Honor the Chain of Command

Good morning.

We finished up, we had a wrap up week last week

from Judges, thank you for all the people,

or to all the people I should say that shared last week

coming out of what could be considered a tough book,

the book of Judges, and yet I think we all,

if we looked back at the big ideas

or what each story kind of pushed us towards,

we can say, man, God really has some things

that we can learn through some of the toughest books.

Judges was a great series, I don't regret doing it,

but I'm telling you, this week of study in Galatians

for me was just awesome, I enjoyed it so much.

So I hope that you enjoy it also.

We're gonna talk a little bit about background,

who Paul is, all those kind of things

throughout not only today's sermon,

but throughout the couple of months

that we'll be in Galatians.

There are six chapters, I wanna say we're doing

about a half a chapter each week, and then the wrap up.

So it'll probably be like 12, 13, 14 weeks total

that we'll be in Galatians,

but I would encourage you this week,

like I said, it only has six chapters,

I would encourage you this week

to read the entire book of Galatians.

And you could do that over a few days,

you don't need to do it all at once,

but go in there and if there are things

that stick out to you, maybe highlight them

or circle them, put a question mark, write your thoughts,

and then as we go over them,

hopefully they'll be answered.

Or if they're really weighing on your heart,

shoot me a text or an email or a phone call.

If you wanna grab coffee,

we can sit down and talk about it.

I just want you to know that we are all working

through God's word, no matter who you are.

Whether today's your first day coming into church at all,

whether you've attended church your entire life,

or a pastor, it doesn't matter what stage

you're in in your Christian walk,

we're all learning as we work our way through it.

So Galatians is gonna be a lot of fun.

So we're gonna dive right in.

Galatians, we've titled this series,

Christ Lives in Me, right?

And so that's gonna be kind of the big idea

for the entire book of Galatians,

and then we'll have smaller big ideas each week

depending on what we are reading.

So let's dive right in.

Galatians chapter one, let me say this again,

if you don't have a copy of God's word and you want one,

we have some Bibles at the grab a Bible table.

Go ahead and walk out there, grab one of those,

make that yours, put your name in it,

take notes in it, let that be a gift from us to you.

We believe even though you can,

there are tons of great apps on your phone,

you can get to your Bible standing in the grocery line,

that it's still, there's something

about having a copy of God's word

and being able to mark in it, making it your own.

It says the word of God is living

and sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing and dividing bone and marrow.

In other words, it's supposed to work

on your heart and in your mind.

And so we want you guys to have a copy of that.

Grab a Bible, I would love to run out today

and I'll bring more next week.

So if you don't have one even now,

you can walk back there and grab one of those.

We will of course have the words up here on the screen

because we do that.

And yeah, let's dive right in.

So starting in Galatians one, verse one,

Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man,

but through Jesus Christ and God the Father

who raised him from the dead

and all the brothers who are with me

to the churches of Galatia.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins

to deliver us from this present evil age

according to the will of our God and Father

to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him

who called you in the grace of Christ

and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one,

but there are some who trouble you

and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven

should preach to you a gospel

contrary to the one we preach to you,

let him be accursed.

As we have said before, now I say again,

if anyone is preaching to you a gospel

contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man,

I would not be a servant of Christ.

Let's pray.

Father God, as we dive into your word today,

help us to see what you want us to see today,

what you want us to hear.

Holy Spirit, work in our hearts.

Help us to hear from you this morning.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

I love movies with epic songs.

Anybody else out there?

Right?

So I loved The Greatest Showman, right?

Like I love to sing along to that.

With nobody else in the room, but I'll sing along, right?

My voice isn't much anymore, not that it ever was,

but I did meet my wife in the Multnomah Choir.

So I mean, at one point I was a singer of sorts,

but I love the sound of music, right?

I love to sing the sound of music, sing along with that.

I loved The Lion King.

Any other Lion King fans out there?

Okay, right.

So this week as I was studying and praying through this,

I'm trying to make this sound as spiritual as I can,

I thought of the time when Rafiki was presenting

Kiera on Pride Rock to all the animals, right?

And the song that started then, do you guys remember that?

Because I do, because I love to sing it.

Wait, I'm not gonna sing it for you today, right?

There's no mountain too great.

Hear the words and have faith, have faith.

And remember that it gets quiet and it's like building up.

I love that.

And then it comes out, he lives in you, he lives in me,

he watches over everything we see into the water,

into the truth, in your reflection, he lives in you.

And I thought to myself, now this is not a Christian song

or a Christian movie, so don't hear Pastor Mark

preaching Lion King from the stage.

But like, when I'm reading through Galatians,

this book is about Jesus Christ living in us.

And as Christians, do we believe that?

Do we understand that?

And then with that truth, with that knowledge,

do we embrace that?

Are you willing to put your old self to death

and allow Jesus Christ to live through you?

I mean, that's a valid question.

After you've come to faith in Christ

as your personal savior, you still are called

to put things away, take off the old and put on the new,

all those things that we've talked about before,

if you truly believe that Christ lives in you.

So today we're gonna be looking at those first 10 verses

that I just read to you, and we're gonna see

some foundational truths that are being laid, right?

And that Paul has the authority,

he kind of sets out there in those first few verses,

we're gonna look at him in a second,

the authority to call out the church

and to say, you're shifting from the firm foundation.

We've laid the foundation, it's this, the gospel,

which again, we're gonna get to, nothing more than this.

Quit trying to add to it or take away from it,

because if you're believing anything like that,

that's not, it's another gospel,

but it's not a gospel is what he said.

But again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

And so we need to know that Paul has this authority

to call out the church and to say,

I'm seeing this in you, and it's disturbing.

He says astonished, but again,

we'll get to the definition of that too.

In life, we need a chain of command.

And Paul is saying that I've been called

by Jesus Christ for this.

So at work, whether you like it or not,

you need a boss, you need a chain of command.

You may be the boss, but more likely than not,

you got a boss ahead of you, right?

So it's that chain of command that's so important.

At home, a healthy home has a good chain of command.

If you look at a godly instruction in the scriptures

of how to run your home, there's a chain of command,

and it works, right?

In your spiritual life, acknowledging that God

has a better plan for you than you have for yourself,

and knowing that and moving forward.

If you ignore the chain of command,

things can get out of control really quickly.

At your job, if you just say,

ah, my boss doesn't know anything,

I'm gonna ignore him, I'm not gonna do

what he's calling me to say or calling me to do,

you know you end up in their office,

and maybe their boss's office, right?

You have to follow the orders from up the chain of command.

And Paul's gonna lay this foundation today

by focusing on the believer's chain of command,

and he's gonna say to us, proverbially,

soldiers, you have one job, right?

You have one job today, and that is

to honor the chain of command, right?

We're all following Jesus Christ,

we're marching to a different drum,

and we are called to follow him.

So today, let's look at the verses that we read earlier

and see what God has for us as we break this down.

You see here at the beginning, Paul introduces himself.

This is the way that they wrote letters back in the day.

How many of you guys have written a letter?

Not a trick question, right?

What do you normally do?

You write the person's name first, right?

Grandma, and then you write the entire letter

in the bottom, you know, your grandson, Mark Miller.

You know, right?

You know, that's just the way we do it.

Well, when they wrote letters,

they did it a little bit different.

They would get these scrolls delivered to them,

roll it open, and instead of having to go

all the way to the end to find out who wrote it,

they would just put that at the beginning.

And so Paul says, hey, I am Paul.

We know who wrote this letter, and that's not disputed.

The letter of Galatians came from Paul.

He was a church planner.

He planted many churches.

He traveled a ton through the Gentile world, right,

the non-Jews, sharing the grace of God as he traveled,

the grace that God extends them through Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul was doing.

So Paul, an apostle, right?

An apostle means one who is sent with authority.

We're not gonna spend a ton of time on that today,

but other time we will.

But this idea that one is sent with authority

or one that's sent with power

is a biblical definition of this word

is one who has seen Jesus Christ.

So a lot of times, the 12 disciples,

and then Judas was the 12th,

they were the disciples of Jesus Christ.

After Jesus Christ died on the cross

and was resurrected on the third day,

Judas has hung himself.

There were 11 apostles left that were sent out,

and a lot of people consider Paul to be the 12th.

Paul had a interaction with Jesus Christ

on the road to Damascus, and that is in Acts.

We might look at that later on

because of other stories that are in here,

but Jesus Christ appears to him

and calls him away from the persecution of the church

and into a new life, okay?

And so Paul is defending who he is.

He's saying, I am an apostle.

I have been called by Jesus Christ.

I have seen the risen Savior,

and he has called me to do what I am doing today.

So he is chosen by Jesus for that office.

Now, I don't wanna get too deep into it.

There are still churches that talk about apostleship.

At The Grace Works, we would say

that's not something that you can have today

because even though we're all called in Matthew 28

to be disciples and to tell everybody about Jesus,

that's different than a face-to-face interaction.

I don't wanna rip on any other churches

that might have a little bit different definition

of apostle that still call maybe

some of their leadership apostles,

but my understanding from my study

and over the last 35 years is an apostle

in the true biblical definition

is one who was called by Jesus Christ face-to-face

to do the job that he had laid out for them.

So when we talk about apostles,

that's what we will be meaning.

If you have a little bit different view on that,

obviously you are welcome to be here and to worship with us,

but that's my understanding as we're moving forward in this.

He also says, and all the brothers who are with me.

Now, again, Paul wrote a lot of these letters.

If you're holding the Bible,

if you have a copy of God's Word,

he wrote quite a few letters to churches,

and a lot of times he identified brothers

who were with him, and in this situation, he didn't.

He just said that there are some brothers who are with me,

all right, and we're writing you,

but I'm the one writing you here.

These are my thoughts.

It is likely that this was transcribed.

Most of the letters were.

Not everybody had good penmanship,

and since you were writing on parchment,

you would get somebody who would transcribe the letter,

but again, he is the one who is dictating it

or speaking it forth, and again, like I said,

it doesn't mention anybody else there by names.

Sometimes he does, but not this time.

The next thing there, he defines who he is

and what his calling was.

It's not from men or through men, but through Jesus Christ

and God the Father who raised him from the dead.

The gospel that Paul preached to these churches

when he went around and planted them

was straight from Jesus.

The interaction that he had on the road to Damascus.

This was straight from the top.

So we talked about chain of command.

This is like top.

This is top authority, right?

Paul is honoring the chain of command.

He's saying, this isn't just my thoughts on this

or this isn't my idea.

This came from Jesus Christ, from God the Father, right?

And so he's writing this letter,

he's dictating it and it's being written,

but he wants to clarify.

The information that I'm giving here

is coming from up the chain of command.

And the last thing we see here

in these first couple of verses

is he says to the churches of Galatia.

Now, Galatia was a large area, modern day Turkey.

So a lot of the letters that Paul wrote

were to a specific church for a specific reason.

In this case, this church or this letter

was written to multiple churches in one area, right?

They were in different cities,

likely Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

Those are the four churches that Paul had planted

in kind of the south area of Turkey

that he was writing this letter to.

Paul personally had planted these churches,

preached and seen a response to the gospel,

set up leadership, stayed there for a while preaching

and training and teaching,

and then moved on to plant more churches.

Now, he planted these churches,

left them in good hands and then, or he thought he did,

he also did another couple of missionary trips

where he visited the same churches.

Again, we get all that information out of Acts

and we know that he was there at least twice afterwards,

after he had planted it.

And so he loved the churches there in that area.

He loved the people who were there

and he wanted them to know and understand the truth

and to stand firm on that.

Everything rests on the foundation.

And in this case, the gospel was the foundation.

And Paul starts hearing that they are following

different lowercase g gospels or truths.

And I use that with a lowercase also, maybe in quotations.

These are different gospels.

It's a story on how to have a relationship with God

that differs from the one that was given to them.

And so we, as a church, need to be aware

of what the gospel message is

and know that even if someone here in our church body

were to say something that was differing to that,

we would need to know the truth

and be able to approach them in love.

And if needed, potentially approach them

with another brother or sister, right?

And if that still doesn't work,

maybe go with one of the pastors in love

with a hope of restoration.

But you have to know the truth and stand firm in it

to know when something is not the truth.

And so for you and I today,

we can't just look at this and say,

this is to four churches 2,000 years ago,

a problem that they had.

We have to look at it and say,

how does this apply to our lives today?

Everything we look at throughout the book of Galatians,

how can we apply this to our life today?

Well, today I can say to you,

know the gospel and stand firm in it.

And if anyone says, no,

you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and do these things,

you need to know that that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so again, we'll talk a little bit more about that

as we continue on here.

He goes into this next chunk of verses, verses three to five.

This is kind of the foundation, right,

of life and relationship.

I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here

because we're gonna go through all 10 verses

and then we're gonna circle back around to these.

But he says, grace and peace to you from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, this is a pretty common way

to give a greeting to the church.

It's familiar.

He wrote lots of churches.

It kind of showed it was part of his style.

It reflected his heart, who he was

and what he wanted to get across to people.

So he's giving this grace and peace.

And essentially, Paul is stating his thesis here,

the gospel, right here, three to five.

If you're having a tough time understanding,

I mean, maybe you know what it means to be a Christian

and you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

but you have a tough time narrowing that down,

make a little mark around these verses in your Bible

and come back to them later.

This is the gospel, right, from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins.

That's Jesus on the cross, dying for you and I

so that we don't have to pay the penalty

for our wrongdoing.

Jesus Christ took that, right?

So he gave himself for our sins

to deliver us from this present evil age

according to the will of God.

Again, getting into some heavy theological things,

the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son,

God the Holy Spirit, right?

One God, but in three persons.

God's will was for Jesus Christ

to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin.

All the way back to Genesis, okay?

Genesis chapter three is the first time we see that.

Jesus Christ, fully God, still submitted

to the will of the Father, and that's what we see here.

According to the will of God and Father,

to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

This is the good news, the gospel.

So when we talk about the gospel,

we're talking about the good news.

What Jesus did for you and I, and he did all the work,

and we get to receive this free gift

that he is more than willing to give for us,

and in return, once we've accepted that free gift,

we are bound to him, we are saved,

we are going to heaven,

and then discipleship comes after that,

and that's when you start doing the process

of looking more like Jesus and less like yourself.

But the gospel itself is simple.

Hard to understand, hard to believe,

but it's a beautiful truth.

And so what we see here is Paul laying out the gospel,

and he's reminding these churches about the truth,

which he's correcting them on.

And we see that when we go into verse six,

the word astonishment, we talked about.

But before we get there,

I thought we would just take a quick minute

to go over 10 astonishing facts.

Are you guys okay with that?

I thought, why not?

You know, we gotta have some fun sometimes here.

Number 10, there are more fake flamingos in the world

than real flamingos.

I was astonished by that fact this week, right?

That is crazy.

The second thing, I think you guys probably all know this,

they talked about it when they were opening up

the old pyramids, right?

Honey never goes bad, right?

There's no expiration date on honey, it never goes bad.

And I think that's a pretty incredible fact also.

Now, cockroaches can live for weeks without their heads.

That again is an astonishing fact

that kind of grosses me out.

Number seven, Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.

Yes, this is true.

You can look it up.

You all have your computers in your hands

if you don't trust me.

Number six, there are more stars in the universe

than grains of sand on the earth,

which to me blows my mind.

Again, reminds us how small we are here on planet Earth,

and yet how much God loves us

that he sent his only son, right?

It's beautiful.

But I thought that was a pretty astonishing fact.

Here we go.

Children laugh about 400 times per day.

Adults only laugh about 15 times on average.

And I say to that, how sad.

Number four, Arby's is still in business.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

I like a good Arby's sandwich,

but man, I'll pull up there sometimes

and I'm like, has anybody been here all day?

Like, there's no one here.

And if you know me,

I like to go to a restaurant that's busy

so I know that the product's being rotated, right?

But yeah, Arby's is still in business.

I thought that was kind of astonishing.

Falling coconuts kill 30 times more people

each year than sharks.

So the next time you say you want to go to Hawaii, right?

Stay away from the coconut trees.

You're better off swimming in the ocean.

The official animal of Scotland is the unicorn.

Do we have any Scots out there?

Okay, we got a couple hands up there.

The unicorn, that is your official animal.

And number one, the most astonishing fact

that I could find this week is that people abandon grace.

And again, I think sometimes it's because

we don't understand it.

We've heard it, maybe we believed it,

but we don't quite grasp it.

And I don't want you guys,

I don't want myself to ever walk away from that.

Now let's get back to where we were supposed to be.

I am astonished that you're so quickly deserting him

who called you in the grace of Christ

and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one,

but there are some who trouble you

and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

We see some strong themes there

in these couple of verses, right?

Astonishment, desertion, trouble, distorting, right?

We see Paul's calling out what's going on in these churches.

What are these troublemakers doing there?

Paul is in emergency mode.

If you've read his other letters,

a lot of times he takes the first chapter just saying hi,

telling them what great things that they're doing,

how proud he is of them.

And I love that.

But Paul knows that these churches are in trouble.

They are being shifted off their firm foundation.

And Paul wants to come in and remind them,

you got to honor the chain of command,

go back to the foundational truths

and allow Christ to live in you.

And that's where he's at right now.

So he kind of skips ahead of the prayers,

I'm proud of you moments, and he gets to this here.

It's kind of like a child, right?

Your kid's playing in the front yard,

they start heading for the ball

that rolls out into the street, and you go after them.

You don't tell them how much you love them

and how proud you are of them.

And you don't stop and say a prayer per se.

You might be praying while you're running,

but you are yelling at them to stop and to get back.

Okay, that's what Paul's doing here.

Paul's saying no flowery words right now,

you need to stop, you need to get back.

And he's using those kind of words.

Astonished, he's shocked, right?

He's bewildered.

He can't understand this.

The Greek word here, it kind of has to do with rebuke.

I'm astonished, I want to rebuke you for this.

I can't believe this is happening.

The deserting that's talking about is the military word.

It shows up a couple times in scripture,

that idea of deserting.

It's not just going AWOL,

it's even a step further than that.

It's full-on treason.

You're gone and you're fighting for the other team, right?

Because God's team says this is what Jesus did for you,

and this is how you receive it.

And these Judaizers are coming in and saying,

yeah, we like Jesus, but you still need to be circumcised,

you still need to do, you know,

and they're laying out all these things,

and these people are left wondering,

do I need to do all of these things to be saved?

There's confusion going on.

He speaks of these some who trouble the Galatians, right?

But we know that they're false teachers.

They've driven them off the foundation.

They know what the foundation is.

They're built on that foundation.

And now you got these troublemakers coming in

and pushing them off to the side.

And distort, if you look at that in the Greek,

it's to turn around, right?

It wasn't just slightly a variance,

or even a why in the road,

it's to turn them around and go the opposite way.

Grace is grace, or it's not.

It's a free gift of salvation to you, or it's not.

If somebody says, no, God gives you this,

but you have to do this in return.

Those are two different things.

And I think for all of us here, including myself,

we need to be so comfortable with what the gospel is

that we know what the gospel isn't.

That when we see it, we can identify it

and say that is not truth.

And it's not something that we wanna be open on, right?

Salvation is one of the close fist things for us.

There are other things we're willing to let you do, right?

That we may say are a little bit different,

but not the area of salvation.

This was a reversal of the good news of Jesus Christ.

And Paul wants them to understand that, right?

And he's highlighting this problem.

He wants them to see it.

They're moving from the foundation, and here's the contrast.

Grace versus anything that adds to or takes away

from the gospel message, period.

And I love Paul's smack talk here, right?

And they're turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, right?

He's like, there's not one.

You don't have a choice here.

There's not two different ways or two different ideas

that both will land you at the same place.

There is one gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he wants to be clear that anything added to that grace

adds nothing, but actually is taking away from it.

Jesus Christ plus anything equals nothing.

That's what he's saying.

Because if you think you're being saved by your good works

or by taking communion here on a Sunday morning

or being baptized or giving into your tithes

and your offerings or your generosity,

or I'm gonna be accepted into heaven, Pastor Mark,

because I've done more good than bad,

you're not on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's Jesus Christ plus nothing equals everything

or equals salvation.

You add anything to it, you're distorting the truth.

The foundation is no longer firm.

It will crumble underneath the weight.

He wants to be clear about this.

Grace is favor that you don't deserve.

How many times have I talked to people

and am guilty myself in saying,

this is what I'm doing to earn favor in God's eyes.

I want God to like me.

I want God to love me.

I want God to maybe allow me to come into heaven

when I die, right?

That's not grace.

If God had a different plan originally

and said, these are the things you have to do

to get into heaven, God could have done that

and you would have had to have done those things,

but that's not where God went.

God sent his son, Jesus Christ to die for you, period.

If you believe that you're a sinner

and that God is perfect and holy,

and the only way to spend eternity with him when you die,

breathe your last here, is to accept the free gift

of Jesus Christ's holiness and perfection,

which is what the Bible says we get,

in exchange for what?

Not a list of good things, but in exchange for our sin.

Take the old mark and he gives me Jesus Christ.

I mean, these are the truths that we have to understand

so that if anybody comes to us and says anything different,

we can say, no, that is not true.

Let me tell you about the truth.

You don't have to earn God's favor.

He already loves you.

You just have to accept that you are a sinner,

that you are a rebel, that you have run from God,

and that Jesus still loves you enough that he says,

I'm gonna take your sin and I'm gonna die for you,

and I'm gonna give you my holiness, my perfection,

in exchange for your sin, and that's a done deal, period.

There's nothing more owed.

That is the beauty of a grace-filled gospel message.

The only other option is to try to deserve favor,

which we've already said does not work.

It's impossible, and frankly, it sounds exhausting.

How do you know if you've done enough?

If you're living under a list of things you think

you need to do to earn God's favor,

how do you know you've ever reached that mark?

God doesn't want you to live under that.

He wants you to understand what the gospel message is.

Moving on, Paul continues on with some strong language here.

He's talking about even if an angel were to come

and preach a different gospel, this is the gospel message.

You know it.

No matter who tries to tell you differently,

do not believe them.

The foundation of grace, the foundation of the gospel,

does not need anything added to it.

If you add anything to it, you're diluting it,

and it will crumble.

The gospel is all you need.

Paul uses the word here, if anyone preaches a gospel,

contrary, let him be accursed, and he says it twice.

If I'm standing up here telling you that to be saved,

to gain entrance to heaven, right,

you need to not only give your life to Jesus Christ

and believe in Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross,

but you need to come to church every Sunday,

and you need to give of your money,

and you need to take communion, you need to be baptized,

and you need to start listing things out,

you need to say, no, no, no,

that is not what the gospel message is.

There's a lot at stake here.

A gospel contrary to the gospel of grace

will not lead you to life, it will lead you to death.

He says we are an angel from heaven.

Paul is trying to get how important this is.

No matter who you think you're talking to,

if they're saying something contrary

to the gospel message found in the Bible,

lived out by Jesus Christ,

talked about throughout the Old Testament,

ever since man rebelled in the garden,

you need to run from that.

And yet again, I don't like to badmouth any other religions,

but there are multiple religions out there today

who have been visited from an angelic being,

and they have started a new religion.

It's not just one, there are multiple,

so I feel like I can say that,

and I'm glad they have any conversations

with any of you one-on-one,

but I don't wanna be known for bashing other people

who wanna believe in their faith, but it's wrong.

And Paul is telling us right here,

even if an angel who appears to be from heaven

tells you there's a different way, they're lying to you.

And yet we have millions of people around the world

following other angels today, and that's scary.

It really is.

The basic truth of the gospel

has to be paramount importance in your life,

and in my life, in the Galatians' life,

and in the church in America's life.

Paul knew that, everything rests on the foundation.

To understand all of scripture and really all of life,

we need to have a clear understanding

of what our foundation is,

and that's what Paul is trying to tell us here.

So really quick, if you wanna learn

a fancy Bible college word, not that any of us need to,

but it's soteriology, it's a study of salvation.

I know a few of my friends who are sitting out here

taking classes on that when they were in college, right?

It's the study of the doctrine of salvation.

We need to have a firm grasp on that.

Now, I'm not saying that each one of you

needs to go to Bible college to attend classes,

but you need to study this,

you need to talk to people about this,

engage with people about this,

and have a firm grasp on what soteriology is,

because it's the foundation of your Christian life.

Now, we're gonna look at verses three to five

here in closing.

I told you we were gonna circle back to it.

Everything rests on the foundation, right?

It's from God our Father.

Paul is clear about that here in verse three

and in verse four.

The foundation, you go all the way up the chain of command,

God the Father is at the top, right?

And it was built by the Father.

He repeats it twice.

This isn't Paul's ideas on what it might look like

and how you might be able to get to heaven.

He's saying, no, this is from God,

the creator of all things, the sustainer of life,

the one who said, when you rebelled,

I will send my son to pay the penalty for your rebellion

so that you can live with me for eternity.

It's God's idea, right?

He loves to lavish his grace on his children.

And we need to remember that.

And that's why there at the beginning of verse three,

he says, grace to you and peace,

not from him, but from who?

God the Father, right?

This is undeserved generosity.

This is a gift that could never be earned, deserved.

The recipient did not do anything

to deserve what they got, right?

This is based on the love of God

that this is extended to you.

The word grace also means sheer beauty or charm,

loveliness, right, goodness,

all of those things encapsulated

so that we know that grace is this undeserved generosity.

You don't deserve it.

You can't earn it.

You can't pay for it.

We need to believe that.

When we walk out the door,

we need to understand that God did this because he loved us,

not because we deserved it.

It's like Paul here is saying,

may the beauty of the undeserved love of God be on you

so that you live your very life

in a God-honoring, lovely way, right?

That's what he's trying to say here.

He says peace also there, grace and peace.

This peace means so much more

than just the mere absence of trouble.

I know we've talked about this a couple of times,

but it's less about what's not in your life,

the trouble side, but it's more about who's in your life,

the peace that Jesus provides.

It's foundational.

No matter what's going on in the world around you,

the peace that Christ gives you as a Christian

is solid under your feet and it can't be shaken

no matter what's going on.

Jesus said this in John 16, 33.

I'm not gonna put it up there,

but if you have your notes and you wanna write that down,

I'm gonna read it to you.

John 16, 33 says this.

I have said these things to you

that in me you may have peace.

In the world you're gonna have tribulation,

but take heart, I've overcome the world.

That's your Savior's words.

No matter what's going on in your life right now,

no matter what's going on around you

in DuPont or in Washington or in the world,

no matter what's going on,

you can have peace because of who Jesus is.

Did we lose the computer here?

We'll see if it comes back.

God gave us these amazing gifts through the gospel,

which is exactly what Paul explains next.

Let's hop there really quick.

We're almost done here.

The most important relationship is with God, our Father.

Jesus Christ was the offering that you and I needed

to repair the relationship between us and God the Father.

Since we are sinful and rebellious,

there's a conflict there, and God offers the peace.

God offers us the peace in our relationship

by forgiving our sin.

And he didn't say it's no big deal, don't worry about it.

When somebody wrongs you,

sometimes that's what we wanna do, right?

Oh, don't worry about it.

No, forget it, it's not a big deal.

But it was a big deal.

God sent his only son, Jesus Christ,

to die for you and for me, and no matter how hard we try,

we're never gonna fully be able to grasp that,

that as he hung on the cross,

all of the sins that you and I have ever committed

were heaped upon him.

Our brains can't understand that, but it was costly.

If someone ever says simple faith can't allow you

to be saved because it didn't cost anything,

you can say back to them, no, it costs everything to Jesus.

He took all of that punishment

so that you and I didn't have to.

When he died on the cross,

he took that punishment for you and for I.

Jesus voluntarily gave himself up

so that he could pay for our sins.

It's the most beautiful sacrifice of all time

to deliver us from the curse and penalty of our sin

and our rebellion in this present evil age.

Paul knew exactly what the 20th century,

21st century was gonna look like, right?

It's an evil place and it's an evil age.

And it was all the will of the Father

and for the glory of the Father forever and ever, amen.

Now, the final verse here, verse 10,

it's kind of a hinge verse.

We're gonna spend more time on this one next week.

That's where we're gonna start here.

We're gonna look into it a little bit more detail.

But for now, I think in light of the previous verses,

Paul knows the chain of command.

And I think that's why we wanted to pop this verse in here.

At the end, he says,

for now, am I now seeking the approval of man?

Is it just that I want people to like me?

And that's why I say what I say?

Or of God?

Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man,

I would not be a servant of Christ.

The world will tell you to act a certain way

and it's gonna be different

than the way that Jesus has called you to live.

So you have to decide today,

am I gonna be a God pleaser or a world pleaser?

And Paul wants you to know,

I know the chain of command.

I have made a decision and I am following Jesus.

I don't care if I'm popular with people

because this life is not a popularity contest.

I wanna please God in everything that I do and say.

And I love how Paul finishes this.

He sees himself, even though he's called as an apostle,

he's been given the authority by Jesus Christ himself.

He sees himself as a servant.

If you wanna be great in God's kingdom,

the scripture says, learn to be a servant of all.

And Paul knew that.

And so I think one of the most beautiful things

about studying Galatians is we're gonna see Paul

see himself for who he is,

as he's been called as an apostle,

but also as a servant of Jesus Christ.

So this morning, I want you to remember this week.

I want you to think about this week

as you're reading Galatians, the whole book.

I want you to read the whole book.

I want you to remember that we need to honor

the chain of command,

that Paul showed it through his life

and through his writings.

And when he dropped truth,

he dropped truth in love about his savior, Jesus Christ.

We also need to remember

that everything rests on the foundation.

You and I need to know the foundational truths

of the gospel.

If you don't today,

I need you to commit to doing that this week, right?

Commit to doing that this month,

whatever it looks like for you.

If you need a recommendation on a book,

give me a call, shoot me a text.

You wanna have coffee and have some questions answered

or have a conversation, let me know.

Talk to your wife, talk to your husband,

talk to your family members, the kids out there,

talk to your mom or dad,

talk to a mentor, talk to a friend,

have conversations about the gospel.

I want you to be passionate about it.

Paul is passionate about it.

I want you to live in that.

I want you to know what your foundation is

so that if somebody presents something else to you,

you know beyond a shadow of a doubt

that they are either confirming what the scriptures say

or they are giving you something else.

Maybe you haven't even started building that life yet

or that foundation.

Don't leave today

without having a conversation with somebody.

You wanna have a conversation with me,

I would love to talk to you about that.

What it looks like to place your faith in Jesus Christ

as your personal savior.

And in return, you're giving him your sin

and he's giving you his righteousness.

And at that moment of salvation, you are forever changed.

And then what does it look like after that, Pastor Mark?

That's the fun part,

where you and I get to live the life of a disciple

and become more like Jesus and less like ourselves.

And I think that's what we're gonna see

through this study in Galatians, let's pray.

Father God, we do thank you this morning

for this opportunity to look into your word.

We thank you for just the truths of scripture

that can encourage us but also challenge us.

Help us to know the foundation, to live in the foundation,

to be firm in the foundational truths of the gospel.

Help us to be able to articulate that

and share it with those in our family

and in our friend groups and at work

who need to hear about what God did for them

because he loves them so much.

Help us to be able to articulate that to them

and help us in our hearts and in our minds

to believe it and to believe it better

so that we're not tempted to shift off of the foundation,

but we know what the gospel is,

we know what the good news is,

we know what salvation means,

and that if somebody tells us anything different,

even if it's just a little bit different,

that we will know that that is not from you,

that we will be able to stand firm in it.

Father God, we thank you for being here today.

Holy Spirit, move in our hearts, change us,

and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

♪ Are you hurting and broken within ♪

♪ Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin ♪

♪ Jesus is calling you ♪

♪ Have you come to the end of yourself ♪

♪ Do you thirst for a drink of water ♪

♪ Have you come to the end of yourself ♪

♪ Do you thirst for a drink from the well ♪

♪ Jesus is calling you ♪

♪ Oh, come to the altar ♪

♪ The Father's arms are open wide ♪

♪ Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus ♪

♪ Jesus Christ ♪

♪ Leave behind your regrets and mistakes ♪

♪ Come today, there's no reason to wait ♪

♪ Jesus is calling you ♪

♪ Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy ♪

♪ From the ashes a new life is born ♪

♪ Jesus is calling you ♪

♪ Oh, come to the altar ♪

♪ The Father's arms are open wide ♪

♪ Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus ♪

♪ Jesus Christ ♪

♪ Oh, what a Savior ♪

♪ Isn't he wonderful ♪

♪ Sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪

♪ Bow down before him ♪

♪ For he is wonderful ♪

♪ Sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪

♪ Oh, what a Savior ♪

♪ Isn't he wonderful ♪

♪ Sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪

♪ Bow down before him ♪

♪ For he is wonderful ♪

♪ Sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪

♪ Oh, come to the altar ♪

♪ The Father's arms are open wide ♪

♪ Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ ♪

♪ Oh, come to the altar ♪

♪ The Father's arms are open wide ♪

♪ Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ ♪

♪ Bear your cross as you wait for the crown ♪

♪ Tell the world of the treasures you've found ♪

♪ Oh, come to the altar ♪

♪ The Father's arms are open wide ♪

♪ Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ ♪

♪ Look down into darkness ♪

♪ Open my eyes, let me see ♪

♪ Beauty that made this heart adore you ♪

♪ Hope of a life spent with you ♪

♪ So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪

♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪

♪ You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪

♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪

♪ King of all kings, oh, so highly exalted ♪

♪ Glorious in heaven above ♪

♪ Humbly you came to the earth you created ♪

♪ All the world to worship you ♪

♪ Three days good, all the lovesick became whole ♪

♪ So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪

♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪

♪ You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪

♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪

♪ And I'll never know how much it cost to see myself up close ♪

♪ Upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin ♪

♪ Upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin ♪

♪ Upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin ♪

♪ Upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin ♪

♪ Upon that cross that cross ♪

♪ That cross ♪

♪ So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪

♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪

♪ You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪

♪ Altogether voluntary ♪

♪ So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪

♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪

♪ You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy ♪

♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪

♪ Wonderful to me ♪

♪ I believe in the song ♪

♪ I believe in the risen one ♪

♪ I believe I overcome ♪

♪ By the power of his blood ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ I'm alive, I'm alive because he lives ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ Let my song join a bond that never ends ♪

♪ Because he lives ♪

♪ I was dead in the grave ♪

♪ I was covered in sin and shame ♪

♪ I heard mercy call my name ♪

♪ He rolled the stone away ♪

♪ He rolled the stone away ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ I'm alive, I'm alive because he lives ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ Let my song join a bond that never ends ♪

♪ Because he lives, I can face tomorrow ♪

♪ Because he lives, everything is gone ♪

♪ I know he holds my life, my future in his hands ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ I'm alive, I'm alive because he lives ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ Let my song join a bond that never ends ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ I'm alive, I'm alive because he lives ♪

♪ Amen, amen ♪

♪ Let my song join a bond that never ends ♪

♪ Because he lives ♪

♪ Because he lives ♪

Amen.

We're not tearing down, so spend extra time hugging on people.

Thanks guys.

Thank you.

♪ You weren't click to me ♪

♪ Stand face to face with the younger me ♪

♪ All of the mistakes, all of the heartbreak ♪

♪ Here's what I'd do differently ♪

♪ I'd live like I'm not scared ♪

♪ Give when it's not fair to me ♪

♪ Give when it's not fair to me ♪

♪ All of the mistakes, all of the heartbreak ♪

♪ Here's what I'd do differently ♪

♪ I'd live like I'm not scared ♪

♪ Give when it's not fair to me ♪