In Galatians chapter 3, the title
of this message is the blessing of Abraham. The blessing of Abraham. Verse 14, if I get to that this
morning, speaks of the blessing of Abraham. And just to start
off with, I'll just give you where this whole thing is headed.
The Apostle Paul, as you know, he's seeking to recover these
professing believers from the error of Jewish legalism. And
you know the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, they boasted of their physical
connection with Abraham as being part of their entitlement or
that which recommends them unto God for salvation and for glory. Always keep in mind as you go
through the New Testament you see each Each thing that the
unbelieving Jews would plead as making up part of their righteousness
before God, gospel preachers, especially Paul, dispelled by
the preaching of Christ crucified. And as you know, the three things
that they mainly boasted in was their number one, their physical
connection with Abraham. We be Abraham's seed, they would
say. Talking about their physical
connection now. There's a spiritual connection
with Abraham. That's the blessing of Abraham
We're going to talk about that and then their circumcision.
In fact, they were called the circumcision Remember palm Philippians
3 and verse 3 says we are the circumcision. That's believers.
That's spiritual circumcision, but they boasted in physical
circumcision as attaching them to the covenant. And it did attach
them to the old covenant, but it meant nothing as far as eternal
salvation or justification before God or any entitlement or claim
upon eternal glory. And so that was dispelled. And
then their third boast was their following the law of Moses. We
have Moses, they would say. Remember in John chapter five,
they boasted of that in Christ. took him to task on that. He
said, if you were Moses, Moses would be your judge. Moses wrote
of me and you deny me, you deny the Christ, you deny salvation
by God's grace. And that's what Moses was all
about, even in the law, which was to expose their sin. Well,
he's gonna talk about that a little bit in this passage too. But
what is the blessing of Abraham? Well, the blessing of Abraham
is the blessing of salvation. by the sovereign grace of God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Abraham looked to by faith,
God-given faith, he looked to the future, the promise of the
coming of a savior, the promise of the coming of the Messiah,
that God promised him in the preaching of the gospel. God
preached the gospel to Abraham, the scripture tells us. And Abraham,
by the grace of God, just like we look back at Christ who has
already come, and we plead the merits of his finished work,
a work already accomplished in time, Abraham looked forward
to the coming of that promise, the fulfillment of that promise
in time. And Abraham was justified before
God by promise. It was like a promissory note.
In other words, everything Abraham had by way of spiritual and eternal
blessing was based upon the Lord Jesus Christ coming to fulfill
all the requirements and conditions of his salvation. And that's
what Abraham believed. So the blessing of Abraham is
the blessing of salvation, eternal life. It's the blessing of justification
before God. by God's free sovereign grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blessing of righteousness
by Christ. Abraham's righteousness, the
righteousness that was imputed, accounted, charged to Abraham
was the righteousness or is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ who would come in time and fulfill that. It's the blessing
of spiritual life. Abraham was born again by the
Spirit. because it was so sure and certain
that Christ would come and die for his sins, be buried and raised
again the third day. So spiritual, the same source
of spiritual life for Abraham is the same source of spiritual
life for us. So we have the blessing of salvation
by grace, the blessing of righteousness by grace, the blessing of spiritual
life by God's grace, and the blessing of eternal glory all
by His grace. Now some people say, well, the
blessing of Abraham here just refers to the promise of the
coming of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's included. It's certainly
included, but that's not all of it. What does the spirit do
when he comes? He convicts us of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. He drives, he convicts us of
our sinfulness and our depravity to the point that we see and
know that we have nothing to recommend us unto God. We have
nothing, even the best of us, even our best will fall short
of God's glory, God's standard of righteousness, and then the
Spirit drives us to Christ for all salvation. So yes, it does
include the coming of the Holy Spirit, but it includes all of
salvation. Now, Paul begins here using Abraham
as an example of how God saves sinners, how God justifies sinners. Look at verse six. He says, even
as Abraham believed God. Now, first thing you gotta stop
there and understand, what did God promise Abraham? Because
whatever it was, that's what Abraham believed. It wasn't just
believing in some vacuum, There was something promised to Abraham.
And you can go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, and go
all the way up through Abraham's life, and you can see that, and
we're gonna see how the apostle Paul applies it to the problem
that he's going through here, that the Galatians are going
through, as he applies what God promised Abraham. Well, Abraham
believed God. Well, we've talked about it.
God promised Abraham salvation. by the coming of Messiah, the
God man, the one who was promised back in Genesis chapter three.
And so it says in verse six, even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted, now that word accounted, you may have
it in your concordance there, it's the word imputed. That's
what it is. So we're talking about the doctrine
of imputation here. We're talking about justification
by something that is charged, accounted. it was accounted to
him for righteousness. Now turn back over to Romans
chapter four. In fact, if you go through and
read Galatians three, the parallel passage in the New Testament
is Romans chapter four. Look at it, he says in verse
one of Romans four, he says, what shall we say then that Abraham
our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? What did Abraham
find as by way of blessing that was based upon anything in Abraham,
his flesh, that's what he's talking about, his person. And he says,
for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to
glory, but not before God. That word glory means to boast.
It's the same word in Philippians 3 and verse 3. We rejoice, we
glory in Christ Jesus. It's the same word in Galatians
6, 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, when it come
to Abraham, what was Abraham? He was a sinner. He was an idolater. And he's saved by the grace of
God, and nothing of that salvation or blessing could be attributed
to Abraham's person or Abraham's works. That's the flesh. None
of it. It was all sovereign grace. So Abraham, in verse three, he
says, or he says in verse two, but not before God. For what
saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now that's quoted from the book
of Genesis chapter 15, just like over here in Galatians 3 and
verse 6. And I won't go through all of
Romans 4, because I don't have time. But what he's talking about,
look at verse 9 of Romans 4. Let's just skip over to that.
Well, read verse 6. We've got to read verse 6 of
Romans 4. He uses David, too, as an example to support what
he's saying about Abraham. How was Abraham justified? Well,
something was accounted, charged, imputed to Abraham. And what
was that exactly? Well, verse six tells us, even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without works. Now that's what was imputed
to Abraham, that's what was imputed to David, that's what is accounted,
charged, imputed to every one of God's people, righteousness. And that righteousness can only
be found in the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not founded upon or found
in anything of ourselves or anything we do or anything in us. It's
totally what Christ has accomplished for us. And so look down at verse
11. He says, Abraham received the
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet being uncircumcised. Now, what is the righteousness
of the faith? That's the imputed righteousness of Christ. What
is our faith? What do we believe? What did
God promise? Not salvation based upon what
we do or don't do. Not even salvation based upon
our believing. Yes, we must believe, but that's
the work of the Holy Spirit. That's the fruit. what Christ
accomplished and look at verse 11 he says that he might be the
father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised
that righteousness might be imputed unto them also so it goes back
go back to Galatians 3 it goes back to this subject how in order
to be saved in order to be accepted with God you and I must be righteous
now how are we going to attain that How am I, a sinner, going
to be righteous? Well, how did Abraham, that sinner,
attain it? How did David, that sinner? So
what Paul's doing here, verse six again of Galatians 3, even
as Abraham believed God and it, righteousness, was accounted
to him for righteousness. Now people say, well, why would
he repeat that? Well, the it technically refers
to this, what Christ would accomplish as our surety. Let's read it
this way. Even as Abraham believed God
and what Christ would accomplish as our surety was accounted to
him for righteousness. Now that's what it means. He's
not just repeating the word righteousness there. He's showing that righteousness
can only be found in what God promised Abraham to send Messiah
to do his great work. And that's what was imputed to
Abraham. Well, how do you know that? Well, look at verse seven.
And that's the whole thing. Keep in mind, now the context,
here's these false teachers who are saying that righteousness
can be attained by circumcision or by following the law of Moses
or by keeping certain days. And they claim to be children
of Abraham. We're children of Abraham. Well, they were physically,
but not spiritually. And so he says, even as Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Verse
seven, know ye therefore that they which are of faith. Now,
what is it to be of faith? Well, what is that faith? It's
faith in Christ. It's that faith which reveals
to us and teaches us that Christ and Jesus Christ alone is our
righteousness before God. And that's what we believe by
the power of the Holy Spirit. And it says, the same are the
children of Abraham. Now, unless you're born of the
physical nation of Israel, you cannot claim any physical connection
to Abraham, to be a child of Abraham. So what is he talking
about here? And he's talking to both Jewish
and Gentile believers. And that's apparent. We'll see
that coming up here. Well, what is, he's talking about
a spiritual connection with Abraham. Spiritual children of Abraham,
that's what it's all about. That's what he's saying. We're
of faith. That means we're of the truth.
The doctrine of Christ. Those who believe in Christ believe
that which is according to faith. What God promised Abraham. Abraham
believed, now you can believe anything. But it takes the power
of the Holy Spirit to believe this. That's what the scripture
tells us. So who are spiritual children
of Abraham? Well, they're those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who plead his righteousness alone.
So he says in verse eight, look at it, he goes back to the scripture.
Now look at it, and the scripture, the written word of God, foreseeing
that God would justify who? The heathen. Now what is a heathen? That's not just something that
we attach to rebellious children in our families, that little
heathen. A heathen is a way that the Jews would refer to a Gentile,
a non-Jew. And so the scripture foreseen
that God would justify. In other words, the scriptures
prophesied this. God's word prophesied this. This
is not the word of man. This is the word of God. Would
justify. Now what is it to justify? It's
to be not guilty. It's to be declared righteous
before God, and God's gonna justify the heathen through faith. Now,
it's not by their believing. That faith there is what God
promised Abraham, the teaching of the gospel. And you'll see
that later on in Galatians 3. He talks about, like in verse
23, he says, but before faith came, we were kept under the
law. That faith that he's talking
about is the content of the gospel, the truth, the doctrine of Christ.
You see, and what he's saying here is before Christ came and
did his work, the Jewish nation was kept under the law. But now
that Christ has come and done his great work, they're no longer
under the law, even though they wanna be. But that's unbelief,
that's legalism, that's self-righteousness. But Christ has come now. Now
go back to verse eight. The scripture foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith, through Christ,
through the promise that God made Abraham, preach before the
gospel unto Abraham. There's the key. The gospel's
the good news of how God justifies the ungodly, like Abraham. The
gospel's the good news of how God sent his son into the world
to put away the sins of his people. He was made sin, sin imputed
to him, charged in. The gospel's the good news of
how Christ finished that great work, redeemed his people, and
established the only righteousness whereby God could be just to
justify the ungodly. And that was preached to Abraham,
and this is included, look at verse eight, saying, in thee
shall All nations be blessed, not just the Jewish nation. God
has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
Christ said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. You see
that? So he says in verse nine, now
look at it. So then they which be of faith, those who believe
in Christ, those who plead his blood, his righteousness, are
blessed with faithful Abraham. We who are believers by the grace
of God, we have the same blessing that Abraham had. Now that's
not talking about physical blessings. It's not talking about a physical
piece of real estate over in the Mideast. Listen, if it were
talking about physical blessings, you know what? We'd all be rich
physically, because Abraham was rich physically. He was blessed
that way. He was a rich man, wasn't he?
Well, not all of us are. It's like very few of us ever
are. But Abraham was. So it's not
talking about physical blessings, it's talking about spiritual
blessings. It's talking about salvation. Now, what he does
now in the next verses, he shows the impossibility of salvation
by works of law. The impossibility of being justified,
being declared righteous before God by works of law. Look at
verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse. That's talking about those who
are seeking salvation by their works. They're under the curse. Why? Because he says it, 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. The law
requires perfect obedience to its precepts. And so if you're
seeking salvation by your works, your works have to be perfect.
You cannot have any sin in you or charged to you. Because where
sin exists, And where sin is charged, there must be condemnation. That's what he's saying. That's
what the curse is. So verse 11, look at it. But that no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God. And that's key there,
in the sight of God. That's evident. It's almost like
Paul saying, can't you see this? You're trying to be righteous
before God by your works? Well, it's evident, it's obvious
that no sinner can do that. Would you claim that your works,
your thoughts, your motives have always been perfect before holy
God? Well, no, he says it's evident
that no flesh, no man is justified by the law on the side of God,
for he says the just shall live by faith. The justified, those
who are just before God, those who are righteous before God,
how do they live? They live by looking to Christ,
the author and finisher of their faith. You see, it's Christ,
this is the whole thing. In Romans 4 and Galatians 3 and
throughout the whole Bible. Christ, we believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the object of our faith.
He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by Him. Yes, we must believe, but it's
not our believing that makes us righteous. It's not our believing
that puts away our, it's Christ. We believe in Him. There's a
difference there. And people have missed that today.
So he says in verse 12, look. The law is not of faith. There's
the law and there's the gospel. The law condemns. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. The law shows us that we are
not righteous and have no righteousness in ourselves or by our works.
The gospel reveals the righteousness of God in Christ. The law is
not of faith. And you could say it this way,
I've heard preachers say it this way, and it's right, the law
doesn't require you to believe it, the law requires you to do
it. Do and live, disobey and die,
that's the only thing the law can say. You remember the rich
young man, I'm gonna bring that up in the next message, in the
main message. Remember the rich young man when
he said, What must I do to earn or deserve eternal life? And
Christ said, well, keep the law. And the rich young man said,
well, I've done that from my youth up. So Christ put it to
the test. He said, okay, one thing you
like, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor.
Well, he couldn't do that. But see, if you're trying to
be saved by your works, if you claim to have perfect perfection
under the law, that means you love your neighbor as yourself. That means you'll do to your
neighbor what you desire your neighbor to do to you. And we don't have that kind of
love. That convicts us all, and that's why the rich young man
went away sorrowing. Said he had great possessions.
He didn't love his neighbor perfectly. And understand too that your
neighbor included in your neighborhood is your worst enemy. You understand
that? My worst enemy is my neighbor.
We can't pick and choose our neighbors. Christ taught that. He says there, and he says, they
which are blessed are blessed with faith for Abraham. No man
can be justified by works of the law. The law is not of faith.
Verse 12, look at it. The law is not of faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them. If that's how you're
trying to be saved, then you've got it all to do. You know, Paul
said that over in Galatians chapter five, he said, He said in verse
three, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
meaning circumcised, thinking that that's what makes him accepted
before God or righteous before God, he's a debtor to do the
whole law. You've got it all to do. Well,
he brings it down to the ground and cause of that blessing of
Abraham, the ground and cause of salvation. Now look at verse
13. He says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Now Christ is the Redeemer. And the reason that we who are
saved can honestly say that we're not under the curse anymore,
that we're not under the curse of the law, is because we've
been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And been redeemed by
anything we do, Not redeemed by anything else, redeemed only
by the blood of Christ. And how did he do it? And here's
the essence of substitution, imputation, and satisfaction
right here. Being made a curse for us. That's
Christ our substitute. This is absolute substitution
right here. Christ having the sins of his
people charged to his account was brought under the curse of
the law, the broken law, the law which we broke, not that
he broke. He kept it every jot and tell.
Our sins were imputed to him. Our corruption was not infused
into him or transferred to him or they didn't contaminate him,
but he was made a curse just like he was made sin. For it's
written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That's talking
about the death sentence that was given for certain crimes. Well, our crimes deserve death. The soul that sinneth must surely
what? Die. For the wages of sin is
what? Death. And that's the point he's
making there. Christ, he was made a curse. based on sin imputed to him.
And he was really made a curse. This wasn't God pretending here. This is the reality. And why
did he do it? Here's the fruit of it. Look
at verse 14. That the blessing of Abraham, all the blessing
that we described at the beginning, might come on who? The Gentiles
through Christ. Not just the Gentiles. But you
see the issue here is that these false preachers are bringing
up is that they're saying that a Gentile has to become a Jew
in essence, ceremonially and religiously, in order to be saved.
And Paul says, no, that's not the case. That's not the way
it is. The blessing of Abraham comes
on the Gentiles and the Jews based on what? Christ redeeming
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. So
it's not circumcision that justifies you. It's not keeping the law
that does it. That'll condemn you. It's the blood of Christ. It's
the righteousness of Christ. And he says that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now that's where a lot
of people get to the point and they say, well, that means just
the coming of the Holy Spirit. Well, that's included. But what
is the promise of the Spirit? Well, whenever the gospel is
preached, that's the promise of the Spirit. That's the Holy
Spirit when it's applied to the heart when that gospel is applied
to the hearts of God's people in the new birth. That's what
it is, preaching Christ. What does the spirit do? He leads
us to Christ. And yes, he does indwell us forever,
and he'll never leave us.