Are You Fooled? #232

Galatians 3:1-5  1. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Try harder!! Keep working at it!! You can do it!! That may be good advice in some arenas but it is not in the life of a Christian. The harder you try the more likely you will fail. The reason for your failure is that it is based on a false premise that you can live the Christian life by your effort, or by keeping all the rules. The Bible says that we are fooled if we think we can.

You began your Christian life by faith in Christ and not by keeping the Law. When you are born again you receive the Holy Spirit by faith. It is foolish to believe that it is now your works that will keep you saved. The Bible says if you began by faith and not by keeping the Law why do you now think you must keep the law to continue.

Paul, the Apostle, was writing to a church that he introduced to Jesus and salvation and he observed them being influenced by a group that taught that it was necessary to keep the Law to be a Christian. The Law he is referring to is the Law of Moses. Salvation he says is accomplished by God’s grace through faith. To remain in God’s grace and to live by faith is God’s plan of salvation. Instead the influence of the Judaizers, as they were called, was to convince the believers to place themselves under the Jewish Law in order to be justified before God.

The Bible makes it quite clear that it is foolish to believe that keeping the Law was necessary to be right with God. The hearing of faith and not the keeping of the Law brought salvation. As a believer what are your depending on to be right with God?

Your human effort and rules keeping does not give you or keep you in a relationship with God. The indwelling Holy Spirit and faith does.                                                                                                                           

__________________Today's personal note from Dennis

Greetings from Starbucks in beautiful Tempe, AZ

Hope your week was fulfilling. God allowed me to preach again Sunday at Laveen Baptist Church. The church is a little over a thirty minute drive from my home. I left early in order to be at the first service at 8:30 AM. The second service was at 10:05. By the time I drove home I was TIRED!! Took a long afternoon nap and was revived. The sermon is on the web at www.laveenbaptistchurch.org.

If you would like to see past The Encourager from the archive check out www.dgtheencourager.blogspot.com.

The next couple of weeks will be busy. I am speaking at the Men's Breakfast at First Baptist Church Tempe on Saturday morning January 12th. The Men's Ministry is kicking off several new ministries. The Quartzsite Campers on Mission's ministry begins on January 19th. Sandy and I will be speaking each day from the 20th-27th. It has been one of our favorite ministry highlights for several years. 

February 4th and 5th we will be teaching at the annual Mission Service Corp retreat. It is a time to encourage all the volunteer missionaries in Arizona that work in Southern Baptist Missions. February 17th I will be preaching at the Intersect Service at 9:30 AM at First Baptist Church of Tempe. God has certainly blessed with opportunities to share about Jesus, His Word, and to encourage God's servants through preaching, teaching and writing. 

All five of our grandsons continue to grow. The newest "baby Justin" as we are calling him right now is doing very well. He continues to grow, adding weight and already trying to raise his head. Johnny is BUSY!! He never stops. He can't say Grammie yet so it comes out GRRR. What a great name! 

Burke will have his 12th birthday on January 25th. Collin is a video game expert. Bennett enjoys his music. Tapaw likes naps. Burke and Collin play videos games with one another and Skype on line. The picture was taken at Christmas.

I would appreciate your prayers as I have my next chemo injections on Monday, January 14th. 

The Encourager devotional this week is about how to live by the Spirit and faith and yet how easy it is for us to take our eyes off of God and try our best and only find ourselves failing. I have been restudying the Book of Galatians recently and have been personally encouraged. Read through it. It only takes a few minutes.

I hope God blesses you this week with His power. We have been given God's power. 

^{Ephesians 1:18} I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened...¹⁹ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might ²⁰ which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places...

Love through Christ ~ DGW