The Spirit of Promise - Dr. Jeff Hubing

Galatians chapter three. If you have a Bible or if you use an electronic text, you might wanna see if you can find that. And, I'm gonna share some verses today that deal with the holy spirit. And, I'm I'm going to be talking about the holy spirit today as the spirit of promise. The spirit of promise.

Now it's very important that we understand the Holy Spirit is not some add on to the Christian life. He is the very center of what it means to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus. He is the center of that experiential relationship with Jesus Christ. K? It's not, oh, you know, we we believe in Jesus Christ and then, oh, by the way, there's some people who get experiences with God's spirit.

No. God is triune. Okay. Here's our seminary teaching for the day. He is father and he is son and he is holy spirit.

That means that the holy spirit is as much God as Jesus and as the father. And the fact that we receive the holy spirit into our hearts, into our beings is the most significant statement about human identity that we can make in this in this era of life. Now I hope to defend that statement today by showing you some passages of scripture. But before we dig into Galatians three, maybe just let's have a word of prayer. Would you pray with me?

Lord, we love you so much. We're grateful that we can be with you. God, we sang all these songs this morning even about your blood. The fact that we can be forgiven, we can be totally cleansed, we can we can have our sins and our transgressions washed away because you willingly laid down your life for us. Your love was like that.

It was that you would lay down your life so that we could be rescued. We could be delivered, not just from sin, but from death and the grave and from hell and the devil. Anything that sets itself up against you and your purpose, we can be saved. We can be liberated because of your blood and because my father of because of your precious spirit that you now deposit within us because you promised to do it. And we expect those promises to be fulfilled in the gospel and through Jesus.

Lord, open our hearts today. Open our eyes. We wanna understand, we wanna see, we wanna recognize what you're doing, how you're doing it, so that we can cooperate with your plan. We can do our part. We can be a part of this amazing mission that you've invited us into.

God bless your people today. Bless our brothers and sisters, worshiping in Arabic across the way. Bless our brothers and sisters across our city, across this nation, across the globe. God, be be manifest in the midst of your people today. God, we need you so desperately.

And so we ask you again, breathe on us today. Fill us with the very spirit about whom we're speaking for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Galatians three.

Galatians is a is a powerful letter from the Apostle Paul to a group of churches who are struggling. Alright? The these churches are in what would be for us modern day Turkey. So not far from, you know, what we would call a Middle Eastern context. Of course, in the ancient world, this was a part of a group a territory called Asia Minor.

And so the the churches that Paul is dealing with here are likely the some of the churches that he and, Barnabas planted in, in in Acts thirteen and fourteen. If you remember reading those stories, of them planting these churches, and so the some of the first groups of people that they brought into a relationship with Jesus. Well, sometime after they had preached the gospel there, there started to arise like a a distortion of it. What Paul calls in Galatians one and verses six and seven, he says, someone's twisting the gospel, distorting it and trying to convince you of things that I didn't tell you. Among those things are at the core that it's not okay for you to be in God's family unless you become Jewish really.

I mean, that was the argument that they were making. That it doesn't matter. You can you it's really you know, I'm paraphrasing it and kinda simplifying it. But this thing, it's great that you're interested in our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jake. You know, it's it's great that you're interested in our prophets and their writings, Moses, Isaiah, and all the rest.

And it's wonderful. It's wonderful that you even even believe in this man, Jesus, who is one of us, you know, a Jew. Again, and you believe he's the Messiah. Well, listen, if you really believe that and you really wanna be a part of our covenant family, then it's very simple. All you have to do is if you're a guy, you have to get circumcised, and then and then you have to eat right, and then you have to observe the instructions that we have in our in our law that Moses gave us.

It's cool, you know, we we like the fact that you like our Bible and that you like our God. But, you know, you're not quite right yet. You're not you're not quite all there. If if you really want to be right in the eyes of God, and if you wanna be a part of our promises and all that, well then just become Jewish with us. That's all.

Now, they did it in such a way, if you can follow this, that made the Galatians feel special. If you read in Galatians four verses 13 and following, you're gonna see like, it's almost as if they were trying to flatter them in order to manipulate them to get what they want. So that that you they make much of you. In other words, you can't just imagine, oh, you you're not like the other Gentiles. You know, the other ones, they're all doing the the, you know, nasty things they're not supposed to do.

You guys are enlightened. You Gentiles, you really have it going on. And and there's only one more thing. You just have to be chum Jewish. You know, and you can imagine that argument being made.

Well, Paul comes in and says, listen. This is not the gospel that I taught you. I never said anything about that when I came to you. In fact, I when I came to you, I gave you the gospel the exact way I received it from the Lord Jesus himself. This is what he says in Galatians one eleven and twelve.

That he received the gospel by revelation from Jesus. So when I came to you, I told you everything. I told you the the exact truth about who you were in him because you believed. Okay? Now, if you accept any other gospel, even listen, he says, even if an angel from heaven tells you something.

If I come back to you and tell you something else, oh, forgot to mention this. No. Do not accept it. It's not true. It's not real.

The one gospel is the one I mentioned to you at the start. And so all of Galatians is designed to convince these people about the truth of his original message based on his personal testimony and based on their experience and based on the argument of the Bible, which again for Paul was our Old Testament. K. There wasn't a New Testament yet. Paul was writing it.

Okay. What would become the New Testament? So there wasn't a New Testament. There was just the Old Testament. And all three of these things he uses to argue in Galatians.

He uses his own story, that's chapter one and and chapter two, where he's telling them, listen, if if I if I am teaching what these other guys say is right, if I would have taught that, then I wouldn't be the guy that's suffering. The opposition and the people mistrusting me. Look, I went from persecuting Christians to be now one of the people who's proclaiming the message I used to oppose, and my hardships are in part a responsive to the fact that I'm saying that's that's not true. You don't have to become Jewish to become one of my children. This is God's message.

So his own story is a part of this. But at the beginning of chapter three, Paul makes an argument to the Galatians based on two things. Number one, their own experience, and number two, the testimony of the Bible itself. Now I want you to see the way he argues here. And again, what I'm what I'm speaking about this morning is the Holy Spirit.

And and the Holy Spirit is absolutely foundational to their experience and to the message of the Bible, the scriptures. So have a look at this. Okay? Paul has just got done repeating at the end of chapter two that you can't be right with God just on the basis of your works. You can't.

It would be essentially to empty the cross of Jesus of its value. Right? He says, if if you could be right by your works, then Jesus died for nothing. Okay. This is what he said at the end of chapter two.

So he's making an argument there about God's intention that Jesus suffering should be for the redemption of people. But then he turns in chapter three and says this, oh, foolish Galatians. Sometimes I'd say that like to my kids, you foolish children. Yeah. Because they don't think right always.

They they think in certain ways that don't really match reality. This is kind of the way he's speaking to them. Like like a father, you know, kinda admonishing his kids. Oh, you you you silly silly little kids. Okay?

Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. When I came to you, this is the very point that I made. He was crucified. If he was crucified, it means that your works can't profit anything.

Okay? Let me ask you this. Now, here's the question. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? I find this interesting because he uses the phrase, did you receive the spirit here as a kind of sign.

It's an indication of something that had changed in their experience, in their lives. He didn't say, did you become righteous in God's eyes by works of the law or by hearing of the faith? He could've. But you know what? He can say, did you receive the spirit?

Because for him, he takes it for granted that they, actually something happened to them. It wasn't just an intellectual decision they made. K? They didn't just change the way they thought, they their experience changed. They received the spirit of God when they believed.

And he can take that for granted. He can assume that. He can remind them. Listen, remember how you were before? Remember when that presence of God came into your life?

Remember that? How did that happen? Was that because you got circumcised? Remind me. Was that because you started eating kosher?

You you stopped eating lobster, bisque, you know. Was that because of that? Was it because you started to observe the Sabbath and and you started to, you know, keep the feasts of the Jews? No. What happened when you believed my message?

God's spirit came into you. So this is his first argument he's making. He's saying, look, the fact that you received God's spirit, it actually validates the authenticity of your faith. You say you wanna people are telling your faith is illegitimate because you haven't done x y and z. I'm telling you, your faith is validated because you received the spirit of the living God.

It changed you. You became different when you believe this gospel message, and the reason is because God came into you by his spirit. God came among you. So what did that look like? Well, look look what else he says.

He said, do you receive the spirit by works of the law, by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being made perfect or mature by the flesh? The the beginning the spirit is the beginning of everything in the gospel, in the kingdom. The spirit is not an add on.

He's the beginning. It's how they began in faith was is with the reception of God's spirit through the gospel. Not only that, but it generates power when you receive the spirit. He says, did you suffer things in vain if it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now here you see the connection. Counted to him as righteousness is simply being used in parallel with receiving the spirit by faith. It's what happened. That's that's how they knew that they were right.

That's how Paul knew that they were right with God. Because God's spirit came into them and generated, he says, miracles. Well, what are miracles? Miracles are works of power. The, I mean, the basic word in the original Greek language is dunamis, which means powerful deeds or works of power.

Of course, that was consistent with the life and ministry of Jesus. K? He not only did he go around calling people to repent and welcoming sinners and eating at the table with tax collectors and other things, but he went around doing powerful deeds. I mean, he healed the sick. He raised the dead.

He controlled the weather. Anybody ever like that miracle in their life? Control the weather? It'd be a nice one sometimes. He produced food.

You know, he multiplied it where there was just a couple of pieces of food and he and gave it to thousands of people. These are works of power. He was able to prophesy. He was able to read people's thoughts. I mean, that that's an expression of divine power.

He was able to cast out demons. I mean, the unclean spirits that don't belong in human beings. You remember Genesis one? God made human beings for his own breath, for his own spirit. But something's gone wrong with the human story where you have a bunch of people that are now inhabited by demonic spirits, unclean spirits.

That's not right. That's not the way it's supposed to be. So when Jesus comes and he works powerfully, he ends up liberating people from those demonic powers. These these are works of power. You know what Paul says?

He says, when you guys believed, the Holy Spirit came upon you and God worked miracles among you. He knows that. You know why? Because he was there. So he can remind them.

Listen. You you didn't you didn't stop being blind because you got you know, you you you, you know, forsook eating unclean foods. You stopped being blind because you believed the report that I gave you and I put my hands on you, you started to see again. Like, there were concrete reasons that Paul can appeal to the Galatians and say, stop thinking you're lacking something. You have everything because you have the spirit.

The spirit validates their faith and the spirit generates power. Therefore, the spirit justifies or verifies our right relationship with God. That's why the parallel is there with Abraham in verse six. You know what Paul's doing here in verse six? He's quoting the Bible.

Because remember, if you're arguing with a Jewish person about what it means to be right with God, you better use the Bible. You better use the scriptures. Right? Because that's what they're gonna appeal to. They're saying Abraham got circumcised, so you have to get circumcised.

They're saying Moses kept the law, so you have to keep the law. So what does Paul do? Paul says, okay, you wanna talk about the Bible? Let's talk about the Bible. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Anybody know where that verse is found? Yes? Who's got the verse? Verse fifth verse six. Awesome.

Genesis fifteen six. Let's go there. Guys, Genesis fifteen six is the foundation of Paul's theology in a way. It's in the Bible. Paul's not making stuff up.

K? He's not saying, oh, I had a vision of Jesus, now I get to make up whatever I want. No. He had a vision of Jesus that confirmed to him the authentic meaning of the scriptures. Why is that important?

Because the scriptures were revealed by God. They were prophesied. They were they were prophetic inspired by the Holy Spirit literature. So God's not gonna contradict what he's already intended to communicate. It's not his way.

So Paul says, okay. You wanna talk about Moses? You wanna talk about Abraham? Let's go back to the beginning. And so here you go.

Genesis 15. Remember, the this is three chapters after God initially has an encounter with Abram. Genesis 12 is the start. We'll go there in a minute. In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham.

He says, leave your country. Leave your people. Leave the gods that you you know behind. I'm gonna be your god from now on. Forget all the rest of them.

And I guess what I'm gonna do, through you, I'm gonna build a nation. And through your and through the nation, I'm gonna bless the whole earth. K? Well, by the time Genesis 15 comes, it's been a while now, but Abraham still has no offspring. And so he's kind of complaining to the Lord in verse two.

He said, what will you give me? I continue childless. The heir of my house is Eliezer from Damascus. In other words, he's not even, like, related to me really. He's from another country.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, verse four. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and he said, look up at the heaven. Count the stars if you can.

Now, this doesn't it's not as impactful for us who live in Chicago. Because you live in Chicago and you try to look up and count the stars, like, well, I could count. Maybe there's maybe 35 or, you know what I mean? Because it's too bright. Do you know what I'm saying?

The city lights make it difficult to see all the stars. Have any of you guys ever been, like, in the middle of nowhere with a clear star starry night? Yeah. Some of you guys know what I'm talking about? This has happened to me on a number of cases.

I've been in India, I've been in African context, I've been in in Iraq. One time what you you look up, like and what happens and and this is why I'm saying it like that. One time I was in Nigeria, and this is the power's out. I mean, it's just doesn't come on for a day or two. And so the power's out.

There's no power. So you go outside. There's no lights. There's no human illumination of any kind. And you look up the star, like, this is bananas.

The the I mean, the stars are like a sheet in a way covering the sky. And you just like, I never noticed. I mean, I I mean, how many stars are there, Abraham? Count them. So you gotta envision a scene like that.

K? The ancient world, there's no street lights, there's no electricity. The only light is like a, you know, a little wax, filled bowl with a wick that's a lamp. Right? Psalm one nineteen.

When it says your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. It's not a flashlight guys. Okay. It's not one of those, you know, you shine it and it shows you a thousand meters in front of you. A lamp in the ancient world was something you it's a little bowl with oil and a wick and it lights up maybe two or three feet.

Like you're not gonna That's all there is and he says, Abraham, look. He looks up in the nighttime sky and he sees it's full. It's full of these constellations and stars and clusters and galaxies. And he's like, your children are gonna be like that. And there was something about that moment.

It's just God and Abraham. Like, nobody else on the planet has any idea of what's going on. Can you think just imagine. And God is telling Abraham, make something out of you, buddy. You just have to believe me.

You know, he's like, this is personal. That's what your offspring shall be. It says in verse five, and verse six says, he believed him. Believed Yahweh. And he counted it to him as righteousness.

See, Paul says, you wanna talk about the bible, let's talk about it. Because Abraham was not justified by getting circumcised. He was not made right with God because he started keeping the laws. He was not made right with God because he tithed to the to the king of Salem. He was right with God because he believed what he said.

God made him a promise. And Abraham, something happened in his heart and he was like, okay. I'm I'm gonna trust you. It's crazy. I don't see anything happening.

Nothing's different than when you called me. I'm here, my wife is barren, but I believe you. And something happened right there. It's something happened inside Abraham, and God looked at it and said, that's it. That's it right there.

That's what I want. That posture of your heart, that when I make you a promise nothing is more real to you than that. Nothing. Well, Paul quotes this in Galatians three. He says, listen to me.

Abraham believed God and God said that's righteousness. You believed God and God said, now let me breathe on you. As a sign that verifies that you're right with me, I'm giving you my spirit. I'm flooding you with me. That's the argument that Paul is making.

Faith is the avenue. Okay? The spirit is the destination. Faith is the avenue that brings us into right relationship with God by Jesus Christ. When that happens, we discover God's own personal presence is flooding our beings.

That's his that's his design. That's the destiny for people. That's the goal for us. Paul says, it's the it's those who are of faith, in verse seven, Galatians three, who are Abraham's sons. Those who are faith.

That means the the promise God made to Abraham was going to be fulfilled in the same way that it was initiated by faith. Abraham has descendants who did not believe the message of God. Do you guys know this? Abraham had a who was Abraham's first son? Ishmael.

Ishmael. Right? Now he's a descendant. He's a son of Abraham, isn't he? But the covenant's not going through him.

And the reason is that Ishmael was not generated through faith. He was generated through the scheming of people. Paul says it's by the flesh that he was generated. K? Isaac is the child of promise because he was generated by faith.

Because how old was Sarah when Isaac was conceived? 99. 99. Right? I mean, how is this it's not possible.

And yet God spoke, Genesis 18, and it happened by faith, believing his report again. God's way is always like that. So the people who are of faith are the ones that are gonna fulfill God's promise to Abraham, just like Abraham received the promise by faith. The scripture again, Paul's referring to the scripture. The scripture foresaw this.

The scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the nations by faith. The Gentiles, the non Jewish people. You know, you think about what Paul's saying. Again, for a Jewish person, this is scandalous what you're saying. That someone who's not Jewish could be right with God.

This is the only way they knew how to think. In Jesus's day, in Paul's day, they were absolutely convinced of it and some of them were killing Christians because of their convictions. Paul was one. Understand, he was killing people. He was stand well, he didn't I mean, he was standing there while Stephen was being killed.

And then he was arresting people, throwing him in prison. He was going to another country to do the same thing in acts nine when the Lord Jesus appeared to him and said Here's my paraphrase. You're not right. You're not you don't understand what you're doing. You're actually persecuting me when you're doing it to these people.

They're a part of me. They're in my family, in my household. When you touch them, you're touching me. And Paul's world was revolutionized because he realized it. God, you're not doing what I want.

You're doing what you said. You ever find yourself in a moment like that in life? God, you're not doing what I want. But then you realize you're doing what you said, aren't you? He hit a wall.

He couldn't couldn't deal with anything anymore in the way that he had been. So he says in second Corinthians, we no longer see anyone according to the flesh. We see according to the spirit now. It's completely different. And what Paul discovered is that God's intention is not to make Gentile people Jewish.

It's to make Gentile people children of Abraham. Not through a natural process, but through the spiritual process of believing the report, believing the promise of God, and then receiving the spirit that makes them like Abraham. It verifies the fact that they are believing God. He says the scriptures predicted this, that God would do this. He would justify the Gentiles.

He would make the the nations right with himself by faith. They preached the gospel ahead of time to Abraham saying this, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Well, this is another scripture verse from Genesis. And we look the one from Genesis 15.

This one's from Genesis 12. Let's go back to that. Now again, Genesis 12 verses one through three. This is the first time God ever appears to Abraham. The first time.

Again, Paul saying, let's go back to the beginning. What was God's actual intention for Abraham? What was his actual purpose? What was the strategy God was employing? Why did he call Abraham?

Well, Genesis 12 tells us why he called Abraham. Says in verse two, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I mean, there's so much here we could spend the rest of the day unpacking this stuff. You just see the heart of God here? Number one, it's not just about Abram.

It is about Abram, but it's also not. It's about Abram because he's training him to be a man of faith. He's he's doing that. But God sees so far ahead. Right?

God's like looking at Abraham saying, I see you, but I also see through you. I'm calling you because I'm gonna make you into something. I'm gonna make you a nation. God sees in Abram a nation. K.

He sees in one man a nation of people. He's not gonna bless you. I'm gonna make you famous. Everybody will hear of you, which in a way is like absolutely true. Isn't it?

Still, to this day. I mean, Abraham maybe lived I don't know if we know exactly for April ago. Everybody just about I mean, not everybody. Okay? But let's say seven eighths of the planet probably bases their religion on Abraham in some way or another.

Muslims, Jews, Christians, Abraham is the start of everything for these three monotheistic faiths. God I would say God fulfilled his word. He made his name great. Like, Abraham is the root, and there's a reason for that because God made him promises. He said, I'm gonna make your name great.

I'm gonna bless you, but also I'm gonna make you a blessing. See, God doesn't just raise up people to get blessed. He raises them up to bless them so that they can bless others. This is whole mentality. That's why he built Israel.

Israel was built to bless the world. I mean, this is verse three. I will bless those who bless you, I will and him who dishonors you, I will curse so that in you, and the you here is plural. In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Israel was supposed to be God's greatest servant.

I mean, that's the whole vision of God for the old covenant was to raise up a nation that would serve him by bringing blessing to all the world. Well, they didn't they didn't do that very well. And time and time again, they got chastised and warned, and in the end, judged significantly through the exile. If you remember this in the Old Testament, he uprooted them from their land. They went off to Babylon and Assyria and other places.

The temple was destroyed. The city of Jerusalem was devastated because they didn't live up to this idea, this vision that God gave Abraham. Well, Jesus does this perfectly. He becomes the servant of God. Faithfully doing his will and everything.

Like what Israel could not do, Jesus did. He becomes that expression of God's purpose. Well, why is Paul quoting Genesis 12 and Galatians three? Because he's saying this is the this is the gospel. What's happening to you is what what Abraham predicted, that in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Okay. In you shall all the nations be blessed. That's what's happening Paul says right now. Through the gospel going forward, Paul is actually arguing this. That the preaching of the gospel about Jesus Christ is fulfilling God's ancient promise to Abraham.

So what he's saying. The the very thing God intended to do at the beginning, he is now fulfilling through this good news about Jesus going forth to all the world. So that it becomes obvious that you don't need to be Jewish actually. You can be blessed. You can be right with God.

You can be restored to your purpose as a human being. If you're Greek or if you're a barbarian or if you're Roman or Egyptian in the ancient world, you could have been a Syrian, if you were, Tyro Phoenician. It doesn't matter. The your ethnic marking, your your ethnic identity is not the issue here. The issue here is do you believe the promise God's giving you?

As it is demonstrated in the person of Jesus. It's through faith in that message, faith in that promise. Just like Abraham believed the promise and he was God said that's righteousness right there. You and me, we're given the opportunity to believe a promise too. All.

God's saying, if you will believe in him like Abraham believed my promise, then it'll be right with me. And then wonder upon wonders, I'm gonna give you my own spirit as the evidence of the fact that you're right. As the evidence of the fact that you're in my household, you're gonna share my spirit. That's what I'm gonna do. Last time I was here I talked about this, God builds family.

How does he build family? By people getting born again into his household. And how are they born again? By the spirit. It's the life force of God.

It's his powerful bright presence. And when he gets in you, you can't remain the same. This is the presence of God we're talking about, God's spirit. And Paul argues, it never would have worked to try to do this with the law. K.

That's the next little bit is about. Verse 10. All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. The the law cannot make you right, guys. This is what Paul's tell telling in Galatians.

These folks are coming in and they're telling you to keep the law, it'll make you right. I'm telling you, the law can do no such thing and it was never intended to. The law results in a curse, he says. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Think if they think that's Deuteronomy 27 verse 26 if you're keeping score at home.

Again, he's appealing to the scriptures. He's telling them, read your own Bible. You if you don't do everything, k, the result is curse. You you think doing the law is what's gonna make you right? I'm telling you the law itself testifies against that.

Because if you can't do it all, then you can't do it. And the result is curse. You're gonna preach that to the nations? You think that's gonna bring blessing to the nations? It didn't even bring blessing to you.

It had resulted in your judgment, and you think that the way to bring blessing to the nations is to export the Torah? Look what it look what it happened to you. The the whole story of Israel is in his heart. Verse 11, it's obvious. No one is justified before God by the law because the righteous live by faith.

Again, quoting the bible. Anybody know this scripture reference? The righteous will live by faith. Habakkuk what? Two four.

Who said it? Right here. I was looking over your head. Okay. Habakkuk, another I'm sure you guys always do your devotions out of Habakkuk.

It's such a popular Old Testament. It's not really a popular Old Testament book, but it is a powerful book illustrating God's ways. And one of the ways of God is this, you don't live by works, you live by faith. That's that's how the righteous do it. How do we know that?

Abraham. I mean, it just Paul's logic is solid, and he's pointing it out one stage at a time. This is how it started with Abraham. God's never changed his mind. God didn't look at Abraham and say, oh, your faith, you're believing my promise, that's righteousness.

And then to Moses say, oh, you're keeping of my law my law and your your observances, that's righteousness. No. God is not schizophrenic. He's he's not like, he's always approaching it the same way. This is what righteousness is.

It's to believe my report. It's to be convinced that I am who I say and I'm gonna do what I say. The law can't generate faith. The law says, the one who does them shall live by them. The law is not of faith.

It doesn't operate on the same level as faith. The law is the working out of a relationship with God for the ancient Jewish people. The law is a way for them to define their way of life, and build their culture, and organize their society, but it doesn't produce faith. The law can't, it doesn't produce life. Faith produces that.

The good news is that the Messiah, verse 13, redeemed us from the curse that came from the law. He bore the curse for us. So he came the became the curse for us. It's written, again, in the Bible, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Jesus Christ, the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations, that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

Well, here's the summary then. What happens in Jesus is the fulfillment of Genesis 12 verse three. That when the people from all the world, okay, Arabs, Europeans, folks from India, folks that are Mandarin, folks that are Kenyan, when when people from all the world believe the message about Jesus, then God fulfills the promise he made all those years ago to Abraham. How does he do it? He gives them something that he promised them, the spirit.

Here's Paul's biblical exegesis, actually. Families of the earth in Genesis twelve three is the spirit who is now being poured out for those who believe Jesus. It's an amazing statement. Promise is being fulfilled. The thing that he told Abraham he would do, he is now doing.

And this is what is our joy to receive. By by that gospel message, we can become people filled with God's spirit. It's our marker. It's it's what Paul says it's what seals us, Ephesians one thirteen. Evidence of the fact that we belong to him and that we're right with him.

The spirit. It's an amazing thing that's happening in the gospel. And this is what we're seeking to and and desire. That as people of God, we would we would know and recognize and experience the reality of his spirit in our lives. Now, I'm gonna leave you with one more thing.

Again, this was not out of nowhere. God prepared the way for this. You say, well, how did Paul get this idea that the blessing of Abraham translates to the reception of the spirit? Let's look at Isaiah 44. Isaiah 44.

Paul was a brilliant guy but he also was a biblical scholar, if I could put it that way. He he invested his life into studying the scriptures. He's the one who told Timothy they can make you wise for salvation. And Paul knew, like, this there's a section in Isaiah chapter 40 through 55 that focuses on the servant of God who's going to suffer. Yes.

But who's also going to make it possible shining in the nations and bringing hope and life and forgiveness and grace. In the middle of that section is this little statement, Isaiah 44. Verse three. I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing upon your descendants.

See Isaiah, you know, he's seven hundred years before Paul. And this this guy in the Holy Spirit is prophesying and saying, the blessing that's promised for the descendants of Abraham is the spirit of God. This is this is what God meant because by the spirit he makes himself known to all the families of the earth. In the end, the blessing that should be distributed to all the nations is himself. God is gonna use a people to reveal the knowledge of himself to the whole world.

Guys, that's what we're a part of. And the only way it works is by the spirit. So this morning, I just want to exhort you in this. I wanna encourage you, like, you have access to God himself. Not just among you here when you're gathered but within you wherever you go.

Paul says both things. He says in first Corinthians six, don't you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Meaning you personally because God dwells in you. And then in first Corinthians three, he says, you all are God's temple, and God's temple is holy. So he knows this and I I just I I feel like I'm here today to remind you of who you are to him.

K. You are a dwelling place. God dwells in you. If you have believed his report in about Jesus, then he dwells in you. And I'm urging you, I'm urging you to take that truth and explore it.

Like, plumb the depths of what it means for God to be in you. Access. Tap into the reality of God's presence in your life. Like, just just see what he wants to do. Because you can't listen, if you will submit to the Lord 100%, if you will really believe his message to you, that you are a daughter, you are a son, you belong to a household, the greatest household in history.

You have a destiny. It's stamped upon you because God's Spirit says so. Okay? That nothing you're doing now is irrelevant. One of the craziest verses in the bible.

I'm sorry I keep going. I'm gonna stop. First Corinthians fifteen and fifty eight, it says this, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, for your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Guys, that's not a verse, Bible verse written for pastors, or bishops, or religious leaders. That's written to the church in Corinth.

And Paul's saying always. Always give yourselves fully to God's work. You say, well, I'm a bus driver. It doesn't matter. Always give yourself fully to his work even while you're doing that.

Or I'm a stay at home mom. It doesn't matter. I'm a librarian. It doesn't matter. Always.

He's always with you. You're always a part of what he's doing. Be ready. Be prepared. Get your heart lined up with God's agenda.

Prepare your mind. First Peter one says, you know, buckle your belt and get ready for action. It's it's time. We're living in the greatest days of human history. Before it's all said and done, we're gonna see a move of God across the nations.

You know this. Right? The the kingdom is gonna cover the earth. The the spirit is gonna break out. We're gonna see revival.

We'll see persecution, I believe, as well. Like hostility and opposition like we've never seen. But God is faithful, and he's not this thing is not gonna fizzle out at the end. It's just that the Bible itself that says the end of a thing is better than the beginning. God knows where this is going.

I'm urging you. Let's get ready. God in every Amen. Let me pray for you. Lord, we stand, both trembling but also also filled with excitement when we when we think about your word.

God, I believe that what you are saying to us today has to do with our destiny. It has to do with who we are in our in the core of our being. It has to do with throwing off old ways, throwing off, things that lead to death, things that are are fleshly, things that do not profit us at all, and turning our hearts and giving our full attention to you, the King, the Lord of all. You who dwell within us, even now by your spirit in giving us the grace of your presence and your power. God, raise us up right here in the Chicago land area.

Raise us up. God, move in our churches, move across denominational or fellowship lines. Just fill your people with courage and hope and light. Lord, we wanna see a move of the spirit in our city, in our region like we've never seen. We wanna see God.

People coming to faith from every walk of life. We wanna see people who are full of fear and doubt and dread. We wanna see them filled with life and hope and joy. Drawn near to us, Holy Spirit. Lord, have your way, we pray.

Build us, God, as a people who are right with you because we believe this promise, and we receive the spirit by faith. So making us into children like Abraham was. Thank you God that you've invited us into this, that you consider us sons and daughters. Regardless of our ethnic heritage, God, you we are integrated into your family. It's awesome.

It's beautiful, and we love you for it. We thank you, Lord. We pray for your blessing to be extended afresh in the name of Jesus. Amen.