Abraham is Justified by Faith
Galatians 3:6-9 · Bob Eckel · May 9, 2010
Galatians (2010), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492622442860

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Our text today is Galatians 3, verses 6-9, and I've entitled this, Abraham's Justified by Faith, and that's really an important principle. It really is kind of the meat of the epistle to the Galatians, and I think we've been plodding through this book week by week and firming up this important issue. Next week I'm going to be teaching again, we're going to be reverting back to how cursed we are under the law system. Roger really set this up nicely last week when he really established the fact, which we've known for some time, is that we're justified by faith, not the law. But now we're using Abraham as an example, as that principle played forward. And I think the text today is quite interesting and important in that regard.

So the first verse that we're going to read today is Galatians 3.6. But I think to set the stage for this, let's read 1 through 9. So Roger, could you read 1 through 9 for us today, please? This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being with faith.

Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel before him, to Abraham, saying, All the nations shall be blessed in you. So then those who are of faith blessed with Abraham the believer. Okay, thank you Roger.

So the first verse then is just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness really is based on what preceded that and last week verse 5 that Roger covered was that the Galatians would have to reply to this question posed in Galatians 3.5 and is the receiving of the Holy Spirit, is that by the hearing of the faith?

And that's really the question we're dealing with here in verse 6. And the answer to that question is, just as Abraham believed God, and it was kind of him for righteousness, so the answer is yes, we believe this by faith. I mean, it's a very straightforward question with a very straightforward answer. And I think, you know, this is kind of serving as a reminder or even for some perhaps a new revelation of the fact that God is using Abraham as an example of justification by grace through faith. By the way, if you want to really drill down on this in great detail, the Romans 4 passage is minimally about David but mostly about Abraham. We could read that entire chapter today and that would really be the lesson we're teaching here today in four verses. Nevertheless, Abraham has been used several places in scripture as an exemplification of this principle of grace through faith.

Principles, grace, their response is by faith. Remember, we're not saved by faith. We're saved by grace. Faith is the vehicle. Ephesians 2a, right? By grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves, but the work of God. So grace is the principle of salvation, faith is the response on our behalf. Okay, so why is Abraham being selected here, do you think? Well, you can't look at your handout now.

All right, so Abraham is the father of the Muslim, father of the Jew, and father of the believer, the Christian, right? So father of all, all claim him, do they not? It's always an interesting conversation when they, we're going to turn to that a little bit later in terms of the Jew claiming Abraham as their father and how flawed that was in terms of concept, not flawed scripturally in terms of him being their father, but flawed in terms of their interpretation of what that role would be.

Well, here are a few things to think about. One is the certainty we have that Abraham was a saved man. Are we okay with that? Is there any question in terms of Old Testament saints that Abraham was a saved man? Does anybody question that? So that's kind of the first point to really make here is why Abraham was an example. believe God and he was justified based on that belief. So that really is an important first principle and there's the second one that I just stated. I mean Abraham's justified by belief. There was no legal system at the time that Abraham came to believe and so that point is made in the third bullet point here.

This was before not only the law which was You know, a long time after this, but it was before circumcision. So it was not until a couple of chapters later that the whole process of circumcision. What do we think of when we think of circumcision? In terms of the tradition of circumcision, what represents? What do we think about there?

Separation. Sanctification. Okay, what else? How about a badge of membership? I mean, you know, there's a very outward physical sign of an inward belief that through circumcision there was some relationship that the Jewish believer had with God, right?

The fourth point I raise here is that Abraham's faith is really exemplified. This is one of many passages, perhaps best revealed by Genesis 15, but there are many other passages. Then he brought him outside and said, ìLook now towards heaven and count the stars, if youíre able to number them. And he said, meaning God said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he, meaning Abraham, believed the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. So, you know, very early in the Bible, we have 66 books and this is chapter 15.

So halfway through Genesis, we see this principle of belief and faith really is the principle of justification. In a sense, the garden is really where this principle began, right? Do we believe God for what He's revealed? Eve and Adam didn't believe Him for what He revealed and we all pay the price of that today. But nevertheless, Abraham did believe. And you know, by the way, after Abraham's belief, Abraham, this isn't A duck walk across the pond, right?

Lots of treading water along the way, and a couple times truly sinking to be rescued. But the principle is the same. We're justified by faith, and that relates to not only being saved, but continuing to be saved, as Roger mentioned last week, and will be saved. Yeah, Donna? Well, you know, I've never thought about that before, but that faith principle was before any other. That's incredible. Yeah, it really was there, wasn't it? It wasn't really... It came after the law, you know, but it just didn't. Right, and although Abraham exemplified that, and we get a lot of attention paid to Abraham, in fact, the garden reflects that principle of faith, doesn't it? Very much so.

So faith is simple. I mean we put faith in a lot of things and everybody hears the example of getting on an airplane and getting in your car, driving to church. I mean the point is we put faith in a lot of earthly things and that's kind of in my opinion a nimble kind of comparison but we assume a lot of things on an objective basis being factual and things we can count on. But faith in the Lord is a whole different kind of faith, isn't it? I mean basically I like the way Scofield defines faith because he very simplistically say faith is believing what God has revealed. For the Old Testament saint, he or she had no true vision of Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of each and every one that ultimately their faith is in what God had revealed for the animal sacrifice and the Levitical procedures each year to take care of the sin offering and all the other offerings that were by faith in terms of receiving them for what God had made them for.

All right. And so who is the object of Abraham's faith? It's kind of like biblical Christianity 101. Well, it's God. I mean, not a tough question here. This isn't faith in some kind of tangential process that maybe has a little God touched into it. This is God himself.

And, you know, Abraham, in a sense, if we think back, had that privilege we don't have today, but we have a privilege that I think far extends out of Abraham. What privilege did Abraham have that we don't have today? How many people have had God talk to them directly? Have you had the Lord himself reveal anything to you directly? No, but I mean, we've got a lot of good information here, right? So we're privileged to have the text be complete and we can reflect back on those steps of faith people have exemplified for centuries and centuries and centuries. But Abraham was, in fact, directed by God himself, and ultimately that is a privilege we haven't had. Stan?

Initially, what Donna was saying about faith comes first, well, there was a covenant with Adam, and there was some kind of procedure. It wasn't an official Mosaic law, because obviously Moses wasn't there, but they sacrificed an animal. So God had given some kind of way of covering over sin at that particular point in time. There was something that he set up. He also had a relationship with Noah.

And Noah, because he had faith in what God told him, spoke out in righteousness and was one of the few people, he and his family, were the only ones that were saved. And he was a minister of righteousness, and it says that he found favor with God, which means that he believed God and had faith in God, and so he built the ark and carried out what God wanted him to do. Abraham, on the other hand, God called him to move out of where he was, which was the Ur of Chaldeans, and move to the land of Canaan. So I think what they're saying is the faith that Abraham demonstrates here is first of all that he believed God, but he also did what God wanted him to do, which was to move and with a tent.

I mean, it was like having a U-Haul trailer pulled by a couple of camels and he just walked out and he went into this land that nobody knew about. I mean, that would have been a scary thing. How many people would pack up everything they have, put it in a U-Haul trailer, take your camels and go out and build a tent somewhere? But that's what he did because he believed God. And he also believed him for future generations.

But this isn't the first step, what I'm trying to say. This is a continuation of the story, so to speak, the faith story. Yes, and I think today, you know, I didn't go back and review all the pre-Abrahamic acts of faith, but one of my favorites is, and Enoch lived sixty and five years in begotten Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God And because he walked with God, God took him. I mean, effectively, the only thing Enoch did was walk with God and presume that's an act of faith also.

So we've got this faith principle that really ultimately exists before any legal system in any way, right? And because of the faith, something else. Yep. Well, but our active belief engenders a response, does it not? I mean, our faith is just not that God's got to make everything just happen, but by active faith there's a walk that's a life in Christ that ultimately has outcomes.

Right, but what frustrates me is today you hear a lot of people saying, sure, I believe in God, and I believe in Jesus, and that's as far as it goes. out to them and he's asking them to do certain things and he's speaking to them and that's why Jesus and the Holy Spirit kept saying he who has an ear let him hear because people aren't listening. They aren't giving that response that I think faith requires. But it's hard to make a list to those things that we're accountable to based on our walk in faith, right? I mean, we were talking at dinner last night about what a walk in faith looks like, and I think, you know, and I've always felt very strongly about this, when we're accounting how well we're doing glorifying God is, I believe that's wood, hay, and stubble.

I think a life lived out by faith through the power of the Spirit in our life is a life noticed and Christ is seen, but we're not in fact taking any credit for that. There is a responsibility, and our responsibility is to live by faith. And when that faith is played out, the new man is lifted up and God is glorified and we don't even notice it. That's right, there's no list. Ingrid's list is not Donna's list, right? How about this full-time Christian service concept? That makes me nauseated, honestly. We're all in full-time Christian service, it's just our ministries are very different. I mean Wade's is in his job, Kristen's in the laboratory, mine is hanging out around doctors and science. I mean the point is we all have different turfs.

Well it's in the going, right? In the going, right. Yeah, that's really well stated Donna. I mean it's not go you into all the world, it's in your going in the entire world. Let the gospel be known to men. So Stan, we're not disagreeing here. I'm saying yes, there is a responsibility where in the life that is lived by faith ultimately has an outcome connected to it. But our job is not to view the outcome, our job is to live by faith and let the Spirit lead. Sometimes I hear people saying, well it all began with Abraham. No, it's been there since Adam and Eve, right? Ever since the Big Bang or whatever it was that God created the universe with.

Careful here, Stacey. This was not the intended lesson today, I can assure you. Alright, let's move on. I love what Ron Merriman said here and I use Ron's notes to Galatians as a help here when I prepare a lesson. He underlined it and I underlined it too.

Faith is actually an avowal of no merit. This is so important. Faith always looks to or relies on the merit of its object. And you know, how much of our Christianity, I'm guilty above all here, but how much Christianity is self-focused in terms of what God's doing for you? Ultimately, when we hang up above, God's the object. And it's the merit of the object wherein the life is seen for what it's worth. And faith takes no merit on our part. The question is, where does faith come from? God doesn't give us faith. He's intrinsically created each one of us to respond by what he's revealed.

That was equally true for Noah as it was for us today. We just have a lot more revealed. So our action of faith believes God for what is revealed in His word as being true. Whereas Noah and Enoch and Methuselah and Abraham and all those guys and gals of the Old Testament ultimately had what God revealed to them. Important principle. Let's look at this again. Faith is actually in a vow of no merit. But faith always looks to or relies on the merit of its object.

So, okay? Everybody okay with that? Good. All right. And remember, and Roger brought this up last week very nicely, I think we have been saved. We can all identify, hopefully, if not a particular date, we all acknowledge the fact there's some point in life we recognize we're saved, but we're being saved. And we will be saved. And this idea of the principle of faith is one that is part of every day. Back to what Stan was saying, I was saved and therefore kind of let go, let God. That's not the interpretation of being saved. It's an ongoing process. So this act of faith is minute by minute each and every day.

How easily is our faith misplaced? Let's look at a few examples of this. By the way, this misplacement of faith I think relates to the world system around us, meaning people that are of other faiths, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, whatever. I hang out with people with faiths from all over the world. It's amazing how many people of different faiths I know in my job. But it also, I think, reflects the body of Christ at times, too. Let's look at these kind of misplaced faith deals. How about cultural righteousness? Think of some examples here. Cultural righteousness.

Not eating cow, maybe. Okay, the Hindu perspective, right? Okay, for the Hindu, the cultural acceptance, and that could be the second one, religious, but, you know, clearly cultural or religious righteousness would reflect cow meat for the Hindu, okay? And that's based on this whole process of reincarnation, right? That coming back as a cow is the ultimate reincarnation.

Donna? How about political? righteousness, you know, be it liberal or conservative, very strong feeling of righteousness. I think that fits nicely into cultural righteousness, political righteousness, the do right thing for to being in the end in terms of political righteousness. Yes, Dan. I don't know if I pronounced this word right, but you always hear the word, is it paradigm or? Paradigm. Paradigm.

The fact that culture on its own is growing into a higher level of enlightenment all the time. And it's not necessarily God that's doing that, but man and his culture just becoming greater and more enlightened as time advances. What's liberal mindset in terms of the social engineers thinking with more education and training we can all become better citizens and that's really a cultural righteousness. It's weak around the edges and has no firm foundation because ultimately the Bible says that further intellectual processing and social engineering is not the answer to man's problems. We live in a fallen system and getting people better educated and more socially adept, in fact, doesn't solve the problem of man's separation from God, does it?

Okay. Second example then would be religious righteousness. Boy, we don't have all morning, so give me just a few examples of this. Religious righteousness. Yeah. Sam? I would say that would be the best example there. So then they come down and make more, and it turns out to be works, because if you can achieve these, then you can boast about it. And God's saying, you can't boast about your salvation. He's the creator of it. Remember, faith is not a self-avowal to any merit on our behalf.

Other thoughts about religious righteousness? There are certainly examples in our modern world today where groups of people will see themselves more righteous and they will kill others because they feel they are unrighteous. You put that within the confine of a religious form of righteousness?

Yeah. My brother always was very critical of Christianity in general because he felt that most, if not all, but most anyway, I would give him a correct statement to this belief, but most wars of the world have been on a religious basis, either directly or indirectly. And if you think back over the history of mankind, there's a lot of examples where war has resulted from religious differences between groups. And now the antagonism of the Western world by the Muslim world is an example as Roger just made here.

How about within the body of Christ, religious righteousness? How about all the traditions? How about portrayals of Mary as a different kind of woman? I mean she was a different kind of woman biblically, but this idea of her holiness being different than ours because of her being the bearer of the of the Son of God and all the tradition in terms of the communion of certain sects. Religious righteousness could be even that prayer list that ultimately, I mean I'm not being critical of prayer in general, but just this concept of a legality that enters into biblical Christianity in terms of what it really is. Are you okay with those as examples maybe? I mean there could be other ones too. personal righteousness.

How you doing here? See that was really a good thing. Stan can say about himself that that was really pleasing God with my performance here today. I think there's a fine line here, but I just think that we constantly need to see ourselves as dead indeed before God into sin, but then made perfectly righteous by the belief that everything has been accomplished by the principle of grace. I've said this so many times, and I'll continue to say it, so forgive me if I'm boring you, but the more you grow in God's great grace by faith, the uglier the old man becomes. And it's amazing the depths of the deprivation we have in the born nature. It really is. And I think the light of His righteousness really reflects even increasingly on that principle.

Stan? We've been doing a study on Isaiah, and probably two-thirds of that book talks about pride. Yeah, you know, what did John say about the three greatest sins? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, right? And boy, pride is something that I must admit, you know, gets into all of our, even though we want to deny it and say this is not important, the vanity of pride is unbelievable. But yet we all tie into that day and day and what we do in the workplace, in our homes, in our recreation and everything else. Even in prayer life to some extent, our pride shows up. So anyway, this is not the kind of faith that is live and well and pleasing to God. These are other forms of misplaced faith that I think we need to acknowledge and really leave behind.

Now, accounted to him, doesn't this seem kind of weak? I mean, read the verse. Just as Abraham believed God, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Accounted to him? What is this, accounted to him? And so if you look at the biblical word for this, I'm not going to try to pronounce it.

At the time this term was used in the Greek, largely from a mathematical or an accounting sense. This is kind of like what Donna does in her workplace. It's to put to one's account is what this is and if you look at the translation, it's think nine times, impute eight times, reckon six times, count five times and account four times. So there's the translations. I kind of like impute better. It seems like a little stronger term. What do you think?

Accounting him for righteousness? Let's maybe think of this in the common sense of the term. Perhaps the banks of Paul's day I thought were a bit more secure than today. If you think weíre accounted righteous, we think of a banking system today in terms of how fluffy it is and how unstably flexible it is. Iím concerned a little bit about this.

Another thought here is that a bank should invest on its account by believing in its value, right? In a sense, a bank is truly of the way that God thinks about the believers, a bank that's investing and has full confidence that the money that's been invested there is worthy of being invested. God's investment or accounting us as righteousness is now a system that believes in the donor. You could almost see that as a legalistic system, because if you use that word, accounted as righteousness, you could say, well, I demonstrated faith, so that's counted to my benefit, so what's the next thing I'm going to do?

You know what I'm saying? I kind of like imputed myself, because imputed me, I don't know, it just seems like a stronger verb. Yeah, go ahead, Stan, I'm sorry. If you think about it, what's accounted to us in terms of economic principles, we work for our labor so we have the sense of entitlement that we deserve this to be accounted to us. I think what you said is perfect.

I couldn't have said it any better and didn't say it any better. about that too, the person who did the accounting was God. He's the accountant, not us. And then if you use your recognition of faith, you supply nothing of merit. You're not accountable to God. Extremely valuable to God. So you can't get any merit for it, but he says that's beyond, you know, I account the merit to it.

That's right. And that's, don't you think that's something we need to remind ourselves of constantly? Okay, we ready to move on? Accounting? Imputing? Well, I just think, you know, here again with that faith, there's a chewing on it. You know, you consider what's actually being said. In scripture, you know, that's part of faith, and it's a personal thing that, you know, it's more than just saying, yeah, I believe in God, or yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ.

It's much richer than that. How about that as the dividends? I mean this idea, let's say our monthly salary is placed in the bank but yet if the bank is smart and giving just due to its clients, ultimately they invest that and those are the dividends we get by chewing by faith on what we've been accounted for. It's kind of crazy and a little bit maybe tangential but I think has some practical applications.

All right, let's go on to verse 7 then. It says, therefore, based, by the way, remember what Magee says, therefore, what's it there for kind of thing. Therefore is always relating to what came before. So this idea of justification by faith. Therefore know that only those who are of this faith are sons of Abraham.

So no, here is Gnoska. So this is kind of experiential stuff. This is not just head knowledge. This is not facts. This is having been there, done that, and experienced it. So that knowledge that we have that places us in Abraham in terms of the faith principle is something we do experientially. And I think Abraham's case is exemplary for all, both Jew and Gentile, within the context. And so Romans 4, 23, 24, after again, the whole chapter is mostly about Abraham, says, now it was not written for his sake alone that was imparted to him, but also for us, meaning, by the way, Jew who's now a believer, and Gentile. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead."

So that's what it says there in Romans 4.23-24 and Galatians 3.29 at the end of this chapter. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So this principle then plays out in terms of us being identified with Abraham based on the principle of faith.

Now of, so those who are of faith is really I think better translated, comes from the Greek term ek, which is better translating out from. It's really a stronger and better interpretation. And as this principle of faith is man's relationship to God has been unchanging since the garden. We've talked about that.

This kind of out of experience really is something that we need to reflect back on in terms of what Abraham experienced. Now, I wanted us to kind of note the contrast of those who claimed Abraham as their father but not their spiritual father, and I alluded to that a little earlier. So let's turn to John chapter 8, 37 to 44, and read that together. And I'll just begin here.

I know that you're Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father, and ye do that which you have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. Stand back to the works. But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham.

Ye do the deeds of your father, then said they to him, We are not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. And Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech, even because ye cannot hear my word?

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he's a liar and the father of it. So this is probably one of the best scriptural places to go identifying the true Jewish belief of their father. They just have this kind of traditional view of Abraham as their father that have really kind of mistakenly identified him as their father for the wrong reasons.

All right, let's go on to Galatians 3.8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you, all the nations shall be blessed. Now, I don't know. I think we have the time to do this. The scripture, how so very important.

Stan, Galatians 3.22.

Doug, you've got the Bible open to Galatians? 430. Can you read Galatians 430 for us? Cheryl, could you read John 7, 38 and verse 42? And Margaret, Romans 9, 17. And Kristen, 2 Timothy 3, 15 through 17. You and Wade have a Bible you're sharing. So go ahead, Stan, when you have these verses. This is, by the way, the focus here is Scripture. Now keep in mind as we're hearing these verses, this is not like you know, the ABCs, but this really I think is important to recognize that this verse says, and the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham. Stan?

Galatians 3.22, but the scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin so that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Wow, that really fits right in.

Doug, Galatians 4.30. 4.30. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bar woman and her son, for the son of the bar woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. Okay. Boy, that principle's played out, hasn't it? Cheryl, the John passages 7, 38, and 42. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Has not the scripture said that Christ comes from the descendants of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And perhaps, most importantly, 2 Timothy 3, 15-17. And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Okay, thanks everybody. You know, the reason I went through those verses is just, you know, this verse here, the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, all these verses reflected to various periods of the scripture. I mean, the transcending nature of Scripture is manifesting the truth repeatedly in different ways at different times is really undeniable. So remember, the privilege we have today is having the Scripture and being able to test one part against another and believing what God has revealed. Thanks to the Spirit leading us in all that truth.

Now, in relationship to Abraham, Genesis 12.3 said, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And in Acts, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now, this would justify his present act of indicative. So it says here that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. That means God is doing it, he's doing it whenever, and it's factual that he has done it and will continue to do it. So many different translations for the term translated here as Gentiles. Nation 64 times, Gentiles 93 times, heathen 5 times.

And here was the Jewish perspective that was attempted to be corrected by this verse. The Jewish perspective about the Gentiles and liberated Jews was they did fulfill the task They did not fulfill the task of propagating the name of Jehovah. So in other words, they were in error because they didn't propagate the name of Jehovah. That should be corrected. And they did not receive the right of circumcision as the ticket to a relationship. Ultimately, wrong conclusions. This is an entirely different principle that's justifying by faith, not the fact that the name of Jehovah wasn't honored or circumcision was a necessary task to believing.

So Romans 3.28.30 nails this down. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by a faith apart from any deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews only? Or is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes of the Gentiles only since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

So the principle is the same whether you're circumcised or not and you're believing in the Jewish tradition of circumcision. The principle is still faith is what circumcision truly represents. So I think the Jews were mistaken and we've been over this and other parts of the book of Galatians but here we have the answer. Now look at this, and we're going to spend a few minutes here. Preaching the gospel, meaning to announce the good news in advance, is kind of what that can be literally translated into. For indeed the gospel is preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

And in Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ. Now here's I think a point of discussion.

Wow, isn't this preaching the gospel in times past to Abraham profound? And the question for the class is, how much did Abraham really know? Preaching the gospel to Abraham. We don't really know how much he knew, do we? I mean we know that the Lord probably appeared to him So was he schooled in that? I mean, there's really nothing in scripture that tells us that, does it? What did the gospel mean to Abraham? If the Bible is correct, which we believe it is, the gospel was preached to Abraham. Did Abraham see the cross? Did God reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to him?

Maybe. thoughts. There's no answer to this, by the way. I mean, so this is a point of discussion. Did Abraham have the view that's expressed in scripture only, that his view was as narrow as we view it as, but his response by faith was that all the children of the world would be his seed, at least those who respond by belief? I'm not a doctor either. Neither am I. At least that kind of doctor, right?

Now what's going on here? Are we okay now? Come fix me again. My problem is my glasses here. Let me take my glasses off. What happened to the old way we used to do things around here? Now, all you listening on stream or by MP3s, ultimately, this delay was an electronic embarrassment to the teacher. Anyway, all right. So where were we at here?

Oh, yeah, how much did Abraham know? I mean, I know some people who think that he really had the whole picture, but we just didn't get that revealed in scripture. Stan, what do you think? How much to Abraham, though? I think the importance would not necessarily be how much that God had actually revealed to Abraham, but the relationship that Abraham had with God. Because even before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he came down and spoke to Abraham.

I mean, before he acted in such a, you know, How would you say that word? Cataclysmic. Yeah, cataclysmic way. He actually spoke to his friend who was alien. And Abraham was able to negotiate with him to try to save those cities. So I don't think what he knew is as important as the relationship that he had. And that's covenant. And that's what you said up here earlier. You said the word covenant was listed here. I can't remember where it was. the relationship, and how it works, and it's a higher being making a covenant with a lower being, and you please the one who makes the covenant. And you can go back through scripture, it's an interesting study, to see those that pleased God. Amazing! Noah, Mary, Abraham, Moses, and you can just go on and on, that those who pleased God. Can you imagine how... I can't even describe that.

It stands to be that they please God by faith, not by words. But through the relationship. Exactly. And I'm saying it starts with faith, and it continues through faith. Just like Paul said, from faith to faith. The process is always faith. But it's the relationship that goes with that. It's more than just saying, I believe. And you continue to believe. But it's the relationship that goes with that.

I honestly believe what the scripture has revealed is all that Abraham knew. I don't think God revealed anything more than what we have evidence that the scripture indicates. And Abraham, by faith, actually, wouldn't it be a greater act of faith to believe that all of the seed to follow him would be blessed by the same principle of faith and knowing exactly what Calvary was all about? I mean, I think Abraham believed God with insufficient detail about what the seed was all about. I mean, again, that's one opinion. I don't know. This is an unanswerable question here. One will have to wait until we're in heavenly places to get answered. But nevertheless, I think Abraham, what he knew is what we have revealed by the Spirit and the Word of God. But anyway, perhaps more.

The final verse this morning is, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. So here's kind of an equation in terms of a series of equalities. Gospel equals Abraham's way, equals faith, equals justification, equals salvation, equals oneness in Christ. All of these things are so intertwined and inseparable that ultimately I think it's a truism. Of faith, again, is out of faith. Those out of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. It's another way to translate this verse. So out of faith, meaning of faith, but this faith principle, believing out of this faith principle identifies us with one who in fact exemplified this principle, and that's Abraham.

Romans 4.16, all this is by grace, reminding each and every one of us here. We know this, but we need to be reminded of it. Therefore, it is a faith that it might be according to grace. So the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham. who's the father of us all.

And that fatherhood is that of faith. I mean, it's no other fatherhood than the principle of faith. And that's where the Jews missed it. He was their earthly father, but they missed him being the father of faith. And trusting in what God has provided in Christ is never misplaced trust, as we saw earlier, examples of misplaced trust, either cultural misplacement or cultural righteousness, political righteousness, self-righteousness, religious righteousness. It's an act of faith.

And just three verses to kind of end this section is 1 John 5.12. He who has the Son has life, and he who doesn't have the Son of God does not have life. And if you're a Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

And finally, Galatians 3.14, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Keep in mind, remember the question that was posed at the beginning of this section was, do we get the Spirit by hearing? And the answer is, it's just not hearing, it's believing, as Abraham did believe. And that's really the basis of the Spirit being given.

The Romans 6 passage, we're all buried with him with baptism unto death and risen with him in newness of life, but then Romans 7 comes after Romans 6. So the facts of who we are in Christ, in terms of dead indeed unto sin and risen with him in newness of righteousness and life, ultimately the spirit led life is what allows that to be manifested on a day to day basis.

Any closing thoughts or further discussion? kind of combines those two aspects. You have to hear something, and you combine that with faith. You hear, and it's God's message, and you hear that with faith, and that's the whole package, if you will. And by the way, this is an intellectual process. This is a soul-based kind of, if you will, even almost emotional kind of, I mean, it's a process ingrained in the soul. It's just not head knowledge calling on this faith principle when we're desperate and seeing ourselves as incapable. We just don't say, gee, I'm going to intellectualize this and everything gets better. It's not that. It's really an active process.

Here today people say, well let's just talk of people of faith. They use that term which kind of drives me up the wall. One of those things that kind of gets to you. But it's people of faith. What does that mean? There has to be an object. There's no object. If the object isn't correct, that faith is worthless. The object is key in your faith.

So this process of being saved, or this ongoing process of being saved, day in day out, How does this faith principle then manifest itself? Where should we be in terms of the enacting of this faith principle about this process of being saved? I mean, what's that look like on a day-to-day basis? I think Jesus said we are supposed to be a light unto the world. And I think that faith is acted out by demonstrating what Vern's been talking about for months. And that was, you know, to become in the image of Christ. To be the light. You know, the lights that we see every day, but a pure light in the image of Christ.

Well, again, vowing this principle that we have, you know, faith is not bringing merit to ourselves, but in fact reflecting that where the source of faith really is. So that dependency though is not a let go, let God. The dependency is really being positioned and allowing our condition to be conformed to the position. That position is entirely in heavenly places, right? So as we hang out with him, learn more of him, his nature, and trust in who he is and how his life has been manifested, is continuing to be manifested, will be manifested. is beginning to see that life show up in our life to be noticed by others, not ourselves. It's the life lived out. And that's really reflecting, again, positional truth as it's played out conditionally day in and day out.

Yes, we have a responsibility, but that responsibility is to be guided by the spirit and the power of who we are. Yes? That's not an easy task, and if you look at Paul's life, when he comes to almost the end, he says, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

He finally, you know, and like you said earlier, it's a process. It's not something that just happens overnight. You wake up in the morning, and you're there. You can see that in Paul's life. I mean, he starts, and he just works through this entire process, suffering a lot, because Christ said he was going to have to suffer for the gospel. And he did.

And each step of the way, each suffering, he became closer to the understanding, Gnosko, and also Oida, to what it meant to be the light of Christ. And I think to reflect on the beginning of this passage with verse 5, even in that hearing of the faith. Remember, it all begins with there's therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Again, soft pillow for a tired head, beginning there, there's no condemnation.

Then that allows our act of faith really to be not only heard in terms of the principle, but demonstrated in our day-to-day lives. Roger, close us in prayer please. Lord, we thank you for the blessings we have. Lord, we thank you that you are the only object that our faith should be upon. We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen.