Freedom, The Grand Proposition (Part Two) Series

Freedom, The Grand Proposition (Part Two)

(Galatians 2:17-21)

Theme: Faith is the SOURCE of justification and the STANDARD by which justified human beings are to live out their lives.

Purpose: What do I want to happen in the hearer when I preach this sermon?

A. Increased knowledge. After I preach this sermon, the hearer should understand the meaning of and be able to competently use the modern term “legalism.”

B. Increased insight. After I preach this sermon, the hearer should be able to:

1. Discern that no human being can be justified by a law of works because of the nature of fallen human beings and because of the nature of any law of works.

2. Discern that the Bible CLEARLY and EMPHATICALLY teaches that faith in Jesus Christ is the source of the justification of a human being as well as the standard upon which a justified person lives out their life of justification.

C. Changed attitude. After I preach this sermon, I want the hearer to determine to grow in faith that Jesus has attained justification for us.

Behavioral

Objective: Concentrate on developing faith in Jesus Christ as the source of their justification and as the standard upon which they live out their new life of justification.

Need to be

Surfaced: Human beings need to know where they are, where they are going and what they must do to get there. When this need surfaces in a religious context it can be the source of untold frustration. Why? Because keeping a list is not the way God views living by faith!

Solution to

be Offered: God has assured the faithful that they are justified by faith in his sight, that they are on their way home to live with him for all eternity, and along the way they are supposed to be God incarnate to a lost and dying world. This is living by faith.

Introduction. (Get attention, surface need, make a contract to deliver a solution.)

A. Illustration: It is an innate characteristic of human beings that they need to know where they are, where they are going and what they need to do to get there.

1. On Monday my wife, and her sister, were going from Houston to Pecos, Texas in my vehicle.

2. Each woman was taking along one infant child.

3. They each spent hours packing personal belongings and baby paraphernalia.

4. Suddenly, my wife realized that neither one of them knew how to get where they wanted to go.

a. The anxiety was apparent.

b. The need for a road map was intense.

c. The relief was immediate when my wife learned that I keep an up-to-date Rand McNally under the passenger seat.

5. As they approached Austin, they wanted to avoid the traffic and so they tried a “shortcut” that they thought they had located on the map.

a. My sister-in-law told my wife to “turn off here.”

b. They drove for several minutes not knowing whether they had made a colossal mistake or were geniuses.

c. The longer they drove along this unfamiliar route the greater the anxiety became.

d. They even contemplated turning around and going back to the “known route” even though they knew it held at least an hour’s delay because of the traffic.

e. Finally, they made it to the other side of Austin and saw a sign that assured them they were heading in the right direction.

f. The relief was so intense that my wife immediately called me on her cell phone just so that I could share the moment with them!

6. What caused such anxiety? What was the source of such relief?

a. It is an innate characteristic of human beings,

b. That they need to know:

(1) Where they are.

(2) Where they are going.

(3) And what they need to do to get there.

B. It is no different in our relationship with God.

1. We want to know where we stand with him—if we’re even mildly perceptive we know intuitively that we are sinners and are out of fellowship with him.

2. We know where we want to go—we want back into relationship with God.

3. We desperately want to know what we need to do to get there.

C. That is why I have chosen to preach this series of sermons from Galatians.

1. I am trying to lay out, as precisely and succinctly as I humanly can, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. I am trying to make a contribution to this community of faith so that we will have a better understanding of:

a. Where we are right now in our relationship with God.

b. Where he wants us to go in our relationship with him.

c. And what we need to do to get there.