June 12, 2022 - The Authority of Scripture
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Last week we jumped back into the book of Galatians - after having been away from it for the month of May.
Last week, Paul highlighted FOR the Galatians - (for us) - the TWO PATHS of Humanity…!
That there are ONLY 2 paths
And that if you are on THIS PATH - then you’re NOT on this one
And if you’re on THIS one - than not the OTHER
The two paths (High Level)...
SLIDE:
Spiritual Freedom & Spiritual Slavery
At the deepest level...
SLIDE:
Spiritual Freedom (Jesus) & Spiritual Slavery (you)
And IN CONTEXT for the Galatians - That if the Galatians chose to RECEIVE circumcision as a MEANS of salvation...
That they would be SEVERED from Jesus Christ and CUT OFF from His grace!! - And ALL ALONE!
And just so you don’t take MY word for it…let’s look at what God said last week...
4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
And by DOING SO - by choosing circumcision - they would be:
going back UNDER the law
NOW accountable for the WHOLE Law
And obligated to KEEP the law - perfectly!
NOW - we have to remember - putting ourselves in the Galatian’s shoes -
they are hearing 2 different GOSPELS...
each one - SEEMINGLY right
[The true Gospel preached by Paul] - Faith Alone in Christ Alone
[The false gospel preached by false teachers] - Faith plus circumcision (which was a sign of the covenant)
See - the false teaching wasn’t about adding EVIL to the true gospel!
The Galatians were being persuaded to add this - Respectable ritual to their belief structure
Which lead to - a deep contemplation on these things!
It would be like us today - talking about “NEEDING to be water baptised to be saved”.
Of course that’s WRONG - but water baptism isn’t this evil thing....and hence, the reason why some get off track!
Today - we’re going to see another argument that Paul uses to combat the false teaching in the churches…
and from there - consequences of ignoring Paul’s argument!
And a cool thing about today is - we’re gonna get to see this argument of Paul, play itself out in real life… (I’m excited)
Let’s get to our text...
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
I really like how Paul starts off this section because he does so by - TAKING the Galatians - back to when they were on the RIGHT PATH!
He says...
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
He allows them to know -
You WERE on the RIGHT path...
But NOW - there’s a problem!
NOW - Paul’s saying - - you’ve slowed your RUN - to a STANDSTILL!
Remember - they’re at the FORK in the ROAD....
Between FREEDOM…and SLAVERY...
Freedom in Faith alone in Christ alone...
OR
Slavery to death - a reliance on SELF to get to God!
And Paul’s gonna point to his first argument (today)- and it’s a big one!
Read v7...
8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
The “him” here is referring to God!
And it brings us to our first point today...
SLIDE: God’s Word Understood: The Basis for All Truth
God’s Word Understood
God’s Word Understood
The world would do well to understand this!
God’s word - understood - is the basis for all truth!
What did Paul say?
8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
This persuasion is not from God.
Paul’s saying - God is not persuading you AWAY from what I taught you...
I gave you God’s TRUTH - therefore - this persuasion you’re hearing is in CONFLICT with God’s truth!
And this is an IMPORTANT point for Paul to make...
BECAUSE...
Circumcision had always had a place in God’s plan…and the gentiles KNEW IT!
What was NEEDED in Galatia at this time was this - KNOWLEDGE - of the Truth
The Judaizers didn’t have this KNOWLEDGE...
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Paul here speaking of his Jewish kinsman...
And the Judaizers - teaching out of their ignorance - DON’T have the KNOWLEDGE Paul speaks of here!
But ignorance in a certain context!
Ignorance of WHERE TRUTH RESIDES!
God’s Word!!
So question - is it really the Judaizers fault?
Would they have KNOWN about FAITH ALONE by looking at the OT?
So what could Paul have pointed to in the OT scriptures to say TO THOSE JUDAIZERS… - SEE, Faith Alone…apart from WORKS?
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Faith brought righteousness...
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
See - Faith alone is not just a NT teaching!
There was evidence in the OT that Paul could have pointed to...
And the Judaizers were accountable to this TRUTH...
And this truth absolutely applies to us today!
If you think about the various RELIGIONS of the world today...
The apostle Paul would have this same response to them today!
“The persuasion that came to you was not from God”
SEE - Paul’s ARGUMENT is ALL ABOUT the Authority of Scripture (God’s Word)!!
God’s Word understood - is the BASIS of ALL TRUTH!!!
And because that’s true - those who have embraced a false religion - have done so...
BECAUSE they [DON’T] see God’s word as the FINAL AUTHORITY!
NOW - I said earlier that we’re going to get to see - this ARGUMENT of Paul’s played out in real life...
I have a video clip I’d like to show you - I don’t normally do this - BUT - this clip fits SO WELL into what we’re talking about here...
Let me set it up - Jeff Durbin is a pastor in Arizona - and he often ministers to the Mormon community.
He’s talking to some mormons in this clip...
And they’re beginning to discuss the IDENTITY of Christ...
And how Mormons believe in a different Christ than Christians do...
The mormons in the video - they don’t believe the differences are a big deal...
But Jeff’s going to show them that it IS a big deal.
See - these mormons want to be known as - Christians
Yet - Jeff is going to take them to God’s word...
As background - Mormons believe...
God used to be a man…and that we can become Gods one day
So they believe there are actually millions of gods and that there will be millions more FORMED in the future…as mormons over time attain godhood.
Let’s see how it plays out...
VIDEO CLIP: Apologia Talk with Mormons...
(13:20 - No other gods)
(14:45 - Because of Joseph’s revelation you have to say that)
(15:00 - Base all belief on Joseph Smith)
(18:55 - Dad analogy)
Did you hear it?
JEFF SAID - You can’t let the Bible speak - BECAUSE Joseph Smith is your standard!
When SOMETHING OTHER THAN the Bible is our standard of truth...
…ignorance will become our STANDARD - and Ignorance will become our - Message
Those Mormons - went out on their mission trip...
And IGNORANCE was their message!
Paul would have responded to them the SAME WAY...
8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
Those Mormons worship a false Christ - one who cannot save...
And the false teachers in Galatia - worshipped a false Christ...
One who is INSUFFICIENT...
And that Christ - cannot save!
The Christ of the Judaizers CANNOT save!!
NOW - We can see that this argument by Paul was needed back in the 1st century...
AND - - we JUST SAW that this argument is needed TODAY!!
- That God’s WORD is the final AUTHORITY!!
That’s God’s TRUTH dictates REALITY!!
How can we have confidence in the Bible? Today?
Of course we know that there is FAITH involved...
But Christianity isn’t about believing in BLIND faith… (every other religion - atheism)
The Bible tells us that God wrote the Scriptures...
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
A couple weeks ago I posted something online about the Uvalde shooting...
The point of my post was to say...
Yes, we can keep trying to put band-aids on our “cancer” (mass shootings, war, tyranny, etc) but those things (band-aids) won’t ultimately cure the problem...
I said the MAIN issue with Uvalde was a heart issue...
And only JESUS can fix that!
So - a friend of mine responded...
And her response was basically...
National polls say that 80% of the U.S. is “Christian”…and so HOW CAN YOU say that Jesus is the answer!???
My response to her was - Well, the Bible tells us what a TRUE Christian is…and so NO - 80% of the U.S. is NOT MADE up of Christians...
She said - “Well - you’re just ignoring straight up facts”
I responded - The Bible dictates reality. Our labels don’t dictate reality. We can IDENTIFY as whatever we want to - that doesn’t make it true. I told her - it sounds like your beef is with God.
And it was just another example of someone for whom the Bible is NOT the standard of truth.
And when it’s NOT - ignorance follows.
AND YET - [here] we have the Bible saying that the Bible was written by GOD...
That YES - while the Bible was penned by men...it was ULTIMATELY inspired by God Himself...through the Holy Spirit.
NOW - I assume you're all aware of the fact that there were many other books that COULD have made their way into the Bible...
The Bible, as we see it today, consists of 66 books...
39 in the OT
27 in the NT
And as a whole - the 66 books we have in our Bible is called the - CANON of Scripture...
But how was this CANON discovered?
...MANKIND needed to figure out which books GOD wanted in the Bible......which books were INSPIRED...
And so there was a process used that helped the CHURCH Discover Canonicity!
There were 5 foundational QUESTIONS that were at the heart of the Discovery Process:
SLIDE:
1. Was the book written by a prophet of God?
basically - was the book - prophetic?
Anything not written by a prophet of God, was not part of the Word of God
2. Was the writer confirmed by acts of God?
A miracle is an act of God, to confirm the word of God, given through a prophet of God, to the people of God.
There were true prophets AND there were false prophets...
And so it was necessary to have divine confirmation of the true prophets!
Moses was given miraculous powers to prove his own call
Elijah triumphed over the false prophets of Baal by a supernatural act.
Jesus Himself was affirmed by miracles and signs God performed through Him...
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
So God confirmed His message by signs and wonders, and therefore, confirmed the writers of Scripture...
3. Does the message tell the truth about God?
So would you agree that in order to answer this question, there would have to be some preconceived notion about WHO GOD IS?
Before I look at a book and say - OK, did this book come from God? - I have to know truth about God.
And that's the case...If what was written - CONTRADICTED PREVIOUS revelations about God- then it was to be rejected. (JOSEPH SMITH)
God cannot contradict Himself.God cannot lie. (Hebrews 6:18)
No book with false claims can be the Word of God:
21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
4. Did the book come with the power of God?
Another test to see whether or not a book belonged in the Canon was whether or not the book had the power to edify and equip believers...
We know that THIS requires the power of God
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Surely the message of God would be backed by the Power of God...ABLE to change the one who seeks it!
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation...There's an EDDIFICATIONAL power in the word of God...
That if that power wasn't there in the words, then that book was not of God.
5. Was it accepted by the people of God?
Now, this doesn't mean that MANKIND determined what WAS and WAS not authoritative....
It means - The people of God recognize the voice of God!
And we see this in Scripture....
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
The sheep HEAR their shepherd...they KNOW His voice...And so you can see...
...that in regards to the Authority of Scripture...it's God Himself who has ESTABLISHED this CANON, the Canon of Scripture...THROUGH man...
That God WORKS in man....Man hears the Word of God...And then places that book in the Canon of Scripture...
That the Authority of Scripture RESTS in God...
It's ORIGIN - From God - breathed out by Him...
NOW- How important are these truths?
How important is the TRUTH of God?
Based on the bible we know that the TRUTH sets us free!
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So it’s important!
And Paul KNEW how important it was - He was seeing the TRUTH be MANIPULATED in the Galatian churches...
And how does he describe what he’s seeing?
8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
We’ve already seen that - God’s Word Understood is the basis of all truth....
Now we see...
SLIDE: God’s Word Misunderstood: The Basis for Corruption
God’s Word Misunderstood
God’s Word Misunderstood
*What happens when the paint on your car gets chipped away? (a little spec broken away)?
the elements begin to go to work on it...
Before you know it you see a little spot of - RUST
THEN - before you know it - it - SPREADS!
*Take a glass of pure water…and drop a small amount of contaminent into it...
HOW MUCH of the water is now contaminated?
Falsehood spreads like wildfire in the church!
it’s why we do our best to guard our classrooms...
Our Teacher Covenant document is our way of trying to control what gets taught in there...
Don’t we have an entire generation of kids nowadays who believe they are ENTITLED to what USED to be the byproduct of hard work?
WHY is that?
A little leaven leavens the whole lump!
How many mormons are there practicing today?
around 16 Million...
HOW? - a little leaven leavens the whole lump
Jehovah’s Witnesses?
8.5 Million
Muslims?
1.7 Billion
a little leaven leavens the whole lump
We know it - and Paul did too!
How does Paul close this section?
10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
Looks like Paul’s confidence in the Galatians holding to the TRUTH - is in God!
Paul’s confidence is in God...
That GOD would keep them tied to the truth...
And then Paul closes by elevating the seriousness of what’s at stake!
11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.
12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
Commentators debate on what Paul is saying here regarding “preaching circumcision”...
I take it as - the Judaizers maybe hearing of Paul having TIMOTHY circumcised...
And thus trying to say - “SEE - Paul preaches circumcision to the Jews but tells you Gentiles to NOT get circumcised because he just doesn’t really want the BEST FOR YOU”...
I think Paul is looking at this False Teaching of circumcision, and he’s saying -
If you preach that circumcision is necessary for salvation...
By PREACHING this message of circumcision - the cutting off of flesh...
You’re ACTUALLY cutting off (removing) the OFFENSE of the Gospel! (v11)
The gospel - IS OFFENSIVE~
WHY?
Because it CONFRONTS the PRIDE of MAN!
And says - you are EVIL....you are DEAD! You need a SAVIOR!!
If we PROMOTE circumcision....as a means of salvation!
We REMOVE that offense!
Because we’re then PROMOTING that man has the strength to attain salvation on his own by his own works...
Instead we must…come back to
SUMMARY
The Authority of Scripture
God’s Word Understood is the basis of all truth!
God’s Word Misunderstood is the Basis of All Corruption!
Let’s Pray