Last week we looked at how James doesn't contradict Paul
in the fact that he said they were justified by works. We saw
that justification was used in a different reference in James
than it was in the letters of Paul. The letters of Paul, Paul
was centered upon the legal aspect of justification, where James
is talking about the experiential aspect of justification. The legal aspect of justification
comes by the work of Christ alone. We are justified legally before
God. What makes us righteous and just
before God is the obedience, the righteousness, the death,
the burial, resurrection, the finished work of Jesus Christ
on our behalf. That's what justifies us before
God. And then God who works in us
to will and to do his good pleasure as he works out the works that
he has ordained for us from the foundation of the world, works
in us those works that are done in us that may become evident
in our actions and reactions and our care for the brethren
are things that justify us before each other. That's the justification. So the justification of worse
is that which justifies us between each other, between brothers
and sisters in Christ. So whenever you see me loving
the brethren or caring for you and taking care of you, putting
you putting you and your needs before me and mine, loving the
Lord and loving you, then that right there is a justification
that one has been legally justified before God and been part of that
group of people that Christ died for, okay? So we saw that last
week, and in bringing that forth, I went into showing the legal
aspects of justification and where Paul had talked about that
justification is not by the works of the law. And if you remember,
I read several verses that dealt with the fact that by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified and that no one can
keep the law, that if you break the law in one point, you've
broken them all. And so we see the picture that
God paints for us through the writings of the Apostle Paul.
We see how God leaves man in this destitute state that he
cannot save himself, he cannot do anything that's righteous,
and God will not accept anything that is of the flesh. God's not
going to accept anything that is of the flesh. The only thing
that God is going to accept is that which is of the Spirit.
It is the spirit that gives life. It is the spirit that brings
forth life. It is the Spirit that brings forth the works that
is in us. It is the Spirit that brings us from darkness into
light. It's the Spirit that convicts
us of sin. The Spirit of God is what is
given to us and is in us to govern us, to constrain us, to do all
the things that the Spirit does. But it's a spiritual kingdom.
We are in a spiritual kingdom, not a physical kingdom. We're
in a spiritual kingdom and we serve a spiritual king and we
serve in a spiritual way. This is all about a spiritual
thing, right? And as the spiritual Israel of
God, this is how we have been governed. This is how things
God looks at. The legal aspects of things is
all about a spiritual work that has been done on our behalf. And so when we look at things
as it pertains to the promises to what those promises are and
how we are receiving those promises. A lot of times we can get mixed
up and we can look at the physical and think it's a physical thing
more than we do as a spiritual thing. But these blessings that
God has given to us are spiritual blessings. We learn that again,
as we always do, we go to Ephesians chapter one, And we see that
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. So the blessings of God in Christ
Jesus are spiritual blessings. Now that doesn't mean that through
those spiritual blessings that they don't again manifest themselves
in a physical way like the love for the brethren, like the love
for God, faith in Christ Jesus. You know, repentance from wrong
thinking about righteousness. I turn from thinking that I can
gain my own righteousness before God through the works of the
law and I believe on sovereign grace that Christ alone did the
work for me and that I am saved by grace alone through Christ
alone. That repentance that is given to me and that change of
mind of how righteousness is obtained before God, that is
a spiritual blessing that God has given us. He's given us repentance
to trust in Christ alone. That's a spiritual grace and
a spiritual blessing that God has given us. The fact that we
have been justified before God in our account is clear. We've
been forgiven and we've been reconciled to God. These are
spiritual blessings that are given to us in Christ Jesus.
And these are the activities in the spiritual kingdom. And
the way that we serve our spiritual king in the spiritual kingdom
is by faith, by trusting Christ Jesus. We walk in faith. We don't
walk in sight. We walk in faith. We trust in
His promises. We aren't looking for signs and
wonders and all the things that are of this world. In fact, the
Bible says that an untoward generation seeks after signs. People looking
after signs and wonders and things in this world to validate, to
confirm, to immobilize the church and all these kind of things,
to constrain the church. But the children of grace, the
Bible says that we worship God in spirit and in truth. Okay,
it's a spiritual kingdom, it's a spiritual work, it's spiritual
things, right? So whenever we look at Galatians,
and I got to thinking as I was talking last week about the law
and how it wasn't, we were not able to keep the law and how
the law will never justify us and all these kinds of things.
We read a passage of scripture and I didn't go very far into
it, but I'd like to kind of go back and kind of maybe clear
a few things up about why the law is even given. See, the law
was given not to make anybody righteous. God never gave us
the law to make us righteous. He never gave us the law to cause
us to live. That wasn't the purpose of the
law. And so often in our minds, and our minds have been twisted,
we've been gaslighted for years and years and years through man's
religion, that the law is good, and it is good, because God gives
it, it's good, but that the law is given as a standard that we
are to live by so that we might be honorable before God, that
we might be accepted by Him, and that we might be kept in
a right standing with Him. Now, I don't think that I'm missing
that. Has that kind of been the understanding of most of us before
we came to the knowledge of grace? is that the law of God is given
to us. That's why we post up those Ten
Commandments on all the steps of the Supreme Courts. That's
why we put the Ten Commandments in the school houses and stuff
all those years. Those Ten Commandments loom there
as signs of this is how you should live, this is how you should
be, this is what you should be living up to, and everything.
And I'm not against sharing the Ten Commandments. I'm not against
a lot of that stuff. However, the fiery threats of
the law is never going to make anybody righteous. It's never
going to keep anybody righteous. It's never going to make you
just before God. It's never going to make you
accepted before God, and it's never going to keep you in right
standing with God. The law was given to show how
unlawful we are. That's the purpose of the law.
The reason that God gave the law, He gave it to show His people,
not those out there, not the heathen, the reprobate, the non-elect,
not to show them their need, but to show the children of grace
their need for God. To show them their failure to
meet the standard and Christ's obedience to that standard on
their behalf. Therefore, those people's faith
that has been given to them by Christ, that faith is put in
Christ Jesus as their only hope because they've been given to
see they can't keep this law. The law came in to show us. Paul
said, I never would have known that I was a sinner had the law
not come in and told me that I was a sinner. The problem is,
is those who are not born from above have not been given to
know that they are sinners. Now, they are given to know that
they have done wrong, or maybe have sinned, done something wrong,
and they try to make up for it, right? They try to do something
to make up for it. But they have not been given
to know the destitute nature of who they are, that they cannot
ever obtain to the righteousness of the law. They've never been
given that. Only the child of grace has been given to know
that they are void of righteousness and cannot ever achieve a righteousness. Therefore, their hope is never
in their own righteousness. It's only in Christ Jesus. That's
the reason the law is given to us, brethren. So let's go to
Galatians, and I want us to see something Because God gave the
promises, the spiritual promises, to spiritual Israel before the
law ever was given to man. So here, what I hope to bring
out in this, or to make plain, not that you could understand
it because I made it plain, unless God reveals it, no one's going
to understand it, especially me, but to lay forth that The
law isn't what gives you the promises that God has promised
to us as His people. The law never is laid there to
bring you the promises. So if you keep the law, the promises
aren't going to be given to you because you're keeping the law.
The promises were given to you because of a covenant that was
made before the law ever came into existence. The promise was
made to Christ Jesus And because the promise is made to Him, all
of His heirs, all of His children, so that means that the promise
is only to Christ and His children. It's not made to everybody else.
It's made to Christ, and therefore, all of His children are recipients
of that. And everybody else is cut off. Everyone else is denied the promises. They don't live up to the righteousness. They haven't been given a righteousness.
Therefore, they will not receive the inheritance. They will not
receive the promises. And they never were intended
to receive the promises. Plus, on top of all that, the
promises never was a physical thing for physical people. It
was always for a spiritual people who were in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world, for a spiritual kingdom that
God would have and Christ would reign over in all time period. and that those spiritual people,
whether they were in the old covenant or whether they were
in the new covenant, underneath those two covenants, that those
spiritual people would always be governed by their spiritual
king and receive the benefits of that spiritual blessings that
were given to them before the foundation of the world. So let's
look, if we would, here in Galatians, and we'll learn something about
the law and about how it pertains to the blessings to Abraham,
because if you'll notice, There is a covenant made with Abraham
and there was two covenants made with Abraham. There was a physical
covenant made with Abraham. There was a spiritual covenant
with Abraham. The spiritual covenant with Abraham is an everlasting
covenant. The Bible says that the new covenant
is an everlasting covenant and it's a covenant that God did
not make and make with man. He made and he made those promises
and he swore upon those promises on his own name. He is guaranteeing
these promises not because of a conditional thing that man
would do, but something that he would do. Whereas the old
covenant that he made with man and the physical covenant that
he made with Abraham He made that covenant on conditional
promises, on conditional activities, and there would be conditional
ramifications. If the condition isn't met, then
that promise that was promised to them would be denied. Okay? So, let's look here and
see what it says. Galatians chapter 3, and I'm going to start in verse
11. It says, But that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And here it is, verse
14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. See, we are receiving the promises
that was made, the blessings that was given and made to Abraham. We are promised those not through
the law, but through faith. If man exhibits faith, and that's
what we were talking about last week with James, whenever faith
is evident, whenever faith is shown, faith in God, and that
faith also causes us to love Him and love the brethren, the
faith that is given to us by God trusts the things of God. listens to the things of God.
And so that is the evidence that we are partakers of that promise,
that we are partakers of that inheritance, that we are partakers
of those people to whom this was given to. And so he said
here that the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith. So up until this time, God has
only shown the Gospel and it was unveiled for Him. He had
only told of redemption. He had only told of forgiveness.
He had only told of the work of the Messiah to those who are
of Israel. But even at that time, everyone
who was in the physical nation of Israel was not those promises
given to. Because even among that physical
people of Israel, There was the spiritual people of Israel. The
Gentiles had not yet been included in that number. Yet, even though
they were included in the number of the elect before the foundation
of the world, chosen in Christ, already predetermined, predestinated
before the foundation of the world to receive faith and to
be brought into the fold, their time had not yet come. Now, there
were sparse Gentiles throughout the Old Testament that we see.
that the Lord did bring in. But overall, the physical nation
of Israel is the only one who God dealt this through and dealt
this in, but yet everyone, even though the promises was made
over this physical nation, the spiritual nation was the only
ones who was the recipients of it. Just like today, over all
the nations of the Gentiles, The promise of salvation has
been made and the promises of Abraham has been made, but it's
not to all the Gentiles. It's only to those who are the
spiritual seed of Christ among the Gentiles. So just like in
the Old Testament there was an Israel within Israel, there is
in this time now a Israel within the Gentiles. And both of those
spiritual Israels, whether it be of the Israelites or whether
it be of Gentiles makes up the one spiritual kingdom, which
is the spiritual Israel of God. And so Paul goes on to say, he
says, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it
be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth
or addeth thereto. What Paul's saying here is he's
making an argument. He's saying, listen, we even know that among
men, that there is a covenant that is made and it is confirmed
that no man can dissent all of their attitude. He's talking
about like a testament, like a will and testament. We all
know what a will and testament is, right? Brother Larry's made
a will and testament out. He's talked about it before.
He's made a will and testament. Whenever you go before and make
a lawful will and testament, then that right there and a will,
in case you don't know what a will is, a will is This is something
that a person writes down, and their last will and testament
is, this is what all my inheritance, everything that I own, this is
how it's to be dispersed, to who I want it to be dispersed
to, how I want it to be dispersed, and it happens after he dies,
right? Whether it's me, you, whoever
has the will, it's enacted after he dies, right? So, this will,
Nobody can change it. That's why a lot of times we
put these things in safes and we keep them in a safe place
so nobody can get in a monkey with it, right? Because whenever
I write out my will, I want this done the exact way that I want
it. And whenever that time comes, that's why a lawyer usually comes
around and says, this is the will of the testament. He makes
sure that that will and that man's inheritance is divvied
out exactly the way that the person who had the inheritance
said he wanted it divvied out. And no man can disavow it. So
that means, like, if Larry puts out his will and says, I'm going
to leave everything that I have to my wife and to Mark, OK, Joe
Blow across the street can't say, hey, I've been a good friend
with Larry for years and years and years and years. I used to
mow his lawn and take care of this and do all this and do all
this. I think I should have a little hand in that inheritance. I'm
going to go over and I think I'm going to get some of that
inheritance. And no, the judge says no. No, no, no. The last
will and testament said this is who the promise was to go
to. And this is how the promise is to be handed out. And you
can't come over here and change what he said. Well, Larry told
me that he was going to give me something like whenever he
passed away. Well, he didn't write it down. And now he's gone
and we can't confirm that. So we can only go about what
the promise has been made and been confirmed by. Larry wrote
this down and confirmed it by his hand signature at the bottom.
This is my last will and testament. This is how I want this to be
done. No man can disannul it and no one can add to it. Okay? Now Paul is saying if this is
what's taking place in the realm of humanity among men, how much
more is it whenever God says it? See, men can lie, men can
deceive, and I would bet that out there somewhere, last will
and testaments have been altered after people have passed away
by greedy lawyers, by greedy children, by whatever the case
might be, that there has been some times that these things
have been manipulated, or maybe not, they've taken it and not
stayed through the letter of the law in some circumstance. or they've been contested. However,
with God, you can't do that. The Word of God is the Word of
God. Whenever He says it, it can't
be changed. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change His mind. He cannot be changed. And whenever He makes a promise,
He always fulfills His promise. And so Paul is using that argument.
He says, if man holds this covenant, and it cannot be disannulled
or added to, how much more on God's side? Whenever God makes
a covenant, it cannot be broken, no matter what. And He goes in
to say this, verse 16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many. So there you go. If there wasn't
another verse in the Bible to tell you that these promises
are not made to the physical descendants of Abraham, I don't
know what is. This right here said that the
promises that were made to Abraham were made to his seed, singular,
not plural. Abraham had a great and mighty
seed, plural, but the promises wasn't made to the seed Plural,
so the promises that God is talking about here is talking about a
promise that was made in the spiritual realm, not the physical
realm. Right? It's made to the seed,
Christ, and not to seeds of many. but as of one, and to thy seed
which is Christ." So the promise that God made to Abraham was
made in and through Christ Jesus. And if you go back to Genesis
chapter 15, you'll find that to be true. God told Abraham
that he was going to bless Abraham and that he was going to make
Abraham and cause Abraham to be righteous, that his righteousness
was going to be great and that that righteousness was going
to be from the seed. And the Bible says that Abraham
believed God and accounted that seed for his, Abraham's, righteousness. Abraham believed God that the
seed was going to be his righteousness when Abraham already knew that
there was unrighteousness in Abraham. God had showed him that
he was unrighteous. And we knew that Abraham was
unrighteous, as I mentioned last week. Abraham was no more a man
of great faith than we are. Abraham committed all kinds of
unfaithful acts during his sojourn. But look if you would, it says,
verse 17, and this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed
before of God in Christ, so this covenant was confirmed before
Abraham in Christ Jesus. The law, which was 430 years
after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of
none effect. So what's Paul saying here? What's God saying through
Paul here? He's saying just like how the
man's covenant cannot be disannulled later on down the line, God's
covenant can't be disannulled. He promised a righteousness to
Abraham through the seed Because of the seed, he promised
a righteousness and that righteous standing cannot be disannulled
because the law came in and made us transgressors. Because the mental thought would
be, well, wait a minute, that was before the law, so no man
was a transgressor before the law, although we knew men were
transgressors before the law, right? We learned that because
the Bible said that death reigned from Adam until Abraham. It reigned
from Adam until Moses. Okay? Death reigned, and death
comes by sin. The wages of sin is death. Okay? All these people dying
from Adam to Moses was proof that sin had entered the world,
that all men were in sin and sinful, and that death that they
experienced was due to sin even though the law had never been
given. That means that that was their nature. They were created
that way in Adam. Adam was the first. He manifested
and showed forth the sin first, and therefore all that are born
of His loins, of the physical seed of Adam, have sinned and
cannot please God, cannot keep the law of God, cannot do anything
in this flesh that is of spiritual nature. And that rang from Adam
to Moses, even before the law was given. But the law came in,
if you would, The law came in, and actually the law that was
given to Adam before Moses received all the rest of the law, the
law was given to Adam to show his transgression. The law was
given so that Adam would become the transgressor. The law of
Moses was given to us so that we would become the transgressors. Not that God's law forces us
to sin, God's law is there to show us that we are sin. The law of God is given to show
that we cannot keep the law, that we aren't righteous. So
if there's no law there, and I'm an unrighteous person, bear
with me here, I'm going to get off on track to hopefully clarify
what I'm saying. If there is no law, but I'm an
unrighteous person, Okay? I'm not God. God is the only
one that's right. There's none righteous, no not one. God is
the only one who's righteous. But here I am, I'm a person,
and I am unrighteous, but there's no laws. So how does anybody
or I myself know that I'm unrighteous? How do you know that I'm unrighteous?
How do I know that you're unrighteous? How do I know that I'm unrighteous
in and of myself? I don't know that. Why? Because
there's nothing telling me what's righteous and what's not righteous.
But whenever something that is righteous, being God, says here
is a standard, this is righteousness, keep this. And I can't keep this,
what does that prove? that I was not righteous. Was
I not righteous before that law was given to me? Absolutely I
was. But what did that law do? That
law exposed the evil and the sinfulness of my heart. That
law exposed the inability of my nature to keep that which
is perfect before God. It exposed me as a sinner. It exposed me as unrighteous. But I was unrighteous all that
time. It just hadn't been made manifest yet. It hadn't been
exposed yet. That's what happened with Adam.
Adam was created this way and that manifesting of that sinfulness
whenever he took on the sin of his wife was manifested even
though his heart already had it within him. Already Eve. had it within her heart to sin
before the law was ever given. Don't eat of this tree. She was
made, in herself, was made unable to keep that law. But when the
law came in, Romans chapter 5, verse 20, the law came in so
that the sin might abound. so that the sin might be brought
forth, so that the sin might be made manifest, brought to
light, to be exposed. We are exposed as sinful, unrighteous,
enabled people. And that's what the law was given
to us for. To expose that. To show forth that. Paul here
is saying that there has got to be something. The mindset
of people is like, well, wait a minute. God said that we were
going to be given a righteousness and promised a righteousness.
And now the law comes in and exposes us as unrighteous and
no one can keep the law. Well, Paul, you're telling me,
and he just told us that up in the verses right above where
we was written here. That if anybody can't keep all
of the law, they've broken all of the law, and that nobody can
keep the law, and nobody's going to be justified by the law. Well,
what about the promises of Abraham? The promise to Abraham is that
we were going to be righteous. We were going to be considered
righteous before God. But there's going to be a righteousness
given to the seed of Abraham. He's saying, listen, just because
the law came in and made transgressors out of all of us, doesn't mean
that the promise of God has not been disannulled. The promise of God has not been
disannulled. Just because we sin and continue
to sin and are sinners by nature and transgressors of the law,
even after we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we continue
to walk in sin, we continue to be plagued in this flesh, just
because the sin is there, God does not account the sin towards
His elect. That's why God said, there is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's why Christ said, through
the Apostle Paul, that sin that God is going to look at
that and that no one can lay any charge to God's elect. There's a lot of charge that
can be given to us. Every one of us in this room here sin and
sin often every day. And every one of us have broken
that law. But yet God has declared a promise upon the
seed, the spiritual seed. And that spiritual seed has received
those blessings before the foundation of the world and has been confirmed
in Christ before the law was even given, before anything was
ever done. It was confirmed in Christ. And
therefore, we will be the recipients of that promise even when the
law comes down and crushes on our head and says this man is
guilty and worthy of death and worthy of eternal torment. But yet the Bible says that the
promise will not be disannulled. And this I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which
was 430 years after cannot disannull that it should make the promise
of none effect. You know why? In the simple way of saying it,
the reason why the law and your sin does not disannul the salvation
of Jehovah is because God's salvation has nothing to do with you. God's salvation of His people
has nothing to do with the condition that you keep, with anything
that you are given to do. You see, brethren, this is all
over the Word of God. The sovereign grace doctrine,
the gospel of free grace, the gospel of election, the gospel
of particular redemption, the gospel of particular atonement,
the gospel of irresistible grace, the gospel of perseverance, the
gospel of our inability. Listen, that gospel is all over
the Word of God. Listen, I was so surprised whenever
the Lord finally cleared away the scales from my eyes and give
me understanding of the gospel. That all those years that I had
preached a false gospel, all those years that I believed in
a works righteousness, now I wouldn't have said I believed in works.
And listen, everyone that's out there, they don't say they believe
in nothing. Catholics do, but they don't
believe in works. Most of modern Christianity and
churches today They will say, no, we don't believe in works,
but yet they condition your salvation and your right standing with
God throughout your life on your performance, your obedience,
your repentance, your faith, your acceptance of Christ as
your Lord and Savior, and then your kneeling your knee to Him
in submission as your Lord and your continued obedience to Him
through the law. That's what people say is what
gets you saved and what keeps you saved. That's a salvation of works.
I don't care how much they want to reword things and say, well,
that's not works. That's works. If you have to
do that to be saved, to receive, if you have to do that for God
to count you as a saved one, then that's a condition. There are no conditions. If there
were conditions upon salvation, then no man would receive salvation. Because the conditions that are
given to man, listen, are always, always transgressed. If God said
the condition for you to be saved is to believe on Jesus Christ,
guess what? No man is going to be saved. For two reasons that I can think
of, and probably more. Number one, all men have not
faith. Faith is a gift of God that is
given in the new birth. So unless God gives you birth
from above, a spiritual birth, then there is no faith in you.
You have natural faith, but you don't have faith that trusts
in God alone, that looks to God alone for salvation. No man has
that faith. No man has that faith. The only
ones who do have been gifted that faith by God. Faith is a
gift of God. The second reason that that would
never work, if faith was a condition of salvation, You would never
be saved because even with faith given to you, we don't have perfect
continuing faith. There's not one person in this
room, including myself, there's not anybody outside these four
walls, no matter how religious they claim to be, can ever say
that I have been faithful unto the end without waiver. Never
once doubting. Never once straying. Never once walking away. No one
can say that. If faith is the condition, then
we all have missed the mark because we can't have faith perfectly.
The flesh cannot have faith at all. And there are a lot of times
that we are given by God to experience our unfaithfulness. Remember
the disciples? We believe, help us thou our
unbelief. They believed that Christ was
who He said He was and was going to do what He said He was going
to do. But they had unbelief. They had unbelief about other
things. They didn't know. Brethren, we're just like they
are. So, if there was any condition, what about repentance? I hear
all the time and I used to preach it all the time. You have to
repent of your sin. Turn from that sin and not go
back because repentance is a change of mind that results in a change
of action. And that change of action is
walking away and turning away from that sin and not to return
to it ever again. Remember, sin is the transgression
of the law, not individual sins like murder, hatred, greediness,
adultery, passivishness, Sin is the transgression of the law. If you transgress in one, you've
transgressed in them all. So even the smallest little sin
over here, someone says, well, I've repented of my drunkenness
and I've never gone back to my drunkenness. Well, you still
haven't repented of sin because sin includes greediness, it includes
pride, it includes lust, it includes this, You've not turned from
your sin to never return to it again. You maybe have laid down
one sin, but you still are holding all these other ones. You may
have covered up this sin that we don't see outwardly, but that
may still be raging within your heart. There's still all these
sins. You can't keep these things.
So if salvation is a condition, brethren, then it would disannul
the promise because God, if He covenants with you based upon
a condition, if you don't keep that condition, God will keep
His promise to do what He said He would do if you don't keep
that promise. He said that the wages of sin
is death and that He will not acquit the wicked. He will not
justify the wicked. So if you commit sin, He will
judge it. So the only hope that we have
is for one to have been judged for all of our sin on our behalf,
and for one who kept all of the law on our behalf, and that God
accepts that in my place. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel of sovereign grace. That God chooses whom He will
save, whom He will lay this salvation on, that Christ will come and
effectually do everything on their behalf, their obedience
and their judgment on their behalf, and that all the promises that
flow from that forgiveness, reconciliation, love, kindness, compassion, all
these things will be laid upon those people. The blessings,
the promises, the inheritance of God will be given to all His
children that He died for. And if He doesn't give that to
them, then He is unfaithful. So that means everyone for whom
Christ died receives the promise. So that right there proves particular
redemption. Those who say Jesus died for
everybody is incorrect. They don't know the Bible. They
have not been given to understand the nature of the Gospel. They
have not been given to understand the effectualness of the atonement. The effectualness of the atonement
is everyone for whom Christ atones receives the blessing and it
cannot be disannulled. So if there is anybody for whom
Christ died who does not receive those blessings, then Christ
was unfaithful. God was a liar and broke His
promise and His part of the covenant wasn't kept. If there is anybody in hell that
Christ died for, then Jesus was a failure as a Savior. Jesus
was a failure as a substitute. Jesus was a failure as a surety. Jesus was a failure as the Lamb
of God that was given for atonement. They were not atoned for. And
He came to atone. He came to save His people from
their sin. And if He didn't do that, then
He is the failure. God is the one who laid down
on the covenant. And God didn't lay down on the
covenant. His promises cannot be disannulled. No matter how
sinful you are, child of grace, it won't disannull God's promise
to save you. Ain't that good to know? Especially when we've been given
to know how sinful we are. Now that isn't me telling you
to go live it up, go out there and sin all you can. Did anybody
hear me say that? Is that what I was meaning? Was
that my intent whenever I just made that statement? No. Although
that's what out there in the world, that's what they say.
Those preachers that preach like that, all they're telling you
is to go out and sin it up, to sin as much as you want. That's
not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is every sin
that you have ever sinned, Christ has already paid, died for, and
has been forgiven and forgotten before God, and your account
is marked as clean. And that cannot change. That
legal standing before God cannot change. So it doesn't matter
how many works you do, James, as far as a legal standing. It will not disannul the promise
of God. It will not keep God's favor upon
you. cause God to change His favor. It will not be disavowed. Verse 18, For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law. So now Paul's getting into it.
So what's the purpose? If law isn't there to cause us
to get the promise, if law isn't there to cause us to be justified,
if law isn't there to cause us to get life and be righteous,
then what serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Who
was the promise made to? Jesus Christ. The promise was
made to Christ. God covenanted in that everlasting
covenant to give a people to Christ for Him to save. And the covenant was, in the
covenant, you will do this for these people, and in doing that
for these people, this will be the reward. This will be the
inheritance. This will be the outcome. This
will be what will be the thing that will be their salvation. faithfully performed everything
that the Father gave Him to do. Christ came and did the will
of God, performed the will of God to perfection, and the inheritance,
brethren, is safe and secure in that everlasting covenant
because it never can be tainted with man's hand. God made the
promise. He said here, it was added because
of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise
was made, and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Now there's a mediator between
God and man, but the mediator, the covenant of God, he's saying
here, is not a covenant between God and man, it's a covenant
of God. It's a covenant by the mediator
of one. There is only one person in this
covenant, not two. Whenever Abraham was given the
physical covenant, there was two involved. There was God and
there was the physical people of Israel. But in this covenant
that we're talking about, there is only one who is in the covenant
and that's God Himself. God made the covenant to do this
and the promises was made to His spiritual seed. in Christ
Jesus. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given lives, verily, righteousness
should have been by the law. What's that also, in what that's
saying, what's it not saying? That you could get righteousness
by the law. See, is there then a law against the promises of
God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could
give life, then that right there is an inference that the laws
were given not to give life. Verily righteous it should have
been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin
that the promise, that the promise, why did God create all that is
created? And why did God put Adam and
create him in the fashion that He created him? And why did God,
in that creation with Adam as He created him, put a tree in
the garden? And out of all the garden, He
said, out of all the trees you can eat, but of that tree you
shall not eat. For in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. He didn't say if. It wasn't a
conditional promise. He didn't say if you eat of that,
meaning that there was a chance that Adam could not have sinned.
He said exactly to Adam what God had predestinated before
the foundation of the world was going to do. Adam, in the day
thou eatest thereof, you are not to eat of that tree. No,
no, on this tree. in the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die." Why? Because the purpose of God before
the foundation of the world was to exalt His name through the
Lord Jesus Christ in saving a people that had, out of Adam, been born
of the physical, but out of Christ, born out of the spiritual. There
was a people that was given to Christ, and those people were
placed in bodies of flesh and blood, like unto His body. And those people put in those
bodies, who is just like every other body out here, those bodies
were separate and distinct from all the rest of mankind, because
those bodies housed the seed of God. Those bodies house the
child of grace. And because that child is a child
of grace, God sent His Spirit and caused our outward bodies
who were the children of Adam to be adopted until the day of
redemption. And those bodies who have been
corrupted in Adam, but house that treasure within, need to be redeemed. God sent a Redeemer
to redeem His children who in those bodies have been born under
this sinfulness, to redeem them from their sin. Not from everybody
else's sin. To redeem them from their sin. That's why the law was made by
promise because man cannot redeem himself from his own sin because
he is a sinner. Christ was the one without sin
who as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world was
given a surety over all of his children. And as the surety in
the In the time God had allowed, the time that God had appointed
came as their substitute. See, if you think about it in
man's law today, we have sureties. They're called bail bondsmen,
right? They are sureties for criminals. A bail bondsman is called up.
We're going to need a bond. We're going to need to be All that's taken care of before
the surety even goes. It's already worked out. But
then there comes a time where that bail bondsman has to go
and stand before the court as the substitute for the criminal.
So that the judge can declare that criminal based upon what
that substitute is in front of him. And if the judge deems that
okay, that criminal can go home. Brethren, that's what Jesus Christ,
before the foundation of the world, He stood with all the
promises of God given to Him, all the children of God given
to Him, and He stood as the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world as their surety. But in the habitation and the
time that God had appointed, God sent that Son, that surety,
to actually be the substitute, to stand in their place of judgment,
to stand in their place of obedience, to stand as the one who would
be the recipient of their faith, to be the recipient of their
actions, to be the recipient of all that they've done, but
also to stand as their just one, in whom the court would look
at and would consider, and not the criminal themselves. And Christ did that. And because
He did that, the court, who is just, God is just and holy and
righteous, and He cannot go against His own justice. Seeing all that
Christ had done, and the Bible says that He saw the travail
of His soul and was satisfied. So that means everyone for whom
Christ stood, everyone for whom Christ died, receives the same
promise Larry's promise isn't any different than mine. Your
promise isn't any different than mine. We receive the same promise. Not guilty. Eternal life. We receive the same promise.
Therefore, anybody who Jesus dies for is going to get that.
Because it cannot be disannulled. So if there is anybody who is
in hell, it was because they were not in the Will and Testament.
If anybody is in hell, it was because their names were not
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's because God had not
chosen them from the foundation of the world and set His love
upon them and placed that spiritual seed within those spiritual bodies.
It was because Christ came to die for His people and His people
alone. And I don't choose to be in that
group of people. I can't do anything to get into
that group of people. It's by God's sovereign election,
God's sovereign will, that He can choose to make this pot for
honor and this pot for dishonor. That's God's sovereign choice.
And that too, brethren, is part of the Gospel. If that part of
the Gospel is not preached, then we have no Gospel at all. God
couldn't do with His creation what He wants to do, and He,
before the foundation of the world, had decided in His will
that He would redeem His people through a blood sacrifice of
His Son, that Christ would come in time and take on flesh, and
that He would, in turn, keep the law of God, and that He would
suffer the penalty of sin. That's how God decided to be
glorified in all of His creation. Whether they be elect or non-elect,
God is going to be glorified in the man Christ Jesus. And
whenever all is said and done, every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Some as they are entered into
eternal life, some as they are entered into eternal damnation.
But all will confess that this is God. And God was right. God was true. God was holy. God was just. And not one person
can go off into hell saying, I don't deserve this. And not
one person going into heaven is going in there saying, I deserve
this. Because salvation is not a condition. Salvation has nothing to do with
what you and I do. It is based upon the promise
of God alone that comes from the will and decree of God alone,
and it cannot be changed because God changes not. That's why God concluded all
under sin. He made everybody under sin.
The elect and the non-elect, all are under sin. Why? So that
the elect of God can be brought out of sin and be to the praise
of the glory of His grace and that all those who are not elect
in Christ Jesus would not be brought out of their sin and
given redemption for their sin. And therefore, they would be
unto the praise and the glory of God's justice and holiness
and righteousness. God's glory will be displayed
in the cross of Jesus Christ, whether it be for their salvation
or whether it be for their condemnation. The salvation of Jehovah brings
forth the glories of all of His great attributes in grace and
mercy and compassion and love, and God's damnation shows forth
God's glory in His wrath and justice and righteousness. Look what it says there. It says,
But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto
the faith which afterwards should be revealed. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might
be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as you have been
baptized unto Christ have put on Christ, 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." So that means in this spiritual Israel, there is no
Jew or Gentile. There is no male or female. If
you remember in the Old Covenant, who were the ones that signified
who signified the covenant was the males. They were circumcised,
right? They were circumcised. They were
part of the covenant because they were circumcised. Well,
here it doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. It doesn't
matter whether you are male or female. And it doesn't matter
whether you are bond or free. The free people of Israel were
naturally under the covenant of God, the physical covenant
of God, but any bond person that came under their house, they
come underneath the same covenant because they were brought in
by the free person. And so that bond person became... God's not
saying, listen, there is no more bond or free. There is no more
rich or poor. God does not look upon those
outward things. If ye be Christ's, then ye are
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. It's a spiritual
promise made to a spiritual people that is done in a spiritual way. And it cannot be just an old
brother. All right, does anyone have any questions, anything
you'd like to add to that? Any comments? Corrections? Review? Father, we thank You for today.
We thank You for Christ Jesus. We thank You for all that You
are. We thank You for what You've given us and the promise. We thank You, Father, that this
salvation doesn't hinge upon our activity, upon our faithfulness. We know that we are faithless,
that You and You alone are faithful. So we trust You, Lord. As the
Spirit gives us enabling, we want to continue to look to You
to preach your salvation, to preach your activity, to preach
your work, to preach your grace and your mercy, to preach Christ
Jesus and what He has accomplished, not what we should try to do
or try to be. Father, we know that salvation
is all of Christ, and so we look to Him and honor Him and exalt
Him today, and we pray that that's what has been done. I pray, Lord,
that if I've spoken anything of error, And not according to
your word, Lord, and not only would you forgive me for that,
but Father, Lord, that you would strike that from the mind of
any of these brethren that it might not deceive and that you,
Lord, might correct and rebuke and train me in righteousness
and the right things to think. Lord, I thank you again for all
that you are and all that you do for us in Christ Jesus. I
pray for all of these brethren that are here today, that you
might keep them as they go, that you might keep them safe. that
You might be with them wherever they're at, Lord, that You might
enable them to speak Christ to any that You bring their way,
that You have them to speak to, Father. And I also pray that
if there's any here today, that You have called by Your grace
and that You have saved and that You have given faith to, Lord,
that You might draw them to Yourself, that they might maybe profess
that faith and that they might be obedient to You in baptism
that they might be added to the membership of the church, Lord,
that they might be a functioning brethren within our body here.
Lord, we're so grateful that you gather us together each and
every week. We know we don't deserve that. We know that we
never would do this apart from the fact that you have given
us a love for each other and a love for your word. And so,
Father, Lord, we just pray that you would continue to add to
your church as you see fit, for we know that you are the Lord
of it. And Father, we just thank You again for this salvation
that we've talked about today, that You continue to reveal to
us. And may we never be so prideful to think that we've learned it
all, but we might be humbled by Your grace to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's
for His name that we pray.