Galatians chapter 3 and 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 nations be
blessed. So then, they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading of his word to us. I think that you will agree with
me that there is a warmth and an earnestness in the Apostle
Paul's message to his Galatian brothers and sisters. As indeed
there ought always to be when the gospel is being set forth
and when it's being preached. Paul's epistle obviously was
written down, but he is talking about preaching. He mentioned
several times the hearing of faith and he speaks of Jesus
Christ being evidently set forth, crucified among you. And he even
speaks in the verses we read together of the gospel being
preached to Abraham. I think that's a very potent
thought to realise that we have the gospel preached to us today,
but the gospel was preached to Abraham as well. And that's the
Apostle Paul that's telling us that, and of course the Holy
Spirit. Preaching is not a speech. and it's not a lecture. It isn't
intended merely to educate and inform us, although those are
included. But true preaching is spiritual
strengthening and spiritual sustaining and equipping. We ought to come
away from preaching. We ought to come away from a
sermon challenged and comforted and praising God for what he
has done for us in Jesus Christ. When the apostle says we preach
Christ crucified, it is for our comfort, for our challenging
and to give us a reason to worship the Lord. Paul was concerned
for the souls and the Christian testimony of his friends in the
Galatian churches and he was angry at the error being spread
amongst them. They were losing sight of the
message of divine mercy and sovereign grace. And this disturbed the
apostle. He had taught these things and
now these troublers of the Galatian believers were undermining the
ministry that he had given. The Galatians knew the truth. They were believers. but they
were being deceived and distracted into thinking that once they
had been saved, now they should build on their conversion the
righteousness of their own making. Once they had received the righteousness
of Christ, that was as it were just putting them on a level
playing field and now it was up to them to build their own
righteousness on that foundation. They were being encouraged to
fulfil the law and adopt Jewish practices to that end of making
themselves holy before God. It was as though Christ had washed
away their sin and now they'd build their holiness by which
to earn God's pleasure and ultimately gain reward. They weren't openly
denying Christ, they just didn't think that he was all that they
needed. They didn't think he was enough. And the Judaizers
were teaching, Christ is fine as far as he goes, but there's
more to serving God than trusting Christ. There's works to be done
as well. And this was the error of the
Judaizers amongst these Galatian brethren. So in this chapter,
the Apostle Paul first asks the Galatians whether the spiritual
life that they have had come to them through the works of
the law or the hearing of faith. Now they knew that the experience
of spiritual life and spiritual comfort had not come by being
obedient to the law because the Apostle Paul had preached the
gospel to them, Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified
amongst them and this was the ground, this was the basis of
their faith. They knew that it was the gospel
truth of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross and all that was accomplished by him there that was the beginning
of their spiritual experience. So the Apostle Paul challenges
them to consider if having begun their spiritual life and experience
by faith, they were now trying to advance it by works and deeds
and fleshy practices such as circumcision and legal obedience
and religious rituals. And then he goes on in verse
6, the verses we've read today, to employ an example from the
history, well the history of scripture, but the history and
testimony of Abraham. And I think that this was very
astute of the apostle. He is arguing here the grounds
of what he knew would be very dear to these Judaizers. These Jewish mongrel Christians boasted of
Abraham as the head of the Jewish nation and they proudly vaunted
themselves as his children and heirs of the promises given to
Abraham by God. However, Paul informs the Galatians,
and he's confronting these Judaizers at the same time. He informs
the Galatians of the true facts and interpretation of Abraham's
experience. And he shows how Abraham was
accepted by God, deemed to be righteous before God, and was
heir to God's promises. while he was still a heathen,
still worshipping idols, still uncircumcised. Indeed, before
there was any personal obedience to God, God showed that he had
accepted Abraham. before there was any works performed
by Abraham or had been any tests applied to Abraham so that Paul
shows Abraham was not blessed for any righteousness of his
own or indeed eligibility of his own or from his works. Abraham was simply spoken to
by God, informed of God's plans and appraised of the divine plan
to justify and to make righteous the heathen of the world through
Abraham. or rather through the one that
would proceed from Abraham's loins and be Abraham's offspring
and progeny, the Lord Jesus. And this revelation that was
given to Abraham, this vision that he had, it meant that Abraham
was told of what God had done. And this is what Paul means when
he speaks about the gospel having been preached to Abraham. It
was the gospel of justification, of redemption, of reconciliation,
and salvation by Christ. Exactly the same gospel as we
have today. And it was preached to Abraham. and Abraham was given faith to
believe it. He was enabled to believe it
and to trust in the promises of God to him. Abraham believed
God when he learned that righteousness was not a merited reward that
had to be worked for and could be won, but rather a gracious
gift eternally conceived by God, divinely secured by the Lord
Jesus Christ, and freely bestowed by God the Holy Spirit. I would
go so far as to say that Abraham understood the covenant of grace
and peace. Paul says in verse six, Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now I want to make an important
distinction here because there's a rather wicked, a rather pernicious
teaching around about in our churches today that men and women
are made righteous by God because they believe. as if the act of
believing brings righteousness. And indeed sometimes this verse
is employed despite the fact that it answers Paul's purpose
beautifully in the context in which it is written. This verse
is employed in order to support this free will fallacy. Let me
say expressly, Abraham was not accounted righteous because he
believed. He was justified and made righteous
by God in Christ and then he believed it to be true when informed
of it. He believed it to be true when
the gospel Good news of this blessed truth was preached to
him by Christ. And we learn about this in Genesis
chapter 15. Now you can go back and read
the end of chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15 at your
own leisure if you like, but let me just give you this opening
verse of Genesis chapter 15 because we learn there that Abraham had
just encountered Melchizedek. who had blessed Abraham. And then we read in verse one
of chapter 15, after these things, that is after the encounter with
Melchizedek, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision. OK, such an important little
phrase that the word of the Lord. What did John say in the beginning?
was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And
this is Christ. This is Christ that comes to
Abraham in a vision. After these things, the Word
of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Genesis 15, verse 1. Now this
person who came to Abraham was the word of the Lord. It was
Jehovah the essential word, our Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells
Abraham, fear not Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. The Lord Jesus Christ is here
saying, I am your shield. I am your defender. I am your deliverer from God's
wrath towards sin. And actually, knowing Christ
as our shield is the only true ground for not being afraid What is it they say? Be afraid,
be very afraid. If you are outside of Christ
you ought to be afraid and it's only because the devil has blinded
the eyes of men and women that they're not afraid. They're not
afraid of what is contained in time and they're not afraid of
eternity. In truth, it is only when we
are in Christ that that admonition, fear not, has any true significance. But the Lord said to Abraham,
fear not, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Christ is our shield and our
great reward. the glory that we will have and
he will be the supplier of every blessed promise that is given
to sinful men and women in the covenant of grace and peace.
When Abraham heard that, when Abraham heard the word of the
Lord in this vision, he believed God. He believed the Lord Jesus
Christ to be his shield. as he said he was. He believed
the Lord Jesus Christ to be his exceeding great reward as he
said he was. And this, this is what is meant
in verse 6 where it talks about Abraham believed God and it was
accounted or imputed, that's what the margin reading is there,
imputed to him for righteousness. It is the thing that Christ is
to us that brings our righteousness, not the believing of the revelation. Abraham heard, he learned, he
believed Christ would supply all that he needed before God
personally and also that through him and the promises given to
him, God would save a great number of men and women throughout the
whole world by the same shield and defender that was Abraham's
way of salvation and the same exceeding great reward. So that
from this truth, Paul's telling the Galatians that faith, not
nationality, not religious affiliation, and certainly not obedience to
the law, is the criterion by which true children of God will
be known. by which they'll be identified.
So he says in verse 7, they which are of faith the same are the
children of Abraham. And this is what we've been stressing
in our Lord's Day services from Isaiah is it not? It is the spiritual
Israel and the spiritual Judah, that is men and women of spiritual
faith who are the true Zion of God, the true church of Jesus
Christ. It is they who are heirs with
Christ and for whom the Lord Jesus Christ is our exceeding
great reward. Now some people tell us, oh,
we're all God's children. all God's children by creation.
But Paul tells us it is only they who are of faith and to
seek righteousness by faith, by trusting in Christ who are
the true people of God. Adoption doesn't come from law
obedience or by seeking justification by works. The promise of having
Christ as our shield and exceeding great reward is discovered and
experienced only by faith in his word and in his promises. It is faith and the suitability,
the sufficiency and success of the Lord Jesus Christ that brings
believers into possession of forgiveness of sins and a clear
conscience and the joy and peace of everlasting life. It is faith
that brings these experiences to us. The law can supply none
of these things. That was true for Abraham and
it was true for the Galatians These Judaizers wanted to make
these folks children of Abraham by subjecting them to the law
as a standard of righteousness and as a means of holiness and
acceptance with God. And Paul says no, no, no, no. It is faith, trusting in the
completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone that brings righteousness,
reconciliation and a knowledge of sins forgiven. And just in
closing, I think it's lovely to see how the apostle encompasses
the Galatians in the testimony of Abraham. These Galatians may
well have wondered a little enviously if perhaps they could not be
brought into the Jewish faith a little bit more concretely
if they were listening to these Judaizers. But what Paul is saying
is this, Abraham believed Christ. He believed that Christ was his
shield, who interposed himself as substitute for Abraham, and
he believed that Christ would be his exceeding great reward.
And Abraham also believed that in him, all the nations of the
earth would be blessed. The Galatians weren't Jews by
nationality, they were Gentiles. But by the hearing of faith and
the preaching of the same gospel as was preached to Abraham, these
Gentiles were saved. These Galatians have Abraham's
promises first hand as their own possession, just as we do
today. Abraham looked forward. We with
the Galatians look back to what Christ has done for us on the
cross and we all believe in the suitability, the sufficiency
and the success of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is all we have
before God and all we need before God now and for eternity. Someday, someday, Perhaps soon
we shall see Abraham and Paul and our brothers and sisters
from Galatia in heaven, and we shall know that we are all there
experiencing Christ as our exceeding great reward by that one sacrifice
of the one Saviour in whom we shall joyfully worship for eternity. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.