We'll be in Galatians chapter
three, if you'd like to turn there. Galatians chapter three, Paul's
continuing to declare the clear difference between the two covenants,
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. And he does
this, by declaring one promise. I want to read our text Galatians
3 verse 15 through 18. 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 where the promise is made, he saith not and to his and to
his seeds as of many, but as one and to thy seed, which is
Christ. In this I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before God in Christ, the law, which was
430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance of the
law, for if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of
promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. I've titled this
message Promise Kept, Promise Kept. Paul setting forth that
Abraham received of the Lord's grace the promise of the Savior,
the promise of the covenant, not based upon himself, not based
upon his merits, not based upon what he has done. I would remind
us that he was an idolater. He was worshiping
false gods whenever the Lord came to him. He wasn't, didn't
know who God was as such as some of we were. Most people that
come to know the truth, you might as well just say everybody's
an idolater. They don't maybe have graven images. They don't
have different things that they worship, so to speak, but they
worship and serve the creature. more than the Creator. See, that's
idolatry. If I worship myself, if I serve myself, I'm not serving
the Lord. I'm not looking to Christ. All
men, by nature, are idle factories. They're idle factories. And so,
Abraham was no different, just as you and I were no different.
There was a time, some of us, we loved ourself. What we had
accomplished, what we knew, the things we had done, we would
brag about ourself. Oh, it's shameful, isn't it? So shameful. would agree, and
all the brethren in the scripture would agree, once the Lord reveals
himself, we say, behold, I'm vile. I've done nothing worthy
of anything. Lord, you, I need Christ. I need
Christ. The promise was given to Abraham,
not by Abraham's fulfillment of the law, but by grace. How were they saved in the Old
Testament? They were saved looking to the cross. Well, how did they
look to the cross? By faith. Well, how did they receive the
faith? By grace, or you saved through faith. It's the same
thing in the Old Testament as it is the New Testament. Think
about Philip, me and Steve were talking after first hour, or
me and Rob were talking after first hour, I'm sorry. Philip
was preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. He walks up to the Ethiopian
eunuch. He's on his chariot, and he's reading Isaiah 53. And
Philip says, understand this what thou readest. And he says,
how can I unless a man teach me, unless a man show me? He
preached the gospel to him through Isaiah 53. And that man hears. The Lord gave him ears to hear.
And he said, well, here's water. What hinders me from being baptized?
And so he was baptized that day, right then. The gospels all throughout scripture. It's not just the New Testament
gospel. It's the gospel. Lord said, as I said, the first
hour Pharisees or told the Pharisees search the scriptures for in
them. You think you have life, but they are they which speak
of me. So from Genesis all the way to Revelation, it speaks
of Christ. Now the issue at hand here is the Galatians are wanting
to go back to the old covenant. Old covenant for justification,
or as part of their righteousness, or as part of salvation, or as
evidence of their salvation, whatever the case may be. They
were going back to circumcision. That was all the promise that
was given to Abraham. That was a token. All that was
was a token of the covenant. That wasn't part of the covenant,
that was just a token of the covenant. That being said, this
covenant is the covenant of grace. It's the covenant that far surpasses
the covenant of works. The covenant of grace was from
everlasting as we find out. We're going to turn in a minute
to Genesis, but the other covenant is a contract. Now a contract
is different. In that, it requires two parties
to hold up each of their end. If you and I enter into a binding
contract with each other, I'm going to say to you, I'm going
to do this. And you're going to say to me,
I'm going to do this. And therefore, the contract is
met. The problem with the law is it wasn't given for righteousness.
It was given to show that we're all sinners, that every mouth
may be stopped before God, that we're all wicked, that there's
no hope in and of ourself to obtain righteousness. We can't
hold up the contract. Therefore, we needed a covenant
that God made not with you and me, but God made with God. That's what we needed. Without
that covenant, we have no hope. If there's a requirement that
God has that I have to fulfill or you have to fulfill, we're
lost, we're doomed. But thank God he doesn't. He
doesn't look to the law as our righteousness because we would
have none. He looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as we do for our
righteousness. Now the lie is you can attain
righteousness by the deeds of the law, do and live. That your
obedience to the law will merit you righteousness. That your
obedience unto the law will merit you good standing with God. Men have moral laws that they
live by. And the law of the Lord's written
on all men's heart. We have a conscience, all of us are born with a conscience.
That law can't save us. That conscience can't, conscience
won't lead you to Christ. The conscience will just, it'll
help you right and wrong. I'm not saying it's a bad thing,
but I'm simply saying it cannot lead you to Christ. Only the
Lord can do that. So what happens? Well, man says,
okay, my conscience convicted me because I did this or I did
that. So I'm gonna stop doing that. Well, now I feel better
about myself and I see so-and-so still doing that over there.
So what do I do? I naturally think, well, God's gonna be more
pleased with me than he is with you because I don't do that thing. That's what they're doing. And
they're keeping the law, but they're not keeping the law.
That's the problem. There's righteousness. There's no righteousness in that. I know a lot of people, and I
was of the same. I was thus. And if we know of
those who continue in those things, we don't look down on them and
think less of them. We actually hurt for them, because
I wish the Lord would save them. If the Lord saved your worst
enemy, you'd rejoice, wouldn't you? It'd fix everything. Because
you'd have the same God, you'd really see things the same way,
you'd have one thing needful. And that's the point, we have
loved ones that we just pray for, that's all we can do is
pray for. But we don't debate, we just declare this gospel,
pray the Lord does the work. Now brethren, our obedience unto
the law doesn't merit anything, anything, we're looking We're
not just looking, we're completely dependent upon the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the law and to the Father. That's
our hope, that's our need. This is what Paul's telling them.
You're going to the new covenant, which is, he calls it 470, 430
years later. 430 years. Well, it was actually
more like 600 from the time the Lord had spoke to Abraham and
to the time that the children of Israel received the law. So
what is he talking about there? Well, he was counting for Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, first of all. And then by the time Jacob gets
down to Egypt, so that's all the time they were in Egypt,
around 430 till they got the law. That's what he's talking
about there. They lived in bondage. How many
times did the Lord speak to the children of Israel while they
were in Egypt. What recording do we have that the Lord appeared
unto a single one of them in bondage during that time? To
my knowledge, we don't have any audible, anything audible in
that. And so he's saying, you're thinking
that this covenant, because it was given after the first covenant,
is more relevant, or it disannuls the first covenant. That's what
he's telling me. He said, you're thinking that
this law is now doing away with the covenant of grace, and it's
not. It's not, he's saying the covenant, regardless of the time
that it was given, it has been, what was the word he used? Confirmed, he says that no man
disannuleth it. He said it can't be disannulled
because God confirmed it. God confirmed it so no man can
disannul it. So the issue here is they're thinking, I'm gonna
go to this new covenant, that way I can be accepted of God,
because it has to do something with the old covenant and they're
two totally, entirely different entities. One is a covenant where
you do something and God does something and the other one is
a covenant of grace where God does everything. Only salvation
comes through and by the covenant of grace. Covenant of grace far
surpasses the covenant of works, far surpasses it. He calls it
an everlasting covenant. It never had a beginning and
it never had an end, never had an end. So what's our hope? Well, Romans 5 19 says, for as
by one man disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now that doesn't
say by the obedience of many shall many be made righteous.
The Lord's not looking at your obedience. Does that give you
hope? It gives me hope. Cause if he
was looking at my obedience, he's counting on me. I would
mess it up. He's not looking to your obedience
for the fulfillment of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. We don't run to the law for righteousness.
We don't go to the law for salvation. Here's our hope, not our obedience,
but His perfect obedience. Somebody says, well, everybody
likes to contradict whenever you're, when you say things like
that, that the Lord's not looking to your obedience. Somebody would
say, well, you have to obey the gospel. Well, I agree with that,
but what is obedience to the gospel? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. And how are you gonna believe
unless the Lord gives you faith? We're not getting any glory in this
whatsoever. We're not getting any glory. How can we believe
on something we haven't heard? And how can we hear unless there's
a preacher sent to us? The Lord gets all the glory. What is it to obey the gospel? Well, it's to not work. It's
to rest. It's to rest. Don't do any work.
It is finished, rest. Look to Christ, doesn't say by
the obedience of many, it says by the obedience of one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's how the Lord's people
were redeemed. I quote this often, but the scripture
is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, hath he saved us according to his mercy. Scripture tells us this, that
they, they're in the flesh, cannot please God. That's a simple verse,
but it's so true because so many people think that what they do
with these hands, or what they do with this mouth, or don't
do with this mouth, what you, what did the Lord say? What goes
into a man doesn't defile him, it's what comes out. Ain't that
what he said? Men get caught up in what they do and what they
don't do, what they say and what they don't say, and brethren,
salvation's of the Lord. Salvation was wrought by his
hand, not by mine, and not by yours. If I am to be saved, I
have to be completely dependent upon him. I don't come to Christ
with a broken heart. I come to Christ for a broken
heart. Lord, I need my heart to be broken.
Somebody said, well, I believe my heart is broken. Come to Christ. If he's given you a broken heart,
come to him. We come to him not bringing anything. Lord, here's
my broken heart. Here's my, now I've made it a work. Do we see
that? No, I need a broken heart. Lord, give me a broken heart.
I don't come to Christ with my faith. I come to Christ for faith. I don't come to Christ with my
good works. I come to Christ for good works. This is what
Paul's teaching us here. The Lord's saying to us is that
righteousness can't come by the law at all. It's not in what
you do and it's not in what I do. It's in what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished on the cross. If righteousness came by what
we do, first of all, why did they make yearly sacrifices?
Wouldn't one have been enough? Why did they keep having to make,
if righteousness could have come by the law, why didn't they,
why didn't, why did they have to sacrifice every single year?
And that wasn't, that was just your family. Your family would
go and sacrifice every single year. That priest's job was daily
ministering, it says, daily sacrificing. That's what it says, daily. He
never stopped. He never stopped. I don't, I'm
not exactly sure about the observation of the Sabbath. I would imagine
that would have been considered a work and that may have been his only
day off. I don't know for sure. That makes sense, but I don't have
clarity on that. But I will say this. It was a
daily sacrifice, the scripture says. Why did it have to be daily? Because it didn't put away sin.
I was doing it and you were doing it if we were sacrificing back
then. So therefore it couldn't have made sin go away. The sacrifice
was not perfect. The sacrifice was not holy. The
sacrifice was not pure. But the Lord said, bring me a
lamb without spot and without blemish. I'm gonna allow you
to worship me by looking to Christ just as Abraham did. I'm going
to allow you to see that it's the blood that I'm looking for,
not your works. Not your works. You're not gonna
be able to put away sin by what you do. Every picture in the
Old Testament points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a single one
points to us doing something. It points to him alone. Why did
Christ have to die if they make yearly sacrifice? Why did Christ
have to die? Well, because it didn't put away
sin, did it? Didn't put away sin. Why did Christ have to die? Because
we could not have righteousness by the law. By the law, no flesh
shall be justified. The law's job was not to justify
the flesh, it was to condemn it, wasn't it? And why is it
that our nature runs to the law anyways? That's just what we
are by nature. It's what we do. We run straight
to the law every chance that we get. Look at what I have done. Anybody else relate to that?
That's what we do by nature. And Paul said, at best, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? That
which I would do, I do not. I don't wanna run to the law,
but that which I would not, that I do. Lord, have mercy on me,
the sinner. Here I go looking my nose up
at somebody else now because I think I know something. Oh
Lord, you're the one that taught me, you're my wisdom, what am
I? Here I am caught up with my own flesh and my anger and my
frustration about my circumstances and I'm looking to self again
to fix it and Lord lets us fall flat on our face. How many times? Daily? I know it's often, it's
often. Lord have mercy on me, the sinner,
that's the prayer. Somebody said, well, that's sinful.
Well, guess what? The scripture tells us this.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. There's our hope. Not in what
we do to try to fix what we've done wrong, but that Jesus Christ
is our advocate. He's our advocate. The Lord not
only knew, but he purposed for us to fail. in the new covenant, purpose.
He knew he could not keep the covenant, he's God. No, he knew
nobody could keep the covenant. The law was to show us you need
a substitute. You need a surety. You cannot
live up to God's expectations and neither can I. I need a substitute,
I need a surety. So he made another covenant far
before he made that one. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
17. I want to read eight verses,
nine verses, one through eight of Genesis 17. First verse says,
and when Abram was 90 years old and nine, and for those of you
who might not know, Abram's name was his first name. God changed
his name from Abram to Abraham. He changed his wife's name from
Sarai to Sarah. He changed Jacob's name to Israel.
That's just the name that the Lord gave him. So this is still
Abraham, but he doesn't get that name till later on. When Abram
was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared unto Abram and
said unto him, I am the almighty God. Walk before me and be thou
perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and multiply thee exceedingly. Abram fell on his
face. God talked with him saying, as for me, behold, my covenant
is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither
shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be
called Abraham. There you go. For a father of
many nations have I made thee, and I will make thee exceedingly
fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come
out of thee, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee,
and thy seed after thee in their generation for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And don't forget back just a
few chapters, Abraham, and I've already mentioned this. He was
an idolater and it doesn't mention anything about him except for
his lineage, where he came from. And so-and-so begat so-and-so
and so-and-so begat so-and-so. And then Abraham, Abraham was
begotten. And then it talks about his wife.
He got a wife. And then all of a sudden it says in chapter,
let's see, it's chapter 12, I believe it is. Yeah, chapter 12 is where it
starts that right before that's the Tower of Babel and then all
these lineages and now in chapter 12 verse one. Now the Lord had
said unto Abram. That's where it starts. The Lord
had said unto Abram. So he just appears to Abram one
day. That's all we get. That's all we got. And that's
how our Lord does. He just appears unto his people
by the gospel. That's how he does it. I wasn't
looking for God when he found me. Matter of fact, he wasn't
the one lost, I was. Somebody said, I found Christ.
Christ was never lost. I was, Christ had to find me.
God was never lost. I was. God told Abraham, I'm
gonna establish my covenant with you. So the new covenant is completely
irrelevant about what Abram had done, what he did do, what he
did not do, what he worshiped, what he didn't worship, but it's
all based upon grace. Do we see that? This is God appearing
and God saying, I'm going to make my covenant with you. My
covenant, the covenant, not a covenant, the covenant, the covenant of
grace. And he called it an everlasting covenant right there. So, oh,
in verse 80 calls it the everlasting covenant. I'm sorry. Let's No,
he called it everlasting covenant verse seven. Then he talks about
everlasting possession in verse eight. And we know that land
of Canaan, that's a type and picture. But we see here that
this covenant, the new covenant, it was completely irrelevant,
this covenant of grace, not the new covenant, the covenant of
grace was completely irrelevant. What Abraham had done, what Abraham
had done. The Lord wasn't looking at Abraham's
works. He wasn't looking at his life. He wasn't looking at his
good deeds. He wasn't looking at his works. He wasn't looking
at anything Abraham had done. And he, he comes to him just
like Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He tells Noah, when he gets off the ark, I'm gonna
establish my covenant with thee. It's the same thing. God comes
to a man and establishes this covenant of grace that far surpasses
the covenant of works. He doesn't say, here's what you
need to do. You need to do this and this and this, and then I'll
establish my covenant with you. He said, no, I'm going to establish
my covenant with you, and you're going to do this, this, and this.
Do we see the difference? How do we do that? By faith.
By faith, that's how we live. That's how we move and have our
being in Christ, by faith. God made a covenant with Abram.
Now, this is important to mention. The new covenant I mentioned
is a contract. It's a contract where you have
to do something and the other party has to do something. This
is a living wheel. This is the last wheel in Testament,
this covenant of grace. This covenant of grace is the
last wheel in Testament of God. That's what it stands for. And
the Lord Jesus Christ was the one that was going to uphold
that last will and testament. And he did so on the cross of
Calvary. Now, the good news about that is the one that issued the
last will and testament was resurrected. So he's going to see it through.
Normally, you have to have somebody that hopefully loved you and
really thought highly of you to carry on your wishes after
you die because there's loopholes. You can, there's some loopholes
on last wills that you can get out of doing certain things.
Somebody says, well, I don't want to donate this much money to a church and
the son, the dad dies and that's what he wanted. But the son's
like, well, let's, let's do this instead and do this instead.
It's the, the guarantor of the will. But if Jesus Christ is
God and he is, and this is his last will in Testament and he's
been resurrected, He's going to guarantee all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's what he's going to guarantee.
That's what this covenant represents here. Not of us, but of him that
calleth. The Lord calls it an everlasting
covenant. It never had a beginning. It
never had an end. This was before time ever began, before the world
ever began. God purposed to redeem his chosen
people. God chose to elect some to eternal life. God chose to
come as a man and redeem those people on the cross of Calvary.
And was God satisfied with the sacrifice of his son? Yes, insomuch
that he resurrected him. That's the good news of the gospel.
Now, did he do this because we deserved it? Did he do this because
we earned it? Did he do it because of our works?
He did it by grace. All because of grace, he chose
to do this. Scripture tells us in John one,
the elect are born not of the will of man, nor of the will
of flesh, but of God. That's where we're born. Paul
deals with this in Romans nine. Turn over there with me. Look at verse six. Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
that seed be called. He was the child of promise."
That's what he's saying there. That is they, which are the children
of the flesh. These are not the children of
God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
This is what Paul's talking about in Galatians as well. The children
of the promise of the children of the seed for this is the word
of promise at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a
son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by
one, even by our father Isaac for the children being not yet
born, neither having done good or evil, purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth
it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it
is written Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated." So you have
one child of promise even in the womb and one child that's
not of promise even in the womb. This is dealing all with the
same subject of our text. This is how the Lord has put
his people in Christ. They're born of his seed. They're
born again, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible
seed. By the promise that was given
unto, it's the same promise given to Abraham. The promise of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We just look back to the, it's
been fulfilled now. That's the rejoicing for the
believer. We don't go to the law now either. It's already
been fulfilled. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. This, brethren, that's the promise
kept, fulfilled and accomplished in the person of Christ. Everything
promised to Abraham was fulfilled in Christ. And if everything
promised has been fulfilled, what is there left for us to
do? Well, wait on the Lord. Rest
in Christ. Look to the Lord, there's nothing
left to do, is there? Not as part of our salvation,
no. We love to worship him, that's not part of our salvation, that's
a privilege. What is there left to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, because the promise, all the promises of the Lord
have been kept, been fulfilled. Paul's setting forth, we're not
saved by a contract, we're saved by a covenant, the covenant of
grace, the everlasting covenant of grace. And that it's not according
to our works where we're birthed into this family, but it's according
to the Lord's will that we are birthed by his spirit to believe
this promise by faith. We're saved the same way Abraham
was saved, not going back to the law, not going back to circumcision
or whatever other law may be. We're saved looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of faith. Salvation. And I say this, there's a lot
of information this morning, I hope I've worried you. Salvation
is entirely based upon Christ. Entirely based upon what he did,
what he accomplished. It can never be based upon what
we do, either before or after. were saved. In going to the law,
Paul is so clear here that you are guilty of the entire law
and therefore under the curse thereof. If you're under the
curse, that means the Lord didn't put the curse away for you. But
if you're looking unto Christ, you know that he's the fulfillment
of the law. He is the end of the law because
of righteousness. This is who we must have. if
we're going to have eternal life. He by himself purged our sin. He by himself satisfied the law's
demand, satisfied the father and everything the father required
for the salvation of his people. All things that God required,
he provided in Christ Jesus. Don't go to the law. It's just
death. That's all the law can produce.
No life came from the law ever. Even our Lord, whenever the sin
of his people was laid upon him and the Lord laid the iniquity
upon him, as the scripture talks about in Isaiah 53, what did
the law demand? Justice, death, even to God's
not a respecter of person. If I have any sin upon me whatsoever,
keeping the law is not going to do me any good because all
I'm working is iniquity. No, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. That's the message. He's the
one that kept the promise. He's the fulfillment of the promise.
Salvation's been secure. He's the only one that can take
a wretched, dead dog, unclean sinner. and make them white,
whiter than snow. The scripture tells us in verse
Isaiah 1, come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord, though
your sin be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. That's our
hope, isn't it? How, by keeping the law? No,
Christ is the fulfillment of the law by looking unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how do we look? By faith,
and where does faith come from? It comes from the Lord who gets
all the glory for it, he does. Now in closing, let's go back
to our text in Galatians chapter three. Let's read this again. And I
pray that the Lord has given us clarity on these verses this
time when we read it. Galatians three, verse 15 says,
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. He's saying that even though
it's a man's covenant, if it has been confirmed that you can't
disanul a man's covenant once a man's covenant is in place.
He's telling us, well, how much more do you think God's covenant
is then? Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not unto seeds as many, but as of one, and to thy seed,
which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise. but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. It's not of works. If it be of
the law, it be of works, but if it be of promise, it's of
all of grace. The Lord's saying, you've heard me say this before,
the Lord said, I will and you shall. What does it say over
in Isaiah chapter 40 or 43, I can't remember, but the Lord says,
I have redeemed you, I have bought you, I have loved you, I've saved
you, you're mine. That's the promise. That's the
promise. It's not, if you do this, then
I'll redeem you. If you do this, then I'll love
you. If you do this, then I'll save
you. The Lord said, I love you with an everlasting love. Never
had a beginning, never had an end. It's not based upon what
you do, but it's based upon the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. based upon my darling son." That's good news if you're
a sinner. That's good news if you're a
sinner. Here's what Paul's saying, the law cannot disannul the promise,
the covenant of grace, because it's from everlasting to everlasting.
Then Paul's declaring the inheritance of eternal life can only be received
by promise, not by the works of the law, but by the righteousness
that's of Jesus Christ, freely bestowed by his grace. Scripture
says in 1 Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath, I
love that word hath, maybe my second. I like now and I like
hath. Those are my two favorites, I
think. He hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. That's past tense. He hath begotten
his people to a lively hope. The Lord did all this for his
people. Thank God for the promise kept. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless them to our understanding
for your glory, that you may receive all glory for it. In
Christ's name. Amen.