Tomorrow marks the 505th anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to a church in Wittenberg, Germany. And really this moment launched the movement known as the protestant reformation and really launched protestant evangelical Christianity into that next phase, which is really actually based on Martin Luther's reading and belief in the books of Galatians and Romans that when he read the power, the faith and the freedom that is found in Galatians, he saw several injustices that was happening in the church at the time. One example, being selling of indulgences and things where where church leaders were using the gospel as a weapon to and as power to press it over people and enforce and force them into conformity. Well, when Martin Luther read the gospels, when he read Galatians, he saw in it, the empowerment of every believer and the freedom that is found in Christ that really all Christians are given the indwell of the Holy Spirit. And that when you have the Holy Spirit in your life that leads to freedom and that really, that freedom can be used to love and serve one another. And so when he nailed those theses to the door. What he was saying, what he was declaring was not something new, but rather, let's get back to the original intention of the gospel. Let's not add something. So the gospel plus the set of rules or plus this set of powers. Let's let the gospel itself speak into the lives of every believer and then let us live in that transformation and in that power. And so if the book of Galatians was powerful enough to spark the movement known as the reformation, that same book can speak power and life and freedom into your life and into mine. And so we're in this series between now and Christmas where we're walking through the book of Galatians in a series known as Firm Foundation. And then in this series, we wanna help you find faith and freedom here in a deconstructed world, we live in a culture that loves to cancel everything. And at the same time shifts, what is defined as truth and what is defined as acceptable. And so what we want to base our faith on is OK. What does the Bible actually say the gospel is what the gospel is not? And then what does it mean to be a Christian? Because Paul was writing around 50 ad to a series of churches in the area known as Galatia. And what was happening was these Pharisees, these religious leaders known as Judaize were enforcing extra rules on now. Gentile believers. So gentile just means not Jewish. And so people were getting saved and now they were in putting on Jewish rules and customs the way they ate what they ate. And even things as far as circumcision, something that was reserved for infants. Now, even adults getting saved were saying, well, no, you need to be circumcised. And so Paul comes in and he passionately defines and defends the gospel. And so what we see in this six chapter letter is really three components in chapters one and two, which we talked about here in these first two weeks, I encourage you to go back and watch it on youtube, watch it on our website or listen on podcast, but we talked about how the gospel is personal and Paul shares his story of conversion before I met Christ, when I met Christ, how my life has changed after. And then in chapter two, he gets personal and he says that our faith is worth fighting for. And he has a meeting in Jerusalem and a and a confrontation with Peter. And we, we combated legalism and hypocrisy and got back to the foundation of grace. And we shared how grace is really God's riches at Christ's expense. And that ultimately, the gospel really frees us from the pressure of rules. Rules have a place, but they don't, they can't save you and it relieves us from the pressure of rules, but then also the power of sin and So now we get into chapters three and four in which Paul is gonna s share with us that the gospel is powerful and he makes the theological argument here. And then in the last two chapters of this letter, he shares that the gospel is practical and we, and it really talks about how to live this out on a daily basis. So today's theme verse, we're gonna be walking through the 1st 14 verses of Galatians. But the theme verse his thesis for these two chapters and the letter is this, it comes from verse 14 in which he writes this, he says, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles. So that and here's the real key phrase. Here is the thesis of his whole argument. He says in here he says so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. This morning's message is entitled receiving and unleashing the Holy Spirit. Because what's on trial? The reason he is writing this letter is understanding the connection between the Holy Spirit and faith. John Piper gives this imagery and this illustration, he says, picture a campfire for a moment along with the campfire, there is light of the fire and then there is heat and warmth felt by the fire. Now, the light what is seen could really be described when it comes to faith as hearing the gospel or our belief. This is our action. This makes sense because in Matthew five, Jesus calls us the light of the world really because he is the light of the world so that we can let our light shine. It is it is the visible action or portion that people can see. And so us hearing the gospel, responding with faith, responding here and, and receiving that message, that's like the light of a campfire. Now, when you believe in your heart, that's like the heat of a campfire. That is something that you can feel right? That is your experience. So there's the declaration of belief and then there is the feeling and experience of belief and then the fire that sparks both is the Holy Spirit that when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, it is like a fire being sparked and ignited in your heart. Now ask you two questions. Number one, at what point do those three things happen? Are there, is there an order or do they happen simultaneously? Well, if you start a fire, you have the fire, light and heat all at the same time. But that leads me to my next question. What is the most important part of those three things? Light heat, fire? Well, it's fire because if you don't have fire, you have neither light nor heat. Does that make sense? All three happen at the same time where there's fire, there is light and there is heat. So where there is fire? There is the declaration of belief? But then there is also the faith in your heart that is felt, but neither of which happens without the spark that comes from the Holy Spirit. And so what Paul is gonna lay forth is, is that in light of these Judaize in light of these religious leaders, he's gonna talk about the value of faith and spirit. And if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down that through faith, through our belief, we can receive and unleash the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can receive and unleash the Holy Spirit in our lives that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that makes the difference in the life of the believer. It is the engine, it is the fuel that drives everything that we do. And what he's gonna talk about today is writing to an audience to a, a series of believers to Christians saying, hey, where, where have you gone? You've got lost along the way. Like you started with Spirit, you started with faith and now you're off and you're completely lost here and you are in the wrong spot because you forgot how you got saved in the first place. And let me just tell you that the Holy Spirit isn't just something you receive. It's also something that you unleash and I love that word unleash because uh uh really this passion for that word comes from a Charles Spurgeon quote when it talks about defending the word of God. He says, Charles Spurgeon, a preacher from about 100 years ago said this, that defending the word of God is a lot like defending a lion. You don't defend the lion. You simply unleash it that you just got to let it loose. And I wonder how many Christians have the power of the Holy Spirit caged up in their lives and they're just trying to do everything on their own strength. Now, the Holy Spirit is hard to understand because you, we, we understand the imagery of a Father God, the father, we understand the imagery of a Son Jesus and Jesus was physically present, but the Holy Spirit is not an it, it's a he, he is the third person of the Trinity that Jesus Christ himself did everything in the spirit. If you read the gospels, especially the Gospel of Luke, you would be amazed at how often it says that Jesus did something in the spirit. And so the purpose of the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised to believers in John 14 is to be the substitute presence of Jesus. So it it's equal what Jesus. So Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life and then he declares the Holy Spirit as the spirit of truth. So the Holy Spirit convicts it, it encourages it, it draws you to, it is the spark, it is the fire that leads to the heat that you feel the conscience and, and your decision making and the conviction that you feel in your heart, but then also leads to the visible declaration and the light that is shown to the world. Now, when Paul makes this declaration, his thesis for these next two chapters, he gives a master class when it comes to argument, debate and persuasion, we're in a campaign season, right? Where candidates debate or go back and forth. One of the things I love about Paul is that Paul is a genius when it comes to argument and persuasion. So even if you disagree with what he says, there, you have to acknowledge his excellence and creativity and the strength of his argument. So if you like arguing and my own son is that way. I said, Jackson, you love to argue. No, I don't. If you have someone in your family who loves to argue everything and wants to make a point about everything you're gonna like today's message because Paul gives a master class at it. So here's what he does. He really lays it out. And in the first five verses of chapter three, he gives a personal argument and in this personal argument, he offers four questions. So he goes right to the heart of the Galatians and he asks them about their personal experience and a little rule of thumb. If you wanna control a conversation, you don't just make declarations, you ask questions. And so all he does is ask questions and it's incredible. It's really powerful here. And then he says, oh, by the way, you're a Pharisees you, you are basing everything in tradition. And so let's go. There. You wanna go, you wanna go Old Testament, I'll go Old Testament. And he lays out a scripture argument using the same passages that they use to make rules to point to the gospel. It's incredible. We're gonna walk through this together. So let's jump into it. First, Paul lays out a personal argument for why Christianity is based on faith and the Holy Spirit, not on works and following rules. And so let's read this the first two verses here. He's gonna end up asking four questions and I'll lay them out for you as we go says, oh, fool escalations who has Bewitched? You says it was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. This is important because he's saying potentially two things, number one, we're about 50 ad. And so we're still within the same generation that Jesus was crucified. So there was potentially people who were physically there when Jesus died, was buried and rose again. And then second, he helped lead a lot of these people to Christ. And so even if they didn't visibly see Jesus Paul portrayed the crucifixion of Jesus. And so that's why he's saying who tricked you like Jesus was clearly portrayed and declared as crucified and risen again. This is Jesus. This is the faith that we have. And so then he asked the first question here. Verse two, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing by faith? Question number one, is he asked them about their start? He said, did you receive the spirit by works or hearing by faith? How did you get saved? Was it like a series? Was it Amazing Race where you travel around Jerusalem with all these obstacles? And the first one to the mat gets saved, was it like the show Survivor? Where like you go through these challenges and someone gets voted off and then you get saved. Did you receive a rose? Ok. I I I'm just done referencing reality TV shows here. But do you understand? He's saying like, did you do something to receive a gift? Like did you earn this? How did you start? Well, the answer here is clear. He, well, no, it's, it's by faith. The fire of the spirit came, my faith. She's like, how did you start well by faith? Verse three, he says, are you so foolish then? Having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Second question he asks here is strength says having begun by the spirit. Are you maturing by works? In other words, how are you growing? How are you getting stronger? Right? What is your spiritual leg day? Right? And growing? How are you getting stronger? Are you getting stronger by obeying a bunch of rules. Are you getting stronger because you believe more wholeheartedly in the power of what Jesus did you see? Religion says? Do Christianity says? Done? That's a big difference. So Paul's writing to these people like, hey, hey, hey, all these extra rules are being in force on you. Let me ask you, how did you get saved? How did you start? Was it by faith or doing something? Faith? Ok. Cool. Second question, how, how do you gain strength? Do you gain strength by just doing a bunch of stuff or by growing in your faith and the Holy Spirit working in your life? Then it goes to the next question verse four. He says, did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain. So they were already being persecuted. So we asked the question of suffering. Did you suffer in vain? Do you really think following rules is what's threatening the power and, and rulers at the time? Or was it the freedom found in Christ? It's like you're being persecuted. People are throwing rocks at you, right? You're having to hide out. Why? Because they're threatened? Are they threatened by you following rules or by believing in the freedom found in Jesus? What what is causing the suffering? It's your belief in Jesus, right? So you can see he's just asking questions. He is just poking the bear man, he is just going and he's like you wanna go there? OK. How did you start? How do you strengthen? Why are you suffering? You weren't suffering before you believed in Jesus? Why are you suffering now? And then he goes even further. Verse five, he says, 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. The fourth question he asked him, he says the supernatural, hey, God's been working miracles in your life. Does he do that by works or by faith? See how powerful this is. He's talking directly to them. You figured it out for yourself. Let me just ask you four questions. How did you start? How do you strengthen? How do you get through suffering and how do you explain the supernatural? All four of those come back to what we first said, the Holy Spirit through faith. So now that he's built there, so really you see the summary of this argument? He says this Paul is basically saying in these first couple of verses, he says, looking at how you start your strength, suffering in the supernatural, you realize that everything comes by the Holy Spirit through faith, that fire doesn't come with inside of us, that fire comes from God and it's that fire that not only saves us but sustains us. Meaning you need the gospel just as much today as the day you prayed to receive Him. This is where change happens. It's God working through you. And this is so freeing because it takes the burden off of you. But Paul doesn't stop there because he understands that people's experiences can be debated and can be argued and can be explained. Well, that's your experience. That's not my experience, right? You do you right. So Paul next goes to the jugular because he's facing re religious leaders who are using old Testament passages to point people to all these rules, to keep themselves in power and to limit who gets saved. So Paul who was a pharisee, he was trained in this. He was seen as a pharisee of Pharisees. Oh, you wanna go, there, you wanna go Bible. I'll go Bible with you. And this is masterful right here. It's incredible over the next eight verses. He's gonna quote eight different Old Testament passages and to prove his own point, he's gonna use their argument against them. This is so incredible. But to help understand this, he's gonna go back to, we're gonna go all the way back to Genesis. So all the way back to Genesis in the very first because a lot of the Jewish leaders at that time were pointing to the power of Abraham. Abraham was seen as the Mount Rushmore of the Old Testament than the faith leaders saying like we're, you know, we're singing Father Abraham had been anyone sing that OK? Anyway, we need to bring that back. Right. Andrew, we should bring that back on it. Ok. Yeah, everyone moving. It would be good. OK? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's OK, but you didn't miss out, you should look it up. So um it goes back to Abraham. He was known as Abram. He was seen as the Abrahamic covenant. It's the initial promise of salvation through Abraham. He says this specifically in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your Kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. So he promises land, the promised land in verse two and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. So it talks about uh people, it's the second blessing. So you got land people and in verse three, and I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and in, in you all families of the earth notice this extends beyond Jewish people. All families of the earth will be blessed because of you. So this is known as the Abrahamic covenant, in which God promises land, the promised land, um people, ultimately, the seed or salvation that's gonna come through Jesus and then blessing. So then a couple of chapters later, chapter 15, it says this. He says, and, and Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. The word count is like an accounting term, in other words, to credit as if it was his. In other words, it's not like, ok, we're gonna add that to your account. It's in other words, it's as if he is righteous, he's not righteous because between Genesis 12 and Genesis 15, multiple times, Abraham tries to sell off his wife. Whole another sermon, whole another story made lots of mistakes there. So it's not great for Abraham. I'm just saying like the father of our country or nation here of belief wasn't the best. Ok? So it's not based on him, but he says, but he believed that God would fulfill his promise. And so that belief that faith was credited as righteousness. Watch what happens here now back to Galatians, thousands of years later. Ok, Paul goes there. He says just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness verse seven. Now know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. This is awesome. You know why this is awesome? And this is so cool and this is where I get Bible. Nerd it out for a second. So just stick with me. The Abrahamic covenant came in Genesis chapter 12 and then affirmed again in Genesis chapter 15. Do you know when the practice of circumcision came into play Genesis 1710. So Paul just goes mic drop on him because the, the, the struggle was, oh if you believe Jesus, you gotta be circumcised, you gotta do this, you gotta do these rules. He like really? Because your practice came in Genesis 17. But what I'm preaching came a couple of chapters earlier. So which is it, by the way, which we're gonna get into this next week is 400 years before the mosaic law even came into play. So he said, even from the beginning, it was about faith. So verse seven. So yeah, we just read through that now to verse eight. It says, and the scripture for seeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith preach the gospel for Him to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed. So he's quoting Genesis 12 3, you already quoted Genesis 15 6. It's also quoted in Genesis 20 218 and Genesis 26 4. And so he's quoting these verses verse nine. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith, your example that you're lifting up is actually my example because even from the beginning, it's about belief in God, not following rules. And then in verse 10, he's actually quoting Deuteronomy 2726. He says, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse for it is written in Deuteronomy and I just shared cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. What he's saying is ok? You wanna follow the rules, do you follow all of them? Everyone perfectly. In the Old Testament, there's over 600 commandments. And then since that time, the Judy Eisner's even added more on to that. And so you got over 600 commandments. You're telling me that you can go through life and follow you. You wanna, you want to be judged based on the law. It's your rule book here. You're telling me you wanna be judged? Ok. Well, God is perfect. So, have you never broken one of those? Well, no, you just lied. Boom. Done sin. You can't, you can't, you can't follow all the rules. Part of the Old Testament is diagnosing the issue that we are sinners that we cannot be perfect. Many of you sinned on the way to church this morning. You know what I'm talking about? You thought something you argued, you fought, you were prideful. Maybe not the best language. I don't know. But we can't even make it to church without falling short. Let's be real. Right? And you know it's true. If you got kids in the car and you have not fought on the way to church, you are not human. Yeah, it's true. Right. How many times do you experience this church experience? Like, oh God, it's so good, Jesus. You alone. Oh yes. And then you go to work money. You're like, right? Why? Because we're human. This is what we do. The first two humans that walked with God that had a perfect garden that didn't even need clothes and we still messed it up, right? That's what Paul is saying here. He's saying, do you want to judge by the law because you will break it and he's quoting their verses to them. Then in verse 11, he's quoting Deuteronomy 2726 again. And then hapa 24, he says, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith verse 12. But the law is not a faith, rather the one who does them shall live by faith. In other words, the law should point you to Jesus. The reason Abraham was righteous was not just because of what he did. It's because of what he believed. It is faith. See, we're, it's the same equation. We're just on the other side. Abraham believed what God was going to do as Christians. We believe what God has already done. But faith is needed on both sides. Verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. And he's quoting Deuteronomy 2123 which happens years and years and years before crucifixion was even a thing. He ends back at his thesis statement verse 14. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles to everyone so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Paul likes this example of Abraham and he quotes him in a couple other places. Let me read two of them to you. Romans chapter seven verse seven. He says, what shall we say then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not. So he's not bashing it. He said, it's got a place right? It's got a place. Don't ignore the rules, don't completely throw it out. Says nevertheless, I would not have known what sin is, had it not been for the law. In other words, the law points out the fact that I'm a sinner, it tells me the disease that I have. It's very important, it shows the unhealth in my heart. So for I would not have known what coveting really was unless the law had not said you shall not covet a little bit earlier. Same letter Paul writing in Romans four uses Abraham as an example. He says yet he did not refer to Abraham. He did not waver through unbelief for guarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to him. Verse 21 is a great definition of faith. Faith. It says this. So being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he promised. Verse 22. This is why it was credited to Him as righteousness. Same phrase here, verse 23. The words it was credited to him were written not for Him alone, but then also for us, you see, this is why this passage is still valuable to us today says to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in Him, who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead, that he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. This is why a little bit later in the letter. And we're jumping ahead in Galatians to Galatians five because it all goes together. He says this in verse five and six. Paul says for through the spirit, there's the fire by faith. We eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness for in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but notice the word counts the same word there is, is that interesting? What counted for Abraham righteousness now counts nothing for us here. It says, but only faith working itself through love. In other words, only that light and the heat that comes from our life changed by the spirit. And then a few verses later, verse 25 it says that if we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit Church. You need the Holy Spirit today. You need the Holy Spirit as your parent. You need the Holy Spirit in your work life. You need the Holy Spirit in your marriage. You need the Holy Spirit in your singleness, you need the Holy Spirit and how you speak and how you think because when left to your own devices, you will fall short. But with the power of the spirit, everything can transform and change. Because through faith, you can receive and unleash the Holy Spirit in our lives, we get guilty as Christians at times by saying, God, thank you for saving me. Got it from here, right? Or we or we go the other way and say, ok, God thanks, thanks for the ticket. Thanks for the pass to heaven. But now I wanna live how I want to. God's not ok with that. He doesn't wanna just give you a ticket. Now. He wants his kingdom come. His will be done. He wants you to experience healthy, thriving relationship with the God who loves you and created you right now. That means that joy is possible, that hope and love is possible that when you believe in Jesus and when I say believe in Jesus, there's a difference. You see, there's believe in God, that's nice. But I, what I wanna ask is go a step further and ask you, do you actually believe God believing in God believes in the existence of God but leaves a little bit separated. But if you actually believe God himself and you believe His words, what you are saying is that Jesus Christ died on a cross for my sins, that I cannot make it to heaven on my own, that he exchanged my sin for his blessing. That when he rose again on the third day, he tells us that forgiveness is possible. That purpose is here, that joy is here and joy is found in knowing God as your Lord and Savior. That is the Holy Spirit gives you a little whisper in the ear, a prompting in the heart, a fire in your soul. When that spark comes, you can declare your belief as a light and feel that experience, that faith in your heart, of the warmth that is not based on what you've done or what you haven't done that. Even from the beginning, it's always been about faith and the promises of and if you believe in his name, you will be saved. So church, let me ask you two questions. Number one, have you received the Holy Spirit? If you've, if you've, if you believed in God, you've heard some things about God, you've come to church, you've read this before. That's one thing. But I wanna know, do you believe it? Have you received the Holy Spirit in your life? Has that fire been ignited inside of you? Because you can do that today. I want you to pray with me in just a moment. But then a second question for those who already call yourself a quick a Christian I wanna ask, are you unleashing the Holy Spirit in your, is Christianity a box? You just check on Sundays or do you allow the Holy Spirit to infiltrate what you think, how you speak in your relationships, in your workplace, in your worries, because we all have worries. We all have doubts, we all have sins. And what Paul is saying here is that when you believe in Christ, when you believe in the spirit, the spirit can come and transform and change things. So it's not that you change for God, it's that you allow God to change you and that my friends is grace. Because if you unleash the Holy Spirit in your life, you're gonna look at things differently. You're gonna act differently, not in your own doing, but it's believing in the promises and the power of God and living as if they are true. Will you pray with me to God? I know that I'm a sinner that I can't make it on my own. God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. God, I wanna receive your spirit into my life today. I wanna believe that Jesus, you are Lord and Savior. I commit my life to you, forgive me. God. Holy Spirit come into my life, ignite that fire God. Thank you for saving me and God. It's in that love, it's in that identity that's secured. Now, God, I pray that you would unleash the spirit in my life. May I not get saved? But then try to move to my own works and my own doing. And my own strength. But rather God, I pray that your spirit continue to work in my life today. Right now, this week, I lift up my struggles and my doubts and my word to you. We continue to work on our lives today. We love your God and yourselves and we pray.