I'll take your Bibles and turn
back to me Galatians chapter 3. I'm going to tell you this
message, the covenant of promise. The covenant of promise, our
text will be found in verse 15 through verse 18 here. The scripture says, brethren,
I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant. Yet if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth or addeth thereunto." Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. What is he talking about? The
promise of this covenant. He gave an illustration of a
man's covenant. And he said this promise of God
that was contained in the covenant of God. These are covenant promises. They were made to Abraham and
to his seed. Now he said not seeds as of many. These promises were not made
to the children of Israel. They were not confirmed in the
obedience or obtained by the obedience of the children of
Israel. That's why he's pointing this out. The covenant promises
was made to one. It would say it's not seeds but
seed one. And who is that? That seed which
is Christ. Now this I say that a covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, another
covenant. Law is another covenant. You
got a covenant of promise and you got a covenant of works.
And he's saying this, that that covenant of promise was confirmed
before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after
cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham, how? By promise. having declared this,
the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of Abraham. He says
in verse 9, So then they which be of faith are blessed with
faithful Abraham. This blessing of Abraham was
never obtained by law, but through the redemption that is in Jesus
Christ. that we who were cursed by the
law should be justified by the substitutionary death of Jesus,
and this was because he was made a curse. How should we who were
cursed be made to receive the blessing of Abraham, which was
righteousness? How could we receive this? In
this, that Christ was made a curse for us, in order to set us free
from the curse. And the experience of this grace,
at the appointed time, we like Abraham received the Spirit of
promise. Now God promised the Spirit before
you received it. He promised it in a covenant.
But at the appointed time of grace we received the promise
of the Spirit, how? By law or by faith. How did we
receive the Spirit? Through faith. through faith. And therefore we are blessed
with faithful Abraham. Now let us consider the greatness
tonight of God's salvation. That this salvation was given
to us according to an eternal covenant. A covenant. A covenant full of promises. A covenant of salvation. And
God promised salvation to His people by the merits and the
obedience, by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
All of the promises of God were given to us in Christ. In Christ. You see, we by nature
were cursed. We could not obtain these promises
by any obedience to the law, we could never merit the righteousness
of God. Therefore, Paul said that, that
nobody's justified by the law is evident. That's clear, isn't
it? Could you ever claim to be justified by the law? If you
claim that, you're just delusional. That's just delusional. That's
insane to believe that you are sinless. that you can obtain
God's favor. What do we get from the law is
a curse, a curse. Yet God purposed that we should
be saved from the curse. So Jesus, in love, offered Himself
willingly, He was made to bear our sins in order to obtain the
righteousness of God for us. And then according to an eternal
covenant of grace, the Holy Spirit was given to us through faith. And what did the
Holy Spirit do for us? He quickened us. He gave us life. Why? Because this was according
to the eternal covenant of promise. God promised to give Abraham
the Spirit and at the appointed time He gave him the Spirit.
Now why did He give him the Spirit? Was His obedience to the law?
No. It was a grace. Grace was the purpose. And the
Spirit did the same for us. He quickened us from the dead
that we should know our sins and flee to Jesus Christ. Now
tonight, this is important. If we are heirs of this covenant
of promise, this is one thing that is true. The Spirit of God
has been given to us. We have been made to see our
sin. We've been made to see our inability
to obtain God's God's blessing. We can't merit it. And what did
we do as a result of this? We fled to Christ for refuge. Paul said we fled to Christ and
lay hold of the hope. Have you laid hold of Him by
faith? You have to move them up. Have
you laid a hold of Him by faith? Why is it that you have and others
won't I'll tell you why. Because of a covenant God made
for you in Christ. It's a covenant. And so now we who believe are
blessed with faithful Abraham in this, that we are made the
righteousness of God in Christ. We are justified before God. And so now in our text the apostle
gives and explains how this blessing This receiving of the Spirit
through faith, this benefit of the covenant comes to us. It
comes to us only through an eternal covenant. So there's only one
reason we've experienced the salvation of God and that's because
of a covenant of promise. A covenant of promise. Here in these verses we're going
to see something that Paul does constantly throughout this chapter.
He constantly makes a division between two covenants. Two covenants. The covenant of
promise by which we receive the Spirit. By which we receive the
blessings of Abraham. And another covenant, distinctly
different, totally separate, is the covenant of the law. So these two covenants are separate
and distinct. They each have a purpose, but
they are distinct. And only under one covenant is
the promise obtained and received, while the other covenant has
no part whatsoever in the obtaining or the receiving of the Spirit.
The other covenant has no part in the keeping or the finishing
of this covenant. And what is he talking about?
That's the covenant of the law. The covenant of the law has no part
in this covenant of promise. It has no part in obtaining,
receiving, keeping, or finishing. The covenant of the law is one
in which has no part nor can by any means accomplish or obtain
the promise of salvation. So what do I mean by that? The
law cannot justify you, the law cannot sanctify you, the law
cannot make you righteous, the law cannot give you wisdom as
to how to be righteous. While the other covenant, the
covenant of promise, listen, the covenant of promise has ordained
all of those things for us. The covenant of promise has obtained
all of those things for us, accomplished them, and the covenant of promise
applies them. The covenant of promise keeps
them until they're fully manifest to you in glory. And all of these
covenant promises are in one person. It was ordained that Jesus Christ
should be the Savior of the elect. It was ordained of God that He
should accomplish these things, and in time He did accomplish
these things. It was ordained of God that through
the eternal Spirit that these things should be applied to everyone
He obtained them for. And the covenant of promise swears
this, that none of them shall miss it. Everyone that God purposed
to save, He will save, and none will be lost. See, our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came into this world to be made a curse for us, that's according
to the covenant of promise. You always liked that scripture
that... You remember the Jews didn't want to kill Him on Passover?
You remember that? The Jews said, We can't kill
him on Passover. God said, I beg to differ. He will be killed
on Passover. Remember, the death of Christ
was ordained of God. It was immutable. It was unchangeable. Why? Because He was to be made
a curse according to God's eternal purpose. And He was made a curse
for us. And by this death, He redeemed
us. By His obedience, He obtained
an everlasting righteousness for us. and all according to
the will of God. And the blessing of the covenant
of law, it could not do these things. When you think about
the law, the law was given to the nation of Israel, and they
did have great benefits from that law, but they were all carnal
benefits. You remember, if they kept those
covenant ordinances, God kept their nation at peace. But the
moment they ceased from those precepts and ceased from His
worship, you remember what happened. Those blessings turned to cursing,
didn't they? Those blessings were taken away. But what God gives based on this
covenant of promise are not carnal blessings, but rather spiritual blessings.
And these are greater because spiritual blessings are eternal
blessings. They're real blessings that last. What carnal blessings have you
had that has ever lasted? They don't last, do they? But
this blessing, according to the promise, is a spiritual one and
therefore it is an eternal one. It has real substance to it.
And so in our text, the apostle makes the distinction between
these two covenants. Look back at your text. And he says this, brethren, I
speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto. Now when he says this, a man's
covenant, the word translated is better, last will and testament. Last Will and Testament. He's
talking about a man's covenant of a man before he dies
to give his earthly things to. If you have a man, he has wealth
and he makes out his will, he is determining who is going to
inherit his stuff. And so this is the type of will
he compares God's covenant of promise to, like a last will
in testament. While the law, while the law
is compared to a contractual covenant, a contractual covenant
that is based on either man's obedience or man's disobedience. And these two covenants are very
distinct and different from one another. Now in the last will
and testament, the testator is the one who makes the will, he
is the only active party. Isn't it? It's his determination,
it's his stuff, it's the stuff he earned all of his life, and
it is by his own determination who gets it. The beneficiaries
in a last will and testament are passive. They're passive. The only thing they do is receive
what he's given. On the other kind of covenant,
the benefits are based upon performance. Work. A contract between two
parties. And both parties must do what
the contract says. So in order to receive what is
agreed upon, strict adherence to the terms must be obeyed,
or the benefits forfeited and penalties are enforced. The covenant
of law is a contractual covenant. where in receiving the blessing,
namely justification before God is contingent upon what? What
does the law say if you are to be justified before God? What's
the contract? The contract is you must perfectly,
continually, honor and obey every precept, every ordinance of the
law. Isn't that what Paul said in
verse 10? He says, many of the works of law are under the curse
The Lord has written, curses everyone that continue with not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Therefore, it has been established
this, that we've already defiled that contract. We are all sinners
because we have sinned. None of us then could be justified.
And he says that's just evident. That's just evident. I often
ask this, I do not understand why it is anyone would want to
be under the law. Why anybody would desire to remain
under this contract saying they have no hope of blessing, only
cursing. Who then would desire to remain
under this contract? Seeing there is no hope of being
justified, why then would you remain? To remain under the law
obligates you to the full law. The full law. If you want to observe one part
of the law, you must are under this contractual covenant, you
are required to obey the whole law. You cannot take one part
of this covenant. And I would challenge anyone
to say, you know, if you were able to take one part, were you
perfect in that one part? No. We could never obtain that
by our obedience. So Paul concludes it's impossible.
It's impossible for us to obtain this by any degree
of our obedience. Why? We've all failed. We can
never merit this. But behold, the only covenant
by which sinners can be justified, by which sinners may receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith, and that is the will and
testament of God, the covenant of God. It must come by the power
of God upon the sinner, and this is according to the will of God.
And the will of God assures us that all that who are named in
His covenant will receive the promise of Abraham. Listen, they
will receive it. God has sworn by Himself when
He could swear to no one higher, He swore by Himself an oath that everyone He has promised
to give salvation to, He will. Listen, listen to this, without
their obedience. Nor will they be deprived of
this covenant because of their disobedience. Why? Because this covenant has nothing
to do with their merit. God based none of this covenant
upon the merits of the beneficiaries. This covenant has nothing to
do with the merit or lack of merit of the beneficiary. The
covenant is solely based upon the love and grace of God toward
His people. Now remember, in the last will
and testament, the full responsibility of this is on the testator, on
the person who writes the will. Now, okay, say I named you in
my will, And I willed you to have a million dollars. Well,
I'm sorry. That's going to fail because
I don't have a million dollars to give you. I may want you to
have it, but I don't have it really. But in order for this will to
be true and vital and real, the testator must store up what he's
purposed to give. He's responsible for obtaining
all of the things he promises to give the beneficiary. And
then he is responsible for who gets it. That's his job in riding
the wheel. And so it all falls upon the
testator. How much more than the eternal
will and testament of God that the full weight and responsibility
of this should fall on Jesus Christ. The full weight of the
promises of God fall only on Jesus Christ. I know you know
this, Isaiah chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, For unto us a child
is born, Unto us a son is given. We know that speaks of his humanity
and his deity. The Lord Jesus Christ is a son
given. And then he came into the world
as a man, a child was born. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders. What does this mean? The full
weight and responsibility of his government. If a king is responsible for
his kingdom, he's responsible for their care and their protection,
their safety. And this is what it means, that
the full weight and responsibility of our salvation is totally upon
the shoulders of Jesus Christ. And what do we say? His name
shall we call Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of peace, of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. And upon the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom, to order it, to establish it with judgment,
with justice, from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this." That sounds like it's iffy to
you. That sounds like it might not
happen. That sounds like God wants to do something for you,
but man, you know, He's just dependent upon man to do His
part. No, the full measure of this
last will and testament of our God is that Jesus Christ should
bear the full weight and responsibility. We got a word for that. It's
called a surety. A surety. Jesus Christ is the
surety. in this covenant. He's the surety for all his people. He made a curse for them, and
according to the will of God, he redeemed Israel from the curse
of the law. Why? He was their surety. Now
what is a surety? In Genesis chapter 43, you remember
how Joseph demanded that Benjamin should come back. Jacob had two
sons from the wife that he loved. He had Joseph and he had Benjamin. He thought Joseph was already
dead. But you remember, the Lord sent Joseph ahead of them to
store up grain for them so that they should be saved. And Joseph
said, I want you to go back and get Benjamin. And Jacob didn't
want to let him go. That was his only son whom he
loved. I remember that what Judas said,
he said, the life of our father is tied to the lad, that if I
don't bring him back, he'll die. Listen to me, the glory of God
is tied to his elect people. God swore to save them, and if
he doesn't, he loses his glory. And so, when Benjamin had to
go, this is what Judas said, Judas said, send the lad with
me. And we will rise and go, that we may live and not die,
both we and thou and our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand thou shalt require
him, if I bring him not again to thee. Let me bear the blame
forever. This is the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ according to the covenant of grace. Father, give
them to me. I will be surety for them. And
if I do not bring them again to you, let me bear the blame.
That's what a surety is. Go to Hebrews chapter 7. Look
at this. Speaking of this covenant of
promise and Jesus Christ being the surety of it. Look at verse
18 of chapter 7. where there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment going before the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. For the law made nothing perfect,
but bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh
unto God. And insomuch as not without an
oath he was made a priest, for those priests which were made
without an oath, but this with an oath by him, that he said
unto him, The Lord swear, and will not repent, thou art a priest
for ever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for him." Listen, we may see
then that Jesus Christ being a high priest. Now what is a
high priest? It's the same thing as a shurik. Remember, the high
priest represented all of Israel when he went in to make that
sacrifice. He went in to make an atonement,
not just for Himself, but He made an atonement for all Israel.
He was a representative, a surety for them. He's saying how much better is
Jesus Christ, a better surety, a better high priest than they
are. And he's made surety of a better covenant than the covenant
of law. Why? Because those sureties and
those priests, they didn't exist forever, and their sacrifices
could not really remove sin. But Jesus Christ was made a high
priest, a surety of a better covenant. And that covenant is not of law.
It is a covenant of grace. Why? that the law made nothing
perfect. Why would you want to be under
that? It's not going to make anything perfect. But Jesus, according to the will
and covenant of God, made all those he was surety for perfect. Isn't this a better covenant?
It's a better covenant because of our surety. It was a better
covenant because all of the responsibility of this covenant was dependent
upon the charity and not the beneficiary. It's a better covenant. He made all of His people perfect. And listen, this surety ever
lives to make sure that the beneficiary is obtained. Now listen, you
made a will, right? And if you make a will and then
you die, it's now enforced. But who's really going to make
sure it happens? You? You're dead. How can you make sure it happens?
But listen, this is the greatness of Jesus Christ because He who
died and made the covenant of force has risen from the dead
and sits on the throne of God to make sure you get it. Isn't that great? That's great. He ever liveth
to make intercession for us so that you're not going to miss
it. This is what the benefit of the
covenant of promise. So Paul testifies of the sureness
and the binding of this covenant. The binding of this covenant.
Look back at your text again. The surety and the binding of
this covenant. He said, though we speak after
a manner of a man's covenant, it's a man's covenant, yet if
it be confirmed, no man can disannul or add unto it. Isn't that true?
I mean, we're talking about justice. If you make a will and you die,
Nobody justly could add to it or take from it. Now, we've got
all kinds of unjust people. You make a last will and testament,
who knows if it's going to get filled. They go to court and
they sue and all kinds of tricks, but we know it's just unjust.
You can't add to or take away from a man's last will and testament. How much more sure then is the
will of God? Even among human covenants, when
a man makes out his will, that's a binding covenant. And to alter
that covenant or to change it after it's been agreed on is
unjust. But how much more binding is
the covenant of God since this is true about him? I am the Lord. I change not. When God promised to save his
elect and gave them to Christ, when Christ actually accomplished
their salvation, who do you suppose should alter that covenant that
he promised to give life, give his spirit to everyone he died
for? What did our Lord say about that?
How many did the Lord tell us he was going to lose? In John
6, what did he say? He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no way cast out. Why? For I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all he had given
me, I should lose nothing. Why? It was his will and testament
that we should receive the covenant of promise. And so God's will and testament
are from eternity. So therefore nothing in time
can affect or disannul the purpose of God's grace. Nothing can be
added to it and nothing can be taken from it. Especially concerning
the law. The law. Now the covenant of
promise was decreed from eternity. It was declared to Abraham in
time. And the apostle tells us this
in verse 17. And he said, I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, when? From eternity. That's when it was confirmed
of God in Christ. The law, which was 430 years
after, cannot disannul it, that it should make the promise of
none effect. Seeing then that the covenant
of grace was established long before the law, nothing can be
added to the covenant. The law then was not added or
supplemented to the will and testament of God's grace. This is what religion has done
with the law. They say, okay, we believe the gospel of Jesus
Christ. This is what happened in Galatia. We believe the gospel
of Jesus Christ, that God had a people, that Christ came and
died for them, that the Spirit of God comes to them through
faith, but the law then is transposed on top of this as a rule by which
the believer lives. Where are you supposed to get
infant baptism from? I remember, some of you remember
this. Some Presbyterian was preaching
about infant baptism one time and Don got up after and he said
this, he said, you find me one instance of infant baptism in
the book, we'll do it tomorrow. There's not. There's not any
infant baptism whatsoever. What do you have regarding infants?
You have circumcision. Right? According to the law,
you should be circumcised the eighth day. What do they do? They transpose that onto the
covenant of promise. They transpose Sabbath worship
on the covenant of promise. They transpose tithing on the
covenant of promise. They transpose the Ten Commandments
upon the covenant of promise. These are two distinct covenants
and they cannot be mixed. That's what Paul is telling us
here. That one cannot be added to so as to dis-annul it. Remember these two covenants
then are distinct. One cannot be transposed or added
to the other. And if that were to happen, it
would disannul the covenant of promise because then it would
make merit. Merit would be the basis then
of our acceptance. Merit would be the basis of our
justification. Merit would be the basis of our
sanctification. Merit would be the basis of our
wisdom or righteousness. And then what would that do?
That would disannul the covenant of grace that is not dependent
upon your merit. It would disannul it. What then did the law have to
do with? The law had to do with one thing, transgression. Transgression. Look at verse 19. He said, Wherefore
then serveth the law? It was added because of what?
Was it added for salvation? Was it added for righteousness?
No. It was added for the transgression. For the transgression. The law
has a purpose, friends. It has a purpose. And the purpose
is this. Expose sin. Expose sin. Go to Romans chapter 7. Look
at Paul's experience here. Paul's experience of this. This
is our experience. Paul's experience is our experience.
He says in verse 9, he said, I was alive without the law once.
Now let me tell you, was there ever a time Paul didn't live
according to the law? He was a Hebrew, the Hebrews
circumcised the eighth day. He lived according to that law.
Was he ever without the law as far as trying to obey it? No.
Now what he's saying here is that... He said, I was alive without
the law once. In other words, he thought he
obeyed it. He thought he had life by the law. But when the commandment came,
what happened? Sin revived, and I found out
something about myself. I died. I died. And the commandment, which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. What I thought
would give me life only killed me. It only cursed me. It didn't give me life. Why? For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. See, I was deceived
to think I could obey it. Weren't you? Weren't you deceived
to think that you could somehow merit God's favor? I was. Deceived. What was that? That was sin,
deceiving me. What does sin do? It slew me.
Wherefore, the law is holy. The commandment holy and just
and good. Is there anything wrong with
the law? Will you find fault with the law? Law is good. It's not the law
that's a problem. Was that thing which is good
made death unto me? Is it the law's fault that I
died? God forbid, but sin. that it might appear sin. Working death in me by that which
is good, that sin by the commandment might become what? Exceeding
sinful. What was the law given for? That
sin might be exceeding sinful. Now, the things contained in
the law, didn't Abraham know not to do those things? Of course
he did. We all have the law of God written
in our heart, those things contained in the law. Every heathen Gentile
knew that you shouldn't kill, that whoever God is, you should
love him, and you should obey him. They all knew that. What'd the law do? The law just
put a magnifying glass on it. It exposed transgression. But notice the covenant was not
The covenant of promise was not to expose transgression. The
covenant of promise was made for the guilty. The covenant
of promise was made for the sinner, that he should have redemption
from the transgression. See the difference of the covenants?
One covenant, all it can do is damn you. The other covenant,
all it can do is bless you. The covenant of promise, all
it can do is redeem you. All it was meant to do was save
you without your merit. Without the law. Paul says this
in Romans 3, he says, but the righteousness of God without
the law. That's what, that's a righteousness
I need. I need the righteousness of God, but it's got to be without
the law because I can't obey it. The righteousness of God without
the law is clearly manifest, witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, listen, by faith of Jesus
Christ. That's how the righteousness
of God is merited. And then, unto and upon all them
that believe. You ever wonder why he says unto
and upon? Why not just unto? Why not just
upon? Why unto and upon? What was the
purpose of those two words? To show you it's both imputed
and imparted to you. It's unto you. It was charged
to your account. And then it was given to you
in the new nature. Given to you in the new man.
See, then, the salvation of all that elect is according to the
covenant of God's grace, which was, in effect, from all eternity. The fulfillment of the qualifications
of our justification, our sanctification, our redemption, our righteousness,
all determined by the will of God, were accomplished by the
death of Jesus Christ. Paul says in Hebrews 9, 15, he
says, For this cause he is the mediator, of a new testament,
new covenant, that by means of his death, for the redemption
of the transgression which were under the first testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where the testament is, there
must also necessity be the death of the testator." What good is
a will as long as the guy's living? It's no good. But this is the
good news for us. Our testator has already died.
That means this, the will is in force. It's in force. And who's enforcing it? The same one that died. I thought of this. I thought of
this. Remember Joshua, the high priest, he stand there in that
filthy garment. standing before God, Satan ready to accuse him,
and before Satan could say anything, the Lord said, shut up! I don't
even want to hear from you. He said, is this not a brand
plucked from the burning? Isn't this one of mine? This
is one of mine. Take off the filthy garment and
put on a robe of righteousness. Put a crown on his head. And
these words stood out to me. And he stood by. You know what
that means? He stood there to make sure it
happened. What God willed, the salvation
of his people, Christ accomplished. And what he accomplished, he's
going to give it to them, and he is now standing by making
sure it happens. So which is better, a contract
or a covenant of promise? The covenant of promise, we know,
is a better testament. Christ has died. The promise
of His blessing shall be given to all His people. And I want
to give this to you. I know I'm running behind, but
I know I want to give this to you. He says this, He said, I
say unto thee, the covenant which was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law which is 430 years after, cannot disannul,
that it should not make the promise of none effect. Now listen, when
He gave it to Abraham, When he gave the promise to Abraham,
listen, there was 600 years before Sinai, not 430. Did Paul make
a mistake here? Did he miscalculate? We know
he didn't. Why did he use that? Because
he's telling us this, that Abraham who received this covenant of
promise by grace through faith, Isaac received the same covenant
of promise by grace through faith, and so did Jacob. And so did
everyone up until the captivity of Israel. And he said, from
that time, everybody lived by faith. Until when? Until the law came. And he said,
look, that was a 430 year gap in between there. And so what? They all lived by faith before
the law. And so can the law coming 430
years after those that lived by faith, does that change things?
Does that make a difference? Say, well, now that covenant's
put aside. We got a brand new one here.
This one's a new revelation and we're going to live by it. No.
He said it doesn't disannul what went before. It cannot disannul
it. So even so, shall all who are
named in the New Testament, the New Covenant, by the will of
promise of God, they will receive the promise of God. Now, the
same as Abraham, this promise was made to Christ,
and Christ has fulfilled it, and as he gave it to Abraham,
so he gives this covenant promise, and none of his elect shall miss
it. Why? Because all the promises
of God in Christ are what? Yay and amen. The covenant of
promise. I am thankful to be saved by
a covenant of promise and not a covenant of merit. I am saved by a covenant of promise.
And so is the law transposed? Is the law added to this covenant
of promise? Does it disannul or change? The
covenant promise? No. The law has a purpose to magnify
sin. That's it. The purpose of the
covenant of grace is to save the sinner. And he does this the same as
he did to Abraham through receiving of the spirit through faith.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's how I know my
name is written in this covenant. There was a British officer,
and at that time, I think it was 1700, 1800s, they had a book
with all the names of retired officers written there. And one guy asked this old officer,
retired, he says, how do you know your name's there? Have
you seen it? No. But I know it's there. How do you know? I get a check
every month. How do I know my name's written
there? Every day I get a check. The check is faith. I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ now. And that's a, why do I do it?
Because it's a covenant promise. God promised to give it to me.
And he has given it to me. How am I gonna finish this walk?
Am I gonna go to another covenant? No. I'm gonna finish the same
way I started, by faith. I ask God to bless this day.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.