word. Or I know of many cases where the woman in a family is a much better student and much more able person in the word than their husband.
But God's order is And this is carried down through a chain of authority, you might say. The Father, God the Father, is said to be the head of Christ. Does that mean that He is superior to Christ? No. It just means that Christ took a lower place in coming down to this earth in order to be our Savior. He took a place of subjection, subordination to His Father, of obedience to His Father. He says that Christ is the head of the man. He says the man is the head of the woman. Does this mean that she is a fourth-rate citizen and the man is one step above her? Well, does it mean that Christ is inferior to the Father?
No, it's not a matter of inferiority. It's a matter of permission. It's a matter simply of how God wants us to serve. It was the will of God, the eternal purpose of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ should take a place of subjection to His Father and come down to this earth and become so completely dependent upon His Father and obedient to Him that he never took things into his hands once. And he did this in order to be our Savior. Now God has asked the man to take a place of subjection to Christ. That is why a man uncovered his head when he prays in public.
But the woman was asked to take a place of subjection to her husband. And this was why a woman has her head covered. when she attends the meeting of the church. Now, this was not a meeting of the church here tonight. This is just a Bible study in the home. But in the meeting of the church, a woman would have her head covered, according to First Corinthians chapter eleven, for this reason. Strangely enough, the Protestant churches have gotten away from the Islamic Catholic Church, both the eastern and western branches, I believe, still observe it. Too bad, isn't it, that we've drifted from the pattern that God gave well enough that I merely mentioned it just in order that you might understand that in Christ there are no distinctions in the church there are and if he be Christ then are ye Abraham seed and heirs according to the law no remember the argument farther back in this chapter We're heirs according to the promise.
We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Now God told Abraham two things about his descendants. He said, look at the stars and see if you can count them. And then he said, so shall I feed thee. But he also told him the same thing about the sand of the seashore. And I believe that these two different things, the stars and the sand, speak to us of the heavenly people and the earthly people. Abraham's earthly descendants are in plenty of trouble tonight.
The upset conditions in the Near East are very, very serious. But God promised that his descendants would be as the sands of the sea, and he promised that nobody would ever be able to exterminate them. It's too bad that the Arabs don't read these scriptures. They know better than to waste their time trying to exterminate a nation, and that's their avowed object. But God has another seed, another race, another group of descendants, and these, he said, would be as the stars of heaven. And every person who receives Christ as his Savior is called one of Abraham's seed.
We are the children of Abraham because we are the children of faith. Well, I've just been ram went along. You haven't had a chance to say anything. Do you want to? Any questions? John? John, I'm not... I don't know quite how to ask this, but it might understand that Israel, after it once, assumes that if the nation again can never again be destroyed, or do you mean just the descendants can never be destroyed? The people will never be wiped out. And if the nation could be destroyed again then?
Well, you mean their setup as a nation. Well, of course, their present setup isn't of God at all. they are returning to the land in unbelief. This is the way God said they would come back to Jerusalem. See, Zionism is not a spiritual thing, but a purely political thing. In fact, many of the Zionists do not even believe the Old Testament scriptures, and many of the Zionists are actually atheistic. So, The present state of Israel is not the nation that God is going to establish as head of the nation, the nations of the world during the millennial reign.
Whether this present form of the Jewish nation will continue or not is anybody's guess. But the people themselves will never be exterminated. And time is coming when God says they're going to be the head of the nations and not the tail. I think it's remarkable that the Jews are really the only people that have ever benefited by the United Nations. You can flip back over the records. They've made hundreds of dispositions since the United Nations was a nation. And no nation has really been given any lasting benefit except Israel.
And they've benefited every time their case has come out. and no doubt God is providing for this. God is looking after this people. That's not the favor that they're not going to be punished for their sins because they have rejected their Messiah and they've rejected the Scriptures. And the Great Tribulation is called the Day of Jacob's Trouble and it's going to be the most awful thing that's ever happened on this earth. The church will be gone when that takes place and it could start very soon, you know, because there's no reason why the Lord couldn't take his people home tonight. I don't know any unfulfilled prophecy. If the Lord would come tonight and take home his people, I mean his church, his spiritual people, then, of course, the Great Tribulation could begin almost immediately.
Israel would go through that seven years that Daniel and the Revelation prophesied. I don't know if that answers your questions, John, but that's what I see. Why do you thought the Arabs were wasting their time trying to destroy Israel? Well, they're wasting their time as they're trying to annihilate them as a people, that's for sure. I know the promise was to the king of Abraham, who I did, but I wonder if the children of Abraham and Keturah can be identified as all today. They must have been taught because Abraham would have taught them. We would assume so, wouldn't we?
Of course, the Arab people, we assume, are the descendants of Ishmael, but we're not even certain of that. You see, the descendants of Keturah, his second or third wife, she'd be, wouldn't it, wouldn't he? Could be among the Arab people, the Semitic peoples, we don't have any way of knowing who they are. At least I don't know who it might be. Actually, the Arabs have a great deal of the scripture. A lot of it is just mixed up, you know, with their own Muslim religion.
But they do have a lot of scripture. A great deal of it is just given to them traditionally. It's held as a matter of tradition passed down from one to another. But they do have a great deal of knowledge of the word. Anything more before we go into the fourth chapter? All right, this is the third thing accomplished by the law. We've seen two things now that the law has accomplished.