Sunday Night, December 27, 2020 PM

I am very grateful for our pastoral intern, Josiah DeForest, even though he's got his job back at Kimray, he is continuing with the internship and aiming to preach to us from the book of Galatians as he has the opportunity.

And so I'm grateful for him, grateful for the work God is doing in his ministry. One of the first times

I wore a mic, I was talking about creation, Adam and Eve, and when

I got to the fall, my mic fell off. So that's what I call providence at work.

So if you will bear with my burden just for a moment. Thank you.

It was Martin Luther who had a deep love for the word of God, and he once said of the scriptures,

The Bible is alive. It speaks to me. It has feet. It runs after me.

It has hands. It lays hold of me. One such verse that did so was

Romans 117. This was a verse that totally and significantly changed

Luther's view on justification. And after such a revelation, his theology and his life changed forevermore.

Very much so. He also had a deep love for the book of Psalms. And it's been said that while Luther had courage, strength, and peace to live his life and to contend in the fights he was in.

There's even an account of him posting, inscribing a psalm, a very dear psalm of his on his bedroom wall.

So the last thing he saw when he fell asleep was that particular psalm. And of course there was another book of the

Bible that was very precious and dear to Martin Luther, and that was the book of Galatians. He once said of Galatians, The epistle to the

Galatians is my epistle. I am to it as it is in wedlock.

It is my Catherine, referring to his wife. So, Galatians has influenced and affected people like Martin Luther, church fathers, and theologians throughout the centuries.

And as well as the quiet Christians, the ones that history does not remember or record.

Yet whose names are inscribed on the book of life nonetheless. Galatians has certainly been a comfort, a director to the church, inscribing unto us and unto our hearts the doctrine of justification by faith and so much more.

It is such a gracious and good gift from the Father. So, with that in mind, we'll be looking at the first five verses that you have brought to our mind tonight.

We thank you for watching over us in 2020, Lord. And we thank you for having a plan for us in 2021.

Perhaps not a plan according to our own will, but according to your will, Lord. And we know it's for your glory and for your good,

Lord. May we hold fast to the truth of your word and give it to others,

Lord. But first, may we live it ourselves. In Jesus' name. Amen.

So, how has the book of Galatians made a huge impact on so many people? Well, as mentioned before, it teaches about the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

It teaches Christians and points them to the Christian liberty, the freedom we have in Jesus Christ.

Freedom from sin, from the power of the devil, and from the world we live in. It also reminds us to bear with one another their burdens, but also...