Galatians 3

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0:00 For the rest of us, we're going to keep going through Galatians. I was just talking with Beverly, I'm reminding you now, I'm inviting you to read through Galatians. This week we're on chapter 3. We gave out several of these, a dozen, 20 of these, and it's a pretty easy devotional questions just to prompt you to read through the chapters as you go through the week. We'll stick around after church and talk through some of those questions if any of them came up as you were reading chapter 3.

0:31 And we're going to look at a couple pieces of chapter 3 this morning together. Before we do that, let me pray for our time here. Hey, Lord, thank you that you have given us this testimony passed down through the ages about the way that you work in the world. We're so grateful that you speak through Paul to us yet today, that you spoke to him to the churches in Galatia back in that second century and that you do it again for us today.

1:01 And so we love you, Lord, and we ask you to be with us as we look at Galatians this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, Galatians chapter 3, you know, we've been talking about this. Of course, the reason, the impetus for the letter to the churches in Galatia, we've talked about this. In general, there are several churches and they're trying to figure out now that this

1:32 way of Jesus has opened up participation in the people of God, not only to the Israelites who have participated with the people of God for generations, but now they're in this way along with the Gentiles. There's this new way to be the people of God in the world. They recognize that, we get brought in through the person of Jesus, but now how do we stay in? Must we now observe the traditional Israelite laws, especially they're wondering about circumcision, but not only that, maybe the feast days, the sacrifices, and there's this

2:07 like working out. And so they send a letter to Paul, hey, Paul, should we get circumcised? Do we need to keep the Old Testament law and he writes this letter back to the church's in Galatia? They recognize that it's a really good letter, has a lot of good information, they make copies, they read it to one another and pass it down. And for us, the question is still relevant, so we're working through and we're looking at chapter three. I'm going to read up the beginning of chapter here and then we'll pause for a second and

2:37 see what he's trying to say. So Galatians chapter three, starting at verse one, he says, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? I did look up bewitched you to figure out what he's talking about. I guess there's a culture, it still exists, especially maybe in some Hispanic cultures, this is where I've heard it, is about the evil eye. You know, I can't remember how you say it in Spanish something also, but the evil eye, what's that? Is it in Islamic culture as well? The idea of someone putting an evil eye like a little hex on you with the way that they

3:12 look at you. And there's this culture even in Galatia of that happening. So Paul is saying, did someone put a curse on you that you are forgetting what the gospel is and what you came in? He says, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

3:47 Are you as foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Verse 6, Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

4:18 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, and you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. He builds a lot of his argument, not only here, but in Romans as well.

4:48 Paul definitely almost thinks about the relationship of God, humanity in these epochs or these eras, these big blocks of time. He might think about them in terms of covenant. So Paul really gives us some of this thinking about the covenants or the promises or the commitments that God made to Abraham and contrasting them with the ones that he made at Sinai and then culminating that in the covenant that comes through Jesus down into the world. And he's starting this kind of overarching view of how might people relate to the God

5:22 of the universe by reorienting them back to the promises that God made to Abraham. And Abraham, remember where Abraham falls in the history of humanity, God at the very beginning of all things, imagines humanity out of nothing. He says, these will be our image bearers in the world. I will give the whole earth to them because it sounds like fun. We don't know why God did it. It was of no need that he had, he just wanted to. Right? And so he makes the whole world out of his imagination and then the crowning achievement of creation is humanity.

5:54 He breathes the breath of life into them and they carry his image around in the world. And of course, that fatal flaw of humanity, they refuse to believe that God has their best interests at heart and they try and be God rather than receive from God. And so they're brought out of the garden until they could have life that matches again where they have proximity to God and let him be God. And then outside of the garden, their fatal flaw takes over and they promptly forget that there even is a God. Right? And so they keep saying from one generation to the next, we don't need a God.

6:26 We can handle this whole situation by ourselves. We don't need a God. We can handle this whole situation by ourselves. And then that attitude culminates of course in Babel. We're going to build this power and all the world will see how fantastic humanity is in the world. And at that critical point, God separates them and says we're going to do this differently than the next story we find is he picks Abram. He picks Abram. Genesis chapter 12. And he comes to Abram and if you read it, let's look at it just kind of together if you want.

7:01 You can look at it. Genesis chapter 12. Worth checking out such a foundational story for us. Some people don't remember this story. It helps give you context to Abram just a little bit is if you go just a few verses behind Genesis chapter 12, right to the end of Genesis chapter 11. So Genesis chapter 11 verse right at the end starts, Tara took Abram 31.

7:37 Tara took Abram. Tara was Abram's dad. Abram becomes Abraham. Tara took Abram, his son, and Lot the son of Huron, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughter in law, his son, Abram's wife. And they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Huron, they settled there. The days of Tara were 205 years and Tara died in Huron.

8:10 So Abram's dad, they left where they had been living and went up. This is like fertile grass and stuff. In the cultures, they go up from the early Chaldeans. They're going to go down into Canaan. You've got to go a specific way because you can't go across the desert. You'll die. So you go up this way, follow the river. Then the route is shorter to get to another Oasis in Canaan. So they're going up and they end up stopping before this little march here from Huron over to Canaan. They end up stopping.

8:40 So Abram, his dad, had sent out to go to Canaan and he doesn't. So then Abram, with his wife at the prime of his life, is there in Huron with his dad and his nephew Lot and his wife Sarai. And that's when God comes to him after Tara, his dad dies. Now they're in Huron and God says something to Abram. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's

9:15 house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him. The first thing you learn about Abram when you start studying him, of course, is that

9:45 he was part of this group of people. They think maybe Hapiru people, this socially marginalized group. You also learned that Sarai was barren so she couldn't have any kids. And so Abram was in a tricky spot because he didn't have much land or none. He would shepherd mostly for other people and try and make money that way. And he couldn't increase the number of animals he could shepherd for other people because he couldn't have kids. And so usually you would have kids and then the kids would help you build your wealth and

10:17 you'd all hold it in common and the patriarch would take care of all the money, the matriarch would take care of all the family and things and you'd grow this kind of clan. But Abram couldn't. He didn't have land. He wasn't from the right people. He couldn't increase his wealth with kids because his wife was barren. And so he was kind of in a tough spot, right? And so this promise from God comes. And so I tend to have always thought Abram, he gets this deal from God and he's got nothing to lose.

10:48 So why not take it? And of course there's truth there, right? God promises something better for him. I mean he's going to be a blessing to the whole world, it sounds like. Sounds amazing. But also he doesn't have nothing. Look at the next little section here. So Abram went to as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him and Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Huron and Abram took Sarai, his wife and Lot, his brother's

11:23 son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Huron and they set out to go to the land of Canaan when they had come to the land of Canaan he passed through. So he didn't have nothing. He had a wife who loved him and would follow him apparently. He had a nephew who would go, hey if you're going I'll go, let's build this thing together. And then he couldn't have kids but he had been smart enough I guess to acquire some servants

11:58 to help take care of the things. So he didn't have nothing. But he was going into unknown places. If he had built up a way to be a shepherd there he was taking whatever animals he had acquired but nobody he could hire himself out to. He was going, I just wonder like what got Abram to do it. I don't know if you've been at the point where you have to risk something.

12:34 Where you're like going into a place of a new job or a new career. You're going into a new relationship and moving forward in vulnerability. You're considering a big investment. You're moving out and taking risks. And what motivates you to do that? That's the headspace I was in trying to imagine Abram making this decision.

13:08 And he has this, I mean I suppose he has this offer from God that he'll give him this stuff. What does an offer from God really look like or sound like? Like it comes to us in the story that God made this promise to him but it's not like that the promise is testified to. It's not like the story is not in all of the family gathered around and God came in the

13:46 form of this person and we all saw him talk to Abram clearly. Abram you will get this. It doesn't say what it is but it doesn't say it's that I'm saying. And so there's room for us. Abram definitely got settled in his mind that this is what he should do and he felt the call from God. But Abram is just a dude living a long time ago with a lot of things to figure out.

14:19 He's got a nephew who's counting on him, a wife who he's got these servants he's got to provide and there are no certainties in the world. And there's something about the potential of there being a God in the world. Why would the God commit to Abram?

14:50 Who knows? But the idea, this is what I got to. The idea that there might be a God in the world with the authority and ability and capacity and the willingness to give to Abram with overwhelming generosity, Abram decides the upside of that beats the risk. I'm going.

15:21 Without certainty, without overt assurances, faith for Abram looks like I'm going to bet on this idea that there is a God in the world and by some fluke of that God's prerogative, he loves me. And he might have something I could never get on my own.

15:51 So let's try. Now the story of Abram takes up several chapters in Genesis and when we just in the section that we read Paul quotes from two different spots. This spot he quoted when it says in 12 when it says, oh when it says I will give you, I'll make your, I'll take your name and make you a blessing to the whole world.

16:26 From you will come a blessing to the whole world. But he also quotes from chapter 15 if you want to look there with me. There's another time God has to re-up his promises to Abram because though years pass, nothing is happening. Then it's just after 15. Chapter 1 or first one chapter 15 after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in

16:56 a vision, if you're not Abram, I'm your shield man. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, God, what will you give me man? For I continue childless and the air in my house is LEA's or Damascus and Abram said, hold you have given me no offspring and remember my household will be my heir.

17:27 And behold the word of the Lord came to him, the man shall not be your heir. Don't worry about it. Your very own shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said look towards the heavens a number of the stars if you are able to count them. And then he said to them, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. Okay, we're several years in and Abram has approximately no land though he was supposed

18:06 to get Canaan and he has exactly no children. Though he was supposed to have as many as the sand on the seashore and the blessing to the whole world. And Abram has been making his way as best he can and not doing too badly as a matter of fact because Abram has a degree of ingenuity and pragmatism and practicality. He's pretty good at his job. And so he's been doing pretty well for himself and so he goes back to the Lord and he says, Lord, what are you actually going to do for me because I am pretty good at taking care

18:40 of myself around here. Everything is going, what are you actually going to give me? And God says, I'm going to give you man the thing that you can't get yourself. Yeah, you can make some money, you could secure a house. He's like, but I'm giving you legacy off into the future more than you could imagine. I'm giving you an eternal future to look forward to.

19:14 A hope for the world. Abram, again, this is like not like from the outside, if you're like lot, you're not, you went on this walk and Abram's like, dude, it's going to be good. There is a God and the God said he's given me all the land of Canaan and through me all the world will be blessed.

19:44 Sounds like a really good deal. There's several years in and there's nothing. Abram's getting discouraged. He goes and has another private conversation with God. I'm trying to say this is you guys an epochal moment. Is that a word? This is like a shift change moment for the people of God in the world. What God does with Abram is changes the nature of how God relates to humanity in the world

20:23 forever. He makes a covenant with Abram that is one side that says, no matter what you do, Abram, I'm going to do this through you. And it is still bearing out ramifications hundreds of years later for the apostle Paul all the way over in Galatia. Across kingdoms and nations, the rise and fall of generations, the success and failure, God is making a promise here. And when you read the story, it looks like one dude who went for a walk at night and

20:56 came back and told him God said something to him in the moment. But when God said that thing to Abram, Abram actually believed him. He wasn't like gaining the system or trying to perform a role.

21:28 He bet his life on the idea that God would have the provision for him that he needed, that he couldn't get on his own. And that faith was credited him as righteousness, meaning that the God of the universe, who creates worlds and brings them to an end, who makes little alliances their grass and their

22:00 head, right? And imagines the futures and holds eternity, counts Abram as his forever because Abram believed him. This is what I was thinking and Paul gets this a little bit. The benefit for Abram there is however faith came to him, some miraculous move of the spirit. Abram believes this crazy promise of God, then he knows what to do.

22:32 He continues on this mission of following what God tells him to do until he takes the land of Canaan, right? Goes down into Egypt for protection from the famine, comes back, he separates the land, he gives a lot of section, he talks with God about, he's like moving with God through the world. But Abram had this mission that he bet his life on. If you believe God, you'll move out and go in this place, right? In the generations after that, Abraham, then his son Isaac, then Jacob, it gets muddier.

23:05 What are they supposed to do? If they're going to trust God that they are God's, waiting for God to bring, give Canaan to them, and how does that look? The mission's done, they've left Huron, they've come to Canaan, now they're just here and they've got to with their own ingenuity and creativity, make these shepherds work and they do, make these flocks produce more and they do, but they're just hanging out, right? And so that when they, God brings them, but he doesn't lead them into Egypt like he led

23:38 at Abram, it's not like just go down there, because by now they're far enough away that it's, he doesn't even have that relationship with Jacob in the same way. He wrestles with Jacob on the thing, but he's not telling him where to go, I'm saying. So that when they come out of Egypt and he's like, all right, now there's two and a half million of you, three million of you, I'm finally going to give you this land. He's like, we need another covenant on top of it, because the way that you stay with me is you believe there is a God, it's not you.

24:14 Then when you do that, I can give you things, God said. The problem is you don't know how to enact on your faith. It is faith. Is it an intellectual ascent, an emotional move of the heart? The story in scripture is always that faith is a posture of humility in front of God that bears itself out in actions. So your actions, your choices that you make betray what you really believe.

24:46 And so before God moves the nation into Canaan. Now this nation of people, he says, you'll be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. If we were to go look at it, excess 19, he brings them out of Egypt and rescues them before he gives them the Ten Commandments. So he says, you already are my people, but if you'd like to stay in this place where I put my banner over you, and now the nation state of Israel is connected to the reputation of God, I've got to give you something tangible to do. Believe me, when you do, follow these rules.

25:16 This is what you do. The evidence that you trust me will be that you live like this. Follow these rules. It's the outgrowth of your faith. What Paul is saying is, in his letter to the Galatians, is that the law sat on top of the promise to Abram. The promise to Abram is how God relates to people. You want to be on the good side of God? Trust that there is a God.

25:48 It's not you, and bank on his kindness to you. On top of that, I do. I trust God. How can I bank on his kindness? Follow these rules. Follow these rules. What happened? Because it's hard to trust God. Because the best that you get is a promise in the dark between you and him walking at

26:18 night. The intervention of God with Abram is a cornerstone of humanity, and what does Abram get? A one-on-one conversation with him walking in the night looking up at the stars in the sky. He banks his future on it, and all of humanity turns because Abram had the courage to believe in that. In the night, we make get moments like that, but that's it. We've got problems to solve. We've got families that count on us. We've got provision.

26:49 We've got jobs to figure out. We've got futures to discern. How are we going to spend our years and the time that we have here? There's a lot at stake. In the most, we get these moments with God. Abram had a moment with God and believed, and that's all it took. It is hard to do. At the right moment, at Sinai, before they're going to tie his identity to a nation, he gives them these rules to follow, and they love the rules.

27:19 Even though they stink at him, right? Because at least it's concrete, and now I don't have to count on one little conversation that may or may not have happened between me and the God of the universe that may or may not exist. Now I can look and go, did I do the Sabbath, right? No. But you know what? I did it better than you. Did I kill anybody? No, I didn't kill anybody. Great.

27:50 Did I covet? I don't think I coveted my neighbor's wife. What counts as coveting my neighbor's wife? Let me make up a rule. You see, the rules are nice, man. Is it? It's about me. I can control it. This is why, of course, the law fails.

28:20 One, he says the law, whoever is destined to the law is destined to death because you'll never keep it perfectly. If you'd like to be judged according to the law, he says, go for it, but you're going to lose that judgment. But we love the law because at least it's in our control and it's easier to trust ourselves than a God who may or may not be speaking and may or may not exist. So then, why might we bet on that God?

28:55 Why might you? Paul says, with Jesus coming, you're no longer bound to the law. Do whatever you want. As a matter of fact, Abram was the same. He says, Abram was bound by no law. Abram could do whatever he wanted and he did. He messed up and God repromised to him over and over again. Paul says, you don't have to do the law. It's done. You and I, we're righteous because we believe.

29:28 So how do you bet on belief? How do you believe? Why would you? Well, I mean the easiest answer, of course, Megan and I went to a lovely funeral yesterday. Listen, I was saying before and I've gotten to where this is a little weird.

29:59 I like funerals. They're comforting for me. I like the reminder that this world is not all there is, that God has prepared something for the future. I love it. I like singing the hymns with other people that believe it. And it is easier for people to believe in their own limitations as they look at someone

30:30 who's reached the end of theirs. So why might you believe? Because in the end, you are here at the prerogative of God. You did not create yourself and you cannot sustain yourself past death. The God brought you into the world and has a future for you. Might as well cast your lot there. But not just that, right? Like Abram, because of his belief, changed his experience of life.

31:07 Courage, creativity, openness in relationship and productivity in his whole experience of life changed because he believed, not gaming the system, not playing, not the power of positive thinking, but he believed deeply that there was a God in the world and the God loved him and called him to purpose and he lived a life that bore an example that has been encouraging people for generations. And you can too. Your life can have significance and meaning, direction and hope.

31:41 It comes with faith. This is why we would bet on God because life with God is better than life without him. And Paul says, this is all you need. All you need like Abram is to go, yeah, there is a God, it's not me. And I don't know why, but the God has chosen me for a life that matters and gives me a

32:12 snoo start every time I need it. It's on his prerogative not mine. Paul says, when you have that offer, why go back to judging yourself and others on rules that you'll never live up to? I'm a mess and so are you. God loves messes. He loves Abram, he loves me, he loves you. So now we live in the light of that reality. That's what Paul is trying to convince the Galatians to do.

32:44 And so it's a good reminder for us to live in light of that reality. Let's pray. Hey Lord, thank you for the testimony to the churches in Galatia. Let it be a testimony to us this morning that you are true and real and available. And then teach us Lord what it looks like to live in light of that reality. That faith is a posture of our heart, humility towards you that bears itself out in action. Teach us how to live as though Lord you were real and for us.

33:23 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.