Sermon Tone Analysis

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