Union With Christ Through Faith
First B Jackson
2015-04-26

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, church family. Welcome back to winter. No? Nothing? Nothing?

Come on. Hey. Would you stand up with me? I wanna share a

verse with you. It's from Revelation four eleven. You are worthy, o Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. Would you agree with this? For you created all things, and it's beautiful.

And they exist because you created what you please. Should we give praise to the God who's created all things including this beautiful snow out here?

Shall we?

All right, let's do it.

Before the world, before the world was made, before you spoke it to be, you were the king of kings. Yeah. You were. Yeah. You were.

And now you're reigning still enthroned above all things. Angels and saints cry out. We join them as we sing glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.

We sing glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.

Alright. He gave us breath of praise. Let's sing it to him.

Creator and God, you gave me breath so I could praise your great and matchless name. All my days, all my days, so let my whole life be a blazing offering, a life that shouts and sings the greatness of our king. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.

Let's sing that one more time. He deserves glory to God. Glory to God forever forever

Let's pray together. God, we are here to meet with you. We proclaim you and acknowledge you as the living God. And, I pray that you'd wake us up, you'd get us moving, get our hearts stirring, and our affections toward you. In Christ's name, amen.

You all can have a seat if you'd like. So,

can you all hear me? Yes. Welcome. We're glad that you're here. I have a few announcements.

We've doing mostly these days just the weird announcements, not the ones that happen every week. There are a lot of programs that happen every week and they are in this program which happens every week. It's always out there. They try to hand them to you when you come in. Sometimes, you just think they're telling you to throw something away for them but these are the bulletins and if you would, you can look and find everything that's going on in the week in here but I'm gonna tell you a few of em.

That is happening the second week in May. So, that's May the seventh, eighth, sixth, depending on which one of these faces is leaving this country. We're heading to Guatemala the ninth through the sixteenth to work with Hope of Life International, Esperanza de Vida, Internacional and they have all kinds of different ministries going on on about an 800 acre camp compound with orphanage and an a home for the ancient, an old folks home. They have all kinds of different ministries. They rescue children from the villages and bring them down and have feeding centers, nourishment centers, and a pediatric clinic, all kinds of stuff, a hospital.

So, these seven faces are going and one more face was added this week. Mike Demetrius is also going. Mikey D is going to go with us. So, there are eight of us. If you would, please be praying for us and the trip is pretty close to fully funded.

If it's not fully funded, it's really really close. So, be praying for that. I just, I think it's about there. Discovery class is not this week. It was last week and we had nine different people that went in last week to say that they wanted to join up as members at First B which praise God for that.

Today. That's at one hundred thirty this afternoon. We are searching the scriptures and Florine actually is who is from Romania. Florine will be preaching today. He speaks Spanish too.

So, Florine's gonna be preaching the word but Christian and Florine and I will be playing the Latin rhythms of the worship service and you're welcome to join. If you speak any Spanish, if you don't but you would like to or you just think the music's interesting, come on. 01:30 today after lunch. This one, we have one more of these, not two but one more of these, April 29, which is Wednesday night at 06:30. We'll finish up this book, The Cross and the Shadow of the Crescent.

It's been an engaging conversation and a lot of a lot of thoughtful consideration and reading has gone into it. So, please, if you'd like to, you don't have to have seen the other two episodes to catch up on this one. This is about what should we do about Islam. This week, Wednesday night, 06:30. Camp Bethel is coming up soon.

The spring youth retreat, May the first through the third. Renzi, do you want to say anything about that?

Just that we're taking off next Friday morning at 7AM. So, I've sent out text. Everybody say, definite answer yeses by this Wednesday. So, if you can get me that, we need to make sure that you fill out a slip that says what what are those called?

The release form.

Release form. Yep. That's it. And, yeah, we're excited. So if you have any more questions, you guys can email me or text me or just find me and I can get you all that information.

There are some flyers on this back table out here that have all the information in it, but middle school, high schoolers, we'd love to have you if you can come. It's gonna be awesome.

Thank you. The Manly Men's Spring Retreat is May 2, so that's that same weekend. Is there anybody here who would like to speak to that? I'm looking for a shiny head. Anybody?

Anybody? No? Where is he? Not here. Anyway, Manly Man Spring Retreat is May 2.

It's going to be down in Daniel, Wyoming at Jeff Zender's Earth Lodge. If that doesn't intrigue you, nothing will. VBS, looms large, June 22 through the twenty sixth is the week and Krista Clemmer is the lady in charge. If you would like to volunteer, please speak to Krista. How are we doing on volunteers so far?

Do, doing well but could use more, always. That's perfect. Monday nights at First B March on. Every Monday night, 06:15, meal music, and a message. Carl has been going through the letters of John, first John.

It's great. And this, I put these up in announcements because I tend to forget things. This is an image from Nepal. How many of y'all heard? Well, many of you did hear yesterday that there was a 7.8 scale earthquake outside of Kathmandu.

There were 17 people killed who were climbing Everest. It shook violently the the country, but really right around Kathmandu in the city. And so this is from there, and this is also from there and I'm going to read something Todd, Seaton, and I were there in November and we're working with the ministry. This church supports a ministry called Kingdom Investments Nepal. We do that through Run Ministries which is Eric and Becky Watt for those of you who know them based out of Chesapeake, Virginia but if you would, Eric Watt asked me to forward this urgent message to you for prayer and if so, move by God, some action.

I know that you've heard about the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that ravaged Nepal and you may remember that we have extensive work there. Anti human trafficking is what Kingdom Investments Nepal works with and church planning which has been the byproduct of that anti human trafficking. We have suffered tremendous loss there. Ramesh, who is our ministry partner there, is working from the town of Gorkha. His wife, Samjana, is from Lamjong.

Neither of those villages have any houses left at all. The epicenter is between those two villages, 70,000 families total. Seldom do we ever do this, but I'm gonna read it out for you anyway. $75 would buy tents, blankets for a family of four plus emergency food and water. And this is Eric speaking.

I just told Ramesh that I would I would trust God for 2,400 families by Monday. That'd be a $175,000. So, I'm calling all of our friends and and you know, support churches and Email blasting tons of people. If possible, please forward this Email to others blah blah blah. If you wanna get a hold of this or if you'd like to give money to that, would you please do that?

But it'll need to go through run ministries. Would that make sense? We'll we'll work on it. I don't know the exact path but if you want to do it, don't grow weary because I don't know the exact path, okay? I I I think that that would probably be best.

Nick could go through first B and then Nepal on the on the line, I would suppose. Thank you and you're welcome being here. Would you stand up and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with a song.

Alright, let's sing together. It's falling from the clouds.

It's falling from the clouds. A strange and lovely sound. I can hear it in the thunder and rain. It's ringing in the skies like cannons in the night, the music of the universe plays. We're singing he's holy.

Let's sing it. And you are holy, great in my heat. The moon and the stars declare who you are. And I'm so unworthy, but still you love me forever. My heart will say about how great you are.

Beautiful and free, beautiful and free, song galaxy reaching far beyond the Milky Way. Let's join in with the sun. Come on, let's sing it out. Stars declare who you are. And I'm so unworthy, but still you love me.

Forever my heart will sing of you all glory and all glory, honor, power is yours, amen. All glory, honor, power is yours, amen. And all glory, declare who you are. And I'm so unworthy, but still you love me forever my heart will sing great you are. Be thou my vision, be thou my vision.

Oh, Lord, of my heart.

God, I pray that you would truly be our vision and our delight. It's it's just easy to get sidetracked, and and we're leaky people. We just tend to gravitate toward things that don't truly satisfy. Just kinda temporary, sorta junk food ish kind of things. And I pray that you'd center us once again.

I mean, we truly are. We're here to meet with you. We're here to call you, Lord. We're here to to learn from you, to give you adoration, and then praise, and I just give you thanks. I give you thanks for another day that we have together.

We know that our days are numbered, and I pray that we would make the boast of of every day. I thank you God for this promise in John five twenty four that truly you say to us that whoever hears your word and believes in you, who sent Jesus has eternal life. We don't come into judgment, but we've passed from death to life. I thank you that that is what faith in Christ brings. Amen.

Blessed joy, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a fortunes, glory divine heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit or washed in his blood. This is our story and our song. This is my story. This is my song raising my Savior all the day long.

This is my story. This is my song raising my savior all day long. A perfect submission, all is at rest, hiding my savior goodness, lost in love. One more time. And this is my story.

And this is my song praising my savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my savior all the day long

It is good to meet with you. It is good to give you praise. And God, it is good to respond to. And I pray that here in this this worship of giving, it'd be more than just some money in a plate, but it would really be something we've been thinking about during the week is, God, I wanna give. I I wanna give.

I wanna give of my my talents and my treasure. I wanna give of what you've given. I wanna give back. And I pray that you would give us a heart, God, that truly truly is giving. You so love that you gave your son and I pray that out of response, out of a grateful heart and a thankful heart, we'd respond to and that you would use these offerings to reach people, not just here in Jackson, but to the ends of the to the world.

There are lots of folks that don't know you. And I'm praying God for the boldness and for these resources to reach them. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

It's kinda quiet today when we stood up and started singing. There's just not a whole lot of, sometimes y'all are really into it but during Be Thou My Vision, the it was a swelling tide of kind of praise for God coming forward. I wanna linger for just a minute before I start on the sermon for today about Nepal. So, I mentioned a few weeks ago about how fast the gospel is spreading in Nepal. It's one of the fastest growing areas for Christianity in the world and a lot of that has to do with the storytelling.

I was telling you about where you're just telling the story of Jesus in simple stories that can be repeated and people are doing that. It's also probably one of the highest in the world locations for human trafficking. People come in from India, which has some legalized prostitution and some a lot of illegal prostitution, But they come to Nepal and take girls out of Nepal. And this is gonna displace thousands and thousands and thousands of people, and it's gonna open up the possibility for more people to be in desperate straits. So, would you all be praying with me against that and that the girls who have been rescued and there are there were 18,790 something last year and so, we know of a house church movement that has about 90,000 small house churches.

Would you pray that God would be effective in them telling the story and that Ramesh and he has led a decentralized movement but that he would be a a good spokesman to the outside for what's going on there. So, lord, would you please bless our brother Ramesh and all of those sisters that have been rescued, lord. I thank you that you are speaking every single day. Lord, the confusion issue of the problem of natural disaster. It's hard for us to get around sometime, lord, but we know that you work through circumstances and every day, the firmament declares who you are.

So, God, would you please use this to draw more to you and this difficult time and there is a lady that's from here named Leanne Shuff, a friend of several in the congregation that has gone to Nepal lately for a visit, for a climb, for hiking, and no one has heard from her, lord. So, for her family here, for her friends here. God, we do pray specifically for her recognizing that she is but one soul Of all of those that are in turmoil right now. But Lord she is one soul. So Lord would you please bless her and those around her with your quiet confidence and strength as they seek to rebuild.

In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So, when I was preparing in the study this week for this sermon, I thought it was going to be funny. I'll just admit it upfront.

What happens when you get to class and the teacher says, alright, everybody get out a clean sheet of notebook paper. What's happening? Pop test. Pop quiz. And this is when I read it, I read it over and over and over.

I've heard a couple of y'all saying you've been reading Galatians over and over. It's not a difficult book. Paul has already given the information that they need to know but in this little short introduction to this chapter, he gives them a pop quiz. Now, they're rhetorical questions. I don't think he expected answers but I'm gonna say em like their answers, their questions for a test.

So, take out a piece of note loosely notebook paper, write your name at the top right corner, and then we'll go forward. Oh, foolish Galatians. That's the way he starts out. This is a remedial class by the way. They had not gotten it apparently.

So, he thought that they needed some urging and he starts off right it right at the very top people. You're already flunking, okay? Oh, foolish Galatians and it is very strong. It sounds like, why would an apostle do that? Everybody else that he's ever written to, he gives an introduction.

This is me, sending this to you and then he says, what the theme of the book will be in a couple of sentences and then he goes, I thank God every time. He doesn't even thank God. He just hits him with the what's going on. I'm surprised or astonished or amazed or I'm in wonder that you've turned back so quickly, he said in that first chapter. In the sixth verse and then he goes through the second chapter doing all this autobiography and then he just kinda seems to almost get fed up.

It's a very passionate book And then in chapter three, he just says, oh, foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Question number one. Who has bewitched you? Who is tricking you?

Who has deceived you? Some of y'all can y'all see that in the back? Some of you can. Who has bewitched you? And he mean, he means, who is it that has lured you away from this message that so clearly was portrayed as Christ being crucified?

Next, he says, did you receive the spirit by works of the law? Now, remember, he's speaking to Gentile Christians. When they received the spirit, were they doing it by the Mosaic Law? No. They didn't even know the Mosaic Law.

Most of them probably had never heard anything about it. Paul probably did not use Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Genesis and Exodus to start spreading the gospel to them. He said, we are all sinful people in need of a savior and I know who he is and I wanna introduce him to you. Jesus Christ, crucified as Paul says. That's what he sought to know among the Galatians.

So, here we are. Did you receive by works of the law? Multiple choice on this one or by hearing with faith. Question number three, are you so foolish? Really?

Really? Oh, foolish Galatians, are you really this foolish? Or do you really get it? You just missed it. What's the what's the number one thing that teachers used to tell me?

Excuse me. When I was there it goes again. Carelessness. That's what they said. And they'd say, it was just careless errors.

You know the answers to these things, Ray. It was just careless errors. Okay. I also used to forget my pencil a lot. And so I would get to school, and I had a second grade teacher, and I loved her dearly.

And I said, at the beginning of one of these type pop tests, I said, miss Angley, yes, ma'am. I talked a lot slower then. Can I borrow a pencil? And she said, Ray? I said, yes, ma'am.

She said, when you got on that big yellow bus this morning, I said, yes, ma'am. She said, did you know they were bringing you to school? Yes, ma'am. Bring your pencil tomorrow, foolish Shilohians. Yeah.

Are you really so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Think about that. Having begun by the spirit. Now, I love it when a teacher gives a test where later on in the test, they give you the answer to something that's up in the top.

He said, okay. Now, having begun in the spirit, hey, that's the answer to number two. Did you suffer so many things in vain? And was it indeed in vain? These are all questions he hits him with immediately out of the box.

Turn over your paper. Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, does he? Or by hearing with faith? Hint. I love a good hint too.

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, believed in faith are the word pistis and they are very very closely related. They don't look at all like in English but they do in Greek. So, he gave it away. He gave it away.

He gave it away multiple times here. And then, he's gonna give us some notes. So, he gives a pop quiz first but then, alright. Now, know this. This is what you need to know.

Know then that verse seven, it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. It is those who are of faith that are sons of Abraham. The scripture foreseeing that God would eventually justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying that in you shall all nations be blessed. Do you remember that story from Genesis 12 verses one through three? He said, that he would bless those who blessed Abraham.

He would bless those and he said that he did it though because he believed God. We'll get to that in a minute. Knowing the scripture foreseeing that God would eventually justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel. What is the gospel? It is the good news of Abraham.

The good news to Abraham and that is that there would be a savior who could be trusted to take care of sin. So, the gospel to Abraham before him, in you, shall all the nations be blessed and he goes on from there. So then, those who are of faith, that's three verses in a row, are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. He says it again. All people who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

That's the answer to a test question right there. All people who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. You can see Deuteronomy twenty seven twenty six for that but you can see it in multiple places. It is an expectation that every, if you take on the law as your guide, you are to follow every bit of it.

And if you in any way, then you are subject to the whole law. You have transgressed the law or broken it. We don't do this anymore. You're a teacher. How many teachers do we have in here?

Have any of you ever used a dunce cap before? Maybe in the in the improv comedy troupe just nodded yes, but I think I hope it's for improv comedy. I will be good. I will be good. I will be good.

What do you do? Oh, I messed up again. I will be good. I will be good. This was wrote wrote, written, sorry.

No, it was wrote action and it was designed to get this little guy to be good. Just by saying over and over, I'm gonna be good. I'm gonna be good. I'm gonna be good. I'm gonna do something.

I'm putting action to what it is. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna I'm gonna be better. I'm gonna be better. Whether he believed it or not, it was trying to force his hand to be good.

Okay, know then that it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith and that's from Habakkuk. Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets, he has a very, very, very dark book of impending judgment. Judgment is coming. There's no no doubt about it but he says, even during the time of harsh treatment and judgement, the just, the ones who are righteous are the ones who will be living by belief, faith, what it is that they believe in the Messiah, looking forward at that time in Habakkuk but Paul's calling back to it and saying, the righteous shall live by their faith.

And then again in verse 12, but the law is not of faith rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Now, Leviticus eighteen five goes into that and saying, this law is for the ones who believe it. This is the rule. This is what they go by. This is how they will live their lives.

This will determine everything about it but it is not by faith. It was imposed from outside. Does that make sense when you go across a border into a country that has a law? And even if you don't know the law of that country, it is still the law, right? Kevin?

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, right? The law is the law. It is what it is. But the the one who does them shall live by them. It's outside only.

It's not from the heart. It's not on the inside. It's not about what you believe. It doesn't matter what you believe. It only matters what you do and that's what Leviticus says about that.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone who hanged on a tree, is hanged on a tree. This is a difficult verse for me in some ways. The semantics confuse me but the curse it is that everyone who hangs on a tree is obviously referring to Jesus but where it says on in a different place where Jesus became sin for us and this says, he became a curse for us. He took that on and because he took it on in our half and he humbled himself to death, even death of a cross, God raised him back up. It's an unusual and weird thing and I'm still working through the fact that Jesus became sin, became cursed, a curse for us but I do know why he did it because he did it for us.

It says that and I do understand the outworkings of it. I just don't quite understand Paul's terminology. Sometimes, when you don't understand something like that, it's it's something that you can investigate and you still come out the other side not quite understanding it but he became a curse for us and that's obvious from the context too. So that he he became a curse for us so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So, it is of faith, by faith, it's not by law, it is through faith.

That we might receive. This is another one of those subjunctive that's in there. It, everything that needs to have been accomplished in order to pay the penalty for sin has already happened. But you must accept that by faith. Jesus has paid it all to Telestai.

It is finished but you have to access that by faith and God gives you the choice and these mites that we see up here, the mites are contingent upon your will. Being in agreement with God's desire for you to be saved. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive. It's not that we might receive the way that we commonly use the word might. Like, I believe in it, may happen, may not.

No. It's so we have the chance, and if we believe it, it will happen. Alright. So that's the might, and that's how we might through faith. At this point, I say Paul goes from the classroom to legal argumentation.

He's been teaching them, like students, everything that they need to know to pass their test. Which is it? Where is it? What's going on? And now, he's doing a further explanation and he's doing it on a little bit higher level from here forward, I think.

So, to give a human example, brothers, even with a man made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it's been ratified. Variable rate mortgages don't count. Sorry. You signed up for it. You know what I'm saying?

If you sign something and there's an agreement between two parties, nothing changes that agreement unless it's contained within that agreement. Does that make sense? Unless there's a contingency clause that leads to a way out, brothers and sisters, even with a man made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring and he gets to be very lawyerly here and says, it does not say to his offsprings, plural, referring to many but referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ. So, the blessing of Abraham for having believed God, he believed God and that he would provide a savior.

He believed him. God counted that as righteousness. He accomplished it in Jesus and he was pointing towards that offspring. Some Bible say, seed. So, this is what I mean then.

The law which came four and thirty years afterwards does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. He says that the promise that was made to Abraham supersedes the law. Does that make sense to you? Okay. We'll go on.

The law which came forward thirty years afterwards does not annul a covenant. So it doesn't change the rules. That makes sense for that covenant so as to make the promise void. If you look at the timeline here, put creation, Genesis one to three, creation is right there on this timeline. We've got Noah's covenant.

That was that he would never flood the Earth again. Alright? After that, we've got the covenant with Abraham. Genesis nine is Noah. Genesis 12 is covenant with Abraham and it's interesting too.

Abraham was in the Hittite lands and he God came and made a covenant with him in a way he could understand. He told Abraham to split this bullocks or this ox and cut the pieces and lay them apart and we will walk between the two. You know why we have a center aisle in the church these days? It's a body split in two that you may walk between and we're we're looking back whether we know it or not towards this covenant that God made with Abraham. God made a covenant in a way that Abraham could understand so that he would know that this promise was valid.

Even when he doubted it, it was still valid and it was to come but after four thirty years, Paul says, the law was given to Moses. That was in Exodus 20. So, four thirty years between but that covenant that was made was made right there and it still keeps going. That make sense? So, why was the law given?

Well, Paul will Paul will go into that. Consider this, for if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. So, right here, if the inheritance came because you did everything here, this blessing of an inheritance from Abraham or right here? No. It says, if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by the promise but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

It was an unconditional covenant between God and Abraham which God administered. So, why then the law? It was added because of transgressions. Now, that's confusing for people. Was it added because there were so many transgressions Or was it added so that you knew that there were transgressions?

I had a sociology professor on the first day of class in my undergrad program that stood up and said, we could reduce crime to zero today. I thought, gotta hear this. She said, make everything legal. Make everything legal, no crime. Does that mean that treat people any better?

That people treat you? No. They treat him probably a lot worse because everything's legal. It'd be mass looting, but it would be legal because there was no law. So this says it it was added because of transgressions until the offspring should come.

So who's the offspring? Christ. Until he should come to whom the promise had been made and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now, an intermediary implies more than one but God is one. Now, this is a parenthesis.

This little section right here, and as I study, I like to see what other people say because that one confused me. When I hit it, I thought, what in the world does that mean? So sometimes when I don't know, I'll check commentaries. And I had one guy and I said, that sounds like hogwash. So I checked another one.

I said, oh, that was worse than the first one. Checked another one. He listed what everybody that he knew of thought and and all of those were about as good as the other. I checked John Piper because I like John Piper. So, I checked him and he said, he got to this point in the sermon on on this passage and said, we're going to skip verse 20 because I don't have any idea what it means.

Okay. Another guy because of the four thirty years, he said, there are at least four thirty explanations for what this verse means. I don't really know either. I I I would love to ask Paul. Hopefully, he'll have time and eternity to answer that question.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Sorry, that was that was the circle one and there's the question mark. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. Meganoito, may it never be.

The old King James says, God forbid, although it translates none of the words, it gets the sense, the emotional sense of it is, No. Crazy. Not, no, not at all. It was good. For if law had been given that people could give lie or that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

But the scripture imprisoned everything, every person, everything, this Earth, under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ, again, contingent upon their belief, might be given to those who believe. Does make sense to you? The law is good but the law cannot save. So, what is the law? Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So, what is it about again? There's faith there. Those who believe there. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. Okay.

So, guardian. Guardian could also be translated tutor. In fact, the word is pedagogon right there, and it is the word from which we get our pedagogy. How many of your teachers again? How many times have you heard this word?

They drum you with it over and over and over and over and over again. Pedagogy pedagogy pedagogy, Depending on how y'all pronounce it. So pedagogos is the word and the definition of it is this, a boy's guardian or a child's guardian or tutor, typically a boy in Greek society. A boy's guardian or tutor who was a slave who had charge of the life and morals of the boys of a family and was not strictly a teacher. It wasn't just that he taught and had students come in.

It was a particular person, slave to a family, and brought up that person morally. Pedagogus properly, a legally appointed overseer authorized to train up a child by administering strict discipline, chastisement, and instruction, doing whatever was necessary to promote development. It would be incredibly embarrassing as an adult to have to write sentences that I will be good. I will be good. I will be good.

I will be good. But as a child, that was one of the ways. We typically try not to use shame anymore in class, but it's one way. There are other ways. There are a lot of different ways to motivate kids, but strict discipline was expected in that time.

Pedagogus is used also of the role of law especially the necessary letter of the law for foundation and technicalities that are needed to establish the doctrines of salvation, grace, faith, etcetera. It was a guardian. It was a tutor to teach us quite honestly of our inadequacy. Our inadequacy before God. We are not holy.

We all fall short of the glory of God and the law told us that. It taught us that. So, consider this, but now that faith has come, we're no longer under that guardian. Now, the the lessons that it teaches certainly were under that and most of the law was about loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Jesus summarized it that way and loving your neighbor as yourself.

So, the golden rule, that's what it comes down to. So, it stays with us and that we have learned our lessons as a child when we grow up, when there is no need for that strict discipline but now that faith has come, we're no longer under that guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many as of you as were baptized in the Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek.

There's neither slave nor free. There's no male and female for you are all one. In Jesus Christ or in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's or in Christ, then you're Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise. In Christ Jesus into Christ Jesus.

Put on Christ in Christ Jesus if you are Christ. So what is it all about? What is this whole passage, the whole of chapter three all about? What is it all about? Union with Christ.

Scrawl it in big letters on the blackboard. Union with Christ through what? The law? Through That's what it's all about. That's what Paul's getting to.

Now, you know the error that they had made and so when they had made this error, this is what he's teaching about. He goes into licentious behavior in lots of other places but here, he is freeing people from legalism. He wants them to get it. He wants them to get the lesson and understand it. So, take out a blank piece of paper.

First b Jackson, 04/26/2015 in the upper right corner.

Come on, people.

I can't say, oh, foolish Jacksonians. I just can't do it. Come on, people. He's it's rousing them from their slumber and say, who is attempting to bewitch you? First b Jackson.

Today. Right now, I am today. Wait a minute. No. No.

No. Right now, in our society, who is attempting to bewitch you, to trick you, to beguile you? Well, the devil, overarching, but how about popular philosophies of the day? Principalities and powers? Cultural or societal forces, heretical pseudo Christian cults who say they believe, but they believe a twisted gospel, another gospel as Paul would call it.

New age practitioners and good old fashioned legalist. Would you say, would any of y'all give me a how how about this? A witness. Amen. That this is the case.

Yes, that is the case. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Hearing with faith.

Hearing Hearing with faith. No doubt. Are you really so foolish? No. No.

As a Christian, I knew better. I know better because I have a relationship with a living savior who has written his word on my heart and if I care about God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, then, my neighbor as myself, then, I will walk a straight path. Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? No, the life that I'll now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God. Did you suffer so many things in vain?

No. No. By faith, I know and I believe that all of the suffering that I have experienced or any other believer experiences will be used by God. That's what he does. Does he who supplies a spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or hearing with faith?

Hearing with

Hearing with faith. No doubt. So, this is it. Will you believe God about Christ? And have it counted to you as righteousness just like Abraham because the people who trust God are the ones that receive the promise.

Y'all can come on back up, Carl. And so you flip over your sheets, trade papers with your neighbor, and hey, everybody gets an A plus. Because Jesus paid it all. Would you stand with us?

I hear the savior say. Let's sing it together. I hear the savior say thy strength into this small child of weakness watching pray finding me thine all and dawn. He paid it. Jesus paid it all, and all to him I heal.

Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the left response and build the hardest stone. He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne, I stand in the incomplete.

I lay my trophies down, all down at Jesus' feet. Let's sing it. Jesus paid it all, and all to him I owe sin hath left to crimson stain he washed ill white as snow

We're gonna sing praise the one who

paid our debt. Oh, praise the one who beat my dead ham, wheezy slide up from a dead. Jesus paid it all, and all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow thank you Jesus

and now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy To God our savior, who alone is wise, be all glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forevermore. Amen.

I'm very excited that I have the opportunity to sing and play with our brother Erman. I'm Romanian. I'm gonna sing in English, and later on, I'm gonna try to to preach in Spanish. I don't know how it's gonna happen, but thanks for your prayers.

Amen.