55. Bible Study Series Part 3 - Galatians Chapter 3

I do not mean to be mean, I do mean to be mad. You obey your pastor. If you ain't got the King James, you ain't got, hey, you don't have a King James, you don't have a Bible. But you know there's something about that local Newcastle that independent from the middle of the century, separate the King James Bible, we can abide by the amazing freedom of our pre-tribulation to the man of the Baptist church. I still believe if you're cold today in hell before I get my talents from a woman, I'm a preacher. The young preachers that do love God get pulled off in the cabin is, and I'll fight it, I'll fight it. I'll fight you in the parking lot over it, I'll get personal with you. When you got dressed today, you dressed deity. This is the For Freedom Podcast. A podcast that is part of the RFP Network. That seeks to bring freedom in Christ. From the spiritual abuse of legalism in the independent fundamental Baptist movement. Now here are your hosts, John Holyfield and James Sabrett. And so fundamentalism is designed to unpack the idea of authority from Scripture. The problem with that is that that's not the defining principle in Scripture. It is a part of Scripture. But the defining principle in Scripture is love. And now I'm not saying that all men who sit under that teaching will become abusive. But what I'm saying is the ones who are abusive will be drawn to that sort of teaching. I don't want to give people just a list of things they can start doing differently until they have a heart out of which they're going to be doing those things differently. Bitterness is different from hurt. I would say that hurt or even abuse does not have to result in bitterness. Welcome everybody to the For Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, John Holyfield. And I'm here with James, Jimmy Styrofoam, say for it, over in North Kakalaki. How's it going, James? The Holy Land. We are doing well. We're doing good. And we have enjoyed this last week off. Me and John have been very busy. And we apologize that we were not able to come to you last week. We did. Two weeks ago then, I'm sorry. Two weeks ago. See how busy our life is? I know. You can't keep it track of it. Yeah. Last week we did the episode with Christine Chappell. We did. And that was a great episode. But it has been. It's been almost three weeks since we've been in the book of Galatians, which is what we're doing today. We are. Yeah. John, why don't you share some of the response from so far, just the book of Galatians and also the response from even the interview with Christine and how that went. I enjoyed really having to meet Christine a couple of weeks ago. I met her at the counseling conference that the ACBC that John decided to stay home and be virtual from. And then we got to meet her in person. We got to talk with her and hear her story more in depth. And that was a great time. But I also got to just be able to. I've gotten some responses. John, I know you've gotten some responses. And we've had a couple of people even give comments and ratings on iTunes, which has been encouraging. Sometimes we start an idea, start going with something. And it sounds good in our mind. But it's always good when the things that happen up here in our mind actually work out. And people enjoy. Yeah. So as far as like Jess said, awesome podcast episode. I'm looking forward to more like this. And said it was so encouraging to hear from Christine. I'll definitely be looking for her content now. I talked to somebody also the other day that as soon as like they got done listening to the episode, they went over there to her podcast and listened to like four episodes back to back of the Hope and Help podcast. I think we have some, what do you call it? We don't have a lot of these because we don't even know what they are. Because I'm like, what do you call it? It's the comments, reviews, reviews. That's what we always say, rate and review it. We don't even know what they are. So we had a couple of reviews. The Galatians study. This is an amazing study. Please finish the whole book because more of this needs to be on here. Opening my eyes to many, including myself. The RFP has been used by God so many ways. Thanks for teaching and revealing truth. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much, Shisha and 39. And then this is something I've been trying to find more from a trusted source and podcast form. Please, please, please keep on doing this series. It was insightful and encouraging to hear more about scripture. People's stories are great. Refuting bad theology is important. Just breaking down scripture in a safe environment outside of church service is needed. And so that was Nicole. And so we're thankful for those comments and the feedback. And so we have listened. Yes. We have heard your voices. We value your voice. I haven't literally heard the voices, but. John listens to the voice of God sometimes. Oh, there you go. You got to get me in trouble. Always self-truth. Tells me a different story. I think we need to edit that part out. Nah, we don't edit in this podcast, John. Okay. So we're going to continue on in Galatians chapter three today. And what do we, before we get started there, what do we have coming up in the pipeline interview wise and some things that you've worked out in the future here for our listeners to be. Well, I'm excited. Hope I hesitate. James always likes to put me on the spot. I hesitate to say these things because what if it doesn't work out? And then everybody's like, I thought you were going to do that episode about the so-and-so. All right. So if everything works out next week, we're super excited to be interviewing Jim Neuheiser. And if you're watching YouTube, I'm going to show you the camera right there. He wrote this. He's wrote many works that we could really interview him about. But he wrote this help lifeline mini book, help. I need a church. And so we're going to talk to him about this. He's a biblical counselor. He does a lot of, he's actually a leader in the movement. And we're going to talk to him about like, you know, help for those that are like now looking for a new church family and church congregation, which I think is a big question for a lot of people in the RFP community and RFP family. So we're excited about that. So next week, be looking forward to that. Hopefully we get that schedule stays like it's supposed to and we get it set up and edited and all that stuff and out for you next Thursday. But for the third time, now we're getting into Galatians chapter three, unless you have anything else, James. I don't. I just need to grab my Bible so we can read it. Okay. That would be handy. Well, we've covered Galatians one and two, right? So you can go back and listen to those episodes, but I always like, I don't know. It's the teacher inside of me. Let's review. Okay. So if we're reviewing and part of the review process is also because we need to know the context of where we're starting at today. Okay. King. King Jesus. Well, King Jesus. Come on. Yeah. Dave Ramsey says cash is king. We say context is king. Okay. So somebody's gonna be like, I can't believe they worship at the feet of context and not Jesus. All right. Well, so Galatians one, Paul's writing this letter to these churches. This is not necessarily like most of his letters written to one specific congregation. This is actually a region. Galatia was a region. It's written to several churches where after he set these churches up on his missionary journey, people came in afterwards and started teaching that in order to stay in Christ and be in Christ, that they needed to be circumcised as well. So Paul was very upset and you see this going at the teaching the Galatians and dealing with the subject of circumcision, adding to the gospel. He says in chapter one, I think verse 10, he says, if you've added to another gospel, if you've added to a gospel, it's another gospel. And he said, that is anathema. It's anathema. If you want to pronounce it that way, it's you be, that person should be a curse, be damned. And so he goes on and continues to, one of the things that they did to teach this message to the churches of Galatians, they started discrediting Paul's apostleship. So Paul, for the remainder of chapter one, actually goes into sort of a defensive mode on his apostleship and begins to explain why he was trusted with this message and that they should be able to trust him. We get to chapter two and Paul decides to tell us two specific anecdotes, tells us two little stories. The first story has to do with what I believe was the Jerusalem council from Acts 15, where they had Titus come in and they determined what it was. And he talked about them bringing them in because people had come in to spy out their liberty. And Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. And they were saying that they need to be circumcised there. And so they dealt with that on the larger level there in Jerusalem with the church there in Jerusalem. And then he tells actually a very more specific story between when Peter came to visit Paul and their church and was enjoying himself with the Gentiles that have come to Christ. And a couple of delegates from the church in Jerusalem from James showed up and Peter changed his tune and pushed away and said, I'm not going to associate with these guys because they're uncircumcised. And Paul had to get to his face and confront him. And then the rest of chapter two, Paul then goes into start getting into this doctrine aspect. And that brings us to chapter three. And chapter three is heavy doctrine. This episode is going to be a very doctrine, theology heavy episode because this chapter is very doctrine and theology heavy. James? Yeah, that's great. And, you know, even thinking back through and listening sort of that recap, I hope that you go back and really I enjoyed episode two of this chapter two because it really affects how we even talk to people, how we affect how our conversation is to people when they don't agree with us when it's just secondary tertiary issues. And that's really where Paul was at as he looked through those situations that were going on in his own life. And so, John, let's jump into it because we've got a lot of notes here to cover. And we're going to try to keep this about an hour like we normally do. May go a little longer, but we do have a lot to cover. And so I'll read the first 15 verses and then I'll let you finish out the last verses that are there. I forgot that's what we did. Yeah, I was getting ready to jump in the notes, but I was trying. Yeah, come on. We got to go to the Bible. I got to go to the Bible. Well, someone's got to. All right. Number chapter three, it says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by the hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, so by, I'm sorry, among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing with faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him righteousnessness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are with the faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. And then them and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteousness shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise spirit through faith. To give a human example, brothers, even a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and two offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. And it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. 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 no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. Heirs according to the promise. So there we have this very doctrine, theology-centric chapter that Paul gets in. We're going to jump into this. This quote, first of all, by MacArthur, I sort of liked and I wrote down out of his commentary on Galatians. He said, throughout the history of the church, some believers have begun well, but later have been pulled away from the truths they first believed and followed. They fall prey to some system of legalism and works righteousness that promises more, but produces much less. Some fall into formalism, substituting external ceremonies, legalistic, formal ceremonies and rights for the eternal reality, internal reality of personal growth in the Lord. Others fall into legalistic systems of do's and don'ts, proudly hoping to improve their standing before God by doing or not doing certain things. Still, others look for a second blessing, a spiritual secret to unlock some higher plane of spirituality. An additional experience of grace, hoping to receive more of God than they imagined was granted to them at conversion. Many have, in our experience, many of those that listen to this could say, yes, that happened to me. That happened to me. I was pulled into that kind of thing. It's that bait-and-switch mentality that so many times fundamentalists like to do, but don't like it done to them. If you've watched the Ankerberg debate with Sam Giffen, he gets to that one point where they begin asking him a question and he stops and goes, oh, you're baiting and switching me. That's what you're doing right here. When the whole conversation, he's been doing that to them himself. He would ask pointed questions to get their response, to bait them in so that he could switch the narrative. And that is what so many times happens in this world when we, and Paul addresses it here. He's saying, listen, don't get entangled up. Don't start so well. And then you hear something and then you believe to follow this. And then I loved how it said there, they produce works of righteousness that promises more, but ultimately produces less. Yeah. Because legalism produces less of us for God. And we begin to see judging ourselves. We begin to look at ourselves and we begin to make this line of Christianity where we can be at. What can I check off? And when we tear down those walls of legalism, we are able to do so much more because we're literally living for God, for the honor of God, for the will of God. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. In Christian circles, legalism frequently springs from a dark alley like a thief, seeking to rob believers of two priceless doctrines, justification and sanctification. The legalistic assault on justification says you need to add to Christ's redemptive work on the cross so God will accept you into his family. And that is the catch of legalism. They want us to add so that God will accept us. It's almost like when you begin dating someone, you begin to do more and more stuff for them to like you more and more. And we take that same mentality of dating over into the world of God. God. And we think that, okay, if I can do more and more, if I can become more holy in my mindset or more holy in my actions, God's going to love me more. He's going to honor me more. He's going to give me more. And that's the catch of this legalism that Paul is really trying to drive home to the Galatian church. The legalistic attack on sanctification is more subtle. The servants of this in this camp admit that we are saved by grace through faith, but they claim that once saved, we must work hard to please God as we continue in the Christian life. Now, a lot of people will that have pushed back on the RFP and the RFP community and a lot of what we are doing by saying, you guys aren't defining legalism, right? Legalism is adding works to salvation. Well, actually, we're going to look at a verse here in the passage where Paul actually defines what they were doing. And it was more than just adding works to salvation. So we're going to break this down, this chapter down. It's a long chapter. And so we're going to break it down in a couple of different sections. The first section is the first five verses. And I've sort of we got this title sort of the passion of Paul, the passion of Paul, because it comes through. You see it. And we talked about that already, about how Paul sort of seems as if he's upset. His writing conveys that emotion. And he starts off by asking six questions. All right. So question number one, how have you become so deceived? He says this by starting off saying, and whatever your translation is, you owe foolish Galatians. He calls them foolish. Some other translations say this, the Christian counselor's New Testament translation says, Galatians, you are so stupid. You know, it's just like this. How can you get this? Think about this. This is something that I want to I want to drive home. This understanding of the gospel that they had accepted. This is the way Paul treated it. People say that you're not being kind enough with with handling legalism. Look at how Paul is handling it. Yeah. He's calling the very people they got deceived by it foolish. Yeah. When I read that, I think almost like the parent that is in the room beating their head against the wall, like, why did you not listen to what I tried telling you? Like you did the opposite. What are you doing? What are you thinking? It's like speaking into a brick wall and expecting it to change. And sometimes that's how we feel raising kids. Yeah. And this is Paul. They're immature Christians. They're children of the faith. And he's like, whoa, what? Why are you not using your brain? Hey, you've got it in your head. Use it. Why are you not using it? And that's Paul's sort of attack. This this not attack, but his his statement toward them is saying, listen, you've been given truth. You've been given even goes a little later where he talks about you were there. You saw Jesus publicly crucified. Why are you not following the faith? Yeah. So, yeah. The word foolish is actually from a Greek word, Greek word, and it doesn't connotate mental deficiency. It's not what he's talking about. It actually alludes to mental laziness and carelessness. Yeah. Hearing the truth, but not doing it. Laziness. Then he says, who's bewitched you? He says that he's that word, which the Galatians were not victims of a magical spell or incantation, but were misled pupils of teachings. They should have instantly recognized as false. Yeah. And that is where when we are being discipled, when we are discipling others, we should have the spiritual maturity to understand when we've been deceived and when we are being led astray. That is why I believe so many times often when we speak personally speaking here, when I came out of the independent fundamental Baptist movement, it wasn't a time where I said, I'm never going back. It was a time of me reading and understanding the Bible for what it actually said. And when I, my eyes were open to truth, my eyes were shown what was false. Well, that is, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Finish that thought. Well, that is this whole thought of discipleship. This, that whole thought of when we get closer to God's word, we are sort of shedding the light on what is not God's word. We're shedding the light on what is preferential. What is foolishness? What is this? These things that are not ever in the Bible and our eyes are open. And it's not like we're leaving something that's we're growing closer to something that we should be growing closer to. Well, I do want to point out, there's a little bit of a difference between the, the audience of the Galatians and maybe the audience of a lot of those who listen to us. And that is this, they had heard the truth before. Yeah. Okay. Many of the people that we are talking to, especially me and you were raised taught this false dichotomy, this false system, the false understanding of, of, of, you know, sanctification of legalism. They were taught the right way by Paul and then allowed themselves to be turned and swayed. Now there's many congregations who have allowed themselves to befall prey to that, to some preacher who comes in and tries to turn the congregation into sort of that kind of mindset and, and those types of things. But, um, that's, that's sort of the, the, um, the animosity that's coming there, uh, from Paul, because they knew they were taught by Paul the right way to go. And then they got duped. They got bewitched. They got turned the wrong direction. Yeah. James, what is, what was the second question? This goes to verse two. The second question is how did you receive the Holy spirit? How did the spirit come upon you? MacArthur says this, he says at no time before salvation, can a person have the indwelling spirit. And at no time after salvation, can he not have the spirit in him? Uh, he references here Ephesians one. And he talks about how, when you were before you knew Christ, you were walking in darkness. You were walking in, in, in dumbness almost. And once the spirit comes upon you, now the spirit is in you and you cannot not have the spirit with you. He's always there. He's always with us. He's always guiding us. Uh, and so that this is this thought of without the spirit, you're blind. You can't do anything good, but now the spirit's in you. You were purchased by the spirit through the blood of Jesus Christ. You were there, you witnessed, you portrayed it, you saw it. And so what makes you think that you can lose the spirit? What makes you think the spirit's going to leave you because you didn't do anything to get the spirit? Um, and so he's asking this question about receiving the Holy spirit, um, and him working in us and through us. And so then question three is, uh, what's wrong with you? Question three. He says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now perfected by the flesh? Here it is. This is where we have the scriptural reference where what Paul's dealing with them about. And this idea of legalism is not just tied to adding works to salvation, but that the legalism then comes in and starts affecting sanctification. And that's this question that he asked them right here. That's how we know what was going on in the Galatian church also had to do with their problem with sanctification, because he asked them this question. He says, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. There's a disconnect here. Having begun in the spirit, you are saved by the Holy spirit. That work of regeneration was done by him, but yet you're supposed to continue on and be perfected by the flesh, which is legalism. He said, no, these are all questions. It's like, what? And so then he gets to question four. He says, how are you perfected? He says, were you perfected by the spirit? Are you going to be perfected by the spirit or by the flesh? Now, sanctification is a synergistic issue. Yes, there are things for us to do as we grow in our sanctification. There's there's commands. You go to the book of Titus, you go to the book of James, you go to these different New Testament books and you find out there are things that we are supposed to do. However, you cannot do it apart from the Holy spirit. Yeah. The Holy spirit is that power within that changes you and transforms you as you are growing to be more like Christ as you're doing and accomplishing these things. It's not that you're growing more spiritual by doing these things. No, that growing more spiritual is done by the Holy spirit. Yeah. Romans eight, John, I'm doing a study right now through Romans 12 for our teenagers and we'll go to winter camp. And Romans eight is the third therefore used in Romans. And it's an interesting therefore, because it says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law and weakened by the flesh. I'm sorry, for the law of sin and death. For God has God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sin, sinful flesh for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteousness be required of the law. And it might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the flesh in us. I'm sorry, according to the flesh in us who walk not according to the flesh in us, but according to the spirit, we do not walk in the flesh. We walk in the spirit. This is an everyday, an everyday crucifixion of saying, I will not walk in the flesh, but I will walk in the spirit. I will follow what the spirit is leading me to do, not what my flesh wants me to do. And so he's asking, how are you being perfected? If you think that you're going to be perfected by, by perfecting the flesh, it's never going to happen. We must be perfected by walking in the spirit. Then he goes to this fifth question, John. He says, why did you suffer? Did you suffer in vain? And so suffer is the word pacheo. It's the word that carries the basic idea of experience and sometimes that of pain or hardship. And so he's giving this thought of there's suffering. There's suffering that comes with Christianity. It's not this love and dreams and everything's going to be great once you, the prosperity gospel that is so often persuaded. But he says there is suffering. There is times of suffering in the Christian life. And he's asking you, why did you suffer? John, the greatest illustration of suffering that I ever saw was when I was in India and we were going to some Indian churches and the missionary there, his name was Justice Banwell. He's with the Lord now. But he told me, he said, he said, Pastor James, he said, when someone in India gets saved, he said, we don't immediately give them a Bible. We don't immediately start the discipleship process because it is easy for an Indian person to add Jesus to all their other idols and to add Jesus to their other forms of worship. And hey, Jesus is another God. We'll worship him. That's fine. He said, the discipleship starts with us when they get baptized. He said, because baptism is completely neglecting the other gods, forsaking those gods and fully trusting and following Jesus. He said, at that point, we begin to give them resources and Bibles and discipleship. He said, because most of them, when they follow that step of baptism, they are no longer accepted back in their family. They are forever persecuted. He said, in some communities, they can't even go and buy things because they have accepted Jesus and they have been baptized in the faith. This is suffering that we don't see in the Christian church, in the American Christian church, but it is seen throughout the world. And this is the thought that he is saying, listen, you've suffered. You've seen torment. You've seen pain happen. Was it all for vain? Was it all for vanity? Yeah. Wow. That's good. The last question he asks is, how does, I summarize this. How does God work? How does God work? In verse five, he says, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Does he do it by law or faith? Yeah. And he says, does he supply these things? This is a word that means to supply abundantly and with great generosity. It was used of patrons of the arts who underwrote productions of Greek plays and patriotic citizens who gave of their wealth to help support the country's army or government. It was also used of a groom's vow to love and care for his bride. Does he do that by works of the law or by faith? Well, I mean, how were you, how did you come to Christ? If I can ask another question. From this point, after asking those questions, Paul then transitions to a couple of illustrations. And the first illustration is an illustration of Abraham. So he does Abraham's faith in six, Abraham's seed in verse seven, Abraham's promise in verse eight, the blessing verse nine, and the warning in verse 10. So let's look at these real quick. Verse six, James. Verse six, Abraham's faith. When we think of Abraham and his faith, it says, just as Abraham believed God and was counted on him, his righteousness as righteousness. This is the faith that we sometimes struggle with because how often in our life do we not follow after what God wants us to do in simple things? And yet when Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, this was a faith of his only son. He's going to be sacrificing a faith that a time where this was unheard of. This was, this was something that God had said, I'm going to give you a child. I'm going to give you a nation. I'm going to give you a descendants that are greater than anything. And yet you're asking me to give up my only son. And you look at where Abraham came from when Abraham was just a wandering shepherd, where God said, I'm going to give you a nation and I'm going to give you a land that's yours. Land was the most vital, valuable thing during that time. And I really, truly believe that Abraham didn't have anything to his name except his animals. And he was almost a squatter who went around and was poaching off of other people's land. And God said, no, come follow me and I'm going to give you everything. So this, this faith that he had was to be admired. It was to be something that when God says for us to do it, it's not questioning. It's not, uh, well, what's going to get, what am I going to get out of it? It is us truly living our life, following him in every way possible. Well, the most amazing thing about that is this, and it's, it's very important as far as doctrine and theology, what was counted as Abraham's righteousness, his obedience or his faith, his faith, his faith. There are some out there, the Ruckmanite camp that actually teaches that. So salvation in the old Testament was not by faith. It was by obedience. It was by keeping the law. It was about sacrifices. While that was an aspect of what they were supposed to do. We're told right here, it was counted to him as righteousness. It was his faith. Yeah. You know, the Judaizers had messed even this up because they didn't just, they had changed this, the idea of the subject of circumcision as not just a mark of the salvation, which was what it was in the old Testament, but they even messed that up and actually making it part of the means to salvation here with the Galatians. And so the next thing is verse seven, Abraham's seed. He says, uh, no, then that this, that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. So the true descendants of Abraham, he's saying the spiritual state, this true spiritual state are actually those that are of faith. Why? Because that's where he began. It's like spiritual children here because that's where Abraham was. And then the promise verse eight. Yeah. The promise in verse eight, um, was God saying that the Gentiles by faith preach the gospel on the beforehand. Abraham saying, if you, if you shall all the nations be in you, shall all the nations be blessed. And so Paul is quoting Moses quotation of Moses proves that from the very beginning of Abraham's relationship, God, the blessings of salvation were promised to all the nations of the world. Wearsby says that in his commentary. And so this is, this is giving us the saying, yeah, this is a promise that is to all, not just USA, not just America. This is to all nations. You want to make some people angry today? I guess. Okay. Here we go. Here we go. All nations. Yeah, John, go ahead. Make some people angry. So is this promise. I will bless those that bless thee, bless thee, that curse thee. I will bless all nations by you. Was that basically those who send money and aid and support the nation of Israel? Is that what that blessing is talking about? No. Or is it talking about the fact that through Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ is one who's going to come. And through Jesus Christ, all nations, because the gospel will extend to all nations will be blessed because of the beauty and the work of the gospel of Christ. Mic drop. Come on. Let's move on before we get any. Yeah. Can't drop my mic. It's mounted. It doesn't. We've done enough right there to get tempers flaring. So let's move to the next one. Abraham's warning. The warning that is given because of Abraham in verse 10. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed everyone. It be cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. It's a curse. Deuteronomy 27, 26. A curse is a divine judgment that brings a sentence of condemnation. What does the law do? The law reveals that we cannot keep it. The law reveals our need for grace. Yeah. We need grace. And not only do we need grace, we need to extend grace to others at times. And that's where I think Paul was almost admonishing them a little bit here because too many times we get to this point where we think we are better than everyone else. We are holier than everyone else. And the grace given to us is also given to them. And we need to share that grace. We need to give that grace. Abide in by all things. In other words, MacArthur says the fact that those who trust in the works of the law are obligated to keep all things in the law without exception places them inevitably under a curse because no one had the ability to abide by everything the divine and perfect law of God demands. James goes on to say that if you've broken the law in one aspect, you've broken all the law. Yeah. You know, Piper said this, we need grace. Paul says, because we stand cursed beneath the law, the magnitude of this statement should come across to us as if an announcement had just been made that 100 nuclear warheads were headed right for this country. Yeah. And David Platt goes on to say, each of us stands under the curse of the law, the law given by the sovereign judge of the universe. So we're moving along. And so we're going to get to the next part. And this is the place of faith. And so it's going to cover verses 11 through 18. Yes. The first one underneath this is it's a source of life. Verses 11 and 12 that I read. This is this righteousness that has been given to us. This evidence that we have is a source of life. We literally can do nothing without Jesus Christ in our life. We can do no good thing. And this is that verse that is very familiar for us. The righteous or the just shall live by faith. This is our source of everything. When we get up in the morning, we must be living in the faith. We must be living in the gospel because the gospel is what gives us the power to live. The gospel is what gives us the power to go forward. It is not the law. It is not the law that gives us anything, but rather it is the gospel, the faith that Jesus gives us. That is the power that is the source of all of our life. And then what is its price? Its price comes from verse 13, which is basically his price was the life of Christ. He redeemed us. And I love that word redeem because it seems like that redeeming factor, God is continually doing that in our Christian lives. Wearsby said the word redeemed here means to purchase a slave for the purpose of setting him free. Wow. For freedom, baby. Yeah, that's good. We're going to get to that when we get to chapter five. Come on. Then it's fulfillment in verse 14. Verse 14 says, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So now that blessed that all nations that is now not just the Jews, but now coming to the Gentiles. This is the fulfillment of this blessing. This is the fulfillment of what faith is supposed to go. Through faith. Through faith. Justifying faith involves self-renunciation. Justifying faith also involves reliance on and submission to the Lord. And justifying faith involves appropriation. As the sinner gratefully receives the free gift of pardon Christ offers and submits to his authority. Yeah. And then it's illustrated and it's illustrated so perfectly here in verses 15 through 17 because it says, To give a human example, brothers, this is not a man-made covenant, but it is one that is a promise that to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say to his offsprings. He gives this very clear definition by saying it's referring to many, but referring to one specific illustration, which is Jesus Christ. The one who came and was perfected and was completely perfected everything for us and through us. He gives this exact illustration where it says 430 years. And he gives this total number of Jacob's arrival through Israel, through Egypt. And he goes through this illustration, how he gives this very clear illustration to us. The argument is clear. However, a law given centuries later cannot change a covenant made by other parties. And so he gives us this great example of the fulfillment eventually that has happened for us to be able to be promised, which leads to the next one, this promise that was given. I do think it's important to note that Abraham did not make a covenant with God. God made a covenant with Abraham. If you remember the story, Abraham actually went to sleep. God put him in a deep sleep. And then the animals divided and God passed through the covenant agreement. And it was God that made a covenant with Abraham. Therefore, if Abraham didn't follow through because he was a fallen human being, he did not affect the covenant because the covenant was being held together by God, not dependent upon a fallen man like Abraham. So James said now verse 18, it was promised. And we're trying to get through this. I don't know if we're going to make it to the end of the chapter. We got nine verses, 10 verses to go, 11 verses to go. It was promised. Verse 18, for if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. So here he's given, so he's given, it's just logic. Paul's given logic. He said, if it came from the law, if the inheritance comes by the law, it's no longer comes by a promise. The word gave is a Greek word in the perfect sense and points to the permanent character of the inheritance. The inheritance can't be taken away because God's covenant strengthens it. It solidifies it when we place our faith and trust in him. Remember what James said earlier, the just, and what Paul wrote earlier, the just shall live by faith. So this brings us to number four, the question of the law. We looked at the place of faith. Now the question of the law, verses 19 through 22. John, what's the purpose of the law? That's what it starts out with. It says, why don't we even have the law? Why do we even need the law to begin with? Why don't we just unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament, John? See, people may get that reference there. You know, honestly, that is actually an ancient heresy by Marcion. It's saying that it traces back to an early church heresy called Marcionism, where this guy believed that there was a different God of the Old Testament and a different God of the New Testament. You know, when you're trying to say and just separate that and just say that this, I mean, it really falls back into not exactly Marcionism, but it really is like akin to that same ancient heresy. But I digress going back. It's purpose. Yeah. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to him. The promise had been made and it was put in the place through angels by an intermediary. Okay. Why the law? Well, because we sin. We're wicked. Yeah. We're wretched. It's mediators, which we just read about the angels being the mediator in the second part of verse 19 and 20. God gave the law through two sets of mediators. First, the angels, and by them, through Moses to the people. So then Moses presented the law. Many times in the Old Testament, you're going to see this title of the angel of the Lord came down. The angel of the Lord. Angel of the Lord came and met with Abraham and those types of things. The Greek text in verse 20, I think we did we read verse 20? We did not. Now, an intermediary, intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. The Greek text of this verse is difficult to translate and interpret. But Paul seems to be pointing out that a mediator, literally one who stands between two parties, is needed only when more than one party is involved. And so there was the mediator there was God. So then we get to verse 21, the contradiction. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For a law had been given that could, for if a law had been given that it could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. The law was never meant to provide a way of salvation, but to reveal our need for someone to provide salvation for us. Yeah. And so a ditch that we can fall into as we're studying this, as we are like, yeah, we love our liberty. We're in Christ. Christ has made us free indeed. It is for freedom that, you know, that we have come to Christ, you know, and therefore do not be enslaved again to a yoke of bondage. The ditch that we can get into with this is to say that we are against the law, like the law is opposed to us. But that's not the case here. That's not what this is teaching. What this is teaching is that the law is not the whole. The law has its part. The law has its role. The law is good. But the law does not save. The law is used to drive us to the Savior. Because we need that grace. Because we cannot fulfill the law. And this goes on in verse 22. He talks about this fulfillment. Verse 22. He says, but the scripture imprisoned everything under sin. So that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. It was the plan. When I was a kid, we used to watch the 80s show, The A-Team. And then they made a movie about it. And Hannibal Smith used to put these planes. At the end, he put that signal on his melody. He's like, I love it when a plan comes together. And that's what I think about when I see this. Because it was all working together in God's beautiful plan. That's how it was supposed to be. That's how he planned it out. That's how he designed it. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin. So that. So that. That was the point. The promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. That was part of the plan. Yeah, I love how MacArthur says that God's saving purpose is the climax. It is the pinnacle of everything. Jesus Christ coming, dying for our sins and allowing salvation to come to us is the climactic event of the movie, of the story, of the storyline. It's the climax that happens. Is Jesus coming, dying and raising again for our sins? Which is what the reformers stood for and recovered in the process. We're approaching what I like to call Reformation Day on the 31st. And that's what. In Christ alone. By grace alone. Or through grace alone. By faith alone. You know, that faith alone is what they were trying to recover that the church had messed up. So this brings us to our last point. And the last few verses of the chapter. We looked at the place of faith and the, what was it? The question of the law. Now the work of Christ in verses 23 through 29. So now let's transition to talking about Christ. Verse 23 and 24. Now before faith came, we were held captive under law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. This is Christ's deliverance. Christ delivered us from the oppression that the law revealed our sinfulness to. So here's where in our current state, here's where in our current state, we have to put the law in its rightful place. And its rightful place is still not in the prominent place because Christ came. And we're living after Christ came. Paul uses the illustration that was familiar to his readers. This is the child guardian. See, in many Roman and Greek households, well-educated slaves took the children to and from school and watched over them during the day. That's the illustration of the law. That's the accurate biblical place that we put the law in. Not getting it out of balance was saying that you must keep this aspect of the law in order to be right with Christ. Yeah, and this is really the moment where we understand that it is our inability to perfectly fulfill what God has demanded, and we must be dependent on him. And this drives that dependency every day to get up and to seek God's word, to seek his face in prayer, to understand that we can't do anything, and we must go to him because he is our ultimate deliverer. He is the one who's going to deliver us through everything. Verse 25 continues on and talks about Christ's freedom. Again, we'll read it. It says, but now the faith has come. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. We're no longer under someone else. We have been given this freedom that only comes from Christ, that it can only come from his redemptive work, that can only come through what Christ has done. What does it do next, John? The adoption in Christ. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. In Christ, through faith, we become sons of God. It's great. It's glorious. Not children of disobedience. Yeah. But sons of God. We're adopted in. This brings us to the last point. Christ's position. Our position in Christ, verses 27 through 29. Yeah. It talks about how this phrase, baptizing the Christ, cannot refer to a water ceremony at all, but rather a spiritual identification with and immersion into the life of Christ. Yeah. So here's, remember at the beginning when we said that there was, we're going to cover interpretive problems. Yeah. So in this, in this area, we actually get to two of those interpretive problems. The one is this first 27 on baptism. So it says for as many of you as we're baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And so those who are, I think are in the church of Christ or believe in the idea of baptismal regeneration. This is not talking about actual water baptism. We're talking about being immersed in Christ. You know, this is the word of baptizo being immersion. You know, this is, we are now completely immersed in Christ being in Christ. Okay. And so then we come to the other interpretive problem here that we have in verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Well, James, does this get rid of all gender roles? Absolutely not. Okay. Can you explain this? Can you explain verse 28 to us a little bit? Yeah. Verse 28. This says that all spiritual blessings, all rewards, all things that are given through Christ, are equally given to all who believe. It doesn't mean that we become one and we're all agender. No, it says that all the blessings, all the rewards, everything that has been given, there is no partiality there. It has been given to all of us so that a man doesn't receive something that a woman doesn't receive, but that these gifts have been given, these resources, these promises that God gives us through Scripture are for all, not just for the Jews. The Jews don't get some special blessing. The Greeks don't get something else, but it's given to all of us through all of us. And recognizing, this is a statement that John has in here, in recognizing believing women as a full spiritual equals of believing men, Christianity elevated women to a status that they had never known before in the ancient world. In matters of rule in home, in the church of God has established the headship of man, but in the dimensions of spiritual possessions and privileges, there is absolutely no difference. Yeah. It doesn't mean that our ethnicity, political status, or sex is changed at conversion, but it does mean that these things are of no value or handicap when it comes to our spiritual relationship to God through Christ. Yeah. What is the context of all of it? Being in Christ. Yeah. Okay. Final verse of the chapter. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs, according to the promise. James, I didn't think we were going to get through this chapter. Well, we did. We got there. And so we're going to go. We got chapter four coming up. I mean, I got, I thought this was this. I enjoyed it. I thought this was fun stuff getting into some of this little bit of heavy stuff. Probably made a few people unhappy. The Bible does that sometimes. Oh, you know, I've always thought if you make people on the left unhappy and you make people on the far right unhappy, then you're probably right there where you're supposed to be. Come on. There we go. Make them unhappy at the same time. Yes. Guys, I hope that you enjoyed that lesson. James, you got any closing comments as we wrapped up Galatians chapter three? No, I'm good, John. It's been good. Yeah. We hope you enjoyed this. If you want to blast us, if you want to say, no, you guys were completely wrong. This was ridiculous. You can email us at 4freedom. That's F-O-U-R. Totally messed up there. And I'm sure we're not going to edit that out either, are we? Okay. F-O-U-R. Freedom at Yahoo.com. Or you can send us a message or do that. Leave a rating and a review. By the way, John is still stuck in the 90s. He still uses Yahoo.com. I just don't want to... I just don't want to... What is it? Gmail? Everybody's going to go through Google or something? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening today. We hope that this was a blessing. Get into your word. Get into the Bible and dig in. The most empowering thing we can do for you. The most empowering thing you can do for yourself is to learn to study God's word and study it for yourself. Amen. So, until next time, to God, not the pastor, be the glory. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast. To find more content like this, please visit RFPNetwork.org. To find more podcasts like this one, resources, and meetups to encourage you on your journey. Thank you.

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