To Thee I change, ye rising grief,
for Thou alone canst heal. Thy Word can bring a sweet relief
for every pain I feel. But, oh, when gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call thee mine. The springs of comfort seem to
fail, And all my hopes decline. Yet, gracious God, where shall
I flee? Thou art my only trust, And still
my soul would cleave to Thee, Though prostrate in the dust. Hast thou not bid me speak thy
face, and shall I speak in vain? And can the ear of sovereign
grace be deaf when I complain? No, still the ear of sovereign
grace attends the mourner's prayer. Oh, may I ever find access to
breathe my sorrows there. Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat, With humble hope attend thy will,
And wait beneath thy feet. Amen. It's wonderful to know
that we can with boldness go before the throne of grace and
let our petitions be known to the Lord. Turn with me now, if
you would, to hand number 206 in the same handbook. Hand number
206. On our two-oak stage, we'll sing
this to the tune of Joy Through the World. How sovereign is the love of
God To Israel's favored race! Paid is the mighty debt they
owe. Salvation is a grace Salvation
is of grace Salvation, salvation is of grace His love without
beginning new Each chosen sinner's taste and send his equal sons
to show salvation is of grace, salvation is of grace, salvation,
salvation is of grace. Emmanuel hath not bled and died,
nor suffered in our place. But for this truth, O sound it
wide. Salvation is of grace. Salvation is of grace. Salvation, salvation is of grace. We had not known and loved the
Son, Nor sung His worthy praise, But that Himself the work begun. Salvation is a grace, Salvation
is a grace, Salvation, salvation is a grace. It's good that it's by grace
because if it was by works we wouldn't be able to make it. Alright, hymn number 609 please. Lord, we fain would walk in love,
but alas, how slow we move. Pride that haughty monster, Pride,
Often makes us start aside. Pride that haughty monster, Pride,
Often makes us start aside. Lamb of God, thy power make known,
Sweetly draw and we will run Make our love to thee and thine
Like the sun at noonday shine Make our love to thee and thine
Like the sun at noonday shine As the purchase of thy blood. May we seek each other's good. And be it our great concern. Thee to view, of thee to learn. May we mend. I'm sorry. And be it our great concern Thee
to view or Thee to learn May we mourn with those that mourn
Make each other's cause our own Ever keeping this in mind We
are to each other joined, ever keeping this in mind. We are to each other joined,
flesh of flesh and bone of bone. With the King of glory one Of
one body each a part Jesus, make us one in heart Of one body each
a part Jesus, make us one in heart King of kings enthroned
above Come and share the brought thy love Fill us with that source
of joy Which can never, never cloy Fill us with that source
of joy Which can never, never cloy. Yeah. Anybody have a song that
you'd like to sing? Are there any in the inbox? Anyone? about hymn number 40 in the blue,
Songs of Grace. We'll sing this, and if anybody
thinks of a song that you'd like to sing, we'll sing that after
this one. I see the blessed Savior. Let's
do a tune of Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus. I see the blessed Savior uplifted
on the tree. The law holds him as captive,
that sinners might go free. His blood poured out in mercy,
it does for sin its own. I hear him cry, it's finished,
the work is fully done. I see the mighty victor arising
from the grave. Dead hell and Satan vanquished,
this mighty God can save. Christ took His place in heaven,
upon the throne above. To Him all power is given, to
save the souls He loves. I hear Him interceding, He spreads
His wounded hands. For sinners He is pleading, more
numerous than sands. He asks for those He purchased,
His blood is all He'll please. The Father can't refuse Him,
He'll have His ransom seized. I trust You, Jesus Savior, I
bow before Your throne. My sovereign mercy save me and
take me for your own. Your blood my only cleansing,
your righteousness my robe. You are my only refuge, I have
no other hope. Well that was not to the tune
of Stand Up Stand Up for Jesus, but we made it work anyway, didn't
we? Sorry about that. All right,
does anybody have a song that you'd like to sing from any of
the hymn books? Or not from the hymn books? Scripture? 325. 325 and the old school hymn
book. The old morning. 325, you say? Is it one or another? Let's be the tie that binds our
hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds. is like to that above. Before our Father's throne, we
pour our ardent prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims
are one. our comforts and our cares. We share our mutual woes, our
mutual burdens bear, and often for each other float the sympathizing
tears. When we asunder, Lord, it gives
us inward pain. But we shall be ? Join in heart
and hope to meet again ? Sorry, brother. I'm just way off this
morning on my tunes and can't see through my bifocals to keep
on the words. All right, does anybody have
a song? Anybody else have a song or a scripture that you'd like
to read or share or chorus Anything? We always like to give opportunity
for that, if anybody ever has that. Of course, you gentlemen
always have the opportunity to share a few words if you'd ever
like to share a few words as well. When I say a few words,
I don't mean you can only say just a few words. I mean, if
you want to share something. I had somebody that was coming
to our church one time, and I asked him to share a few words, I didn't
mean it by just a few words, I just meant come up and share
a few words with us. And of course here we don't have,
we don't care about time, you know, whatever, however long
it takes. And if the Lord leads in another direction and some
brother has something to say and I don't get up here, that's
all right, you know? Well, anyway, this brother got
up and he said a few words and then sit down and then ceased
afterwards to, lambast me all over the internet because I would
only let him say a few words, you know, and not let him have
all the time that he wanted, which wasn't the case. But anyway,
that was all in the past. So whenever I say a few words,
I mean, you can come up and share as much as the Lord has laid
on your heart to share. All right, anybody? All right. We'll go ahead and get back into the
scripture today. Galatians chapter three. Before
we get into this, I do want to say thank you to everybody for
praying for us during my surgery and Lori's surgery. And for those
that don't know, after Lori's surgery, just a few days later,
Waylon cracked his ribs bowling. Then Zach sprained his ankle
out in the driveway. And so we kind of had a bunch
of A bunch of hobble-ongs and injuries. But anyway, we appreciate
everybody's prayer for us. Lori's surgery went well, and
it was laparoscopic, so it wasn't real, it was a real open, big
wound. So she's healing up pretty quick.
She still can't lift a whole lot of weight, but she's doing
really good, and Waylon's ribs are doing better. Zach's ankle,
we think he was just faking that just to get attention. He's doing
good. And my arm's doing all right. It's still got its issues. But
thank the Lord that we're up and moving around and able to
meet again. We missed being here the last
couple of weeks to be with you guys. But we do appreciate the
prayers. The kind thoughts, the food that
we brought over, we appreciate all that. So thank you guys very
much. And for everybody that's watching
or listening, let's pray also we appreciate all that. And the
kind words that were sent through the internet. Galatians chapter
three, hopefully nobody's forgot where we're at and what we're
talking about. We are talking about probably one of the greatest
themes in all of scripture. And that's the work of Christ
Jesus on our behalf in justifying his people before God. And this
theme runs all the way through Galatians. And Paul is dealing
with this issue that there are some who preach a gospel, and
I put that in quotes because it's not a gospel. preach a gospel
that says that we might be saved by grace, but we still have to
keep the law and uphold the law for that salvation to be effective,
for that salvation to continue. So as it were, we need to continue
in the law of God so that we are kept in our salvation. And
so Paul has hit that error dead on with the biggest hammer of
grace that we could ever imagine, and that was by preaching what
Christ had done. And we have been looking at that
now for several weeks. And the last time we were together,
we left off on verse 15, and I said that as we come back together
that we would start looking at verse 16, but I do want to back
up to verse 15 just a little bit and look going into verse
16, 17 and 18. Hopefully we can get there. Uh,
however the Lord wills. And the reason I wanted to back
up is because I wanted to say something that I really didn't
bring out much in verse 15. The last time we were together,
uh, about, uh, this covenant being confirmed. Um, and so that's
where I want to begin this morning, but let's bow. and ask the Lord
for his presence among us this morning. Our gracious Heavenly
Father, we come to you this morning and we're so grateful for salvation. We're grateful for the Lord Jesus
Christ and his work on our behalf. Lord, we are so thankful for
all that you are and all that you have done for us. The things
that you do in us, Lord, as you give us repentance and give us
faith. Lord, as you spread your love
abroad in our heart, Lord, we thank you for the fellowship
of brethren that we have together today. Lord, we're so grateful
that you have gathered us together in your name. Lord, we're so
unworthy of all the things that you have done for us. But by
grace, you have given to them. And we come, Lord, just knowing
that if it were not for Christ, we would all be condemned to
death, and Lord, we're so moved by the grace that's given to
us in Christ Jesus. Father, we are so thankful to
be able to meet once again, and we're thankful, Lord, for the
way that you take care of us and provide for us each and every
day, not only as individuals, but also as the church here,
Lord, the way that you continue to move and work amongst us in
our hearts Lord, as you use the message of Christ in this town
as a light to this world, we pray that it might continue.
We pray that your presence will be here this morning. Lord, we've
met together to worship you, and we pray that by your spirit
you would help us to do that in spirit and in truth, because
the flesh profits nothing. And so we pray, Lord, that within
our spirit you might lift us up, that we might be able to
Give praise and glory to the Son of God, who has cleansed
us from all of our sin and forgiven us, and has reconciled us to
God and justified us before God and sanctified us before God,
who is unto us wisdom. He is unto us all things, Lord,
that we need before God. And so we are so grateful for
all that you've done. May you help me now, Lord, to
preach this message Lord, I pray that you would give me the words
to speak. I can only speak as you give me utterance, and so
Lord, I pray that you do that. And I pray, Lord, that I might
not speak in my own, in my own wisdom and in my own understanding.
That might be an error, that you might give the words to your
people this morning that will feed their soul. And it's in
Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Starting in verse 15, let's read
down to verse 18. It 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. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, The law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise." And we'll hopefully look at those today and pray
that the Lord would give understanding Paul begins here in verse 15,
he says, brother, I speak after the manner of men. What does
Paul mean whenever he says I speak after the manner of men? I think
what Paul's meaning here, there's a couple of things that you can
look at what he might be saying here, is he's saying, I'm saying
what, you know, I'm speaking not, this isn't what God told
me to tell you, but this is what I'm telling you, humanly speaking.
Now someone could say that's what he's saying. But I don't
believe that to be true because the Bible says that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. So whatever Paul is saying right
here, he's saying because the spirit told him that. But I've
heard people say, well, Paul's saying something there that he
was saying, well, this is me talking, not God. Well, God wouldn't
have put it in there if it wasn't God talking. He said all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. So I don't think that's necessarily
what that is talking about. As a matter of fact, I know it's
not what it's talking about because the Bible is clear about that.
What does Paul mean? Brethren, I speak after the man
of man. He's saying, this is what men say. This is a saying
of men. Men say that a covenant, if it
be confirmed, no man can disavow it or add it to. So whenever
we make a covenant or whenever we sign a contract, you know,
most of us, has assigned a contract, whether we've bought a car, we've
had to sign a contract. When you go buy a house, you've
got to sign a contract. Whenever you do a lot of things,
you've got to sign a contract. Well, whenever you sign that
contract, that is a covenant between two parties. This party
is saying, if you'll do this, then I will do this. And this
party is saying, well, I will do this, if you'll do this. And
so there's this covenant between the two people. And he's saying,
Humanly speaking, the saying among men, or the way that things
go among men, is that if there is a covenant, that by law, no
man can disannul or change that covenant. Those two people have
entered into that covenant, and nobody outside of that covenant
can change that covenant. That it's gonna happen the way
that it happens. It says there, no man can disannul
it, no man can add to it. Let's talk about a will. Somebody
leaves a living will, okay? And they write in that will,
you know, I'm gonna leave this much money to my son, okay? Well, later on, somebody can't
come up and write down in that will and say, and to your neighbor,
you know? They can't add to it, and they
can't take away and say, oh, your son's only gonna get this
much. Nobody can change that. The lawyers can't change it,
the judge can't change it, Nobody can change that will or that
covenant. It's everlasting, so to speak. It's everlasting. Well, Paul
is using that as an example saying, listen, if among men, covenants
between men are unable to be disannulled, is weighty, meaning
that this covenant or this binding document has weight to it, it
can't be disannulled, it can't be changed, it can't be added
to, or nothing taken away from it. If that's the case, how much
more the covenant that God has made? And he says, now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. And not, and he says, and
not to seeds as of many, but as of one, and through thy seed
which is Christ. So this covenant that we have
in view here are these promises that we have here, are promises
that were made and God is included in this covenant, right? This
isn't between men, this is a covenant that God made. And if man's covenant
with man is so legally binding that it cannot be disannulled
and it cannot be added to or taken away, than how much more
God, who by his oath, by his promise, God who cannot lie,
has swore upon these things. There is absolutely no way that
they can be disannulled. There's no way that you can add
anything to it, and there's no way that you can take anything
from it. If God has made the covenant, then there is no way
that man's hands can touch it, right? So that's why he's using
this as an example. See, the question is, or the
problem is, is remember, Paul is dealing with the Judaizers
who has come in and said, yes, salvation may be a grace, but
you still gotta keep the law to be right with God, to stay
right with God, to continue in your salvation, to be pleasing
to God, to persevere in the faith, you have to continue to do the
law. that's required of you. And if
you don't, then you will lose that salvation. I mean, we read
all those verses where they specifically said that they had to keep not
just some law, but all the law, the moral law, the civil law,
the ceremonial law, all those laws they said was be kept. Now
they said circumcision was the main issue. But if you remember
when we went back to Acts, we saw that whenever they stood
up, those who were in that Jerusalem council who agreed that the law
needed to be kept, they stood up and said, you know, hey, we
should make them, you know, keep not only the circumcision, but
the law of Moses. So not just circumcision, which
was given to Abraham, but the law of Moses, which was given
to Moses. So those things were what was required for salvation
Those things were required to stay safe in those people's minds. And Paul is combating that with
the gospel. And so he is saying here, going
back to this covenant, he's saying there is a covenant that's made
that is so sure, and it cannot be broken, that nothing, including
God's law, can change that. Now, why did he bring that up?
Why did he bring God's law up? Isn't God's law good? We love
God's law. Isn't God's law good? He's bringing
up God's law because when Abraham was given this promise, the law
hadn't been given yet. And so, yeah, the promises are
good to those, supposedly, in some people's thinking. The law
is good whenever there is no covenant there. Hey, yeah, everybody's
gonna be able to do that, but whenever God's law comes in and
now we're all made sinners before God because we can't keep the
law, then that law and those promises, you have to keep the
law to get those promises. Now, instead of those promises
being free, now we have to work for those. We have to keep the
law in order to get God's promises. And Paul was saying, that's not
the gospel. That's not the gospel. The gospel
is by grace, for by grace are you saved. The gospel is that
Christ has done everything on your behalf. You don't have to
do anything. The covenant was with God within
himself. God had covenanted with himself
to save us. And so that covenant wasn't signed. There was nowhere at the bottom
that we were co-signers of that covenant. No man signed that
covenant. No man was even there when that
covenant was made. This is an everlasting covenant.
This covenant was given before the foundation of the world.
So Paul is going back and saying, now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. Now there is a segment of Christianity
who believes that this is speaking about the descendants of Abraham
ethnically or naturally. by the flesh. And that covenant
that we talked about in Genesis, that whenever the word of God
came to Abraham and he gave him his promise, this promise was
not speaking of fleshly things. It was speaking of spiritual
things. It was talking about a spiritual promise that was
going to be given, a spiritual inheritance, a spiritual seed
that would come. And Christ was the one who was
in view there. And if you'll remember, after
the preaching of that gospel by the word of God to Abraham,
Abraham was given faith by Christ to believe that Christ was his
righteous. He reckoned Christ for himself
as righteousness. He then quit thinking about trying
to work for his salvation, to work for his standing with God,
he's seen that christ would be his righteousness and that's
what he saw it and so that's whenever whenever abraham looked
far off and he saw he saw christ the bible says that the gospel
was preached at abraham and that's when it was preached to him it
was preached by christ himself the word of god preached his
gospel to abraham abraham believed that gospel and accredited or
uh... consider price as his righteousness
and all that wasn't to get land it all wasn't to get a uh...
landing payment and all of his offspring of the flesh to be
able to have a segment of land and it had nothing to do with
jerusalem in the temple and uh... you know i had nothing to do
with anything like that didn't have anything to do with money
no sheeps no goats no you know i didn't have anything to do
with earthly, natural things. This covenant was a covenant
of spiritual things, that we would be saved, redeemed of God,
based upon the work of a Redeemer, based upon the work of a Messiah,
a kinsman, someone who would come as our substitute. And so Paul says, now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made, He saith not unto seed
as of many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now we know that this covenant
was made with Christ before the foundation of the world, that
God covenanted and give promises to Christ that this people would
be justified as he stood in their place, that he would be their
substitute. And I don't say if, there is no if about it. There
was never a time that Christ would have denied or not done
it because Christ said himself, I come to do the will of my father.
You know, he cannot sin. There's also a segment of Christianity,
quote unquote, who believes that Jesus could have sinned. He just
chose not to. That's called the doctrine of
impeccability. We believe that Jesus Christ is impeccable. Not
only did he not sin ever, he could never have sinned because
he's God. God cannot sin. And even as man,
he could not sin because as man, he came to do the will of his
father. There was no way. Not to mention, you cannot separate
that union between God and man that became Jesus Christ. You
cannot separate that union as far as saying, well, he's half
man and half God. No, he's fully man, and he's
fully God. There is no separation of that. Now, I do believe that whenever
Jesus died on the cross, that that relationship or that fellowship
between God and Christ, there was a separation. And whenever
he died, he died as man, not as God, because God cannot die.
So there was that turning away of God from Christ so that he
might be left there to experience the full wrath of God, which
is separation from God. He was separated from that for
that amount of time. And how that happens, I don't
know. That's beyond my understanding, beyond my ability to think. But
yet the Bible says that he did, that happened, and he did that
so that we would not have to experience that, so that we would
not be separated from God, so that we would not be condemned
and experienced the wrath of God. He did that in our place. So Christ was the one in view
whenever that covenant was made between God and the man Jesus
Christ. However, the promise whenever
it was made to Abraham, he promised that to the sea, which yes, is
Christ, but I believe it's not just speaking of Christ, But
it's speaking of all those who are also in Christ. And you say,
well, preacher, it just says that it's not to plurals, but
only to one, which is Christ. So the promise is made to Christ. It wasn't made to all of Christ's
people. It was made to Christ. I think
if we look a little closer at the scriptures, we might see
that you can say that the blessing or the promise was given to one,
and yet it still be given to many. Now, follow me if you would,
and don't check out on me. It might sound weird what I'm
saying. Even though the promise was made to one singular Christ,
it still encapsulated many, all those who are Christ's people. And this is why I believe that.
Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Look with me if you would at
verse 12. 1 Corinthians 12, 12. We read it says, For as the body
is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one
body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Now you see
where I'm getting at? You see where I'm getting at,
brethren? It's saying here that there is one body, and this is
how it is with Christ. See, just like in this church,
we have many members in this church, but we're one body. We're
one body. With Christ as our head. Well,
so it is with Christ. Christ has many members. Christ
has many seed that is His. His generation, His spiritual
generation. As we've said before, these children
are my generation. They're my seed, okay? But they're a natural seed. They
come from the natural man, the natural flesh. But Christ has
a spiritual seed. He has a seed in Him, and all
those people that are in Him are considered one in Him. Did
Jesus pray that? Look with me if you would. at
John chapter 17. John 17, look at verse 5. It says, And now, O Father, glorify
Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was. Wait a minute, you mean Jesus
existed before the world was? Yeah, Jesus existed before the
world was. It was in a different glory than
he was in his earthly form, but he did exist, okay? And I believe he exists as Jesus,
okay? Not just as the word, but as
Jesus. And now, oh Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I come out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine." That's kind of an amazing verse that's contrary
to most gospels that are preached out there today. Jesus prayed
for them, but not the world. He didn't pray for the world.
He prayed for his people. All are mine and thine are mine,
and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that
they may be one as we are. See, there is a unity, there
is a oneness between Christ and his people. And so while the
promise was made to Christ, the promise also was passed down
to all that was in Christ because they are his body. So yes, there
are, it was one, it was singular, it was to Christ, but it also
encapsulated all of his seed that was in him. Say, preacher,
I think you're stretching it. I think there's a stretch there.
Well, turn with me if you would back to Genesis. Let's go back
to Genesis. Genesis chapter one. Genesis
chapter one. And look with me, if you would,
down to verse 27. Genesis chapter one, verse 27. It says, so God
created man in his own image. In the image of God created he
him. Now, I'll just stop right there.
Our church has heard, I've preached on this and taught on this, what
I think that means. And we'll probably go over that
again at some point. I don't wanna really deal with
that right now. There's a lot of speculation
on what that means, what is this image and everything. I think
that I can support with Bible, not with theology out there that
men come up with, but with Bible what that means. But notice what he says here
next. He says, so God created man in
his own image, and the image of God created he him, created
he him, male and female. God created he him, male and
female, created he them. Now wait a minute, this is the
account of God creating Adam. Eve doesn't come into play until
later. After all of creation was made,
Look with me, I don't want you to take my word for it. And here's
what's, look at this. And God blessed them. And God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue and have dominion over it. And so he goes on and
in verse two we see, or chapter two, we see thus the heavens.
I mean, this is a trend, this isn't just a God tells the story
and then he goes back and starts back again and starts telling
the story from a different vantage point. This is a continuation
of how things played out. He says, And God saw everything
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening
and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the
seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested
on the seventh day from all of his work which he had made. And
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in
it he had rested from all of his work which God created and
made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it
was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.
For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and
there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist
from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living
soul, and God planted a garden. Eastward in Eden, there he put
the man whom he had formed, and out of the ground made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of knowledge and of good and evil. And the river
went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was
parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pisan,
that is, that which compasseth, the whole land of Hevalia, where
there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There is Delium
and the Onyx Stone, and the name of the second river is Gihon,
and the saying is that it encompasses the whole land of Ethiopia. And
the name of the third river is Hadekel. That is it which goeth
toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded
the man saying, of every tree in the garden, thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God
said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make
him a helpmate for him. And of the ground the Lord God
formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and
brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the
cattle and to the fowl of the air and every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found any helpmate for him." Now I'm
going to stop right there. The reason I read all that is
to show you that this is still a progression of the things that
God has done. Okay, God made man, he made Adam,
but he made Eve or he brought Eve forth after. In the verses
that we first read, God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him, male and female created he them,
and God blessed them. And so we find that to be kind
of weird. because he made one man, but
yet he said it was them. Matter of fact, he said, look at chapter five real quick, in
verse one. The Bible says, this is the book
of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man
and the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created
he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day that they were created.
He created one man, but he's talking about more than one,
right? Was Eve called Adam? Eve was given a name by Adam,
Eve, but he made man first and blessed them. See, Adam had
his wife in him. His wife was in him. God took
that rib out of Adam and created Eve. Now, what do we see here,
brethren? We're talking about physical
things here. God was doing a physical thing here. But what's the spiritual
thing that we're to look here? Adam was the first Adam. He's
a type of Christ, right? Christ was brought forth from
eternity, the Bible says, that before the mountains you brought
me forth. Christ was brought forth or begotten
of God before the foundation of the world and was given a people. We just read
in John 17 that God had a people for himself that he had elected
and they were his. And he give them to the man that
was brought forth to be their Messiah, to be their Redeemer,
to be their surety, to stand for them in the covenant of grace.
He gave them to him as his spiritual seed, his spiritual children.
Now, as we look at the type, Adam, Adam, though he was created
singular, a man, that his wife, his bride, was in him. Even though
she had not been brought out and made manifest to everybody's
eyes, She was still there, she was in him and was blessed. She
was blessed because she was in Adam. Look what it said there
in chapter one, he said, and God blessed them and said unto
them, be fruitful and multiply. In chapter five, he said, male
and female created he them and blessed them and called their
name Adam in the day they were created. How can you say that they were
created when only Adam was created? Because in Adam was all his seed. In Adam was all of his posterity. In Adam, just like in me, these
children were in me when I was a young man. They have not been
brought forth and manifested, but they are my seed. They are
my children. And one of these days they'll
have children. They'll be my seed also. but yet they haven't
been brought forth. Adam brought forth his bride,
or his bride was brought forth after he was manifested. Then she was manifested, but
she was blessed before she was manifested. You say, well, man,
I think you're just kind of poking around in stuff. Well, once again,
turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians, as we always seem
to find ourselves. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. Verse 2. The Holy Spirit pens for us here
through Paul. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who hath blessed us? Who blessed us? God the Father. God the Father of Jesus Christ. Bless us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. We receive those blessings as
we were in Christ, as His seed. We have not been yet brought
forth. We have not been made manifest. We have not been shown
forth to everybody's eyes to see, but yet we still was there
in Christ in seed substance and was blessed because we were in
him. All the blessings that were made
to Christ was also made to all those who were in Christ so that
whenever those who are in Christ are brought forth and manifested,
they too would be the same recipients of that inheritance that God
promised to Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Here it is, verse
four. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. Now, God chose Adam. God chose Eve to multiply upon
the face of the earth, but Eve had not been brought forth yet.
But God, before Eve had ever been brought forth, blessed them,
and she was blessed because Adam was blessed. And so what did
they experience? They experienced the ability
to bring forth and to multiply, the providence of God, the caretaking
of God within the garden. Now, I don't believe that they
were spiritually alive, but I believe that they did have a fellowship
with God on a natural level. Not on a spiritual level, but
on a natural level, because they would not yet be given the spirit. So, brethren, can the child of
grace be included in this promise in verse 16 back in Galatians?
Can the child of grace be in that promise, even though it's
said to be to the one or the singular, which was Christ? Yes,
it can be, because if Christ is blessed, then all of his seed
is blessed with him. So the promise that was made
to Christ was also made to Abraham. That is why Abraham was the recipient
of that promise. Abraham was the recipient of
that promise. And so why, why is Paul making
that assertion right here? Because some are going to say,
verse 17, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God and
Christ, the law, which is 430 years after, is gonna disannul
all those promises because no one's gonna be able to keep those
laws. And if you can't keep those laws, you ain't gonna get the
promises of God unless you do. But Paul's saying, whoa, whoa,
whoa, wait a minute. That promise wasn't made to the
people to keep the law to get the promise. The promise was
made to Christ and you get the promise because you are Christ's
seed. See, it has nothing to do with
your law keeping on why you get the promise. The promise is given
by sovereign grace. God graced you and blessed you
with all spiritual blessings before the foundation of the
world because you were a seed in Christ Jesus. Not yet brought
forth, not yet born, not yet given life, not yet given faith
and repentance, but yet still blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. And so that way, that grace that
was given to you, it cannot be taken away. It cannot be taken
away from God because God promised to give it to you. And God cannot
lie. It can't be taken away by your
hands because it was a promise based on something that we don't
even do. It's not based on anything that we do. It's based on grace
alone. And it's given to us because
Christ merited that grace for us. Christ died for us. He lived for us. He died for
us. He rose for us. And that is what we are given
credit for. God credits our account for what
Christ did. Therefore, Yes, we keep the whole
entire law according to God. Yes, we do get all those blessings,
but it isn't because we keep it, it's because Christ keeps
it. That's why it cannot be disannulled. It cannot be disannulled because
the law has absolutely nothing to do with getting the promise.
That's why earlier Paul said that no man will be justified
by the works of the law. Because God never planned on
justifying us by the works of the law. The law was only there
to show us how sinful we were before God. And how the inability
that we have in our nature keeps us from keeping that law. And
to the child of grace who has been given repentance and faith
and an understanding of God's word, we can see, I'll never
be able to keep that. The only righteousness that I
can have is if Christ gives that to me. And so that righteousness
that God demands, he supplies for his people. And what a gracious
thing that is to give us. We are sinners. We have sinned
before God. In our flesh, we have sinned
before God. But yet Christ came and condemned
sin in the flesh so that we wouldn't be condemned in the flesh. He
says, and this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before
of God in Christ, it was confirmed before God, not in our law keeping. Notice that please, if you would.
God didn't confirm the covenant by our law keeping. He confirmed
the covenant in Christ Jesus. Doesn't Hebrew say that that
Testament is a New Testament in his what? His blood. See, that New Testament was signed,
sealed, and delivered by blood, not by works of law, not by our
law keeping. It was by blood. Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Everything
is purged with blood. Christ's blood is the basis of
everything that we get in that promise. And so the blood is
what confirmed the covenant. The covenant was your children
will be justified, but only at the expense of your blood. There
had to be a sacrifice. There had to be death. There
had to be a lamb slain. There had to be a surety. There
had to be a substitute. There had to be someone who would
stand in your place. There had to be propitiation.
There had to be expiation. There had to be justification
and sanctification. All those things that man could
never do because he was sinful and could never measure up a
righteousness before God to be accepted. But Christ did come. And so the covenant was confirmed
before God in Christ. And so that's why the law couldn't
disannul it because the law was never given to get it. The law
was given to tell us how bad we are and how much in need we
are of grace. Look at verse 18. For if the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. If I would tell my wife On our next anniversary, I'm
going to give you a new diamond ring. This is hypothetical, by
the way. If on our next anniversary, I'm
going to give you a big old diamond ring, that's a promise that I've
made to her. And then on our anniversary,
it comes up and there's no ring. And she says, well, where's my
ring? And I said, well, you didn't
work hard enough to get it. She said, well, wait a minute.
You promised me that you would give it. You didn't say that
I'd have to work for it to get it. Then if she would have worked
for it and I give her that ring based on those grounds, then
it wouldn't have been me fulfilling a promise to just graciously
give my wife a ring. It would have been if she did
something for that ring. So that ring was given to her not of
promise, but of work. It was given to her of wages,
And that kind of sullies it a little bit, right? Kind of sullies grace. Matter of fact, it isn't grace.
The Bible says that they're mutually opposed to each other. If it's
by grace, it's by grace and not of works. If it's by works, it's
not of grace. It's only by works, right? Salvation
is said to be by grace. But if you think about it, to
give somebody something only because they work of it, that's
just wages. That's slave labor. As much as
we hate to say that, and that term, especially in our country,
is kind of a trigger word. But really, my employer is my
slave owner. I work for him. I do his bidding
for money. And I have to do that to make
a living, unless I become my own boss and everything. But
for the sake of the picture here, Whenever he hands me that check
and he says, here, this is my wonderful heart thought gift
to you. I thought, what are you talking
about, man? I put in 60 hours this last week to get that check. See, it kind of sullies it whenever
you get something that you actually had to work for. It's really
not a gift. But if you get something that
you don't deserve and you didn't work for, it's not owed to you,
then that. is something worth cherishing.
That's something worth to be proud of. I've bought myself
pocket knives over the years. We carry a little pocket knife,
and I've bought a new pocket knife. I got a lot of knives
and everything. But whenever I was given a pocket
knife by my dad, I cherished that, because that was something
he gave me on his own, just because he loved me. I cherished that. All the rest of those knives,
I went and bought. There ain't a whole lot of sentimental value to that.
But that pocket knife that my dad gave me, you know, hey, that
means something to me. My dad was thinking of me. He
went out of his way to give something for me. He gives something to
me. And so I cherish that. No different than the other knives
I've got, nothing different. Well, see, brethren, whenever
we start looking at salvation in the terms of man, that, you
know, we have to do something What does that do? Man, that
is a spit in the face of God who gave us something that he
didn't owe us, that we couldn't earn, that's not ours to begin
with, but yet by grace, he'd give us that. That is why it's
so egregious for us to think that we can earn God's favor,
keep God's favor, to be saved by doing works in the flesh. He says, for if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to
Abraham by promise, and he gives it to every one of his children.
All those spiritual children are given these promises, but
it's by grace. It's not by law keeping. And
so I'm thankful that we have this by promise. If we are of
Christ's seed, then the promises are ours. We don't have to do
nothing for it. And guess what, until the Lord
comes again, there is still a seed that is coming forth, the spiritual
seed that is coming forth and being made manifest. And they
have the promises just like we do, because they are of one in
Christ Jesus. Because Christ was given the
promise, therefore every one of those, and because Christ
was given that promise, it is sure to be given to every single
one of his people. every single one of them. Not
one of them are going to be denied what their inheritance is. And so what a beautiful picture
of grace that we see here just in these few verses that we have
been given in Christ Jesus. Does anybody have any questions?
Or any comments? Any additions? Subtractions? Corrections? Rebukes? Lord willing, we will pick up
with verse 19, wherefore then serve the law. We will pick up with that Lord
willing next week and go forth from there. Does anybody have
any questions? Are you happy about grace? Are
you glad? that the good news that we share
is a good news of grace and not work. Like I said, I've mentioned
it here many times before. I remember those nights laying
in bed thinking I've not done enough for Jesus. I've not done
enough for Jesus. I should have done this or I
should have done that. And then I've not remembered all the sins
that I've committed to confess on and that he was not pleased
with me. Matter of fact, you can't even
hear my, because I can't even remember the sin that I sinned
yesterday that I didn't ask forgiveness for. Praise God, but that's not
how it works. Praise God that we have been
given grace and not servitude. We might be a servant of Christ,
but we are not ones who have to work for what the Lord has
given us. And I'm so thankful for that.
That really is good news. Good news isn't go out and get
to doing the law. That's not good news for anybody.
Because if you get out and start doing the law, you're going to
find very quickly that you can't keep it. If you're honest, if
you've been given eyes to see, you're going to know that you
can't keep it. So we're thankful for grace.
That's why we preach sovereign grace here. It is the good news. All right. Let's bow and have
a word of prayer if anybody has anything. Gracious Father, once
again, we thank you again for this day. We thank you for your
mercy and grace that we have through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you for our union that we have in Christ Jesus. And
Father Lord, we just want to come now and show you our appreciation
through our worship, through our singing, through the preaching,
through the gathering together of fellowship, Lord, the appreciation
that we have for the work of Christ on our behalf. Father,
we know that we aren't worthy. We know that we cannot keep your
law and that we are full of sin in the flesh. And Father, that
we truly do deserve all the wrath of God upon us. But Father, you
have given us the good news that we are, that are in Christ Jesus,
have been forgiven of those deaths and that we have been reconciled
to you and that we have fellowship with you. And Lord, that we have
the promise of eternal life and that we will one of these days
be rid of this old fleshly garment and that we might put on that
new body, that body that you have prepared for us. And Lord,
we look forward to spending eternity in your presence, worshiping
you around the throne of grace, around the throne of God. Lord,
we are thankful for this day, and we ask, Lord, that you just
might be with us as we leave today, that you might keep us, and that you might speak
and minister through us if opportunity is given. Lord, we pray that
we might bear testimony of Christ Jesus, that we might preach him
and him crucified. And Lord, that you might continue
to help this church, that you might continue to keep us in
the faith, that you might keep us faithful to the preaching
of the gospel, and that, Lord, that if there are others in this
town or in the surrounding area, Lord, that have been given to
know these truths, to love you and your gospel of free and sovereign
grace, Lord, we pray that you would bring them to us, Lord,
that they might worship with us and that they might serve
alongside of us in the ministry of the gospel. and Father, that
we might be able to fellowship together for encouragement and
edification. Again, we thank you for all that
you are. We ask you to bless the food that we have before
us today to the nourishment of our bodies and the fellowship
that we have together, one with another. And again, thank you,
Lord, for the way that you've taken care of me and my family
in these last days. We thank you for the saints and
their kindness that's been shown to us. And we pray, Lord, that
you'd be with Daniel and be with Kevin and Jacqueline and Alessandro,
as they are moving, Lord, that you might bless those moves and
the new places where they are moving, Lord. We just ask that
you might give everything that they have need of to do those
things. And Father, we just pray for
Brother Ed, wherever he might be this morning, Lord, we ask
that you'd be with him. We pray for Sister Beth and her
husband, Michael, Lord, that you might help them as they move
to Table Rock Lake and over by the Branson area, Lord, we ask
that you might help them and find a church more than anything,
Father, but we pray that you would help them in their move
as well. And we're so grateful for all
the people that you've brought through our lives here at this
church, Lord, and we just ask that you might continue to bring
others. We thank you again for all that you've done. It's in
Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.