Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching through Galatians
chapter three, which I've done in the last two or three messages.
And today I'm going to talk about the covenant of promise, the
covenant of promise. Now the covenant of promise is
the covenant of grace. It's not the covenant of works
or the covenant of law, but the covenant of grace. And that's
a covenant that's an everlasting covenant. It's actually an eternal
covenant. It was made between the Godhead,
the father, the son, and the spirit before the foundation
of the world concerning salvation of God's chosen people. Paul
spoke to it in Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter one, I believe it's verse
nine and 10. He spoke of salvation that was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then in
Hebrews chapter 13, he speaks of the everlasting covenant.
And I wanna read you that verse because it's so important for
us to understand these things. It says in verse 20 of Hebrews
13, listen to this. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. That's
the covenant of promise. the covenant of grace, make you
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So that's the promise,
the covenant of promise. Now, in order to understand the
covenant of promise, then we have to know what the promise
was and is. and it's never changed. Well,
it's the gospel promise of eternal salvation with all of its blessings
and all of its benefits conditioned on the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me repeat that. The covenant
of promise, the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant, the
eternal covenant is God's promise of eternal salvation and all
of its blessings, all of its benefits, all conditioned on
the glorious person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer, the life giver,
and the preserver of His people. That's one of the best ways I
can put it, you know, to summarize it. But let's unpack that statement. As Paul is speaking here in Galatians
chapter three, and he starts off in verse 15, he says, brethren,
I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant,
testament, you see the word testament, yet if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now what's Paul talking about?
Well, when he says, I speak after the manner of men, I'm talking
to you in human terms that you can understand. A lot of times
we see that in the Bible. There are things about God that
are so difficult for us to understand. And so we'll see what we call
personifications. In other words, language that
is in human terms that cannot be literally applied to God,
but they are metaphorically, descriptively applied to God.
For example, if you want to talk about the power of God, a lot
of times the Bible will talk about the arm of the Lord to
describe the power of God. Well, God doesn't have literal
arms like we do. God is a spirit, the scripture
says. We know Christ had arms in His
humanity, But in His deity, He had no arms. When we want to
talk about the omniscience, the all-knowing aspect of God's nature,
we might talk about the eye of God or the knowledge of God. God knows all because He's determined
all. So we could go on and on about
that. So Paul is telling them, I'm gonna talk to you about this
covenant of promise, but I'm gonna use human terms. And the
first thing I'm gonna talk to you is about when men make an
agreement, a covenant between them, a testament. And he says,
if that covenant is confirmed, the terms and the conditions
of that covenant, are settled between the two men, neither
one of them on their own can disannul it, can break it, all
right? Or can take away from it or add
to it. It's settled. Now that's the
idea of a perfect covenant. We know people make promises
and come to agreements and they break them all the time, but
it's wrong to do that. So he's speaking in human terms
of a covenant made between, agreement made between two humans. And
he said, when they agree on it, it's confirmed, it's established,
they sign the paper, you might say, or they shake hands, then
it's a done deal. And you cannot add to it, you
cannot take away from it. So then he goes from there to
the covenant of promise as used, for example, in Abraham. Now this covenant of promise
is long before Abraham, but what he's going to do, he's going
to show these legalistic Jews who believe that they were still
under the old covenant law of Moses, that that old covenant
law was never given to last forever. It was never given as a way of
salvation. It was given as a way of showing
them their sinfulness and their depravity and their need of salvation
by the grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So he
makes, he goes back to Abraham, look at verse 16. Now he says,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Now there
were promises given to Abraham, many promises. And you can read
about those in Genesis 12 all the way up through Abraham's
life, promises that God made. Some of those promises were physical
in nature and applied to Abraham's physical descendants, the physical
seed of Abraham. but some of those promises were
spiritual and eternal, and referred to Abraham's spiritual descendants
through and in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says in verse 16,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Look at what
he says. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now, Christ
had a human body created for him in the womb of the Virgin
Mary by the Holy Spirit. And it was through Mary that
Christ's human body had a physical descendency. And it came from
Abraham through Judah, the tribe of Judah, born of the tribe of
Judah, born of David, the seed of David, he was of the tribe
of Judah, that was the kingly tribe. But now as to his deity,
he had no descendancy, he had no beginning. His deity was forever,
the I am. But in time, the spirit created
for him in the womb of the virgin, that humanity. But what Paul
is talking about here is a spiritual matter. And he says, Christ was
the seed of Abraham. He was in a physical way, but
Abraham had descendants, spiritually speaking, because they believed
the same promise that Abraham believed. Now, Abraham was not
their savior. Abraham was not their righteousness.
And you remember when the Jews, they had three things basically
that they boasted in. to claim a right relationship
with God. Number one, they boasted of their
physical connection to Abraham. And Christ told him in John chapter
eight, that means nothing. It doesn't matter if you're a
physical descendant of Abraham, that cuts no ice with God. That doesn't mean you're a spiritual
brother related to Abraham. Secondly was their circumcision
and thirdly was their they boasted in keeping the law of Moses They
didn't but they thought they claimed they did So he says what
I'm talking about here Paul saying is the spiritual covenant the
spiritual aspect Of a connection with Abraham in believing the
gospel Now he goes on he says We're speaking of Christ because
that covenant of promise, that covenant of grace was all conditioned
on Christ. Abraham's salvation was conditioned
on Christ. My salvation was conditioned
on Christ. And he says in verse 17, now
listen to what he talks about here. In verse 17, he says, and
this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of
God in Christ, that's the covenant of promise, confirmed before
of God in Christ, even before Abraham. This covenant was made
before the world began and it was confirmed. God chose a people. Think about it this way. God
determined to glorify himself in the salvation of a people
whom he chose that's the chosen, that's the elect, and he put
all of the conditions of their salvation on Christ, making Christ
their surety, having the sins of his people charged to Christ,
all the debt was laid upon Christ, and determining to make him their
substitute, that's his incarnation, when He came to earth and was
made flesh without sin, and to make Him their Redeemer when
He died on the cross. It was all conditioned on Him.
And here's the gospel message. Christ fulfilled every one of
those conditions to ensure the salvation of His people, all
for whom He died and was buried and arose again. This covenant
of promise shows us that not one person for whom Christ died
on that cross will perish in hell. Now he didn't die for everybody
and without exception, he died for his sheep. You say, well,
where does that leave me? It leaves you with the fact of
seeing your need of salvation by grace. Now you seek the Lord
and all who do shall be saved. and all who do have been born
again by the Spirit and brought to Christ, bought to God-given
faith. So look at it again, verse 17.
In this I say that the covenant, that's the covenant of promise,
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years later, that is later than the promise was made
to Abraham, that it should make the promise of none effect. Now
here's what he's saying there. God revealed that promise, that
covenant promise to Abraham about 400, and it says here 430 years
before God gave the covenant of law to the Hebrews through
Moses on Mount Sinai. 430 years. And so, but he's saying that
the covenant of the law was never given to disallow or negate the
covenant of promise that had already been made before the
foundation of the world and revealed to Abraham 430 years earlier. All right. And he says this,
he says, the law wasn't given to make the promise of none effect.
The promise was always in in view and intact. It never changed. Salvation was always by that
promise of salvation conditioned on Christ. And it didn't change
when the law was given to the Hebrew children through Moses.
So he says in verse 18, for if the inheritance that is salvation
and all of its benefits and blessings It's called an inheritance. If
the inheritance be of the law, if it be of that covenant of
law, and if it be based on our works or us meeting certain conditions,
it's no more of promise. The law wasn't given to cancel
out the promise. The law wasn't given for salvation. We read it last week. No man
can be justified by the law. Salvation is not by works, it
never has been, never will be. And he says, if that were true,
if salvation, if the law did negate the promise, then salvation
is not by promise. And I think about this too, in
2 Corinthians 1.20, that verse says, all the promises of God
in him, in Christ, are yea and amen, sure and certain. You see,
if any of those promises were conditioned on me or you, they
wouldn't be sure and certain. They'd be sure and certain to
fail because we're sinners. So he says, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise, verse 18. God revealed the gospel to Abraham. God revealed salvation by the
promise of salvation conditioned on Abraham's Messiah who was
to come. And Christ said in John chapter
eight, I believe it's verse 58 if I'm not mistaken. He said,
Abraham saw my day, rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it
and he was glad. Now here comes the next question,
verse 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?
Well, why was the law given then? Listen to it. It was added because
of transgressions. It was a way of God. exposing
the sinfulness, the spiritual deadness, the total depravity
of all without exception, not just the Jews who are under it,
but of everybody. We are all sinners. And if salvation
is ever conditioned on us in any way, to any degree, at any
point, it'll fail. That's what the Bible teaches.
That's why salvation is by grace. And even the faith that God requires
for us to lay hold of Christ is a gift from God. That's not
even something we come up with. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So it was given because of transgressions
And it had a beginning, but it had an end too. It was never
meant to be eternal or everlasting. He says it was added because
of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise
was made. Till Christ should come. The
old covenant law was given at Mount Sinai. to the Hebrew children
who had been brought out of Egypt through Moses, and it lasted
up until the time of Christ. And when He died on the cross,
then it was fulfilled, it was over. He said it's finished,
that's part of what was finished. Remember the veil in the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom. That was God's way of showing
them physically that covenant was over. It's gone. It's never
to be brought up again. It's finished. Christ fulfilled
it. He fulfilled the righteousness of the law. He kept it in every
jot and tittle. He fulfilled all righteousness.
He's the seed of Abraham, you see, that we talked about. And
he says, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. In other words, attended by angels.
You can read about that in Hebrews 1, and messengers. Now good,
look at verse 20. He says, now a mediator. It was
in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. If you have a mediator, he mediates,
intercedes between two parties. Okay? And you may have heard
me talk about this. The old covenant law given to
Hebrews by Moses was a bilateral covenant. It had God on one side
and the Hebrew children, the nation Israel on the other side,
and conditions laid upon them to do this. You can read through
that in the book of Deuteronomy. And we read that verse, I think
it's Deuteronomy said, if my people who are called by my name
will humble themselves and repent and all. See that if is a conditional
if, because that was a bilateral covenant. And what happened? Well, Israel failed. They failed
miserably. But now listen to me, don't look
down on Israel. They were sinners, but if we
were under a bilateral covenant, salvation condition on us, we
too would fail. That's right. Now the covenant
of promise, the covenant of grace, The gospel promise is not the
terms of a bilateral covenant, it's a unilateral covenant, one-sided. And all the conditions were upon
God, manifest in the flesh. And He fulfilled it. And we who
are in that covenant by God's electing grace, God's love, we
receive the benefits of it. And so he says, a mediator is
not a mediator. One, there's two, but God is
one. This is a unilateral covenant.
Verse 21 now, is the law then against the promise of God? And
he says, God forbid, for if there had been a law given, which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Now, When you hear all this language, and I know sometimes it's hard
to keep up with, but here's the thing. If the law had been given
as a way of salvation, a way of righteousness, then it would
have been against the promise. Because works and grace do not
mix. Read that in Romans chapter 11.
Think about it. If it's by works, it's not of
grace. If it's by grace, it's not a works. So if the law had
been given as a way of salvation by works, it would have been
against the promise, but the law was not given for that reason. The law was given to show them
their sinfulness, their depravity, the impossibility of being made
right or righteous with God by their works and to show them
their need of grace, their need of mercy. And Paul's gonna capitalize
that on into this passage. Look at verse 21 again. Is the
law against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, barely righteousness
should have been by the law. But there wasn't a law given
that could give life and make sinners righteous. But look at
verse 22, now here's the reason for the law. But the scripture,
the word of God, hath concluded all under sin that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ, now that's the faithfulness of Christ,
might be given to them that believe. In other words, if you've been
given the faith of God's elect, you look to Christ and His faithfulness
to fulfill all the conditions of salvation for you. His blood
washes away all my sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And you look to Him for all righteousness. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness." That's who believes. Believe
in the Lord Jesus, not just believe now. And remember that the believing
is part of the benefit and blessings of the covenant of promise conditioned
on Christ. Faith is not a condition you
have to meet in order to be saved. Repentance is not a condition
that you must meet in order to be forgiven. Both faith and repentance
are gifts from God that come by virtue of the merits of the
obedience unto death of Christ as your surety, your substitute,
and your redeemer, your life giver, your preserver, your intercessor. So he says in verse 23, now look
at this, but before faith came, now you could substitute the
name Christ there, before Christ came. Somebody said, well, that
means before salvation was by believing. No, look at Hebrews
11. It speaks of Enoch and Abel,
that they came to God by faith, God-given faith. So when he says,
before faith came, what's he talking about? He's talking about
before Christ came, according to the promise of God. Before
Christ came, we were kept under the law. Israel was kept under
that law. It lasted about 1500 years. And he says, shut up unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed. That's the coming
of Christ. That's faith revealed. That's
what that is, Christ. And he says in verse 24, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster, our tutor, to bring us up to
that time of Christ that we might be justified by faith. What is
it to be justified by faith? It's not to be justified based
upon our believing. It's to be justified by what
Christ did and established in the glory of his person and the
power of his finished work. And so he says in verse 25, but
after that faith is come, after Christ came, we're no longer
under a schoolmaster. The nation Israel is no longer
under that law covenant. That law covenant is over. Christ
came, he kept it every jot and tittle. He came and He's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
He died on that cross and when He said it's finished, He gave
up the ghost and the veil was rent in two from top to bottom.
The earth shook. Many of the saints were brought
out of the grave just like Lazarus and walked the streets. What
a glorious time, Christ died. And then three days later, he
arose again from the dead, showing that he had already fulfilled
all the conditions to earn and give the blessings
and the benefits of salvation to every sinner for whom he died
on that cross. He redeemed them. And so he says
in verse 26, he says, for you are all. believing Jew and believing
Gentile, the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Now
that doesn't mean you become children after you believe. Next
week we'll talk about that. It means you reveal that you
are a child of God. because you've been given the
gift of faith in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe in
him. He is the Lord, your righteousness. He's your law keeper. He's your
propitiation who died to satisfy justice and to make righteous
his people in the sight of God. That's the issue of the covenant
of promise. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.