Law is Inferior to Promise

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Well, good morning.
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Alright, open your Bibles.
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Turn to Galatians 3.
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I was out last week, so we're a little bit behind as far as where we're supposed to be.
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We've been taking Galatians verse by verse.
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Those who haven't been here, we've started earlier this year.
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No, earlier last year.
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With Galatians, and we've just worked our way verse by verse through the text.
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Today we're going to be looking at verses 19-29 in Galatians 3.
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And the title of the lesson is Law is Inferior to the Promise.
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And you'll see what I mean by that.
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But I have a question on the board.
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This is the heart of what Paul is dealing with here.
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If the law can't save, why was it given? Now we addressed this two weeks ago, but as is always the case, some of you aren't here, some of you are on Work Blessings, some of you guys are new, so I always like to sort of rehash a little bit of what we've talked about up until this point, because I don't just want to dive right in and leave anybody sitting in the dust.
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Galatians is a book that is written to a church, actually a group of churches in what would now be known as southern Turkey.
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But at this point, it was the southern Galatian region.
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And these churches had been planted by the Apostle Paul during his missionary work.
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After he planted the church, does anybody remember what happened? They fell back through.
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That's right, they started to revert.
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But what caused the reversion? The Judaizers came in, which was a group of Jewish people who considered themselves Christians, but they taught that for you to be a genuine Christian, you had to hold to the Jewish ceremonial laws.
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And so they came in to Galatian churches, which would have been Lystra, Iconium, Derbe, all these churches that we see in Acts 12, 13.
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And they came in and they brought them this message, Paul's Gospel is insufficient.
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That's the message.
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Paul's Gospel of grace alone through faith alone is not enough.
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You have to add the law.
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And Paul writes Galatians as what we would call a polemic or an argument.
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He's writing to them.
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He's saying, I can't believe that you have so quickly turned away from the truth.
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And you've fallen into error.
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He calls them fools.
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Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has fooled you? Who's bewitched you? Who's turned your mind from the truth to this nonsense? So the book is not a love letter.
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It is not a writing of a kind hand.
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It's the writing of a disciplinary hand.
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You are doing wrong.
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And I am bringing you words of rebuke.
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We get to chapter one.
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Paul defends his discipleship, his apostleship.
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Chapter two, he defends his message of justification by faith alone, not of works of the law, but by faith alone.
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And then in chapter three, he begins to apply this to them in their experience.
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First, he says, when did you become saved? By hearing with faith or by keeping the law? By hearing with faith.
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So when did you get saved? It wasn't by keeping the law.
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It was by hearing with faith.
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He uses their experience.
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Then he uses Abraham.
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He says, how did Abraham get saved? Did Abraham get saved by keeping the law or by believing? He got saved by believing because there was no law.
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The law didn't come 400 years later.
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It couldn't have been by the law.
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And then he says, now, we're going to look at Scripture.
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And he begins to quote Scripture.
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And he shows them how even in the Old Testament, because that's the only Scripture he would have had.
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This is the first book of the New Testament written.
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Galatians is the oldest of the New Testament books, possibly preceded by the book of James, but it's certainly the oldest of Paul's writings.
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So this is his first book.
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So there's no other New Testament books for him to call upon and say this is what Matthew says or this is what Mark says.
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Those aren't written yet.
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So when he talks about the Bible, he's talking about the Old Testament.
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What we would call the Old Testament, but for them, it would just have been the Scripture.
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And when he quotes the Scriptures, he says, look, the Scriptures agree with me that you were saved by faith alone, not by works.
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So, this leads us to the question.
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And it is the question that Paul asks in the beginning of verse 19.
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Why then the law? Notice that is the first thing we see in chapter 3, verse 19.
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See it? Now, some of your translations may be a little different, but it should begin with some form of an interrogative.
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Why the law? Right? Why? Why the law? If you're telling us that we're saved by faith alone, if you're telling us that we are not saved by keeping the works of the law, then why did we get the law? Why was the law given? If the law can't save, what good is it? It's a legitimate question.
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And so, Paul spends the rest of chapter 3 answering this question.
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Why the law? If the law can't save, why was it given? Now, in our last lesson, I took you on a theological outline of how the Christian church has long understood the law as having three purposes, because we answered the question, why the law? Does anybody remember what the three purposes of the law are? One of them, the third, I'll go down the list of three.
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The third one is moral, and we'll talk about what that means, but that is...
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The mirror, the curb, the mirror, the mirror.
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You guys are all shooting different things at me.
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Yes, the mirror, the curb, all of those are right.
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And the compass.
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I used those three examples, the mirror, the curb, and the compass.
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That's my man, took notes.
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All right, so the first one, pedagogical.
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And then the second one was civil.
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And the third one is moral.
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Now, pedagogical, this is what we would say, if we talk about pedagogical, this is the mirror.
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We used three examples.
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We said the mirror, the curb, and the compass, right? All right, so let's talk very quickly, just rehash what that means.
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The law first, by the way, the word pedagogical simply means it's an instructor.
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It actually means it's a guardian.
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It's a guardian.
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And what it does is it shows us, as a teacher, as a guardian, it shows us our sin.
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The law does not justify you.
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The law only has the power to condemn you.
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If you are righteous, you don't have to go before the law.
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Right? Anybody here ever been taken before a judge because you did something right? No, you're taken before a judge because you broke the law, because you did, or at least you're accused of having broke the law, right? So the law in that sense is a disciplinarian.
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The word pedagogue, or in the Greek, it's a person in the ancient world who was tasked, when you had a rich man who had children, he would take one of his slaves or one of his servants, and he would task them as the pedagogue.
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His job was to basically follow that child around and make sure they did right.
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And if they did wrong, they got the whacking.
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That's the southern version of the spanking.
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They got the whacking or the spanking.
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Right? The pedagogue had the rights and authority of the father.
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And often was more disciplinarian than the father because he knew if that child got out of line, that was on him.
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So the pedagogue is the guardian.
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The newer translations say tutor.
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I don't like the word tutor.
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When I think of tutor, I think of like a 16-year-old girl who sits down and teaches me math.
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That ain't no.
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This is more like The Rock who's just walking around with a stick, you know, ready to whack me.
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You know, it's not the 16-year-old girl.
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This is Dwayne Johnson with a whip.
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You know, he is the tutor.
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He is the disciplinarian.
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So that's the first.
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The law, it mirrors and shows us our sin.
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Later, what we're going to read today, hopefully if we get there, is that the law actually points us to Christ because it shows us our desperation.
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It shows us our need for a Savior.
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The law can't save us, but it can condemn us.
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So that's the first one.
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The second one is the law has a civil purpose.
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It curbs misbehavior.
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What did we say last time? If the law were to be suspended for one day, society would never be able to come back.
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If the whole law, if everybody was allowed to just simply do what they wanted to do for the whole day and there was no...
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You've all seen or heard about the movie The Purge.
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If all law was suspended for a day, it would never ever be able to put the pieces back together.
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There would be so much destruction, so much anarchy, so much lives lost.
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It would be absolutely...
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So the law serves a civil function.
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It curbs the evil hearts of men.
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The reason why we all don't drive 120 miles an hour, even though our cars will go 120 miles an hour is because we know there's a penalty if we do that.
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Right? So the law serves a civil function.
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Now the third function of the law is what we call the moral function of the law.
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And it functions as a guide.
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Think about this.
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How do we know what God likes and what He doesn't like? By the law.
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The law shows us that God likes justice and He hates injustice.
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God likes love and He hates hatred.
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The Bible says six things the Lord hates.
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Yes, seven are an abomination to Him.
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And the first one is what? A haughty face.
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A person who's prideful.
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God doesn't like pride.
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This is why the Bible says God...
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I can't think of the word.
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He resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble.
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So what do we learn through that? That God likes humility, not pridefulness.
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Yes, sir.
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So what you're saying, the law was really the center of the relationship between God and the people, right? Yeah, it showed them what God wanted of them.
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It showed them how God wanted them to behave in a moral sense.
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So the law serves these functions.
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And what we're going to see is Paul expresses this in Galatians 3, beginning at verse 19.
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It's still kind of like the Ten Commandments, right? Well, again, all three of these things still function.
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Yes, so yeah, I would say today, you'll hear me and you'll hear Pastor Mark maybe at some point, because I know he and I both agree on this, you'll hear us talk about the third use of the law.
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You see, the first use of the law is what brought you to Christ.
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The law condemned you.
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You realized you couldn't save yourself, so you came to Christ because only He could save you, right? If you're saved, that's how it happened.
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The law condemned you and you needed a Savior, and Christ was a Savior.
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The second use of the law is not really for us, but for the government.
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Romans 13 says the government does not bear the sword in vain, but that we ought to obey the government because they have the right from God as the deacon of God.
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The word there for minister is actually the word deacon.
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The government is God's deacon to enforce its law.
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Now, does the government sometimes go off the rails? Of course, because it's made up of sinful men.
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But it does have a function in the economy of God.
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There's three spheres of authority in God's economy.
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The first sphere of authority is the home.
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Father, mother, children.
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Second sphere of authority, you wouldn't think about this, but it's the church.
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Within the church, there's a sphere of authority with the elders, the deacons, and the members.
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The church can enact discipline, Matthew 18.
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And then the government.
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And that's three individual spheres of authority that function in the world.
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And the government's ordained by God to exercise civil authority, civil law, and civil punishment.
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But the third use of the law is the most important for believers because the third use of the law is how we understand God's desire for us.
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How do I know God wants me to love because His law calls me to love? How do I know God wants me to forgive because His law says that I ought to forgive? So those are the things that I learned and I try to practice because the third use of the law functions in my life.
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Most specifically through the teachings of Christ because He is the greater Moses.
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When Jesus came, He said, you have heard it said this, but I tell you this.
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And He wasn't contradicting what Moses said, but He was going deeper.
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You heard it said, do not commit adultery.
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That's true, but I tell you this, don't even look with lust.
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And people say, whoa, man.
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I had you on the adultery, but now you're going to stab me in the heart, Jesus.
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I mean, cause seriously, that's when it got real.
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Jesus dug deeper than the law.
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And He showed us that the law is more than just what you do, but it's actually how you think and how you behave and how you act in your mind.
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I mean, any of us can be good for a day outside, but how many of us have ever gone a whole day without sinning in here? And that's what Jesus taught us, right? What comes out of the mouth comes out of the heart, right? And all of it comes from our evil heart.
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So there's the three uses of the law from what we would call a theological perspective.
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We see these expressed in the creeds and confessions of the church down through the ages.
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But now we're going to see how Paul expresses this in Scripture.
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We're going to read verse 19.
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We're going to read down to the end of the chapter and then we'll begin to break it down.
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Verse 19 says, "'Why then the law? It was added because of transgression.
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Until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
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Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
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Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not.
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For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law, but the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
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Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
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So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
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But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian.
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For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
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For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There's neither slave nor free.
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There's neither male nor female.
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For you're all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise." Let's pray for a minute.
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Father, as we go to study this passage, I pray that you'll keep me from error.
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I pray that you'll help open hearts and open ears and open minds to the truth of the Word.
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I pray that, Lord, your Holy Spirit would ultimately be the teacher that I would decrease and that Christ would increase.
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I pray for those who are saved here, Lord, that you would draw them closer to you through the preaching of your Word.
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And for those that are not yet in the kingdom, that they would bow the knee of the Lord Jesus Christ at the proclamation of the Word.
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For only you can do these things, Father, so we leave them to you.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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So we're going to begin after Paul asks the question in v.
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19.
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Why then the law? Paul says it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promises have been made.
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We'll stop right there.
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It says it was given, it was added because of transgressions.
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Now I explained this last time, but again for those who weren't here, if you don't remember, hmm? Say it again.
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Yeah, but the law was added.
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In this sense, I don't like the ESV translation.
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It says it was added because of transgressions.
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The word because in English is such an odd word because we can use it in many ways.
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I talked about this last time.
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If I said I want you because of a crime, that could mean I want you because you committed a crime or I want you because I want a crime committed and I know you're good at it.
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I'm just kidding.
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I don't know if you're good at it.
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But the point is, the word because can have several nuances of meaning.
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What is intended by Paul here when he says that the law was added because of transgressions is it was saying it was added to show people their transgressions.
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That's how it's translated in the New Living.
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And I do like the New Living in this particular section because it adds a little bit of a commentary to what Paul was saying.
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And in the Greek, I think this is accurate.
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It was given to show what sin is.
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If you go over to Romans 7, Paul says this.
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He says, I coveted, but I didn't know what coveting was until the law said, do not covet.
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And when I heard, do not covet, I realized I covet all the time.
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You understand the point? The law is showing you your sin.
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The law is showing you how sinful you are.
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And you all have heard me talk about this before.
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You talk to the unbeliever.
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You say, are you a good person? Yes.
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Always.
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I've never met a person yet who when I say, are you a good person? They wouldn't say absolutely because they're always comparing themselves to other people.
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I'm a good person.
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You know, I take care of my kids.
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I go to work every day.
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I pay my taxes.
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That makes me a good person.
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But what does the law say? The law says there's only one good person and that's Christ.
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That's true.
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But if we just look at the law, just look at the simplest of the laws, thou shalt not lie.
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And then you say, well, I've lied before.
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Okay, so you've broken the law.
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What is Revelation 21.8? Oh, you should know this one.
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Revelation 21.8, all liars will have their place in the lake of fire.
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Do you realize that? Alright, so why then the law, it was added because of transgressions.
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As I said, what I think that means, what I believe it means, is it was added to show transgressions.
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It was added to multiply transgressions.
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Not that it would make sin more, but that it would show us more our sin.
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And that's what the law does.
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The more we look at the law, the more desperate we become.
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The law doesn't make us more righteous.
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The law makes us more guilty.
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And so the law has that function.
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Condemnation.
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But notice the next word in the sentence.
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He says it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come to who the promise had been made.
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Who is the offspring that this is referring to? Jesus.
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How do we know that? Verse 16.
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If you go back up to verse 16, He tells us in chapter 3, verse 16, He says, The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.
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It does not say and to offsprings or seeds in some of your translations referring to many, but referring to one and your offspring who is Christ.
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When Abraham was given promises and the promises were to his offspring, a lot of us would assume that meant the whole nation of Israel.
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And in one sense, that is true.
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But in a much more narrow, a much more what we would call Christocentric perspective, all of the promises given to Abraham find their fulfillment in Christ.
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Christ is the promise given to Abraham.
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And they find their fulfillment in Him.
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And so that's Paul's point.
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It didn't say seeds.
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It says seed.
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It wasn't talking about everybody.
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It was talking about Christ.
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And therefore, we now have a new world.
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The world that we live in since Christ came is you are either in Christ or you are outside of Christ.
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If you are in Christ, you are heirs according to the promise.
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You are Abraham's descendants.
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You are part of the family of God by faith in Christ, or you ain't.
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There ain't no midway.
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There's no halfway point.
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You're either in Christ or you're not.
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You can't be hanging on the outside of the ark.
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And if you think of Noah's ark, that's the greatest illustration.
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You're either in the ark and you're safe from the wrath of God, or you're outside of the ark and the wrath of God is pouring down on you.
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There is no way to be hanging on the outside.
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You're either inside and safe or outside and damned.
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So that's the point.
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The law served a function.
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It served the function of showing people their sins, showing Israel their sins, until the offspring, that is Christ, would come to whom the promise had been made.
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Now, the next clause, and the clause is just a portion of a sentence here, or a portion of a verse, the next clause can be somewhat confusing because it says this, And it, that is the law, was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
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Now what does that even mean? What is that even talking about? Do you know what an intermediary is? That's the makers of the New Covenant.
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An intermediary is a person that goes between two people.
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Right, but still, you know, that's what it's coming to say.
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It's getting to the New Covenant, but what he's talking about here is when God gave Abraham His promise, there was no intermediary.
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God spoke directly to Abraham.
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God was the One.
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You remember when they cut the animals in half and the smoking fire pot went through the center and we talked about that, the blood oath.
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It was God alone who did that.
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God enacted His promise to Abraham directly.
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But when God gave the law, He gave the law through an intermediary.
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Who was the intermediary? Moses.
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The law came through Moses.
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We call it the law of Moses.
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And we also know that it came not from God to Moses, but it actually came from God through angels to Moses.
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Now there were times when God spoke directly to Moses.
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The burning bush, Mount Sinai, and different things.
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But there is a sense in which angels were involved in the giving of the law.
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And we see this in several passages.
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Deuteronomy 33.2 says this.
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Acts 7.54 says this.
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7.53 says this.
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So there are certain passages where we see angels are involved.
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Hebrews 2.2 Angels are involved in giving the law.
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So there's a double intermediary.
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You've got God here.
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You've got the people of Israel here.
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And between God and the people of Israel, there are angels and there is Moses.
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So you've got intermediaries.
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So what were the sacrifices? Like the animals and stuff? No, I'm talking about the giving of the law, not the practicing of the law.
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This is when the law was given.
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And what Paul is doing is Paul is comparing the promise given to Abraham which didn't have an intermediary with the law which did have a dual intermediary.
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The dual intermediaries of the angels and Moses.
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And his point is simply this.
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Which is better? The promise which was unconditional or the law which was conditioned? The promise which was without an intermediary, it was direct, or the law which was given through an intermediary process? And his whole argument is simply to say this.
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The promise is better than the law.
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The promise is better than the law because the promise deals with holiness.
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The law deals with unrighteousness or unholiness.
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The law deals with an intermediary.
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The promise is given through a direct relation and revelation from God.
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And so we have the distinction of which is better.
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Which is better, law or promise? Promise.
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Paul is making that argument.
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And that might not seem like a big deal to us, but this is a huge deal to people who are saying the law is necessary to be saved.
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Remember, that's what the Judaizers were saying.
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The Judaizers were saying, you've got to keep the whole law.
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The law is necessary.
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And Paul says, but we have the promise.
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The promise is better than the law.
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You're telling me I need the law.
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I'm telling you I've got a direct promise from God that came from Abraham to me through Jesus Christ who is the seed of Abraham.
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The same promise God gave to Abraham now belongs to me because it came through His seed.
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And the seed is Jesus.
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And I'm in Christ.
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And therefore, the promise is better than the law.
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And so that's why I called today's message The Law is Inferior to the Promise because it is.
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Now, verse 20 follows this same idea.
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And verse 20 is a little harder to understand because verse 20, he's adding a thought.
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And he says this, Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
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Now, that sentence by itself is kind of a difficult sentence.
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It's a peculiar way of stating what I think Paul is trying to get across.
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And there have been several interpretations of what he is trying to say here, so I'm not going to in any way try to say that what I am going to give you as an interpretation is the exact answer.
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I think it was John Piper who said, I don't know what this means.
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And that was basically how he answered it.
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Because it really is a difficult...
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What he says, Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
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We know what the words mean, but how do they in context fit with what he just said? And this is my understanding, and maybe it will make sense to you when I tell you.
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What I believe that he is saying here is that in verse 19, he just said, The law is inferior to the promise because the promise did not have a mediator, and the law did.
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Verse 20, Now, an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
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Let me finish my thought, because this is before you ask a question.
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The law had intermediaries, but when God gave the promise to Abraham, it was just him alone, and no intermediary.
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And I think that's the point.
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I think if you stretch out what he is saying, he is saying that an intermediary involves more than one.
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The law is what we call a conditional covenant.
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A conditional covenant, because the law has conditions.
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Do this, do that, and live.
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Therefore, it involves two parties.
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God gives a command, and people have to give an obedience to the command.
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This is why Israel was always in trouble, because they weren't keeping the law.
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This is why they went in and out of captivity, and in and out of problems, and all through the Judges, and then all through the 1st and 2nd Kings, and Chronicles, and all these things that we read.
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They're always going in and out of wars, and out of trouble, and what's the problem? You have transgressed the covenant.
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They were fickle.
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Boy, were they fickle.
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They had transgressed their side.
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It was a two-sided thing, the law.
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You got the law, you got the people who are to keep the law, right? And it was two parts.
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But the promise didn't have two parts.
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The promise had one part, one promise.
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When I say to my child, and this is maybe not a great idea, because I can't always perfectly fulfill my promises to my children, but if I say to my daughter, Hope, Daddy promises you that we're going to go to a movie.
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Let's say.
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And I make that promise.
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It's not dependent upon her.
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It's not dependent upon her ability to pay for the movie.
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It's not dependent upon her ability to drive to the movie theater.
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She's seven years old.
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It's not dependent on anything in her.
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If that promise is to be fulfilled, it's on me.
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Because I made the promise.
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Now if I take my 22-year-old daughter, and I say, Honey, if you clean your room, I'll take you to the movies.
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Now there is a conditional covenant.
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That's again a silly example, but if I say to Ashley, If you clean your room, we're going to go out tonight.
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And I come home and the room's messy.
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She didn't fulfill the conditions of the covenant.
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In that sense, I have no responsibility to follow through with the promise.
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You see which is better? It's better when I deal with a seven-year-old and I say, I promise you, I'm going to take you.
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Because it's on me.
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Not on us.
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It's not about us.
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It's not about our relationship.
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It's not about how good you are or how good I am.
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It's about my word.
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I made a promise.
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I'm going to keep my promise.
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That's the difference between the law and the promise.
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The law is conditional.
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Do this and live.
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Do this and be rewarded.
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Do this and receive this and that.
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Not the promise.
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There's no place in the covenant that God made with Abraham where Abraham was given a condition.
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Right, and that's what I received when you were reading it.
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You know what I'm talking about? It was out with the old, but in with the new.
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Yep.
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Well, the new covenant is also an unconditional covenant.
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In the sense that the new covenant is based on the work of Jesus Christ, not on our work.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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And someone might say, well, we have to believe, so it is conditional on our belief.
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Huh? But think about this though.
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I'm going to challenge you for a minute.
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Is your belief your contribution? I guess so.
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No, because God is the one who enables you to believe.
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The Bible says that you don't have the capacity to do what is pleasing to God in your flesh.
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God has to give you a new heart.
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And if God is the one who gives you a new heart to give you the capacity to do what pleases Him, then it's still all of Him.
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This is why we say salvation is of the Lord.
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That's right.
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You're dead in your sins.
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You're like Lazarus in the tomb.
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Lazarus can't come forth until he's made alive.
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Right? Now brother, you were going to ask something but I'm going to cut you off.
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You still have a question? I was going to say, before he had explained it, that what I understood about that was probably wrong, but Christ was the intermediary for us.
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That's in a different sense though.
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Christ is our mediator between us and God, but Christ Himself is standing in our place.
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He took our sin.
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That's what that refers to.
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So that's a little bit of a different context.
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But yes, Christ is our mediator between us and God because of our need for that.
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Man, when you just said, because our salvation is of, I mean, but our salvation, salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.
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Yes.
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That brought it back to me, Psalm 37, 39.
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But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.
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He is our strength in times of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them, or us, shall deliver us from the wicked and save us because we trust in Him.
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Our salvation is of Him.
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That's right.
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He gives us choice.
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He does give us choice, but in our natural flesh, we'll always make the wrong choice.
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He has to enable us to make the right choice.
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The Bible says, it says we cannot come in our flesh because we don't want to come.
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We don't want to come.
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The Bible says God will make them willing in the day of His power.
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He makes you willing.
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He makes you willing to come.
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That's funny because it sounds like coercion, but it's not.
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Again, in a sense, there's another thing.
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This is not a perfect one-to-one example, but I use my children as examples.
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Sometimes I have to make my daughter do stuff she doesn't want to do.
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She's seven.
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She doesn't get it.
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But once she does what I make her do, she realizes how good it was and she's excited.
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My little four-year-old boy, I take him out to my parents' house every Wednesday, and he spends the day with my dad and my stepmom.
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Every Wednesday, he don't want to go because he wants to stay home with Mama.
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And I say, no, you're going to go.
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I'm going to make you willing.
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I'm going to take you.
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And I take him.
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And every Wednesday night, when they bring him home, they bring him to church, he's happy, and he's had a great...
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Grandma and Grandpa, they feed him apples and eggs and all kinds of stuff that he loves.
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And he spends the day getting basically treated like little Lord Fauntleroy at their house.
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He's just treated well.
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But he didn't want to go.
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But when I made him willing, and he went, he realized the blessing.
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None of us want to come to Christ.
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None of us want to come because we don't want to give up our sin.
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None of us want to come because we don't want to crucify the flesh.
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None of us want to come because we're tied to that dead post that we've been ever since we were born.
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Dead in trespasses and sin.
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And God makes us alive so that we're willing to come.
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And when we come, we can't imagine going back.
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We say, now I've been made alive.
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And I'm getting them sweet apples and them good eggs.
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Things have changed.
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Now, is life always great when you're a Christian? No, sometimes it's harder than it was before.
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But your eyes have been opened and your ears have been opened.
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And you see the truth and you hear the truth and everything is different.
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The world looks different.
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You wonder how people who aren't saved live the way they do.
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Because how can't they see the world through the eyes of Christ? Because they haven't been given eyes to see and ears to hear.
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And they still see through their worldly eyes and they hear through their worldly ears.
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So I'm going to draw to a close there because we're pretty much out of time.
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But here's the thing.
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Verse 19, Paul asks, why the law? Well, it was added to show us our sin until Christ would come.
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And when Christ would come, He would fulfill the promise that was given to Abraham and He would become to us the promise that was given to Abraham.
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And now when we are in Christ, we become sons of Abraham.
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We all sing the song, Father Abraham had many sons.
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Many sons had Father Abraham.
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I am one of them and so are you.
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Blessed is the praise of the Lord.
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That's because...
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And none of you, I think, are Jewish by birth.
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Maybe you are.
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But if you are in Christ, you are Abraham's children by faith.
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You have received the promise given to Abraham because that promise was given to Christ and you are in Him.
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Now next week, we're going to go to verse 21 next week.
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I'll just stop here.
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Paul asks this question.
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Okay, I asked you what the law is for.
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You said the law shows us our sin and the law is not as good as the promise.
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The promise is better.
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Now the question in verse 21.
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Well, does that mean the promise and the law contradict each other? Notice verse 21.
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Is then the law contrary to the promise? Certainly not.
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And that's what we're going to look at next week.
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Why is it that the law and the promise can still coexist together and not contradict one another? And I'll give you the answer now.
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We'll look at it more next week.
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It's because the law isn't intended to save.
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The law is intended to condemn.
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The promise is what saves.
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So they can exist together.
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The law being the agent of condemnation and the promise being the agent of salvation.
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We'll talk about that more next time.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for this time to study and I pray that it's been useful.
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And we pray for this man who has been sick among us and who is now headed to the hospital, Lord.
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We pray that You would be merciful to him.
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We pray that in this hour of his physical need that You would touch him and watch over him and that You would keep him from any serious sickness or illness.
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We pray for his heart.
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We pray for his circulatory system.
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Lord, we pray for all the things that are going on in his body.
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Please, Lord, watch over him and care for him.
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In Christ's name, amen.