232 – BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED - Part IIJune 18, 1961
Henry F. Kulp
Galatians 3: 6 - 9 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. To then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Last week we told you that Paul starts out this doctrinal section of Galatians by writing to these Galatians saying they are foolish, and they are bewitched, and they are under a spell and they have been charmed by these legalistic teachers. My, how people do act like they are charmed whenever they fall under the spell of legalism. Legalism pleases the flesh—the grace of God is an insult to the flesh.
Remember that Jesus Christ said in John 3: 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
And this is the condemnation—the judgment that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness—why? Rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Men love their own deeds—they are in darkness and they love to offer to God their sinful works. They have been charmed by the darkness of this day.
1/ And then Paul uses a threefold program to show that the law cannot save, that the flesh cannot save. He asks them five questions about their own experience, and when he is finished they know right well that their own experiences under the law cannot save them. And then he turns to father Abraham, and he says what was father Abraham’s experience? How was he saved, and how was he kept saved? Then he turns to Christ’s work and His relationship to the law—what did Christ’s work do to the law?
2/ Now the legalistic Jews love to go back to Abraham. They always boasted that Abraham was their father—so Paul brings home a killing argument here—a killing stroke when he says Well, let’s go back and see what is Abraham’s experience.
Galatians 3: 6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
How was Abraham saved? By believing what God said about His long-promised, super-naturally born son. He believed the Gospel. Then notice in the 8th verse—preached before the Gospel unto Abraham. When did God preach the Gospel unto Abraham?
3/ When he was yet a Gentile. He was never a Jew, remember that—he was the father of the Jews, but he was never a Jew. Abraham was a Gentile. Also remember he was never an Israelite. He became the father of the Israelites, but he was a Gentile.
4/ What Abraham believed was what God had to say about the miraculous birth of Isaac. He was dead and his wife’s body was dead. They couldn’t have children. When God said he was to have seed like the sand of the seashore, and the stars of the Heavens, Abraham knew that this son had to be born in a miraculous way.
Genesis 18: 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
This promise was physically impossible—for remember the promise that God gave to Abraham.
Genesis 15: 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
He took him outside his tent one night and said, look now towards Heaven and count the stars. Abraham said, I cannot count them—their number is utterly beyond me. Then He told him to count the sand in the dust under his feet, and Abraham said, I can’t do that, and God said, So shall thy seed be. All this had to come about, and Abraham recognized it, in a miraculous way. A miraculously born son
5/ Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteous, he was saved. Maybe you have heard the illustration of two preachers who were out in a rowboat and they were debating as to whether salvation was by grace or by works or by the two of them combined. Both men listened to them and when they were unable to come to a solution of the problem, he said to them. I have been thinking about this problem of grace and works. Here in this boat i have two oars. I will call one faith and the other works. If I pull only on this oar, the boat goes round and round and will not get anywhere. If I pull on that one it goes round and round and does not get anywhere, but if I pull on both I get across the river, and people that is a beautiful illustration of the fact that salvation is by faith and works. That’s true, it would be, if we were going to go to heaven in a row boat, but we are not. We are going to heaven in Jesus Christ—By the grace of Jesus Christ.
6/ If I get to Heaven by works and grace, and if I just so much as lift my little finger to save my soul and to help save my soul, I’ll be able to stand in front of God and I could say to him and to the others there in Heaven, I am in Heaven by my own combined efforts, and no one will get to Heaven that way.
Ephesians 2: 8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
7/ But now God preached the Gospel to Abraham, He didn’t just talk about the miraculous birth of his son, but I want you to notice also, when Isaac was full-grown, god commanded Abraham to take this miraculously born son to a mountain to sacrifice him on an altar.
The story is found in Genesis 22, and it is one of the most complete pictures in the Bible of the birth, death and resurrection of the virgin-born Son of God. Abraham obeyed God and took his son, Isaac, and there potentially put him to death. In God’s eyes, listen to this, Isaac was sacrificed, for God accepted the motive for the act. Abraham believed he would actually have to kill his son, and for three days, therefore Isaac was potentially dead in the experience of Abraham. The writer of Hebrews confirms this.
Hebrews 11: 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
It says, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. Then notice the next part of the verse, and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son. Abraham actually offered up his son in the sight of God.
8/ Genesis 22: 1 - 2 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (test) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
God tested Abraham and said, take thy son, thy only son, and go and offer him there in the land. For notice it uses the words, offer him there for a burnt offering. And then notice the next verse on the third day. So it means for three days, as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was really dead. When Abraham started out on the journey early in the morning, he had no other idea than that God meant what He said. He must after three days put Isaac to death on Mt. Moriah. For three days he considered his son dead, potentially dead. So Isaac becomes a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death for three days and three nights.
9/ Then follows the resurrection.
Genesis 22: 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Isaac has been dead in the mind of Abraham for three days, and now, all of a sudden, he returned to life—that is resurrection—where God says, Take the ram and let Isaac live.
Notice, Hebrews 11: 17 - 19 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Notice the last verse, the 19th verse, Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him as a figure.
Abraham knew and believed all the time that God was going to do something miraculous—that is marvelous, isn’t it? He knew that God had promised that Isaac was to be the father of nations, but he was to die. How then, can God keep His promise to him? That in his seed, in Isaac, he should have this great nation? There was only one way out—Isaac would have to raise again from the dead, and Abraham believed this.
10/ Oh yes, the Gospel was preached to Abraham. No law, not even the covenant of circumcision at this time. As a Gentile, Abraham believed this. Abraham believed in the death and resurrection of his son. That is the Gospel.
11/ Today, the Gospel is still the same. As Abraham was saved believing what God said concerning his miraculously born son, his death and resurrection. So we must believe the record of His Son. THE IMPORTANT FACT IS THAT ABRAHAM BELIEVED WHAT GOD SAID, THE PROMISE GOD MADE CONCERNING HIS SON. THAT IS THE IMPORTANT POINT.
12/ Now notice what God has to say about what we have to do to be saved. Faith cometh by hearing.
Romans 10: 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I John 5: 9, 10 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
Notice, the witness of the Spirit. It is not some wonderful feeling. It is not some great sense of exhilaration. It is not voices from Heaven, nor is it visions, or sensation, or dreams, or emotions. The witness is God’s Word, and when we believe the Word of God, what God has said, what He has promised, then we have the witness, and in no other way.
13/ As Abraham was saved by believing the Word of God, just so, we are saved by believing the Word of God. What more can a believer ask than the promise of God? To ask for an additional evidence is to insult God. To ask for additional evidence is an admittance that God’s Word alone is not enough.
14/ Remember this Gospel picture is complete, because as Abraham for three days killed his only son—God the Father, slew His Son. God, the Father was responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture this is.
Romans 8: 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
15/ Now notice, Galatians 3: 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
These are the unmistakable words of the Holy Spirit. Paul asserts that any man who at any time, or in any measure has ever broken one of the laws of God, that is only one—is under the curse of the law, and of course, the curse is death—he is lost, he is going to spend eternity in hell. It is well to ponder these words carefully, and then ask yourself the question—Am I under law? If so, I am condemned.
16/ The Bible teaches that no man lives, and no man has ever lived, that is except Jesus Christ, who has been able to keep the law perfectly, and not break it at any point. Notice what David had to say—Psalm 14: 2 The Lord God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any who did understand and seek God, and then the next verse is what God had to say. He found as He looked for those who sought after Him that there was not one—this is God’s verdict of every man by nature of his first birth—they are all gone aside, they are all filthy. So when you put these two verses together with Galatians 3: 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
You can see that all the law can do is curse—all the law can do is kill.
17/ Now let us go to two other verses that are marvelous.
Romans 8: 3, 4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh—the law was not at fault. It is man at fault, there is none that doeth righteousness, no not one—there is none that is able to live by the law.
Then notice the 4th verse, and please notice this statement carefully, That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.
Notice what it does not say. It does not say that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled by us, but rather in us. It is not our works, it is the work of God. The righteousness of the law to which we could not attain, we cannot earn, has been provided for us by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, and when we are safe in Him, then we are saved. That is what we find in this present day and age.
18/ If men could only see their condition before God. There is one portion of Scripture that I always love to turn to at this point. I read it because it has meant so much to me. It is an Old Testament portion of Scripture.
Isaiah 41: 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
And here we have one of the delicate ironies of Scripture, which reveals so clearly the nothingness of man and the wonderful power of God on behalf of His people. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, I will help thee. What a partnership this is. God and the worm. Not very flattering to Jacob, is it? God and the worm. How much we lose because we do not recognize what we really are.
When men form a partnership, one man puts up money, and usually another man puts up experience or some other distribution of assets, but when we form a partnership with God, He demands that we do it on His terms. We put up weakness, and He puts up all His strength. We put up sin and He puts up His righteousness. We cast in our nothingness and He answers with His all-ness. God and the worm. How foolish it is for anyone to attack this partnership, yet men do that when they invite us to live by the law and be Sabbath keepers and what-not.
19/ Yet, how loath men are to accept their own bankruptcy in order that they might be saved. Have you recognized that you are a worm this morning, and if you have any partnership with God it is going to be on His terms, by His grace, by belief in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?
20/ The key verse to all that is said about Abraham is given to us in Romans 4: 20, 21 He staggered not at the promises of God through (now notice) unbelief, but was strong in faith, and giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded—now this is important—that what He promised He was able also to perform.
God found that Abraham believed, trusted Him, believed His promises, and God saved him.
You must do that this morning, you must believe the promises of God, and where do you find the promises of God? Of course, in the Bible.
AMEN
Ref: 06/18/1961 / 232 BEWITCHED BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED - PART II / 03/22/2021
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