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Well before we do
Galatians 3, we're going to do all of Romans and Acts
No.. [chuckles]
Yeah, I'm game [chuckles] No, what
I wanted to do is to give you a four point summary of everything
we've talked about thus far. Okay? So if you've got your notes,
and you want to write these down, they may be
handy. Okay? So, we're in the book of Galatians, we've covered
the first two chapters, here are the points:
Contrast in Galatians is between
gospel and not gospel.
There's a real battle happening among the Galatians
in churches and within the Galatian membership. For gospel
and not gospel. The motivation
for all of this is people trying to decide whether they're going to be pleasing
God, or pleasing man.
I think you can guess that if you're one of the gospel
people, you're probably more concerned with God than anybody else.
If you're one of the not gospel people, chances are you're more concerned
with everybody else, and God can follow along if He can keep up.
Pleasing God
is by grace through faith, always.
That's the only possible way to please
God is by grace through faith.
Pleasing man,
is legalistic. Always.
Why is that? Because if I
realize that you're pleasing me, I'm going
to have a wonderful time creating hoops for you to jump through.
You know?
Any of you in sales? Yeah,
wise people. [chuckles] What happens
in sales, when you meet your quota?
They say, 'thank you'
for about 20 seconds, and then
they raise your quota. Right?
People can be successful
in marketing, in sales, for 20 years.
Year 21, they miss their quota.
And the company lovingly says, "Hey, sorry, you missed it; you're outta here!"
That's legalism.
Grace through faith
is for God. Legalism is for humans.
Okay? So that's a review of the first two
chapters. Now, we're going
to go into chapter three. But first, I gotta get a prop.
You may think this is a microphone stand. It is
not.
This looks like film. Remember film? It's not.
I gotta do this, and try not to mess
myself up.
Anybody recognize this? It's fly paper
yeah...
yeah, this is lovely stuff.
and I've got to try and get it connected
up here. And I've got it all
over me.
[whispering] Let go! let go!
Shall we stand for the benediction?
[laughter from audience] What is that all about?
We'll get to that. But I want it to be hanging
there so you can keep your eyes on it.
Okay? I'll probably leave it there and use it again next week,
and by then, it maybe coated in things. And then potluck.
Right? That's what I'll be providing.
All people will be blessed. How in the world
are all people blessed through fly paper?
Well, obviously, they're not.
If you've got your bibles, go ahead and turn to Galatians 3; we'll be doing the first fourteen
verses, if I can get moving here.
First, "You foolish Galatians,
"Who has betwitched you?"
Interesting that this phrase, this question, "who has bewitched
you" literally means, "who has given you
"the Ebal eye?" The Ebal eye
was a big thing back in those days. Everybody was so superstitious
all you had to do is raise an eyebrow at someone.
They... .you're giving them th Ebal eye. Paul
uses that analogy to
say, "What, Jesus.. the gospel we taught,
includes what? The death of Jesus. The crucifixion
"Did you receive the spirit by works of Law?
"or by believing what you heard?"
Notice I
didn't say works of 'the' Law.
In most of in almost every verse,
in Galatians 3 where Law is occuring,
the word 'the' is not
there. It's just works of Law.
And the 'believing what you heard" if you literally translate
it would be, 'the hearing of faith,'
So you see the contrast? Works of Law
hearing of faith. "So, did you get get
"the spirit by works of Law, or by hearing of faith?"
Which one? Hearing of faith. Faith
That's how you got the spirit.
And yet,
you've been bewitched somehow. And you know what had happened?
The Galatians had willingly flown
into the fly paper.
What happens when a bug gets
stuck on fly paper? They
struggle, don't they? Ever watched them?
You were all kids once. "What's going on, mom?"
Struggle, and they struggle, and they flap... and the more they struggle,
the more what? They get stuck. The more
thing is coated on them.
And they eventually starve to death.
What Paul is saying
in this particular part of the Bible,
in his letter to the Galatians is, If you have been
bewitched, if the Ebal eye has gotten to you and driven you to
works of Law, you are stuck on the fly paper.
and the harder you work, the more stuck you're going to be.
And it will kill you. May not cost you your salvation,
you've already been saved, these are saints. But to be that confused,
and stuck in the Law, as opposed to the
hearing of faith, where you're free in Jesus Christ,
it's a terrible, terrible difference.
And he's going to explain it 100 different ways.
But always the same, okay? So, what he's asking the Galatians,
is who conned you into
walking into the fly paper, as opposed
to sticking to the revealed word of God. What's the difference
between fly paper and the Bible? They're both made out of paper.
They're both strong. I mean, I've had this Bible for
30-40 years; and the pages are still not torn. It's wonderfully strong paper.
That's strong, because there's some big bugs that get caught on there.
Well the difference is, that will kill you. This will give you life.
Never forget that.
Okay? "Are you so foolish
"after beginning by means of the spirit, are you now finish
"by means of the flesh? "
Clearly they knew the answer was that we got
the spirit by the hearing of faith. So we begin
our salvation in the spirit, by faith.
And now, somehow, because somebody
has convinced us that fly paper is a good thing,
we are trying to finish by means of the flesh.
Have you
experienced so much in vain?
Really was in vain?
Some of your Bibles don't have the word experience there, some of your Bibles will read
suffered. The word can mean suffered, but in
positive statement, it means to experience something, and so the
NIV, this is the latest version of the NIV, has got it right.
Everything they got from the spirit,
everything they experienced in the spirit
by faith, is in danger of being
all of that done in vain, if they continue
to try to finish the course in the flesh.
So,
hearing of faith; works of Law.
Beginning in spirit, ending in flesh.
Those are equated, so he said now, Two ways
you don't want to get
stuck in Law or flesh. Works of flesh.
Paul is repeating himself.
He's doing it on purpose. Remember Paul
is the Pharisees of Pharisees, the Jew of Jews. He's using Jewish
style argument here against Jewish style
problems. We've studied
before, people who have snuck in,
come in undercover of something, have wormed their way
into the hearts and minds of the Galatian people, and have
been coating them with fly paper for some amount of time.
Paul has
told them they deserved to be eternally condemned.
Later on, he's going to tell them that they should go ahead and finish the job.
Here, he's just warning people that
all of this wonderful start in the spirit could be
in vain, if you don't come to your senses.
So, again. I ask, does God give
you His spirit and work miracles among you by
works of Law, or by your hearing of faith?
Hearing of faith.
Interesting...another intersting contrast,
if this were a class,
instead of a Sunday sermon, we'd
probably spend 3 weeks on this passage.
I looked up just a few of the key words in here. I've got
30 pages of notes on this passage alone.
It's so rich. The use
of the words, the play on words, is incredible.
He's got "work miracles," and
"works of Law," and we would look at that and
say, "well, it's kinda the same thing," No, it's not!
Two words are different. The works of the Law are
remember we talked about in Thessalonians, the works of faith
the stuff you do with your hand, as opposed to the labor
of love, which is how you expend yourself. It's an internal thing. This is
you know, you're doing with your hands. You're trying to finish your salvation
with your hands. As
opposed to work miracles
this is the Holy Spirit's work in its entirety.
It's an enabling, then the word for miracle
is the word from where we get dynomite. It's a form of that
dunamis word. And it has to do with
work, realized, completed
and it's a miracle. I mean, things have been happening there
as a result of the working of the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit
is working, the Holy Spirit enables us and completes
in us, what He starts.
Philippians 1
"I'm confident that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion."
That's what he's saying here.
You have a choice. Fly paper,
or allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work.
You know the coolest thing about the Holy Spirit, is that fly paper
has no impact on the Holy Spirit. When you've
come to Jesus by faith and received eternal life, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit,
When you wander, and all of us do, inevitably
all of us do at some point, wander over and get ourselves in fly paper.
You know, the Holy Spirit goes with us.
And we sit there struggling, and getting coated in this stuff, and pretty soon,
we're just all bound up in it, and the Holy Spirit is saying
Richard? Let me fix this. Let me
work a miracle. Let me complete my power
in you. If I say, "yes', this stuff
just falls away like it was never there.
I have to take my eyes off of myself in order to
realize it.
Remember this contrast at the beginning? If I'm trying to please God, I'm not really trying
to please God, I'm just responding to God. That's what pleases Him. It's by grace through
faith. But if I'm trying to please men,
it is always legalistic. The rules are always
changing. The bar is always raised, I can never do enough
and Paul is painting this picture on purpose.
So that the Galatians will see this contrast
he's saying to them, "Let the Spirit continue to do
in you what He started in you."
Continue the hearing of faith. Don't
get stuck in the works of the flesh, the works of the Law.
I mean, this is radical
stuff. For a Jew, to imagine
that flesh always seen in Greek as a bad thing,
sarx, the flesh; we've had sin dwelling
in our flesh. To equate the flesh with the Law
is unthinkable.
Cause for a good Jew, I use the Law
to subdue the flesh. And Paul is saying,
"No, you don't. If you use the Law
to subdue the flesh, what you have done is wrap yourself in fly paper
and wonder why you're starving to death.
Okay? So, also, Abraham believed
God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Believe, again, it's that whole hearing with faith thing.
Credited; it was applied to him, even though
he didn't do it, and righteousness--
terribly rich word.
Probably the easiest way to describe is, that to be righteous,
to have righteousness, is to be completely
compliant with the will of a superior.
To meet that
superior's expectations.
So, if God credits someone
with righteousness, then God has told that person
"You measure up," "You are in
correct relationship with me." Can never get
there by the works of the Law; the works of your hands;
the works of the flesh. You just can't do it.
It is only achieved
in relationship with Jesus Christ.
So, never let somebody tell you, "righteousness just means right doing"
and if you're going to 'right do' things, you'd better be doing the Law.
That's exactly what the Judiazers were doing to the Galatian believers
They were hammering them and hammering and hammering them.
We'll see in a little bit, it was actually a racist approach that they were
taking. We'll get to that. So where did Paul get this
quotation, "It was credited to Abraham as righteousness"?
He got it in Genesis, chapter 15: "Abraham believed the Lord
and He credited to Him as righteousness. Fascinating
place, where this little vinete is taken from.
In the previous chapter, Abraham has defeated the 5 kings.
who stole Lot and all.. you know, the people of *** and Gomorrah.
Came back, met Melchezedik and all that. In this chapter,
it begins with God setting up, we've talked about this before, setting up
the covenant with Abraham, whereby He promised them the land
of Israel for ever and ever and God sets up this covenant
as a covenant with Himself.
Abraham had no part in it. He was just the receipient.
The beneficiary. So when
God told him this, Abraham believed the Lord,
and God credited to him as righteousness. Okay?
In the very next chapter is what?
Hagar and Ishmael.
Abraham, one of Abraham's many foras into the fly paper.
Alright? We talk
about Abraham being this great man of faith. And he was smacking
face first into the wall, all the time.
Yet, he believed God. He heard with faith. Even
if he couldn't always do it in his flesh every time, just like us,
he still heard with faith.
And God said, "You're mine, You're
my man, you're my woman. I declare
you to be righteous." So understand
then, really get this.
Paul is waving a flag.
Right here! Right here! Those who have faith are
children of Abraham.
Put yourself in the shoes of the Judiazers. Those who have faith
are children of Abraham. Huh?
I'm a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I have the Law. Moses
is my guy. The rest of you are dogs!
Paul says, "No, no, no, no,
"those who have faith are children of Abraham,"
"Scripture forsaw that God would justify the Gentiles
by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham.
All nations will be blessed through you."
That word nation is really the word ethnos, from where we
get the word ethnic. It's more about people
groups and tribes than it is about nations with
governments. Let that sink in.
All people
doesn't matter what color, what background
what part of the world, rich, poor,
fat, thin, short, tall, in the middle; it doesn't matter.
All people will be blessed through Abraham.
To say that to a Jew was to
tell a Jew that being a Jew, meant nothing. At least
with a Jew who believed what the Judiazers believed. You see why this was
the racist issue? Judiazers were coming in
and saying, "You must be me!"
"in order to be a child of God. You must
"be me," Being Greek, or being Turkish,
or Ethiopian, or anything else is not good enough. You
must be me.
Isn't that the way with all racist issues?
Somebody is different, looks different,comes from a different background;
acts different. Speaks different; everything's different
and I'm afraid,
I'm not willing to put up with different.
And so I say, "unless you're willing to be me, you can't play,"
Well, that's kinda hard when you're a different color. Well, you're speaking
different language. What are we going to do?
Jesus is the only answer out of this.
Paul is saying that to the Judiazers, Stop judging
the Gentiles because they're not you. Because
God has already told us that those who have faith are children of Abraham.
It's not a birth issue. It's a belief issue.
It's actually a new birth
issue. There's the importance. So where did we get this?
"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you
"I will curse and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you." God told Abraham
that three times. You think He meant it?
He told Isaac once, and Jacob
once. So those three guys got this promise five
times. God was being
emphatic as He could be.
All peoples, the earth,
will be blessed through you.
You don't have to be Jewish to be blessed.
You don't have to be American to be blessed.
You don't have to be a Republican to be blessed,
Not sure about the Democrats! [chuckles from audience]
No.. you don't have to be a Democrat to be blessed. What do you have to
be? A believer in Jesus Christ.
"So, those who rely on
"faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith."
Ya let that sink in, and it's just the most radical stuff
you can imagine. Fact
the word 'rely' doesn't occur there.
But we don't know how to do it in English.
Really says, 'so those who are faith,'
Those who are of faith, are blessed along with Abraham,
Not relying on faith. Relying on faith is like
relying on works. That makes faith a work. Don't rely on faith;
Rely on Jesus.
That means you are a person of faith.
Notice that that faith isn't passive. When you try to rely
on faith, you say, "Well, I'm doing enough, am I walking by faith?" Then you turn
to legalism. But if you keep your eyes focused on Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
changes you from the inside out, and completes what he's started every day
of your life, then those miracles that He was talking about earlier,
began to occur.
Love changes me.
Love really does change me.
Paul is arguing as passtionately as he can, "dont
go to the Law; any Law!"
I don't care if it's the Ten Commandments or your Aunt Sally; don't
go to Law.
Always respond by faith.
"For all who rely on works of Law,
"are under a curse, as it is written, cursed is
"everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of Law."
Well where did that come from? Deuteronomy
If you have
some...a chance after church, read Deuteronomy 27, it's the first
part of the curses and blessings chapter. Part of
half of the Israelites were put over on Mount Ebal
and the people on Mount Ebal were supposed to shout various things.
If you do this, you will surely die!
And the people on Mount Gerizim were supposed to say, "Amen!"
And then the people on Gerizim were supposed to say things, "If you do
"this, you will surely live," and the people on Mount Ebal
were supposed to say, Amen! They rehearsed the Law back
and forth. Well, this is the last one
of the curses. Cursed is anyone who does not uphold
the words of this Law by carrying them out. Then all of the people
will say, amen! That's God telling them
what to say, and how to respond.
I'm giving you this this whole Law. Yes, You have Lord, we know
You, You're, we are Your people. Then He says,
"Oh by the way, if you don't do everything
"if you don't uphold this Law by carrying
"out every aspect of it,
"you're going to be cursed." They were dumb enough to go, "Oh yeah
"amen!"
Are we any different? No! Absolutely
not. I mean, Bob talked about peer pressure last week.
How many of us have made complete utter fools of ourselves because
we gave in to peer pressure, knowing full well
that the results of whatever it was they're trying to convince you to do,
is going to be bad. It's just not going
to work. I mean everybody tells stories like, you know,
"Well, Johnny jumped off the roof!"
'Johnny's mother lets him do it" "Well, I'm not Johnny's mother,"
Don't jump off the roof, unless there's something
to land there on, other than you know, spikes of metal in the garden.
Peer pressure?
One of my favorite cartoons.
Far Side cartoon. It shows a bunch of laboratory people.
In the white coats, scientists; and all of them have one eye.
Right in the center of their head. There's a guy standing
there whose got a normal head.
[chuckles] and the other people are going, 'Well c'mon! C'mon!"
Laboratory peer pressure.
Drink what's in the beaker, end up with one eye in the middle of your head.
[mocking voice] Ookayy! We fall for this all the time.
God was just warning the people, If you don't
keep everything, you're going to be cursed. So clearly
no one who relies on Law is justfied before God. What is
justified? To be declared righteous; to be declared in a right standing with God.
Because the righteous will live by faith, not by Law.
I thought
Moses was the guy!
Paul is saying, No, Moses is not the guy.
Moses had a role to play. Remember when we looked at the
covenants? The Mosaic Covenant, I described it as a covenant of preparations.
God needed to create a people for Himself,
different than all of the people around them. The Mosaic Covenant
was ideal for that. Custom built to create
the nation of Israel, even when they didn't keep it.
Still formed them into the nation of Israel, and God made sure that
those people were protected and wandered through their history until Jesus was born.
That's exactly what the Covenant was for, and it succeeded beautifully.
It did exactly what God intended it to do, becuase God
made sure it would do that. That Law isn't for us.
Except in the sense in preparing us for Jesus.
If we're ready for Jesus, the Law is done.
We'll see that later, not today, later. Next week or the week after.
So clearly no one who relies on Law is justified.
Because the righteous live by faith. Where did this quote
come from? From Habakkuk 2:4.
The story of Habakkuk or the
little book of Habakkuk is a serious of conversations between Habakkuk and God
and most of the conversations start out with Habakkuk Oh
Lord, what gives? What is up with
what's going on here? I mean, these people
all around are picking on us, the people won't worship You, the outsiders keep
coming in and messing things up, what's going on? I thought we were your people?
It's almost like that, I'm paraphrasing it a little bit.
and God
responds, and so,
Habakkuk had just finished one of these diatribs,
and God responded saying, See?
The enemy is puffed up,
his desires are not upright. He's telling, don't worry about the enemy.
The enemy is all arrogant and proud, and is going to trip over his own
feet. Don't look at the enemy. Look at Me!
The righteous person will live by His faithfulness.
You
can't outsmart the enemy.
The enemy is satan. Satan is stronger than you and me
But,
if you're a child of the living God,
you don't have to fight that battle.
You run screaming into the throne room of God like a little girl saying, Abba
Father! Help! You jump on His lap, and Jesus
stands up, and Satan goes, "oh, never mind!"
Never mind, I'm outta here!
Satan can't touch you if you will walk by faith.
He'll try to influence you, but he can't touch you.
The problem is, that othe people can touch you,
and they may kill you. But what's the big deal?
You go home to be with Jesus.
Again, none of us are afraid of death; we're afraid of dying.
That's the problem Take that up with the Lord, okay? But
here is God's answer to Habakkuk's complaint
of what's going on. He says, don't worry about what's going on, the righteous
person will live by his faithfulness. What is Paul doing?
He is taking each of the arguments from the Judiazers and deconstructing
them. He's just cutting them off at the root.
The Law is not based on faith.
On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live by them.
Ooh.
Well, I thought I was supposed to keep the Law in order to be in right standing with God.
Well, if the Law's not based on
faith, then that means I can't ever be in a right standing
standing with God by keeping the Law.
Seriously amen!
Most of us don't think of it in these terms. Most of us see the Law
or somebody suggests it to us, let's be honest. I would never
think of the Law if somebody didn't come up to me and say, "Well, Richard you know, you should be..." "Oh, I should...
Why do we always respond that way instead of "what?"
Go pick on somebody else.
Or my big brother's coming after you.
So, where did this quote come from? Again, Leviticus.
One of the great hope books of the Bible, Leviticus.
[chuckles] prior to this
verse is a whole list of warnings about various *** sins.
When Jesus said,
You know, if you've even looked at a woman with *** in your heart,
He was summarizing this chapter. So after
God lays all this stuff out for Israel, saying, "Don't do this, don't this, don't do this,"
Don't even THINK about doing this... No, no no, not this. Then He says, "keep my
decrees and Laws for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. The person who obeys will live by them.
Okay, I'll try that. And then
he adds, the end of the chapter, verse 29,
"Everyone who does any of these detestable things, such person
"must be cut off from their people."
That's God speak for, "You are dead."
And if, the local government
does what it's supposed to, you will be physically dead.
They will kill you. So,
the Law's not based on faith.
The Law is based on doing what God tells you to do.
What part of the Law was
by faith? The sacrificial system.
What was it about a lamb that provided
forgiveness to me? Nothing. But I believed
in the God who told me that that lamb represented
something. Therefore, based on my faith,
God forgave me. Now, it couldn't be permanent,
because the blood of bulls and goats doesn't take away sin. But at that moment,
I could walk by faith, and God says, You are mine. You are my child.
So, now when people say
well it's only the ceremonial Law that's been done away with, and then they take
you back to the Ten and all the things that go along with the Ten? All you've got
is obey and live; disobey and die. You have no means of getting forgiveness.
None. Don't go to a partial Law. It's the worse
of all. I've got to hustle.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law.
What was the curse? Death. The Law of Sin and Death
supercedes everything. It even superceded the Ten Commandments, because
we were under the sentence of death from Adam.
Death reigned until Moses.
Even without a Law. So 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.
If someone is guilty of a capital offense,
is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave
the body hanging on the pole over night. Be sure
to bury it that same day. Because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's
curse. You must not descecrate the land of the Lord your God
is giving you as an inheritance. God took
this seriously. There were reasons for being killed.
But once you were killed, it was done.
You were to be buried that same day.
That's why it was such a big deal for them to get Jesus off the cross
and bury Him. This was such a
big deal, that there were men of David
who went into the town where Paul was being--or Saul the king,
former king was being held on display. Hanging from the wall,
They went that day and got
his body and brought it home and buried it. Because this
was that important. As bad as Saul was,
He didn't deserve this kind of curse, so they
went and fought their way through, got the body, brought it home,
and buried him.
Jesus
hung on that tree. He redeemed
us. He took the curse for us. Why?
In order that the blessing that was given to Abraham might come
to the Gentiles (Ethnos: all peoples)
through Christ Jesus, so that by faith, we might receive
the promise of the spirit.
The Judaizers had come in said, 'no, no, no, no
"you've gotta be circumcised, and you've gotta keep the Law"
Paul took ever one of their arguments, and this continues, we'll see more
of this next week. Every one of their arguments and cuts it to pieces
and lays it out before them, and says, Why do you want
to take over the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these people? And people
why would you let them wrap you up in this goo?
Don't do it!
Jesus is sufficient, or nothing is!
Jesus took away all sin, or no sin.
Jesus provides eternal life, or there's no such things as life.
It's all Jesus.
Do not get yourself tied up in the Law.
Okay, so, talk about a lot of things
talk about a lot more. Let me give you a few points to write down so
you see what it was we were talking about today.
The only way to bring, to begin salvation is in the spirit.
By grace through faith. Its the only way to begin.
The only way to end salvation is in the spirit.
By grace through faith. It's by
grace, through faith, from first to last.
Has everybody wirtten that down that wants to?
The Abrahamic, not the Mosaic
Covenant is our touchstone.
Did you notice that? Paul uses the Law
to destroy the arguments of the legalists
but his strongest argument is to keep pointing people
back to Abraham. All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.
Has nothing to do with Law, has everything to do with faith.
All who respond by faith are children of Abraham and children of
God. You cannot be a proper child of Abraham
or a child of God by Law. You cannot.
Don't even try.
I know that's hard for some of you. It's hard for me, still. I've been out of that for
20 some years now. I still catch myself. Remember I told you last
time? There are days I get up a legalist.
Fact every day would be that, if I didn't stop and say
It's Your Day, Lord. Your power, your spirit.
Even in the most mundane stuff, it's all
of Jesus and none of me.
Tht's how you become a child of Abrham, a true
Jew, if you will. You don't do it by Law.
There is Law
and that Law has a curse. Jesus redeemed us
from that curse. How did He do that?
By becoming the curse. He died
so that I didn't have to. More than that,
He died so that I could live. He was raised from the dead.
That's why this is about gospel and not gospel.
Abraham's blessing is for Gentiles.
Gentiles being
all people, other than Jew.
Suprise, surprise, it's for the Jews, too.
Abraham is the father of Jews. So, ethnically, the Jews had a big
advantage, right? You read Romans 9 & 10
You find out all this cool stuff the Jews got to do.
And to accomplish for God. Actually, that God accomplished through them.
For the rest of us, and what they were supposed to do was say,
"Thank you, Lord! Hey Gentiles! Do you realize there's this Messiah
"coming" And when Jesus got here, they could've said,
"Jesus is the Messiah" but instead they wanted to close it up
and hold it, and be racist.
Everything for the Jews and nothing for the Gentiles.
Abraham's blessing is for all people.
Why? So that all can recieve
the Spirit. So that all
can receive the Spirit.
You see why it is so serious
to answer the question, "how shall we live?"
How are we blessed? From where did the blessings
come? From whom did that blessing come? How do I hold on to
that blessing? How does that blessing hold
on to me?
Whenever you find yourself walking toward
the fly paper of the Law, of the flesh;
of the works of your hands, listen
to the Spirit screaming in your head, "Don't go
"there! You will be sorry!
"I'll go right there with you, and I can free you from that
"if you'll let me, but let's not go over there
"anymore. Let's walk by faith."
Hearing of faith versus the works of Law.
Faith wins every time.
Let's pray.
Lord God, this short passage is just
so rich. We can't even
scratch the surface of it, yet, just reading it,
just pondering it a little bit is enough to change our lives.
Only Your word can do that, only Your Spirit
can make that real in us.
We thank You for it, and we thank You that You scream at us, and try to turn
us and all of the things that You do to prevent us from walking
over to the fly paper of the Law, then You're
gracious enough to clean off the muck and bring us back
anyway. We don't deserve that.
But You do it, and You do it everytime, and You'll do it
forever. We praise You for it in Jesus name, Amen.