For the past few Sundays, I've
been dealing a lot with the issue of faith and what faith really
is in the scriptures and how so many people today misunderstand
the idea of faith because immediately when people today hear the word
faith, they think about their work or their act in believing. And of course, the Bible says
a lot about our believing. We believe. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. We do believe. And that believing
is the product, the fruit of God's power, God's will, God's
grace to bring his people to Christ. We receive Christ. But if you see nothing but that
issue of our believing in this thing of faith, you've missed
it. because faith in the Bible is never separated from its object. In other words, it's not just
that you believe, because you can believe a lot of things that
are wrong. And I always, I think in several
messages, I've gone back to Cain and Abel, both Cain and Abel
had faith. They both believed, but what
Cain believed was a lie. What Abel believed was the truth.
What Abel believed was given him as a gift from God. We talk
about, I quote this all the time, especially on our TV program,
how in Ephesians 2.8, how by grace are you saved through faith,
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. And that's what it is. If you
have God-given faith that brings you to believe in Christ, that's
a gift from God. That didn't come out of you.
That wasn't the product of your power, your goodness, or your
will. That was a product of God's power and goodness and will through
Christ. And so I've been looking at certain
passages of scripture that kind of support this truth that I've
been preaching, and here's one in Galatians 3. I've entitled
the message Before Faith and After Faith, and it comes from,
the title comes from verse 23 through 25. If you will look
at that, it says, before faith came, What are you talking about? Before faith came, we were kept
under the law. Now who was kept under the law?
The Jews under the old covenant. That old covenant law, the law
of Moses, the 10 commandments, the ceremonial law, the civil
laws, all of that whole law now, that was given on Mount Sinai
and lasted for about 1500 years until the cross, when it was
abolished by way of fulfillment, and then the new covenant came
in. And so that law, the Jews were kept under that law for
that time period until faith came. What does that mean? Does
that mean there was no believing before that? No, it doesn't mean
that at all. And he goes on, he said, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Well now, the Bible tells us
that before the law was given on Mount Sinai, there were believers
in the world, there were very few. Read Hebrews 11. It starts off with a man named
Abel. He was a believer. So he had faith, God-given faith. So what is he talking about here?
We were shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Look at verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster,
our tutor, our guide, our guard, to bring us unto Christ, to bring
us up to the time of Christ. That's what that means. This
is what, we were under this until Christ would come. That's what
that means. That we might be justified by
faith. Is that our believing? No, now
hold on. Verse 25, but after that faith
is come. See, before faith and after faith.
That's what I wanna talk about. After that faith has come, we're
no longer under a schoolmaster. We're not under the law now.
The Jews he's talking about. This is one of those, you know,
I could say this about several passages of scripture. If you
could get hold of the truths that Paul, the apostle, has been
led to write about here by the Holy Spirit. If you could get
a hold of this and understand it savingly, and of course, that's
a God-given understanding. We were talking about that this
morning in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah, how
Ezra the scribe stood up and they read the book of the law,
and then they gave the sense of it, this is what it means,
and caused the people to understand. Now Mark's done that. He stood
up and he read from the book here, the New Testament, and
he read those words distinctly. And I'm coming behind him and
I'm gonna give you the sense of these words. And you need
to know that what I'm telling you is true and the way you do
that is you search the scriptures, you test me by the scriptures. But this is one of those passages,
and I could say this about several passages, if you can get a hold
of what this is saying, you'll know the gospel. You'll understand
what faith is and what believing is and how it all fits together.
But here's the point, it takes the Spirit of God to give you
and me that understanding. I can tell you what it means,
but I can't make you believe it. That's a gift from God. But let's do what we can do,
what God commands us to do. Let's give the sense of Scripture.
And I assure you, I'm not giving you my opinion. I can tell you
right now that for a good part of my life, the things that are
written here, I didn't believe at all. And when I first heard
them, I didn't like them. But then God, in his appointed
time, gave me an understanding. And now it's the greatest truth
that I've ever, you can study philosophy, study religion, study
whatever you want, politics, whatever you, this is the greatest
truth that God has ever revealed unto sinful creatures like us.
And there's no replacement for it. No replacement for it. So how do I understand this before
faith, this after faith? Well, the first thing you gotta
understand is the issues of the promise. Now remember, as Mark
read through, he talked about the promise and the law. What is the promise? The validity
of the promise over the law of Moses. And what is the promise? All right, look back at Galatians
3 in verse 10. Now, we could go through the
whole chapter, but I'm not gonna try to do that, because time
won't allow us on one sitting. He says, for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. Now, what is it to
be under the works of the law? It means trying to be saved,
trying to be righteous enough for God to accept me by my works
of obedience. Now that's what it means to be
of the works of the law. And it says here that those who
are of the works of the law are under the curse. Now is that
plain? If you think salvation is by
your works, if righteousness cannot be obtained by your works,
you say, oh, I know, but it's with the help of God. It doesn't
make that distinction here. That's you making that distinction
and you're not the standard. So what is this? You're under
a curse. I don't want to be cursed. How
about you? He says, and he goes back to
the Old Testament. You say, well, that's just New
Testament stuff. No, he quotes from Deuteronomy here. He says,
curse, it's written. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Now, why is it if I'm trying to be a good person, if I'm trying
to obey the law, If I'm trying to do what's right in order to
make myself acceptable to God, why is it that I'm under a curse?
How can that be? That doesn't make sense to the
natural man. Well, the reason is, is because
God is holy and just and right and He requires absolute perfection. Now you can complain about that,
and you can say it's not fair, and it's not right, and it's
too harsh. You can do all of that, but it's not going to do
you any good. And especially when you go to stand before God
at judgment, I'll tell you what's going to happen. If that's the
way you die, He's going to shut your mouth. And He can do it. God requires perfection. Well,
is that unjust? Is that unfair? No, why? Well,
look at verse 11. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. Now, what is it
to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all my
sins, and I got a bunch of them. How many do you have, preacher?
More than I can count. More than I even know. Even though
King David said, forgive me of my secret sins. That's not the
sins he did in secret, that's the sins that he didn't know
about. But to be justified before God
in his sight is to be forgiven of all my sins and it's to be
declared righteous in God's sight. The perfection of righteousness
declared by God to a sinner like me. How is that possible? Well, he says, for the just,
the justified shall live by faith. Now hold on to that thought.
He says in verse 12, and the law is not a faith. Now the law doesn't require you
to believe. The law doesn't require you to
do certain things except what it says. The law says do and
live. And he says that the man that
doeth them shall live in them. But here's the good news now. Christ, 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. Now this has to do with Christ. That's where our minds
need to go here when we talk about faith. Our minds do not
need to go with what I do for God or what I'm trying to do. or any condition I might be,
it needs to go to Christ, who He is and what He did. What did
He do? He redeemed me from the curse
of the law by being made a curse for me. Now the Bible teaches
us that Christ was set up to be our surety before the foundation
of the world. The sins of God's chosen people
were imputed to Christ. and that he came into the world
and assumed sinless human nature and went under the curse of God
on the cross and died for the sins of his people, his sheep.
And what was the purpose for all
that? Look at verse 14. That the blessing of Abraham,
okay. Now he goes to Abraham. You know
who Abraham was. He was an old idolater. down
in the Ur of the Chaldees and God plucked him out of there
and brought him into a promised land. The blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Now the reason
he mentions Gentiles specifically here is he's wanting these self-righteous,
legalistic Jews to understand that salvation has nothing to
do with their ethnicity. Who they are. their physical
heritage, their papers. Whether you're a Jew or a Gentile,
salvation is of the Lord. He'll have mercy on whom he will.
He'll be gracious to whom he will. God has a people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation whom he chose in Christ,
Jew and Gentile. and it has nothing to do with
the fact that you're physically connected with Abraham, has nothing
to do with the fact that you're circumcised, has nothing to do
with the fact that you think you keep the law of Moses, which
you don't, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Now, what is the
blessing of Abraham? It's salvation. And every blessing of it, every
benefit of it, justification, the just shall live by faith.
That justification is a blessing that God gives His people through
Jesus Christ. And He revealed that in a promise
He made to Abraham. That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, through faith. What is that faith? That's Jesus Christ. What is
the promise? God, now think about it with
Abraham. If you go back and read in Genesis
12 and Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, we're not gonna go back through
all that. But here's the point. God found Abraham. God always knew where he was.
He created the man. Found him in Ur of the Chaldees.
And he came to Abraham and God gave Abraham, now listen to this,
unconditional blessings. That's what God gave Abraham.
Every promise that God made to Abraham was an unconditional
promise to Abraham. He didn't come to Abraham and
say, Abraham, won't you receive me into your heart? He didn't
do that. He didn't come to Abraham and
say, Abraham, I'll do some things for you that are great if you
will do your part, or if you will just believe. He didn't
do that. He came to Abraham, Abraham was
an idolater, And he said, this is how it is, Abraham. This is
what I'm gonna do. And the whole promise that God
gave to Abraham can be summed up in these phrases. God will,
I will, God says, and you shall. Now think about that. God will,
you shall. There's no God will if you will. Every promise that God made to
Abraham was unconditional. And Paul's making that point
that included in these promises is ultimately the main promise,
the ultimate promise for Abraham here, the blessing of Abraham
that will come on to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, is the
blessing of salvation. Do you realize that salvation
is an unconditional blessing towards us? It's not conditioned
on you. It's not conditioned on your
being a good person because the Bible says we're not. There's
none good, no not one. Now we're talking about a standard
that's higher than our own. It's not conditioned on you keeping
the law because you can't. If that's what you think, you're
cursed. It's not conditioned on you believing because the
Bible says there's none that seeketh after God. There's none
that will believe if left to yourself, left to your own volition,
your own choice. You won't believe God. I wouldn't.
You wouldn't. If you believe God, you're a
miracle of grace. And that's what God promised
Abraham, the ultimate. Now God made a lot of promises
to Abraham, but the ultimate promise is eternal salvation
and justification and spiritual life and preservation to all
of Abraham's spiritual seed. Now who is that? All believers.
And how do they believe? By God-given faith. And it's
a spiritual seat in and by the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Abraham, he was not invited
to follow God because this is a unilateral agreement. This
is a one-sided agreement. And you say, well, that doesn't
seem fair to me. Well, it has to be if it's gonna be successful.
Because if it's a bilateral agreement between you and God, it's gonna
fail. There's no success to it. This
is a one-sided thing. We're not the willing recipients
of it, we're the product of it. We're the fruit of it. And it's
God who promised to bless Abraham unconditionally without basing
these blessings on Abraham. Now let's go on, he says in verse
15, he says, brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Now
what Paul's saying here, this is what I'm going to tell you
about. I'm going to make a comparison here, or a contrast rather, that
will show you what I mean. Though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulth, it should be annulleth
it, make it void or added to, thereto. When two men or two
women make a covenant, agreement, That covenant is binding and
one person cannot know that covenant on their own. It has to be an
agreement. You see that? When you make a contract. And
if somebody breaks the contract, then they're against the law. So in a man's covenant, in covenant
between men, human beings, there has to be agreement of the two
parties, has to be a bilateral covenant. But now look at verse
16, but now the covenant of salvation is not like that. Verse 16, now
to Abraham and his seed, now notice the word seed there is
singular. To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, plural,
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ."
Now, how is Christ Abraham's seed? Physically speaking, Christ
came through the lineage of Abraham. His human, his sinless humanity
was Jewish. Christ was. And in that sense,
he's the seed of Abraham. But the point he's making here
that the promises given to Abraham were not conditioned on Abraham,
they were conditioned on one, Abraham's seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at verse 17. And this I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, this covenant
that was confirmed, set in stone before of God in Christ, the
law, the law of Moses, which was 430 years later, later than
Abraham, cannot annul it, that it should
make the promise of none effect. In other words, the fact that
God gave the law didn't annul or cancel out the unconditional
promises that God gave to Abraham. This Mosaic Covenant, this Law
of Moses was 430 years after Abraham, and it was a conditional
covenant towards Israel. And this conditional covenant
cannot annul what God had already promised to Abraham. It didn't
cancel it out. God's covenant with Abraham was
in line with a greater covenant or another covenant or one that
is subservient to the everlasting covenant of grace made before
time between the Father and the Son
and the Spirit, the Godhead. made before the foundation of
the world between the triune Godhead. And it's the covenant
of salvation with all its blessings and all of its benefits conditioned
on one person, one work, the Lord Jesus Christ. crucified,
buried, risen from the dead to put away our sins and to make
us righteous before God. So the main point then the apostles
trying to make is there's an earlier unconditional covenant
that cannot be annulled by a later conditional one. Does that make
sense? Here's Abraham's covenant, unconditional. Here's the law, conditional.
The I wills of Abraham's promise, God's promise to Abraham, cannot
be overthrown by the thou shalt not of the covenant of law. 430 years later. The promise
holds. And true Christianity stands
in succession of the promises given to Abraham and not the
law of Moses. Believers in Christ in the church
are called the sons of Abraham, but they're not called the sons
of Moses. Look back at the last verses of this chapter. Verse
29, if you be Christ, that's a possessive, if you belong to
Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, Abraham's spiritual seed.
Who is that? That's every sinner saved by
the grace of God, Jew and Gentile, who have been brought by faith
to believe in Christ. Then are you Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the law. Is that what it says there? Did
you hear that? Look at that verse 29. Then are
you heirs according to, not to the law, to the promise, the
unconditional promise given to Abraham. That's the product of
that everlasting covenant of grace, all conditioned on Christ. And the nature of both covenants
is described here beautifully by Paul. Paul illustrates this
by showing that a conditional covenant amongst men cannot be
changed apart from agreement on both sides. But the covenant
of salvation is not between sinful human beings. It's not between
God and sinful human beings. It's between the Godhead. Look here at verse 18, he says,
He says, if the inheritance. Now, what is the inheritance?
That's salvation and all of its blessings and benefits. If that's
of the law, if that's conditioned on sinners, it's no more a promise. It's not a promise. It's a work. It's what God owes you. When
you go out and work a job and your employer gives you a check,
Do you say, well, thank you for promising that to me. No, I worked
for it, I earned it. But it's not of works, see? But if the inheritance be of
the law, it's not a promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. What was the promise? Salvation
conditioned on the coming Messiah. And Christ said this about Abraham.
He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and
he was glad. Well then, now why was the law given then? Look
at verse 19. Wherefore then serveth the law?
Why was the law given? It was added because of transgressions. The law was given because of
our sinfulness, their sinfulness. Remember Paul said to Timothy,
the law was not made for a righteous person. If we were all righteous
by nature and by practice, we wouldn't need the law. because there'd be no lawbreakers.
But the law was added because of transgressions. That law of
Moses was given to show them their guilt, their sinfulness,
and the impossibility of salvation based on their works. And it
was given till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made. Now who's that? That's Christ.
It was given and set in stone and put over that nation until
Christ would come. And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. That was Moses. Verse 20. Now a mediator is not a mediator
of one, but God is one. You see, this covenant of promise
was made between the Godhead. God is one. He subsists in three
distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So verse 21
says, is the law against the promises of God? God forbid,
the law is not against it. For if there had been a law given
that could have given life, barely righteousness should have been
by the law. Now there's two things here that
the law cannot do to sinners, which we all are. It cannot make
us righteous, and it cannot give us life from the dead. We fell
in Adam into a state of spiritual death and depravity. We cannot make ourselves righteous
by our works. The law cannot do that. And it
cannot raise us from the dead spirits. They cannot give us
spiritual life. Christ said you must be born again or you can't
see or hear the kingdom of heaven, can't enter the kingdom of God.
The law can't do that for you. Because all the law can do, as
long as you're trying to keep it for salvation, is show yourself
and myself to be sinners who deserve nothing but death and
hell. Who fall short of the glory of God, all sin and come short
of the glory of God. So the law wasn't given for that
purpose, for salvation. It was given to show us, show
them their sin. But verse 22, but the scripture
hath concluded all understand that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ, that's Christ faithfulness, might be given to them that believe. What was Christ faithful to do?
He was faithful to fulfill all righteousness for the salvation
of his people by his obedience unto death, his burial, and his
resurrection. He was faithful to keep the law.
He was faithful to satisfy justice. He was faithful to do everything
that God requires and that we need in order to save us, to
keep us, and to bring us to glory. That's what this is about. That's
the promise. And it's given to all who believe
that faith of Christ, that work of Christ, the merits of Christ,
his righteousness imputed, his blood for forgiveness, that applies
to everyone whom God gives the gift of faith to believe it. Now he says, but before faith
came. That's not before believing came. Abel believed God, Enoch
believed God. They were given the gift of believing.
So what is this faith? This is Christ. Before Christ
came. That's what he's saying. Before
the promise was fulfilled, we were kept under the law, shut
up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. We were,
the Jews, from Moses, Sinai to the cross. They were shut up
and kept under that old covenant system and brought to the point
to where Christ would come into the world and fulfill it all.
Fulfill all righteousness. That's what it means, the faith
which should afterwards be revealed. That's Christ coming in time,
fulfilling all righteousness. Verse 24, wherefore the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be
justified by faith. The law was a tutor, a guard,
a gatekeeper to keep that nation together, to bring them up to
the time in which the promise would be fulfilled in time by
Christ's coming. And he says in verse 25, but
after that faith is come, after Christ is come, after the promise
is fulfilled in time, after he hanged up on that cross and cried
out, it is finished. It's over. The veil was written
to from top to bottom. It's over now. It's finished.
What God purposed before time is now established and fulfilled
in time. Now we're no longer under a schoolmaster. We don't need the blood of lambs
and goats. We don't need that earthly priest
in the line of error. We don't need those laws that
kept that nation together. We have rules and regulations.
We follow Christ. Whatever he says, that's law.
But we're not under that old covenant system because he fulfilled it. No longer under a schoolmaster.
Is that clear? And here's the fundamental basis
of all salvation. Christ has come and He's done
the work. He's met all conditions. He's
fulfilled all requirements. And He says in verse 26, For
you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. He's
not talking about how that we become the children of God by
our believing. Look over down at Galatians 4. We don't become children of God
by believing. We're already children of God
in Christ, and that's evidenced by our believing. Let me show
you that, verse four of Galatians four. When the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Now when did God adopt
us? When he chose us before the foundation of the world. And
verse six, and because you are sons, now listen to this. because
you are sons, children of God, not in order to become sons,
but because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of
his son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. Now that Abba Father has to do
with believing in Christ, resting in Christ, coming to the Father
on the basis of Christ's righteousness imputed to us, and being assured
that we will be accepted, blessed, and received in Him. Why did
that happen? Because you were children of
God. He chose you before the foundation of the world. He justified
you in Christ. He adopted you into His family.
He redeemed you on the cross. That's why. So back at verse
28 now of chapter three. Verse 27, for as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ, that's not water baptism, that's
union with Christ, placed into Christ. When was I placed into
Christ? When God chose me before the
foundation of the world in Christ. When He justified me, made Christ
my surety, imputed my sins to Christ, imputed His righteousness
to me. adopted me into his family. Read
it in Ephesians chapter one and other passages. When he redeemed
me on the cross, united to him. And if you've been united to
Christ, you put him on, you put on Christ. Now what does that
language mean, put on Christ? That means you believe in him.
That's metaphorical, symbolic language. means you believe in
Christ. You submit to him as your only
righteousness before God. It's like wearing a cloak of
righteousness. Not literally, but you put him
on. Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. You see, believing in Christ
is not born of strength and determination. Believing in Christ is born out
of weakness and need. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. It's not up to my, it's up to
God's will. And he says you put on Christ,
you believed in him. That's the gift of believing.
There is therefore, there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond or
free, male nor female. All these distinctions that we're
so proud of and so, Dumb about. They mean nothing. It's all Christ. For you're all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you belong to him, verse
29, if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed.
And you're heirs according to the promise, that unconditional
promise of salvation through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. That's what it's all about. Not the law. Aren't you glad? Aren't you thankful? That Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth? That's what that
faith is. That faith is Christ. That faith
is who He is and what He accomplished, and not us. Well, let's sing
about Him. Let's sing Rock of Ages as our
closing hymn. Hymn number 126. Rock of Ages,
cliff for me, let me hide myself...