Southside Community Church - Sermons

In Galatians 3 we see that the Bible gives us safeguards to keep us from wandering off course. We must remember that there is nothing we can do to earn good standing before the God who made the mountains tremble in Exodus 19, and we must also have a right understanding of the relationship between the law and the Gospel.

Paul continues to address the problem of false teachers in the Galatian church. Faith is not a work, but is given to us by the Holy Spirit. The Galatians believed that salvation came through faith in Christ plus circumcision. Do we believe in Christ alone, or do we live as if salvation comes through Christ plus something?

The law still has use for our life today. It points us to Christ and shows us our need for salvation through Christ alone. The law cannot condemn us because our righteousness now depends on Christ alone. The Gospel was extremely personal to Paul. Is our salvation personal to us?

Our righteousness comes from Christ alone - it's His blood and His righteousness that makes us right with God. We are united to Christ by faith, so justification and sanctification are also ours. Do our lives show that we are amazed by this grace?

Peter was eating with uncircumcised Christians until the Judaizers showed up. Peter feared that the Judaizers would look down upon him for eating with uncircumcised Christians, so he ceased doing so. Do we also fall into the trap of fearing man more than we fear God? Do we truly believe the Gospel to the core of our being?

In these verses Paul continues his defense of his authority to share the Gospel. Why was he so intent on sharing the Gospel? Paul had experienced the depth of his total depravity and the even greater depth of God's grace towards sinners.

Before he came to Christ, Paul violently persecuted the Church. In Galatians 1 Paul shares that God broke into his life in an apocalyptic and lifechanging event. He was no longer zealously persecuting the Church, but zealously preaching the Gospel. He adds that what he preaches is not man's gospel, that we can add anything to our salvation, but it is Christ's saving work on the Cross, and...

Paul was furious that the Galatian church was falling prey to false teachers only two years after Paul left them. In their belief that they could add to their salvation, they were distorting the Gospel. Paul counteracts this fallacy by reminding them that we are saved by Christ alone.

The church in Galatia was being convinced by false teachers that salvation was found in Christ, but only if they were also circumcised. On the contrary, we know that the Gospel is founded on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross.

How do we know that the Resurrection really happened? History points to the accuracy of Scripture, and we also see the hearts of those changed by the Resurrection. Those who were there responded with trembling and astonishment. How will we respond to the Resurrection today?