Galatians chapter 3. The title of the message is, The
Covenant of God's Will. The Covenant of God's Will. Galatians 3, beginning in verse
15. The Apostle says, Brethren, I
speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not to seeds as of many,
but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And this I say,
that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law, which was four hundred and thirty 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 of promise, but God gave it to
Abraham by promise, the covenant of God's will. Now the apostle,
having declared the blessing of Abraham, was not obtained
by law, But through the redemption of Jesus Christ, He said that
the law, no one could be saved under the law. For by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. That's evident. But how then
are men justified? Verse 13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." You
see, we who were cursed by the law, God purposed that we should
be justified. Justified by a substitutionary
act. By the substitutionary work of
Jesus Christ. Listen, who was made a curse?
The sin that His people committed, in order for God to justify them,
their sin must be punished. In order for God to be just,
He must punish sin. Therefore, in order to justify
us, He punished His Son as He made Him to be sin for us. And the curse that He suffered
was the full measure of God's wrath. The full measure of God's
justice. And so, by this, He freed us
from the curse. Friends, you're looking at a
person who is no longer cursed by God. I have no curse upon
me because my Savior bore the curse in my stead. He suffered
in my place. Therefore, the law cannot demand
anything of me. That's why we just sang that
hymn, A Debtor to Mercy. It says, A debtor to mercy alone,
of covenant mercy I sing, nor fear with God's righteousness
on, my person and offering to bring, the terrors of law and
of God with me can have nothing to do. Why? My Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgression from view. And then, at the appointed time...
Now, this was all done before we were born. This was all done
in an act of covenant grace before our birth, before our first sin. This was done, and at the appointed
time of grace, we did receive this blessing. We received the
promise of God. through faith. The promise, we
receive the Spirit of promise through faith. Now that's the
blessing of Abraham. Isn't that what he said? He said
in verse 14, he said that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What is this blessing
of Abraham? He says it in the next phrase, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit. through faith." This was the
promise that we might receive this promise. What's the promise?
The Spirit through faith. The Spirit of God through faith.
That's the promise of Abraham by which he was justified. And
let us consider then the greatness of this salvation. We were cursed,
unable, unwilling to obey the law of God. We could not merit
the righteousness of God by our obedience to the law. Yet God
purposed that we should be saved from a curse, so Jesus, in love,
offered Himself. Offered Himself, willingly, to
bear our sins and obtain the righteousness of God for us.
And by His grace He gave us His Holy Spirit, He quickened us
from the dead, so that we should know and feel our need of righteousness
and come to Christ. You know why men have no interest
in the Gospel? Because they have no need. They
don't see sin as exceeding sinful. Sin is nothing more than a mistake. Well, I've made some mistakes.
No, you've spit in the face of God what you've done. Well, I
don't think so. It doesn't matter what you think.
That's wonderful about the Word of God, is I don't have to worry
about what people think. God said it. You should hear it. Sin is exceeding sinful. And
the reason men don't receive Christ is because they love their
darkness rather than light. Now what Jesus said, men love
darkness rather than light. Because their deeds are evil,
like cockroaches. You cut on a light, what does a cockroach
do? Runs right in the darkness. That's what man does, you cut
on the light of the word of God, they run! They don't have any
interest. I remember witnessing to a fella,
and I swear, he looked like he could have just ran. He couldn't, looked like he was,
I didn't try to corner him, I mean, I was just talking. He acted
like I was cornering him, and he just didn't know where to
go, he was trying to get out! Now I don't need When God cuts on the light, there'll
be a need. And the only place you'll run
is to the light. Jesus Christ is the light. He
is the way. He is the only hope for your
souls. Jesus Christ. And that's what
I found. And I fled to Him for refuge. Because the light was cut on
in my heart. And I saw what I was. I found
my need. I have received the blessedness with Abraham. Whatever salvation Abraham received,
that's the same salvation that I have. The blessedness of Abraham
is my blessedness. What did Abraham receive? The
Spirit of promise through faith. What did I receive? The Spirit
of promise through faith. And what is the result of the
Spirit of promise through faith? The righteousness of God. That's
what I have. The righteousness which is by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Whatever righteousness He merited
is mine. Whatever He did is mine. And so now, then, after seeing
this, the apostle in the text explains how this blessedness
of Abraham, namely receiving the Spirit through faith, is
the benefit of a covenant. A covenant. Here in these verses, the apostle
sets forth two distinct covenants. a covenant of grace and a covenant
of works, a covenant of promise and a covenant of law. Those are two distinctly separate
covenants. Under one covenant is the promise
obtained and received by grace. The other covenant obtains the
blessing only through merit and work. And these covenants have no connection
together. You cannot mix these two covenants. One is by grace and the other
covenant has no part whatsoever in either obtaining or receiving
the spirit of promise. The covenant of law. Let's deal
with that covenant first. The covenant of law. What is
this? It is nothing more than what we would call a contract.
Everybody understands what a contract is. You have two parties that
decide together for a common objective. One party agrees to
do this part, and another party agrees to do the other part,
and so by them working together, they may achieve whatever it
is that they're trying to do. Everybody enters in these kind
of covenants all the time. If you have any, if you, even
if you've got to pay rent, you understand this kind of covenant.
They provide you a house, you provide them money. You work
together, you get to live there. You miss the covenant, you miss
the payment, you're out. Everybody understands that. The
covenant of law is no different. The law says, do this and live. That's what the law says. So
if you desire to approach unto God by law or by works, then
you have entered into a covenant, a contractual effort. God says, I'll give you salvation.
That's His part. If you earn it. What's wrong with this covenant? You. We're the problem because we
cannot do it. You have not done it. Even if you were to do it from
this day forward. How many times have you said
that? Well, from this day forward. God doesn't look at it from this
day forward. You can't just renegotiate the terms of the contract. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Period. No negotiation. The problem is you've already
sinned. You've already sinned. That's why Paul is telling us
that the law cannot save you. Your goodness, your works, your
merit cannot save you. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight. But I'm telling you, there's
another covenant. There's another covenant. This
other covenant that Paul is talking about is a covenant of grace. One obtained and accomplished
and administered by another. By Jesus Christ who has made
a curse upon the cursed tree. The blessing of the covenant
of the law only carnal temporal they were only given this law
by the nation of Israel but the blessing of the covenant of promise
was given by grace and is spiritual this covenant that I'm talking
about is not carnal enter into the with people who want to obey
the law you realize it makes them feel good when they think
they've achieved something under the law, they feel superior. They've done something that someone
else hasn't done. This is why men love law, because
they think that they've done something and they can elevate
themselves above other people. How long does that last? It lasts
until you fail, which is almost immediately. Almost immediately. This law is temporal. It's carnal. It has to do with feelings. It
may do with emotions. It may have to deal with the
outward, but it has nothing to do spiritually. You cannot produce
a spiritual effect by a carnal action. This is what all false
religion is telling you. If you do this carnally, then
you shall have this spiritually. That's a lie. You can't do anything
carnally to affect your nature spiritually. This is something that has to
be done outside of you and done in you that you cannot do for
yourself. The covenant of the law is all
about you. This covenant of grace is all
about God. God doing for you what you could
not do for yourself. And doing it on the grounds of
mercy and not merit. Now listen, if you need mercy
from God, I do have a message for you. If you don't, I don't. If you don't want mercy, I've
got nothing for you. If you need mercy, this is the
covenant for you. This is the covenant for you.
A covenant of promise. So in the text, the apostle makes
a distinction between these two covenants. The covenant of promise
or of grace is linked to a will or a testament. This covenant,
read this with me again. He said, brethren, I speak after
the manner of men. Though it be but a man's covenant,
Yet if it be confirmed, no man disowneth or addeth thereto."
This covenant he's talking about is a last will and testament.
That's what it means. It's a last will and testament. The other covenant that he talks
about is one of works, which is the law. I say then that the covenant
which is confirmed before God, the law, which is 430 years after,
cannot disannul. He's talking about the law as
the other covenant. That's the contractual covenant.
And these two cannot be mixed. You cannot start with one and
then finish with the other. That's what this church was doing.
That's what Galatians were doing as they were trying to start.
They said, well, we're started by grace, but we finish by obeying
the law. Paul said that's not true. You're
either part of this covenant or that one. You can't mix them.
They're not mixable. And so in the last will in Testament,
the testator, The one who made the will is the one responsible
for all that is in the will. Isn't that right? If you have family or friends
and you make out a will, now you're not going to will to them
things you don't have. That'd be kind of foolish. Well,
I will to you the Golden State Bridge. It's not yours. You can't
will that. But whatever you have, that's
what you would will to them. And once you sign that, once
you seal that, who can add anything to your
will? Can any outside force come in and say, well, I don't like
that. I'm going to change it. No. It's
your will. And if they did so, it would
disannul your will. It would not be your will, would
it? It would be somebody else's. So once this is entered in, and
he's talking about a man's, he's using this as an illustration.
This is a man's covenant I'm talking about. And you know that
you can't add to it or take away from it. It's that man's last
will and testament. And to do so would disannul it. And so the one who makes the
will is the only active party in the will. And so when the
will is read and the stuff is given out, what did you do to
earn that? Nothing. You just, the only act
you had was receiving what was given to you. And so then all the work of this
will is based on the testator and not the beneficiary. The
beneficiary is passive. Now in the other kind of the
covenant, the benefits is based on performance, isn't it? Performance. In order to receive that which
is agreed upon, you must perform what is necessary. The covenant
law, being contractual, says receive the blessing, justification,
only if you are absolutely perfect. Therefore, it has been established
because we have sinned, none could ever be justified by the
law. Who then would desire to remain
under the law? I'm just, this is a question. Do any of you
desire to be under the law? Seeing that it's impossible,
this contract, you can't make this contract, you can't fulfill
this covenant, and yet I still find people wanting to be under
the law. It's madness. It's insanity. It's depravity. Anyone who thinks they can fulfill
this law is deceiving themselves. They're deceived and being deceived. Paul concludes that it's an impossibility
to obtain it under contractual covenant. But behold, the only
covenant by which sinners are justified and may receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith is by the testament of
God, by the will of God. And the will of God assumes all
that He has named in this covenant of grace. He assures all that
is named in this covenant of grace that we shall receive the
benefit. This is the most amazing thing
about the covenant of God's grace, is that without any obedience
of our own, regardless even of our disobedience, God swears that everyone He's
named in His covenant of grace will receive the Spirit of God
through faith. Everyone. Because this covenant has nothing
to do with merit or the lack of merit in the beneficiary. Remember, the full weight and
responsibility falls upon the testator. Look over in Isaiah
chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9. One of my favorite texts of scripture. Scripture says, for unto us a
child is born. Unto us a Son is given." This
is speaking of Christ. The Child was born, namely His
humanity. The Son that was given speaks
of His deity. And what shall He do? And the
government shall be upon His shoulders. Church. His elect, His people, are on His shoulders. You've
seen that statue of the Atlas holding up the world with His
hands. He's bearing the whole weight.
Friends, Christ held up the weight of all of His people. He Himself
bore the responsibility of saving all His people on Himself. That's where the weight of responsibility
comes. You remember Judah. when he was
told that he should bring Benjamin back to Joseph. And Jacob said,
no, I won't let him go. And Judah said, look, I'll be
surety for the lad. You know what surety is? I'll
be the guarantee. If I don't bring that boy back
to you, let me bear the blame. Jesus Christ said the same. Father,
I will be surety for them. And if I do not save all you've
named in your will, Let me bear the blame. Now you got that? You who are believers in Jesus
Christ, where is all the responsibility for your salvation rest? On Him. What responsibility do
I have? None. I just simply receive what He's
already purchased. What He's already purposed and
purchased. As a matter of fact, Paul in
Hebrews 7 says this, Jesus is made a surety of a better covenant. A better covenant. The better
testament is the will and covenant of God's grace. So in verse 15,
Paul testifies of the sureness of this, saying, if a man's covenant,
he said, you can't add to or take away from a man's covenant,
how much more could you add to or take away from God's covenant? Matter of fact, this covenant
that I'm talking about is a covenant made before man. This covenant that God made,
this will that God made, was from eternity. And God wrote
in indelible ink the names of His beneficiaries. And then Jesus
Christ in that eternal covenant of grace agreed to be surety
for all of those named in that covenant. And in the process
of time, God the Son came into the world and did bear the weight
of all of those people. He died in their stead, rose
again for their justification, now sits in heaven on the throne
of glory. And at the appointed time, He
comes to everyone named in that covenant, and the Word of God
is preached to them, the Spirit of God is applied to them, and
they believe. Not based on any merit of their
own. Not based on any of their...
We were not looking for God. God found us. We didn't know
we were lost until God revealed it. We didn't know we were sinners
until God revealed it. We didn't know we needed a Savior
until God revealed it. And we didn't come to Christ
until God showed us that Christ is our Redeemer. We never would have come. We
never would have come. I never would have come had He
not brought me. Never. I remember even in my lost condition,
something I think my parents instilled, but God used it, is
that I knew I had to be where the Gospel was preached. I didn't
really understand why. I just knew that was what they
demanded of me, that's where I should be. But you know what? That's a good principle. Because if a person's ever going
to be saved, they're going to be saved under the sound of the
gospel. Not going to be walking in nature, not going to be looking
at trees and the flowers of the field, and all of a sudden come
to a knowledge of God. No. God determined, by the foolishness
of preaching, to save His people. This is the means. By the declaration of God's covenant, God calls and gives life to His
people. So then, now this covenant of
promise that was decreed in eternity, purchased in time. Now, I want
you to see that this was... He's using Abraham because he
was before the law. Abraham is an eminent type of
everyone who is a beneficiary of this covenant. And so, Abraham
was 430 years before the law of Moses was given. So Paul is
asking, If Abraham received the promise of the Spirit through
faith in Christ, and the law was 430 years later, how then
could you say that the law was necessary for his salvation,
for his justification? The law was 430 years. These
two covenants then are separate and distinct. Paul said the law
was added. Look at verse 19. He said, Wherefore
then serveth the law? What's the purpose of the law
then? It was added because of the transgression. Now when he
says it's added, he's saying it's not added or superimposed
upon the covenant of grace. He's saying it was added so that
you might see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. That's all. That's all. The law can only
curse you, damn you. It can never save you. That's the purpose of the law.
But the will of God has nothing to do with transgression, but
with justification, righteousness, without merit. Listen to this,
but now, Paul says, Romans 3, 21, but now the righteousness
of God, listen, without the law, is revealed, is manifest, witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. See, the salvation of all the
elect of God was according to the covenant of grace, It was
in effect from all eternity fulfilled all of the qualifications of
justification by the death of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus was the mediator
of this testament. The mediator. Now, again, we're
talking about a last will and testament. When is the force
of the will and testament Revealed it when is when does
the last will and testament become in force? When you die Right
you make it you seal it nobody can add anything to it or take
anything from it, but it's in full force when You die Well
listen Christ is the testator of this will and it was only
in force after He had died after he had died. Now, all of those
before Christ were in this covenant. They received the promise. But
the fulfillment had not yet come. Therefore, they were looking
forward to the fulfillment. What do we do now? We look back
at it. It's already been filled. It's
already been fulfilled. Paul says this in Hebrews 9,
he said, For this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant,
that by the means of his death, for the redemption of the transgression
that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal life. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For the
testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of
no strength while the testator liveth. That's why Jesus told
his disciples, I must go to the cross. I must suffer. You see,
there was no other way. I am telling you, there is no
other way. But Jesus Christ died for you.
There's no other way that we could ever be accepted of God,
except He die. As a mediator, between us and
God. And Jesus said, Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if
I depart, I will send Him unto you. And that's what the promise
is. The Spirit of God through faith.
He said, after I die, I will send My Spirit unto you. Isn't
that what He has done to us? We who believe, you who believe,
you have received the promise, how? Through faith, by the Spirit
of God. And so by His death, His covenant
was in full force. And now He has sent out His Spirit
into the world to save His people. Now the promise and benefits
of God's blessings are given to us. So all who would still
seek to impose or add the covenant of works, they fail to grasp
the truth that the law can do nothing. The law has nothing
to do with promise. It has nothing to do with our
justification before God. And so as Abraham heard and received
the promise, was four hundred thirty years
before the law even so shall all who are named in the testament
of god received the promises of god look at verse sixteen
now to abraham in his seat where the promises made he say if not
to the seats as many as of war to dot c which is cry Now, to
whom is the promise made? The promise of justification,
the promise of life. To whom is it made? It was made
to Christ. It was made to Him. He shall see of His seed. His seed. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied by the knowledge of my righteous
service shall justify many. For he shall bear their iniquities. I'm sorry, it's verse 10. "...Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief.
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." Christ
the seed received all the blessings and promises of God, but yet
how does this help us? Because we are His seed. He is
the seed, but we are His seed. We are in union with Him. Therefore, all that belongs to
Him belongs to me. All that He obtained is mine. Eternal life, righteousness,
peace with God, redemption, atonement, satisfaction, acceptance with
God. All of that was His. And through the promise of the
Spirit by faith, it is mine. All that God promised in Christ
belongs to us. Therefore, none of His elect
who God swore to save in His covenant will, who Christ died
to redeem, none of them shall fail to receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith." This is confident. This is the authority
of God's Word, is this. Not one that God purposed to
save will be lost. Not one. Why? It's the will of God. that can't be added to or taken
from. You see, I'm saved because God
purposed it. I'm saved because Christ purchased it. I'm saved
because the Spirit applied it. And I'm being saved because He
keeps me in His grace by His strength. So where is the responsibility
lie? In the covenant of will, the
responsibility rests solely on Jesus Christ. You see, believer, this is why
we do not look to our faith. A man, you know him, his wife
has cancer and he went to the doctor. And he said to this doctor, he
said, you know, we would never make it. Had we not. Believed. On the son of God. And the doctor
said something to this effect, he said, I don't know what I
do without my faith. I don't know how people make
it through such tragedies without faith. And the preacher was really struck
by that and distraught that this man seemed to impress so much
on that word faith as though he were having faith in his faith. To lean on your faith would be
to lean on an arrow or a spear. It would pierce through your
soul and it wouldn't be able to support your weight. You would
collapse under the weight. You see, it is not my faith that
saves me. It is the object of my faith.
So then my confidence doesn't stem from my faith. It stems
from the object of my faith. And so where is my faith? It
is in Christ Jesus. My hope is in Christ Jesus. My
life is in Christ Jesus. And all the responsibility of
my salvation rests with Him. Therefore, I am free. Free. Free to love Him and serve
Him and honor Him and declared to sinners the only hope for
you is Christ there is no other hope there is no other hope and
it is my desire, my hope that God the Holy Spirit would reveal
to you your need and then show you the Savior this is the covenant of will
God's will as many as received him. To them gave he the right
to become the sons of God, which were born, not of flesh, nor
of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." My whole rest in the covenant,
not of works, not of law, but of grace. And these two are separate
covenants. You're either under the one or
under the other. You cannot be under both. Which
covenant are you under? Do you believe? Have you received
the spirit of promise through faith? I pray that even now you
would. Now stand and be dismissed.