Notes – Grace Is The Peacemaker

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So after a substantial time away from Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches we are finally back to this book. I hope that the last month or so that we have spent looking into the efforts by the devil to pollute the truth of God’s Word has been informative and enlightening. I hope it has equipped you with some ammo to stand against the seed of the serpent as Satan continues his assault on all things holy and righteous. But a good deal of what we have looked at concerning deception and this war we are in has been from the outside. The story of those who decidedly rebelled against God and went the way of Satan and thus presenting a clear and well defined enemy. What we are going to discover as we look in to the book of Galatians is that Satan will also use the precepts of legitimate religion and sometimes well intentioned religious men to advance his strategy. Tonight we are just going to open up with Paul’s salutation and introduction. So let’s read Galatians chapter 1 verses 1-5.

Galatians 1:1-5 Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me, 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

So back to verses 1-2 as Paul begins his introduction and we see again as we saw Sunday in 1st Timothy that he begins by defending his authority as an apostle of God.

Galatians 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia.

Paul had to defend his apostolic authority because men who professed to have a tighter grasp of the truth were coming in and attempting to undermine his work. It is the same thing we see in the pastoral epistles. One thing you can count on is that whenever anyone is attempting a takeover discrediting the present administration will be the first order of the day. Those of you who know me are thinking right now, “He’s going back to Genesis chapter 3 again and you are absolutely right.

Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Satan discrediting the reigning administration, the first attempt at a takeover on this earth and nothing about the strategy has changed. There are groups and denominations throughout the church today attempting to discredit the present reigning administration. The reigning administration is The Holy Spirit and the infallible inerrant Word of God. There is a growing number of pastors and misguided theologians who want to challenge both the work of the Holy Spirit and the inerrancy of the written Word and want to reinterpret the scriptures to be more culturally current. Doing away with the deepest absolutes of the Christian faith. Things like the virgin birth, Christ’s sinless life, A real physical resurrection, a literal heaven and hell, salvation by grace alone, the Bible being the true and authoritative Word of God. They are buying in to the original deception from Eden, “Did God really say?” As pastors and teachers of the truth who are uncompromising and stick totally and completely to the absolute authority of the scriptures as the only sure truth we are constantly having to defend our authority. We stand on this;

2 Timothy 4:1-5 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate,

1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

She saw that it was good for food, the desires of the flesh. She saw that it was a delight to the eyes, the desire of the eyes. She saw that it was to be desired to make one wise, pride in posessions. She accepted the teaching of Satan because it suited her own passions. That is the world today, they want to create a religious system that suits their own passions and they reject the teachings of the Bible because the Bible demands self-examination and change. Not understanding that we don’t become Christians and then are forced to quit stuff. No we become Christians and because we have been infused with the character of God stuff quits us and we are happy to see it go. Let’s move on.

Galatians 1:3-5 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul begins all of his letters with this statement or a close variation and it is always grace first and then peace. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “grace” charis in the Greek speaks directly to God’s kindness in offering salvation to undeserving people. It refers to the spectacular gift that God makes available to us despite our unworthiness. Not only does God mercifully withhold the judgment and punishment that we so clearly deserve, he grants, instead, the almost unbelievable gift of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. God’s grace requires faith because the moral and legal case against us leads to an inevitable verdict — guilt. Grace means the forgiveness of our sins. It cannot be earned by works or by any goodness in us. It is free and undeserved favor on us by Christ’s faithful act of redemption. As long as we insist on finding or making our own way we remain lost. Those of us who have shown a marked proficiency at sin find ourselves relentlessly pursued by God’s grace. We do not discover God’s grace; it finds us. I said God’s grace requires faith and Ephesians 2:8-10 bears this out but it also illustrates the relationship between grace and peace.

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Once we have received this gift of salvation through God’s grace we make the discovery that God had prepared a life for us that He was just waiting for us to step in to. And that He had a plan for us that he wanted to bring into fruition and out of this realization springs peace. When we are suddenly made aware of the intimacy of our relationship to God, that we now have peace with God then we can live in the peace of God. If “grace” is a gift of God as Paul affirms in Ephesians 2, a precious gift from God to us personally, and we know that it is personal because Paul says 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So if grace is God’s gift then peace is the equally personal result of that gift. So if we are in grace we are in peace, as I said we have made peace with God so now we can have peace in God. Every Word spoken by Christ, every word of scripture is a part of this magnificent gift of grace.

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus is saying, to have peace get your eyes off of your circumstances and get your eyes on me. Peace describes felt grace. Peace combines a quiet conscience, cleansed by forgiveness, with a growing sense of joy in the unlimited possibilities of freedom in Christ. Lets close with something Martin Luther said, Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters, and trodden them under foot, both in this world, and in the world to come.