I just want to remind everybody
before we get started this week, don't forget next weekend we
change the time. We take the time back an hour. So don't forget to set your clocks
back next Saturday. Otherwise you'll show up for
church at the wrong time. Now with cell phones, everybody
uses their cell phones. It just automatically changes. Hardly anybody has a regular
alarm clock. I mean, we use our phones for
our alarm clock and everything, so we don't ever have that problem
anymore. We used to. All right, 531, we'll
sing this to the tune of Just As I Am. ? Beloved of the Lord most high
? Let praises be your sweet employ. Ye sons of God, rejoice and sing
the honors of your Lord and King. Your Heavenly Father ever lives,
and all His choices treasured gives, to you the favorites of
His heart nor will He ever with you part. Whatever be your lot below, Though
you through gloomy paths may go, Your Heavenly Father is your
light, And He will guide your footsteps right. In every changing scene below,
Tis yours by faith this grace to know. Now are we sons and
heirs, of God fasting to our blessed abode. In every trying, deep distress,
In poverty and wretchedness, This truth we comfort should,
Upholding now we are the sons of God. Let worldlings know we swarm
the toys which they so highly love and prize. We must possess all real goods
since we are the sons and heirs of God. Dear Father, bless us
with this grace while traveling through this wilderness. our sonship still to keep in
view and honor thee in all we do. Well, we've been talking about
that in Galatians, about being a heir, a son. We're going to
be continuing that, actually. here with me now that number
two sixty seven and i think you know there and over two hundred
and sixty-seven joshua and hope the thing is
to the tenor uh... take my life and let it be two sixty seven children of the heavenly king
As ye journey sweetly sing, Sing your Savior's worthy praise,
Glorious in His works and ways, Glorious in His works and ways. Ye are traveling home to God
In the way the fathers trod They are happy now and ye Soon their
happiness shall see Soon their happiness shall see O ye banished, see, be glad Christ
your Advocate is made You to save your flesh subsumed Brother
to your souls become Brother to your souls become ? Shall
ye little flock and bless ? ? You on Jesus' throne shall rest ?
? There your seed is now prepared ? ? There your kingdom and reward
? ? There your kingdom and reward ? Fear not, brethren, joyful
stand On the borders of your land Jesus Christ, your Father's
Son Bid you undismayed go on Bid you undismayed go on Lord
submits it, make us go, gladly leaving all below. Only Thou our leader be, and
we still will follow Thee, and we still will follow Thee. All right, just back a few pages
to hymn number 262. Hymn 262. This is the tune of Worship the King. Thou fountain of bliss, thy smiling
tree, Overwhelmed with distress, I mourn at thy feet. The joy of salvation, when shall
it be mine? The high consolation of friendship
divine. Awaken to see the depths of my
fall. For mercy on thee I earnestly
call. Tis Thine the lost sinner to
save and renew. Place mighty beginner and finisher
to Thy Spirit alone, repentance implants And gives me to grow
at feeling my wants Midst all my dejection Dear Lord, I can
trace some marks of election, some tokens of grace. Thou wilt not despise a sinner
distressed, All kind and all wise, thy season is best. To thy sovereign pleasure resigned
I would be, and tarry I leisure and hope still in thee. Does anybody have any songs you'd
like to sing or hymn, scripture verse or anything? Relations chapter 4. Actually, we're going to read
verse 29 of 3. Verse 1 of 4. And this is going to go all over
the place after that. Galatians chapter three and four. Father, we thank you for once
again, another day that you've given us for life and for breath.
You are the creator and the sustainer of all life. You're the glorious,
majestic, sovereign God, the ruler over all things. And Father,
we come before you with our knees bended and our hearts uplifted
to you, knowing that you are the king of all things and we
know that you are controlling all things and by your will all
things are happening and father we as finite creatures but yet
loved of you come before you this morning and we offer up
our praise and our worship to you but father we pray that your
spirit will be with us as we do so to enable us to rightly
worship you in spirit and in truth father we pray that you
would help us this morning to lift these praises up to you,
to preach the word of God. We pray for your aid in hearing,
for understanding, for the Spirit's work in giving us the revelation
of what these words and what these passages of scriptures
mean. Father, that it may edify us, that it might build us up
in the most holy faith. You say that all scripture is
given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for instruction,
for correction, for reproof, Lord, we pray that this morning
as we study these passages of scripture, that it might accomplish
everything that you intend for it to accomplish. You said that
your word will not return void, but it will go out and go forth
and do exactly what it was intended, what you intend for it to do.
So Lord, we would just pray today that you would just govern our
services, that you might be with us today. And it's in Jesus'
name that we pray. Amen. Well, last week we took
a break from Galatians and went to Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
1, and we looked at faith, and that faith is the substance,
or faith is the substance things hope for, the evidence of things
not seen. And we looked at that, and we
talked about how that we have an assurance from God, a faith
that's given to us and that faith that's given to us through the
new birth and in repentance whenever God gives us the right understanding
of the gospel and gives us the right understanding of the work
of Jesus Christ and what he did, whenever we with spiritual eyes
and spiritual ears begin to see that and begin to understand
that, begin to cherish that in our heart, faith then now becomes
the support or the undergirding of our hope that that which Christ
did, He did for us. If you remember, I mentioned
that several times last week, that what faith sees and what
faith receives, it gives a hope or it gives an assurance that
what Christ has done on our behalf is actually belonging to me,
belonging to myself, okay? And so if you're a child of grace,
faith has given to you an assurance. It undergirds that assurance
and tells you, because the Bible tells us that the Spirit has
given to us, to tell us, to reveal to us, to show us, to continue
to uplift us in the fact that we are His sons. That's one of
the workings of the Holy Spirit, is that it's given to us to tell
us and to remind us that we are His sons, it's to tell us of
the things that is freely given to us in Christ Jesus, all the
things that's freely given to us. Now, the reason I took that
break last week to preach on that is to show that this faith,
this assurance, this hope that we talked about is something
that's given and it's part of the seed of Christ. Only the
seed of Christ is going to receive this, only the people of Christ
are going to receive this. The only ones who will ever have
this faith that looks to Christ alone, who receives Christ alone
as their only salvation, the only ones who will receive that
are the people of God. So this notion that everybody
in the world out there has an opportunity to be able to believe
this, or that anybody out there that if they just do enough book
learning or studying, that they'll eventually come to this conclusion
and accept it. We do not accept Jesus Christ.
We do not accept salvation. Salvation is a gift that is given
to us. Apart from Christ divinely and
sovereignly giving us salvation, we're going to continue on in
our sin until the end and be judged for that. the end destiny of all the reprobates,
those who are not the people of God. And I know that's not
a popular preaching and teaching that people want to hear. That
is not something that you hear on the radio or on TV. You rarely
hear that anywhere today. But the gospel of Jesus Christ
is that He has actually saved. He didn't make salvation possible. He actually saved his people
in his work on the cross. And that is received by faith. And that faith is only given
to the people of God. And so, as I said, this notion
that Jesus loves everybody and that he died for everybody and
that we got to go out and spread this gospel to everybody. to
get them saved and if they don't hear this gospel then they don't
have a chance to be saved and they could have been saved. That's
not what the Bible teaches. Every person for whom God gives
to Christ, every one of those people, they will not be lost. Jesus promised that. Jesus said,
all that the Father gives me shall come to me. Not one will
be lost. Okay, so there is not one person
in this world now, in the past, or in the future, that will ever
die and go to hell that wasn't ever intended to be there and
not one person will ever go to heaven that wasn't intended to
be there. God has set out the destinies of every man and woman
in the face of this creation, okay? So again, the reason that
I went last week back to Hebrews and talked about faith and hope
and assurance is to maybe tie together what we've been seeing
here in Galatians especially as we go from chapter three into
chapter four. So read with me, if you would,
Galatians chapter three, verse 29, where we was at last time. It says, and if ye be Christ,
see, there's a designation there between Christ and not Christ,
right? And if ye be Christ, then are
ye Abraham's seed, Now, who is Abraham's seed? Well, it's the
seed of Christ also, right? We've learned that, that the
seed of Abraham is the seed of Christ. Abraham is a figure of
Christ or a type of Christ, and his seed, natural seed, is like
how we see the spiritual seed, okay? The spiritual seed of Christ
is all of his people that have that born-again in him, that
born-again spirit, right? If ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed. And therefore, if ye be Christ,
or Abraham's seed in the type, or the foreshadow, or the symbol,
or the allegory, or however you want to put it, if ye be Christ,
then ye are heirs according to the promise. You are heirs according
to the promise. Now what did we see last week?
We've seen last week that faith is a substance of things hoped
for. What are we hoping for? We are
hoping for the inheritance. We are hoping for salvation.
We are hoping that we are the ones to whom Christ made the
promise that he would save us, that he would forgive our sins,
that he would redeem us, that he would bring us to himself,
that he would give us his righteousness. Remember what he promised to
Abraham. He promised Abraham that he would be his righteousness.
Okay, and Abraham seen that, believed that, and counted that
as his righteousness. Jesus is my righteousness. My
law keeping is not my righteousness. My good works isn't my righteousness.
My trying to do good in the flesh isn't my righteousness. Christ
is my righteousness. So by mine, I pray that God would
renew my mind every day to look at that and see that I am an
heir of the promise. I'm not a servant trying to work
for wages But I'm an heir who has been given all the treasures
of Christ. I've been given all the treasures
of who Christ is. All of his glory, all of his
riches, all of his wealth, all of his everything is mine. I am an heir with Christ. Okay? And so faith looks to that,
receives that, and that in turn fires our undergirds and supports
that hope. that we have, that he is our
righteousness. And that those times whenever
Satan or religious people are nagging at you about, oh, you're
definitely not being sanctified enough, or you're not being holy
enough, or you're not being righteous enough, or, oh boy, you should
be doing this, or not doing that, or, you know, whenever people
are hounding us like that, faith that has been given to us supports
the hope that we have in Christ that our hope isn't in doing
what all these people are telling us we have to do. It's in Christ. Christ is our hope. Okay? And we have an assurance that
we are going to receive the prize at the end, which is eternal
salvation, eternal life, eternal presence with God because of
what Christ did, not anything that I do. Right? So it says,
and if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all. Now we're gonna get into the
rest of four, and particularly the second part of verse one,
later on down the line. But today, I want to show everybody
this designation between Christ's seed and Satan's seed. That it is two distinct people
and never do they cross paths. Never does the child of grace
ever become Satan's seed and never does Satan's seed ever
become Christ's seed. They are separate seeds. and
they will reproduce after their own time. They will continue
in their own generation. They will be of their own type,
okay? And they will always be separated. They will always be considered
as separate. They will be treated as separate,
okay? If you remember, the scriptures
use other things besides seed as the symbol of this. There
is sheeps and goats, right? Never in scripture do you ever
hear about the goat becoming a sheep. Or a sheep apostatizing
and going and becoming a goat. Right? It's always a sheep is
a sheep, a goat is a goat. We hear the Bible talk about
wheat and tares. There is a wheat and there is
a tare. Okay? and never does a wheat become
a tare or a tare become a wheat. They are what they are. They
stay what they are. They get the end result. In the
Bible, the Bible says that at the end of the age, God's gonna
come and the angels are gonna gather the tares and separate
the tares and take the tares away from the wheat and the wheat
will remain, right? The sheep and the goats are gonna
be separated And the goats are going to be taken away, the sheep
are going to remain and going to be at the right hand of the
flower. This is going to be the lot of the sheep, the lot of
the wheat, the lot of the seed of Christ. The lot of the goat,
the lot of the pear, the lot of the seed of Satan is going
to be destruction. It's never going to change. Nothing's
going to cause that distinction or that predestinating destiny. I guess that's redundant. that
predestination to change. But see, a lot of people, they
don't think that there are these two groups of people living among
each other. They think that we're all the
same. And if we seek after Christ and receive Him as our Lord and
Savior and do whatever steps is required of us, then we'll
move from being this to that. Well, brethren, we never was
that. As far as the flesh is concerned, we are of Adam's seed,
and it's corruptible, and it's not ever gonna profit anything. But brethren, before the foundation
of the world, every child of grace, the elect of God, has
always been in Christ Jesus. It is an eternal union. We call
it an eternal, vital union. It means that it is not only
this union or this being bonded together Not only is it eternal,
but it's vital, it's real, it's true, it's a true union. It's
not just a supposed union. It's not something that is bought
or gained or earned. This is a true union that came
when God gave us the Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. Now, we see this principle in scripture is laid down, if
you would, and I've shared this with you guys on many occasions.
But go back with me so you see Genesis chapter one, and you'll
see where the principle is laid down. The principle is laid down. By the time you get another Bible
note, son, I think it's all important. Genesis chapter one, look with
me if you would at verses 11 and 12. It says, and God said, let the
earth bring forth grass and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass
and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that
it was good. And for the sake of time, I won't
go through. There's several other verses that talk about the animals
and them having their seed and them being reproduced after its
own kind. But we see here that this is
a principle that's laid down in scripture that everything
reproduces after its own kind and that the seed has within
it the substance of all of its generation. Now, I hope everybody
kind of hangs with me here and don't check out And if it's getting
confusing and you're not understanding what I'm meaning, throw up your
hands and say, hey, can you clarify that? The word generation we
know has several meanings, right? We can talk about a generation
being an age of people, okay, a certain age of people. I'm
considered to be Gen X, Generation X, right? and we have the uh... millennial generation we have
the baby boomer generation you know we have all these different
generations and we have these spans of time that we consider
to be a generation of people right that's one way the word
generation is used another way the word generation is used is
to uh... to bring forth to generate is
to bring alive or to bring forth or to create you know if I generate
energy I'm creating energy Of course, the law of energy says
that energy can't be created, but only God can create energy. But I'm producing energy, right?
Okay? So you have generation is, that's
why we get a generator, right? We have a generator because a
generator produces energy and it will turn everything on. It
generates power. That is another way generation
is used. But we also have a way that generation
is used as it describes a lineage of people. Okay. Here we have
the Cordova generation right here. Okay. Kevin and his son. I have my children. That's my
generation. Okay. That's my lineage. Okay. And so the term generation
we'll see often in the scripture. And a lot of times when we think
of generation, our mind thinks of this time period, this group
of people. And sometimes the context bears
that out. But a lot of times, whenever
we see in scripture, we're talking about two generations of people,
a generation or a lineage of Satan or a generation or a lineage
of Christ Jesus. And the principle of the seed
is true among each one of them. that in that seed is the substance
of all of its kind. Jesus is a spiritual kind. Satan's
is a fleshly kind or a sinful kind. And you can't change their
nature. You can't change the nature of
that sinful kind. They will never become Christ's
seed. And Christ's seed will never
become, just like an apple tree will never produce peaches. And
a peach tree will never produce an apple. They are of their kind
and every fruit that comes out of that tree and the seed that's
in that fruit, whenever that seed falls to the ground and
creates another tree, it's always gonna reproduce after its own
kind. That's the principle of the seed,
okay? That's what's laid down for us
here at the very beginning in Genesis. And that follows through
the whole word of God, not just in the plants and not just in
the animals, but in the spiritual applications of things as well.
There is a spiritual seed that is a sinful seed of Satan, an
evil seed, a wicked seed. The Bible calls them the wicked.
And then there is the righteous. The righteous seed comes from
the righteous original seed. The wicked seed comes from the
original wicked. Now, we know that Adam brought
sin and death into the world. But is that where sin began?
Sin began, the first place sin was found was in Satan. Satan
was the first place sin was found. Whenever God created the angels,
he created two types or two generations of angels. He created the elect
angels. He created the non-elect angels.
If you look in scripture, you'll find that the elect angels are
the ones who did not follow after Satan. But the non-elect angels,
they were the ones who followed after Satan. And the Bible says
that Satan was made and he was beautiful and he looked glorious
and he was one of God's prime angel creations. And then it
said, until sin was found in him. Sin was found in him. Now, how can you find something
unless it was already there, right? My daughter's got one
of those metal detectors that you run across the ground. If I went out in this yard and
I started scanning this yard and all of a sudden I had to
hone in on something, and I dig up in there and I find a gold
coin. I found a gold coin. Did me looking for that coin
and finding that gold coin make it there? No, it was already
there, right? Me finding it didn't mean that
it started there and that put it there, no it was already there
it just hadn't been seen yet it hadn't been found yet well
that's how it was with satan see satan already had as god
had created the non-elect angels he created them with such a nature
or however they are created created them in such a way that they
would not stay in their first estate but they would go to the
next state they would be a fallen angel they would be uh... they
would follow after Satan and after his sinfulness. Sin was
already in Satan until it was found. It was found. Same thing with Adam. Adam was
created in such a way of a nature that would bring forth sin. We've
gone through this many times before. It hadn't been seen yet,
but it was found in him. Otherwise, If he didn't have
it, it wouldn't have ever been found. It wouldn't have ever
came forth. It wouldn't have ever manifested itself, but it
did. Lust was manifested in Adam. He sinned and brought sin and
death into the world, okay? So we see at this point in Genesis
that there are two lines, two seeds, two streams. There's the
wicked and there's the righteous. The Bible says that God has created
all things, even the wicked for the day of evil. God created
the wicked. And see, that's a category that
most evangelicals don't have in their mind. They don't believe
that God created anything evil or anything wicked, that God
allows sin, that sin is against God and apart from God, and he
never does will for sin to take place. But brethren, the Bible
over and over and over has proof of God is sovereign over sin
and that sin is a purpose that God uses to fulfill His will. Matter of fact, there's nothing
more sinful than crucifying Jesus, right? But we learn in Acts that
those men with wicked hands took Jesus by the determinate counsel
of God. God is the one who determined
or had predestinated that jesus would be crucified and the way
he would be crucified and the men who would crucify him and
how they would crucify him so we have to have these categories
in our mind that god does create the wicked and the evil and he
has a purpose for both the bible says that the wrath of man and
what is that word wrath there whenever the bible says the wrath
of man it means the rebellion of man, the sin of man against
God, the wrath of man shall praise him, the remainder of wrath he
restrains. So there is a, God has purpose
for a certain amount of sin to take place in this creation during
time, whenever man from Adam to whenever Christ comes, that
God has appointed a certain amount of sin to take place for His
glory, for His purposes. And again, I know that's not
a popular thing to preach and teach, that goes against a lot
of my upbringing and the teaching that I heard growing up, but
that is the truth of Scripture. Now, with that being said, then
we have, if we understand that the Bible says that, and that's
the truth of Scripture, that God does create all things well,
and He creates all things good. Now, I've mentioned this before
because, and just in case, anybody watching, listening, or anybody
here wants to say, well, what about how the Bible says that
after he created Adam, he looked upon his creation and he said
that it was very good. How can you say that Adam was
created with an ability or with this nature of sin whenever God
says that he was created very good? Well, whenever God said
that it was very good, he said that about the whales, he said
that about the birds, he said that about the trees. Does that
make them righteous and holy? No, it don't. What does that
tell, what does that say whenever God looked upon what he created
in the apple tree, and he says, that is very good. What does
he mean? He means, I meant to create an
apple tree. I created an apple tree, and
there the apple tree is. That apple tree is exactly what
I intended it to be. So when God created Adam, he
created Adam with the intention of Adam being the man in which
sin and death would enter into the world. And so he created
and fashioned him with the nature of flesh, with the earthy nature
that would bring forth sin. And that was his purpose. God's
purpose in Adam was to bring forth a creation of people. And in that people, there would
be a sinful people, And the sinful people, out of that sinful people,
his elect would be brought out and redeemed. And so that was
a purpose of God. And so whenever he looked at
Adam and said, very good, he was very good in the aspect of
he was exactly the thing that God purposed him to be. Okay. Not that he was holy and righteous,
right? There's no word in scripture
where the Bible tells us that he was that way. He was created
that way. The Bible says he was upright, but that doesn't mean
that he was holy and blameless and righteous. It doesn't say
that. You can't find that in scripture anywhere. So, but we
do find that he was made natural, that he was made earthy, that
he was made and the lust was in his heart. And so we knew
that that is true. So with that being said, we can
see that God makes a evil or wicked line and he makes a spiritual
holy, righteous line. And that's who they are. That's
their identity. No matter how good this wicked
line is, this unrighteous line is, no matter how many good things
they do, they still are what they are. They are a wicked generation
of people. And whoever is in this crisis,
no matter how many sins they commit, they still are a righteous
seed because of their original seed. They are righteous because
Christ is righteous. OK. Now. Let's see where that
is talked about in the beginning as well. Look at Genesis chapter
3 and look at verse 15. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. It says now this is where after
Adam and Eve had sinned and God had come and the serpent was
there and he was bringing the curse upon the earth and upon
Adam. Bringing the curse upon the serpent. And God says to the serpent,
Satan. He says, and I will put enmity
or hatred between thee and the woman and between thy seed So
here we have proof that there is a seed of Satan, right? Now,
for anybody who may oppose this, you've got to deal with God's
word. I mean, this isn't a theology of Michael Smith or Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church. This is something you're going
to have to deal with in the aspects of God's word here says that
there is going to be a seed of this serpent that is going to
have hatred or enmity against her seed. I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. And it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel." So here we see the very beginnings
of the preaching of the gospel here. We see the prophecy that
Christ, the seed of the woman, is going to come and is going
to bruise the head of the serpent. Okay? He's going to bruise the
head of the serpent. Christ is going to come and he's
going to overtake. He's going to overpower. He's
going to take control over all that the serpent has done. He's
going to undo the power and the wreckage that the serpent and
all of his seed has done. Brethren, there is going to be
a day there. The Bible says there's coming
a day where every knee shall bow. And every time confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, they're going to recognize the power
and the mind, the sovereignty, the glory, the holiness, the
righteousness, the one who behind the scenes all the time, they
thought they were going to live in their lives by their own free
will, doing what they wanted to do. But at the end, they're
going to find out that they were all just the creation of God. And he was in control of everything,
bringing everything to its ultimate end. But we see here there is
always going to be enmity between the people of God, his seed,
and the people of Satan, his seed. Brethren, it's like that
today, isn't it? If you're a child of grace, the
people of the seed of Satan, they don't like us. We don't
like them as far as, you know, we don't like the way that they
live, the things that they do. We don't like the way that they
conduct themselves. We don't like the, blasphemy that they
bring upon the Lord. You know, I hear a lot of times
from guys, you know, I have a young man who used to go to the church
I used to attend and now he professes to be an atheist and I've heard
him, you know, rail blasphemies of God. You know, I've heard
other men that has railed blasphemies of God. Some even not even realizing
they're throwing blasphemies of God by the way they speak
and the way they talk. And see, that's offensive to
us. It bothers us because It's our Lord, we don't want people
to talk about our Lord that way. So there is enmity, so there
is two seeds, there is Satan's seed and there is Christ's seed. Now, let's look at the promise
that's given to Christ's seed while you're there in Genesis.
Look in chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. Now remember, everything is, the
life of the seed is in itself, right? Every fruit tree or every
apple tree, the life of those apple trees originated from the
first one. Our life comes from Christ. It was hidden in Christ with
God, right? So our life is derived, our spiritual
life that is, not our flesh, but our spiritual life, the spiritual
part, that seed that comes from Christ. It was Christ the God. Now look, Genesis 17 verse seven
says, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. Now, here the word generations
is talking about in their periods of time. So it's saying here,
I will establish my covenant between me and thy seed." Now
remember, the seed here that he's talking to Abraham about
is Christ. And the Bible tells us, as we're fixing to read here,
that that also includes everybody in Christ. But it says, and to
all thy seeds, after thee in their generations. Okay, so in
every generation or every period of time, God has had his people. Now you remember Jeremiah, at
one time he went before the Lord weeping and lamenting because
he thought he was the only one that was following after God.
And he said, you know, here I am, you know, I'm the only one here.
And God said, you know, hey, I've reserved for myself 7,000
men, or 3,000, I can't remember the exact amount. I reserved
for myself 3,000, a remnant for myself. See, sometimes we think
we're the only ones out there. You know, we think we're the
only ones that sit here. I mean, you guys probably thought, hey,
we're the only ones that are out here that believe this is
true. You know, we've thought that. But the Lord has his people
in every generation. So his seed is a lineage that
started and is going to continue until the very end. So in every
generation, he has his people. And so the promise of the everlasting
covenant is given to every one of his people from Adam until
Christ comes again. Okay. Everyone in that lineage
receives the promise because they are an heir or they are
the seed of that person. They are an heir. Okay. Now look,
if you would, at Genesis 26 and verse four, and this is 26, verse four. Scripture
say, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven
and will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So here we
see that not only does God have a people in every generation
or every time period, but we also see that God has a people
among every nation of the earth. There won't be any, whenever
the elect of God are gathered at the end of time, and we're
all before the throne of God, there will be an elect of God
out of every nation, language, tribe, tongue. I mean, that just
narrows it down, right? Big nation, you know, here we
have a nation, and then within this nation we have states, and
then Within the states, we have cities, and within cities, we
have neighborhoods, and within neighborhoods, we have individual
houses, okay? We have different languages even,
you know? You go up North, the people talk
a little bit different than we do down here in the South. You
know, you go out East, and North and East, you know, they all
talk a little bit different than us, right? They chomp down their
maple trees, okay? Totally different than how we
speak. You know those people from Maine. You go out to the
West Coast, they talk a little bit different than we do. You
go down to South America, they talk a lot different than we
do. They talk in all those different languages than we do. But the
Bible says the elect of God are gonna be found out of every nation,
every tribe, every tongue will be represented there. So God's
seed is dispersed throughout every time period and through
every people group that is out there. Okay? So that's a promise that God's
gospel will reach every group of people and every elect in
every generation. We don't have to worry about
that. The promise is to every one of his seed, wherever they
are at. Now, some people say, well, what
about all those Gentiles during the time where God only kept
everything in Israel? Well, what about all those Gentiles
and all that. Well, in due time, everyone from
those nations, from those tribes, from those tongues, there were
people that were saved out of those. We see Rahab the harlot. We see Ruth. We see these people
in the Old Testament, there were Gentiles that were being saved
during that period of time. We see now today that the gospel
has went out to everywhere. There isn't anywhere that the
gospel hasn't went out. And so even if it looks like
it isn't, let's just say that it looks like it isn't. Let's
go back to whenever I was a child and everybody thought, man, we've
got to get over to Africa because there's people in Africa back
in these bush tribes that has never heard of Jesus Christ and
they're dying and going to hell without Christ. Let me say this. Whether I can find it in history,
written down in some history book or not, I'll take God's
word over man's word anytime. I don't care how smart they are.
I don't care how many degrees they have. I don't care if they
have, you know, all the history books, if all these books that
I have down here and here and in these boxes and over in my
story book, if every one of those were history books, and every
one of those history books say, well, this time period and this
group of people never had the gospel, you know what I'm going
to say? Liar. That God be true and every man
a liar. because the word of God says that he has made this promise
to all of his seed and that his seed is found in every generation
and that his seed is found within every nation, tribe, and tongue. And if that's the case, then
there is never a time, there is never a place, there is never
anywhere that at some point in time, Christ has delivered his
gospel and there will be a representative from that people group who will
be among the elect of God. Now, I will say this on the other
hand, is there time periods where God is silent with the gospel
and maybe a whole lot of people died never hearing the gospel?
Absolutely. But he never promised to save
everybody out of every people group. He promised to save his
people out of every people group. There may be one, there may be
20 out of every people. I don't know. That's up to God. But one thing we can be for sure
of is that the promise is made to every seed, that the Bible
says there is a seed in every generation, and that this generation
of people is of every nation. And so we can bank on that. So Genesis 26, four gives us
a guarantee that all of the people of Christ,
no matter where they're from, no matter who, what nation they're
out of, no matter where they're at, that God will send this blessing
to them. Now, back to where we've been
in Galatians in chapter three, and I'll just read these real
quick. Galatians 3.16, it says, now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made, he saith not, and to seeds as of many, but
as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ, to which the detractors,
probably gonna say, there you go, preachers, see, that promise
was only made to Jesus. It wasn't made to all those people
that you're saying, and this whole seed thing that you're
making up is just fantasy, okay? This is just something that you're
making up out of the Bible, or making up that you think is in
the Bible. Well, in Galatians 3, 9, we also learn that it says,
and if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. So there again is our, there
is our proof that this seed is a continual seed, that if we
are in Christ Jesus, now how many people of Christ are in
Christ? Just part of them? No, all of them are. When were
they put into Christ? Before the foundation of the
world. Actually, they were in Christ Jesus before there ever
was a multitude of nations. Right? But here's the kicker. Here's the kicker. As it pertains
to the new creation, that spiritual seed that's in us, as it pertains
to that life that's hidden with Christ in God, the Bible says
that there is neither Jew nor Gentile. We read that last week,
didn't we? or the last time we were in Galatians,
right? It says in verse 28, or 27, for
as many as you that have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one
in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, there are no
nations. However, his seed are found among
the nations. They've been planted, sown among
the nations. But they are all one people.
They are all one people. They are a spiritual seed. And
they've been sown everywhere else. And they will be gathered
out of every nation. Now in the flesh, I'm from this
nation. But in the spirit side, I'm from
eternity. I'm in Christ Jesus. If ye be
Christ and ye are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise. So everything that was promised
to Christ is promised to his seed. Because everything is promised
to the original, everything in the original, in its substance
or its generation, receives the same thing. So let's look at a few scriptures. And we probably won't get through
all these today. We'll probably finish up next week. But let's
look at some scriptures that shows these two seeds. Look with
me if you would. at john chapter eight and this
is to me was one of the one of the most convincing uh... passages of scripture whenever
i was uh... as the lord was uh... bringing
me to repentance in the gospel as he was beginning to teach
me the doctrine of grace and sovereign grace uh... this uh... this whole passage
uh... of jesus speaking and the way
that he talked to these people who was listening But listen,
look if you would with me down to verse 33, John 8, and let's
start reading in verse 33. Now Jesus had just been teaching
and they said, they answered him, we are Abraham's seed and
never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made
free? Remember Jesus had just told
them that if you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
of deed and ye shall know the truth. and the truth shall make
you free." And they were like, hey, wait a minute. We're Abraham's
seed. We don't have to worry about
anything. Nobody's taking us into bondage. We're God's people.
You can't tell us that. Who do you think you are? Who's
given you power and authority to tell us that? Who are you
to say that we're something other than what God has told us? God
has told us that we are his seed. Well, see, they had misunderstood
all along. That not all that are Israel are of Israel, okay? Jesus answered them, Verily,
verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, whosoever committeth
sin is a servant of sin, but the servant abideth not in the
house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son, therefore,
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's
seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place
in you." Now notice if you would, they said that we be Abraham's
seed. They considered themselves to
be Abraham's seed, but they were looking at the fleshly side.
They thought they were Abraham's seed because they were a fleshly
reproduction from Abraham. But Jesus And as Paul taught
in Romans, that not everybody who were of that fleshly line
of Abraham or of the spiritual line of Abraham. Just as in the creation of God,
who is the father of all people by creation is not the father
of all people by spiritual love and grace and mercy. Okay. But notice if you would, in verse
37 he says, I know that ye are Abraham's seed, that is the seed
in the flesh. He said, but ye seek to kill
me because my word hath no place in you. Now, we know that the
word is the Lord Jesus Christ, right? He's the seed. He's the seed. Abraham's seed
was Christ. in this illustration or in the
way that God is illustrating this to us with the use of the
terms seed. Christ is Abraham's seed. And Christ has no place in them. Now remember, and we're gonna
read these verses here on down the line, but remember that Christ
is the seed that is in us. It is Christ that is in you,
the hope of glory. It's Christ that is in you. The Bible says that we are born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible seed
by the word of God, not by this, but by Christ. We are born again
by Christ. Him being in us. He is that life. Okay. And so we see Jesus here
says, I know you're of Abraham's seed of the flesh, but you're
trying to kill me. And the very fact that you're
trying to kill me and the fact that you can't hear me and that
you don't believe me tells me that you don't have the word
in you. And if you don't have the word
in you, then you are not my seed. You're Satan's seed. Let's go
on reading. He says, I speak that which I have seen with my
father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your father."
There you go. Did you see the two Cs? We have Father who is God, and
we have Father who is Satan. Verse 39, it says, They answered
and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto him,
If ye were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. Now, what were the works of Abraham? What was the works of Abraham,
remember? Believing that Christ was their righteousness. That
was the works of Abraham. But it wasn't Abraham's actual
works, because we know that the Bible says this is the work of
God that you believe. The work of God is that you believe.
Nobody can believe unless it's the work of God that's wrought
in them. And so he's saying, listen, the fact that you're
not believing on me is proof that you are not my seed. You're the seed of Satan. The
seed of Abraham, or the seed of Christ, believes that Christ
alone is their righteousness. They are believing that their
salvation is in the fact that they are the fleshly lineage
of Abraham. that's what they think and that's
completely contrary and listen we have that today guys listen
we have that today even in the protestant churches that came
out of the catholic church they believe that their children are
covenant children and because their children are children of
christians then they too are the children of promise what
they believe in the protestant religion and what the Israelites
believe are really no different. They both are going back to that
same thing and saying, because we are of Abraham, then we are
the heirs of the promise because we are the fleshly lineage of
Abraham. Where the prophets would say,
because we are Christians, my children therefore are the promised
covenant children and they too will be recipients of the promise.
She doesn't work that way. That's why I'm not a Presbyterian.
That's why I'm not a Methodist or anybody else. These things
are taught, and listen, it even has infiltrated the Baptist churches. I remember in the Southern Baptist,
one of the things they do in the Southern Baptist, now they
don't call it a christening in the Catholic church, they call
it a christening, Protestant churches, you know,
they talk about christening their babies, right? They'll bring
their babies and have their babies baptized, sprinkled with water. In the Baptist churches, this
very error has seeped into some of the Baptist churches. And
I remember as a kid, seeing that they have baby dedications, where
the family comes before the church and they dedicate this baby to
the Lord. And in that dedication, uh... you know they they dedicate themselves
they're going to be good parents and uh... raise their children
and the nurture and the admonition of the lord in hopes that that
in turn will make christians out of them okay it's a little
bit better than what the protestants and the catholics believe but
it's still unbiblical my dedication on how i raise my children No
matter how dedicated I am to that, and I've not been very
good at it, I'll admit, but my dedication is not gonna change
whether they are of Satan's seed or whether they are of Christ's
seed. No matter how dedicated, now
that doesn't relieve me from my responsibility that God has
given me to raise my children in the nurture and the admonition
of the Lord, to train them up in the way that they should go,
to teach them the things of God. Okay, I'm not doing that thinking
that I want to make Christians out of them. I'm doing that because
God has commanded me to do that. And for me to be obedient to
the Lord, I do that knowing that their destinies are in his hands,
not mine. But I still continue on. That's
why we preach the gospel. We don't know who the elect are,
but we preach the gospel. And I should say, we should be
preaching the gospel everyone says indiscriminately but i think
that's wrong because the bible warns us about casting pearl
before swine uh... that taking that which is holy
and casting between before a reprobate who over and over and over again
rejects and blasphemes these things i think that we should
preach that and if it's not received we just move right along but
that's for another day and another teaching but anyway we see that
That being Abraham's children, we have the word of God in us
and it's not a fleshly thing, but it is a spiritual thing.
And so Christ here is saying that his word or his seed have
no place in you. Therefore, you're not my seed
and you're not gonna hear my word. Look at verse 39. He says, they answered and said
unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto him, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But
now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth.
which I have heard of God, this did not Abraham, Abraham didn't
try to kill me when I told him the truth, ye do the deeds of
your father. Then said they to him, we be
born, we be not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. And Jesus saith unto them, if
God were your father, you would love me, for I proceed forth
and came from God, Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot
hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. And when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he is the liar and the father of it.
And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin and I say the truth, why do you not believe
me? He that is of God or born of
God or from God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them
not because ye are not of God. So here again, we see there's
two seeds. One seed can hear, one seed can't
hear. And we'll never hear, okay? It isn't about academics. It
isn't about oratory skills. I know I'm not a very good preacher.
I know I'm not a very good speaker, okay? But praise God, that isn't
what it depends upon, okay? It may cause us to be weary having
to listen today, especially grammar teachers when they hear me, but
anyway, it isn't about that. I can't convince anybody to believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ by making a great outline, by telling
good stories, giving good illustrations, by expositing this word perfectly. There is no, just think of this. Jesus Christ is the perfect preacher,
right? There's no preacher better than
him. Matter of fact, Jesus knows everything in the Bible, right?
Because they're his words. He knows the subject matter better
than anybody else. And guess what? He actually knows
the true context of every scripture. We still debate over what the
context of things is a lot of times. Okay? Just get on Facebook
and you'll see. He is the best preacher. He knows
everything in the Bible. He knows the perfect context.
He knows the intent of every passage of scripture
he even knows the audience that he's speaking to better than
anybody else and what they should be able to hear and know what
to hear. In all points, in every area
that you can look at, Jesus Christ is the best preacher and he,
whenever he preached, not everybody believed. Now you're gonna tell
me that you as a preacher or someone sharing the gospel that
you can convince somebody to believe if you just get the parts
right? That's not how it works. Jesus
preached to them people and they did not believe and he told them
the reason is because I didn't get it right. The reason is because
I didn't have enough theology degrees. The reason is because
I didn't go to seminary. or because i was raised under
a preacher as a father or grandfather or whatever now the reason you
don't hear is because you're not my children you're not my seed you're not
my generation you're not my lineage the father of you is the father
of lies you like to hear lies that's why religious people And
all these professing churches that are out there that are preaching
these false gospels, they love to hear the false gospel. But
whenever we preach them the truth, they get upset about it. They
get mad about it. They don't want to hear it. They
get offended. Some of them may even get red-faced
and mad. They want to punch you in the
nose for saying it. There's probably some already
that has listened to what we've said today and have already turned
it off. Why? Because they don't like
the truth, they like to hear the lie. Because their father
is a liar and they like to hear lies. The Bible says that they
will gather to themselves men with itching ears to tell them
what their itching ears want to hear. Paul, we'll see this
here later in Galatians, he says, have I now become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? How many of you here, since you've
begun to believe in sovereign grace, whenever you share this
with your friends and your family, have all of a sudden, It seems
like you're almost their enemy now. They are disgusted with
what you believe. I've had friends and family tell
me, I will not serve that God. That is not the God I serve. I will never believe that. I will never preach that. I will
never teach that. That's because that their father
is not Christ. Their father is the devil. They
like to hear lies. They like to hear good things
that please their mind and everything. I pray, I pray for your families,
my families, our friends. I pray that God would give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they would
turn from those false gospels, that they would come out of those
false churches, and that they would believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. I pray that God would do that. So Jesus said here that the reason
they do not believe is because they are of the father, the devil. He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Ye therefore hear them not because
ye are not God. Then answered the Jews, said
unto him, say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast
a devil? And Jesus said, I am not a devil, but I honor my father
and ye do dishonor me. And I seek not my own glory,
There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. And
this wound the Jews up. It wound the Jews up. And they said, this is the Jews
unto him. Now we know that thou hast the devil. Abraham is dead
in the prophets. And thou sayest, if a man keep
my saying, he shall never taste death. And what about Abraham
and the prophets? You know, they tasted death. They seen death.
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the
prophets are dead? Whom markest thou thyselves?
And Jesus answered, If I honored myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me,
of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known him,
but I know him. And if I should say, I know him
not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him and keep
his saying. your father abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and was glad now look back there
where he said i say to you if a man keep my saying he shall
never see death is that telling us that if we will do what christ
says that we'll never see death? who's he talking about there?
there's only one person that can fit this category and that
is christ Christ is the only one that can do the sayings of
the Father. Christ is the only one who did the will of the Father.
And although he died, he came back to life and lives forevermore. And everyone who is in Christ
Jesus of like kind will have the same thing. We may die in
this body, but we will be resurrected. This spirit will never die. It's
eternal life. It's forever life. It cannot
die. It will go to be with the Lord,
and then it will be reunited with a resurrected body, but
it will never die. But the only ones who get that
are the ones who are the seed of the spiritual, the seed of
Christ. All right, we'll stop right there,
brethren, before we move. I want to go to a few more verses,
Lord willing, next week. to show this, but I want to continue
to show the distinction between the people of God and why we,
that's what we're fixing to look at in Galatians, why we need
to have this understanding. So anybody got any questions,
comments, anything to add? Correct, review, subtract, punch
me in the eye. Put me in a headlock and shrug
my head. Nope. You want to do that? All right. Let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, again,
we come to you thanking you. We thank you for the Word of
God, who is our only rule of faith. Lord, we know that there
are many theories, that there are many doctrines that are out
there contrary to your Word. There are many religious groups
that are preaching and teaching things Oftentimes we've been
indoctrinated for years and years and years, and sometimes those
things still stick in the back of our mind and we wonder about
things. But Father, we are thankful that we have been given the Word
of God and the Spirit of God to guide us and to lead us into
all truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would teach us, continue
day by day as we study your Word and as we meditate upon it, that
you would teach us what it says and what it means. Father, we
are so grateful for the good news of the gospel that you've
given to your people. And Father, we do pray for our
loved ones, for our friends and family who are not believing
upon you and believing upon this gospel, the true gospel. Lord, we pray for them that you
would bring them out and give them an understanding of these
things, that you give them repentance. And Lord, we pray that you would
give them a love for this gospel and for your sovereignty and
for your predestinating work. Lord, we just ask that you would
be with each one of us as we minister unto them, that you
would give us patience and longsuffering and kindness in doing so. But Lord, that we may also not
blaspheme your word and put forth your gospel and continue in front
of those who blaspheme you and put forth this gospel as a pearl
before a swine. The more we just help us to know
that and to discern that, give us wisdom to discern those things.
Father, may you help us to be loving and kind, even to those
who disagree with us. May we be loving to our enemies,
the ones who are at enmity with us. As you said, that the seed
of Satan is gonna be at enmity with us And so Father, you've
called us to be kind and to be loving to our enemies. May you
help us to do that. And Father, we just know that
in our flesh we cannot accomplish that, but only by your grace
and power can we do that. So help us, Lord. Be with us
as we leave this place. I pray safety upon all these
brethren and all these that are here, Lord. I just ask that you
be with them. Lord, that you give them a good
week. And Lord, I just thank you again for the time that we've
had together of worship and fellowship, Lord. It truly is a blessing
of God to be able to gather with the people of God and to discuss
and to learn from you. And Father, we just ask all these
things in Christ's name, amen.