Would you turn to Galatians, the third chapter,
and in verse 8, the
eighth verse, third chapter of the epistle to
the Galatians, scripture, foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations
be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham.
Scripture preaching.
Preaching the gospel to Abraham.
The very same gospel that God has entrusted
to you and to me.
What does it mean, scripture preaching?
How can scripture preach?
Well, we've been learning that as Peter McDonough
has been tracing through something of the history,
life of Abraham, and the covenant that God
confirmed in him.
And scripture preaching is indicated very clearly.
You needn't turn to this, because you've done
so already and probably will again.
Genesis 12.
The Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee
out of thy country and from thy kindred
and from thy father's house unto a land
that I will show thee.
I, the Lord, will make of thee a
great nation.
I, the Lord, will bless thee and make
thy name great and thou shalt be a
blessing.
And I, the Lord, will bless them that
bless thee and curse him that curses thee.
And in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed.
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken.
That's scripture preaching.
Who was talking?
The Lord.
And of course, that's the miracle of this
book.
It's a divine declaration of intent.
Something that God had to say and something
that God wants you and me to know.
And what God then was saying to Abraham
was the gospel, the good news.
Foreshadowing in advance the birth of that little
baby boy at Bethlehem.
Of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
of the tribe of Judah, the house of
David and the city of Bethlehem.
The glorious consummation of God's redemptive and regenerative
purpose settled in the heart of God before
ever the world was.
Gospel.
What was involved in the gospel?
Well, we've seen that the gospel is twofold
in character.
It's redemptive, a blood transaction, and regenerative.
Brings about the new birth.
A blood transfusion.
The life of God in Christ shed for
us, and the life of God in Christ
restored to us.
The one is a blood transaction, redemption.
The other is a blood transfusion.
He gave his life for us, now he
gives his life to us.
That's spelled out in the thirteenth and the
fourteenth verses of this same third chapter of
Galatians.
Galatians 3, Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse
for us.
Blood transaction.
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree,
crucified.
Well that's the blood transaction.
But to what end?
Only that there might be precipitated through the
reconciling act, the regenerative purpose.
Verse 14.
That to this end the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
What was the blessing of Abraham?
What did God have in mind in making
this pledge, confirming a covenant that he had
already made in the person of the one
who then was called Abraham, the father of
one nation who was to become the father
of many nations?
Abraham.
The twelve tribes.
What was inherent in the blessing?
The life of the lifeless.
The raising of the dead.
The reinvasion of a fallen race of fallen
men, alienated from the life of God, a
reinvasion of their humanity by the God who
created them.
A spiritual new birth.
Verse 14.
That the blessing of Abraham might come on
the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might
receive the Holy Spirit of promise through faith.
That's why Christ died for you, to give
himself to you.
But he gives himself to us now in
the person of the one through whom the
father gave himself to the Son, the Holy
Spirit.
Elsewhere that's called regeneration, the renewing of the
Holy Ghost, new birth, resurrection.
That's gospel.
A redemptive act and a regenerative purpose.
A blood transaction and a blood transfusion.
The blood transaction took place upon the cross,
and the blood transfusion took place first at
Pentecost.
And ever since Pentecost, every time a boy,
girl, man or woman in true repentance toward
God, in simple childlike trust have put their
faith in Jesus, there's a blood transfusion.
Instantly that redemptive transaction is sealed by the
gift to that individual of some body who
comes to live in some body, the Holy
Spirit, indwelling your human spirit through whom Christ
takes up residence in you, as the father
then, through the same Holy Spirit, took up
residence in him.
That's salvation.
It isn't getting you out of hell and
into heaven, that's included in the package, but
it's incidental to the ultimate purpose of God,
getting God out of heaven into you.
Because that's what it takes to be functional.
I think I've mentioned that once or twice.
The apostle Paul goes on to say then
in verse 15, 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.
A covenant confirmed.
But what was the covenant that was confirmed?
Well, we've talked about it.
At the beginning of that scarlet thread that
weaves its way through the Old Testament scriptures
and finds its consummation at Calvary.
Satan rebuked by God in the day that
man fell.
I'll put enmity between you and the woman,
between your seed and her seed.
The seed of that woman, Jesus, to be
born of Mary, conceit of the Holy Ghost
is going to bruise your head, he'll destroy
you, but you will bruise his heel.
That was the covenant, and it was confirmed
2,000 years later in Abraham.
It concerned a seed, the seed of the
woman.
We're not left in doubt, of course, in
God's word as to who that seed of
the woman was who was going to bruise
Satan's head.
Destroy him that had the power of death,
even the devil, and liberate, emancipate those who
all through their lifetime were in fear of
death.
Verse 16.
To Abraham and his seed were the promises
made.
He saith not unto seeds, plural, as of
many.
In other words, the benefit was not to
come simply through a national culture.
Not seeds, plural, but as of one, to
thy seed, singular, which is Christ.
So the seed promised, when God confirmed his
covenant in Abraham, was the one who the
seed of a woman was to bruise Satan's
head, Jesus, in the unfolding redemptive and regenerative
purpose of God.
That's why, of course, the Lord Jesus, remember,
in the Messianic psalm, quoted in the 10th
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, said,
verse 5, Thank you, Father, for the body
you have prepared for me to offer, a
body conceived of the Holy Ghost, fashioned in
the borrowed womb of a virgin girl.
As foreshadowed, of course, throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures, God said, I'll give you a sign,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
Isaiah chapter 7, verse 9, Thou shalt call
his name Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnate
Word, the Logos, clothed with the humanity of
man whom he created in his own image.
But emptying himself, humbling himself, making himself of
no reputation, was willing though the Creator to
play for 33 years the role of creature,
though he was the God who made man
be the kind of man whom he as
God had made.
And to us a child is given, a
son is born.
9th chapter, the prophecy of Isaiah, Thou shalt
call his name Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful
Counselor, Prince of Peace.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will
do this.
It will demand a divine intervention, and did.
So the foreshadowing of the woman whose seed
would bruise Satan's head, the theme runs right
the way through the Word of God.
Thank you, Father, for the body that you
have prepared for me to offer to you.
7th verse of the same 10th chapter, the
epistles of the Hebrews, I have come to
do your will, O God.
All that has been written of me in
the volume of the book.
What book?
Old Testament.
The Old Testament.
For as we've seen already, the New Testament
was given late and simply tells us that
the Lord Jesus did what the Old Testament
said he would.
I've come to do your will, O God.
The story was written in advance, and there
came a day when a little baby boy
was born at Bethlehem, and the Lord Jesus
said the hour has come to tell the
story.
You're on solid rock, you see, when you
come to the Lord Jesus.
You step into the eternal, timeless, redemptive, and
regenerative purpose of God, finding its consummation in
the one born at Bethlehem, who was the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
As of one to thy seed, which is
Christ.
Now he goes on to say this, in
verse 17, this I say, that that covenant
made by God when he rebuked Satan confirmed
in Abraham 2,000 years later, to find
its fulfillment at Calvary 2,000 years later,
and now you and I on earth anticipating
his return 2,000 years later.
Exciting.
I'm anticipating the return of the Lord Jesus
any time.
Could be before tomorrow morning.
In some ways I hope not, because I've
got some exciting things to tell you about
tomorrow morning.
But I'd settle for it if you decided
to come tonight.
But I really, quite frankly, old as I
am, don't anticipate going to heaven by underground.
I'm going by air.
We're going to meet him in the clouds.
Marvelous.
At least, I will if I'm in Colorado.
But you see, that's the other side of
the world, and I'm going up.
Is anybody's guess as to where you folks
are going?
I just hope you manage to change course.
This I say, the covenant that was confirmed
before of God in Christ.
The law, which was 430 years after, cannot
disannul it, but it should make that promise
of none in faith.
Now you need to pause and consider that.
God made a covenant, he rebuked the devil,
said that a little baby boy was going
to be born of a woman who would
destroy Satan, and all his works.
That covenant was confirmed in Abraham, and then
the law was given 430 years later.
So would you anticipate that you're going to
be saved, reconciled to God by keeping the
law, when God had already confirmed in Abraham
the pledge he made of a little baby
boy to be born at Bethlehem?
God change his mind?
Suddenly decided we'll scrap the earlier plan, now
we'll let people get to heaven by keeping
the law.
Well that would be nonsense.
The law was added 430 years after.
If the inheritance be of the law, we
deserving our salvation, God patting us on the
back and congratulating us that we've done so
well in keeping his law.
If salvation, the inheritance, be of that law,
it's no more of promise.
But God gave it to Abraham by promise,
and God didn't change his mind.
So there's a very natural question that might
arise on your lips, wherefore then serveth the
law?
If God already made up his mind that
you and I were going to be redeemed
through the shed blood of his incarnate son,
born at Bethlehem according to promise, if that
was his plan to which he's going to
stick, why did he add the law 430
years after?
Well the answer is very simple, verse 19,
it was added because of transgressions, until the
seed should come to whom the promise was
made.
In other words, the law is a temporary
expedient that was to cover a period of
time until the one promised in the covenant,
Genesis 3 15, confirmed in Abraham, should be
born at Bethlehem.
So the law is a temporary expedient until
the seed arrives, Jesus.
Now we need to understand the nature of
the law, we're not going to spend very
long on this because we've other things that
we need to discuss.
That the law that God gave to Moses
on Mount Sinai, that he etched himself, God,
with his finger on stone, God authored it,
that's why you and I cannot amend it,
was threefold in character, it was a civil
law as between man and man, and it
was a moral law as between man and
God.
Civil law in our western nations is based
upon that civil law God gave to Moses
then.
The moral law we call the Ten Commandments,
and we've discussed already that the Ten Commandments
are not simply rules and regulations that God
thought up to make life difficult.
The law simply described the righteousness of God.
The minimal demands that he as our creator
has the absolute right to make of a
man the creature made in his image.
Don't lie, I'm not a liar, don't steal,
I'm not a thief, don't commit adultery, God
says I'm not an adulterer, and you were
created to reflect the glory, so that all
creation could look at man and know what
God was like.
That's the moral law.
Why did God give the moral law?
Because of transgressions.
Because Ichabod, the glory had already departed, and
man had long since ceased to be conscious
of the nature and character and glory and
holiness of God.
So God introduced the moral law so that
you and I might know what those minimal
demands are of a holy God who created
us to reflect his character.
It was added, because of transgressions, to prove
guilty sinners guilty.
The law was never designed to make men
good.
The law was designed in God's divine economy
to prove men bad.
Just keep the place there in Galatians 3,
but have a look at Romans chapter 3.
Third chapter, epistle to the Romans.
Nineteenth verse, we know that what things whoever
the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law.
What for?
So that they can try and keep it
and be good, uh-uh, that every mouth
may be stopped, and all the world become
guilty before God.
That's why God gave the law.
To prove you, to prove me, all men,
guilty.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of
sin.
The law was added because of transgressions so
that in the light of what God demands
of us who were made in his image,
we will recognize that we have fallen short
of the glory of God, and that's sin.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
For sin is the transgression of the law.
Because when you and I transgress that law
that describes God's righteousness, we have fallen short
of the glory.
It was God's plumb line.
If you could imagine that one of my
hobbies is building dinky little things in the
backyard.
I fancy myself somewhat as a builder, and
when I've built some dinky thing in my
backyard, I invite one of the neighbors and
give them a good meal and take them
out into my yard and say, what do
you think of that?
And of course being good neighbors and having
had a good meal, they say, absolutely fantastic.
I'd like to congratulate you.
I didn't know you had it in you
to do anything like that.
Fantastic.
And I agree, because that's why I invited
them to dinner.
Well, you do that several times, and then
it gets a little bit boring, because after
all, they don't know much about it anyway.
So next time when I've produced my masterpiece,
I decide that I'm going to invite a
man whose reputation is far and wide.
I mean, he's in the top strata of
that profession, and what he has to say
will be worth something hearing.
And so I give him a very specially
good meal, take him out, and I say,
what do you think of that?
And my chest swells, and my chin goes
out about three and a half inches, and
I can watch him sort of drinking it
all in.
And I say, well, what do you think?
He says, that's not bad.
I say, beg your pardon?
He says, it isn't bad.
Well, of course it isn't bad, I say.
Of course it is.
I did it.
Oh yes, he said, I can see that.
I mean, it's all right, you know, for
a beginner.
And I'm beginning to blow my top.
I'm getting really hot around the neck.
And I say, what's wrong with it anyway?
He said, don't get angry with me.
But if you would look at it from
where I am looking at it, you would
see, it's just classic eye along this line,
and you'll see there's some ugly little bulge
in the middle.
And not only that, if you look at
it in another direction, you'll see that it's
about two and a half inches out from
top to bottom.
It doesn't stand straight.
And he's talking about my wall.
And I'm really about now to explode.
So he says, no, don't explode, it makes
such a mess.
He says, just a minute, he goes into
the house and he takes the plumb line
out of his pocket and puts it against
my wall.
And a sort of sickly smile spreads over
my face.
Because there's an ugly twist, a bulge in
the middle.
And it's leaning over about two and a
half inches out from top to bottom.
And do I hate his plumb line.
You see a plumb line was never designed
to make a crooked wall straight.
A plumb line was designed to prove crooked
walls crooked.
That's why crooked walls hate plumb lines.
And that's why man whose heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked hates God's
law.
He tries to amend it.
He wants one that doesn't hang true.
He wants one made out of a coat
hanger that he can twist to match his
own crookedness.
It's called the new morality.
Which, of course, is nothing more nor less
than the old immorality.
Because, you see, the law cannot be twisted.
Because it represents the righteousness of God.
And if you want to change God's law,
you've got to change God.
It's called the righteousness of God.
In the 10th chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans, where Paul, speaking of his own
kith and kin as Jews, said, I have
real compassion for them because they have a
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
If you do something which isn't according to
knowledge, how do you do it?
In ignorance.
What was the nature of their ignorance?
Not according to knowledge.
The next verse goes on to say, 2nd
verse, Romans 10, they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, go about to establish their own righteousness,
and do not submit themselves to the righteousness
of God.
And, of course, if you don't like the
demands of God's righteousness, you can shop around.
You'll find churches all over the place who
will give you a twisted plumb line.
And you'll think you're going to get by
until one day you stand before him, and
the only basis and standard upon which God
will evaluate men at the judgment will be
his righteousness.
God's plumb line.
So, the law is our schoolmaster.
Still there, Galatians chapter 3, verse 24.
The law is our schoolmaster.
What's the law to teach us?
That we're guilty, that we fall short of
the glory, that we've sinned.
The law is our schoolmaster.
Not to make us miserable.
Just to alert and awaken our souls to
the fact of our need, and as our
schoolmaster, leads us to Christ, the Savior, who
saves his people from their sins.
The only one who can make crooked wolves
stray.
So, the law is our schoolmaster.
Bring us to Christ, that we might be
justified, not by the law, or our good
works, our practice of religion, but that we
may be justified by faith.
And after that faith is come, there's no
condemnation.
We're cleansed.
We are no longer under a schoolmaster.
You're the children of God, by faith in
Jesus Christ.
Now, that was the second part of the
law.
The third part was the sacrificial law, and
we've already discussed that.
That was the shedding of blood of bulls
and goats and heifers and doves and lambs.
That can never take away sin.
A shadow only of good things to come.
Hebrews 10, verse 1.
Or Hebrews 10, verse 4.
The blood of bulls and goats can never
take away sin.
Then you say, what is the value of
the Old Testament sacrifice if it couldn't take
away?
It was a temporary expedient.
Until the seed should come.
The only one who could pay the price,
because he was the only one who possessed
the life that man lost in Adam, and
the only one conceived of the Holy Ghost,
indwelt by the blood of God, the life
of God, who could lay down that life
and pay the price.
The seed.
So, the blood sacrifice of the Old Testament
was a temporary expedient.
It was like God's checkbook, just as the
moral law was God's plumb line that showed
that we were in debt.
Until Jesus came to pay the debt, God
had a checkbook.
And in the Old Testament, to any boy,
girl, man or woman who came to the
priest and said, I know that I've sinned,
I'm guilty, I'm condemned by the moral law,
how can I have peace with God?
How can I have remission?
And the priest would say, bring the blood
of a lamb, a dove, a heifer, whatever
it may be.
God's check.
Now, a check doesn't pay a debt.
It only covers it.
That's the atonement.
Don't confuse the atonement of the blood sacrifices
of the Old Testament with reconciliation or redemption.
It was a temporary expedient.
It only covered the debt, but didn't pay
it, didn't take it away.
It was a check.
Supposing I owed you a thousand dollars and
I don't, just in case you get some
wrong idea.
Well, you might anticipate one day I'll pay
my debt.
And sure enough, through the mail you get
a letter from me, and in that letter
there's a check, made out to you, signed
by me, dated, everything is in order.
Have I paid my debt?
Well, no.
All you've got is a piece of paper,
a promise to pay.
That doesn't pay your debt.
I mean, you received that check for a
thousand dollars, but I've got no money in
my bank.
How much is that check worth?
Well, nothing.
You could tear it up, throw it in
the trash can, and lose nothing, because it
isn't worth anything.
It's only a promise to pay.
Supposing I went, you know, to the shopping
center and bought a radio and gave them
a check like that, and then I stayed
in the Holiday Inn for ten days and
paid with a check like that.
What would happen after a bit?
I'd be part of your prison ministry.
Because a check, you see, with nothing in
the bank to honor the check, is worthless.
But supposing there's enough money and a spare
in my bank, and the bank in which
you deposit it, functions it, you know, makes
it work, cashes it.
Is your debt now paid?
They transfer a thousand dollars from my account
into your account in cash.
Now your debt's paid.
Check has been honored.
It's been cashed.
And if you don't know too much about
banking, you might think, well, that was pretty
simple.
I get a piece of paper like that,
I take it to the bank, and I
get a thousand dollars in cash in my
account.
I think I'll try that again tomorrow.
And if you could get hold of it,
you'd get the same kind of check and
take it to the bank and try to
get another thousand dollars out of the same
check.
How would that work?
Well, you'd be part of my prison ministry.
How much is a check worth once it's
been cashed?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
On the back of it there'll be stamped
honored.
Canceled.
And if you try to get another thousand
dollars out of the same check, then you'd
pay the price.
Having cashed it, and having received the thousand
dollars in your account, supposing you tore that
check up then and put it in the
trash can, how much would you lose?
Nothing.
You'd lose nothing if you tore it up
when it was never cashed, and you'd lose
nothing if you tore it up after it
had been cashed, because it's only a check.
Just a promise to pay.
Now that was the blood of the Old
Testament sacrifices.
Absolutely valid.
But only so long as there was somebody
who had cash enough to honor the check.
Who was that?
The Lord Jesus.
Because he was the only man since Adam
fell who had that life that Adam and
all mankind had lost.
The life of God.
Cash in the bank.
That's why the Lord Jesus on the cross
cried, you see, Teteleste, I paid in full.
Father, I've cashed the check.
It's been honored.
And when he went, you see, with that
malefactor who said, Lord, remember me when you
come into your kingdom.
He said, this day, not tomorrow, not in
two days, not in three days, this day
thou shalt be with me in paradise.
I'm going to go to tell all those
Old Testament saints who've had a check in
their hands ever since they went to the
priest.
I'm going to tell them the good news
that the check has been cashed.
Teteleste, it is finished, paid in full.
So the law offers us only the shadow
of something good to come, the seed, a
check that needed to be honored.
Is the law then, verse 21 of Galatians
3, against the promises of God?
God forbid.
There's no conflict between the law and grace.
The law was the temporary expedient that God
uses still to prove us that we need
his grace.
G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at
Christ's expense.
That's grace.
But he had to pay the price.
He had to cash the check.
And when man fell in Adam, he forfeited
the life of God.
And only one who had the life of
God to forfeit on the behalf of man
could pay the price.
That's why you see Christ died and rose
again on the cross.
He bore our sins, Peter tells us, in
his own body on the tree.
Not in the tomb, he never went there.
His body did, but he didn't.
Because the Lord Jesus said, this day thou
shalt be with me in paradise.
So where was Jesus the day he died
physically?
In paradise.
Where was his body?
In the tomb.
He didn't suffer corruption.
It remained there until the Lord Jesus, three
days later, came back to that body and
restored physical life to it, and appeared to
his disciples and showed them the wounds in
his hands and feet.
But he'd by then been to paradise to
tell all the Old Testament saints, Moses and
Abel, who in obedience to God's sacrificial law
had obeyed the gospel, the good news, and
were accepted then on the same grounds that
you and I will be accepted now.
They in anticipation of the event, and we
in retrospect putting our trust in Jesus.
Very simple.
So is the law then against the promises
of God, verse 21?
God forbid.
Now I want you to pay very careful
attention to this.
It's in the subjunctive.
If there had been a law which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have come
by the law.
Now what does that tell you?
Had there been a law that could have
given life, righteousness would have come by the
law.
What does that tell you?
Never read the Bible in a hurry.
Righteousness comes from life.
Had there been a law that could have
given life, then righteousness would have come by
the law.
Because if the law can give you life,
in the life you receive righteousness.
What life?
God's life.
Philippians 1.11, which I've cited several times,
the fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ.
The fruits of the Spirit.
The one by whom God, the Holy Spirit,
you and I receive the life of Christ.
Now if the law could have given us
the life of Christ, then righteousness would have
come by the law, and we could have
gone to the law and received life.
Had there been a law that could have
given life, what does that presuppose?
That there is one or isn't there?
Had I got to the airport in time,
I would have caught the plane.
What does that tell you?
That I did or I didn't.
I didn't.
With your nose against the shop window, you
see, if I'd had enough money, I would
have bought it.
Does that mean you did or you didn't?
You didn't.
Because your husband wasn't there with his checkbook
or credit card, to his delight.
Had there been a law that could have
given life, righteousness would have come by the
law.
Because righteousness derives from life, the life of
God.
But the law cannot restore that life.
What does the law do?
Well as the Ten Commandments, I've told you,
it represents the minimal demands of a holy
God made of a man creating his own
image.
So the law accurately describes the righteousness of
God.
Tells you the quality of life that derives
from allowing God to live in you.
Teach your mind, control your emotions, direct your
will and govern your behavior.
He clothing his deity with your humanity.
Man as God intended man to be.
He God in the man, the origin of
his own image.
He God in the man, the source of
his own God activity.
He God in the man, dynamic of his
own demands and cause of his own effects.
That's how God created man.
And when God was in a man living
his life, clothed with the man's humanity, he
of his own free consent, making himself available,
body, soul, spirit, mind, emotion, will, full of
the Holy Ghost, the righteousness that others saw
in Adam, had they been there, would have
been the righteousness of God.
As the Lord Jesus, playing that role to
perfection, real man, could only say, when you
look at me, you don't see me behave,
you see my father behaving.
He that sees me sees my father.
Because I'm playing that role for which I
as God created you as men.
I'm allowing my father in me to be
the source of all I do and say
and am, righteousness, God behaving.
So the Lord describes the quality of life,
righteousness, that would derive from the life of
God.
But what the law cannot do is restore
to man the life of God from which
righteousness derives.
It can only prove us guilty and lead
us to Christ.
Who then says, I'm come that you might
have, what?
What the law can't give you, life.
What the law could not do through the
weakness of the flesh, about which Sonny was
talking this morning, what the law could not
do through the weakness of the flesh, that
old Adamic nature, that carnal mind that is
at enmity with God, not subject to his
law, neither can be, what the law could
not do through the weakness of the flesh,
God has done.
Sending his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin has condemned our
sin in his flesh on the cross.
So that giving himself for us, risen from
the dead, he might give himself to us
and by his presence in life abolish the
state of death so that we may walk
in the Spirit.
For what the law could not do through
the weakness of the flesh, God has done,
sending his own son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, that the righteousness
demanded by the law might now be fulfilled
in us who walk, not after the flesh
that can't, but after the Spirit who can.
Romans chapter 8 verses 3 and 4.
All right, now let's match that with Hebrews
in chapter 7 verses 18 and 19.
Hebrews 7, 18 and 19.
And you'll see the beautiful consistency of God's
word.
Verse 18 of the 7th chapter of the
epistle of the Hebrews, there is verily a
disannulling, rendering out of use, a
disannulling of the commandment going before.
Not the moral law, that'll never change because
God never changes.
He's speaking now of the sacrificial law.
There is verily a disannulling of the commandment
going before for the weakness and unprofitables thereof.
That law command of God, which in the
Old Testament said, bring the blood of a
bull, goat, heifer, or a lamb, which can
never take away sin.
There is therefore a disannulling, a rendering obsolete
of the commandment going before for the weakness
and unprofitables thereof, because the law made nothing
perfect.
The law made nothing perfect.
In the margin of your Bible put there
Psalm 19, 7.
This is Hebrews 7, 19.
You'll be able to remember that.
Hebrews 7, 19, Psalm 19, 7.
What does Psalm 19, 7 say?
The law of the Lord is perfect.
It gives a perfectly accurate description of God's
righteousness, and of all that righteousness demands of
you and me as men who were created
in God's image.
The law of the Lord is perfect, but
all the law of the Lord which is
perfect can do is convert the soul.
In other words, prove us guilty and show
us that we need exactly what God had
in mind when he promised Abraham that that
seed should be born, foreshadowed in advance Genesis
3, 15, when God rebuked the devil, when
Adam fell.
The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing
in of a better hope did.
Now don't misunderstand that.
The bringing in of a better hope.
That doesn't mean that God, you know, first
thought up the law and it failed, so
he had a panic committee in heaven and
thought up a new way.
Uh-uh.
It's the covenant that God made in the
day that man sinned.
Confirmed in Abraham, fulfilled in Jesus.
God didn't think up anything new, whatever.
He simply brought in the plan in his
appointed time, because in the fullness of time,
dead on schedule, Jesus was born of a
woman.
Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4.
That he might accomplish the redemptive act.
The bringing in of the better hope.
The introducing into the world of the Lord
Jesus, the Lamb slain before ever the world
was.
A better hope.
Wonderful.
Jesus.
Anything else?
Well yes.
In the same chapter there, Hebrews chapter 7,
another but, verse 24.
But this man, Jesus, because he continue with
ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, he didn't have
to be replaced by virtue of death.
He was a priest after the order of
an endless life.
He brought, we saw that, Hebrews 10, 12,
but this man offered one sacrifice for sins
forever.
Not day after day and week after week
and month after month, like the Levitical priesthood,
because that has been rendered obsolete.
Because that was but a check that Christ
cashed on the cross, in that one sacrifice
for sins forever.
This man, because he continue with ever, hath
an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also
to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them.
For such an high priest became as who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not
daily as those high priests to offer up
sacrifice first for his own sins, and then
for the people's.
For this he did once, when he offered
up himself.
You see, in the Old Testament, the fire
consumed the sacrifice, but on the cross, the
sacrifice consumed the fire, never to burn again.
A better sacrifice.
In Hebrews, in chapter 9, just turn over
the page, look at it, 22.
Almost all things are by the law purged
with blood, without shedding of blood, no remission.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of
things, the shadow, the patterns of things in
the heavens should be purified with these, but
the heavenly, the reality, the substance of it,
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than
these.
I often wondered why it was sacrifices when
Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever, and
yet there it's in the plural.
Well, how many times did Adam die?
Twice.
Spirits really forfeited the life of God on
the day he fell.
In the day that you eat thereof, God
said you will surely die, and did, but
over 900 years of age later, he died
physically.
How many times did Jesus die?
On the cross, when he was made sin,
after those three agonizing hours of darkness, he
could cry, it's all over, finished, because the
Holy Spirit came back, re-inhabiting his human
spirit.
He was raised from the dead, the first
man ever to be raised from the dead,
the first man who forfeited the life of
God, but to whom that life was restored,
and the veil of the temple was rent
from top to bottom.
Remember?
Sacrifices.
Don't look at it now, but Isaiah, chapter
53, verse 9, speaking of the Lord Jesus
in anticipation of the event.
Death there is a plural word in the
original.
Deaths.
Don't you turn to it, but let me
read it to you just in case you
don't believe me.
You see, I had a special Bible written
to suit my doctrines.
Isaiah 53, verse 9, he made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in
his deaths.
Plural, in the margin.
If you've got a marginal translation, you'll see
that.
The original word is plural, because Christ died
physically and spiritually.
Conquered death in all its forms.
Magnificent.
A better sacrifice.
And having conquered death, risen by the restoration
to him of the Holy Spirit, physically dying
for your sake and mine, three days later,
reoccupying that body that lay in the tomb,
that that life that was restored to him
might now be restored to you and to
me.
Turn to Ephesians in chapter 1.
And I'm going to read this from the
Amplified New Testament.
We've cited it already once, but maybe you
need to be reminded, and others of you
weren't here.
So in Ephesians 1, I do not cease,
verse 16, to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers.
I always pray the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that he
may grant you a spirit of wisdom, revelation,
insight into mysteries and secrets, in the deep
and intimate knowledge of God, by having the
eyes of your heart flooded with light, so
that first you can know and understand the
hope to which he's called you, which is
Christ himself, somebody living in your heart, your
only hope of being restored to glory, Colossians
1.27. That's the first thing.
Secondly, how rich is his glorious inheritance in
the saints.
Not your inheritance in him, but his inheritance
in you, a place for his feet in
your heart.
Because he said, I'll make the place of
my feet glorious, to beautify the place of
my habitation.
It's his inheritance in the saints, the right
to be God in the man.
So that you can know and understand, verse
19, what is the immeasurable, unlimited and surpassing
greatness of God's power in and for us,
who believe, as demonstrated in the working of
his mighty strength, which he, God, exerted in
Christ, when he, God, raised Jesus from the
dead.
Verse 1, chapter 2.
And you, Hattie Quicken, who were dead in
trespasses and sins.
As I asked you the other day, is
he talking to a bunch of people in
heaven?
No, he's talking to the Ephesian church on
earth.
But he says, you've been raised from the
dead, by the same mighty power that God
exercised when he raised Jesus from the dead.
Was that a physical resurrection?
Well, of course not.
It simply means that the life that the
Lord Jesus laid down for you and for
me, God's life, which was restored to him
in the moment of redemption, in a spiritual
new birth, regeneration, the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, God restores to you and to me.
And in that same chapter, 2 and verse
4, in the Amplified New Testament, God, so
rich as he in his mercy, because of
and in order to satisfy the great and
wonderful, intense love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead, he made us
alive together in fellowship and in union with
Christ.
He gave us the very life of Christ
himself, the same new life with which he,
God, quickened him.
Isn't that incredible?
He gave to you and to me, when
we believed, the very life with which God,
the Father, quickened his son, the life of
God.
That's why you can say to me, to
live is Christ.
Look in the third chapter, verse 16.
May he grant you out of the rich
treasure of his glory to be strengthened, reinforced
with mighty power in the inner man, by
the Holy Spirit himself, indwelling your innermost being
and personality.
May Christ, through your faith, actually dwell, settle
down, abide, make his permanent home in your
hearts.
That, verse 19, you may really come to
know, practically, through experience for yourselves, the love
of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without
experience.
That you may be filled through all your
being unto all the fullness of God.
That is, that you may have the richest
measure of the divine presence and become a
body wholly filled and flooded with God himself.
Is that enough?
That's what it means when you believe.
You're wholly filled and flooded with God himself.
You have the richest measure of the divine
presence.
God, the Creator, re-inhabits the creature.
How wealthy can you be?
Colossians 2.9. In him the
wholefulness of deity, the Godhead, continues to dwell
in bodily form, giving complete expression of the
divine nature.
And you are in him, Christ, made full,
have come to fullness of life in Christ.
You too are filled with the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
In other words, your body becomes the temple
of the living God.
And all he needs in that temple, your
heart, is a place for his feet so
that he can reach his throne and make
the place of his feet glorious and beautify
the place of his habitation.
Well, being as we are so magnificently furnished
by the presence of Jesus unto every good
work, what's gone wrong?
Why has redeemed sinners, indwelt by the Creator
God, allowed to draw upon the illimitable resources
of deity by virtue of the presence of
Christ living within us?
Why do we give such a shabby exhibition?
I'm going to take these two or three
moments only just to show you something on
video.
Not a video, a transparency.
Let me just remind you, when
by faith, in this condition, dead in trespasses
and sins, alienated from the life of God,
the Holy Spirit, having been withdrawn, leaving you
physically alive, soulishly active, but when you turn
in faith through Christ, back to God, truly
repentant, with childlike dependence, you're redeemed.
Your sins are forgiven.
Blotted out like a thick clasp.
Because the Lord Jesus bore our sins in
his own body on the tree.
And being made sin for us, our sin
coming between himself and God, the Holy Spirit,
withdrawn from the Lord Jesus, he died.
But the Holy Spirit, three hours later, was
restored to him, the first man raised from
the dead, that his Holy Spirit then, for
the first time in all human history at
Pentecost, then instantly, every time any boy, girl,
man or woman is redeemed, his life restored
to you and to me.
The same life with which the Father quickened
him is the life with which he now
quickens us.
But ego is still there.
The resistance.
The flesh that Sonny talked about this morning.
Now, the church, the body of Christ, is
represented by these who are indwelt by the
Holy Spirit.
It isn't a building made with hands, but
the bodies of redeemed sinners indwelt by their
risen Lord.
In the early church, of course, they sat
around a tree.
Which was the church?
The tree or the bodies?
But then it was the rainy season and
so they had to die for cover and
Mrs Smith let them come into her home.
Which was the church?
Her cottage or the people?
The people.
But then they accumulated a few funds and
thought we ought to have a nicer place
than that, so they built a nice church
with a clock given by a brew who
thought he'd get to heaven by giving a
clock to the church.
Which was the church?
The people or the building?
The people.
The church is the body of Christ, inhabited
by a risen Savior.
Now, unfortunately, this is not on the screen,
but down here you'll find this is man
in normality bearing the fruits of the Spirit,
because if you could see down here and
you can't, the roots of that tree are
in God.
Then man fell, forfeited the Holy Spirit, and
he produced only the works of the flesh,
because his roots were in Satan.
But when you're redeemed, the Holy Spirit comes
and your roots are on this side in
God, but unfortunately there are roots on the
other side still in that old Adamic nature.
So there's a mixture, every now and again
the fruit of the Spirit, every now and
again the works of the flesh.
A sort of mixed up kid, that's the
carnal Christian.
But you see, what God had in mind
in Christ was not only should he die
for us, but we die with him, to
that old Adamic nature.
And so by the cross, you see, you
and I by faith can put the axe
to the roots that still have their Satan,
their roots still in Satan.
Now I've seen a fantastic demonstration of that
here right on site.
It's down in the CMS place near the
restroom.
Don't know whether you've noticed it, you ought
to go and have a look.
There's an old trunk of a tree and
it's rotting.
It's as good as dead, but coming out
of the center it is a new tree.
Interesting.
That's a Christian.
So long as the axe of course has
been put to the old tree, then the
new life can spring.
Life out of death.
I'm going to take a picture of it.
Quite fascinating.
Now that's the problem.
That's why we give, you see, such a
shabby exhibition of the new life that we
received in Christ.
That's why Paul wrote to the Galatians.
He says foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you.
Somebody's taking you for a ride and dumped
you in the boondocks.
What was their problem?
Well there were legalistic believing Jews who wanted
to put them once more into bondage of
the law.
Instead of them living, drawing their limitable resources
from the life of Christ.
So this is what he says.
It's called the Amplified New Testament.
It isn't exaggerated, it's simply amplified.
Because the English language is poorer than the
Greek, so you need more words.
Oh you poor, silly, thoughtless, unreflecting, senseless Galatians.
Well what have they done to deserve that
lot?
Who's fascinated, bewitched, cast a spell over you?
Let me ask you this one question.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit as the
result of obeying the law and doing its
work?
Did God pat you on the back and
I'll give you my life because you've done
so well?
Well that was a rhetorical question.
He knew perfectly well that wasn't true.
Was it by hearing the message of the
gospel and believing it?
You heard the good news of the gospel,
you believed it, repented toward God, put your
trust in Jesus, and instantly God gave you
the Holy Spirit.
Are you so foolish, so senseless and so
silly?
Verse three.
Having begun your new life spiritually, God's gift
to you of the Holy Ghost, for whom
Jesus now lives in you as the Father
once lived in him.
Having begun your new life spiritually with the
Holy Spirit, you're now reaching perfection by dependence
on the flesh, polishing your own image, taking
the wick out of the oil, and burning
out and producing nothing but smoke and ashes.
He said, can you be that done?
Here's an illustration I've used a thousand times.
This is the thousand and one thing.
You're driving down the road and there's a
woman with her head under the hood.
Out of the kindness of your heart you
stop and say, lady are you in trouble?
She said, this thing won't go.
So you jump into the front of the
car and switch it on and look at
the gas gauge and rather as you anticipated
there's no petrol.
So you say, lady I'll tell you where
this thing won't go.
It doesn't have what it takes.
But I've got a rope in the back
of mine, I'll tell you to the next
gas station.
And you do.
And when you get there you say to
the man, fill a tank.
And he does.
Then to her great embarrassment she finds she
doesn't have any money.
And doesn't even have a credit card.
Well you say, lady be my guest.
I'm happy that I'm here just when you
need me most.
And you pay the bill.
You didn't have to, but you do.
In other words you pay a debt you
did not owe.
Because she owes a debt she cannot pay.
What's that called in the bible?
Redemption.
That's a blood transaction on the cross.
Where Jesus paid a debt he did not
owe, because we owed a debt.
But why do you pay a debt you
did not owe?
Because she owes a debt she cannot pay.
To fill her tank and give her what
it takes to get home.
Well she is very thankful.
You get into your car.
You're just about to drive off when you,
as a last gesture of goodwill, open the
window to wave and say goodbye.
And you see that woman with a full
tank pushing the car home.
What would you say?
I know what I'd say.
I'd say, excuse me, I want my amplified
new testament.
Oh you poor, silly, thoughtless, unreflecting, senseless woman.
I pay a debt I did not owe,
because you owed a debt you could not
pay.
To give you what it takes, a full
tank to get home.
And you push the thing.
You laughing?
Who are you laughing at?
Yourself?
Why did Christ die, shed his blood?
So that you might receive what it takes
to be a man, a woman, as God
intended man to be.
He gave himself for you, paid that debt,
so that risen from the dead he might
give himself to you, a full tank to
get you home.
And you push it, and wonder why you're
tired.
How about getting on board, put your foot
in the gas and go for a ride,
and begin to enjoy what for so long
as a Christian you've been enduring.