I Peter 1:10
"Of which salvation the prophets (the Old Testament writers) have inquired and searched diligently, (then why look and ask, this they did) who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; 11 Searching what,
or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it (the Spirit) testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they
did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that
have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." In
other words, did those Old Testament prophets understand this Gospel of
Grace? No, of course not! God never intended for them to understand it.
He had been keeping it secret. In fact, come back with us to Romans
chapter 16. Now if the Old Testament prophets had understood the Gospel
of Grace, and if Abraham would have seen that Christ would indeed come
and die and be raised from the dead and offer salvation to the whole
world, then this verse becomes almost spurious, but it isn't. The whole
of it was and remains veiled to them, they only saw a shadow or fragmented distorted picture of that
which was to come, until Christ suffered and ascended back to the throne
and the Father's right hand. It's the truth.
Romans 16:25
"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." It was kept
secret and there was no way the Old Testament saints could know it. It
was in the mind and heart of God. There was no way He was going to let them
understand. He told Daniel to eat the book in order for it to remain a
mystery until the end. The Twelve didn't understand. (Luke 18:34) Now
from all the prophetic references in the Old Testament about His death
and His resurrection, we would have thought that the Twelve would have
understood that He was going to die. But did they? No! They had no idea
that He was going to go to that Roman Cross. When He hung there, did
they expect to see Him on the first day of the week? Of course not! They
thought it was over with, and all done. What did Peter say? "I go fishing."
Why? Everything was now hopeless. But you see God kept it secret, veiled from them all. He
didn't reveal it to people. It's the same way today. A lot of people are
kept blind to the Truth of the Gospel until God opens their spiritual
eyes, their hearts as He did Lydia's in Acts 16:14. The minute He opens their hearts eyes they become intensely responsible,
because that's His sovereign Grace. That is why we do what we do and say
what we say.
Now let's come back again to
Galatians chapter 3. So the Gospel which was preached to Abraham was not a Gospel that Abraham understood, it remained veiled. He had a
concept that God was going to send a Redeemer. Every Hebrew, even if he
has a segment of believing left in him today, is looking for the
Redemption - the day of Redemption. What is their day of redemption?
When Messiah should come. Now they have a few of those things mixed up,
but nevertheless, this whole concept of resurrection and the nation of
Israel coming into a place of redemption was certainly on Abraham's
mind. But to be able to associate it with a death, burial and
resurrection and the shedding of the atoning blood of Christ. They had
no concept of that! Because God didn't expect them to. Their focus was on earthy things or the material realm which is the realm of Satan's ruling as the prince of the power of the air and the spirit of the world.
Galatians 3:10
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse:..." Do we realize how many billions of people are in that position and they
don't know it? They are supposedly Law keepers. They are supposedly
keeping the commandments, and thereby thinking they are pleasing God.
They are not pleasing God. They are placing themselves under the curse!
Unbelievable, they're the lawlessness, this is what the Book says. Legalism in what ever form we want to put it, anything that says I want to do it my way.
“I'm going to do this and that”. That person puts themselves under the
curse of God. Now the word "Curse" here is more than just puncturing a
voodoo doll with a needle. This verse is the real thing. This is the
curse of the Almighty. In fact, let's go back and look at Deuteronomy
27. This is why our Bible tells us Christ was under the curse of the Law
and that He removed that curse He took it upon Himself. And in this
chapter he's coming through all the horrible things that man can do that
brings down the wrath of God. But we're not going to look at all of
them. In verse 26 this is what Paul is referring to in Galatians. He's
warning people: "Look when you say that you're going to keep the Mosaic
Law in order to merit favor with God, there's no way that any mortal man
can do it. So where do they put themselves? Under the curse! We want to
see it with our own eyes.
Deuteronomy 27:26
"Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen." Now
what does that mean? That if they don't keep every last jot and tittle
of the Mosaic Law as no man can do, and only God could do it, we're
under the curse of God. It's plain and simple. This is exactly what Paul
and even Peter is making reference to. It's a tremendous warning. Don't
try to put yourself under the Mosaic Law because since we're human, we
cannot keep it anyway. But when we put ourself under a so-called legal
system, or religious system we are actually putting ourself under the
curse of God. Now that's serious business. That's serious language. It's
not ours - it's the Book's.
Galatians 3:10
"For
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is
written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them." Listen,
that's what the Levitical Law commands and demands. Do this! Do that! Let's go back
to Exodus 19 for a moment. Israel has just been led out of Egypt and
they are gathered around Mt. Sinai and God is preparing to, with Moses
and Aaron, bring the Nation of Israel under the system of Law which
will be known as the Levitical Law and the Mosaic Law. And now look how
Israel responds.
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