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On our last occasion, we decided that since we only have three sessions together, we would divide the Epistles of the Galatians into three parts, somewhat arbitrarily, and try to get ourselves a bird's eye view of each of those parts, one per evening. Last week, we covered the first two chapters in that fashion. Tonight brings us to chapter three. Next week, God willing, we shall have to take as our third portion chapter four, five, and six. We decided last week, likewise, to help ourselves by singling out, again somewhat arbitrarily, by singling out one of the major ideas from each of those three sections for our study.
Last week, from the first two chapters, we took the topic, how may I live to please God? How may I live to please God? Next week, God willing, from the third section, we shall be considering the question, how may I enjoy true freedom? And what is freedom anyway? Tonight brings us to chapter three, and the major topic that I would like to select from it is the question, how may I be sure of my inheritance?
How may I be sure of my inheritance? In addition to that, we promised ourselves last week that as we got time, and now and again in the course of our studies, we should cast a sidelong glance at the kind of arguments that Paul is using in this epistle. He was, of course, a master at arguing for the sake of the gospel, not just to win arguments, but in order to convince people of God's truth and thus to lead them to salvation. And when he set about arguing a case, he would marshal every possible argument he knew how to, in order to convince you of the truth of that case.
And we were going, incidentally, to steal a leaf out of his book, so to speak, so that when we find ourselves in situations where, for the truth's sake and to help our friends and neighbors, we have gently to argue the case of the gospel, we shall learn what arguments there are at our disposal and how we may employ them. We shall do that again this evening, if and when we get time. Last week we noticed that the bulk of chapters one and two, not all, but the bulk of chapters one and two, is an argument taken from early church history, and what church history has got to do with the gospel and why it is important that we know about it.
We then try to teach ourselves from observing what use Paul makes of the argument from church history. This evening, the arguments will be of different kind, and we may care now, as we read the chapter together, Galatians chapter three, to be keeping our eyes skinned, to see and to ask ourselves, now what kind of arguments is this man getting up to as he reads us this lesson from chapter three. Galatians chapter three then, beginning in verse one. O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth, crucified?
This only would I learn from you, received you the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it did, if it be indeed in vain? He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Know therefore, that they which be of faith the same are sons of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed is every one which continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Now that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the righteous shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith, but he that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.
Now this I say, a covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise, but God has granted it to Abraham by promise. What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise has been made, and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
If the law then, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law. How be it, the scripture hath shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed, so that the law has been our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek. There can be neither bond nor free. There can be no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.
And may God use his word to strengthen within us the assurance and the enjoyment of that inheritance. I want then tonight, first of all, to come, as we did last week, to the major topic that is embraced in this chapter three. I sum it up with the question, how may I be sure of my inheritance? There are, of course, people around, aren't there, who say that you can be sure in the Christian life of very little at all. Some there are who would tell us that we cannot be sure of forgiveness of sins, and that we certainly cannot be sure of eternal life.
I have some good friends, not all that distant from here, who, hearing me remark that I had eternal life and was sure of it, thought I surely had gone a little bit queer in their head because they said, you know, my dear good man, but that's stupid to talk like that. Eternal life is a thing that you get after you die, my good man. You can't have it now, by definition. Yes, there are people that tell us that you cannot be sure of eternal life. We, of course, I suspect at least you would immediately see how false that is. When the Savior has told us categorically that he that believeth has everlasting life.
When the Holy Scripture declares that every believer has been born of God and received the life of God, then it is evident that we not only have eternal life, but can be sure of it. Yes, but there are some good believers, are there not, who would tell us that while you can be sure of eternal life and justification by faith, they are the only two things you can be sure of. And that when it comes to our inheritance, you can't be sure of it at all. And that if believers do not behave, then when the Lord comes and reigns in his millennial kingdom, believers that haven't been behaving themselves before then will be excluded from the kingdom.
They teach in a word a doctrine that is known as conditional kingdom. Only those that suffer with the Lord Jesus, they say, will reign with him, thereby implying that there are some believers that don't suffer with the Lord Jesus, and when he comes, they will not reign with him, but will be excluded from the kingdom and therefore from the inheritance, and will, if need be, spend their time in the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for the period of the millennial. Such teachers would tell us that, of course, the wicked servant whose talent was withdrawn was a servant, they say.
And he was cast out into the outer darkness, wasn't he, and missed the bridegroom's feast. Such teachers would tell us that the parable of the ten virgins is to be applied to Christians, that five of the virgins, being true believers, for they were virgins, went in when the Lord came into the marriage supper, and five of them, being believers, they say, but foolish believers, didn't get into the kingdom, but got shut out. And say these teachers, but they were virgins, weren't they, just like the others, you see? They teach in the word, therefore, what, as I say, has been called the doctrine of conditional kingdom.
Now, maybe you have never come across them, and I hope you never will. But supposing you did, it might be worthwhile knowing, wouldn't it? It would be worthwhile knowing anyway, whether you ever come across them or not. So much is at stake. It would be well worth knowing and going over it just once again, wouldn't it? This question, how can I be sure of my inheritance? What inheritance, you say? What inheritance? Well, that's a good question. What is this inheritance of which Galatians chapter three speaks so much. And we can begin to tie it down, can we not, by looking at verses fifteen following.
It's an inheritance that was promised to Abraham and to his seed. So if we want to know what inheritance it is, we should have to go back to the book of Genesis. It is, moreover, says this paragraph, an inheritance that was promised to Abraham and to his seed and guaranteed to him by a covenant. And that would pose us another question, which covenant? For God made one or two covenants with Abraham, didn't he, in the book of Genesis? So which covenant is this one talking about that guarantees the inheritance to Abraham and to his seed?
And the answer to that must surely be it is the covenant of which we read in Genesis in chapter fifteen. How can we be sure of that? Well, let's go back and, uh, look at it just for a moment, if you don't mind turning the pages. Genesis chapter fifteen. And we notice that in verse six of that great chapter comes that verse that is so basic to Paul's theology of the gospel. Verse six of Genesis fifteen: and he, that is Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.
There is the very foundation principle, the foundation verse of justification by faith. And before we finish tonight, we shall hear Paul quote it once more in this chapter three of Galatians. But when Abraham was justified by faith, immediately God began to speak of something else in addition. And God said to him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. So now God begins to speak of inheritance. There is justification by faith, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Justification by faith, but not only justification by faith, but now inheritance. I brought you out to give you this land to inherit it. And Abraham, being a very good man, but a very good businessman in addition, if those two are not incompatible, uh, when he saw something wonderful, wanted to be sure he was going to get it, said he, Lord, that's very nice inheritance, yes, very nice indeed. Excuse me, just how should I be sure I'm going to get it anyway? How shall I know I shall inherit it? You may write his question over chapter three of Galatians. How will you know that you're going to inherit it? And the answer that God gave to Abraham was, of course, as we read in that chapter fifteen, the covenant that God made to Abraham that day.
In that day the Lord made a covenant, says verse 18 of Genesis chapter fifteen. In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. Ah, but we've got to be lawyers as best we can tonight, even if we don't get paid for it, because so much is at stake. How can we be really sure that this is the covenant, though? Just suppose perhaps it might be the covenant of circumcision in chapter seventeen. There's another covenant in chapter seventeen of Genesis, isn't there, Josie? Verse two of chapter seventeen, God says, and I will make my covenant betwixt thee and me, and will multiply thee exceedingly, and therefore, uh, circumcision was instituted.
How can we be sure which covenant is the one that guarantees the inheritance? Well, we can be sure if we read now, keep your thumb in Genesis fifteen and turn over the place, if you will, to Romans chapter four. For Paul is here recurring to the self same theme, Romans chapter four. Once more, Paul is in process of teaching that justification is by faith, you'll see. But in order to prove that justification is by faith, in chapter four of Romans, Paul goes on to prove that something more as well is by faith.
Let's read, for instance, verse thirteen of chapter four of Romans. For not through the law was the promise to Abram or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. Do you see? So here's this business of the inheritance, and it's all together by faith. How do you know that, says your critic to Paul? Well, let's go back and find, uh, how we know it. Look at verse nine. Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision or upon the uncircumcision also?
For we say to Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them, and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
For not through the law was the promise to Abraham that he should be heir of the world. The promise that he should be heir of the world was given to Abram, says Paul, when he was still uncircumcised. That must be before chapter seventeen of Genesis then. Before circumcision was instituted. While Abram was still uncircumcised, he was not only justified by faith, but while he was still uncircumcised, he was given the guarantee of this promise of world inheritance.
So we've sorted out which covenant it is that's going to give Abram and his seed absolute security on this matter of the inheritance. But one of you says, perhaps, but Mr. Preacher, sir, something's gone a bit curious wrong, hasn't it? You see, because Romans chapter four says that the promise is going to be that he shall be heir of the world. So I can't find that in Genesis fifteen. Is that so? Well, no, you say the terms of the covenant in Genesis fifteen are very, very, very clear. All right, let's read them. Uh, verse 18 of Genesis 15, Genesis 15 and verse 18.
In that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. There you are, you say. That was only a certain two thousand uh square miles in the Middle East. That wasn't the whole world. Where have you got this idea from that he's going to inherit the whole world? Well, Romans chapter four says that's how it is anyway, and Romans chapter four is Bible, so that there it stands, the promise to Abraham and his seed that he should be heir of the world.
So let me tell you a first thing about covenants that we all ought to remember. You see, and that is the man who makes the covenant and promises thereby to pay a certain sum or to give a certain gift. There are many things that he may not change, but there's one thing he may. If one of these days you decide to have a bungalow for your retirement, sir, and you agree with Builder Flackety to, uh, build you this bungalow, and you say, I want this bungalow for fifty thousand pounds, please, Mr. Flackety. You'll say, and it's got to have so many bedrooms, bathrooms, washrooms, and all the other rooms.
Do you see? And if you build me the bungalow to my specifications, then I will pay you the fifty thousand. And you sign on the dotted line, and it's a covenant, it's a contract, yeah. And builder faculty, he builds the bungalow to your specifications and invites you to come and see it, and you say, marvelous builder faculty, you've fulfilled all the conditions very well, says builder faculty, now, now you'll fulfill yours, please, Fifty thousand, if you don't mind. Now, I tell you something, in that very moment, the covenant between you says that now you've got to pay fifty thousand. Yes? You mustn't pay forty nine you gotta pay 50. Ah, but if you want to, you could pay sixty five thousand, and Bill the faculty won't object, nor will the lawyers downtown object, nor will the judge on the bench object.
If you say, yes, I did promise to pay you fifty thousand, but now I've decided to pay you sixty five thousand, nobody will object. You have perfect liberty so to do. You mustn't pay less. You may give more. If God promised on covenant to give this to Abraham, God may not give less than that to Abraham. He can give more if he pleases. So that number one point about covenants. Which covenant is it then? It is this covenant in, uh, Genesis fifteen.
Well then, now comes our question, our basic question. How can, how can I be sure that I am going to inherit this inheritance? This, what the New Testament now says, is going to be interpreted as world. How can I be sure I'm going to inherit it? Well, I used to have some fellow Christians who didn't want it anyway. That might surprise you, I don't know, or perhaps you were one of them. I speak with due respect, of course. But I was brought up with a lot of dear believers who didn't want this inheritance, to be sure. They said, well, let Abram have it. We don't want it. It's earthly, you know. What would we be doing with a few, uh, square miles in the Middle East?
We don't want it, my dear brother, they said. We belong to the church. We're going home to glory. We don't want any acres down here in this world. No, no, no, no, no, that's our God's, that's for God's earthly people. That's their portion. We've got a heavenly one. And they were in dear, sincere blessing, and they've gone home to glory, most of them. God bless their memory. They were a tremendous help to me. They've now found out that as well as heaven, they're going to have it we- whether they want it or not. They're going to have the earth as well. How may you be sure? Because it's covenanted to Abraham and to his seed, and the seed is Christ. And Christ is never going to say, thank you, Father, you've given me the heavens.
Of course, I wouldn't want the earth. Is he? Of course not. And to suggest it was a little unspiritual of the Lord Jesus to demand the inheritance of the world, the earth, as well as heaven, that would bore von Plassmann, wouldn't it? Of course the Lord Jesus is going to inherit all things, our little planet included. There's nothing unspiritual about it. And here is the great covenant then that makes it absolutely sure to Abram and to his seed.
How may I be sure? Well, we shall have to stay with legal things just for a moment, for that's what Abram asked the Lord himself, didn't he? Good businessman. He said, Lord, this inheritance, but how may I know I shall inherit it? And the story is there for you to read in Genesis fifteen, how we may be sure. For God told Abraham to make a sacrifice, a covenant sacrifice. It sounds a bit odd in our modern. Abram got the animals of the sacrifice, he killed them, he cut them up into their pieces, though the birds he divided not, and then he put the pieces of the sacrifice in two rows.
And that was because of this, that in the ancient world, when people made a covenant, man between man or man and God making a covenant. Then what they did is to do a sacrifice like this and put the parts of the sacrifice in two rows, and then the parties to the covenant walked solemnly between the rows of the sacrifice. There is another example of it in the book of Jeremiah, if you care to hunt it up. On one occasion, the nobles in Jerusalem decided that they were going to let their Hebrew slaves free.
These good nobles were Hebrews themselves, and by the law they should have never have made slaves of their fellow Hebrew brethren. And being convicted of their sin in having Hebrew slaves at all, they decided to repent and to set their Hebrew slaves free, and they made a covenant before God that they were going to set these slaves free. They promised to do it. God hadn't got anything to do. But they were going to make a promise to God and covenant with God that they would, uh, set the slaves free. So they got the covenant victims, and they cut them in pieces, and they put two rows of them, and the men of Judah walked through.
God didn't walk through. God hadn't got anything to do. It was a one-sided thing. But the men of Judah walked through, for they were binding themselves, uh, to fulfill this covenant and to do what the covenant said they got to do. What they promised to do. They walked between the pieces. Of course, if you had a two-sided covenant in those ancient days, then both parties had to walk through the pieces.
Going back to Master Flaccati in your bungalow, if we had this system nowadays of forming a covenant, it would look rather queer, wouldn't it, to have it done here in Knockbracken, but thus it would be. Suppose that you and Flackety had been living in those early days and you came to this covenant arrangement, you see. Ah, well, then you get the covenant victims out, and Flackety would walk through because he promises that he's going to build a bungalow, yes. And you would walk through because you promised that if he built the bungalow, you would pay the fifty thousand. and you both of you have to walk through the pieces because both of you had got some promise to fulfill. Yeah. Nowadays, you don't do it that way, do you?
You go down to some solicitor or other, and he gets some rather expensive paper and some very expensive ink, and with a very expensive pen and some very expensive sealing wax, um, he writes out this thing and, uh, you sign it and build a flag, and he signs it because you've got both of you have got things that you've got to do and fulfill. Yeah. So that's a two-party covenant, when both sides have got something to fulfill. He builds the house, you pay the money. You pay the money, he builds the house. If you break it and don't pay, you don't get the house.
If he breaks it and doesn't build the house, you don't pay the money. It's a two-sided affair. Ah yes, but as well as two-sided covenants, there are, as I say, other kinds of covenants, aren't there, in the legal world? There are one-sided covenants. We had one just now from the book of Jeremiah, where the men of Jeremiah's day made God a promise of the covenant. God hadn't got anything to do. Only the men of Judah, and they promised by covenant, uh, that they would set their s- slaves free. So only they walk between the feet. All of us, I hope, I suspect, hope or have hope or will hope yet, that one of these days we may come into the good of a one-party covenant.
What? When your uncle Carson from Florida, uh, d- dies, you see, and you hope that the lawyers will write presently and tell you that your uncle, uh, Florida has died and he's left you in his will. And you've got his house, and you've got his seaside chalet, and you've got his two ocean-going yachts, and you've got his ranch, and you've got shares in the businesses he was in, and it's all yours, and here it is in the will. And you say, what have I got to do for it? And the lawyer says, nothing at all. Nothing at all? No. You say, well, how can I be sure I'm going to get it because I haven't signed anything at all, you say. The lawyer will say, uh, you don't have to sign anything at all.
You've no promises to fulfill, nothing to do, just to receive it. You see, this is a contract, this is a covenant, but it's a one-party covenant. In other words, it's a will. And the man who's making the promise, the man who's making the will and guaranteeing you that when he dies, this will be yours, he has to sign it. But not you. You've nothing to do but to take it. Of course, you can, if you like, throw it away and say, I don't believe in that kind of stuff, silly old nonsense, isn't what the paper's written on, tear it up. I don't want it. You can reject it if you want to, but if you want to have all that that was your Uncle Carson's, all you've got to do is to say, thank the dear uncle for giving me this by his will and guaranteeing it to me so that nobody else runs away with it, not even a solicitor.
And then God made a promise to Abraham that he and his seed should be heir of the world. I'd no wonder Abraham said, here, here, oh, wait a minute, how shall I know I shall inherit this? God said, make a covenant. And of course, we who've got a vested interest in the matter, now we're all ears and eyes, aren't we? To see what Genesis says. What kind of a covenant is this going to be? Is it going to be a two-sided thing? That God promises to give it to Abram and to his seed, if Abram and his seed keeps the law of Moses. In other words, is God going to do something, but Abram's got to do something as well?
Is it going to be a two-party covenant? Or is it going to be a one-party covenant? Like a will. Well, we can soon answer that question, for Genesis fifteen is careful to tell us, isn't it, eh, in very plain words. Abram put the pieces there. You'll see in verse seventeen says, and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces.
And who was that? Well, of course, the symbol and outward manifestation of the very presence of God. As God walked between the pieces. You say, didn't Abram walk between the pieces? No. How do you know? Because he was asleep. Says so, doesn't it? Verse twelve, And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, so he wasn't walking through any pieces. How shall I know I shall inherit it, said Abraham, and the answer is given through the covenant sacrifice. What kind of a covenant? A one-party covenant in which Abraham had nothing to do.
And God did everything. God signed it, thus binding himself that he would give this inheritance to Abraham and to his seed. Marvelous, isn't it? And all Abram's got to do is to believe and take it. Oh, but you say, ah, but wait a minute, Paul, you see, God did require the Israelites to keep the law? Long years after this covenant.
Four hundred and thirty years, in fact, after the covenant with Abraham, the law was given to Israel. And says Paul, do you see? I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one maketh it void or addeth thereto. This I say, that a covenant confirmed before by God, the law which came four hundred and thirty years afterwards, does not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. Well, this is the second thing, or is it the third? I- I- I'm lost on my numbers, that we've got to learn about covenants.
Once a covenant has been concluded, you cannot add to its conditions. We said that you can add to its benefits, but you mustn't add to its conditions. Let's get old Flackety once more, yeah? And you and Flackety have signed this covenant, and he's going to build you this house to these specifications, you'll see, and you're going to pay him fifty thousand. It's no good when five years later Flaccidi comes and says, at last I finished it. And Flaccidi says, but you'll have to pay me another fifty thousand on top of the first lot, you know. Prices have gone up.
I'm sorry, Flaccidi, my boy, but you gave me a fixed term contract. There was no clause in it that if after five years, uh, prices had gone up, you could ask me more. It was a fixed term contract. Sorry, blankety. It's fixed. You cannot demand extra terms and conditions once the thing has been fulfilled. And if God made a covenant with Abraham, Genesis fifteen, and there were no conditions for Abraham to fulfill. He simply had to believe it and take it. Not God himself can come to Abraham four hundred and thirty years later and say, sorry, Abraham, I, I really meant, you know, when we signed that covenant and I said I was going to covenant you this inheritance, sorry, Abraham, I meant to add in the Ten Commandments, and I forgot.
So now, I'm afraid, in order to get the inheritance, you'll have to keep the Ten Commandments. No, no, no, you can't do like that. Once the covenant's been signed, sealed, and settled, you cannot add to the conditions. It imposes, and the argument's not mine, it's Paul's argument. You say that's rather a crude, business-like argument, isn't it? Yes, Paul says, I speak after the manner of men. But God wouldn't want to add to the conditions. He knew exactly what he was doing. He made his covenant with Abram four hundred and thirty years before the law. There wasn't a mention in all its terms of the law.
It was, in fact, a one-party covenant, and Abram wasn't required to do anything except to believe God and thus become an heir of the promise. How may we know we shall inherit it? This worldwide inheritance. We know it on the basis of a covenant of God. You say, but you know, the covenant with Abraham was made merely with animals, animal sacrifices. Can I be absolutely sure of the benefits that come from the covenant that was made on the ground of animal sacrifices?
Well, if you can't, my brother, though it was a good business deal in its day, and God doesn't go back on his business deals. But since that time, Jesus Christ our Lord has died, and by his sacrifice validated all those ancient covenants. I shall not need to tell you that that great covenant that we celebrate every time we take the cup into our hands at the Lord's Supper, the cup of the new covenant, is like that earlier covenant, a one party covenant, where Christ pledges himself, and all we have to do is to take it and receive it.
How may I be sure of my inheritance? Oh, you say, Mr. Preacher, there's one thing that you haven't tied up yet. Abraham can be sure of it because the covenant was made with Abraham. And you say the seed can be sure of it because the covenant was made with Abraham and with his seed. But you say, I'm not Abraham's seed. How can I be sure of it? Well, if you're not Abraham's seed, that's too bad. I'm sorry, you never will have it. Hmm. Well, there's another thing you can't do with covenants. You can't add any names to them when once they've been, uh, settled, you know.
It's no good if you hear your Auntie Emma Liner has died, and she was a dear old girl, she was also tremendously rich before she died, and you've been visiting her quite regularly since she's been a little bit frail, out of the kindness of your heart. And when you hear she's dead, you see, you, uh, you, uh, think it would be good to attend the funeral and hear the will read. You might hear something to your advantage, as the lawyers say. So you go and wait upon them, and the lawyer, he reads, the family lawyer, he reads the will, and there's so much to Tommy, and there's so much to Edward, and there's so much to Marjorie, and there's so much, uh, plus, uh, the chicken shed, uh, to William. Very good. And then the lawyer says, oh, that's that. And you say, no, no, no, it can't be that.
Uh, you've made a mistake. My name's in there too. And he says, well, who are you? You say, I'm Wilhelmina. Oh. Well, look again. Sorry, there's no Wilhelmina down here. Oh, I can't know about that. I know my aunt, you see. Uh, she would have, she would have left me something. I know that for sure, I mean. Well, he says, your name's not down here. Oh, well, put it down, you say, because I'm sure she'd have wanted me in. The lawyer's saying, sorry, if your name isn't in it, it isn't in it, and nobody can add it in. This covenant was promised to Abraham and to his seed. If you're not Abraham's seed, I'm sorry, you'll never inherit it. You cannot now add a name, thousands of years too late.
No good saying, well, I think it really meant Abraham, his seed, and David good. That's nonsense. That's just Abram and his seed. Well, you say, then how on earth can I inherit it at all? Ah, that's just the point, isn't it? By keeping the law and trying to be ever so good and saying to God, look here, I've nearly kept your law perfectly, so I think I ought to qualify for this inheritance. Nonsense. Well, then how? Listen, says Paul. Many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Like a man would take a large flowing robe, such as they wore in the ancient world from head to foot. And the man would go inside it, and the robe would be put over him and cover him completely. If you have been baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. So Christ covers you completely, and in the eyes of the law, when the law looks at you, all it sees is Christ, because Christ covers you completely. You are in Christ. It's a covering that obliterates all other distinctions, whether you be male or female, or Jew or Greek, or bond or free.
Being in Christ obliterates all those distinctions. If you're in Christ, then Christ covers you completely. You see, you're all the sons of God by faith. You are in Christ. Now, if you are Christ's, in Christ, joined to Christ, well then, if you're Christ's, you are the seed then, aren't you? Then are you Abraham's seed. For the Lord Jesus is the seed.
And if you're in him, what comes to him comes to you. My good man, my good woman, are you in Christ? That's the thing to get hold of, isn't it? Are you in Christ? Not a question, have you kept the law, even if you've kept it a hundred percent, that wouldn't qualify you. There's nothing to do with the covenant. Oh, but if you are in Christ, then you are the seed referred to in that very chapter of Genesis. And if it hasn't dawned on you before, well, when you get home, get your Bible out in a spare moment instead of looking up the page of the shares and stocks and shares in the Times tomorrow, just for a change, get out Genesis and say, look at that down there in black and white, Abraham and his seed.
You know that seed? That's me. Well, that's Christ, really, but you see, I'm in Christ. And there's the thing written in the inspired document given us of God, my name in it. You see, that term, the seed, includes me. I can be sure of that, yes. But I sure thought it was only one person's seed, no, says Ball. It says not to seeds as of many, but seed as of one. It's an old-fashioned way of talking about a collective noun.
Seed is grammatically singular, and yet it can be plural counted. I come across you one of these days and you've got a pretty little packet in your hand. Even if you kept it a hundred percent, that wouldn't qualify you. There's nothing to do with the covenant. Oh, but if you are in Christ, then you are the seed referred to in that very chapter of Genesis. And if it hasn't dawned on you before, well, when you get home, get your Bible out in a spare moment instead of looking up the page of the shares and stocks and shares in the Times tomorrow, just for a change, get out Genesis and say, look at that down there in black and white, Abraham and his seed.
You know that seed? That's me. Well, that's Christ, really, but you see, I mean Christ. And there's the thing written in the inspired document given us of God, my name in it. You see, that term, the seed, includes me. I can be sure of that, yes. But I sure thought it was only one person's seed, no, says Ball. It says not to seeds as of many, but seed as of one. It's an old-fashioned way of talking about a collective noun.
Seed is grammatically singular. And yet, it can be plural counted. I come across you one of these days and you've got a pretty little packet in your hand that you just bought from, uh, uh, Hallmark or somebody, uh, uh, and I say, what have you got there? There's a packet of stuff to put in the garden. You will say, I've got some seed in this packet. And you're referring to perhaps a hundred seeds. Because seed in Hebrew, as in English, is a singular word with a plural meaning.
And when God said to Abraham and to his seed, yes, he referred to Christ. Oh, but Christ is not just one solitary individual. The Christ is the blessed Lord Jesus, and all who have been baptized into him in their myriads upon myriads, in him, and therefore seed of Abraham, and therefore heirs according to the promise. And who can imagine what it will be? It's as so easy, isn't it, here tonight just to go through the legal arguments, and we do well.
God give us a moment, uh, and an imagination. By his spirit's help and grace, it might begin to sink into us what is the length and breadth and height and depth to realize that when our blessed Lord Abraham's seed is given his inheritance from sure to sure, the whole universe will, because I'm in him, it will be given to me. Justification by faith, oh, but that's only a beginning.
On top of justification, says Paul, there are the promises, you see, and there is the inheritance, and there is the covenant, and all of them on that same glorious principle, not our works, but, uh... We promised you would just take a sidelong glance at other matters. Let's do that before we go, hurriedly enough. We've now found out from this chapter how we can be sure of our inheritance and what that inheritance is.
What's that got to do with the argument in Galatians? Why, the argument in Galatians, of course, was, uh, aimed basically at this point. If I have trusted Christ for justification, do I have to add thereto the works of the law to qualify for or to keep my justification? Do I have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be justified? Is it so that, uh, I can trust Christ, and that's good, but to that I shall have to add circumcision and the keeping of the law in order to be justified? And the answer, of course, is no, of course not.
We're justified by faith in Christ, apart from the works of the law. How will you prove it, Paul? Oh, he says, in all sorts of ways. But one of the ways I shall prove it, says Paul, is this, that look, the Old Testament says not merely the justification is by faith, it says the promise is by faith, and the inheritance is by faith, and the covenant is by faith. And if while inheritance is given us through the covenant simply by faith, that the promise might be sure to all the seed. The promise and the inheritance and the covenant are by faith, it stands to reason that, uh, justification is too, doesn't it?
It would also stand to reason that if it is a serious thing to preach that our justification depends on the works of the law, very serious, so it would be a serious thing to preach that our inheritance depends on the works of the law, wouldn't it? So what other arguments will Paul bring to bear upon it? In the first verses of chapter three, he brings an argument from experience. And the argument for experience, it's only a little argument, it only occupies a very few verses down to verse five.
But it's worth making, Paul makes it. It's the argument from experience that runs like this. Look, my dear good man, how did you start in the Christian life? Well, if that's how you started, that'll be how you carry on. How did you start, uh, how did you receive the Spirit? Through the works of the law? Oh no, you say, I received the Holy Spirit through, through faith. Well, that's how you'll carry on then. He that worketh miracles through you, does he do it by the hearing of the, uh, of faith or by the works of the law? You said he did that. I mean, up here in Galatia, we hadn't seen any miracles. We hadn't even heard the gospel until the preachers came, and, uh, we believed the gospel, and God gave us his Holy Spirit, and way up here in Galatia, he did some miracles to authenticate it.
Well, that was all through the gospel of faith. Well, if that's how you started, that's how you'll keep on, isn't it? Because, says Paul, having begun in the spirit, do you suppose you're going to be perfected by the fresh. Let's use an illustration, and forgive it if it's a silly illustration. Most of my illustrations are a- a- analogies, you'll see. Uh, but forgive it anyway, just to see the point and force of the argument. Yes? Suppose one of these days you're wanting, I couldn't think why, to take a ton of potatoes to Dublin. So you get out the garden wheelbarrow, and you load these potatoes on this wheelbarrow.
I'm gonna push these things to Dublin, and you start, you see. And you get a little way down the Lisbon road, but it's proving a long way to Dublin, and a pun ton of potatoes on the wheelbarrow, and it's gonna take a lot of pushing. And you begin to wonder whether you'll ever get to Dublin. When out comes your friend, and you've got a twenty-ton diesel lorry, brings the thing up alongside of you. He says, look at old chap, you'll never get to Dublin with those spuds. Give them to me. I'll take you, the barrow, and the spats all together on the lorry. You'll see, now we go, this is, I don't know, one hundred and twenty horsepower under the bonnet here, though, and so in you get. Now the propulsion is by a different method, and you're going propelled by the old diesel in the engine.
So you get over the board, and you get halfway, and it is time to have to get some lunch, so you go in. You're already miles in advance of what you would have been had you been pushing your wheelbarrow. You would have been up to the traffic lights at Lisbon, but you're halfway to Dublin now, and you're having lunch, of course, and after lunch you go out hurriedly, and uh, when your friend comes out, the lorry driver, there are you at the back of the lorry, got your shoulder up against it. He says, don't you feel well? No, you say, I'm trying to, I'm going to push now for a little way. You're going to push for a little way? Yes, you say, I mean, it's nice to have a diesel lorry, uh, to bring you some of the way. Now we're well started. Now I think I'll add a little of my pushing to it. You think a lorry driver would say, you stupid fellow, having begun by diesel, are you going now to get on the way by pushing?
Well, I'll tell you something, you can't push a twenty-ton diesel lorry. It ain't one of those things. You push a wheelbarrow, you can't push a twenty-ton diesel lorry. If you want to do some pushing, you oughtn't to have come by lorry. And if you've begun by the Spirit because you couldn't get salvation by the works of the law, if you abandoned that and trusted Christ and have been born again by his Holy Spirit, that was a miracle of God's grace. That's how you'll have to proceed. Suppose having started by the miracle of God's grace in his spirit, you're then going to add a little bit by meritorious keeping of the law.
You've mistaken the categories. You can swim across the Atlantic if you like, but if you decide you'd rather go by airplane, then it'll have to be all the way by airplane. You can't mix it. But with that little appeal to experience gone by, Paul now comes to another set of arguments, and the whole lot of them come from scripture. And what a man he was when he started to argue scripture at you. How does d- did God, he says, how did God supply his spirit to you?
Well, there's no doubt about it, he says, even as Abraham believed God, and it counted to him for righteousness. Jolly good, that's scripture number one. Ah, but he won't leave it to just one scripture. One, two, three, four, five, six! Like peas in a pod. Scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture. We had them all at his fingertips. Him to wait and say, there is a scripture in Jeremiah. Now, where is it? Now, I'm sure it's there. And of course, your unsaved friend is looking on saying, yes, yes, tell me another. Where is there ever such a scripture that says you can have eternal life free? And you say, I know there is, it's a... Now, where is it? It's in Genesis, I think.
No, no, perhaps it isn't. Perhaps it's in the Revelation. What use is that? You have to have them at your fingertips if you're going to do any good. And not only that, when you quoted the first one, that perhaps won't be enough because your friend will say, ah, yes, that's your interpretation, but there's another way of looking at it, so you better have another scripture to count with another way of looking at it then. You watch how Paul uses his scripture, if you will, and just bear with me and and look at the succession of them down there in chapter three, in those verses from chapter eight onward. First of all, there is Genesis chapter fifteen and verse six, the basic verse, even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Know therefore that they which be of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. Ah, but here comes an objector. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. But no, Paul, that's all right for Jews, you see. They are, they could qualify perhaps, but, but uh, we're not Jews, we're Gentiles. So it doesn't have to be the same for Gentiles as it is for Jews. Ah, but Paul's got a scripture ready for them, hasn't he? He's thought of that one before they had. And what about Genesis twelve, says he, and Genesis eighteen eighteen, and more beside? For the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith as well, preached the gospel before even to Abraham and said, in thee and in thy seed shall all the Gentiles be blessed.
So it, uh, refers to Gentiles as well. Scripture number two. Oh well, says some other objector, yes, oh Paul, well, if you like to have it that way then, you choose, I see, you make, uh, uh, you make, uh, you make Abraham your model. Well, that's very good. But you see, now we make Moses our model. And you get to heaven and justification by faith. Now we shall get there by keeping the law. You go your way, we shall go our way. What's wrong with that?
Well, I tell you what's wrong with that, says Paul. You'll never get there your way. How do you know? Well, says Paul, he, Deuteronomy twenty seven verse twenty six says that they that are of the law are all under a curse. Because cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. So you tried a way of keeping the law, Deuteronomy twenty seven says you'll be under a curse, and that very smartly. Ah, now I can see the old rabbi stroke his beard kind of in the synagogue and say, Paul, who do you think you're talking to?
You may not be able to keep the law, we can. So what do you say now? Well, he's got another scripture, of course, ready for them, hasn't he? Well, suppose, gentlemen, you could keep the law. It's a big supposition, isn't it? But suppose you could keep the law, you still wouldn't get justified because... Well, how do you know that? Well, says Paul, you see, uh, the scripture says the just shall live by faith. Not by keeping the works of the law.
And if you want the references of Batak, chapter two and verse four. The just shall live by faith. Oh, but says the rabbi, you see, ah, but Paul, you see, I've got great faith that if I keep the law, I shall be well with God. I've got great faith in my effort to keep the law. That's Paul. Well, then you can't have read Leviticus eighteen eight then. For you see, Leviticus eighteen eight tells us quite plainly that the law is not of faith. When God says the just shall live by faith, he's talking of the opposite of the law, because the law runs on a different principle. Leviticus eighteen eight says, he that doeth them shall live in.
The law is on the principle of do, and salvation is on the principle of believe. Ah, and now here comes a good Christian. Well, I don't know about the good bit, but, you know, one of those folks that professes to be a Christian and is very, very God-fearing and doing his best. He says, but, you know, I couldn't sh- be sure of that. I couldn't be sure like you that I'm saved, that I've been justified. I do think we have to keep the law, you know. But of course, I wouldn't say it's my credit. I mean, if in the end, uh, when God judges me, I've kept the law well enough to get salvation, I shall still say it's by God's grace because, you see, it's God giving me the grace to do the works to keep the law that merit the salvation, see.
And therefore, that's why I trust Christ, and I pray to Christ every day to give me the grace to keep the law, so I shall merit salvation. And surely that's what Christ came to do, didn't he? To help us keep the law, so that we could merit salvation. And it's all by his grace if we succeed by his help to keep the law to get salvation. Nonsense, says Paul, absolutely nonsense. Christ did not come to help you to keep the law to get saved. What did he do? He came to bear the curse of the broken law that you couldn't keep, so that by bearing its curse for you, you may be quit of the law.
And Christ was made a curse for us, as it is, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Oh, my good friend, I know them by the hundred. Sincere men and women who think that when sal- the scripture says that salvation is by grace, yes, they would say, of course it is by grace. They think it means this, that you pray to Christ and he gives you the grace by his grace to keep the law that then merits the salvation.
Not so, is it? Not what you mean by grace. It's the opposite way round. Christ faces the fact we've broken the law, deserved its curse. He's not giving us the grace so that we should now keep it to, to avoid the penalty. Faces the fact we've broken it and are cursed, and himself has become a curse for us, that we be set free. Well, if you say that, and anybody knows their stuff, there's one more question they'll come back at you. And they'll say, well, I don't know. I don't know about these verses. You, you keep bringing me salvation by faith, but I do know this, the law of Moses in the Bible anyway.
You keep saying that salvation isn't by the law. Well, the law is in the Bible anyway. What on earth is the law for then? It's no good if at that point you have to say I don't know, is it? Because it's in the Bible and occupies rather a large part in the Bible. So if you have first proved that salvation is by grace through faith, now you must be ready with your next answer. What then was the law for? So that negatively and positively and positively and negatively, you may sew up the argument both ways. We're not belittling the law, you know. The law is God's law. It is holy and just and good, and it had its proper function, and briefly put, it was this.
It was to show you your transgressions are so impossibly bad. It was to keep sin under restraint until Christ should come. And showing us how impossible sinners we were, it might bring us to the Savior, that we might be justified through faith in him. Good old law, if it's done its job, convicting us of sin and bringing us to Christ for salvation, for that is what it was meant to do. Not only justification, but the promise and the covenant and worldwide inheritance given free and for nothing to those that were nothing but bankrupt sinners.
Shall we give thanks? Our Father, now we pause just to praise thee for thy word. Oh, how magnificent is thy salvation. How magnificent and infinite thy grace. It had been marvelous if thou had simply forgiven us. But Lord, when we think of what thine abundant and divine grace has planned and now covenanted for us, we simply bow at thy feet, lost for words, but sincerely we want to thank thee and to praise thee. And as heirs of God through Jesus Christ, heirs to this infinite riches, God, we beseech thee, help us to walk worthy thereof, and help us to have compassion for those that still live in the bankruptcy of sin and in the bankruptcy of mere religion, and speed our feet to them that they might be delivered and set free.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
