This Sunday’s sermon will cover Galatians 1:10-2:10. I hope you will take the time to read over it and think it through prayerfully before we meet together. This will give you time for the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and mind about how the text addresses you. We all need this. Just consider some of the things it says.
“For Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man?” Verse 1:10 tells us the blanket reality that all man-made gospels aim at pleasing other people or self but not at pleasing God. They tell us the lie that pleasing those people or that person, even self, will bring the salvation you’re looking for. Just think of the ways your life has been affected by your efforts to please people. Now consider the peace that comes when you put off pleasing people and seek only to please God and rest in the fact that by faith in Jesus you are now already perfectly pleasing to Him in every way. This will lead you to the life of worship and sacrificial service God has called you to.
Also consider the shocking words in 1:12 and 1:15, “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” “He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me.” Part of the beauty of the gospel is the amazing reality that God began the work of saving the believer before they were even born. Like Ephesians 1:4 says, “he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Let that sink in for a minute!
It’s not luck, no accident, that a believer understands and trusts in the gospel. The God of the universe who saves sinners in Jesus acted supernaturally to choose sinners and make them His very own. He overcame the powers of darkness of this evil age as well as the deceitfulness and desperate sickness of our sinful hearts and drew us to Himself so that we are no longer His enemies but washed clean by Christ’s sacrificed blood and fully righteous in Him. That, friends, is good news! That is the gospel!
Galatians is good news! Prepare your heart so that Sunday morning we all rejoice together with hearts full of worship to our Savior.
