Imprisoned By The Law

[0:01] You can be turning to the book of Galatians, the book of Galatians, chapter 3, we're making our way through the book of Galatians.

[0:20] I want to start in verse 19. Our text will come from verses 23 to 25, sort of 22 to 25, but 23 to 25. We're in a section where Paul has asked a question, and he's answering that question, and he goes on for a while. Galatians chapter 3, starting in verse 19. Why then the law?

[0:56] It was added because of transgression, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God?

[1:19] Certainly not. For if a man had been given, I'm sorry, if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

[1:40] Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith should be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

[2:04] Let's stop there today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage.

[2:17] We thank you for the work that you've done, and what you've revealed about that work as we've looked at this passage. I pray that you would be with us. Lord, one of the important things that we can do is to have a good and right and proper understanding of the law. And I thank you that this situation came up in Galatia. I mean, many things were not good about it, but I thank you that Paul wrote these words inspired by the Spirit for us to be able to look at. And this passage gives us much to consider in relation to our thinking about the law. I pray that you would be with us. Lord, help us to have a right attitude about the law. Help us to be thankful where we need to be thankful. Help us to be cautious where we need to be cautious. And pray that you would be with us and give us a right understanding of the law and what you were doing. And may it fill us with praise and rejoicing. May we also be encouraged to use it lawfully. And Lord, I pray that you would be with us and that your Spirit would give wisdom and understanding today. In Jesus' name, amen.

[3:35] We're making our way through the book of Galatians, and not to go back through the whole thing, but just to mention that last time we saw that Paul began this section by asking the same question that I began reading with.

[3:48] Why then the law? Now he asked that question because a group of people had come to Galatia. They'd actually been to Antioch and other places first, but they'd come to Galatia and had told these Galatian Christians that they weren't quite good enough trusting Christ as Savior. They had to also keep the law.

[4:09] And so Paul's begun this trek through giving people this understanding of what the law was really for. And even as I was singing today, I thought, well, you know, we need to be careful because as we're going through Galatians, we can look at the law as something that's awful.

[4:30] And that is not the case with the law. The law is not something awful. Now, it's made life hard or impossible at times, but we must have the right perspective of the law.

[4:45] In fact, when I get, when we get done today, I hope that it is part of our rejoicing to see what the law has done and what it's done for you and I as we're trusting Christ as Savior.

[5:00] We ought to be rejoicing in the law. All right. Keep this thinking in the back of your mind. You go to Psalm 119 and it's 176 verses of the psalmist saying how he loves God's law and how it's his meditation all the day.

[5:17] It's not wicked. It's not awful. But it does have a purpose. And what had happened in Galatia was that some people began to try to use the law for the wrong purpose.

[5:31] The law was given to show all people everywhere that they are sinners. And we've talked about that. We talked a lot about it last time. The law was given to show all people everywhere that we're sinners.

[5:46] And it also pointed out that no one can escape that knowledge. And God made it that way so that we could end up coming to Christ.

[5:57] Now, we'll get into that more and we'll make application to that at the end. That's going to be the thing that we need to rejoice in when it comes to the law. That God used the law to point us to Christ.

[6:11] So, in our text today, verse 23, Now before faith came. I don't want to stop there or start there. Before faith came. What's he talking about here?

[6:21] Now, I'm not going to be one of those guys who tries to give you the definition and the meaning of every word and spend a week on every word. But I think it's good for us to stop and look at this four-word phrase before we get going.

[6:35] Now, before faith came. What is he referencing there? As I read and read and read this week, this week, I really saw two streams that I think he was referring to.

[6:47] And as I went to looking at what some other people were talking about or saw in this, I saw that they saw the same thing. There are two streams in this that will bear out as we go along.

[7:02] Now, when Paul asks the question or makes the statement, before faith came, he is not saying that people were not saved by faith in the Old Testament.

[7:13] Someone could take that phrase and say, before faith came. And in their mind, they would say, okay, faith, that came when Christ died. And there's a good link there that we'll make in just a minute.

[7:24] But people could make that connection and say, okay, before Christ came, there was no faith. There was no being saved by faith. In fact, I was very much involved for many years in a whole system of eschatology that basically said there was no faith before Christ came.

[7:48] People were, this is not true, but people were saved by keeping the law in the Old Testament. And where they messed up, they did the sacrifices, but they were saved by keeping the law.

[7:58] They would go to heaven because they kept the law and did the sacrifices when they messed up. And that's not the truth. This is not saying that people were not saved by faith in the Old Testament.

[8:16] It was this very thought, it's in Romans that I saw it, and actually as we look more in chapter four of Galatians that I saw this, that brought me out of this thinking.

[8:28] And that was the simple fact that there were many people saved in the Old Testament. And what really began to convince me was Paul's treatment in Romans and Paul's treatment in Galatians that Abraham was saved by faith looking to the one who would come.

[8:46] So he wasn't saved by works. And so I began to think, oh, wow, maybe there was faith. Faith for salvation.

[8:58] Now people believed God in the Old Testament, believed promises about different things. But I was thinking at the time, and I wasn't alone, there is a great majority of American Christians who think this way, that, oh, there was no faith back there.

[9:14] But Abraham was saved by faith. In fact, if you go to Hebrews chapter 11, you're going to find a whole lot of Old Testament saints that were saved by faith.

[9:26] It wasn't that they kept the law and where they messed up, they did the sacrifices. These people were looking to the one who would come to die for their sins. So there were many people saved in the Old Testament and we're not saying that faith came only when Christ came.

[9:45] So, now, before faith came, that phrase, I think, refers to two aspects. In Paul's writing here, first of all, he's equating that word faith with the time, the work of Christ, when Christ came in time to do his work.

[10:07] When faith came, in one sense, he's equating that to when Christ came in time to do his work. It is the focal point of history.

[10:19] Christ came in time to do his work. He came, he was born of a virgin, he lived, he, and obeyed the Father, he suffered at the hands of men, he suffered on the cross, he suffered the wrath of God, he died, he was buried, he rose from the dead, and he ascended to heaven to provide salvation.

[10:43] When Paul says, when faith came, that is part of what he's talking about. He's talking about what Jesus did on earth in a body for us.

[10:55] He's referring to how God worked in and through the nation of Israel to provide a redeemer. Christ came, you know, is the fruit of all those prophecies, all the things that God promised different people in Israel, even before the nation of Israel, promised Abraham, promised all the Old Testament saints in the nation of Israel, the prophets, all these pointed to Christ.

[11:20] And it was the time when faith came. And I want you to remember that, that this is the focal point of history. So, faith came, when you're referring it to Christ, to one specific spot in history, we look back to that spot.

[11:43] But the thing is, and this is what my previous eschatology messed up, the thing is, those in the Old Testament weren't without hope, they looked forward to that spot.

[11:58] So don't think of it as a beginning that didn't have any ramifications to the time before. it was that which affected all of time. Remember, as Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and God came to them, He says, I will crush the serpent's head by the seed of the woman.

[12:16] And it was a promise that they could look forward to someone who would provide salvation. And, you know, when Eve had the first child, Cain, she said something to the effect, maybe this is the one.

[12:32] not, this is the family, this is the nation, this is the one. And so, she was looking for an individual seed, a person who would come to pay for their sin.

[12:46] And so, one aspect of saying, now before faith came, refers to this point in history, the life on earth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the work that He did in being born, living, dying, buried, raised again, and ascended in heaven for us.

[13:03] So that's part of the word of faith. Now, the second thing that Paul's referring to is equating the word faith with a Christian's coming to trust the works of Christ for salvation.

[13:18] So there's this one sense when he's talking about the realm of the world. Now, before faith came, in the realm of the world, now he also, and you can see that borne out as he gets into this, you can see both of them as he goes through the text, you can see that there's also this aspect of a personal situation.

[13:41] Before faith came, there was a time, if you know, you're trusting Christ as Savior, there was a time in your life where you could say before faith came, before you were trusting in what Christ had done.

[13:54] there was a time in my life when I could say it was before faith came. I was 12 years old, I remember, I don't remember the date, but I was, I remembered wrestling and wrestling and wrestling and God bringing me to that point of trusting him and I can look back and say, now not everybody can look back and see a day or a moment.

[14:17] Some of us were raised in Christians' homes and heard the gospel and we just trusted. it was like the natural thing to do. Now there still was the matter of faith, but some of us can't look to a particular point.

[14:32] So when he's referring to before faith came, he's talking about what happens in a person's life before God moves to bring them to himself. So Paul is saying that before each of us was saved, God used, I'm giving away a little bit of where we're going, but it'll help make sense.

[14:51] So Paul is saying that before each of us were saved, God used the law in a way that he's about to illustrate. God used the law before you came to faith in Christ for a specific purpose and that's what we're going to get into more.

[15:07] So we'll say this this way, before God saves his people, he uses his law in them and that's a true statement. It's true of everyone who has ever lived, even those from the Garden of Eden until Moses received the law.

[15:28] All of those people, God used the law of God in their heart to bring them to a point where they knew they needed a Savior.

[15:41] Before you were saved, God used his law to work in your heart. Now, going back to verse 23, now before faith came, we were held captive under the law.

[15:52] So the law held us captive. Now we dealt with this a little bit as we looked at verse 22 and that's why I said, you know, sort of, verse 22. Verse 22, the law makes us to know that we're all sinners.

[16:07] Verse 23, we're held captive in that. We can't escape it. Now, none of us wanted to escape it, Romans 3 says, but none of us could escape it.

[16:19] None of us could do anything that would make ourselves good enough before God that God would say, hey, you know, you're doing all right. I think I'll let you into heaven. And that's not what happens.

[16:31] So, he says here that we were held captive. Now again, there are two streams here. I want to be careful to make sure remember to say both of these.

[16:43] There are two streams. Let's go to the Israel stream, and then we'll go to the personal stream, even though I've dabbled in the personal stream already. How the law relates to Israel. Now, Israel, they had a covenant to keep.

[16:58] They had a covenant to keep the moral, ceremonial, and civil law. Remember, they came to Mount Sinai. God gave the moral law verbally, and it made them terrified.

[17:13] And they said, Moses, you go talk to God, we're afraid. And God talks with Moses, and makes a covenant with them, and establishes his law, and gives the civil and the ceremonial law there on the mountain, which is just an outworking of the moral law.

[17:32] But more than that, it was part of a covenant that God made with Israel at that time. Israel was put into this covenant. They were obligated to keep it.

[17:46] And there were blessings and cursings. We talked about that a little bit ago in Galatians. When they kept it, they were blessed. When they failed to keep it, they came under the curses or the judgments of that law.

[17:59] So, Israel was under that law. They were held captive to that law. They were put in covenant to that law.

[18:10] And they failed miserably. If you read through the Old Testament, you'll find that they spent most of their existence under the judgment of God. I mean, you start in the end of Joshua, and you start to see it badly.

[18:23] I mean, you'll see it before Mount Sinai, but just speaking from Mount Sinai on, you'll see it in the book of Joshua. And then the book of Judges, it just blows up. I mean, they serve the Lord for a little bit, and then they start to get lax, and they serve the gods of the nations around, and God brings judgment, and they'll suffer under judgment for 10, 20, 30, 40, whatever years, and then God will raise up a deliverer, and God delivers them, and what do they do 10, 15, 20 years later?

[18:53] As soon as that judge dies, they go right back to it. And so, they failed miserably. They spent most of their existence under the judgment of the law. In fact, ultimately, they came in, oh, I'm forgetting the first date, so I won't say the second date, the two deportings of, first of all, Israel, and then Judah.

[19:15] That was exactly because they were under a covenant of law that they failed to keep, and they were taken into captivity because of it. but they were kept in that covenant until Christ came.

[19:29] And there was particular reason for that. It was so that Christ did come. He was to be of Abraham's seed, and then Isaac's seed, and then Jacob's seed, and eventually Judah's seed, and then David's seed.

[19:51] And he would come and be that one, that seed, who would die for them. They were in that covenant so that that took place.

[20:02] But they just kept failing, and failing, and failing. And in the midst of being in that covenant that would provide a redeemer, a Messiah, the law that they were bound in, pointed to the fact that they needed something far beyond the Ten Commandments.

[20:24] They needed that seed, that one who would come and fulfill the promises. What he would do is he would take that covenant upon himself, and he would live in perfect obedience to that covenant.

[20:36] Having been born without sin, lived without sin, died an obedient death of awfulness before God, in obedience to God for our sin, and then was buried and raised again.

[20:49] And so, that Mosaic covenant was there, Israel was held captive under the law, so that there might be a seed.

[21:03] But, again, we have two avenues here. We have Israel, and we have us. How does the law relate to us? How does that relate to God's people?

[21:14] How does it work? How does the law relate to the work of Christ in people's hearts? Well, all mankind is held captive to the law of God.

[21:28] We saw that in verse 22. Because we are the creation of God, we're in subjection to God, and God is holy, and we've broken his commandment, and so, we are under the curses of that law, and we're held captive to that.

[21:42] All of mankind there, in this earth, is held captive to that covenant. No one can escape being held captive to the law of God. No one in this world.

[21:55] That captivity is to point to our sinfulness, and our need of the Savior. That captivity to the law is to witness to every single person alive.

[22:09] You're a sinner, and you need a Savior. No one can escape it. Everyone is held captive to that law. But now, in verse 23, let me read part of the verse again.

[22:21] Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith should be revealed. Christian, you and I, before we knew Christ, we're held captive to the law.

[22:42] It is what told us we needed Christ. God, in His mercy, kept us in prison under the guardianship of the law. Oops, I'm mixing my terms.

[22:52] Can't go there. God kept us in prison under the law. It's the law that kept us hemmed in, saying, you need a Savior. You're sinful. You need someone to take your place.

[23:05] And so, then, Paul goes on to talk about this guardian. So, he's further explaining the situation. He says, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed, so then, the law was our guardian until Christ came.

[23:25] Okay, so he's changing the illustration a little bit. We were in prison. There was no escape. Never, ever, ever were we going to get out of the judgment that we deserved.

[23:36] He's changing the illustration to talk about how the law was our guardian. And, what's a guardian? Now, first thing you need to do is, I love the King James.

[23:48] Okay, it's a great translation. I learned it. I learned this verse. I memorized this verse in the King James. And I will often mistakenly use the word schoolmaster.

[24:00] We need to erase that word schoolmaster from our vocabulary when it comes to what Paul's talking about here. Because, we tend to think of a schoolmaster as someone who teaches.

[24:15] Really, a schoolmaster is not that, but that's what we think of. Okay? I think the ESV uses a good term. Other ones use a good term. It uses the term guardian.

[24:28] The guardian is not a teacher. Now, another place people get confused is the Greek word. The Greek word is pedagogos. In modern terms, pedagog is the right, you know, it's the word that goes with that Greek word.

[24:44] And, in our thinking, pedagog is someone who teaches. Does a little more of the teaching, but is someone who teaches. Teaches a child to get him to where he needs to go.

[24:55] Now, that's not what the pedagogue is here in Galatians. A pedagogue in the New Testament times is better described by the word guardian.

[25:09] So, what's a pedagogue? What's a guardian? We'll just keep using that word guardian because I don't like trying to say the other word. A guardian is a slave. He was owned by the owner of the house.

[25:22] He was in submission to the owner of the house. And, he was a slave assigned to a child. I've heard references to one slave assigned to several children.

[25:34] I've heard to one slave assigned to one child. I kind of think it makes more sense one slave assigned to one child, probably the oldest child, because of the responsibility he would assume in his life.

[25:49] So, a guardian was a slave assigned by the parent to be in charge of a child. That, and, and, and, from what I hear there are pictures, not many, but a few pictures of guardians that have survived and they usually have a rod in their hand.

[26:11] And, this, this guardian was to discipline a child carrying a rod. this guardian would walk around with that child everywhere he went.

[26:23] It was to never leave him out of his sight while he was on duty. And, that guardian was to carry this rod. He was to, he was instructed by the father as to how the child was to live, what the child was to do, what he, where he was to go, where he was to be, what he, what responsibilities he had.

[26:39] And, so this guardian would follow this child everywhere. Make sure he got to school on time. Make sure he was home on time. made sure he was hanging out with the right people. Making sure he was not hanging out with the wrong people.

[26:52] He had this job of focusing that child to do what is right. And, if he didn't, the rod was not for show. The disciplinarian, the, the, the guardian was someone who was often hated by children.

[27:12] Because, it was not his, his intent to be the child's buddy. He was not the child's friend. He was not the child's confidant. At least not while he was young.

[27:26] And, the children usually got to hate the guardian. So, come back to our two streams. How was the law a guardian to Israel?

[27:39] Well, I've sort of given an illustration to this already. It disciplined Israel. It disciplined the people of Israel. You know, as they sinned, they knew, oh, I've broken the Sabbath.

[27:52] And, that person could be disciplined. Physically disciplined. The first guy that broke the Sabbath after, or soon after it was given, what happened to him? He was stoned for breaking the Sabbath.

[28:07] But, not every time did that happen. But, people were judged by the law, personally. And, it showed, the law showed Israel their sins.

[28:18] And, it required judgment for people's trespasses. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And, often, as I mentioned, there would be corporal punishment for sin.

[28:28] Sometimes, stripes. Sometimes, stoning. And, when a person broke the law, the law required atonement, required payment.

[28:45] And, the law was a guardian to keep the people of Israel individually to follow the Lord. Now, as a nation, the same thing happened.

[28:57] the law was a guardian to the nation of Israel. It showed the nation of Israel where it needed to go, who it needed to steer away from, who it needed to not have any part with, what it needed to do as a nation.

[29:12] And, God taught the nation and expected her to obey his law and carry out his commands. It was meant to make sure Israel was ready for the time of the Messiah.

[29:31] Well, that's, that's the nation. What about people? Especially thinking of, I'm going to say people of us today, but I'm, I'm actually including in saying what I'm about to say.

[29:44] I'm including it in everybody from the cross forward. but I'm also including it for everybody from the cross backward who trusted Christ as Savior.

[29:56] Okay? So, the law is a guardian of people today. God gave the law to show you and me our sin and our need of the Savior.

[30:09] It shows us the hopelessness of any other way of salvation. It shows us what God expects and requires.

[30:21] It's meant to make sure that people are ready to meet the Messiah. Now, if you weren't, and I didn't make this clear and I apologize, if you weren't thinking through this you might, might, might have thought, oh yeah, that's what the law does now.

[30:39] I'm speaking out before we come to Christ. The law is meant to show us that we need Christ. That we've needed Christ. Christ. And so, it's a good thing.

[30:52] We'll make more of that in just a minute. He goes on though. We've got to keep this balanced perspective in verse 25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

[31:07] Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. How has faith come? Okay, two ways. faith has come and that Christ has come and accomplished his work.

[31:21] It's done. Christ died. Sin's paid for. And so, faith has come and that Christ has come. But faith is continuing to come in each person who is trusting Christ as Savior.

[31:38] See, you and I, before we knew Christ, were under the law. We were imprisoned under the law and its purpose was to point us to Christ. And the guardian was there to discipline us.

[31:51] Hey, that way. God wants you to go that way. That way. There's someone up front you need to see. There's someone you need to trust. That's what the law has done.

[32:03] But when faith has come, we no longer are under a guardian. Now, we're not going to get into a lot of it here, but let me just mention the Mosaic Covenant is done away with because of the work of Christ.

[32:17] I say that. I want you to be careful. It's not that there's never any law, but the civil and ceremonial and the nation covenant that they were under, that's done.

[32:32] That's gone. Because the seed has come. So the ceremonial obligations are fulfilled in Christ, we don't need to do them.

[32:43] The civil obligations are fulfilled in Christ, we don't need to do those. The people of Israel are no longer under a guardian. And how that all works out in today's land, that's quite a thought.

[32:58] But you and I, in our personal walk, once we've come to know Christ, we're free from having to keep the law to be accepted in Christ.

[33:10] Let me say that again. We're free from having to keep the law to be accepted in Christ. Now, I'll qualify that in just a second. If I break the law, God's law, as one who's trusting in Christ, what do I do with my sin?

[33:31] What's already dealt with? He was already placed on Christ. if I'm trusting Christ, and that's where we're going to go, we're going to start talking a lot about union with Christ, being in Christ, all that sin is dealt with.

[33:46] We're free from having to keep the law to be accepted in Christ. But the law has good purposes that we'll talk about as we go further. So, I want to just give some reasons to praise the Lord and some things to challenge us.

[34:04] First of all, praise God that he imprisoned Israel under the law. Praise God he used, he imprisoned Israel under the law and used it as a guardian to bring his work in maturity, in Israel to maturity.

[34:24] Think through that for a second. Praise God that he imprisoned Israel under the law. Why? Because we have Christ. We have Christ because he imprisoned Israel under the law.

[34:43] Yes, that meant that some in Israel would come to faith and they did. That has always been the case. But it also meant that Israel would fulfill its purpose of being the people through whom the Messiah would come.

[34:58] The promised seed would come. God imprisoned Israel under the law and guarded her until Christ should come. So, you and I should be thankful.

[35:11] I wouldn't have wanted to live under that covenant. I wouldn't want it of it at all. But God wasn't being cruel. God wasn't being sadomasticistic.

[35:24] He was being gracious because what they did, what they were under, provided a Messiah for us, for them and for us.

[35:37] so we should rejoice in that. One of the most loving things a parent can do is bring their children up in the fear and abomination of the Lord. God has shown his great love for us in imprisoning us under his law.

[35:56] Don't we look around at kids who have no limits, who have no standards, who have no jurisdiction, and say, oh, those poor kids.

[36:08] Because they grow up to be brats. Okay, we'll just say it. And they have no regard for the law, and their life often ends in ruins.

[36:22] And people might say, oh, why did God give us that law? Why couldn't we be free? Praise God he gave us that law. He imprisoned us under his law.

[36:35] Like the apostle said in Romans 7, how would I have known covening if the law had not said thou shall not covet. Without the law we would still be dead in trespasses and sin, but we wouldn't know it.

[36:50] We'd be on our way to hell without an inkling of an idea. We would have gone to the grave and to judgment without knowing that we had offended a holy God.

[37:03] But God in his love bound us under the law, imprisoned us under the law. Even more, the goodness of God has been that we're not only imprisoned under the law, God uses us as a guardian in our lives to bring us to the point of knowing our sin and our need.

[37:24] Do you remember the days before, again, please don't feel bad, if you don't remember the day of your salvation, you don't remember praying a prayer, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but you'll understand what I'm going with this.

[37:38] I remember as a 10 year old first hearing the gospel and thinking, I'm in trouble. I remember each time, I only took the Lord's name a few times in vain, in the way that we really normally say in vain, as a child, before I was saved.

[38:00] God and I remember the fear and terror and God used that. He worked in my heart to where I realized, I'm in trouble, I need Christ.

[38:15] God has been so good to put us in that situation and work situations and events so that we come to the point where we're ready to come to Christ.

[38:26] Christ. So Christian, be thankful for the law. Always remember that you are free from the law for salvation, but the law has been that which brought you to see your need.

[38:41] It's that that points to your sin and shows you you need a Savior. And the law instructs you on how to love, since you have been saved, instructs you on how to love the Lord your God, and what you should do out of love for the Lord your God.

[39:01] So the law is beautiful. Just got to keep it where it's supposed to be, and let it do what it's supposed to do. And one of the things it should do is to fill your mouth with praise, because God's been merciful to you.

[39:19] Now, I've been speaking to Christians, and friend, if you're here and you don't know Christ, do you hear the law of God? What's it telling you about yourself? Do you hear, thou shalt not covent, and realize, I've done that.

[39:37] Oh, my situation before God is not very good. Have you seen from the law of God what God says about you?

[39:48] there's there's only one remedy. The one who came sinlessly, lived a perfect life, suffered in our place, died in our place, was buried, rose again, and ascended for us.

[40:05] We need to trust somebody else's righteousness, somebody else's provision of righteousness, and Christ has done it, and he's offered it to you. You just must trust in that righteousness for your salvation.

[40:19] I encourage you to do that today. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your law. I thank you for what you've put there.

[40:32] I thank you for what you used it to do in history. I thank you for what you used it to do in our lives as Christians. Thank you for how our Savior fulfilled that law.

[40:45] Thank you that now we can look at that law with joy and thankfulness for what Christ has done and for how you've been gracious to us. Thank you that we can look at that law and say, that tells me how I can love God.

[40:57] That tells me how I can love my neighbor. Thank you, Father, for the law. I pray that you would be with us. Help us to be people who rejoice in that.

[41:09] I pray that you would be with the one or five or ten or however many today who are still wrestling. The law says thou shall not and we say or they say don't tell me what to do.

[41:24] I pray that you would make the guardian to focus ever more that person's heart and life towards their real need. Their need of their sin being dealt with and the provision that's in Christ Jesus.

[41:39] pray your blessing in Jesus name. Amen. We're going to sing 455. Our brother Aaron is going to come and lead and can it be.

[41:53] I'm going to change for the baptism. I want you to think through and can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood. Died he for me who caused his pain through him I might have the work that he's done.

[42:09] All right. Go ahead and come up Abby. I will get changed. 55. Let's stand together as we sing that. There you are. and tell me that I should gain when it exists in my Savior's blood.

[42:45] die he for me who lost his pain for me to live to death pursue.

[42:59] Amazing love how can it be that thou my heart should die for me.

[43:11] Amazing love love how can it be that thou my God choose side for me.

[43:26] Tis mystery all in mortal dies who can explore his strange desire.

[43:38] He made the first born sacrifice to sound the depths of all divine.

[43:52] His mercy all ever adore. Let the angels mind in fire no more.

[44:05] Amazing love love love gave me that my God choose side for me.

[44:20] He left his father's throne above so free so infinite in his grace.

[44:33] Humble himself so great his love and led for all his chosen race.

[44:47] His mercy all immense and free for all my God in God help me.

[44:59] Amazing love God and God can in me help thou my God choose side for me.

[45:14] On my prison spirit lay fast found in sin and nature's mind.

[45:28] I I defused a quickly breath I woke the dungeon flamed with fire My chains fell off my heart was free I rose went forth and followed me Amazing love how can have made me and died now my God choose die for me No condemnation thou my friend Jesus and all in him is mine abide in him my living head and flow in righteousness divine

[46:39] Oh I approach eternal throne and create the crown through Christ my own God go have me water групп into theamt一 together nàoカ電 and save money and guard the heart to the Lord came from the name01 another cinq