Let's turn to Galatians chapter
3. You probably wonder why we keep going over these sections
of scripture. I think part of the reason is because the entire
Gospel and the whole Bible is contained in this section of
scripture, and I just want to read through some of these verses
with you together in order for you to see, again, and I'm choosing
my words carefully, the all-comprehensive nature of God's eternal purpose
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll begin reading here
in Galatians chapter 3. And I'm going to read from verse
6 to the end of the chapter, and then we're going to also
pick up in chapter 4 and just read a few verses there. So let's
pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, the
Apostle Paul said he was insufficient and asked who was sufficient
for these things. I certainly am not. And I know
that by the revelation of your word, there is no man sufficient
to unfold the mysteries of God. But you have revealed them to
us by your spirit in the scripture of the gospel. And we thank you
for that. These things are beyond our comprehension
in their depth and scope. And we only seem to skim across
the top of them. And what we do grasp is so quickly
faded from our thoughts and memory. So we pray, Lord, that you would
open our hearts and write there with the spirit of God, not with
ink, but with the spirit of God in our hearts to teach us what
is true, eternally true, what's been in your heart from eternity,
and what you delight in. And you will certainly bring
to pass our eternal salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. In
his name we pray, amen. Galatians chapter 3, I want to
begin first by referring you to a couple of scriptures in
the Psalms. In Psalm 25 and verse 14, it says, The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. That's
Psalm 25 verse 14. In other words, it's a great
blessing from God to be shown His covenant. Not everyone is
given to know His covenant. God does give it to them that
fear Him. Of course, He Himself instills
that fear in us and gives us all grace to understand and believe
Him in this. So, I've entitled the message
today, The Two Covenants. And you'll see why shortly. But
another psalm in Psalm 50 and verse 5. Psalm 50 and verse 5. God says, gather my saints together
unto me. Now this is a command of God.
The scripture is written under the inspiration of the Spirit
of God. So this is uttering God's heart, God's mind, and God's
will. Gather my saints together to
me. It will be done, therefore, won't
it? those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Now, we
haven't made a covenant by offering a sacrifice, have we? But the
Lord Jesus Christ did, and He is the one God has made a covenant
with, and with Him, He has made a covenant with us. And that
covenant was made in His own sacrifice. And so in our mediator,
we made a covenant with God by sacrifice. And those are the
things we're going to look at this morning, the two covenants. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
6 it says the Apostle citing Abraham and you might wonder
why go back clear back to Abraham well God said something to Abraham
God sent something about Abraham he gave Abraham promises and
a covenant and And Abraham believed what God revealed in those promises
in that covenant. And because of what God revealed
to him and the faith God gave to Abraham, God said everyone
who believes like Abraham is a child, a true child, a spiritual
child of Abraham. In other words, they walk in
the same faith that he had. They believe what he believed.
Even though they might not see it quite as clearly, even though
they might not believe it as earnestly, yet those who believe
what he believed, the Lord Jesus Christ, they're the children
of Abraham. And so he says in verse 6, even
as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness,
what God revealed to him, the Lord Jesus and his righteousness,
was accounted to Abraham for his righteousness. Verse 7, Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, because faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, preached
before the gospel to Abraham. Now this is God's word. What
God is saying in his promise to Abraham is called the gospel. He said this to Abraham, in thee
shall all nations be blessed. Now, we've looked at that verse.
We know the verse is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
It would be through him that God would bless all families
of the earth, all nations, all kindred, all tribes, all tongues,
all kinds of people. Not every individual in the world,
but individuals out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue,
and language. And the blessing that God was
going to bless them with is the Lord Jesus Christ. And His work
counted theirs just like it was counted to Abraham. And this
was a promise God made, and God says this promise is the gospel.
So what God promised Abraham is the gospel. Now, I want to
raise a question for you to think about. The first question is
this. How many times in scripture do
you think it is written Or the words are recorded this way,
the covenant of works. Or another question is, how many
times in scripture do you think it's written, the words written,
the covenant of grace? Or the everlasting covenant of
grace? It turns out that neither of those phrases are ever used
in scripture. But we use them, don't we? And
we use them all the time. So the natural question should
arise in our minds is, is there truly a covenant of grace? And is it an everlasting covenant?
And if it is, what is it? What is included in it? Who is
included in it? How is it made? When was it made?
What are the effects of it? What we're going to see here
is that the covenant God made with Abraham, because these promises
were part not just of a detached promise from everything else,
but it was part of a consistent arrangement, a will God put down. And it was expressed to Abraham
as a promise. It was a promise out of a covenant. And so we have to ask several
questions. What is a covenant? And things
like that. And I've tried to answer those
in the past. I'm going to give you short answers again today.
But let's continue reading here. So the Gospel was preached to
Abraham. It's quoted from the Old Testament as we saw last
week in Acts 3, 25, and 6. In thee, in thy seed, shall all
nations be blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we read through
this, now keep in your mind the question, is there truly an everlasting
covenant? Who made it, if there is? When
was it made? With whom was that covenant made?
And on whose behalf was it made? What does it consist of? And
remember now that God is speaking here to Abraham of a promise
which is part of a covenant. And God's going to talk about
this in chapter 4 as the two covenants. There's two he's going
to draw our attention to here, and they're different. So, when
we read this, think about what is this covenant and what God
is saying here. So then, verse 9. They which
be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Faithful, meaning
Abraham was a believer and he continued in that faith. Verse
10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse. Now, he's drawing a contrast
here. There's another arrangement called the law. And as many as
are under the works of the law are under the curse. Now, in
the Old Testament, undoubtedly, in many places, the law is called
a covenant. As I said, it's not spoken of
exactly as the covenant of works, but the Old Testament was called
a covenant. In fact, when God told Moses,
take the two tables of stone and put them in the ark of the
covenant, He called those two tables the testimony of the covenant. God made a covenant with Israel.
We saw last week in Exodus 19. And Israel agreed to that covenant.
And in that covenant, God set down conditions they had to meet.
Keep the law. all the time, perfectly, completely. And if you do, you'll be granted
life, you'll receive the land, all these things will happen.
But if you don't, then the curse will come upon you. Well, here,
verse 10, it says, "...as many as are under the works of the
law," because works of the law means our personal, individual
obedience to God's requirements in the law. All those who are
under that system, that principle of coming to God, are cursed,
for it is written in the law, Cursed is everyone that continueeth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. And since no one does them, therefore all are cursed. Verse
11. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident for, and quoting again from Habakkuk 2.4, the
just shall live by faith. There's the declaration. No,
the righteous before God will live by faith, not by the works
of the law. And the law is not of faith. So now the law we know
is not of faith. It's plain, isn't it? And the
law was a covenant. We know that's true. You can
read about this in Exodus 20 and various other places in the
Old Testament. The law was no doubt a covenant.
And we're going to see a little later in chapter 4, it's explicitly
called a covenant. But the law is a different covenant.
The law is a covenant that's not of faith. In other words,
it requires our own personal obedience in order to receive
the blessings, to fulfill the conditions in that covenant.
And if we fail in any point, then the curse is upon us. It
says that the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. The only way to live under the
law is to keep the law. But we're all under the curse
of the law. Verse 13, That's a big mouthful. But what he's
saying here is that the redemption work of the Lord Jesus Christ was necessary in order for God
to fulfill the promise he made to Abraham. And so, that redemption
work is part of that covenant in which God made that promise
to Abraham. Then how many times in history
did the Lord Jesus Christ come into this world, take on our
nature, become our near kinsman in our nature, with our body
and our soul, and bear our sins and bear away the curse of God
for us? How many times in history did
that happen? Only one time. And therefore, the one covenant
God made with Abraham by this promise had to be connected to
that one redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this helps
us understand that this is all one covenant. But it's not the
covenant of the law, is it? Because he's drawing a contrast
to them. Verse 15. 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. In other words, if Brad
and I make a covenant together, I promise to do this, and he
says, okay, I agree, and we agree on a covenant. A covenant is
basically an agreement between two people or two parties. No
man is going to come along later and change that because we made
the agreement between us. When David killed Goliath, and
King Saul was king in Israel, and King Saul had a son named
Jonathan, Jonathan, King Saul's son, saw David go out against
the giant, the Philistine, and with that sling and that one
stone and with his sword he killed the giant and cut off his head
and delivered Israel against this man who defied the armies
of God and God himself. Here was a man, a giant, who
defied the armies of Israel, and therefore defied God himself.
And Jonathan saw David do this. The king's son, and you know
what he did? He loved David as he loved his
own soul, and he made a covenant with David. He and David together,
because of the love Jonathan had for David. And Jonathan took
off his armor. He took off his His princely
soldier garments and he took his sword and his shield and
he gave them to David. And he made a covenant with David.
That's what every believer does when they see the Lord Jesus
Christ conquering. our sin and our enemies. We strip
ourselves and give it all to Him because all glory goes to
Him. And in love, we enter into the reception of that covenant.
Although that's just a covenant between two men, it shows us
that a covenant is a strong agreement. It can't be broken, as he says
here. No man can change it or add to it. Now, verse 16. Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Not just to
Abraham, but to Abraham and his seed. He saith not, and to seeds,
plural, as of many, but as of one, singular, and to thy seed,
which is Christ. So, in the promises that God
made to Abraham, He made them to Abraham and his seed, and
He says here, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. This
is the mind of God when He spoke those words. He was speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. to Christ. So it was given to
Christ, the promises were given to Christ, and therefore they
were given to Abraham, and this is important, in Christ. In fact, in verse 14 of Galatians
3, it says here that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ. And the word through is most
of the time, like 1,800 times in the New Testament, translated
N-I-N. And so it's teaching us that
all of the promises of God and all of the blessings of God,
the spiritual and heavenly and eternal blessings of God, are
given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, in Christ as our covenant
head. In other words, God made a covenant
with Him and promised Him blessings. And in those blessings and promises
God gave to the Lord Jesus Christ, He gave to His people who were
in Him in that covenant. And so He goes on in verse 17.
And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of
God in Christ because that's where the covenant
is. The law, which was a different covenant, which was 430 years
after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none
effect. The law laid conditions on men.
Do this and you'll receive the blessings. Fail and you're cursed.
But the covenant that came before the law made a promise, and that
promise did not depend on Abraham. It depended on the Lord Jesus
Christ, which was fulfilled in verse 13 when Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. So
that, in verse 14, the blessing of Abraham might come on us,
the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ. And we might receive the Spirit
of God through faith, all because of the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so that was the covenant
that God confirmed when He spoke to Abraham. And the word confirmed
is used also in Hebrews 6, verse 18, when it says that God made
an oath to Abraham. And in that oath, He confirmed
His promise to Abraham in a way that included two things. First, God's counsel, which cannot
be changed, it's immutable. And second, God's oath, which
was based on God Himself, God's own character as God, His own
person as God, was the foundation of His oath. In other words,
if I fail to keep my oath, then I cease to be God. And so by
two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, strong comfort, who have fled
to Christ for refuge, to lay hold on this hope set before
us, which is within the veil of heaven. Now that's from Hebrews
6, but here he says, that this promise was given to Abraham
and his seed, it was given to him in Christ, and the covenant
that was confirmed before of God when he gave that covenant
to Abraham and swore by himself to keep it, that the law, which
was 430 years later, cannot change it, cannot disannul it, cannot
make that promise of none effect. So even though the law came later,
with conditions for our obedience for life, and a curse for our
disobedience, it couldn't undo God's already established promise
of covenant in Christ. Now that should be wonderful
news. When Abraham received the promises, he didn't know, maybe
he did, know that there was a law coming. Well, he received the
law of circumcision, so he must have had an inclination of it.
But he was just given this promise. It's a covenant like the first
covenant mentioned in scripture, which was when God made a covenant
with Noah and with all living creatures. Remember that covenant?
God flooded the earth. He brought judgment of water
upon the entire earth. And only Noah and his family
and all the animals that were in the ark Only they were saved
from the judgment that came across the whole world. Every living
thing and every person on earth died. And after that, God said,
now I make a covenant with you, Noah, and with every living creature,
with every living thing. I will no more flood the earth.
I will no more destroy the earth with a flood. Now, the living
creatures did nothing in order to fulfill that covenant, did
they? They did nothing. There was no conditions placed
on them. It was a promise by God, depending only on God's
faithfulness and ability to keep it. And so when God made a promise
to Abraham, He didn't put a contingency on Abraham. He put all of the
conditions on Himself. In fact, He put all the conditions
on Himself in the person of His Son as our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the one He made the
covenant with. That's the one He gave the promises to. And
that's the one to whom those promises were given when the
Lord Jesus rose from the dead. God justified His people with
Him. And He gave them all those things.
And so then the question is raised in verse 19. Well, why then the
law? Why did God give the law? And a bigger question might be
raised. Why did God even have a nation of Israel? A physical
national nation to which He gave land and multiplied their people. If that land was only going to
be taken from them later, and it was only a physical land on
earth anyway, so it was temporal, it was physical, and it was contingent
upon their obedience, which they failed, and so it was taken from
them. In Matthew 23, the Lord Jesus says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often would I have gathered
your children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings,
but you would not. Therefore, your house is left
unto you desolate." And it was. In AD 70, the whole nation of
Israel lost. Jerusalem was destroyed. And
they eventually lost their land and were driven out and never
returned. Which is a bunch of history we're not going to get
into now. But the point is, is that why did God do that? Why
did God give the law? Since the covenant with Abraham
came before and it was a covenant of promise. It didn't depend
on them. And yet he not only gave the
law, but he raised up a physical children, physical seed to Abraham.
And he blessed them with his land. Gave them a priesthood.
He gave them laws. He kept them in the land of Canaan.
He brought them out of Egypt before that, through the wilderness,
showed them all these things. Why did He do all this? If it
was just temporary. Well, according to Romans 3.3,
chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of
God. In other words, it pleased God
to bring the gospel and His word through that physical nation.
But it was also pleasing to God to also only call out of that
nation His promised seed, the children of promise from that
nation. And so what does the law do? Well, it says here in
verse 19, It was added because of transgression till the seed
should come to whom the promise was made, and it was ordained
by angels in the hand of a mediator. The law was given by God to Israel
through a mediator, and that mediator was Moses. God gave
it to Moses actually through angels, not directly. God didn't
hand it to him directly, but he gave it to angels to give
to Moses. And God gave it to Israel through
a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one. And
that verse is difficult to understand, but I believe what it's saying
here is that the covenant God made with Israel was a two-party
covenant, and God gave it to Israel through the Mediator,
and their response to God was through Moses back to God. And
so all communication happened between the Mediator and that
people with whom the covenant was made. But in the Godhead,
God is one, and when He made a covenant with us in Christ,
then the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, is the Mediator
in the Godhead. Verse 21. Is the law then against
the promises of God? Well, it came later. It couldn't
undo it. But by the law, it seemed to
alienate us from God. Is it against the promises of
God? Would God add something to the law that was contrary
to his former covenant? He says, no. God forbid. For
if there had been a law which could have given life, which
was promised in the original covenant. Verily, righteousness
should have been by the law. So life doesn't come by the law
because righteousness doesn't come by the law and life only
comes because of righteousness. Life is the reward of righteousness. But righteousness can't come
by the law. No man is righteous before God. There's none righteous.
And therefore life can't come by the law. But if there had
been a law that could have given life, then righteousness would
have come by the law. Christ wouldn't have had to die.
But there was no such law. Not the law with Adam. Not the
law with Moses. And not the law that men make
up when they place conditions on us. Like, raise your hand
in church or make sure that you're doing all these things in order
to be a good Christian. None of those laws bring life
or establish righteousness. That only comes one way, by the
one who is appointed to work out that righteousness for us.
Verse 22, But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. Faith is given by God, and in giving faith,
God gives us the understanding, the enlightenment, and the reception
of what's already true and established in Christ, by Christ. Verse 23,
But before faith came, before the gospel was revealed, and
before we received the gift of faith, we were kept under the
law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, We usually read
the words that are in italics to bring us unto Christ, but
he's really talking about historically that the law was given until
Christ came, who was the seed promised, and in whom all the
promises of God are fulfilled in his blood. And so until Christ
came, we were kept under the law. But when Christ has come,
and especially when he comes to us through the preaching of
the gospel, and we understand and believe him, Then we are
released from that schoolmaster. He says, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ in time and in our own personal experience
that we might be justified by faith. Not that faith itself
justifies, but faith sees that Christ is our righteousness.
by whom God justifies us, and therefore we receive what's true
when we believe by God's gift. Verse 25, But after that faith
is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. So the law is
our schoolmaster until we know Christ by faith, and after that
the law is not our schoolmaster. Verse 26, For you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, here
we see an amazing thing. We were put in Christ at the
first, when God chose us in Him, as it says in Ephesians 1-4,
we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
That's when we were put into Christ. In God's eternal will,
in His purpose of grace, in His covenant, He placed us in Christ
by His choice of us in Christ. He gave us to Christ then. The
Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be the one who would stand for his
people as their mediator, as their surety, as the Lamb of
God, as their high priest, their prophet, their king, and all
these things. He would do what he did on their behalf and do
it to meet God's requirements for them. And so he says, in
the process of time, when God, by His grace, brings us to faith
in Christ, by His Spirit, then we're baptized into Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12 and verse
13, he says, By one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we
be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. So how are we, in our own experience,
in our own lifetime, put into Christ? We were in Christ in
eternal election, but how does God put us into Christ in time,
in our own experience? By His Spirit. He comes to us
in the preaching of the Gospel, And He comes upon us in the preaching
of the Gospel, enlightening our minds, like it says in 2 Corinthians
4-6, God commanded the light to shine into our darkness. To
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And then, the Spirit of God gives
us life from spiritual death, and with that life, faith, in
order to see what Christ has accomplished. That He is our
surety, our savior, mediator, the one who actually obtained
eternal redemption for us by His own blood. And so at that
point, the Spirit of God, now we didn't do it, but He did.
He put us into Christ, into union with the Lord Jesus Christ, which
can never be broken. Because the Spirit of God has
done this. In the Old Testament, when Abraham received the covenant
and the promises, God had Abraham circumcised, remember? And he
had all of his children to be circumcised. And that was an
outward physical sign. But when God births us, he gives
us another sign. Another seal. And what is that
sign and seal? It's the Spirit of God. And faith. You see, faith is given to us
to believe Christ. And that faith is the evidence
that we have received the Spirit of God. And that seal of the
Spirit of God is the seal of our sonship. and the earnest
of our inheritance. All of that is tied to this covenant.
Abraham was given promises. He had this eternal inheritance
promised to him. And he looked for a city which
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He looked for
a heavenly country. He never received the promise
of an earthly land while he lived on earth because he looked for
a heavenly one. Our inheritance is heavenly.
And God, by His Spirit, gives us, He joins us to Christ, He
shows us what we have in Christ, and we receive it by faith. And
then we see that we are the children of God by His action, by Christ's
work. We receive all that was given
to Christ in reward of His obedience. Our sins are taken away by His
blood. And God has forgiven us freely by His grace on the basis
of His redeeming blood. All these things are true. So
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. In other words, we have by faith
received the righteousness, the obedience and blood of Christ
as our own covering before God. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ. In the law and in the tradition
of the Jews, there were these causes for separation. Jews are
here, Gentiles are out there. The males are on this side. The
females are over there. There's all these reasons for
separation. The slaves are over here. The
free people are over here. The rich people are here. The
poor are over there. The sick are over there. The healthy are
here. All those separations, but the gospel completely removes
those separations. We're all joined to Christ in
one body. Each one of us are members of
the Lord Jesus Christ body. He says in Ephesians 2.10, God
has created us in Christ Jesus. That's His work. He spoke light
out of darkness. He created all things out of
nothing. And He created us who were nothing, raised us from
the dead. He created us in Christ Jesus. He made us members of His body,
never to be taken from Him because Christ ever lives. And so he
goes on. And if you be Christ's, if you
belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're His, if God has given
you to Him in this eternal covenant, and if He's purchased you by
His own blood, if He's owned you before God as our High Priest,
bearing your sins, and if He's spoken to you as the Prophet
of God concerning His own work in the Gospel, and if He reigns
in Heaven for you and intercedes for you, then you're Christ's. And you therefore are heirs according
to the promise, the promise God made to Abraham. You're heirs.
You are the ones who inherit all that was given to Christ
with him and promised to Abraham. In 1 Corinthians 3, in 21, you
see the all comprehensive nature of the blessings. Remember Ephesians
1, 3? God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And here he says in
1 Corinthians 3.21, And you are Christ's. That's what we just
read in Galatians 3.29. You belong to Him. You are purchased by His blood,
given in the eternal covenant, and made His by the work of the
Spirit of God. And Christ is God's. If we're
Christ, then all that Christ has is ours. We're joint heirs. We are the inheritors of God's
eternal promises. And he made those promises to
Abraham, and he teaches us here that they're ours. Not because
of our relation by birth to Abraham, or by blood, or by our will,
or by the will of another, but by the will of God. Our names
are written in heaven. Luke 10 verse 20, Jesus told
the disciples, don't rejoice because the spirits are subject
to you, but that your names are written in heaven. Their names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that is the eternal,
everlasting covenant of God. Jumping ahead in chapter 4 verse
21. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law, that other covenant. Do you not hear the law? Do you
not hear this covenant of the law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, that was Hagar, and the other
by a free woman, that was Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman,
Ishmael, was born after the flesh, by Abraham's own will. Not by
God's promise. But he of the free woman, Isaac,
was by promise because God promised Isaac. Verse 24. These things are an allegory.
They teach something more than that historical event. For these
are the two covenants. The one we're talking about here
called the Law is from Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage. It leads men into bondage. All
who are under, who are adherents, who pay homage to God through
that covenant, they're under bondage. They're under the guilt
of sin, under the enslavement of sin, and they're under the
bondage of the Law and its curse. That's the covenant. That's what
Ishmael was under. Ishmael was circumcised. Ishmael
was given promises. He had a lot of kids. 12 princes
came from him. He was a physical son of Abraham.
But the Jews didn't learn from that. Esau also was a son, not
only of Abraham, but Jacob. He was circumcised. He was given
a lot of things. He had 400 men when he met with
Jacob. They were loyal to him. He was
a powerful man. But he was not in the covenant
of God's grace in Christ. That was given to Isaac, and
then Jacob, and to the elect. And so he says here, these are
the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, that's the law which
genders or leads to bondage, which is Hagar. Hagar represents
that. Verse 25, and this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia and answers or corresponds to Jerusalem, which
now is, in the time of the Apostle Paul, the Judaizers who owned
Jerusalem as their place of worship, where God would meet with them
and so on. He says that whole system of
religion is in bondage. Just like Hagar's son Ishmael. You're not part of Abraham's
seed if you're in that covenant. She's in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free. Jerusalem above is the
church. It's the city of the living God.
Mount Zion where Christ dwells and Christ is king. But Jerusalem
which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For
it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth
and cry thou that travailest not. For the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. God's covenant
is a covenant that he made long before the law was given and
therefore supersedes the law. The law can't break it, can't
change it, can't do away with it. And so I want to look just
briefly with you at the book of Hebrews. Because this covenant
is spoken of throughout all of scripture. But look at Hebrews
chapter 8. Is there such a thing as an everlasting covenant? If
there is, who made it? Who did he make it with? And
who are the beneficiaries of it? Hebrews chapter 8. I won't
read the whole chapter. Look at verse 6. is speaking
about the Lord Jesus, but now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant,
which was established upon better promises. He's speaking about
the new covenant here. And then he goes on, he says,
if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place
have been sought for the second. The law was fault because it
put conditions on man. For finding fault with them,
those under that covenant, he 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 continued not in my covenant, they broke it, 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 iniquities
will I remember no more. That's the covenant of promise.
That's the covenant God revealed, He said, to the house of Israel.
After giving them the law, in Jeremiah 31, 31 and following,
He says, this is the covenant, the new covenant. Now, to them
it was new, because they had never received, by faith, the
covenant God made with Abraham. And they didn't understand this
covenant. God hadn't made it known to them. But here he says
in Hebrews, the gospel of the saving work of Christ and his
office as our mediator and high priest, our prophet and our king. This is part of God's covenant. An eternal covenant. And it's
newly revealed. Newly revealed. Look at Ephesians
chapter 3. This is true throughout scripture.
It's such an all-comprehensive thing. In fact, when we use the
word covenant, sometimes it seems foreign to us because we're not
used to talking about it. But the New Testament is strange,
isn't it? That when you hold the Bible
up, the first part is called the Old Testament, and the other
part is called the New Testament. Now, that label was probably
put there by the translators, but it's appropriate. Ephesians
chapter 3, look at this, verse 3. Verse 1 says, For this cause
I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if
you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is
given to me, to you, word. In other words, God gave to Paul
a ministry to dispense the gospel through preaching. By his authority,
God gave it to him. The Lord Jesus Christ did. How
that by revelation he made known unto me, look at the words, the
mystery. As I wrote before in few words,
whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ. In other words, it was hidden
before, now it's made known and revealed. And he says, which
in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it is now
revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And
what is that mystery? Verse 6, that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel. It's all tied together here.
In other words, the revelation by Jesus Christ to Paul to preach
the gospel that in Christ were all of his people saved. And
all who believe are part of that body. They're heirs of God. And of the promises God made
with Abraham, that's all wrapped up and contained in the gospel. Which is the all comprehensive
covenant of God. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. There's
many other verses we could look at, but we don't have time. But
I bring you to this one in order to show you the answer to the
question. Is there a covenant? Is it everlasting? Is it called
a covenant of grace? Look at Hebrews 13.20. He says,
Now the God of peace. I emphasize the word peace there
because in the Old Testament this is called the covenant of
peace. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever." Everything. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
established the covenant for us, put it into force for us,
brought all the blessings of it to us. And part of those blessings
is that God would work according to His good pleasure in us all
that pleases Him through Jesus Christ. It's called in the Old
Testament, I won't take you to it, but in Isaiah 54, 10, it's
called a covenant of peace. And in Malachi 2, 5, it's called
a covenant of life and peace. And Jesus said, I came to give
life, that men might have life and might have it more abundantly.
And if the law could have given life, it would have, but it couldn't.
That life did come by the righteousness of Christ. All of this is talking
about the peace, the life, The salvation that is ours because
of God's covenant with His Son on behalf of His people. One
more scripture here, and I could take you to many, but look at
2 Samuel, chapter 23. I spoke of David earlier. David
was the king of Israel. And at the end of his life, he
looks back and he sees the whole purpose of God in his life and
his own personal hope in that purpose. In 2 Samuel, Now these
be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God,
the God of Jacob. And the sweet psalmist of Israel
said, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was
in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock
of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must
be just, ruling in the fear of God. And He shall be as the light
of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds.
He's speaking about the day when the Lord Jesus Christ would take
away the dark clouds of the thunder of God's judgment upon us because
of our sin and His sin-atoning death and the day star from on
high would rise. He says, "...as the tender grass
springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain, God
would bring forth the fruit of Christ's work in his people."
Verse 5, "...although my house be not so with God." Not me,
not my kingdom, not my kingship. Not me personally. Because my
house is not so with God. "...yet he hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure Sure,
because it all depends on God and in Christ. But this is all
my salvation and all my desire, although He make it not to grow.
The covenant God made with Abraham is a covenant of eternal salvation. Our salvation depends on what
God did in eternity, in His Son, what Christ did in time, and
the application of it to us by the Spirit of God when He shows
us. through the simple faith of looking to Christ as a sinner,
needing a Savior, depending on Him for everything, because we
have nothing, and we stand guilty before God, and in Christ, God
has removed every barrier in order to bring all the blessings
that God gives to Him to us. Let's pray. Our Father, we call
you Father because you've made us your sons by our Savior and
his redeeming work and by your own spirit given to us to see
his redeeming work for us, this faith to know it. We have known
and believed the love you have to us and how we desire to know
you more. Open our eyes, dear Lord, show
us wonderful things. As those you show your covenant
to, we pray you'd show us your covenant. That work you did before
time began when you gave promises to your people in the Lord Jesus
Christ, even eternal life. Promise to take away their sins,
save them to the uttermost, and you did it. You brought it to
pass. Lord, thank you for this work. Thank you for this Savior.
Thank you that though we are nothing and your law exposes
us as sinners and helpless and hopeless and ourselves, Yet in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one you promised and sent and raised
from the dead and now sits in heaven, we have eternal life
and eternal inheritance in him. Thank you for him. Help us to
love him, to endure patiently in faith as Abraham did, looking
for this eternal hope of glory. the reward of His obedience,
and nothing to ourselves. Help us to give Him all glory.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.