SPEAKER_00 0:06

Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North. If you wish to, you can stand for the reading of God's Word this morning. We are going to be reading from Galatians 3, 15 through 29. Brothers and sisters, I am using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to a validated human will. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say antecedents as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and thus cancel the promise. For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God has graciously given it to Abraham through the promise. Why then was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise was made was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator. Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one. Is the law therefore contrary to God's promises? Absolutely not. For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin's power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law then was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Thanks, Chloe. While reflecting on the passage this week, I started thinking about gifts that we receive in life. It can be a physical gift, it can be gifts that people give you. And at first, it can be such a big blessing. And so you receive a gift and you live with it, but then something subtle happens over time. A gift can actually become a burden when it's chosen to do something that it's not meant to do. And I thought about it in my life, one of the gifts I was given as a kid was a love for music. So my mom and dad sang, my mom played piano, and we moved around a whole lot between Oklahoma and Texas, ended up in Memphis, had a chaotic house environment. And it was just a lot. But I could escape with music. I had a record player, uh, dates me a little bit, I had 45. The songs I thought of were Maneater, I had that 45. We didn't have much money, so we only had a limited amount of records. And then I had uh Africa by Toto. And that's how you say it, Toto. I don't know how you say it. I don't remember much like thinking about the words, it was more the melodies, and I would get caught up in it. And so it was a gift. As I got into my 20s, I started playing guitar and writing songs, and it was a great gift for me because it helped me process sadness and depression and so much that was going on in my soul. But there was a subtle shift that this gift became a burden to me, and I'll tell you why. I had all these songs written. I'd recorded some homemade albums on some equipment, and people were asking me to come play music, and so I started to come play. And I didn't know this is what was going on in my soul. I just knew that it didn't feel very good. But what had happened is I started asking music to do something it couldn't do. I was asking music to secure my identity, to give me worth, to bring a wholeness to the emptiness that was inside me. I was actually asking it to find me the perfect woman to marry as well. I mean, there was a lot of pressure. I didn't realize I was putting all this pressure on music. And so what happened is that it wasn't just disappointing when these things weren't fulfilled, it actually was very disorienting. And so for a good long while I stopped playing music. And uh it's interesting in the last months, I've picked it back up. I still play guitar in case I'm needed to lead worship or something, like at last second. And if you if you play guitar a little bit every day, you keep a few calluses, and it's like, okay, I can step in. But I got an electric guitar for Christmas and some pedals, and music has started returning to me, but it doesn't have the pressure. It's I've had freedom. Now I'm gonna draw some parallels with this as we go forward because we're getting back to Galatians. And the Galatian people are coming and grabbing and they're drifting. And I love the song that we sang, I'm coming back. It may not be familiar to you, it's the old sojourn song. And uh sometimes that's the perfect song to sit in reflection and just be like, Lord, I have drifted. And Lord, I'm coming back. And I want to just thirst for you alone because only you can fulfill the longings of my soul. I don't want to ask these other things that can't to fill me. But what had happened is that Jewish people have become Christians and they had this long history with the law, and they're like, this was what God gave us, this is what set us apart as a people. You can't now just kick all that to the curb. We've got to add this into the gospel, whatever. They're preaching, we've got to have this too, we've got to have different days, and you've got to be circumcised, and you've got to have all this. And Paul's saying, no, no, no. And what we've seen as we've gone through Galatians is that as these Jewish Christians come to Galatia, they make the journey that this message starts spreading throughout this Gentile church and these Gentile converts. And Paul is just saying, no, no, no. And that's why he comes out so strong. And so last two Sundays we've been looking at Holy Week and the beautiful story of the redemption story being fulfilled in Christ. And you might think, well, now we're getting back to theology. And it's like Paul, if he were here, he'd say, no, we're continuing the story. This is the story. This is what it is, and it's cool because he takes us all the way back to Abraham. So we have three points today. They're in your bulletin. We want to remember the promise. We want to remember what cannot rescue, and we want to live as one's bought abroad all the way in. And even before we hit the first point, a question that was on my heart this week, and and for for you is where might you be drifting from living as a son or daughter of the king? Where might you be drifting? Back into living as if you have something to prove. Where or where have you drifted? Maybe you've looked to marriage to fill something in you that it can't fill. And you're living in expectations like this, my marriage has to do with this. I can't believe my spouse isn't filling the deepest crevices of my soul. I heard an old preacher say one time that he'd come home from trips because he was a traveling speaker, and he'd come to his wife and just be all clingy, and uh he'd try to be getting just stuff from her and uh just emotionally, and it's like, and she turned to him and said, Honey, God did not create wives to fill up empty husbands, and uh he'd say, Yeah, you're right. But we can put pressure like that on marriage, we can put it on friendship. Y'all like the it's a secondary thing. Secondary laughs are always good. Uh you can put that on work, you can put your identity and self-worth and parenting. All these things are gifts. How about church? Church is a gift, but if you're looking to church to fill everything in your soul, and it's not created to do that. Music wasn't created to do that for me. Ministry, the the list goes on and on and on. If you're seeking to secure identity, your worth, your healing, what you're covered with, in those things, of course it's not gonna work. God won't let it work because he loves us too much. So let's remember the promise. Point one. I want to just come through three quick answers to the questions of when, what, and how. So Paul's making the argument, what Chloe just read, is that the promise came before the law. You're saying that we got to keep this law and add it into what Jesus did. Let me tell you about what is up. So I did a little outline. I I've been enjoying, it's not an outline, it's a timeline. But a timeline here of when the promise came. These are approximate. Um 1950, 1930 BC before Christ, Abraham gave a promise, or a promise was given to Abraham. Now in 150, my formatting got off, so you see the it's supposed to be 1500. 1500 BC, roundabouts, the law's given. Promise was given before the law, and then you got King David, you got the kingdoms. I I taught Bible one year, and uh I'm having some flashbacks here. Uh the divided kingdom, the united kingdom, exile. I'm just gonna walk you all through it. You got your prophets, you got the Babylonian, Assyrian, and then here comes Paul is writing in this church phase right here, but this is Easter. Jesus fulfills the law, he fulfills the promise, and I'm excited about continuing on, so I'm gonna go back. But what it's saying, what Paul's saying is like the promise, remember, it was given to Abraham 430 years before the law. So let's hold that. What was the promise? Well, God engaged with Abraham a lot. He says, Leave the land and uh follow me. Abraham did. If you look at Abraham just like every other Bible character, there's ups and downs in the lives. He's human just like we are, and he lies, he does other things, passed down through the generations. But this was the promise that God made. You can summarize it in three parts. God said, A people, a place, a blessing. I'll make you into a great nation, a people. And he didn't have an heir at that time, and he was old, and so was Sarai. He says, A place, I will give you a land, and then a blessing. Through you, all nations will be blessed. So that's the what. But then how was the promise guaranteed? And I love this story. It's in Genesis 15. Abraham and God are present. Abraham's still having to try to live by faith because he's like, I don't have heirs, I don't have all these things. And God is saying, you know, just trust, trust. So God performs a covenant ceremony with Abraham. And so the key of this is as they enact a covenant ceremony, they have these animals listed out in Genesis 15 that Abraham splits in two and puts on either side of a path. And it's a familiar ceremony for these days, is that you would cut these animals in half symbolically, you'd walk through this together, you're making a covenant with a person and saying, if I break the covenant, may I be like these slain animals? It's a big deal, it's weighty. And if you imagine you're you're taking the life of the animal and you're putting it on both sides, like that's that's symbolic, like that's huge. Now, how is this one different, though? Well, when it comes time for God and Abraham to walk through to make this covenant together, God flips the script of what was normal, and he's like, Abraham, you don't get to walk through. So he makes a deep sleep fall on Abraham, and God alone passes through the animals with fire and smoke. And there's so much symbolism here, even the way the Israelites would be led out of Egypt, pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke, and there's there's so much in God's beautiful story. I have an image here from 1728. It's from Gerard Howitt. I didn't know this guy, but he was a Dutch illustrator, and this is a a copper plate carving, and you can see you can't tell Abraham's eyes are closed, but he's asleep, and and and God in this symbolic form is going through. But it's an event that takes place, and what does it mean? Well, it means a lot. What it means is God, in effect, is saying, I bind myself to this promise. It's not me and you bound to this promise where you have to fulfill, it's not a conditional covenant where you have to fulfill your end and then I'll fulfill my end. He's saying, I will do this. Because it's grounded in God's character, not Abraham's performance. It's grounded in God's faithfulness, not Abraham's faithfulness, and it can't be broken. The promise is unbreakable. This is God's grace. He's saying, I will, I will bring about the redemption. And it is all the way back in Genesis 3, when the promise was given to Adam and Eve. And of course they couldn't understand it. But the first promise that one would come, the seed, capital S, Jesus. So from a human experience side, we can't break this promise. It is grounded and rooted, it's unbreakable, but we can distrust it. And my question to you and to myself this week is where where might you might where might you be distrusting the promise in your life? You can actually live outside of the promise and just wander, and that's the drift. You can drift away, you can add things to the promise. It doesn't change. The promise is unchangeable, unbreakable, but we as humans, we do wacky stuff. That's something we all do. But humans cannot nullify it. And this is Paul's argument. He literally says in verse 17, my point is this the law came 430 years later. It does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and does cancel the promise. It doesn't say, now God walked through this alone. He's like, this promise is up to me. It's not now, let's add in some other things. You've got to achieve this. He didn't do another ceremony. It's set. So that gives us an interesting question. And it leads us to point number two. Remembering what cannot rescue. Well, what about this law? And it's interesting this week. I think it's so fun to write sermons these days because I get to wrestle with things. And books and books have been written, and we could have discussions ad nauseum on these things. I'm going to give you kind of my summary of what I thought was most important to bring in our brief time here this morning. Um, but I want to read some past some of the verses again to you. So if you want to follow along on your in your scripture, on your bulletin. Verse 19, Paul's saying this because these people are wrapped up in adding the law back in. He says, verse 19, why then was the law given? It's a great question. It was added for the sake of transgressions until the seed, capital S, singular, to whom the promise was made, would come. Verse 21, is the law therefore contrary to God's promises? No, absolutely not. For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would be based on that. But no one can break, I mean, no one can fulfill the law. And then verse 23. Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law then was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. Depending on your translation, it could say guardian, it might say tutor. And what this means is not kind of how we use it in the English, is like a guardian might be someone who has uh authority over uh a child or children all the time. A tutor is somebody who helps you with your math. But the guardian-tudor language here is it's a very specific role that's that Paul's talking about. It's someone who walks someone, kids from point A to point B. And so if you have kids and they need to be going somewhere, you you lead them. I remember I was a guardian and tutor at camp for many summers at times, and uh it was crazy because we had all age groups throughout the summer, and the craziest groups are the first to third graders. So these are like seven, eight-year-olds that are away from home, sleeping in cabins, and you get 15 to 20 of them, and you're gotta lead them from point A to point B across the camp and keep them from throwing pine cones at each other or from jumping into the lake. It's pretty, it's pretty intense. But I liked it because I'm hyper-vigilant and I like to create some order. So I'd have them line up in line. So I was the guardian, I was the tutor, and I was like, okay, let's go. And I had a very small window of time with them, but it was a very specific job. Keep them from getting hurt, don't lose anybody, so I was constantly counting. I still have panic attacks sometimes, thinking about I took a middle school group to Philadelphia one time, inner city, and I wasn't supposed to lead the trip, but the person had an emergency who's supposed to lead the trip, so I was just supposed to go hang out and play some music, and then they couldn't go like the day before, so they said, Well, Chad, you can lead the trip. I'm like, I can, but it was so stressful. I was kids just what middle schoolers, it's like herding cats. I got home very tired after that, but we we brought everyone home. We only left one kid for a brief time at a rest stop, so I wasn't. And the funny thing is, he didn't even have shoes on. He had socks on and went to the bathroom at a rest stop. It's like it's like that's what you gotta deal with, right? But I had a very specific task get them from point A to point B. I can hand them off to the Bible study teacher, the activity leader. My job's done. I try to get out of the Mississippi heat because it was nasty. But here's the principle the guardian or the tutor, and even we talked about the rule of life or the standard, it's like a in this time, it's a it's a stick to keep the people on the path. Like, oh, come back in. And when we talked about a rule of life, it's not a set of rules for our life, it's something to keep us focused on God. Loving God and loving others and doing this. And so the law is saying, nope, stay on the path. So the law was given to guide. It was given to restrain. It was given to show where we were off. It was given to hold the people together until Christ would come. Because it did show them how to relate to God and how to relate to each other. Did they rebel against it all the time? Did they have to go into exile? Yes. And they would repent and come back. Read the book of Judges. It's very depressing. Seven cycles of just getting deeper and deeper into depravity. But God never abandons his people. He continues to come back to them and bring them back to himself. So the law is this. It can expose, it can lead us to the door, but it can't bring you inside. There's so many, maybe the tradition you grew up in, it's like it's about the rules. It's about the rules. Let's go. It's about the rules. I've got a list of rules for you. And Paul's saying it's about relationship. Your sons and daughters are the king. It's not about what you could accomplish, it's what he accomplished, and that's the grace of it all. Don't have too much time for this, but the promise was personal. It was God with Abraham speaking to Abraham, putting Abraham to sleep, and then letting Abraham observe this movement where God does this. And then Paul says the law comes through mediators. So the promise is very personal. The law comes through layers, through mediators, through angels, through Moses. Not because the law wasn't important, but it wasn't foundational to the whole. And that's why we sit under the Word every week. That's why you're in the Word yourself. That's why we're in Christian relationships. Because we need each other, because the world has all these messages that are contrary to what is real. If you go to a fancy restaurant, everyone's dressed up, and you feel like everyone's pretentious, and it's like, oh, you feel the pressure to act a certain way. I've been to a couple dinners in my life where there was so much silverware out, I wasn't quite having a panic attack, and I didn't have a cell phone back in those days, so I couldn't look up what do you do with this fork? It's like, I don't know what to do. But that's not real, is it? I mean, I'm safe even if I don't know what fork to use. You can analyze that illustration later because it doesn't make much sense to me now after I say it, but it wasn't planned. But it's basically what's real and what's not real? This is real. What do you find yourself leaning on to feel okay about your life right now, other than Christ? Emotionally, relationally, spiritually. What do you find yourself leaning on to say, I gotta do this so that I can feel okay? Do you feel like maybe that could be adrift a little bit? A good litmus test sometimes is to say, when you fail, when you mess up, and a lot of our messing up, our failing is internal in our minds and our hearts. Sometimes it's external with our relationships. How quick are you to be able to come to God with it? Do you have to wait a day, a week, and then grovel back? Do you think that that's God's? It's like, okay, go live really good for a week, and then you can come back and ask for forgiveness, and then maybe I'll give it. Because the cross says, nah. The truth is, we fail, we're here. It's washed away. Your status doesn't change. Your position in Christ doesn't change. And I believe one of the steps of growing in maturity is to be able to fail and be able to ask for forgiveness pretty quick. So, man, I messed up. I'm so sorry. Humbling yourself. Or if you sin in your mind or on your own and you just come to the Lord and say, Lord, I was a knucklehead again. I'm sorry. Thank you for your grace. Not waiting a week, a month. Yes, I know people who've waited years and just said, man, I did too much. I did too much. I'm like, let's look at Paul. He was killing people. Have you killed anybody? Well, don't tell me if you have, but I'm required by law to turn you in. So the beauty of God's redemption story moves, and the story is that we are saved, and it gets us to our final point. We can live as one brought all the way in. Not partially in, not with one toe. It's like, no, you're all the way in. Verse 26 and following. For through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. Next week we're going to hit the doctrine of adoption. So I'm not going to even talk much about it this week as we come to a close, but get ready for that. Please come. Please come. It's one of the most beautiful doctrines in Scripture. Verse 27, for those of you who are baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then your Abraham's seed heirs according to the promise. What's the prerequisite? Belonging to Christ. That's as we have accepted him as Savior, as we've come before him and said, Lord, forgive me of sins. I cannot do this. We realize our need and we cry out to him for salvation, and he becomes our savior and we walk with him for our lives. So let's go back all the way to 1950, 1930 BC, 4,000 years ago-ish. The Abrahamic promise, people, place, blessing. Around 1500 BC. The law, the people are formed, preserved, structured. They're carried forward until the fullness of time, until Jesus can come and fulfill the promise. And through it, we see our essential need. We're trapped under it and we see like, I can't do it on my own. I need a Savior. And then in Christ, the true blessing arrives. The law is fulfilled through his life. The law is sealed. I'm sorry, the promise is sealed and fulfilled through his death and resurrection, through his sacrifice and atonement for us on the cross. And now here's the fulfillment of the promise way back 4,000 years ago, the promise already given to Adam and Eve. It's the promise that there will be a people, a place, a blessing. And that is what we're moving towards together. It's an eternal people. Every tribe, tongue, and nation will be represented. There will be no division. And that's where we seek to live into the kingdom now that we want to be a people that embrace people who are different than us. And we center our lives on the gospel together. There's an eternal people. There's an eternal place. It's the new heavens and new earth that we get to practice just seeing shadows now, but it's what Jesus entered, he brought in when he ushered in the kingdom. He's like, this is how you live. And there's an eternal blessing. It's life with God forever. And so I leave this with you. You're clothed in Christ. That's Paul's statement here. You're clothed in Christ. And this clothing means you're covered by Him, you're identified with Him. You stand before God in Him and you're free. Not 99%, 100% free. What if you don't feel it? I don't know many people who ever really feel it all the way. It's kind of unbelievable. It's not based on your feelings. This is God, the same one who walked through the animal halves. It's like it's not up to your feelings. I'd like for your feelings to match up with it sometimes. I like when mine do. But the promise is the promise. I got a sentence to carry for you. I'm not working my way into God's family. I'm learning to live from it. I'm not working my way into God's family. I'm learning to live from it. That is the foundation. And so we put a practice on the back of your bulletin in the announcements thing. And there's just one little practice you can add each day. Very simple. Take you less than a minute. You can sit with it longer if you want, but you got your rhythms of life. But for this week, once a day, pause for a moment and quietly name. This is the place I'm trying to prove myself, and then gently respond. In Christ, I'm already brought in. When you find yourself trying to prove something, it's like, oh wait, in Christ, I'm already brought in. I find it helpful to literally say it out loud so that I can have the words come out and hit my own ears and not just think about it in my head. And so we're covered, we are free, and that's what this meal is that we celebrate every week. The promise has been fulfilled in Christ, and we get to rest in it. And so I'd invite you, if you're a Christian here today, after I pray, you can come forward, you can grab some bread and some juice and just hold it at your seat. And just wait. And once everyone's gotten the elements, I'll come back up and lead us all to participate in communion together. But come as one clothed in Christ and remembering where you may be drifting. And just say, even you can say it out loud as you come. If you've wandered, just say, Lord, I'm coming back. I'm coming back. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for the beauty of this passage and the work of the cross, and that we can rest in the finished work of the cross. And what we celebrated last Sunday through Easter and the massive celebration we had, that we can rest in it this week. In the calmness of this day, whether our souls feel calm or not. I pray as we come forth and we take these symbolic means to remember your crucifixion, that your body was broken for us and your blood was shed for us, so that the promise could be fulfilled. And I pray that you do a work in our hearts in this time of reflection. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.