Today's message is called, Do
You Hear the Law? Do You Hear the Law? Now the
Holy Spirit of God has this question set before us in Galatians chapter
four. And remember Paul's dealing with
the Judaizers who have come along and said you have to do something,
circumcision or follow the law in order to be saved along with
faith in Christ, which we know from Galatians chapter one is
an actual perversion of the one true gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Anytime anyone adds anything
that man has to do, whether it be thought, word, or deed, right?
Remember the word works is thought, word, and deed. It's not just
something we do. It's even something we think
we have to do. So anytime you add that, you've
basically destroyed grace. Because again, how much poison
does it take to make a glass of something poisonous? Just
one drop, right? So just one drop of man's works,
it's poison now. It's poison now. So open your
Bibles, if you would, to Galatians chapter 4. We'll continue our
study again through this wonderful book to the Galatian churches
by the Apostle Paul. And it's to warn those who are
the redeemed of the Lord about false teachers. Now, remember
again, the true author is God, the Holy Spirit. These words
are for us from God, the Holy Spirit. They're penned by Paul,
but by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And as I've been
reading some of the old time preachers, I love how they set
forth. The Holy Spirit is telling us this. Instead of saying the
author's name, they are saying the real author's name. Right? Not the human author, but the
real author. And I've been really enjoying
that aspect of studying that from some of these older commentators
and how they say that. Just by even doing that, they're
giving glory to God. And so these words are set forth
before us by the Holy Spirit of God, preserved for us for
today. So they're relevant for us today, just as they were relevant
for the Galatian churches as well. And false teachers, they mix
grace with works. And when they do this, they pervert
the gospel. They pervert the gospel. Paul
tells us in chapter one that that which they were teaching
was a perversion, wasn't the gospel. It was a perversion of
the gospel. And remember in Corinthians,
Paul, again, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, tells
us that there's another gospel, there's another spirit, and there's
another Jesus. So this is a warning for us,
this is set forth before us for our learning, for our learning
even today. And a false gospel leads to the
damnation of one's soul. That's what it does ultimately.
If someone dies in that, believing a false gospel, they're gonna
go to hell. It'll lead to the damnation of
their soul, and it's a very serious place. It's not to be mocked,
it's not to be, it's God's judgment upon sin. And we thank God that
we're not going there as God's people, right? That by the grace
of God, Christ suffered our wrath. So let's read verses 16 and 22
this morning. We're focused on verse 21, actually. I was going to do verses 21 and
22, but as I was putting this message together, I didn't get
any further than verse 21. So we're going to focus on verse
21. Paul will ask a very pointed
question of the Galatian believers here. And it's set before us
even today. Even today it's set before us.
And as we see him develop what he's going to say, he's going
to use an example of Sarah and Hagar of how grace and works
cannot work. One is a child of promise and
one will be a child of the flesh. We will see later on in this
example of the two children that come from Sarah and Hagar. So
let's read verses 16 to 22 for now to see the context of the
verse that we're going to look at. He says, Am I therefore become
your enemy because I tell you the truth? Verse 16. They zealously affect you, but
not well, yea, they would exclude you that you might affect them. But it is good to be zealously
affected, always in a good thing, and not only when I am present
with you, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you. I desire to be present with you
now and change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you." Now
he's going to start this section here on an example of Hagar and
Sarah. So he asks this question right
here again, this is by inspirational Holy Spirit of God. And think
of this, he's setting this before the Galatian churches specifically
aimed at those who are being influenced by the Judaizers,
those who are being influenced by the false teachers. Even that
question there when he says, have I become your enemy? He's
not talking about the saints who are holding fast to the gospel.
He's preaching to all of them, but he's specifically talking
to the ones that are following the Judaizers. And he even says
this question here, tell me, you that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? You want to yoke yourself back
under bondage, do you not hear what the law says? To offend in one point is to
be guilty of all. And it just leads us to bondage,
doesn't it? The law shows us our need for
Christ. He says, you're set free now. You want to go back into
bondage? You want to be yoked back into the bondage that you
were in before? Now think of this, too. The Gentiles
didn't have the law, but they're still under the law. All of us
are under the law of God. All of us. And several commentators said,
he's saying this about the law of God, about them trying to
put themselves under the Mosaic laws, but they may have had the
same kind of rules in their own religions, too. And he's saying, you want to
go back to that stuff? The weak and beggarly elements? You want
to go back to that? For it is written, Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. So
we see this very important question set before us in verse 21. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law. So the Judaizers had said they
must be circumcised and they must follow the Mosaic law to
be saved along with faith in Christ. But see how Paul splits
it? Because it doesn't mix, right?
He doesn't say, you who desire to be under Christ and the law.
It doesn't mix. You can't mix Christ with the
law. So he's just saying, you who desire to be under the law.
It's just bondage. We're either in Christ or we're
not in Christ, right? We're either saved or we're lost. We either have all our sins forgiven
or we have none of our sins forgiven. See? You can't mix it. And those
situations in Christ have nothing to do with what we do. We're
saved in Christ. We're redeemed in Christ. We're
sanctified in Christ. You see? He's saying, you want
to go back under the law? You want to go back under all
that bondage? And this is a good question,
and even for us today, when people come, or someone who's maybe
struggling with the law, maybe in Seventh-day Adventist or something,
and the Lord's drawn them to Him, and maybe they're struggling
with that. You desire to be under the law?
Desire to be under all that bondage? And we can apply it not just
to that sect, but to any sect, right? Because there's only two
religions, isn't there, in this world? There's grace and there's
works. You can boil them all, you boil
them all down. There's grace and works. That's
it. That's all there is. In Satan, all what he promotes
is works-based salvation. And God sets forth the truth,
doesn't he? Salvation's in my son. It's in
Christ alone, it's nowhere else. So one may ask, just how serious
is this question? Well, the difference is salvation
by grace or damnation by works. Salvation of one's soul or damnation
of one's soul. That's how serious this question
that's set before us. It's like when we say to folks,
what think ye of Christ? You're setting Christ before
them. What do you think of him? Who is he? And then it gives
us an opportunity to say, well, he's God. He's the Savior of
my soul. He's the only Savior of sinners. Most folks, when you ask them,
they say, well, He's a good teacher. No, He's more than just a teacher.
He taught, yes, but He's more than a teacher. He's God. He's my Redeemer. He's my King.
He's my Savior. Isn't that how our heart just
explodes with love and grace for Him, doesn't it? By His mercy. I remember a long time ago talking
to someone about Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Let's turn there. It's just one book over. I remember
a long time ago talking to someone about Ephesians chapter 2 and
we were discussing the bondage of the will. And I was bringing
forth that the will is completely under bondage. to the nature. See, we have to have a new nature,
right, to guide us, because we're guided by our nature, aren't
we? And if we have a dead nature, all we want to do is sin. When
we have a new nature now, we don't desire to sin like we used
to, even though we still do. Now we hate it. Now we loathe
it in ourselves, don't we? But we didn't before. And I explained
to them that in chapter 2 there, let's go to chapter 2, it says,
and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
I explained to them that the word dead there in the Greek
means lifeless. Lifeless. Absolutely lifeless. And they correctly answered,
well, only one of us can be right. Because they thought that there
was a little spark of life in us called our will. See, but like Luther wrote in
The Bondage of the Will, our will is bound to our nature.
That's why we always chose sin before. And that's why we now,
as born-again blood-washed believers, that's why we now struggle against
sin. And so Paul's telling the Galatians
here, they've been set free, right? They have a new nature.
They're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And he's saying,
you want to go back into workspace That's not the gospel, because
the gospel is called good news, right? He says it's a perversion
of the gospel. False gospels are the worst news
you're ever going to hear in your life. But the true gospel, it's the
best news that you're ever going to hear. And I agreed with the person.
I said, yeah, only one of us is right, and I believe I'm right,
because I'm giving you scripture. They didn't give me no scripture.
And I said, well, here's another one. And we read this. We read
this here. Right? Let's read this here. Hath he quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins, wherein you in times past you walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, look at that,
by nature, We had a dead nature. We were by nature the children
of disobedience. We were always God's sheep. But
in our natural state, you couldn't tell us away from a goat. Right? But God. Praise God for but God,
right? Ain't no but Gods in every believer's
life? But God, who's rich in mercy.
How rich? He saved my soul, right? Oh my! But God, who's rich in mercy,
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, how long has He
loved us for? From eternity. From eternity. His love has been set upon us,
beloved. Isn't that wonderful? So I agreed
with him. I said, yeah. I said, only one
of us can be right, and I believe I'm right, because I'm showing
you from the scripture again what this says. See, we're dead. We're lifeless. We can't do anything
to save ourselves, right? We can't do anything. And if
one mixes man's works with grace, it's another gospel. It's a perversion
of salvation in Christ and Him alone. And if we believe two different
gospels, one by man's will as opposed to the true gospel, which
proclaims that we are saved by the will of God and God alone
as salvations of the Lord, If we believe two different things
about salvation, one of us is not saved. Right? I was talking to a friend
of mine yesterday and I said, you know the problem? You know
the problem with modern religion today? And I was in it, I can
testify of this. It puts man way up here. And
it put God's way down here. Our King's down here. But in
what we preach and proclaim, God's way up here. He's on the
throne. And man's way down here. And
that goes such against the pride of man. See, Paul's dealing with that
here. They're exalting man's works. See? Do you see how subtle it is?
They're exalting man's works over God's. They're saying, well,
it's not good enough. You've got to go back and do all these
other things. And the Lord, the Father says,
this is my Son in whom I'm, what, well pleased. Hear ye Him. And he says, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So we believe what he says, right? By God's grace and mercy, we
believe what he says. He says we're saved by faith,
I believe it, Lord. By grace, I believe it, Lord.
By your mercy and by your grace, we believe that, don't we? My,
it's wonderful. So do you see why Paul's saying
you want to go back to that? You want to go back to exalting
man over God? No. No, we want to stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And we don't
want to be entangled again, do we, in the yoke of bondage. No. No. And I imagine there was some
brethren who were saying, brethren, leave them. Leave those false
teachers. They're wolves in sheep's clothing,
seeking to devour God's sheep, seeking to receive preeminence
in the church. My, oh, my. And Paul, again by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, was bringing forth that the Judaizers
was, that they were teaching another gospel. What they were
teaching was not good news. It wasn't the gospel. It's a
perversion of it. And he was telling the Galatian
churches that if we believe two different things about salvation,
we both can't be right. Right? It's true, isn't it? It's
either, think of this, salvation's either all of grace, or there's no salvation at all,
because we know man can't save themselves, so I don't even give,
I don't even say we can, no, it's either all of grace, or
there's no salvation at all. Well, salvation's of the Lord,
right? So we know it's all of grace. Spurgeon has a wonderful
book, if you can get your hands on it, called All of Grace. All
of Grace. Salvation's all by God's grace
and mercy. That's all. My oh my. Salvation's either all accomplished
by Christ, in Him alone for the sinner, or there's no salvation
at all. That's the bottom line. You see, the Judaizers, they'd
come into the church, beloved. Paul left. went to wherever the
Holy Spirit was sending him next to preach the gospel, where God's
will, according to God's will, wherever he was sent, he'd left.
And in kept these wolves. See, they just start creeping
in. And they probably appeared just like everybody else at first.
And then they say, what do you think of that Paul guy? What
do you think about what he's preaching? I don't think he's
preaching the gospel. I think we still need to go back
and do these things that we've done over here. And Paul loves them so much and
he's moved so much by the Holy Spirit of God that he pens this
wonderful letter to them. And haven't we been able to see
his love just displayed for them through these words? In this
last section, he's pleading with them in one part, it says in
the Greek, he's pleading, he's begging them to not be seduced
by these Judaizers. So Paul left, and these Judaizers
came into the church, and they sought to turn men, their goal
was to turn men and women away from the gospel. And they did
it because they wanted the preeminence. They wanted the recognition.
They wanted a following. You see, one thing I've learned
since I've been a preacher, and I know you've learned as a believer,
it's not about me. It's all about Christ. You know? And our family members will get
upset with us when we confront them and tell them the truth.
But you know what? I'd rather tell them the truth
than pad them in the lie that they're in. I told you what I said to my
buddy across the road. He's going down to that vineyard
church down the road, and I said, they're not preaching the gospel
there. He got mad at me. Well, I'd rather have you mad
at me, buddy, than than padding you in a lie, because I won't
tell them, oh, that's great. No way. And I told him, I said,
that's not the Lord. He's doing that slaying in the
spirit stuff. Falling down. I said, the only people you see
falling down in the scriptures is God's enemies. Yeah. That's right. And then he said
to those guys who came to get him, he said, whom do you seek?
Boom, they went down like bowling pins. Right? Yeah, well that's
what they claim, eh? My, oh he knocked them down alright.
Didn't he? What power, just with his words.
Just with his words. Oh my. It's amazing how men can
take and twist the things of God and make them for their own
fleshy things. And then say they're more spiritual
than everybody else because they do this kind of stuff. And that's
what they do. I was there. I was part of that. It's awful. Let me tell you,
it's awful. It's awful. When you're so full of self-righteousness,
you think you're better than everybody else. It's horrible.
Praise God, He delivered me and continues to deliver God's people
from that, right? I was talking to Marcus's dad,
John, and we were talking. He said, man, pride is such a
thing that we battle against. It's true, isn't it? We're always
beating it down. We're always beating it down,
beloved. Oh my. So these guys, they came
in, they started perverting the gospel, and then they, now think
of this too, they didn't openly deny right away what Paul was
preaching. They came in and said, what do
you think? What do you think? Do you think
that maybe if we add a little of this stuff here, it's fine? And somebody got a hold of Paul. Somebody wrote Paul. Paul heard
about what was going on. Somebody let him know. These
guys have infiltrated the church and the churches. Somebody let
him know. And we know it was all by God's
will, so now we have the Book of Galatians. Isn't that amazing?
and even think of Philemon sending Onesimus back with a letter from
Paul to Philemon, a dear brother, beloved. My oh my, the Holy Spirit's amazing. He's gonna get his message out,
isn't he? He's gonna get his message out. Turn over, if you would, to Galatians
chapter one. Look at what Paul says here.
We've already read this before, but I want us to read it again. Look at this. Paul's astonished
that this is happening. He's astonished because he's
laid down the foundation of truth, hasn't he? He's laid down Christ
and Him crucified. He's laid down redemption through
Christ and Him alone. And he says this, he says, I
marvel, verse six, I marvel, I'm astonished that you're so
soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel. Look at that. And then he corrects
himself, which is not another. There's only one gospel, right?
There's only one news that's good news, that's salvation through
Christ for sinners. But there'll be some that trouble
you. You ever notice when you get around folks like that, it's
troubling, isn't it? It's troubling. And they don't
realize it, but it breaks our hearts. It really does. It breaks our hearts to see them
caught up in that. It breaks our hearts to see them
dead in trespasses and sins. But we have compassion because
we know where we come from, right? But sometimes it's still shocking
when you hear some of the things that are going on. It's shocking. He says here, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. Now, remember in the Greek that
was to make it totally opposite, contrary, totally contrary to the gospel.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. That's anathema in the Greek, let him be damned.
That's the Holy Spirit saying that. That's incredible, isn't it,
when you think of that? We read that and say, oh man, that's
the Holy Spirit that had Paul write that. Do you see how guarded
even God is about the gospel, the true gospel? So guarded that
he says, those folks, they'll be damned if they continue in
that. He doesn't just say it once. He says it again, as we
said before, say so I again now. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that which you have received. So Paul set forth
before them. Now, what did Paul set before
them? Well, look at verses three to five
of chapter one. This is wonderful. Even before
Paul corrects them, He already knows they've heard the gospel.
But look what he does, again, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God. Look at what he does, even before he corrects them.
This is wonderful. Look what he does. Grace be to
you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
So grace and peace only comes through Christ for the believer.
Look at this. Here's the gospel, who gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our father, to whom be glory forever and
ever, amen. So even before he writes them and tells them that
what we just read, he says, here's the gospel. Christ gave himself
for sinners. And it's not something new, they've
already heard it before. And so now he's telling them,
he tells them in verse 9, as we said before, so say I now
again. See, repetition, repetition,
repetition. Somebody asked Henry, they said,
what's the success to your ministry? Repetition, repetition, he just
preaches Christ. And we're not looking for success
as preachers either. But it's repetition, repetition,
repetition. That's what we need to continuously
hear about Christ. Oh my. As we've said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you, then that which you have received, let him be accursed.
Isn't it amazing to think that Jim was here for 18 years, and
you guys were set free, right? And now God brings another preacher,
and I'm preaching the same message Jim's preaching, and we're all
rejoicing still. Isn't that amazing? Just continuously,
right? Same message. Same gospel message. It's just amazing. And so Paul's
saying here, if any man preach any other gospel, any man adds
any kinds of works, let him be accursed. Let him
be anathema. My, oh my. So we see the Holy
Spirit's very clear about the damnation that a false gospel
brings. It's set forth very clearly here,
isn't it? that false gospels lead to the damnation of one's
soul. And then it magnifies the perfect redeeming work of Christ,
right, who gave himself for our sins. It magnifies that perfect
work of Christ. Oh my. Think of this, there's
only one true gospel. That's what Paul set forth here,
right? There's not multiple gospels. There's one true gospel. And
the true gospel points, it's like a compass pointing north.
You know who it points to? Christ. He's true north. Points right to him. Think of
this. The gospel points to the perfect,
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ for his elect. It just
points right to him. And by the obedience of Jesus
Christ, we're made righteous. Romans 5.19. Jesus Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe. Romans 10.4.
He's true north, right? The gospel just says, look to
Christ. Look to Christ. Jesus Christ by himself purged
our sins, Hebrews 1.3. Jesus Christ obtained eternal
redemption for us, Hebrews 9.12. By his one offering, Jesus Christ
perfectly sanctified his people. By his offering, by his one work,
perfected his people forever, even though we're yet sinners.
God looks at us and sees Christ. See, this is the gospel Paul
was proclaiming. He says, you want to go back
into that bondage of the law? We are so free in Christ, beloved. Let us rejoice. Let us leave
here today rejoicing at how free we are in Christ. We've been
set free, beloved. My, oh my, free from the condemnation
of sin. And remember, he said, are you
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect
by the flesh? Remember he told us that in chapter 3? And he writes to the Philippians,
being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
That which he starts, he's going to finish. My, let's read that question
again in verse 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, Do you not hear the law? They were so bewitched
by the Judaizers, some in the congregation, that they desired
to be under the law. They were so bewitched by these
false teachers that they desired to be under the law. And that's what he's saying here.
He says, tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Look at
that. So there's a group of people in the Galatian churches that
they're desiring this now, the false teachers have. Do you see
why Paul's so fearful for them? He knows it'll lead to the damnation
of their souls. And then he even said, I'm in
doubt of you, whether your profession was real or not. Oh my. Do you know not to honor
and obey God for the glory of Jesus Christ? will lead to the
damnation of one's soul, because in believing the true gospel,
right? Right? We're glorifying God, aren't
we? We glorify him. We can't add anything to his
glory, but we glorify him for his wondrous salvation, right?
False gospels give the glory to man. You see, it's totally
flipped right over. See, Satan's a master counterfeiter,
because he knows, he knows, think of this, Satan has had 6,000
years to study mankind. He knows everything that makes
us tick. And these false religions are
set to ensnare people, and if it wasn't for God, it wasn't
for God keeping us, off we'd go. But God will keep his people,
and they won't be deceived. They won't be deceived. They
won't believe the lie. God sometimes sends strong delusion
so that they believe the lie. Imagine that. Think how precious
it is what we believe now and that we've had it revealed to
us. And it comes by revelation. It doesn't come any other way.
And it comes through this book and through the preaching of
this word. It doesn't come as a dream. It doesn't come that way. I had
some girl tell me, this is awful, I gotta tell you about what she
said. She said, well, God showed up in a dream and there was a
bunch of cardboard boxes and he took a sharpie out and he
said, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, they're all the same. I said,
that wasn't God. But man, she swears by it and
that was her born again experience. You see what's out there? It's
awful. People have been sent a strong delusion to believe
a lie. Aren't you glad God didn't leave us where we were? Amen. Aren't you glad he didn't leave
us in the place we were, where we thought we were doing fine?
Because you know what? Remember that fella? He's been
weighed in the balances and found wanting. If God hadn't saved
us, we'd have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. But you know what? The balance
scales are even. You know why? Actually, they're
up here. Because Christ is the one waited for us. He came down
and we go up. Isn't that wonderful? It's such
good news, isn't it? It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Jesus Christ
is not a way to God, he is the way. People say, well, Christ is a
way. No, He's the way. There is no other way. He is
the way. All false gospels will lead to
self-righteousness, too. And they're all rooted in the
same thing. See, again, again, False religions
come from false ways, and they're lies, and who's the father of
lies, right? But who's more powerful than
he is? Remember, Satan's just a created being. He can't do
anything without God allowing it to happen, right? He had to go to Job and say,
can I go do this to Job? You got a hedge all around him. Just drop that hedge a little
bit, and he's going to curse you. God says, go ahead. But
isn't this why I get to finish with it? Isn't this amazing?
He said, go ahead. And Job's right in his hands.
Job ain't going nowhere. He's not going nowhere, beloved.
He's in the hands of the Savior. You know where we are? We're
in the hands of the Savior. We're in the hands of Christ.
He keeps us. He's the author, the beginner,
and he's the finisher of our salvation, and he keeps us, doesn't
he? No matter how low we get, right? No matter how high we
get, and then low again, he's this, constant, and we're in
his hands. Praise be to God. Brother Dave,
can you close us in prayer?