Family Matters | Zane Garza | Galatians 3:15-29 — Zane Garza

Be seated. As you're seated, take your copy of God's Word and to turn to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 in your Bible this morning If you're a guest this morning, we do wanna thank you so much for joining us here at Canyon Ridge. I am not the pastor here. I'm one of the assistant pastors. My name is Zane Garza, and, if you're a guest, I wanna encourage you, come back in a couple weeks. Our pastor will be here. he is on sabbatical right now, kind of. It's really technically ended. He is preaching in, Huikau Baptist Church this week, and so be in prayer for him and Debbie as they go to Honolulu to minister. And then, you know, the saying goes, "When in Rome…" They'll be in Hawaii, and so why not take a week at the end of that preaching trip? And then they'll be back on the 30th, and so, we are looking forward to them being back. I'm thankful, though, that I can preach in Pastor's place while he is gone.

And, don't forget to continue to pray for him and Debbie, and, we'll look forward to, them being back on the 30th, which is a Sunday, here at Canyon Ridge. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, we'll look at verses 15 through 29 this morning. And to give you a little bit of context, before we get into our passage this morning, for those of you who haven't been here, and then by way of reminder, if you have been here over the last couple weeks, we've been going through the book of Galatians. We started in 1:1, and we are just working our way through, and this morning we'll be in 15 through 29. And, if you'll remember, Paul is, really working to combat some false teaching that had made its way into the churches at Galatia. He's not writing to, one specific church. He's writing to numerous churches, in the region of Galatia.

And the false teaching that had come upon these churches, came from some false teachers that we call the Judaizers. All right? The Judaizers. So if I use that term throughout the message, know that the Judaizers are the false teachers that had come. And what were they teaching? What was the false thing that they were communicating to the churches there? Well, they were communicating or teaching that in order to join yourself to the family or the lineage of Abraham, the family to whom the promises were made, in order to become a part of that family, you had to keep the works of the law. And so for the Jew, that meant continuing in the works of the law. For the Gentile believer, that meant, becoming a Jew in order to become a Christian. And so they majored on the law, and they said, "If you wanna be a part of God's family, if you wanna be a part of the family that has the promise, then you have to keep the law."

You know, the family that you are a part of does matter. It does matter what family you join yourself to. But the question is, how do you join yourself to that family? Well, I would submit to you there's only one way, and that is the argument that the Apostle Paul is making. Last week in chapter, 3, verses 1 through 14, he dealt heavily with the topic of faith. With faith. And in, at the beginning of the chapter, verse number 1 through verse number 5, he reminded the Galatians, he reminded them of how they came to faith. He says in verse number 2, he says, "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Hey, church at Galatia, how did you receive the Spirit of God? Was it because you were keeping the law or was it because you came to Jesus Christ by faith? The obvious answer is they came to Christ by faith.

Faith was needed for them in the present, but then he pointed them back to the patriarch, the patriarch Abraham. And he, and he even showed through the Scripture, he referenced, five Old Testament scriptures showing us that Abraham, too, came to God by faith. Verse number six of chapter three says, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Abraham had a right relationship with God, not because he was a good person, not because, he helped an old lady cross the street. No, Abraham was right with God simply because he believed in God. He had faith. He put his faith in the one true God. But today, Paul is gonna move from faith, not altogether from faith, but he's gonna now look at this angle of how we come to God's family through the promise. So last week he dealt with faith. This week we're gonna look at the promise that was made to Abraham by God. And that brings me to this thought.

You know, promises are important. Promises are important. You understand that, I understand that. When someone makes a promise or gives you their word, those words or that promise carry a little bit more weight, right? They mean something. Well, why do they mean something? Well, because a promise creates an expectation. A promise creates an expectation. If a friend tells you, "Hey, I'll be there at 6:00," then you expect that friend to be there at 6:00. Unless, of course, that friend is Mexican. Then you can, you can, plan on them being there at 6:30, maybe 6:45. But if a friend gives you their word, you expect them to fulfill it, right? If somebody borrows money from you and they say, "Hey, I'll pay you back on Friday," you're expecting on Friday for them for to receive the money that you had lent out, right? "I'll pay you back on Friday." I'm holding you to your word. I expect to be paid back on Friday.

If a father tells his child, "I'll take you fishing Saturday," the child doesn't spend all week wondering if Dad really meant what he said. Instead, he looks forward to Saturday. Dad's gonna fulfill his promise. Dad is gonna keep his word. A promise creates an expectation. And you know we live in a world where promises are broken all the time. Do we not? Yeah. We live in a world with broken promises. And if you're being honest with yourself, you've been, the one who's broken promises, right? We've all had promises made to us that weren't fulfilled, but we've also been on the other end, and we've made promises that we weren't able to keep. We live in a world with broken promises. But we also worship a God whose promises can never be broken. We worship a God whose promises have never been broken, and that's what Paul is gonna help us understand this morning in verses 15 through 29. So let's jump into our text.

Let's start in verse number 15, and I'll read through verse number 18. The Apostle Paul says, "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ," the law, "which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be by, if, for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." God gave it to Abraham by promise I want us to notice firstly this morning that when God makes a promise, He keeps it. Yeah. When God makes a promise, He keeps it.

In verse number 15, the Apostle Paul just really opens his argument with a everyday illustration. He just wants to get on the same page. He wants to make sure that the Galatians understand exactly what he's talking about. Verse number 15, he says, "I speak after the manner of men." He's just gonna use a, an everyday, a common illustration that we as mankind would understand, and this is what he wants us to understand. He says, "Though it be but a man's covenant," or a man's promise, a man's will, a man's testament, "yet if it be confirmed," or given authority, if the promise is established, if the will is established, "then no man disannulleth." What does that word mean? That word just simply means to abolish, to displace, to cancel. And so the Apostle Paul says that when somebody, when a man makes a covenant, when a man sets forth a testament, we would be familiar with a will, right?

You make a will so that, certain things happen, according to your desires once you die. According to that will, once that will is given authority, when you die, that will takes authority. And so after you die and the will is given authority, no man can come in after the fact and change it. It's permanent. It's set in stone. It's established. No man can take away from it and nobody can add to it either, he says, and so we understand that. When somebody makes a covenant or a promise and is given the stamp of authority, when it's established, when it's put in place, no one can come in after the fact and do what they want with it. They can't change it. We understand that. Well, verse number 16. He says, "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made." Who were the promises made to? They were made to Abraham. who was the promise made by? It was made by God.

If in the realm of our everyday life man can make promises and nobody can come in and change those promises, how much more when God makes a promise shall no one take away from That's right or add to it? "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." What Paul is simply saying here in verse number 16 is that the promise that was made to Abraham was not simply fulfilled, though it was fulfilled in that Abraham received descendants. He received Isaac, and then Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob was renamed Israel, if you know the Genesis account, and that became the nation of Israel to whom the promises are made. Yes, it was fulfilled to Abraham in the immediate, but ultimately, the promise that was made to Abraham, that he would bless the nations, was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Amen. The Seed that he's speaking of here, the Seed which is one, is Christ.

And so why does that matter? Well, let's look at verse number 17. He says, "And this I say," That the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, or it can't be taken away from, it can't be canceled, that it should make the promise of none effect. The Judaizers, in arguing that the promise to Abraham was already fulfilled in that he received Isaac, would say since that promise made to Abraham was complete, it was fulfilled in that he received Isaac. He received his descendants. Therefore, God had to give the law, and there's a new promise, or a new set of There's a new law in which we live, in which we have our relationship, in which we join ourselves to the family of God. They're saying it, the promise to Abraham, that thing is done. We have the law. But Paul says just because the law came after the promise does not mean that the law canceled the promise. Why?

Because when God makes a promise, He keeps it. And yes, the promise was fulfilled to Abraham in that he had descendants, but ultimately it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And if it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, then it implies that the promise still stands for the Galatians. The promise still stands for us. For you and for me, the promise still stands that we can be a part of God's family, and there's only one way that that can be done. Not through the works of the law, but a man is justified by faith in Christ Verse number 18, the Apostle Paul says, "For if the inheritance," if the blessing, if the receiving of the promise, "be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." Verse number 18 here is very similar to verse number 12. If you will remember, verse number 12 of verse number, of chapter number three, the Apostle Paul made this argument that faith and works are in complete opposition one to another.

If you try to add works to faith, then faith ceases to be faith, because you've added works. If you seek to add faith to works, then it ceases to be works, because then it's faith. And so faith and works are like oil and water. You cannot mix the two. And the same here in verse number 18, the Apostle Paul says, "That the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise." If we receive the law by the works, if we receive the promise by the works of the law, then it's no longer a promise. Does that make sense? It's one or the other. Either you receive the the promise by an inheritance because it was promised to you, or you have to earn the inheritance. That's right. The two do not mix. And he says clearly, "God gave Abraham this promise by promise." It was a promise made to Abraham. Therefore, if God made the promise, He's gonna keep it. It can't be changed.

We can't come in after the fact like, "Well, we now have the law, therefore the promise is of none effect." No, the promise still stands. The promise is unconditional Remember that the promise is unconditional. We don't have anything to do with the fulfillment of the promise. God alone will fulfill the promise, and has fulfilled the promise through Jesus Christ. But not only that, not only is it unconditional, but it's also unchanging because God is unchanging. Amen. God is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God that Abraham worshiped is the same God we worship today. God never changes. I love, … There's sort of like a commentary on this idea in the book of Hebrews 6:13-18. I'd like to read it for you. It says, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself."

No one is able to keep a promise like God can keep a promise, and so He didn't delegate that down to somebody else. He said, "No, I'm gonna make the promise." And He said, "Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily are truly swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them the end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise, the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the promise set before us. What are the two immutable things? Well, the promise that was made to Abraham cannot change, but then also the God who made that promise cannot change. Two immutable things. And what an awesome truth for us as believers.

If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, if you've placed your faith in Christ alone and you are now justified, you can take heart. You can have peace. You can have joy in the fact that God who made the promise will fulfill the promise, will keep the promise, that your eternity is settled because your faith is not in yourself, but it's in Christ, the keeper of the promise. Yes. We can rest in His character and in His attributes, knowing that He never has and never will change. Isn't it a blessing to know that God's promise is not based on our performance, but 100% on His goodness? Listen, you can't perform enough. You can't do good enough to earn God's favor, but He freely gives it to us, and alls we have to do is believe. That's right. Is to have faith. Yes. Amen.

The Word of God is replete with God's promises, and many times in our Christian life where we, where we, wind up in a ditch on either side of the road is we take our eyes off the promise. We put our eyes on things of this world. We put our eyes on the things that are flashy and that we think will bring us immediate pleasure. What we need to do as Christians, as believers, as those who've put our faith in Christ, is we need to keep our eyes on the promises of God. Why? Because He will keep them. Well, what are some promises that God has made that we can think about this morning? Well, let me establish the fact that the Word of God is filled with His promises, and we can trust in the Bible. You can trust in the Word of God. Psalm 119:160 says, "Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth forever." Jesus said in Matthew 24:28, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

The Word of God is eternal. God has promised to preserve His word. It will endure forever. Therefore, when we go to the Word of God and we see the promises of God, we can take it to the bank that God will keep every single promise. We can trust the Word of God, and we can trust the promises of God. Well, what are some other promises? Well, 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Hey, you might've messed up last month, last week. You might've messed up this morning, but if you bring that to God and confess it, He has promised that He will forgive you. That's right. You can be forgiven. You don't have to have things hanging over your head. You don't have to have sin weighing you down. No, Jesus died for your sin, and when we bring that to Him, He forgives us of our sin. Amen.

Romans 8:28, "God has promised to work all things together for good to those who love Him." Listen, I don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know what tomorrow holds. It… We can get wrapped up in the uncertainty of tomorrow, but when we look at the promise of God, we might not know what tomorrow may bring, but what we will know is that God will work it together for good because we love Him, because we are His children, because we trust in Him by faith. James 4:8 says, "Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you." You can experience God's presence today. You can be close with God today. You don't have to wait for next week or next month to be close with Jesus. You can be close with Him today. Draw nigh to God, and He has promised that He will draw nigh to you. Titus 1:2, "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began."

Listen, at the end of the day, we can trust God on this side of eternity because we know that He has settled our ultimate eternity. When we pass from this life, just like we sang earlier today, on that day when we finally see Jesus face to face, man, what a glorious day that's gonna be. Amen. We sing that song, we think about it, and it's a great thing to think about. We should sing it, but it doesn't even compare to the reality of when we will see Jesus face to face. Amen. And that is what God has promised to us who believe. Man, God is working according to His mighty power. So you might not be feeling like God is working in your life, you might not know what the future holds, you might have regret in the past, but no matter where you are today, you can be confident that if you know Jesus Christ, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until that day. Amen. Until our joy is complete.

Think about that, your joy complete. We can have joy today, but our joy will be complete when we're with Jesus. These are the promises of God. These are the expectations that we have of God, and when God makes a promise, He keeps it. That's right. He keeps it But in light of this idea of the promise, we do still need to ask the question, "Well, what about the law?" Right? I mean, the law is in the Bible. It's in the Old Testament, and just because we're in the New Testament doesn't mean we take the Old Testament and throw it away. "Now whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." The Old Testament is just as relevant today as it was, during Jesus' time, and before Jesus' time, during the law and the prophets. We still need to heed the Old Testament. But what was the purpose of the law then?

If it's all about the promise, what was the purpose of the law? And that's the exact question the Apostle Paul poses in verse number 19. He says, "Wherefore. Wherefore then serveth the law?" What was the law for? Well, secondly this morning, I want us to see that God gave the law to point us to His promise. God gave us the law to point us to His promise. I am gonna go ahead. I'm gonna read verse 19 through 25. "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily," or truly, "righteousness should have been by the law.

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." What's the purpose of the law? Well, God gave the law to point us to His promise. Given Paul's emphasis on the importance of faith and the promise, it might be easy to conclude that we can just throw away the Old Testament, that we don't need the law, that it doesn't mean anything. It has no purpose in the plan of salvation since salvation, is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We don't need the law. We have faith in Christ. But is that really true? The Apostle Paul is gonna show us that it's not.

But what is the purpose of the law? Well, God gave us the law to point us to His promise. And because the law is inferior to the promise, that is what helps point us in that direction. Let's look at verse number 19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. The law points us to the promise because the law is inferior to the promise. See, the law, the Apostle Paul says in verse number 19, was only temporary. It was only temporary. It wasn't meant to be eternal. It wasn't meant to span the length of time like the promise made to Abraham. Well, how can I say that? He says, "Well, till the seed," verse number 19, "should come." We already dealt with this earlier in verse number 16. The seed is Jesus.

And so, and the law was given till the seed, till Jesus, should come. Well, has Jesus come? He has come. The Messiah has come. The promised one has come. Therefore, we are no longer under the law. The law was inferior because it was temporary. But not only that, the law is inferior because it was given by a mediator. What does that mean? It was given by a mediator. Well, if you're familiar with the Old Testament, you know that the law was given to Moses, and then Moses went and he gave it to the children of Israel. Moses was God's representative to the people. He was the middleman, and the law was given through a meteor, mediator. But the promise that was made to Abraham, the promise was given to Abraham directly from God. Directly from God. There was no middleman there. The promise that was made was given to Abraham directly from God. Well, what does that have to do with us today?

Hebrews 1:1 says, "God, who at sundry times," excuse me, "who at sundry times in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. But now he speaks to us by the Son," Jesus Christ. Verse number 8: "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom." And so the promise of Abraham that still stands today because God made the promise and fulfilled it in Christ, well, Christ is God, and today Christ speaks to us and gives us the promise of eternal life. He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man that cometh to me will I cast out. No man can come to the Father, but by me." God Himself has come and given us the promise of eternal life. There is no mediator. It is God.

And so just like Abraham didn't have a mediator, the gospel doesn't have a mediator, 'cause God Himself left heaven and came to earth and died on the cross for our sin The law is inferior because it had a mediator, it had a middleman. But the promise is so much more superior in that it gives us direct access to God. The law points us to God's promise. But not only that, it reveals to us our sin. How does it point us to the promise of God? Well, the law is inferior, but also it reveals, to us our sin. Look at verse number 19 once more. He says, "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions." The law was added because of transgressions, because of sin. Verse number 21, "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin."

The law points us to the promises of God, to the promise of God, because it first reveals to us our sin. It reveals to you that you're a sinner. It reveals to me that I'm a sinner, that I fall short of God's standard. God gave the law, that way I would see that I don't measure up to God's glory. I fall short every single time. The law reveals sin to us. That's the way that I came to Jesus Christ as my savior. In 2011, I was a sophomore in college. I wasn't a Christian. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I just began reading the Bible. I began reading the Bible, and I quickly found that I was not right with God I had fallen short of His glory. I didn't know necessarily what sin meant. I just knew that what I was reading and how I was, how I was living did not go together. It was in opposition to the Word of God. Why did God give us the law? So that we would see that we're sinners. See, apart from the law, we think we're pretty good.

Yep. I'm doing all right. I take care of my family. I pay the bills. I come to church on Sunday. It's very easy for us to think that we are good enough until you see the law. Thou shall not steal. Have you ever stolen anything before? Of course you have. You've taken something that was not yours, and even if it was a pen from church, that wasn't your pen to take, and you took it 'cause you're a thief. Right? Well, I haven't killed anybody, but Jesus said if you are angry with a brother, so much so that you wanna punch them, then you've committed murder in your heart. You are a murderer. If you look at somebody with lust in your heart, and that's not your spouse, Jesus said you've committed adultery in your heart. I've just brought up three commands, and you are guilty of all of them.

If we continued through the Ten Commandments, you would find that you're guilty of all of them, but even if you're only guilty of one, the Book of James says that if you're guilty of one, you're guilty of all. Amen. Right. You've broken God's law. I've broken God's law. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner, and no amount of good can make up for the sin that I've committed. Amen. Because if God just turned a blind eye to my sin, then He wouldn't be a just God. That's right. He wouldn't be a perfect God. There must be a payment for sin, and that is why Jesus Christ came. And the giving of the law helped us realize our need for Jesus. It helped me realize my need for Jesus Christ. And we come to Him not trying to earn salvation, because we can't, but receiving the salvation that He purchased on our behalf. The law reveals to us our sin. Let's look at verse number 24.

He says, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." A schoolmaster, this word just simply means a slave who conducted the boys from school, or from home to school. And so in this culture that the churches of Galatia would've been accustomed to, in Roman and Greek culture, the family, families would've had a slave. It was very common. There was there was free men and there were slaves and there was, … That was just accepted in their society. And a family would have a schoolmaster or a slave take their son from their home to school. I don't know, they were busy doing whatever they were doing. They had a job, and so they needed somebody to take their son from home to school. It was, that's what a schoolmaster was. Well, how is the law our schoolmaster? Well, think of the, a schoolmaster as just a bus driver. You get on the bus, and it takes you to where you need to go, right?

You get on the bus, and it takes you to school. The law was our schoolmaster. The law took us to where we needed to go. Like I've already stated, you're a sinner and you need a savior. But apart from the law showing us that we're a sinner, we don't get to where we need to go. The law was our schoolmaster in that it picked us up and it brought us to where we need to go. It brought us to Jesus. And when we receive Jesus by faith, verse number 25, "But after faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster." Hey, once you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you're no longer under the law. Was the law for nothing? No, the law had a purpose. The purpose was to bring us to the promise of God. And once you come to that promise and you receive Christ as your savior, you're no longer under the law, but you're under Christ. Listen, the immoral person has sinned. The ethical person has sinned. The religious person has sinned.

We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and therefore, we need the law to bring us to Jesus Lastly this morning, I want us to see that faith is what joins all who believe to God's family and God's promise. Faith is what joins all who believe to God's family and to God's promise. Verse number 26, "For ye are the for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Churches at Galatia. The Apostle Paul is saying, "I want you to understand," verse number 26, "that you are the children of God." Jewish believer, you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, and now are you a child of God.

Gentile believer, you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, and now are you a child of God, and if a child, then a member of the family. What an awesome privilege to think about how God not only saves us from our sin, not only forgives us of our sin, but then adopts us into His family. Amen. That brings us into the fold, and we have all the rights and privileges as a member of God's family, for you are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. "For as many of you," verse number 27, "as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." I asked a couple volunteers before service and during guest greeting to help me out with an illustration. And so Alex Mahara, would you make your way up? Josh Turney, Cami. I didn't tell Burnie, but he works here. Burnie. And then I had one more. Who's the other? Oh, Natalie.

I didn't tell her either, but she can come up 'cause she's the pastor's daughter. Where's she at? Is she even here? There she is. Oh, perfect. Perfect. All right. Here's what I need. I need the men on this side, ladies over here. Perfect. And then you guys need to separate yourselves from one another. You need to go over there. All right. That works. That's good. Okay. Don't go too far. All right. And you guys are separated, too. All right. Perfect. All right. So we're gonna-- We're working our way to a bigger point, all right? And so they're gonna be up here for a while. But that's all right. You can stare at them. You can laugh at them. You can point at them. It's all good. Verse number 27, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." I jumped a little. It's 26. So I've called up members of Caneridge Baptist Church, but before they were members of Caneridge Baptist Church, they became children of God.

They became a part of God's family. Burnie was saved in 1990. I don't know everybody's testimony. When were you saved, Josh? 2015? 2013. 2013. 2004. 2004. She's not saved. Okay. There we go. I should've picked somebody else. I'm just kidding Okay, right on, 2015. All right. And so when they received Christ as their savior, when they got saved, Bible term, they became a part of the family of God. But then verse number 27, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." And so being members of Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, not only do they need to become a part of the family of God, but they also need to be baptized. Well, what's the importance of baptism? What does baptism do? Well, I want to be clear this morning that baptism does not save you. Yeah. Baptism does not save you. Baptism would be a work. And if we're saved by works, then it's no longer a faith.

But we've made it very clear that we're saved by faith. So what is baptism? Well, baptism, I would submit to you, is a local church ordinance, and it's also the, also the method of church membership. And so in order to become a member of a church, you have to be baptized. Well, why is that? Well, Jesus gave the church the Great Commission. He gave that… He gave the Great Commission in chapter number 28 of the Book of Matthew. But even before that, when he commissioned the church, when he established the church, he gave the church the keys to the kingdom. So he gave the church the gospel. He gave the church the Great Commission. The Great Commission, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Go and preach the gospel, and then baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And then disciple them, teaching them what all things whatsoever I've commanded you." That is the Great Commission.

We're to, we're to preach the gospel. We're to baptize people, and we're to disciple people. Okay? And so, baptism in the New Testament is the method of church membership. He says… He's speaking to churches here, remember that. These are local churches that he's speaking to. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." And so they receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. And then they were baptized. They identified themselves with Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. And in doing so, they also identified themselves with the family of God. They are children of God. They are part of the family of God in this local New Testament church. When they were baptized, the Bible says they put on Christ. They put on Christ. That word just simply means to be clothed upon, like putting on a jacket or a garment. And so Burnie, he came to Canyon Ridge Baptist Church.

He submitted to the church. He became a member of the church, and he put on Christ. Josh came, and he put on Christ. Alex came, and he put on Christ. Cami and Natalie put on Christ. Put on Christ What does it mean to put on Christ? Well, it means metaphorically to take on the characteristics of Jesus, to be like Him, to do the things that Jesus does. Okay? So let's recap. They became a child of God by faith in Christ. They were adopted into God's family, and then they identified with God's family by baptism, and they submitted themselves to the local New Testament church, the church which has the keys to the kingdom, given to it by Jesus Himself. And they put on Christ. They're representatives of Christ. Well, what is the product of the sum total of these things? Let's look at verse number 28. He says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

The Apostle Paul brings up the topics that you don't bring up. He brings up race. He brings up your social status, how much money you make or don't make, and he brings up your sex. Race, social status, and sex. He says, "There's neither Jew nor Greek." You know, the Jews despised the Greeks or the Gentiles. If you weren't a Jew, then the Jews had nothing to do with you. But the feeling was mutual, because the Jews were stuck-up, they were conceited, they thought they were better than everybody else, and so nobody liked the Jews either. And so there's this, not only a divide, but there's a barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles. And let us not forget, chapter number two, we saw this a couple weeks ago, when the Apostle Paul had to confront Peter. Well, why did he confront Peter? Because at the church at Antioch, Peter was eating with the Gentile believers, but when the Judaizers came in, he separated himself from them.

He's like, "Oh, I can't hang out with the Gentiles." Why? "Because they're Gentiles, and I'm a Jew." And the Apostle Paul, we saw his argument there. Obviously, that wasn't right. That wasn't according to the gospel that he proclaimed. But it's like he's coming back to this argument once again, and he's establishing this fact about the family of God. Why? Because family matters. What family you are a part of matters, and this family, he says, "There's neither Jew nor Greek." There's a passage in Ephesians 2:11-18. I won't read it, but it talks about how the Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They were without the promises of God, and they were without hope. And then there were the Jews, who had the promises of God, who had the Scripture. But now because of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition, and the two have become one. There's neither Jew nor Greek.

In the church, we have the Filipino. We have the half Black guy. Yeah. Couldn't get a full one for this message, sorry. We have the Mexican. Poor Mexican. And then, hey, that's not even to say the women. They're like their own category. And so you're like Peruvian or something, right? Wow. I don't know what she just said. She's too quiet. Bolivian. Bolivian or oblivious? All right. There we go. And then we have the white girl. And so we got the separate. We got men over here. We got ladies over here. These two don't cross. He says there's neither male nor female. In the ancient world, women were not treated well. Not well at all. They were treated terribly. Even in the Jewish world, the ones who had the word of God, this was a common prayer of a Jewish man: "I thank God that thou hast not made me a woman." That was a prayer that Jewish men prayed. The historian Josephus, who was a Jew, said that women are inferior to men in every way.

And this isn't even to mention how the Greeks and the Romans treated women But Paul says there's neither male nor female. Amen. There's neither bond nor free. It doesn't matter how much money you have. Is there distinctions here? Yes. Can we see them? Of course. As much as our society wants to be colorblind, that's just ignorant. We see color. We understand some people have more money than other money. We understand there's male and there's female. But when you become a part of the family of God, and you, and you submit yourself to the church of God, then yes, there's still distinctions there. But verse number 28, he says, "For you are all one in Christ Jesus." Amen. And so in a world where the Filipinos hang out with the Filipinos, and the Black people hang out with the Black people, and the Mexicans with the Mexicans, the Bolivians with the Bolivians, the white people with the white people. We separate the male and the female.

In the local New Testament church, we are all come together. This is where you come together now. Come on, I thought it was obvious. I thought it was obvious, or you're not listening to the message. But, Natalie, why don't you come over here? Why don't you come over to the other side. There we go. And you can put an arm around him. That's perfect. We are all one in Christ. Is there distinctions? Yes. There's still distinctions. Is there different roles within the church? Yes, and we still hold to those. They're biblical. Yeah. But when it comes to our standing before God, we are all one. Amen. And we're part of the same family. Yes. The Filipinos don't eat their lumpia over here while the Mexicans eat tacos over here. No, we come together and we cross. Yeah. And it's good. And that's the way the local New Testament church should be. Family matters. Thank you for your help and your participation. Appreciate it. Give them a hand for that.

We all have the same standing before God if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. We're all one in Christ, and if we're all one in Christ, verse number 29, "And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed." Amen. Wait a second. I thought Jesus was Abraham's seed. He is. But if you're in Christ, then you are as well. Amen. You are a part of Abraham's lineage and Abraham's family, the family of faith, which ultimately is the family of God. "And if Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise." The same way that Abraham was saved by faith, it's the same way that you and I are saved by faith. The same way that the Galatians were saved by faith. And because we are saved by faith, it says that we're heirs. We are inheritors of the promise. God made a promise to Abraham, and that promise still stands today. And if you have, by faith, received that promise, then you can take it to the bank.

You can guarantee, you can expect, you can trust that God is gonna keep His promise. How is any of this possible? Because God doesn't change. And if God doesn't change, neither can His promise of salvation through faith. Amen. And so Galatian believers, stop listening to the Judaizers who are telling you you gotta keep the works to please God. No, it's by faith alone and Christ alone. Live by faith. The just shall live by faith. If you're here this morning, and you've never received Jesus Christ by faith, you don't know the state of your eternity, you don't know, you don't even know what the Bible says about heaven or hell. You're not even sure what I've been saying about justification and faith and salvation. None of those things, are of understanding yet to you.

If that's you this morning, but you also know this, you don't know what the Bible says, but you have this feeling, this drawing that you wanna know more, I would encourage you, don't quench that. That's the Holy Spirit drawing you And this morning, as we close our message, and we'll pray in just a minute, we're gonna have some prayer team counselors up here. And they're not salesmen. They're not gonna make you say anything weird or do anything weird. They just wanna show you from God's Word, from the Bible, how Heaven can be your home, how you can receive the promise, how you can become a part of God's family. Listen, you don't have to know everything, but if God is drawing you, don't miss today's opportunity to see from God's Word how you can be saved, how you can be justified, how all of your sins can be forgiven.

If you're here this morning and you are a believer, you know Jesus Christ and your eternity is settled, like Paul has already stated in earlier in chapter 3, "The just shall live by faith." Our call as believers is to live by faith, and the way that we do that is by clinging to the promises of of the Word of God that we've talked about. And I only skimmed the surface of the promises that God has for us. God has these promises for you. He put them in His Word for you. And so let's cling to those. Let's search those out. Let's fix our eyes on the promises of God and live by faith, trusting and knowing that He will fulfill every single promise 'cause He never changes. He cannot lie. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In a life lived by faith, man, there's nothing as fulfilling as living out the new life that Jesus Christ has given you by faith.