Seed Throwers

Galatians 6

Good Morning! Today, we have reached the end of the book of Galatians and the end of our summer series on Law and Grace. Carl took us through an overview of the entire Law from the Old Testament during June and July. Over the last weeks, we’ve covered the first 5 chapters of Galatians. Now, we will close out the series with Galatians 6, but not yet.

Let’s take a moment to pray before we get going:

Father God, You know all things. We come to You this morning humble and needy like little children. I pray that You would illuminate the dark places in our hearts and minds. Flush out the lies which we have hidden and reinforced over the years. We desire to live as the free men and women which you have purchased us to be. Our eyes and our hearts are on You. Speak now we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Unyoked

Galatians 5

Let me ask you this, “What do you think about when you think about God?” Do you see Him as a scorekeeper in heaven? Do you think He’s up there making a mark every time you do good or making a mark every time you do something bad? Do you see Him as a grandpa sitting on His rocking chair just rocking the time away? Do you think He’s not really all that concerned with your life; He started everything and just let it go? Or do you see Him as a big question mark; maybe you’re not really sure if He exists?

How does our view of God practically affect us today? In Galatians five I think you will see that the Galatians were teetering on a wrong view of God and the false teachers had totally gotten it wrong. Do we believe that God has the ability to set us free? Do we believe that He even wants us to be free? Let’s take a look at this chapter.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

The Christians in Galatia had already been set free by Christ. God was commanding them to do two things: stand firm and to not let themselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. It wouldn’t make any sense for a prisoner to walk back into the cell and close the door when he was a free man.

Heirs to the Estate

Galatians 4

Today, we are returning to our study titled Law and Grace. We’re in the “Grace” study using the book of Galatians. We took a little break last week for sharing time and communion. Now, we’re back in Galatians. We’re just beyond the halfway point. There are 6 chapters in the book, and we will pick up today in chapter 4. Before we jump in, let’s take a moment and pray.

Lord, I pray that You would show us Your grace today. We all benefit from Your grace continually, to some degree, whether we recognize it or not. I pray now that we would grow in our realization of Your grace. I pray that if there are things in our hearts and minds that are still captive to the elementary principles of this world, that You would show us and transform us. We want to live lives of freedom and grace. Our focus is on You. Teach us we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I said that we’re going to talk about Galatians 4 today which we will, but I do want to back up a few verses in chapter 3. The beginning of chapter 4 hangs on a thought that was introduced at the end of chapter 3. We’ll understand chapter 4 better if we go back and reread a few verses.

Unsupervised

 Galatians 3

Carl laid the foundation for the Law in his teachings on the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Then John Farmer explained how the Galatian church was deserting Christ and His Gospel of Salvation for a different Gospel (a Gospel of works).  Last week Brian Bridgeman taught on how Paul describes to the Galatians his reproof of the apostle Peter for reverting back to the works of the law and leading new believers astray.  Paul tells the Galatians that he has died to the Old Testament Law and that by the persecution that he received from the Jews, he had shared in Christ suffering and that he (Paul) no longer lives but Christ lives in him.

Today we will learn a little more of how the Galatians so quickly abandoned their new found faith in Christ and the Gospel that Paul preached to them and began following a different Gospel.  This different Gospel was based on the works of the law again.

Galatians 3:1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

Dead Men

Galatians 2 

Recently, we’ve been going through a series on Law and Grace. We started out when Carl gave an overview of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. One of the things that grabbed my attention the most was learning that there were some laws that were easier to obey because they involved outward obedience. The Israelites were better at obeying these laws. Some of these laws included things like making the Tabernacle and the objects that belonged in the Tabernacle, and also setting up for worship sacrifices. It was these things that the Israelites did very well, at least most of the time. But again these were outward actions. This is comparable to what we do today: going to church, setting up chairs and tables for a meeting, making meals, etc.

But the more difficult laws involved those that required obedience from the heart. Some of these laws included things like the Passover found in Exodus, or the command to “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” found in Deuteronomy. They had to obey God in the Passover without having a reason for every command. For example, God didn’t explain why they needed to place the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. Why couldn’t God know that they had sacrificed the lamb and let that be enough? Why did it have to be a lamb? Why couldn’t they break any of its bones? 

AWOL

Galatians 1 

Good morning! Today, we are making the transition in our summer series on Law and Grace.  Carl has been sharing the last several weeks about the books of the Law.  We have taken a very high level view as each week encompassed an entire Old Testament book.

We began with “Redemption and the Tabernacle” discussing the book of Exodus.  Already in Exodus, we saw that the Law was presented in two main types.  There were requirements that are character based, actions of the heart, loving God, stuff on the inside.  An example would be the Ten Commandments.  Then, there are requirements that are activity or accomplishment based, doing stuff, external things.  An example would be the detailed construction of the tabernacle.  It is much easier for us, in our own strength, to do stuff than to be holy.

Rehearsal and Ratification

Deuteronomy

Welcome! Today we come to our final message on the Law, focusing in on the book of Deuteronomy. In the coming weeks we will explore the wonderful book of Galatians, hearing this Word like the Galatians would, in sight of the Law. 

The setting of the book of Deuteronomy is in the desert, with Moses and the grown-up children of the generation that God had freed from the harsh slavery of the Egyptians. The Israelites, despite God’s personal provision through the manna and other food, despite God’s personal leadership through the column of cloud and the column of fire, and despite God’s personal promises that He was for their good and would help them, despite all this, the Israelites repeatedly rejected God, complaining and revolting against Him. Finally, God declared that they would not get to go to the Promised Land after all, that the promise would pass on to their children, the next generation. For 40 years they wandered around the desert, still led by God, and at last, it was time for the next generation to fulfill this promise. The book of Deuteronomy is primarily Moses’ farewell address to these people, for he, too, had sinned, and he, too, would not be able to go to the Promised Land.

Failure and Preparation

Numbers

Welcome! Today we come to our third message in the series entitled Law and Grace, focused on looking at the Old Testament law and then the gospel of grace as explained in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Two weeks ago we looked at Exodus, and last week we looked at Leviticus. I want to start by giving you a quick summary of what we have talked about so far.

Both Exodus and Leviticus combine a sequential telling of the story of the Israelites’ history and God’s progressive revelation of His Law for the Israelites. God’s first command to the Israelites was to celebrate a new holiday called the Passover, commemorating God’s delivery of the Israelites from Egypt. He gave them this command, telling them to do it every year, even as He was preparing them for the night in which the firstborn of the Egyptians would die. The Israelites were released and then crossed through the miraculously parted sea. Then they were led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire and given water and the manna, and then reached Sinai. There they were given the Ten Commandments along with other regulations. On multiple occasions during these events the Israelites grumbled and complained against their God, and they even made an idol to worship while the Ten Commandments were first being given to Moses, who smashed the tablets when he saw what his people were doing. Moses went back up the mountain and received a second set, and when he came down, he began instructing the people in what God required of them. 

Sacrifice and Sanctification

Leviticus

Welcome! Today we continue our series entitled Law and Grace, looking at the book of Leviticus as a whole. As I explained last week, the reason we are going through the Law is that it helps us to better understand grace, and in the second half of this series we will go through the book of Galatians, using what we have learned in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy to better understand and appreciate the incredible gift of grace we have received through Christ.

Leviticus is a big book; we could spend many weeks exploring it. My approach this week is to first give a general overview of the book, and then say a little about each chapter, focusing on what people of the Law really had to do and, also, explaining how these things are hints of Christ.

The name “Leviticus” comes from the Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament into Greek made a few hundred years before Christ. Leviticus means “of the Levites,” and the Levites were set apart to serve as tabernacle caretakers and priests. A significant portion of Leviticus focuses on what the Levites were to do in their service to God.

Redemption and the Tabernacle

 Exodus

Welcome! I am excited to begin a new series called Law and Grace. This series really has two parts. The first part focuses on the Law, also called more specifically the Mosaic Law, based on scriptures in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and the second part focuses on Grace, based on the book of Galatians. You may wonder why these two topics are paired together. It is because Galatians becomes much richer when you better understand what it is talking about when it refers to the Law. Indeed, this is not just true of Galatians but of many New Testament books, but Galatians specifically, I think, has some wonderful truths open up when you really understand the Law.

This month and a little bit into the next, we begin our first part, on the Law. Today we focus on those parts of the Law given in the book of Exodus. What comes to your mind when you think about the Law? For many Christians, I think the whole issue of what we are to do with the Law is kind of fuzzy. Clearly, Christians do not keep the entire Law today. Unless you completely abstain from pork, only eat bread that is unleavened during the Passover, go to Israel annually for the feast of Ingathering, bring animals to Jewish priests to be sacrificed, and so on, you do not keep the Law.