Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Why do you have two last names?
[00:00:05] I was surrounded by a group of kids who were playing.
[00:00:09] And one of the kids said what other adults were probably thinking as they noticed one of the kids, it was actually on his baseball jersey, had two last names.
[00:00:25] And we all braced for what this kid was about to say. How does he make sense of this decision on the part of his parents?
[00:00:33] And he simply said, well, my mom wants me to have a man's last name and a woman's last name.
[00:00:41] And then another kid standing there said, well, whose last name does she have now?
[00:00:49] No one said anything. The kids went back to playing.
[00:00:53] And I don't think the kid who said that realized what he said.
[00:00:57] I don't realize that he understood the irony in what he said. And some of you still don't get it right.
[00:01:06] She has her dad's last name, so the kid actually has the last name of two men.
[00:01:13] Now, I share that story with you to remind you that the identity fathers give their children is inescapable.
[00:01:23] It's woven into the fabric of the world, not just in our last names, but dads are designed to establish identity for their children.
[00:01:35] Some dads do that well, other dads don't.
[00:01:39] The way that kids look at themselves and identify themselves in the world is determined by the love, care, provision of a father.
[00:01:49] Mothers give life and then nurture life.
[00:01:54] Fathers identify that life.
[00:01:58] And dads reflect God, who identify our life.
[00:02:03] God gives us life, but then he tells us who we are in his world.
[00:02:07] And in the Gospel, he identifies who we are in Christ as His children.
[00:02:13] But fathers establish identity.
[00:02:17] Mothers bring forth and nurture life. Now that's important as we get to this section in the book of Galatians, because Paul is going to use that for his argument. This sums up sort of a Paul's lawyer like argument of the Gospel through Galatians. He's going to bring it home here with an illustration, an illustration of what identity is and life looks like in the Gospel, or what identity and life looks like apart from the Gospel. You see the Jews in the church and the Jews who are teaching that you must add Jesus to the gospel. They are claiming we're identified by Abraham, we're Jews according to the flesh, Abraham is our father.
[00:03:09] We are identified by him. We have his heritage, we have his DNA, we have his law, we have the promises that were given to Abraham as Jews. According to the flesh, Abraham is our father.
[00:03:29] And Paul says, that's all well and good, but I want to know who your mother is.
[00:03:35] Because Abraham's children are identified in two ways.
[00:03:41] They're slaves of the law, and they're sons of promise.
[00:03:47] And that's determined by who their mother is.
[00:03:51] Is the law your mother or is the gospel? Your mother is the gospel. What gives you life? Are you still trying to nurse life from the law? Who's your mother? That is the question in this section of Galatians, and that is answered by a set of questions that begin with this.
[00:04:15] Are you living by flesh or faith? This determines, are you living by the law or the gospel?
[00:04:25] Verse 21.
[00:04:28] Paul says, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, you desire to live under the requirements of the law. You are saying it is the law that makes us right with God and we must live according to the law. He asks, do you not listen to the law?
[00:04:48] Now, Paul uses the term law interchangeably. Throughout Galatians and his writings.
[00:04:54] There are times where he's specifically talking about just the generic law of God in the world, where he's being very specific about the Ten Commandments or being even more specific about circumcision and rituals that the Jews must adhere to. But here he's talking about the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Genesis through Deuteronomy was often referred to as the law.
[00:05:21] Now, this is where the law came from. And Paul's asking, you want to obey the law?
[00:05:28] Have you read the whole law? Have you heard what the law says?
[00:05:32] These first five books of the Bible, have you listened to what they say? Because in their story, we find out Abraham has two sons. You want to say Abraham is your father and we must obey the law. Well. Well, let's talk about Abraham's Children, verse 22. For it is written in the Torah that Abraham had two sons. One by a slave woman, and this would be Ishmael. And one by a free woman, this would be Isaac.
[00:06:05] But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through the promise. You want to claim Abraham is your father? Okay, who's your mother? Which determines, Are you a slave child, or were you born of the promise? Were you born according to flesh, or were you born according to only something God could do? He reminds us of the story of Ishmael and Isaac.
[00:06:35] Remember, God promised Abraham and Sarah to give them a child.
[00:06:41] And through this child a nation would come into existence. And then through this nation, all the nations would be blessed. He promised them offspring, even though he was nearly 100 and Sarah's womb was barren.
[00:06:58] And instead of trusting his promise Abraham and Sarah devised their own plan.
[00:07:05] They devised a plan where Abraham would have a child through Sarah's slave, Hagar, and that's Ishmael. Ishmael represents a lack of faith on the part of Abraham and Sarah. He is a child of flesh, meaning he is born according to their schemes, not God's sovereignty.
[00:07:28] He was born according to Abraham and Sarah's plan, not God's promise, not something God said, only I can do. And you've got to trust me that they said, no, no, no, we need to do this ourself if it's ever going to happen.
[00:07:43] And so do the Jews in the church. Abraham's your father. Yes, just like Ishmael. You are slave. Children born according to the flesh, not faith. But then we think about Isaac, the son of faith.
[00:07:59] God eventually did give Abraham and Sarah Isaac, just as he promised. And it was miraculous. Only God could do this. Only God could fulfill his word in that way, in bringing forth this child.
[00:08:14] But here we see in Paul's writing, here Isaac represents sons of promise, those who receive by faith what God has said he would do instead of working according to flesh. And we see this in the life of Isaac.
[00:08:31] He is a child of promise, and he displays eventually Abraham's faith. He's willing to even sacrifice him because he trusts that God will raise up another child if he has to. At that point, Abraham is trusting and relying on God's promise, not his flesh.
[00:08:50] And so he turns to the Galatians, the Gentiles in the church, and he says, you are children of Abraham too, but according to faith, not flesh. In the promise, God's plan, not your plans.
[00:09:08] You are sons in the Son. And through Jesus, the Son of promise that has come, you will get all of Abraham's promises. Not by your work, not by the law, not by flesh, not by your effort, but because of what God has said.
[00:09:26] So I want to ask you the question.
[00:09:28] Are you living according to flesh or faith?
[00:09:33] As you think about your Christianity, is it made up of your effort, your doing?
[00:09:40] Or is it a life where you are trusting what God has said he would do? What God has already done in Christ, Are you living by his word or your will?
[00:09:54] You see, God promises today by his word that if you believed in Christ alone, you would be justified.
[00:10:04] Faith alone, in Christ alone, realizing you in and of yourself, in and of your works, cannot please God, earning your way to heaven. And so you must look to Christ alone.
[00:10:16] And so, relying upon Him, God declares you righteous, forgiven of your sin because of the cross and because of his life, you are justified. That is a promise from God according to his word. That's what God says he will do. When you believe in Jesus, that is a promise from God.
[00:10:37] But some of us here today say, I hear the promise, but I still have to have my plan for when I stand before God.
[00:10:47] When I stand before God and he asks, why should I allow you into heaven?
[00:10:53] Surely I can't just claim Christ alone.
[00:10:57] I got to bring something myself to this equation, right?
[00:11:02] That's too good.
[00:11:03] That promise is too good.
[00:11:06] I can't trust God to do that. I can't wait upon him to to do that.
[00:11:12] I still need to be good. Well, my question to you today is, are you good?
[00:11:20] Are you good?
[00:11:22] Well, you need to believe in the promise and quit working according to the flesh because you can't do what God has said he would do according to his promise according to the gospel. So are you living according to flesh or faith?
[00:11:36] And that answers the question. Next we see, are you a slave of the law or a son of the gospel? Verse 24.
[00:11:44] Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. So he's putting these two children, Ishmael and Isaac, before us, and then their mothers, Hagar and Sarah. Now, when he says allegorically here, there's a lot of debate about how to interpret the Bible and allegorical interpretations. But for our purpose today, we're simply going to say that this is used as an illustration.
[00:12:10] These two women can be seen as an illustration. Notice they are two covenants, meaning two ways to relate to God, Hagar and Sarah, according to the flesh or according to faith. Two ways to relate to God. And they will represent the law and the gospel. And so are you relating to God according to the law? The law says, do this and live.
[00:12:39] And you know you can't.
[00:12:41] And so you're in bondage. You're a slave, just like Ishmael was a slave child, the child of a slave.
[00:12:48] Or are you trusting in the gospel?
[00:12:50] You believe and live. It's either do and live or believe and live. Who is your mother? The law or the gospel? Who is bringing forth the life?
[00:13:03] Your doing or your believing? The law or the gospel? And he says, one is from Mount Sinai. One of these women, one of these ways of relating to God is from Mount Sinai. Now, this was the location where the law, the Ten Commandments, was given to Israel. In Exodus 20, God delivers them from Egypt, and then he gives them his rules. And he says, do this and you will live. You'll stay in the land at Mount Sinai.
[00:13:36] So what does Mount Sinai bring forth? Children of slavery. And we talked about this in Galatians. That was the purpose of the Law.
[00:13:47] The Law is to enslave us in our sin. How does it do it? It reveals our sin. The Law declares, God is perfect and you're not. And because you're not, you deserve judgment. You deserve condemnation. The Law traps us. The Law is a mirror. It shows the blemishes, but it can do nothing about it.
[00:14:12] This was the purpose of the Law. The Law is good, the Law is right, the Law is holy. We're going to see in Galatians. We must still obey the Law in Christ.
[00:14:23] But the purpose of the Law before you are in Christ is to reveal your sin, to reveal your guilt so that Jesus can rescue you.
[00:14:34] So if you don't move to Jesus, you're still living in the Law.
[00:14:40] Hagar is still your mother. Notice she is Hagar. The Law is your mother. And she's continuing to birth bondage in your life because you can't be rescued by the Law. So this is what the Law does to us. It brings us forth as slaves, and then it keeps us in bondage because we can't fulfill the law.
[00:15:04] Verse 25.
[00:15:06] Now, Hagar. Now, one of the things that's going on here is. He's talking about Hagar. She would have been seen as a Gentile. And so the Jews in the church are thinking Hagar as our. Absolutely not. She's a Gentile. She was banished by Sarah and Abraham. She's not our mother. And he says, is Mount Sinai in Arabia. Now, why is that important?
[00:15:30] Arabia was outside the promised land. So he says, if you're continuing to live according to the law, you're forsaking God's promise.
[00:15:40] Just like the children of Israel. They're delivered. They're in the wilderness. They're headed to the promised land. And they say, no, no, we don't trust God as Father. We want to go back to Pharaoh.
[00:15:51] And he says, according to the Law, you're going back to slavery and you are forfeiting the promise.
[00:15:59] Remember, to add the Law to Jesus is to say Jesus isn't enough. That's not saving faith. To add anything to Jesus, you forsake the promise.
[00:16:10] But notice what he says here.
[00:16:12] She corresponds to the present Israel.
[00:16:16] Before you get it twisted, the Jews in the church. I'm talking about you.
[00:16:21] You immediately began to think about gentile heathens who don't have the promise.
[00:16:27] You are forsaking the promise. Present Jerusalem. The Jews of the day.
[00:16:33] Jerusalem, which was to represent all of God's promises. He says, here she is a mother of slavery. Notice for she is in slavery with her children. How is Jerusalem of Paul's day in slavery?
[00:16:49] She rejected the Messiah.
[00:16:52] She's still trying to fulfill the law and requiring the law as a righteousness that earns God's acceptance. The Jews of the day, the teaching of the day, it's producing slavery. And then very specifically, the Judaizers who are adding the law to Jesus. He's saying to those who are believing their false gospel, you are believing in. In the mother of slavery, no matter who you are, according to ethnicity. Because the law produces slaves, not children.
[00:17:29] Slaves who are forsaking the promise, going back to the law, and they stay in bondage.
[00:17:35] He says, yes, you're children of Abraham according to the flesh by the law, and you're forsaking the the promise. Verse 26. But the Jerusalem above, he refers to heaven. So there is the earthly Jerusalem that at that time still clinging to the law, producing slave children. And he says, but I want to tell you about the Jerusalem from above in heaven, because this is where all of God's promises come from Heaven. And this is where all of God's promises will be culminated.
[00:18:10] Heaven. This is the Jerusalem that God is building.
[00:18:16] Notice the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. Those who are trusting in Christ alone, those who are receiving God's promises alone, those who are looking to him to do what only he can do, not according to the flesh or the law, but according to promise.
[00:18:37] She is free because God is the one creating her. She's not in bondage trying to create this nation herself. No God is doing this. God is creating a people himself. According to the promise. Our mother is the Jerusalem from above.
[00:18:55] Verse 27.
[00:18:57] For it is written, rejoice, O barren. He's quoting from Isaiah.
[00:19:01] One who does not bear one who can't have children, one who is helpless, one who doesn't have an identity, one who doesn't have an inheritance in the world. You can rejoice, break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, you who are lifeless.
[00:19:20] For the children of the desolate one will be more than those who the one who has the husband. Now he's referring to the way in which God is going to fulfill all of his promises to Abraham. According to the promise. Ultimately, those who are children of Abraham according to flesh, from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, will outnumber just one ethnicity. They will grow across the world, across the globe, and. And they will gather in the new Jerusalem before Christ, who is the ultimate promise.
[00:19:58] And so he's saying to the Gentiles in the church, you worry about DNA. You worry about who you are according to the flesh. And the Gentile in the church would say, yeah, we're nobodies.
[00:20:12] We're Johnny Comelatelys. We weren't a part of this story until we heard about Jesus, the Messiah, and we believed. What do we have to offer this story? We are idol worshipers. We are unclean dogs.
[00:20:27] We are barren.
[00:20:31] And he says, yes, that is who you are. Actually, that's who we all are. But you can notice, rejoice.
[00:20:39] Even though you have no life in and of yourself to produce goodness, even though you are desolate before God, you will be joined to this one who is Christ.
[00:20:52] And more than those of the one who has a husband, those more than who can claim that Abraham is their father according to the flesh, you will be joined to Christ who is your husband. And you will rule and you will reign with him forever. Even though at this time it feels as though you have nothing, you can rejoice not according to the flesh, but to according, but by faith, not according to the law, but according to the gospel promise. Rejoice, because that's what the gospel is.
[00:21:22] It brings forth life where there was deadness and barrenness and you had nothing to offer.
[00:21:29] So I want to ask the question, do you consider yourself a slave according to the law or a son of promise?
[00:21:38] Well, which mother gave you birth, the law or the gospel?
[00:21:46] Is Christianity to you and always has been simply behavior modification and not heart transformation?
[00:22:00] When you think about your Christianity from day one, how do you think about it? Have you just been changing your behavior all this time?
[00:22:09] Or have you actually been changed by God, grew up in church, you noticed at some point in everybody's life they have to walk that aisle and then they get baptized and then they kind of just do the church thing.
[00:22:28] And you just kind of went through the motions on that day.
[00:22:32] You said, oh, it's my time to go through that.
[00:22:36] And coming to faith in Christ was more about overcoming fear of being seen in public before others than actually believing in Jesus. You said, now I got the courage to do it and go through this.
[00:22:50] Or did you believe in Jesus when you became a Christian in whatever Christian community, whether it's a church or campus ministry or Bible studies that you became a part of at work or school, whatever it looked like, you said, that's the Christian community.
[00:23:06] Their life looks better than mine.
[00:23:09] I'm pretty miserable. I Need some friends. And so you just adopt it and adapt it to that community. And you changed externals, but you were never internally changed by the gospel.
[00:23:23] How did that happen in your life?
[00:23:26] Who gave birth to your Christianity, the law or the gospel? You were associated with Christianity, but you were never changed by Christ.
[00:23:36] Is that you? Some of us come to church and we have a lot of pride about that. I've been going to church my whole life and I've been going through all of these motions. And I'm here today and I'm beginning to realize I've never truly believed the gospel.
[00:23:51] And there's some pride there.
[00:23:54] If I stand up before these people and say, been a sham all these years, I've even led things around here.
[00:24:03] Listen, I don't want you to leave today thinking that you can simply change your behavior and go to heaven, that you can adopt some Christian practices and some Christian stuff. No, you need to repent and believe in Jesus, who or what gave you life.
[00:24:20] And you would say, today, man, I have good theology.
[00:24:23] You can't get to heaven by being good, but Christianity to you is just, I can't get to heaven by being good, but I still got to be a good fill in the blank, a good dad, a good mom, a good church member, a good pastor. I got to be. I can't get to heaven by being good, but because I claim a Christian, I got to be good at these things. And you're still just changing your behavior.
[00:24:47] You know what you're doing?
[00:24:48] You're taking a law and you're covering up a wicked heart that never goes away.
[00:24:55] And so often folks who do that don't last.
[00:24:59] They wear out. They get tired.
[00:25:02] Eventually. They say sinning the pleasures of this world would be a lot easier than going through these motions as Christians, with these Christians.
[00:25:11] So who gives you life and who nurtures your life as a Christian?
[00:25:16] Is it the law or is it the gospel? You see, to become a Christian, you have to understand, as the text says here, you are barren and you are desolate and you are in your sin and you cannot produce a righteousness in and of yourself to please God. You are barren of righteousness. Isaiah would say, all of your righteousness is like filthy rags. And go do a word study this week on what those filthy, filthy rags are.
[00:25:44] It's beyond rated R, I'll put it that way.
[00:25:50] Isaiah says, you offering righteousness to God is like filthy toilet paper.
[00:25:56] You can't do it. And you realize you don't have it in and of yourself. This is when you come to faith in Christ, when you realize you have nothing in of yourself and your heart is broken over your sin and you have to look to Christ and by faith you look to him. And when you are united to him, you are radically changed. You are really changed. It's not an external change that you adopt or adapt to. It is this from the heart outward change that God works in your life through uniting you to his son, by His Spirit, you are transformed and you are free from bondage of thinking. I've just got to go through these motions to make God happy week after week. Are you a slave of the law or a son of promise?
[00:26:48] Next we see if we are considered slave children today, what we are to do.
[00:26:56] God's will is that we cast out the slave.
[00:27:00] Verse 28 now brothers, so important to go through Galatians as you hear so often what Paul is teaching. It sounds harsh.
[00:27:14] Next week's going to get really harsh.
[00:27:18] Read ahead if you dare.
[00:27:21] But then he comes back and says, brothers, again, a term of endearment.
[00:27:27] I'm pleading with you to believe the gospel. And I want to remind you we're a part of the same family. Those who believe in Christ, notice, like Isaac, the son of promise given to Abraham and Sarah by the promise of God. Only God could do this.
[00:27:42] We are like Isaac, children of promise because God has done this, not our works. In the Son, the firstborn son of God, you become firstborn heirs to the promises of God in Christ. You get all that God promises his son. You are children of promise who get the promises.
[00:28:02] 29 but just as at the time he was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.
[00:28:15] And so the Gentile and the church is saying, okay, that's all well and good. We believe the gospel.
[00:28:21] But our Jewish brothers and sisters have a really big problem with us right now.
[00:28:25] They don't like us. They don't like us showing up for church and BFG and being a part of worship. They don't like our diet. We bring bacon to fellowships. They don't want any part of that.
[00:28:38] And they're beginning to say to us, you must not be a part of this by the things you're doing.
[00:28:44] You must not be a part of God's family by the way you're acting.
[00:28:49] And what happens in the New Testament is this builds and builds and erupts in the churches to division and even persecution.
[00:28:58] And so the question is, why, if we are children of the promise, are the children of Flesh persecuting us.
[00:29:06] Why are we suffering at the hands of the Jews which Paul and the apostles will as they preach the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth?
[00:29:15] It's not just those who are anti religious who are persecuting them.
[00:29:21] The persecution in the New Testament beginning in Acts is from Jerusalem. Those who claim the law, those who claim the promises, those who claim Abraham as their father, why are they persecuting us?
[00:29:34] Well, Paul says that's been the story from the very beginning, all the way back to Abraham's children, all the way back to his grandchildren. One would get the promise and the other one would say, you don't deserve the promise. And they would fight and they would be at war with one another. We even see this in the Old Testament where the prophets are persecuted by the people of God, where they are killed by the people of God.
[00:30:01] The Jews killed Jesus in Jerusalem and here they continue to persecute the church.
[00:30:08] Now one point we can make here is that legalism, often in our context it may not be physical persecution, but is a form of soft persecution in the church and must not be tolerated in the church.
[00:30:26] Look at verse 30.
[00:30:28] But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son. Here these are the words of Sarah Abraham, you've got to send Hagar and Ishmael away. They don't get the promise and they're sent away.
[00:30:40] And he's saying you've got to do the same thing in the church.
[00:30:44] The legalist in the church needs to be dealt with. We often think about the rebel.
[00:30:50] It's also the self righteous in the church.
[00:30:54] Notice for the son of the slave shall not inherit the son of the free woman.
[00:30:59] Now here, as you think about Hagar and Ishmael being banished, the point being made here is the child of flesh according to slavery doesn't get the promise.
[00:31:12] They will be sent away. And so cast them out.
[00:31:15] The self righteous trusting in the law, they will not get the promise.
[00:31:21] And so in your heart today as you think about who you are, a slave according to flesh born of the law.
[00:31:34] How would you know?
[00:31:36] How would you know that you are in the camp of the legalist here who ultimately will not stand before God and get the promise.
[00:31:49] Even Jesus said, you can do a lot of great things in his name.
[00:31:54] And there are some who will stand before him who even perform miracles. And he will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Why? Because they do not look to him alone for salvation.
[00:32:05] How would you know if you're drifting in that way?
[00:32:09] How Would you cast out the slave woman in your own heart today that persecutes you, that haunts you, that says you're not enough because you do these things and don't do these things? I want to ask you some questions.
[00:32:24] How do you know that you fit in this category? How do you cast out the slave woman from your heart? Well, first of all, do you get frustrated with sermons about grace?
[00:32:36] Some of you are having a really hard time with Galatians, and you keep asking, but what about. But what about? Well, what about I need to obey, we need to obey. You keep preaching so hard on grace. Don't you know there are people in the church that need to hear some more law?
[00:32:53] Well, we spent a year in Revelation, and you can send them that sermon series if you think they need it.
[00:33:01] Those are the people that probably need Galatians just like you, because what you're doing is you're thinking about other people.
[00:33:13] So do you have a problem with sermons on grace, where you hear grace and you go, yeah, but that means your heart leaks toward the law.
[00:33:22] And we all do that to some degree.
[00:33:26] And so in light of that, do you think only of others when challenged about holiness, you don't want to go back to revelation because you never thought about yourself.
[00:33:36] You were thinking about other people in the room.
[00:33:40] Well, when you hear about holiness, do you think about yourself or others?
[00:33:46] Do you have a problem with grace?
[00:33:48] And do you have a problem when it comes to holiness toward yourself? You want to give yourself grace but not others?
[00:33:57] Do you become uncomfortable when certain types of people show up to church? You don't even know them.
[00:34:02] You just kind of put them in a category.
[00:34:05] Maybe you know a little bit about them, and you begin to think, because they say this and this online, this is the category they would fit in. They probably wouldn't hear. And you begin to categorize people and you get uncomfortable.
[00:34:17] Are the pastors going to let that person join?
[00:34:20] There's this legalism that begins to creep into all of our hearts.
[00:34:25] Do you find yourself at church and church functions keeping score about who's there and who's serving instead of just serving yourself?
[00:34:35] Now there's some shepherding that goes on in the context of the church to make sure everybody's plugged in.
[00:34:41] But what do you want for those folks who aren't serving? What is your desire for them? Christ. Or they just kind of fit on your leaderboard of service?
[00:34:50] Do you keep score in the church?
[00:34:54] Well, if that's you, you need to cast the slave woman out of your heart.
[00:34:58] You need to deal with your own heart first.
[00:35:01] That is the pride of legalism, where you're always thinking about someone else instead of yourself first.
[00:35:09] No, you come before the word of God and you say to the word of God, uncover the sin in my heart.
[00:35:16] Start with me and let me see Christ again. And the more you're enamored with Christ, you begin to look at other people in the church differently and you begin to say, no. Could you preach to my brother who's struggling with sin? Could you preach to him, Galatians, a little bit more? Because he needs grace right now.
[00:35:35] He needs grace and I need grace.
[00:35:41] We all need grace.
[00:35:44] Cast out the legalist in our heart.
[00:35:47] Uncover your own sin and look to the Savior first.
[00:35:50] But then we see cast out the legalist in our heart. Then we embrace freedom.
[00:35:56] Verse 31.
[00:35:58] So brothers again, term of endearment. We are not children of the slave. If you believed in Christ, you're not a child of the law, but the free woman according to the gospel.
[00:36:09] This is who you are. This is your identity.
[00:36:13] You're identified by the promise.
[00:36:16] Verse 1 of chapter 5.
[00:36:18] For that word is very important, for it refers to the purpose.
[00:36:25] And here's the thing.
[00:36:26] God has made us children of promise for a purpose.
[00:36:32] He didn't just forgive us of our sin, our guilt, give us the righteousness of Christ.
[00:36:37] No, he did all of that for a purpose. And notice the purpose. Verse 1.
[00:36:43] For freedom.
[00:36:45] Christ.
[00:36:46] Christ alone. In the Gospel, God sends his son to die for us and live for us, for freedom. Christ has set us free.
[00:36:56] Christ set you free to be free. So what's his point? Be free.
[00:37:02] Quit living according to the law.
[00:37:04] Quit thinking that you are earning extra pleasure with God by being extra good, just delight and live in the freedom that you have from the law.
[00:37:15] You are free of the guilt of sin.
[00:37:19] You are free from the burden of trying to earn God's favor day in and day out in Christ, he loves you. He couldn't love you more.
[00:37:29] You have more favor than you would ever know. And the point of the Christian life is to continue to dive into that favor.
[00:37:37] Let me dive in even more to how much God loves me. So live in that freedom. You have been forgiven. The word forgiven is tightly connected to the word freedom. Here it means to be released from a debt. He has released you from the debt so that you would be free.
[00:37:58] So stand firm means don't be moved.
[00:38:03] Therefore, again, this is God's purpose, that you would be free.
[00:38:07] And do not submit again to the yoke. Of slavery. Don't go back to the law as a way of earning God's eternal favor. We're going to talk about how the law.
[00:38:18] Some of y' all legalists can't wait.
[00:38:21] How the law is important in the Christian life in the weeks ahead. But let's settle here in the freedom.
[00:38:29] Resist going back to the law as a way in which you live before God to make him happy with you. It's not the law. It's Christ, the gospel.
[00:38:40] And I want to say this as pointed as I can today.
[00:38:45] It is God's will for you to enjoy the freedom you have in Christ.
[00:38:51] It's God's will for you to enjoy the gospel. I'm not talking about all the things we get to do as Christians that, that some people think are bad Christian liberty. No, I'm talking about it is God's will that you enjoy the forgiveness that you have in Christ and the righteousness of Christ that's credited to your hand. He wants you to enjoy that. That's why he sent his son.
[00:39:14] That's why Jesus was crucified, so that you would live in freedom, not bondage. So don't go back to the law.
[00:39:24] Brother and sister, hear these words.
[00:39:28] God is not mad that you became a Christian.
[00:39:34] He's not mad about it.
[00:39:36] When you believe the gospel. He didn't go, oh, man, I was hoping he'd never figure this out.
[00:39:42] Now I got to put up with him.
[00:39:46] He's not mad or frustrated that you're a Christian, that you're a child of God.
[00:39:53] He's happy about it. More happy than you would ever want to believe.
[00:39:59] And so this week, when you're convicted by sin, don't begin to think, okay, God's mad at me again.
[00:40:07] When your past begins to haunt you, when Satan begins to whisper and say the same thing he said to Eve in the garden. Has God really said all of these things that you've done, all of these things that you continue to struggle with? Has God really said that someone like you could be forgiven?
[00:40:28] And you want to go back to the jail cell.
[00:40:31] You've been busted free from the prison, and now you've got over here and you're believing the lies of Satan and you say, I got to go back to prison?
[00:40:41] No.
[00:40:42] Stand.
[00:40:43] Notice the word. Stand firm. It is a command. You want to know what God commands here? Stand firm in Christ.
[00:40:53] Don't go back to the fear. The sentence has already been paid and you have been released. Enjoy the freedom that you have in Christ this week when you're faced with the reality that you're not enough as a parent, as a friend, as a witness, as a pastor, as a church member. There are going to be all kinds of things this week that bring forth in our life. You're not enough. You're not good enough for the people around you. You're not enough. You're insufficient. You can't do all the things you want to do. You're not as great at the things you want to do as you believe. You're going to be faced with that this week. I'm going to be faced with that. Not just our frailty and insufficiency, but our sin.
[00:41:34] When you're faced with that this week, don't double down.
[00:41:39] I'm going to try harder. You know what you're doing?
[00:41:43] You're shackling up again.
[00:41:46] You're going over to the shackles and chains that have been busted loose and you're putting. How can I get these chains back on me?
[00:41:53] How can I be a slave? No, don't.
[00:41:56] Don't double down. Don't man up.
[00:41:59] I'm going to try harder. I'm going to memorize more scripture. I'm going to read my Bible more. I'm going to pray harder. I'm going to do all the things.
[00:42:06] No.
[00:42:07] Stand in the freedom that you have in the gospel and claim in that moment the righteousness of Christ. Instead of trying to work up some righteousness in and of yourself, where you're going to say, well, now I don't feel enslaved. No, it's not going to happen until you look to the gospel, look to Christ and the righteousness of Christ.
[00:42:28] When you mess up this week, don't go back to the orphanage.
[00:42:34] Don't go back to the jail cell.
[00:42:37] Don't put the chains back on.
[00:42:40] And when you mess up, don't go back to the orphanage. And you go, I disappointed him again.
[00:42:47] He's going to kick me out of the house.
[00:42:50] I'm in disappointment. And you begin to live with walking on eggshells. How am I going to. How am I going to make God sad again?
[00:42:59] How am I going to make God sad with me again? He's not going to want me around anymore. Don't go back to the orphanage. You have a father stand.
[00:43:08] And as we sung earlier, you are free to call him Father.
[00:43:13] You've been made free.
[00:43:16] But then God says, it's okay. Call me Father.
[00:43:21] Live before me as a child who I it's okay. I've done all of this so that you would enjoy the freedom live in the freedom of the gospel. Yes. Confess your sin. You know that's freedom, right? I don't have to hide my sin or run from God. No. I run to him and say, here's my sin.
[00:43:41] And you confess your sin. And you claim the cross again and again and you look to Christ again and again and you say to God, I'm turning from my sin. I'm turning to you. And I'm turning to you to ask for grace, to stay away from my sin.
[00:43:55] But run to him as your father who loves you.
[00:44:00] Yes, he hates that you continue to get tripped up in sin. But he's the only one who can help you out of your sin.
[00:44:08] So turn from your sin and turn to your father.
[00:44:12] You see, the truth is, some of you are living like you have two names.
[00:44:18] You claim to be identified by the promise through the name of the Son, but you are living like a slave.
[00:44:26] You've taken on the name slave child.
[00:44:29] And for freedom the Son has set you free.
[00:44:34] Be free.
[00:44:35] But the.
