Redeemed To Receive The Holy Spirit Series

January 29, 2017

Morning Worship

Text: Galatians 3:14

Subject: The Blessing of Abraham

Title: Redeemed to Receive the Holy Spirit

WE have spent the last eight weeks in a series that we called “Redeemed” and the focus of the series has been to raise your faith level to the point where you can fully understand who you are “in Christ” and to “forgot not all His benefits”…

Galatians 3:7-9 (NKJV)

7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

I believe with all my heart that the bible teaches us that it is God’s desire that those who know Him be blessed. Now you can define blessing any way you want. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms… So if you want to you can limit the blessings to being blessed spiritually and you won’t be any worse off for it.

But I believe that we are intended to receive blessings from the Lord as the church of Jesus Christ. Physical health, power and authority, the fulfillment of our needs and even God’s blessing on our finances, our businesses, our families, our work places, and potentially every decision we make for our future…

Now, having said all that, I will say this: Though all these blessings are real for us there is more to it than just recognizing the promise and then claiming it as your own. You have a responsibility to live out a prescribed course of action for your life if you are ever to have the confidence and the faith to receive from the Lord.

Galatians 3:13-14 (NKJV)

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"),

14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

I believe this is God’s word…

I believe it is for me…

I accept it as mine…

I will appropriate it to my life today…

Verse 14 is the key to everything that we have spoken of for the last two months.

14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The key thing to see here…

The blessings only come through your receiving the promise of the Spirit. Understanding this equates our relationship with the Father as the same as that of Abraham.

Paul, in writing to the church in Rome about Abraham,

Romans 4:18-22 (NKJV)

18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."

19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."

So if we are going to receive the blessing of Abraham through the promise of the Spirit, it must come to us how? – By faith! And that must be faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ. Oh can you see that? It doesn’t matter how good you are, or how highly esteemed you are in this world, you can never be good enough to earn favor with God. It is only through faith in Jesus that you receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Not by church membership…

Not by baptism…

Not because of your denomination…

Only through faith in Christ!

Back in Deuteronomy 28 we saw the list of all the blessings that God wanted to pour out on His people, and yet there was one prerequisite that accompanied the blessing… They had to be obedient to the Word of God. And under the New Covenant that obedience only comes through meeting the requirements of faith. We trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That is what makes us Abraham’s descendants.

Now, let’s take this a step further. We understand that there are two separate acts of grace concerning the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in the scriptures. The first is what we already talked about – salvation – trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.