Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00007A
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00:24 Welcome back to Books of the Book, I'm Pastor Mark Howard.
00:27 I'm the director of the Emmanuel Institute of Evangelism 00:30 in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventist and 00:32 I'm the Pastor of Gobels Seventh-day Adventist Church 00:34 and I'm here with my brother Jim Howard. 00:36 Yes my name is Pastor Jim Howard and I'm the Pastor of 00:39 the Detroit Metropolitan and South Lyon's Seventh-day 00:42 Adventist Church in Michigan. 00:44 And we are excited once again to study the 00:46 book of Galatians with you. 00:47 We love to get into the word and this book of all books 00:49 is so powerful and exciting. 00:52 It is full of powerful gospel truths and that is the 00:56 keynote of the book of Galatians is the gospel. 01:00 Paul wrote this to clarify the everlasting gospel and 01:04 the last time we were together we talked about what 01:08 Paul terms the curse of the law in Galatians Chapter 3 01:13 and we are going to follow that up almost where 01:16 we left off in Galatians Chapter 3. 01:18 In fact we will pick up a little bit and do a review in 01:21 Galatians 3:13 so if you have your Bible, those viewing 01:24 at home, if you would turn with us to Galatians 3 and 01:28 it is in the New Testament. 01:29 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 01:31 1 and 2 Corinthians and then Galatians. 01:34 We're going to Galatians 3:13 and here the apostle writes 01:39 "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having 01:45 "become a curse for us (for it is written, cursed is 01:48 "everyone who hangs on a tree), that the blessing of 01:51 "Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, 01:54 "that we might receive the promise 01:56 "of the Spirit through faith. " 01:58 Something we need to grasp and just reiterating from 02:01 last time is that Christ did not come to redeem us 02:04 from the law but from the curse of the law. 02:06 Of course the curse of the law is the curse of sin. 02:09 "The wages of sin is death". 02:10 What is interesting here is that he goes into this 02:14 idea of the blessing of Abraham, the promise of the 02:17 Spirit and then he goes on from there to talk about 02:21 Abraham and his seed. 02:22 Today our topic is the 'Seed of Abraham'. 02:25 Jim you are going to pick up there in verse 15 02:28 I believe if you just want to start and pick up. 02:31 Sure I think we need to do is start back at verse 5 and let's 02:35 look there and get a little bit of an understanding of 02:38 this blessing of Abraham before we dive into 02:41 the Seed of Abraham. 02:43 We're starting in verse 5 of Galatians 3 where it says, 02:46 "therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works 02:49 "miracles among you, does He do it by works of the law, 02:52 "or by the hearing of faith? - just as Abraham believed 02:55 "God... it was accounted to him for righteousness. 02:59 "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are 03:02 "sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, for seeing that God 03:06 "would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel 03:10 "to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you all the nations 03:13 "shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are 03:17 "blessed with believing Abraham. " 03:19 This is a fascinating passage. 03:21 I want to add a clarification here, in some translations 03:24 it is faithful Abraham weren't blessed because they believe 03:26 Abraham, but they are blessed along with Abraham 03:30 who was a believer and who was faithful. 03:32 That could be confusing, but if you look at verse 8 03:36 specifically, "the Scripture for seeing that God would 03:39 "justify the Gentiles by faith. " 03:42 So here we see that God was fore seeing that the Gentiles 03:47 were going to be part of this blessing and this promise 03:51 that was given to Abraham. 03:53 It says not in you all the Jews shall be blessed 03:56 but in you all the nations shall be blessed. 03:59 So that would include not only those who are commonly referred 04:03 to as the circumcised, but it would also include the 04:07 uncircumcised which the apostle Paul here is saying 04:11 is that means evidently that God was justifying not 04:15 because of the circumcision of Abraham but because of 04:17 the faith of Abraham. - That's right, that's right! 04:20 If all the Gentiles were going to receive the same 04:22 blessing then it must come by faith and not by 04:25 circumcision and then in verse 14 where you had read 04:29 in the open it said, "that the blessing of Abraham might 04:32 "come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might 04:36 "receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. " 04:42 So here we have Abraham as the one to whom the promise 04:46 was made, and the promise that the apostle Paul said 04:50 he would receive and the Gentiles would receive is the 04:54 promise of the Spirit which is fascinating. 04:58 The Spirit in other places the apostle Paul talks about 05:02 having a special role in terms of our awareness 05:07 of the eternal inheritance. 05:09 When we have the Spirit is what he calls a guarantee of 05:12 our eternal inheritance. 05:14 There is one place where we might look at that. 05:15 Ephesians chapter 1 and we will look at verse 13 it says, 05:24 "in Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of 05:30 "truth, but gospel of your salvation; in whom also, 05:36 "having believed, you were sealed with the 05:38 "Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our 05:41 "inheritance until the redemption of the purchased 05:44 "possession," so the guarantee of our inheritance is 05:47 the Spirit. - that's right. - so when the Gentiles 05:51 received the Spirit that was evidence that they were 05:55 partakers of the inheritance that was promised to Abraham. 05:59 So you have this example for instance, remember we 06:03 studied about Acts 15 where the apostle Peter made 06:07 the point, he said look we know that God intends for 06:11 the Gentiles to be equal inheritors of the promise 06:16 with the Jews because the Gentiles received 06:19 the Spirit just like we did. 06:21 So the Spirit becomes that promise that God had given. 06:25 Now here is an interesting thought. 06:26 These Judaizers in the Galatian church who were causing 06:33 so much trouble and perverting the gospel. 06:35 They were not only missing how to obtain the promise, 06:41 but they were misconstruing what the promise itself was. 06:45 They were not only misconstruing how to be justified, 06:49 to receive the blessing of Abraham but they were missing 06:54 what the blessing even was. 06:56 The blessing was the Spirit, being born of the Spirit. 06:59 They were seeking to just use circumcision to avoid 07:02 having to have that internal change, 07:05 that the Spirit would bring. 07:06 You see the Spirit is born-again experience, that change 07:10 of heart, that change of life and they were putting 07:15 the circumcision as a substitute for that change and 07:18 they were missing out on the power of the Gospel 07:21 which is a changed life. 07:23 That is right, and you know Jim what is interesting and 07:27 important here to note is that some people when they read 07:30 Galatians or even when they read through the Scriptures, they 07:33 want to lump in circumcision and the whole system of 07:37 the law together and I have had people ask me, 07:40 Christians come up and ask me, isn't it true that the 07:43 law of circumcision and the law of sacrifice and offering and 07:48 the Ten Commandments was all one system of law? 07:50 In one sense there is truth to that, in the sense that 07:53 the Old Testament for example, the word for law is the 07:56 word Torah and it means instruction. 07:59 When you read the word law in the Old Testament you are 08:01 talking about the Torah or the instruction of God. 08:04 The Hebrews have that connected together in the 08:07 Pentateuch which is the first five books of the Bible, 08:10 the books of Moses. 08:11 So while that is true yet there was also a distinction. 08:15 For example, the Ten Commandments of God were written 08:19 with finger of God, but only thing in Scripture 08:22 we know that was part of the document that was written 08:25 with God's own finger when it was transported 08:28 throughout the experience of Israel. 08:30 It was carried in the sacred Ark of the Covenant, whereas the 08:33 other laws of Moses were put in a special pocket beside 08:36 the Ark of the Covenant. So there was a distinction there. 08:39 In the New Testament we find for example, in 08:42 1 Corinthians Chapter 7 the apostle Paul draws a very 08:46 clear distinction between circumcision and the 08:49 Ten Commandments, I think because he foresaw the tendency 08:53 of some may be to try and draw a separation or lump them 08:57 together and he wanted to make sure that even though 09:00 circumcision was a rite given by God, it was a rite given 09:04 to Abraham because of his diversion in God's plan. 09:09 It was not part of the original plan and it was a clear 09:12 distinction to be held apart from the Ten Commandment law. 09:15 1 Corinthians 7:19 says, the apostle Paul writes here, 09:19 "circumcision is nothing an uncircumcision is nothing," 09:23 and this is in the sense of not that it was insignificant 09:26 God had given it, but in the greater scheme of things it 09:30 wasn't the main issue, "circumcision is nothing and 09:33 "uncircumcised is nothing, but keeping the Commandments 09:36 "of God is what matters. " 09:38 So there is a clear distinction between circumcision 09:40 and the Ten Commandment law. 09:42 That's right and I have actually heard someone say 09:45 before that word keeping the commandments of God, he is not 09:49 talking about the Ten Commandments It's just talking 09:51 about the commands of Jesus so It's making a distinction there. 09:55 But I think if we look in Romans we will find it further 09:59 outlines that exact point. 10:01 So looking back at Romans 2:21 in says, "you, therefore, 10:06 "who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who 10:11 "preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 10:14 "You who say, do not commit adultery, do you commit 10:17 "adultery?" So clearly he is talking about the 10:18 Ten Commandments right? - right. 10:20 Now in verse 25 he says, "For circumcision is indeed 10:25 "profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker 10:30 "of the law, you're circumcision has become 10:32 "uncircumcision. " Now this next verse is where the difference is 10:36 clearly made. "Therefore, if an uncircumcised man 10:40 "keeps the righteous requirements of the law, 10:44 "will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?" 10:47 So in the context of the Ten Commandments- 10:49 - How can an uncircumcised man keep the righteous requirements 10:51 off the law if circumcision is part of the law? 10:54 Now that is exactly right and clearly in the context 10:56 in this one the law he is speaking of, is the 11:00 Ten Commandments. - in the very context that is absolutely true. 11:02 So this idea of circumcision and the promises of God, 11:09 the Jews had gotten distorted in their understanding of the 11:14 importance of circumcision and actually placed it 11:17 in the place of obedience. 11:20 It is interesting there in the passage you read in Romans 11:25 that he said that circumcision is only significant if you 11:30 are obedient to God. - right. 11:32 So we read the other day that circumcision, 11:35 the Bible said was given to Abraham in Romans 4 as a sign 11:40 of faith, not a sign of obedience, but a sign of faith. 11:46 Yet in Romans 2 it says that circumcision is only 11:49 profitable if you obey. 11:52 So we see the link with faith and obedience once again 11:54 in the writings of Paul. 11:55 Faith obeys, the exercise of faith is obedience. 12:00 Now we are going to go to verse 15 in Galatians 3 12:04 and we are going to carry on here in Paul's writing. 12:08 Galatians 3:15 it says, Brethren rather I speak in the manner of 12:11 "men: Though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is 12:14 "confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham 12:18 "and his Seed where the promises made. He does not say, 12:21 "And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your 12:25 "Seed, who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, 12:28 "which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant 12:31 "that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it 12:33 "should make the promise of no effect. For if the 12:36 "inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; 12:39 "but God gave it to Abraham by promise. " 12:41 Now Paul's listeners here, his audience believed in 12:45 Abraham, they believed in the promise that God gave 12:48 to Abraham, they believed that the descendent of Abraham 12:53 was the one through whom the promises would come and 12:58 and that was Isaac. - right. 13:01 However Paul takes that belief that they hold in common, 13:04 yes Abraham was the father of the faithful, yes God 13:07 the promises, but then he turns it and says I agree with 13:11 you all but you guys need to understand that 13:13 the Seed was not Isaac at all, the Seed was Christ. 13:18 In other words to be a part of Isaac means you have to 13:22 be a descendent of Abraham, literally born of the Jewish 13:26 nation and circumcised, but if he wasn't the Seed, 13:29 then circumcision isn't the way into the family. 13:32 So he is bringing out the fact that the seed is not Isaac. 13:37 The seed really is Christ. 13:39 And we have to go to our break and we come back from our 13:43 break we are going to address this issue of the Seed of 13:47 Abraham, not as Isaac in the literal nation of Israel, 13:51 but the Seed of Abraham is Christ and we are talking about 13:54 spiritual Israel here, so stay tuned, 13:57 We will be right back! |
Revised 2014-12-17