James Fokkens (00:00:07) - You know, during the week I run a property lettings business. I specialise in sort of the HMO, the house of multiple occupation, sort of part of the industry. And as a property manager, I'm quite a bit of my time is taken up by having difficult conversations with my tenants. You can imagine 4 or 5, maybe even six people from different backgrounds, different cultures, all living under the same roof, can bring some challenges and some issues and things like that. I usually say when someone moves in, I say the best way to resolve any sort of issues that comes up is to have open communication. Two way communication because we're all adults and you can sort these things out amongst yourselves, but usually sometimes the issues don't get resolved and then they call me. I assume that when they've called me, they've exhausted all these different options, but then they need the big gun to step in and to help resolve the issue. But it means that I have to have a conversation with this tenant in question about one of two things and the two most common things that come up, issues around cleanliness and around noise as well, and sometimes even both at the same time.

James Fokkens (00:01:19) - But can I tell you something? I really dislike difficult conversations. Anybody else Not like difficult. Yeah, it's not it's not natural, is it? It's just not natural. It's a task that I at least like to do with what I do. I don't like it, but I know it's most necessary. You see, if I don't solve the problem, guess what? I become the problem. I've heard that before because I'm not facing it head on. It's what we like to call the ostrich effect. And you might know the ostrich effect. It's like when someone buries their head in the sand. Never done that before. It's a lot easier, isn't it, Just to. Just to fade it away like it's not even there. But let me tell you, it doesn't work. When faced with danger, ostriches will lower their heads to the ground in an attempt to sort of blend into their surroundings and become a lesser target. If you're a leader, maybe you're a manager. Maybe you have responsibility over a person or a group of people.

James Fokkens (00:02:19) - You are bound to have difficult conversations. Show me a leader that hasn't had a difficult conversation and I'll say, You know what? They don't exist. Why? Because people come with problems. They really do. It's easier, I think, to have these sort of conversations with people who you have built a relationship with, people that you have built trust with, because then really, when you lead people in that way, enables you to speak into a situation or even a life. I believe the more relational credit we have with these people, the easier it is to have those sorts of conversations. I know it's helped me. Anyway, John Maxwell actually said it this way. He said, If you build trust with others each time you choose integrity over image, truth over convenience and honour, over personal gain, especially truth. Because sometimes the truth is hard to hear. And actually it's even difficult. Conversations are inconvenient, but they are necessary. And it's interesting when I have a difficult conversation, not only resolves the issue at hand, but it actually builds more trust and more care with the complainant because I've actually not put my head in the sand and not just thought it was something I didn't have to sort out, although hard to do the right thing to do.

James Fokkens (00:03:33) - I know there's a better outcome on the other side. So all these positive things helps me to have these difficult conversations that I know or need to have. But the reason why I can also do it is because I have the authority. I have the power to speak in. I have the enablement to change a scenario because you know what? If I don't do it, guess what? Nobody else will because the buck stops with me. Now, when I have to speak to the person I in the first sort of warning is always the more pleasant one because it's like, you know the rules. So let's follow the rules from now on. And we go away and guess what? Nine times out of ten, the person does a thing again and I get called again the next time it happens. The second time, my tone usually goes up a notch. It becomes more firm, more direct and instructional. It happened just just this last week. I had a tenant who was playing music very loud at night, and I very much said, You're playing music very loud at 3 a.m. in the morning.

James Fokkens (00:04:39) - What you're doing is disrespectful to your housemates. It's not fair to them in the sleep they're trying to get. And if it happens again, these are the actions that will follow firm. Direct and instructional. And usually this firm tone sort of flicks a switch and then they sort of then go, Oh, I kind of I understand what I need to do to change. And actually, nine times out of ten, again, I no longer have an issue at this house with this person, then goes on to another house, another tenant, and so and so forth as well. You know, in the book of Galatians, we've been looking at where Paul is speaking to the church. And today I'm going to jump into Chapter three and there's like 14 verses I love to get through today, which really shows this tone that Paul gives to the church, this tone in which he speaks. That is the same. It is firm, it is direct, and it is to the point and we see this throughout the first few, few chapters in Galatians, if not the whole book, but in chapter three, it actually just goes up a notch.

James Fokkens (00:05:48) - It takes it to another level. But to give a bit of context over why Paul has this specific tone at this time in the book, let's just go back a bit and where we've been in the past month or so because we're in week six, we've covered chapters one and two. We've had this sort of consistent message that we have spoken. If you've been with us over the journey where the Galatians have accepted Christ through faith, yet they're being taught and influenced with this sort of alternative gospel which says actually to follow Jesus, you still need to follow these rules and regulations, follow the law of Moses and giving us this type of Jesus plus sort of religion. Have you been tracking with us the last few weeks? Yeah. And this is not the gospel that Paul preached. He preached that Christ is enough. Amen. It's enough. Let me go back just to the end of Chapter two, and that really helps us understand as we propel into Chapter three. In verse 21, it says, Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule, keeping this sort of pure, pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that to repudiate God's grace.

James Fokkens (00:07:06) - If a living relationship with God could come by rule keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. He's saying, I've said this message is time and time again. We're not following the law. The laws and what the people are telling us that the the the rulers of the law and they're teaching you this way. But I've taught you this way. You are free in Christ. And this is the gospel message. But for some reason, they're still stuck in this way. They're still being influenced and believing this other type of religion, this other type of faith. And then we jump into chapter three and Paul goes on and starts with this. He says, You crazy Galatians. Did anyone put a spell on you? The NIV version says this. It says, You foolish Galatians who has bewitched you. Have you taken leave of your senses? Because something crazy has happened. It's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you. Clearly enough.

James Fokkens (00:08:17) - Paul is literally saying Jesus was portrayed as clearly as crucified in what he did for you on the cross that we talked about today during communion. And he says, I literally I Bill boarded who Jesus is and what he did for you, putting it as plain as day. I love the commentary version because it kind of says that he billboard. It's sort of like when you go down a motorway, when you go into a city center, those billboards that you literally can't miss it. The words are so clear that you know exactly what they're trying to tell you. And Paul's like, I did that for you and you believed in Jesus. You do believe. But then for some reason, you're being wavered and swayed in these different directions. And I'm just thinking, this is crazy. How did we come to this? He says. And he expresses this sort of astonishment and this concern because they're wavering in their faith. Charles Spurgeon actually speaks into this sort of theme around what Paul is talking to about. And he says this.

James Fokkens (00:09:18) - He says, When we see Jesus clearly before us, we won't be deceived. If anything, contrary to this comes before him. He does not timidly say, Well, everybody has the right to his opinion, but he says, well, yes, they may have the right to their opinion and so have I to mine. And my opinion is that any opinion that takes away from the glory of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice is a detestable opinion. Get the real atonement of Christ thoroughly into your soul and you will not be bewitched. You will not be deceived. And that's what we need to do today. We need to keep the cross in clear focus. That's why we have communion. That's why we do this every single month or so, so that we can we can take ourselves right back to the moment of saying, I believe in Jesus and this is what he's done for me. Keep it in clear focus. Hebrews 12 two. It says, Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning through to end.

James Fokkens (00:10:28) - James. One even says this. It says, Anyone who listens to my word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. That's craziness. Because if I look myself in a mirror, I can clearly see myself inside the mirror as reflecting back to me what is true. That's not blurred. It's not distorted. It is so clear what is right in front of me. But to turn away and go, What did I look like? What is I Paul saying? That is crazy because it's so clear. The message is so is all there. And I made it as plain as day. Let me tell you about the distorted mirror. To help us really understand what Paul is talking to us about. You see, in a grand palace, there was a beautiful mirror that accurately reflected the true image of anyone who looked into it. Visitors marveled at its clarity and its truthfulness. However, as time passed, the mirror became dusty and distorted.

James Fokkens (00:11:42) - People's reflections became warped and unclear, leading to confusion and dissatisfaction. Eventually, a person recognized the need to clean the mirror and restore it to its original purpose. And as they wiped away the dust and the grime, the mirror regained its clarity, reflecting truthfully once again. You see the people in the Galatian church, the people of Galatia, they were being waivered. There have been influence in so many ways and this was sort of distorting and blurring this very image and this very gospel message that Paul was had preached to them at the beginning. Let me ask you, if they were so easily influenced, what's influencing you today? Because often it's these subtle influences in our lives that blur and distort the very message and the very true image of the gospel. We just came out of a series called Live No Lies, just just last month. And in there, the book and in the series we were talking about the three enemies of the soul, the devil, the flesh and the world, and how these three enemies can play into our mind and cause us to sort of rethink or maybe even forget or even just be distracted from what God is doing in and through us, or distracting us from the very belief that we have in the first place.

James Fokkens (00:13:11) - Paul goes on in verse two and he says this. He says, Let me put this question to you. And this wasn't just for the Galatians. This is for you today as well. And I know there's a lot of Christ followers in the room today. He says, How did your new life begin? Go back there. Hear about the moment that you gave your life to Jesus. He said, Was it by working your heads off to please God or was it by responding to God's message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness for only crazy people would think that they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God if you weren't smart enough or even strong enough to begin it? And how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did he go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? And then he says, Well, it is not yet a total loss. You go back to that moment when you believed in Jesus and I can guarantee you were probably lost, had a life that was a bit messed up and coming before a holy God.

James Fokkens (00:14:12) - Often when I tell people that I'm a Christian or I'm a Christ follower, that I have a faith or a believing God. A lot of non-Christian people will say to me, similar things like this. They would say, I could never come to know God because, you know, I'm just not good enough yet. I'm actually I need to do more good things in my life to cover up all the bad things that I've done. Aw, man. I've just done. I've done so many crazy things. I've messed up. I've done bad things. There's no way that I could stand before any sort of God that they would ever accept me. And maybe you're sitting in here today and you've come and you're saying those things. Just like where we can all testify, those who follow Christ, that we might have said that as well. But I want to tell you today that there is a God who actually wants you. He wants all of your mess. He wants you as you are. And he wants you to know that he loves you today.

James Fokkens (00:15:12) - He accepts you right here, right now. No more striving, no more works, no more. Any of the things that you think you need to do, which is what the Galatians we're being told now. He wants you as you are. In Romans three. It says this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Everyone say all because all is such a powerful word today. Because it's not just for a few now it is for all. See, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile because for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of His blood to be received by faith. It is faith today that saves you. And we go to the end of verse four where Paul is saying it is not yet a total loss. And then he says, But it certainly will be if you keep this up. He kind of he flips from this sort of firm, sort of strong sort of tone to this almost this this parental tone like they're talking to his children.

James Fokkens (00:16:34) - And if you have children here today, you know, that sort of tone, it sort of goes, oh, this is that if you if you don't eat your dinner, if you keep this up, guess what? There's no dessert. If you don't answer back to me, you keep this up. There's no more iPad. Yeah. You know what? If you don't do your chores, you keep this up. There is no pocket money. And he speaks to them like this sort of children. But in some ways, he kind of needs to because they're wavering in this faith. He's saying, I don't know how we've got here. This is crazy. And Paul is a sort of expert where he's continually preaching the same message over and over again, even having these sort of difficult conversations in this difficult tone. But he needs to because he is seeing that they're going in the wrong direction. He does it because they he has authority from God. He has integrity through what he's doing. And he has a mission to preach the truth of the gospel, even when he sees people going down the wrong path.

James Fokkens (00:17:40) - Paul says, When your new life began, you responded to God's message. You had faith. And faith in Hebrews 11. Verse one says, The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It is our handle on what we can't see. You see, faith is the foundation of our salvation. A little rhyme for you today. Faith is the very foundation for our salvation. I know about you, but if you've ever Have you ever seen a time lapse before our time lapse, you might see it on TV or maybe on social media where someone's like doing up a garden and they do it over like a week's time and they set up a camera and they film it for a whole week. And then they sort of fast forward at ten times, 20 times like 100 times the speed. And you can see like a week's worth of work in like one minute. Have you seen a time lapse before, you know, on top of that? So if you were sort of like time lapse being me and my message today, 30 minutes down to like 10s, I'd be like walking back and forth and here my hands up and down.

James Fokkens (00:18:52) - It would be all over the place. Recently, I actually saw a time lapse that was on someone building a house and it was like ten minutes long and it was like a block of land, empty block of land. And then ten minutes later, there was this beautiful house put on top of it. And it was absolutely amazing. And the process of that to see was was really, really cool. And what happened was, is that we all know that when you build a house, you don't just put the put the walls up and the roof up and that's it. Now you have to lay the foundations. You need a solid foundation. And and after the first few minutes went by and someone came up in the field and somewhere on the map and we'd like the drawings, and then someone came up and they measured up and then someone delivered all the materials and then a digger came and they were digging out. And then the cement truck came and then the membrane and the water and like six, seven minutes went by and there was still on the foundation.

James Fokkens (00:19:45) - And then literally the last few minutes was like walls, roof windows and everything was fine. But there's so much time was built on the foundation because if you don't get the foundation right, the rest just can be a disaster. Just as a house relies on a foundation for stability, our salvation rests upon the bedrock of faith. Then Paul reminds the Galatians that it's through faith in Christ, not following the law, that they've been justified and reconciled with God. Matthew seven, verse 24 says, Anyone who hears these words of mine puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Why a rock? Because it's a firm foundation. And the rains come and the streams rise and the winds blow. And the influences from the world and the devil and the flesh and all these things can come our way. And you know what? It does not fall because it has its foundation on the rock. Is he? Faith is a starting point. I don't know about you today, but I truly believe whether you're a believer today or maybe you've come in here not knowing, having any faith, and you're here to explore who Jesus is and you've just stumbled in here.

James Fokkens (00:21:03) - Or maybe someone's invited you, but you're not really sure what to do. I want to tell you today that God has a plan and a purpose for your life. Whether you know it or not. It is not a mistake that you have come in here today. It is not a mistake that you're watching online from from wherever you are, because Jesus knows where you are and he wants to be in a relationship with you. He truly does. The question is how you respond. And in Matthew seven. But verse seven this time it says Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives. One who seeks finds and the one who knocks that door will be flung wide open so that you can come in mess and all God would have you. And all you have to do is accept Jesus. And when you accept Jesus, you are stepping into your inheritance. You're stepping into the blessings that God wants to give you, and he wants to reconcile you to the Father.

James Fokkens (00:22:13) - In verse five, Paul goes on and says. Answer this question. Does the God who lavishly provides you with His own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves? Does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you? Just as they happened with Abraham, He believed God and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God. It is not. Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ, not who put their their trust in the law, are like Abraham, children of faith. It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with the non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated in the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed in you. I love that, He paused. This continues to go down, to continue to to to preach this, to try and get them out of this sort of craziness.

James Fokkens (00:23:16) - But the way he does that is to kind of he kind of speaks into their life with actually going back to Abraham. It's almost like he he pulls out the big guns to say Abraham was someone who just believed by faith. That was it. And if you think about sort of like like an oak tree, those massive big oak trees that you see, the ones that just go so big and so wide, the roots go down so far and the tree goes up so high and these mighty oak tree sort of stands tall and it flourishes. And in the same way, Abraham is sort of portrayed as this sort of towering figure in the history of faith. And Paul refers to Abraham's unwavering trust in God for all the years that he was alive, emphasizing that it was his faith that brought about the blessing of righteousness. So it's back to faith. You see, the law in which they're getting stuck on the law was like they had to do all these things in a day to sort of get the small bit of satisfaction for doing all those things.

James Fokkens (00:24:23) - But then the next day they had to do all the rules and all the follow the law all again to get that little bit of satisfaction that they're doing the right thing. But but what faith says, if faith is that small, that small thing that kind of says, I'm accepting Jesus for what he's done. Faith, he says, have faith. Do the act of acceptance, and you'll get all the blessing. Because you don't have to strive to do all the things to get that thing. No, you have to believe in faith to get everything that God wants to give you. And that's the word. That's the life that he says is the true life. Just as an acorn, as small as it can be, contains the potential of a great tree. So does our faith in Christ hold the promise for immeasurable blessing? Maybe envision a relay race, you know, a relay race because you pass the baton, each runner faithfully passing it from one person to the next person to the next person you see.

James Fokkens (00:25:22) - Abraham's faith was sort of like this baton that was sort of passed down from generation to generation to generation. And just as Abraham believed God's promise, it was counted to him as righteousness. And our faith is this sort of unbroken chain connecting us to the blessings of God. And Paul goes on in verse nine. So he says, So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith. This is no new doctrine. And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up, he says. Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the book of the law. The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you.

James Fokkens (00:26:33) - Habakkuk even had it right. He said The person who believes God is set right with God. And that's the real life rule. Keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more and more rule keeping. A fact observed in Scripture that the one who does these things, these rules, keeping lives by them every day. It's sort of like when you think about a sort of intricate maze. Have you ever been into one of those hedge mazes before, ones where you don't see over the top or one maybe you've had one that's sort of drawn. You're trying to get around it, and time and time again we come under under trap and dead ends and traps and dead ends and and you just can't navigate it correctly. Is he trying to navigate? The maze perfectly is impossible. But Christ, through his death on the cross, took upon himself the curse of the law, freeing us from this impossible demand so that when we go through life in this sort of maze, what I love in the Scriptures that they say that Jesus is what He is, the way, the truth and the life.

James Fokkens (00:27:45) - There's no traps, there's no dead ends. He grabbed him by the hand and he'll direct you to the center. He will direct you to the blessing. He'll give you an abundance of all that you need. And all you have to do is just say yes. As simple as that. And Paul concludes in verse 13 and 14 and says, Christ, he redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember what the Scripture says? Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And this is what happens when Jesus was nailed to the cross. He became a curse and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is clear. We can see it is plain as day and we can see that Abraham's blessing is present and available for non-Jews too. For we are. Oh, there's that word again. We are all able to receive God's life, His Holy Spirit in and with us by believing just as the way Abraham received it.

James Fokkens (00:28:58) - It's just like being given an invitation. And in this invitation, we get handed an envelope and we open the envelope and we pull out this invitation. And the invitation is always on and on and on, because inside is just the very, very love and the very blessings of God. This is abundance and this reconciliation in this freedom and all the things that we get, like security and an inheritance and an eternal life. And it goes on and on and on and and all of a sudden it can say, well, you're invited to that. And it's like, what's your response? And all you have to do is just take that and say, Yes, I want it. To. Simple as that. Having faith in Christ is simply saying yes. And when you do. My prayer is that we would continue to keep the cross in clear focus. The communion is something that part of our everyday life and weeks. Then we remember that faith is something that is foundational in our salvation and that we can accept and continue in the inheritance and the blessing that God would have for you and for me.

James Fokkens (00:30:12) - I want to sum up today just by really encapsulating everything that we've talked about. And Charles Spurgeon also gave us another excerpt of this very passage. And he almost does it in sort of a way of like a prayer. And at the end, it says a man. And if you believe it, I'd love you to join me. He says. Sometimes also when we have preached free forgiveness, full redemption, irreversible acceptance, infinite love, boundless grace, unchallengeable justification, when we have declared that the Lord's mercies endures forever and that a men have. But to look to Jesus and then and there find eternal life. Then faith has dropped on man's mind as Jew upon the grass. Now here is a felt. Such tidings must be true, for nobody could have invented them. The gospel has this sort of stamp of deity upon it, and this commends it to man's heart. Free grace and dying love are worthy of faith. And they win faith. I pray that all of you who are seekers may give up, all trying to feel, all trying to work, trying to be and may just come and put your trust in Jesus.

James Fokkens (00:31:32) - Then shall you be saved? And then you may work and feel and do as much as you like. Then shall you abound in good works and the more the merrier. Then you shall fight with sin and overcome it. Then shall you set a high standard and reach it. Then shall you strive after holiness and manifest it. But do not begin where you ought to leave off. Do not put as a proverb has it, the cart before the horse. Do not place the top of the house where the foundation ought to be. But as you never did obtain anything by works of the law. Come and try the hearing of faith and you shall receive all that you need in Christ Jesus. God grant it, for Jesus sake. And everybody says.