Tale as Old as Time

Tale as Old as Time

galatians 3:1-9

Tale as Old As Time: 

  1. The Israelites after the Exodus (Exodus 14, 32) 

  2. The Israelites in the Wilderness (Exodus 16–17, Numbers 11:4–6; cf. Galatians 5:1)

  3. The Cycle of the Judges (Judges 2:16, 19)

  4. The Kings and Their Little Kingdoms (1 Samuel 9–10, 1 Samuel 13:8–14, 15:1–26)

  5. The Israelites after the Babylonian Exile (Ezra 1, 9, Nehemiah 13)

  6. The Prophets Confront the Fool and Bewitchers (Jeremiah 4:22, Isaiah 1:3, Ezekiel 13:3, Hosea 7:11)

  7. Jesus Confronts the Fools and Bewitchers (Matthew 7:24–27, 23:17, 19, Luke 11:39–40, 24:25). 

Main Idea: To resist witchery and foolishness, we remember the finished work of Jesus.

I. We Forget What We’ve Seen (3:1)

Galatians 3:1: O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Jesus almost paid it all, almost all to him I owe. 

1 Corinthians 2:2: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I need no other argument,

I need no other plea,

It is enough that Jesus died,

And that He died for me.

II. We Forget What We’ve Experienced (3:2-5)

Galatians 3:2: Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Q: How did you receive the Spirit? 

2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

Romans 8:9: You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Salvation belongs to our God. 

Galatians 3:3: Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 

Q: How do you grow?

Galatians 3:4: Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 

Q: Why were you persecuted?

Galatians 3:5: Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Q: Why does anything happen in our midst?

Galatians 3:6:  Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 

III. We Forget What We’ve Learned (3:7-9)

Galatians 3:7: Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”  So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 

John 5:39–40: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life

1 Cor 15:3–4: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Conclusion: 

Remember what you’ve seen (Rev 3:3)

Remember what you’ve experienced (Rev 2:5)

Remember what you’ve learned (Heb 10:23, 2 Timothy 1:13-14)

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