442. 442.

Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer.
Sing o'er this wonderful love proclaimed.
Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels in glory.
Strength and honor give to His holy name.

Like a shepherd Jesus will guard His children.
In His arms He carries them all day long.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent grace.
Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer.
For our sins He suffered and bled and died.
Be our rock, our hope of eternal salvation.
Hail Him, hail Him, gift of the crucified.

Sound His praises, Jesus, who bore our sorrows,
Love unfounded, wonderful, deep, and strong.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness, Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer,
Heavenly portals laugh at Hosanna's ring.
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever.
Crown Him, crown Him, prophet and priest and king.

Christ is coming over the world victorious,
power and glory unto the Lord belong.
Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song.

Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 354.

354. What a friend we have in Jesus.
? All our sins and griefs to bear ?
? What a privilege to carry ?
? Everything to God in prayer ?
? Oh, what peace we often pray ?

Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Horned Bear

Can we find a friend so faithful?
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness.
Take it to the morning prayer.

Are we weak and barely laden,
Covered with the Lord of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge,
Take it to the ward in prayer.

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
In His arms He'll take and shield thee.

Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3.
Read these first five verses.

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, receive you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, ye are now made perfect by the flesh.
Having suffered so many things in vain, if ye yet be in vain, he therefore that ministereth to you the spirit,
and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.

Let's pray.

Our blessed Savior, our great, glorious God, who is God over all, blessed forever.
Our blessed Savior, our blessed Redeemer.

Lord, we're grateful that you came into this world for us.
Came to do what we were not able to do and what we're still not able to do.
But you did. You did it all. All to you we owe.

Sin left a crimson stain. You washed it white as snow.
And Lord, we've met here tonight to worship. We've met here to go through your word, deal with your word.
And I pray for your blessings and mercies upon us tonight.

Lord, bless every heart, bless every mind.
Blot out the world from us for just a little while.
I know people get tired in body, get weary in body.
And I know that this flesh is hard sometimes to deal with, but Lord Jesus, please come among us, come and meet with us.
Bless us with the Holy Spirit so we can really enjoy the presence of our Lord tonight. God, for those who are not with us through a providentially hindered, please have mercy on them. Please encourage them. Please bless them. And Father, we pray again for our children, our grandchildren, Lord, you do for them. Oh God, please have mercy on them. Please go do something for them that only you can do. We ask these blessed things in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen.

Number two in our course book. Number two in the course book. All for me Christ did surrender, All for me He freely gave. Holy One, made sin for sinners, By His death my soul is saved. He surrendered all, He surrendered all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, He surrendered all. Coming from His throne in heaven, Jesus let His story be. Thus the sinner is forgiven, and soon to be glorified. He surrendered all. he surrendered all all to be my blessed savior he surrendered

Into death Christ did surrender, even death upon a cross. All to save the worst of hither, mind the game, piss all the balls. He surrendered all All to Thee, my blessed Savior He surrendered all At the cross, the Father's pleasure Prospered well in Jesus' hands Now He's honored with our pleasure So the Father's redeemed us He surrendered all He surrendered all All to be my blessed Savior

These first five verses of Galatians, the title of my message is Faith or Flesh? Paul is obviously impatient, maybe even frustrated with these Galatians. There may be a little thunder in his voice even. Oh, foolish Galatians. foolish Galatians. That's what a way to call somebody. Oh, foolish Galatians. Foolish Galatians. The first five verses here in Galatians 3, they're rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions. And a rhetorical question is a statement in the form of a question. And the answer is always in the question. When you hear a rhetorical question, the answer is in the question. So he asked these five questions, and the answer that he brings them to is why he asked the questions. And he asked these questions in order to get these Galatians to think for themselves, think these things through. How did these things happen? Did you begin in the spirit and you're going to be made perfect now by the flesh? Who did work miracles among you? Was it the law or the hearing of faith? So he asked these questions, and the answers in the question, and when these Galatians would read these questions, they just, if they was any thinkers at all and thought anything at all, they would get straightened out to some degree, I think.

And oh my, and what these five questions he is making here, and these important statements, shows the true nature of faith against the false hope of human nature and the false hope of being under the ceremonial law or being under the law and circumcision or any way. You know, God gave gifts to the church. He gave them apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints. Do we all come in unity of the faith to a measure of a full man in Christ? And the reason he does that, that we be no more children tossed to and fro. He said, you know, that's what he gave the gift for. That we could be established in the faith, grow up in the faith. And to a full measure of Christ. And of our understanding of Christ. And that way you, when somebody comes along, you won't get thrown this way. Somebody comes along with something else, you get thrown that way. And that's why it's so important, so important to be under a sound, sound preacher, sound preacher of the gospel. And that's what he's talking about. Now, these Galatians were led astray. They were led astray by the Judaizers. These people that came down and said, except you keep the law of Moses, you can't be circumcised. I mean, except you keep the law of Moses, you can't be saved.

But here's the first question. I'm going to deal with these questions probably one at a time. May deal with a couple of them later. But here's the first question he asked. Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you? O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? And they bewitched you to the place and bewitched you so much that you will not obey the truth. You should not obey the truth.

That's what he got on Peter about because they did not, they did not adhere to the truth of the gospel. They missed the truth of the gospel. And oh my, And I'll tell you what, here's the first thing he says, oh foolish, foolish Galatians. You know, for somebody to be foolish, that means they're thoughtless. They're unthinking. They don't consider things. They don't weigh things out. Foolish. And if any man's foolish, and I tell you a man is foolish, who leaves the gospel of Christ and goes back to Moses, who leaves the gospel of the free grace of God and goes back to ceremonies, that leaves justification by faith and goes back to circumcision, goes back to works, and goes back to trusting the flesh. How foolish could a person be to do such a thing?

And I tell you, the Bible gives us all kinds of assurance of our relationship with Christ, but all at the same time gives us this, and then it gives us these warnings on one side and the faith on the other, this wonderful thing. And the reason being that if you go too far that way, God will watch you. Too far this way. And so what we got to do, and that's what he says, oh foolish Galatians. Oh, to go leave the gospel of grace, the doctrine of grace. He said over in Galatians 1, I marvel, I marvel that you're so soon removed from the grace of Christ to another gospel. And there ain't another gospel. And he said, if me, an angel, anybody else comes and preaches another gospel, let them be cursed. And Paul was really upset with these people.

And, oh, God, leave the doctrine of justification and go to works, bring in flesh. And then look what he says, bewitched you, bewitched you. That word bewitched has a couple of different meanings, but bewitched means to be acting as if a magician had cast a spell on him. And that word also means this, that it's very strange belief that somebody has. That somebody's brought in something that amazes them so much that they can't grasp it. That they are caught up in this bewitchment, this amazement, this strangeness that they've heard. And oh my, it casts a spell on them. And it casts a spell on their comprehension. And here's what it did, it brought them to the place that they wouldn't obey the truth. Wouldn't obey it. Wouldn't obey the truth. Oh my.

You know, genuine faith, genuine faith, something that we not only obey the truth, we love the truth, delight in the truth. And what is the truth that he says that they are not obeying? before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set before you, crucified among you. That's the truth they're not obeying. The truth of Christ and Him crucified. The truth of Christ and His death. The truth of Christ and what His death accomplished. So he's talking here about the difference between faith and foolishness. And, oh my, before whose eyes Christ has been set forth. Now, how could he be set forth before anybody's eyes? There was a time that these people believed this. And when he talks about before their eyes, it has to be before eyes of faith. Because physical eyes can't see the death of Christ. The natural man can't see the death of Christ. And he said, the eyes of Christ has been set before your eyes of faith.

How did you go from faith back to the law? How did you go from faith and Christ crucified back to Moses? How'd you do that? Oh my, look over in Titus chapter one. Titus, that little bitty book right before Hebrews. Look in verse 1, in chapter 1, verse 1. Oh, genuine faith obeys the truth. And what truth is he talking about? Christ. Christ crucified. Jesus Christ. And when he uses that name, Jesus Christ, it has two meanings. First of all, when he calls him Jesus, he's talking about his humanity. Remember we preached Sunday that thou shalt call his name Jesus. That's going to be his earthly name. That's going to be his name. And Christ means the Messiah or the anointed one. So he was God, manifest in the flesh as Jesus, but he was also anointed of God, God's righteous servant, sent into this world to do a work as a man.

And oh my, look what he said here, Titus chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, says to this now, according to the faith of God's elect. What's about God's elect? What do they do? They acknowledge the truth. They acknowledge the truth. They acknowledge it, which is after godliness, after what God taught us. And this, and then we acknowledge the truth of this after God, and this, what is it? In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.

And he says, you know, here, you, you don't obey this truth. Christ is set forth before your eyes, back over in our text. And here comes the Judaizers alone and gets them to take their eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ. They had their eyes on him. Now they got their eyes off of him. Oh my, got their eyes, took their eyes off of Christ. You know there's, we're saved by a look. You know that we're saved by a look. Look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth. I'm a just God and a savior. Second look is looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We live by a look, and we will likely end by a look, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look, look, look, look. What are you looking at? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want to see, and that's what you want to see.

And these people were without excuse. Paul set Christ before these people plainly and boldly and clearly. And I tell you, the gospel of God's grace in Christ and in its fullness is contained. The gospel of the grace of God in its fullness is contained in the Son of God, the person of Christ, the work of Christ. When we talk about the person of Christ, we're talking about who he was as a person. Immaculate person, sinless person, perfect person. And if he's a perfect person, then the work he did was a perfect work. A perfect person has to do a perfect work. So if he's a perfect person, sinless person, holy person, then the work that he did, it has to be holy and has to be perfect too. And he said, Paul, I preach the gospel. Paul said, I preach the gospel to you, fellas. When you hear about Lystra, Pisidia, and Antioch and all them, them are all in Galatia. Galatia is a big Roman province. Providence has got all these little towns that he went and preached in them.

And oh my, and I tell you what, you know, he wasn't, he didn't rehearse some facts to these people. He didn't rehearse some facts to them. He didn't go through some facts. You know, Jesus, that's what people say, the Gospels, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that's facts. But the gospel always says according to the scriptures, according to the scripture.

And Paul says, I set Christ before you, and now you're going to go back to Moses? And oh, I tell you what, he preached the cross, he preached the meaning of the cross, what was accomplished on the cross, and left no room for misunderstanding. And oh, this is to obey the truth. And that's what he says. Oh, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you.

You know, there's another place where it says Christ was set forth. God set him forth. Romans 3, God set him forth. God did. What for? To be our atoning sacrifice. And here Paul said, I set him forth for you. I preached him to you. I preached Christ and I preached him crucified. And oh my.

So we got to ask some questions. We talk about Christ crucified. He said, who died on that cross? Who was it died on that cross? It was the Lord of glory. Look over here in first Corinthians chapter two in verse eight with me. Oh my.

Who died on that cross? The scripture says that he was the express image of God, the glory of God, and by himself purged our sins on that cross. Look what it says down in verse 7. Paul talking about preaching now. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. which God ordained before the world for our glory. He hid it and revealed it unto us, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if had they known it, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory. That too was crucified, the Lord of glory.

And oh my, the band that hung on that cross was the very express image of God. Why did he die? Why did Christ, why was there a cross? Why did Christ die? What was the purpose of Christ's dying? First and foremost, to fulfill the eternal purposes of God the Father. That's the first reason Christ comes, to fulfill the eternal purpose of God his Father, to do his Father's will.

He was delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God's will. God's eternal purpose was always in The Lord Jesus Christ is the work of satisfaction. He satisfied God in every way. He was a substitute, and it was a work of redemption. He actually bought what he paid for.

And who did he die for? For whom did he die? Makes it very plain. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Why does it always say? For his elect. The Father, the elect, the Father, those is chosen of him, given to him. The Father gave them to him before the world began. All that the Father gives me, what's they gonna do? They're gonna come to me. They're gonna come to me.

And no, no man can come to me except the Father which sent me a drawing. And he said, he that's been taught of the Father, what does he do? He comes to me. He comes to me. And I'm so thankful. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. You know why? To be holy. To be without blame. To be accepted in the beloved. And why did that happen? According to the good pleasure of God's will, who works all things after the counsel of His own will. Who did He die for? Whom did He die? His elect. His people. His sheep, oh my, I gave to Him, God gave them to Him. Oh Father, all You give to me, I've not lost a one of them. Not lost a one of them.

And what did His death accomplish then? It accomplished a sure, final, eternal redemption for all His elect. He entered once into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for us. You know, when you talk about eternal redemption, did eternal redemption start when God applied the blood to us? If it's eternal redemption, that means that it was a redemption before we were and will continue after we're gone. It's eternal. It's eternal. He entered once in the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for His elect. And He put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

This is what they did and wouldn't obey Him. Paul said these things before these people, these wondrous truths before these people. When God struck him down on the Damascus Road and he went into Damascus to take people and bring them back to Jerusalem, he went in there instead God came and opened his eyes, and after three days opened his eyes, and he was praying, and straightway, straightway, from persecuting the Lord's people, straightway, he began to preach Jesus Christ.

How did he go? What's a dramatic change? So if that was such a change on him, he preached that wherever he went? And oh my, what was the results? Was He a successful Savior? Huh? Oh, did He actually put away sin? Did He actually save His people? Did He actually put away their sin? Did He actually accomplish something? Oh, my. And I tell you, He redeemed and bought to Himself a peculiar people, a precious people. And we done that that we might proclaim His praises who called us out of this awful darkness into his marvelous light.

And I want to show you something. Look over here in Ephesians chapter 5. And I'll tell you, he's going to have a spotless bride. Look in Ephesians chapter 5. Oh, look what it says here about what he's going to do. He redeemed for himself, and I'll tell you, He was a successful Savior. What He intended to do, He did! By His life, by His death, by His resurrection, by His ascension. And look what He says here, in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it. Cleanse it, set it apart with the word, the washing of water by the word. Sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth, what Christ said.

And here's the reason he done it, that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish. I said, that's the way God views us right now. Because he says, you know, we're already glorified. We'll get there.

Oh, look at Revelations 21 too. Oh my. Look what he said. Revelations 21 too. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Look down in verse 9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which hath the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife."

Oh, the bride is sitting in one place, you know, she's made herself ready. Well, what about works then? Where does works come into this business? Where does works come into this? Huh? Oh, where does works come into it? Well, since by his death, Since by his resurrection, Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Ain't that what it says, Hebrews 10, 12, 14? He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

So when it comes to works, our works before we were saved, before God saved us, and our works after we're saved, has no standing with God whatsoever. None. If works amounted to anything, that's why the Lord said, except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you can't enter into the kingdom of heaven. And when he talked about their righteousness, that's all was outward. He said, you've got to have a righteousness different than what they've got. It has to be something more than what you do. Has to be something more than how you pray. Has to be something more than what you give. Has to be something more than how the ties you pay. Has to be something more than your posture. Has to be something more when you're witnessing. Has to be something more than that. Because they did all of that.

But oh my, he said, accept your righteousness. And God help us, oh my, to trust in our works in any way for acceptance with God is to reject the only righteousness which is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? I mean, oh my. It's a sad, sad thing. Look with me over in Romans chapter 10. It's a sad thing that so many people They do, they, I did it, I know what I'm talking about, but I'm so thankful that God in his sovereign mercy saved me for myself, saved me from my awful sinfulness, saved me from it.

You look what he said here, Paul talking about where righteousness is, and oh, this is what, just dealing with the Galatians like this. Brethren, my heart's desire, Oh, my heart's on fire. And prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, that God might save them. For I go on record, I bear record to them, I know them, I'm one myself, that they have a zeal of God. They're very zealous. They pray three times a day, go to the temple, pay tithes of everything they possess, make long prayers in the marketplace. And oh, they have a zeal of God, but their zeal has no knowledge to it. Has no reason before it. They don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They don't know.

And this is one of Paul's favorite things, and he mentions this so many times. I'd not have you to be ignorant. But these men, these people, these Israelites, and I won't pray for them to be saved. They're ignorant. What are they ignorant of, Paul? What is it they're ignorant of? of God's righteousness, the righteousness of God, God's way of making men righteous, God's righteous character, God's righteous nature, and God's way of making men righteous. And how do you know they're ignorant of God's righteousness? Well, they're going about, and they're working hard to establish their own righteousness. And listen to this, have not bowed to, have not submitted themselves to unto God's righteousness.

Well, what is God's righteousness? Christ. Christ is the end, the goal, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness. Regardless of zeal, regardless of knowledge, regardless of what's going on, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to people who have faith and believes Christ and Him alone. And that's the old truth that they didn't obey. And oh, I tell you, you've heard this so many times, but is there righteousness outside of Christ? Is there righteousness for anybody outside of Christ? Huh? No, none. There's no other name, no other name given among men whereby we must be saved other than Jesus Christ himself. You know, our righteousness, it says, are as filthy rags.

And one of the things, look at 2 Corinthians 5 with me. I was talking to some folks the other day, and they were worried about, they was afraid they'd go someplace where people preached that Jesus Christ was made a sinner out of 2 Corinthians 521. And I told them how that division came about. They said, do you know in that 2 Corinthians 521, for it's made him to be sin for us, and who knows sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in him? That's a litmus test about some people. But they started, some men started several years ago that there was men who was making Christ to be a sinner from this verse of scripture. I never heard anybody preach that. I never heard anybody come close to that.

But there's a man that broke fellowship with everybody, and they've asked you, first thing they ask you, what's your view on 2 Corinthians 5.21? Well, I'll tell you what. Go back up to verse 19. We're talking about the righteousness of Christ. This is God's witness that God was in Christ, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the preaching, the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us who are preachers, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For he, God, has made Christ to be sin for us.

And men make such a big deal about this, but here's the thing. The scripture says the Lord laid on him. the iniquity of his soul. God did that. He pleased the Lord to bruise him. God made his soul an offering for sin. God's the only person that can make somebody to be sin. And he made Christ to be sin. And it tells us plainly who knew no sin. Absolutely had no thought of it, no action of it, no intent of it, no thought of it, and knew it in any way. And God turns around and makes us the righteousness of God in Christ.

Now, to me, that's one of the most awesome verses of scriptures in all the Bible. I can't hardly read that or preach from it that I'm not greatly, greatly affected. I stand in awe of that. How in the world God could take his own son And this is what Paul was preaching. This is what Christ was said before. And they didn't obey that truth. And when you think about God taking his son, and they can go on all they want to about sacred, but it says he was wounded for our transgressions. The Lord God laid on him. And everything, God had to do this. We couldn't do it ourselves. We couldn't make Christ to be sin. We couldn't make Christ to become sin. And it's more than a sin offering.

And when He hung on that cross, whatever, Whatever God, how God looked at sin, ever how God judged sin, ever how God dealt with sin, He dealt with it in one place in the blessed person of His Son. And by that at one act, there's no sin against any of His people from then on. All we have now is no sin, but God's righteousness. Now that suits me just fine. That suits me just fine.

And oh my, All right, let me wind this thing up here if I can. True faith. They said, you foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? Who has warped your mind that you'd have Moses instead of Christ? Have works instead of Christ? Have law instead of Christ? But all true faith believes, rejoices in the truth, submits to the truth. and the truth concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in His atonement. We rejoice in His person. We rejoice in His fruit. We rejoice in His work. And true faith that obeys the truth, relies wholly upon Christ, rests upon the truth, as the only ground of our confidence and hope in this world. Through faith has ceased from their works as God has ceased from his. And why did God cease from his work? Because he's finished. Why do we cease from our works? Because Christ finished it. The work's done.

And that's why he said there in verse two, In verse 21, he said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. And oh, he said, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. Then he said, oh, foolish Galatians. Oh, foolish Galatians. Oh, my. 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.