WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:06.400 We have a tendency as culture to do museums the wrong way. 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:15.199 And what I mean by that is uh the times I've been to a museum where it has famous pieces of art in it, I just want to go and see them all. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:23.280 So, you know, I go and stand, okay, I've seen this one, okay, now I've seen this one, and I'm kind of marking them off a list of famous pieces of art that I should have seen. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:35.679 And uh the reality is people who really love art will find a bench and sit in front of a piece of art for a long time and just take it in. 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:42.719 The colors, the textures, the details, everything, and just sit and sit and let it soak in. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:52.159 And sometimes I think when we go through a book of the Bible, we we approach it like Americans approach museums, is let's just get through this thing and uh cover all the bases. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:01:06.480 Uh so what we're doing with Galatians is we're going to find a bench and just kind of sit for a bit and let our minds and hearts and souls uh based, sit and take in all of the elements. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:17.280 And uh what I'm hearing from people from last week is uh God has already started that process just sitting and thinking about the grace of God that is ours in Christ. 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:25.760 So we're looking again at the same painting we looked at last week, which is Galatians chapter 1, verses 1 to 5. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:33.359 So if you're able, let me invite you to stand as I read for us Galatians 1, 1 through 5. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:52.079 Paul and apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:02:10.319 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:13.199 That sends the reading of God's word for the morning. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.360 Let me uh invite you to join me as we pray and ask God to bless us. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.560 We came in this morning with the baggage that we know about. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:29.680 And we came in here this morning with baggage that we don't know about, that we're carrying around with us that we haven't seen. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.159 And the answer to both is you and your gospel. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:48.000 And so what we pray, Holy Father, is that you, in the name of Jesus, by the power of your spirit, would be at work in what is said this morning to draw all of our hearts to contemplate the greatness that is ours in being your children. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:50.159 Would you bless us? 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:51.360 Would you bless your word? 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:52.800 And Lord, would you bless me? 00:02:54.240 --> 00:03:03.759 I'm the wayward child, and I need you to help me talk to the people in this room about things that truly matter. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:05.759 Bless us. 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:07.120 Bless me. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:11.520 Make our time productive for the sake of the gospel, we ask in Jesus' name. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:12.319 Amen. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:13.599 Please be seated. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:17.919 I think it might be, might have been A. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:18.240 W. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:28.479 Tozer who said, when we think, what we think about when we hear the word God is the most important thing about us. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:33.680 What you think when you hear the word God is the most important thing about you. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:38.240 And everybody apparently thinks something about God. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:41.840 There's a book called Incomparable by Andrew Wilson. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:50.960 And he's a scholar, he's a writer, he's a preacher and teacher, and uh he knows a variety of ancient languages and modern languages. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.159 And this is what he said. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:58.960 He said, Every language that he knows has a word for God. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:04.400 Some of them don't have tenses like present tense, past tense, future tense. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.400 Some of them don't have the word the. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:08.960 They don't have a word the in their language. 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:15.840 But every single language that he knows has a word for God. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:21.759 He said they may not be talking about the same God or the true God, but they all have the word. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:30.079 Somewhere in the mindset of everyone in the world is the idea of a God. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:33.759 God is not really a name, actually, but a title. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.959 It is what we call a common noun, not a proper noun. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:41.199 It's like referring to the president rather than George Washington. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:49.120 This means, of course, that the word God can be understood in lots of different ways depending on people's backgrounds. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:55.120 So that means everybody knows the word God, but we all have varying views of what God is really like. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:57.759 This was real, this really was brought home to me several years ago. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:05.680 It was a decade ago, it's 2016, and some of you remember there was a nightclub shooting in Orlando. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:08.480 It was at an LGBT establishment. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:21.519 And within just a few hours, maybe just a few days, I remember reading an article, and in the article it was somebody saying that God hates LGBT, therefore, this was an act of God's judgment on the community. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:31.519 And almost right beside it was an article that said, God is LGBT, so this is a great tragedy. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:40.480 And it was fascinating that these two people, these two people who wrote these had very different takes on this based on their view of who God is. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:54.959 And the reality is that for most of us, we, our view of God has been shaped in some ways by the values of our culture and the people around us, so that we naturally latch on to a view of God that supports and justifies the things that we believe about the rest of the world. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:01.839 So perhaps the biggest question of life is what do we think about God? 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:09.439 And this question is difficult for us because there are so many competing and confident voices out there telling us about God. 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:24.399 And this is part of why we're reading Galatians, is because the phenomenon of people trying to redefine God to fit their views and values that they already hold instead of uh letting God speak for himself and change those values is not new. 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:27.199 So the Apostle Paul had to deal with this in the first century. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:37.759 God was being portrayed as a legalist, a racist, a ruthless tyrant, a cosmic landlord pounding on the door, demanding that we pay him when he doesn't have any need of that money. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.160 So, do you think that's what God is like? 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:42.079 Do you think that's what God's like? 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:49.600 The Apostle Paul wrote Galatians to correct this view and to give us a true knowledge of who God is. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:51.600 And that's where we start. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.079 True knowledge of God matters. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:57.759 It matters. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:03.680 What we believe about God matters to God. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:13.920 There are a lot of voices out there telling us who God is, lots of voices telling us what God wants for us, lots of voices claiming to have spiritual insight. 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.959 And we didn't look at this, but we're going to look at this verse next week. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:18.879 In chapter 1, verse 8. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:36.399 Functionally, what God, what Paul says on behalf of God is if anyone is claiming to have insight about God and is misrepresenting God and what he wants for us, let that person be eternally condemned. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:42.800 Clearly, it matters to God what we think about him. 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.160 God apparently cares a great deal about what we believe about him. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:56.160 And Paul knew this firsthand because he himself considered, he probably considered himself the disciplinary hand of God, but then he himself received discipline from God. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:07.279 So Paul, as a religious, zealous Jew, was going around and trying to silence Christians in the Christian community because he said they're teaching something that's wrong about God. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:11.839 And so Paul would go and give his approval when Christians were stoned. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:27.439 He was on his way to arrest Christians for what they were teaching, to put them into a prison, to bring them before councils, when the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that he was fundamentally wrong. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:30.480 Paul was wrong about God. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:34.399 And not until that moment did Paul realize that he was wrong. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.120 So here is a true statement that I'm going to state in the negative. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.399 People can be wrong about God. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:45.840 People can be wrong about God. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:53.840 That really bothers us in the United States because we feel like people should have the right to choose for themselves what God is right what God is like. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:09:13.519 Now, for us to say that has a covert, hidden, tacit belief that's underneath the surface that's being also promoted that requires us all to accept that God has not really made himself known and that we can't, we can, we have the freedom to actually believe whatever we want without any kind of consequences. 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:18.879 So God's not known, and so we make God whoever we want him to be. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:20.080 If you want a God, great. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:23.200 If you don't want a God, that's also okay. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:31.120 We don't have access to the real God, so we're free to make it a matter of self-expression. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:36.480 But the belief that's underneath the surface that's there is one called expressive individualism. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:48.960 It is a very modern view, a product of the Enlightenment, and it says that the only way we can know the world around us is through sense, through science, through the things that we directly observe that way. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:52.879 And so God says the opposite. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:57.759 God says he is knowable, he's made himself known. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:02.559 The Bible is a record of that, and he cares for us and wants us to know him. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:04.639 So let me say it in the positive way. 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.600 People can be right about God. 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:16.000 God is knowable, he has told us, he's led us in, he's interacted with us in the world, and what we believe matters to him. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:25.679 And one of the reasons it matters so much to God is because it has an impact not just on our lives, but on the lives of people around us. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:32.879 There's a confusion about God that creates problems for people, and misrepresentation of God ruins how people live. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:38.159 Because what we believe about God shapes our the way we live in the world. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:41.039 This is a quote from Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers. 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:46.080 He said, A cruel God makes for a cruel man. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:52.879 Whatever you believe about God is going to shape you and it's going to make you who you are. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:11:05.200 Now, a decade ago, around the same time as the shooting, there was a uh something that took place in Turkey, in Turkey. 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:12.240 There was a wedding, and a 13-year-old went to the wedding wearing a bomb vest. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:17.360 Fifty people were killed at this wedding in Turkey. 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.360 Now, what's fascinating, Turkey is modern-day Galatia. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:23.759 It's in the same place that Paul's writing to. 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.519 Now, we would look at that and say that was an act of terrorism. 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.799 But the reality is that was an act of faith. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:37.120 That was somebody acting on what they believed about God in the world. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:44.559 And in that part of the world, there are people who believe that if if you die in a holy war as a martyr, you immediately go into paradise. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.879 It's because of what people believe about God. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:54.639 Now, there are people who say, well, that's why I don't want anything to do with a belief in God, because it it goes that way. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:07.360 But the reality is, is if you look at the majority of violent acts in the 20th century, the wars and things, were largely atheist, no God. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:13.039 People who didn't believe in a God fighting these battles, fighting these wars. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:18.080 So again, it matters what you believe about God. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.080 Is he real or is he not? 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:23.360 And if he is, what is he like? 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:25.519 And some of this has to do with Paul. 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:31.600 Paul knew firsthand about what you believe impacts the way that you live. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.120 And part of it is because of the nature of God's relationship with us. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:39.679 So it's not just about what we believe about God shapes how we live, it's the nature of our relationship. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:46.240 We think that being sincere often is more important than being accurate, or being free to choose is more important than being accurate. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:47.840 It's about the right to choose. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:57.679 But God wants us, yes, to choose freely, in accordance with the truth, and to know him for who he really, really is. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:00.399 Choosing what is false, he doesn't want. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:02.480 He wants us, he's like any other person. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:05.759 He wants us to enter into relationship with him. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:06.720 Again, this is from A. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:06.960 W. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:12.080 Tozer, who is a very well-known theologian from the 20th century. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:26.799 He wrote, God is a person, and in the depth of his mighty nature, he thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:36.720 We have almost forgotten that God is a person, and as such, a relationship with him can be cultivated, just like with any other person. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:38.879 So what's at stake is knowing God. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:43.840 It's not some abstract notion of going to heaven when we die or some of some abstract higher power. 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:47.360 It's knowing and believing the true God as He's revealed Himself. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:56.480 And so Paul is writing to Galatians to correct false views of God, and this passage, his letter begins by letting us know who this God really is. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:01.440 He's a Father, the Fatherhood of God. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:03.759 He says it three times. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:08.080 Chapter 1, verse 1, God the Father. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:12.399 Chapter 1, verse 3, God our Father. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:16.480 Chapter 1, verse 4, our God and Father. 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:24.960 He doesn't say God the all-powerful, God the all-knowing, God the just, which are all true, but God the Father. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.440 So what does Paul want us to be right about as we're entering into Galatians? 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:30.960 Where does he want us to start? 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.879 He wants us to start with the reality that God is our Father. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:36.879 So just these three things, very quick. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:38.399 Chapter 1, verse 1. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.480 He is God the Father. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:46.159 In John chapter 17, verse 24, Jesus prayed to his Father. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.879 And this is something he said, which is fascinating. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:56.639 He said, You loved me, Jesus speaking of himself, you loved me before the foundation of the world. 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:00.480 So, yes, pre-incarnate Jesus. 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:15.759 But what that means is before there was matter, time, energy, space, all the things that make up the created world, the love of God existed before the creation of any of that. 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:22.080 The love of a father existed for his son before there was anything else. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:26.320 Before there was a creator, before he was directing the affairs of the earth, he was a father who loved. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:29.279 Before God made anything, he was a loving father. 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:34.559 So when the Bible says God is love, it's being accurate in its portrayal of who God is. 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:38.159 So God is Father. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.440 Chapter 1, verse 3, he goes a little bit deeper for us. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:52.480 He says he is God, our Father, which means he loves us with the same love with which he loves Jesus. 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:55.200 Which is really, really hard to fathom. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:56.879 He can't love me that much. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:58.639 But Jesus says he does. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:09.200 John 17, verse 23, Jesus said, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:13.519 He loves us with the same love with which he loves Jesus. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:19.759 John chapter 20, verse 17 says, I'm ascending to my Father and to your Father. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:25.360 He gives God the Father the same title for us that he gives God the Father for Himself. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:29.919 And then in chapter 1, verse 4, He is our God and Father. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.960 This Father also happens to be the real true God in all that he is. 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.279 He's all powerful, he's all-knowing, he's creating, he's controlling. 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:41.360 And when I was a kid, I wanted a dad with that kind of power. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:42.639 And I have that. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:45.679 I have a loving father who has that kind of power. 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:57.039 So when we read the word father in Scripture, when we call God Father, it is meant to capture all of the proper emotions that come when we think about our earthly dads. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:02.159 When you're little, your dad is a giant and he's super strong. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:07.119 And he hoists you up and picks you up on his shoulders, and you have awe and respect for your father. 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.799 It's wrapped up in knowing his love and his affection for you. 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:33.200 So a father loves his children, he plays with his children, he introduces you to new things, he explores with you, he protects you, he rescues, he dances, he wrestles on the floor, he listens, he provides, he helps, he dances, uh, he shapes you, and he backs you up, and he cheers for you, and he weeps for you. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.880 Even when he corrects you, his love for you is evident. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:42.799 He may tell you things that you don't want to hear, but he's telling you because he's concerned and he loves you. 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:50.960 Um it's not because he's stupid, it's not because he's mean, it's not because he doesn't know, it's because he's acting with what he does know. 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:56.480 But there are ages, like your teenage years, when your father can do no right. 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:05.279 Um but in the main, as you get older, you realize, no, there was a lot more wisdom there than I gave him credit for during this particular period of my life. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:15.200 In his seminal work, The Cross of Christ, British pastor and author John Stott relates an experience of someone coming to know God as Father. 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:20.880 And this guy said that coming to God the Father was irresistible. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:22.319 Irresistible. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:27.359 It's a very word this Iranian student used when he was talking about his conversion to Christ. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:43.119 He was grew up reading the Quran, he grew up with his prayers, he led a good life, but he always felt that he was under this weight of sins and things he had done that he would never, ever be able to get out from under. 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:49.680 And then he had some Christian friends, and he learned that Jesus Christ had died for the forgiveness of his sins. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.160 And this is what this man told John Stott. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:57.680 He said, For me, the offer was irresistible and heaven sent. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:04.640 And he cried out to God to have mercy on him in Christ, and almost immediately he said, The burden of my past life was lifted. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.839 I felt as if a huge weight had gone. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:12.160 With the relief and sense of likeness came incredible joy. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:13.680 At last it had happened. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:14.960 I was free of my past. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:16.240 I was free of my sin. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:19.119 I knew that God had forgiven me, and I felt clean. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.880 I wanted to shout and tell everybody. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:26.799 And he said, it was through the cross of Christ that the character of God became clearly in focus for him. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:32.240 And he found what he said was Islam's missing dimension. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.920 And this was this man's young man's words. 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:42.319 He said, the intimate fatherhood of God and the deep assurance of sins forgiven. 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:52.880 That's one of the most unique and beautiful things about what the Bible teaches us about God is the full forgiveness of our sins. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:58.079 That God would love us that way without us earning it or trying to make up for it. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:19:59.519 It's beautiful. 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:05.200 Now, I'm talking about dads, and I know that some of you are triggered. 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:10.720 And some of you in your minds are thinking, oh, please don't let God be like my dad. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.039 Please don't let him be like my dad. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:22.720 I've done enough ministry to know that there is a vast number of people who have daddy issues. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:24.240 We do. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:41.119 We have negative eye uh negative ideas coming to our minds about God as father because of our human fathers, because human fathers can be distant and cold and demanding and self-absorbed and angry and harsh and abusive uh and sometimes just plain absent. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:43.759 So we carry that around. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:45.680 God, please don't be like that. 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:47.680 But let me refer to you to something. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:50.400 Uh going back to our museum idea. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:21:00.480 There are there are museum pieces from the ancient world, and uh often you will see a statue of Julius Caesar who's missing his nose. 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:06.720 And uh I'm pretty sure that Julius Caesar in real life was not missing his nose. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:09.920 So I don't think that's an accurate portrayal of how he actually looked. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.039 Somewhere along the way, he fell, you know, the statue fell and the nose broke off. 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.160 Or maybe some angry person came and chipped it away, I don't know. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:24.400 But at some point, the effigy of Julius Caesar has become broken. 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:27.200 So it's not what it originally was. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.640 Fatherhood is like that for us in the world. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:40.880 Your human dad, and me included, is a flawed effigy, uh, a statue, a damaged representation. 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:48.559 Whatever you wish that your father was, those good things, God the Father is. 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:54.480 I wish my dad was more loving, more affectionate, more understanding, more respectable, wiser. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:56.640 I just wish he was there. 00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:58.960 God the Father is. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.599 All of those things, they're true of our Heavenly Father. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:14.640 Some of you had good had good dads, but compared to the fatherhood of God, it's like seeing a reflection in a storefront window compared to the solid reality of God in our lives. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:17.519 So, what kind of father is God the Father? 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:21.519 This passage tells us our Father is a God of grace. 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:25.440 He wants us to be sure about one thing as we go through the book of Galatians, and that is the gospel. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:33.279 The word gospel simply means good news, not like, you know, water cooler news or somebody's just talking about stuff that's going on. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:41.680 This is a proclamation from heaven of saying there is forgiveness for sinners, and nothing can keep us from him because of what he is like. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:45.759 Paul summarizes the gospel with this little phrase in verse 6 that we didn't read. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:47.119 Again, we'll look at it next week. 00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:49.039 The grace of Christ. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:50.559 So what is grace? 00:22:50.880 --> 00:23:01.279 Grace is God's utter and complete love for you, goodness to you, acceptance of you, apart from anything that you might do or have done. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:02.880 God, good or bad. 00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:08.880 In fact, God's grace led him to act for you when you couldn't and wouldn't. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:15.359 And in fact, as we're looking through these verses right here, we see that Jesus has done it all. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:20.000 God sent Jesus to do it all, everything that needed to be done. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:28.160 So I want you to picture in your mind a football team, which used to be composed of, you know, the people on the field and the coaching staff. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:31.759 Now there's a huge organization and everybody's divided up in some way. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:36.319 So on the offense, you have the quarterback, you have the linemen, you have the receivers, you have the tailback. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:43.599 In the defense, you have the nose guard, the linebackers, the defensive ends, the uh the players in the backfield. 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:52.960 Then you also have on the sidelines, you have the coaching staff and all the advisors, and then up in the booths, you have people with headsets watching the game and advising what's going to take place. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:59.279 You have all the advertisers and marketers and other people trying to keep the money coming in so that this team can continue to run. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:05.200 So you have this really big organization that's trying to work towards one single goal. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:09.039 And the Bible says we only have one. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:11.920 Jesus has accomplished it all. 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:16.640 There's not a team of people working for our salvation, there's just one. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:19.839 And he's accomplished it, and Jesus has done it all himself. 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:22.400 This is what we read in verse 4. 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:28.960 He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:32.720 He gave himself, period. 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:34.240 He gave everything. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:43.200 You can't admit the little you see of yourself, but Jesus saw it all and he sees it all. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.720 And the reality is that he tells us is God the Father planned this. 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:49.920 Verse 4. 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:59.680 Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:08.480 God the Father planned it and raised Jesus to life to show that it was really fully accomplished on your behalf. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:17.039 He sent the only one who could succeed, and he was successful for all of us who call upon it. 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:24.000 So he is utterly gracious, he's a unrelenting, he's a relentlessly good father and understands our weakness. 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:27.839 He embraces us even in our failures, but celebrates with us in our successes. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:29.599 This is what Michael Reeves said. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:31.759 He celebrates our salvation. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:35.920 When someone comes to faith, let me see. 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:46.960 When someone comes to faith, Christians often smile and say with allusions to Luke 15.10 that the angels will be rejoicing in heaven. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:55.920 But what Luke 15, 10 actually says is that there is joy in heaven before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:59.680 So who is before the angels of God in heaven? 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:09.839 It's God, first and foremost, who rejoices to lavish his love on those who have called upon him after having rejected him. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.000 So God forgives all of our sins. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:17.680 God's love is so great that he sent his son to die for our sins. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:32.000 So if you're here this morning and you're hearing this message, maybe for the first time, that Jesus dies for sins, please know that if you believe in Jesus, all of your sins are placed upon him and he has paid all the penalty. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:42.559 And at the same time, the righteousness of Jesus, his perfect life that he lived, is given to you so that when God sees you, he treats you according to the work that you have done. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:45.440 It doesn't mean he doesn't discipline you when you need to be disciplined. 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:50.559 It doesn't mean that you don't have to face the consequences for what you have done on earth. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:56.240 But what it means is God's affection never changes, falters, or wavers. 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:00.960 He loves you as much as he loves Jesus, even when you have sinned. 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:09.200 So what it means is God's not angry with you if you're a Christian and you struggle with some sort of a sin. 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:11.359 His father's heart goes out to you. 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:17.279 He hates a sin that keeps you from him and makes you feel small and weak and crushes you. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:29.920 And he bids you to come in him with all your struggles, all your flaws, all your guilt and shame, and to find his embrace, his love, his full forgiveness and acceptance, and say, My father is the one who can fix this. 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:35.599 You know, we tend to say when we mess up, I messed up, my dad's gonna kill me. 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:39.119 In the gospel, we say, I messed up. 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:41.279 I need to go to my dad. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:44.880 Several years ago, Charles. 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:56.160 Charles was one of my students, and uh he was um, and I'm I'm speaking roundabout. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.319 He had become addicted to online material. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:11.519 And he came and told me, I knew his dad, and I said, You need to go talk to your dad. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:14.160 He said, I can't tell him, I can't talk to my dad about this. 00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:15.599 I said, Yeah, you can. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:17.440 He said, I can't talk to my dad. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:19.440 I said, You need to talk to your dad. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:26.079 So call him when you leave here and tell him you're coming home this weekend and you're going to have a conversation with him. 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:28.240 So he did. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:31.440 So I saw him that week and I said, Did you call your dad? 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:35.279 He said, Yeah, I'm going home this weekend. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:42.160 So he went home that weekend, came back the next week, and uh I saw him at our large group and I said, So did you talk to your dad? 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:43.759 He said, Yeah. 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:45.839 I talked to my dad. 00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:50.480 When I got home, uh, I said, Hey, we need to go have a conversation. 00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:56.240 So we got in the car and we went to a state park so we could have privacy because I didn't want anybody overhearing us in the in the house. 00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:00.640 And when we pulled up into the parking lot, there was an ice cream truck. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:03.440 And so my dad said, Do you want to get some ice cream? 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:05.359 And uh he said, Yeah. 00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:11.920 So they went over and got ice cream and just stood under a tree in the parking lot for hours talking. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:25.759 And his father wept with him and prayed for him, expressed his love for him, told him how much he loved him and how how glad he was he was his son. 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:33.359 And so Charles came back to me and he said, That's the best conversation I've ever had with my dad. 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:35.920 It wasn't what I expected. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:42.079 When we come to this passage, and others like it, this is our Heavenly Father. 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:44.559 He loves us. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:46.720 He loves us when we're weak. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:53.920 He loves us when we've messed up, he loves us when we're struggling, He loves us when people around us are angry at us. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:55.759 He loves you. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.759 He's crazy about you. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:09.039 This is why He sent the only one who would succeed to be successful, knowing what Jesus, the Son, was going to go through for our sakes, but it was the only way that God could save you. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:12.000 Well, thank you. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:18.559 It's Galatians, we're sitting in front of the museum piece, and I'm just describing what I see. 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:24.559 And I see a Father who loves in ways you cannot fathom. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:27.519 He loves you. 00:30:28.319 --> 00:30:42.160 No matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, no matter how dirty your hands feel, how grimy it feels, he says, Come to me in the name of Christ and the power of the Spirit. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:47.279 And it will be that weight that is lifted off because you will encounter this God of great love. 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:49.440 Let me pray for us.