Ron Dunn Podcast - Before And After Picture Of Your Life

Episode Date: February 17, 2016

Pastor Ron Dunn preaches a message from Galatians chapter 3. This message is focused on us looking at our lives and recognizing the difference between the way we once lived and the way we live now as believers.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. I was tonight as we glanced through Galatians to the third chapter again of the third chapter of Galatians. And I want to read tonight, well let's 3, verses 23 through the end of the chapter, verse 29. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that the faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, and translations read male nor female, but actually the Greek is male and female. I think it's interesting that even when Paul is showing how the gospel makes us one, he still insists there is a difference between male and female.

And so he says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now I want you to notice two phrases in this passage. Verse 23, he says, Before this faith came. And in verse 25, Now that this faith has come. And it's a sort of before and after picture. I don't know, some of you may remember years ago on television when they used to have this program called This Is Your Life,

and some of you are old enough to remember that. I think they tried to revive it, but I'm talking about the ancient one. I mean the original one. And for those of you who are not enlightened about that program, I'll just try to tell you a little bit about it. They would choose some famous person, some celebrity like a movie star or an athlete or anyway, somebody who was a celebrity, and they would supposedly surprise him. And Ralph Edwards, who was the emcee, would walk in to this person,

wherever he was, and say, so-and-so, this is your life. And for the next 30 minutes, they would unfold all the great triumphs of that life, and they'd bring in friends and relatives from way back, and they would give testimonies as to what this person had meant for them. Now, I was never a subject on that program. I kept waiting for the phone to ring, you know, or kept waiting. I expect any moment Ralph Edwards to walk in and say, this is your life. But anybody here, were you ever a subject on that program? No, I didn't think so.

Most of us live lives just ordinary enough not to be interesting to anybody else. And so we will never have Ralph Edwards probably do our before and after, and nobody will probably ever write our biography. Of course, they'll probably write Tom's biography since he is the esteemed president of our convention and since he can say things like compendium of galactic truth. I'm going to write a book on Galatians and call it that. But God has written, in a sense, a before and after picture of our life. And in a sense, what Paul is saying to these Galatians, this is your life.

This is what you were before faith in Christ came, and this is what you are now that faith in Christ has come. So in our study tonight, that's how I want us to divide up this passage of Scripture. First of all, let's look at the before picture, what we were before Christ came into our lives. He says in verse 23, before this faith, and he's referring to the faith spoken of in verse 22, but the scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So he's not talking about just a general faith, just a general believing, but he's talking about a specific faith, and it is this faith in Christ.

And before this faith came, he says two things about us. We were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. Before this faith came, before this faith of Jesus Christ came, there were two things that were true about us, and both of them were concerning the law. Number one, he says we were prisoners of the law. Now, in the previous verse, he said we're prisoners of sin. And when he says we're prisoners of the law. Now, in the previous verse, he said we're prisoners of sin.

And when he says we're prisoners of sin and we're prisoners of the law, he's talking about two different things. And yet they meld together. All of us being born in sin and having sinned not only by conception because we are born with that sinful nature, but also by sinning by choice, and that which you give yourself to, to serve, then you become the slave, and that becomes your master. So there was a sense in which all of us without Christ are prisoners, are enslaved by sin.

Of course, one of the great deceptions of the devil is to get lost. People believe they're not enslaved, you see. People, you know, they say, man, I'm glad I'm not one of those Christians. I'm glad I'm not one of those narrow-minded Baptists. I'm a free person. I can do what I want to do. And it's the most foolish statement a person can make because without Jesus Christ, you're not a free person. You are slave of sin you are the slave of Satan and as Ephesians tells us everything you do you are walking according to the Prince of the power of this air you're energized by the devil your motivation comes from the devil and you're not free that is a deception that the devil has brought upon

the human race, and we revel in that because we all like to be free. You know, I can do what I want to do. I don't want anybody telling me what to do, and thank God not being a Christian, I'm a free person. I can be what I want to be and do what I want to do. All the time not knowing it, that they are being led around like a chain around their neck by the devil. So we are prisoners of sin. But Paul here is focusing also on the fact that we are prisoners of the law. He says, before this faith came,

we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith, or the faith, as the definite article there, until this faith should be revealed. We were prisoners of the law. And we've heard that before, and Paul has a lot to say about it, not only in Galatians, but also in Romans and in others of his writings. We are prisoners by the law. What does that mean? The law hems us in. You see, we've already emphasized this,

and Paul is emphasizing it over and over again, that no man can be justified by the law. Now, the thing that the Jews were mistaken about is they thought God gave the law in order for them to be saved. That if they could keep the law, then they would find a righteous acceptance before God. But the fact of the matter is God did not give the law in order for man to be saved

because no man can keep the law. Outside of Jesus Christ, nobody has ever kept the law. Paul thought at one time he kept the law. I mean, he could go down the list of the Ten Commandments. Oh, he was doing fine until he got to that last one, you know, where he said, thou shalt not covet. And that's what did him in. You can read it in Romans chapter 7. You see, you say, well, the Bible says that you should have no other gods before me, and so I'm a good Jew, and I worship the one and only God, the Lord God of Israel. And the Bible says not to make any graven images, and I've never made a graven image. And the Bible says I honor my father and mother, and I've done that. Do not commit adultery. I've

never done that. Do not steal. I've never done that Do not commit adultery. I've never done that. Do not steal. I've never done that. Do not bear witness. I've never done that. Do not murder. I've never done that. But when you get down to that tenth one, it says do not covet. That turns everything inward, you see.

I may never have killed anybody, but I sure had a hankering to do so once in a while, you know. You may never have stolen anything, literally stolen anything, but you may have had the desire to have what somebody else has. And the only thing that maybe kept you from stealing it was the fear of getting caught. You know, I've never stolen a million dollars. But that doesn't make me righteous, that just makes me scared. In the first place, I've never had a chance.

In the second place, I don't know. If I had the chance to do it and get by with it, who knows? I may do it. I don't know. I've never been tempted along that line. But I may, you know, I could see a million dollars laying there. I may not steal it, but I sort of I may, you know, I could see a million dollars laying there. I may not steal it,

but I sort of covet it, you know. And so, you see, the law was never given so that men might be saved. And that's the mistake that the Jews made and the mistake that Paul made at first. Of course, he said, as touching the law, I was blameless.

And they thought to find favor from God and righteousness from God because they kept the law. But what God is saying is, I never gave the law for that purpose. Never gave the law for that purpose. In the first place, nobody can keep that law. I remember when I was in seminary and I was taking missions class from Cal Guy, and you know, I learned right off in seminary, in class, keep my mouth shut. You know, the teacher is always right. I mean, as long as you're in class, as long as you have to take the test,

the teacher's always right, you know. But invariably, there was always somebody in each class that would question what the teacher said, you know. And invariably, there was always somebody in each class that would question what the teacher said, you know. And the rest of them would just sit back and wait, you know, for him to be wiped out. Well, I remember he was teaching on missions, and he was talking about the necessity of the gospel being preached and the necessity of men and women hearing about Christ. And this one fellow raised his hand and he said, Dr. Guy, what about the heathen? He said, what about them?

He said, well, what about those people who never hear the gospel of Christ? He said, what about them? He said, well, it seems to me that if a man never hears the gospel of Christ, and yet he does the best he knows, then he'll be saved. Dr. Guy said, trot out that heathen. He said, show me anybody, heathen or not, who has ever always done the best they could do. You see, has anybody here tonight,

can you say, I have always lived up to the demands of my conscience? I've never one time gone against my conscience. You see, even if God were to say, all right, I'm going to let you be saved without the gospel. All you have to do is just to do your best. Always do your best and live up to the demands of your conscience. Men would still be lost, you see, because nobody ever does that. And so God is saying the law was never given to bring about conversion. The law was given so that we might not seek, now listen to me carefully,

so that we might not seek justification by some illusionary method. Because any time I thought I was doing pretty good and that God ought to be proud of me, in comes the law and it immediately condemns me because it points out that I'm a sinner. No matter how hard I've tried, no matter how much I've labored,

no matter how much effort I've put into it, I've gone and I've still come short of the law. I may not break it outwardly, but I have broken it inwardly. There has been covetousness in my heart. And so that's how the law held us in prison. It kept us prisoners. Now watch it.

Now listen to me. The law imprisoned us that we might be saved. You know, we usually look upon the law as an enemy. But the law is not an enemy. But the law is not an enemy. The law is a friend that keeps us locked up so that we won't try to escape and delusion ourselves by thinking that we can find favor with God through our own efforts efforts no it keeps us

prisoner notice he says he uses kind of a double verb there he says we were held prisoners by the law locked up locked up and that word locked up has the idea of being surrounded of being surrounded so here I. I'm in the prison of the law, but I try to break out, you know. I believe I can beat this thing. I believe surely God is so good that if I just do my best, well, I'll be all right. But you see, not only am I in prison, but I am surrounded. There are sentries watching everywhere, and so if I try to slip between the bars, there's a sentry there pushing me back in, you see. In other words, the law is going to make certain that I do not escape. Because if I escape from the law, I will dig out my own way of

salvation, and I will suffer the illusion that I have somehow Found favor with God. So the law is a friend you see Because it keeps telling us no no you're condemned you're a sinner and the gospel means this that that your sin and Depravity and my sin and my depravity are far greater than we can ever imagine And his love and mercy and grace are far greater than we can ever imagine. And his love and mercy and grace are far greater than we can ever imagine. But first of all, you've got to get a man lost before you can get him saved. I mean, if a person isn't held prisoner by the law, then he's going to look after some other way of means to be saved and will delude himself

with the devil's help and the friends his friend's help that he's alright the way he is. But the law keeps coming back and the law says no I'm saving you, I'm preserving you until the faith the true faith, the true way of

salvation is revealed. And when the true way of salvation is revealed. And when the true way of salvation is revealed, then I'll let you go because then you can truly be saved. But if I let you go before that, you're going to make up your own way of salvation. So the law imprisons us not as an enemy, but as a friend. It imprisons us in order to save us. But then he uses another figure of the law, the figure of the pedagogue. Now the king, he says,

so the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. Now unfortunately the King James translates that schoolmaster and others translate it tutor. But that's not what it means at all. The law is not our schoolmaster to show us Christ. No, the law is not that. The law is our pedagogue, and in the ancient world, pedagogue was a lousy job. And a pedagogue was always considered to be a harsh, strict disciplinarian. That's what he was. He was a disciplinarian. In the homes of the Jews,

those who were wealthy enough to have slaves, when a child reached the age, some say six, others say seven, when he reached the age of six or seven, he was put under the control of a disciplinarian, a supervisor, a pedagogue. And this pedagogue would go with him everywhere he went. He would teach him what good manners were. He would teach him how to speak in public. And when the young boy would go out in the streets, he would always accompany him to ward off any unwanted homosexual advances which were common in those days. That was his job. And his job was to make certain that he got to the teacher. The law itself was not the teacher. The law itself was a disciplinarian. It was a supervisor.

I found this quote with Socrates. Socrates is talking to one of his students, and Socrates says to his student, do your parents let you control yourself? And the student said, Of course they do not. Socrates said, But somebody controls you. Yes, my pedagogue is here. Is he a slave? Socrates asked. Why, certainly. He belongs to us. Socrates said, what a strange thing,

a free man controlled by a slave. But how does this pedagogue exert his control over you? And the student answered, by taking me to the teacher. By taking me to the teacher. You see, the law is not itself the teacher. The teacher is Christ. And so the law supervises us and disciplines us so that we will not be led astray and we can be led to the teacher, and that is Christ. So that's what we were before.

We were prisoners of the law, locked up, shut up, but not as an enemy, but as a friend so that we might be saved. And the law was a supervisor to keep us on track and to make certain by his harsh discipline

that we did at last turn and arrive to hear what the teacher had to say. So that's what we were before. Now let's look at the after picture. He says in verse 25, now that faith or this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law you see once faith in Jesus Christ has come you no longer need the law you no longer need the law and of course this is a part of the galactic you know theory is that people were telling them they still needed the law no Paul is plainly saying once faith in Christ is revealed, then you no longer are under the supervision. But he says now that faith has come,

we are no longer under the supervision of the law. He said you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Now, I want to say several things about this, what we are now, what we are now. Faith in Christ, faith in Christ. First thing I want to say is it is a revealed faith. That's what Paul is saying. It is a revealed faith. Notice how he says in verse 23, before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up. How long? Until faith, this faith, should be revealed. Now I'll not go back over territory that we crossed yesterday about Paul saying that the gospel was revealed to him, that when he was saved,

he didn't go up to Jerusalem and consult the pros, and he didn't go to the leaders and ask them what they thought. He went to Arabia and was there for three years, and he uses a very interesting phrase. He said, Christ revealed in me. God revealed his Son in me. Not just revealed his Son to me, but revealed his Son in me.

And the first thing we need to understand is that faith in Christ is a revealed faith. Folks, you'll never catch it until it's revealed to you. You'll never catch it until it's revealed to you. You say, well, I'm going to learn the gospel. I'm going to learn the faith of Christ. And so you put on your glasses and you put on your intellectual clothes and you begin to delve and to study and maybe study the Greek and the Hebrew and all of that. You say, I'm going to find out about this.

But my dear friends, no amount of learning, no amount of study, no amount of diligent effort will bring you to Christ until first of all that faith bring you to Christ until, first of all, that faith is revealed to you personally. And I think sometimes we rush conversions. I really do. The latest one I've heard about is a campus crusade worker coming up, and he starts to talk to this fellow, and he's going to show himade worker coming up, and he starts to talk to this fellow, and they're going to show him the four spiritual laws,

and he drops the track, and this guy gets down to pick it up, and he gets down, and he says, while we're on our knees, would you like to invite Christ into your heart? Now, don't get me wrong. I don't mean that people can't be saved when they hear the gospel for the first time, but I tell you what, a lot of people have an emotional conversion. And you can talk someone into being guilty.

But I want to say this. I don't care if a person gets down on his knees and calls upon the Lord to save him if the Holy Spirit has not opened that man's inner eyes to see himself as a sinner and Christ as the sacrifice for sin, he is not going to be saved. It is a revealed faith.

It must be revealed. And it goes that way throughout your Christian life. If you want to read over in Ephesians chapter 1 where he's praying for these Ephesians who've been saved, but he said, I'm praying that God will give you the spirit of revelation. Why? Because every truth,

every new truth we discover about God is revealed to us. It's revealed to us by by work of the Holy Spirit. And we don't all grow at the same pace. We don't all learn at the same pace. I remember when I was pastor, and I felt like I was a pretty good pastor. I felt like I pretty much presented the whole counsel of God,

was faithful to the Word of God. But we'd have an evangelist or Bible teacher come into our church, and he'd preach stuff that I'd preached. But invariably, somebody would come up to me and say, Preacher, wasn't that the most wonderful thing you've ever heard in your life? I've never heard anything like that in my life. I wanted to shake them by the shoulder and say, Where have you been? I've been preaching that for years.

But you see, they weren't ready yet. They weren't ready yet. I remember preaching one night, and there was a family who always sat in the center on the second pew, and I was preaching along, and suddenly this man in the middle of my sermon did this just hit his forehead with his fist I knew immediately what happened the light came on and I talked to him afterwards and he said you know suddenly tonight while you were preaching I saw something that I'd never

seen before and God showed me something new. What happened to that man? God revealed his truth to that person, you see. Folks, I want to tell you something. A saved man without the revelation of the Holy Spirit is no more likely to uncover spiritual truth than a lost person is. It is a revealed faith. That's why preachers and pastors especially have to be patient with their people

you know that was the hardest thing I ever had to do is be patient I want them to all come along at the same time but they don't all come along at the same time Richard told me he had 11 children they didn't all did they all walk at the same age good boy that

you know if he had said, you know, if you'd have said yes, you know, I'd have been outdoors with it. But they don't all grow at the same pace. They don't, nobody does. Our personalities and a lot of other things enter into it, and we don't grow at the same pace as everyone else. And it's wrong for us to expect everybody else to grasp what we grasp when we grasp it. And so the pastor who is shepherding his flock has to keep feeding those who are growing, but has to keep going back and picking up those who haven't grown yet, you see. I tell you, it's the toughest job in the world, because when you stand to preach to your congregation, you've got a hundred

different stages of development, and yet what you preach has to somehow minister to all of them and the only thing that will do that of course is the exposition of the word of God and it will teach people and grab people where they are and take them where they want to be it is a reveal faith but not only that

it is a redemptive faith now he tells us some of the things that happen first of all he says you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. When we put our faith in Christ Jesus, that's when and only when we become the sons of God. I'm not going to spend a lot of time there because I don't think you need to be talked out of believing in the fatherhood of God, the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, do you? You know that's not true. Now there is a sense in a creative sense when God is the father of all

people saved and lost and the father of the nations in a creative sense. But in a spiritual sense, he is father only of those who have believed in Jesus Christ and have been born of the Spirit and adopted into the family of God. So he says, we become the sons of God. And later on in this book, he's going to tell what that means. That's the same thing as being heirs of the promise of Abraham, according to the promise that he made to Abraham. In other words, once we enter into the family of God, we enter into all of the promises

and the riches that belong to God's children, belong to a member of the family of God. So we are, first of all, sons of God. But now here's another interesting thing. He says, for all of you who were baptized into Christ, that's the second thing, we have been baptized into Christ. That's the second thing. We have been baptized into Christ. Now, he's speaking here primarily, I think, about the spirit baptism. That when a person comes to Christ, the Holy Spirit takes that individual and immerses him, baptizes him into the body of Christ. And so you'll hear some people say, well, you need to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Well, I got that when I was saved. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience. It happens automatically. The minute you trust Christ, and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, we have all been baptized by one spirit into one body. I've

been joined with him. I have been like when a person is immersed in water, they become one with that water. That water becomes their environment. And so I've been baptized into Christ, and he is my environment. I've become one with him. but this leads to water baptism. You won't find anywhere in the New Testament an unbaptized believer. You will just not find an unbaptized believer. No such thing. When people were saved, they were baptized,

not only by the Spirit and the body of Christ, but they were baptized. Why? Because that immersion, that water baptism, was the picture and the identifying mark of that inward happening when the Spirit of God made them a member of the true body of Christ. So baptism is important. Water baptism is important. Why? Because it identifies us, we're going to see this more in just a moment. It identifies us with the new community of God.

Now, you know something that I realized a while ago that they didn't have walking down the aisle in the New Testament church, the old sawdust trail. You know, we say today, so-and-so has come on his profession of faith, and that's fine. But scripturally, if you want to get technical and scriptural,

that person has not truly confessed his faith until he's been baptized. Baptism is the scriptural confession of faith. And when I am immersed into the water, I have died with Christ, and I have been resurrected with Christ to walk like him. That identifies me. That is my testimony.

That is my testimony. That's my confession of faith. I'm making a confession that I have broken from the world and I have identified myself with Christ and his people. And how do I do that? I do that in the baptistry. And you say, well, I have been saved. I was saved in my home.

I was saved watching Billy Graham on the TV. I don't doubt that. But I want to tell you something. You have not fully and scripturally confessed your faith in Christ until you've done it in baptism before the body of believers. Well, notice now what he says. He says, in the third place, you have clothed yourselves with Christ. Those of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Now, there's some very interesting little things going on here. In the early church they used to baptize people without clothes on, naked. Of course, when the women came into the pool or whatever it was, everybody inverted their eyes, but everybody was baptized naked. Now, many times, here's what would happen.

Here is a young man who has lived and worshipped a pagan god, and he wears the garment and maybe the insignia, the patch on his robe of that pagan god. Now, when he comes to Christ and puts his faith in Christ, he takes off that robe, discarding that robe, and is baptized,

and when he comes up out of the water, they put a new robe on him, you see. He is clothed in a new robe. Now, another interesting thing about this is that akin to the word baptizo is bapto, which means to dye, like you're dyeing a garment or you're dyeing your hair. So I like to think of it as being dipped and dyed.

You go down in the water the color of a pagan, of a lost person, but you come up dyed into the color of Christ, you see. So you are clothed now, not with the garments of the former life, but you're clothed now not with the garments of the former life but you're clothed with Christ and you have his color about you and his demeanor and his characteristics

you've been clothed in those new clothes the child of the law always wore a special toga to show he was under the instruction of the law. And so there is a picture of when this person comes to Christ, he takes off the robes of the law. And when he comes up out of the water he puts on the robe of Christ

and baptized in Christ so it is a revealed faith it is a redemptive faith but it is also a revolutionary faith a revolutionary faith now you and I don't have any idea we cannot appreciate what these next words of Paul meant to the people of his day.

When he said in verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now, he took those three things, doublets, you know, call them triads of the three, but what do you call them if they're two? Pairs. Thank you. I'll tell you, this man... He took these three pairs, either Jew or Gentile,

slave or free, male and female. Now, why did he choose those three? Why did he choose those three? All right. Let me ask you. What are the three main sources of dissension and separation in a human race? Race, economic status, and sex. Am I right? Yes. Anywhere you go on the face of the earth, no matter what nation, no matter what civilization, you'll find those three things. A country, a nation, a people, Race divided by economic status and divided by sex. Now, the feminists sometimes use this.

They try to use this verse, you know. But that's why I say Paul didn't say male nor female. He said male and female. They're still male and female, even though we're one in Christ. Now, can you imagine what it must have done to the Jews when Paul said, Listen, you Jews, they're boasting about your Jewishness

and you're boasting about your traditions with Moses. I have news for you. And you're looking down on these Galatians, these Gentiles. You're looking down on these heathens. I've got news for you. When you come to Christ, you're all one, and God doesn't see you as Jew or as Gentile.

Now, brother, that'd make the deacon boy just about throw that pastor out because they're Jews. And you're saying, you're telling me that the Jews are not better than the Gentiles? Of course they are. We're God's chosen people.

We're the most elite people on the earth. We have the highest ethic that anybody has ever known. And here you are coming along saying that there's no distinction with God. He doesn't care whether you're Jew or whether you're Gentile. Well, that's revolutionary. That costs a man his pulpit if he's not careful. And then he says there's neither slave nor free. We do like our economic status, don't we?

Well, some of us do. Some of us may not. But the world is divided by economic sets, those who have and those who do not have. And in the ancient world, it was the same way. But the most glaring economic division was slaves and free. And to say that the slave is just as good as the freeman, whew, that doesn't work well. There is a big, pollutant luncheon

they have every year at the Southern Bass Convention. And I bet you were there, Tom. And the man in charge of that luncheon, we were talking. And he said, guess who I got a phone call from? And it was from an evangelist that hasn't been to the convention probably in 20 years and has never been to one of these conferences. But he had his manager, I guess you'd call it, call up this fellow in charge and said that so-and-so wants to come

if he can sit at the head table. My mind immediately went to the book of James. I want the high seat in the synagogue. Don't fool yourself into believing that those distinctions are still not with us see what was so what was so mind-boggling is that here's a wealthy man

who owns slaves and he comes to church and his pastor is a slave to whom he is to submit in spiritual matters and friend they found that hard hard to do to whom he is to submit in spiritual matters. And they found that hard, hard to do. Now, you know, just kind of an aside, this doesn't cost you anything,

but you realize that Paul never denounced slavery? That's interesting, isn't it? You see, he's not saying that there are no more Jews or Gentiles there are there still exists Jews and Gentiles there still and there they are still rich people and poor people there still are they still are and it's interesting that neither Jesus nor Paul ever ever took up a banner and a protest against slavery Alexander McLaren said there's two ways to kill a tree. One is to chop it down, kill it immediately. The other is to strip the bark from it and it'll die gradually. And he said that's what Christ did with the slavery. He

didn't chop down the tree but he stripped the bark from that institution and eventually died. You remember when, who was Philemon's slave? Onesiphorus? Or something like that, yeah. When he ran away, Paul didn't say to Onesiphorus, folks have had a hard day, cut me a little slack here, all right? He didn't say to the slave, man, good for you, good for you. Slavery is wrong and bad. You have the right to be free.

Go for it. He didn't say that. He said, go back to your master. Go back to your master. But then he says to the master, he said, you receive him as a brother. Goodness. That's revolutionary. I have to confess that when I was a pastor, we'd get these things from the city to tell

us they were a new move in, you know. When you get your electricity turned on, I want you to know that information goes out to churches all over the city. And so we'd visit all those people. Now, I want to tell you something. A lot of times there'd be professional people, doctors and lawyers and CEOs.

Man, they needed a traffic cop on their sidewalk to handle all the pastors and church visitors that were trying to get them to join the church. But you could go to the other side of the town where the peons lived, and man, you had it all to yourself. You know what? Our churches today are trying harder to reach the ups and outs and the wealthy.

And we counted. You know, I never have a pastor say to me, Hey, boy, I tell you what, we have three ditch diggers in our church. But you know what they'll say to me? Man, we've got four doctors in our church and six PhDs and 12 lawyers. Do you know any bricklayers? I don't know.

Well, they make more than the lawyers. You're right. I started to say plumbers, but I didn't just because of that. If you had any plumbing done lately, you'll know what I'm talking about. But you understand what I'm saying. And so, it's revolutionary. Listen, friends, when are we

going to recapture the vision of the New Testament church? Folks, this religion was originally a religion of slaves. And that's when the church was its most powerful. And we need to get back to the vision of a New Testament church. Well, the last thing he said is neither male nor female. Boy, I don't think I'm going to touch that. I'm just going to leave that like it is.

That's probably the wisest thing I've done all day. But he said in God's sight. You see the Jews had a prayer. You know what that prayer is Tom. I have Tom stand up here and quote it. The Jews, Jewish men, Jewish men had a prayer. And they thanked God for three things every morning. Thank God I'm not a dog. Thank God I'm not a Gentile. Thank God I'm not a woman. That's right. Orthodox Jewish men still pray that prayer. And so for Paul to come along and say,

hey, I've got news for you. A woman has just as much right to say, thank God I'm not a man. There is no distinction as far as the spiritual status with God is concerned. And I'll tell you something else. You search out the civilizations of this world, and it is only in those civilizations where Christianity has had an impact that women are treated halfway decently. Now, I know some of you are going to say, we're still not getting

all that we do. Well, if you want to lower yourself to man's level, then that's fine. But I don't see why you'd want to do that. And you may say, well, women still aren't getting their rightful due. And I agree with that in many instances, many places. But I want to tell you something. Women have gotten as far as they've gotten because of the impact of Christianity. You want to test that out, you go to the Muslim countries. And you go to the Oriental countries where they worship Buddha and Confucius. The only countries, the only

civilizations that have given halfway respect to women are those that have been impacted by Christianity. Well, he sums it all up by saying, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, thank God I do, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. All the rich, vast promises of God are mine. And it's simply through faith in Jesus Christ. And so the gospel means I'm far more sinful and flawed than I ever could imagine.

And God's grace is far greater than I could ever imagine. That he has taken me and adopted me into his family. You know, there are several times I do things stupid, and I remember one. It was at the funeral of my wife's uncle. And one of his daughters, I'd heard, had adopted a 15-year-old girl. You know, I can see adopting a baby, or even a 5-year-old, but adopting a 15-year-old when they're going through all of that teenage madness. And so I was talking to this girl, this woman, and she said, she told me, she said, I adopted this 15 year old girl. I said,

why did you do that? And she said, because I loved her. I felt like an idiot. You know, like she had done something terribly wrong, stupid. And her answer condemned me. She said, because I loved her. And you and I may wonder, why in the world would God adopt us into his family and make us his children? I'll tell you why. He loves us. He loves us. Well, would you bow your heads with me now for a moment as we pray together. Brother Tom's going to come and close our service. let's just let the Lord speak to our hearts

in this quiet moment of prayer of music just quietly asking the Lord to reveal to us any area of our life where we have yet to comply with what we have heard from the Lord. Can you say quite honestly, I look back and see how that slavery and sin became so obvious as my pedagogue the law took me by the hand brought me to Jesus and showed me that it was not by the works of my flesh, no matter how rigorous and how ritualistic

and how righteous I may have thought they were, but it's only through the shed blood of Jesus that I can have eternal life. And if you have come to that point, would you thank the Lord for it right now in prayer? Just thank him for your great salvation. Thank him for the fact that you have become one with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

If there's something missing in that experience, if since you believe you have not confessed Christ through baptism. That is, since you believe, we speak of like faith in order. That means faith in Christ comes first. And then next in line, next in order is baptism, to openly confess that faith, confess the fact that you are cleansed and set free in Christ. You've not done that.

Would you just tell the Lord right now that you acknowledge that and that you know that he's speaking to your heart and you want to follow his will? Does that matter? As a believer in Christ, having come from this day's activities, would you allow him to take the truths of his word spoken by the Spirit through these authors through Paul verbalized through Ron down in these past few moments apply them to your life would you say Lord I see these areas where I need to comply and haven't been. I choose tonight to agree with you. I confess. I say the same thing about sin that you say about it.

And I believe. Thank you for your forgiveness and cleansing. Now, while your head is bowed and before I lead us in this closing prayer, let me tell you that I know that the way it's set here in this conference center, it is for all practical purposes impossible for us to have a come forward moment where you come and say I just want to visit with the counselor about what the Lord's speaking to my heart so when you leave this evening over here to your left by this door as you leave on the left hand side there'll be some staff members and counselors standing over there if you just find one of them they'll go

right around the corner we have a counseling area set up and they'll go with you around and even be more than happy to visit with you may want to join the church or you may say you know I just realized something I haven't been scripturally baptized I think I baptized as a child was only later on that I trusted Christ or you may have come to what we say you know I don't think I've ever really trusted in Jesus as my Savior like I've heard about the apostle from the apostle Paul this evening and I need to settle that I don't have the confidence that I have eternal life forgiveness cleansing of sin and so I'm going to ask of our men if they would come even now and just stand

over here a little bit so you can identify them before we leave and you'll see them standing down here and know to go to them and say, look, I'd like to visit with someone about these needs in my life. And then I'm going to ask you to join with me in praying. We're going to pray that God would bless the offering because in just a few moments I'm going to ask you to take those offering envelopes that you have. You found one there in the seat when you sat down. I'm going to ask you to take those offering envelopes that you have. You found one there in the seat when you sat down.

I'm going to ask you to fill it out, and we'll pass them in down to the end. And our men will help us with the offering baskets in just a few moments. So, Father, we just pray that you would drive into our heart deeply the truths that we have learned this evening. Bless us now, Lord, to prepare our hearts to give and pray these things in your name. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible,

please visit rondunn.com.