Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB000003A
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00:22 Welcome to Books in the Book, I'm Pastor Mark Howard
00:25 Pastor of Gobels Seventh-Day Adventist church in Gobels 00:28 Michigan and as well as the director of Emmanuel 00:30 Institute of Evangelism in the Michigan Conference 00:32 of Seventh-day Adventist. 00:34 And I'm here with my co-host Jim Howard and he is 00:36 my brother. - that's right and I am a Pastor also in 00:38 in the Michigan Conference of the Detroit Metropolitan 00:41 and South Lyon Seventh-day Adventist churches. 00:43 And today we are studying in the book of Galatians. 00:47 Galatians is a powerful book in the New Testament. 00:52 In Galatians we gave a little background yesterday on 00:56 the book of Galatians and we came through a little of 01:00 chapter 2 with the surrounding controversy of 01:04 circumcision. Today we are going to delve into it 01:08 a little bit further into the real message of the book. 01:12 We're are going to start in Galatians 2 so if you have 01:15 your Bibles at home I would encourage you to turn in 01:19 your Bibles with us to Galatians Chapter 2. 01:21 You will find Galatians in the New Testament and you 01:23 start out with the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 01:25 Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians and then 01:28 the book of Galatians. 01:29 We're going to Galatians 2:11 and we talked about this 01:36 a little bit in our last episode. 01:37 We had talked about this controversy and actually 01:41 contention that came up between the apostle Paul and 01:43 apostle Peter. - Peter was switching tables as I recall. 01:46 That's right, it says here in verse 11 "now when Peter 01:49 "had come to Antioch," Paul said, "I withstood him to his 01:52 "face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain 01:55 "men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; 01:58 "but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, 02:02 "fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the 02:04 "rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, 02:07 "so that even Barnabas was carried away with their 02:10 "hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not 02:13 "straightforward about the truth of the Gospel, I said 02:16 "to Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live 02:20 "in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews why do 02:23 "you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are 02:27 "Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing 02:31 "that a man is not justified by the works of the law but 02:34 "by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ 02:38 "Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ 02:42 "and not by the works of the law; for by the works of 02:45 "the law no flesh shall be justified. " 02:49 So here is this emphatic cry against justification by 02:55 works of the law, and emphatic I say he brings it up 03:01 three times in this text. 03:03 From my own perspective or reading the book of Galatians, 03:07 this is, if not the keynote of the book of Galatians 03:10 where he just emphatically makes the point that I think 03:13 he is trying to communicate through this whole book is 03:15 that justification comes through faith and 03:19 not by works of the law. 03:20 That's right, and if you key in on verse 16, as you said 03:24 it mentions this three times. 03:25 And it says specifically for by the works of the law no 03:30 flesh shall be justified. 03:31 And what we want to do is take little time today to talk 03:34 about justification because it is the central theme, 03:36 if you will, of the book of Galatians. 03:38 We have talked about how the Gospel, and the true gospel 03:41 is exactly what Paul is addressing here, 03:43 but at the heart of the gospel is justification. 03:46 Now when it says by the works of the law no flesh shall 03:49 be justified, it is important to remember that while 03:52 Paul is speaking negatively here toward something, 03:55 he is not speaking negatively toward the law but toward 03:59 the works of the law. 04:00 In fact not even just the works of the law but be justified by 04:04 the works of the law. 04:05 So to say that this is somehow doing away with the law 04:08 really doesn't make sense and here's why. 04:11 That word justified, who needs justified? 04:14 Well someone who is guilty, and you can't be guilty 04:18 without the law, there has to be some standard in order 04:22 for there to be any guilt. 04:24 So justification requires that there has to be a law 04:28 governing the situation. 04:30 That's right, justification implies law, the word implies 04:34 law, for example if you are in a discussion with a friend 04:38 about something and you get into a little heated argument 04:42 and you tell your friend, or your friend tells you, 04:47 you are just trying to justify yourself. 04:49 Well what are we saying? 04:50 - you're trying to make yourself out to be innocent. 04:52 - yet you're trying to show you are not guilty. 04:54 Nobody tries to justify them- selves when they don't feel like 04:59 somebody has been attacking, or they're not accused. 05:03 Self-justification begins, a person doesn't try to 05:07 justify themselves until they feel like 05:09 somebody has accused them and then 05:10 they have to declare their innocence. 05:12 So we are talking about justification, and what 05:14 Paul is talking about is man's response to that feeling 05:18 of condemnation, but that comes through law. 05:21 Something we need to realize here and maybe our viewers 05:25 do not realize is that we don't pick it up in the 05:29 English text of our Bible but if you go into the Greek 05:32 texts, it is interesting that Paul does not use the word, 05:34 he doesn't use the definite article in the Greek he uses 05:37 the word nomos which is the Greek word for law, but he 05:40 doesn't use a definite article, in other words the law. 05:43 And without the definite article instead of the law 05:46 it would just be law. 05:47 If we were to read this as Paul wrote it without this 05:50 definite article and the way it is reading here in my Bible 05:53 as Paul wrote it he would say something like this. 05:56 Verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by works 06:00 of law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have 06:03 believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by 06:05 faith in Christ and not by works of law. 06:07 So he is not even trying to narrow down to one 06:10 particular law as much as he is just talking about 06:13 the role of law and bringing that condemnation and 06:16 a man trying to justify himself from law. 06:19 That's right, but the law is there because it is 06:22 declaring the guilt that requires him to be justified. 06:25 So justification as we have laid out here, 06:29 is only needed if someone is guilty. 06:30 This really brings a, if I could say a heartwarming 06:35 reality to the issue of justification. 06:37 Let's look at a passage that shows us a little bit 06:40 about how and who God justifies. 06:42 It is in Romans chapter 4 and I think it would be 06:45 valuable for us to look there. 06:47 Romans 4:5 and it says, "but to him who does not work 06:55 "but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, 06:59 "his faith is accounted for righteousness. " 07:03 And that makes our point again, I mean who else would be 07:05 justified other than the ones who needs to be justified. 07:08 God justifies not those that have no problems, 07:13 not those who are perfect and skate right along in life 07:16 with no mistakes. 07:17 God justifies the ungodly the only ones 07:19 who need justified. 07:21 So we have different examples in the Bible, and I think 07:24 it would be valuable for us to look at different examples 07:27 in the Bible of justification and of people 07:29 who found themselves in the need of justification and 07:32 how they reacted to that. 07:33 And I would like to add to that a point that we will be 07:36 making as we are all ungodly according to Scripture. 07:38 So there is not a class of people that don't need 07:41 justification, but there may be some who don't feel 07:43 they need justification. - that's right. 07:44 We may all be ungodly but not everybody senses 07:47 that they are ungodly. 07:48 Well let's look at one example in Luke 10:25. 07:52 This particular passage draws out a man, a young lawyer 08:01 who specifically deals with this issue of guilt 08:06 in a not so good way and it is found in Luke 10:25. 08:10 It says, "and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and 08:15 "tested Him," he's testing Jesus, "saying, Teacher what 08:19 "shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, 08:23 "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? 08:26 "So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your 08:29 "God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all 08:33 "your strength, and with all your mind, 08:35 "and your neighbor as yourself. 08:37 "And He said to him, you have answered rightly; 08:40 "do this and you will live. " 08:41 Now at this point this lawyer is probably thinking 08:44 I have done pretty well and He asked me what my reading 08:46 of the law was and I told Him the most important part. 08:48 Now he is thinking, wait a minute, I'm not sure 08:51 I'm living up to that exactly right. 08:53 So he has to do his best to change the law, or the 09:00 it is a interpretation of the law so that his life will 09:03 meet it so he will not be found guilty by the law, 09:06 but found innocent and it draws that out specifically 09:10 in verse 29 where it says, "but he, wanting to" and that 09:14 is where it says justify himself, "justify himself, said 09:18 "to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?" 09:20 So he was wanting to justify himself so he asked Jesus, 09:23 who is my neighbor? I mean that is not everybody is it? 09:26 That's only certain people right? 09:28 He was wanting to make sure that his life was innocent 09:32 and in order to do that he was trying to justify himself. 09:35 Right, and that reminds me of another example of a young 09:40 man as well in Luke 18:18 where it says, "now certain 09:43 "ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do 09:47 "to inherit eternal life?" Very much the same question. 09:50 "Oh Jesus said to him, why do you call Me good? 09:53 "No one is good but One, that is God. You know the 09:55 "Commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, 09:58 "Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your 10:01 "father and your mother. And he said all these things 10:03 "I have kept from my youth. " 10:05 Now there is an interesting difference between these two 10:09 young men is that the first one seem to recognize that 10:12 he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. 10:15 - that is why he tried to justify himself. 10:16 - exactly so the condemnation came and he tried to 10:20 declare his own innocence and say that it wasn't 10:23 important for him to keep those things. 10:25 Somehow or another to excuse himself. 10:27 Now this man, he in his heart really believes he is 10:31 doing everything that God has required of him. 10:34 So Jesus comes a little closer to the issue and says, 10:37 "you still lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and 10:40 "give to the poor, and you will have treasure 10:42 "in heaven; and come, follow Me. " 10:43 Of course the Bible says he goes away sorrowful. 10:46 - That's right, that's right the interesting thing about 10:48 both the stories though, is that if you really look at 10:51 them, both are asking what do I need to be justified? 10:54 To inherit eternal life? 10:57 I mean justification is about salvation, it's about 10:59 eternity and so they are both asking what do 11:03 I need to do to be justified and in both cases Jesus 11:06 unashamedly says, What do you read in the law? 11:10 He points them to the law and whether or not they are 11:13 obeying the law to find out what they are to do. 11:18 Jesus was using the law to point out their guilt so 11:23 they would recognize their need of genuine justification. 11:28 That they would be able to find the Him. 11:29 This issue of pointing people to the law will always lead 11:35 them to, if they are looking at it in the right light, to sense 11:39 the need of justification because of what the Bible 11:42 teaches what every person truly has inside of them. 11:46 This touches on what you were saying earlier 11:48 that everyone is ungodly. 11:49 I want to look at a verse that really draws that out. 11:54 It is in Romans 8:7, it is one of the clearest places 11:58 where it describes the condition of man. 12:00 It says, "because the carnal mind" and it is the mind 12:06 we are born with, "is enmity against God;" 12:09 that is hostile towards God, opposed to God, 12:13 "for it is not subject to the "law of God, 12:16 "nor indeed can be. " 12:19 So this nature we are born with is opposed to God and 12:24 the reason it is opposed to God, the reason Paul says 12:27 it is opposed to God is because it is not subject 12:30 to the law by nature. 12:33 Not only are we not submissive to God's will as expressed 12:37 in His law, but in this nature we can't be. 12:41 We can't be. - that's right, so it is interesting to 12:47 me about this is that everybody would agree, I would say 12:51 every Christian would agree that we have a problem there. 12:54 We are sinful, we are carnal and carnal is not good. 12:58 The Bible tells us here that the reason carnal is not 13:03 good is because it will not subject itself to God's law. 13:08 - right! -than to try to promote a Christianity that 13:14 does away with God's law is to eternalize and perpetuate 13:20 - the carnal heart that is exactly right. 13:22 Wow, so this we are seeing a little bit of a role of 13:27 God's law in the process of justification, but it is not 13:30 the means of justification and we are going to be seeing 13:33 that a little bit more about that. 13:36 But before we delve into that and dive into that we are 13:38 going to take a break and when we come back from our 13:41 break we are going to go and talk a little bit more about 13:43 justification and our real need for justification. 13:47 So stay with us. |
Revised 2023-04-24