May God encourage us today. We're going to be reading from Galatians 3 this morning, and we've been in this series, Free for Good. That means we're free, made free by the gospel for good effect, for good purposes, worship, and for good, forever and ever and ever. We are free, and there's no turning back to slavery. And this letter to the Galatian churches is a letter that really helps us understand the gospel and how to live it out. And today, we're going to be looking at verses 19 through 29, and we're going to think about the purpose of the law, the good purpose of the law, and then the blessings that come to us by faith in Jesus. So if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under your seat, and it'll help you to follow along throughout the message. You'll get a lot more out of it because we're going to walk through this passage together today. But Galatians 3, "Why then the law? Well, 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. And now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith should 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're no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you're 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's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."

May God encourage us through His word today. Please be seated. Let's pray and ask that God would instruct us, that we would benefit, that we'd leave here drawn near to God in our worship, in walking and living by faith. Let's pray. Father, we need you. Lord, you know we are flawed and feeble people. Lord, we want our whole lives to be worship. You are worthy. Jesus, your Son, is worthy. He's worthy to receive honor and glory and blessing.

He's worthy to receive every bit of authority and dominion and power in this world. And so, Lord, we lay down all of our power, all of our authority at His feet and say, "Lord, we are your servants. We are bond servants. We are here to do your will. You've given us so much. You've blessed us in every way." Father, I pray as we open up your Word today, help us to see where we might be living according to the law in a performance-based way, and then how we might live by your Spirit, how we might live by faith. Lord, please strengthen our faith. We desire to be a people of strong faith, and so we need you because we can't even make our own faith strong. We need you, and thank you, Father, for availing yourself to us today.

Thank you for your Word. Please feed us, nourish us through it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In Galatians 3:11, we read, "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" If there is a banner for the Christian, a bumper sticker as it were, for the Christian to put on their vehicle, it's, "For the righteous shall live by faith." Every day, in every way, the follower of Jesus lives by faith. So faith, it's the first and the middle and the end of our story. We begin the path of following Jesus by faith. We place our faith in Jesus Christ, and He becomes our Savior.

But then, having begun by faith, we now continue along the path of following Jesus, not by works of the law, but by faith. Faith is not merely the first step to begin this journey, but faith is the journey for us who are in Christ. And we need to be reminded of this over and over and over. We need to be reminded that the righteous live by faith because we're so prone toward performance. We're so prone toward works of the law. We move from faith so quickly to fixing our own problems. We move from faith to simply trying harder. We move from reliance upon the Lord to just running faster. We move from dependence upon God's Spirit to designing our own solutions. Few hazards successfully entrap the Church of Jesus more often with greater damage than the danger of living according to the works of the law, just simply gutting it out, just-do-it kind of Christianity.

In Galatians 3:12This danger is stated most simply, and you look there at verse 12, it says, "The law is not of faith." Nothing could be more clear, nothing could be more simple. So the temptation to live by works of the law is the temptation to move away from living by faith, and if we move away from living by faith, our whole soul will be gutted of the life of the spirit. Look at chapter 3 verse 2 and 3. The Apostle Paul is so shocked, he's so surprised that these people who have tasted the blessings of living by faith now go back to the works of the law. And he asks, and let me ask you only this, did you receive the spirit, the Holy Spirit, the great gift of God, the spirit, by works of the law or by hearing by faith? And of course, the answer is, well, we received the Holy Spirit not by merit, but by believing, by believing in Jesus. And so the Apostle Paul says, "Well then, are you so foolish? Have you begun by the Spirit? Are you now thinking that you can be perfected by the flesh?"

Having started on this path by faith in Jesus, do you think you can maintain it and make progress by just simply trying harder, living according to God's law? The efforts to live by works of the law always move us away from God's spirit, moves us away from his life, move us away from his power. And this effort then actually moves us into impotency. It moves us into weakness. And little wonder that the spiritual life of a person who has gotten off the path of walking by faith and onto the path of living the best they can according to the works of the law, little wonder that their spiritual life is so joyless. If you're here and there's ever a time, and there has been these times in my own life when I feel like I'm just feeling grumpy. I feel complaining. I feel down. I feel a darkness. I don't feel light and joy and hope.

I don't feel energized. The likely cause is that we have gotten off the path of walking by faith, and we've gotten on the path of walking by our performance. The righteous shall live by faith. There is no way to truly live the spiritual life than living by faith. But then we ask, "Well, okay. Well, what exactly does it mean to live by faith?" Rather than offering a definition, let me share a snapshot of faith from the heart of a little child. Last week, God gave me and my beloved bride, Kimberly, the joy of vacationing with our children and our grandchildren. So we have nine grandchildren. We were all together in one house.

Lots of laughter, lots of noise, lots of drama, lots of messes and lots of fun. One morning in our devotions together, we read and acted out the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. So one of the grandchildren played the part of Jesus. Another played the part of the little boy with the five loaves and two fish. A couple others were the disciples who passed out the food, and the rest of the grandchildren, they were the crowds receiving food. And as we told the story together, we talked about Jesus praying to his Father before he tore up the loaves and fishes and distributed them to the 5,000. And at the end of the story, we talked about God's great ability. There's nothing too hard for God. And we talked about the compassion of Jesus, seeing that these people were hungry in the first place, and then his willingness to care, to care for our every need because he sees us and he knows us. And what a great God we have.

And so it was a sweet time together. And then we want to flash forward many hours. We're now in the evening, and this whole devotion has faded from my memory at this point. And I was talking with my grown sons about the very spiritual topic of ice cream. And we're realizing we've been here, we bought ice cream a couple of days ago, and the ice cream's almost gone, and this is a problem. We don't want to go without ice cream tonight. And we were talking about this problem. We hadn't even gotten into the solution to the problem, just talking about it, when across the room, little did I know that a little two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was sitting. I think she was coloring a coloring book at the time. Didn't seem like she was even listening in, couldn't imagine she'd be listening, but like little children, they hear more than you think they're hearing.

And all of a sudden, in the midst of our conversation about ice cream, she stands up on her chair at the dining room table. She lifts up her hands to heaven, her face just shining with glory, and she says, "Jesus, send us some ice cream." And she said it with such confidence that I thought maybe I should get a bowl because scoops of ice cream are going to start falling from the ceiling. As I reflected on her response to our discussion, I realized how many times I'm not living by faith. Sweet Raylin's passionate prayer teaches me what living by faith really means. Raylin, she knows that Jesus is the spring of all God's blessings. She's learned that. Thank God she has. She knows that Jesus is all-powerful, that Jesus sees everything and cares about us. She knows that Jesus is willing and he's loving.

He loves to give his children good gifts. And she knows that Jesus actually calls us to cast every care upon him, not just the big cares, but every care upon him. Raylin did not pray after human efforts failed. Raylin prayed before human efforts were tried. Yeah. Raylin's first immediate heart response was prayer and pleadingShe actually believes that God works miracles for her good, and that she's invited to call upon Him and to talk with Him. And I think, what more is there to living by faith than that? While I was planning my trip to Walmart to get ice cream, Raelyn was praying. Now, faith doesn't keep us from planning. Don't get me wrong.

Faith is not passive with human processes. Faith doesn't, for instance, refuse to go to the doctor when we're sick, or refuses to drive to the grocery store, or work diligently in the garden. However, living by faith consciously places God at the center of every problem, every yearning, every hope, every decision, every action. Living by faith means that we look to Jesus as our first resort and our last resort. And as I thought about that, I asked, "How often do I really live by faith? And how often do I live just in my own abilities?" And again, our own abilities, it doesn't mean that God won't use our own abilities. It just means He wants us to live by faith, to look to Him first, and then afterwards, go to Walmart and get ice cream. But He wants to receive the glory. He wants our dependence.

He wants us to think about Him in everything. I think I've shared this before with you, but my wife also has taught me this in a real practical way. I think I've told you that I lose my keys quite often. And I know some of you are already thinking, "Well, Pastor Rich, if you just left the keys in the same place every time, you wouldn't lose your keys." I know. But I just can't help myself. I just continue to put my keys in different places. And so I go on the search. First, "Okay, where are my keys?" And then usually it's when I'm running behind, and so I go on my search for keys thinking I know where they are.

Oh, they're not there, so I go to the second place I normally put them, then I put my third place, and at that point, I'm like, "Oh, no. I don't know where they are now." And so oftentimes, I'll do what good husbands do. I'll, "Kimberly. Kimberly. Kimberly, do you know where my keys are?" And Kimberly has taken this first response, I love this first response. She said, "Well, Rich, have you prayed about that yet?" And I'm like, "Um. No, I actually haven't prayed about that yet."

And again, it's living by faith, not the last resort when, okay, it's been several days, you can't find your keys. It's the first resort. It's a conversation of the presence of God and the dependence upon God that we need every single moment. Living by faith means that faith governs our entire lives. Faith then governs the little things like ice cream shortages and lost keys. And then faith governs the big things like messy marriages, and rebellious children, and the loss of loved ones, and painful diseases, and the loss of jobs, and crushing debts. And it also means that faith then governs the biggest things of all, our worship of the great God, our creator, our eternal future, our spiritual hope, our victory over sin in this world of temptation, our labor for His kingdom to be fruitful and meaningful. The main idea we're going to trace through the passage today is the righteous shall live by faith, faith in Jesus. So let us reject the law as our hope for God's blessing. That's not the path for us to receive the promises of God.

But let us cling to Jesus in faith and rejoice in the blessings that flow only from Him. So as we walk through this passage together, I just want to encourage you on a practical matter, just simply ask the Lord to reveal the answer to this question: Am I really living by faith? And how can I grow stronger in faith, to live by faith more and more consistently? Last week, our youth pastor, Kyler Bell, shared a nourishing message from Galatians 3. He noted in his message that God's promise of blessing comes to us through faith. That's the teaching of the gospel. And that the promise cannot be nullified or changed by the presence of the law, that the promise is sure, it's never changed, it never comes to us in one form and then gets altered and then it has another form later. The promise is the promise. And God gave Abraham the promise of eternal life through faith in Him. And so then 400 years later, God gave the law to Moses.

And so whatever we may think about the law, we must not think that the law is greater than the promise, or has replaced the promise, or even helps us to receive the inheritance that the promise provides for us. All that is in the promise. Now look at verse 18 of Galatians 3. "For if the inheritance comes by law," this is the blessing of God, the blessing of this promise, "it no longer comes by promise." So it's either by the law or promise. There's never a mixture of law and promise to receive the inheritance. And then he says, "But remember your Old Testament, God gave the inheritance to Abraham by a promise." And he's saying, "And that is still the way God operates. He gives His inheritance to us by a promise, not by the law." So the natural question that follows then is, well, why did God give us the law at all?

So the promise was given to Abraham. 400 years later, God gives the law. Why'd He do that? Why didn't He just let the promise stand? Why did He give Moses the law at all? And that's the question that Paul anticipates in verse 19. We see Paul asks the question, "Why then the law?" He knows that his readers are asking that question. Why would God have given Moses the law if the promise was everything? For all of our rejection of the law as a means to receive spiritual life, we must not demean God's law.

We must not think low of God's law. We reject that the law is some dirty word in the Evangelical church, and sometimes when grace is pronounced so effusively that the law is treated as though it's really a terrible thing. It's not. The law is not to be tossed aside as nothing by followers of Jesus. The law of God, it's absolutely good, it's absolutely perfect, but we must use the law for the purpose that God gave the law. To use the law for a purpose other than the purpose God gave the law is to use the law in a way that's actually destructive. So what is the purpose for which God gives the law? And there's two parts to the answer to this question that Paul makes. First, he's going to tell us, well, God gave the law in order to imprison us. And secondly, he says God gave the law to painfully tutor us, to teach us, to guide us.

What does that mean? Well, let's look at that. God gives the law to imprison us. Look at verse 19. "Why, then, the law? It was added because of transgressions," so God gives a promise, but God's people are still violating his righteousness, and he wants to give his people a very clear standard so that they would know what his righteousness is. He wants them to know when they sin that they're actually sinning. So because transgressions are happening, I'm going to give a law to show them that I'm displeased with what they're doing. And he adds this law because of transgressions. Until, in other words, it's going to be temporary, until the offspring, until the Messiah should come to whom the promise was made and through whom the promise is dispersed or given.

And it, the law, was put in place through angels by an intermediary. In other words, God didn't give the law directly to us. And that's important because he wants us to see that the promise is so much greater than the law. First of all, the promise came first, prior to law, but secondly, when God gave the law to Abraham, he gave it to Abraham directly. He spoke directly to Abraham, this promise. But when God gave the law to the people of Israel in the wilderness, how did he give it? Through intermediaries. There were angels. He gave it to angels, and the angels spoke to Moses. If you have a really, really important message to give to one of your children, are you going to send it by a messenger?

You're going to say, "No, this is important enough for me to say it directly." And that's the idea. It says the law was important, and he gave it to trusted messengers, but he gave it to messengers. But the promise, he didn't even trust any messenger with that. He gave it directly. That's why the promise is so much superior to the law. So we read verse 21 and 22 now, the next question. "Is the law then contrary to the promise of God?" In other words, do they cancel each other out? Is there some incongruity between them?

And his answer's, "No! Certainly not. Don't even think that." We completely miss the teaching if we begin to think that the law is somehow against the promise of God. But then he says this, "For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law." You catch that? So he says the law provides a path for us to know how we can get to heaven, and the law is perfect. That if you and I follow the path of God's law perfectly, we will get to heaven. It is a perfect path to a heavenly place. Here's the problem.

Not one of us can stay on the path. So what good is a path if no one is able to climb it? And that's what God's answering. He says, hey, the problem is not with the law. We're not denigrating the law at all. The law's great. The problem is with us, and that's what the path of the law was given to show us how far we fall short of God's standards, of his qualifications to know him, to be part of his family, to have a home forever in heaven. And so he says, "But the Scripture imprisoned," you might underline that word imprisoned. It appears twice here in this passage. "Imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus might be given to those who" what?

"Who believe." The law does not contradict the promise of God. The law complements. It comes alongside of it and helps the promise of God. How does the law help the promise? Well, the law makes us desperate for rescue. The law shows us the condemnation that we deserve. It shows us the separation between us and God. It shows us our failure. It shows us our guilt, our shame.

And the law then makes us, when we listen to the law rightly, it makes us desperate for an escape, for freedom. The promise, on the other hand, provides the means of rescue. It provides the means of freedom. Now, this word imprisoned, again, I encourage you to circle it. It means to shut up on all sides. To shut up on all sides. Imagine yourself for a moment being locked in a prison cell. It's a six-by-six prison cell. Small. And even thinking about this, I get a little claustrophobic describing it, actually.

It's a prison cell with no door and no window. It's a prison cell with six-foot concrete walls and floor and ceiling. It's a prison cell that's completely dark. You can only feel the walls and feel their strength, feel your inability to get out. How does it feel to be in that cell? Again, it makes me uncomfortable even to imagine it very much because I, "Oh, I got to get out. I got to get out." You spend five minutes in that prison cell, and you're like, "I got to find a way to escape. I can't stay in here any longer." Right?

This is what the law does. And it's why, by the way, we don't like to look at the law very deeply. and use it as a mirror against our own life. Because when we look at the law very deeply, if we use it casually, "Yeah, I'm not like that drug addict. I'm not like that murderer. Look at those people on the front of the newspaper. I'm not like them." If we look at the law casually, we'll say, "Yeah, it doesn't imprison me." But if we look at the law as the way God wrote the law, we start feeling the walls closing in on us. We start feeling our imprisonment.

That's what the law is supposed to do, because it makes us absolutely desperate for some way to be free. And in our desperation, we listen then when there's one who received the curse of law for us in our place. Says, "I'm the way to liberty. I'm the way to freedom. I'm the way to forgiveness." The law traps us in God's judgment, so we know that there's no way of escape in ourselves. Luke uses this term imprison in Luke 5:6 to describe fish captured in a net. I love that picture. We were down on vacation and a friend of ours has a boat he took us out on, and we caught some big fish. And whenever you catch a little fish, you can just drag them up with the pole.

But when you catch a big fish, you don't want that fish coming up out of the water when it gets in your boat. What happens? My friend says, "Get the net!" And there's sometimes I get the net, sometimes I don't. You know what happens if I don't get the net, and I try to pull that big fish in? And this is terrible because you try to pull that big fish in, and as soon as it gets out of the water, it starts and inevitably gets off the hook, and off it goes to freedom. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last, the fish says. And we're like, "Oh, no, we can see it. It's gone. Why didn't we use the net?"

You know what happens when you scoop it into the net? It is secure. I've never lost one yet in the net. Now, a net may have a hole in it, but the law is a net that has no holes. In other words, inescapable. Once we're netted by the law, it's like, "Okay, I'm trapped. I'm done." There is no wiggle. There's no effort. There's no energy that I can apply to be free.

For that fish, there's only a future destination on a dinner plate. And for us, there's only a future certain destination in hell. The law is given to condemn us, not to rescue us. So let us not try to use the law as part of the solution to our great problem. That's the issue. And that's why legalism in the church is so damaging. It's so deadly. It just sucks the life out of a church. Look at verse 22. "But the scripture," and there he uses the word, "imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus might be given to those who believe."

There's a famous song in the '60s that says, "I fought the law, and the law won."^[1] And every human, that's the story. I fought the law. I tried to do it. And you know what? The law wins every time. It condemns us. That's true of every single person born in this world. I fought the law, and the law won. Except for what?

Except for one person. And when Jesus sings that song, he says, "I fought the law, and I won." Praise God we have a representative. Praise God we have a savior who fought the law, defeated its condemnation, and offers that to us. The promise of freedom comes to the one who fought the law and won. Amen? Amen. The law imprisoned us, but the law also painfully tutors us. Look at verse 23 and 24. "Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law."

There's that imprisoning again. "Imprisoned until the coming of faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian." You might underline that word or circle it. "Our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith." Now the word guardian, it's kind of difficult for us to understand because it comes from a culture that's different from ours. So in the Roman world, a guardian was usually a slave, a trusted slave, an honored slave, but a slave who was given the task of training up a small child in the household to become a mature adult, one that would honor the family, one that would be ready on to take the estate and all the responsibilities of the estate. And that guardian then trained up this child through harsh and rough discipline. The guardian didn't really love the child. It's just a task for the guardian.

But the guardian was there to teach the child what's right, what's wrong, and to inflict painful discipline when the child did that which was out of line. So to get the idea, think of the strictest teacher or strictest coach you ever had. A person, and for some of you who are of a certain age, I know you've had some of these. I had a number of them. I had some awesome coaches, awesome teachers, but I had some super strict ones, some that terrified you. They were stern. They were seldom encouraging. They were harsh. They used very painful discipline oftentimes. Think of that kind of person, multiply it by a hundredfold, and that's what a guardian is.

That's what Paul wants us to understand. And he says the law is a guardian. The law doesn't love you. The law doesn't smile upon you. The law doesn't pinch your cheeks and say what a cute person you are. That's not what the law does. The law says, "I am here to teach this person what's right and what's wrong, and if they get out of line, I'm going to use pain in order to help them to stay on the right and away from the wrong." That's what the law does. It's a guardian. The father who hires the guardian never intends the guardian to be a permanent presence in the child's life.

Oftentimes, the child will have several guardians throughout their life, but there was a time when they became an adult, no more guardians, you're a son now, and you've learned what you needed toAnd just as this law is harsh to us, it teaches us, inflicts pain upon us when we break the pain of shame, pain of guilt. The guardian prepares the child for a future day, and when that future day, the guardian is completely dismissed, and now the guardian has no authority over the person anymore. And that's what he's saying, this is the day. The Messiah has come, and the law has no more authority over our lives if we are in Christ. Look at verse 25 and 26: "But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian." We've been freed from that. The guardian has place. It helped us to lead us to Christ, to a Messiah who had the answer for our sin problem. "For in Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith." Friends, if you are in Jesus through faith in Him, you are under the authority and mastery of the Lord Jesus, our Messiah.

You are no longer under the authority of the law. Now, that is nothing to be concerned about because Jesus' righteousness is absolutely perfect. Jesus is absolutely perfect in His holiness. He will never lead us away into sin. We never have to be considered, well, if I am released from the authority of the law, then I'm just going to end up with a profligate life. Not if you're following Jesus. No one needs to be concerned that the authority of Jesus will loosen the bonds of sin upon our hearts so that we'll be given more over to them. And here's the truth about legalism. In legalism, it's so subtle oftentimes. We don't even know when it's attached itself to our soul, and this is why studying Galatians is so helpful.

Legalism teaches us that Jesus' followers need the law in order to grow righteousness in our souls, so that when we decide, I want to live a holy life, I'm going to need the law in order to grow righteousness. Legalism teaches that setting the law aside and focusing only on Jesus is going to lead us into sin. And the Apostle Paul says, "No, nothing is further from the truth." You don't need the law to grow in righteousness. In fact, the law will never help you grow in righteousness. The law never helps anybody grow in true righteousness. It's Christ who fulfilled the law, who enables us. It's Christ who fulfilled the law, who frees us. So it's important for us to understand God's good purpose behind the law so that we use the law rightly, because good things become harmful if we use them improperly. Good things become dangerous.

Good things become life-killing if we use them wrongly. I love what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, "A handsaw is a really good thing, but not to shave with."^[2] I love that. So if you're a carpenter, you say, "Man, a handsaw is a really useful tool. I need it in order to build a house." It's a really useful tool for that person. But don't use it to shave your face. All it's going to do, it's going to just cut you up. It could even take your life, as it slices open some vein.

Don't use it for that. If you use it for that, it's going to be harmful. So I made up a list, and you could add to it, but what the law can do and what the law cannot do. So some of these things, most of these things are actually what the law is able to do is actually very good. So the law is able to convict us of sin but not relieve us of our guilt. The law is able to condemn us, but not to justify us, not to free us. The law is able to bring us to despair, but not to hope, not to a joyful future. The law is able to bring us to sorrow, but never to joy. The law is able to enslave us, imprison us, but not to free us. The law is able to create fear, fear of God, fear of future punishment, but not able to grant us the love of God.

The law is able to stimulate a critical spirit, but not to voice encouragement. The law will never help us to be a voice of encouragement in others' lives. The law is able to help us see our own dirt, but not to cleanse us. The law is able to give us a reason to shrink away from God. I better not get close to God because here's what the law is. But the law will never give us a reason to draw near to Him. The law is able to obligate us, say, "This is what you should do. This is what you ought to do," but not able to lead us. The law is able to make us Marthas but not Marys. The law is able to urge us to try harder, but never to move us to pray.

The law is able to bring us to God as our judge, but not make Him our Father. The law is able to guide us with truth. It's true, but it's not able to empower us with the Holy Spirit. The law is able to demonstrate God's righteousness, but the law will never show us God's love. The law is able to help us to train us toward performance-based relationships, but not love-abounding relationships. Again, the whole of this is the law is a really good thing. It's not the law's fault that we don't keep it, but the law was never given us to live. Jesus was sent for that, which leads us to the greater benefit of faith, and I'm going to go through these rather quickly. But I think it's right for us to say when we turn and live not according to works of the law, but we live by faith in Jesus, and we say, "My eyes are laser-fixed upon Jesus. My need for Him, He's a wonderful Savior. He's an amazing shepherd. He's a sovereign Lord and King. He is a prophet whom God sent to me to explain to me God's truth."

When our eyes are fixed upon Christ, then life begins to flourish in us as we grasp Him by faith. So what does He do? Well, faith in Jesus justifies us, verse 24. "The law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith." Again, we've talked about what it means to be justified. It means God as judge legally declares us who are guilty of sin to be righteous, to be not guilty, and actually to be righteous. There's a future day when we're going to give an account to the Lord. And imagine that we're at that day, and you're seated at the table of judgment. Imagine what that's like. It's just you, it's the Lord, and there's this table of judgment.

We're waiting to give an account. And imagine that as you're seated at this table of judgment, the law takes the witness stand. And the law begins to rehearse everything you've done from the time you're a little child all the way to the day of your death. It rehearses and actually shows videotape of your thoughts, of your attitudes, and with every thought and attitude, it shows the law of God. Here's your evil thought, here's the law of God. Here's perfection, here's the law. Here's your action, here's the law of God. Here's the sin, here's the law of God. And it's a big, long testimony. And every time you're like, "I can't deny that, they got video evidence of this. I can't deny that, that's true."

And you start shriveling in your seat as the law gives a testimony, and there's this dread, there's a sweat that comes down upon your face as you realize you have nothing to say in your defense to move you away from righteous response of the judge, the law giver. And then the law finally is finished, and you're just undone. And then Jesus takes the stand, and you've placed your faith in Jesus. You're one of those who in this life said, "Jesus, I need a savior. I can't be my own savior." And Jesus takes the stand, and He takes all that long list, and each time He splatters the blood of His own cross sacrifice over, and it covers it. It's like it erases it, right in the moment. It erased it in a moment. It's completely gone. And as you sit there, you hear Jesus stretch out His hands and show His hands to the Father, hands that have been pierced.

He shows His feet, and He says, "For this one, I've died. I promise to give him forgiveness. I promise to give her cleansing. I promise to adopt this one into my family, and I have." And then He points to the robes that we're wearing. We've almost forgotten because the law's testimony was so crushing. He says, "And look at the robes that they're wearing, the robes of perfect righteousness, the robes that are completely spotless. There's no flaw in this person because I've taken my clothes, and I've put it on that person, so that, Judge, when you see the person, you only see my righteousness." And the judge says, "Yes, I agree." And at the end of that hearing, "Justified. Enter into my home, my perfect home where there is no sin. Enter in because you are my child, my child through faith in Jesus."

What a blessing that faith in Jesus provides in justifying us. Secondly, faith in Jesus adopts us into God's family. Look at that in verse 26, "For in Christ Jesus you're all sons of God through faith." The law reminds us that God's our judge, but Jesus came to give us the right to be called children of God, to call God Abba Father, to know God and to know His love. Let me ask you a question. Are you a child of God? And only people who can say they're a child of God, because becoming a child of God comes through faith. That's the only way anyone's a child of God, through faith, through faith in Jesus. Are you a child of God? All of eternity hangs in the balance.

Your present relationship with God hangs in the balance. The third blessing, faith in Jesus unites us to Jesus, and I love this. For as many of you as were baptized into Jesus have put on Christ. We've been identified with Christ in such a way that He is in us, and we are in Him, and that Jesus now forever joins His own divine, perfect, righteous person to our own soul, and it's an inseparable union. It's so mysterious. It's hard to even talk about. But it is a wonder that we have been baptized into Jesus, identified completely in Jesus, so that when the Father looks upon us, He sees His own Son, Jesus. And now we've put on Christ every day. That's what it means to walk by faith, that Christ is our life now and forever and ever. And not only are we united to God through Jesus Christ, but we're united to one another, to God's family.

Look what he says in verse 28. Love this. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's not male or female, for all are one in Christ." Now, again, this verse is one of the most misused and misapplied verses in all the Bible. It has been used by amillennialists to suggest that there are no distinctions between Jews and Gentiles. It's been used by egalitarians and homosexual groups to suggest there are no distinctions between male or female. That's not true. That's not what he's saying. What is he saying? He's just simply saying that this privilege that comes through Christ is as easily accessible to Gentiles as it is to Jews.

It's as easily accessible to slaves as it is to free and rich people. It's as easily accessible to females as it is to males. And in the kingdom of God, there's an equality of God's love, equality of God's acceptance. And law-based relationships, they're filled with what? They're filled with envy and criticism and anger. We're better than you. Harsh judgment, unforgiveness, divisions, feelings of superiority and favoritism. All these things are what the law brings because we measure each other according to how we think we perform the law and how others we think perform the law. But the gospel brings us all down at the foot of the cross in absolute despair of our own sin. Last, faith in Jesus makes us heirs of God.

I love this. So our unity together with the Lord and with each other, its foundation is a person, the resurrected Lord. That's why we're brother and sisters. But now as brothers and sisters, we are now heirs together, heirs of God and of His promise. Verse 29If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, and I love this, circle it, heirs according to the promise. Now, the promise is all of creation. God created everything, so He possesses everything. And the Lord is bringing in His eternal kingdom. He's bringing it in now, He's going to bring it in ultimately, and if we have a part in Jesus through faith, if we are bound to Him, we are also bound to His inheritance. Every part of His inheritance because He's in us, and we are in Him.

Every part of His inheritance becomes our inheritance. And that inheritance, it is so full. What does it mean to be an heir of God? Well, it means we're His children, we're part of His family. It means we have access every day to talk with Him. It means that we're forgiven, we're washed clean. It means that we have His Spirit living in us, empowering us, that His Spirit actually dwells now inside of us, and we can walk with the Spirit, and we can have the fruit of the Spirit born in our lives. It means that we have a home in heaven, that when we die, we're going to be with God. There's a room in the Father's house that Jesus Himself has prepared. It means that we have a part in God's kingdom forever and ever.

I love all that. And all of that's our inheritance. There's so much. Let me just talk about one little piece of this inheritance before we leave. And we prayed over a family who had a severe loss this past week. There was a brother in our church family whose dad just suddenly, unexpectedly passed away while he was out working in the yard. And this dad was a precious man. He filled a daily place in the life of this family. He filled this family's days with joy and service and support and encouragement and love, and then he was taken so very quickly. And we asked the question, "Well, where's the hope in that story?"

That's a depressing story to leave on. And I tell you, under the law, there is no hope. If we're under the law, that's the end. There is no final chapter. There is no ongoing story that's being written. But this man loved Jesus, and he lived for Him, and as such, he's an heir of God. And guess what? Heirs of God never die. Amen. Because God has got life, and heirs of God never die.

And even though our bodies die, and yes, our bodies die, our spirit remains, and even though our bodies die, our body will not die forever, that our body will be resurrected, joined to our spirit with a new resurrected life. And here's part of our inheritance. Jesus is going to come again, and He's going to establish His kingdom on this earth, this earth where we live, that has so much wrong with it, and will even have more wrong with it during the tribulation period, is going to be restored. Restored in a way that is so amazing that we won't even hardly recognize the place. The Bible talks about a wolf laying down with a little lamb, and they get along together. The Bible talks about a little child playing in a viper pit and not being harmed. So when the King comes and establishes His kingdom, He even settles natural order. So this man who died, he loved to fish. And one of the things we talked about as we were together as a family was, "Will my dad fish in heaven?" Is that a great story?

And I was able to think in the moment, the Lord brought to my mind Ezekiel 47. You can read it later, but let me just tell you what Ezekiel says. Ezekiel envisions the day when the Messiah returns, establishes His kingdom on the earth, especially centered in Jerusalem, but over the whole of the earth. The earth is filled with abundance because of the presence of the Messiah here. And it's going to take place, Revelation says it's going to have a thousand years of this state. And the Bible says that those who are saints who have been already died and proceeded get their new resurrected body. They come back to the earth with Jesus to rule and reign with Him. Isn't that an amazing part of our inheritance to think about? And then the Bible describes this, and Ezekiel 47 is so great because it takes us a little snapshot. It talks about a river flowing out of the temple, the temple in Jerusalem, that flows out of the temple, and it flows over into the Jordan River.

And it flows down the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. Now, if you've ever been to Israel, the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea for a good purpose. It's six times more salty than the ocean. So when you look at the Dead Sea, there is absolutely nothing living in it. And Ezekiel tells us about when Jesus comes, this river of life is going to flow into the Jordan River, flow down to the Red Sea, and when it hits the Red Sea, that salty water becomes fresh, and that it begins to be filled with fish of all different kinds. And then it describes this. Ezekiel says fishermen. Here's what's going to happen, and he even describes this in Ezekiel 47. Fishermen are going to stand from the north of the Dead Sea all the way to the south of the Dead Sea. They're going to stand shoulder to shoulder, and they're going to be fishing, just pulling fish after fish out of the Dead Sea.

Is that an inheritance worth living for? I mean, that's just one little snapshot. And when I shared that, the son was so like, "Man, that's so exciting because I know my dad loved to fish, and I wondered whether he went fishing again." And that's just one tiny little picture of the joy that awaits us through faith in Jesus. The righteous shall live by faith. Father in heaven, I pray that you would bless us today. Bless us this Mother's Day. Bless moms. I pray, oh Father, that for those who have not yet come to faith in Jesus, I pray, oh Lord, that this would be the day that you have ordained to meet them with your favor and your grace and your mercy. That those who have not yet placed their faith, depended upon Jesus to be their Savior, that, oh Father, that you would bring an awareness of their desperate condition, and that in their desperation, they would also see the absolute grace and loving kindness of Jesus opening up His arms, inviting them to come.

"Come to me. Everyone who's thirsty, everyone who has a need, come to me, and I will supply." Father, I pray that this day would be the day of salvation. And for those of us who have trusted in Jesus as our Savior and have been walking this path with Him, following Him, I pray, oh Father, that you would strengthen our faith, that our eyes would be more firmly fixed upon Jesus moment by moment, day by day, that we'd experience His life flowing in us and then through us for your glory now and forever and ever. Amen.

Referenced in this sermon

1. Sonny Curtis, I Fought the Law (1959). View ↩
2. John Ploughman's Pictures by Charles H. Spurgeon (1880). View ↩