Our Coming of Age

What's up? If everybody could grab their favorite chair. This part of our fellowship is officially over. We'll continue fellowshipping in our reception of God's word here in just a moment.

but we, Oftentimes have a ministry or a missionary of the week, and this week our missionary of the week is our brother Vince Greene. he's a newer member of our church and had the opportunity to go to the Philippines and do some ministry over there, with some indigenous pastors and he's also going to be sharing a little, a little bit after the service in the modular. It's going to be some finger foods and whatnot if you want to learn more about the ministry that he was doing, we encourage you to participate in that.

Vince is a graduate of the master seminary, same year I graduated in 2000.

He's working on his doctorate out there at the Master seminary in New Testament. And we're just really glad to have him in our church. Why don't you guys welcome Vince Green. A couple of months ago, back in I think December, November, I came up here to address you in regards to going to the Philippines in the month of January, to participate in a program called STEP Training.

STEP stands for Supplementary Training and Expository Preaching. Today I get to report back to you regarding all that happened. Like Mike said, Pastor Mike said, after the service we're going to have in the modular a time where I can show some slides, some pictures, and give everyone an update on what occurred in greater detail, and there will be finger foods. But what you see behind me is a picture of the 6.

60 or so men that I was able to be a part of training them, they are indigenous national Filipino church planners and they're stretched out all over the Philippines on the different islands and different provinces, and they have started this program that meets twice a year. I'm involved with it once a year. I go every January and I taught these men, in a sense inductive Bible study is what I did this time. It's an intensive modular type training.

next January, my plan is to, actually teach them sermon methodology on how to do Bible exposition. And so if you want to come and find out more about what is going on, you can after the service and we'll be glad to see you. But I will say this, I graduated the same year Mike, graduated from Master Seminary and Mike set the standard for all of us. So our motto at Master Seminary was be like Mike.

And so, Anyway, thank you. Well, thank you, Vince, and hopefully you'll take advantage of the opportunity to, be in the modular and get a more detailed report. We're so limited in what we're able to, to report on with missions, trips, and, and what have you with the time that we have in our, our services, so you can get a more detailed report, after the service. well, I want to thank you guys for your prayers for me this week.

I came down with the flu, last week and And I'm feeling, much better. on Friday of last week, I carelessly allowed myself to get dehydrated and became delirious. I had a, a hilarious episode that my children find hilarious, but, it was not funny at the time, and, but, Donna took me into the emergency room and they put two bags of fluids into me and I began to return to normal and went to work on Tuesday of this week and then Wednesday and then spent all day Thursday in bed and then went back to work on Friday and I'm feeling stronger every day, so.

thank you for your prayers and your encouragement, and I will, do a much better job of staying hydrated.

And hopefully all of us will during this, this flu season. well, let me have you turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Galatians. And as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Galatians chapter 3, verse 25.

And the title of the message this morning is Outgrowing the law. Outgrowing the law. Paul is speaking to Galatians who had believed in Christ. And they were, however, moving back to the law.

And Paul is coming at them in various ways to get them turned back around and focused on Christ and away from the law. And in our passage this morning, he's gonna use the, terminology. wherein he conveys to them that they've outgrown the law, that was a previous stage of life. And now it's time to move on and to stay focused on Christ.

To begin this morning, and this is especially for you kids, I have some props here. these are some things that I've outgrown. And, I want to share, some things with you this morning. I was revisiting my childhood.

And, here's something, that I've outgrown. I, I used to drink from this, something like this. And there was a time in my life where if you had seen me, sporting one of these bottles and drinking, from it, you would not have looked twice or thought anything unusual about it. and then there was a point where I graduated from the bottle to something like this, a sippy cup.

I was not able to just take an open glass and bring it to my mouth without making a mess. So my parents would provided something like this that had a lid and controlled the flow of the liquids that would have been in a cup like this. And so I was able to drink. I was able to hold something like this myself, but having the lid was an essential part of not making a mess.

And there was a season in my life where if you had seen me drinking from one of these, you would have not thought it unusual at all. here's something else that I've outgrown. These are some, alphabet blocks. That I used to play with something like this.

This is ABC, and, it's fun to play with. It also was educational, and that it taught me the fundamentals of the English language so that I can, communicate and understand when people are communicating to me. And so this was something that I used to play with, and there was a season in my life, if you had seen me playing with this, you would not have thought anything unusual of, of that. here's something else that I've outgrown.

This is a belt. It's not politically correct to talk about this today, but it is what it is. I got a lot of spankings when I was a kid, when I would disobey my parents. My dad had a belt that had alligator bumps on it.

We called it the alligator belt. And if I deliberately, willfully disobeyed my mom or my dad, my dad would go get the alligator belt and apply it gently to my backside. And I remember, as a child, thinking on a number of occasions, like, I cannot wait until I won't get spankings anymore. I like long for the day that I had matured beyond that.

And I wondered, like, when will the last spanking, be, and I just imagine my post spanking life of being a life of daily bliss, just in the knowledge of knowing that no matter what, no one can spank me right now. and the last spanking I received, I believe I was 12 years of age. And after that point, I, no longer received, physical spankings. The Lord has spanked me since then, but, but my dad, and no authority figure in my life has done.

has done so. But there was a season in my life where if you had found out that the day before Milton got a spanking, you might have laughed that I had gotten in trouble, but you would have not thought that to be unusual. and then one more thing I want to show you guys, this is a paper that I wrote, 30 years ago, 1977, for, I believe I was in the 6th grade at the time. And the title of this story is Frenchie, The Story of a Brave Dog, a gripping narrative.

About a dog that we had that died and, there's a tombstone that I drew on the front, and the name of my teacher, Mrs. Carver, is on the front also. She had given this assignment and told us to write a two page, story, and so this is what I handed in. And as I look through this, there's notes in the margin where she points out misspellings or something I do good or something I do bad in this paper, and at the end she gave me a B.

And she stated this was a 2 page assignment, and this was only 1 and 1/3 of a page. So she gave me a B instead of an A. And when I got this grade and the comments in the margin where she was criticizing me, I didn't think that was unusual because this represents a season in my life of about 12 years where under my parents' direction, I would go to school and there were teachers every year, a new flock of teachers that were over me. who had the right to tell me what to do.

And, and then when I would hand in whatever they told me to do, they would grade me and say, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. And I, we give you this grade, and, or if I did something good, they would affirm me. and there was a season in my life where I was under people like this all the time who would, would teach me these things and give these assignments to me. Now all of these things belong to a certain chapter of my life, a chapter that has passed.

while these things actually would have been viewed as normal at a certain season of my life. If you saw me, for example, today, drinking from a bottle, you would probably look twice at that and say Milton definitely is dehydrated once again. And, and maybe it's good that he's hydrating himself. But, but this would be highly unusual, and you would probably sit down and talk with me about my behavior.

This was normal at one season of my life. Now it would be abnormal and inappropriate because I have grown beyond these things. They were good and necessary at the time as a part of my life. but they would be inappropriate and My life right now because I have matured beyond these things.

And I begin with this this morning, because that's basically the spirit of what Paul is trying to speak to the Galatians about. They at one point were under the law, both the written law and the law of God in their hearts. They're trying to live under this system of blessing and cursing based on their obedience to the 10 Commandments and the other of the 600 some odd. commandments that are in the Old Testament law, trying to be righteous, trying to be holy, trying to be pleasing to God, and to be blessed of God, and failing miserably at that.

And Paul says, what, there was a time in your life when that was all very appropriate, and God's providence. In fact, look at what he says in Galatians 3:23 and 24. is before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law. So there was a time in our life where we were striving to be righteous, striving to be obedient, we'd fail, we try to clean up our act and try even harder and fail even more.

And this was all under the system of the law. And all of this was a part of the season of our life before faith came. We were kept in custody underneath the law. Verse 24, Paul then speaks of the law as being our tutor.

And we learned two weeks ago that the word for tutor was used to speak of a household slave during this day. Wherein a boy at the age of 6 would be handed over to the custody of a tutor or a pedagogue, or a governor, type of person. And it was that tutor's responsibility to wake up the boy every day, and to make sure he was doing what he needed to do in terms of his chores, his duties, his responsibilities. The tutor's responsibility was to teach the boy manners and basic life skills, what it means to be a man and the tutor.

He was allowed to use a whip if the boy ever needed that in order to learn. So a lot of the tutors were like just disciplinarians and fathers really liked tutors like that over their sons. The tutor would walk with the boy to school, even carry his satchel and other supplies. A lot of the tutors would stay in class.

With, with the boys so that they could hear everything the teacher was saying. And then the tutors would quiz and drill the boys after class to make sure that they had understood the lesson, done the homework and the assignment. And, and basically the tutor would be responsible for the child up until the boy turned about 14 years of age. And then at that point, The tutor was no longer responsible for him.

And Paul is saying that there was a season of our life where the law was this pedagogue, this tutor type of person who was responsible for training us and, and getting us to understand the moral law of God, and our own bankruptcy and our need for salvation and our complete inability to save ourselves, to leave us with no other recourse than to look to Jesus and believe. When we talk about the law, and kids, you'll, you'll see this on your notes. what is the law that we were under?

It is a system of divine blessing and cursing based on one's level of obedience to the 613 commandments of the Old Testament law.

That's basically what it is. It is a system of blessing and cursing. And I say blessing and cursing, but ultimately, it was a system of cursing, right? Because according to even what Paul says in Galatians 3:10, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

Everyone gets cursed by the law. The law pronounces a curse on everyone because nobody perfectly obeys the law of God. Paul, and very, even more specific. terminology says this in Galatians 4.

He says, now this I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave. Although he is owner of everything. Think about it, children, right now, maybe you're, 10 years of age, and you're always being told what to do. You're always under people, and you may even feel like a slave.

but one day you're destined to get everything your parents own. You're going to receive an inheritance. Everything they own ultimately will pass to you. But right now you are living a life of discipline under the authority and the teaching and the instruction.

And the discipline of your parents. And verse 2, but he as a child is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father when he comes of age. Verse 3, so also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. And what he's speaking of there is the regulations of the law, the system of the law.

However, Though this is what characterized our life in the past, prior to Christ, look what he says in Galatians 3:25. And this is the message to the Galatians. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Now that faith has come, you have come of age, and you are no longer under this governor, under this tutor, under the schoolmaster that you were once under.

And beginning in verse 25, essentially what Paul wants to do is he wants to give us four explanations that serve to explain how it is that we transitioned from a life under this tutor called the law into a life where we're no longer under. the tutelage of the law. Paul is trying to persuade the Galatians and us to live and to walk in freedom and to see this spiritual adulthood state that we have entered into as we have come of age, and to realize that this is the way to live and to go back to law is basically the equivalent of an adult going back to a bottle and a sippy cup and a belt and doing assignments that technically a person no longer needs to do.

Now, before we actually look at these four explanations, let me explain one thing to you guys.

There have actually been scholarly papers that have been written on this subject, wherein people make the point that Paul's language in verses 25 to 29 and even beyond, is, is informed by a custom that was common in the Roman culture of Paul's day. we in our culture today, we don't really have coming of age ceremonies. we're probably impoverished because of that. But like in Jewish culture, there were bar mitzvahs, bath mitzvahs, still to this day where a child the day before was viewed as a child and not fully responsible, and then on the next day, they're a fully responsible son of the commandment, or a son of the law or daughter.

Of the law, and now they're treated differently. Well, in Roman culture, they had a coming of age type of ceremony also, that was very common. Anyone that Paul is writing to, and Paul himself would have witnessed this and observed this phenomenon taking place. And basically, in a nutshell, basically.

when a boy would turn 6 years of age, he would be given a tutor. That tutor would be responsible for him in all the ways I've explained. But on the day that a boy would turn 14 years of age, it varied a little bit depending on the discretion of the father, but essentially at the age of 14, A boy would take the necklace off, a necklace that his father would have given him at birth, that he had worn all his life, associated with his childhood. He would take the necklace off and lay it down, essentially laying down his childhood.

He would then take his toga off. You guys know what a toga is? Basically that's a statue of Caesar Augustus, and he's wearing a toga. He's got it over his head draped around his shoulder, his shoulders.

and over his tunic that he would be wearing underneath, that's a toga. Children up to the age of 14, boys would wear a toga that had a purple hem. All right, so you could see a boy walking down the street and you might say, I don't know what age he is, but I do know that he has not yet come of age because of the purple hymn to his toga. And so the boy would lay aside his necklace.

He would then take this toga of his childhood and lay it aside. He would then dress in a white tunic, which is basically a very long shirt that went pretty much down to the ankles. All right. He would dress in a white tunic.

His father would help him with that because this is a really big day. Then the boy would be handed by his father the togavarili, the toga of a man. And it was a pure white toga, and the boy would take that toga and for the very first time would wrap that toga around his tunic. And wear it basically in the way that you see on the screen behind me.

From this point on, anyone who sees that boy wearing a white tunic or a toga without any purple hem would know that that is a boy that has come. Of age, then the boy would begin a procession from his home to the Forum, basically the town center, and his family, his parents would go with him and slaves would go with him and friends of the family would go with him, in a parade. He would go down to the town center and his name would be registered there as an official Roman citizen.

It was at that point that this boy who is coming of age on this day becomes a Roman citizen fully entitled to all of the rights and the privileges of Roman citizenship, and on that day he loses the tutor.

He sheds the tutor. Now he might be friends with that tutor from that point on, but that tutor can never tell him what to do. He does not have the authority over him anymore. That boy has become a man.

And so he no longer is under the tutor. It's just like, when I graduated from high school, some of my high school teachers I had friendships with, which was weird at first, but I had friendships with them, so I had an ongoing relationship with them, but they couldn't tell me what to do anymore. They couldn't give me assignments or grades. The nature of the relationship changed, so the boy still might have that tutor in his life, but he's no longer under that tutor, and this really does, I think, in a handful of ways serve as an effective backdrop for us to understand.

Some of the language that Paul employs as he is explaining to the Galatians how it is that they have come of age and therefore they are no longer under the tutor or the schoolmaster of the law any longer. Four explanations that he gives to them. to explain how it is that they've entered into the state of freedom in Christ, and therefore they should not want to go back to their childhood days spiritually, when they were under the tutelage of the law. Explanation number 1 that he gives to them is that we became adult sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Look what he says in verse 25. He says, but now that faith has come, We are no longer under a tutor. We're no longer under the law, under the dominion of the law, we're no longer under this system of blessing, and cursing and striving and failing and trying again to please God and to become righteous before him. We're no longer under that system of law anymore.

Verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith. In Christ Jesus. Almost every commentator you're going to read would suggest that given the context, that when Paul says sons in verse 26, he means adult sons. All right.

there's a sense in which a boy became a son of his father at birth. But then there was a sense that when he came of age, he was the son of his father. He could stand with his father at the gate of the city. and in the public square, and be associated with his dad as a son fully entitled to all the rights and privileges of his inheritance.

And that's the idea. He says, you all have become adults, sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now, guys, we hear this all the time. Maybe from day one of becoming Christians.

To where it becomes ho-hum. But do you marvel at this? You are a son. Of God A son of God.

when I was a boy, my dad, he was highly esteemed in certain circles where he worked, and there were times where I would go with my dad somewhere. And someone would come up to me and say, you're a son of Bill Vincent, are you? And there was something in me that just loved that, to, to knowing this person looks up to my dad and knowing something of my dad's reputation is like being attached to me. You're a son of Bill Vincent.

I loved that sound when I was younger. But get this, someone could come up to you and say, you're a son of God. Aren't you? God, the Creator of all that is infinite in power and glory.

We are a son. Of God. The Bible, God in His word does not want this to become ho hum to you. In fact, John the Apostle says in First John 3:1, See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God.

And such we are. He's like, I want you to see how great a love this is, that you would be a son and be called a son by God. This is a marvelous thing. Being a Son of God embodies authority.

That's why in John 1:12, it says, as many as received Jesus to him, he gave the authority to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. This is a glorious title, a glorious title that now is given to us, and with sonship comes an enormous amount of authority. that we carry by virtue of that. In the Old Testament, you look high and low for references where God refers to his people as sons of God.

You don't find it. it's used to describe angels, and in one case, perhaps a preincarnate appearance of Christ himself. The title is, is used. Even Moses, who spoke face to face with God to where his face glowed, when Moses died, what did God say?

Moses, my servant. Is dead. My servant, that's an exalted title, servant, a servant of God, but We are sons. Of God Sons of God.

Now ladies, you say, well, yeah, I know what that means. I'm a daughter of God. And yes, you are a daughter of God, but According to this passage, and we'll see this even more in verse 28, you are a son of God. Paul would say, no, no, you, you are a son.

And he would make that distinction because to be a daughter in this day, you did not get the inheritance that the boys got. Especially the first born boy would get to be a son entitled you to rights and privileges of inheritance that was not given to the daughters. So it's not like the men at Cornerstone, we are sons of God. But the women, you're just daughters of God.

And yeah, you get some blessings, but not all of the blessings that come to the sons of God. No, Paul would say, everyone in this room that has believed in Jesus, whether you are a man or a woman, you are a son of God in the sense that you are fully entitled to the rights and blessings and privileges that come to you through the inheritance that God gives to all of us through Christ, and through his promise to Abraham. God is exalting all of us, men and women to the status of adult sonship.

And with that, we are heirs.

In Romans 8:16, Paul says, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children that makes us heirs, also heirs of God, heirs of an inheritance that God wants to. give to all of his children, men and women, boys and girls, Jews and Gentile, slave and free. All of us are sons of God, and entitled to these blessings and privileges that Paul wants to speak about here at the end of Galatians chapter 3.

Now, how did we become sons of God? This is the amazing thing, verse 26, you are all sons of God through faith. In Christ Jesus. We didn't become sons of God by studying the law, memorizing the law, obeying the law, failing, and then trying harder and going through all the sacrificial systems and washing our hands and doing all the ceremonial washings and, and that we obeyed, and we got better and better and better and more mature, until we reached a point where God said, what, based on your obedience to my law, and the maturity you have attained, I now pronounce you my son.

That's not how it happened. How it happened was that under the law we saw that we could not obey or be righteous or justified based on our obedience to the law. We saw our need for salvation and our utter bankruptcy to save ourselves or even to make one iota of a contribution to our own salvation, and we saw how pathetic our own righteousness was, and that we could never do. under the system of the law, we then saw Jesus and we saw his righteousness, he perfectly obeyed the law.

We saw his righteousness and said, I want that, not this. And we walked away from the law, and we deposited our trust in him. And in that moment, we became sons of God. God says, I declare you my son instantly.

And we're like, it was that easy. I've been laboring and doing all this, and I walk away from this, and I just put my trust in Him, who fully obeyed the law for me, and fully took the punishment of the law for me on the cross. I believe in him, and I'm instantly a son. Yes, it's that simple.

The day you believed in Jesus, You came of age. You became an adult son of God. And therefore, on that day, you lose the tutor, you're no longer under. The schoolmaster of the law.

There's a second explanation that Paul gives, speaking of our coming of age in Christ and how we're now matured beyond the point of the law, and that is that we have clothed ourselves with Christ. We have clothed ourselves with Christ. Now again, go back to the analogy of the, the, the Roman boy. He, he lays aside the toga of his childhood that had the purple hymn.

He then would dress himself with a white tunic and then drape around himself the togavarillis, the toga of a man. That represents his coming of age. Jesus is our toga virili. He is when we put our trust in Him, we laid aside our own righteousness.

And we took Jesus Christ, and we wrapped ourselves in Him. That was a part of our coming of age ceremony, when we on that day matured beyond the need for the schoolmaster of the law. Look what he says in verse 27. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, or in Christ or in the name of Christ, you have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Now, how is it that we have clothed ourselves with Christ? Listen to what Isaiah says in Isaiah 61. And he says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.

Essentially, we have clothed ourselves with the righteousness of Jesus. The toga of Christ Himself, the toga of the righteousness of Christ Himself. And now we walk around dressed in that. Anyone can look at us dressed in his righteousness, and say there is someone who has come of age.

They are a spiritually mature individual. If someone's walking around wrapped in the toga of their own performance, and that's what they talk about, you already know that's a person under the law. They're under the tutor. They have not yet come of age.

In Christ. But those of us that are draped in Christ, we have clothed ourselves with Him. who saw our own righteousness as filthy rags. We didn't want to be dressed in that anymore.

So we have clothed ourselves in Him. That was something we did as a part of our coming of age, and maturing beyond our need to be under the law any longer. Now, notice what he says here in verse 27. and this probably will merit a complete sermon.

We as a staff have talked about, the value of maybe sometime soon preaching a full message on the subject of baptism. but look at how he words this in verse 27. For all of you who were baptized in Christ or into Christ or in the name of Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ. The question is what baptism is Paul speaking about?

Here is he speaking about spiritual baptism, where in Christ as the baptizer, baptizes us, in the, the Spirit, thus making us a part of the body of Christ. I would answer to that a resounding yes. There is no doubt in my mind that Paul is including that in what he is saying. Paul would say, I, I have I know that Paul would not say, oh no, I'm not talking about that.

When I speak of baptism. I know that he's speaking of this, and including this in his thinking. But it also raises the question, is Paul speaking about water baptism here? And here, here's the way I would present this.

If you came to Paul and said, Paul, what are you talking about here with baptism? Is it spiritual baptism or water baptism? He would say yes. I am speaking of spiritual baptism and water baptism, because in the thinking of Paul and in the teaching of the New Testament, they were extremely closely aligned.

In fact, if you look in the book of Acts, just a real quick overview, what you see is that whenever people believe in Jesus, they were baptized in the waters of baptism. Acts 2:38, Peter commands people to repent and be baptized. He's talking about water baptism. In Acts 8:12, the people of Samaria, when they believed Philip preaching the good news of the gospel, they were being baptized.

In Acts 8:36, Philip witnesses to the. An Ethiopian eunuch who then confesses his faith in Jesus, and it says that he, Philip, baptized him, talking about water baptism. And Acts 10, I love this story. Peter is preaching the gospel to Cornelius and his household, a bunch of Gentiles.

It says they heard the message, they believed the message, the Spirit fell upon them. They became filled with the Spirit, began speaking in tongues. Peter, a Jew, is looking at them saying, I think I detect evidence that they are genuine children of God. And so he says, who can prevent these people from being baptized?

That was his first thought. If they're saved, they need to be baptized. And so he ordered them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. In Acts 16:33, the Philippian jailer, after believing in Jesus, immediately was baptized.

Acts 18:8. Many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. Acts 19. 5, they, a group of people in the city of Ephesus, were being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That's basically the pattern that you see. Baptism in the New Testament is essentially this water baptism is a step that one takes after believing in Jesus and being saved through faith. in him. A person is not baptized in the waters of baptism in order to be saved.

But the pattern you see in the New Testament is when a person is saved, and does believe in Jesus, they are instantly spiritually baptized, but also soon thereafter. And in fact, many times immediately, the same day, they are baptized in Water. In fact, there are passages in the New Testament, if we took the time to, to look at these, where the baptismal waters actually served as the location in which a person stood when he called on the name of the Lord. It was not the water that saved him, but they were saved in the water because it was there that they were located when they called upon the name of the Lord.

And experience salvation, then they were immediately baptized right afterwards as a symbol of what God was doing and had done. In their lives and so the pattern is of not people getting saved and then some getting water baptized and others saying it's no big deal. No, it just seems like people believe in Jesus and they are water baptized and it's not even that they get water baptized maybe years later when they get around to it. No, it happens sooner rather than later and in many cases immediately on the same.

day. And so going back to Paul's wording in verse 27, he says, all of you who were baptized in the name of Christ, he, he's speaking to the Galatians, he's like, all of you that have believed in Jesus, yeah, you've been spiritually baptized, and yes, you've all been water baptized. And of all of you, I can say safely that you have clothed yourselves with Christ. You have put on the toga of Christ and His righteousness.

And that is, that is how you're dressed now. And so think about it. you're dressed in the righteousness of Jesus. And what are you doing?

You're going back to the law and you're, you're, you're entertaining ideas of maybe performing based on your own righteousness. Act like how you're dressed. You're dressed in Jesus. What are you trying to add to?

You're clothed with Christ. In the toga of a man. There's a third explanation that takes us thought even further, and that is that we have matured beyond the need to be under the law, because we have become fully privileged citizens with everyone else in Christ. this is the citizenship part of the analogy that, yeah, we believed in Christ, we have become adult sons of God through faith in Christ, we have clothed ourselves with Christ.

But verse 28 is essentially saying, and we've gone down to the forum, and our name has been added, we are fully privileged citizens in the kingdom of God, and there is no distinction between us and anybody else. What he says in verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one man. This is masculine in Christ Jesus. And again, I hope you ladies are not uncomfortable with, with that talk.

You, you actually should love this. Because given the privileges that were accorded to sons, you have been elevated to that status. Paul is alluding to the three main distinctions of the human race. In fact, Paul, no doubt would have prayed this prayer every day as a Jewish man before he believed in Jesus.

But essentially, this isn't the exact wording, but here's basically the prayer that Jewish men would pray in this day in the morning, God, I thank you that you did not make me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. That's what they would give thanks for. I heard a man yesterday say, I thank God that he did not make me a woman. but Paul would have said that every day.

and listen to what one writer says. The reason for this threefold Thanksgiving was not any positive disparagement of Gentile slaves or women as persons, but the mere fact that they were disqualified from several religious privileges, which were open to free Jewish males. in the, in the, in the Old Testament, basically, the ultimate was to be a free Jewish man. And if you were that you were entitled to privileges that were not accorded to Gentiles, slaves, and to women.

But look at this, he says, there's neither Jew nor Greek, Jew nor Gentile. May in the mind of the Jews, there were two races. There were the Jews, and then there was everybody else, the Gentiles, and the Jews viewed themselves as being better than everybody else. And even according to the Old Testament law, the Jews were entitled to privileges.

They were close to the presence of God. Everyone else was far off. They could come into the temple proper. Gentiles were not allowed into the tabernacle or the temple proper.

So the Jews had this privilege that was not accorded to Gentiles. And even beyond that, the Jews, they added so many regulations because of their disdain for the Gentiles, they call them dogs and pigs. When a Jew would come from the marketplace, he would go through these really persnickety ritual washings. just in case he touched something that a Gentile had also touched.

It's just hard to have good relations when, when you're being that finicky about any interaction with a Gentile. And what, it's not like the Gentiles in this day were like, Oh man, I wish I was a Jew and really look up to these guys. No, most of the Gentiles were anti-Semitic, and they looked down on the Jews and they were like, I thank God I am not a Jew, and they mistreated the Jews throughout their history, especially during the intertestamental period. And so there was a massive divide between Jew and Gentile.

But Paul says in Christ, once you put on the toga of Jesus, and become an adult son of God through faith in Him, and you get your name registered as a citizen in the family of God and in the kingdom of God, that doesn't matter anymore. You could be a Jew or a Gentile. You're entitled to all the same privileges of inheritance and a blessing. He also says there's neither slave nor free man.

Get this, guys, in the Roman Empire, there were about 120 million people, 60 million of them were slaves. Half of the Roman Empire was essentially composed of slaves. The whole, the empire was built on the backs of of slaves, and slaves were often, some of them were treated well and as a part of the family, but some of them were treated very harshly and cruelly. They were viewed as essentially animate property.

And just like someone could say, what, I don't want this desk anymore, and I'm going to go demolish it, they could do the same with a slave, and the slave was their own property. They could dispose of that slave in whatever way they saw fit. And there was nothing that the law would say to them or against them in that cruel endeavor. And so there was a major distinction between slave and free, but Paul says in the church there is no distinction.

We're all citizens in God's kingdom. It is totally conceivable that in the church, a slave could be an elder, and his master could be one of the parishioners in that church, and the slave exerts spiritual authority in the life of his master. That distinction of slave and free, that doesn't exist in God's kingdom. And so Paul says there's neither Jew nor Greek in terms of enjoyment of privileges.

There's neither slave nor free. And then he says there's neither male nor female. Now he's not saying that there's no longer males that exist or females that exist, and that you lose your gender. What he's saying is that gender distinctions in terms of the enjoyment of privileges and blessings, those are obliterated.

In Christ, and women are just as entitled to the blessings of their inheritance in Christ as men are. Women can come into the presence of God just as far as men can, and they can enjoy intimacy with God just as much as men can. They can pray to God on behalf of other people, represent other people before God. They can enjoy the blessings of intimacy with God, all of the blessings of the inheritance.

that come to us through Christ that God promised through Abraham. All of these are enjoyed equally by Christians who are citizens in God's kingdom, whether they be Jew, Gentile, free, slave, male, or female. This is radical. Not so much radical today.

but in Paul's day, this is like, a Jew reading verse 28. who didn't know Christ would not only disagree, this would make him mad. It would just take him off. Because they saw these distinctions, they cherished these distinctions.

In fact, on the screen behind me, I know many of you have seen this before, but this is a drawing of an overhead shot of what the temple compound would have looked like. You guys see the court of the Gentiles, even though that's surrounded and it looks like it's part of the temple, it's actually not. It's not a part of the temple proper, but Gentiles were allowed to come near. The temple proper and then notice that the Israelites into the temple proper were allowed to come and you see the thing, the space where it says the court of the women.

Women were allowed to come into their, into right here. Women could go, could go this far. Gentiles had to stop here. If they, Gentiles went past here, they were killed.

OK. So this was not a seeker sensitive arrangement. but women were allowed to come, this far, but they could not go past this point. Jewish men were allowed to go, this far and hang out here because they were men, all right, and they could get closer to the presence of God that is right there in the most holy place.

But even the Jewish men, not every guy could come into the holy place. Only the priests, certain priests could do that. And then the most Holy place, only one priest got to do that once a year. That's where the special presence of God dwelt.

Gentiles could hang out here, women could go this far, men could go further. And so there were very clear distinctions in terms of the access and the privilege and the enjoyment of closeness with God that could be enjoyed by these various sects and classes of people. this past, October and November, my wife and I went to Israel for about a week and a half. This is the Western Wall.

You guys have seen this before. This is part of the Temple Mount. In fact, the Temple Mount, if you could climb this wall and just go right over there, that's the Temple Mount where the temple used to stand, and they, they've identified fairly accurately where the Holy of Holies, likely would have been. during the time that Solomon's temple would have been, been there, but this is like one of the most holy sites for Jews.

Actually there are days where Jews are allowed on the top of the Temple Mount, but they won't go up there, get this, because they're afraid to actually step on the Holy of Holies. They're not totally sure where it was, and they don't, they don't want to go into where the Holy of Holies was, so they're content to just stay down here, but, this, when you go to the northern side of this wall here, as I'm traveling this way, I'm getting closer and closer to where the holy of holies would have been about 100 yards up on this hill to the north.

And and so the Jews, this is like a very sacred site to them. The Temple Mount largely belongs to the Muslims for the most part.

So the Jews basically stay down here and they worship. They believe the presence of God hovers over the wall because of its proximity to the Holy of Holies, and they come here and they pray. But notice this right here, guys. You see this barricade.

My wife and I, when we got to the wall, they said, if you guys want to go to the wall and pray, you can. My wife and I had to split up. To pray And I was allowed to come over here. why?

Because this is closer to the holy of holies. I'm totally serious. This part of the wall is closer to where the Holy of Holies used to be. So I, being a guy, was able to go here.

My wife had to stay on this side of the barricade. OK, because she's a woman. on Saturday, on the Sabbath, we saw a lot of bar mitzvahs going on in this area where Jewish boys were becoming sons of the commandment, and, and the dads were there, the brothers were there, family members were there on this side, and they were singing and quoting from the Old Testament law. And what though, the family was not together.

where the moms and the sisters were. Right here, on this side of the barricade. And I, I stood there, I was videotaping this, and it was really sad. It, it actually angered me to see women like this woman right here, she's just standing leaning over and looking on.

Moms were just leaning over the barricade and just smiling and watching their sons become a son of the commandment. And rejoicing in, in what was happening, but they could not be direct participants in it. The barricades separated them. Women are allowed to be here, but because this is not as close to where the Holy of Holies was, they had to stay here.

Men, however, could get closer. And so that's the distinction that still persists to this day. There's a group of women called Women of the Wall who are trying to fight to be able to get access to this part of the wall. They want to pray there.

They feel like they're entitled to that, but the Orthodox Jewish community is rabidly opposed to that and probably will never indeed let that happen. But those are the distinctions that Paul would have grown up with that would have been ingrained into him and in any Jew that was a part of the Galatian. congregation. And so this is so Paul, even as he's writing this, it's probably like, I can't believe I'm writing this.

But this is true in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman. There is neither male nor female. We are all one man in Jesus.

Amen. We all have access into the Holy of Holies, access to intimacy. And to the privileges of our inheritance that are in Christ. Now, guys, be careful with this.

Does this mean that there are no gender distinctions anymore? No. do we look at verse 28 and say, well, Paul says in Timothy that women should not exercise teaching authority over a man in the church. But apparently, that doesn't apply anymore because of Galatians 3:28.

No. Listen, if you want to understand the limitations of what Paul means by what he says in Galatians 3:28, read everything else Paul says. And take this verse and take every other verse he speaks at face value for what it says. There are distinctions.

There are, there is male and female. If there's not, then it doesn't matter whether you marry a guy or a gal. There's no distinctions anymore, and there are people. Who look at verse 28, and actually argue for that homosexual exegies say based on this verse, it doesn't matter who you marry.

God doesn't care about gender. But we need to understand that the same Paul who says this is the same Paul, who quotes from Genesis, wherein it says that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his To his wife Paul in Ephesians 6 and in other passages says to women that they are to submit to their husbands. Husbands are to love their wives, and in the church there are some distinctions, not of privilege, not of access to God, but distinctions and roles that when seen in their proper light are absolutely beautiful.

And established by God, Paul, to argue for the distinction in those roles actually goes back to creation realities, not the culture.

That's why it's a lie for people to say, well, these don't apply anymore because our culture today is different. Paul doesn't argue from culture. He goes back to Adam and Eve, and argues from creation realities. So the same Paul that does speak of distinctions in role between men and women in the marriage relationship in the home and in the church is the same Paul though who in this passage says we are all however citizens in God's kingdom and all of us men and women, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, we all have equal access to God and equal enjoyment to the privileges.

That God wants to give to us in Christ. My wife can get as close to God as I can. My wife can have God give to her truth from His word. And experience illumination exactly to the degree that I can.

The fact that I'm a guy gives me no advantage. And I, as a guy, all of us as guys, we need to cherish the fact that in Christ, we have these privileges, but we also need to celebrate the fact that all these privileges are shared by everybody else, including the women. That are in our lives, and to elevate them and their own perception of themselves as fellow heirs of the grace of eternal life. Peter even commands husbands to treat your wife as a fellow heir, grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of eternal life.

So we have become adult sons of God through faith in Christ. We have clothed ourselves with Christ. We have become fully privileged citizens in God's kingdom. because we are in Christ, the last explanation he gives to help us to understand how it is that we have matured beyond the need to be under the law, because now we are in Jesus, is that by belonging to Christ, we have become full sons of Abraham, and heirs of the promise.

He says, and if you belong to Christ, because God said to Abraham, and you, I'm going to all the families of the earth. And God made that promise, not only to Abraham, but to his seed, which is Jesus, because Jesus is the locus of that blessing, because we belong to him, have clothed ourselves with him, and believed in him, and we're now located inside of him. We are Abraham's descendants, and heirs according to the promise, the heirs of the promise of the blessing. that God had promised to Abraham.

And to all of his descendants. J. Vernon McGee, I was reading this week, he was talking to a group of unsafe Jews. And he said, I am so honored to be here.

And they were all like happily receiving him. And he says, I am so honored to speak to you, the descendants of Abraham. And they all smiled, and go, thank you. And he says, and I'm honored to do so because I too.

am a son of Abraham. And he said most of them stopped smiling at that point. They are the sons of Abraham. They don't want Others to be in on that blessing, but Paul, who was a Jew, smiled.

At the thought of that And he says, whether you are a Gentile. A slave under a cruel master. A woman You have believed in Jesus. You've clothed yourself with him.

You are now in him? And you now belong to him? You are a child of Abraham. And an air of the promise of blessing that God promised thousands of years ago to Abraham saying in you, all the nations, the earth will be blessed.

What is the essence of that blessing? Go back to chapter 3, verse 8, and we'll close. Paul says, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying all the nations will be blessed in you. That blessing that we are now privy to.

The enjoyment of is complete, perfect, spotless righteousness in Jesus, and all of the access to God and enjoyment of intimacy with God and all of the salvation blessings that now accrue to us by virtue of this perfect, spotless righteousness. And Paul's like, so, Galatians, what are you doing? Leaving that And going back under the law. You were like an adult going back to a bottle, which was good in its time.

Going back to spankings, assignments, From teachers that you've graduated from drinking sippy cups. He's like, Listen, you are adults now. You've come of age. Put these things away.

And walk with your chin held high in Jesus Christ as a privileged, fully privileged son. of Abraham. And child or son of God. Let me ask you to bow your heads.

we, here's what hits me, guys, we are multi-billionaires in Christ, and yet many of us even this past week went around looking on the floor for quarters. We are the recipients of a glorious inheritance. Even angels in heaven look at us and say, you have what we do not have. We are descendants of Abraham.

We are sons of Abraham. We are sons of God. We are citizens in the kingdom of God, enjoying full rights and privileges in him. And we belong to Jesus.

We are in Him who is the locus of all of God's passion and love and blessing. Can we walk this week? In the enjoyment of that, in the awareness of this, and let it affect our attitude, our countenance. You are a child of God.

Live like one. Lord Help us to behave as mature children of God, to not go back to sinful ways of behaving. To patterns of sin, or even the patterns of legalism and righteous attainment through obedience to some command of yours, Lord, we are in grace, we are in freedom, we are wrapped in your righteousness. We are sons of Almighty God, and help us to walk like who we are.

Walking in holiness, and in purity, and freedom, and in love, giving glory to you. And if we're savoring these things, Lord, when the devil comes at us with this pathetic, legalistic version of a gospel, we would look at that and go, that is That is as appealing to me as manure. No desire for that. That's the old way.

I am in Christ. This is where I want to be. Continue, Lord, to open our hearts, teach us, bless us, show us the ways of your grace. As we continue to work our way through this marvelous epistle, we give ourselves to You, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,