Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Jill Morikone, Pr. CA Murray, Pr. John Dinzey, Pr. Ronny Shelton
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP000031A
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00:01 The Bible tells us...
00:20 Join us now for the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:25 Our study today is, The Gospel of Galatians. 00:33 Hello and welcome once again to, 3ABN Sabbath School Panel. 00:36 I'm Shelley Quinn, and I can tell you that 00:38 all of us are excited to be here with you today. 00:41 Please grab your Bible, a pen, and join in. 00:44 If you do not have the Sabbath School study quarterly, 00:48 you can go to ABSG.Adventist.org 00:59 And download that. 01:01 We are studying the gospel in Galatians. 01:04 And let me introduce our illustrious panel 01:08 of my brothers and sisters. 01:09 We have with us Brother C.A. Murray, 01:11 Pastor Kenny, whoops, Pastor Ronnie Shelton. 01:16 Pastor John Dinzey, and Jill Morikone. 01:19 And just so glad each and every one of you 01:22 could make it with us. 01:23 Now C.A., would you like to open in prayer, please? 01:26 Glad to. 01:27 Gracious Father, we do praise You and thank You 01:28 for this opportunity to open up and study the Word of God again. 01:32 We thank You for the book of Galatians and the 01:34 truths that are there in. 01:36 Help us now to know and understand. 01:38 And once understanding, help us to do. 01:41 And we thank You and praise You. 01:42 In Jesus' name, amen. 01:45 This is such a wonderful study. 01:48 And we are on lesson six, which is, The Priority of the Promise. 01:54 Let's read our memory text together. 01:56 And this is Galatians 3:18. 01:59 We're looking at the English Standard Version, 02:02 which is essentially a literal translation. 02:05 "For if the inheritance comes by the law, 02:09 it no longer comes by promise; 02:12 but God gave it to Abraham by a promise." 02:17 So what I thought I would do, and this is probably 02:20 ill advised, but I have several pages of thoughts here 02:25 on God's covenants, and what I want to do 02:28 is just paint a broad picture of God's covenants for you 02:31 before I get into Sunday's lesson. 02:34 So I'm just going to kind of run through this rather quickly. 02:38 And there's going to be a lot of information in here. 02:40 But hopefully it will help you understand 02:44 what is all of this about covenants. 02:47 So essentially what happened is, before time began 02:50 God determined that He wanted to have a bond of intimacy 02:55 with His people. 02:56 And He wanted it, not only here on earth, 03:01 but throughout eternity. 03:03 So what covenants do is they contain the promises of God. 03:07 And they are oath bound promises for people who are 03:10 willing to enter into covenant relationship, 03:13 which is an intimate relationship with Him. 03:16 Human beings are so used to people breaking their promises 03:22 to them that it is hard for us to believe that God and 03:25 Jesus Christ are completely faithful to their promises. 03:29 But God authored this concept of covenant making, 03:35 and He is the one who confirms it by His faithfulness 03:41 and His power to fulfill His promises. 03:44 So He began this promise keeping, the source of the 03:48 first covenant began in the Garden of Eden. 03:52 In Isaiah 46:11, He shows us that His word is unchanging 03:59 and it is sure. 04:00 He says, "Indeed I have spoken it; 04:03 I will also bring it to pass. 04:05 I have purposed it; I will also do it." 04:09 So during the Old Testament times, there wasn't just the 04:12 covenants that God made with people. 04:15 People made covenants with each other. 04:17 I mean, they followed this concept. 04:19 And what we find, that covenants are either bilateral, 04:22 meaning there is more than one party involved 04:25 that are making the promises. 04:27 So you have this relationship between parties where 04:31 each one binds themselves to the other 04:34 to perform a certain service or duty. 04:37 But God's covenants are always unilateral. 04:40 He's the only one doing the promising. 04:42 I know people are going to say, "Wait a minute." 04:45 But we're going to prove this in just a moment. 04:47 So He's the one that makes the promises. 04:50 And people enter into covenant with Him 04:54 accepting His offer. 04:56 And they keep the covenant as commanded, 04:59 then they receive His oath bound promises. 05:02 Now the unifying theme of Scripture is this: 05:05 God is a covenant making, covenant keeping God. 05:09 And we ought to be so excited about that. 05:12 What happens, we see His covenants, they actually 05:16 all build one upon the next. 05:20 It is a progressive unfolding of His plan of salvation 05:25 through Jesus Christ who is promised before time began. 05:29 And again, His ultimate purpose of these covenants 05:32 is that He can have an intimate relationship with you 05:36 and with me. 05:38 So the original meaning for, "covenant," 05:40 in the Hebrew the word was, berith. 05:44 And it's used 280 times. 05:46 Sometimes that references between two parties; 05:49 sometimes between God and His people. 05:52 It means, to obligate, to fetter, to bind yourself. 05:59 Now in God's covenant, He initiates the bond 06:03 between us and Him. 06:05 His covenants are either unconditional 06:08 or they are conditional promises. 06:12 And He guarantees to fulfill the unconditional, I mean, 06:15 the parts of His promises. 06:17 If it's a conditional, we then fulfill ours. 06:23 So what covenants do, is they contain statements 06:27 of God's responsibility. 06:28 Because He's the one that's doing the binding. 06:30 And as I said, the parts of His covenant 06:33 which are conditional on human response, 06:36 He commands to be accepted. 06:40 But humans enter into this covenant. 06:43 In the 39 books of the Old Testament, 06:46 from Genesis to Malachi, God made many covenants. 06:50 And I want to run through them very briefly for you. 06:53 There was the covenant at creation which included 06:55 marriage, the Sabbath, and work; six days of physical labor, 06:59 one day of rest. 07:01 Possibly a covenant between God and Adam before the fall. 07:04 We see that in Genesis 2 where He commanded Him 07:06 not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 07:10 There's the covenant of Genesis 3:15. 07:13 That's the everlasting covenant God introduces 07:17 when He talks about the promised Seed. 07:20 And this is an unconditional promise that Christ is 07:23 going to come as our redeemer, He's going to pay our penalty, 07:27 He is going to destroy evil and recreate paradise. 07:31 Then there's a covenant with Noah. 07:33 Conditional or unconditional? 07:35 - Unconditional. - Unconditional. 07:36 He says, "I'll never again flood the earth with water." 07:39 The next time it's going to be with fire. 07:42 God's covenant with Abraham, conditional or unconditional? 07:48 It was conditioned on faith. 07:52 Justification was conditioned on faith. 07:55 Then He renewed the covenant with Abraham, 07:59 Genesis 26:5, when He's renewing it with Isaac, 08:03 what does he say? 08:04 He says, "I'm going to renew this covenant." 08:07 He repeats all of the covenant terms to Isaac, 08:10 and then He says, "Because your father Abraham 08:14 obeyed My commandments and My ordinances." 08:17 So when He gets to the Mosaic covenant, 08:21 this was, He is bringing a people out of bondage, 08:26 a people who don't even read, out of bondage. 08:30 And what He gives them was the constitution 08:37 for Israel as a nation, as a theocracy. 08:40 He gives them civil laws, 08:42 He gives them the ceremonial laws, 08:45 which is His remedy for sin, and He gives them... 08:49 The heart of the covenant was the Ten Commandments. 08:52 - Right? - Amen. 08:54 So now God's covenant then with David, 08:57 conditional or unconditional? 08:59 Unconditional. 09:01 He said that Christ would eternally 09:05 reign on David's throne. 09:06 So the Davidic covenant is one that's 09:09 going to be on the throne. 09:11 And then there's a few more minor covenants. 09:13 But in Hebrews 9:15, I'm going to skip over some of this 09:17 because my time is going away, Hebrews 9:15 shows us that the 09:22 foundation for the new covenant was Jesus' death. 09:26 It says, "For this reason He," Jesus, "is the Mediator 09:31 of the new covenant, by means of death..." 09:36 Now sometimes people get confused when it's talking about 09:38 Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 9, talking about the first covenant. 09:42 And it's in context of comparing the old covenant 09:49 to the new covenant. 09:50 So it was first... 09:51 The old covenant was first before the new, 09:53 but it was not first of God's covenants. 09:58 But now here's the question. 10:00 Is the new covenant, salvation by grace through 10:04 faith in Christ Jesus, is this conditional or unconditional? 10:10 It's conditional. 10:12 - Conditional. - It's conditional. 10:13 Just as Abraham's was conditioned on faith, 10:17 the new covenant is conditioned upon receiving 10:20 Jesus Christ as your Savior, living in faith with Him. 10:26 Does it also, like God blessed Abraham because of 10:30 his obedience, does the new covenant 10:32 bless us because of obedience? 10:33 Absolutely, Hebrews 5:9 says that once Christ was perfected, 10:38 He became the author of eternal salvation 10:42 to all those who obey. 10:45 And Jesus said in John 14:15, 10:47 "If you love Me, obey My commandments." 10:49 And we know 1 John 2:3-4 says that if anybody says 10:54 he knows Him, but doesn't keep the commandments, 10:56 hey, "he's a liar, and the truth is not in him." 10:59 So that takes us quickly to Sunday. 11:02 And we're going to be talking about the law and the faith. 11:06 The interesting thing here, which helps prove 11:10 that God's covenants were all unilateral... 11:14 We have a tendency, and until I really started researching this, 11:17 I had a tendency to believe that the old covenant, 11:22 the Mosaic law, was bilateral. 11:25 Rather than seeing it as there were conditions, 11:29 I saw it as... 11:30 Because the people come right out and say, 11:33 "All that the Lord has said, we will do." 11:35 So it was kind of like... 11:36 And He said, "If you obey Me, you're going to be 11:39 My kingdom of priests, a holy nation." 11:42 Right? 11:44 But in the New Testament, and in our Sunday's lesson, 11:47 it brings out an interesting... 11:50 There's two words in the Greek for, "covenant." 11:53 One was, diatheke. 11:56 And diatheke is a will. 11:58 It is always unilateral. 12:01 Only one person is making the promise. 12:03 So "diatheke" was used in the New Testament 12:08 of God's covenants, any covenant, 12:10 even of the old covenant, "diatheke" is the word 12:14 that was used in the New Testament, always, 12:16 thirty-three times, when it's referring to the covenants. 12:19 It's unilateral. There's only one person. 12:22 It's only God that's making the promises 12:25 to bind people to themselves. 12:27 And "diatheke" means that it's going to distribute the property 12:32 either after the death of someone, according to 12:35 the owner's stated desires. 12:37 But it's an irrevocable decision. 12:39 Can't be canceled, can't be annulled. 12:42 And here's the interesting thing. 12:44 When the Septuagint was written... 12:48 The Septuagint is the Greek translation 12:51 of the Old Testament. 12:52 It was written by seventy rabbinical scholars. 12:56 You know what word they used? 12:58 There's another word in Greek for a covenant, 13:02 like a mutual agreement or a contract. 13:06 And that word is, syntheke. 13:09 They never once, none of these rabbinical scholars, 13:13 ever used the Greek word, syntheke. 13:16 They always used, diatheke. 13:19 So in the Old Testament, as they translated this, 13:25 they used, diatheke, 270 times for God's covenants. 13:32 Meaning that these rabbinical scholars saw 13:39 that this was only a unilateral covenant. 13:45 And, I mean, I think that is so exciting to me. 13:47 Let me, really quickly, we're going to run through 13:50 Galatians 3:15-18. 13:52 He says, "Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: 13:54 Though it is only a man's covenant," diatheke, 13:57 yet if it were confirmed, no one annuls it or adds to it." 14:01 So once it's formally accepted, it can't be changed. 14:03 "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made." 14:07 He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 14:12 'To your Seed,'" capital S, because Paul says, 14:16 "who is Christ." 14:18 So the objective of God's covenants have always been 14:22 pointing to Jesus Christ and that the coming of the Messiah 14:26 would bring the salvation of men and great blessings. 14:30 Then he says, "This I say, that the law, which was 14:33 four hundred and thirty years later..." 14:35 That's the date given for the sojourn out of Egypt 14:38 in Exodus 12:40. 14:41 He said, "...it cannot annul the covenant..." 14:44 See, this was the everlasting covenant of grace that was 14:47 given in Genesis 3:15 and repeated to Abraham 14:51 that you're going to be saved by grace through faith. 14:53 And he's saying, "Hey, this didn't annul the covenant 14:56 that was confirmed before by God in Christ, 14:59 that it should make the promise of no effect." 15:03 He goes on and says... 15:06 Uh, I think that's it. That was it. 15:08 Yeah, that's through number 18. 15:11 Oh no, here's number 18. 15:13 And so he says, "For if the inheritance is of the law, 15:19 it is no longer of promise; 15:21 but God gave it to Abraham by promise." 15:25 So all of God's blessings in God's covenant 15:29 is diatheke. 15:31 Means that the covenant obligations have been 15:34 undertaken by a single person. 15:37 And the Bible tells us in Isaiah that Jesus Christ 15:41 is the covenant. 15:43 He is God's covenant. 15:46 And He tells us in Jeremiah, He says, 15:50 "This is His name: the Lord our righteousness." 15:54 So looking at the whole picture, every one of God's covenants 15:58 builds on the next. 16:00 Did I butcher that or what? 16:02 Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... 16:03 - Go. - Thank you, Shelley. 16:07 Monday deals with, Faith and Law. 16:12 And I want to read Romans 3:31, but 16:14 we do well to read verses, really actually 16:20 beginning at verse 28 to the end of the chapter, 16:23 which is verse 31. 16:26 The Bible says, "Therefore we conclude that a man 16:29 is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 16:32 Or is He the God of the Jews only? 16:36 Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?" 16:38 That's important because it leads us 16:41 to this idea of inclusion. 16:43 And that whatever is for the Jews is also for the Gentiles. 16:48 So that gets you and me, Shelley. 16:50 You know, we get in there, Pastor Ronnie, also. 16:55 I want to pick it up now in verse 30. 16:57 "...since there is one God who will justify the circumcised 17:00 by faith and the uncircumcised through faith." 17:04 Again, Jew and Gentile. 17:06 "Do we make void the law through faith? 17:09 Certainly not!" 17:11 That's about as strong as Paul can get in this context. 17:15 "On the contrary, we establish the law." 17:19 So Paul is pushing back against this, 17:22 "baby out with the bath water," kind of idea 17:26 that it's all faith and the law is done away with, 17:30 or of no effect, or of no consequence to us. 17:35 One of the things that we will see, if you have 17:39 a hammer and a spoon, even a large hammer 17:45 and a large spoon, if you want to drive a nail, 17:51 that spoon will probably not do you too good. 17:56 But if you want to serve soup to your guests, 18:00 that hammer is not going to help you too much. 18:03 Because they each have a function. 18:06 And Paul is telling us through these preceding chapters, 18:10 it is not the function of the law to bring us righteousness. 18:15 It is not the junction of the law to justify us. 18:18 Now we will get to what the function is 18:21 as we move through this. 18:22 But if you think because he's saying it's not good 18:25 for serving soup that it's not good at all, 18:28 then you've misconstrued what Paul is trying to say. 18:31 It does have a function. 18:32 It's just not good for soup. 18:34 The law does have a function. 18:36 It's just not good for righteousness. 18:38 It's not good for justification. 18:39 It's got a very vital function, and we'll take a look at that 18:43 in just a moment. 18:44 The word there in the Greek for... 18:46 And I'm so glad that we have Greek study, because 18:50 the English language is so impoverished 18:52 and the Greek language is so well inflected 18:55 and gives us such good meaning. 18:56 It's, katargeo. 18:59 And that word is for what? 19:00 - For, to make void. - Okay. 19:03 Or to establish. 19:05 Paul talks about the works of the law. 19:08 And here is where we run into that tension 19:10 that has always existed between the moral law 19:13 and the Mosaic law. 19:15 Because sometimes it looks like it's very much 19:17 talking about Mosaic law. 19:18 Other times it's looking like it's very much talking about 19:22 the moral law or the Ten Commandments. 19:24 And I tend to think that he moves kind of back and forth. 19:28 I really do. 19:29 And in the early days of Adventism the struggle was, 19:33 is it all this or all that? 19:35 And I think there are times when he moves back and forth. 19:37 Because when you're talking about circumcision 19:39 and some of those other things, you're actually 19:41 dealing with Mosaic kinds of things. 19:44 And that did not, per se, come to an end. 19:48 They were just fulfilled and were no longer necessary. 19:51 They could not bring the kind of righteousness 19:53 that the death of Christ offered to us. 19:55 These rituals, these typical things, could not fulfill 20:01 what the type could fulfill. 20:02 Then of course, when you're talking about the moral law, 20:05 it goes on forever, for it is an unchangeable transcript of 20:08 the character of God. 20:10 So we're talking about the correct place of the law 20:15 in our lives of faith and law. 20:20 So we need to now examine just a little bit 20:24 what Paul is talking about when he talks about 20:26 the works of the law. 20:28 Going back to Romans 3:31, "Do we make the law void 20:31 through faith? 20:33 No, we establish it." 20:35 So he's beginning to draw a line, 20:37 that it's not faith over against law. 20:39 They really work to buttress each other, 20:41 they really work to make each other strong. 20:44 In Romans 7:7... 20:46 And it's interesting that so much of the justification 20:49 for Galatians comes in the book of Romans. 20:52 He's talking to the church of Rome, but they're suffering 20:55 the same kind of things. 20:58 There was this tendency of the early church to sort of 21:02 move back into Judaism, because at least in the Roman economy 21:09 Judaism was a recognized religion. 21:13 It was recognized. 21:15 Christianity was religio illicita. 21:17 It was illegal, it was underground, 21:20 it was under attack. 21:21 So there was this tendency to move back into 21:25 something that was comfortable, 21:27 something that had worked before, 21:29 and something that they were culturally and experientally 21:32 accustomed to. 21:34 But Paul is really turning everything on its head now, 21:37 because he is saying that those things that are very 21:41 comfortable for you, which are very known to you, 21:43 just don't work anymore. 21:45 And Christ is not just trying to put 21:49 shoe polish on this pair of shoes. 21:51 He's giving you a brand new pair of shoes. 21:53 He's throwing out the old and bringing you something 21:56 brand new to walk in. 21:57 And just polish is not going to work here. 21:59 This is total replacement. 22:01 You've gone to the store, you've got a brand new pair of shoes. 22:04 And they may squeak a little bit, may hurt your toes, 22:06 but wear them, you'll get use to it and you'll be fine. 22:10 Because Christ is bringing in something very, very new. 22:14 So do we make the law void through faith? 22:17 No, no, not at all. We establish the law. 22:20 We make it stronger. 22:21 And we make it much more applicable to you 22:25 as men and children of God. 22:28 Back in the lesson. 22:30 "The plan of justification by faith reveals God's regard 22:33 for His law in demanding and providing the atoning sacrifice. 22:38 If justification by faith abolishes the law, 22:42 then there was no need for the atoning death of Christ 22:46 to release the sinner from his sins, 22:48 and thus restore him to peace with God." 22:52 If we could just work it through or change it that way, 22:59 then the death of Christ is unnecessary 23:01 and does no good for us. 23:04 If you could get into right relationship with God 23:08 by any other way than the death of Christ 23:11 then you render the death of Christ unnecessary. 23:15 And if Christ has indeed died to bring you righteousness, 23:18 and you attempt to work your way into favor with God 23:22 by any other way than the death of Christ, you are saying, 23:25 "For me, the death of Christ is not sufficient. 23:28 It must be the death of Christ, plus a little help from me." 23:32 And back in the early days of our church, 23:34 people would actually preach that. 23:35 It's grace and faith, plus a little effort. 23:39 You know, you need a little jump start. 23:41 Just hook up the battery charger, 23:43 and then we'll get this thing running. 23:44 And we had to wrestle our way to the fact 23:48 that it is grace and faith alone in Jesus. 23:52 The work has already been done. 23:54 You just need to decide whose side you're going to be on. 23:57 And once having made that decision, all of the benefits of 24:00 that grace, all of the benefits of the faith 24:03 given to you to be exercised in behalf of your love of Christ, 24:07 now apply to you. 24:09 Having said all that, now what's the place for the works then? 24:12 The works come once the faith and grace are... 24:17 See, the Bible says that Christ will live out His life in you. 24:21 So if it's in you, He's working, but He's working through you 24:25 to get it done. 24:27 So it's not like you say, "Okay, I've got to get up today 24:29 and I've got to be kind to Shelley, 24:31 and I've got to be kind to Ronnie, 24:32 and I've got to be kind to Johnny, 24:35 and I've got to be kind to Jill." 24:36 Hope I don't leave somebody out. 24:37 Yeah, right, right. 24:39 See, then you put yourself under bondage 24:41 because what if I forget, I'm looking this way, 24:42 what if I forget that Shelley is back over here... 24:46 ...and I wound her, you know? 24:48 And then I, "Oh Shelley, I am so sorry." 24:50 Ha, ha, ha, ha... 24:51 That kind of thing. 24:52 But no, what happens is, once Christ is living in me, 24:56 it's not something I'm trying to do or trying not to do, 25:00 it's a natural consequence of my relationship with Him. 25:02 So someone would say, C.A., someone would ask the question, 25:04 "Then aren't we saved by our works? 25:06 If we aren't saved by our works, are we judged by our works?" 25:10 "Faith without works is dead." 25:12 So, you know, this is the thing that so many people are worried. 25:16 When you talk about grace, it's like, "What are you going to 25:17 do about the Ten Commandments?" 25:19 They are the heart of the new covenant. 25:22 He puts them in our, writes them in our minds and in our heart. 25:26 But as you said, it is Christ who is working in us. 25:30 And you know, if the law could have been done away with, 25:35 then Christ died in vain. 25:37 He didn't have to die for our transgressions. 25:39 And if we think about the law, the Ten Commandment law 25:44 is what defines sin. 25:46 It is also a transcript of Christ's character. 25:51 So when we keep the Ten Commandment law 25:55 by His power, what are we doing? 25:57 We're reflecting His character. 26:00 The key is, the connecting link between Jeremiah 26:04 and Hebrews is the fact that the language of the law 26:09 does not change. 26:11 It's just the material upon which the law has been written. 26:15 The language is the same. 26:17 One, it's on tables of stone. 26:20 The other, it's on the tables of the heart. 26:22 But the language has not changed. 26:23 It's much better to live it than to read it. 26:27 And so now since the law is written in my heart, 26:31 I don't have to work at it. 26:33 I surrender to Christ, and He lives out His life 26:35 in me and through me. 26:37 - Amen. - Well said, well said. 26:40 Let's look at Tuesday's part, The Purpose of the Law. 26:43 We've talked about the law, pros and cons. 26:47 Let's find out the purpose of the law. 26:49 "In Galatians 3:19-29 Paul makes multiple 26:53 references to 'the law.' 26:56 Now what law is Paul primarily referring to in this 26:59 section of Galatians?" 27:02 Let's look just a little bit at that. 27:04 Galatians 3:19-20, especially verse 19. 27:09 Let's take a good look at that. 27:12 I have here Galatians 3:19-20. 27:14 "Wherefore then serveth the law? 27:16 It was added because of transgressions, 27:19 till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; 27:23 and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 27:27 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." 27:31 Thank you, Johnny. 27:34 "Some, believing that the word, 'until,' in verse 19..." 27:39 I want the panel to take a look at that 27:41 word, "until," in verse 19. 27:44 Some indicate that the law was only temporary. 27:49 Some have thought the passage must refer 27:51 to the ceremonial law because it must have come to an end 27:56 when Christ fulfilled the law. 27:59 "Though this makes sense by itself, it does not appear 28:01 to be Paul's point in Galatians. 28:03 While both the ceremonial and the moral law were 'added' 28:07 at Sinai because of transgressions..." 28:10 So I want somebody to help me with that. 28:12 Does Paul say that the law was added? 28:17 Well I have here a dictionary that helps with that. 28:20 "Added," can mean also added, as you find 28:25 in the King James and maybe other Bibles. 28:27 But it also means, to place additionally, 28:30 also to repeat, and to again, and to proceed further. 28:38 So these words, I think, will help us understand this text. 28:41 That it could mean then, repeated again. 28:46 Repeated, because they already knew it. 28:48 They already knew it. 28:49 And of course, you know, they had been 28:53 in bondage for 430 years. 28:57 God had to bring them again the Sabbath. 29:00 God had to teach them all over again. 29:05 And I think we can discuss that further. 29:08 So the law was not really an afterthought. 29:11 You know, I love this because that just proves the point, 29:14 all of His covenants are a progressive revelation. 29:18 He repeated this, He added a little more. 29:22 He repeats this, He adds a little more. 29:24 And it's just a beautiful thought that it's all about 29:29 salvation through Christ. 29:31 And you know, I'm glad you said it that way, because 29:34 when you go to Daniel and you see him in Daniel 2 29:41 talk about four kingdoms, and it just mentions metals. 29:45 Babylon is the head of gold, and etc, etc. 29:48 But then you keep going and it gives you more information 29:51 about the kingdoms and what they actually do. 29:54 So it's beautiful how the Bible does that. 29:56 It repeats and then enlarges, 29:59 and says it again, because I didn't get it the first time. 30:02 So it says it to me again, and then enlarges some more. 30:05 So let me ask the panel then, what is sin? 30:07 How do we know what sin is? 30:09 I think sin is the transgression of the law. 30:12 You see that in 1 John 3. 30:13 There you go. And the wages of sin is death. 30:16 So if we don't want to die, we've got to have something 30:19 then that tells us when we're going wrong. 30:22 I always think about the law, and maybe some of you do too, 30:24 that it's like, if I've been out working in something 30:27 in the garden and I've rubbed my head, you know. 30:29 When I go in the house and the wife says, 30:31 "Boy, your face is dirty," 30:32 I say, "I don't think so." 30:33 "Well here's a mirror." 30:35 And I look in it and I say, "You're right, I am dirty." 30:38 This is what the law is. 30:40 The law is a mirror that shows me when I'm dirty. 30:43 Now can the mirror fix me? 30:45 It can't clean me up. 30:47 But it leads me to the one who can clean me up, 30:50 which is Jesus Christ. 30:52 So therefore, the law then being the tutor 30:55 that takes us to Christ. 30:57 The law is still there, right? 30:59 It's not gone once it took me to Christ. 31:00 The law still stands, right? 31:02 It's eternal. 31:03 I'm talking about the Ten Commandment law. 31:05 It's eternal. 31:06 And therefore, it takes me to Christ because it shows me 31:09 that I'm dirty. 31:11 And I go to Him then to be cleaned. 31:13 Does that make sense? 31:14 You know, and we're just looking at things. 31:17 I was looking at 1 John 2:7-8. 31:21 And just to sort of give a summary, seven says, 31:25 "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, 31:28 but an old commandment, 31:29 which you have heard from the beginning." 31:31 Then in eight he says, "Again, a new commandment..." 31:34 Now if you're just reading literally, 31:36 you're getting a little confused. 31:37 Because, "Okay, you told me I don't get a new commandment, 31:39 now you're telling me it is a new commandment." 31:42 The two words there... 31:44 And I don't remember what they are, 31:45 but I do remember what they mean. 31:47 One is, "new," as in brand new, 31:51 the other is, "new to you." 31:53 Like, I bought a car a couple of years ago. 31:56 It wasn't brand new, but it was new to me. 31:59 You know, it was new for me. 32:01 So at one time it was new, but it was just new to me. 32:05 And so the children of Israel had forgotten so much 32:07 it was new to them because, I mean, 32:09 the law had always been there, but it was new to them because 32:12 they had been in bondage, they were out from under 32:15 connection with God. 32:16 So now they get it again and it's new to them, 32:18 but it's old in the sense that it's always been. 32:21 But it's new to them because it's a new understanding. 32:23 And to help us with this, Galatians 3:19 that we read 32:27 where we have the word, "added," maybe Sister Jill, 32:30 if you could read Luke 20:12. 32:33 This same word is there. 32:36 But it doesn't say, "added." 32:38 It says something else, which runs along with the 32:41 same line of thought that we read in the definition 32:44 for this Greek word. 32:45 Sister Jill, if you have it. 32:47 Sure, this is the parable of the vine dressers. 32:49 Luke 20:12 says, "And again he sent a third; 32:54 and they wounded him also and cast him out." 32:57 So the Greek word here is translated, "And again." 33:00 - Is that correct? - Yes. 33:01 So that's the same word for, "added," is, "again." 33:03 It just means, to be repeated again. 33:05 I love this. 33:08 That's what it said; when God brought 33:10 the commandments actually to be written on stone, 33:14 He started out with the fourth commandment, "Remember." 33:17 In other words, "He's told me before about this, 33:19 but I'm forgetting it." 33:20 So He says, "I'm reminding My people now. 33:22 Because I told you hundreds of years before, 33:25 but now you've gotten away from it." 33:26 So as a reminder, we say, "Remember." 33:29 - Can I say one thing? - Yeah, go ahead. 33:31 And I say this often, but I just have to. 33:33 Do we realize, the Bible tells us that the Sabbath 33:39 is the sign of the everlasting covenant. 33:42 In Exodus 31:13, God says that the Sabbath is a sign 33:47 that He is the one who sanctifies us. 33:51 So the Sabbath is a sign, just like the rainbow 33:58 was a sign for Noah's covenant. 34:01 The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant of grace. 34:04 That's why it's so interesting, sometimes people will say, 34:08 "You're a Sabbath keeper. You're legalistic." 34:11 And I'll say, "No." 34:12 The Sabbath is a sign that I'm remembering 34:17 that God saves me by grace. 34:19 And I know that you said you were brought up 34:22 in a kind of legalistic environment. 34:24 As was I. Not a Seventh-day Adventist. 34:26 There's many people who try to... 34:29 I think it's pride that makes us think that 34:32 we can do something to help save ourselves. 34:34 But when I learned that Sabbath truth... 34:36 And this whole study here is what brought me, 34:40 as God was teaching me on the Sanctuary 34:43 and going through this to understand His covenants, 34:46 when I understood the Sabbath truth, that was so liberating. 34:49 And still from week to week, 34:52 from Friday night to Friday night, 34:53 sometimes I can get into a performance mentality. 34:57 Like, oh I haven't been praying enough, or whatever. 34:59 The Sabbath rolls in and it's just like... 35:02 "Oh Lord, thank You that it's all about You. 35:04 It's nothing about me." 35:06 We've done a lot of talk now, we've talk a lot about 35:07 the ceremonial laws and the moral law. 35:10 Somebody just give me a quick wrap-up. 35:12 What is the ceremonial law? What are we talking about here? 35:15 Drink offerings, meal offerings, it's the sacrificial offerings. 35:22 - Sabbath days, small "s." - The annual sabbath days. 35:25 So there's more than one sabbath. 35:27 Yes, all these annual sabbath days. 35:29 THE Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. 35:30 Always identified as such. Always. 35:32 There are other sabbath days 35:33 that don't carry that designation. 35:35 - The feast days. - Yeah, the feast days. 35:37 You know, the ceremonial law was called, ordinances. 35:41 And those were nailed to the cross. 35:43 That's right. Colossians 2:14. 35:45 Yeah, yeah. Okay. 35:47 And then real quickly, the moral law then is...? 35:50 - The Ten Commandments. - The Ten Commandments. 35:52 And the difference between the two, in our quarterly, 35:57 it says, "While the ceremonial laws points to the Messiah 36:00 and emphasizes holiness and the need of a Savior, 36:04 is the moral law, with its, 'Thou shall nots,' 36:08 that reveals sin, that shows us that sin is not just 36:12 a part of our nature..." 36:15 You know, "Well that's just who I am. 36:16 I'm born with that. I can't help that." 36:19 It's not part of the nature. 36:21 The Ten Commandments point out it is a violation 36:24 of God's law. 36:27 A violation. 36:28 And let me sum up my time with this. 36:30 Some say the law is against the covenant promise. 36:34 Paul says, "Certainly not." 36:36 Law and promise have complimentary functions. 36:40 We touched on that a little bit. 36:42 They work together. 36:44 The law points out sin and drives the sinners 36:47 to the promise of Christ. 36:50 And He is the one that gives us forgiveness of that sin. 36:54 And He frees us then from the curse of the broken law. 36:57 Because the wages of sin is death, 36:59 and it's time for me to die, but He takes that. 37:02 So it is impossible for the law to be against the promise. 37:06 Because the two work hand in hand together. 37:09 Well thank you. Praise the Lord. 37:12 I'm sorry. 37:14 Ha, ha, ha, ha... 37:15 - Just hallelujah, amen. - There you go. 37:18 Well going into Wednesday's part really quick. 37:22 This brings us into the title, The Duration of God's Law. 37:26 How long has it existed? 37:27 When did it start? 37:29 And this is a very interesting question, because 37:33 some people think it was at Sinai that God gave the 37:36 the Ten Commandments. 37:37 And that's because that's when it was written by His finger 37:43 and given to the people. 37:44 However, we know it existed before because we have 37:47 wonderful evidence in the Scriptures for it. 37:50 One of the scriptures that we'd like to bring out, 37:52 and if someone will help me reading, Genesis 26:5. 37:58 Genesis 26:5, if anyone finds it, will you help me to read it? 38:04 And then if someone else will look up Genesis 39:7-9. 38:09 - I'll do 39. - I've got Genesis 26:5. 38:12 "...because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, 38:16 My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." 38:20 Praise the Lord. 38:21 Now this scripture is way before Sinai. 38:24 And God declares that, "Abraham has kept My laws, 38:29 My commandments, My statutes." 38:31 And so, a very clear scripture that I don't think anyone 38:36 can say, "Well the law didn't exist." 38:38 Well according to... 38:40 And we can actually, Johnny, go back to before Abraham 38:42 because you can go back to the Garden. 38:43 How did Cain know that he had sinned 38:45 when he killed his brother? 38:46 That's the next scripture that we're going to look at. 38:48 - Alright. - Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... 38:50 We're thinking along the same lines here. 38:51 Well actually, we're going to go to another one. 38:53 You mentioned that one. 38:54 I guess most people will know about that one. 38:56 But Genesis 39:7-9, I think somebody said they had that. 39:02 Genesis 39:7, "And it came to pass after these things 39:05 that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, 39:08 and she said, 'Lie with me.' 39:10 But he refused and said to his master's wife, 39:13 'Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, 39:18 and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 39:20 There is no one greater in this house than I, 39:23 nor has he kept back anything from me but you, 39:27 because you are his wife. 39:29 How then can I do this great wickedness, 39:32 and sin against God?" 39:34 Wow, another powerful scripture. 39:37 Joseph understands that it is a sin. 39:39 He calls it a great wickedness. 39:41 And he says, against God. 39:43 Now how did he know that? 39:44 Well, we can see evidence here that it was handed down 39:49 from Adam down to his children, 39:52 and from his children down to their children, 39:54 and their children down, and so on. 39:56 This is how things were kept alive, if you want to say. 40:00 And of course people will say, "Well, writing didn't exist," 40:03 and these type of things. 40:05 You know, I am so glad that God wrote the Ten Commandments 40:09 with His finger on stone so that nobody could mess with it. 40:17 And He wrote it with His own finger. 40:19 And not only did He write it with His own finger, 40:22 but He thought it was important enough that when 40:25 Moses, in a moment of quick temper, broke the stones, 40:31 He said, "Bring me some stones again, 40:33 and I will write them again." 40:36 He didn't say to Moses, "Okay, you broke the first ones. 40:38 Why don't you put them together? 40:41 You have it already. I already wrote it once." 40:42 No, He said, "I will write them again." 40:45 And so I praise the Lord He gave it that importance. 40:47 Let's look at some other ones really quick that this... 40:49 Oh, you mentioned all the way to the Garden of Eden. 40:56 You mentioned Cain. 40:58 But in Romans 5:12, we see an interesting scripture 41:03 there, because it brings the existence of the law 41:07 all the way to Adam and Eve. 41:09 And this is Romans 5:12. 41:12 It says, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, 41:17 and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, 41:20 for that all have sinned." 41:23 So what is this man? 41:26 This man, it must be talking about Adam. 41:28 And as sin entered through Adam, then that means the law existed. 41:32 So how do we know when the law came into being? 41:36 And I think sister Jill mentioned at one point 41:38 or another that it has existed throughout eternity. 41:43 But we can say that it was adapted to meet man 41:46 in his fallen condition. 41:48 And that's why some of the things you see there 41:51 perhaps was not, well I can say, not perhaps, 41:54 but it was not there before. 41:57 Like, for example, "Thou shalt not make any graven images." 42:03 When you look at that scripture, you must understand that it 42:06 was not perhaps that way. 42:08 Now let's go to a scripture that it brings us even 42:13 before the earth was created. 42:14 And for this we have to go to the book of Ezekiel. 42:18 And in the book of Ezekiel, we need to read two scriptures. 42:23 And I will ask for help. 42:24 Ezekiel 28:14-15 42:27 If someone has that, would you please read it? 42:30 Ezekiel 28:14-15 42:34 "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; 42:38 you were on the holy mountain of God; 42:40 you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 42:44 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, 42:48 till iniquity was found in you." 42:51 Amen, amen. 42:53 So what do we understand iniquity to be? 42:55 - Sin. - That's sin, rebellious sin. 42:58 And so here, talking to us about Lucifer that sinned in heaven, 43:05 we understand then the law existed before even 43:09 the creation of the earth. 43:10 So praise the Lord for that. 43:12 So how long does it last then? 43:15 How long does that last? 43:17 In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus tells us something that is familiar 43:25 to many as we read it. 43:27 Matthew 5:17-18 43:30 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: 43:34 I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 43:37 For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, 43:41 one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 43:45 till all be fulfilled." 43:48 So we see here that Jesus is saying, "Not one jot." 43:53 And so we understand a jot to be what, and a tittle to be what? 43:55 The smallest little grammatical points of the Greek language. 44:00 It's like the dotting of an "i" or the crossing of a "t". 44:03 And so we see then that the law is not 44:06 going to be done away with, 44:07 it's not going to be made void, until all is fulfilled. 44:11 Question, is all fulfilled? 44:12 No, we are still here in this world of sin. 44:15 So, I would like to read a scripture here in Revelation 12. 44:21 And there are many scriptures we could point out. 44:25 But this one in Revelation 12, I like this one. 44:29 Because it tells us about a time that is close to our time. 44:36 So Revelation 12, there in verse 17. 44:42 If you read Revelation 12 you will understand 44:45 that this is talking about, this dragon mentioned in verse 17, 44:47 is the devil and Satan. 44:49 "And the dragon was wroth with the woman..." 44:52 That's a terrible word, wroth. 44:54 "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, 44:55 and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, 44:59 which keep the commandments of God, 45:02 and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." 45:05 So how long does the law last? 45:07 Well Satan knows it's beyond Christ dying on the cross, 45:11 because he is persecuting those that keep the commandments 45:15 of God and have the testimony of Jesus. 45:17 And when does this take place? 45:20 If you read Revelation 12, you will notice that it is 45:22 after the 42 months, after the 1260 days, 45:27 that this takes place. 45:30 And so way after the time of the crucifixion 45:33 we see Satan pursuing, going after those that 45:35 keep the commandments of God. 45:37 And for those that say we cannot keep the commandments of God, 45:40 what does Revelation 12:17 say? 45:43 These people are keeping the commandments of God. 45:46 And we understand they're not doing it on their own power 45:48 because Jesus Himself said to us in John 15:5, 45:51 "Without Me, you can do nothing." 45:54 But praise the Lord, with Him all things are possible. 45:58 So I praise the Lord for this. 46:00 And I think we see the duration of God's law, 46:04 that we need God's law. 46:05 Why? Because it is a transcript of God's character. 46:11 It tells us, the first four commandments, about 46:14 love God with all of your heart. 46:16 The last six commandments, as we've heard many times on 3ABN, 46:20 it talks about our relationship with our fellow man. 46:23 And so praise the Lord the duration of God's law, 46:26 God's law continues. 46:27 On Thursday we look at, The Superiority... 46:31 It's kind of a hard word for me to say, I don't know why. 46:33 The Superiority of the Promise. 46:37 And before we jump into that, let's look at Galatians 3. 46:42 I know we've spent quite a bit of time in Galatians 3:19-20. 46:47 But let's look at that just for a quick moment. 46:51 Galatians 3:19, "What purpose then does the law serve? 46:54 It was added..." 46:56 Or we just said, added again or repeated. 46:59 "...because of transgressions, till the Seed should come..." 47:03 Meaning Jesus. 47:04 Only Jesus can really solve the sin problem. 47:08 "... to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed 47:10 through angels by the hand of a mediator." 47:14 If we look at Deuteronomy 5:5, it talks about Moses, 47:18 saying, "I stood between the Lord and you at that time 47:22 to declare to you the word of the Lord; 47:24 for you were afraid because of the fire..." 47:26 Remember when the law was given at Mount Sinai. 47:28 And the people, they had their time of cleansing, 47:31 and then they stood there before the mountain. 47:33 Moses was up on the mount, and there was lightning 47:36 and thundering. 47:37 And I just think, a regular thunderstorm kind of 47:41 terrifies me a little bit. 47:43 Greg, my husband, loves thunderstorms. 47:45 He'll go out and sit on the front porch and say, 47:47 "Oh Jilly, come out and enjoy the thunderstorm." 47:50 And I always think, what if I get struck by lightning 47:53 or something, you know. 47:55 I can enjoy it from inside. 47:57 But my grandmother had lightning run through her house. 48:00 The window was open and it came in the front 48:02 and went out the back. 48:04 And ever since that time, I just have this thought of, 48:06 maybe I don't want to be out. 48:08 But you think, when the law was given at Sinai, 48:10 I think that would be the most terrific 48:12 of thunderstorms you can imagine. 48:14 The majesty, the greatness of God. 48:18 And He gave the law through a mediator. 48:21 We know the Ten Commandment law was written 48:23 with His own finger on the tablets of stone. 48:26 But the other laws, we could say the law of Moses 48:29 given at that time, Moses wrote down and then came down 48:31 from the mountain with that. 48:32 And Pastor Ronnie, you brought out the purpose of the law 48:35 being a mirror. 48:37 In James it talks about looking into the law of liberty. 48:40 I remember being at a school board meeting, 48:43 and coming out, this was some years ago, 48:45 coming out from the board meeting and using the 48:48 restroom before I went home. 48:49 And I walked into the restroom, and there's the 48:51 mirror above the sink. 48:52 And I had a piece of broccoli in my teeth. 48:55 And I thought, I sat for two hours at this board meeting 49:00 and discussed with people, and no one said, 49:03 "You know, Jill, you have broccoli from dinner 49:05 sitting in your teeth." 49:07 Because I wasn't there. 49:08 Shelley would have told me, okay. 49:10 So the law does not save. 49:14 The law does not redeem or make righteous. 49:18 But the law reveals my sin. 49:21 It reveals my need of a Savior. 49:24 The law points me to Christ. 49:27 It turns me to Christ. 49:29 Just like the analogy of a tutor. 49:31 We'll study this in a future lesson. 49:33 Verse 24, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. 49:37 And the word in the Greek there is not just a teacher, per se. 49:41 But it would be someone who had charge of the life and morals 49:45 of the boys in a family. 49:47 They had power to punish. 49:49 The law arouses the consciousness of sin. 49:52 Also power to instruct. 49:53 One of my friends... I have a ruler sitting here. 49:56 I don't know if you can see this. 49:58 When she was a young mom, her son was three years old, 50:03 and he had done something wrong. 50:06 And what do you do when you do something wrong? 50:09 You get a little whipping with this. 50:11 I had it with a wooden spoon when I was a kid. 50:13 But what she did was she took the ruler. 50:16 So her son was three years old, and you know what he did? 50:18 He took it and he snapped it. 50:22 Three years old, snapped it. 50:24 So she decided, "Okay this is not a good method 50:26 of discipline," right? 50:28 "It's not working with him at three years old. 50:30 I need to do something else." 50:32 The law does have the power to arouse in us the consciousness 50:35 of sin, power to instruct, but it cannot change or redeem us. 50:40 The promise was not given, the lesson brought this out, 50:43 through a mediator. 50:45 The promise was given directly. 50:47 You think about Abraham back in Genesis 15 50:51 when He, God, first made the covenant, verses 1 through 6. 50:54 He came directly and made the promise directly 50:58 to Abraham, the covenant. 51:00 You think about the other direct encounters with God 51:04 that took place. 51:05 I think of Adam and Eve walking in the cool of the garden 51:08 each evening with God directly. 51:11 No need of a mediator. 51:12 Now we know when sin was introduced, 51:14 sin brings fear and guilt. 51:17 And they hid from the presence of God. 51:20 They were afraid. 51:21 I think of Jacob's ladder connecting earth with heaven. 51:26 Jacob when he ran away from home. 51:30 I think of Jesus appearing to Paul directly 51:33 on the road to Damascus. 51:36 But I don't not believe that the promise is superior for the law. 51:40 I believe it's just different. 51:42 It has a different role, different function. 51:45 The law does not save us. 51:49 The law points us to our need of a Savior. 51:52 Jesus Christ is the one who saves us. 51:54 But if we didn't have the law, we wouldn't even know 51:58 our need of a Savior. 51:59 And if we didn't have the Holy Spirit 52:01 to draw us and woo us to Jesus. 52:03 Salvation by grace through faith is a central part 52:07 of the covenant from the very beginning. 52:08 From Adam forward, they were looking forward 52:11 with the sacrificial system, as we've discussed, 52:13 to faith in the coming Messiah and the coming sacrifice. 52:17 For us today, we have faith looking back, 52:20 in Christ's death on the cross and His mediatorial work for us 52:25 right now in the heavenly Sanctuary. 52:27 But the law was still a central part of the old covenant 52:30 in the Old Testament... 52:33 Because without knowledge of sin, 52:35 there's no knowledge of sin without the law. 52:37 There would be no need of a Savior. 52:38 And part of the new covenant in the New Testament 52:42 the law is central. 52:44 I want to look at Hebrews chapter 8. 52:46 We'll take a look at the law being written in our hearts. 52:50 And you mentioned this, Pastor C.A. 52:51 You referenced Jeremiah, and how the law was written 52:55 on tables of stone. 52:56 And we see in Hebrews 8 how it's written on our hearts. 53:00 So let's look at Hebrews chapter 8. 53:03 This is one of my favorite passages. 53:06 Hebrews 8:8-12 53:14 "'Behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 53:17 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel 53:21 and with the house of Judah; 53:23 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers 53:25 in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of 53:28 the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, 53:32 and I disregarded them,' says the LORD. 53:34 'For this is the covenant that I will make with the 53:37 house of Israel after those days,' says the LORD." 53:39 I want to pause a moment. 53:40 If you read the other covenant in Jeremiah 31, 53:43 it's almost identical. 53:45 The covenant of grace in the Old Testament is still 53:47 the covenant of grace in the New Testament. 53:50 But we see, He writes His law in our hearts. 53:53 "I will put My law in their mind and write them on their hearts; 53:58 I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 54:04 What a beautiful picture of the love and grace of our Father. 54:07 We've talked about the perpetuity of the law, 54:10 how it continues. 54:11 But God's grace is what works in our hearts and lives, 54:17 in us and through us, to write in us the law. 54:22 Write in us His law. 54:23 Write in us the transcript of His character. 54:27 Because that's all the law is, 54:28 is a revelation of who God is and what He is. 54:31 Verse 11, "None of them shall teach his neighbor, 54:34 and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' 54:36 for all shall know Me, from the least of them 54:40 to the greatest of them. 54:41 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, 54:43 and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 54:49 God wants to write His new covenant, His law, 54:53 in our hearts and in our minds. 54:55 So I would say the superiority of the promise, 54:57 to me they're both important and they're both needed. 55:03 Praise the Lord. 55:05 You know, this is such a beautiful study. 55:06 And as I said, I know I started of.. 55:10 But our God is a covenant making, covenant keeping God. 55:16 And over 279 times, I believe, in the Old Testament 55:19 the word that is used for God's covenant with us... 55:24 He talks about His "hesed." 55:26 And that is, it's an equivalent to the word for grace 55:31 in the New Testament. 55:32 So we see that from the very beginning 55:35 salvation has been by grace. 55:37 When Adam and Eve sinned, He put the sacrificial 55:41 system into place, pointing to Jesus Christ. 55:44 He started explaining it there, we see in Genesis 3:15. 55:48 Then as He goes forward with the covenant with Abraham. 55:51 But God is progressively unfolding. 55:55 When He gets to the old covenant, it had its place. 55:58 But Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant. 56:03 Jesus is the surety of the new covenant. 56:07 He is the guarantor that God's promises 56:10 to us will be fulfilled. 56:11 But He's also the guarantor of us to God that 56:16 He will work in us to follow all of God's commandments 56:22 to do God's perfect will. 56:24 To me, this is, we do not obey to be saved. 56:30 There's nothing we can do to add to salvation. 56:32 Zero, zilch. 56:34 But when God works in us by His Holy Spirit, 56:39 and Christ and the Father live in us by faith, 56:43 then we're going to follow God's will. 56:46 Thank you each and every one. 56:48 Jill and Johnny, thank you for the Greek on that word, added. 56:53 That surely helped clarify things. 56:56 Pastor Ronnie, thank you for joining us. 56:58 And Pastor C.A. 56:59 I just love this study. 57:03 I think we're barely scratching the surface. 57:05 But we hope that you're enjoying this study as well. 57:08 And remember, you can go to... 57:13 Download that study so that you can join us. 57:16 For next week, and I'm not sure, let me look here, 57:19 we're going to be talking about, The Road to Faith, next week. 57:22 Our prayer for you is that the grace of our Lord and Savior 57:25 Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, 57:28 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 57:30 will be with you always. 57:32 Join us next time. |
Revised 2024-06-17