Sermon Tone Analysis

Galatians 5:1-15

Welcome church!

So glad you guys joined us this morning.

If you are brand new this morning or visiting, we want to thank you for checking out our church.

We have a nursing mother’s room right over here to my left.

Rest rooms are back through the double doors behind you, men that room is a no go for you, but if you have a child you need to attend to, the service is broadcast in our cafe behind you and you are welcome to rejoin the service when you are able.

If you’re not new, welcome to you as well and we are grateful to have you as part of our family here in Old Town.

Now, as is our practice here, we are continuing our study of the book of Galatians this morning if you’d turn there with me please, to the 5th chapter.

It is a short little book in your Bible right after 1 & 2 Corinthians.

I’m going to just read through our text this morning and give the big picture or drone view of what the Apostle Paul is saying and then we’ll break it down a little deeper to see how it applies to us today.

Gal 5:1-15

Let’s pray...

Chapter 5 in Galatians is a huge transition point in this Book, Paul begins in the 1st verse with...

What a patriotic sounding beginning to our chapter this morning…Stand fast therefore in the liberty!!! Now we get you Paul!

As Americans, we are all about liberty.

Tomorrow we celebrate the 4th of July, our declaration of independence as a nation.

Liberty in America is all about life, liberty, and the pursuit of my personal happiness.

Freedom to do what I want, how I want, and when I want!

I actually saw an awesome post yesterday by the Marlborough Police Department, located in the Live Free or Die State of New Hampshire.

Approaching the holiday weekend it was their response to multiple inquiries on how one might obtain a legal permit to launch, ignite, I’m not sure what the right word is blast off fireworks…I’ll summarize it,... Marlborough does not have a fireworks ordinance so permits are not required.

If you insist, you can issue yourself a permit using the template pictured below.

Please keep safety a priority, as freedom is best celebrated with ten fingers.

I’m not sure if you can read that, but the caption says, “-Not to worry, I have a permit.”

And if you read the permit it says, “I can do what I want.

Ron”

I love everything about that!

But, what Paul is talking about here in our chapter is something entirely different.

Remember, he begins Gal 5:1

Stand fast therefore…and when we see therefore we know that whatever he is saying next is because of everything he wrote before.

If you recall, in the first four chapters Paul was confronting all the churches in the region of Galatia, that had heard the Gospel, the good news, that we could be set free from the bondage of sin, we could be forgiven of the penalty of our sin, and we could be saved, by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

They heard that, they received that, but then a group called the Judaizers came in and began teaching that faith in Jesus was not enough.

If a non-Jew wanted to become a Christian, they would first have to become Jewish.

That meant following the Jewish laws, the 613 of them contained in the first 5 books of your Bibles, the Jewish customs and feast, and if not all of them, at least the men had to become circumcised.

They taught that the idea of salvation through faith, was not enough.

If you really wanted to have good standing with God, you had to work for it, or at least pay Him back a little, it was a combination of faith and works...

And Paul flipped out, and gave us a theological dissertation of the Biblical doctrine that the Bible proclaims from cover to cover in this book, that salvation is through faith alone.

So when we get to chapter 5 we have the “so what?”

Therefore, because we have been set free, stand fast in the liberty, not just in liberty, but what he is talking about here is something very specific...

Stand fast in THE liberty by which Christ has made us free.

Free from having to try to earn salvation, freedom from continued failure in our sins, liberty from our guilt and shame, and the liberty that only comes through Jesus that we can become a new creation, freed from the bondage that comes from the continued grip of sin.

Paul says stand fast in that.

AND don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Paul is dumbfounded how anyone that has been set free, would ever want to go back into bondage…although, as a Jew he should know all about being blind to bondage....I want to look at a different passage for just a minute and we’ll come back to this.

John chapter 8, total change of scene here.

Jesus goes to the Temple early in the morning and starts teaching the people…and more and more are gathering.

The Scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day try to trap Jesus by bringing him a woman caught in adultery, Jesus masterfully handles that…Jesus then tells them who He is and talks of His departure, which fires them up all the more, but then he turns to the Jews that did believe in Him, John 8 beginning in the 31st verse...

John 8:31-35

Now Jesus lets that go and deals with the bigger issue at hand…John 8:34-35

God wants us to be sons, not slaves.

Now I brought you here, because of their blindness to their bondage.

Just because you don’t see something, or even refuse to believe something, does not mean it isn’t true.

If I were to renounce my faith or my belief in gravity, does it mean it isn’t true?!? Water....

OK, so these believing Jews when they are told that the truth can set them free, respond, John 8:33

Now help me out here gang, I know lots of you are younger than me, but anyone ever see the 10 commandments movie with Charleston Heston?

Remember Yul Brynner as Ramses, the cruel Pharaoh of Egypt?

For the record the film was released in 1956 and I was no where close to being born yet either.

But my point is that there was bondage…If you have been reading through the Bible with us Chronologically, you don’t have to be a Biblical historian to know that the descendants of Abraham were in Bondage to practically everyone at one point in time or another!

The Babylonians √, Persians √, the Greeks √, at the time the guy said that to Jesus they were in bondage to the Romans, certainly they had been to the Egyptians....and there were several other times when at least portions of the land were.

But yet he says to Jesus, we have never been in bondage to anyone...

They were blind to it, the Judaizers were the ones in bondage and they were going to the freemen and saying come back under the law, show God you’ve earned your salvation by becoming circumcised…Paul addresses that in verse 2...

Paul is not saying if you live in America and your parents circumcised you as a baby, Jesus can’t help you.

It’s too late.

What he is saying is that if you come to God with any kind of works, in an effort to gain favor, or earn salvation you are out of luck.

IF you turn to the law, which circumcision was part of the law for Jewish males, you have left Jesus!

He says if you try to add anything to salvation then Christ will profit you nothing.

It’s not Jesus plus anything, it’s Jesus or nothing, nothing else can save you.

So what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

That question is so important gang, because if you take a poll at your barbecue tomorrow, and ask the people there if they believe in Jesus, after looking at you like you’re some kind of freak, 9 out of 10 will probably say yes.

And that’s a good start, but what does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Look here is why that question is so important, these are the words of Jesus....Matthew 7:21-23

Matthew 7:21–23 (NKJV)

I am guessing if you were to ask those that to whom Jesus says, I never knew you…if they believed in Jesus,… it would be 10 out of 10.

But a factual knowledge is different that a faithful relationship.

The devil believes in Jesus, that He came and died for your sins.

Let me give you another example of two guys that believed in Jesus…change of scene again.

Jesus is led to the cross, His hands are nailed, His feet are nailed, and He is lifted up above the crowd.

The Bible tells us that there were two others crucified with Him that day, both criminals deserving of their sentence... Luke 23:39-43

Luke 23:39–40 (NKJV)

39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”

40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?

Luke 23:41–43 (NKJV)

41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Two men, nearly side by side with Jesus, believed that Jesus came, had no doubt that He went to the cross, one died that day and went to Hell and the other is with Him in Heaven.

Believing in Jesus means believing that He is who He says He is, that He alone has the power to forgive your sins.

Believing in Jesus is placing your whole hope of Heaven on what He did, not what you do, or don’t do.

These churches in Galatia were beginning to believe that what Jesus did, wasn’t quite enough.

AND Paul didn’t want them to be one of those that to who Jesus would someday say I n,ever knew you.

So he says in verse 3...

Remember it says in the law, that you must keep all of it forever, doing just a pretty good job, ends up with really bad consequences.

So Paul says if you put yourself under the law you are separating yourselves from salvation through Christ.

You’re separating yourself from salvation all together, if you remember Paul told us back in chapter 2, that it was impossible for us to be saved through the law.

He said... Gal 2:16

Galatians 2:16 (NKJV)

16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

SO what Paul wants us to understand is you don’t just have to be the best person in the room, I won’t argue with you about you being better than me or more moral than me, you’d win that argument, but Paul says unless you’re as good as Jesus, it’s no good.

We’re starting a new book on Wednesday night, the book of Isaiah, there we read Isa 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)

6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;...