Last week we took our kids around the neighborhood collecting candy from
strangers because that seems normal only once a year. You right. You do that.
Now people look at you funny. But um, so I did what any good parent would do,
right? What do you do when your kids come back from trick or treating any good
parent has to inspect and test some of the candy, right? You gotta test some of
the candy. I embraced that role. I think it's a biblical role. I mean, look at
the life of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was called a cup bearer who ta tasted the food
before the king to make sure that it was not poisonous. And so as a loving
parent, I went through their candy and tested many of them. So, son, you're
welcome. Ok. You're welcome. And there's this a solid dad tax. It's a great way
to teach your kids about government taxes, right? Oh, you got that. No. Half of
that is mine. Ok. And so I, I was going through inspecting the candy for safety
reasons and, uh, and that alone and I came across this little Snickers Bar and
the reason this was interesting to me, was completely sealed. Looks great. And
it's completely empty. Something in the assembly line, missed one. And so it's
just an air pocket right here. Unless this is some new, like zero calorie candy
bar. I don't know. Uh, it's completely empty. It's just an air bubble right
here. And I found this to be interesting because where this applies to our
discussion today is that man made religion attempts to look like genuine
relationship with God. And if you place this bag or if you place this little
wrapper with other wrappers, it looks exactly the same. But the difference is on
the inside. There is nothing there, there's no substance, there is no nutty
goodness in here. OK? And there is, it's just empty. And what happens with man
made religion is that it has an appearance of meaning an appearance that it's
gonna give you something. But if you open it up in the inside, you're gonna find
that it gives you nothing of substance. You see our faith is different than just
a world religion. It's, it's not less than religion. And so yes, it fits
categorically in there, but it's so much more than that. And over the last
couple of weeks, we've been study, studying this letter in the Bible in the New
Testament called Galatians, in which Paul was, was a missionary. He was a church
planter was planting churches. He's now writing a letter to a series of house
churches in and around the area of Galatia. And what was happening was there was
these religious leaders who are trying to add to the gospel. And so they had
this all this history and tradition. And so they were saying Jesus, plus all
these rules. So people were getting saved and they were gathering together and
they were gathering together from different tribes, different ethnicities, both
men and women, slave owners and slaves. Jews gentiles this this huge mixture of
people from different classes and ec economic backgrounds were gathering
together and believing that Jesus actually changes lives. And so the religious
leaders, the ruling leaders at that time didn't like that. And so they were
trying to place tradition and extra rules on that. And so we shared that Paul's
letter to the Galatians is really a response to that. And that same letter is
actually the letter that inspired Martin Luther along with Romans that launched
what we know as the know as the protestant reformation. And that when you
understand the freedom and the faith that is found in the gospel, it changes
everything. And so while this letter didn't have numbers and chapters in it,
when it was written, those were put in later for our reference. So we can come
back to it. We see that in six chapters in Galatians, the structure breaks down
this way that Galatians one and two shows us that the gospel is personal. Paul
shares his story we learn about grace. That grace is God's riches at Christ's
expense. And, and there's a little bit of fighting in there and, and a battle
against legalism and hypocrisy. And then in chapters three and four, we see that
the gospel is powerful. That's where we are today. Last week, we shared about
the power of receiving and unleashing the Holy Spirit in our lives. And then in
a couple weeks, we're gonna end up finishing this letter in chapters five and
six and it talks about how the gospel is practical. And so if you're taking
notes today, I want you to write this down that Christianity is not based on
performance or position, but on the power and the promises of God. Christianity
is not based on performance and position, but on power and promises of God. And
this is a complete difference of approach and attitude. When it comes to faith,
you see, on one side, you have a group of people that said I have to do good and
be good in order to be loved by God, I have to follow this checklist, these
series of rules that then maybe one day I might gain position. And if I gain
position, therefore, I'm blessed and favored by God and I can use my position to
control other people all throughout history. We've seen that when you connect
religion with power, it doesn't end well, right? Because people are prideful,
they're greedy, they want control and so you have religion based on performance
and position in classes and ruling and, and servants and this back and forth.
Well, the gospel was changing the lives of everybody. So slaves and owners and
Jews and gentiles, men and women and they're seeing everybody respond to this
because it's based not on themselves, not on their circumstances, but on the
power and the promises of God. And what we wanna do is that we're gonna take a
look today there in the middle portion of this letter about where this truth
come from and why it's important to you and me today. And so the power and
promise when you take power and promise and you put them together, it's what's
known as a covenant. So covenant by definition is a legal binding agreement that
establishes a specific relationship between two or more parties. This was a
legal practice in that day of that culture where people would have a legal
connection to each other. And, and it was pretty extreme, for example, in, in
Genesis time when there is a covenant made between two people, it's not quite a
pinky promise. It would go further. They would actually, I'll be, since they're
here with kids in the room, they would take some animals and we'll just say
split them in two great if you can put that in there and they would put them on
either side. And a lot of times they would use cows and goats and rams and doves
and pigeons. And they would place the halves on either side and then they would
walk through it together. And they would say if I don't come through with my
commitment of the covenant, may I be like these animals? And so this is very
serious. This is literally life and death type commitments. And there was also
this commitment that was made that it can't be changed. If you think about a
legal will or inheritance. When someone passes, there's always a discussion of,
OK, who gets what in the will? There's a legal documentation of that. And in
those days, that could not be changed. This is important in just a few minutes
when we jump into scripture together. And so in the Bible, there is five
covenants between God and man that really make what's called the meta narrative
or the big story in all of the Bible. And so there's five in the first one is
noa. So the Noah covenant after the flood, je uh God speaks to Noah and promises
that I will not destroy the earth again by way of flood. And the sign of that is
the rainbow. That's why after storms we can see the coming of the rainbow is a
reminder of the no covenant. And that's in Genesis eight. We have the Abrahamic
covenant which we just shared that uh where you walk through the animals. Well,
what's crazy about this covenant is that when they split the animals, Abraham
actually fell asleep and God actually made him fall asleep and he did not pass
through. But instead a symbol of God like a smoking pot and a smoking cloud
actually passed through the animals. And the reason that's important is because
Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant did nothing in the agreement that it was all
God that's gonna be really important in just a few moments. But just remember
that for now and then 430 years later in Deuteronomy 28 we have the mosaic
covenant think Charlton Heston Moses, Mount Sinai, the 10 commandments. God
makes this interaction that if you obey me, I will bless you. And it comes all
these rules and commandments. But what happens is that repeatedly, the people
forget and disobey and are sinful. And so it's not that the law makes them
sinful. It's that the law shows that they are sinful in the same way as lights
are shining on me. These lights make me visible. But if the lights went down, I
would still exist, you just might not be able to see me as well. Well, the old
Testament Law served as the spotlights on the sinful nature of humanity. And so
we as humans were already sinful, but by showing the law and the 10 commandments
and beyond, it actually showed us or a mirror to ourselves, it actually exposed
and revealed just how sinful we really were. And So Israel com completely messes
up time and time again. Eventually, they're like God, we need a king, give us a
king, we want a king and they get David a little shepherd boy who becomes king,
a man after God's own heart. And so God promises David in second Samuel chapter
seven that through your line, I will establish a kingdom for all eternity. And
this is really a promise of the coming of Jesus. And so David's going great
until he's not. And then his sons disobey as well. And the kingdom falls into
anarchy and gets divided eventually gets taken over by Assyrians and
Babylonians. And then you got all these minor prophets and things in the Old
Testament. And so everyone's struggling. But then the prophet Jeremiah gets this
promise from God, this new covenant in Jeremiah 31 that says it is not based on
stone, it is not based on these rules. It is because I am sending Jesus and that
this will be written on people's hearts and sealed with the spirit. And so
what's interesting when it comes to a covenant? Another word for covenant is
actually Testament. So as a public covenant or public promise or binding
agreement would sometimes be described as a Testament. This is why in the Bible
we have the Old Testament and the New Testament that it's really the old
covenant and then the new covenant, it's not that they negate them. It's that
Jesus fulfills them all. So four different times, we see that as mankind falls
short, God remains faithful to the point where he says, OK, I got it. So this is
the set up for our story today and Paul knows this. And so he's pointing back to
these covenants to these Jewish leaders and saying guys, it's been about the
promise of God, not performance. It's about the power of God, not your position.
And it's been about the promise the whole time. But don't take my word for it.
Let's jump into it. Galatians chapter three verse 15 says to give a human
example, brothers, even a man made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once
it has been ratified. See this is important because he's saying, look even in
our society right now, if there is a legal document, if there's a legal
covenant, no one can, can add to it. And so then it says in the verse 16 and now
the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. And it does not say to
offsprings referring to many but referring to one and to your offspring who is
Christ like, oh, what does this mean? Well, he answers that next verse. This is
what I mean. I love Paul. He's so direct. He like thinks of your questions and
then just keeps going with it. This is what I mean. The law mean. Moses 10
commandments, OK? Came 430 years afterward and it does not annul the covenant
previously ratified by God. So to make the promise void. In other words, Moses
covenant doesn't negate Abraham's covenant. It doesn't switch places verse 18
for if the inheritance comes from by the law and it no longer comes, then it no
longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Now, this is
important because this reveals the danger of what's known as progressive
revelation. Progressive revelation says that it's what when answering the
question, what is true? It's whoever heard from God last. This is actually how
we got many other religions today. If you think of Mormonism, Jehovah's witness,
what they say is, oh, we like the Bible. But then a particular leader got new
revelation that then negated portions of the previous revelation. And even since
that time, new leaders get new revelations and they could potentially contradict
what someone else was told. And so this is dangerous because it's convenient for
the leader that whoever speaks last is correct, right? If you, you might live a
certain way, there's no security there because you can live a certain way. And
the next person based on power and control said, nope, actually, God told me
this is right. And you can see where these other religions and things have built
upon the revelation of God saying no, that's not true. But how can you say that
God is perfect and His word is eternal. Well, except for this and this and this
and that's not true and that's not true because this is more convenient for me.
Right? That's dangerous. This is what Paul is saying too. He's saying this is
not progressive revelation. What God told Abraham is not contradictive to what
God told Moses and is not contradicting what I'm telling you now. And so here's,
here's what's so cool about this whole covenant thing that God himself
fulfilled. The covenant with Abraham. Abraham didn't walk through, the animals,
didn't actually sign the dotted line. It's like God signed it twice. The writer
of Hebrews put it this way in Hebrews chapter six verse 13 and 14. He says, for
when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to
swear, he swore by himself saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And
then a few verses eight verse 19, he says, we have this as a sure and steadfast
anchor for our soul. A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain
in reference to the early temple for the Jewish people. Here's what's so cool
about this. The fact that God signed both lines in the covenant with Abraham
means that the promise is based on Him, not on a Him. Like if you've ever
thought to yourself, I swear to you, pick something outside of yourself, right?
You pick like I swear on this relative, I swear on the lives of my kids. I swear
to my dog. I swear to this or most commonly people say this, I swear to God.
Right? We've, we've heard that maybe many of us have said that I swear to God,
if this happens, I will do this or I swear to God. If if, if someone says this,
I'm gonna respond to this. You are putting a guarantee on the promise of
something bigger than yourself, right? You said this is bigger than me. I swear
to God. If so I'm gonna do this right? And we we always say it in like an anger
way, right? Like it's kinda like I swear it's never like I swear to God that I'm
gonna bless you like it never, it never comes in gift giving does it. It's
always like an anger moment, right? For just being transparent, right? I want
you to catch this. So God making a promise with Abraham goes and says, I swear
to uh there's nothing bigger than me. So I swear to me, it's almost like if God
stubs his toe, he goes oh me, think about it like there is no bigger entity than
God. How powerful is his word? He spoke and nothingness became the universe. God
is eternal. He's the alpha and the omega he is perfect in every way. He cannot
lie because if he lies, he ceases to be God. And so when he wanted to give a
guarantee, an anchor for our soul, a promise on a promise. He did not look to
the faulty sinful mankind. He said, Abraham, I promise not only to you, I
promise to me and I do not break my word. That is the strongest foundation
possible. I love that. I swear to me. This is why our faith is based on a
promise, not on performance. Because Abraham right after that covenant tried to
sell his wife off to someone else. Not the best move. Right? Noah. You know what
happened after Noah and the floods saved all mankind built a boat for 100 and 20
years. Yeah. No. Uh two chapters later. You know how his kids found him pass out
naked drunk. Yeah. Faulty. David. David, a covenant. Oh man. Yes, David man for
God's own heart. How had an affair? Kill the guy Moses. Oh Moses, the Moses. He
is our leader. Didn't get to enter the promise land. Why? Because of this? And
even the good ones mess up and, and we just keep falling short and short and
short. And so God does not look down and say, you know what my promise is based
on you actually, you know what it's bigger. It's based on me. Paul writes in
second Corinthians chapter 34 to 6. He says such a confidence that we have
through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim
anything. He's like, look, I am messed up. Broken down. I, the only thing I'm
adding to this picture is the sin that required Jesus to die on the cross. I'm
not claiming anything to come from us. But our sufficiency is from God who has
made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, right? That's the new
promise, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. God's love for us is so much bigger. That's so much bigger.
Now, the natural question they say, well, if it's based on a promise and not
based on performance, then why do we have the Old Testament in the first place?
I hate. Well, again, he senses that question. And so we go back to Galatians and
we pick it up in verse 19. And he says this, he says, well, why then the law, it
was added because of our transgressions until the offspring should come to whom
the promise had been made and it had been put in place through the angels by an
intermediary. And now intermediary applies more than one, but God has one. He's
like, it's Jesus guys. It's been Jesus the whole time. It says is the law
contrary to the promises of God, certainly not 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 by the promise, uh so that
the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe says
now before faith came, we were held captive under the law. It's like a prison
guard. We were in prison uh until the coming of faith would be revealed. Now
before we think, oh, we were in prison. Well, we imprisoned ourselves. Like,
have you like we um just being transparent moment here with our kiddos. All
right. Uh You ever have a kid that would just like you're trying to get him to
sleep through the night and they just keep going, keep going. Do you ever switch
the handle on the door for a season? You know what I'm talking about? This seems
harsh. But if you, you're trying to sleep, you get me parents, right? You know
what I'm saying? And you don't, you don't want them to lock themselves in,
right? Because they lock it and then you gotta get the little tool from above
the door and open it for them. So you don't want them to hurt themselves. Well,
it was in the season and my daughter at one point thought it was fun. She pushed
the button on the outside, ran in and closed the door and it was great while she
played until she had to go to the bathroom and she's like dad, oh dad, someone
locked me in. I was like, what you locked you in? What are you doing? This is
what we do with sin. Ok? We lock ourselves in and say, God, why am I a prisoner?
It's like, no, you, you locked yourself in. That's what he's saying here. So
with the law, we cannot fulfill it. We're gonna make mistakes, we're gonna sin,
we're gonna fall short. It goes in verse 24. So then the law was like our
guardian until Christ came, a guardian is someone who like a nanny or a tutor,
someone would come in and instruct a child when they're young. Until Christ came
in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we
are no longer under a guardian. John Stott, the commentator wrote this. He says,
no man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law was first revealed to him,
re revealed him to himself. It is only against the blackness of the night sky
that the stars begin to appear. And it is only against the dark background of
sin and judgment that the Gospel shines forth. If if you think of your sin and
your mistakes and your doubts and your worries and all your issues, all of that
creates the canvas on which the beautiful painting of the Gospel is displayed.
So the only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that requires the
sacrifice of Jesus. But unless you acknowledge your sin, the beauty of the
gospel doesn't look that beautiful, right? If if someone just came to you and
said here, take this medicine, you're gonna question it, aren't you? Oh, why,
why do I need to take that? But if you first understand that without this
medicine, you're going to die. Now, this medicine instead of an obligation is
actually beautiful and treasured. Like, wow, this is gonna save me. So the law
doesn't make you sinful. The law shows you that you're sinful. So that when
Jesus came and says, I'll take that penalty, you take my blessing and it changes
everything. So why is this important? So if you're taking notes, I want you to
write this down that, that because of the promises and the power of God, we are
his Children. This is so transformative, not only in that culture but in the
protestant reformation and in our church here now 2000 years after it was
written because being a child of God is completely different than the practices
and performances and positions of religion. You see, we continue reading in
Galatians 326 says for in Christ, Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
Well, hold up here, Paul, what about the daughters? Right? Here's the thing.
He's actually not being chauvinistic, chauvinistic. He's actually the opposite.
See what we're about to see what we're about to read in a couple of verses is
that there's a whole mix, there's Jews Gentiles, there's owners and slaves,
there's men, women, different ethnicities, different economic classes are all
together in these churches. And what he is saying that from a power structure,
from inheritance, everyone gets the benefit that in that day was only reserved
for the Sun who received the land when the parents passed away, firstborn, who
had the power to make decisions for all of the family, son who had the power to
rule and reign in, in economics and, and, and, and take over everything legally,
the Sun. So what he's saying here blew the minds of people reading this for the
first time. He says no, in Jesus, you all are sons of God, you all get the
inheritance and value and worth true faith. This is not chauvinistic. This is
the complete opposite. This is empowerment and value bestowed on everyone in the
world. Then this is what took, this is what flipped the Roman Empire upside
down. This is why they were so mad. You think the world flipped upside down
because the sermon on the mount, do you think they got upset because they said,
hey, be nice to one another? The reason this threatened all power structures and
authorities is because they're saying, hey, in Jesus, everybody goes to heaven
who believes in Him and calls him on Lord and Savior. Everyone gets access to
inheritance and forgiveness and purpose and joy and love. Why? Because everyone
who believes in Him is called the son of God. It's John 112 verse 27 says for as
many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ in verse 28. This is
why I say we know that it's about everybody. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
neither slave nor free. There is no male nor female. He's not saying that they
don't exist. In fact, he's acknowledging their very existence says it, but
they're not treated based off that. It says that for you all are one in Christ,
Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according
to his promise. Verse one of chapter four says, I mean that the heir as long as
he is a child is no different from a slave. Like if someone was the first born,
but they were like three or four years old when they're given the kingdom,
they're not old enough to reign. You know what I mean? Like there's a reason
driver's license don't happen until you're 16, which even that is terrifying,
but we get it right. They're saying they're not gonna give the keys to the
kingdom to a toddler and say, go for it. So he say he's no different. That is as
though he is the owner of everything he says, but he's under guardians and
managers until the date set forth by his father. In the same way. We also we
were Children when we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
But when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his son born of woman
born under the law to redeem those who are under the law so that we might
receive adoptions as sons. Because you are sons. God has sent the spirit of a
son into our hearts, crying abba father so that you are no longer a slave but a
son. And if a son, then an heir through God, this is a revolutionary liberating
truth that was declared in that culture. Can you imagine being oppressed,
persecuted, beaten up a slave? And he comes as actually you're a child of God
because as Children of God, we know a couple of things we know first that God is
passionate for us. God is passionate for us. He loves us. You know, we saying
through the spirit, we cry Abba father, that word Abba is actually Aramaic,
which is weird because the letter was written in Greek. So why would you switch
languages for a certain word? I believe it's because what did Jesus ca call his
father when he was on the cross? And he cried out to him said, Abba, don't miss
this. That through faith, you get to call God the same that Jesus called God
that you get to call him dad. Now that might be a loaded phrase for some of you
because you might not have the best relationship with your dad but or your
parents. But the reason we crave that is because our soul longs for connection.
I love you all very much as your pastor and as friend. But if you tapped on my
shoulder at three in the morning and just say, hey John, I'm scared that would
freak me the snot out, right? But you know who can do that? My kids, my kids can
do that. Why? Because the relationship we get to do that with God, we can go
wherever you are. You get to go with God because He is passionately for you as a
child. But not only is he passionately for you. He is present with us. We're
about to go into Christmas season where his name is Emmanuel, meaning God with
us. Have you ever been in the house or been out in public? Or kids are in the
crowd? All of a sudden you dad, mom, no, as a parent at first, like what did
they do again? But the reason they can do that, why is because you are close
enough to hear them and being a child of God means that wherever you go, God is
there. Religion says, oh no, I've messed up. My dad is gonna be mad grace and
Christianity says, oh no, I've messed up. I need to call dad because he knows
all your mess ups and hurts and he looks down and he loves you and he loves me
because he's passionate for us. He's present with us. And the last thing is that
he is pre eminent in us. Now, I know that sounds churchy but I don't want you to
miss the power of this word because pre eminent means first and only supreme
hundreds of times in the New Testament, you hear this phrase in Christ. And that
is because our names are written in the book of Life that our names take on his
name. That our blessing is his blessing. Our forgiveness and purpose and love is
his forgiveness, purpose, and love. So whatever pain you are feeling, you have a
parent in heaven, you have the spirit in your life to cry. To that when you hurt
God hurts and it hurts him so much that he sent his son to die for all the
Brokenness of the world so that you could know him and call him. Dad. Religion
says performance position, do this and maybe I love you Christianity and grace
this because Jesus did this. I love you. I love you. But you're enough that
you're enough. Someone here needs to hear today that you are enough that God
loves you right now. He's passionate. He's present with you. And then he wants
all of that is faith. And this is based on his promise that he made for himself.
That's powerful. That's transformation. When you pray with me, dear heavenly
father, as we get ready to take communion as a church body, may we reflect and
remember the sacrifice of dying on the cross for my sins that God, we are no
longer slaves that we are not defined by our circumstances, by our mistakes, by
our shortcomings. We're not defined by our battles, but God, we are defined as
your Children and that we can cry out to you. So we cry out to you now as
remember you in yours. Since then, we pray.