Doing or Done Gal 1:1- 5 Part 3

Well, good morning everybody thank you for being here this morning and Hello to our church family extended.

We miss you all and and Look forward to the day when we can See each other's faces and and there's plenty of trust me.

There's plenty of room to Distance to scatter here as well. So just keep that in mind, but glad you're here and welcome to those that haven't

Seen us or heard us before thank you for tuning in I Wanted to thank the folks that are that are always helping every week and behind the scenes and for Tim on the soundboard and the canes for music and and just and sound in the back also and just we're blessed by and Richard playing his instrument and Kate and it takes

Takes everybody as a whole to bring all this together. So no one person can do it so I thank you for everyone and for your commitment and For your dedication in allowing us to be here, so thank you

As an announcement, we're going to be having our annual little slightly delayed Meeting church meeting it's going to be on February 14 immediately following the morning service

So just to be aware for the folks that aren't here today We won't be recording that that's we don't record that type of meeting.

We record our services But if you'd like to come there is again There's ability to distance here and to kind of scatter around the room.

So keep that mind, but We'd like to have you here if you're able to come So Let's open our service in prayer, please join with me, please

Lord God, we thank you father for Gathering us together Lord near and far that we might lift our voices that we might sing praises to your name father we thank you

Lord for allowing us to gather that in these trying times there's a lot of difficulty a lot of strife and uncertainty and And a lot of tension

Lord in our government in work lives and family lives church life father in many ways at large father we

Know that you are Lord over all that you have it There's a plan and we must rest in the hope that we have in you father

Lord calm our hearts now Lord let us set aside those things that Distract us the things that get in the way of us and our fellowship and our worship you of you father and that we might be brought to the throne of grace

Lord and That we can worship you father freely and openly and we just thank you again for this morning father

So bless our time. We commit it to your care in Christ's name. We pray. Amen I wanted to read a psalm before we

Begin singing. This is a praise to the king of all the earth. This is a psalm 47 And it starts off to the chief music

Musician, which some believe is the Lord himself and as the Psalms are really a poetic poems are sacred poems

Oh Clap your hands all ye peoples shout to God with the voice of triumph for the

Lord Most High is awesome He is a great king over all the earth He will subdue the people's under us and the nation's under our feet

He will choose our inheritance for us the excellence of Jacob whom he loves

Sila God has gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a trumpet sing praises to God sing praises

Sing praises to our king sing praises for God is the king of all the earth sing praises with understanding

God reigns over the nation's God sits on his holy throne The princes of the people have gathered together the people of God of Abraham for the shields of the earth belong to God He is greatly exalted

Amen, and as we're called to do in God's Word, let us sing praises to him.

Let's stand together, please and Sing come Christians joined to sing

We're gonna end this hymn as amen because it really it's a prayer to our

Lord so think of that as we're singing through this To my heart to seek my grace streams of mercy

Never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melody Some by Praise to you

Name of God's redeeming love

Here the truth Has blessed me Brought me to this place

And I know that safely home by thy good grace

Jesus saw me when a stranger Wondering he to rescue me from danger his precious

Strength to be

Like a feather Here's my heart

Lord take and seal it seal it for the courts of In practice that went amen,

I'll worship the King I should have warned him about that I'll worship the

King Thank you, please be seated under Tim is gonna come forward with this morning's scripture reading

Romans 3 10 to 26 As It is written.

None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God All have turned aside together.

They have become worthless. No one does good not even one Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood in Their paths are ruin and misery in the way of peace.

They have not known There is no fear of God before their eyes Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law

So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God Provide the works of the law.

No human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe

For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward is a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins

It was to show his righteousness at the present time So that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus We're gonna continue our singing this morning with our great

Savior so stand with me again, please Show us

Christ Why Your word is

Famished wine Riches for the needy one

Show us

Show us Christ Where else can we go

Lord, where else can we go? Where else can we go where else can we go you have the words

Show us Show us

Oh God reveal your glory

Through the preaching of your word until every

Heart Amen please be seated pastor

John Well, praise God. Let's open our Bibles to Galatians chapter 6 if you're at home,

I encourage you To please do the same God's Word will not return void.

I don't know if you heard that the very famous Interview personality

Larry King passed away this week Married multiple times

Very interesting Inside story on him. I don't know if you recall but there was a period of time where he was doing a number of shows interviews

Having to do with Christianity and Is Jesus the only way he had married a

Mormon woman? and There's a very well -known nationally known pastor in Southern, California prolific author and a member of his church was on the staff of Larry King's show and he was a producer and So they were looking for somebody to come in and give the other side of the coin.

They had Catholics on there they had a Some I mean over many many shows they had one time an

Episcopal bishop that that was a lesbian all these different kinds of things and of course

Intuitively growing up in a Judeo -Christian culture Larry King knew that there was something quite not right with that You know a lesbian priest so He had this pastor on the show to have a biblical

Response to these different issues and so Larry King heard the gospel from this man many many times

And he clearly gave the gospel. You can find some of the shows on YouTube and It's just amazing and I read a little thing yesterday where somebody or maybe

Friday, I'm not sure when he passed but The the writer of this little article that he had passed.

He says who knows? Towards the end when he knew that the end was coming. Did he not trust the

Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior? Wouldn't that be a blessing to see Larry King one day in heaven?

Because he heard the biblical gospel that we're talking about and that we're going to be finishing up this little

Series of messages we may stay in Galatians through chapter 1 I'll see how the Lord leads but we're going to finish up today doing

Versus done and we're gonna start at the back of Galatians. So you need to be in Galatians chapter 6

Galatians chapter 6 and I'm gonna pray and then we'll get started Galatians chapter 6 in just a moment

Father how thankful we are for this day and for your many many blessings God That we can be together that we can gather together like this worship you

We are so thankful to see other human beings to talk and to be able to share

What's going on in your life? How did you spend your week? What's going on with this one?

What's going on with that one to be here to encourage one another? We're so so very thankful God.

We give you all the praise We give you all the glory father and commit this time in your word to your care show us

Christ We pray in Jesus name. Amen so we're gonna finish up our exposition of the first five verses of Paul's epistle to the

Galatians and the goal of this series of Messages is to anchor us in certain important doctrinal truths as we head into 2021 you remember we've read from Ephesians chapter 4

We've read from Ephesians chapter 2 about the importance of in the church having unity

Unity and doctrine what we practice what we believe what we hold to We looked at verses that stress the importance of Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone

Right being the cornerstone of the building and the Apostles doctrine being the foundation the stones by which and we are living stones

Being built up into a holy holy temple to the Lord False teachers known as Judaizers had infiltrated the churches of Galatia.

We don't know how many churches there are there were Maybe four maybe five there's a region in modern -day

Turkey if you look at a map and you look at Turkey Galatia is in central the area of Galatia that we're talking about here is in central modern -day,

Turkey and This letter is basically a rescue attempt by the

Apostle Paul Of these new Christians that were being deceived and led astray from the biblical

Gospel that the Apostle Paul had preached there. He spent maybe at most 16 to 18 months starting these churches and Take a look at Galatians chapter 6 verse 1

Brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass You who are spiritual

Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself Lest you also be tempted.

So this is instruction about body life in the church This is not a general

Exhortation to Christians everywhere, although it could be taken that way. This is the local church

If a man or a woman in your church Is overtaken in any trespass?

You who are spiritual in our case the victors the Heralds the the days that the men who are spiritual in this church and Ladies, it would be

Barb Thank you, she says I didn't sign up for that John Yeah She didn't

I'm just you know volunteering her restore Such a one in a spirit of gentleness

Considering yourself lest you also be tempted bear one another's burdens and So fulfill the law of Christ what law?

The law that were to love the Lord our God with all of our heart soul mind and strength and what love our neighbor as our

Self right and Jesus put the two of those on equal footing and see I read these verses to you because I want to ask a question in light of those verses

Just think about somebody you love for a moment and care about and They have done something harmful or they were considering doing something wrong or harmful

What would you do To try and convince them not to do it what lengths would you go or suppose you're close to someone and you know that they grew up in church and They're thinking about marrying an unbeliever even though 2nd

Corinthians 614 says specifically believers are not to marry unbelievers and You knew that they were thinking about this and they had great feelings

What would you do? How would you what lengths? How would you go about convincing them that this would be a mistake?

How would you go about trying to convince them not to do it? How far and to what lengths would you go to to try to warn them?

Give you one more someone you love Maybe it is a brother or sister in Christ.

Maybe it is a fellow member at your church and We're talking about a professing

Christian someone that would say are you a Christian? They would say yes, and they start getting into some false teacher on the radio or TV or Reading some paper or a book that a pastor

I'm putting that in quotes is Teaching heresy there. They're reading the books

How would you go about Rescuing them from that error Now if you can kind of get in that mindset for a moment you would be getting a little bit into the

Apostle Paul's frame of mind as The Holy Spirit led him to write this letter and this is because this letter is the

Apostle Paul's Attempt to rescue new Christians that he had led to Christ He didn't get to spend three years like in Ephesus.

He led people to Christ there He planted the church there and he spent three years discipling them day and night

He was a tent maker during the day late into the night. He would preach and teach They didn't have a New Testament, right?

All he had was the Old Testament and the revelation Christ had given to them while he trained him after the road of Damascus in The wilderness we don't understand any of that, but he spent hours late into the night

He would work all day as a tent maker and then hours into the night grounding the church at Ephesus in in doctrinal truths about the

Christian life in the church and how the Church should be and in Acts it tells how he when he said goodbye to them warned them with great tears about these wolves that would come in and Seek to devour them.

So here God leads him to write this letter And he hadn't been in these churches very long and he had preached the gospel of Jesus Christ he had preached a biblical gospel and these false teachers that that scholars refer to as Judaizers had infiltrated these churches they were drawing believers away from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the

Apostle Paul writes this letter In attempt to rescue these young neophyte

Christians from this error Which was an error that was destined and bound to take them back into bondage the very bondage that Jesus Faith in Christ had released them from and relieved them from Jesus came to set the captives free not put them into bondage

The gospel takes the yoke of the law off of our back.

Amen These false teachers were teaching things that put people back under the law put the yoke of the law

Not the higher law that Christians are under in Christ But back under the

Mosaic laws and the do's and the don'ts Which was an error that would rob

God of his glory and was a false gospel error that added human effort human works to something the biblical gospel and grace by faith frees us from now

Galatians 1 1 The last few weeks we've been answering a question

How can we grow as a church body as we look at 2021 and firm up our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and That the

Apostles also preached and died for how can we? how can we get a better appreciation of the importance of being correct and Accurate and right on the gospel from the first five verses of this letter and you might remember

We started two weeks ago with the point by understanding the hyper critical difference between doing versus done so this group of teachers

Allegedly Jewish Christian converts. In other words, we're talking about professing believers who were

Jewish these these these teachers had come into these churches of Galatia and The Galatian churches were primarily

Gentile churches remember all the early believers in the book of Acts almost all of them initially were

Jewish it isn't until you get to Acts chapter 10 and Peter's vision of the unclean and the clean things where you have a man named

Cornelius who is a Gentile get saved you may have had others but the first documented one was a man named

Cornelius and And Then you see the gospel Start with the

Jews and move into the Gentiles and then you come to Romans chapter 1 verse 16 I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is a power of God unto salvation to all who believe

To the Jew first and what also to the Greek then you come to Ephesians 2 that we read last week and you have this wall

That separated Judaism from Gentiles and Greeks you have that wall being torn down in Christ where the two become what one?

Okay so these Judaizers were Jewish coming in a

Gentile sheer churches and They're teaching these early Christians.

Well Christ basically Christ is not enough Oh, you're saved you trusted Christ Paul was here.

We're here now to add to that teaching and They added doing things required under the law

Saying you really haven't arrived. You're not Really there until you do these other things

That's one of the roots of the heresy of the Pentecostal Church You need to understand

Christ is not sufficient. Christ is not enough. You need this other experience

It's all the way back They also taught that Paul had not preached a full or a complete

Gospel that Jesus wasn't enough to say you're almost there by the way

Read Colossians sometimes same thing the Gnostics came in and said you got it, but there's a little more

You need this deeper understanding study Christian science sometime Study the unity school of Christianity sometime.

These are all basically there's nothing new under the Sun Read Ecclesiastes all false teaching you can go back and you see it in the past right and where does it all start?

Genesis chapter 3 Did God really say and my answer is yes, he did

It's right here Amen He really did and I can trust it so the watershed difference

Between the gospel false gospel the Judaizers were teaching and every other false gospel ever taught or preached

From the beginning can be distilled down to what? Doing versus what done

Christ did it all or you want to put it another way Jesus? only versus Jesus plus Jesus plus the sacraments

Jesus plus Baptizing this baby Jesus plus going through confirmation.

Do you understand? It's all Jesus plus So, how can we better understand the foundation that Paul lays for this rescue attempt of the

Galatian Christians and apply it to our own Relationship to Christ second by under better understanding the distinguished writer of Galatians and we covered this last week

So just very quickly a couple quick reminders for one We've seen the unique way that Paul begins

This letter compared to his other letters found in the New Testament. We also examined his office in the church

He was an apostle take a look. He was an apostle not from men Nor through man, by the way, the

Judaizers, you know what they did You'll see it later in the letter One of the things they did is they said we were sent by by the

Apostles in Jerusalem No, Paul was sent by who? Jesus Christ and God the

Father Who raised him from the dead? So an apostle is one that is sent with delegated authority from Jesus Christ this letter was written by someone with delegated appointed and Designated authority and the giver of that authority was

Jesus Christ himself and Notice that he added Through Jesus Christ and God the

Father what who raised him from the dead So basically what

Paul does at the beginning of this letter is he plunges? Into a discussion of two core vital issues at stake as he begins this rescue attempt number one his

Apostolic authority and number two his divine message the divine origin of his message

And what he declares in no uncertain terms if both of these critical issues both his apostolic authority and the divine origin of his message

Both are centered on and flowed directly from the Lord Jesus Christ Paul was called to be an apostle

The medium and means by which and through which this call came was Jesus Christ Paul is an apostle through Jesus Christ and God the

Father and I showed you last week. I hope maybe you remember Grammatically and theologically

This statement when he says through Jesus Christ and God Grammatically and theologically he is putting them on the same level

God The Father is God God. The Son is God God. The Holy Spirit is God, but he doesn't say that there

We can build that another time so these opening verses if you ever want a proof text that Jesus is divine if the

Jehovah Witness knocks on your door and He wants to tell you Jesus is a good teacher, but he's not

God maybe he was you know a rabbi Well, you can say well, whatever. What are you gonna do with this?

Through Jesus Christ and God the Father right? You've got all kinds of proof texts. That's one now just in case

The Galatian believers because remember how this was done Was when a letter like this in the early church came to the church

What would happen is the elders the pastors would get up I got a letter from Paul and Then they would sit there for weeks and weeks and weeks.

This is all they have. There's no New Testament You understand you got Old Testament, but you don't have a New Testament. So this is like gold

Paul wrote us and then the elders and the pastors would sit there and read the letter publicly

So he has your attention You got these Judaizers in the church. I Was there

I was there not from men not through man but through Jesus Christ and God the

Father who raised him from the dead and then he says by the way if you have any Question in your mind all the brethren her who are with me.

Okay. I am NOT a gospel lone ranger

All the brethren that were with me then and all the brethren that are with me now Confirm and affirm what

I'm about to say So what you want to think about when you look at these verses is this is kind of an anchor if you drift here on these issues

You will wind up a ground on the rocks of error when it comes to the gospel and when it comes to Understanding and applying this letter to our lives.

You're throwing the baby out with the bathwater So, how can we grow and firm up our understanding of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached and died for and also that the

Apostles preached and died for how can we get this better? Understanding and appreciation of the importance of being right and together and have unity about the gospel in these opening verses number three finally

By better understanding the gospel centered greeting To the churches of Galatia verse 2

Grace to you in peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Who gave himself for our sins

That he might deliver us from this present evil age According to the will of our

God and Father to whom be glory forever and ever Amen This is a gospel centered greeting that is centered on the

Lord Jesus Christ It is a gospel centered greeting that further

Reinforces in brief the biblical gospel. Remember I told you last week doing versus done

Right the biblical gospel. Remember I've mentioned more than once the book of Romans Boiled down to what the book of Galatians right

Galatians you read Galatians. It's like the condensed version of Romans. Okay Now you have

Now you have these two words grace and peace, right Grace and peace you find this greeting in 12 of the epistles that he wrote

Grace is a it's a vitally important word in the New Testament. It's an inexhaustible well of Rich theology about Jesus Christ and God it is

God's free undeserved kindness towards sinners Grace is

God's spontaneous Unmade unmerited favor in action. It's God's freely bestowed loving kindness and work

Bestowing salvation on guilt -laden sinners who turn to him for refuge It is grace that directs lost sinners with with laser like accuracy to the salvation that God provides only through Jesus Christ and only

Only to those who put their trust in him by grace through faith for salvation grace is what

God extended Adam and Eve He said if you take of that fruit, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna die Grace is what God poured out on Noah when

God looked out in Genesis chapter 6 and saw the wickedness of all men's hearts And and Tim read it the state of man in Romans chapter 3 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Right.

There is no one righteous yet. No one there is no one who seeks after God it goes on to this litany

Describing the sinfulness of all men since the fall and God in Genesis chapter 6 he looks out on the world and the thought and intention of every man by the way, including

Noah if You read the passage in Genesis, which we did But Noah found what favor

God's grace Grace is what happened to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and Then complementing this word grace.

He says grace and what peace right? Which was often used to identify a state of well -being or or wholeness in the

New Testament pay peace means a Restored relationship mended fellowship.

They go together under this banner of the gospel of Jesus Christ Grace is extended by God to undeserving lost sinners and only then can someone have the peace that Paul talks about grace fits with peace

Now secondly this gospel -centered greeting It's a gospel -centered greeting because of the source of grace and peace notice the source they flow from God the

Father and our Lord Jesus Christ This takes us back to verse 1 in Paul's radically transformed worldview and theology

God the Father and Jesus Christ are now one They're in Dissolubly united and linked together here just as they are in verse 1 grace and peace are from God the

Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and Paul refers to God as a father no doubt laying the foundation later in chapter 3 beginning of verse 21

Chapter 3 beginning of verse 21. He talks about the adoption that happens to believers in Christ Look at chapter 4 verse 4, but when the fullness of the time had come

God sent forth his son Born of a woman born under the law look at this

To redeem those who were under the law That we might receive the adoptions as sons

So he keeps coming back to this to this Absolute Important truth that we must get about the gospel the moment that we add to Christ The moment that we add to grace.

We're coming back under the law You gotta do this

If you just had this if you just took communion more

Notice he calls Jesus Christ Lord Not in verse 1 but in verse 2 our

Lord Jesus Christ We learn when we read through Paul's others letters that this title for Christ was significant to Paul He preached

Jesus as Lord all the time He told the Corinthians for we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ the

Lord He told the Christians in Rome if we live we live to the Lord. In fact turn their

Romans 14. Look at this Romans 14 verse 8 for if we live

We live to the Lord and if we die We die to the Lord therefore whether we live or die

We are the Lord's Remember who Paul was Paul was the

Pharisee of what Pharisees But when he fell on the road on the ground on the road to Damascus and he heard a voice saying

Saul Saul Why are you persecuting me the Pharisee of Pharisees by the way who only?

Recognized God the Father is Lord Only God the

Father was Yahweh that Christian hater and persecutor said on the road to Damascus with his eyes blind and his

Friends that were traveling with him on the way to arrest those Christians with papers in hand said who are you?

Lord See referring to Jesus as Lord demonstrates

Paul's new theology His born -again understanding of the

Godhead Jesus is Lord Yahweh the Creator the Redeemer Jehovah the

Covenant God who revealed himself to Moses in Exodus chapter 3 Paul Worshiped Jesus and acclaimed and preached him as God back in Galatians Grace and peace come from God the

Father and our Lord Jesus Christ So a third reason why this is a gospel centered greeting is because Paul declares that Christ gave himself for our sins

See You cannot be biblically saved, please listen to me I Gave you the four parts of the gospel.

I'll give it to you again There is a God Genesis 1 in the beginning one

God and that God is holy and Then there's the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3 and When you read

Romans 3 There is this Exposition of the total sinfulness of man

There's no better interpretation of Romans chapter 3 there is none righteous.

No, not one Wait a minute. You mean that sweet little lady that gives money to the poor?

That's not a Christian There is none righteous.

No, not one There is none who understands There is none who seeks after God you mean those sweet people that go to church every

Sunday To that church down the street.

They have all turned aside They have to kept together become but but I've never heard anybody

I've never told a lie. I've never murdered anybody. I've never cheated on my wife

There is none who does good No, not one

Their throat is an open tomb With their tongues they have practiced deceit

There is no fear of God before their eyes and Then he sums it up for all have sinned and Fall short of the glory of God since the garden

No one born has a choice in this matter When you share the gospel with somebody and you say if you were to die today

Do you know for certain? That you will go to heaven and I'm telling you 99 999 times out of a hundred

The person says well, I hope so and You say oh really why?

You know what comes next? Well, I'm a good person. I Try to be a good person

So My response is really that's wonderful. I Go to church, you know on Easter and Christmas.

Oh, that's wonderful. I Say can I give you a little test? You know a good person test and they go, okay

They say have you ever told a lie? I Don't I don't

I don't think I mean any kind of lie, you know, like a little lie and And they they go.

Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've told a lie and then I say What does that make you

Human I Know no. No, what does that make you? Like everybody else and then

I say well if I told you a lie, what would you call me? a liar They can't even say it then when you get them to say it, you know, right

Since the garden right any parent knows That it's a child's bent to sin.

I mean, I remember teaching our children not to touch Okay parents, you know this right?

Don't touch You know you're over here, right? Don't touch that Now did

I teach him to touch it or do they touch it by nature Do I teach him to like?

Yeah, you need to lie to mommy and daddy. Okay, never tell him the truth No, we lie what?

by nature because we're born what in sin and The wages of sin is death.

What does every sin deserve? Every sin deserves God's wrath

God's curse because in this life and that which is to come Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5 just past Galatians Ephesians 5 6 let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things what sin the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience the wages of sin is death and It's too horrible of a death to impossibly ever imagine it is a death that means eternal

Separation from God and his goodness in a literal place called hell friends.

We need to understand Hell is forever. And so is heaven both

So why what was the purpose of? Christ's substitute Substitutionary death back to Galatians He gave himself for our sins

That he might deliver us From this present evil age according to the will of God This is a gospel centered greeting

Because it tells us why Christ died and see it's very interesting how the

Holy Spirit puts it Puts the Word of God together God's Holy Word tells us

That this present age is a period in human history

When I say this age, I'm talking about since creation until Jesus comes again.

I didn't say last days I said this age this 7 ,000 year period of human history it the

Bible tells us that this present age is a period when the devil blankets the mind and Literally blinds the minds of people so that they're in spiritual darkness go to 2nd

Corinthians chapter 4 2nd

Corinthians 4 verse 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, you know what it means to be veiled right a veil covers

It is veiled To those who are perishing Whose minds the

God of this world has what? blinded Who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God?

Should shine on them. Can I just give you a little Greek lesson? blind in the

Greek because the New Testament was written in Greek Blind means blind. Can you close your eyes and see anything?

Well, if you close your eyes tight and I turn the lights off you'll see that distance no blind means totally blind

You cannot see I was talking to a lady in our church this morning

About some of the executive orders that are being signed regarding abortion How can the entire

New York State? legislature Stand to its feet and applaud

When they passed a law in the state of New York that you could kill a child

Abort a child after it's born How could anybody pass a law?

That allows men who say I'm a woman today I'm gonna go into a girl's locker room and shower and She was shaking her head that's she's struggling with this she's overwhelmed at the wickedness how

It's right here Whose mind the

God of this age has blinded Who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God?

Should shine on them It's totally blind and this is the state of everyone who has been born since the fall in Genesis 3 a sinner cannot see they are dead in their trespasses and sin as far as the

Reconciliation and the peace or the relationship with a holy God goes are there good people in the world?

Yes, are there good people that are not Christian that understand the wickedness of a man going into a target?

Woman's restroom. Yes First John 5 19 puts it this way the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one

Believers, we know what's going on in this world. We're we should not be surprised We may be grieved in our heart, right?

But it shouldn't surprise us and the devil exercises control over a sinner's life

Everyone the whole world lies under the sway and the control of their father the devil

Friends before the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus had no choice in what he was doing

He was a slave and he was in bondage and this is part of the message of Galatians Don't you remember the bondage you were under and Christ has set you free?

How can you add to that and go back under that yoke, I mean, this is why he was so upset

Did I kind of get that across? I don't know if he did it that way. I Was showing a student a math problem last week and I was and she wasn't getting it and I was going like this and I ripped the paper

I Said did you think

I was mad? She goes? No I Said she's a sweetest girl.

I said, but I ripped the paper. I mean after class I went I said did you think you know because she knew what she just And then

I had dinner with my family that night and there was some another girl One of one of my daughter's friends was over and said you

I remember, you know That math class and you know and all of a sudden one day the light came on But until that light came on I couldn't get it.

Remember those days bar What's wrong two plus two equals four, you know

See Saul was shackled This is why this letter is so different than the other letters

This is why if anybody preaches to you any other gospel or adds anything to this gospel there to be cursed of God He couldn't have been any stronger

Ephesians 2 look at it, please And you

Ephesians 2 verse 1 he made alive Who were what? Oh A little alive no dead by the way in the

Greek what's dead mean not breathing dead in a coffin six feet under What were we before Christ we were dead?

You mean mother Teresa, yeah Yeah, she was a good person. I agree.

Amen. She did a lot of good things. I agree But according to God's standard

Anybody not in Christ is Dead in trespasses and sin in which in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the

Prince of the power of the air Don't be surprised about what's going on in the world right now The Prince of the power of the air is direct in all this and God's allowing it by the way

God's allowing it for his purposes in his glory We may not see it, but that's what the

Bible tells me You mean God is glorified in the fall of man and garden in Genesis chapter 3?

Yeah, I can't explain it, but it wouldn't happened. Amen. You mean you mean

God is glorified when Jesus went to the cross? Yes, you mean God was glorified when he had to carry his own cross

You mean God is glorified as the Son of Man was beat. Yes. I don't know that I can explain it adequately

According to the Prince of the power of the air the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience Among whom also we all

This is Paul Once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and bore by nature children of wrath back to Galatians 4 3

Look at how Paul puts this Rescue operation even so When we were children

We're in bondage under the elements of the world So back in verse 4

Paul weaves into this statement a theology of sin You see if you're listening watching by YouTube you're here today

Is there a question in your mind today? Am I truly

Saved am I truly born again? Here it is. True Christians have literally been rescued

God shows them they're lost. They know they're lost.

They know they need to be rescued then in Christ by faith alone a

Believer is no under the domination of sin. They're not a slave to it

They're they're not shackled to it in Christ. They've been delivered. They've been rescued Jesus Christ has rescued the true

Christian. He's delivered them from spiritual bondage from blindness to their sin He's radically transformed them like he did

Saul of Tarsus This is why Paul is so direct and why he is so strong in the opening verse of this letter the

Galatian believers were in the process of trading freedom for slavery and And Then there is this incredible Incredible statement in verse 4

He might deliver us from this present evil age how? according to the will of our

God and Father Would you think for a moment? About that little phrase according to the will of our

God and Father You see what's behind that?

Do you see anything in here About well about what man wants or desires you think about the person that is writing these words a man with apostolic authority that was radically changed a man whose will was to walk to Damascus with the men that were accompanying him and Arrest Christians and put them in prison.

That was his will what was God's will? That he be saved on the road to Damascus and all -knowing all -powerful loving sovereign

God had a plan and It was a plan that the Bible says in many different places and in many different ways that was settled by God before the foundation of the world

He told Jeremiah the prophet Before I formed you in the womb.

I Knew you Before you were born. I sanctified you

I set you apart. I ordained you a prophet to the nations

Look at verse 15 But when it pleased God Who Separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace the lady in my church this morning in our church said

Can you give me some verses that did I mean can you believe of all the Sundays she would ask this

I Said did you read my sermon? That I'm gonna preach at Faith Bible.

No When does is a baby a baby?

Before it's a baby Amen At conception

When that little guy swims up and you have life But when it pleased

God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace To reveal his son in me

That I might preach him among the Gentiles. I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood

Ephesians 2 Ephesians 2 For by grace verse 8 you've been saved through faith and not of yourselves

It is a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast Church as we look forward to 2021, we're having a business meeting in February Something we all should be thinking about as if we're really a

Christian is verse 10 See most people memorize 8 and 9 but they forget about 10

We are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works. Here it is, which

God prepared beforehand That we should walk in them John I'm I'm 79 years old.

I can't do it. I can't go down and meet Victor and fix the water pipe which he shouldn't be doing or Or climb up the ladder and change the bulb on one of these projectors, which he shouldn't be doing

I Can't do that. I just don't have the you know what? God has a work

And you know what that work might be. It might be praying every day Every day fervently for this church for this country

God Prepared works for the people that he saved and it's more than going to a job every day and making a house payment

It's works for the kingdom of God. Yes, we have to work and make the house payment

This is so important not to miss So important as to the very purpose of this letter back to Galatians 1

This one reason why the church in the 16th century and what's known as a Reformation Threw out as anathema the abominable heresy that had crept into the church and was teaching that man has a part in getting saved

Salvation is entirely the will of God. What have I said all along doing versus what done?

According to what the will of our God the gospel of grace through faith alone the gospel sins sinful man's

Reconciliation with a holy God from the garden forward is God alone. That's why he says in Genesis 3 15 in the proto evangelium

That you the serpent will bruise your heel But you the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent

Jesus Christ Doing versus done and finally I'm running long

Finally verse 5 To whom be the glory forever and ever

This is the summa cum laude of it all This is the summit and the peak of Mount Ephras Thrusting out of virtually every page of Scripture to God be the glory the ultimate center of Paul's theology

The ultimate center of any true biblical theology is God's glory the moment

Anyone brings anything that they do to salvations The moment that they bring anything they do to the salvation equation.

They are robbing God of his glory I've always been a

Christian I've always gone to church.

I Walked an aisle I was baptized I've always been a good person.

I've never hurt anyone Intentionally doing versus done man's glory versus God's glory.

Is there anything wrong with walking an aisle? No, is there anything wrong with being baptized? No, but why am I doing it?

I Could go another hour on this Wow, I Didn't know

I was gonna be able to go another hour It certainly wasn't prepared to go for another hour

Can I take us back to a question How would you turn someone you deeply loved away from error?

What lengths would you go to what strategy would you employ? The Judaizers were attacking the simplicity of salvation by grace through faith alone

Christ wasn't enough by the way, I came out of that I Was in a church and they they essentially told me

Christ is not enough You need this Special baptism and you need this evidence of this special second work of grace.

I Didn't know enough Bible. I had questions in my mind, but I didn't know enough Bible to understand that it wasn't true.

I Put some notes here in your bulletin Or not your bulletin.

We're not doing bulletins in the sermon notes Just three things simple for you to take home and pray about this week, maybe even this afternoon after the nap

For one even well -taught Christians may unwittingly follow false doctrine

Number two, do you understand the biblical gospel? Or are you in church or watching today?

Because at one point you responded to the biblical gospel namely you understand God's holiness you understand you were

You are or were a lost sinner third you put your trust in Christ alone for salvation

And finally your life has changed. Those are the four legs God is satisfied with what his son did on the cross

Are you satisfied with what Jesus did? You know, I'll never forget when

I first accepted the call to the church in Citrus Heights I Wasn't there two weeks, maybe

Maybe a month the first or second communion service we had Which is celebrating the

Lord's table. It doesn't do anything other than the fact that we're being obedient Jesus told us to do it what in remembrance of him right, but it doesn't earn us anything

There's not some ledger sheet up in heaven some Excel spreadsheet and you know, you put it in there and the formula, you know

Works out you get a little better Standing with God and I'll never forget this guy.

I visited him. He was so mad at me and He says I almost didn't take the

Lord's say supper on Sunday. I Said why?

Well, she just made it so hard had to examine myself and I don't know if you remember him Examine, I'm examine myself and see if I'm worthy.

I Said I'm so sorry. I Just was reading from The Bible His wife looked at him

He'd been on those Victor You love those visits as a pastor when they're mad at you

Are you satisfied with what Jesus did is Jesus enough for you? Or do you think you need to add something of your own to what he accomplished in his death and resurrection, let's pray

Please take a few moments You have some questions.

You can ask yourself right there whether you're watching by video So thankful for Victor's ministry.

He puts it on line in the email. So you're getting the notes Please take this

Time to pray You were called With a purpose before the foundation of the world and then

I'll pray after I give you a few minutes to pray Our Heavenly Father how thankful we are for the gospel of Jesus Christ The simple gospel

No one comes unto the Father unless you first draw God it's an amazing thought

That you drew us to Christ You showed us we needed Christ You gave us the grace

God to say. Yes, I need Christ. I Need him. I need to be saved.

I need to be born again. I don't want to go to hell God thank you for that wonderful gift showing us that you love us

God help us to know for sure Know for sure we've been born again

Help us God if we're wondering, you know in this day and age in which we live Lord, what can

I do for you? What did you save me for? What purpose that I might bring glory to you

God help us as a church each of us to know what that is God We pray for those that are not here for various reasons we ask father for you to pour out your grace upon them

God you might minister your grace to them God even I Just can't imagine We give you these things.

We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen Amen Let's stand together as we're seeing our closing hymn praise the

Savior Praise the

Savior Who can tell how much we owe

Gladly Render to him We are

Jesus is the name that charms us he for conflict fits and arms us

Nothing moves and nothing harms us while we trust in him

Keep us Lord. Oh keep us cleaving to thyself and still believe till the hour of Receiving promise joy with thee