Romans 15:4a
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime (the Old Testament) were written for our (salvation?, No. Our doctrine? No. For our what?) learning,..." We're
simplistic, and we know we are. But we are trying to explain to someone
who said, "Now look, would you expect one of your kids to suddenly jump
in a university calculus class, when they'd never had arithmetic in
school?" Why that's ridiculous isn't it. Who would ever expect somebody
to do calculus if they had never even learned the combination back in
grade school? Well this is exactly what we do with people. We take them
right into the further revelations of Scripture without any concept of
what went before. And then we wonder why they have no root, why their
faith does not hold or even come about, it's because they don't
understand anything. Therefore we and they remain in Ignorance, and
we're all guilty of it. We expect people to all of a sudden latch on to
these things without any background. But look what Paul says in this
verse - All these things in the Old Testament and we can also include
the Four Gospels up through the first 11 chapters of Acts now as far as
we're concerned, because they're all hooked to the Old Testament
economy.
Romans 15:4a
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we (as believers now) through patience..." Always
remember that the learning process is a slow process. We have to have
time and repetition, and then we move on and get a little deeper, and
then with repetition some more time is required. Well that's the way
we've got to come through the Scriptures, and all of these things have
been building, and building so that we, through comfort of the
scriptures, might have hope. Because the Holy Spirit knows just how much
we're able to digest or take in. Now back to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore (because of how God is dealing on a progressive revelation.. Wherefore) the law..." Now
we have to be careful when we read your Bible. Sometimes the Law speaks
of that whole system of Judaism. The ceremonial law, the civil law, the
dietary laws and the moral law or code of conduct. Sometime that's all
lopped into one word. But here we think the Apostle Paul is making
reference only to the moral Law, the Ten Commandments.
Galatians 3:24a
"Wherefore the law (the Ten Commandments) was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,..."
Now
what does that mean? Well for 1500 years the Hebrews were under the
Law, and it was a system (the corral or tutor of regulations and
ordinances), by which God was training them and teaching them, and
hopefully bringing them to the place where they would be mature and
understanding believing Hebrews. That's what God was hoping for. Now we
know it didn't happen but that was what He was striving for. So the sole
purpose of the Law was to prepare the Nation of Israel for a great
opportunity. To be vessels, to be instruments that He could use to bring
in the masses of the Gentile world into His fellowship. So even for
themselves as a nation -
Galatians 3:24b
"...the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified (now not by Law keeping but) by faith." Now
we want to remember that all the way from Exodus chapter 20, Israel was
under the system of the Law, and of course it was still the operation
of faith that brought an individual Hebrew into a right relationship
with God, but it was Law (works of the flesh) and faith. There was no
such thing as faith + nothing, as we showed you, until the Law was
totally, totally satisfied at the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ.
And when Christ died He satisfied the demands of the Law in the Hebrews
and our place. So Israel for 1500 years was under this Law to bring them
to the place where they could have believed who Jesus was. Because all
through the Old Testament the prophecies were looking forward to the
coming of their Redeemer, King, and Messiah. the very birthing of Christ
which Israel as a nation was pregnant with but they did not know it.
They should have known who He was. They could have known who He was. The
Old Testament was full of it, but why didn't they? They were steeped
in, what? UNBELIEF! And paganism which ran rampant throughout the land
with idols and shrines of all kinds on most all high places.
Why didn't Israel go in and take the promised land at Kadesh Barnea? God told them that He'd "drive
the Canaanites out, everything is ready for you. You can go in and take
their vineyards, their fields, their harvest, their everything, it's
all waiting for you. I'll use hornets to drive them out " God
had a system that He was literally going to remove the Canaanite
population but leave everything else in tact. All they had to do was
just walk in and take over with God's blessing. Why didn't they do it? Unbelief. Their unbelief was just simply awful.. God said, "There it is, take it!"
And the first step of unbelief was, "well at least let us send in
spies." So God condescended, but that wasn't His first intent. That was
never His first instruction to send spies in first. God said, "Go in and take it!"
But in their unbelief they wanted to send in the 12 spies one from each
tribe, and if the spies would have come back and said, Yeah we can take
it, and had went on in, God would have let them go on in. That's what
He had intended, it was a valid offer to the Nation of Israel. But why
didn't they? Unbelief! The horror of unbelief. God also told them to
have nothing to do with the people and in many cases told the Hebrews to
destroy them, their livestock and all the high places and idols but
again they did not do as told.
Listen every individual that will one day end up in the Lake of Fire is going to be there for one reason, and that is "UNBELIEF!"
The determination of their punishment will be according to the works
they have done in this life, according to their individual faith it will
be unto them, of course. But the cause of them being there in the first
place is one word, Unbelief. As we've mentioned, why is our own beloved nation almost like a flood turning their back upon this Word? Unbelief.
The nation refuses to take this as the Word of God, and we're suffering
for it. Now coming back to our text in Galatians chapter 3. But
nevertheless the Law was given that it might bring Israel to the place
where they could recognize their Messiah and believe in Him, and trust
Him, and they didn't because of unbelief. All of what
is known as Judaism was nothing short of being a shadow or type of
Christ, everything they practiced was Christ in a parable or imagery.
Until Christ was formed within them or in their midst.
Paul
makes a big deal of it, especially in Hebrews chapter 3. He says over
and over, "why didn't they get into the promised land? Why was God so
provoked with that generation? And we have to point back to Mount Sinai
and they had the golden calf, and their gross immorality that they were
involved in, but that isn't what God held against them. But rather God
held their unbelief against them. We can go all the way back through
Scripture and see these unbelief’s. Why was Esau such a grief of mind to
his parents? His unbelief. Because in his unbelief what did he do? He
went and married a Canaanite women. Ishmael is another example. What was
one of the difference between Saul and David? Why didn't Saul become
the great king that David did? Man he was a lot bigger man, he should
have been able to kill a hundred men to David's one, but his problem was
also unbelief. Saul even went so far as to go to the witch of Endor to
get some information. Unbelief! And we can see this all the way up
throughout Scripture, how that mankind refused to believe the Word of
God. Now let's move on with verse 25.
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