before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only,
what I learn of you, received you the Spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish, having
begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?" He calls these Galatians foolish.
Oh, foolish Galatians. And then in verse 3, he calls
them foolish again. Are you so foolish? Are you so
foolish? Now, it's obvious that he is
troubled by these Galatians. Very troubled by them. Very burdened. In fact, I would say he's almost
frustrated with them. Because the way he sets evidently
Jesus Christ has been set forth crucified among you. What in
the world are you doing turning from him? Paul was the one who
went and preached to these people. He was the one who established
this church. And there's a little thunder
in his voice, and he says, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you? Who's bewitched you? But now
let me show you something here. These first five verses of Galatians
3 have five rhetorical questions. Five rhetorical questions. Now,
a rhetorical question is a statement. They're not actually asking a
question, they're making a statement. And they put it in the form of
a question. Because the answer is actually in the question.
And he does this in order to get these Galatians to thank
him by asking these rhetorical questions. And every one of them
are statements, though they're in the form of a question. And
then he makes some incredible statements here in order to get
them thanking. And thanking for themselves and
not listening to the Judaizers. You back up and look at what
Christ has done. And in these questions, he's
making five, five important statements about the true nature of faith.
In contrast to trusting human nature and its works. And there's
a great difference here. You're going to trust Christ?
You got true faith? And he said, that's what he's
dealing with. Do you have true faith? Or are you still going
to be made perfect by the flesh? Having begun in the spirit, you're
going to be made perfect by the flesh. Did faith come by you? The works of the Lord? Did it
come by the hearing of faith? Were you justified by what Christ
did? Or are you going to be justified by the law of Moses? And so he
makes these great, incredible statements. You know, and this
is something that we have been so blessed over the years to
hear the best preachers and men that's been so faithful to Christ
and faithful to us and faithful to His Word. But even the strongest can be
led astray. And the devil's always out there,
and there's always something coming up that wants to lead
you astray. I told a couple of men yesterday,
I said, the devil, as long as he can get you fixed on anything,
whether it's justification at the cross, you make that the
only point you believe in, and just deal with it all the time.
Or are you dealing with Practical Christianity, the devil is tickled
to death if you get on some kind of a caricature of the Gospel.
Because he's keeping you from preaching Christ crucified. And
that's what happens here. He's got these people, got their
eyes off of Christ, these Judaizer hands. And you just get zero
in on one thing and make that the major part of your ministry. Get on one thing and using certain
clichés, using certain phrases, and the devil's tickled to death
about that. You know, you get talking about the Puritans, you
get talking about Spurgeon. Well, Spurgeon's gone, and I
like Mr. Spurgeon. But the thing is that if the
devil can get a sidetrack, that's what happened here. That's what
happened here. And so God gave gifts unto the church that we
wouldn't be children as children tossed to and fro. Look over
here in Ephesians chapter 4. And this is why Paul is doing,
these men and women here, these Galatians, they've been tossed
to and fro here. They've been carried about by
a strange doctrine, by a different doctrine, by something other
than Christ crucified. Because he said evidently, Jesus
Christ crucified has been set forth before you. But look here
in Ephesians 4.11. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some advancers and some pastors and teachers.
The reason he did this is for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, establishing,
strengthening, the building up of the body of Christ. And he
does this, and this is what we preach and teach in this body
of Christ, till we all come into unity of faith, and come unto
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, a mature
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is the reason that we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. I lie in wait to deceive. And
that's what happened. These fellows, they lay in wait
to deceive. And they come up there and they
pull these people away. These Galatians were like children
being tossed to and fro. So let's look at this first question.
Let's look at this first question. In verse 1, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently, clearly, manifestly
set forth, crucified among you. Now when he says that they're
foolish, foolish means thoughtless. Foolish means unthinking. And
here you know when you act foolish, that means you're not thinking
things through. You're thoughtless about it. You just jump into
things. You don't consider the end. You don't consider the consequences.
And I do know this. I know this without a shadow
of a doubt. Any man is foolish. who leaves Christ to go to Moses. Any man who would rather have
Moses than to have Christ, he's a fool. He's a fool. And I'll tell you who else is
foolish. That man who leaves the gospel of grace and goes
to the works of the law. That man's a fool. To leave the
gospel of the grace of God, that God does salvations of the Lord
from start to finish, that God in grace comes to us in power
and redeems us and saves us and calls us and justifies us, to
leave that and go to the working of the law? Oh, a man is a fool
who leaves the doctrine of free justification that brings such
comfort and brings such peace. and then to go to the law which
only condemns and brings you into bondage. That's why he says,
oh foolish Galatians. Why would anybody do that? Oh
my, I ain't going to go check myself into the jail. I love
my freedom too much. And that's what folks are doing.
They're out there free and they go up to the jail. I say, let
me in. I want to be in bondage. Oh, my, that's what they're saying
to man. That's why it says, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched
you? This word bewitched means like
somebody, like a magician has cast a spell over you. He said,
what magician has cast such a spell over you that your comprehension
has been so mesmerized that you will not
obey the truth? Who, like magicians, who come
along and bewitched you and got a hold of your mind and cast
a spell on you that you should not obey the truth? Huh? The Lord, He sets forth true
faith here. True faith against this false
faith of this mean people bringing false under the law. Genuine
faith. I do know this about it. He says
here that you should not obey the truth. Genuine faith, true
faith obeys the truth. It obeys the truth. What truth
are we talking about here? Of Jesus Christ crucified. That's the truth that you're
not obeying. Oh foolish Galatians, why won't
you obey this truth? It's evident that Jesus Christ
has been crucified before your very eyes. Before your very eyes. You see, And that's what he says,
before your eyes. Before your eyes means set before
the eyes of your faith. That's the way we see Christ.
We see Christ by the eyes of faith. Ain't that what he asked
them there in verse 2? This is only what I learned of
you. Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? And when Paul preached Christ,
he said it before their minds, said it before their understanding,
said it before their faith. And this was something to be
believed. This was something they professed to believe. And
said it before the eyes of their faith. And that's what we do.
We see Christ by faith. We come to Christ without moving
a muscle. We approach Christ on His throne. And beloved, we
approach Him from our heart. And these Judaizers come along
and got them to take their eyes off of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And boy, I tell you, you're talking about making a mess out of yourselves.
And anybody of you ever around, you take your eyes off Christ,
and you're going to get in a mess just like that, that quick. That
quick. And if you look at it, you know,
if you look at anything besides Christ, I'm talking about for
salvation. I'm talking about even for comfort in this world.
Even for comfort in the political world, the social world, the
economic world. And this thing is, I mean, as
old Barnard said, all hell's popping all around us. And if
you take your eyes off of Christ and didn't understand that He's
on the throne, that He's ruling, that He's reigning, that He raises
up and He sets down, and that we belong to Him, lot, stock,
and barrel, we sure enough would get upset. We'd get real upset. But all our genuine faith obeys
the truth. And these Galatians, they were
without excuse. They were without excuse. Paul
set forth Christ before them plainly and boldly. That's what
he meant evidently. It's evident that I've done that.
It's plain as a nose on your face. He said like he told the
Galatians, I'm determined. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And you know the
gospel of God's grace in its fullness, in its completeness,
in its power, beloved, it's contained in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When He says, when I'm determined
to know nothing but Christ crucified, first of all, you've got to deal
with the person. You know, people, and I've told you this before,
There are going to be a lot of people who don't perish who say,
I trust in the finished work of Christ. But there will not
be anybody perish who trusts Christ who did the work. Now, there's a difference. There's
a huge difference. You hear people say it all the
time, you know, I trust in the finished work of Christ. Well,
tell me who it was that finished it. I've done a lot of work and
didn't finish it. I've done a lot of work and it
didn't come out to nothing. But we trust the person who done
the work. There was two other men crucified
the day Christ was. Their life was gone too. But
what did they accomplish by their life? What did they accomplish
by their death? What did they accomplish in their person? And
that's why Paul said we preach Christ and it's evident that
I said Christ crucified before your very eyes. And the gospels
contained in that, the fullness of it, the boldness of it, the
bounty of it, is in the person of Christ and in the work of
Christ. If you ever find out who he is
and trust him, you'll not have a moment's trouble believing
that who he was and what he accomplished. Not a moment. Never doubt for
a minute. You see, when Paul said he preached
Christ here to these folks, there wasn't some rehearsal of some
facts that he went through. Not some facts that he went through.
He didn't go down a litany of facts. But he's talking about
the meaning of the cross. No room for misunderstanding
here. No, he's talking about the meaning. That's why he said,
who evidently said before many, the way of truth is Christ crucified.
Genuine faith obeys the truth. Now look what he preached. Christ
crucified. And I mean, who died on that cross? When we're talking about believing
Christ, obeying the truth, preaching Christ, setting Him forth before
men's eyes, like He did these Galatians. Who died on that cross? Who died upon that cross? Who
was that that died on that cross? You know, the scripture said
over in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 said, If they had known, the
princes of this world would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
That's who He was. He was the Lord of Glory. He
was the brightness of God's glory. The express image of His person. He was God manifest in the flesh. That man hanging on that cross
was none other than God in His fullness. God in His body. God in the person of His blessed
Son. And I see the glory of God there
in Christ on that. Who died on that cross? You've
got to first of all, it wasn't just Jesus making a stagnant
effort. It was the Lord of Glory. It was God high and lifted up. Why did He die? When we're talking
about Christ crucified. Give no room for misunderstanding.
Why did Christ die? Why did He die? If He had no
sin, if He was God manifested in the flesh, if He lived a righteous
life and fulfilled the law, why did Christ die? What was the
purpose of Him dying? I tell you, He was sent. He came by the eternal purpose
of God Almighty to fulfill the purpose of God. To accomplish
the purpose of God from all eternity. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Now look, this is an eternal
counsel. Look over here in Ephesians 3.11. Oh, he came into this world,
he came not to live, but to die. And he told his people over and
over and over again, I must go, I must go to the cross, I must
go to Jerusalem, I must be delivered. Well, why did he die? Because
it's my hour. This was why I came into this
world. This is my purpose for coming.
My father gave me the power, gave me the power, gave me the
commandment, gave me the right. Now, look here what it says in
Ephesians 3.11, according to the eternal purpose which you
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eternal purpose. When you talk about eternity,
that means you've got no beginning, no end. Eternity is eternity. Where does it start and where
does it end? Where's the middle? There ain't no beginning, no
end. There ain't no middle. It's eternal.
And that's what he said, God's eternal purpose in Christ. And
watch this, and it's in this eternal purpose of God that was
in Christ Jesus we have boldness, access with confidence by the
works of the law, by our free will, by chance, no,
by faith in Him. And oh beloved, for whom did
He die? When Paul said, I sent forth
Christ crucified among you, I'm sure, I'm sure he confronted
them with these things. For whom did he die? If he died,
who was it he was dying for? Well, I tell you, the Scriptures
answer that, he died for his elect. Oh, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy without blame before Him in love, He predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
oh, beloved, He died for His sheep. I said that Sunday. He laid down His life for the
sheep. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. And I'll tell you something,
I quote this all the time, but let's look at it together. John
chapter 6. You know, I quote these things, and we'll quote
them without even looking at them. But look in John 6, verse
37. You see, the Father gave these sheep, gave these elect,
gave these His children to Christ before time began. Ain't that
right? Grace was given us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now why in the world,
if that's what was given us in Christ, why would anybody, anybody,
let somebody come along and try to talk you out of that glorious
riches you have in Christ? And that's why Paul said, you
foolish Galatians! Who's bewitched you? I preached
Christ to you. And why would you not obey that
truth that I preached to you? Look in John 6.37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."
That's what I just said. Why did Christ die? To fulfill
the will of God. I finished the work He gave me
to do. And on, this is the Father's will. What is that will? Which
has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. So who did he die for? For whom
did he die? What did he accomplish in this death? What did he accomplish? What did that death actually
accomplish? If it was Christ, if it was the
Lord of Glory that died, and he died to fulfill the eternal
purpose of God, And he died for his elect, he died for his sheep,
for those of Father Gagin before time began. What did he accomplish
then in that death? He accomplished the sure, the
final, the eternal redemption of all his elect. If those Jews were sanctified
by the blood of bulls and goats, How much more, then, shall we be cleansed, be purified by the
blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God and entered once into the holy place, and
what did it say? He obtained eternal redemption
for us. Oh my, I mean, when he's cried
out on the cross, it is finished. That's what he meant. It's done. Salvation is complete. Redemption
is done. You know everything about our
salvation is based on history. based on something done before
you and I ever got here. Christ, Christ in His life and
in His death, He redeemed us before we ever... 2,000 years ago. My justification was accomplished
for me outside of my history. Everything's done in the past.
Everything was done back there, beloved. And so if it was done
back there and then the gospel comes along and tells me what
was done, then there's absolutely nothing that I had to do with
my salvation. Christ did it all. He got eternal
redemption for me in all of His elect. He finished the work God
gave Him to do, not us. And oh my, what kind of a fool
would it be to not obey the truth? Oh my, bless his holy name. What
are the results then? What's the consequences then
of him doing this, his death and for whom he died? Well, I'll tell you the results
are, he redeemed for himself and calls to himself a peculiar
people. He called them out of darkness
into light. Ain't that what it says? Yeah,
He came and He called us out of darkness into His marvelous
light. He gives to put a new song in our mouth even praising
our God. He makes sure that that redemption
is applied. He makes sure that we are brought
to the Father. He makes sure that we come to
Him. And I tell you, beloved, He'll
have a spotless bride in eternity. Yeah, that He gave Himself for
us that He might present us to Himself, a bride without spot
and without blemish, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. He said He saw a bride coming
down out of heaven, spotless, in a white garment, spotless,
as a bride adorned for a husband. And then people, what about works?
What about works? What about works? That's the
first thing, folks, what about works? Since by our Lord Jesus
Christ's death, since he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was delivered for our offenses, and since by his resurrection
we was raised for our justification, Since by his death, and since
by his resurrection, Christ has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Look in Hebrews 10. I tell you,
this is... I love this. I love that. Since
these are the things that Christ has done. Hebrews 10 and verse
12 says this. But this man, After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, sins, whose sins? All of his people's
sins. All the sins of all the elect.
I have one sacrifice for sins forever set out on the right
hand of God. From henceforth expectingly,
waiting patiently till his enemies be made his footstool. Now this
is what I want you to see. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever Them that are sanctified. Since Christ has perfected us
forever, our works count absolutely for nothing in God's sight. Nothing. Nothing. Any work we do, and
that's why these Galatians, that's why I said, oh foolish Galatians. People say, oh, time, you've
got to live it. You've got to have it, and you can't get it
until He gives it to you. But oh, beloved, to trust in
works for acceptance with God is to reject the righteousness
which is by faith in Jesus Christ. To trust in your works in any
time, any place, under any circumstances for your acceptance with God
is to say, I don't need the righteousness of Christ. That's what it amounts
to. And that's why he says, O foolish
Galatians, who has absolutely bewitched you? Who has mesmerized
your mind? Why, who has cast a spell on
you? Now that's what we say, who in the world cast a spell
on you that would cause you to leave Christ? You know, that's
what happened to the Jews. Paul says, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear record they have a zeal for God. They're
zealous for God. Old Myles McKee told me yesterday,
when he was in Ireland, he was involved in Baptist churches
over there, and he had to put a report in at the end of every
month. And he had to write a report. He said, I realize I put out
Because they wanted results, you know, they're geared for
results. And he wrote down, passed out a thousand tracts, knocked
on so many doors, preached so many times. And he says, results? Zero! Nothing happened. And after a
while like that, he says, boy, something's going to happen. We ain't getting no results.
That's not how you get results, knocking on doors and passing
out tracts. I was not knocking on any doors. I wasn't passing
out tracts when God come and invaded my heart and my soul. Oh my, that's all it takes for
us to wish somebody to Christ. We'll close this place down and
buy us truckloads. We'll all get us a truck and
we'll go in every direction. Start passing out tracts and
knocking on doors. Talking folks into accepting
Jesus. Just pray with me just for a moment. Would you mind
to pray? Everybody says, well, yeah, I don't mind you praying. But all I said, to have a zeal
for God. People have a zeal for God. A man told me yesterday,
he said, you know, he was an independent Baptist and he hated
Calvinism. He just despised it. Hated it
with a passion. He said he was up in Williamsburg,
old Williamsburg, and he says, you know, they've got a church
up there. You've been up there, Bradley. And in that church,
you know, back in those days, everybody's a Calvinist. And
they're sitting in this church, the two men are just talking
about Calvinism and talking about the gospel and things like that.
And he'd come in there and sit down and listen to them. He said,
I got in one of them's face and argued with him for 30 minutes, trying to prove to him how wrong
he was. He said, I was mean, I was ugly. He told me yesterday,
I'm so ashamed of that now. I'm embarrassed. God help me,
I want to go back and apologize to that man and tell him how
sorry I am, how foolish I was and how ignorant I was. See,
people have a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge. How do you know it's not according
to knowledge? Because they're going about to establish their own
righteousness. Passing out tracts. Trying to talk somebody out of
the truth when you're lying to yourself. Confront the truth
and argue against it. And they have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of
God? For Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness to
who? Them that do? Them who believe. Oh my, is there a righteousness
outside of Christ? No, not a one. There is no other
name among men whereby we must be saved. Paul says, you know,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. And beloved, and he hath committed
unto us a ministry of reconciliation, and this is what it is, that
God made him, Christ, to be sin, him who knew no sin, that we,
for whom he was made sin to be, might be made the very righteousness
of God were at in Christ. Now, all of our righteousness
is nothing but filthy rags. And true faith believes this,
submits to this, these truths concerning Christ, His atonement,
His bloodshedding, His righteousness, His work. And that's why we preach
Him over and over and over and over and over again. We preach
His person. Oh, we kiddle up. We just keep
telling you over and over and over again that He was God. God
manifested in the flesh. that he was sinless, and yet
he was a man, as if he was not God, and he was God as if he
was not man, and as a man, he hurt and suffered just like anybody
else, and yet he had no sin. Oh, and that's always work. Always
blessed work. He started working the day he
was born in it. Well, he started working back
in the creation. But for our salvation, beloved,
when he was born in that Born from that virgin, laid in
that manger from then there, all the way to the cross. He
was under the law. That's why his mother and daddy
took him up to the tabernacle. That's why they offered him.
That's why they circumcised him. That's why they offered the sacrifices
for him. That's why he went up to the feast three times a year.
That's why he told that leper when he cleansed him, go show
to the priest. We ain't going to offend the
law. You go let the law pronounce you clean. Beloved, when Christ
cleanses you, you can face the law. And the law says, not guilty,
clean. Oh my, true faith relies upon,
rests upon the truths. Christ crucified is the only
ground of confidence and hope. You see, beloved, true faith
has ceased from worse. from their works as truly as
God ceased from His. God worked six days, and on the
six days He rested. And he that has ceased from his
works has rested as God did from His. And look there in Galatians
2.21, just quickly, and then I'll be through. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, Then Christ is dead in vain. Now let me show you these other
four questions. I'll try my best to get through
all four of them next week. I meant to today, but got this
first one. But look at the second question
here in Galatians 3.2. Here's the second question he
asks, this rhetorical question. Receive you the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Give you all something
to think about this way. Third question. Are you so foolish
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Fourth question. Have you suffered
so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? And the fifth
question. And all these are incredible
statements when you think about them. You know, when you hear
those things, you go back and think, well, no, of course not. Well, my flesh ain't never done
nothing for me. How could I be made perfect by
my flesh? But a lot of people think he can. And then the fifth
question is there. He that ministers to you the
Spirit, or supplies you the Spirit, and he that works miracles among
you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? What a gospel. What a gospel. Our Father, in the glorious holy
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we bless you for your goodness
and mercy and grace given us in him. Father, please remember
those that were mentioned tonight. Father, you told us to put you
in remembrance, and O Lord, we come to put you in remembrance
of the great, great love you have for your people, the great
compassion you have for sinners, And the delight that you have
in showing mercy. And we ask that you show mercy
to our children. Show mercy to Carla. Show mercy
to Donna. These dear, dear people. Oh Lord,
show mercy to them for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.