Sermon Tone Analysis

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! Dependence on God \\ Galatians 3:23-29
!! Have You Put On Christ?
*Galatians 3:* 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen.
Today's sermon is based upon the Epistle of the Day, from Galatians chapter 3. St. Paul says here, “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
(Galatians 3:27).
*INRODUCTION: *We Americans do not like the thought of being held captive by anyone.
In addition to being the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, this is Independence Day.
228 years ago, the Declaration of Independence was issued, dissolving the colonies' subjugation to King George III and proclaiming that all people are created equal with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Today, 228 years after the Declaration of Independence, we are free from the tyranny of King George the Third of England.
However, we live in a world with other kinds of tyranny and other kinds of captivity.
(Terrorism, war, broken families, crime, are all signs that there is tyranny at work!).
* *I’m sure that we all would agree that as Christians, we have been freed from the GREATEST form of captivity and tyranny, SIN!
And this through the completed work of Christ upon the cross.
We would also agree that it is by God’s grace, for Christ’s sake that we have been saved.
That is, when Christ died for us, God provided salvation for everyone; not for anything we had done, but only because of what Christ had done.
“He who knew no sin became sin for us”!
In essence, He put on our sin, a wardrobe of filthy rags, and clothed us in His perfect nature, which is a beautiful robe of righteousness.
There was nothing within us that would have deserved His passion, but for that moment in time, as our savior hung suspended between heaven and earth, He willing became clothed with our filthy rags of sin!
And as He hung there, He cried out unto the Father and the whole creation, “IT IS FINISHED!”
In other word’s Jesus death upon the cross was our “Declaration of Independence” from the power of sin, and the work of God’s Law that says “You are guilty of sin!
With all of this being true, why do we Christians constantly seem to be overcome by sin?
Why does our sin, and other peoples sin seem to rob us of the joy of Christ’s gift of salvation, which is our Independence from Sin?  We’re a peculiar* *bunch of people, we Christians!
We hunger for God’s perfection in our lives, yet it seems we constantly fall short of the mark!
We seem to constantly fall into sinful habits that non-Christians enjoy so much yet we find no satisfaction at all in these things; in fact we find just the opposite…WE BECOME MISERABLE!
Why?
Because we are acting outside of Christ’s nature that has been wrapped around us in baptism!
What is this robe of righteousness that St. Paul says we are clothed in?
 
! Illustration:  Lambs Don’t Wallow!
The story is told of a lamb and its mother, who passed a pigpen each morning on the way to the pasture.
Watching the pigs wallow in the mud seemed like fun to the lamb.
On an especially hot day the lamb asked its mother, "May I jump the fence and wallow in the cool mud with the pigs?"
The Mother replied, "No."
And the lamb asked, "Why not?"
The mother simply stated, "Sheep do not wallow!"
Well, this didn't satisfy the lamb.
He felt his mother had no reason to refuse.
As soon as she was out of sight, the lamb ran to the pigpen and jumped the fence.
He felt the cool mud on his feet, his legs, and his stomach.
After a while he decided he had better go back to his mother, but he couldn't do it.
He was stuck!
His thick wool was weighed down with heavy, sticky mud.
His pleasure had become his prison.
He was a hostage of the mud.
He cried out and the kind farmer, his owner, rescued him.
When he was cleansed and returned to the fold, his mother said firmly: "Remember, sheep do not wallow!"
Well sin is like the mud in that story.
It looks so inviting, and appears easy to escape from whenever we wish.
But, because of God’s Law at work in our heats, which is like the wool, we do not find pleasure, but only pain!
What seemed like pleasure becomes our prison.
Because we sin, because we are born in sin and because we cannot keep the Law perfectly, because we sin daily, we are held captive under the Law.
So that is a good thing right?
Well let’s see what St. Paul says.
 
 
*I.
ARE YOU CLOTHED IN A INDEPENDENCE OR FREEDOM FROM GOD’S LAW?*
 
*A.*
Some People believe that to “clothe them selves in Christ” means to be free and independent of God’s Law.
In our text this morning, Paul call’s the law a guardian.
In ancient civilizations, a guardian was a person who had custody of a child in order to teach them a trade of provide for a liberal education.
Parents would pay a sum of money to a teacher to provide their child’s room, board and an education.
Somewhat like our modern boarding schools or military academies.
He uses this term to a Jewish congregation who had become Christians, but not quite!
It seems they could not let go of their form of legalism that demanded that anyone who became a Christian must continue to follow all of God’s laws as outlined in the Old Testament.
These Laws were given to God’s chosen people, the Jews, so that as they witnessed to the world about the true God and the coming Messiah, they would be set apart from all the other people of the world as special.
It is for this purpose that the Law was given to the Jews, so that they would be set apart until the Messiah would come from within their tribes!
*B.*
Paul then states: "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith."
Does that, then, mean that the Law serves no purpose?
Not at all - although some have tried misusing this passage to assert such falsehood.
Some have tried to say that once a person has been brought to faith in Christ, they are then free to do whatever they want.
They can disregard what Scripture sets forth in other areas.
That is how they justify or allow for the practice of homosexuality, the ordination of women to the divine office of Pastor, freely giving the Lord’s body and blood to any and all without examination, and even praying with heathens.
Some want to use this as an excuse for doing away with all doctrinal standards within the church.
They cry out "freedom in the Gospel" as their standard.
Yes there is freedom in the Gospel, but not freedom to do what ever each thinks is right and in the process trampling the precious gifts that God has given the church, His very Body, Blood and Word!  Remember, Jesus said that He did not come to do away with the Law but to fulfill it!
*II.
**ARE* *YOU CLOTHED IN A LOVE FOR GOD’S PERFECT LAW AND ORDER?*
 
*A.*
So what of the Law?
Some people believe that to “clothe them selves in Christ” means to serve and love the law of Him who first loved us!
They believe that it is their love for Christ will increase their faith and that will lead them to a “more righteous” life.
Through this they want to remove their sins and be justified.
If we believe this, then we clearly intend to unwrap our garment of sin off of Christ, in order to make Him innocent, to burden and overwhelm ourselves with our own sins, and to behold them, not in Christ, but in ourselves.
It is as if we are telling our Savior, “I love you so much Lord for what you have done for me.
Thanks, but I can handle it from here!”
If we do this, then we abolish Christ and make Him useless.
For if it is true that we abolish sins by our own efforts, by being good, and demonstrating our love for Christ, then Christ does not take them away, but we do.
*B.
*Then what about the Law.
If it does not help me, is the law then useless?
Absolutely not!
Just because we can't earn our salvation through the Law, doesn't mean that the Law has no role or purpose to play in our lives.
Although Christ has come, the Law still serves a purpose.
He came, not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matt.
5:17).
The Law still serves as a guardian in a sense, but not as it did for the Jews who were God’s witnesses to the coming Messiah.
Rather, in Luther's Small Catechism, we refer to the First Use of the Law, or the Law as a Curb.
This is the Law as it is used by people throughout the world in all societies and cultures based on the Law written by God on human hearts.
This use of the Law keeps order in a fallen world so that people don’t destroy each other.
Another role or purpose of the Law, which is not specifically mentioned by the Apostle Paul in  our text, but which is brought out elsewhere in Scripture and is identified in our Lutheran Confessions (FC VI) is what we call the Third Use of the Law.
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