that side, but downward bends
his wondering eye at mysteries so bright. Crown him the Lord
of life, who triumphed o'er the grave, who rose victorious to
the strife for those he came to save. His glories now we sing,
Who died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And
lives that death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. To thee be endless praise, for
thou for us hast died. Be thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. You may be seated. I'm going to be reading out of
Galatians chapter 3. This is where our text comes
from. I'm going to be reading the first nine verses. Let me read the
first ten verses. 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? That is, hearing, the preached
word by faith. Are ye 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. 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. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your grace. for your ministration
of grace, for delivering us from the law, and for saving us by
your grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you don't
look to this weak, corrupt, vile flesh for any righteousness,
you don't look to us for works of righteousness whereby you
are appeased, and let your angers put away, but you, Lord, you
look to your Son, Jesus Christ, for all our righteousness. You've provided everything in
Him, and we thank you, Lord, for this grace and mercy. We
thank you, Lord, for your peace, your kindness, in providing everything
in your Son. Lord, we thank you for gathering
this body together here tonight. Lord, we're thankful for the
bread which you give to us from heaven. We're thankful, Lord,
for the people here, for this flock which you gather. And Lord,
we pray that you would continue to pour out your spirit upon
us, that you would continue to fill us with the word, with the
gospel. that you would teach us and grow
us and comfort us and keep us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
that you would call out your people, your sheep from around
here that are yet sitting in darkness, that you would draw
them in grace and in mercy, that you would cause your word to
go forth, that you would cause them to hear it with the hearing
of faith, that they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For
that's how you save your people. Lord, help us. Help me to be
faithful. We pray that the gospel go forth
from this pulpit continually, faithfully, whether it's by me
preaching it, or Brother Scott, or Brother Joe, or we have a
guest pastor here. Lord, that you would bless the
word each time it's preached, that you would bless the hearts
of your people and comfort them in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
in his name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, let's go to hymn number
110, Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed, hymn
110. Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed,
and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. Well might the sun in darkness
hide And shut his glories in When Christ, the Mighty Maker,
died For man the creature's sin But drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. All righty. All right. All right, brethren. I'm going
to be preaching from Galatians chapter 3 tonight. Now, Paul had finished asking
the Galatians, the Galatian church, five questions. to shake them
out of the charming spell that they had come under by the legalist
who spoke to them with good words and fair speeches. And they somehow
convinced them that Christ was not enough, that the blood of
Christ wasn't sufficient to save them or to make them righteous,
but that they needed to add something to Christ's work. And it began
for them with circumcision. That was the beginning of their undoing what they had heard,
their falling away from Christ. And Paul had asked them in verse
5, this last question, he said, He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, he that is serving you, and stands before
you, teaching you the Word of God, so that you are blessed
and comforted by God, that you have been given His Spirit, whereby
you know God, and understand the things of God, and believe
on the Lord your God. He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, so that you
have a demonstration that God is. And you have a demonstration
in your hearts of who Christ is and what he does for his people,
how that he is our life and all our salvation. He 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? And if you look at verse 2, the
question there is similar when he asked, This only would I learn
of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? Did that man ministering to you
get up and teach you the law? And is that how you believed
on Christ? Is that how the Spirit of God
came upon you when he got up and told you what he did that
day? How that he was moral and that
you need to be moral and what you need to do? Did He get up
there and explain to you all the works that He had done and
then say to you, I don't think I broke a commandment today.
I think I was pretty good. And you were impressed with that
so that you followed Him? Is that how you received the
Spirit of God? Is that how you came to a knowledge
and understanding of the Lord? Are you so foolish, verse three,
having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? You didn't believe on Christ
by the hearing of the law, by the preaching of the law, by
works of the law. God didn't bless you and give
you his spirit because you were righteous in your own ways and
by your own works. That's not how the spirit was
given to you. But the spirit was manifested
in you. The life of Christ was manifested
in you. The love that God has for you
was revealed in you by the hearing of faith, meaning that man preached
to you Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He declared to you what God has
done, how that God will be gracious gracious to you through the Lord
Jesus Christ." That this is the will and purpose of God for His
people to be gracious to them and not deal with them as their
sins deserve, but to show them mercy in the putting away of
their sins. And He saved them by Christ and
revealed this to them, made it manifest to them through faith. Because they heard what God had
done for sinners through His Son, Jesus Christ, in offering
Him up, sacrificing Him to the Father to put away their sins. And they heard that word, not
as it were with the ear of flesh, but with the hearing of faith.
They were given faith in that hour by the Living God, by the
Spirit of God coming upon them and revealing all that God had
done for them in Christ through the preaching of the Word. And
they believed. They were overcome with the faith
of God and believed the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you be righteous? Would you be holy? Would you
be perfect and accepted of God? Do you want to hear God say to
you on that day, the day of judgment, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter into thy kingdom. Enter
into my kingdom. Enter into thy rest. My kingdom
prepared for thee from before the foundation of the earth.
justified? Would you be justified as righteous
and perfect and holy and spotless as the Lord Jesus Christ? Would
you be holy? The Spirit here says, then be
like Abraham. Be like Abraham. Believe God. believe God. Verse six, even
as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. There was an accounting done,
and God says, he's righteous. He believed me. Therefore, he
is righteous. Because he's righteous, he believes
me. because I've revealed my faith,
my life, my love in him. And I've declared to him that
I'm going to bless him and all the peoples of the earth shall
be blessed in him as he is through faith, through faith. So that
God, that word accounted means imputed. God imputed righteousness
to Abraham because Abraham believed God. And that's what our Lord
does through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ, the Son of God. took
upon him flesh, and he came and fulfilled all the will of God. He fulfilled the law perfectly. He obeyed the Father's voice,
the Father's word, the Father's will perfectly in all things,
fulfilling all righteousness, so that he was a perfect sacrifice,
a perfect Lamb of God, without blemish, without spot, not having
any bones broken, no deformity, nothing wrong. He's perfect.
And he willingly went to the cross for his people to lay down
his life, to make an atonement for our sins, to pay the penalty
that we owe to the law for our sins and our iniquities and our
transgressions and our trespasses against God. And he paid the
price with his own life as our sacrifice, as our surety, to
make an atonement unto God, to reconcile us to God, so that
God is no longer angry with you that are in Jesus Christ. with
you that come, not in your own works according to the law, but
according to faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing
all that your God has declared to you through his Son, Jesus
Christ, so that when Christ died, because Christ died, He is righteous
and He has made His people righteous who died in Him, who were crucified
with Him, who were buried with Him. When He rose, we rose so
that He's all our righteousness and He's accomplished all these
things for us. so that His righteousness is
imputed to us. And what that means is God looks
upon us and says, you're righteous, therefore I impute righteousness
to you, meaning Christ made us righteous by all that He did
for us who have no righteousness of our own, but now are come
seeking Him for mercy and grace. Do you believe? Abraham believed. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore, verse seven,
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. They which are of faith are the
children of Abraham. There's many people who are descended
physically from Abraham. Paul says here that those who
are of faith, having no ability to trace any physical lineage
to Abraham, because they can't. Because for many, there is no
physical lineage. Yet they are children of Abraham
as manifested by God by the faith which he's revealed in them to
believe God, to trust God, to believe the son of God, to believe
that he laid down his life for me. And so these are children
of Abraham, believing the word of God who first trusted Christ. who said, I've prepared a people
for you. I've given you a people. Will
you go and save them, redeem them, purchase them when they
fall to make them your own, to do all things for them? And Christ
absolutely, willingly agreed to do it because he loves you,
because he loves his people. He loves his bride. and willingly
went to lay down his life for them. And so it says now in verse
eight, and the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preach before the gospel unto Abraham, saying
in thee shall all nations be blessed. Well, here's an amazing
thing. It says the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached. The scripture
preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Abraham didn't have
the scriptures written. The scriptures were written,
the earliest of these scriptures were written, as far as we know,
by Moses. Those were the earliest writings, was recorded by Moses. And Moses came after Abraham,
around 400 plus years after Abraham. And yet the scriptures preached
the gospel to Abraham. that gospel Abraham believed.
Where's this? Let's go over to Genesis chapter
12. Genesis chapter 12 in the first
three verses. Let's read them. And now the Lord had said." What
a glorious picture. The Scriptures are the Word of
God. And the Word of God was with
God in the beginning. The Word of God was with God
and the Word of God was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And the Word was made flesh. And here before He came in the
flesh, He appeared to Abraham and he preached the gospel to
Abraham. I'll never look at the scriptures
when I see the scriptures say the same. It's the Word of God. It's Christ who testifies of
these things. It's the Spirit of our Savior
who has spoken this Word and led His prophets and His people
to write these words under the inspiration of our God. The Lord said, verse one, unto
Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed." Alright, go back to our text in chapter
3. Christ preached the gospel to
Abraham, and Abraham believed God. He heard the promises of
God that God would bless him, that God would provide for him,
that God would do all things necessary for Abraham and for
his life and for his salvation, that he would provide everything
necessary. And Abraham believed God. We read of God also, we read
of Abraham in Hebrews. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. A chapter of faith. Look at verse
8. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither
he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. These are the works of Abraham.
He believed God. He trusted God. He walked by
faith. He walked being alive by the
Spirit of God and he walked by faith so that God was pleased
with Abraham and God blessed Abraham. And God promised that
all who bless Abraham, they would be blessed. And all who curse
Abraham, they would be cursed. And here's a strange thing, that
so many of Abraham's physical descendants who claim Abraham
as their father and are so confident that they are the children of
God because they are physically descended from Abraham. And they
put all their hope and confidence in that. And yet they curse Abraham. They curse Abraham. And God says,
I won't bless them. I'll curse them who curse you.
You know, those who are of faith, as Paul said here, know, verse
7, know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are
the children of Abraham. That's blessing Abraham. And
here's how. Because we're of faith. We have
no hope in our works of righteousness. We have no confidence in this
flesh. We're not looking to the law
for righteousness. We're saying, Abraham, I agree
with you. I'm with you. It's by faith. It's by the promise of God that
he blesses his people. I bless you, Abraham. I agree
with you, Abraham. I believe the word of God which
he has spoken to me concerning his son Jesus Christ, that I
have no righteousness of my own, but that he is all my righteousness. And the Spirit of God, look at
verse 22, Galatians 3.22, but the scripture hath concluded,
the word of God hath concluded, all under sin, that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Our God has testified to us that
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth
good. We're all gone out of the way. We've all gone to do our own
thing. None of us seeks after God. And
when we preach the law and speak the law and tell others what
they need to do and how to get themselves saved and to be righteous
and sanctify themselves and justify themselves before God by the
works of the law, we're just spitting poison at them, like
an asp, like a poisonous snake, a viper. we're just biting and
devouring with the law and just sinking our fangs with poison
into them and destroying them. It's not by the law, it's by
the hearing of faith that our God saves us by His Son Jesus
Christ and those who hear the Word, those who hear the voice
of the Son of God preaching to them, speaking to them through
this Word, through the Scriptures, preaching the Gospel before to
them. They hear it and they believe
because they hear it with the hearing of faith and they believe
God. They trust God. They know that
God is true, and that's blessing Abraham, because they're saying,
that's my part too. I believe like you believe. I
don't have any confidence in this flesh. I've heard the voice
of God, and I believe. I believe him. And those who
curse Abraham say, what? Faith? Faith? How about works? How about what I'm doing for
the Lord? I've got to follow the law for my righteousness. I've got to look to the law.
That's my rule of life. That's how I'm supposed to live.
I've got to keep the law. And they slip their neck under
the yoke of the law, and they listen to those who beat them
and whip them and drive them hard before the law. with the law, by the law. And they say, Abraham, I have
no part with you. You're wrong, Abraham. You were
wrong for believing God. Because there's something more.
There's the works of the law. And you forgot about that, Abraham.
And that's cursing Abraham. And God said back there in Genesis
12, Verse 3, that's what he said there, I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed. Those who believe God,
like Abraham, believed God and rested from all his works, rested
from his labors, rested from trying to please God, rested
from trying to work off his sin, debt, and his transgressions
and trespasses, and believed God and said, Lord, cleanse me
with the blood of Christ. Save me. so that God reveals
in His people His salvation. We see this over in 2 Timothy chapter 1.
Let's go there. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Abraham had the gospel preached
to him by the word of God. And you that are gathered here
this night have the gospel preached to you
by the word of God. And here's what the word of God
says to us. Paul writes it in 2 Timothy 1
verse 9. Who hath saved us? Our God, the
power of God, hath saved us and called us with an holy calling. You that look to the Lord Jesus
Christ have been called with an holy calling. When Peter wrote in his epistle,
I think it's 1 Peter chapter 1, and there when he said, and
the Lord God said, be ye holy, for I am holy, the flesh, the
man of flesh, the carnal man hears that as a command. But
the child of faith hears that as the promise of God, revealing
his will. Be ye holy is the will of God
for my people, as I am holy. And so he sent his son, who is
the perfection of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of
God, to make his people righteous, perfect, holy, because that is
the will of God. Be ye holy, for I am holy. and that's how we are made holy
and this is a holy calling and I'm not going to say it isn't.
I'm not going to say that the preaching of Christ isn't holy
because our God says it's a holy calling. He calls us by faith
unto faith looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our righteousness
and our holiness and our peace with God not according to our
works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God had purposed
to be gracious to his people, to justify the heathen by faith,
to justify us sinners who don't deserve mercy, who don't deserve
compassion, but to justify us by the blood of his Son, Jesus
Christ. Just like we see that distinguishing,
I'm coming back to 2 Timothy chapter 1, but in Romans 9, we
see the distinguishing grace of our God, beginning in verse
11, Romans 9, 11, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. calleth
with an holy calling. He's calling you in Christ, by
Christ, to look to his servant whom he sent and accomplish the
salvation of his people. Did exactly what he set out to
do. Did exactly what he promised to do. It's a holy calling and
God makes his people righteous because it's his will and he
makes them righteous by the blood of Christ. Do you believe God? Or do you call God a liar? Do
you bless Abraham and say, Abraham, I agree with you. We're saved
by faith. Or do you curse Abraham and say,
no, no, no. You've got it wrong. You forgot the law, pal. You
needed the law. That's how you're righteous.
But God justified Abraham. He gave Abraham circumcision
while he was yet without circumcision. And he believed God. And that's
when God counted him as righteous. Not after circumcision. If it
was the works of the law that saved us, he wouldn't have been
accounted or imputed righteous because he wasn't circumcised
yet. At that point, all he did was believe. He believed God. He trusted him. He believed.
And so we're saved, we're blessed with Abraham through faith. Through faith. It was said unto
her, unto Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth. It's not by our free will. This
will, this faith in God is not of this flesh, because this flesh
is evil, it's corrupt, it's defiled. It cannot produce that which
is acceptable and pleasing to God, which faith is, nor of him
that runneth, it's not by our works in the law, but of God
that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, for the same purpose I raise thee up. Our God is showing
us and demonstrating to us that he saves by grace. that He's saved by His Son and
He reveals faith in us. All right, back in verse 10. but is now made manifest. So
2 Timothy 1.10, but is now made manifest. That's how faith, that's
how we know that we're the children of God. It's manifest in us by
the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That appearing
there, brethren, is speaking to Christ's resurrection. and His resurrection glory, His
resurrection power, the life which He has is the life which
is given unto us to raise us up from the dead and to give
us life, spiritual, eternal, everlasting life by the Son of
God. It's now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I tell you, that's His
resurrection And I know that because you see it repeated a
number of times in the Gospels after that Christ arose. I'll
show you Mark 16. Mark 16 verse 9, Now when Jesus
was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first
to Mary Magdalene. Verse 12, after that he appeared
in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into
the country, those men on the road to Emmaus. Afterward, verse
14, he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat. Luke 24
says that he appeared unto Simon. The Lord is risen. He's appeared
unto Simon. So that this appearing is speaking
of Christ who rose from the dead and by his life by which he rose
from the dead, that is the life which he gives to you through
the preaching of the gospel and makes it manifest in your hearts
through faith that you are the children of God. Otherwise you
wouldn't have faith, you wouldn't believe. You wouldn't hear it.
You wouldn't bless Abraham. You'd curse him and say, nope,
that ain't it. That's not the truth there. But
it's now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. So that God, who shined in the
darkness, Our God is in the business of shining into the darkness
and giving life, making manifest that which wasn't there before.
And our God who has shined in the darkness when he spoke the
worlds into existence and the heavens and all that in them
is, our God has shined in our hearts, our dark hearts, our
dark corrupt hearts, our dark corrupt dead hearts, spiritually
dead hearts, which did not know God. God has shined into our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Not in the face of Moses, in
the face of Jesus Christ. And you that believe him do manifest
that you have heard his word by the hearing of faith. And
you believe his word and trust him as your savior, as your peace,
as your reconciliation with God. So then, Galatians 3 9, 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's written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Do you
bless Abraham? Because verse 9 says you're blessed
with faithful Abraham, you that believe. And you that curse Abraham,
it's because you're trusting your own works. And you don't
look to Christ, and you don't believe Christ is sufficient,
that He's your righteousness, that He's your all, and that
God is satisfied with Christ, and satisfied with all who are
in Christ. They're cursed. But you that
believe are blessed with faithful Abraham. And I pray the Lord,
bless that word to your hearts. Amen. Let's go to hymn 334, Be Thou
My Vision. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Naught be all else to me, save
that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
thou art. High King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. All right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you.
for your abundance of grace to us and your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, that you have manifested
your life in us, revealed your love to us and for us, your salvation
for us in Christ, who is our salvation, our hope, our glory,
our all. And Lord, we thank you for these
many blessings. All blessings are in Christ. And Lord, we thank you for gathering
us together under the blood of your Son to minister the Spirit
to us through the hearing of faith, whereby we, like Abraham,
believe God. And Lord, we thank you for that.
We pray that you would be with our brethren, keep them safe
who are unable to be with us, heal their bodies, comfort them,
help them, give them peace and comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us and let us be a help
to them who need help. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.