Galatians (Session 5) Chapter 3b

well welcome to our review of the epistle to the galatians we're in our fifth session and we're going to be focusing on the finish up of chapter three chapter three was a little too ambitious to squeeze in one session so we split it in the two and so we are in chapter 3 but about first 15 as i recall the outline of the whole book of course the first two chapters are very personal paul's ministry his method and his message the next two chapters are doctrinal and that's where we are we're halfway through the first of two chapters that are really in the doctrinal doctrinal central portion of the epistle and the last two chapters are what one might say is practical and so those are the that's that one that's one way of looking at it the first two chapters are focused on the authenticity of the gospel that paul was teaching it was genuine regards its origin and genuine as regarding its nature the next two chapters focus on the superiority of the gospel of grace in contrast to the gospel of the kingdom we've covered all that so the the new um relation that it affects and the privileges it releases is those two chapters and then the last two chapters will be about the true liberty we enjoy because of the gospel love service rather than the law of bondage and spirit ends the flesh bondage so uh so we're in chapter three and the whole focus has been in chapter three law versus grace and and with these doctrinal things that paul explains the relationship between law and grace that they are mutually exclusive that comes as a surprise to many people because most people even well-meaning christians try to add some law to their grace not understanding that's a contradiction in terms in fact one thing we didn't bring out but if you read romans 7 the first four verses many people miss the point of it because paul talks about marriage enduring as long as the husband's alive when the husband dies the wife is free to remarry et cetera and you think if you're not reading carefully that those verses are about marriage no he's making an analogy that between law keeping the law if you keep if you're a christian keeping the law you're an adulterer that's really what he's saying because you're married to christ not the law anyway three words are very frequently repeated in this section faith occurs 14 times law 19 times and the promise is 11 times and he presents six arguments three in each of these two chapters chapters three and four and uh seeking to prove that salvation is by grace through faith apart from works of the law we went through the personal argument as it's called last time we looked at the scriptural argument last time and uh just to give you a quick review of that paul quotes six quotes to make what he called what we call his spiritual is a scriptural argument in verses six and seven he referred to genesis 15 6 verses eight and nine he quoted genesis 12 3 for verse 10 he quotes deuteronomy 27 and then habakkuk 2 4 and then leviticus 8 18 5 and deuteronomy 21. and uh when and when we just by way of review from einstein when we were in verses six and seven of chapter three he quoted genesis 15 6 that uh abraham believed god and it kind of and it was counted for righteousness that was in chapter 15. he doesn't get circumcised until chapter 17. in other words he was saved before he circumcised that's really the point that paul is making and the judaizers like to point to abraham the father of the jews of course as their example and paul does the same thing he goes back to the example they like to point to how was abram saved by faith and all who trust christ are children spiritual children of abraham the father of all the believers and the next quote he used was uh genesis 12 3. um i'll bless them at bless thee and curse in the curse of thee and you see god promised to bless the heathen the gentiles way back there in genesis 12. which indicates that this you know the the this gospel of grace was not an afterthought it's a climax and uh so god promised to bless the gentiles through abraham which means by the way that the jews and gentiles are saved the way same way it's one body that's one of the uh aspects of this whole issue that's one reason paul rebuked peter back there because he what was at stake one or two if the gentiles get saved a different way than the jews do then you have a divided body you've got two the whole idea it's one one body anyway the gospel that abraham believed was the good news that god would bless abraham and make him a mighty nation and abraham believed that promise and that's what counted uh it was accounted for righteousness now the gospel that abraham believed doesn't necessarily mean he understood it all we find often the apostles themselves didn't even understand the death of christ now after the fact after the fact so that doesn't diminish their commitment to what they did believe so uh verse 10 paul quotes deuteronomy 27 26 and are you if you you want to be saved by the works of the law but the law does not save it curses the point and then he quoted habakkuk 2 4 which we spent quite a bit of time on that just shall live by faith that galatians romans and hebrews are a trilogy on that very verse habakkuk 2 4 was the masthead of the reformation and that little verse is so rich that there are three new testament commentaries on it romans galatians and hebrews which is another reason i hold to the view that paul wrote hebrews for lots of reasons not just that one then the fifth quote that paul used in uh in the last session was that he quoted from leviticus 18 5 the difference between doing and believing no one has ever been saved by doing the law because nobody can fully obey the law and so no one's been ever saved by the law the law is there as a reference point not not as a basis for access now verses 13 and 14 last time he quote deuteronomy 21 that of course it is everything hang on a tree and that that quote from deuteronomy 21 the law puts us under the curse but christ died to remove that curse he died on a tree on the word hook son means something i would it could be a it could be it could have been a guillotine it could have been a uh the term wood the tree isn't a tree with branches it means it's made out of wood a wooden structure is the way that term is used anyway um that fulfilled the word though in deuteronomy 21 because he took the curse upon himself that makes us free to live in christ and we're going to be building on that as we go forward and now the blessing that god promised abraham is now available to gentiles by faith you know it's fascinating to me when you start studying these covenants to realize how the world is challenging the covenants it's interesting how they're challenging the land covenant the us is even participating in that it's interesting how the church the denominational churches are challenging the davidic covenant oblivious to the fact that the millennium is the fulfillment of the davidic covenant and that's a study i encourage you to undertake an independent of this one but we'll move on here so that's where we were last time superficially reviewed from chapter 3 verses 1 through 14 what we're going to address in this session will be the third of the six arguments the logical argument and that'll carry us from verse 15 through verse 29 of chapter 3. so we're let's just jump into your into the bible galatians 3 verse 15 brethren i speak after the manner of men though it be but a man's covenant yet if it be confirmed no man disinellath or addeth thereto the way we might paraphrase that a contract is a contract that's what it means see even if paul's opponents admitted that abraham was justified by faith those judaizers might have argued that the law coming at a later time entirely changed the basis for achieving salvation but he points out that that would be in a sense a breach in a sense a breach of contract these are vernacular to refute all this paul declared that just as a properly executed roman covenant or will based on ancient greek law cannot arbitrarily be set aside or changed so likewise the promises of god are immutable unchangeable because they're precedent and that we we hold the same thing in our current uh legal structure so further the promise spoken to abraham and to a seed were not fulfilled before giving of the law so that doesn't make them of none effect rather they found fulfillment in christ and are in effect forever and you can't there's no way you can argue that they were fulfilled prior to the giving law and so the law can't annul them or that makes god a liar you know it's very interesting i'm always intrigued as i keep hearing the propaganda from the muslim world that well allah is the same as the god of the old testament nothing could be sillier allah is presented he can do anything that means he can in fact he's capricious they make a point of that in the quran well that's interesting because the god of abraham yakov delights in making and keeping his promises they're presented as opposites one is reliable one is not one is not trustworthy and so uh even just in terms of the presentations they're antithetical they're opposites now god takes great pride in the sense of when he makes when he he means what he says and says what he means and when he makes a covenant a promise he keeps it and anyway the blessing of justification by faith is therefore permanent and could not be changed by some subsequent law so let's go to verse 16. now to abraham and his seed wherever the promise is made he saith not to seeds notice the plural as a and it was it's not pluralism and to see now he's he saith not and deceits as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is christ the word seed there means a specific seed it's singular it means indeed christ and i was very amused in the first editions of the the new king james they failed to pick up on that because this makes a whole case from the quotes there in genesis and they had missed that in the translation they fixed it since i believe but the word seed is singular and paul makes a whole point of that in this passage seed singular not plural and in genesis 12 7 13 15 and 24 7 that point is made as a singular it's important because it's pointing to christ not not just offspring in general simply reminded the readers that the faithful in israel had always recognized that blessing would ultimately come through a single individual namely the messiah the nageed matthew declared christ to be the son of abraham and the true heir to the first covenant's promises that's the way the gospel that's where the new testament opens with the first verse of the first chapter of matthew and the word seed refers specifically to christ it's interesting when you get to this big confrontation in john 8 where they're calling him a bastard and back and forth he said christ said to him your father abraham rejoiced to see my day he saw it and was glad he was acknowledging that abraham prophetically speaking looked to the day when christ would fulfill so uh anyway it all ties together continuing verse 17 and this i say that the covenant which was confirmed before of god in christ the law which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect let's go over that more carefully this i say paul says that the covenant that was confirmed before of god in christ the law which was 430 years later cannot disa null to negate or make the promise of no effect 430 years before the law the gospel of create grace was installed finally paul applied the principle of permanence by faith by affirming that a covenant made so long before could not possibly have be altered by a later giving of the law the law was given 430 years later and to a narrower group by the way it was to israel not everyone so he continues for if the inheritance be of the law it is no more of promise but god gave it to abraham by promise the term promises used in the sense of being a gift not earned a gift additionally the law could not alter god's dealing with abram on the basis of a promise because the two are fundamentally different in nature the differences between a gift and wages one is earned one is a gift they're not they're not the same they're different they do not co-mingle as the is the point they cannot be combined i don't know if we when we were talking about works earlier we we may have failed to highlight where that all started started in genesis three when adam and eve attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves and god covered them with coats of skins it's just a little one sentence thing there in genesis 3 27 but the point is god is teaching them by the by the uh innocent by by innocent blood they would be covered it was the it was the foreshadowing of the whole levitical system and so uh now instead inheritance here is given uh that is when he says inheritance he's referring to justification by faith was given by god as an unconditional gift to those who believe if you believe you've got it it's nailed it's done so contrary to the claim of the judaizers obedience to the law was not necessary to gain the inheritance god's way of salvation has always been by grace through faith that's one of the great tragedies of many of these dispensational charts clearly there are dispensations different eras and different with different ground rules sort of the tragedy is the church age on those things is typically called the age of grace and that's a mislabel because every one of the dispensations was by grace and and uh that's why there's a lot of misunderstanding about that anyway the promise concerning christ was made before the mosaic law was given so that promise holds as good as though there had been no law given the promise was made irrespective of the law that's what paul is essentially trying to get across here going to verse 19 wherefore then serveth the law if that's also what good is it wherefore then serve the law it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator paul is going to make that point because paul was ordained by god himself not through angels even the law was given through angels many of us missed that point unless you're studying exodus 19 carefully but see the whole law it was added because of transgressions until the seed that is christ should come to whom the promise was made so see moses is represented here as receiving the law from an angel in contrast to the to the grace which is given directly and that may surprise you but in deuteronomy 32 verse 2 especially in septuagint that's very clear that it was it affected angelic mediator but the law was given to reveal not remove sin i always i'm amused remember when water martin was before a very conservative denominational church group and uh in his mischievous way he he was just presenting the law as like our shaving mirror to show us our need but we don't shave by the mirror we're shaved by grace and and most of us have the same reaction you just left but in this very stage church you could tell they weren't used to walters flippancy one of the greatest living apologists of our time but he had a certain mischievous uh uh pun pun in him all the time anyway so uh but uh the law was given to reveal the sin to reveal the need for a redeemer the law never removed sin all it could law could do at curse so what you say gee one of these uh indignant judaizers was bound to respond with objections to paul's insistence that the law could not give the holy spirit could not bring justification and could not alter the permanence of faith and those were points that paul was going to hammer home the law did not give the holy spirit the law could not bring justification it just could indicate the need for it and of course could not alter the permanence of faith and but it does bring a curse is the whole point so that's another way of recapping this so wherefore the law why is it well the law was added to give sin the character of transgressions to make it specific and and uh measurable men had been sinning before moses but in the absence of the law their sins were not put to their account according to romans 5 13 the law gave to sin the character of transgression that is personal guilt it makes it personal it makes makes them holds them a response it makes holds them responsible in fact if you read romans carefully you'll discover that law was given so that we would sin the more that sounds shocking but it i'll let you get into the roman study on that one since men not only continue to sin after the law was given they were provoked to transgress by the very law that forbade it that's just the perversity in human nature it conclusively proved that the inverted sinfulness of man's nature another way of putting all the same thing is to say a guy is not a horse thief because he steals a horse he steals a horse because he's a horse thief that's the flavor of it okay next point is the law therefore concluded all under sin the law was an ad interim dealing till the seed should come the law was designed to be temporary it was to serve until the the the seed the messiah came the law shut sinful man up to faith as the only avenue of escape and this is a way of redeeming man where man gets no credit for it it's all it's all a gift of god faith is the god's rebuttal to pride there was to jews what the child discipliner was in the greek household a custodian of the children in their minority and it has this character until christ and that's what he's going to develop here in the verses that follow and the christ having come the believer becomes a disciple of christ himself of course now now a mediator is not a mediator of one but god is one see closely related to the previous verse verse 19 a mediator implies a covenant between two parties both of whom have responsibilities and those that those that fact is true of the mosaic covenant it's a two-party deal on the other hand god is one that is the promise was unilateral it was unconditional and that was good to man directly without a mediator god did it himself remember what he had abraham do he had abraham the way they used to strike a serious bar covenant in those days was the two people would take an offering split in two and they'd together do a figure eight between them reciting the terms of the covenant that they're getting into that was a a way of demonstrating a serious commitment so god has abraham set that all up but then he puts abraham in a deep sleep and god alone goes through the procedure in the form of a burning torch and so on and what's his point that there was nothing that abraham could contribute or needed to do as a it was a one-way deal it was just a way of dramatizing that it's a unconditional covenant god alone had responsibility for fulfilling it and so uh that's the point that lies behind paul's remark here is the law then against the promises of god making it god forbid may it not be so is a greek term for if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law let's think about that for a minute if there had been a law given that could given life then christ's prayer in gethsemane wasn't answered three times in gethsemane he with some desperation please if there's any other way let's take it nevertheless not by will but thine be done and he said that with an intensity the the scripture says that he sweat blood and that's not a layman's exaggeration that's dr luke recording that is there a conflict between the law and promises perish the thought is the way it's sometimes translated mayor genito is is treated as god forbid perish the thought heaven forbid whatever declared the apostle god gave both the law and the promises but for different purposes and it was not the purpose of the law to give life the purpose of law is to show us the need we have for a redeemer to give us life so see theoretically salvation could have come by the law if people had been capable of keeping it perfectly but they could not romans 8 the life promised to those who sought to obey the law refers to temporal blessing on earth the life promised to those who sought to obey the law refers to just temporal blessing on the earth but contrast that with the gethsemane prayers if we just have if the law is not opposed to the promises if there's no conflict between them how can their harmony be demonstrated by recognizing that while the law could not justify or give life it did prepare the way for the gospel we wouldn't understand or appreciate or comprehend the gospel except for the need that the law manifests paul continues verse 22 but the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of christ jesus christ might be given to them that believe see what part the law have here what did the law contribute this it declared the whole world a prisoner of sin in the first place and paul may be referring either to psalm 43 here or deuteronomy 27 same thoughts in there paul declared that the whole world is trapped and under the dominion of sin and that's when romans 3 builds on that whole idea that christ that the faith the promise of faith by faith of christ jesus might be given to them that believe when people recognize this and give up attempts to please god by their own works then finally the way is prepared for them to receive the promise of salvation through faith in christ see our first instincts just the opposite get all excited about christ boy i'm going to do great things for god we've missed the point we can't how many of you have heard god helps those who help themselves that is wrong god helps those who come to the end of themselves that's a precondition to really getting something done something through the spirit something for which he gets the credit verse 23 before faith came we were kept under this law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed before faith came see paul uses two figures of speech in these passages lightning law to a prison and also to a child custodian and we don't have those quite this way in our culture we need to explain what a pedagogue says but um but before this faith came means before the advent of faith in christ that was picked up the previous verse justifying faith was operative in the old testament but faith in the person and work of christ did not come until he was revealed okay so before faith came before that israel was under the protective custody of the law god thus shielding his people from the even heathen rights surrounding them so it was constructed from that point of view for sure wherefore the law was also our school master to bring us down to christ that we might be justified by faith and he's going to he's going to build on this in several ways the word in the greek is pedagogues it's pedagogue as close to it as we use it in english but it was he was a slave to whom a son was committed typically from the age of six to seven to puberty he was the the son in the family was committed to the slave who was responsible for him keeping him out of trouble and so forth they were very severe disciplinarians they were charged with guarding the children from the evils of the society around them and giving a moral they they couldn't even go out on the street unless he was along with him it was a very protective situation and at the same time he would also be giving them uh interruption to the moral training that the household had expected so the law of moses is used by paul here in that idiom if you will he sees the law of moses in three parts commandments that's expressing the righteous will of god judgments governing the social life of israel and ordinances governing the religious life in israel and there's examples of that in exodus 20 21-24 when an israelite sinned he was held blameless if he brought the required offering offering didn't get rid of it but he was deemed blameless if he brought the required offering and that's what the book of leviticus and others are in detail a dispensation which extended from the giving of the law to the death of jesus christ is is is what we're talking about here the attempt of legalistic teachers is to mingle law with grace during the dispensation of the church brought out that brings the true relationship of the law to the christian that we attempt to mingle it is is wrong that's the point and the law is in contrast to grace under grace god bestows righteousness which under the law he demanded they're different factor antithetical the law is in itself holy just good and spiritual we covered that before last time and that's what romans seven which some of us call romans seven the chapter seven romans law school if you will and uh before the law the whole world is guilty before god the law is therefore of necessity a ministry of condemnation of death and divine curse no more that's that's it right there christ bore the curse of the law and redeemed the believer both from the curse and from the dominion of the law law neither justifies a sinner nor sanctifies the believer and that's the whole essence of this whole epistle by the way is not only saved by the law but that's also by how you get sanctified you get saved by faith and you get sanctified by faith not by the law the law neither justifies a sinner nor does it sanctify the believer the believers both dead to the law and redeemed from it so that he is not under the law but under grace and romans 6 7 and most of galatians who will hammer this until we're through here under the new covenant of grace the principle of obedience to the divine will is in wrought it's inside so far is the life of the believer from the anarchy of self-will that he is said to be in-lawed to christ and the new law of christ is his delight whereas through the indwelling spirit the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in him and it's hard to deal with these subjects without going right on back and and digging your roots into the epistle to the hebrews epistle to the to romans excuse me hebrews also but it's another sense the commandments are used in the distinctively christian scriptures as an instruction in righteousness go that again the the commandments are used in the distinctively christian scriptures as instruction righteousness see because as he in verse 25 says after that faith has come we are no longer under a schoolmaster he's treating the believer as having graduated from that kind of pedagogy and again the word schoolmaster is the pedagogist a tutor or guardian and again this was the slave that was charged with supervising the life and morals of the boys of the better classes and they and it's a it's a recap of the concept we are no longer under the law as our schoolmaster now it's interesting what the point is making here is that the pedagogue's authority ceased when the child became a son and the miner became an adult in our in our vernacular and uh it was this was like the law's function until christ came and the people could be justified by faith in him the law did not lead us to christ but that it was a disciplinarian until christ came it served a temporary function in that sense thus the reign of the law ended once with since faith in christ has delivered believers from the protective custody of the prison and the harsh discipline of the pedagogue so that's the analogy that paul is indulging here with law as both a prison and as a schoolmaster so why the law why this is the typical question why then did god even give the law paul gave three answers the law was temporary and only for israel god never gave the law to the gentiles the moral law was already written in their hearts but the ceremonial law the sabbath law and all that sort of thing was never given to the gentiles the law was added and was not a replacement for the abrahamic covenant of promises once the seed came the law was superseded second point but the law was given with such glory the judaizers would say how can you say it was only temporary and paul was ready with an answer he says the law was given by angelic mediators but god spoke personally to abraham god is one and the fulfillment of his promise to abraham depended on him alone this is a relationship between god and abraham directly well the other things that jesus said the law convicted us of sin but never saved us from sin if there was a law that could save sinners then god would have spared his son and used that law instead of the cross that's that's the probably the ultimate underscore of the whole situation here the law is not contrary to god's promises by revealing sin the law forces the sinner to trust god's promises the law shows us the need for grace and grace enables us to please god through faith that's the only way you can please god it's by believing him taking out his word in the new testament especially obedience and belief are virtually synonyms the law places all under sin which means that all can be saved by grace if god permitted even one sinner to be saved by the law then no man could be saved by grace all must be saved the same same way by the same rules the law prepared the way for christ is the third element here why the law because before faith came we we know before the faith we know came the law shut men up revealing their need for a savior the law was god's schoolmaster for the laws in their in their national infancy the greek and the roman tudor used to guard up until legal uh adulthood after which the children were on their own the law kept the jews in line so to speak until christ came and the full revelation the gospel was given to the jews and gentiles that's an important part of this it's not only the gentiles saved by grace is that jews and gentiles together are saved in the same manner that was what the whole business with paul confronting peter at antioch was all about so what's the believer's present position three changes are known noticed now because of all of this where do we stand as believers paul's vindication of the justification by faith reached a climax in this session as he contrasts the position of the justified sinner with what he had been under the law what's changed by being a believer for all are the children of god by faith in christ jesus the first you become sons of god that term but not in the in the old testament referred to a direct creation of god adam was a direct creation of god his descendants were descendants of adam angels who were descent were considered benight elohim before his angels they are sons of god and since they're direct creations of god if you're a believer you become a new creation you become a direct creation of god the son of god and it's interesting paul here in verse 26 changes in the the person from the first person to the second person grammatically the yi you know speaking ye you indicates that paul turned from looking at israel as a nation to address galatian believers individually when he's when he speaks of ye and under the dispensation of the law a couple of verses before the law was a disciplining pentagon those under supervision were regarded as children now though that christ had come the galatian believers are regarded as adult sons through faith and are no longer under a jewish slave guardian or pentagon under the law see why should they seek to revert to their inferior status they're better off this way is paul's point which gets to this issue of legitimacy we are sons of god i want to talk a little bit about legitimacy um the son of god thing we mentioned last time john chapter 1 verse 11 and 12 speaks of jesus christ he came unto his own and his own received them not but as many as received him to them gave he the power he gave them power to become the sons of god that same old testament concept of a direct creation god is embodied there in john 1. and so luke will pick it up also that if you're a believer you're not only a son of god you're a legitimate son of god in contrast by the way to christ's apparent experience you know it's interesting [Music] i'm going to i want to insert something here we're going to take a look at psalm 69. psalm 69 is the most quoted next in 22 i guess are the two most quoted psalms in the new testament but what most people don't realize is that psalm 69 gives us a glimpse into the silent years of christ's boyhood that may come as a surprise how many knew that i'm just curious okay one or two hands okay so psalm next to psalm 22 psalm 69 is the most quoted for some other reasons that i'm going to show you it happens to have some imprecatory passages and for that reason it is frequently quoted in the new testament psalm 22 dealt with the death of christ psalm 69 deals with the life of christ it is the most quoted in the gospels of matthew mark luke john and acts and romans psalm 16 yeah so and there are many reference to it beyond those but but it also includes allusions to the boyhood of christ and many people miss that and i'm not going to go through the whole thing here i'm just going to pick up a couple of examples in verse 8 of psalm 69 are the words i am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien to my mother's children we're going to go back see we're going to go back to nazareth and we're going to hear the sobs of a small child i want you to get the picture here he has become a stranger to my i become a stranger to my brethren and an alien to my mother's children why not the father's children see mary had other children and that's confirmed in the gospels i don't think we have to go down that path in terms of matthew 13 and mark 6 we know that he had four brothers and at least two sisters but he became an alien to his mother's children not his father's children because joseph was not his father they were half brothers and half sisters as we would use the term right get the picture here of the household in nazareth as jesus is growing up visualize them coming home from school and the kids saying gee they don't know who jesus daddy is okay do you understand the cloud that hung over not only mary but also jesus in terms of the his apparent illegitimacy right now you can imagine how illegitimacy was treated in a jewish culture in the first place and you know how forgiving small towns are right can you picture the way can you picture that household as they grow up i'm going to suggest to you that those boyhood years from infancy through 30 were very unhappy years we always talk about naturally the agony of gethsemane the agony on the cross the physical abuse we know in our heart of hearts that the real terror the real punishment wasn't physical it was much deeper that we can't even comprehend but we stumble under the weight of that the the events that we celebrate each year i'll say around passover the church has gone out of its way to try to distance itself from jewishness so they have easter at least they give it the right label it's a pagan label for a pagan holiday because passover should be on on the 14th of nisan you may not realize that in the early church if you tried to be biblical and tried to observe the crucifixion and resurrection of christ around the jewish calendar you were excommunicated did you know that look up the quarter-deciments controversy it's very shocking to realize how far the early church went to try to be anti-semitic it's interesting though that even this verse can be mustered to support a hint of the virgin birth the very fact that his his mother's children his father's children aren't the same group you follow me but he goes on here visualize this young boy speaking when i wept and chastened my soul with fasting that was to my reproach see when he did something properly he was made fun of he was ridiculed i made sackcloth also my garment and i became a proverb to them to whom his brothers and sisters when you get to john 8 when he's re-entangling with the pharisees remember you remember how they they even there in public in this debate in john 8 they said we're not born of fornication you need when you read john 8 you need to realize the tension that's between those in that discussion well before the discussion is over he explains where they're something about their parentage back to psalm 69 david sit in the gate speak against me now you know the gate though the elders at the gate was like city hall that was where the council met that's where they determined matters of policy for the community they that sit at the gate speak against me and i was the song of the drunkards down at the tavern the drunks made up dirty songs about he and mary that was nazareth why did jesus endure that was what i'll call 30 years of abuse about his apparent illegitimacy he was raised in a town where he was called illegitimate you know why in order that i might be a legitimate son of god the son of god bore that for me on the cross he paid the penalty for my sin it was his enduring this that gave me legitimacy to claim as the son of god i suggest you and i have no idea what he endured for those 30 years in order that we might have clear title to be a legitimate son of god wow the irony of all of this is the one they're calling a bastard has the most distinguished genealogy ever on the planet earth he has the most distinguished family tree in all of history part of it is encrypted in the torah most people don't know this so i'm going to just give you a quick glimpse in genesis chapter 38 in chapter 36 seven you're introduced to joseph you've got this whole saga incredible story of joseph and how he gets sold out but then becomes the prime minister of the world and takes care of his family you know the story of joseph right in the middle of that incredible story we have this chapter 38 there this sordid story apparently of judah being tricked in having sex with his daughter-in-law and then has illegitimate children you know it's you wonder what's that doing in the bible well it's essential in the bible because it's part of the messianic line but it's a you wonder what's that even doing there something you probably would not have occasionally discovered is that encrypted in that hebrew text in 49 letter intervals 49 7 squared okay 49 intervals we have the name boaz that's interesting subsequent to that we in 49 letter intervals we have the name ruth and then on the next page in 49 letter intervals we have the name obed and 49 letter intervals continuing we have yi shay or we might say jesse and then you have 49 letter intervals you have david wait a minute you've got boaz ruth obed jesse and david in chronological order at 49 letter intervals and of course that's just all by accident that's just a happenstance of this of no and by the way this is in the torah the most venerated piece of of the old testament long before moses was written by moses but long before joshua long before judges long before samuel you've got david's genealogy here in the book of judges book of ruth fabulous love story boaz the hero ruth the beneficiary of his redemption of both the land to to to her mother-in-law naomi and and takes this uh boa bitus as it takes a gentile bride fabulous little thing at the climax of those there's a strange prophecy at their marriage let your house be like the house of pharaohs whom tam are born arjuna of the seed which the lord shall give thee you know if that sounds like a toast at a marriage and you were in the groom you'd say same to you fella may your house be like fair is that that was the the the illegitimate child that comes from tamar and judah right we have to understand the bastard cannot in the torah deuteronomy 23 a bastard doesn't count until the tenth generation well when you look at perez the house of pharis hezron ram abandoned abness and salman boaz wow david was the tenth generation this was a prophecy of the davidic covenant tucked away in the time of the judges well we could go on with this the blood curse in jeoniah i think most of you familiar with jeremiah 22 30 where god pronounces a blood curse on the last of the royal line of judah and give that to any jew jewish friend of yours that takes the bible seriously what do you do with jeremiah 22 30. you know from genesis 49 that the messiah has to come from the tribe of judah the royal tribe of judah the bloodline of jericho has now got a blood curse on it for the rest of perpetuity what do you do with that how do you get out of that box canyon there's only one way but let them discover it a virgin birth a virgin birth and we can talk more about that but that should be well traveled ground to most of you okay back to galatians for as many as of you as have been baptized into christ have put on christ baptized into christ the exalted position of the son of god involves a living union with christ brought about by being baptized into christ and this is the baptism of or in the holy spirit which according to paul joins all believers to christ and unites them within the church which is christ's body this he does not here mean that one enters into christ and so is saved by means of baptism that was the teaching of the mystery religions he means just the opposite of that we are justified by faith in christ not by circumcision or by baptism baptism is a public uh acknowledgement of your position baptism was a public profession a pledge analogous to the soldier's sacramentum an oath of fealty to christ taking one stand with christ the symbolic picture of the change wrought by faith already and the epistle of the hebrews that's the main problem they have they've publicly been baptized they've chosen christ but they're because of persecution thinking of going back under the the guise of judaism and paul warns them not to do that it's going to cost them their life and the records show from eusebius josephus and hedgepist that because of paul's letter to the hebrews they did they got out of there got out of town went to pella by the tens of thousands and from 64 to 66 when the roman war broke out from 66 to 70 over a million and a half jews were slaughtered as jerusalem fell but eusebius and others of the early writers point out that none not one christian died because they had followed their directions and left and they waited the war out in pella which was under syrian control and a separate jurisdiction so anyway really for two reasons also because of luke 21 the discourse in luke 21 is not the olivet discourse they're different ones similar but different and that's what christ told his believers to do that's also what paul told his uh jewish friends to do and for as many of you as have been baptized into christ have put on christ this union with him means being clothed 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 the state and indicated he was grown up you know the jewish have a bar mitzvah kind of thing well the romans had a together that they they did and so the galatian believers had led us laid aside the old garments of the law and put on christ's robe of righteousness which grants full acceptance before god wow i don't think you and i can fully comprehend what that means but anyway would you want to go back and don the old clothing i don't think so i don't think so for as many as you have been baptized into christ that put on christ as many of you see the key to understanding galatians is the use of two pronouns we and us paul was a jew writing to a gentile church when we or us is used it refers to israel but when he says ye and you he's referring to the gentiles he god continues here there is neither jew nor greek there is neither bond or free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in christ jesus that's paul's way of healing the division if you will between jew and gentile in the first place we are all one in christ jesus since all believers are one with each other human distinctions lose their significance is really what he's saying none is spiritually superior over another that is a believing jew is not more privileged before god than a believing gentile the guru and he used when he uses the term greek by the way in contrast to jew he's referring to it's synonymous with gentiles he's using that as a synecdoche you know the specific for the general journal for the spirit it's a rhetorical device right i'm getting blank stairs that i go to go too fast um sonectic uh boy she sets a nice table you don't mean the table you mean the dining where the whole table right hey man you're driving some neat wheels you mean the car not just the wheels right those are synthetic keys where you're using the specific to mean the general you can go the other way too and use the general meaning to specific but that's exactly when he uses the word greek he's using it to mean gentiles as a as what's called in rhetoric anyway there is neither jew nor greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for a year all one in christ jesus a believing slave does not rank higher than a believing free person a believing man is not superior to a believing woman exactly i have to the god paul cut across these distinctions and say they do not exist in the body of christ so far as spiritual privilege and position are concerned you're all one in christ jesus elsewhere as you girls are well aware i'm sure that while affirming the co-equality with man with women paul did nonetheless make it clear there is a headship of the man over the woman i'm sure you girls have never had that pointed out to you by your fellows but i thought i'd just throw it in here and there are distinctions in the area of spiritual service and as letters to timothy his first letter to corinthians chapter 11 and his first letter to timothy chapter 2 deals with some of those issues and if ye be christ then are ye abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise ye are abraham seed see believers in christ are the abraham seed christ is the seed singular of abraham and we're in christ that makes the believer part of that seed and an heir to the promise of abraham and that airship that prophet abraham preceded the law by 430 years don't ever forget that so the discussion of seed of abraham must take first take account his natural seed the descendants of jacob and the 12 tribes and that's going to be more important than most christians have any idea 12 tribes 12 apostles are going to rule over these 12 tribes there is a kingdom going to be set up on the planet earth that that's when when matthew used the term kingdom of god he's being denotatively excuse me when he used the term kingdom of heaven he's being denotatively specific and most commentators miss that but we've really gotten into that and i'm i personally am convinced that he is using it distinctively because he doesn't always use the kingdom of heaven to use kingdom of god as the other writers always use when he's speaking in broader terms god's total kingdom no it's kingdom of heaven it's very specific it's on the earth it has a capital it has in jerusalem the floor plan of the palace is laid out in the last few chapters of ezekiel so it's a very worthwhile study within this natural seed there is a believing remnant of jews this is important there's lots of misunderstanding we're going to get into something else here you have when you discuss the seed of abraham you've got to take into account also his natural seed the 12 tribes within those that natural seed there is a remnant of believing jews not all jews are believing jews there's a remnant within them who will one day inherit the abrahamic promises directed specifically to them and that's what romans 9 is all about the dust the future of israel is laid out by paul in romans 9 10 and 11 9 as israel's past 10 is its presence 11 is its future it's all laid out worth a very very important study there's also a spiritual seed of abraham who are not jews so there's two spiritual seeds of abraham jewish spiritual seeds non-uh gentile spiritual seeds the these are gentiles who believe and become abraham's spiritual seed they inherit the promise of justification by faith as paul explained earlier now to suggest as the amillennialists do and most denominations that came out of the reformation unfortunately have adopted an amillennial eschatology they don't take the millennium seriously they don't they don't recognize that that millennium is the fulfillment of the davidic covenant but so to suggest as they might that gentile believers inherit national promises given to the believing remnant that is the church that thus supplants israel as a new israel is to read into these verses what is not there this is the basis for one of the basis for what's called replacement theology that somehow the church replaces israel and the great tragedy in american policies that even though at one time at least every member of the joint chiefs and every member of the cabinet were christians they virtually all but two were out of a replacement theology background they have no grasp of israel's future the fact that we're meddling in god's purposes as we mess around over there so the idea that the church somehow supplanted national israel is muddying up about three or four idioms completely so remember the alternative issue we discussed in acts 15. there were two issues before the council of jerusalem what does the gentile have to do to be saved that was the primary one the other one is what's to become of israel and that's why james the brother lord quotes amos 9 11 and 12 that god is go after he takes out a people for his name out of the gentiles he is going to reestablish the tabernacle of david christ is going to rule on the planet earth literally surprisingly surprisingly enough and so i encourage you to double back on those notes um we have a study a briefing pack on that called the prodigal heirs which deal with both the church and israel both prodigals that's what's going to happen to them and for the post biblical history the history of israel after the bible period we encourage you to get our briefing package called the betrayal of the chosen and it's essential background for anyone that's going to visit israel get into to try to understand what's going on there well that concludes our trampling of of galatians 3 so in the next session we will undertake galatians 4 and explore the privileges which the gospel releases to us so with that let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Length: 59min 6sec (3546 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020