Tim Wilson, a pastor in Colorado, talks about his days at Fort Benning, attending the United States Army Airborne School. He and his buddies were sitting on hard wooden bleachers as they prepared for their first parachute jump. Soon they would soar hundreds of feet above the red Georgia clay and hear the jump-master bark out the orders, “Stand up! Hook up! Check equipment! Stand in the door! Go! Go! Go!” Understandably, the instructors had their undivided attention.
The Airborne sergeant's voice rang out confidently as he explained what to do in case of a parachute malfunction. “If your main parachute should fail to deploy, don't panic – pull the handle of your auxiliary parachute. Should your auxiliary parachute fail to fill with air, don't panic – pull it in toward your body and then vigorously throw it away from yourself. Should your auxiliary chute again fail to deploy, don't panic – vigorously repeat this process.”
He paused dramatically. Then with a slight mischievous grin he slowly stated, “Should this also fail, don't panic. You'll have the rest of your life to get your parachute to deploy.” (Tim Wilson, pastor of Indian Hills Christian Fellowship, Indian Hills, Colorado, from a sermon titled, Urgency; www.PreachingToday.com)
We laugh at that, but the sad reality is that there are a lot of people who try and fail, try and fail, try and fail, and still end up crashing on the rocks of guilt and shame. If that describes some of you, then I’ve got good news! You don’t have to try and fail anymore, because there is a better way to live your life. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, where the Bible shows us that better way.
Galatians 3:6 Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (ESV).
In verses 1-5, the Apostle Paul asked six questions about faith and law. Now, he begins to answer those questions with the first of six quotes from the Old Testament, which makes it very clear: The better way to live is by faith. In other words, “Stop trying and start trusting.”
TRUST THE LORD AND BE BLESSED.
Like Abraham, believe God. Put your faith in God’s promises and find true virtue.
God promised Abraham, an old man, that he would have many descendants, as many descendants as the stars in the sky. Did Abraham doubt that promise? No! The Bible says, quoting Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Literally, in the Hebrew, Abraham said “Amen” – it is true for me. And as a result, God declared him righteous. All it took was faith, simple faith in God’s promise, and Abraham found full and complete acceptance with God.
Do you want God to treat you as righteous and holy in His sight? Then, like Abraham simply believe God’s promises to you. Say “Amen” to those promises. Consider them true for you, and trust the Lord to do what He said He would do.
God promised us His Holy Spirit. God promised us an inheritance in Heaven. God promised to make us like Christ. All we need to do is believe those promises and God declares us righteous, then begins the process of making us righteous. All it takes is simple faith.
Over 20 years ago, the Promise Keepers movement swept the country, calling men to keep seven promises regarding their relationships with God, their families, their churches and the world. In an early message, Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, announced to these men, “Realize that you can't keep your promises. That may seem like a strange first step toward the goal of keeping promises, but it's true.
“Consider this question: If we could keep our promises, wouldn't we have done it by now? How many times have we made the same promises? Let's face it; rededication to keep promises won't work. If it did, we wouldn't find it necessary to keep rededicating ourselves. Many of us have struggled with promise-keeping for one reason: We have focused on our performance more than on Jesus Christ. We have tried to keep our promises, but the Bible teaches that effective Christian living doesn't come by trying. It comes by trusting Christ to express his life through us. He is the only One who can successfully keep promises.
“Before we can be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. The Bible is clear about God's promise: the One who has given us his life will be the One who lives it for us. Only Jesus Christ can effectively live the perfect life. He lives inside believers today and wants to reveal His perfect life through us. (Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2)
Did you hear him? In order to be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. Like Abraham, we must simply believe in God’s promise, trusting Christ to live His life through us. Like I said, all it takes is simple faith.
I like the way Nicholas Beale and John Polkinghorne put it in their book Questions of Truth. Beale is a philosopher and Polkinghorne is a scientist; and they, poking a little fun at themselves, tell the story of three guys, a philosopher, a scientist and a simple man, who were trapped in a cove with sheer cliff faces. The tide was coming in and none of them could swim. Rescuers lowered a rope with a safety harness.
The philosopher said, “Ah, this looks like a rope, but I might be mistaken – it could be wishful thinking or an illusion.” So he didn't attach himself, and he was drowned.
The scientist said, “Ah, this is an 11 mm polyester rope with a breaking strain of 2800 kg. It conforms to the MR 10-81 standard,” and then proceeded to give an exhaustive, and entirely correct, analysis of the rope's physical and chemical properties. But he didn't attach himself, and he was drowned.
The simple man said, “Ah, I'm not sure if it's a rope or a python tail, but it's my only chance, so I'm grabbing it and holding on with my whole life.” He was saved. (John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale, Questions of Truth, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, pp. 26-27; www.PreachingToday.com)
You can study Christ all your life. You can analyze the evidence for His miracles, His death and resurrection, and that’s all well and good! An enlightened faith is certainly better than an unenlightened one. But unless you grab a hold of Christ, trusting Him with your life, you will NOT be saved.
So my dear friends, BELIEVE and be blessed. Like Abraham, say “amen” with your heart to God’s promises, and be made right in His eyes.
Galatians 3:7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. (ESV)
Not just those who are the physical descendants, but sll who believe are children of Abraham. That includes us Gentiles!
Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” (ESV)
This is the 2nd quote from the Old Testament (Genesis 12:3).
Galatians 3:9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (ESV)
When we believe like Abraham, we are blessed like Abraham. Specifically, when we believe we are “justified” (vs.8 says). That means that God declares us righteous and treats us as His own holy people, no matter how bad we’ve messed up in the past.
In her book Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit, author and speaker Beth Moore recalls a particularly insightful moment in her life. She writes…
“I will never forget watching an evening talk show featuring the story of the parents and killer of a young college student. The killer was his best friend. The weapon was high alcohol content inside a speeding automobile…
“What made this particular feature prime-time viewing? The parents had forgiven the young driver… And if that was not enough, they had taken him in as their own. This young man sat at the table in the chair which was once occupied by their only son. He slept in the son's bed. He worked with the victim's father, teaching seminars on safety. He shared their fortune and supported their causes. He spoke about the one he had slain in ways only someone who knew him intimately could have…
“Why did these parents do such a thing? Because it gave them peace. The interviewer was amazed.” Beth Moore says, “I was amazed. I kept trying to put myself in the parents' position – but I could not. Then, as the tears streamed down my cheeks,” Beth Moore wrote, “I heard the Spirit of God whisper to my heart and say: ‘No wonder you cannot relate. You have put yourself in the wrong position. You, my child, are the driver.’ God was the parent who not only forgave, but also invited me to sit at His table in the space my Savior left for me. As a result, I have peace. (Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself, LifeWay Press, 1998)
Do you want that kind of peace in your own life? Do you want God to declare you righteous and treat you as His own special child? Then simply believe in His promises to you. Have faith that He will do what He said He would do. Trust and be blessed. Otherwise, the only alternative is to…
TRY AND BE CURSED.
Try to follow all the rules. Try to obey the law, but it will only condemn you in the end.
Galatians 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (ESV)
This is the 3rd quote from the Old Testament, declaring the law’s demands in Deuteronomy 27:26. The law says you must do everything in the law if you want to avoid being cursed.
It’s like dangling from a helicopter on a chain with 613 links in it. That’s the number of rules in the Mosaic Law. Tell me, how many links in that chain need to break before you fall to your death? Only one, right? In the same way, if you break just one command in the Book of the Law, you are dead.
We haven’t done very well with the first 10 commandments (have we?), much less with the 603 commands that follow. So we’re doomed if we try to keep the law, because we cannot fail to break even one little command.
Galatians 3:11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (ESV)
Literally, “The righteous by faith will live.” It’s the 4th quote from the Old Testament, this time right out of the book of Habakkuk (2:4). We are righteous by faith, AND we live by faith as well.
But if we attempt to live by trying to keep the law, then we are condemned by the law, because none of us can keep all 613 rules.
Galatians 3:12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” (ESV)
This is the 5th quote from the Old Testament in Leviticus 18:5. There, God said to His people, “Keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them.” Obey and live; disobey and die. That’s what the law itself says. And since we have all disobeyed the law, then we are all going to die. When we try to live by the law we are cursed, condemned and dead, because there is no room in the law for even the slightest infraction.
John Beukema from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, tells the story of moving to a new state, after which he walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles to get his new driver's license. He was shocked when the guy behind the desk told John that his license was suspended and therefore could not get a new one.
John said, “There must be some mistake. I've never done anything to deserve that.”
The civil servant was very civil and told John that he had to clear up the problem with the State of Massachusetts before he could get another driver’s license. John hadn't lived in Massachusetts for 10 years, so he couldn't imagine what was wrong. But five long distance phone calls later, John found that it was no mistake. He said, “The law had finally caught up with me. When I'd moved from that state a decade before, I owed part of an excise tax of two dollars.”
Blissfully unaware that he was a law-breaker, the tiny little bill began to work hard accruing penalties and interest. That bill had to be settled, and John had to pay for a new Massachusetts driver's license and registration for a car that had long ago become scrap metal. He had to do all this before he could become legal in his new home state. The price tag was nearly $300. (John Beukema, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what happens when you live your life trying to keep the law. The tiniest infraction condemns you to a heavy penalty. It’s a terrible way to live, because you try and try and try and never get it exactly right. There is only one way out, and that’s to…
TRUST CHRIST WHO REDEEMED YOU FROM THE LAW’S CURSE.
Depend on the Lord who set you free. Put your faith in Jesus who was cursed instead of you, so you can be blessed forever.
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”… (ESV)
This is the 6th quote from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 21:23). According to the Old Testament Law, criminals were executed, usually by stoning. Then their bodies were displayed on a stake or post for everyone to see. It was a clear demonstration of divine rejection.
So it is that Christ hung on another stake – the cross – to show that God had rejected Him. God cursed His Son, Jesus, not for His own sins, but for yours and mine. Jesus hung there instead of us, cursed in our place, so we could be blessed forever!
In the movie The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a life of luxury with 1,000 servants at his command. “What happens when you do wrong?” his brother asks.
“When I do wrong, someone else is punished,” the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten.
In Christianity, Jesus reversed that ancient pattern: when the servants erred, the King was punished. (Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? Zondervan, 1997)
Christ was cursed in our place, so we could be blessed forever!
Galatians 3:14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (ESV)
We can stop trying to keep the law! Now, by faith, we can receive the promise of the Spirit, the promise of life, and the promise of righteousness in Christ. All we need to do is believe like Abraham in order to be blessed like Abraham.
You have a clear choice this morning. You can trust the Lord and be blessed, or you can try to keep the law and be cursed. Which will it be for you? I hope you choose to stop trying and start trusting Jesus today.
On May 1, 2009 at the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby a smaller horse named Mine That Bird entered the race at 50-1 odds. Mine That Bird had not fared well in his two previous races. So it was no surprise that the long-shot horse struggled from the start of the race. Mine That Bird and jockey Calvin Borel got squeezed between the other horses and quickly dropped into last place. At the first quarter-mile stage, Mine That Bird was still running dead last. At one point, he was so far behind the other horses that NBC's announcer Tom Durkin at first missed seeing him.
But at the three-eighths pole, Mine That Bird started gaining on the other horses. After passing Atomic Rain, the horse took off. As Borel rode his horse around the eighth pole, he guided Mine That Bird between the rail and another horse. From that point Mine That Bird took off to victory, winning the mile race by 6 and ¾ lengths.
The victory stunned the horse racing world. Even Mine That Bird's owner said, “[The victory] wasn't something that was on our radar.” Another horse owner said, “I was like, what happened? It was a shocker.”
But Mine That Bird's jockey, Calvin Borel, wasn't shocked. When asked what happened during the race, Borel simply said, “I rode him like a good horse.” (Ethan Richardson, This American Gospel, Mockingbird, 2012, page 112; Joe Drape, “Derby Winner in Preakness? ‘We'll Listen to the Horse,’” The New York Times, 5-3-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what happens when you trust Jesus with your life. God treats you as a “good person”, and you begin to excel beyond anyone else’s expectations.
