A Family of Faith - Galatians 3:7-14

Strong genes.

Have you ever heard that that phrase before, that expression?

Oh, you have strong genes.

Your family has strong genes.

I'm not talking about our event next month.

Okay, I'm not talking about daisies and denim.

What I'm talking about is the way that your DNA, the your physical attributes as carried along by your genetics, your DNA, how that expresses in the way that you look.

You might have looked at your parents' pictures from when they were younger, and you might say, My sibling looks a lot like my mom, or my sibling looks a lot like my uncle, or you might look a lot like your parents.

You might have heard, oh, I have my mom's ears, I have my dad's nose, I have grandpa's chin, I I have I have my fat my grandfather's hairline, which is which is true on many accounts.

Uh you you've heard this before.

You've heard this.

You you can look and see the evidence of this in photos.

Uh you can look at the way that uh genetically your parents' physical attributes are passed down, passed down, passed down.

And families can uh can be known for different physical characteristics because the genes are so dominant and they're expressed and they're they're passed down uh through the generations.

And you can look at your great-great-great-grandfather and be like, man, why do I look like him?

Or my great-great-grandmother.

I look like her.

My my aunt, my my mom's sister, and I, we we just look so we look so similar.

Why is that?

Well, God's design as He's made mankind um unlike any other creation, man like mankind is made in his image.

And um I'd like us to look to look back into the history books, if you will, look back into the family tree uh of the scriptures, looking back to Genesis, where we see a man named Abraham.

We see a man named Abraham, and you're like, okay, I know this guy, we've we've heard Bible studies of this man, um, but our our time in Galatians uh this evening is going to draw our attention back to the Old Testament quite a few times.

We're gonna be in in the Old Testament just as much as we are in the New Testament.

So please open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

It's on the screen there.

And we're gonna start in verse 7.

And here's why our our text matters tonight.

Um we want to be able to look back and see, yes, we can acknowledge the way I look today is is been passed down.

There's there's a heritage, there's an association that God has established with my ancestors, with with my lineage.

And as father and mother have sons and daughters, they have sons and daughters, they have sons and daughters.

There's offspring that come, and I want to draw your attention to offspring of faith specifically.

And God made a promise to this man Abraham that through his offspring the nations would be blessed.

And it is through Jesus that this promise is fulfilled.

And you can receive this promise that was given to Abraham through the Spirit, through faith, and you can be justified in faith in Jesus Christ.

That's why our text matters today.

That's why we're going to look to Abraham, and that's why we're going to look to and really focus in on what it means to be a family of faith.

It's the title of this sermon.

Start in verse 7.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Those of faith.

Those of faith are sons of Abraham.

Verse 8.

And the scripture, foreseeing, looking forward, foreknowing, understanding the future, that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.

The scriptures foresaw that God would justify.

This is God's plan.

Just want you to know, when the scriptures speak, God speaks.

That's something that's going to be important to remember.

When Scripture speaks, when we hear the words of God in the text, this is God speaking.

God foresaw.

God would in a future time justify the Gentiles, those who are outside of that family lineage of Abraham.

He's going to justify those who are not related to Abraham.

And they're going to be blessed.

This gospel that was preached beforehand to Abraham.

In you, the nations, all the nations will be blessed.

That's what God told Abraham back in Genesis.

So then, verse 9, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

The man of faith.

And earlier on in uh John the Baptist's ministry, he was interacting with the Jews, and they they took a lot of pride.

They had a lot of team spirit, if you will.

I see some of you with jerseys from time to time, caps from your favorite ball club.

You might you might have a specific player that you have, like you collect these little trinkets and these cards, like, and they're shiny and they have stats in the back.

The Jews are like, dude, you know how many promises God made to my great-great-great-grandpappy?

It's incredible.

I'm related to him.

There's a there's a national pride, there's there's a cultural excitement because of the relationship that the Jews had to Father Abraham.

Yeah, I said grandpappy and made some of you smirk a little bit.

You you have the freedom to use that, but make sure you ask your grandparents first.

Grand grandmammy, grandpappy.

They're excited because the promises applied to them.

The promises made to Abraham.

There's there's a there's a uh an excitement that when God makes a promise to you, you're like, that that's a big deal.

That's a big deal.

There's there's honor, there's there's an excitement applied to the people that would come from Abraham.

And from the offspring of Abraham, the nations will be blessed.

And John was like, let's let's pump the brakes a little bit, guys.

Let's let's chill a little bit.

In Matthew 3, you you say, we have Abraham as our father.

They they're excited because there's they're excited for for worship and the excitement for for God to do something big through the offspring of Abraham.

And John tells them, God is able from these stones, he's looking at the rocks.

You see these pebbles right here, those boulders and the hills?

God is able to raise up children for Abraham from rocks.

And you're like, oh man, I'm not gonna look at rocks the same ever again.

At least those people weren't.

They're like, those rocks are gonna be the offspring of Abraham?

How is that possible?

How is that even real?

Is this real life?

This is this is intense, guys.

The promises made to Abraham, the promises that that one day there's gonna be many sons that come, many nations will be blessed.

The nations are going to receive the blessing, and this this gospel is preached to Abraham.

He didn't understand what that fully meant, he didn't understand anything outside of just I trust God, I believe him.

And God is accrediting Abraham's faith as righteousness.

He counted his faith as righteousness.

It's important to understand because we might be proud of like, oh, you know, my dad's kind of a big deal.

My mom, my mom has a certain status at school.

My mom, my dad has, he's kind of a big deal.

People people uh encourage him, tell of how great he is.

My mom, my mom gets a lot of cards in the mail.

My my grand my grandpa was in the newspaper 17 times growing up.

You might be you might be thinking like because you're related to someone, like that, that prestige and that that honor gets applied to you.

And to some degree that's true.

But at the same time, like we don't we don't get to choose our parents.

We don't we don't get to we don't get to identify who it is that that we are we are related to.

It's not our choice.

But faith and and the gift of faith is something that we can we can hold on to.

Believing in in God is something that that he extends to the nations.

The source of belief is God's kindness and goodness to give his most precious gift, the gift of his son, not just not just to people of of Jewish upbringing, but to those outside of the family of Abraham, the Gentiles, those who are not of Israel, not of Jacob.

Belief in God is is accounting or accrediting uh to your account.

Your belief is your wage in righteousness.

Your works do not give you the status of sonship.

It's a gift through faith.

Those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

What is wait, so you're saying we talked about family lines, we talked about genetics, we talked about strong physical attributes that are that are passed down, but faith is also passed down.

What?

A spiritual, a spiritual passing of the guard.

Verse 8 says, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles.

God knew.

The scripture per personified as a person, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.

God told Abraham, he made it clear.

Not not delineated line by line, not itemized, but he told him the truth.

He told him that this would come to pass, and it did, it did in the man Jesus Christ.

The gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham.

In you shall all the nations be blessed.

So we have to reconsider.

Who is it that who is it that we would prefer to be related to?

We would prefer to be related in a sense through faith rather rather than claiming some status of like, well, I'm related to Mickey Mann, I'm related to George Washington, I'm I'm related to Teddy Roosevelt, I'm related to some person of authority or some kind of status.

Like, yeah, I take pride in that.

I take pride in that.

My uh great-great-grandfather was the first, my great-great man grandmother was leading the way.

Abraham led the way in the family of faith.

He believed, and God counted that to him as righteousness.

So when scripture speaks, God speaks, and the scriptures cannot lie.

God doesn't tell lies, he tells only the truth.

So when he tells Abraham, it will happen.

It's not if, it's it's when.

Blessed.

And when we think about a blessing, like, oh, I how's your day?

I've just been so blessed.

I want to challenge you guys.

When you say blessed, I want to challenge you to think specifically of what is it that that God is doing when you say blessed?

Because that's kind of like a blanket like Christian ease word that we can use sometimes.

Like, I'm just so blessed.

It's true.

It's true.

Primarily, the nation's being blessed, first and foremost, is through the gospel.

First and foremost, through salvation in Jesus.

That is the first and primary way that we are blessed.

If you have faith in Christ, you are blessed.

You are you are blessed to know that God has forgiven, extended forgiveness to you for your sins through faith.

Through faith and repentance.

There is a gift of faith that is extended, and you do you see that?

Do you see your need for that?

That's a question that I would have for you this evening.

Do you see your need for the gift of faith?

It's important.

It's important to understand where we came from where we came from and where it is that we're going.

The offspring are a product of faith.

It's passed down from generation to generation through the gospel, through the preaching of the word of God, that those descendants, those offspring spiritually, are related to Abraham and take part in the promise made to him back in Genesis 15.

So there's a cultural impact on the Jews.

This gift and promise made to them is being fulfilled.

It's happening right before their eyes, and their outlook on the Gentiles is they kind of like they kind of look down.

They're like, you're not with us.

You're not, you're not.

The promises, yeah, promises made to the nations through Abraham, but like we're we're we're proud about our heritage.

We don't like to blend and mingle in because the nations around don't share, the share their God.

They worship other gods.

But if you're chosen by God, if you're led by God, God has given you a great name as son or daughter.

This comes through faith.

The origin of Yahweh's family, of God's family, is through faith in his covenant.

Promise blessings through the lineage of Abraham spiritually.

This is something that God accomplishes, God achieves, and God sustains.

In Genesis, in chapter 12, Abraham is 75 years old and receives this promise that one of his offspring, one of his kids, or grandkids, or great-great-great-grandkids down the line is going, uh, they're gonna number more than the stars in the sky.

And he's sitting there childless.

And he and his wife have not been able to have children.

And he's and he's thinking, This, okay, okay, I uh I believe that, and time goes on, and he he tries to take take the matters into his own hands and has a child with with a servant, one of his wife's servant.

And when Abraham is 99 years old in Genesis 17, Abraham and Sarah find out that they are going to have a child, one of their own.

One of their own.

And that that begins, that begins the first the first step of offspring being more numerous than the stars in the sky.

And if you recall, the this first offspring Isaac of Abraham, Ishmael's first from the servant, Isaac is his son.

Abram and Sarai have Isaac.

And God asks him to do something.

And it's it's the biggest event of his life.

He asks him to go and sacrifice his son.

Go and kill your son.

Go and lay him on the altar.

And if you're if you're like an only son, you're thinking, like, Dad, like what?

Like, would you, Dad, God told you to do that?

Would you would you do it?

And the dads in the room will be like, mmm, mmm.

But Abraham believed.

Abraham believed.

He believed God's promise that my offspring will be more than the stars in the sky.

God is going to do it.

And he says, he he has this confidence in God.

He goes and tells his young men that are helping, and he's like, I'm gonna go, we're gonna go worship God on this mountain.

We're gonna go worship, we'll be back.

He says this after God has given him the command.

Go and sacrifice your son.

Go and kill your son on the altar, sacrifice, go and worship me in this way.

And he says, and he goes and he walks in obedience.

And he tells his servants, hey, we're gonna be back.

And he's not lying.

He's not lying.

He believes that.

He's not saying, hey, we'll be back.

I gotta go kill my son real quick.

And I'll find someone else to like name him Isaac and come back.

No.

No.

He comes back with faith, either believing that God is going to somehow bring his son from the dead or provide in another way to fulfill his promise.

He believes that God is going to do exactly as he said.

So he steps forward in faith and God provides, he provides a sacrifice, an animal trapped in a bush.

Don't kill your son, because I know that you fear God.

I know that you I know that you hear me, you love me, and you're gonna obey me.

You respect me, you're gonna do what I tell you to do.

And God provides a sacrifice in Genesis 22, verses 13 and 14.

Genesis 22:13

And the angel of the Lord tells him this in this encounter: I'm going to bless you, I'm gonna multiply you.

Your offspring will possess the gates of your enemies, and the nations shall be blessed because you have done this, and because you have obeyed my voice.

Obedience to the point of death is something that you and I are gonna have a hard time getting our minds around.

In Genesis 15, Abram believes and it's counted to him as righteousness.

This law, this law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible were for Israel to live by.

It was their instruction, their playbook for life given on Mount Sinai.

No promises made to any other father figures, any other men from any other nations, any other women, no promises were made to the nations like those made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And they were not perfect men.

They were men that had character flaws, men that struggled with obedience from time to time.

Their faith waned and waxed at times, but they kept their eyes fixed on God.

They were blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Now, the people of this world look look to the promises and the commands of Scripture and be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I'm glad that works for you.

I'm glad that works for you.

But when God speaks through his word, God doesn't double double cross us.

He doesn't go back on his promises.

You might make a promise to your sibling to kind of get something that you want that benefits you.

You might be thinking of a time like, hey, if you uh if you if you trade me, trade me spots in a room, like I'll give you a candy or something.

Like if if like we switch our beds, like that, it's we just it's the time of the year when the sun's coming through the window and it's like hurting my eyes.

When we wake up, I'd rather have your spot in your room.

And you're like, how do I get this?

Maybe I'll make a promise.

Maybe I'll give something and then be like, actually, I didn't mean it.

Sorry.

It's like April 1st, and you're like trying to trying to get something out of it, and you're trying to try to pull a quick one.

You're sinning against your sibling.

You you and I are not like God.

God does not go back on his word.

God keeps his word every single time.

Every time.

And what a God to put our hope and trust in.

What a God to put our faith in.

Who else are we going to trust?

Who else are we going to follow other than God?

So we need to assess where where our lineage goes back to.

We look to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We need to assess what happened.

We need to assess where our lineage comes from.

And can you trace your lineage back to back to Abraham?

I'm speaking specifically, a lineage of faith.

Can you count yourself as one who would fall into the blessing of the nations as we see in Genesis?

Can you say that?

So let's write this down for point number one.

Scrutinize your faith family tree.

Scrutinize your faith family family tree.

Look back.

And I'm not saying look at your parents and your grandparents.

Well, they were a Christian.

They were a Christian.

They were a Christian.

I'm saying look at your faith.

Do you have faith?

Can you trace your faith and see you being an offspring of Abraham?

Are you an offspring of Abraham?

Is that you?

Can you identify as an offspring of Abraham?

You're like, Tyler, I'm not Jewish.

Like, no, I don't know what you're talking about.

Can you trace your spiritual lineage back to Abraham and the promise that God made to him?

Through you, the nations shall be blessed.

Through your offspring, you're going to have more offspring than the stars in the sky.

Do you have a faith in Jesus Christ?

Your faith, the faith of those before you, the faith of those of the scriptures is the only way that we can be saved.

Past, present, and future.

That's the only way that God saves.

It's through faith, not through works.

We've been through a few chapters of Galatians and we've seen this time and time again.

Time and time again.

And we can see that law workers, they're under a curse.

Law workers are under a curse.

Just a thing on a quick aside on curses.

Curses only have the power that the person sending them has.

So when God cursed the earth, he had the authority to follow through with what he said was going to happen.

The ground is going to be difficult to work.

You're going to sweat.

You're going to toil because Adam and Eve, you fell.

This is your outcome.

This is the result.

This is the curse that comes from your disobedience.

You're going to have pain in childbirth.

That's a part of the curse.

It's a curse and it's only a real curse because God can uphold it.

God can make the details of that curse come true.

The same thing comes with blessings.

If you say, I'm going to bless you in a certain way.

Well, it's only true if you have the ability to bless.

If you have the ability to do what you say you're going to do.

Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

This is Deuteronomy 27.

Deuteronomy.

Some of your discussion questions are going to call you guys to look to Deuteronomy.

Before Israel enters the promised land.

All of Israel is present and they're standing on two different mountains nearby.

And the blessings and the curses are read aloud in Deuteronomy 27.

And Israel agrees to them.

I agree.

I trust that you're going to do this, God.

We're going to obey and partake in the blessings.

We understand if we if we fail, if we fail to obey your commands, there'll be curses.

If we succeed in obeying your commands, there's going to be blessings.

There's no in-between.

There's no like kind of mostly did good, so you kind of like find this like cozy little spot in the middle where you're just nice and safe.

You don't really experience the pain of the curses, but you don't get to enjoy the benefits of the blessings.

You're just kind of neutral.

There's no neutral.

There's no middle space that's kind of just okay.

You're either blessed or you're cursed.

In verse 15 of Deuteronomy 27 begins the list of the curses.

Let me just read them off to you.

Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast image an abomination to the Lord.

Next verse.

Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.

17.

Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark, meaning, I'm going to steal some of your property and move the lines that we we agreed on.

This is my this is my space, this is your space.

Verse 18, cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.

You're manipulating, you're scheming, you're taking advantage of those who are not able to see.

Verse 19, cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to a sojourner.

They're able to glean, they're able to partake in the edges, the edge boundaries of the fields during harvest time.

It's for them.

Cursed be anyone who lies to his, who lies with his father's wife, curse be anyone who lies with an animal.

There's a list here in Deuteronomy 27, meaning, this is what you don't do.

Don't do these things.

You're going to be cursed.

There's going to be judgment for you and blessings.

We're like, oh, well, you know, it's like you want the good news or the bad news first.

Well, I'll give you the bad news first.

Here's the good news.

Here's the blessings for obedience in Deuteronomy 28.

And if you fully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all, that's an important word, all his commandments that I command you today.

The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

That's a pretty good spot on the top.

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.

You can't outrun them, you can't escape them.

These blessings are gonna are gonna land right in your lap.

They're just gonna they're gonna hit you square.

These blessings are gonna land.

Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of the ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds, and the young of your flock.

Blessed blessed be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Blessed be you when you come in, and blessed be you when you go out.

The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you.

That is a nice blessing.

They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

They're gonna get scattered.

You're just gonna rack up dub after dub after dub.

The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake.

It's gonna go well for you.

No matter which way you go in life, if you're obeying me or following me, I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna take care of you, I'm gonna give you abundance.

You're gonna have what you need and then some.

Just obey me.

I'm gonna bless you.

Verse 10 in chapter 28, Deuteronomy.

And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity.

You kind of see the kind of see the tie-in here with Abraham.

Your cattle are gonna be prosperous, the the produce of the fields are gonna be prosperous, your offspring, you're gonna have kids, they're gonna be healthy, your families are gonna grow.

You're thinking, like, okay, like Moses, Moses is in line with this blessing given to Abraham.

Things are tracking here.

The Lord will open to you, in verse 12, his good treasury, the heavens, to give you rain in your land in its season, and bless all the work of your hands, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down.

It's only it's only prosperity.

It's only God's goodness.

But you have you have to do one thing, which is which is sad.

You have to obey all.

We're looking around to us and every other human being that's ever lived on earth other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Obey, obey, obey.

Just do what I say.

Just do it.

Okay, okay, mom, okay, dad.

The list in your mind is like, man, but I but I don't obey so much.

But I don't.

That's the point of the law.

It's to show.

It's to show your inability to uphold God's standard.

That's why the law was given.

Yes, it was to set apart God's people, but also it's it's to show them that they can't, through their works, through their obedience, they cannot measure up.

The words of Scripture have power, and God pronounces blessings and curses starting in Genesis 3, going on through the through the Pentateuch, blessings and curses, outcomes for obedience, outcomes for disobedience.

And we might be thinking to ourselves, Romans 3.10, none is righteous, no not one.

So is God setting them up like for failure?

Like, like here's here's a carrot that you're never gonna get, Israel.

Here's the blessing.

Here's what you could have, but you're you're not gonna fully have it.

No.

God is wanting to show his people that they need him.

They can't do it in their own strength.

They're going to fail.

Romans 3, 21 through 23 says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifest apart from the law.

We have to separate works of the law, obedience to the law.

I'm going to earn my salvation through doing the right thing, because we can't every time.

We are required to do all at all times, full, complete obedience, right?

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

There is no distinction.

Doesn't matter where you grew up, doesn't matter what you look like, doesn't matter what your family life is like, it doesn't matter how much your parents make, it doesn't matter how many friends you have, it doesn't matter what where your grades are, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And Paul speaks, Paul speaks to us to say, if you rely on the works of the law, you are under a curse.

Blessings and curses for Israel before they enter the promised land.

If you're relying on your works, if you're relying on your shot percentage, good versus bad, I obey more than I disobey.

So we're cursed.

There's no way, there's no way to wiggle out of it.

We're cursed.

We need help.

We need to see, we need to see our position in relation to this law, in relation to the curse that we're under.

So let's write this down for point number two.

Look up through Deuteronomy 27.

Look up.

There's a a weight, there's a burden above us.

There's a curse that we're under because of our disobedience.

We can't experience the blessings fully.

There is grace that God gives to all people, whether they obey or disobey.

But the blessings realized in Deuteronomy, the people of Israel cannot live up to.

They cannot fully, all the time, obey all the things in the law.

They can't do that.

The blessing Paul is talking about are those that have realized and installed by the faith in Jesus Christ.

We can partake in the blessing that is promised to Abraham, the blessings in you the nations shall be blessed, all the nations, that is through Christ.

We need to see, we need to see the weight.

We need to see the lawbreaker that we are in order to understand our need for a law fulfiller.

We need to know the one who perfectly kept and fulfilled the entire law.

In him there was no sin.

Jesus did not sin once.

1 John 3.5.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

1 Peter 2.22.

Paul calls our attention to the prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2.4.

The righteous shall live by not faith.

They shall, they shall, sorry, they shall not live by work, they shall live by faith.

The righteous will live by faith.

Stop trying to live, Paul says.

Stop trying to live and find life and find your hope in the law.

No one is justified before God by the law.

That's verse 11.

For the righteous shall live by faith.

That's verse 11.

The righteous shall live by faith.

If a person obeys fully, they shall live.

They shall live by their works.

If you're going to live by the law, you have to be flawless, which we're not.

But we have life.

We can live, we can live in Christ's life, his resurrection power, if we have faith in him.

If a person does them, Paul is quoting Leviticus 18, if a person does them, he shall live by them.

I am the Lord.

If you're going to be saved through your works, you need to be perfect, unblemished, flawless, immaculate, not a spot, not a single inconsistency.

You need to obey fully all the time.

We can't do that.

But in verse 12, he says, The law is not of faith.

Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.

Verse 13.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

He defeated sin, he defeated death, he defeated the grave, and he took our sin for us.

Romans 4, 15 says, For the law brings wrath.

The consequences of disobedience, failure to uphold the law, brings wrath.

But where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Christ fulfilled the law.

He obeyed fully, completely, flawlessly.

His obedience, his perfection, his righteousness by obeying completely can be accredited to your account.

Romans 3, 19 and 20 says, now we we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law.

It has dominion over you.

So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

You're not going to go to God and say, This is my resume.

I would love to be employed by you in heaven.

I would love to be a part of your team.

Pick me.

I'm the best candidate.

I'm the best option that you have.

I'm going to be your starting point guard.

I'm going to be your starting pitcher.

I'm going to be your first chair.

I'm going to be the one you pick first because look at me, God, I'm so obedient.

Look, I've done the things that you've asked me to do.

Not fully, not perfectly, but most of the time.

You're not going to say that.

You're not.

Verse 20 in chapter 3 of Romans.

For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.

No human being will be justified by works of the law.

Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

We acknowledge our need for a savior.

We acknowledge our need for a redeemer because we have broken the law and we are cursed.

We're cursed.

But Christ became a curse for us.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

If you're hung on a tree, you are cursed.

You have transgressed, you have committed sin against the Lord, and the consequences are death.

And in the Old Testament, if you committed certain sins, it required judgment.

And that judgment was death.

You would be punished by dying.

And not to defile the earth, you were to be buried and not be hung out overnight.

You're going to die on a tree, you're going to be hung up, you're going to die, and then you're going to be buried.

God didn't want his creation being defiled by the sinner who was being hung on the tree.

This is the reference here.

Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

You have committed sin.

You have broken God's law to the point where the judgment is death.

You pay with your life.

The wages of sin is death.

But it doesn't end there.

Christ became a curse for us.

Blessings and curses.

I want you guys to see blessings and curses in a new light after this evening.

Jesus paid the price for our disobedience.

He became a curse for us.

Jesus purchased us by taking our place.

Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23.

Deuteronomy 21:22

And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death, he is to put to death.

You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

This is instructions from God.

Christ hung on the tree.

He was the curse for us.

He became a curse.

Christ, the righteous, took the death due for the unrighteous.

I hope you see that.

I hope you see the connection here.

Let's write this down for point number three.

We need to partake in Abraham's blessing through faith.

Partake in Abraham's blessing through faith.

In Jesus' obedience and the righteousness that he has by fulfilling and obeying the law, the law of his father, the commands of Yahweh.

He did it perfectly.

You are imperfect.

The old covenant, the law shows us our imperfections.

We look to the mirror of scriptures and see our blemishes.

We see our stains.

We see how dirty we are.

We see our cursed selves.

Salvation through the ages is established on faith, believing in God, believing that he's going to do what he says he's going to do, following after him when he commands you.

The faith that the Spirit brings is what gives us life in Christ.

The promises made to Abraham, the blessing of the nations, is found and established in faith in Christ.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the righteousness applied.

The works, the obedience, it will not save you.

He took the curse.

He took our place so that in Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

It's the Spirit that gives us life.

Earlier in the chapter, Paul says, Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Do you believe the words that God speaks to you?

When you read the scriptures, do you believe this?

If you're wrestling with, like, man, is this true or not?

Like, ask God, like, help me understand this.

Help me believe this.

Faith isn't something that you that you that you construct, that you build up to one day achieve, and now I gotta like I have faith.

Aha! Trial number 99, I finally made it.

You can ask God to give it to you and He will give fully, freely.

If you're doubting, if you're struggling, ask God to help you understand.

Ask God to give you faith.

Ask Him to increase your faith.

God help help my unbelief.

Help me understand.

Help me believe this.

He will show you His goodness.

He will show you the truths of the Scriptures.

The Spirit will guide you and lead you in all truth.

That's God's promise to us.

Ask God for saving faith.

Ask God to help you believe.

Let's pray.

God, we acknowledge our waywardness, our sinfulness.

We are lawbreakers.

We're cursed.

And we we need a savior.

We need someone to redeem us, to to take us out of our position.

The law shows us our state.

The law shows us our future because of our brokenness, because of our failure to obey.

But God, you you obeyed perfectly.

Your son.

Jesus, you were perfect.

You did everything God God told his people to do.

You fulfilled the law and you extend life because you are so kind.

You you are blessing the nations even now through faith in in your name.

God, will you continue to to save and and ransom souls?

Will you continue to call and draw people to yourself?

Will you will you continue to give the gift of faith?

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.