I please God to bless us together
this evening as we continue our meditation in the Epistle to
the Galatians. And tonight we'll read the second
and third verses in the third chapter. So the Epistle of Paul
to the Galatians, and chapter three, and reading verses two
and three. This only would I learn of you,
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh? Last week, as most of you will
know, we spoke on the first verse where the Apostle addresses the
Galatians as foolish. And he continues that of course
in this third verse, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus
Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? And we know the situation has
continued down for the ages. We know that the devil's great
aim is to bewitch us and to turn us away from the great and glorious
truth which we see in Jesus Christ. And to think the Saviour hath
been, as the apostles have evidently set forth, crucified among you. And so he comes then and says,
he asks this question really, this only would I teach, learn
of you, received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. And really that is a dividing
word because it separates those who are the false believers and
those who are the true believers. And you and I must be amongst
the true believers. are not amongst the false believers. And the false believers are those
who rely on their own righteousness, who rely on their own works,
who endeavour to pass the test to get into heaven by what they
do. And they will recall the things
that they have done. Well, all those things really
are of no value when we come to stand before a holy and a
righteous God. And what we all need to know
is that we possess the great and blessed Spirit's work, the
work of the Holy Spirit in our heart, which has changed our
darkness into light, which has changed our death into life. And we pray that these things
may be very evident in our lives. It's a great privilege to come
week by week and to worship God, but if it's just in an outward
form, if it's just conforming to the law of God, just to carry
out that which we think will justify us, that which we think
will count in our favour. And we may be relying upon, therefore,
such situations. There have been many people in
history who've relied upon their chapel attendance. What a false
foundation. My friends, the great important
realisation is to know that we're not depending upon anything like
that, which really means that we're not depending on our own
righteousness, but we're depending upon the righteousness of our
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the work of His Spirit in
our hearts. That blessed work which has alerted
us to our lost state before a holy God. That blessed work which
has convinced us of our lost condition. Convinced us that
we are a sinner. Convinced us that we are a black
sinner. Convinced us that we're a vile
sinner and that we have no hope in ourselves. So that as we look
to ourselves we realise that we are lost. we're ruined and
we need a Redeemer. We need someone who can save
us from our sins because we're in desperate need and what a
blessing then if we are directed to the great and glorious Saviour
the Lord Jesus Christ and realise that the the blessed work of
the Holy Spirit does come and takes the things of Jesus and
reveals them to us. And it is the Spirit's work.
And we cannot think anything good of ourselves, we cannot
rely upon any of our own good works, but we are totally reliant
upon the blessed work of Jesus Christ. So tonight, my friends,
Are we amongst those that have received the Spirit by the hearing
of faith? That means really by the preaching
of the Gospel, that you and I have received the Word, the faithful
preaching of the Gospel into our souls, and that He has made
us spiritually alive, and it's encouraged us, and we have the
knowledge that we are amongst those for whom Christ died. And therefore it is well with
our souls. That's the important thing, isn't
it? That's the important thing. It's not natural health and strength,
it's spiritual health and strength. And we need to know the evidence
of the Holy Spirit's work amongst us, in our souls. And the Apostle
goes on really to remonstrate with these Galatians and he says,
are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made
perfect by the flesh? Remember he was addressing the
Galatians and he was also addressing the Jews who tended to turn back
to their old traditions, their traditions of works, relying
upon keeping the law, and by keeping the law to find they
are justified before God. But of course, no one ever could
be justified in that way, because nobody ever could keep the Holy
Law of God. Everyone is a sinner. Everyone
is a lost sinner. Everyone needs a great salvation. So tonight, my friends, are we
amongst those who have indeed received the Spirit of God? The Apostle, when he wrote to
the Corinthians, And he says, now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And that's in the first epistle
of Corinthians and the second chapter and the 12th verse. And then of course, we read together
in the Romans in those early verses, great and glorious truths
But just to mention a few of those verses from 9 to 11 in
the 8th chapter. And he says, but ye are not in
the flesh, but in the spirit. This is referring to the true
children of God. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you. It's a question, isn't it? If
so be. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." See the great importance
of having the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit within
us, so that the Spirit does dwell within us. And that's an amazing
consideration when we look at ourselves and realise we don't
deserve any favour. And yet it is really through
the mercy of our God. And then the Apostle goes on
in that well-known verse which I love quoting, as you know,
in the 2nd Corinthians, in the 4th chapter, in the 6th and 7th
verses, he says, Remember, this is the work of God. It's not
the work of the flesh. It's nothing that you and I can
glory in that we've done for ourselves. But what we can glory
in and what we will glory in is the work of God. And here
he tells us, the God who commanded the lights to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts. So have we that evidence of the
light from heaven shining into our hearts. And what does it
do? It gives the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What do we see
in Christ? We see a glorious light, a wonderful
light. And that's where we need to look.
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet the Apostle goes on to
encourage us and tell us, but we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. That's what we are by nature.
Our body is just an earthen vessel. And to think that Almighty God
grants us this amazing blessing of His Spirit, of His grace,
to direct us to Himself. so that our concern is to honour
and glorify his great and glorious name. And I'm sure a sinner saved
by grace desires to honour their God, to glorify his great and
holy name, to acknowledge what he's done in saving our souls. There's no greater blessing,
is there, than to know that our souls are eternally saved? That means we're safe? safe from
falling into hell and blessed with a wonderful prospect of
eternity in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. So he tells us,
but we have Very amazing. This treasure, this glorious
knowledge, in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Because he will have the glory.
He must have the glory. And we will desire him to have
the glory. We will want him to have the
glory. We will want to be less than the least of all saints.
We will be content and very happy and want to be nothing that Christ
may be all and in all because of his great act of salvation,
his great glorious death and resurrection and ascension and
now today and every day while the world remains of intercession
with his Father in heaven. You see, as we gather tonight
to pray, to think that our prayers enter up enter into glory through
the Saviour. And therefore, if we pray in
faith, our prayers cannot fail, but they will be received by
our Heavenly Father as he views them through the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, Christ must be
precious, must he not? He must be precious to us in
his life and in his death. And what he did, to redeem our
souls. Well, we sang that opening hymn,
didn't we? What a lovely hymn it was, speaking about redemption. It's a wonderful theme, and it's
a theme which warms our hearts. I hope it warmed your heart tonight,
as we sang that hymn. And I hope we sung it carefully
and prayerfully, because we don't want to just sing the tune, we
want to sing the hymn so that it comes into our heart and it
makes us realize what great salvation it is. Well then here we have
these words tonight. This only, he says. He just wanted
to know this great issue. He didn't want these people to
be under a false impression. He wanted them to know the truth.
And he says this, this only would I learn of you. Received either
spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. He's
asking them. How did they hear? How did they
receive it? Well, may we tonight be able
to say that we received the truth through the work of the Holy
Spirit in our hearts so that we have been changed and we have
been made alive and that eternally And then, not to be numbered
amongst those who are classified as foolish. Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? May we by the grace of God hold
on our way. We read that the Lord spoke in
the 24th of Matthew, they that endure unto the end shall be
saved. True it is. Bless God for that. And we only endure through what
Christ has done as we rely upon his strength, his help, his grace. And if that is so, by his grace,
one day we shall be with him in glory. Amen.