The Case For Grace, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Religion always persecutes grace. Always. Always has. Religion is known for persecution. That's what religion does. Religion persecutes.

It doesn't even matter the religion. You persecute. One of the reasons people in our world become agnostic about God is they see what religion has done through all the centuries. All it does is persecute one another.

Kill each other. Anything for religion. If you're not like my religion, I want you dead.

And that's what it did. In the history of Christianity, the history of Christendom is no better. The religious church has persecuted believers for two thousand years. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Is the law of God good? Yeah, it's good. Is it great? It's great. Is it perfect?

It's perfect. There's not a problem with the law. Guess who the problem is with?

You. You see, the law is not a problem. You're a problem.

I'm a problem. We can't keep the law. He said, if everyone could, if you could keep the law, Christ would have had to come and die.

Because we could do it on our own, but we can't. He said, for if a law had been given which is able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law. But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. He says, but before faith came, he said, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. The we there are the Jewish people. He first talks about himself and he says, we were caught up in the law.

We were shut up by the law. And we really didn't get it until Jesus Christ appeared. Until the Lamb of God came and the sin bearer was there. And now we realize, oh, this is the way that we get to God. He said, therefore, the law has become our tutor, which leads us to Christ.

He says, so that we may be justified by faith. That word tutor is the word pedagogue. It's a great Greek word. A pedagogue was a particular kind of slave in a Greek household. Their primary and only responsibility was the education of the children. If you had a pedagogue, their job was to basically make sure that the children got to school, make sure that the children got back from school, make sure that the children did their work. That's the pedagogue. And in a fluent Greek family, that's what they would do.

They would have a pedagogue. He said, that's what the law was. The law was to lead you to school. The law was to lead you to Christ. In other words, if I was using today's vernacular, I would say that the law was a school bus who drove us right to Jesus Christ. We got on the school bus.

We weren't going anywhere, but the school bus took us right to Jesus Christ. He said, that's what the law did. The law appointed your right to Christ because the law gave you God's righteous standards and made you realize you can't do it.

You need someone else to do it for you. That's what it did. And so he then goes on and he says, Therefore, the law became a tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now, he says, that faith has come. We're no longer under the tutor.

We don't need a tutor. We got to school. We went to Jesus. He says, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. That's how you become a son of God. He said, for all of you who were baptized. And that's not water baptism. That's spirit baptism at the moment of salvation.

He says, for all of you. He says, who were baptized into Christ. And remember, I said before that when you become a believer, you're placed in Christ. That's why Paul wrote in Galatians 2 20, I'm crucified with Christ. When Christ was crucified, I was crucified. You see, it makes great sense because I'm in Christ. He said, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me. Where Christ was, I was. Where I am, Christ is. You see, that's what he is saying, the identification through faith.

He says, for all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Therefore, there's no Jew or Greek. There's neither slave nor free.

There's neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ. See, the Judaizers said, you need to become one of us.

A proselyte, like a Jew. Paul says, absolutely not. I'm a Christian. I'm in Christ. There's no distinction between Gentiles and Jews in Christ. There's no distinction between slaves and free men in Christ. There's no distinction between men and women in Christ. You see, we're only in Christ.

That's what he is saying. He says, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise. So, notice the logic. He said, let's use the logic of the Judaizer. In order to be right with God, you have to be a son of Abraham. I've just made a good case that you're the sons of Abraham. You, people who have faith, you are the sons of Abraham. And so, he's used already a personal approach, the scriptural approach, and the logical approach, but he's not done.

Now, he uses an historical approach, or what I'd call the family portrait approach, in these first 11 verses of 4. Here's what he says. He says, now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he's the owner of everything. Slaves don't have many rights or many possessions in a home, neither do children. But the child, one day, is going to be the heir of everything. You see, but you don't know it until the heir comes along.

Now watch. He said, but he is under guardians and managers until the date is set by the father. That's when you inherit. He says, so also we, the Jewish people, while we were children, he says, we were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. He said, when we were just children, he said, before Christ came, we got all tied up in the elemental things of the world. We became religious.

No one more religious than Paul. He said, we actually thought we could work our way to God. We actually thought we would be saved by God on the basis of our own religiosity. He said, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, who was born of a woman, and he was born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law.

That's us. He said that we might receive the adoption of sons. He said, that's how a Jewish person becomes a son of God, accepting Jesus Christ.

It's exactly the same as a Gentile. Notice, we were adopted into God's family. Now, he moves to the Gentiles, to the Galatians, and he says, but you are sons. He says, because you are sons, God has sent forth his spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.

Now, to us, that doesn't mean much to them. It had a lot of meaning, and to the Jew, it was extraordinary. It's used again by Paul in another place in the New Testament, but what he is saying is, I'm not just a son of God in a formal sense. He said, I'm a son of God in the Abba sense. Abba is an Aramaic word. Abba doesn't mean father. Abba means daddy. Maybe you grew up in a formal household, and you always said, Father, may I have the keys to the car tonight, Father? Maybe you did that, but that's kind of formal.

But that's one image, right? But how about a little girl that just got her learning permit, and she crawls on his lap and says, Daddy. Is there a difference? Do you feel the difference?

See, there's a tremendous difference. There's an intimacy, and that's what Paul likens this as. When we cry out Abba, Father, we don't just say God's a father. He's our father.

We can cry out Abba, our daddy. He said, therefore, you are no longer a slave. You're a son, and if a son, then you're an heir through God. He said, however, at that time when you did not know God, he said, you were slaves to those things which were by nature no gods. You were pagans. You worshiped idols. He said, you didn't even know God. You were pagans.

You were religious pagans, but you were pagans. He says, but now, he says, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God. How is it that you turn your back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, he says, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? He said, how could you do this? How could you be free of religion, come to Christ, and want to go back under religion?

How could you do that? He said, why would you want to be a slave? Notice, he says, you observe days and months and seasons and years. Oh, no, a church calendar.

You got a calendar. Special days. Holy days. Some days are holy. Let me say something to you. As a Christian, every day is holy to you.

They're all the same. Paul wrote to the Colossians, don't you dare start observing holy days. Don't you observe new moons, and don't you dare get involved in that kind of stuff. You see, someone said, well, don't you want to keep the Sabbath? I sure do, and I keep it every day of the week. I rest in Christ. You see, every day is a holy day to the Christian. Every day is a Sabbath to the Christian. I don't work any day.

Christ did the work for me. You see, and it's interesting, we wouldn't say we don't believe in holy days. We're too sophisticated. We don't call them holy days. We call them, to fool God, holidays. It's just a holiday. It's not a holy day.

There might be a connection. You know what that's like. You have special days. And just empty religiosity, you've got to do things on a special day. We have holy seasons. Holy seasons. A whole period of time to be holy. We have a whole season to give up chocolate. That's a whole season because God's going to be so impressed. No more Snickers for the whole time. That's just empty religiosity. That's all that that is.

It's just empty. I can remember as a kid I grew up in a very superstitious and somewhat irreligious home but very superstitious from a religious point of view. And I can still remember my feelings about Easter. Now I really thoroughly enjoyed the peeps, the bunnies, and the eggs.

Sure. But I remember somehow on Easter my mother made me wear clothes that were the most uncomfortable new clothes a little boy could possibly wear. She put me in a pair of shoes that hurt my feet.

And I'd say, I'd like to take these off. And no, it's Easter. Oh, it's a special day.

God wants to hurt my feet today. You know. And you think about that.

We do that. And the reason we're vulnerable to it is we're incurably religious. That's why the Judaizers succeeded here. Man is incurably religious. Notice, these people were incurable pagans. They came to Christ and now they want to become incurable proselyte Jews. Legalism is a tremendous, tremendous tug on us.

We want to become religious. Paul says, I fear for you that I perhaps have labored for you in vain. He's so upset. He said, man, I've tried the personal, and the scriptural, and the logical, and the historical arguments. So as any good teacher, Paul decides to go emotional. He just wants to go emotional. He said, maybe if I pity your emotions, maybe. Notice how he says the first four words, I beg of you. That's the apostle Paul. I beg you.

You have to feel it. He said, I beg of you, brethren. Become as I. He said, for I, he says, also is you. He said, look to me. He said, you have done me no wrong. You haven't done me wrong. You're not hurting me by becoming legalistic, Judaizing Christians.

You're hurting you. He says, you know that it was because of bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. Paul was apparently going through Galatia.

He might have been on the way somewhere else. He became in so much pain and discomfort, he stopped. And he said, I'll preach the gospel here. I believe it's pretty clear as we'll go on, you'll see it, but I believe the thorn in the flesh that Paul had. Remember, he entreated the Lord three times, take this thorn in the flesh from me. God said, no, Paul, when you're weak, I'm strong.

Well, apparently, that was the thorn in the flesh. And Paul was in so much pain, he couldn't go on, so he stops and he preaches the Galatians. And he says, in verse 14, in that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, you did not despise or loathe. You received me as an angel of God, as Christ himself. He said, I remember when you received me openly. Now, imagine, if somebody's coming to you and say, I find the most important thing in the world for you to have the happiest life possible, in so much pain, he can barely speak to you.

You're kind of cautious. Like, what does this guy have? But they listen to him. Notice, he says in verse 15, where then is that sense of blessing you had? He said, for I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Now you kind of know what his infirmity was. Tremendous problems with his eyes. And apparently excruciating pain in his eyes as well.

But he had real sight problems. By the way, Paul dictated all of his letters, except this one. He writes at the very end of it.

He said, you see how big the print is? That's me writing. He said, I'm so upset about this, I'm going to write it myself.

And so Paul decides to write. But notice, he said, you would have given me your eyes. He said, so his conclusion, so have I become an enemy by telling you the truth. Am I now your enemy, your spiritual father?

You were saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ. And now I'm your enemy? He said, they eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. He said, look, the Judaizers are playing games. It's just flattery and threats with them.

Kind of the way of religion. Try to lure you in, and then try to make you feel afraid and guilty. He then says, but is it good always? To be eagerly sought in commendable manner and not only when I am present with you? He said, I think it's great to be sought, but not when I'm just only present with you.

You should seek me even when I'm not present. He said, my children, with whom I, he said, am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. He said, I can't stop this. I have to keep teaching you until you're in the image of Christ. I can't. I can't just let you get saved and leave you alone.

I have to keep this up. He says, but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone. He said, for I am perplexed by you.

He started out, I beg you. He ends up, I am so perplexed by you. See, this great teacher says, I'm trying everything I can think of to teach you this point. I've tried a personal approach and a scriptural approach and a logical approach and a historical approach and now even an emotional approach. And I kind of believe right now, Paul probably just dropped his head to the table that he was sitting at and said, Lord, that's all I got. The logic would be the emotional approach. That's all I got.

I don't know how. I just don't know how to teach him anymore. And perhaps at that moment, the Spirit of God then whispered in his ear, allegory. Throw in an allegory. Because see, he goes to an allegory, but you would think the emotional approach would have been the last one because it's the strongest emotion, but he doesn't. And he comes up with another one. And he said, look, people love allegories. Maybe I can teach this principle with an allegory. He said, tell me, he says, you who want to be under the law, do you listen to the law?

I mean, do you really listen to the law? He said, for it is written that Abraham had two sons. He says, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. He said, but the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. The son by the free woman through the promise. He's going to create an allegory, Abraham and Sarah.

You see, in Hagar. Now, he's going to treat one as the flesh like the law and the other as the Spirit like grace. Now, it's an interesting thing when you think about it. The promise is given to Abraham and his seed, right? And so Abraham's told, remember they're told, Sarah's going to have a boy, an heir.

And what does Sarah do? She laughed. Okay, now, he was about 100 and she was about 90. So if any of you are approaching that, you kind of know how funny that really is. But she laughed. And then did she get pregnant right away?

Nope, years go by. So what do they think? Wait a minute, this isn't working. I know what we'll do. We'll help God. We'll come up with our own plan. We can always help God. Wouldn't it make sense that we would help him? By the way, that's the way religion always works.

God needs help and we're about to give it to him. And so we come up with a plan. So here was their plan. How about if you take my maidservant Hagar and you impregnate her and she has a baby?

How would that be? That's what Paul likens the law as. Man's plan, his best plan. How'd that work out? By the way, it's still not working out.

That has still been a mess in that part of the world ever since this great plan was launched. So notice what Paul then says. This is allegorically speaking. For these women are two covenants. One proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves. He says she is Hagar.

Now, he said this Hagar is, he says, is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem. For she is in slavery with her children. Paul always says this. You want to put a yoke on yourself, become religious. Because you become a slave to it. In other words, you have to perform.

And if you don't perform, you're in big trouble, but you can't escape it. He views the law as slavery. He views grace as freedom. He said, for it is written, rejoice, barren woman who does not bear. Break forth and shout, he says, you who are not in labor.

For more numerous are the children of the desolate than the one who has a husband. He says, and you, brethren, like Isaac, you're children of promise. You're not like Ishmael. You're like Isaac. You're the children of the promise.

The Judaizers are like Ishmael. He said, but as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit and so it is now also. What a great principle. It's prophetic. Religion always persecutes grace. Always, always has. Religion is known for persecution. That's what religion does. Religion persecutes.

It doesn't even matter the religion. You persecute. One of the reasons people in our world become agnostic about God is they see what religion has done through all the centuries. All it does is persecute one another.

Kill each other. Anything for religion. If you're not like my religion, I want you dead.

And that's what it did. In the history of Christianity, the history of Christendom is no better. The religious church has persecuted believers for 2,000 years.

It's an amazing thing. It persecutes. It's threatened. And so then he goes on and says this. But what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman and her son. For the son of the bond woman shall not be the heir with the son of the free woman. He said, no, Judaizer's going to inherit what you inherit. He says, so then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman. We are the free. And so he uses an allegorical approach.

So think about that. A personal approach, a scriptural approach, a logical approach, an historical approach, an emotional approach, and an allegorical approach, all to teach one truth. The case for grace. You're saved by faith and faith alone and Christ and Christ alone.

And it is on the basis, completely on the basis of God's amazing grace. That's it. That's what he's trying to teach.

Well, what should they do about it and what should we do? Look at that first verse of chapter 5. He says it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, here's what he wants in them, keep standing firm. Do not subject yourself again to the yoga slavery. Keep standing firm. Now, I want to give you an image for you. I want you to imagine yourself as a person who is a recipient of the grace of God how you keep yourself standing firm. It's just a picture, but it can help you.

This is my part of the teaching. I want you to imagine yourself as a sumo wrestler. Okay? I want you to get the sumo diaper on, and then I want you to think of yourself two or three hundred pounds bigger than you are.

Okay? Now, you've seen sumos, right? What's the whole point of the sumo?

See, what's the whole point? Stand firm. What's the point of sumo wrestling? Try to move me.

You just try to move me. And by the way, is it easy to move a sumo? If you're not a sumo, you have no chance. I mean, you can get across the mat, run full speed, you're not moving a sumo.

Everything about his training, everything about his center of gravity, everything about him is to stand firm. That's what we should be. When it comes to the grace of God, we should be sumos.

There are religious bullies in every generation, and they'll do everything they can to move you off the spot. Paul says, no, no, no. Whatever it is, you stand firm.

Become a sumo wrestler. What a great teacher the apostle Paul is. The truth that he was trying to teach that we are justified before God by faith and faith alone in Christ and Christ alone.

Our salvation is only on the basis of God's amazing grace. And here's what's neat about this morning versus any other morning. You don't have to take my word for it. You don't have to interact with me.

You don't have to get in a car and go to lunch and say, I don't think he was very clear. Because if you have a problem with this message, you don't really have a problem with me. You have a problem with the apostle Paul, one of the greatest teachers who ever lived. Let's pray. Father, the apostle Paul saw this as so important that he devoted two chapters to just try to make his case, the distinction between grace and law, between slavery and freedom, between salvation and being lost, between having a life of joy and a life of guilt and fear. Father, I pray that the Galatians got the message the way I pray that we get the message. It appears to me, Father, that they got it because Paul never wrote a second Galatians. And for us, Father, I don't know. But I do know that the tug of religiosity and the temptation of legalism is great in every one of us. But Father, I pray that we allow this wonderful book of Galatians, and especially this teaching of Paul, to challenge us to understand that there's not a thing that we can add to the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And if we try, we discredit his word. And Father, that we are saved by your amazing grace, that we are saved by putting our faith and trust in Christ, in Christ the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .