Welcome back to our
study in the book of Galatians.
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We are going to dive
right back were we left off.
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We were talking about the
grace and peace that is given
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to each one of us
through God the Father and
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our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The apostle Paul, in Galatians
1:3 discusses this grace
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and peace in a very
brief way, just offering it.
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I believe in what we need
to spend a little more time
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doing, where we were last
time before the break, was
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talking about these in
a more flushed out way.
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Right because this is
Paul's standard salutation of
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grace and peace and we can
almost take it as a greeting
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like Heh, how are you doing?
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Instead of really grasping
that he is expressing some
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core gospel truth right here.
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That's right. We talked
about the grace of God being
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the unmerited favor of God
and at the same time that power
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by which we are made alive
and born-again through that
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grace and it leaves the
impression since none of us
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deserve grace of God, and
since none of us could merit
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salvation then
wouldn't everybody be saved?
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Because God loves everyone
an important verses that we
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didn't look to in Ephesians
2: 8, 9 where it simply says
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"that by grace we are
saved through faith. "
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So that brings in the
choice of the human element.
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In other words, the grace
of God is offered to us freely.
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The salvation of God is given
to us freely, but our belief
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in those promises, our
belief in that grace of God to
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change our hearts and lives
is that faith by which we lay
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hold of the grace of God.
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So when we think about it
in those terms we can then
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reference Romans 5:1,
where it says that having been
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justified by faith, that
faith by which we lay claim to
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the grace of God, we
have peace with God through
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our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Through that grace that is
bringing us into harmony with
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God no longer is our
stubborn will preventing us from
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having harmony with
God, or peace with God.
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That's right and we
really need to flush that out
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a little bit because the
idea of peace with God has been
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perverted into this
concept that God is against me.
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Because Jesus died for
me, now God has found a way to
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love me because of
something Jesus did, because of
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something I did
as if God changes.
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So the peace with God is
something that happens because
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God finally stops
fighting, of course you know the
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opposite of peace is war.
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We were talking about a
condition of peace, somebody
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stops fighting and we
would assume often times that it
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must be God that
has stopped fighting.
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The reality is that when
the gospel message comes out in
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the salutation of Paul,
"grace and peace from God the
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"Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. "
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What's happening is that
the peace treaty is being
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proclaimed from God's
end, in essence God is saying,
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I'm not holding
anything against you, it makes
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me think of the song of the
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Angels when Jesus is
born and the shepherds out
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in the field in Luke
chapter 2 where angels say,
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"glory to God in the
highest end on earth peace,
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"goodwill toward men. "
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In other words God is
saying, I'm not fighting you,
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but you have been fighting Me.
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God invites us to lay
down our weapons of warfare
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and that is what Paul is
talking about there Romans 5.
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When we choose to lay
down our weapons of warfare,
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we receive justification by
faith and have peace with God.
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That's right, so we can
surrender our will and lay
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down our warfare, Jesus
says my peace I give unto you.
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So He is not wanting to fight
with us, He's wanting us to
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surrender our weapons so that
we can be at peace with Him.
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You know what I think
about the idea of fighting God,
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it brings me back
to the apostle Paul.
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If anybody knew what it
was like to wrestle against the
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grace and peace of God it
was Paul himself before his
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conversion and we
can look at that briefly.
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In Acts 9 we see a little
picture of the apostle Paul's
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warfare against God.
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In Acts chapter 9 we see
where Jesus meets Paul on the
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road to Damascus and He
says, "I am Jesus whom you are
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"persecuting," I'm reading
in Chapter 9:5, "it is hard for
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"you to kick
against the goads. "
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Now a goad was a pointed
instrument used to prod on an
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animal. - right and if an
animal didn't want to go forward
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and was aware it was
being prodded it would kick back
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at the goad trying to get
away from prodding him forward.
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So apparently something
was prodding Paul forward.
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The Lord Jesus was saying,
hey I'm prodding you forward
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but you are fighting Me.
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You are fighting against
Me and so we have this picture
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being painted, now
how did that happen
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or when did it happen?
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I think one of the most
powerful places were I am just
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sure the Holy Spirit was
prodding the conscience of the
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apostle Paul was in Acts
chapter 7 just before that.
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In Acts chapter 7 Paul, is
there called Saul before his
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conversion, was standing
by while the first Christian
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martyr here, Stephen a great
deacon, was giving an account
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of the history of Israel
and the experience of Israel and
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what they had done to
oppose the will of God.
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How they had resisted the
Holy Spirit and the leaders
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got so upset that
they stoned Stephen.
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Now in the middle of
this stoning something amazing
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happens, Stephen
looks up and sees Jesus.
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He makes this appeal, or
this plea or prayer if you will.
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He says Lord charged
not this sin against them.
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Now can you imagine being
the apostle Paul and you are
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ordering this stoning and
you look in the one that should
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be angry with you, should be
hateful toward you and saying,
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"Lord do not charge
this sin against them?"
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I'm telling you his conscience
had to have been pricked.
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Instead of surrendering
his heart, he fought all the
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harder because right after
that in Chapter 8 this great
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persecution arose because
the apostle Paul began to more
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vehemently go after the
Christians than ever before.
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That's right, so obviously
he's kicking against the goads
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and it's obvious.
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What's fascinating in the
context of this is that we
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mention the controversy over
the book of Galatians today,
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where there are
Christians who sincerely believe
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that the gospel is
saying the law doesn't matter
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to Christians anymore.
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Only what we find Paul
fighting against the gospel of
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Stephen that Paul was
fighting against in Stephen's
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address in Acts 7:53 he
arraigns those Jewish leaders
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and says to them, you
receive the law through the
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direction of angels
and you have not kept it.
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So Stephen's gospel arraigned
them for lawbreaking and Paul
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got incensed and infuriated
when it was pointed out that he
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was not obeying the law of
God, prior to his conversion.
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So far doing away with the law
of God, he was convicted of the
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fact that he wasn't
keeping the law of God
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through Stephen's testimony.
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Hmmm, that is exactly right.
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In fact it was last thing
that was said before they said
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that's it, and they
decided to stone him.
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We could take no more, he
challenged them and looked
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right at them and said,
you receive the law by the
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direction of angels
and have not kept it.
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That was too much for
them to handle and I think when
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you look at this idea of
the apostle Paul fighting this
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conviction, you understand
that Paul knew what it was like
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to have a will
that was stubborn.
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To have what the Bible
calls the flesh, a carnal nature
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that resisted the will of God.
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It didn't want to humble
itself, it didn't want to admit
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that it was wrong and so
that hard heart was seen in the
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apostle Paul, that is why
the Lord Jesus said, it is hard
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for you to kick
against the goads.
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But what the apostle
brings out later in Galatians
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Chapter 1, is a
powerful couple of statements.
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I would like to read
these in Galatians 1:23.
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"But they were hearing
only," the Christian churches,
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"he who formerly persecuted
us now preaches the faith he
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"once tried to destroy.
And they glorify God in me. "
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No wonder they glorify God
because here was enemy number
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one of the Christian Church.
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He was the one that
they fear, the one that
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they knew was after them.
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He was well know as the one
that was opposed to Christians
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and now not only does he
become a believer, but he turns
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from enemy number one
to evangelist number one.
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If anybody understood
the power of a changed life,
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the power of the
Gospel, it was the apostle Paul.
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Absolutely, and so when
we go back this is how he is
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presenting Grace and peace
and then he talks about how
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the Lord Jesus gave Himself
for our sins that He might
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deliver us, and that
is what he is talking
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about this deliverance.
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I want to touch on this giving,
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Jesus giving Himself for
our sins where the Grace of God
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is magnified, there is a
transaction taking place here.
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You are giving one
thing for another thing.
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It's like when you go to
the store and you give money and
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you get back a certain product.
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From a healing perspective,
if you go out and pay a
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substantial amount of
money, pay $100 for something.
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If you get that thing home
and it ends up being a piece of
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junk, whatever it is, you
are going to find a use for it.
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You are not just going to
throw it away, it costs you
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$100, use it as a
paperweight or something.
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A coaster - a coaster or
whatever because you paid
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that money for it.
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Here is a transaction that
is made where God has paid a
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price that is an infinite
price, the greatest price that
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has never been paid and
He knew what He was getting.
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And once more it doesn't
say He gave Himself for us,
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it says He gave
Himself for our sins.
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So He gave Himself for we
are often times tempted to
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say, I hear that God
loves me but could He accept
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me because of my sins?
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Your sins are what He
bought. - and that is right.
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Somebody once said that
if you go to the store and
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give money for something
and they don't give you
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what you paid for,
you will call them a crook
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or something
else. - right, right.
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Jesus paid for our sins,
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why don't we give them to Him?
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We need to surrender that which
He paid for and to think we
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aren't worthy enough
to give Him that is to
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ignore the fact that He
knew what He was getting
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when He bought us.
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Right, that is
what Grace is all about.
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So when we look at the
apostle Paul's statement here
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"Grace to you and
peace from God the Father,
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"and the Lord Jesus Christ. "
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The apostle Paul is
making a point that God is
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offering to us, in spite of
the fact that we are sinful.
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In the full light of
the fact that we are sinful,
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He is offering
grace and peace to us.
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How does it come to us?
00:11:57.68\00:11:58.83
Through the Lord Jesus
Christ who gave Himself for our
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sins, the reason that we
can fully accept this gospel
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is because the Lord
Jesus has made a trade.
00:12:05.99\00:12:08.11
He has taken those sins
and He is more than willing
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to take those sins when
we give ourselves to Him.
00:12:11.45\00:12:15.22
But it goes on and it
says, "that He might deliver us
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"from the present
evil. " This present evil.
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I believe that this
last portion here is really
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hitting on the issue
that was existing here in
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the Galatian church.
00:12:29.72\00:12:30.69
There are many people who
believe that, that gospel was
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so that we could
continue in evil.
00:12:34.46\00:12:36.50
Jesus died so we
don't have to keep the law.
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The apostle Paul, right
here in his salutation is
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opposing that very
thought by saying, no the Gospel
00:12:42.64\00:12:46.39
is so that you can be
rescued from your life of sin.
00:12:46.43\00:12:50.15
The Gospel is so that
you can be delivered from
00:12:50.18\00:12:53.21
this present evil age.
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That is right, Amen!
So that is what as we open
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up the book of
Galatians and dig into, that is
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what we are going to
unpack and see that deliverance
00:13:01.06\00:13:03.74
from many different angles here.
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The apostle Paul wants
to make it very clear to us
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because he wants us to
experience the deliverance
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that he experienced.
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It is a blessed,
beautiful message that we find
00:13:11.12\00:13:14.68
in the book of Galatians
and so we are excited as we
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continue on through this series.
00:13:17.19\00:13:18.90
We hope you will
continue to join us.
00:13:18.93\00:13:20.43
Thanks for being
with us today and I hope
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you will tune in
next time. - Amen!
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