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By Faith – Galatians 2:15-21 – Pastor Patrick Ramsey

Dr. Patrick Ramsey

Last week, Pastor Ramsey also preached on Galatians 2:15-21, emphasizing that the ‘works of the law’ are not a way of salvation. This week, his focus was on ‘faith’ as the only way of salvation. That is so, because the believer is united to Christ by faith; and that bond of unity makes the believer righteous before God the Father, because therein the believer partakes of all of Christ’s blessings.

If you are not exactly clear on the concepts of faith, justification, unity, works of the law…, then you should benefit from hearing both, Pastor Ramsey’s sermons. You may hear the sermon from last week by following the link at the end of this post, to his Sermon Audio page.

Sermon highlights [bracketed statements; emboldening and underscoring of scripture are mine].

This sermon contains more than just highlight points because it contains explains many important biblical concepts.

 

https://sheeplywolves.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023.02.26.A-By-Faith-Patrick-Ramsey-226231821266212.mp3?_=1

 

The following link is to Pastor Ramsey’s sermon of last week (in this blog) on the works of the law: http://: https://sheeplywolves.com/not-by-works-galatians-215-21-pastor-patrick-ramsey/

The following link is to Pastor Ramsey’s Sermon Audio home page.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?sourceOnly=true&currSection=sermonssource&keyword=nashuaopc&subsetcat=speaker&subsetitem=Patrick+Ramsey

If you go to Sermon Audio, explore the site for answers to other questions you have about the Bible, the Christian faith…. You may search via scripture, name of pastor, topic, category, language and date. When I studied the beatitudes a few years ago, there were 8 pages of sermons on verse Matthew 5:3. That is, there are lots of biblical sermons on the site.

For those who do not know or believe the Bible:

Not all those who profess to be ‘Christians’ believe the following, as this sermon is based on Bible texts. For example, the Roman Catholic Church states that it’s priests JUSTIFY a person by the sacrament of baptism; and that one’s JUSTIFICATION might be lost thereafter, by committing a ‘mortal’ sin… and that one’s justification can be restored via the sacrament of penance which could mean, purchasing an ‘indulgence’ from the church….

None of that is in the Bible. The Protestant Reformation was fought over the matters considered in these two sermons by Pastor Ramsey: how it is that a believer is JUSTIFIED.

Moreover, in his sermons, Pastor Ramsey confined his statements about false ways of approaching God to the Judaizers, who were mixing works with faith; he did not diverge to discuss all other religions that teach that a believer can earn his own righteousness in some manner then approach his God and be acceptable.

For example: John MacArthur has stated that all religions of the world commit this fatal error.

I’m can’t remember if MacArthur stated that many Christians also commit this error, but that is true; as the WAY of faith is not easy to discern. It seems that the Holy Spirit has to, as Paul Washer is fond of saying, crush all your idols before you can come to Christ by faith. In the process, the believer is humbled: pride is a chief reason we believe we can do something to earn our righteousness and become acceptable to God.

We have all learned to trust in many things that must be forsaken if one comes only by faith. I’m convinced that Jesus said the following for that very reason:

Matthew 7:13  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

On the wide, easy way, one can come by works or any other way he personally devises, as much of the professed church is currently doing with millions emulating them….

Jesus also told his disciples, Matthew 16:24  “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

How many millions of Christians this very day wrongly believe that God wants them to be abounding in prosperity, personal power…? They err greatly!

The Bible was compiled over a period of 1500 years by 40 some writers from all walks of life, via the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: Peter had been a fisherman; Paul, a tent maker; Moses, the son of Pharaoh; David, a shepherd…. They were all called by God, like Abram, the man of faith, was called in Genesis 12.

In Romans 4 and Galatians 3, the apostle Paul showed that Abraham was the first to believe God ‘by faith’ and that all true believers thereafter, do what Abraham did, believe God by faith.

In his two sermons on Galatians 2:15-21, Pastor Ramsey intended to contrast and to clarify these two WAYS of coming to God; and to adamantly state that only one actually leads to JUSTIFICATION; and that a person must be justified by God to be saved from God’s wrath against sin.

 

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