Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
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an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
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for today's program. welcome to our program today
i'm glad you could join us for the message and i'll be preaching
from the book of galatians the new testament epistles epistle
of galatians chapter three galatians three and the title of the message
today is the hearing of faith the hearing of faith and what
that's talking about is If you or I or any of us claim to have
heard the gospel, the true gospel of God's grace in the salvation
of sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ through His blood and
His righteousness alone, is that what we truly heard and believe? The hearing of faith, that faith
that he's talking about there is the gospel. Now, believing
the gospel is the gift of God because it's God who gives sinners
ears to hear, spiritual ears to hear. And the message of the
gospel is of God. Paul wrote about that in Romans
chapter one. He said it's the gospel of God.
He said in Galatians chapter one, I didn't receive it from
men, I received it from God. In other words, the message of
faith The message of the true gospel is a message that is a
heavenly message. It is not an earthly message.
It is not the product of philosophies and religions and thoughts and
opinions and research done by men. It didn't come from us because
there's no way that we could have devised the plan and the
way of salvation for sinners that enables God to be both a
just God and a Savior. In fact, if you study the religions
of man, which are all false religions now, if you study the religions
of man, you see Christianity is not a religion of man, it's
revealed to man by God, but it's a heavenly message. Now, other
religions claim that for themselves. But if you think about it, if
you study them, they are all, without exception, in some way,
to some degree, at some stage, salvation by the works or the
wills of men. Whereas the religion of God,
true Christianity, the true gospel, God's way of salvation is never
a religion that's conditioned on men at any stage, to any degree,
in any way. It's all conditioned on Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh. Every other
religion is a religion of works, and they're false. So when we talk about the hearing
of faith, we're talking about the gospel. Now, the Apostle
Paul had been used of God as a missionary, a pioneer missionary
who went out into areas of the Gentile world where the gospel
had never been preached. And Paul, a lot of times in these
Gentile areas, there were Jewish synagogues and he would go into
the synagogue first and he'd preach the gospel. And then he'd
preach elsewhere. And God had people there. There
were some of God's chosen elect people there. And God raised
up a church by the human instrument of the Apostle Paul. And Galatians
was one of those places where God had raised up a church. And in fact, a lot of scholars
believe that this area of Galatia, which is in Asia Minor, that
there were several churches started. But it was common that when God
began His church, His local body of believers in these areas,
in these cities and towns and areas, that Jewish unbelievers
who were false professors of Christianity, that is, they were
Jews who claimed to be Christian, but they were not Christian because
they denied Christ by trying to interject the works of the
sinner into the scheme of attaining or maintaining salvation or becoming
righteous. And a lot of times it took the
form of the Jewish unbelievers trying to bring Gentile believers
under the law of Moses, the law of circumcision, the law of works. Paul called that another gospel.
In Galatians 1, he said, if an angel or anybody, or if we are
an angel from heaven come preaching any other gospel than that which
we've preached to you, let him be anathema, accursed. And what
he's telling us there is this, that if you believe salvation
in any way, at any stage, to any degree, is conditioned on
your obedience, your law keeping, your works, then that's a sign
that you're under a curse. And we'll see that in Galatians
3. Well, the Jewish false professors were successful in drawing some
of these Gentile professors of Christianity away from the true
hearing of faith, the true faith in Christ, depending upon Christ
for everything. He's my all in all. And so Paul
writes this letter to the Galatians, showing them what's going on,
exposing the error, the fatal error of the Jewish false professors
and seeking to draw those who had been led astray back to the
fold. Now, you need to understand something. This is true in the New Testament
throughout. Professing believers who were drawn away from Christ
to apostasy, that is, falling away unto what Paul called perdition
or damnation, they were never saved to begin with. But true
believers can sometimes be led astray, but they will be drawn
back by the power and grace of God. And listen to what Paul
says here in Galatians 3 in verse 1. He says, oh foolish Galatians. And that's a good term. Any sinner
who's heard the gospel, the true gospel now, and is drawn away
from it by the devices, the works of man, that's foolish. Christ
is the wisdom of God. The Bible says that. If you're
truly called into the kingdom of Christ, 1 Corinthians 1 said
the preaching of Christ crucified is both the power of God to you
and the wisdom of God. Everything else is foolish as
far as a salvation and a right relationship with God. So he
says, oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? That's an
interesting term. It's almost like he's saying,
who has put a spell on you? Now, we know that believers have
many enemies. They have enemies outside. We
can talk about Satan. He's an enemy of the church,
an enemy of Christ. That's why we need to be aware
of his devices. We can talk about the world.
The world is our enemy. Christ told his disciples in
John 15, marvel not if the world hates you. It hated me before
it hated you. But one of the greatest enemies
that a Christian has, a true Christian, a true believer, is
within him or herself. And that's what we call the flesh.
Now the flesh is not another person inside of me. You see, a lot of people who,
they have this dichotomy, you know, of the flesh and the Bible
speaks of the flesh and the spirit, but the flesh is not a, what
is the flesh? Sometimes when the Bible talks
about the flesh, it's talking about the human body. Christ
himself had a human body. But he had no sin. He had hands
and feet. He had eyes and ears and a nose,
just like you and me. But he had no sin. He was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh, but yet without
sin. He suffered the infirmities,
the weaknesses of the flesh. He grew tired. He got hungry.
He sorrowed. Those are sinless infirmities.
So sometimes that's what it's talking about. Sometimes when
the Bible talks about our members, use your members as instruments
of righteousness and not as instruments of sin. He's talking about the
human body, the appendages, the hands, use your hand to be obedient
and not to be disobedient. Use your eyes. to look upon things
that are good and right in God's sight and not upon things that
are unholy. Those are the types of things.
But sometimes the word flesh is used metaphorically or symbolically. And what is that? Well, it can
be used as a metaphor for sin. What is the flesh? It's my sin.
And the reason the Bible, I think, uses the metaphor of the flesh,
the symbol of the flesh, is because it's through this human body
that my sin within, my sinful desires, my sinful motives, my
sinful thoughts, all of those, it's through the human body that
sometimes that sin expresses itself. Christ dealt with that. First
of all, he dealt with the issue of sin in the sense of saying
that it's not what goes in a person that defiles him, it's what comes
out of the heart. What is the heart? It's the mind,
the affections, the will, the conscience. You see, even a believer,
a sinner saved by grace, still has to fight and war against
sinful desires, sinful thoughts, sinful motives. They defile everything
we do. And that's why we are totally
dependent upon Christ for all our righteousness. That's why
we are totally dependent upon Christ and His blood to wash
away my sins. Not just a one-time thing, and
not through the waters of baptism, the ordinance, but by His death
on the cross, He put away my sin. That's why I have a surety
of salvation because God will not charge me with sin. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? So the flesh can
be sent. Sometimes the flesh refers to
the works of man that are aimed at attaining or maintaining salvation. And that's what is used here
in Galatians 3. He says in verse 1, O foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has put a spell on you
that you should not obey the truth? Now there's the truth.
That's the gospel. What truth is he talking about?
Look at it. Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you. I've preached
unto you Christ and Him crucified. I've preached unto you salvation
based on His blood and righteousness alone. I've preached unto you
that Christ by His obedience unto death, as the surety and
the substitute of his people, God's elect, his sheep, that
he fulfilled all the conditions to secure their eternal salvation. That's what he preached. That's
the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
The righteousness of God is the entire merit, value, worth, quality,
of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
surety and the substitute of his people. And Paul says, I've
preached that to you. I've set that before your eyes. That's just a way of saying,
I've preached it to you. I've displayed that in my preaching.
So he says in verse two, this only would I learn of you. Now
here's what I want to know about you. Received ye the Spirit,
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Now the
spirit there is the Holy Spirit. Whenever a sinner is born again
from above, it is the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy
Spirit, who is the active agent, sovereign agent, to apply spiritual
eternal life to that sinner. In other words, When we look
at the plan of salvation, we see God the Father as the supreme
head, the sovereign judge of all things. It's God that justify. We see Christ, the Son, the Son
of God, the second person of the Trinity, who fulfills all
the conditions and He must have the preeminence because He is
the connection between God and His people. One mediator between
God and men, He's the Savior. And what he accomplished on Calvary
was to establish righteousness that demands spiritual eternal
life to be given to each one for whom he died. And it's the
Holy Spirit who grants that and applies that under the preaching
of the gospel. So what Paul is asking here is
when you receive the Spirit, was it by the works of the law?
The preaching of work salvation? Or was it by the hearing of faith?
Was it by the gospel of God's grace? All of salvation conditioned
on Christ, fulfilled in Him, His blood, His righteousness
alone. You say, well, Paul's asking
that question to remind them that it's by the hearing of faith.
It's by the gospel. It's not by the preaching of
works. For by grace are you saved through faith. That's the gift
of God. It's not of yourself. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. Works will not save you. Working hard will not save you.
Decisions will not save you. It is Christ who saves. And when
the spirit gives life in the new birth, what does he do? He
makes a sinner willing to come to Christ, to call on the name
of the Lord. Christ said 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. So look at verse three. He says, Galatians three, he
says, are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Now that tips us off as to what
the message of the false Jewish professors was. All right, they
would answer, yes, it was by the hearing of faith. It's not
by works of the law. Well, these false Jewish professors
were coming in and teaching them, well, now that you're saved by
grace, now you've got to get busy and work hard to really
be saved or to really be holier or to really be righteous. And
that's a denial of Christ. You see, the Bible teaches that
in Christ, this is Colossians 2 and verse 9, in Christ, in
Him, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you,
that is believers, are complete in Him. In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
14 it says, for by one offering Christ hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. My perfection, my completeness
is not of by my works or by my obedience. My completeness, my
perfection, my righteousness is in Christ. It's his righteousness
imputed to me. So when he says, having begun
in the spirit, that is by looking to Christ alone, now are you
made complete by your works? You know what? Now let me tell
you something, and I'm just trying to be very honest with you. Anyone
who believes that you can be saved and then lose that salvation,
that's exactly what they're saying. That you're made complete by
your works. It's the same Galatian error,
and it's another gospel. Now listen to me on that issue
because it's so vital, so important. Believers are saved, they are
kept saved, and they will enter glory in eternity by the grace
of God based on one thing, the imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. False gospels will not save you. False works and wills, a man's
will salvation will not save you. Now it can change you. People
say, well, I know I was saved under that because I was changed.
False religion and false gospels can change people. They can change
people in a religious way, in a moral way. Do you remember
Christ over and over in the book of Matthew chapter 23? He showed
that, talking to the Pharisees who believed in works salvation. And in verse 15, listen to this
of Matthew 23. He says, woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you compass sea and land, that
is, you go out all over, to make one proselyte, one convert. And
when he is made, when he's changed, you make him twofold more the
child of hell than yourself. So false religion, false gospels
can change you, but they change you for the worse. Now it may
appear to the world that it changed you for the better. It can make
the drunk quit drinking, the drug addict, it can give him
off drugs. But if it does that, while making
him think that salvation is conditioned on him and that that's what makes
the difference between saved and lost, heaven and hell, instead
of Christ alone, he's worse off than before, my friend. Society
may be better off for a little while, That individual's worse
off. We'll go back to Galatians 3.
So he says, verse three, are you so foolish having begun in
the spirit? Are you now made perfect, complete,
righteous in the flesh? Well, the answer's no. Verse
four, he says, have you suffered so many things in vain if it
be yet in vain? In other words, if you can leave
the true gospel, which you suffered under because
of your testimony, and go back to that human false works religion,
then everything you suffered under the truth was for nothing.
For nothing. If that be the case, he says.
Now he hopes that's not the case. And what he does, he says in
verse five, he therefore that ministereth to you the spirit
and worketh miracles among you, doth he it by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? There's that phrase, the hearing
of faith again. The miracle that he's talking about here mainly
is conversion. Now I want you to think about
that. You know, most people today, under the preaching of the false
gospel of universal atonement. Evangelists will tell people,
God loves you, Christ died for you, you make the difference.
That's not the gospel. That's a false gospel. The gospel
is the preaching of the righteousness of God, the justice of God fulfilled
in Christ, and that He's the only way of salvation. Christ
is the only way of salvation. Christ is the only way of forgiveness. Christ is the only way of being
justified before God, being righteous, right with God. Christ is the
only way to heaven's glory and eternal life. He's the only way. There's no other way. Now you
come to Christ. So anyway, this whole idea that
under these false gospels, when he talks about this, you know,
the miracles. Well, being converted, being
born again is a miracle of God's grace. Being born again is not
the result or the product of your decision for Christ. That's
what most people believe today. It's not the product of your
decision for Christ. Now, if you are born again, you
will decide for Christ. But don't put the cart before
the horse, so to speak. You see, first, God sovereignly,
by the Holy Spirit, gives life, gives you spiritual eyes to see
and spiritual ears to hear, the hearing of faith. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Those who are born
again, they're not born again by their own works or their own
power or their own will. If you're not born again, you
don't have a will that desires to believe this gospel. If you have a desire, a will
to believe this gospel, it's because God has made you willing
in the day of his power. A true believer is a miracle
of God's grace. But also, there were miracles
performed back then. We know that, we read the New
Testament. And what he's saying is here is that they didn't come
under the preaching of a false gospel. Now there are today,
in the last days, there are deceptive miracles that do accompany a
false gospel. You can read about that in the
book of Matthew 24, Mark 13. You can read about it in 2 Thessalonians
2. the book of Revelation, Satan
will be allowed by God to perform wonders that will really impress
men and lead them to damnation. And that's God's judgment upon
men for not seeking the truth in his word. That's why I emphasize
on this program, my friend, we've got to get back to the Bible.
This is God's Word. This is the only way that I can
know the way of salvation. The Holy Spirit has to make me
willing to believe it, receive it, and understand it. But it's
here for me. And that's what we have to do.
So it's all by the hearing of faith. And faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. The scripture says, I quoted
this early in Romans 1.16, the apostle Paul said, for I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and to the Greek or the Gentile also. For therein, verse 17,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. That is, from the preaching of
the gospel, the message of truth, to a sinner being brought by
God to believe it. For the just shall live by faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, what is the
righteousness of God? Well, over in the book of Romans
chapter 10 and verse four, he summarizes it in one line. He
says, for Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the perfection,
the finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believe it. That's the hearing of faith.
That's the message of salvation. And any preacher or any professor
who comes and interjects the works of man as forming any part
of that righteousness is lying to you. Believe the gospel. Hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.