Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Well as we begin this week, I should probably begin by admitting a fault of my own that I know I have when I preach.

I have this issue with coming to a text and finding such marvel and mystery inside of the passage that I then begin to camp out on the text.

Which isn’t necessarily always a bad thing but for me at times it most certainly can be.

With that said I do plan on making it further into the message today than just into the first verse.

But keep in mind, I said I plan to.

I’m not however making any promises just an attempt to try :)

My wife did however remind me that many people in the Church would probably like to get through the first chapter before the Lord calls them home…:)

Well please turn with me in your Bible’s to and we will read through verse 9 today.

1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5 To whom be glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Pray

Now it will be my intention today to make our way through verse 5 but there is a lot of content to cover so that is not likely to happen.

When we left off last week we were discussing the importance of Paul’s introductions and how important and vital it is for the Galatian Church to take heed to the authority given to the Apostle Paul.

However we didn’t fully establish why that was so important.

At least in my mind it wasn’t made particularly clear anyway.

Well if you recall we talked about how the date impacted the Galatians in what Bible they would have had.

And it was established that due to the early nature there would have been no Bible that contained the New Testament Canon of Scripture.

If anything they would have had the Old Testament but even it was probably not in a full set as the price of scrolls in the first century was not cheap.

And it was because of this that we find Paul so completely blown away with the mindset of the Galatians.

The fact that Paul had brought them such wonderful news concerning the Lord’s redemptive plan of the Gospel and the Galatians were rejecting Paul’s teachings for that which was brought unto them.

As Paul so clearly states it, another gospel, not that there is another gospel but one made up in the minds of the people.

And the whole emphasis last week was just how dependent upon the words of the Apostles that the early Church really was.

It wasn’t that these men were infallible men in any way.

It wasn’t that these men had finally on their own account come to a greater knowledge of the truth.

It was that God used the Apostles as those who firmly established the foundations of the New Covenant Church.

And anyone in here who has ever had even a small amount of construction experience knows that the foundation of the building is crucial.

Without the firm foundation, things very quickly will begin to fall apart.

And for the Church that would be a disaster.

Even in the world of construction this is often times fatal for many.

Let me give you an example.

In the early days of the first century, the Roman emperor Tiberius had placed a ban on gladiator games for the general public.

Well after a period of time, the ban was lifted and auditoriums began popping up all over the place.

One in particular that was built was constructed by a young entrepreneur by the name of Atillius.

And young Atillius took the time and put together this massive amphitheater that would hold approximately 50,000 people.

And when the ban was lifted in 27 AD, the people began flocking to these amphitheater’s to see the shows that were being put on.

Shortly into the entertainment for the night, the structure gave way killing in excess of 20,000 people.

It was said to be one of the largest death tolls that resulted from the collapse of a stadium.

The Roman response to this horrible incident was that from that time forward, every stadium or venue had to be built upon a solid foundation and inspected for the sureness of it’s stability.

You see what had happened was that the ground below this stadium never had a solid foundation.

And because of it’s shaky nature, the ground gave way taking the lives of at least 20,000 people and injuring a vast majority of the total people there.

Some 50,000 people.

Are you hearing me?

I used to be a union Ironworker and as an Ironworker, I many times stood on top of a building in it’s steel frame stage at heights that are beyond most mens comfort level.

And I can tell you just as sure as the day is the Lord’s day that those buildings required a foundation that would have the ability to support the great heights that they were at.

Some 50,000 people in the blink of an eye either had their lives taken from them or their life drastically altered due to a faulty foundation.

Wow how that same thing could utterly destroy the Church today.

Just think of how that applies to the Church today.

The Church is made up of millions of believers all across the globe if you look at the Church Universal.

This body alone is averaging around 80-90.

If we inspected the foundations of the Church within the Evangelical world today, the result would cause most of the Church’s to close it’s doors before it killed the souls of the people inside.

The surety of the foundation and the inspection for soundness within the Church today would reap results that would cause most church’s to close their doors!

That’s just reality.

Many Church’s today would claim to have the Gospel but in reality they have another Gospel.

Not the true Gospel from the Apostles as set out by the Lord Jesus Christ.

But a gospel that is lacking in it’s surety of it’s foundation.

A foundation which is crucial and whether they realize it or not, has in many ways already collapsed and has left devestation in it’s wake.

Now lest we get to high and mighty of ourselves, we should probably look in the mirror and realize that we very likely could be in that numbered lot.

Now I don’t mean that in a harsh way and I’m not pointing to one individual in particular or even the whole Church.

But there is an ever present reality here that says that the Church is made up of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and we still make mistakes.

Each and everyone of us sinned multiple times before we even got to Church this morning.

That’s not even counting the things we’ve thought since we got here!

And as a body made up of fallible people, we have the ability to make major mistakes.

I mean look at the Galatian Church, they had an Apostle among them and as soon as he went away, they departed from his teachings.

They departed from the very foundations that Paul laid within that body!

This was why it was so vital for the Galatians to listen to what the Apostle Paul had taught them.

They had no New Testament and that meant that the foundations that had been laid by Paul were vital to the building up of the Church.

The words that Paul gave them in his teachings were to be treated with the upmost respect and given the utmost authority.

However, inside of that, the vital nature of the Galatian Church listening to Paul was not addressed.

Now just in case we somehow transfer that same thought process into the Church today, we need to understand that we have the Word of God right here.

We have the Word of God which is the sure foundation!

It was laid by Christ through the Apostles many years ago.

We have no need for someone to be given divine Apostleship within the Church.

The foundation of the Church was laid by the Apostles which we now have this day in the Word of God.

And since this topic could very well be a struggle for many within this room, let’s just lay it out here while we can.

The role of the God ordained man today within the Church is far different from that of the beginning of the Church.

Paul and the other Apostles spoke with divine authority.

Giving a message to the Church in a broken period of time that had a desperate need for the Lord to lay that foundation.

So that Elder that rules over the Church today isn’t receiving new revelation from God for the Church.

Instead he is to labor to bring to light the foundation that has already been laid.

He has the Word of God that he brings about from the pulpit.

He declares the very same thing once given by the Apostles.

He doesn’t declare anything new to the Church today.

He doesn’t need to seek out for new truth in other shapes and forms.

He has the Word delivered.

He does speak with authority but not the same authority as what the Apostles had.

If what the elders of this Church say cannot be found within the historical understanding of Scripture, it carries zero authority.

The authority given to the Elder of the Church today is not given outside of the realm of Scripture.

And therefore the only weight that his words carry comes from how faithful they are to the text of Scripture.

And the day that things are being done and being said that are not grounded in the foundation of Scripture, that sure and true foundation has collapsed.

And those who are inside are at a vital risk.

Their souls, their livelihoods, their relationships and their marriages have been put in jeopardy.

Scattered along the road within this congregation you will find this.

People who have had their hearts broken, time and time again.

They’ve had their conscious bound over something that Scripture never speaks on.

They have cast aside their livelihoods for a reason they thought was most righteous before the Lord.

Not that those things and those actions were not honorable to God, it’s just that they were never commanded.