Welcome to 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. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. welcome to our program and today
i'm going to be preaching from the book of galatians chapter
three and the title of the message is the hearing of faith the hearing
of faith two times the apostle paul in this section of scripture
makes that uh... states that phrase or writes
that phrase the hearing of faith and i want to talk about that
a little bit but let me introduce it this way you know The greatest
problem, the greatest issue of the natural, unregenerate, unsaved,
unbelieving man and woman is the issue of self-righteousness. And even once a person is born
again, even once a person is saved and brought to faith in
Christ, it's a battle within himself or herself from then
on. fighting notions of the natural,
fallen human nature of self-righteousness. Now self-righteousness has to
do with any notion that God would save me or bless me or reward
me based upon who I am or upon my performances, my works, for
example. And that's the problem in the
book of Galatians. The Apostle Paul had been to
this region and preached the gospel of God's grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ in this region, and there had been churches
established, but when Paul left to go on his missionary journeys
elsewhere, false preachers came in and they began to play upon
the self-righteousness of those who profess to believe the gospel
of grace. And this self-righteousness exalts
the flesh. It exalts human achievement. And that has no place in the
kingdom of God. It has no place. You see, the
gospel of God's grace and salvation by grace is all about Christ
and exalting Him and His work on the cross of Calvary to save
His people from their sins, to establish the only righteousness
by which God can be both a just God and a Savior. The only righteousness
which is in the performance of Christ, His obedience unto death,
that enables God to save a sinner. My righteousness and your righteousness
must be totally excluded from that ground of salvation. Now
that doesn't exclude the fruit of works in a believer's life. But the works, which are the
fruit of God's grace in a believer's life, are not our righteousness
before God. You see, I have one righteousness
before God, and that's Christ. And so, when these false preachers
came into the churches of Galatia, they began to preach salvation
by grace plus works. And that destroys salvation by
grace. You see, Paul wrote that in Romans
chapter 11. He said, if it's of grace, it
is no more of works. And if it's of works, it's no
more of grace. You cannot mix the two as to
the ground of salvation and acceptance before God. Well, he starts out
here in verse 1 of Galatians chapter 3. He says, 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." Now listen
to this. He calls them foolish Galatians
because, let me tell you something, and that may seem harsh to many
people, but any person, any sinner who seeks salvation, or any part
of it, based on their works by any agency or any means at any
time at any stage to any degree is a fool. That's what the scripture
teaches. Only a fool would seek salvation
from a holy God based on his works because our works are not
good enough to save us. Our works are not good enough
to make us holy. Our works are not good enough
to make us righteous. Our works are not good enough
to seal us unto final glory. And listen to me. Our works are
not good enough to earn our rewards from God. That is not grace,
you see. That's greed. That's works. I
quote this verse all the time out of Ephesians chapter 2 and
verse 8. For by grace are you saved. Through faith and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast." You see, any person who seeks salvation anywhere
but in Christ and Him crucified, what Christ accomplished on the
cross in establishing righteousness and putting away my sins by His
own precious blood, any person who seeks salvation, or any part
of it, in any way based on anything but Christ and Him alone is a
fool. And so Paul says, O foolish Galatians. Then he says, Who hath bewitched
you? If we would put that in modern-day language it would
sound something like this, O foolish Galatians, who has put a spell
on you? And that's the issue. You see,
self-righteousness is like a drug to the natural man. It feeds
the flesh. It exalts the flesh. It's like
a drug addict. He can't get enough of it. The
more you brag on him, the more you boast about him, and the
more you give him something to do in order to attain or maintain
salvation, the more he loves it. And so he characterizes the
Galatians who profess to believe in Christ as those who are foolish
and those who are under a spell. He says, who hath bewitched you
that you should not obey the truth? Now, what truth did they
not obey? Well, he tells you in the next
phrase. He says, "...before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you." Paul had preached to them. He had set forth before their
very eyes how Christ died on the cross to establish the only
righteousness that would save a sinner. And that's the truth
that they were not believing here. This is the truth that
they were being drawn away from. It's the gospel truth of salvation
and all of it 100% conditioned on and based on the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, salvation is not based
upon who I am or what I do. Salvation is based upon who Jesus
Christ is and what he accomplished on Calvary. So Paul said, I've
set forth the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace, based
on not your righteousness, not your works, but the works and
the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why he was crucified. Somebody says, I believe in the
cross. Well, if you believe in the cross,
you believe in the Christ of the cross who died for sin to
accomplish salvation, to establish the only righteousness whereby
you could be saved. And so Paul says, I've set that
forth. And he says in verse two, this only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit, now that's the Holy Spirit, by the works
of the law or by the hearing of Now there's that phrase, the
hearing of faith. And it's opposed to the works
of the law. Now what is the hearing of faith? Paul spoke one time, I believe
it's in Romans chapter 3, of the law of faith as opposed to
the law of works. The word law there in Romans
chapter 3 means a principle of truth. It's a teaching. It's
a doctrine. The law of works is anybody who
would teach salvation by works at any time or any way. The law
of faith has to do with those who teach salvation by the work
of Christ, by Christ in Him crucified. And that's the same thing that
he's speaking of here in the hearing of faith. It has to do
with what they heard. Now the Bible says in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 17 that faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God." Now many times in the scripture
when the Bible speaks of faith it's speaking of the gift of
faith that God through the Holy Spirit in the new birth gives
to his people whereby they lay hold of Christ. They reach out,
as you might say, and they lay hold of Christ. They believe
in Christ. In other words, faith there would
be the gift of faith whereby we believe unto righteousness. Do you believe? Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That's what the scripture
says. It has to do with calling upon His name. But in other times
the word faith represents the gospel, the body of doctrine
that those who believe what they attest to, what they claim, and
what they confess. Somebody says, do you believe?
The answer should be this. Do you believe what? Or do you
believe in whom? Paul wrote, he said, I know whom
I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. The body of faith,
the body of truth would be that the whom I have believed. That's
Christ and him crucified and risen again. It would be he's
able. to keep that which I've committed. Our believing would be the committed. In other words, I'm committed
to Christ. I'm resting in Him. I'm looking unto Him as my only
salvation. I look to Christ for wisdom,
for He is all my wisdom. I look to Christ for righteousness,
for He is all my righteousness. I look to Christ for holiness,
for He's all my holiness. And I look to Christ for redemption. for he is all my redemption."
Now, the hearing of faith here has to do with the gospel that
they heard in the power of the Spirit. And what Paul is saying
here, let's read the verse again, verse 2. This only would I learn
of you. He says, I want to see the truth
about this thing. Receive ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Now, the reception
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has to do with the new birth.
Man, by nature, will not receive the Holy Spirit, and he will
not receive the truth of the Gospel. Man, by nature, will
not come to Christ. On your own, you wouldn't do
it. On my own, I wouldn't do it. The Bible says, no man can
come to me, except he that which hath sent me draw him, literally
drag him. And he said, he shall raise it
up again at the last day, John 6.44. Now Christ did say, He
said, My sheep will hear My voice. And that's because God the Holy
Spirit is sent in the power of the new birth to give them ears
to hear, eyes to see, hearts and minds to know and understand
the truth of their sin, that we're nothing, we have no righteousness
of our own, there's none good, no not one. If God gave me what
I deserved at any time, at any stage, now or before now or in
the future. It would be nothing but eternal
damnation. I would perish in my sins. But
God is a merciful God. God is a gracious God. But His
mercy and His grace is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish
people could get that through their heads, but I can't put
it there. It takes a work of grace. It takes a work of the
Holy Spirit to do that. To convince you of sin. because
you believe not on Christ. And I'm a sinner, and I don't
have anything to recommend me unto God. Even my best works
are sin in the sight of God. If God would mark iniquities,
I wouldn't stand. And then to convince you of righteousness,
because Christ has gone unto the Father. You see, Christ came
and died on the cross, shedding His blood unto death, to establish
righteousness. And that's it. There is no righteousness
anywhere else but in Him. Not for a sinner. Not for a sinner. And that's why the Bible says
in Romans 10, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. What that means is, by the power
of the Holy Spirit who gives us a new heart, we believe in
Christ. We rest in Him as our whole salvation. and then convince us of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. That's Satan who accuses
the brethren. You see, Satan will still accuse
me, but his accusations will not stick. Why? Because Christ
died on the cross for my sins. You see, I've already been judged
in Christ. When He died, I died. When He
was buried, I was buried. When He arose again the third
day, I arose again the third day. not in my own person, but
in Him as my representative, my substitute. He satisfied law
and justice for me. This old ruined sinner who's
standing before you and speaking, ruined in the fall by Adam, has
been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And the way I know that
is because I've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And that's
what He's saying here. Did you receive the Spirit? when
you were born again he's saying to these Galatians if you were
born again and that is a question here because many of these were
being drawn away under self-righteousness and legalism and that would only
prove that they had never been born again don't listen to these
people who tell you you can be born again and then unborn again
or saved and then lost that's not scriptural Paul saying this
he said if you've been born again When you received the Holy Spirit,
that is, received His truth, received the grace of God, did
you do it under the preaching of salvation by works or through
the hearing of faith, the preaching of salvation by grace in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, he says, verse 3, he answers
the question, Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect or complete by the flesh? Now let me show
you what he means here. Now, a believer, a born-again
person, Christ said that to Nicodemus, you must be born again. If you're
born again, it's always under the preaching of the truth of
God's grace. God the Holy Spirit does not
perform his great work in the new birth, that sovereign work
that he does, under the preaching of salvation by works, under
the preaching of a lie. He doesn't do it. He's the Spirit
of Truth. He's the Spirit of Christ. And
this is one reason why it's important that we understand the work of
the Holy Spirit. For example, many people will
come under a conviction of sin. But is it true Holy Spirit conviction
in the new birth? or is it just their natural,
legal, self-righteous conscience? Let me tell you how you can tell
the difference. It's not complicated. It's not a deep theological issue
that we have to get the experts together to figure this out and
debate the subject. I'll tell you exactly how you
can tell if it's true Holy Spirit conviction. If you're convicted
of sin and guilt and and the fact that if God were to judge
you based on your best efforts to keep the law, you'd be damned
forever. Here's how you know if that's
the Holy Spirit working. If you end up and find relief
only, only in Christ and Him crucified and risen again, the
obedience unto death of Christ, His blood, His righteousness
alone. If you find salvation, relief,
comfort, peace, and assurance only in Christ, then you'll know
it's Holy Spirit conviction. Now, if you can find salvation,
or peace, or comfort, or assurance anywhere else, doesn't matter
what it is, You say, well, I got baptized and now I know. No,
sir, that's not Holy Spirit conviction. He doesn't lead you to baptism
for that reason. You see, we are to be baptized,
immersed in water, not in order to be saved, not in order to
find comfort and assurance and relief from sin and the wrath
of God, but because we've already found that in Christ. And that's
the difference. Baptism does not save you. I
had a fellow tell me, he said, well, I agree with everything
you said, but I believe in Mark 16, 16, what he's talking about
there when it says, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
And they take that one verse plus another verse out of Acts
chapter two, and they try to prove that baptism is necessary
for salvation. That is not what those verses
teach. Now, baptism is a confession that follows the new birth, that
follows salvation. And you see, no Old Testament
saint was baptized. The thief on the cross was not
baptized. This is a New Testament ordinance
of confession of something that has already taken place. But
now, if you find relief in your conscience as far as the wrath
of God being removed, sin being taken care of, then it's not
Holy Spirit in baptism. then it's not Holy Spirit conviction.
Now, baptism is the answer of a good conscience, Peter wrote.
That is just a good conscience in this sense. Not in that baptism
saves me, or that baptism rewards me, but in the fact that I have
followed my Lord and my Savior in confessing Him before men.
And so, this thing about having begun in the Spirit, when you
first started in the new birth, Was it in the Spirit, by the
Spirit of God, by the grace of God in Christ? Or are you now
made perfect by the flesh? Now, the flesh there refers to
the works of the flesh. It refers to human efforts, human
performances, what you do in whatever capacity. And what he's
saying here, when a person is born again, that person sees
himself complete in Christ. made so by Christ, not by their
performances. So he asked that question, are
you that foolish to think that you've begun this in the Spirit,
that is, seeing yourself complete in Christ, but now you're saying
you're made perfect, complete by your efforts, by your performances? And then he says in verse 4,
Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? especially back in that day.
But it's always been so. Those who testify of Christ,
those who identify with Him as their Savior, the grace of God,
always suffer persecution. That comes with the territory.
We don't like persecution. We don't look for persecution.
We don't try to incite persecution. But it comes with the territory.
That's why Christ said in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 10, blessed
are you when you're persecuted for righteousness sake. That
is for Christ's sake. For the gospel sake. Think about
all the saints in the Old Testament who died for the faith. Think about Hebrews 11 that speaks
of that. The hall of faith. Think about
the apostles who suffered unto death. Many people over the centuries
who have identified with Christ have suffered. And these Galatians,
they had suffered too. And so he says, what he's saying
here is here you suffered for your testimony of the grace of
God in Christ, the hearing of faith, the gospel, and now you're
turned to works. Now you're turning to your efforts.
Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain?
He says in verse 5, "...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." Now he's speaking of Christ there. Christ ministers to His people
by the Spirit. You see, the work of the Holy
Spirit in us in the new birth is the fruit and the result of
the work of Christ for us on the cross. He told his disciples
in John chapter 16 and verse 7, he said, it is expedient or
necessary for you that I go away, that I go to Jerusalem, suffer,
bleed and die, be buried and raised again the third day and
ascend unto the Father. And he said, for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come. That is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does His work to give life, spiritual life,
to dead sinners because Christ died on the cross. And that's
the reason. So Christ ministers to His people
by the Spirit and by His Word. And so He says, He that ministereth
to you by the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you. Now that
refers to His miracles on earth, but it also refers to the miracle
of the new birth. That's a miracle. When a sinner
is born again by the Spirit, that's a miracle. If you believe,
truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a walking, talking
miracle of God's grace. Now, when he did that work, did
he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? In other words, did he do it
by your efforts? You know, some people say that
you're born again as a result of your will. That's not so. That's works. But the hearing
of faith is the gospel truth. The Bible says in James 1, verse
18, that we're begotten again by the word of truth, the hearing
of faith. The preaching of Christ and Him
crucified, buried, and risen again. The preaching of an accomplished
work. Not a work to be done by you
or by me, but what Christ accomplished. Sins put away, past, present,
future sins put away by His precious incorruptible blood, His death. Righteousness established, you
see, when we come to Christ through the hearing of faith and rest
in Him, we have all the righteousness that God requires of us, all
we need in Christ. It's not something to be attained
in the future. by our efforts to obey the law.
We couldn't even come close. Now we're to seek to be conformed
to the image of Christ, not in order to establish a righteousness
of our own, but because we've already been made righteous in
Him. You see that? And that's what
the hearing of faith testifies of. He goes on to use Abraham
as an example. He says in verse 6, Even as Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted, or imputed, or charged to him
for righteousness. Abraham in the Old Testament
was a great example of how God saves a sinner by grace based
on the righteousness of Christ. Christ had not actually come
in Abraham's day, but he was going to. It was sure and certain. And Abraham looked forward to
that day when Christ would come and do that great work on earth
of putting away his sins and giving him a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice. In other words,
the hearing of faith was preached to Abraham just like it was preached
to God's people today. We'll see that in the coming
verses. How Abraham believed God. What did God tell him? God
told him, He said, I'm sending a Messiah to save you from your
sins. And it's by grace. Abraham didn't
deserve it. Abraham didn't earn it. It was
totally by the hearing of faith. Well, I hope this message has
been helpful to your understanding of the scriptures. If you'd like
to receive a copy of it, listen to the announcers. He'll give
you the details. The title of the message is The
Hearing of Faith. And I 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
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