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April 19 Sermon Notes & Quotes
“Children of Promise”
Galatians 3:15-18

Sermon Outline

  • What Are the Promises of God?
  • What Were God’s Promises to Abraham?
  • What Are God’s Promises to Us?

What Are the Promises of God?

  • God’s promises are of what He will do.
  • Our faith is upon the promises of God.
    • Not
    • Not
    • Not

What Were God’s Promises to Abraham?

  • God’s promises to Abraham (i.e., Abram) are found in .
  • Abram wanted . God said, “Know for ” (Gen. 15:13).
  • To give Abram “certainty,” God made a self-maledictory with Abram.

What Are God’s Promises to Us?

  • “‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:6-9). In Christ, we are Children of Abraham, Children of the Promise!
  • “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).
  • “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us […] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Galatians 3:14).
  • The promises of God belong to Christ, and also to those who are . In other words, the promises of God are part of our in Christ.

Believing the Promises of God Today

  • What specific promise from God’s Word will you believe this week?
  • Note: if you cannot think of a promise that applies to your life, then please reach out to one of our pastors. We want to help you discover how to anchor your soul to the promises of God.

Some Favorites

  • The Promise of Romans 8:32
    • “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
    • Personalizing the Promise: God did not spare Jesus for me. He will not withhold one good thing from me.
  • The Promise of Hebrews 13:5-6
    • “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
    • Personalizing the Promise: The Lord of the Universe is my personal helper. He will never leave me, and I am invincible since He is with me. Therefore, I will not love or trust in money. I will not be envious. I will not be fearful.
  • The Promise of Hebrews 12:7-8, 11
    • “God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
    • Personalizing the Promise: Because I am His son, God will discipline me if I fall into sin, so that my life will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
  • The Promise of 1 John 1:9
    • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
    • Personalizing the Promise: Because God is faithful and trustworthy, we may know for certain that He receives our confession and grants us forgiveness in Christ.

Digging Deeper: How Genesis 15 Points to Christ

“Because we look at God’s dealing with Abraham as some remote piece of history in a far-off land, we often fail to realize that we, too, are part of the long line of people with whom God made a covenant on that rocky plain near Hebron. And like those who came before us, we have broken that covenant.

“When He walked in the dust of the desert through the blood of the animals Abraham slaughtered, God was making a promise to all the descendants of Abraham – to everyone in the household of faith. When God splashed through the blood, He did it for us.

“We’re not simply individuals in relationship to God, we’re part of a long line of people marching back through history, from our famous Jewish ancestors, David, Hezekiah, and Peter to the millions of unknown believers; from the ancient Israelites and the Jewish people of Jesus’ day to the Christian community dating from the early church. We’re part of a community of people with whom God established relationship in the dust and sand of the Negev.

“But there’s more. When God made covenant with his people, he did something no human being would have even considered doing. In the usual blood covenant, each part was responsible for keeping only his side of the promise. When God made covenant with Abraham, however, he promised to keep both sides of
the agreement.

“‘If this covenant is broken, Abraham, for whatever reason – for My unfaithfulness or yours—I will pay the price,’ said God. ‘If you or your descendants, for whom you are making this covenant, fail to keep it, I will pay the price in blood.’

“And at that moment Almighty God pronounced the death sentence on his Son Jesus.” 1

1 Ray Vander Laan, Echoes of His Presence, 8-9; see also Peter Gentry, Kingdom through Covenant, 257-58.