Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:00:23 Hello and welcome or welcome back. You found it, that says the unveiling. We're all here and we're glad you are as well. This is gonna be episode 61. We're still in our series on Galatians, and this will be part six. So before we get started, if you have your Bibles with you and you wanna follow along in the Galatians where we are going to be reading from in a little bit, uh, we are at Galatians four, starting in verse 21. However, before we do that, uh, I'd like to, this portion of Galatians, Paul's gonna be talking about Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and their children. And I'd like to set that story up from the Old Testament a little bit, if you guys will bear with me. So Abraham and his wife Sarah, were unable to have children, and this caused them some grief and anguish.
Speaker 2 00:01:21 However, God did promise them that they would have a son who would become the father of many nations. Now, at that point, Sarah was passed her childbearing years. So she found this, uh, humorous. But, uh, she also suggested to Abraham that he should take her maid servant Hagar as a second wife and have children with her. Abraham agreed to this, and Hagar became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Ishmael. Some years later, when Sarah was 90 years old, she miraculously gave birth to a son named Isaac. This caused tension between her, Sarah and Hagar, and Sarah demanded that Hagar be, and Ishmael be banished from the household. Abraham was reluctant to do so, but God reassured him that Ishma would also be blessed and promised to make him into a great nation. So ultimately, Ishmael grew up to be the father of the Arab people, and Isaac became father of the Jewish people.
Speaker 2 00:02:20 Now, I know I skipped over a couple of elements of this story. I just wanted to get it in succinctly. So guys, if there's pieces I missed or if there's anything else you'd like to bring out of that story before we jump into Galatians, now is your chance. I think I'd like to first of all share that this had to be one of the most ill conceived plans <laugh> on, on, on the human side of the equation, that Sarah would say, Hmm, I'm getting old. I can't have children. Hey, you know what, Abraham? Go sleep with my slave over there and have kids. <laugh>. It's like, you know, where'd you come up with that? You know, know. But God uses even the weakest of human plans for his glory. And I, I just think that's, uh, very interesting. And as Paul's about to get in into, as he does his comparison between Isaac, the child of Promise and, uh, ishmail the child of the flesh, it calls him, uh, because, uh, Abraham and Sarah took things into their own hands when God and God had already made them this promise that, that he would bring Sarah a son and he would, you know, be the father of many nations.
Speaker 2 00:03:37 But even after that promise that was made to him, because it was credited, God credited righteousness to Abraham, because when God told him this how he's gonna bless him, uh, by making him a father of many nations and give him a son, um, he believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. So I think, I don't know if he had a little stumble here or, or what the thing is, but he kind of took it back. And I think we all do that at times. We have great faith, and then, you know, things get a little bumpy and we, we take it back, but God and his grace and mercy doesn't leave us and still blesses us in, in our lives. Um, so, so he took it back for a few minutes there with, with, with Sarah's help, and they had Ishmael. Now here's, here's what, um, what was said by the angel of the Lord to Hagar about Ishmael.
Speaker 2 00:04:35 It says, you are now pregnant and you will give birth to his son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery, he will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. And this is very prophetic, as you're gonna hear Paul talk and Galatians about how the law is always against grace. It's always against the promise. Legalistic people are attack people that put faith alone in Christ alone. And this is exactly what was happening in the whole book of Galatians that Paul was dealing with. And that's why I think it's so cool and interesting here, that this prophecy came about how the old covenant would have enit toward the new Covenant, um, have hostility toward those who are relying solely in Christ. Uh, because mankind, it's very intuitive to him, and it seems right in his eyes that we would be about following rules, which is a bit of a surprise since we're not that good at doing it. But I'll hand it back to you, Tim, and we'll move on unless Ajay
Speaker 3 00:05:51 Has something to add. <laugh>. Yeah. So, uh, <laugh>, I'm not going to use the word harken, but <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:05:59 I think it'd be the first time you used that word, Tim and I beat it to death. So
Speaker 3 00:06:04 <laugh>, but I'm gonna go back to something you raised. Mark, you know, Abraham, you know what happened to him, right? Uh, why did he, you know, go with Hager and things like that? But, you know, we have to remember that since God promised it took 25 years for Isaac to be born. Like, I think he was 75 when God promised him, and he was 99 years old when, uh, 99 or a hundred years old when Hagar was born. I might be wrong, but I think, um, it seems like, you know, at some point of time, you know, when we even, we do that right, when God promised something, we wait, it doesn't happen. Then first we think, oh, maybe, you know, God's promised. I don't know what's going on. And then, you know, we might do things, oh, maybe this is how God's promise is going to come true.
Speaker 3 00:06:50 So that's why he said, you know, first he said, uh, this Eliza be my air. He says, Eliza is a servant, Lord, you know, I know you said you promised the son, but you know, let s be my hey. I can't, I can't, uh, wait anymore. And then at some point, you know, when uh, Sarah came up with this idea, you know, maybe he thought this is a way God is going to fulfill his promise. And in fact, that's why, you know, lot says specifically, Ishma will not be a, the one that will be born out of Sarah's womb will be your ear. So I think sometimes we do that too. We have God's promises and then we try to help God. Or maybe we think, you know, hey, maybe this is the way God is fulfilling his promise and we try to do things.
Speaker 3 00:07:32 I think that's what I think to give the benefit of doubt to Abraham. He might have tried to make things happen and maybe he thought, okay, this is how God's promise is fulfilled because it's taking too long. You know, maybe it's not Sarah. Maybe it's through someone else. So sometimes we think of that, right? You know, we, we, we have God's promises, we take hold of it, and then time passes by nothing happens. And then we are like, oh, yeah, you know, maybe this is how God's promise is going to be fulfilled. But, but you know, God's word is sure. Even when it takes time, it'll come to pass.
Speaker 2 00:08:02 Yeah, that's a great point. I can't tell, tell you guys how many times I've done that in my life, reached a point of maturity and trust. And a lot of people, it's got to do with their dating life when they're single, where they reach a point of trust and they give it to God, Lord, I trust you. And then they take it back. They meet some, you know, I've done that in a number, number of different things in my life, but God still gives more grace. And even at times he works through those things and uses 'em, you know? So if you're ready, Le why don't we jump into Galatians once again? We are starting in chapter four, four verse 21. Um, guys, I, I was going to read this whole passage, but if, uh, if you want to ma get me to stop, um, our listeners can't hear this, but you guys can flag me down.
Speaker 2 00:08:51 Sounds good. Tell me you who want to be under the law. Are you not aware of what the law said for it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman, was born as a result of a divine promise. These things are being taken figuratively. The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves. This is Hagar. Now, Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem because she is in slavery with their children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written be glad, barren woman, you who have never bore a child, shout for joy and cry aloud you who were never in labor, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Yep. So, so I, let me stop there. I think I see somebody wanting to react. Ajay.
Speaker 3 00:10:02 Yeah. Thank you, Tim. So, I mean, one thing that struck me is tell me who I'm reading from a different version, but, you know, I can go back to an ivy, but I think, uh, readers should understand, tell me who desired to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? You know, when he said, do you not hear the law? Don't you know the law? You know, we might think he might be quoting 10 Commandments, right? <laugh>, I think Paul has very high expectations of, uh, spiritual understanding of Galatians. He says, do you not know the law? And then he goes back to Abraham at two sons. Like, I mean, who would think that? Right? So I thought it's an observation, but, uh, it's very interesting, the kind of parallels Paul draws. I don't think, you know, anyone could have without the spirit could draw those kind of parallels.
Speaker 3 00:10:44 But, uh, here we see, you know, it is written that, uh, Abbra two sons won by a bond woman and a free woman like Ave been saying, this book is full of contrast right here, A bond woman and a free woman. And another two contrast is like the flesh and the promise. So there's an indication here, right? So the bond woman was born according with the flesh, and the free, free woman was through promise. So when God promises us, there's nothing we could do about it. Abraham could do nothing to bring about Isaac, but he could do something to bring about Ishmael. He went his own way. Sarah and him kind of came up with a plan, and then they, he slept with Hager and uh, and then they had, uh, Ishmael. And that is a natural process, right? So that is self effort. I think here we also is self effort versus just rushing in the promises of God.
Speaker 3 00:11:38 And he's saying, you know, these are two symbolic of the two covenants, which is the old covenant and the new covenant. Again, if you connect the dots, right, the old covenant has to do with our self effort with us doing something. But the new covenant has to do with simply registering in God's promises. You know, sometimes they take time. That's why Hebrews says, you know, through faith and patience, we inherit promises. So all we can do is when we, when things get delayed, you know, we ask for patience, but we simply register in God's promises and they will. David,
Speaker 2 00:12:13 I love the first line there in 21. I can just imagine Paul saying to the gate, Galatians, okay, Galatians, you wanna be back under the law. Do you have any idea what that means? What you're asking for? And he de this is probably one of the books along with Romans, that he really goes into detail. You wanna be under the law. This is what, this is what you're really asking for. You need to fulfill that law perfectly from the moment you're born to the moment you die. And you're not gonna be able to do that. So that's gonna bring a curse and condemnation on you. You're now in slavery. Is that really what you want? You want? And I think we can ask that question today, and I don't, you know, we never are meaning to be critical of pastors. It's, it's a really hard job.
Speaker 2 00:13:05 Um, but sometimes I feel like asking some of the ones that are trying to put people back under the law, just like standing up and saying, all right, sir, you who wanna be back under the law and are trying to put us there. Do you really know what that means? You know, Paul says in Galatians one that if we add even one thing to the perfect gospel of God's grace found in the cross, we are obligated to fulfill all of it. And now Christ is of no value to us. We've been alienated from God. We've fallen away from grace. It's a serious thing to go back under the law. It's not some, oh, well, I might as well have an assurance policy. Yeah, I believe that what just Jesus did on the cross was, was great, but I wanna be, I wanna, you know, have a little, I wanna hedge my bets here and try to get some good works mixed in that's not, and as we talked about in the last episode, that's not what spiritual maturity is.
Speaker 2 00:14:07 Spiritual maturity is completely relying on Christ and his finished work. It's immature to think that we can somehow add to that. When Paul said the righteous will live by faith from first to last. Jesus is the first to the last. He's the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We start with him and we finish with him, just as Paul said in, in Galatians three. And, and it, and God also, you know, it also says, uh, he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. We've got so many of these scriptures that all Christians know, but it, it seems like we're, we're saying 'em and we know 'em, but we don't really contemplate him to get what the ramifications are. When, when Paul tells us that we start in the spirit and we finish in the spirit, he means exactly that What's left for you to do other than put your eyes on Christ and live in the new way of the Spirit.
Speaker 2 00:15:10 And that's freedom, that's joy. That's where the blessings of the gospel flow into our lives. So we've used the terms, you know, old covenant, new covenant for, uh, Sarah and Hagar. Let me mis make sure I'm, I, I understand this because I think it brings out very much in the end of verse 24 and verse 25. Uh, one covenant is from Mount Sinai. That is the law, right? That's right. Mount Sinai is where Moses got the law. And that's what the Jewish people would associate with Mount Sinai. Absolutely. So now, and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because Jerusalem, that's where the Jews were. And they were at this point under the law slavery. So they were under this covenant which was marked by fear and slavery because it had such a heavy burden that it placed upon them, uh, to conform and to obey things that they could never fully conform and obey too.
Speaker 2 00:16:11 You know, I sometimes wonder, wonder if the Jewish nation at the time Jesus came, was just plain tuckered out <laugh>. You know, we always use the hamster wheel as a, as a, as a metaphor for being under the law. Cuz you just run harder and harder and harder. But you're not going anywhere. You never get there. You never know if you've done it well enough or not. And I, and I think to many of them, um, the ones who felt, I think it was the ones who, who knew that they weren't doing the law perfectly, you know, like the prostitutes and tax collectors and outcasts in the street, the unclean, as the Jews would call 'em, I think they would've been very acutely aware of their own sin and that they weren't doing it well. Where on the other hand, the Pharisees teachers of the law and scribes and sades, they thought they had a good handle on it.
Speaker 2 00:17:09 You know, Hey, we're doing pretty well here by the law. This is working out for us. No, we're not like those sinners in the street there. We do it well. And then Jesus comes and goes to the people in the streets. And then, and what does he say to the Pharisees and the people? They do it well, he elevates what they thought they were doing to help them realize they're not doing it well because perfection's the only way he says, you've heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you've looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery. He's, and, and so many, I i never understood this until maybe eight, nine years ago when we heard our former pre, uh, preacher teach on this, um, that Jesus was elevating the law when he came. He wasn't telling them so that they would try harder to perfectly fulfill the ca commandment of not committing adultery.
Speaker 2 00:18:06 But it was too late by that point anyway, because even up to that point, if they had ever looked on a woman with lust in their heart, boom, they are, they're condemned and cursed by the law. He wasn't doing that to get 'em to work harder cuz it was too late for them to work harder. He was elevating that law to show 'em, put your faith in me. That's the only answer, the only way I am the way of the truth in the life. Not you trying harder to elevate your game by doing the law even better. So many people miss that. And so many pastors unfortunately preach all that to try to get them to try harder instead of to get them. What does Hebrew six one say? That the foundation of Christianity as repenting of the dead works of the law and putting our faith in God. It's not trying harder, it's not repenting of the sin. And with all our might trying to get rid of the sin in our lives, it's trusting in Christ. And that's blessed freedom right there.
Speaker 3 00:19:06 Amen. Yeah. I just want to clarify one thing. You know, when we say law, someone might think, yeah, why these guys are always talking about the law and uh, no one is under the law of Moses now. So I have heard that before. So I wanted to clarify one thing, right? You know, when we say law, um, first of all, uh, you know, most people might think, you know, we are not under the law of Moses. But as a whole, Christianity has adopted the 10 Commandments, which are from the law of Moses, and they try to live by them even though the law of Moses was not given to us as a whole. In general, if you take Christianity anywhere throughout the world, they're basically adopted the law of Moses, especially the 10 Commandments. And they're trying to live by the law of Moses. And secondly, even for those who do not have the law of Moses, the Bible says that the law is written on their conscience.
Speaker 3 00:20:00 You know, the, on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. So the conscience is basically also operating by the 10 commandments. Conscience clearly knows, you know, killing someone is wrong, adult ray is wrong, lying is wrong. Nobody need to tell a unbelievable a Buddhi or Hindu or anybody, you know, hey, lying is wrong because the conscience also has a return the law of Moses. So whether we are consciously adopting the law of Moses or not, we are still trying to approach God based on the law of Moses. So here it's clearly says, you know, there are two ways either you can approach God based on the law, which means that you are law keeping, right, based on your works, based on your self effort, or you can approach God simply based on its promise. God promised to receive us, right? Bible says, you know, believe in the Lord, you know, who justifies ungodly, you know, unto him that does not work, but believes on him that justifies ungodly his faith is counted by righteousness. So we simply believe that God is able to justify me and God is able to receive me, you know, based on his promise, we come to him. You know, that is the second way. So these are on only, these are the only two ways, you know, you can't mix it. Either you go to God based on what you do, or you go to God based on his promise, which promise is based on what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.
Speaker 2 00:21:23 Aj, you, you hit a couple of points there. You talked about how Christianity has adopted the Jewish law and you used the word adoption a lot. And I think I've heard this preached, and I would like you guys to respond to this, but I think I've heard it preached that our adoption into, uh, Christ is, is about being adopted into the chosen people. So therefore we're kind of Jewish, adopted Jewish. And so therefore these things that didn't apply to us as, um, you know, not being Jewish now due because we are, we were gentiles, now we're Jewish, does. And I think that just may be a desperate justification to try and get people to follow the law. What's what? That's a great, first of all, Aja, that was an awesome point you made and your point was awesome too, Tim, I'm gonna go with Tim's first.
Speaker 2 00:22:15 We're not there yet. So, but I'm gonna jump ahead just to say that the end of this entire book, Paul's benediction, the way he says goodbye, he said, and he said, and everything he's taught, he, he concludes and say peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God. Now, some translations say to the true Israel of God, the chosen people are those who put their faith in Christ, we're en grafted in it said into the, the chosen Israel, uh, that God set apart for himself. But boy, I'm getting deep on this one. But the, the one of the key mistakes Israel made was not only just misunderstanding the law, but misunderstanding why they were chosen, what they were chosen for. They were chosen because they were somehow better than other people or to even be better to other people. They were chosen to bring the Messiah to the world, that all nations might be blessed through them and that other nations would be jealous of their relationship with God. Unfortunately, they didn't understand that original promise given to Abraham, which is called the covenant of grace, and was the first announcement of the gospel. They didn't understand it and their being chosen led to division and them thinking they're better than others. So I love that the fact that believers who are relying solely on Christ, Gentile or Jew, those who have put their faith in Christ, are the true Israel of God. And that's how Paul ends this whole letter.
Speaker 3 00:23:56 So if I can mark, you know, I can just quickly Sure, go ahead, jump in there so that, you know, we end this topic. So Tim, I don't know if I fully understood you, but uh, again, you know, whereby by believing the Lord Jesus Christ, now gentle don't become Jews, the Bible clearly says in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free, neither male nor free male and, uh, all or one in Jesus Christed. And I think in, uh, Hebrew chapter five, it says, you know, in Christ neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. So both Jews and Gentiles, you know, are clearly under sin. They have fallen short of glory of God, you know, politics, three chapters to establish that both Jews, gentiles, everybody are under sin and everybody equally sinned and there's non non righteous. So when we are born again, we become a new creation. But I think, uh, Lord is using types and shadows. You know, when you say Israel is calling the true Israel of God is basically the born again children of God. We are not talking about the Gentiles becoming Jews by coming to Christ
Speaker 2 00:25:06 Like that, like an ethnic thing. Yeah, no, yeah, I completely agree with you aj, that there's a higher truth that in Christ. Now, there's neither June nor Gentile slave nor master male nor female that we've elevated above that where the children and hes of God now. But there's a aspect of, as you said, as being the chosen ones and that have put their faith in Christ. Paul also said that, uh, cuz one of the, one of the names that the Jews called themselves was the circumcision because that, that covenant was given to Abraham when he gave him the promise. It was a sign of a covenant. They called themself the circumcision. But Paul said the circumcision is not one who was circumcised, circumcised in the flesh, but in the heart, which is another great, what'd you call that? Shadow and type of the law and faith.
Speaker 2 00:26:01 It's not about the law which is in the flesh, just as, as, uh, Ishma was the child of the son of the flesh and Isaac of promise. There's a lot of this same from throughout the entire Bible, Bible of the flesh in faith, faith in what God's gonna do in the flesh, which is our own abilities. So, so Paul did say that it's being circumcised of heart, which means faith in Christ. So, so I I I'm not, I'm not contradicting you. I completely agree with you that it's not about an ethnic thing, like we're not converted in, uh, into Judaism, but that, um, it's a higher calling than that. We've spent a lot of time on the old covenant and the slave woman. Let's move on to our promise, uh, and who we are now under the new covenant, uh, as children of the promise.
Speaker 2 00:26:56 So picking back up in verse 28, now you brothers and sisters like Isaac are children of the promise at that time, the son born, according to the flesh, persecuted the son born by the power of the spirit. It is the same now, but what does scripture say? Get rid of the slave woman and her son for the slave woman's son shall never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son, therefore brothers and sisters. We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. And I would say to that <unk> <laugh> Paul, just put it down there, man, and that is awesome. He's so clear. I would never attempt to say it that way, mark, but good for you. That's the original Greek for Amen.
Speaker 3 00:27:42 You know, the one thing that struck me is, you know, cashed out the bond woman and her son. I think, uh, we might be thinking, okay, I need to find some legalist and then start cashing them out. But, uh, that might be true. But, uh, even before that, I think we need to cash out the legalist in us.
Speaker 2 00:27:58 Yes,
Speaker 3 00:27:59 Yes. Even though we, um, we are known grace, but, uh, it takes a long time before we start, you know, living by grace, our day-to-day life, you know, we are still bringing the law. We still live by rules and regulations. We are still in bondage to fear. So consciously we need to remove this law from our life. And it says interesting that it's, uh, the bond woman here is a law and her son is basically whoever is, uh, following the law basically, right? So cash out the law as well as these people who are in bondage to the law, so don't have, uh, uh, uh, don't really adopt their belief system, right? So sometimes if we, I mean, uh, I think one of the preachers said, right, you know, you listen to hundred sermons on grace and you listen to one legalistic sermon, you know, you, again, you kind of get disturbed and started wondering, starts wondering maybe it is true, right?
Speaker 3 00:28:58 You know, maybe there's some truth in it. So it's very important for us to cast out the law altogether from us. And also, you know, uh, any kind of influence of the law, you know, as, uh, we, we do sometimes in devil put sphere. So, my God, for example, if I don't give tights, I will go poor, right? You know, some people might come up with some explanation, you know, why we should still be given tights and all that. So are there are other cases, right? You know, maybe because of my disobedience, my children are suffering. So these kind of things come, but at that time, we just have to trust God cashed out. The bond woman Bible clearly says, don't have anything to do with the law. When Hager was cashed out, she never came back. Abraham had never had, never had anything to do with Hager again, Bible has no record that, uh, Abraham went, you know, he might have felt really bad. He might have gone looking for Ishmael because he is his, his blood basically, right? He is born out of his body, but he never went. So sometimes it is really hard to cast out the law from us, but we should, and hold on to grace and the promise of God. That's where the true freedom is.
Speaker 2 00:30:05 I love that, uh, word he uses that he doesn't say, remove the bond woman, or in our case, remove the law or just let it fade away. He says, cast it out. It's a very proactive thing, and it really takes that because I think every one of us sits deep rooted in us. We've talked about this many times from the moment we're born. That's all we know is do this, don't do that. You know, be a good boy. You'll get a cookie, be a bad boy, you'll get a spanking or a timeout. We get to school, work hard, you'll get good grades. We're not just a cu, we're not accustomed to the kind of grace that God shows us. So I love how forceful Paul is. Paul is saying to us, cast out the law from yourself and many other places. He says that we have to die to the law so that we can belong to another.
Speaker 2 00:31:00 There I have, I have at least a half a dozen scription, uh, uh, scriptures that tell us to die to the law. I'm not gonna read 'em now, Tim, so don't worry, <laugh>, but I've got 'em if anybody wants them or just do a concordance search in your digital Bible. But in, in, you touched upon this earlier, but I think it bears repeating slightly different at the end, that the Apostle Paul of all the apostles and all the books that are epistles and books that are written in the Bible, he deals with the law, I think more than any other writer, and especially in his exhortation, does to come out from under it to cast out the bond woman. And even he though, when he does that, being a Jew who had grown up his whole life under the Mosaic law, isn't just referring to that because he also calls it many other things.
Speaker 2 00:31:53 He calls it rules and regulations. He calls it dead works. He c he says, do not touch, do not ta do not handle, you know, or, or special days or special ceremonies. He's talking about the traditions of men. And I just came up with the term. I started using myself and I, I call it church rules because every church has got its own rules and they're different. Some churches allow women to be in ministry, others don't. Some churches you can, you have to dress a certain way. Some churches, women have to wear dresses or, you know, there's so many church rules. And it was the same thing in his day. Now, they were more formal back then, but every church I think we've ever gone to, you could probably name spoken and unspoken rules. I just applied for a job as a ch at a church a few months ago, and I didn't end up applying because I went through it, said divorce people need not apply for this worship position. What? That doesn't disqualify you for anything. In fact, Jesus gave, and Paul gave that there are reasons why a person can be divorced. So what about those reasons? What if someone's wife abandoned 'em? I'm sorry, you can't be a worship pastor, but that's just a church rule they have. So that's what we're talking about here. Casting aside those church culture things that are not grounded and rooted in scripture.
Speaker 3 00:33:18 In fact, uh, you know, the first woman ever saved in the Bible was five, five times divorced <laugh>. Okay? The woman at the vow. So,
Speaker 2 00:33:27 And living with,
Speaker 3 00:33:29 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:33:31 Well, guys, after last week's episode, we, uh, we determined that we would, uh, make these episodes not go quite that long. So I'm gonna ask you if this is a good place to wrap because I think, uh, it it, it shows us the stark contrast between the children of the old covenant and the children of the new. And quite frankly, next week, I'm looking forward to getting into the next book, which is gonna be Galatians chapter five. I I think because the very first verse starts with it is for freedom that Christ sent us free. And I think there, hello, it's gonna be a lot more good things about why being a child of the promise is, uh, so wonderful. But before we leave for this evening, I want to give you guys as always, a chance to wrap up any straight thoughts or summarize any of your thoughts for this evening. So AJ, would you like to go first?
Speaker 3 00:34:22 Yeah. You know, this chapter ends with, so brethren, we are not the children of bond women, but up the free, you know, there is so much freedom in realizing that I have to do nothing. Most of the stress in life comes from I have to do something, right? You wake up in the morning, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do that. And, uh, so much of stress and so much of bondage. And if I don't do this, something will bad, bad will happen, right? So here we are set free, not only from the, um, from, uh, eternal health, right? So we are saved forever, uh, not based on our works, but based on his grace alone through the finished work of our Lord, Christed alone. But even in this life, right? We don't have to live in fear, right?
Speaker 3 00:35:08 You know, we can simply live based on his promise. God promised so many promises for, uh, the children of God, for the believers. So even in this life, you know, we live by the promise. In fact, Peter, it says, right, you know, we partake in the divine nature by the rich promises of God. So our way of life is to simply believe in God's promise and, uh, understand that, you know, we don't make things happen by what we do, it is already done. So we simply trust in the Lord and let the Lord work and then through us.
Speaker 2 00:35:41 Yes, so many people think that Jesus came, that the law came first, and then Christ came to give us a new way. But we just got done learning from Paul here. Know, the promise came before the law came, that covenant of grace was given to Abraham, righteousness, credit to credited to him, be because of his faith. Then the law came, and then Christ came and fulfilled that promise. And I'd like to wrap up here with my fav, my favorite Bible commentary. Our good friend Matthew Henry appearing one more time here. Uh, he said this about Galatians. He said, the law then was not intended to discover another way of justification different from that revealed by the promise, but only to lead men to see their need of the promise by showing them the sinfulness of sin and to point them to Christ through whom alone they could be pardoned and justified.
Speaker 2 00:36:45 And then he summarized by saying, why was the law given then? And then he says, the Apostle Paul answers that question by saying it was added because of transgressions. It was given to convince the world of the necessity of a savior. And it was designed as a school master to bring us to Christ. Well guys, this has been a great conversation tonight. Thanks as always for being here. I'd like to ask our listeners if, uh, if you notice that this is a shorter episode and if that's something you would prefer or if you would prefer we go on with our longer format that we were doing previously, uh, would would love to hear your feedback. So, uh, for myself and Mark and Andjay, we hope you've been blessed and uplifted and encouraged by today's word, and we look forward to talking to you again
Speaker 1 00:37:36 The next time.
Speaker 1 00:37:42 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question, comment on our listener line at 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.
