It doesn’t take long to see that we are living in the last days. There are wars and rumors of wars. There is deep political upheaval. What is right is called wrong, and what is wrong is called right. Chaos abounds. Evil is celebrated. It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? Even so, there is a truth we hold onto no matter what is happening around us: God keeps His promises. You can trust God to keep His word, every single time. His word is trustworthy.
We are surrounded by promises in everyday life. Rental agreements. Contracts. Verbal commitments between friends. When someone gives their word, we expect them to keep it. We don’t casually change the terms or back out. If we, as flawed people, care about keeping our promises, think about how much more God does. He is faithful in every way, and He values every promise He has made. His character depends upon His Word!
Think back to God’s promise to Abraham. It wasn’t small or insignificant. God promised him a new land, a large family, and that through his descendants, all the nations of the world would be blessed. This went far beyond Abraham’s lifetime. God even repeated the same promise to Jacob. God’s promises are never accidental or temporary. They are powerful and even shape human history.
In Paul’s day, some religious leaders argued that a person had to keep the law perfectly to be right with God. They falsely taught that faith in Jesus was not enough and that the grace of God was insufficient. Paul reminded them that God’s promise to Abraham came long before the law was ever given. The law has a purpose, but it doesn’t cancel God’s grace. Why would anyone want to leave the freedom found in Jesus to go back to a life of rule-keeping and fear?
Many people today fall into the same trap. They feel they must earn God’s love or prove their worth by doing enough religious things or keeping a list of rules and regulations. Listen, you can be sure that the promise of salvation through faith in Jesus is real. We don’t earn or work for our salvation. It is a gift received through faith and enjoyed with great joy.
Questions naturally come up when we think about grace. What about those who haven’t heard the gospel? What about our friends and family? Is God fair in the way He deals with people? These are honest questions, and they come from hearts that care. The good news is that God is not only just, but He is also full of grace. His justice is fair. Every single person who has ever lived will receive a fair judgment from God.
When we think about God’s faithfulness, we need to remember that the most important time is right now. There is nothing we can do about yesterday, and tomorrow is not promised. God invites us to live fully in the moment, trusting Him with our past and with our future.
In a world where promises are broken so quickly and fidelity is hard to find; we can rest fully on God’s unchanging character. His word is solid. We can trust Him fully.
Salvation is through faith in Christ alone. It’s His finished work that we base our lives upon. In Christ, you have everything you need. Cling to Him!
Study # 14810 God Keeps His Promises
Galatians 3:19-29
Full Unedited Transcription
Amen.
Open your Bibles. Galatians chapter 3 is where we are. When you get there, we’re going to be in verse 15. Galatians chapter 3, verse 15. And I’ve entitled our Bible study, God Keeps His Promises. God keeps his promises. He’s abundantly fair, and abundantly righteous and abundantly just. The Holy Spirit is gracious and wonderful, leading us into the truths that God has given to us. And when God makes a promise, he keeps it.
Now the churches in the region of Galatia are under attack. Paul the apostle had gone through the region, planting churches, sharing the gospel, establishing the believers in the doctrine of grace, the finished work of the cross, the blood that Jesus Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins. He taught them rightly and correctly that there is nothing that you and I could ever do to earn our salvation, nothing that you and I and the believers in Galatia could ever do to somehow merit and deserve what God has given to us. But in his grace, we can receive the gift of salvation through the repentance of sin. And this simple and sufficient, this thorough and complete life of grace through faith was under attack.
The believers are confused. False teachers, we know who they are. They’re the Judaizers. These false teachers rushed into the area after Paul left and brought great confusion with false teachings. I can already hear some of the questions that were being asked. You know, they’re rolling into town and they’re hearing and they go, wait a minute, wait a minute, Paul, he taught you what? You can’t trust Paul. Do you really believe that you can be saved by grace alone? And just the force of that question will make some people question, well, I don’t know, that’s what I was taught, and what do you mean I can’t trust Paul?
And before you know it, in the confusion, just like the cultists that come to your door or meet you at the market, they just want to get you off your feet a little bit. They want to get you a little bit uneasy because it’s in that confusion and uneasiness that they can give you their false teaching. And of course, it’s going to be compelling because it speaks to the confusion that they created. That’s how these false teachers are. They create confusion then to fill the blanks with their false teaching. And so what would they say? They would tell them, you have to work hard in order to be saved. You have to keep the rules.
And then of course, if you’re confused, well, what rules? And with that question, then all of a sudden they can give you everything they need. And we know what the Judaizers did. They told the believers in Galatia, listen, you cannot be saved the way that Paul taught. You must, and remember what they told the men? For the men, they said, you must be circumcised. And you’re like, what? What? I’m already saved, my life’s changed. No, no, you must be circumcised and keep the complete law, all of it. Not just the 10 commandments, but all 600 plus of the commandments. Basically, what they were saying is that you needed to prove you love Jesus. That’s how. You want to be saved, you need to prove it daily by keeping the law, all of the law, completely.
So far, we have learned though, that that is completely false. It is impossible for you to keep the law. At a very young age, you learned that it was impossible. The first time you were in rebellion against your parents, the first time you pointed the finger and said, no, you failed. And you can’t recover from that. Because we learned that if you fail in one point of the law, you have failed in all of the law. When you break the law, you become a law breaker. And what they were teaching the believers then was, hey, this is how you’re saved. You need to actually become a Jew first, a Jewish proselyte. And then from becoming a Jewish proselyte, you’re keeping all the law. And then maybe one day you will be saved.
But see, Paul’s message in Galatians is, the theme is found in chapter five. So notice with me in chapter five in verse one there, you’ll see the theme. And this could be the banner over every chapter. Over every chapter is this key truth and how important it is. Notice what he says in verse one, how important it is to stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed, verse two, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And Paul’s saying, look, you have to make a choice. You are either going to live in relationship with God by faith and have a real relationship, or you’re going to leave that and you’re gonna do your own thing. You’re not gonna have a, Christ doesn’t profit you anything. There is no relationship apart from him. And the relationship with Jesus is one of faith. It’s his work, it’s his freedom, it’s his love, his joy, not our works. He’s saying you’ve been set free.
Now we don’t meet Judaizers today, but what we do meet and who we do meet are legalists. Anyone that would come to you, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this, that you’ve had someone come to you and describe your Christianity as not enough. It’s not enough. And they’ll always, when you hear that, there’s always someone with some kind of system to offer you to fill the blanks for it’s not enough. It’s not, you’re not doing enough. And they pressure you and guilt you and tell you, you’re not doing enough. In order to be saved, you need Jesus and, and we have learned by now, and if you haven’t, it’ll be repeated over and over again. If you add anything to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel. And you have to be careful there.
We are not saved by our good works. However, our salvation and relationship to God leads to all sorts of good works because of relationship, because we are who we are. You don’t need to prove yourself to God or even to yourself. Trying to prove that you’re a believer. It’s like our kids, right? And our grandkids. None of our kids need to prove that they’re our kids. We know it. We see it in your life. We know your kids are your kids because they have a lot of your behaviors. They look like you, for goodness sake. They are your kids. They are your children. Nobody needs, you don’t require, even those of you that brought in foster kids or adopted kids, they’re your kids. We don’t need to prove it. You never make them, hey, are you my kids? Show me the paperwork. Nobody, but dad, I’m only three. No, I don’t, paperwork? What are you talking about? Like, nobody makes that. Nobody has those kind of relationships. And how much more God, he’s not requiring you to prove you’re his son or his daughter. He actually declares it over you.
By faith in Christ, he declares you are my daughter. You are my son. And what does he require? For us to believe it. Believe it. God has done the work. And these false teachers and even false teachers today, they want to take you away from freedom and bring you into bondage. What does the freedom life look like in Christ? Well, you enjoy him. It’s no longer I have to. It’s I get to and I enjoy him. I want to be in the word. I want to hear. My ears are open. I’m receiving it. I’m praying. I’m enjoying life. But you meet somebody that gives you a list. Let’s just say you meet someone. They say, here, these three things. These are the three things that a Christian should do. The rest of these three things. You know what your life’s going to become? You’re going to be in bondage to three things the rest of your life. That’s how you’re going to measure your life.
Like right now, you might be living that way. And yesterday, Saturday, yesterday, you did the three things. You finished them. You hit a grand slam. You were over the top finished. And how do you roll into church today? Look at me. I’m such a good Christian. Why? I did the three things. Oh, really? Yeah, I did the three things. But then maybe this morning, you did three things yesterday. This morning, you failed in all three of them and you’re not even rolling. You didn’t even roll out of bed. You’re still in bed watching online because all you’re paying attention to are the three things. That’s bondage. Because there’s a lot more to your relationship with Jesus than three things.
Now, are those three things perhaps significant? Like you want to improve on things, you want to grow? That’s fine. But if it becomes the measure of your relationship, you are now in bondage. And all you worry about, you’re not really concerned, Lord, what do you have for me today? Because you’re already convinced that the three things is what he has for you today. Lord, where do you want me to go today? How do you want me to act? And with the three things, that opens up the door for you to do all kinds of other things that you don’t pay attention to instead of just abiding in Christ.
And you can see what a mess the church is in Galatia. In that region, what a mess they’re in, how confused they are. Even today, some of you, it could be the way you were raised, it could be maybe a religious system you were raised in that just uses guilt and condemnation to motivate you, but God doesn’t do that. God, his greatest motivator is love. I mean, when you love someone, you’ll do anything and everything for them. It’s not, you don’t even, I think today on Mother’s Day, to think about how much love has led to so much sacrifice from your life. Nobody needed to tell you to do that. You didn’t need, these are the top 10 things a mom does. You know, you’re like following all these mommy blogs and everything, but they’re all confusing because this mom does that, that mom does that. Like you got all this stuff, but what does the Lord have for you? Well, he just has one simple, just love. You love those kids? It’ll motivate so much sacrifice and care and concern in your life. That’s true for any relationship. Love is the motivating factor and the believers are going backwards.
Now today is a Bible study. It is a theological understanding of covenants. I want to let you know ahead of time, covenants. We’re going to be looking, I believe I’ve grasped it and I’ve simplified it enough for you to understand what Paul is saying, but you will immediately, at this point in our time in Galatians, you will immediately see the difference between studying a letter in the Bible and a narrative. And you go, what are you talking about, Ed? Well, we just finished as a church studying the book of Acts.
And the book of Acts is the true story of God through his Holy Spirit starting the church and all the exploits of the church. Missionary journeys, deliverance of demons from unbelievers, salvation, village chiefs getting saved. It’s just a story, a true story. And as we study it, we get to study along and it’s kind of a fast pace and you can go along and you pause here and there. Whereas a letter, Galatians is what is known in the New Testament as an epistle, an epistle, a letter, it’s more theological. As a matter of fact, Paul’s letters can usually be divided in two parts. The first part, like in Galatians, the first three chapters, very theological. He’s making a theological argument. And then once you understand the theological truth, the second three chapters are very applicational. Now, what do I do with it? So we’re still in the first three chapters. And this one, we get into the depth of understanding covenants and the promises of God. And by the time we’re done, I think you’ll grasp it. So pick up with me chapter three, verse 15.
Brethren, I speak in the manner of men. So now he’s going to use a human example of covenants. He says, I speak like men, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it’s confirmed, no one annuls it or adds to it. So again, if you’d like to write in your Bible, circle the word covenant and write next to it agreement, binding agreement. Or today, we may use the phrase contract. When you sign a contract, you’re signing a covenant. You’re making an agreement and the piece of paper defines it and you’re bound by it. I mean, I think many of us, you’re either renting a house or living in a community and you see it right when you drive in. It says that this is a covenant-controlled community. And what are they trying to tell us? They’re letting you know that when you moved in or bought that house, they sign an agreement that you cannot paint your house pink. You’re not allowed to do it. And you go, what do you mean I can’t paint my house pink? Well, you’re in our neighborhood and you signed or the owner of the house signed and made an agreement that this is how you can live in this community. It’s a binding agreement. You can’t get out of it. The only way to get out of that binding agreement is to leave and go buy another house somewhere that doesn’t have covenants.
So a covenant is an agreement. And he uses this example of just normal. He starts with us. He doesn’t even get to God’s binding agreements yet. He just talks about us. He says, look, when you sign an agreement, that agreement stands. If you change your mind, can’t change the agreement. If you want to say, oh, you know, I don’t want it that way anymore. You can’t, no one can add to it and no one can annul it. You signed on the dotted line and it is bound. That’s why many times when you sign a contract and there’s a dispute, what happens? You go to the court system and you ask for a third party for a judge or an arbitrator to enforce what? The covenant. That’s what it says. They don’t agree with it, you do, and you need someone to define it and enforce it for the person that doesn’t want to follow it. See, men can break agreements, but just because a man or a woman breaks an agreement doesn’t mean the agreement doesn’t exist.
Are you guys with me so far? So he just says, a man, we make an agreement, agreements stand. And where are we headed? We’re headed toward the end that God keeps his promises. So don’t forget that. So even when you and I make agreements, it’s expected that we keep our agreements. And that’s what he’s saying.
Verse 16. Now he gets theological. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ. Now, if you’re reading from a New King James, you notice that the word seed is capitalized. Because seed is not referring to many descendants. It’s referring to one person. And we see it. We don’t even need to guess or do any Bible study to find out. It says right here that the seed of the promise to Abraham and his seed is Christ, which brings us right into the doctrine of grace.
The promise was to Abraham, but ultimately the promise to Abraham was headed toward finality in Christ. Paul says the promise was made to seed singular. If you’re taking notes, you can jot it down in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, same principles used. When the curse is happening after sin entered into Adam and Eve’s life in the garden, you’ll remember God spoke to the snake, the devil, and he said this in Genesis 3.15, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. You see from the context of the verse, seed here is referring to one person, he, his. Again, a reference to the coming of Messiah. This is the plan of God from the beginning. So the promise was made to Abraham and through Abraham to his promised seed, Messiah.
This reference is very important, very important you understand this because the world today isn’t blessed because there are many Jewish people in the world, many descendants of Abraham. That’s not why the world is blessed. The world is blessed today that because through the Jewish nation, the Jewish Messiah of the world has come. That’s the blessing of God. The blessing of God in more relatable terms would be this. You are a blessed people today right here in Colorado because Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the price for your sins. He is the seed fulfilling all the promises of Abraham.
And the first argument that Paul makes in relation to going away is, I know you think that Abraham is the source of blessing, but Abraham is not the source of blessing. Jesus is the source of blessing. He’s basically saying this, in Christ, you have it all. Why would you leave Christ? Why would you leave this simple relationship with Jesus to go backward when you have inherited it all? It’s all yours in him.
Now, a lot was given to, a lot of promises were given to Abraham. If you want to jot them down, you can look them up for yourself. In Genesis chapter 12, he was promised a new land. He was promised to be a great nation. He was promised to have a great name and that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him. Genesis 12. He was also promised an heir and innumerable descendants, Genesis 15. He was also blessed that many nations would come from him and many kings and that the covenant was an eternal covenant, Genesis 17. He was also promised in Genesis 22, many descendants as numerous as the stars and that all the nations would be blessed through him.
And the fulfillment of the many blessings, the fulfillment of all these promises are found in Christ. The promises of God did not come through the Jewish nation, but through a Jewish person. Jesus, the seed singular. The false teachers would come in and many of them would claim to be rightful heirs of God’s promises to Abraham just because they were his offspring. And you’ll remember Jesus came against some of the religious leaders in his day saying, you know, you guys think you’re descendants of Abraham. You’re not. You’re of your father, the devil. You are not at all living according to the ways of God. And he came strongly against them because they believe that their physical relationship, their lineage is what blessed them.
And Paul’s reminding them then and us now that the blessing in your life comes through the blood of Jesus Christ. And it’s accessed, how? By faith. The covenant, the promise that God shared with Abraham had been reaffirmed many times, but only Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant as the unique seed. So all the promises of Abraham are translated and transferred to Jesus. They don’t reside in a nation. They reside in a person. Jesus alone is our hope of blessing. So that by faith in him, the promises to all people, all places, for all centuries and eternal life is found in Jesus alone.
He gets to the next argument, verse 17. Now, if you look at these arguments, you kind of look at them as ladders. He explains a covenant. He goes back to the most important promise of the Bible. And then as you look at that promise, it ends in Jesus. Now he’s taking the ladder. Now we’re going one more rung up in verse 17. He says, and this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, effect. What were the false teachers doing? Calling the believers back to the law, back to the law. They said, this is where you need to land, in the law. Leave Jesus and go back to the law.
Now, he uses this number very quickly here, 430 years. That’s a tricky number for you Bible students. If you were reading ahead, you may have noticed that the law is actually came 645 years later, not 430. And this happens to be one of those texts that somebody may bring up to you and go, look, the Bible’s filled with errors, filled with inconsistencies, and to which you always have to say, prove it to me. Don’t just show it to me, prove it to me. Because a careful study will explain this number. Now, it is true that the law came 645 years approximately after the promise to Abraham. But a careful study of the Bible will notice in Genesis chapter 26, the Lord repeated this covenant to Isaac. And then later in Genesis 28, in verse 15 to be exact, he repeated the covenant to Jacob. And it was after the repetition of the covenant to Jacob, that’s the date, 430 years later exactly, is when God gave Moses the law.
The point that he’s making, and you would know this too. You would understand this because if you’re talking to someone and you’re trying to remember something and you pull an exact number out and it’s accurate and somebody goes, oh, that’s not the, no, no, no. You only have the number you remember. It may not be the 645, but you remember a number in your head and you’re sharing it and you know it’s exact for what you remember. That’s all he’s doing here. He could have remembered 645. He could have remembered 430 and I didn’t do the math, but he could have used the number with Isaac. But here’s what he’s saying. It’s really the bottom line here. That the law came after Abraham. That’s all he’s wanting to say. The law came after Abraham and the law does not eliminate the promise made to Abraham. It doesn’t replace it.
But before we get into the rest of this section, I think it’s important to pause and just consider how amazingly precise and exact the Holy Spirit is with little things. Extremely precise, just like time. It’s a thought that comes to our mind when we consider when we’re waiting on the Lord, we think of this. And the way we think of it is when we’re waiting on God for something and it doesn’t happen according to our timing, we’re a little upset or a little impatient, but we pay attention to time like God pays attention to time. But when he doesn’t act on the exactness on our timetable, we get frustrated about it. But today I’m here to remind you that God’s always on time in your life. Even those of you waiting right now with great uncertainty or waiting for something that, or someone or something, just wondering what the future might hold. Listen, God’s timing is always perfect. even if it doesn’t line up with you. And his answer to prayer is always perfect, even if it wasn’t what you were asking for.
Time is very important to God. Preciseness is very important to God. And I would just add this. The most important, as you read the Bible, the most important time to God is today. That’s the most important time. It’s today. Living out your life today. There are many listening to me right now that are being ripped off from today because they’re living in the past. and you’re just living with regret, you’re living with unforgiveness, you’re living with condemnation, and it’s just burying you and overwhelming you, and you’re unable to enjoy today because you’re living in the past. But you know as well as I do, there is nothing we can do about our past. We can’t change it, we can’t undo it, we can only respond to it. But today is the day that you and I, the Bible tells us, remember the Psalmist was praying, he says, teach us to number our days. Because not only are some listening to me have a hard time with the past, but others listening to me have a hard time with the future.
And you’re living in the future. And you go, well, how do I do that? I’ll tell you exactly how you do that. You live in a perpetual state of worry, fear, and anxiety about the future. Especially with the conditions of our geopolitical world today and what’s the future going to hold and we’re watching Bible prophecy come to life right before our eyes, but it can be a little concerning and a little scary and so you’re fearful and you’re worried and you’re overly concerned and you’re too being ripped off because you’re living in the future. According to God, the most important time to him is today because today is where life is lived. not yesterday or tomorrow. Now, of course, God is not prohibiting us to look into the future. He’s not prohibiting us to use our past as a testimony. That’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is, today is the day. You know why I believe today’s most important? I have a scripture for you. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 2. The Bible says, for he says, in an acceptable time, I have heard you, and in the day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
And you have to be willing to come to the cross. Not just look at it, talk about it, have a necklace, walk around it, but to come to the cross and see Jesus high and lifted up. See him taken down off the cross and buried. Three days later, Jesus rose again from the dead. And if today you will come to him and repent of your sins, your life will be eternally changed. You can have and leave here with the assurance that when you die, you’ll spend all of eternity with God. Putting it off won’t help you. It won’t support you. It’s important that you take today. In a few moments, you’ll have an opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in your life right now, in this moment. Let’s come back to the text real quickly as we close.
In verse 17, the point that he’s making is that the law did come through Moses, but it doesn’t eliminate the promise made. It doesn’t erase the promise to Abraham. The promise still stands. How? In Christ. It’s an eternal promise. The law served a purpose. We’re actually learning this in our midweek Bible study right now as we study through the book of Exodus. The law is being given. It’s a new relationship. The generation has, the nation of Israel has been delivered from Egypt, from slavery into freedom. And God is defining that freedom. And we’ll learn in our next study what the purpose of the law is. But I’ll summarize it for you right now. You can read ahead, but I’ll tell you exactly why God used the law.
The law’s purpose was to get you to Christ. And you go, well, how would that happen? The law is intended to reveal to you you are unable to keep it all. Really, the law’s intention is to reveal the character and nature of God and as well as your character and nature and show you how separate you are. God perfect, we’re imperfect. God righteous, we’re not so righteous. God’s fair, we’re not so fair in our weaknesses and in our sin. Notice verse 18 now, the summary of his argument. For if the inheritance is of the law, if you had to earn your inheritance, then it’s no longer a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Notice here, law and promise and inheritance are used. Law and promise are naturally opposite. Like oil and water, they cannot be combined. The law requires performance. If you do, then I will, God says. And the law would provide an opportunity for you to perform and for you to do something. And even with the children of Israel, nobody kept the law. And you are reminded of that every year, once a year on the Day of Atonement, for the failures of the nation and the imperfections and sinfulness of the nation, what did they do? The high priest would take a lamb and sacrifice that lamb and spread the blood on the mercy seat. Pointing where? To Jesus, the lamb, not just a lamb every year, but Jesus is the final lamb, the lamb of God that not covers sin, because that’s why they had to keep bringing a lamb every year, because the blood was covering, a kaphar, it was covering sin until Messiah came.
But now that Jesus has come, the inheritance is found in him by faith. He’s the lamb of God that doesn’t cover sin. He takes away the sins of the world. Why would you leave Jesus for a law, Paul says? Why would you claim to have everything and not need the grace of Jesus just because you’re a descendant of Abraham? The law requires performance, but a promise is just received. Just like an inheritance, he says. If you and I were settling an inheritance, we were in an attorney’s office and someone named us in their will or in their trust, as that’s being read and as that’s being covered, there we are. We’re just gonna be receiving the inheritance. There’s nothing we need to do. It’s just we are. We’re named in it. It’s there we are. This is what we get. This is what was given to us. And the only thing to do with an inheritance is receive it. That’s it.
And even the word is used there. Notice it says in verse 18, God gave to Abraham by promise. That’s what, when something is given to you, you don’t work for it. If something’s given to you, you don’t try to earn it. If something’s given to you, what do you do? You receive it and enjoy it. It’s a gift. But there is something in us, isn’t there? There is something in us that when someone gives us a gift, somebody wants to buy our lunch. This happens all the time. Somebody wants to buy our lunch. What’s the first thing out of your, well, some of you, not all of you, but some of you. First thing out of your mouth, I’ll get next time. Well, I didn’t ask you to get next time. I don’t even know if we’re going to lunch again. But right now, I just want to buy your lunch. Well, I’ll get it next time. Well, you know, you don’t need to get it next time. Just enjoy the food that’s in your belly right now and we’re covering it. But that’s in us. Immediately, we’re automatically, I want to do for you too. You have that sense of it’s better to give than to receive. But we have in us, if you’re going to give me something, I’ll give it to you. No, I don’t want any. I just want to pick it up. That’s it.
The proper response when somebody wants to pick up lunch is, thank you. Do you want to get the next one? I like to go with you, lunch with you a lot. You know, it’s just to receive. That’s how an inheritance is. And that’s how a promise is. When someone promises something to you, all your expectation is is that they keep their promise. You’re not trying to make them keep their promise. You’re not trying, you’re not for, you’re not trying to set it all up. Like if someone says, I’ll be there, your expectation is they’ll be here. There’s nothing else to it. And that’s the point God is making. God has promised salvation through Abraham and his seed, singular, his seed, Jesus. The believers in Galatia already have him. And these legalists have come through Judaizers saying, no, that’s not enough. You need to work. And the way you work is through being circumcised and keeping the law. And Paul is making a very important distinction.
The two types of inheritances are not compatible. God’s law leads to man’s works, but God’s grace leads to man’s faith. And man can never succeed in fulfilling all of the law, but God can never fail in perfectly keeping his promise. And the promises of God to you are yes and amen, always in Christ. The inheritance can’t be earned, and the promises you’ve received, the scriptures you’ve been holding on to, they are yours by faith.
Now, God keeps his promises. And he is abundantly fair, righteous, and just. The Holy Spirit is a gracious spirit, always moving, always working on bringing people to salvation, of knowing him personally. And inevitably, as you’re sharing and loving people, I know people ask this question. It’s a good question. As they’re resisting or maybe skeptic about Christianity, they’ll ask something like, okay, I can accept God and maybe send Jesus, but what about those who never heard? What about those in the jungle? What about those, I mean, here we are, we have a Bible, we’re in the Western world, we know the language, somebody can lay out the entire gospel, and in your conversation, they’re going, what about those that have never heard or those that will never hear the gospel like we are?
What about them? And let me just say, if that’s your question, that’s a good question. You’re really thinking. Now, you may be a little bit resistant, but you’re thinking, and it’s a valid question. What about those who have never heard? What about all those people? There is a good answer. And many times it’s asked in the way of like functionality. Like how is God gonna do that? What’s God gonna do? How is he gonna reach all the billions of people on the planet? How’s that gonna happen? Now, if that’s something that interests you, I answered that question in a full Bible study in our study in Romans. So you can go on our app or on our website and put in there, what about those who never heard, I think was the title. Or you can just email me, I’ll find it for you and I’ll send it to you. It is a good question and the Bible has a good answer.
But I have to say the underlying premise of that question actually isn’t in the functionality. The underlying premise of that question is that God’s not fair or that God isn’t going to be fair. Like, I mean, if he was fair, then the world wouldn’t be the way it is. And it’s a fairness question. And here’s what I’ve learned about God. God is fair. He’s actually beyond fair in his dealings with man. Fair would be this from God. Just the baseline fairness of God. This is be fair. You have failed. My creation has failed and sinned against me. And I will start over. And you guys are on your own. You’re eternity apart from me because you already said you don’t want me. That would be fair. We would get what we deserve. That’s fairness. But God is beyond fair.
God is not merely a God of justice. He’s also a God of grace. And so what does the beyond fair sound like from God? Well, God would say this. You guys blew it and you deserve separation. But I love you. And I love you even though you’ve blown it. And I’m going to send my son to die in your place and pay for your sins. That’s beyond fair. And so how God deals with those that haven’t heard like you have heard, I believe it will be fair. You have the great white throne judgment, and I don’t know how it all is going to go down, but we’re all there, and we’re watching God distribute his judgment and his grace in heaven. I know this. At the end of the day, as we’re watching that scene, we will declare God fair, righteous, and just. We will agree with him. Because he is, he’s demonstrated it. All the billions of people before the throne, God is judging the nations.
But let me give it to you real quick summary on the functionality. And again, I developed this in another Bible study, but it’s enough for you today, because that’s maybe the question you walked in. Every person, if you think of the world right now as a dark room where you can’t see, like completely dark, you can’t see, even the smallest amount of light will light that room up. So you’re just grasping for the smallest amount of light. And in the smallest amount of light, leading the way, you can get out of the dark room, and it can become bright again. Every human being in this dark world has been given a little light. Every single human being. External light, internal light, as humans.
Let me give you an example. Every single person, man, woman, and child, language, tribe, tongue, nation, in the jungle, up the Amazon, no matter where they are, has been given this light. You ready? They have been given the light of creation. They see a tree, they see an animal, they see a mountain, and they must conclude, I see that and I didn’t make that. I didn’t have anything to do with it. And if they try to, I think I’ll try to make a tree, they can’t. They can’t even develop the seed. And I’ll try to create an animal, they can’t. And it forces them to consider something is greater than them. That’s why all this false worship and all these false deities, because there’s a desire to worship in every man. And they recognize they’re not the creator, so they look to something outside of themselves. However, if they respond to that light externally, God has given them an inside light. and that is the light of their conscience.
Every human being on the planet Earth knows the difference between right and wrong. You go, wait a minute, Pastor. Those guys over there don’t have our laws, and they don’t have our morality. No, no, no. They have a God-formed conscience, and I’ll tell you how you know. Everyone understands, even listening to me today, everyone understands right and wrong when they are wronged. Because immediately your response is, that’s not right. That’s not fair. How could you do that to me? You’re like, what do you mean? Like, it’s fair in my morals. Well, it’s not fair in my… And just the discussion about morality reveals you know right and wrong. It may not be formed and it may not be polished, but the essence of right and wrong exists in every single human being and it moves them. It either moves them toward God or away from God as they choose.
And if a person responds properly to the external light and a person responds properly to the internal light, let me tell you what happens. A lot of different things happen. But for one guy that I haven’t met yet, but I hope I do, as he woke up in the morning to be a village chief and go about his day with things on his mind and issues in his life, out of the blue, these missionaries show up from America in his village, just got off a boat on this wild ride up the Amazon River. And they come out and begin to play with the kids and begin to bless them with gifts and begin to tell them about the love of Jesus. And he hears along with his daughter, no doubt she was playing soccer. And these human beings that God had brought human beings for at the exact right moment, the light of Christ was shown on this man and this village and 20 plus people respond to the gospel. That’s one way. Another way we see God responding to light and men and women responding and seeing God act on that is throughout the Muslim world today, God is speaking to men and women in their dreams. And with visions, revealing the fullness of the gospel and men and women are getting saved right now and starting small home groups and underground churches, not only throughout the Muslim world, but for years, this is how churches started in China.
Let me just tell you something. You ready? God, he is abundantly fair, righteous, and just. And he’s gonna take care of everyone. And no one will be with an excuse, standing before God. But that’s not really the question, is it? What about those who have never heard? The real question is this. You have heard about the love of Jesus. What about you? What will you do in response to the fullness of God’s love for you? God declares, I know what you’ve done. I know where you’ve been. I know what you’ve thought, but I love you. And I send my son Jesus Christ to die for you. And today, if you come to faith in him, you will be saved. That’s the good news, folks. And it’s based upon the promises of God. And God, he always keeps his promises. Amen?
Thank you, God, for your word today on this glorious Mother’s Day. We are grateful for the moms and grateful for your faithfulness, grateful for you keeping your promises. No man, no system, no group can thwart the purposes of God in our lives. And so I just pray for that affirmation of faith and strength and growth in our lives today. And we just claim everything that’s broken, God, will be repaired. Every separation will be reconciled in Christ. Every difficulty will be solved. But we want to experience it now. And I know our timing may not be your timing, but I hope it gets closer and closer so that your timing is our timing. And we trust you.
And as the church is praying, I just want to give an invitation. Now is the day. Now is the time. Today is the day of salvation. And if you’re here and you would say, Pastor, I need and I want to follow Jesus with my life. As the church is praying for you, I want you just to stand up. I want to pray with you. I want to help you. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that you would say you need the assurance. Like today, you don’t know that after you die, you’ll go to heaven. God bless you. Today is that day. This is the moment. As important as it is for the people that never heard, you have heard. And God loves you. I wish I could describe in more depth what that means, but I get to the limit of my words and my vocabulary. God bless you. You’ll experience it. You’ll grow in it.
Your life will be changed for the work that God wants to do in your life. And so we are just asking you to acknowledge it publicly. It’s the first step publicly that you’ll take following Christ. Today is the day. And so pastors will come up alongside of you. That’s what’s happening now because we want you to know we’re gonna follow up with you and help you and you’re not alone. And you might need to rededicate, and I agree with you, but you can just do that sitting. You just say, God, you know where I’m at. You know what’s going on in my life. I just need to get right with you. Well, do it. But right now, the moment is for those that have never confessed their sins to God. Just stand to your feet before we leave. What a tremendous day to mark, you know, on Mother’s Day, 2025, my life was changed. God bless you guys. Who else would say that’s me?
Every one of us, I was saved out of darkness myself. The Bible actually talks about us walking around all lost. We thought we knew where we were going, but we didn’t. And it was when the love of God just exploded into my life, I responded. And my pastor, he had us walk all the way up. And I thought it was a little odd, but I did it. And I remember, I have that stuck in my mind. If I ever have a doubt, I know how I walked into that church. I know what was happening in my life. I know how far I was from God. And I know the turning point in my life where God met me and my life became a life of faith, a life of selflessness and following him, enjoying the forgiveness of my sins. And that’s for you too.
So let me help you with a prayer because that’s what confessing to God would be. And you can use my words or you can modify them, but you say something like this, God, I admit that I’ve sinned against you and I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. I receive that gift and I choose to follow you. Turn my life away from my past. I choose this life of freedom, of faith. And I’m asking you to come into my heart right now and take over my life. And Father, I know anyone anywhere that would ask those things of you, you hear them. And your word says you won’t cast them away.
So those here, I just think of those listening in a jail cell right now, in a hospital bed, in a kitchen, walking in the park with their earbuds on, driving in a car. Your Holy Spirit, you go wherever they are, you lead them and guide them, and I pray for them, especially those in this room. What a joy, what a privilege to be a part of something entirely new and fresh. Men and women born again of the Spirit. Bless them and encourage them in Jesus’ name. Amen.
