Sermon Tone Analysis

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: 15-25; Walk N Roll card

Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:

Welcome guests to the family gathering, introduce yourself.

Thank the band.

Invite guests to parlor after service.

Tonight during our evening service at 5:30 we will be ordaining Curtis Smith as a deacon.

We voted on ordaining Curtis at the March business meeting.

Any ordained men are welcome to come and be a part of Curtis’ examination at 4:00 in room 104, across from Miller Hall.

We’ll have a fellowship afterwards in Miller Hall to celebrate together.

I wanted to let everyone know that next Sunday night, September 22, during our evening service at 5:30, we will be ordaining Curtis Smith as a deacon.

We voted on ordaining Curtis at the March business meeting.

Any ordained men are welcome to come and be a part of Curtis’ examination at 4:00 that afternoon in Miller Hall.

This coming Saturday, September 28, the ministry Joni & Friends will be hosting a Community Disability Health and Safety Fair and fundraiser called the Walk N Roll.

It will be held at Hoffmantown Church from 8am to 3pm.

The money raised will be used to help people affected by disabilities.

If you want to put a team together and raise funds for the Walk N Roll, you can visit their website (on screen)… get your camera out and take a picture.

There are also a few cards out on the Get Connected table in the foyer, and a poster on the “What’s Happening” wall.

On Wednesday, October 2, our church is hosting a lunch for students at the Christian Challenge at UNM (aka the BSU).

We are in need of some yummy desserts for that day.

If you can provide some, please bring them to the church office by 9 am on that Wednesday.

The college students thank you.

Mission New Mexico State Mission Offering thru September and October.

Goal is $8,000.

Opening

We are in the middle of Paul’s argument against the Judaizers in Galatia in our study of Galatians, which we’re calling “Dear Church.”

Let’s stand in honor of God’s Word this morning as we read our focal passage, chapter 3, verses 15-25:

Pray

How many of you are wearing a diamond this morning?

My lovely wife, Melanie, really likes diamonds.

She always has.

The thing that she really likes about diamonds is what I think most of us like: they sparkle.

And what makes them sparkle?

Well, mostly it’s a diamond’s cut that allows it to sparkle.

“Brilliant cut” round diamonds appear to have the most sparkle, because they have the most facets: the little flat surfaces that act like mirrors to light.

That’s where most of the sparkle comes from.

As you turn a diamond, you change which mirror you’re looking at, and so you get that different little flash of light.

This is kind of what we’re doing with the book of Galatians.

Over my last couple of messages, and to a certain extent over this whole series on the letter to the churches of Galatia, we’ve had the underlying themes of works & grace, flesh & spirit, legalism & freedom.

What we’re doing is slowly turning the diamond of Galatians and seeing more facets of what God has done for us in Christ.

Each of these facets is meant to give us another vantage point to view the beauty of the Gospel.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve spend time looking at

While it may seem like Paul sometimes is basically repeating himself in Galatians, he isn’t.

He’s methodically making a case against those who are disturbing the churches God had used him to found in Galatia, those who were saying that faith in Jesus wasn’t enough to truly be saved.

You needed to follow the Jewish laws and regulations as well.

Last week, we considered the Blessing of Abraham: that Abraham was justified (made right with God) by God’s grace alone through faith alone.

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

We learned that those who have faith like Abraham are Abraham’s “spiritual children” (3:7), and have inherited the blessing of Abraham: justification through faith.

Diamond and facets of Galatians.

Connect to last week.

Spending a lot of time on theology of salvation, justification, sanctification.

Eventually (chapter 5) we will get into more practical?

In our focal passage this week, Paul continues his argument against legalism by contrasting the law and the promise.

He starts by setting up the order of things, and we’re going to have to take a little extra time on verse 15:

Will

So the CSB here translates the Greek word diathEkE as “will”.

How many of you have a different translation in front of you right now, and it says “covenant?” Probably all of you that have a different translation.

At first, I was intrigued by this difference in the CSB.

Where did they get the idea of a “will” here, especially since the same word is translated “covenant” in verse 17? Also, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, the Hebrew word for covenant was often translated with the word diathEkE.

Well, Paul is making a word play here.

God made a covenant with Abraham that Abraham wasn’t a party to: it was completely by promise.

However, this word in Paul’s time was also used in legal circles for a will, a binding document that was to be opened only once which made certain promises by the one making it, upon that person’s death (as it is used again in ).

When Paul said that no one “sets aside or makes additions to a validated will,” he’s referring apparently to how wills were managed in those days.

The will would be written out on a scroll, signed by the one making the will (generally called the testator), and then signed by as many as six witnesses.

The scroll would then be rolled up, and then each signer—the testator and each of the witnesses—would place their seal upon the will, sealing it up until the death of the testator.

When the will was opened, each of the witnesses (if they were still alive themselves) would have to appear and confirm that their seal was still on the will and was still intact before the will was opened.

This guaranteed that the will could not have been tampered with or altered in any way.

Paul is arguing that the giving of the law to Moses did not invalidate or modify the covenant promise that God had made to Abraham—the will had not been opened yet.

The testator had not yet died.

Jesus Christ, the God-man, 100% God and 100% man, died on the cross (Gal.

3:13)… something that is completely unthinkable!

In Christ, the immortal God tasted death on behalf of His sinful creation.

Daniel Akin wrote in his book “A Theology for the Church:”

Paul is arguing that the promise has come to fulfillment.

Paul is arguing that the giving of the law to Moses did not invalidate or modify the covenant promise that God had made to Abraham.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

Jesus, as that testator, has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; and while men must die and then face the judgment, Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many.”

So, in one fashion, Christ is the maker of the covenant, the testator of the will.

And now that He has died, the will can be opened, and the inheritance can be given.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

Akin, Dr. Daniel L.. A Theology for the Church (pp.

455-456).

B&H Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

God’s covenant with the people of Israel in Moses’ time had a different purpose, as we will see as we go through our passage today.

What is critical for us to remember is that Christ is the ultimate focus of the promise to Abraham.

1) Christ is the focus of the promise to Abraham.

1) Christ is the focus of the promise to Abraham.

But in another critical fashion, Christ is the fulfillment of the promise made by God to Abraham.

Christ is in this way the go-between for us and God.

In Him, God—the maker of the promise—died.

But also in Him, Abraham’s line received the promise that was made.

This is why Paul writes: