The Blessed Life

Hi and welcome to Him We Proclaim with Dr. John Fonville. In our study of Galatians 3 called Sons of Abraham, we see that the Apostle Paul is taking on the issue of faith versus works for salvation. He says clearly that those of faith are the sons of Abraham and are blessed. That's good news, right?

Well, not to someone who is a direct descendant of Abraham and has been trusting in the law and works to be blessed. This was a big deal, and we're going to find out more today in a message called The Blessed Life. Galatians chapter 3, verses 6 to 14. And today we're going to be looking at verse 8. Let me just back up and review very quickly for you.

In Galatians chapter 3, verses 6 to 14, Paul is appealing to the Old Testament scriptures. And he's using Abraham as a test case. To confirm his thesis in chapter two, verse sixteen. And the thesis of chapter 2, verse 16, which runs through this whole book of Galatians, is this: is that you are justified. By faith alone apart from the works of the law.

In other words, this is what Paul is saying. God By your faith in Christ, Forever looks at you just as if you have never sinned ever in your life. And also, God, through faith in Christ, looks at you as if you have always obeyed. Every second Of your whole life. That's justification.

That's good news. That is the heart of the gospel. And Paul says you get viewed by God, declared by God. Just as if you've never sinned, just as if you've always perfectly obeyed. By trusting In Christ alone, apart.

From the performance of your life. And that's what he's arguing for. And so what he's doing is he's taking us all the way back to the Old Testament, and he's showing you from the life of Abraham, who Paul says in Romans chapter 4 was an ungodly man. In fact, later on in Genesis, which we haven't looked at, we'll come back next week. At the near the end of Abraham's life, do you know what he was doing?

He had concubines. His whole life was just a wreck. Paul says he was an ungodly man, and yet God declared him justified. Because he believed in the promises. And so, this is the example of the test case.

In verses six to nine, this is what Paul does. He gives you three arguments. Which demonstrate that the blessing of justification comes through faith alone, apart from the works of the law. Paul, in chapter 3, verses 6 to 9. It is showing you the pathway to a blessed life.

And to live a blessed life is to be declared by God just as if you've never sinned and just as if you've always obeyed. That is a blast lie. And so here are the first two arguments we've looked at, just to review. Verse six. Paul says that Abraham was justified as an uncircumcised Gentile.

There was nothing that he did to earn or merit or deserve or have an entitlement to God's grace. Second, verses seven and nine.

Sonship is not physical but spiritual. God said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. You're going to have so many children that it outnumbers the stars. You can't count the stars. I'm going to bless you like this.

And who are those sons? Who are the children of Abraham? Paul says it's those who trust and believe by faith in Christ alone. That's who it is. And so we look at verses seven and nine.

And this brings us to verse 8. Here's the third argument, the third and final argument, to a blessed life. that that you've got to grasp and understand is this. Is that justification by faith alone has always been God's method of salvation for sinners? Verse 8.

Paul is revealing in verse 8 how the doctrine, you may have heard this, the doctrine of sola fide, which means this, faith alone. Was implied and anticipated in God's promise to Abraham.

So let's look at verse 8. And Paul says this, 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. This is what Paul is doing.

Let me give you some context here from verse 8. Paul is quoting Past Genesis 15, which he quoted in verse 6. And he's going all the way back now to Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. And he is quoting in verse 8, Genesis 12, verse 3. And he's showing from Genesis 12, verse 3, that the scriptures, listen, not only predicted the coming of Jesus as the Savior of the world.

But the Old Testament scriptures also listen, anticipated the method by which this Savior would save sinners. And so the method that was anticipated in Galatians chapter 12 that Paul says was the gospel being preached beforehand to Abraham, it was this. The justification. Being declared right before God. Rests At the heart of God's plan of salvation from sinners from the beginning to now, forever.

And it's by faith in the promises of God alone.

So that's Paul's argument, and I hope you're tracking with me.

Now, we're going to look at some implications of that argument. We're going to look at one implication this week, one implication next week. Here's the first implication. Look very carefully at what verse eight says. Verse 8 says the scripture.

It starts with the scripture. The scripture. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel before him to Abraham. Paul gives us two critically important points or implications about the Bible. In verse eight.

And the two implications are in regards to its message. and its authority. This week, we're going to look at the message, and here's the question. If someone were to come up to you and ask you, What is the message of the Bible? What is the Bible about?

How would you answer? Let me give you some common Responses. Yeah. A common question that people often struggle with is this: How were Old Testament believers saved? How are they safe?

It's not uncommon for people to think that law keeping. And offering sacrifices in the Old Testament was how Old Testament believers were saved. And then New Testament believers are saved by trusting Jesus. That's a common response. But Paul argues here in Galatians 3, verse 8, that there have never been two methods of salvation, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles.

There's never been two ways. God doesn't have a different plan and future for the Jewish people than for the Gentile people. It's the same future. If you read Ephesians chapter 2, Paul's very clear about that. It's one people with one future, one destiny, one God, one message.

We'll come back to that. For others, when they look at the Bible and say, What's the Bible about? This is how they view the Bible. They view the Bible primarily as a book of rules and ethics. By which you read These rules and ethics, and they tell you what to do and what not to do.

And if you do them, you're a good person. If you don't do them, you're a bad person. Was coming to church this morning listening to the radio, and the Christian science teacher came on. And she was teaching From the Beatitudes. Matthew chapter 5, she says, This wonderful biblical teaching.

See how Jesus has told us how to live. Look at these good principles that we can follow to be better people. You hear it all the time. And it's not just with Christian science people, it's people in the church. I agree with View the Bible like this.

The Bible contains a lot of disconnected stories. About heroes that provide for us moral examples either to follow or not to follow. And if you follow the If you follow the examples of these heroes in the Bible, you'll be a better person. If you don't follow these examples, you'll be a bad person.

Now, the Bible certainly contains a lot of rules, doesn't it? Lots of commands, lots of imperatives. The Bible also sets forth examples for us. For example, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 6, he says, learn. From the Israelites and don't Make their mistake.

What was their mistake? Did they follow examples? No, but they didn't believe. Unbelief. And so there are examples in the Bible, but Examples in the Bible.

Heroes in the Bible, zeroes in the Bible, which is all in the Bible. Moral imperatives, commands, ethical behavior, things you're supposed to do, that's in the Bible, but that does not constitute the essence of the message of the Bible. What then is the Bible about? What is its primary message? Paul tells you right here in Galatians chapter 3, verse 8.

Burgers, let me just back up. You need to understand this. The Bible was written over a span of fifteen hundred years. It was written by over forty authors on three different continents and three different languages. From diverse cultural settings.

And even though it contains 66 books. With a variety of subjects, different literary forms, poetry, prose, narrative. The Bible, in spite of all that diversity, is essentially one book. With one author and one main message.

So, this is where Paul's letter to the Galatians is so helpful to us as we go through this book and study it, because the book of Galatians provides for us a bird's eye view of the whole redemptive story of God. The book of Galatians shows us how the apostles, specifically Paul, Use the Old Testament scriptures to preach the gospel. To quote a title of a very helpful book, Galatians gives us God's big picture. It helps you to understand. The underlying message and storyline of redemption of what God is doing in the world.

Personners. And this plan of redemption, as you're going to see here in a minute, it doesn't even start in Genesis 12, it goes all the way back further.

So, what, with that context in mind? What is the underlying Unifying unfolding message of the Bible.

Well look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 8. And Paul's going to tell you. This underlying, unifying, unfolding message. Is the good news that God preached? to Abraham.

In Genesis twelve, verses verses one to three.

So what was this good news? Because Paul tells you, look at Galatians chapter 3, verse 8. God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and he preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Paul tells you right there what the good news is. And the good news was that God would declare all people.

Jew or Gentile. Justified, righteous. on the basis of eighth alone. That's the good news. And it's never changed.

For these thousands and thousands of years, throughout the whole history of mankind, this has always been the message that has. that has rested at the heart But the Bible story. And so, what Paul is arguing is: remember, he's going against these Judaizers, and he's saying, look. You guys have it all wrong. Nobody has ever been saved by trying to keep the law.

Edward. He'll go on in chapter 3, verse 17, when we get there, to tell, even tell them, say, look. The law that God gave on Mount Sinai came 430 years after. The promise that God had given to Abraham when God justified Abraham. Abraham was justified.

430 years before he knew that he couldn't eat a shrimp. He said, You guys have missed it. Galatians chapter 3, verse 18. This inheritance, which is the blessing promised by God, the blessing of justification. Paul says it doesn't come by trying to be a good person.

Trying to keep the law, running on the treadmill of life till you just burn out because you can't keep running. It doesn't come from that. It comes from God's promise, which I just talked about in chapter 3, verse 8, where God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. The gospel, the heart, the justification by grace through faith alone. Paul says this has always been the message.

Always been the message.

So let's look at the Old Testament very quickly. Go through how the Old Testament lays this out to help you understand the Bible. It may come as a surprise to some of you that the gospel doesn't even stop at Galatians 12. It was actually all the way back to Genesis, Galatians 12, Genesis 12. It goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3.

So if you turn to Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. You will see in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, this is what you'll see: the first announcement of the gospel. This is where it all starts. Everything begins right here in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, and because they disobeyed God's law, What happened?

God brought judgment. He banished them from the garden. He cursed the ground and made it hard for men to earn a living. He made it hard for women to bring children into the world. There were consequences for sin.

Everything was cursed. And certainly there was this judgment, but look. In Genesis three, verse fifteen, almost immediately after the fall, God does a startling thing that nobody saw coming. He extended incredible grants. And he announces, he makes a gracious promise.

He announces that the seed. of the woman. would crush the seed of the serpent. That's the first gospel. Bible teachers sometimes refer to this as the proto-evangelium, the first announcement of the gospel.

The worst announcement of the gospel, and it looked because through the woman's seed, God, by his grace and power, Promises that a human being. a son of Eve would come. And destroy the serpent, which the Bible says was the devil. Paul alludes to this prophetic promise in Romans chapter 16, verse 20, and this is what he says: the God of peace. Will soon crush Satan.

Under your feet. And Paul, some Bible teachers saying Paul even alluded to it in Galatians chapter 4, verse 4.

So, what you see is that the enmity between the snake's offspring. And the woman's offspring foreshadows this conflict that Jesus and the devil would. Eventually, take up, and Jesus would have absolute victory. Where's Jesus in Genesis 3:15?

Well, obviously, Jesus of Nazareth, born as a baby, is not there. It's very important to understand this. Listen carefully. Even though the object of Adam and Eve's faith was Jesus of Nazareth. The essence of their faith was the same as ours.

And this is what they were doing. They were trusting in God, who gives unconditional promises. To bring about deliverance from sin. And you know what that promise was showing Adam and Eve? Power and grace.

and faithfulness. You can trust God. God is gracious. God is faithful and He's powerful and He will fulfill His promise. And it all was ultimately pointing to.

Christ is your seat in a minute. And so as God's story of redemption progressively unfolds, the promise that God made to Adam and Eve here in Genesis 3:15 is more clearly revealed to us in Genesis chapter 12.

So turn there, Genesis chapter 12. And here's where Paul takes up his argument against the Judaizers. The Judaizers loved Abraham. Remember? They said, oh, we're physical descendants of Abraham.

We've been circumcised like Abraham. We've had our body altered. And that's made us very special people. We belong to the children of promise. And Paul says no.

Jesus says no. John the Baptist says no. All the prophets in the Old Testament say no. And so the story of redemption that progressively unfolds. God makes it clearer now in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12, the promise in Genesis 12 was Continents from Genesis 3:15. It's just progressively unfolding. And so here's what God does: He announces. Too late for a ham. That he will justify and declare righteous those who believe in him.

And that is this blessing. And what he does, after giving the promise to Abraham.

So that Abraham would have certainty of it. Listen, assurance. Where do you get assurance of faith? Here it is: Genesis chapter 15. God had Abraham cut animals in half and lay them on either side.

And the promise that he makes in Genesis 12, he ratifies and confirms in Genesis 15. And you know what God does? He doesn't have Abraham walk through this sacrifice. Guess who walks through the severed animals? God.

And as he walks through these severed animals in Genesis 15, His walking through these severe animals signified to Abraham the calling of judgment on himself. If, listen, he didn't fulfill the promises that he made to Abraham in Genesis 12. God, the very Creator God, said to Abraham. I will bring judgment and the curse down on myself. If I fail to keep my promise, if I'm not faithful to you.

And so you see this incredible grace.

Now, I want you to understand something very important about Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. The promises that God makes to Abraham. Governs the rest of the Bible. The promises in Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3, govern the entire rest of the unfolding redemptive story and God's plan. Everything rests on this.

So, listen to what John Stott says about it. This will help you. He says this, it may be truly said without exaggeration, that not only the rest of the Old Testament, but the whole of the New Testament. or an outworking of these promises. Mark Depper, listen to what Mark Depper says: the most crucial event in the Bible.

Between the fall of Adam and the birth of Christ. Occurs in Genesis 12. The Lord calls Abram This call sets off the story of the rest. of the Bible. Everything comes from this.

And so, what Paul, turn back to Galatians chapter 3 now. What Paul is doing in Galatians chapter 3, verse 8, is he is showing how God's unfolding plan of redemption centers. Takes dead aim like a laser. And it centers on these promises that God made to Abraham and how they find their fullest expression and ultimate fulfillment in Christ. And so Paul reinforces not only to the Galatians, but to us, what the main message of the Bible is.

What is the main message of the Bible with all that we have looked at, Let me tell you, this is what it is. The main unifying underlying message of the whole Bible. It's this. God Justifies the ungodly by grace through faith alone. That's it.

And that's what Paul is arguing here. And he said, it has been this way forever. This has always been God's plan. This unifying message. Starts with Adam and Eve, Genesis 3:15.

It gets clearer with Abraham, Genesis chapter 12. And it continues to unfold until all of a sudden, one day. Jesus comes on a saying. And he says everything that has been promised you're looking at. And so here's the third unfolding point of the message of the Bible.

Jesus Is God's word? For the last days. Jesus It's God's word. For the last days. Where does that come from?

Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. And in Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, the author says that Jesus. Is God's word. There's the revelation. The fulfillment.

Of God's promises for the last days. Jesus, the writer says, Brings the word of the Old Testament prophets to completion. Jesus is the fulfillment Of all the promises of the Old Testament. Jesus is the final and fullest expression of everything God has ever promised since Genesis 3, verse 15. And so the problem says that.

God gave. Christ claimed for himself. Listen to Luke twenty-four, verse twenty-seven. Luke writes this. beginning with Moses and all the prophets.

He that is Jesus Interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus was walking on the road to Emmaus, and he led two believers. In the greatest biblical theology lesson ever given to man. And if you and I could have had the privilege to have Being taught this lesson that Jesus taught them. You would not have to go to seminary.

Because you would have a perfect teacher who showed you the perfect unfolding revelation. He said, guys. Let me start here in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. And he said, That's me.

Okay, let's go to Genesis 12. That's me. Let's go back to Genesis 17. That's me. Let's go to um The promise to David, the covenant with David, that's me.

Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 31, Ezekiel 36, the new covenant. That's me. Let's go back to and he just kept going. He says, Isaiah 53, that's me. Could you imagine that lesson?

And just a bit later, after he taught this good lesson to these two disciples. Luke says that he entered the room with his disciples. And he refers his disciples to the three main divisions of the Hebrew scriptures. Which is the entire Old Testament. And listen to what Jesus says to his disciples.

These are my words. That I spoke to you while I was still with you. You see, what Luke is doing in Luke 24. Is he showing to us that not only the disciples didn't get it, the two disciples in the maze road didn't get it, and they didn't get it until Jesus, he says in Luke 24, opened up their mind to understand the things that are written in the scripture. Point.

The gospel and Jesus on every page is not self-evident. You will not come to this conclusion apart from the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. It is not self-evident. If you do not have God opening your mind to see these things, you will do what the Judaizers did, you will do what the disciples did, you will do what the two on the road to Homemaus did, you will do what the Pharisees did. You will open the Bible and miss Jesus.

The gospel is not self-evident. I share this gospel with you all the time. I don't know what you are talking about. I know. I lived 30 years of my life and I didn't know what I was talking about, and I had nine years of theological education.

And I didn't have a clue about what I'm telling you right now. And so Jesus says, These are my words. I spoke them to you while I was with you. Can you imagine Jesus? Risen from the grave.

See, you guys, this is what I was telling you. And this is what he said: that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. must be fulfilled. In John chapter 5, verse 39, Jesus speaking to the Jews. Refers them to the Old Testament.

And he says, you search the scriptures, the Old Testament. Because you think that in them you have eternal life. All your little laws you like to follow, all the little things you like to do to make yourself look so righteous, and you just condemn other people because you're so righteous, you don't ever make a mistake.

Well, let me tell you. Um it is the scriptures, it is they that bear witness. About me. You don't come to the Bible looking for little principles to make you a better person. You know, you can get that from Anthony Robbins.

You can get that from Dr. Phil. And sometimes Dr. Phil's got some pretty good advice. It it works.

Don't change your heart. Doesn't have a thing to do with your justification before God. Paul repeatedly shows how the Old Testament scriptures all pointed to Jesus. Let me just give you a couple more examples. In Romans chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

This is how Paul begins his letter. He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. Called to be an apostle. Set apart for the gospel of God. And listen to what he says about the gospel of God.

which he promised. Beforehand. Through his prophets and the holy scriptures, the Old Testament. In Romans chapter 3, verses 21 and 22, when Paul begins to unveil the good news of justification, the heart of the gospel, this wonderful news that People can be right with God. He refers them back again to the Old Testament.

And he says clearly the Old Testament taught justification by faith alone. And listen to what he says. But now the righteousness of God. has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

This justifying righteousness. The righteousness. What is the righteousness that the law and the prophets of the Old Testament bear witness to? It is this, it is the righteousness of God. Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

The whole message of the Old Testament was saying to believers, look to this Jesus, this fulfillment of this promise to come and trust in that. Trust in the righteousness of God that has been promised to you. Believe this. And it all pointed to him. And now for us it all points back.

Mm-hmm. The fact that the Bible is one book With one hot third and one message. has tremendous implications for us. As to how we understand the Bible? How we open up the Bible on a daily basis and read it.

and how we teach it and preach it to others. Share it with people. Here are some implications. We must not view the Bible as primarily a rule book. That I open up, point my finger to read a commandment, and think if I do that, I'm going to be blessed.

That's not the Bible. The Bible is not an Anthony Robbins self-help program. One of the biggest mistakes that believers make when they read the commands of Scripture. Is that they read all these commands of scripture? without any reference to the gospel whatsoever.

And if you read carefully, I've got to challenge you to do this. Go home this afternoon. and read Paul's letters. And watch how Paul will always puts the commandments. After he preaches the gospel to you.

You will never ever obey anything God has ever commanded. Until you first come to understand that That he's justified you. And once you begin to understand that God the Father has declared you as if you have never sinned. And has declared you as if you have always obeyed, there is this glorious, overwhelming, joyful freedom that wells up within you, and you say, I want to live for God. It makes you a loving person.

It makes you forget about yourself, get your eyes off yourself, and turn them upwards to God and outwards to people. But if the Bible is just simply a set of rules, To help you be better, what is always your focus? Me getting better. Me, me, me. You're the most selfish person.

People who just are always in themselves. Don't make sacrifices and go away for other people. They don't know the gospel. They might say they do, they do not know the gospel. Justification is never set forth in Scripture as the reward for moral behavior.

Do you think Abraham got of merit from God because he was so wonderful. Joshua 24 says, Abraham was a pagan idolater living in a family who worshipped many gods. He was polytheistic. And God, of his grace, just came out of nowhere and said, I'm going to call Abraham. What amazing grace!

And he took him out, and as soon as he justified him, Abraham immediately went out and said, Oh, that's not my wife, you can have her. Yeah. Could you imagine? And then he didn't learn his lesson, and he did it again. And at the end of his life, he had a couple concubines.

He was not a great man. He was an ungodly man. The whole point. The whole keynote point. Of the story of Abraham, listen carefully as we close.

It is not about what Abraham did. It is about what God, who is faithful and gracious, did to keep his promises to an ungodly man who did not deserve them. That's how you have to read the Bible. And so we don't read the Bible. As a buck of disconnected Moral stories.

That somehow teaches us a little good moral lesson. Let me just give you some examples, and we'll finish with this. The miracles of the Old Testament. The Exodus The Red Sea crossing. All the stories of the Old Testament, which is Abraham, David, Goliath, Samson, Daniel, and the lion's den, all these wonderful stories.

The seemingly pointless genealogies of chronicles. Have you guys ever just gone to First Chronicles? Camped out there for a while. Yeah. That's pretty rough.

These seemingly pointless genealogies, the mundane day-to-day accounts of people's lives. Like, why is that in the Bible? You know what all of that stuff is there for? It is all serving to show. How the Lord kept his promises to a bunch of ordinary.

Mundane. Day to day Faithless, ungodly sinners. That's what it's there for. Jesus in John chapter eight, verse fifty-six. He spoke to the Jews and he said this to Abraham.

He said to Abraham. Your father Abraham rejoiced. That he would see my day. And he saw it and was glad. God made gracious promises to an unfaithful man.

And God never reneged on his promises. That's the good news for you today. Is it just like Abraham? And just like every sinful person in the whole world. We don't have to try to earn God's acceptance.

All we have to do is trust in the promises. That God has made, and what did Paul say about Christ and the promises? All of God's promises that you've looked at this morning. Are yes? And amen.

In Christ. Uh Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Please subscribe if you haven't already for all our new episodes. And if this message was just what you needed to hear, please let us know in the comments and share it with a friend.