Welcome back to Books of
the Book we have been studying
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the book of Galatians and
we are talking today about
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the Seed of Abraham and
we left off at the break
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talking about the Seed not
being Isaac but being Christ.
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Jim I think we were
going to pick up right there.
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Yes, verse 16 of Galatians
3 we read where it says,
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"now to Abraham and his
Seed were the promises made.
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"He does not say,
And to seeds, as of many,
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"but as of one, 'And to
your Seed', who is Christ. "
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We made the point that the
Seed is not Isaac, the Seed
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it's not the lineage, the
Jewish heritage as it were.
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The Seed is not that which
circumcision brings you into
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connection with, but
rather the Seed is Christ.
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They were connected to Isaac,
but if they weren't connected
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to Christ they weren't going
to be recipients of the promise.
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This verse right here, if
you look in your Bible there is
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quotations around it because
he is actually quoting from
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the book of Genesis.
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That's right and I think
it is important for us to note
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we miss a lot when we fail
to realize or we forget that
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all of the New
Testament writers taught
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from the Old Testament.
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They preach the gospel
from the Old Testament.
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The Bible Jesus used was
the Old Testament Scriptures.
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Sometimes people get the
idea that the Old Testament is
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not gospel centered, we only
stick with the New Testament.
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But Jesus Himself told the
disciples on the road to Emmaus
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who didn't basically
receive all that the prophets
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had wrote or spoken.
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He said you fools and slow
of heart to believe all that
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the prophets have spoken.
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So Jesus said your foolish
if you are not taking in what's
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written in the Old
Testament because that is the
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foundation, that gives you
the background of a lot of what
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is being taught
in the New Testament.
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The apostle Paul well understood
the Old Testament Scriptures.
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That is what he was
using so when he is writing and
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quoting it is important
for us to go back and find out
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what the setting
was, what the message was,
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what the story was that he
was quoting from and it will
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fill out the picture for us
and give us the real context
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of what is being communicated.
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That's right, if you look
at this particular situation
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we do learn something
very significant by going back
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to where he is quoting from.
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It is in Genesis 22:18 it
says, "in your seed" and again
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it is the singular seed and
that is what Paul is saying.
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Not seeds but seed, "in
your seed all the nations of the
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"earth shall be blessed, because
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you have obeyed My voice. "
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Now I find that fascinating,
it says that Abraham
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received this inheritance
by promise and we think it's
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the promise of faith and
not obedience, not anything
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to do with the law, it is
just faith, but yet you go
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back to the exact place
where God makes that promise and
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it says the reason I am
giving you this promise is
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because you
have obeyed My voice.
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It only makes sense because
true obedience, the kind that
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has the Spirit of
Christ with it is an obedience
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that stems from faith.
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Abraham had that
faith that obeyed.
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That's right in so we went
through some of this before.
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So we are going to go to
Galatians 3:19 and continue on
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where it says, "what
purpose then does the law serve?
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"It was added because of
transgressions, till the Seed
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"should come to whom the
promise was made; and it was
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"appointed through angels
by the hand of a mediator. "
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So Paul was just making
the point here that the purpose
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the law was given was not
to cancel out that promise.
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It wasn't contradictory to
the promise, it actually was
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working in
conjunction with the promise.
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The commandment was to
help bring the people to
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a realization of their
transgression because they have
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forgotten their true condition
and they have forgotten
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their need of the righteousness
outside of themselves.
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That's right and it picks
up really clearly on that in
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verse 23 and we have already
been through these verses.
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It is the foundation
for where we are headed.
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In verse 23 it says, "but
before faith came, we were
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"kept under guard by the
law, For the faith which would
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"afterward be revealed.
Therefore the law was our tutor
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"to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified
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"by faith. But
after faith has come,
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we are no
longer under a tutor. "
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So again the law was
serving as that tutor that was
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showing us that we were
outside the will of God.
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Showing us that being outside
of the will of God gave us
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a certain penalty of
death and giving us motivation
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to go to Christ to
find what we needed.
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That something we needed
was through faith the promise
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of the Spirit, we read
that in verse 14 of chapter 3.
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You receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith.
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So through faith we are
born of the Spirit, born-again.
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This is a significant
point and what it means is that
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the Spirit of God
writes His law on our hearts.
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Then it says no
longer do we need a tutor.
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In other words, once the
Spirit of God comes in we don't
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need someone to say
don't commit adultery.
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We are not going to
want to commit adultery.
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- that's right. We don't
need to say be sure and keep
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the Sabbath, we're going
to desire to do God's will
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and to keep the Sabbath.
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No longer is the wall
serving in that purpose.
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We have now come to a
point where we agree with God
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and because of that in
verse 26 it makes this beautiful
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statement, "for you are all
sons of God through faith in
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"Christ Jesus. " We
become sons through faith.
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That seed experience of
being a part of the family of
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Abraham happens through faith.
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So what we need to grasp
about that, that is when we are
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talking about the seed and
our viewers may not be grasping
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the terms, some
Bibles will say descendents.
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The whole idea is this,
the Jewish nation under stood
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that through the descendent
of Abraham that it was through
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Abraham that the whole
nation would be blessed.
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They understood
that blessing was them.
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Anybody who was born
through the line of Abraham.
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Anybody who was a descendent,
a literal descendent of
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Abraham even unto this day
Jim, there are many Christians
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who understand that the nation
of Israel has this special
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place in God's heart because
of their natural lineage.
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They don't take into account
certain places and things
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for example in the New
Testament book of John chapter 8
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Jesus is talking to the
religious leaders and He tells
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these Jewish leaders,
natural born Jews, if you were
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Abraham's children you
would do the works of Abraham.
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If you were Abraham's
children? What's that about?
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They were Abraham's children,
but the point Jesus was
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making is the point
Paul is making right here.
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That the understanding
of the Jews was that their
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inheritance was going to
be based on being natural born
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descendents of
the line of Abraham.
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Whereas, when Paul says
Abraham's seed was not his
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descendent, that the promise
was made not through not Isaac,
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but long after Isaac's line,
Jesus Christ and all who would
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be born of Him
instead of born of Isaac.
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I want to look at that
real quickly in a couple of
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passages, we are going
to go to Romans 5:18, 19.
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Romans 5:18, 19 the Bible
says, "therefore, as though one
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"man's offense, judgment came to
all men" this is talking about
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Adam, it was Adam's sin that
pasted sin onto the human race.
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It goes on to say,
"resulting in condemnation,
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"even so through one
Man's righteous act. "
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that would be
Jesus, "the free gift came
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"to all men, resulting
in justification of life.
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"For as by one man's
disobedience many were made
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"sinners, so also by
one Man's obedience many
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"will be made righteous. "
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So it puts a contrast
here between Jesus and Adam.
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We see Paul doing that
again in 1 Corinthians 15:22
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it says, "for as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ all
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"all shall be made alive. "
And then in verse 45 it says,
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"and so it is written, the
first man Adam became a living
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"being. The last Adam
became a life-giving Spirit. "
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So here he actually applies
this term last Adam to Jesus.
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He is comparing the two
and this is what he is saying.
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Just as Adam was the
progenitor of the human race.
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We all descended from Adam,
in the same way, and because
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we descended from Adam we
received what Adam passed on
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to us, the nature of
Adam, for fallen nature of sin.
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So in the same way, those
who received the nature of the
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second Adam, one who came
in Adam's place and lived the
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perfect life that
Adam failed to live.
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That last Adam becomes the
progenitor of the new race.
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In other words, those who
accept Jesus and are born of
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Christ, of His Seed born
of the Spirit become a member
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of that Seed, that new family.
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So the problem with
the thinking of the Jews of
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Christ's day and
Paul's day where he is trying
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to address them, is that
their understanding was that
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the blessing came from
being born, and as I said many
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Christians today that the
blessing came from being born
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of the nation of Israel
instead of being born of
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the true Israel, Jesus Christ.
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That was the name that
was given to Jacob once
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he became a
spiritual man and an overcomer.
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It was a spiritual name
that was pointing forward to
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the true Israel, Jesus Christ
who is going to be the head
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of a new race and would
pass on His nature to humanity
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and then bring them
into the family of God.
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Amen, amen and you know
when he continues in the book
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of Galatians, he makes
that point pretty strongly.
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If we look back and Galatians
3 and I'll pick up in verse
00:10:23.35\00:10:27.49
26 so that we can catch the
sense of what he was saying.
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It says, "for you are
all sons of God through faith
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"in Christ Jesus. " Not to
be honest that was something of
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a heretical statement
for Him to be making to them.
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What? All sons of God!
They believed that only the
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circumcised were sons of God.
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Only those that were of
the direct lineage of Abraham.
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If you weren't of the direct
lineage Abraham then you needed
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to be circumcised. - so
much so that it didn't even
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matter so much how you
lived as long as you were
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circumcised, against circum-
cision became a substitute.
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- a substitute for obedience,
a substitute for genuine
00:11:02.92\00:11:06.46
faith and so he is making
the point no, if you want to be
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part of the family, you have
to have the faith of Abraham
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that brings this Spirit
thereby being born of Christ.
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Born of the Spirit of God.
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It says in verse 27, "For
as many of you as were baptized
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"into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew
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"nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is
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"neither male nor
female; for you are all one in
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"Christ Jesus. " Now the
part that really stung to some
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was probably that first part.
00:11:39.66\00:11:41.93
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
00:11:41.96\00:11:44.17
I mean here Paul was
saying there is no distinction,
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you are all equal
heirs to salvation,
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the new birth question
and in verse 29 he says,
00:11:50.67\00:11:54.38
"And if you are Christ's,
then you are Abraham's seed,
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"and heirs
according to the promise. "
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Isn't that powerful? - It's
powerful to me because I'm not
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and natural born
descendent of Abraham, but I'm
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a heir of that inheritance.
00:12:05.95\00:12:08.82
And there is another
place where it says this and
00:12:08.86\00:12:10.79
I thought it would be
valuable for us to look at it
00:12:10.83\00:12:12.93
Because the New Testament
is not silent on this point.
00:12:12.99\00:12:19.27
If you look at Romans
2:28 it was either earlier or
00:12:19.30\00:12:23.64
perhaps in our last episode
where we were touching on
00:12:23.67\00:12:27.98
verses 25 and 26.
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But in verse 28 it says,
"for he is not a Jew who is
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"one outwardly, nor is circum-
cision that which is outward
00:12:33.98\00:12:38.05
"in the flesh. But he is a
Jew who is one inwardly and
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"circumcision is that of
the heart. In the Spirit not
00:12:42.12\00:12:45.99
"in the letter whose praises
not from men but from God. "
00:12:46.03\00:12:50.07
So when you look at this
passage is pointing out that
00:12:50.10\00:12:54.37
it's the Spirit ultimately
and not the letter that
00:12:54.40\00:12:58.64
makes us children of Abraham.
00:12:58.67\00:13:00.71
So the Spirit here is
speaking about inwardly religion
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that finds its way into
the letter, into the outside,
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but the letter doesn't
always mean you are obeying the
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spirit and so we have this
beautiful picture painted for
00:13:10.92\00:13:14.52
us in the book of
Galatians that any one of us
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can be a child of
Abraham through Christ.
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May God bless you!
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