Sermon Tone Analysis

FREED BY GRACE

I want us to walk through the book of Galatians.

The reason why I want us to walk through Galatians as a faith family is because this is a book that was written specifically to address the centrality of grace in the church, and to counter legalistic tendencies that were creeping into the church.

FREED BY GRACE

This letter is written to some young churches who were just beginning to grow which made them susceptible to the Adversary.

Satan will move while God is moving.

He will bring in discord, doubt, and division.

FREED BY GRACE

As we surrender our lives and His church, more and more to His cause, our Adversary will twist the very core of the gospel that we celebrate.

FREED BY GRACE

We must head Peter’s warning

We want to be able to recognize the gospel, the true gospel, and recognize when a false gospel is being preached.

That’s what the Galatian church was not doing.

They were becoming susceptible to a false gospel that undercut the very foundation of grace.

BACKGROUND

The gospel started spreading, and as it spread, more Gentiles...more and more Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ...non-Jews, Gentiles, coming to faith in Christ.

There was a big discussion, “Well, if Gentiles are coming to faith in Christ, then when they come to faith in Christ, do they need to follow all the Jewish rules and all the Old Testament rules, regulations, and rites?

Most notably, do they need to be circumcised?”

We don’t know for sure if Paul wrote Galatians before this happened in Acts 15 or afterwards, but we know he’s addressing this group of people, these “some men”, these Judaizers who were teaching that you needed to be circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses in order to be saved.

BACKGROUND

In Acts 15 decided that circumcision contaminated the gospel.

Acts 15:8 (ESV)

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

So, what the church decided was, “No, grace is the only way that we’re saved,” and they sent out a letter to all of these Gentile believers saying, “It’s by grace alone you’re saved.

You don’t have to be circumcised in order to be saved, also.”

FREED BY GRACE

Judaizers were basically legalists.

What they taught is in many ways alive and well today.

I’m convinced that really every single one of us, every single Christ follower in this room, in some sense, is a recovering legalist.

FREED BY GRACE

Whether or not we like to admit it or not, secretly, we think that there is something we can do in order to please God and be approved by God, or be accepted by God.

Secretly, we think that if we have spent good time in prayer and in Bible study this week, that we come, and we sit in our seats tonight, and God is pleased with where we are.

FREED BY GRACE

However, if we’ve not prayed like we should, or we haven’t studied the Bible, or we’ve really wandered in some different areas of our life, that, in some sense, God is not pleased with us.

This is a performance-based kind of faith that is really legalism, and I want us to make sure we know what legalism is, so we can call it when we see it, but also, I want us to be careful that we don’t call something legalism that’s actually not legalism.

Legalism Defined ...

Working in our own power.

This is part of what the Judaizers were teaching.

They said, “Believe in Christ, and then you put your natural ability forward, and you begin to obey these different laws or rules or regulations.

So, it’s Christ and what man brings to the table.

You trust in Christ, and then you do these things.”

LEGALISM REPACKAGED

Now that you are saved here is what you must do (spiritual disciplines) in order to please God (maintain your salvation).

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES ARE NOT ABOUT MAKING YOU PLEASING TO GOD.

THEY’RE ABOUT MAKING GOD MORE PRECIOUS TO YOU.

THE GRACE THAT SAVED US IS THE GRACE THAT WILL SUSTAIN US.

Working according to our own rules.

The Judaizers were taking the new covenant and they were bringing in rules and regulations from the Old Testament, adding on.

God had established a new covenant with His people, and the terms of that covenant are explained here in the New Testament.

What they were doing was they were adding the rules and regulations from another covenant and bringing it in here.

Working according to our own rules.

We do the same thing when we add rules and say, “Well, you need to do this, or this, and this, and this in order to be accepted by God,” that are not outlined in the New Testament.

Now, I want us to be careful because whenever we talk about commands that we do have in the New Testament, and we say, “We need to obey these commands,” that’s not legalism; that’s Christianity.

It’s the core of the gospel, but you have to be careful not to add our own rules, working in our own power, according to our own rules.

Working to earn God’s favor.

Third, this really the heart of legalism: working in order to earn God’s favor.

The key thought in legalism is that if we do certain things, that we will have favor before God; we’ll have credit before God.

It’s what the Judaizers were saying: “The more these rights or rules or regulations that you follow, the more credit you have before God.”

Working to earn God’s favor.

“Well, if I...if I pray more, if I study the Bible more, and if I do these things in my Christian life, then I’ll have favor before God, and if I don’t, then He’ll be disappointed with me.”

The startling truth of Christianity is this:

God’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance for Him.

The legalist in us rises up with that and says, “Surely there’s something I’m supposed to do.

I don’t just sit back.”

However, the reality that the gospel teaches is that God’s pleasure in you is not based on your performance before Him.

This is what Paul is so adamantly talking about in Galatians 1.

He goes so far as to say, “

How does Paul address this performance-based mentality that creeps into our minds and our hearts?

I want to answer to that question with two fundamental truths...primary, elementary in some ways, but glorious truths about the gospel that obliterate legalism.

Legalism Destroyed ...

The gospel is free.

So, we’ve got legalism defined; now legalism destroyed.

Two truths: truth number one, the gospel is free; the gospel is free.

Now, this is where we’re going to camp out in verses 3, 4, and 5.

I want you to listen to what Paul says.

The very beginning, he starts,

Grace the root of our salvation and peace is the fruit of our salvation.

What Paul is saying is that the gospel is free, salvation is free, mercy is free.

God’s pleasure in us is not based on our performance for Him.

Instead, God’s pleasure in us is based on His performance for us.

Let that soak in.

God the Father has initiated our salvation.

Let me show this to you.

What does God do in grace in the gospel?

Number one, God the Father has initiated our salvation.

It says down at the end of verse 4,

“...according to the will of our God and Father.”

God, by His will, has designed the gospel to be completely dependent on His grace, on His initiating our salvation.

This is what Paul talks about in verse 13.

I want you to hear how he describes what he was doing, and then how he switches to describe what God did.

Look in verse 13.

Paul says, “[For] you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.”

God the Father has initiated our salvation.

Paul was the one who was taking people and making sure that they were killed or hurt, suffering because of their faith in Christ.

This was what Paul did, and then he says, verse 14,

He says, “I was doing all of these things, and then...” listen to this transition in verse 15,

I love this picture.

Paul says, “I was doing all of these things, but it was no match for the pleasure of a gracious God who invaded by life.”

God the Father has initiated our salvation.

Don’t miss it.