Again in verse 15, Paul had just
spoken about the blessing of Abraham coming on us through
Jesus Christ, how we receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. He says this in verse 15, Brethren,
I speak after the manner of men. He's speaking by the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, but he's using an earthly illustration
to speak of this eternal covenant. He says, though it be but a man's
covenant, and the word here is a man's testament, like a will
and testament. Though it be but a man's testament,
yet if it be confirmed, if it's written out, it's signed, it's
sealed, it's witnessed, particularly by the death of the testator,
the man who wrote out his will and testament. When he dies,
all this has been done. It's been written out, signed,
sealed, witnessed, and he dies. No man disannulleth or addeth
thereto. No man can make it void. They
can't add to it. And if that's the case among
men, then that's certainly the case with God. And so he says
this, 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, We cannot disannul that it should make
the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it's no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Now, the word covenant here is
the word testament. It's the word testament, like
a will and testament. When our Lord Jesus said when
he was, instituting the Lord's table, and he said, this is my
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins. The word he used there when he
said testament is the same word Paul uses here as translated
covenant. God's covenant's like a man's
last will and testament. That's what it's like. He does
everything. Like the man would do everything,
God does all. He arranges it. He orders it.
He chooses who He'll give to. He does everything in it. And
His people passively receive the inheritance that He's giving. That's how God's testament is. He gave Abraham a promise. Promised him, ultimately, the
promise was an inheritance. Paul called it there in verse
18, the inheritance. Eternal life. Eternal life. He made many promises, and they're
all part of this covenant, they're all part of this testament, and
our God fulfills all of these promises. Every one of them. They're certain. He will fulfill
them. But ultimately, they work toward
this grand promise of eternal life, the inheritance. the inheritance. It's like a man makes his will
and testament and he leaves an inheritance. God has promised
us an inheritance. But then God gave another covenant
at Sinai and it was a covenant of works. It was a contract.
It was not a testament. It was not like a testament.
It was a contract. The works of the law can't disannul
and they can't add to God's testament. His covenant, His everlasting
will and testament, and the law can't add to that, and the law
couldn't disannul that. You know, we're so accustomed
to saying the old covenant and the new covenant, and when you
read in Hebrews and it talks about the old covenant being
unprofitable and weak, and it was weak because of sinners,
and he says, and so, God disannulled it. Christ fulfilled it, took
it out of the way, and then he brought in the new covenant.
But actually, the new covenant was before the old covenant.
The new covenant's what's always been. It was the old covenant
that was temporary. It was temporary. He said, verse
18, if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise,
but God gave it to Abraham So I want to look at God's testament. I want to look at God's testament,
God's covenant. Now first of all, when a man
makes out his testament, he's making his last will and testament,
and when he makes it out, he does it before the inheritance
is given. He does it before it's time to
sit down and hear what it is he's left. He does it beforehand.
And it's all laid out by Him. It's His will. It's what He's
willing to give. It's all His will. He does it
before and it's His will that it's done. And that's how it
is with God our Father. God made His testament in eternity. Before He made anything in this
world, He made His testament. He set forth His will, His counsel,
his testament, and he made it all ordered and sure. He arranged
everything about it according to his will. And all the promises
that we hear, and all the promises he tells us in time, they were
all complete in the purpose of God in Christ before the world
was. We read in Titus 1-2, we have hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised. before the world began. That's
what he's talking about, this testament. So this testament
was confirmed before of God in Christ. Now in our text, he's
talking about when he confirmed it to Abraham, but even before
Abraham, it was confirmed of God in Christ. Before the world
was made, God set down all things in his covenant. And he wasn't
obligated to do this. He didn't have to do this. It
was his will. It was His will to do this. He
said, can I not do with mine own what I will? And it was His
will to do this. And everything included in God's
everlasting covenant is God's will. This is God's will. And so it's unalterable. It's
from everlasting to everlasting. Psalm 33 11 says, the counsel
of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of His heart to
all generations. Aren't you thankful for this,
brethren? Because everything in this world has
variables in it when we set out to do anything. But with God,
what he's determined before to be done shall be done. And I find great comfort there.
I can rest there. I can know that I don't have
to understand it. I don't have to know the answers.
I don't have to know what God's doing. I don't know half the
time. what God's doing, but I know
who's doing it, and I can rest right there. This is His eternal,
whatever comes to pass is God's eternal purpose. It's His will. This is all for the fulfillment
of this testament. Now secondly, God's covenant's
unlike a man's covenant in some ways because the Son of God is
the testator and He is the heir. It's His covenant. He's the testator,
the Son of God's, He's equal with God. He is God. So when
we talk about God arranging this covenant, this is as much His
covenant as it is the Father's covenant and as it is the Spirit's
covenant. He's God. But the Son of God
entered covenant with the Father. There were some conditions in
this towards His people to fulfill everything, to settle the sin
and to deal with the curse. so that God could freely give
this inheritance to his people. And so the Son of God came down
as the God-man mediator. He came down. He came to be the
messenger of the covenant. He came to be the mediator of
the covenant. And in fact, he is the covenant.
He said in Isaiah, I've given you for a covenant of the people.
And so look over at Hebrews 9, 15. So he's God in human flesh,
And as God, He took flesh like His brethren,
like the heirs, like those that He came to give this inheritance
to. And here's why He did it, Hebrews 9.15. For this cause,
He's the mediator of the New Testament. It's the same word
right there. He's the mediator of the New
Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it's of
no strength at all while the testator liveth. So our Lord
came down to be the mediator of this New Testament. He's God
and he's man. So he's fulfilling his obligations
for God and he's fulfilling his obligations for God's chosen
people. Because when anytime there's
a testament, it's got to be confirmed. It's got to be in effect when
the man has died. When the man has died. So that's
what Christ came forth for. Somebody will hear that and they'll
say, well, how did God promise Abraham this inheritance? And
how did he have this promise so sure and it be so settled
and be confirmed when Christ hadn't shed his blood yet? He
hadn't died yet. Well, Christ Jesus is the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He's the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And the blood of Christ is effectual
to cleanse all his saints before the cross, and his blood's effectual
to cleanse all his saints after the cross. His blood is effectual. Every blessing God purposed to
give in his will and testament is free to his people, absolutely
free. Passively receive these blessings
that God has given us by promise as an inheritance because the
blood of Christ the testator he has shed his blood in the
room instead of his people. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. And he came to shed his blood.
So Christ called it the New Testament in my blood. This thing is ratified. It's confirmed because when Christ
said it's finished and he gave up the ghost, this thing was
settled. It was confirmed. He did it by
his blood, and he put away the sins of his people as he honored
God's law, declaring God to be a just God and a savior. But also, Christ is the heir.
He's the heir. A man chooses who will be his
heir. He makes the choice of who's
gonna receive his inheritance. And God the Father chose who
would receive his inheritance, and he chose first and foremost
his son to be his heir. He chose his son to be his heir.
It was God's good pleasure to freely give his son a kingdom.
He said, my father hath appointed unto me a kingdom. He said, it's
not of this world. He said, if it was of this world,
my people would fight. It's not of this world. And so
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, it's a spiritual
warfare. And we have spiritual weapons,
it's the gospel. And God, he sends forth the spirit
and he works in spirit and he creates a spiritual people. And
so this whole kingdom is gonna be made up of his spiritual kingdom
that he's made in righteousness and holiness. And so God the
Father also chose His elect in His Son and entrusted it all
to Christ so that they would be joint heirs with Christ. So that whatever He did, we would
do, and we would be joint heirs. And born of His irresistible
grace by His Spirit, we are, we're joint heirs. Go to Romans
8. Romans 8 and look at verse... Verse 15, you've not received,
let's read verse 14. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. For you've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may also be glorified together. You know, whenever
he speaks here in our text, in Galatians 3, and he says there
in verse 16, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He said, not to seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which
is Christ. It's because Christ is the preeminent
Son of God. He's the only begotten Son of
God. God chose Him. He was going to be the firstborn
among many brethren. And you picture a father giving
to his firstborn son everything that is his. And his sons pleased
him. His son has fulfilled everything
that was in his will to do. And the father is pleased with
him. And the father promised him to be the first among all
his brethren. But instead of being like You've
heard in the past in this world where somebody will be the heir
and then they just have it all and none of the other children
have anything. Christ is the heir and he's given
the glory to give these blessings to all his brethren in the house
so that we're joint heirs with him. And that assures that we're
gonna get the blessing because he will not fail. He shall give
these blessings to all his people. God's elect are Christ's portion. What did God promise him as the
heir? He promised him a people. And that's Christ's portion,
that's his inheritance. Deuteronomy 32.9 says the Lord's
portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. You think, well, boy, that's
a pitiful inheritance for our Redeemer to receive us. Oh, but
when he gets done, when he gets done, It's gonna be an inheritance
that is a trophy of His grace and what He's done, and He's
delighted in what He's done and made His people. And Christ our
King, this kingdom's made up of all those that are His brethren
that He redeemed, and they're His inheritance, and our inheritance
is our King. He's our inheritance. In Numbers
18, 20, typified this with the old covenant priests. We know
Christ through his blood, he's making us priests unto God, kings
and priests unto God. He makes us what he is. He's
the king priest. He makes us kings and priests
unto God. He makes us like him. And so
whenever the Lord gave his priests their inheritance in Canaan,
here's what he said, the Lord spake to Aaron and said, thou
shalt have no inheritance in their land. Neither shalt thou
have any part among them. Why not? I am thy part and thine
inheritance among the children of Israel. And that's what he
says to you and me, brethren. Isn't that what he said to Abraham?
The Lord came to Abraham in a vision. He said, Fear not, Abraham. Listen
to that, brethren. Listen to that. God helped us
hear this. He said, fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Don't fear the wind and the waves. Don't fear the trouble. Don't
fear, don't fear anything below. Fear Him. And if we fear Him,
We don't have anything else to fear. Fear not. Fear not. Let me show you this. Go to Isaiah 43. I was just talking to Brother
Eric the other night and he was preaching from this and I got
to thinking about this and looking at it and it's such a blessing.
I just, I love Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43.1, Now thus saith the
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not. Now here's why, listen. For I
have redeemed thee. Brethren, Christ bought us with
his blood. We're his. We're his possession.
Now listen. I've redeemed thee, and I've called thee by thy name. and thou art mine. I redeemed
you and I called you. I named you. You're mine. He named you Israel. He named
you after him. You're his. And he says, when
you pass through the waters, you will, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, Thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Why? Because I am the Lord thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia, Seville for thee. Everything that's happening
in this world, brethren, everything, with every nation and people
that God has raised up to make his power and his wrath known,
is to show the vessels of mercy, just how rich his mercy is to
us. I've given up nations for you. Since you were precious in my
sight, now it's been honorable and I've loved thee, therefore
I'll give men for thee and I'll give people for thy life. Fear
not, I'm with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone is
called by my name, for I created him for my glory. I formed him, and I made him. God's going to get the glory.
He's going to get the glory. So he told Abraham, fear not,
Abraham. Here's why. I am thy shield. I'm your defense. I'm your refuge. I'm gonna protect you. That's
his promise to you, child of God. That's his promise to each
of us as his people. That's his promise to us as of
his church. I believe him. Don't you? He's our shield. And here's what
else he says. And I am thy exceeding great
reward. The word is compensation. I'm
your compensation. I'm your compensation. So we're
His inheritance and He's our inheritance. And now, the Lord
Jesus has the glory of giving all the blessings that God promised
included in this free inheritance. He has that glory, that's His.
Through the Spirit, through faith in Him, because He's the firstborn
among many brethren. He's the heir who's gonna give
out all the promises to all His brethren. He gives us the spirit
of regeneration. Why? Because God promised it. God promised to send the spirit. Every one of his heirs are gonna
receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's gonna enter into
them and give them life, every one of them. Not a one's going
to be left out. He promised to give us a new
spirit, He's going to give us a new spirit. He promised to
continually purge our conscience, He's going to purge our conscience.
He's going to keep you. When we turn aside, He's going
to chasten His people, correct His people, humble His people,
and He's going to bring us to His feet. And He's going to do
that. I've seen this. I've seen it. He'll do it. The Holy Ghost is
a witness to us. The Holy Ghost bears witness
to us so that we have peace with God in Christ. He tells us that
your sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more. And there's
our peace. And he tells you, he gives you
this promise. He tells you right now, right
now, you're no more strangers and foreigners. But before he
did this, we were citizens of this world, of this corrupt generation. because we were dead in sin.
But when He's worked this in our heart, He says, now therefore,
you're no more citizen, or you're no more strangers and foreigners,
but you're fellow citizens with the saints. And you're of the
household of God. This is our Father speaking.
Our everlasting Father speaking. He said, you're children in my
house. He's going to take care of His house. I believe it. And so all the blessings that
He promised, redemption, pardon, justification, sanctification,
perseverance, and all ending in our eternal inheritance in
glory, it's all given us freely from Christ's hand, the firstborn. The heir gives it all because
He's made us joint heirs with Him through His blood. And here's
what He says to us again. Fear not, little flock. Fear
not, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He said over in Revelation 3.21,
to him that overcometh, to him that overcometh. And there's
only one way you overcome. You overcome by the blood of
the lamb. You overcome looking to him and
trusting him. And he said, to him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame
and am set down with my father in his throne. It's his good
pleasure to give you as an eternal inheritance the kingdom. So lastly,
when our Lord called Abraham, this is the covenant God made
with Abraham. This is what he was teaching
Abraham. There were no conditions that
were put in Abraham's hand. God confirmed it in Christ by
two immutable things, his word and his oath. Go over to Hebrews
6 and let's see that. Hebrews 6. It says there, he
confirmed this promise before in Christ to Abraham. Hebrews
6.13. When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
Verse 14, saying, surely blessing, I will bless thee. Surely, he
said, it's ordered in all things and sure, I will bless thee.
There's the promise. And multiplying, I will multiply
thee. And so after he, after Abraham
had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. All his people do. All his people do. Now watch
this. Verily men swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, so that
by two immutable things, both of which it's impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. And the hope we
have is an anchor of the soul. This is what's gonna keep us
anchored. This is what's gonna keep us
from drifting when the storm's raging. He's the anchor. Look,
both sure and steadfast, because He didn't leave anything in our
hands. Sure and steadfast, and it enters into that within the
veil. He's entered into the holiest
of holies. He's the forerunner, and He is for us entered. Even
Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
So when He says back in our text here, He says, now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He said, not to seeds as
of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. You know
what a blessing that is? That's a blessing. When he said,
not to seeds as of many, he said, to Christ. He made this promise
to Christ. And here's why that's important.
It includes all Abraham's spiritual seed. It includes all his elect. Everyone he's going to save is
included in this covenant, in this testament, in this promise.
But he speaks only of Christ the seed. But God declares there's
absolutely no separation between Christ and His people. He's the
head and we're the body and we're one in Him. And when he made
this covenant with Christ, he put it all in Christ's hand.
From the redeeming us on the cross, well, actually, creating
the world and all things in it. Overruling when Satan entered
the garden and mankind fell in Adam. He was ruling every bit
of that, our mediator was. From giving the old patriarchs
The blessing He gave to them and pointing out those shadows
and types. He did all of that. He even gave the Old Covenant.
And then He came and fulfilled it completely. And took it out
of the way. And He used it as a shadow and
a type and a picture to show us who we are. We're spiritual
Israel. And he's the high priest, and
he's the one that worked all of this, and he's sending this
spirit forth, he's calling out his people, he's working in his
people, and he's sending you trials. You know why he sends
us trials? God may, he may, he may strip you till you just
don't think you can be stripped anymore. But it's in the trial
that He manifests those that are His. Is that not so? He said, there must needs be
heresies that they which are approved may be made manifest. He approved us. He has saved
us. And he's the one who's going
to keep his people and teach his people in the midst of the
trial. He's going to do it. I saw a church one time in terrible
trouble. And if you'd have saw it, you'd
have said, there's no hope for them. And I got texts in Isaiah. The brethren there were trying
to run when God said, your strength is to look to me. But that was
necessary. That was absolutely necessary.
It was wrong, but it was necessary. Why? That was a preacher school
for some. It was disciple school for everybody. And I guarantee you now, That
church is healthy. That church is thriving. And
I guarantee you now, if you'd have asked those brethren, would
you change anything about what happened? They'd say, not a thing. Not one thing. Not one thing. Not condoning our sin, not condoning
our despair, Making a fool of ourselves, not condoning any
of that. But every bit of that was necessary. Every bit of that
was necessary. And this is the promise of God.
Our Lord said, I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you. He can strip. And when He does
it, trust Him. Just trust Him. But everything here, there's
no separation. We're in Him. And everything
He did and everything He's doing is strictly for His body. As
the body is one and has many members, and all the members
of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. So also is Christ. Lord, help
me to remember. I wouldn't chop off any, the
most insignificant part of my body, I don't even want to chop
it off. Because it's part of my body. It's a member. And let's
remember that. Your members are put there for
a reason, and He fitsly frames us together, and every member
is needed. And He's going to provide for
every member of His body. And this testament by His blood
was confirmed, it was ratified, and it guarantees us that every
promise of God is sure, is steadfast. It's going to be given to His
spiritual children because Christ fulfilled all covenant obligations
for His people. Confirmed before of God in Christ. And you know, a testament is
sealed. When you do your testament, they're
going to seal it. Notaries are going to seal it. Well, the Holy
Spirit is the seal of this testament. And He comes into our hearts
and He seals us with the blood of Christ, continually keeping
us looking to Christ to remember Him. God is going to have mercy
on you for Christ's sake. He's going to forgive you for
Christ's sake. And that is what is going to
keep our hearts melted and keep us mourning our sin and hating
our sin and strengthening the inner man to follow Him. That's
what's going to do it. That's what's going to do it.
And that's why he's saying here, if a man confirmed his last will
and testament and the testator has died, no law is going to
disavow that. No law is going to add to that.
And neither could the law of Sinai. He said that covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ's law, which was
430 years after, cannot disannul it, that it should make the promise
of no effect. Because it's by promise. And
if it was of us in any way, it wouldn't be by promise. And God
gave it by promise. The Sanhedrin never made an obedient
sinner. Never. The law never has made
an obedient sinner. It's beholding our sin in Christ,
crucified, dying, wounded, and bleeding on our behalf that God
makes you mourn what you are, what you've done, what you've
said, everything about yourself. And whenever I get to the point
where I'm not mourning what I am, then I need to look to the cross,
and I need to seek Christ, and I need to see what He's done,
and I need to hear God say, for His sake, I'm forgiving you,
and I keep forgiving you, and I'll never cease forgiving you.
And that's what's gonna keep us,
that's what's gonna keep us obedient. That's what's going to keep us
being long-suffering. That's what's going to keep us
being patient. That's what's going to keep us loving. And that's it. It's the fruit of the Spirit
from beholding Christ our covenant and what he's done. And brethren, Abraham and our
fathers lived before that covenant given at Sinai. And they lived
looking for a city. They lived looking for those
promises. And the Hebrew writer said, they all died in faith.
They hadn't received the promises. He hadn't created a new heaven
and a new earth. Christ hadn't come yet. But having
seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them. And they embraced
them. And they confessed they're strangers
and pilgrims in the earth. And that's what we are. We're
strangers and pilgrims in this earth. We have one lasting possession,
just one. You do some inventory and decide
you think you got a lot, I can promise you this, you got one
possession, and it's Christ. In the end, nothing we have now,
we're gonna have one thing, that's Christ. And he's teaching us that every
day as we go through, and he's our inheritance. But listen to
this now, and I'm done. You know that old covenant, when
he brought them in there, and they didn't fulfill any of the
things that he told them to do. It was a contract. This is a
testament. This is passively we received
inheritance. That was a contract, they had
an obligation, but they didn't fulfill them. But when he brought
them in there, this is what was said, and this is what's gonna
be, this was said of them carnally, temporally. This is what's gonna
be said of us spiritually. Blessed be the Lord that hath
given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he promised.
There hath not failed one word of all his good promises which
he promised by the hand of Christ his servant. not one. And here's
why. Because all the promises of God
in Christ are yes, and in Christ they're amen unto the glory of
God. I pray that Lord, if you're having trouble hearing
preaching right now, hearing me preach, Go back and listen
to some of the older messages. The Lord's going to work what
we've been hearing Him declare. He's going to work these promises.
And I don't know how and I don't know what, but I trust He will.
And because it's sure and steadfast. Father, we pray that you would
give us hearts to rest in Christ Give us hearts to wait on you
and look to you. Lord, we really don't have any
understanding to lean on to. Make Christ our wisdom. Give
us the mind of Christ. And Lord, deal with us like you've
always dealt with us in Christ. and help us to remember whose
we are, remember what we are, and remember that your promise
is certain. Don't let us look on the outward
appearance. Don't let us look on the flesh.
Make us look on Christ and strengthen us inwardly in heart and make
us walk by faith. Lead us by your spirit. Father,
we beg of you. We ask you for your glory, for
your honor, for your praise. Show us again that these promises
are yes in Christ and amen in Christ. We believe you, Father,
but we do have a lot of unbelief. And we need faith that you've
promised it. And we ask you, Father, please
make good on that promise. Do it for Christ's sake. In his
precious name, we ask it. Amen.