GALATIANS 1 THE FOUNDATION OF GRACE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Galatians 1 The Foundation Of Grace

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Galatians chapter 1. We began last week kind of an introduction to this new series of studies on Wednesday nights called Foundations for Christian Living.

And we began with a look, not from the books we'll be studying, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, but we began with a look at Luke chapter 6 and the parable that Jesus told about the wise and the foolish builders.

And the difference between them was one dug down deep and established a foundation, and then the other did not. And Jesus compared that to those who hear the words of Jesus. And the difference is whether or not the person does what Jesus says or just hears the words but does not do what Jesus says. And so we looked at that and got confused.

Got the understanding for this idea of foundations. That is the teachings or the doctrines of God that influence and that impact the living that we are called to do. The Christian living that we have. And so Paul the Apostle in these books, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, he is really dealing with some really profound doctrine.

But it's not just doctrine that, you know, stays in our head and we answer trivia questions and, you know, he takes it and he intertwines it with how this should impact our lives. And so we want to walk through these books and with that understanding, look at how we are to live with a good foundation, with the foundation that's built on doing what it is that God says.

And so we're going to begin now that journey through starting with the book of Galatians here in Galatians chapter 1 and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 9 this evening. So let's go ahead and read through that and then we'll talk about what the Lord has in store for us tonight. Galatians chapter 1 verses 1 through 9. Here's what it says.

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 brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.

Verse 6. Verse 7.

which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. And as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you received, let him be accursed."

Paul begins this letter with some powerful words because he's dealing with a very serious issue here in the letter to the Galatians. I've titled the message this evening, The Foundation of Grace. As we talk about foundations for Christian living, the book of Galatians is going to focus on this foundation of grace.

And the importance of grace, the value of grace, the need for us to hold fast to the grace of God. And so it's the first really foundational doctrine that we'll look at in this series. Now, Galatians 1 through 4, quick outline of the book, Paul is going to be dealing with the doctrine of grace. He's going to be covering it from every angle and making sure we have a solid grasp on what grace is and why the gospel is by grace and everything related to that.

And then in chapters five and six, he really jumps into the application of grace and what that looks like in our lives. Now, we're not going to wait until chapter five to start thinking about how that impacts our lives, but that's the structure of the book that Paul wrote so that there would be the solid foundation, a clear understanding of what grace is,

And then how that impacts our life in chapters five and six. And so we'll be working our way through that and understanding this doctrine of grace for the next several weeks as we consider the book of Galatians. Now, the doctrine of grace, I would suggest it's possible, possibly, it's perhaps the most difficult doctrine for us to receive. The doctrine of grace is possibly the most difficult doctrine for us to receive. Not because it's complex.

Not because it's really complicated and you have to understand these finer points and learn a little Greek and Hebrew and, you know, be able to build these strong arguments. That's not why it's difficult. The reason why it's difficult is because it is so contrary to our own nature. Grace is really an offense to our flesh, to our sinful nature. Our flesh fights against the concept of grace.

And so there is an internal battle that we face with this doctrine, that we deal with in regards to this doctrine. And there's a natural draw away from grace for us. So that even if we start out in grace, we, well, there's a tendency for us to kind of wander away from grace. And the opposite of grace is, anybody know what's the opposite of grace? Works, works, legalism, right?

working towards things to receive them because we have earned them or we deserve them. And so this doctrine of grace is an important foundation for us to consider and one that we need to know and one that we need to work at because it is, well, it's difficult for us to receive, to accept and to hold on to. But grace needs to impact our lives. Starting with, of course, the gospel message for salvation. But

Without getting into all of the details, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about grace over the next few weeks. So I'm not going to try to cover everything at once. But if you think about Titus chapter 2, Paul tells us that it's the grace of God that teaches us how to live and how to be delivered from sin and how to, you know, walk in the way that God has called us to walk. It's God's grace, not just at the beginning, but at the end.

of Christianity, but it's God's grace throughout our walk with God. It teaches us how to treat one another and forgive one another and love one another. It's something that impacts every aspect of our life. And so this foundation of grace is one that we need and it needs to be established. And so we're going to just kind of have the introduction to that here in the first nine verses of Galatians 1, looking at verses 1 through 5 for point number one this evening, and that is receive the gospel of grace.

The first thing you need to know about grace is that grace needs to be received. The gospel of grace, the message of God, the good news of God is based upon the grace of God. And well, it's designed in such a way that it can't be forced upon us. It can't be done on our behalf. No, we must personally accept and receive the gospel of grace.

And jumping into the first few verses here, just to get started in the passage. In verse 1, Paul introduces himself, which was normal for a letter. He says, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And then in verse 2, he says, and all the brethren who are with me.

And so here, Paul is writing a letter in our day. You know, we write an email perhaps, and we put our name at the end, but usually the person receiving the email sees our name at the, you know, this is where it's received from, right? So in a similar way, right at the top of the scroll, as they would write this out, they would put their name. And so here's what Paul does. He introduces himself. Here's the guy writing to you. Here's the guy, the author of this. And he describes himself as an apostle, right?

He points out that he is an apostle not from men or through man. And that's a really interesting thing for us to consider. We won't do that tonight though. Next week, as we go into the later parts of chapter one, it's going to be really important that the things that Paul is saying here, that he is an apostle, but he wasn't appointed by man. He wasn't established as an apostle by some other person. He was established by Jesus Christ.

So he says, I'm an apostle. I have authority from God and I'm with all these other brethren and we are writing this to who? Well, in verse two, he shows us who he's addressing it to, to the churches of Galatia, the churches of Galatia. Now that makes this book a little bit unique in comparison to some of the other books where we have letters being written to individual churches and

Philippians was written to the church at Philippi, one church at a specific location. Timothy was written to an individual at a specific location, Timothy in Ephesus, right? Titus was written to an individual. Thessalonians, first and second, was written to the church in Thessalonica, one city, one church inside a particular city. But this letter is a little bit unique and it's going to be important for us to consider that and that it's written to a whole region of churches, right?

And Galatia was not just one city, it was a area. So it would kind of be like, you know, Paul writing to the churches of Southern California. And, you know, there's not just one city, there's not just one church. There's a lot of churches, a lot of cities, and a lot of things that are going on there. And so this letter is not just applicable to this one specific location, but the whole region needs to hear this.

And what does he say? Well, he gives his normal greeting in verse 3. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. And here we have the first introduction to the word grace in this greeting. And what Paul is doing here in this greeting is he is combining the traditional Greek greeting and the traditional Hebrew greeting. Grace to you.

That was what the Greeks would say to each other when they, you know, ran into each other on the street or wrote each other a letter. They would say, grace to you. It means, you know, good things to you. It's kind of like how we say, God bless you. You know, like it's that kind of concept being conveyed in the greeting, but

The Hebrews, the Jews would say shalom or peace. And so this grace and peace, Paul combines them and that's his greeting in pretty much all of the letters that he writes. He combines these two concepts together. Pastor Chuck often would, you know, stop and take note that they're always in this order, grace and then peace. Because what you cannot experience peace and

until you first experience grace. And so there's perhaps that specific idea behind this order. Because of course, when Paul says grace and peace, they were the customary greetings of the day,

But there's also so much more to it than just Paul was saying hello, right? He's not just, you know, just saying what was normal and then that was it. But Paul here is writing to them about grace. And we'll see as we go on through the chapter, he's talking about grace. And so it's significant that he greets them with grace. Grace is really an amazing revelation of the character and nature of God.

The word grace could be translated, you know, a few different ways and could be defined a few different ways. One definition is grace is that which gives joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, or loveliness. Now you can kind of think about it in, you know, if someone is graceful,

in that, you know, they don't, they're not clumsy. They don't fall down very much, you know, but they move. Their movements are nice and fluid and smooth, right? That's one idea of grace. That's one aspect of grace. But we often will define grace for us as believers in the New Testament as undeserved and unearned favor from God. It's God doing good things for us

that we don't deserve. Now, in a lot of ways, the idea of grace and smooth and that kind of thing is a good picture of the way that God relates to us. He doesn't relate to us in sharp, jerky movements, right? He relates to us in nice and smooth ways that we are able to receive from him the good things that he desires from us. There's a Greek scholar by the name of Spiros Zodiatis.

And I don't know what nationality that name comes from, but I always appreciate his insights into the original languages. And here's what he says about grace. Grace is a favor done without expectation of return. The absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the giver, unearned and unmerited favor.

Grace is a favor that's done without expectation of return. Now, thinking about grace in the context of the grace of God, what is the favor that God has done for us? Well, we find it in verse 4. As Paul continues the greeting, he says in verse 4, Here's the favor that God has done. He gave himself for our sins.

Jesus gave himself. Here in the first five verses, we have all of the components of the gospel message. In verse one, Paul talks about Jesus and the fact that he's been raised from the dead. In verse four, he talks about how Jesus has given himself for our sins, that we might be delivered from this present age. And so we have, you know, that the work of Christ and what he's done for us, the payment and

for the penalty of sin and the promise of eternity. I mean, the gospel is here in these first five verses. It's what Paul is writing about as he talks about grace and deals with the issues that the churches of Galatia are going through at the time. Now,

As we talk about grace, again, it's this favor done without expectation of return. The way that we have grace impacting our lives, the way that we receive, well, that's the word I'm trying to work towards. But grace has to be received. That's the point I'm trying to make. Grace can't be forced upon you. It can't be done on your behalf. It can't be, it's what God has done for you, but the only way that you benefit from

is to receive. He says in verse four, Jesus gave himself for our sins. And it kind of reminds me of the season that we just passed through. You know, you, you recently had some experience how to receive grace, how to experience grace by receiving some Christmas gifts, perhaps. Now, when you receive a Christmas gift, you have the package and maybe, you know, what's inside. Maybe you have a good idea of what's inside and,

Maybe you were expecting that package. Maybe you were expecting someone to give you something or to give you a gift. And there it is. Now it's up to you to grab hold of that, receive it unto yourself. But you understand there's another step. If you just have the package all wrapped up by itself and you take that home and then that's it. Well, you received the gift, but you also didn't receive the gift, right? You have the package, but you're not benefiting from the contents, right?

And so in order to do that, you have to open it up and then you have to, you know, do whatever it takes, put in the batteries or put the toy together. I don't know if you had toys for Christmas, but you know, you have to participate and experience what it is, the contents that has been given to you in a similar way. Grace is given to us. Now, when you receive a present, just talking about what's polite, you know, you accept it even if you weren't expecting a gift, right?

And so someone comes up and gives you a gift and you go, oh, no, no, thank you. No, no, keep it. You can keep it. I don't want anything from you. You know, that would be really rude, right? That's not what you do. First, you accept it. You receive it, even if you weren't expecting it. And then you open it. You learn what it is. You learn about it. You, you know, experience the contents within.

What's polite? You say thank you, right? That's what we try to teach all the kids anyways after each present, right? Go, you know, tell them thank you for the gift and even if it's not really what you wanted, you know, thank you. Oh my goodness, those were amazing socks. Thank you so much, you know, but you say thank you even if it's not. I didn't really want a blender, but you know, thank you.

You say thank you, right? You accept it. You're gracious in receiving it. And then you don't exchange it. Or maybe you do. I don't know. But when it comes to receiving grace from God, it's the same thing. We need to accept it. Even if we weren't expecting a gift, we were not deserving a gift, but he gave us this gift. And we need to open it and learn what it is and say thank you. Even if we're

You know, sometimes what God gives us is what we need. It's not necessarily what we want. It might not be the gift you were hoping for. I was hoping, you know, for something else. I was hoping for something else to be done in my life, but God gives you grace. And it's something that we need to learn to say thank you for and not exchange it, but to accept it, to understand what it is and experience the contents within.

Well, grace, as we understand it, as we receive it, results in verse five, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God deserves glory for all eternity because, well, the gospel, grace, it's all about his work, what he has done on our behalf, and it's not about our work. So nobody else gets glory. In eternity, nobody else gets glory. It's all about the grace of God.

the favor that God has done for us without us earning it or deserving it or trying to be worthy of it. He has accomplished for us salvation, forgiveness so that we can stand before him as those who have never sinned, not even once were justified. We're in the process of being sanctified. It's all the work of the grace of God. Now the grace of God, again, as I mentioned, it's a, it's a difficult doctrine, but,

because our flesh struggles with it. It's difficult for us to wrap our minds around. In the natural life, you don't experience a whole lot of grace. You know, your boss doesn't just give you raise for no reason. I'm just going to do you a favor. I don't expect anything in return. You know, here's just more money. Just take it. That doesn't happen. But in the way that God relates to us, well, he relates to us according to grace. Now, another reason why the doctrine of grace is difficult, some people get freaked out.

about the doctrine of grace. Well, you know, if we really believe this, the grace of God and God just does for us what we don't deserve and offers forgiveness in this way,

well, that's going to result in us or people or some living in sin and just, you know, who cares what we do? Who cares about holiness? Who cares about walking with God? And there is a real struggle with, no, no, no. We have to, you know, establish laws to protect from those who would just, you know, go crazy and claim the grace of God and live in ridiculous ways.

Well, I think verse four offers a little bit of insight about the purpose of grace that will help us kind of get a hold of that a little bit. And we'll deal with that more later in the book of Galatians 2. But verse four tells us, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. And what I would ask you to consider about the purpose of grace here is, it tells us here why grace,

He was gracious to us. Why was he gracious to us? That he might deliver us from this present evil age. Here, the purpose of grace is explained. It's kind of built into grace, helps us understand what grace is. If we decide, you know, on Wednesday evenings, we really need a coffee ministry. And maybe some of you would say amen, right? Stay awake in Jerry's messages. We need a coffee ministry, okay? So,

So Melinda volunteers and says, I'll run it. I don't have the resources to run it. So I say, okay, Melinda, here is an unlimited bank account for you to provide a coffee ministry for us here on Wednesday evenings.

And you are free to go and get coffee and you are free to go and get pastries and donuts and, you know, all the good stuff. Find some gluten-free stuff for Kim and, you know, whatever you need. You have the resources you need. Just provide for us the coffee ministry. And Melinda goes out and she gets coffee and she gets donuts. And, you know, for a couple months, things are going good. But then, well, all of a sudden we notice she's got some new clothes and she starts driving up in a new car and she's, you know,

Giving money away left and right and just kind of like throwing it in the air and then rolling in it, you know, just because it's so fun. And so you understand that's a misuse of the funds, right? You have everything that you need for this purpose. Outside of that purpose, that's a misuse. And the same thing is true with grace. For someone to say, well, there's grace, so I'm going to indulge in sin is

That's not grace. Grace is that he might deliver us from this present evil age.

And so anytime we're thinking about, well, I can do this because of the grace of God, we need to think about, well, does this help deliver us from this present evil age? Or does this help entrench us in this present evil age? The grace of God is for this purpose. Now, grace is unlimited. It's not only unearned favor and kindness, it's also unlimited grace.

for this purpose. It's not unlimited in the sense that, well, you can rebel against God and just, you know, there's grace. Well, if that was the case, well, then we wouldn't have the gospel message presented in the way that believe and those who don't believe, you know, do not receive. That would be a different gospel. That would be a different message in the same way that the idea of participating in grace and indulging in sin would

is a different message than what the Bible teaches about grace. Now, the purpose of grace, it's unlimited favor and kindness from God for you, unlimited forgiveness, unlimited without reserve, without holding back for the purpose of delivering you from this present evil age. That's what grace is for. And so receive the gospel of grace because it is this gift. You must receive it. Are we good so far?

Grabbing hold of the foundation of grace. Now, what if we don't really have a good grasp of this doctrine? What if we don't have a good concept of what grace is and we misunderstand grace? And there's a lot of ways to misunderstand grace. The Galatians were experiencing one of those. Going on to verse six and seven, we get point number two for tonight. And that is, beware the dangers of lacking a foundation in grace.

So receiving the gospel of grace, that's important. Now, if we don't get established and we don't have a foundation in the gospel of grace, there's some real dangers that we need to watch out for. Notice what Paul says in verse six and seven. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Paul, as he writes to the Galatians, he says, I am astonished. I can't believe what I've heard. I am marveling. It's amazing to me. You are turning away so soon from him who called you, notice, in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. So Paul has done a good job in verses one through five, establishing the gospel, introducing us to grace. And now he's letting us know that it's possible to turn away from

from the gospel of grace. Now I would call your mind back to Luke chapter six, the parable of the wise and the foolish builders. They both built houses. They both looked great on the outside, but when the storm came, one survived and the other did not, right?

One survived the beating, the vehement storm, the stream that came. One survived because they had dug deep a foundation and it was established on the rock. But the other one was not established. It didn't have the foundation. And so the house collapsed. With verse 6 and 7 here in mind, what kind of house did the Galatians build? He's writing to churches. He's writing to people who, you know, have believed, who've heard the words of Jesus. What kind of foundation did

Did they build? They were lacking a foundation, specifically in the grace of God. They weren't deciding, we're going to run away from God. We're going to rebel against God with all that we got. That really wasn't the issue. The issue was they were departing from the grace of God and they were now trying to relate to God on the basis of their works and their efforts.

And although, you know, we would look at, well, at least they're not, you know, going out to the nightclubs and partying all night and stuff, you know, that's better. But that's not really the right perspective. Their house was built on sand. Their house has collapsed. This is a serious thing. He says this gospel is not another. There's some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

What you're starting to believe and the things that you're starting to walk in, it's a perversion of the gospel. It's not the gospel. It's a different gospel and it's not actually a gospel that can't save you. There's some real problems with this. And because they lacked the foundation, well, this storm of false doctrine came and their house just collapsed. They began to walk in a different direction than walking with God.

Jesus called you in grace. And if you lack a foundation in grace, we need to know I'm susceptible to being turned to a different gospel. Again, this is probably one of the most difficult doctrines for us to receive. And that's why this foundation is so important. It's not because it's complicated, but it's offensive to our flesh. It's contrary to our nature.

We have an internal battle with the doctrine of grace. There's a natural draw away from grace along with all of the external things. There is other gospels being presented continually. Other gospels being presented, you know, in news articles and TV shows and, you know, people walking down the street and knocking on your door. And it doesn't have to be

complete, you know, cult type things either, because I would remind you, we're writing to the churches of Galatia. This is another gospel, an alternative gospel, a gospel that is not the gospel of Christ, that is being embraced within this whole region and the churches that are in there. Any gospel that is not based on grace is a perversion of the gospel.

He says it's not another in verse 7. In other words, it can't save. It's not good news. It's a perversion of the gospel of Christ. And so in Luke chapter 6, you can think about what kind of house they built. And well, they built on dirt. They didn't dig deep. They heard the doctrine. They heard about grace, but they didn't do grace.

And so they collapsed and they began to walk after a different gospel. Another way to think about this would be the other parable that Jesus told. I mentioned it last week, but in Luke chapter eight, Jesus tells the parable of the sower, right? You remember that one? That's the parable where the sower goes out to sow and the seed falls on how many different types of soil? Seven, six, eight, 12. How many? Anybody remember? Colleen remembers, but she's just shy.

Four, four types of soil. There was the seed that fell on the wayside, the path, and the birds came and took that seed away, right? Then there was the seed that fell on the rocky soil. That is the idea that there was soil with a large rock underneath it so the roots couldn't grow down deep. And so it sprung up fast, but then because it didn't have a good root system, it died quickly when the sun came up.

And then there was the seed that fell among the thorny soil. And there was all these weeds and the weeds choked out the seed as it was growing. And then there was the seed that fell on the good ground. And the good ground received the seed. It produced a hundredfold and bore great fruit, right? So Jesus tells this parable in Luke chapter eight. And then he explains it. The parable is this. The seed is the word of God.

And so it's the word of God being sown and then it's received in all these different ways. And Jesus walks through the different types of conditions of people who have heard the word of God and how that applies to the parable and how that applies to the illustration there. Thinking through the different types of soil, the wayside, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. What kind of soil did the Galatians have?

Again, I shared this last week, but I'll share it again. Sometimes we think about these things and we limit it in our perspective, in our context, only to that initial conversion experience, that initial hearing of the gospel. And we think about the soils and we think, well, I have good soil because I believed in Jesus. But the seed is the word of God. It's not just the initial message of the gospel, but it's the rest of the doctrine. It's the rest of the teaching as well.

And what kind of soil do I have when the word of God is being sown, when it's being cast out? What kind of soil do I have? What kind of soil did the Galatians have? In verse 6 here, Paul says, The Galatians were turning away. What kind of soil did they have? Not the good soil that produced a hundredfold because they were turning away. No, I would suggest to you Luke 8, verse 13, as Jesus explains the parable of the sower, says,

He says, the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in a time of temptation, fall away. They turn away. They go a different direction. There's the receiving. There's the joy. There's the beginning of something. That's what the Galatians experienced. They experienced at the beginning of the gospel of grace, the doctrine of grace, but there came a limit to that.

And in a time of temptation, temptation, again, is not only, you know, let's go out and live it up and try to participate in every sin possible, but temptation can also include a deviation in doctrine. Hey, let's love God, but let's do it this way. Let's earn it. Let's put in effort. Let's, you know, work towards it. And that is another kind of temptation. It's another kind of turning away. If you'll turn your page over to Galatians chapter five for just a moment,

Just to kind of reiterate this, in verse four of Galatians chapter five, Paul says, you have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. They have fallen away. They've become strangers to Christ. They don't know Jesus anymore. They've become strangers to Jesus. Jesus has become a stranger to them because they've gone down. They've lacked a foundation and they've gone down a different path than

on a doctrine that is not grace. Beware the dangers of lacking a foundation in grace. This is a really important doctrine. It's a really important subject, and we need to grasp hold of it and walk in it so that we don't become estranged from Christ, so that we don't turn away in a time of temptation. When there comes that opportunity, that time for a different gospel to take place, to take root in our hearts,

This is one of the reasons why we need to establish these foundations. Watch out for the dangers. Now, these can manifest itself. Embracing a different gospel can manifest itself in our lives in a variety of ways. I'll just give two examples. When you stay away from God because of sin, you are lacking a foundation in grace.

Because the grace of God is not, you have been good and you haven't been bad. And so therefore I will offer you forgiveness and you can approach me and have access to my presence. The grace of God is, you don't deserve it. You're not good. You've not...

done good. You haven't always done good. And still I'm offering you access to me. That's what God says. That's the grace of God. When you stay away from God and you don't pray and you don't spend time in worship and you don't spend time in the word and you don't seek after God and you don't seek to know God and you don't call out to God and ask God for help. When you stay away from God because of sin, you are lacking a foundation in grace. You have deviated to a different gospel.

That's not the gospel of grace. And similar to that, but kind of the other side of it, when you only think that God will bless you when you've been good, then you're lacking in a foundation in grace. And you're praying, God, please bless me because look at how good I've been. You're lacking foundation. You're susceptible to being swept away. That's not good soil.

You're trying to relate to God on that basis? That's not good soil. That's not a good foundation. That's not building your house on a good foundation. No, trying to or thinking that God is only going to bless you when you've been good or that God only desires to bless you because you haven't been bad, you know, that trying to receive from God. No, you can receive from God blessings on the basis of the goodness of God, not on the basis of how good you are. That's the grace of God. And that's,

I know for some people that sends alarms. That's like danger, danger. You know that, I don't know. That sounds like really bad doctrine. That seems too crazy. That seems too far, but that's the grace of God. The grace of God is really radical and different than the way that we relate to one another, different than what we usually offer to other people around us. It is the way that God relates to us though.

Now, again, not for the purpose of, well, that means just go live it up. No, no, no. For the purpose of delivering you from this present evil age. You can come to God. You can walk with God. You can call out to God. You can ask God for help. You can ask God to bless you. You can worship God. You can pray to God. You can, you know, exercise the gifts of the spirit. All on the basis of who God is and his goodness towards you, not on the basis of who you are and how good or bad you've been. Watch out. Pay attention.

And beware the dangers of that lacking a foundation in grace. And that leads us into the third point, which is in verse 8 and 9, build yourself a deep foundation in grace. So knowing the danger there, now that should encourage us a bit to dig deep and really establish ourselves in the doctrine of grace. Verse 8 and 9 says this,

Paul gives some really bold words here, right? If anybody preaches any other gospel,

Let him be accursed. That is eternally damned, cut off forever for all of eternity. Very strong words that Paul is using here. And Paul applies it. He says, look, even if it's me, if I show up and I start preaching a message that is different than what you have received already, let me be accursed, Paul says.

If it's an angel, an angel appears, and that would be a glorious experience, right? But that angel preaches a different message, a different gospel. It's not according to grace. Let that angel be accursed, cut off forever for all of eternity. And then Paul says, it's not strong enough for me to just say it one time. I said it before, I'll say it again. He says, if anybody preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. Now, I just want to back up a moment.

Remind you, going back to verse 2, this is a letter written to the churches of Galatia. Quick look at the geography. We're talking about a whole region, not just a specific city, not just one church inside of one specific city. But think about what that means.

Paul is not writing to the Philippians. One city, one church inside a city and saying, I can't believe this church has departed from the gospel of grace. He's saying, I can't believe this. This is so important. This whole region needs it. All of Southern California needs to hear. I can't believe I am marveling that you have turned away from the gospel of grace and

And you need to know if anybody teaches anything else, if anybody teaches something else, that is blasphemy. They are worthy of being cut off and condemned to hell for all eternity. This is a false doctrine that has swept through the whole region of Galatia. And the churches, a bunch of churches all around the region have been affected.

have been swayed, caught up and swept away with this false doctrine. And I make that point to say, listen, relying upon others for your foundation is no guarantee that you're secure. Jesus said, you know, taking my words, digging down deep, building a foundation by doing them yourself. There is not a substitute for you digging into the word of God and digging into a walk with God in order to have a real foundation.

If you're relying upon a church for your foundation, you don't know why the church teaches what it teaches. You don't know why that doctrine, you don't know why it's not familiar to you. It's not yours. There's an issue because churches can get swept up in false doctrine. Not just a single church. We understand that. Not surprising to us that a single church could go off, you know, Hey, you get a weird pastor in there and yeah, it makes sense.

But how could all of Southern California be swept up in false doctrine? It could happen. And regions and areas. And you might be able to look around and say, but I'm pretty sure I believe what is right. And I'm walking in what's right. Because, I mean, there's all these other churches, everybody around me. This is what they believe. This is how we walk. This is what we do. But if that's your security, well, there's the potential for you to be building on a wrong foundation.

We need to build ourselves a deep foundation in grace and learn ourselves to know God and walk with God and relate to God by grace. How do you know that you're not among that kind of group, the whole region of Galatia that would need to be rebuked and corrected in this way? If you're lacking a foundation, it's easy to fall prey to that kind of group. Build yourself a deep foundation in

in grace. And Paul says, if we or anybody else, even if it's an angel from heaven, that's really kind of interesting to consider, right? This is how sure the doctrine of grace is. Even if an angel appears tonight, right there in your room, an angel appears to you and declares to you a different message, a different gospel, that angel is accursed.

And you are not to receive that message. Now, you could understand if an angel appears to you and gives you a message, that's a lot of weight behind it, right? There's a lot of pressure to receive and accept and live by that message. But if that message is contrary to the gospel of grace, you are not to receive even to that extent.

Even if the heavens open up and angels shout down at you, even then you are not to change course. You are not to have a different method of approaching God. You are to build yourself a deep foundation and grace that is so deep that even if angels appeared to you, they could not sway you. You could not be swept away. You could not be pushed off the foundation that is the grace of Jesus Christ. That's a pretty deep,

incredible thing for Paul to say. Now we can understand it. We can, okay, I accept that. Okay, that's true. But how do we get there? How do you get a foundation like that? How do you get established to such a degree that even if an angel appears, you wouldn't be swept away? How do you get there? Well, Jesus told us in Luke chapter six, how do you get there? He says, whoever hears my sayings and does them. That's the key. Again, it's foundations, foundations,

for Christian living. The doctrine of grace is not just theoretical. It's not just in our minds. You need to do grace. And the only way that you can be so firmly established that even if an angel appeared to you and told you a different message, the only way that you could be that established is for you to do grace.

to actually relate to God on the basis of his goodness towards you and not on the basis of your worth, your merits, your efforts, how well you deserve it, or how far you should stay away because you've been, you know, involved in such wrongdoing. If you don't work hard to dig deep and relate to God by grace, you will be lacking in a foundation in the grace of God.

And there's a danger. There's some real problems with that. And you could find yourself departing from the gospel of grace. Again, this guy, Spiros Zodiatis, the Greek scholar, he says, grace remains constant in and basic to a believer's fight without against the devil and his struggle within against sin. So on the outside against the devil and all the world, and there's all kinds of power, grace remains an essential component of that fight.

But then also we have that internal fight, that internal battle against sin, that internal battle against legalism,

He says, renewal is stimulated by God's illuminating and strengthening of the soul and will continue to increase so long as the soul perseveres. The grace of God is not just, I accepted it when I believed in Jesus, but the grace of God is an ongoing doctrine and truth and gift from God that gives us what we need to fight the battles that we fight and face the things that we face. It's not just at the beginning.

But it's pressing on and living out the doctrine of grace. Looking again at Galatians chapter 5, this time in verse 1, when Paul gets to the application, finally he says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not become entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Stand fast, therefore, because of all the doctrine of grace, which we'll get into.

But because of all the doctrine of grace, because of the reality of what grace is, we need to make sure that we dig a deep foundation in grace to stand fast. Foundations are not dug in one shot. It's not just one shovelful. All right, got my foundation. Good to go. How are foundations dug? One shovelful at a time.

over and over and over and over again. And that's the same thing. This is how we build a foundation of grace. We relate to God. So that means we draw near to God even when we don't deserve it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Shovel full after shovel full, we keep drawing near to God. We invite God to work in our lives even though we don't deserve it. Even though we deserve judgment, we draw near to God and spend time in the presence of God. Even though, you know, we're unworthy. You get the point. We

We actually take God at his word and we relate to him on the basis of his grace towards us. And in doing that, we build ourselves a deep foundation in grace. It takes deliberate effort. In the book of Acts, I think it's chapter 13, it talks about Paul and Barnabas persuading the religious Jews to continue in the grace of God. They had started, they had believed in Jesus and

But there's going to be a great tendency for them to revert back to legalism. And so they persuaded, they convinced them. They said, look, you need to now continue and go forward in the grace of God. That is a great exhortation for us. We need to build ourselves a deep foundation in grace. And that is to come to God continually, repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over again. When we don't deserve it, when we're unworthy, continually.

when we deserve judgment, when we've blown it, when we've failed it, when we've been victorious, regardless, coming to God on the basis of His work and not ours. That is the foundation of grace. And that's what God is calling us to live. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.