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Sep 24, 2023

Oh Confused Galatians!

Oh Confused Galatians!

Passage: Galatians 3:1-2

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Freedom in Christ

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: truth, church, identity, worship, prayer, faith, jesus, god, sermon, freedom, christian, bible, christ, hope, grace, sermons, life, holy spirit, law, paul, galatians, inspiration, purpose, jesus christ, the bible, lord, christianity, bible study, speech, freedom in christ, inspirational, self improvement, study the bible, bible teaching, trending, change your life, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, god plan, how to change your life, be inspired

As we continue our study through the book of Galatians, we learn that as we grow in Christ, it’s through the same way we began our walk, by focusing on the finished work of Christ. If you first received the Holy Spirit by faith, then why would you think that you grow in the Holy Spirit any other way? As we continually renew our faith in the finished work of Jesus, the power and clarity of the Holy Spirit is continually released in us. Our key direction and focus of life are laid out through God’s law, but the law does not have the power to propel us forward without the Holy Spirit. The law shows us how far we are from God, but Jesus shows us how close we can now and forever be to Him. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? Do you believe in His finished work on the cross on your behalf? Is the Holy Spirit leading you forward in your faith? If you’ve got questions, we’d love to connect with you, pray with you, and take time to answer them. Reach out today! You can always take the next step in your faith journey by visiting burnthickory.com/next.

You know, there's no better way than just to pause in the moment of just being able to just say, Yes, Lord, here I am. And thank you. If you’ve got a copy of Scripture today. I want you to take me to Galatians chapter three, Galatians, Chapter three. That's where we're going to camp out today. And for those of you that are type A and already looking at your watches, don't worry, we are going to be okay today. We're jumping back into this little letter that Paul has written to the Galatians that is already, like we just said, described the gospel, has described what it means to be justified. But now we're joining Paul back in this letter to jump back in and look at even another point of our salvation. Last week, we kind of keyed in to the back side of our message that we looked at this idea that when we are justified, we are 100% made right before God. Now, no matter what has happened in our past, no matter what we have drug into our lives that God has set us free from it. And one of the key points that came out right at the end of last week's message was this idea that many of us, when we see our salvation, we see it solely through this idea that we have just had our sin or our debt removed, but then we just kind of check that box. We get baptized, maybe we go to church for a little while and then we go and we kind of scurry off and we do our own little thing, right? We just kind of live how we want to live. We do what we want to do, but then on the other side, then we wonder why it is that I don't feel God's power in my life, why I don't feel his presence or why relationships are hard, or why life just seems to always be a struggle. Well, what Paul was doing in Galatians in chapter two and what he's about to do in chapter three is he's going to show us that not only do we need God to justify us, right? That's what we've been talking about, to forgive me, to give me a new record. But on the other side, we also need God to really use me from the power of sin. And there's a big difference between those two things. Why? When we are justified, we are set free from sin. God has forgiven us on this end. But what God does on this side is that now we have stepped into a process of now God begins to work in us, to set us free from the power of sin.

You see. And Paul is about to tell us that that also is a gift from God. This is a gift that God sets us free from sin in the first half. But then He continually moves us in a direction to be set free from the power this sin has over our lives. It kind of goes like this. When you give your life to Christ, are you forgiven? Yes. Have you been forgiven of everything? Yes. But do all of those things that you have placed into your life, those nasty habits, those nasty things, those thoughts that you've had, do they automatically go away on day one? Trick question. Trick question. For some, yes. God, just poof, does a miracle in our lives right? But for most of us, it's through the process of us learning how to tap into the power of the spirit that we then begin to walk this spirit out in our lives. You see, most of us, we have understood that in Christ alone, that we have our forgiveness provided. But what we haven't understood is that it is also in Christ alone is where our daily righteousness is provided. Or I can say it like this. Many of us can say that our salvation is from Christ alone. But when it comes to our growth in Christ, many of us would say, Well, Matt, that's up to us and that's up to me and that's up to my power. But Paul says, No, that is not up to your power. You see, here's the deal. Our ultimate foundation of our salvation comes in two parts. It is you and Christ and it is Christ in you. You in Christ means that you stand here redeemed in His righteousness, but Christ in you means that now you possess His resurrection power. Those are two big things when it comes to our salvation. And Paul finished up last week in Galatians two with reminding this in this text. Listen to this.

Galatians 2:20 says this He describes who we are in Christ. He says that I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, he says, but Christ lives in me. That's the I am in Christ part, right? But watch this. But then he says the not the life that I now live in the body. Here's the in me part, right? Watch this. I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me. So he says, I've been crucified. But now as I live, my role in living is that I don't just live in this idea that I used to have faith. I had faith that one time I had faith enough to save me. But now I continually live in a spot where I'm still living in faith and in faith in what Christ has done for me. And that gets us to chapter three, Chapter three. I'm not going to lie it is heavy. Okay? So I hope you got your big boy pants on this morning because it is a heavy, heavy chapter. But inside of it, it's not just heavy. Paul is incredibly sparky right here. All right. He is a little bit unkind, but he is sparky. So passionate for them getting this idea. So I'm just going to read it. We're going to talk over it. And if you get about 75% of it, I did my job. All right. That's as good as I can do.

All right. Here it is. Galatians chapter three, verse one says this. He says, You foolish Galatians. I told you, Paul is perturbed. JP Phillips translation of this If you look it up, he starts it with the idea of you idiots, right? That's how he translates this, this, this verse right here, which is ironic because this letter was written to all the churches and they would have had there been some little priest stand up in every single little church that this would have been circulated with. And he had to start off the morning by going, you morons right? That's how you read the text that morning. He says, You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Christ Jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified. All right, let me give you the back story. These guys, they knew the gospel. They knew what was going on. But now they're relying on just the Old Testament law. They're relying on the rituals, they're relying on circumcision, they're relying on fulfilling the law in their life. But now, in other words, Paul comes out and he's like, What are you doing? You know, the gospel. You understood the gospel. It was clear to you. It was almost like Jesus was crucified in front of you. Paul is going, I described it so well. A little bit of arrogance there. I showed you so well, you grabbed on to it so well, it's almost like Paul is saying right here that you almost heard those words from Jesus, that it is finished, proclaimed over your lies. But now it's like you completely forgot that. To which that's a little bit of a gut punch, isn't it?

Let me ask you something. Has that ever really described your life? There was a time in your life where you knew the gospel. You believe the gospel, the gospel transforms your life. God moved in your heart. But something happened and now it's almost like you forgot it. Or maybe you didn't forget it, but your lives sure isn't pointing there. That’s what Paul is saying right here. It’s what the Galatians are dealing with. Verse two. He says, I would like to learn just one thing from you. Sounds like your dad doesn’t it? Just one thing, right? He says, Did you receive the spirit? He's talking about the Holy Spirit. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

Now, this is important because the first time that Paul mentions the Holy Spirit in all of Galatians, it's going to be the primary theme of the next four chapters. And Paul's question here is a simple question. He's like, Hey, how did you receive the Holy Spirit? He's like, Did you receive the Holy Spirit because you ate something or didn't eat something? Did you receive the Holy Spirit because you did something or didn't do something? Did you receive the Holy Spirit because you fulfilled all of the Old Testament laws? Paul looks at me, says, No, you and I and us, we receive the Holy Spirit by putting our faith in Jesus. That's what salvation is. That's the gospel. That's justification, we're building on every week. So then keep reading because they're kind of wavering from this. He says, Are you so foolish after beginning by means of the Spirit? Are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Now that's piercing, because that's what many of us fall into here. We would trust that our salvation is from God. We would trust that Jesus is the one who redeemed us.

But from that point on, we think for some reason the rest of our salvation revolves around me and me by myself. And me following the laws. But that's not what Paul is saying. He says this. So again, verse five, I ask you, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by you believing in what you have heard? So Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now he pulled the Abraham card. You can't go any farther than that if you're a Jew right? Now, here's the big question for the text for them and for us. I put in your notes. If you first receive the Holy Spirit by faith, then why would you think you need to grow in this spirit in any other way? That's what he's saying, you see. But many of us, we do. We think we need to grow in the spirit by my try-harder attitude. By me and my wisdom. But what Paul is saying is, if our salvation hangs on the fact that we had faith in God to give us the spirit, then why would not faith in God be the one that leads us into growing in our faith? Why would God start our salvation by faith, which He did, and then to have us grow by just simply pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and being better at it and being better and more religious at it and having a try harder, more obedient lifestyle. That's not how you grow in your faith. You say, Matt, I don't need to be obedient? No, that's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying that's not what leads you to maturity in Christ. You see, write this principle down. We grow in Christ the same way we started in Christ by focusing on the finished work of Christ. Does that make sense? We grow in Christ the same way we started in Christ, and that is by focusing on the finished work of Christ. Matt, I don't get it.

Okay, well, let's go back to the finished work of Christ. What was Christ's last words on this planet? They come from John 19:30. It was just before he breathed his last breath. Jesus said, and I quote, It is finished. It's finished. And without he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit through the greatest words ever spoken in the English language. We didn't speak in English, but you get it. It is finished. And these are not just words that we find our salvation in, but they're also words that we find our maturity in Christ in. You say Matt, How would I find my maturity of Christ in that? Because these words are the words that were not just to believe when we are saved. They’re words that as a church that I want us to grasp hold of every single day of my life as I'm looking back at the finished work of Jesus. I heard a pastor say it like this one time. He says this the first time we believe the words, It is finished. We are released from the penalty of sin. But as we mature and continually believe the words, it is finished. We are released from the power of sin. You see why? Because now Christ is in us. The Holy Spirit has moved in us. And if I can focus back, what did we just doing in the Lord's Supper? We focused back on the finished work of Jesus. I realize it's not about me. It's not about how strong I am. It's not about how mature I am.

It is about me directly focusing myself back on the finished work of Jesus, the finished work of Jesus is what matures us. It’s what matures us. It saves us and it matures us. Now let's talk about this whole Holy Spirit thing for a minute because it plays a part, right? It's the first time he's mentioned the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a little bit confusing because there's a whole lot of camps of the Holy Spirit, right? On one side of the Holy Spirit crew, there's these Christians that are just like super obsessed with the Holy Spirit. You've met them before, right? You know who these people are. They are the kids that are asking somebody out, trying to decide if this girl is going to go to the next homecoming with them and they can't decide it. And then all of a sudden they pass by a car that has the same address as her or the same phone number as her. And they're like, Oh, it's the Holy Spirit, right? Or they are walking down the hall and you're like, God, if you just put her in front of me today, I know that that's my deal. And then poof, there she is. I'm like, Well, it must be the Holy Spirit or it's the people that are always talking about some weird experience in their life. Have you ever had that friend? Where you're like, I don't have those. What are they? Or is the runner's Have you ever had a runner in worship before they get some exercise don’t they? It's the people that are just always in this weird kind of moment of mystical Holy Spirit land, and you throw everything in that is the Holy Spirit or not the Spirit.

That's the one camp of the Holy Spirit people, but the other camp of the Holy Spirit. People are kind of just those people who are in a total other direction and they just totally ignore the Holy Spirit. It's just doctrine. It's just character is just by trying harder and they know the Holy Spirit exists. They just don't know what to do with him, right? They don't know if you asked them to point it out and they don't know where it is, Right. They don't know how to deal with it. They don't know what to do to relate to them. Well, what Paul is saying in this is, listen, both of those thoughts in the Holy Spirit are wrong. But we have got to figure out as believers in Jesus, how we can access the power of the Holy Spirit to the finished work of Jesus. And here's how we do that. It's not their weird experiences or it's not through ignoring him. It's by daily renewing our life around the promises of who God is and what Jesus has done. That's what Paul is saying. In fact, let me give you a principle that will help you in this. As we continually renew our faith in the finished work of Christ, the power and clarity of the Holy Spirit is continually released in us.

You want to know how to walk in the Spirit? You know how to feel the spirit? You want to know how to experience the power of the spirit in your life? Link yourself up to the finished work of Jesus and let that be the banner of your life, not your success and not your strength, but his. Or think about it like this. By fully believing it is finished, we gain the power to continue. Martin Luther, one of the one of the great, great theologians of our faith. He loved the book of Galatians. In fact, there's one time where he said that he would like to betrothed himself to this book. I don't know what his wife thought about that, but it's kind of weird. But he loved it that much. He said this about this. He said, The way we progress in the gospel and its power is to begin again at the beginning and focus on how much it is finished. One of my favorite examples of this is the children of Israel in the wilderness. So we all know that they had a little bit of problems, but one particular problem, they were a little bit grumbly one day, and so God got sick of hearing their grumbling. And so we sent these snakes into the camp. You remember the story. He sent these snakes into their camp. That's the one way to deal with it with your kids. Like, okay, I'll show you. You keep grumbling. I'm throwing this bad boy in your room. No, but God did it right, and he did this. And so Moses went before God on their behalf in Numbers 21, in Number 21:8. It says this.

The Lord said to Moses, Make a snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake. He put it on the pole, and when anyone who was bitten looked at the snake and looked at the bronze snake, what is it? They lived. As they continually look, they live. I just want you to kind of feel the power in this. What are they doing? They're looking at the power of God. They're looking at the presence of God. If you go to the New Testament in John three, it says this. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, the son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. What is it saying? If you want to grow spiritually, the number one thing that you can do in your life as a justified person by the Gospel of Jesus is to look back at the cross of Jesus in your life. It's not the rules, it's not the regulations. It's realizing that is what has set you free, and that is what is going to bring the power of the Holy Spirit into your life as you renew yourself closer and closer and closer to the finished work of Jesus.

The irony of the Christian life is that those who truly do grow in their faith are those who know that this is all based on what God has done anyway and how He is going to continually do it. But it really starts by us understanding that the power comes from him. And I'm just going to confess to you just for a second. I don’t have a whole lot of time for this, but there was a very big season in my life that I thought that I could mature myself in Christ. I thought I could memorize enough. I thought I could love enough. I thought I could be a good enough pastor. But God was like, You're missing it. It is in my spirit, through my finished work, that you have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. So what is Paul doing here? I told you he pulled the Abraham card, right? Look at verse six. So watch what he says. He says So Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. It's not original to Paul. This is a quote from Genesis 15, and this is where God called Abraham. Long story short, there was this pagan named Abraham that one day God called in to a relationship with himself.

God said, Abraham, I need you to know that you are mine. And Abraham believed God and God gave him a promise that you are going to be the father of my people, not only the father of my people, but your people. My people with you are going to be the people who bring salvation to this world. But the problem was in this moment that, yes, Abraham believed, but Abraham was old and he was childless, and he did not have an idea how to live out the power of God. But he believed in who God was and God credited Him with righteousness. And then two things happened to old Abe, right? Number one, God gave him his righteousness. But number two, Abraham was then given the ability to reproduce. Now, when I say old age was old, he was old, he was like 90 years old at this point. But God gave Abraham the ability to have a child at this moment. And the symbol of that is incredible because through that child came the line of Jesus, and through Jesus, our Messiah came the fact that we can have life. And what God is saying in this moment is that when we believe in Jesus’s work and what he has done for us on the cross, now Jesus has given us the ability to have new life and to walk in new life. That's why Paul brings Abraham back into this thing. He's like, What did Abraham do to do this? Nothing. Abraham didn't get a new regiment, a new product. He didn't get a new ritual to do any of this. God did it all. And he believed God places trust in God in the Holy Spirit, gave him the power to walk this out.

Keep going. Verse nine, it says, So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham. That's us, The man of faith, for all who rely on the works of the law, all are under a curse, as it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith. A very hard paragraph. But here's what Paul is saying. He's saying this. He's saying, listen, nobody can ever live out the whole law, because if you fail it, one little part of the law, you're guilty in front of God. But we cannot just throw it out and think that the law has no reason, has no purpose. But Christ came to fulfill the law and he lived the perfect life. Look what he said next in verse 13. It says this Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written cursed is anyone who's hung on a pole, ha redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith, we may receive the promise of the Spirit.

Now, look, I know this is a lot of contextual stuff, but the Galatian error, which is where a lot of our error is, is that they thought they could start by loving God and the gospel, but they thought to mature in their faith that it would all come from them. That it would all come from their power and their own will. But you see, they couldn't do it. They couldn't be obedient enough. They couldn't live it out enough. They couldn't ever follow up enough for Christ. And what Paul is saying is, that's not how Abraham got there. That's not why Jesus died for you. Jesus did not just die for your salvation. He died for your maturing. He died for you to be able to walk. You see, a lot of us, we don't struggle with the same things that they struggled with in trying to mature ourselves. But a lot of us do the same thing, don't we? We try to mature ourselves through ritual. We try to mature ourselves through trying harder. We try to mature ourselves through doctrine or through practical life application teaching or through being at church. Listen, by themselves, those are incredible things to have in our lives. But I'm promising you, you cannot grow through the wall apart from the spirit. That's the point. The Spirit of God is released in us when we continually walk in his power. I know this is all just kind of a weird deal for us because we're not Jewish.

We didn't grow up under this thing. But the whole point of all this is, look, we can do all that we want to do, but apart from the finished work of Christ and the Holy Spirit working in our life, we are doing nothing more than doing. That's the point of the whole story. And none of those things are bad. They're just, they're just not primary. In fact, watch this, Paul answers the question that most of us are asking then. Then why was the law given it all right? He says it was added because of the transgressions and that’s all of our transgressions, until the seed, that's Jesus, to whom the promises referred to had come. Verse 21. The law, therefore, was the law, therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that can impart life in us, then righteousness would have certainly come by the law. The Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was being promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. It’s super confusing. But here's what Paul says. I get it. You're like, what? I don't know. You know, I told you James even thinks Paul is confusing. So that's good, right? Here's the point. If Paul was sitting here having coffee with us, here's how you could roll this whole little conversation right here. He say this. You want to know what the law was for? He was like, picture a railroad track in your mind.

Lastly, it was a cord. This is a railroad track, right? He’d say a picture of a railroad track in your mind. All right. Picture it in your mind. If you look one way backwards, you're looking back at the salvation that God has given you. If you're looking forward, you're looking forward to the eternal life that God is giving you. And the railroad tracks describe the way to get there, the law to get there, the way or the direction to get there. But the problem is that while it is the railroad tracks of life, without the gospel, we have no power to get down the tracks. That's what Paul is saying. The law is nothing more than a mirror that is put in front of us that shows us how bad we really are. It's nothing more than just a thermometer in our life to show us the temperature of our life. The law is nothing more than a guide in our lives that shows us the perfect life of Christ and what it would look like for any of us to live it. So in all of those things, the reality is here's the principle that God's law lays out the direction and the focus of our lives, but it doesn't have the power to move us without the Holy Spirit.

This is why, for some of you, your whole Christian experience has been so frustrating because you know the law. You've tried to live the law, you've tried to live the gospel, but you've never allowed the Holy Spirit to guide you, to know you. You've never focused on the finished work of Christ. And because of that, your whole Christian life has been exhausting because you were trying your best to run yourself down the railroad tracks of life where the law is not going to get you there, but the gospel can. That's what he's saying right here. You see, it's the law as the railroad tracks. The gospel is the train engine that moves us down the track. And the law has a purpose in that purpose is to show us how nasty we really are, how terrible we really are, and how incredibly magical Jesus really is. In fact, keep going in the text.

Watch what it says in verse 23. It says, Before coming, before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law. What does that mean? That we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned and fallen short. What does that mean? It means in the Old Testament that, yes, you met God through faith, but you keep God in your life. It was all about works. But the problem with that is this. Just when you think you're living it all out properly, you fall off the tracks. And just when you think you've got your hand on life, you fall off the tracks. And there's no peace and there's no joy. And there's always a question of this: Am I good enough for God to love me today? You want to know if you're living up under the law or not? That's the question that keeps rolling in your mind. Why? Because you don't understand justification. You don't understand what Christ has done for you, and you don't understand that. Now our role is to just live in the spirit. Are we going to have times in our lives where we fail? Yes. That's why Christ has forgiven us. But he's saying this. Get back on the Gospel, Get back into the finished work of Jesus. Keep going. Watch this. It says in this verse 23, Before the coming of faith, we were held in custody under the law. We were locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. It’s pointing to Jesus. Verse 24, The law was our guardian. In other words, it was our nanny or our tutor. It was keeping us on track. It didn't want to curse us, but to bless us. But watch this. The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. I just want you to grasp.

Listen, I know it's heavy. This is not like fifth grade Sunday school. This is like up here, right? Here it is. The law shows us exactly where we fail. That's what it's for. It's not God being mean. It's not God being like, all in our business. It is just showing us how we fail, where we come up short. The law accuses us, it condemns us, but it has no power to deliver us. Our only hope is that someone else gives us salvation. And thanks be to God, His name was Jesus. That's Paul's point. Paul is looking at us and saying, Our only hope is for Jesus to redefine who we are and not just redefine who we are one time, but every single day of our life through us. Looking back at the cross, there is experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. And from I think, Lord, I am yours. I'm walking. And you, in fact, watch out. Paul finishes up the chapter, verse 26. He says, So in Christ, it's those of us who've given our life to Jesus. Watch this. You are all children of God through faith. And that faith is not just, Oh, I can't believe. No, it's Jesus. I am in and I am yours and I trust you and I give my life to you. Therefore, watch this verse 27. It says, For all of you who are baptized into Christ had clothed yourself with Christ. Now, that's not saying that everybody that's ever been baptized is now in Christ.

That's not what it’s saying. What it's saying is that those of us who have died to ourselves, that's
the symbol of baptism, right? And have been risen to new life in Christ, are now children of God. He keeps going even farther. He says, those of you that were close in Christ, now for us were like, That kind of is a little weird deal. But for them it was not. Because if you are a Roman boy and if you were moving from the stage of kid land into the stage of adult, your father would have gifted you with a new robe. Now catch this. This is who Paul's talking to, right? When he gifted you that new robe. When you place that new robe on, it means that you belong to the family and you are no longer a child, but you are new in your family. It's a new age, a new day, a new role, a new life, and a new lord that was over your life. Believers, that's what Paul is saying to us. When we have died, to ourselves, when we've risen to life. He has given us life. He has re-robed us in His Majesty. And therefore, verse 28, there is now neither Jew nor Greek nor slave, nor free. There's neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ. If you believe, if you belong to Christ and you are Abraham's seed and you are heirs according to the promise. And we're going to talk about that a little bit next week. But here's what I want to say about it. Here's the last principle I want you to write down. While the Lord showed us how far from God we really were. Jesus shows us how close we can now and forever be. That's the whole point of this. In all of this confusion on law and grace and salvation. And it is finished. It all rolls down to the facts that the law showed us how bad we were. Christ came to redeem us.

And now Jesus shows us that it's not by our power that we mature in our faith. It's not by our presence that we can walk the life of Christ. It is not by me that I can take the Gospel train down the road of life. It's by me getting on his train. And by me realizing that it's him. And it is only by that, church, listen to me, that you can truly belong. Can I tell you something? One of the biggest things in our society today, one of the biggest needs in our society today is to belong. And what he's saying here is this: If you truly want to belong, never lose sight of the finished work of Jesus. Never lose sight of the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to move in your life, wants to walk in your life. He wants to impart his power into your life and never lose sight that you are a child of God. You've been gifted with all of the priorities, all of the gifts that He has given you, and now your role. And my role. All of our role is to glorify him, to walk in him, to make him known. And we only do that not because I'm good enough, but because he's good enough.

So listen, let me ask you this. Are you exhausted from trying to walk the Christian life? If you are. Here's what I can tell you. You're trying to push the train down the tracks and you're not realizing that it's only through the gift of the Holy Spirit that you will ever be able to walk this thing out. Let me ask you this. Number two, have you ever got onto the train? Has there been a moment in your life where you've given your life to Jesus? Where you have submitted your heart to him and said, Yes, Lord, be mine. Be mine. Here's how I want to finish the service this morning. For some of you today, you need to jump onto the Gospel train and you need to give you a life to Jesus to save you, to forgive you your sins, and to come into your life. If that's you. Today is just a second after I pray. Here's what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to step out. I'm going to ask you to be bold today. Step out from your seat. I'm going to be standing right over here by this next step banner. And I just want you to walk up to me or one of the guys that is over here with me and just say this. Hey, man, I need, I need Jesus today. What do I need to do? What do I need to do? And we'll walk you through the rest of that. But for some of the others of you today. I think there's some freedom in the fact that your focus has been on trying harder verses looking back at the finished work of Jesus. I want you to deal with God in that just for a few minutes today. To say, here I am Lord Jesus. Thank you for Calvary.

Lord, we love you. Thank you for these next couple of minutes. Thank you for the Lord's Supper. Thank you for letting us look back at the cross and look forward to the day that you have given us life. Thank you, Jesus. It's in your name.

Let’s stand and sing together.

Follow Along with the Message

Oh, Confused Galatians!

September 24, 2023

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 3:1
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
Galatians 3:2
I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
Galatians 3:3, 5–6
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?… 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

QUESTION: If you first received the Holy Spirit by , then why would you think that you grow in the Holy Spirit any other way?

PRINCIPLE: We grow in Christ, the same way that we started in Christ, by focusing on the work of Christ.

John 19:30
…Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

PRINCIPLE: As we continually renew our faith in the finished work of Christ, the and clarity of the Holy Spirit is continually released in us.

Numbers 21:8–9
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
John 3:14–15
8 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Galatians 3:6
So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Galatians 3:9–11
9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”
Galatians 3:13–14
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Galatians 3:19, 21–22
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come… 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

PRINCIPLE: God’s law lays out the and focus of our life, but it is does not have the power to move us without the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 3:23
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law.
Galatians 3:23–25
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Galatians 3:26
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
Galatians 3:27
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Galatians 3:28–29
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

PRINCIPLE: While the law showed us how far from God we really were, Jesus shows us how we can now and forever be.

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