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Good evening everyone. You can turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 as we slowly work through our way through this book. We've been in Galatians 3 for a number of evenings now and we're now at verse 19, the section that moves towards the end of the chapter and moves into some of the more difficult language in the book with regards to the two cities or the two suns or the two covenants and so we're also encountering some difficult language here 

As far as what to make of it and how to take it, though, I think we'll see what it serves. And ultimately, what it's arguing for is, of course, the proper doctrine of justification by faith alone that the Apostle Paul has been laboring in. So this is Galatians 3, beginning at verse 19. and reading through to the end of the chapter. 

Galatians 3, 19, the word of God. What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise, by faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Amen. 

Well, let us pray. God, we thank you for this time together in your word. Do help us now. Help us not to be distracted, but to be focused upon the preaching of your word. Might your spirit attend this preaching for the strengthening of your people. for the salvation of sinners. As we always pray, we do pray that in this act we would honor and glorify your name, and that Jesus Christ would be exalted upon this congregation's praises. And we pray in Christ's name. Amen. 

Well, just a reminder that we're in the thick of, and we have been for the entirety of the Epistle, we're in the thick of Paul's defense of, or we could say his combative contention for, the doctrine of justification by faith against the Judaizers and his forceful overthrow of the use of the law as a means of justification. And here the Apostle Paul, of course, continues his argument and we see that at the outset of verse 19 He is anticipating, or maybe not anticipating only, but dealing with an objection or a question that has been raised by virtue of his preaching of justification by faith alone. 

In fact, there are two questions asked, one in verse 19, and one sort of serving that first question in verse 21. What we're gonna look at this evening is verses 19 to 26, And we're going to look at it under four things briefly. First, the purpose and temporary nature of the law. Secondly, the relationship between law and promise. Thirdly, the law as a tutor and faith as fulfillment. And then fourthly, the fulfillment of the promise, sonship through faith. We have this glorious language at the end of Galatians 3 about where in true sonship lies. It's not in ethnicity, it's not in a national connection to a geopolitical body, but it is by faith in Christ. It is by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's look at the purpose and temporary nature of the law. The Apostle Paul here in verse 19 asks a question. And this is a question that has probably been asked of Paul, been asked of the Christians as they're going about Jerusalem, as they're going about Asia Minor, as they're going out throughout the Roman Empire preaching justification by faith alone, and saying things like, we are not justified by the deeds of the law, but by faith, Jesus Christ.

So the question is, what purpose then does the law serve? Why the law? What serves the law? What is the end then of the law? If it's true, Paul, Verse 16, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, why then the giving of the law? And hopefully as we've been moving through this, we've noted that the law here being spoken of is not specifically the moral law of God, but the law as seen in the old covenant economy, the Mosaic economy, and that sometimes the use of the Mosaic economy, the ceremonial law, as a means of justification before the sight of a holy God.

So, what purpose then does the law serve? Paul immediately answers it, and we see here that it's added because of transgressions. What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions. So, if the law does not justify, What purpose does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions. It restrains the sinfulness of man from the outset of the fall of Adam in the garden whereby and wherein he thrusted all of his progeny by ordinary generation into sin. and depravity, and the just condemnation for it.

Since that vantage point, God has dealt, God had dealt with His people in holding forth the promise of the seed of the woman. He has dealt with His people by the administration of law. It was added because of transgression. It restrains sin, and as Paul says, We know sin by virtue of the law. If I did not receive the law, had I not known the law of my God, I would not have known what sin was. And so the law is added because of sin to restrain the sinful and to make the sinful know that they are sinners. And ultimately, as we'll see here, to point to the need for atonement.

It highlights, the law does, God's holiness. It highlights our condemnation as sinners who have violated the law. It holds forth a requirement that no man can perform, save for one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it establishes the reality of death due to the law's condemnation. And so what purpose then does the law serve? Paul isn't stumbling over this question. He has the proper and the biblical answer. It was added because of transgressions, restraining sin and making sin known, both the nature of it and the consequences for it.

If you're here this evening, the law communicates to you and if we could narrow it down right now to the moral law, the moral law communicates to each and every one of us the righteous demands and the righteous requirements of God. It shows us our sin, the mirror or the shining spotlight of sin exposes our depravity, it exposes our wickedness. For those in Christ, it exposes the fact that the flesh lusts against the spirit spirit against the flesh, it exposes our remaining corruption and all the more highlights the glory of Christ as the one who solely and alone saves us by the perfection of his work. Why then the law? It was added to restrain sin, to make sin known, both the nature of it and the consequences for it. 

And if you're here this evening and you're outside of Christ in unbelief, the thunderings and the lightnings and the terror of Sinai, we pray that it would drive you to the one who saves you from the lightnings and the thunderings and the terror, the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore the wrath of that thundering Holy One upon the cross of Calvary. 

The law was added because of transgressions and we see here the temporary nature of it in its purpose, it served, it was subservient unto a particular end. Notice, it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. So there is a temporary nature to it. It is not permanent. In so far as God calls it everlasting, it is everlasting within the safe confines of its particular purpose. Not that it is eternal, but that it serves a particular purpose, and when that purpose is born, it no longer serves that purpose. 

Notice, the language in Galatians 4. This is very similar, so that when we get to Galatians 4, we won't have to go through all of this again, but the analogy is a little bit different here. The language is coming at it from a different angle, but the same thing. Notice Galatians 4.1, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 

Let's just pause there for a moment. So there is a preparatory and a temporary nature to the Mosaic economy, the law, as Paul has largely been using it. It is the case that with the law, the people of Israel were under guardians and stewards until a particular time. And he hasn't come yet out of the analogy. He's speaking with regards to a householder, a father, who has legal and moral ownership, if you will, over his progeny until such time that they reach an age of maturation when they can be the proper recipients of a legal status and properly free and the recipients of an inheritance. 

So notice verse three, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. This doesn't mean that they were in bondage under fire, water, air, and earth. You know, very often when we think of the elements of the world, well, maybe not all of us, some of us who have been exposed with the four elements of the world, fire, water, air, and earth, That's not what Paul is talking about here. He's talking about the weak and beggarly elements of the ceremonial law, of the Mosaic economy, of the Old Covenant. All of those washings, all of those ceremonies, all of those meals and drinkings associated to the Old Covenant religion. 

Even so, when we were children, we're in bondage under the elements of the world, but When the fullness of the time had come. What time? The time appointed by the Father, verse 2. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. So back to verse 19 then. The law, the Mosaic economy, the old covenant, was added because of transgressions, preparatory and temporary, until the seed should come, to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

Now, with regards to this language here, In the Old Covenant, the law was mediated by angels. We see Stephen refer to that in his preaching in Acts chapter seven. We see it referred to elsewhere in the book of Hebrews. We see this in Hebrews chapter two, where there's a from the lesser to the greater argument that the apostle Paul is using there in Hebrews, that if the law given to us and mediated by angels remains steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received its just reward, how much more than the word of the living Christ, and I'm paraphrasing now, but the word of the living Christ preached by that Christ and by His disciples should bring the weight of divine glory and holiness. 

And so the law was mediated, was appointed through angels, notice, by the hand of a mediator. Now this refers to Moses and not to Christ. The law was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Do we see this in the Old Testament? Yeah, we do. When we see the thunderings and the lightnings of the Holy One in His covenantal dealings with the people of Israel, we very often see myriads and thousands and thousands of Holy Ones attending the mediation of the law to the nation of Israel. And so it was, the law was, appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator, 

And this is some of the difficult language that I was speaking of. Now, a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. It's an interesting statement that's not smacked in the middle there, but might seem to be smacked in the middle there. But let's just try and... Discover what this means. 

Now, first of all, with the role of a mediator, I think this makes sense to us. A mediator does not mediate for one only. A mediator is mediating between two parties. You can't mediate with one person or with one particular party. The specific role of a mediator is such that it anticipates two parties that you're mediating for. trying to arrive at particular negotiations or that sort of a thing. Not in the context of God. God doesn't negotiate. But you get the point. A mediator mediates not for one only, but for two. 

And then there's this statement, but God is one. Now, first of all, what this doesn't mean. This isn't a statement with respect to the being of God. Is God one, in the sense that He is the one and only living and true God, that there are not two gods, three gods, four gods, etc.? Yes, God is one. The Shema, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

This is not, though, a reference to his singularity and his simplicity, the unity of singularity, the unity of simplicity, that he is the one and only true God in such a way that there could be no other. That is true, but that's not what this is particularly saying. It's also not an argument against the Trinity, as if there is only one person, if you will, the Father, And to say that we have in the one and only living and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is to somehow go against Galatians 3.20.

It's simply saying here that God is one of the parties, one of two, in mediation. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. God is one of two parties in the act of mediation. If we think about the context of the Law and its thunderings and its lightnings, the Apostle Paul, by virtue of previous arguments and his present one, essentially saying, why would you want to put yourselves back under the thunderings and the lightnings? Why would you want to put yourselves back before Mount Sinai when you've come to Mount Zion? Why would you want to go back to the One before whom it is mediated, the Law is mediated to you, the One who does thunder, the One who does resound, the One who does strike terror into the hearts of those who are under His particular covenant?

The argument is such here that God is one of two parties and mediation obtains between those who are on this side of the covenant, men, and the Holy One who is the very covenant maker himself, which will bring to the fore the glory of the fact that it's not we who are to be covenantally obedient before this one, but rather it was Christ who was covenantally obedient in our stead and for us and for the glory of God.

In fact, if we go back to Galatians 3.10, why would you want to stand before God, the one of the two parties in a covenant, in this sort of relationship? Galatians 3.10, for as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them."

Imagine putting yourself under that particular relationship before God. That's what the Judaizers were doing. That's what these who were being stolen away from a proper and a saving Christianity who were being tempted to fall away from that, would have put themselves under. If you submit to circumcision to be justified before God, you are required to be personally and perpetually and ever and always obedient to the law of God perfectly. Do you want to stand before that party of mediation who is marked by the thunderings and the lightnings? Or do you want to stand in Christ, united to Him, the one who has answered the thunderings, the one who has answered the lightnings, the one who is answered by His perfect work, the terror?

Secondly, we see here the relationship between law and promise. Notice in verses 21 and 22, the law is not contrary to God's promises. The question is asked here in verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God? So a second question, in a way serving the first, with regards to the purpose of the law, is the law then against the promises of God? The law and the gospel, while they're of course not the same and ought not to be intermingled, nevertheless serve Different but complementary purposes. And this is what Paul is getting at here.

Certainly not is his answer. The law is not against the promises of God. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin. And notice this, again, a purpose clause, a purpose for the giving of the law. Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So we see the utility, the purpose that is of the law, in the fact that it is not against the promises of God because it drives the sinner to the promises of God. The whole utility of the old covenant scheme was that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So why would you go back to that which was preparatory and temporary when the blessed permanence of Christ and His glory has come? 

The law is not against the promises of God, but rather it serves the promise by faith in Jesus Christ that's given to those who believe. Law and promise serve different but complementary purposes. And this reiterates excuse me, verse 22, reiterates the it was added because of transgression's reality. Scripture, the law, has confined all under sin. 

This language ought to remind us, and you can turn there with me to the book of Romans in chapter 3. 

The Scripture has confined all under sin. The heavy language of the Apostle Paul, the wholesome, Wholesome in its severity, language of Romans chapter 3 and verses 19 to 20. The scripture confining all under sin, the Apostle Paul here using similar language. 

Now we know that whatever the law says, 319, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. What purpose the law then, it's right there in different words but serving the same meaning. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. The Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. And that language there, those who believe, is important. We'll see the reality come up again in verse 26. We've seen it before, but we see it in 26 through 29 as well. The promise is given not to a national body, Not to a geopolitical people that are the bewildering recipients of the enamoring of the Western world. Not by those who are the sons of Abraham according to the flesh, but we see here those who are sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, verse 26. 

That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Those who have faith in Christ are the true sons of Abraham. Those who have faith in Christ are true Jews, and they only. as we'll see in a number of minutes. 

The relationship between law and promise is such that Scripture has confined all under sin, serving the particular purpose that those who have faith in Jesus Christ would be the recipients of the promise. 

Which brings us, thirdly, to the law as tutor and faith as fulfillment in verse 23. Notice the language here. 

But before faith came, now we need to say what this doesn't mean. It's always a good exercise to do that. The Apostle Paul is not saying that there was no faith prior to the advent of Christ. Of course, we see the blessed hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. We see as we read our Old Testaments from Adam and Eve all the way through to John the Baptist, we see that there, of course, was faith, the act of believing in the Old Testament. 

This, but when faith came, is connected to the first advent of Jesus Christ. When Christ came, verse 4 of Galatians 4, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, the object of our faith. So we can see this, but when faith came, or but before faith came, That's not the act of believing or the reality of faith in Christ, but when Christ Himself came, when the Gospel age came, when the New Covenant age came by virtue of Christ inaugurating it and bringing it in at His first advent. So we see here, but before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. That is, all of those, the trajectory of the Old Covenant moving to the coming of Christ. Where, as we've said before, what were all of those blessed streams of Old Covenant type and shadow and copies moving towards, they were like so many blessed streams coming to a confluence in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that all of those washings and ceremonies and meals and feasts and Sabbaths and all of those things were coming together until faith came, that is the Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The law was our tutor. It was our schoolmaster. It was our pedagogue that served a temporary and preparatory purpose before Christ came. When Christ came, he put an end to those things.

Listen to the words of Athanasius here for a moment. This is in a wonderful work. This is actually in his On the Incarnation, and it's in his section, The Refutation of the Jews. Indeed, all Scripture teems with disproof of Jewish unbelief. So the Jews are indulging in fiction. and transferring present time to future. When did prophet and vision cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ came, the Holy One of Holies? It is in fact a sign and notable proof of the coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, neither is prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them. And it is natural that it should be so, for when He that was signified had come, What need was there any longer of any to signify Him?

Let's just pause there for a moment. This is a lot of what Paul is dealing with in the book of Galatians, and it's a lot of what he's dealing with in the book of Hebrews. Why would you go back to the prophets absent of Christ, when the Christ to whom the prophets spoke has come and brought in everlasting righteousness? Why would you seek out the ministry of angels to the exclusion of Christ when Christ, the very maker of the angels, has come and delivered a higher ministry and a higher excellency? Why would you go back to an earthly priest with his sin, who must atone for both his sins and the sins of the people by the offering of the typical sacrifice, why would you go back there when you have the high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, who has come in and has brought the everlasting sacrifice.

And so he's saying here, in essence, why would you go back to that which signified when the one who has been signified has come? What need was there any longer, again, of any to signify him? And when the truth had come, what further need was there of the shadow? Don't go back to the signal. Stick with the one signified. Why would you focus on the shadow when the substance that casts the shadow has come to bring in everlasting righteousness?

So, the law was a tutor, and faith is the fulfillment. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith, and notice, to the point that we just noted, Verse 25, but after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Don't go back to the tutor. Don't go back to the schoolmaster. You have been brought to maturation by the advent of Jesus Christ. The One who was the very subject promised in the washings has come, and He has washed you. The One who is the very subject of the ceremonies, of the sacrifices, the true sacrifice has come, and so stick with the Blessed One. The confession of our faith in chapter 8 speaks this way, although the price of redemption was not actually paid, this is chapter 8 and paragraph 6, by Christ, till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages successively from the beginning of the world in and by those promises types and sacrifices wherein he was revealed and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's head and the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being the same yesterday, today, and forever.

" Paul's argument is, but we are no longer under those types and those sacrifices wherein he was revealed in shadow and signal, but rather we are in the time where faith has come, that is, the very Christ held forth in those things Himself, and He has brought in the blessing of everlasting salvation, and therefore brought an end to that time of tutelage, to that time of pedagogy, to that time of infancy in things religion. 

Lastly, we see the fulfillment of the promise and sonship through faith. That's the fulfillment of the promise. Notice the blessed language of verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Let's just maybe pause and I'll just slow down a little bit and glory in the fact that we are Christians, the children of the living God. Blessed be God that we can be called His children. That's the spirit of John in 1 John 3 verse 1. Blessed be our holy and awesome God, that we can be called the children of God, because we ought to know, and we do know, and we should know as Christians, that we're not the sons and daughters of God by nature. 

That there's one who is a son of God by nature, and that's Jesus Christ, by virtue of his eternal relation to the Father, being the one who is eternally begotten of the Father. We are not the sons and daughters of God by nature. We are the sons and daughters of God by adoption. God had pulled us from out of the darkness and the deadness of sin by amazing grace and placed us in a blessed position in union with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that only by virtue of the perfect work wrought by Christ. We can be called the children of God. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 

Imagine if, you know, any here were rightly called before that, before their salvation. We think of the language of Christ. You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. Imagine those heavy words coming to someone in and having that proper cutting of the heart that you've heard of before, not the one where people gnash their teeth, stop up their ears and seek to stone a preacher of the glorious gospel, but that cutting to the heart where you realize that I was of my father the devil, not doing the desires of God, the one who created me, not doing the desires of him that I should be doing the desires of, But having been marked by depravity, by wickedness, by sin, having been marked and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of body and soul, I only did those things which pleased my Father the Devil. 

But by virtue of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can now be called a son or a daughter of the Most High. What a glorious thing that we have as Christians. Not because of us, but because of the blessed Christ. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. What else does this, what does this not mean? It doesn't mean that these were sons of God by virtue of their national heritage. They were not even true and proper sons of Abraham. We've already read before in chapter three And we'll read it again, in fact, and you can see in chapter, excuse me, in chapter three at verse 29, and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. It is the case that Christians are the people of God, the true and proper and only people of God. Not national Jewry, not any other ethnicity under heaven, but Christians themselves, and this by the condescending grace of God. 

You can turn to the book of Romans for a moment. The book of Romans, in Romans chapter 2. And then another place in Philippians that you're more recently familiar with is the Apostle, as the Apostle Butler has been preaching through the book of Philippians, as Pastor Butler has been preaching through the book of Philippians. Notice in Romans 2 at verse 25, and I want you to see how this intimately connects to what we are reading in Galatians 3. With regards to the whole background of circumcision and the Judaizers pressing upon the consciences of men and women, circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic Law, Romans 2, 25. For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 

Quick pause button. No one can keep the law, and this is Paul's point here, one of the points, and Paul's point in Galatians. Sure, circumcision will avail for you if you can keep the whole law, but the law requires that which no man can perform. And the gospel comes along and provides that which Christ had performed. But if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who even with your written code and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? 

Now notice the importance of the Christian reality that the people of Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, one new man in Christ Jesus, that Christians are the only Jews. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. 

In Philippians chapter 3, as we've noted, when Pastor Butler has been preaching in this, as Paul is opposing, not so much as in Galatians, the Judaizing heresy, but they are in view in Philippians 3. We see there in verse 3, for we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. What is the case of the Jews? They worship God, a false God, in the flesh, reject Christ Jesus, and have every confidence in the flesh. Christians are such, though, who are the true circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 

So finding our way back to Galatians, and Galatians 3.26, this blessed reality, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. That is the only way that anyone can be called a son of God. By virtue of our union with Christ. By virtue of the fact that God has condescended to pull us from out of the mire and the pit of sin, and to place us in union with Christ, beholding Him by faith. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. What a blessed truth. What a blessed truth.

In closing, just a few things to observe. First, the extent to which the Apostle Paul is arguing for the exclusivity of the work of Christ in salvation. Paul has been coming at this by every angle in the book of Galatians. every angle. And that not taking a chapter to glowingly remark of the Galatians' faithfulness and those sorts of things, as Pastor Butler has noted before, there is more kindness extended and favor shown and glowing remarks, if we can use that term, given to Corinth than to Galatia.

Paul comes immediately ready to marvel that they are so soon turning away from the grace of Christ to another gospel. He comes right out of the gates ready with a wholesome combativeness to say things like, foolish Galatians, or as Luther would translate it, oh stupid Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? before whose eyes Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified." Paul has gone through this autobiographical defense of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He has, in a five-fold clear statement, written that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. He's talked about the Mosaic economy, about the ceremonial law, about Abraham, He's come at it from so many angles.

What is Paul all about? Paul is all about the exclusive work of Jesus Christ, our precious Savior, for salvation. And then, we should be about that, shouldn't we? About the exclusivity of Christ for our salvation. We should be enamored with, taken with, and ardently attached to Christ. Have a proper zeal for the true and only Israel, which is Christ, and the true and only people of God, which is the church of the living Christ.

And we are to be on guard against doctrines that smuggle our good works into the scheme of salvation. as we continue to work through the book of Galatians and perhaps near the end when we wrap it up, we can focus on some of those things contemporaneous in our own day that are seeking to steal us away, very subtly sometimes, from the exclusivity of the work of Christ for the salvation of sinners. It should never be unclear that we're justified by faith alone in Christ alone. There's never an asterisk at the end of that statement. that we have to then go down to the bottom somewhere and see, oh, but then there's this and that and the other thing.

And if someone takes a 75-page blog post to articulate why they don't really reject the historical doctrine, that people have misunderstood me, and those sorts of things, or to communicate that the question of justification isn't as easy as we may assume. probably don't read it because it's very clear. The Apostle Paul articulates clearly and gloriously that a man is not justified by the deeds of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, that by virtue of the perfection of his person and work.

As we continue through this book, we're going to see a number of things that the Apostle Paul continues to do, and I want us to be animated by, as the Church of the Living Christ, animated by the Christ of the Church and the Church of the Christ, because we are the people of God. We are those who have been called forth from darkness to light to behold the Christ and to walk in a manner worthy of His calling by grace. Let's do that, and let's do that with an animus that shows the world how glorious Christ the Savior is.

Let's pray. God, we thank You for Your truth. We thank You for Your Word. We rejoice in Your goodness to us in disclosing our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came into this world, sinners to save, by the perfection of His life, by the efficacy of His death, by the glory of His resurrection. the blessed fact that he now, having ascended, ever lives to intercede for his people.

Do go with us and help us to honor Christ in this lower world. Help us to come into these Lord's Day Sabbath worshipings with great joy, knowing that you deal with and tend to your people in the gathering of your people. And we pray that we would throughout the week, Sunday, between Sundays, that you would cause us by your grace and for your glory to have opportunities to share the glories of Christ with others, and that we would, by our conversation, by our, in thought and in deed and word, do those things that are holy in your sight.

And we pray in Christ's precious name, amen.