Galatians chapter 3, I've entitled
the message, The Faith of the Righteous. The Faith of the Righteous. Our text will be found in verse
6, 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 the nations
of the earth be blessed. So then, they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham." Now, the Apostle, so far in this
book, has set forth the truth, the truth that a man is justified
only by the faith of Jesus Christ. that our justification before
God was accomplished by the death of Christ upon the cross. And
we who do believe in Christ are justified by faith as we look
to the perfect work and obedience of Christ. Now, we who believe in Jesus
Christ, we have turned from the law. We have turned from our
merits, from the obedience by the law and the works of the
flesh, knowing the holiness of God is displayed by the law,
and no flesh can be justified by the law. What have we done?
By the grace and power of the Spirit of God, we have turned
from law to grace, turned from the law to be justified by the
faith and the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. That's what Paul's established
in chapter 2. Verse 16 knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus
Christ Even we have believed in Christ for what purpose that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law For by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified that truth being established now the Apostle then turns in
chapter 3 and causes the Galatians to look inward and He causes
them to look at their own experience of grace. And you remember last
time we dealt with the five rhetorical questions in verses 1 through
5. He said, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you. In other
words, that they should not obey the truth. We understand that
they were foolish, that they were thoughtless in their turning
away from Christ back to the law. He said, Are you so foolish
and thoughtless? Has someone duped you? into believing
the illusion of works, of obedience to the law? That's an illusion,
isn't it? We know that's an illusion. And anyone who says otherwise
is bewitching you. The second question, he said,
how did you receive Christ? This only I would learn if you'd
receive Christ by the Spirit of the works or by the hearing
of faith. How did you receive Christ? Well, you know this,
you heard the Word of Truth. The Spirit of God used the Word
of God by which you believed. He didn't use law. It wasn't
by the works of the law that you somehow believed in Christ. No. You believed in Christ through
the hearing of faith. And in verse three, he said,
Are you still so foolish to begin in the spirit and now be made
perfect by the flesh? In other words, if salvation
began by the spirit of God's grace, how should it be completed
by your obedience? Are you so foolish? Are you so
thoughtless? To think that. No. We know this, that he that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. We know that we are finishing
this not by law, but by faith. What does the Scripture say?
That just shall live how? By faith. By faith. And faith, Paul says, is opposed
to law. Those two cannot be mixed. Cannot
be mixed. The fourth rhetorical question,
he says in verse 4, have you suffered so much in vain? If
it yet be in vain, in other words, no matter how much you suffer,
if you've turned back to the law, you are you have turned
your back on Christ and all your suffering is vain. And in verse
five, he says, he that ministered to you, the spirit talking about
God, he that supplies the spirit and works miracles, the miracle
of salvation. Isn't that the miracle he works
by the spirit? Surely he did other miracles.
among them, but this was the greatest miracle that the Spirit
of God does, is salvation. He that doeth ministereth the
spirit of salvation, the miracle of salvation. How does he do
it? By the works of the law or the hearing of faith. And then,
now Paul moves away from their experience. Now, we know this,
that God ministered to us a spirit by the hearing of faith. That's
just a rhetorical question. We know this by our own experience
of grace. We know that the law cannot justify
and we've abandoned it. We seek to be justified by Christ. So now in the text, in our text,
Paul will not allow the Galatians or believers to rely solely on
their experience. That's right. We look at our
experience, but what is our experience the foundation? No. It's the Word of God, isn't it?
If your experience differs from the Word of God, then what must
you do with your experience? Throw it away. I remember Brother
Darwin Pruitt was preaching a message concerning justification by faith
without the works of the law, and he said, you must hear the
gospel. That was, he said, the hearing
of faith. You must hear the gospel in order to believe. And this
one man came up after the service and he said, look, I was saved
before I heard someone preaching without the preaching of the
gospel. He said, how do you justify that? He said, your faith, you
justify it. That's your experience. But how
can you justify it if it's not according to the Word of God?
You can't. So Paul is not allowing these believers to rely solely
on their own experience. Somebody surely would come along
and say, well, Paul, that's just your experience. My experience
is different from your experience. Well, let me ask you this. Is
your experience according to the Word of God? So now we've got to take our
experience to God's Word. And so Paul gives us an example,
the example of Abraham, the faith of Abraham. For Abraham is rightly
called the father of the faithful for this reason, that his salvation
is a pattern, is a pattern for all who are saved. His faith. is a pattern by which we may
examine our faith so as to see if we are justified before God, even as Abraham believed." Did
you believe even as Abraham believed? Paul testifying in Romans as
salvation is by faith that it might be by grace so that is
sure to all the seed he says this not only those that are
Jews but also the Gentiles for Abraham is the father of us all
as it is written I have made thee a father of many nations now why is Abraham a pattern
because God made him one You see, this is founded not by experience,
but rather by the Word of God. So Paul is putting up Abraham
as a pattern. Now then, you need to take your
experience here and put it over the pattern. And see now, the very blessed
plan of Paul has adopted here is to prove by Abraham that all
God's saints are justified in the same way. Now, you'll find
this, that many people who try to put us back under the law,
they will subscribe to a belief that people in the Old Testament
were saved in a different way than the people in the New Testament.
Paul says, no, I'm using Abraham. I'm using somebody that came
before the law. as a pattern to show you that
our salvation is the same. That our justification is the
same. Our faith is the same. And listen,
our blessings are the same as Abraham's. That's his plan by
this. It's his reason. So then the
experience or circumstances of our conversion may differ. Isn't
that right? The experience of our conversion,
place. We weren't all converted in the
same place. We weren't all converted at the same time. We didn't all
have the same emotions together. Some people, I've seen some men
fall apart and weep, and I've seen some men not shed a tear.
So there's difference in experience like that. Abraham's experience
was different, wasn't it? He actually heard the voice of
God. Now, we've not actually heard
the voice of God. So in that sense, it is different,
the experience of it. Paul. Paul on his conversion. No one of us has experienced
that kind of conversion. We've never saw the Lord Jesus
Christ visibly or heard Him audibly. But I'll tell you what is the
same. Our election is the same. Our nature by birth is the same. Our calling. by the Holy Ghost
is the same to life and faith we all come to faith by the same
means which is the preaching of the gospel The same is Abraham,
who is the prime example of us all. Now, we're going to see
several things here, and this is what I desire for us to do,
is, you know, when you have, some of you ladies, I know you've
sewn before, you have a pattern for a dress. You lay that cloth
on the pattern, and you cut out the pattern. Well, that's what
we should do with our faith. We should lay it on the pattern
and see if it matches what God says about being justified, about
being righteous. Are you saved? Well, if you are
saved, then you are saved even as Abraham was saved. In the same manner, by the same
means, by the same God, to the same faith, the same justification
and blessing. So first of all, I want us to
see this. We were even as Abraham by nature. Remember, when God called Abraham,
what was he? He was a pagan. He was a pagan. He lived in Ur of the Chaldees. He had never heard of Jehovah.
He had never heard of God. He had never heard of Christ.
He had never been under the law of Moses. He was a pagan. He bowed down to false gods,
to idols. Even so, we like Abraham by nature
are pagans." Now listen, that's not commonly
preached, is it? That we in America are pagans. But listen, just because you
attend a church where the Gospel is preached, just because you
join a church that's made up of Christians, Just because your
parents are Christians does not make you Christian. Now, that's
what that's what men supposed for generations, especially in
the 1500s, that if you just went to church, you were automatically
Christian. If your parents were part of the church, you were
Christian. If you actually read the Bible in some manner or prayed
in some way, you were Christian. That's not true. You're a pagan
by nature. You're a pagan. If you do not know God, if God
has not spoken to you by His gospel of Jesus Christ, you do
not know Him. Now, you may know a lot about
God. You may know a lot about God,
but unless God revealed Himself to you like He did Abraham, you
don't know God. You don't know God. Knowing God
is something more than mental assent or knowledge. It is a
revelation that God himself must give you. It is something that
God must do. He must speak to you, even as
Abraham. Isn't that what it said in verse
8? God preached before the gospel
unto Abraham. He spoke to Abraham. He revealed
Himself to Abraham. And listen, if God has not done
that, then you're a pagan. In other words, you are worshiping
the God of your own making, your God of your own imagination.
This is what men do. This mind of ours is an idol
factory. It produces, well, I think God
is like this. Well, I think God is like this.
I believe God is like this. I don't care what you think and
I don't care what you feel. Only God can reveal Himself to
you. That's it. And if God has not
spoken to you and revealed Himself to you, you are a pagan, a heathen. and without God. You are dead
in your sins, blind to your condition, deaf to the Word of God, and
so lame that you cannot come to God by Christ. You cannot
come to Christ. Jesus said, no man can come unto
me, except, what? The Father which hath sent me
draw him, for it is written, they shall all be taught of God. How shall you be taught of God
if you've not heard of God? If you've not heard from God, how
shall you not be taught of God? You can be taught by all the
major universities in the world, and it will not matter. You could
be as sound in doctrine as a man could possibly be. But if God
has not revealed Himself, you are a pagan, just like Abraham. For 75 years, Abraham lived in
darkness. But one day, God spoke to Abraham. God spoke. Second thing that
is true about us, as same as Abraham, is our election. Our election of grace is the
same as Abraham's election. Out of all the people of the
country of the Ur of the Chaldees, who was chosen? Who did God speak
to? Abraham. Now, why did God speak
to him? Was Abraham more moral than any
of his countrymen? Did he know any more about God
than anyone else in his country? No. God spoke to Abraham because
God chose Abraham. Because God purposed to save
Abraham and make him to be the father of us all. The example
of his church. Even so, all that God will save
is all that God has chosen. As many as. Isn't that what the
Lord Jesus thou has given him? Power over all flesh to give
eternal life to who? As many as thou has given him. As many as. The Acts of the Apostles says,
as many as were ordained to eternal life what? Believed. as many
as were ordained to eternal life. Abraham believed because he was
ordained to believe. God purposed that he should believe. Even so it is with us. If you
have believed, you should recognize that you were chosen of God to
believe. It was by the free and sovereign
mercy of God. Blessed be the God and Father.
I'm sorry look at Psalm 105. I'll read it to you Psalm 105
verse 6 to prove this Oh you seed of Abraham his servant you
children of Jacob his chosen And we know this very clearly
from Ephesians chapter 1 blessed be the God and father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us even as he blessed Abraham
and blessed us, even as Abraham, with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, as we were put in union with
Christ, according as He had chosen us
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame, even as Abraham. So were we chosen. And listen,
were you a pagan, a sinner? See, God only saves sinners.
That's good. God only elects sinners. And listen, have you been chosen?
Have you been chosen of God? predestinated unto the adoption
of sons by Jesus Christ. Now then, thirdly, our justification
is the same as Abraham's. Even as Abraham believed God,
listen, it was accounted to him for righteousness, for justification. Righteousness. Now, what message
did God preach to Abraham? When God speaks to a man, what
does He speak of? How do you know what God... People
are always asking God to give them... Speak to them. Speak
to me! What do they want to hear? I
don't know what what about the future they want to hear about
future things They want to say well, you know, where do I go?
What do I do? They want they want God to be
like an eight ball. You see a little eight ball They
shake up and then it has a little answer you you ask you the question
you shake it up and they that's how they want God to be You want
God to give them answers? Should I buy a car or not? Should
I buy a house or not? They want God to speak on these
earthly things Listen, I'll tell you what God speaks on when God
speaks to a man. He speaks in this one thing about
his son and about his son. When he spoke to Abraham, what
did he speak of? He preached Christ. He preached
Christ. Verse 8, And the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, here's the gospel, shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed." What does he mean, in thee? Does
he mean in Abraham, that Abraham's going to be the blessing? No,
he says, in thee, meaning thy seed. Remember, God promised
that from his own bowels, from within him, should come forth
the Messiah, the seed. And so, in the seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. Behold, the blessing of God,
such as justification, righteousness, eternal life, peace and acceptance
with God, is only found in one place, in one person, rather,
the seed, the seed, who was before said to be the seed of the woman,
now revealed to be the seed of Abraham, later to be received
as the seed of Isaac and Jacob and David. Who is it? Christ,
Jesus, the Son of God. Look now and see before the foundation
of the world. We all, like Abraham, were chosen
of God and given to Jesus Christ for the purpose of our salvation.
Seeing that God would justify. Isn't that something? God purposing
to justify a people preached Jesus. to Abraham. And he was made flesh and representative
man, and has by his life honored the law
of God, and by his death suffered the penalty of all the sins of
his chosen race. This is what was preached to
Abraham. that salvation's in Christ, that He would come as
a man. Isn't that what seed is? He was
talking about a man. He said there's a man coming,
a seed coming. And not just any seed, but by
this seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. You see, Christ came and satisfied
the justice of God, the justice of the law for all His chosen
people, and the Father raised Him from the dead. and sat Him
upon the throne of God. And it is Jesus that now sits
ruling and reigning over all flesh to do what? To give eternal
life to as many as the Father gave Him. That's what He's doing,
friends. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not
sitting back. He's not relaxing. He's resting. But I tell you this, His work
is still yet being performed. He is saving His people. He is ruling and reigning over
all things. And so even as Abraham was justified
by Jesus Christ, so then we were justified in the same way, by
the seed. By the seed. We were pagan. We were chosen. And God justified
us by Christ. Isn't that amazing that Abraham
was justified even before Christ came? Isn't that something? And so
it is after Christ has already departed and went into heaven.
We've not seen Christ yet, but yet we have been justified before
we were born. We were justified by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And thirdly, our calling and
faith is the same as Abraham's. Our calling and faith. First
of all, Abraham heard the gospel before he believed it. Isn't
that the order of it? How can you believe it if you
never heard it? You can't. So he heard it and then he believed
it. Surely his experience was very different from ours. He
heard the very voice of God. Yet, we too have heard the voice
of God. You know that? The hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear. shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and they that hear shall live." You see, we too have heard
the voice of God. How? Through His preachers. Isn't that how in the Old Testament
men heard? Through prophets? God sent men
to declare His Word. But now we no longer need prophecy. All prophecy is sealed. All prophecy is done. It's everything
you need to know has already been revealed, already been given
to us in this Word. So now then we, Paul says, are
ambassadors for Christ as though God, listen, God did beseech
you by us. I know it's hard, unless you
believe the Word of God, to understand that His men are the voice of
God. We are the mouthpiece, that's
all. Isn't that what John says? He
said, I'm just a mouthpiece of one crying in the wilderness,
a voice. That's all I am, is a voice.
Now, because am I the voice of God, do I get to make up my own?
No. That's what the Roman Catholics
believe. They believe they're the voice of God, but they get
to make it up as they go along. No. Ambassadors don't get to
make up. What to say? They have directives. They have a word. And friend,
as an ambassador, I have a word for you. Be you reconciled to
God. How? Not by law. Be you reconciled
to God for this reason. God hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that you might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's our message. That's the
message that we preach. And upon this same gospel foundation,
Abraham trusted in the seed, for God hath preached to him
Christ, and he believed." Isn't that what it says? Even as Abraham
believed. He believed in Jesus Christ.
So do we believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The faith
of Abraham, listen, is the same faith as our faith. As Abraham believed in Christ,
so do we believe in Christ the same. I want you to know this. You
are more blessed than Abraham in a lot of ways. Abraham fully
did not understand what Christ would do. He didn't fully understand
the complete message. You have it all. You have the
Word of God complete. He had this. Look, this is what he had. You have all of this. Yet, our faith is any different?
No. It's not any different. See,
our faith is the same as Abraham's faith. We did... When Abraham
did... When he believed, where did it
come from? Where did his faith come from? Was it by his obedience? Did he obtain faith by obedience?
No. His faith, like your faith, is
a gift of God. In that what it says, For by
grace you are saved through faith, and that faith not of yourself,
it faith is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Our faith was a gift like Abraham.
So many are deceived today to think faith is the cause of salvation. This is a very dangerous and
evil doctrine, to believe faith is the cause of salvation. That faith is somehow makes the
work of Christ effectual or powerful. to the salvation of the soul.
Yet according to the Word of God, faith is a gift, a work
of God. Jesus said, this is the work
of God, that you should believe on Him whom He has sent. No man
can come to Me except the Father do the work, except the Father
draw him, teach him. Faith surely is necessary. You
must believe. Listen, nobody's going to believe
for you. Nobody's going to believe for you. You must believe but
I tell you if you ever believe God must give it to you God must
give it to you and What is faith faith is the evidence not the
cause? Faith is a substance of things hoped for listen evidence
of things not seen Even so as Abraham believed God and he was
redeemed by faith by the gift of God's grace so are we Therefore
we believe Give glory to God's grace for such a faith. And next, the object of his faith
was the same. What was the object of Abraham's
faith? It was a seed. What is the object of your faith?
What is the object of your faith? Abraham believed in Christ. So
do we believe in, by faith, the work of Christ, the victory of
Christ over sin and death, the triumph of Christ to fulfill
the law and satisfy the justice of God. And what comfort this
gives us who believe even as Abraham. Now listen, Abraham's
faith Abraham's faith look what it look what it resulted in here
it says Even as Abraham believed God and what? Yet was accounted
to him for Righteousness now this is vitally important many
people make a huge mistake here to say that the word it refers
to his faith Since when does faith give you righteousness
and Is faith the cause of your righteousness? No. It was counted, imputed. What was counted? The righteousness
of Christ was imputed for His own personal righteousness. Faith
is the evidence that I'm made righteous, that this righteousness
is imputed to me. But faith is not the cause. It was not Abraham's faith that
was accounted to him for righteousness. It was the righteousness of Christ
that was accounted to him for his own personal righteousness.
Our faith does not produce righteousness, nor does God look on our faith
as merit for righteousness. Friend, don't look at your faith.
Don't look to your faith. Faith in your faith is empty,
isn't it? It's vain. Why? Your faith so
fluctuates from day to day, moment to moment. Your faith... What do we account for our faith?
I tell you, my faith is so weak it should be just filled with
unbelief. My faith is so filled with unbelief. Faith is but the channel by which
God supplies the righteousness of Christ. I like this illustration. I don't know, guess it's back
in the early 20th century. There were some diplomats from
an African tribe out in the desert, came to France, and they were
put up in this hotel. And they had just installed running
water in this hotel. And these people had never seen
anything like that. They were amazed. They flipped the faucet
on and water poured out. They were amazed. They'd never
seen anything. They had to dig wells. They had to, you know,
find water and all kinds. And there it was, water. Turned
on a faucet and water came out. So in their ignorance, they stole
the faucet. And they brought it back, and
of course, you cut the faucet on, there's no water. There's no water. There's no
water supply. So faith in one's faith is a
faucet with no water. No supply. But true God-given faith is never
divorced from real righteousness. Faith is only the channel by
which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. Do you believe
on Christ? Then even as Abraham, listen,
you are righteous. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is now and forever imputed to you as your own personal righteousness. With His holy garments on, I
am as holy as the Holy One. Romans 3.22 even, the righteousness
of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Obtained, purchased
by the faith of Jesus Christ, this same righteousness of God
unto all and upon all, then that belief. Unto all is better translated
into all. By force, the word has meaning
of force, as though you were to put something into. What did
God do by the new nature? By force He put that righteous
nature into us. Created after God in true holiness. And not only that, it is upon
all. This word means on top of, underneath,
and around. In other words, Christ is our
refuge, isn't He? So when God sees us, how does
He see us? Only through Christ. The imputed righteousness of
Christ. So we have righteousness imparted to us and righteousness
imputed to us. It is our righteousness. Even the righteousness of God
obtained by Christ. This is the great error of many,
for our faith is not counted as righteousness, but the righteousness
of Christ that is imparted to us and imputed to us is counted
for our righteousness. Number four, our believing is
the same of Abraham in that we all receive the same blessing.
The same blessing. Look at it in verse 8, "...the
Scripture foreseeing God would justify the heathen through faith
preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. So then they which
be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." What is this
blessing? What is this blessing? Back in
Genesis 15 and verse 1, God, after the slaughter of those
five kings, you remember, God came to him and he said this
to Abraham, Fear not, I am thy exceeding great reward. Fear not. What was the blessings
of Abraham? The blessing of Abraham was this,
he was not to be afraid of God. Fear not. Are you afraid? Are you fearful because of your
circumstances? Are you fearful that God might
have forsaken you? That God might have forgot about
you? God says this, can a woman forget
the child on her breast. He said, yes, but I will never
forget you. Fear not. I will never, no, never
leave you nor forsake you. Why? I have given you righteousness. There's nothing to cast you out
of my presence. Fear not. I am thy shield. This is another blessing, isn't
it? I am thy shield, thy refuge, thy safety. None is able to loose
thee from the grip of my holy hand. None shall condemn you. None shall accuse you. I have
justified you. Christ has died for you. Nothing
shall separate you from my love. Nothing. Nothing is beyond His control.
can reach you, for I have given you all my own righteousness."
So then, what is Abraham's reward? God said, I am thy exceeding
great reward. So what then is the blessing
of Abraham? Not to be afraid. Don't be afraid. Someone said
that there are over 365 references to fear not or be not afraid,
one for every day of the year. I'm sure that there may be more.
If that's not true, there's got to be more. How many times did
God say, fear not? I am your shield. You are as
safe as Noah was in the ark. You are as safe as Jesus Christ
is on the throne. How safe is that? I am thy shield,
and I am your exceeding great reward. If Abraham is the father
of us all and the example of us all, is this our faith? Were
you a pagan? Were you chosen of God? You can
only know that if God spoke to you like He did Abraham. Did
God speak to you? Did He speak to you the Word
concerning His Son? Did you believe the Word of God
as it was spoken to you? Then you are justified. Even
as Abraham is now in glory, justified, you are right now justified and
just as sure as Abraham went to heaven, so will you. And just
as sure as he is enjoying the presence of God forever, so will
we. Now, last question I want to
ask before I move on, because it's going to tie to next time.
When was Abraham justified? Before or after the law? He was justified before the law.
He was justified without the law. Even so, we who believe in Christ
have the righteousness of Christ and justified by the faith of
Jesus Christ without the Law. Now, does your pattern fit? If
it does, happy are you! Happy are you! And how foolish
would we be to return to the Law, seeing we have all these
things, and are blessed even as Abraham. the faith of the
righteous. God bless this to your hearts.