Turn back then please to Galatians
chapter 4. I want to look this morning at
these verses 8 to 11. Galatians chapter 4 verses 8
to 11. The gospel that the Apostle Paul
preached was a gospel of sovereign grace. You know there are all
sorts of gospels where he says at the start of Galatians. The
reason he's writing is because they've gone over to another
gospel which is not a gospel at all. You look around the world
and there are all sorts of people will call what they preach the
gospel. But Paul preached a gospel of
sovereign grace, absolute sovereign grace. That the Lord Jesus Christ
died for a people. He atoned for a people whom the
Father gave to him before the foundation of the world in sovereign
gracious election. That was his gospel. It's the
gospel of the Bible. It's the gospel of the Bible
from start to finish. There isn't another gospel in
the scriptures. Does that make him a hyper-Calvinist?
Does that make the Apostle Paul a hyper-Calvinist? If it was
all determined in eternity, what's the point of preaching the gospel?
What's the point? Because it makes no difference
because God's determined the end from the beginning anyway.
So did that make Paul a hyper-Calvinist, that gospel? Does it make us
hyper-Calvinist? Does it mean that we don't plead
with men and women to be reconciled with God? No, not at all. The Apostle Paul pleads with
men and women out of love for them. He's got the heart of a
pastor and he's writing to these Galatians because he's pleading
with them from his heart to be reconciled to God, to follow
the truth like James says at the end of his epistle, the last
couple of verses say, if any man wanders from the truth and
one turn him around, I'm paraphrasing it slightly, he saves his soul
from death. This is what Paul's doing. He's
seen that they've wandered from the truth and he's trying to
turn them around. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul
says this. He's talked about appearing before
the judgment seat of Christ. And does he say, but it's all
determined from before the beginning of time, therefore I don't need
to say anything. No. He says, knowing the terror of
the Lord, we persuade men. We plead with men. He implores
them. He says, I implore you to be
reconciled to Christ. Why should you not be reconciled
to Christ? He's preaching sovereign grace,
but he's preaching the Gospel. that calls on men and women everywhere
to repent and believe the truth. Now, why is it so important?
Why do we make such a thing about this? You know, people gather
up and down this land today for religion. Isn't one as good as
any other? Well, no. It's all about what you are resting
on. It's all about what you are building
your life on. I don't mean you taking control
and you building your life. I mean, it's what your life is
resting upon. You know that chorus, The Wise
Man? built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his
house on the sand and the final verse that's been added later
says so build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ on that solid
rock it's your foundation for eternity the gospel you believe
is your foundation for eternity for we all know that we have
souls that will never die. We're immortal bodies but we
have immortal souls and we must face the King of Kings, the one
who has created all of this that we see, the one who has given
life and he has spoken and we must all appear before him. And
the gospel you believe is the foundation for your life. Is
it a solid foundation? Is it a foundation that will
last for eternity? Will it resist the earthquake?
Because I'm telling you, On the strength of the word of God,
there's an earthquake coming. It's the earthquake of the judgment
of God. This is the terror of the Lord
that Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There's a storm coming. You read in, is it Isaiah? I think it is, isn't it? Isaiah
32. The fierce heat of the sun, a picture of judgment. The penetrating wind of the desert,
the sandstorm. And he hides behind that rock.
He hides in the shadow of that rock. He hides in that cleft
of the rock where his heavenly father puts him while the wrath
of God goes by. There's an earthquake coming
of judgment. And this is why it is so important. This is why
we make such a thing of this. This is why we would be regarded
as fanatical by the world in general. Why are you making such
a thing of this? It's important. It's about the
foundation of your life for eternity. Now, the whole of this letter
is written by Paul to try to turn these people back because
they're wandering from the truth under the influence of false
teachers who are turning them away from Christ and he's trying
to turn them around and he's showing them what the true gospel
is and the true standing and he's been showing them the blessings
of salvation The blessings of salvation. Let me remind you
of the blessings of salvation. How many people know about these
things? Do you know about these things? Do I truly know about
these things? The blessings of salvation. The
blessings of sanctification. That in the Lord Jesus Christ
a people is set apart. That's what that word means.
Set apart for the service of God. Set apart for the special
use of God. Sanctification. Sanctification
is not, you know, about the things you do to make you holy. That's
a common misconception. It's not about that. It's about
what God has done for you in setting you apart for his service,
for his glory. The blessings of salvation are
that redemption's price has been paid. We're all by nature in
the slave market of sin and unable to buy ourselves out of it. We're
all destined for the condemnation of a holy God and yet the precious
blood of Christ has paid redemption's price to set those who are in
bondage to sin and to the law and to the curse of God to set
them free. It's about justification that
God declaring me just as if I had never sinned because Christ has
paid the penalty. Justification. It's about righteousness
in the Lord, our righteousness. It's about the forgiveness of
sins. You know that's a glorious thing,
isn't it? Think of your conscience when
you think about how you stand before a holy God and this gospel
declares the forgiveness of sins. It doesn't just leave you there
as I was saying last week. It doesn't just leave you there.
That was a quotation from John Gill. It's a great thing. to
go and buy a young girl out of modern day slavery in the sin
pots of London. It's one thing to do that, it's
a great and glorious thing to buy her back from that situation,
but it's another thing to adopt her as your daughter and give
her all the benefits and privileges of your household and the inheritance
of everything that is yours. God, by His Spirit, comes into
our hearts. These are the blessings of salvation.
And He gives us the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Daddy. That you and me, sinners, the
objects of God's just and holy wrath, can say to that same God
in the Lord Jesus Christ, He is my friend. Jesus, my friend. I call you no longer servants,
but I call you friends. He's told us all things. He's
told us the Gospel. He's told us His eternal purpose.
And He gives us the Spirit in our hearts, bearing witness with
our spirits, Romans 8, 17, that we are children of God. How do
you know? The Spirit comes in and tells me and bears witness
that I'm a child of God. He gives me faith. This is a
blessing of salvation. He gives me faith by which I
know God, by which I know the truths of the Gospel. It's not
a case that somebody has to say to me, this is how you know God. It's not a case that somebody
has to say, Do this and you will know God. It's that he comes
by his spirit and fulfills that prophecy of Jeremiah that they
will all know me from the greatest of them to the least. There are
no popes and priests and canons and deans and so on in the true
church of God. We're all one, we read last week,
in Christ Jesus. You are all one. If you are children
of God, you're sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, you're
all one in Him. And you all know, from the least
to the greatest, the living God. He gives you that faith. He gives
you that spiritual enlightenment by which just as He shined that
light that's shining through the window now at the dawn of
creation into the earth at the start of time, He shines into
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. And where does He do that? In the face of Jesus Christ. There are those who say they
have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Outside
of Christ they don't have any light at all. None whatsoever. For He is the light of the world.
He and He alone. He is the way, the truth and
the life. And no man comes to the Father
but by Him. It pleased God, says Paul at
the start of this Galatian epistle. It pleased God who separated
him from his mother's womb to reveal his son in him. It pleased God. If you're his
child today, it pleased God to reveal his son in you so that
you know him and you have Christ in you, the hope of glory. And
you're brought into that glorious liberty of the children of God,
that freedom that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Freedom from what?
Freedom from condemnation. there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus and therefore I can lay me down
and sleep safely knowing that if I die tonight you know our
brother is facing major surgery in the United States and I'm
sure he can say this I can lay me down and sleep safely and
rest and not be anxious for anything who's going to look after his
wife and all these things if anything goes wrong It's all
in the hands of a sovereign God. He can lay him down and sleep
calmly. You think about it. You think
what a week could bring. We stand here today, 13th of
April, 2008. 20th of April, 2008, things might
be considerably different for some of us, for all of us. But
where do you rest? Where do you play your hope?
Where do you build your foundation? If it's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you can rest calmly. You can rest safely. Because
you're an heir of God. You're a free heir of God. You're
a free man. You're no longer the child in
the household who's treated like a slave. You've come of age.
You're a free man. If the Son has made you free,
you are free indeed, and you're free to inherit all the glory
of Christ, for you're an heir of God and a joint heir with
Christ. There's no longer the fear of death hanging over you.
The sting of death, where is it? Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh grave, where is your victory? The sting of death has been removed.
What is death then? Ah, for the child of God, it's
but the doorway to eternity. It's not that dread thing which
the whole of humanity, as Hebrews says, Hebrews 2 about verse 13,
through all their lifetime, through fear of death, are in bondage
and fear. and they make light of it, and
they make jokes of it, and they try and distract themselves from
it, but in their quietest moments and when serious illness comes
along, oh, through the fear of death, through the fear of death,
in bondage, but you're free in Christ, your heirs of God, that
death, now you're in the knowledge that death is but the doorway
to eternity. As David said, you know David
was a sinner, No, David didn't say, oh, I've done all these
good things. David was a sinner. He knew it.
You read his life. The Scriptures don't hold back.
They tell it as it is. They display it as God looks
into the heart. And it says of David, he was
a man after God's own heart. And yet, you look, the flesh
did some dreadful things in his lifetime. And he suffered all
sorts of problems. But he says this, because he
knew Christ, Psalm 17, verse 15, as for me, I will see your
face in righteousness. He who is a sinner says, I will
see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
in your likeness. He who is a sinner is going to
awake in the likeness of God. Brethren, children, it has not
yet appeared what we shall be, but we know this, that when we
shall see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. and able to say with Job the
blessings of salvation, able to say with Job I know that my
Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth and the worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall
I see God how my heart yearns within me for the accomplishment
of that. That's a hope of glory. Do you
know that? Do I know that truly? No wonder
Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 that God has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The blessings of salvation. He's
been pointing them out to these Galatian people who are drifting
away from the truth. He'd been persuaded that they
had experienced true saving faith. He talks to them as if they are
true children of God. They have known and experienced
The gospel of grace. That the gospel seed has landed
in that fertile good ground that we read about in the parable
of the sower in Matthew 13. That they are good ground believers. They're not just a flash in the
pan. They're not stony ground or wrapped up with the thorns. They're good ground believers.
But he's got some nagging doubts. Look at verse 11 of chapter 4.
I'm afraid for you, or I'm afraid of you, it says, lest I have
labored for you in vain. Look at verse 20. I have doubts
about you. You're behaving in a way, you're
saying things which make me wonder. Are you really the children of
God? Nagging doubts. Are you drifting back to idolatrous
thinking? Idolatrous ways of life? To a
natural religious mindset that is the... This is the mindset
of all people in general. Whatever they say. a natural
religious mindset an idolatrous mindset you see what he says
here look in verse 8 then indeed when you did not know God you
serve those which by nature are not gods what is it to serve
something which by nature is not God it's idolatry that's
what the scriptures call it the scriptures throughout scripture
you go on if you've got a one of these like the online bible
You put the word idle or idolatry and you see how many references
come up. This was the crime of Israel, the nation Israel, throughout
the Old Testament. Idolatry, going after false gods,
following the gods of the nations roundabout, committing spiritual
adultery as it were. This is the natural mindset of
all people. Are these Galatians drifting
back to that? Is there a danger that we may
ever drift back to that? Look what he says, now after
you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that
you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you
desire again to be in bondage? Weak and beggarly elements. You
see, he's saying, given what you seem to have known of the
gospel of grace and the blessings of salvation, it's incomprehensible
that you would turn back to idolatrous religion? I just can't understand
it. Why on earth would you do that?
If you have truly known God, he says, after you have known
God, or rather, are known by Him because you don't know God,
you love Him. Do you know why the scripture
says you love Him? If you love God this morning,
why do you love Him? Because He first loved us. That's
what the scriptures say. You love Him because He first
loved you. If you truly know God, is because he foreknew you. Just turn over to Romans chapter
8. You know these well-known verses. Romans chapter 8. We know verse 28 so well. We
know that all things work together for good to those who love God.
And it's so easy to stop at that point doctrinally. I don't just
mean in quoting it. I'm not splitting hairs. But
doctrinally, so many people just stop there. All things work together
for good to those who love God, so therefore love God and all
things will go well for you. That's what they say. But no,
to those who are the called according to his purpose. Who are those?
Those whom he foreknew. Does this just mean he's like
Gypsy Lee at the circus with a crystal ball? Is this the picture
of God that you have? that he's like a fairground gypsy
who's able to spin the tea leaves round and foretell the future.
Oh, you knew God. Very good. Whom he foreknew.
No. This is the sovereign God who orders all things after the
counsel of his own will. And if he foreknew you as his
child, it's because he foreordained you as his child. Because see
what it goes on to say? For whom he foreknew, he predestined
to be conformed to the image of his son. So then Paul says,
After you have known God, or rather are known by God, if you've
truly known God, it's because you are foreknown by Him, you
know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. This
is what Jesus says in His high priestly prayer before He went
to the cross. He says, this is eternal life.
This is eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom he has sent. If you've known that, and knowing
that you have eternal life, you possess that eternal life now.
But he says, you seem to be turning back to the weak and beggarly
elements, those idolatrous ways of false religion, of false gods. You seem to be turning back to
them. Well, what is idolatry? Let's
put it in the context of our day. What is it? It's anything
which replaces the image of the true God with something man-made. A thought is man-made, a mental
image. Anything which replaces the image
of the true God with something man-made. We always think of
idols as carved images, as statues, as totem poles set up for people
to worship, or statues of the Buddha, or something like this.
carved images, not just in wood and stone, but carved images
of men's imaginations. What is the image of the true
God? What is it? Because anything that is not
that is idolatry. What is the image of the true
God? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ? and Him alone. He is
the image of the invisible God. Colossians 1, 15. He, Christ,
is the image of the invisible God. An image is that by which
you perceive something. I look through my glasses because
I'm short-sighted and I see you sitting there but actually what
I'm looking at is not where you are I'm looking at an image that's
about four inches from my face because that's where my eyes
focus that's the image but it enables me to see and perceive
you Christ is the image of the invisible God the means by which
we perceive God who is invisible to the natural man who no man
can see and live and yet in the Lord Jesus Christ we see him
Hebrews 1 and verse 3 He, Christ, is the express image, the outshining
of the person of God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 14, He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by Him. Show us the Father then, and
that will suffice for us, says Philip. Show us the Father, he
says to Jesus who's standing there amongst them. Show us the
Father and that will do. Jesus says this, Have I been
so long with you and you have not known me? He who has seen
me has seen the Father. I and my Father are one. This
is the most amazing thing. God is declared in the Lord Jesus
Christ. and anything which seeks to come
to God outside of Jesus Christ, the true God and Jesus Christ,
not the figment of men's imaginations that they call Jesus, the Jesus
Christ of Scripture, the one who is eternal God, the one who
is sovereign over all the affairs of men, the one whom John fell
down before in the book of Revelation, seeing that glorious being who
is the Alpha and the Omega, not the figment of men's imagination
of false religion in that he is a lesser God, but that he
is the true eternal God. He is the Word of God. He is
the one by whom God speaks, by whom we perceive the image of
the invisible God. He is the angel of the Lord who
came in those Old Testament theophanies to Gideon, that angel of the
Lord who came to him, to Abraham even before, to Samson's parents. And what did they all think?
We've seen God, and therefore we must die. But they'd seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd seen the second person
of the Trinity. They'd seen the Word of God.
They'd seen the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord,
the one by whom God speaks. For in the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with the Father. It's Him. He is the truth. Isaiah saw Him
in the temple long before He was born in Bethlehem. In the
year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah chapter 6, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up and His train filled the temple. And how do we know
it's the Lord Jesus Christ whom He saw? Because no man can see
the essence of God and live. No man can see the Father and
live, He says. But in John 12, Isaiah said these
things when he saw his Christ's glory and spoke of him they saw
God and they did not die because it's in the Lord Jesus Christ
that we know God that we perceive God that we apprehend the nature
and person of God and you see all religion all philosophy all
thought processes that seek standing with God outside of Christ and
his finished work, they're all idolatry, for they're all false
gods, even that which calls itself Christianity. Most of what calls
itself Christianity, I'm not just talking about the obvious
idolatry of the idolatrous Christian religions, with their ornate
temples, and their priestly robes and their altars and their liturgies
and their icons that people bow down and venerate and worship
and go on pilgrimages to see I'm not just talking about that
I'm talking about the idolatry that is in so much of even reformed
Christianity as it's called because the people have no rest they
have no liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ They're seeking to do
law works to become more sanctified, to become more valuable in the
sight of God, to become more acceptable to God. And it's idolatry,
for it's outside of Christ. Anything which is outside of
Christ is idolatry. Now what's Paul's evidence for
this? Verse 10, he says to them, the reason why I'm worried about
you is this, here's one of the things, you observe days and
months and seasons and years, You're doing all of those things.
You're observing days and months and seasons and years. Jewish
Sabbaths and feast days. Now let me tell you, every one
of those Jewish Sabbaths and feast days, you know, the Feast
of Booths, the Feast of the Passover, all of these feasts, the year
of Jubilee, all of these things, all have tremendous significance. They all teach tremendously significant
things. that these are they which speak
of Christ and you only know the truth of them when you see them
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ they all serve the purpose of
foreshadowing but now these Galatians were turning them into law works
you're more highly prized by God if you observe this Sabbath
day and you don't pick up sticks on this Sabbath day you're more
highly prized by God because this year is the year of Jubilee
and so we better do things the way God says You're more highly
prized by God if you do this thing or you don't do that thing.
Law works. They're turning it into law works.
Now then, doesn't Paul say elsewhere, in Romans chapter 14 for example,
he says, one man observes a day unto the Lord and another man
doesn't observe the day unto the Lord. Just, it's a matter
of indifference. Let each man be persuaded in
his own mind. Now, let me tell you what the subtle difference
is, and it's a very important difference. These people were
observing these days to be more right with God, to earn value
with God. Those people in Romans 14, it's
a case of unto the Lord. If he wants to observe it, unto
the Lord. It's always unto the Lord. If it's unto the Lord,
then let him alone. But no. The Gospel causes a man
to turn to God from idols. Just turn to 1 Thessalonians
and the first chapter. 1 Thessalonians and the first
chapter. He's talking about Paul writing
to the Thessalonians, how he and his companions came to Thessalonica. And he says in verse 8, he's
talked about them being examples in all Macedonia and Achaia.
And he says, for from you the word of the Lord has sounded
forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every
place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not
need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning
us concerning Paul and his companions. What manner of entry we had to
you. How the word that they preached went deep into the heart. You
know as God opened Lydia's heart by the river bank at Philippi
when Paul preached the gospel. The Lord opened her heart. And
so the gospel went in. What manner of entry we had to
you. And how you turn to God. You turn to Christ. From idols
to serve the living and true God. That's what happened. You
turn to God from idols. Do you know the greatest curse
that God can put upon a people? Is to leave them alone. To leave
them to their idols. To leave them to their false
thinking. That's what it says in Hosea chapter 4 and verse
17. Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone. Just leave him
to his own devices. You see, there are so many people
think that they're doing the work of God. They think that
they're serving God. And they'll say, haven't we done
these things in your name? And on the day of judgment, Christ,
as you'll say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. And
I would say to us here and to anybody listening, my dear friends,
I plead with you as Paul pleaded, turn from idolatrous thinking
and practices to the true God in Christ and him alone. He's already spoken in chapter
3 in verse 1 about the foolishness of going back. He's already called
the Galatians foolish. Oh foolish Galatians! Foolish
Galatians! It's like one of Aesop's fables. Have you heard the story of Aesop's
dog? Aesop's dog finds itself a lovely
big juicy bone. And you know how dogs love to
gnaw away on a, this isn't a dead old dry bone, this is a lovely
fresh one from the butcher. And it finds itself this lovely
bone and it goes off to a place to bury the bone because they
mature and they get better like a good wine. And so he's off
on his way to his favorite place to bury his bones and he crosses
the bridge over a deep stream. And he stops, and he looks down
into the stream, and he sees a reflection of this dog with
this whopping great bone in his mouth. And he thinks, what a
fantastic bone. And he makes a grab for the bone,
but it's just a reflection. And in the process, he drops
his bone, and it sinks to the bottom, and he's lost the lot.
This is what the Galatians were like. This is what so many of
us are like. Such a danger to lose the reality
in grasping for the shadow. Isn't this what the Galatians
were doing? They were losing the reality of all of those gospel
blessings in grasping after the shadow, the picture, not the
substance. We saw when we were looking at
Colossians a few months ago the difference between the substance
which is Christ and the shadow which is just those things which
pictured and looked forward. How foolish to trade what the
Scriptures call the pearl of greatest price. In the Gospels,
Jesus says the Gospel is like that pearl of greatest price.
You know, you get the real experts, the jewellery experts, and they'll
have a look at the thing and they'll apply certain tests to
it, and the one that's the real gem, it stands out from the rest. Oh, how it stands out from the
rest. I think I might have told you a story, but I was stopped
about a year and a half ago in London. In fact, it was near
to your university. This woman said that she'd found
this gold ring on the pavement and did I want this gold ring
and did I have any money to give her to help her out? She thought,
you know, it must be worth £100 or more. It was a big, big, looked
like a lovely solid gold ring. And I wouldn't give her anything,
but she insisted that I took it, and she went away very frustrated
because I didn't give her anything for this ring. I said, no, you
take it. If it's worth something, you
go and get something for it, but I don't trade in these things.
She insisted that I take this ring, so I took it, okay. And
I took it to a jeweler's back in Wellingarden City, and they
took it out into the back, and they couldn't really see, but
then they got their acid test. They've got their little bottle
of acid. And he came out and he said, that's not gold. That's
not gold at all. That's a very, very, he said,
it's a very, very convincing lookalike, but that is not gold.
You see, the expert, when they find the real thing, they can
tell it apart from the rest. And the gospel is that pearl
of greatest price. But the religious world, it's
a chest full of baubles. Do you know what baubles are?
They're the worthless things that sparkle that we hang on
the Christmas tree. they're not really worth anything at all
but they just sparkle there are so many jewels that look so good
but they just sparkle they've got no value but there's a pearl
of greatest price this gospel of sovereign grace in Christ
for eternity is the pearl of greatest price and you know we
meet in very very simplistic conditions just an old school
club room but to meet in simplicity around the precious truths of
sovereign grace in Christ, it cannot be compared to the showy,
worthless baubles of the world's religion. When we were in Salzburg
a couple of weeks ago, we looked into some of the cathedrals and
the magnificence of the architecture is breathtaking. Beautiful murals,
absolutely gorgeous architecture, but there's no Christ in it.
None whatsoever. It's baubles. It's just baubles
of worldly, idolatrous religion. How dangerous to build on a foundation
other than Christ, once you've known the truth. How the scriptures
warn against it. A true believer can't ever lose
eternal life. The doctrines of sovereign grace
and particular redemption are absolutely clear. If Christ died
for you, you cannot be lost. But let's not presume. the scriptures
got some warnings in about appearing this is why we read the parable
of the sower embracing the word with enthusiasm but quickly find
that there's no root stony ground believers embracing the word
with enthusiasm but the cares of riches the cares of the world
grow up and choke the good seed you see there are warnings about
appearing to be real but proving to be false stony ground thorns
The warnings in Hebrews about turning back, having known the
truth, the danger of walking out on Christ. So believing the
sovereignty of God must not ever lead to fatalism, that we don't
need to do anything because it's all determined. There's nothing
we can do. We need to be like Caleb in Joshua,
the end of Joshua. As for me and my house, We will
serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Caleb served God wholeheartedly. We need to determine, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. To add with diligence,
as Peter says, graces. Read it, 2 Peter chapter 1. Add
graces to our faith. And thereby, he says something
which is very, very puzzling to human logic. He says this. Do these things and thereby make
your calling and election sure. Let's be committed to the Lord
Jesus Christ and not like these Galatians appearing to walk out
and go back to idolatrous forms of worship which are outside
of Christ.