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Voiceover: What God said to Abraham, he said to you and me. Let's talk on Key Life.

Matthew: If you suffer too long under a "do more, try harder" religion, Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free. Steve invited Jerry Parrys to teach us this week. Jerry is an author and the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Dr. Parrys.

Jerry Parrys: Hey, sir. How are you?

Steve Brown: Dr. Parrys is in the studio this week. If you were listening the last time he was here, he taught us about covenants and how important they are in the Bible. And this week, he's been centering in on one particular covenant, and it's the covenant that God gave to Abraham. Yeah. Abraham, was that because he was so nice?

Jerry Parrys: Absolutely not, because none of us deserve any of God's blessings. It's because God chose him by whatever God wanted to choose. He chose all of us like that.

Steve Brown: And God is very clear about Abraham's own sins.

Jerry Parrys: Yeah.

Steve Brown: The good man, I... there's some things I wouldn't have said about Abraham if I'd been God. Let me give you a scripture and you can use that and you can teach us from this. It's in Galatians 3, and I'll start at the 26th verse.

"For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you."

Jerry Parrys: That is such good news.

Steve Brown: I know it makes me feel good just reading it.

Jerry Parrys: Man, that's such good news to know that what God promised Abraham, you are the recipient of that promise. You know, when I look at this, the real promise of God to Abraham was not Isaac only. The real promise to Abraham is Jesus. Jesus is the real descendant of Abraham. And Paul talks about that—I think it's Hebrews—that he's the real descendant of Abraham. And we are the children of God through Jesus.

And what has Jesus promised us? That we would receive salvation without working for it. That's the promise of the right relationship that God shared with Abraham. "I'm going to bless you with many descendants. I'm going to bless you with the land, and you don't even have to work for it." That's so good.

Steve Brown: Hey, listen. As an aside, because people are probably asking, tell us about Isaac and that story.

Jerry Parrys: Yeah. Again, back in the New Testament, Paul talks about Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac is the promise that God made in telling Abraham that you're going to have a son.

And when God told Abraham that he was going to have a son, Abraham didn't believe it, and Sarah didn't believe it, and they kept waiting on God's promise to come to pass. And since it didn't come to pass fast enough, he then went and got his handmaid and had Ishmael. And Ishmael was not the promise, Isaac was.

And so, Paul talks about this in Hebrews, that Isaac represents grace and Ishmael represents law because Ishmael was the person that was born out of works, not out of promise.

Steve Brown: That is so good and so true. And that goes back to what you said about the promise to Abraham.

Jerry Parrys: That's right. It's one of grace and mercy and truth.

Steve Brown: That's correct. And so our promise now, we live in grace. And that's what this whole teaching is about, is that as we receive the promise of God through grace and not of works, then we would receive all that God has for us: salvation free, mercy free, love free, without having to work for it.

Jerry Parrys: Abraham's promise from God was, "Hey, you're going to receive this land. The children of Israel is going to receive this land. You're going to receive all that I have for you because I promised it to you." In fact, when you read Galatians 3:15, if I may, Steve, it says: "Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.

"God gave the promise to Abraham and his child. And notice the scripture doesn’t say 'to his children,' as it means many descendants. Rather, it says 'to his child,' and that of course means Christ. Verse 17: This is what I’m trying to say: the agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses.

"God would break his promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise." Oh my goodness.

Steve Brown: You know, I imagine our listeners are mostly believers, and they know about salvation by faith in Christ alone. They know about grace. They understand that sort of thing.

But most of us don't see how deep this goes. That this is from the very beginning. Even in Hebrews 11 when we hear about the saints and where they were, it was their righteousness wasn't their law or their obedience, it was a gift of God to their faith.

Jerry Parrys: And the faith became from the father of faith, Abraham. Even the faith was his gift. This is so powerful, Steve, that I think as you just said, many believers don't understand that even 430 years before the law was given, before there was ever the Ten Commandments, God made Abraham a promise. And that promise of grace, that's what it is.

It is grace. "I'm going to give you grace." And so the law comes in to teach us what sin is, but the promise of God's grace succeeds the law. It is just the blessings of God over our lives that when we receive Christ and we receive salvation, we receive the promise. And it's nothing we've done to get it. It's God's love and grace for us.

Steve Brown: You know, there's that old joke about the pastor who went out and played golf, and he duffed the ball. And a hawk came down, picked it up, took it down to the green and dropped it on the green. And then a squirrel came up and a rabbit working together, kicked it until they knocked it into the hole. And then the pastor looked up into the heaven and said, "Please, let me do it myself." That's what Christians do.

Jerry Parrys: Exactly. "I want a part of this. I don't want you to do it all."

Steve Brown: But he does it all, doesn't he?

Jerry Parrys: He does it all. And he said, "Listen, don't deny," as you just said, "don't go out and try to do all of this work for something that has already been given to you as a promise. Receive the promise that God has given unto you." And when you receive that promise, just get out there on the golf course and have a good time and let God kick the ball in every day.

Steve Brown: And he will. Yes. Now, there are people that'll say, "When you talk this radical about God and the grace being free and that we have nothing to do with it, it's settled, don't people then say, 'Cool, I can sin all I want,' and they go out and start doing really bad things?"

Jerry Parrys: No. Well, it's two parts of that. You can do whatever you want, but you wouldn't do anything that you would want because you love him more. Just like you and your wife. I can do anything what I want with my wife, but I don't do anything outside of that because I love her. And the more you love God, the more you live right. And the more you know that he has done for you, the better you live.

Too many times we feel like, "Well, since it's up to me and whether I do it or not," that's what causes us not to live better lives. But when we understand how much God loves us, how much he has paid for us, what he has done to give us this gift, I don't want to go back and muddy it up.

Steve Brown: Me neither. And I've tried it the other way. And I really gave it my best shot. I mean, I became an ordained minister. I was trying to please God who was already pleased. And I got worse and worse and worse and I thought, "This is not working." What does work? And God said, "Nothing. Just be still and let me love you."

Jerry Parrys: Let me tell you. And when you're loved by someone, you know, I heard someone say the other day, when you come home and you're fussing at your wife, and she looks over at you and says, "Honey, what's wrong?" gives you a kiss and says, "I don't care what your day was today, I'm just going to love you." You're going to stop acting ugly and say, "I can't act like that no more."

Steve Brown: That's true. And that's the essence of the Christian faith. That's what it's all about. We're acceptable, we're loved, we're fine because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. And what we've learned today is that has a connection with a promise made to Abraham. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: Thank you Steve Brown and Jerry Parrys. Always love hearing these men hang out and teach. And all this week, they're diving deep into the covenant God made with Abraham. It was so long ago and yet it has so much to teach us about God's nature and intention toward us. More tomorrow. Do join us.

Well, you know about the Trinity, but did you know the enemy has one too? No, the devil's trinity isn't drinking, smoking, and cussing. It's shame, fear, and guilt—things that Steve says still get him sometimes. But in a message that he gave at the Billy Graham Training Center, Steve explains why there's an answer to these persistent challenges.

We put that entire talk on a CD, and we would love to send it to you for free. If you ever struggle with shame, fear, or guilt—and that's all of us, right?—this one is for you. So call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that CD, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, just ask for the CD called The Devil's Trinity.

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