Let's stand together and sing hymn number 294.

294. Savior, like a shepherd lead us,
Much we need thy tender care.
In thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use thy fold prepares.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.

We are Thine, do Thou befriend us,
Be the guardian of our way.
Keep Thy flock from sin defend us,
Seek us when we go astray.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray.

Thou hast promised to receive us,
poor and sinful though we be.
Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
grace to cleanse and power to free.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee.

Early let us seek Thy favor,
early let us do Thy will.
Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thy love our bosoms fill.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still.

Be seated, we'll sing hymn number 210.

Number 210. Saved by the blood of the crucified one
Now ransomed from sin and a new work begun
Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son
Saved by the blood of the crucified Lord.

Saved! Saved! My sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all known.
Saved! Saved! And saved by the blood of the Crucified Born.
Saved by the blood of the Crucified Born.

The angels rejoicing because it is done.
A child of the Father joined her with the Son.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.

Saved! Saved! My sins are all pardoned. My guilt is all gone.
Saved! Saved! I'm saved by the blood of the Crucified Born,
Saved by the blood of the Crucified Born.

The Father, He's fake, and His will it was done,
Great price of my pardon, His own precious Son.
Saved by the blood of the Crucified One.

Saved! Saved! My sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone.
Saved! Saved! I'm saved by the blood of the Crucified One.
Saved by the blood of the Crucified One.

All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son.
All hail to the Spirit, the Great Three in One.
Saved by the blood of the crucified throne.

Saved! Saved! I sinned to all pardon, my guilt is all gone.
Saved! Saved! I sing by the blood of the crucified one.

Let's look together again in Galatians chapter 3. Paul ended up chapter one with being crucified with Christ and yet living. And the life he lived was by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for me. And he said, I do not frustrate, I do not despise, I do not bring shame to the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ's death doesn't amount to anything.

And, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministers to you the spirit and work miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Know you therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham.

Our Father, our Father, our Father, our Father, hallowed be, how holy is your name. And Lord, we come by the name, the blessedness, the glory, and the power, and the mercies, and the blood, and the righteousness of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're so grateful, so grateful we have this access to you. We have access to you by the Spirit of God. We have access to you, speak to you. And then Lord, you turn around and speak to us through your word. And Lord, we're grateful that you still speak, that you speak through your word.

grateful for every preacher that you've called and anointed, and send them forth, the priests of gospel, to deal with your precious word, honest and true and plain speaking. And Lord Jesus, we pray that you'd meet with us here tonight. Lord, we need you. Oh, we always need you, but oh, we need you to meet with us tonight. And Lord, we pray for those who are not with us through providence, those who are not with us through sickness, And we pray for our brothers and sisters. Again, we pray for Helen and Rick. We pray for Jim and Debbie. And if there's any other in this place that others that we don't know about are having a great fight of afflictions and bonds and suffering, we pray that you'd give them the grace, and know you will, sufficient for whatever's happening that day. You said, as your days be, so will your strength be. And so, Lord, we thank you for the strength today. And if you let us live tomorrow, we already thank you for the strength you'll give us for tomorrow.

But, Lord, we're here tonight looking to you, needing you, desiring you, and enable me to speak and bring glory to yourself and build up the saints in the most holy faith. We ask these things in our Savior's name. Amen.

Number 17 in our hymnals. Number 17.

Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mountain fixed upon it.
Bound up by redeeming love.
Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
Hither by thy help I'm come,
And I hope by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me in a strange foreign dream.
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Find my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

The first I'm going to deal with tonight is in verse 3 of chapter 3. Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? I told you these are rhetorical questions, and the answers is in the question.

But let's review a little bit of this letter to the Galatians. And back over in verse 1, or chapter 1, the purpose of this letter is to show that justification, justification is by Christ alone, without any circumcision, without any works of the law, without any ceremony, without any riches.

And to leave grace is to leave Christ. Look what he said in verse 6. To leave Christ and to leave grace is to leave Christ. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. And there's not another gospel. And there'll be some that trouble you. And I tell you, it is troublesome when you come across people that want to do something with the gospel.

And he said, they pervert the gospel. They make a perversion of the gospel. Anything that you add to Christ or take from Christ is a perversion of the gospel. It's a perversion of it. And oh my, then, you know, they question Paul's credentials. Remember, they question whether he is an apostle or not.

Look what he says down in verse 10, excuse me, verse 11. He said, I certify you, brethren. They said, well, you know, who do you think you are? I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. God, this man did not come up with this gospel. Man had nothing to do with this gospel. This gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the person of Christ, the work of Christ, the coming of Christ, the righteous, man had this, man cannot, when man starts coming up with the gospel, he'll come up with a perversion of it.

And Paul said, I'm telling you that I had nothing to do with this gospel. And I don't know anybody else that did. This gospel come from God.

And then he goes on to say. And then he said, I neither received it of man. I didn't go to a man and say, now listen, I need you to teach me the gospel. Neither was I taught it by man, but how I got the gospel. And how I know what the gospel is, is by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed to me what the gospel is. Christ revealed to me how a sinner's saved. Christ revealed to me himself. And then he says, and you've heard, every one of you's heard, of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion. How that beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God. And I wasted it. That's what they're wanting to know. You know, we know what you was. We know what you do. And that's what they wanted to do. They just wanted to keep telling about how bad he was. And that's what most folks do. They won't talk about how bad they was until how bad they are. You know, you can be bad back there, but how bad are you now? How much do you need Christ now? I don't want to go back. I can't tell you a time or a place when God saved me, but I know that He saved me. You know why I know? Because Christ is my only hope and plea before God.

But He said, you've heard, and He said in verse 14, and I profited. I mean, I really profited. I profited ambition. I profited the praise and honor of men. I profited in the law. I profited in the synagogues. I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more zealous, exceeding zealous of the traditions of my fathers." But now he goes back. He said, this is how things happened to me, but when it pleased God. You know what a man's going to be saying? When it pleases God. And that's what he says, but when it pleased God. who separated me from my mother's womb, called me by His grace. And He called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among people like us, heathens. And immediately, immediately, I did not go and confer with anybody's flesh or blood, anybody. Oh, I didn't do it. I just didn't do it. Oh, I went up to You know, and I went into Arabia all alone with Christ.

And then, you remember Petal's denial of the gospel. He didn't deny it with his words. He didn't deny it with what he said. He denied it by his action. By his action. And his action was that he sat and eaten with a bunch of Gentiles, and James and a bunch of people came down from Jerusalem, and they went over here and eat like Jews do. They have a certain dietary laws, and we didn't have dietary laws, but they did. Well, Peter seen them fellas come in, he got up, him and Barnabas got up and went over here and got with them Jews. And Paul said, they denied the truth of the gospel by just what they did. And he was to be blamed, and I withstood him to his face. I withstood him to his face.

Whenever You make a distinction in anybody by the gospel or by some work that they do, then you've left Christ. You've left Christ. There is God. The grace of God goes so far further than you and I could ever imagine, could ever imagine.

And all my. And then he turns to the Galatians themselves. He turns to the Galatians. And all my. and gives them five rhetorical questions. And this is a sharp, sharp rebuke to them for what they did. And verse one tells us how that they was bewitched. They were hoodooed, if you could say it that way. They were, somebody worked magic on them. that they should not obey the truth.

And I'll tell you what, and what he was saying was those who really believe Christ and know Christ, they know that genuine faith vows and learns and admits and knows that what Christ crucified, and we've seen Christ crucified. And Paul said, you've seen Christ crucified. And we, by faith, have seen Christ crucified. How do we know we've got faith? We look to Christ. We look outside ourselves. Our salvation is completely outside ourselves.

And, oh, my. And then he said in verse 2, I want to learn something from you fellas, if I can. I learned this. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? Huh? You received the Spirit by the works of the law? Is that how the Spirit came to you, because you worked? And you kept the law, and you kept the rituals, and you kept the ceremonies, and you kept the Sabbath? Is that how the Spirit come to you? Or did it come by hearing? And then did it come by hearing of faith? Believe in what you heard.

And then he comes to this now. And oh my, you know the Holy Spirit, He comes by hearing, by faith, not by words. And then He asked this question, are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, you receive the Spirit, By the hearing of faith, not by any works that you've done. And are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? And that capitalized means the Holy Spirit. Are you now made perfect by your flesh? Or is that how you're done?

And oh my, these people, they wanted to grow. They wanted to grow. They wanted to mature. But oh, they went about it in such an awful, awful way. Are you so foolish? Now made perfect begun by the Spirit of God. Your salvation started with the Spirit of God. Christ was brought to you by the Spirit of God. And now you're going to leave that and go over here and be made perfect by what you do in your flesh? Oh, my. I tell you.

These Galatians, you know, they wanted to desire to progress and grow in faith. They wanted to be made perfect. That word perfect means complete. But they were going about it in the most wrong way possible. They were like the Jews. They were going about to establish their own righteousness. And that's what these people would do. You've begun in the Spirit and now you're going to go back and you're going to leave that and go to your flesh? Go to some obedience to your flesh? Something that you find obedient to do?

I've met a lot of people that believe this, a lot of people that believe this. And oh my, I tell you, you know, you began in the spirit. That's what he's talking about. You began in the spirit. Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? You know, the spirit of God, he's the one that brought faith to us. He brought the truth to us. He brought the truth of Christ crucified to us. And then you began by believing. You began your spiritual life by believing. You received the pure spiritual gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost gave you this.

And then he said, oh, you've begun the spirit. And now, now, you're going to go back to your flesh. Go back to the flesh. You're going to be made perfect by the flesh. And all you're doing is going back to a material, fleshly idea of salvation.

Let me tell you something. Anybody that comes, I don't care who they are, where they're from, or anything, if they tell you that they have a righteousness of their own that goes with the righteousness of Christ, that they have an imputed righteousness and an imparted righteousness, that's not so. That's not so. That's not so.

You know, people think that, you know, up at Clay Curtis, half of his congregation come out of Reformed Baptist churches. They had to keep the Sabbath. They had to dress a certain way. They had to have the preacher examine them all the time. Lent's Helen, his wife Robin, they was in a reformed church one time, let me tell you this, and they was examining them before the Lord's table come on, and they didn't like the answers and stuff they gave them. You know what they did? They sent them into another room and told them to stay in there until the Lord's supper was done. They told me about that and said, oh, I'm so grateful God saved me from that.

That's all that religion can do, is go to the flesh. Wear a Jesus t-shirt. Put a cross around your neck. Put a bumper sticker on. About Jesus and your love for him. Oh, my.

I tell you, you know, there's several things. You know, he said, are you so foolish? I tell you, a fella's a fool. Are you so foolish to think that having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and chosen in Christ by grace, are you kept perfect and kept in Christ by your works? Oh, second thing is, how foolish are you, having begun your Christian life, your believing life, depending on the Spirit of God, depending on the grace of God. And now you're going to finish depending on your own works and your own flesh. Oh, you talk about foolish. That's foolish.

And having been accepted in the beloved. And you're not made perfect until you add your righteousness to his. That's unthinkable. No wonder he said, are you so foolish?

We, you know, he said, looking unto Jesus, the author of our faith, he which hath begun a good work in you. What's he going to do? He's going to finish it until the day of Christ. He's going to finish. He started that work. And then these folks say, oh, you talk about foolish, foolish. Are you now made perfect? Oh, are you now made perfect? Oh, my.

What's receiving at its best state is just a covenant of material religion, carnal religion, physical religion. Oh, my. And he said, begun in the Spirit. You know the Holy Spirit. When he comes, when he comes to a person, he brings with him comes a perfect, a complete a salvation finished by Christ and Christ alone. And you can't possibly improve on that. But people seem to think they can. People seem to think they can. Oh, my.

To add perfection is useless and foolish. Foolish. You know, People go from being a child into being a man, and when they go to the flesh, they go back to being a child again. Because that's what it's like being little children, being so foolish. Paul said it like this. He said, when I was a child, when I was a child, I spake as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away those childish things.

These folks started out as men and turned right around and become children again, doing the things that a child would do after they know what the truth is, who Christ has evidently been set forth before.

And oh, in receiving the gospel, receiving the gospel, you begin with what was spiritual. You know, when we talk about the gospel, You know, it's a supernatural work. When God saves a man, it's a supernatural work. He brings, you know, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they're spirit and they're life. And when you receive the gospel, he said, having begun in the spirit, now you're going to be made perfect by what you do, how you act, how you live, how you dress, What you eat? What you don't eat? How you dress or how you don't dress? Oh, my.

But when you receive the gospel, you begin with what was spiritual. Spiritual. God is a spirit, and we worship him in spirit and in truth. And when you start with God, when the Holy Ghost comes and brings you, first thing he does, he brings you knowledge. You cannot trust a Christ that you don't know. You cannot trust a Christ that you've never been heard of. An unrevealed Christ is useless. And the first thing the Holy Ghost does is He brings us a knowledge of who Jesus Christ is.

And I'll tell you what, like I said Sunday morning, and this comes up again this week, you know, the first thing we learn of is that He is a Savior, a Savior. And I tell you, when we learn that, we find out that He's the Savior, the only Savior. Christ is the only Savior. He's the only life. He's the only truth. And I tell you what, when the Holy Ghost comes, the first thing He does is He gives us some knowledge about Christ that we didn't know before.

Paul said, I knew Christ after the flesh one time, but I don't know him after the flesh anymore. When Paul was lost, all he knew about Christ was what he knew after the flesh, what his flesh understood about him. But after God saved him, he understood Christ to be someone that was the Lord of, what is it, Lord, that you want me to do? What would you have me to do? And oh my, you got to get some brain. And that's what, you know, about time we learned something, we got to start all over again. Start like we're in the first grade, learn our ABCs all over again.

That's what's so wonderful about the gospel. No matter how many times we hear it, it's still alive and vital and real to us. We got to have it. And then not only does it give us knowledge, but it gives us faith to believe. what we've heard. To believe what He brought to us. To believe. You know what it is to believe? To believe God. Abraham believed God. And you know what it is to believe God? To believe His Word? I mean, take a Bible black and white with all kinds of apostrophes and and commas and all the things that they do and pen sentences that run on. And when we open that up, we say God's talking to us. Oh my.

And he gives us faith. Faith. And then he gives us holiness. Be ye perfect as I am perfect. Be ye holy as I'm holy. Where you gonna get that at? You can't produce that by the flesh. That's what these folks thought they was doing. If anybody ever asked you, said, what does your preacher do with people that commit sin in the church? How does he deal and discipline them? When they ask that, what they're saying is, I'm frustrating the grace of God. I'm despising the grace of God. I don't need the grace of God. I need to judge people according to my flesh, and what I think the law says, what I think that people ought to do, and what I think how people ought to live, what I think that what sin is. I make the decision what sin is, instead of God making the decision. God making us know what sin is.

And oh my, and then he not only brings us holiness, he brings us hope. And it's not just a hope, it's a blessed hope. A purifying hope. And then he brings us joy. That's why I laugh all the time when I'm preaching. You know, because I get happy, I get joyful. I get joyful. And then bless his holy name. Then he brings us wonderful peace. Peace, peace coming down from the Father above. reached over my spirit in fathomless billows of love. Peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down. Oh my.

And on, what he's saying here is in submitting to the law, and look over here in Colossians chapter two with me. I want you to see this in Colossians chapter two. Right after the book of Philippians, And I want you to see this. In submitting to the law, you end up in meats and drinks and divers washings, rules, regulations, and appeals to the flesh. Look what he said here in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. Let no man, now he's talking to these Colossians, let no man Therefore judge you in meat, in what you eat, or drink. Don't let them judge you in respect of a holy day. A holy day, oh my. And then he says, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath. Don't let nobody judge you in those things. And look what he says, all those things are just a shadow. There's no substance to them. There's no reality to them. There's no substance to them. There's not nothing real to them. They're just a shadow of things to come.

But listen to this now. But the body is Christ. Christ is not a shadow. He's a body. He's living. And look what he says. And let no man beguile you. And there's that same word as be wished, beguile you of your reward. of what you have in Christ in a voluntary humility. And that voluntary humility is, is acting like you're so humble. You know, fasting and praying and doing all those things, a false humility. And oh my, and listen to this, a voluntary humility in worshiping angels. Who in the world would worship an angel? You know, some men come up and bowed to Peter, and Peter said, Get up off your feet! I'm just a man! There's nobody ever bowed to an angel in the scriptures. And oh, look what he goes on to say. And these people like this, don't you let no man beguile your reward. and talk you into a voluntary, humiliating worshiping of angels, intruding of those things which he hath not seen, and then he's vainly puffed up, listen to this now, by his fleshly mind. Feel good about yourself, puff up about it. Oh my.

And here's what happens. They don't hold the head. Not holding the head, from which all the body By joints and bands have nourishment ministered and knit together. Increase with the increase of God. The God brings us all and makes us all just like a body with everything that goes on with the body. Oh, listen to this now. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ, if you died with Christ, crucified with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, the elements of this world, why, as though living in the world, Are you subject to ordinances? And this is what he said, touch not, taste not, handle not. That's what carnal ordinances. Don't you touch that? Don't you taste that? Don't you do that? Oh, no. And listen to this. He said, they're all going to perish with the using. Whatever you got. They're just going to perish with the using. After the commandments and doctrines of men. And these things indeed have a show of wisdom." Oh, make people think, boy, he's wise. He's got something that I don't have. In will worship, they worship by their own will and humility, and they neglect the body, the body of Christ, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. And that's all you get. Touch not, taste not, handle not.

All right. Let's go back over here in verse three, chapter three, excuse me. All right, then look what he says here in verse four. Oh foolish Galatians, oh foolish, having begun in the spirit, are you now, now made perfect by the flesh? And then we talk about faith, true faith suffers. He says this, have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? Have you suffered that many things in vain? Have you? Oh, my. He shows how foolish they are to trust in the flesh, how foolish it is to go from Christ to law to works. Have you suffered? Have you suffered? And to embrace the gospel of Christ, to embrace grace, that's full, that's free, to embrace a complete salvation, not needing any improvements whatsoever, without flesh, without works, you suffer. He said, if you suffered, you have suffered for Christ. You've been counted fools for Christ. And persecution comes from most religions, especially from the Jews, from the Jews.

And he goes on to say, said, have you suffered so many things in vain? Are you willing by your acceptance of the gospel, are you willing by the truths of the gospel, you willingly submitted to suffering? Are you willing that this suffering be in vain, that you'd be lost? Look what he said in Galatians 5.11. You know, if you suffered, you know, so is it vain? Did you lose this thing in vain? Is your suffering and everything you've done going to end up being vain? Are you thinking you're made perfect by the flesh? He said, and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, if I was preaching what I preached until Christ saved me, if I preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? And you know, if I preach circumcision, then the offense of the cross is ceased. People ain't gonna get bothered by anything, nothing. And oh my, look what he says down in verse 12 of chapter 6. And as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, They want their flesh to look good, and they want to say, boy, I want these people to Jesus. They constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. They'd rather have circumcision as Christ.

All right. Let me show you one other thing here over in 1 Corinthians, and I'll hurry up here and get done. Look what he says in 1 Corinthians 2 about vain. about vain, 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. You know, you follow these teachers of circumcision and you'll virtually renounce the gospel of Christ. You'll renounce Christ if you stay like you are. And oh, he says, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by also which you are saved, if you keep in memory, hold fast, what I preached unto you, unless your faith is vain, you believed, and it don't mount to nothing when it's all said and done. And oh my, it'd be awful, awful, when you walk away from Christ, go to something else." He said, you're renouncing the gospel. But he's not ready to believe that these folks have abandoned the gospel. He don't believe that they've completely abandoned the truth. He said, you suffered, but you've not left yet.

No wonder our Lord said, if any man be my disciple, let him take up his cross. Let him take it up. Oh, foolish, foolish Galatians.

Our Father, I thank you for your precious word. Nothing like it in this world. Nothing like it in this world. No salvation in this world that man has ever come up with could save one soul, but the gospel The gospel of Christ, the gospel of grace, the gospel of justification by faith, the gospel that's for needy people, sinful people.

Lord, we're so thankful that you brought us the gospel, saved us by your blessed grace, keeping us by your power, keeping us day in and day out. But Lord, never let us be led astray. But don't let us be mean, but let us be honest, let us be true when we get the opportunity to talk about Christ.

God bless these dear saints. God bless my brothers and sisters who are not here. Meet their needs, send them safely home until we can meet and worship again. In Christ's name, amen.

Jesus Christ is made to me. All I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. Holiness forevermore, my redemption full and sure. He is all I need.

See you Sunday, God willing.