Quote for Sunday 19 May 2024   ^#161

Paul wrote Galatians to warn Christians about a false gospel that was affecting the churches in Galatia. False teachers were teaching that it was not enough to believe, but one must also be circumcised. In other words, the Gentiles must become Jews. The false teachers were denying the doctrine that we know as Justification by Faith Alone. We would describe it as Christ Plus Teaching. Why is the preaching of the cross offensive? Three reasons are considered in this talk.

We have four verbs relating to God in the last two verses: v24: God heard and God remembered v25: God looked upon and God had respect unto. What is God like? What does he do and how does he act towards his people? We can see the answer from looking at how he acted in Moses's day.

When Paul was Saul, the emphasis was on what he had done. "I persecuted the church of God, I advanced, was more exceedingly zealous, etc." It was all about him. Now that he's converted there is a very different note in his message. It's all about what the Lord has done. Now Paul's life is a means of revealing Christ in him, the hope of glory. The Spirit produces his fruit in unaccustomed soil. God wants to reveal his son in us. Like John the baptiser, "I must decrease, he must increase."

We have the assurance that the Lord preserves the simple, those who are sincere and have a child-like trust. The Lord defends, sustains, keeps, and ultimately delivers.

Remember the day you first repented, and came to such a hatred of your sin that you turned from it? How? Only the spirit of God brought you to that new understanding. Let us know our dependence on the Spirit for prayer. There is much prayer that is not prayer in the Spirit. We are told not to be like the hypocrites when we pray. How can we expect a prayer that is not in the spirit to reach the throne?

The first part of a study looking at the Ark of the Covenant.

In England some call this epistle the Magna Carta of Christian freedom. In the USA some call it the Declaration of Independence of Christian liberty. Martin Luther King Jr called it "my Caterina Lambora", his wife, because he felt so strongly about it.

The main topic of the epistle is justification by faith without the deeds of the law. Paul defends the purity of the gospel because there were those already perverting it. There are people who still want to add to the gospel something that man can do. The gospel devastates the ego of man by telling us we must trust in what someone else has done for us. If I could just go on a pilgrimage, count beeds, do something! But no, you must depend on the one who did that work alone. This is hard on the pride of man.

This command came after Jesus washed the disciples' feet and after Judas had departed to betray him. Jesus tells us of the great duty of brotherly love. Here are three reasons why we should obey this command.

The final segment in the book of Joel. A proclamation is made among the Gentiles. How relevant today with Sweden telling its people to get ready for war, and now Germany. All the Gentiles are going to be giving this message: "prepare for war".

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Do you feel the need for God's comfort? God wants his people to know his comfort. "Comfort ye my people" the prophet is told. Let us consider in these verses the comfort that we receive from the word of God.