 Prayer.  Review.  Next week we begin to see the “Galatian Particulars.”  Paul is going to show them (us) how the Law cannot save!  Our text.  Back to vs. 19. Law keeping is a package deal!  Do you remember our examination of Romans 7:1-6?  It is THROUGH the Law that he “Died.”  Tonight, have you died THROUGH the Law?  It means “TO” the Law. The Law is the light on SIN.  Question: What demands does the law have today on Saddam Hussein?  Why?  The only way to die to the Law is to be made alive in Christ.

 Let’s use Romans 7:1 &  “Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?... (The Law kills!) 7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. (His conclusion)- 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”

 Colossians 3:1, 3-5: 1 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above… 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…”  This is not just knowing facts. The proof is repenting.  Jesus says, “…Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me… Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” Luke 9:23; Matthew 10:38.  We are dead to sin and alive to God.  One thing for certain we know is that a man going down the road with a cross on his back is certainly not coming back.  Imagine the imagery in the mind of the disciples.

 “I do not (EVER) set aside the grace of God…”  The Baptist Confession of Faith puts it this way:  “Christ, by His obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified, and by the sacrifice of himself through the blood of His cross, underwent instead of them the penalty due to them, so making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice on their behalf. Yet because He was given by the Father for them, and because His obedience and satisfaction was accepted instead of theirs (and both freely, not because of anything in them), therefore they are justified entirely and solely by free grace, so that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.”  I do not set aside the grace either! Grace is the Gospel!

 How does the Law show us the center of the Gospel?  It’s in their unity that we must mark their division.  How does the Gospel show us the message of the Law?  What do we do with the Law then in the New Testament?