Welcome to DELIGHT IN GRACE, The teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham that through his line, all the nations would be blessed. God was already pointing to the Messiah that He would send. not just for the Jews.
but for anyone who would believe on him. In Christ we are invited into the beautiful family of faith. As Pastor Rich works through Galatians 3, 7 through 9, He shares with us the identity, security, and and purpose we can find in Christ. Let's listen in. The text for exposition this morning will be from Galatians chapter 3.
We'll read verses one through nine this morning. And the the text will be on the screen if you didn't have a copy of scriptures with you, but there's also hard copies under the Chairs in front of you. Oh foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law? or by hearing with faith. Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law? or by hearing with faith. Just as Abraham believed God. and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations Be blessed.
So then, Those who are of faith. are blessed along with Abraham. The man of faith. Let's pray. Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us.
And that It is not by our own works.
Okay. that you do your work among us. But it is by faith. Father, we trust you. And you supply all that we need.
According to the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus. Help us this morning. to understand your word. and let it transform our hearts. and our actions.
It's in your son's name that we pray. Amen. The legacy of faith. Today we'll be looking at chapter 3, Galatians 3, verses 9 through 7. It was just over a year ago.
That I was in Uh a helicopter. Stuffed very full. And I heard The person that was responsible for our rescue We had been airlifted out of Haiti. And I heard him make the announcement. We have just entered into the airspace of the Dominican Republic.
Those words. And I believed them. We're responsible for lifting a huge. weight off my shoulders.
Now I could rest. There was no effort on my part. I was rescued. Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 says, He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. It is a rescue operation, this salvation of ours.
And it is a work of God. We do not Earn it. We do not achieve it. We can only receive it. He does the work.
Okay. And yet In that work that he has done, when we do receive it by faith. It sets us free. It sets us free. It removes the weight, the burden from us.
This is what Paul is arguing. As he writes to the Galatians. Let me review just a little bit here. We have some guests here.
Some of the need to get caught up on where we are in this Paul's Argument to the churches of Galatia. As they had, after Paul started the church and then he moves on in his missionary journey, other teachers come in, and then the Judaizers, the party of the circumcision, it says that they would come and they taught. The teachers started teaching them that, yeah, okay, they were believers in Christ and they were saved, but if they were truly believers in Christ, they had to become Jewish and keep the law of Moses.
Now, none of us here today are probably particularly concerned about keeping the Mosaic law. But I would say that there's probably a lot of us here today who are constantly asking the question. What is the right thing to do? What am I supposed to do? What is this walk of faith?
What are the things I'm supposed to do? What are the things I'm not supposed to do? And for our practical purposes here this morning, the argument that Paul is making is this. If your walk of faith is reduced to a moral code, you have missed the power and the point of the gospel. That's why he's saying all of this.
And now he's going back and understanding the legacy of faith that is ours. All the way back to Abraham. He says, no, then. Verse seven, no then. that it is those of faith who who are the sons of Abraham.
No then. This is indicative, all right? In other words, he's saying this is true. Know it. It is a positional reality.
not something that we achieve. It is a positional reality. Know then that it is those of faith Here it is, who are the sons of Abraham? Is there? There were people of faith before Abraham.
I mean, we've got Enoch who walked with God. There was Noah who believed God and built an ark. Everybody mocked him for it, and yet he believed God, and God rescued him and his family.
So, no, we're not throwing them under the bus, but they, because they truly walked with God. lived and acted in faith. But when he speaks about the sons of Abraham, he is speaking specifically about the family of Messiah. And that becomes the focus of the whole of Scripture from that point on, Genesis 12 on, all of it is focused on one family. And the argument that Paul is making is that if you trust in Christ.
You're part of that family.
Sons of Abraham. It is the family of faith. And here's the point that he's making. Abraham lived long before The Law of Moses. And yet he believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness.
And that's the very point that Paul is arguing here. Abraham did not achieve righteousness by the works of the law. Why? Because the law didn't even exist then. He trusted and followed God.
And because of that, God credited him with righteousness. That's The gospel. That's the gospel. And so, as it says here, the scripture, verse 6, and the scripture foreseeing. The scripture for it, that's a personification of the scriptures, isn't it?
Yeah. What he's saying is God is speaking. When the scriptures are speaking, God is speaking. This is God's plan. His self-disclosure.
So the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. What's important about that is we see then throughout all of history. Not only the history that's specifically recorded in Scripture, but throughout all of history, there has been, is, there is, and has been only one plan of God. It's one story. From beginning to end.
From everlasting to everlasting, God is God. And this is his story. of redemption. And Christ is at the very center of it all. It's one story.
So, because it is one story, again, that points, this is an apologetic statement right here, but that points to the historicity of, it's not a made-up word. That means Christianity, our faith, is anchored in history. It's not myth. It's not myth. It's anchored in history.
To deny Christianity, You have to deny. A ton of history. In fact, you have to down all of it. But what he's saying here is that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. The criteria.
For being justified before God is not ethnicity and it's not conformity. But trust. Trust. Faith. And it says, so the scriptures seeing beforehand that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.
Preached the gospel beforehand, preached the gospel. The scriptures preached the gospel. What was the gospel that was preached to Abraham? In you shall all nations be blessed. In you shall all the nations be blessed.
That was the gospel. Think about this. Abraham heard the gospel. And he trusted it. He trusted God And it was credited to him as righteousness.
That's the gospel. Okay. The promise of redemption. There it is, that information. As I said in our ABF class this morning, we are rational beings.
Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive. Listen, you're going to hear that in academia and the news media. You're going to hear that. Faith and reason are two different arenas. No, they're not.
You have reason because you were created by God to exercise that reason, and it is with your reason that you exercise faith. Yes. I actually heard it said one time. We still lived in Michigan. They were taking a poll of the people, of the listeners, and say, call in and tell us, what do you trust more, faith or facts?
What? As if faith and facts are mutually exclusive. It's crazy. God said to Abraham, In you shall all nations be blessed. And the word blessed means to act kindly towards, that God would act kindly toward us.
How will he act kindly toward us in making provision so that we can be made acceptable to him? That's the gospel. And that gospel came through Messiah. And so the blessing of all the nations was the coming of the Messiah. That was God's plan, and it was his promise, and it was prophesied throughout the whole Old Testament, looking forward to Christ.
And then we have the gospel records where Christ came. And he lived and walked among humanity. And he died, was buried, and rose again, and then ascended back to the Father. And then we have the letters of the New Testament where we look back to. We look back to Christ.
Having been here and commissioned his people and established a people and having given righteousness to his people by faith. And that's why he says in verse 9, this is such a key.
So then.
So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith. It does not say that those who keep the law. It says those who are of faith. That's the point he's making. Because Abraham was credited with righteousness and the law didn't even exist then.
So we are the sons of Abraham. By faith. Those who are of faith are blessed.
Now, let's talk about faith for a moment. They gave a definition during the ABF. Here's another one. The definition of faith: faith is an act of trust displayed through obedience. Active trust.
displayed through obedience. The Faith Life Study Bible in Logos says this in Scripture: faith is typically understood as involving the whole self, mind, heart, and body. The whole self, mind, heart, and body. In a relationship with God that expresses trust and a grateful response to His loving initiative. In a relationship with God that expresses trust and a grateful response to His loving initiative.
So I see that as, like John says, the phrase that John uses, the Apostle John in his letter, 1 John, if walk in the light as he is in the light.
So I want to use that. You take light and you pass it through a prism and it breaks it down into the spectrum, the electromagnetic spectrum there. There's seven colors in there. And I want to kind of break that down here today of what Paul is talking about, just as Abraham believed God, it was counted him as righteousness. And in the same way, those nine, those who are of faith, are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Those who are of faith. Question for you this morning: Are you of faith here this morning? Do you take God at His word and do you entrust yourself to Him? Are you of faith this morning? It is only possible through Jesus Christ.
And so if we are in Christ, we walk in the light as he is in the light.
So they take that spectrum there, those seven colors, and present seven points here of understanding this, what it means to be people of faith. And the first one is this, it's the object of faith. The whole point of faith is What is the object of faith? What are you placing your trust in? We have a tendency to make it all about how much faith you have.
or how sincere your faith is. How much faith you have, or how sincere your faith is. Really does not matter a bit if you have the wrong object of faith. And that's the whole point. the object of faith, and who is the object of faith.
Who was the object of Abraham's faith? It was God himself. He was God himself.
So let me give you who the object of our faith is. The Holy Creator who has made himself known. As the loving Redeemer. through Jesus Christ. God.
The Holy Creator, who has made himself known as the loving Redeemer. through Jesus Christ. is the object of our faith. Paul said this. In a beautiful way.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. In verse 6, he says, God. who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. The Creator, God who said, let light shine out of darkness. He said, let there be light, and there was.
Light. Just like that. That God is. is also showing in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where?
in the face of Jesus Christ. We must know God in the way that He's made Himself known. He has made himself known through Jesus Christ. He is the Holy Creator who has made himself known as the loving Redeemer. through The historic person Jesus Christ.
He is our object of trust. John said, 1 John 5, 11 and 12, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the son has what? Life. Whoever does not have the Son of God, what?
Does not have life. It's that simple. Trail just John 17, 3, as Jesus was in the garden praying the night of his betrayal, just before his betrayal, and the next day he would be hanging on the cross, and he prayed these words. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. He is the object of our faith.
The object of our trust. Again, faith is active trust displayed through obedience. All right, let's move on to the next. color in the spectrum, if you will. And these next three are about the means of faith.
The means of faith. And that is, faith is the light, the information that God gives us. God has made himself known to us. That's him turning his light on into our darkness. God's revelation, God's self-disclosure is the light in our darkness.
And so, number one, we see the light. We see the light. We cannot know God salvifically. Unless we see first the light that He has made known.
Okay. That's truth. That's information. It is God's self-disclosure. What does Paul say to the Romans?
Faith comes from Hearing and hearing where From the Word of God. The word of Christ.
Okay?
So in other words, it's not just an awareness of it. It's not just an awareness of it. It's not just intellectual acknowledgement of it. Let me give you a couple examples of that. James writes in James chapter 2, verse 19, he says, the demons also believe that there is one God.
But they tremble. They tremble at it, but In them, you don't find active trust displayed through obedience. They believe in God, but they don't trust him. They have no faith. And here's another example: John, at the end of John chapter 2.
Jesus had done some miracles, and as the people saw the miracles that he did, the people got all excited. Here he is. He's our rescuer, our redeemer. Look at the stuff he can do. He's going to make life so good for us.
And as a result of that, of seeing those miracles, a lot of people, it says, believed in him. And then you know what it says? Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in their hearts. In other words, their belief in God was utilitarian. God, I'm going to let you become a part of my life so how you can make my life more pleasurable.
It's utilitarian faith. Let me tell you something. If that The Lord's not interested in that at all.
Well He's not interested in you trying him. He is Lord. He died for you. He's not interested in utilitarian faith.
So as we see the light Number two, the veins of faith, now this is the third point on the spectrum. Number two, entrust yourself to that light. As it said before, the definition is talking about faith, mind, it involves the mind and the heart and the body, the mind seeing the light. It has to be God's self-disclosure. Because God's the one who takes the initiative to reveal himself to us.
It has to be God's self-disclosure. And then... the heart, entrust yourself to the light. The heart, the will, if you will. That's why I use the word surrender.
I think salvific faith is nothing short of surrender. It's the term that Paul uses here in verse 2, and again in verse 5, he uses the term hearing with faith. Hearing with faith or the hearing of faith. And I like what John's thought says about Abraham's example here. What did Abraham do?
Abraham cast himself on the faithfulness of God. You like the imagery there? Abraham cast himself on the faithfulness of God. That's faith. That's why God credited him with righteousness.
God spoke to Abraham, Abraham made Abraham a promise, and Abraham cast himself on the faithfulness of God. That is why, and we get this insight from the book of Hebrews, that is why when God called Abraham to take up a Isaac up on the mountain Abraham did. And God stopped him in time. Why? Because Abraham cast himself on the faithfulness of God.
How so, Rich? What do you mean? Hebrews tells us Abraham believed that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. Yes. It's incredible, isn't it?
That's how much he trusted God.
So through surrender. You find your freedom. Through surrender you find your freedom. Let me illustrate that. Tomorrow, I'm flying to Louisville.
Kentucky.
Now think about the words I just said. Tomorrow, I am flying to Louisville, Kentucky. That sounds utterly exhausting, doesn't it? I will actually entrust myself. To a vessel.
piloted by a trustworthy individual, hopefully. Yeah. And I will Arrive in Louisville about noon tomorrow. But I do have to entrust myself. to it if I'm going to get there, aren't I?
You see, getting to Louisville isn't up to me. But I do have to entrust myself to the vessel that can get me there. That's an illustration of faith. That's not a leap in the dark, folks. Not all?
And so you entrust yourself.
So, first of all, you see the light, God's self-disclosure. And then you entrust yourself to it. That's mind and will. And then thirdly, the body, number three, walk in the light. Walk in the light.
Once again, using the definition of faith, faith is active trust displayed through obedience. Active trust displayed through obedience. In other words, taking God at His Word and entrusting myself to Him. That's faith. So, as John says, walk in the light, and we use our bodies to do that.
walk through life. with our bodies. We do things, it's obedience. We obey with our bodies, but that begins. Mm.
First of all, with the mind and the will, doesn't it? Right? And we are rescued. from darkness and we follow in his steps. And so we're becoming like him, reflecting him.
as we walk with him and become like him. That's what faith does. You see, his character is the criteria. It's not a code. It's it's his character.
and his purpose. John says it very clearly: if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, We lie and do not practice the truth.
So We've gone through four so far, the object of faith. And then Mm-hmm. The means of faith. Seeing and trusting and obeying. And them who are the element of faith, last three points here.
Because it says here. Those who are of faith. are blessed. Those who are of faith. are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Not by effort. Moral code. but those who are of faith. In other words, the one Who says of God? I belong to you.
I'm yours. I belong to you. It's what Abraham did. In essence, what he did in his activity As he followed the Lord from Haran to Palestine. As he went up the mountain with his son Isaac, all of that action said one thing: I belong to you, and I trust you.
That's what it said. Those who are of faith are blessed.
What does that mean? This is the element of faith. Blessed to be in blessing. It is the pool of grace that we dive into. Grace isn't just the diving board.
It's the pool that we dive into. Three points here, the last three points of that electromagnetic spectrum. Choose whichever colors you want, okay? Yeah. The element of faith is this.
Number one, meaningful identity. Meaningful. You are who God says you are. He has given you his identity. I love how Peter puts it, 1 Peter 2, 9.
First time I really saw this verse and really enjoyed it and soaked it in, I was just green behind the ears, a new freshman getting into the dorm Smith Hall at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. And this verse was plastered on the wall. Never forgotten it since then. It's a long time ago.
Okay. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. You are who God says you are. That's what he thinks of you. He is declaring that this is what you are.
Look at that again. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. a people for his own possession. I belong to you. You have given me your righteousness.
I am positionally in the righteousness of Christ. Think about that. And I belong to you. I trust that. That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
God's people made acceptable to him. That's justification. That's people of faith. That's blessed. That's what we are.
And God declares us that. Because we have surrendered ourselves to Him. We've taken him at his word and we've entrusted ourselves to him. That's faith. So, the element of faith is not only a meaningful identity, secondly, it's a delightful security.
A delightful security. Remember 1 Peter? Worked on memorizing a good part of 1 Peter chapter 1. God, according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith. For a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.
In this do you rejoice, though now for a little while you've been grieved by various trials. It is a delightful security. You know what you're saying, Rich?
Sometimes I just don't find it all that delightful. But it's the security that's delightful. Think of a lighthouse. built on a rock and the storms are raging around it. It doesn't affect the lighthouse.
I have another illustration for you. Not long ago, there were six women that went up and just went just at the edge of the orbit of Okay. of Earth's atmosphere. Speak. They were space tourists.
Space tourists. That is not a comment on their, you know, anyway, they were space tourists.
Now, they were in a vessel, weren't they? Um were they safe in that vessel? Yeah, were they having a good time? Yeah. What had happened if a door had opened?
They were, listen, they were in an extremely hostile environment. But they were safe. in that vessel. And so they were able to delight in their experience. And so it is with you and me.
In Christ. Wow. It is a delightful security. So the element, those who are those, it is those who are of faith that are blessed along with Abraham. It is a meaningful identity.
It is a delightful security. And number three, lastly. It is a joyful purpose. It is a joyful purpose. What did Peter say?
1 Peter 2, 9, that we may proclaim his excellencies. That as we walk with him, as we delight in him, as we become like him and reflect him more, we are reflecting him. And by reflecting him, we're pointing people to him. That's what it means to glorify God. It's what it means to glorify God.
That's a lot of what John Piper said: the more satisfied you are in him. The more he's glorified in you. It's absolutely true.
So we live for his delight and by his power. And this is where Paul is going with this. Where he's talking about what it means to be children of God, sons of God, children of Abraham. Children of faith of the family of faith. It's not God gives you all this because He owes you because you've been so good at keeping the code.
That's just not it. That's not how it works. There's no grace in that. If that's what Christianity was, you'd be relegated to the same level of all other faith systems in the world. But even in the Old Testament, it was pointing forward to the redemption in Jesus Christ.
So their faith. was anchored in the redemption that would be accomplished by Jesus Christ in the future. And here we are now. looking back at the redemption of Jesus Christ. And we're anchored in that.
So again, to relegate your walk of faith to a moral code would be to go backwards. And to neglect your status of blessing. In Christ, who wants to do that? All this that we talked about today, it is yours. It is yours.
If indeed Christ is the object of your trust. And if you're here this morning and you cannot say that to be true about you, then I invite you to respond to that. Investigate it more and I'd love to be able to talk with you. Wide open to it. If you have questions about it, like I said, questions are okay here.
So let's remember what he says here: those who are of faith are blessed. Those who are of faith are blessed.
And let's live in that. Let's let's Let the Lord rescue us. from thinking that living the Christian life It's just keeping a moral code of the things I'm supposed to do and not doing the things I'm not supposed to do.
So you see that doesn't take faith. But it does take faith to trust God and walk with Him.
So let's do that. and experience his blessing. in Christ. Would you stand with me, please? And I encourage you just in the quietness of.
the moment and where you are. Before God Take a moment. to let the Spirit of God and the Word of God evaluate What you understand to be faith, what your faith is. Is your walk of faith, has it been An attempt To be better. Has it been an attempt to just be good?
Is your faith an attempt at Self-righteousness. Or do you trust God? Do you take him at his word? And have you entrusted yourself to him. Have you cast yourself on the faithfulness of God and His promises.
Would you be before God this morning and let Him search your heart? And renew once again this morning your. Desire to know God, to trust him. Ask him to rescue you. From the bondage.
of just trying harder to be better. Father, we are so grateful. That you have turned your light on into our darkness. And you have done all the work necessary. Even as rebellious, self-preeminent people.
You have reconciled us to yourself. Father, teach us. Teach us. Through your word and by your spirit. Teach us.
to cast ourselves On your faithfulness. And that we would be drawn closer to you, that we would draw near to you. to walk with you, to commune with you, to delight in you. And as we do that, Father. Jesus will be reflected in us.
And you will be glorified as Christ is magnified. We want that to be true of us, Father, and yet there are so many things around us that distract us away from that. or that try to convince us otherwise. that somehow it's up to us. And so we try harder.
Father, please rescue us from that. May we delight. In you. As we commune with you. and draw near to you, Father.
We look forward to what you are going to do in our hearts, in our minds. Having now been taught by your word, Father. May your Spirit have free reign in us. to accomplish his will. For it is in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Thank you for listening with us today. This message titled Legacy of Faith was preached on May fourth. twenty twenty five at Grace Bible Church in Winston, Salem. It's part of our Galatians series called Our Freedom in Christ.
We hope you'll join us again. Mondays at delightingrace.com.
