Okay, well we come back to Galatians and this week we're looking at the first six verses of chapter three. Let me just read those to you now. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith, even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

So then, remember that Paul had preached the gospel, the true gospel that God had revealed to him, and he'd preached it to these churches in Galatia. Galatia is in central modern Turkey, and it was a number of churches. So this letter was written, we think, from Rome when Paul was in prison there. It was written from Rome. to the churches, it says in verse 2 of chapter 1, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia.

So there were several churches. A church is a company of believing people, people who believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they gather together, and they commune together, and they are a family together, and they share the gospel of grace and the truth of God together. And they had churches, and they were local churches, and Paul's writing to them because he'd heard that they had veered away from the gospel he had preached to a false, eternally damning system, can I call it that, that claimed to be a gospel, but it was actually the opposite of the gospel.

His gospel was revealed from heaven. He got it by revelation of God. Man didn't teach him it. You read those first two chapters again. and it's so important. But even Peter, the apostle, and Barnabas, the companion of Paul, had been led away. What it says in verse 14 of chapter two, when I saw, says Paul, that they, Paul and Barnabas, walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. They had veered away too. And why had they veered away? They veered away because these false teachers, verse four of chapter two, false brethren, unawares, brought in, who came in, privileged to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.

These were people claiming to be Christians. They were Jewish Christians. And they'd come to Antioch, which is where Paul was, they'd come to Antioch and they'd been bringing with them A feeling of the authority of the headquarters in Jerusalem. Oh, we've come down from Jerusalem. We're the real deal. We've come from where the real apostles are. Not this guy, Paul. He's not a real apostle. He wasn't there. He wasn't one of the disciples of Jesus when he walked this earth. But we've come from the real deal. And they came bringing a requirement, and we saw what it was, because we saw it in the Council of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15, that faith in Christ was not enough. You had to then be circumcised, or some other aspect of Mosaic law. You had to do things, otherwise you could not be accepted by God. You would not be accepted by God. They veered away that verse 14 of chapter 2, from the truth of the gospel. So Paul writes from Rome to redefine the truth, the truth of eternal life for them and for us, and it's in verse 16 of chapter 2. Knowing that a man... How are we going to be justified with God? How are we going to be made right with God? That was Job's question. How should a man be just with God?

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. It's by what Jesus Christ, who is God, it's what he did as a man, as the substitute for his people. We're justified, we're made right with God, by what Jesus Christ did, by the faith of Jesus Christ. And we believe in that. We believe, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified not by our believing, but by what we believe in, which is that Christ accomplished everything to make his people right with God.

Not by the works of the law, things that we do, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And religious folks say, oh no, no, we accept that, yes. But by the works of the law, you're certainly sanctified and you progress in sanctification. No, not at all. It doesn't say that. The scripture does not say that. It doesn't say it anywhere.

In verse 20, it talks about the union. This is the gospel, the union of the believer with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. The law demands my death. for my sin. The soul that sins, it shall die. In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. I am crucified. I am dead with Christ is what the gospel says. The people of God united with Christ when he died in the justice of God, the reckoning of God, the absolute decree of God. We died there and therefore our sin was was crucified in him, it was nailed to his cross.

Yet I live, but not I, 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. And Paul was earnestly contending for this. The little book of Jude, the little few verses of Jude just before Revelation, in there he talks about the need for believers, all believers, to earnestly contend for the faith. What faith? The faith once delivered to the saints. The message of God's truth isn't something that evolves over time. It isn't something that changes. It's the truth, it's the faith of the saints of God, once delivered to the saints. God has spoken it, God has revealed it.

and the false teachers had come and were enticing the Galatians, the Galatian churches. And I would say... that in this country, and I know widely around the world, but certainly here, most of what appears to be orthodox Christianity has gone down exactly the same road. They've gone down into the exactly the same error of adding the things that you must do to be accepted with God. You've been given a start, but now it's all down to you to do it, and we'll measure you by how well you do it. And we'll have church discipline to make sure that you do it. And that is what calls itself Christianity today, but it's not the gospel. The gospel is that Christ is all and Christ is in all. Colossians 3 verse 11, Christ is all and Christ is in all.

Okay, so they had begun to think that Paul's gospel was inadequate for acceptance with God. They'd begun to believe what these false teachers had come in, telling them that they needed more than that. But Paul's going to show that his gospel is consistent with the faith of Abraham. These that had come down from Jerusalem were Jews. Oh, they revered Abraham. Abraham was the father of the Jewish faith. Abraham was the one that they revered. He is the one above all. Paul's going to show that his gospel is entirely consistent with the faith of Abraham.

So in chapter 3 and verses 1 to 6, he asks the churches, the believers in Galatia, who he still takes as being true believers even though they've strayed, they've veered off course, you know like in Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, Pilgrim Christian is occasionally distracted and he goes off into Bypath Meadow and he gets distracted away from the straight and narrow path to the Kingdom of God. Well, these had gone off that way, but he asks them in these six verses, well, five verses, he asks them five hypothetical questions.

He puts to them questions which will make them think for themselves. He asks them in verse one, who has bewitched you? He asks them in verse two, how did you begin as believers? He asks them in verse three, how are you going to continue as believers? He asks them in verse four, you had a testimony, was it all for nothing? And he asks them in verse five, how are you going to go on? How are you going to continue with the gifts coming from God to you?

Okay then, well let's look at these. Verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? Who has bewitched you? Who got you to stop following the truth of God? And the truth of God is Christ crucified that Paul had preached to them, for as he said, to the Corinthians, writing to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 2. He said that when he was with them, as he was everywhere, he who tried to destroy the faith of Jesus Christ, he who tried to destroy the sect that followed Jesus Christ, now he was determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

What's your gospel, Paul? Jesus Christ and him crucified. Is that not a bit narrow? No, that is the whole counsel of God, because he said to the elders on the beach at Miletus, the elders of Ephesus, he said, I have not stopped declaring to you the whole counsel of God. What's the whole counsel of God? Jesus Christ and him crucified. He says you've moved away from it. Bewitched. Who has bewitched you? Bewitched. That word bewitched means the evil eye. Who's given you the evil eye? And what it really means is this. If you've ever watched video of a snake mesmerizing its prey and it looks at it and it gives it the evil eye and it's completely mesmerized and it can't move and the snake gets it and devours it. Well, in the same way, Satan that what the scripture calls that old serpent, the devil, bewitched Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Bewitched Eve, gave that evil eye to turn her eye away from God alone and to look to her own ability. If you do this, you're going to be like gods. Come on, follow me, do this. He got Eve, he bewitched Eve, he gave the evil eye that she might look away from God to her own ability to maintain eternal bliss, or later, to attain eternal bliss, because it's the same thing. True faith from God is his gift, and that looks to Christ alone. It doesn't look to anything else. True faith from God looks only to Jesus Christ, who is God. And that faith from God, you know, you are saved, says Paul to the Ephesians. He says, you're saved by grace, which is God's gift, which is God's blessing upon his people. You are saved by the blessing of God. You are saved by grace. Through faith, this is how you apprehend it, this is how you know it, you believe. And that is not of yourselves, it's not something you did, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

To look to Christ alone for peace with God, for acceptance with God. You look to eternal union with Him because that's what He says He has done for His people, united His people with Christ from before the foundation of the world. You look to Him alone, to that union with Him, to His death as your substitute under the law and justice of God. You look to His blood in which is the life of God. God shed His blood for His people. That's another thing Paul said to the elders of Mylon. paid for his church with his own blood. God in the person of his son the Lord Jesus Christ paid in blood for the life is in the blood. He paid with his life to pay the sin debt for his people for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He is the manifestation of divine light and of divine truth, to be obeyed. You have not obeyed the truth. He is the one to be obeyed. It's not legal obedience, it's believing him. It's following him. He alone is the way to peace with God. For Thomas said to him in John 14, Thomas said to him, Lord, show us the way. We don't know the way. And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. If you would be right with God for eternity, come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

For eternal fellowship with God, we need wisdom from God, divine wisdom. For eternal fellowship with God, we need righteousness, for God will not tolerate anything which is unrighteous in his sight. For eternal fellowship with God, we need sanctification, we need a holy nature, which we haven't got by ourselves, for we're all sin, we've all fallen, and we need the payment of the ransom price for the sin we've committed. We need redemption. And 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 tells us that in our Lord Jesus Christ, God has made unto his people wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

And in his light, in the light of God, how do you understand these things? That's why we read Psalm 36, for in verse nine, it says, speaking to God, for with thee is the fountain of life. You know, this world seems to think it's rushing around and enjoying life. And you poor religious folks don't know what life really is. Do you know with God is the fountain of life. And in thy light, in God's light, shall we see true light. It's in the light of God we see true light. So that when God said in the beginning in Genesis, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light that it was good. In the same way, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, he says that as God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness in the beginning, he has shined in the hearts of his people, those who believe him, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

To obey the truth, which is what it says there in verse 1 of chapter 3, To obey the truth is to live with your eye set on Christ alone for acceptance with God. And to add anything else, to add anything else, the works that we might do for favor with God is to destroy the gospel. As I will keep reminding you, you say you're repeating yourself, I don't care. I'll repeat it until it sinks in. Verse 2 of chapter 5 of Galatians. for acceptance with God to that which Christ has done. If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. He doesn't say it will be slightly diminished, he says Christ shall profit you nothing. And he means that, absolutely nothing.

These teachers coming from Jerusalem, claiming to be the real deal, were actually false brethren, verse four of chapter two. They were Satan's agents to bewitch away from Christ. And how must we deal with those who are Satan's agents? You know, there are lots of them about. There are lots of them about. And people are so ready to greatly revere religious folk. But, you know, examine what they say.

The second epistle of John says this in verse nine. He says, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, you know, veers away from the doctrine of Christ, does not have God. And he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. You've got to abide in the doctrine of Christ. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, don't receive him into your house. Don't be nice to him, neither bid him God's speed, for he that biddeth him God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Why are they evil? Because he's teaching people to look away from Christ to something else.

So then, who has bewitched you? Who has bewitched you? These false teachers are coming as the agents of Satan. They're the ones who have bewitched you. Beware of it. Wolves in sheep's clothing. They look like sheep. They're dressed in woolly, nice, soft, fluffy coats, but they're inside, they're ravening wolves, it says.

Verse two. How did you begin as believers? Are you a believer? How did you begin? This only would I learn of you. Did you begin, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, the things you did? or by what you heard and believing in? By faith. Did you receive the fellowship of God's Spirit in your soul when you first believed by the law works that you did, obeying the law of Moses, or by faith, looking unto Jesus? If you are among God's people, if you are destined for the kingdom of God, you have his Spirit within. If you're a true believer, you have his Spirit.

Romans chapter 8 verse 9 is quite clear. You are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be. that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Of course, all believers. You know, there's this lunacy going around, and it has been for a long time, that you become a believer and then at some later stage you mature, you get promoted to a higher level of spiritual awareness when you get the Spirit of God. No! All true believers have the Spirit of God, because if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you don't belong to Him.

Verse 16, and that same spirit itself bears witness with our spirit. What does he tell us? What does God's spirit within that nobody can put there other than God, that nobody can teach you other than God, what does he do? He tells us that we are the children of God. That's what the spirit of God does for his people. If you are one of his children, how did it start? How did it begin? Did you go on a pilgrimage to some holy place? Did you go off to the Vatican in Rome? Did you go to a retreat somewhere where you could meditate in quiet? Did you go somewhere special? Did you do something trying to please God? Oh, you turned over a new leaf and you started to help others and you got involved with this charity or that one. And you, oh, you stopped certain sins that had been a particular problem to you. Oh, and you started to dress differently to show people that you were different. And you didn't eat or drink the things that you used to. Was that what you did? Was that how you started out, trying to please God?

And they think back. These Galatians, they think back in answer to that question, as we do. And what's the answer if you're a true believer? Of course not. Of course not.

How did you begin? We heard the gospel preached. Romans 10, we heard the gospel preached. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And how shall they call on him whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Et cetera. We heard the gospel of Christ preached and we called, Lord, save me. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, whilst on others you are calling, do not pass me by.

We saw in that preaching, in that message, in that gospel, we saw the reality of God, that He is. We saw the holiness and majesty and glory of God, who is above all. Everything that we see around us is because of Him and His creating power and of His life and of His being. And we saw His justice in measure. We saw some of it. And we saw our sin.

heard of God in Christ paying for our sin. As we read in verse 16 and 20 of chapter 2 of Galatians, we heard and we saw by God-given faith, what I said earlier, that God made Christ who knew no sin to be sin in the place of his people. and pay for it there, that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him. And we did, we did.

How did we begin? We did the one work, the one and only work that God requires. of his people to be right with him. For you remember, the Jews asked Jesus, what must we do to do the work of God? John 6, 29, and Jesus replied, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he sent. We believed on him. And we admit this, that when he said, this is the work of God that you must do, This is the work of God. It's God's work. It is God who actually does that work in his people, giving that faith to believe and to trust.

And we looked, believing and trusting and resting in all that he has done, in the infinite God who bore my sin in my place and paid its debt in his death and rose to life triumphant, for he was lifted up for my transgressions on that cursed tree, that cross of Calvary. to pay the price of my sins. But he didn't stay dead. He was raised for my justification. He was raised to prove it. And when he rose from the dead, I rose in him, and I believe it. It was the faith of Jesus Christ. Verse 16 of chapter 2. It was the faith of Jesus Christ that we believed in, and not our law works, which can never make us right.

How did you begin? By faith, not by law works.

So then, verse 3. Are you so foolish, you Galatians, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? You've agreed with that, you began in the Spirit, you believe the gospel. So, going on, are you believing these false Jews from Jerusalem who are telling you that you have to do other things, that you have to go on in the flesh, that you have to be made perfect, that you have to be sanctified in the flesh?

Clearly, it was God's Spirit who awoke you from your natural state. What's the natural state of all of us? 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them. Why can he not know them, the natural man? Because they're spiritually discerned. And where are you going to get spiritual discernment? You can't learn it in a college. You can't read it in a book. The Spirit of God must come and give you that spiritual discernment, to discern the truth of the gospel in Christ, to discern the reality of eternal life.

It's he who caused you to hear the gospel preached, to understand the facts of redemption, that his paying the debt of my sin clears that debt from me, so that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Who shall bring any charge to God's elect? Christ has died in their place. He gave you faith to repent of sin and to believe. This is God's testimony of salvation in Christ. And we began all because of God's Spirit, all because of sovereign grace. We were made willing.

It says in the Psalms, Psalm 110 verse 3, God makes his people willing to believe him in the day of his power. Those who were unwilling because of ignorance and blindness, God makes them willing to believe in the day of his power. So do we now continue to maturity of faith by doing law works? The false teachers, the Jews from Jerusalem HQ, They didn't just... They didn't deny justification by Christ's death. No, no, they said that, but they insisted that believers must live under law. And they're all around us today, in orthodox churches, where they say that the law of Moses is the believer's rule of life.

Oh, yes, we're justified by faith, but you live your life as if you're under law. So, you know, why should I not kill? Because there's a commandment that tells me I should not kill. All right, okay. Because I'll either be punished for committing the evil or rewarded for not committing the evil. You mustn't steal. Why mustn't I steal that which is not mine? Because there's a commandment that tells you you shall not steal. And I fear the punishment if I do steal, because God will punish me for stealing. And he'll reward me for not stealing. You see, that's how they work it. That's how they work it.

Most Orthodox Christianity today says that. But God's word says otherwise. I'll remind you from Colossians 2 that we were looking at earlier this year. In Colossians 2, sorry, Colossians 1, verses 12 and 13. You don't need to turn to them, I'll read them. Giving thanks unto God the Father, God the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers. He has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. What's that inheritance? His eternal kingdom, who has delivered us. God has delivered us. We haven't delivered ourselves. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

In chapter 2, He says, in Him, in our Lord Jesus Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily and we are complete in Him. We have everything that we need in Him and in Him alone. Because as it says in verse 11 of chapter 3 of Colossians, Christ is all and in all. That's all. That's the gospel. That's the sum total of it. God's people, God's sheep begin and continue by the Spirit of God. They continue by the Spirit of God showing us Christ. In John chapter 16, Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 16, he says this, in verse 13, he says, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He, the Spirit of God, will show you will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you of things to come. He, the Holy Spirit of God, shall glorify me, Christ, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you."

Don't you see there, the trinity of the Godhead, the unity, the triunity of the Godhead, and how the Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows us, and draws us to run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of that faith.

So God constrains the behavior of his people, not by law, but by the love of Christ. It says in 2 Corinthians 5.14, it's the love of Christ that constrains us. So God says to his people, love one another. Jesus says to his people, love one another. Why? Because there's a law that tells you you've got to love one another. No, he doesn't say that. He says, love one another as I have loved you. He tells his people to be forgiving. Because he says, if you're not forgiving, God won't forgive you. He doesn't use law, though. He says, forgive one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Copy him. Copy him.

And in all these things, as it says in Philippians 2 verse 5, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ. We give generously. Why? Why are we supposed to give generously? Why are we not supposed to grasp hold of that which is ours? Why are we to give generously? Because of what Christ gave for you. Verse 20 of chapter 2 says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Do you know, you cannot make yourself more holy in God's judgment. You cannot, you cannot. And the shining example, of course, it's only in Luke's gospel, the accounts of the crucifixion, but in Luke's gospel, he shows us there that one of the two malefactors crucified with Christ, who had started out by shouting insults at the dying Jesus between them, And he saw, in a moment of revelation from God, he's how long from dying? An hour? Two? At the most? He's there next to Jesus, hanging by those cruel nails, bleeding to death, and he suddenly sees who this is. And he cries out, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says to him, verily, verily, I say unto you, this day, this day you shall be with me in paradise.

That thief on the cross was just as holy, was just as holy as he left this life as the Apostle John who left this life aged about 95 years old. He was just as holy. And what had he done to sanctify himself? Answer, absolutely nothing. What was the one work he did that was required of him? He did that which was actually the work of God. He believed on him whom he had sent.

So then, quickly, moving on. Verse 4. Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? To follow Christ is to be separate from this world. We have to live in it, but we don't live of it. The kingdom of Satan hates the kingdom of God. And many Galatian believers had suffered persecution from the world around, especially from the religious world around. They'd lost friends and family. They'd suffered worldly loss. They'd suffered for believing. You think I'm speaking dramatically? We'll remember when Christine and I visited Australia, and there was a lovely man there, and I. .. Sorry if I... If he ever listens to this and he says, I know that's me.

But a lovely man, and I can't for the moment remember his name, but do you know something? He believed the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was a believer. And his wife had deserted him, and his family had deserted him. And I'm right, aren't I? He was entirely on his own. He'd suffered worldly loss for the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Suffered for believing. He'd suffered for preaching.

We suffer for preaching in this world. For testifying that God, this is it. We testify that God chose a multitude to save from sin before the beginning of time, and to fit for heaven, to qualify for heaven by the doing and dying of the Son of God. He did that. He did that, and only that.

And unbelievers around are tolerant of most religion invented by man, but they are not tolerant of this. If you look in chapter 5 of Galatians, Paul will relate some of his experience. In verse 11, I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, if I yet preach what these Judaizing false teachers want me to preach, I wouldn't suffer persecution because the world around accepts that. Because it doesn't, you know, if you want that religion, you're happy to go, I'm happy for you to go off and do that.

But why does he suffer persecution? For the offense of the cross. What does that mean? That Christ died for his people. He died for his people. You know, when Jesus went back to Nazareth and they gave him the scroll of Isaiah to read out and he read it out and he said, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your sight. And then he said to them, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. But God, in sovereign grace, sent Elijah not to one of the widows of Israel, one of your brethren. He sent him to the widow in Zarephath, the widow of Zarephath, which was a foreign country. He sent him there, and they were angry at that.

And he said, in the days of Elisha, there were many lepers in Israel. Oh, very, very well qualified lepers, true lepers in Israel. But Elisha, the great man of God, was not sent to cure one of them, but Naaman the Syrian, the enemy, the enemy, the enemy came to him and he cured him. And do you know what they did? Do you know what they did? The people of Nazareth, the people that he'd grown up with, family and friends all around, They tried to grab him and throw him down the cliff to kill him because they couldn't stand what he said. That's the truth.

In verse 12 of chapter 6 of Galatians, And as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. You see, you don't get persecuted for the religion that the world likes. It's for the gospel of Christ and of the sovereign grace of God that you get persecuted. He's saying to them, if you'd gone along with the Judaizers' false gospel from the start, you wouldn't have suffered the persecution of the cross. But you did suffer it for the true gospel.

Did you suffer it for nothing? No. The true gospel is the one pearl of greatest price, and everything else is fake or worthless. And then very quickly, verse 5. He, therefore, that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? That, of course, is God. God continues to minister the Spirit among you and give miracles in those days. On the narrow way to eternal life, what will minister, what will keep confirming the reality of God to you? Will it be your works of legal obedience or your faith looking unto Jesus? I've already mentioned it, those verses. at the start of Hebrews 12, run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Having been enlightened by the gospel of liberty, what foolishness to go back to legal bondage for progress. And then finally, just to wrap this up, verse 6, even as Abraham believed God and was accounted to him for righteousness.

As I said, He's going to go and show clearly that the Jewish faith, the faith of Abraham, was the same gospel that he had been preaching. The Jews revered Abraham, the father of the nation. They were picked out, that nation of Israel was picked out from all humanity. He took him out of idolatry. He showed him the truth. He blessed him. He taught him the gospel.

It says in verse 8 of chapter 3 that God himself preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Is that not what it says? God preached the gospel unto Abraham. He didn't preach the law unto Abraham because the law wasn't given for another 430 years. He preached the gospel. The gospel. He preached righteousness by faith. He preached righteousness by looking, by the gift of faith, to that which God would do. That which God had done from eternity.

For it says in Revelation 13 verse 8, that the Lamb of God, and you know John the Baptist pointing to Jesus said, behold the Lamb of God, that He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13, 8. The Lamb slain from the foundation. In the justice of God, it was done for eternity. But He would come in time, in this space-time existence, and He would complete that which was required, the faith of Jesus Christ.

It wasn't what... I've said it... How many times have I said it? It wasn't what Abraham... Sorry, let me read it again. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That's quoting Genesis 15 verse 6. It wasn't Abraham's believing that was accounted to him for righteousness. It was what Abraham believed in that was accounted to him for righteousness.

And all who even now look to what He looked to, that is, God, united with His elect multitude, paying the debt of their sin to make eternal satisfaction to divine justice, they are made the righteousness of God in Him. Nothing can change that, nothing. And in that alone, all God's true believing people rest.

And you know what that word rest is there? It's Sabbath. Sabbath isn't a day, it's a person. We rest in him and all that he has done. Amen.