Amen. Turn back with me to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I've entitled this message, A
Mediator. A Mediator. Now last time we
met together, we saw the distinction between the two covenants. The two covenants, the law being
a contractual covenant, whereas two parties are required to fulfill
their obligation. God is one party, and man being
the other, God swears to give life to the righteous, to those
who obey the law, and death to those who disobey. And the responsibility
of man under this covenant is if you obey, you get life. If you disobey in one part, you
are guilty of the whole law and condemned to die. That's what
he said in verse 10. As many as are of the works of
the law are under what? Not the blessing, but the curse.
curses everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. And so what's the conclusion
of that covenant? No man is justified by this law
of God. That's the conclusion. It's evident. It's clear. So what's the rule
of the believer's life? The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. What is our covenant? The covenant of promise. The
covenant of promise, Paul says, I speak in verse 15, I speak
after the manner of man, though it be a man's covenant. He's
talking about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us, as it is written, curses everyone that hangeth on a tree,
in order that, this is the reason, in order that the blessing Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. And now he's going to
tell us what that promise of the Spirit through faith is.
It is in a covenant, not like the law, not a contractual covenant,
but a last will and testament. The covenant of promise is like
a man's last will and testament. In other words, it's one-sided.
The testator is responsible for everything. He's responsible
for determining who gets his stuff. He's responsible for obtaining
the stuff. And that's how we receive the
blessing of the redemption that's in Christ, through the Spirit,
based on a covenant of God. And he said this in verse 16,
Now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith
not to seeds as of many, but as of one. And to thy seed which
is Christ, he is saying here, Christ is the mediator of this
covenant. Christ is the surety of this
covenant. Christ is the testator of this
covenant. So the covenant promises of God
were made to Christ for Abraham. Abraham was included in the covenant
as what? A beneficiary. See, a last will
and testament has to have a beneficiary. And that's what Abraham was.
He was a beneficiary. He received the promises. But see Christ to whom the promises
were made, Christ is the surety of that covenant. Remember, that's
a guarantor. The one who takes full responsibility
for everything in the covenant. And he said in verse 17, Now
I say this, that the covenant, when it is confirmed, Before
of God in Christ the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul
that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance
be of the law, it is no more a promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise." He's saying this, that that covenant was
before the law. And again, when we're talking
about a last will and testament, nobody can add to it, nobody
can take away from it. That would be unjust. That would
be illegal. How much more is it concerning
the will and testament of God, who promised eternal life by
Jesus Christ to every one of his elect? So nothing can add
to it or take away from it, And he concludes this, if the inheritance
of the law is not by promise. These two covenants are distinct.
They cannot be mixed. It is either of law or it is
either of the will and testament of God. It's neither, it is not
a mixture of both. And then he asks this question,
the only question then that comes to mind, wherefore then serveth
the law? It was added because of the transgression
till Christ should come to whom the promise was made. The law
was added for the simple reason to superimpose upon the law written
on your heart. The law that is written upon
every man's heart, Jew and Gentile, by birth. We knew it was wrong
to lie and to murder and to steal. We knew if there was a God, he
should be worshipped. But they didn't know who, we
didn't know who he was, we didn't know what it was to worship him,
we were depraved. Yet that law was written on our
hearts and this, this commandments of God, that was super imposed
upon the law written in the heart. It magnified it. It magnified
who God was and his holy justice, his righteousness. It magnified
the fact that we were sinners. It exposed us to have no hope
of ever obeying it. That's what the law did. The
law was given to expose sin. It was added because of transgression
until when? Until the seed should come. Until the seed should come,
until the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. And this will be our text tonight.
This cryptic saying, when you first read it, it don't even
seem like it belongs there. It just seems like an aside. But Paul is stating the very
important truth here. that this covenant, either the
covenant of law or the covenant of the will and testament, must
of necessity have someone to mediate it. You have two opposing
parties, two oppositions against one another, God and man. And
in order to mediate, in order to reconcile, there must be someone
to mediate. When God gave the law to the
people of Israel, he gave it by the hand of Moses. Moses is deemed the mediator
of the old covenant, the law. That's why we often call it the
law of Moses. Because Moses was the one that
delivered it from God to the people. He mediated between God
and Israel. Now a mediator, by definition,
is one that stands between, one that umpires between two conflicting
parties. But in order to mediate, to stand
between, first of all, he must be qualified. Not just anybody
could be a mediator. In these covenants, not just
anybody was to be a mediator. A mediator must be able to identify
with both parties. That's a qualification of a mediator.
He must be able to identify with both parties. And Moses was such
that he could be a mediator of the law. And he was qualified
to this simply because God chose him to. God chose him to be the
mediator of this law. And you got to see this to be
true. Both covenants were made by God,
aren't they? So then who gets to choose the
mediator? God does. And God chose Moses. God made him qualified by electing
him. It was God who called him. It
was God who spoke to him. It was God who made him a prophet
and a voice to the chosen nation of Israel. Over in Exodus chapter
3, Exodus chapter 3. God here says, I've chosen you. I see my people suffering and
I'm going to deliver them and I want you to go deliver my message.
And Moses said to God, who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh.
That he should bring forth the children of Israel. And he said,
Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto
thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. God said, I chose you, and here's
going to be the token of it. I'm going to deliver Israel,
and you're going to bring them right here. and you're going
to serve me right here. He's in horror. He's where the
law was to be given. I'm going to meet with you right
here, and you're going to give them my law in this very place.
That's a token that you have right there. Of course, Moses,
he hauled around a lot about this. He says, well, how do I
know, what am I going to say to them? I don't even know your
name. And then God gives him his name. I am that I am. I sent
thee. Tell them I sent you. Then tell
them what I'm going to do. I'm going to deliver them. And
Moses said, well, I'm not good at talking. I got a stuttering
problem. And he said, well, that's all
right. You send Aaron with you, and he's going to be a high priest
for me. You see, he was chosen to this
part. And no matter what he did, he
wasn't gonna get out of it. He tried. I mean, you read this
chapter, you see Moses wants out of this. He does not want
this. God said, too bad, you're my
mediator. You're my mediator. And this was the promise to Moses
that assured him he did speak on the behalf of God in the giving
of his law. So when he stood there on that
day to give that law, Moses said, yeah, I know, I'm your mediator. That's how he could go with such
boldness then into the very presence of God for Israel. Because God
had already chosen him to be the mediator. But Moses was not
only qualified to speak for God because God chose him, but he
was also qualified in this. He himself was a child of Israel. He was one of the people he was
mediating for. He was a child of Israel himself. This was also confirmed by the
people. When he came to the Mount Sinai,
when God gave him the law, look at this in Deuteronomy chapter
5, Deuteronomy chapter 5, Notice Moses' words here. He
said, Moses called Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel,
the statutes and judgments that I speak in your ears this day,
that you may learn them and keep them and do them. For the Lord
our God made a covenant with, who? Us. He made a covenant with
us. Now Moses was the mediator, but
you understand that Moses himself was under this covenant. The
mediator of this covenant was also under this covenant. He
said he made it with us. I'm just like you. So then you
could see how he could touch both God and the people because
he was chosen of God to mediate and he was one of the people.
He was one of them. He made a covenant with us, Moses
said. He said it was to you and to
me as well. And the Lord God talked. Look
at this, He said, in verse 3, The Lord made not
this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are
all of us alive this day. The Lord talked with you face
to face on the mount out of the midst of the fire. Now let me
ask you this, did He actually talk to Israel? Face to face? No. We know this. He only talked
to one person face to face. He talked to Moses. He talked
to Moses. But Moses was a representative
of them all. So when God said, I talked to
Moses, I talked to you. He was one with them, a mediator
of Israel. Though Moses who stood between
the Lord and Israel And he did this, he met with
God face to face because they couldn't. You remember that day
they, Moses said, I'm going to go up
for you and I'm going to get the law for you. And when you
get the law, God says, will you obey it? And they say, yes. Yeah,
we'll do it. No problem. We could do that. Sure. And you remember what happened
when God descended on that mount? set those boundaries up. And
they said, Oh, no, we can't go up. You go up for us. You know what God said? God said
they were right. They could not go up lest they
die. So Moses went up for them. Consider the greatness of Moses.
Then he ascended into that fiery, dark mountain. The mountain was
on fire. It was a blaze. The writer of
Hebrews said that even Moses exceeding feared and quaked in
the presence of God. And yet, consider, he went up.
He went up to talk with God face to face, to receive the law of
God for the people. So as a mediator, he received
the covenant of the law for the people. And as a mediator, he brought
that covenant to them. He delivered the covenant. Now that's the work of a mediator.
To take what God has said in his covenant and then to declare
it to the people. And that's what he did. He declared
the covenant of God. He said now that he ordained
this covenant by messengers in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. So Moses as a mediator, he mediated
between the two parties concerning this covenant of the law between
God and the children of Israel. Now he said this, but God is
one. Now we know this, that God is one, there is only one God.
But yet we know this, there are three distinct persons in the
Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each distinct in
person, but one in essence, in will, in power, and all attributes. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
three persons, yet one God. John said there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and
these three are one, one God. Therefore, the law of God was
given into the hands of Moses for the people to reveal to them
the true nature of God's holiness and expose the true nature of
their sin. That was the whole purpose of
him giving that law. When God gave it to Moses to
give to them, he never intended to save Israel by that covenant, but rather to reveal to them
His holiness, His justice, and reveal to them their sin. As
soon as they told Moses to go up and mediate with God, they
agreed to obey the commandment, but what happened? Before Moses even came down with
the covenant, they had already broken it. God told Moses, he
said, get down. They've already broken the commandment.
They've already broken it. Remember, they had set up that
golden calf. Now consider that God manifest
his holy presence on this mountain. So fearful was the sight of this
that they didn't want to go up and they knew they had to have
somebody go up for them. But it wasn't what very soon
after that they just said, well, you know what? That's not so
big a deal. Let's just make a golden calf and we'll worship that. What does that reveal? It reveals
that the law of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God,
the righteousness of God, righteous indignation of God against sin
will do nothing to man. It will do nothing. I know I've had people on the brink of death You can
see the fear in their eyes. They do not want to die. Begging
God to save them. Fearing is holy justice. And
then what? God gives them life and then
what happens? Where'd they go? They went right
back like as a hog returning to the pen. That's what they
do. As a dog returning to his vomit.
That's what they do. Why? Because the law can't save
them. Their fear can't save them. Friends, the law was never given
for the purpose of righteousness or acceptance with God by obedience. It was rather given to expose
the very exceeding sinfulness of sin, the very rebellious nature
of man. Paul says in Romans 8 that the
natural, the carnal mind is at enmity against God. That's just
its nature. Our mind's nature is enmity against
God. Now you go tell people that they
hate God. That's what God said. They're
at enmity. They're at war with me. They hate me. And what do
they say? I don't hate God. Well, I like God. I love God.
Well, how do you know I hate God? Here it is. For they are
not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. No matter
what you do to them, They cannot be subject to the law of God.
You can pluck out their eyes, you can cut off their tongue,
you can cut off their hands and their feet, and you know what?
They still cannot obey the law of God. Can't do it. Why? The mind is an enmity against
God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says
that they cannot receive the spiritual thing, that the things
of Christ are foolishness unto them, neither can they know them,
for they are spiritually, what, discerned, judged, condemned. So Moses was a true qualified
mediator of the law, which was a true covenant of God to man,
yet God, knowing the depraved state of man, sent his mediator,
One that was ordained to speak for God to the people. One who
came from the people and was one with sin of God. He received
what God demanded for peace. And what did man find when he
got that covenant? He found that he could not be
at peace. The law of God never could teach
us to be at peace. It taught us there was a real
separation. A real separation between God
and man. You see, it taught us that God
is absolutely holy. Now whatever you think holiness
is, you've not got it. It's higher than that. Whatever
you think of righteousness, it's infinitely higher than that. The concept is so high above
what we can possibly grasp. How holy is God? Scripture says that God cannot
even look upon sin. He's so pure, so holy, so just
that He must punish every transgression. Could you count your transgressions
today? Could you number them? How many transgressions have
you committed that you've not even known of? We call these
sins of omission. They're sins of commission, things
we've done when knowingly done, but they're sins that we don't
even know about. Yet God is so pure and holy that He must punish
every sin. And the law testifies then, if
that's what God is, then I'm the total opposite of what he
is. The law testifies of the rebellion
and sin of Adam's race. It testifies that when Adam died,
he fully died. In Isaiah 59 verse 2 it says,
But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins
have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Your hands are defiled with blood,
your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue
have muttered perverseness, None calleth for justice, nor any
pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity, they speak
lies, they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. That's who we are. That's what
the law reveals. So when the law came by the hand
of Moses down to the people, all it did was curse and condemn
them. All men are born with this evil
enmity. We are all born by nature haters
of God and no man can come to God by merit. That's the point
of what Paul's talking about this mediator. Moses was no mediator
to save you. Now the Jews highly esteem Moses
as a acceptable mediator. They trusted his mediatorial
covenant of law to save them. And what Paul's telling them
is, no. He mediated a covenant that could
only expose your sins. But this is the covenant, but
this is the covenant of promise which is the gospel of Jesus
Christ that God, who purposed to save some of Adam's race in
an eternal covenant of promise to his son, gave his people,
his elect people, another mediator. I am very thankful tonight to
declare to you, Moses is not my mediator. Moses is not my mediator. And
consider Moses, even in his greatness, do you realize Moses failed to
obey the covenant he mediated? That's why he wasn't allowed
into the promised land. He failed to honor God, to obey
God, when he hit that rock the second time. Yet I want to tell you of a new
mediator, a better mediator, and that is the mediator of the
covenant of promise, which is a much better covenant. It is a better covenant that
speaks of better promises. In Hebrews chapter 8 and verse
5 it says, Who serve unto the example as a shadow of heavenly
things as Moses, was admonished of God when he was about to make
the tabernacle. For see, he saith that thou make
all things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount. But
now that he hath ordained a more excellent ministry, by how much
he also is the mediator of a better covenant which is established
on better promises. Christ, he said, he told Moses,
he said, I want you to make everything according to the pattern of what
I showed you in the mound, according to that covenant. But he's, all
of that covenant, all of those things he made pointed to this
other mediator, this other mediator that mediated a better covenant,
one with better promises than that of Moses. Therefore Moses
was only to be a type then of the true mediator between God
and man, Jesus Christ. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
5 he said, For there is one God and one mediator between God
and man, the man, Jesus Christ. There's only one mediator of
this covenant of promise, and that is Jesus Christ. Moses did mediate between God
and man, but he himself was not able to bear under the covenant.
He was not able to fulfill the covenant that he mediated. He
could not offer for the people that he mediated for. Consider,
when I was thinking about this in Moses' mediation, You remember
there was a time that Israel had sinned and God said to Moses,
he said, stand back. I'm going to wipe them all out
and I'm going to start over. You know what happened? He told
he told the high priest, he told Aaron, he said, run, go grab
a sensor coal from the altar and bring it over here. There
was a pestilence coming in through the land. And you remember they
brought that that coal and they sat it down there and the pestilence
stopped. Another time they had to make
sacrifices for the children of Israel because God was angry
with them. They had broken his covenant
again and God was angry and Moses had to make a sacrifice. But
listen, Moses didn't sacrifice himself, did he? Moses needed something else to
stand between God and them. He could not offer himself for
the sins of his people as their mediator. Yet he did ratify that
old law with blood, with the blood of another, which Paul
says later, by the blood of bulls and goats could never remove
sin. So consider all the offerings
that that mediator made, all the offerings Aaron made. None
of them could remove sin. But I want you to see tonight
that Jesus Christ was truly qualified to stand between God and man. Why? Because he was chosen of
God. Moses was chosen of God to be
a mediator. But consider the one chosen of
God. God says, Behold mine elect. The one I chose. Now when did
God choose Christ to be the mediator of the covenant of promise? From
eternity. God chose His Son, who is by
very nature one with God. Now that couldn't be said of
Moses, could it? Moses was chosen of God. But I know this, Moses
was not God. Yet the mediator of the covenant
that we are under, consider it, the Son of God, one with God,
equal with the Father and Spirit. And in the beginning, the Lord
Jesus Christ shared in all the honor and glory and praise. And when he came into the world,
listen what the apostle says, he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. The mediator of a better covenant,
this covenant of promise, was himself God. He testified
many times of this, and you remember what he said before Abraham was,
I am. The very thing that he said to
Moses at the burning bush when he chose him. He said, I am that
I am. And so what was Jesus Christ
claiming to be? He said, I'm the one that sent Moses. But I'm a mediator far greater
than Moses. And according to the covenant
of promise, Jesus was sent of God to declare this covenant
of promise. He came not to declare the law,
which was already broken, but a covenant of better promise.
He said, Lo, in the volume of the book it is written of me
to do thy will, O God. And it was the will of God in
the hand of the mediator. He came into this world to preach
the gospel. Isn't that the first message
he preached? He came up in the temple and
he opened the book to Isaiah. You remember he read that out
of the prophecy. He said, The hand of the Lord is upon me to
preach the gospel to the blind, to the prisoners. and set at
liberty them that are captive." He closed the book and he said,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Why? Because he's
saying I'm the mediator of the new covenant. I'm the mediator. I'm the one God sent to declare
the covenant of grace and mercy. Not only was Christ the mediator
for God to man, but he was also able to touch man in that he
was made one of us. He was made a mediator. You know,
another term for a mediator is a high priest. Isn't that what
a high priest is? He is a mediator. He represents
God and he represents man. He testifies, he declares the
things from God to the people and then he offers those sacrifices
God requires for the people to God. Go to Hebrews chapter five,
look at this, look at this, look at this, the prophets are the
mediator of a high priest. He says this in verse one, for
every high priest is taken from among men, is ordained for men
in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sin, who can have compassion on the ignorant, on them that
are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed
about with infirmities. Look at verse 5. So also Christ
glorified not himself to be made an high priest. He that said
unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. He
saith in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. For in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet he
learned obedience by the things he suffered. And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto them that obey
him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus Christ, in order to be our mediator,
he must himself have taken our nature. This far, this is way above my
pay grade. I can't tell you how that is. How God was made man. That that
man, 2,000 years ago, walking around in Jerusalem, preaching
God's gospel, was God in human flesh. Why? because he of necessity
must be one with us to be our high priest. To make an offering
acceptable to God, he himself must become a man in order to
mediate between us. This is one of the cries of Job.
Oh, that there was a daismon between me and God. Oh, Job,
there he is. There was a daismon between you
and God. Jesus Christ wanted one to touch me and God, to reconcile
us, to bring us together. That was the whole purpose of
the covenant of promise, to reconcile us. You know the only one that God's
pleased with is himself? I don't know if you can grasp
this, but I can't. I'm just going to throw it out
there. What about all that, well, I'm going to call it time, because
that's the only way I can understand it. What about all that time
before anything was created? When God dwelt alone? You know, God was perfectly content
with himself. He was. Before there was any
creature To proclaim his glory, God was very content and pleased
in himself. He's pleased with his own righteousness. Therefore, we know this, that
only God can provide for us what is pleasing to himself. I cannot provide what God needs
to please himself. So Jesus Christ then is the only
God-man mediator, the only man that ever merited the righteousness
of God, the only sinless man who could offer himself to God
in the place of the guilty. And it was only a man who could
bear sin and guilt and die. Isn't that true? Christ must
be made a man because only man could bear the guilt. God couldn't. Could you ever blame God with
sin? No. This is why the scripture says
he bore our sin where? In his own body on the tree. And behold, the God-man mediator
could both suffer and die as a man. He could and did bear
the curse of the law. But only God could accomplish
righteousness. Only God could bear the wrath
of God. I thought of the altar. Take
that brazen altar. You put the beast on it and set
it on fire. What happens to the altar? Nothing. It supports the sacrifice. That's a picture of Christ's
deity. The beast itself pictures the humanity of Christ as it
was consumed on the altar. So Christ, even so Lord Jesus
Christ, offered the sacrifice of his humanity on the altar
of his deity. What a mystery that is. That's
exactly what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 5. He says,
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. And what happened when he was
made sin? What happened when your mediator was made sin for
you? He did what Moses couldn't. He
bore the wrath of God for our sins. He suffered and died in
our place, that what we might receive the covenant of promise,
the righteousness of God in Christ. What a mystery is the gospel.
Christ bore our sins and obtained our righteousness. Friends, the
Lord Jesus Christ then is the only sufficient mediator between
God and man. because he has accomplished the
perfect, complete, and eternal righteousness of God as our mediator. And the man, Jesus Christ, offered
himself to God without spot, and God had laid on him the iniquity
of us all. Why? Why should Christ become
a mediator for us according to the covenant promise? To whom was the promises made?
They were made to Christ. God promised Him a people. He received them to be their
surety and mediator. He came and mediated. He came
into the world and accomplished this covenant of promise for
us, which is what? Righteousness. Atonement, justification,
sanctification, redemption, all that God promised you, Christ
accomplished for you as your mediator. There is no one else that God
is pleased with but Christ. No one else God is pleased with
but Christ. So when God made the Son to be
a mediator, And as the mediator offered himself to God, there
was nothing more pleasing than the blood of Christ. I'm just
saying, what can wash away my sins? Isn't that a good question?
It is for a sinner. It's a good question for someone
who's actually understood the law of God. You understand the
law, you understand what about yourself? You're a sinner. And
the question of sinner desires to know most is what can wash
away my sins. Listen to me, there is nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing. That's pretty narrow,
isn't it? Well, it's narrow because that's
how God designed the covenant of promise. Nothing would satisfy
God's justice but his offering. And you know, he even prophesied
of that. He prophesied of that a long, long time ago, before
even the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. He said in Isaiah
53, he said, yet it pleased the Lord to crush him. Yet put into
grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see his seed He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail
of his soul and be satisfied." Was God satisfied with Christ's
death? God said, I was. God says, I
am. I'm satisfied with his death. Why do I know? Because God raised
him from the dead. God raised him from the dead.
And what did this death accomplish? It accomplished the perfection
of all his people, all those he mediated for. In Hebrews chapter
10, he says, but this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for
sins, sat down forever at the right hand of God. He sat down
because he finished it, expecting his enemies to be made his footstool,
for by his one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Behold, therefore, the only mediator
between God and man, according to the covenant promise, is Jesus
Christ. And this mediator did what the
other could not do. He made peace. Go to this one place here, Colossians.
Go to Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. Look at
verse 19. Listen to what God says, it pleased
the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. The fullness. All the fullness
of the Godhead, all the fullness of the promises, all the fullness
of your salvation is going to be in Him. Please God to do that. Please God to make Him responsible
for every bit of this. And listen, and Having made peace. What'd he do? What'd your mediator
do for you? Made peace. Could you make peace? Couldn't make peace. My mediator
made peace. How? Through the blood of his
cross. By him to reconcile. all things to himself. By him
I say, whether things in earth or things in heaven, and you,
even you. You know, I can readily believe
that God, when Christ comes back, all this is going to be good.
All the earth is going to be reconciled the way it was. How
many of you probably believe in that? Most men don't. When God comes back, all this
world is going to be nice. It's going to be just like He
made it in the beginning, even better. You're gonna reconcile
it. But notice this, and you. He reconciled you to God. That worked sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind and by wicked works, yet now hath
he reconciled. Where? In the mediator, in the
body of his flesh through death to present you holy. and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. That's what your mediator has
done for you. He has made peace and made you acceptable and holy
before God. He has fulfilled all the covenant
promises of God. I'll tell you what, in this covenant
speaks better things than the covenant of Moses, doesn't it? Now you who are born again of
the Spirit of God and have received this by faith, I want you to,
I know that you're troubled. I know that you still contend
with this flesh and sin and unbelief and fear you wrestle within your
own hearts. This is why the law is seductive
to us, because we're always looking for evidence because of our sin,
because of our shortcomings. We want to know, am I in this
covenant of promise or not? And the wicked thing that would
happen is that we return back to the old covenant of the law
for evidence. And Paul said, no, that's not
it. Don't go back to Moses. You have a perfect mediator,
Jesus Christ. And listen, this mediator right
now ever lives to mediate for you. Paul says he ever liveth to make
intercession for us. When is he going to stop mediating
for you? Listen, if he mediated for you
while you were yet enemies, how much more now that you have been
reconciled by his blood, that you have been brought in by faith,
shall he not continue to mediate for you? He continually stands for his
people. And I know this, he's not going
to fail to bring in everyone he mediated for. He's not going
to fail. I like the idea of the last will
and testament. But once a man dies, what power
does he have over his will? None. He's dead. But Jesus Christ,
who is the testator of the will, who died to ratify the will,
ever lives to make sure that his will is done. who then shall stay his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? I know within my own soul if
it were possible I would have rejected him. It just wasn't possible. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. in the beauties of holiness.
I'm willing, aren't you? I believe on him. You don't have
to force me. Matter of fact, I long to believe
more. I believe, Lord help my unbelief. But right now I have someone
standing constantly between me and God. My mediator. And His covenant is so much better
than the law. Why would anyone want to turn
back to the law that only condemns and curses me? May God keep us from turning
back to that law. Don't think you can't. Don't
think you won't. If God removed His hand for a
minute, you'd go right back. But I'm so thankful we got a
faithful mediator who keeps us, sustains us. I pray God give
him all the praise and glory for it. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Thank God, our God and Father,
I pray that you'd be with us and thank you for your I thank
you for the word that there is a mediator between me and thee,
a daysman, one who has offered both gifts
and sacrifices that are acceptable to thee on my behalf. I pray, Father, that Christ would
be magnified in all that we say and do, that we should see his
great love and that we should be moved,
Father, to serve and love you, not according to law, but according
to grace. Forgive us our sins. I ask it
in the name of Jesus, our Savior. In his name.