Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life
God's Amazing Grace!
Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life
Title: : The Gospel of Grace Text: Galatians 1:11-2:10
Introduction: 9 yr old Joey went to Sunday School class and heard his teacher talk about how Israel escaped the clutches of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When Joey got home, he was asked by his mom what he had learned that morning.
Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike when the Egyptians were closing in on them. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and destroy the enemy, and all the Israelites were saved.
"Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?" his mother asked. "Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!" (Jerry La Pere)
Funny story, but it does show an attitude that is found in our world today. That the Bible is a myth, and there is little accuracy to what it says. Many say, the Bible may be a source of truth for you...but to me, it is just another book, written by a bunch of guys, who lived a long time ago, and it has no significance for my life today.
The Apostle Paul would disagree...as he was one of the human authors of a number of the books in the New Testament. We will see in our text this morning, that Paul gives a strong defense of the authority of Scripture and attests to it’s absolute truthfulness...for all humanity, for all time.
Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Galatians 1:11 (pg. 886 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll see what God has to say about His Word...the Gospel of Grace.
I. Galatians 1:11-12 Is from God
Read: Galatians 1:11-12
The heart and soul of Paul’s message to the Christians in the Churches of Galatia, and to us, is found here. ‘The Gospel that I teach, came from Jesus Christ Himself.’ This is a critical concept, a foundation stone, an absolute truth that we must all affirm as followers of Jesus Christ.
The Bible is the revelation of God...about God and His work to redeem, to save, to bring a lost people back to Himself, according to His grace, by means of faith in Jesus Christ.
God tells us in 2 Peter 1:21 ‘For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’
The word prophecy here includes all of God’s Word, the Bible. And it became complete in Jesus. As we read in Hebrews 1:1-3
‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, (Jesus) whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.’
ILL:
In Washington D.C. there is a
building called the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This
facility is responsible for storing perfect samples of weights and
measurements. They have what are called “prototypes” of different weights;
like pounds and kilograms. They have perfect measuring rods for feet, yards
and metric measurements like meters.
(Jeff Strite)
Christians also have a
perfect measuring rod that never changes. It’s God’s Word, the Bible.
And the source of the authority of the Bible, the Gospel of Grace, is
God himself, revealed through His Son, Jesus. In other words, God opened
heaven open so that we could know Him and His will for us.
Let’s stop and allow the significance of what Paul is saying to sink in. There are two messages vying for our allegiance:
· God’s grace or man’s works
Another way to put it would be:
· absolute truth or relative truth
Believing in one of the two competing messages will change your life...for all eternity.
Folks, we need to stand firm on the truth of God’s Word...all of God’s Word...not just the parts we like and agree with, because it came from God Himself!
Transition: While our text this morning may sound like Paul’s defense of his apostleship, it’s really not about Paul but about the authority of God’s Word...the Gospel of Grace. Paul further defends the Word of God by saying, I had nothing to do with it.
II. Galatians 1:13-14 Is not from me
Read: Galatians 1:13-14
Paul was saying that the Gospel of Grace that he was teaching, didn’t come from him because he was opposed to it from the very center of his heart and life.
· He had lived a life of works as a Pharisee.
· He had lived the other gospel the false teachers were bringing to the Christians in the Galatian churches. (minus Jesus)
He was saying, Look, I didn’t make up the Gospel of Grace, because it’s diametrically opposed to all I had believed in and lived for.
Transition: BUT...remember always to circle or underline the word BUT in Scripture because it’s almost always contrasting God’s ways and our ways.
Here it’s showing that Paul finally achieved what he so eagerly sought as a Pharisee....peace with God. BUT he received it by God’s grace not by earning it in any way.
III. Galatians 1:15-2:1 Is not from others
Read: Galatians 1:15-2:1
Remember the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the prototype measuring rods? God’s Word, the Bible is our perfect measuring rod that never changes....And it has a number of purposes in our lives... Paul writing to Timothy tells us:
Read: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’
The measuring rod of God’s Word:
· Teaches me: it gives me correct information
· Rebukes me: repairs my wrong ways of thinking
· Corrects me: make adjustments to my character flaws
· Trains me in righteousness: Trains me to be ready to make the right choices
In other
words....God’s Word changes us.
In John 17:17 Jesus prayed
to the Father on our behalf:
‘Sanctify
them by the truth; your word is truth.’
God’s Word, the Gospel of Grace, changes lives...Because it’s true. It changed Paul’s and many, if not all of your lives here this morning.
Notice that after Paul was saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, he didn’t start in ministry right away. Paul reports that he:
· Didn’t go to Jerusalem but instead he went to Arabia (the dessert) for an undetermined amount of time.
· Then he went back to Damascus for three years before he went to Jerusalem for the first time after becoming a Christian.
· He was there for a couple of weeks and then went to Syria and Cilicia.
· Then, 14yrs later he returned to Jerusalem.
There’s much I could talk about here but I want to focus on perhaps what is an undertow of truth beneath the words of the text. I believe there are two reasons for Paul’s absence from Jerusalem:
· He was studying God’s Word (the Old Testament) to see Jesus revealed in it and
· He was teaching the Gentiles (and the Jews who would listen) what he had learned from Scripture.
Paul is saying the Gospel of Grace that I am preaching, didn’t come from the Christian leaders or Apostles in Jerusalem...God revealed it to me personally through Jesus Christ...so I needed the time away to study the Old Testament to see how it revealed the truth of God’s Grace in the life of the Christian.
With the barrage of attacks against God’s Word from inside and outside the church, we are like the Christians attending the Churches in Galatia. And we need to follow Paul’s example to study the Word of God so we can defend it against all those who hold a low view of the Bible.
Transition: For Paul, the message he was preaching, the Gospel of Grace, had no bounds, it is true for everyone.
IV. Galatians 2:2-10 Is the same for all of us.
Read: Galatians 2:2-10
Paul, Barnabas and Titus arrive in Jerusalem in response to the whole Gentile/Jewish Christian issue. (Acts 15) Paul told the Apostles in Jerusalem the content of the Gospel he was preaching to the Gentiles because some we saying that he was perverting it.
The text says Paul went to Jerusalem ‘for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.’ Now, Paul was not questioning the Gospel he was preaching...He wanted to make sure he wasn’t putting a barrier up between himself and the other apostles in Jerusalem by the grace he was preaching.
Notice that Paul not only preached the Gospel of Grace, he lived it. This was seen in his choice not to circumcise Titus who was a Greek who became a Christian. And...the apostles in Jerusalem agreed with Paul. This is important:
· Titus didn’t have to become a Jew to become a Christian.
· And you don’t have to become like me or anyone else to be a Christian.
· That’s grace.
The apostles in Jerusalem recognized God in Paul’s life. They saw the grace of God lived out in Paul’s life and teaching. They found no fault in his Gospel. And they welcomed him. But they also acknowledged their different ministries
· Paul to the Gentiles
· The Apostles in Jerusalem to the Jews
The Apostles in Jerusalem only asked that Paul and the Gentile Christians continue to remember the poor. And Paul was only happy to do that.
Conclusion
There are many things that divide God’s church today...but the truth is, denominations is no longer the big one...it is the authority of Scripture...it’s between
· those who hold a high view of Scripture by believing the Bible is the Word of God, without mistake, in it’s entirety
· and those who hold a low view of Scripture by believing the Bible only contains the Word of God.
Tell me ....what’s the difference between the two? And why is it important?
Everything we do at CBC is built on the fact that
· this (hold Bible) is the very Word of God,
· that every word of it is true,
· and it is our ultimate authority for all matters of life and faith.
But that’s not true for all in every church.
George Barna surveyed American churches on whether they agreed with the following statement, ‘The Bible is totally accurate.’ Here are the results:
· Assembly of God 77%
· Baptist 66%
· Catholic 26%
· Episcopal 22%
· Lutheran 34%
· Methodist 38%
· Non-denominational 70%
·
Presbyterian 40%
Why isn’t it 100%? It should be, shouldn’t it?
Can you see it? Our secular, relativistic, God-less society has penetrated our churches...not only in the pews but in the pulpits. Many who claim to be Christians doubt the absolute truthfulness of the Bible, the Gospel of Grace.
Historic Christianity has
been based upon the Bible. Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone—was the motto of
the Protestant Reformation and it should still be our motto today.
I started out this morning by saying the heart and soul of Paul’s message to us is found in verses 11-12 in the Book of Galatians: ‘The Gospel that I teach, came from Jesus Christ Himself.’
This is a critical concept, a foundation stone, an absolute truth that we must all affirm as followers of Jesus Christ.
Stand form, God’s people, on the Word of God...the Gospel of Grace!