Brother Wymer is our friend.
He is a leader to us. He is a statesman of the gospel. He has a view that is broader
than any of ours. He looks at the world. I will
admit I'm not able to do that. He has a broader view than all
of us. And he comes to preach the gospel
to you, tell you about a grace that rests purely in the merits
of Jesus Christ. If you will, take your Bibles
and look in Galatians chapter 3. I've taken on in these messages
a subject that is far greater than what I'm ever able to explain. But I hope by God's grace that
there has been some benefit to you as we have gone down through
some of these verses to this point, not having made it very
far. But I trust that an understanding has been given by the Lord as
to why these portions of Scripture, not only that I've been preaching
from, but Brother Bill and I know Brother David and his week-by-week
ministering here, why is this so vital? This message of the
Gospel of God's grace. I was talking with Brother David
this morning at the table how the Lord has taught me over the
years to where I was brought out of a a free will type of
religion into sovereign grace, that banner that seemed to me
to be a comfort for a while. But as the Lord continued to
teach me and continues to teach me, I've found that even sovereign
grace in this day and age does not aptly describe the message
of Scripture. You'll find many out there that
are flying that flag of sovereign grace And yet, in some way or
another, are still putting some small condition upon what man
does, even if they say, well, it's on faith, but it's God-given
faith. When you make that sort of statement,
you have put leaven into the message, and a little leaven
leavens a whole lump. This is a narrow gospel. Christ said it was. And as the
Lord teaches us, we're finding out just how straight the gate
is. Sometimes you lock arms with
people that you consider friends and loved ones and you think
we're going through together, but it's so narrow that the Lord
is going to take His sheep through one at a time. And sometimes
going through, it means others find it too narrow and they turn
and go to another fold. But if the Lord's leading you
as His sheep, there is no greater blessing than to follow this
path and to know that here is a message that gives Christ all
the glory. And it's not something that we've
come up with. It's not a pathway that the Lord's
sheep find hard. They rejoice in it because they
realize it's not them walking the path anyway. It's the Lord
carrying them. He carries His sheep and brings them into this
fold. And it is. It's a fold that gives
Him all the glory and the purposing of it. It gives him all the glory
and the grace of it. It gives him all the glory and
the accomplishing of it by his blood and righteousness alone.
And it gives him all the glory and the revealing of it. How
many people have you thought, I just wish I could open their
eyes? You can't. But if the Lord has
taught you, consider that a grace. And he gets all the glory in
carrying us right into his presence. The persevering in it, we call
that, it's Him preserving us right on into glory. And so I
trust that that's what you see more and more as you read the
Scriptures because it is the exclusive message of the Scriptures,
how Christ is honored in all of it. It is for the honor and
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that any of us can claim to be
His or claim to be saved. So we look together here in Galatians
chapter 3, first of all, at this matter of God's promise and how
it is wholly founded upon His grace in contrast to any works
of the law. The flesh will take you down
that path of the works of the law, but it is by grace alone.
And then we considered last time in verse 6, the whole time spent
on this, the faith of the promise and how in this context Faith
has to do with the very gospel that the promise sets forth.
The promise of God is revealed in a body of truth. And that
body of truth is not just an index of doctrines that they
call doctrines of grace. The body of truth is summed up
in a person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've
understood that, you've begun to understand the very essence
of of this message. But today, in the rest of these
verses, I want to consider with you this promise fulfilled and
revealed. A promise is just that, a promise,
until it is accomplished. And as I read the scriptures,
and even as we see in this particular text, and there are a number
of other texts that you can go to in Hebrews and in Romans and
read where the word promise, I hope you take your concordance
and look it up, but it is used primarily with reference to the
time leading up to the cross. Now we have the promise of eternal
life, we have the promise of being glorified and made like
him that we await, but I'll tell you that promise is still made
sure only because of what Christ accomplished at Calvary. We don't
have two separate Bibles here where we've got the Old Testament
and the New Testament and somehow these are two different ways
of salvation. No. All of those in the Old Testament
that were the Lord's people lived based upon this promise. that
Christ would come and satisfy His Father in every jot and tittle
that God might be the just justifier of His people. And if you read
the Old Testament from that perspective, you'll understand why the law
was given. You'll understand how it was
that God was pleased to reveal Himself to Abraham. You look
at the example here of Abraham. He's not given as an example
of working out your salvation. He's given as an example, just
as our hope and standing is in the very sovereignty of God,
in choosing whom He will, the grace of God, saving him based
upon a work that the Lord Jesus Christ would accomplish thousands
of years later. Period. And that's what was revealed
to Abraham and it said he believed God. Do you believe God? Can
you say in leaving these meetings that God has brought me to see
that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Period. If you have to hesitate
in your spirit, or have to try to widen that in some way to
make room for a loved one, or an acquaintance, or somebody
who doesn't quite see it that way, I have to say, foolish Galatian,
foolish Galatian, you've not believed God. This is where God's
glory is. And I want to show that to you
in these verses. I'm going to read this portion
because I want us to be able to get all the way through to
verse 29 since it is a whole. And I'm going to make, it's a
whole portion, and I want to make some comments as we go.
And then as time allows, I may come back and give you a few
points that I've written down here. But I believe it's important
for us at least to read this portion, the rest of it. And
may the Lord give us understanding. Here in verse 7, again, thinking
about how the promise now is fulfilled and revealed. We'll just hang these verses
on that title. Paul says, Know ye, actually
in the original is be ye knowing. In other words, he's not telling
them something new. He's reminding them. Here is
something you should know and should already be thinking on
and continuing to think on. "...Be ye knowing, therefore,
that they which are of faith..." And again, faith, we can now
substitute that word with Christ and His death, that body of truth
concerning Christ and His death. Grace, those are synonyms here. The same are the children of
Abraham. You see the oneness? There is
a theology that continues to divide the people of God, saying,
well, there's a plan of God for the Jew, and then there's a plan
of God for the Gentiles. Here, notice the word, the same
are the children of Abraham. Any that hope to be in glory
will be saved in the same way. The same way. by the blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ was on that
Mount of Transfiguration, remember with Peter, James, and John?
Who appeared there? Wasn't it Elijah? And wasn't
it Moses? And of what did they speak? You
can read about it in Luke chapter 9 at your convenience. It says
they spoke of the death that He should accomplish. And it
says they appeared in glory with Him. So it wasn't like they were
in limbo awaiting this fellowship that they would enjoy in heaven.
They were in heaven. They were in glory. But their
hope, even in glory, was the same hope. That's where this
word same is important. The same hope as any sinner sitting
here. And that is that death that the
Lord Jesus Christ should accomplish. They look forward to it. We look
back to it. But the same. The same. are the
children of Abraham. And the Scripture, verse 8, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen or the Gentiles or the nations
through faith. And again, it's important to
keep consistent all the way down through here. In this context,
that word faith is not through believing. See, this is where
these others are putting it. Well, it's in your believing.
No. Here again, through faith. or in accord with the faith once
delivered unto the saints." Notice how it's put, foreseeing that
God would justify. Actually, in the original, it
is is justifying. In other words, if any are justified,
it's going to be on the basis of what the faith declares. You know, you have articles of
faith. What is that? That's basic truth
to which we adhere. We use that term. Same sense
here. Here's the faith. And it is what
declares in every way how God is just to justify sinners. And
God foreseeing. This wasn't just to be a way
for the Jew, Abraham being a Jew, but it is the way for the nations
One way through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, when I go to India,
when I go to Africa, when I go to Haiti, wherever I go, I preach
this same message. It makes sense. Sometimes we
sit in our environment and it's hard to think of nations. But
when you're in reality, get on an airplane and go over and you
land in a culture that is different, extremely different, language
that you can't even understand or communicate in, your comfort
is in knowing that it was for such as these that this message
is being declared. Because in glory, God is purposed,
He's promised, and He's assured that there's going to be sinners
from every tribe, nation, and tongue that are going to worship
around the throne of the Lamb. And they're going to be there
in the same way, on the same basis as any sinner sitting here. That's what it says here. So
God, the Scripture foreseen, that means you can go back and
read the Old Testament Scriptures and understand that this is the
message of how God is just to justify in one way according
to the faith once delivered unto the saints. God wasn't saying
one thing to Adam and another thing to us. One faith. One object
of faith. Even here, you see, some have
misread the scriptures because it says, preaching before the
gospel unto Abraham. That means that when it says
up there, Abraham believed God, God revealed unto him his son,
the gospel. You can find it all over in Psalm
2, kiss the son, lest he be angry with thee. They weren't ignorant.
of this matter of substitution and satisfaction. Every day that
they offered those sacrifices, it was a reminder that these
could not put away sin, but oh, they looked forward to that One
who would come and once for all put it away. That was the hope
that God had given them. And again, we have the same hope
if we're the Lord's, if He's taught us by His Spirit. Not
that He will put away sin, but in fulfillment of His promise,
He has put away sin by the death of His Son. And that's all summed
up in this little statement right here in verse 8, "...in thee
shall all nations be blessed." You can see how the Lord has
left some to blindness because they still read this today as
referring to the Jewish people. They say, if we'll just keep
supporting the Jews, God will bless us as a nation. And they'll
go back to this verse, you see, it says, "...in thee shall all
nations be blessed." That's how they read it. They understand
it as being supportive of a Jewish nation. But you realize when
God, and we're going to see that here in a little bit, "...in
thee shall all nations be blessed." He wasn't talking about blessing
them based on the Jews. He was talking about blessing
all nations based upon that seed that God had promised to come
from Abraham, and that is Christ. You could put in here, in Christ
shall all nations be blessed because God has purposed to save
sinners from every tribe and nation and kindred through His
Son. So then, verse 9, they which be of faith, Again, keep it consistent. There are many who profess to
believe who are not of faith. They which be of this faith is
what you could put there. This faith that has been described
are blessed with faithful Abraham. Actually, in the original it
reads, are blessed with the faith of Abraham. Same faith. See,
even the translators here tried to put maybe some emphasis upon
Something in Abraham, being faithful, being obedient. That's not the
sense. Any that are blessed are blessed, notice the word, with,
or according to the same faith of Abraham is what that's saying.
Same object of faith. I'll guarantee you, Abraham in
glory right now, if he could come and testify right here,
and you asked him, Abraham, what was your hope of salvation? He
would say, Christ and Christ alone, and that death that he
accomplished. You mean when you took your son
up on that hill, that's really what you had in mind? That's
what God revealed. That's what God revealed, Christ
and Christ alone, same faith. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. Do you really want to have any
degree of your salvation to be dependent upon the works of the
law? Listen to what the Scriptures
say. Think about the work of the law.
Even if the law commanded faith in the sense of believing, do
you want your justification before a holy God to be based upon your
believing? That would be like trying to
stand on one of these lightweight buoys out in the middle of a
storm in the ocean, and you're just hanging on to that buoy.
It's going down. Your weight, it can't even hold
your weight. You'll drown for certain, unless
the Lord puts you on a rock. And that's what faith is. In
many ways, I wake up an unbeliever every morning. Do you know that?
Have you ever thought about your first thoughts when you first
wake out of sleep? Be honest. Are you thinking on
Christ? Most of the time, I'm waking
up thinking in stress about everything that's ahead of me and what to
do and how am I going to get it done. And it takes a while,
even after a couple cups of coffee, to settle down and start thinking,
you know, I'm reasoning like an unbeliever. Is God sovereign
or isn't He? By His grace, He draws, He reigns
in these thoughts. But oh, what a peace to consider.
I'm so thankful that my standing before God is not affected by
how I believe or how I wake up or how I go to sleep, but on
the rock, this promise fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He's accomplished. And that's what Paul is saying
to these Galatians. Don't you hear what the law says?
As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,
for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not
in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. But look at here, that no man is justified by the law. Can you hear that? No man, you
can put any law. If righteousness, Galatians 2.21
says, if righteousness come by law, Christ is dead in vain. Put any law in there. If righteousness
come by free will, Christ is dead in vain. If righteousness
come by repentance, because you can say, well, but repentance
is a law. It is. God commands us to repent. But
if righteousness come by repentance, Christ is dead in vain. If righteousness
come by your believing, Christ is dead in vain. You see, no
man is justified by the law or the works of the law on the side
of God. It is evident, for the just shall live by faith. And again, faith here being what?
This body of truth revealed in Christ in connection with His
death that is all of our salvation. That's how the just, the justified
ones live. That's their hope. That's their
help. That's their strength. That's
their salvation. That's their all. And the law is not of faith. There's a clear distinction here.
In other words, the keeping of the law. It's not that God set
the law aside, but the keeping of the law is in contrast to
Christ, the fulfillment of the law. If you think in any way
there's some aspect of that law that you still need to go back
and pick up and keep, for you're standing before God, you're talking
about two different messages, you see. The man that doeth them
shall live in them." In other words, if you want to go back
there, you better go back and obey it in every jot and tittle.
That's what it requires. But verse 13, Christ hath redeemed
us. I like the definitiveness of
that, don't you? Redeemed us once for all from
the curse of the law. Some people still try to move,
they try to put a wedge between redemption and justification.
They say, well, we're redeemed there, but we're not actually
justified until we believe. What does Romans 3.24 say? being
therefore justified, having therefore been justified," how? Through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. You cannot drive a wedge between
those two. If He redeemed us from the curse
of the law, then He justified us based upon that redemption.
Otherwise, what you're saying is that redemption wasn't complete.
That some aspect of it still remains until you furnish the
part. of faith or whatever. You see
how ludicrous that is? Christ hath, underscore it, redeemed
us from the curse of the law. It says here, being made a curse
for us. I know this has become a very
dividing point with some who teach that that means he actually
became a sinner. I'll tell you this, that is a
different gospel. than what I see and know and
understand in Scripture. True, to be made a curse is in
connection with sin, but Christ was not made a sinner. I hope
that you react in a very strong and vehement way as I do in my
heart when I hear men stand up and say without any bashfulness
and say it with arrogance and pride that Christ became the
greatest sinner that ever lived. That is not what this is saying.
He was made a curse. You realize that word made means
to be judicially or legally constituted a curse. It's just like an act
where it says that God made him to be both Lord and Christ. You ever think about that word?
He wasn't created. by God to be both Lord and Christ. That word made means to be declared
to be both Lord and Christ. Legally constituted in a just
way based upon his accomplishment there at Calvary when God raised
him up and sat him down. He was made the Lord. God made
him to be both Lord and Christ. Legally constituted so. And that's
the glory of the gospel. Not that he became a sinner,
but that he bore the sin of his people. He became the sin-bearer,
we could say that. He became the sin-offering. Isaiah
53 says in verse 6, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us
all. And it was so real and imputing
that he was required to die. So great was that accounting
of that sin to his account that he bore it unto death. But I'll
tell you what, all of Scripture says that he was obedient unto
death. It in no way tainted his nature. It in no way changed who he was
as the perfect lamb. Otherwise, how could God accept
a sacrifice? The Scriptures say that he died
the just one for the unjust. That's what substitution is.
A just sacrifice for unjust sinners. It doesn't say he died the unjust
for the unjust. That's what you'd have to say
if he was actually personally made guilty in any way, corrupted
by the sin. You'd have to say, well, he died
the unjust for the unjust. But it says here, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. You know, you can
go back to Deuteronomy. Back in that day, crucifixion
wasn't even a known means of death. Actually, what they did
was if a man was stoned to death, they would literally take the
dead body and hang it on a tree, nail it to a tree. That was a
sign of shame to expose what that person was. But you can
see, even back then, in a seed form, it was forward-looking
to this time when the Lord would be hung on this tree. Not as
a dead body, but as a living sacrifice unto God. Not because
in any way He was personally guilty of that death, but because
He was there as the substitute. that God might be the justifier
of sinners. And all of that, you can see
in verse 14, is that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles. So again, the same faith, the
same blessing of Abraham come on the Gentiles, the nations,
through Jesus Christ. In other words, keep it in connection
with verse 13, through this sacrifice. There could be no blessing, either
for Abraham or for any of us, had Christ not actually fulfilled
the promise fulfilled, had He not actually fulfilled all that
was necessary that God might be just to justify. And then
it says here that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Again, not through believing,
but through the same doctrine of Christ and Him crucified.
And you notice it says the promise of the Spirit. It could also
be translated the promised Spirit. You remember Christ told His
disciples, it's expedient that I go to the Father, speaking
of His death, otherwise the Spirit will not come. But if I go, I
will send unto you the comforter. You see, the work of the Spirit
is in connection with the death of Christ. The Spirit's not going
around trying to just get anybody to believe. The Spirit's work
has always been to reveal Christ to those who were the objects
of God's grace and the very persons for whom he died, even for Abraham.
Abraham believed God and it, that faith, was accounted to
him. The blessings of what Christ
would accomplish were accounted to him because of or unto the
righteousness that he would come and fulfill. God gave him that
spirit to look to that work that Christ would accomplish. And
even now, God gives us that spirit, that promised spirit, based upon
this faith, this doctrine, this truth of what Christ has accomplished. And that's how we know that the
Spirit of God is in a sinner. Not when he's looking to his
faith. Not when he's looking to his repentance. Not when he's
looking to anything in himself. But only to Christ. Only to Christ. So you can see the promise fulfilled. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men. though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed,
no man disanalytheth or addeth thereto." So we're talking about
the promise, we're talking about a will, a legal declaration of
God. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. So again, link that back to verse
8, in thee shall all the nations be blessed. It's all about Christ.
And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of
God, notice, in Christ, even though it was in the Old Testament,
it still all had to do with Christ, all those sacrifices had to do
with 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." Put it that way again, if the
inheritance be of faith, it is no more of promise. If it be
of any condition in man, rule, obligation, it is no more of
promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. I wish people would
just simply read that one verse and think about it, because I
have people emailing me and writing to me even now. It just seems
like something wasn't quite right with Abraham, you know, since
Christ hadn't died yet. Well, you've got to say the same
thing for all those of the Old Testament. But I'll tell you,
that promise of God. to save him based upon the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Christ would come and fulfill
it, was all that Abraham needed and all that Abraham wanted.
God gave it to him by promise. He wasn't a secondary citizen
in heaven until Christ died. He was there based upon the promise
that when Christ came, he would fulfill it all. then serveth the law. It was
added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made." Who's that talking about? That's Christ.
And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now,
a mediator is not a mediator of one. What that simply means
is on earth, when you normally have a mediator, that mediator
is a third party, isn't he? You that are in law, you understand
this. You're a third party trying to
work this thing out. So on earth, a mediator is that
way, and not of one. He's not mediating, there's just
one person. There's two people involved and he's the third party.
But God is one. What that is saying is simply
this, that God is no third party in this. He's all. He's the sovereign. He's the one that purposed it.
He's the mediator. He's the sacrifice. He's one. That makes it easy then to know
that I don't look anywhere but to Christ and to Christ alone.
Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there
had been a law given which could have given life, if there had
been a law given that could have justified, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, God ordained it that way, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ, the same truth of Jesus Christ, the same
doctrine of his blood and righteousness imputed, might be given to them
that believe. Again, it's not conditioned on
your believing, but those that truly believe, this is what has
been given to them. This is what they believe. But
before faith came, again, Before Christ came, we were kept under
the law. Shut up unto the faith, or Christ
and Him crucified, which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore,
the law was our schoolmaster. You notice, to bring us is not
even in the original. Just read it. Wherefore, the
law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. In other words, it was
there until Christ came and fulfilled. There was no getting around it.
Alright? that we might be justified, here
it is again, by faith according to the faith that is by Christ
Jesus and His shed blood. But after that faith or Christ
is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. We are no longer
under condemnation or the law. For ye are all children of God
by faith in Jesus Christ. Or by that faith which has Christ
as its object and foundation and hope and all. For as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ, and that is in the
sense of having died when Christ died, and risen when Christ rose
again, have put on Christ. And there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed. And look at this, heirs,
we don't merit it. We receive it based upon the
death of a testator. That's the way to be an heir.
Testator has to die. You are heirs according to the
promise. Our Father, I thank you for your
word and thank you for this time in it, how deep and marvelous
it is. And I pray that you would bless this word to our hearts
and cause us to meditate upon your glory, the glory of your
purpose, what you've promised to accomplish in Christ and what
you have done through his coming, doing, dying, rising again and
setting on high. And we look again and ever to
Him who is coming again as our blessed hope. We pray, Lord,
if there's any here of Your sheep that are still in darkness, any
that You have bought through Your Son and His death and already
put to their account that righteousness, but they're still in ignorance,
that You would be pleased to use this word to draw them unto
Yourself. We give You the praise and the
glory in Christ's precious name. Amen.