Transcript for:
Galations 3:23,29 -In Christ- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-09-21

Galatians three twenty three through 29. And would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us under Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Father, thank you once again that you're God who keeps his promises. Lord, 100% accuracy, 100% fulfillment, the immutability of your character, Lord, that it's impossible for you to lie. And Lord, we are hoping in you. We are placing our hope and trust in you just as as Anna and Simeon were waiting for the consolation of Israel. They're waiting for the Messiah to come in in fifteen hundred years from the giving of the law. And Lord, and you came in your first advent. Those who are waiting, those who are aware, those who are, in the know, students of prophecy, they could see. They they just anticipated. And even the the wise men came from Babylon, Lord. They they saw your star, the star of Bethlehem, and they were watching. They were waiting. They wanted to know and see the king of the Jews in your first advent. And Lord, now we're at the end of the age, and Lord, we're looking for your soon return, your second coming. And Lord, we pray that as we're students of prophecy, that Lord, that we would get those insights, connect in the dots, and be aware, be watching, be ready, and be able to give an answer to everybody of the hope that's within us, Lord, with meekness and with fear as people lose hope. So bless the scripture. Bless as you teach us, Lord. You're a teacher. Open our hearts, our minds, and and and fill us to overflowing with your love, Lord, that we could go forth with your love, that we'd counteract the hatred and the evil with love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright. Would you please be seated? So Paul has shown the historical significance of God giving the promise, to Abraham and the law to Moses. And so his argument of justification and sanctification by grace through faith alone, proven historically, now becomes personal. So now he looks at it from a personal standpoint. He now describes what it means to be, in our term here, in Christ. It's a very important term, one you wanna underline, one one you wanna get to know in the book of Ephesians all through the New Testament to be in Christ. A picture of it might be, with Noah, if you're if you're in the ark, if you're in the boat, if you're in Christ, you're gonna be saved. Judgment's coming. God's gonna pour out his wrath, but if you're in Christ, you're safe. Eight people got in that ark. Hundred and twenty years in the building of that ark, to maybe a billion people upon the planet, estimated with how long they they lived and all, and yet only eight people got in the boat. The animals were smart enough to get in the boat, but the people perished because they weren't in Christ. The most important decision you're gonna make here forward, you probably already made it, is to be in Christ. You don't wanna be outside of Christ, you don't wanna be outside of the ark. When that door shut, it's too late. It's appointed unto all men once to die, and then the judgment. No reincarnation, no annihilation, no being prayed out of purgatory, there is no purgatory. You have this time right now, as your cognizant, as you're aware, to make a decision of whether you want to be in Christ or outside of Christ. You and I, we we're comforted knowing we're in the in. We're in. We're in the in crowd. I didn't get invited today to Glendale, Arizona. I'm not in that club, but I'm in Christ Jesus. And my name's in the lamb's book of life, and so is yours. And so we can rejoice in knowing that it's not our idea that before the foundation of the earth, Jesus is a lamb that was slain, you know? It's it's God's idea to save you and I. It's his die desire to woo you and draw you and to bring you to that place where you're in Christ. You go insane trying to resist the holy spirit, to try and try and, reject Christ. And so to go from darkness to life, from death to life, from prison to the palace, from an orphan to a son, from poverty to riches. That's what it means to be in Christ. So three blessings we wanna see this morning of being in Christ. Number one is freedom. The blessing of freedom. The law was brought you into a place of bondage. You were kept. You were kept there. And then also the means of a schoolmaster will see. And so verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So before faith came, before faith in Jesus Christ came in our lives individually, we were kept. We were kept by the law. We saw the 10 commandments. We we knew with our conscience, you know, that of being right and wrong. We also had the 613 precepts of Mosaic law. We've grown up in a community, and that Charlie Kirk was real, you know, adept in doing this, of combining our Judeo Christian ethic and teaching people concerning the constitution and using morals and ethics and such, but also the scriptures to try and convince people and show people to argue, debate with people of, who we are as Americans. And we as Americans have the privilege of, the bible, the privilege of the old and the new testament, and our our system of government, our culture, western culture being built upon the mosaic law and the new testament. And, we might be drifting away and becoming more and more secular, but, there there was a point of a a turning point of people being turned back onto God, turned back to the roots of the founding of our country and such. And, and that's a very important, very very important distinction. We don't want to, be lukewarm, lazy, and different and watch Sharia law be implemented in our communities. That's not who we are. We are a Judeo Christian culture built upon the word of God. The very first curriculum in the public school system was commissioned by our own US government, the bible. Schools had the bible, and you would take the children through the Bible. And and the meeting place of many church of many of the of the school, like on Little House On The Prairie, was was, in the in the, in the church. The church was used during the week as a schoolhouse, you know, for the children in many small communities and all. The most prominent buildings in communities were churches before the bankers took over. Most prominent buildings now in cities are the bank buildings, you know? And, but we don't need a big building, we just need to recognize a big God, you know, and as he changes us from within. And so before we believe, before being in Christ, we were in prison. We were in bondage. We're under the law. That word kept means to protect by military guards. So the law is protecting you and I before faith comes. And so my little Brittany, my daughter Brittany, who's not little anymore but seven kids of her own, one of the things that, just really strikes me about her is we were living in a house where, there was a road out in front that was a pretty busy road, and, her little friend came home, and the mommy pulled her jeep into the driveway across the street, and Britney fixated on this little friend of hers across the street, and she began to run to her. And I had my cleaning truck parked out front, and there was a big suburban that was coming down the road, and they couldn't see her. And she went out into the street, and I'm screaming, I can't get there in time. Right? And fortunately, the guy saw her, and I I I can still see his the shocks on his old Suburban, you know, move forward in it breaking. The mom and the dad in the truck, their eyes were wide open like they couldn't believe it. And and Brittany knew the rules. You don't go into the street. You don't go into the street. But kids, you know, when they're little, it can happen in a fraction of a second. So I ran out there and I grabbed her, and and and I began to spank her little bottom and tried to bring enough attention to what she had done wrong so that she'd never do it again. And so I wanted to keep her by the law. I wanted to try and keep her protected by the rules and the law so that later when she's older, as she's making her own decisions, she knows not to go out into the, you know, into the street. And so that's one of the usage of the law is to keep us from harm, to keep us from hurting ourselves. And God, if need be, will put a garrison of of soldiers, of even angels around us, is the picture here, to protect by military guards, to hold in custody. Many a many a young person that violates the laws, that gets into drugging and drinking and causing trouble, you know, and the parents can't control them anymore, they wind up being put in custody. And their lives are saved because of a jail cell, because they get sober while they're in jail. And then they begin to as they are sober, and they begin to get the help they need, but it's the law that rescued them and brought them into a place of custody until they come to the place where they can walk by faith and and walk in, you know, in that newness of life. When you're in Christ, you don't need the law to be around you so much because you're like Joseph in that your relationship, your vertical relationship with God is such that that relationship is is sweet and intimate, and you don't want to violate his law. You're living a life to please him. So if Potiphar's wife makes advances at you when you're 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, and she says, lie with me, lie with me, there's nobody around to enforce the law upon you. You're living in a culture where it's it's acceptable. Nobody's gonna get mad at you except mister Potiphar, you know, if he catches you. But what held Joseph back from indulging himself? Just if it feels good, do it. You know? Have it your way at Burger King. He said, how could I do this great evil against God? So in his formative years, his younger years, he's learning the Old Testament. He's learning God's requirements of what marriage is and all. But now when he's free, when he's older, it's by faith. It's his faith in God that keeps him in check, that keeps him safe. And that's the intention of all, is just keep us safe. It's it's like the warning on a on a thing poison, you know? You try and put those things under the kitchen cupboard and all, and you put locks on the door, and you're trying to keep the kids from, you know, getting past those locks and drinking something, doing something that would be, you know, detrimental, be harmful to their health and all. So we put warning labels on there. Warning. Warning. And if you're really old you remember the robot show when you're really old, lost in space? Warning. Warning. Warning. You know? And, that's if you're really old, you know? But you can go back in the way back machine and check that out. Warning. And so we need those kind of alarms to go off sometimes. So every way of escape is blocked. You can't get away. You're under siege. And many many kids feel like they're under siege. They feel like, I can't get out of this house. I can't go anywhere on my own with my friends, my teenage friends. You you get that you get that license, you get that car, you're man, what freedom. Incredible freedom, you know? And, my mom, when I got my license, she let me drive her car, she says, alright. You can drive the car, but only over here. You don't go across Wintergreen and go over to your friend John's house or whatever. The first place I went was over to John's house besides the dirt roads trying to roll that get that car to shake in the back and everything. And, and I went over to John's house, my friend, and and it was raining, I couldn't see, and he lives in an avocado orchard. And I went up the driveway and went like this, and then when it came time to leave, I tried to go like that to back out, and there's a tree there, and I hit the tree. And, so when I got home, my mom and dad are there, and they said, oh, you know, how many how many dents did you put in that car? And I said, just one. And my mom's looking at me, boy, if you did, if you did. And then I said, well, I did. And went out there, and there's a dent in her car. My dad was laughing, and I thought, well, I don't know where I'm going with this, but, but I know I'm in trouble, I don't know how bad. And then he took a two by four, pulled the battery out, he's tapping, but he's laughing. My dad was laughing. He thought it was funny, but my mom didn't think it was funny. So you lose your privileges. You lose your privileges when you violate the rules, you know? You're gonna be walking again. And and so but when you get your own car, when you work and get your job and get your own car, tremendous tremendous freedom. Are you equipped to handle that freedom? Can you handle the power? Can you handle, that freedom? Hopefully, you've been tutelaged. You've received the teaching under the law, the instruction that are necessary to protect you and to help you, not hurt yourself and those around you, when you come of age. So until faith came, you were kept. You were you were kept in this place. You were shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So the law had a preliminary function of imprisonment and condemnation until faith came. And so, we raise our children in our homes if we're if we're Christians, and we read the book of Proverbs, and we look at the book of Ephesians, you know, spare the rod, spoil the child. And, you know, if you love your kids, you're going to you're gonna chasten them. Hebrews 12 says, whom the Lord loves, he chasten and scourges every son or daughter. The only ones that don't receive chastening are people that aren't your sons. So if you are disobedient to God right now, and you're being chastened, that's good news. You truly are in Christ. You're truly a child of God. If you're getting away with your sin, and there's no chastening, that's an indicator you're not a child of God. That's an indicator that you're none of his. And so, that's one of the ways we we evaluate whether a person's in Christ or not. Sometimes people call and they'll say, hey, I got a loved one or, you know, they backslid, they left their wife, they're they're in a illicit relationship and all, and I'll how you know, were they ever saved? You know, did they lose their salvation? And and I'll say basically, well, you know, are they being chastened? Are they happy in their sin? They getting away with their sin and happy, elated, enjoying their sin, or are they miserable? Are they miserable in their sin? If they're miserable in their sin, that's an indicator God's chasing them. He's not letting them sleep at night. He's not letting them get away with it. If people claim to be Christians and then talk about their significant other, you've got to question their profession of faith. Because how could you be living with somebody as a Christian outside of marriage and act like that's God's will? If you are at peace with that, that's an indicator you are not a child of God. Because the Holy Spirit's job is to convict you of sin. It's not good for you. It's not good for your family members or people around you to engage in that way. And yet, we have our churches filled with people, and the pastor can't talk about it because he wants his church to grow. He not only he not only can't talk about adultery between men and women, he certainly can't talk about homosexuality, lesbian, and transgenderism. That's hate speech today. And even even the people that are married will get up and leave because they've been dummy down and taught that, you know what, it's love. So redefinition of love is ex you know, existential humanism. If it feels good, do it. And every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. And so we don't want that little leaven to leaven the whole lump. So we have to address the poison. We have to address the aberrant behavior and cut it out, stop it, keep it from permeating everybody's heart and mind because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Pretty soon our kids are growing up and they're saying, you know, the example of marriage that I saw is blah blah blah blah, my mom's married seven times. What do I think about marriage? You know? Fortunately, Cathy and I, Jesus is the glue that's held us together because we'd I'd be in multiple relationships if it weren't for Jesus. I mean, she's just an amazing amazing amazing person that the Lord's given me, only one that could put up with me, but it's it's it's the Lord. It's Jesus. He's the one that keeps us, protects us, speaks to us, brings us to that place where we can say we're sorry. Please forgive me. You know, those are things prideful people just can't do. And so we we know the breaking, we know the emptying of self, we know what it is to die to self as husbands and as wives, focusing upon the Lord. And all that comes because there's an internal change within our heart, not the external forcing me. I'm not forced to love Kathy. There's an internal change within my heart when faith came, when God revealed himself to me, and somebody asked me, well, what's the proof of of me, you know, having the holy spirit? Somebody, emailed me this week. And, how do I know? I've been baptized recently, and how do I know if I have the holy spirit now? And I wrote back, and I says, well, if you start to see new hair growing on your head, you're filled with the spirit. And then I let it go for a day, just because I'm a knucklehead. And then I wrote back the next day, I says, well, really, really, the fruit of the spirit is love. If God has filled your heart with love, then you're filled with the holy spirit. Do you remember what it was like to love before the holy spirit filled your heart? It was more of a conditional love, wasn't it? It was I mean, e even those in prison love one another. Right? Criminals love other criminals if everybody's working together doing what they're supposed to, but you cross one. But we as Christians, we're actually able to love our enemies now. We're actually able to love people that mistreat us and say bad things and and about us, and we're able to actually pray for them, intercede for them. Jesus is able to look at Judas and call him a friend when Judas is coming to betray him, you know. Betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss. That love is a spiritual love that emanates from God, that comes from God. That's an indicator you're one of his. That's Christ in you. That's the heart of Christ. If you're not loving those around you, if you have a difficulty in loving people around you, without love, we're nothing. We need to get back to the drawing board. We need to get back on our knees before the Lord and say, Lord, I'm in the flesh, man. I'm just a flesh monster, and Lord, please please please fill me to overflowing. The Lord says, Rick, put your phone down. Your fingers are hurting, Rick. You're on that phone all the time. How about open up your Bible and spend some time with me? And I'm being honest. There's so many distractions in this life. Now, I can use that phone for good. I can use it as a distraction. A lot of information, it's my computer. It's my way that I'm learning or reading a lot of articles and stuff, and I'm posting other stuff. But really, it comes down to, do I wanna be Mary or Martha? Sometimes Martha, I'm busy working. I'm busy trying to reach people as best I can. I want people to know about the genius act. I want people to know is everybody's focused on Charlie Kirk. I want them to know the cryptocurrency is being pushed through. I want them to see it, but nobody cares. Nobody sees. Cause we're all fixated on Charlie Kirk right now. And I have to say, well, what else is going on? What's happening with the nation of Israel? So so I do my work part, to wake people up, but then there's the devotional part. There's Mary and Martha. Martha's really busy encumbered getting food ready for Jesus. And Mary, she's chosen that better part to just sit at the Lord's feet and to worship the Lord. Both are necessary, but the best part, the most important part, if we prioritize, it is to sit at the Lord's feet and allow him to fill us, to fill us to overflowing. And we'll have greater discernment to discern between the lies and the truth and the times in which we're living. And so before faith came, the law kept me. It it preserved and it helped. And imagine these people, they're waiting fifteen hundred years for Jesus to come from the time of the giving of the law. Fifteen hundred years waiting for Messiah to come. And when Messiah came, many, the majority of them, almost all of them didn't recognize him as the Messiah. Right? They say, crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify your Messiah, Pilate saying? Shall I you know, I find no fault in him. And for envy, he knew he was delivered. You know? Just incredible spiritual blindness and darkness that was that was in gripping that whole, time there. He came on his own and his own knew him not. He was in the world. The world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He went into Nazareth, his own hometown that he grew up in. Nobody ever saw him sin. Nobody ever saw Jesus of Nazareth sin. Which of you convicts me of sin, he said. Search the scriptures, and then you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. But they couldn't connect the dots. They didn't have faith until faith came, until God revealed himself to them. They were shut up. They were shut up with the law. And even Nicodemus, Nicodemus, a rabbi, you know, Jesus had to explain to him the importance of the indwelling work of the holy spirit. Nick, you must be born again. You need to be born of the blood and the water, you know, the natural birth and the spiritual birth. Didn't get it. Couldn't get it. Well educated guy. The apostle Paul, well educated. As Saul of Tarsus, he didn't get it. He was a persecutor of the church. He thought he was doing God's service by grabbing hold of Christians and consenting to the death of Stephen and all until the Lord revealed himself. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Imagine that, the chiefest of sinners, a blasphemer, wasting the church in his prior career. Imagine how he felt when his scales came off his eyes. His ears were open. His spiritual faculties opened, and he realized, oh my, I was an enemy of the cross of Christ. I was taking people and causing them to lose their jobs and incarcerating people and watching people whipped and killed and the whole thing. And man, I thought I was righteous. I thought I was a religious dude, a really important guy. He's 180 out, isn't he? He doesn't even know the Lord. You ever met somebody like that? I meet a lot of people like that. They think they know. And because they think they know, they're not teachable. They won't listen. The Lord's gonna have to get a hold of them, isn't he? And so the law had a preliminary function of imprisonment and condemnation until faith came. Before I knew Jesus, was on death row, awaiting execution until the faith was revealed, until he saved me. And I had an experience, many of you had it, you have an experience. You have your testimony, and your testimony is powerful. Jesus said you're gonna be my witnesses, which means you're gonna testify in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Your experience where you were once blind in John nine and now you see is a powerful testimony to those that knew you before Christ and those that see you after Christ. If you're just like you were before and if you're just like the world, there isn't that contrast. There isn't the difference. And people are gonna have a hard time believing your profession of faith. But if they see the evidence thereof, that you've got this capacity to love, a capacity to forgive, a capacity to pray, and to humble yourself, those are all characteristics of Jesus Christ. When they see Christ in you, the hope of glory, when they see that you're in Christ, now they wanna know how did that transformation and change. They wanna know the doctor that you went and got that pill from. What pill are you taking that changed you like that? What therapist are you going to that can change a person like that? What steps are you taking to make a better you this year? And you say, it's Christ. It's Jesus. Well, was raised in the church too, and I got baptized as an infant. I got sprinkled. I didn't see any change in me. You know, there's no change in me. Well, you must be born again. You gotta be born again. It's an internal transformation and change that only God can rot, that only God can do. What must I do to be saved? Believe. Ask God for the faith. He'll give you the faith. No man can come unto me, Jesus said, except the father who has sent me. Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. Pray. Cry out to God. God be merciful to me a sinner. Watch what God will do. I couldn't resist the holy spirit. I mean, I could, but I couldn't. On the one hand, he didn't violate my free will. I could've walked away that night when he revealed himself to me. But I knew that it was so overwhelmingly powerful that it would be tantamount to being insane. I believe many people today are insane. They're guilt ridden. They're not in their right mind. Why? Because they're resisting the holy spirit. Because they persist in their rebellion. They persist in their pride to want to have it their way on their terms. I I just wanted I just wanna know the truth. And when God revealed himself to me, I knew it was true. And there was no point in denying him. There was no point in running from him. The only decision, rational, reasonable, come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Though they'd be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. You know? The only rational decision would be to surrender. Surrender to God right there. And that's what I did. And God began to transform and change me. When faith was revealed to me. When God revealed himself to me. Before that, I was kept. Before that, I went to catechism. Before that, you know, there was a Catholic family around me, but there was no reality. There was no substance. There was religion, but no substance. We didn't know Jesus. We didn't know who he is. We didn't know what it was to be born again. Soon after I got saved, my dad going through a divorce with my mom, it was taking him a couple six packs of beer each night to get to sleep. He was so tormented going through that divorce. The divorce can just be just life changing, just devastating torment. And then he heard that I got saved, and I shared the gospel with my dad. And he came to church with me, and he got saved. And his life was radically transformed and changed. And then God began to change. The Lord saved Kathy after that, to begin to save her grandpa and members of her family, and in my family, one by one. God was transforming into changing people. God is still transforming into changing people. That's what we love to see, isn't it? Love to see genuine, authentic, real conversion, people being transformed and changed. Today at that the Charlie Kirk Memorial, the danger is talking too much about Charlie Kirk. Somebody better get up there and preach the gospel. That's the only way to transform and change people, through the power of the gospel. You can say all kinds of nice things about somebody and what they meant to this country, and and you can even make a national holiday, a Martin Luther King holiday, Charlie Kirk day. But you gotta bring it to Jesus. That's where the power is. You gotta bring it to the cross. You can testify of Charlie's faith to encourage others, but you gotta bring it. You gotta bring it. You can't candy coat it either. You gotta call that audience under repentance. Do you think there's somebody in that audience with the courage to do that? Somebody with the courage to be hated by the majority of the people listening? Because that's what happens. Jesus is the divider of men. You're either for him or you're against him, either in Christ or outside of Christ. You can preach a social gospel, and you can twist it to make America great, or you can preach the true gospel and call people to repentance. In Luke four eighteen, Jesus said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery aside to the blind, To set at liberty those that are bruised. Freedom. The bondage of being under the law. The bondage of the law that condemns me. Every single day as I begin to measure my life, as I begin to evaluate my life, I never measure up. I'm always condemning myself because I'm living according to the law. The law is always like a microscope pointing out my tiniest little flaws. But when I allow the law to be used in the proper way, which is to bring me to the cross, then I hear the Lord say, Rick, you're dead. No longer you living, but me living through you. You're no longer under the law to scrutinize you. Now you're living the life of the spirit because the faith has revealed me unto you. And the father poured out his wrath upon me instead of you. And your sanctification, your growing in holiness is a result or it it comes by way of Lord of Rick you yielding unto me, allowing me to live through you, allowing me to transform and change you, to set at liberty them that are bruised. So verse 24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. So the law kept me like a taskmaster, but now he's gonna use a Greek word, pedagogue as a schoolmaster. So there's a little cultural background here that we'll try to develop to see the picture here. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified just as if I've never sinned by faith. And so the schoolmaster, the pedagogue, was a child tutor. This was a discipliner, a guardian. And these pedagogues were slaves. And so a slave that was in a prominent family and the children that are growing in this family would they would bring in a one of their slaves as this pedagogue, this schoolmaster, this tutor. And they could take the ruler and smack your hands, you know, that sort of thing. They could spank you. They could discipline you. And so the child was under this instruction until he became of age. And so in his