Abraham Believed God

Well, good morning. Well, today we're going to continue on in Galatians chapter 3. Actually, I'm only going to... I had him read all four verses, but I'm just going to do six and seven today. Then I'm going to leave the tough verses for Mike next week. So, while I'm gone, see, I won't, you know, I won't know what happened unless I listen to the internet or whatever. So, anyway. All right.

So, I've titled this Abraham Believed God. Actually boy, I've learned a lot about Abraham in the in the last week or so studying this and he's a pretty incredible Person in scripture. In fact, he's so incredible. He's he is the prime example of faith That is used in the New Testament Abraham and I think we're going to see why hopefully you'll see why in today's lesson here Okay, so I like Chester McCauley. I use him for Sunday school. I use him for main service I just you know, I really actually I he's I His outlying ability is just, I think, is exceptional. I don't always agree with his titles, so I go in there. In fact, I give the titles, and Bob's complaining about my titles sometimes. I'm using his titles, but anyway. So actually, I modify his titles in some cases.

So anyway, here we go. So he takes this tack on these first 14 verses. He has the law keeping never justifies. He kind of takes that tack. It's not the way the Galatians were justified. And he has a title here for each of the four verses. Condition described. Remember back in the beginning, Mike covered this. Basically, the foolishness of the Galatians.

They were called foolish. They were called bewitched. They were beguiled by these false teachers. And then the question that was asked, he asked them, he said, well, how did you receive the spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing with faith?

That was the question asked in verse 2. Then he says, well, there's something that's inconsistent here. He says, if you've begun by the Spirit, how are you seeking to be perfected by the law? How are you going to use works to perfect something that the Spirit began? And then, fourthly, the consequences of faith. He kind of takes a sidetrack. We talked about last week.

He says, you know, the Christian life is one where there'll be trials. They'll be suffering But he says that's not that's to be expected. They're not in vain. They're not vain. They're not for no purpose in fact, they are for a very specific purpose God is not a Whimsical God he doesn't he does things for a purpose and he always has a purpose and we can trust that purpose So he says if you went on that path, then then that's what the Christian life is about and then the fifth part of this is He repeats this contrast between the hearing by faith and by the works of the law. OK, so now let's get into today's lesson. And he states it this way in this outline. It was not the way Abraham was justified. He wasn't justified by works. And we're going to see that very clearly.

We're going to see about the salvation he obtained in verse 6. And in verse 7, we're going to see he's going to make a conclusion about every single believer. Every single believer has a relationship to Abraham. You know, we think about a relationship to our Savior. Well, He's God. Well, we have a relationship to Abraham, too.

So, it's kind of cool. And then Mike's going to, next week, he's going to cover the preaching of Abraham, the preaching of the gospel, and that we're all blessed in Abraham. Okay, so... So I want to review a couple things here that we covered last couple weeks. And I had this little chart that I put together back in years past. And it kind of contrasts verse 2 and verse 5.

And it asks this question, how did you receive the Spirit? In verse 2, you received it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. And the answer that Paul demands or wants you to say yes to is that you heard it by the hearing with faith. Then he comes over to verse 5. We talked about this last week, and he says, how did God supply the Holy Spirit and his works of power? Was it by the works of the law or the hearing with faith? So if you can think of it as your initial experience in salvation, that was by the hearing with faith. You exercise faith. And your walk in the Christian life is also the same way. In fact, Bob covered my favorite verses. as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. You received Him by faith, you're to walk by faith.

It's the same. It doesn't change. You don't say, well, now I'm saved. Now I can get my list out. Now I can check off the list and feel good. If you came to salvation by faith, that's the way God desires that you live. And it's a walk, as we learned this morning. It's a walk of faith. You don't, you know, it's incremental. We are to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him.

Okay, so I thought, You know, last week, and it's really cool, in the verse 5 there, it's kind of hidden, tucked away in that verse, is this wonderful statement, God supplies the Holy Spirit. Seems kind of innocuous. You think, well, yeah, I know about the Holy Spirit. He's one of the persons of the Trinity. Well, His ministry is so incredible. And so I kind of spent some time last week talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And I think it's so important, I'm going to kind of backtrack a little bit, and we're going to talk a little bit more about His ministry. And I would commend you. Actually, I had Sue print up. There's some handouts. Hal Malloy's 22 Ministries of the Holy Spirit, which he did back in 1996, still just as wonderful and tremendous. And I'm going to cover four or five of those today.

But I would commend them to your reading and understanding. In fact, I think I'm pretty sure that Mike maybe has taught that as a Sunday school class. I think that's true. If we haven't, we should. So anyway, let's cover a few of those. No pressure, no pressure, right? Did we teach one of those? I thought we taught that, didn't we? I think we did. Okay. So basically, God supplies the Holy Spirit in the believer is truly amazing. So here are a few of the 22 ministries of the Holy Spirit.

The first one, the Spirit has fellowship with the believer. And there's a wonderful verse in Philippians. Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, or I could say, if is in view of the fact, in view of the fact there is fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection of compassion that goes on. So the fellowship of the Spirit is a part of every believer's life.

The Spirit teaches. You find that in Corinthians 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and 12 and 13. It says now we've received not the spirit of the world But the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God Which things also we speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but by those taught by the Spirit. I Combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

So the part the part there that is applicable here, but those taught by the Spirit He is our teacher. He's our guide. He's our light to scripture the Spirit empowers believers and That comes about the early in an axe there in Acts chapter 1. It says verse 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and and in Judea, and Samaria, and even the remotest part of the earth. Then the Spirit frees believers.

There's a wonderful, in Romans 8, 2, I think they probably covered this. Are you at Romans 8, 2 now? Or you're probably beyond that, I bet, right? You must be, anyway. Okay, for the law of the life of Christ, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. And then lastly, number 18 here, in the list of 22, the spirit assures believers, but the spirit himself testifies, there's the assurance, testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. So like I said, I commend that. And it's kind of tucked away in that verse, in that verse talking about law versus adhering with faith, but it's just, it's just really encouraging.

So, okay. So now let's get on to today's. So, so next Paul's going to, we're going to move to the section about Abraham. will give us the example of Abraham, one who exercised a hearing with faith. And so what makes Abraham such an undeniable example? Why is he the perfect example? And some have said, you know, it's just brilliant.

You could not, if you went to a court of law, you could not have picked a better example because Abraham does not fit the mold that the Judaizers wanted men to adhere to he was before the law of Moses he was before circumcision even though circumcision was instituted in his household but he was before that so it's just amazing so to those points scripture scripture tells it explicitly here's another thing that's kind of cool think about this and this is a homework assignment I want you to find a person in scripture outside of Abraham that God explicitly says That he believed God That's your homework assignment. I actually I'd like to see you try to find one come and see me personally I'd love to find a find out. How about Isaiah? How about Jeremiah? Moses I don't you find an example of a person that God says this is a person that has believed or exercised faith and I don't think you're going to find it. We'll see. Okay.

And he also says, he tells us that by believing, by exercising faith, he declares that explicitly. And then thirdly, and this is what I was speaking to, he tells us of his relationship to the two things that the Judaizers were hanging their hat on, circumcision and the Mosaic law. So Abraham, if you go back to Genesis 15, you'll see that Abraham believed God at age 86. He was circumcised at age 99. Can you imagine? Anyway, that's not easy. I wouldn't sign up for that, but I guess the Lord told me that. Anyway, he did it. That's pretty cool.

Okay, and then he believed 400 years later. He was, you know, Moses wasn't even alive. You know, if you look at the, you know, you have all these pictures of the patriarchs and their timeline. Moses is way over here and Abraham's life is here and Abraham's long gone before the law is ever given.

So he was before circumcision. He was before the law. Another interesting thing, I was thinking about the world situation and Bob was talking about that today. You know who was circumcised in his household? You know, Ishmael was circumcised, too, when I was thinking about that. I had, Vine and I went and we looked, or she looked on the internet, trying to find, do they still observe that? Apparently they do.

I was kind of amazed. But Abraham is the father of that nation, you know, the Muslim nation, so interesting. So anyway, just a sidelight. Okay, so in Genesis 15, I just want to talk about a few things here. So what we see here says after these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision You know, I had missed that before is this was in a vision.

Hmm, but it's interesting He answers as if he's not in a vision. I don't know. It's interesting It's a vision, but then he answers as if I if I was talking to you So he said and so God says to him do not fear Abram I'm a shield to you your reward shall be very great. So he tells him his rewards gonna be very great and But you'll notice that in verses 2 and 3, Abram speaks, and his concern is that he doesn't have an heir.

That's his big concern. And I look back on the previous part, and I couldn't... I said, well, why... maybe someone tell me, come and talk with me. Why was he so concerned about having an heir? And I can understand that, but he was very concerned. He tells God that he's concerned about having an heir.

He says, well, what's going to happen is, This guy, Eliezer of Damascus, he's going to be my heir. God says no. And then in verse 4 he says, Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one will come from your own body, he shall be your heir. And this is the cool part.

He took him outside and said now look toward the heavens and count the stars if you're able to count them And he said to him so sure your descendants be it's another little side light here If you guys are into clipart on the internet, you can find clipart on about any topic you want, especially Bible topics It's really pretty easy. So I found this little guy supposed to represent Abraham there and And he's looking at the stars. There's terrible clipart for this. So if you want something to do as a ministry, get some good clipart. I find all these little dumb little guys out there staring at the skies and funny little stars. So poor clipart.

So the cool part here, down to verse 6. Then he said, then he believed. So let me back up here. I've got some off my detail. Anyway, he took it outside and said, look towards the heavens, count the stars if you're able to count them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. So we want to see that verse almost verbatim coming across into Galatians here. So it's a little bit different. He says the Lord here and he'll say He'll say God in Galatians. And so so we'll talk about that. So we'll just kind of save. So let's go on. So here's a passage for today.

Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that is to those who are of faith, who are sons of Abraham. So I'll just leave the parts for next week here for right now. So let's look at even so Abraham believed God.

So even so could be rendered just as. It introduces an example. So we've had this doctrine that's come down through the chapter 3 that talked about believing by faith. So now he's going to give an example of that. Abraham's going to be the example that Paul brings before us.

And belief is this word, pistouo. The core word is faith, to believe, have faith or trust in, to place confidence in. And it's in the Aorist tense, past point fact. And we saw the back of Genesis there. Believe God. So if you look, like I was mentioning, I think it's about 67 times Abraham is is referenced in the New Testament and There are several of these that that speak the almost verbatim quote the same event so in Romans 4 3 it says For what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness so in this case it it says the idea to put to one's account and and we're going to see that kind of come up show up a little bit later here in a second and We get down to reckoned here.

Then in James 2.23 it says, And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. And then there's one in Titus, but it doesn't exactly call out Abraham in that one.

So, talking about faith, the object of faith is critical. Faith has no merit in itself. You can't take credit for faith. Faith always looks toward the object of the faith. It gains all its merit from its object. And that's why it's critical to know where you're putting your faith and trust in.

So the second part of the verse, it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So reckoned, here's this word that was rendered credited in those verses I just read. It was reckoned, or logizimai, to reckon, to put to one's account. Literally, it was accounted or credited. In this case, it's in the passive voice.

So this is God doing the action. It's not that Abraham believed and then he was able to by some means, do something, make himself better. No, God, based upon Abraham's faith, put it to his account as righteousness. And it was a point in time. So righteousness is resulting in his righteousness. Righteousness is the character or quality of being right. In the biblical sense, it's a condition or standard of rightness, the standard of which is God.

So there's a really cool verse here in Philippians. And I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to kind of give you the bulletized form of this verse. So let's go over here. So it starts off, prior to that, Philippians 3 and 9 talks about that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own.

So if you look at this, this kind of mirrors what we see in Abraham believing God and that his faith was the key issue, not having Okay, this verse says that I may gain Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, not derived from the law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ Jesus. Very closely aligned with what we've just been seeing in those verses. The righteousness which comes from God, so the source of righteousness is not Abraham, it's God. It's on the basis of faith. So what Abraham exhibited is the picture that we see consistently from the New Testament, that man believes in what God has done and what God has declared, and God acts upon that belief, that faith.

All right. So I want to just kind of go back and look a little bit more on this idea of accounting or reckoning or crediting. So I have a couple of verses here. One we just talked about earlier. First of all is in Romans 4 and 3 through 5. So first of all, I guess I got those together.

Righteousness was credited to Abraham upon belief. And then in this verse it talks about this principle of works versus wages. You know, you don't work You obtain wages for the work that you do and that has nothing to do with the principle that God operates under he operates under grace and in your faith We are not to work for righteousness But we are to believe in him who justifies the ungodly Our faith is then credited as righteousness Let's go back. So just read it again for for what does the scripture say that? Abraham believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to those who do not work, but believe in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is credited as righteousness.

You know, this could be a stumbling block. You know, Bob was sharing on Sunday School today about sharing with people. And sometimes when you point out the fact that God accepts a person and he doesn't have to perform some work for him, the world doesn't, the unbelieving world does not connect with that. They say, well, that can't be. This free stuff, this free grace, this free belief stuff, it can't, you know, it just can't be true. I work and I get something. You're telling me that I believe and I get something, you know, for free. You know, grace is hated. Grace is not wanted. Grace is despised. But it's, you know, verse 5, but to the one who does not work but believes. Our job is to believe, not work. Okay, so another verse. So let's just do the bullet form here again.

Blessing then on the circumcised or the uncircumcised. So this whole verse here is going to talk about try to put to rest the issue, is there a blessing upon the circumcised, the uncircumcised? He's going to go through here and tell us about this dilemma, so to speak.

Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Faith was credited while uncircumcised. We saw that. We saw a timeline, 86 to 99, before he was circumcised. We see the sign of circumcision after he believed. That's when God came to Abraham and says, you know, I want you to circumcise as a sign. Now the father of all who believe without being circumcised. So I'll just read the verse.

Romans 4.9 says, Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Hal then was accredited while he was circumcised or uncircumcised. Now, while circumcised, but was it so?

Now, not while circumcised, but while while uncircumcised, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of righteousness, of faith, which he had while uncircumcised so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised. the righteousness might be credited to them.

That's a tongue twister. Okay, so let's go on to verse 7. It says, therefore be sure. That's how it starts out. So the idea here is, it's basically pointing out there's a transition here from what preceded. You know, he points out that Abraham believed God. And he's going to transition to show that's going to apply to believers. That's where he's headed here.

Therefore, be sure or come to know, recognize, understand. We are to continually to know and recognize the following. And the rest of the verse says, is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. So that's something that the believer is to know and recognize. The ones of faith, these are the sons of Abraham.

I like pictures. All engineers like pictures. Have you ever tried to draw a picture for your wife, Courtney? Don't want to do that. Don't draw me a picture, just tell me. Fair enough, okay. So we have the ones of faith, equal, these are the sons of Abraham. Or better, if you like, words. Well, let's do words now. Pictures you may not like, let's do words. So here's the argument.

Since faith was the way Abraham was justified, he was justified by faith, by belief, right? It follows that those who exercise like faith are true followers. This is from Weiss, but I think I missed the boat here. Because the verse says they're not just followers, better, they're sons of Abraham, spiritual sons of Abraham. So I should talk to Weiss, I think he's long been to the Lord by now. Sons of Abraham, not true followers, it's okay, but Sons of Abraham is much better. The argument is, since faith was the way Abraham was justified, it follows that those who exercise like faith are sons of Abraham. Pretty impressive. Why don't I talk we should have had the kids song today that wonderful song, you know, the song is father Abraham, right? Father Abraham has many sons.

We should that would have been beautiful, but we it was too late It's too late Okay, it's never too late. That's true. It's never too late. Well, you can sing it You want to say no, I'm not if I was working on his burn burn would do that. I'm not burn He would sing everything. I don't want me to sing. I Okay, okay.

All right, ones of faith. The ones who out from faith as a source. That's kind of based on the fact that the word for of is ek, out from. The ones who are out from faith as a source. Everyone who believes, that includes everyone who believes, and they believe the gospel. And the second part of this, these ones are the sons of Abraham. This is what's really kind of cool. These ones, the ones of faith, there's this cool word, ami, which is ar, ar is ami in the Greek, the state in which someone or something continuously exists.

You know, in John 1.1 it uses this verb here, and John 1.1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So in this verse where it says, the Word was God, it's the same idea here. the word was God, God and word are equivalent, are equal. So basically this is saying that the ones who are these ones, the ones of faith, are sons of Abraham. The sons of Abraham identify the ones of faith and we continually exist as Abraham's sons. So I really have a super new appreciation. Abraham is one example that There could be no, and I guess the Jews, you know, didn't listen to Paul because they still continued to rattle on there in Galatia, but Abraham is that incredible example.

So I'd like to kind of close here with just a chart for our brother Hal that I thought was really cool, kind of tying faith and grace kind of together. So he labeled it two key principles in the Christian life of faith. How does God operate or function? By grace. He pours out on us His divine favor.

It's undeserved. It's unmerited. It's unearned. Actually, we could add the rest of Macaulay's if we want to. Anyway. He never stops the flow of His grace toward us. How does God want us to operate and function? By faith. Faith equals trust, dependence, reliance. Faith must have an object. Man's faith can be placed in many objects. There's only one object that is well-pleasing to him. It is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is. So our faith is to be in our Savior. So that's really all I have for today. Probably a little bit shorter than I would like. So next week Mike's going to kind of carry on here.

We talked about this. We said, well, boy, Abraham is so important that we're going to kind of delve into that. And it makes an incredible statement back earlier that the gospel was preached to Abraham. That's a challenging verse. So anyway, I think it's important to kind of get involved with it. If it says the gospel was preached to Abraham, I think we need to try to come to grips with that and try to understand what God would have for us there.

So let's close in prayer. We thank you, Father. We thank you, Lord, for our time today. We thank you for the many blessings we have. We certainly thank you for Abraham, his life, testimony about he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness Lord we thank you that that is the experience of every believer that you reckon righteousness does based solely upon your son and what he accomplished on the cross father we ask in his name amen