Well, good morning everyone. If you would open your Bibles once again to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. We are going to be in verses 6 through 9 this morning. Galatians 3 verses 6 through 9. Well, I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. We had a nice Thanksgiving at the Spears house and at Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, I was having a conversation with one of my brother-in-laws about some information that he had uncovered regarding his ancestry that had come from a DNA test that he had taken. And he could see that his family had originally migrated to the Northeast and then over some time had moved westward, settling on the West Coast. It was all pretty fascinating to me. I've had a growing interest over the last few years in my own ancestry and uncovering and tracing the roots of my own family. And it's something that I hope I'm able to do in the not too distant future. I'm curious to find out the origin of the Spear's name. I want to know where we come from and when we migrated to the United States. You could say in one sense that I'm interested in chasing down the various family ties that exist in my lineage. Family ties are the bonds or the connections between family members. Now, all of us here belong to a family. We may know more or less of our family. We may be more or less at peace with our family. Our family may have more or less living members, but we belong to a family nonetheless. And in the natural sense, we are bound or tied to our family by blood. We're tied to our family by legal adoption. We're tied to our family by marriage. Each of these things are links which connect us to the members of our natural families. But as important as our natural families are, and they are important despite what some in modern evangelicalism will tell you, they're not all important. Without devaluing our natural families, I can say with confidence that the most vital thing for any man, woman, boy, or girl is that they be made a member of God's family by His grace. And in our verses today, the Apostle Paul speaks of sons of Abraham. Abraham is that great patriarch who stands as the figurehead of the family of God. So to be a son or daughter of Abraham is to be a son or daughter of the one true and living God. It is to be adopted into the family of God. But unlike our natural families, one does not enter the family of God through the natural ties of blood, adoption, or marriage. To enter the family of God, we must be adopted, yes, but it must be a supernatural adoption according to the gracious purposes of God. We must be adopted through Jesus Christ if we are to become members of God's family. And the only instrument, the only family tie, you might say, that connects lost sinners to Jesus Christ is faith. There is no other means by which the saving grace of God can be received other than faith. It cannot be received through natural birth. You can't marry into it. You can't earn it by any religious work or offering or good deed. To become a child of God, or to use Paul's language here, to become a child of Abraham, You and I must be united to Jesus Christ by faith alone. There is no other way. The tie that binds the family of God together is faith alone. So let us pray together, then I'll read our text. Father, we would ask for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us right now, upon me as I preach your word and upon your people as they hear. And we ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Look with me through Galatians chapter three. We're focusing on verses six through nine, but I'm gonna read starting at verse one for some additional context. Galatians three, verses one through nine. Hear the word of God. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Amen. Well, as we saw last time, the Apostle Paul is rebuking the Galatians for being foolishly bewitched by the Judaizers who had infiltrated the churches in Galatia. And the Judaizers, misunderstanding the purpose of Israel and the purpose of God's covenant with Israel, sought to force the Gentile believers to receive the mark of the old covenant in order to be perfected and truly justified before God. Essentially, they were teaching that Gentiles must become Jews. They must have Abraham as their father in order to be saved. And in the minds of the Judaizers, this necessitated physical circumcision and other acts of law-keeping. But in the passage we just read, Paul destroys the Judaizers' doctrine of salvation by first reminding the Galatians of their own experience of grace. That's what we covered last time in verses one through five. The Galatians had received the Spirit of God by hearing with faith. They were justified by hearing with faith, and the miracles that God wrought among them were all through hearing with faith. with faith. No bloodline was considered. No meritorious works were involved. It was simply hearing with faith. In our verses today, Paul continues to dismantle the Judaizers' doctrine of salvation by pivoting from the Galatians' own experience of grace and now highlighting for them Abraham's experience of grace in verses six through nine. And Paul shows that believers of all time are tied to God's family, not through their birth, not through their ethnicity, not through adoption or marriage or any other natural mechanism, but through faith alone. Faith alone in Christ alone is what connects the members of God's family together. It's what makes a person a true son or daughter of Abraham. The title of this sermon is Family Ties. And as we examine our verses this morning, I want us to see three hallmarks of the true children of Abraham. And as we examine these three hallmarks, I want you to see and know and take confidence in the fact that the gospel of Christ that you believe and hold dear is not new. It is an ancient gospel. It's the same gospel that was preached to Abraham. It's the same gospel he received by faith alone. And it's the same gospel that justified him and so many after him. These three hallmarks of the true children of Abraham will also serve as our three headings. Firstly, true children of Abraham share Abraham's faith. Second, true children of Abraham believe Abraham's gospel. And third, true children of Abraham receive Abraham's blessing. Once again, true children of Abraham share Abraham's faith, believe Abraham's gospel, and receive Abraham's blessings. Let us begin firstly with true children of Abraham share Abraham's faith. Although verse six is where Paul introduces Abraham into his argument for the first time, he doesn't do so abruptly. It is a transitional introduction. Notice the first two words of verse six, just as. By using this wording, Paul is connecting Abraham to everything that he was just speaking of previously in verses one through five. Paul is drawing a connection between his rhetorical questions to the Galatians, which were simply reminders that they had been justified by faith and not by works of the law. He is connecting those rhetorical questions back to the patriarch, Abraham. drawing a connection between the Galatians' experience of grace and Abraham's experience of grace. Just as Abraham performed no works to earn justification, so also the Galatians did not and could not perform works to earn justification. Just as the Galatians had received the Spirit by hearing with faith, so also Abraham simply believed God. He heard God's promises with faith, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Paul's introduction of Abraham here in verse six, it is fitting when we consider who he was dealing with in the Judaizers. Now, we can infer from Acts chapter 15 that the Judaizers were of the party of the Pharisees. And as such, they were quite proud of their connection to Abraham through their physical lineage. And we can infer from the fact that Paul introduces Abraham here into his argumentation that the Judaizers had probably been misusing Abraham and God's dealings with Abraham as they were persuading the Galatians of the necessity of circumcision if they were going to be in covenant with God. So Paul brings Abraham into his argument, rightly explaining that Abraham, like the Galatians, had believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, depending on your translation, you may or may not have quotations around these words in verse six. If you have the NASB, I know those words are capitalized. But to be clear, Paul is quoting here from the Old Testament. He's quoting from Genesis chapter 15, verse six. And the context in Genesis is on the heels of Abraham rescuing his nephew Lot after Lot was captured in the battle of Kings at the Valley of Siddam. And Abraham, with 318 trained men, they go in and they bring back prisoners from this battle, including Lot. They bring back other possessions and goods. And it was after this rescue that Abraham actually met Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and was blessed by him. And it's at this point that we read in Genesis 15 verse one, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, fear not Abram, I am your shield, your reward shall be very great. Well, the Lord then takes Abram outside of his tent and he says to him, look toward heaven and number the stars if you were able to number them. And then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. Now we need to remember that this was not the first time that the Lord had made great promises to Abraham. In fact, this promise here in Genesis 15, verse six, that Abraham's offspring should be more numerous than the stars in the heavens, this is a restatement of part of the promise that he gave to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 when he called him from the pagan city of Haran. And we'll see shortly that Paul also quotes from Genesis chapter 12 here in our verses. But in verse six, where Paul says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, this is a direct quote from chapter 15, verse six of Genesis. Abraham believed God, he believed God's promises, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness. Now, let's recognize for a moment that by quoting this verse as he does, Paul is giving us inspired commentary on the book of Galatians. Now, there are a number of great commentaries that you can use in your personal Bible study, and I'd be happy to recommend some to you, but there is only one commentary that is infallible, and that is the Bible itself. So Paul, being carried along by the Holy Spirit, is explaining to us what Genesis 15 verse 6 means. He's explaining to us that God's free gift of justification is to be received by faith alone. It was counted to him as righteousness. That's justification. Abraham believed God. That's faith. But let's drill into that phrase for a moment. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The word believed here means to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance. What's more, it's in the active tense. That means that belief is a consistent and ongoing reality in Abraham's life. It's not a one-time event. And what's more, this is not a mere intellectual belief. Abraham doesn't simply believe in God. If he did, that would make him no better than the demons who believe and shudder. But he completely trusts in and relies upon God. Consider how Paul explains Abraham's faith elsewhere in Romans chapter four. Paul says this. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced. fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Now, that begs the question of us, does it not? Are we fully convinced in the truthfulness of what God has said to us? Friends, are you convinced that outside of Christ, you're a guilty sinner who deserves the wrath and the curse of God? Are you convinced that God will save each and every sinner who comes to him through faith in his son? Are you fully convinced that God will preserve his children through every trial and tribulation and bring them safely into his heavenly kingdom? Are you convinced that in Christ, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ? Are you convinced of these things? May God help us to be fully convinced of these things as Abraham was. because God is indeed able to do all that he has promised to us. Abraham believed God. He had faith in God and in his promises, and the text says, it was counted to him as righteousness. It was counted to him as righteousness. This word counted means to credit, to deem, or to reckon to be. And the thrust here really is imputation. It's a word we've discussed already in this series. Abraham believed God, Abraham exercised faith, and God imputed to him, he credited to Abraham's account, righteousness. He looked upon Abraham as if Abraham had a perfect legal status in light of the moral requirements of God's holy character. Now, let me be clear. It would be a grave error to look at this statement. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It would be a mistake to read this statement and conclude that Abraham's faith is what was imputed to him as his righteousness. That's not what God imputed to him. Abraham's faith was not what gave him a right legal standing before God. His faith was the instrument by which he received that thing that did give him the right legal status before God, but his faith was not what was imputed to him. It was the righteousness of Christ that was imputed to him, and it was received by Abraham through faith. Consider what commentator Matthew Poole said here. His faith was not his righteousness. But God so rewarded his exercise of faith as that upon it he reckoned or imputed that to him which was his righteousness. In other words, the righteousness of him in whom he believed as revealed unto him in the promise. And what we read in Romans chapter three verse 22 is true of Abraham as it's true of every true believer in Christ. The righteousness of God was imputed to Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. And we should note in this ongoing battle with the Judaizers, the Judaizers were not stupid people. They were of the party of the Pharisees. Certainly, no doubt, amongst them were great scholars that knew the Old Testament well. Not as well as the Apostle Paul, perhaps, but they knew the Old Testament well. They weren't dummies. And so we need to note that Paul in going to Genesis 15 here, what he's doing is he's going back before the sign of circumcision was given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. He's going before that event and he's proving that Abraham was indeed justified by circumcision. And Paul cuts the legs out from the Judaizers' argument that the Galatian believers needed circumcision in order to truly justify them. If Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was justified by faith, then on what basis could the Judaizers demand Gentile circumcision? And the answer was clear, on no basis can they make this demand. A person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So in light of this reality, who are the true children of Abraham? And Paul answers that in verse seven, look with me there. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And Paul speaks here with absolute certainty. Know then, what he's about to say, we can take it to the bank. Know then that it is those of faith, those who have placed their hope and trust in Christ alone for salvation, it is those who are the sons of Abraham. Now, you have to think, how radical was this line of thinking to the Judaizers? They were not just proud of being descendants of Abraham, of being Jews. This was at the heart of their doctrine of salvation. Remember, the Judaizers, again, are Pharisees, and like their fathers before them, they wrongly presumed upon their physical relationship to Abraham in matters of eternity. Recall how John the Baptist warned them in Matthew 3. He said to them, do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. This is the mindset that Paul is destroying by appealing to Abraham's own justification. Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews, he's saying to them, are you Abraham's children? Then believe like Abraham believed. Paul destroys here the false notion of the Judaizers regarding who the true children of Abraham are. It's not those of Jewish ethnicity. It's not those who have received the mark of the old covenant. It's not those who work really hard to try to keep the law of God. Rather, it is those of faith who are the true children of Abraham. Friends, are you a true child of Abraham? Do you share Abraham's faith? Do you believe God when he says to you that you have sinned and fallen short of his glory? Do you believe God when he says to you that the wages of your sin is eternal death? Do you believe God when he says that by works of the law, no flesh shall be justified before him? Do you believe God when He says that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved other than Jesus Christ? Do you believe God when He says that all who turn from their sins and turn to Christ by faith will be saved? Do you believe Him? Do you share Abraham's faith? So we've seen, firstly, that true children of Abraham share Abraham's faith. There is nothing they can offer to commend themselves to God. They simply receive God's gospel promise by faith. Well, moving now to our second heading, we see that the true children of Abraham believe Abraham's gospel. Look with me to verse eight. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. Once again, the apostle is giving us Holy Spirit-inspired commentary on the Old Testament, this time from Genesis chapter 12. And we learn from this inspired commentary that the gospel of justification by faith was preached to Abraham by God himself. If you would hold your place in Galatians 3, turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. I want you to see this for yourself. Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12, this is where God calls Abraham to go from the city of Aran into the land of Canaan. Genesis 12, starting in verse one. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abraham went as the Lord had told him. God sets his love on this pagan man, Abraham, and calls him to leave his home and to go where the Lord would direct him. And in doing this, he gives to Abraham what commentator Dale Ralph Davis calls the Quad Promise. He calls it this because it consists of four different components. Firstly, he promises Abraham physical seed. God says to Abraham, I will make of you a great nation. Secondly, he promises Abraham land. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. Thirdly, he promises Abraham protection. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And finally, he promises Abraham that he will be the channel through which blessing comes into the world. God says to Abraham, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And it's this fourth component of the quad promise that Paul explains to us in Galatians 3 verse eight. Paul teaches us that this fourth promise, that God would bless all the families of the earth, that God would bless all the nations in Abraham, this fourth promise is the gospel. Galatians 3 verse 8, and the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. From the lineage of Abraham, from his seed would be, which would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens, there would be one of that seed, one of his many offspring, would come and would bless the nations. Now, as was common in the Old Testament, covenant promises would often be restated over and over again as reminders to God's people. And this particular promise that all the nations would be blessed in Abraham, this promise was restated to Abraham on a different occasion after the Lord commanded him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. You remember this from Genesis chapter 22. After stopping Abraham from slaughtering Isaac, the Lord restates this earlier promise to him once again, saying this in Genesis chapter 22, in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In your offspring. And as we'll see at a later date in Galatians 3.16, the offspring referred to there in that restatement of the promise is not in reference to Abraham's physical lineage in general. Rather, it is in reference to one of Abraham's offspring in particular. One son of Abraham out of the multitude would be the one that would bless the nations. And that singular offspring, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can point to the promise given to Abraham in Genesis 12 and say that the gospel was preached to Abraham. Yes, the mystery of God's will regarding salvation, it wasn't yet fully revealed as Abraham had the gospel preached to him. It would still be hidden and kept secret for ages to come, but the essence of the gospel is here in this promise. As it's been said before, the gospel was preached to Abraham in embryonic form, in seed form. And when Abraham believed this promise, he was, in principle, believing in the Christ who was to come. As all God's promises find their yes and amen where? In Christ. It's much like the gospel promise that Adam received in the garden, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Abraham now has the gospel promise preached to him. One of his own offspring would be the one to bless the nations and crush the serpent's head. Friends, from all eternity, God's plan of redemption has centered around the sending of his only begotten son to save lost sinners. The gospel that you and I believe is no new gospel. It is the eternal gospel of God that was preached to Adam and Abraham and all our forefathers in the faith before us. So I want us to take confidence because of this in the truthfulness and in the veracity of the gospel of Christ. Take confidence knowing that the gospel of faith in Christ that saved Abraham is the same gospel that has saved you. It's not two different gospels. Let no one dissuade you of this. Let no one add to this simple and ancient gospel. I want you to stand firm in the way, knowing that you walk in the same old paths as the Puritans, as the Reformers, as the true believers in the Middle Ages, as the church fathers, as the apostles, and as all the Old Testament saints before them. I want you to be encouraged, saints, knowing that the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying to him, in you shall all the nations be blessed. Now I find it interesting here that Paul takes this opportunity to implicitly remind the Galatians of the infallibility of Scripture. Notice that he doesn't say that God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, although he certainly did. He says that the scripture preached the gospel to Abraham. And Paul is saying to us that because the scripture is God's word, when the scripture speaks, God speaks. And because the scripture is God speaking, it's altogether inerrant and infallible. And because the Scripture is altogether inerrant and infallible, it must be fulfilled. And this last point regarding fulfillment, it's important because of this statement. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. It's a prophecy for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. It needed to be fulfilled. It would be fulfilled. As I said earlier, God's redemptive plan has always centered around the sending of his only begotten son to save lost sinners. And this is true, but God's redemptive plan has always included the Gentiles. It has always included the nations. It's always included those who were outside the physical lineage of Abraham. And the word foreseeing here in verse eight, It means to have seen something beforehand or prior to an event in question. And the sense of this statement, that the scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, it's the same idea that Paul sets forth in his introduction in his letter to the Romans. In verses one and two of Romans, Paul says this, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The gospel of God, the gospel of justification by faith to all peoples, Jew and Gentile alike, this gospel was promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. And is that not what we just read in Genesis chapter 12? God promised Abraham that through him, all the nations would be blessed. From the beginning, the scriptures testified to God's intention of saving a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation through faith alone. As one commentator notes, Once a reader begins to approach the Old Testament with the Gentiles in mind, the frequency of their inclusion in the text is quite remarkable. Now, time prohibits us from properly surveying the Old Testament for all the texts that include the Gentiles in God's plan of redemption, but I'll set before you one text as representative, and that is Isaiah chapter 49, verse six. And speaking of the Christ who was to come, God says this, it is too light a thing that you, that is Christ, should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. We remember the Lord Jesus Christ himself being amazed at the faith of this Roman centurion. And he foretells many will come from east and from west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. And we can say that surely Christ was sent firstly to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but he was not sent exclusively for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. God's saving purposes in Christ have always included the nations. And although the Judaizers did not understand it at the time, the nation state of Israel was never an end in and of itself. God's plan of redemption, friends, it was never to take the vast multitude of nations that he created and make them carbon copies of Israel. That was not his plan of redemption. The new covenant of grace, it was not about circumcising Gentiles and making Jews out of the nations. Rather, it is about preaching the gospel of Christ. It's about the Holy Spirit doing his work of circumcision in the heart. It's about people from every tribe, tongue, and nation being justified by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. There's not one gospel for the Jews and another gospel for the Gentiles. There's not one gospel for Old Testament saints and another gospel for New Testament saints. As we see here in verse eight, there has only ever been one gospel. It is the gospel of God from all eternity. It's the gospel promised through the prophets in the scriptures. It's the gospel that was preached to Abraham, and it's the gospel that he believed. So let me ask you, do you believe the gospel of Abraham? Do you believe the same gospel that he believed? Let me remind you, Abraham received God's promises without condition. God did not base his promise to Abraham that the nations would be blessed through Christ who would come from his seed on anything found in Abraham. God simply made the promise and Abraham believed. Although he didn't have the benefit of living in the light of the resurrection like we do, the substance of his gospel is the same. Do you believe that gospel? Do you believe, friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the promised seed who lived, died, and rose again for sinners from every nation? Do you believe that sinners who turn to Christ in faith are justified before God on account of His righteousness alone? Do you believe Abraham's gospel? Well, so we've seen that the true children of Abraham not only share in Abraham's faith, but they also believe Abraham's gospel, the promise that God made to Abraham to justify the nations through his son continues to the present day to be the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, both Jew and Gentile. Well, as we move now to our third and final heading, we see that the true children of Abraham receive Abraham's blessing. Look with me to verse nine. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Paul now arrives at the conclusion of his discourse on Abraham's faith, the conclusion that destroys the Judaizer's argument that the blessing of God is received through some combination of faith and religious works. And that conclusion is that those of faith, Those who share Abraham's faith and believe Abraham's gospel, it is those who receive Abraham's blessing, namely the blessing of justification before God. And just like Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, whether they be Jew or Gentile, Those of faith have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to their account. Those of faith are declared righteous by God, not because of their family ties, not because of their ethnicity, not because of their country of origin, not because of their good deeds, not because of their good intentions, not because of their acts of religious obedience. No, not even their baptism. Those of faith are justified and accounted righteous by God because of the perfect righteousness of Christ received freely through faith alone. And this blessing of justification carries with it numerous other blessings. Now, it will be quite impossible for us to lay out all of the various blessings that are associated with justification, but I'd like to take our remaining time and set before you five distinct blessings of being justified, of being those of faith. And to help guide us in this, I'm actually going to do what any self-respecting preacher has the right to do. We can turn from the text that we're studying to a different text. So let's go to Romans chapter five, because it's here where Paul enumerates very clearly five blessings that flow from justification. And I want us to use that as our guide. Romans chapter five, we're gonna be looking specifically at verses one through five, but I would like to read these verses to you, starting back at chapter four, verse 20, which we referenced earlier, and Paul is speaking here as a reminder, once again, of Abraham being justified by faith apart from works. Paul says this in Romans chapter four, starting at verse 20. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words, it was counted to him, were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So there's justification and here are the blessings. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, First blessing, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also, second blessing, obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And third blessing, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but fourth blessing, we rejoice in our sufferings. knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the fifth blessing, the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Quickly, let us highlight these five blessings. Firstly, those of faith are justified and have peace with God. Friends, before we were justified, our relationship with Almighty God was not neutral. We were children of wrath. We were at enmity with God. Because of our sin, God's anger and judgment abided on us. We were at war with God and staring down the eternal corridor of judgment. Now, we may have tried to find peace with God, but no natural means was ever going to bring us peace with our creator. As J.C. Ryle said, many a man has spent sorrowful years in search of peace with God and failed to find it. He's gone to earthly remedies and obtained no relief. Friends, before Christ, that was you and that was me. We were at war with God with no peace in sight, but now Christ has reconciled those of faith to their creator by making peace by the blood of his cross. The chastisement that was laid upon the Prince of Peace has given us peace with God. and because we share the faith of Abraham and are justified, we too are now called, as he was, friends of God. Those of faith are justified and have peace with God. Secondly, those of faith are justified and have access to God. We heard about it earlier in the call to worship, but when we read the Old Testament, one thing that stands out to us is the necessity of a mediator to interpose between sinful men and holy God. Think of God's giving of the law. If you remember the congregation, they couldn't enter into God's presence on the mountain. They couldn't even touch the base of the mountain lest they die. They had to rely on Moses to mediate between them and God. When sacrifices were made on the day of atonement, only the high priest could enter into God's presence. The regular Jews had no access to God's presence there. And although we have a mediator now, we have a mediator who has given us direct access to God. By faith, we have direct access to God through our mediator, Jesus Christ, and we can draw near to the throne of grace. So friends, are you overwhelmed with the circumstances of life? You have access to God. By faith, you can receive mercy and find grace to help in your time of need. Have you given into temptation? Have you yielded to a besetting sin? You have access to God by faith and can go to him directly and confess your sins and be cleansed. Are you scared of the poor economy, of the foreign wars, of the political uncertainties? You have access to God by faith and can cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. Those of faith are justified and have access to God. Thirdly, those of faith are justified and have hope in a future salvation. Now, there are many things that I hope for. I have hopes for my family. I have the hope that we would remain healthy, that all of my children would come to embrace Christ by faith, that we would always be close to one another and enjoy one another's company. I have hopes for our church, that we would grow in numerical breadth and in spiritual depth, that we would be used by God to plant other churches and to expand his kingdom. I have hopes for our city and for our state and for our country, that God would send an awakening to our land, that sinners might turn in mass to Christ by faith. I have hoped that God's law would be respected and honored by our civil leaders. I also have small everyday hopes like you do. For example, I hope that the weather might be nice enough this afternoon to take a walk with my family. I hope that my washer and dryer might make it through another week before we have to replace another appliance. But friends, as reasonable or even as good as these hopes may be, these are things that God has not promised to me. But he has promised. each of us who are in Christ, that we do have a blessed hope, a glorious hope, which is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And friends, this is a hope that is certain, it is sure, it is guaranteed. And when Christ comes, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. Those who are of faith are justified and have hope in a future salvation. Fourthly, those of faith are justified and have hope in present suffering. Despite our justified standing before God and the many blessings that that brings, we must still enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations. We are not unique. We are like every other saint who has gone before us. We still live in a sinful world that is hostile to God. We still battle to put to death the deeds of the flesh and to walk according to the spirit. We still have an ancient foe who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But regardless of the degree or the source of our tribulations, we can rejoice in them knowing that Christian suffering does what? It produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And friends, hope does not put us to shame. We can rejoice knowing that all things, even the bad things, even the sufferings, are being worked together for our eternal good. God is using these things to shape our character more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. And we can rejoice in sufferings knowing that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. those of faith are justified and have hope in present suffering. Fifth and finally, those of faith are justified and have been given the Holy Spirit. While we were enemies of God, it was his anger, it was his judgment that abided on us and rightfully so, but now having been justified by faith, God's anger and judgment have been removed and his love has been poured into our hearts through the promised Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the seal and the guarantee of our spiritual inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is our helper and our advocate. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit is our assurance, bearing witness with our spirits that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, interceding for us with groanings too deep for words. The Holy Spirit is our teacher, illuminating His word in our hearts and in our minds. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He works in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The Holy Spirit equips us for the service of God, apportioning to each believer in this room spiritual gifts as he wills. The Holy Spirit searches our hearts. He convicts us of our sin, and most importantly, he doesn't leave us in despair, but he leads us to Christ. And we could go on, but I trust you see something of the preciousness of this particular blessing of justification. Those of faith are justified and have been given the Holy Spirit. And here's an application for all of those here who are believers, for those who are those of faith. Think on these five glorious blessings of your justification. Put them into practice. Approach God's throne of grace and give him thanks for each of these five blessings. Ask him that through his Holy Spirit who dwells in you, that you might live more in light of each of these blessings. As you suffer trials and tribulations, may you count it all joy as you look forward to the secure hope of that marvelous salvation God has in store for you through Christ. As enemies of God pressure you from the outside, give thanks, saints, that all they can do is destroy the body. Give thanks and rejoice that you have peace with the God who can not only destroy the body, but can destroy the soul in hell. and he has no intentions of doing that with you. Brothers and sisters, those who are of faith, God has blessed you freely. He has blessed you richly along with Abraham, who is the man of faith. Consider these blessings of justification, give thanks for them and live in light of them. So we've seen that the true children of Abraham share Abraham's faith. They believe Abraham's gospel and they receive Abraham's I have only one additional application for you this morning. Are you a true child of Abraham? Is the tie that binds you to the family of God faith alone in Christ alone? Do you share Abraham's faith? Do you believe Abraham's gospel? Have you received Abraham's blessing? Are you a true child of Abraham? Friends, if your conscience is bearing witness to you this morning that you are not a true child of Abraham, let me say again to you, you can only be bound and connected to the family of God by faith. There is no other way to be made a member of God's family, to have peace with God. You cannot be tied to the family of God by being baptized. or by performing any other work of religious obedience. You cannot be tied to the family of God by being born to Christian parents and raised in a Christian home. You cannot be tied to the family of God by keeping the law of God. You cannot be tied to the family of God by becoming a member of a church. You cannot be tied to the family of God by doing acts of charity and benevolence and by being a relatively kind person. Regardless of how good and right these things may be, friends, they can't save you. They can't justify you before God. They can't tie you and knit you into the family of God. Only a simple, trusting, resting faith in the one who was sent to bless the nations can do this. Only faith in Christ can make you a true child of Abraham and a member of God's family. Forsake your sin, forsake your self-righteousness, and turn to Christ in faith. Let us pray. Father, bless your word to us now, we pray. We thank you that the gospel that has saved us, that is saving us and that will save us is the same eternal gospel that was preached to our father in the faith, Abraham, and believed by him with a simple faith so many years ago. We thank you, oh Lord, that you do not demand from us perfect obedience in order to be saved. Because if you did, we would all be doomed. Thank you for your grace that is shed abroad in the gospel. I pray that every believer here would cherish that gospel, would stand firm in that gospel, and would refuse, no matter how hard, no matter how awkward, no matter what the cost, to compromise on the simplicity of the gospel of justification by faith alone through Christ alone. Draw those who are outside of Christ to yourself, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.