If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Galatians chapter three, continuing our
study in Galatians chapter three, we'll be looking at verses 14
through 18 this morning. The title of the message is the
covenant of promise. The covenant of promise beginning
in verse 14, the apostle says, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. 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 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. And this I say, that the covenant
that 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 promise. Now, Just to let
us see this, Paul is still answering the question that he gave in
verse 2 and 3. He says in verse 2, This only
would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. He's still answering this
question. Did you receive the gospel of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified by the law or by the hearing
of the gospel of Christ and receiving it by faith? Is that how you
did it? Or did you have it by law? Did you receive the Spirit
by law? Friends, we receive the Spirit,
we receive these promises the same way that Abraham received
them, by the hearing of faith. Verse 8, it says that the gospel
was preached unto Abraham, and thee shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed. So then they that are blessed
are blessed with faithful Abraham. He believed the gospel that he
heard of God. And it's the same with us. In
Romans chapter 10, it tells us, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Gospel, hearing
by the Word of God. No man is ever saved apart from
hearing by the hearing of the preaching of the Gospel. In that
same chapter in Romans, he says this, How shall they believe
on Him in whom they have not heard? The Scripture says, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But how
shalt thou believe on Him if you have never heard of Him? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now, there are a lot of preachers,
aren't there? But that doesn't qualify a preacher just to say
he's a preacher. Why? Because they that preach
must be sent of God. If they are not sent of God,
if the preacher is a false preacher, and he is preaching a false gospel,
and a false Christ, how then can men believe on the truth
if they have never heard of Him? The Gospel is not many Gospels,
but one Gospel as we have seen in Galatians chapter 1. Paul
says there's one Gospel. And if anybody else preaches
another Gospel, let him be accursed. There's only one Gospel of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. of Jesus Christ and Him raised
from the dead. He is the only Savior for sinners,
His righteousness is the only righteousness of God, and His
death on the cross is the only atonement, redemption, and pardon
for sin. There is no other. And He alone
suffered the wrath of God, the justice of God, the curse of
God for His people. And Jesus alone bore all their
sins, bore all the wrath of God without
mercy. God, friends, will by no means
clear the guilty. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will, I'll be gracious to whom I will, but I will by no means
clear the guilty. Jesus died as a substitute, a
substitute for sinners. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18
says, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Friends, Jesus, being
the sinless Son of God, had no sin. He knew no sin. He did no
sin. But for the unjust, sinful, depraved,
and vile people that His people were by nature, He took the elect's
sin to Himself. He willingly took it as the Father
imputed it to Him. And He did this according to
His grace and not according to our merit. He took our sins. He imputed,
God imputed our sins to the holy and just Son of God. So that
by His one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And any other Christ is not Christ. Any other Jesus that has not
accomplished redemption for all of His people is an utter failure. He is weak and effeminate and
is not worthy to be called God. Jesus Christ accomplished redemption. He finished the work that God
gave Him to do and that was to accomplish redemption for all
of His people. All of His people. And having
died in the flesh, God raised him from the grave and manifest
to all that he was successful. If Christ had not paid for all
of the sins of all of his people, God being just, could not have
raised him from the dead. He must continue forever to be
dead, to die, if he did not pay for all of the sins. But God,
being satisfied with His offering, raised Him from the dead. It
is manifest to everyone that Christ, the only Christ, the
only Christ that is to be preached, the only Christ that is to be
received, is a successful Savior, a successful Christ. In Revelation
chapter 5, we see that there on the throne, John is seeing
the vision. And he sees God on the throne.
And on his right hand, there's a book. And this book is written
on the backside and on the inside. And it's so full, it has no more
room for writing. And this book has been sealed
up with seven seals. And an angel cries and he says,
who is worthy to open the book? And there was none worthy. There was not one in all the
universe that was worthy to come but one. And that was the Lamb. And John
says that an elder came and he said, Don't weep, John. Don't
weep! For the Lion of the tribe of
Judah hath prevailed. He hath prevailed to open the
book and to loose the seals thereof. And that book is the eternal
providence and predestination of God's elect and all of the
providences that are for their good and for His glory, for their
salvation. You see, God's salvation could
not be revealed unless there was one worthy to open the book. And there was one. And He is
the eternal Son of God. And He came in the flesh. And
you know what? This is what amazes me. When He said, the Lion of
the tribe of Judah hath prevailed, John turned around and he saw
not a lion, but a lamb. He saw a lamb. And you know what
the lamb did? The lamb walked up. and grabbed
the book from God's hand and opened the seals. No one was worthy to take the
book, but he hath prevailed to take the book. He is worthy because
he hath prevailed. He is worthy because he has secured
all of his elect people by his blood. Christ prevailed because He was
worthy. How was He worthy to take the
book and to reveal it to sinners, to ungodly and the just? Because He was the Lamb slain. He was not only the Lamb, but
He was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was
God's chosen, God's righteous servant, and His one offering,
He took the book, and is now accomplishing all of the purposes
of God to save His people from their sins. He is accomplishing
what He had done on the cross. He is finishing His salvation. That which He purposed and accomplished
on the cross, He is now bringing it to pass. And the means by
which He does this is by the preaching of the gospel. This is how we receive. How we
receive? We receive this gospel that is
preached by faith. We believe that gospel. We believe on Christ. And all
who have received, all who have received this promise of the
Spirit through faith have salvation. The salvation of God. The Spirit
of God does not come because of our faith, but rather our
faith is by the sanctification and regeneration of that Spirit
as He comes and takes that gospel that I had just preached to you.
He takes that gospel and He applies it by His power to the hearts
of men and raises them from the dead and gives them life and
faith. Men by nature are dead in sins
and cannot and will not believe on Christ. And any faith that
a man has by nature is a vain and empty faith. If it is not
a faith that is received by the power of the Holy Spirit, it
is not faith at all. It's not faith at all. In our day, faith is common.
In other words, people believe faith is a right that they have.
I have a right to have faith, and I'll exercise it when I darn
well please." That's exactly how they feel about it. But friends, man's will is not
free. It's not. Anyone who argues that is a fool.
Jump off a building and see how free your will is to get back
up. You are bound by laws and circumstance
and your will is captive to circumstance. It's not free. You can't do as
you please. You can make all the choices
you want, but your choices are limited within the confines of
your nature and your circumstance, and your will is not free. It's
not. There's only one who has a free
will, and it is God. God has a free will. Man's will
is not free. He cannot, of his own will, ever
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. That must be a
gift of the Almighty God to his soul. Therefore, Jesus said, you must
be born again. The Spirit must come. He must
resurrect the soul and He must give us a new nature, a holy
nature to believe. And it is by this nature, this
new nature, that we do receive, we do believe. Which believer in Christ was
unwilling to believe when the spirit came in power. Never one
of us. You see, the king hath made us
willing. In the day of his power and praise
God, he did. Praise God, he did. Spiritual
life and faith in Christ always comes by the spirit at the same
time. You know, you never find a man
without life and faith. We can't have one without the
other. They come together at the same time. And they always come by the preaching
of the gospel. That's exactly how Abraham received
it. That's exactly how we receive it. That's exactly how the promise
of the Spirit, the promise of the Spirit, So that is how we receive the
promise of the Spirit. But what is the promise of the
Spirit? What is this that he's talking
about in verse 14? He said that we might receive. We receive
it by faith. What? The promise of the Spirit
through faith. Now, the word promise here means
divine announcement. That's what it means. A divine
declaration. A promise. This promise is something
that God declared. that he would do. And we make promises all the
time. I make promises. Oh, you know, sometimes a kid
gets up and, you know, they want something and I'll just make
a promise sometime just to move them aside so I can get done.
But I can't keep all the promises that I've ever made, even if
I'm as sincere about it. I can't keep the promises at
times. We're limited as to what we can
do. We can try to keep our promises.
That doesn't mean we will. But God's promises that come
by the Spirit of God through the Word of God are yea and amen
in Christ. The promises of God are sure
as God Himself. The promises of God are immutable. They cannot change, nor can they
be added to or taken away from. You cannot add to the promises
of God, and you cannot take away from the promises of God. They
are perfect and eternal. There is no room for error or
change. In Malachi 3, verse 6, God says,
I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. In Hebrews 13 it says of Christ,
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. He doesn't change. Therefore,
because God is immutable, so are His promises, purposes, and
decrees immutable, which are for us in His gospel. You want
God's promises? These are God's promises right
here. This is God's promise. Scripture says that God has exalted
His Word above His name. In other words, if this Word
fails, God fails. If one, one of God's promises fail, He's a liar. And that just ain't gonna happen. We better be careful what we
say God cannot do, but the Scripture says God cannot lie and He cannot
deny Himself. He will not lie. His promises
are sure. And Paul, in our text, uses the
illustration of a covenant. Promises are nothing more or
less than a covenant agreement. An agreement to do something
for a second party, for another. Look at this in verse 15. Paul
says, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. He said, in
other words, you can understand this because I'm going to talk
in your language. Here it is. Though it be a man's covenant,
yet if the covenant is confirmed, no man disanother at it thereto."
You sign a contract, that's it. The only way to get that contract
to move or to cease is if both parties agree that the contract
needs to be redone. And guess what? I just told you
God's not going to change His side. God's not going to change
His covenant, His promise. His promise, He won't. We can't. And so therefore, just as though
it is a man's covenant, we understand this when we put our name to
it. We are ratifying an agreement to do something, and if not,
we are held to the penalty of that agreement, or that covenant. Now the word covenant, it can
be used in two sense, and Paul is playing on this sense here.
You can have a covenant, That is scripture, and I want to illustrate
this. In Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 6, Paul talks about a covenant. He says, where there is a testament,
a covenant, there must also be the death of the testator. Now, what kind of covenant is
that? It's a last will and testament, isn't it? It's a one-sided covenant
made and then received. Now, it's not very mysterious,
is it? Everybody can understand that. But there's also another
covenant which is a covenant of agreements of two parties.
One covenants to do something and the other agrees to it. They
put themselves together and they must both keep both sides of
that agreement. Very simple, not mysterious,
is it? This clearly defines the two
covenants of Scripture. A covenant of grace and a covenant
of works. There's the two covenants and
throughout all of Scripture. A covenant that God says, I will
do this if you do this. That is a covenant of law. That is a covenant of works. In Hebrews chapter 8 it says,
Not according to the covenant that I made with your fathers
in the day I took them out of the land of Egypt, because that
covenant they kept not my covenant. They kept not my covenant, and
I regarded them not, saith the Lord." You see, one party failed. God upheld His. I'm going to
give you my law. You do it. They said, okay, and
they failed. You see, that's an arrangement
covenant. That's a covenant of works. Now, the covenant of grace
is one of will. One of will. Just as the last
will and testament, the benevolence or will, and power of the covenant
lies solely in the testator. You go in there and you go into
a room and you write out your last will and testament. You
are giving them what is yours and when you die, that covenant
goes into effect and some lawyer stands up and all he does is
read the will. then the people get whatever
you gave them. Isn't that the way it works?
That's exactly how it is with the covenant of grace. Exactly
how it is. God alone, in eternity, made
a covenant of grace with Himself. With Himself. God had written in eternity a
covenant with Himself. God in sovereign love and grace
elected a people from Adam's race for Himself, for His own
praise, for His own glory, and not according to any merit or
dismerit that they would do. Isn't that something? Not according
to our merit, but He didn't choose us because of our dismerit or
because of our merit. Some people think, well, I'm
just the greatest sinner in the world, so therefore God must
have chose me. No, God didn't choose me because I was a sinner.
He did it because of His own love and mercy. No merit was
on this side of the covenant. Romans 8.28 tells us that God
had a purpose. All things work together for
good to them who love God. To them are called according
to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's His purpose. The purpose
of God was to know a people, to be like His Son, and to make
them like His Son. But God also, in the eternal
purpose, God the Son, agreed to be the surety of that covenant. Look at this in verse 16. Now
unto Abraham and his seed were the promises made, and he says
not to seeds as of many, but as one. And to thy seed which
is Christ. This promise of God for people
was given to Christ. The seed. Did Abraham receive
promises? You bet. But they were physical
promises. He had received a people. They
received a land. They became a mighty people,
just like God promised. But that promise was a spiritual
promise that Abraham believed and understood, not concerning
himself, but concerning his seed, Christ. He believed in Christ,
that Christ would come and he would have a people. Because
God gave him a people. And to whom God made these promises
of grace in eternity. He made them in Christ. To Christ
was a promised seed. Not just the Jews, but about
all the nations of the world. Psalm 110 tells us that. It tells
us that God was to make Christ a king, that he were to rule
in the midst of his enemies, and that his people, see, he's
promised a people, his people, thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. To Christ was the promise of
a king, the promise of being the prophet, and the promise
of being the priest for his people in offering a sacrifice unto
God. Friends, Moses was a mediator,
but he was a mediator of a different covenant. His covenant was one
of works. But Christ was to come and be
the mediator, as Hebrew says, of a better covenant. A better
covenant. That covenant of works was not
the first. Paul says it was 430 years after. And he's talking about not the
time of Jacob, not the time of Abraham, but he's talking about
after the time of Jacob, from the time they were in bondage
until the law came was 430 years. They lived under the promise
of Abraham until they came to Egypt and got into bondage. And
then 430 years after that, they received the law. Now then, Can the law then make
null the promises of the covenant of grace? If the covenant of grace was
one-sided, it started in eternity, how then shall any law in time
disannul the law from the covenant from eternity? It won't. You
see, that's a different covenant. That's a covenant of works, which
we have already broken. It's senseless to try to be under
the law. And friends, this is a comfort
of every believer in Christ, is that the law cannot disannul
what God has promised us in Christ, and what Christ has accomplished
for us on the cross. Nothing. can disannoy it. You see, we didn't enter into
a contract with God saying, we'll hold up our end if you'll hold
up yours. God says, I'll hold up all the ends and you'll receive
it. That's the wonderful message of grace. That's the wonderful
message of grace. If the inheritance, verse 18,
be of the law, it is no more promised. You cannot have it
both ways. You are either under the one
or under the other. There is no middle ground in
this. We did not start by a covenant
of promise of the Spirit of God. through faith and then make it
perfect being under the covenant of the law. No, you cannot have
it that way. It's not that way at all. You
are either under the one or under the other. If it's a law, it
is no more a promise. Let us be warned. Let us be warned. Cast off that old man. He loves that old covenant. Cast
him off. But God. But God, who is rich in mercy.
Gave us who have believed. The covenant by promise. And not by law. I pray that God would bless this
to our hearts.