Reformed Theology Pt 4 | The Call of Abraham | Covenant Theology | Genesis 12:1--3

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church iconCovenant Reformed Baptist Church

2 views

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice November 7, 2021

0 comments

00:07
Let's pray, Father, Lord, we come to you in the name of your
00:13
Son, Jesus Christ. And God, we ask for your grace and your mercy.
00:20
Lord, we ask that your Spirit be with us, Lord, with me as I speak, and with your people as they listen.
00:30
Lord, we pray that you will use this message to grow us and to conform us into the image of your precious
00:37
Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, so we are in our fourth message of the
00:48
Reformed Theology series. The fourth message of the Reformed Theology series.
00:53
And I know last week I promised that we would go, we would get to Genesis chapter 17, and that's not going to happen.
01:04
I'm sorry. But we will, just not today. We're going there, we're getting there.
01:14
So here is an outline of some of the topics that we will be covering and have covered some.
01:20
Confessional, Covenantal, Calvinistic, Law and Gospel Distinction, The Ordinary Means of Grace, and The Five Solas of the
01:28
Reformation. My outline for Covenantal is the Covenant of Redemption, which we looked at, the
01:36
Covenant of Works, which we have been in and seems like we will be for a while, and the
01:42
Covenant of Grace. This week we will look at the Covenant of Works for the third time, and my outline is as follows.
01:51
The Adamic Covenant, that's what we looked at last, no, two weeks ago, the
01:57
Adamic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the
02:03
Davidic Covenant. Our focus today will be on the
02:08
Abrahamic Covenant. This Covenant seems to be revealed in three stages, the
02:17
Call, the Covenant, and the Sign.
02:23
The Call, the Covenant, and the Sign. If you want to know where Genesis chapter 17 is, it's in the
02:31
Sign, so as we're walking through it, you'll be able to see how long it's going to take.
02:38
Today we will be focused on the Call. For our text today, we will be looking at Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.
02:51
Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, and as we transition,
02:59
I want to give a quick recap. So we saw the Covenant of Redemption.
03:05
We saw that the Covenant of Redemption is that before Genesis 1 -1 took place, that beginning that's written in our scriptures, that before that happened, plan
03:17
A was that God purposed to save a people. God the Father purposed to save a people, and that Jesus Christ would come and accomplish that purpose, and that the
03:32
Holy Spirit would apply the purpose through the preaching of the gospel, which is why it's necessary that those of us who are in Christ, to some way, everyone's way is not the same, you know, we have different roles, we have different lives that we live, but in some way we are to be a witness of this one and true living
03:57
God who has redeemed us in Christ by preaching this message of what Christ has done.
04:05
So the only way that anyone can be saved is by the message of Christ, the gospel message, and the
04:14
Holy Spirit applies that purpose through the preaching of the gospel. And I explained whether it might be you catechizing your children, talking to my brother
04:24
Jerry who went on a fishing trip and was witnessing to a gentleman. It could be something like that.
04:30
It could be on the street corners preaching, or it could be teaching Sunday school. I don't know exactly how it is in your life.
04:38
It could be you at work, someone asking about the hope that they see in you, and you being a witness of what
04:43
Christ has done. But as a Christian, we need to preach this gospel to whoever will listen, and that's how the
04:53
Holy Spirit applies the purpose. We looked at the Adamic covenant that in Adam, all of us fall.
05:03
We have all fallen in Adam. We have sinned in Adam. Why? Because the sin of Adam was counted to us.
05:11
Part of the gospel message, we say that we are like Abraham. We have Abraham's faith as in the same way
05:18
Abraham was saved, you and I are saved. Abraham believed God and was counted, credit to him as righteousness.
05:25
We say those things, well, in the same way when
05:30
Adam sinned, all of us who are born are counted with the sin of Adam.
05:37
So Adam being our covenant head, because of his sin, you and I have fallen.
05:44
We have died. We have sinned in Adam, and we prove that with our lives by sinning.
05:50
It starts at a very young age, right? It starts at a very young age. I mean,
05:56
I have four children. They start not listening, lying, stealing from their brothers and sisters at a young age.
06:05
You do not have to teach your kids how to sin, and if you do, what's wrong with you?
06:12
You don't have to teach your kids how to sin. It comes natural to them. Why does it come natural?
06:18
Because they have fallen in Adam. We do have to teach our kids how to listen, you know, how not to steal, how not to lie.
06:29
We don't have to teach them how to do these things, and we looked at the Abrahamic covenant and how this
06:35
Abrahamic covenant is the one covenant in Scripture that the other covenants are added to, such as the
06:42
Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is a people within a people.
06:48
So God, because of Adam's sin, all people have fallen in Adam. God had promised an offspring of the woman, so in fulfilling the offspring of the woman promise,
06:59
God chooses a people from among the people, and that this people he would make a covenant with.
07:05
We see it's made with Abram, which we'll look at today. So God chooses a certain people, a people group known as the
07:14
Jews, the Hebrews, to raise up a kingdom, and what he does with the
07:21
Mosaic law is he gives them a law to govern this people. The Mosaic law was given to the
07:31
Hebrews. It was not given to the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Jebusites.
07:36
It was given to the Israelites, the Hebrews, and that through this people, this people that's in the
07:43
Abrahamic covenant, this people that has been given the law, a ruler would come from this particular people, a king, and we see that a part of this was fulfilled in David, and that this offspring that was coming from the woman that would come from this people would sit on the throne of David forever.
08:05
And you can trace this offspring through this lineage. And so now that takes us to our first point, well, first point of the call.
08:22
We have going, what we have going on here is most always overlooked, like I very rarely see anyone point this out.
08:34
Up until this point, all mankind, including Abram, is in Adam.
08:42
Including Abram, we're born under the Adamic covenant. Here God is, oh,
08:51
I'm about to mess this up. Here, I forgot what time we're on. Here God is singling out one man.
09:01
So, Abram, born under the Adamic covenant, God comes and he singles out one man, the man
09:09
Abram, to make him into a great nation. Now Abram at this time is a pagan.
09:19
Abram, a pagan, called to leave paganism and to follow the one true
09:24
God. So, if you would read with me, chapter 12, beginning in verse 1, we'll look through 1 through 3.
09:39
The Bible says, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you.
09:52
And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
10:05
And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse.
10:12
And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
10:20
This is the precursor, the forerunner of the covenant. The living
10:26
God appears to a pagan and telling him to leave everything that he has ever known and to follow him.
10:35
Imagine that. You a worshiper of many so -called gods, the one and true
10:41
God comes to you and tells you to leave everything, everything that you've ever known in your life, that you are to leave it and you are to follow him.
10:53
And Abram does this. In this passage, God names three things that he is going to do for Abram.
11:03
And this will be our sub -point, sub -point, and so on. God will make him into a great nation, point number one,
11:15
God will make him into a great nation and will make his name great so that he can be a blessing.
11:21
God will bless those who bless him and God will curse those who dishonor him.
11:28
Point number three, God will bless all the families of the earth through Abram.
11:34
And yes, as we transition, I am fully aware that my sub -points have sub -points.
11:42
Sub -point number one to the call, God will make him into a great nation and he will bless,
11:52
God will make him into a great nation and will make his name great so that he can be a blessing. We see this in verses one and two.
11:59
Let's read that one more time. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country.
12:06
Remember, he's a pagan and he's being called to leave his country.
12:14
Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you.
12:21
And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
12:37
This is speaking of God's covenant that he will make with Abraham. I want to continue reading all the way to verse nine real quick.
12:47
Verse four. So Abraham went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him.
12:55
Abram was 75 years old when the Lord, I mean, when he departed from Haran.
13:02
And Abraham took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran.
13:15
And they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abraham passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oath of Merom.
13:32
At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, now listen to this, to your offspring,
13:43
I will give this land. So Abram built an altar to the
13:49
Lord who appeared to him. From there, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.
14:04
And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the
14:09
Lord and Abraham journeyed on still going toward Nagab.
14:19
What was the promise? So in this passage, God gives a promise.
14:26
The promise is found in verse seven. He says, to your offspring,
14:31
I will give this land. And you look back at verse two, it says,
14:37
I will make you a great nation. A nation needs a land.
14:49
So he's going to make him into a great nation and he is going to bless his name.
14:55
How? They are going to receive a land. And we see that it's the land of Canaan.
15:10
We, as we've been studying through Hebrews, we see that.
15:16
What happens like the Hebrew author in chapter three, he's bearing down Psalm 95.
15:25
In Psalm 95, the Lord's speaking through the prophet and he is telling him that it's focusing back on Israel in the wilderness and how
15:36
God brought them to this land and they were afraid to go into the land because the
15:41
Canaanites were huge. They were giants and they were afraid. God had told them, I'm giving you the land.
15:48
The land is yours. Take it. And they were afraid. So God destroys them and then their children enter that land.
16:03
So this is the same land that we have been talking about as we've been going through Hebrews.
16:10
They eventually receive this land. They are made into a great nation. And from that, we see the offspring.
16:17
Again, this verse right here is the precursor, the forerunner to the covenant.
16:23
And as we transition, how does God make Abraham into a great nation?
16:31
How does he make his name great? Now, a few minutes ago, I was talking about he's going to give them a land that through this land, they become this great nation.
16:41
But I want to say that in my interpretation of this, I do not want to overlook
16:48
Jesus. By this nation would come the true offspring, the offspring singular, the true offspring, this offspring of the woman who was to come through Abraham, which is
17:06
Jesus Christ. That it's through Jesus Christ that the nations would be blessed.
17:15
That Abraham's name is great and that this nation became a great nation that blessed all the nations is through Jesus Christ.
17:23
We do not want to lose that when we are interpreting the scriptures. Yes, it was through this land that they were going to be given to the offspring.
17:32
But ultimately, ultimately, it was through Jesus Christ. Point number two,
17:40
God will bless those who bless him and God will curse those who dishonor him.
17:49
We see this in verse three, A and B. I will bless those who bless you and I will dishonor those.
18:00
And in him who dishonors you, I will curse. We see this cursing, we see the cursing of those who dishonor him take place in this very chapter.
18:12
So if you continue reading, which we will, we will see God curse a nation that dishonors
18:19
Abraham. So if you would turn your attention to beginning in verse number 10. Like this immediately happens.
18:29
He tells what's going to happen and it immediately takes place. Verse 10, now there was a famine in the land.
18:37
So Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land.
18:48
And when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarah, his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance.
18:57
And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.
19:03
Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it will go well with me because of you.
19:13
And that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abraham entered
19:19
Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
19:36
And for her sake, he dealt well with Abraham. And he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, female male servants, female servants, and female donkeys and camels.
19:48
But listen to this. Here's the curse. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
20:00
So Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is this that you have done to me?
20:07
Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister?
20:14
So that I took her for my wife. Now then, here's your wife.
20:22
Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him.
20:30
And they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
20:40
Abraham lied. He gave his wife up as a prostitute because of fear.
20:49
And yet Pharaoh and his household were cursed with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
20:56
And as we transition, we see Abraham do this again.
21:03
Abram, now Abraham, does the same thing that he did. This time after the covenant.
21:10
So the covenant is given in chapter 15. The sign of the covenant is given in chapter 17.
21:19
And we find in chapter 20, Abram, now Abraham, does the same thing.
21:26
Let's read. From there, Abraham journeyed toward the territory of Nibrum and lived between Curtis and Shore.
21:40
And he sojourned to Gerar. And Abraham said to Sarah, now his wife is
21:46
Sarah, not Sarah, his wife. He said, Abraham said to Sarah, his wife, she is my sister.
21:56
And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him,
22:08
Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.
22:16
Now, Abimelech had not approached her. So he said,
22:22
Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, she is my sister?
22:33
And she after said, and she and she herself said, he is my brother.
22:40
And the integrity of my heart and in the innocence of my hands, I have not done this.
22:48
Then God said to him in a dream. Yes, I know that you have not done this in the integrity of your heart.
22:56
And it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her.
23:03
Now then return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you shall live.
23:14
But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.
23:25
So Abimelech rose early in the morning and he called all of his servants and told them all these things and the men and the men were very afraid.
23:35
Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, what have you? Why? I mean, what have you done this done to us?
23:43
And how have I sinned against you that you have brought to me in my kingdom a great sin?
23:51
You have done to me the things that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, what did you see that you did this did this thing?
24:02
Abraham said, I did it because I thought there is no fear of God at all in this place.
24:10
And they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, listen to this, she indeed is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother.
24:22
And she became my wife. And when
24:28
God caused me to wander from my father's house,
24:35
I said to her, this is the kindness you must do me. At every place to which we come, say of me, he is my brother.
24:44
Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, male servants and female servants and gave them to Abraham and returned
24:52
Sarah, his wife, to him. And Abimelech said, behold, my land is before you.
24:59
Dwell where it pleases you. To Sarah, he said, behold,
25:04
I give to your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before everyone you are vindicated.
25:19
And Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech and also healed his wife, his female slaves, so they could bear children.
25:32
For the Lord had closed all the wounds of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, his wife.
25:43
Because as goes the king, so goes the kingdom.
25:50
Because of one man's sin, the curse fell upon his nation.
25:56
We see this repeated over and over in scripture. Not only did
26:09
God curse Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves, but he also caused
26:17
Abimelech to bless Abraham. Those who bless you, I will bless.
26:22
And those who dishonor you, I will curse. We see him curse him and then we see him bless him.
26:29
As you read the scriptures, you see that Abimelech is blessed. These things took place right after it happens.
26:38
Point number three, God will bless all the families of the earth through Abram.
26:53
Against this fountain, chapter 12, this time, verse 3c,
27:02
I'll read all of three. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you,
27:08
I will curse. And right here, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
27:20
Speaking with Abraham, Abraham, in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
27:32
In Genesis chapter 3, we see because of the sin of Adam, right? We see because of the sin of Adam, all of us, we spoke about this when we first started, all of us, the
27:40
Edenic covenant, bear the sin and the penalty of Adam. All of us, we're born in Adam.
27:49
We're born clothed in the man of dust. It is as if he is behind us when we're born, holding us, hugging us, taking control of us, causing us to live in this pattern of sin that he did in the beginning.
28:08
We see this in Romans chapter 5, verse 12 says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, speaking of Adam and death through sin, so death spread to all men.
28:20
Why? Because all have sin. Romans 3, 23, For all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God.
28:28
Romans 6, 23a For the wages of sin is death. And I say this quite often because I use it a lot when
28:37
I witness. If you want to know why you die, it's because you are receiving your paycheck.
28:44
The wages of your sin is your death. You have earned your death because of your sins that we inherited through Adam.
28:59
That's why people die, because we sin. Now, Abram is told,
29:07
Abram is being told by God that he was going to, that through him, he was going to bless all the families of the earth, that through him, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
29:19
So we have this, because of sin, death enters the world.
29:26
But Abram, who was born under the Edenic covenant, who's been set apart, is being told that through him, all the earth is going to be blessed.
29:38
And I think this is, I think a good passage to help us see the difference between Jews and Gentiles is found in Galatians.
29:48
We're going to be in Galatians for a minute. Galatians chapter 2.
29:55
A year ago, well, a year and a half, almost two years ago, we started preaching through the book of Galatians.
30:06
It was a very, very sweet time. So Galatians chapter 2, beginning in verse 11, to give some context, the
30:17
Judaizers are preaching a different gospel. And the different gospel they were preaching is that they were adding circumcision to the gospel.
30:26
Yes, Jesus is good. Jesus is the Christ. But in order to be a Christian, a follower of God, Gentiles needed to be circumcised.
30:35
They needed to take the sign, the circumcision sign, in order to follow, to be a follower of God.
30:45
Paul comes and he says, no, that is a different gospel. If you preach that gospel, you are anathema.
30:52
You are separated from God. You are not a Christian. If you add anything to the gospel, free grace alone, that by grace you are saved through faith, you are anathema.
31:11
And so here we're going to see that Peter, who was a Jew, fell shipping with Gentiles until the
31:22
Judaizers show up. Verse 11, but when Cephas, who is
31:28
Peter, came to Antioch, this is Paul speaking, opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
31:39
For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the
31:44
Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
31:51
And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even
31:57
Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when
32:02
I saw their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, you, though a
32:10
Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How can you force
32:17
Gentiles to live like Jews? Listen, verse 15, we ourselves are
32:24
Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
32:37
So we also believe that in Jesus and in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
32:53
So here we have a Jew is someone, listen, a Jew is someone who is under the law, the
33:00
Mosaic covenant. You have the Abrahamic covenant that establishes the people. God gives them the
33:05
Mosaic covenant to govern that people. So a Jew is someone who is under the law.
33:12
A Gentile is someone who is not under the law. They're still under the Adamic covenant. They're not under the law.
33:20
That was not given to them as a rule, as a letter. The letter of the law was not given to them.
33:28
You have Jews by birth versus Gentile sinners. Again, at verse 15, Paul, a
33:36
Jew speaking to Peter, a Jew, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not them
33:44
Gentile sinners. We're not those who are outside the law. If you follow the argument of Galatians, it was that separation of us and them, us, those who are under the law, who are
33:58
Jews versus the sinners, them slaves.
34:05
They're not one of us. Paul seems to be speaking of himself and other believers in a third category, not a
34:19
Jew and not a Gentile sinner, but a Christian. Something new is taking place.
34:26
Something new is happening. Verse 17 through 21.
34:33
But if we are, but if we in our endeavors, but if we in our endeavors to be justified in Christ, we too found to be sinners.
34:44
Now, let me start that over, sorry. But if we in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, to be outside of the law.
34:56
Is Christ then the servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild, listen, for if I rebuild what
35:04
I tore down, speaking of the law, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law,
35:11
I die to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ.
35:19
It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. In the life, I live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
35:28
I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then
35:35
Christ died for nothing. He said, man, if you bring law into salvation, Christ died for nothing.
35:41
If you bring circumcision into salvation, the sign of the covenant of Adam and the covenant of Abraham, Christ died for nothing.
35:53
You cannot add that to this.
35:58
This is something different. It's not Jew. It's not Gentile sinners. It's something different has taken place.
36:06
That the promise of blessing the world through Abraham is through the offspring of Jesus Christ.
36:14
It's in Christ that all the nations are blessed. That people are going to be blessed in Christianity.
36:22
Christianity. This is the new and third category that Paul seems to be speaking about.
36:30
That this is how the two, the under the law Jew and the Gentile sinners become one.
36:37
Galatians chapter three, verse 23 through 19. Listen, now before faith came, so there was a time where faith had not come.
36:50
What does John say? That the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
36:56
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law in prison until the common faith would be revealed.
37:06
So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
37:17
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the guardian, the law. For if Christ Jesus, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
37:29
For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither
37:35
Jew nor Greek. There's no other slave nor free. There is no other male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
37:46
And if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring according to the promise that the
37:54
Bible speaks about. There's this, we'll be getting into it deep later on as we walk through the covenants that the offspring, there's two, there's a physical seed.
38:04
The Israelites are the physical seed of Abraham, but then there's a spiritual seed of Abraham.
38:12
And I could, that all those throughout the Old Testament and then right now who have put their faith in the promise offspring that was to come
38:24
Jesus Christ are in the new covenant. They are the spiritual seed of Abraham.
38:32
I don't care if you're a physical seed of Abraham. Paul is a physical seed of Abraham. Peter is a physical seed of Abraham.
38:40
But if their faith is in Christ, they are a spiritual seed of Abraham. And so this is speaking about this new man.
39:00
Galatians chapter six, verse 14 and 15. But far be it for me to boast except in the
39:14
Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
39:20
Listen, for neither circumcision, Jews, the law, counts for anything, neither circumcision,
39:27
Gentile sinners, but a new creation. Go to Ephesians real quick.
39:35
Ephesians chapter two, listen to this. Ephesians chapter two, beginning in verse 11. Have in your mind a separate
39:45
Jew -Gentile law keeping us from Christ. Have that in your mind as I'm reading.
39:52
Therefore, remember, so he's speaking to some Gentiles. Therefore, remember that at one time, you
40:00
Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is now called circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
40:10
Remember that you were at a time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in this world.
40:24
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
40:34
For he himself is our peace. He has made us both one and has broken down in the flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
40:48
How? Verse 15, by abolishing the law and the commandments expressed in the ordinances.
40:54
That might, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.
41:05
So make in peace that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
41:15
And he came and preached peace to you who are far off Gentiles and peace to those who were near the
41:21
Jews. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.
41:27
So then we are no longer strangers and aliens, but our fellow citizens with the saints and our members of the household of God built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets of Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
41:39
In him, the whole structure, one structure being joined together, growing into a holy temple in the
41:46
Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by one spirit.
41:57
Now go back to Galatians. I want to, as I close,
42:03
I want to use Galatians chapter three, verse seven and nine to shine light back at our main text of how the two offsprings become one.
42:18
So Galatians three, verses seven and nine, it says, now then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham.
42:35
So who are sons of Abraham? Right here, Paul. Know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham.
42:46
And the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the
42:51
Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.
43:03
So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
43:14
So we have God calling Abraham. And listen, God is calling today.
43:21
God called this pagan, this man, Abraham, who he set aside, whom he focused his attention on to leave everything so that he will be a blessing.
43:32
And I'm telling you that God is calling out today. Now I know that you heard me read these words, but I don't know if you are listening.
43:46
I know you hear me read words, but I don't know if you're listening. God foreseeing that he was going to justify the
43:54
Gentiles, that is you and I, who are under Adam by faith, preaches the gospel to Abraham.
44:06
Why did the gospel get preached to Abraham? Because God foreseeing that he would justify the
44:13
Gentiles by faith. Now here's the gospel. Don't miss it.
44:19
Listen, in you, Abraham, shall all the nations be blessed.
44:26
The gospel is given to Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis. In you,
44:31
Abraham, all the nations are going to be blessed. And this offspring that comes from you, because Jesus is this offspring.
44:42
And in this story of Abraham, we're going to see faith versus fear. I don't know if you understand, but in chapter 22,
44:53
I was speaking about this to my wife, and it just kind of, it hit me. It hit me really hard when we were talking about how
45:00
God tested Abraham about offering his son, Isaac. And so God comes to Abraham, and he tells him to offer his son,
45:10
Isaac, on the altar. What does Abraham do? He leaves everything.
45:16
And he takes his boy, his only son, and he goes up to that place, that mountain, and as the axe of his wrath is about to come down and strike his son, an angel calls him.
45:30
He stares his hand, and he shows him a ram caught in a thicket. We see
45:36
Abraham acting in faith, but yet when it comes to chapter 12, and in chapter 20, we see him acting in fear, selling his wife out as a prostitute.
45:49
Why? Because God promised that through him, all the nations would be blessed, that he knew that an offspring was coming from him that was going to bless the nations.
46:00
And in fear, he sells his wife out as a prostitute. She is my sister, fearing his own life, because he knew that the offspring would come from him.
46:14
In the context, this is the only thing that makes sense. But yet in chapter 20, chapter 22, we see the man of faith actually appear.
46:24
The one who believed God and left everything actually appear and is willing to sacrifice this offspring, that through this offspring, the ultimate offspring would come.
46:41
Even in that, when his wife asked him where he was going, he says, me and the boy are going to worship, and we will come back.
46:49
He knew that God was able to raise this boy from the dead. And yet we see him two times sell his wife out as a prostitute, acting in fear.
47:01
But in chapter 22, he acts in faith, because God told him to do something, and he went to do it.
47:07
He was going to sell everything. He was leaving everything that he had. And this offspring came through Isaac, through Judah, through David, Jesus being the son of David.
47:22
And that this offspring lived the life that we could not live. And he died the death that we deserve to die.
47:32
And the call that we see in Galatians is that what
47:37
Christ has done by living the life we could not live and dying the death that we should die, he fulfills the purpose of that law.
47:47
You and I could not keep that law. Christ Jesus has kept it. You and I deserve to die the death
47:54
Christ Jesus stood in our stead. And salvation is this.
48:02
It's believing that what he has done, he's done it for me.
48:10
He's done it for you. And faith in Christ, the same way that Abraham believed
48:18
God and was counted as righteousness, the same way that when our children are born, they're clothed in Adam.
48:25
When you put your faith in Christ, you are clothed in Christ. You are credited, you are counted with the righteousness of Christ.
48:35
And that, my friends, is how the blessing is going to spread through all the earth.
48:44
That is how the blessing will be spread through all the earth. It's through Jesus that all the nations will be blessed.
48:53
And listen, it's as far as the curse is found.
48:59
I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. Pastor Cal, as well as available, please pray with me.
49:06
Father, thank you. Lord, we thank you for the righteousness that is only found in Christ.
49:15
Lord, you have called us to be perfect, to walk upright, to be blameless, to be righteous.
49:24
And yet, in and of ourselves, we cannot do these things. That the only way that I, or anyone in here, or anyone that has ever lived, can be this way, positionally in your sight, is if it's counted to us, is if it's credited to us, that we need the righteousness of another.
49:45
And that is through Jesus Christ, faith in what he has done. Oh, Lord, I thank you.
49:53
I pray, Lord, if there's any here now that does not believe, Lord, that you will grant to them this faith and clothe them in the righteousness of your beloved son and our savior,
50:03
Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray for the meal we are about to receive as a remembrance of what
50:11
Christ has done for us, his body broken for us and his blood shed for us.
50:16
Lord, I pray over this, these bread and the wine, Lord, that you will bless it and you will use it to grow us in holiness.