Last week we began in Galatians chapter 3 and we saw the first few verses of Galatians 3. Paul asking the professed believers of the churches of the region of Galatia to think back to where they began. And he's making some layers of an argument in these verses through what we're looking at this morning as well. argument against the Judaizers and for the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Judaizers coming in after Paul, misleading those who Paul had taught the truth to believe that salvation only came, yes, through Christ, but also through your works, specifically through circumcision, through keeping the law of Moses. And Paul is arguing against that and for the truth. So he wanted the people of the churches of Galatia to think about their experience, their testimony. Now, assuming they were truly saved, and it seems Paul is assuming that, he's asking them in those opening verses of chapter 3 How did that happen? When did they receive the Holy Spirit? Was it after being circumcised and performing various works of the law? Was that when there was evidence of the Spirit's coming? Remember, we saw in verse 5, the Spirit's coming was accompanied by miracles. Paul's ministry, the message that he preached, was authenticated by miracles. Did those miracles come after they began to keep the law, or was it when they believed the gospel that Paul preached? The answer to those questions should have been obvious. Because the Jews, among them, had already been circumcised years before, had been generally keeping the law for a long time, The Holy Spirit didn't come then. The Gentiles among them, which was the majority, they hadn't received circumcision. They hadn't kept the law of Moses. Not until the Judaizers showed up and began misleading them sometime later. But when they heard the message that Paul preached of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and put their faith in Jesus Christ for their salvation and for forgiveness. That's when the Spirit came and took up residence within them. They knew that. It should be clear. By their experience, they should have questioned and been suspicious of what they were hearing from the Judaizers because it did not line up with what they experienced. Now remember, as I said last week, something important to remember, our experiences are not the definers of truth. They should be able to see their experience lined up with what Paul was saying, but their experience was not what defined the truth. We should not base our doctrine on what we've experienced. because we can misinterpret our experiences. We can misremember our experiences. I just told someone here the other day, I need to stop relying so much on my memory and start writing things down more. As my memory is on the skids, my forgetter is working really well. Trying to think back on something that maybe happened years ago. We may miss some of the details. We just don't remember of our experiences. We can even deceive ourselves because we want something to be true. We can convince ourselves. You know, now looking back on it, yeah, I think that is what happened to me. Because that's what I want to be true. We can convince ourselves Our desires, the influence of other people, can influence how we perceive our experiences. So we don't want to put too much weight on experience. But we do have experiences. There are real things that happen to us. Real things happen to the people in churches of Galatia. So how do we correctly interpret and understand the things that happen in our lives. If you have a testimony of how and when you were saved, even that, even your testimony, there's a way that we should test and verify and interpret our testimony to make sure that we're understanding what happened to us accurately. Now, how we do that is by examining our experience and interpreting our experiences using scripture. So rather than our own understanding being the standard we use to test truth, or the wisdom of man being the standard we use to test for truth, we start with the unchanging truth of God's word. And through that, we seek to understand our experiences. And we have experiences. How do you understand what happened to you? How do you interpret it? By God's word. You use scripture. Now that's the next layer of argument that Paul takes the Galatians to here in chapter 3. So here's what you experienced, verses 1 through 5. And here's what the Bible says about what you experienced. Verse 6. Even so, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. reckoned to him as righteousness." That means simply when Abraham got saved. Paul is talking about the time when Abraham was saved. He had not been righteous, and then he received righteousness from God. When did that happen? When was it that Abraham changed from a lost, dead, sinner, headed for hell, to being forgiven, considered righteous, and on his way to heaven. Was it through faith or through the works of the law? What does the scripture say? Paul picked Abraham as an example because he is such a clear example. And he picked Abraham as the example because the Judaizers thought that he was on their side. They thought they had arguments from Abraham to prove what they were trying to teach. But Paul could easily show, just go to the scriptures, see what it actually says, that Abraham would completely disagree with the Judaizers. Jews, in general, thought very highly of Abraham. He's the one, obviously, the Abrahamic covenant came through, which is Just in general, the promise of the existence of their people, promises of blessings for their people. The grandfather of Jacob was Abraham. Jacob was, his name later changed to Israel, he was the father of their nation. And so much respect for Abraham. It was through Abraham that circumcision became one of the primary signs of the relationship between God and His chosen people, the nation of Israel. In fact, they loved Abraham so much that a tradition developed, was eventually taught by their rabbis, that Abraham kept the law that was given to Moses, even though the law that was given to Moses was given about 400 years after Abraham died. Abraham was just such a good guy that he already knew the things that he should do, how he should live, and he was doing it 400 years early. What a guy! So, certainly the Judaizers were pointing the Galatians to Moses, to Abraham, and saying, It's right there in Scripture. Circumcision and law-keeping. All the great men of God did it. If you are going to be saved, to be known by God, you need to do it too. It's all right there in the Bible. You can't argue with that. Paul's going to argue with that. Circumcision and law-keeping, they are in the Bible. Abraham keeping the law 400 years early. Somebody made that part up. But the law is in there. But even what is in the Bible needs to be understood correctly. Needs to be understood in its context and in relation to the rest of what the Bible says. So it is in the Bible. Abraham received the sign of circumcision. That was as a part of the Abrahamic Covenant. the covenant that God made with Abraham. It's a later part of the covenant. It might be a different covenant even. I'm not exactly sure on that. But this part of the covenant between God and Abraham regarding circumcision, you find it in Genesis chapter 17. In Genesis 17 verse 24 says this, now Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised. A very important detail. To take note, 99 years old. That's important because it was several years earlier, somewhere around 20 years before this, that we read Genesis chapter 15, turn there if you'd like, Genesis 15, verses 1 through 6. Genesis 15. Beginning in verse 1. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, Since you have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir. Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body. He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord. and he reckoned it to him as righteousness." Now, for this part of the covenant with Abraham, God made the promise. At the end of chapter 15, we find that God put Abraham to sleep, and God, by himself, made this a binding covenant while Abraham slept. That makes this a unilateral covenant. It's not dependent on Abraham to keep it. It's not dependent on Abraham's descendants to keep it. It's only dependent on God's faithfulness to keep these promises. We see these very important words at the end of what we read in verse 6. The same words that Paul quotes in Galatians chapter 3 verse 6. It's Abraham's response to the promises God made. He believed in the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abraham believed that God was telling the truth. That God could be trusted. Abraham trusted the Word of God. He believed God. And God imputed to Abraham, through his faith, righteousness. So we see in Scripture, Abraham did not work for or achieve righteousness of his own. He did not become worthy of God's acceptance through anything he did. He believed God. And it was through faith that God considered him righteous in His sight. And this is when Abraham was saved. When was Abraham saved? Paul is asking this question. Think about this. Galatians. When was it? It was in Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 when he believed God and God granted him righteousness. That was somewhere around 20 years before he was circumcised. A Martin Luther said of this, let us begin with Abraham and learn how this friend of God was justified and saved. Not because he left his country, his relatives, his father's house. Not because he was circumcised. Not because he stood ready to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, in whom he had the promise of posterity. Abraham was justified because he believed. All those other things that Abraham did, even being willing to sacrifice his own son to God, he did it because he believed God. He did it because of his faith. So his faith in God preceded his works. His works, what he did, were the result of his faith. He was saved through faith, not by his works. Now that explains and matches what was experienced by those of the Galatian churches. They were saved when they believed God's promises, which is the gospel that Paul preached. They were not saved by keeping the law. They were not saved through any works of their own. They were saved when they believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7, Galatians 3. Therefore be sure that is those who are of faith Who are sons of Abraham? And when he says therefore some translations say then Means that he's he's making a conclusion based on what he just said You should arrive at this because of verse 6 The Judaizers as well as most Jews at the time were very proud of having Abraham as their ancestor one of the things that they were trusting in for their salvation, or to give them a relationship with God. We are descendants of Abraham. I think you could say Abraham was an object of their faith. They trusted in Abraham. But because Abraham was considered righteous because of his faith in the promise of God, that he trusted God for his salvation, a clear conclusion should be That physical descent does not get a person spiritual life. We talked about that some last week, how life cannot come from non-life. Spiritual life cannot get passed on through the flesh. It doesn't work that way. In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 33 through 47, we're going to turn there right now, but you can jot it down, look at it later if you want. John 8, 33 to 47. Jesus was speaking to some Jews who were very proud of being Abraham's descendants. So that passage where he says, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. People say, we're Abraham's descendants, we've always been free. Which is not even true because many of Abraham's descendants were slaves. Jesus was talking about being slaves of sin. But in that passage, Jesus explained, there's a difference between being Abraham's seed which is physical descent in that context, and Abraham's children. Yes, you are Abraham's seed. You are his descendants. But if you were his children, you would be doing what Abraham did. That's the spiritual relation. The point being, Abraham cannot get anyone to heaven. He cannot open the way for a sinner to have a relationship with God. Be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. So, it's those who have entered by faith. They are the ones who are following in the steps of Abraham. They are the ones who are doing as Abraham did. Believing in God, trusting in His promises. Now, this doesn't make a Gentile Jewish. doesn't put them in the place of God's chosen nation, but it's through faith that anyone, Jew or Gentile, receives righteousness in the same way as Abraham. Through faith. And it's always been that way. All through Scripture, it has always been that way. You consider where we have been on recent Wednesday evenings. If you've been with us, you remember, I know you do, If you haven't been with us, I'll catch you up. And we've been looking at some of the prophets who served on God's behalf to the northern tribes of Israel. And we haven't been looking at Judah so much lately, not yet. We've been focusing on the northern tribes of Israel after the kingdom divided. And we remember the predominant spiritual condition the Jews in Israel during that time, right? What was it? It's bad. Spiritually, it was bad. They were predominantly idol worshippers, rebels against the one true God of heaven. So based on the evidence we have from God's Word, sadly, most of the Jews who were living there during that time period are not in heaven today because they were not saved because they didn't believe God they were physically descendants of Abraham and Jacob but that did not save them one of the prophets that we studied about recently served during that same time period was Jonah remember Jonah very reluctantly and after a slimy detour went to the pagan city of Nineveh. He preached a message in that pagan city from God about coming judgment because of their sin. And most of that city, the individuals of that city, repented and believed God. Now that made them more sons of Abraham in this sense than the Jews in Israel. who were only physical descendants. Of all the Jews we read about in the Old Testament, it's only the ones who have faith like Abraham, who are counted righteous by God, and were sons of Abraham in this sense. So many ways that God blessed the nation of Israel. The prophets through giving of His Word. But when it comes to being given righteousness, God has always dealt with all individuals the same. It has always been through faith. Not by works, not by circumcision, and not by ethnicity. It's always been through faith. In verse 8, Paul shows that that can be found even in part of the Abrahamic Covenant. Most of that covenant was in reference to Abraham's physical descendants, but a very significant part of it was for all the nations. Verse 8, the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in you." Now this was God's plan. The Gentiles would be justified by faith the same way Abraham was. The same way any of Abraham's physical descendants would be. Now that gospel, the good news, was preached by God to Abraham. So how? would all the nations be blessed in Abraham. And Paul says, this was the gospel, the good news preached to Abraham. God gave him promises, good news. This was one of those. In you, all the nations will be blessed. Abraham responded to that good news by faith. Through that faith, he was saved. And so following him, like him, it will be the same. Any person from any nation who would respond to God's Good News in the same way, with faith, will receive the same blessing of salvation, will receive righteousness as Abraham did. Being blessed in Abraham has the idea of being blessed in the same way as Abraham was, with salvation through faith. We are also blessed through one particular descendant of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the gospel and the object of our faith for salvation. Bring us back again onto Wednesday evenings. We've been tracing this path starting in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. God gave a promise that someone was coming who would be the answer to the mess created by Adam and Eve's sin. And many years later, in the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise was repeated and somewhat expanded on in some of the details that the answer is coming, and is coming as through Abraham, to be a descendant of Abraham. We're going to keep tracing that path as the Lord wills on Wednesday evenings. Eventually, we'll get to Mary and Joseph, and through them to the One, who all those promises were pointing to. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to die on the cross, fulfilling all those prophecies, dying in the place of sinners, to pay the debt our sin deserves. And all who believe in Him are saved. Jew or Gentile, people from every nation, can receive the blessing of salvation by grace through faith. In verse 9, it begins with the words, so then. Now this tells us that Paul is drawing another conclusion. This comes after the conclusion that everyone should already have come to in verse 5, when there was another so then, a place to draw a conclusion, verse 5. based on what we've considered in verses one through four, based on your experience when you were saved, when you received the Holy Spirit, did that happen by works of the law or by hearing with faith? The answer should be obvious. When you stop and think about it, come to the conclusion it was when they heard the gospel and believed that gospel. The point of the so then, Stop and think about what he's been saying. You need to think about this. Your experience tells you if you are saved, you are saved by grace through faith, not by your works. And then when we examine the scriptures, what do we find? When we look at a specific example like Abraham, what do we find? When we look at what was said to Abraham and about Abraham, we look at the words. And consider the timeline of Abraham's life. What do we find? Did he receive spiritual life, salvation, righteousness by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? As you examine the evidence in God's Word, what do you find? Well, it should be obvious. Verse 9, so then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. There are so many ways that Abraham was blessed by God. This is talking about that specific blessing of salvation, of being declared righteous. If anyone is going to have a part in that blessing, it will be those who are of faith. If you stop and think, if you look honestly at Scripture, See the evidence. What God actually says in His Word. It should be clear. Salvation is only, and has always been, by grace alone, through faith alone. In the next section, Paul is going to make some contrasts with the law. How the law cannot save. What can? Look at the evidence. What does God's word say? Through faith. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas the direct question, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What was the answer? Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. That's the answer. What must we do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. For the tens and tens of people in this world who read the Sabbath newspaper. I asked the evangelism explosion question in this past week's edition. Four or five times a year, I get the opportunity to write an article. I ask the question, if you were to die tonight and God would ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? How would you answer him? If we stop and think, what does God's word say? How can we answer this correctly based on what we've seen so far in Galatians chapter 3? What conclusion can we come to? There's only one. Those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. It's the only possibility. It can only be by grace through faith. Abraham was saved by grace through faith. About 20 years before he was circumcised. About 400 years before the law was given. Abraham didn't get baptized. Abraham didn't take communion. Abraham didn't join a church. Abraham didn't give a certain amount of money for his salvation. The gospel was proclaimed, and he believed it. And God reckoned it to him as righteousness. The same way anyone else has ever been or ever will be saved. That's the only way. Now today, the contents of the gospel are more clear than it was for Abraham. More has been revealed. The Savior has come. Abraham was looking ahead to a Savior God would send. We look back. We know His name. It's Jesus. Salvation is only found by grace through faith in Him. This is the only right answer to that question. If God would ask you today to stand before Him, Why should I let you into my heaven? The only right answer, by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the solid foundation on which we stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Nothing else will save. Only grace through faith in Christ.