Aligning with the Right Side: Guidance Through Galatians

You just realized that in and of yourself, you're forever guilty.

So who's going to deliver you from this body of death?

And now you finally get your eyes off of you, get your eyes off of man,

and you say, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

He became a curse so I could be blessed.

He was turned into sin so I could be made into the very righteousness of God.

Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today

as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYC.com,

that CityLightNYC.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit

is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,

that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Praise God.

Before I begin and continue with our series in Galatians,

I just want to share this scripture that came to me as I took the pulpit

on Friday night during our revival nights.

I was taking the pulpit, I had a message prepared, and you know,

the Holy Spirit will bring all things to your remembrance.

And so every scripture you ingest, it goes into your spirit,

and that's something that the Holy Spirit can withdraw.

It's a well of scripture that's inside of you, and it stands to reason

that if nothing has gotten in you in the moment you need it,

the Holy Spirit has nothing to draw out.

But if you have a belly full of the Word of God when you need it,

the Lord will make it withdrawal and bring that scripture to your memory.

And I wasn't thinking at that moment about the situation in the Middle East

with Israel and Palestine, but this is the scripture that came out,

and I just want to present it to you, amen.

And then we'll get in continuous series in Galatians.

It is from Joshua, chapter 5, starting in verse 13,

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

Moses had just died.

Joshua was anointed as really the new leader of Israel,

and his purpose was to take him across the Jordan

and bring him into the promised land, God's holy land, Israel.

And he has the vision.

Really, I shouldn't say vision.

He saw the commander of the Lord's armies in bodily form,

and it was Jesus.

It was a pre-incarnation appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament

as the commander of the Lord's army.

And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes

and looked and behold a man stood opposite him

with his sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him,

are you for us or for our adversaries?

This is the Lord himself.

And that's the question.

That's the question really everybody wants to know, right?

Who side are you on?

There's a lot of people during this conflict

they don't even know what they should think

because they haven't been told yet.

A lot of times when there's something controversial,

you maybe don't admit it to yourself,

but really the thought is,

which way is the majority leaning because I don't want to be unpopular?

So tell me my opinion and tell me what I should think,

and then I'll put a little flag in my bio

and show everybody I'm down with the current thing.

Are you for us or for our adversaries?

And here is the Lord.

The Lord's response.

So he said no, but as commander of the army of the Lord,

I have now come.

What a response.

Now obviously this is Yahweh God.

And he could have said, well, Joshua really,

I'm on your side,

and I'm going to take you across the river,

the Jordan River,

and I'm going to help you establish the nation of Israel

in the Promised Land,

but he really says,

I'm not on your side,

and I'm not on their side.

I'm on my side.

I'm on the Lord's side.

And so you can't degrade this and belittle into

who side are you on, team A or team B?

And that's my response.

I'm on the Lord's side.

I want his purposes to be wrought forth.

Amen.

And that's what we're praying.

We're praying for safety for people.

We're praying for the punishment of evil doers,

protection of people,

and also that the Lord's will would be done.

And let me just also say this.

You know, the God of Israel,

the person who generally encultured when we refer to God,

we're talking about Elohim.

Yahweh,

El Ion, the God of Israel,

the God of the Bible.

Do you realize that nobody knew this God

so just a couple of thousand years ago?

A small group of people in the Middle East knew him

and that holy scriptures that taught on him,

but it was really Jesus who made him globally famous.

And only three and a half years of ministry

so that the whole world has now heard of the one true God.

And even during that time where

Yahweh was so obscure,

and his scriptures were so obscure,

all those scriptures pointed to this little patch of land

no bigger than Rhode Island called Israel.

To this itty bitty town in that itty bitty country

called Jerusalem.

And thousands of years ago said end time events

will culminate here.

That was thousands of years ago.

People have a hard time predicting what's going to happen

two years from now.

To me, just lend credibility to the Bible

being a supernatural book

that even thousands of years ago

had said in this little town city

in this little country,

that's where it's going to go down.

And so when events like this happen,

we should pay attention,

we should be prayerful,

and also we should be ready

because 2024 is going to be lit.

We're coming upon another election year.

And whenever Jesus talks about the end times,

you'll notice over and over again,

he says the same thing.

Take heed that no one deceive you.

Take heed that no one deceive you.

Hey, by the way, make sure that you don't fall into deception

over and over again.

Do you know why?

Because in the last days

there's going to be rampant deception.

Yes.

And the problem with deception

is that it's so dang deceiving.

It's like bad breath.

You're the last one to know you got it.

And so even concerning the end days,

the Scripture says in those days,

God will send them strong delusion

that they should not believe the truth,

but shall believe in the lie.

So my prediction,

and you don't have to be a prophet

to predict this now,

and going into 2024

is there's going to be misinformation,

disinformation, deception everywhere,

manias and panics are going to try to be a fan

and I want you to keep your wits about you.

I want you to stay solid in Jesus.

Don't fall victim to the current thing.

If you ever want to gauge,

our ultimate gauge is the Lord.

But if you ever want to just double check,

just see what Hollywood is doing,

see what the world is doing,

and do the opposite.

And that's always a good gauge.

See what they are trying to get you to think

and go, hmm,

just probably a good indicator.

Listen, if you haven't realized this after 2020,

I don't know what more I can do for you.

If you haven't realized

that there is a system

that is against you,

that is trying to brainwash you,

that is trying to make you like cattle,

and just go with the herd.

You need a winnowakening.

Amen.

This response is going to make me drop Galatians

and go hard after this.

I didn't lose a third of my church just to get...

Are you kidding me?

Get ready.

Amen.

Amen.

And I can't think of any gift better,

any impartation as your pastor

with the responsibility before the Lord.

What can I impart to the people to get them ready

for 2024?

And the craziness that's going to ensue

than an understanding of the new covenant.

And that's why we're in the middle of Galatians right now.

Because the new covenant is the system

that we're under.

The new covenant governs how we relate to the Lord.

And the enemy is always trying to move you

from the new covenant and get you to go with mixture,

mixing the old and the new.

Because if you mix even a little bit,

according to the scriptures,

you frustrate the grace of God

and you nullify the new covenant.

So even if you mix a little bit,

you're no longer under a new covenant,

you're back in the old.

Jesus shed His precious blood

to bring you from out of the old and into the new.

Amen.

And that's why we're in Galatians

because there was this group known as the Judaizers.

And what they told people was,

it's nice that you're believer in Christ,

but now you have to do something extra.

You have to do do.

That voice is a do-do voice.

Do not listen to the voice covered in do-do.

The voice is Jesus plus other stuff

that you contribute to help us save your out.

That equals your salvation.

But the gospel is Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

And there is no mixing allowed.

So let me just recap a smidgen

because we're in the middle of chapter three right now,

but for those who are guests.

And it's just always good to recap.

I find that when I'm completely tired of saying the same thing over and over again,

that's just when the people are getting it.

The old covenant, let's define old in you.

The old covenant is a system.

It's a dispensation.

It's a system of order.

God has not changed.

God is forever the same.

But the covenant that we live under has.

And the way God relates to man has.

Under the old covenant,

you endeavored to get approved unto God based on your self-effort,

based on your own law keeping,

based on your own religiosity,

based on your religious ability to cross every tea and that every eye.

Does that sound like fun to you?

Not only is it not fun, but it's unsuccessful.

It's impossible.

Because part of the curse of the law is that if you fall in just one point,

your guilty of breaking the whole of the law,

which puts us all under a curse.

Amen?

Under the new covenant,

it's not you endeavoring to change God's mind about you,

to win God's favor, to win His approval through your own works,

your own behavior, your own being a nice person.

Yeah.

Your own being a good citizen,

going to church, and helping out,

and giving to the poor,

that does nothing to contribute to your salvation.

Under the new covenant,

you are already fully approved unto God,

not based on your behavior, your performance,

but based on what Jesus has already accomplished for you

in the finished work of the cross.

Amen.

And you have to make a decision which covenant you want to live under.

What side of the cross you want to live under?

And no mixture allowed.

That's the theme of Galatians, no mixture allowed.

And the Judaizers, they were bringing in mixture.

They were saying, well, it's great that you believe in Jesus,

but now you have to get circumcised.

You have to keep the love Moses.

And when I mention Judaizers,

it's tempting to think of this strange people group

from 2,000 years ago.

What does that have to do with the price of X and me

in New York City in 2023?

Well, Judaizers today come in all forms.

As ministers, as pastors,

your friends, and especially the sound

of your own inner monologue.

Anything that would take you away from Jesus plus nothing

equals everything is the voice of a Judaizer.

It's the voice of mixture.

And I say this with love.

I would guess that even in a strong,

new covenant gospel grace-based church like Cityline,

about 85 to 90% of us still live with mixture.

How do I know this?

Because every single day I have to resist mixture.

Every single day I have to resist mixture.

The moment I feel like God is distant,

I'm no longer under the new covenant, I'm mixing.

I feel like my performance has something to do

with where the God is quote-unquote closer than that.

The moment there is guilt or shame or condemnation,

that's a red flag saying that I've allowed mixture in.

The moment there's a religious pride,

or I feel like the moment you feel pressure,

oh, you're mixing.

Under the new covenant, there's no pressure.

There's no pressure to perform.

You say, but the way you're preaching,

you're going to have a lazy church of people

who just don't do anything.

And just, can you believe that you can actually do

all of the right things but for the right reasons?

And a lot of religion is people doing all of the right things

for all of the wrong reasons.

See, they're doing all of the right things

in order to win God's favor and His approval to win salvation.

We, and I will put city light up against any other group,

as far as our giving, our volunteers,

we do not have a lazy body here.

Where people who are immediately,

we have a mission's team to Guadamo, immediately, full.

We need volunteers, boom, they come.

We have a giving campaign, boom, goal is met.

So we don't have a lazy church who's just said,

oh, well, Jesus has done it all on the cross.

Cool, I'll just sit back and relax

and I'll keep high till He comes.

No, but you do those things not to earn His favor,

but you do those things because you already know

you have His favor and you already are approved.

And nothing you could ever do could cause them

to take one drop of His love from you.

So now you have the right motive.

You're not doing it to win His favor.

You're doing it as a thank you.

When you realize the depth of the forgiveness

and the love of God, the natural responses,

Lord, I've been the knee.

I'm no longer my own.

I belong to you.

My life is yours.

What do you want me to do now?

Amen.

Do you see the compare and contrast between that and dead religion?

Yeah.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

So we're going to explore the new covenant

and what it means to live under grace.

And again, I can't think of a better impartation

for the months to come because out of this comes your strength.

Out of this comes your relationship with the Lord.

This is where boldness comes from.

By the way, fear, that's another red flag.

There's another red flag that you're mixing covenants.

Under the new covenant, you don't have to be afraid.

You've been given boldness.

Remember, you cry.

I'm a father.

Not boohoo cry.

But it means cry like, ah, with a boldness.

In Proverbs, it says, the righteous are as bold as a lion.

You don't know your righteous that you have total right standing

with God until you see the blood of Jesus.

Those who are mixing and they never quite know where they stand

with God.

See, if you're mixing, you'll always think you're only as good

as your last day's performance.

You don't have boldness.

You go to pray and you hear that voice.

Mmm.

God's angry with you.

It's not the Lord in masquerades as his voice.

But you hear who?

Don't you just feel that he's distant?

I don't care how I feel.

He might feel distant because I went to bed at 3 a.m.

And now I'm groggy trying to pray in the morning.

Maybe I had a whole pizza pie the night before.

And now I'm like, oh, he feels so distant from the Lord.

No.

There is biochemistry involved here.

The word says he'll never be dead.

How much closer can you get than you and him and him and you?

Amen.

That's the reality of the word.

Hallelujah.

All right.

Let's go to Galatians 3.

We'll start in verse 13.

Just a two verse recap of where we left off last time.

Oh, hallelujah.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Hallelujah.

That means you are blessed.

And you should say that every single day.

As you leave the house, lift your hands and say, Lord, I am blessed.

The Bible says I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

And consequently, I cannot be cursed.

Also make a decision, please.

You're either blessed or you're cursed.

Choose one.

There's a whole Christian book in teaching business and ministry that wants to tell you, yeah, you're blessed.

But also, you're kind of cursed and you have to do, do, do, cover yourself with do, do all these things to come up under a curse.

Go to inner healing for 40 hours.

Renounce your great, great grandfather's sin.

You know what he did.

You know, and you've got to renounce that.

And again, works.

No.

You're either blessed or you're cursed.

I know what I am.

I'm blessed.

Because the scripture says I'm blessed.

Why?

Because Jesus got Himself.

Became a curse.

So that I, the curse, could be blessed.

It's known as the great exchange.

Hallelujah.

That's your reality.

That's the truth.

Having become a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

That the blessing of Abraham, what's the blessing of Abraham?

Justification by faith.

Justification means you're pronounced not guilty.

And you receive this not guilty verdict.

By the way, that verdict is only brought once.

It doesn't daily wake up and let's see if you're not guilty today or not.

Which way is the gavel going to swing?

I don't know.

You've been pronounced not guilty.

You're now not guilty.

Amen.

Who, what if I slip and fall?

Come back up.

But it's not that now you're guilty and you have to get unguilty again.

Oh, Jesus.

This is why people leave church.

Who would want to stay up as a Christian where they have to get resaid 50 times a month?

Someone's here saying it's torture.

It is torture.

When I first became a Christian, I saw there was a pocket.

It's not everyone.

There's a pocket of believers who live this way.

And I thought, I wonder what keeps them around.

Like I wouldn't.

What a terrible way to relate to God where every time you mess up, you have to get born again again.

Every time an altar calls given, you're moustilly raising your hand.

I don't know where I stand.

You should know.

John said, these things I write to you that you may know that you have eternal life.

You know why I know I have a microphone in my hand?

Because I have a microphone in my hand.

I know that I have eternal life.

I know.

I know because I didn't do anything.

It doesn't depend on my behavior.

I know because he died and took my place.

So I know.

No one can take that away from you or for me.

Oh, you know what?

We're entering apocalyptic times.

In the truest sense of the word, apocalyptic means the peeling back of the curtain.

People think apocalyptic means fire from heaven, destruction of all.

Apocalyptic is the Greek revelation, the peeling back.

And we're truly entering into apocalyptic times.

We're listening to me now.

The curtain is going to be peeled back.

And people are going to see.

A lot of stuff will get exposed.

People are going to see clearly.

Hallelujah.

And I believe there's going to be multiplied hundreds of millions who are going to see Jesus.

As he really is.

Not as religion has presented him.

Amen.

Those of you who are used to high church forgive me for those antics.

Sorry.

I sometimes get.

I'm Pentecostal and I'm Balkan, which is a curious combination.

But seriously though, you know, the Bible says like, there's these scriptures you read.

We're going to get to Galatians.

But there's these scriptures you read like in that hour Jesus rejoiced.

And you go, you know, you read it with like an accent.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced.

And you kind of sterilize it when you're like, what does that look like?

Well, that word rejoiced is aligrio, which means to dance, twirl, and leap about and clap one's hands.

So in the movies, Jesus rejoiced.

He's like, meanwhile, Jesus knew how to get down.

Amen.

And that's how I scripturally justify standing on the front row chairs.

Let's go to Galatians.

Oh Lord.

Oh.

Verse 15.

Brethren, I speak in the manner of men.

So he's changing his tone a little bit.

By the way, his tone has been very, very harsh.

The harshest you'll ever see it.

Very corrective.

Papa Paul was rebuking people.

Note that he'd never got this upset with the other churches.

But when it comes to mixture, Paul, that lost his mind.

He will not tolerate one drop of mixture.

And neither should you.

Do not tolerate any judyizing voice in your life.

And the number one judyizing voice in your life, frankly, is our own inner monologue.

Do not tolerate it.

Do not mix the covenants.

Throw yourself into Jesus' arms under the gospel of grace.

So finally, he changed his tone a little bit.

He's been nothing but rebuking him.

He calls him family now, brethren.

Earthly example.

I speak in the manner of men.

Though it is only a man's covenant, he's saying in the example of an earthly covenant,

if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

Now, to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made,

Paul here is appealing to these judyizers who took great pride that they had a genetic link to Abraham.

That they were physically children of Abraham.

And he's saying, all right, you so obsessed with Abraham?

Note this, that the covenant between God and Abraham was 430 years before the law.

And the covenant between God and Abraham was not one that was works based.

It was faith-based, forecasting the gospel of grace.

Now, to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made,

he does not say unto seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ.

So the point is clear, God is referring to one specific descendant of Abraham, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ,

not all his descendants in general.

Verse 17, and this I say that the law, which was 430 years later,

cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God and Christ,

that it should make the promise of no effect.

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise,

but God gave it to Abraham, God gave it, God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Paul is just highlighting that Abrahamic covenant.

I know for some of you, you're brand new, and I had you in the beginning,

now you're about to get lost because I got into someone who lived 3000 years ago

and you're like, what is that got to do with me today?

But this is important.

The Abrahamic covenant, Abraham was the first Jew, the first person to,

after Noah to form a covenant with God and that covenant was not based on Abraham's work.

The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was put on his account that he's righteous.

And that was forecasting the gospel of grace where you believe God and it's accounted to you as a righteousness.

You know, God has a permanent record.

Remember back in school, they would always tell you, don't do that, it'll go on your permanent record.

And then you became an adult and they realized they were lying the whole time.

There is no permanent record.

I'll never forget.

It was around high school where I went, you know, I didn't cut school all those years.

Because I was afraid it would go on my permanent and you were like around 16,

you realized there's no permanent record.

They did that to me in the 80s, like they had a huge database and there was no,

but God has a permanent record.

And on your permanent record, it was accounted to you.

There's these accounting terms.

It's put it down that it's so.

Righteousness, you're right standing with God.

When you put your faith in Jesus, God said put it on their permanent record.

It is so.

They are righteous.

They have right standing before me.

I want to just take a break here from Galatians 3.

Because Galatians 3 gets exceedingly technical.

The latter part of Galatians 3.

He's trying to win these people over and he's Paul was a brilliant man.

And the philosopher in his own right, yet anointed by God and full of the Holy Spirit.

And so he's very clever and he gets into some technical things.

I just want to show you Romans 7 as a reminder to why it is so essential that we pick a side.

Older new.

What side of the covenant are you going to live on?

Why is mixture so dangerous?

This entire passage is Paul talking about what life was like for him as a Christian before he figured out grace.

This is the Apostle Paul.

He saved.

Some people say this was before he was saved.

No, because he says that which I hate, I do.

No sinner hates their sin.

Sinners just hate the consequences of their sin.

But when I was a sinner, I loved my sin.

Only when you get born again do you then hate sin.

Paul says that which I do I hate.

Paul is really here indicative of a majority of Christians.

Unfortunately a majority that haven't really come to a full revelation of grace.

So they're mixing the covenants, they're stuck in between two.

How do you know when you're mixing?

You keep looking at yourself.

You keep relying on yourself.

Paul uses the personal pronoun over 40 times in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

And this defines unfortunately the vast majority of Christians and this defines modern day Judaizers those who are mixing the covenants.

This one verse, look at it.

For the good that I want to do, I don't do.

But the evil, I don't want to do.

That's what I end up doing.

Some people, I'll read this and I'll go, yeah, that's my life.

That's frustration right there.

That shouldn't be your life.

Paul here, anointed by the Holy Spirit, says this shouldn't be your life.

He says that was his life.

When he was still looking at himself and mixing the dispensations, mixing the covenants.

Does this sound healthy to you?

No, no, this, this, yeah.

You're a walking civil war.

You're like a spiritual schizophrenic.

You don't even know it's like I want to go left but end up going right.

Then I want to go right but end up going left.

I want to do good but I do bad.

I don't want to do bad.

Who am I? Why am I here?

Let's keep reading.

Now if I do what I desire not to do, it isn't a longer eye who do it but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

For I delight in the law, a court, a law of God according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my members, members, my body parts warring against the law of my mind

and bringing me into captivity the law of sin which is in my members.

And Paul then finally comes to the end of himself.

Number 40 times he uses the personal pronoun I.

Now finally he collapses.

This is the point of the law to bring us to a place of collapse where we try, try, try and can never do.

And then we finally, according to Jesus' own words, we fall on the rock.

Oh, it's a glorious breaking.

When you fall on the rock and you realize I'm not all that.

I can't do it alone.

I need a savior. I need a deliverer.

Jesus said either fall on the rock and be broken or the rock will then fall on you and grind you to a powder.

I love when the Lord gives me these clear options. I'll take what's behind door number one, please.

Thank you very much.

Oh, wretched man that I am.

He's describing too many people's Christianity and what a wretched life.

Who will deliver me from this body of death?

He's calling back to how ancient kings would torture their enemies.

They would put him in prison and literally take a corpse and tie it to their back.

And they would have to walk around with a decomposing body on their back for months.

He's saying this is what my life is like.

Who's going to deliver me from this body of death?

So finally he takes his eyes off of who?

himself.

Because I can't do it alone.

Where is the answer?

And he finally stops mixing the covenants and the next verse.

I say stops mixing the covenants.

He stops mixing the covenants because he's no longer relying on himself at all.

See, Jesus said apart from me, you can do nothing.

But we read that and think Jesus meant apart from me there's a lot of things you can't do.

But some things you still can.

No, apart from me you can do nothing.

Nothing of eternal value.

Nothing spiritual.

Nothing that really matters or counts.

It all comes from me.

I'm the root.

You're the branches.

Who's going to deliver me from this schizophrenic Christianity?

This body of death and he falls and collapses and finally looks up and out and sees a savior, a deliverer, Jesus.

Who's going to deliver me?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, hallelujah.

And now that he's collapsed, now that he's no longer trusting in himself, the victory comes.

And he's no longer under the old or mixing the old and the new.

Now he's a born again, believer living under grace, looking to Jesus.

And Jesus is doing the transforming work inside of him, hallelujah.

So why did I show you that?

Because if you found yourself in those scriptures, if that at all relates to you, pause the lemma, then you need to hear this message.

And you need to become an expert.

Yes, expert.

You're not going to get grace by hearing it a couple hours a week.

I promise you.

You're not going to get it.

It's going to elude you.

Like most believers, they kind of sort of get it, but then they never fully dive deep.

You got to go spelunking.

Underwater cave diving.

Read Galatians every day while we're in this series.

Ask the Lord for Revelation.

Study the cross.

Study your identity in Christ.

One of the most powerful things you can do is go through the entire New Testament and every time you see in Him or in Christ, highlight it.

There's over 250 times where you see the phrase in Him or in Christ.

And it'll show you your identity.

It'll show you everything that you have and everything that you are as a result of Jesus.

And that'll begin to reprogram your mind.

Transform your mind.

And you'll see yourself in light of the cross.

Amen.

Let's go back to Galatians.

Hallelujah.

What purpose then does the law serve?

It was added because of transgressions until the siege should come to whom the promise was made.

And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

So the purpose of the law.

Can you just go back?

Thank you.

The moral code provided people, number one, the purpose of the law.

It provided a moral code, right?

It showed people how to live and how they should behave and showed God's holy and righteous standard.

That was the purpose of the law.

And two, it also exposed us.

The law is like a giant magnifying glass that shows us our need for a savior.

It shows us where we need help.

Right?

I'll touch on that in just a little bit some more.

It was added because of transgressions until the siege should come.

Who's the seed?

Jesus.

Till the Messiah should come to whom the promise was made.

So God appears to Abraham and forms a covenant with him.

But here Paul is saying the covenant wasn't even with Abraham.

It was with the seed that was within Abraham.

And he's saying the reason why the Abraham covenant is even superior to the law

is because when the law was given, it came by angelic messengers.

And man was a part of the covenant.

And whenever man's a part of any covenant, guess who messes up?

Man, he always breaks his side of the bargain.

And that's what Paul said and discrete Jewish tradition believed.

We just know it's more than tradition because Paul said it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit

that although God touched Mount Sinai and his glory was revealed,

it was actually angels that delivered the law and Moses received it.

But 430 years before when God came to Abraham, the covenant was between God and himself,

God and Christ Jesus who was in seed form in Abraham.

Hallelujah.

Till the seed should come to whom the promise was made,

and it was appointed through angels by the hands of a mediator,

that's the law.

But under the new covenant, who's our mediator?

Jesus, which is great news, that means the covenant can never be broken.

Some of you are under a crushing weight of how long can you keep this up?

You don't want to go to hell, but how long?

And who knows what the future holds, right?

Thank God you don't have to have that pressure because Jesus is on your side holding the covenant together forever.

It's unbreakable.

You have that assurance.

You have that imagine if something as precious as salvation was up to you to maintain.

Who could deal with that pressure?

Oh, Hallelujah.

The wheels in your head have been turning.

I could hear the gears grinding.

Verse 20.

Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

He's just comparing that Abraham and covenant and that exchange with how grace is given.

God is making a promise to himself, so he can't be broken.

God is keeping a covenant with himself, so he can't be broken.

The general thought of verse 20 seems to be that the promise must be considered superior to the law because the law is too cited.

The law was mediated, and this means that man was a party to it.

The promise, on the other hand, is unilateral.

Man is not a party to it, and that's always good news for man because man always messes it up.

Verse 21.

Is the law then against the promises of God?

Certainly not, so the law is not evil.

We're not here saying the law is evil.

That system of the law, it's good.

In fact, Paul says the law is good if it's used lawfully.

What does that mean?

It's used for proper intentions, which is to be a tutor that leads us to Christ.

The law isn't bad, but it is just bad for man.

Why is it bad?

Because it puts a giant magnifying glass to you, exposes all your sin, tells you how you ought to live, but doesn't ever empower you to live that way.

So it leaves you stuck.

It says, keep off the grass, and you're like, I can't.

But under grace, all of a sudden you have a newfound love for the sidewalk.

Hey, man.

You're like, oh, I just...

I'll touch grass in my own backyard.

I'm speaking like a long Islander now.

Jesus.

It's just a year ago, someone would sit in your own backyard, but I used to burbin.

That's what you're going to tell me about life.

For if there had been a law given, which could have given life truly righteousness would have been by the law,

right standing with God if it could have come by the law, it would have come by the law, but it didn't.

So why are you still trying to live under the law?

But the scripture has confined.

Notice those wording that we are imprisoned.

The scripture just reveals that we are already imprisoned under sin.

That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Verse 23.

But before faith came.

So Paul is just saying, hey, now that faith has come, we're under a different covenant.

The covenant of grace is activated by faith.

Oh, my screen just went out.

But before faith came, thank you.

Experience the resurrection here.

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.

So what was the purpose of the law?

We were kept under guard by it.

Next verse, this is so key.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that then we might be justified.

What does justified mean?

Someone shouted at me?

Holy cow.

If anybody ever tells me they've heard enough Galatians.

Not guilty.

Not guilty.

Take out your iPhones, your notes section, pop that in.

We're using the word all the time.

You need to know what it means.

It means not guilty.

What does righteousness mean?

Right standing with God.

Justified means you're not guilty.

This is all good stuff.

I would want to memorize this stuff.

The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.

How is the law our tutor?

Well, when you see God's holy standard and you realize that you can't fulfill it,

it teaches you to not rely on yourself, but to look to a savior.

This is something that we could learn from, that we could learn how to win people to the Lord and how to evangelize better.

We think saying Jesus loves you is evangelism.

Before I became a Christian, when someone said Jesus loves them, it meant nothing to me.

I would just think of a cheesy bumper sticker.

I saw on a car that was barely held together by bumper stickers.

People would say something like, you know, I'm praying for you.

How am I going to get saved from that?

Well, you know God's for you, not against you.

That's nice.

Those are pretty words.

I can get that at the inspiration.

I lie on a target.

Encouraging words.

But for the first time when I was 16, someone used the law as a tutor to bring me to Christ.

At 16, I didn't know anything from anything.

But someone first described to me who God is.

Who is God?

I didn't know.

And today we love and I've always said if God is love, right?

We love that.

And that's true.

You know, many times that's quoted in the Scriptures once.

It doesn't make it not true, but let's just put some scriptural balance here.

But hundreds of times, do you know how God has described?

God is holy.

God is who is God.

What is God?

God is a person and He's holy.

That means He's separate.

He is different.

He's unique.

He's holy.

And you're not.

You look at the law, you look at just the ten commandments and you realize you've broken

all of them in one form or another.

And in that way, it's your tutor to bring you to Christ.

I have this interesting exchange with my son that seems to happen every few months.

Every few months.

He'll say, well, what sins will keep me out of heaven?

What sin?

I'll say just one sin will keep you out of heaven because God is holy.

And heaven is a holy place.

He can only allow someone who's completely holy into that holy place.

And it's amazing.

He lives in my house.

Trust me, I don't preach only on Sundays.

The prayer at dinner time is a sermon.

The mornings are a sermon.

I'm sermonizing.

I just make it fun.

But the word is going, and yet even still in that house, he'll ask me this question every few months.

Even though he's gotten the answer just a few months ago, there's that look of horror that crosses his face.

When I say, one sin is enough to keep you out of heaven.

But I love to see that because that's the look of horror that should come across all of us.

And to anyone who's saved, you have that look of horror.

When you realize God is holy, I am not.

One sin is enough to keep me out of heaven.

And even if somehow, which never happened, you were still born into this world, with natural sin.

You're saying, you're praying, or I came here to get encouraged.

And now I'm very, very depressed.

You're painting a very, very bleak picture.

What's the point of anything?

I'm so glad you fell.

And you came to this conclusion.

And now you're at the end of yourself.

Who then can enter into heaven?

Oh, you just realized you need a savior.

You just realized that you can't do it yourself.

You just realized that in and of yourself, you're forever guilty.

So who's going to deliver you from this body of death?

And now you finally get your eyes off of you.

Get your eyes off of man.

And you say, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

He became a curse so I could be blessed.

He was turned into sin so I could be made into the very righteousness of God.

He took my place.

He was my substitute.

That is the great exchange.

The totally clean became the totally dirty on the cross so that we, the totally dirty, could be made totally clean.

He got rejected on the cross.

So now you're forever accepted.

He became a curse.

So now you're forever blessed.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

And that's how the Lord is the tutor to the brings us to Christ.

It brings you to the end of yourself.

Amen.

Verse 25.

Worship team, come on up.

But after faith has come, after the new covenant, after grace,

we are no longer under a tutor.

Now you don't need that.

Now, I don't know how I...

I can't demonstrate on you guys.

I love you too much.

But living under the laws is just a constant smackdown.

It's a constant, you're not doing it right.

You're not enough.

You're not enough.

You're not good enough.

You colored outside the light.

What?

Right now it should have been two.

You only witnessed the five people could have been seven.

But it's never enough.

It's a constant...

And too many Christians think that's what church should be like.

Because they're trying to help us save you out

and contribute to their own salvation.

So they figure, you know, a couple of hours a week,

I'll go into church and get my regular ritualistic flagging.

Because Jesus suffered, but he didn't finish the job.

I got to suffer too and get...

And, you know, I'll just...

Along with Jesus' sacrifice,

earn my way into God's good graces, but...

You know, I've seen clips, footage of Catholics in the Philippines,

hundreds of them, literally flagging themselves.

Whoo!

Because they feel they need to suffer what Jesus didn't do it.

Enough.

Jesus didn't complete it.

What do you got to offer?

He was perfect.

He suffered in your place.

And he said, it's finished.

It's 99% finished.

I need you to finish the job.

And says when it was all done, he rests.

He sat down.

And so that should be your past.

Sitting down is a posture of rest.

He sat down.

That's the whole thing with the Sabbath today.

I knew whenever I asked you,

do you keep the Sabbath?

Absolutely.

Every day is Sabbath day.

Every day is a day where I no longer work

to earn God's approval,

but I rest in the finished work of the cross.

So, as a new covenant believer,

welcome to Forever Sabbath.

Isn't that awesome?

Every day Saturday, Hallelujah.

When it comes to your relationship with the Lord.

Verse 26,

For you are all sons of God,

through faith in Christ Jesus,

this could be a sermon in itself

that you are a son of God.

That's a very intimate term.

That's a term that's really used five times in the Bible.

Always referring to not a birthed being

but a created being.

Angels are called sons of God,

because they weren't birthed.

They were created.

Angels are called the son of God.

Adam and Eve didn't have a belly button.

They were created.

And now you're called the son of God,

even though you have a belly button.

And you were birthed.

How come?

Because although you were naturally born,

you were born again from above.

And in 2 Corinthians 5, 17,

it says, you're now a new creation,

a new species of being that never existed before.

You are a son of God.

Hallelujah.

Verse 27,

I'm going to get some ladies who get excited about that as well.

So I don't have to say son and daughter every time.

I'm not trying to just limit, you know,

to how many times I can be

bare and balanced every time.

For as many of you as we're baptized into Christ,

have put on Christ now.

Notice he doesn't say this is so important.

We're about to finish.

Get this in your spirit.

Listen, for as many of you as we're baptized into Christ,

he doesn't say baptized in water.

This is baptized in Christ.

Baptism in water is just an outward display

of being baptized in Christ.

Now I want to ask you a question.

The word baptized means immersed from the Greek baptismal.

It always sounds so like theatrical in the Greek baptismal.

It means immersed.

When were you immersed in Christ?

You said something at salvation,

which in a sense is true.

The reality is, is you were immersed and baptized into Christ

two thousand years ago.

And at salvation, you appropriated that.

At your salvation, you received that.

But that event, what was so special about that event two thousand years ago,

is that all of humanity in potential format

was immersed into Christ.

The Bible says in Romans 6 that you were united in his death

and you were united in his resurrection.

You were co-crucified with Jesus

and co-resurected with Jesus.

Think of Jesus on the cross

and now just transpose your picture over his.

That's what happened in the mind of God.

All of you, your sin, your nonsense,

you're falling short,

your sin nature,

that was crucified in Christ.

And then he was resurrected

and you left that old dead body behind

and you were raised again.

So what's water baptism?

Water baptism is you identifying with that.

Water baptism is an outward show,

a public display, if you will,

of what has already happened two thousand years ago.

But isn't that so beautiful

that you were united with him?

That Greek word for united.

It's similar to if I were to draw a line

and then draw another line, not next to it,

not above it, not beneath it,

but right over it so you cannot even tell the difference in the lines.

So when God the Father looks at Jesus on the cross,

He sees you,

the old you, dead.

Hallelujah.

By the way, we're having baptisms,

November the 4th.

Why would anyone wait to get baptized?

You're going to go work on yourself,

try to be a better person,

really, really get serious?

There's a Judaism church, right?

That way you can bring that doctrine over to them.

There isn't really, I'm not thinking of any church in particular.

But I'm just saying, I'm just exposing the mindset.

You're now mixing covenants and you're trying to what?

Be like Rocky and get ready for the big day

and get yourself in shape, work on yourself.

In your own eyes,

measure up and be ready for baptism.

No, if you believe in Jesus, get water baptized.

And there is power attached to that,

to that act of baptism.

For as many of you as were baptized,

immersed into Christ,

you've now 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.

Real quick, this is important,

because Paul is saying,

with regard to your standing before God,

every wall of partition has been brought down.

There is no more dividing line.

So a man doesn't have any advantage

with regard to salvation from a woman.

A Jew has no advantage with regard to salvation

compared to a Gentile.

A free person, no advantage.

God has leveled the playing field

and you can get salvation by faith.

No matter who you are.

And that's all it's talking about.

This doesn't mean now,

as modern culture would lead you to believe

that all the lines have been blurred,

and it doesn't matter,

boy, girl, male, female, whatever.

No, it's somewhat with regard to salvation.

But men and women, we're different.

This shouldn't be stuff that's controversial to say.

We're different.

We have equal value before God.

God loves us equally, but we're different.

And we have different roles.

Don't anybody tell me we're all the same

in society shapes us.

I have two kids, a boy and a girl.

I've seen my girl when she could barely walk,

holding babies and caressing them.

She could barely walk. She just wanted a mother.

Victor, could we walk right over every baby?

Couldn't care less about any doubt.

She could barely walk.

She was helping Emily in the kitchen

and loving and nurturing and sweet.

Well, Victor was taking two inches bashing

and against the wall.

We're different.

It's like a little caveman.

I'm like, this is not nurture.

This is nature.

And I have a dear friend who totally went off

the deep end and went nuts.

And by nuts, I mean, walk.

Who now believes God isn't male, God isn't female,

who believes that sex is just a spectrum.

And you can be a boy one week and a girl the next.

It's kind of how you feel.

And then he used this scripture to justify it.

There's neither male nor female.

And this is what Peter talked about when he said

there are those and they've given way to wickedness

and now they twist the scriptures to their own harm.

Let's keep reading.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed

and heirs according to the promise.

Stand to your feet, city light church.

Oh, hallelujah.

Lift up your hands with you.

I want you to say this from your belly.

In the name of Jesus, I am a new creation.

I am saved.

My sins are forgiven.

I am totally approved and completely accepted.

I am a son of God.

I am blessed.

I am heaven bound.

I am worthy because the blood of Jesus makes me worthy.

Amen.

Amen.