Well, we're continuing through the epistle to the Galatians, Paul's epistle to the Galatians, and we're in chapter 3, and I want to look today at the passage from verse 6 down to verse 14. And I've called it the blessing of Abraham. Let's just read those verses together first before we start.

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. and 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. 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. but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, 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 it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a 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.

What is our business here as a church? I'm sure people around wonder, what are they doing renting this hall on a Sunday morning? Why are they doing this? Could you just help? Why are we doing this? Cynthia needs some help. Why are we doing this? What is our business here preaching and doing all this sort of thing? The answer that I would give you is we're talking about life. We're talking about eternal life. We're talking about the kingdom of God. We're talking about peace with God and communion with God. Talking about communion with the one who is our creator and our judge.

But how? How are we going to have peace with God? How are we going to have the life of God in the soul of man? How are we going to have this? Because, naturally, we are enemies with God, because we're sinners, and He is holy. But there's reconciliation declared in the Gospel, in the good news that Scripture reveals. The Scripture says it clearly, and the Spirit of God reveals its truth to the hearts and minds of His people. And that truth is the truth of sovereign electing grace, of a union with God in Christ from before the foundation of the world. That's foundational. Sovereign electing grace. Secondly, effectual redemption, a redemption that works, a redemption that secures the salvation of the people for whom Christ came to die and secure their salvation from sin. And the quickening, the making alive by the Spirit of God and the preserving through this life on into eternity is all confirmed. It's all the work of God. It's all the work of the triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's the gospel of God, and it's unchanging. It's unchanging.

What do I mean when I say it's unchanging? I mean Adam believed it. Adam, the first man after the fall. God saved Adam. God redeemed Adam. God showed Adam redemption in the seed of the woman. Adam believed it. His son Abel and Seth believed it. Abel believed it because he brought a lamb which symbolized that seed that would come and die in the place of his people. Enoch walked with God, believing that same gospel. Nothing new. The gospel is not just a New Testament thing. Enoch believed this gospel. He may not have seen it in the clarity that we see it now, but he believed this gospel and he walked with God and God took him. Noah believed it, for he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And God brought him to build that ark, which is such a picture of salvation from the wrath to come in Christ.

And Abraham, Abraham, 4,000 plus years ago, Abraham, an idolater, living in Ur of the Chaldees, with idolatrous religious people all around him, an idolatrous family, people who didn't know the true God. by the grace of God was called out of that idolatrous world into the isolation of faith, into the isolation of faith. You know, he went from a bustling buzzing community in Ur of the Chaldees and God took him into a place where for all practical purposes he was on his own. Even his nephew Lot left him and went off to live down in the plains near Sodom.

Abraham was called out of that into the isolation of faith. Moses was enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season in the palace of Pharaoh where he was brought up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, yet He shunned that for the sake of the reproach of Christ and left them and went off. David, the shepherd boy, he was shown this truth. The prophets, read Hebrews 11, the faith gallery. All of them were taught of God. They were given faith to believe. They were assured of a good hope. They had a hope of life, of eternal life. All of them, right the way down, all of them,

Like us today, New Testament Christians, if we believe on Him, like all of them, we, as we mentioned once or twice this morning already, Philippians 3 verse 3, we worship God in the Spirit, we truly worship. You know, you don't worship God when you come to a building. Well, we hope you do when you come here, but you start in your heart. It's in your heart, in the privacy of your heart that you worship God. You revere the God who is over all, the God who has given you life, the God who has shown you salvation. That's where you worship God, in the Spirit. And you rejoice in Christ Jesus because everything you need for acceptance with God you find in Him. And you look at the things that the world and religion all around puts confidence in, and you have no confidence in that.

But you see, religion denies that truth of the scripture, the biblical gospel. Religion creates idols of its work's righteousness, the things that you must do to be acceptable to God, to be more sanctified with God, to get better and better with God. All who profit that need to learn from this epistle. As I've already shown you, we're jumping ahead to chapter 5, verse 2. If any of you are circumcised, says Paul, and he means if any of you add anything to the finished work of Christ to make you better in your standing with God,

If any of you do that, Christ shall profit you nothing. What does that mean in practice? What does that mean in practice? It means this, all who follow any element of that work's righteousness, as Paul said, anyone who comes preaching a gospel which has elements of that in it, he said it in chapter 1, let him be accursed. Those Judaizers coming down from Jerusalem saying yes, it's all right to believe Christ, but you need to be circumcised You need to follow Moses He said let them be not just not let not sort of let's let's try and persuade them because they are dear brethren No, let them be accursed is what he says and all who follow that line all who follow that line are We'll get to that day, that last day. And Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter seven, about verse 25, he said, many, many will say to me in that day. Many will come and say to me. Many religious folk will come and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do wonderful things in you? We preached the gospel, didn't we? We did lots of works of righteousness and kindness to other people. Didn't we do all of these things? And he said, I will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. Gosh, are they not the most solemn words that you find in scripture? Religion, thinking it's doing so well and on God's side, and he will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you.

Have you been seduced by the false message of religion? Even of profoundly orthodox religion, but it's a false message. What is that message? That the works you do or don't do affect your standing with God. Well, let's hear what God's Word says. Because, always, what saith the scripture? What does the scripture say? To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them.

I want to look at this morning, Abraham's faith, Abraham's children, and the blessing of Abraham. First of all, Abraham's faith. People had come to Antioch, which is where Paul had been, and people had come to Antioch, and then they went on to these Galatian churches, trying to persuade them, and they claimed that they had come down from Christian headquarters in Jerusalem. They were the real deal, because they were Jews who had become Christians, but they knew how to keep the law of Moses, and just like Paul said of himself, As far as the Pharisees were concerned, he was the best of the lot. He was blameless as far as that was concerned. And they valued that greatly. And they came trying to persuade the Galatian Christians that Christ alone was inadequate. We must add the Mosaic Law. You must be circumcised. You must do these rites and these ceremonies.

And Paul responded that this was a denial of the gospel revealed by God. And not only that, he says, it was revealed to me. I didn't get it from man, I wasn't taught it, God taught me it. He taught me it by revelation. And not only that, but it was endorsed by the true apostles in Jerusalem. In the HQ where they claimed to come from, with their authority, they weren't, they were false, because Paul said it was endorsed, the gospel he preached was endorsed in Jerusalem by the true apostles.

So, we saw in the start of chapter 3 that Paul asked them, how did you begin in the faith? Was it by works that you did, or was it by the Spirit giving you life and the sight of the gospel of God? How do you continue in the faith? Is it by the works of the law, or is it continuing as you started? As you have so received Christ Jesus, so walk in him. Keep on going. And what about the persecution? You've been persecuted for the true gospel. If you believe these Judaizers' gospel of falsehood, you won't be persecuted, because loads of people accept that. How are you gonna keep going right to the very end? All by the Spirit of God. The answer to that is all by the Spirit of God.

And then he says, all by the Spirit of God, verse six, even as Abraham believed God. Even as Abraham did, exactly as Abraham did. The Judaizers revered Abraham. They revered him. They said in John chapter 8 verse 39, they said to Jesus, Abraham is our father, quite plainly. We're so proud of this. We're the descendants of Abraham. At the time that they were speaking, just over 2,000 years ago, well about 2,000 years ago, To them, Abraham was 2,000 years and a bit before. They said, Abraham is our father. We're descended from Abraham. Abraham was the one to whom, out of all humanity, God gave the light of the knowledge of himself.

Abraham is our father. The Jews and the Arabs physically all claim that Abraham is their father. Isn't that interesting? The Jews and the Muslims all claim together that Abraham is their father. They do. And God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham as a sign of the covenant, not as the means of being right with God. It was a sign. It was a picture. It was a sign of the covenant of putting away the sins of the flesh. And this is what these Jews from Jerusalem, these Jewish claiming to be Christians from Jerusalem, wanted to enforce on Gentile Christians.

But what circumcision symbolized, and what all of the Mosaic law, which, now hold on a minute, I said Abraham was 2,000 plus years before Christ, before this time, the law of Moses wasn't given until 400 plus years after Abraham, 1600 years before Christ. What circumcision symbolized when it was given to Abraham as a sign of his covenant The Mosaic law, which they wanted to bring people back to, wasn't given until 400 and odd years later. And all of that, circumcision and the law of Moses, the picture, was all fulfilled in Christ. Because that is the picture, the shadow, but he is the substance, the reality of it all.

And God had taught Abraham that what qualified him for life was exactly the same as what qualified the Galatian Christians. Look in verse eight, verse eight. And 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. Do you see what it's saying there? It's saying that God preached the gospel to Abraham. God preached the gospel. God showed Abraham at that time, 4,000 years ago, the gospel that we believe. He showed that to him at that time, exactly the same gospel that Paul had preached to the Galatians, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the seed of the woman, the seed of Eve, promised in Genesis 3.15 in the Garden of Eden after the fall, the gospel of Christ, just as Abel the son of Adam and Eve, just as Abel looked by faith to the Lamb of God to justify him with God. He looked to the reality, but he came by means of a symbol, which was a real lamb that was killed, just as God had killed a lamb and clothed Adam and Eve, symbolizing the gospel. Abel looked to the faith of the Lamb of God to justify him. He looked by faith to the faith of what would accomplish the Lamb of God.

And so Abraham, it says in chapter 8 of John and verse 56, let me turn over there, John 8, 56, when Jesus was talking to the Jews about Abraham and they were glorying in the fact that they were the descendants of Abraham, Jesus was able to say to them, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he did see it and was glad. Abraham looked forward to the day when Christ, the Lamb of God, the seed of the woman, would come to redeem his people from the curse of the law. Abraham believed God. He rejoiced to see my day. Why did he rejoice to see my day? Because in that day of Christ was his salvation accomplished. And in that day of Christ was the salvation accomplished of everyone that believes him. And the hope and the comfort of everyone that believes him is what Christ accomplished, what he did. It's the faith of Jesus Christ. He saw it. Abraham saw it from 2,000 plus years before. Abraham saw Christ walking the earth. I don't mean physically, really, but by faith he saw it. And he was glad. He was glad.

Why was he glad? Because he saw salvation accomplished in what Christ would come and would complete. Abraham looked to the promised seed of the woman, a man, the seed of the woman, for our God was made man when the fullness of the time was come. Abraham looked to the promised seed of the woman to make his way open to the tree of life. You remember at the end of Genesis 3 about guarding the way to the tree of life? There's only one way to the tree of life. And you know at the end of Revelation in chapter 22, When all the people of God are gathered there in glory, and what's there in the midst of us all, the people of God there, accomplished, completed, attained, is the tree of life in the midst of the garden. There it is. He looked for that. He looked for the seed of the woman to make his way to the tree of life open. And he was ready. He was ready. to sacrifice his own son, because he saw the one who we read spared not his only son, but delivered him up for all of his people.

He was ready to sacrifice his only Isaac. You know, it wasn't his only numerical son, because he had Ishmael, and then later he had other sons, but it was his only Isaac, for in Isaac the seed would come. Knowing that God would provide himself a lamb, going up the mountain with his son, prepared to sacrifice him, prepared to sacrifice him. And Isaac says to his father, I see the wood for the sacrifice, because he was aware of the fact that they sacrificed animals, looking forward to the lamb of God. And he says, but I don't see a lamb. And what does Abraham say to his son Isaac? He says, God will provide himself a lamb, my son. God preached the gospel to Abraham. God showed him, showed him the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And he promised that from Abraham's descendants would come God in flesh as that lamb in time.

As it says, you only have to turn over a page. Galatians 4 verse 4, when the fullness of the time was come, in the middle of world history, creation history, God sent forth his son made of a woman. He was a real man, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that are under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. We'll come to that in coming weeks.

And look what he promised to Abraham in verse 16. here in verse 16, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. God promised Abraham eternal life. God promised Abraham a place in eternity in the kingdom of God. And it was to his seed that that promise was made. And he saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.

The promise was in Christ who would come from the loins of Abraham, the descendant of Abraham, the Christ of God would come, made of a woman, when the fullness of the time was come, into history, to redeem his people. That's Christ who came. And the multitude of nations, the multitude from all nations, are blessed with eternal life in him. From all nations.

Divine justice was satisfied by God in Christ, totally separate from Abraham's and from all his people's works and experience. We experience it, but quite separate from the things we do, God in Christ satisfied divine justice in the seed of the woman that would come by descent from Abraham, the very one and this is the point, the very one held up by the false teachers from Jerusalem, the Judaizers, as the pattern of legal obedience, that very one himself rested in the redemption accomplished by Christ alone.

So let's come to the second point. Abraham's children. Abraham's children. As I said, physically, Abraham had Ishmael, the son of Hagar, as a son. He had Isaac, the promised son of Sarah, as his son. And there were others later, after Sarah had died, years later, there were others.

But in accordance with scripture, look what it says in verse seven. Knowing ye therefore that they which are of faith The same are the children of Abraham. Are you of faith? Am I of faith? Am I of the faith of God's elect? Well, if that's the case, we are the children of Abraham. we're the children of Abraham. He is the father, Romans 4, we read it earlier, Romans 4 verse 11, Abraham is the father, spiritually, of all them that believe, even though they're not circumcised according to the sign of the covenant that was given to him. And righteousness was imputed to them. That's what it said in chapter 4 and verse 11 of Romans. Righteousness was imputed to them. They were made the righteousness of God in him by what he did. It was true spiritual circumcision. There was the outward sign, but in Jeremiah 4 verse 4, God tells his people to circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your heart. It's heart circumcision. It's taking away that sinful nature, that sinful desire through the gospel. It's not of the flesh. It isn't of the flesh.

Look back at Romans chapter 2, at the end of Romans chapter 2. Let me just read verses 28 and 29 to you. Romans 2 verse 28, we're thinking about who are the children of Abraham. It says here, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart and not of the letter whose praise is not of men but of God and it goes on to say in Romans 9 again Romans 9 and Verse six, not as though the word of God had taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, the Israel of God, which are of Israel. And in that same vein, it's they that are of faith are the true children of God.

I believe there will be many physical Jews among God's redeemed people. I don't go along with those that say everyone by virtue of being a Jew will, but I believe that there will be many physical Jews. And how does somebody know that they're a Jew? Apparently, it's just because of the lineage, the ancestry of the mother. That's where the line runs, surprisingly. Apparently, that's the way it is. It's the maternal lineage that determines that. I believe that there will be many who will be among God's redeemed.

But why will they be redeemed? Not because they're Jews, not by physical descent, not by ancestry. How? By faith in Christ, by faith, by the faith of Christ, what Christ did for them, that he put them in Christ before the foundation of the world as he did the multitude that he chose from many nations, from all nations.

They which are of faith, it says in Galatians 6 and verse 14, let me read there. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond them and mercy and upon the Israel of God.

What's the Israel of God? It's the church of God. It's the elect of God. It's the people of God called out of all nations. When John looked in Revelation, he saw much people in heaven. When he looked in Revelation 7, he saw the tribes counted 12,000, 12,000, 144,000, symbolical of the people on earth is what I believe that means.

But then the very next verse, and I beheld in heaven a great multitude that no man can number from every tribe and tongue and kindred. Physical descent guarantees no blessing spiritually. It says in John chapter one, those who are born, not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, nor because of some decision you've made, but of God, it's God that determines. He said to the Jews in Matthew chapter three, verse nine, don't say Abraham is our father, for God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones lying around us.

What counts is what you believe. And Abraham believed God had paid his sin debt by the lamb that he would send, himself as the lamb of God that he would send as Abraham's descendant. And all who believe that are Abraham's children by virtue of the same faith. The righteousness of God is made over to all for whom Christ stood substitute. And if you're among them, And if you believe that, you are among them too. And that's how you live.

How do you live? How do you live? Do you live by trying to obey Moses' law? No, we read it. We live by faith. Habakkuk 2 verse 4, the just shall live by faith. There it is in verse 11 of chapter 3 of Galatians. The just shall live by faith. That phrase is quoted three times by Paul in the New Testament. Romans 1, 17, Galatians 3, 11 here, and then again in Hebrews 10, 38.

But religion says you need to go on living with mosaic law as your rule of life. Because if you don't, your behavior won't be restrained. You need that law to prompt you to do the right thing. You need that law to threaten you with punishment if you do the wrong thing. You need that law to promise a reward for you being so good if you keep it. And they make such a thing of it.

For example, I think one of the most prominent things is this very day, Sunday, keeping Sunday as a Sabbath day. And I've told you again and again, especially in recent months, Christ is our Sabbath. Sabbath means rest. There remains a rest for the people of God in Hebrews chapter 4. What is the rest that remains for the people of God? It isn't obeying a law about how far you can walk today, or whether you can go to a shop to buy goods, or whether you can put the television or radio on, or any of those things. It's resting in the finished work of Christ.

Because, you see, if we're talking about law keeping, look what it says in verse 10 of chapter three. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. You who try to be right with God by the works of the law, you're under a curse. You're bound in bondage. You're not free, for it is written. What does it say? It says this in Deuteronomy 27, verse 26. It says cursed. It lists the laws. People in these churches today who will tell you that, yes, this only applies to ceremonial and civil law and doesn't apply to the moral law, they forget that Deuteronomy, chapter 27, verse 20, and all the way down it, is a reiteration of moral law. It's a reiteration of the Ten Commandments. And it says, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. You've got to do it, but No man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Why? We read elsewhere, the law is weak. Why is the law weak? The law is good, but why is the law weak? It's weak through the flesh which cannot keep it. No man is justified by that. It's evident, for how do we live? We live by faith. The just shall live by his faith, is what it says. The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live by them. totally constraining. It brings under bondage. And if you don't keep it perfectly, all the time you are cursed.

I remember John Warburton in his book, The Mercies of a Covenant God, talking about his coming to a knowledge of the truth. And that verse there, verse 10 of chapter 3, was the one that constantly troubled him. Cursed is everyone that continueth, continueth always without ever failing, continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Lord to do them. And he knew he was cursed because he was under that. You see, putting confidence in flesh and law works is that thing which brings the curse.

Those justified by faith Those justified by faith live by that faith. The just shall live by his faith. How do we live by our faith? Galatians 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live by my faith. The just live by faith. For my Sins were nailed to the cross with Christ. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The just shall live by his faith.

But those who seek righteousness by law, those who seek peace with God and friendship with God, by the things that they do and don't do, must obey perfectly and must obey without ever ceasing or flinching or stopping. Because as James says, you might keep the whole law but you offend in one point and you're guilty of all. Cursed. It's impossible. What shall we do? How shall we be just with God? How shall we be reconciled to God?

So then, the blessing of Abraham. Verse 13. What shall we do? And the answer is given straight away. Christ. hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. You're under the curse of the law and you can never keep it, but Christ has redeemed his people from the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed the multitude that were united with him by God before time began in his death on the cross, where we were crucified with him, as it says in verse 20 of chapter 2. He was made the curse for us. Substitution is what this is about. He was the substitute, the one who stood in our place, so that when the law of God looked on him bearing our sin, bearing its guilt, he never committed it, but he bore it in his own body on the cursed tree. He bore it, and he bore the guilt of it. And he was found guilty for it, under the law of God. And that's the only reason why God nailed him to that cross, in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

You, said Peter, on the day of Pentecost to the Jews, you by wicked hands have done this. But it was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, because there, God punished, God satisfied divine justice for the sins of his people by his Son, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ being made a curse for us. He punished him there because he was guilty of the sin there. Why was he guilty of it? Not by committing it, but by having it placed upon him. He was, it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he who knew no sin, never committed any sin. He who knew no sin was, what does it say? It says he was made sin for us.

Now, I tell you what, Lots of religious folk scream and object when they hear that, but I hear what the Word of God says. The Word of God tells me without any shadow of a doubt. At that time, Christ was crucified and bore the punishment for the sins of his people because he bore them. Absolutely. God made him to be sin for us that knew no sin, that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It's written, cursed is everyone. That's that same passage in Deuteronomy 27. Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. If someone had committed a terrible crime, it was a curse of the society around and he was to be hanged on a tree. Jesus was hanged on a tree, not by a rope round his neck, but by cruel nails of a Roman cross.

And why was it done? That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. What is the blessing of Abraham? It's eternal life. It's the life of God. It's eternal life. It's his place in heaven, the blessing of Abraham. What was the reward? for Abraham. God said to him, Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward. The blessing of Abraham is to be in close fellowship with God. That's the blessing of Abraham.

And look, that blessing might come on the Gentiles. How? Through Jesus Christ. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. We receive the promise by the faith that the Spirit of God gives to us.

You see, we're in bondage to the law's curse. We're in bondage Not able to go free in relationship with God. A ransom price is demanded. You know, when somebody's taken a captive and they say, for such and such a ransom price, you can have them back. A ransom price is required. But the ransom price for any of us to pay is far too great. As Psalm 49, verses seven and eight say, it says this, none, no one, can by any means ransom his brother let alone himself, nor give to God a ransom for him.

Why? Why is none of us able to give a ransom for ourselves or our brother? Why is none of us able to give to God a ransom that will pay the release from this bondage? The redemption of their soul is precious. It means it's too costly. It's immensely costly. It needs somebody who has the resources to pay that price, and that is God himself in the person of his Son.

So here is the good news. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Again, John Warburton said how that verse 10 troubled him, troubled him, troubled him, but then he found the release and the joy that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Divine justice demands death for sin. By nature, we're all, all of us. By nature, in the flesh, we're all on death row, awaiting the just penalty, cursed with the condemnation from God. But Christ, God in flesh, God in my nature, God as my substitute, God as my perfect Passover lamb, He bore the sins of all the people God gave to him. He bore not just the sin, but its guilt under divine law, and the just punishment of it. It was all vented upon him.

Christ was made to be Abraham's sin, that Abraham might be justly made the righteousness of God in Christ. And so it is for all of God's elect multitude. Do you see it? Do you believe it? Do you rest in it? Do you Sabbath in it? If you do, it is by the gift of faith given to all for whom Christ died as substitute. If he died for you, he'll give you faith to see it. Ask him. Ask him. God be merciful to me, the sinner.

Whether Jew or Gentile, the promise of God is received by the Spirit's gift of faith. By the Spirit's gift of faith.

Whatever stage of life you're at, we refer to him often. the dying thief on the cross. What did he do? He just looked and saw with spiritual sight that this is the Messiah, this is the Christ of God, paying for the redemption of the sins of his people. to make them the righteousness of God in him, to qualify them for heaven.

Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. Remember me, this guilty felon next to you, dying justly under the laws of the land. Remember me this day, this day. You shall be with me in paradise.

And so, what Abraham believed in was that that qualified him for God's kingdom. What was it Abraham believed in? The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world of His people, chosen in Christ before the foundation of that world. It qualified Him for God's kingdom.

And it's the same for all who believe that thing. Believing what Christ has accomplished in my place, I am blessed by God to the same extent as Abraham. The blessing of Abraham on all his seed. The blessing of Abraham. That's what it is.

To Abraham and his seed were all the promises made. This is the blessing of Abraham on all of his seed. Verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. When God told Abraham he was just with God, he was right with God, he was acceptable with God, the same applies to all who believe the same as Abraham did.

It's that belief in Christ that belief in what Christ has done that confirms that I am amongst those for whom he did it and accomplished my place in eternity. What could be more? What do we need more?

We are all, unnaturally, enemies of God. All of us. But in Christ, we are what the scripture says about Abraham. Listen to what James 2 verse 23 says. The scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. And you know I said at the start that by nature we're all the enemies of God. It says Abraham was called the friend of God, the friend of God.

And so are all whose trust is in what the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, has done for his people. I think that's the clear message of that portion of scripture.