Sermon for June 23, 2019

Faith in Christ Saves Us!

This morning I’ll be reading Galatians chapter 3 verses 23 through 29

And I'll be reading the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Galatians 3:23–29 HCSB

Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

Paul wrote this part of the letter to the church in Galatia to clear up confusion about the way that they were trying to live. The people in Galatia were beginning to try to live by the old laws of Moses and were ignoring the effects of grace that came from Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:23-29

The Holman Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Sons and Heirs

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

Have you ever wondered why we don’t live by some of the laws of Moses like the Israelites did?

There are numerous laws and commands that are in the Old Testament that we seemingly ignore.

We,,, as Christians,,, are accused by some,,, of cherry picking our scriptures to obey and ignoring others,,, when in fact there are many that don’t apply to us today.

The scriptures that I read this morning will hopefully help us to see why Paul encouraged the people from the church in Galatia that they weren’t bound by the laws of Moses any more.

We as Christians aren't bound by the law anymore either.

Once Jesus came to earth and died for our sins,,, and was resurrected,,, lives at the right hand of God,,, and we accepted Him as our Savior,,, we were freed from the law.

Not that the law wasn't good,,, because Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law not abolish the law,,, found in it says: 17“Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

If you remember Jesus said this during the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapters 5 through 7.

Jason Meyer said in his theology paper,,, that

Jesus’ declaration that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not to abolish them, obviously contains two statements in one.

There is something Jesus did and something He did not do.

At the same time, Jesus emphasized the eternal nature of the Word of God.

Jesus goes out of His way to promote the authority of the Law of God.

He did not come to abolish the Law, regardless of what the Pharisees accused Him of.

He did come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

In other words, Jesus’ purpose was to establish the Word, to embody it, and to fully accomplish all that was written.

The predictions of the Prophets concerning the Messiah would be realized in Jesus; the holy standard of the Law would be perfectly upheld by Christ, the strict requirements personally obeyed, and the ceremonial observances finally and fully satisfied.

Jesus Christ fulfilled the Prophets in that, in His first coming alone, He fulfilled several prophecies concerning Himself.

Some examples in the New Testament that speaks of these are found in - ; ; ; .

Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law in at least two ways: as a teacher and as a doer.

He taught people to obey the Law,,, and He obeyed the Law Himself.

In living a perfect life, Jesus fulfilled the moral laws;

In His sacrificial death, Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial laws.

Christ came not to destroy the old religious system but to build upon it; He came to finish the Old Covenant and establish the New.

Jesus came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them.

In fact, the ceremonies, sacrifices, and other elements of the Old Covenant were “only a shadow of the good things to are come—not the actual realities themselves” found in .

The tabernacle and temple were “holy places made with hands,” but they were never meant to be permanent; they were but “only a copy of the true one” found in .

The Law had a built-in expiration date, being filled as it was with “physical regulations applying until the time of the restoration” found in .

In His fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, Jesus obtained our eternal salvation.

No more were priests required to offer sacrifices and enter the holy place,,, found in .

Jesus has done that for us, once and for all.

By grace through faith, we are made right with God:

In it says: “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross”.

So we can see now that God had a plan from the very beginning and how it was fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

But,,, do we still find ourselves trying to earn our way into Heaven?

If everything has been settled by the death and resurrection of Jesus,,, why are we still worrying about our salvation?

I know for me,,, the first thing that I had to do was to accept the fact that I would never be good enough on my own and I could only be saved through Jesus.

That was so hard to really understand at first because of the laws of our world today!

We are taught that nothing in this world is free and we must work hard to achieve our dreams.

No-one can succeed without giving it 100%.

I've used that one a lot,,, both as advise to myself and to others!

But once we realize that we can't do it on our own and fully give our life to Christ,,, then we are ready to really live as God intended for us to live here on earth.

If you remember,,, Paul begins chapter 3 with the words, "You foolish Galatians", and begins to ask them how they received the Holy Spirit.

You see,,, they had the same problem that we still have today.

They thought that the acceptance of the Holy Spirit without doing anything to earn it was impossible while the whole time they didn't understand that this wasn't something that could be earned.

Paul spends several verses leading up to the verses that are used this morning explaining why the law doesn't save and how we are shown to be deserving of death because of the law.

But he also explains that because of Jesus taking our sins upon Himself and dying for all the sins in the world,,, both before Him and after Him,,, (in other words,, theirs and ours today),,, we aren't bound by the law anymore.

Then Paul explains why the law was given in the verses 19 through 25.

In my study Bible,,, it says that the law has two functions.

On the positive side,,, it reveals the nature and will of God and shows people how to live.

On the negative side,,, it points out peoples sins and shows them that it is impossible to please God by trying to obey all of His laws completely because we will always fail.

God's promise to Abraham dealt with his faith,,, while the law focuses on action.

The covenant with Abraham shows that faith is the only way to be saved; the law shows how to obey in grateful response.

Faith doesn't do away with the law,,, but the more we know God,,, the more we see how sinful we really are.

Then we are driven to depend on our faith in Christ alone for our salvation.

In the verses that we have this morning,,, in my Holman Christian Standard Bible it says that,,, Paul is comparing the law to a prison and in the King James Bible it is compared to a schoolmaster.

While my Bible Knowledge Commentary says that neither of these comparisons are quite accurate because the Greek word that it's trying to describe are stricter than the English language can describe.

It says that the Greeks and Romans used a slave-guardian,,, as they were called,,, that was given the task of guarding up and coming young boys from the ages of six or seven to puberty so that they were protected from the evils of society and they also gave them moral training.

These slaves were very strict on the boys when it came to discipline but they accomplished their job.

This is more the image that Paul is trying to tell us that the law was compared to.

The laws were very strict and the punishment harsh but it protected them from the dangers of society.

This was the laws function until Christ came and the people could be justified by faith in Him.

Then in verse 26 it says that all who believe in Christ become sons of God.

In the preceding verses Paul had been comparing them to young boys that needed protection and training,,, here in these verses he is comparing them as adults,,, no longer needing to be kept under the slave-guardian since Christ has come.

Paul is asking them why would they want to revert back to their inferior status since Christ has elevated them to such a promise.

In verse 27 Paul says that if you have been baptized in Christ,,, then you have put on Christ like a garment.

This is the baptism of,,, "or in",,, the Holy Spirit,,, which connects us all together in Christ.

This union with Jesus means being clothed or covered with Christ.

In the Roman society when a youth came of age he was given a special toga which admitted him to the full rights of the family and state and indicated he was a grown-up son.

So the Galatian believers had laid aside the old garments of the Law and had put on Christ’s robe of righteousness which grants full acceptance before God.

Again,,, Paul is saying,,, who would want to put on the old clothing and revert back to their inferior status?

Verse 28 means that we are all one in Jesus Christ.

Some Jewish men prayed that they were thankful that they weren't a gentile, slave or a woman and here Paul makes it clear that there is no distinction between any of them as far as spiritual privilege and position is concerned.

Verse 29 says that if we belong to Christ,,, then we are heirs of Abraham,,, according to the promise.

This means that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ and justified through our faith just like Abraham was justified by his faith.

So hopefully,,, you can see why we aren't bound by the laws of Moses today.

The perfect life of Jesus Christ made it all possible,,, and the amazing part is that it's free

Once Jesus came and died for our sins and was resurrected and lives in heaven at the right hand of God,,, and we accepted Him as Savior,,, we have been freed from these laws that were here to make us aware of how short we come of living up to God's standards on our own.

Since we know now that we don't earn our way to heaven by trying to earn it or be good enough for it,,, this should free us from worrying about our salvation and allow us to enjoy the fruits of Jesus' labor that He came here to accomplish.

Another thing that I want you to remember is that once you accept Christ as your personal Savior,,, Satan will try his best to trick you into believing that you aren't good enough to get into Heaven when you make mistakes and fall short.

He will use every subtle lie that you can think of whenever you mess up and do something that you shouldn't have done.

That's why John Wesley said that we are working toward perfection in this life,,, not that we are perfect!

That's why prayer, Bible reading, Bible study, church, Sunday school, etc. all of these things are important because they will help us continue to grow and learn as we strive to live as the Holy Spirit guides us.

All of these things together help to keep us attuned to the Holy Spirit as we go through our time away from church.

So as you leave here today and begin your week,,, remember these scriptures and the words of Paul that we aren't under the law anymore but we have been saved by our faith in Jesus Christ and we are all children of God and Abrahams descendants,,, able to share in the spiritual promises of justification of faith.

Also remember that if you fail and make a mistake,,, listen to the Holy Spirit as it guides you,,, admit it to God,,, ask for forgiveness and continue in your relationship with God,,, being sure that you don't listen to the lies of Satan that you will never be good enough.

Because he never stops trying even though he knows that his days are numbered.

So as we sing our final hymn,,, let me remind you that the alter is always open,,,

If you feel God speaking to you,,, don't hesitate to come,,, maybe you just have questions,,, God will answer,,, you just have to ask Him,,, whatever the need may be,,,

As we sing the final hymn,,, come if needed!

Oakdale - Hymn Page - 357

Seminary - Hymn Page - 431

1 - We are not bound by the laws of Moses any longer. Once Jesus came and died for our sins and was resurrected and lives in heaven at the right hand of God,,, and we accepted Him as Savior,,, we have been freed from these laws that were here to make us aware of how short we come of living up to God's standards on our own.

A - Explain why we don't need to go back to the law of Moses

B - Since we are children of God now,,, we aren't bound by the law of Moses.

C - Do we find ourselves still looking for ways to earn our way to heaven?

D - This passage points us to Christ by allowing our salvation to come from Him without trying to earn it or be good enough for it.

2 - Conclusion - Since we know now that we don't earn our way to heaven by trying to earn it or be good enough for it,,, this should free us from worrying about our salvation and allow us to enjoy the fruits of Jesus' labor that He came here to accomplish.