- 00:08
- Okay, what we did, what we just did is summed up where we were yesterday with, I'm just going to go ahead and reread
- 00:16
- Hebrews 11 again. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed.
- 00:25
- And he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in a land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, or tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
- 00:41
- For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is
- 00:46
- God. And what we talked about is this. The significance of the comment, by faith and living in tents, going from living in a safe and secure place with permanent homes among family and friends, to going out into a place and not even know where you're going.
- 01:09
- And Hebrews talks about that as a significant faith. He uproots everything to go to a strange place.
- 01:19
- A place he'll be told about after he leaves. Now we're at Galatians 3 verse 15.
- 01:30
- Brethren, I speak after the matter of men. Though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto.
- 01:43
- Now here's the problem. Paul anticipated the possible objection to his use of Abraham to prove the doctrine of justification by faith.
- 01:56
- Not only did he anticipate it, but he refuteates it. He said, what they're going to say is the giving of the law at Sinai to Moses.
- 02:09
- After Abraham brought about a change and a better method of salvation.
- 02:17
- That was going to be the argument that the Judaizers or the law followers were going to say.
- 02:25
- Yes, okay, we had the Abrahamic covenant, but this covenant came later. This covenant supersedes, improves the original and it is better.
- 02:41
- And of course that's incorrect. The law did come after the covenant with Moses. That only makes it more recent.
- 02:49
- That doesn't make it better. The apostle dismissed that argument by showing the superiority of the
- 02:58
- Abrahamic covenant. He'll do that in verses 15 through 18. And that's the passage we're going to really deal with this morning.
- 03:06
- And the inferiority of the law. And we'll deal with that next time, God willing. So again, brethren,
- 03:15
- I speak after the matter of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disanulleth or added thereunto.
- 03:25
- Even human covenants, even covenants with men among men are considered irrevocable and unchangeable.
- 03:34
- Ron, if you and I agree to something and we form a covenant relationship, I can't change it.
- 03:41
- And you can't change it. We have to renegotiate a whole new covenant if we're going to change it.
- 03:49
- It's not something one party can change. Even human covenants are considered irrevocable and unchangeable.
- 03:56
- And how much more so a covenant made between man and an unchanging God. See, God doesn't change at all.
- 04:06
- You might change your mind, but He won't change His. As Brother August used to say,
- 04:13
- God never made up His mind about anything. God never decided to do anything. He always knew what
- 04:20
- He was going to do. So the covenant that He made with Abraham was always the covenant
- 04:25
- He had in mind. And the covenant He made with Moses was always the covenant
- 04:31
- He had in mind. There was never a change in His mind. James put it this way.
- 04:37
- James 1 .16, What does that mean?
- 04:57
- That it is an unchanging God that we're talking about. It is an all -powerful, unchanging
- 05:03
- God that we're in a covenant relationship with. Verse 16,
- 05:14
- I really misspoke that one bad. I'm going to redo it.
- 05:21
- Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
- 05:27
- He saith not to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is
- 05:36
- Christ. Now here's the thing. Sometimes the singular form of the
- 05:43
- Hebrew word for seed, that's sperma, like its English and Greek counterparts can be used in the collective sense.
- 05:53
- Like if you have a bushel of wheat seed. That's more than one seed. But not here.
- 06:03
- Paul's point is that in some Old Testament passages referring to Abraham's descendants, seed speaks of a multitude of descendants.
- 06:16
- But sometimes only to the greatest of his descendants. And who is that?
- 06:23
- Jesus Christ. And we can only tell by context. Except, I guess here too.
- 06:30
- I started to say except here. But here too the context tells us clearly. In this passage,
- 06:37
- Paul makes the determination much easier. We don't have to try to figure out whether it's one or many. He tells us it only refers to Jesus Christ.
- 07:04
- He is the father to all of the biological descendants of Abraham.
- 07:11
- That would be the Arabic descendants from Ishmael, as well as the
- 07:17
- Israeli descendants through Isaac.
- 07:23
- He is the biological father to all of those. He is the spiritual father to some of those.
- 07:30
- And to some more that he referred to as sheep not in this flock. Other sheep have
- 07:37
- I. And we'll get into that this morning also. That answers lots of questions.
- 07:55
- And this I say. That the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul.
- 08:07
- That it should make the promise of none effect. So nothing in the law can make the promise to Abraham of no effect.
- 08:16
- We talked about this a little couple of weeks ago. The land that was granted to the Israelis.
- 08:22
- Was that an Abrahamic promise or was that a promise of the law? That was an
- 08:29
- Abrahamic promise. That was unconditional. That belongs to them. And it will always belong to them.
- 08:35
- Now there's another promise concerning the land. You remember what that was? That's probably not fair.
- 08:42
- To prosper in the land. To prosper in the land depends upon what you do.
- 08:50
- That is conditional to how you perform.
- 08:55
- And that's something else that can be carried over into us today. It's my belief.
- 09:02
- And I'm going to go ahead and say this right up front. That this is my belief and I may be totally wrong. And if Brother David stands up on the back pew and yells at me,
- 09:09
- I am totally wrong. But I think the Lord knew who he was going to select from before time began.
- 09:21
- And when it came time to select us, we were selected. And we were notified that we were his.
- 09:28
- And it was no surprise to him. I don't think we have any question there.
- 09:35
- But it also says that the selection was a gift of God.
- 09:43
- Not of works lest any man should boast. And then it goes on to say in Ephesians, But I was created unto good works that were ordained for me to do.
- 09:55
- Now that part has to do with prospering in the land. Not the salvation itself.
- 10:01
- But prospering in your salvation. You can be saved and not prosper in your salvation.
- 10:10
- You can rebel like, I want to say
- 10:18
- Job, but it's not Job. No, the one that was swallowed up.
- 10:23
- Jonah. Like Jonah. Jonah ran away from his command.
- 10:30
- And was thrown overboard. And was swallowed by the great fish.
- 10:37
- And was spit up on dry land and wound up going to where he was running away from. Doing what he was assigned to do.
- 10:44
- Accomplishing the task that he was assigned to do. The city of Nineveh repented like God wanted them to.
- 10:52
- And Jonah pouted. The greatest revival of all times.
- 11:00
- The whole city repents. Jonah is totally successful and he pouts. He had no joy in that part of his life.
- 11:22
- No joy. And I say that, that the covenant that was confirmed by God.
