Turn in your scriptures with
me to Galatians chapter 3. Ultimately I have a very simple
message this morning. Simple message about inheritance,
simple message about promise, and a simple message about the
blessings of God. Paul. led by the Holy Spirit, writes
in verse 15 of chapter 3, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it be but 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. And he saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which
was 430 years later, 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. I love that word gave there.
It's the word grace. He graced it to Abraham. He gave it to him. There are
two ways, aren't there? Two ways the people will think
they receive blessings. God's children receive all the
blessings of Abraham, all the promises of God, I guess, and
Amen in Christ Jesus, and they just receive them as a gift. And man, ever since the fall
of Adam, We cannot stand the thought that it all comes by
a gift and by grace unless the Lord works it in. All of us,
all of us in our Adam nature think that we must do something
to earn it. We must do something. But in
fact, that's what the false teachers were saying to the Galatians.
They were acknowledging that salvation is by Christ. They were probably even acknowledging
that salvation is by grace. And then they added those little
words that we hear so often. But, it's all very well to say
all that, but you must. But you must, at the beginning
of your Christian life, you must act according to your will to
accept what is laid out on the table and there prepared for
you. You've been to those Christmas
functions, haven't you, where the guy brings out his little
message and at the heart of the message is a beautifully wrapped
big box. And then he says, won't it be
a tragedy if After Christmas there's an unwrapped present.
God's brought the present along, all you have to do is the unwrapping. It's a tragedy, isn't it? It's
a tragedy that men in this day and age, after such clear, clear
teaching, from passages like this one in Galatians which speak
with just such simple clarity that you have to work hard to
get around what is said here by the Holy Spirit. You begin
by works In the middle of your Christian life, you make yourself
more holy through acts of your obedience. You can actually do
some things that put God under obligation, and if you can do
it well enough, then He's under obligation to give you extra
crowns and extra jewels in your crown when you get to heaven. If the inheritance be of the
law, if the inheritance be of anything that you do, it is not
of promise. It's not of God's promise. Abraham received a promise, didn't
he? He received some remarkable promises. That he would be, that in him
would all the nations of the world be blessed. In him he would
be the heir of the world. Turn for a second to Romans chapter
4. As you've probably come to know
it, I've fallen more and more in love with Romans 4 as time
goes on and I'm just more and more delighted. I love
what verse 4 says Speaking of Abraham, now to him,
and all that are with Abraham, now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace but of debt, verse 5, but to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith, is counted for righteousness. Even as David describes the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
He imputes righteousness to us without any works. How clear
could it be, brothers and sisters? Saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also?
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness."
How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or
in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision,
he received it before he'd done anything. All he was when he
received all the promises of God was an Iraqi idolater. And we've got some inkling of
what Iraqi idolaters get up to in this world of ours today.
That was what Abraham's works were. And he received the promise
of God, not because he worked, but because it was a gift. And
he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness
of the faith which he had, which he had yet being uncircumcised. Don't forget the Galatian Falls
teachers are saying, you need to be circumcised. And circumcision
is your entry into the law. And having entered into that
world of the law, you can live like we Jews. You can honour
God by keeping his law. You can honour God by doing these
things like us. How clear, how clear are the
scriptures that that is a lie, that harms people. We've got
to remember haven't we that so much of the trials and troubles
of this world, the troubles that are besetting so many people,
are a result from a spiritual point of view of false teaching. It's a judgment of God allowing
false teaching to run rampant and have its way in the lives
of people. that Abraham, halfway through
verse 11, that he might be the father of all them that believe,
though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed
to them also." The very righteousness of God imputed to sinners like
us. The very righteousness of God
just imputed to an Iraqi idolater. Isn't that remarkable? It's a precious, precious thing
to sinners, isn't it? Only real sinners take delight
in the grace of God. And the Father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only but also walk in the steps
of that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised
for the promise that he should be heir of the world. Isn't it remarkable? Remarkable
how rich we are. Isn't it? We think, don't we,
we exalt people who have lots of money. Movie stars have lots
of money. Bill Gates has some ridiculous number of billions
of dollars. He gives away ridiculous amounts of money. Good on him
for doing so. and the poorest Christian is
richer than they can ever imagine. We own the universe, brothers
and sisters. We are heirs, we are joint heirs
with Christ. We have all the spiritual blessings
that God can bestow. For the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the
law, for they which have their origin in the law, their hometown
is the law, the place they want to go back to all the time, if
they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and
the promise of none effect. It's black and white, isn't it?
Because, verse 15, the law worketh wrath. For where no law is, there
is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith. But it might be by grace, to
the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. I just love verse 16. It is of
faith. that it might be by grace to
the end the promise might be sure. Sometimes when I'm sitting
at my desk and fiddling with my computer and I look up the
words, I have this smile and I sometimes wish that my brothers
and sisters would be able to just smile along with me. The
very first of the little concordance things that popped up when I
looked up what that word sure means says, Fit to tread on. That's what the original Greek
means. Fit to tread on. Here is a place
you can put your foot with absolute surety. It means having a firm
foundation. As we read the scriptures and
as we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, we speak of the most
extraordinary promises, don't we? What remarkable promises. What remarkable promises has
God made to us. Our sins, our sins are cast behind
His back and He remembers them no more. Satan remembers them,
I remember them, you remember them, the world remembers them. There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. God doesn't remember them anymore. Your sins are taken away by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's children just really believe
that, don't we? The promise is sure. That's the
question, isn't it, that our flesh and the religious world
ask us all the time. Is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ really enough to make me holy before God? The religious world says, yes,
but, yes, and. I'll show you a few more things
to do. Galatians, brothers and sisters,
is as fresh as a daisy in terms of its wise instruction for God's
saints in this world and its wonderfully clear description
of the false teachers. Is salvation Is it really all
just a gift? And the religious world says,
yes it is, but, and then you fill in the blanks,
but you must, you must do it. God gave it to Abraham by promise. A promise which is sure. We rest our eternal souls. We rest all of what lies between
here and eternity. We rest all of what it means
to stand before an infinite holy God who is a consuming fire. We rest all of that on His promises
in His word. promises are sure. What a remarkable
thing, the Lord Jesus has defeated death for us. Death is personified
in passages of scriptures in 1 Corinthians 15 and He has defeated
it. You don't die brothers and sisters
in Christ. We don't die according to His
promise. We've passed now from death to
life. We leave this world in the blink
of an eye, and it's no more difficult than falling asleep. And instantly,
instantly, when we breathe our last here, we're in the very
presence of God and we're with Abraham and Abel. and Moses and all the children
of God who are saved in exactly the same way that Abraham was
saved. And what are they doing right
now? What are they doing around the throne of God as we speak
here right now? They see Him. They see our Lord
Jesus. in all of His glory in those
magnificent scenes you can read about in Revelation 4 and 5. And they are singing, they are
singing, redeeming love. They are singing about the glory
of the Lord Jesus right now. And that is what happens to every
believer at the moment. They've gone from here to there
according to the promise of God. And one day soon, all of those
in heaven will come back to this earth and all of those who are
the Lords here will be raised up. They'll be taken up off this
earth and transformed in an instant. transformed in an instant and
then that glorious bride that we read about in Revelation will
come down out of heaven. The holy city, the new Jerusalem
coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And this earth will be consumed
and recreated by our Lord Jesus Christ, and it will be brand
new, and there will be no sin, and there will be no defilement,
and the children of God will be infinitely better than Adam
ever was. We are better now, better off
now than Adam was. God's children in a place where
there will be no serpent and there will be no curse and we
will reign with Him forever. We just have such I remember
Luther said to Erasmus, he says, Erasmus who was a Catholic theologian
and apologist, he said, Erasmus, your biggest problem is that
your thoughts of God are too earthly. And other than the scriptures,
our thoughts of God are too earthly. And here we have these remarkable
promises. That is what lies before all
of the children of God. And what lies before all of those
who live and die in unbelieving rebellion is equally true. And our God will be seen to be
a just God, a righteous God and a saviour. And all of this all
of these promises are yes and amen in our Lord Jesus Christ. They're all complete They've
all been signed and sealed with his blood. And the offence and
the danger of the Galatian false teachers and the false teachers
that parade around this world today is they want to take something
of the puny works of frail and sinful human flesh and somehow
By adding our works we can polish the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have His promises but
something else. Paul was incensed. He was outraged when he wrote
this letter. I pray that the children of God
In this day and age we'd be outraged as Paul was at false teaching
and then be thankful that the false teachers in Galatia gave
him cause to write these words that we have before us. I'm just
going to look briefly at them and I'll look at a couple more
promises and then we'll be done. In verse 15, I love how he begins
this section. He says in chapter 3 verse 1,
he says, O foolish Galatians, but here he says, brethren, brothers and sisters. You see, Paul writes with hope. The promise of God is that where
he has begun a good work, he will carry it through unto the
day of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1.6. That amongst the Galatian
church are people who would delight to call him, as Peter does, beloved
brother. So he's writing with an expectation
that in this Galatian church are some children of God, who
will hear the shepherd's voice. They will hear the shepherd's
voice and they'll hear him calling them back, calling them back
to sovereign grace. He says, brethren, I speak after
the manner of men. He says, brethren, I'll give
you an example. And here he is giving an example
from just an everyday activity, an everyday activity that all
of us are involved in all aspects of our commercial lives and in
more serious things of our personal lives. I speak after the manner
of men. Though it be but a man's covenant, if it be confirmed,
no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto. Once a covenant has
been signed between two parties, it's settled. Once a will and
testament has been Signed. It is enacted, isn't it? And no man disannulleth or addeth
thereunto. And I know that in our day the
laws have changed and people can contest wills and some with
some serious justification can, because people have been manipulated
into being deceitful. But the principle is still at
stake, isn't it, in contracts and all sorts of other things
that we sign. We've got some people renting one of our sheds
at home, they'll sign a contract with Lisa next week and it's
a contract where she agrees to give them a share and they agree
to give her some money. It's signed, isn't it? No, none
of you people can fiddle with that contract. It's signed, isn't
it? It's a deal between she and them. Verse 16. Now to Abraham and
his seed. for Abraham and his seed were
the promises made." The promises that we've been talking about,
those promises of the Spirit, the promises of eternal life,
the promises that in Him all the nations will be blessed,
the promises that He would be heir of the world, the promises,
as we've read often before, that God will be their God. and they shall be His people,
and Christ shall be their Saviour, Christ shall be their Redeemer,
the Holy Spirit will be their Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit will
come and apply all of grace to them, that they would be justified
by Christ's righteousness, they'd be pardoned from all of their
sins, by His blood, they'd be perfectly robed in the righteousness
of God. They would persevere to the end
through all of the trials that people like Abraham had. They
will persevere by grace and they will enter an eternal inheritance. As you know from Hebrews 11,
I love the fact that Abraham looked around, he was given a
world, he was given a nation. He was given a nation that stretched
from the Nile River to the Euphrates River. He had a huge nation and
he finally got to the place that was the only bit of land he owned.
It was a burial plot for his wife and Hebrews 11 says that
he saw all that and he was looking around for a place that had a
foundation. He said there was no place sure. He was looking beyond all of
those carnal things and he was looking to God and his eternal
inheritance. And in the midst of us on that
journey we have the blessing of God. that he's promised to
work all things for the good of those who love him and are
called according to his purpose. And he withholds no good thing. He says in Romans, along with
Christ, will he not freely, will he not graciously give us all
things? He will sanctify. Our afflictions. He will be, as Moses said of
his God, underneath me are everlasting arms. I'm carried by a sovereign
God through this world. He promised us to never leave
them nor forsake them. Abraham and the seed were the
promises made. I love what Malachi says in 2
verse 5, he says, My covenant with him, a covenant with him
is a covenant of life and peace. But just to make it very clear
that the covenant is a promise between God and God. And He saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed Christ. So the promise was made to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And not to seeds, there is no
division in the grace of God. in salvation and spiritual blessings
between Jews and Gentiles. Not two C's. Abraham is the father
of the faithful. He has a family. A family. All of the faithful. The promises
were made to Christ and Abraham gets the benefits. It's exactly
like us, brothers and sisters, isn't it? promises made to Christ,
and Christ enacts it all. And we get the benefits. He is
the head. We are the body. We are one body
in Him. As Simon reminded us in John
6.37, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. The Father gives them into the
hands of the Lord Jesus in covenant promise. And what's the result? They'll come to Him. They'll
believe on Him. He will keep the law for them,
and He will take responsibility for their sins and their sorrows. He will bear the curse of God
for them. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, it's a covenant
between them, it's a covenant in Christ, it's a covenant confirmed
before. which means established beforehand. It was caused to be in force
in advance is what it means. Confirmed beforehand. The law
which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make
the promise of none effect. It's confirmed of God in Christ. It's confirmed with respect to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the covenant which concerns
Him. It's a covenant made with the
Lord Jesus Christ and He is the sum and the substance of the
covenant. The covenant in which He is the
mediator, the surety. He is the messenger. It's the
covenant of life and peace, the covenant of grace and redemption. In thee shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. What could be clearer? All of
that was signed and sealed and ratified 430 years before the
laws were given. It was confirmed to Abraham. Ecclesiastes 3.14 speaks of God,
our faithful God, who cannot lie. He says, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. It shall be forever. Nothing
can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. God doeth it that
men should fear before him. Whatever God says, whatever God
promises, he promises forever. For if the inheritance, it's
a remarkable thing, isn't it? Words are just so plain. How
do you earn your inheritance? When I leave this mortal coil,
I will leave some things to my children. The way I'm travelling
at the moment, it'll be precious little, but I will endeavour
to leave some things to my children. And I'll be very clear, it'll
be divided amongst four of them. And they won't have any part
in what I write in that, will they? When they come to open
my will and testament, on that day. They're going to be opening
something that gives them a list of do's and do's and do's and
a whole bunch of instructions. Here are ten things that you
must do and if you do these ten things well, I'm going to bless
you. I'm not going to do that to them.
Why? Because they are mine and because I love them. It's a gift. That's how God deals with his
children in Christ Jesus. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise. If the inheritance is something
that you earn by something that you do, something you have done,
something you think you might be able to do, then it's no more
a promise. God gave it to Abraham by promise. He graced it to Abraham by promise. I love what Romans 11.26 says,
the grace, gifts, and calling of God are without repentance. They're irrevocable. God has
promised and he has no reason to change his mind. Peter talks about them, doesn't
he, in 2 Peter 1, verse 4, he speaks of these exceedingly great exceedingly great and precious
promises. I've just spoken about them earlier.
How great are they? How precious are those promises? How do you get them? Peter makes
it really clear, whereby are given, given unto us exceedingly
great and precious promises, not earned, exceedingly great
and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Our God makes promises, remarkable
promises. He is faithful. He keeps His
word perfectly. As Solomon said, Blessed be the
Lord that has given rest unto His people Israel according to
all that He promised, 1 Kings 8.56. there hath not failed one
word of all his good promise, that he promised by the hand
of Moses his servant." Has not failed one word of all his good
promise. I keep reminding you of the remarkable
grace of God, the grace that bestows blessings upon our people,
not on the basis of our good works, and doesn't withhold blessings
on the basis of our bad works. The Lord looked at the church
and saw the church as a church in need of rich mercy, and that's
exactly what he's done. The Gospel is perfectly fitted
to sinners, is it not? Perfectly suited to sinners who
have nothing and can do nothing, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. To the praise of His glory, the
glory of His grace, who has made us accepted in the Beloved, graced
in the Beloved. We have a remarkable, remarkable
gospel to listen to, to rejoice in,
and a remarkable gospel to bring to each other in times of need,
a covenant promise of all the blessings of a holy God. all because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the covenant, Isaiah 42.6
and 49.8. Christ is the covenant. There's
a covenant, a promise formed between persons of the Godhead. It was formed before the foundation
of the world. It was formed in Christ. It depends
wholly for all of its accomplishments upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and
all the blessings, all the blessings of those promises are placed
with Christ. Why, why Galatians, why, why
people of this age would you want to turn back to those weak
and miserable principles to try and earn something more than
God has given you? I promise in His dear and precious
Son. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you again. You lead your people to be reminded
of the extraordinary bounty that you have bestowed upon your people
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that the promises are sure. We in this world, which is shaken
and shakable have a sure foundation upon which to rest our souls
and to rest our lives between now and when we meet You. We
praise You, Heavenly Father, for Your dear and precious Son
and Him shedding His life's blood, that precious blood, shed for
His people. We praise You, Our Father, that
He promised that He shall not fail, and he has not failed and
he will bring all of his sheep home and his bride will be beautifully
adorned, adorned in his righteousness and prepared for eternity with
him. We pray, Heavenly Father, You'd
cause us to walk in faithfulness on this journey, and You'd cause
us to have our eyes fixed on Him who is the author and perfecter,
the author and finisher of faith, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
us, Heavenly Father. with your sweet gospel promises
and bless us most of all with just a simple childlike trust
in who he is and what he has done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.