Alright, I want you to look back
in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Now, my
text this morning will be verses 10 through 14 of Galatians chapter
3. And I want to speak to you this
morning on the subject of real substitution. I have been, in
the past few weeks, studying various passages of Scripture.
that describe biblically the substitutionary death of Christ. If you who were here last week
recall I preached on glorious substitution last week out of
Hebrews chapter 2. And it is something to know the
reality and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he
accomplished on Calvary to save us from our sins, to save his
people, to bring us to a saving knowledge of himself. You know,
read there in Galatians 6 and verse 14, Paul wrote, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought about that because,
you know, the Apostle Paul was an amazing man. And he said himself,
he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. He didn't attribute
that to his own power or goodness or efforts or talents. But it's
only by the grace of God. But he was an amazing man. One
who before conversion was so adamant and zealous to pursue
the death and the incarceration of believers. He had one thing
in mind, and that was to stamp the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, he would say. He wouldn't say Jesus Christ,
because before conversion, he didn't believe Jesus was the
Messiah. But he had one purpose, and that
was to stamp the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face of this
map. and not let anybody follow him. And yet when God struck
him down on the Damascus road and brought him to the dust where
he belonged, where we all belong, and showed him the glory of Christ,
crucified, risen again, he became the most fervent of men in the
ministry of the gospel. showing forth the God-given courage
to stand in the face of kings and tell the truth. That's an
amazing thing. I mean, you know, we wince at
it. I mean, we do. You know, it takes
a lot. We don't even want somebody to
frown at us over the gospel. Paul stood with his life on the
line, and he was an amazing man. And from a human point of view,
We could say a lot of good things about Paul, you know, how much
he did and what he did. But Paul himself said this, God
forbid that I should glory except in one thing, the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And that cross, as you know,
that's not talking about the wooden cross itself. It's talking
about the death of Christ on the cross. is talking about Christ
and Him crucified. He said, I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So
if there's any doubt in anybody's mind of how important this thing
is, of understanding the cross, I don't see how you could have
any doubts of that and know anything about Scripture. You know that
word glory? He said, God forbid that I should
glory. That means boast. That's another way to interpret
that word. God forbid that I should boast,
except in one thing. It means to have confidence in
it. What was Paul's confidence in the cross? It was confidence
of salvation. Confidence of being justified,
being accepted before God. In one thing, not in how many
sermons he preached, not in how many times his life was on the
line, not his courage, not his morality, not his zeal, But one
thing, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an amazing
thing, isn't it? The cross was real to Paul. It
wasn't fake. It wasn't pretense. It was real.
It wasn't some kind of fiction. Now, why is that? Well, let's
look back here at Galatians chapter 3. Let me show you what the Apostle
Paul understood and what we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we profess that. what we understand in him. And the first thing I want to
impress upon you is what he says here is this, that there is absolutely
no hope of a sinner being saved or justified before a holy God
by works of the law. No hope at all. And that statement applies to
the best of us and the worst of us. Now do you understand
that? Think about the Lord Jesus Christ
standing before the crowd when he delivered the Sermon on the
Mount and saying, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven. No hope of salvation, of being
justified. What is it to be justified? It's
to be not guilty. Not guilty. It's like a judge
who bangs that gavel and says, well, the jury found you not
guilty. But I'm a sinner. Doesn't sin
bring guilt? Yes. The soul that sinneth, it
must surely die. Why? Because of guilt. Guilt,
that's right. That's what we deserve. If you're
guilty, what do you deserve? The penalty. Well, look at verse
10 of Galatians 3. He says, for as many as are of
the works of the law. Now, to understand this verse,
you have to know what he's talking about here. What is it to be
of the works of the law? Well, that describes any person
who is seeking to be saved and justified before God, to be made
righteous before God, any person He's seeking to be saved at any
stage, to any degree, at any time by keeping the law, by their
works under the law, no matter what work it is. So he says,
for as many as are of the works of the law, listen to it, are
under the curse. They're under the curse. In other
words, to seek salvation, By works of the law, to seek to
be justified, to seek to try to make yourself righteous in
God's sight, by keeping the law, means you're under a curse. Now
what is that curse? Is it some kind of a hocus-pocus
thing? What is that curse? Does that
mean you'll lose everything you had? No. Job was not under the
curse, and he lost everything he had. Does it mean you'll get
sick all the time? No. No. What does the curse mean? It
means damnation. That's what the curse means.
It means damnation. He that believeth not shall be
what? Damned. That's eternal damnation. That's eternal death. That's
what the curse is. It's not some kind of a sign
or signal. or hand movement, or incantation. It's eternal damnation. That's
what the curse is. And so he says, anybody who's
trying to be saved, to be justified by their works, they're under
the curse. Now, here's the thing about it. Man, by nature, is
so spiritually dead that he's under that curse, by nature,
and doesn't even know it. Doesn't even know it. You see,
it takes a work of God's grace to make us aware, even aware,
that we're under a curse based on our best efforts to keep the
law. And here's the thing. Wherever God imputes sin, wherever
God charges the debt, charges sin, there's the curse. That's why David wrote in Psalm
130, and we'll see this in Romans 4 in just a moment. That's why
he wrote, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, charge sins,
O Lord, who among us would stand? Now why is that? Because we're
all sinners. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. So he says, for it is written,
verse 10, now he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 27 here,
back under the law. He's quoting back in the old
covenant law. And you know what Deuteronomy is? That's the second
rendering of the law. That's what that means, second
law. And here's what's happening. You see, the children of Israel
had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, and then they come
up on the brink of the promised land. Moses cannot go over into
the promised land. You remember all that? God put
that punishment on Moses because he struck the rock twice. Remember
the rock that brought water? That rock that symbolized Christ?
Moses, in anger, struck that rock twice. You see, that rock
was to be struck one time and one time. You know, he struck
it one time and he should have never struck it again. What does
that symbolize? It symbolizes the death of Christ.
One offering, one death, one suffering, and the water comes
from the water of life. Now, Moses, before they went
into the promised land, he sat down and he wrote and read the
book of Deuteronomy to the people before they went into the promised
land. And here's part of it. Here's what he says in Deuteronomy
27. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things. Underscore
that phrase all things. How many things are all things?
Well all things are all things. All things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Now that's the standard of righteousness
right there. Anything less than that standard
is what? It's sin. The New Testament word
means falling short, missing the mark. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Here's where the glory of
God is seen, in that righteousness of the law here, and that's the
standard. Where is that standard found
in perfection? There's only one place that standard
is ever found in perfection. One place! And it's not in the
church. It's not in the baptismal pool.
It's not out in the community. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Period. That's the only place you're
going to find that standard in perfection on earth. In Christ. And he says anybody who doesn't
measure up to that standard is cursed. Now, you may be rich,
healthy, and you may live to be 150 years old, like Methuselah,
969 years old, but if you're trying to be saved, if you're
of the works of the law, you're trying to be saved by your works,
you're under the curse. Now, how do you know that? Because
God's Word says it. It has nothing to do with how
we feel, even how we think. This is reality. You're under
the curse. And you may go through your life
and never know it until you come and stand before a holy God like
those false preachers. Lord, didn't we prophesy in your
name? Well, does that measure up to the standard here? No.
So that doesn't equal righteousness. Lord, didn't we cast out demons?
That's a pretty powerful thing, isn't it? Somebody could cast
out demons. Everybody in the whole world
would say that's a godly person, wouldn't they? Well, if that's
what you think makes you righteous, you're under the curse. Lord,
didn't we do many wonderful things? Well, the wonderful things that
we've done, I personally think it's a wonderful thing for a
sinner to come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But whenever
you come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, what are you going
to see? You're going to see that He's your only righteousness.
You understand? And so all these things, does
it measure up? The cursed is everyone, alright?
Now he says in verse 11, now here's the conclusion that we're
to draw from seeing that perfect standard. He says in verse 11,
look at it. But that no man, now who's no
man? That's no man. No exceptions
here. But that no man is justified
by the law, and notice what he puts there, in the sight of God,
because there's the important thing right there. You see, it's
not how you appear to me or how I appear to you. You see, remember,
Paul said in, I believe it's 2 Corinthians 10, he said, don't
be of those who glory in appearance. Because God doesn't look on the
outward, he looks on the heart. And he knows if your heart's
looking to Christ and resting in Christ or if it's looking
and resting somewhere else. That's what that means. And so
he says, it's evident. That is so evident. That is a
truth that everybody in the world should know, but doesn't know. Man by nature doesn't know. And
then he says, for the just, the justified, that's what that is.
He's quoting here from the book of Habakkuk. The prophet Habakkuk
made this statement. And it's quoted, I think, three
times in the New Testament. Romans 3 or Romans 1 rather and
here in Galatians 3 and then the book of Hebrews chapter 10,
and it says the Justified shall live by faith. Now, what is it
to live by faith? It means to live by looking to
and resting in Christ. That's what it means. It's not
saying the Justified shall live by believing. We do live by believing
in a sense, but people take that And they stop right there. Believing.
Believing what? Cain lived by believing, but
he believed his salvation was by works. He was under the curse. So never separate faith in the
Bible from the object. If you do, you'll be in trouble.
You know, he told that woman with the issue of blood, he said,
thy faith hath made thee whole. What was her faith? That Christ
could make her whole. It wasn't faith in her faith.
It was faith in Christ. Don't separate those two. And
so he says in verse 12, look here. He said, now the law is
not of faith. Now what he's saying there is
the same thing. It's either by grace or it's by works. The law,
listen, the law can show you your sin, but it cannot remove
your sin. The law can show you the standard
of righteousness, but it cannot make you righteous. You see what
I'm saying? The law, all the law can do is
show you your sin. Why was the law given? Look down
at verse 19 of Galatians 3. He says, Wherefore then serveth
the law? You see that? Verse 19. If the law cannot make me righteous,
if I cannot be saved by my law keeping, then why was the law
even given? Well, he says it was added because of transgressions. To show you the sickness, that's
kind of like saying, It's kind of like saying man's reasoning
would go something like this. Well, if I can't cure a cancer
that's inside me right now, why would I need an MRI or an X-ray? Well, you've got to find out
what you have. You've got to find the disease before you seek
the cure. And that's why the law was given.
It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come and
the seed there is Christ. Christ is the only remedy. So
he says, and the law is not of faith, verse 12. The man that
doeth them shall live in them. The law is not of faith. The
law doesn't require you to believe. The law just requires you to
do. That's what the law says. Do it. Keep it. Practice it. Obey it. That's it. It doesn't
expect faith. It just says do it. Alright,
you say, well I keep the law. Well that means you love God
perfectly. perfectly. Now think about that.
That means you never have a struggle in your life to obey God or to
obey self. You never have that struggle.
Listen, if you love God perfectly, you're not in a warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. You don't have that warfare that
I have and that others have. And if you keep the law perfectly,
you love your neighbor as yourself. And let me tell you the test
for you now. Go sell everything that you have and give it to
the poor and follow Christ. There's your test. I mean, do
it now. You say, well, I've got to think
about that. Whoops. You just broke the law. That's right now. If you were
a perfect law keeper, you wouldn't have to think about it. It'd
just come natural to you. Our Lord didn't have to wrestle
with these things of keeping the law. He wrestled over the
pain and the sorrow and the grief that He was going through in
His humanity. But it wasn't whether or not to keep the law. He loved
His Father perfectly. It was always His delight to
do the will of His Father. It came naturally to Him because
He's God in human flesh. So he says, the law says that.
This. Do. All right. Now, here's why
Paul gloried in the cross. Look at verse 13. Here's the
real substitutionary work of Christ. This is real substitution.
Listen to it. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. Who's he talking about there?
Well, those for whom he died. Remember, we talked about him
in Hebrews 2, his brethren. The seed of Abraham, those whom
he sanctified. His sheep, he said, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. His church that he
purchased with his own blood. What's the redeemed mean? That
means he paid the price. That's what redemption is. It's
a redemption price. He had to pay the price. And
it says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of law. Now,
how did he do it? Well, look at it. Being made a curse for
us. He was made a curse for us. And then he quotes from the book
of Deuteronomy again. And it says, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. Now, Paul has in mind here the
cross. In the New Testament, the cross
is sometimes referred to as a tree. Because it's made of wood. But
back in Deuteronomy, what that refers to is a practice that
they had under the law that when someone was executed as a malefactor,
you know what a malefactor is? That's a criminal. As someone
who's a criminal, they'd take his dead body and they would
hang it on a tree. And they'd leave it there for
a few days as a sign that this person was cursed. And that's
what they're referring to. But Paul uses that as an illustration
of the cross because Christ was made a curse for us, that is,
for his people, and he says, for cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. Christ has been made a curse
for us. Now, what does that mean? Well,
it means, and I'm going to give you this in the simplest language
I can for me to understand it. It means that Christ Jesus, as
the substitute of his people, he bore the penalty of our sins. He bore the penal judgment for
our sins as the guilt of the sins of his people were charged,
accounted, imputed to him. And under that charge, He himself
was made a curse. He became subject to eternal
damnation, and what he suffered on that cross was the equivalent
of an eternal damnation. Now how you get that, I don't
know, but that's what God saw. And that's what happened. He
cried, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? He's under
the curse. Under the curse means under the
penalty of the broken law. Now Christ didn't break the law.
He kept the law. He had to. That was part of the
requirement. That was part of the condition.
He didn't break the law, but his people did. God's elect broke
it. We broke it in Adam when we fell.
And we're born dead in trespasses and sins, and we come forth from
the womb breaking the law. You say, we broke it. He didn't.
How could he die for us? As a substitute. And he was made
a curse. Christ has borne the curse for
us means that Christ has borne the penalty of the broken law
for his people. Now turn to 2 Corinthians 5. And here's another way of saying
the same thing, just in a different way, but it means the same thing. Listen to verse 18 of 2 Corinthians
5. He's talking about salvation
and reconciliation here between God and his people made by Christ
as our substitute. And he says in verse 18, and
all things are of God. The all things there are the
all things that have become new. That's salvation. That's justification. And he
says, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. In other words, God brought his
people into union with himself, in communion with himself. by
Christ. It wasn't by their works. But it was by conditioning all
of our salvation on Christ as our substitute and giving to
us the ministry of reconciliation. And he says, and that's the gospel,
preaching the gospel of peace, that's reconciliation. And he
says, verse 19, to wit, that means namely, namely he's going
to show you what that is, that God was in Christ. Now what does
that mean? Christ is God. And then it says,
God was in Christ. Well, what does that mean? It
means this. Everything of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit was engaged in the person of Christ, the God-man. His honor, the honor of God,
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything
that we know, everything that we see and worship of God We
know and see and worship as it is revealed in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not just the Jews, not just the Gentiles,
but God's elect all over the world, not imputing, not charging,
not accounting their trespasses unto them. You remember David
said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Well, God's got to do something with that iniquity, doesn't he?
He's got to do something with that penalty. He's just. So he doesn't impute it, doesn't
charge it, doesn't account it to his people. What does he do
with it? Well, he says, "...and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
of Christ, for Christ, as though God did beseech by us, we pray
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." On what ground? Verse
21, "...for he," that is God, "...hath made him," that is Christ,
to be sin for us. Christ who knew no sin, that's
what that refers to, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's real substitution. What
does that mean? That means God charged him with
our sins. And he fell under the penalty
of the broken law as our substitute, suffered, bled, and died. As described in passages like
Isaiah 53. All of that, so that what? That
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Go back to Galatians
3. Someone said about this verse,
this set of verses here, that there's a beautiful story here
in three prepositions. Maybe you can recall back, some
of you older folks can recall back in the English class and
you know what a preposition is. Well, let me give you three of
them here. Number one, look back at verse 10. He says, as many
as are of the works of law are under. That's a preposition.
Under. What are you under? Under the curse. Who's that? All men by nature. And as I said,
all of the works of the law means to seek to get out from under
the curse by our works. Think about that. You know, people
who realize that they're sinners. And they try to do things to
get out from under the curse. It really leaves them under the
curse. Under the curse. That's the first preposition.
That's man by nature. That's our state and standing
by nature. In Adam, according to the covenant
of works. Well, here's the second one.
Look at verse 13 again. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. There's the second
one. For us. Now that, in the original
language, that has the idea of being over something. In other
words, over us. It's like this. In Adam, we're
under the curse, according to the covenant of works. But Christ
has been made a curse for us, over us, so that now he's intervened
between the curse and his people for whom he died. He came in
between. He's our mediator. He's our substitute. And the
penalty of the curse fell on Him. The curse fell on Him. And therefore, if the curse fell
on Him, it cannot fall on us. He's over us as our substitute. Our sins were charged to Him.
And then look back at verse 13. Here's the third preposition.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. From the
curse, out from, we could say. As the substitute of his people,
of his church, of his sheep, Christ, as our substitute, the
curse fell upon him and all whom he represented, all for whom
he died, All for whom he was buried, all for whom he was resurrected,
are out from under the curse. I love that passage. I believe
it's Luke chapter 9, but you can check me on that. It's talking
about the Mount of Transfiguration. And Christ took three of his
disciples up there. I think it's Peter, James, and
John. And he showed them a vision of his glory, his resurrected
glory. I love the way the Holy Spirit
describes it there, his white and glistering. Much the same
as how he's described to John, how John saw him in Revelation.
Revelation chapter 1. And it said there appeared two
other men, Moses and Elijah. Moses representing the law, Elijah
representing the prophets. And it says, "...they spoke,"
Moses, Elijah, and our Savior, "...they spoke of his decease,"
that's his death, "...his decease which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem." That word, decease, there, in Luke chapter 9, is
literally the word exodus. Exodus. Now, you know the exodus.
That's what that means, coming out from. Moses led the children
of Israel out from Egypt. That's the Exodus. Christ on
the cross, and Moses was a type of Christ, Christ on the cross
being made a curse for us, his real substitutionary work, having
our sins imputed to him, he died and in his death he brought us
out from under the curse. He led us out of the bondage
of the law. He let us out from sin because
He paid the penalty. And He paid it in full. Now look
back at Galatians 3. Look at verse 14. Now here's
the result. Here's the fruit of this real
substitution. Now this is how real it is. He says that Christ was made
a curse for us In order that, verse 14, that in order that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Now there's the result. Now first
of all, he says that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Why does he say Gentiles? Well,
the problem in the book of Galatians is that you had a group of false
prophets who had infiltrated this church or these churches,
and they were Jews who claimed to be Christian. And they said
that Christ was their Savior and their Lord, but you had to
be circumcised in order to be really saved, in order to be
justified and be made real righteous or a real Christian. And Paul
came along and he said, that's another gospel. That's a false
gospel. Remember in Galatians 1, 6 through
9, he said, if we or an angel from heaven preach any other
gospel to you than that which we've preached, let him be anathema,
let him be accursed. You see, salvation is not Christ
plus circumcision. Salvation is not Christ plus
anything. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said there
in verse 15 of Galatians 6, he said, where circumcision or uncircumcision
means nothing. It doesn't matter whether you're
Jew or Gentile. So what these Judaizers, that's what they called
them, were saying when they infiltrated the churches, they said, well,
now a Gentile can be saved, but he's got to be circumcised. He's
got to become a Jew first. And so Paul emphasizes there
that the blessing of Abraham, which they thought was only to
the Jews, might come on the Gentiles. Who's it going to come on? Who's
the blessing of Abraham going to come on? Both Jew and Gentile.
Now, what is the blessing of Abraham? Well, you know, we can
talk a lot about Abraham's life a lot, but I want you to go to
Romans 4. There are two blessings of Abraham
that are the direct result and effect of Christ being made a
curse for us. The death of Christ. The substitutionary
death of Christ. Two blessings. And these two
blessings include all the blessings of salvation. Alright, what's
the first one? The first blessing is being justified
before God. Through the death of Christ,
through Christ being made a curse for us, God's people are made
righteous before Him. Accepted in the Beloved. Not
guilty. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's my justification. My whole
justification before God is because Christ was made a curse for me.
He lived, he died, he suffered, he bled, he died, he was buried,
he rose again the third day. Verse 1 of Romans 4, what shall
we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh
hath found? In other words, what did Abraham
gain because he was a Jew or because he was circumcised? He
says in verse 2, for if Abraham were justified by works, if he
were made righteous by his works, He hath whereof to glory. He's
got a lot to brag about. If you're made righteous by your
works, you've got works to brag about. In fact, you should be
bragging if you were justified by your works. But not before
God. You see it there? Oh, my soul. Don't get up bragging before
God. He says, for what saith the Scripture? What does God's
Word say? Abraham believed God. And it
was counted unto him for righteousness. You see the little word it there?
What is it? It was counted to him. What's
the word counted mean? It's the same word as imputed.
It was imputed to him for righteousness. What is the it there? Well, it
says there Abraham believed God. Does that mean Abraham's believing? Was counted to him for it? No.
He believed God. What did God promise Abraham? What did God promise Abraham?
Salvation by grace in the coming Redeemer. The coming Messiah. Remember he said it, our Lord
said it in John chapter 8? He said Abraham rejoiced to do
what? To see my day. And he was glad. He told the Pharisees, he said,
you claim to be Abraham's children. He said, if you were of Abraham,
you'd believe me. It is what God promised Abraham. What did he promise? Salvation
by grace through Christ. And look at verse 4. Now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned, not charged of grace,
but of debt." In other words, if you have to work for it, it's
not grace, it's what God owes you. It's debt. He owes you a
debt. If you go out and work for a
fellow and he says, I'm going to pay you so much for a day's
work, then he owes that to you if you do the day's work. It's
not grace. It's not a gift out of the kindness
of his heart or compassion or because he feels sorry for you.
He pays you what he owes you. But this thing of salvation,
of being justified, of being made righteous, of being forgiven,
it's not a matter of death. He says, verse 5, "...but to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly."
God justifies the ungodly. God justifies sinners who don't
deserve to be justified. Listen sinners who are in themselves
guilty and he says his faith now knows how that's put his
faith now. What was Abraham's faith? Christ and him crucified
You know the first time That you see Abraham Or Abram that
was his name in Genesis 12 the first time you see him calling
upon the name of the Lord Genesis 12, I believe it's verse 8, but
it's somewhere around here You know what he does before he calls
upon the name of the Lord? Builds an altar. And sacrifices. Why? Because he believed in the
God who justifies the ungodly. He believed he was justified
by promise of a coming Redeemer. And he says, his faith is counted
for righteousness. What was his faith? Christ! And
he says, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputeth charges righteousness without works.
Same blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Come at this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision? Is it
just for the Jews or the Gentiles? No. For we say that faith was
reckoned, imputed to Abraham for righteousness. Now, what
was Abraham's faith now? Christ. Looking to Christ. Resting in Christ. Now, verse
10. How was it then reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Now, when it
was reckoned to Abraham, imputed to Abraham, was he circumcised
or uncircumcised? Well, it says not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. This righteousness was imputed
to Abraham before he was circumcised. It was given him in Christ before
the world began. And then it says, And he received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the father of
all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed unto them also. You see, that's the first blessing
of Abraham. Being made righteous before God in Christ. I stand
before God. Listen to me now. I stand before
God with no sin charged to me. Why? Because Christ was made
a curse for me. That's the blessing of Abraham.
Well, here's the second thing. And look back at Galatians. Turn over to Galatians chapter
2. Let me hurry. Now, Galatians, here's the second
blessing of Abraham. Remember, he said there in Galatians
chapter 3, he said that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. I believe that's the Holy Spirit.
Well, look at Galatians chapter 2 and verse 19. He says, for I through the law,
Galatians 2 and 19, here's the second blessing. I through the
law, that is not through ignoring or breaking the law, but through
the law being honored, am dead to the law that I might what? Live under God. Spiritual life
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Verse 20, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I died when Christ died, but I live.
Yet not I, I'm not the source of that life, but Christ liveth
in me. Christ lives in me. I have spiritual
life. His spirit dwells within me.
His word is within me. And the life which I now live,
I'm living in this flesh, in this mortal body. I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You
see that? Look down at Galatians 3 and
verse 8. He says, in the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. They which are of faith. Do you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you're blessed with Abraham.
Do you rest in him, trust him for all salvation? Do you glory
in the cross? Huh? God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord. Do you glory in the cross?
You're blessed with faithful Abraham. You've been born again
by the Spirit. You glory in anything else? You're
not blessed with Abraham. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alright, let's sing as our closing hymn, hymn number 326. More about
Jesus. 326.