Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life

By Grace through Faith

Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life

Title: : By Grace through Faith  Text: Galatians 3:1-14

Introduction: When washing a child’s hair you tell the child to put their head back and they won’t get shampoo in their eyes. Their natural reaction is to put their head forward and rub their eyes, every time the water starts to flow. This shows the difference between trusting and trying.

In today’s text, we come to the heart of the matter that Paul has been referring to up to this point in His letter to the Galatians:

·          The conflict between two alternate roads to righteousness: Trusting and Trying or to put it another way: grace and works.  (Guy Caley)

The relevance of this issue for us today is seen in our text this morning. For it’s here that it becomes clear that the heresy the Judiaziers were teaching in the churches in Galatia is not so much related to how you begin the Christian life...but how you live it.

ILL: Let me give you a golf illustration,  unfortunately it’s true.  I used to be able to clobber the ball off the tee...long and almost always on the fairway. But my ‘short game’ wasn’t as spectacular. My golfing buddies would say ‘Bob, it’s not how you drive, it’s how you arrive’ that wins the match. Needless to say, I didn’t win many matches.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Galatians 3:1 (pg. 887 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) For it’s there we’ll discover salvation and sanctification are by grace through faith.

I. Galatians 3:1      The Failure of Faith?

Read: Galatians 3:1

ILL: Do you remember the phrase from Forrest Gump, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.’ Listen to these examples of stupidity:

·       Police in Wichita, Kansas, arrested a 22-year-old man at an airport hotel after he tried to pass two $16 bills.

·       When two service station attendants in Ionia, Michigan, refused to hand over the cash to an intoxicated robber, the man threatened to call the police. They still refused, so the robber called the police and was arrested.

Stupid...But that’s the same thing Paul is saying to the Christians in the Galatian churches where Paul says: ‘You foolish Galatians’.

Isn’t Paul being a bit too harsh here? No...for Paul, the Christian life is only possible by God’s grace alone... ‘Not I, but Christ’ remember from last week? Paul would not see anything or anyone diminish the role of grace in the life of the Christian.

He said you are foolish:

·       because Jesus Christ was presented to you,

·       because God showered His grace on you,

·       because God filled your hearts and minds with saving faith

·       because you received the faith God gave you and trusted Jesus as your Savior...

Then...you turned away from what you knew. And for that you deserve this chewing out. How can you be so gullible, when you know the truth?

·       Paul is so harsh because he wants to jolt those misguided Christians back to the path God has set before them.

·       Paul is so harsh because he wants to humble those misguided Christians who now believe that by keeping the Law (the do’s and don’ts) they are better, more mature than the Christians who don’t. Make no mistake....legalism is an expression of pride!

But notice Paul doesn’t place all the blame on the Galatian Christians, he acknowledges that the Judiaziers ‘bewitched’ them. They were cunning and intentionally wanted to win them over. And they were slick...like the false teachers you see on TV. They sound so spiritual...but there’s always an ‘and’ when it comes to the grace in the Christian life....

Grace and some form of works:

·       Makes you a more complete Christian

·       Gives you an abundant Christian life.

·       Makes you a ‘full’ Christian.

·       Makes you a ‘successful’ Christian.

And we many different ways, we too struggle  with this just like those spiritual giants before us.

ILL: Although I am a doctor of divinity, and have preached Christ and fought His battles for a long time, I know from personal experience how difficult it is to hold fast to the truth.  I cannot always shake off Satan.  I cannot always apprehend Christ as the Scriptures portray Him.  Sometimes the devil distorts Christ to my vision.  But thanks be to God, who keeps us in His Word, in faith, and in prayer.” (Martin Luther)

Remember, I started off the series in Galatians by saying that living the Christian life is not hard, it’s impossible. Martin Luther knew that. He learned to trust in God’s grace to sustain him when he doubted, when he strayed, when he gave in.

Faith hasn’t failed the misguided Christians in Galatia...they have failed faith, by leaving it behind for something else.

Transition: We need to learn that as well, because the Christian

journey is not just about how you start but how you arrive.

II. Galatians 3:2-5          The Fortitude of Faith.

Read: Galatians 3:2-5

Receiving the Spirit is crucial to living the Christian life...without the Holy Spirit in you, there is no Christian life...period.

Read: Romans 8:9b ‘... if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.’

So, Paul asks, ‘Examine your life, did you receive the Holy Spirit because you followed the Law or because you placed your faith in Jesus Christ?’ A rhetorical question that Paul knew the answer to...

they received the Spirit by grace...through faith in

Jesus.

Remember, he’s writing to Gentiles who were saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus...who received the Holy Spirit when they believed...

Here’s the big implication: JUST LIKE THE JEWISH CHRISTIANS DID.

How did he know that? Because he led many of the initial believers in Galatia to Christ. He knew what he taught them.

But he doesn’t stop there. Paul says after starting the Christian life by God’s grace through faith...

and after receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation, do you think you need to live out your Christian journey by good works, by the Law, apart from the Spirit?

Here’s the truth between the lines of what Paul is saying.

·       The Christian life, is about God’s activity in your life, through His Spirit.

·       It’s not about your activity to maintain what God has already given to you.

Read: Philippians 1:6 ‘being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’

Is this text perhaps a bit clearer, in light of Paul’s argument in Galatians 3?

Here’s the bottom line:  It is not how far you have progressed in your sanctification (your Christ-likeness)  it’s what you are relying

on to get you there.

Oh and by the way, yes, you will suffer because you live by grace through faith and not according to the Law.

·       There are those who can not handle grace,

·       There are those who can not handle freedom,

·       There are those who can not handle liberty in Christ

and they will try to make you feel inferior to them. Don’t let your suffering for the truth be useless by giving in to their legalism.

Transition: The title for this section in your sermon notes is ‘The Fortitude of Faith’ all it means, is to continue how you started...by grace through faith in Jesus.  Paul’s just getting warmed up...now he gives a brief Jewish history lesson for his Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.

III. Galatians 3:6-9         The Father of Faith.

Read: Galatians 3:6-9

Paul is saying that it’s not just my idea; it’s not just what I am saying...God’s Word says the same thing...and the Jewish Christians know it, but have chosen to ignore it. Follow his logic.

·       Even Abraham, the chief patriarch of the Jews, was saved, was justified, was made right with God...by faith and not by his works, not by his obedience to God’s command to be circumcised. He was saved, just as we are saved today...by God’s grace, through faith...not of works, lest we should have something to boast about and be prideful of.

·       God told Abraham that he would be the father of all nations, that all nations would be blessed by him. How? By emulating his faith.

·       The ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’ has always been the same..for Jew and Gentile alike....salvation and sanctification by grace through faith.

Transition: Does this mean that obedience is unimportant to God or that He has no standards for His children? No. It means we must be clear that it is not our obedience that makes us or keeps us God’s children. The foundation of our sonship

/daughtership (if that’s a word) is faith in Jesus.

IV. Galatians 3:10-14 The Foundation of Faith.

Read: Galatians 3:10-14

The cross of Jesus Christ is the very center of human history and certainly the central place in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Here is Paul’s argument:

·       Those who follow the law for salvation are doomed to failure, to separation from God because He said: ‘cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ One mistake, one act of disobedience and it’s over, no second chances...you are done...and deserving of your punishment...eternity in Hell.

·       No one can be made right with God by following the Law because God’s Word says: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’

·       No one can be made right by following the Law..no one, expect Jesus, who perfectly observed everything required of Him by God’s Word. And He fully trusted in God the Father...He had perfect faith.

·       By dying on the cross Jesus took our place, He took our curse, because we failed to fully obey all that God required. Jesus was the one God wrote about when He said: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’

·       By grace, dying in our place when we only deserved Hell, Jesus made us sons and daughters of Abraham, heirs to the promises and blessings of God, and the home of the Holy Spirit who continues what God had started in us.

SO.......why add to God’s grace by following the Law when Jesus already took care of that for you? Do you see Paul’s point?

Conclusion

ILL: (Swindoll—take a number) Robert Henry walked up to the counter at a department store in search of a pair of binoculars. Behind the counter were two salespersons. One was so preoccupied talking to “Mama” on the telephone that she refused to acknowledge that Robert was there. At the other end of the counter, a second salesperson was unloading inventory from a box onto shelves. Growing impatient, Robert walked down to her end of the counter and just stood there. Finally, she looked up at Robert and said, “You got a number?” “I got a what?” asked Robert, trying to control his astonishment at such an absurdity. “You got a number? You gotta have a number.” Robert replied, “Lady, I’m the only customer in the store! I don’t need a number.

Can’t you see how ridiculous this is?” But she failed to see the absurdity and insisted that Robert take a number before agreeing to wait on him. By now, it was obvious to Robert that she was more interested in following procedures than helping the customer. So, he went to the take-a-number machine, pulled number 37 and walked back to the salesperson. With that, she promptly went to her number counter, which revealed that the last customer waited on tad been holding number 34. So she screamed out “35!…35!…36!…36!…37!” “I’m number 37,” said Robert. “May I help you?” she asked, without cracking a smile. “No,” replied Robert, and he turned around and walked out. (Paul Decker)

How foolish is that? Well, that’s Paul’s argument as well.

When we focus more on the rules than on grace, we become legalists, like the Judiazers in our text. And according to Paul and God’s Word...we are foolish. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a fool.

Remember, salvation and sanctification are by grace through faith.