GALATIANS 3 GOD RELATES TO US BY GRACE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Galatians 3 God Relates To Us By 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. Good morning. You can be seated. And you can open up your Bibles with me to Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians chapter 3 is where we're going to be today and it's great to be here with you. I'm sure that Pastor Mike is having a really amazing time in Israel and I know that he'll be real excited and fired up to come back and share it with you. And so whenever that opportunity is, be it on Wednesday or next Sunday,

I would encourage you to participate in that and hear about the things that the Lord spoke to them and ministered to them. It is always an amazing time. And so next time there is an opportunity to go to Israel, I would encourage you to pray about it as well, to see the

the places where Jesus walked and you know the things that we've studied for so many years and the actual places and it just the Lord uses that to really bring the scriptures alive in your hearts and so even I know that it can be costly but I would encourage you to seek the Lord for next time if it's next year or two years whenever the occasion might be really

And look to the Lord and maybe take a step of faith and see if the Lord would have you participate in that. You will be blessed. So hearing about it from Pastor Mike, you'll be blessed. If you have a chance to go, you'll be blessed. And this morning as we get into the word of God, you're going to be blessed here as well because God has some incredible things to remind us of and to share with us this morning. As we look at Galatians chapter 3, we're going to be talking about the doctrine of grace.

And grace is such an important doctrine. And yet I would suggest that grace is perhaps the most difficult doctrine for us to comprehend and grasp hold of.

Not so much because it's complex. It's not difficult in the sense that, you know, there's all these ideas and you have to figure it out. But it's difficult because it is so contrary to our nature. And we have a tendency to veer away from grace and to stray from grace and to really grasp hold of the grace of God takes some deliberate effort on our part and takes some, you know, conscious decision-making for us to really believe God and

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We're just going to get a little snippet, but I hope it gives you a good sense of the grace of God. That God relates to you in a way that you don't deserve, you could never earn, and you don't have to earn or deserve it in order for God to relate to you with his goodness and his mercy and forgiveness. He gives himself to us.

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And then I'll invite you to read the even-numbered verses, okay? So read along with me. Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. Again, I will read the odd-numbered verses. And would you please read the even-numbered verses? Verse 1 says, Are you so foolish?

Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Let's pray.

Lord, this morning as we are gathered together here, we are gathered in your name, Lord, because you truly are great.

And we desire to know you and to walk with you and to receive from you all that you have for us. And God, as we spend this time in your word, I pray that you would pour out your spirit upon us, that we would be able to receive from you exactly the things that you want to speak to us. Lord, would you minister to our hearts about the subject of grace? Lord, would you open up our eyes if there are areas of our hearts and lives that we

Lord, we have forgotten about grace and are trying to earn or deserve your favor and your goodness. God, I pray that you would lead us into your presence as we look to you, recognizing that we receive from you on the basis of your goodness towards us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Well, here in the region of Galatia, as Paul is writing this letter, there is a big issue that's going on. Paul was amongst them years earlier and preached the gospel and established churches. But now there's a group known as the Judaizers that have come into the region of Galatia and are teaching some false doctrine.

The Judaizers were Jewish believers who would come in many times after the Apostle Paul would go through a region, and they would come in and they would teach the doctrine that, okay, you believe in Jesus now, that's great, that's a good start. But now, in order to really have good access to God and good favor from God, in order to really be righteous...

you need to now start practicing the law of Moses. In other words, you need to become Jews as well as believing in Jesus. That began, of course, with the process of circumcision for the men, but it continued on with the keeping of the law, the keeping of all of the feasts, and all of the things that were prescribed in the Old Testament, that you had to follow these things is what they taught in order to really be

be able to have right standing before God and to be righteous before the Lord. And so Paul, in writing to the Galatians, is seeking to correct this bad doctrine, addressing this misunderstanding of the way that God works. If you'll back up in your Bible just a couple chapters to Galatians chapter 1 in verse 6, Paul says, I marvel...

Paul is astonished at the Galatians. He marvels. He says, I can't believe that you are turning away so quickly from the grace of God.

The gospel of the grace of Christ. The gospel of grace is that the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross gives us access to God by faith, by believing in Jesus, then we have access to God, we have forgiveness from God, we have everything that God has for us by faith in Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God. Sometimes grace is defined as undeserved favor and kindness. It's a good definition.

It's God's goodness. It's God's kindness towards us that we do not deserve. And yet here are the Galatians. They've turned away from that. And now they're thinking it's by our efforts that we find righteous standing before God.

Jesus was a good start. That was a good place to begin. But now we have to keep ourselves righteous. We have to keep ourselves. We have to perform these things in order to stay in a position of righteousness and to continue to have access to God. We must follow these rules and regulations.

Now, this is important for us to consider today because it's not some rare thing that only happened 2,000 years ago that a group of people would turn away from the gospel of grace. In fact, it's something that we will all struggle with and deal with individually. There is a tendency in our nature to gravitate towards works and away from grace.

The specific thing that they were dealing with was the Old Testament law turning to Judaism. That may not be your personal struggle today, but it also applies to any system of rules and regulations or rituals that either others impose upon us or we invent ourselves.

And sometimes we can be legalistic, we can become like the Judaizers in just our own system that we've invented in our own minds of these are the rules that I must follow. And if I do these things, then God is pleased with me. If I do these things, then God will forgive me. If I follow this path, if I keep these rituals, if I do these things, then God will work in my life and pour out blessing in my life. If I follow these, and we can come up with our own rules,

system just like the Judaizers. And so it's important for us to consider. It's something we gravitate towards. We can get caught up into it easily without even recognizing it. Things that start out good

Things that start out as, I want to grow in the Lord, and so I'm going to develop the spiritual discipline, and that's great. And we need to be doing that. At the same time, we need to be on the alert for that becoming some system that we follow to try to earn God's favor. And so we need to keep coming back to this truth, the truth of grace. I've titled the message this morning, God Relates to Us by Grace.

God relates to us by grace. This is the way that God works in our lives. He doesn't work in your life on the basis of your efforts, your merits, and how much you deserve. He relates to us according to grace. Now, there's a quick, easy way to tell if you've kind of forgotten about this way that God works. If you have forgotten about grace, then you will stay away from God because of your failures. You ever do that?

Do you ever not pray because, well...

I've sinned. I messed up. I just yelled at my wife. I just blew up. I just got involved in that. I can't believe I was engaged in that. And so we kind of put ourselves on a timeout. We place ourselves in the corner. I can't talk to God for 20 minutes because I have to deal with or I have to suffer for the thing that I've done. Listen, if you ever stay away from God because of your failures, you've forgotten about God's grace.

You've fallen into legalism. You've fallen into a system of works. If you ever try to approach God and ask God to work in your life, negotiating with him on the basis of what you've done, you say, look, God, I'm late to work today. There's all this traffic in front of me. But listen, I've read my Bible four times this week. If you could just part the Red Sea, those sea of red lights, you know, and get me to work on time. Look, I deserve it. I've read the Bible four times this week.

When you begin to negotiate with God and try to receive from God on the basis of this is what I deserve, this is, you know, I've earned this, look what I have done. Well, you've forgotten about the grace of God. God relates to us not on the basis of our efforts, whether that be our successes or our failures, but he relates to us on the basis of grace.

Now here, as we get into Galatians chapter three, this passage that we're looking at is filled with questions because the apostle Paul is challenging them to think through their new belief system. You've turned away from the gospel of grace and you're following this other path now, but you haven't thought it through. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit with what the rest of the scriptures teach you. So Paul asked them, who has bewitched you?

He asked them, did you receive the spirit by works? He asked them, are you so foolish? Are you being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered in vain? Does he work miracles by the works of the law? All these questions to try to stir up the Galatians to think through the belief system that they've adopted. And this morning, I would encourage you to allow these questions to stir up in your mind, to allow you to analyze and consider, have I adopted a system of works of

Have I fallen into a path of legalism? Have I thought through what I really believe? And the way that I live, does it reflect what the Bible actually teaches? I want to encourage you this morning to check your doctrine and make sure it lines up with the rest of scripture. I like what Pastor David Guzik says. He says, "'It's wonderful to have a soft, tender heart before God, "'but some people have softer heads than hearts.'"

He says, Have you ever watched a baby? You ever seen a baby stick anything into its, it's like, ooh, what's this? I wonder what it tastes like, right? That's just like immediate thing that babies do.

Immature believers do the same thing. Ooh, new doctrine. What does it taste like? Let's try this. Without stopping to evaluate.

What does the Bible actually say? Is this consistent with the word of God? And so we need to allow God to challenge us by his word and to keep us in line with the truth of the grace of God. And so we're going to look at three points this morning to remember that God relates to us by grace and help us think through the doctrine that is in our heads and correct any false doctrine that is there. The first point, we're going to stay here in verse one for a moment.

Point number one is the crucifixion of Jesus shows that God relates to us by grace. The crucifixion of Jesus is what Paul looks at first here in verse one. He says, "'O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you "'that you should not obey the truth, "'before whose eyes Jesus Christ "'was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?' As he addresses the Galatians here in chapter three, he says, "'Let's think about the cross.'"

How can you turn from Jesus to this system of works? You've turned from the truth, but Jesus was set before you as crucified. You saw and understood very clearly the crucifixion of Jesus. Now this is an important and key element to understanding the doctrine of grace. If you'll back up here in your Bible, one verse, back to the end of chapter 2, verse 21 says,

Paul there is actually addressing Peter, but he is ending that message to Peter in verse 21. He says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Paul says, I don't set aside the grace of God, because if righteousness comes any other way, if there's a rule system, a legal system, a system of merits or efforts that we can do, then Christ died in vain. Let me ask you,

Did Jesus die in vain? Was it a worthless, purposeless death? No, the whole fact and the reason why Jesus died was because there is no system that we can follow to earn God's forgiveness or favor. There is no system that we can follow to deserve for God to work in our lives.

And so looking at the cross and considering the cross is crucial for us to hold fast to the course of relating to God by grace. And it's wonderful that we get this morning to conclude our service, not yet, don't get too excited, but a little bit later with communion to reflect on and remember and consider the cross of Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus did not die in vain. There was a reason why he died. And the reason was there is no other way to receive from God. There is no way for us to be righteous before God. There is no other way for us to be forgiven. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the father and said, Lord, if there is another way,

If there is a way for people to be righteous, to receive eternal life, to receive blessings from you, Father, if there's any other way, let's do that instead. But there was no other way. And Jesus went to the cross for you and I because we can't earn or deserve the favor of God. And so he says, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? What has happened to you, Paul says?

You foolish Galatians. I like the translator J.B. Phillips. He translates it this way. Oh, you dear idiots of Galatia. He's not really insulting them.

But he is calling them to consider like, what a foolish thing to do. It's an endearing term. This idea of foolish doesn't mean that you are, there's a much harsher word for that actually in the Greek, but that's not this word. This word refers to someone who can think, but has just failed to use that power of perception. They can think, but they haven't thought through this new doctrine that they've embraced.

And Paul says, what has happened? How have you bought into this idea that you have to earn or deserve God's favor? How have you fallen for that? When Jesus was right there, he was portrayed in front of you

You clearly understood the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, that Jesus being God became man and died upon the cross. You understand the doctrine of the cross. The sacrifice of Jesus was so meaningful, so powerful, that it was a once and for all type of work. Forgiveness comes by faith in Jesus Christ. And by faith in Jesus Christ, you are justified.

A good way to remember justified. What that means? It's just as if I'd never sinned. You cannot be more righteous than the righteousness that you have by believing in Jesus. It's already just as if you'd never sinned. You can't add on to that. Okay, now I'm mostly righteous. Jesus got me 90% of the way, but that last 10%, you know, I got to work hard and be righteous. That doesn't, no, you're righteous before God. He sees you by faith in Jesus Christ. He sees you

As if you had never sinned, not even once in your whole life. I mean, isn't that incredible? That is crazy, the way that God relates to us. But that's the value of the sacrifice that Jesus did on our behalf. You cannot be in a better position, you cannot have a better standing before God than the standing that you have by believing in Jesus. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? You haven't thought through this new doctrine that you've embraced yet.

You've forgotten about the cross. The commentator Thomas Constable says, the Galatians would not have found false teaching attractive if they had truly appreciated the major significance of Jesus's crucifixion. When we view lightly the work of Jesus on the cross, we will easily move into a workspace relationship. Every blessing that you ever receive from God, it's related to what Christ has done for you upon the cross.

Every promise that God has given you, it's related to and based upon what Jesus has done for you upon the cross. And if you hold fast to the cross and appreciate the value of the cross, it will help you to avoid the traps of legalism. I kind of picture this idea, this grace as a road. You know, you're going down the road of grace and there's ditches on either side. On one side, you have the ditch of works.

And sometimes we're driving down the road of grace and we just kind of like stop paying attention. We drift off and then we just, we find ourself in the ditch of works and we are working hard to try to earn and deserve God's favor. We're staying away from God because, you know, we failed, we messed up. We haven't, you know, kept that new year's resolution that we made. And, and so, you know, we're, we're trying to earn and deserve our relationship with God. We've fallen off the road of grace and,

And it halts our spiritual growth. It halts our spiritual life because we're in the ditch trying to relate to God on the basis of our works. Now on the other side of the road, there's another ditch. And that is the ditch of unbridled sin. And sometimes people try to take the grace of God as an excuse to say, all right, there's grace. So that means I can live in whatever sin I want to. I can do whatever I want to. I don't have to regard what God says at all. I can just go live it up.

And Paul, we're not going to deal with that a whole lot this morning, but that is another ditch. It halts our spiritual growth to try to use the grace of God in an inappropriate way. It's not what grace is for. Grace is unlimited opportunities for you to draw near to God. You get unlimited retries to draw near to God.

You try, you fail, you can get back up and you can draw near to God again. It's unlimited lives if you're playing video games. You know, you get to try again and just keep coming back and keep coming back to try to draw near to God and walk with God and enjoy the presence of God. It's unlimited opportunity to seek after God. Not unlimited opportunity to pursue a life of sin. That's not what grace is for. That's not the way that grace works. But

If you want to know God, you want to walk with God, you want to receive from God, you want to have a relationship with God, you have unlimited opportunities by the grace of God. The crucifixion of Jesus shows, it proves once and for all, Jesus hung upon the cross to say, you can't earn God's favor. You can't deserve. You can't be righteous on your own. I will do it for you, Jesus says. And you believe in me.

And receive what I've done for you. And you have the best standing before God that anybody can have. The crucifixion of Jesus shows that God relates to us by grace. And if there was another way to be righteous, Jesus did not need to die. It would have been a great expense for nothing, for no value. Check your doctrine. Make sure what's happening in your head and in your heart matches up with what the Bible actually teaches.

Well, Paul's going to go on now in verses two through five, we'll get point number two. And that is your own experience shows that God relates to us by grace. Not only can we look at the cross and we can recognize, wow, God relates to us by grace. But Paul says, just stop and think about your own experience, how you began in a relationship with God. How did that happen? Was it by grace or was it some other way, some other method? Verse two, Paul says, this only I want to learn from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Paul says, stop and think. Let me ask you this question so that you can consider how did this start for you? How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it that you went through a class and you worked real hard and studied real hard and then you got the Holy Spirit badge, boom, and then suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon you? Is that how you received the Holy Spirit? Did you, you know, do enough good works and you know, you finally gave that last

you know, to the poor. And so now here you go, here's the Holy Spirit and reward for all of your great efforts. How did you first receive the Holy Spirit? It wasn't by works. It wasn't by efforts. It was by the hearing of faith and it was by the grace of God. Now, when Paul calls them to consider their own experience, it's interesting. And we need to consider this a little bit because some people would look at their own experience and

And come to the conclusion, yeah, I think it was by works. Because here's what I did. Here's what was happening in my life. Here's what I did. And then God worked in my life. And so there's a little bit of a risk in considering our own experience in that we can misinterpret what the reason was for God working in our lives. And perhaps that's you.

Perhaps you've been thinking that God has worked in your life because of something you've done, because of some efforts that you put forth or some, you know, contribution that you made. But you need to understand that it's possible to misunderstand, to misinterpret. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, to argue from experience can be dangerous because experiences can be counterfeited and they can be misunderstood.

There is a risk considering our own experience. It's subjective. We can misunderstand and some of it might be counterfeit.

And so we need to balance it with what the word teaches. So here we have our own experiences, but Paul also has been challenging us to consider the cross. So we're not just considering our own experience. We're also looking at the doctrine of salvation and the cross. And then he's going to go on to consider the way that God related to Abraham and look back at the scriptures. And so sandwiched in between, you know, these two objective truths and facts, now we also need to consider salvation.

our own experience and if you as you're thinking through these things and considering these things recognize you know I've been misunderstanding I've been thinking that God worked in my life because well finally I got my act together and started coming to church and you know so that's why God worked in my life and you might have a misunderstanding of the reason the method that God has used Paul in speaking to the Galatians says think about your experience

He was there with them when they first received the Holy Spirit. How did you receive it, he says? Was it by the works of the law? Now, the Galatians were not Jews. They didn't have the law. They didn't practice the law. They didn't even care about the law. But now, suddenly, they're starting to care because of this doctrine that has come in. But before that, they received the gospel, the gospel of grace.

And it was by believing in Jesus that God began to work in their lives. He says, think about when you received the Holy Spirit. Now, this is a good test for Paul to use as an example, because, well, this is something that every Christian has experienced. Every believer in Jesus has received the Holy Spirit. And so it's a good test for us to consider.

It's a good example for us to rewind in our minds and go back to, and I would encourage you to do that a little bit. Go back to when did you receive the Holy Spirit? It's something that every believer has experienced. In Romans chapter eight, verse nine, Paul says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you, it seems like a question, but then he goes on to say, now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Here's what the Bible teaches us.

Those who have believed in Jesus Christ, they've been born again by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit has come and indwelt in that person. And there is no true Christian that does not have the Holy Spirit as a result. If you don't have the Spirit, you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. So it's a good test because it's universal for all believers. Now the question is, how have you received that Holy Spirit?

How have you received that initial work of God in pouring out the Holy Spirit upon you? Regenerating you. You're born again. How did you receive that? Was it by your efforts and your works? Or was it by the grace of God? Paul is not just asking them to consider their initial experience. In verse 5...

He talks about the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. He says, So he says, think about your initial experience. Think about your ongoing experience, the one who continues to supply the Holy Spirit to you. Also, he goes on in verse 5 to say, God's working miracles in your life. And how is that happening?

Is it happening by your efforts or by the grace of God? Do you remember your first experience with the Holy Spirit? Do you remember? If you could rewind the tape in your mind, what was that like for you? What was going on in your life? My first experience, well, I grew up in the church. My parents got saved when I was two years old. And so I grew up, you know, going to church and knowing about God and believing in God.

But I remember there's this one occasion that stands out in my mind and it's, I usually describe it as the time when God got a hold of my life. It was at a youth retreat. I was maybe 15 years old and we were at this convention center and it was during a time of worship. Now by that time, I'd sat through, you know, 13 years of times of worship. But this one, I don't know, something was different. God just poured out his Holy Spirit upon me. And that time of worship was different

Well, he's different than any other time of worship that had preceded it. God began to speak to my life and move in my heart and change me. And I can look back in my life and see, wow, there was a radical turn from that point on. God changed my life at that point. How did that happen? It wasn't my efforts. It wasn't my goodness. It was just the grace of God. He decided that night to work in my life in a unique and powerful way.

Now it's not the last time I've needed God to work in my life and change my life. And he has continued to do that. He has continued to supply his Holy Spirit in my life. Never because I deserve it. You know,

Sometimes there can be this misunderstanding in our minds. We kind of put people on pedestals and think of them on another level aside from us. Like, well, of course, God speaks to Pastor Mike. Well, he is incredibly righteous and holy. Of course. Can't expect God to work like that in my life. I don't measure up. Listen, not sharing any secret details or anything, but Mike doesn't measure up either. None of us do. We all...

Have the same standing before God. Nobody has better access to God than you do. Did you know that? Nobody has a special place that they can approach God and walk with God and talk to God and hear from God better than you. You have the same access to God. And you may misunderstand your experiences, but if you'll understand them from a biblical perspective, you'll understand, hey, from the very beginning, your relationship to God has been all about God's work for you, not your work for him. Have you ever received a miracle from God?

Was it because you deserved it? No. You might think so, but if you do, correct that bad doctrine in your head. That's not the truth. Have you ever had any experience with God because of your efforts and works? No. If you think that, correct that bad doctrine in your head. Your life with God

Your relationship to God from the very beginning has been a work of grace. You have never deserved it. You have never earned it. You did not work hard enough and you could not even if you tried. Some people are aware of their need for God and so they work hard and they try to please God on their efforts, on the basis of their merits. And that's why we can sometimes misunderstand that, well, yeah, look, I did all this and then God worked in my life.

But don't misunderstand the grace of God and give yourself credit for what God has done. It has always been God's grace in your life that has brought about the work of the Spirit and any other promise or blessing or good thing that comes from God, it's by His goodness and His grace and not our goodness or our efforts.

Verse 3, Paul says, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? So understanding, first of all, from the very beginning, the work of God in my life has been about his grace, not my works. Paul says, are you so foolish to think that, okay, God, you gave me a good start. Died on the cross, you know, forgave me of all the past stuff. But now from here on out, it's up to me.

And I have to keep this and I have to walk in that and I have to be perfect in that. And thank you for, you know, giving me a good start. But I got it from here. Paul says, are you so foolish to think that you can go from here now? You didn't start that way. You're not going to finish that way. That's not the way that God works in our lives. Are you going to now be made perfect by the flesh, by your strength, by your efforts? No.

No, God's work in your life ongoing is the same method as your original experience with God. It doesn't change. It's not grace just to get you started and then works from there on out. It's grace from beginning to end. Sometimes we can teach, we can think, and we can be very persuasive about it. You must be holy for the Holy Spirit to work in your life. You must be holy to receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, I understand when that's being taught what is trying to be conveyed, but on the surface, that's backwards. You don't become holy in order to receive the Holy Spirit. You receive the Holy Spirit in order to become holy. And there is no way that you can become holy apart from the Holy Spirit working in your life. But sometimes we get it backwards.

And we start to think, I need to, you know, be determined and make some rules. I'm not holy. So, you know, I've not letting the Holy Spirit work in my life. And so let me make a law. Okay. You know, I have to be at home by eight o'clock at night because after eight o'clock I get in trouble. So let me make a law. Let me make a rule.

And look, God, I've been keeping this role. I've been at home about eight o'clock every day. So, you know, I'm holy. Now give me the Holy Spirit. Like, no, you can't negotiate with God. You can't work out or deserve the work of God like that. The grace of God is such that you have right standing before God by faith in Jesus Christ.

You want to become more righteous, more holy? You want to be more set apart and be sanctified? You don't try to approach God and receive from God on the basis of your efforts, but you continue to come to God on the basis of his grace. Verse five, again, he says, therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or the hearing of faith? Challenging them. You haven't thought through this doctrine of yours yet.

You're thinking it's about your efforts and you think you've earned it, but you're mistaken. Check your doctrine, Paul says. It doesn't add up with the cross. It doesn't add up with how God began to work in your life. Your own experience shows that God relates to us by grace. And since that is the case, again, let me encourage you, never stay away from God because of your failure.

Never put yourself on timeout and keep yourself from approaching God or asking God for help or for a blessing or for God to work in your life. Never stay away from God because you failed. God's not surprised by your failure. He's not shocked by it. He's not upset by it in the sense that he's like, I can't talk to you right now. You know, talk to the hand. You know, like that God is not

He's not relating to you that way. You know how he relates to you? He relates to you by grace. He already knew the worst about you when he went to the cross for you. He already died for that. He already paid for that. Don't stay away from God because you failed. In fact, that's what the enemy uses in our lives to keep us from God. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no wrath for you.

No condemnation. You go to God even though you failed. You go to God even though you failed 30 seconds ago. You go to God in the midst of the failure that's happening because you have access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And you can call out to him and ask him to help. You can ask him to work. You can ask for him to bless you even though you failed and don't deserve it. Because the reality is you've never deserved it. And if you thought you did, your doctrine is wrong.

relate to God according to grace. Don't try to approach him on the basis of your successes either. Look how great I've been. We can be Pharisees very easily, guys. Look how righteous we are. Look how well we keep the law. And just like the Pharisees, we keep our favorite parts of the law and we just ignore all the parts that we don't. And so we only think we're righteous because we're ignoring 90% of the truth. But the reality is no.

We've never deserved it. We've never been righteous. And so Paul says, think about your own experience. It'll show you. God relates to us by grace from the very beginning and then it doesn't change. God's work in your life was based on his love for you, not on your efforts for him. Well, the third and final point for this morning is gonna be found here in verses six through nine. Here we see that Abraham's experience shows that God relates to us by grace.

We can see that God relates to us by grace, first of all, by the cross. We go back to the cross. We see what Christ did for us. We recognize he did that because there was no other way. And if there was any other way, then it was a worthless death. It didn't mean much for Christ to die if there was any other way for us to have right standing before God. No, God relates to us by grace. That's why Jesus Christ died for us. In our own experience, we can look back and we can recognize if we have an accurate perspective that

Yeah, in my own life, God has worked in my life because of his grace, because he has loved me, not because I loved him, not because I did some great things. And again, that subjective experience needs to be balanced with objective truth. And so now Paul gives us the example of Abraham. In verse six, he says, just as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. In verse five, he's saying, look, God worked in your life

He continues to work in your life. He continues to pour out the spirit. He continues to work miracles, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith, just as he connects us to think about Abraham, his example, his experience shows us God relates to us by grace. He was a counted righteous by his faith. If your experience is different than Abraham's, let me tell you, something is wrong. If your relationship to God is,

Is on the basis of something different than Abraham's relationship to God? Something is wrong. We relate to God in the same way that Abraham did. It's by faith and through the grace of God. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, Paul turns now from subjective experience to the objective evidence of the word of God. We never judge the scriptures by our experience. We test our experience by the word of God.

We need to think about Abraham because, well, if I'm just thinking about my own experience, I can misunderstand that. It needs to be balanced. It's important. It's valuable. What God's done in your life and your experience with God, that's important. It has great value. But you also need to balance that out with what does God say in his word? And sometimes we can be convinced God works this way because I feel this way. But my feeling is not a good basis for truth, right?

evaluating truth, we need to consider what does the word of God say? And here's what the word of God says. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. This is a quotation from Genesis chapter 15.

And just to kind of refresh your memory a little bit about what was happening in Genesis 15. In verse 5 of Genesis 15, it tells us that he, that is God, brought Abraham outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then in verse 6, Abraham believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness.

So Paul points back to Genesis 15 and says, think about Abraham. Here he is hanging out in his tent and God shows up and begins to speak to him and says, you know what? Let's go outside for a moment. Now look up and look at all the stars. Now, can you imagine, you know, there's no lights, there's no electricity. They're out there in the desert. How many stars could Abraham see? I mean, just filled. The sky is filled with stars. God says, look at all those stars. That's how many descendants you're going to have.

The heavens filled with stars. You're going to have that many descendants. Now, how many children did Abraham have when God gave him this promise? He had none. No children at this point. And do you know how old he was? Well, we don't know exactly how old he was in Genesis chapter 15, but he's somewhere between the ages of 75 and 85 years old. Anybody in between the ages of 75 and 80 years old? You looking forward to having kids one day? Like,

It's not what you would expect, right? God says, I'm going to work crazy miracles in your life, Abraham. You're going to have that many descendants, even though you have none right now. How does that work? Well, Abraham didn't know, but he believed the Lord. God told him, this is how many descendants you're going to have. And Abraham believed that. I don't know how you're going to do it, God, but okay, I'll accept. I'll receive that. Yes. Amen. He believed God when God told him that.

And it tells us in verse six that God accounted it to him for righteousness. Abraham, good job. You believed me. That counts as 100% righteousness to your account. You are completely and totally righteous before me. This wasn't based on Abraham's efforts. It wasn't based on Abraham's achievements and accomplishments. It was based on God led him outside, pointed him up at the sky, told him something crazy. And Abraham said, I believe that. And he received the work of God, the grace of God, this promise of God by faith.

This is the way that Abraham experienced the work of God in his life. It was the grace of God that worked in his life. It wasn't his efforts. Was Abraham righteous at this point and God gave him this promise because he was circumcised? That's what the Judaizers were teaching. But Paul is bringing this up because this event happened 14 years before Abraham was circumcised and that covenant of circumcision was given in Genesis chapter 17.

So he wasn't circumcised. That's not why he was righteous. That's not why God gave him this promise. Did God give him this promise because Abraham kept the law? Well, no. Actually, the law came through Moses 400 years later. Now just think about that. 400 years. That's longer than the United States has existed as a nation. 400 years later, the law came. That's not why Abraham experienced the work of God. It wasn't.

Some act on his part, some effort on his part. It wasn't some, you know, circumcision or some other ritual or sign. It was God's love and God's decision to work in Abraham's life. And Abraham just believed that God would do what he said he would do. He believed God at his word. And God says that counts for righteousness. Verse 7, Paul says, Therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

So that wasn't just one special occasion. Only happened with Abraham. Paul says, the only sons of Abraham, the only daughters of Abraham are those who believe like Abraham believed. Father Abraham had many sons. You knew it was coming, right? He has descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. You know why? Not by DNA. There are Jewish people. They all descend from Abraham, but that's not what God is referring to.

Now the Jewish people in Jesus's day and Paul's day, they thought they had an automatic connection to God because they had Abraham's DNA, but they misunderstood. Abraham's descendants is not a reference to his genetic descendants. Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Those who believe God like Abraham believed God. It wasn't circumcision. The Judaizers came in and taught, you must now be circumcised and keep the law in order to be saved. Become a Jew.

And so Judaizers thought they had a better connection to God than other Christians because of the way that they kept the law. If you're trying to have a better relationship to God or receive from God in a way better than Abraham did, you're messed up. If your experience with God is different than Abraham's, then you're deceived. Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Continuing on in verse 8, it says, This is a reference to Genesis chapter 12, where God gives Abraham this incredible promise. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Abraham's descendants would not just be his own genetic descendants, but every tribe, tongue, and nation would be Abraham's descendants because it would be those who are of faith. And all the families of the earth have the opportunity to be blessed by believing God like Abraham believed God.

And so again in verse nine, so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. This promise of blessing that was given to Abraham is extended to you and you can receive the promise of blessing, but not by your efforts.

Not by your rituals, not by your system of rules or going back to, well, if I only eat vegetables, then I'll really be blessed. Then I can really have God's favor in my life. If I follow this path or follow this pattern, there are legitimate things that God will move upon your heart and in response to him, you walk with him and walk in those ways. But we need to be very careful that we don't then make it a system of rules and regulations that

And think that God is blessing us or working in our lives because of our efforts or our goodness. Abraham received from God because he believed God at his word. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 4 verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace. God designed salvation. He designed our relationship with him in a very particular way.

It's by faith, just like Abraham believed God. We are called to believe God.

He designed it that way so that everyone would have the opportunity. Again, there's no one who has better access to God than you do. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have full access to God. By faith in Jesus Christ, you can walk with God. And what you need most is to do that, to walk with him, to draw near to him, regardless of how well you've been doing.

Regardless of how badly you failed, you need to draw near to God and walk with him and call out to him and express love and adoration to him, worship him, serve him, regardless of your performance, your efforts, your victories, or your failures. God relates to us by grace.

And so we all have the opportunity to receive from God. Salvation, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, miraculous works in our lives, blessings, promises. It's the way that God relates to us. Have you been trying to receive from God by your efforts? Have you been staying away from God because of your failures? Correct that doctrine in your head. It's bad doctrine. It's not the way that God works. God relates to us by grace. And this morning we get to

conclude our time together with the taking of communion and so the worship team's gonna come on up and get ready and the ushers are gonna make ready as well and so we have the opportunity now to go back and reflect upon the cross the crucifixion of Jesus shows that God relates to us by grace let's take some time to appreciate the grace of God given to us by what Christ has done for us as they lead us in this song I would encourage you to just spend some time between you and the Lord

Has there been some bad doctrine in your heart? Thinking that God works in your life because of your efforts? Have you been staying away from God because of your failures? Let's correct that right now. Let's throw those things aside and not be the foolish Galatians. But God says if you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to cleanse you. So let's do that. Let's confess our sin and really believe we have full access to God.

Let's prepare our hearts during this time of worship to reconnect to the Lord on the basis of His grace, His work, His love. Lay aside our efforts, our failures, and just accept. 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.