Following Jesus Son of God …

Jed & Katie Carter are missionaries with Wycliffe serving in Papua New Guinea in language survey.

Here are two songs from their presentation last Sunday.

GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit

Galatians 3:1-6

GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit

Galatians 3:1-6

• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit – Galatians 3-1-9 – ffc – dave scott – 082717 – STUDY SHEET 1
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit – Galatians 3-1-9 – ffc – dave scott – 082717 – STUDY SHEET 2
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit – Galatians 3-1-9 – ffc – dave scott – 082717 – STUDY SHEET 3
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit – Galatians 3-1-9 – ffc – dave scott – 082717 – STUDY SHEET 4
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 7 – The Finishing Work of the Spirit – Galatians 3-1-9 – ffc – dave scott – 082717 – STUDY SHEET 5-6

SUNDAY AM

GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences –

Galatians 2:17-3:1

SUNDAY PM

Faithfully Preaching Christ – PART 1

2 Corinthians 4:1–5 

GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences

Galatians 2:17-3:6

• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences – Galatians 2-17-3-6 – ffc – dave scott – 082017 – STUDY SHEET 1
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences – Galatians 2-17-3-6 – ffc – dave scott – 082017 – STUDY SHEET 2
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences – Galatians 2-17-3-6 – ffc – dave scott – 082017 – STUDY SHEET 3
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences – Galatians 2-17-3-6 – ffc – dave scott – 082017 – STUDY SHEET 4
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 6 – Overcoming Evil Influences – Galatians 2-17-3-6 – ffc – dave scott – 082017 – STUDY SHEET 5-6

SUNDAY AM

GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard

Galatians 2:11-21

SUNDAY PM 

Tested by Fire

1 Peter selected texts

GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard

Galatians 2-11-21

• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard – Galatians 2-11-21 – ffc – dave scott – 081317 STUDY SHEET 1
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard – Galatians 2-11-21 – ffc – dave scott – 081317 STUDY SHEET 2
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard – Galatians 2-11-21 – ffc – dave scott – 081317 STUDY SHEET 3
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard – Galatians 2-11-21 – ffc – dave scott – 081317 STUDY SHEET 4
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 5 – Justified by Faith-Old Religion Dies Hard – Galatians 2-11-21 – ffc – dave scott – 081317 STUDY SHEET 5-6

GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace – Part 2

Galatians 2:1-14 

INTRODUCTION: How do we preserve “the truth of the gospel”?

• Those are Paul’s words—“the truth of the gospel.” It is very important to note that he didn’t just say “the gospel” but that he said “the truth of the gospel.” Why is this then so very important? Because if you do not preserve “the truth of the gospel” then you have no gospel at all. We are saved by grace through faith—this is not our doing, this is a gift, no works. If you do not have “the truth of the gospel” then you are left with a gospel that is no gospel at all. You have a false gospel, a different gospel, a contrary gospel that leaves you under the curse of God.
• We will see this morning that every other gospel is a twist or a turn of the true gospel. Did you know that false teachers need the Bible to forward their agenda? False teachers depend on the Bible as much as those who preach the truth of God’s word.
• This is really not as strange as it may sound initially. Pick a church, any church—liberal, fundamental, charismatic, pentecostal, mainline denomination, independent. It doesn’t matter. I believe that you would be hard-pressed to find a church that did not provide some type of scriptural support for the gospel that they preach. Church people want their gospel in some way or another to be based on the Bible. So false teachers need the Bible or they will go nowhere fast. This is an essential truth in understanding the battle over the gospel.
• World renowned atheist Richard Dawkins doesn’t need the Bible to do his work. He doesn’t need Scripture to promote his anti-god, atheistic, evolutionary philosophy of life. Dawkins is number one on the Super Scholar dot com list of the top four living atheists in the world; the other three are Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Bennett. None of these men need the Bible to promote their anti-god agenda.
• Why? They are not wolves. To make it on SuperScholar’s list of influential living atheists, an atheist can’t merely disbelieve in God but also must actively encourage others to disbelieve in God. So, yes, they are anti-god and destructive and dangerous.
• But they are not wolves as the Bible speaks of wolves, such as the wolves the Apostle Paul warns us about in Acts 20:29 and our Lord warns us about in Matthew 7:15.
• These wolves we are warned about do need the Bible. The Bible describes wolves as false teachers who disguise themselves as sheep. Wolves need the Bible because it is crucial to their disguise. They have to blend in. Wolves are infiltrators. They are secretive and sneaky. All biblical descriptions.
• So to fight the good fight, we need to pay careful attention to what these wolves are up to. We need to be aware that it would not be unusual at all for a wolf to present a list of Bible verses a mile long because he needs something common and accepted in the church to twist and turn. Wolves distort the word of God. It is their modus operandi. It is how they do business. All false gospels are a twisted version of the true gospel. Wolves know that to be successful they have to connect with church people. So the wolf needs the Bible, or he is going nowhere in the church.
• How the devil must laugh at times when he sees how we are deceived by our own Bibles, when he observes our careless thinking and our apathy in our approach to the word of God. How tragic and ironic that the wolf’s most useful instrument on unsuspecting sheep is their very own Bibles.
• So back to Galatians … Paul had preached the gospel with great success in the region of Galatia in the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Many had come to know the Lord, but now within a very short period of time—possibly only a year, some of the Galatians were turning away from God to a different gospel.
• What had happened? Well, the battle between good and evil had happened. The fight between light and darkness and God and the devil had happened. The truth of God had collided with the lies of Satan. False teachers cannot tolerate “the truth of the gospel.”
• And the clearer and bolder our preaching is of “the truth of the gospel” the more intense will be the attack of the enemy.
• So what are we to do?

—>Please turn with me to Galatians 2:1.

• We preserve the truth of the gospel by not giving in to the false brothers who twist the truth of the gospel, 2:1-5, cf. 2 Corinthians 11:12-15, Acts 15:1, 5, 24.

• We preserve the truth of the gospel by fulfilling our responsibility for the truth of the gospel before God first, 2:6-10.

• We preserve the truth of the gospel by rebuking fellow believers who waver on the truth of the gospel, 2:11-14.

• CONCLUSION: Do you remember our “That ain’t nothin’ guy”?

• He was the truck driver who always one-upped everybody else’s story with “That ain’t nothin’!” Just hang onto that thought.
• Do you know what WWF stands for? It stands for the World Wildlife Fund but was formerly used for the World Wrestling Federation until a lawsuit was filed against them by the current WWF. So the old WWF is now the WWE, and the WWE and other groups have promoted wrestling events that they call death matches. If you search online, you will find events such as the WWE Death Match! @ Wrestlemania 33 or CZW: Taipei Death Match 2 which pits Ian Rotten versus Axl Rotten or you may run across Cactus Jack versus Vader in a Texas Death Match. But these events … they’re not death matches … merely entertainment. Violent entertainment for sure, and probably really painful, but still just entertainment.
• So as our guy would say: “That ain’t nothin’!”
• What is something? In fact what is everything? The true death match is what the Apostle Paul puts before us in Galatians.
• Get the gospel right and live forever with God. Get the gospel wrong and there you are … dead on the mat. Not just kind of dead … not a game … no do-overs … but forever dead; never to rise again except to judgment.
• Have you ever connected the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15 with the ending?
• (1 Corinthians 15:1–2 ESV) Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
• (1 Corinthians 15:57–58 ESV) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
• Why does the Apostle Paul make such a big deal of “the truth of the gospel” in Galatians? And why do I make such a big deal of “the truth of the gospel” in Galatians?
• Because one gospel, and only one—the gospel that Paul preached—gives us that victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• With every other gospel, when the match is over, you are lying dead on the mat, still dead in your sins. When your life is over, you are bloodied and beaten by the lies of men, maybe even your own lies. You are damned and deceived and dead in your sins under the curse of God.
• Why has this battle gotten so intense? Because this means everything. This is no time for religious games.  This is truth or consequences. Life or death. Blessing or cursing. The wonder and amazement of heaven or the terror and anguish of the lake of fire.
• Knowing and preserving “the truth of the gospel” means everything.

GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace – Part 2 

Galatians 2-1-14

• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace, PART 2 – Galatians 2-1-14 – ffc – dave scott – 073017- STUDY SHEET 1
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace, PART 2 – Galatians 2-1-14 – ffc – dave scott – 073017- STUDY SHEET 2
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace, PART 2 – Galatians 2-1-14 – ffc – dave scott – 073017- STUDY SHEET 3-4
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace, PART 2 – Galatians 2-1-14 – ffc – dave scott – 073017- STUDY SHEET 5-6
• PDF GALATIANS MESSAGE 4 – Saved by Grace, PART 2 – Galatians 2-1-14 – ffc – dave scott – 073017- STUDY SHEET 7-8

GALATIANS MESSAGE 3 

Saved by Grace

INTRODUCTION: We believe that we are saved by grace through faith. Amen. Saved by grace through faith.

• We, in fact, state that in our constitution: “We believe salvation is by the grace of God, only through repentance and confession of faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the cross He shed His blood as atonement for our sin.”
• Saved by grace. There you have it. It’s settled. But not really. There’s a problem. It seems like everyone else believes that also. At least they say they do. The Catholics, those in the Restoration Movement, even the Mormons.
• In an article by Bruce Hafen on grace in The Encyclopedia of Mormonism he writes: All of LDS theology also reflects the major premise of the Book of Mormon that without grace there is no salvation: “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23). The source of this grace is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ: “Mercy cometh because of the Atonement” (Alma 42:23).
• Let me say a word about integrity and accountability in Bible study and research. When I share these sometimes very pointed statements with you concerning the different gospel as Paul calls it—a false gospel, whether from the Mormons or the Methodists or the Masons or the Catholics or the Restoration Movement, I am make every effort to accurately reflect their views. My first choice is to state these opposing views using their own words. For instance, if you want to know what the Mormon’s call the gospel, go to their web site. Or just Google “Mormon gospel” and you will find the same information that I am sharing. Ditto for the Restoration Movement.
• But back to my/our problem. We say that we are saved by grace. The Catholics say that they are saved by grace; the Mormons say that they are saved by grace, etc. And honestly, the research is wearying—wading through statements of faith and “what we believe” web pages. And much of it sounds pretty good.
• So where do turn? Do we give up and merely acknowledge the differences or give in and accept the differences?
• No. We thank God for the letter to the Galatians. The Apostle Paul sounds a clarion call in Galatians—there is one gospel, the gospel that he preached, and turning from that one gospel to different gospels brings the curse of God.
• A clarion is a medieval horn with a clear sound—sometimes also defined as a shrill, narrow-tubed war trumpet. The sound of a clarion is hard to ignore as it is loud and pure and clear in tone.
• Paul’s message in Galatians is a clarion call. It is loud and pure and clear in tone: There is one gospel. Get the gospel right or bring the curse of God on any who receive your fake gospel.
• So I thank God for Galatians, and I take heart in the singular, unique nature of God’s gospel as I wade through and try to decipher statements of faith and encyclopedia articles. I hear Paul’s words—I hear the loud, pure, clear message of Galatians: one gospel.
• Through all the haze and fuzziness and confusion and compromise, Galatians gives us clarity and focus. God’s word is a lamp to our feet and it is a light to our path. And you don’t hide the light. You set the light in a high place to pierce the darkness. And standing in that light, we know that even though everybody says that they believe in saved by grace—let’s be very blunt here—somebody’s lying. Somebody is damned and deceived.
• So we need to define our terms. We don’t need more fuzziness; we need high-definition. We need to look to the plain-spoken, clearly written, revealed word of God for answers. We need to know grace; what it is and why it matters. And that is what we are going to attempt this morning. Grace. What does it mean? Why does it matter? And what does it look like?

Grace: What does it look like? What might grace look like in our lives?

You might see this …

• (Galatians 5:22–25 NLT) But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

And not this …

• (Galatians 5:26) Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

A tree planted by streams of water …

• (Psalm 1:1–6 NIV) Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
• (Jeremiah 17:7–8 NIV) But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Peace like a river of peace and righteousness as the waves of the sea …

• (Isaiah 48:18 ESV) Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

A life of love …

• (1 Corinthians 13:1–7 ESV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

CONCLUSION: Don’t get bamboozled.

• To get bamboozled would be to be deceived; someone got the better of you by trickery, flattery, or the like. It means to be duped or hoodwinked; played the fool—gypped, cheated, swindled, defrauded or flimflammed.
• So don’t get bamboozled and don’t bamboozle yourself with mere religion or creed or statement of faith. Don’t let your deceived heart flimflam you because you’ve got a polished, packaged, rehearsed testimony.
• When you stand in front of the mirror of God’s holy word, do you see a life of grace?