So turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 3. Now Paul's dealing with the issue of justification
in Christ, in Him alone. And he's going to present this
portion of scripture we're coming to now. We looked at verse 1
the last two weeks. We spent two weeks on that. So
now we're entering into this portion where Paul's going to
ask five questions. Five questions. And what these
five questions are for is for the Galatians to examine, is
for them, is for the Galatian believers to reflect on the fact
that salvation is of the Lord. There's no other way. No other
way to be saved. It's not anything of our doing.
It's not anything of law keeping. Salvation is in and through Christ
in Him alone. And Paul will contrast with these
questions, is one saved by faith or is one saved by works? He's
going to set those scenarios before the Galatians. And so
even for us, it's good for us to reflect upon these things,
right? Because all scripture is given by inspiration, and
it's profitable, right? For all believers. It's profitable
for all believers. So it's good for us to examine,
too. And keep that in mind. Keep that in mind as we unpack
these scriptures, what's brought forth in these questions that
The question becomes, is one saved by faith alone, in Christ
alone, or is one saved by works, law doing, law doing, law keeping? So these questions here are for
reflection. reflection. For us to stop and
to think about, to reflect upon the truths that are presented
in the scriptures here. Do we believe what Paul is putting
forth here? That salvation is all of grace. That's all of grace. That is
absolutely nothing that we do. No law keeping, no works of our
own, but salvation is in and through Christ and Him alone.
And remember too, You know, sometimes folks will think, well, you know,
we already know all that. The Holy Spirit has set these
words before us for a reason. And that's how I, when I look
at scripture now, I look at it as what's being placed before
me here and praying that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the
scripture so that I might learn. So I might learn. Because these
are, all scriptures is given for either reproof or learning
or, it teaches us, beloved. It teaches us. about Christ. It teaches us about salvation
in and through Christ alone. It teaches us about our sovereign
God and who he is and what he's done and what he's doing. So
let's read here. remembering that the true author
of these words is God, the Holy Spirit. Let's read verses one
to nine. And within this portion of scripture,
we'll see the five questions that the Holy Spirit inspired
Paul to pin down to ask these Galatian believers. And we know
that he doesn't say, well, you're all lost because he, the first
question received you the spirit. So he's not saying, you're a
bunch of lost folks. He's saying, my dear brethren, my dear brethren,
you know, we need to have a lot of grace with each other, don't
we? We need to have a lot of grace with others. We need to
meet them where they are, right? Look what he says here. O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you, and put a spell on you,
that you should not obey the truth? That's the gospel. before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you. We looked at that, Christ crucified.
That's the preacher's message, isn't it? Christ and him crucified. Now look, here's the first question.
Now remember, the Judaizers are saying you must be circumcised
to be saved along with faith in Christ. Look what he says
here. This question, this first question
is a killer. But then he goes on, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, to ask even more questions. But if they contemplated
this first question in the right way, it'd be over right there.
It'd be over right there. This is actually a good question
for us to ask folks, too, who are caught up in works and stuff.
Because salvation's by God's grace and grace alone. It's not
by anything we've done. Look at this. This only would
I learn of you, received you the Spirit by the works of the
law, or by the herein of faith? What a question. And he goes
on. Are ye so foolish? Here's the
two questions in one verse. Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? My, there's another killer question,
isn't it? All these questions are just, bam, right between
the eyes. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain? be yet in vain. So if they're saved by works,
their works, and they've suffered through all these things, it's
just in vain. Because they're going to go to
hell if they're trusting their own works. See how he's bringing forth before
them the fact that salvation's of the Lord? He therefore that
ministered to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you,
doeth it he by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore
that they which are of the faith the same are the children of
Abraham. Look at that. Even as Abraham believed God,
God said this is going to happen and Abraham believed him, right?
No works, right? Just believed. I believe. I believe
you, Lord. What did he tell his son? God
will provide himself a lamb. He believed it. He believed that
if he slayed Isaac, that God would raise him up again. But
God provided a lamb, didn't he? Himself. It says in that text. And he did provide himself a
lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. God incarnated in the flesh.
For us. For us. in the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith. That's the Gentiles,
right? Preach before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, and these
shall all nations be blessed. What was Abraham before the Lord
called him? He's an idol worshiper, wasn't
he? He's an idol worshiper, beloved.
The Lord called him. The Lord saved him, didn't he?
Oh my. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. So today our verse will be verse
two. This only what I learn of you received ye the spirit by
the works of law or by the hearing of faith. So we see here Paul
denouncing justification by works. With this one question, he totally
denounces justification by works. But and and he brings forth that
faith only comes by regeneration through the gift of the Holy
Spirit of God, right? And now he's going to address
how they received the Spirit. Was it by something they did?
Now think of this in light of today. Pray this prayer and now
you're saved. No Holy Spirit regeneration.
None. None. That's why we call When
people do that sinner's prayer, we call it decisional regeneration.
Because what they're doing is they're actually replacing the
work of the Holy Spirit of God. And in that preacher, that false
preacher says, now you're saved. Now you're part of the family
of God. I heard that. I believed that before. And that's a false
gospel. That's a false gospel, beloved.
No, that's not right. How did we receive the Spirit?
By grace, through faith. And first of all, you must be
born again, right? What comes first, faith or regeneration?
Regeneration. And then, you're born again. You're born again, then you receive
faith. So what Paul's contrasting here, did you receive the faith
by your works? or by the hearing of faith, by the preaching of
the gospel. Because remember, faith cometh by hearing, we're
going to look at that later on, and hearing by the Word of God, right? Oh my, there's that hearing brought
up here, the hearing of faith. And Paul's dealing with justification
in and through Christ alone by faith alone. And now when the
Scripture speaks of justification by faith, The scripture is speaking
of face reception of the finished work of Christ, not face contribution. But face reception. Reception. Completion of it. If it had anything to do with
us, then it's not salvation by grace, is it? See, the only reason
we believe is because God gives us faith to believe. And then
we receive. Don't we gladly, oh, don't we
gladly receive the word of God now? I was listening to a message
by a dear brother this morning before I came over and I was
telling you, I was gladly receiving the word of God. Oh my, he's
talking about Christ being my savior and that we'll be with
him in eternity and that we can't really grasp eternity? What it
means? Because everything we do is locked
into time and space and measured by time and space and changes,
but God never changes? Oh my! That means his love for
us never changes? Yes, never! Oh, praise be to
God. What a great savior we have.
And that means his salvation doesn't change either. Right? If God doesn't change, his salvation
doesn't change. It's not based upon someone praying
a prayer, it's all a grace. It's all mercy, mercy. In no way at all do we contribute
to our salvation. It is in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ and him alone. There's absolutely no contribution
by ourselves. As this preacher said, God didn't
look down with a cosmic telescope and see who would choose him.
No, no. God saves us by his grace and
he chooses us in eternity. an attorney. Ain't that wonderful?
Our names were written in the... Now, just let this, let this
sink in for us. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before there was ever a world. Before there
was ever time. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Oh my! And it's His love and
grace that wrote our names there. It's incredible! So we receive
these truths, don't we now? Through God-given faith, now
we believe them. I never even heard of them before
the Lord saved me. I always thought, am I good or
am I bad? Boy, oh boy, was I in for a surprise,
wasn't I? When I found out there's none
good, no, not one. And that means everyone, including
me. What? Yeah, including me. Oh my. I was so steeped in self-righteousness.
My. Think of this too. Sinners are
not judicially pardoned by their faith. What are we pardoned by? The blood of Christ. Faith just
lays a hold of Christ. Right? Faith just lays a hold. So then we can cry out with Jonah,
salvations of the Lord from beginning to end. from beginning to end,
we simply receive the knowledge of our pardon. Like Tim James
said one time, we preachers stand up and say, this has already
been done. This has already been done. We proclaim a finished work.
complete work. And God's people, by God-given
faith, what do we do? Hallelujah! I believe! I believe,
Lord! I believe you're my King. I believe
you're my Savior. I believe you shed your blood
for me on Calvary's cross. And it's all because of what
He's done. His perfect, sin-atoning work as our substitute on Calvary's
cross. So we have set here before us,
in verse 2, a question of how one receives the Spirit. Is it
by works or by faith? Grace. Is it by the works of
the flesh or is it by the grace of God? Let's read it again.
This only what I learn of you. Received ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you receive
the spirit? By something you done? Or did
faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God? See what
he's doing? saying, did you receive the Spirit
by supposedly being circumcised? Or having to be circumcised along
with Christ? No, not at all. That's law doing,
isn't it? Christ is in the law for righteousness.
He did it all for us. With these words, this only what
I learn of you, Paul is bringing forth that there are many things
that he could put before them. He's bringing forth, there's
many things I can put before you. But I'm going to ask this
question to start, which, if rightly thought about and honestly
answered, it must expose the foolishness of the false teachers.
Let's read it again. This only would I learn of you.
Received you the spirit by the works of the law, so by what
they're telling you you have to do, or by the hearing of faith? Salvation's in Christ and Him
alone. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by something you did?
Or did you receive the Holy Spirit by grace? By grace. My oh my. And this would put
an end to the controversy if they really, really considered
it, wouldn't it? It'd be over right there. The
controversy of justification by law-doing with Christ or Justification
by Christ in Him alone. Which is what again Paul is setting
forth before the Galatians here. That our justification is in
and through Christ alone. And now take note, he's not saying
that they have not received the Spirit. I love this. He's not
saying you're a bunch of lost folks. Even with the Corinthians. When Paul corrects the church,
he doesn't start off by going, well you're all a bunch of lost
people. He doesn't do that. And these books also show us
how far we can slip. How even as believers, we can
be susceptible to error. But who keeps us from error?
It's the Lord. He keeps us from error. He keeps
us. He gives us discernment, doesn't
He? He gives us discernment. And He's not saying they're lost.
He's saying, how did you receive the Spirit? I love this about
Paul. He corrects with grace, doesn't
he? He corrects with mercy, just
like our Lord. Peter, do you love me? Oh my,
yeah, Peter, yeah, Lord, yeah, you know I love you. Peter, do
you love me? And the third time, Peter's almost in tears, isn't
he? I could imagine him, he'd be blubbering mess. I know I
would be, would you? We would be, wouldn't we, if
the Lord asked us that? Oh Lord, we love you by your
grace. and by your mercy. But he's asking them here, and
remember, remember who the true author of these words is too,
it's God the Holy Spirit, right? So, Paul's asking this question,
but on the Holy Spirit's perspective, it's not for information. He's
setting, this is a good question to set before folks, isn't it?
Yeah. Is one regenerated by works,
law doing? Or is one regenerated by grace
alone, through faith alone? By hearing the gospel and the
Holy Spirit regenerate in us and in we believe. So the true author of these words
is the very one who is the author of regeneration. Right? He's the one who regenerates
us. So the question supposes that
they had received the Spirit. Doesn't say they haven't. It
supposes they had already received the Spirit. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of wisdom and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of revelation, right? Unless
God reveals Himself, we'll never know Him, right? But who does
he reveal himself in? Christ, in him alone. He reveals
himself, God the Father reveals himself to us through Christ.
That's why the Lord said, if you hate me, you hate the Father
who sent me. My, oh my, that's serious business. So he's asking them, Did you
receive the Spirit by the works of the law? By something you
did? By anything they did? Or by their supposed law obedience? And we know that no one can follow
the law, can we? We're all guilty of it. It shows
us our guilt before God. Every one of us are lawbreakers.
Praise God, we're not under the law no more. Christ has redeemed
us, what? From under the law. We're not
under the law anymore, beloved. We're free. We're set free. Absolutely wonderful. So he's
asking them, had they merited and secured the Holy Ghost by
anything they did? Or had the Spirit came to them
into their hearts through their doing? Or the doctrine of preaching
the law? No, that's impossible, isn't
it? That's impossible. They could not, like us, they
could not obtain righteousness in life by the works of the law.
No one can. No one can. They could not receive
the spirit by their supposed works. No one can. We can't. They can't. No one can. These
Galatians, as well as all of God's enlightened saints, did
not receive the spirit of Christ by anything we've done. But we
received the Spirit of Christ by hearing, by hearing. They did not receive the Spirit
of Christ. None of God's people received the Spirit of Christ
by circumcision or law keeping. They did not receive the Spirit
of Christ by Sabbath day keeping, right? No. They did not receive the
Spirit by the law of Moses. No. They did not hear, they did not
receive the spirit by hearing that God's done all he can do,
now the rest is up to you. Right? It's not how you receive
the spirit of God, is it? No. Let's read verse two. And then turn to Romans 10. Put
your finger in Romans 10, quickly, we do that first. Romans 10. Romans 10. And then we'll read
Galatians 2, and then we'll go right to Romans 10. So how had
they received the Spirit of God? How had they received the Spirit
of God? Let's see what it says here. Let's look at Galatians 3.2 now.
This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Hmm. What had they heard by the hearing
of faith? What have they heard? Let's go
to Romans chapter 10. We're starting verse 4 because
I think verse 4 is just a mountaintop. I need to hear verse 4 today.
Look at this. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. Praise God. I love that. Oh,
I just couldn't get away from that verse. To everyone that
believeth. There we go. For Moses described
the righteousness, which is of the law, that the man that doeth
those things shall live by them. But the righteousness, which
is of faith, spoken on this wise. Right. That's what we were looking
at in the end of verse two there. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring Christ
again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart, see, Regeneration's a heart work. It's a heart work. It's an operation
of God. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. For what sayeth the scripture?
Whoso of it believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same LORD
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. Praise God. Praise God. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? See, a person can't be saved
if they don't believe on Christ. How beautiful are the feet, or
Oh, sorry. And how should they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? How can someone believe on Christ
if they've never heard of him? I remember meeting a guy out
west one time at a place I worked at, and I said, have you ever
heard the gospel? He said, no. And I said, well,
I'm going to tell you the gospel then. I'm going to tell you about
Christ. in him alone. He'd never heard it. I thought
at first he was joking with me, but he said, I've never heard
it, Wayne. I was raised in a family that we didn't believe in God,
and I never was interested in looking into it or anything like
that. Well, he heard the gospel that day, by the grace of God. How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? How shall they hear without someone sent by God to
proclaim Christ? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Man can't preach unless he's
sent. I can't tell you about someone who saved me unless he
saved me, right? There's places you guys have
visited that I haven't, right? But I couldn't tell you about
that place, could I? But you could tell me. See, how
shall a man preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ unless
the Lord saved his soul? That's what the Lord's bringing
forth here. And how shall they preach except
they be sent as is written how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good
things But they have not all obeyed the gospel for isaiah
saith the lord who hath believed our report So then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of god. Look at that that
ties right into with our verse, doesn't it? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. See, God uses, I proclaim the
gospel, and somewhere between you and I, the Holy Spirit gets
ahold of those words, because all I'm doing is telling you
what Christ has done for me, or telling you what I've learned
this week, right? And the Holy Spirit takes those words, and
He just applies it to your heart, and you guys are blessed by them.
Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. One sinner telling
other sinners about where to find bread. Hey, I found bread.
It's wonderful. Let's feast. Give me some. I got more than I can ever eat.
Here you go. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's so wonderful. It's just wonderful. So they,
as well as us, heard, what did they hear? They heard that Jesus
Christ was crucified. that he was the God-man, that
he was the only begotten Son of God. What else did they hear? Well, they heard that when he
was crucified, he took all the writing of ordinances that was
against his people, and he nailed it to his cross. He blotted out
all their transgressions with his precious, precious blood
that were contrary to us. And he took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross, Colossians says. And we heard that Christ
is all our righteousness, that we can't produce any righteousness
that make us fit to be in the presence of God. And we heard
that Jesus Christ by himself purged our sins, purged them. They're all gone. They're all
gone. We heard that our Father has
forgiven all our trespasses for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. This is what they heard too.
We heard that God quickened us, he gave us life when we were
dead in trespasses and sins, with no hope. And Christ gave
us life, and that he gives life to whomsoever he wills. Whomsoever
he wills. We heard that God's Holy Spirit
quickened us. Quickened us. He makes us alive. spiritually alive, and that the
flesh contributed absolutely nothing, nothing. See, that humbles
our pride, doesn't it? But it exalts Christ so much,
beloved. Oh, it lifts him up. We heard
that it wasn't our will or our works, but God's sovereign mercy,
that we're saved according to his will and his purpose and
his grace, that he saved our eternal soul. We heard that the
preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believes. And it is, isn't it, for us?
It's so wonderful. It's so wonderful. And in preaching
of that gospel, the gospel of salvation in Christ alone, God
reveals Jesus Christ is the only righteousness that he will accept. And he is the Lord our righteousness,
isn't he? us Jehovah's again you he's the
Lord our righteousness that's our Savior that's the Lord Jesus
Christ the one who came down from heaven to save our souls
and we also heard that no flesh should glory in God's presence
and the reason we don't glory because we have nothing to glory
in in ourselves, but we have the glory in Christ, don't we? We can glory in our King, can't
we? In what he's done, what he accomplished
by himself for us. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according to this written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's who we glory
in. We glory in the Lord, beloved. And our Lord Jesus said, blessed
are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. Blessed
are you. We're blessed people, beloved.
We're blessed by God that we hear, and that we hear the words
of the shepherd through the preaching of the gospel, that we see Christ
now when we never saw him before. We're so blessed. And only a
man or a woman who's never seen anything or ever heard anything
can really appreciate these words, because now we see by God's grace. And we can appreciate those,
the words set before us in the scripture, can't we? And if we've
ever heard His voice with the ears of our heart, we can truly
say that God has richly blessed us. Oh, He's blessed us so much,
beloved. And our text says this. Let's go back to our text. This
is only what I learn of you. Received you the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. So again, it's sent
before us, right? Here's a few things to ponder
concerning these verses to meditate on this week. We who have received
God's Spirit. Those who have received the Holy
Spirit of God have received the Spirit of adoption. This preacher I listened to this
morning said, when we fell in Adam, we became orphans. And he says, so then you have
to have a willing parent to adopt, don't you? And that willing parent has to
have the means to take care of the adopted son or daughter,
doesn't he? He or she. Oh, God the Father, we're adopted
now, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? Chosen
in Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. So we can appreciate the words
of God. We can, oh, we can just rejoice in the words of God.
So here's some things for us to ponder. Those who have received
the Holy Spirit of God have received the spirit of adoption, number
one. God himself predestinated us. God himself, he predestinated
us. Unto adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, not according to our will, but according
to the good pleasure of his will. Here's another thing to contemplate,
too. Without the Spirit of God, we will not receive any spiritual
understanding, because in our unregenerate state, spiritual
truths are foolishness to us. Now, now we have seen eyes and
hearing ears. Rejoice, beloved, rejoice. God's
children receive the Spirit, which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. It's the
ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, to take the things of Christ
and to reveal them to us. He won't speak of himself. He'll
reveal Christ to us. Oh, this is wonderful. And in
the false sense of the meaning of the word, no man can say that
Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit of God. And I'm not talking
those charismatics that say, well, Jesus Christ is Lord! Just
to say, see, I believe. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about someone, man or woman, who truly knows Christ.
Truly knows Christ. We can say, Jesus Christ is Lord. By the Holy Spirit. By the Holy
Spirit. In faith, true saving faith believes
God. believes what God has said. And
one of my favorite verses, I'm gonna leave you with, and I'm
still learning what this means, I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. Never. What a promise. What a promise. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for allowing us to be here together. Oh Lord,
we pray that We take these things that we heard today. Oh, it's
so wonderful. Salvation's all of you, Lord. All of you, Father. And we praise you and we thank
you that before time ever was, you chose us, because we never
would have chosen you. Oh, what great mercy you show
on the people of God. What great mercy you've shown
your people in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord Jesus,
we thank thee for coming and dying for us, and bleeding, shedding
thy precious, precious blood to redeem our eternal souls.
And Holy Spirit, we thank thee for regenerating us, that we're
born again by thy almighty power. Oh, may you receive all the glory,
Father and Son and Holy Spirit, today. And may your people, we
who are your people, may we leave here rejoicing in the wonderful
salvation that we have in and through you, Lord Jesus. And
we love you because you first loved us, in Jesus' name.