All right, amen. This morning I want to preach a sermon entitled The Gospel in the Old Testament,
The Gospel in the Old Testament. And this is an important doctrine because of the fact that
today you have a lot of people out there that want to teach that there was different modes of
salvation throughout the scripture, that there's these different dispensations,
that there was the dispensation of the law and the dispensation of grace,
and they break it down even beyond that. They get into several different dispensations.
And so it's important to understand because really what they're preaching
is another gospel. You know, salvation has always been by faith through, you know,
all the time, all the way from the beginning on today and even into the future. Salvation will
only be through the blood of Christ. It will only be by faith. There aren't going to be
these different modes of salvation as some people like to teach. And it's important too
because when people start to get into this heresy of preaching other gospels,
and that's what they are, then they start to come up with all these other kind of hair-brained,
half-baked ideas about the scripture. And they start teaching things like, you know,
Jesus was only sent to the house of Israel, and the apostles and Paul were only sent to
certain other groups of people, you know, Paul only to the Gentiles. And people can get really
confused about these things. So I really just want to preach just to kind of clear that up.
Not that I doubt anybody in here, you know, is, you know, falling prey to this kind of teaching,
but it's always good to be shored up on these things and to be reminded
of the fact that salvation is by grace through faith. And, you know, what a great and
marvelous gift it is. And, you know, the simplicity that is in Christ and to not lose
sight of that. So let me just begin again by saying that salvation has always been by faith.
And that's how we know that the gospel was preached in the Old Testament. Because the gospel of our
salvation is the gospel of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection.
So when we look back and we see New Testament passages that are explaining to us
that the Old Testament saints, those believers from back then, were saved by faith,
well then it just stands to reason that they understood the gospel.
Now obviously they might not have understood every single thing that we understand today.
For instance, they didn't know the name of Jesus, right? And even God was known by different names,
the Lord Almighty, you know, Jehovah, those names were revealed over time. The name Jesus
wasn't revealed until his conception in the New Testament. So obviously they might not have
always, might have known, you know, the finer details that have been revealed unto us in the
New Testament today, but they have always understood that salvation is by faith, okay?
And Abraham, who is the father of our faith, is a great example of this. That's why we're there in
Romans 4 this morning. If you look at verse 1, it says, what shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? Now how is he our father? Because of the
fact that we are, we are of faith, right? We then, our faith, are the children of Abraham, okay?
So he's our father through faith. What shall we say that Abraham, our father, as pertaining
the flesh, hath found? If Abraham were justified by works, he hath word of glory, but not before God.
A lot of people that teach this, you know, different modes of salvation, what they're
going to teach you is that in the Old Testament, you know, they were saved by works,
and then they'll teach that in the, during the tribulation, in the future, that people will
once again be saved by works. You know, we might kind of take that for granted because we're
here, you know, in what they would call the dispensation of grace, and we, you know,
they would say, hey, yeah, now we're saved by faith. We might kind of just take this
teaching for granted, but you know, what good is that going to do people in the future?
You know, what if people that are going through the tribulation, they hear this false gospel
that you're saved by works? You know, that's going to damn them to hell. So you can see why
this is an important doctrine. But it says here, what shall we say that Abraham, as pertaining
the flesh, hath found? If Abraham were justified by works, he hath word of the glory,
but not before God, right? He can, he can glory before man, he can boast of himself,
but he cannot do so before God, right? You can't, you cannot glory before God about his works,
right? That's why salvation is by grace through faith, lest any man should boast, right? We don't
want to, that, where no one's going to get to heaven and boast of their own works.
For what sayeth the scripture, verse three, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. So we see right here, how was Abraham made righteous in the sight of God?
It was because of the fact that he believed God, which is just another word that is synonymous
with faith, right? Abraham had faith, Abraham believed, Abraham trusted in the Lord, trusted in
God, and that his faith was counted to him for righteousness. Look at verse four,
not to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. He's saying,
look, if you're going to try and work your way to heaven, you are in debt, right?
Whosoever shall keep the law, you know, you know, if we, if we endeavor to keep the law,
you have to, you are bound to keep the entire law. You have to keep all of it, okay? You're,
you're dead into it. You can't just keep some of the law and go to heaven. You have to keep
all of it, right? And theoretically speaking, if any one of us in the room this morning
could keep the whole law, then we could go to heaven based on our own merit. But we all know,
for all sin comes short of the glory of God, that's why Christ said to come and die,
right? It's not even possible. Verse four, not to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned
of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. And again, he's pointing us back to Abraham
as an example of somebody that was counted righteous by faith, right? So again, that's
a proof right there that the gospel was understood to some degree, even in the Old
Testament. And even in this passage we have another example of somebody who understood the
gospel in the Old Testament. If you look there in verse six, even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works. Now it's saying
there that David described that man, you know, David is the one that penned that down and said
blessed is the man to whom God impudeth righteousness without works, right? So David
understood that salvation is by faith in the Old Testament. They understood the gospel in the Old
Testament. Saying blessed are they whose sins, or excuse me, whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So we see
here that salvation has been by faith. David understood this. Abraham clearly understood this.
Verse nine, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision
also. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then
reckoned? Not when he was in circumcision, excuse me, when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision,
not in circumcision but in uncircumcision. Obviously, you know, Paul here is trying to make
the point more applicable to the Jews of that day because they were trusting in the law, part
of which was circumcision. And he's pointing out, hey look, Abraham was counted, you know,
counted righteous by his faith before circumcision was even a thing. Okay, so that's kind of what the
application he's making here. Look at verse 11, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal
of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised. Saying the only reason
he did that, it was simply a sign, it was a seal of the righteousness that he already had.
It wasn't something he did in order to get saved. That he might be the father of all those
who work their way to heaven, of all those that get circumcised, of all those that keep the law,
all those that do more good than bad. No, of all them that believe. That's who he is the father
of, those that have faith, right? He's the example of this in the New Testament, so it's
pretty clear to us that the old, that the gospel was understood in the Old Testament, that
it was by faith, okay? Because that's how we're saved, by faith. You know, we'll, you know, a lot of
times we'll say things like, oh we're saved by, you know, by the death, burial, resurrection of Christ,
and that's true, but what we really mean by that is we're saved by our faith in that. You know,
because obviously Christ is the propitiation, not for our sins only, but for the sins of the
whole world. He died for everybody, but that doesn't mean everyone's going to heaven, only
those that have put their faith in him. So ultimately it's faith that is saving him, it's the fact
that he believed God that has gotten him saved. And we'll see here in a minute that they
understood certain aspects of the old, of the gospel in the Old Testament. Now that's not to
say that they didn't understand more, we're just simply looking at what we can see in scripture
and kind of, you know, surmising what it is that we know at the very least they understood.
They might have understood even more, you know, because we don't have everything that they had
back then. Okay. And I'll show you that here in a minute.
If you would go over to Matthew chapter number 15, we're done in Romans and go to Matthew
chapter number 15. And this fact, the fact that Abraham believed God, and this was what was
counted in for righteousness, this is something that the Bible quotes several times throughout
scripture. This is something that the Bible refers back to in the New Testament more than
once. You have it again in James, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for
righteousness. We'll see here in a little bit in Galatians, it's brought up again.
But just at the beginning of the sermon here, we're just pointing out the fact that salvation
is by faith, always has been. And it's clear that others in the Old Testament understood this,
and that there wasn't these different, you know, dispensations, these different ways of getting
saved in the different, you know, in these different testaments throughout, you know,
throughout time. It's always been by faith. Okay. You know, for example, Noah obviously
understood this, you know, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 4,
Seth, you know, and other, you know, had a son born unto him and then began man to what,
call upon the name of the Lord. Okay. So others have understood this. We see this in
scripture. And you say, why is this important? Obviously, you know, probably everybody in
the room is saved. Probably everybody here even already believes this. But we need to understand
this because of the fact that, you know, when we run across people that would preach otherwise,
it's not just that they're a little mixed up. Now, safe people can maybe get in a church
where this is taught and get mixed up a little bit, but then you have people out there that
are, you know, the hyper dispensationalists that are just rank heretics, they're going to go
to hell because they're preaching another gospel, you know, and they need to be called out.
And this doctrine needs to be made clear. This needs to be preached. Because preaching that
salvation is by any other means is another gospel. Okay. Keep something in Matthew, I should
have gone to Galatians. Okay. Go back to Galatians chapter number one, Galatians chapter
number one. I'm sure we're all familiar with it, but you're in Matthew, keep something in
Matthew 15, go to Galatians chapter number one. When people begin to preach some other
way of salvation or that salvation was earned somehow, they are preaching another gospel.
And look, we see that taking place even today, you know, in different cults. You know,
really when you boil it down, there's really only two religions in the world.
There's the religion of salvation by grace through faith, and then there's the religion
of works. Because every other religion is going to preach works, somehow earning your way into
heaven. You know, the Catholics are going to teach you, you have to keep the sacraments,
that you have to be baptized and you have to, you know, go to church, you confess your sins,
you got to pray the rosary, and then you might make it to heaven. You got a chance, right? Or
maybe purgatory won't be as long, right? Maybe if you get enough people to give enough
enough money here on earth after you die, you know, maybe they'll buy you out of heaven,
right? That's all works. Mormons are going to preach that you have to be a good person,
you know, they're going to have you have to do works. People that believe you can
lose your salvation if you, you know, live a wicked life, you know, they're relying on their
works, whether they realize that or not. So really, it just comes down to the fact that there's only
two religions in the world, salvation by grace through faith and works. You know, what we
believe is the truth, that salvation is a free gift, it's not something we have to
earn, it's not something we have to work for, it's not something that we can lose.
What everybody else believes is that somehow they have to earn their way to heaven
and they have to merit salvation. So it's important to understand this doctrine because
of the fact that there's people out there that are preaching salvation by works and they're not,
you know, preaching this multiple ways to heaven throughout time is preaching another gospel,
okay? You know, if anyone preached another gospel, let him be accursed, okay? The we or
an angel of heaven preach any other gospel that which we have preached unto you, let them be
accursed, okay? Galatians chapter one, there it says in verse six,
I marvel that you are so soon removed for him that called you in the grace of Christ unto
another gospel. So here's Paul preaching, you know, writing to the Galatians and he's marveling,
he's wondering, he's, you know, just taken aback, he's shocked that these people have
been removed from the grace unto another gospel, okay? Meaning they're receiving another gospel,
they're putting up with this heresy of somebody preaching another gospel. Look at verse seven,
which is not another, meaning it's not a gospel because gospel is good news, right?
The good news of the gospel, the glad tidings is that salvation is by grace through faith,
that there's nothing we have to do, that Christ paid it all, that all we have to do is
believe, salvation is easy, that's good news. If we were to go around and start telling
people you got to join my church and be baptized and quit, you know, quit sitting and do all
these other works, that's not a gospel, that's not glad tidings, that's not good news
because maintaining good works is hard. That's why even believers have to be constantly,
you know, encouraged and told and commanded to maintain good works and to do the things
that they ought not in order to get to heaven but because they are saved, okay? To earn rewards
in heaven and to live a life that's pleasing to God. So when he says this is not another
gospel, what he's saying is, you know, it's masquerading as a gospel but in fact it's not
a gospel, okay? Because gospel is good news. But there be some that trouble you, verse 7,
and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So nothing's changed. Even in Paul's day,
people are already trying to pervert the gospel, always trying to, already trying
to creep in and bring in damnable heresies and spread lies. Verse 8, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed. You know, tell that to the Mormons. You know, they had the angels
appear to, you know, their prophet Joseph Smith and they're preaching another gospel,
you know, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say, now again, if any man preached
any other gospel unto you than he ever seemed, let him be accursed. So twice right in a row,
Paul is saying, if someone comes along and starts preaching another gospel, then what we've
preached, let him be accursed. Let him be damned, right? That's what he's saying.
That's what it means to be accursed. Let him be under the wrath of God. See, well, that's kind
of harsh. Well, you know, what's harsher is the fact that there's people out there that
are preaching a false gospel that are leading people to hell. You know, and a lot of times
we get misunderstood or I'll be misunderstood as saying, oh, you hate Catholics or you hate
Jews or you hate Mormons. No, I don't hate these individual people. What I hate is the
false religion that's damning them to hell. That's what I hate. You know, I hate lies.
I hate people that preach lies. I hate false prophets, but I feel compassion for those that
have been duped by some false gospel, by some workspace salvation. And look, it's the person
that's preaching these things that deserves to be accursed. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you that we've ever seen, let him be accursed. He's not saying anyone that's believed
this, let them be accursed. No, we need to preach messages like this. We need to understand
this doctrine so we can go out and pull them out of the fire, saving them even by fear.
You know, hating the garment, you know, spotted by the flesh. We need to save these people,
right? But the people that would preach this, the people that would promote this,
the people that would bring in these damnable heresies, let them be accursed.
That's what the Bible says. You know, I'm just lining up with Paul this morning.
You know, one particular person that maybe probably nobody in the room even knows
is this hyper dispensationalist that's on YouTube. Now, let me just say, I don't
spend a lot of time surfing YouTube looking for heretics. You know, I was uploading some videos,
I uploaded a few of my own shorts, clips from my own sermons, and as I was reviewing it,
you know, viewed on YouTube, viewed my clip to see how it turned out,
immediately is followed up by this other guy. I'm thinking, great, my clips are going to lead
to this, you know, and it's this guy Robert, I think it's his first name,
Breaker, who's heard of Robert Breaker, a few hands, okay? And he's this guy that stands in
front of a whiteboard, gets all complicated, but he preaches, you know, I have a lot of,
watched a lot, I only needed to watch about 60 seconds to hear some damnable heresy come out
of his mouth, and he's one that preaches, you know, these different dispensations.
He's a hyper dispensationalist, these different modes of salvation. He preaches another
gospel, the other gospels will preach, but you know what, let him be accursed.
And one thing in particular that I'm going to deal with, you go back to Matthew 15,
is where he talks about how Jesus was sent only to Israel, and that Paul was sent to
the Galatians, or excuse me, to the Gentiles, rather. So he teaches that, you know, we don't
need to pay attention to Jesus's, you know, preaching as much, because that wasn't for us,
that was only for Israel at that time. But you see, why would anyone come up with that?
Because of the fact that they think that there's these different gospels that were preached at
different times to different people, right? But here's the thing, if we understand that the
gospel has always been the same, that salvation has always been by faith, it wouldn't matter who
goes to who, would it? Because they're bringing the same message. Once you understand
that, it's like, it doesn't make any sense, oh Jesus can only preach to the, you know,
to the house of Israel. Well what does it matter if he's preaching the exact same thing
that Paul's preaching, right? That's, and they are, by the way, but when they start
saying, oh will Paul preach this, and Jesus preached that, and back here it was this,
and Moses preached this, and Adam preached that, and Noah preached this, and they have
all these different messages, all these different so-called gospels that were being preached,
they come up with these stupid ideas like this, that Jesus only preached to Israel,
he didn't care anything about anybody else. You know, and as soon as I heard that,
I just started thinking about all these stories where Jesus is reaching out to the Gentiles,
preaching to the Gentiles, I mean, he's, you know, John 3 16, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Whosoever! He loves the world, and that was out of the mouth of Jesus.
But look there in Matthew chapter 15, and look at verse 24, this is his proof text.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but under the house lost sheep of the house of
Israel. So he's got his whiteboard out, and he's making, see, Jesus said he was sent only
to the lost house of the sheep of Israel, right? The lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And you would read that and go, oh yeah, I guess that makes sense. But here's the problem,
when you start to actually read it in context, okay, first ask yourself, who's he saying that
to? Okay, read the rest of the story. Back up to verse 21, and then Jesus went
thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Now those are the coasts of the Gentiles.
That's not Israel. Tyre, Sidon, these are, that's why it's in the coasts, that just means borders,
right? Those are the coasts of Israel. And he's entering, he's departing into the coast,
he's going to a group of people whose message is not relevant to them, that he's
actually not sent to preach to, that they should just ignore, according to guys like this,
this Robert Breaker. But here he is going into the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and behold,
a woman of Canaan. Does it say an Israelite? No, it's a woman of Canaan. She's of Canaanite descent,
right? She came out of the coast and cried unto him, saying, have mercy on me, O Lord,
thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil, but he answered her not
a word. Now you might say, aha, see, maybe Breaker's onto something, he's ignoring her.
And his disciples came and besought him and saying, send her away.
Right? They've been watching too much Robert Breaker. She cryeth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he does say this to this
woman, right? Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said,
it is not neat to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. And she said, truth,
Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered
and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her
daughter was made whole from that very hour. So you can see how you might be just lift a verse
or two out of the story and say, see, Jesus was only sent. He called her a dog and said,
oh, it's not me to give you the children's food. It's not, you know, I'm only sent to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But when you read the entirety of it, you know,
one, if his message isn't for the Gentiles, why is he going to the Gentiles?
You know, I don't think Jesus was in the habit of wasting his time. He's going there for a very
specific purpose. And then he's actually just testing this woman's faith. You know, she wants
this thing from him, but he's saying, well, let me test your faith. You know, let me call
you basically a dog. That's what he did there. Right? I mean, basically he's insulting her in a
way. Just saying, hey, let's see if you really have the faith. And she worships him.
And she just says, you know, that's true, but hey, can we get some grace too?
And you know, she gets what she wants. Great is thy faith. Right. You know, another story,
go to John chapter four. This idea that Jesus was only sent to the house of Israel
doesn't line up with scripture. It's ridiculous. You know, you don't see Jesus just ignoring
Gentiles, do you? Throughout scripture. But you see him going into the house,
into the coast of Tyre and Siloam. Right? Matthew chapter eight, verse 10, when Jesus heard it,
he marveled and said, and this is of course the story of the Centurion, right? Who came and
said, you know, Lord, you don't even need to come to my house. Just say the word and my
servant shall be healed. You don't even have to come here. You know, I'm a man under authority
saying to the one, go, and he goeth and another come and he cometh. Just tell me,
just say the word and I know it'll happen. Right? This is a guy with great faith.
No need to test this man's faith. He's already, he's already expressing his faith. Hey, all your
God, you're the Lord, you're the Messiah. All you have to say, just do is just say the word
and it'll happen. And Jesus, when he heard it, marveled and said unto them that followed,
verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say
unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven saying the Gentile nations are going to come
in the kingdom of heaven and sit down with the fathers of our faith, the patriarchs.
But the children of the kingdom, you know, those that descended from him
shall be cast into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And Jesus said unto the centurion, a Roman who's literally ruling over Israel.
You know, the Roman empire is ruling them. They've got them subjugated, right? They're
paying taxes. They're having to obey their laws. And he says unto the centurion, go thy way,
as thou has believed, so it be done unto thee. And a servant was healed in the same self,
same hour. You know, the centurion didn't come to him and say, I can't talk to you.
I'm not sent to you. You know, the woman that came out of the coast of Tyre and Sidon,
she came to me and said, well, I'm not, I'm not here to talk to you. I'm only here
for a specific group of people and it's not, you know, Jesus came for everybody
because it's the same gospel for everyone at all times.
Go to John chapter four. You know, I heard this and these are just a few stories just
start popping into my head as I'm thinking about it. How this foolish doctrine, you know,
which of that Jesus is only sent unto the lost, you know, only to Israel and just holds no water.
And you just see all these examples, John four, verse three, he left Judea and departed to Galilee
and he must needs go through Samaria. Verse 39, of course, we know this is the woman at the well,
right? The Samaritan, which was, you know, people that had, there was a lot of animosity
between the Israelites and, you know, the Jews of that day and the Samaritans because the
Samaritans were a mixed breed of the Assyrians and the Northern kingdom. Okay. But he's there
preaching to them. He preaches this woman and she goes and tells it in the city. And then all
the Samaritans, verse 39, many of the Samaritans that said he believed on him for the saying of
the woman, which testified, he told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans were
come unto him, they beside him, that he would tarry with them. And he abode there two days
and many more believed because, because of his own word. So Jesus is just hanging out,
preaching to the Samaritans, right? Preaching to people that are not just the house of Israel,
preaching to the woman in, you know, going in a tired side on preaching there,
preaching to the Centurion, anyone that would come to him, he would preach to.
What about when Jesus tells us to go and teach all nations? And that was his command
to his apostles. John 3 16, God so loved the world, right? That was what Jesus said.
So you can see where, you know, this kind of thinking, this kind of people just get off on
these tangents and they start thinking all these foolish things when they get up, you know,
one bad doctrine leads to another, right? When you start thinking that salvation has been
different through different time, periods of time throughout the Bible, you know, you start
coming up with a lot of weird stuff because you're unsaved because you're accursed because
you're preaching another gospel and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them. So how could somebody read the Bible and come up with
such a foolish doctrine because they're unsaved, because they're a natural man?
You ever wonder that how people can just believe just ridiculous, stupid things?
They could lift verses out of the Bible and just get it completely wrong, completely
backwards. It's because they're not saved. They can't understand it. That's what the Bible says.
You know, they have, you have to have the Spirit of God. You have to be saved
in order to be able to understand the Word of God.
And that's why even when you tell these people, you try to straighten them out and
show them clear scripture, you know, they'll fight you tooth and nail.
You know, they're going to constantly resist because they're unsaved.
But again, we're talking about the gospel and the Old Testament.
So go to Galatians chapter number three, Galatians chapter number three.
You know, one of the proofs that the gospel was preached,
even the Old Testament, is the fact that people were saved by faith in the Old Testament.
You know, they understood the gospel in the Old Testament to get saved.
I mean, how else would that have happened?
Okay. We're already in Galatians three. I think I had you there a minute ago, right?
I should have just stayed there with Galatians one.
Galatians three, it says in verse one,
Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you.
This only would I learn of you received you the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith. Saying, did you get saved? Did you get the Holy Spirit
through doing works or was it by the hearing of faith?
Are you so foolish having now begun the Spirit and now made perfect by the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?
Here he therefore that minister to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.
Verse six, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted for him for righteousness.
So he's making the case, hey, don't be bewitched by this other gospel.
Don't be fooled by this. Think about the fact that you were saved by faith,
that you're not made perfect by the flesh. Those that are preaching and working miracles
are doing it by faith. He's saying it's by faith, it's by faith, it's by faith.
It's redundant. And then he cites, let me remind you again of Abraham,
that he was saved by faith. He believed God and that's what is accounted for righteousness.
So he's trying to get the Galatians to see that salvation is by faith.
Who does it refer to? Only somebody in the New Testament, right? Because obviously that,
you know, people were saved in a different way back then.
You know, if Abraham were saved from some other way, then it wouldn't make any sense
that what he's saying here, but he refers back to Abraham and says, look, it's by faith.
Here's the proof. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,
which proves again that salvation has always been by faith.
And it's so clear. It's so obvious. Verse 7,
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.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Now notice here in verse 8, it's saying that the scripture preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, right? And then he quotes God, right?
And these shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
That's what the Lord told Abraham, right? But the scripture cites that.
Obviously it was God that told him that, in a sense,
God's the one preaching the gospel unto him, okay?
But it's showing us here in verse 8 that the gospel was preached unto Abraham.
What was preached unto him? The gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel.
Salvation by faith, okay? Now people can get confused on this sometimes.
And I've had people come to me, and I've heard this expressed over the years,
where people try to figure out, they get confused on how people were saved in the Old Testament.
And one of the big mistakes that they make is that they just try to,
they just assume that we have everything that they had back then.
Or they try to examine how people got saved only from the perspective of the Old Testament.
You know, they'll read about Abraham and others and say,
well, I just don't see where somebody sat down and opened up
and went through the Roman's road with Abraham.
Well, newsflash, they didn't have the Roman's road, right?
But they still had the gospel. And people try to figure out,
well, exactly how did the gospel come to them?
Look, we don't know everything. And one of the great rules of Bible interpretation
and Bible study is that the New Testament sheds light on the Old and not the other way around.
You know, the New Testament reveals things that were taught in the Old Testament.
We always look through the lens of the New, put emphasis on the New Testament.
And they always line up. It's not like they contradict themselves.
And let me point this out, Hebrews chapter number one.
Now the Bible says flat out there in Galatians, so you go to Hebrews chapter one.
It says flat out, just remind us, that the scripture says,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith,
preached the gospel before, excuse me, preached before the gospel unto Abraham.
Meaning the gospel was preached. And you say, well, when was it preached?
Look, we don't need to know the exact, you know, what exactly was said and everything like that.
People want all these details. The fact is the New Testament says it.
And if you believe the Bible, if the Bible is your authority, that's good enough.
If the Bible says Abraham was saved by faith, Abraham was saved by faith.
If the Bible says the gospel was preached before unto Abraham,
the gospel was preached before unto Abraham.
I don't need to know all the subtle details of that.
I mean, just think about it. If the Bible actually tried to
write every detail of Abraham's life, it would be a much longer book.
Have you ever read a biography, an autobiography of somebody?
You get some book, there's books that are like this thick on Abraham Lincoln.
It's just one man's life. And it's not even covering everything.
The Bible's not there to give us every single detail.
It's there to give us what matters. It's there to give us the most important things,
the things that apply to us, the things that are going to help us,
the things that are going to build us up,
the things that are going to teach us and instruct us and protect us from heresy,
the things that are going to teach us the truth,
how to live a life that is pleasing unto God.
God gives us in the Bible what we need,
not everything we might be curious about.
So obviously, you know, if the Bible says that the gospel is preached,
that the gospel is preached unto Abraham, you know what?
That's good enough for me because I believe the Bible.
But you know, we don't know everything that they had in the Old Testament.
It's true.
Hebrews 1, God, verse 1, who had sundry times and in diverse manners,
meaning in many different ways, spake and time pass unto the fathers by the prophets.
We don't have every single thing that was preached by the prophets.
Some things were just spoken and not recorded.
Okay?
The things that were written down are the things that have been preserved for us unto this day.
You know, and there might even been other things that were written down
that God just didn't deem necessary for us to have.
You know, the book of Jasher, you know,
the Bible quotes different books within itself that we don't have.
Now, it was very relevant perhaps more to those people of that day,
you know, in David's day and the King's day, you know, during that time.
Well, we don't have everything.
We have what we need though.
Okay?
So it's very possible, you know, obviously that there were other things that were preached.
The gospel may have made more clear to Abraham.
We just don't have a record of it.
You know, but we have enough.
The Bible's telling us in the New Testament, it was preached.
You know, we want all the details.
You know, it's like, well, God's kind of like, well, it's already a long book.
And a lot of people already have a hard time reading what's already written.
You know, it's already enough of a discipline just to get you to read what God has.
Let's not add all these rabbit trails to it and make it even longer.
Okay?
Says he spoke in times past by the fathers, under the fathers, by the prophets.
And in these last days has spoken to us by his son.
And we have made appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds.
You know, and there were other people that preached, right?
We had the prophets here being cited and all these diverse manners and sundry times
at different times and in different ways.
They were spoken unto by the prophets.
There was preaching taking place.
Okay?
For example, Noah is called in second Peter, what?
A preacher of righteousness.
You know, what do you think Noah was doing that whole time he was preparing the ark?
Just keeping his mouth shut?
No, he's preaching.
You know, people didn't want to believe him or they didn't want to,
you know, they, you know, they might've gotten saved,
but they didn't want to get on the ark.
Oh yeah, rain.
Okay.
You know, but he's a preacher of righteousness, right?
Enoch also, it says in Jude, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, right?
So Enoch is another one that we prophecy.
We see somebody who is preaching and prophesying the old Testament.
Do we have the book of Enoch today?
No, we don't.
Okay.
Don't go on YouTube or bit shoot or wherever and go, oh, the book of Enoch.
It's not there.
It's a fraud.
You know, it'd be just like the devil to see some book that no longer exists cited in the
scripture and go, oh, I bet I can trick some people by forging a copy of that.
You know, the gospel of Thomas and the book of Enoch and the book of Jasher and all
these other books that are, you know, they could just make up and just try to feed people.
But we know Enoch did preach, right?
And when was Enoch?
He was the seventh from Adam.
He's before Abraham.
He's from before Noah and he's prophesying and preaching.
We don't know everything that was said, but we do know very clearly that the New Testament says
that the gospel was preached before unto Abraham.
They believe the gospel.
And that's why it makes perfect sense when you go into the New Testament and see
Paul pointing back to Abraham as a picture of salvation by faith.
Because he understood the gospel because it was preached unto him.
Okay.
Go to Hebrews chapter 11.
So we don't know all that they had in the Old Testament, right?
But we do know some of what they had in the Old Testament.
We know that in Acts 10 43, speaking of Christ, it says to him, give all the prophets witness
that at once in some way, shape or form in the Old Testament, all the prophets
gave witness to Christ that through his name, whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
All the prophets give witness of that.
Okay.
All the prophets in the Old Testament, all the ones that we have recorded,
all the ones that weren't recorded, the Enochs and others that were preaching back then,
the things that Noah preached, all the prophets give witness.
Okay.
That salvation is through his name, right?
So we know they had that.
We might not have exactly what they said.
We don't have the exact sermon, but let's not make the Bible any longer than it needs to be.
Amen.
For example, we know that they had, you know, the big fancy theological term
that they like to throw in is the proto evangelism in Genesis 3 15.
You know, the picture, the prototype of the gospel in Genesis 3 15,
when God is cursing the man, the woman and the serpent, right?
And he says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, speaking to the serpent
and thou shalt bruise and between thy seed and her seed and thou shalt bruise,
it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
That's a picture of the gospel that Christ would come and crush the head of the serpent
and it would bruise his heel, right?
He was crucified.
He had to suffer, right?
He was crucified.
Satan incited the Jews to crucify him, right?
So that was him being bruised, his heel being bruised.
But ultimately that bruising is what killed Satan, right?
And so it crushed his head.
That's what gives us victory over sin, death, and the grave.
That's in Genesis 3.
That's before, you know, that's while they're getting cast out of the garden,
while they're being condemned for their sin.
We already see a picture of the gospel back then, okay?
So all the prophets give witness.
You're in Hebrews 11, look at verse 17.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.
When he had received the promises offered up, excuse me,
and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.
Obviously we could see a picture in that, right?
Now, look, do we have to have some great revelation
in the New Testament to see the picture of Christ there?
You don't think that people that came after Abraham looked, read the story of Abraham,
read the story and said, that's a picture of the resurrection.
That's a picture of God sacrificing his own son, right?
They might not have known the name, you know, but people can,
people are pretty intelligent throughout all the time.
We don't believe in Neanderthals and things like that.
People, there's no new thing under the sun.
People could have read that story and come to the exact same conclusions that we did.
But even beyond that, this text here will show us that
Abraham in his day understood the resurrection, okay?
Because he was willing to offer up his only begotten son, verse 18,
of whom it was said that an Isaac shall thy seed be called,
verse 19, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.
So we see here that Abraham understood that God could resurrect people from the dead,
that he was willing to sacrifice his son
knowing that God could just immediately bring him back, okay?
So they understood, they might not have known every single little thing
that we know today in the name of Jesus and maybe some other things
and where he would be born exactly.
I mean, that was revealed later.
But they knew some things throughout all time.
They knew enough to understand that salvation by grace through faith,
they knew enough because the Gospels preached unto them.
They understood the resurrection.
Abraham did.
Go back to Hebrews chapter 10.
Just go one chapter back.
Because people get this idea that, you know,
old people were saved in the Old Testament by keeping the sacrifices.
You know, by keeping the Mosaic law, right?
That's how they were saved.
You know, they were saved before the law by living a good moral life.
You know, that, you know, morality is what got them there.
You know, and then in the law came and because people are immoral,
you know, God gave them the sacrifice,
but they had to keep the sacrifices and go to heaven, okay?
That's not true because all the sacrifices were, were a picture of Christ, okay?
Just like Isaac was a picture of Christ.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1.
For the law having a shadow of good things to come.
You know, the law was just a picture of what's coming.
It's just a shadow.
It was not the very image itself, okay?
And again, obviously, they didn't know every subtle detail that we know today.
But, you know, it was a shadow.
But they understood that, you know, that the law itself was not what saved them.
It was the shadow and not the very image of the things.
For the law, having a shadow of the things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never take, never with those sacrifices,
which they offered year by year continually, make the comers there unto perfect.
He's saying, look, the law was never able to make them perfect, okay?
So even if you say, oh no, they were saved by keeping, you know, by performing the sacrifices.
But the Bible's saying here that they could never, with those sacrifices, be made perfect.
Never.
Meaning even when it was taken, I mean, isn't that what never means?
He didn't say, and now, you know, those sacrifices no longer
take, you make the comers there unto perfect.
And he's saying they never did.
They never made them perfect.
So to sit there and suggest that somehow people were saved by the sacrifices in the Old Testament
is to suggest that God set up a system and basically lied to them.
And said, oh, if you keep the sacrifices, you'll get to heaven.
Just kidding.
Psych.
Bye.
Go to hell now, right?
Like, that's God.
That's just a big practical joke.
I mean, are you following me this morning?
I know this is a little bit more doctrinal than I usually get,
and I'm not getting that deep, okay?
But isn't that what he says here?
That these things can never, that they can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect?
It could never happen.
Meaning when they did it, it could not make them perfect.
So no one has ever been saved by making a sacrifice in the Old Testament.
Nobody.
But what is the picture of Old Testament salvation?
What do we see sight in the New Testament?
Abraham.
And how was he saved?
By believing God.
By faith.
He was accounted to him for righteousness.
Verse two, for then would they have not ceased to be offered,
because that the worshippers once purged would have no more conscience and sins,
but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of the sins every year.
Verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
The blood of some animal is not going to cleanse sin.
You know, when Abraham understood the resurrection,
he understood that there would be a sacrifice.
He told Isaac that God would provide himself a lamb, right?
And then you read the story, they find a ram, not a lamb, caught in the thicket.
You know, he wasn't foretelling the ram.
He was referring to the fact that God ultimately would provide a sacrifice for sin.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world, okay?
These animals could never take away sins.
And you know, we might not see exactly how they came to understand all this in the Old Testament,
but we know that they did.
Because the New Testament tells us that they did.
That the gospel was preached before unto them,
and that it has always been the same gospel for everybody,
and that it's not these different gospels,
and certain people are only set into certain people groups.
You know, it's been the same gospel throughout all the time.
That's what we need to preach to everybody.
The same gospel that has always been preached, okay?
Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.