#204 Galatians Series # 4, Faith From Start To Finish
Galatians Series #4 — “Faith From Start To Finish”
Galatians 1
2 Challenges from Judaizers.
- Paul not authentic apostle.
vs.1 “Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ…”
- Paul’s message is watered down.
vs.10 “Or do I seek to please men?”
- 2b (NLT) “I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.”
- 2b (Message) “…exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry.
2:18-19 NLT “… Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.”
Teaching people to obey the rules to get God’s approval isn’t just WRONG it is SINFUL.
ILLUS: In Christ … Stay in the plane … they didn’t throw me off for passing out on the floor.
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live IN the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Colossians 3:3
“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Martin Luther – Galatians Com.
“This is the truth of the Gospel. It is also the principle article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”
Adding anything to Jesus in order to be accepted by God threatens the very freedom of the church.
Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 5:4 “…you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”
Galatians 3:1
“Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you?”
Have you folks lost your minds! Did someone perform witchcraft on you or give you the evil eye!
Baskaino:— bewitch, cast a spell, the evil eye.
- 1b “For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.”
You experienced no small demonstration of cross of Christ. It was like it was on billboards all over town! In living colour.
- 2 “Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.”
It is one or the other. You are in or out. There are no degrees of righteousness. You are or you are not!
- 3-4 “How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?”
Enarchoma:— In the beginning. Epiteleo:— To finish, perfect.
John 19:30 “It is finished.” Jesus finished the redemptive work on the cross!!!
Blondin …Tightrope over Niagra Falls …His business manager on his shoulders. FAITH everything on Jesus.
- 5 “I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among (IN) you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”
Pneuma – Energeo – Dunamis
It is by faith you received the Spirit and the working of miracles in you and among you.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
Miracle Of Grace :— When what you ought to do becomes what you want to do!
- 6-7 “In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.”
Abraham was declared righteous because he believed. Abraham 430 years before the law.
Not a racial group but a faith family!
- 8-9 “What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.”
John Piper
“Faith is the only response to God’s Word which makes room for the Spirit to work in us and through us. Flesh, on the other hand, is the insubordinate, self-determining ego …
…which in religious people responds to God’s Word not with reliance on the Spirit but with reliance on self. It can produce a very rigorous morality, but it nullifies grace and removes the stumbling block of the cross.
John Bunyan ( Author of Pilgrims Progress)
“One day, as I was passing into a field, this sentence fell upon my soul, ‘Your righteousness is in Heaven.’ And I thought with all I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. ‘There,’ I say, ‘was my righteousness,’ so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, ‘He lacks righteousness,’ for that was just before Him …
…I also saw moreover that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse. For my righteousness was Jesus Christ, Himself. “Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons, my temptations fled away, and I went home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.”
Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Miracle Of Grace :— When what you ought to do becomes what you want to do!
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Hallelujah for the “miracle of grace” as I proclaim with John Bunyan, “I also saw moreover that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse. For my righteousness was Jesus Christ, Himself. …and I went home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.”
Thank you for presenting His Truth so unambiguously, Pastor Karl!