(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, now before we get started in this chapter here, what I'm going to be preaching about this morning is going to be understanding the Old Testament. There's a lot of misconceptions, a lot of people don't really understand how the Old Testament plays into the New Testament. Obviously we're living in the New Testament, we're in the times after Jesus Christ has already died and been buried and rose again from the dead, and that was quite a long time ago already. The Old Testament, if you look at your Bible, I'll show you real quick, the Old Testament is the vast majority of the Bible. So this is the New Testament, right here in my Bible. This is the Old Testament, ok? There's a lot of stuff in this Old Testament and the thing is there's a lot of misconceptions A lot of people these days want to just throw out the entire Old Testament and say, well we're in the New Testament now, we don't need the law, we don't need those old rules, we don't need that stuff. But that's just not true. God didn't give all of this revealed word not for us today and just for some people then. It's not true. I'm going to help you, we're going to go over some tips first of all to kind of just help understanding when you're reading the Bible and how we ought to read the Bible and tips to help you to understand some principles that are going to be helpful for forming doctrine and understanding what you believe about the Bible. The first tip we're going to go over is that you should always use a clear statement in the Bible as the foundation for your doctrine. And if something's a little bit more vague or a little bit unclear, you can use that to help support something that is already clear. But I wouldn't take something that's vague or unclear and just start forming and say, you know what, the Bible says this, even though it's not very clear, and kind of come up with a belief system based off of that. And that's what a lot of the false teachers and false religions will do is they take these hard to be understood maybe or not very clear verses and they'll make a doctrine out of it. And a good example of that is found in James 2 because people will use James 2 to try to make you think that you have to do works in order to be saved. And if you didn't know anything else about the Bible, and if you saw something in here, I can see where you might be a little bit confused about that. But I want to help you so that you don't get confused with scripture in the Bible and that you can use these principles of saying, well, look, there's a clear statement right here that says one thing. This other thing as a question, or it's just not very clear, if I don't understand it, I'm not going to worry about it right away. It'll come in time. It'll come in time as you build more and you learn more about the Bible. It says, where are we starting, James 2, because I just want to expose this to you and just show you what people will say, because you'll be hit with this. If you talk enough about the Bible, and if you say, no, no, you're saved by faith, I guarantee you do it long enough, someone's going to come to you and say, no, no, you need to have works. And they might point to this chapter. It says, I'm also reading in verse 14, it says, what does it profit my brethren, though a man say he had faith and have not works? Can faith save him? Now, first of all, right off the bat, this is a question. This is not a clear statement from the Bible saying, if a man does not have works, then faith cannot save him. Now, if it said that, that would be one thing. That would be a clear statement. This is just a question. What does it profit? So he's saying, what does it benefit? Though a man say he have faith and have not works, can faith save him? So first of all, it doesn't say he has faith, it just says he says he has faith. And then it says, can faith save him? So right off the bat, that's just a question. And then he goes on, he says, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding, ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? So he's saying, look, if someone comes to you and they need food or they need clothing, and you're like, yeah, yeah, be filled and be warm and have a good day, and you like don't actually give them food or you don't give them clothing, you're like, you didn't do him any good just by saying, hey, you know, have a good day. But he says again, what does it profit? So in that situation, that doesn't profit the person anything. Because even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Now that is a statement. It says faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. So can our faith die, is it possible for our faith to die? Yeah, absolutely. But here's the thing, and this is critical, it doesn't mean you lose your salvation because the Bible says that you have eternal life or everlasting life and that lasts forever. The way you receive that is by putting your faith in Christ. So the moment you put your faith in Christ, you receive that gift of eternal life. But it doesn't say you have to keep believing in order to keep everlasting life. It says that's the way that you receive it, the same way I'll reach out my hand and receive a gift. Once I have that gift, I don't have to keep on reaching out my hand and doing that. We put our faith in Christ, you do that one time, then you receive that gift, that gift is yours forever. It's everlasting. So can your faith die if you're not doing any good works? Yeah, of course it can. That's what the Bible says right here. But again, don't let people twist this into saying, well, no, then you could go to hell. It says, we'll continue on here because there's a few more things that they like to use. It says, yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. A lot of people I've heard say this, they say, oh yeah, well, you know, believing isn't enough because the devils also believe and they're not saved. Well, again, look at what the verse is actually saying. It says, thou believeth that there is one God. Lots of people believe there's one God. That doesn't make them saved. Salvation does not come just by believing that there's one God. I mean, Muslims believe there's one God. Lots of religions believe there's one God. But you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. You have to have faith in him. That's where salvation comes from. It's not just that there's one God. So yeah, of course the devils believe there's one God. And besides that, I mean, it's kind of silly to equate devils with humans. I mean, it's not necessarily the same rules, you know, they weren't, God didn't lay out salvation for them the same way that he did for us. And then it said, we'll continue on, it says, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham our father, justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. So here we have another statement, but what he's saying is you see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. So what James 2 is teaching us is that this is talking about being justified before man. So you'd be justified before man and justified before God. Being justified before God is putting your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. God can see your heart. God knows whether or not you put your faith in Christ. Now other men might not know that. I don't know for sure if you've put your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, I can't see your heart, I don't know that. But what I can see are other things. I can see your works. I can see the things that you're doing. So what he's explaining here and all of this stuff, that's why he said look if someone comes to you and they need food and they need clothing, and you don't help them out, you're not benefiting them at all. It doesn't do them any good. If you have faith and you don't have any works, you're not doing anything to help anyone else out, you're not doing the things that serve God, that's not going to do anyone any good. Now of course your soul is still saved, but your faith is going to die when you're not doing the good works. And that's what James 2 is teaching. So that's just an example where we saw a lot of questions and you've got to be real careful about the things that you're reading and that you read them carefully. Because people will take that and they'll try to say look this is work salvation. Now the other thing I want to mention too is that if you have a mountain of evidence and you see clear statement over and over and over and over and over and over again in the Bible, and I remember when we were talking yesterday Chad I showed you lots of different verses that explain that being saved is just by faith alone. We saw John 3.16, John 3.18, John 3.36, Acts 16.30, you go on and on down the line and those verses are really just cut to the chase if this is a clear standalone verse you can read it and understand it. And there are hundreds of verses like that about salvation in the Bible that say it's just through faith, it's just by believing, that's all you have to do. If you come across one verse in the Bible that looks like, oh man, is it works too? You can't throw out the other just hundreds of verses that already said it's by faith and now just say, oh well because I saw this one thing, maybe you have to have works too. No, you're probably just misunderstanding that one verse. You probably just don't get it because here's the thing, and this is my second point is that the Bible is without error. The Bible is perfect but God's word does not contradict itself. If it did, it wouldn't be perfect, it wouldn't be from God. If God's word had contradictions and it says one thing here and another thing here and they just don't line up, God's not like that, God is way more perfect than that. He's not going to speak out of both sides of his mouth, he doesn't do that. God's faithful and true and there is no lie in him and he speaks the truth. So his word, now here's the thing, if you have a Bible that does contradict itself and it's clearly, then it's not the word of God but the thing is, and there's a lot of Bibles that are like that out there today, there's over 400 versions of the Bible in English and I'll tell you what, they don't all say the same thing. They actually all say something different because they have to be copyrighted. In order for the copyright to go through, it has to be different than other versions that are out there. So it has to be different, they have to say different things. And I'll tell you what, God didn't say 400 different things. He said, his word, he gave us the one word, and that's why we use the King James Bible. This was translated in English in 1611, it's been over 400 years in the English language translated from the other languages, you know, the Bible's been around forever, God's preserved his word. But if you run across something that appears to be a contradiction, you know you have God's word, then again, you're probably just misunderstanding. And just to kind of prove that the scripture is inerrant, I got a couple of verses here. John 10 35, Jesus said, if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him, the father of sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the son of God, Jesus said the scripture cannot be broken. So God's word, God's scripture, it can't be broken, it can't be, you know, like, if God said something, it's going to come to pass. It's not, it can't just be broken, it has to be true, it's the truth, it's God's word. And then in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, the Bible says, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. So they're saying here, look, when we came to you, and when we preach God's word to you, you didn't just say, Oh, yeah, that's just man's word. That's that's just your opinion. And that's just what you think. You said they received it as it is in truth, the word of God, it's God's word. That's why we go out and we bring the Bible with us because I want to show people God's word. My opinion means means nothing. It's what it's what God's opinion is what matters God's word is what is where the truth is. This is where we have truth. So you know, first use the clear statements when you read the Bible, and you see clear statements, you know, read through the whole thing cover to cover, make sure first of all, make sure you get everything in context. It's very important for you to read the Bible on your own, and to not be deceived because there's lots of people out there looking to deceive you. I want you to learn the Bible for yourself. Use the clear statements to start forming what you believe. Take something if it's if it's real clear and say, boom, yeah, I believe that that's clear. I don't have to doubt that because it says it says it very clearly. Understand that the Bible is perfect is without error. If you see something that's a contradiction, well, you might need to think about it some more and study it and, you know, let it let it sink in to be able to understand it. And if there's things that look like contradictions, maybe you might want to, before you get totally settled on what it means, really, really pray about it and think about it. But then go ahead and turn to Ephesians three, if you're in Galatians, Ephesians is just the next book of the Bible, go through Ephesians three, so there's a few pages to the right from Galatians is Ephesians, and turn to Ephesians three. We also need to use the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament. That's what my sermon is about today, is understanding the Old Testament. Now the Old Testament, I'm going to get into this a little bit, was given to that time, but it doesn't mean that it's null and void today. So especially when we're reading the Old Testament, if there's something that's not clear, let's look to the New Testament for the answers. And this is why in Romans 16, 25, you don't have to turn there, the Bible reads, now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now was made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. He said there's a revelation of this mystery, there's a mystery that was kept secret since the world began. And this was in Romans, this is in the New Testament, this is the apostle Paul writing an epistle to the Romans saying that there's a mystery that was kept secret since the world began, but now it's made manifest. Now it's made known. There's a lot of things that were unknown to people in the Old Testament because they didn't have all of the word of God. God didn't reveal all of his truth unto us until after Jesus Christ came. If I was to read Hebrews 1, God who once under time in a diverse manner spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets had in these last times spoken to us by his son. So Jesus Christ is finally revealed when he came to this earth, a lot of mysteries, a lot of dark secrets, and then the apostles of course went and spread that abroad. So there's a lot more learning going on, and there's a lot more understanding of the scripture in the New Testament. Look in Ephesians chapter 3, look at verse number 1, the Bible says, For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me you word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote a four and a few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. So again, it's the same thing. Look at verse 3, it says, by revelation he made known unto me the mystery. Revelation is just something that's revealed. God used the Holy Spirit to reveal unto Paul these truths, and he said he's revealed this mystery unto me, and in verse 5 it says, which in other ages, in other times, was not made known unto the sons of men. So it sounds like they didn't know this before, in times past they didn't know that. And then in verse 9, jump down to verse number 9 real quick, because it says, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. So there's some things that God had hidden in the Old Testament, and because they didn't have the entire word, there's things that maybe they didn't quite understand, and the Bible was not complete. Now the Old Testament has the revelations, it has a book called Revelation, it's a revelation of Jesus Christ, it's a revelation given to John by God. God's finally revealing more stuff for us to understand, and he's opening up the Scriptures for us to understand, because there's a lot of dark sayings in the Old Testament, there's a lot of things that are maybe harder to be understood, there's a lot of things in the Old Testament that are pictures and symbols, and we're there for the people then to understand, but they're not as clear for us today. So we need to use the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament. The Old Testament, of course, when I talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Old Testament contains all the Scripture that was revealed prior to Jesus Christ's coming on this earth. That was all the prophets and everyone that was used to give us God's written word prior to Jesus Christ. So just a little overview of the Bible of the Old Testament, the first five books, they're called the books of Moses. You have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That is where the bulk and the heavy law is just laid out, those are also called the books of the law. God gives us all these rules and all these restrictions that said, you know, you want to do this, that's where the Ten Commandments are found, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, you know, all of those commandments are given in the law and those are the books of Moses. Those are the books that Moses penned down and it gives us the creation story and everything else. And then you get into the historic books, which would be from the book of Joshua through Esther and those kind of give more of a history and things that happen after the Exodus, after the children of Israel come into the promised land. And then you have the poetic books, which would include Job and Psalms and all the way through Song of Solomon, you have Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, those are, Psalms is a song book, it's the biggest book in the Bible, if you open up your Bible right in the middle you'd probably land in the book of Psalms and it's really just a collection of songs. And those are known as just the more poetic books. Then you get into the major prophets, you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Lamentations is in there and those are the real big, heavy books, they're real long. And it's just from that prophet, from Jeremiah, from Ezekiel, and those are called the major prophets. Then you get into the minor prophets, those are all the little books from Hosea to Malachi, just right before you get to the New Testament, they're usually a lot shorter, just a few chapters or whatever. And that's the entire Old Testament, let's just give you a little bit of an overview of how the Old Testament's laid out. Now if you want to understand the Old Testament, from the New Testament, one of the best places you can look to is the book of Hebrews. Now the book of Romans also has a lot of information in it, but Hebrews, Hebrews is a book that deals with a lot of the differences and the changes that were made to the Old Testament law and given to us in the Old Testament. And I think the reason is because Hebrews, the Hebrews were the children of Israel, that was who they were like their race or whatever, racially they were the children of Abraham. So the Apostle Paul writes this epistle to the Hebrews, to the people who had grown up and had learned the law and they had been given the Old Testament and that's just, these were the people that were, by nature, had inherited those things. And that's why Hebrews is a really good book where he really breaks down understanding what has changed in the Old Testament and what is not there anymore in the New Testament. What I'm going to deal with mostly today is, you see the Old Testament contains the first covenant and I broke this up, I've got lots of pages, don't worry we're not going to go through all this this morning. This is a two-parter, we're going to finish up tonight because there's so many things to cover. But I'm going to focus mostly just on the salvation because there's a lot of people who think that people were saved differently in the Old Testament than they are today in the New Testament and that's just not true. Now the Old Testament, the reason why they think that is because the Old Testament has all these laws and it's known as, you know, there's an old covenant that God made, a covenant is just a promise and that's basically the laws. And in Deuteronomy 27-26, he said, Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them, and all the people shall say, Amen. But see that covenant, see God basically gave them, you have a bunch of blessings, you have a bunch of cursings. Look, if you obey my law, if you follow my commandments, if you do all this stuff, I'm going to bless you, you're going to do great, you know everything is going to go well for you. But if you disobey, if you don't follow my commandments, if you don't obey my commandments, you're going to be cursed. You're going to have all these cursings upon you. And it makes sense, but the problem is that that covenant was not sufficient for humans because we break the law. And that means that we've all fallen under that curse. And I want to explain though that it's not that the people of the Old Testament were either perfect and just obeyed the commandments properly because they didn't. They were not perfect. It's evidence throughout the Bible that they weren't. It was never possible for us to be perfect, like it would be the same way it is today. It's as possible for you to be perfect today as just as possible for them back in the Old Testament. They had the same curse of the law and they were in need of a savior or a redeemer, the same way that we are today. And there's a term that's called dispensationism. And what they teach is that there were different ages throughout history and they all had different rules applied to them as it goes. And here's another thing. We're understanding the Bible. If you have to go through all these different hoops and do mental gymnastics in order to understand what the Bible is trying to tell you, it's probably a false doctrine. You shouldn't have to go on a rabbit trail to try to understand just the truth about the Bible. God is not the author of confusion. God wants us to understand His Word and He lays it out. What the Bible says, it says, take it for what it says and just believe it. You don't need to go try to make it say something it doesn't and use all kinds of different scripture to say, well, see, look, here it does this. No. It says what it says and we ought to just believe it. And people have always been saved the same way. Let's take a look at Hebrews chapter number 10. Were you in Ephesians? If you're still in Ephesians, you go a little bit further to the right in the Bible and you're going to find the book of Hebrews. And we're going to go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews is a little bit longer than most of the books in the New Testament. We're going to take a look at Hebrews chapter number 10. Verse number one, the Bible says, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. Now in the law, if you remember, they used to give sacrifices. Part of the law that was given was that they would have to come in, they had all these different sacrifices for sins or for peace offerings, for all kinds of different offerings, and they'd bring an animal sacrifice. They'd bring a lamb or a goat. They'd bring turtle doves. There's all different offerings that they made and these were made for atonement for them so that when they sinned, they would bring this up and to reconcile themselves to God and say, okay, I've sinned, I'm sorry, I'm going to bring my offering in. To make it better, but he's going to explain what was the purpose of that. What was the whole purpose that they even did that? Because today we don't do these sacrifices. We don't do animal sacrifices and burn it on an altar to God. And there's a very good reason for that. We're going to add it real quickly here, but it says there in verse one, it says the law, having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. Those sacrifices could never make you perfect. The people who brought them, those sacrifice can never make you perfect says for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again, made of sins every year. Look at verse number four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. He lays it out there very clearly because people try to tell you, and this is something that I was taught and that I believe when I grew up in the Presbyterian church, that people were saved through those offerings and that they had to do that in order to be saved and go to heaven. And yeah, I mean, every year they had to bring these sacrifices and they, you know, they would kill them and that's how they would get saved and they would be good for a while and they'd have to keep doing that every year. That's works. That's the work they had to do to bring in. That's not how they were saved. He explains it here in verse four and that's why we're using the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament. He said, look, it's not even possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. It can't happen. Turn back to chapter nine of Hebrews where you're in chapter 10, it's just, it should be on the same page, maybe one page back. In verse 15 it says, and for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So pay attention to that term, the promise, because now I'm going to prove that a little bit further that the people in the Old Testament were saved the same way that we are today and we just already saw the sacrifices that they did, they couldn't save them. It's very clear. There's a clear statement in the Bible that says, look, it's not even possible the blood of bulls and of goats can take away sins. So they were not saved that way. Well, if they weren't saved that way, then how were they saved? In Galatians chapter three, this is the chapter we started in, we started reading, we're finally getting back to it. You go ahead and turn there. Galatians chapter three, we read this earlier, we started off reading this, but in verse number six, it says, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Abraham is someone who lived in the Old Testament. Abraham was even before the Mosaic law was introduced. Abraham was a man that put his faith in God and he lived in the Old Testament and it says here that Abraham, in verse six of chapter three, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, his faith is what made him righteous, his faith saved him. And it says, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And if you put your faith in Christ, you are a child of Abraham, according to the Bible. See the problem, and the reason why he's even bringing this up is that there's a lot of people today that think that because of their origin, because of their nationality, because of their descendancy, who they come from, who they're descended from, because they think they're children of Abraham, and I'm talking about the Jews today, the modern day Jews, there's a lot of people that the religion of Judaism will teach that they are a special chosen people because of their race, because of who they descended from, that they're special and that they have an automatic ticket into heaven because they're physically descended from Abraham. In the Bible, that couldn't be further from the truth, okay? We need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now they could get saved just like anyone else, but they don't have some special plan or some special ticket just because they happen to be born, I mean you don't choose where you're born, it has nothing to do with anything, just because they happen to be born from one set of parents, God doesn't look at that, he's not a respecter of persons and say, oh, you're a descendant of Abraham physically, so I'm going to let you into heaven just because of that, just because of who you were born from. That's ridiculous. Physical descendants of Abraham are not saved just by default, you have to have the faith and that's why he said that the children of, you know, they that which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. So when the Bible talks about these promises that God made to Abraham and to his seed after, excuse me, that's talking about his children that are saved by faith, that's not talking about physical descendants. Here verse number eight says, in the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, and these shall all nations be blessed. So again, the gospel is something that people will say, oh, that's the New Testament. Well the Bible says right here that the gospel was preached unto Abraham way back in the Old Testament. The good news, the gospel has been around forever. The good news is that, hey, you can't, the bad news is that you can't do it on your own, you can't do it by works. The good news is all you need is that faith. You put your faith in God, you call upon God, you put your faith in Christ and he will save you. That is the gospel, my friend, and the gospel was preached unto Abraham. It says, so then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Look at verse number 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. We read that earlier, the reference to that. Everybody that's under the works of the law are under a curse. It says in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident for the just shall live by faith. And again, that quote, what he's saying there, he's saying it's evident, he's saying, look, no man can be justified by the law, by obeying the law, obeying the commandments, we're not justified in the sight of God. He says it's evident. The reason why it's evident is because he's pointing back to, guess what, another old testament scripture, he's pointing back to Habakkuk 2.4 that says the just shall live by faith. And he's using the old testament to prove that, look, we're saved by faith. And over and over again, you'll find that, that the new testament is opening up, the old testament is saying, look, it's been there, it's been there the whole time. And look at verse number 12, he says that the law is not of faith. So the law is not of faith, you don't need something to believe in, you don't have to have faith in something, you know, to follow the law, the law is the law. It says, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for as written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So I told you before to look at that word, the promise, that was in Hebrews chapter nine, it says, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And that's why we need faith, because eternal life is a promise. God makes a promise that I'm going to give you eternal life. We need the faith to believe in that promise, to believe that God is true, and to put our faith in that promise and understand that, hey, by faith, we know that God is going to fulfill that promise when we breathe our last breath. We know that God has fulfilled his word because he tells the truth and he's not a liar. We're going to just believe him. Now the law is something that's here, it's laid out, and you just follow it and you either do good or you do bad. You don't need faith to believe in the law. You need faith in order to understand that you have a promise of eternal life that's going to be given to you. And that's the faith that we have, and it's this promise. And this promise is referred to over and over again in this chapter in Galatians three, verse 17, it says, oh, we just read that, it says, no, it says, yeah, it says in verse 17, it says, and this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. And what he's saying here is that, look, the promise was given ultimately unto Abraham. Abraham existed way before Moses, he existed before the law was even given. So what he's explaining is that, look, because people will try to tell you that you need that, you know, you have to do the works of the law to be saved. And he says, look, the law, which came, you know, basically 430 years after God gave the promise to Abraham, that's when the law was instituted, 430 years later, he says, the law that came 430 years later, he said that can't disannul, that can't make that promise void just because the law was introduced later, doesn't just say, okay, yeah, that promise is no good anymore, that it should make the promise of none effect. The promise is in effect, the promise is still there, it's God's word. God can't go back on his word, it's a promise made by God. So when this law comes in, it doesn't make the promise void. He's just added the law. It says in verse 18, for if the inheritance be of the law, there's no more promise. So say, look, if you could get saved, if you get this inheritance in heaven, if you get eternal life by the law, well, that's no longer a promise, you don't have to have faith in that, you just have to obey and be obedient and do what's right and do what's good and just live a good life. Again, that doesn't take faith, that's not something that would just be a law and you don't need a promise for that, you just do what's right. It says, but God gave it to Abraham by promise, wherefore then serve at the law. So we say, well, then why do we even have the law? Why is it there? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by angels and out of a mediator. Then it goes on and on, now the mediator is not one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, barely righteousness should have been by the law. It says, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin, we've all sinned, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So he says right here in verse 24, well, you know, basically, you know, why, why do we even have the law? It says, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. He's saying, look, the law is there to convince you of your sin, to convince you that you need a savior. It's a schoolmaster, it's a teacher saying, look, this is what God wants you to do. This is what God expects and demands you to do. When you see the law, you hear the law, you know that you don't follow all those commandments and those rules. And that's why you need, then it brings you to Christ to be justified by faith. So you can put your faith in Christ, realize, hey man, I'm sin, I'm not good enough. I don't measure up to the law. I need God. I need a savior. I need someone to save my soul. I'm going to put my faith in Christ. And that's why we even have the law. But see, here's the thing, that faith doesn't make the law avoid either. Now it saves you from the curse of the law, because the curse of the law is that you have to go to hell. If you break his law, you're cursed for that. Faith will save you from that curse, but it doesn't make the law avoid either. It doesn't mean that you don't have to follow or obey the law. And real quickly, I'm going to wrap it up here. Verse four also is a good chapter that explains that people in the Old Testament were saved by faith. Again, it has a reference to Abraham being justified by faith. It says in chapter four, verse one, what shall we say then to Abraham, our fathers, pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath wear out to glory, but not before God. For what said the scripture? Again, all he hears is amazing. He keeps on going back to the scripture. He's proving what he's saying from the scripture, and he's going back to the Old Testament. Every time he's going back and proving this stuff, when he says, what said the scripture, anytime you see him saying that in the New Testament, they're always referring to the Old Testament. It says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted on him for righteousness. So again, there's another section that talks about Abraham believing God. That's how he got saved. And then in verse six, it says, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works. So you can say, okay, well, that was Abraham. This is what people will say too. They'll say, well, that was Abraham. That was before the law. So yeah, he was saved by grace back then because that was before the law came. But when the people were here that were living in the time of the law, they had to obey the law and that's how they got saved. Well, the Bible says that David, now King David was under the Mosaic law. King David came, I don't know how familiar you are, but he came in the time, he was the second king of Israel and he was under the law of Moses at that time. And David's the one who's credited with writing down the majority of the book of Psalms. He's the one that God used to write down those Psalms, not all of them, but the majority of them. And he was under the Mosaic law and this is in Romans four, verse six. Going back to quote one of the scriptures that David wrote, it says, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. David is under the law. He said the same exact thing, that God imputes righteousness without works, without following the law, without obeying the law, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's a great blessing. And then I'm going to jump down to verse 13 in Romans four, it says, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. The promise, again, he's saying it's not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void. So faith is meaningless if you receive righteousness by the law, because then the promise made of none effect, because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. For it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of the song. So it's evident, I can't even, you know, if you don't understand that Abraham was saved by faith at this point, then you got a lot of reading to do so, because there's the scripture after scripture has explained that David also wrote about being saved without works, and it's also evident that people knew that a messiah was coming. So they didn't even think back then that, I mean, some people did, but a lot of people knew that it was by faith then too. And that's evidenced by you have the woman at the well who knew that messiah was coming and says, when he comes, he's going to show us all things. There were the wise men from the east, you know, you typically hear about the three wise men that came. The reason why they even knew that Jesus Christ was being born, because they knew the scripture. They knew that the Old Testament talked about the Savior coming, and they were looking for the signs of his coming, because God had prophesied and given them the signs. That's why they're even able to come after the birth of Jesus Christ to see him as a newborn baby and to give him those gifts, because they knew the scripture. And I'm not going to go there for the sake of time, but I had this in my notes in Luke chapter two, there's an old man that basically was revealed to him that he was going to see the Savior of the world before he died. And he went into the temple, and that's when he saw where they were bringing in Jesus Christ on the eighth day, and he saw him and he said, Lord, now that is thou thy servant to part in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel. He knew Jesus was coming. The people in the Old Testament basically is a good way to look at it. In the New Testament, we look back to Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to get saved. He already did that in our time frame. We knew that, you know, he did that, the scripture tells us he did that, we put our faith on him to be saved. Well, in the Old Testament, before Jesus did that, they were looking in the future. They knew, because the Bible says that all the prophets prophesied of Jesus Christ, all of them. All of the prophets said from the beginning of the world. So even before God's word was actually written down, God spoke, God used prophets to preach unto the people, all the prophets of God prophesied of Jesus Christ coming to pay for the sins of the whole world. So in the Old Testament, before Jesus Christ actually came to this earth, they put their faith on the fact that he was coming and that he was going to save them from their sins. In the New Testament, we just look backward, it's just a difference of where you are in the time spectrum. You're looking forward, you're looking backwards. Either way, it's Jesus Christ that's saving you, and either way, it's by faith in him, because it's only faith that saves. And that's what it says in Acts 10, 4, 3, it says, to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. All the prophets witnessed that. Whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. Dispensational teaching is nothing but a bunch of lies. Don't be deceived by it, don't let anyone tell you, oh no, no, no, it's all different for these different people. Beware when people try to tell you that certain parts of the Bible are not meant for you, too. I mean, they get into these crazy teachings and they'll say, oh, well, the Gospels were not for you, or this Gospel is not for you, it's for the Jews, or we follow the epistles of Paul and not what Peter said, and they'll say Peter was the apostle of the Jews and Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles, they'll say all these different things, excuse me, that's not true. That all Scripture, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, the entire Bible is for you. All of it. Every word, every verse, every line, it's for you. You don't need to get caught up in this stuff. People just, I don't know why they do it, they just think that, it's like they're getting too smart for themselves. You don't need to make the Bible more complicated or more difficult than it is. It's given to us. And I'll tell you what, the Gospel that Peter preached is the same Gospel that the Gospel Paul preached. It's the same Gospel that was preached under Abraham, and it's the same Gospel that's been preached all throughout time, the good news of faith. It doesn't matter where you were born, it doesn't matter who your parents are. What matters is if you become a child of Abraham, you become a child of God by putting your faith in Christ. That's what matters. So tonight we're going to go through, because I'm out of time, tonight I'm going to go through some more of the, I mean that was just salvation, I really wanted to make sure we covered salvation because a lot of people think weird things about that, and people have always been saved by grace. But tonight we're going to go over a lot more of like the actual laws and what changes were really made. Because there's a lot, there were some changes, like I said, we don't do the sacrifices today. We don't do animal burnt offerings. But at the same time, that doesn't mean thou shalt not kill is gone from the law. That's still there. So we're going to look a little bit heavier tonight into, well what are the differences and what are the changes? Because I'll tell you what, the biggest reason why people want to tell you that we don't have to obey the law, and we're in the New Testament, we don't need to listen to that, is because of their own sin. They don't want to admit or accept that something that they're doing is wrong. It's a lot easier to take a big chunk of the Bible and say, yeah, I don't need this anymore. This stuff in here, that's old, that's Old Testament, I don't need this, which is just silly. There's no reason that God has to repeat himself. Everything in the New Testament, whatever he wanted to keep in the Old Testament, no. It's not the way it works. So let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much for this opportunity. God, I pray that you made it clear in our hearts and just understand and that we wouldn't get twisted. Because there's a lot of deceivers out there, dear God. There's a lot of people who are going to try to unsettle our faith and bring in weird false doctrine. God, it takes a long time to get founded in the truth, but I pray that just little by little you can help us to just understand more of your word. Help us to get settled in your word and to use the clear statements of the Bible to help us understand what the truth is and that we could understand the word is perfect and that you preserved it for us today in 2013 without error for us. And just help us to be able to understand your words and I pray that you please just bless everyone that's here today as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.