“Choose the One True Gospel”
Galatians 6:15-18
Purpose: The cross is a line of demarcation. True believers will commit to follow Christ, led by the Spirit, regardless of cost, for all eternity.
- Old Covenant or New Covenant (Gal 6:15)
The Old Covenant of Law leads to death
The New Covenant of Grace leads to New Life
- Blessing or Curse (Gal 6:16)
Those who follow the true Gospel are blessed
Those who follow another false gospel are cursed
(Gal. 1:8-9)
- Circumcision or Brand-marks of Christ (Gal 6:17)
Circumcision – glory in your flesh
and leave me alone
Brand-marks of Christ – glory in the cross
and join me in joy
2 Cor. 11:23-25, Acts 5:41, Rom. 5:3,
2 Cor. 12:10, Col. 1:24, Heb. 10:34,
1 Peter 4:13
“Cultivating Spiritual Fruit”
Galatians 6:1-14
Purpose: Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit in our lives! The fruit of the Spirit produces love toward God and others, boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ!
- Cultivating the Spirit’s Call Toward Jesus Christ Together (Gal 6:1-5)
Action verbs: restore, bear one another’s
burdens, examine, bear his own
- Cultivating the Spirit’s Fruit in Our Lives (Gal 6:6-10)
Interdependence (v. 6)
Spiritual Fruit (vv. 7-8)
Perseverance (vv. 9-10)
- Cultivating the Spirit’s Focus on the Cross of Jesus Christ (Gal 6:11-14)
False Teachers Deny the Cross
See Matthew 7:15-20 False Fruit
Spirit-led believers boast in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ
Freed For Fruitful Service
Galatians 5:13-26
Purpose: Christ has set us free from the power of sin and law, so that we might love and serve in the power of the Spirit.
- Love, not License. (Gal. 5:13-15)
Rom. 6:1-6
- Serve, Not Self. (Gal. 5:16-18)
Flesh vs. Spirit
Spirit vs. Flesh
- Fruit, Not Flesh. (Gal. 5:19-23)
Rom. 7:4-11
Works of the flesh
Fruit of the Spirit
- Walking, Not Warring. (Gal. 5:24-26)
“True Freedom To Run The Race”
Galatians 5:1-12
Purpose To set us free from the bonds of ‘religion’ so we can run the race of true faith
True Christians:
- Reject the Slavery of Religion (Gal 5:1-4)
- Reflect True Freedom in Jesus Christ (Gal 5:1, 5-6)
- Run the Race Without Distraction (Gal 5:7-9)
- Run the Race in God’s Strength (Gal 5:8, 10)
- Run the Race to Win (Gal 5:8, 10-12)
“The Jerusalem Above is Free”
Galatians 4:21-31
Purpose: True believers are free in Christ, not enslaved to the Law
Paul uses the analogy of Hagar and Sarah to describe the difference between slave and free, Old Covenant and New Covenant, the law and faith in Jesus.
- The Issue: Do you really want to be under the Law? (Gal 4:21)
- Old Covenant and New Covenant (Gal 4:22-24a)
Abraham had two sons
Ishmael v. Isaac
The Bondwoman v. The Free Woman
Hagar v. Sarah
Mt. Sinai/Present Jerusalem v. Jerusalem from above
Slave v. Free
Law v. Promise
- The Old Covenant Produces Slaves (Gal 4:24-25)
- The New Covenant Produces Free Children of the Promise (Gal 4:26-28, 31)
The Jerusalem from above
John 8:42-45; 15:19
Hebrews 12:22-24
Gal 3:26; 6:16
Children of promise, born according to the Spirit (Gal 4:28-29)
Warring Over the Inheritance (Gal 4:29-30; Gen 21:10, 12)
Only the son is the heir, not the slave (John 8:35)
“True Motives, True Friends”
Galatians 4:12-20
Purpose: To rediscover the definition of true friend.
Proposition: A true friend is one who exalts the truth of God in your life.
- Friendship: Off to a Good Start (Gal 4:12-14)
- Relationship: Built on Truth (Gal 4:15-16)
- False Friends: Wrong Motives (Gal 4:17)
A true apostle exalts Jesus Christ and His truth, not themselves and their ways
A false teacher sets up conditions on the relationship in order to entrap people to people
- True Friends Desire Christ to be Formed in You: Right Motives (Gal 4:18-20)
Perseverance in Christlikeness
Perseverance in the TRUTH of the Apostles
Be God-Centered and Gospel-Centered
Beware of selfish motives of your own – you are saved by grace
Beware of self-serving motives of False Teachers
True Sons Are Not Enslaved by Anything Else”
Galatians 4:8-11
Purpose: Jesus Christ frees believers from all forms of bondage, especially religion
- A True Christian is a Son, Not a Slave (Gal 4:6-7, 8b, 9b-10)
A true son has the Spirit, cries “Abba! Father!,” is an heir, no longer a slave (vv. 6-7)
Formerly slaves to those which by nature are no gods (v. 8b)
1 Corinthians 10:18-22
Deuteronomy 32:15-18
You were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23)
You don’t have to keep on paying it or earning it. It is paid in full.
No debt owed!
The son does not have to keep earning the status of being a son!
Only One Master (Matthew 6:22-24)
- Do Not Surrender Your Security in Christ (Gal 4:9-11)
Acts 13:26-52
If you know God, and He knows you, Don’t turn back! (v. 9)
“Adopted Heirs Get the Inheritance!”
Galatians 3:19-4:7
Purpose: The promised inheritance is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ
- God’s Purpose for the Law, to Lead You to Christ (Gal 3:19-24)
The questions Paul is answering? (vv. 19, 21)
The Law Fuels our Failure (v. 19)
It was added until Christ would come (vv. 19-20, 23)
The Law is not contrary to God’s promises (v. 21)
The Law cannot impart life (v. 21)
Can the Law do anything to save a person from sin?
See also 2 Cor. 3:5 & 1 Tim. 1:8
Everyone, Jew and Gentile, is shut up under sin by
the Law (v. 22-23)
See also Romans 5:20-21 & Romans 7:5, 7-8
The Law is mediated, But God’s promise is Direct!
See Hebrews 2:1 & Acts 7:52-53
The Law is a tutor to lead us to Christ (v. 24)
- God Adopts Heirs in Christ by Faith (Gal 3:25-29)
Baptism as Adoption (see Romans 6)
No discrimination, circle all the “all’s” in the text
Who can be a child of God then?
Romans 1:16; 10:11-13; Col. 3:6-11
- Without Christ, Enslaved! In Christ, Free! (Gal 4:1-8)
“God’s Powerful Promise”
Galatians 3:10-18
Purpose: Jesus Christ accomplishes FOR us what we could NEVER do through the Law
- The Curse of the Law (Gal 3:10-12)
- The Remedy of Christ (Gal 3:13-14)
We get out of the curse of the Law by having faith in Christ the Redeemer!
- The Preeminence of Promise
God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ the “seed” (Gal 3:15-16)
The later Law does not invalidate God’s Prior Promise (Gal 3:17)
According to Scripture, God’s plan is not “Israel (Church) Israel”
God’s plan is Promise-(Law)-Promise fulfilled in Christ! (Gal 3:17)
Our God-given inheritance in Christ is by faith, not Law (Gal 3:18)
“The Gospel Foretold to Abraham, Fulfilled in Jesus Christ”
Galatians 3:1-9 (NASB)
Purpose: How to live by faith in God’s grace
- Keep Living by Faith (Gal 3:1-3)
Paul considers the Galatians to be believers
Whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23)
You see that faith was working with his works (James 2:22)
God is always the Giver
God’s all-sufficient grace is based in the cross of Jesus Christ
Live by the Spirit not by the flesh
- Dependent on God’s Present Grace (Gal 3:4-5)
The verbs are all present tense
God is at work in the believer (Philippians 2:12-13)
By the strength which God supplies (1 Peter 4:10-11)
God acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him (Isaiah 64:4)
ALL of life & religious works are results of GOD’s grace like FRUIT from a the tree
Paul is not absolutely anti-works (Eph 2:8-10)
Works FOR salvation? No! But works FROM salvation? Yes!
Good works cannot save, but saved people work
Not faith + works = salvation, but faith unto salvation => works
This is a heart attitude that only God can see
- The Gospel Foretold to Abraham, Fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:6-9)
Abraham’s belief reckoned to him as righteousness (Gal 3:6; Gen 15:6)
Abraham’s faith described also in Hebrews 11:8-10; 11:17-19
“faith” that is not in God will not save you
“sons of Abraham” by faith in God (Gal 3:7)
“sons” = heirs with an inheritance!
Scripture preached the gospel of gentile salvation to Abraham! (Gal 3:8; Gen 12:1-3)
Believers “of faith,” Jew and Gentile, all blessed like Abraham! (Gal 3:9)