God's Promise Is Unconditional

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. You think about any local church, brings together all sorts of different people. If it wasn't for Christ, these people would not be brought together.

We're all different and that's good. We don't want to all be the same. But this unity we have is in Christ. What was the problem in the book of Galatians? The false teachers were creating, okay, Christ brings unity.

The false teachers were bringing disunity. Why? Because they were coming in and teaching law. They were teaching law that you needed to do works in order to be saved. And instead of God loving the Gentiles, no, you had to be circumcised and basically you had to become one of us.

You had to be Jewish in order to be a child of God. And as we've said many times for adult male converts, that was a massive stumbling block. They were not inclined to do that, obviously. Worse than that, just a stumbling block, it was a false gospel.

Saying that you need to become Jewish or you need to be circumcised in order to be saved, that is a false gospel. Because anytime you add anything to the gospel, it corrupts it. The gospel is the gospel.

You take anything away from it, you add anything to it, it becomes a different gospel. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter how good that thing is. One of the things we've seen and heard the past few years that people want to add to the gospel, they want to add justice to the gospel.

If you think of it, and that's very clever because justice is part of the gospel in the sense of God's justice. But they want to attach a movement that you may think it's good or you may not think it's good.

It doesn't matter, it's not part of the gospel. You could have the greatest thing in the world, if you try to add it to the gospel of Jesus Christ it becomes bad. If you're teaching you have to do this, and this, and this in order to be saved.

You understand? The gospel, people's souls are at stake. And this is what false teachers do. They're very clever. They want to try to add something to the gospel of salvation by faith alone. That's the key word.

Alone.

Paul says not by the works of the law. Because as soon as you add works, the gospel is no longer of grace. And if it's not of grace, it's not the gospel of Christ. Okay, so not only were the Galatians not justified by the works of the law.

Nobody ever in the history of the world, nobody has ever been saved through the law. Nobody has ever been saved because of their good works. Look at verse 17. And he says in this I say that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ.

That it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. So the old covenant of the law does not replace, it does not nullify the covenant of promise.

The covenant of promise to Abraham, what did I say it was? It's, what's the word, the key? Unconditional.

Okay.

The covenant of the law had conditions. The Jews broke it. And all the way back in the Old Testament scriptures, Jeremiah 31 for example. And then in Hebrews chapter 8. There's many verses that make it clear the Old Testament law, the covenant of the law was never meant to be around forever.

It was never meant to endure forever. It was temporary. The Jews broke it. It eventually came to an end. And that leads to a question.

Right?

And Paul anticipates the question. Look at verse 19. What purpose then does the law serve?

Okay.

So now we're making the transition into the second part of the message.

Right?

What's the title of the message? The Abrahamic covenant and the purpose of God's law. So what is the purpose of God's law? I just want to read from commentator Matthew Henry. And what he says about verses 15 through 18.

And bear with me because he wrote a couple hundred years ago, I think. So the way he speaks is a little different than the way we talk. Matthew Henry writes. He says the covenant God made with Abraham was not done away by the giving of the law to Moses.

Okay.

So far so good. The covenant was made with Abraham and his seed and is still in force. Christ abideth forever in his person and his spiritual seed who are his by faith. By this we learn the difference between the promises of the law and those of the gospel.

The promises of the law are made to the person of every man. The promises of the gospel are first made to Christ then by him to those who are by faith engrafted into Christ. See, I told you you have to pay attention.

Rightly to divide the word of truth. A great difference must be put between the promise and the law as to the inward affections and the whole practice of life. Here's the key. When the promise is mingled with the law, it is made nothing but law.

Let Christ always be before our eyes as a sure argument for the defense of faith against dependence on human righteousness. That last part we should be able to understand against dependence on human righteousness.

Most people today, they depend on human righteousness. They depend on their own righteousness. We talked about this last week that nobody is justified before God by being a good person. Nobody is justified before God by keeping a list of rules.

Well, I already know that and you've repeated it and we learn how? Through repetition. This is what people are inclined to think. I'm going to heaven or I'm saved because I'm a good person. How should you respond?

Because we all hear that. How should you respond? Here's how I think you should respond if you hear someone say that. Well, I think I'm going to be okay because I'm a good person. Simply ask them, by what standard?

By what standard? Usually, it's a made-up standard or they're the standard. Like, they think they're the standard of righteousness. Or they say, oh, no, no, no. It's by society's standard. Oh, you mean the society that's changing its view of morality every new generation?

That standard?

That doesn't work out too well. What's the standard? God is the standard. His law is the standard. So then, what is the purpose of the law? Look at verse 19. What purpose, then, does the law serve? Paul says it was added because of what?

It was added because of transgressions. What's a synonym for transgression?

Sin.

Right.

That's simple enough. In other words, because of sin. The law was added because of sin. What does the scripture say? In Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. And yet, most people think they're pretty good.

The Judaizers, they must have thought that they were pretty good. Because they were justified by the works of the law. We're keeping the law. They were totally blind. They were violating the law. Everybody violates the law.

Most people who you would talk to who believe that there is this place called heaven and hell. And I can't help myself. I read an article in the paper. I won't tell you what month it was because then you could go find it and find out who it was.

I don't want to do that.

I want to be gracious.

But they were talking about do people of faith really need to believe in heaven and hell? Do we really need to believe that? And she was talking about how Christian churches are on the decline. Christian churches are on the decline, she said.

But the one bright spot is that Islam in America is starting to flourish. Think about this from a Christian minister, supposedly. Oh, yeah, Christianity and churches are on the decline. But, hey, Islam is on the rise.

That's what?

What is going on here? But it's people like that that teach works righteousness. Whether they believe in heaven or not, they probably don't. But even if they do, that's works righteousness. That they believe that I'm justified because I'm a good person and I'm part of this movement.

You almost never hear groups like that admit I'm a sinner who's fallen short of God's standard. Where does it start? A rejection of God's law. That's where it starts. A rejection of God's law. So Paul says it was added because of transgression.

Someone who thinks that they're meeting the standard, what's the word for that? Begins with a P. I'll give you a little hint. Well, I'm meeting God's standard. I'm a good person. What's the word?

Pride. Pride.

This is one thing just about everybody agrees on. Pride is bad. In the Bible, pride is a bad thing. Well, the Israelites in Paul's day had bought into a version of all this. Those who practiced, and still do, practice Judaism, they don't see the truth of the law of God.

Because they don't see Christ in the necessity for the gospel of faith alone in the law. They're blind to that. Jesus said in John 539, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.

But these are they which testify of me. If you don't read through the Old Testament and see Jesus on every page, you're not understanding the Old Testament. He's on every page. That's one thing we've learned.

Wednesday nights, going through Genesis and Exodus, Jesus is all throughout those books, all throughout those chapters.

Amen?

So it's about faith in the Lord. The purpose of the law of God is to point to the Lord and His grace. To show people God's perfect standard of righteousness and how they not only have fallen short, we have fallen far short.

It's the law that tells us that. You've heard the expression, maybe you've said it at some point in your life, laws were made, what? Laws were made to be broken. Wait a minute. Is that true? I'm pretty sure laws are made to be followed.

But inevitably, if you pass a law or if God gives a law, what are people going to do? They're going to break it. You know that's true. And you know that's true even in your own heart. We just have something within us that we were tempted to break, to break the law.

Verse 19, it was added because of transgression till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And that again is Jesus. You know, you drive down the road and you see the law posted 65 miles an hour.

Now, if you like driving 65, then you're happy to obey that. But when you see 65, you think, well, that means 70. That means 75. And we could give a whole list of examples when you hear a rule. Well, yeah, maybe this, right?

Or we have a perfect group who never does anything wrong. I don't think so. We know better. It's within us. And then he says, talking about the covenant, it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Okay.

Who is the mediator that he's speaking of? The old covenant of the law.

Who is the mediator?

Moses. We don't know what role the angels played. God usually works in and through his servants, though. But the law was given through Moses. But don't miss this. The covenant that God made with Abraham is completely different.

If you remember the covenant that God made with Abraham, what did God do to Abraham before the covenant was made? Abraham wasn't the mediator. Abraham was put to sleep. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com. We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.