Galatians #02 A Picture of Salvation
Freed to be Free #2
We have begun to walk through Galatians … And we have talked about the purpose of this letter.
There were a group of believers from Jerusalem that had come in behind Paul. He had established these churches on the simple gospel of Jesus. That is, salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and is a gift of the Grace of God. It is not based on any outward actions or merit but strictly on the gift of God. Not only had these false teachings about the Gospel come into the church in Galatia but they obviously had been accepted by some in the church and they had reordered their lives.
Are we ever guilty of this?
Do we sometimes in the church forget the wonder of Grace that was wrought on us when we came to Christ?
Do we forget sometimes what we were before Christ?
Do we sometimes become so enamored with who we have become that we expect people to become like us before they come to Christ instead of inviting them to Christ and allowing Christ to do the transforming?
Paul offers a great argument for the Gospel of Grace …
… His Own Story.
He basically says “you be the judge”
The Gospel of Jesus Changes Lives, it is a Gospel of Transformation and Paul gives his testimony again in Defense of the Gospel.
Read 11-24
We are going to spend a couple of weeks in these verses but sometimes I just like to talk about Salvation. It is one of the most joyous words in the Christian vernacular.
Oh Psychology can talk about “self-actualization” but no one is ever really satisfied with who they are.
Buddhism can talk about Nirvana but even Buddha couldn’t and didn’t explain where or what it was to his followers.
We can talk about reincarnation, but why would anyone want to keep coming back to this life over and over trying to get better.
We can talk about all kinds of religious terms; but today let’s simply focus on a REAL word, this one beautiful word, Salvation.
I know it is a churchy word. I know it is a word that is used over and over and may lose it’s power.
Salvation – def – deliverance from the power and effects of sin; the agent or means that effects salvation; liberation from ignorance or illusion; preservation from destruction or failure; deliverance from danger or difficulty
What a word it is. In the Old Testament, the word most of ten was used to refer to God intervening because of the need of his people for deliverance from a real and tangible enemy. They would cry out to God for Salvation for Rescue.
In the New Testament the picture develops to it’s fullest. We see that Jesus said he came to “seek and save what was lost” – the very name Jesus comes from the Hebrew means Salvation – i.e. God Saves … Jesus Saves is more than a phrase in a song, or an evangelist’s phrase it is WHO Jesus IS and what he DOES. He rescues us from an enemy without and within. It is the deliverance now from the power of sin. And it is the guarantee one day of deliverance from the presence of sin through Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that the penalty for our sin is death. Our enemy is not flesh and blood but rulers, and authorities of the dark world. Sin is our sickness. We need to be rescued, we need deliverance.
And Paul found the simply beauty of Salvation in Jesus Christ, and so we need to see this Picture of Salvation in the life of Paul, but real and true for everyone of us who comes to Christ …
Salvation is
1. Revealed By God
V15-16 “but when God … was pleased to reveal …”
A. Revealed
1. “Revealed”, this word apokalupto /ap-ok-al-oop-to/ to uncover, lay open what has been veiled or covered up; disclose, make bare. Make known, manifest, disclose what before was unknown
2. in October 1939, speaking about Russia, Winston Churchhill said “it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma …
3. well our sin separated us from God and try as we might, we can’t get back to God on our own. Satan has waged an all out war against us and we don’t know what to do. God in justice has passed sentence on our sin the question about how to get out of our predicament is a mystifying, misleading, puzzling question.
4. Until God stepped in and revealed the only way out of our predicament
Revealed …
B. By God
1. You didn’t figure it out on your own. You couldn’t. You didn’t stumble on it or imagine it or dream it up.
a. Oh it may have been through a preacher
b. It might have been reading his Word
c. It might have been through a Christian Movie
d. It might have seemed a “random conversation” with a stranger
e. It might have been a simple testimony of a co-worker, a housewife, or an elementary school boy on the street corner, or on a school bus, huh Bryan?
2. But it was and always IS by the direct intervention of God.
3. Jesus said no man comes to me except the Father draws him.
a. In John 6 Jesus was speaking to a Jewish Audience and used the illustration of manna in the wanderings of the Israelites in the Wilderness. The people were hungry and had no way to plant and harvest because they were constantly on the move. So God provided for them mysterious “bread”. Every morning when they woke it was there. Moses was their leader. Moses told them how to get it, what to do with it, how much to take, what NOT to do, but he didn’t provide it, God did.
b. We buy groceries but did it come from the Grocer? Not really, he just provided it? Did it come from the Truck Driver? No he just brought it. Did it come from the Farmer? No, he just planted it. God made that seed. God made the Sun that shined. God made the rain to fall. God caused the process of chlorophyll that transfers the light into food. God provides carbon dioxide that the plant breathes and the oxygen that they breathe out … so it all comes from GOD.
And Jesus says “no one can come to me unless the Father draws him.”
You need to worship him that he would even let us in on the Salvation that is available to us.
He calls to us in the Sunrise
He reveals himself through wind blowing, the majestic mountain peaks, the simple song of a cardinal in the morning.
He sends a witness to speak his love and provision for you
Why the Revelation?
… we are …
2. Called Because of Grace
V15 “When God … called me by his grace …”
A. Called
… Oh the Voices that God Uses
Voice of Reason
Voice of Proclamation
Voice of Experience
Voice of Truth
Voice of God the Holy Spirit
B. Grace -
Because of Grace– the reason …
You can’t look in the mirror and not wonder, “why would God ever call me?
You can’t look back at your life and not wonder, “why would he call me?”
It’s not about YOU … Oh he made you the object of his salvation … but you are not the reason
He did because he is great – Ps 48:1 – Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise
He did because he is glorious – Dt. 28:58
He did because he is love – 1 Jn 4:8
He did because he is marvelous – Ps 72:18 – praise be to the Lord God, the God of Isael, who alone does marvelous deeds
He did because he COULD – Isaiah 40:28 – do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everylasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or wear, and his understanding no one can fathom
He did because he is Sovereign – 2 Sam. 7:22 How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you …
He did because it pleased him – Micah 7:18 who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy
You didn’t deserve it … it is grace
God Rescued us providing the Salvation we need and I it is Revealed by God, Called by Grace … and it comes
3. Through Christ
V15 – to reveal his Son in Me …
A. Through - Vehicle
1. without righteousness we will never see God – Isa. 64:6 our righteous acts are like filthy rags … Rom 3:10 there is no one righteous, not even one
2. Since we can’t provide Salvation for ourselves, it must be brought to us
Heb 9:22 the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness
3. It comes FROM God – John 2:9
B. Christ – What a Vehicle
1. Acts 4:12 - Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”
2. 1 Thess 5:9 God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ
3. Jesus became the source of eternal life – Heb. 5:9
4. Jesus Christ and his shed blood is the ONLY Vehicle of Salvation for us. Some would argue for the efficacy of any path, hindus, Baha’is, Buddhism … as long as we are sincere … but it’s not about what we think … Proverbs 14:12 says there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.
5. Every truth is exclusive that’s what truth is … 2 x 2 is ALWAYS going to be 4 … that will never change. It is Truth. Hatred of a person because of their skin, or age, or gender, will always be wrong. God and Atheism can’t BOTH be true. So there IS Truth and there is falsehood
6. Jesus himself said “I am the Way … I am the Truth … I am the Life … NO ONE comes to the Father except through me … there are no exceptions, options, adjustments …
7. Jesus said he was the door – John 10:9
8. John 10:1 – the gate into the Sheep Pin
9. It is the only mediator between God and Man … 1 Tim 2:5
10. there TRULY is no other name but Jesus
The blessing of Salvation is desperately needed by every person, it is Revealed by God and we are Called by his Grace, comes Through Christ and … is …
4. For His Glorification
V24 – they praised God because of me – NASB says they “glorified God” …
We were called, receivers of revelation, receivers of grace, indwelt by the Holy Spirit that we might glorify God in Christ Jesus …
Notice again back in verse 16 that Paul like us was a recipient of Grace “SO THAT” there is always a purpose in our salvation … two purposes …
A. Preach
Paul said all of this happened “so that I may preach him among the Gentiles”
Sunday December 14, 1975, God called me to preach. But I waited for two weeks and then made that call public on Sunday December 28, 1975. It was a life changing time in my life. I preached my first pulpit sermon in 1978. I started preaching Revivals in 1981. I served my first church on staff in 1983. Yes, I was called to Preach
And SO WERE YOU …
YOU have Been Called to Preach
We think of the Call to Preach as something for a special group or a special position
But I’m a Woman … I didn’t say the call to be Senior Pastor … but a call to preach
But I don’t like public speaking … I didn’t say preach in a pulpit before a crowd, I said, a Call to preach …
You see, I didn’t wait until the call to vocational preaching before I started preaching Jesus. I shared Christ as a boy in school. I remember the first little boy I shared Jesus with, on the corner up the street from my house on Lincoln Avenue in Columbus Ohio, on the way home from school. He gave his heart to Christ and what a great joy to see him come to our church and be baptized in confession of that faith.
“I don’t really preach, Pastor”
Or really?
Definition of Preaching
Yes you do … the question is
Who are you called to?
Paul was called to the Gentiles as a People
He had a broad scope to his ministry
But it wasn’t because he was a dreamer it was because that was what was in the mind of God for him
<scripture>
God doesn’t only have plans for the big wigs … he has plans for you as well
You have a calling, you have a target audience that has always been in the mind of God – Eph 2:10
Yes you’ve been called to preach even if you didn’t know you were a preacher and you’ve been called to
B. Praise
Even if you didn’t know it, you were a worship leader
Oh but Pastor I can’t carry a tune in a bucket
I can’t play an instrument
I can’t lead worship … Oh yes you can …
When you preach your message
When you live your life
The people in your target group find the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Revealed by God through You
And Because of His Grace
Available through the Work of Christ at the Cross
They place their lives in his hands, are reborn to New Life and Glorify the Father
2 Peter 2:12 – Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us --- Because of Me …
That’s what Paul said
This is not a prideful statement
This is a statement of a man committed to his sheep. Paul was showing why he was concerned for them. He was concerned because they represented the sum of his ministry and life’s work in Christ and he was not going to let these false teachers trample on the Glorious Work of Christ through Paul in their lives.
V 23 Paul says “they only heard the report: ‘the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.’”
What have people heard about you?
“That man who used to make fun of Christianity is now the most committed Christian”
“That woman who used to abuse substances is now clean and sober”
“that man who used to mistreat his family, is now a committed family man”
“kid who used be in a gang is now walk the straight way”
“that guy who used to be lazy and directionless is moving up the office ladder”
“that person who used to …”
Useless
Angry
Hopeless
Distant
Wild
Now
Useful
Joyful
Full of Hope
Close
Settled
You fill in the blank
If anyone is in Christ he is a New Creation,
Paul was saying … You compare those who have perverted the Gospel with me and you tell ME who has the Gospel
The Gospel Changes lives …
Paul said in Romans 1:16
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
Has Jesus Christ changed your life?
Does Jesus Christ change people?
<ILL>
Croesus … King of King of Lydia was the Richest man in the world about 600 years before Christ. He asked Thales, the wisest man in the world, “What is God?” The philosopher asked for a day to come up with an answer. Then another day, and another day, and finally after many days, said that the longer he thought about it the harder it was to come up with an answer. Knowing this story, the early Church Father, Tertullian said, the world is ignorant of God apart from Christ. The wisest man in the world, cannot tell who God is. But the most ignorant mechanic among Christians knows God and is able to make him known unto others.
You can’t look around this room and not see the Power of God manifest
We wouldn’t look the same without Jesus Christ
We wouldn’t probably even be around each other without the work of Jesus Christ
Look at all the things that could divide us
Age
Ethnicity
Background
Education
Sports Teams
Why else would Dallas Fans, Rams Fans, Steeler Fans, Patriot Fans, Colt fans, and people who hate football all gather together on a Sunday morning and actually care about each other?
We’re just a bunch of folks in need of a Rescue who have surrendered to a Savior
Oh the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives.
<ILL>
There’s an old story about a wealthy man with one son. This man was an art collector with vast treasures. His son passed away in his teen years. The Father saw his son as his greatest treasure and was so overwhelmed with grief that he died just a few weeks later. With no other family, everything went to auction and the crowd gathered to see and try and obtain the Father’s Treasures.
The first item up for bid, at the Father’s instruction was an oil painting of the son. It was ordinary and no one wanted it. No one bid, it was just silent. Finally an African American Servant, who loved the son, pulled $0.75 out of his pocket and the painting of the son was sold.
Immediately the auction was ended. The auctioneer announced the secret stipulations of the will. It was announced that whoever had received the portrait of the son would receive everything in the father’s house.
Well folks you can’t buy the Son, but you can receive him and when you do we become
Joint-heirs with Jesus … to everything in the Father's house