Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Review

We are returning to our series on the epistle to the Galatians today.

Galatians is a difficult book, not so much because the material is particularly difficult to understand, but more so because of the confrontational nature of the book.

Paul had labored to plan and establish this church.

He preached the gospel, people believed, leadership was put in place and Paul left.

But soon after he left Galatia, he received reports that things weren’t going so well.

The reason sited was not that they didn’t have an effective ministry to children.

It wasn’t that they were failing to connect with the students at the local university.

It’s not that they were failing to attract young families and it wasn’t that they were falling short of seeming relevant to the communities in which they existed.

The problem is summed up in

The churches in Galatia were being infiltrated by false teachers.

Judaizers who very compellingly taught that salvation came by Christ, but not Christ alone.

The practices, ceremonies and laws that had been long taught and practiced needed to be honored in order to continue to have peace with God.

And when Paul heard that many in the church were buying into this, he was astonished.

And what we suggested at the beginning of this series several months ago was a statement that summarizes that the concern of the epistle:

Don’t mess with the Gospel

This is what not only the false teachers were doing in teaching a false gospel, but the believers in these churches were messing with the gospel as well by entertaining this false teaching by giving it their attention.

Context of Passage

We suggested before that there are reasons evident in this epistle that justifies our contentedness with the gospel.

We can be confident that the gospel in not in need of tweaking or changing in any way.

We do not need to provide more to it to suit the age and time in which we live or delete some of it to make it more palatable for the modern-day person.

Here are the reasons we see in this epistle:

1.

The Gospel is from God

The Gospel cannot be improved

What’s so good about the Gospel?

3. The Gospel is essential

Paul made it clear that the gospel is so precious, it’s worth dividing over.

4. The Gospel transforms us

The contrast between the relationship Paul had with the Galatians and the false teachers had with the Galatians.

Paul gave himself, sacrificed himself for the good of the Galatians, but ultimately for the glory of Christ.

Don’t mess with the Gospel.

This is the concern then and it is one we need to soberly approach today.

There are plenty of challenges, difficulties and confusion with which to contend today, but through it all we must be careful not to mess with the Gospel either proactively in what we teach and say, and passively by what we allow or fail to say or do.

With this refresher concluded, let’s go to our text now.

Introduction

if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

This saying is familiar enough to us, but what brings to mind for me is Back to the Future.

A movie that came out in 1985, and George McFly (the dad) said this to his son, Marty McFly.

The McFly’s were a disadvantaged family.

Dad was working a dead-end job, mom struggled with alcohol and the 3 older kids seemed to be going no where in life.

Never-the-less, Dad’s advice to his youngest son was, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

Just a little effort, consistent effort, even significant disadvantages and obstacles can be overcome.

And I’m sure there are plenty of real-life examples of this idea being true.

But while this truth may be true much of the time, it’s not true all of the time.

Sometimes it’s not about effort.

Sometimes effort, intentional, consistent effort is not what will bring over the finish line.

Sometimes, there are challenges that are beyond us, and short of intervening help, we won’t overcome.

But this goes against the prevailing message that we have long heard.

Hard work will yield success.

It’s often true, but not always true.

And this is especially clear when it comes to having peace with God.

You see, the big prize that is held before us in our culture is financial security and family harmony.

Go to school, work hard, marry the right person (or don’t get married to avoid this challenge all together), spend time with your kids, make sure they go to school and work hard, and everyone will have financial security and family harmony.

And financial security and family harmony are fine aspirations, and I think it’s true that hard, intentional work is necessary to have them.

But there is a much greater need that everyone has.

The problem is, this particular need is not widely acknowledged.

And even when it is, it is often assumed that hard, intentional effort will solve it.

But our effort does not, will not overcome to problem.

What’s the problem?

Spiritual death.

The problem is we are enemies of God.

People are at odds with Him, and many ties, that concern is not a concern, and often when people have the concern, they attempt to solve it through effort.

And this idea, that enmity with God can be solved with human effort, was being taught and embraced in the Galatian church.

And even the church today can take matters into her own hands.

Possessing a false sense of independence and security, Pursuing the wrong things, prioritizing our own glory instead of the glory of God.

Assuming that our own insight and means in ministry are more effective than what the Bible teaches.

FCF: We often misapply our efforts in our lives.

Main Idea:

The Church’s effort is for revealing and not for attaining.

Main Question:

How must the church understand effort?

Our efforts are insufficient for our justification (10-12)

Verses 10-12 make clear that the law, and more specifically efforts to obey the law are insufficient to acquire justification.

Verse 10 states that the law is insufficient to provide peace with God and verses 11 & 12 go into detail why that is the case.

Before we go further into these verses, I want to clarify a few terms that I will use in this part of our exposition.

Justification: an act of God through which He declares someone to be righteous.

It’s a legal term to describe God’s pronouncement of cleared of all charges.

Justification is fundamental to people having peace with God, that is, being right with God.

Covenant: “A bond in blood, sovereignly administered” (O.

Palmer Robertson)

God’s covenants with His people have conditions.

There are blessings and curses for keeping or not keeping (obeying or disobeying the terms) the covenant.

The reason I bring up covenant is because of the language we see in this passage.

It is covenant language, and it will be important to keep that in mind as we work through this together.

So when we see, for example, in verse 10 for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, it should bring up the idea of a covenant.

A good place to se this, and in fact, I suggest had this in mind when writing this text is Deut 27where the curses for not keeping the covenant of God are outlined.

I will refer to this again in a few moments.

But here in Galatians, the New Covenant, the covenant which has been fulfilled by Christ is in view:

Jesus’ death and resurrection is what made the forgiveness of our sin (iniquity) possible.

A covenant is a bond in blood, and it was the blood of Jesus that sealed the bond between Himself and His people.

The problem at hand was that there were some in the Galatian church that were teaching that the New Covenant was not enough for people to be declared justified.

Some effort on their part was necessary.

Yes, Jesus’ death and resurrection is part f the equation, but God helps those who help themselves, is what some of the voices were teaching.

And people who had once heard and believed the good news of the New Covenant were wavering on this truth now.

And now Paul is making clear that obeying the law, any effort on our part is insufficient to acquire our justification.

AQ: Why are our efforts insufficient for our justification?

Our efforts can only achieve the curses of God’s covenant (10a)

Here’s Paul’s premise: anyone who presumes that they can merit God’s declaration of righteousness by means of their obedience is under a curse.

This is not how the New Covenant is fulfilled or honored.

So in this first half of v. 10, the point Paul is making is that no one should conclude they have anything or ever have anything to bring to the table of justification.