INTRODUCTION: Sleep is an important part of our lives, even though we can recall very little of it. We spend about a third of our lives asleep, which amounts to twenty-five years for a seventy-five-year-old man. And if the chief end of our lives is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, as the Shorter …
Really Obvious
The principle is firmly established already. Paul is building up to the point that false religion is the foundation of all false living. Just as believing lives are built upon the truth of God, so false lives are built on the lies of righteousness-mongers. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not …
The Draw of True Preaching
“My contention is that it is the pulpit itself that is ultimately responsible, and that when the pulpit is right, and the preaching is true, that it will attract and draw the people to listen to its message” (Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. 52).
Love and Polemics
We have already seen that the lines of descent from Sarah and Hagar are fluid. We are now coming to the great truth that the family resemblance borne in these lines is also obvious. Sons of Abraham do the works of Abraham. The text today closes on the threshold of Paul’s great description of the …
A High Calling
“The work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. …
Two Ways of Justification
The lines of descent from Sarah and Hagar are fluid. In other words, physical sons of Sarah can become Ishmaelites through unbelief. Physical sons of Hagar can come in faith to Christ and be adopted into Israel. That which God uses to determine which way it goes is faith which He imparts as a sovereign …
All Spiritual Wisdom
The meaning of the two sons in this passage is absolutely basic to all spiritual wisdom. If we listen to carnal whispers will get this all tangled up—and we must not. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two …
Inescapable Fear
INTRODUCTION: This message on Inescapable Fear could just as easily been entitled as Freedom from Fear. And, without any contradiction, it could also be entitled The Christian Grace of Fear. But all this will take some unpacking. THE TEXT: “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, …
Christ Formed in You
The outline of Paul’s appeal is now plain. He then turns to make a personal appeal to the Galatians. Their potential apostasy involves much more than simply following an argument—although it includes that. That “much more” has to do with their personal relationship with Paul himself. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for …
The Old Elements and the New Christian Aeon
In this epistle to the Galatians, not only do we have a contrast between the old Israel and the new, we also have a contrast between the old world and the new, between the old heavens and old earth, and the new heavens and the new earth. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye …