The Work Is His

The Work is His
Galatians 3:1-14

Tomorrow is Labor Day, a day set aside to celebrate the rewards of hard work.
Labor is a gift given to man by God, although we seldom think of it in this way.
God gave Adam the gift of labor when he put him in charge of the Garden of Eden.
Of course things changed somewhat when Adam and Eve both sinned.
Their work was suddenly less rewarding.
Sin has a way of stealing the joy from what God intended as a blessing.
Even in our country, the concept of labor has changed somewhat.
America has been the hardest working country in the world for many years, putting more hours into the average workday than any other country.
However, America has fallen in the standings according to recent studies.
Americans are no longer the hardest working or the longest working of all the nations.

I have studied this to some extent and have come to a few conclusions:
1) Certainly the political viewpoint has changed, and this has affected the work ethic of our people.
2) Also, the societal mindset has changed to more of an entitlement society in which more and more of the blessing of this life are granted by the state as rights instead of earned by hard work.
The only result of this can be an overall slow-down in production and less work.

I have brought up these issues, not because of their political ramifications but because these truths about our society have impacted many hearts and minds regarding religion, and particularly, the salvation of our souls.
Today many people believe that salvation, the redeemed state of the soul, is a right for all people.
It seems more and more have begun to think that they are worthy of eternal life, and they deserve the mansion that Jesus is even now building in the New Jerusalem, which we call Heaven.
This is contrary to all that the Bible teaches.
The Bible clearly states many times that we are all sinners.
Last week on Sunday Night we learned that even the sin of lying earns for us the lake of fire that was prepared for the Devil and his angels.

However, just as in America, there are a few holdouts that know that all good things are earned by hard work.
Unfortunately, this too can lead to false beliefs about salvation and redemption.
Many believe that if they work hard to be good, God will bless them with eternal life.
Many believe that Christ's sacrifice on the Cross was a down payment on the mortgage of their soul, and they have yet to earn the rest of their soul's security by working hard for the rest of their life.
Such was the case with a little group of churches in the New Testament in the Roman province of Galatia.
They were hard workers, and for that they should be commended.
However, they were convinced that the work of Salvation was and uncompleted task.
They were of the opinion that the work of the ministry was their work, and they became possessive of it and proud of it.
They seemed to be doing all the right things, but suddenly the work was not so rewarding.
Paul, the Apostle addresses this problem with some powerful and logical arguments in Chapter 3.
Let us read our text and follow his line of thinking:

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The first thing we might notice from our text is that Paul was an intellectual.
His arguments are powerful but a little complicated.
Let us try to break it down verse by verse, with the help of the Holy Spirit and see the major points that Paul is making.
Keep in mind the problems that Paul is addressing regarding a works-based salvation.
Remember that the Old Testament ritual law still looms large over Christianity and many have yet to understand the part that it has played in God's great plan for saving His people.

The first point that Paul makes is in verse 2
He did the work of sending the Holy Spirit. (Verse 2)
Remember, the Holy Spirit is always referred to as a person in the Bible, never a force.
The Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to indwell every believer.
Jesus promised this:
John 15:26 ¶ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Jesus also said that He must ascend into Heaven for this to take place.
It was a work that only God could do.
This was not earned by the hard-working, it was given to those who believed.

Paul asks the question, how did you receive the Holy Spirit?
Did you earn His indwelling, or did you simply believe?
Some would say that even faith comes by working at it, and Paul debunks that idea by referring to the process by which faith comes.
Paul made the same argument in greater detail in Romans:
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is a result of Hearing the Word.
The Holy Spirit is sent to those who have believed:
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

The importance of the Holy Spirit is the sealing that He does.
He is not flighty like man.
He comes and seals the believer - securing his soul for eternity.
This work is His, it is not ours.
We do not deserve it, nor can we earn it.
It is his work
He did the work of sending the Holy Spirit. (Verse 2)

Now we move to the next verse and find the logical progression of Paul's argument:
He is doing the work of Perfection. (Verse 3)
Paul points out here that since we were unable to do anything to get the Holy Spirit, we can certainly not do the work of perfecting ourselves without Him.
It was a simple surrender of the heart that invited the Holy Spirit in.
It is a simple surrender of our lives that gives the Holy Spirit the leeway to make us perfect.

Many believe that once He has sealed us we must work hard to prepare ourselves for Heaven.
We must perfect ourselves.
This is what leads to burned-out Christians and forsaken ministries.
The work of perfection is not ours, it is His.
If you think that you are tasked with the awesome responsibility of perfecting yourself, you will follow this well worn pattern:
1) You will work hard and grow fast for a short period of time for all to see.
2) You will then get proud of the results and critical of everyone else.
3) Next you will be discouraged in the work you are doing.
4) Finally you will give up because your efforts are futile.

Unfortunately this is the pattern of many in the Christian life.
Paul wrote to all of his beloved churches with the same overall message in this regard:
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
The work of perfecting is HIS work, and I have but to surrender to Him and let Him do His job of perfecting me.
Verse 4 reminds the reader of all the suffering through which we all go in the process of perfection.
Let it not be in vain.
He is doing the work of Perfection. (Verse 3)

The third point that Paul makes is in verse 5.
He is doing the work of the miracles among us. (Verse 5)
This one is closely related to the first and follows the second in logical progression.
The work of miracles in this context is clearly the saving of other's souls.
Look closely.
The same words are used as in verse 2 reminding us that no one is saved by the works of the law.
Rather, they simply believe after hearing the Word of God.
God is the One giving the Spirit to people and miraculously saving their souls.
It is not our cleverness or our hard work that produces children of God.
It is His work.
When we are able to lead someone to Christ, it means we were able to get out of the way enough to let HIM work.
It is a sign of maturity and spiritual depth in our lives when we are used in this fashion.

The Galatians knew of the importance of people being miraculously saved.
They knew they should be involved in soul-winning and ministry, but they were cutting out the most powerful aspect of ministry.
They were leaving out the One Who does the work!

Let us not lead ourselves into discouragement in the ministry by thinking it can only be done by us.
In reality, in can only be done by HIM!
He is doing the work of the miracles among us. (Verse 5)

Paul slips into a history lesson beginning in verse 6 to bring us back to the place when God chose for Himself a people out of the nations of this world.
Then in verse 8 and 9 we see Paul's fourth point:
He planned this work from the beginning. (Verse 8,9)
I am a schemer.
That is my confession to you.
I think long and hard about every aspect of the ministry that we do here.
It would surprise you how much thought goes into everything we do here, from the order of service to what may look like instant decisions and accidental happenstances.
These things are often thought-out talked-out well-planned actions.
The problem with all this is that we have a tendency to think that if we don't plan every aspect of the work it won't get done.
The truth is, God has planned the work from the very beginning of time.
He has always known who will accept His offer of salvation to all men.
He has always known how things should go within His ministry.
My responsibility is not to come up with the plan.
It is to discover the plan.
This means I have to take my ambitions off of the table and let Him lead.
I cannot look to implement all my concerns.
He has already thought of everything.
He planned the ministry to the Gentiles even when He was giving Abraham the promises of blessing.
He planned this work from the beginning. (Verse 8,9)
And it is a perfect plan that has all things considered.

The next few verses lead into Paul's last point in our text.
Paul is here pointing out the great success of the Law of the Old Testament:
The Law proved the inability of man to meet God's standard.
It proved that we are all cursed by our own inability to meet God's standard of Holiness.
As verse 11 reminds us, NO MAN is justified in the eyes of God by his works.
It is only by believing in something much greater and more perfect than our works that we can claim eternal life.
Thus, the statement "The just shall live by faith."
Finally, in Verse 13 we see the great truth:
He did the work of Redemption. (Verse 13)
We were in debt because of our sin.
We had accrued so much debt to our account that we could never pay it off.
The word "redemption" is a financial word.
It implies a financial transaction.
Jesus laid down His own life on the cross and redeemed us.
We have but to accept that payment as the full payment for our sins.

Beloved, Let me encourage you this morning, the work is not yours.
It is His.
You can not do it on your own.
Only He can do it through you.
If you are here today without full assurance of you salvation, know this, He has done the work of redeeming your soul.
Won't you accept the payment He has made?
You have heard the Word.
Now believe.