 But tonight we're in chapter 3 here verses 15 through 22 of Galatians, so let's begin reading Read verses 15 through 18 and we'll get into our study and what we're looking at is why the law Why did God give the law of Moses and frankly to be honest with you even before I begin the study? There are so many reasons. I mean there are you could probably number 10 to 15 specific reasons for the law I'm not going to give you all 15 of those tonight, but I will be Touching on that subject a bit as we look at this particular portion of scripture Galatians chapter 3 verses 15 through 18 Paul writes brother and I speak in the manner of man Though it is only a man's covenant yet If it is confirmed no one annulz or adds to it Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he does not say and to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ and This I say that the law which was 430 years later Cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ That it should make the promise of no effect For if the inheritance is of the law it is no longer of promise But God gave it to Abraham by promise Now I want to begin by actually going over verses 13 and 14 again Because I need to get a running start to verse 15 And so last time we were together we closed with those verses in verses 13 and 14 of this chapter It says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law Having become a curse for us for it is written cursed it is everyone who hangs on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith and So notice as we begin how Paul had said that Christ redeemed us notice from the curse of the law having become a curse for us When he says Christ has redeemed us that word redeemed is a Greek word that means to buy someone out of of Slavery it speaks of buying a slave's freedom The Bible makes it very clear in other words that prior to coming to Christ. We were slaves were slaves to sin But the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us. He's purchased us. He's he's bought us out. He's bought our freedom and he did so Through his blood. You see redemption is is Jesus Buying us out of slavery at a cost and and the price was the blood of Jesus Christ When Paul was writing to the Ephesians in chapter 1 verse 7, that's what he says he says in him We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace And so when Paul is speaking concerning the fact that we've been redeemed He is first and foremost pointing out that that it was an act of mercy on the part of God And it was a gracious act for him to actually send his son Jesus Christ To die in a cross in order that he would pour out his blood That he might be able to redeem us out of slavery That we would have the freedom that comes through knowing God through Jesus Christ You see he speaks concerning this curse Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law Having become a curse for us. And so when he speaks of the curse of the law What is that curse of the law while the curse of the law is a punishment that is demanded For failing to keep the law in its entirety It's the punishment that occurs because I failed to keep the law because I I haven't lived in other words a perfect life The Bible in Leviticus chapter 18 verse 5 says you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments Which if a man does he shall live by them? I am the Lord and so I was Intended or it would be intended for me if I were to enter into the kingdom of heaven through simple obedience to a law Well, it would be required of me to keep the entire law because the law demands complete obedience The problem is is my inability to keep the law Causes me to actually become guilty because I failed You have the law the commandments We normally look at those commandments as the Ten Commandments The commandments that you find in various places in the Old Testament repeated throughout the new And so we have a tendency of thinking while there were only ten commandments and we could probably keep them Of course, we couldn't keep them But we need to remember that there were not only the ten commands specifically given to us in Exodus, but there are also All together some 613 commandments and so there's no way that anybody is going to keep all 613 commands and when we break one We have in effect actually violated them all and So if we're guilty in one we're guilty of them all and therefore the bottom line is is nobody is perfect Only Jesus was and so that's why God sent his son God sent his son to perfectly fulfill the requirements of his law That's what it means in verse 13 when it says having become a curse for us In other words Jesus took our punishment that was really just on himself Now what was that punishment? Well the punishment is is death like Paul says in Romans 6 23 the wages of sin is Death so when the Lord Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all the requirements of his father He also died as a substitution for me He kept the law perfectly Where I can't and he actually paid my price Which was death when he died on that cross and that's what Paul is speaking about You see it says there it is written cursed it is everyone who hangs on a tree He got that out of the Old Testament Deuteronomy 21 23 You see during that time when a criminal would be executed. They were normally executed through being stoned And they would be tied to a post and then they would hang until sunset as an open expression of rejection by God Now the Romans would actually take living prisoners and nail them to a cross They also would actually nail them to trees I have a picture that we have that we we took while we were in Israel on one of our trips of a tree and It actually has a cross beam that has been nailed to it Because they didn't always cut the trees down often They would find a small enough tree to use and they would just put a cross beam on that and sometimes The tree actually had branches that would branch out in such a way that they would actually use the branches And so what the Romans would do unlike the Jews the Jews would normally stone the prisoner or the Person who's being punished who is receiving capital punishment. They would stone him He would die by stoning and then they would place them on a tree so that people would see it and that would be a demonstration of God's Displeasure towards that particular sin in all it was a some kind of lesson that the people would get but the Romans would actually take living Individuals place them on those crosses or those trees and would do so in order to demonstrate their own justice Well, Jesus died on a cross and when Jesus died on that cross he became that atoning sacrifice for us And that's why he said cursed it is everyone who hangs on the tree Jesus died on a cross and he suffered our condemnation Now When he's speaking about that he says that Jesus did that for us But notice why verse 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith Now when he speaks of the blessing of Abraham all we need to do and let me just touch this lightly is remember Abraham Abraham is the father of the Jewish nations And God in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 had called him and said I'm gonna take you to a land that I'm gonna give to you And I'm gonna bless you Later on when he was speaking to him in Genesis 17. Let me read it to you. It says it in Genesis 17 1 through 6 God said when Abraham was 99 years old the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him I'm the Almighty God walk before me and be perfect And I will make my covenant between me and you and I won't multiply you exceedingly Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying as for me behold my covenant is with you and You shall be a father of many nations Neither shall your name any more be called Abram Your name shall be Abraham for a father of many nations have I made you and I will make you exceedingly fruitful And I will make nations of you and kings shall come out of you Abram literally means high father exalted father Abraham means father of many nations. He's saying I'm gonna take you change your name And I'm gonna bless you and you are gonna be the one that I use to bless the world So this blessing this blessing of Abraham. What is that referring to it refers to salvation? How God is going to bless people who have the faith of Abraham Abraham had faith in God He trusted God he believed God God counted it as righteousness So salvation's blessings and benefits are to extend to all who have faith like Abraham Now those who have faith in Jesus Christ would be called children of Abraham He'd already made that clear look at verses 7 through 9 in this chapter Notice and remember again how it says therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham and The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith Preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying in you all the nation shall be blessed So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham Remember the context there are people who are entering into the churches of Galatia and are bringing with them a foreign doctor They are coming in saying that in order for you to have a relationship with God You need to find yourself under the yoke of the law And what they're doing is they're trying to bring the spirit of legalism into the church And so Paul has been dealing with that he calls that a foreign message. It's not the gospel And he's trying to make a case for the Galatians to understand That Abraham before he had received the right of circumcision had already been called blessed by God So it wasn't through the act of circumcision an act or a work of faith But rather the receiving of faith that had caused him to have a right standing with God to be blessed by God and to be called by God righteous But the problem we're having is that these individuals are entering in they're bringing a foreign doctrine and causing people to no Longer understand the joy that comes through the grace of God And the freedoms that come through a relationship with him through Jesus Christ And the power that comes through him when you open your heart up and receive the power of the spirit of God To change your life and to gift you and produce the fruit of the spirit And what happens is you get caught up with legalism you get into the do's and the don'ts that I can do this And I can't do that kind of mentality to the point that it quenches the holy spirit And before you know it you're constantly worried about whether you've been good enough for God today And there are an awful lot of people who live under that kind of bondage And and that's not something new that was something that was entering into the church very early And so he wants to make it clear listen the curse is lifted by our place in faith in Jesus Christ We join in the family of Abraham the family of the redeemed through faith in Jesus That's what he's saying notice again verse 14 we receive the promise of the spirit through faith We receive the holy spirit Not by trying to be good not because by becoming extra religious But we receive the promise of the spirit by simple faith asking God and the interesting and beautiful thing about that is As what we do is we say God be merciful and to me I need you Lord I want you in my life Would you come in And by faith the Lord enters in you become the temple of the spirit of God And this is a promise that God gave to you In the book of acts if you take notes it's found in chapter one verses four and five Luke writes being assembled together with them He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem But wait for the promise of the father which says he you have heard of me For John truly baptized with water You shall be baptized with the holy ghost not many days from now Receive the promise of the father. It's a promise that God gives to you On one occasion the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his people and he says you need to become like little children and there's one thing that all of us who have been around little children are Who have our own little children Or have they been little children or even as their adults they still act like little children There's one thing I know about little children. They don't forget a promise that's being made. They don't forget They can forget all kinds of things. They can forget to to brush their teeth. They can forget to comb the hair They can forget they're supposed to take a bath They can forget to clean their room. They can forget to go out and my dad just called massage the lawn mow the lawn They can forget to do all kinds of things, but it's a funny thing that they don't forget a promise made to them They remember those promises and they'll hold you to them and they'll say it the same way all kids I think it's a universal thing. I don't think it even matters what language it's said it And it's always the same thing you said You said And what did I say you said if and and they remember your promises They do remember your promises and they believe you're going to come through on those promises, by the way They believe that you're good to your word and if you said you're going to take them to disneyland They will remind you for 364 days that you said you said that And they believe that you're good for your word. I remember my mom when I was about six or seven years old disneylands, I think opened up in 54 55 right around in that time And uh, you know, I grew up in norwalk. So disneyland in anaheim was only a 15 minute drive away And oh, I remember my brother and I wanted to go to disneyland And so my mom had said I've got a surprise for you. I got a surprise for you And so naturally we didn't know exactly what the surprise was But we were hoping it would be something great Well, the fact is They were going to take us to disneyland And they put us in that car that the problem is it was raining. I still remember it was raining Now my mom has been saying I've got a promise for you and you're going to really be surprised I didn't know what it was it turns out it was to go to disneyland, but we couldn't go to disneyland because it was raining So rather than that my mom even though she gave us a you know a promise for a surprise Didn't know exactly what to do. So she didn't tell us the surprise was off So my brother frank and I are sitting in the back seat of my dad's car And off we're going And instead of going towards what you know would have been disneyland we went off towards san amonica And as we're going to go visit my aunt I can still remember we pulled into this hamburger stand Just outside of where my aunt lived and it started to snow And it doesn't snow in california You know that not around here anyway And my brother and I Were so thankful to my dad Because he made it snow We oh dad. Oh, you're too much. What a great dad we have You know when you when you get well after I've told you before my dad was superman He taught me that he was superman. I believed he was superman Because my hero in life was superman. I used to watch superman on tv They had a program every week superman. My dad actually got jealous that I really really wanted You know, I loved superman. So my dad told me he was superman And so I grew up really believing my dad was superman Even though I you know, I would see the cartoon character or the the guy who played him On tv. I think his name was George Reeves And he didn't look anything like my dad and and I knew that superman Well, superman was clean shaven My dad had this little pencil mustache and I used to wonder how he got it off to do the adventures and then put it back on later on I really never figured that one out But I knew my dad was superman Until one day as I got older. I've shared this with you before I I finally walked up to my dad and said dad. I really don't think you're superman And my dad said to me. Yes, I am I said, where's your uniform? Where's your uniform? He says I have it up in the garage. I have it hidden in the garage And so he went to work and I went into the garage And I climbed on the rafters. I climbed over everything I even went outside climbed on the fence jumped on top of the roof and looked in all kinds of hedges and things That were up there on the top of the roof And when my dad got home, I was waiting for him And he comes rolling up and I walked up to him and I said you're not superman And he says what do you mean? I said I looked for your your uniform today. I couldn't find it I went into the garage. I climbed up on top. I looked in all the shelves. I even got on top of the roof You are not superman and he looks at me and he shakes his head and folds his arms and he says My my my uniform's at the cleaners And I said, duh, I should have known that one, you know, and I mean I was 32 years old and When he said that But you know your father can do whatever your father says he's going to do That's why it's important that that we who are fathers, that's why we keep our promises We ought to keep our promises. We teach them That we're good to our word. Well, my god is good to his word and he gave a promise and the promise that he gave Was not based on how hard I tried the promise he gave is related to what he was going to do for me It's his goodness his mercy his compassion his grace And so I received that promise that was given to me the promise of the father Which is the promise of the holy spirit and that's what he's speaking about the promise of the spirit and it comes through faith Now as he's speaking about this moving on in verse 15 He says brethren, I speak in the manner of men Though it is only a man's covenant yet it is confirmed No one annals or adds to it. So Paul now begins to show the superiority of faith in God's promise over the law And and when he says I speak in the manner of men He's simply saying i'm going to use a common example and the example i'm going to use that you're all familiar with is contracts He says men draw up contracts that are binding If you go and you sign your name on a contract it is binding He's just using something they're familiar with And he's simply saying god's promises are binding. You see when god draws up a contract It's as solid as god himself is When he makes a promise You can trust him His word is good In hebrus 6 13 and 14 it says when god made a promise to abraham Because he could not swear by anyone greater. He swore by himself Saying surely i will bless you and multiplying i will bless you So he's saying even when a man makes a contract that man holds fast to the contract that has been drawn up So he goes on in verse 16 to say now to abraham and his seed where the promise is made He does not say and to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed And then he identifies who this seed is and that seed is jesus christ Every single promise that has been given in the covenant In that agreement with abraham Every single promise was fulfilled in jesus christ In genesis 22 18 God said in your seed Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice And so the promises that god gave to abraham are fulfilled in jesus. That's why In second corinthians 120 That's why paul would say all the promises of god in him are yes And in him amen to the glory of god through us Now interestingly notice verse 17 and this i say that the law Which was 430 years later cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before By god in christ that it should make the promise of no effect Now this is going to take just a bit share with you because As you look at this and i want you to see this with me notice how he says The law which was 430 years later well First he's saying the promise of god is superior Is superior Because it was first given It actually was given though. He uses the number 430 years It was actually given some 645 years before moses received the law The 430 years refers to the time elapsed between god's last statement Of the abrahamic covenant and his giving of the law to moses Because we know that god gave his promise to abraham But when you read your old testament you see that he repeated the promise to isaac In chapter 26 verse 24 of genesis and then he repeated the promise once again to his grandson jacob Which occurs 215 years after abraham had received the promise and so The law came 430 years after god repeated the promise of abraham to jacob now He says in verse 18 for if the inheritance is of the law. It's no longer a promise But god gave it to abraham by promise An inheritance based on promise depends on the power of god God made a promise In your seed shall all the nations be blessed. Let's remember our biblical history for just a moment God appears ministers to abraham Gives him his promise in you all the nations shall be blessed It's through your seed While he's referring really to the messiah But at the same time god is making a promise to him that he and sarah are going to have a child We know by just reading our old testament That god had made that promise but sarah remained barren And at one point sarah beginning to think that that promise was never going to be fulfilled Begins to think about how she can help god to fulfill the promise And so she approaches her husband and says go into my handmade in hagar She will bear a child It'll be the child that god has promised us and because she is my handmaiden according to jewish Custom according to their custom Any child that is born to my handmaiden sarah could say is really legally looked at as being my own And so in essence what she's saying is i will be recognized as a mother You will be the father and that will be fulfilling god's promise Well, we know that abraham went into hagar and they had a son by the name of ishmael But god didn't promise and we're going to see this later on in galatians god didn't promise through ishmael God made the promise between abraham and his wife sarah Now later on it's found in genesis starting in chapter 17 and you can move into chapter 19 And you can see this being fulfilled, but in in in chapter 17 of genesis it points out that That abraham was a hundred years old And sarah was 90 When god said your wife's gonna have a baby now ladies, how'd you like to be nursing when you're 91? To get up at three in the morning to change the baby's diapers and you're 91. I mean think about it think about it for a moment And abraham I'm a hundred years old. Are you kidding me? The rite of hebra says that his body was as good as dead. There's really no regenerative power within him But god gave to him the ability to do something To actually at now it blows my mind At the age of a hundred to be a daddy And sarah at 90 To be a mommy Think about that for a minute when you take that baby to preschool Who's that very very old lady? That's mommy. I mean think about it It's an amazing story But god had made the promise It was Really not a human possibility for a 90 year old woman to conceive and have a child That's why god makes it so very clear That this is all of promise. This is all of god The flesh could not have in any way shape or form Fulfilled this it isn't going to happen so That gives to us the illustration of the fact that god Can do what our flesh cannot do God gives promises That only he can fulfill You see the promise is superior because man can't help but fail But god never can fail now In verse 18 again when it says the inheritance is of the law An inheritance normally is received and not earned And an inheritance normally comes When somebody has died The writer of hebrews chapter 9 verses 16 and 17 says in the case of a will It is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it Because a will is in force only when somebody has died It never takes effect while the one who made it is living And so trying to earn the inheritance is foolish. The only way to receive it Is to trust his promise and that's the point he's making to have faith Well in verse 19. Well, what purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of the transgressions till the seeds should come to whom the promise was made And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator Now A mediator does not mediate for one only but god is one Is the law then against the promises of god? Certainly not For if there had been a law given which could have given life Truly righteousness would have been by the law But the scripture has confined all under sin That the promise by faith in jesus christ might be given to those he says Who believe what purpose then does the law serve? It was added. He says in verse 19 because of transgressions If salvation has always been by faith, then why do we have the law? The law is a tool to demonstrate man's sinfulness The law reveals the depth of a human's sin nature The law has impossible demands. You know that And its impossible demands were to compel men to see themselves as helpless sinners The law was intended to drive people into despair over their sins You know sometimes when people get into that point of despair we Christians try to talk them out of it when in reality it's intended to be a sin To point them to god It's intended to awaken them and to say to them You're in misery right now and you're not doing well right now and your conscience is is just chewing you up right now because there's a reason for it to do that because What you've done ought to make you feel bad It ought to make you feel bad that you lied to your mom It ought to make you feel bad that you went and got drunk and smashed your car into somebody else's car It ought to make you feel bad It ought to make you feel bad that you went and stole something and got caught because stillings wrong Line is wrong committing adultery is wrong And it ought to cause you to say god help me. That's what the law is intended to do It's intended to wake us up to the reality of the fact that there's something within us that's wrong with us And no matter how many classes and self-esteem I take I'm really really something within me really is aware of the fact that I'm not as good as I try to make myself seem even to myself In romans chapter 7 paul said it this way in verse 7. What shall we say then is the law sin? certainly not On the contrary I would not have known sin except through the law For I would not have known covetousness Unless the law had said you shall not covet Now I knew that I had this desire for the possessions of somebody else. I knew that that was part of me I just thought it was just normal and natural But now I realized that the law says thou shall not covet to give me an idea of how bad that really is And so the law was intended by god to be a schoolmaster that brings us to christ It was to awaken us to our own weaknesses and our own inabilities to live a life that has peace and joy That's how you got saved if you're saved. That's how you got saved You got saved because one day somehow As the word of god was brought to you You awaken to the reality of an imperfect life You awaken to the reality that you perhaps were hurtful or perhaps you were a thief or perhaps You were a violent individual or perhaps you were you were in bondage to drugs and alcohol Or maybe you were simply petty. I it doesn't really matter what it was Whatever it was you became aware of it Whatever it was you became aware and you said to yourself. I hate this. I hate this about myself I don't want to be like this. I can't stand what I do to other people and I can't stand how I feel about The way life is for me. I feel like there's no meaning. There's no purpose. There's nothing here I don't know what's going on. The holy spirit speaks to you and says it's because you're in sin And the holy spirit says to the word but I can deal with that I can forgive you. I can give you a sense of inner peace that you cannot get any other way Just before I got saved just before I got saved I was arrested I spent the night in jail That was the third time I'd been arrested My dad went and picked me up. I was in alley county in los angeles. My dad came and picked me up My dad drove me home in silence So upset at me I think it was about 19 years old I was 19 years old I can remember as we were driving I turned and looked at my dad as he was silently driving My dad didn't smoke But he had a pack of cigarettes and he was chain smoking. He was so upset at me One cigarette after another And my dad didn't smoke. I hadn't seen my dad smoke since I was a little boy And there he was just chain smoking And I turned to him. I still remember saying to my dad. I'm sick And my dad looked at me And there was no argument about that one You know what he did? He sent me to a psychologist And I started going to a psych And I would Sit there with a stranger And I'm one of these real quiet guys. Anyway, if I don't know you I'm not going to really talk much to you at that age Then he'd say well How you doing or whatever and and I'm supposed to spill my guts to somebody I don't know for an hour And I'm just not good at that And I remember just kind of sitting there looking at him kind of making small talk not really saying things But I do remember saying something like you know what I really need a girlfriend is what I need That's what I really believed I needed I needed love My problem was that I was looking for the wrong kind of love I was looking for the love that a woman can give you And it's just not enough It isn't A human being's love can only go so far That's the truth It only goes so far God's love is inexhaustible It goes beyond anything you can understand It is incomprehensible. It's depth and it's width and it's height. It's breadth is beyond Anything that any human being can give you I didn't need the love of a woman to save me I needed the love of god to save me and I didn't understand that I knew there was a there was there was something in me. It was like a A dark Kind of like An abscess in my soul. I knew there was something wrong But I didn't know what the answer was So as was natural for a natural man, I started thinking well the answer is going to be a relationship with a woman No The answer was a relationship with god because there is a god shaped hole in your heart that only god himself can fill And I didn't understand that I didn't realize that The law wakes you up To your own weaknesses It puts a label to the things that make you miserable And says this is why you're miserable because You haven't put me first Because you don't honor me because you take my name in vain Because you steal because you lie because you covet Because of all these things in your life. These are the things That make you miserable and the reason you do all of those things is because you don't know me So the law has a purpose is to compel you To jesus christ who saves you You see he says in verse 19 till the seed should come to whom the promise was made In other words jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law In matthew chapter 5 verses 17 and 18 Jesus said do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them I tell you the truth until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter Not the least stroke of a pen Will by any means disappear from the law until everything Is accomplished In romans 10 verse 4 paul said christ is the end of the law in other words the law points to christ For righteousness to everyone he said who believes And so the purpose of the law was to bring us to jesus christ now notice in verse 19 It was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator Briefly in a way that is not fully explained angels somehow were involved in the giving of the law In act 753 We read who have received the law by the disposition of angels In hebrus chapter 2 verse 2 it says if the word spoken by angels was steadfast And every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward So somehow angels were involved, but it doesn't really say how He says it was appointed through angels, but He says in verse Verse 19 through angels by the hand of a mediator verse 20 now a mediator doesn't mediate for one only But god is one in other words god gave the covenant directly to abraham without a mediator So finally he says in verse 21 Is the law then against the promises of god? Certainly not For if there had been a law given which could have given life Truly righteousness would have been By the law But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in jesus christ might be given to those who believe In summation just in conclusion a couple of things one The law could not save a sinner Only jesus can That's why paul would say oh wretched man that i am who shall deliver me from this body of death Then he said i thank god through jesus christ our lord I've said said this before because this book reminds me of so much of where i was at just before i got saved And that's why i always go back to certain things I can still remember just before i got saved after going through so many crazy things i can remember just before getting saved How i began to cry and say to god cry out to god and say to god you've got to help me I can't take it anymore. I cannot stand who i am. I can't take it I cannot take it. I cannot take this I got drafted I've shared this with you before my birthday is august 23rd. I'm supposed to go into the military august 25th I have a friend of mine whose birthday was uh august 24th So on august 24th The day before i'm supposed to go into the military We have a big party combining our birthdays and a lot of guys show up And we spent the night drinking and smoking pot You know just doing drugs and things And i didn't go home It was the 24th and i didn't go home I finally made my way to my house At about two o'clock in the morning And i climbed into my car I had my car parked on the side of my parents house and i had a A mattress in the back seat And three friends and i got into the car At two in the morning And were smoking pot And i could look at the window there on the side of my parents house and the light was on And i would see my mom as she was looking out the window to see when her son was going to come home Because i was leaving the next morning at six And it's three o'clock in the morning And i'm looking at my mom and i turned to my friends and i said my mom's looking for me and she doesn't even realize i'm in here And i can still remember we lit up and continued smoking dope until a little after three The light goes off. I waited a few minutes I went to the side door opened it up Quietly went into my room laid down on my bed And tried to sleep for about three hours I woke up I went walking into the kitchen My dad my two sisters and my mom Were standing there in the kitchen when i walked in my dad was really upset My two sisters were crying And so was my mom And my mom looks at me and she says to me you couldn't come home One night because i never was home. I was always partying. I was always drunk. I was always loaded I never came home until they were asleep. That's just the way it was And i looked at my mom and i said what does it matter? I'll be gone from now on for another two years. You won't see me again. I won't cause you any more problems My dad shook his head and just looked at me He put me in this little truck and drove me to los angeles to the induction center He gave me ten dollars And i went into the induction center there When i went in i started speaking to One of the guys who process you And he says you have a felony account Because when i was 18 i had burglarized a jewelry store. I knew that that count had been Expunged i knew that he says we can take you in and deal with it while you're in or You can leave What do you want to do? So i said i want to get out of here And my dad had given me ten dollars And there was one other guy named gary a high school friend of mine who i used to do a lot of drugs with Who was also rejected that day So i make a phone call to a friend of mine named rick And he said can you come to la pick us up gary and i And he said yeah Gary had a lid he had a can he had some pot So we went out and i took my friends to breakfast with my dad's ten dollars And we smoked pot And i came home loaded And when i walked in because my dad was on vacation When i walked into the house my dad looks at me and says what are you doing home? And i said even the army doesn't want me And i started to laugh and i went to my room and i went to bed because i was so Loaded from the night before that i had to sleep it off That's the kind of person i was My mom could cry And i would tell her you know what just leave it keep it to yourself My my my sisters said we're praying for you And i said to them keep your prayers for yourself Religion is for the weak. It's it's it's a crutch for those who don't have strength to live for themselves. Keep it for yourself Just just leave me alone. I don't want to hear about your god. I don't want to hear about prayer I don't want to hear about any of that just leave me alone That's how i was And so you could see that At a certain point I started saying things like god. I can't stand this anymore I've got to change I've got to change I'm hurting too many people. I'm hurting my mom. I'm hurting my dad I'm hurting my sisters. I hurt my brother Every girlfriend i ever had i've hurt I can't take this anymore A wretched man that i am who will deliver me from this body of death That's what we all go through But thanks be to god because of jesus christ You see the law confined us When he speaks concerning that concerning that in verse 22 the scripture has confined all under sin It was like a cage that that confined us it it enclosed us in other words all were found to be sinners and there was no escape But when you found yourself in that condition That's when you cried out to the one who could set you free who could open up that cage and release you And that's what he's speaking about when he says scripture has confined all under sin That the promise by faith in jesus christ might be given to those who believe And so when you hear the gospel that says i can set you free i can forgive you i love you i will transform you That sets you free That's how it works That's how it works And he can take somebody Who is bitter he can take somebody who's angry he can take somebody who's addicted He can take somebody who's profane He can take somebody who lives a promiscuous life And he can transform that person Into somebody who is like jesus christ Because he sets you free That's what christianity is it isn't rules and regulations It's the love of god manifested by the grace of god in the face of jesus christ Who loved you enough to die in a cross take the curse from you upon himself and give you life And that can only come through jesus it doesn't come through rules and regulations It comes through grace And that's why paul is so upset at these people creeping in bringing these these relations into bondage Because he's saying it isn't the law that sets you free It's the love of god and the grace of jesus that does