Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Good morning, please turn with me to the book of Galatians chapter 2 verses 15-16.

The title of today’s message is, A Letter to the Recovering Pharisee; A Call to Remember the Truth of the Gospel and the Freedom it brings.

Before we begin, let me give a brief overview of what we have going on in the book of Galatians.

Here we have one of Paul’s earliest epistles.

It is often referred to as “The Magna Carta of Christian Liberty” with its main theme as a declaration of independence found in .

The purpose of the letter was to defend the truth of the gospel against those, whom we will refer to as Pharisees, who were preaching a false gospel by way of trying to add to what the gospel was saying.

These Pharisees were hypocrites because they thought that what God would do for them depended on what they did for God.

They were taking away the freedom we have in Christ by adding works of the law on top of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Specifically, theses “pharisees” were trying to make the claim that in order to be truly saved, one must not only accept Christ as Lord and Savior, but also must be circumcised abiding by the letter of the law.

This is a form of “works righteousness”.

That we are accepted and gain favor by God based on our own merits.

Paul makes clear in this epistle that the law and circumcision does not save, but condemns.

Philip Ryken, in his commentary on Galatians says we all have the tendency to be like these pharisees, trying to earn and gain favor with God.

He says, we are pharisees in recovery.

But there is hope found in the truth of the gospel.

He quotes:

Whenever the church has understood this gospel message, Galatians has brought life and freedom to recovering Pharisees.

This was true in the life of Martin Luther (1483–1546), the father of the Reformation.

Luther had tried everything he knew to be a good Christian.

He wrote, “I was a good monk and kept my order so strictly that I could claim that if ever a monk were able to reach heaven by monkish discipline I should have found my way there.

All my fellows in the house, who knew me, would bear me out in this.

For if it had continued much longer I would, what with vigils, prayers, readings and other such works, have done myself to death.”2

Yet as hard as Luther worked, his conscience was still troubled by the thought that he was not good enough for God.

He didn’t understand the gospel of grace.

His breakthrough came when he discovered that Christianity was not about what he had to do for God; it was about what God had done for him in Jesus Christ.

We cannot earn our way to heaven, we cannot earn or gain favor with God, not even becoming a martyr for the cause of Christ will qualify.

So then comes the question, how then is one right with God?

Or justified before God?

What is the truth of the Gospel?

We read here:

Notice 3 times justified is mentioned.

3 times we see the words “IN JESUS CHRIST, IN CHRIST JESUS, IN CHRIST.

These are important to note.

Nothing here is mentioned about what we need to do, not by anything in us BUT IN CHRIST!

It is IN CHRIST, by His Blood, through His Life, in His Death and Resurrection that we obtain justification and a right standing before God.

We must pause for a moment here and ask the question, “what does it mean to be justified”?

explains that to “justify” is to declare to be right.

Justification here in this verse has to do with our legal standing before God, it is God’s declaring us to be right before Him.

But how can a Holy God declare us justified, declare right before Him, if we are sinners?

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of faith and Catechism states this about justification: Justification is an act of God’s free grace where He pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight ONLY for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

Turn also to

(ESV)

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he (that is God) chose us in him( that is Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him (God).

In love 5 he (God) predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will (God’s will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace (God’s glorious grace), with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (that is Christ).

7 In him(in Christ) we have redemption through his blood (Christ’s blood), the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (God’s grace), 8 which he (God) lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will (God’s will), according to his purpose(God’s purpose), which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him(In Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.

God blessed us IN CHRIST.

God chose us IN HIM before the foundation of the world.

We must stop and take note:

This here, before the foundation of the world, before we could do anything of merit, God chose to love us.

There is no merit to be had before the foundation of the world.

He chose us in love, this is not of ourselves.

In fact, human initiative seems to be purposely undercut here when we are told that God chose us before creation.

Bryan Chapel makes this comment on this passage:

Paul uses the assurance of predestination to strengthen the church for her struggles against evil and discouragement.

This perspective does not solve all our logical questions about predestination; however, understanding Paul’s purpose helps us properly contextualize our presentation of this precious doctrine when we talk to others.

Predestination was never meant to be a doctrinal club used to batter people into acknowledgments of God’s sovereignty.

Rather, the message of God’s love preceding our accomplishments and outlasting our failures was meant to give us a profound sense of confidence and security in God’s love so that we will not despair in situations of great difficulty, pain, and shame.

God adopted us THROUGH CHRIST and this is according to GOD’S WILL.

It is IN THE BELOVED, BECAUSE OF THE BELOVED God has blessed us.

IN CHRIST, we have redemption THROUGH CHRIST’S BLOOD.

This is all in accordance to GOD’S WILL AND GOD’S PURPOSE brought about IN CHRIST!

God adopted us THROUGH CHRIST and this is according to GOD’S WILL.

It is IN THE BELOVED, BECAUSE OF THE BELOVED God has blessed us.

IN CHRIST, we have redemption THROUGH CHRIST’S BLOOD.

This is all in accordance to GOD’S WILL AND GOD’S PURPOSE brought about IN CHRIST!

Again I would like to pause here briefly and take a look at the beauty of adoption from a perspective from a lady named Lisa also found in Bryan Chapel’s Commentary:

A woman named Lisa writes:

Adoption is attractive to me because it is the perfect antidote to legalism.…

[Legalism] was the driving force in my life.

I kept trying to be good enough for God but despaired at how impossible the task was.

At the very heart I was afraid of one thing.

At some point I would do something terrible and consequently lose my salvation.

Although the church I was raised in preached assurance of salvation, I often wondered if I believed it mostly because I wanted it to be true.

The confusion came from the fact that although the churches I attended said they believed in the assurance of salvation, they preached a list of things one had to do to be a “good Christian.”

I got the feeling that if you failed in any of those areas you probably were not saved to begin with.

The study of adoption has clarified the confusion I once felt.

Adoption is a legal procedure which secures a child’s identity in a new family.…

God didn’t choose to be our foster parent.

We don’t get kicked out of the family because of our behavior.

We don’t have to worry day to day whether or not we are good enough to be part of the family.

In his infinite kindness, God made us a permanent part of his family.…

Nothing can undo the legal procedure that binds me to Christ.

He died to redeem me.

He signed the adoption papers, so to speak, with his blood.

Nothing can cancel the work he did for me.

I am free from the fear of falling away.

Hallelujah!9

This word adoption also has a legal form.

Here we have a glimpse of the certainty of God’s work in salvation.

We have a glimpse of the preservation of the saints.

Going back to the Ephesians passage, again we see nothing that we bring to the table, we see nothing of a salvation that is according to us but it is by God through His Son that we are saved.

To hammer the nail in further to this point, that it has nothing to do with anything we do, turn with me to

it says:

It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we are saved.

It is not of ourselves so that no one may boast.

It is truly a gift from God.

Grace here is the Greek word charis, which means “an undeserved act of kindness”.

We have done nothing to deserve this, it is for God glorious praise by His immeasurable might, for His good pleasure that He saved us only by the blood of Christ.