Understanding Grace Pt 1

Morning.

All right, sorry, I had to go get my water. I was never gonna make it through if I didn't.

All right, we're good now. If you guys wanna go ahead and stand with me, we'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, I thank you for the day. God, I just thank you for who you are and for how much you love us, for what you've done for us. Lord, we just wanna glorify you. We wanna lift praise to you this morning, God. And just help us to set everything else that's going on in life aside and just to simply focus on you and glorify you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

And every tongue will confess that you are Lord, God, amen.

My soul lost without hope with no place to begin.

Your love arrested when death was arrested.

Let's give God the glory.

No name.

Oh, I took a breath when I doubted this and claimed a mistake.

Nothing that takes you by surprise. There's nothing that happens in this world, Lord, that takes you by surprise. Nothing that happens in our lives takes you by surprise. Lord, you know, you know what's going on. You have everything well in hand. Everything's not falling apart, Lord, but rather everything's falling into place. God, you're working everything out for your glory, Lord.

Sing that chorus with me one more time. You are very much in control. God, I know it seems things are chaotic right now, Lord, and everything that's going on in the world, Lord, and even sometimes in our own lives, Lord. But God, you have set a day and an hour for your good works, Lord, and we know that you're going to bring good things to pass.

So, Lord, help us just to know and rest in that fact, Lord. Help us to know and trust and rest in you, Lord. Father God, as Pastor Ryan comes this morning, God, I just pray that your word go out in a mighty way. God, speak mightily through him. And do your mighty work this morning, God. And we also lift up the little ones at the other end of the hall. And God, just do your mighty work there as well, God.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. All God's people said, amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning.

If you could start to locate your seats, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over a few announcements.

I've got to be honest. If I'm giving a grade, you guys get a way better grade on coming together after fellowship time than first service does. It's far superior. So with them, I'm giving announcements while half of them are still standing up talking to each other. So good job, second service. I'm proud of you guys. Okay, over on the left-hand side of your bulletin

are the things that are going on throughout the week. Take note of some of those and get plugged in. In the middle section, a few things to take note of. Fellas, don't forget we have a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday, March the 25th. Join us at 8 o'clock down the Agape room for some time of breakfast and fellowship. We'll be back together. April 1st is the Family Life Services Banquet.

As always, the church buys a couple of tables to that. And so I've got, let's see, I think I've got 13 tickets left. So if you are interested in attending the Family Life Services Banquet on April the 1st, talk to me afterwards and I'll write your name down for one of the tickets. A few things that are not in your bulletin. First of all, on Wednesday night, April the 5th,

that's the week of Easter. We're going to be doing a worship night here that night. Typically, we do biopsy. We do Bible study, but decided let's do something a little bit different for the week of Easter. And we're just going to take that Wednesday night. We'll have communion elements down here and just have just a time of gathering as the body to worship together and take communion together

and really just celebrate the work of Jesus Christ. So that'll be Wednesday, April 5th. And then, of course, there will be Holy Week services hosted by the Ministerial Alliance all that week too. And I will, that'll take place from 12 to 1230 at different churches throughout town. And I'll have that posted next week in the bulletin. And then a couple of announcements that need to be made.

First of all, even though it was 15 degrees this morning, grass is going to start growing sometime soon. I'm believing it. And I'm believing we're going to get some form of rain that will cause that to happen. So if I could have Kurt, if you come up, share with us a little bit about the mowing ministry.

Good morning. My name is Kurt Solomon. And last year, Pastor Ryan asked me to come up and make an announcement that he is very busy with a lot of things. Our church is growing. We're growing with many other things going on. Wanted me to take over the mowing ministry, which basically it's signing up, getting people to sign up for the mowing ministry. I'll make out a schedule.

Last year, we had 18 people sign up for the mowing ministry. And so it's two people per team. So we had nine teams. And so it kind of worked out where most of the teams only had to mow the yard. I think it was every three, I mean, three times during the year. So it was like every Sunday. Six weeks. This year, I'm saying if we could get 26 people to sign up,

that would be awesome to get 26 people. That way, everybody would only have to mow. The teams would only have to mow the yard twice. So that's the goal that I'm shooting for, that we could get 26 people to sign up. We have a lawnmower. Calvary Chapel has a lawnmower. We take care of, we mow in the back and over here to the side. And then we also mow over here in the front.

And then off to the north. There's a strip of grass that we take care of. So Calvary Chapel does have the lawnmower. So don't hesitate to sign up if you don't have a lawnmower because we do furnish the mower. We furnish the gas. The weed eater, we do not have one, but we can work it out where like I have a weed eater that I could loan you as a team. If you have somebody that you would like to sign up with,

you can put their name down beside your name. I know last year we had a couple of, granddads, grandpas that signed up with their grandson or their granddaughter. And then we also had husbands, wives. We had people that did not know each other that they signed up and I teamed them up with somebody. It worked out great how we had it all worked out. That's about all that I have to say,

but please, if you're looking for some place to step in to help the church out, the mowing ministry would be a great opportunity for you to sign up, to step in and help out the church. It makes you feel pretty good when you walk in and you see how well the lawn is maintained and you can always say that that's part of me. I did that. I don't know if I'm going to be missing anything, but don't hesitate if you think, well, there's a weekend that I know I won't be able to do it and I don't want to sign up.

Everybody works out great. If you cannot sign up, I mean, if you cannot mow it on the weekend that you're assigned, people will work with you. You can call somebody and say, hey, I can't mow this weekend. Can you take over my weekend for me and I'll take over your weekend? So everybody works together very well on that. So please, if you feel the calling, sign up.

There's a sign-up sheet in the back of the church. Sign up, put your phone number down, and we will be getting that list made out very quickly because we do know spring is on the way, even though it doesn't feel like that today. So thank you very much. And again, my name is Kurt Solomon. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to reach out to me.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. I'll be in the back of the church after the service, and you can visit with me.

Very good. And then there she is. Sandra Davis is going to share with us just a little bit about KidCheck, some things that we're going to be implementing to make life easier on parents and ushers alike. Okay, guys. As you know, the children's ministry has exploded, which is awesome. It's great. But with that, we're having some growing. One of those is because the classrooms are so big,

we're having more behavior issues. So there's going to be kind of a two-part. One is we're going to have a sign-up sheet so you guys, you parents, can go ahead and help in the classrooms just for some basic crowd control. Parents, grandparents, even if you don't have kids, if you want to come help, that's awesome because just having more of that, more adults in the rooms always helps.

The second thing is when you check your kids in, there's a number or it's numbers and letters, I'm pretty sure. Oh, yay. There it is. So what will happen if we're having trouble with the kids and it's to the point where we can't, it's being very disruptive to the classroom because we'll handle it for as long as we can, but when we... we can't teach the class,

then what we'll do is we'll send a message to the video room and what'll happen is that number slash letters, whatever slide Pastor Ryan is on, we'll just put it at the very bottom. And so if that number and number slash letter pops up, that means help. We need you. So if you can quietly, because we're trying to do it as, you know, with the least, yeah, disruption as we can.

So just come back, get to your kid's classroom and help us. So we're going to see if that'll help. Having a few extra hands will help. Also, the kids were working on a couple Easter songs, so they'll sing for Easter. But then I think after that, we're probably going to suspend our children's praise and worship because at... at... at... at a certain point, we have like 50 to 60 kids in doing praise and worship

and it's just a recipe for disaster. So we'll probably, until we can kind of figure out something else, we'll try and do it in their own classrooms or whatever. But until Easter, which like I said, they're going to work on a couple songs, then after that, we'll probably suspend their praise and worship and try and figure out something else. But anyway, so if you see that, flash up, inconspicuously look at your number and then slide on out of here.

So we appreciate your help.

Yeah. I would recommend always having a coffee cup with you. That way, if your number pops up, you can be like... Like it's empty. You've got to go get more coffee. That's... that's why you're getting up at that point in time, right? It's... it's not because your kid's the one going ballistic in the back. Like, oh, it's empty. So anyway, that's just me. That's how I would handle it.

But... Because I can just imagine we're all like... And the number will change every week. Don't worry. So it's... When we see 05EA, we're like, oh, there they go. It's a different number every week. Okay. For our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 19. Psalm 19. We'll be looking at the New American Standards so we all sound the same.

If you need a copy, there should be one in a row... in a... One more time. ...feeling. In a row around you.

And as you are turning to Psalm 19, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. Do you have a Bible? Okay, good. It's like you're going to need that. Okay. Psalm 19. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Lewis and the even verses. For the choir director is Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

Day to day pours forth speed. And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the place of the earth. In the... It's an epidemic. Yeah. Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, it rejoices as a strong man to run his course.

It is rising from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them. Amen. There is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter than gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Equip me of hidden faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins.

Let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. And Father, we do praise you for who you are. Lord, we praise you for how you reveal yourself to us, not only through the world that is around us, Lord,

but through your word. And so, Lord, we just ask that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would do just that, that you would reveal yourself to us. Father, not that we would just meet together as a group of people, but that we would meet together with you. And so, Lord, help us to see you this morning and help us to meet with you here this morning.

Father, we thank and we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter 3.

Galatians, chapter 3.

As we come to chapter 3, we open up a new section of the book of Galatians. We said that the first couple of chapters had to do with Paul defending his message of grace. The next two chapters, chapters 3 and 4, he's going to begin to explain grace better. And so, I've entitled chapters 3 and 4, Understanding Grace. And so, we're looking at understanding grace,

part 1. In particular, we're looking at really a question, law or faith. Now, to bring us all back up to speed on where we are in the book of Galatians, if this is your first Sunday here, first of all, welcome. Glad you're here. But also want to bring you up to speed of where we are. Galatians started off with Paul, first of all, introducing himself as the writer

and the people of the region of Galatia as the recipients. He then introduced us to our subject, which is Jesus Christ. After he introduced us to our subject, he addressed the issue. The issue that they were having, the issue that they were having in Galatia. He said, I marvel, I'm amazed that you have turned away so quickly from the simple message of the gospel

to begin following another message, which is not really good news at all because they were following a message of works. A message of works that said, it's great that you have faith in Jesus, but your faith in Jesus must be coupled by a series of works, must be coupled by keeping the law. Otherwise, you're not really saved. You can't really become who God wants for you to be.

And so, Paul addressed, he addresses this, and he says, this is ridiculous. This needs to be dealt with. And so, he begins to defend the message of grace that he gives. He, first of all, told us about his message, that it wasn't a message about man, not even a message from man, but it was a message about Jesus, about the simple gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for us.

Jesus, who bore all of our sin upon himself so that you and I can be made right in God's eyes. He then told his own personal testimony of how he too had been one who tried to be righteous, by the good works that he did. How he was one who was opposed to Jesus, opposed to the things of God, opposed to the Messiah that had been presented to him and tried to destroy those things. But God got ahold of his heart.

And when God got ahold of his heart, he was bent at that point in time on taking that message of the gospel to as many people as possible. And he told us about his commission, how God had called him to now take this gospel message to the Gentile people, to those who at one point in time had been outcasts. Those who at one point in time who had been strangers to the covenant, his job was to bring them the gospel. And then he told us about a time when he had to defend the message of grace, defend it even against one of the pillars of the church, which was Peter himself, who had slipped back into legalism, who had slipped back into a righteousness by works and how he had to confront him.

But it was so important to confront him because what was at stake was the gospel becoming, simply a system of works and the gospel simply becoming for a select group of people. And so he addressed Paul or he addressed Peter and dealt with that issue that Peter had in his life. But after he addressed that issue, he gave us a wonderful statement of grace. As a matter of fact, that statement of grace really took on three forms.

He said, we know, Peter, that we are not justified by our works. There's no thing that we can do to be made acceptable by God. There's no act that we can do to make us acceptable. In God's eyes, we can never be good enough to be acceptable in God's eyes. After all, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Instead, we have been justified by our faith in Jesus Christ.

And if we didn't understand that, he put it into a beautiful verse that explained it for us. He says, for I, I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live, but it's Christ that lives in me in the life that I now live. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He said, who I was before, that's dead now. That old man, he's gone now

and I'm a brand new creation in Christ. And now I'm living every day, not by my own goodness, not by my own works, not by my own ability, but I live every day fully dependent upon Jesus for everything that I have. And after he gives us this wonderful statement of grace, it's now time for him to move into a couple of chapters where he explains this more clearly. And that's exactly what he's gonna do in chapters three and four.

What we're gonna look at this morning with law or faith is gonna break down three ways in these first 14 verses. We're gonna start off with some questions and then he's gonna tell us about Abraham in faith and then he's gonna tell us about Christ and the law. And so we pick up in chapter three, verse one, as he begins to ask some questions of the Galatian people. He says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

This is the only thing I wanna find out. Did you receive the story? Did you receive the spirit by the 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? So then does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you,

does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Five questions he's gonna ask the Galatian people. Five questions to make them think. These are not questions that he expects them to answer because he knows the answer, just like he's aware that they know the answer. You see, this is what a really good teacher does. Jesus did this all the time, did he not?

When he wanted people to think, he asked them a question, not because he wanted to hear their answer, but because he wanted them to really think about it. It's sort of like that scene in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, and then they hid themselves from God, and God shows up in the garden to walk with them like he did every single day. And when God showed up in the garden to walk, he says, Adam, where are you? It's not because he didn't know where Adam was or even that he wanted Adam to answer.

It's that he wanted Adam to think, where am I right now? Well, that's what he wants to do with these Galatian peoples. He wants him to think, what have I fallen into? What have I ended up doing? Why have I left behind the simple gospel of Jesus Christ for something that is so complex and difficult? And so he starts off with this first question. He says, you foolish Galatians,

who has bewitched you? And that's the first question that he asks. Who has bewitched you? Now, he calls them something interesting here. He calls them foolish. Literally, that word means thoughtless or superficial. But I prefer the J.B. Phillips translation on this because in the J.B. Phillips translation, he says, you idiot Galatians. Now, I prefer that translation

because that tells me that the word idiot is completely available to be used, right? So let me tell you, quick story by sidebar. My daughter one day was riding with a friend of hers and her grandpa. And this friend of hers' grandpa was having a little bit of difficulty with the driver in front of him. The light had turned green and this person wasn't going yet.

And he said, get along now, little lady, get along. And my daughter said, wow, your grandpa's way nicer than my dad. My dad would have called him an idiot by now. So, but according to J.B. Phillips and his translation, that's an okay word. Anyway, he says, you foolish Galatians. Why does he call them? Because what they've done is just that, it's foolish. It's silly that they would decide to go back

to some system of works when God had set them free from it. He says, you foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? That word literally means to cast a spell upon or to be charmed by, literally to be led into evil by another, because that's exactly what happened. You see, these Galatian people had a teacher come along that told them a lot of words that made them feel good about themselves

and made them feel good about what he was saying. And they got tricked into believing something. That's what caused them to be foolish because they never took time to think about it. You see, this is what happens to us when we get led into false doctrine. This is what happens to us when we get led into false teaching. Somebody says something that sounds really good.

And rather than taking time to search it out for ourselves, to be a Berean, to be one who searches all these things to make sure that they're true, we go, sounds good to me, I'll follow you. And it causes us all kinds of problems. He says, you foolish Galatians. You thoughtless, superficial Galatians. Who's tricked you and led you into this evil? After all, before whose eyes Jesus Christ

was clearly portrayed as crucified. That word clearly portrayed means to be placarded or to put in a language that we would understand to be poster boarded, right? That's essentially what he says. Jesus was poster boarded before you as having been crucified for you. It was so clear. That anybody could have seen it. Picture a billboard, if you will. He says, that's how clearly I portrayed to you

that Jesus Christ had been crucified. After all, what is the very heart of the message of grace? The very heart of the message of grace is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Is the fact that Jesus was willing to die a death that belonged to us. Because what better understanding is there of the unmerited favor of God than to have one die for his enemies. You see, anyone would die for,

a friend, maybe only a good man would die for a friend. But Christ demonstrates his love for us and that while we were his enemies, he died for us. There's no greater picture of grace than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He says, who's bewitched you? I made it absolutely clear to you that Jesus had been crucified for you. He asks them a second question. He says, how did you receive the spirit?

There's one thing I wanna know, verse two. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing with faith? The receiving of the spirit is what we call the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When a person comes to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Jesus promised that he would come and make his home inside of us. Well, the way he does that is through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We receive that indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. And may I say, one of the most beautiful things that I have come to understand in my life is understanding that realization of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Because you can sense that presence of God with you in the most difficult of times. You can sense that presence of God with you all the time.

And when you sense that presence of God with you, you know, that's the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me. That's that indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He says, that indwelling that I'm talking about, did you receive that because of how good you were? Did you receive that because of what you did? Did you work a work that was good enough that God was like, oh, well,

not only am I giving you a happy start, but I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. Now, no, there was no work we could do to take that in. There was no work we could do to earn it. It came through the hearing with faith. It came because I heard and I believed. So God responded. He asked him a third question. He says, are you being perfected by the flesh? He said, verse three, are you so foolish?

There's that word again. Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? By the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? We talked about this a little bit last week, right?

We talked about the fact that when we first came to Jesus as Lord and Savior, many of us, we were in such a broken place. We were in such a place of going, I literally have nothing. I have nothing to offer him. I have nothing to give him except all of my brokenheartedness. So I'm gonna bring all my brokenheartedness to him and we received that salvation. When we received that salvation,

it was the greatest thing ever. And we knew the joy of it. We knew the peace of it. But then something started to happen to us. We started to think that we could do it on our own. It's okay, God. I've got it from here. I'll take it from here, Lord. Don't worry about it. And we try to be perfected by the flesh. And that's exactly what these Galatian people are doing.

I'll take it from here, God. I'll be perfected by the flesh. You know what Paul says that makes you? It makes you really foolish. He said, are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Somebody gave me a really good, really good illustration of legalism at one point in time of trying to do it on my own. He said, I knew that I needed to stop doing it on my own,

so I got off the treadmill of works. And I was like, ooh, now that I can relate to. I'd really like to run, but the older I get, the more I hate running in the cold. Matter of fact, if it gets much below 50 degrees, it's too cold for me. And I'm just like, no. So as much as I hate running on a treadmill, when it's that cold, I go run on a treadmill. Only you know where I get to on a treadmill?

Nowhere. I can run for two miles, and you know where I'm still standing when I'm done? Right there. I don't know how my watch knows that I'm running on a treadmill because I'm not actually moving anywhere. I'm not actually going anywhere, but my watch always registers that I'm moving on a treadmill. It's the most fascinating thing in the world to me because it's not the GPS location that's doing it.

You ever wonder how they know that? Is Apple watching you while you're doing it? Question you should ask yourself, right? But I got to thinking about this the other day. So the only thing I can think is that it knows I'm running on a treadmill because my arms are moving, right? So is it like I register for the arms moving? So I thought about this. I thought I should just sit on my couch some time ago

and see how many miles I can record while I'm sitting there on my couch. It'd be a funny thing. But when I'm done running on a treadmill, I've gotten nowhere, and it's the same way with me trying to be made perfect in the flesh. It's the same way with me trying to achieve something by my own good works. When all is said and done, I'm just really tired, but I haven't gotten anywhere.

And that's how so many of us live our lives. Striving, trying, straining. Meanwhile, we're just running on a treadmill, getting really, really tired, never making it anywhere in our walk with Jesus Christ. He says, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit? Are you not being made perfect by your flesh? Of course, the answer is, of course you're not. Fourth question.

He says in verse four, did you suffer so many things in vain? You see, they would have suffered persecution because as they began to take a stand for God, for grace and stand forth for the salvation that they had received through grace in Jesus Christ, they would have received persecution from the Judaizers. They would have received persecution from those who were opposed to the message of grace. He says, did you do all that in vain?

Did you suffer these things in vain? Of course, the answer is no, of course they didn't. And then question number five. He says, did you, did the Holy Spirit and the miracles come by the law? Notice what he says. So then, does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? See, one of the beautiful things that happens

with the work of the Holy Spirit is sometimes he does miraculous things. Miraculous things that take in place through the hands of Paul while he was there in Galatia. He says, did he do that? Did the coming of the Holy Spirit and all of those miracles, did they come about because of something that I did? Did they come about because of some work that I did? Of course not.

They came about through the hearing of faith. There's actually a story in the book of Acts that kind of goes along with this. There's a guy named Simon the sorcerer who saw what Peter was able to do with the works of the Holy Spirit. He looked at Peter and he said, I'd like to buy that ability from you. Peter said, let your money perish with you. You can't purchase the Holy Spirit.

You can't work for it. You can't buy it. It can only be given when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. And so he asks them these questions because he wants them to say, start to think, where have I ended up? How did I end up in a system of self-righteousness? How did I end up in a system of law when I was living in so much freedom in Christ? Well, he goes on to continue with this case

as he talks about Abraham and faith. Notice what it says in verse six. Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 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.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. The next thing that we take note of is that those who were legalistic, who believed in the old covenant style of living, they always look back to one place as their source. They look back to one place as their hero and that was Abraham. After all, the right of circumcision came through, Abraham.

And so they said, listen, even Abraham showed us that in order to be righteous, you have to be circumcised. You have to follow the works of the law. And so Paul says, if you want to use Abraham as an argument, then let me talk to you about when Abraham was actually declared righteous. Because Abraham was actually declared righteous well before the right of circumcision was given.

Now, let me give you a little bit of background on the person of Abraham so we know who we're dealing with here. If we were to go all the way back to the book of Genesis, you would see that there was creation and then there was sin and lots of things came about because of sin. And then God sent a flood because the world had gotten so corrupt at that point in time. And after the flood, there were several people that survived.

There was Noah and his wife and then Noah's three sons and their wives. One of Noah's sons was named Shem. Shem was the father of the Shemitic or the Semitic people. Therefore, from Shem came all the way down through the line. You come to a guy by the name of Terah. This is all given to us in Genesis chapter 11. You come all the way down to a guy by the name of Terah.

Terah had a son. His son's name was Abram. Abram was married to a woman named Sarai. Abram and Sarai had a problem. They couldn't have kids. As a matter of fact, we're given very specific language in Genesis chapter 11. It said, but Sarai was barren, unable to have kids. And so God called Abraham to do something. Abraham was living in a place called Ur of the Chaldees,

a very, very idolatrous area at that point in time. And he said, Abraham, here's what I need you to do. I need you to leave behind your land. I need you to leave your family and everything that you know. And I want you to go to a place that I'm going to show you. And so that's exactly what Abraham did, ish. So Abraham leaves his land, step one, good. Abraham did not leave his family.

He brought his dad with him and he brought his nephew Lot with him. So Abraham had to dwell outside of the land where God wanted him to be for a little while until he was born. And so Abraham had to dwell outside of the land where God wanted him to be for a little while until, his father passed away. But when his father passed away, he comes down to the land that God had given him.

Beautiful. Everything's going wonderful. Abraham is a man of faith. And I don't want to question that because Abraham was a great man of faith. But Abraham made one really, really big mistake. He just made it three times. But the first time we saw him make this mistake, there was a famine in the land, the land that God had called him to. And so he said, I've heard that there's food down in Egypt.

Let's go down to Egypt. So he goes down to Egypt and he looks at his wife and he says, listen, you're hot, okay? People are going to want to kill me for you. So do me a solid. When we get to Egypt, tell everybody that you're my sister. And then Pharaoh won't kill me. He just might take you as his wife. But I'll be alive. So that's exactly what they did. Well, their secret got found out.

Abraham and Sarah get rebuked by Pharaoh. And Abraham comes back to the land, a great man of faith with his tail between his legs. Well, after Abraham comes back, after having sinned in the worst way he probably could have ever sinned at that point in time, he then has to fight a battle against a bunch of enemy kings that try to capture his nephew Lot and several other cities in the area where he's living. And so he ends up defeating all of these enemy kings.

And so Abraham has two really big problems. Number one, he has seen how great his sin is. Number two, he's made himself abhorrent to the nations around him. So now not only does he feel a little defeated in his walk with God, but he's feeling a little bit scared about the area that he's living in. And at that point in time comes Genesis chapter 15. Because God, in his worst place possible,

in Abraham's worst place possible, God shows up. He says, Abraham, don't fear. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. And Abraham goes, what kind of a reward are you going to give me? I don't have any kids. We can't have any kids. How are you going to bless all of the other nations through me if I can't even have a son? So God tells Abraham to do something.

He says, Abraham, I want you to go out and I want you to look at the stars. If you're able to count the stars, then you'll be able to count the number of your descendants because your descendants, Abraham, will be more numerous than all of the stars in the sky. Now I want you to know something. By this point in time, Abraham is well into his 70s, if not close to his 80s.

And God makes this promise to him. Abraham's not able to have kids. Sarah is barren. What are they going to do? And God makes a promise. This is how many descendants you're going to have. That's great, except he still doesn't have one. But when God makes this promise to him, we're told something amazing in Genesis chapter 15, verse 6. It says, Abraham believed God

and God accounted it to him for righteousness. That sounds a lot like what we just read there. That's because it's a direct quote. Galatians chapter 3, verse 6 is a direct quote of Genesis chapter 5, 15, verse 6. So in the margin of your Bible, you might write Genesis 15, 6 because that's a direct quote there. From this, we understand that righteousness does not come

through the things that we do. Righteousness comes from the God that we put our faith in. Abraham believed God when God said, I am able to do something that is impossible. It says, Abraham believed God. Well, you know what happens when you and I put our faith in Jesus Christ? When we come to God in our worst place, when we come to God and say, I've sinned worse than I've ever sinned

and I've made enemies out of everybody around me. Lord, I don't know what to do. He says, it's okay. I'll be the one that saves you. I've purchased your salvation with the cross. You just come to me. You bring all of your sin to me and I'll give you all of the hope. You bring all of your garbage to me and I'll give you all of the peace. You give me all of the junk

that's built up in your life. I'll give you all of the grace. And we said, okay, Lord, I believe. And God said, he's righteous. He now has right standing. He now has right standing in my eyes because God told us he could do something impossible and we had the audacity to believe it. And the moment that we did, that littlest glimmer of faith, God says, oh, he's righteous.

He's justified. He's completely right in my eyes. He's one of my kids now. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. That's why I will always say the most miraculous thing that happens in the life of any human being is the day that they came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Because they went from being an enemy of God to being right in God's eyes.

They went from being dead to being alive. He says, even so, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He goes on in verse seven to say, therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham. In the book of Romans, Paul makes this exact same argument. He says, it's really only those of faith. Just because you're a physical descendant of Abraham

doesn't really mean that spiritually you're a descendant of Abraham. Just because you're a descendant of Israel doesn't mean that you're really a part of Israel because it has nothing to do with your physical descendant. It has everything to do with who you are spiritually. And if you're here this morning right now, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you're one of those people who believe that God could do something impossible right now, you are a descendant of Abraham.

You are a child of Abraham. You're a son of Abraham through faith. Now, those of us that grew up singing that little kid's song, now you know what that means, right? I will always say, if you want to learn theology, learn little kid's songs because they put theology into songs in a way that we can all understand. You all know the song, right? Father Abraham had many sons

and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and hopefully so are you. So let's all praise the Lord. Okay, everybody up, right arm. First service didn't stand either. All right. But that's who we are now because of faith. In the same way that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, every single one of us is the exact same way.

Brothers and sisters, it doesn't require going to church. It doesn't require owning a Bible. It doesn't require memorizing scripture. It doesn't even require knowing scripture. All it requires is for you to believe in a God who makes impossible promises to humanity. What God promised me is that he could make me righteous. And if you want to talk about something that's impossible,

it's that. Went on that dirt road on the way home from a camp in April of 20, or in April of 1998, I said, okay, I'll believe. And I've never looked back. At that point in time, I became a brand new person. Old things passed away. All things became new. And God said, he's righteous. I can't explain it. I don't fully understand it. I just believe it. From that point on,

I became not only a child of God, but by faith, a son of Abraham. He goes on here to say, verse eight, the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying all the nations will be blessed in you. I love this because Paul, through the inspiration, of the Holy Spirit, not because of how smart Paul was, but because the Holy Spirit was like, hey, remember that time when I told Abraham, all nations would be blessed through him. That was actually me preaching the gospel in the Old Testament.

The gospel in the Old Testament is this. He told Abraham, all nations will be blessed through you. Why? Why are all nations blessed through Abraham? Well, because the Jewish people have done so much for us. They have, I'm not discounting that, but that's not the blessing that he's talking about. The blessing that he's talking about is that through Abraham would come the Messiah.

Through Abraham would come the one who would be blessed, born of a virgin, who would live a perfect life for 33 years and then would die a perfect death. And that perfect death would be guaranteed by God raising him from the dead. That's what we're about to celebrate. That's what we're celebrating next month is the fact that the gospel was preached to Abraham so long ago in the Old Testament.

And now you and I are benefiting from that gospel. Friends, one of the most beautiful things is that God wove the gospel message throughout. All of the Old Testament scriptures. So that when we came to the New Testament, it was like, it's what God was always doing. It's what God had always intended. And here's the fascinating thing. Abraham was declared righteous when he was a Gentile

because the right of circumcision wasn't given till almost 20 years later. He was declared righteous as a Gentile. He showed his righteousness by his actions as a Jew. Therefore, God is the Savior. Not only of the Gentiles, but also of the Jews. Because listen, can't be overstated. The gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone. And if there's one place where we see that,

it's in the life of Abraham.

He says, so then, verse nine, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham. And I love the title that he gives to Abraham here. Abraham, the believer. I think that's really cool because what do we usually refer to? We refer to ourselves as, as Christians. We refer to ourselves as believers, right? And what I love about this is it just gave Abraham, the father of faith, the hero of faith,

it gave him the same title you and I have. You know what that means? It means no matter how great the hero of faith is, he got saved the same way you did. No matter how great the hero of faith is, he walked the same walk of faith that you're walking right now. I don't care if it's Abraham or David or Moses or Peter or John or James or Paul, or Chuck Smith or Billy Graham or Greg Laurie

or David Jeremiah. You name the hero of faith that you think is amazing. Listen, they got saved the same way you did and they walked in faith the same way that you do. So don't look at them and go, I can't do what they do because look at how great of a hero of faith they are. No, they're called the same thing that you are, a believer because their righteousness came

because of Jesus Christ, not because of them. And if we don't stop putting people on pedestals, then we're never, we're never really gonna achieve what God wants us to. We're never really gonna be who God wants us to because we'll always put people in the place where God belongs. He said, so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer, just like you.

Well, now he goes on in this last section to tell us about Christ and the law.

Verse 10, he says, for as many are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evidence for the righteous man shall live by faith. However, the law is not a faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, curse is everything. Everyone who hangs on a tree in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith. He tells us about Christ and the law. And the first thing that he tells us

is about the curse of the law. Now, the fascinating thing I want you guys to pay attention to is he's gonna give us three Old Testament quotations in this entire section. The first one comes as he talks about the curse. He says, for as many as are of the works, of the law are under a curse for it's written, curse is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

That is an Old Testament quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 26. So you might write that off to the side margin of your Bible, Deuteronomy 27, 26. It's fascinating because Deuteronomy chapter 27 is called the chapter of curses. They were first of all to pronounce blessings, blessings on obedience, but then there were cursings on disobedience. And so basically, if you disobey,

all these cursings are gonna come upon you. At the very end of chapter 27, this last clause comes where he says, and cursed are you if you don't keep all of the law. It's almost like this elastic clause, right? Cursed are you if you don't keep all the law. And if nothing else got you, if you don't do it perfect all the time, then there's a curse in your life.

By the way, that word curse means doomed to destruction. See, the law has occurred. It's a curse because the curse of the law is that you have to do it perfectly. The curse of the law is that you can't ever have a moment. I bet if I was to hold up a standard to you, you would probably keep that standard about maybe 30, maybe 40, 50, maybe 60% of the time. Some of you may be really good

and you might keep it 70, 80, maybe 90% of the time. And some of you are really good people who study a lot and try really, really hard. And I bet you could keep it 99% of the time. But do you know what is a 100% guarantee? Nobody's ever kept it 100%. Therefore, everybody's under what? The curse. See, that's what the law is really good at doing for us. The law is really good at bringing us under the curse.

Actually, that's kind of what we read this morning in Psalm 19. I don't know if you paid attention to that or not, but it said something interesting. After it talked about how nature reveals the glory of God, it said, the law of the Lord, the law of the Lord is perfect. But then it said something after that. It said, converting the soul. Well, the law of the Lord is perfect.

How does it convert the soul? Because the law brings me under a curse, which causes me to do what? Look outside of myself. And once I look outside of myself, that's where conversion comes. Because the law says be perfect and I can't do it. So I have to say, Lord, I can't. You're going to have to. It says, as many as are of the works of the law are of the works of the law.

And I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm under the curse of the law. He goes on to say now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by his faith.

However, the law is not of faith. And he who practices them shall live by them. The next thing he tells us is that the judge shall live by faith. And he starts off by saying that no man is justified by the law is, is evident that you should ask yourself a question right now. What is it? What is it that makes it evident that no one can be justified by the law?

Your life. My life. That's what makes it evident that none of us can be justified by the law. Because what did he just tell us we had to be if we were going to be justified by the law? We had to be perfect. And you know what the one thing that everybody tells you if you start asking them about the sin in their life, they all say the same thing. And they all say, well, nobody's perfect.

But God says you have to be. Therefore, the fact that no one can be justified by the law is evident. If you don't believe me, just look at me. And if you still don't believe me, just look in a mirror. Because it's evident. It's clear. But then he gives us the next statement. This is the next Old Testament quotation I want you to write down. He says, in Habakkuk 2.

Verse 4, it says, So if I can't do it, if I'm under the curse, what do I do? Well, I live by faith. He's going to tell us in just a minute what we put our faith in. But he tells us that we have to live by faith. This verse out of Habakkuk will be used at least two other times in Scripture, both in the book of Romans and in the book of Hebrews, to tell us that this is the only way that we can be righteous before God,

is to put our faith in a perfect God. The just shall live by faith. And after that whole word about the curse, is there anything that's quite as cooling to the soul as to hear, the just shall live. The righteous man shall live by his faith. I don't have to keep struggling. I don't have to keep striving. I can get off of the treadmill and put my faith in Jesus Christ.

Because the just man shall live by his faith. He goes on from there to say, He says, He says, He says, And this is the problem that we have with law. This is the problem that we have with rules, is he who practices them has to live by them. Let me put it to you a way that one of my teachers in Bible college put it to me. His name is Bob Hoekstra. Bob Hoekstra always put it like this.

He said, Once you strive to attain, you must also strive to maintain. Isn't that the truth? What you strive to attain, you have to continue to strive to maintain. Because he who practices them has to keep living by them. You see, that's the unfortunate thing about the law. Is the law says, You just have to keep working. You just have to keep going. You just have to keep trying.

Now I would venture to say that there's a good number of people in here that have no idea about the Mosaic Law and you've never tried to live by the Mosaic Law. But I bet you've tried to live by your own. You've tried to live by your own laws. Either the laws you've come up with yourself or the laws other people have put on you. You've made yourself a system of rules

and quite frankly, quite frankly, you're worn out by that system of rules. Quite frankly, you're exhausted because you can't seem to get there. You're still trying to live by them. Oh sure, you may do good three or four days a week. You get up early and read your Bible and you pray the amount of time you're supposed to be doing. You pray the amount of time you're supposed to be doing.

You pray the amount of time you're supposed to be doing. You pray the amount of time you're supposed to pray and you share Jesus with the number of people you're supposed to share Jesus with and you've memorized the right number of scriptures and you're doing all those things the way that you're supposed to but there's still no peace in your life and you're going, why? Why is there no peace in your life? Because your hope is in all those things that you're doing and the moment that you let that down.

The four days a week that you did that, you felt great, right? The four days a week that you followed all of your rules, man, life was good. These are days I am winning the day, right? Slay the day. But then comes Friday. And what happened on Friday? You failed. You woke up late. You didn't have the time in the Bible like you wanted to. You didn't tell anybody about Jesus

and quite frankly, prayer was something you couldn't even spell, let alone take part in on Friday. And now your whole week is ruined because you're going, oh no, God's mad at me now. God's upset with me now because I didn't do enough. God's upset with me now because I didn't keep living by the rules I'd set for myself. Brother or sister in Christ, I want you to know something.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God is not upset with you. He's not gonna be upset with you. He doesn't plan on getting mad at you because you are living in his favor. He wants you to get off of the treadmill. He wants you to quit trying so hard and start resting in who you already are. Stop trying to be what God wants you to be and start resting in who you already are.

Amen. In Christ. Because as we live our lives, we live in response to who we are, not trying to attain something that we're not. When I worked in construction, I wasn't very good at it. And I always felt like a failure with the things that I did. And so as I felt like a failure with the things that I did, every time I would make a mistake, you know what would happen?

I would just destroy myself over it. I couldn't handle it. It was awful. I lived literally feeling like I was in failure because I was in failure. I had a guy that I worked with. I have forgotten his name since then because that's what I do. Now I'm really good at forgetting names. I blame COVID. It's probably because I'm old. Anyway, I can see his face right now.

He's an elderly gentleman that I worked with. And I remember screwing something up really big time. I put a screw in the wrong place on what was to be a very decorative looking board. I said, it's Dale. That was his name. I said, Dale, I don't know what to do. I screwed this up. I put the screw in the wrong place. The whole board's ruined. And he looked at the board.

He looked at me. He looked at the board. He looked at me. And he said, I'd put the screw in a different place. And he walked off. And I was like, what do you mean you'd put the screw in a different place? And so I follow him like, what do you mean it's ruined? He goes, that's not ruined. We can fix it. I've done it lots of times. And I thought, what is so different about him than me?

And I realized, you know what was so different? He had confidence. What gave him confidence? He had knowledge. That was when I developed a little saying in my own life. With knowledge comes confidence. See, the more that you know who you are in Christ, you don't live in constant fear. When you make a mistake, yeah, you don't like it. But you know, you know the blood of Jesus Christ has already covered it.

You say, whoa, that was a pretty big deal. What just happened? Yep, I blew it on that one. Well, aren't you totally terrified? No. Jesus knew what he was getting into when he bought me. I'm going to confess my sin and I'm going to move on. I'm going to confess my sin and trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to keep walking my faith. See, that's the difference between a person who's living under grace

and a person who's living under law. Because when you're living under grace, you have knowledge. And with knowledge, comes confidence. He says, he who practices them has to keep living by them. And then he says in verse 13, how Christ redeemed us from the curse. Notice what it says. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith. He gives us another, Old Testament quote. He says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How do you redeem us from the curse of the law? By becoming a curse for us.

In Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23, it says, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. What did Jesus hang on for you and I? A cross. What was the cross made out of? A tree. Therefore, he bore the curse for you and I. So follow the logic here. The law brings a curse. You and I are under it because we can't keep it perfectly. The only way I can live is by faith.

Well, what do I put my faith in? I put my faith in the savior who bore the curse for me, who as he hung there on that cross, not only bore all of the sin of my life in his body on the tree, but he also bore the curse that rightly belongs to me. And as he bore the curse that belongs to me, I put my faith in him and I say, that is enough to save me because he became the curse for me. As I mentioned earlier, that's what we're celebrating over the next few weeks.

Is it not? That's what Holy Week is all about. It's celebrating the fact, that Christ bore the curse in his own body on the tree for me. Therefore, I no longer have to do anything to try to be accepted by him. He already took care of it for me on the cross. He purchased grace for me on the cross. And as he purchased grace for me on the cross, he purchased me back to himself.

He purchased me back to him. And he did it in the most beautiful way possible. Because he spelled out love. With three nails and a spear. You see, that word redeemed means to buy back. Let me tell you a little story about this word redemption. Because this word redemption, I think, can best be pictured in the story of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament.

One of the minor prophets. And Hosea prophesied in a time when the nation of Israel had turned their back on God and had gone into idolatry. God said, that's like spiritual adultery. So here's what I want you to do, Hosea. I want you to marry a prostitute. I want you to marry a woman who you know is going to cheat on you from the minute that you marry her. And that's exactly what Hosea did.

He married this woman who was a prostitute. He had several kids with her, but pretty soon, pretty soon she started prostituting herself out again to other men. And God said, I want you to let her go. I want you to let her go do her own thing. Because that's what I'm going to have to do with the nation of Israel. I'm going to have to let them go. I'm going to have to let them go for a time.

But after Hosea's wife left him for a time, God said, now here's what I want you to do for me, Hosea. I want you to go, and I want you to purchase your wife off of the slave market of sin. I want you to take her home, and I want you to clean her up, and I want you to tell her, you're mine now. You're not going to pursue all of these other lovers because you belong to me.

Brothers and sisters, that is what God did for humanity. God made man so that man would love and follow him. But man chose sin. We chose anything but God. And when we chose anything but God, we prostituted ourselves out to all of the other sins that are in the world. But because of the great love that God had for us, he bore the curse in his own body on the tree.

And when he bore that curse in his own body on the tree, that was him buying us back, purchasing us off of the slave market of sin. And once we give our hearts to him, once we say, I accept what you've done for me, he says, now you're mine. I'm going to take you. I'm going to clean you up. And you won't have to go after other lovers ever again because you're mine forever.

That's what Jesus did for us. That's what Jesus did to purchase us back to himself. And now because of that, we can live in the freedom of his grace. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand.

I have the sense that someone in here is not living in freedom right now. You're stuck and you don't know how to get out of it. And I don't know what it is, but the Lord wants you to know that he's purchased you for himself and he just wants you to believe it. He wants you to believe that you're his and that you don't have to live in that guilt any longer, that you don't have to live in that bondage any longer.

So whoever that is, just confess that to the Lord. Just confess that to the Lord. Tell him it's me. I'm coming home and I'm ready to be free. Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you. And Lord, I just want to lift up the person or persons because every Sunday since we've been talking about grace, I can just feel, Lord, I can just feel the bondage that some people are living in

because they feel like they can't measure up. Whether it's because of sin, whether it's because of legalism, whether it's because of unconfessed things in their lives, whatever it is, Lord, they're just living in bondage. And Lord, you want to set them free. And so Holy Spirit, set them free this morning, I pray. Lord, set their life free from whatever it is

that's holding them back. And Lord, I just ask that you would continue to move in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, as we come into this time when the entire world is going to be focused on you rising from the dead, Lord, may that be the opportunity not only for us to glory in the death and the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus, but Lord, to take that message to the people that are around us so that everybody can know that there is freedom in Christ. Freedom from the financial fears.

Freedom from the battles that are going on in the world. Freedom from the immorality. Freedom from the things that would hold us down. Lord, there's freedom in Christ because you purchased it with your own precious blood and it was guaranteed when God raised you from the dead. And so Lord, I ask that you would continue to move in our hearts Lord, move in our hearts, I pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

There's love for us.

You take somebody like me and make me your treasure, Lord.

And God, if there is anybody in here today, Lord, that doesn't know you, Lord, pray that today would be that day that they would become your treasure, Lord. Father God, we just love you. We thank you for what you've done for us, Lord. Thank you for what you've done for us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for these things in your precious and holy name.

Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.