In this video, the speaker discusses the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ and emphasizes the importance of understanding these basics. The three main points of focus are grace versus law, faith versus works, and spirit versus flesh. The speaker encourages the audience to study the letter to the Galatians and identify every verse where the words grace, faith, and works are mentioned. This exercise will help them gain a clear understanding of the gospel and provide a foundation for future growth.

As you notice on the schedule, this is a time of Bible study. In other words, we are going to study something in the Bible. Now a study should be different from a time of ministry. In other words, in a time of ministry, probably the one who ministers to us and we who are sitting there are being ministered. But in a time of study, well the very word study means that you need to do something. Now because of the shortness of time, we are not able to tell you beforehand what our study will be, so that you may prepare for the study. But starting from this morning, now you know what you are going to have. So I hope that it is not just we come together for a time of explanation, but I do hope that brothers and sisters in your spare time, if you have any, that you will do some study. Now, what we choose for this time of study is a book in the New Testament. It is a book which Martin Luther calls, this is my epistle. I am betrothed to it. It is my wife. And I hope you know what that epistle is. It is the epistle to the Galatians. So this time we would like to spend some time together. Just make a study of that letter to the Galatians. Now of course the letter to the Galatians is such an important book in the Bible. As a matter of fact, every book in the Bible is important. But the letter to the Galatians is very essential to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think it has more influence on Reformation than even the letter to the Romans. We often think that the letter to the Romans is the backbone of Reformation. But actually it is the letter to the Galatians. Before we enter into some study, I would like to give you a little bit of the background of this letter to the Galatians. In the first place, we call this is the letter to the Galatians. It is a letter written to the Galatian believers. It is a letter written to the churches in Galatia. Now what is Galatia? Who are these people called Galatians? What are the churches of Galatia? If you look at the map, you will find that geographically, Galatia is an area, a spot on earth in Asia Minor. On the east of Galatia you have Cappadocia and Pontus. On the west of Galatia you have Phrygia. On the east, on the west of Galatia you have Asia, Asia a province, and Mycenae. And on the north, you have Dithynia. So in other words, geographically, Galatia is situated between, among these places. It is a place where some Celtic people from Europe, they migrated from Europe into Asia, and they settled down in that area. These people were Gauls, and they settled down in that area called Galatia. But later on we know that during the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire made Galatia a province, a Roman province. And the Roman province of Galatia, politically, is bigger than Galatia as a geographical name. Because the Roman province of Galatia includes not only Galatia as a geographic area, but also some of the places in Phrygia. And it calls Galatia as a Roman province. So when Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians, now whom did he write to? Did he write to Galatia as a geographic area in which the Gauls were situated, or did he write to Galatia as a Roman province? That means that in the upper part of Galatia, the Gauls lived, and in the lower part inhabited the Greeks and the Jews. Of course there are different views as to whom Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians. Now I will not go into details because this is not our purpose. But to me, I feel most probably, Paul wrote this letter to Galatia as a Roman province. Because we find in his other letters, or in his writings, you find Paul often mentioned, for instance, the churches of Judea, the churches of Macedonia, the churches of Asia. And we know these are all Roman provinces. So we believe that the churches of Galatia refer to the Roman province of Galatia. Now if this is the case, then it is easily understood. Because in the book of Acts, Paul was in so-called upper Galatia, that is Galatia as a geographical area, only twice. In Acts chapter 16 verse 6, in chapter 18 verse 23, you find Paul did go through the country of Phrygia and Galatia. And in these two instances, they were geographical areas. But aside from these two instances, we do not have any mention of Galatia as a geographical area. And the Bible does not give us any instance of any church in the upper area of Galatia. On the contrary, we find in the lower area of Galatia, which is a part of Phrygia actually, you find that Paul was there in the very beginning when he went out with Barnabas. You remember in the book of Acts in chapter 13, God, the Holy Spirit, set apart Paul and Barnabas for this ministry, apostolic ministry, and they started from Antioch of Syria. And there they went to Cyprus, that island. They went through the whole length of Cyprus, and from there they took a boat and they landed in Pisidia, Antioch of Pisidia. And from there they went into Lystria, Derbe, and these places. Now these places were in Phrygia, and they were the lower part of the Roman province of Galatia. And you remember how Paul and Barnabas, they were in these different places, in Derbe, in Lystria, and so forth, you know. And they went through these places, they suffered a lot for the Lord, and afterwards they came back and they established elders in these various churches. So the churches in lower Galatia were well known to us. As a matter of fact, aside from Antioch of Syria, where Paul labored with Barnabas for a period, these churches in Lystria and Derbe, they were the churches of Paul's first love. And no wonder, if these were churches of Paul's first love, and for Paul to write a letter to these people, that will be understandable. So probably, most likely, the letter to the Galatians was written to Galatia as a Roman province. And because it is a province, therefore you have the churches of Galatia, not the church of Galatia. Because in the Bible, the local church usually is related to a city, not to a province. And the churches of Galatia means that in the province of Galatia, there were many different local assemblies. Paul wrote this letter probably between the years A.D. 57 and A.D. 58. From what we could gather now, in the writings of Paul, you can divide Paul's writing into several different periods. And this letter to the Galatians seemed to fall into a period where he wrote 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians and Romans. You will find a similarity in these four letters. And most likely, Galatia, the letter to the Galatians was written after 2nd Corinthians and before the letter to the Romans. As a matter of fact, there is a similarity between Galatians and Romans. And Romans seems to be an enlargement, a development of Galatians. So we believe that Galatians was written before the letter to the Romans. And most likely, he wrote this letter on his journey between, say, Macedonia and Archaea. He wrote this letter while he was travelling in that area. Now, brothers and sisters, the one thing we must know is, why did Paul write this letter? This is one of the most personal letters of Paul. You find in this letter lots of feelings. He loved these churches in Galatia as his first love. And because he loved them so much, you find that he reacted very strongly when he discovered there was something in their midst that wasn't good. Somehow, in the churches in Galatia, some people, probably some so-called Jewish believers, they came in after Paul. And they tried to teach these Galatian believers that if they wanted to be perfect, they had to be circumcised and they had to keep the law of Moses. And because of that, Paul thinks that they had departed from the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. They have gone off to another gospel which is not a gospel at all. And for that reason, he wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia, to help them to bring them back to the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But dear brothers and sisters, this is not a negative letter. Even though it deals with something negative, and yet it is very positive in nature. Why? Because it discloses to us what the gospel of Jesus Christ really is. In other words, it gives us the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now you know, sometimes we think that we are so advanced that we do not need the basics anymore. You know, among Christians, there are two different problems. Sometimes our problem is, we do not have the basics. And we try to go on. In other words, we do not have a firm foundation, and yet we try to build. Now if we do not have a good foundation and try to build, the whole thing will collapse. But at other times, you will find that we have the foundation, but we go round and round the foundation and never progress and try to build up. The problem with the Hebrews, in the letter to the Hebrews, you will find that their problem is, they lay the foundation, they lay it again, and they lay it again, they lay it again, they never go on to perfection, to maturity. And the writer to the Hebrews said, well after you have laid the foundation, then don't lay it again because you cannot do it. The foundation is already there. Now, let's go on to perfection, which means go on to maturity. Let us press on into Christ, into the fullness that is in Christ. Now that is the problem with the Hebrews. Now with the Galatian believers, their problem is, they want to go on very much. They are very anxious to go on to perfection, so they just forget about the foundation. Their foundation is not firm, and yet they want to go on into maturity, maturity, and this is something they just cannot do. In their anxiousness for perfection, they will accept anything, any easy method, any easy way, any easy technique, that can help them to perfection without much time, and much problem, and much problem. In other words, instantness. Now, instantness is an American disease. We want everything to be instant. You know, when I first came to this country, well, I find that you have lots of instant things, instant coffee, and so forth, and then to my surprise, in recent years, you know, with the Chinese, we even had instant noodles. Everybody wants to be instant, want to be quick, and with the Galatian believers, they want to be instant spiritual believers. They think that if they can get hold of a formula, if they can do something, if they can get hold of a kind of technique, and perfect that technique, then they will be instantly spiritual. They will arrive at spiritual perfection without time. But dear brothers and sisters, you may have instant this and instant that in other things, but when you come to spiritual things, there is no such thing as instantness. You have to have a firm foundation, and you have to build patiently, with patience, and with faith, we inherit the Kingdom of God. So, in the letter to the Galatians, actually you find, Paul is trying to lay a firm foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He deals with the basics of the Gospel. Now, this is something of the background of the letter to the Galatians, but this is not our purpose for this study, so I just let it go. Now, we want to study this letter to the Galatians, but our study this time is not a verse-by-verse study, nor is it a systematic study of the whole letter. Because if we want to do verse-by-verse or a systematic study, well, we keep, we'll keep you over the Labor Day. We have to keep you longer. We do not have the time for this conference, so our study will be concentrated on three points. These are the basics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we can lay hold of these basics, and also see their opponents, the opposites of these basics, if we can have a clear understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we believe, then we have a ground for future building. So, we will concentrate ourselves from these three sessions on these three different points. Number one, grace versus law. Number two, faith versus works. Number three, spirit versus flesh. So, just bear in mind that these are the three points that we will study this time. Now, an assignment. It's too late for this morning, but for tomorrow. Try to find out in the letter to the Galatians, every place where the word faith, and the word works, are mentioned in the letter to the Galatians. Read every verse where these two words occur. If possible, write them down. In your notebook, or in a separate paper. And not only that, but try to go through these verses that have these two words, and try to find out the thoughts in these verses. Now, that's the assignment for tomorrow. No assignment for this morning, because it's too late. Now, let's open the letter to the Galatians. First of all, what we will do is, now this time we will like to do it in such a way that probably in the future, when you are studying a book, or you're studying a certain topic, or you're studying a certain subject, then you know how you will approach that subject. So I, we do it in such a way, you know, just try to help you for the future. So, first of all, we will like to go through the letter to the Galatians, and pick out every verse where the word grace is mentioned. Now, let's do it this morning. Galatians, chapter one, verse three. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Where does grace come from? Grace comes from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The second place is in verse six of chapter one. I wonder that ye does quickly change from him that called you in Christ's grace to a different gospel. The grace of Christ. We are called in the grace of Christ. Oh, we are called by his grace. Now, verse 15. But when God who set me apart even from my mother's womb and call me by his grace, we are called by the grace of God. We are called into the grace of Christ. God initiates the whole thing. We do not initiate any grace. It is God who calls us by his grace. Chapter two, verse nine. And recognizing the grace given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were conspicuous as being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship that we should go to the nations and they to the circumcision. Paul went to Jerusalem, and there you'll find James and Cephas and John, the pillars of the church in Jerusalem, they recognize the grace given to Paul. Now, grace is something that can be recognized. If there is grace in you, people should be able to recognize it. How? They should be able to recognize grace either in the form of your manner of life. Your life should express the grace of Christ. Or it may be expressed in the form of service. So here you'll find these men in Jerusalem recognize in Paul the grace of God upon him. Verse 21, second chapter. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness is by law, then Christ has died for nothing. We say that grace is given to us by God, and yet there is the possibility of our setting aside the grace of God. You can put it aside. If you think that you will go back to law, you can keep the grace of God, put the grace of God aside, and that is a possibility. So keep this in mind. Chapter 3, verse 18. For if the inheritance be on the principle of law, it is no longer on the principle of promise, but God give it in grace to Abraham by promise. How is the promise of God concerning inheritance? Given to Abraham. It is given on the principle of grace. We receive the promise of God. We receive inheritance of God. We receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. We receive the promise of eternal life. It is on the basis of grace. Chapter 5, verse 4. Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ, as separated from him as many as are disjustified by law. Ye have fallen from grace. There is the possibility of not only set aside the grace of God. In other words, the grace of God is there with you, but you set it aside. You do not use the grace of God properly. But there is also the possibility of falling from grace. You fall out of grace when you try to justify yourself by law. And then, finally, chapter 6, verse 18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with your spirit. It means that if the grace of God is with your spirit, then your spirit is discerning. Then the Spirit of God is able to work through your spirit the work that He has in mind. So, altogether, you will find there are eight times the word grace appears in the letter to the Galatians. The letter to the Galatians begins with grace, and it concludes with grace. It is from grace to grace. It is all of grace. So, brothers and sisters, do bear this in mind that the letter to the Galatians tells us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of grace. Now, what is grace? Now, first of all, try to find out that word in the letter to the Galatians, and try to see the thought. Now, I did not arrange the thoughts for you because you haven't read these verses before. Now, after you have read these verses, then you try to arrange the thoughts in these verses. Now, we didn't do that this morning. I just commented a little bit on this verse, a little bit on that verse. But, if you want to really study, after you put all these verses down when grace is mentioned, you try to familiar yourself with the thought in each verse, and then the next thing to do is try to place the thoughts in order. Now, after you have placed all the thoughts in order, then you see a better picture of grace. And, after you have done that, then the second thing you can do is, if you have a word dictionary, or you have, well, doing the first thing, you can find some help with a concordance. If you're lazy, then you use a concordance. If you're diligent, then don't use a concordance, but go through the whole letter and find the word. Actually, the letter to the Galatians is so short, you can easily do that, and I'll suggest that you do. I hope you didn't bring your concordance with you. Now, the second point is, after you have finished with the concordance, then probably the next thing you can do is, you can get some help from dictionary. Either it is a Bible dictionary, or a Bible encyclopedia, or if it is a word dictionary. Now, you look up the word grace, and try to find out what is the meaning of that word in Greek, in the original. Now, that sometimes is a great help. Now, in the matter of grace, you'll find, if you look up the word, Greek word, grace, charis. Now, the transliteration in English will be c-h-a-r-i-s, c-h-a-r-i-s. Now, if you look up the word grace, charis, you will find the original meaning of the word grace is very rich. Very rich. You know, when we think of the word grace, now, what does it come to your mind? I think what it comes to your mind is, something that is given to you freely. Now, that's grace. It is true. In the original, the word grace does carry that meaning. But, this is not the first meaning of the word grace. If you look up the word grace, you'll find the first meaning is, well, actually, it includes a three-fold meaning. The first meaning, grace, is something that is intrinsically beautiful, attractive, that will cause within you a feeling of joy and satisfaction and delight. Now, that is the first meaning. For instance, here is a picture. Before that picture is freely given to you, now, it is not given to you, don't take it. Here is a picture, which in itself has a beauty, has an attractiveness, that when you look at it, it causes within you a feeling of joy, of lifting, of delight, of satisfaction. Now, that's grace. That's grace. So, grace, first of all, is in a person. Grace, first of all, is in the person of our Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is full of grace. The Lord Jesus is grace itself. There is such beauty, there is such attractiveness in our Lord Jesus, that when you look at Him, it gives you such delight, such joy, such satisfaction. In other words, this is the foundation of grace. There can be no grace freely given to you if grace is not there. If there is, I don't have that picture, how can I give it freely to you? I have to have that picture first. So, here you'll find, in the first place, grace is intrinsic, is inherent in Christ Jesus. He is grace. He is full of grace. He is so gracious. He is so loving. He is so kind. He is so attractive. He is so good. He is... He is grace. That is our Lord Jesus. Now, that is the first meaning of grace. Then the second meaning is, because there is such graciousness in that person, that He has such a willing disposition, He wants to give freely and universally to everyone. Now, that is the second meaning of grace. Out of the graciousness of His heart, He gives generously, graciously, liberally, freely, universally to all. Now, that is the second meaning of grace. So, the emphasis of the second meaning is, one, freely, second, universally. If it is the grace of God in Christ Jesus, then it has to be freely given. You cannot buy it. It is not something to be earned. It is not even something to be borrowed. It is not something to be given to you first, and then pay later, on installment. We are so clever today, everything is on installment. If you want anything, buy by installment. But how many people fall into that trap? God never gives His grace by installment. Travel first and pay later. Grace, if it is grace, and it is, it is given freely to us. No cost to you. It costs God everything. It costs God His only begotten Son. But it costs you nothing. And it is given universally. It is given not because you are better than anybody else. It is given not because you belong to a certain group. It is given universally to everyone who desires it. Now that is the second meaning of the word grace. Now the third meaning. Out of the graciousness of the person, He gives graciously to us. Then when we receive it, the grace of God shall so touch our heart, that we return with thanks. The word thanks, in the New Testament, you will find in some places, is the word grace. In other words, after we have received the grace of God, it touches us so deeply, that we begin to thank God. That's why we say, when we, before we eat, let's say grace. Now do you ever think that, why do we say let's say grace? Let's say thanks. Let's thank the Lord for it. Because He has given so graciously, liberally and freely to us. So let's thank Him. Let's thank, let's say grace. And that is what it should be. If the grace of God does not touch your heart, and draws from you thankfulness, then you waste the grace of God. Not only in the sense of giving thanks, but because His grace is now within us, therefore it transforms us, and makes us gracious. Dear brothers and sisters, if we say we receive the grace of God, and we are not gracious to other people, we do not know what grace is. You remember that wicked servant? Oh, he owed that master, how many? Ten thousand talents. He couldn't, he couldn't return. And the Lord have mercy on him, and forgive all his debts. But when he went out, he saw another fellow man, and he got hold of his throat, and returned me the money that you owe me. And it is only a little bit. And finally, when the master heard it, he called him back and said, I forgive you all these, and you don't do it for your fellow brother. Dear brothers and sisters, how can we receive the grace of God, and yet our life is not transformed, is not influenced, is not changed by the grace of God, that we too may be gracious. We too may have the beauty of Christ in us, that we too may be attractive, drawing people not to us, but to the Lord who loves us so much. Of course, that is what grace ought to produce in our lives. And you know, in the original Greek, all these three meanings are included in the word grace. Now, what a word it is. What is the grace of God? The grace of God is not a thing. The grace of God is a person. You know, we often think of grace of God as things. Now, suppose today you find that you are a person who is burdened with your sin, and you come to the Lord and say, Lord, what I need is forgiveness. And you think of grace as forgiveness. Now, true, forgiveness is grace. Or, when you discover that your life is so poor, so empty, and you go to the Lord and say, Lord, I need a full life, a good life, an eternal life, and God give you eternal life, and eternal life is grace, another thing. Or, suppose you do not know where your food will come from tonight, and you go to the Lord and pray and say, Lord, give me this day my daily bread, and God supply you with a meal for tonight, and you say, this is grace. Now, this is grace. Or, if you are sick and you ask the Lord to heal you, and He answers you, and healing is grace. In other words, so far as we are concerned, we often think of grace as this thing, or that thing, and many other things. But, dear brothers and sisters, no. Grace is a person. Grace is our Lord Jesus. The grace of God is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Himself. When God gives grace to us, He gives His Son to us, and in His Son, all things. All things. So, we need to remember that grace is in the person of our Lord Jesus. We have the Lord Jesus, we have the grace of God. Now, in the letter to the Galatians, you'll find there are three things concerning the Lord Jesus as grace to us. Number one, it pleases God to reveal His Son in me. Grace is Christ revealed. Number two, I'm crucified with Christ. No longer live I, but Christ who lives in me. And now, I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Grace is Christ lives in me. Number three, Paul said, I prevail for you until Christ is formed in you. So, grace is Christ formed in us. Now, brothers and sisters, as we experience the grace of God, you'll find we experience the grace of God starting with Christ revealed in us. It goes on to Christ lives in us, and it ends up with Christ formed in us. Now, I will not go into details because that will be another message. But anyway, we find in the scripture, roughly, I go over, I have to go over very quickly. This is what you'll find concerning grace. Now, let's go over to this matter of law. The opposite of grace is law. In the letter to the Galatians, you'll find Paul contrasts grace with law. So, if you want to know more fully what grace really is, you have to know what law is. You know, just like when you paint a picture. If you want to bring out something in bold relief, you have to use kind of background. And if you paint some background, that will bring what you want to bring out more boldly. So, in the letter to Galatians, you'll find the law is served as a kind of setting, a background to bring out the meaning of grace. Now, what is law? Again, direct. First, go through the letter to the Galatians, and try to find out every place where the word law is mentioned. Now, I won't go through with you because that would take our whole time. The word law in Galatians is used 31 times. Now, you try to count them and correct me if I'm wrong. I will not analyze the word law in the letter to the Galatians, but I would rather like to go on and try to present law as we find in the whole New Testament, and see its relationship, its contrast with grace. So, first of all, what is law? Now, if you go to a dictionary of the Greek word, nomos, N-O-M-O-S, you will find the word law in the use of the word law in the New Testament on many folds. It can be used in many different ways, but I think this morning we don't need to get into all these ways. But I will just mention two. The word law in the scripture, first of all, tells us that God being holy and righteous, he has a just demand upon us who are created by him. That is the first meaning of law in the scripture. Law means something that is distributed, something that is assigned, something that is put upon you by one who has a right of demand upon your life. Now, God being holy and righteous, he demands us who belong to him to be holy and righteous. And the demands come in the form of law. For instance, the Ten Commandments. Now, what are the Ten Commandments? The whole Mosaic law is summed up in the Ten Commandments. And the Ten Commandments are divided into two tablets. The first table contains four laws that regulate man's relationship with God. What is right, what is holy, as to our relationship with God. God demands that we should have only one God, that we should not worship anything else, that we should not mention his name in vain, that we should heed the Sabbath. And then you'll find the second table includes six laws and that relates our relationship one with another. Honor your father and mother and the rest of the commandments. So, in other words, you'll find the law expresses God's demand of holiness and righteousness upon us. Now, that is the first meaning of law. But law in the scripture has another use. It means a principle, a rule. It means something that happens often, all the time. It just happens again and again. For instance, in the physical world, God puts in the physical world the law of gravitation. No matter where you go, no matter at what century you live, if you drop something, it goes downward. That is the law of gravitation. It is a principle, a rule that governs the universe. And morally, you'll find in a moral world, God has his law too, has his principle too. And when you enter into that area, then you'll find, for instance, in Romans chapter 8, you have the law of death, of sin and of death. If we are in Adam, if we live in the flesh, then the law of sin and of death operates. But if we live in Christ, if we live by the Holy Spirit, then the law of the spirit of life operates. So here you'll find law is used in a very different way. It means a principle, a rule, something that always happens and cannot be changed. The only way to change it is to get out of the field of that operation of that law. So basically, you'll find the word law in the New Testament are used in these two different ways. Now we would like to do a little bit of analysis of the law in the New Testament. In John chapter 1 verse 17. For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth subsist through Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses. Of course the law was given by God. But it was given by God through Moses. But grace subsists, that means exists and continues in Christ Jesus. Now of course, before Moses, before the law was given by Moses at Mount Sinai, was there any law? Yes and no. Before the law was given by Moses, there was no law as such as the Ten Commandments. There was no written law defining our relationship with God, our relationship with another. There was no law. But on the other hand, law as a principle always. Always. That's the reason why in Romans chapter 5 verse 13 and 14. For until law, sin was in the world. But sin is not put to account when there is no law. But death reigns from Adam unto Moses, even upon those who have not seen in the likeness of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him to come. Before the law was given by Moses, there was no law in one sense. And yet from Adam to Moses, death reigns. Now why? Sin was in the world. But sin was not put to account. Not because before the law was given, there was no sin. We know that Adam sinned. And after Adam, from Adam to Moses, people sinned. And the wages of sin is death. And from Adam unto the time of Moses, people died. And yet there was no law given. Just like before Newton discovered the law of gravitation. The law was there. And it always worked. But Newton just discovered it. When he sat under a tree and an apple fell upon his nose. And then he began to think and discover the law of gravitation. But the law of gravitation was there since the time of Adam. So morally speaking, the law of sin and of death were there in the universe. From the time of Adam until the time of Moses. That's why people died. But the difference is, before the law was given, sin was not put into account. In other words, there was no charge. No charge. If the law does not say 65 miles limit, maximum speed 65 miles. If the law does not put a sign there on the street, then you can drive 70 miles and there is no charge. But that doesn't mean if you drive recklessly, you will not get into accident. Not because there is no speed limit. Therefore, you can drive any speed and you will be safe. Not at all. But if there is a law that says 65 miles, and if you go 60 miles or 65 miles, then you will see that you will not only be more prone to accident, but when the police catches you, there will be a charge. That's the difference. There will be a charge. Why then the law? If before the law was given, sin wasn't the word. And the way that the sin is death, it works, then why the law? Why should it be the law? Why should it be the charge? Now you come to Galatians chapter 3 verse 19. Galatians chapter 3 verse 19. Why then the law? Paul asked the same question. It was added, for the sake of transgression, until the seed came to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hands of a mediator. And Mr. Darby has a footnote here. He says, law is to bring evil into relief by transgression. And Romans chapter 7 verse 7 to 9. Romans chapter 7 verse 7 to 9. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Far be the thought. But I have not known sin unless by law, for I had not the conscience also of lust, unless the Lord had said, thou shalt not lust. The sin that is a point of attack by the commandment wrought in me every lust, for without law sin was dead. But I was alive without law once, for the commandment had not come, sin revived, but I died. In other words, why the law? Law was added for the sake of transgression. That is to say, law was given to awake our conscience. Before law was given, our conscience was asleep. We might do something bad and yet we didn't know it. And we felt quite all right about it. Not because it was right, but because we didn't feel it wasn't right. In other words, our conscience was asleep. We did not know it was sin, because nobody told us. But once the law was given, then our conscience was awakened. And it makes sin sinful. So in other place in the Bible, you'll find we are told that it's by the law we get the knowledge of sin. We do not know if this is sin, but when the law is given, then it awakens our conscience, because we know it is against the law, and we know this is sin. So law is added for transgression, to make us realize that we have sinned. Is the law given for us to keep? It seems like it, but actually the law is given for us to break. Because no one can keep the law. The law is given, but can anyone keep the law? The law of God? We break it. And in breaking it, our conscience is awakened. So the next thing is, why the law? It not only awakens our conscience, but the law sets us up to Christ. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. But before faith came, we were guarded under law, set up to faith, which was about to be revealed, so that the law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we might be justified on the principle of faith. The law is given as our tutor. Now in this verse, there are two different interpretations. Some believe that the law is our tutor. Now you know what a tutor is. A tutor is one who tutors you, who teaches you, who helps you. You know, helps you to understand something, to get into some more advanced knowledge, and so forth. A tutor. Some understand law as a tutor. Law is tutoring us to Christ. The law is teaching us, is instructing us, is directing us to Christ. But some other people feel that, no, in the original, the law is not a tutor. The word tutor there, or schoolmaster, in the original it is not, because there is a background there. And you know, at the time of Paul, in the wealthy family, usually they have many slaves. In other words, in the Roman Empire, there were more slaves, more slaves than free people. So every family had lots of slaves, and these slaves did all their jobs. You know, some worked in the kitchen as cooks, or some were maids, but some were teachers. You know, because the Greeks had higher culture than the Romans. So lots of Greeks were slaves to the Romans, but they were teachers to their children. So these were slaves. Now what it means there is slave guardians. There were slaves that were put in charge of the boys, before the boys grew up. You know, they were put under the charge of these slaves as their guardians, and they were to help these boys to grow up to maturity, especially in the way of morals, that they might grow up like a man. And it was the duty of these slave guardians to lead these boys to school, to the schoolmaster. They did not teach these boys. The schoolmaster did. But they, every day they would bring these boys to the schoolmaster to be taught. So what the Lord did was to bring these boys to the schoolmaster. So if you take that interpretation, then the schoolmaster is Christ, not the law. So there are two different interpretations. But anyway, we find what does the law do? The law sets us up to Christ. Under the law we discover we are helpless, we are hopeless. We are completely finished. We can never be justified by cheating the law. No one can. And because of that, it sets us up to Christ, seeing that Christ is our only help. He is the grace of God, and that is the work of the law. But faith having come, we are no longer under a teacher. Galatians chapter 3, verse 25. Romans 6, 14. So we are not under law, but under grace. And I think this is very self-evident. After we are set up by the law to Christ, and after we have met Christ, we are no longer under our teacher. We are no longer under law, but we are now under grace. Dear brothers and sisters, do you remember this? We are no longer under law, we are now under grace. How are we delivered from the law? How are we delivered from the law? Romans chapter 7, verse 4. Chapter 7, verse 4. So that my brethren, he also hath been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another who hath been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. The Lord not only sets us up and leads us to Christ, and after he has led us to Christ, we are under Christ and no longer under law. But after we have come to Christ, we are completely delivered from the law. How? Because in the death of Christ, we die to the law. We die to the law. And now we are joined to another who is raised from the dead. The law at one time was our husband. We were under the law of our husband. And now our husband died, therefore we are free to be married to another one. Christ is now our husband. So dear brothers and sisters, we are delivered from the law through death. In the death of Christ, we die to the law. In the resurrection of Christ, we are raised unto the law. So does it mean that because we are delivered from the law, we are no longer under law, therefore we can be lawless? Not at all. We find in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 20, that we are not without law to God, but we are legitimately subject to Christ. In Galatians chapter 6, verse 2, bear one another's burden and thus fulfill the law of the Christ. Brothers and sisters, we are delivered from the law that is mosaic law. But now we are under the law of Christ. The law of Christ is different from the mosaic law because it is not in ten commandments or in a hundred laws and rules. It is the law of the spirit of life. We are under the law of Christ and thus we live. So dear brothers and sisters, finally, don't mix up law with grace. If you mix up law with grace, it is another gospel. And another gospel, the word another is heteros, which means another of a different kind. It is no longer a gospel. Don't mix up law and grace and do not reverse the order either. Law comes first and then grace. Do not receive grace and go back to law. Then we fall from grace. So this is what you will find in the letter of Galatians concerning law, grace and law. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank Thee for showing us that the grace of God is Christ Jesus. Oh, we do praise and thank Thee that we are no longer under law. We have died to it. We are alive now unto God in Christ. We praise and we thank Thee that we are not lawless. We are under the law of Christ, which is the law of love. Oh, how we praise and worship Thee in Thy precious name. Amen.