Morning Brethren. Turn to Galatians
chapter 3. I want to cover verses 14 through
19 with you this morning. Now last Sunday we saw that Christ,
the Son of God was made a curse for us. And what that means is
he bore the penalty of our death in order to redeem us, to purchase
us from that death, that penalty, that curse of the law. And this was done, Paul tells
us in verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. So as I was looking at that,
at this verse, verse 14, I was thinking, what is the blessing
of Abraham? What is that blessing of Abraham?
And second, what is the promise of the Spirit which believers
receive through faith? Because if we have a right understanding
of these two things, it's going to show us, it's going to help
us see our need of grace. You'll see your need of the grace
of God. that your ear should hear the
salvation of God, which he has freely provided in his son to
save helpless, needy sinners who cannot save themselves. And we see this need against
the backdrop of the covenant of the works of the law, whereby
we see our corruption and our need of salvation by the salvation,
the righteousness of God. Because the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Galatians 3.12.
So we see our need of grace. I've titled this message, The
Blessing of Abraham and God's Promise. So the blessing of Abraham
is that God justified Abraham, imputing righteousness to Abraham,
who believed God's promise made to him. That's the blessing of
Abraham. God justified him through faith. He believed God's promise that
God would bless him, that God would give him an eternal inheritance. And so Galatians 3.6 confirms
this, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So the blessing of Abraham, which
has come to us through Jesus Christ, is the grace of God for
sinners, and that's revealed in you. This is revealed in you,
whom God has done this for, through faith, which He manifests in
you by His glory and power through the Spirit, by which He raised
Jesus Christ." Now, look over at Romans 4. Go to Romans 4,
put a marker there, and don't leave Romans 4 too quickly. We'll
be looking at a few verses back here in this area. Romans 4 verses
5-8, Paul says, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Just like what we read here in
verse 3, that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. Now in verse 6, Even as David
also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom God will not impute sin. And when God reveals
to us what sinners, how corrupt we are, and shows us our need
of grace, we too shall confess with David, blessed is that man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin." That's a blessing that
God should not account sin to you and me who have no righteousness,
nothing to give to God, nothing to offer to Him to merit His
favor to us. But what a blessing that God
would be gracious, that God would bless us with righteousness,
imputed righteousness, and not impute sin to us, but as put
it away for us in his Son. So the blessing of Abraham is
the Lord God imputing righteousness to him without works. without
works, and our God does that for us through Jesus Christ. Now, still in Romans 4, look
down a little further in verse 23. Now it was not written for
Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us
also to whom it shall be imputed. if we believe on Him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. So this blessing, this blessing
of Abraham, this blessing of imputed righteousness without
works, along with all of our spiritual blessings are given
to us in the covenant of grace. It's by grace that God is merciful
to us and provides salvation for us, forgiving us of our sins,
of our iniquities, and giving us the hope, the joy, of eternal
inheritance. And the reason why this is so
sure and certain is that this covenant of grace was given into
the hand of Jesus Christ, our Mediator. that Christ has established,
that covenant of grace for us. And what that means is He accomplished
everything that had to be accomplished, He obtained the promise for us,
and He's the one now administering that grace to us, and He shall
not fail. He shall not fail. He accomplished
everything required that must be done in that covenant to make
this covenant of grace effectual unto us. So that this covenant,
you know, when there's a covenant, there's requirements for each
party to uphold. And in the covenant of works,
that requirement is put upon us. Those of us who would come
to God in that covenant of the law, we have work to do. That responsibility falls on
our shoulders. And if you don't do that, you
are guilty. You come under the curse of the
law. You come under that curse and
you have to pay that penalty. But this covenant, is because
of what Christ has done. This covenant is made unto us
a will and a testament of Christ and we the beneficiaries of that
work which He labored and what He did for us to obtain this
promise of eternal life for us He's the one who died. He's the
one that rose again. And so Christ is the testator
of his will so that it's accomplished. Everything necessary is accomplished. He's obtained that which is given
to us in this covenant of grace. He makes it known to us. He comes
to us with power. All these spiritual blessings
are given to us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus by the grace
of God. which is given unto us by another."
Over in Hebrews 9, why don't you turn there, Hebrews 9, and
let's look at verses 14 through 16. You hear Paul speaking to this very
thing. He asks, how much more? shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. Oh, that the Spirit of God would
open our ear and show us the hope which is given to the saints
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Show us that there's no hope
for us in the law. And for this cause, verse 15,
he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
Christ purchased those sins which were ours. He purchased them,
bringing them to himself, making himself responsible for that
penalty, dying the death that we had owed unto God for our
sins. he made it his debt and he paid
it, they which are called, that they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator." So this
promise, which was made to Abraham by God, which Paul says here
in Galatians 3.14, he calls it the promise of the Spirit, which
is received by us through faith, is the promise of this eternal
inheritance spoken of here in Hebrews 9.15. This is the promise of eternal
inheritance. This is the promise of the Spirit
which you and I, who are Christ's, have received by faith. And so this speaks to that life. which Christ has promised to
give all those who believe in Him, just as He said that He
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. This is that promise. to give
you life by His Spirit in this covenant of free, sovereign grace. Salvation accomplished by the
work of Jesus Christ, by His faithfulness for you and me,
needy sinners, guilty sinners, corrupt, defiled, ruined sinners
in Adam. Christ did this to bring to you
the hope of eternal inheritance in Him. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this life which we receive,
being born again by the Spirit of God in the new man, born by
the Spirit which we have received of the Lord Jesus Christ, We
do now receive of him that spirit of adoption. He reveals to us
our need. He gives us life in himself,
manifesting that life through faith. And he promises, I give
unto you the spirit of adoption. Look back at Romans 8. If you
still have your placeholder there, go to Romans 8, verse 15 through
the beginning of verse 17. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. He's testifying
to you. In this walk of faith, God is
testifying to you by this spirit of adoption, causing you to have
no confidence in this flesh, but to have every confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ, crying out, Abba, Father, save me. Lord, strengthen me in the inner
man by your Spirit. Grow me, Lord, in this grace,
this faith, this love, this hope which you give to your saints.
Lord, make me a partaker of that grace. Grow me in the grace and
knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if children,
then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. This is the Spirit which is given
unto you, which is the down payment, the earnest of your inheritance,
where God is testifying to you that, yes, you have obtained
in the Lord Jesus Christ this eternal inheritance. not looking
within for some evidence, trusting by the revelation of the Spirit
of God in you, which He has given to you, testifying that you are
the sons and daughters of God, that your hope is in Him, revealing
faith and love and hope in you. And so this is the down payment
of the promise given to us of eternal inheritance, which Paul
wrote of in Hebrews 9.15. Now our Lord said it this way
in John 14 verse 23, if a man love me, which is an evident
outward manifestation of the love of God which he has for
you, because we first, we love him because he first loved us. So if a man loved me, He's testifying. The Spirit of God is testifying
to you that He loves you because otherwise we don't love Him.
We're enemies of the true living God by nature. But if a man loved
me, he will keep my words. It's testified to that we are
eternally unify. We have an eternal union with
Christ. We have a living, vital union
with Jesus Christ. We have a manifestation of that
union revealed in us by the grace of God through the giving of
His Spirit, which has given us life and faith and hope in Him. If a man loves me, he will keep
my words. He will walk by faith. looking to me, trusting me, believing
the promise which I have made to Him, that I have obtained
eternal life for Him, that I have given Him life and forgiven all
His sins, put away all His trespasses, and He is righteous before me
now. And my Father will love Him, God revealing to you what
He has done for you by grace in His Son Jesus Christ. and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Do you hear
that same promise? The promise of the spirit of
adoption which is given to the children of God. to make known
to us that eternal inheritance which God has given to us. And
so this is all made known and understood by the Spirit which
is given to us. Now, the covenant of the law
was given after that promise was made to Abraham. The covenant
of the law was given after the promise was made to Abraham.
Now, the law was not given to replace that promise. Nor was
the law given as an add-on, an addendum to the promise, to improve
it or change it in any way. Not at all. Why was the law given? Look at verse 19, Galatians 3,
19. Wherefore then serveth the law?
Why was the law given? It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and
it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator, that
mediator being Moses. So the law was added because
of transgressions. In other words, the law shows
us the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The law, when we look at
the law, it shows us the breadth, the width, the depth, the height
of our corruption at Adam. It shows us just how defiled
we are, how ruined we are, and shows us, sinner, you need grace. You need grace. You can't come
to God in the law because we all come short of the glory of
God through that law. None of us is perfect. None of
us is righteous. None of us is good. None of us
seeks after God. None of us keeps that law according
to the perfection of God. We're all corrupt and ruined.
And so the spirit points to the law saying, look, you're a sinner
and you need grace. thanks be unto God who has given
His Son, gave Him up, spared Him not, but delivered Him up
for us all to put away that sin and to give you this day a hope
in Christ of that promise of eternal inheritance with almighty,
holy, perfect, wonderful, beautiful, glorious God, all revealed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And seeing that great need which
we have, we behold the blessing of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
that blessing which was made to Abraham, who believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness, for righteousness. That law makes evident that we
are corrupt, that we are spiritually dead in Adam, and it stood opposed
to that eternal inheritance. The law said, wait a minute.
You're defiled. You're ruined. You're not holy.
You have no right to this eternal inheritance in God. That law
stood opposed to us. That's why it was given to show
us, wait a minute. You're not clean. You're filthy. You're
defiled. You have no part in that eternal
inheritance. And so Christ Being our shore
team, he came and paid the debt that we owed to that law. He
put away that curse for us being made a curse for us in our place. He was made a curse for us to
put away. that sin, to put away that opposition
of the law stopping us and preventing us from coming so that now we
are set free. We're delivered from those chains.
We're delivered from that bondage. We're delivered from the fear,
the fear of death and judgment and condemnation before God and
set free that we might live in liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ,
having his spirit, seeing and beholding what our God has done
for us in grace. in mercy and in compassion for
Christ's sake, not because we earned it, not because we did
anything, but because Christ is so wonderful, so glorious,
so faithful in what he did for us. And so in Colossians 2 verses
13 and 14, Paul said it this way, Colossians 2, 13, he said, being dead in your sins, and
the uncircumcision of your flesh, which is all exposed for us by
the law, is laid bare. Yep, I'm a sinner. I'm filthy. Well, he hath quickened, given
you life, together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses,
all your sins, all your trespasses, all your iniquities, He's pardoned
them in Christ. How so? Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
which was blocking the way, and he took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. He put it away on the cross.
So Christ did that for us, us, a chosen elect people whom He
redeemed, whom He reveals or manifests that He did this life
for us by giving us faith and hope in Him, by revealing love
in us for Christ who did this for us. If a man loved me, It's
because God loved us first and revealed us in us. And so back
in Galatians 3, 13 and 14 confirms Christ hath redeemed us. He purchased
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. Now, look down at verse
16, Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. So the
promise here is the promises of God which are made to us in
the covenant of grace before, long before that law was ever
given. Now Paul's been showing that
those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham.
Those who are of faith, they are the sons and daughters of
Abraham. Look at Galatians 3 verse 7, 7 through 9, 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. And in fact, Paul, again
speaking of these same things in Romans 4 verse 16, he said
it this way, Romans 4 verse 16, Therefore it is of faith that
it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure
to all the seed. not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all." So Paul in Romans 4.16, he's speaking
of a multitude, a multiple of seed there. So why does the Spirit
highlight for us here in Galatians 3.16, and to thy seed which is
Christ, as though the promise was only to Abraham and to his
seed, which is Christ. Why does the Spirit word it this
way in Galatians 3 16? What our God is revealing to
us is that Christ is our head. He is the mediator. God hath
put everything into the hands of our mediator who worked and
accomplished this glorious salvation these promises of spiritual life,
the promise of the spirit of adoption, revealing in us the
hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all revealed
in Christ. He gave it all into the hands
of Christ who single-handedly accomplished everything necessary
to accomplish that covenant, to put it into effect, to make
it effectual, that promise effectual unto us. We're told in Hebrews
9.12, by His own blood, Christ entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He's obtained
that eternal inheritance through blood redemption, which He paid
the price for, that we might have our inheritance with Him,
the glory of Christ, dwelling with Him, fellowshipping with
our God, who in grace and mercy saved us by grace in His Son. And so the Spirit tells us this
joyful news in Galatians 3, 17 and 18. He's showing that Christ
the head, what Christ the head has accomplished applies to Christ's
body, the church. We are the beneficiaries of what
he's obtained. In this I say that the covenant
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which
was 430 years after, cannot disannul. That it should make the promise
of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. And so brethren, we are beneficiaries
of the will of our God who's testifying to it, who's declaring
to us what is done. The works are finished from before
the foundation of the world. It's all accomplished. You that
hope and believe on Christ have eternal inheritance with him.
You have received the spirit of adoption. You now cry out,
Abba Father, save me, keep me. Reveal yourself to me more and
more, Lord. I love you, Christ. That's what
he reveals in us, that love which he's given to us and made known
to us. And so he's declaring to his
chosen seed that we are his through that seed of promise, which is
Christ. He's showing us it's not according
to our works. He's done it all. through the
Eternal Spirit, when He offered Himself up unto the Father to
put away our sin. Our Savior put away that ministration
of death for us, which was contrary to us and against us, which we
could not do. And He's given us eternal life,
eternal inheritance in Him. So rejoice in your God and Savior. Rejoice and be glad in Him, because
nothing can disown that, nothing can take it away. Christ hath
obtained it. Believe Him, trust Him, rejoice
in Him, give thanks unto God for Him, and go and love one
another, because you have an eternal inheritance in Him. Amen. All right, brother. Let's close
in prayer, and then we'll be dismissed for 15 minutes. Come
back at 11 o'clock, basically, so. All right. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for this glorious good news. of our eternal
inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, this is grace which
only you can reveal to your people by your Spirit through the manifest
union which we have in Christ, who reveals faith and hope and
love in us for our Savior and gives us love for one another,
rejoicing in what we have in Christ and that fellowship we
have with our God in Him. Lord, we thank you for this.
Father, we pray for those among us, for you know our sicknesses,
our weaknesses, our ailments, our struggles, our fears, our
worries, and our doubts, Lord. You know all things, but you've
promised eternal life for us in Christ, and you've given to
us the spirit of adoption. Lord, cause us to to see that
witness, cause us to cry out to you and to see that witness
that we are the sons of God, that we are your children by
promise and that we would rejoice always in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.