The first of our readings will be taken from chapter 22 of Genesis, which is that passage
concerning Abraham offering up his only begotten son. I must admit, in the years it's been
a most difficult passage to reconcile. The more I look at it, the more momentous the
revelation of God in this passage is so poignant and so important for us. It's really the subject
of the passage that we're going to be dealing with in our exposition of scripture. And I
just want to read that first before we read the section that we are going to be looking
at later on. Remember we looked at the redemption of the redeeming work of Christ in verse 13
last Lord's Day. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become the curse
for us. And then he goes on from there. Verse 15, he says,
Brethren, I speak in a manner of men.
Now that's not in the flesh at all. It's just using an illustration from normal life.
He says, though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds
to it. Now the covenant spoken of here is that last will and testament of a man who
writes his last will and testament so that everything that he is promising to certain
members of the family or to certain places where his wealth is to be distributed after
he dies, no man will contest that. It's usually kept in proper order. So that's happening
in the natural world.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. So his seed, and he makes an emphasis
here, he does not say the seed and to seeds in the plural, as to many, but as of one.
And to your seed, who is Christ. There's something very explicit there. And the inspiration of
scripture is reasserted, even in the Old Testament, where plural and singular matters. So the
verbal inspiration of scripture is absolutely asserted again there.
And 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 that's the subject of our consideration today. And so he's actually referring to this
time on Mount Moriah, where the sacrifice was made and a covenant was cut there. He
promises that a sacrifice will be made on our behalf. So let us look at that.
And the next passage that we're going to look at is just reaffirming our Galatians 3 passage.
The subject of these verses is Christ's covenant. Really there's only one covenant, that is
one overriding promise that has been given to us through the scriptures and gradually
explained and developed through the course of historical revelation of scripture. It
started right back in the Garden of Eden, that God would establish a basis for our relationship
that would be based on the grace of God, not on works, but on the grace of God, and that
there would be a division between a people that was known as the children of God and
the children of this world, and that there would be a conflict whereby the seed of the
woman would prevail over the seed of Satan and over the seed of death. And then we find
that God holds His people to faith in this promise that was given. And there was a community
of the faithful in the line of Seth, if you can remember. And they worshipped God. They
looked to God. And finally, when the great flood came in the midst of violence, we find
that one was found faithful in Noah, and he built an ark, and the purposes of God were
continued. Now, particularly in the life of Abraham, which was after Noah's promises that
were received by Noah from God, we find that Abraham's life was really a revelation of
this covenant, this agreement, this basis by which we would find redemption with God.
And we find that in this passage the Apostle Paul is referring to this covenant, this covenant
of Christ. And he makes emphasis to establish his argument. The Galatian Christians had
turned away from Christ as the basis of their life and turned back to the law, thinking
that the righteousness of the law fulfilled by the flesh would actually somehow save them.
They had begun right, they looked to Christ for their salvation, but they continued on
the other grounds of the law. And he says, I want to draw your attention to the whole
covenantal relationship that the believer has with Christ. And this will be a strong
argument against your belief that the law that was given through Moses, not that it
was bad or that it was wrong, that the law was wrong or inadequate, but it had a completely
different purpose. We were not to put our faith in the law per se, we were to put our
faith in Christ. The law was really, all it was, was a revelation of the righteousness
of God. And it was there to be as a rule, a standard by which we would know whether
we are living by righteousness or not. But it's Christ that our faith should be in, not
our faith in the law. So the law is dead, it can't do anything for us, but Christ
is the one that was able to do anything for us. So here the apostle draws our attention
to this. Brethren, he says, he treats them as Christians, he's not saying they're
not Christians, they're just being led in a manner that's going to be to their spiritual
ruin if they continue in the way they are going. He says, I speak in a manner of men,
though it is only a man's covenant, so the word covenant is used here, and the actual
word that is used is the word dea theke, the Greek word that was used for a man's last
will and testament. It was a covenant of the kind that he had with a man might have with
his family or with his closest friends, when he is considering the inheritance, how it
was to be distributed. This was done before he died. These arrangements were worked out,
before, but the beneficiaries of this covenant or of the inheritance could not be received
unless the person who made the covenant had died, and then the release of the inheritance
could be made to those who are beneficiaries of that covenant. So he goes on and says,
yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. In other words, no one changes such
an arrangement, it is the final arbiter. So this is the case. Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promise made. He does not say to the seeds, as to many, but as of one, and
to your seed, who is Christ. Now the apostle was not being pedantic, but he was making
a very clear and important point that is revealed here. And he says, if it was the seeds or
the children, the many children, then we would have to look to more than one saviour, as
it were. But the subject of this covenant was to the seed of Abraham. And he explains
who that seed is. Not Isaac, but the one who came in the line of the covenant that would
be the fulfiller of that covenant. Isaac could not fulfill the covenant. He was just a bearer
of the promise that had been given to them. So he just explicitly says who the seed is
of Christ. And he gives us her the revelation and gives us, leads us to no doubt who the
seed is. It is not a great multitude of people, and the Jews often thought that the bearers
of this covenant and the fulfillers of this covenant would be the Jewish race itself.
But if it was so, it would be the whole elect people of the Jewish nation. So there was
a very false understanding of how they saw this covenant to be fulfilled. But he says
explicitly, no, it doesn't say the many, but one at this point. And so it is important
for us to realise that he was pointing to Christ in the making of this covenant. He
says therefore, as a result of this, and this I say, that the law which was 430 years later
cannot annul a covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ. That it should make
the promise of no effect. So even though the law was given there some 430 years later to
the nation of Israel, it does not replace that which was established in their father
Abraham. So that's another point that needs to be understood. For if the inheritance is
of the law, it is no longer of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. So what
the Galatian Christians were succumbing to was a Judaism that was putting their faith
in the traditions and of the law. And they were saying, as long as you are part of these
traditions and this law, this law people, and put your faith as it were in the superstructure
of religion, therefore you'll be saved because you are part of us. Now that is a false understanding
of how they were to be saved. Because the scriptures say it's not in being involved
with this community of faith, but it is your involvement with Christ, who was your only
redeemer that we saw last week, but he was the only person that could fulfil the covenant
that was made with Abraham too. Abraham was far more important in terms of the revelation
of salvation than the law of God that was given to them 430 years later. So Abraham
in the land of Moriah came to run some tremendously significant revelation of what Christ was
to do in terms of the covenant. Now if we remember the story of Abraham offering up
Isaac his only begotten son, we've just heard it read to us, and it's one of the most troubling
parts of the scripture, because here we have almost a sanction of child sacrifice. Isn't
this something that pagan religions have moved into? And yet as we look at this, the
almost sacrifice of Isaac was actually a revelation of the faith of Abraham that was necessary
to see that this covenant could be ratified with Abraham, which was a revelation for us
to know on what basis that we were going to receive the inheritance of Christ. And so
we see this solitary figure with his servants and a man of faith in the gradual revelation
of the covenant of God that was first of all the basis of his leaving the Ur of the Chaldees
later on when he was there and he had to divide the animals' parts into two and God came between
the parts. God as it were was confirming that the sacrifice would be made on his behalf
and later on he was called upon to bear the sign and the seal of this covenant in circumcision.
And now as he comes to the revelation that in his seed would all the blessings of Abraham
be to all the nations, really what was happening to Isaac, not only we find that when he came
to suddenly the word of God came to him, he says get from here and go to the land of Moriah
to a mountain that I would show you and take with you your only begotten son, Isaac. Now
it's alright for us in retrospect to see the symbolism of Isaac and Christ being offered
up on the Mount Golgotha in this very same region apparently. There is a strong evidence
that the temple was built on this very same mountain that was actually asked of Abraham
to offer up his son. There's a real significance in that I think. But we find that this was
a strong explanation of what was yet to come and we find that Isaac who was in a sense
Abraham's entire spiritual destiny was tied up in this miracle son who was born to him
quite extraordinarily, miraculously if you like. And now he's grown up he's going to
have to sacrifice him and this seemed to be unthinkable but he didn't waver in his faith.
He realised that there must be a purpose in this and he realised that God was not only
if he was to sacrifice his son, God was able to bring him back again because God can't
break his word. He can't break his promise that had been made to him earlier on. Now
this is the stuff you might say of religious fanaticism but he was moved with a certainty
and confidence of faith that had been given to him by God and it certainly wasn't given
to him by some kind of law. It was given to him by an inner strength that was given to
him by the Spirit itself. Last week we saw that it is by the promise of the Spirit by
faith that he is able to walk in such a manner before God and there was a work of God going
on in this flesh and bones of Abraham and so we find that here not only was this child
who was cherished by Abraham, it was something very precious to Abraham but he was not only
going to lose something he cherished but also the whole purpose of his life was bound up
in this son as it were in terms of the revelation of God to him in prior times. And so it would
seem that even the whole purpose of his life was somehow being tested at this point but
he proceeded. He didn't argue, he just took his donkey and his son with him and there
was nothing else he could put on there and even Isaac said where is the lamb we are taking?
God will provide he said. And we find that this was a great test for him. God will provide
a ram for the sacrifice he says in verse 14 of the Genesis passage in chapter 22. He
says in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. That's what he says there. In the
mount of the Lord it shall be provided. That was the revelation that had come to him. Now
also we find in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 12 this same thing being referred to here.
He says in verse 11 of Hebrews chapter and verse 12 therefore from one man and him as
good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude and innumerable as
the sand which is by the seashore. So he's referring to this, I always thought when I
was looking at this passage, I always thought that referred to the birth of Isaac. Because
Abraham in verse 11 says Sarah by faith herself received strength to conceive the seed that
was born and so on. That's definitely referring to Isaac. But it's not until verse 12 that
this man is good as dead. Now it's referring not to Abraham or of Sarah but to one that
was good as dead. And it's referring to this occasion of Isaac being offered up. And when
Abraham had the knife ready to be plunged into his son, at the point of this a voice
came to him and says Isaac, Isaac, what are you doing here? And he says well I'm just
obeying. He said do not do this. So this man who was lying on the altar submitting and
laid down his life for this point, he was as good as dead at that point. The intentions
of Abraham was to make sure that knife was plunged deeply and fatally into his son's
body. He was as good as dead at that point. Now Abraham wasn't as good as dead. His wife
was as good as barren. That's not referring to that. It's referring to this occasion on
Mount Moriah, in the mountains of Moriah, the land of Moriah. So here I believe we can
see this Isaac was as good as dead at that point. And he says also that he was able to
even raise him up. Now it was received to him as a figure. And it was as it were a figure
of him being born a second time. And this was the kind of thing that we find referred
to here as well in chapter 11 of Hebrews and verse 17. And it says here,
But by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, he had received the promise
offered up his only begotten son, for from it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called,
and concluded that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which
he also received him in a figurative sense. So we can see there that there is a very strong
reference here that Isaac, not in Isaac the first born, but Isaac in the second born.
And it's true that as Jesus said to Nicodemus, No one shall enter the kingdom of God unless he is
born again. And it's true that we cannot come to faith by our natural inheritance in our Christian
homes. We've got to come to Christ and be actually born again. And that's what is absolutely
necessary in all our children. They've got not to simply receive that which we have inherited
from our parents, but we've got to inherit it from Christ. And to do that we need to be born
again in the Spirit, so that we can live by faith in Christ. That's the only basis by which we can
do this. And this figure of Isaac is wonderful because we find that Isaac was not somebody
inherited these things by natural inheritance, it had to be inherited as it were by a supernatural
work of God where he was to be born from above, born again. And so it is as it were
a work of God, spiritual work of God in the heart of all those who are going to believe.
And if we are believing, and we are believing in Christ, it means that we have been born again,
as it were. Not intellectually, but our heart is for the things of God. Our heart is for Christ.
And that's what leads us to living by faith in the One who can save us.
And so we find that this promise of the Spirit that we saw last week can come to us not by
not by some kind of inheritance in the natural realm, but by the special and complete work
of the Spirit of God that leads us to Christ, who is the One who is provided for us.
Now this last will and testament that was made on our behalf as beneficiaries, if we are living
by faith in Christ, what has happened is the Redeemer God who is Christ and can only be Christ.
It can't be the law, it can't be our Christian family background, it can only be Christ.
He says Christ has written in these days on Mount Moriah His last will and testament, as it were.
And He came and spoke to him a second time, remember, and He says,
Because you have not wavered in your faith, you will receive the blessings of this covenant.
And the word covenant and testament are the same words, isn't it not?
The testament and covenant are exactly the same meaning.
It's the word deotheke and it's the promise made in verse 16 of our passage.
And the nature of this kind of covenant is no one annuls or adds to it.
They can't take away or add to it.
It's something that the testator, as it were, has cut and written and it is to be
held. I know that these covenants, these wills are contested everywhere at law,
but essentially one thing remains is what is the will of He who made this last will and testament.
And certainly in this occasion the promise that came to Abraham on Mount Moriah was clear,
where it says to Abraham firstly that,
Don't kill your son, your only begotten son. He will not redeem us, even if you did kill him.
He could never be the redeemer because he is of the generation of Adam.
He is one that is a sinner and no sinner could be ever sacrificed
and be an adequate redeemer for us.
And therefore I promise you that I will provide one that will be not a sinner
and he will not be of the generation of Adam, as we all are,
but he will be of a generation of a second Adam.
And he will be from God himself.
And so he says here quite clearly that he explains in 22 and verse 18,
22 and verse 18, the nature of this one.
He says,
In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.
What a wonderful verse there.
And he says your seed in the singular.
And the apostle Paul raises that question and says it was the singular that's important.
There would be another that would take the place, that ram that was provided would take the place
and he would become the sacrifice.
And the Lord says in verse 14 of chapter 22 of Genesis,
he says the Lord will provide and he will provide in this mountain.
And that's what the, apparently the temple was built on this very site
where Isaac was to be offered up.
And the Jewish people would come with the sacrifice year after year
on all the occasions that were prescribed they would come
and they would be saying with the sacrifice God will provide for us.
Until one day, Christ who came, who's the lamb of God, God provided,
provided and all the sacrifices were no longer to be offered up any longer
because Christ was provided on the very same mountains in Jerusalem there.
So here the seed, Christ, would be the basis and it would be the basis
when this one was provided the covenant would actually be fulfilled.
Then the inheritance could then be distributed to all the beneficiaries of this covenant,
of this last will and testament and as a result,
the many then would be receiving the great blessings of the seed
that would be provided for us.
And as many as the stars of the sky would be beneficiaries.
Every people in all the nations who would be the children of Abraham by faith
would be beneficiaries of the very blessings that came from this covenant
and that they would receive the inheritance from the testator.
So that we would be those that would be partakers of this blessed covenant
that was established at this time.
But the argument here, the blessing of this covenant came to the great multitude
of everyone that had the same faith that Abraham had and that Isaac had.
And it would come not because we inherited naturally through the church
or through our Christian family, we will receive it because we were born again
of the spirit and that we as a result with this new heart that we have received,
we would now be able to put our faith in the only one that can redeem us,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And it's a clear sign if you've got a love for the Lord Jesus,
if you know that what he's done on your behalf, that's a clear sign of saving faith.
Because the spirit has opened your eyes and your heart is filled with the love of Christ.
Now therefore if we've just got a love for the church, love for doing good things,
that is not Christian faith, it is really the better side of your flesh,
simulating what Christian faith might be, but really the better side of your flesh.
It's not real Christian faith.
So this covenant with Abraham was the bearer of the inheritance
of all those that believe in the seed which is Christ.
And so Christ releases your inheritance.
It's not the law that does it, that's the point.
And this is where the Galatians were coming unstuck.
They were putting their faith in the law, and Jesus says,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
because they were putting their faith in tradition.
They were putting their faith in the apparatus of religion
rather than the substance of true religion, which is Christ.
And so the spirit of life comes to us by Christ alone.
It's only as we put our faith in the living one that is able to give us life,
can we really live the Christian life and receive the spirit
that's going to give us the dynamic to be able to live the Christian life.
So Christ, who died for your sins, became a curse for us, he says in verse 13.
And therefore, Christ, who rose again from the dead,
we may also live in the same spirit of that new life that we have,
that resurrection life, that regenerating spirit that comes within us.
And that comes only as we put our faith in Christ.
That's the message that we find here,
and that's the inheritance that we receive from Christ.
In one sense, all the believers in the Old Testament,
although they lived by faith and they were living by the spirit,
if they were truly true believers, they could only live in the promise of it.
But now, we have received the accomplishment of all these things,
and we live in a far greater age, a far greater benefits on this side of the cross
than the believers on the other side of the cross could,
because it's all been now accomplished.
And so the Galatians...
Not, no, the law could not die for your sins,
and that's the implications of what they were saying.
He says, has the law risen from the dead for you?
Only Christ has done that for you.
Well, why are you putting your trust in the works of the law?
Why aren't you putting your trust in Christ?
It's a very strong argument that he brings before them at this point.
And we find that the covenant of Christ was made
some 330 years or 430 years before the law was given.
He makes that quite explicit.
So, is the law superior to the promise?
In terms of antiquity, and as I looked at things in those days,
that which was in antiquity is far more important
than that which was given to them later on.
And the promise is far more important than the law because it came earlier.
That's the argument of scripture anyway.
And here we find that the law was more superior...
Was the law more superior than the promise?
And the argument would have to be said by all of them.
It says, no, of course, the promise is far more superior than the law.
Not that the law was bad, not that the law was unuseful,
but in terms of our faith we should be putting our trust
in the one that can save us, the law can't save us.
So the law did not in any way supersede the covenant.
And the covenant that was confirmed before by God,
it was in Christ and the revelation of Christ.
And so the law was given to regulate the nation of God's people.
And that's all it was.
It was a further revelation because of the need that God's people needed
regulations to live by.
They were not to live by it by the flesh,
but they lived by it according to the Spirit.
And as we live by the Spirit, we will see more and more of the righteousness of the law
becoming more and more part of our lives.
And if there's no progress there, we have to ask the Spirit to say,
well, is the Spirit of God in your life at all?
Is there no progress there?
And if you're not growing in the graces of God,
well, you probably won't be growing in the righteousness of the law either.
That's the point.
But make sure the horse is in front of the cart
rather than the cart in front of the horse.
That's what was happening here.
So the Apostle Paul says,
look, my pleading with you, you Galatians,
my pleading with you,
on the basis of what Christ has revealed to Abraham
in the covenant that was with Abraham,
it was the substance of that covenant was the Redeemer God.
The Christ, the seed, not the seeds,
not the nation of Israel, they would never be able to redeem you.
But it is Christ himself.
He says, only as he was offered up,
the only begotten of the Father that was offered up in our place
who became a curse for us.
And he paid the price, the ransom price for our redemption.
Then it is,
he is the substance of our faith, not the law.
And as we put our faith in Christ who is the Redeemer God,
then the miraculous work of God can take place within our hearts
where the spirit of promise comes into our hearts
and we put our faith in Christ.
And then we will see the great benefits of the covenant,
our inheritance coming into our lives.
And we live not as men, but as the children of God.
We live not as people of the flesh,
but we live as people of the spirit.
And we do the things of God.
And it's only as we do the things of God can we glorify God.
And it's only as we glorify God that we fulfill the very purpose of our existence.
And therefore, let us be careful not to put our trust in something that can't save us.
As good as the thing that we might be putting our trust in.
It might be very good.
And the law of God is very good.
But it won't save us.
It didn't die in our place, the law.
It didn't rise again from the dead.
Only Christ did that.
And so here we see the significance.
The incredible significance of that former revelation of God.
In the dealings with Abraham.
Far more important because it reveals to us the Gospel.
And it secures God and commits God to that Gospel so that we might be saved.
And now Christ has fulfilled all that upon the cross of Calvary.
And now we know in retrospect, we know clearly, we have 20-20 vision of this now.
It is Christ that is only one that's worthy of our faith.
Put your faith in Christ.
And don't deter, and don't turn away from Him in any part of your life.
Christ's covenant is sufficient for us.
Amen.