The Covenant Confirmed Before

Good morning. Let's turn in our Bibles to Galatians 3. Since we were here last week, I wanted to go right back to this, Galatians 3. Let's ask the Lord's blessing before we begin our study. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you that you have assembled us here And we pray that you would make the message go forth clear, make it go forth in the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, that you would strengthen the faith that you've given to your people, that you would call your people that don't yet know you, any, Lord, are still yet in their sin. We pray, our young people, Lord, that you'd be pleased today to reveal Christ in them. We need our Savior. And we need you to be the teacher. We need you to quicken and call your people. And for those you have given faith, Lord, where our faith is so weak, we need you continually every hour, and we ask you, Lord, that you would, today, that you would cause us to look out of ourselves to Christ and know that he is all, he is salvation.

Lord, make us to live for your honor. Make us glorify you in everything that we do. Especially here today, Lord, we pray you'd get all the honor and glory in the singing and the preaching, the scriptures we read that everywhere your name would be exalted and that you would do so in the hearts of each one here. Forgive us, Lord, our sins and our unbelief.

It so easily besets us. but Lord, receive us in Christ, in his righteousness alone. It's in his precious name that we ask it, amen. All right, brethren, Galatians 3. Now last time we saw that Christ redeemed his people, laying down his life, being made a curse for us. Now let me remind you, I always feel like I need to remind you of what the issue was at Galatia.

The Lord had saved some Gentile brethren. He had made them righteous in Christ, given them faith to trust Christ, and he robed them in Christ's righteousness. Peter said he made their heart pure. He made them holy by the Spirit of God. And he'd given them faith to rest all in Christ, and that's what they were doing.

And even these men came down from Jerusalem. And they didn't come with an argument that no, Christ is not all, your justification. They came with the argument that except you come under the law and keep the law, you cannot be saved. The except is the issue. They made it an absolute requirement to be saved.

And Peter withstood them to the face and he said, God made these people righteous. He made them pure. And he said, don't come laying that bondage on them. And so Paul is addressing that. And I tried to show you last week from Galatians 3 at the beginning there. He said, it's only what I learned of you.

Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. The hearing of faith is the hearing of Christ's faithfulness. It's the hearing of what Christ accomplished for Everybody he laid down his life for, he justified them. Or did you hear a message that said, you need to do this, this, and this, and this, and you'll be born again, or you'll be righteous and holy. And any believer would say it was through the message that gave God all the glory. And then he said, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? You think now that you believe in Christ you go back to the law and you're going to add to what Christ did?

He said, God forbid. We can't add to what Christ did. Now listen, folks will get in an argument over the, you know, are you under the Ten Commandments, you're not under the Ten Commandments. If there's any commandment that you're looking to, 10 commandments, the ceremonial law, if it's some precepts in the gospel, any commandment you're looking to and looking to your works and saying, except I do this, I can't be saved, Paul said, Christ will profit you nothing. You're a debtor to do the whole law because anything that Anytime we look to our works, we're gonna boast, and God won't share his glory. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, of God are you in Christ Jesus, that's how we got in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, that's where you get the mind of Christ, so you have spiritual discernment to see that he's his wisdom, righteousness, perfect standing before the law.

Sanctification, he's all our holiness. He sanctified us by his one offering, Hebrews 10 says. And he sanctified us by his blood, Hebrews 13 says. Then he comes and purges your conscience from dead works. He's the red heifer. He purges your conscience from dead works and makes you clean. And we thank God, Paul said, He has made us meet fit to partake of the inheritance with his people in life already.

Just like the thief on the cross, what did he do? The one that the Lord gave faith to believe, what did he do? He didn't do anything to be made righteous and he didn't do anything to be made holy because all his feet were nailed to the cross. What about that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord? He had it. It was Christ on the cross right there beside him. He's all, brethren. All right, so that's where we're at.

Now I want to pick up where we left off, Galatians 3.14.

The Lord did all this that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise. The promise was of eternal inheritance, joint heirs with Christ, eternal life, that it might be of the Spirit. It's the only way we're going to believe. through faith, we walk by faith, looking for that good hope we have.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Now catch this. He said not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ to Abraham, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. All right, first, let's see the illustration. I speak after the manner of men. This is an earthly illustration.

Though it be with a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or adder thereto. Now that's a simple enough illustration. If two parties, two men make a covenant, and it's confirmed, it's signed, they've entered into a covenant, no third party is gonna disannull it, and no third party's gonna add to it. The two parties that made the covenant and confirmed it, they confirmed it, it's done. Nobody's gonna add to it, nobody's gonna take from it. Now, here's the promise made. Verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

And he didn't say to seeds as of many, but as of one to thy seed, which is Christ. To Abraham and to Christ was the promise made. To Abraham and to Christ. Now earlier, back in verse eight, we saw the gospel was preached to Abraham, and God told him that he had a people that he was gonna save out of every nation. And he said in verse eight, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify, that's who does the justifying, God, that he would justify the heathen, not only people from among Israel, but people from among every tribe, kindred, tongue, and people on this earth. And he preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. But in our text, we see the promise of God was first made to Christ, between the Father and Christ. That's what our text is telling us. To Abraham and his seed were the promises made, not to seeds as of many, but to one, Christ. We find both these promises declared to Abraham in Genesis 22. I want you to look there real quick. Genesis 22. Genesis 22, verse 17.

God said to Abraham, in blessing, I will bless thee. And in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. Now right there, God's talking about Abraham's spiritual children, all who Christ saves. That's who he's talking about right there. Now listen to this next part. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed, now here we're talking about Christ, Christ shall possess the gate of his enemies and in Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

And this was given to Abraham through faith. God quickened him and gave him faith and he obeyed by believing God. He believed God. Now Christ is called Abraham's seed because he came through Abraham's lineage. But it's just like with David. Christ is called the root and offspring of David. Well, he was the root and offspring of Abraham. He's God, as the son of God. He made Abraham, just like he made David. But he came through the lineage of Abraham, so he's the seed of Abraham, the offspring of Abraham, as the son of man.

Now, before this world was made, God and the Lord Jesus entered into this covenant promise. They entered into this covenant promise. The scripture tells us that God chose a people by his grace, not based on anything in them, just his grace, and he gave them to Christ. And God the Father promised this promise to Christ first, you will have a seed more than the stars in heaven and more than the sand of the sea.

But to manifest his name to these children he's gonna save, God's purpose was Adam's going to fall, and he's the head. God made him the head, and so what he does, everybody that will be born of Adam did what he did, and that's all of us. We sinned in Adam, we broke the law, we became guilty, and being born of his corrupt seed, we have sin nature.

None that seeketh after God. In order for God to manifest who he is, show his glory to these children, God said he would send his son who would take flesh, become a sinless man like unto his brethren, be made under the law, be made sin for his people, and then with all the sin of his people on him be made a curse.

God would pour out justice on him. And the reason we're told clearly in Romans 3 is God is showing that he's a just God. He will not clear the guilty. We're all guilty. And he's also a merciful God. But he's going to show mercy in a way that's absolutely holy and just. In other words, when he shows mercy to somebody, it's because they have already died under the law. And God's just to show mercy.

They died in Christ. Now this being set up, let me tell you, in Proverbs, speaking as wisdom, Christ said, I was set up before ever the world was made, before ever the earth was, from everlasting. But let me read you here from 1 Peter. Peter said it too in 1 Peter 1.19. He says, you know you weren't redeemed with corruptible things. But with the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter 119, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in his last time for you. And it's by him that you believe in God, he said.

See, Christ gets all the glory. God was pleased that his son have all fullness dwell in his son and that his son get all the preeminence. Christ gets the glory here. Let me give you 2 Timothy. I'm just trying to show you that God did this before the foundation of the world. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. He said, God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose. God does everything according to his purpose.

And grace, free unmerited favor, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. but now it's made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to the light through the gospel."

We're in two, I'm appointed a preacher. So we see here, this is why when Adam had fallen and God, you know, he tried to cover himself in his fig leaves, that's us trying to make ourselves righteous by our work, but when God spoke, When the Lord came to him and spoke, he realized his fig leaves wasn't enough. And he ran and hid in the trees. And the Lord found him, called him out, made him confess his sin, and the Lord slew a lamb and clothed, he didn't just slay the lamb in their place, Christ didn't just die in their place, God clothed them with the skins of the lamb. God has to quicken us, give us faith, and then robe us in Christ's righteousness.

And he declared right then, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between her seed and the devil's seed. He declared right there, Christ is coming. There was a savior before there was a sinner. God had chosen and set up his son before anybody failed. He's the last Adam. All right, now go back with me.

I want you to get this now. We just saw in Genesis 27, 22-17, God's promised Abraham that thy seed Christ shall possess the gate of his enemies. That word possess is taken from a Hebrew word that means take possession of and disinherit. And he will take possession of his people and he will disinherit. Well, I'll show you what he's going to do. But this would be done in the gate. in the gate.

Now you remember when Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, Boaz, picture Christ, he wanted to marry Ruth. Christ has a bride, his church, he's going to marry her. But there was a kinsman redeemer, or there was a kinsman nearer that lawfully had first right of redemption. And if that nearer kinsman redeemed the land, if he bought all the land that belonged to He was also going to have to marry Ruth and raise up children to her to carry on in Elimelech's name.

But he said, I can't do it. I'll mar my inheritance. He wasn't going to marry a heathen Gentile. Our text is showing us that God's people are not only from among Israel, they are heathen Gentiles too. That's us. That one can't do it, and here's the picture. The law can't redeem us. The law is given to show us we're the sinner. It's like a thermometer. A thermometer can tell you you've got a fever, but it can't do a thing to take the fever away.

And Christ came, but where all that took place with Boaz was in the gate. That's where judgment was settled in the city, was in the gate. He went to the gate, and he called his near kinsmen, and he settled this matter. And Aneer Kinsman said, I can't redeem them. And Boaz said, I will. And he bought them. He bought everything that belonged to Elimelech, and he married Ruth, and he produced children.

Well, our Lord Jesus Christ, because we died in Adam, this is all part of the covenant that was confirmed before in Christ. Christ, the Father said, I've got these children, you're gonna have them. They're more than the stars and more than the sand, but you're gonna have to go to the cross That's the gate. You're gonna have to go to the cross and redeem them and put away their sin to declare my righteousness, how that I'm holy and will never clear the guilty and I'll never punish the innocent. And he said, and you show that I'm righteous to be merciful. And so the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, that's the gate, and he settled judgment and redeemed all his, everybody he died for, he redeemed them.

He bought them. They're called his purchased possession. He bought them. And he said in Genesis 22, 17, thy seed, Christ, shall possess the gate of his enemies. He'll take possession by redeeming his people and he will, I put it this way because I think it's the clearest picture, he'll disinherit the law's claim on us. That's what he did.

Now, here's a spoiler alert. We're in Isaiah 60, and we saw just not long ago, and I'm gonna preach on it again, but in the city of God, our walls are called salvation because our walls are Christ, and our gates are called praise, and we're praising Christ because he justified us at Calvary's Cross in the gate. He took possession of us in the gate.

All right, now, thirdly, Covenant confirmed. Let's go to Galatians 3. We saw the promise, now here's the covenant confirmed. This I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ. Now, stop right there. The covenant was confirmed before of God in Christ before this world was made. Christ confirmed that covenant between He and God, the Father. when he said, when he entered covenant to do this work for his people. That's why the scripture says he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. He became the surety of his people. Can anything stop him from accomplishing what he's gonna accomplish? Never. God's sovereign will cannot be frustrated.

And so the works were finished in the purpose of God before this world was made. But then Christ came down and did the work and put the sin of his people away. And just like he did to Abraham, he comes to each one he justified. And because we're lost, because we're dead in sins, we gotta be quickened by the spirit. Otherwise we can't believe. That's so of Abraham. He's never saved but one way.

Christ gets all the glory. Christ said you must be born again, you got to be born of the Spirit of God and you got to be born of the Word. He went and preached the Gospel to Abraham and told him that Christ was going to do it all. And he gave him faith and Abraham believed God. And he robed him in Christ's righteousness. So it was all of God and it was confirmed to Abraham. Now don't misunderstand this. It wasn't that God came and said, now Abraham if you'll do, I'll do. It wasn't a two-way covenant between Abraham and God.

God came and told him, in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee. Christ is coming through you and he's going to possess the gate of his enemies. In other words, God told him, I will do all the work to save you. Now that's the gospel. What does salvation is of the Lord mean? It means it's all of the Lord. Every bit of it. Every bit of it.

So he confirmed that covenant to Abraham. Now remember the illustration. If a covenant's confirmed between two parties, a third party cannot disown the covenant or add to it. Verse 17, this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of no effect." Now, he's obviously talking about the Ten Commandments because this is what people think that you keep to either make yourself righteous or make yourself holy. And like I said, it doesn't matter anything, any law in the Word of God that you're looking to that you think, except I do this, I can't be saved. You and me are the third party, you can't add to it, and you're not gonna take away from that covenant.

And here's another reason, Abraham, and what he's saying is, and he's using Abraham, this was the spirit of God, the wisdom of God, he's using Abraham because Abraham didn't have the law. However Abraham was saved, it's how all, everybody that's saved, saved the same way. He's the father of all that believe. Noah didn't have it. Abel didn't have it. Enoch didn't have it. Methuselah didn't have it. Adam and Eve didn't have it.

How were they saved? Christ was their righteousness being their surety. And He came forth and created a new holy man in them. Gave them faith to believe Him. And as Paul is going to say later in Galatians, if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. He led them. He led them.

Just like he talked to Abraham, God's not speaking to us in an audible voice, but he is speaking to us through the gospel, and he is blessing it to our hearts with the same power as if he spoke from heaven to you in person, or if he was standing here. It's effectual. And so he's leading us like we're little children. But you see there, what a beautiful way to show us that Christ is our righteousness and Christ is our sanctification. He did everything to make Abraham righteous and holy. And then he led him all his days and kept him separated unto him.

That's what, when that verse says, without holiness no man will see the Lord, that passage is saying that when God chastens us, it's to keep us partaking of his holiness. The moment you start looking to your works and saying, oh look how far I've come, You've left Christ. You're looking at you. Don't ever look at you. That's what he's got to save us from, is us.

And I'm telling you, brethren, folks like to talk about people out there being a Pharisee and this and that. Pharisees in our flesh, our sin nature is a Pharisee. Far worse than us, God's people don't want to run into immoral sin. when the Lord saved you, you don't want to dishonor him. But far worse than that and far more subtle than that is self-righteousness and this thing of self-sanctification where we start looking at ourselves.

The moment you take your eye off Christ, this was Paul's whole point in Colossians 2 and 3. He said, they're trying to bring you under these laws of touch not, taste not, handle not. How's your flesh gonna be mortified? Set your affection on things above where Christ sits at God's right hand. If you really are risen with him and you believe him, he said, your life is hid with God in Christ. And when he returns, he's gonna bring you into that inheritance with him.

Now let me get on, I'm going long here, but here's another reason this internal inheritance is not of the works of the law, verse 18. For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham a promise. If you do one work that you add to getting this inheritance, it's not an inheritance anymore. It's not given by promise anymore. You earned it, and we can't earn it.

God gave it this, you know, you fathers, we write out our last will and testament. You know what this book is? It's the last will and testament of God. And where there's a testament, there is to be death of the testator. Christ came and laid down his life for his people, and when he gave us the, we're gonna take the bread and the wine today, and remember his broken body and shed blood. When he gave that cup of wine, he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. That's how it's confirmed. It's written in his blood.

And when you go in to receive an inheritance, they don't set you down and say, now, let's see what all you did to deserve this inheritance. The inheritance is given freely. You didn't do anything. Well, God gave this inheritance, this promise to us freely because Christ paid it all. He paid everything we owed to justice and made us righteous. and then he came and made us holy so that we can know him and believe him and not trust ourselves and trust only him.

God gave it to Abraham for promise. Listen to this, I'll just give you this, 2 Corinthians 1 20. All the promises of God in Christ are yes and in him amen. Unto the glory of God by us. That means we're giving him all the glory. We're praising only God for choosing His Son and sending His Son who did everything to make us accepted of God. Now look back at Galatians 3 and look at verse 14. He did all this that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise, the eternal inheritance of the Spirit through faith.

All right, why did God give the law then? One reason, verse 19. Wherefore then serveth the law, it was added because of transgressions to Christ the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It was to show you and me that we are wretched sinners, unable to keep the law. By the law is the knowledge of sin, the law entered that the offense might abound to drive us to Christ.

Now read on, we'll just read the rest. Verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. I'll come back later and look at that one mediator. We need to look at the whole message of that. Verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid.

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, Fairly righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise, the eternal inheritance, would be by the faith of Christ. That means by his faithfulness to God unto the death of the cross for his people. And he said, and that it might be given to them that believe on Christ. But before faith came, We were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

God said he predestinated us to the adoption of children. He's gonna deal with that in Galatians 4. Because you are sons, chosen, redeemed, justified by Christ, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, whereby we cry Abba, Father. And he said, that's how it was revealed.

Wherefore, verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster, unto Christ, until Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we're no longer under schoolmaster. You're 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. I said to you last time, with Christ on us, when God looks to you, he don't see you, he just sees his son. And do you need to add anything?

Nothing, nothing. And he said there, where there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, male nor female, we're not looking at any of those exterior, superficial, vain things that we used to look at to say, this makes me better than him. I'm white, not black. I'm male, not female. I'm of the law, they're not of the law. I've kept the law, they hadn't kept the law.

He made you see we're all one in Christ Jesus. We got one righteousness, one holiness. We got one faith in him. We got one redemption. He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause? He's not ashamed to call us his brethren. Well, that tells me it's gotta be all by him. If he trusted any of it to me, he'd be ashamed to call me his brother. He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one.

That's the only thing that'll keep us from exalting ourselves over one another is if we know everybody in Christ has the exact same righteousness, the exact same holiness, the exact same acceptance of God, one in Christ. And as far as just us and our flesh, we all are just worms without him. So we can't exalt ourselves over one another.

I see men arguing over racism and all that. It's our nature to be racist. It's our nature. You look at history, every generation, whoever was the majority, treated the other cruelly. Every time. This right here is the only way that's gonna be eliminated, the message of the gospel. And when Christ makes you see, you got no reason to exalt yourself over anybody. In yourself, you're just a sinner, but in Christ, you're one. He said, verse 29, and if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's children, you're really his children, and heirs according to the promise.

Promise, amen. Father, thank you for this word. Lord, we pray you bless it to us now. Don't let us forget it. Keep us remembering what we've heard and keep us looking only to Christ. Make us love each other as Christ loved us. Make us be merciful, forgiving. Lord, just like you've done to us for his sake, don't let us exalt ourselves over one another. Keep us, Lord, by your grace. We beg of you in Christ's name, amen.

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The Covenant Confirmed Before

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