The Bible says it. I believe it. It’s enough.

Steve Brown:
The Bible says it. I believe it. It’s enough. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author Steve Brown.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hope you guys had a really great weekend and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. If you’re just joining us or if you’re new, welcome. You always have a seat at this table, and I’m glad you’re here. We’re in the middle of a fairly long study in the book of Galatians and there’s probably no place in the Bible where God’s grace radical, unbelievable, amazing grace is taught more clearly than in the book of Galatians. That, of course, with the possible exception with the book of Romans. At any rate, we’re talking about what Paul says about the major doctrines of the Christian faith. And in Galatians 3:1-9, and I’ll read that to you in a minute, we’re looking at things that you dare not forget, or you’ll believe lies. Before we turn to, and by the wasn’t Zach good last week? I love it, when the old guy, that would be me, gets a chance to sit back and listen to the young guy, that would be Zach teaching. He is an incredible teacher and by the way, he’s exactly the way he is in real life, that you hear him on the broadcast. I mean, he is so, and don’t you hate the word authentic. I get tired of it, but he is and vulnerable and open and he gets grace as profoundly as anybody that I’ve known. And I love him a lot. So Zach, thanks for your time with us. Okay. Let’s pray and then we’ll get down. Father, we come into your presence, always surprised that we’re here. When we come, we think this is not for me. I’m not good enough or pure enough. And we then look at the invitation that you issued. Y’all come. And we did, and we were loved and forgiven. And changed and empowered, and we praise you and worship you for that. But father, if you had not done that, you’re still God. You created it all. You sustained it all. You rule it all. And you are worthy of our worship. Father, as we come into your presence, there are people that are listening now, and I include myself, going through some difficult times or really good times, remind us that as your children, you are a father sufficient for every need and who joins us in our laughter. And then father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins, because there are many, we would see Jesus, and him only, and we pray in Jesus name. Amen. First nine verses of the third chapter of your Galatians, where Paul writes as follows.

O foolish. Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before who’s eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you this: Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the spirit, are now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain–if it really is in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith–thus Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”? So you see that it is men of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.

Now, if you’ve been listening much to this teaching in Galatians, you know that Paul is defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because people, and they weren’t bad people, they were just wrong people. Nice wrong people can do more damage than you can possibly imagine. And they were doing that in Galatians. And what Paul said about them is not very nice. He had an anger problem and I get that and he wasn’t proud of it and he repented of it, but it was there and you’ll find it in the book of Galatians. He is absolutely amazed that the Galatians who started with the gospel of forgiveness and grace are now turning to a different religion of law and works and rules. And it really makes Paul angry when he talks about it. So that’s what he’s talking about in this particular text. And I have suggested, and we spent a couple of weeks on this that if you believe lies, you can go in dark places, even as a Christian. And so what Paul says to the Galatians is don’t forget. Remember he says you can be deceived by forgetting the Cross, Galatians 3:1.

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

And then he says, secondly, you can be deceived by forgetting the beginning. In other words, remember where he found you, Galatians 3:2. And then we saw that you can be deceived by forgetting the logic, the way it holds together, Galatians 3:3. And then fourthly, you can be deceived by forgetting the genuine experience that you have gone through. You’ve been there. You’ve done that. You know him. And you know his faithfulness, Galatians 3:4-5. Now let me share a different one with you. I’ve got a couple more. Fifthly, you can be deceived not only by forgetting the Cross, the beginning, the logic and the experience, you can be deceived by forgetting the Scriptures, Galatians 3:6-8.

thus Abraham “believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”?

Note, that is a quote from Scripture. So you see

that it is men of faith, who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture,

Paul says

foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel before and to Abraham saying, “In you shall

This is another quote.

“In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

What was Paul doing here? He was remembering revealed propositional truth. He was showing us what God himself had said. That’s what the Bible is, I haven’t always been here, you need to know that, there was a time I was wacko liberal. I went to a graduate school in Boston and they said that you, that the Bible said some nice things, but it was wrong about a whole lot of stuff. And we got to choose, where the Bible was wrong and where we felt the Bible was right. I know, but I got an attack of sanity. I mean, God intervened. And I remember kneeling down in my study in a church I was serving in the Boston area. And I said, God, I’m not good, but I’m yours. And I don’t have any authority. And so the only authority that I have is what you say in your word. I’m not sure all that it says, I’m not sure that I can define it all. But from now on I’m defining myself and everything I teach and preach by the standard of the Canon, the word of God, the Scriptures. Oh man. I, I was in a bad place, because I didn’t know what the Bible said. And so I stayed one verse ahead of that congregation, and you know what God did? God brought Awakening in a major and wonderful way in that church. I have fond memories of that time, because we grew together. The congregation doubled. We had no mission program, it doubled, and then it tripled and then it quad tripled, the Sunday school, the same thing. People were coming to know Christ, right and left. And even the newspapers took note. I’ve never seen anything like it before, but I’ll tell you something. It hammered home, something that was really important. And it’s true, many years later in my life right now. You want to get it right? Get it from God’s word. If he said it, I believe it. I really do. And that’s good enough for me. So the apostle Paul says you can be deceived, if you’re reading another book. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown, resuming his guided tour of Galatians. Today, taking a look at Galatians 3:1-9. More about those foolish Galatians tomorrow. Hope you will join us then. Of course, when I say foolish Galatians, it’s quoting from Paul’s letter. It’s not throwing rocks at them, because we all have foolish moments. We all have times when we’re phony, when we’re afraid and sinful, when we feel like the pressure of keeping it all together is maybe just going to kill us. In short, we all have our own hidden agendas. Steve wrote a booklet about this, that invites us to drop our masks and discover how God’s love and grace propel us into the real relationships, maybe we thought we would never have. Could you use that? Then call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, right now. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the booklet. If you’re mailing us, send your request to

Key Life Network
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If you’re in Canada, the address is

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Just ask for the free booklet called Hidden Agendas. And one last thing, would you consider helping Key Life by giving? It’s easy to do, just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can give using your phone, just text Key Life to 28950. That’s Key Life, one word, two words, doesn’t matter, texted to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.