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Have you ever read some of the warning labels on the different products you purchase? Some of them really make you laugh, not just because of the warning, but to think that probably someone probably tried to do what the label warns against. Here's a few labels I came across this week. · A fishing lure, with a warning that reads: “Harmful if swallowed.” · A warning label found on a baby stroller: “Remove child before folding.” · Spray deodorant says, “Do not spray in eyes.” · A Hairdryer says: “Do not use while taking a shower.” · A cartridge for a laser printer warns, “Not for human consumption.” · A car sun-shield that keeps sun off the dashboard warns, “Do not drive with sun-shield in place.” · On a Dremel Tool: “This product not intended for use as a dental drill.” · Sleeping Pills: Warning - “May cause Drowsiness.” · Frozen TV Dinners: “This product must be cooked before eating.” · Electric Cattle Prod: “For use on animals only.” · Children's cough medicine: “Do not drive car or operate machinery while taking.” We can laugh about those especially when you think, that someone was crazy enough to try some of those things. The Apostle Paul wrote some warnings in the third chapter of Galatians, because the Christians there were trying some equally crazy things in their faith. Let me read the first three verses, from the Message translation. Galatians 3:1-3 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? The Galatians were foolish in that they were trying to perfect in the flesh - what God began as a work of his Spirit. So Paul, in order to show them just how foolish their thoughts were, takes them to the proof pudding that a man / a woman, is not made right with God by what they do, but simply by faith in Jesus Christ. The proof --Abraham, the father of faith. READ THE TEXT GALATIANS 3:6-14 - THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. 1. THE EXAMPLE. V6-9 Whenever the bible needs an example of faith, it always takes us to Abraham. To this day, Abraham, a man who lived, about 4000 years ago, is still revered as a man of “great faith” by many different peoples. Abraham, the scriptures tell us believed God and acted on that believe. His faith moved into action – because that is what true faith does. When he was living in Ur of the Chaldean's, as a worshiper of the “moon god”, he heard the voice of God Almighty speak - to go to a new land and Abraham moved out. When God spoke that he was going to have a son and be the father of many nations, Abraham even though he was old, and even though he couldn't understand how that would happen, -- he believed God. Later when God tested Abraham and told him to sacrifice his son Issac, he by faith, went to Mt. Moriah not knowing what to expect but trusting God. Heb 11:17 & 19 By faith Abraham , when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. (He) ... reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. So Paul wanting to show the foolishness of trying to earn favor with God by human performance takes these first century believers to their roots, -- Abraham. Notice what he says about Abraham. 1. Abraham's faith made him right with God. Human performance is what the natural mind thinks is going to make us right, or “justified” with God. But performance was not how the Galatians came to faith, it is not how you and I came to faith. God never said, clean up your act and go to church. No, Jesus said. Matt 11:28 "Come to me , all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Come as you are, with your sin, your weariness, and your burdens of trying to perform, and Jesus Christ gives us rest for our souls. Rest from trying to perform our way to God and freedom to follow Jesus in the way. The Galatian churches were being led astray by guys called “Judizers”, they were called that because of their emphasis on the Jewish rules and traditions. Teaching that those regulations were what made a man/ a woman right with God. So Paul hits that teaching straight on when he writes. Gal 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous (just) will live by faith. Just like Abraham was made right with God by his faith. 2. Faith is what makes you right with God. It is not your church affiliation, it is not your personal piety, it is not your good deeds that make you or me right with God. It by faith in Jesus Christ. The cry of the reformation is our cry today. “Sola deo Gloria, To God alone be the glory, and Sola Thieday - Faith alone.” Faith alone in Jesus Christ, knowing that he brings salvation to all who call upon his name. So what does faith in God look like? What does faith in God do? What does faith bring? Using Abraham as our example. Paul speaks about. 2. THE BLESSING. V8-9 Abraham was blessed by God in so many ways, he was blessed material, practically, and Spiritually. Does God want to bless you? He wants to bless you in these same ways. The bible says. Isa 58:11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Jesus taught not to worry about the needs of life, food, clothing, shelter, but to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and God will meet those needs. God knows what we have need of, and God will bless men and women of faith. How do those blessings come, by living by faith. John 13:17 (Jesus said - speaking of serving others) Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Putting the word of the Lord into action is what faith does, so Jesus said you will be blessed not when you hear the word -- but when you do what it says. Abraham faced a choice in life. It was time to part ways with his nephew Lot because the land could not support both their herds. So Abraham, the elder, the man of faith allowed his nephew Lot to choose first. Lot choose the best looking land, the greener places, and Abraham took the left overs, and God blessed Abraham even in the dryer regions. Just as God wants to meet your needs but your part, is to seek him and serve him. To seek his face, seek his will, and be diligent in whatever he has give you to be in charge of. Be that your home, your families, our children, or our job. Be good stewards and allow God to meet your needs according to his glorious riches. Practical blessings, is another area God wants to bless. Practical things such as joy, and peace. Like the Christmas message is full of “good tidings of great joy” and “peace to men who trust in God.” God bless believers like you and me, just like Abraham, who's faith resulted in peace and joy in his life. Abraham had so much joy that he named his child “Isaac”, which means laughter. Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding , will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Joy and peace, comes as we give to God all our request, petitions, and thanksgiving. The result like Abraham the practical provision of God. And God blesses you Eternally. Our text says, “you are Abraham's children if you believe”, those who have faith in Jesus Christ, have the blessings of Abraham the man of faith. Because of who Jesus is and not because of anything you or I have done. When the Galatians churches were on the edge of going into legalism, and living under the Jewish traditions, Paul wrote this wonderful epistle of freedom. He wrote it so that they, as well as us, years later, would understand that it is not our performance that makes us right with God. When asked about Christianity, the 72 year old actress Sophia Loren said in USA Today, “I’m not a practicing Christian, but I pray, I read the Bible. It’s the most beautiful book ever written. I should go to heaven; otherwise it’s not nice. I haven’t done anything wrong. My conscience is very clean. My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight... to heaven.” In a Reader’s Digest interview, Muhammad Ali stated: “One day we’re all going to die and God is going to judge us—our good deeds and bad deeds. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell. If the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven.” Another Reader’s Digest article told of a 67-year-old man named Bill who had donated over 100 pints of blood over the years. No doubt many people owe their lives to this man’s kindness. When asked about heaven, here’s what Bill thinks: “When that final whistle blows, and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ I’ll just say, ‘Well, I gave 100 pints of blood,’” Bill says with a laugh. “That ought to get me in.” Then there's Linda as a young lady she never felt “good enough.” All of her life she has been told that she would never amount to anything and never heard a word of encouragement from family. In a desperate attempt to feel loved, she made a series of bad decisions which only made the condemnations worse. Alone, and in agony she has no where to turn but to God. But she wouldn't even cry out to Jesus because she doesn’t feel “good enough.” The “Performance Lie” is as old as religion. Most religion is grounded in the lie that a man has to perform to gain God’s approval / a woman must keep the law in order to be right with God. But the bible tells us that it is not by what we do that we are blessed, but what Jesus has done. If you think you are going to get to heaven by keeping the commands, you are mistaken because those command are not to bring us to salvation, for no one can keep them all. So those commands are actually a curse - to show us our need for a perfect savior. That's the final thing Paul speaks of. 3. THE CURSE. V10-14 The curse is that human understanding thinks - we can be good enough to earn our way to God. The curse of the law is found in Deuteronomy 27, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.” Everything, keep it all, don't slip up one bit. That is why Jesus pointed us to how the law works, that if you fail in just one point you are guilty of breaking the entire law. And its all beyond the do's and don'ts, its even the attitude of the heart. Lust and your guilty of adultery. Hate your brother and your guilty of murder. Jon Coruson gave this great illustration. Its like you were one of the thousands of refugees who are trying to make their way to America on a raft. First you carefully construct a little boat, using ten boards to make up the hull. Then you set sail. But just thirty miles from Cuba in the middle of the ocean one of the boards comes loose, and floats away. The water comes flooding in and you go down. There is a situation, that even 90 percent isn't good enough. The same is true with regard to the Ten Commandments. If you're going to try to earn God's favor through keeping them, you'll have to keep all ten. If you can't you're lunch for some hungry shark. The curse of the law, is you are cursed if you try to keep the law to get to God, because unless you keep all if it perfectly, your sunk. Like Bill who thought he would get to heaven by his own blood he had donated -- he is looking at the wrong blood. Its not by your blood, or your sweat, it is by the blood of Jesus that you and I are even able to worship the Lord with out giving a bloody sacrifice. But that curse has some very good news with it, for after quoting from the Deuteronomy, about the curse, Paul quotes from Habakkuk about faith. Gal 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The righteous/ the just/ will live by faith, not by law. Its just a statement of fact, that when you have faith in God, Like Abraham, like Paul, like the first century believers, and like us today. You will live by faith. Martin Luther as a Roman Catholic monk beat his body, crawled on his knees and fasted in order to get close to God. But nothing seemed to work. And then one day he read this verse, and he understood that the Christian experience is not: Do, do, do, but it is --Done! Jesus did it all and cried from the cross “it is finished.” 2 Cor 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight . My friends get rid of the performance mentality and go with the faith walk. Some might say, “Then I don't have to have morning devotions?” “No, you don't.” “So can I sleep in and not come to fellowship?” Yeah, you can sleep all you want. “I don't have to pray, or study the word or sing praises, or partake in communion, or get baptized?” Nope - not of those things do you have to do. But you get to. You get to check in with God morning by morning, day by day. You get to spend time in the evening considering his word. You get to come and worship in song, hymns and communion. You get to be obedient in baptism. You get to let the law and commands of God guide your life as you live by the very law that is a curse. You get to know the God Almighty in an intimate way because -- “cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. Jesus became the curse for us, he bore our sins in his body as he was hung on the tree, the cross of calvary. So what does it mean to live by faith? What does faith look like in my life? How does faith play out in your daily walk? William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army said. “Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again—until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.” Faith moves into action, like Abraham, who's faith was proved by what he did. You say you have faith? What does your faith do? How do you put faith into action? 1. Get up and get going. Be faithful in your daily life. By faith you go to work, by faith you provide for your family, by faith you serve God in the little things God has given you. By faith you live by the word of God, and keep those very commands that bring a curse, because obedience is better then sacrifice. 2. Listen to the Holy Spirit. When you are out and about, are you ready to serve God? Think of the story of the Good Samaritan, he didn't know his day would be interrupted by a man in need - but he took the detour because he was serving God. I'm sure he had places to be, and people to see, but helping a man in need was - a higher priority because he was serving God. It was part of his chores, this young boy who ran errands for his mother. So one day he had to go to the store to buy a dozen eggs, milk and bread. After getting the groceries and while walking out of the store, the young boy tripped and dropped his bag. All the eggs broke, the milk burst open, the bread was squished, and the sidewalk was a mess. The boy tried not to cry, as some people gathered to see if he was OK and to tell him how sorry they were. Then, from the midst of the words of pity, one man handed the boy a dollar. Then turned to the group and said, “I care a bucks worth. How much do the rest of you care?” Get up and get going, listen to the Holy Spirit. 3. Live by faith not by law. When someone tells you that the dietary law is for today, when someone tells you Saturday is the day to worship, when they ask about how you were baptized or the way you take communion. All of that is legalism, and people who trust in performance based religion will never understand the freedom you have in Christ to simply worship God. When Jesus spoke to a woman in Samaria who was quite confused about how to worship God. John 4:20 (She said to Jesus) Our fathers worshiped on this mountain , but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." What's the right way to worship? Where's the right place to worship? Who has the truth, the Samaritans or the Jews? John 4:23-24 (Jesus said to her)...A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." “The righteous will live by faith”, is simply a statement of fact. Those who have be made right with God will trust God for whatever we face in life, we will live by faith until that day we breath our last. When we consider the death of Christ as the substitute for our sin, this exhibits the love of the cross more richly, fully, gloriously, and glowingly than any other account of it. Again Martin Luther saw this and gloried in it as he wrote: “Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him, and say, ‘Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You became what you were not, so that I might become what I was not.” PRAY, INVITE, BENEDICTION, SING, Series: Galatians -Through the Bible |
(C) High Sierra Fellowship 2008 |
