Old Testament Scripture Reading: Psalms 84:8 – 12 (KJV)
Psa 84:8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Psa 84:9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
Psa 84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Psa 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psa 84:12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Galatians 2:16 – 21 (KJV)
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Gal 2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Transforming Power Statements:
1) The Psalmist realizes that any position among the “righteous” (Saved by grace through Faith Alone) is FABULOUS! it is undeserved, and it is greater than any and even ALL earthly possessions, therefore, we can rejoice and be glad that we are being sanctified by HIS GRACE and kept by HIS LOVE!
2) Paul the Apostle was concerned about the Church that they might not stumble back into the damming kinds of “legalism” that had poisoned the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, as well as all the false-faiths of the nations of that day , so he wrote the epistle to the Galatians (and to the world) to teach that no one has ever, nor shall ever, be made right with God by keeping the Law, but that all who are saved and shall be saved, must do so by Faith Alone!!
3) All who believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that God has raised HIM from the dead can now enjoy a state of “blessedness” that will protect us in the present with a peace that passes all understanding and it will fuel the process of sanctification as we look forward to the completion of the good work that God started in their lives, which HE promised to successfully complete!