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.