Okay, now, in Hebrews 8, we find
in verse 8, for finding fault with
them, that is, those who were under that old covenant, that
Mosaic covenant, he saith, the Lord saith, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah. not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continue not in my covenant and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them
in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall
be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. Now I have a question for you.
Has the Lord made the first covenant old to you? Has the Lord made
that legal covenant obsolete to me? It's a question that we
might think shouldn't even be asked to Gentile believers. We
were never under that covenant. We were never under that covenant
to begin with. The letter is written to Hebrews.
These were folks who were indeed under that legal covenant which
God made with the physical seed of Abraham, with national Israel. But Gentiles, probably all of
us sitting right here, were not under that covenant. We never
were under that covenant that he gave to that one nation. Last
week, we saw how Peter made that distinction. He said, why tempt
ye God? to put a yoke, the yoke that
was given to us by God, us Jews, why do you tempt God by putting
that yoke upon the neck of these Gentile disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? Us Jew, we weren't able
to bear it. Why do you want to put the Gentiles
under it? So if the old Mosaic covenant, if it never applied
to Gentiles, why is it that I'd ask that question to myself and
to you who are Gentiles? It's because every man that's
born of Adam is a legalist by nature. That's what we are by
nature. That heart of flesh is desperately
wicked and none can know it. A sinner can learn all the correct
doctrine. A sinner can claim to rejoice
only in Christ Jesus, a sinner can claim to put no confidence
in his flesh, and yet Christ profit him nothing because of
his carnal service, his ordinances, his ceremonies, his observance
of days. He's placing significance on
outward images and things of that nature. The spirit of God
is declaring to the Hebrews. to these Hebrew brethren in this
letter that the ordinances of services under that old covenant
were to shut men's mouths. That was the first thing it did.
I'll give you an example. That old covenant said you circumcise
your child when he's eight days old. That old covenant also said
that you don't break the Sabbath day. Now, my wife has a child. Eight days rolls around. It's
time to circumcise that boy. And it's on the Sabbath day. If I observe the law of circumcision,
I'm going to break the Sabbath. If I observe the law of the Sabbath,
I'm going to break the law of circumcision. I have to throw
up my hands and say, Lord, I can't fulfill this. And that's what
the law was given to cause sinners to do, is to throw up our hands
and say, Lord, we can't fulfill this. And that old covenant was
given to foreshadow Jesus Christ, who is himself the better covenant. The Lord gave his son for a covenant
to his people. And the mediator of that covenant,
he's the mediator of that covenant. And it's established. by Him
and it's established upon better promises because they're all
fulfilled in Him and by Him. For instance, when Christ circumcises
the heart of a believer like we looked at last week, He gives
us a heart of flesh, He takes away that sinful pollution of
our corrupt nature, gives us a heart of flesh, a new spirit,
a new nature so that we can behold that He put away our sin. And
when He does that and gives us faith, grants us repentance,
by faith we enter into our Sabbath, into our rest when we enter into
Christ by faith. Do you see how He's the fulfillment
of that law? It was never intended to proceed
any further than the coming of Christ Jesus, the Lord. The substance
is come and the shadow is not necessary. And not only is it
not necessary, but it's improper for the believer to observe it
in any regard. Now here's the issue. The issue
in our day is Jesus Christ, our Lord. whatsoever, whosoever submits
to any Old Testament service or tries to equate, bring anything
of the old into the new, and men do, we'll talk about that,
is calling, that person who attempts to do so, is calling into question
that Christ has come and that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to all that believe. Now, the first thing
I want you to see is that the carnal ordinances and the worldly
sanctuary pointed to Christ Jesus, our great high priest. Now listen
to chapter 9, verse 1. During that time, verily, the
first covenant had also ordinances. It's called the first, by the
way, because it's first in order of time. It wasn't the first
covenant. The everlasting covenant was made before the foundation
of the world between God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit. This covenant was first in order of time, as
we know it. It had ordinances of divine service
and a worldly sanctuary. The first we're in, in that first
outward sanctuary, was the candlestick and the table and the showbread. And that was called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, there
was a veil that hung between that first room and that second
room. But after that second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, the holiest of
holies. which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant
overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that
had manna and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the
covenant were in that ark, and that manna and that rod that
budded were all in that ark. And over the ark, the cherubims
of glory shadowing over the mercy seat, of which we cannot now
speak particularly, Paul is moving along in his letter here, and
he didn't go into detail about that. But he said, now, when
these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into
the second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
Now we're given next year, we're given the significance of what
those things pointed toward. Verse eight, the Holy Ghost was
signifying by this that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest while as yet, while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing, Christ said, I'm the way he's the way. And the spirit was manifesting
here, signifying that that wave had not yet come while that tabernacle
was yet standing. Which was, that tabernacle and
everything in it was a figure for the time then present. It
was a shadow. It was a type. In which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, as pertaining
to the spirit, the inward man, the new nature, the new man.
But it stood only in meats and drinks, different kinds of washings,
carnal ordinances, which was imposed on them until the time
of Reformation. Now, the end, the fulfillment,
the very image of this shadow has come. And listen to verse
11. But Christ being come and high priest of good things to
come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption." Now, I won't go
into great detail, but let me just give you an outline here.
What the Hebrew writer did was, instead of going into great detail
about every one of those items that was in that tabernacle,
he concentrated on the high priest. But the sanctuary, the holy place
where God meets with His people, is Christ. Isaiah told the people,
sanctify the Lord of hosts. In other words, behold Him as
He is. He's high and above sinners.
Let Him be your fear. Let Him be your dread. Believe
Him, he said. He'll be for sanctuary. He's
the one in whom God and His people meet, the sanctuary. The greater,
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, is Christ. That first tabernacle had badger
skins on the outside. If you looked at it, you'd have
said, I don't see any form or comeliness about that tabernacle
that makes me desire to even go into it. Isn't that what Isaiah
said about our Lord? But inside it was full of gold,
it was full of all manner, it was beautiful inside, tapestry
and all those things inside. Christ is the Holy One, He's
perfect within and without. Those items in that earthly tabernacle,
the lamp and the table of showbread, they have their glory and their
fulfillment from Christ and in Christ. He's the believer's only
light. That lamp was the only light
in that tabernacle. He's our only light. That table
of showbread was signified communion where a sinner could commune
with God at the table of showbread. That's Christ in whom we have
communion with our God. That golden censer in the holiest
of holies, where they put the incense and it burned when the
high priest went in there, signifies Christ, our intercessor. He's
the one who makes intercession for his people. His prayers are
the intercession. He's our manna in that golden
pot of manna in the ark. He's our man. He's our bread
from heaven. Our Aaron, you remember that
rod budded because God was declaring Aaron's the high priest here.
Out of this whole group of folks, Aaron is the high priest and
his rod budded. He had a rod and it actually
bloomed. Well, Christ, the rod of God, has budded in resurrection
glory, and God's declared by that, He's my high priest. That law written on tables of
stone that was in the ark, it's fulfilled in perfection in Christ,
by Christ, who perfected it forever. All the law, and then Christ,
our mercy seat, that mercy seat on top of that ark, He's our
satisfaction. He made propitiation. His blood,
it's His blood. It's not the blood of bulls and
goats. And that blood was put on the mercy seat, and He's the
place of mercy. God is satisfied in Christ, and
He's satisfied with those who come to Him in Christ. It was all set forth most gloriously
in Christ Jesus, the High Priest. The High Priest who went in there,
all of this was in what He did. He went in with that blood of
that Lamb once a year into the holiest of holies, and He made
atonement for the people according to the flesh, typically, ceremonially,
He made atonement. And Christ Jesus is the one who
went in, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His
own blood, and He entered in once. He, by His one offering,
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He entered in
once, and He has obtained eternal redemption. Now, under that old
covenant, what did the blood of bulls and goats foreshadow?
The blood of bulls and goats here is talking about that atonement,
particularly. And then what did the ashes of
a red heifer foreshadow? Look at verse 13. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, the word here,
blood of bulls and goats, it's referring back to that which
was just stated. that Christ has accomplished
our redemption. That is, He justified His people. He's our justification and we're
justified by His blood, by His offering, by His sacrifice, what
He did. And then externally, as a foreshadow,
as a figure, as a type of what Christ would do under that old
covenant, that's what it declared. It declared the atonement And
it had been made temporarily. They had to come the next year
and do the same thing again because propitiation had not been made.
Satisfaction to God had not been made. Only Christ could do that. So He's that lamb. That blood
of that lamb was sprinkled. He's that lamb. That's what the
blood of lambs accomplished. That's what it typified was atonement. Putting away of our sin, justifying
us, and that's what Christ did for us. And then this sprinkling
of the ashes of the red heifer on the unclean sanctify it. That's what it talks. It shows
how sanctification is accomplished. The ashes of the heifer, let
me just give you, and I'm not going into great detail on these
because I don't have the time, but I want you to The law stated
that if a man touched anything that was dead, he was defiled. And he didn't have to know he
touched something dead to be defiled. If he was plowing in
a field and he plowed over a bone of a person that had died, he
was defiled, unclean. If he was sleeping in the tent
at night and somebody was sleeping in the tent beside him and they
died at night in their sleep, He woke up the next morning,
he was defiled because he was in the tent with him. You can
find this in Leviticus. If, uh, it was just when you
read about the law of defilement, there was more ways that a man
could be defiled than not. You'd read it and you think,
how in the world could a man not be defiled? That's what the
law was teaching us. Our flesh is dead by nature.
We're born of Adam and we're dead. And anything that we use
of this flesh to try to commend ourselves to God is unclean. It's defiled. It won't do. It will not get the job done
of sanctifying us. I've said it before. It's like
trying to clean a dirty floor with a dirty mop. You're not
getting it clean. You're going to get it twice
dirty is what you're doing. You can't clean. We can't sanctify,
purify, cleanse anything about us by something we do. It just won't happen. But that
red heifer was much the same way as the sacrifice was slain.
That red heifer was spotless. That red heifer was slain in
the place of the defiled. And it was burned. And its ashes
were mixed with water. And a clean priest had to apply
it. And he came, that clean one,
he came and he applied the ashes of that red heifer to the man
that was defiled, and ceremonially, Typically, that man was pronounced
sanctified, his flesh. It had nothing to do with the
inward man. It had nothing to do with spirit and truth. It
only had to do with the outward. And that was a foreshadow of
Christ. It says here, If the blood of
bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? Christ is the end of the law. Now, those things, are good pictures. They're good types. They foreshadow
what would come. Why is it then? Why do we not
take a lampstand and set us up some lampstands in here and get
us a big table and make us an altar up here and put some showbread
on it? And why don't we have somebody who calls himself a
priest? And why don't we burn some incense
and all of those things and come in and sprinkle the ashes of
a heifer on one another and kill some lambs and bring their blood?
Why don't we do any of that? It all foreshadowed, it all was
a good picture and a good time. Why don't we do that anymore?
Because the substance has come. The very image of those things
has come. And Christ is the end of the law. He's the fulfillment
of it. He's what it all pointed to,
and He's come. We're justified by the blood
of Christ alone. We're sanctified by the Spirit
of Christ purging. us, not by sprinkling our outward
bodies, but our conscience, the inward man through the spirit.
And to continue in the shadow in any form is to continue in
dead works. You see that there? How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who the eternal spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works? to serve the living God. Now the believer's made alive
and he's made to serve the living God and not those dead works
anymore. Now, would you dare, let me ask
you this, would you dare take the office, the power, the right
that belongs to Christ Jesus, the son of God alone? Would you
do that? You wouldn't dare call yourself
a high priest. because Christ is your high priest.
You wouldn't dare claim any authority to justify or sanctify yourself
or anyone around you because it's God that justifies. It's
Christ that died. It's Christ that's risen again.
It's Christ that sanctifies through the eternal spirit. It's Christ
who's preeminent in all things. All fullness dwells in Christ. All fullness of salvation. He's
sovereign, not just in providence, not just in ruling all things. He's sovereign in salvation. And here's why we wouldn't do
that. Verse 15. And for this cause. Because He
is the end of what all those things signify. He is 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 by that Spirit sanctifying and purging
the conscience, they might receive the promise of eternal inheritance
for this cause. This is why we wouldn't dare
make ourselves a priest This is why we wouldn't dare try to
bring back any of that old covenant, any of those ceremonies, anything
like that. Because God the Father is well pleased with His Son. It's because Christ Jesus the
Lord is the great high priest of His people and He alone has
obtained eternal redemption. He is the justification as well
as the sanctification of His people. He is the mediator of
the New Testament. He entered into God's presence
with His own blood and obtained eternal redemption for us. And
in time, just as he entered into that holy place, in time he enters
into each individual, elect, redeemed child of God that he
purchased with his own blood through the Spirit, and he sanctifies
them in the inner man and brings them into union in him with God
the Father. He does that work. He's the mediator
of the New Testament. I can't do that. Look at verse
13 again. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first oad. And then look at verse 9. And
for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament. Did you
follow me there? I'm sorry. Hebrews 8.13. In that
he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first oad. Now look
at chapter 9 verse 15. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament. He's the end of the one and He's
the mediator of the new. So who gets the glory in being
the end of the old and the one who makes this new covenant in
the hearts of His people? Christ Jesus the Lord alone.
Now we see the offense and the issue. The old covenant was given
to make the offense of our sin abound. And Christ is the end
of the old covenant for righteousness, for acceptance with God. All
our acceptance with God is Christ. And he's the mediator between
God and his elect. Therefore, the Holy Spirit declares
that we dare not ascribe what only Christ must and can accomplish,
we must not ascribe that to ourselves by our use of any earthly ordinance,
ceremony, sacrifice, not even boasting of the gifts that only
Christ gives by grace. Now, we hear a text like this
and we think, well, this doesn't really apply to us today. Oh,
yes, it does. Oh, yes it does. There are many
priests alive and well in our day. They may not go by that
name, but that's exactly what they think they are, is priests.
And what it is, is it's stepping into the office and infringing
upon the power and the right that belongs to Christ Jesus
alone. He's the mediator of the New Testament. Let me give you
an example. If I claim that I'm justified
by my sacrifice, whether it's some Old Testament ordinance
that I'm observing or merely by my act of believing. Some people make faith as if
the believer justifies himself because he believed on Christ.
Faith is the gift of God. It's the result of God justifying
me, of Christ justifying me and giving me this gift of grace.
It's a gift. He is the mediator of the New
Testament. I'm not. If I used high-pressure
tactics to try to force out of somebody a confession, rather
than wait on Christ, who's the power and wisdom of God, you
know what I've done? I've stepped in and tried to
make myself the mediator. He's the mediator of the New
Testament. I'm not. You're not. If I use
the same tactics to frighten professing believers with threats
of punishment and censure in the name of making men holy and
sanctified and pure, instead of declaring the name of Christ
Jesus who alone has the power to effect this work, then I'm
making myself the mediator. And He's the mediator of the
New Testament. I'm not. It's His blood that
sanctifies. Not anything I can do. If I claim
that the Lord's ordinances of baptism or the Lord's supper
are less than what they are, and I say less than what they
are, because anything less than what they are is less, I make
myself the mediator. If my baptism My personal baptism,
or me as a pastor baptizing others, is anything less than a public
confession that Christ has justified and sanctified me by His death,
burial, and resurrection, that my conscience has been purged
and my body washed in the pure water of the Holy Spirit. Then
I make myself the mediator. And He's the mediator of the
New Testament. Whose glory am I defending here?
Mine or your? or Christ. Not ours. Christ. It goes for the Lord's
table too. If I claim it's for anything
other than to remember His broken body and His shed blood until
He returned, if I make it into some kind of sacrament whereby
some kind of grace is given to you because you take a piece
of bread and drink some wine, I'm making myself the mediator.
These things are to acknowledge what He's done for us and in
us as we wait for Him to return. Because we're not the mediator,
He's the mediator. Satan is very subtle. Very subtle. He didn't come to Eve in some
evil fashion. He came very subtle. His desire is not to get you
out of religion. His desire is to keep you in
religion. If I claim that I'm adding anything
to what Christ alone has done, by grace alone, Satan's won the
day. That's what he wants. He does
his work more in pulpits and pews than he does in bars and
brothels. You believe that? That's how
it's always been. Just add a little something.
Just add something. If He'd get you just to put confidence
in something that you've done or I've done. We've denied Christ. We've tried
to go to the throne and put ourselves on the throne. We've tried to
make ourselves God. which is what he wants. That's
what he wants. Paul told the Galatians that
if he gave sinners just one little loophole to glory in, just one,
he said, I wouldn't suffer rejection from religious men, but he also
said, but then I wouldn't be the servant of Christ. He said, which one am I convincing? But he said there, he said, I
certify to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
He's an apostle, and we're not going to be taught like the apostles
were, face to face, and see Christ, but we're going to be taught
by the revelation of Christ. He's going to receive the glory
for it. He's going to receive the glory for teaching them.
They shall all be taught of who? The Lord. He's going to receive
the glory. Now, I want you to turn over
with me to Galatians. I've got a few things to show
you. You see, I don't think that sometimes
folks in our day read the Scriptures, and when they read things like
circumcision, they think, well, we don't do that. We don't put
any confidence in that. Well, it's the same thing when
I put confidence in my faith, when I put confidence in my acts
of repentance, when I put confidence in coming to a place and going
through the devotions of worshiping God, when I put confidence in
what I've constrained somebody else to do. Anything that we
put confidence in, that we've done, it's the same thing. When
you hear that we're not saved by the works of the law, It means
we didn't save ourselves. We can't reveal Christ to ourselves.
We can't bring this everlasting covenant into our hearts. We
can't make ourselves children of this new everlasting covenant. Christ must do it. And if we
try, if we try to hang on, religion loves to hang on to that old
covenant. You look at things in religion, in practices in
different religions, whether it's under the Christian banner
or whether I was watching a program the other day about Muslims.
And I thought, how? It's either all of Christ or
it's all of works. It doesn't matter if it's under
the Christian banner or if it's under the Muslim banner, whether
it's under the banner of Isaac or under the banner of Ishmael.
If it's not of grace, it's of works. It can't be both. Either
it's all of grace or it's all of works. The two don't mingle.
They just don't. But he's the mediator of this
covenant. We read that unto every one of
us who are saved by grace, he is given grace according to the
measure of the gift of Christ. He gives it. He gives it. So
he's the mediator of this covenant. Now here in Galatians, I want
to give you four things here quickly that we do if we put
any confidence in something we've done. Now, here's the first thing.
We call Christ a liar if we give credit to any of our acts of
religious devotion. Look at Galatians 2.16. Galatians
2.16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now here's the two things that
we need to get clear. Men are either coming to God
by works of self, or they're coming to God trusting the work
of Jesus Christ. When you read the faith of Jesus
Christ, it's saying the faithfulness of Christ. It's saying Christ's
work, His faithfulness, what He did. We either say, we may
need to trust one of two things. They either trust the works of
the law or they trust the faith of Christ, what Christ did. Now
look at the next phrase. Even, even we have believed in
Jesus. Now that's talking about mine
and your faith. We believed in his faithfulness. If you'll read
Romans three carefully now, the righteousness of God without
the law, That is, without our deeds of the law is manifest
by the faith of Christ, by his faithfulness, by what Christ
accomplished for his people. Now, we came that way that we
might be justified by the faith of Christ, by Christ who is our
justification, by Christ's faithfulness who entered in with his blood
and justified us. not by works of the law. You
see, it's either Christ did it by His faithfulness or men trust
the works of the law, something they've done. It can't be both.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. That's
why we trusted Him. But now watch this, verse 17.
But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners. The word here is not talking
about profanity. It's not talking about lewdness.
It's not talking about being an outward immoral. It's talking about, if while
I seek to be justified by Christ, I seek to also be justified by
some work I've done, some obedience I'm looking to that I've done
by my flesh. He says, is therefore Christ
the minister of sin? God forbid. Paul's saying if
I add my works to Christ's works, then I'm saying that I think
when Christ came ministering the truth, saying He is the way,
the truth and the lie, that I'm saying that I think He was a
minister of sin. He was lying. You mean that's
what I'm saying when I just put confidence in one little thing
that I do? If while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is therefore,
are we stating therefore that Christ is the author of sin,
that he's the minister of sin, that he didn't really accomplish
salvation, that he really is not the fullness of all our acceptance
with God? This is the, what is it? What did it say? This is the
testimony. God has given His Son and life's
in His Son. And if you have the Son, you
have life. And he that doesn't have the Son doesn't have life.
And if we don't believe Him, what do we do? We call God a
liar. Because He said, life's in my
Son. And that's what Paul's saying here. If because I try to mingle
grace with works, is it that Christ wasn't teaching me the
truth? Christ wasn't telling me that
all salvation, all the fulfillment's in him? God forbid. Christ told
the truth. He's not the minister of sin.
But look at verse 18. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself the transgressor. I become the
transgressor. I'm the liar. If I try to build
again, somehow bring that old covenant into this new dispensation. I'm the liar. Here's the second
thing. We declare Christ's death to
be in vain if righteousness comes by our hand rather than all of
grace. Look at verse 19. For I through
the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. That's
what he said. He purges the conscience that
we might turn from dead works and serve the living God. I'm
crucified with Christ. I died with him. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who, here's what he did in his faithfulness. He loved me and
he gave himself for me. That's the faithfulness of Christ.
He loved me perfectly before God, and He gave Himself for
me. And verse 21 says, And I do not
frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the
law, Christ is dead in vain. Here's the third thing. If we
claim we came into this grace by blood, by the will of the
flesh, by the will of man, or if we claim that we are perfect
by the flesh, that sanctification is by the flesh, by our acts
of obedience, then we are altogether disobedient to Christ Jesus who
is the truth. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey
the truth? before whose eyes Jesus Christ
had been evidently set forth in the Gospel so much so clearly
to you that it's as if Christ was crucified among you. Verse 2, this only would I learn
of you. Now get this. Remember, He's the mediator of
the New Testament. He entered into the presence
of God and He enters into the hearts of sinners through the
Gospel, through the Spirit, and He brings us together and makes
us one in Him. Now he asks this, Paul says,
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law, by something
you did? Was it by something a man did? Was it by blood, by
the will of man, by the will of the flesh? Is that how you
received the Spirit? Or by the hearing of faith? by the hearing
of the faithfulness of Christ the Lord. That's the message
He blesses, the message that declares all His works. That's
the message whereby He enters in and you first receive the
Spirit and your conscience is purged and you turn from these
dead works and you'll serve the living God then. No ifs, ands,
or maybes. It's not an I will and they might
covenant. It's an I will and they shall.
Now, look at verse 3. That was how we received it.
That's how we entered into this covenant. That's how this thing
was brought to us in truth and in spirit by the mediator of
the New Testament. Now, going on further, verse
3, Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit? If that's
how you started out, are you now made perfect by the flesh? By our obedience to the law?
By something we did to purge ourselves? But be sure you get
this next phrase. I love this in verse 5. It says,
He that ministereth to you the Spirit. Who's the mediator of
the New Testament? It's not Paul. It's not Peter. It's not me. It's not you. He
that ministereth to you the Spirit is God our Savior. the Lord Jesus
Christ. He alone ministers to you the
Spirit. What did Peter say on the day
of Pentecost? He has shed forth this which you now see in here.
I will send the Comforter unto you, he said. He's the mediator
of the everlasting covenant grace and there's no other covenant
but the covenant that he makes in the hearts of his people.
Look at verse 5. He's therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you. That miracle
of turning you from dead works to serve the living God, of making
you spiritually alive, of drawing you to Himself and making you
cast all your care on Him. That's the miracle He's talking
about. Does He do it by works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? By the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Which is it?
Verse 6. He answers it. Even as Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now
get that. That's how it happens. That's
how it begins and that's how we're made perfectly sanctified
even as Abraham was. We who live after the law of
Moses will be saved by the Mediator ministering to us the Spirit
through the Gospel, who works the miracle of sovereign grace
in creating believers anew in His righteousness, even as Abraham
was brought to believe God and made the righteousness of God
15 years before circumcision was given and 430 years before
that covenant was given. That's how we're going to be
made. children of God. That's how we're going to be
brought into the faith of God. That's how we're going to be
brought into this covenant. You see, before Christ came,
as the surety, God never looked and said, well now, like we do,
if you can't pay it, he'll take up your cause and he'll pay it
for you. When he entered into the covenant, and before the
foundation of the world, as the surety, He became the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. And so every believer
that believed before the cross believed the same way. He's the
mediator of the New Testament. And He sent forth the Spirit
into the heart, and it's by His grace, by His Word, by His Gospel
that He justifies and sanctifies us and makes us to put all our
confidence in Him alone. And he does it the same way today.
He does it the same way today. Here's the last thing. If we
insist that but one work, one ordinance, one sacrifice, one
performance of ourselves is needed to bring us into union with God,
then we're debtors to perform the whole law of God ourselves. Galatians 5 verse 1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you..."
He's saying, I, this Jew, who knows what it is to be under
the law, I say to you, Galatian brethren, you Galatian Gentiles
who've never been under this law, I say unto you that if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Well, I'm glad I'm not trusting
in circumcision. Are you trusting in your faith?
Are you trusting in some decision you made? Are you trusting in
your baptism? Are you trusting in observing
the Lord's table? Are you trusting in your acts of obedience? Are
you trusting in your acts of devotion? Are you trusting in
your free will? Are you trusting in something
you've done to sanctify yourself by your works of law? It's either
grace or you have to do it all yourself. You understand that? For I testify again to every
man that circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has
become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law. You're falling from grace. For
we, through the Spirit... Who ministered that Spirit to
us? The mediator of the New Testament. Who gets the glory for it? The
mediator of the New Testament. We, through the Spirit, wait
for what? The hope of righteousness by faith. By faith in who? The Mediator of the New Testament.
What's our hope? Christ in you. The hope of glory. The Mediator of the New Testament.
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Doesn't matter if you were under
that old Mosaic covenant or never even heard of it. And He ministered
the Spirit into your heart. What matters is faith that He's
given. which works by love. It's that
faith that He worked because He loved and gave Himself for
us. That's the faith that matters. His faithfulness. And He gives
us faith to lay hold of His faithfulness. Now, let me make a few points
to you, just in application. If the Lord gives you the measure
of the gift of grace in this place, If the Lord, the mediator of
the New Testament does this, and He causes you to stand with
one mind, that Christ is the issue. Now you're going to hear
men say that Christ is the issue and then defend their works for
the glory of Christ, in the name of Christ being the issue. That's
what happened at the cross. The Sadducees, the Pharisees,
with the Gentiles, the Romans, folks who knew God, folks who
were religious, folks who weren't religious, all gathered together. And all those religious folks
who couldn't get along with one another joined together for that
one occasion, crying out, glory to God, and crucified Christ. You're going to receive opposition
from those without and from those within. from your own flesh that
wants to hang on to some carnal aspect, something. I know because
I struggle with it on a daily basis. But he gives more grace. And if it's by grace, if it started
in the spirit, it'll continue in the spirit. And it'll be by
the hand of the mediator, by him who brought you into this. But be sure you understand me.
I don't mean so much from those who are heathens as I do from
religious folks. You find one place in the history
of time where the Lord's people have been persecuted as much
by the profane as they have by professors of religion. Find
one time. Why was Abel killed? Why was
the first murder committed? Because Abel trusted the grace
of God, the blood and righteousness of Christ, and Cain brought the
fruit of his own hand. And when God didn't receive him,
He got mad. And you know what he did? You
know how this righteous, law-abiding self, this one who was presenting
himself to God as being worthy of God's acceptance, you know
how he reacted? You know what he proved? He proved
he didn't have any reason for God to accept him. His reaction
was, I'll kill him. And he killed his brother. It's
always been that way. It's always been that way. Paul
said, I think that God set forth us apostles last as it were appointed
to death, for we're made a spectacle unto the world and to angels
and to men. Listen, Robert Hawker said something
on this that's excellent. I want to read this to you. In
his day, he wrote this. Whosoever looks deeply and beyond
the mere surface of things cannot but observe that a full, free,
and finished gospel is as much despised now by mere professors
as it ever was in the days of the apostle. The preaching which
holds forth Christ as all and in all is a sect as much now
as ever everywhere spoken against by folks who say, Are there Christians? He that would escape the censure
of licentiousness It's not enough that he manifests the purity
of his principles by unholiness of life and conversation, but
he must complement. You're going to be received by
others and not be slandered. It's not enough that you walk
as holy as you can walk in this world without any offense whatsoever,
adorning the doctrine you believe. That's not going to be enough
if you're going to get along with this religious world. You
know what else you're going to have to do? You have to complement
human nature at the expense of divine truth. If you're going to get along
with folks. Cyril, you mentioned that you don't want to be a sect.
I don't want to be a sect either. Paul and Peter would preach to
anybody that listened to them. You know who closed the door?
You know who always closed the door? Religious men. Religious men always closed the
door. You know why? Because the gospel got too close
to that little bit of refuge that they were putting their
trust in. and tore it away, and made them see it's a refuge of
lies, and they said, oh, I believe on Christ, but I don't believe
the one you're preaching. I believe the one that lets me
be the mediator of the New Testament. He's not going to share his glory
with you, or you, or you, or me, or anybody else. Nobody. Now you be honest with yourself.
Who am I defending? Man or Christ? And I'll play this chart to you.
As long as you'll have me, I'll preach this gospel to you. I'll
help you any way I can. I'll do anything in the world
I can to help you, to get you numbers and names of faithful
men I know that preach this same gospel. The glory that Christ
is all in all. And I will not shut the door.
I won't shut it. If the door is shut, somebody
else is going to shut it. I'm not. And that's true of every
one of the preachers I know, every one of the brethren I know.
They won't shut it, but other men will shut it. Be not troubled by them that
are puffed up, whose doctrine is designed to protect a false
refuge. The offense has ceased then. The offense to the cross
has ceased then. But you know what the offense
to the cross is offensive to the flag? You know what that
offense is to the believer? It's the very glory of our salvation. It's the glory of Christ Jesus,
our salvation. The Kingdom of God is not in
words. It's not in logic. It's not in reasoning. Don't
let somebody take you off on a rabbit trail, talking about
baptism, talking about the Lord's table, talking about this way
of doing things or that way of doing things. If you could prove
it logically out of this scripture and show it to them verbatim
out of script just based on that particular thing, it will do
no good. You've got to start with Christ. And you've got to declare how
that Christ is the glory and By His grace, if He's pleased
to, He'll bring it down to our level, and He'll make us see
the issue is Christ. The issue is Christ. And if Christ
is the issue, then we'll make Christ the issue. That's right. Paul said, God forbid that I
glory save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. That's where
we glory. Nowhere else. And He said, if
this Spirit has created you anew, you know what you have by the
blood of Christ? Boldness, liberty, confidence
to enter in. Not to that old way, not that
old tabernacle, not by a new and living way. By Christ Jesus
Himself, which He has made for us in His flesh, who entered
in. We have access to God Almighty
in our Savior and can go to Him. and pray to Him, and ask for
grace and mercy, because through the Spirit, through the Gospel,
He's purged our conscience and He's washed our body in the pure
water of the Holy Spirit, of His Word, and we're accepted
of God. If you know Him and trust Him
and believe what I'm telling you about this Christ, you're
accepted of God. But the way is so narrow, you
just can't get in if you're holding on to anything else. It's that
narrow. It's as narrow as Christ. And
we can't get in any other way but in Him. I pray you'll bless
it. I pray for you folks. I pray
the Lord will be with you. And I know feelings get hurt. I know how things happen in situations
like this. And I pray, call me anytime if
I can talk to you. If you call me in a situation
like that, what I'm going to do is remind you of these glorious
promises we have in Christ. and try to lift up your eyes
from this flesh, from yours and others and everybody else's,
to Christ alone, so you go get through today. I'm not worried
about tomorrow. As sufficient as tomorrow, the
evil for tomorrow is going to be something else you'll have
to save us from. I'm just talking about today. I pray the Lord
will bless you.