What I Am Thankful For.....

Galatians 3:10-14.......

Last week, I spoke of the 24 elders laying their crowns, crowns of reward for being a faithful steward of the Gospel. It seemed that I might have been boring you, I am not that good of an illustrator, but God’s Word is full of illumination. The Truth revealed to man.

What I was trying to convey is just how majestic and glorious God is and that nothing that a human is can ever reach any part of God. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” This makes what God has done for us through Jesus Christ all the more amazing, beautiful, and powerful!

Now, I want you understand me rightly, the message last week, was not to tear you down but to lift God up, to His rightful place.

Folks, this is not about God coming to us, it is all about us going to God. There is only One Way, and that is through faith that the Person and Complete Work of Jesus Christ replaces our work and with that faith we believe that God does a work in us through His Holy Spirit!

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

The good works are created in us through Jesus Christ, to show the Glory of the Godhead!

Now, to our text.....we will be talking about our faith in Galatians 3:10-14.......Paul helps us with what our faith is and what it does...........Matter of fact, he uses 3 references of the law to explain the majesty of “justified by faith”!

The 504th anniversary of the Reformation was on Oct. 31 of this year. The Reformation happened in 1517. Martin Luther put, what is called his 95 Thesis, on the church, calling for a discussion on practices by the Catholic church, that he could not line up with Scripture.

I bring this up because out of the Reformation came, what they call the 5 Solas.

Scripture alone- God’s Word alone is the sole authority to the church.

Faith alone-We are justified before God by our faith in Jesus Christ, not our works

Grace alone-Only God’s Grace has made Salvation available, undeserved favor

Christ alone- Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

The Glory of God alone-If Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our salvation then He alone is to be magnified for His sovereign grace.

These proclamations by the reformers are very important for us to know. The truth in these 5 “solas” helps us to understand that this is God’s work not ours and for us also to understand that what we do at the beginning of faith until our end on this earth is through the power of God!

I also use this example because I wanted to present some of what Martin Luther had said during his struggle to come to know the True Christ.

He was an Augustinian Monk and it is said that he was deeply troubled by his sins, so much so that he would be in confession for over six hours. Sometimes, he would go through some of the Monk’s practices, he almost froze himself to death.

Daily confessions were common among the monks, they would go to a “Father Confessor” a list a couple of things, it couldn’t of been much living in a monastery.

Luther however was so troubled over his sin; for example: “ He also says later that at this time the greatest Scriptural fear he had was breaking the 1st Commandment –Exodus 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Luther would study the Ten Commandments and even the Sermon on the Mount and find himself questioning if he could ever live by these principles. He was also haunted by the scenes of judgment in the Book of Revelation.

Luther was very smart and he was an astute reader, but he was brutally honest, not only with others, but with himself and before God.

His honesty and no real teaching of the New Covenant that we have through Jesus Christ, Martin Luther walked around daily in fear of God’s judgement. It is even said that he hated this God that was being taught.

I can go on and on telling about Luther’s life, it is a powerful transformation, but I will just skip all of that and get to one of his writings about the realization of faith in Jesus Christ.

This is what he wrote, which seems to sum up the torment and the new life: ““Although I was a holy and irreproachable monk, my conscience was full of trouble and anguish. I could not bear the words, ‘Justice of God.’ I loved not the just and holy God who punishes sinners. I was filled with secret rage against him, and hated him, because, not satisfied with terrifying his miserable creatures, already lost by original sin, with his law and the miseries of life, he still further increased our torment by the gospel. . . . But when, by the Spirit of God, I comprehended these words; when I learned how the sinner’s justification proceeds from the pure mercy of the Lord by means of faith, then I felt myself revived like a new man, and entered at open doors into the very paradise of God.”

I relate to this so much, because I could not ever get any relief from reading Scripture, God’s Righteousness, my Sin, and God’s Judgement would always reveal itself to me when I would read trying to find some relief.

I can go further about rightly dividing the Word of Truth, but I won’t.......The key is to understand Jesus Christ, rightly! This is what happened to Luther!

As Paul points out the Law in our text, he also points us to Jesus, Who gives the blessing of Abraham being counted as God’s people, when we have no merited it at all, but by faith we believe that Jesus has given us that blessing and has made us a new man in, through, and with Himself!

Let’s look at those references Paul has made in this passage:

Verse 10, Paul gives Deut. 27:26 “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.”, as evidence that if you do not keep all the Words of the Law, you are cursed.

We are all under the law of God, we are His creation, therefore we are under His Law, and we have broken His Law.

Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

Can you see, if you rightly and honestly study to know what God has said throughout the ages, how Luther was troubled and so should we be if we do not know God’s Word!?

Verse 11, Paul tells them that it is evident (painfully evident) that no one is justified by keeping God’s Law, because they don’t! This is in the sight of God, not the sight of man, priests, preachers, etc.!

Then Paul quotes Hab. 2:4 “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: But the just shall live by his faith.” Reaffirming what he said in Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

Paul also tells in Romans 3 that there is none righteous, here he writes that it is evident that no one lives in complete obedience to God’ Law. Therefore our faith should not be in ourselves, it should be in Christ. Then we are justified by faith in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ!

I listened to some video on FB the other day where a preacher is telling men that there worst temptation is women, I didn’t listen to the rest of it, so I do not know his answer to this, but I know my answer to this and any other temptation that exists in your life.....

Find Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Run to Jesus learn of Jesus and you will find the God-pleasing rest that the soul desperately desires!

Jacob has this picture that I have on my desk and it is of George Washington praying in the woods, as I was typing this I looked at it, and that is our refuge it is our prayer to God for help through Jesus Christ!

Those burdens of temptations and the Law is a burden to the sinful heart, only Jesus can bear them!

Verse 12 Paul again uses the Law Leviticus 18:5 “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.”

Adam Clarke said it best: “The Law promises no forgiveness to believing, but requires obedience. It is not, What do you believe? but, What have you done? The man that doeth them perfectly at all times, and in all places, he shall live in them; but if in any case he fails, he forfeits his life.”

Just as Paul said in verse 10, if you are of the works of the Law of God you are cursed!

Verse 13 here is the relief that Luther found and so will we, if our minds our hearts are honest.....

Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by becoming a curse Himself.

Paul references again the Law of God: Deut. 21:22-23 “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

Jesus took the penalty, He put Himself in our place and took the wrath of God that should be toward humanity, so that we might be made right with God forever!

This verse sums this up best to me: 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He (God) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus).”

God looked at Jesus and placed our sin upon Him and punished Him and put Him to death (according to the Law, so in our guilty state we will not be condemned forever, but that we might live unto God through Christ Jesus!

Verse 14: Now the blessing of Abraham, the promise of salvation will be to all, not just Abraham’s seed, but only through faith in the Person and Complete Work of Jesus Christ!

With that faith the Holy Spirit is promised to live with us to guide us into this truth, to remind us of everything about Jesus and to convict us of our sin, God’s righteousness, and God’s judgement!

It is said that after a careful study of the book of Galatians, Martin Luther believed in Jesus Christ to relieve his torment! I will again quote what he said after he came to this powerful knowledge of Christ: “when I learned how the sinner’s justification proceeds from the pure mercy of the Lord by means of faith in Jesus Christ, then I felt myself revived like a new man, and entered at open doors into the very paradise of God.”

I went through all of this to tell you what I am thankful for! I know it is not Thanksgiving yet, but as I looked into the story of Martin Luther and combined with the 24 elders at the throne of God, I am truly thankful for God’s mercy and grace towards me through Jesus Christ.

This is now becomes my life, no longer will I live as I debtor to the law, but as debtor to Christ, I owe it all to Jesus, it is to Him that we live!