Galatians chapter 3 and this
morning we'll be looking at verses 6 down to verse 14. Verse 6 to verse 14 in the title
of the message this morning is the faith of Abraham. The faith of Abraham. Let's begin
our reading in verse 6. Paul says, 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. 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. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God is evident. The just shall live
by faith. The law is not a faith. The man
that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed 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 last week we saw that Paul
Paul moved from preaching that justification is not by the law,
and in the beginning of chapter 3, he concludes also that our
sanctification is not by the law. Now what is that? Justification. Justification
is innocence. No man is innocent or made innocent
by obedience to the law. No man. No, man. The law only
finds us guilty. The only way a man is justified
before God is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That is
the only way God justifies. He justifies us by Jesus Christ
and Him alone. And so are sanctification. The
word sanctification, it means to be set apart, to be made holy. We are made holy by the Holy
Spirit in the new nature. In the new nature. We were, who
believe in Christ, we were sanctified, set apart by God from all eternity
and election. He chose us before the foundation
of the world. We were sanctified in Christ. The scripture says that God hath
made Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. And we were sanctified by the
Holy Spirit in the new birth, in the new nature. When God the
Holy Spirit came to us, He resurrected our souls so that we would have
a new nature created by Him. So then in every believer there
are two natures. There is a nature of sin that
he is born with and then there is a nature which is of God that
is created by God in him. And that nature is holy, it is
righteous as God Himself. The nature that is created inside
the believer is as holy and just as God. Why? He was created after
holiness and true righteousness. In Ephesians chapter 4, I believe
verse 24, it says, Put on the new man which is created after
God in true holiness and righteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, We
are bound to give thanks always to God for you. Brethren, beloved
of the Lord, Because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. How? Always through the sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto we are called by the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, so then, having begun by
faith in Christ, having begun by the Spirit through faith,
Do we make ourselves perfect by law? That's what Paul's asking. He said, do we begin this walk
of salvation with Christ by faith and then do we finish it by our
own actions? He said, no, that's foolishness. Look at this in verse 2. He said,
this only would I learn of you, receive you the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Which one? Was it by
the law you were saved or was it by the hearing of the gospel
through faith in Christ that you were saved? Which one? He
said, are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit you're made
perfect by the flesh? You see, we're made perfect by
the Spirit. We're not made perfect by the law. To believe such is foolishness. And all who continue to believe
that their sanctification or any part of their salvation comes
by what they do, friends, they are dead in their sins and they
are lost. If you are hoping, if you are
trusting in something you have done, something you are holding
on to, to be accepted with God, you're lost. and don't know the
truth. You don't know Christ. You're
still trusting in something you've done. Look over in chapter 5.
This is very important. Chapter 5 and look at verse 2. Paul says, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that
he is a debtor to the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever you are, justified by the law. You are
fallen from grace. He is saying that if a man take
any part of the law, Ten Commandments, if you try to live by those Ten
Commandments in order to be justified before God, He said, Christ shall
profit you nothing. That's very clear, isn't it?
You take any part of the law, you are a debtor to the whole
law. If you take circumcision, you're
indebted to the sacrifices of the law. If you take the Ten
Commandments, you are indebted to the government of the law,
the dietary measures of the law. You are indebted to the whole
law if you take any part of it. And Christ is nothing to you.
He says, I don't care what you profess. Christ is of no value
to those people. Now, in verse 6, Paul uses the
example to prove his point that all salvation comes by faith
in Christ. And he uses Abraham. Abraham. Why did he use Abraham as an
example? Well, because there is no one
in Scripture that exhibited more faith in the Old Testament toward
Christ than Abraham. No one. If you were to read Hebrews
chapter 11, you would see a long list of people in the Old Testament
who believed in Christ. But do you know who is mentioned
most in that chapter? Abraham. Abraham is mentioned
most in that chapter. And number two, Abraham was chosen
because he was justified 430 years before the law was given. That's why he was chosen. Remember,
Paul is making the point that a man is not justified by the
law. And so he was 430 years before
the law of Moses, Abraham is a great example that
God imputes righteousness without the law. If he was 430 years
before the law, is it not reasonable to say that God justified him
before there was ever a law written? He was justified. And the covenant
of circumcision even was after he had believed God. And that was the seal. Circumcision
did not do anything for his salvation. It was a seal, a sign that God
had done something for his heart. That's all circumcision was.
It was a picture of what God does to the heart of man. And Abraham, thirdly, was mostly
admired by the Jewish people. These Judaizers that came in. to this church and started preaching
that salvation was by works plus Christ, they admired Abraham
more than anybody else. You know why? Because they believed,
because they were descendants of Abraham, that they were okay. They told Christ this. They said,
we be Abraham's seed. They were very proud of that,
their descendants, their ancestors. They brought in this blasphemous
doctrine of mixing works and grace. And they were very familiar
with Abraham. And so Paul goes right to the
heart of the matter. Verse 6. Even as Abraham believed
God, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham's faith. Abraham's faith,
he believed God. In what did Abraham believe? If righteousness is accounted
by faith, if righteousness is imputed through faith, then it's
important to know what to believe, isn't it? Believe what? I'm sure everybody in this world
believes something. And I'm sure that 99.9% of the
world believes there is a God. Is that enough? Is that what
he's talking about? Abraham believed in general that
there's a God and so God gave him righteousness. Is that what
he believed? No. The Scripture says the devils
believe in God and they tremble. Man believes in God and he won't
even tremble. But this faith was not toward
God in general, but rather toward Jesus Christ. Go over to Genesis
chapter 15. Look over to Genesis chapter
15 and look at verse 4. And behold, The word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Remember, Abraham's old. He's 100 years old. And yet God says, Out of your
own bowels shall come forth an heir. And he brought him forth abroad,
and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be
able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. And here it is. And he believed
in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. What did he believe? What did
he believe about the Lord? He said the seed. Look up there and see the seed.
Look up, see the stars and count them. That's how many of your
seed there shall be. But it will be from your it will
start from you. It will come from your own bowels. In other words, the Christ shall
come forth from you, from your line. And in Him shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. The seed, the promised seed shall
come from Abraham. He believed in the promised Messiah. That's what he believed in. He
believed in the coming of Christ, the gospel that was preached
to him. He said in verse 8, the gospel,
before the gospel, he preached the gospel unto Abraham. In these shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. In John chapter 8, verse 56,
how do I know this? How did Abraham believe in Christ
before Christ came? How is that possible? How did
he know Christ before that? Listen to what Jesus said about
Abraham. He said, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. And listen to this, and saw it. How did Abraham see it? He saw it the same way we see
Christ, by faith. We believe God's Word concerning
Christ. Abraham believed God's Word concerning
Christ. And it was accounted. It was credited. It was put to
his account righteousness through faith in Christ. The only righteousness God will
accept is the righteousness of Christ. He will never accept any righteousness
that is not perfect. And only Jesus Christ has perfect
righteousness. Well, guess what? That's what
we need. God will not accept any less than absolute perfection. Who here is perfect? Who here has obeyed God's law
absolutely perfectly? Not one of us. There is none
that doeth good. No, not one, the Scripture says. But Christ, He came and He honored
God's law perfectly. Not for himself, but for his
people as their substitute. As their substitute. He honored
God's law by his faithfulness to God. And Abraham believed
God, and it was charged, righteousness was charged his account. Imputed,
that's what it is, imputed to Christ, imputed to him was Christ's
righteousness. And Christ's righteousness is
imputed and accredited to sinners on their account who come to
Him by faith, who believe on Christ. Now, the act of faith does not
cause God to impute righteousness. No. But rather, it is the result
of the object of faith that imputes righteousness. Faith is not a work. It's not
something we do so that it bends the arm of God so that He has
to give us righteousness. No, God freely, sovereignly gives
us righteousness and thereby gives us faith in Christ. It is evidence. Faith is an evidence. of what God has already done
to the soul. Faith and life, they come together
at the same time. I've never known anybody to have
life without faith, and I've never known anybody to have faith
without life. They come together, and they
come by the Spirit of grace. If faith were the cause of our
justification, then it would be a work and no more grace.
You see, you can't mix the two. You are either saved by grace
or you're saved by works and never the two shall meet. You cannot be saved by your works. You are only saved if God is
pleased to save you. I've told you this many times,
I love my children, but I cannot save them. God must do something for them.
And you know what? If God does nothing for them,
God is still good. If God doesn't save my children,
God is still good. He doesn't diminish His goodness. The Scripture says in Romans
4, verse 7 and 8, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. To everyone He imputes righteousness,
guess what? He will not impute iniquity.
In other words, Christ took what we deserved, what we earned. Our sin and death. That's the
only thing we could ever claim, isn't it? Is our sin. Jesus took our sins to Himself. God imputed them and Christ willingly
took them. And when He suffered on the cross,
He suffered all the wrath of God for all the sins of His people. And friends, God was completely
satisfied by His blood. It is only by blood that remission
of sins comes. But our blood is worthless. If
we were to die a million deaths, it would not pay for one sin. If we were to give ourselves
to be burned, if we were to give ourselves wholly and become monks
and all we did was pray and all we did was read, that would not
take away one sin. Not one. But Christ, after He
had made one offering for sin, sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on High. You see, He sat down. Why? He
was finished. He finished it. Finish what?
Righteousness. Perfect righteousness. And now
He sits on the throne and charges it to whoever believes in Him. Whosoever believeth in Him. Righteousness is not imputed
without an atonement for sin. You think about that, we had
to have our sins atoned for before righteousness could come, right?
Otherwise, the righteousness would become sin. If we still
had our sin and God gave us righteousness, it would become contaminated,
wouldn't it? But God gave us righteousness by taking away
our sins first, and then by faith imputing that righteousness to
our charge. But all who believe on Christ
have been justified from their sins, and their sins have been
covered by the blood of Christ. And the righteousness that was
charged to Abraham was also charged to us. Paul in Romans chapter
4 tells us that this is not only for Abraham's sake, it's not
only for his sake, but it was for our sake these things were
written. The Scriptures are for us, friends. They're for us. Abraham was chosen because he
was a good example, because he had righteousness imputed by
faith. Faith in what? Faith in Christ.
You have no faith in Christ, you have no cause to think that
God imputed righteousness to you. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Faith in who? Christ, and Christ
alone. Number two, Who are the sons
of Abraham? He says in verse 9, So then,
they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Who are the sons of Abraham? I'm sorry, verse 7. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. These Judaizers prided themselves
in being a descendant of Abraham. I told you that. But Jesus told them this in that
same chapter in John chapter 8. He said this, You are of your
father the devil. Now they were descendants of
Abraham. But they were also children of
Satan. It does not matter where we come
from. This is the point. It doesn't
matter who our parents were. It doesn't matter who our ancestors
were. If we were born of kings or peasants,
if you were born of a preacher or a drunk, if you were born
of royal descent or not, it doesn't matter. Our ancestry profits
us nothing. It doesn't tell us anything about
who are the children of God. Who are the children of God?
Well, they're the children of Abraham. And Abraham is the father
of the faithful, the scripture says. Those who are of faith
are the children of Abraham. Do you know that only the promises
in the Old Testament were given to the children of Israel, to
the descendants of Abraham? But God did not mean that in
a literal sense. Now, physical blessings came
for those descendants, but spiritual blessings come only to those
who are the descendants of Abraham spiritually. You remember that
Paul says, not all they that are of Israel are of Israel.
And he's talking in a spiritual sense. We are children of Abraham
in a spiritual sense. Why? Because our faith is the
same as his faith. It's in Christ. And the gospel that was preached
to Abraham is the same gospel that is preached to us, that
salvation, justification of all men is not based on physical
descent, but rather faith in Christ. Faith in Christ alone. And all who believe on Christ, you're just like Abraham. You
know how your children have your traits? Guess what? We have the
trait of Abraham, don't we? Faith. Faith. And so then all
of the blessings of Abraham are our blessings. All of the blessings
that were given to him and to his seed are our blessings. You remember that God called
Abraham His friend? Is that not a blessing? Jesus Christ said Himself, I
call you no more servants, but friends. To be the friend of God. That's what imputed righteousness
gives us. It gives us a standing before
God. The promise of God is fulfilled
in Christ and it is delivered to only those who come to him
by faith. I look at this in verse 10 for
as many as are of the works of the law are under the law for
it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth. I'm sorry, a curse
is everyone that doeth not all things written in the book of
law to do them now. This has reference not to any
other part of the law, but the moral law. If you were to look
this up in Deuteronomy 27, you would see that he's talking about
the Ten Commandments. He's talking about the Ten Commandments. And if he says, if you abide
by these, if this is your way to God, If you do not continue
in these things all the days of your life, every second of
your life, every thought of your life, every deed, every motive,
if it is not according to these things, then you are cursed. You are cursed. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them. But no man is justified by the
law, and the sight of God is evident. For the just shall live
by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
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. Friend,
my faith is in this. It is in Christ was made a curse
for me. Christ was made a curse for His
people. And Him being made a curse, He
has redeemed us from every part of the law. Every part. Especially the curse part. And
you know what? All those who believe in Christ,
God is just and He will never, never, Charge our sins at the
hand of Christ and then charge them at my hand. He would be
unjust to do that. You can't be just and charge
sins twice to a man. My sins have already been charged
to Christ. And His righteousness has been charged to me. It's
mine. It's yours. And how does righteousness come?
It comes by faith. No man has the righteousness
of God without faith. You can't claim that. I know
I was righteous before the foundation of the world, but I didn't know
that till God gave me faith. I didn't know that. Faith realizes
and receives what God gives. Have you believed on Christ? If you have, you have the righteousness
of God in him. I pray God bless this to us.