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Galatians chapter three, as we 
return to Paul's letter to the Galatians, we're picking up this 
evening in verses six to nine. I will remind us of the context 
as we proceed, but I do want to read beginning in verse one 
of Galatians chapter three. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has 
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose 
eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. 
This only I want to learn 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 in the spirit, are 
you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered 
so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, therefore, 
he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among 
you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing 
of faith? Just as Abraham believed God 
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Therefore, know 
that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham and the scripture 
foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Preach 
the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying in you, all the nation 
shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith 
are blessed with believing Abraham. For as many as are of the works 
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, curse it is 
everyone who does not continue in all things which are written 
in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified 
by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall 
live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, 
but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed 
us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, curse it is 
everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham 
might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might 
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Amen. Well, let 
us pray. Father, we thank you for the 
Scripture. We pray for understanding now. We pray that we would understand 
Paul's argument. and that it would be unto our 
edification, it would be for our protection as well. We know 
attacks on the doctrine of justification did not cease in the first century. They continue on in our own day, 
God, represented by some very popular men. We would pray that 
you would just help us to understand these truths, God, and help us 
to witness faithfully to others concerning the way of salvation. 
For God, if we are unsure of the means by which a man is justified 
before God, we will certainly confuse those to whom we give 
witness. We just pray for clarity in these 
matters. We pray, God, for the ability 
to point to the Scriptures and to declare the way of salvation 
by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. And it's in his blessed name 
that we pray. Amen. Well, Paul continues here 
his defense of justification by faith alone. There are three 
witnesses or three lines of argument that he presents to demonstrate 
the shortcomings of legalism. Remember the particular instance 
going on in Galatia. People were coming to the churches 
in Galatia, those ones founded by the Apostle Paul on his first 
missionary journey. Others were coming behind him 
and they were saying, Paul's a decent guy. He's preaching 
good stuff and you should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But 
you also need to be circumcised. You also need to obey the ceremonial 
law. You also need to submit yourself 
to Moses in order to be just or righteous before our God. Paul gets wind of this, and so 
he writes to the Galatians. Remember, as we saw in Galatians 
chapter one, he doesn't spend a whole long time greeting the 
church. Oh, he does pronounce grace and 
peace on them, but he immediately begins with what he is writing 
about. Remember back in Galatians 1, 
after a brief greeting, a brief pronouncement of grace and peace, 
he says in verse 6 of chapter 1, I marvel that you are turning 
away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to 
a different gospel. Paul knew very keenly that if 
we try and supplement faith, if we try to add our works to 
faith, We are doing away fully with the cross of the Lord Jesus. 
He says as much in chapter two, verse twenty twenty one. He says, 
I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes 
through the law. then Christ died in vain. That is simply unacceptable theology. So Paul is writing to counter 
the Judaizers, those men who are telling the Galatians that 
it's good to believe, but they must also be circumcised. And 
so he highlights or he demonstrates three weaknesses of this legalism 
in chapter 3, verses 1 to 14. We saw him appeal to the Galatians' 
experience in chapter 3, verses 1 to 5. He asks very clearly, 
he asks very simply, having begun in the spirit, are you now being 
made perfect by the flesh? How did you come to this place 
of conversion? How did you come to this place 
of the reception of the spirit? Was it by your own deeds? Was 
it by your own doing? Was it by your own works? Or 
was it by the hearing of faith? And if it was by the hearing 
of faith, then it is not faith plus works. Now he appeals to 
Scripture, specifically the example of Abraham, verses 6 to 9. And then the final leg is the 
law's expectation in verses 10 to 14, which, God willing, we'll 
look at next week. But we're looking at the appeal 
to Scripture, specifically the example of Abraham. And this 
is brilliant on the part of the Apostle Paul. One can hear the 
Judaizers come to the Galatian churches and say, you need to 
be just like Father Abraham. God gave the covenant of circumcision 
to Abraham. And in order for you to be right 
before God, you need to submit to circumcision. Well, later 
elsewhere, Paul says that Abraham was justified prior to his circumcision. And here he highlights the very 
same truth. It's not by circumcision. It's 
not by a combination of circumcision and faith, but it's by faith 
alone. John Eady says they, the Judaizers, 
insisted more on imitation of Abraham's circumcision than on 
the possession of Abraham's faith. And that's the emphasis here 
of the Apostle Paul in chapter 3, verses 6 to 9. We're going 
to look at two things this evening. First, the example of Abraham 
in verse 6. And then secondly, the theological 
implications. draws those out in verses seven 
to nine. And I do want to remind us all 
that we need to pay attention to what Paul is saying here. 
We need to understand the whole argument in this book of Galatians. As I mentioned in prayer, this 
attack on justification by faith alone did not stop with the Judaizers. It has been perpetuated throughout 
the history of the church. You've perhaps heard the name 
Pelagius or the Pelagian heresy. That was a frontal assault on 
the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Pelagius taught 
that we could achieve salvation apart from God's grace, apart 
from faith in the risen Christ, apart from those things, that 
we had it in us to obtain a righteousness before God. There have been those 
who have been similar to the Galatian heresy. Faith plus words. The Roman Catholic Church. This 
is fundamental to their theology. Faith in Christ and following 
the sacraments and the system and the ordinances of the Roman 
institution. There are heresies closer to 
us even than that. There is what's called the new 
perspective on Paul that is very much in vogue today. And there 
is what's called federal vision theology. All of these are constant 
and perpetual attacks upon justification by faith alone. So it is important 
for us to understand the truth. You don't need to go out and 
study Pelagianism and Federal Vision, New Perspective. You 
can do that if you want. But if you understand the truth, 
first and foremost, you'll be able to spot the counterfeits. 
The lady at the bank is able to spot the counterfeit because 
she is so in tune with what a true bill looks like. And it is my 
hope and prayer that we, as God's people in this local church, 
would understand this doctrine so well that when departures 
come along, We're able to identify it. We're able to guard ourselves 
and guard our children from such enticing words. Notice first 
the example of Abraham. He says, just as Abraham going 
back for a moment to verse five, therefore, he who supplies the 
spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the 
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Well, the answer is 
clear. The whole context makes it clear. 
It is by the hearing of faith. So he makes this appeal to Abraham. He says, just as Abraham believed 
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, the experience 
of the Galatians, they believe the gospel and were justified 
to receive the Holy Spirit. The experience of the Galatians 
was precisely the same as Abraham. They did not need to supplement 
this faith with circumcision. They did not need to do anything 
in order to make it good before God. We are saved by grace alone, 
through belief alone in the gospel of Jesus Christ alone. One man, 
Silva, says by introducing the figure of Abraham, Paul grounds 
his argument in redemptive history, which becomes the dominant perspective 
through the end of chapter four. The apostles point is not simply 
that we should believe as Abraham believed, though that is true 
enough and critically important, but that those who believe become 
recipients of the redemptive blessings associated with Abraham. So believe like Abraham. But 
the whole idea here is that you receive the spirit and you're 
justified by faith alone. That's how come he appeals to 
Abraham. Now notice that statement in 
verse 6. He believed God and it was accounted 
to him for righteousness. That comes from Genesis chapter 
15 and verse 6. That is a wonderful passage of 
Holy Scripture. That whole scene there. It's 
when the Lord caused him to go into a deep sleep. The Lord split 
the animals in two. And then when Abraham rose or 
woke up, He saw that torch passing between those animals. That signified 
that God the Lord was calling upon Himself a curse if He should 
break the promise to Abraham in making that covenant of salvation. It's a wonderful picture. That's 
the way they cut a covenant. back in the ancient Near Eastern 
world. They would cut animals, separate them, put them on either 
side. The parties involved in the covenant 
would then walk through them, symbolically saying that if we 
renege on this covenant, then what has happened to these animals, 
we hope and pray will happen to us. It is significant that 
God the Lord makes this covenant with Abraham and God the Lord 
alone marches through those animals. It is God who is the covenant 
keeper, the faithful one in this transaction, specifically Jesus 
Christ as the mediator of the new covenant. But notice he believed 
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Some have 
said his faith was rewarded with righteousness. That's not the 
issue. The issue is, is that that was the instrument. Faith 
is not the ground, it is the instrument by which God reckons 
righteousness to us. And remember, the object of faith 
for Abraham, as it is for us, was Jesus Christ. Now some of 
you are going to say, well that just seems odd because Abraham 
lived a long time before Jesus Christ. Many, many years. Abraham 
lived by faith in the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus. 
The first promise is given in Genesis 3 15 when God says I 
will put enmity between you and between your seed and her seed. 
The seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. 
That is the proto evangelium. That is the first giving of the 
gospel. Abraham had that. Abraham had 
the promises of God concerning a coming Redeemer. He didn't 
have it in full-blown glory, as we perhaps do, but he was 
looking to the same Lord Jesus. He had the promise by type. Remember when he was told by 
God to go to Mount Moriah to take Isaac, his only son, and 
to sacrifice him. Don't miss the significance of 
that entire scene. Mount Moriah was the place where 
Solomon's temple would be built. It would be a place of sacrifice, 
a place of worship. Well, prior to Solomon's temple, 
Abraham took Isaac there. And Isaac was pretty keen. He 
was tracking. He was able to understand certain 
things. I think he was an older teen 
at the time, probably around 17 or 18 when Abraham took him 
to sacrifice him. And Isaac asked the perceptive 
question, didn't he? He said, we have the wood, we 
have the fire, but where's the sacrifice? What does Abraham 
say to him? The Lord will provide. And after God stays his hand 
from killing Isaac, there is a ram caught in the thicket. 
So by types and shadows, by progression, Abraham is led to understand 
that there is a lamb, there is a ram, there is an animal coming. The animal is typifying one who 
is coming to be the sacrifice. Such that Jesus, in his combat 
with the Pharisees in his day, said that Abraham rejoiced to 
see my day. And he saw it and was glad. Don't 
miss that. He didn't see some unidentified 
Messiah, some concept of deity. Jesus said he rejoiced to see 
my day. So by the promises that God had 
given throughout redemptive history, Abraham believed on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. It was that faith It was that 
alone that it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. D.A. Carson commenting on the passage 
in John 8, 56. Jesus identifies the ultimate 
fulfillment of all Abraham's hopes and joys with his own person 
and worth. And so we see here, he believes 
and it's accounted to him for righteousness. I would hope that 
if I asked you what is involved in justification, by this time 
you would be able to answer, it is pardon for sin, it is the 
imputation of righteousness. Pardon for sin and imputation 
of righteousness. Here in this context, he's dealing 
with righteousness. And that makes sense, doesn't 
it? Because the Judaizers would say, you need to be circumcised 
in order to be righteous. You need to obey the ceremony. 
You need to obey the law of Moses. You need to submit yourself to 
this right in order to be righteous. So Paul is trafficking here in 
that aspect of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to 
the believer. And so he highlights that reality 
with reference to Abraham. The word used here means to place 
to one's account. He believed God, and it was placed 
to his account for righteousness. Paul uses this word in Romans 
chapter 4 on several occasions. And Douglas Moo says, it is faith 
that is reckoned, a faith apart from works, apart from circumcision, 
apart from the law, apart from sight, and therefore a reckoning 
that is solely a matter of grace. You have to get this down. Grace 
and works are mutually exclusive. It is all of Christ or it is 
none of Christ. If righteousness comes through 
the law, then Christ died in vain. That's Paul's whole point. Look to Father Abraham. If those 
Judaizers are going to come in and say, well, look at Abraham. 
Paul's saying, yeah, look at Abraham. Look at him biblically. 
Look at him exegetically. Look at Genesis 12. Look at Genesis 
15. Look at 17 and 18. Look at how 
God dealt with him. It wasn't by virtue of his goodness. Abraham came out of Ur of the 
Chaldees. Abraham's father was an idolater. Don't think for a moment that 
Abraham wasn't. You, as fathers, bring your children 
to the Christian church. Abraham's father, as an idolater, 
would have taken young Abraham to the idolater's church. He 
was not a good man. He was not an upright man. He 
was not a godly man. It wasn't by virtue of his words. 
It wasn't by virtue of his merit. It wasn't by virtue of his circumcision. As Paul argues in Romans chapter 
4, it is by virtue of God's electing purpose, his decree to save his 
people by the Lord Jesus. It is based on the fact that 
God pardons our iniquities and imputes the righteousness of 
another unto us. That's what Paul is saying. That 
takes the throat out of this Judaizing heresy. And Paul wants 
them to understand just what Abraham does signify. Now, what are the implications 
that Paul draws out in verses 7 and 9? There are four. First, 
the imputation of righteousness is through faith alone. Notice 
in verse seven, therefore, know that only those who are of faith 
are sons of Abraham. It is the of faith ones that 
have their faith reckoned as righteousness. It's not faith 
plus words. It's not faith and circumcision. It is the of faith ones who are 
the sons of Abraham. And therefore, it is of the of 
faith ones who are righteous before a holy God. Reverend, 
we need both those aspects of pardon and imputation of righteousness. 
We need both aspects. We saw this a few weeks ago in 
the book of Zechariah in our prayer meeting. Remember Zechariah 
chapter 3. Joshua, the high priest, is standing 
there. In fact, why don't we turn there? 
This serves as probably the best picture of the imputation of 
righteousness. Zechariah, Chapter 3. Sometimes 
preachers need to realize the Bible explains things better 
than they can. Zechariah, Chapter 3. We're looking specifically at 
the imputation. That's the reckoning unto another. of righteousness. The gospel 
is about an exchange. God takes our sin, keeps it upon 
the Savior, and punishes him. Then God takes his righteousness 
and heaps it upon the sinner. It's a great exchange. That's 
what Luther called it. Beautiful. Zechariah 3 shows 
that, or demonstrates that. Notice in verse 1, Then he showed 
me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. 
Now, don't think Joshua the son of Nun, military commander that 
went into Canaan. There were other men named Joshua. We need to understand that. We 
hear Joshua. Oh, it must be Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' successor. No, this was the high priest 
living at the time of the Restoration, when the people of Israel came 
out of Babylon. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi are 
post-exilic prophets. They wrote after the people of 
Israel came out of captivity in Babylon. Now he's standing 
there as Joshua the high priest but as a representative person. The high priest would represent 
the entirety of the covenant community before the Lord. It 
says he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the 
angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Amazing. Satan's right there 
to oppose. We find him in the book of Revelation. 
He's called the accuser of the brethren. Satan's right there, 
ready to speak on our behalf. Not for us. Jesus Christ is the 
advocate with the Father. He's the righteous one. The devil 
is standing there to say, look at this wretch. Look at this 
community. Look at how dirty they are. Look 
at how filthy they are. Look at how sinful they are. 
Look at how bad they are. That's the role of the devil. 
That's what he's about. He is an accuser of the brethren. And so when Zachariah has this 
vision, he sees Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel 
of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 
Notice in verse two. And the Lord said to Satan, the 
Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem 
rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from 
the fire? I love this. It's beautiful. 
Before the devil can open his big, dumb mouth to start accusing 
and opposing the people of God, what's God do? The Lord rebuke 
you. I think the implication is, I 
don't need your testimony. I don't need to listen to how 
jacked up they are from you, because I can already see that. 
I'm God. Joshua's standing there in filth. 
Joshua is as dirty as a man could be. God sees that. So before the devil can open 
his mouth, the Lord rebuked you. I've chosen this one. I have 
plucked him out of the bran. I am sovereign. Notice in verse 
3, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before 
the angel. I mentioned this a couple of 
weeks ago. The filth there doesn't mean, 
you know, I fell in the mud today. I got a spot on my shirt. I sat 
on my car seat, and it was fully wet, and then I rolled in some 
punch, and I'm just filthy. That's not the filth in view 
here. The word that is used here is the word used elsewhere in 
the Old Testament to describe feces. Human excrement. It's used in other contexts to 
speak of vomit. What a word, huh? Vomit. The 
only word you say, it makes it sound like what you're doing 
with that word. The spectacle is real. Joshua 
is disgusting before God. Satan's right there to bring 
it on home. It'd be akin to a child who is 
known to be guilty. The parent knows that the parent 
is going to deal in kindness and grace. The brother is going 
to say, I saw it. I saw what he did. Let him have 
it. Just chill out. Be quiet. I'll deal with it. 
He's standing there in all of his filth. He was standing before 
the angel. So what does God do? Then he 
answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take 
away the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, See, 
I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you 
with rich robes. You see the great exchange. Take 
the dirt off him. Take the dirty garments from 
him. But that's not enough. He needs 
to be clothed with a righteousness. He needs to be fit to stand before 
the high king of heaven. We need the pardon of our sins, 
but we need the imputation of righteousness. God demands this. And because Christ has satisfied 
it, we have obtained it by his grace and for his glory. Brethren, this is a great picture 
of the two aspects of justification, pardon of iniquity and the imputation 
of righteousness. Going back to Galatians 3, it 
is the of faith ones that alone are righteous. It's not faith 
plus words, not faith plus circumcision, not faith plus whatever your 
shibboleth is. Just talking to someone this 
morning. We are very good at adding distinctives to the gospel. 
Come to our church. Believe the gospel and do this. Believe the gospel and wear this. 
Believe the gospel and go here. Believe the gospel and... Brethren, 
any of that is the Galatian heresy all over again. It is believe 
the gospel for salvation. It is believe the truth for salvation. We need to guard against the 
tendency to add things, to supplement. to substitute. You know, if you're 
really old, you'll be like me. We always become the standard 
when we engage in the arbitrary nature of legalism. We get to 
call the shots. We are the new lawmaker. As long 
as everybody does it my way, they're OK. That's unacceptable. God is the 
lawmaker, God is the giver of righteousness, and God has declared 
there is one way. It is through belief in the gospel, 
just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for 
righteousness. The imputation of righteousness 
is through faith alone. It is not by works, it is not 
by law keeping, it is not by merit. The second thing, notice, 
the sons of Abraham are such because of justification by faith 
alone. Therefore, know that only those 
who are of faith are sons of Abraham." What's Paul saying 
here? He's saying those Judaizers aren't sons of Abraham. He's 
a little more gracious than I would be. I'd say those wretched heretics 
are trying to destroy your soul. Look at what he says. Know that 
only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Anybody who 
comes proclaiming another gospel to you, let him be anathema. 
Let him be damned to hell. Let the curse of God rest upon 
him. It is justification by faith 
alone. Look at what he says in verse 
26 of chapter 3. For you are all sons of God through 
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, 
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, 
then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Go back for just a moment in 
John chapter 8. John chapter 8. Another time 
we see this whole issue of the sons of Abraham question. Remember, in John chapter eight, 
Jesus is dealing with the religious leaders of his own day. They, 
the Jews, claimed Abraham as their father. Verse thirty three. They answered him. We are Abraham's 
descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can 
you say you will be made free? And notice in verse 39, they 
answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. So they've gone 
from being descendants to this filial relationship. Now, Abraham 
is our is our father. And then notice in verse 37, 
I'm sorry, verse 37, Jesus refutes this claim. He says, I know that 
you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because 
my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with 
my father and you do what you have seen with your father. They 
answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to 
them, if you are Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, 
a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham 
did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. 
Then they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have 
one father, God. Jesus said to them, if you were, 
if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded 
forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but he 
sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not 
able to listen to my word. You are of your father, the devil, 
and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer 
from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there 
is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks 
from his own resources. For he is a liar and the father 
of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 
Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why 
do you not believe me? He who is of God hears God's 
words. Therefore, you do not hear because 
you are not of God. Then the Jews answered and said 
to him, Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and 
have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have 
a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. And I do 
not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. 
Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall 
never see death. Then the Jews said to him, Now 
we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets. And you say, if anyone keeps 
my word, he shall never taste death. You greater than our father 
Abraham was dead and the prophets are dead. Who do you make yourself 
out to be? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, 
my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, 
of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, 
but I know him. If I say I do not know him, I 
shall be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his 
word. Your father Abraham rejoiced 
to see my day and he sought and was glad. Then the Jews said 
to him, You are not yet 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? 
Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham 
was, I am. Then they took up stones to throw 
at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going 
through the midst of them. And so passed by. Paul is dealing 
with the same opponents. Paul is dealing with the same 
people. Paul is dealing with the people that are committed 
to a worth salvation, a worth righteousness, a merit-based 
righteousness before God Most High. He says that is not the 
case. The sons of Abraham are such 
because of justification by faith alone. The third implication, 
moving along, is that the scripture confirms this position. Notice 
in verse 8 of Galatians 3. It's a beautiful statement here 
about the unity of Scripture. And the Scripture foreseeing 
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel to 
Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations shall be 
blessed. Have you ever read Genesis and believed you were reading 
gospel? Have you ever read Genesis 12 or 15 or 17 or 18 or 26 or 
28 and believed that you were reading gospel? All the same, 
the good news was preached in the Old Testament. What happens 
if we just become New Testament only Christians? We are jipping 
ourselves out of a bunch of stuff that is gospel saturated, that 
is about Jesus Christ. We need to take the whole scripture. 
We need to understand the promise. We need to understand fulfillment. 
We need to understand anticipation and realization. The whole Bible 
testifies to the same triune God working to save his people 
in sovereign grace and love. We short ourselves if we do not 
see that. He speaks of the justification 
of Gentiles by faith. This was in the promise in Genesis. The Gospel is in Genesis. It is fulfilled by Jesus Christ. In you, all the nations shall 
be blessed. Remember, God told Abraham to 
look to the north, to look to the south, look to the east, 
and look to the west. God said, I'm giving you all 
of this. He wasn't just talking about Palestine. In Romans 4, 
13, Paul says that Abraham was told he would be the heir of 
the world. That is by virtue of the seed 
of Abraham, which is Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. And then the fourth and final 
implication is the blessing of God comes through faith alone. Verse 9, so then those who are 
of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. He's already spoken 
about the fact that they receive the Holy Spirit and here they 
receive righteousness. This is what justification is 
all about. You have received that not by 
works, not by merit, not by law. You have received it by virtue 
of God's grace through faith in Christ. John Eady said, it 
is not Abraham's blood, but Abraham's faith, which forms the filial 
bond. He goes on to say, the conclusion 
is leveled against proud Judaizing heretics, or he says, errorists, 
who insisted more on imitation of Abraham's circumcision than 
on the possession of Abraham's faith. Thus misunderstanding 
the place, nature, and meaning of the seal and rite and deluding 
their victims away from the Spirit to trust in externalism and seek 
for perfection in the flesh. That's the rub. You might say, 
what's the big deal? Why does Paul write Romans and 
Galatians? I mean, come on. Is it that bad 
when we want to do a little bit? It is that bad in light of Galatians 
and Romans. Mutually two exclusive systems, 
grace or works, faith or merit. You cannot mingle them without 
destroying the work of Christ. And what happens when we come 
along and we tell somebody, it's faith plus. We create two, maybe 
three, maybe four tiers of Christians. The really super spiritual ones 
that have followed all the directions. They're really justified. The 
rest of us slobs are somewhere down here on the bottom rung. 
Hopefully someday we'll get up there. No, we're justified. by 
God through faith alone. That is the great leveler. Justification 
happens once. The moment you believe, God pardons. God imputes righteousness. You grow in your sanctification. You grow in your understanding 
of who God is. You grow in killing sin and putting 
to death the deeds of the body. That is all sanctification. That's 
not what we're dealing with here. We're dealing with how is a sinner 
made right with God, and it's by grace alone, through faith 
alone, in Christ alone. So in conclusion, Paul highlights 
the departure from the truth here is not him. Again, you can 
hear the Judaizers. Paul's not telling you everything, 
guys. Paul's leaving some big thing out. I mean, as good as 
Paul is, as good as he's preaching, as much as he's emphasizing faith 
in Jesus, you need to be circumcised as well. See, there is this idea 
today that Judaism is OK. It's monotheistic. Aren't we 
monotheistic? There's such a leveling today. 
Christianity, Islam and Judaism, they're all monotheistic. So 
we're all kind of on the same page. Not even close. Nowhere 
near the same page. One alone is a salvation by grace 
through faith. The other two are works, righteousness, 
works oriented, merit, law keeping, having to perform well. You need to understand something 
about Judaism. It was them who departed from 
the Old Testament. Remember, we saw Paul before 
Agrippa in Acts 26. He says, I'm on trial for the 
hope of Israel. I'm on trial for what our 12 
tribes are hoping to attain. Paul says there that he is the 
one consistent with the law and the prophets and the Psalms and 
the wisdom literature. It's not the Judaizers. They 
have defected. They have abandoned. They have 
departed. Robert Raymond, I think, explains 
this very well. I read this way back when, when 
we were looking at Galatians 1, and I think it does need to 
be repeated. He says Bible students should 
draw a distinction between the religion of the Old Testament 
and Judaism. You can fall prey to this. Well, 
you know, they're kind of our brothers. No, they're not. They're 
apostates. They defected. They rejected 
Jesus. They called down God's wrath 
upon them. Remember before Pilate? They 
pronounced a self-maledictory oath. We hear the word benediction 
at the end of the service. I've been told it's good to have 
a benediction. That's the pronouncement of a 
good word. A malediction is just the opposite. It's the pronouncement of a bad 
word. I don't mean like a cuss word. Go in the closet to say 
something bad. What do they say before Pilate? Let his blood be on us and our 
children. God heard them. God answered 
them, literally. In the span of a generation, 
Commander Titus, with the Roman army, surrounded Jerusalem and 
sacked it. Destroyed the temple. Destroyed 
the city. It was such that it was a havoc 
unlike ever seen before. Josephus records in gory detail 
the sorts of things that went on in the siege of Jerusalem. 
They defected. They apostatized. The Jew today 
needs the gospel. He needs to be called to believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not okay simply by virtue 
of his Jewishness. He needs to bow to King Jesus. He says, Raymond does, Bible 
students should draw a distinction between the religion of the Old 
Testament and Judaism. The former is rightly designated 
Yahweh-ism. Yahweh is the name of God in 
the Old Testament. the worship and service that 
Yahweh required in the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, while Judaism 
is the post-exilic deconstruction of Old Testament Yahwehism that 
the rabbinic schools erected around the law in such sources 
as the Babylonian Talmud in order to make Yahwehism compatible 
with and applicable to the Jews' lack of access to land and to 
temple. What he's saying is a historical 
fact. The Jews went into exile in Babylon. What did they do there? They 
chilled out. They lived. They planted gardens. They had jobs. They got married. 
And they adopted the religion of the culture. They took bits 
and pieces of Babylonian religion and mingled it with the Old Testament. The Babylonian Talmud is anti-Christian 
to the core. It has some most horrific and 
blasphemous statements concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The Talmud is not another set 
of religious commentaries on Old Testament religion. It isn't 
that. And Raymond is right on here. He says the two are not the same 
and are not compatible, as Jesus so clearly declared the former 
urging the commands of God, the latter urging the traditions 
of man, which nullified the word of God. On the other hand, New 
Covenant Christianity is simply the administrative extension 
and unfolding of the Abrahamic Covenant, which is just to say 
that the spiritual blessings which Christians enjoy today 
under Jeremiah's New Covenant are founded on the Abrahamic 
Covenant. That's why Paul can say to the 
Gentiles in Galatia, by virtue of the fact that you believe 
on Jesus, you're the sons of Abraham, not those Judaizers. So be careful today. Be very 
careful. It's not like they're just like 
us with a bit of a difference. No, they've rejected Jesus. They've 
rejected their Old Testament scriptures. They've rejected 
the very law and prophets that announced Jesus coming. So don't 
make that mistake. Secondly, we need to understand 
something of the practical effects of justification by faith alone. 
I know it doesn't come out here, though it is indirect. It says 
that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 
We search the scriptures. What are some of those blessings 
that we find? We find peace with God, don't 
we? Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been justified 
by faith, we have peace with God. Isn't that great? You ever 
just relax with that thought in your mind? You may have a 
jacked-up life, you may have a lot of loose ends, you may 
have a lot of things going on, but if you have peace with God, 
that's one area where you can say, Amen. Right? You can just rejoice. I've got 
this issue, I've got that issue, I've got this bill, I've got 
that bill, I've got this, and I've got peace with God. Life's okay. Life's alright. Be of good cheer, 
Jesus said, I have overcome the world. In this world you will 
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Brethren, you need to 
be of good cheer. All of this theology, I understand, 
maybe this isn't the wisest thing, to engage in exegesis of Galatians 
on a Sunday night when we're all kind of fighting the tyrants. 
Brethren, you need to reflect on the fact that you're justified 
by faith alone, and as a result of that, you have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. As well, there ought to be gratitude 
toward God. Gratitude. Misery, deliverance, 
gratitude. We ought to be a thankful people. 
We're justified freely by His grace. Not what my hands have 
done can save my guilty soul. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply 
to thy cross I cling. I have a righteousness that avails 
with God. I'm like Joshua the high priest, 
standing before the Lord in all of my filth and in all of my 
dirt, all of my excrement and vomit and disgustingness. And God says, take the dirt off 
him and put on a robe of righteousness. We've got to be thankful. We 
ought to praise Him. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. I hope justification 
by faith alone is at the top of your journal. It's at the 
top of your list. That's something that you praise 
and thank God for. And then as well, humility before 
God. You see, if I come and preach to you faith plus circumcision, 
you get circumcised, you've got a little bit of credit to take 
in this whole arrangement. Then when you look at somebody 
else, you say, I'm here because, yeah, Jesus died, but I got circumcised. Interestingly, we'll always minimize 
the work of Jesus and maximize what we have done. Oh, yeah, 
I believe on the Lord Jesus, but I also do this, this, this, 
this, this. No, not when you understand justification by faith 
alone. It is humbling. You are not saved because you 
did something. John Calvin said, for learning 
genuine humility and self-abasement, we should be empty of all opinion 
of our own virtue and shorn of all assurance of our own righteousness. In fact, broken and crushed by 
the awareness of our own utter poverty. That's a great statement. For learning genuine humility 
and self-abasement, we should be empty of all opinion of our 
own virtue and shorn of all assurance of our own righteousness. In 
fact, broken and crushed by the awareness of our own utter poverty. So brethren, there are practical 
effects of justification by faith alone. And for any and all who 
do not know Christ tonight, the blessing of God comes upon those 
who believe what Abraham believed, who believe on the Lord Jesus. 
who look not to their own works, who look not to their own merit, 
who look not to their own performance, who don't say things like, you 
know, I'm not as bad as everyone else. I've never actually done 
this set. I've never actually gone to that 
place. I'll probably be all right. Probably 
be all right is not enough. You need a righteousness that 
avails with God, and there's one place alone to get that. 
It is by believing on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you shall 
be saved. Well, let us pray. Father, how 
we thank you for your word and how we thank you for this doctrine 
of justification, for the pardon of sin and the imputation of 
righteousness. And I pray, God in heaven, that 
we would consider that peace we have with you through our 
Lord Jesus. that we would respond in gratitude, that we would think 
on these things, and it would cause us to praise you and to 
worship you, and that, Father, it would be humbling, that we 
would be humble before you and before our brothers and sisters, 
God. Forgive us that so often we're so proud and so arrogant. 
We look so much to our own accomplishments when they are nothing but dirty, 
like dirty rags in your sight. I just pray, God in heaven, that 
you would help us to learn these lessons and to put them into 
practice in our daily lives. And we ask through Christ our 
Lord. Amen.