Book of Galatians - Ch. 3, Vs. 11-19 (07/30/2000)

Open your Bibles to the book of Galatians, to the third chapter, and we begin the lesson today with verse 11.

Joy, who is it that is speaking to us? Paul.

And he says this, that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.

We are justified before each other in our works, but not before God.

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

Let's play the what -if game for just a minute. Joy, what if we had to live by sight only, that there was no faith?

God. Well, not what we'd miss now. I want to know what your life would be like.

Well, we'd be living by God, and that would be favorable to the fact that we can't see

God. Dennis, can you think of an example of a person that is alive today that is living without faith?

And by without faith, I simply mean he does not consider faith a part of his life.

Right. Now, they may think they're happy and prosperous, and they might be, but not totally.

Malachi. Malachi. Well, that part might not be

Malachi, but go ahead. Okay, I think you slipped over into David also there.

But that's right. So, we are to live according to our neighbors?

No. Galatians 3 .11, those of you who just come in, the just.

He's talking about the just now shall live by faith. The just, him whose way of thinking, feeling, acting is wholly conformed to the will of God, is a just person, and who therefore needs no rectification in his heart or his life.

He has already arrived. He is already in Christ. He is already alive in Christ.

So, he is the just that shall live by faith. The verb shall is what kind of verb?

Imperative. What does it mean, imperative,

Virgil? All right, let's see if we can find out for you.

Deborah. It means it's going to be done. All right, who causes it to happen?

God. All right, the one speaking it. In this case, it's

God himself that is speaking it through the writings of Paul. So, Virgil, an imperative verb, simply means that you have no option.

It is absolute. What? It's required. It's not only required, it will be carried out.

It will happen. So, the just shall live.

Now, back to Dennis again, does that mean that the just cannot live except by faith?

Yes. Well, you had already agreed with it,

I saw you. Now, Bill, we need a good definition of the just shall live, the word live.

Carry out all of our activities. All right. Then, are you saying that living by faith is the only living that the just can do?

Yes. What about the just sinning?

Are they living while they're sinning? Then they're sinning by faith.

They forgot it for a reason. True. That's true.

I don't like that doctrine. I think that's out of order. What? He forgot it for a reason.

All right. He forgot who he was. Well, let's talk about that for just a moment.

If you forget who you are, do you sin? Possibly.

Because of everything. Well, but you don't know who you are.

Brother, I'm not sure I heard you. If you forget who you are, why sin? Well, that's because a

Christian should not. A Christian can't forget that you're a

Christian unless you are separating yourself from God and your sin.

All right. What if you have a head injury and it makes you incapable of remembering who you are?

You know, all of a sudden, you know, split. How many would agree with that?

Half of them agree with that. The other half. No one?

What? Something like it. If you have a head injury, that's in God's will for you to have it anyway.

Anything that he makes not happen, as long as you're His children, it's in God's will.

He knows what happens before it happens. He not only knew it, he what? He knows that.

I believe you've got that down. All right. The just shall live by faith.

Faith is a strange animal. How would you describe faith,

Debbie? All right.

Can you describe faith without referring to God? Believing it how?

All right. What? Thank you,

Dennis. Faith.

Let's go to the professor, David. Faith is what?

Give me your answer. All right.

Then faith. As though it were tangible.

Faith is a wonderful tool. Without it, we could not operate. I'm so glad that God chose that way.

Faith, the conviction that God exists. Could we say that was faith? Have you ever seen

Him? How do you know you haven't seen

Him? There you go, basing it on the

Bible again. The conviction.

What? The conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things.

Now, Dennis, can we include the last part of that in that statement? He is the creator of all things.

Say yes. All right. The provider and bestower of eternal salvation.

Is this God? Through Christ. Is that right?

How much of our life passes through Christ?

How much of this life that we receive passes through Christ?

Who do we belong to? What did

He do with us? We belong to God the

Father and He did what? Gave us to Jesus.

So the just shall live. And the law is not of faith.

Now, why? Deborah, why is the law not of faith?

Dennis, why is the law not of faith? Then he concludes that verse.

Yes. All right, but we're following it in Christ.

The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them.

Not live by them, but live in them. Now, let's see.

Richard, he's here. Well, what's this mean? If you live by the faith, the man that does the law must live in the law.

What's that mean? All right.

What if he cannot keep all of the law? All right.

David, by what will that man be judged? By the law.

Who is it in the world that is still under the law? And who is that?

All right. So all of those that are not under the blood of Christ are under the law.

And they will be judged by the law. Christ fulfilled the law.

He didn't do away with it. He fulfilled it. And then the Holy Spirit placed us in him.

Therefore, in the sight of God the Father, we keep the law. Right or wrong?

Right. All right. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Now we've introduced another term into this law. By the curse of the law.

Bill, what's it mean, the curse of the law? That's good.

Now the law demands what? Death. So everybody that is not under the blood of Christ is sentenced to death.

Is that right? Yes. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Now here's an exceptionally good word in the scripture. Debbie, what does the word redeemed mean?

Bought it back. What do you mean back? Do you see how the word redeemed proves that we were once his?

Just the word itself. It proves that we were once his and we were bought back, as Deborah said.

I want you to remember this. I've said it to you several times, but I'll probably say it several times more.

The worth of the item that is purchased must imperatively be equal to the value of the medium of exchange.

Now Dennis, tell me what all that means. The worth of the item purchased must be equal in the value of the medium of exchange.

Let's get the other dentist to add to it. She's hiding behind that mic stand.

The worth of the item purchased. Well, this, first, this has nothing to do with the scripture.

Just close your Bible for a moment. The worth of an item that you purchase must be equal in value to the medium of exchange.

What's that mean in the everyday world? All right.

I don't give you the full price. Then you've been cheated and you're not getting the value of the, you're not getting the true value of it anymore.

So it's wrong not to give back the purchased product.

All right. Well, folks, I think it's kind of backward from that. Maybe almost the exact opposite.

When you buy something and you pay a price for it, then how much you pay establishes its value.

It's like the stock market. If you go out and I buy a share of a stock at $40, that's the value of it.

That sets the value. Purchase price sets the value. So when Christ decided, well, when

God called us to back by sacrificing his Son, he established the value because the price he was willing to pay.

And it was what? It was the totality of Christ's people.

All right. Eternal salvation. Well, that was, all right.

The item being purchased was salvation for the redeemed.

The medium of exchange in this case was the blood of Christ. He considered his blood equal in value to those that belong to his

Father, to everything that belonged to his Father. He came to redeem all things that belonged to his

Father. So I want you to get that fixed in your mind, that the worth of an item purchased must equal the value of the medium of exchange.

Now, in the world, that medium of exchange is usually money. And whether we pay too much or too little, we established in our mind that that was the value for me right now.

And if I take it back and I don't get my full value, then

I made a poor judgment. But with Christ, there are no poor judgments.

It's okay. Your life was worth the blood of Jesus Christ.

That we are what? Yes. Sure.

Because we're part of his. We're part of all that belongs to him.

He will not suffer anything that belongs to him to be wasted. Or to go to hell.

It'll all return to him. Everything. Sin being the only thing that will not.

And Satan and all of his imps will end up in hell.

A place prepared just for them. 14.

When is the value placed before you notify or ask for it? When what? When is the value placed before you notify or ask for it?

Well, who placed the value? God. And when did he do that? Well, that's the answer to your question.

Yes. On who?

Well, certainly the value is there.

They don't know it. That's another reason that since we do not know who they are.

That we must witness to everyone that he brings into our life.

Don't be so concerned about saving the world when there's lost people right in front of you.

Now, if we knew who they were, then we'd have a different life. But we don't.

So we must witness. And by witness I mean the best witness you can ever offer is what?

Yourself. Your life. The life you live. The life you live,

Deborah, when you think there's nobody watching you that would know you. So you're right,

Diane. Good point. That we what?

Well, that's true. But people cannot see our face.

Well, the only thing you can witness about is what has happened to you. And to talk about spiritual things to an unspiritual person is like trying to explain

Einstein to a possum. Because they don't understand.

We are to tell people in such a way that they understand to the best of their ability what happened to us.

That's right. That's right. So if we live like that, we'll be all right.

If we just do what we know to do right now, if we'd close up and go home and never learn anything else, we would have enough to keep us busy right now.

I fear that we all know more than we're practicing. Fourteen.

That, or so that, the blessing of Abraham might come on the

Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the

Spirit through faith. There's faith again. Whose faith is it?

You sure it's not ours? No. Or I'm not able to muster it.

What's muster up mean? That's my definition for muster.

There is no military. Out of the

Calvary days. All right. Brethren, Paul says brethren, so who's he speaking to?

I speak after the manner of men, though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanul or addeth thereto.

Now he's talking about a situation between men. If two men make an agreement between themselves, then it behooves both of them to, either one of them, to never break that agreement.

Here he's using that to teach us about Abraham. Covenant was made with Abraham, and it included us.

Now in Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, plural, to his seed.

So David, who's he referring to? Jesus. As of many, but as of one,

Jesus. And to thy seed, which is Christ. Now, why did he not say seeds?

Because there's many of us here in this room. All right.

And what's that do to us? How can we be part of that seed, singular?

All right. We're in Christ. Again, everything points to him. Jesus, the

Christ. You cannot exist without him. That's right.

All right. Where's the first reference to that in the Bible? Anybody?

Yes. To the seed of the woman. Not seeds, but seed.

Talking about Jesus, the Christ. Yes.

Yes. Not only can it be interpreted that the

Jews would be the only ones, it could be interpreted, as you said, that there would be many, many different ways in which we could make it to God.

But you see how important the little bitty words are, even if one's singular and others are plural?

He said seed, singular. And that just eliminated a world of problems with just the singular use of the word seed.

Thank you, Bill. Where did you stop?

And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years afterwards, cannot be disannulled.

Disannulled. David, what's it mean, disannulled? All right.

So, it cannot be removed. You cannot do away with it.

You cannot escape it. You cannot go around it. There's no Congress in the world that can repeal it.

That it should make the promise of none effect. That's impossible.

The promise is the promise, and it will always be the promise. And man cannot change it.

No matter how much they preach or teach or whatever they do.

Man has no input into it. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise.

But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Was this a conditional promise?

What's the difference between conditional and unconditional, Deborah? All right, was this a voluntary or involuntary promise?

Right. So, man had very little to do with it then, did he? Wherefore, then, serveth the law.

Then, why was the law here? What was the purpose of the law,

Bill? Well, it informs us then, ourselves, that nobody, and therefore we need this ground that's provided through Jesus Christ.

All right. A child that's born into a home is subject to the laws of the parents until he reaches an age that he can have his own home.

Same way with the church. The church in the Old Testament was hidden, but it was there.

And it was under instructions of the law. It had to be. Because by the time we get to the gospel, then the church becomes manifest in the world and stands on its own.

Therefore, it had to have instruction. And the law performed that. Now, it's true, we were not there during the law time.

But the church was. It was just never mentioned. Now, it's made open.

Wherefore, then, serveth the law. Well, it was added because of transgressions. Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Without the law, man would not have known sin.

Now, it says in the 19th verse, it was added because of transgressions. Now, if there was no law, was there transgression?

Then, what did God mean when he said it was added because of transgressions? Go ahead and tell us,

Joy. It's added because man had not known sin.

So, they were under the law until the perfect one came.

Well, that's all true, but he said, why did the law come?

What purpose was it? Then, he answers it by saying that it was added because of transgressions.

And we know that where no law is, there is no transgression. So, how could there be transgression before the law?

Because everything comes from God. And he knew that transgression is making provision.

Had it not already occurred? I'm not sure it would have. Because you have to read the rest of the verse.

Why should I do that? Transgressions are against who?

God. Then, could he not recognize a transgression whether we did or not?

Yes. So, there were transgressions even though man didn't know it. Right?

Then, he established a law because of his love for us that let us know when we transgress.

By the way, what's the difference in transgression and sin? They're what?

No, they're not. Sin is what?

All right, that's pretty good. Always think of transgression.

When you hear that word, think of trespass. Now, what's it mean?

Do it intentionally. You read the sign and you did it anyhow.

That's right. But in the eyes of the Father, it was a transgression.

Now, sin. You can commit sin and not know it if you choose to remain ignorant, but you're still held responsible.

There was a law in effect, not the law.

This is not the exact proof. No. But they were under the law then. Yes.

It was a different, well, what do we say?

It was an abridged. Okay. In virtue, and I think we probably all face this way.

I just slapped down my bread up. But in the beginning of Martin Luther King, Adam and Eve were given instructions not to transgress.

And one thing that they were told not to do was to eat off the fruit of knowledge of right and wrong.

Right? Right. And that knowledge of right and wrong is the law.

That's right. And so they chose, disillegally, they transgressed. Prior to them under the law, they transgressed and chose to live lawfully.

That's right. And they found out when they discovered what the law was, that no man could live under the law.

That's right. Okay. When do I get to slap you down?

No. You're right.

That's a very good point. Yes. Brother Lewis, God knew that would happen.

He knew that they would eat of the tree. He knew that they would not live. Every single thing that happens,

God has made provisions for us. That's what I'm trying to say. About transgressions, about sin, about everything else.

He didn't go back and change his mind and decide to make this or add it to it. It was perfect from the get -go.

The only thing I would change in your statement is, God knew what was going to happen.

He ordained everything to happen that did happen. There's a difference between knowing it's going to happen and ordaining that it will happen.

He ordained everything, even the fall of man. But if I was as smart as you are, I would have said ordained.

No, I promise. No, you're right. So it didn't surprise

God. He didn't have to come up with something new. And there's lots of people that think that, but we don't.

So everything is following just exactly as he ordained it to. Even the falling of the human race.

But God is not the author of sin. Man does what he wants to. It started with Adam.

All right, let's come back to our lesson for a little while. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

What do we mean here, David? It was ordained, talking about the law. The last part of verse 3, verse 19.

And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. It was that because of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.

And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Bill, help him out.

Says what? It was prepared by an angel in the hand of a mediator.

It was ordained through the fallen angel.

The angel always prepares. That's what the mediator will make. The mediator did it.

The plan was given to them. Who was the mediator? God. God was the mediator.

He ordained the plan that was given to them.

Isn't a mediator between two? Again.

That's right. Well, what is it that was ordained by these angels?

And David, what's ordained mean? Well, this doesn't say for ordained.

That's right. Was ordained by angels. Angels had something to do with the ordaining of this promise.

How did Abraham receive it? Was it by an angel?

If it says the angel, yes. All right. Do you all think about that this week?

And we'll discuss a little bit more about this ordaining by angels. Without the law, man could not know sin.

And Adam and Eve knew about good and evil. Because they were told that there was a tree of good and evil.

They knew about it. We know about a whole lot of things. But we know,

Greg, only that which we experience. After they had transgressed and disbelieved

God. In fact, the sin was Adam believing his wife instead of God. And when that occurred, their eyes were opened to what the meaning of the good and evil was.

And we've been in that state ever since. All right. Is there anything else?

Our time's up. Clearance, dismissal, please.