Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 186 in the hardback temple. 186, the church is one foundation. Let's all stand together. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses With
every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war She waits the consummation of peace forevermore
Till with a vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed ? And
the great church victorious ? ? Shall be the church at rest ? ? Yet
she on earth hath union ? ? With God the three in one ? ? And
mystic sweet communion ? ? With those whose wealth is won ? Oh,
happy ones and holy, Lord, give us grace that we, like them,
the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Psalm 106. Psalm 106. Begin reading in verse one. Praise
you, the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Who can utter the mighty acts
of the Lord? Who can show forth all his praise? Who is sufficient
for these things? Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and he that doeth righteousness at all times. At all times. Then blessed of God, if our righteousness
is in Christ, and it's always. Remember me, O Lord, with favor,
that thou bearest unto thy people, Oh, visit me with thy salvation.
That's our prayer tonight. Oh, visit me with thy salvation,
that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in
the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers
understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the
multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even
at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known. Let's pray. Our blessed and glorious, merciful
Heavenly Father. We have a good hope in knowing
that we're able to come before thy presence. Looking in faith. To the idea, son. For all the
hope of our acceptance, all our righteousness, all of our justification
before the. Lord, we ask that you would be
pleased once again tonight to reveal in our hearts, through
faith, his glory, his accomplishments, his rightful place at thy right
hand as our advocate and as our substitute. Lord, that we might
find ourselves once again. Resting all the hope of our salvation
on him. To the glory of God, the father. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Let's all stand together again.
Number 44 from the spiral handbook 44. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? We as such to Thee draw near ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? With that love that casts out fear Matchless Savior, let
us know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts
to cleave unto Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious treasure,
let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. There was a line in that hymn
that we just sang. With thy love they cast out fear. Perfect love casteth out fear. The law brings nothing but fear. Grace, grace unto it. That's my hope tonight, that
we'll leave here knowing that he's loved us perfectly, that
he has satisfied all the demands of God's holy law. and that we're
not under the law, we're under grace. The love of Christ, I'm
confident, will constrain us to whatever end the Lord has
purposed for us. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 105. I've titled this message, The
Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Grace. A covenant is a pledge. It is
a promise. It is an alliance. And the scriptures
speak of two covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of
grace. The covenant of works was what
Adam was put under in the garden. Adam, if you do this, then I'll
do that. And Adam wasn't able to maintain
faithfulness to that covenant of works. Let me show you a passage
of scripture in Hosea before we read our text in Psalm 105. Turn with me to the book of Hosea,
right after Daniel. Daniel, Hosea. Hosea chapter six. Now this is the same passage
that the Lord quotes in Matthew chapter nine when the Pharisees
Ask the disciples, why is it that your master eats with publicans
and sinners? And the Lord heard them and he
knew what was in their hearts. And he said to them, he said
that the well need not a physician, but them that are sick said,
I would desire mercy, not sacrifice. Go and learn what that means. Now the Lord was quoting from
Hosea right here. Look at Hosea chapter 6 verse
6, for I desired, and that word desire is delight in. So God's
saying, I delight in mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is withholding
from us that which we deserve. We're hell-deserving, heaven-bound
sinners that have been made saints in the sight of God. That's a
glorious truth, but that's what the Lord say, and I will, I delight,
I delight in mercy and not sacrifice, not your works. And the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings. All that you could do and all
that you have to bring. This is life eternal that they
might know they the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
send. And God has to make himself known. He teaches us. He reveals
himself to us. So the Lord saying, I'll have
mercy on sinners. Those who cannot bring a sacrifice
sufficient to put away their sin. Look at the next verse,
but they like men. Now in the margin of my Bible,
the word men there is the word Adam or Adam. Okay? And it would be better
interpreted, Adam. The Lord's referring back to
that covenant that Adam wasn't able to keep in the garden. But
they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant. There have they
dealt treacherously against me. They sinned against God. They
disobeyed the covenant of works. They're just like Adam. Every
one of them are just like Adam. Now, go back with me to Psalm 105. That's our condition. We're born into this world as
sons of Adam. You know, some of us came out
of a religious tradition that prided itself in its research
into covenant theology. And I went back and read a little
bit about that the last day or two, just to refresh my mind. And a lot of things that they
say they believe, we believe. One of the problems with covenant
theology is that they only talk about the federal head of Adam. That's all they ever talk about.
You say, what's the federal head? Well, the President of the United
States is our federal head. He's our representative in the
world. And they never speak of Adam
being the seminal head. So what's the difference? Well,
your blood father is your seminal head, and you have the same nature. and physical and spiritual that
he has, because you're born from him. And that's where we are. We're born from Adam. And when Adam fell, we were in
the loins of Adam, and we sinned with Adam against God. And that's what the Lord's saying
in Hosea. They're just like Adam. They
broke the covenant. They violated the covenant of
God. The Lord put us under the law in the garden, and we weren't
able to keep the law. Now, the glorious truth of the
covenant of grace is that it existed before the covenant of
works. The covenant of grace goes all
the way back to eternity past. One of the other things, the
problem with covenant theology, other than the fact that that
when you read men who speak of covenant theology, they discuss
it as a theological perspective as if, well, it's just one of
the options that you have to choose from. Kind of like, well,
you might be a Calvinist or you might be an Arminian or you might
have covenant theology or you might have this kind of theology
or systematic theology. And it's all nothing but an intellectual
debate among pseudo-intellectuals who are professing themselves
to be wise And they've become fools in their hearts before
God. They don't know what they're talking about. And that's surely
one of the problems with covenant theology. They treat it as nothing
more than a system of theology. They speak of nothing more than
Adam as the federal head and Christ as the federal head. Just
as we were in Adam's loins, when Adam sinned in the garden, we
broke that covenant with our father Adam. So we were in Christ
when he went to Calvary's cross and he satisfied the demands
of God's justice. Christ is not just our federal
head, he's our seminal head. We were in him. That's what Paul
was saying in Galatians chapter two, verse 20. that I was crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, it's Christ that liveth in me. The life that I now live
in the flesh, in this body, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ. So, there's our hope. There's our hope. There's a covenant
of works. And most people see their salvation
as a covenant of works. They believe that if they will
believe, God will save them. That's the covenant of works.
The covenant of grace is, I will save you and you shall believe.
The covenant of works says, if you repent, God will forgive
you. The covenant of grace says, I have forgiven you and you shall
repent. The covenant of work says, if
I serve God and obey God, he'll bless me. In the covenant of
grace, God says, I blessed you and you shall serve me and obey
me and follow after me. The covenant of work says, if
I give, God will give back to me. I can obligate God. And the
covenant of grace says, oh no, no, I have given. I've given
everything and you shall give. You shall, I'm going to work
in you. What is it's two different covenants. And that's what, that's what,
um, that Psalm 105 is, um, it's, uh, our salvation brethren
is not determined by how faithful we are to keep our promises to
God. Oh, we want to be, we want to be faithful. But if our salvation
is determined by that and we know our own hearts and how oftentimes
we look away from Christ, here's our hope that this pledge, this
covenant, this promise is based on God's promises and it's impossible
for him to lie. And when I'm not faithful, he's
always faithful. I don't want anything to do with
the covenant of works. I don't want to be under God's law. Look
at Psalm 105 verse 6, O ye seed of Abraham. Now who's the Lord
talking about? Galatians chapter 3 and Romans
chapter 4 are the New Testament parallel passages to Isaiah,
I mean to Psalm 105. They are the explanation of Psalm
105. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
4. Galatians chapter 3, I'm sorry,
Galatians chapter 3, Romans chapter 4. Verse 16, Galatians chapter 3. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He sayeth not and to seeds as
of many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now that's a Christ is the seed
of Abraham and he's the one that these promises are made to. And
if we're in Christ, than all the promises that God made to
his seed are for us. Go back with me to Psalm 105.
O ye seed of Abraham, God is declaring his covenant promise
to his son. The covenant of grace goes Well,
it goes back to eternity past. How can we describe eternity
past? We can't describe it, can we? There's no beginning. There's
always been a covenant of grace. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit didn't just decide one day in eternity past
that they were gonna save a people. Oh God, our God changes not.
It's been in his heart always and say, well, how far back is
that? I don't think. Yeah, we can't we can't enter
into that, can we? We just believe it. That our
God never had a beginning. And that there would never was
a time when he wasn't determined in the covenant, the promise,
the pledge that the father made to the son to give him a bride
and that the son made to the father to work out the redemption
for that bride. And that the spirit made to the
son to go and to, and to regenerate them and to bring them to faith
in Christ. That's the covenant of grace. And so the Lord is saying, O
ye seed, singular, of Abraham. He's not talking about us, he's
talking about Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham, his servant. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom I am well pleased. Now what Isaiah said,
Isaiah 42. So the Lord Jesus Christ was
the perfect servant of God. And he served him faithfully.
fulfilling everything that he had promised the father to do.
I have finished the work which thou has given me to do. Father, I have sanctified myself,
John chapter 17. And now I sanctify them by thy
word. Thy word is truth of the Lord. Jesus sets his people apart by
the word of his testimony. Testimony is the word covenant
also. So the covenant, the promise, the pledge, the testimony that
Christ worked out as the servant of the Father and as the seed
of Abraham. That's what this passage is all
about. Ye children of Jacob, his chosen. That's us. That's us. So it begins with Christ and
then extends to us. The seed of Abraham, the servant
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that fulfilled the covenant
of grace. And we're the children of Jacob,
the sons of Jacob. What was Jacob? He's a deceiver,
wasn't he? That's what his name means, supplanter
or deceiver. And that's what Jacob was by
nature. And that's what we are by nature. If our salvation is
determined by our promises, how deceitful we are, how unfaithful
we are, how unreliable we are. We're just like Jacob in that
regard. We'll do things for our own advantage and say things
for our advantage. And here, our salvation is determined
by perfect faithfulness. Who's going to do that? The seed
of Abraham, the servant of God. The sons of Jacob, the children of Jacob are his
chosen ones. This covenant of grace is not
for everybody. It's not something God throws
out there and let men decide whether or not they'll have it
or not have it. The covenant of grace is very particular.
It is, it is for God's chosen people. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the
earth. He's God. He's the Lord. He's
the one that fulfilled everything necessary that we might receive
the blessings of the promise, the covenant. He hath remembered
his covenant. He hath remembered his covenant.
We don't always remember our promises, do we? It's not a bad
thing to make promises. I mean, it's a good thing. But
we just have to recognize the fact that we're not faithful
enough to our promises to rest the hope of our salvation on
them. His judgments are in all the
earth. He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which
he commanded to a thousand generations. A thousand generations. I wonder when that's going to
be over. Verse nine, which covenant he
made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac. He remembers his
promises. He's faithful to his covenant
and there's our hope. Here's our hope. The law has
no claim on us. The Lord Jesus Christ came fulfilling
that covenant of grace by fulfilling the covenant of works and satisfying
the demands of the law. And he confirmed the same unto
Jacob for a law. When God establishes a law, it
cannot be changed. And now he's calling this covenant,
as we read this oftentimes in the scriptures, don't we? The
covenant, the testimony, the law, the precepts, these are
all God's judgments that he's made and they are sure, they're
sure. Our salvation is based on something
that is sure instead fast, something that cannot change. He made the covenant to Abraham,
his oath to Isaac, he confirmed it to Jacob for a law, and to
Israel for an everlasting covenant, an everlasting covenant. You
don't, you know what? We live in a world and in a body
that's just in constant change, isn't it? Don't forget what the word everlasting
means. It doesn't mean it starts now
and lasts forever. It means it never had a beginning
and never had an end. God's everlasting. His judgments
are everlasting. His covenant is everlasting.
And all the changes that we go through and all the unfaithfulness
that we demonstrate don't change His covenant promises. Their
everlasting covenant is an everlasting covenant. It cannot change. I am the Lord and I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's the
covenant of grace. Saying unto thee, will I give
the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. I will give unto thee the land
of Canaan. Now you know what Canaan represents.
That's the promised land. They wandered in the wilderness
and that's what we are now, isn't it? We call it wandering in the
wilderness. They weren't really wandering.
They were following the pillar of fire by night and the pillar
of smoke by day, weren't they? And the cloud by day. God was
directing their every steps through that wilderness and that's what
we are. We're in the wilderness and we're following the fire.
We're following the light and enjoying the shade of the cloud. And one day the Jordan is going
to divide. And the word Jordan means to
descend or to die. And we're going to cross that
Jordan and enter into Canaan, the promised land, the land that's
flowing with milk and honey. And that's what, that's it. So
he's speaking, he's speaking, saying unto thee, unto thee,
will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,
when they were but few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers
in it." Don't be discouraged by the fact that you're few in
number. You know, there's a whole world of people out there and,
Lord, why are we so sparse? Why are we so few? God's people
have always been few. They've always been but a remnant,
just a remnant, few in number. That's that's that's to God's
glory. And every generation of those few are going to be gathered
together in eternity, and there's going to be a multitude upon
multitude of believers singing and praising God in Canaan. Don't be discouraged, brethren,
that we're few. Be thankful that God's made you
to differ. Be thankful that he's revealed
to you the fulfillment of the covenant promises of God for
the salvation of our souls in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now turn with me to Galatians,
turn back with me to Galatians chapter three. The third thing I was going to
mention a moment ago about covenant theology is that they distinguish
three covenants. They call the covenant of redemption,
the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. And they're
separating the covenant of redemption from the covenant of grace, as
if the covenant of grace is a promise that God makes to us and the
covenant of redemption is a promise that God made to God before time
began. There's but two covenants. It's
the covenant of works and covenant of grace. And that covenant of
redemption, that's the covenant of grace. That's where God promised
to save the people. As I said, Galatians chapter
three and Romans chapter four are the New Testament parallels
to what we just read in Psalm 105 about this everlasting covenant
Look, let's begin with verse 20 of Galatians chapter 2. Paul
said I am crucified with Christ just as I was in my father Adam
when he failed to keep the covenant of works and he died and was
separated from God. And I was there and I came into
this world spiritually dead and spiritually blind. But now. Now with my covenant head, my
seminal head, my savior, my substitute, my surety, I was in him in the
same way I was in Adam. I was in Christ. Well, when was
I put in Christ in the covenant of grace before the foundation
of the world? That's when we were put in Christ. Can that
be changed? Can anything that we do change
that? No. So Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, I live in this body, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. God's people are not lawless
people, and we say we're not under the law. We're not advocating
lawlessness, we're saying that we have a spiritual law. We have
the spirit of Christ, we have Christ Jesus the Lord that we
follow after. I had a man tell me this week,
say, you don't have to preach the gospel. God's already elected
who he's going to say before the foundation of the world.
So they're all going to be saved anyway. They don't have to hear
the gospel. What you need to do is tell people how to live.
I mean, you got that backwards. You got it backwards. I want to say to you, child of
God, love Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, look in
faith to Christ, and live like you want. Now the legalist will say, wait,
wait, you can't say live like you want. I didn't say that.
I prefaced live like you want. You see, if we're looking in
faith to Christ, that's what Paul's saying. I live, nevertheless
not I, it's Christ that liveth in me. I want to worship Him. I want to serve Him. I want to
follow Him. I want to obey Him. I want to
honor Him. When I'm looking in faith to
Christ, He's what I want. He's what I want. But Christ liveth in me, the
life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I'm living by
the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness came by the law, You see, if
I'm made righteous by my law-keeping, all I'm doing is frustrating
the grace of God. Christ is dead in vain, in vain. Now, the Galatian heresy was progressive sanctification. That was the Galatian heresy.
You went to the church in Galatia 2,000 years ago and you asked
even the people there, do you believe that you're saved by
grace or by works? They would say, oh, by grace. By grace,
we're not saved by works. We're saved in the covenant of
grace through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
now that we're saved, now that we're saved, We have to monitor
our salvation. We have to motivate our salvation.
We have to manipulate our salvation. We have to monitor it by the
law. We've got to go back to the law
in order to find out how we're supposed to live. And that's
why the Lord said, oh, foolish. We see this today, don't we?
We see this today. You say, well, and most of the
people that would say, well, I believe in covenant theology
would say that we're saved by grace. And then they send you
back to the law to work out your salvation under the law. Let
me, before we read the rest of that term would need a Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10. I had a dear friend and they
may be watching tonight. They were involved in a covenant
church up in the Northeast and reform church and a church that
was putting them under the law. And they started listening to
us and they started listening to Angus and they started listening
to Todd and they came to see the truth of the gospel and how
they've been put under the law. And I got a letter from them
just yesterday saying that the preacher at their old church
had written them a letter and he quoted Hebrews chapter 10
verse 25 You know that verse, forsake
not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is. Only thing is, when he quoted that verse in the letter, he
wrote the word neglect. I guess that's the translation
he was using. Neglect not the assembling of
yourselves together as the manner of some is. And he was rebuking
them because they had signed a covenant letter with that church
promising to be there every time they met. And now they weren't
going anymore because they're listening. And he sent them away. He put them under the law. He
said, you're neglecting the assembling of yourselves together. Well,
I looked up that word forsake. That word forsake means to altogether
abandon. That's what it means. And he's
not talking about people that miss church. He's talking about
those who abandon the gospel. He's acknowledging the fact that
there are some who will abandon the gospel. And you know, I can
say to God's people, you don't want to come to church, don't
come. I mean, I can say to people, do you want to come? Don't come,
but we're here because we want to be here. You don't want to
give, don't give. You don't want to pray, don't
pray. You know, the Lord, the Lord will work in his people.
That's the covenant of grace. But they rest the scriptures
in order to manipulate people's behavior with the law and put
people under the law. That's why I say look to Christ. Look to Christ and live like
you want. Now I know there's people that
are going to take a statement like that and pervert it. And they'll,
but the child of God who understands grace, they know what I'm talking
about. When you're looking to Christ, all you want to do is
honor him. You never hate your sin more
than when you're looking to Christ. It's the love of Christ that
constrain us. We're under the spirit of grace. Look at, look at verse, look
at verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 10. By the which will, verse
nine, then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first that he may establish the second. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to fulfill the law, to satisfy faithfully all that the Father
had sent him to do. And he said, I've come, O Lord,
to do thy will. I fulfilled it and I put away
the law, the first, and have established the second. By the
witch will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. When are we sanctified? You see, the Galatians would
say, well, we're justified through faith, we're sanctified by the
law. And here the Lord says you are
sanctified. You are set apart and made holy
by the offering of Jesus Christ once and for all. How are you
going to improve that? Every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstools. We come into this world at enmity
with God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
confident that everyone that he died for Everyone that he
sanctified is going to end up at his feet. They're going to
be sitting at his feet for by one offering. He hath perfected
for ever them that are sanctified. There's our hope brethren. We've
made a holy we're super sanctified. You're not going to make yourself
more sanctified than what the Lord Jesus Christ made you by
the sacrifice of himself once and for all. All right, now go
back with me to Galatians chapter 3. Oh foolish Galatians, who
hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth and crucified among
you? These were the, these were the
legalistic reformed theology, covenant theology, Judaizers
that came in behind the apostle Paul. And what did they say? They said the same thing. Our
friends, preachers are saying, they say the same thing. A man
told me just the other night that nothing's changed. They're
saying, you're saved by grace. You're justified by grace. But
now you've got to go back to the law. This only would I learn of you. Received ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? If you had the spirit
of God, you didn't earn it. You didn't earn him. No, you
receive the Spirit of God by faith. We have the Spirit of
God in us. How can a... Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. Shall we continue in sin, therefore,
that grace may abound? God forbid, we've got the Spirit
of God. We walk by the Spirit. We're not walking by faith. Having begun, and they would
have said, oh no, we got the spirit by faith, we didn't earn
him. Well then, having begun in the spirit, are you now made
perfect by the flesh? Are you going to go back to the
covenant of works in order to perfect your salvation? No. Have you suffered so many things
in vain if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministered
to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he
it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Did the Spirit of God minister
the grace of God to you by your works or by faith? See, but I got to have some evidence
that I'm a child of God. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. Faith is the substance of things
not seen. Don't look for anything other
than that. Even as Abraham, now we just
read, about the seed of Abraham in Psalm 105 and the covenant
that was made with Abraham and his seed even as Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him or credited to him or imputed
to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. He's the
father of the faithful. And the scriptures foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel unto Abraham saying in thee shall all the nations
be blessed. This was the gospel that was
preached to Abraham. That smoking furnace and burning
fire that went between the sacrifice, that was the gospel. That's what
Abraham heard and that's what he believed. So then they which
be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is
written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Well,
they say, well, you got to go back to the law. You got to do
your best. Well, you've never kept God's
law. Well, I'm trying. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. God says you're going to live
by the law. You're going to have to keep it perfectly. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for the just shall
live by faith. We'll walk by faith. Romans chapter
8, there is now therefore no condemnation them that are in
Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. And the law is not a faith. The law is not a faith. And the man that doeth them,
and this is a quote from Leviticus chapter 18, the man that doeth
them shall live by them. In other words, you're going
to be saved by the law, you're going to have to keep the whole
law. In heart, in attitude, in behavior,
you've got to keep it perfectly. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, brethren. Being made a curse for us for
it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. That's
why the Lord Jesus Christ died, burying our sins in his body
upon the tree. He suffered the full wrath of
God. More to satisfy God's justice.
He was cursed, cursed of God. that the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. We have the Spirit of God. The child of God who has got
the Spirit of God, who believes God, is not looking for a way
to justify their sin. They're looking for a way to
get away from it. They're not looking for a way to live lawlessly. But they're not looking to their
living at all for the hope of their salvation. Brethren, I
speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulath or added thereto.
So now he's saying you make a will or a testament, a covenant, you
authorize it, it can't be changed. Can't be changed. And to Abraham
and his seed. where the promises made. He saith
not unto seeds as to 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 be disannulled, or cannot disannulled,
that it should make the promise of none effect. When did the
law came? The law came under Moses, 430 years after Abraham. So what's the Lord saying? The
covenant was made to Abraham and to his seed before the law
was ever given. And when the law came, it didn't
disannul that covenant. It didn't change the covenant. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? What's the purpose of
the law? It was added because of transgressions. The law is for the lawless. And
Old Testament Israelites were a bunch of lawless people that
needed the law in order to keep them together and keep them on
track until the coming of Christ. That's what he's saying, look.
For if the inheritance be of the laws, no more promise, wherefore
then serve at the law. It was added because of transgressions
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. The
promise of God. That's what Psalm 105, this promise,
this covenant promise was made to the seed of Abraham and to
the children of Jacob. 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. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture had concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that But before faith came, we were kept under
the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards be revealed.
Before faith came, we were under the law. Wherefore, the law was
our schoolmaster. You know the picture here. You're a child in a home that
can afford a servant to tend to the needs of those children
and get those children to school on time and make sure they're
clean and dressed and taken care of. And the father says to the
children, you obey that man. He's your, you do what he tells
you to do. For the good of the children,
the father makes sure the children obey the schoolmaster until the
child Turns 18 or whatever the age was. Now what happens to
the relationship between that schoolmaster and the child? Now
that schoolmaster is that child's servant. He's an adult now. Now
he's the servant. Now the servant does what he
says. And that's what the Lord's saying.
We were under the schoolmaster. We were under the law. Then we
came of age and faith was given. And we look to Christ, and you
can just scratch out to bring us, because that is not in the
text. I'm thankful that in the King
James, it's in italics. The schoolmaster doesn't bring
us to Christ. It's the goodness of God that
leads to repentance. Preaching the law doesn't lead
men to Christ. All the Lord's saying is that
you were under the law, and then you came of age, and now you're
under Christ. The law didn't bring you to Christ,
Christ brought you to Christ. The perfection of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ brought you
to faith in Christ. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after the faith has come,
we're no longer under the schoolmaster. We don't need the law. To measure
our success. We don't need the law to motivate
us. We don't need the law to monitor. One another by. We don't need men to put us under
the law. We need Christ. We need grace. We need the Spirit of God. To
lead us. That only comes in the covenant
of grace. What a glorious hope we have.
The law has nothing to say. It's been silenced. For under
the law, all the law is going to do is condemn us. What the law could not do and
that it was weak through the flesh. Christ, Christ fulfilled. Our merciful heavenly father, we ask that your spirit now would direct us and cause us to meditate
on the things that you've said And to believe them. We ask it
in Christ name. 36 let's stand together. ? Behold my soul the love of God
? Behold the grace most free ? Before all worlds his purpose
stood ? His heart was fixed on me Elected by eternal love, the
covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. My soul was given to the Son
He promised to redeem By blood and righteousness His own He
would my soul reclaim In the due time Emmanuel came to live
and die for me. He lives today and bears my name. Christ is my surety. In love He sent His Spirit down,
Who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on,
My Savior to embrace. Now I rejoice in covenant love,
amazing grace I see. I now am conquered by his love,
my Savior is my King.