We now bring you the Making Much of Jesus podcast featuring the late Dr. Jack Hudson, the founding pastor of the Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. And now today's edition of the Making Much of Jesus podcast. All right, if you have your Bibles, let's turn, if you will, please, to the Book of Galatians, and I hope that you're reading that. I don't know, I don't have any book, as I've said in a long time, and when I was in school, I did, we did, had Exodus Jesus on this, which meant every single word we studied. I've told you, but I've still got my notebooks at home that, oh, 25 years ago, whenever it was, I, but I didn't ever have gotten as much out of it as I have because I see it so parallel with the age in which we're living. Now, if you remember now, very basically, while you're finding the book of Galatians, and we'll begin in chapter number three tonight, and that's page 1243 in your Schofield Bibles, the book of Galatians is written to the providence of Galatia. Now this was originally a village where the Gauls, they migrated from France and they came in and settled there. And then when Rome took over, they just took the city and the surrounding area and the providence, or as we'd call it a state. became called Galatia. Well, the people who lived in Galatia were called, as they're writing to them, the Galatians, like we're North Carolinians or Charlatans, you see, because we live in Charlotte. Well, that's what it means when we say the book of Galatians. It means that the Holy Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul was writing to the Galatians, that is the inhabitants of Galatia. And now this is more than one church because it was a series of little churches in this province of Iconium and Derby and Lystra and others. And Paul had been there and had established these churches and put local pastors in them. And by the way, that's the only method that God approves, I think, of mission work. And I'm so glad to know that many mission boards are doing this on the field. They're establishing churches, putting a local native pastor in, moving on to the next place, and starting a church. That's exactly what Paul did. Well, the churches were doing well. Well, just like everything, the Christian life has enemies, just like everything that lives has. Every tree has an enemy, every plant has enemies, every insect has an enemy, every animal. And so in our spiritual life, even, we have an enemy called sin. And so it always works this way. Sometimes it comes in in such insidious ways that the average person is just not aware of it. Well, they were doing well, and then they were winning souls, and they were having a great time. And suddenly, here come some of the well-respected men from Galatia, or probably from Jerusalem. They came down to the churches, and I imagine they either had a Bible conference, or at least they got them together, and by word of mouth, that's the only way they could do it in those days, they got it together and said, now, Brother so-and-so is going to be speaking in our church tonight. And can you imagine they had a rousing song service and the pastor of the church at either Listeri or Iconi or Derby or maybe here at the very church in Galadia got up and introduced him. He said, we're so honored to have him. He's come from Jerusalem down here. He gets up and he says, now brethren, I appreciate what you're doing and your churches are growing. And he said, we've been hearing of the reports. And he said, it's wonderful. And he goes on and waxes eloquent for a little while, things with which they would agree with him and relate. Then he says, but there is one problem. You see, you have not been circumcised after the manner of Moses. Now, the reason we know all this is because we've got an absolute transcript of it in Acts 15. Acts 15, 1 says, unless you're circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Well, I imagine these folks, when the service was over, they said, what did you think about brother so-and-so? Why, Paul told us that all we need to do is just trust in Jesus. And I just can't, you have to admit, he's a good man and he's sincere. Why, he loves his family and all this. And can't you imagine how upset and disturbed they were? You see, here was Ara coming in. Jude warned us they'll come in sideways, like a crab or crabwise. Have you ever seen a crab? Been out to the coast and watched crabs? They don't run straight or back, they run sideways, watching all the time. And so, these men had gotten into the churches and said, now, you've got to be circumcised after the manner of Moses. Did you know this is exactly what we're having today? There are people who stand in the pulpit today, and I imagine somewhere down the line, they had to do like these men. They had to get before people who believe the Bible and believe the grace of God. And they said, now, this is fine, but you must. And they reached way back in the Old Testament, and they said, now, you must observe the Sabbath, that is, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now, it's all right, fine to be a Christian of grace and all that, but you got to keep the law in addition to it. They're known as a seven-day Adventist. Then there's the other group that reach way back and they pulled out the doctrine of baptism as the means of salvation. They're called the Church of Christ. And then there are others who go back and it gets a little closer home. And they go back and says, now it's fine, it's grace, it's fine, but you've got to have works with it. Now that's the Pentecostals, that's the Methodists, that's many of the other groups that I'm not picking on any of them. I'm just saying, even reputable, good, kind, godly people today are reaching back and they're pulling out and they're saying it must be by works, you see. And people are deceived. That's why we have the divisions that we have today. And so then, of course, now the newest one, though it's not new at all, they reached back to Pentecost. And they said, now you got to have a Pentecostal experience. That is, you got to speak in tongues, if you really, you know. And so they're always adding something to it. Now with that setting, we'll begin reading chapter three. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Receive you 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 not made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of the faith the same are the children of Abraham? And the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, that is, the Gentile, through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In these shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faith for Abraham. For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, curse it is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to them to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Now, Father, help us to understand the word tonight. Make it something new and fresh and acceptable to us. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Now, you remember last week when we closed off, and I'll not go back other than just to review, we closed off and Paul was getting into the doctrine and he said, you must believe in the doctrine of the church. Beloved, I have said it so much, I pray that it'll ring and reverberate in your mind. Don't do anything apart from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let everything be in, by, and through the church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He established a church. He's coming back for the church. Stay with the church. You'll hear many programs today and many of these groups that are splitting off and trying to build their own empire, set up their own method, are saying the church is not relevant today. They're saying the church is not necessary. They're anti-church. Now, beloved, let that be a warning to you. Paul is warning us of that. Then he comes on down in the second chapter, along about the 18th verse, and he says, if you build the law again, look at verse 18, second chapter, for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. He's talking about the law. For I threw that out. I wish to get going. I'm just not going to take the time because I've got to get into chapter three. Now notice what he says. He comes back with a good logical argument. And folk, I wish we'd remember this. Did you know the greatest defense that you've got for the gospel of Jesus Christ is not the ability to argue or even logic. The greatest weapon that you and I have for the defense of the gospel is our testimonies. That's what Paul used over and over. Every time you see him, he said, fellows, did I tell you about the time I was on the road to Damascus, and a light brighter than the noonday sun suddenly shone round about me, and I fell to my knees, and he began to tell the story. He told it over and over and over. The greatest defense of the gospel is your testimony. You are a living testimony. You are an epistle written by the Holy Spirit of the living God. That's the greatest defense we've got. Don't try to get in an argument with people. I remember one time years ago, one of the men in our church called me about midnight. He said, Preacher, I've got a man I'm dealing with. He wants to be saved, but I can't lead him to the Lord. I said, bring him down here and maybe we can gang up on him. I knew the man couldn't hear me, and so he brought him down to my house. He was a principal, a school principal, and he kept saying, I can't believe some of the miracles. I can't believe some of the miracles. I tried to, in essence, realize later that what I was doing was arguing with him. I was debating on his own ground. And I was losing ground. In a little bit, the Holy Spirit gave me wisdom, and I said, now Lord, while I was listening to him, I was praying. I said, now Lord, I'm debating this man on the wrong field. I need to get into the Word of God, and that's all we have to do about it. And he said, but there are things in the Bible. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe he died for my sin, but there are things in the Bible I can't believe. Well, I left all that other, just quit arguing, quit debating. And I came back and I gave him briefly my testimony. And then I took him to the Word of God. And I said, now here's what it is. Jesus Christ either is the Son of God or if he isn't. If he is the Son of God, by then it was one o'clock in the morning. You must accept him as your Savior. Make a long story short, I led him down the Roman roads and led him to Jesus. We got up off of our knees, he's wiping the tears out of his eyes, and I said, Sir, now what about those difficulties with the rest of the Bible? He said, Praise God, preacher, don't have any now. I said, amen. Well, I'm simply saying, now that's what Paul is doing. Now watch his defense here, fellas, and you'll learn something. Ladies, you'll learn something. Watch what he's doing. First of all, he appeals to their own experience. He goes back to when they were saved and reminds them of how they got saved. Oh foolish Galatians. Now the word foolish here is not a sense. It means spiritually dull. It means you act like a person without real good mentality. And so foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who's fooled you that you should not obey the truth? So he's going back and he's saying now, I want you to remember that you have accepted Jesus Christ who was crucified. You accepted him as your savior. And by that, you got saved. Isn't that what he's saying? He says, O foolish Galatian, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? I have preached Him. I have literally brought Him before your eyes. It wasn't anything done in a shadow. It wasn't anything done by figment of somebody's imagination. I did almost, and the very word means placard, like a placard, like a big sign. I've made Jesus so real to you that you saw Him with your eye of faith, you saw Him crucified for your sins, and you accepted Him as the crucified Savior. As in your place, vicariously dying for your sin, as your substitute, you accepted Him. He was set before you so plain it was as if I had drawn a picture, and you could see it with your mind, and you accepted Him as your Lord and as your Savior. Now, they had heard, they believed, and as a result of it, had been saved. He reminds them of that. May I ask you the question? Do you remember when you were saved? Do you remember when you saw Jesus Christ crucified for your sins? Well, I'm not talking about a vision now. I'm talking about the realization that Jesus Christ died for you and died for you alone. That's one of the greatest thrills that you'll ever have in your life, is realizing that you're so important to God that His Son died for you on Calvary's cross. I wish I knew how to say it. I wish I knew how to preach so that I could bring it out, that you could see it as the Holy Spirit revealed it to me. Jesus died for every individual. He tasted death for every individual. That's true. He died for the world. But it's not in that sense that he died. It was for each one of us, one at a time. Now because he was God, he was able to die and collectively died all at one time. But it was for an individual. I've said this many times. Had you been the only one or had I been the only one lost, the Lord Jesus Christ would have still been born in Bethlehem. He would have lived 33 years on the face of this earth. He would have gone to the cross and died. He would have been buried and resurrected. The Holy Spirit of God would then come into the world, would have come into the world. The Holy Spirit would have written the Bible through men and it would have been there had you and I been the only one who had ever been lost or who would have ever been lost. That's graceful. And until you can comprehend that, until you can understand that, the grace of God will never ever be to you what it ought to be. That's how much He loves you. That's that amazing grace. That's love that drew salvation's plan, and that's grace that brought it down to man. When you realize that He died for you as an individual, He tasted death for every man. Not tasted death for the man, for mankind, but He tasted death for everyone. When he was hanging on the cross, whatever death, I'm to die, he tasted it. Whatever death, and of course the word death there is spiritual, eternal separation from God, and the suffering and the pangs of pain and hell. He absolutely bore every pain, every sin, every heartache that Jack Hudson was to bear. He bore it just as if I was the only individual in the world. It's no wonder they sing the love of God. And they sing it with, though we could with ink the ocean fill, and all the skies were of parchment made, and every stalk on earth a quill, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Now you understand that when you've been saved by grace. And Paul is reminding them of that. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? And he describes again, I've made Jesus Christ so real to you that you've seen him just as if he'd been painted upon a placard. He reminds them of their salvation. Then in verse two and three, this only would I learn of you. I'm gonna ask you a question. He's saying, receive you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. All right, let me stop there. How did we, you and I, receive the Holy Spirit of God? Was it by the works of the law? That is something we could do. Or was it by faith? Now you answer that yourself before I answer it for you. Read verse three. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, that is, being saved by the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you now become mature by the flesh? And the question's unanswered. Of course not, they knew that. You see, they had received the Holy Spirit of God when they were saved. He's taken them back. Now you said, you remember when I preached Jesus crucified and you remember how you accepted him? Do you remember how you, maybe he even said, came down on the front of this little church, wherever we may have been meeting, and how you got on your knees and asked Christ to come in your heart and he did. And remember then the Bible says that that moment you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, for without the Spirit of God, you're none of his. The Bible says, you remember in John chapter 16, And when he, the Holy Spirit, has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment and of sin because they believe not on me. You see, it was the Holy Spirit who convicted you and convicted me. For all those years that I was in church and Sunday school, I never was saved. I never submitted, I never committed, I never opened my heart that the word might been applied. But it was the Holy Spirit of God who convicted me of my sin. It was the Word of God by the Holy Spirit that brought salvation to me. I know that. Now he's saying, having begun in the Spirit, you know, he's saying, you've got sense enough to know that it was the Holy Spirit of God who convicted you. Then he says, you know what else that I taught you and what else you know? You were born of the Spirit of God. John 3, you remember when the Lord Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he said, you must be born, he said, he that is born of the water and of the Spirit. Now the water there, we'd look it up in the reference if you want to, but anybody that reads their Bible knows that it means the Word. In Ephesians 5, it says that you might be cleansed through the washing of the water by the Word. It's talking about the Word of God. How with shall a young man cleanse his heart? By taking heed thereto to the Word of God. Anytime water is used in that sense, it's always talking of the Word of God. Because the Bible is that which keeps us clean. It makes us live right. And he says now, it's by, you're born of the Spirit of God. Then the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, well, I tell you what, I'll just turn there for a brief minute, not wait on you, but I'll turn to 1 Corinthians 12, and I'll read to you what the Bible says. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also Christ. Now, there's a finger, and there's a little finger, and there's a thumb, there's a hand, there's an arm, a shoulder, yet it's all one body. That's the hand of the body, but it's all one body. He says now, just as we're all, he says, you may be tall or short or rich or poor, whatever, but you're all, if you're saved, you're in the Body of Christ. Now, how do you get in the body of Christ? All right, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. So we're all together, and we're baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now don't get the word confused, now neither be afraid of the word, baptized by the Holy Ghost. We're not baptized, we're baptized by the Holy Spirit in a process, a spiritual process that we have no sensation of feeling. We're placed, literally baptized, we're reckoned to be dead to the old life and made alive anew, but we're placed into the body of Christ, into that ecclesia. into the spiritual union with Christ. It won't stay there, but the Holy Spirit does it. Then in the book of Ephesians it says, whereby we're sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit then puts Christ's seal on us, invisible again. But there is a seal. It means that we absolutely belong to the Lord. It's a little bit like in the old west, they branded cattle. Wherever that cattle would go, it would have the brand of the owner on it. It was like logs in the days gone by. They'd cut logs up in a tree and put them in the river and they'd run down, but they'd put a brand in the end of them. And wherever they got all tangled up, but when they got to the mill, they'd sort them out. They'd know whose logs belonged to who. And so we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that he is the earnest, the down payment. The Holy Spirit of God comes into our heart as a guarantee that we've been saved. So he's asking this. He had taught him all this. You were saved by believing that Jesus Christ was crucified on Calvary's cross for you. The moment you came to him, you were baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit who had convicted you, who had pointed you to Jesus Christ, told you of your lost condition. And there, when you were saved, he took over and began to teach you the word of God. I wanna show you something, I don't want you to forget this. You know, biologically speaking, humanly speaking, it takes two parents to produce a child. Two parents. As much as the ERA would like it, it still takes two parents to produce a child. Now, in the word of God, we're seeing exactly the same thing, and it's being taught to us right now. You can't do it apart from that. Now anybody who has ever led a soul to Jesus Christ as a Christian, it had to be done that way. The Holy Spirit had to take the Word of God and use it as a two-edged sword. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And how can they hear without a preacher? They've got to hear the Word of God according to the Bible. They've got to hear the Word of God. Now the Holy Spirit then, as I read to you or quoted to you a moment ago, let me turn there for you. in the book of john chapter number three and again the illustration there listen what he says to them verily verily this is john three chapter three verse five jesus answered verily verily i say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god again the word water there simply means the word the bible and so it takes the bible and the holy spirit you remember in ephesians six when we're studying about the armor of god the whole armor And it says, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It takes the Holy Spirit and the Word for a person to be born again. It takes that. All right? I can see you wanting another verse of Scripture, and I was hoping you'd look like that because I wanted to give you another one. So I'm turning in my Bible to 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse number 22, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Verse 25, for the word of the Lord endueth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now the Word of God is just preached, the Holy Spirit takes it and it becomes a two-edged sword and he can pierce to the dividing of the soul of Sunday and the bone and the marrow. It means that the Word of God can penetrate. There is nothing that can protect a person from the Word of God when it's given by the hand of the Holy Spirit of God. Now they had admitted to this. He said, receive you the Spirit by the works of the Lord by faith. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? Now look at verse number five. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? We're not talking about miracle workers here. We're talking about works of miracles. Now there's a difference. And beloved, I want you to know there is no greater miracle than you've ever seen in your life, than the miracle of salvation. Every one of you have experienced, who have been saved now, you've experienced the greatest miracle that it's possible for a man to experience. The miracle of salvation. I have told you this before, but it comes to my mind. You know, many times the miracles of the Lord Jesus are questioned. And one time it said that a man was talking to another, and the man said to him, this man had recently been saved. The doubter said to the man who'd recently been saved, hey, he said, you believe Jesus turned water into wine? He said, well, I don't know about that. But he took the beer and liquor I used to drink and turned it into bread and food and clothing for my children. I know he did that. You see, that's a miracle. And when God takes an impure person and makes them pure, and an unrighteous person and makes them righteous, and an unclean person and makes them clean, that's a miracle, folk. That's the greatest miracle that you'll ever see. These other things are secondary. That's the greatest miracle. And why choose the lesser when you can have the greater? We ought to look forward to it. Now, he does something then. He goes back to their own experience. And he said, you remember when you got saved? Do you remember how you just believed in Jesus? Oh, wasn't it wonderful when you trusted Christ? And you came forward or somebody was in your house, whatever, and you trusted Christ. Then he says, the Holy Spirit came into your heart. And he began to work in your life. And he did all these things that are spiritually unseen, or physically unseen, I should say. But he did these things in your life. And he says, then God performed miracles among you. Isn't your life changed? He probably would ask. Yes, it changed. All right, he says now. Want you to think about that now he's going to a second application and he applies some scriptural proof now Look in verse 6 now He's given him a good illustration Now first he says you remember all that while they're thinking about it while they're remembering how they were saved Holy Spirit came in their life. They had witnessed miracles. He said all right now Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now he takes them back to Abraham Did you know God said, I'll make you of thee a great nation? I give thee a name, a great name. Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and I thought a long time even today, several times in the midst of my other duties, I thought about it to see if I was wrong, but I believe I'm right when I say this. Second only to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has the highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name. So there's no question there. He's above every name. And in His name, every Nishabah. I believe the second name that's prominent even all these hundreds and even thousands of years later is Abraham. Abraham, in my opinion, has a greater name than most. Doesn't necessarily mean he had a greater word. A name that's greater than David. A name that's greater than the prophets, either the major prophets or the minor prophets, right on through the word of God. You see that Abraham is accepted by the Protestants. He's accepted by the Catholics. He's accepted by the Jews. He's accepted by Mohammeds. He's expected, you keep on naming. Unless it's absolutely a way out, something that has no connotation of the Word of God in any way whatsoever, Abraham they considered to be their father. So he goes back, he said, all right, now, in essence, when he said his name, it was, they all, I can imagine, yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I can remember so vividly when I was in Africa, and you'd mention anything that they'd, yeah, yeah, they'd say, mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, they'd shake their head in agreement. I imagine these people, yeah, we know Abraham, there's no doubt about it, yes, sir. We've heard everything there is to hear about him, and we've read about, yeah, we know Abraham. Now, what is it about Abraham you wanna tell us? He said, all right. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of the faith the same are the children of Abraham. You see, Abraham was saved by faith. That's what he's telling. He said, Abraham wasn't saved by the law that these fellows are trying to bring back into your lives. Abraham. the father, the progenitor to the Jewish nation. You're Jews, some of you, many here, others are Gentiles, but he says, I want you to know that Abraham, the progenitor to the Jews, no doubt the greatest man we've ever heard of other than the Lord Jesus himself. He was saved by faith. God didn't tell him, Abraham, you're saved now, but you got to keep the law, or Abraham, you're saved now and you got to be baptized, or you're saved now and you got to observe the Sabbath day, or Abraham, you're saved now and you got to be speaking in tongues. He didn't say, he said, it's by faith. In other words, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. And you see the thing that you need to understand, many people in those days thought just because they were the descendants of Abraham, they were saved. Did you know there's a lot of people who think that today? And here stands one of them. In my late teens, early 20s, before I was saved, though I was a member of a church and had been baptized and my little certificates and all that stuff, had you come up to me and said, Brother Hudson, you believe you're a Christian? Well, yes, I do. Well, Brother Hudson, I know, but what are you predicated upon? Well, I'll have you know, my uncle is a preacher, and my father is an evangelistic song leader, and he writes Christian songs, and I was reared in a Christian home, sir. But you've never been saved by the grace of God. But I tell you right now, see, I'm out of a Christian family. I actually believe that. Don't look so smug. I don't doubt but that some of you believed it. The man sitting right back here told me. Daddy was a preacher. You probably that didn't, because your daddy was a preacher. Thought you saved him. Got saved 1964, you told me, didn't you? 69. You're not 69 years old, you just got saved in 69. I remember that. Now we believe that. And we believe because we're from a good family. We say, well, you know, we're from a good family. But folk, let me tell you something. If your mother and father are saved and you're depending upon that, you're lost because of one simple statement that I can make. Will you listen to it? You know, I thank God for my grandchildren. I love every one of them. But listen, I wanna make a statement to you. God has no grandchildren. Every person who's saved is a child of God. and you can't be saved and therefore your children can be saved and therefore he becomes their grandfather, it doesn't work. God has no grandchildren. Nowhere in the Bible do you find in his record any significance anywhere that would indicate that he's a grandfather, he can't be. Every person who comes to him, old or young or middle age or black or white or green or blue or anything else, they become children of God by faith. And that's what he's saying. Now Abraham, that the Jews depend upon, the Arabs depend upon, and all these. He was saved by faith. That's what he's saying. I want you to see one of the greatest men who ever lived was saved by faith. Plus nothing, minus nothing. Then he says, I want you to see also, now look what he says in verse number eight. Now he admitted, you see, Abraham himself was not a Jew. But he was the father, he was the progenitor. He was the one who started the Jewish race. It's just known today for Jews, it's short for Judah. And it was the tribes of Judah and so on that the name originated. Later, of course, Jacob became, name was changed to Israel, and that's where we call the Israelis today. Every time you say Israel, you're still taking a word out of the Bible. That's where the name comes from in the book of Genesis. And so, While he came out of the Ur of the Chaldeans, his father worshiped idols, we're told. But he was the progenitor of the Jewish race. But in the promises that God gave to Abraham, it also included the Gentile nation. Now, we're Gentiles. If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. Look in verse 8 and 9. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen. Now, that's the Gentiles. If you've got a Scofield Bible, you'll notice by the word heathen, there's a little tiny C. The word letter C, A-B-C. Now look over into the margin and you'll see what it says. It says Gentiles. It means people other than Jews. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith. Preach before the gospel unto Abraham saying in thee shall, what's that next word? Say it out loud, I wanna hear it loud. What's the next word? Oh, you didn't say it loud, couldn't hear you. Now let's say it again. Saying in thee shall what? All nations. Does that mean American? Yeah. Does that mean Gentile? Yep. Does that mean Israeli? Yep. Does that mean Arab? Yep. Does that mean Scandinavian? Yep. That means all nations. It means blessed because the son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ was coming through the bloodline of the Jews. His mother was a Jew, you see. and he's going to bless them he was saying that salvation is of the saying in these shall all nations be blessed so then that which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham are believing look again you see that little tiny f by the word faithful look over in the margin and it says believing In other words, it could read like, so then they which be of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. He uses Abraham, he's saved by faith. He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was accounted unto him for righteousness. He didn't have to do anything else but believe in Jesus Christ. I imagine one of them punched another and said, you know, that's right, that's right. I tell you, maybe we jumped too quick. Everybody think this thing over. He's not through yet though. And so he then tells them that they're saved by faith and not by the law. For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, curse it is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written, which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now stop there, if you will, and think for that for a minute. And he's saying, I want you to see. Now look, well, let's read on verse 11. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. I wanna read that again. I want you to listen with your ears. Let your heart hear it. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. Now they may be justified by the law in the sight of men. If you tried to observe the 10 Commandments, I mean, to the best of your ability, you would be accepted by men. When you died, they'd write an epitaph. They'd write the news column. They said, this is one of the finest men we ever knew. He said he observed the 10 Commandments and they'd have a glorious funeral for you and you could be justified in the eyes of man. but not by the Lord. He's saying, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident, that is, it's absolutely positive, and I'm filing for exhibit A, this verse. The just shall live by faith. Those that have been justified, declared right, just as if you'd never sinned, the just shall live by faith. and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them." Now notice, the just shall live by faith. This is one of the greatest verses quoted through the Bible. In fact is, when you come to the word, the just, the justification of a sinner, the whole book of Romans is written to explain those two simple words, the just. The people who are justified by faith. That's the theme of Romans, that we're saved by faith, justified by faith all the way through. Romans 5.1, Romans 8.1, all the way through it tells us that we're justified. That's all of Romans written to tell us what the just shall live by. And then, It comes to just shall live, shall live, shall live. That is the freedom. He said, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Christ came to give us the abundant life. Christ came to set us free from the yoke of bondage of the law. He set us free. Bless God, don't lose your freedom and be put back under bondage. Well, I'm not talking about trying to observe the 10 commandments, but even man today has a yoke that they try to put on us. Bless God, we've been set free by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. Now, the book of Galatians tells us about that. Romans tells us about the justification. The Galatians tell us that we've been set free. That's the whole argument. That's the seedbed of it. Every bit of it has to do with that. And then by faith, the just Romans shall live, Galatians. Then by faith, that's the whole book of Hebrews is written. I had to read the book of Hebrews 50 times when I was in school. I'm talking about in one semester. I had to read it 50 times and then outline it. 50 times. But after you read it 50 times, it'll outline itself. But there you find God's hall of faith, as we call it. And God takes time to show us by faith. You see, he starts with Abel because Abel starts with worship. Then he comes down and he talks about Noah, works, you see. The works there, you can't, pardon me, with Enoch, because Enoch, you first worship God, then you walk with God, and then you can do some work for God. Now, not for your salvation, you can do some work for God, and that's the way he starts off. Worship has to be by faith, walking has to be by faith with Enoch, and working has to be by faith as with Noah. It comes on down the line, all of it, so that just shall live by faith. This is the one you remember, Martin Luther. This verse is the one that got him saved. He was on his knees crawling those steps there that are now in Jerusalem, supposedly the ones that the Lord Jesus walked up at Pilate's judgment hall. And while he was there doing pendants and crawling on his knees, a bolt of lightning, the scriptures like a bolt of lightning came into his heart. He stood up and said, the just shall live by faith. And he turned around and began what we now know as the Great Reformation. And so this is an important verse and Paul is using it. It's his sledgehammer blow. Everything else, he says, now you remember when you were saved? And he goes, yeah, they said, yes, we do that. We remember that. Do you remember how the Holy Spirit came in your life when you were saved? Yeah, yeah, we remember that. And do you remember how that was a miracle? Look at your lives. Look how you were before you were saved, now that God's in. Don't you believe that's a miracle? Yes, sir, that's a miracle. Now, look at Abraham. Yeah, we know Abraham. Yeah, we know he's a good man, no doubt about that. Then he gives them the divine illustration that Abraham was saved by faith. And we said, yep, we understand that. Then he comes down and he says, but I want you to understand, it's by faith. Then he very quickly, now look at verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now we need to understand that, that salvation is through Christ. He gives us three simple things. First of all, we're redeemed from the curse of the law. Now, if I put myself back up under the law, that's what he's saying in chapter two, then I'm subject to the penalties of the law. And the penalty of the law is do or die, that's all. I don't want back up under the law. I couldn't live under the law when I tried to. I was condemned already. And Christ hath redeemed us. It literally means to buy back in the marketplace, like we're on sales slaves, and he bought us with his precious blood. Now, when anybody in those days bought a slave, they had this option. They could take them and make them be their servants, or they could set them free. And Christ redeemed us and set us free. That's why we're not in bondage. That's what Paul is emphasizing over and over. Now, which is the greater? A person who's serving because of servitude, or a person who's serving because of gratitude? Oh, it's gratitude, of course. Servitude's looking for paid-end quitting time. Gratitude says, what else can I do now that my day's over? Like a fellow said one time, he went to work for a man, and the man gave him his hours, and he said, now this will be a full-time job. He said, I want a full-time job. Will you guarantee me that? Yes, he said, it's a full-time job. He got up four o'clock in the morning, he loaded trucks till eight. Then he'd go to work that he had lined out for him. He'd get through at six and he'd go eat supper till seven, come back and he'd unload the trucks that had been off and gotten the commodities and he'd do that until 12 o'clock. Get up again at four o'clock in the morning. He'd load the trucks, had been traveling during the night, then he'd go to work at eight o'clock there, and work until six, and eat supper until seven, and work again until 12 o'clock. He'd done that for three or four months. Finally went to the man, shook his head, he said, Mr. Ryan, I believe I'm gonna have to quit. He said, what's the matter? He said, the work difficult? Oh no, he said, enjoy the work. Well, he said, the pay not good enough? No, sir, he said, pay's fine, no problem there. But he said, I believe I'm gonna have to quit. He said, sir, why are you quitting? Well, sir, he said, you promised me full-time work, and he said, there's four hours there during the night, and I'm not working. That's not modern, I'll put it that way. That's not a modern illustration. Most folk don't know what that means. They want the four hours, and the rest of it, they, you know, glorify piddling, but what I'm saying is, if it's gratitude, it's almost that way. If it's servitude, it's how little I can do and get by with it. How little I can do and get by. But when it's gratitude, when it's love, you know, I thought about last night, Judy Bolton, or night before last, really now, she stayed there all night, all day. That wasn't servitude. That was gratitude. And when you love the Lord, It's not servitude, you're not in bondage. He purchased you and me on the slave market with his blood and then set us free. And then we come back because we love him and we do it. Then there's the blessing of Abraham. He tells them about the blessing of that, the blessing. He says, now, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Verse 14, that the blessings of Abraham might come upon you. God said, I'll bless them that bless thee and I'll curse them that curse thee. I believe that's not only for the Jew, I believe it's for the Christians. Everything that Abraham was promised, we have in him. All of our promises are fulfilled in Abraham that God gave him. I believe this world that curses the church, curses the Christian, I believe God's gonna curse them. Well, I don't mean profanity now, I don't mean that, but the penalty that's there. And then notice he says there's a blessing of the Spirit. Then notice again he says that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. How? Through faith, not works, through faith. Not baptism either, through faith. Then he exposes the bait of the legalism. Did you know, you say, Brother Hudson, why in the world do people wanna get back under legalism? Well, I think you can understand it. He says there, and I left that verse because that verse has always intrigued me. When I was studying it, it just intrigued me. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? It means pull the wool over your eyes. It means doing this, the magician's doing this over here while he's setting up the next trick over here. Who's fooled you? Who's bewitched you? Bewitched you. associated with witchcraft today. Bewitched you. Who hath bewitched you? Who's fooled you? Who's pulled trickery on you? Who's pulled that trick on you? That's what he's saying. You know, it literally means to cast a spell or to fascinate you. Who's fascinated you so with legalism that you're willing to leave the grace of God and put yourself back under bondage? Now, that seems hard to understand. but yet we all lug around the flesh, and therefore we know some of its appeal. It appeals to the flesh. Look in Galatians chapter four, and I'm only going ahead for just a minute, and I wanna take a minute. Look in chapter four, verse eight. Howbeit then when you know not God, ye did service unto them which are by nature are no gods. He's reminding them of their previous life. But now after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage. Where you desire again to be in bondage. People want to be in legalism. They want to be in bondage. They want to be told what to do. And the sad thing about it, it appeals not only to the flesh, but it appeals to the senses. This is the very thing that Eve felt with when she saw that the fruit was good. And she knew that it would make her wise. And she lusted after it. That's why the Lord used the very same thing in 1 John 2, verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father's not in him. For the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, exactly the same thing that caused Eve to fall. And this is the same thing he pulled back in. Did you know there's more pride in being in one of the cults than it is in just being a follower? In just being saying, what are you gonna do today? Well, I don't know, I haven't had a chance to report to my Savior yet. What are you gonna do next year? Well, I don't know. I'm just gonna serve the Lord wherever he leads me, I'm going. That bothers the flesh. The flesh never will submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It's a constant day by day battle. I know. I have the same problems you do. But it's when we die to self and we say, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. Now the flesh doesn't like it. The flesh rather be over here in some group and never take a stand against anything that's wrong, never take a stand for righteousness, never take a stand against ungodliness. It's a lot, the flesh likes that. They like to be in that which seems to be, then it appeals to comparison. We're not to measure ourself and that's the problem. Most people today don't compare themselves with the right comparison. Most people today, if they're gonna measure somebody, well, you got a fellow out there in Northside, and every time they say it, every time they say it, you got some woman, they're not that kind, some old woman out there in your church, every time they say it, I don't know who, but I know the kind of person, they're gonna pick the weakest, worst Christian in our church. It's like comparing an elephant with a rat terrier, you know. You got somebody out there in your church, bless God, if they're a Christian, I don't want to be a Christian, you know. They'll pick the worst one. That's human nature. But beloved, it moves up, and we spiritualize a little bit, and we spray it and deodorize it, you know, with some spiritual spray, you know, deodorizer, and we hold it up, and we still say, well, I guess I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing about as good as Sister Flapjaw, our brother Fluffyhead, you know. I'm doing about as good as they are. And we measure ourself with other Christians. You ever done that? You ever done that? Have you ever measured your bus activity with other bus workers? Have you ever measured your faithfulness in the choir to the faithfulness of other choir members? Have you ever measured your faithfulness in your Sunday school class with the faithfulness of other Sunday school teachers? Or the ushers, or the deacon, or any other group? Anytime we ever do it, it's wrong. There's only one standard that we have, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem is, when we do these things, appeal to the flesh, appeal to the senses, and appeal to the comparison. You take it, and you're in bondage. I close with a simple illustration that I hadn't planned to give, but years ago when I was just a boy, I remember one time it snowed. Oh, it snowed hard. We were just shut up in the house, and that was obviously before the days of television and radio, I don't know. We just had to entertain ourselves. I remember my brother said, I'll tell you what to do. We'll make us a bird trap. I was a little boy, and I didn't know much about it. I said, oh boy, that'll be fine. And he went down to the grocery store and found an old cheese hook, you know, one of these round ones like cheese, still comes in old country cheese. And it had a, you know, it was hollow inside and of course it had a top and sides on it. And on the inside, the lid was gone. And he took it outside of the bedroom window and he put it up and put a stick up under it and tied a little string to that stick and pulled it up into the bedroom window. And we put some yellow corn on that white snow out here. And then up under, we put a whole lot of corn. Well, the little old birds were hungry, and I regret that I did it, but they were hungry, and they were looking, and they were swirling around overhead, and I guess they saw that yellow corn on that white snow. And they came in for a landing, and they looked at that thing a little apprehensively, and they started biting that corn, and they got there, and in a minute, one or two of them got under that thing. And my brother said, there he is, there he is, be quiet, be quiet, don't make any sound. And they got under, and he jerked that string, and that cheese box fell on him, and we caught us some birds. That's exactly what Satan's trying to do today. He's putting yellow corn on white snow, red sticks of candy trying to lead you away from the grace of God, make you get something that you don't have to pay anything for, trying to get you instant sainthood, And the minute you get into it, the trap is sprung and you're back in bondage. We thank you for listening to the Making Much of Jesus podcast. If this sermon was a blessing to you, please share and invite others to listen. And join us next time for the Making Much of Jesus podcast.