Lord, I know why the Lord laid
that on your heart. When I was studying this passage
this week, and I kept reading that about the hearing of faith,
I didn't know which psalm it was, but those first two verses
kept coming to my mind. This is what the hearing of faith
is. It's to make known His deeds among the people. It's His works. It's His faithfulness. is to
talk ye of all his wondrous works. We're hearing of his faithfulness.
That's what our text is dealing with tonight. Let's go back now
to Galatians 3 verse 1. Paul says, 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? Paul uses words here that have
to do with the eye, with seeing, and he's doing this for a specific
reason. He uses this word bewitched,
and the Galatians, the Gentiles, called it the evil eye, and what
they were referring to would be a snake who would use his
eyes to charm his prey and put him into a trance. and cause
them not to be able to see clearly what he was about to do. And
truly, it was the old serpent, the devil, who had bewitched
these Galatians. The Lord's always wise to permit
the devil to do the things he does. He can't do anything without
God's permission. But when God permits him to do
as he did in this church, it's for God's glory and the good
of his people. And you think about it, we wouldn't have letter
to the Galatians if God had permitted the devil to do this. And we've
been, we're learning today and they were learning in that day
from Paul writing this. Can you imagine getting a letter
from a pastor writing to you with this language? Oh foolish
Oh foolish New Jerseyans, could you imagine that? I mean, that's
pretty strong language. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you? The old serpent had beguiled
them and he had turned their eye from Christ to the law, to
their own works, to their brethren's works, away from Christ. That's his objective. And it
was offensive and hurtful to Paul because he said there, before
your eyes, There he is speaking about the eye. They had been
bewitched by the evil eye, and he said, and before your eyes,
Christ, the person of Christ Jesus, has been evidently, clearly
set forth, crucified among you. Christ is the truth. He's the truth. He said you obey
not the truth, and then he says, And before your eyes, Christ
has been evidently set forth. Christ is the truth. He's the
light of his people. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the Father but by me. He is the gospel. The Lord Jesus is the gospel. They said of John the Baptist,
he came for a witness to bear witness of the light. Christ
is the light. And to obey the truth is to submit
to Christ, is to submit to him in faith for all, for everything. That's what faith does. Submit
to him for all, for wisdom, for righteousness, for sanctification,
for redemption, for all. That's obeying the truth. It's
submitting to this one who is the righteousness of God. Paul
said to the Pharisees, they've not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God. That's a person. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Walking
by faith is walking, looking to Christ. Hearing of Christ's
faithfulness being taught by Christ, learning from Christ,
learning of Christ through the preaching of His person and His
works. That's walking by faith. And
it's to do so with a single eye, with the eye single for Christ,
looking upon Christ alone from the singleness of heart, with
the heart set on Christ, the eye set on Christ, the eye of
faith. His light filling us as we look to Him, we see light,
we see Him who is everything we need. He enlightens us concerning
every path, every way, every work, everything we need, He's
the light. We see what we need looking to
Christ. And we see when we look to Him,
He's our holiness who sanctifies us as well as our righteousness
before the law. Go with me to Luke 11. And let
me show you this here in verse 33. Here's why Paul was using these
terms that have to do with seeing. You've been bewitched by the
evil eye and it's offensive because Christ has been set before your
eyes, been preached clearly before you. Watch this, this is Christ
speaking. He says in Luke 11, Verse 33, he said, and if you
go, let's read back up in verse 29. He says, I'm sorry, verse
28. He says, blessed are they that
hear the word of God and keep it. Paul said, you've not obeyed
the truth. You heard it. Christ was set
forth before you, but you haven't obeyed it. You haven't kept it.
The Lord said, blessed are they that hear the word of God and
keep it. They hear of Christ and they
submit to Christ and they follow Christ. And when the people were
gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil generation. This is a generation that had
the evil eye. This is a generation that was
bewitched. This is an evil generation. They
seek a sign. Remember, Christ is a stumbling
block to the Jews because they seek a sign. They're looking
for works of the law. They're looking for something
you do. just what most in our day are looking for. And he said,
there'll be no sign given but the sign of Jonas the prophet,
for as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so also shall
the Son of Man be to this generation. Christ is the one we look upon. He's the truth, he's the light. Now look down at verse 33. No man, when he hath lighted
a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel,
but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light."
What is the church? We're the candlestick. The church
is a candlestick. Well, who's the light? Christ
is the light. He's the light we preach. God's
given us the light, not to try to tone down the gospel and hide
Christ the light from people, but to declare him boldly, clearly,
plainly before all, just like you'd set a candle out on a candlestick
to give light. And he says, look at this now,
the light of the body is the eye. Therefore when that eye
is single, now when this comes to faith, when your eye is single
for Christ, thy whole body also is full of light. Look into Christ,
he sanctifies us. He fills you with light, he gives
you light, he's the holiness who sanctifies, Christ is. That's why it's foolish for people
to try to act like they know God and believe Christ. They
run contrary and just go on in that because Christ is the light.
This room has light because it's filled up with light. When the
light comes on, darkness is not there. And if our eyes are single
for Christ, we're going to be full of light. He's going to
sanctify. And look here, but when that eye is evil, When you're
bewitched, when you have the evil eye, you turn from Christ
to the law, turn from Christ to your sinful flesh, or your
brother's sinful flesh, or your self-righteousness, or theirs,
or whatever. When you turn from Christ to
that, thy body is also full of darkness. Take heed, therefore,
that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole
body, therefore, be full of light, having no part dark, the whole
shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle
doth give thee light. This bewitching in Galatia, this
is what Paul was afraid of in all the churches. Go to 2 Corinthians
11. See, they turned from Christ the light, and they turned back
to themselves, they turned back to their works, they turned back
to their law-keeping, and that's what Paul was afraid of, that's
what he feared for all the churches. He said in 2 Corinthians 11-2,
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I have espoused
you to one husband, to have our eye single for Christ our husband
alone, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,
but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity,
the singleness, that is in Christ, from having your eyes set on
one single object, Christ alone. And that's what was happening
at Galatians. Now here's a test, brethren. If what we hear, mark
this down, if what we hear from the pulpit or whispered to us
in private, if it turns us to Christ from this sinful flesh,
if it turns us from your flesh and from your brethren's flesh,
it turns you to Christ. If it turns us from trusting
our works to rest in Christ, if it's turning us from tearing
down with the letter of the word, the letter of the law, to building
up in Christ, in faith that's in Christ, if that's what it
is, then we're hearing the truth, we're hearing the light, and
the Lord uses that to turn our eye to make us single for Christ.
But the devil bewitching is trying to do the opposite. If it does
the opposite, if it turns me from Christ to my flesh, mine
or yours, mine or my brethren, if it turns me from Christ to
me, from Christ to my works, from Christ to some necessity
that I must do, from Christ building up in Christ to tearing down
with the Word, that's the devil. That's what Paul was fearful
of, that's why he said, he was warning them about biting and
devouring. That's what always happens where
the law is preached, where works are preached, where that spirit
of legalism enters in. They bite and they devour one
another. And that's what Christ keeps
his people from. Here's my point to you, Christ
is salvation. He's salvation. He's the salvation
of his people in every way. Obedience is believing on Christ
alone, learning from Christ alone, following Christ alone through
the hearing of his faithfulness, through the hearing of the gospel
of Christ. So Paul's gonna illustrate this with a few questions. And
he makes it so simple. Look here, how did we begin?
How did we begin? Verse two, this only would I
learn of you, received you the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. To receive the Spirit is to be
given the Holy Spirit of God from God into these dead sinners,
to be given the Spirit of God. We were dead in sins, were we
regenerated and given life by the Holy Spirit by something
we did? Did you hear the preaching of
the works of the law and that's what the Lord sent the Spirit
through and regenerated you? Was it something you had to do?
People are always being told, accept Jesus, that's how you're
born again, or do A, B, or C, and this is how you're born again.
How did you receive the Spirit of God? How were you born again?
We were dead, we couldn't do anything. We were totally dead
in sins. Was it by the hearing of the
faith of Christ, was it hearing the gospel of Christ that he
regenerated you? The hearing of faith is the hearing
of Christ's faithfulness. God the Father chose his son
and he sent him to make his people righteous and holy. He sent Christ
to make us righteous and holy, not just righteous, holy as well. He's righteousness and sanctification. He made us righteous by His blood
on the cross. He justified us, put away our
sin, made us righteous, and He sanctifies us inwardly through
the Spirit of God, through the hearing of what He did on the
cross. Through the hearing that He is
all our completion. It's that gospel through which
He sends the Spirit, and He's made sanctification unto us as
well as righteousness unto us. That's why He made this statement.
He said, for their sakes, I sanctify myself. that they also might
be sanctified through the truth. That's a unique statement. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
truth that we hear preached. He's the gospel we hear preached.
And what he did is he sanctified himself, holy, separate from
sinners, so that he would be fit to go to Calvary, bear the
sin and curse of his people, justify us from all our sins,
make us the righteousness of God in him, fulfill the law perfectly
for us, redeem us from it, take us from it, so that as that message
is preached, And he did it from a holy heart so that he is our
righteousness and our sanctification. He redeemed us by his blood so
that he's our redemption. And he sanctified himself and
did that so that as his ministers preached this truth, He said,
sanctify them through thy truth. He said, I sanctify myself that
they may be sanctified through the truth. And as the truth is
preached of how Christ is the holy one, the righteous one,
the faithful one, as that message is preached, he sends forth the
Holy Spirit and gives you a new, pure, holy heart, a new spirit. He does that. He does that and
gives you a faith to obey the truth. When he comes, Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 10.5, he cast down all our imaginations. We had all these imaginations
about God and about how he saved. He cast down our imaginations
and every high thing that exalted itself against God, he brought
that down in us. And he did it through the knowledge
of God, showing us Christ, giving us a knowledge of Christ, a knowledge
of God. And as he did that, brethren,
he made Christ's wisdom to us, so that he brought every thought
into captivity. And we had all these wild thoughts
in our flesh roaming around. He put a new man in us, and he
brought our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. What does that mean? It means
that as he taught you this gospel, he began to teach you that righteousness
is not by your obedience to the law, it's not by your works,
it's by the obedience of Christ. That's the obedience, Paul, so
you cease to obey the truth. You're not trusting the obedience
of Christ. You've turned back now to your
flesh and to the law and to your works to add something. He gives
us that mind of Christ. He makes us know that, verse
16, Galatians 2.16, he makes us know that a man's not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we've believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faithfulness of Christ
and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. He speaks into our hearts and
he says, this is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom he hath sent. And for the first time in our
life, we find ourselves wanting to be found in him, not having
our own righteousness, which is of the law. but that righteousness
which is through the faith of Christ, through his obedience,
that righteousness which is of God by faith, by what he's done
for us. Now, that's how we began. How
did we begin? How were you regenerated? If
a man says, well, I was regenerated because I did A, B, and C, he
hadn't been regenerated. It's not by the works that we
do that we're regenerated. It's by the hearing of Christ's
faithfulness. Because God has to do it, and
he's the only one that can do it, and he only does it through
the hearing that exalts Christ. That's why we preach Christ when
we come in here, because we constantly need this work done in us. We
constantly need our faith strengthened and grown, and this is how he
continues to do it. He continually reminds you that
Christ is all your acceptance with God. And that's how our
faith is strengthened. So secondly, look at this. How
do we grow to maturity? How do we grow to maturity? He
says in verse three, are you so foolish having begun in the
spirit? Are you now made perfect? Are
you now made mature by the flesh? See, he answered the first question
with the second question. How did you begin? You began
by the Spirit. You began by the hearing of faith.
Well, having begun that way, are you now made mature by the
flesh? Now, this is something we need
to pay attention to here. Being made perfect by the flesh. See, the Judaizers in their day
haven't changed in our day. They're exactly the same in our
day as they were in their day. The Judaizers weren't denying
justification by Christ through faith in Him. They weren't blatantly
denying that. They weren't denying that a man's
justified by Christ's works and He gives you faith and you believe
on Him and that's how you made the righteousness of God, through
faith in Him. They didn't blatantly deny that. They were telling believers that
after you've come to faith, in Christ. Now you have to live
under the law. You have to live in obedience
to the law given at Sinai or you can't be saved. And that's
what's being preached by many in our day. Many who sound very
close to the truth on everything else preach this doctrine and
it just negates everything else. To deny one work that belongs
to Christ is to deny every work that belongs to Christ. Most
teach that sanctification, holiness, involves living under the law. In some form or another, they
make sanctification, they make holiness to be a co-effort between
the sinner and Christ by sending you back to the law. But to be
made holy and to grow in that state of holiness has nothing
to do with our works. It doesn't have to do with our
works. It's not a matter of keeping the law. It's to be given a pure
heart, that's holiness. To be made a new creation, that's
holiness. To be given a new nature, a new
spirit, that's sanctification, and to be grown is to be grown
in grace. The gift of faith is a grace.
By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. We're his workmanship. We're
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, faith being one of
those, which God has before ordained. All his people shall walk in
faith and love and all the works he's ordained. Christ, that you grow in grace,
you grow in faith, you grow in love, you grow in patience, in
temperance, self-control, you grow in long-suffering, you grow
in kindness, forgiveness, all the grace of God, we grow in
that. Christ is the sanctification
of His people. He's the holiness in the heart
of His people. And it's He who grows us. Growth in grace, Growth
in grace is by Christ growing us more in knowledge of how He
is our all. That's how you grow in grace.
Growth in grace is growing in knowledge of Christ and how that
He is all. And He's the one that grows you
in grace and He's the one that grows you in knowledge. and it's
through hearing of Him. If I'm going to grow in knowledge
of Him and how He's all, I've got to hear Him preached. And that's how He's going to
grow us in grace. Most teach that sanctification
is growing more and more holy and less and less sinful. and then you eventually become
ripe and you can enter heaven. And here's one of the verses
they used to preach that, Mark 4, 28. The earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear. After that, the
full corn in the ear. You get the picture of a corn
plant. Corn seeds planted and from it comes the blade, just
a little tender plant. And then it grows up and you
see the ears start coming out. And then it grows up and you
have the full corn. And they call that growth in
holiness until you grow more and more and more holy and you're
fit for heaven. But corn seed makes corn. Like begets like. And that blade that comes out
of that ground does not become more corn as it grows. It's corn. From the seed that
made it, it is what the seed is. It's corn when it comes out
of there. It grows as corn, but it don't
become more corn than it is. It's corn. And we don't become
more holy. Christ is our holiness. And by
Christ, the Father has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. He that's born after the flesh
is flesh. He that's born after the Holy
Spirit is Holy Spirit. Light begets light. And so when
we're born of Him, go to 1 Peter 1, and look at this. 1 Peter
1, verse 21. It says, by Christ, by Him, we
believe in God. He's the one that does this.
We believe in God that raised Him from the dead and gave Him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Now, seeing
you have purified your souls. There's holiness right there.
That's to be sanctified, to have a pure soul, a pure Holy Spirit. How'd you do it? In obeying the
truth. Paul said, you've turned from obeying the truth. Most
people in our day would have commended the Galatians because
they were turning to the law and trying to compel others to
keep the law. And most in our day say, no,
that's obeying the truth. Paul said, you've turned from
obeying the truth. He said, we didn't give in to these men that
wanted to circumcise Titus so that the truth might continue
with you. while obeying the gospel you submitted to Christ through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, true love of
the brethren. So see that you love one another
with a pure heart, with a holy heart fervently. Now how did
we do this? How were we born? Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Incorruptible. Born of seed that can't be corrupted. What do you think that's gonna
create? If like begets like, what do you think an incorruptible
seed is going to make? It's by the Word of God, that's
the incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever. If you're born of the Word of
God, you're going to live and abide forever. That means there
can't be any sin there. There's got to be holiness there
if you're going to live and abide forever. Now look, the flesh
is grass. All the glory of man's at the
flower of the grass. The grass withers, the flower
thereof falleth away. But this word of the Lord, by
which we're born again, it endures forever. And this is the word
which by the gospels preached unto you, the hearing of faith.
Wherefore, lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings. And as newborn babes, there's
a new baby born inside a believer that's undergone this. And as
newborn babies desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. Paul's saying the same milk of
the word by which you've begun. That's how you're gonna grow.
It never ceases being Christ. We learn more and more of Christ.
But as we grow from a newborn baby, Though our flesh from Adam's
only sin, though it's withering and it's going back to the dust,
and it must, There's a new inward man which is of God, which is
holy, which is incorruptible by the incorruptible seed. Christ
the word is formed in us and we're born of the spirit and
that new man is spirit. That's why John said, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now none of
this is of us. We're not talking about anything
to do with our flesh. This old man is still sin, the
new man is righteous and holy after Christ's image that created
him. Ephesians 4.22 says, put off
the former conversation, put off the old man which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lust. You know what those deceitful
lusts are? The old man wants to make some fig leaves, and
make ourselves righteous and holy and accepted of God by our
works. That's the lust of this flesh. Paul said, put him off, be renewed
in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, entirely
new nature, entirely a new spirit, which is after God, created after
God in his image, created in righteousness and true holiness,
in the righteousness and true holiness of Christ. And Paul
said in Colossians, in that new man, Christ is all and in all. And when John said you can't
sin, this is the number one thing he's saying. In that new man,
a believer can't stop looking to Christ as all and in all.
You can't stop believing Christ is all in you. You can't. He won't let you. He won't let you. Brethren, our
sinful flesh is sinful flesh. That's why Paul said, in me,
that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. But a born-again
believer has a new holy man created of God. While our sin nature
is just withering grass, and we're dying daily, and it's going
to return to the dust, it's not getting more holy. It's not getting
less sinful. And the more holy you, the more
you grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, the more light he
gives you, the more you see your flesh is not getting less sinful.
The more you see you're more sinful, you see yourself, if
you've grown in grace and faith in Christ and knowledge of Christ,
you see yourself more sinful today than when you first believed.
And if I don't see myself that way, I'm not growing in grace
because that is how he grows you in grace. And He's the holiness
of that new man, the righteousness of that new man. So He grows
us in grace by growing us in knowledge of Him. Christ does
this. Now let me explain what I'm saying here. He gave us faith. He gave us the gift of faith.
That's a grace He gave you in the beginning, faith in Christ.
But He's gonna grow you in faith. You're gonna grow in faith in
Him. Not by hearing of works. not by hearing of what you're
supposed to be doing to add to something he's done. That's not
how he's going to grow you in faith. He's going to make you
do some good works, but that's not how he's going to grow you
in faith. He grows us in the knowledge of him. We continually
hear of his person and his works. That's the bread by which we
grow. It's continually being reminded,
I'm completing him. is continually being reminded,
as he is right now at God's right hand, so are we in this world,
brethren. It's being reminded that our
life is at God's right hand. We're accepted of God and that
won't change. And as he teaches you this in
your heart, he grows you in the grace of faith as he gives you
an increase of knowledge of how accepted you are in him. He grows
us in love to one another. That's a grace he grows you in.
Now understand, we're not getting holier. The only place that term
is used in reference to a believer as a comparative term is when
God said, the Pharisees say, stand over there, come not near
me, I'm holier than thou. And God said, they stink in my
nose. That's the only place you're
gonna find holiness used in a relative sense like that. You either are
holier or you're not holier. but you're holy if he's formed
in you. But as you grow, you're gonna
grow in faith, you're gonna grow in love. And how do we grow in
love? He shows us more and more of
how Christ loved us. That's how you grow in love.
He shows you the knowledge of how he loved us. He said, a new
commandment I give to you that you love one another. Well, let
me go back to the law to see my rule of life on how to love
one another. No, he gave it to us. as I have
loved you. There's your rule. There's your
example. That's how you learn how to love
your brother. All we have to do is love each
other like Christ loved us. Walk in love as Christ also has
loved us and has given himself for us. an offering and a sweet smelling
savor to God. Here in His love, now wait a
minute, here's how we learn how to love. Remember this, this
is how He loved us. Here in His love, not that we
love God. We're not just talking about
when my brother's, oh he showered me with love and who couldn't
love him? No, we're talking about when he's not lovable. Because
we weren't lovable. We didn't love Him, but He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Beloved,
if God, after that manner, loved us, we also ought to love one
another after that manner. We don't learn this from the
law, do we? You grow in love by looking to Christ. He said,
if we love one another, here's why, God dwelleth in us. and
our love is grown, his love's grown in us. That's how we know
that we dwell in him and he in us because of the spirit he's
given to us. He grows us to esteem our brethren better than ourselves
and to look on the needs of our brethren rather than just looking
on our own needs. How does he do that? Paul said
in Philippians 2, he grows you in the knowledge of this, how
that he made himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant
and became obedient even until the death of the cross. If I
see him doing that for me, I'm a worm. You know what that's
going to do? That's going to make me think
less of myself. Don't you see your brethren as
being better than you? Do you? I hope you do. I think
you do. God's people do. I see my brethren
do things and I think, That brother is so faithful. How do you do that? You see him
making himself of no reputation and becoming a servant and looking
on the things that you needed for you. That's growing in that
grace. He grows us in forgiveness, not
by hearing the works of the law. You're not going to learn how
to forgive by going back to the law. It's the hearing of faith.
It's hearing and growing in the knowledge of how God has forgiven
us for Christ's sake and how He does it continually. This is how He grows us to forbear
one another and forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, here's the rule right here. Even as Christ forgave you, so
do also ye. That's how we grow in the grace
of forgiveness. By growing in knowledge of how
he's forgiven me. What could a brother possibly
do to me that I couldn't forgive? All I gotta do is think about
how he's forgiven me. Think of what all myself has
done and he forgave me. That ought to make me be able
to forgive anybody if I know he forgave me. He grows you to
be a cheerful giver. How does he grow you to be generous?
How does he grow you that? You going to learn that from
the law? Christoph asked me Sunday, I get so encouraged by him, he
comes to me and he goes, he read in Exodus 35, it said, as many
as be willing to make a willing offering. He said, look at that,
he said, so why do people put a law on you and tell you you
gotta tithe, you gotta tithe? Well, that law was a tax, you
had to do it. But how are we made to be cheerful
givers? How are we made willing to be
cheerful in our giving and bountiful in our giving? He grows you in
the knowledge of the grace of our Lord Jesus. You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus that though He was rich, yet for your
sakes, He became poor that you through His poverty might be
rich. And didn't He make us rich? Think
how rich He made us. But we grow in grace and knowledge
of Him But we're already holy. Christ is our fitness for heaven
right now. We're not trying to reach a bar
that will make us fit. Now we can go into glory. We
have that holiness. The sanctified thief on the cross
was holy with his hands and his feet nailed to the cross. Sanctified
just a little while before he went into glory. And he was as
holy as the oldest believer that ever died. Because our holiness is not of
us, it's Christ. Our meekness, our fitness, it
can't be of us. It's got to be of Him for Him
to get the glory. So here's the conclusion and
this is it. Verse 5, He Christ who filleth
all in all, He therefore that ministereth you the Spirit and
works miracles among you. Regeneration, faith, love, growth
in grace and knowledge of Him. He that works these miracles.
Does He do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of
His faithfulness? Even as Abraham believed God,
it was accounted to him for righteousness. He couldn't have preached the
law to Abraham, could he? The law wasn't given for 430 years
later. He couldn't have preached the
law to Abraham. How'd Abraham, how was he born,
and how did he grow in grace? How did he walk? Hearing of Christ's
faithfulness. He said, in thee, in Christ,
Christ come come and bless all mine elect scattered in every
nation in this world. And Abraham looked to him, he
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. He walked by
faith, just like he was saved by the same hearing of Christ
in his works like every other sinner, and he walked by faith,
and was grown the same way in grace by the hearing of Christ. All right, brethren, I pray to
the Lord to bless that. That's why we preach Christ him
crucified. All right, Brother Art.