Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00001B
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00:08 Welcome back to our study in the book of Galatians.
00:10 We are going to dive right back were we left off. 00:13 We were talking about the grace and peace that is given 00:16 to each one of us through God the Father and 00:18 our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:20 The apostle Paul, in Galatians 1:3 discusses this grace 00:25 and peace in a very brief way, just offering it. 00:29 I believe in what we need to spend a little more time 00:32 doing, where we were last time before the break, was 00:35 talking about these in a more flushed out way. 00:38 Right because this is Paul's standard salutation of 00:40 grace and peace and we can almost take it as a greeting 00:43 like Heh, how are you doing? 00:44 Instead of really grasping that he is expressing some 00:49 core gospel truth right here. 00:50 That's right. We talked about the grace of God being 00:53 the unmerited favor of God and at the same time that power 00:56 by which we are made alive and born-again through that 01:00 grace and it leaves the impression since none of us 01:04 deserve grace of God, and since none of us could merit 01:08 salvation then wouldn't everybody be saved? 01:12 Because God loves everyone an important verses that we 01:16 didn't look to in Ephesians 2: 8, 9 where it simply says 01:20 "that by grace we are saved through faith. " 01:24 So that brings in the choice of the human element. 01:27 In other words, the grace of God is offered to us freely. 01:31 The salvation of God is given to us freely, but our belief 01:35 in those promises, our belief in that grace of God to 01:38 change our hearts and lives is that faith by which we lay 01:41 hold of the grace of God. 01:43 So when we think about it in those terms we can then 01:48 reference Romans 5:1, where it says that having been 01:53 justified by faith, that faith by which we lay claim to 01:57 the grace of God, we have peace with God through 02:01 our Lord Jesus Christ. 02:02 Through that grace that is bringing us into harmony with 02:07 God no longer is our stubborn will preventing us from 02:11 having harmony with God, or peace with God. 02:13 That's right and we really need to flush that out 02:15 a little bit because the idea of peace with God has been 02:20 perverted into this concept that God is against me. 02:26 Because Jesus died for me, now God has found a way to 02:31 love me because of something Jesus did, because of 02:36 something I did as if God changes. 02:39 So the peace with God is something that happens because 02:42 God finally stops fighting, of course you know the 02:45 opposite of peace is war. 02:46 We were talking about a condition of peace, somebody 02:50 stops fighting and we would assume often times that it 02:53 must be God that has stopped fighting. 02:56 The reality is that when the gospel message comes out in 03:00 the salutation of Paul, "grace and peace from God the 03:04 "Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. " 03:06 What's happening is that the peace treaty is being 03:10 proclaimed from God's end, in essence God is saying, 03:14 I'm not holding anything against you, it makes 03:16 me think of the song of the 03:19 Angels when Jesus is born and the shepherds out 03:22 in the field in Luke chapter 2 where angels say, 03:25 "glory to God in the highest end on earth peace, 03:29 "goodwill toward men. " 03:30 In other words God is saying, I'm not fighting you, 03:33 but you have been fighting Me. 03:36 God invites us to lay down our weapons of warfare 03:40 and that is what Paul is talking about there Romans 5. 03:44 When we choose to lay down our weapons of warfare, 03:47 we receive justification by faith and have peace with God. 03:51 That's right, so we can surrender our will and lay 03:55 down our warfare, Jesus says my peace I give unto you. 04:00 So He is not wanting to fight with us, He's wanting us to 04:04 surrender our weapons so that we can be at peace with Him. 04:08 You know what I think about the idea of fighting God, 04:12 it brings me back to the apostle Paul. 04:14 If anybody knew what it was like to wrestle against the 04:19 grace and peace of God it was Paul himself before his 04:24 conversion and we can look at that briefly. 04:28 In Acts 9 we see a little picture of the apostle Paul's 04:34 warfare against God. 04:36 In Acts chapter 9 we see where Jesus meets Paul on the 04:41 road to Damascus and He says, "I am Jesus whom you are 04:46 "persecuting," I'm reading in Chapter 9:5, "it is hard for 04:51 "you to kick against the goads. " 04:53 Now a goad was a pointed instrument used to prod on an 04:57 animal. - right and if an animal didn't want to go forward 05:01 and was aware it was being prodded it would kick back 05:03 at the goad trying to get away from prodding him forward. 05:06 So apparently something was prodding Paul forward. 05:09 The Lord Jesus was saying, hey I'm prodding you forward 05:12 but you are fighting Me. 05:13 You are fighting against Me and so we have this picture 05:17 being painted, now how did that happen 05:18 or when did it happen? 05:19 I think one of the most powerful places were I am just 05:22 sure the Holy Spirit was prodding the conscience of the 05:25 apostle Paul was in Acts chapter 7 just before that. 05:30 In Acts chapter 7 Paul, is there called Saul before his 05:35 conversion, was standing by while the first Christian 05:40 martyr here, Stephen a great deacon, was giving an account 05:45 of the history of Israel and the experience of Israel and 05:51 what they had done to oppose the will of God. 05:53 How they had resisted the Holy Spirit and the leaders 05:58 got so upset that they stoned Stephen. 06:02 Now in the middle of this stoning something amazing 06:04 happens, Stephen looks up and sees Jesus. 06:10 He makes this appeal, or this plea or prayer if you will. 06:17 He says Lord charged not this sin against them. 06:20 Now can you imagine being the apostle Paul and you are 06:24 ordering this stoning and you look in the one that should 06:27 be angry with you, should be hateful toward you and saying, 06:31 "Lord do not charge this sin against them?" 06:34 I'm telling you his conscience had to have been pricked. 06:38 Instead of surrendering his heart, he fought all the 06:42 harder because right after that in Chapter 8 this great 06:45 persecution arose because the apostle Paul began to more 06:49 vehemently go after the Christians than ever before. 06:52 That's right, so obviously he's kicking against the goads 06:56 and it's obvious. 06:57 What's fascinating in the context of this is that we 07:02 mention the controversy over the book of Galatians today, 07:04 where there are Christians who sincerely believe 07:08 that the gospel is saying the law doesn't matter 07:11 to Christians anymore. 07:12 Only what we find Paul fighting against the gospel of 07:16 Stephen that Paul was fighting against in Stephen's 07:21 address in Acts 7:53 he arraigns those Jewish leaders 07:25 and says to them, you receive the law through the 07:29 direction of angels and you have not kept it. 07:32 So Stephen's gospel arraigned them for lawbreaking and Paul 07:37 got incensed and infuriated when it was pointed out that he 07:41 was not obeying the law of God, prior to his conversion. 07:45 So far doing away with the law of God, he was convicted of the 07:50 fact that he wasn't keeping the law of God 07:51 through Stephen's testimony. 07:53 Hmmm, that is exactly right. 07:55 In fact it was last thing that was said before they said 07:59 that's it, and they decided to stone him. 08:02 We could take no more, he challenged them and looked 08:05 right at them and said, you receive the law by the 08:07 direction of angels and have not kept it. 08:09 That was too much for them to handle and I think when 08:13 you look at this idea of the apostle Paul fighting this 08:17 conviction, you understand that Paul knew what it was like 08:21 to have a will that was stubborn. 08:24 To have what the Bible calls the flesh, a carnal nature 08:28 that resisted the will of God. 08:30 It didn't want to humble itself, it didn't want to admit 08:34 that it was wrong and so that hard heart was seen in the 08:37 apostle Paul, that is why the Lord Jesus said, it is hard 08:40 for you to kick against the goads. 08:42 But what the apostle brings out later in Galatians 08:45 Chapter 1, is a powerful couple of statements. 08:48 I would like to read these in Galatians 1:23. 08:51 "But they were hearing only," the Christian churches, 08:57 "he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he 09:02 "once tried to destroy. And they glorify God in me. " 09:07 No wonder they glorify God because here was enemy number 09:11 one of the Christian Church. 09:13 He was the one that they fear, the one that 09:16 they knew was after them. 09:17 He was well know as the one that was opposed to Christians 09:21 and now not only does he become a believer, but he turns 09:26 from enemy number one to evangelist number one. 09:29 If anybody understood the power of a changed life, 09:33 the power of the Gospel, it was the apostle Paul. 09:38 Absolutely, and so when we go back this is how he is 09:42 presenting Grace and peace and then he talks about how 09:46 the Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins that He might 09:50 deliver us, and that is what he is talking 09:52 about this deliverance. 09:53 I want to touch on this giving, 09:56 Jesus giving Himself for our sins where the Grace of God 10:00 is magnified, there is a transaction taking place here. 10:04 You are giving one thing for another thing. 10:06 It's like when you go to the store and you give money and 10:08 you get back a certain product. 10:10 From a healing perspective, if you go out and pay a 10:14 substantial amount of money, pay $100 for something. 10:18 If you get that thing home and it ends up being a piece of 10:21 junk, whatever it is, you are going to find a use for it. 10:24 You are not just going to throw it away, it costs you 10:26 $100, use it as a paperweight or something. 10:29 A coaster - a coaster or whatever because you paid 10:35 that money for it. 10:36 Here is a transaction that is made where God has paid a 10:40 price that is an infinite price, the greatest price that 10:43 has never been paid and He knew what He was getting. 10:46 And once more it doesn't say He gave Himself for us, 10:49 it says He gave Himself for our sins. 10:52 So He gave Himself for we are often times tempted to 10:56 say, I hear that God loves me but could He accept 10:59 me because of my sins? 11:01 Your sins are what He bought. - and that is right. 11:03 Somebody once said that if you go to the store and 11:06 give money for something and they don't give you 11:09 what you paid for, you will call them a crook 11:12 or something else. - right, right. 11:15 Jesus paid for our sins, 11:17 why don't we give them to Him? 11:19 We need to surrender that which He paid for and to think we 11:24 aren't worthy enough to give Him that is to 11:28 ignore the fact that He knew what He was getting 11:31 when He bought us. 11:32 Right, that is what Grace is all about. 11:33 So when we look at the apostle Paul's statement here 11:35 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father, 11:38 "and the Lord Jesus Christ. " 11:41 The apostle Paul is making a point that God is 11:45 offering to us, in spite of the fact that we are sinful. 11:50 In the full light of the fact that we are sinful, 11:54 He is offering grace and peace to us. 11:57 How does it come to us? 11:58 Through the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for our 12:02 sins, the reason that we can fully accept this gospel 12:05 is because the Lord Jesus has made a trade. 12:08 He has taken those sins and He is more than willing 12:11 to take those sins when we give ourselves to Him. 12:15 But it goes on and it says, "that He might deliver us 12:19 "from the present evil. " This present evil. 12:22 I believe that this last portion here is really 12:26 hitting on the issue that was existing here in 12:29 the Galatian church. 12:30 There are many people who believe that, that gospel was 12:34 so that we could continue in evil. 12:36 Jesus died so we don't have to keep the law. 12:39 The apostle Paul, right here in his salutation is 12:42 opposing that very thought by saying, no the Gospel 12:46 is so that you can be rescued from your life of sin. 12:50 The Gospel is so that you can be delivered from 12:53 this present evil age. 12:54 That is right, Amen! So that is what as we open 12:57 up the book of Galatians and dig into, that is 13:01 what we are going to unpack and see that deliverance 13:03 from many different angles here. 13:04 The apostle Paul wants to make it very clear to us 13:07 because he wants us to experience the deliverance 13:09 that he experienced. 13:11 It is a blessed, beautiful message that we find 13:14 in the book of Galatians and so we are excited as we 13:17 continue on through this series. 13:18 We hope you will continue to join us. 13:20 Thanks for being with us today and I hope 13:21 you will tune in next time. - Amen! |
Revised 2014-12-17